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Born
May 15, 1923
Lawrence
County, Mississippi
Ranger
Sanders is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery Nettuno,
Italy
Plot
J, Row 3, Grave 11
Honored
by nieces, nephews, and cousins!
February
2003
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Owen
Sanders was with the 4th Ranger Battalion. After Anzio and
Cisterna, the 1-3-4 Ranger Battalions were inactivated. Those
Rangers lacking sufficient points to be sent home went into the
First Special Service Force that went on to Rome.
On
May 22, 1944 Ranger Sanders was killed in action. This
was weeks before his second cousin, Ranger Albert Sanders lost
his life in the same unit. Their great-grandfathers were
brothers, and ironically, the Sanders boys, two generations
later, lived and died together as 4th Battalion Ranger Brothers.
Owen's older brothers, Rex (Navy CB), John (Army Engineer), and
Robert (Army and Mitchell's father), were serving on Active Duty
at the time of Owen and Albert's deaths. Both went into the FSSF after the disaster at Cisterna, but they
were always Rangers at heart.
My
Mother has always told us that Owen was a Scout, after reading Rangers in World War
II, I now realize what that meant. In
an Eleven-man Assault Section, two of these were Scouts
(privates). To me this makes the Old Family Story clearer. When
he was wounded, he returned to the Assault Team and chose to
stay with them, rather than return to base.
Mitchell
Sanders
nephew
Below are the
contents of a certificate signed by FDR and sent to his mother
in his memory. The certificate states that he was KIA in
North Africa, when in fact he was KIA near Rome long after the
African Campaign. We have no explanation for the discrepancy in
this certificate.
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