Real member of Band of Brothers, Capt. Jack E. Foley, remembered

Capt. Jack E. Foley rarely talked about fighting in World War II.

So Elaine Foley, a Pitt senior, did not begin to understand what her grandfather had been through until her 11th grade history teacher assigned the book “Band of Brothers.”

Both the book and the HBO miniseries of the same name follow the men of the U.S. Army’s 506th Parachute Infantry Unit, nicknamed and immortalized as Easy Company, as they seek to conquer the Nazis during World War II.

Foley, one of the paratroopers, suffered through an icy blockade in Bastogne, France, slept in cold trenches in Belgium and helped overtake Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany.

Jack Foley, a Pitt alumnus, died Monday of complications from Type 1 diabetes. He was 87.

He rarely shared his WWII stories, at least rarely with his grandchildren.

“He never really talked about it, and we never asked,” Elaine Foley said. “He was just our grandpa. Our grandpa, sitting at the dining room table eating strawberries.”

When Foley’s teacher required her class to read “Band of Brothers,” things changed.

“My grandpa’s biggest thing was, ‘You kids don’t know anything about WWII’,” she said. “After the class read the book, grandpa would come in during Veterans Day to talk to the class, and one time he brought the Nazi flag and other trinkets from the war.”

Watching the 2001 HBO miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg was another story altogether. Foley said she was shocked when she saw some of the obstacles her grandfather had to overcome.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I thought, ‘That’s my grandpa.’ It was so sad and upsetting to see him going through all of that. I had no idea.”

Jack Foley was 21 when he joined the army. A Pitt senior studying political science and economics, he and 19 members of his ROTC unit entered the army on June 29, 1943.

Five months later, Foley graduated from officer candidate school as a lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps. He went from guarding the Puget Sound, an inland waterway in Washington, to the Pacific Ocean, to Fort Benning, in Georgia.

After he completed his paratrooper training in October 1944, Foley was shipped to Scotland and then to Holland. There, he led a platoon as Easy Company fought to liberate Holland.

His team endured bitter weather, injuries, illnesses and terrible violence during the Battle of the Bulge before capturing Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat in the German Alps.

Foley was shot in the wrist in the Alsatian town of Haguenau near the German border before the war ended. He recieved the Purple Heart and several other medals for his service and bravery.

Foley returned to Pitt in June 1946, shortly after the war had ended. He graduated that September at the age of 24.

He went on to work doing advertising and in-house advertising for numerous Pennsylvania and New York companies, including Alcoa, in Pittsburgh. He retired in 1982.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Louise, and five children. His funeral was at noon Friday at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Penn Hills.

Elaine Foley said the the service was touching and honorable.

“They did one of those soldier’s salutes and played taps” she said. “After the soldiers shot the guns, they handed my grandmother the folded flag. It was really something.”