From Facebook Page, WW2 Colourised Photos

https://www.facebook.com/worldwarincolor/photos/a.393169424146189.1073741828.393166910813107/1176752129121244/?type=3&theater

Technician Fourth Grade (Medic) Eugene Gilbert Roe, Snr. (October 17, 1922 – December 30, 1998 ) was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II.

Roe's life story was featured in the 2010 book A Company of Heroes: Personal Memories about the Real Band of Brothers and the Legacy They Left Us by Marcus Brotherton.

Roe was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Shane Taylor.

Military service
Roe enlisted on December 12, 1942, in Lafayette, Louisiana

Roe was one of Easy Company's medics. While stationed in Aldbourne, England, Roe met his first wife Vera. Their wedding was set for June 6, 1944, but had to be postponed because of D-Day, when Roe and the rest of the 101st made their first combat jumps into Normandy as part of Operation Overlord.

By the time Easy Company was taking Carentan, Roe was already a seasoned medic, able to patch and diagnose wounds in a methodical way. For instance, he was able to tell fellow Easy Company soldier Donald Malarkey that he had a Purple Heart wound without looking up from wrapping another soldier's wound

Roe participated in the British-controlled American military operation Operation Market Garden and jumped into the Netherlands. He landed on some barbed wire and cut his calf

Roe also took part in the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne. Allied supplies were low and Roe had to go from man to man to get more supplies.[10] In the extreme cold weather, he had to tuck plasma bottles into his armpits to keep them from freezing.

Roe was with Easy Company for occupation duties in Germany and Austria. He was discharged on November 17, 1945, and arrived back in the United States eleven days later.

With the war over in Europe, Roe married Vera in July 1945 in England. They had a quiet quick wedding with a taxi driver as one of their witnesses, along with someone else they did not know. Roe's Easy Company comrades presented the couple a set of forks and knives from Hitler's Eagle's Nest as a wedding present. The forks and knives were later donated to the Louisiana World War II Museum's Hall of Honor at Baton Rouge.

After his discharge from the army, Roe and his wife moved to Baton Rouge and had three children. The couple divorced twenty-seven years later, and Roe remarried five years later.

Roe became a construction contractor post-war. He died of lung cancer on December 30, 1998 in Louisiana.

(Colorized by Johnny Sirlande from Belgium)