SPARTA, Mich. — The fictional story portrayed in "Saving Private Ryan" was a tragic reality for a Sparta family during World War II, when the Lamoreaux family lost three of their sons in combat despite the Army's efforts to save the last brother.
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The Lamoreaux family had six children Three sons enlisted in the Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many families across the country, they wanted to serve their country.
"Pearl Harbor just happened, and you know they, and everybody, just rushed to the enlistment offices and signed up. They wanted to be in the war; they wanted to be a part of this," said Larry Carter, president of Sparta Historical Friends.
"They were just a typical Sparta family. Dad worked at the foundry. Mom was a homemaker, and they wanted to join the cause," Carter said.
The three brothers were deployed to different theaters of war: Al was sent to Germany, Don to Italy, and Howard to the Philippines.
The first to die was 21-year-old Don in January 1944. Ten months later, in November, 20-year-old Howard was killed. After their deaths, the War Department attempted to remove the surviving brother from combat.
"There was a Major Fuller who went to the family, and they were going to pull the last boy off the field of battle, and he was killed before they were able to enact that thing," Carter said.
In February 1945, 26-year-old Al was killed while fighting in Germany, making the Lamoreaux family's loss complete.
"All three of them are buried on foreign soil," Carter said.
Since the brothers are buried where they died overseas, their names are engraved on the back of their parents' headstone in Sparta.
"That grief is common to all of us if we lose children, but with them to lose three, it almost takes an inhuman amount of moxie to deal with that, and to continue on. I can't imagine it," Carter said.
In a poignant moment during the war, German prisoners of war being transported through Sparta in 1944 showed respect for the family's sacrifice. When their transport truck stopped in front of the Lamoreaux home, the prisoners acknowledged Mrs. Lamoreaux's loss.
"They saw Mrs. Lamoreaux out front of her house, saw the significance of what was going on, and either they stood at attention, or they gave some form of salute, but they acknowledged the pain that she had been through," Carter said.
Sparta honored the family's sacrifice with Lamoreaux Brothers Veterans Memorial Park, which includes a granite monument. Every Memorial Day at 10:30 a.m., the community holds a ceremony at the park where they read the names of all local residents killed in war. The ceremony is attended by hundreds of people.
"This is something that's important to us, that we do not forget about that at all, and we honor the price paid because freedom isn't free, is ever so true," Carter said.
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