Paul J. Bayer

Paul Bayer was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on 22 January 1921. He was raised in the home of his grandparents, Jakob and Walerya (Valeria) Bajor, at 20 West Silver Street, and attended local schools. Prior to the war, he was employed by the Hampden Bottling Company in Meriden.

Bayer enlisted in the Marines on August 29, 1942. Following boot camp at Parris Island, he was selected for communications, and spent several weeks training at the telephone school at New River, North Carolina. Assigned as field lineman to Headquarters, 1/24, he rose to the rank of Private First Class in April, 1943, as his battalion shipped west to Camp Pendleton, California.

PFC Bayer remained on the rolls of First Battalion until December 11, 1943. He was injured or stricken with some disease that laid him up in the camp hospital; the details aren’t known, but it was decided that he would not be going overseas with his regiment. Instead, Bayer spent the next four months on duty at Pendleton before orders came through assigning him back to the Fourth Marine Division.

Bayer never did return to the 24th Marines. Instead, he joined the 14th Marines (division artillery) and served through the war as a telephone lineman with Battery A. He saw combat on Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima (where he was wounded) and was prepared to invade Japan when the war ended in 1945. PFC Bayer received his honorable discharge on November 17, 1945, and returned to civilian life.

Paul Bayer lived out the rest of his days in Middletown, where he married Helen Ryzak Bayer and raised a family. He died in 1976, and is buried in the town’s Calvary Cemetery alongside his parents and his wife.