George Washington Dail Jr, born April 21, 1919 in Greene County, North Carolina was the eldest son of George Washington Dail Sr and Sadie Rivers Walston

George Washington Dail, Jr., Second Lt. U.S. Army was killed in action on February 26, 1945 while a member of Company B, 117th Infantry, an attachment to the 30th Division. The 117th was in the vicinity of Oberempt, Germany at the time. He was laid to rest in the U.S. Military Cemetery, Margraten, Holland, 10 miles outside of Aachen, Germany.

During World War II, the U.S. Government called to service approximately 15,000,000 men and women. In Europe, twelve permanent cemeteries were developed in the postwar years, one of these is Margraten in Holland. Margraten is the only American Military cemetery in the Netherlands. The cemetery accommodates the 8,301 American soldiers who fell during the advance in September 1944, in Holland, In the push to Aix-la-Chapelle, and later during the Battle in Germany. Every grave in Margraten has been adopted by a Dutch family. They still honor "Their adopted son - their "Hero" after all these years. On Memorial Day in 1999, there were over 3,000 Dutch people there paying tribute to their "son". Frank W. Towers, a surviver of the 30th division, makes the journey to Margraten every year and describes the experience as "a fantastically moving and emotional ceremony."

"Old Hickory":

The Making of The 30th Division - 117th Infantry

Created on July 18, 1917, of National Guard troops from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, the 30th Division, United States Army, built for itself one of the finest battle histories of the First and Second World Wars. Originally, it was at Bellicourt, France, that the 30th Division won undying fame, for there, on September 29, 1918, it smashed its way through the famed "Hindenburg Line", a victory that hastened the close of the war, and did honor to the memory of Andrew Jackson, whose nickname, "Old Hickory," the division bears. Born near the North/South Carolina line and rising to fame in Tennessee, he provided the regional flavor to this tightly knit group of soldiers. The division's patch is an obvious link to this heritage being and "O" and "H" with the Roman numeral XXX in the middle. Interestingly enough, the patch was worn horizontally during World War I. Local folklore has taught that a Raleigh tailor inadvertently placed the patches horizontally and others just copied what they did not know was incorrect. The 117th Infantry Regiment's real origin lies with the famous Tennessee Volunteers of the Mexican War and can also be traced to units which had fought in the revolutionary war.

The 30th Infantry's proud heritage distinguished itself brilliantly in the fields of France and Belgium during World War I. After the war, it was reorganized into a regular National Guard unit spread across Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Again in 1940, the division was federalized in preparation for the expansion of the regular Army prior to impending World War II. The 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory" was under the command of Maj. Gen. Leland S. Hobbs during WWII. The 30th Infantry Division was made of of the following troops:

117, 119, and 120 Infantry Regiments

113, 118, 197, and 230 Field Artillery Battalions

105 Engineer Combat Battalion

743 Tank Battalion

823 Tank Destroyer Battalion

99 Infantry Battalion (attached)

517 Parachute Infantry Regiment (attached)

526 Armored Infantry Battalion (attached)

110 and 431 Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalions

George Dail