 |
| |
|
File No.:
Title: "World War Two
Presidential Unit Citation of
Paratrooper Bonilla"
Investigation made at: The
Netherlands
Period Covered: 6JUN1944 –
1MAY2026
Date: 2MAY2026
GPS Location: 50°49'00.1"N
5°48'29.0"E
Case Classification:
Description of a World War Two U.S.
Presidential Unit Citation emblem.
Case Status: Case Closed |
(click to enlarge)
|
REASON FOR INVESTIGATION:
This agency met American author
Sandra Bonilla Thompson for the
first time during the sixtieth
anniversary activities for Operation
"Market Garden" in 2004. This was
Sandra’s first time in the
Netherlands and it would be the
first time she would see the grave
of her father, American paratrooper
of PFC Nicolas L. Bonilla. Sandra
had never seen her father as she was
born 65 years earlier on 13SEP1943
when Nicolas Bonilla fought overseas
with the 101st Airborne Division in
World War Two. Little over a year
later, on 22SEP1944, Private First
Class Nicholas Bonilla was Killed in
Action near Best in the Netherlands.
This agency was there when Sandra
visited the gravesite at Margraten
and we met Sandra once more when she
visited the Netherlands again a year
later. Several old-fashioned letters
were exchanged and also Sandra’s
book entitled "Love, Honor, and
Cherish" (ISBN-10 0974974005;
ISBN-13 978-0974974002) came in the
mail. Then one day, Sandra also sent
one of the Distinguished Unit
Citation uniform badges which had
belonged to PFC Nicholas Bonilla.
This article describes a bit of the
lives of Sandra and her father but
also the Distinguished Unit Citation
emblem that Sandra gave this agency.
The format will be both of a
commemoration and a battle relic
publication.
|
SYNOPSIS:
This emblem had belonged to:
|
|
 |
Name: Nicholas Laureano
Bonilla
Rank: Private
First Class
Army Serial
Number: 6877454
Born:
January 7th, 1914, Puerto Rico
Date of Death: 22SEP1944
Location of Death: Best, The
Netherlands
Unit: "D"
Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd
Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st
Airborne Division. (Transferred from
"B" Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd
Parachute Infantry Regiment.)
Burial: Plot K Row 17 Grave 16,
Netherlands American Cemetery,
Margraten, Netherlands |
Provenance of the Relic
As described in the reason for this
investigation, author Sandra sent
the badge to this agency by mail.
Before that, we had given
feedback on her publication "Love,
Honor, and Cherish". The book is in
fact a love story based on letters
and history of World War Two in the
European Theater of Operations.
Nicky Bonilla, Sandra’s father, was
a paratrooper in the 502nd Parachute
Infantry Regiment of the 101st
Airborne Division. He was a New York
Catholic of mixed ethnicity training
at Fort Benning, Georgia. Opal Keith
was a Southern girl, a Scots-Irish
Protestant whose family had lived in
South Carolina and Alabama since the
American Revolution. She was
innocent but intelligent and
independent. As World War Two raged,
Nicky and Opal fell in love. While
Nicky trained in Fort Benning and
Fort Bragg, while he was based
"somewhere in England", and as he
fought through Normandy and in the
Netherlands during Operation "Market
Garden", the couple wrote of their
love, their faith, and their hope.
Sandra was born September 13, 1943
as her father was in transit from
the United States to England. On
September 17, 1944, her father
parachuted into Holland for
Operation Market Garden. He fought
in Holland until September 22, 1944,
when he was killed at the age of 29.
Years later, Sandra read her
parents’ letters and met for the
first time a man and a woman whom
she had never really known.
|
|
(click to enlarge)
Fig.:
The book and the page on which
author Sandra Bonilla-Thompson
signed it for us |
|
Sandra explained that the emblem had
belonged to her father who had
served in the 502nd Parachute
Infantry Regiment. This unit was
awarded the Distinguished Unit
Citation for actions in Normandy
where Nicolas Bonilla was also
deployed from D-Day 6JUN1944.
Soldiers are generally issued with
several of these emblems for them to
affix on their Class A uniforms. It
is a very likely scenario that Nicky
Bonilla had sent several
Presidential Unit Citation badges
stateside or that they were among
his personal belongings sent to his
next of kin after death. |
Nicky Bonilla
The book "Love, Honor and Cherish"
tells us a lot about the paratrooper
Nicky Bonilla. In the rank of
sergeant he and Opal were married on
10NOV1942 in Birmingham, Alabama.
In a Western Union telegram of
around that time Nick sent that he
was a sergeant in "B" Company of the
502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment.
The book shows a yard long company
photograph of that company with
sergeant Bonilla in it.
Then, on
28JAN1943 Bonilla was demoted to the
rank of Private First Class for
being Absent Without Leave (AWOL).
That is the rank he would be in
until his death. In a letter dated
4SEP1943 Bonilla gives his Army Post
Office (APO) address and Army Serial
Number (ASN) and lists "D" Company
of the 502nd Parachute Infantry
Regiment as his unit; signifying a
transfer from 1st to 2nd battalion
of that Regiment.
Bonilla
mentions Sandra for the first time
in a letter around 15OCT1943. Then
in a letter dated 25JUN1944, Bonilla
wrote: "Yes, Darling, the
paratroopers have been doing an
excellent job since we arrived here.
In fact, every man in our Regiment
has been decorated with the
President’s citation for heroic
action. Isn’t that swell?"
On page 143 is a photograph of
Sandra’s baby shoes which Bonilla
wore as a necklace at the time he
was killed in action. This is a
clear indication that his personal
effects were sent home; among which
most likely also his Presidential
Unit Citationbadges.
A Western
Union telegram to his next of kin
states the date of death f Bonilla
as 22SEP1944.
On page 168 is
described that among the personal
effects sent home is the "ribbon
for the 502nd Unit Citation".
In a letter dated 13NOV1944 Chaplain
Andrejewski wrote that Bonilla was
killed in action by machinegun fire
while attacking a fortified
position.
Page 173 shows a
photograph of the Presidential Unit
Citation badge among other personal
effects:
|
Fig.:
Illustration from the book "Love,
Honor and Cherish"
showing among
other personal effects, the
Presidential Unit Citation in center
of photograph. |
Description of the relic
The Distinguished Unit Citation was
established as a result of Executive
Order No. 9075, dated 26 February
1942. The Executive Order directed
the Secretary of War to issue
citations in the name of the
President of the United States to
Army units for outstanding
performance of duty after 7 December
1941. The design submitted by the
Office of the Quartermaster General
was approved by the G1 on 30 May
1942.
The Distinguished Unit
Citation was redesignated the
Presidential Unit Citation (Army)
per DF, DCSPER, date 3 November
1966. The emblem is worn by all
members of a cited organization and
is considered an individual
decoration for persons in connection
with the cited acts and may be worn
whether or not they continue as
members of the organization.
The
emblem is 1 7/16 inches wide and
9/16 inch in height and consists of
a 1/16 inch wide Gold frame with
laurel leaves which encloses an
Ultramarine Blue 67118 ribbon.
- Source: The Institute
of Heraldry -
|
|
(click to enlarge)
Fig.:
The Battle Relic described here: a
Presidential Unit Citation emblem,
shown front and rear with pin
fastener. |
502nd Unit Citation
" The
502nd Parachute Infantry descended
by parachute in the vicinity of
[left blank], France, on 6th June
1944. During the drop by parachute,
the personnel of the regiment were
spread in small groups and widely
dispersed. Many casualties were
sustained from heavy enemy fire from
strongly fortified positions. Before
the regiment was assembled, many
fierce battles took place between
small detachments and the enemy.
Sometimes these groups were without
officer or high-ranking
non-commissioned officer.
Acts of gallantry and self-sacrifice
were in evidence everywhere. The
determination and bravery of the
officers and enlisted men were
inestimable. Many pillboxes,
artillery emplacements, and
fortified positions were reduced.
The high ground commanding the
landing beach was seized just prior
to the landing of the assault waves
of seaborne forces, and the strong
enemy positions thereon reduced.
Following this, the regiment seized
the main causeways leading from the
beach and held them until the
arrival of the 4th Infantry
Division.
The
determined action of the 502nd
Parachute Infantry made possible the
successful landing and rapid advance
inland of the seaborne assault
troops, and assured the
establishment of the Allied
beachhead in France."
-
Source: U.S. War
Department, the Adjutant General’s
Office -
|
|
Exhibits: |
|
(click to enlarge)
1) 2)
3) 4)
1) Sandra
Bonilla-Thompson at her father's
grave at the Margraten American
Cemetery in the Netherlands in
September 2004;
2) Sandra
Bonilla-Thompson with members of the
Remember September event
hosted
by the Cociety of Dutch Airborne
Friends, September 2004;
3)
Nicolas Bonilla's grave with book
during the 2005 Memorial Day
commemoration;
4)
Sandra Bonilla-Thompson on a return
visit to the Netherlands in 2005. |
|
CONCLUSION:
Unfortunately it was as late as
25MAR2026 that the sad news reached
this agency that Sandra (Sandy)
Maureen Bonilla, had passed away on
25OCT2025 at the age of 82. We are
glad however that we have known
Sandra and through her book, the
paratrooper Nicolas Bonilla and his
wife Opal; Sandra’s parents.
Paratrooper Bonilla's Unit Citation
emblem remains as a reminder of his
short life and tragic death. |
|
|
|
Back to Battlerelics
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
