CLHS to open 2025 with March 15 program
Bill Rickett
The County Line Historical Society of Wayne/Holmes announced its first of five educational programs for 2025, From D-Day to V.E. Day Part 2, to be held Saturday, March 15. The free event will be at 1 p.m. at the Long Military Museum, 334 E. South St., Wooster.
The guest speaker is Bill Rickett of Wooster, a retired Wayne County Municipal Court judge and law professor. He was a history and government teacher at Wooster High School and an attorney with the Wooster law firm of Kennedy, Cicconetti and Rickett.
Rickett is currently an adjunct professor of business law at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute and a magistrate for several Wayne and Stark county villages. He also is a cruise ship enrichment lecturer, and since retiring, he has lectured on 40 cruises around the world. His favorite topic is about his father’s tank unit and the battles of the European Theater.
No better example of bravery and sacrifice exists than the story of the 741st Tank Battalion in WWll in the Allied invasion of Normandy. On June 5, 1944, the 741st was sent across the English Channel, and once on Omaha Beach, the tanks were to give cover fire to the troops who would land at dawn on June 6.
Due to conditions in the heavy seas, only two tanks of the original 32 made it to the beach, just before the first infantry troops began coming ashore. Those two became bogged down in the wet sand and threw their treads but carried out their mission, giving cover fire for over an hour from their stationary position. Those crews knew many of their friends were now at the bottom of the channel and that they were the first on D-Day to give their lives for their country and for their fellow soldiers. The men in those two remaining tanks stood their ground and risked their lives for the same cause.
The CLHS thanks Greg Long for hosting this event. Long also has invited attendees to tour the museum after the program and will remain open until 4 p.m.