DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — A Vermilion County World War II hero is having his story put into focus after a local student’s research trip to France.
Bailee Easton is a junior at Danville High School. She went to Europe this past summer as part of a program with George Washington University. Her main research focused on World War II’s D-Day operation.
One of her tasks was investigating the life of someone buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Easton said she wanted to find someone from her hometown.
“His name is Leslie Milton Irvin. He was a Private First Class,” Easton said. “He was the oldest, he started to go into the war voluntarily, and he was a farm boy. So he had a lot of rooted labor and already really hard working.”
Irvin was on the front lines storming Normandy, where he was killed in action.
Easton said the trip was transformative, and she now plans to minor in history in college.