PFC John Derrick "Cowboy" Halls (24 March 1922-6 June 1944) was a US Army paratrooper who served in Able Company, 2nd Battalion, US 506th Infantry Regiment.
Biography[]
John Derrick Halls was born in Mancos Montezuma County, Colorado on 24 March 1922, and he enlisted in the US Army in 1942. He was sent to England in 1943 as a member of Able Company, 2nd Battalion, US 506th Infantry Regiment, serving in a mortar platoon. On 6 June 1944, during Operation Overlord, he lost his radio during the jump over Normandy and joined forces with Easy Company. Halls had a rivalry with William Guarnere, as he was curious as to what Guarnere's "problem" was; he was later told that Guarnere's brother had been killed at Monte Cassino just before D-Day. Halls was killed during the Brecourt Manor Assault when he stepped on a German landmine.