Robert Sweet enlisted on August 6th, 1940 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He spent 3 years in the army before he died at the age of 27 with the rank Private First Class, U.S. Army. The main responsibilities that the rank held, was to become a strong soldier to be able to fight, to listen to the orders of their superior officers. He was in the 264th Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division. The 66th Infantry Division included the 262nd, 263rd, and 264th Regiments. They started their training at Camp Blanding in Northeastern Florida , then they moved on to Camp Joseph Robinson near Little Rock Arkansas, then completed their training at Camp Rucker Alabama, and finally stopped in Camp Shanks in New Jersey.
The photo above is the 66th Infantry Division during their training in Florida. The photo to the left is the 264th Regiment. The photo below is the SS Leopoldville, the ship that Sweet would die on.
They were then immediately moved to the SS Leopoldville, a giant ship that was headed to Cherbourg, France that was overtaken by the German Nazis. On December 24th, 1944 , the ship was in the English Channel, 5 miles from Cherbourg, when German submarine U-486 hit the ship. All the soldiers were loaded with helmets, guns, gas masks, and personal items that would soon be at the bottom of the ocean with the rest of the ship in the cold waters. Robert Sweet's official date of death is December 25th, 1944
