MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center

Roll of Honor

Hicks, Thomas R.

Branch of Service: Army
Era: WWII
Location of Burial: Normandy American Cemetery
Town of Burial: Colleville-sur-Mer, France

Born September 6, 1911, in nearby Thomasville, Tennessee, Hicks was one of seven children born to Willard and Mary Hicks. His father Willard worked as a rural mail carrier. Thomas Roy Hicks was a schoolteacher whose first assignments were at Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville and at Pleasant View, Tennessee—northwest of Nashville. His early career as a teacher kept him close to his hometown and family. Thomas was a graduate of Ashland City (Tennessee) High School, and of Austin Peay State College in Clarksville, Tennessee. He earned his teaching degree from Middle Tennessee State Teachers College in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Sergeant Thomas R. Hicks (Class of 1940) joined the Army in 1942, and had four brothers serve with him during WWII. After training at Camp Roberts, California, and Camp Howze, Texas, Thomas was sent overseas to the European theater on June 1, 1944. He was a Sergeant with the 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Robert C. Macon. Hicks’ 83rd Infantry Division landed at Omaha Beach on June 18, 1944—twelve days after the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The weeks that followed the Allied landing saw intense hedgerow warfare in the effort to push back German occupying forces in France. Col. R.T. Foster of the 330th Infantry later described what it was like: “After assembling in the vicinity of Bricqueville, Normandy, we moved into the lines southeast of Carentan, relieving elements of the 101st Airborne Division…Our advances were measured by the number of hedgerows we took, but we kept going. Forward, hedgerow to hedgerow. From one ruined Norman village to the next. From one destroyed farm with its dead, stinking cows to the next.”

Sgt. Thomas Roy Hicks was killed in action while serving with the 83rd Infantry Division, 330th Infantry Regiment on July 11, 1944, somewhere in Normandy, France. Awarded the Purple Heart medal, he is buried along with his brothers-in-arms at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France (Plot A Row 17 Grave 28).

This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.