Bernard McCoy was born November 24, 1887, in County Longford, Ireland, the son of John and Bridget Cole McCoy. Barney, as he was known, decided to join some of his older siblings who had moved to New York and bought a ticket as a third-class passenger on the RMS Titanic, a now-infamous ship, along with two of his sisters. As fate would have it, when the ship began to sink, McCoy and his sisters were able to climb aboard a lifeboat and eventually made it to New York. He was so traumatized by the experience, he developed a severe stutter that he was never able to shake.
For a while, McCoy resided in West New York, working odd jobs as he could find them. When war broke out in Europe, he was employed as a streetcar motorman. He registered for the draft and was taken into the Army at Camp Dix on April 3, 1918, almost one year after America formally entered the conflict.
McCoy quickly found himself “over there” on the Western Front, serving with Company F, 309th Infantry Regiment of the 78th “Lightning” Division. While he was at the front, he was wounded by a mustard gas attack and was later discharged from the hospital at Camp Dix on June 12, 1919. Less than one year later he officially became an American citizen.
McCoy found work at a laundry and helped build the Lincoln Tunnel, but never quite got over his exposure to poisonous gas. When his health failed for good, he went to United States Veterans’ Hospital no. 81 in the Bronx, now the site of the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. He developed lung cancer and died at the age of 57 on July 19, 1945. He now rests in Section I, Site 12940 at Long Island National Cemetery in New York. Please take a moment to visit his Veterans Legacy Program online memorial.
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