Young was born in Monroe in Ouachita Parish , to Cammie Mae Gulledge and William Earl Young , Sr. , originally from Start in nearby Richland Parish . He attended the former Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport , Mississippi , east of New Orleans . He was the football quarterback at Gulf Coast under then Coach Carl Maddox , later the athletics director at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and Mississippi State University in Starkville . Young left the military school and graduated instead from Neville High School in Monroe , where he played football and baseball and was the captain of the last boxing team offered there . He was also a cheerleader and a tenor in the Neville glee club . Young first attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette , then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette , on a boxing scholarship , but he transferred thereafter to the University of Louisiana at Monroe . In 1942 , he enlisted in the United States Army and joined the 17th Airborne Division , 513th Parachute Regiment . He earned his paratrooper wings after completing training at Fort Benning in Georgia . He fought with his battalion in the European Theatre of World War II and was active in the Battle of the Bulge , the Rhine River Jump in Germany , and the battle of Luxembourg at the Our River . He received the Bronze Star , the Army Good Conduct Medal , American Campaign Medal , the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal , the World War II Victory Medal , and the Air Medal . His military service provided lifelong commitments to the American Legion , Veterans of Foreign Wars , and the Disabled American Veterans . Young returned from war with post-traumatic stress disorder , formerly known as shell shock . He became active in Alcoholics Anonymous groups as he fought his own battle against excessive liquor . He worked for a time for the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Delta Air Lines . After a stint as a deputy under Sheriff Bailey Grant of Ouachita Parish , Young opened a hamburger shop called The Huddle on 18th Street in Monroe . He was also a partner in the Paragon Supper Club in Monroe with his friends , the late Tony and Joe Cascio
World War II Victory Medal
World War II Victory Medal (United States)
Aubrey W. Young