OPEN LETTER TO: ALL

Jul 7

Posted by

Courtesy of

Courtesy of “The Voice of the Angels.”

As we venture back to the past for the Pacific War, there will continue to be eye-witness stories, the Farewell Salutes, occasionally a homeland episode and military humor.  I may not supply all the resources for my posts, since as many as 5 or 6 may be used to verify the information of any given post.  My bibliography has grown to 6 pages long and has not even been updated lately; also my own library has grown considerably since I first chronicled the war.

I will be re-blogging  some of my own posts from the Archives – updated since they were first published.  This entire site is dedicated to my father, Everett A. Smith, aka “Smitty”, who served in the Headquarters Company/187th Regiment/11th Airborne Division in the Pacific during WWII and the 11th A/B as a whole; therefore it is only right that I do so.  Smitty never said, “I did this” or “I did that,”  it was always – “The 11th did IT!”

Everett

Everett “Smitty” Smith at Camp MacKall, N.C.

As a member of the 11th Airborne Association (Member # 4511) myself, I am privy to their newsletter, “The Voice of the Angels,” edited by Matt & Kara Underwood, and I will be using quotes and stories from that publication.  Mr. Underwood and the officers of the Association have been of great assistance to me and I thank them very much for their help.

This website is ever changing and being updated, because further knowledge is always being learned.  Smitty told me and many others, “I try to learn something everyday.  When I stop, Please, close the lid.”  I have never forgotten that motto to live by and I sincerely hope you all do the same.

Please, DO continue to share what stories you know and/or a link to data you’ve uncovered and put them in the comments.  I am afraid no emails will be opened.  If you are not a blogger, you can Follow by clicking the Follow button in the top right-hand corner of each post.

REMEMBER!

I thank you all for your contributions in the past and hope you will continue to do so.  If you are new to this site – WELCOME!!  We have a wonderful group of people participating here – join them.  Reminder – we have the volunteers and veterans of the Little Rock, AR area watching us too – help show your support of our veterans .

Please remember that these countries, in the following posts, were in a horrendous war and NOTHING written or quoted here is with the intent to disparage any people or nations.  And, I have tried to limit the amount of gory details without shading the facts.  I hope I succeed.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Military Humor – 

Some definitions you may want to keep in mind:

ARMY – a body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats
DRAFT BOARD – the world’s largest travel agency
MILITARY EXPERT – one who tells you what will happen next week – and then explains why it didn’t
NEW GUINEA SALUTE – waving the hand over the mess kit to ward off the flies
PACIFIST – a person who fights with everybody BUT the enemy
WAR – a time that starts off paying old scores and ends up by paying new debts
 
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Farewell Salutes – 

Brian Ashton – TePuke, NZ; NZ Reg. # 386718, Platoon B, Malayaus-flag-and-soldier-1

George Barton – Joliet, IL; US Air Force, WWII

Richard Crawford – Seattle, WA; US Navy (RET.), submarine service, Vietnam

Arthur Kitts – Singer Island, FL; US Army, WWII, antiaircraft battery

Hung O. Lee – College Point, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 511th/11th A/B Div., PTO

Carmen Edward Mercandante -Amsterdam, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO

Reinhold “Hank” Nagel – Sun Lakes, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, HQ Company/187th Reg./11th Airborne Div., PTO

Johnny Powell – Cartwright, OK; US Navy, WWII & US Air Force, Korea (Ret. 23 years)

Franklin Trapnell Jr. – Richmond, VA; US Army, Colonel (Ret. 34 years), 2 tours Vietnam

Thomas Weatherall – Toronto, Can; British Army, WWII

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07-04-14

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About GP

Everett Smith served with the Headquarters Company, 187th Regiment, 11th A/B Division during WWII. This site is in tribute to my father, "Smitty." GP is a member of the 11th Airborne Association. Member # 4511 and extremely proud of that fact!

Posted on July 7, 2014, in ABOUT, Introduction, SMITTY and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 204 Comments.

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  1. American Daze Purple Haze | February 7, 2020 at 3:05 PM

    This is a great blog. My wife’s father, Norman Brown of Detroit, was a paratrooper in the Pacific.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Thom Hickey | June 6, 2019 at 8:07 AM

    GP … Sorry you got to see the work in progress draft of my Bobby Darin Post …Wordpress gremlins strike! I’ve trashed that now. The proper post will go up,on Friday or Saturday. Hope it will be worth the wait.

    I should say how much I value your continuing support of The Jukebox.

    Regards Thom.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Tobe Damit | June 13, 2018 at 11:34 AM

    Hello!What a greatwebsite you have here! I wanred to congratulate you on the wonderful articles you have here!! I didN,t know where to ask the question that’s got me thinking and thinking… So here it is, After the first World War, it is estimated that Germany had lost 523,000. A further quarter of a million more died from disease or starvation in the eight-month period following the conclusion of the conflict.Furthermore, eight months following the end of hostilities, the blockade was continually in place, with some estimates that a further 100,000 casualties among German civilians due to starvation were caused, on top of the hundreds of thousands which already had occurred. Food shipments, furthermore, had been entirely dependent on Allied goodwill, causing at least in part the post-hostilities irregularity. On top of it all came the 1918 flu pandemic.The exact number of deaths is unknown but about 50 million people are estimated to have died from the influenza outbreak worldwide. So it’s quite obvious tht Germany was in a very bad place and no matter how convincing Hitler might have been. It still baffles me when I see that, though often erroneously restricted to the ground forces, the Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and the Luftwaffe (Air Force). During World War II, a total of about 13 million soldiers served in the German Army. Can anyone explain how could Germany after losing so many of it’s population after WW1, managed to gather such a huge army, all in perfect health and well trained. It might seem stupid but no one ever gave me a satisfying answer. I have loked and search and I could nevevr find where this huge army came from. It still baffles me… I looked at a ist of all his speeches and I couldn’t find one that has over 25 000 people in the audience and that was in 1930. Plz help me put my mind at peace with this little itsy bitsy importance compared to some other facts around world wars but if you dig, you will be wandering too how he manages to gather a 13 millions treianed soldiers, all in their prime and perfectly healthy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsOdaGIXpBo

    Thanks in advance!! I asked my grandmother who served as a nurse and making ammunition during WW2 in London, and her too told me that now that I asked the question she could figure out neither where did all those man came from.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • GP Cox | June 13, 2018 at 2:17 PM

      Although I have not extensively studied the ETO, Hitler of course wanted a totally German military force, but by 1941 or so, he realized he would have to take more. In the countries that he took over, some volunteers were accepted, even after the defeat at Stalingrad, Russians, Norwegians, Romanian, Cossacks, Ukrainians, etc. wanted to fight the Soviet regime, so they joined the German army.
      I hope this at least partially gives you an answer and will encourage you to do more research on your own, you’re a smart guy!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. rona simmons | May 13, 2018 at 7:54 AM

    Wonderful site chock full of information. It’s so nice to see other like-minded individuals out there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. mariposa | December 19, 2017 at 2:53 PM

    Hi sir, first I thought I was in contact with a veteran, but your his son who want to keep up the honor to your father and the Headquarters Company/187th Regiment/11th Airborne Division in the Pacific during WWII. That’s very nice of you! It’s good to remember the sacrifices they have made to save many other lives, the fight for there homeland but also to read the humor!
    Best regards, Heidi

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. transcribingmemory | March 27, 2017 at 9:17 AM

    I’d like to thank you for two things: your interest in my blog because it brought me here, and for researching, writing, archiving, and sharing all of this. As you know I am transcribing my grandmother’s diaries and she was born in 1918. I am currently on year 1938. The other day, I turned ahead to December of 1941. I really wanted to read her accounting of the events of that day. Her husband was already training in the air force at that point. Goosebumps immediately appeared on my arms as I looked at a few words from that month. I couldn’t do it. The story, the part that is from my grandmother’s perspective, needs to be told in it’s right time. Thank you again and I am so excited to read more of your blog!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • GP Cox | March 27, 2017 at 1:45 PM

      Taking things one step at a time can be frustrating to say the least, but I find it makes their tale so much easier to comprehend. I wish I had questioned my father further on so many things, it just made researching this data all the more important to me. I’m glad you find the information interesting and hope we’ll see you again soon. Have a great day.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. Dippy-Dotty Girl | March 2, 2017 at 6:28 PM

    You got me with the military humour. Looking forward to browsing your posts. Cheers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC, SCAC | December 23, 2016 at 7:14 AM

    THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE – and for blogging to make sure that those who gave their lives might live on and be honored. Merry Christmas.
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
    – ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
    “It takes a village to educate a world!”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Herman | July 31, 2016 at 8:25 AM

    Hi there. Thank you for visiting and following HoB. Much appreciated!

    Like

    Reply
  11. crzydjm | June 7, 2016 at 10:07 AM

    Good morning Sir;

    We’ve been reading each other’s blog posts and it just hit me that you could be a source of information for a couple personal projects I’m looking into!

    The last 3 years, we have coordinated a ruck/run/walk here in our town for the Carry The Load organization out of Dallas. This year, one of the names we had on our list was my wife’s great uncle (Leonard Rock), who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. The other man is my own grandfather (Harold Miller), who didn’t actually die IN COMBAT but suffered injuries bad enough to affect the rest of his life upon return and resulted in a brutal suicide in which my father found him the next morning.

    To make a long story short, I guess I’m curious if you have access to a repository of data regarding military units and individuals in World War II or if you may have your own collection to cull information from. I am completely fine doing the “legwork” myself, but would love to know if you have any further information about either of these men. My information is still pretty scarce, although I found a gentleman who has some after action reports and maps of Leonard’s troop movements in the Battle of the Bulge. Leonard was supposedly shot on the 17th of December, but didn’t pass away until the 20th.

    I have attached all the information I have for both gentlemen. I sent on a request for military and medical records to the NRC as well, but would love any type of anecdotal information to further personalize these two men.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Howard Miller
    Nebraska
    PVT
    CO C 44 ARMD REGT
    WORLD WAR II
    SEPTEMBER 11 1919 (or 1929, can’t be 100% sure of the 3rd digit)
    MAY 2 1953

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Leonard L Rock
    SERVICE #33889341
    STATE Virginia
    CASUALTY 12-20-1944
    Army Private
    UNIT 4th Infantry Division, 22nd Infantry Regiment
    BURIAL Plot C Row 15 Grave 16, Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France

    AWARDS
    Purple Heart
    Combat Infantryman Badge
    American Campaign Medal
    World War II Victory Medal

    Thank you SO much for any help you may be able to provide!

    V/r,
    Dave Miller (CrzyDJM)
    (crzydjm AT gmail)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. spearfruit | May 18, 2016 at 7:59 AM

    Thank you for yours and other’s service to our country. I wanted to thank you also for following my blog. I will certainly take the time to visit yours as well. I hope your day is a happy one! 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  13. Lloyd Marken | April 4, 2016 at 7:33 AM

    Thank you for your service Smitty.

    Like

    Reply
  14. voulaah | March 7, 2016 at 1:22 AM

    Hello,
    I just discover your blog and I’m glad to follow it to have your last publications
    I hope that you discover mine too and follow it
    How do you think about my last post: https://femmeetinfos.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/pics-3-presque-inapercue-au-milieu-du-champ-de-saonjo-almost-unnoticed-in-the-middle-of-the-field-of-saonjo/
    I have passion in photographs too
    I hope to read your comments
    Kisses
    Anita

    Like

    Reply
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