Current News

Mike Day – Navy Seal

A former US Navy Seal, Mike Day is currently still fighting for his fellow soldiers.  Day was shot 27 times by al Qaida gunmen in Iraq in 2007, but the Silver Star recipient didn’t quit.  After a long recovery, he will soon compete in his first triathlon – a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike run and 13.1-mile run – later this month, and he has used his training to raise nearly $80,000 for Carrick Brain Centers, a Dallas hospital specializing in treating veterans suffering from PTSD. (“The Week” magazine)

Mike Day

“My life’s mission is now not about me,” Day said.  “It is to care for and lead my wounded brothers and sisters.”

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USS Oklahoma, in finer days

Honolulu (FOX News) – The Pentagon said Tuesday it would exhume and try to identify the remains of nearly 400 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized after being hit by 9 torpedoes at the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Hundreds were buried as unknowns at cemeteries in Hawaii.  In 1950, they were re-interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific inside a volcanic crater in Honolulu.

USS Oklahoma capsizing

The military is acting now, more than 70 years later, because of the advances in forensic science and technology and genealogical help from family members.  Officials plan to begin work in 3-6 weeks.  They aim to identify the remains of up to 388 servicemen within 5 years.  In 2003, one casket was disinterred based on information provided by Ray Emory, a Pearl Harbor survivor.

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USS Gary (FFG-51)

San Diego – The USS Gary (FFG-51), a Navy frigate, has returned to the San Diego Naval Base from her final deployment; Operation Martillo.  Her final final mission targeted the illicit trafficking routes along the Central American coastline.

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Alan Turing and the enigma machine

NYC – Alan Turing’s 56-page handwritten cryptology notebook from WWII sold at auction in NYC, NY for $1 million.  Turing was the British codebreaker who worked at Bletchley Park on the enigma machine.  In later years, Turing was arrested for breaking the UK’s homosexuality laws.  He died 7 June 1954 of an apparent suicide.

Turing’s notebook at auction

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(top-row) Capt. Marvin Watkins, William Fredericks (died in medical experiments), Howard Shingledecker (fate unknown), Charles Kearns (died at crash site), Dale Plambeck (medical experiments), Front-row – Robert Johnson (died at crash site), Teddy Ponczka (medical experiments), Robert Williams (medical experiments), Leon Czarnecki (medical experiments), Leo Oeinck (crash site), John Colehower (medical experiments), 2 others, names unknown, died from medical experiments.

Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan – The Kyushu University has opened a museum acknowledging that its staff had taken 8 U.S. POWs, captured after their B-29 was shot down, taken to the center’s medical school and dissected alive for medical experiments.  The 12 men in Captain Marvin Watkin’s crew took off from Guam to bomb the Fukuoka airfield and bailed out when a Japanese fighter rammed their plane.

War Crime Trial

Local residents converged on the surviving airmen.  One emptied his pistol at the crowd before shooting himself dead, and another was stabbed to death by the civilians.  Capt. Watkins was interrogated and survived the war.  Todoshi Tono, one of the doctors involved, later spent his life exposing the atrocities.  He told the ‘Baltimore Sun’ that one of the flyers, stabbed by locals, presumed he was going to be treated for his wounds when he arrived at the operating theatre, but was dissected instead.  A memorial has been erected honoring the airmen.

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Current humor – 

Palm Beach Post, Sunday comics

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Personal Note – This was by far the hardest post I have ever put together.  I apologize for not including the Farewell Salutes, they will continue in Monday’s post.  And, a sincere Thank you to YOU out there – my Readers and Friends for helping to make this blog a part of your own family histories and yourselves.  Your story and link contributions do more to make Pacific Paratrooper what it is than I ever could. I don’t believe I show my appreciation often enough for your time and effort to keep our veteran’s services to us alive in our memories and our hearts.  Thank you___ GP Cox

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