Sep 30
This gallery contains 7 photos.
Originally posted on John's Notes:
https://youtu.be/mrOzpI45e5U The Texas Military Forces Museum is located in Building 6 on Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. The street address of Camp Mabry is 2200 West 35th Street. A photo I.D. for all adults is required for entry onto Camp Mabry. In addition, Camp Mabry regulations require motorcycle riders to wear…
I like my olives sanded,
My pickles full of bugs;
I’m rustic: To be candid,
I shy from chairs and rugs.
The open field! The azure sky!
The fields of waving grain!
The piece of huckleberry pie
That’s bogged with sudden rain!
I understand the merits of
A cake that’s turned to goo;
For every bite I take and love
Mosquitoes give me two,
And naught I know can close compare
The taste of hardboiled eggs,
While bees make honey in my hair
And flies besiege my legs.
So “outdoor” is the word for me
Ah! – Give me trees to hack!
And then my first response will be
To give the damned things back.
– By M/Sgt. H. E. KELLENBERGER
********** ********** ********** ********** **********
11th Airborne Division Chapel
When I’m flying at seven hundred
And the red light flickers on
I know I’ll tremble and start to sweat
But, God, let me be strong.
When I look down through the hole, God
It’s like I’m standing by a grave
And my knees go weak and I can’t speak
Then, God, please make me brave.
And if it be Thy will, God
Part of Thine own Great Plan
That my life should stop, then on that last long drop
Oh God, let me die a man!
While I’m waiting to emplane, God
And checking my jumping kit
Though I laugh and jeer I’m full of fear
But, God, don’t let me quit.
When the kite begins to move, God
And take off time is near
Then my heart grows cold – God, make me bold
And drive away my fear.
Desmond Le Pard, 17th Battalion Parachute Regiment @ 18 years old
Click on images to enlarge.
#####################################################################################
Paratrooper School.
#####################################################################################
Timothy Bowman – Ontario, CAN; Canadian Forces, Military Police, Capt. 1 Wing HQ, pilot
Edward Flora – Mishawaka, IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, A/674th Arty/11th Airborne Division
Gilbert Grossinger – Kerhonkson, NY; US Army, WWII
Donald Hardcastle – Rochdale, ENG; RAF, WWII, radioman
Hugh Hefner – Chicago, IL; US Army, WWII, Infantry Clerk, military newspaper cartoons
Vincent Koravos – Lowell, MA; USMC; WWII, PTO, MAG-24 tail gunner
Ramon Laughter – Edna, TX; US Army, WWII & Korea, Colonel (Ret. 25 y.)
Kevin McCarthy – Brooklyn, NY; US Air Force, Flt. Surgeon
Geral Sheridon – Denver, CO; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Jon Vaccarino – Yorktown Heights, NY; US Army, Korea
#####################################################################################
Kiwi attacking the I-1 submarine
By early 1943 the ships of the New Zealand minesweeping flotilla were patrolling along the Guadalcanal coast. The Americans had landed successfully, but Japanese land, air and sea forces held footholds and were still contesting the islands. Although the destroyers of the nocturnal ‘Tokyo Express’ were still active, the Bird-class ships’ usual targets were small craft and submarines attempting to land troops and supplies.
Lt.Cmdr. Peter Phipps, HMNZNS Moa
On the night of 29 January Kiwi and Moa were patrolling along Kamimbo Bay, on the north-western corner of Guadacanal, when Kiwi detected a submarine. It made a depth charge attack, but then lost contact. Kiwi continued to attack and on its third run, the damaged submarine surfaced and attempted to fight it out.
On paper it was two-to-one, but the Japanese sub I-1 was a formidable opponent. At 2135 tons surfaced, the Type J1 class were one and a half times bigger than Moa and Kiwi combined. Undamaged, the sub could outrun them by about five knots. The I-1’s 140-mm gun had greater range and hitting power than the New Zealand ships’ 102-mm guns, and it also had powerful torpedoes. No wonder that to the Kiwi’s crew in the dark, the Japanese shells sounded ‘like an express train going through’.
Lt. Comdr. Gordon Brisdon, HMNZNS Kiwi
In confined waters the Kiwi’s commander, Lieutenant-Commander Gordon Brisdon, decided to get in close to negate some of the sub’s advantages. But that meant braving a hail of fire from light-calibre weapons. Japanese machine-guns bullets sprayed the Kiwi, mortally wounding Acting Leading Signalman C.H. Buchanan. In pain and bleeding, he remained at his post, lighting up the sub for the gunners with his searchlight.
With a crunching sound, the Kiwi rammed the I-1 right behind the conning tower. Locked together, the vessels continued to blaze away at each other with light weapons. Twice more Brisdon pulled his ship away from the huge submarine only to ram it again, badly damaging his opponent and crumpling his own bows. When Kiwi’s main gun overheated, Moa took over, chasing the submarine until it ran aground on a reef.
The wreck of Japanese sub I-1
This information comes directly from the New Zealand history website. By clicking on the links additional information can be acquired.
Critical codes remained on board the submarine and the Japanese command tried unsuccessfully to destroy the boat with air and submarine attacks. The US Navy reportedly salvaged code books, charts, manuals, the ship’s log and other secret documents.
I-1 sub’s deck gun, now sitting in Torpedo bay Navy Museum.
The sinking of the Japanese submarine was only one of the contributions made by New Zealand to the defeat of Japan in the Pacific. The sinking of I-1 remains one of the proudest moments in New Zealand naval history.
Click on images to enlarge.
#####################################################################################
####################################################################################
Alto ‘Bud’ Adams – St.Lucie County, FL; US Navy, WWII
Colin Bennett – Gisborne, NZ; RNZ Air Force # 46820, WWII
Allan Cameron – Taranaki, NZ; RNZ Army # 459507, WWII, SSgt.
Vivian King (102) – New Plymouth, NZ; 27 NZ(MG)BTN # 42512, WWII, Sgt.
John Pay – Hawkes Bay, NZ; RNZ Air Force, WWII, PTO
Henry ‘Joe’ Sargeant – Auckland, NZ; RNZ Navy, WWII
Harry Dean Stanton – W.Irvine, KY; US Navy, WWII
Bruce Stott – Auckland, NZ; RNZ Navy # 10517, WWII
Hugh Turnbull (103) – Wellington, NZ; British Army ONZM # 129228, WWII, artillery
Jason Woodworth – Kea’au, HI; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
#####################################################################################
Canadian radio operators
Naval Communication Reserve, the Army Amateur Network (not military and often used by the Red Cross), and the Amateur Emergency of the American Radar Relay League (AARL),were the main networks as WWII brewed toward the USA. The messages were relayed and transmitted free of charge.
In Los Angeles, CA, the Major Diasater Emergency Council, a behind-the-scenes orgaization, prepared early to take over the handling of relief and and public safety. The operators wore a special uniform and each had special instructions as to their duties.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC), trained intelligent men who were needed to man the new long-range surveillance and direction-finding radio interceptor stations that were being built as part of the national defense program. [This was transpiring in 1939, long before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor]
A very short (1:28) video on the secret wireless war from the UK.
In time of war, thousands of trained members of these nets would be taken in by the military services for active duty and many others would be detailed to guard various frequencies to detect enemy and spy messages. Resitrictions governing amateur radio were being tightened and all owners of transmittng stations were fingerprinted and were required to show proof of citizenship.
In June 1942, at the request of the AARL, the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS), was created. The FCC continued to offer amateur licensing throughout the war.
Gwendoline’s contribution for us – Here you can see the letter sent from Mrs. Cecilia McKie in Sacramento, California to Mrs. Alice Eaddie, Yorkshire, England (a similar letter sent to Mr. & Mrs. Nils T. Peterson, MT). In it Mrs. McKie explains that she listens to the shortwave program and overhears messages from Allied POWs in Japanese camps. During February 1943 to the present date of this letter, Cecilia had mailed out 8100 letters to the families of these prisoners. The message to Mrs. Eaddie was:
“Received your cablegram and safe. Hope you are all still well at home. Give my love to Mother and Dad. Best wishes to our friends. Tell May Charles (?) is all right. All my love to you, Patricia.”
Ham radio WWII letter, contributed by Garrulous Gwedoline
Other countries had many other radio operators – here is an incredible example from Australia –
Click on images to enlarge.
#####################################################################################
“I DON’T CARE IF DIVISION DOESN’T SEND QSL CARDS……GET ON THAT RADIO!”
#####################################################################################
William Butler – Atlanta, GA; US Army, Korea
Caleb Erickson – Waseca, MN; USMC; Afghanistan, Cpl., KIA
Samuel Hadley Jr. – W>Palm Beach, FL; US Army, WWII
Paul Himber – Elizabeth, NJ; US Navy, USS Threadfin
Stanley Krolczyk – Toledo, OH; US Navy, WWII, Korea, Cmdr. (Ret. 24 y.), pilot
Al Kuhn – Chcago, IL; US Army
Rex Phelps – MI; US Navy, WWII, LT., LST
Larry Satell – Palm Beach Gardens, FL; US Army, Korea
Kent Stirling – Pittsburgh, PA; US Air Force
Leland Uhlenhopp – Storden, MN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
#####################################################################################
USMC on Tarawa Atoll
Edwin Glasberg, 93, has lived an extraordinary life and is known as a WWII hero for a number of reasons. He was born on the 14th may, 1924, in Boston and as soon as he was able, he left school and enlisted in the Marines. He was assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Division.
Edwin Glasberg, USMC
War broke out and he was sent to the Western Pacific where he first used his weapon in anger. He was one of the 18,000 Marines that made up the first wave that landed on the Island of Tarawa. There was no significant resistance on the beach, as the Navy had shelled the Japanese positions before the Marines landed, and his company ran up the beach sheltering behind a four foot high wall. From that point on the battle became increasingly bloody as the Japanese detachment of 4,500 men fought back.
Japanese snipers had been positioned in the trees and picked off the American forces at will. Glasberg spotted a sniper hidden in a coconut tree and dashed to the foot of the tree. Pressing his body against the trunk, where he was safe as the machine gun could not be pointed straight down, he noticed a wounded lieutenant, but Glasberg could not reach him as that would place him in the line of fire. Blazing hot, spent cartridge shells rained down on his head as the Japanese sniper maintained fire at the American forces, so Glasberg simply pointed his rifle straight up and started shooting. He could not see the sniper but as the firing from the top of the tree stopped he could only assume that he had shot the sniper, “I don’t know if I hit him or somebody else did, but he stopped firing. I wasn’t going to climb up to find out.”
USMC on Betio, Tarawa Atoll
The battle raged on and Glasberg, in the company of several Marines, was on manoeuvres when a Japanese soldier leaped out from behind a wood pile and bayoneted Glasberg in the right thigh. “I didn’t realize I got bayoneted,” he said. “You’re so excited, you don’t feel anything.” The Marine in line behind him took out his pistol and shot the enemy soldier in the head. Despite a bleeding wound in his leg, Glasberg remained in the fight.
His next major battle was during the invasion of Saipan. He was part of the contingency that were fighting for Hill 101 and part way up the hill he was wounded for the second time when a bullet grazed the left side of his head. He was awarded his second Purple Heart for this injury and was shipped back to the USA, where he was deployed at the submarine base at Portsmouth on the East Coast.
Soon, he was back in the thick of things when he was part of the boarding party that took control of a German submarine, U-805, that had been forced to surrender. Glasberg was woken in the early hours of 12th May 1945 and ordered to take his rifle, ammunition, and other combat paraphernalia and to report for duty. He had been selected as his file indicated that he spoke German.
Riding in a Navy tender, he and the other six members of the boarding party travelled 25 miles into the Atlantic where they came upon a surreal sight. There lay a German U-Boat on the surface surrounded by six destroyers. The boarding party climbed aboard and in his best schoolboy German, Glasberg yelled, “Alle deutschen Krauts, raus und schnell!” (All you Germans, get out, and fast!) Waving the machine gun in their faces encouraged the German crew to leave quickly, and Glasburg turned to the submarine skipper, Korvettenkapitan Richard Bernardelli. He told the captain, who spoke English, “We’re Marines, not murderers. We’re not going to kill you guys. If the tables were turned, you’d kill us, but we’re not going to do that to you.”
All 31 of the crew were captured, and Glasberg used his fluency in German to look through the papers that were found in the captain’s cabin. “I went to the captain’s quarters. We went through all their maps, and I read them in German, the detailed instructions of their combat patrol. I read the German report. They had sunk three of our ships on their patrol, one off of Nova Scotia, and two in the Saint Lawrence estuary.”
The submarine was then towed to Portsmouth harbor; a trip Glasberg does not remember with any fondness, “I stayed up in the conning tower because the submarine is so musty. You can hardly breathe in it. Plus I got seasick because a submarine on the surface, it’s bobbing up and down in the Atlantic swells.”
Edwin Glasberg, 2010
After the war, Glasberg lived in Massachusetts where he founded a company making hairbrushes. He married, and his wife bore them three daughters. Glasberg, now 93 years old, is a proud member of the Naples Marine Corps League, and can often be found recounting stories of his life as a marine during WWII at League meetings.
“When you come to think of it,” he said, “not too many Marines in World War II were intermingled in combat with both the Germans and the Japanese,” was his last word.
Story is from War history Online. Pictures are from the Marine Corps League of Naples, FL. and the Marine Corps Association.
Click on images to enlarge.
######################################################################################
SHOUT OUT !!!
I located this article in “The Week” news magazine – is this what our children do (or learn) in college? !!
calling for a ban on veterans as college students!
Cy Forrest was kind enough to send us a link to the University’s reply to this letter. I hope the PC people make a note of paragraph # 4.
http://pressreleases.uccs.edu/?p=3424
#####################################################################################
#####################################################################################
Phyllis Birney – Baltimore, MD; civilian employee US Army & Air Force (Ret.)
Beatrice Carroll – Hull, ENG; British Navy WREN, WWII
Werner Eisenmann – Pennsburg, PA; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
Howard Falcon Jr. – Evanston, IL; US Navy, WWII, PTO & CBI, USS Robinson
James Guglielmoni – Prescott, AZ; US Navy, WWII, destroyer escort
Frank Hurst – Broad Channel, NY; US Navy, WWII
Vivian King – New Plymouth, NZ; RNZ Army # 42512, WWII, Sgt., 27th Battalion, POW
Richard Palmer – Bronx, NY; USMC, Korea
Bernard Sulisz – So.Lyon, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII
George Totoiu – Oberlin, OH; US Air Force
#####################################################################################
Marines boarding a Coast Guard transport, February 1944
MacArthur was one of the few theater commanders who welcomed black troops into his command. However, “colored” units in the Pacific were almost never employed in a combat role. One exception was 93rd Division. Despite the skepticism of many senior commanders, the division had performed satisfactorily in training and in the Texas-Louisiana maneuvers of 1943. The 93 Division was ordered to Hawaii in December 1943 , in order to free a white division for combat. However, its orders were changed almost at once to send the division to New Georgia.
93rd Infantry Division, Bougainville, 1 May 1944
From Munda a single battalion from the division, 1/24th Regiment was deployed to the Bougainville perimeter in January 1944, and elements of the battalion reached the front line in March. For the most part, the battalion performed well in combat, but on 6 April a single inexperienced company from the battalion panicked when it came under fire during a routine patrol. Discipline broke down, troops from one platoon mistakenly fired on another platoon, and the company returned to the perimeter in considerable disorder. Such conduct was hardly unknown among inexperienced soldiers of any race, but the mistakes and confusion among the black troops was widely reported in the media, and rumor inflated the failure of a single company into an impression of poor performance by the entire division. 93 Division saw very little combat thereafter.
Most black troops in the Pacific were employed as service troops. These were certainly needed and made an invaluable contribution to ultimate victory. About a third of the troops working on the Alaska-Canada Highway and the Burma Road were black. Other blacks served in amphibious tractor battalions.
1st Sgt. Rance Richardson, veteran of 2 world wars – 4 April 1944
In 1942, there was a mutiny at Townsville by African-American troops of 96 Engineer Battalion, who responded to abuse by two white officers by machine gunning the officers’ tents. At least one officer was killed and several others wounded, and Australian troops had to be called in to put down the riot. Future president Lyndon B. Johnson visited the base for three days, apparently to defuse the situation. The mutiny was subsequently covered up and did not come to light for seventy years.
The Navy had been largely integrated, at least among its enlisted men and petty officers, until the First World War. The Wilson administration adopted policies that all but excluded blacks from the Navy, even replacing black mess stewards with Filipinos. It was not until the 1930s that blacks began to be quietly recruited into the Navy again. Though most served as mess specialists, there are no noncombatants on a warship, and segregation is difficult to enforce. Black sailors eventually won grudging respect from their white crew mates, opening the door a little wider to eventual desegregation of the armed forces.
Howard Perry, 1st to enlist in the USMC, 1 June 1942
The Marines were very reluctant to accept black recruits. However, once the necessity was forced on them, they quickly adapted. A black Marine was still a Marine. Although attempts were made to restrict black Marines to defense battalions and support services, black ammunition carriers served with distinction under fire at Saipan and began appearing in the front lines at Peliliu. (Sloan 2005):
As the men of the supply unit picked up their weapons and fell into line behind their sergeant, Mulford tried to discourage them. “Nothing you people have seen this beach is gonna prepare you for the hell you’re gonna face if you go with us,” he said. “So don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“We can take it,” the black sergeant assured him.
For the rest of the day, the African-American Marines made dozens of trips between the front lines and rear areas. They carried dead and wounded in one direction and hauled back ammo, food, and other supplies on their return trips. That night, they moved into vacant foxholes along the line and helped fight off a Japanese counterattack. The next morning, in several hours of bloody fighting, they charged and took an enemy-held hill shoulder to shoulder with what was left of I Company.
recruits at Camp Lejeune, April 1943
A formation of black Marines, 8 Field Depot, helped turn back the final Japanese counterattack on Iwo Jima on 4 April 1945. Regrettably, the Marines would revert to a heavily discriminatory racial policy after the war.
Information from: The Pacific War online. Pictures from: The History Place
Click on images to enlarge.
#####################################################################################
SHOUT OUT !!!
I live in Florida, as many of you know, and could possibly be in the path of Hurricane Irma. I fully expect to lose power at some point. PLEASE be patient and I will eventually return to catch up on your posts and answer questions and reply to comments.
Do NOT feel obligated to respond to this Shout Out, it is merely an informative reminder.
Thank You.
#####################################################################################
Speed limit enforced by aircraft.
#####################################################################################
Brian Aldiss – Dereham, ENG; British Army, WWII, CBI, Royal Signals, (author)
Martin ‘Butch’ Beechler – Palm Beach Gardens, FL; US Army, Vietnam, 31st Infantry
Meredith Cooper – Linton, IN; US Air Force, Korea
Final Mission
Harold Evans – Spokane, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, E/188th/11th Airborne Division
Dick Gregory – St. Louis, MO; US Army, (comedian)
James Johnson – Glendale, CA; US Navy, pilot (Ret. 22 yrs.)
Adrian Marcuse – Glen Cove, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 18th/13th Air Force
Jeannie Rousseau – Saint-Brieuc, FRA; Allied Agent, WWII, ETO, POW
Gordon Thompson – Moccasin, MT; USMC, WWII, PTO, “Cactus Air Force”, LT. pilot, KIA
John Winner – MD; US Army, Korea
#####################################################################################
Lt. Ryan
The short, soft-spoken former Army nurse was asked how she coped with the harsh realities of working in an Army hospital in war-torn Europe during World War II.
You could hear a pin drop as this 96-year-old veteran nurse stood under the shade of a small tent outside the Fort Meade Museum at Sturgis, South Dakota on 7/17/16. Without hesitation, Marcella LeBeau responded, “I didn’t have time to worry. I had work to do. There were patients to care for, transfusions to be done, and there were buzz bombs overhead. I just didn’t have time.”
She shared stories of her experiences during World War II, from the D-Day landings at Normandy to the historic “Battle of the Bulge” that helped change the direction of the war.
Marcella Ryan LeBeau’s story began on the Cheyenne River Reservation at Promise, South Dakota, where she was one of five children born to Joseph and Florence Ryan. Her old hometown of Promise – nestled along the banks of the Moreau River – is gone now, inundated by the massive waters of Lake Oahe.
Lt. Ryan and a friend.
Her name belies the rich Lakota heritage of which she is so proud. Her mother was a member of the Two Kettle Band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a descendant of Rain in the Face, who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Her great grandfather, Joseph Four Bear, was a reluctant signatory to the infamous Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Her father, a rancher, was Irish.
Marcella’s Lakota name is Wigmunke Waste Win, which in English means “Pretty Rainbow Woman.”
“I was working in the surgical ward in Pontiac, and we kept hearing radio announcements about the need for Army nurses.”
While undergoing no real military training, Lt. Ryan was issued her uniforms and was temporarily assigned to work in the psychiatric wards. She among the 104,000 young nurses who were recruited by the American Red Cross to become Army nurses and serve at Army hospitals at home and overseas. She enlisted in April 1943.
She was assigned to the 76th General Hospital and boarded the USS George Washington headed for England.
Lt. Ryan LeBeau’s uniform.
Then came June 6, 1944 – D Day.
“We were called to our duty stations at 2:30 in the morning, and we began getting soldiers from D-Day. We were pretty busy after that.”
The work continued at a hectic pace for days on end. By mid-August, the Allies had secured Normandy and were on the march toward Nazi-occupied Paris. Lieutenant LeBeau and her unit were ordered to Southampton to embark aboard boats headed for Normandy.
LeBeau was temporarily assigned to the 108th General Hospital in Paris, where they treated Allied casualties as well as German prisoners of war.
A few weeks later, Allied forces regained the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Liege. LeBeau’s 76th General Hospital was ordered northward to the 1,000-bed hospital at Liege, where they would handle casualties from France and other war zones along front. The came the Battle of the Bulge!
With more than 600,000 Americans engaged in the fighting, casualties were high – more than 89,000, including 19,000 deaths. Many of the wounded were sent to Liege for surgery and hospitalization.
Army reports indicated the city was blasted with as many as 1,500 such devices. Hardest hit among the medical facilities was Lt. LeBeau’s 76th General Hospital unit on January 8, 1944. The Army reported 24 patients and staff killed, another 20 injured, plus buildings and equipment that were damaged.“We had a wooden building that had been built for surgery. I worked closely with two corpsmen and one nurse,” LeBeau recalled. The city remained a target of intense aerial bombardment by German V1 and V2 “buzz bombs.”
Marcella Ryan LeBeau
Additional documents revealed that the 76th General Hospital staff “cared for their own casualties, cleared away rubble, and kept on working.”
“There were body limbs all over,” LeBeau remembered. “The buzz bombs continued night and day, but our work did not stop, as we cared for wounded troops and gave blood transfusions. We were blessed with plenty of blood and penicillin, which was relatively new at the time and had to be administered every four hours.”
“I remember one of our hospital corpsmen, named Coffee, was deathly afraid of the buzz bombs and his situation became increasingly apparent, as he was going without sleep. As we ate lunch together one day, I gave him a sleeping pill and had another corpsman put him to bed. He was finally able to get some sleep. I think if I hadn’t done that, he would have gone berserk.”
For Lt. LeBeau, one incident remains vivid in her memory.
Marcella in France receiving the Legion of Honor
“It was an American soldier who had been a prisoner of war and was rescued. He was so gaunt. Skin stretched over his bones. He was so emaciated. Your first inclination was to feed him, but of course, we couldn’t immediately do that. His eyes. A vacant stare. I can’t forget that look.”
Lieutenant LeBeau completed about one year at the hospital in Liege and then was on her way home. She was discharged at Des Moines, Iowa in February 1946.
She was awarded three bronze stars – for the Rhineland, Northern France, and the Battle of the Bulge. The government of Belgium also presented her and others of their unit with special medals. Those, however, would not be the end of many special awards for the girl from Promise, South Dakota.
As she contemplated returning to South Dakota, there was little to attract her. Her father had fallen ill and was living in the “Old Soldiers Home” in Hot Springs. So she went to Chicago and moved in with her younger sister, Johanna, who was in the Army Nurse Cadet Corps at St. Luke’s Hospital. Marcella took a job as a private duty nurse. But in the next year or so, went to work for a hospital in Rapid City.
The following year, on September 4, 1947, Marcella Ryan married Navy veteran Gilbert LeBeau at Moreau, South Dakota. Both hailed from the Promise area. “Gib” was a Gunner’s Mate Petty Officer and served at Pearl Harbor and later aboard two ships during the war.
The LeBeau’s had eight children. After they returned to the Cheyenne River Reservation, Marcella was active in her children’s school activities and as a leader in 4-H. She also continued her nursing work with the Indian Health Service at Eagle Butte, South Dakota, retiring as Director of Nursing after 31 years of service.
She became a member of the tribal council – one of just two women elected to the body, and she also served as secretary for the Wounded Knee Survivor’s Organization.
Her many friends and colleagues from the 76th General Hospital at Liege, Belgium, held reunions numerous times over the years to recall their experiences and renew friendships. The gatherings took place in Des Moines, Iowa, and were, she said “great therapy.” Mrs. LeBeau and her friend Esther Westvelt Pierce made the trip every summer they were held. Alas, the once robust group of Army medical personnel has dwindled and the reunions are no more.
The French remembered First Lieutenant Marcella Ryan LeBeau. She was among 100 World War II American veterans flown to Washington, D.C. in 2004 and awarded France’s highest civilian award, the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur) at the French Embassy. It was the 60th anniversary of D-Day, and the honored veterans were then flown to France to visit Paris – and later to tour the beaches of Normandy.
Marcella Ryan LeBeau last year.
More than 60 years after her service in the Army, Marcella told a researcher from the University of Arizona that she was never subjected to any discrimination or harassment while in the military. But that was not the case after the war when she returned to South Dakota. She remembered seeing signs in Rapid City that said, “No Indians or dogs allowed.”
Of her many experiences during World War II and in her long nursing career that followed, Marcella particularly remembers and often shares one story – about Eugene Roubideaux from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
“I was working one night in a Shock Ward – like an Intensive Care Unit – and was asked to see this patient. He had lost both legs, and they were afraid that he might try to commit suicide. So I went to see him. His name was Eugene Roubideaux. I took him newspapers from home, visited with him, and offered to write letters home for him, but he didn’t want to contact anyone.
I went over to see him often…and then, one day, he was gone.
“After the war, I came back to the United States. For 40 years I looked for him. Every place I’d go to a nurse’s meeting, I’d ask if anyone knew Eugene Roubideaux, but I could never find him.
“Then one day I met a young lady who came to our hospital to introduce us to a new form to be used at the hospital.
“The next morning I got this call, and she said ‘This is Ann Lafferty. Do you known Eugene Roubideaux?’
“I said ‘yes, I do.’”
“’He was my father,’ she said.”
It was an emotional moment for Marcella, who was overcome by the news.
Mrs. Rafferty gave Marcella her father’s address and phone number and told her that he had divorced, remarried, and raised a large family. He was living in Yankton.
“I couldn’t call him right away, but eventually I did.
“I asked if he remembered the nurse who stood at his bed in Liege, Belgium?”
“I’ll never forget,” he responded.
For Marcella, who shared the story with the Veteran’s History Project, it was an emotional moment.
“Some time later,” said Marcella, “we were able to invite him and his family to Eagle Butte for an honor dinner.”
It is not surprising that Marcella Ryan LeBeau wanted to honor another veteran. Nor that she continues to be active in community and tribal activities. That she remains a steadfast advocate for her family and her people.
More than 16 million men and women served in the military during World War II. They are dying at a rate of about 492 veterans each day. That means our nation will likely loose almost all of them within the next decade.
How fortunate we were to have had this “Greatest Generation” as our elders, our family, our friends, and members of our community – defending and nurturing us during one of the most difficult times in American history.
Information was located from the “Dawes County Journal”.
#####################################################################################
On the job training?
“NURSE ADAMS, PLEASE REPORT TO ROOMS 13 THROUGH 100…YOU HAVE PATIENTS WHO REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE!”
#####################################################################################
Mary Jean Coffield – Morgantown, WV; Nurse at US Army posts, WWII
Cleo Dyer – Stamford, CT; US Army Nursing Corps, WWII
Julia Fairchild – Luray, VA; US Navy Nursing Corps, WWII
C
Frieda Green – Eugene, OR; US Army Nursing Corps
Jean Jones Hawkins – Hopewell, VA; US Army Kenner Hospital (Ret. 30 yrs.)
Betty Kutchmire – Tampa, FL; US Army Nursing Corps
Gladys Renoe – Taunton, MA; US Navy Nursing Corps
Lillian Ritt – San Diego, CA; US Army Nursing Corps
Virginia Seledyn – New Britain, CT; US Navy Nursing Corps, Commander (Ret.)
Vicki Woldt – Colby, KS; US Army Nursing Corps, Vietnam, 7th Surgical Hospital, Lt. Col. (Ret.)
#####################################################################################
75 YEARS, WE MUST NEVER FORGET THEM!
Now, we can even bring their images to life with color.
Missing but never forgotten
Courtesy https://www.facebook.com/color.praeterita/
About the artist
Hi, I’m Harry and I’ve created this page to showcase my efforts in colouring old black/white photographs. Just for fun!
Biography
I’ve long been interested in history, especially that of WW2 aviation, so after coming across the likes of communities like Colourising History and a variety of very talented artists, I decided I’d like to try my hand at this.
I do this for fun: I get a sense of satisfaction when I finally complete an image, but what I really like is how a coloured image can make the history it shows somehow more real… or perhaps more ‘relevant’ would be a better term as I find it makes said history easier to connect with. A colourised photo can remind us that the portrayed person isn’t just some distant, long dead curiosity but was once a living, breathing human being…
View original post 8 more words
Smitty - artwork by Priorhouse.wordpress.com/
Our Silent Observer
Jeep crossing
Pacific Paratrooper 