Monthly Archives: December 2019
“THIS IS THE ARMY!” part one (1)
“This Is The Army”
The most successful and popular patriotic show of World War II and one of the most unique productions in the history of entertainment was Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army, which originally began as a Broadway musical. General George C. Marshall gave Berlin permission to stage a morale-boosting revue early in 1942 to raise money for the military.
Rehearsals were held at Camp Upton, New York, beginning in the spring of 1942 in an old Civilian Conservation Corps barracks called T-11. At one end was a large recreation room with a stone fireplace, where Berlin placed his special piano. It was next to a latrine, which had a hot water tank. Berlin liked to lean against the tank to warm his back.
Rehearsal
Berlin completed most of the score by the end of April. The show was then auditioned on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor for General Irving J. Phillipson. Immediately thereafter, Berlin received the approval he was waiting for.
The musical, which was directed by 24-year-old Ezra Stone (radio’s Henry Aldrich), opened on Broadway with a cast of 300 uniformed soldiers on July 4, 1942, to rave reviews. The most popular songs from the revue were “This Is the Army Mr. Jones” and “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.” Other notable numbers include “I’m Getting Tired So I Can Sleep,” “How About a Cheer for the Navy,” “American Eagles,” and “With My Head in the Clouds for the Air Corps.”.
Irving Berlin
The show was so successful that the initial four-week engagement was extended to 12 weeks followed by a national tour, and then with a greatly reduced cast to tours of the European, Far East, and Pacific Theaters. Berlin ingeniously inserted new songs into the show depending on the audience and location. In England, he added “My British Buddy,” and in the Pacific he included “Heaven Watch the Philippines.”
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the show several times during its first weeks at the Broadway Theatre and became a devotee. She desperately wanted her husband to see it, but he was unable to travel to New York City. A special matinee command performance was arranged for October 8, 1942, at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., for the president. He thoroughly enjoyed the performance and invited the complete cast and crew to the White House the following day. The president shook hands with the entire company, over 350 soldiers, which kept him up until 1:30 the following morning.
This Is the Army was an exposition of patriotism as well as pure and simple entertainment, and the musical theater was an exceptional vehicle for boosting wartime morale. The show was a rousing, captivating musical tribute to Americans in uniform, including those in the Navy and Air Corps.
Irving Berlin with his cast
The story of Army life was told simply in song and dance, with a bit of added comedy. No battle scenes, no deaths, and no destruction were introduced. Girls, sweethearts, and mothers were the objects of songs. Kathleen E.R. Smith, in her book, God Bless America—Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, contends that the impression of Army life presented was more like a summer camp vacation instead of the serious matter of preparing for war.
By the time the national tour of This Is the Army concluded on February 13, 1943, in San Francisco, about $2 million had been raised for the Army Emergency Relief Fund for deserving wives, children, and parents of servicemen and women.
Irving Berlin & the Royals
The international touring company of This Is the Army first went to England in November 1943, and Irving Berlin met King George VI and Queen Elizabeth after a London performance. Berlin also received an invitation to lunch with Prime Minister Winston Churchill at his 10 Downing Street residence in error. The invitation was intended for Isaiah Berlin, a well-known English philosopher and political thinker who was assigned to the British embassy in Washington at that time. Churchill did not realize the error until well after the meeting, when he was informed that his lunch guest that day was the famous American songwriter.
To be continued……
Click on images to enlarge them.
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Personal Shout Out –
For the coming of a new decade – may I wish each and every reader who passes by here a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!
Happy New Year, From Over “The Hump”
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Jackey D. Blosser – Grafton, WV; US Army, Korea, Cpl., D Co./1/32/7th Infantry Division, KIA (Chosin)
Jack B. Farris Jr. – Charlotte, SC; US Army, Vietnam, Grenada, Pentagon, Lt. General
Michael J. Goble – Westwood, NJ; US Army, Afghanistan, Sgt. 1st Class, 1/7th Special Forces Group, KIA
Larry Heinemann – Bryan, TX; US Army, Vietnam / author-historian
George M. Johnson – Seaford, DE; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 2nd Lt., 38 BS/30 Bomb Group, B-24J co-pilot, KIA (Tarawa)
George Larsen – San Francisco, CA; US Coast Guard, WWII, PTO, Chief Petty Officer
John V. Phillips – Mineral Springs, MO; US Army, WWII, PTO, Sgt., HQ Co./31st Infantry Division, POW, KIA (Cabanatuan)
Richard Robertson – Gonzaleles, LA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Lowell S. Twedt – USA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, P-38J pilot,71 FS/1 st Flight Group, KIA
William Winchester – Mount Hope, AL; US Army, Korea, 1/24/25th Infantry Division, KIA (Camp # 5)
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Christmas in the trenches …
YOU HAVE GOT TO WATCH THIS !! MAKE THE SEASON LAST! Plus William Rablan’s @
https://williamablan.wordpress.com/
HAPPY HOLIDAY WISH FOR ALL !! Poems (2)
SANTA PARATROOPER
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone out there !! May you all find the Peace and Happiness you deserve.
A 1944 Christmas
From: Pacific Paratrooper to ALL !!!
Cherish His Christmas
by Roger J. Robicheau
Dedicated to our military…
Christmas brings such a time of love
Each tender heart holds so much of
Unselfishness thrives, trust is strong
The purpose to give, send love along
A time of pleasantries, patience too
Good wishes to all, all feelings true
Thankfulness follows each fine deed
Gifts from our God, never from greed
Great the rewards that joy does bring
Like the beauty in hearing angels sing
We pray for our loved, each so dear
Especially those who can’t be near
Many leave home to bravely serve
All freedoms we have, they preserve
Do pray for our troops, as we should
And their families too, if you would
Give thanks to our Lord, His only Son
And cherish His Christmas, everyone
©2004Roger J. Robicheau
Please do me one favor and click on last year’s post – Right Here !
From Charly Priest to Smitty – CLICK HERE!!
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Military Humor –
Easton, MD–Dec. 22, 2011–This is a Christmas display at the home of Tom and Alice Blair, which includes an F 104 jet, staff photo/Barbara Haddock Taylor} [Sun Photographer] #9306
Click on images to enlarge.
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Farewell Salutes –
Thomas Anderson – Los Angeles, CA; US Army, WWII & Korea
Bill Bjorson – Canfield, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co. A/511/11th Airborne Division
Roland Duffany – Pawtucket, RI; US Army, WWII, SSgt., Purple Heart
Robert Gibbons – Denver, CO; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Samuel Jones – London, ENG; Royal Navy, WWII, ETO, gunner, HMS Zulu
Shuso “Shoes” Kumata – IL; US Army, WWII, PTO, Occupation interpreter
Thomas Lovell – St. George, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Tetsuo Matsumoto – Lodi, CA; US Army, WWII, ETO, SSgt., 100/442nd RCT
George A. Sakheim – Brn: GER; US Army, WWII, ETO, Military Intelligence & interpreter
Wiley Tanner – Radium, KS; US Army, WWII
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Christmas poems for our military (1)
Sailor Santa
“A Different Christmas Poem”
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
091202-N-5339S-693
GROTON, Conn. (Dec. 2, 2009) Santa Claus stands with Sailors aboard the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Miami (SSN 755) during the submarineÕs return to Naval Submarine Base New London after an eight-month deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Electronics Technician John Sabados/Released)
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every Night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at “Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of “Nam”,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son
In more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures;
He’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
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Military Humor –
Easton, MD–Dec. 22, 2011–This is a Christmas display at the home of Tom and Alice Blair, which includes an F 104 jet, staff photo/Barbara Haddock Taylor} [Sun Photographer] #9306
Aboard the USS Nimitz
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Farewell Salutes –
Arnold Arons – Vacaville, CA; US Navy, WWII / US Air Force, Korea & Vietnam, (Ret. 30 y.)
John Bayens – Louisville, KY; USMC, WWII, PTO, Pfc., Co B/1/6/2nd Marine Division, KIA (Tarawa)
Joseph Cuda – NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Glenn R, Goff III – Hardeesville, SC; US Army, Vietnam, specialist
Francis Jackson – Oak Mills, KS; USMC, WWII, PTO, Korea & Vietnam, MSgt. (Ret. 30 y.)
Richard Little – Mobile, AL; US Navy, WWII, USS Henry W. Tucker / US Air Force, Korea
Maurice Mounsdon (101) – Litchfield, ENG; RAF, WWII, Lt., pilot, 56th Squadron “The Few”
Michael Soares – New Bern, NC; US Army, WWII, ETO, 2nd Lt., tank commander / US Navy (Ret. 25 y.)
Gordon Whitlow – Sioux Falls, SD; Merchant Marines, WWII / US Air Force, Korea
John Voogt – Newport, RI; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam
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Smitty in December 1945 w/ the Sword Story
Christmas card
This was the Christmas card sent from Japan to Broad Channel, New York in December 1945. Anna Smith had been waiting to hear this news from her son Everett (Smitty) for over three years. On the back, it reads:
“Dear Mom:
This is the best Xmas card I’ve sent to you since getting in the army. I figured this would be what you have always been waiting to see, here it goes.
“I’m finally on my way, so don’t send any more mail.
Love, Everett
“P.S. I’ll keep you posted on my various stops.”
Smitty in Japan, at far right
Even though Smitty had earned his points to go home, he was still an NCO on General Swing’s staff and was required to finish out his duties as such. After going through combat in the South Pacific, it would be in peaceful occupational Japan where Smitty’s temper would get the better of him.
Non-nonchalantly going about his business at the headquarters of Camp Schimmelpfennig, Smitty just happened to glance through the glass partition that sealed off Gen. Swing’s office. Inside was an officer holding and admiring the Japanese sword that his commander intended to keep and bring home as a souvenir. Smitty didn’t think much of it at the time; he was busy and many people commented on the weapon. so he continued down the hallway. A short while later, the entire office could hear the general demanding to know what had become of his sword. It was gone.
Gen. Swing accepts Japanese sword at Atsugi Airfield
Major General Joseph Swing
My father didn’t think twice, this was his general. He went into the room and told Swing what he had witnessed. Without a second thought, the two men went to the other man’s office, but neither the man or sword was there. The officer in question showed a few moments later. When the general explained why they were waiting for him, the officer became indignant and professed his innocence (just a tad too much). My father said the air of tension in the room became thick enough to use a
Postcards received from a Cavite, P.I. woman
machete on. This was when Smitty’s temper went out of control and with one right cross – sent the officer through his own glass partition.
Of course, this action made it necessary to bust Smitty back down to private, but he didn’t care about that. He was still furious that the sword was never returned. It all could have gone worse if the general had not been there or if he did not believe Smitty’s word. Smitty said it was worth being busted just to wipe the smirky grin off the officer’s face. The officer, I believe, was a replacement and had not seen much (if any) combat, just a blow-heart. Smitty later offered his two Japanese swords to General Swing, but he refused. My father didn’t believe the general would have taken the Emperor’s own sword as a replacement. I can clearly see my father’s face contort when he thought of the thief and he would say, “That know-nothing mattress salesman from Texas!” I’m sure it was for the best that the two men never met again stateside as civilians.
Unfortunately, a similar incident occurred to my father. As he happily began packing to go home, Smitty noticed that an expensive set of carved ivory chop sticks he had purchased somehow had disappeared. They also were never recovered. (I had often wondered if the two incidents had been related, but I suppose we’ll never know.)
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Daniel Aiello – NYC, NY; US Army / Actor
Vernon Bartley – brn: Meerut, India/ENG; Punjab Army, WWII, CBI
John Cameron – Waipukurau, NZ; RNZ Navy, WWII, minesweeper
Frank Crane – Toledo, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Joseph Haratani – Florin, CA; US Army, WWII, ETO, 442nd RCT
Clarence Katwyk – Salt Lake City, UT; US Merchant Marines / US Army, WWII, PTO
Dominic Moschetti – Victor, CO; US Army, WWII, TSgt., 354th Infantry
Raymond Plassmann – CT; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-17 navigator
Arthur Schaefer – Tucson, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Lt., B-17 navigator
Orland Webb – Harrodsburg, KY; US Army, WWII
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Current News – Japanese Librarian
TOKYO — Thousands of newspapers dating back to 1945, countless clippings of old stories and half a million priceless photographs fill a room that Norio Muroi has tended for the past 42 years.
Stars and Stripes’ library in Tokyo preserves the stories and heroics of countless service members from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars alongside records of newsworthy events on American bases in the Far East over the past 75 years.
A tailor’s son from Otawara in Tochigi prefecture, Muroi in 1977 was studying economics at Hosei University in Tokyo when he started as a Stars and Stripes copyboy, he recalled during a recent tour of the library at Hardy Barracks, the newspaper’s Pacific headquarters in the Japanese capital.
“It was rare to see American people so much in those days and to have an opportunity to talk with native speakers,” he said of his first days on the job, when he was eager to practice the English he’d learned at school.
Just steps from the nightlife hub of Roppongi, Hardy Barracks was a hive of activity. Dozens of U.S. military and civilian staff and 180 Japanese worked to publish hundreds of thousands of newspapers each day for service members on the main islands of Japan, Okinawa, Korea and other parts of the Pacific such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Guam.
It was an era before online news or Google searches, when printed newspapers provided a vital link to home for troops stationed overseas.
“We were like tennis ball boys,” Muroi said of the copyboys, who spent mornings rushing about the newsroom carrying story drafts and messages to editors. The youngsters burned plenty of calories and looked forward to a free Coke from the sports editor at the end of each shift, he recalled.
In 1979, he started full time in the library. Known today as the Toshi Cooper Library, it holds at least 250,000 clippings that are stored in envelopes and filed so they can be searched by subject, such as notable figures, military units and campaigns.
But Muroi didn’t spend his entire career among the archives. Some of his most memorable experiences involved serving as an interpreter for journalists in the field.
In February 1982, he and the other librarians acting as temporary linguists joined reporters rushing to a fire at the Hotel New Japan that, ultimately, claimed 32 lives not far from the Sanno Hotel, a U.S. military property.
The following day, Muroi was back in the field as an interpreter after a Japan Air Lines pilot intentionally crashed a DC-8 airliner at Haneda Airport, killing 24 people, he said.
Two of the most memorable stars he met on the job were folk musician John Denver and baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, Muroi said, proudly showing off photographs of his 1992 encounter with Joltin’ Joe. He met the Yankee legend while helping a sports reporter cover the U.S.-Japan baseball series at the now-demolished Korakuen Stadium.
The library that he’s handing off to his successor, Akiko Takamizawa, is a recently renovated, state-of-the-art facility that features constant temperature and humidity control.
It stores hundreds of large, red volumes that contain original Stars and Stripes newspapers sorted by month all the way back to 1945, and countless clippings and old photographs preserved in hundreds of white boxes on metal racks.
The library has about 500,000 photographs taken by Stars and Stripes staff or sourced from news agencies or U.S. military service branches over the years, Muroi said.
He opened a box of photographs and found black-and-white prints of images taken during the Vietnam War by Gary Cooper, an enlisted Stars and Stripes reporter who eventually married the library’s namesake, longtime librarian Toshi Cooper.
One of those photos shows a wounded soldier getting aid from a couple of buddies on the battlefield. The print, like hundreds of thousands of others in the library, is coded to allow librarians to track negatives stored at the Stars and Stripes Europe library in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The libraries are gradually digitizing those negatives for posterity.
The library isn’t just a valuable resource for working journalists. Muroi’s work also involves tracking down old stories and photographs for veterans or those whose friends or relatives have appeared in Stars and Stripes over the years.
Muroi said he’s had plenty of useful advice over the years from Toshi Cooper, who served as librarian from 1948 to 1971. Now chairwoman emeritus of the Stars and Stripes Association, which organizes reunions of former employees, Cooper described Muroi as the ideal newspaper librarian.
“He has everything it takes to be the perfect research librarian,” she said. “He is studious, calm and steady, curious, patient, selfless, a good listener, devoted and above all that, he loves Stars and Stripes.”
Preserving Stars and Stripes’ archives and other documents in the building is important, Muroi added. “No matter how digital technology expands in the future the original is coming from here,” he said.
Muroi plans to stay in Tokyo after retirement and spend time hiking with his wife, Yoshiko. The couple’s first trip will be to a Japanese hot spring, he said.
Condensed from an article by:
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Military Humor –
“Stars and Stripes? Never heard of it!”
“Excuse me, you’re standing in my shaving water.”
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Farewell Salutes –
June Chorn – Boise, ID; Civilian, jeep repair @ Gowen Field
Jack Clift (100) – Decatur, GA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Captain, 11th Airborne Division, Silver Star, Bronze Star
Daniel Fraunfelter – Falmouth, MA; US Navy, WWII, radioman
Frederick Hall – Whitefish Bay, WI; USMC, Korea & Vietnam
Claude Hensley – Asheville, NC; US Army, Vietnam, 82nd Airborne Division
Wilford K. Hussey Jr. – Hilo, HI; US Army, Korea, Cpl., Co. K/3/31/7th Infantry Division, KIA (North Korea)
Robert W. Marshall – Portsmouth, VA; US Army, Major 11th Airborne Division
Hugh Palmer – Lakewood, OH; US Army, WWII, PTO, 25th Infantry, Medical Unit
Gerald Thummel – Tipton, KS; US Navy, Korea & Vietnam, Ret. (27 y.)
George Wallace (100) – St. Paul, MN; US Navy, WWII
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Emperor Hirohito
Emperor Hirohito, on white horse, January 1940
Japanese public broadcast service, NHK has obtained documents showing that former Emperor Hirohito repeatedly felt sorry about World War II and tried, unsuccessfully, to express his feelings by using the word “remorse” in a 1952 speech.
The records of conversations with Hirohito spanning several years were kept by Michiji Tajima, a top Imperial Household Agency official who took office after the war.
Although it’s not surprising that Hirohito had deep regrets about the war, the documents highlight how painfully strong such emotions had been.
Journals and notebooks kept by Michiji Tajima, a former top Imperial Household Agency, are seen in Tokyo on Monday, Aug. 19, 2019.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP
The Imperial Household Agency declined to comment on the report.
As he was preparing his 1952 speech at a ceremony to commemorate Japan’s return to independence with the end of the U.S. occupation, Hirohito insisted to Tajima that he “must include the word remorse” in his speech, according to NHK.
That wish was relayed to then-Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who advised against it, NHK said.
Yoshida’s views were that people needed to look to the future and any reference sounding like an apology would give the wrong impression.
World War II, which ended with Japan’s 1945 surrender following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was fought in the name of the emperor. The man who had wanted nothing more out of life than to be a Marine Biologist, was considered divine.
After the war, the U.S. occupation allowed the emperor to stay on, although without any political powers but as a symbol of the state.
In this Jan. 26, 2016, file photo, Japan’s Emperor Akihito, right, and Crown Prince Naruhito, left, walk at Haneda international airport in Tokyo. Emperor Akihito, abdicated on April 30, 2019, in the first such abdication in about 200 years. The emperor will be 85. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
The documents show that Hirohito felt that, instead of surrender, he wished he had been able to end the war earlier. He also privately expressed horror at the atrocities committed by the Japanese military, according to the documents. But he also told Tajima that the military was so powerful that he couldn’t influence it.
Hirohito died of cancer in 1989 at age 87. He was succeeded by his son Akihito, who recently abdicated, passing the Chrysanthemum Throne to his son Naruhito. Both Akihito and Naruhito have publicly expressed remorse for the war.
From: Stars and Stripes magazine, YURI KAGEYAMA | Associated Press | Published: August 20, 2019
Click on images to enlarge.
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
K. Beltz – Villas, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HQ Co./674 Artillery/11th Airborne Division
Wallace Crane – Manchester, NH; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Robert Felton – Green Bay, WI; US Army, WWII, ETO, Bronze Star
Lewis Gentry – Cookeville, TN; US Army, WWII, PTO, C/O cook, medic & Chaplin’s asst.
Mohammed S. Haitham – US Navy, KIA (Pensacola, FL)
George Kessel – Fargo, ND; US Army, WWII, ETO, 26th Infantry Division, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
James Masters – Bourne, MA; US Air Force, Vietnam, SSgt., radioman, Bronze Star
Victor ‘Pat’ Tumlinson – Raymondville, TX; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Oklahoma, KIA (Pearl Harbor)
Cameron Walters – GA; US Navy, KIA (Pensacola, FL)
Joshua C. Watson – AL; US Navy, US Naval Academy graduate, KIA (Pensacola, FL)
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Pearl Harbor is remembered
Crew of the USS Arizona
When diplomacy failed and power and greed survived – the Pacific skies went dark….
Hickam Field
Aerial view during the attack
Battleship Row, as seen by Japanese pilot during the attack
From the Smithsonian Museum……
USS Oklahoma stamp
This relic marks the movements before the U.S. was launched into WWII….To record when a piece of mail was processed aboard ship, the Navy used wooden postmark stamps. This one bears an ominous date: 6 December 1941 PM. It was recovered from the battleship Oklahoma after it was hit by several torpedoes, listed to a 45-degree angle, capsized and sank in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship lost 429 sailors and Marines; one-third of its crew.
For a different view on the Pearl Harbor “surprise”……..
For a wonderful Pearl Harbor poem, by Lee…..
https://mypoetrythatrhymes.wordpress.com/2018/08/
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Farewell Salutes –
William Barnes – Brookston, IN ,& Lake Worth, FL; First Cavalry Division, Korea
John B. Coffey – Johnstown, PA & Miami, FL; Lt. Colonel (Ret.), US Army Air Corps, WWII ETO, 35 B-17 missions; B-52 crews in
U.S. Marine Mounted Honor Guard
Korea
James “Harp: Gerrity – Milford, CT; US Army Staff Sgt., WWII ETO, Bronze Star & 8th Army African Star
Leo Keninger – Ackley, IA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Fireman 1st Class, USS Oklahoma, KIA (Pearl Harbor)
Robert Frank Rolls – Napier, New Zealand; 4th Field Regiment, WWII Sgt.
Oscar J. Tenores – Lemoore, CA; US Navy, Master-at-Arms
Orval Tranbarger – Chapel, MO; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Seaman 1st Class, USS Oklahoma, KIA (Pearl Harbor)
Robert Wade – Van Nuys, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII ETO, (Ret. 22 yrs. Major)
Otto Wilner – Chicago, IL; US Army, WWII
James Wilson Jr. – Decatur, GA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Sgt., radioman
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JULY 4, For those who sacrifice for the freedoms you so enjoy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY U.S.A.
Let’s show our support!
In Vietnam, Korea and World Wars Past
Our Men Fought Bravely so Freedom Would Last
Conditions Where Not Always Best They Could Be
Fighting a Foe You Could Not Always See:
From Mountain Highs to Valley Lows
From Jungle Drops to Desert Patrols
Our Sinewy Sons Were Sent Over Seas
Far From Their Families And Far From Their Dreams
They Never Wrote Letters Of Hardships Despair
Only Of Love, Yearning That One Day Soon:
They Would Come Home, They Would Resume
And Carry On With The Rest of Their Lives
The P.O.W.¹S Stood Steadfast
Break time for the prisoners.
by: Ben Steele, POW
Against the Indignities And Cruelties Of War
They Could Not Have Lasted as Long as They Did
If They Had Relinquished Their Hope That Some Day:
They Would Come Home, They Would Resume
And Carry On the Rest Of Their Lives
Medics, Nurses, and Chaplains Alike
Surgery aboard ship
Did What They Needed To Bring Back Life
They Served Our Forces From Day Into Night
Not Questioning If They Would Survive:
They Mended Bones And Bodies Too,
They Soothed the Spirits of Dying Souls
And for Those M.I.A¹S, Who Were Left Behind
We Echo This Message Across the Seas
We Will search For as Long As It Takes
You¹re Not Forgotten And Will Always Be:
In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers,
In Our Minds For All Time
A Moment of Silence, a Moment of Summons
Is Their Deliverance of Body And Soul
To a Sacred Place That We All Know
Deep In the Shrines of Our Soul:
In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers
In Our Minds For All Time
These Immortalized Soldiers Whose Bravery Abounds
Nisei soldiers
They¹re Our Husbands, Fathers, and Sons
They Enlisted For the Duty at Hand
To Serve the Cause of Country and Land:
They Had Honor, They Had Valor,
They Found Glory That Change Them Forever
Men Standing Tall and Proud They be
A Country Behind Them in a Solemn Sea
So Let the Flags of Freedom Fly
Unfurled in Their Majesty High:
In the Sun, In the Rain
In the Winds Across This Land
Years of Tears Has Brought Us Here
Gathering Around to Hear This Sound
So Let the Flags of Freedom Fly
Unfurled in Their Majesty High:
In the Sun, In the Rain,
In the Winds Across This Land
In the Sun, In the Rain,
In the Winds For All Time
Written by Jerry Calow, 2003
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My View –
THEY HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO!!
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Farewell Salutes –
Laurens Allen – Bessemer, AL; US Army, WWII, ETO
Salvatore Barone (103) – Tuckahoe, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Sgt.
Hugh Downs – Acron, OH; US Army, WWII
Carlton Hale Jr. – Kenner, LA; US Navy, WWII, Purple Heart
Francis Joannini Jr. – Rockville, MD; US Coast Guard, WWII, PTO, LST-70
Robert Lander – Massapequa Park, NY; USMC, WWII, PTO, 5th Marines
Diane Oldmixon – NYC, NY; Civilian, French Resistance, WWII
Lawson Sakai – Montebello, CA; US Army, WWII, ETO, 442nd RCT, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
David Schmitz – USA; US Air Force, F-16 pilot, 20th Fighter Wing
Henry ‘Jack’ Waters – Bell, FL; US Army, WWII, PTO, Engineer Corps
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Wartime Football
One of the Sports Facts newspaper of April 25, 1950 with photos of Bronko Nagurski.
What many people today don’t know is that professional football went through many of the same trials and tribulations that baseball did during the war years. Making matters even worse for the owners and fans of the sport was the fact that even in the 1940s, professional football was not as popular as its college counterpart.
Adding to the wartime troubles for football was the fact that college football remained somewhat unaffected, as the players were mostly younger or exempt (at least temporarily) from the military draft. That meant that star college players kept playing, but star professional players found themselves in uniform.
American footballer Tuffy Leemans
To keep people interested in the game, the National Football League (NFL) came up with sort of a gimmick, much like their baseball counterparts – they re-signed older, retired stars. The most famous of the returning players was Bronko Nagurski, who had played for the Chicago Bears and had retired in 1937. Nagurski, who became famous in college and the pros as a fullback, returned to football as a tackle.
Other (future) Hall of Famers included Green Bay quarterback Arnie Herber, who had retired in 1940, and halfback Ken Strong. Herber signed with the New York Giants and Strong returned to that team.
Steagles starting line-up
Teams as a whole went through hard times because of the war. The Cleveland Browns suspended play for 1943. Many people would be surprised to hear that the two Pennsylvania teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, actually merged for 1943, and played in both cities. People dubbed the team “the Steagles.”
The “Steagles” only lasted one year, but in 1944 Pittsburgh combined with another struggling team, the Chicago Cardinals. The official name of this team was the catchy “Card-Pitt Combine” and they were so bad they went winless that year. Opposing teams ran over them so much that sportswriters and fans began calling the team “the Carpets.”
The year 1945 saw the end of the “Combine,” but two teams that do not exist anymore, the Boston Yanks and the Brooklyn Dodgers (yes, football “Dodgers”) merged at that time and played as the “Yanks,” but left a city tag off the name.
During the war, a surprisingly large number of NFL players were killed overseas. Many of the players went into combat roles – their athletic prowess and toughness made it almost inevitable, and the death toll reflected that. Nineteen active or former players were killed in action, as was an ex-head coach and a team executive.
Al Blozis, Giants tackle, died in World War II. According to Mel Hein, “If he hadn’t been killed, he could have been the greatest tackle who ever played football
Of those NFL players killed in action, probably the best-known was Al Blozis, who played tackle for the New York Giants and had been “All-League” (the early NFL’s “All-Pro”). Blozis was 6’6” tall and weighed 250 lbs. Blozis was in the Army, and actually could have claimed exemption from front-line infantry duty because of his size and instead put into the artillery or a support branch, but he would not take the exemption.
During basic training, he set the Army record for a grenade throw – he had been a varsity shot-putter at Georgetown University. In the winter of 1944, just six weeks after playing in the 1944 NFL Championship Game, Blozis was killed by German machine-gun fire as he helped look for some missing men in the snow-covered Vosges Mountains of eastern France.
Three men who had played in the NFL or pro football or later had connections to it were awarded the Medal of Honor during the war, one of them posthumously.
Joseph Jacob Foss wearing the highly prized Medal of Honor bestowed upon him by President Roosevelt for outstanding gallantry against the Japanese in the Solomons.
The most famous of the three was fighter pilot Joe Foss, who was the leading Marine ace of WWII with 26 victories. He later was commissioner of the AFL from 1960-66 as well as being governor of South Dakota.
Maurice Britt briefly played end for the Detroit Lions before the war. He fought in North Africa and Italy and was the first man in WWII to be awarded all four of the top medals of valor: the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and Bronze Star. He also received four Purple Hearts. Football was easy compared to all that.
Jack Lummus, USMC, Medal of Honor recipient; Battle of Iwo Jima
Andrew Jackson “Jack” Lummus played with the 1941 New York Giants and received the Medal of Honor for actions taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He destroyed many Japanese positions single-handedly, despite being wounded multiple times, before being killed by a land-mine.
Tom Landry, USArmy Air Corps / Coach Landry
Perhaps the most famous of them all, at least in regard to football, was legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry. At 19, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew 30 missions in a B-17 over occupied Europe, surviving a crash in Belgium on his way back from bombing a German armaments plant in Czechoslovakia. He was on the real “America’s Team” long before he coached the other one.
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Military Humor –
‘These military teams really take their defence seriously…!’
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Farewell Salutes –
Stephen F. Ambrose – Trumbull, CT; US Army, WWII
Francis Behrendt – Charleroi, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Co. E/188/11th Airborne Division
V. Herbert Brady Jr. – Macon, GA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO
Peter Corchero – Mayfirled, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Michael Howard – South Kensington, ENG; British Army, WWII, ETO, Lt., Coldstream Guards. Military Cross / Military Historian
Evelyn Owens – Harlan, KY; Civilian, “Rosie” @ Willow Run, B-24 riveter & crane operator
Thomas Parnell – Somerset, WI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, gunner
David Ridley – Brockville, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, 514th Squadron, Lancaster navigator
Jerome Thomas – Chicago, IL; US Navy, WWII, PTO, LST # 991
John Weatherly – Grand Island, NE; US Army, WWII, ETO, 349th Infantry Regiment “Blue Devils”
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Pacific Paratrooper 