Eric Geddes and his crew
Battle of Savo Island in art
Battle of Savo Island
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/sole-survivor-fights-to-clear-wwii-shadow/4468200
Eric Geddes WINS!!!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-27/raaf-veteran-wins-fight-to-clear-crews-name/5844958
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
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Donald Arnold – Des Plaines, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO
Shirley Hugh Barker (104) – Beloit, WI; US Army, WWII, 82nd Airborne Division
Raymond Dietrich – Muscatine, IA; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
Ira Edmondson – Texarkana, AR; US Army, WWII, 42nd “Rainbow Division”
Jack Frisch – Colorado Springs, CO; US Army, German Occupation, 547th Ordnance / NFL running back
Philip A, Goddard – Morrisville, VT; US Army, Medical Unit/82nd Airborne Division, doctor
Carl Humpfer Jr. – St. John, IN; US Navy, WWII / US Army, Korea
Kenneth Kokrine – Tanana, AK; US Army, Vietnam, radioman
Charles Mirachi – NYC, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Enterprise / Civilian, US Navy
Ronald Perry – New Haven, CT; US Army, Vietnam, 1st Calvary, Col. (Ret.), Silver Star, 2-DFC’s, 3 Bronze Stars, Purple Heart
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Home Free – Greenwood & the Air Force Band Singing Sergeants
The traditional rendition of country music singer Lee Greenwood’s iconic “God Bless the U.S.A.,” already has a broad appeal as an uplifting song inspiring patriotism and love of country.
It’s likely you have listened to the song in recent days as Americans celebrated the 244th birthday of our nation on Independence Day.
But a stirring new version of the song that features members of the U.S. Air Force Band joining Greenwood and a cappella group Home Free has been produced that might just blow you away.
Recordings were done during the corona virus pandemic in studios in Nashville, Tenn., Los Angeles, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis, Minn. There are no guitars, drums, keyboards, but the sound is unbelievably full and strong.
If you like a cappella, and if you’re a fan of military members in uniform with a talent to sing, you will very likely love this new rendition of a song that has been a perennial favorite since 1984.
Give it a listen. We got this article and song from “Stars & Stripes”
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“Shape up or ship out …..”
“Snap out of it Ed … other guys have received ‘Dear Johns’.
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Robert Alleyne – Brooklyn, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO, Sgt.
David “Bill” Breen – Elsmere, KY; US Navy, WWII, SeaBees
Mary Cecce – Bath, NY; Civilian, WWII, Mercury Aircraft
Thomas W. Chase (100) – Warroad, MI; US Navy, WWII / Honeywell Aerospace
David Geiser – Waukon, IA; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Richard L. Henderson Jr. – USA; US Army, Korea, Cpl., HQ Battery/57 FAB/7th Infantry Division, KIA (Chosin Reservoir)
William Kovaly – Bound Brook, NJ; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Cabot
William H. Melville – USA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 2nd Lt., P-39Q pilot, 38/8th Fighter Group, KIA (New Guinea)
Francis J. Rochon – Superior, WI; US Army, Korea, Cpl., Co. C/1/23/2nd Infantry Division, KIA (Changnyeong, SK)
Donald Slessler – Belchertown, MA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Chief Warrant Officer (Ret. 36 y.)
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For All Our Todays and Yesterdays
World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany, however, had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day, as November 11 became known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans.
War Dog Memorial on Guam.
US Military dog insignia
The Things That Make a Soldier Great
The things that make a soldier great and send him out to die,
To face the flaming cannon’s mouth, nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch, the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too, the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where his children play, the roses on the wall:
‘Tis these that make a soldier great. He’s fighting for them all.
‘Tis not the pomp and pride of kings that make a soldier brave;
‘Tis not allegiance to the flag that over him may wave;
For soldiers never fight so well on land or on the foam
As when behind the cause they see the little place called home.
Endanger but that humble street whereon his children run–
You make a soldier of the man who never bore a gun.
What is it through the battle smoke the valiant soldier sees?
The little garden far away, the budding apple trees,
The little patch of ground back there, the children at their play,
Perhaps a tiny mound behind the simple church of gray.
The golden thread of courage isn’t linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where’er it be–the humble spot called home.
And now the lilacs bud again and all is lovely there,
And homesick soldiers far away know spring is in the air;
The tulips come to bloom again, the grass once more is green,
And every man can see the spot where all his joys have been.
He sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now–he’s fighting for them all.
by: Edgar A, Guest
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In honor the Veterans who are in hospice, there is a drive for Christmas cards, and if possible, small gifts for those who are about to go on their final mission. Please do your best for them – they did it for you!
Veteran’s Last Patrol; attn: Holiday Drive, P.O. Box 6111, Spartanburg, SC 29304
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Willard R. Best – Staunton, IL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, SSgt., 40th/1st Air Div./8th Air Force, gunner, KIA (Germany)
Leon E. Clevenger – Durham, NC; US Army, Korea, Cpl., Co. K/3/21/24th Infantry Division, KIA (Kalgo-ri, South Korea)
Harry Dexter – Davenport, IA; US Army, MSgt., 11th Airborne Division
Herbert B. Jacobson – Chicago, IL; US Navy, WWII, Pearl Harbor, KIA, USS Oklahoma
Servando Lopez – Alice, TX; US Army, WWII, ETO, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Purple Heart
Ralph Nichols – Dawson, GA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 551/82nd Airborne Division
Robert Register – Jacksonville, FL; US Navy, WWII, PTO, minesweeper USS Notable # 267
William Timpner – Stamps, AR; US Army, WWII
Frank Wills – Columbus, OH; US Navy, WWII, PTO, submarine service
Peter Zemanick – Pittsburgh, PA; US Army, 504/82nd Airborne Division
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N1K Shiden
Two planes fielded by the Japanese late in WWII, the Kawanishi N1K1-J and N1K2-J fighters, became popular with the Japanese military, despite having an unusual development history.
In the history of aircraft design, it hasn’t been that unusual for land-based planes to be converted into seaplanes. It’s a natural step from the more familiar role to a somewhat more unusual one, removing wheels, adding floats, and making other adaptations.
For the Kawanishi N1K1-J, however, the pattern was the other way around. The N1K1-J Kyofu (meaning “mighty wind”) was a seaplane fighter. It was successful enough to be adapted into the land-based N1K1-J Shiden (meaning “violet lightning”).
By the time the N1K1-J Shiden went into production, the tide of war had already turned against Japan. The Allies, particularly the Americans, were pushing them back across the Pacific, island by island. On the mainland, the Chinese kept fighting with the help of international support, while the British pushed back in Burma. As the sphere of Japanese control shrank, so did the safe territory that the nation’s factories could operate in.
The result was production problems for the N1K1-J. Raids by Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers on factories on the Japanese mainland added to existing difficulties of supply and production.
The N1K1-J Shiden came into service late in the war. It started to be fielded across the Pacific theater in May 1944. Despite the production problems, large numbers of N1K1-J Shidens were produced – over 1,400 by the end of the war.
The titles given to these fighters by their creators were full of dignity and drama. The codename given to them by the Allies was less so. The Japanese used “Mighty Wind” and “Violet Lightning” whereas the Allied forces referred to the planes by the codename “George”, a Christian name common in England at the time.
One of the most successful features of the plane was its automatic combat flaps. This unique feature helped pilots to make extreme combat maneuvers by giving them extra lift. This made it one of the most successful all-round fighters in the Pacific theater, able to take on fighters and bombers alike.
The N1K1-J Shiden’s biggest downside was that it perform well at high altitudes. This was a problem for the Japanese air force, as they faced, the most powerful bombers of the war. The B-29 could reach an altitude of nearly 32,000 feet for bombing runs on Japan, and from the end of 1943, the Americans decided not to use any other bombers in their raids against the Japanese. Any Japanese plane that couldn’t perform well at high altitude would struggle to defend the homeland.
Early models of the Shiden had further problems. The mid-mounted wing produced poor visibility, a serious problem for pilots caught up in dogfights. The landing gear, the most important change from the seaplane version, was also inadequate. Changes needed to be made.
N1K2 “Violetbolt”
The result was a new model, the N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. The prototype for this version first flew at the end of December 1943 and it was soon rushed into mass production.
The N1K2-J was so successful that it soon became the standard land-based fighter and fighter-bomber of the Japanese military. It could hold its own in combat against almost anything the Allies threw against it. Though the tide of war was against them, Japanese fighter pilots at least had an edge in the skies.
The N1K2-J wasn’t just better because of its superior flying abilities. As with several of the best weapons in history, its advantage also came from being easy to produce. An N1K2-J could be completed in half the time it took to build one of its predecessors. With the losses mounting and the pressure on, this was a vital feature for the Japanese.
The N1K2-J was equipped with a mix of weaponry – in the wings were four 20mm cannons, while a pair of 550lb bombs were fixed underneath. This allowed the plane to act in a support role, not just as an interceptor. It could use its cannons in the skies against other planes, or to strafe enemy infantry and ships, which were also the targets for the bombs.
The presence of cannons rather than machine-guns was important. In the early war, many fighters on both sides had relied on machine-guns. But the experience of combat had taught the military that bullets were not enough to take out the latest planes and that cannons firing explosive rounds would be needed instead.
“George”
The N1K2-J had a maximum speed of 370mph and a rate of climb of 3,300 feet per minute. This put it on a par with the Spitfires and Messerschmitts doing much of the fighting in Europe. It also made it superior to the Grumman F4F Wildcat, a fighter widely used by the Americans in the Pacific.
It was, however, slightly out-matched for speed and climb by Grumman’s major late-war plane, the F6F Hellcat. The Shiden-Kai was a good enough plane to compete with its main adversaries, but American industry still held the edge.
Despite its superiority in the air, some N1K2-Js were deliberately crashed by their pilots.
Click on images to enlarge.
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The official Taliban Suppository
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Robert Armstrong – Albany, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, 11th Airborne Division, Honor Guard
Milton Beatty – Baton Rouge, LA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Sea Bee
Leonard Davidson (99) – Auckland, NZ; NZ Home Defense, WWII, Sgt.
Jack Gucker – Seattle, WA; US Army, WWII, APO
Nicholas Kakos – MN; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Norris Leafdale – Banner County, NE; US Army, WWII, PTO
Quentin W. McCall – Union Church, MS; USMC, WWII, PTO, KIA (Tarawa)
Chester Posey – Clifton, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII & Korea, navigator/gunner
Lyle Spalding – Louisville, KY; USMC, WWII
Garth Youd – Lakeshore, UT; US Army, WWII, ETO, 401st Field Artillery Battalion
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HIGH FLIGHT
by: John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed
and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –
Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flug
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delicious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
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They won’t be singing “Love Shack”!
Maybe “What ya gonna do, send me to McMurdo?” wasn’t the best comeback to the Colonel.
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Akika A. Abe – Oakland, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, G-2, 11th Airborne Division
Charles Brannan (103) – Meade, KS; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-24 pilot / Korea & Vietnam, Lt. Col. (Ret. 31 y.)
Michael Dux – Denver, CO; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-25 flight engineer / State Dept.
‘Last Flight’, by Rhads
Jeremy Griffin – Cristobal, PAN; US Army, Afghanistan, 3/1st Special Forces Group, KIA
Carl Kalwaitis – Elkton, VA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO
Robert McClelland – Gilmer, TX; US Air Force, surgeon
Auburn Smith – Picayune, MS; US Army Air Corps, WWII, paratrooper
Robert Werschey – Licoln, NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Charles Whisenant – Washington D.C.; US Navy, WWII, aircraft mechanic
John Yaeger (100) – White Sulphur Springs, WV; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Captain
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Welcome to Big Timber
These two articles are from The Big Timber Pioneer newspaper, Thursday, August 30, 1945
Ft. Leavenworth Prison Cemetery; By Gorsedwa, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Aug. 25 – The Army Saturday hanged 7 German prisoners-of-war in the Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks for the murder of a fellow prisoner whom they had accused of being a traitor to the Reich.
All 7 went to the gallows after receiving last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. They were executed for killing Werner Dreschler at the Papago Park, Arizona prisoner of war camp, March 13, 1944.
The hangings took less than three hours. The executions brought to 14 the total number of Nazi POW’s executed at Ft. Leavenworth during the last few weeks.
The 7 went to the gallows without showing any signs of emotion. They had signed statements admitting their guilt. Their defense was that they had read in German newspapers that they should put to death any German who was a traitor. At their trial they said Dreschler had admitted giving information of military value to their captures.
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313th Wing B-29 Base, Tinian – One of the 6th Bomb Group fliers who participated in the pioneer mining mission to northern Korean waters on 11 July was SSgt. Nathaniel B. Clark, son of Mr. & Mrs. J.F. Clark, Big Timber, MT. it was revealed here today with the lifting of censorship rules. He is a left blister gunner and by war’s end had flown 29 combat missions in the war against Japan.
On the longest mission of the war, to deny the use of the eastern Korean ports to the already partially blockaded Japanese, Sgt. Clark explained that the crews were briefed to fly 3,500 statute miles to their mine fields just south of Russia, and back to Iwo Jima where they would have to land for fuel. Then it was still 725 miles back to the Tinian base.
The flight was planned to take 16½ hours which in itself was not out of the ordinary, but the length of time the full mine load would be carried was a record 10 hours and 35 minutes.
Loading an aerial mine layer
The job called for hair-splitting navigation, Midas-like use of the available gas, penetration of weather about which little is known and finally a precision radar mine-laying run over a port whose defenses and very contours were not too well known.
“We sweated that one out from our briefing one morning until we landed back on Tinian almost 24 hours later.” Sgt. Clark recalled.
radar mine
One crew was forced to return to Okinawa because of engine trouble, but the other 5 on the pioneer flight landed within a few minutes of the briefed time. One landed at the exact briefed time. The closest call on gas was reported by the crew which landed with only 24 gallons left, scarcely enough to circle the field.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Herman Brown – Virginia Beach, VA; US Army, WWII, ETO, 385/76th Division/ 3rd Army
Lester Burks – Willis, TX; US Army, Co. B/513/17th Airborne Division
Pedro ‘Pete’ Contreras – Breckenridge, OK; US Army, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Lt.Col. (Ret. 30 y.)
Paul Jarret – Phoenix, AZ; US Army, WWII, ETO, Medical Corps, Bronze Star / US Air Force
John ‘Nick’ Kindred – Scarsdale, NY; US Navy, Lt.
James Lemmons – Portland, TN; US Army; Korea, HQ/187th RCT
Charles McCarry – Plainfield, MA; CIA, Cold War, undercover agent
Howard Rein Jr. – Philadelphia, PA; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Morton Siegel – Rye, NY; US Navy, WWII
Eldon Weehler – Loup City, NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII / US Air Force, Korea & Vietnam, Lt. Col. (Ret. 30 y.)
Oct 27
This gallery contains 3 photos.
Originally posted on The Letters Project:
Almost as soon as I declared that I hadn’t seen a pilot log that continued from the first one, I picked up a little notebook that served as a log for the remainder of 1944 and 1945 up to September. It notes the first time Walt flew a P-51,…
B-25, “Ormoc Bay”, by: Jack Fellows from the IHRA
By Sgt. Marion Hargrove
SOMEWHERE IN CHINA–This story has been held back for a while because the fellow was mighty sensitive about it, and he happens to be a tech sergeant, 6 feet 2 and weighing 200 pounds. He’s cooled off a little, so now it can be told.
The tech sergeant is Karl May of Yakima, Wash., an aerial engineer and gunner in one of the local Mitchell B-25 bombers. The tale goes back to the time when he was still a buck private, working as an armorer in his squadron and bucking like hell for a job on a combat crew.
They finally let him go on a few missions to try him out. He got along fine until his third trip. That was the raid on the big Jap base at Hankow, former Chinese capital, on the Yangtze.
There were two minor defects that day in the bomber to which May was assigned: there were no racks in the ship for fragmentation bombs and the interphones were temporarily out of commission.
Well, they were working the thing out all right without fragracks or interphones. They had Pvt. May squatting by the photo hole with a stack of frag bombs and the understanding that when the turret gunner nudged him in the behind he was to cut loose with all he had.
Fragmentation bomb
It happened that the bomber had a passenger that day–maybe an observer from Washington, maybe a newspaperman, maybe just a sightseer.
This worth person grew unaccustomedly chilly, saw that the draft came from the open photo hole and decided to ask the private beside it to close it. The private – yep, it was May – had his back turned, so the passenger sought to attract his attention with a gentle nudge in the rear.
Pvt. May reacted like the eager beaver he was. He held one frag bomb over the hole and let it drop. Then he turned another loose into thin air. He was preparing to drop every bomb in the ship – until he was rudely and violently stopped. To May’s dismay he learned: 1) that the ship was nowhere near Hankow, 2) that he had been given no signal and, 3) that he had just wasted a couple hundred dollars’ worth of U.S. high explosives.
B-25 dropping frag bombs
The mission proceeded to Hankow, where May dropped the rest of his bombs through the photo hole, an armful at a time. But his heart was heavy at the thought of having goofed previously.
When the plane returned to its base, there was an intelligence report from the Chinese Army waiting for it. According to this report, two bombs dropped on a Japanese barge on the Yangtze had scored direct hits, sinking the barge and drowning 160 Japanese soldiers.
T/Sgt. May never tells the story himself and he gets mad when he hears anyone else tell it. Only those who’ve seen the records will believe it.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Wayne Bauer – Las Cruces, NM; US Army, WWII, ATO
Harry Carlsen – Chicago, IL; USMC, WWII, PTO, 2nd Marine Division, KIA (Tarawa)
Images is courtesy of:
https://mywarjournals.com/
James Fleischer – Detroit, MI; US Army
John Guice – Greenville, AL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO
Robert Hegel – IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 15th Air Force, navigator
Claude A. Rowe – Chuka Vista, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Tuskegee
Elizabeth Schwantes – Kaukauna, WI; US Coast Guard, WWII
Leslie Thickpenny – Pukekohe, NZ; NZ Air Force, WWII, flight engineer
Henry Wheeler (100) – Buffalo, NY; US Army, WWII, 12th Army, Intelligence, Bronze Star
Robert Zeigler Jr. – Ft Lauderdale, FL; US Army, Korea
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Assembling the helicopter at Myitkyina. Shortly after, it would land on a Burma peak for the 1st such mercy mission in this area.
AAF HQ. – Capt. Frank W. Peterson maneuvered the helicopter through the maze of jungled Burma peaks and set the small ship down on a rough strip atop a razorback mountain whose sides fell off steeply to narrow valleys 2,500 feet below.
Twenty-four hours later, after gas and oil had been air-dropped, he took off again, this time carrying a passenger: 21-year-old Pvt Howard Ross, ground observer at an isolated weather station outpost in North Burma who was suffering from a badly infected gunshot wound in his hand.
This air evacuation mission, marking the first time a helicopter had been employed in rescue work in this Theater, climaxed one of the most amazing stories to come out of India-Burma. The story had its beginning when, after the forced landing of a B-25 on an isolated mountain-top in Burma, it was determined that a helicopter would be necessary to effect the rescue of the bomber crew, none of whom were injured. The request was made by radio to Army Air Forces Headquarters in Washington.
A crew at Wright Field, Ohio, was ordered to begin the dismantling of a helicopter and, working all night, loaded it upon a C-54 cargo plane by the following morning. meanwhile, Peterson, a Wright Field test pilot was ordered to accompany the engineering crew to Burma.
Four days later, the C-54 with its rescue mission cargo landed at Myitkyina, only to learn that the men they had been rushed overseas to rescue had already been evacuated. It was decided, however, to continue with the assembly of the helicopter as rapidly as possible in the event another emergency should arise.
Late that night, Lt. Leo J. Kenney, commanding officer of the jungle rescue unit, awakened Peterson and told him that a member of a weather station located high on a 4,700-foot mountain in the Naga Hills, with a gun shot wound. With medical aid 10 days distant by mountain trail, air rescue had to be attempted despite the inaccessibility of the station even to parachute jumping.
Pilot Erickson & Igor Sikorsky test the Sikorsky R-4, 1942 The following morning the rescue mission took off. Since the helicopter was not equipped with radio and Peterson and Lt. Irwin C. Steiner, another veteran pilot from Wright Field who accompanied Peterson, were flying over unfamiliar territory, the rescue ship was escorted by two L-5’s piloted by T/Sgt. William H. Thomas and S/Sgt. Gibson L. Jones.
Four times, the helicopter became separated from its guide planes, a low ceiling having enveloped the mountain country. But each time the planes renewed contact. Once the helicopter made three attempts before finally topping a 5,000-foot mountain peak. Another time, the ship ran out of gas and had to make a forced landing on a sand bank in the Chindwin River, where Peterson and Steiner sat down and waited for fuel to be air-dropped from the L-5’s. Up in the air once more, the helicopter climbed up over rocky peaks which jutted sharp above matted jungle, finally landing at the crude air-drop field near the weather station just before running out of gas again. The next day, nine days after engineers began disassembling the helicopter at Wright Field, Peterson flew the wounded man out of the jungle.
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General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell, commander of U.S. Armies in the China, Burma, and India Theater, proudly wears his newly received four stars on his collar and the tag on his jeep. October 26, 1944. He was recently promoted to the rank of Full General.(AP Photo)
Uncle Joe Stilwell has returned to the grim but satisfying business of killing Japs – as Commanding General of the U.S. 10th Army, which this week annihilated the remnants of enemy opposition on bloody Okinawa.
Okinawa’s soil today contains the mortal remains of Lt. Gen. Simon Boliver Buckner, Jr., the colorful commander who led the new 10th Army ashore last Easter Sunday. In their last hour of military triumph, G.I.’s and his ranking officers reverently buried the general beside the men of the Seventh Division.
The nation applauded the move that placed four-starred Uncle Joe in command of the 10th Army. While in Chungking and India, Stilwell helped plan and carry out the liberation of North Burma and the building of the Ledo Road which later took his name.
Joe Stillwell, one of the most beloved generals in WWII
Subsequent differences of opinion with Chiang Kai-shek led last October to Uncle Joe’s recall to Washington where he was given command of Army Ground Forces.
Stilwell carried out his job with AGF with determination and spirit, bit no one doubted that it was his prayer to be returned to a combat assignment against the Japanese.
The death of Buckner brought to 34 the number of U.S. generals lost from all causes in action thus far in World War II, including four lieutenant generals. Shortly after the 10th Army Commander was killed, Brig. Gen. Claudius M. Easley, assistant commander of the 96th Infantry Division on Okinawa, also died in action.
Click on some of the images to enlarge.
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“HEY BABE, YOU DROPPED YOUR HANDKERCHIEF – SIR!!
“HERE’S THAT STOVE YOU REQUESTED BACK IN DECEMBER.”
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Timothy Bolyard – Thornton, WV; US Army, Afghanistan, Sgt. Major, KIA
John Breitmeyer – Christchurch, NZ; RNZ Navy # NZ9045, WWII
Warren Foss – St. Louis, MO; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Helmer Holmberg – Brn: SWE; Swedish Army, WWII
John Innes – Brisbane, AUS; Civilian, Pacific War Historian eg: “Guide to the Guadalcanal Battlefields”
Ruth Mesich – Wakefield, MI; US Navy WAVE, WWII
Millard Odom – Bateville, AR; USMC, WWII, PTO, Sgt., 3/2nd Marine Regiment, KIA (Tarawa)
Vinnie O’Hare – Broad Channel, NY; US Army, WWII
Robert Prata – Brooklyn, NY; US Army, Vietnam
Roy Stilwell Jr. – Chicago, IL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 13th Air Force
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Get an aerial view from an aircraft called MICKEY.
Delivered to the AAF on July 8, 1944, this “H” model went into service with the 389th Squadron in March 1945. The pilot was Maj. James M. Wylie, the 389th Squadron C.O., and he named the aircraft MICKEY, after his wife’s nickname. When S/Sgt. Orian E. Hackler, the crew chief, asked about a tail identifier, Wylie replied that it would be nice to have “X,” for “X marks the spot.”
Wylie claimed this aircraft was a “pilot’s dream,”, and he flew most of his missions in it. On one, he almost lost control of it over Nichols Field on February 6, 1945. An unexploded 20mm shell tore through one wing and the plane swooped towards the ground before Wylie regained control and returned his damaged mount to Mangaldan. Afterwards, the aircraft received only occasional small arms hits. The profile painting shows MICKEY at Mangaldan during April 1945, with 67…
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Smitty - artwork by Priorhouse.wordpress.com/
Our Silent Observer
Jeep crossing
