“SOLDIERS’ STORIES” VOL. 2, by the Miller Family, REVIEW

Soldiers’ Stories, Vol. II

After reading the Miller Family’s first volume OF SOLDIERS’ STORIES, I was excited to receive Volume # 2.  I was not disappointed.

Not only was I, as usual, proud to see 4 pages of my own Father’s stories in print, but even discovered another member of the 11th Airborne Division represented among the other memoirs.

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Most of my readers tell me that they find the personal stories and letters from my father and other veterans to be their favorite posts.  In this book, readers are privileged to have over 300 pages of such tales.

The many photographs give you a personal perspective, both humorous and educational, of a time that dramatically altered the entire world.  Men and women alike are included in this well constructed journal for the generation we are so quickly losing.

Every branch of service, in each theater of operation, is represented along with the invaluable contributions of the home front military, women, civilians and our British Allies.

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Modern day honoring of those buried in foreign lands and innumerable photos of the people who fought for us and the treasures they left behind.  Even fellow blogger and author, Joy Neal Kidney, has the Wilson Family included.

You can hear in their words the eagerness to serve their country, their laughter and the camaraderie of close unit ties.  You might even feel their pain.

Inspired by the Miller Family’s, SSgt. Myron Miller, of the 83rd Infantry, I can unquestionably recommend both Volume  # 1 and # 2 of SOLDIERS’ STORIES!

For Myra Miller’s blog, click HERE!

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Military Humor –

“I’ve given you th’ best years of my life.”

“What’s your job, steady K.P.?”

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Farewell Salutes – 

Evo Aspreli – New Haven, CT; US Army, WWII

Michael Collins – Washington, D.C.; US Air Force, pilot  /  NASA, Astronaut, MGeneral

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SAN DIEGO (Oct. 24, 2011) Ceremonial honor guard await to render honors for retired Vice Adm. Paul F. McCarthy. McCarthy (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Carlos M. Vazquez II/Released)

Carl Dalrymple – Jamestown, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII

James Edgar (100) – brn: Pietersburg, So. Afr.; Gordon Highlanders, WWII, ETO & CBI, Intelligence SOE

Philip T. Hoogacker – USA; US Army, Korea, Pfc., Co. D/1/29th Infantry Regiment, KIA (Anui, So. Korea)

George Humphrey – Onslow County, NC; US Army, Medic, 11th Airborne Division

Theodore Q. Jensen – Delta, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, radioman, USS Oklahoma, KIA (Pearl Harbor)

James ‘Sonny’ Melhus – Eau Claire, WI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, HQ Co./506/101st Airborne Division

William H. Melville – Minneapolis, MN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 2nd Lt., pilot, 36th FS/8th FG, KIA (Papua, New Guinea)

Christopher F. Pantos – Richmond, VA; US Army, Kuwait, SSgt., 55th Sustainment Brigade

John Shoemaker – Mont Clare, PA; US Army, WWII, ETO, SSgt., 87th Infantry, Purple Heart

Michael Sierra – San Antonio, TX; Texas National Guard / US Army, Vietnam, platoon leader, 327/101st Airborne Division

Salute to the Home Front Women of WWII

“Rosie to the Rescue”, Norman Rockwell

In 1943, several major magazines agreed to salute the women war workers of America on their September covers. The Post gave the assignment to Rockwell, who’d already created an iconic tribute to women defense workers with Rosie the Riveter.

For this new cover, he wanted to acknowledge the wide range of jobs that 15 million women had taken up as men went off to war. The result was Rosie to the Rescue, which showed a woman bearing the symbols and tools of several trades hurrying off to her next job. The Post editors claimed 31 different occupations were represented on this cover. Some were jobs traditionally associated with women: cleaning, farming, nursing, and clerical work. Others, indicated by tools such as an electric cable and a monkey wrench, referred to industrial occupations that women were starting to enter in great number.

The cover not only acknowledges women war workers, it also recalls occupations of the 1940s that once employed thousands. Post readers of the day would have instantly recognized the bus-driver’s ticket punch, a taxi-driver’s change dispenser, a milkman’s bottle rack, a switchboard operator’s headset, and the blue cap of a train conductor. The railroad industry was also represented by the railroad section hand’s lantern, the locomotive engineer’s oil can, and that round object swinging on a shoulder strap — a clock used by night watchwomen in railway yards.

Here is what the Post editors had to say about this image in the “Keeping Posted” section of our September 4, 1943 issue:

At least thirty-one wartime occupations for women are suggested by Norman Rockwell’s remarkable Labor Day Post cover. Perhaps you can think of more. The thirty-one we counted, suggested by articles the young lady is carrying or wearing, are: boardinghouse manager and housekeeper (keys on ring); chambermaid, cleaner and household worker (dust pan and brush, mop); service superintendent (time clock); switchboard operator and telephone operator (earphone and mouthpiece); grocery-store woman and milk-truck driver (milk bottles); electrician for repair and maintenance of household appliances and furnishings (electric wire); plumber and garage mechanic (monkey wrench, small wrenches); seamstress (big scissors); typewriter-repair woman, stenographer, typist, editor and reporter (typewriter); baggage clerk (baggage checks); bus driver (puncher); conductor on railroad, trolley, bus (conductor’s cap); filling-station attendant and taxi driver (change holder); oiler on railroad (oil can); section hand (red lantern); bookkeeper (pencil over ear); farm worker (hoe and potato fork); truck farmer (watering can); teacher (schoolbooks and ruler); public health, hospital or industrial nurse (Nurses’ Aide cap). —“Keeping Posted: The Rockwell Cover,” September 4, 1943.

When the war began, quickie marriages became the norm, as teenagers married their sweethearts before their men went overseas. As the men fought abroad, women on the Home Front worked in defense plants and volunteered for war-related organizations, in addition to managing their households.  In New Orleans, as the demand for public transportation grew, women even became streetcar “conductorettes” for the first time. When men left, women “became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands that were consistently upbeat.” (Stephen Ambrose, D-Day, 488) Rosie the Riveter helped assure that the Allies would have the war materials they needed to defeat the Axis.

The National WWII Museum recognizes the contribution that women played in the success of the Allied victory in World War II and explores that contribution in depth in its newest permanent exhibit, The Arsenal of Democracy: The Herman and George Brown Salute to the Home Front. 

Let’s hear about those Victory Gardens and other ways your mothers and grandmothers joined in!!

Click on images to enlarge.

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Home Front Humor – 

WHAT THE HECK DID WE DO EVERY EVENING BEFORE THIS WAR?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Ruth Apple – North Dorset, VT; Civilian, WWII, ‘Rosie’, aircraft

Angelina “Betty” Cicatelli – Throop, PA; WWII, Civilian, ‘Rosie’

Angnes Clagg – Ona, WV; WWII, Civilian, ‘Rosie’, weapons

Thelma Cook (104) – Pikeville, NC; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’, welder & parachute seamstress

Jacquelin Johns – Ft. Lauderdale, FL; WWII, Civilian, Office of Strategic Service

Lois Lenz – Chicagi, IL; WWII, Red Cross nurse’s aide / US Army, Signal Corps

Wand Elliot Matson – Quad Cities, IA, WWII ‘Rosie’, Grumman Hellcats

Mariemma Nelson – Indianapolis, IN; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’

Louise Steinberger – Vallejo, CA; WWII, Civilian ‘Rosie’, shipyard welder

Harriet ‘Jean’ Waltuck – Jordon, NY; US Navy, nurse

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Guest Post – Women of World War II by GPCox

We must never forget the women around the world who served in so many ways to help win this war.

"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons

By: gpcox:  https://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com

I want to apologize to gpcox because there are five pictures in this post and for some reason, they will not transfer when I post this article. I’ve tried it several ways and they just won’t come through.

As WWII unfolded around the globe, women were also affected.  Some found themselves pressed into jobs and duties they would never have previously considered.  Hitler derided Americans as degenerate for putting the women to work, but nearly 350,000 American females alone served in uniform voluntarily.  A transformation of half the population, never seen before, that began evolving in the early ‘40’s and continues today.

For the WASPs, 1,830 female pilots volunteered for Avenger Field outside Sweetwater, Texas alone and it was the only co-ed air base in the U.S.  These women would ferry aircraft coming off the assembly lines from the factories to the base.  They acted as…

View original post 1,254 more words

Mary Bingham

Another tribute to the women of WWII.

Hinges of History

WAVE Mary Bingham talks about enlisting in the WAVES and serving in the Navy.

Her story is part of our month of video countdown to the home video release of Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II.

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Intermission Stories (2)

Air evacuation, Korea

Captain Lillian Kinkela Keil

By the time 1950 and the Korean War came around, about one million women had worn the uniform from the United States military.  They had been prisoners of war, been wounded, flew planes, planned strategies, nursed casualties and died for this country.  Hundreds of women flew air evacuation, caring for the wounded soldiers during every bumpy air mile one of these women was Capt. Lillian Kinkela, a member of the Air Force Nurse Corps and one of the most decorated women in the U.S. military.

The captain flew over 200 air evacuation missions during WWII as well as 25 trans-Atlantic crossings.  When the Korean War erupted, she donned her uniform once more and flew several hundred more missions as a flight nurse in Korea.  Capt. Kinkela Keil was the inspiration for the 1953 movie “Flight Nurse” and served as the technical adviser during the making of the film.

Capt. Lillian Kinkela Keil

Her decorations include: the European Theater of Operations w/ 4 Battle Stars; The Air Medal w/ 3 Oak Leaf Clusters; The Presidential Unit Citation w/ One Oak Leaf Cluster; The Korean Service Medal w/ 7 Battle Stars; The American Campaign Medal; The UN Defense Medal; Presidential Citation, Republic of Korea.

“Flight Nurse” movie poster

Capt. Keil’s older brother was killed during WWII while serving in the US Navy.  Lillian married Walter Keil, a Naval intelligence officer who served on Guadalcanal during WWII.  She passed away June       2005 at the age of 88.

This information was supplied by: The National Museum. af.mil/

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The BIG TEN – the first inland demolition raid in Korea by Team 3

We can all agree that there is nothing like a personal account of an event to bring things into perspective and reality.  This story is too long for me to repeat here word-for-word without cropping out too much vital information, so I am just leaving the link for you to decide as to its interest and importance.

Lt. Dan Chandler briefs his “frogmen” before they set out to disarm mines

http://www.navyfrogmen.com/PhilCarricoFirstInlandRaid.html

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Sir James Plimsoll and UNCURK

A civilian in war

Sir James Plimsoll had a significant influence during the Korean War as Australia’s delegate to UNCURK (United Nations Committee for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea).  The group was formed in October 1950 with the anticipation of a speedy end to the war.  By the time the committee had their first meeting in November, the Chinese had entered the scene.

Syngman Rhee & James Plimsoll w/ the 3 RAR, Korea 1950

Most UNCURK personnel recommended leaving Korea, but Plimsoll argued to the contrary by bringing the point that their civilian presence should clearly remain.  They did stay, but moved to Pusan along with the South Korean government.  Although their original purposes were altered by events, the commission played a valuable role over the following years.  They remained in constant contact with the ROK government officials, observed elections and reported news to the UN.

L to R; unknown person, Plimsoll, Rhee, R.G. Casey, Pote Sarasin (Thai delegate) & Alan Watt (US Dept. of External Affairs)

Sir James was a foreign adviser with considerable influence on Pres. Syngman Rhee.  He would explain the views of the UN and pointed out to Rhee his tendency to disregard norms of democracy and human rights.   Sir James returned to Canberra to take up a different position, but in February 1952, the US State Dept. delegate requested him back to Korea; his influence had greatly been missed.

Following the war, Sir James Plimsoll held several high official positions representing Australia around the world and then as Governor of Tasmania; dying in office 1987.

This information is courtesy of  www.awm.gov.au/  “Out in the Cold”

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Farewell Salutes – 

Purple Heart

Robert Amundsen, Sr. – Dallas, TX, US Navy, WWII

Wilhelmina Buck (nee McGill) – Manurewa, NZ; RNZAF #3376, WAF, WWII, Whenuapai Air Base

Bryan V. Cady, Jr. – Ogden, UT, US Army, Korea

Eugene Cirzan – Sun City, AZ; US Army, Korea

Donald W. Cropp – W.Palm Beach, FL; US Army, Korean War

Joseph Kapala – Tinley Park, IL; US Army, WWII, Battle of the BUlge, Purple Heart

George Manzell – Tauranga, NZ; Merchant Navy, WWII # R233179; British Army, Sgt.RA, Korea # 14460567

James Semradek – Park Ridge, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, Purple Heart

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Women of World War II by gpcox

We seem to be having photo problems this month, but this article was prepared to include more of the world in what was such a massive war.

WASP poster, Pearl Judd

Congressional Gold Medal

Canadian 1943 poster

Australian women’s poster

"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons

Women of WWII

By: gpcoxhttps://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com

I want to apologize to gpcox because there are five pictures in this post and for some reason, they will not transfer when I post the article. I’ve tried it several ways and they just won’t come through.

 As WWII unfolded around the globe, women were also affected.  Some found themselves pressed into jobs and duties they would never have previously considered.  Hitler derided Americans as degenerate for putting the women to work, but nearly 350,000 American females alone served in uniform voluntarily.  A transformation of half the population, never seen before, that began evolving in the early ‘40’s and continues today.

For the WASPs, 1,830 female pilots volunteered for Avenger Field outside Sweetwater, Texas alone and it was the only co-ed air base in the U.S.  These women would ferry aircraft coming off the assembly lines from the factories to the base.  They…

View original post 1,195 more words