Author Topic: Great Americans  (Read 153501 times)

Dos Equis

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #200 on: October 20, 2014, 02:12:46 PM »
Sunday, October 19th, 2014 | Posted by Duane Vachon
William T. Perkins, Jr. Corporal United States Marine Corps - A NEW KIND OF HERO

Cpl. William T. Perkins, Combat Photographer, Medal of Honor, Vietnam

BY DUANE ALLEN VACHON PH.D.  For many years prior to my retirement I worked at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.  My job as the cemetery representative was to help the families organize the committal service for their loved one.   Meeting  with the family I would  help organize the service.  This involved coordinating with the funeral director, organizing military honors and, if requested, a representative from the religion the family requested.  Most of all I tried to make the service as painless and dignified as possible.  We conducted as many as seven services a day, five days a week.  Even though it was emotionally draining, two things kept me going. I have a strong faith, and I was mindful that I was responsible for giving these veterans the last benefit they would receive for the service they gave to their country.  It was a privilege and honor to be able to do this for my fellow veterans.

Despite my faith and my deep sense of service, at times I was touched and profoundly moved.  At times  it could be difficult not to be overwhelmed by the pain of the mothers and fathers, wives and children, sisters and brothers that were left behind.

To this day I still find myself at times being deeply moved when I am doing the research for these articles.  This is one of those articles that moved me. Perkins was only 20 years old when he gave up his life.  Not old enough to buy a beer in his home state. He was a Marine and every Marine is a rifleman first. However, his job was a combat photographer.  Despite this he gave up his life to save his fellow Marines.  Perkins is the only combat photographer to have received the Medal of Honor. Secondly, when searching to locate where he was buried, I saw a picture of his grave marker.  He was buried with his younger brother Robert who died in 1978.  His parents suffered the pain of having to bury two sons.

There are 58,282 names on the Vietnam Wall.  It’s impossible to imagine how much collateral damage is associated with those names.  As you read these articles, spare a thought for the hero, but also a thought and, if you are so inclined, a prayer for all of those who were left behind.

William (Bill) T. Perkins, Jr. was born August 10, 1947 in Rochester, New York to William and Marilane Perkins. The family moved to Los Angeles, California and he attended Sepulveda Jr. High and graduated from James Monroe High School in 1965. He received many drama awards and was a member of the swim team and the Photography Club. He also became certified in Scuba diving and spent many hours diving off the coast of California and Catalina Island. While attending Pierce College, he was an apprentice at the Valley Music Theater and appeared at the Century City Playhouse.

Perkins and Jim Priddy joined the Marines on the “buddy system”  on April 27, 1966. He completed his infantry training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and Camp Pendleton, California. His interest in photography and cinema led him to the Photography School at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. Perkins arrived in Vietnam on July 12, 1967 and was killed in action exactly three months later October 12, 1967.

Perkins was given a chance to take the US Army's Motion Picture Photography course. The only caveat: those attending the school had to put their new skills to use in Vietnam. Perkins willingly agreed and - after training - arrived in Vietnam in July of 1967. Exactly three months later, he would prove himself a new kind of hero.

Once in country, Perkins quickly earned a reputation as a gifted combat cameraman. Shooting both stills and film, the Southern Californian captured both the mayhem and the monotony of modern warfare. Reticent in the beginning, Perkins' fellow grunts accepted him as one of their own - even if he did go into battle with one eye plastered to a viewfinder. What they never fathomed was the young cameraman's commitment to them. In October of 1967, that became painfully clear. A reconnaissance mission in the Hai Lang forest, Operation MEDINA devolved into a battle of hand grenades. Perkins was in the thick of it, shooting film as he and his buddies found themselves . Perkins did the unthinkable. After yelling 'Incoming!', William T. Perkins, Jr. crawled on top of the grenade, and absorbed its deadly blast.  Saving at least three of his friends' lives, Perkins died with a Eymo motion picture camera in his hand. To this day, he is the only combat photographer to ever receive the Medal of Honor.


Medal of Honor citation
 
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to
CORPORAL WILLIAM T.. PERKINS, JR.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a combat photographer attached to Company C, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam on 12 October 1967. During Operation MEDINA, a major reconnaissance in force, southwest of Quang Tri, Company C made heavy combat contact with a numerically superior North Vietnamese Army Force estimated at from two to three companies. The focal point of the intense fighting was a helicopter landing zone which was also serving as the Command Post of Company C. In the course of a strong hostile attack, an enemy grenade landed in the immediate Carea occupied by Corporal Perkins and three other Marines. Realizing the inherent danger, he shouted the warning, "Incoming Grenade" to his fellow Marines, and in a valiant act of heroism, hurled himself upon the grenade absorbing the impact of the explosion with his own body thereby saving the lives of his comrades at the cost of his own. Through his exceptional courage and inspiring valor in the face of certain death, Corporal Perkins reflected great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave histhe San Fernando Mis  life for his country.

/S/ RICHARD M. NIXON
Corporal William T. Perkins is buried at San Fernando Mission Cemetery Hills Los Angeles County California, USA.
President Nixon presenting Medal of Honor to parents of Cpl. William Perkins

Gravestone for William Perkins and his brother Robert
 
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/william-t-perkins-jr-corporal-united-states-marine-corps-medal-of-honor-vietnam-a-new-kind-of-hero/123

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #201 on: October 24, 2014, 12:16:24 PM »
70 years after death, Tenn. soldier buried at Arlington
Mary Troyan, The Tennessean, Nashville 1:55 a.m. EDT October 23, 2014


Army Pvt. 1st Class Cecil Harris received full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. (Photo: Evan Eile, USA TODAY)

WASHINGTON — Almost 70 years after he died battling German troops in northeastern France, Army Pvt. 1st Class Cecil Harris of Shelbyville was buried Wednesday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

"In life, he honored the flag, and in death, the flag will honor him," U.S. Army Chaplain Capt. Ted Randall said during the graveside service.

Harris was killed Jan. 2, 1945, but his remains weren't found until last year, by French hikers.

In a cold, soaking rain, about 15 family members from Tennessee and several others followed the horse-drawn caisson carrying Harris' flag-draped casket down McClellan Drive at the cemetery while the U.S. Army Band, known as "Pershing's Own," played "Onward Christian Soldiers."

"I'm just proud I got to follow him before they put him in the resting place," said William Edwin "Eddie" Harris, who was an infant the only time he met his father.

Cecil Harris was 19 when he left Shelbyville and his pregnant wife, Helen, to fight in World War II. Helen Harris Cooke, 90, was unable to travel to northern Virginia for the burial, Eddie Harris said. Janice Carlton, who was 10 when her brother died, was among the mourners Wednesday.

"I feel relieved that we got him back and buried with honors where he deserved," Eddie Harris said after the services. "I wondered for 70 years whatever happened to him."

Harris qualified for full military honors, a crisp, dignified ceremony performed by the Army's 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard. The services include a caisson, an escort platoon, a colors team, a casket team, three rifle volleys from a firing team and a band.

The bugler, Army Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Northman, played "Taps" after the chaplain's remarks.

"PFC Cecil Edwin Harris served our nation with honor and distinction," the chaplain said. "He earned his place on these hallowed grounds."

Harris was a member of the rifle platoon with Company D, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. He received the Combat Infantryman Badge, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

While the band played "America the Beautiful" and the rain fell harder, the Old Guard soldiers folded the U.S. flag that had been covering the casket. The flag was presented to Eddie Harris by retired Lt. Gen. Bill Phillips of Bell Buckle, Tenn., near where Cecil Harris grew up.

Eddie Harris has a frame for the flag at his home in Mountain City, Tenn., and plans to hang it on the wall near his bed.

"I never did think this day would come," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/23/tennsoldier-buried-at-arlington/17761145/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #202 on: October 24, 2014, 02:11:14 PM »
70 years after death, Tenn. soldier buried at Arlington
Mary Troyan, The Tennessean, Nashville 1:55 a.m. EDT October 23, 2014


Army Pvt. 1st Class Cecil Harris received full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. (Photo: Evan Eile, USA TODAY)

WASHINGTON — Almost 70 years after he died battling German troops in northeastern France, Army Pvt. 1st Class Cecil Harris of Shelbyville was buried Wednesday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

"In life, he honored the flag, and in death, the flag will honor him," U.S. Army Chaplain Capt. Ted Randall said during the graveside service.

Harris was killed Jan. 2, 1945, but his remains weren't found until last year, by French hikers.

In a cold, soaking rain, about 15 family members from Tennessee and several others followed the horse-drawn caisson carrying Harris' flag-draped casket down McClellan Drive at the cemetery while the U.S. Army Band, known as "Pershing's Own," played "Onward Christian Soldiers."

"I'm just proud I got to follow him before they put him in the resting place," said William Edwin "Eddie" Harris, who was an infant the only time he met his father.

Cecil Harris was 19 when he left Shelbyville and his pregnant wife, Helen, to fight in World War II. Helen Harris Cooke, 90, was unable to travel to northern Virginia for the burial, Eddie Harris said. Janice Carlton, who was 10 when her brother died, was among the mourners Wednesday.

"I feel relieved that we got him back and buried with honors where he deserved," Eddie Harris said after the services. "I wondered for 70 years whatever happened to him."

Harris qualified for full military honors, a crisp, dignified ceremony performed by the Army's 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard. The services include a caisson, an escort platoon, a colors team, a casket team, three rifle volleys from a firing team and a band.

The bugler, Army Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Northman, played "Taps" after the chaplain's remarks.

"PFC Cecil Edwin Harris served our nation with honor and distinction," the chaplain said. "He earned his place on these hallowed grounds."

Harris was a member of the rifle platoon with Company D, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. He received the Combat Infantryman Badge, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

While the band played "America the Beautiful" and the rain fell harder, the Old Guard soldiers folded the U.S. flag that had been covering the casket. The flag was presented to Eddie Harris by retired Lt. Gen. Bill Phillips of Bell Buckle, Tenn., near where Cecil Harris grew up.

Eddie Harris has a frame for the flag at his home in Mountain City, Tenn., and plans to hang it on the wall near his bed.

"I never did think this day would come," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/23/tennsoldier-buried-at-arlington/17761145/

Did he join the Army voluntarily? 

Seems like a 19-year old having a pregnant wife should have been able to receive a draft deferment.  And if he left his pregnant wife by joining the army voluntarily, then he's not a great anything in my book. 

Dos Equis

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #203 on: October 27, 2014, 10:02:25 AM »
Sunday, October 26th, 2014 | Posted by Duane Vachon
Jimmy Wayne Phipps PFC USMC


Jimmy Wayne Phipps
LEST WE FORGET

BY DUANE ALLEN VACHON, PH.D. Jimmy Wayne Phipps was born on November 1, 1950, in Santa Monica, California. He attended Marina Del Ray Junior High School in Culver City, California and Venice High School in California.  He left high school to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve on January 3, 1968 and was discharged on January 7, 1968 to enlist in the Regular Marine Corps.

He completed recruit training with the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California on March 14, 1968. Transferred to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, he underwent individual combat training with Company L, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, followed by basic infantry training which he completed in May 1968.

From June until August 1968, he was a student with the Marine Aviation Detachment, Naval Air Technical Training Command, Memphis, Tennessee. Transferred to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, he attended the Marine Corps Engineer Schools, until the following October. He was promoted to private first class on October 1, 1968.

In December 1968, he was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as a combat engineer with Company B, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He was initially attached to Company C, 1st Battalion 5th Marines (C/1/5) as its combat engineer. He was then detached and returned to Company B, but in late May, volunteered to return to the field with C/1/5. While participating in combat in what was referred to as the "Arizona Territory," located in the vicinity of An Hoa on May 27, 1969, he was killed in action during the combat action for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. His Medal of Honor Citation tells the rest:
 

Medal of Honor citation
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JIMMY W. PHIPPS
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a combat Engineer with Company B, First Engineer Battalion, First Marine Division in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 27 May 1969, Private First Class Phipps, was a member of a two-man combat engineer demolition team assigned to locate and destroy enemy artillery ordnance and concealed firing devices. After he had expended all of his explosives and blasting caps, Private First Class Phipps discovered a 175mm high explosive artillery round in a rice paddy. Suspecting that the enemy had attached at the artillery round to a secondary explosive device, he warned other Marines in the area to move to covered positions and prepared to destroy the round with a hand grenade. As he was attaching the hand grenade to a stake beside the artillery round, the fuse of the enemy's secondary explosive device ignited. Realizing that his assistant and the platoon commander were both with a few meters of him and that the imminent explosion could kill all three men, Private First Class Phipps grasped the hand grenade to his chest and dived forward to cover the enemy's explosive and the artillery round with his body, thereby shielding his companions from the detonation while absorbing the full and tremendous impact with his own body. Private First Class Phipp's indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and selfless devotion to duty saved the lives of two Marines and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

/S/ RICHARD M. NIXON  President
 
Eleven years of combat left their imprint on a generation.  Thousands returned home bearing shrapnel and scars; still more were burdened by the invisible wounds of post-traumatic stress, of Agent Orange, of memories that would never fade.  More than 58,000 laid down their lives in service to our Nation.  Now and forever, their names are etched into two faces of black granite, a lasting memorial to those who bore conflict's greatest cost.  They didn’t all receive a Medal of Honor like Phipps, but they were all heroes.

Our veterans answered our country's call and served with honor, and on March 29, 1973, the last of our troops left Vietnam.  Yet, in one of the war's most profound tragedies, many of these men and women came home to be shunned or neglected -- to face treatment unbefitting their courage and a welcome unworthy of their example.  We must never let this happen again.  Today, we reaffirm one of our most fundamental obligations:  to show all who have worn the uniform of the United States the respect and dignity they deserve, and to honor their sacrifice by serving them as well as they served us.
PFC Jimmy W. Phipps is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica California Plot: Block 18.
 

Gravesite for PFC Jimmy W. Phipps

The information in this article was sourced from a variety of sources both internal and external. Every effort was made to ensure that the information is current and correct. These articles are presented to honor the heroes they are written about.

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/jimmy-wayne-phipps-pfc-usmc/123

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #204 on: November 06, 2014, 09:50:25 AM »
Long overdue: Obama to award Medal of Honor to Civil War soldier
1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing died at Gettysburg trying to repel Pickett’s Charge


Alonzo Cushing photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society shows First Lt. Alonzo Cushing. A Civil War soldier is to be honored with the nation's highest military decoration 151 years after his death.The White House announced Wednesday that President Barack Obama will give the Medal of Honor to Alonzo H. Cushing. His descendants and Civil War buffs have been pushing for the Union Army lieutenant killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to receive the award. (AP Photo/Wisconsin Historical Society)

Alonzo Cushing photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society shows First Lt. Alonzo Cushing. A Civil War soldier is to be honored with the nation’s highest military decoration 151 years after his death.The White House announced Wednesday that President Barack ... more >


By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 26, 2014
President Obama will award the Medal of Honor to 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, who gave his life at Gettysburg leading the effort to repel Pickett’s Charge, the White House said Tuesday in an announcement historians say corrects a glaring omission in the rolls of the nation’s top military honor.

Wounded in both his shoulder and stomach, Cushing manned the only remaining artillery piece, defending against the rebel charge that’s been called the high-water mark of the Confederacy. Cushing was cut down by a third wound as he successfully defended the spot, which has become known in military history lore as the Angle.

Those above and below him in rank already have been awarded the Medal of Honor, including Gen. Alexander S. Webb, who led the overall defense against Pickett’s Charge and approved Cushing’s request to advance, and Cushing’s own trusted Sgt. Frederick Fuger, who held up his wounded lieutenant so he could see the battlefield and served as Cushing’s megaphone, calling out the orders the senior officer could only whisper due to his two injuries.

“An awful lot of people have been very interested in seeing Alonzo gets this nation’s highest honor,” said David Krueger, who has served as point man for the Medal of Honor effort in Delafield, Wisconsin, where the Cushing family had a farm at the time of the war. “Standing at the Angle at Cemetery Ridge, what was at stake was the survival of our nation, and this young 22-year-old artillery officer held the line; the men with him held the line. If the line breaks at that point, the war could possibly have ended with a Confederate victory.”

The White House announcement brings to a close a decadeslong campaign by Cushing’s backers and comes as the Medal of Honor itself is increasingly under scrutiny.

1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing (left) poses with other Union troops during the Civil War. Cushing is expected to be awarded the Medal of Honor nearly 150 years after he died defending a Union position during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. (Wisconsin Historical Society via Associated Press)
1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing (left) poses with other Union troops during the ... more >
Key lawmakers have questioned whether the process has become too politicized, saying there are other deserving troops from recent conflicts such as the Iraq war.

Usually, those pushing for honors for long-dead military men are descendants. In Cushing’s case, there are no direct descendants, and his cause was taken up by people with much more tenuous personal connections but who saw an injustice to be corrected.

One of those was Kent Masterson Brown, who chronicled the lieutenant’s story in his book “Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander.” Another is Margaret Zerwekh, a woman in her 90s who lives on part of what used to be the Cushing family’s farm, located along the Bark River in Delafield, west of Milwaukee.

She wrote her first letter on Cushing’s behalf in 1987, asking then-Sen. William Proxmire to take up the cause.

Congress had to play a role as well, waiving the time limits involved in the Medal of Honor so that Cushing would be eligible. The waiver came in last year’s defense policy bill.

On Tuesday the White House released a statement saying Cushing will finally get his due, along with two veterans of the Vietnam War.

One of those, Army Spc. Four Donald P. Sloat, was killed in action on Jan. 17, 1970, while using his body to absorb a grenade blast, saving the lives of three other soldiers.

The other, Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins, repeatedly braved intense hostile sniper and mortar fire to rescue wounded soldiers, then, despite suffering several wounds, fought off wave after wave of Viet Cong attacks on his position. Unable to reach the last evacuation helicopter, he rallied his comrades and fled into the jungle, where the group survived for two days until being rescued.

The Army, in its nomination for the Medal of Honor, estimated he killed up to 175 enemy troops and sustained 18 wounds himself.

Command Sgt. Maj. Adkins will attend a Sept. 15 ceremony at the White House along with his wife, Mary. Spc. Sloat’s brother will receive his medal at the same ceremony.

The White House said details on Cushing’s award will be announced separately.

Mr. Kreuger said one question is who would get the award, given he has no direct descendants. There is no clear-cut Pentagon protocol in this type of situation, Mr. Kreuger said.

Some residents have pushed for the medal to go to the city of Delafield.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/26/obama-to-award-belated-medal-of-honor-to-union-civ/#ixzz3Bc6ct9Z3

Civil War officer to receive Medal of Honor from President Obama
Published November 06, 2014
Associated Press

First Lt. Alonzo Cushing is shown in an undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society. (AP/Wisconsin Historical Society)

A Union Army officer who stood his ground during the Battle of Gettysburg and paid with his life is receiving the nation's highest military honor from President Barack Obama.

Obama on Thursday was bestowing the Medal of Honor on 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing, who was killed in July 1863 during the three-day battle near the Pennsylvania town. The battle often is described as the turning point of the Civil War.

Congress granted an exemption for Cushing's posthumous honor. Recommendations normally must be made within two years of an act of heroism, and the medal presented within three.

Cushing was born in Delafield, Wisconsin, raised in Fredonia, New York, and buried at his alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, after his death at age 22. He commanded about 110 men and six cannons, defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett's Charge, a major Confederate thrust that was repelled by Union forces.

On the third day of battle, Cushing's small force stood its ground under severe artillery bombardment and an assault by nearly 13,000 advancing Confederate infantrymen. Wounded in the stomach and right shoulder, Cushing refused to move to the rear despite his wounds and insisted on ordering his guns to the front lines.

He was shot and killed as Confederate forces closed in on his position.

"His actions made it possible for the Union Army to successfully repulse the assault," according to a White House summary of Cushing's actions.

Two of Cushing's cousins were to join Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at a White House ceremony commemorating the lieutenant's service and sacrifice.

Obama and Mrs. Obama were also honoring service members, veterans and their families at an outdoor event Thursday evening featuring musical performances by Mary J. Blige, Willie Nelson and other recording artists. In 2011, Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, launched "Joining Forces," a nationwide campaign to rally the country to support its troops.

The Medal of Honor, which was created in 1861 during the war in which Cushing gave his life, has been bestowed on more than 1,500 soldiers who fought in the Civil War, most recently Cpl. Andrew Jackson Smith of Clinton, Illinois. Smith was honored by President Bill Clinton in 2001 just before Clinton left office.

It was unclear why Cushing wasn't similarly honored. His descendants and admirers have pressed for thehonor since the late 1980s.

The Cushing name is prominent in Delafield in southeastern Wisconsin. A monument to Cushing and two of his brothers — Naval Cmdr. William Cushing and Army 1st Lt. Howard Cushing — stands at Cushing Memorial Park, where the town holds most of its Memorial Day celebrations.

Wisconsin's lawmakers in Congress had attached an amendment to honor Cushing to a defense spending bill in 2010, but then-Sen. James Webb, D-Va., stripped it out. Webb argued it was impossible to go back 150 years to determine who should receive a medal. He predicted that doing so could spark a flood of claims.

The Medal of Honor is given to service members who risk their lives in acts of personal bravery above and beyond the call of duty.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/06/civil-war-officer-to-receive-medal-honor-from-president-obama/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #205 on: November 13, 2014, 09:15:53 AM »
70 years later, a World War II airman returns home
Diane Moore/Special to the Sun

An honor guard carries the casket of Tech Sgt. Hugh Francis Moore at Philadelphia Intl. Airport. His remains, discovered in New Guinea in 2001, were identified by DNA testing. He had been MIA for over 70 years after his plane was shot down in WWII.

Technical Sergeant Hugh Francis Moore

Technical Sergeant Hugh Francis Moore, far right, with some of his military buddies.

Charles Moore is the nephew of Technical Sergeant Hugh Francis Moore.

By Jean Marbella,
The Baltimore Sun

After 70 years, Sgt. Hugh F. Moore coming home to be buried in Maryland.
Charles Moore was about 7 years old at the time, in bed and asleep, when his father and his Uncle Hugh woke him up.

Hugh F. Moore was in the Army Air Forces and had just received orders that would ultimately take him to Papua New Guinea and into a massive bombing campaign against the Japanese in World War II.

"He had this cloth badge, something you'd sew on a shirt, and he wanted me to have it," Charles Moore, 79, recalled Monday. "That's the last time I saw him."

On April 10, 1944, Technical Sgt. Hugh F. Moore and 11 fellow crewmen were shot down in their B-24D Liberator bomber. On Veterans Day on Tuesday, more than 70 years later, the remains of the 36-year-old airman will be buried in his native Elkton, where his survivors will mark a long-delayed homecoming.

While the remains of three of the crewmen were found after the war, the other nine were deemed unrecoverable in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. But in 2001, the wreckage of Moore's aircraft was located, leading to an excavation and recovery of remains and other material.

Using family members' DNA, Moore was identified Sept. 5.

"It's almost like the marrying of 'Cold Case' and 'CSI,' " said Lt. Col. Melinda F. Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. "You have to do a lot of historical research, as well as genealogical research to do the DNA testing."

Morgan said the process of retrieving the remains and other material from the aircraft, and then identifying the airmen, took a long time because of the number of crew members. They were identified by the Defense Department's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, which is dedicated to identifying the approximately 83,000 Americans unaccounted for from past conflicts. The unit has even been able to put names to the remains of recovered Civil War sailors.

More than 70 of Moore's surviving relatives will gather at Cherry Hill United Methodist Cemetery in Elkton, where he will be buried with full military honors. He was one of nine children born to Edward and Emma Louise Scarborough Moore, and he joined the Army in July 1942, according to an obituary posted by Hicks Home for Funerals in Elkton.

Some of his relatives, including Charles Moore, a resident of North East, met the flag-draped casket at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday. Traveling from Honolulu's Pearl Harbor, where JPAC is based, Sgt. Moore's casket was escorted by Army officials to Elkton.

On Tuesday, there will be a memorial service at Hicks Home for Funerals in Elkton, followed by the burial.

"It's an opportunity to know the homecoming has finally come to an end," said Diane Moore, Charles Moore's daughter. "It was a long time coming."

Ed Warrington, 75, a nephew who lives in Townsend, Del., just north of Dover, said his sister and her daughter, both of whom have since died, provided DNA samples to the Army that led to the identification of Sgt. Moore's remains. One way JPAC identifies remains is through mitochondrial DNA, which passes through maternal family lines.

For Warrington, a semiretired farrier, the return of the remains brings back memories of the letters his uncle used to write him and the toy airplanes he would receive as gifts.

"He told me he was an engineer" on the crew," Warrington said, recalling that his uncle told him, " 'That means I know everything about the B-24 and how to fix it.' "

Warrington said his mother Wilamina was close to her brother, and the family never gave up hope he would be found.

"She would never let anyone forget him," Warrington said. "A couple of months ago, I found a little pocket diary of hers. She only had a couple of entries, and on the date Uncle Hugh went down, she had written, 'Hugh declared missing' on that day."

The family remains in awe that the military continued to search and try to identify such long-ago casualties of war.

"It's pretty amazing," said Diane Moore, a communications supervisor for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, who lives in Lancaster, Pa. "It shows the value they place in the soldier."

Moore's parents had bought a plot for him in the Cherry Hill cemetery in the 1940s in case the airman was found, according to the funeral home, and they also placed a memorial marker there. He had grown up on the family's farm, and worked at a paper mill and a supply company before joining the Army in July 1942, according to his obituary.

According to the Defense Department, Moore's plane was one of as many as 60 B-24 Liberators from the 5th Air Force that attacked enemy anti-aircraft targets and airfields near Hansa Bay on Papua New Guinea's northern coast. His aircraft, a heavy bomber, was nicknamed "Hot Garters" for reasons that are unknown today, according to the Defense Department's Morgan.

The department says witnesses reported that as "Hot Garters" broke off to begin its bombing run, it was hit by flak from Japanese anti-aircraft guns and its No. 2 engine caught fire. A second fusillade provided the fatal blow, and the aircraft was consumed in flames, coming apart in midair and crashing into the jungle.

Four of the crewmen were able to parachute from the aircraft, according to the Defense Department, but they were taken prisoner and died in captivity. Moore died in the crash itself, Morgan said.

News accounts at the time describe a massive attack on Japanese strongholds in Papua New Guinea.

"Japanese bases in New Guinea are being subjected to the biggest aerial offensive of the Pacific war, with gun positions, ammunition, gas and food dumps being ripped to pieces by the 5th Air Force," a correspondent wrote on April 13, 1944, in a dispatch that appeared in the next day's New York Times.

The article reported that 568 tons of bombs had been dropped in three days on Hansa Bay as "Gen. Douglas MacArthur's air arm obviously is intent on destroying the nerve centers of enemy resistance and paralyzing Japanese supply and communications lines."

Allied bombers flew through the "extremely bad weather" of the rainy season and left "destruction and death" up and down the New Guinea coast, the article said, but concluded: "Nevertheless our losses have been almost insignificant."

An article in The Baltimore Sun on March 22, 1945, noted that Moore's mother received an Air Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster on behalf of her son, who was declared missing in action.

Moore's family decided it would be appropriate to bury him on Veterans Day. The military is planning a group service for the entire crew at Arlington National Cemetery, although a date has not been finalized, Morgan said.

For Charles Moore, whose father, also named Charles, was the eldest brother of the airman, the return of the remains brings back childhood memories that were fast fading.

He remembers his uncle driving a Hudson Terraplane car, although he can't remember the color. He also recalls going with his dad and uncle to watch them trapshooting.

And he remembers that night he was awoken to say goodbye.

"I was glad that happened," he said.

For Ed Warrington, there are also fond if faint memories, and a cache of letters that he still has from Uncle Hugh.

"The big thing I noticed," he said, "was he always closed by saying something like, 'I might not see you again.' "

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-wwii-remains-return-20141110-story.html#page=1

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #206 on: November 19, 2014, 09:43:02 AM »
He Was a 98-Year-Old Veteran. A Picture Taken of Him Just One Day Before Death Has Moved America.
Nov. 18, 2014    
Erica Ritz

Americans nationwide reacted to a now-viral photo of a 98-year-old veteran who, too ill to attend the annual Veterans Day celebrations last week, asked that he be dressed in his uniform.

Justus Belfield was too weak to leave his bed, but The Daily Gazette of Schenectady reported that he has worn his uniform every Veterans Day since he and his wife moved to a nursing home in upstate New York several years ago.

It was the last time Belfield, who passed away early Wednesday morning, ever wore his uniform.

“I could see him breathing, and I leaned down and I looked at him and I said, ‘Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service,’” Christine Camp, who works at the home, recalled.

Belfield’s response, pictured below, will never be forgotten:

This Nov. 11, 2014 photo provided courtesy of Nancy McKiernan of Baptist Health Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Glenville, N.Y., shows 98-year-old World War II veteran Justus Belfield saluting on Veterans Day. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Nancy McKiernan/Baptist Health Nursing and Rehabilitation Center)
“Godspeed Sarge,” one Daily Gazette commenter wrote. Another added: “God bless and rest you, sir. Thank you for your service.”

Commenters at The Huffington Post were equally full of praise for the 98-year-old veteran.

“I was approached a few years ago by on old vet,” one wrote. “[He wore a] WW2 victory medal, his Pacific campaign ribbon, and a bronze star with four clusters, an arrowhead, and a ‘V’ device. I felt unworthy to polish this old man’s boots. Respect for these old guys. They were tougher than we are.”

“That’s a powerful picture, and it exemplifies everything about that generation. RIP,” another commenter wrote.

The Associated Press reports that Belfield served for 16 years in the Army, participating in — among other historic battles — the Battle of the Bulge.

The Daily Gazette adds that Belfield was discharged multiple times, but always re-enlisted “right away.”

He told the paper in 2013: “I loved it because it was my country. It’s still my country. I don’t like the president. I don’t like the way he handles things, but it’s still the United States. It’s still my country.”

Camp said Belfield lit up the hallways of the nursing home, waking up each day with a smile saying: “Thank you, Jesus, for another day.”

“He loved the family, he loved his country, and he loved God,” Robert Stubbs, Belfield’s son in law, said. “Those three things right there will be his legacy.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/18/he-was-a-98-year-old-veteran-what-he-did-in-his-bed-just-a-day-before-death-has-moved-america/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #207 on: November 19, 2014, 10:12:10 AM »
You seem to hold the veterans in high regard so why do you defend the GOP's action to shoot down any veterans bill?

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #208 on: November 19, 2014, 10:15:32 AM »
You seem to hold the veterans in high regard so why do you defend the GOP's action to shoot down any veterans bill?

I'm glad you liked the story and the picture.  I think it's pretty awesome too. 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #209 on: November 19, 2014, 10:38:11 AM »
I'm glad you liked the story and the picture.  I think it's pretty awesome too. 

I cant think of a reason to dislike veterans.

So why does the GOP fuck them over? And you support it?

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #210 on: November 19, 2014, 11:20:34 AM »
I cant think of a reason to dislike veterans.

So why does the GOP fuck them over? And you support it?

Thank you for supporting our veterans. 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #211 on: November 19, 2014, 11:27:23 AM »
You seem to hold the veterans in high regard so why do you defend the GOP's action to shoot down any veterans bill?

I can't recall the GOP ever doing such a heinous thing.    I'll consider this a liberal lie until proven otherwise.

Waiting. 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #212 on: November 19, 2014, 12:29:46 PM »
I can't recall the GOP ever doing such a heinous thing.    I'll consider this a liberal lie until proven otherwise.

Waiting. 


I know you are trolling but google "GOP blocks veterans bill" and the results are in.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #213 on: November 19, 2014, 02:13:31 PM »

I know you are trolling but google "GOP blocks veterans bill" and the results are in.

The google results are a little shocking actually   :-\

http://bit.ly/1zDXeRq


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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #215 on: November 19, 2014, 09:57:21 PM »
Take your pick:

https://www.google.dk/search?hl=en-DK&source=hp&q=GOP+blocks+veterans+bill&gbv=2&oq=GOP+blocks+veterans+bill&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3..0j0i22i30l9.916.916.0.1723.1.1.0.0.0.0.82.82.1.1.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-hp..0.1.82.5RuLiLBV7QM

Aside from those numerous factual links proving exactly what you claimed, I see no evidence of this. 

Sorry man, seriously, you're correct here.    Inexcusable.  I doubt anyone here can defend them on this. 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #216 on: November 19, 2014, 10:12:57 PM »
Aside from those numerous factual links proving exactly what you claimed, I see no evidence of this. 

Sorry man, seriously, you're correct here.    Inexcusable.  I doubt anyone here can defend them on this. 


Look at Beach Bum's replies.

He makes a whole thread regarding the veterans but when its time to put his money where his mouth is nothing. Just like the GOP's policy regarding veterans.


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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #217 on: December 09, 2014, 11:25:35 AM »
Medal of Honor campaign continues for black sergeant who saved troops

Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe died of burns three weeks after he rushed into a burning vehicle to rescue six soldiers in 2005.
By DAVID ZUCCHINO

7-year campaign continues to seek Medal of Honor for Army sergeant who entered burning vehicle to save troops
Alwyn Cashe may become the first African American awarded the Medal of Honor for valor in Iraq or Afghanistan
If he had known in 2005 what he knows today, Brig. Gen. Gary Brito would have nominated Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe for the Medal of Honor.

Brito knew in 2005 that Cashe, his uniform soaked with fuel, had plunged into a burning vehicle in Iraq on Oct. 17, 2005, to rescue soldiers who were on fire. But only months later did Brito, Cashe's battalion commander, learn the full details of Cashe's courage that day outside the city of Samarra.

Cashe rescued six badly burned soldiers while under enemy small-arms fire. His own uniform caught fire, engulfing him in flames. Even with second- and-third degree burns over three-fourths of his body, Cashe continue to pull soldiers out of a vehicle set ablaze when a roadside bomb ruptured a fuel tank.

Before all of those details emerged, Cashe was awarded a Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for valor, after Brito nominated him. But soon after learning more about Cashe's actions, Brito mounted an unusual Medal of Honor campaign that has continued for more than seven years.

If the latest batch of sworn statements submitted to the Army by Brito is successful, Cashe will become the first African American among 16 service members awarded the nation's highest medal for valor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cashe, 35, died of his burns three weeks after the bomb attack. Seven of the 16 medals have been awarded posthumously.

"You don't often find truly selfless sacrifice where someone put his soldiers' welfare before his own," Brito said. "Sgt. Cashe was horribly wounded and continued to fight to save his men."

Acts of heroism in combat typically play out in a matter of seconds or minutes. But honoring those actions with a Medal of Honor often takes years — and sometimes decades — as emerging details and conflicting accounts are evaluated.

In Cashe's case, the soldiers he rescued were unable to provide accounts of his heroism because they were hospitalized in critical condition. Other details were lost in the turmoil of a war zone.

"The true impact of what he did that evening was not immediately known because of the chaos of the moment," Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, one of Cashe's commanders, wrote to the Army in support of Cashe's Medal of Honor nomination.

The Senior Army Decorations Board does not comment on Medal of Honor nominations, an Army spokeswoman said, noting that vetting such nominations takes considerable time, "with intense scrutiny every step of the way." There is no timetable for a decision.

Earlier this month, a Civil War soldier, Lt. Alonzo Cushing, was awarded a Medal of Honor by President Obama 151 years after his heroics. The president approves Medal of Honor awards after recommendations are sent up the chain of command by the decorations board.

Nine years after the Iraq bomb attack, retired Sgt. Gary Mills has no doubt that Cashe deserves the Medal of Honor. Mills was inside the stricken Bradley fighting vehicle that day. He was on fire, his hands so badly burned that he couldn't open the rear troop door to free himself and other soldiers trapped inside the flaming vehicle.

Someone opened the door from outside, Mills recalls. A powerful hand grabbed him and yanked him to safety. He later learned that the man who had rescued him was Cashe, who seconds later crawled into the vehicle to haul out the platoon's critically burned medic while on fire himself.

"Sgt. Cashe saved my life," Mills said. "With all the ammo inside that vehicle, and all those flames, we'd have all been dead in another minute or two."

Four of the six soldiers rescued later died of their wounds at a hospital. An Afghan interpreter riding in the Bradley died during the bomb attack. Cashe refused to be loaded onto a medical evacuation helicopter until all the other wounded men had been flown.

A citation proposing the Medal of Honor for Cashe reads: "SFC Cashe's selfless and gallant actions allowed the loved ones of these brave soldiers to spend precious time by their sides before they succumbed."

Cashe's sister, Kasinal Cashe White, spent three weeks at her brother's bedside at a military hospital in Texas as doctors treated his extensive burns. She knew nothing of his actions during the bomb attack until a nurse asked her, "You know your brother's a hero, don't you?"

When Cashe was able to speak, White said, his first words were: "How are my boys?" — his soldiers, she said.

Then he began weeping, she said. He told her: "I couldn't get to them fast enough."

Cashe died Nov. 8, 2005.

"My little brother lived by the code that you never leave your soldiers behind," White said. "That wasn't just something from a movie. He lived it."

White says her family hopes Cashe is awarded the medal while his mother, who is 89, is still alive.

White, Mills and Brito are part of a sustained seven-year effort to honor Cashe. They have been joined by Cashe's fellow soldiers, his commanders, two high-ranking generals and a retired drill sergeant who never met Cashe but has mounted a public campaign to draw attention to the sergeant's valor.

"This is a story that needs to be told," said Harry Conner, 62, the former drill sergeant, who runs a Facebook page, "SFC Alwyn Cashe Deserves the Medal of Honor," that has 3,700 members.

"This man allowed himself to burn to death to save his men," Conner said. "To not award him the Medal of Honor would be a terrible injustice."

Brito, who is still on active duty, says he has spent the last seven years locating soldiers and obtaining sworn statements, which he has included in the latest packet he is submitting to the Army.

One statement is from Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, Cashe's division commander, who wrote: "The pain he suffered must have been unimaginable, and yet he continued to suffer in the name of saving others. I cannot remember a story that is its equal."

Taluto, who also commanded Cashe, wrote: "In all my years of service I have yet to witness or hear of such an act of bravery."

Cashe's family and supporters say they don't know why it has taken so long for the Army to decide on the nomination, but they have not raised Cashe's race as an issue. Brito says he was not even aware that no African American has been awarded the medal in the wars following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

White says she has resisted "pulling out the race card."

"He is not just a black soldier who earned the right to the Medal of Honor," she said. "He's a soldier who happens to be black."

Brito says the decorations board has been "cooperative, responsive and professional." Providing the board with the detailed documentation required has taken years, "maybe too much time on my part," he said.

He wishes he had submitted Cashe for a Medal of Honor from the beginning, Brito said, but he has no regrets.

He was focused at the time on the fragile medical condition of Cashe and other burned soldiers. He said he spent his time keeping their families informed while trying to get his soldiers home safely.

Brito says the long, demanding process has taught him that the Medal of Honor is a singular honor that should be reserved for the rare examples of extraordinary courage personified by Cashe.

For Alwyn Cashe, "the criteria of bravery and gallantry under horrible conditions has been met," Brito said. "I'll respect whatever decision is made."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-medal-of-honor-20141207-story.html#page=1

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #218 on: December 18, 2014, 10:33:17 AM »
Special operator awarded Air Force Cross

 Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James pins the Air Force Cross to the uniform of Master Sgt. Ivan Ruiz, a pararescueman from the 56th Rescue Squadron, Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, during a ceremony at the Freedom Hangar on Hurlburt Field, Fla., Dec. 17, 2014.
While deployed to Afghanistan with the 22nd Expeditionary Special Tactics Squadron, Ruiz protected his injured special operations forces teammates with fire support and provided emergency medical care under intense enemy fire in the dark, Dec. 10, 2013. Christopher Callaway/U.S. Air Force photo

Master Sgt. Ivan Ruiz, a pararescueman from the 56th Rescue Squadron, Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, displays his Air Force Cross citation with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James at the Freedom Hangar on Hurlburt Field, Fla., Dec 17, 2014.
CHRISTOPHER CALLAWAY/U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO


By Jon Harper
Stars and Stripes
Published: December 17, 2014

A Galloway Township native and graduate of Absegami High School has been nominated for the nation’s second-highest military honor for saving a coalition soldier during an ambush and firefight in which he was injured in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON — A pararescueman was awarded the Air Force Cross for his bravery in Afghanistan.

Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James presented the medal Wednesday to Master Sgt. Ivan Ruiz during a ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla., the home of Air Force Special Operations Command.

Only five other servicemembers have received the Air Force Cross since 9/11. It ranks second to the Medal of Honor among awards for valor that airmen can earn.

A member of 56th Rescue Squadron at Royal Air Force, Lakenheath, England, Ruiz was deployed to Afghanistan last year as part of the 22nd Expeditionary Special Tactics Squadron.

On Dec. 10, 2013, he was working with U.S. Army Special Forces in Kandahar province when he and two battle buddies were cut off from their teammates while moving through enemy compounds.

After killing several insurgents at point-blank range, the three were pinned down in a courtyard by enemy gunfire and grenades. The two soldiers Ruiz was with were seriously wounded and left immobile and exposed. Ruiz sprinted through gunfire to engage the enemy and defend his teammates, according to an AFSOC description of the battle.

With grenades exploding 15 feet from him, he kept firing at multiple enemy positions to prevent insurgents from overrunning his wounded battle buddies. Ruiz fought off the Taliban until reinforcements arrived.

After receiving fire support, with bullets still flying around him, Ruiz dragged the wounded soldiers out of harm’s way and administered life-saving first aid.

“I just wanted to make sure my guys didn’t get hurt any more than they already were,” Ruiz said at Hurlburt, according to an AFSOC news release. “I just wanted to do my job.”

James praised Ruiz for his actions.

“We reserve the Air Force Cross for those special few who exhibit unequaled courage and bravery despite overwhelming odds, and that’s exactly what [Ruiz] did,” she said during the ceremony, according to the news release.

Ruiz credits his training for enabling him to respond.

“I didn’t really think, I reacted,” Ruiz said, according to the news release. “Anytime something bad happens in my career, I just fall back on my training. It prepares us for what we can encounter when we are doing our work.”

Also attending the ceremony were two Special Forces soldiers whom Ruiz saved in the courtyard.

“I have a great deal of respect for what [Ruiz] and guys like him bring to the fight,” said one soldier, who was not identified in the news release. “It’s always good to know you have guys like that out there with you.”

Ruiz received a Bronze Star with “V” device for his bravery during another battle in Afghanistan just three months before the fight that earned him the Air Force Cross. Over the course of a 13-hour engagement with insurgents in September 2013, Ruiz climbed a hillside and repeatedly exposed himself to hostile fire as he took on eight enemy fighting positions. He helped repel multiple attacks and contributed to more than 100 insurgent deaths, according to an Air Force description of the engagement.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/special-operator-awarded-air-force-cross-1.319893

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #219 on: January 30, 2015, 02:57:01 PM »
One of the last of the 'Doolittle Raiders' dies at 94
Kristin Davis, Air Force Times
January 29, 2015

635581392054471028-edsaylor
(Photo: Air Force)

Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, one of the last survivors of the "Doolittle Raiders" who flew a daring World War II bombing mission over Japan just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Wednesday near Seattle. He was 94.

With Saylor's death, only three of one of the most storied group of airmen in American history remain. When the young men -- all volunteers -- took off from an aircraft carrier some 600 miles at sea on April 18, 1942, they numbered 80.

The raid caused little damage on the intended targets. All of the bombers were lost. But the mission boosted the spirits of the American people -- who were still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor -- and cast doubt in the minds of the Japanese, Lt. Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle, the mission planner, would later write in his autobiography.

Saylor was part of Crew 15, which nearly didn't take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in their twin-engine B-25, said Brian Anderson of New Hampshire, a longtime friend who successfully lobbied for the Congressional Gold Medal the surviving Doolittle Raiders are set to receive later this year in a ceremony in Washington, D.C.


Three of the then-four Doolittle Raiders shared their last and final toast in November 2013 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. From left are Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, Lt. Col. Richard Cole and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher. (Photo: Desiree Palacios/Air Force)
"Ed was a super guy. He had a great smile and was a gentle individual," Anderson said Thursday in a telephone interview with Air Force Times.

"What a lot of people don't know is that he saved Aircraft 15 to go on the mission. It had an engine problem. If Ed had not fixed the problem, they would have pushed his B-25 overboard," he said.

Saylor managed to rebuild part of the B-25's engines aboard the heaving aircraft carrier without the tools he needed, Anderson said. "The rest is history. Plane 15 took off with no issues thanks to the work of Ed Saylor."

Saylor was born in 1920 in Brussett, Mont. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1939 after seeing a poster that promised $78 a month as a mechanic and good peacetime pay as the country still was recovering from the Great Depression, he told Air Force Times in 2009. He became a flight engineer on the B-25.


USA TODAY
Doolittle Raiders set to receive congressional honor
When the call went out in early 1942 for volunteers for a secret mission, Saylor signed up. He did not expect that he would one day be called a hero.

In his late 80s, Saylor still did not see himself as such.

"There is no way you can call yourself a hero," he said in 2009. "That is for someone else to say."

After the raid, Saylor transferred to England and accepted an officer's commission, Anderson said. He retired in 1967 after 28 years in the Air Force. In the years that followed, Saylor "dabbled in real estate and construction. He and his wife, Lorraine, had a restaurant."

Lorraine Saylor died in 2011 after 69 years of marriage. They had three children and a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

"When given the chance to tell the story, he was always eager. The Doolittle Raiders always had time for people and fans to sign autographs and answer questions," Anderson said. "He was just a very gracious gentleman. I'm just honored I had the chance to call him my friend."

Anderson last saw Saylor over Veterans Day weekend at an event in Washington, D.C. "I got to spend a lot of time with Ed. It seemed like he was doing fine. I find out he was in hospice and now he's gone."

Saylor requested a quiet burial.

"He just wants to be laid to rest next to his wife. He's requesting in lieu of flowers that people make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Foundation," Anderson said.

The three surviving Doolittle raiders are Lt. Col. Richard Cole, Staff Sgt. David Thatcher and Lt. Col. Robert Hite.

"This is the Air Force legacy," Anderson said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/29/one-of-last-doolittle-raiders-dies-at-94/22553233/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #220 on: February 01, 2015, 08:42:07 AM »
Where is your picture Beach Bum?


Oh yeah your cowardly ass let the middleclass do the fighting. You are a coward!!

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #221 on: February 02, 2015, 06:48:29 AM »
Great Americans:  Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford.  Their industrial innovations and business empires revolutionized modern society and built America.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #222 on: February 04, 2015, 10:45:31 AM »
WWII 'Devil's Brigade' receives Congressional Gold Medal
By William Hicks, Medill News Service
February 3, 2015

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, presentsHouse Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, presents Eugene Gutierrez Jr., center, and Charles Mann, right, with the Congressional Gold Medal on Feb. 3 for their service with the First Special Service Force during World War II. Known as the "Devil's Brigade," an elite strike force of U.S. and Canadian soldiers conducted covert operations to help liberate France and Italy during World War II. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

WASHINGTON — House and Senate leaders on Tuesday awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the First Special Service Force, also known as the Devil's Brigade, for bravery that helped to end World War II.

"Today we honor a group of men that ensured this great nation would remain free," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said.

The Devil's Brigade was a combination of Americans and Canadians, chosen from tough professional backgrounds such as lumberjacks and miners. They fought crucial battles in Italy and southern France, taking key ground in heavily fortified areas.

"Our force never, in all its service, yielded an inch of ground or left a battle with an indecisive conclusion," said Eugene Gutierrez Jr., U.S. veteran of the First Special Service Force. "The force won everything it fought for."

The soldiers were trained to fight in a variety of situations and environments, from snowy mountains to amphibious assaults. The unit became the model for later special teams such as the Green Berets and Navy Seals.


The Congressional Gold Medal for members of the First Special Service Force whose fearlessness and bravery contributed to the liberation of Europe and end to World War II is on display before the start of the Feb. 3 ceremony on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

The unit gained its reputation by stealthily reaching enemy fortifications in mountainous Italy and sneaking far behind enemy lines. They were among the first Allied troops to liberate Rome from the Nazis. Their deeds inspired the 1968 film, "The Devil's Brigade," which starred William Holden and Cliff Robertson.

"These men represent the finest of the finest," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "So, today, we bestow on them our highest honor."

The Congressional Gold Medal is one of the highest civilian awards in the United States. President George Washington received the first medal in 1776.

Canadian veteran Charles Mann accepted the award on behalf of the dozens of veterans attending the ceremony.

"I am honored and humbled to speak on behalf of the force men present and the force men that are no longer with us," Mann said. "May they rest in peace."

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/02/03/first-special-service-force-devils-brigade-ww2-receives-congressional-gold-medal/22820227/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #223 on: February 09, 2015, 12:34:10 PM »
Oldest survivor of Pearl Harbor's USS Arizona dies
Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic
February 6, 2015

(Photo: Ted Langdell)

Joe Langdell was working as a junior accountant in Boston when he got the idea that he should join the Navy and go to sea. It was 1940 and America edged closer every day to joining the war that raged in Europe.

After proving his sea legs on the battleship New York, Langdell signed up. His college degree earned him a place in an officers' training program. In March 1941, newly commissioned as an ensign, he reported for his first assignment: The USS Arizona, stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

By the end of the year, the mighty Arizona lay shattered beneath the harbor, sunk by Japanese bombers in the Dec. 7 attack that finally propelled the United States into World War II.


Pearl Harbor veterans honored at WWII Memorial

Langdell survived the attack at Pearl Harbor, along with 334 other Arizona crewmen, and devoted much of his later years to preserving the memory of a day that changed history.

"The lesson I've learned from that experience is that the 1,177 men entombed on the ship right now will never know the love of a wife or the joy of grandchildren," he said in 2006, when his son, Ted, interviewed him on video at Pearl Harbor. "We all have to remember that they did not die in vain."

Langdell died early Wednesday in a skilled nursing center in Yuba City, Calif. He was 100, the oldest living survivor of the Arizona. With his passing, just eight crewmen from the mighty battleship remain.


Joseph Langdell was assigned to the USS Arizona when it was attacked in 1941. He was one of 335 men assigned to the ship who survived. He died Feb. 4, 2015, in Yuba City, Calif. (Photo: Ted Langdell)

Ted Langdell said his father had been ill in recent weeks, but had celebrated the holidays with family members and still enjoyed visiting the nurses and other patients. In November, Langdell dressed in his Navy blues and appeared, as has been his custom over the past few years, in the Marysville Veterans' Day parade.

He had celebrated his birthday only a few weeks before.

Joseph Kopcho Langdell was born Oct. 12, 1914, in Wilton, N.H., the oldest son of Luther Langdell and Annie Kopcho Langdell. Earlier that same year, at a Navy ship yard in Brooklyn, work began on the battleship Arizona.

Langdell worked on the family dairy farm and was active in 4H. He joined the Boy Scouts, earning his Eagle badge and beginning an association that would continue years later when his own sons joined and he became a scoutmaster.

He graduated from Boston University in 1938 with a degree in business administration and worked as an accountant until he decided to enlist in the Navy. He attended an officers' training program in Chicago, where he met Elizabeth McGauhy, a young woman he would marry several years later.


USS Arizona: Before Pearl Harbor, the mightiest ship at sea

Langdell's math skills landed him an assignment working with Navy photographers on a way to better measure the accuracy of a ship's guns. He trained for the job on Ford Island, a small patch of land in Pearl Harbor. He spent the night of Dec. 6, 1941, in officers' barracks on the island and was awakened by the Japanese attack.

As bombers strafed the battleships lined up in the harbor, Langdell helped injured sailors and Marines find medical care in a hospital on the island. In the days that followed, he helped recover the bodies of some of his fallen shipmates.

Langdell continued to serve in the Navy through World War II. Afterward, he returned to Boston for a short time, then moved with his wife, Elizabeth, to northern California, where they remained. They ran a furniture store in Yuba City for many years.


The toppled superstructure of the USS Arizona. (Photo: Archives)

He returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976 to visit his older son John, who had joined the Navy and drawn a posting in Hawaii. Langdell visited the site of the sunken Arizona and, after returning home, he sought out other survivors and became active in the USS Arizona Reunion Association.

He served as the group's president and reunion coordinator for many years, returning often to Pearl Harbor.

His wife, Elizabeth, died Oct. 27, 2012. A few months later, he moved into the nursing facility.

His son, Ted, was at his side early Wednesday. A favorite piece of music, Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, played for Langdell's final moments.

A memorial will be held in Yuba City, but Langdell's remains will eventually be interred beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor, in the sunken wreckage of the USS Arizona. Any crew member assigned to the Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941, can have his remains placed near the No. 4 gun turret; so far, 32 have chosen that honor.

Until the end, Langdell liked to wear one of his USS Arizona caps. He kept both within reach of his bed and wheelchair and held onto one during an August 2014 interview with The Arizona Republic, which told the life stories of the last nine survivors of the attack on the ship.

"Why do you like the hat, dad?" his son, Ted, asked.

"It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor," Langdell replied. "The hat represents the Arizona."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/06/oldest-uss-arizona-survivor-dies/22980983/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #224 on: March 04, 2015, 10:10:45 AM »
WAC legacy honored as 108-year-old vet Lucy Coffey fulfills her dream
Visit to Washington, D.C., includes meeting with Obama and Biden
By Meredith Tibbetts
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 1, 2014
 

Lucy Coffey, the oldest living female veteran at the age of 108, does a little dance at the Women's Memorial in Virginia on July 26, 2014.

WASHINGTON — Lucy Coffey dreamed of going to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Va. Last weekend she got her wish — and then some.

Coffey, 108 and the nation’s oldest living female military veteran, was greeted with thunderous applause July 25 at Reagan National Airport and was welcomed to the White House by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“She’s waited over 65 years to see her memorial. ... Not too often we get to bring a veteran to the White House to meet the president and the vice president. They spent some time with her and thanked her for her service,” Allen Bergeron, chairman of the Austin Honor Flight, said.

Though Coffey — who was part of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II — did not walk and cannot speak much, she was actively engaging with the people around her.

“At 108, think of all she has seen. And now she has seen everything that was built for her,” Bergeron said. “The World War II Memorial representing the 400,000 killed and the 16 million that served and this beautiful Women’s Memorial that was built in her honor.”

Coffey enlisted in 1943, around the time of her 37th birthday. She had tried to enlist several times before, but was rejected for being too short or too slim.

She earned two Bronze Stars (for support services in the Philippines and what is now Dutch New Guinea), a WAC Service Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and a World War II Victory Medal. Coffey, whose last rank was staff sergeant, was one of 150,000 women who served as WACs during the war.

WAC members were the first women besides nurses to serve in the U.S. Army. Coffey served mainly in the Pacific theater, going to Australia and Dutch New Guinea before finally arriving in the Philippines in April 1945. Her last stop was Okinawa, Japan.

While in the Army, she worked as an accountant-statistician and served in the procurement office.

“Two of Lucy’s brothers also joined the service in World War II,” John Mulrey, Coffey’s nephew, said. “They both served in the Pacific theater in Philippines and Guam.

All three of them ended up in the Pacific at the same time.

“We could have sworn they made a connection one time ... but her brothers were actually in the infantry and a day ahead,” Mulrey said.

That meant Coffey’s brothers were usually out of the area by the time she arrived. One time, however, Coffey’s group was much closer to the fighting than they had intended, which she described as “pretty terrifying.”

Food and water were sometimes scarce for Coffey and her fellow WACs. On at least one occasion, “Navy boys” gave her onion sandwiches and beer. In New Guinea, each WAC member was given two helmets of water for personal use during periods of water shortages.

John Mulrey, a Vietnam veteran, accompanied his aunt from San Antonio, Texas, on the trip to Washington, D.C., with his wife JoAnn. He joined the military because he thought it was better to join than be drafted and because he wanted to serve his country.

“I guess (being in the military) just runs in the family,” he said.

Coffey was honorably discharged in November 1945, but stayed in Japan as a civil servant for about 10 years. She later transferred to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio where she worked until her retirement in 1971.

“She is very, very shy about her time in the service. She doesn’t talk about it much,” Mulrey said. “She just did what she had to do.”

“She’s just very humble,” his wife said.

Though Coffey dreamed of going back to Japan, she never did. But she was able to go to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on July 26. She smiled at the old uniforms on display and listened intently to the president of the women’s memorial, Ret. USAF Brig. Gen. Wilma L. Vaught, explain different exhibits as she was wheeled around the memorial.

Earlier in the day, Coffey visited the National World War II Memorial, where she met former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kansas) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

American Airlines provided a free, first-class trip for Coffey. The Austin Honor Flight team took care of the rest, spending about two weeks pulling everything together.

“This, I think, has made her feel so proud. ... and I think it has awoken a spirit that she buried a long time ago,” John Mulrey said. “It is the ultimate memory for Lucy.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/wac-legacy-honored-as-108-year-old-vet-lucy-coffey-fulfills-her-dream-1.295422