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List of passed Veterans.....

MACV

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Dick Meadows

http://www.ultimatesniper.com/View_...EATEST SPECIAL OPS SOLDIER: MAJ. DICK MEADOWS


AMERICA'S GREATEST SPECIAL OPS SOLDIER: MAJ. DICK MEADOWS
Find out why he's the only Green Beret with his own statue at Ft. Bragg
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)

It was perfect timing. Dick Meadows phoned not a dozen days after I'd finished two year's work on a history of SOG. At last we could start his twice-postponed biography.

And what a tale to tell: Project White Star, SOG, the Son Tay Raid, Delta Force, the drug wars - - Meadows had lived one adventure after another, dodging bullets on three continents for 45 years. In our caricature world of hoo-yah Rambos, Dick was genuine and unassuming, the boy next door with a CAR-15, America's Otto Skorzeny or David Sterling. No matter his rank -- master sergeant, captain, major -- all of us in Special Forces knew him as Dick Meadows, a man who didn't need a rank to be who he was; Meadows was Meadows.

It would be a fabulous book.

"But I have a problem," Meadows announced, his soft voice hinting nothing special. "I'm dying, John."

A brick couldn't have hit so hard. Ten days earlier he'd been in Central America when fatigue so overwhelmed him that he came home. His doctor diagnosed leukemia, in its final, most virulent stage. That simply couldn't be. Though 64, Meadows looked two decades younger, fit, trim and vigorous.

"How long do you have?" I asked.

"A week."

True to his word, six days later Dick Meadows died.

A Self-Made Soldier

There was no one like Dick Meadows. He lived the life on which books are written -- in the plural. Born in a dirt-floor West Virginia moonshiner's cabin, in 1947 Meadows lied his age to become a 15-year-old paratrooper, then so distinguished himself in Korea that he was that war's youngest master sergeant, at age 20. The quick-learning but largely self-taught Green Beret acquired such a descriptive vocabulary and sophisticated style that it surprised people to learn he had only a ninth-grade education. The British SAS, with whom Meadows served two years on exchange in the late fifties, thought so much of him that they entrusted him with serious responsibilities. In fact, an SAS sergeant major entrusted him with his daughter, Pamela, for a bride.

In the early sixties he deployed covertly with other Green Berets to Laos where, led by Colonel Arthur 'Bull' Simons, they trained Kha Tribesmen to fight the Pathet Lao and NVA. These Project White Star men were withdrawn when Laos was declared 'neutral' at a Geneva Conference.

SOG Team Leader Extraordinaire

It was in SOG -- the top secret Studies and Observations Group, the Vietnam War's covert special operations unit -- that Meadows really shined. He spent two years in SOG, all of it running missions deep behind enemy lines in Laos and North Vietnam while leading Chinese Nung mercenaries on Recon Team Iowa.

Before each operation, Meadows built a terrain map in the dirt, then had his whole team memorize the prominent features. "Meadows did everything meticulously, everything was rehearsed," then-Major Scotty Crerar recalls. "You could have taken a film of [his] mission preparation and used it as a training film."

Like a martial arts master certain of his abilities, Meadows possessed an unegotistical confidence -- fearless but not oblivious to danger. He was a practitioner of the tactically sublime, able to assess a situation in a glance, weigh his alternatives and act in a flash.




"Just back from another successful covert mission along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, Meadows (back row, third from left), poses with Recon Team Iowa.
Much of Meadows' reputation evolved from capturing prisoners, at which according to then- Colonel Jack Singlaub, Meadows proved SOG's most prolific prisoner snatcher, bringing back 13 NVA from Laos. He once arrayed Recon Team Iowa beside a trail when instead of the desired one man, five NVA strolled up and stopped right there for lunch. Meadows stepped out and announced, "Good morning, gentlemen. You are now POWs." Despite his warning, "No, no, no," three went for their AKs, so, 'yes, yes, yes,' Meadows shot them faster than you read this. The other two proved surprisingly compliant.

"Meadows is cunning," thought one of SOG's most accomplished combat leaders, then-Captain Ed Lesesne, who adds with a touch of awe, "he's a killing machine, and I mean to tell you -- Meadows is a calculating, cool guy."

Chief SOG Donald 'Headhunter' Blackburn, a highly decorated WWII guerrilla leader, so admired Meadows that he thought of him as a son.

Battlefield Commission

Meadows had a knack for making history, as in 1966 when he proved North Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong a liar. Pham had been insisting not a single North Vietnamese soldier had been sent to South Vietnam, telling U.S. anti-war activist Tom Hayden such allegations were, "a myth fabricated by the U.S. imperialists to justify their war of aggression."

Pham's deceit seemed by its magnitude unbreachable. Was this a war of conquest from the North, or a popular revolt by South Vietnam's peasantry? General William Westmoreland couldn't offer Congressional doubters a 'smoking gun.'

Then Meadows helped out.

Laying beside Laotian Highway 110, his RT Iowa was watching North Vietnamese soldiers and porters pass by. Meadows pulled from his pocket a Pen-EE camera, crawled forward and snapped a whole roll of photos.

Then he and his assistant team leader, Chuck Kearns, crawled back beyond enemy earshot and Meadows decided on an even more dangerous gambit; in Kearns' rucksack was an 8mm motion picture camera, which he'd brought along on a lark. Meadows took it, crept perilously close to the trail and began rolling, shooting a few frames of each NVA that came into his viewfinder, footage of such perfect exposure that it came out like mugshots. For an hour Meadows laid there and recorded nearly a whole battalion -- hundreds of heavily armed North Vietnamese -- marching alongside porters toting loads of military supplies.

Chief SOG had Meadows personally brief his findings to Gen. Westmoreland, who couldn't help but praise Meadows and SOG. Meadows' film was rushed to Washington and presented in a closed-door briefing of select Congressmen who nodded convinced that Hanoi was lying.

A few months later Meadows penetrated an NVA Laotian cache which contained Russian-made artillery pieces. The Howitzers were too big to carry back, even for Meadows, so he photographed them and brought out their sights.

Again Chief SOG had Meadows brief Westmoreland, who almost hugged the intense Green Beret master sergeant when he presented a souvenir: A Soviet-made artillery sight. Westmoreland noted, it was exactly such evidence "which finally prompted the State Department to relax its restrictions on firing into the DMZ."





"Shortly after receiving his battlefield direct commission from Gen. Westmoreland, Captain Meadows is all smiles." (Photo courtesy of Jim Storter)
Deeply impressed by the sincere, quiet-spoken Green Beret, Westmoreland gave Meadows a direct commission to captain -- the Vietnam War's first battlefield commission -- and cited him by name in his memoires.

In October, 1966, Chief SOG Jack Singlaub chose Meadows to lead SOG's first American-led operation into the heartland of North Vietnam, to rescue a downed U.S. Navy fighter pilot.

Lieutenant Deane Woods had parachuted onto a heavily jungled ridgeline halfway between Vinh and Hanoi, 30 miles inland, where for several days he'd been evading NVA searchers.

Launching by Navy helicopter off the carrier Intrepid, Meadows took in a 13-man team that made it within 500 yards of Lt. Woods when the NVA captured him.

"A cautious soldier would have taken his men to the nearest extraction point and departed enemy territory," Chief SOG Singlaub says. "But Meadows was not overly cautious."

Coming upon a major trail, Meadows set up an ambush to capture a prisoner. Momentarily, an NVA officer and three soldiers walked up, alert, still searching for Woods, apparently unaware he'd been captured.

To the NVA soldiers' astonishment Meadows stepped from the dense foliage, leveled his AK-47, and called a friendly, "Good morning." As one, all four NVA went for their guns, but Meadows shot first, killing them all in one blur. While his men searched the bodies, Meadows radioed for an exfil and soon they were on their way out.

After the war, Meadows met Lt. Woods, who'd spent six years as a POW, and presented him with the Tokarev pistol he'd taken off the dead NVA officer.





"Meadows proved to be SOG's most prolific prisoner snatcher, bringing back 15 NVA from Laos, including this one he's handcuffing for a flight to Saigon." (Photo by Medal of Honor winner, George k. Sisler)
POW Rescue at Son Tay

Meadows' best known mission had to be the Son Tay Raid, the November, 1970 attempted rescue of American POWs from a prison 23 miles west of Hanoi. Meadows didn't merely lead the assault element, but served as the primary trainer of the entire raiding force, teaching them everything he'd learned about close quarters combat and small unit tactics.

When the raiders landed at Son Tay, it was Meadows' voice on the megaphone that called, "We're Americans. Keep your heads down. This is a rescue.... We'll be in your cells in a minute."

But Son Tay was empty, its POWs moved while the camp was being refurbished. Though an intelligence failure, the raid boosted POW morale and compelled Hanoi, at last, to cease mistreating American prisoners.

Son Tay inspired the Israeli rescue mission six years later at Entebbe, right down to the megaphone instructions to captives.

Our Man in Tehran

Dick Meadows retired with 30 years service in 1977, but he couldn't stay away long, especially when Colonel 'Chargin' Charlie' Beckwith asked him to be the civilian trainer of his newly formed counter-terrorist unit, Delta Force.

The adaptable Meadows applied all he knew of long range raiding, recon and close combat, and modified it to fit the terrorism environment, resulting in the world's most respected counter- terrorist organization.





Meadows, (left, with megaphone), trains at Eglin AFB, Fla., with the famous Son Tay Raiders for the 1970 attempt to rescue American POWs just 23 miles west of Hanoi. In the background is the prison mockup. (USAF photo)
He retired again in 1980, then a few months later came back to assist Delta's hostage rescue in Iran. The Carter Administration had gutted the CIA of operatives capable of reconning the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, leaving Delta Force planners without the tactical details they needed.

A CIA bureaucrat initially rejected Meadows as a covert advance man, calling him, "An amateur with poor cover, poor backup and poor training." Meadows told the CIA he'd go into Tehran with or without their assistance. Given those options, CIA Director Stansfield Turner approved Meadows and had him issued a false Irish passport. Apparently, Iranian immigration couldn't tell the difference between an Irish brogue and West Virginia twang, because they waved Meadows -- posing as 'Richard Keith,' a European auto company executive -- right through customs.

Meadows surveilled the U.S. Embassy, reconned Delta Force's planned route into the city and watched for any hint of hostile counter-surveillance at the warehouse in which the CIA and a Green Beret advance team had hidden Delta's trucks and gear.

Meadows would guide the Delta raiders then join them in the assault -- but they never got to him.

Deep in the Iranian desert, Delta's mission was aborted, two aircraft collided and its helicopters had to be abandoned. But in their rush to escape, the chopper pilots haphazardly left behind documents that disclosed Meadows' warehouse location. Due to satellite communications problems, Meadows did not learn what had happened for 24 hours and barely escaped into Turkey.

Meadows also played a yet undisclosed role in the 1979 rescue of two H. Ross Perot employees from an Iranian prison, a mission led by his old boss, Colonel Arthur 'Bull' Simons, which was the basis of Ken Follett's 1983 bestseller, "On Wings of Eagles."





"Virtually no one outside the black ops and Special Forces community knew of Dick Meadows until he made the cover of Newsweek i the early 1980s."
Meadows Last Patrol

Despite an affinity for bass fishing, Meadows still could not retire. In the mid-1980s he volunteered to operate an aircraft refueling front in the Caribbean to ensnare Columbian drug cartel smugglers.

Then he operated for a decade in Peru, helping plantation owners and businesses defend themselves from Sendero Luminosa terrorists who'd have liked nothing more than put a bullet through him -- they never got close.

Twice he told me he'd become frustrated by inadequacies in the War on Drugs, and doubted U.S. sincerity. Though he was not on the U.S. government payroll, many times over the past decade he helped 'the community' in ways which must remain unsaid. Several times he negotiated the release of kidnap victims in South America.




Within weeks of his death, Meadows was still active in Central America. During his career he'd been awarded every U.S. valor award except the Medal of Honor. "If he hadn't done so many things that are classified, he'd have been the most decorated soldier in the Army," Colonel Elliot 'Bud' Sydnor, the ground force commander at Son Tay, told Newsweek magazine for a 1982 cover story.

When H. Ross Perot learned of Meadows' imminent death, he reportedly phoned President Clinton to see that he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal. It was presented posthumously to his family by the U.S. Special Operations Command commander, General Wayne Downing, who relayed the President's condolences and called Meadows, "one of America's finest unsung heroes."




Facing the certainty of death in his last week, he told me, "It's like I'm preparing for one last patrol." In those final days, Gen. Downing assured Meadows there would be a SOCOM award for young special operators to commemorate his name.

Having come so close at Son Tay and in Tehran, Dick once told me his only unfulfilled wish in life was, "To lead one that succeeded." That's the job now for younger men he and his record will inspire, perhaps a recipient of the award that bears his name.



Presidential Citizens Medal Citation
"With courage, initiative and devotion to duty, Major Richard Meadows, USA (ret), has made extraordinary contributions to the security of this nation. After enlisting in the Army at the age of 15, he became the youngest Master Sergeant of the Korean War. His exceptional Special Forces and civilian career included operations behind enemy lines in Vietnam for which he received a rare battlefield commission, leadership in a daring rescue attempt of POWs at Son Tay Prison near Hanoi, infiltration into Tehran for the Desert One hostage rescue mission, and a key role in establishing the elite Delta Force. Repeatedly answering our country's call and taking on the most dangerous and sensitive missions, few have been as willing to put themselves in harm's way for their fellow countrymen."


(s) William J. Clinton
[26 July 95]


Statement by President Clinton
I mourn the passing today of Major Richard J. Meadows, USA (ret.), whose dedicated and exceptional service is cherished by everyone who knew of his extraordinary courage and selfless service.

I recently asked General Wayne Downing, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command, to present the Presidential Citizens Medal to Major Meadows. I am gratified to know that Major Meadows' wife, Pamela, and son, Mark, a U.S. Army captain, and his daughter Michelle, will receive this award tonight at a gathering of those involved in the Son Tay raid at Hurlbert Field. Although this now will be a posthumous award, I am pleased that Major Meadows knew of this honor before he died. To Major Meadows's family and friends and to the Special Operations community, I extend my heartfelt condolences. We will all remember him as a soldier's soldier and one of America's finest unsung heroes.
 

Black Elk

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Well it's pretty late again and I have been pushing waaay too hard so I can not pull any 'details' out of my hat -

HONORED & Passed:
*The first is my great Aunt: she was some kind of spook in the second BIG one.
*My Grandfather: Sgt Battle of the buldge. ( I have his flag )
My Wife's Grandfather: ? Battle of the buldge, what was that city that the quartermaster corp held the krouts back?
*My Father: ? Airman ? SAC (when there was a SAC)

Yet Living:
My Wife's Father: ?USN ? Friget I think.
*My Brother: ? what ever the second level of officer is USN, HI.
*My Son: Just enlisted w/ Army Rangers.
*My Self: E4, Disabled. Now private Joe w/ a new shot (since they fixed my spine).

*My personal family's gift to the freedom in America.

I know there are ohters I forget but I am sooo tired I can hardly see the screen and now it istime for a Pain pill... .

(I know sthis looks stufpic and I really am more intellagent then what you see here - also have many more details but must get to selleep.) night
sorry.

:smile: :rolleyes: wanted to honor my family.

David
 

warbird

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My uncle;

PFC John Everett Beatty, 1907-1977, Quartermaster Corp., US Army 1942-43

Like a lot of others, he left the farm when called-up. In later life he told me his time in the service was the biggest adventure of his life.
 

CR1198

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My father, Charles Mahlon Rice, was in WWII, as a pharmacist's mate. He received 2 purple hearts, a bronze star, a China Service Medal, and many other awards that I am not aware of. He passed away in 1979 of scleroderma.
 

hankenglish

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List of Passed Veterans

My father, Steven Henry English; served in the Coast Guard during WW2 off the coast of Florida. I know that now the CG is not considered military, being part of the Dept. of Commerce, not the DOD, but I suspect you'd never have known it during WW2. He never talked about it much, and he died in 1958 when I was 15 so I never knew him real well. But I miss him and want to honor his memory.

Lt. Col. Hale Miller, USAF, my mentor during my three years at Itazuke, Japan. Passed away in 1988 of a heart attack.

Hank English
once upon a time, Capt. USAF
RVN 1966-67
 

Muggzy

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2nd Lt. Lloyd Hitchins
KIA December 13th 1967 at Dak To - Republic of Viet Nam
Bronze Star with "V" Device

my brother

my hero

God Bless ya

picture was taken day before he headed for Viet Nam

:whiskey: been 40 years, Brother

50,000 Names Carved in the Wall http://home.comcast.net/~singingman7/TNOTW.htm:whiskey:

here's to ya Bro....:whiskey:


Lloyd Lynn Hitchins
Second Lieutenant
PERSONAL DATA
Home of Record: Champaign, IL
Date of birth: 08/30/1946

MILITARY DATA
Service: Army of the United States
Grade at loss: O1
Rank: Second Lieutenant
ID No: O5334675
MOS: 1542: Infantry Unit Commander
Length Service: 02
Unit: C CO, 3RD BN, 8TH INFANTRY, 4TH INF DIV, USARV

CASUALTY DATA
Start Tour: 11/04/1967
Incident Date: 12/13/1967
Casualty Date: 12/13/1967
Age at Loss: 21
Location: Kontum Province, South Vietnam
Remains: Body recovered
Casualty Type: Hostile, died outright
Casualty Reason: Ground casualty
Casualty Detail: Misadventure






1
 
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Sayeret Tzanhanim

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CPT Ralph Mahoney, 5th SFG(A)/MACV-SOGCCN, OPERATION WHITE STAR
SILVER STAR
BRONZE STAR W "V" DEVICE, 2ND AWARD
PURPLE HEART, 2ND AWARD
SF BROTHER FOR 15 YEARS
AA SPONSOR FOR TWO
BLEW HIS BRAINS ALL OVER HIS PORCH WITH AN OLD M16A1 SOUVENEIR LAST MAY
WE THOUGHT THE PASSAGE OF TIME WOULD SAVE US
 
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whirlibird

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Maj. Betty Fulton Wittstrom US Army Medical Corps, MASH unit, Italy WWII
Passed Dec 2005 of age related conditions.

Lt. Col. Martian Wittstrom US Army, WWII and Korea, Artillery Officer.
Passed 1981 from heart conditions.

Joseph Wittstrom US Army, Vietnam, Helicopter pilot, (Huey, Chinook, Sikorsky)
Helicoptor instructor, Fixed wing pilot for Desert Storm/ Gulf War 1.
Passed 2001.

Capt. Robert Bouchard, US Army Air Corps WWII, bombadier.
Artillery spotter/intelligence Korea.
Passed Dec 1995 of cancer.
 

Dunsel

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My adopted Dad was 17 when he enlisted in the USMC to go and fight in the war to end all wars. He was nothing special, never got wounded, never won a medal he was just one of the thousands of Mud Marines who fought the kisers men and lived to get home again. 23 years later served again, and once again managed to live to get home.... where he eventually adopted an ugly orphaned kid from a Iowa orphanage. He died of heart failure in 1970. I still miss you Dad!
 

Arby

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R. C. Breaux. D: 11/91

France, 1944. C/53rd, 4th Armored Div. Silver Star with Oak Leaves, Bronze Star with Oak Leaves.

Tough old bird when in a pinch, genteel and loving parent to his children.
 

Tailback

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Re: List of Passed Veterans

hankenglish said:
My father, Steven Henry English; served in the Coast Guard during WW2 off the coast of Florida. I know that now the CG is not considered military, being part of the Dept. of Commerce, not the DOD, but I suspect you'd never have known it during WW2.
I grew up on the Oregon coast and had many friends and relatives of theirs that made their living on the ocean. Anybody that doesn't think the men and women of the Coast Guard don't risk their lives on a daily basis for others is just plain stupid.

A co-worker of mine was a bosun's mate on a motor lifeboat (the ones that are 'usually' capsize proof) based at the mouth of the Columbia River where I grew up. He says their motto was "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back." BTW, for those that don't know it, the Columbia River bar crossing is considered one of the top 5 most dangerous bar crossings in the world.

My former roommate, a guy I've known since I was 4 years old, who's now the captain of a tugboat on the Puget Sound, a husband, and a father of two boys, is alive because of a Coast Guard helicopter and rescue swimmer.

I've spent over 20 years in the "so called" real military and I'd happily buy a drink for a Coast Guardsman anytime.

Ethanol is the answer, because it's OK to kill each other over granola bars, just not oil.
 

photomike

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For my Grandad.

Tsgt Elbert Leo Tanner
Combat Engineer
3rd I.D.

Saw action in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

A truck he was riding in the cab hit a German Teller mine and he was declared "disabled" and was taken out of theater and spent a year recuperating in hospital.

He worked in sales, hunted and fished the rest of his life and never got a handicap tag for his car or took advantage of it.

He taught me most of what I know about being a decent person. He always gave more than he took.

I still miss him on those early morning duck hunts and late afternoon dove shoots.

Love you Papaw,

Mike
 

mace2364

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SSG Kristopher Higdon KIA May 2007
SFC Jose Rivera KIA 3 Nov 2003
PVT Kyle Gilbert KIA 5 Aug 2003


You all died way too young. The world is a lesser place without you. Rest in peace brothers.
 
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ohio fal fan

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id like to speak a little of my late grandfather . Robert Ernist Miller , born in 1910 in Johnson City , TN . he was a poor tobacco farmer and sometimes a coal miner . haveing trouble paying child surrport , a judge said join the army or go to jail . that was 1944 . he was a jeep driver and was allso a guard for patton once . during his crossing of the river rhine , the waters were rough , he droped his garand in the river . on landing he found a dead german , and took his rifle and ammo . it was a steyer 95, straight slide . he fought with it for weeks . his leut. said " i dont care what he carrys , hes getting his job done ". he went home after the war . bringing home his steyer 95 . he was a srgt. carryed on his life , and was called back for korea . after the war was over he bought the jeep he drove in the war . bringing it back with him to the mountains just outside of johnson city , tn . years later he retireed from the army in 1965 . to spend his remaning years in a house not much larger then the shack he was born in . he left this world in 1985 from heart failure . i was only 8 when he died but i remberer him as a kind older man that had a closet full of shotguns and rifles . he taught my father , a usmc vet to shoot and love the outdoors . and my father taught the same to me . rest in peace . your wars are over .


ohio fal fan
 

ohio fal fan

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one more detail . i have his steyer 95 and im rebuildin it . im in the process of looking for a new bolt . the safety lever is broken . im guessing its just easyer to find a whole new bolt . any ideas guys ?



thanks. ohio fal fan
 

martin35

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Several days ago I read a news release about a group that searched for the resting place of missing military members from wars they fought in.
It was announced that they believed they had found the remains of 139 Marines reported missing at Tarawa (Betio) They were in a grave near the airstrip that dominated the atoll and their resting place had probably been incorporated into the expansion done after the island was secured and occupied by Army troops, I suppose this was a oversight by graves registration and like much of the early war efforts not well coordinated.
A cousin was one who was interred there, his grave was in the cemetery there, at one time there was a sign that read "Who did his work, Held his place, and had no fear to die."
A long ago memory from boyhood bought back to me.
I have not thought of him in many years nor do I suspect has anyone else.
Semper Fi Cpl.E L. Martin 2nd Mar Div. Lest we forget.
 
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DarkEarth

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My dad, Arthur Joseph Purser. MSG US ARMY.

Born May 4 1924 Passed Jan 8 1998 @ 73
CIB 3 Wars, DSC, SS, PH

Jumped on D-day with 101st, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Took a chinese bayonet to the stomach in Korea, Two tours Viet Nam.

Army Marksmanship Unit between wars, he spoke of Camp Perry national matches and various pistol matches.

After the Army was 12 years as a police firearms instructor.

I miss him every day and Im currently working on a shadow box for all his medals and his flag.

Buried with full military honors at Ft. Benning, Columbus GA next to his first son. David Arthur Purser. USMC killed by a sniper while on point with his German Shepard "king" in Viet Nam.

Father and Son fought in Viet Nam at the same time.
 

Texgunner

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I'd like to add my dad, John H. Brantley. He served in the 87th Infantry Division, "the Golden Acorn", in the ETO from 1944 to 1945. My dad was born July 13, 1923 in Maysfield, Texas and was one of 13 children in a dirt-poor share-cropping family. He died May 17, 1979 at the age of 55.

He was in a communications outfit in the 87th and never talked a whole lot about the war. He did have several stories from his experiences in the Battle of the Bulge. Dad worked at the Rockdale, Texas Aluminum Smelting plant for Alcoa from 1954 until he died. He was a company man.

He was a great father, a humble man who loved to set out throw lines and drop lines in Central Texas rivers and catch beaucoup fish. When I was a young kid, he could hit a baseball higher and farther than any man I knew and could throw a wicked knuckle ball right past you. I was weaned on stories of the Great Depression and like all his siblings, he would tell you that FDR was the greatest president we'd had. For the very poorest people, like my dad's family and many like them, Roosevelt's policies and programs made a tangible difference in their life (read: money in their pocket and food on their table.)

My children were born after my dad was dead, which was a great shame as he just had a magical way with little children. I miss him every day and never imagined that I'd have to go through so many big events in my life without him.
Gary
 

martin35

un muy viejo gringo
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FALaholic #
2939
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Mar 20, 2001
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Texas on the Brazos
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It's late night early morning and I have been on the net, I visted the Marine Embassy Guards Association site that was founded by a FAL member who was called "Da Nerd", Robert L. Kienietz a 6 year Marine veteran, he's gone.
Born Feb. 1936 Died Feb. 2007
Semper Fi

site;http://www.embassymarine.org/Officers.html
 
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