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#4479723 - 06/24/19 12:35 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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RIP

This thread has been a very sobering read.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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#4479729 - 06/24/19 01:37 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
RIP

This thread has been a very sobering read.


And it contains only a small fraction of the 400 or so WWII veterans we loose every day in just the US.

#4483484 - 07/20/19 03:29 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness, we have learned that WWII Veteran George Haines, one of Rochester's most visible and vocal World War II veterans, has died. He was 94.

Haines, who lived in Greece, was among the veterans of Rochester's that have been involved with The Greatest Generations Foundation programs in recent years.

He served in the U.S. Army 24th Division in the Pacific and saw two years of combat. His story was recorded and now sits in the Library of Congress.

"I saw a lot, and we just...it's something you don't tell spread out, but it's in your mind all your life," Haines said.

Known for his ability to live vivaciously and always have many irons in the fire, his service to our country and creation of cross-stitched flags that he gave away.

Family members said fellow WWII veteran and TGGF Ambassador Pete DuPre was at Haines' bedside Wednesday night, playing hymns on his harmonica as his friend passed away.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web. www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Haines.jpg
#4483485 - 07/20/19 03:29 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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LIFE REMEMBERED: William Tully Brown, one of the last Navajo Code Talkers, dies at 96, leaving only five living Navajo Code Talkers.

Brown was born in Black Mountain, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1944. He served at the battles of Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal, and received several commendations including the American Campaign and World War Two Victory medals. He was honorably discharged two years later.

The Code Talkers used their native language to create an unbreakable code that stumped the Japanese and helped turn the tide in the Pacific during World War II.

Brown is the third Navajo Code Talker to die in the past month following New Mexico State Sen. Jonn Pinto.

”Every Day is Memorial Day”
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Brown.jpg
#4483486 - 07/20/19 03:30 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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LIFE REMEMBERED: ROY M.HANNA, JR., World War II veteran, Member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division has passed away. Mr. Hanna was 102.

Raised on a dairy farm in central Pennsylvania, Mr. Hanna attended Penn State University where he was a member of Sigma Chi and the Penn State Boxing Team, winning the Intercollegiate Golden Glove championship in the Light Weight Division in 1939. In 1940 he volunteered for military service.

During World War II, First Lt. Roy Hanna was a platoon leader in the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Infantry Division. In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross, Hanna went on to receive 10 other citations for his service in the Second World War. After leaving the Army, Hanna had a successful career in the dairy industry. A Pennsylvania native and centenarian, Hanna’s called Pinehurst home now for 36 years.

In 2009, Mr. Hanna made the return back to Holland for the 65th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden with The Greatest Generations Foundation. Hie will be remembered by so many. RIP Mr. Hanna.

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

Attached Files HANNA.jpg
#4483487 - 07/20/19 03:30 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: World War II veteran Mr. Joseph Iscovitz, one of few remaining Pearl Harbor survivors has died. He was 103.

On the morning of December 07, 1941, Joseph Iscovitz picked up a machine gun to defend his country against attacking Japanese planes on a date that lives in infamy. It was still a defining moment in his 103-year life when he died Tuesday.

Joseph Iscovitz was among the oldest survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack that brought the United States into World War II, a 25-year-old Army Air Corps sergeant stationed at Fort Shafter on the island the morning of the surprise attack, reports the Sun Sentinel.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Iscovitz.jpg
#4483488 - 07/20/19 03:31 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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LIFE REMEMBERED: Dorothy Dwyer, who worked for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as one of the first women shipped overseas during World War II, has died. She was 98.

Dwyer’s family will remember her for her loving, adventurous and humorous spirit, as well as for her love for gardening and serving her country.

In an recent interview, Dwyer shared a few of her photographs and memories from her military service, including a snapshot of Winston Churchill and the time she literally ran into French Gen. Charles de Gaulle in a hallway.

Dwyer was part of the first step in the offensive against Hitler’s European fortress, when the Allies moved their forces into North Africa in 1943.

At that point, she was working in the nerve center of the Allied effort in Europe and Africa.

“Churchill was there a lot to meet with Eisenhower,” she told The Columbian. “I was going around a corner and walked into the stomach of Gen. de Gaulle,” who stood about 6-foot-5.

“I saluted and left.”

Back then, she was Dorothy Grassby, and had enlisted Oct. 1, 1942, in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps — forerunner of the Women’s Army Corps (WACs).

Dwyer was previously part of the Boston area’s aircraft warning system, where she would listen for airplane engines and report anything that didn’t sound like an American plane. She also registered military-aged men for the draft. That’s when she started thinking about joining herself.

“I was four months short of 21, but they needed us,” she said in 2009. “Dad said it was too dangerous. I went anyway.”

She completed basic training at a former Army cavalry post, Fort Des Moines, Iowa. In the summer of 1943, Dwyer’s unit boarded the SS Santa Rosa, an ocean liner that had been converted into a troop ship. They landed at the Mediterranean port of Oran, Algeria, on Aug. 21, 1943, then boarded a train for Algiers.

Later in her career, Dwyer joined the staff of Gen. Benjamin Chidlaw, deputy commanding general of the 12th Tactical Air Command. Her job was to write letters home to the families of people killed or missing in action.

“No two letters could be the same,” she remembered. “It was a hard job. Another GI and I did that.”

Dwyer served until June 1945, according to her family.

May God welcome you into your Eternal Rest, Mrs. Dorothy Dwyer, we humbly thank you for your bravery, dedication and leadership during your service in World War II. The world owes you a great debt of gratitude.

R.I.P., Mrs. Dwyer. Truly one of Our Greatest Generation.

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is MEMORIAL DAY”
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Dwyer.jpg
#4483489 - 07/20/19 03:32 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: World War II veteran Mr. Edward Haight has died at age 94.

A Chicago native, Haight enlisted in the Navy in October 1942 at age 19. On D-Day — June 6, 1944 — he was stationed on the flying bridge of the minesweeper USS Raven off Utah Beach as it provided support for landing craft that invaded France to attack Axis troops.

Haight gathered sonar readings and called out instructions to others aboard the 220-foot vessel, a role that earned him the nickname “Ping.”

Last month, Haight recalled that the D-Day invasion was postponed one day because Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied commander in Europe, determined that rough weather made crossing the English Channel too risky. Haight said the weather improved only slightly the next day, and he battled severe seasickness to carry out his duties on June 6.

On 5 June Raven proceeded to her assigned area off Normandy and participated in the sweep of the fire control area for Utah Beach. From this time until August she was active in clearing approach channels to the Normandy beachheads.

In August 1944 she sailed to Oran, thence to Naples, Italy. From then until June 1945 she performed sweeping and patrol duty in the Straits of Bonifacio, clearing the way for ships en route to the invasion of southern France, and sweeping off the French Riviera and Italian Riviera and off Corsica. During the entire European operation, including D-Day, Raven swept 21 German and Italian naval mines.

Asked if he incurred any injuries, Haight said, “I got hit a few times, but I didn’t get hurt. You can’t be where all that crap is and not get hit.”

Haight returned to Chicago after the war and operated a gas station for a time. He moved to Florida after his first marriage ended, and he married Geri Westphal, a former Cypress Gardens skier, in 1989.

Haight had a career as a salesman of plumbing parts and continued working until age 93. He received a Legion of Honor medal in 2011 from French military officers during a ceremony.

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

Attached Files Haight.jpg
#4484362 - 07/28/19 12:34 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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LIFE REMEMBERED - Australian World War II fighter pilot hero Mr. Ron Cundy has died aged 97.

Mr Cundy served in both the RAAF and the RAF, was mentioned in Dispatches and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Distinguished Flying Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty in bombing operations over Tobruk and the Middle East in 1943.

He was born William Ronald Cundy at Moonan Flat, 60km north-east of Scone, NSW in 1922.

According the Spitfire Association website, Mr Cundy was determined to become a pilot after viewing the landing of an aircraft with two pilots at Moonan Flat, when he was just six years old.

"At eighteen years of age, he attempted to persuade his parents to join the RAAF. It was only after some months that they accepted, and he was then allowed to enlist on the 19th October 1940 as an aircrew trainee under the Empire Air Training Scheme," the Spitfire Association's website states.

He trained on Tiger Moths at Narrandera and at 19 went to Canada to train on North American Harvards where he was awarded his wings and became a Sergeant Pilot. He was then sent to England for operational training on Hurricanes and posted to 135 Squadron RAF stationed at Honiley near Coventry.

During WWII he flew with RAF's 260 Squadron (part of Desert Air Force), and RAAF's 452 Squadron (defence of Darwin, 1943-1945).

In September, 1942, by chance, he and his father, George, who was then serving as a Captain with the 9th Division AIF met up in Alexandria for a very brief catch-up. George was a World War I veteran of Gallipoli/1st Light Horse and rejoined for World War II.

During his World War II service, Ron Cundy flew Tomahawks, Kittyhawks and Spitfires, plus several (captured) German aircraft, including an Me109 (Messerschmitt Bf-109F), Heinkel 111 during time serving with the Desert Air Force (North Africa, 1941-1943).

He was awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) and was MID (Mentioned in Despatches).

His DFM citation reads: "In the course of numerous operational sorties over enemy territory, Flight-Lieut. Cundy has shown fine qualities of leadership, keenness and determination."

He is credited as an "Ace" with five-and-a-half enemy aircraft shot down. The 'half' was shared with another pilot.

He met Gwen Walsh, from Coogee in early 1942 and they married on September 30, 1944. Gwen passed away three months ago, on April 21.

After the war, Mr Cundy worked at the Register General's Department, among other areas, and eventually as State Electoral Commissioner for NSW, retiring in 1982.

He belonged to the Spitfire Association.

Mr Cundy is survived by his daughters Karen and Pam, nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. His funeral will be held at St. Paul's Church of England Church, Menai at 11am Monday, August 5.

”Every Day is Memorial Day”
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Cundy.jpg
#4484363 - 07/28/19 12:37 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Auschwitz: Kazimierz Albin the last known survivor of the first convoy to Auschwitz has died. He was 96.

Born in 1922 in Krakow, 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of the infamous death camp where he would later end up, Albin was captured by the Nazis in January 1940 in Slovakia. He had fled Poland the year before in the wake of Germany's invasion of the country.

Albin's intention was to join the Polish Army in France to fight the Nazis but he was thwarted in his mission and ultimately sent to Auschwitz.

He was one of approximately 150,000 non-Jewish Polish prisoners in Auschwitz and survived after escaping on February 27, 1943, along with six other inmates.

Albin recalled that winter's night in a 2015 interview with news agency AFP. "It was a starry night, around minus 8 or minus 10 degrees Celsius (17 or 14 Fahrenheit) outside," he said.

"We took our clothes off and were half way across the Sola River when I heard the siren... ice floes surrounded us," he said. Of around 1.3 million people sent to the death camp, only 802 attempted to escape, according to estimates from the Auschwitz Museum. Of that number, 144 avoided being caught.

After his escape, Albin joined the armed Polish resistance and fought for the liberation of his home country, as well as the concentration camp. His brother remained imprisoned within Auschwitz and was subsequently tortured.

When the war was over, Albin returned to his hometown to study engineering at Krakow Polytechnic School.
He was a member of the International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the Polish government that looks after the memorial site.

Following news of Albin's passing, the International Auschwitz Committee's executive vice president, Christoph Heubner, paid tribute to Albin's life.

"Kazimierz Albin saw it as his most important duty and task to speak about Auschwitz and his murdered fellow inmates: He wrote books, he spoke, he traveled and spoke with young people in many countries."

"Every Day is MEMORIAL Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Albin.jpg
#4484364 - 07/28/19 12:38 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- WORLD WAR II VETERAN ROBERT MORGENTHAU FOUGHT IN THE BATTLE THE MEDITERRANEAN & IWO JIMA HAS DIED. HE WAS 99.

Robert Morris Morgenthau was born in Manhattan on July 31, 1919, into a family formerly of German-Jewish stock whose roots in America reached back to the 1860s.

His grandfather, the real estate tycoon Henry Morgenthau Sr., was President Wilson’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in World War I and a prominent voice against Armenian genocide.

Robert’s father, Henry Jr., was Roosevelt’s treasury secretary from 1934 to 1945, and his mother, Elinor (Fatman) Morgenthau, was a niece of Herbert H. Lehman, the New York Democratic governor and United States senator.

Robert grew up with his brother, Henry III, and his sister, Joan, in New York City, on the family’s farm in upstate East Fishkill, N.Y., and in a privileged world of estates, private schools and social connections, notably with the Kennedys of Boston and Hyannis Port, Mass., and the Roosevelts of Hyde Park, N.Y. He attended the Lincoln School in Manhattan and graduated from the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts in 1937 and from Amherst College in 1941 with high honors and a political science degree.

As a young man, he raced sailboats with Jack Kennedy off Cape Cod, spent memorable New Year’s Eves at the White House with his father, and in 1939 roasted hot dogs for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Britain at the home of his Hudson Valley friends Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

On leave from the Navy during World War II, he served mint juleps to Winston Churchill and F.D.R. on the lawn of his family’s apple farm.

While studying at Amherst, Mr. Morgenthau met Martha Pattridge, a Smith College student. They were married in 1943 and had five children. His first wife died in 1972. In 1977 he married Ms. Franks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. They had two children.

Besides his wife, he is survived by the children of his first marriage, Jenny Morgenthau, Anne Morgenthau Grand, Elinor Morgenthau, Robert P. Morgenthau, and Barbara Morgenthau Lee; the children of his second marriage, Joshua Franks Morgenthau and Amy Elinor Morgenthau; and by six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In 2014, Ms. Franks published a memoir, “Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me,” that focused on her long and passionate union with a man almost 30 years her senior.

Mr. Morgenthau had been in the Naval Reserve in college, and after graduation, he went on active duty as an ensign. He passed his physical exam by concealing the near-deafness in his right ear from a boyhood mastoid infection. An officer aboard three destroyers and a minesweeper during World War II, he survived enemy attacks and won decorations for bravery under fire.

During World War II, his destroyer, the U.S.S. Lansdale, was attacked by Nazi torpedo bombers in the Mediterranean off Algiers on April 20, 1944. Cut by explosions, the ship went down with a heavy loss of life. Lieutenant Morgenthau, the executive officer, saved several shipmates, leapt into the water and swam for three hours in the darkness until he and others were picked up by an American warship. In 1945 his ship, the USS. Harry F. Bauer, was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane off Iwo Jima, but its 550-pound bomb did not explode.

Mustering out after the war as a lieutenant commander, he enrolled in Yale Law School, finished a three-year course in two years and graduated in 1948. He soon joined the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap & Webb and became the personal assistant to the senior partner, Robert P. Patterson, who had been President Harry S. Truman’s secretary of war.

Mr. Patterson died in a plane crash in 1952. Mr. Morgenthau was supposed to have been on the flight — he had accompanied his boss on every other trip — but stayed behind to write a brief. Mr. Morgenthau was a partner in the firm from 1954 to 1961.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
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Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Morgenthau.jpg
#4484954 - 08/02/19 10:57 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- Pilot Who Was a Daredevil Flier with WASPs During WWII Dies at 103.

Dorothy Eleanor Olsen was part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) -- a group of civilian volunteers who moved planes across the country, hauled targets for shooting practice and performed other flying duties. She was stationed at Long Beach Army Air Base, California, from 1942 to 1944 and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

During her time as a WASP pilot, Olsen flew about 60 missions as part of the 6th Ferry Group, often alone, according to a report from the Chinook Observer in 2011. She also flew about 29 different aircraft. Her favorite was the P-51.

"Mom said the P-38 was an old woman's plane. She said anybody could fly that," Stranburg said. "She said that the P-51, you had to stay on top of that."

She also didn't care much for the bomber planes. Debbie Jennings, friends with Olsen since about 2003 and developer of a WASP exhibit at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, said her friend preferred the fighter plane because she was by herself and could do whatever she wanted.

Jennings said Olsen would get a kick out of scaring farmers on their tractors and fly right behind them. She would do the same at railroad stations just because.

Stranburg said her mom got chewed out by ranking officers for flying like that and once got reprimanded for using her landing gear at high speeds. One time, she flew upside down and a piece of the plane fell off -- but the landing crew never said a word, and Olsen's son, Kim Olsen, has the piece to this day.

"She was like nobody I've ever known. So determined to do whatever she wanted to do," Jennings said.

At the time, women and people of color were fighting for respect in the military.

According to NPR, during the last WASP training class, Henry "Hap" Arnold, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, said when the program began he wasn't sure "whether a slip of a girl could fight the controls of a B-17 in heavy weather."

"Now in 1944, it is on the record that women can fly as well as men," Arnold said.

Jennings said some of the male pilots were jealous of how many different planes Olsen was able to fly.

On two occasions, Olsen received v-mail, or victory mail, postcards from male pilots who had found Olsen's name and address in the cockpit of a plane she ferried. In the last line of the postcard, one pilot from Italy wrote, "Despite the fact that a woman once flew it, it appears to perform perfectly," Jennings said.

"They were the first women to fly military aircraft for the United States," Jennings said. "The women had to jump into any aircraft that needed to be moved, whether it was for training or for combat, and know how to fly it and fly it wherever it needed to go."

WASPs were not recognized as veterans until 1977 under President Jimmy Carter.

Olsen grew up reading about World War I planes and flying in Woodburn, Oregon, in the 1920s, according to a report from The Seattle Times. She was inspired to pursue flight after reading 'The Red Knight of Germany" by Floyd Gibbons.

As she pursued her pilot's license, Olsen taught tap dance and continued to teach after receiving her certification. She was one of three women to get her private flying license in the Portland area by 1939, according to the Chinook Observer.

Once she joined the WASPs, she kept a pair of black DeLiso Debs and socks underneath her seat in every plane she flew, Stranburg said.

"She'd date a new man every night and go dancing, dump them and take off on her next plane," Stranburg said.

When the WASPs disbanded in 1944, Olsen had to pay her own way from Long Beach back home.

Stranburg said Olsen got a job flying war-weary planes after the war -- aircraft deemed no longer safe for combat missions. She once worked with two other men and flew planes to Wyoming.

"They got into a snowstorm and were low on fuel," Stranburg said. "The men wanted to turn back and Mom said, 'No, you're taught never turn back.'"

She said they knew the airport was near, but weren't sure where. The townspeople heard them flying over head and directed the pilots to the landing strip using car headlights.

"She had so many close brushes with death but managed to slide by so many times," Stranburg said.

Olsen later married Harold W. Olsen, a Washington State trooper, and settled down in University Place.

Stranburg said her mom was always fair, particularly when Stranburg and her brother Kim would fight growing up. One time, Olsen told her kids to clean up dog vomit in the kitchen, but neither wanted to.

"She walked up there, took her hand, and [split it in half]. 'You clean that, and you clean that,'" Stranburg said.

Stranburg said her mom didn't fly after she and her brother were born and didn't even think of flying commercial or private planes.

"She said, 'Why would I want to fly a Cessna when I've flown a P-51?'" Stranburg said.

Olsen never lost her flying spirit, though. She often "drove with authority," neighbor Duncan Foley said with a chuckle. "She drove like she was driving a fighter jet."

According to her memorial obituary on the Edwards Memorial website, that spirit landed her a speeding ticket in her 1965 poppy orange Mustang.

Stranburg said flying was the highlight of her mom's life, and that she loved to look at clouds and remember flying through them.

"Every sunny day when you see clouds, think of mom," Stranburg said. "She's up there doing slow rolls in a P-38."

Before Olsen was laid to rest, Jennings read the poem "Celestial Flight" by WASP Elizabeth MacKethan Magid, which is "now required reading at all WASP departures."

The first verse is:
"She is not dead --
But only flying higher,
Higher than she's flown before,
And earthly limitations will hinder her no more.

”Every Day is Memorial Day”
The Greatest Generations Foundation

Attached Files 67737892_2282552005127374_3098247003398733824_n.jpg

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#4485042 - 08/03/19 10:01 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Archie McInnes death: Battle of Britain hero dies hours after celebrating his 100th birthday

Tributes were being paid today to a Battle of Britain veteran who died surrounded by friends and family hours after celebrating his 100th birthday.

The death of Archie McInnes takes the number of surviving members of The Few to five, his biographer has said.

Mr McInnes, who flew Hurricanes during the battle in the skies over southern England, completed his pilot training aged 21 and was commissioned the next day.

He died hours after celebrating his 100th birthday on Wednesday.

His biographer and friend Jonny Cracknell wrote on Twitter: "It is with a heavy heart and incredible sadness to advise the tragic news that Battle of Britain hero Archie McInnes sadly passed away last night, just hours after celebrating his 100th birthday amongst friends and family.

Attached Files EA6bWX-WwAEuRHi.jpg

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#4485043 - 08/03/19 10:28 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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As I said in another thread. My dad was a spook and didn't do half of what some of these men did during the war (as far as I know). I only wish he had lived as long as some of these fine men.


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#4485044 - 08/03/19 10:33 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Originally Posted by F4UDash4
AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness, we have learned that WWII Veteran George Haines, one of Rochester's most visible and vocal World War II veterans, has died. He was 94.

Haines, who lived in Greece, was among the veterans of Rochester's that have been involved with The Greatest Generations Foundation programs in recent years.

He served in the U.S. Army 24th Division in the Pacific and saw two years of combat.



RIP to a fellow Victory Division soldier. First to Fight!

My mom got me Tom Brokaw’s book “The Greatest Generation,” as soon as I finish my current book I’m going to read it. There aren’t many days in which I don’t think about what these men (and women), or men & women from the days of the Continental Army until today, have done and sacrificed for their country.


Phil

“The biggest problem people have is they don’t think they’re supposed to have problems.” - Hayes Barnard
#4485322 - 08/06/19 10:39 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Well-known Pearl Harbor Survivor Everett Hyland dies at 96.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Hyland was a crew member of the battleship USS Pennsylvania, the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, and immediately reported to his battle station when the attack began.

“If we ever go to war, the last place in the world I wanted to be trapped was down in the bowels of the ship,” the longtime Honolulu resident said in a Navy interview. “I wanted to be top side, so if something happened, I could get off it. So I volunteered for antenna repair squad. I was with the radio division.”

When general quarters sounded, he realized there was nothing to be done at his battle station, so he and others began collecting ammo for a 3-inch 50-caliber anti-aircraft gun. The “Pennsy” was in Drydock No. 1 at the time.

“We took one hit. The one that hit our ship just happened to be where we were,” Hyland recalled.

The 18-year-old was so badly wounded by the aerial bomb that his own friends did not recognize him, the park service said. Flash burns covered his body. He had an ankle wound, a chipped bone in his right leg, his right hand was ripped open, he had a bullet hole through his right thigh, five pieces of shrapnel in his left leg, a chunk blown out of his left thigh — among other injuries.

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

Attached Files Hyland.jpg
#4485984 - 08/12/19 11:22 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Its with great sadness, we learn the news that World War II Normandy Ranger Mr. Sheldon “Shel” Bare, of Altoona has died. He was 96.

Sheldon is a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, who served with honor, valor, and distinction with the 2nd Ranger Battalion-D Company. He participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, assaulting the cliffs at Point du Hoc where he was where he was awarded one of his two purple hearts.

For his service he was awarded: 3 Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf cluster, Combat infantry badge, Good conduct medal, National Defense Service Medal, Presidential Unit citation with arrowhead, American Campaign Medal, WW II victory medal, the ETO medal, Battle of the Buldge medal, D-Day Medal, Combat Service Medal, and The European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal. He was also awarded the Unit French Crux Querrie, and in 2011, was awarded the Legion of Honor from the French Government, France’s highest order that recognizes military and civilians alike for their bravery or honorable service to the country.

After WW II, he served with the 772nd Military Police Battalion, Fort George C. Mende, Maryland. Prior to WWII, Sheldon worked with the PA Railroad, after the war he worked with the PA Association for the Blind where he retired in 1988.

He was a member of the Juniata VFW-Fort Apache, the Bavarian Aid Society, the Newburg Fire Hall, and served on the Board of Directors for the PA Association for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Sheldon enjoyed reading, John Wayne movies, sports of all kinds, telling stories and the camaraderie of his fellow veterans.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Bare.jpg
#4485985 - 08/12/19 11:22 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Its with great sadness, we learn the news that World War II veteran Mr. Ralph Mayville, one of orginal members of the 'Black Devil' commandos, has died. He was 97.

He was one of Canada’s first commandos in the Second World War, tormenting the Germans behind enemy lines in Italy as part of the secretive and deadly effective Devil’s Brigade.

Mayville, who grew up in Amherstburg but later lived in Windsor, died on Friday, two weeks shy of his 98th birthday.

As part of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force — predecessor to such elite units as the U.S. Navy SEALs — Mayville and his comrades, who only gained recognition and fame for their daring wartime exploits decades later, received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2015.

A member of the Essex Scottish Regiment stationed in England (and, unknowingly to the troops, preparing for D-Day), Mayville transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment and volunteered for the Devil’s Brigade in order to join the action sooner, enticed also in part by the extra 75 cents a day paid to paratroopers.

Activated in 1942 as a commando unit of 1,800 Americans and Canadians, the special force was tasked with penetrating deep behind enemy lines at the combat front in near-suicide missions designed to sow terror in the enemy ranks.

Dubbed the Black Devils by their foes, Mayville said they would sneak over silently with blackened faces — “slitting a couple of throats” — and return before dawn. On “aggressive patrols,” they’d place playing cards on the sleeping Germans, with morale-busting warnings that “the worst has yet to come.”

Given his paratrooper wings even though he missed parachute training ahead of being deployed to Anzio beachhead, where the Devil’s Brigade fought for 99 days straight, Mayville refused to wear the insignia until he actually got his chance to jump out of an aircraft. That opportunity to earn his set of silver wings came in 2014, when, at the age of 92, the great-grandfather signed all the required legal documents and parachuted from a height of 14,000 feet near Niagara Falls.

The old soldier made one concession to his age, agreeing to a tandem descent. “I would’ve liked to jump by myself, but that’s the way it is,” he told the Star at the time.

Mayville, predeceased by his wife, had two children, four grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Mayville.jpg
#4485986 - 08/12/19 11:23 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Its with great sadness, we learn the news that Pearl Harbor survivor Mr. Lonnie Cook, one of the last members of USS Arizona’s surviving crew at Pearl Harbor, has died at the age of 98.

Cook was inside one of the USS Arizona's turrets on Dec. 7, 1941, according to officials with the memorial. Officials said 1,177 of his USS Arizona shipmates died as a result of the attack.

Cook, a Morris, Oklahoma, native, went on to fight in World War II, and was later recognized for his service. Over the course of his eight year career, he fought in 12 battles, served on seven ships, and received many medals and awards. He retired from the Navy in 1948, and went on to a 20 year career as a welder, working on various areas around the Central Coast, including the Moss Landing Smoke Stacks. He was also an avid trap shooter, hunter and fisherman.

In 1968, 27 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Cook returned for the first time with his wife and daughter by his side. Cunanan says, "We went out and went onto the memorial. He had goose bumps. Not verbal, just staring off into space. Seeing everything again is what it looked like to me." That was one of three visits back to Pearl Harbor for Cook. His final trip was for the 70th Anniversary in 2011.

There are now only four remaining USS Arizona survivors: Don Stratton, Lauren Bruner, Lou Conter and Ken Potts.

"Every Day is Memorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Cook.jpg
#4485987 - 08/12/19 11:23 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: Normandy World War II Veteran Mr. Ralph Ticcioni who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day has died. He was 96.

Before June 6, 1944, Ticcioni had made three practice jumps in England. D-Day was his first taste of combat.

On the night of June 5, he sat in the back of a transport plane, weighed down with around 80 pounds of gear, his face darkened with charcoal, and waited for the light on the wall to turn yellow.

When it did, he stood up with the rest of his 82nd Airborne unit and clipped his static line hook to a wire overhead. He checked the man in front of him while the soldier behind Ticcioni checked to ensure his static line hook was secure.

Then the light turned green.

"Of all places, I landed on top of a barn. The barns in this area of Normandy were thatch, so it was a soft landing. My parachute was caught on a weather vane," Ticcioni recalled in 2016. "I hung there for a while and got my thoughts together, got out my knife and cut myself down. I slid down into some horse manure."

Ticcioni fought his way across Europe, helping to liberate a continent devastated by war. Then he returned home to Milwaukee and got a job at a dairy, working his way up to plant manager and retiring after 40 years. After his first wife died, he remarried. His second wife died nine years ago.

"Every Day is MEMORIAL DAY"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
Web: www.TGGF.org

Attached Files Ticcioni.jpg
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