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#4485988 - 08/12/19 11:24 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. Raymond "Papa Ray" Richmond, of Serra Mesa, CA has died. He was 99.

On December 07, 1941 -- Ray Richmond, was below deck on the battleship Oklahoma, shaving his face, when bombs and torpedoes hit all those mornings ago. As the ship rolled onto its side, Richmond made his way free. But he shattered his hip in the escape and then had to swim through water aflame with burning oil. He spent almost a year in the hospital.

The USS Oklahoma lost 429 men in the bombing, more than any other ship outside of USS Arizona when waves of Japanese planes launched from aircraft carriers caught the Pacific Fleet unawares on a sleepy Sunday morning. They destroyed ships and airplanes, killed 2,400 Americans, and pushed the United States into World War II — and from there onto a perch as the globe’s preeminent political and cultural power.

“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” RIP Ray Richmond.

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

Attached Files Richmond.jpg
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#4485989 - 08/12/19 11:24 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It's with great sadness, we learn the news that Normandy World War II veteran Mr. Raymond Rutt, 3820 Quartermaster Gas Supply Company has died. He was 101.

Born to George and Anna Elizabeth Rutt on February 12, 1918, Raymond was the youngest of 14 children and attended the Campbell School through the 10th grade.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Raymond worked for Maxon's Construction Company at the Naval Ammunition Depot. Raymond also worked for Cafferty & Tipton Construction in Grand Island where he was the grease foreman on Caterpillar Tractors.

PFC. Raymond Rutt served in the United States Army from December 28, 1942, to January 13, 1946. He served in France, England, Belgium, Germany during the Normandy Northern-Frances and Rhineland campaigns with the 3820 Quartermaster Gas Supply Company as a truck driver.

Raymond worked with the Quartermaster GS Company on Omaha Beach at Normandy shortly after the main seaborne invasion into France. He received the Good Conduct Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge, Bronze Service Arrowhead, and Carbine Marksman for his service during World War II.

After the war, Raymond worked in Lexington for Luther-Rutt Gravel Pit pumping gravel and ran a corn picker for Luther. On August 9, 1947, Raymond married Kathryn Elizabeth Mohrlang and lived in Broken Bow and ran a Grade A Dairy in partnership with Dan Thomas. They moved to Mason City to form an alliance with Buss Luther and run a Herford Ranch until retirement in 1981. Raymond was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

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

Attached Files Rutt.jpg
#4486581 - 08/18/19 03:06 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS - World War II veteran Mr. Jean DeCurtins, the last surviving member of a Stillwater-area war veterans club, has died. He was 100.

For the last two and a half years, the bachelor was the lone survivor of the A&D Last Man’s Club, a social group born of the 180 Stillwater-area infantrymen who shipped out with the National Guard months before World War II.

An Army private first class with the heavy-weapons Company D, DeCurtins served through six battles and 14 engagements in North Africa and Italy. He spent three months in a hospital after a exploded mortar shell left shrapnel in his head. He returned to battlefield and later was awarded a Purple Heart.

Until his brother, John, died in 2018, the two men shared a two-bedroom home, a half-mile from the Stillwater Public Library, which DeCurtins visited twice a day to read five newspapers.

With no family of his own, DeCurtins found friendship in the library staff. After he moved to the senior living center, librarian Lori Houston would visit him daily with the Pioneer Press in hand.

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

Attached Files DeCurtins.jpg
#4486582 - 08/18/19 03:06 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS - Normandy World War II veteran Mr. Norman Duncan, member of the 29th Division has died. He was 100.

Centenarian, World War II veteran of the famed 29th Division, former chairman of the International Caregivers Association Board, and founder of Labor of Love weekend in Loudoun Norman Duncan died Friday.

Duncan was a longtime advocate for caregivers. He was his wife Elsie’s primary caregiver as she lived with Alzheimer’s until her death in 2015. Labor of Love weekend, observed in Loudoun each Labor Day weekend, honors and calls attention to the work of caregivers.

He remained active in Loudoun until the end of his life, serving on the board of the Loudoun Symphony and in the American Legion, as well as on a number of county government committees including the Transit Advisory Board and the Economic Development Advisory Commission.

Among his many accolades, Duncan was last year bestowed the rank of Knight of the French Legion of Honor at a ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, DC, in recognition of the services he provided during military campaigns throughout France during the war. It is the highest French Order of Merit for military and civilian individuals, and was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Duncan served with the 29th Infantry Division and supported the allied troops storming the beaches of Normandy in 1944 as a U.S. Army master supply sergeant.

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

Attached Files Duncan.jpg
#4486603 - 08/18/19 07:51 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS - Mr. Rodney Ebersviller, wounded and captured in WWII, dies at age 94.

In early 1945, Rodney Ebersviller was walking with other American prisoners of war and their guards from one German camp to another when they encountered a farm woman as she pulled a fresh loaf of rye bread from an outdoor oven.

Ebersviller was cold and hungry. He and the other Allied soldiers were on the brink of starvation. The German woman offered every prisoner and guard a warm slice. Nothing had ever tasted so good and nothing ever would match it, he told his children many years later. He spent the rest of his life seeking the perfect sauerkraut rye bread recipe and its comforting effect.

Born in Pelican Rapids, Minn., on Oct. 8, 1924, one of five children to Alwine and William Ebersviller. He graduated from Fergus Falls High School in 1942 and enlisted in the Army in 1943. On his way to basic training, he met his future wife, Barbara — or Bobbie — on a train. She was heading back home to St. Louis after her first year at Carleton College in Northfield.

Once deployed, it didn’t take long for Ebersviller to see combat. He was a staff sergeant when his machine-gun squad was outflanked by a German tank squadron during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. Ebersviller was wounded and captured. After a brief stay in a German hospital, he spent the rest of the war in prison camps.

His final camp near Hammelburg was liberated by U.S. soldiers in April 1945, according to U.S. National Archives records. Ebersviller was awarded the Purple Heart upon discharge that year.

Despite this harrowing experience, or maybe because of it, he rarely talked about the war as a young man, said Ann Pederson, his daughter.

“When I was growing up, I had no idea he was in the war. I came home from high school one day and was talking about what I had learned about POWs in the war, and that’s when my mom told me he had been one,” Pederson said.

“Over the years, maybe he just became OK with it. He became very active in local veterans organizations the last 20 years of his life,” she said.

After the war, Ebersviller attended the University of Minnesota, where he was reunited with Bobbie, who had transferred there. They married in 1948 and moved to Fergus Falls so he could join his father in running the family-owned John Deere Implement business. The next year, he and Bobbie moved to Rothsay, Minn., to open a farm equipment dealership. There, the couple raised four children.

He ended his career back at work at the Ebersviller Implement store in Fergus Falls before selling the business and retiring in 1982.

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

Attached Files Ebersviller.jpg
#4486645 - 08/19/19 10:43 AM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Thank you F4U for keeping this thread active. Sometimes I just can't find the words to describe what these veterans have done for our great country.


“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.”
#4489581 - 09/15/19 04:47 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: It is with great sadness, we learn the news that Paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division Mr. Raymond Pierre "Frenchy" Defer, has died. He was 96.

Born in St. Jean de Losne, France, on June 3, 1923, Ray Defer immigrated to the United States when he was 15 years old. He joined the United States Army at the age of 19 and eventually became a medic with 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

According to his Military DD-214 military discharge papers, he experienced combat in Normandy, Holland, Belgium and the Central European Pocket.

On June 06, 1944 Raymond Defer landed near Liesville-sur-Douve (near Carentan) on D-Day in Normandy where he was wounded with shrapnel shortly after that.

Raymond Defer then jumped in Holland at Best during Operation Market Garden to help seize the small highway bridge over the Dommel river north of St. Oedenrode and the railroad and road bridges over the Wilhelmina Canal at Best. Defer was wounded a second time during a patrol through the Zonsche forest, trying to move toward the town of Best and the bridge.

During the Germans major offensive west through the Ardennes Forest, Defer and the 502nd held positions on the north and northwest portion of the surrounded city of Bastogne.

Raymond Defer was the recipient of two Bronze Stars, Purple Heart, good conduct medal, presidential service ribbon and later was a recipient of the French Legion of Honour.

After returning home, he became self-employed and opened Frenchy's Appliance Service.

On behalf of TGGF and its members, we salute Mr. Defer for his dedication and service to our freedom.

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

Attached Files Defer.jpg
#4489582 - 09/15/19 04:47 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Pearl Harbor Survivor James R. Leavelle, Detective at Lee Harvey Oswald’s Side, Dies at 99.

James R. Leavelle, the big man in the white Stetson who epitomized the horrors of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in one of the most famous photographs of all time — the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby — died on Thursday at a hospital in Denver. He was 99.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Karla Leavelle.

Mr. Leavelle, a veteran Dallas homicide detective who had survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, was handcuffed to Mr. Oswald and was leading him through a police station basement on Nov. 24, 1963, when Mr. Ruby, a nightclub owner, stepped out of the crowd and pumped a fatal bullet into the prisoner. The shooting, with Mr. Oswald’s pained grimace and Detective Leavelle’s stricken glower, was chillingly captured by Robert H. Jackson of The Dallas Times Herald in an iconic photograph that won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.

Moments earlier, he and Mr. Oswald had had an eerie exchange, Mr. Leavelle often later recounted. “Lee,” he recalled saying, “if anybody shoots at you, I hope they are as good a shot as you.”

To which, he said, Mr. Oswald replied: “You’re being melodramatic.”

At the time, two days after President Kennedy had been gunned down in a motorcade through downtown Dallas, Mr. Oswald was a suspect in the killing of a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippit, and had yet to be conclusively tied to the assassination. But after Detective Leavelle asked him whether he had shot the police officer, Mr. Oswald aroused the detective’s suspicions by insisting, “I didn’t shoot anybody,” as if, Mr. Leavelle later recounted, there had been another shooting as well.

In the decades that followed, Mr. Leavelle was in constant demand as a speaker, invariably asked to recall the fateful moment. “I saw him, he was standing in the middle of the driveway,” he said of Mr. Ruby in an interview with The New York Times in 2006.

“He had a pistol by his side, I saw out of the corner of my eye,” Mr. Leavelle continued. “I jerked back on Oswald to get him behind me. I had my hand through his belt. All I succeeded in doing, I turned him so instead of dead center the bullet hit four inches to the left of his navel and two inches above.”

Another detective, L.C. Graves, on Mr. Oswald’s other side, grabbed Mr. Ruby’s pistol around the cylinder, preventing another shot, Mr. Leavelle recalled. “I could see Ruby’s fingers flexing on the trigger, trying to fire,” he said. He knocked Mr. Oswald to the floor, removed the handcuffs and got him loaded into an ambulance. “I tried to take his pulse but I never could detect any pulse,” Mr. Leavelle said. He remembered hearing a groan and sigh in the ambulance, which he said he later took as the moment of Mr. Oswald’s expiration, although he was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital, where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead two days earlier.

Mr. Leavelle joined the Dallas Police Department in 1950, but his life had hardly lacked drama before then. The son of farm parents, James Robert Leavelle was born on Aug. 23, 1920, and grew up in northeast Texas near Texarkana. He joined the Navy out of high school in 1939 and was stationed at Pearl Harbor. He was on a destroyer tender that carried supplies to other ships when the Japanese bombed the fleet about a mile away on Dec. 7, 1941. He was unhurt in the attack, but while at sea in the Pacific during a severe storm in 1942, he fell off a ship’s ladder and had to be evacuated to a naval hospital in California.

There he met a nurse who became his wife, Taimi, who died in 2014. They had three children, Karla, Tanya Evers and James Craig. His son died in 2009. He is survived by his daughters, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Unable to return to the fighting, Mr. Leavelle became a civilian employee of the Army Air Force, running a military warehouse in Riverside, Calif. He then became an auditor for the federal government, investigating colleges receiving money under the G.I. Bill.

He spent his first six years on the Dallas force in patrol before making detective in 1956, and worked his way up from the burglary and theft squad to homicide, where he was working when President Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Mr. Leavelle retired in 1976 and founded a polygraph business, which he turned over to his daughter Karla in 1980. He underwent triple-bypass heart surgery in 2004.

Mr. Leavelle, who remained active into his late 90s, traveled with the help of a Dallas police officer to the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington in late 2018 to rerecord an oral history he had made several years earlier before the museum’s opening in October.

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

Attached Files Leavelle.jpg
#4489583 - 09/15/19 04:48 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: World War II veteran 'Screaming Eagle' Henry Ochsner, 321st Glider Artillery Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day has died. He was 96.

Henry ‘Len” Ochsner was born in Hell Gate Montana in February of 1923 at the west end of the Missoula Valley in Missoula County Montana. It is now a ghost town.

On D-Day June 6th 1944, then 21 year old Private Henry L. Ochsner belonged to the 321st Glider Artillery Battalion that would go on to provide fire support for the “Screaming Eagle” paratroopers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment outside Sainte Marie du Mont near Utah Beach for their part of Operation Overlord.

They launched from Upottery Airbase in Devon England, and dropped into Normandy France in the early morning hours before the allied landings. Henry was 21 years old at that time.

Private Ochsner next himself in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge no less in that famous stand the 101st Abn. made there telling their German counterparts “Nuts” when asked to surrender. They held out until General Patton came and relieved them in that bitter cold winter battle that lasted from December 1944 through January 1945. The members of the 321st Glider Artillery Battalion held out with no winter clothes and little rations and ammunition and were awarded a unit citation for holding Bastogne.

Private Henry L. Ochsner’s significant decorations include the French Croix de Guerre, the Belgian Fourragere, the Presidential Unit Citation and the EAME Campaign Medal with four battle stars. He can now add to that the National Order of The Legion of Honor in the rank of Chevalier (Knight). This is the highest honor France bestows.

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

Attached Files Ochsner.jpg
#4489585 - 09/15/19 04:48 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: It is with great sadness, we learn the death of World War II veteran Mr. Lauren Bruner, survivor of USS Arizona attack during Pearl Harbor. He was 98.

His passing means just three surviving crewmembers who were aboard the Arizona that day remain: Don Stratton, 97, Lou Conter, 98, and Ken Potts, 98.

“Lauren was always quick with a laugh and had a smile that would brighten an entire room,” Stratton wrote on Facebook Wednesday. “We are beyond heartbroken.”

Bruner regularly attended the annual commemorations of the attack held each Dec. 7 at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

During a news conference there in 2014, Bruner announced that he had finally decided to have the urn that would hold his cremated remains interred in the sunken hull of the Arizona.

“Well, I studied it for a long time,” Bruner explained with his characteristic humor. “All my family and friends have been buried in various places, cemeteries. But it seems like after a while, nobody pays attention to them anymore after about five years. I hope that a lot of people will still be coming to the Arizona. I would be glad to see them.”

Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which manages the USS Arizona Memorial, said in a tweet that discussions with the family regarding the placement of Bruner’s ashes aboard the ship will be forthcoming.

Bruner chronicled his experience of the attack in “Second to the Last to Leave USS Arizona,” a book he co-authored in 2017.

Bruner was born Nov. 4, 1920, and enlisted in the Navy 1938. The following year, he was assigned to the USS Arizona as a fire controlman in charge of the ship’s .50-caliber guns.

In a 2014 interview with Arizona Public Radio, Bruner recalled that, on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, he raced up from below the ship's deck when the attack began. There, he saw a Japanese plane fly by so closely that he could see the pilot’s face with “a big old grin on his face, mouth wide open.”

“I could see all those teeth,” he said. “You wanted to reach and bust him one.”

Bruner raced for his battle station, but a Japanese Zero fixed its sights on him, fellow survivor Stratton recalled in his memoir, “All the Gallant Men.”

“A blast from its guns, and bullets bit metal,” Stratton wrote. “One of those shots struck flesh, hitting the back of Lauren’s lower leg. He limped onto the sky platform, a trail of blood following him.”

The Arizona was hit with four bombs, one of them crashing through three levels of the ship and into a powder magazine.

“It blew the heck out of everything, just lifted the bow about 30 feet off the water,” Bruner said in the 2014 interview. “It had one hell of a fire.”

Bruner, Stratton and four others were stranded amid the smoke and fire that quickly consumed the Arizona.

The men escaped death by grappling hand-over-hand for 70 feet on a rope to a nearby repair ship, the USS Vestal. Bruner had burns on over 70% of his body.

He was taken to the hospital ship USS Solace and transferred to a mainland hospital after the turn of the year.

After he recovered, Bruner was assigned to the USS Coghlan, participating in eight major engagements in the Aleutian Islands and seven operation in the South Pacific operations.

He retired from the Navy in 1947.

The Dec. 7 attack left Bruner traumatized, and he suffered decades of “nightmares, visions of dead bodies and memories of the stench of burning human flesh,” according to the preface of his book.

He made a last request with its publication: “I do not want to further discuss or answer any questions concerning the actual attack,” Bruner wrote. “As you read these chapters, know they were real and that it was truly Hell on Earth. The horrors of what I witnessed on that morning have kept me from sleep for many years after.

“I chose to face the future and not let my past dictate what might be ahead.”

"Every Day is Mmeorial Day"
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

Attached Files Bruner.jpg
#4492205 - 10/09/19 07:56 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Francis Currey, one of three remaining WWII Medal of Honor recipients, dies at 94

Francis Currey, one of the three living World War II Medal of Honor recipients and whose likeness was used to create Medal of Honor G.I. Joe in 1998, died on Tuesday. He was 94.


Currey, a native of Selkirk, New York, joined the U.S. Army when he was just 17. He was in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 as an automatic rifleman with the 3rd Platoon.

On Dec. 21, 1944, as German tanks approached Currey and his company while they were guarding a bridge crossing, Currey found a bazooka in a nearby factory. He crossed the street to secure rockets during an intense fight from enemy tanks and infantrymen. With the help of a companion, Currey knocked out a tank with one shot.

Moving to another position, Currey killed or wounded three German soldiers standing in the doorway of an enemy-held house. He emerged from cover and alone advanced to within 50 yards of the house. He ended up rescuing five Americas who were trapped and taking fire inside a building.

According to his biography on the Congressional Medal of Honor website, "Sgt. Currey was greatly responsible for inflicting heavy losses in men and material on the enemy, for rescuing 5 comrades, 2 of whom were wounded, and for stemming an attack which threatened to flank his battalion's position."

Currey received the Medal of Honor near Reims, France, on July 27, 1945, when he was 20 years old.

After being discharged from the Army in 1946, he served as a counselor in the Veterans Administration. He also owned a landscaping business.




Attached Files Currey.jpg
#4496473 - 11/08/19 01:37 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- Its with great sadness, we have received the news that World War II veteran Mr. Willard (Bill) Davison, who was wounded when he fought in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, has died. He was 95.

A hero to many, Mr. Davison in June recalled his days during the war in Europe as the world acknowledged the 75th anniversary of D-Day, perhaps the most famous invasion in history that changed the course of the war in the Allies’ favor.

He was a 19-year-old paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne when he landed in a swamp outside the French city of Sainte-Mère-Église during the fire day of Operation Overlord, as the invasion was officially known. He then fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was shot, hit by shrapnel and suffered frostbite in the process.

“He was a true patriot,” said his son, Michael B. Davison. “He was proud of the service he gave to our country. And we followed in his footsteps.”

Michael and his twin brother, David, joined the Army and fought in Vietnam. They said his father’s bravery was an inspiration to join the Army during a time of war.

“He was the main reason that I enlisted in the 82nd Airborne,” David said. “He was influential not only in our lives, but all of his kids’ lives. He left a legacy behind with his children and grandchildren.”

In June Mr. Davison said during an interview with The Monroe News that despite the decades that have passed, he remembered well his time in Europe and his many dangerous missions, including escaping capture in a hail of Germans gunfire.

He discussed the many close calls during his time in the war. He was shot in the thigh while in the Belgian town of St. Vith, was wounded in the leg by shrapnel and suffered severe frostbite. He helped the French Resistance blow up bridges, served as an anti-aircraft gunner and helped shoot down the last airplane of the war in Europe. By himself he took 14 Germans inside that plane as prisoners.

He was proud of his service, but the effects of the war were not easily overcome.

“I remember it well,” Mr. Davison said in June. “It stuck with me a long time. But soon it wore out.”

After the war, he worked 55 years in the gas and oil pipeline industry while helping to raise six children: the late Cindy Napolitan; Michael (Gwen); David (Gretchen); Mark (Yvonne); Chris (Lynn) and Daniel (Mary). He also had 19 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

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

Attached Files Davison.jpg
#4496474 - 11/08/19 01:38 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- Last member of Pearl Harbor survivors association from Virginia dies at 97.

The Japanese didn’t get Paul J. Moore when they attacked Pearl Harbor, even though he was on a battleship as it sank that day. And enemy ships didn’t get him when he served on a destroyer in the Pacific theater.

Moore was a Navy sailor aboard the USS West Virginia, one of several moored in Pearl Harbor’s battleship row that took the brunt of the fateful Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack.

As a survivor, Moore would go on to join an official survivors association that boasted a couple hundred members in the Tidewater region. By the time of his death, he was the last one.

“We just lost a great man,” Rountree said.

Moore was born and grew up in Portsmouth. After the war, he went on to work at the Naval Regional Medical Center and Maryview Hospital. Since 1954, he lived in a home he built in Chesapeake.

He had a daily routine each morning. He got up at 6 a.m., grabbed the morning newspaper from the porch to read the day’s news and then said all of his prayers. Rountree, who lives in a home next to her father, would go over every morning to visit.

Last Wednesday, she went over and the paper was still on the porch, the doors still locked. She found her father inside.

The emergency medical technicians told her he died of a heart attack, she said. His wife of nearly 72 years, Mildred “Honey” Kilpatrick Moore died over the summer.

Rountree says her dad died of a broken heart.

Much of Moore’s Pearl Harbor memorabilia surrounded him in his home. A tattered 20-dollar bill, all that remained of his last prewar paycheck given to him two days before the Japanese attacked. A wristwatch stopped at 8:01, six minutes after the attack began. A photo album.

All those items spent six months underwater after the West Virginia sank.

Moore was 20 years old at the time, a fire controlman in the Navy. He had just gotten off duty and was showering when the attack began, Rountree said.

As his battleship sank, he was able to jump over the side and swim for his life, leaving all of his belongings in his locker onboard. He found refuge — and some clothing — at a house back on shore.

Moore didn’t talk much about that day other than to say he almost lost his life eight different times, Rountree said.
He always talked about the friends he lost.

“I can’t forget it,” Moore told reporters last year during the Navy’s remembrance of the attacks at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

“I’m telling you I missed many a buddy."

The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association officially disbanded in 2011 due to the ages and health of its 2,700 members.

The Tidewater chapter at its peak had roughly 200 members back in the 1970s, said Gerald Chebetar, a Chesapeake resident whose father, Frank, was a survivor and the chapter’s longtime president.

A very informal group from the chapter has been gathering for monthly lunches at Gus and George’s restaurant in Virginia Beach. The group had three widows of survivors, but all three are in their 90s and are currently hospitalized or bedridden, Chebetar said.

Moore is remembered by the Navy as a “gentle giant of a man” whose calming smile was infectious to all around him.
“Mr. Paul Moore, as with many other World War II veterans who are quickly fading, was a quiet, unassuming American hero,” said Capt. Joey Frantzen, commander at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

“They were ordinary people, yet extraordinary people, who helped lead this country through sheer tragedy to resounding victory following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.”

The West Virginia did not stay underwater for long. In the spring of 1942, it was brought up and eventually put back in service. By then, Moore was on a destroyer in the Pacific.
He couldn’t remember exactly when or how, but the Navy returned his belongings to him sometime later.

“My dad was loved a lot,” Rountree said. Every Saturday night when he went to church, she said, a man would salute Moore as he walked in.

“He was a wonderful man,” she said. “He was a great provider.”

After his death, Rountree’s sons lowered a flag on a pole in his yard to half-staff. As of this week, the flag remained there in place.

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

Attached Files Moore.jpg
#4496475 - 11/08/19 01:39 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness; we learned the news that Ray Salvadore Marcello Sr, a member of the famed 390th Bomb Group during World War II.

Ray Marcello has always had a heart to serve. It could even be said that it began with his childhood in the church as an altar boy. Coming from a very close-knit family, Marcello’s owned Quality Furniture Store, on the corner of Levron Street and Main Street, serving as one of the first furniture stores in Houma in 1945. Ray and brother, Curtis, primarily ran Quality Furniture.The Marcello brothers were no strangers to hard work and helping others.

Ray set out on a new path and at 19 years old, joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. On July 13, 1944, Ray’s B17 plane was shot down by the German Military. Deploying his parachute, Ray was brought to the ground and captured along with the rest of the soldiers on board the plane.

They were then ordered, along with many other Prisoners of War to take part in the “death march” across Poland for 86 days, described by Ray as, “The coldest winter ever in Poland and Germany at that time.” A POW Doctor wrote about the horrid conditions stating that “We marched, starved, froze, marched, scratched our lice, suffered disease, and marched some more. We laid in filth, slept in barns or fields, and dodged aerial strafing’s.”

Hundreds have been said to collapse from malnutrition, trench foot, exhaustion, pneumonia, and other diseases. During the interrogation process, Ray was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks with low rations of food but survived on bread and water. This quarantine process was meant to “soften” the prisoner and get him to talk. The methods of mistreatment varied between the camps.

It was common for German soldiers to use scare tactics such as firing their machine guns and rifles from their guard towers to the center of the PW compounds, endangering the prisoners from ricocheting bullets.

Ray documented his time spent in The Barracks in a notebook that he still has to this day. His journal is complete with sketches and diary-like entries of the day to day activities and struggles faced there. Although it is hard to consider yourself fortunate during such an unpleasant situation, Ray says it could have been much worse. The tent he was residing in held mass regularly, and when it comes to faith, Ray’s remained unbroken.

Even when he did get bitter, his negative attitude didn’t last long. When the war finally ended, they were liberated by the British Army on April 16, 1945. Ray was found in The Barracks, weighing a staggering 84 pounds. He spent two and a half weeks in Churchill Hospital in London, England, to regain his health and was finally sent home on June 19, 1945.

When he returned to Houma, it was a shock and surprise to his family to see that he was alive and recovering. In the months that followed, Ray reconnected with his friend, Gloria Daigle, and the two were married in 1947.

Together, they had four children, and for 66 years, their marriage thrived until her passing in 2012.

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

Attached Files Marcello.jpg
#4496476 - 11/08/19 01:40 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness, we have learned the news that Mr. Carmen J. 'Carl' Covino, World War II veteran, fought in Battle of the Bulge has died. He was 102.

Born in Lackawanna, he attended Lackawanna High School and served in the Army in Europe as a machine-gunner with the First and Third Armies during World War II.

He landed at Utah Beach six days after the D-Day Invasion and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He attained the rank of corporal and received the Silver Star and the French Legion of Honor Medal.

He began working at Bethlehem Steel in 1933. An overhead crane operator for 20 years and a stock shear man for 25 years, he retired in 1978.

Mr. Covino was the last surviving founding member of the Galanti Athletic Association in Hamburg. He also was a member of the Town of Hamburg Seniors and the Blasdell Lilly House Seniors.

He and his wife, the former Anastasia “Sally” Hawrylczak, were honored for their military service on Hometown Hero banners displayed on Buffalo Street in Hamburg in 2016.

Mr. Covino told Buffalo News reporter Barbara O’Brien that they had begun dating before the war and he did not want her to join the Army.

“Her brothers were in, so she went in,” he said. She served stateside in the Women’s Army Corps as a supply clerk. They were married in 1946.

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

Attached Files Covino.jpg
#4496477 - 11/08/19 01:40 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness, we learn the news that World War II veteran and TGGF Ambassador Mr. Glenn Angle has died. He was 99.

Born on Dec. 27, 1919, Glenn Angle was a real American who volunteered so he could join the Army Air Corps. He had his civilian pilot's license, however, the US. Army had other plans for him, and he was assigned to the US. Army 608th tank destroyer battalion.

It was two years before he succeeded in transferring to the air corps. Trained to fly a C-46 with a glider in tow, he was two weeks away from taking paratroopers and infantry to the Pacific Theater when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Mr. Angle, on behalf of everyone at TGGF and its members, we thank you for your sacrifice, your bravery, and the example you set for us all. God be with you.

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

Attached Files Angle.jpg
#4496478 - 11/08/19 01:41 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS -- It is with great sadness, we announce the passing of S/Sgt. Irvin W. "Butch" Johnson proud member of the legendary 345th Infantry. 87th Division. Butch was 95.

He was born April 15, 1924, in Cumberland, Maryland, and upon graduating high school, Butch was drafted into the United States Army, where he rapidly advanced to the rank of Sgt. at 19 years old with Company K, 345 Infantry Regiment, 87th Division.

When the division arrived in France on November 28, 1944, they were assigned to spearhead General Patton US. Third Army across France and where they experienced significant combat during the Battle of the Bulge and beyond during three major battle campaigns.

On February 6 in the battle's aftermath, Johnson, who had been promoted to staff-sergeant, was leading his men near the German border town of Kobscheid when his squad was pinned down by an entrenched German machine gun nest. Ordered to take the bunker, Butch directed his men to provide covering fire while he fought his way up the hill and climbed up and on top of the concrete pillbox from behind.

"It was hideous," he remembered. "I crawled up there and you could hear the 'ping, ping' of bullets flying by and see the sparks where they hit the cement in front of you." Chunks of flying concrete sprayed his face as he crawled to the edge of the bunker, seeing one of the Germans firing at his men below. Thinking quickly, he pulled the pin on a hand grenade, counted to two, and dropped it inside.

"I felt like I was going to be sick," Johnson said, but moments after the explosion, a German lieutenant in full dress uniform stepped over his fallen comrade with his hands in the air and presented Johnson with his weapon.

It was months later, in a hospital in Paris, when Johnson learned he had been awarded a Silver Star for his actions that day. "I'd gotten shot by a sniper in Germany later that month," Johnson recalled, "and they sent me back to Paris. And then one day, I was lying there in bed, and a colonel comes by and pins this thing to my pajamas and tells me he doesn't have the paperwork for it."

There would be a formal ceremony to present him with the Army's third-highest award for valor at a later date, he was told. But that day never came. On April 30, Hitler would shoot himself in his Berlin bunker, and eight days later, the Allies would accept Germany's unconditional surrender. "I just figured they had the wrong Johnson," Butch said.

When Johnson finally returned home, the journey took twice as long – 14 days versus the seven he spent on Queen Elizabeth. "But, boy, is it a great feeling when you stand on that deck and see that lady holding her torch in New York harbor."

After a few months assigned to Fort Meade near Baltimore, Johnson got his discharge papers in November 1945 and traveled back over the mountains to Cumberland.

"I started looking for a job," he said, "and they had an event for returning veterans downtown where a fella came up to me and said, 'You want to be an electrician?' and I said, 'Well, yeah.' So they had me go down to the post office and take an examination.

"When I came out, I handed in this occupational test, and the guy says to me, 'Are you sure you want to be an electrician? Every answer to this thing says you want to be in a band.' And I said, 'I don't want to be in a band,' so he sends me back in and says, 'Every time this thing asks you what you want to do, you better put down' electrician.' And that's how I got involved with our Local 307."

Within a few months, Johnson was working for Sterling Electric, a signatory contractor in Cumberland, wiring commercial buildings, schools and responding to residential service calls. "No matter what you wanted to do, I had the tools in my truck," he said.

It was at Sterling in 1952 that he met George Smith, another veteran, who had served in North Africa during the war. The two men struck up a quick friendship, and where you saw one, the other was sure to follow. "We were like brothers," Johnson said, "even more than I was with my actual brothers."

The two were so close, in fact, that they married sisters, Marian and Virginia, two lovely locals who just happened to be the boss's daughters. Their status cemented at Sterling, Butch and George went on to work for the company side by side for the next 30 years.

"I never missed a day's work," Johnson recalled with pride. "We cared about what we did, and we wanted to do the job right." When he would get house calls to the stately homes on a ridge overlooking the town, Johnson remembers slipping thick woolen socks over his muddy boots to protect the rugs.

"It got to where the ladies up there would call Sterling and say, 'Send Butch over, I need a light bulb.' I think they liked me because I swept up after myself," he said, laughing.

"We talk a lot about the Code of Excellence at the IBEW," said Jim Combs, who retired as the senior executive assistant to the international secretary-treasurer in 2008 and was the business manager of Local 307 when Johnson and Smith retired in the late 80s. "But guys like Butch and George lived it long before we ever thought to write it down."

On behalf of TGGF and its members, we salute S/Sgt. Irvin W. "Butch" Johnson for he dedication and service to our freedom.

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

Attached Files Johnson.jpg
#4496479 - 11/08/19 01:41 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: It is with great sadness, we learn the news that World War II veteran from the Battle of the Bulge -- Mr. Lonnie Ray Preslar, has died. He was 95.

Preslar fought in the Battle of the Bulge, after which he was hospitalized England, recovering from frostbite.

“I thought my recovery went very well, but the Army nurses kept telling me to stay in bed,” he recalled in an Oct. 8 interview. “I told them I would rather be back at the front than staying in bed all time, so they obliged me.

“My hospital time was more stressful to the folks back home than it was to me — the Army misplaced my records and notified my parents I was missing in action.”

Not too long after returning to the front, Preslar was wounded in the face by shrapnel. “Medics covered half my face with a large white bandage, which I thought gave the enemy a nice target to shoot at,” he said.

After the Battle of the Bulge, he said, “we started advancing, taking prisoners, and kept the Germans on the run.”

After one skirmish, Preslar was ordered to take 12 newly captured prisoners to a holding area behind the lines. “I had misgivings about that, thinking that was too many prisoners for one man to keep up with — especially given the language difference,” he recalled. “I waved my rifle at them, and shouted, ‘I will mow you down if you get out of line!’ They knew enough English to understand that.”

All eyes were on Berlin as V-E Day — marking the Allied victory in Europe in 1945 — approached, Preslar said. “We were driven to get there before the Russians, even if it meant we had to walk until our legs gave way.”

Preslar’s 134th Infantry Regiment of the 35th Infantry Division dashed 295 miles in two days to reach the Elbe River before the Russians could, military records show.

Even so, permission to take Berlin was given to the Russians by higher authorities.

The 35th Infantry Division switched to occupation duties and mopping-up German strongholds that had been bypassed.

With a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, three campaign stars and a combat infantryman’s badge (which authorized an additional Bronze Star), Preslar had more than enough points for a speedy return to the States.

Preslar grew up on a farm in the Polkton community in Anson County with three brothers and four sisters.

“We grew cotton, corn and soybeans, plus we always had a large vegetable garden,” Preslar recalled. An older brother was already serving in the Army when Preslar was drafted at 19 in 1944.

After the war, Preslar settled in High Point, found a job and a wife. He married Donna Sink on Nov. 15, 1947. She died in 2000 after 53 years of marriage. From this union came three daughters — Debbie, Nancy and Tammy — four grandsons and five great-grandchildren.

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

Attached Files Preslar.jpg
#4496480 - 11/08/19 01:42 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: On this beautiful Sunday evening, we kindly ask for your thoughts and prayers for the family of Dr. E. Bruce Heilman, Chancellor of the University of Richmond, World War II combat veteran and survivor, great grandfather, book author, National Spokesman of The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation and perhaps the most well-traveled 90+ year old Harley rider in the world.

He made his Heavenly journey on October 20, 2019 at the age of 93.

Widely known for his active leadership, constant optimism, contagious enthusiasm, and untiring determination, E. Bruce Heilman had a transforming effect on everything with which he was associated. He was President and then Chancellor of the University of Richmond, and President of Meredith College in North Carolina.

Born on July 16, 1926 into the family of a tenant farmer in Kentucky, Heilman learned to live on hard work, faith, and frugality. An uninspired student who dreamed of becoming a truck driver, he interrupted his farming life when, at age 17, he dropped-out of high school and enlisted in the Marines to serve in World War II.

Compared to his daily schedule of farm and school activities, Boot Camp was good for him – he grew 4 inches and gained 35 pounds in his first four months in the service. Time "on the ground" in Okinawa was not as easy, as he saw countless friends and patriots give their lives for his country. The Marine Corps broadened his horizons, increased his confidence, and transformed his ambitions.

After an honorable discharge from the Marines Heilman embraced the GI Bill and restarted his education, ultimately pursuing a career in higher education administration. He advanced rapidly and was named President of Meredith College in North Carolina at the age of 40. Five years later the University of Richmond persuaded him to become their fifth president and help implement the $50 million gift recently made by E. Claiborne Robins of the A.H. Robins Pharmaceutical Company. Even though the largest capital campaign in the University’s history was just $1.7 million, Heilman challenged the board of Trustees to support a $50 million campaign, saying that “We should all be able to do collectively, what Claiborne Robins did individually.” That bold leadership defined Heilman’s tenure.

Dr. Heilman was admired and appreciated for his fund-raising capabilities. Not only did he put Meredith College and the University of Richmond on solid financial footing, he was a major fund raiser and fund raising advisor for the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, TX, the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA, Campbellsville University in Kentucky, and many other small colleges throughout the U.S. As a result of his efforts, he has three buildings named in his honor at three universities: a dormitory at Meredith College, a dining center at the University of Richmond, and a student center complex at his alma mater, Campbellsville University. There are an additional two buildings at Campbellsville named in honor of his late wife, Betty.

A man of action in everything he chose to pursue, Heilman’s greatest efforts and results were reserved for the University of Richmond. Before arriving in 1971, his predecessor had warned that the University was in danger of folding or being absorbed into another Virginia school. At that time UR’s endowment was just $7 million.

Sixteen years of tireless effort later, the University was vibrant with a growing national reputation, glistening new facilities, and a strong financial position. Today, Richmond has an endowment of $2.5 billion and ranks 10th in endowment per capita of all U.S. universities with over 3,000 students.

Even at the age of 93, Dr. Heilman was a sought-after speaker. He was tireless in his preparation of speeches which incorporated poetry, humor, and a rapid-fire delivery that kept audiences engaged and inspired. One of his most satisfying roles was that of the national spokesperson for The Greatest Generations Foundation, where he traveled the globe to spread the history and lessons that shaped those in the Greatest Generation.

Heilman thought that exposure to other peoples and other cultures was an essential part of being well-educated. Soon after becoming President of Meredith he initiated a summer travel adventure, first inviting students, then friends and college supporters, and ultimately his family to join him as he traipsed the world and visited 145 countries.

At age 71 and looking for a new challenge, Heilman’s wife Betty gifted him a Harley Davidson which he proceeded to ride and enjoy for the next 22 years. He took his Harley across the country multiple times and traversed all 50 states, including a solo trip to Alaska from Richmond at age 88. Along the way he picked up a new group of friends, all admiring his winsome spunk and ability to safely handle an 800 lb. two-wheeled “Hog”.

Heilman was married to Betty June Dobbins for 65 years before she passed away in 2013. Preceded in death by his parents, Earl and Nellie Heilman, brothers Roland and Bob Heilman and sister, Nancy Ruth. He is survived by daughters Bobbie Murphy (Mike), Nancy Cale (Fred), Terry Sylvester (David) and Sandy Kuehl (Fred) and son, Tim as well as his 11 grandchildren, Chris Hudgins (Sarah), Matt Hudgins, Dylan Davis (Melissa), Morgan Davis (Allie), Whitney Christopoulos (Brett), Hilary Disher (Justin), Natalie Foy (Nick), Carly Parsons (Luke), Nick van der Meer, Corey Heilman, and Patrick Heilman. He is also survived by his 11 great grandchildren.

He is the author of An Interruption that Lasted a Lifetime, an autobiography about his first 80 years. He loved his family deeply.

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

Attached Files Heilman.jpg
#4496481 - 11/08/19 01:43 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS: It is with great sadness, we learn the news that WWII veteran, and Iwo Jima survivor Mr. John Moon has died. He was 102.

Born in Macomb on April 3, 1916, Moon was a graduate of Western Illinois University before enlisting into the Marine Corps where he serves with the 5th Marine Division which served in the Pacific Theater and saw major action during the battle of Iwo Jima.

Western Illinois University officials state that after graduating from WIU and returning from the war, Moon first opened and operated the S & J Café on the Macomb Square for nearly 20 years, followed by a candy store on the square for 20 more years.

He finished his career as a driver’s ed teacher for Macomb High School in the 1980s.

Moon was 103 and is believed to be the oldest surviving Marine from the battle of Iwo Jima.

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

Attached Files Moon.jpg
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