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#4504168 - 01/18/20 01:42 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 Pearl Harbor survivor Mr. Will Lehner has died. He leaves behind a legacy of service to God, Country, Community. Will Lehner was 98.

A Portage County Pearl Harbor survivor, whose dream was to keep the memory of those who died fighting for this country and the war in which he served alive, has died.

Lehner was one of Portage County's most well-known veterans and many in the community knew him for his service to veterans and school children. One of his life's works was to help others remember and learn from the sacrifices made by U.S. service members at Pearl Harbor and during World War II.

"He’s given so much to so many of us that I only hope that I can live up to that same kind of standard in my life when my final story is pulled together," said Patty Dreier, who helped Lehner publish his life story in 2019.

Lehner served aboard the USS Ward in WWII, which fired the first shots by the U.S. in the war. The first shots by the Ward came in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, when it sunk one of five Japanese miniature submarines heading for the U.S. naval yard at Pearl Harbor.

Lehner put that story and the rest of his life to pen in 2019, publishing a book — titled "Legacy of a Pearl Harbor Survivor: Will Lehner Remembers" — about his experiences at war, how he coped after the war, how he settled down in the Stevens Point area and what he thought his legacy was.

"I don’t deserve recognition for being any kind of hero. I am not a hero. The heroes didn’t come home. My legacy is to have served, to have done my duty, to have kept my promises, to have kept their memories alive. I wanted to make sure their story of what happened at Pearl Harbor was as complete as possible and will never be forgotten. I guess some people just want to make a difference and I’m one of those," Lehner wrote in the book when reflecting on his legacy.

Dreier said formulating Lehner's legacy statement took multiple interview sessions and remembers him tearing up when they finally figured it out.

"That was a moment I will never forget," she said.

The book released on the 78th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Lehner and his family held a signing on Dec. 7, 2019, at the Plover Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10262. The 400 books the family had printed sold out in about half an hour, and they have ordered another 1,100 books, Adamski said.

In hindsight, Adamski said the book signing felt like a memorial for her father.

A line of several hundred people stretched out the side of the Plover VFW hall and spilled onto Hickory Drive and to the intersection of Post Road. Inside, families waited in line to meet Lehner and pose for pictures with him next to a Christmas tree.

"He got to see all those people who were interested in what he had written," Adamski said.

Dreier said she wants Lehner’s story to serve as motivation for people to record the stories of not only veterans but others who hold an important place in their lives.

"If you got somebody in your life that has a story to tell other people, help them get it down. Help them write it, capture it for everybody’s sake," she said. "I hope we can use Will’s example as a call to action to step up in our communities."

Lehner spoke before several thousand children across Wisconsin about Pearl Harbor and WWII throughout his life. His classroom visits helped him keep the memory of those who died in people's minds and to cope with his own post-traumatic stress disorder, he told the Stevens Point Journal in December.

Adamski said her father's legacy also includes his love of food and appreciation of the outdoors.

He served as a Whiting Village Board supervisor and worked at the Worth Company as a linotype printer operator for 34 years before retiring. Lehner was also a member of the Plover VFW, American Legion Post 6, Tin Can Sailors and the "First Shot Naval Vets" club.

Others also may have known him through his dedication to the Izaak Walton League as its president, director and chief cook of more than 50 years. He served as a cook aboard the Ward during WWII.

Adamski said his flair for cooking was something her husband, brother, and son learned from Lehner. Lehner passed on his special seasoning recipe to the family, which often appeared at Izaak Walton League events and other community gatherings. Adamski said they'll miss his kitchen critiques.

"Even well after moving into assisted living, he was always helping us out making gravy at Thanksgiving. He always had some suggestions," Adamski said.

Lehner exhibited a thoughtfulness and desire to seek connections with anybody he spoke with, asking about other people's lives first and being a person who would listen to others, Dreier said.

"He always tried to build a bridge," Dreier said. "He reminds us all to live life on purpose like he did. It’s richer that way. It’s richer for yourself and it’s richer for your community and your country, in his case."

Attached Files Lehner.jpg
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#4504169 - 01/18/20 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 World War II veteran Pfc. Pasqual Reyes who helped liberate Italy and France from the Nazis with his 142nd Infantry, 36th Division has died. He was 96.

It was a cold, rainy September day when Pfc. Pasqual Reyes was taken captive in 1944.

Pfc. Reyes had fought his way through Belgium and into western Germany when new danger arose. His worn and wounded company kept pushing forward as the enemy advanced until a German officer in a tank told Reyes and two others to surrender or be fired upon and killed.

They were taken captive and loaded onto freight trains, shoulder-to-shoulder, unable to sit down or move for three days,” Reyes said.

“During that time, soldiers were wounded, some had died. There was no food or water for three days. They had even been hit by fighter pilots, not knowing it was a prisoner-of-war train.”

Reyes was taken to the Stalag 7A POW camp near Moosburg, where he stayed for nine months until the camp’s liberation. He remembered seeing U.S. Gen. George S. Patton with an ivory-handled pistol on his hip ramming the gates of the camp.

Until that day in 1945, his grandson said, “He just mentally kept positive and sharp, and gained the trust of the guards.”

After the camp’s liberation, some of Reyes’ colleagues were so malnourished their bodies couldn’t handle more food and other liquids. "After they got out, they introduced them to half a cup of eggnog,” Goodman said, “and it shocked them and they died."

LIFE AFTER THE WAR
Reyes’ daughter, Yvonne Reyes, remembers her father being unwilling to wait for a table at crowded restaurants growing up.

“How come we have to leave?” Yvonne recalled asking, “and my mom would say, ‘Because your dad was a prisoner of war, and they would make him stand in line for his food.’ … He did suffer quite a bit from being a prisoner of war, the PTSD.”

Reyes shared some of his experiences with fellow veterans at the VFW. “He told a couple of stories, and anytime he talked about it he broke down,” Goodman said. One of those stories: Shooting at machine gunners, then finding the enemy soldiers he had killed were very young – 13, 14 and 15 years old.

“It just tore him apart every time he saw it,” Goodman said.

He also endured the pain of losing a son to war: Ron Reyes’ father, Ronald, who was killed in Vietnam.

“He loved nothing more than the American flag flying high and proud above his house on his street in Madera,” his grandson said.

Despite the horrors Reyes lived through, his family and friends fondly remember him as a happy, positive man.

Reyes married Ramona in 1948. The couple had four children. He also had two sons from prior marriages. He lived in Hacienda Heights after the war and worked for a metal fabricator. After he retired from that work, he moved to Madera to be closer to his wife’s family and started his own trucking company. Reyes enjoyed camping trips and hosting family gatherings.

Attached Files Reyes.jpg
#4504170 - 01/18/20 01:43 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS - It’s with a heavy heart, we share the news that PEARL HARBOR SUPERSTAR Mr. Delton E. “Wally” Walling has died. He was 98.

With the passing of each year, the number of servicemen and women who survived are shrinking as the greatest generation grows older.

Delton E. Walling was just 19 at the time. He was a communications officer in the Navy.

“I joined because I could see a war coming,” he said.

But when Walling tried to join up at 18 in Michigan, he almost wasn’t allowed in.

“They come over and grab that finger of mine. ‘Oh, you’re 4-F. Go home,’” Walling said.

Walling had broken his right middle finger while boxing.

“And I said, ‘Wait a minute. I can lick the whole bunch of you with one arm behind my back. What do I have to do to get in this great Navy?’” he said. “And they said, ‘Cut it off.’”

So he cut it off and he never looked back.

The morning of the attack, Walling said he started the day running 20 miles around Pearl Harbor. As a long-time boxer, he liked to stay in shape.

Along the way, he took a break at his station, stopping to climb the water tower on Ford Island where his shift was supposed to start hours later.

“I was up there because a man owed me some money,” he said. ”He was being transferred the next day. I knew I would never see him again.”

He collected his debt but soon he noticed a strange sound in the sky.

“The sky is full of planes, a roar of planes,” Walling recalls.

Walling, and most everyone else, figured it was American planes doing drills.

“And then the first bombs went off on the ramp at Ford Island. Now we know we’re in the attack,” he said.

Walling stayed in the Navy for the rest of the war, serving under every admiral at one point or another who was in the Pacific Ocean theater.

He now lives outside of Lockeford. For years, he attended and organized memorial services at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii up until this year.

“See, I’ve got cancer of the bone,” Walling said. “And I am on my way out.”

Walling has had cancer for 14 years but doctors told him three weeks ago that it’s spreading.

“So this is why I wanted to tell all this story right now because it’ll never be told again,” said Wally.

Wally’s family said he still pays for the flowers and wreaths to be changed at all the different memorials and cemeteries around Oahu. He says Dec. 7 is an important day to observe.

Last month, Wally said, “When I am gone, I only hope that Americans today will know what his generation sacrificed for future freedoms. After all, that’s what he’s been doing ever since Dec. 7, 1941.

RIP Wally. You will be missed but never forgotten.

Attached Files Walling.jpg
#4504171 - 01/18/20 01:44 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS – It is with great sadness, we learn the passing of World War II veteran Mr. George Thurman Perrine, of the Second Armored Division. He was age 95.

Born on Feb. 23, 1924, near Rowlesburg, W.Va., the oldest of eight children of the late George Thurman and Reda Florence (Long) Perrine.

George grew up in West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina. He was in the CCC, being in camps near Frederick and in Washington, D.C., prior to enlisting in the Army.

George was a World War II veteran, having served in a scout platoon of the Army's Second Armored Division (Hell on Wheels). He saw action in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium and Germany with Company. B 82nd Recon. Bn. 2nd Armored Division.

George was wounded three times, for which he received three Purple Hearts. After being discharged, he got married to the beautiful Mildred Florence Killius on Nov. 30, 1945. The couple had five children.

He worked for the United States Postal Service, most of the years serving as postmaster in the Mountain Lake Park office.

For the 70th anniversary of Normandy, George made the journey back to Europe to honor into those who made the ultimate sacrifice with The Greatest Generations Foundation. He made a deep impact on all he touched.

Attached Files Perrine.jpg
#4504172 - 01/18/20 01:44 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS — One of the last Coast Guard veterans who survived Pearl Harbor has died. Bruce Atwater was 98.

After Bruce Atwater, a fresh-faced 20-year-old Coast Guardsman from Minnesota, survived one of the most devastating attacks on U.S. soil in 1941, he spent the remainder of his years rehashing memories of Pearl Harbor and his country’s unending perseverance and valor in a time of global turmoil.

Bruce Atwater was assigned to sweep out an officer’s recreation hall at the U.S. Navy base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On the morning of December 07, 1941.

Although the Bemidji man had no idea at the time, what happened during that simple work detail would change his life. Atwater was sweeping up when he heard the roar of airplane engines overhead. As he ran outside the rec hall to investigate, Japanese warplanes on their way to Battleship Row flew directly overhead.

From a half mile away, he watched as those planes obliterated ship after ship. He saw the battleship Oklahoma overturn, and the U.S.S. Arizona explode when a bomb hit its ammunition stores. Although thousands of men were dying before his eyes, Atwater initially could do nothing to help them, as he was ordered to stay back.

“The loudspeaker system that connected the buildings told everybody to stay where you were, don’t try to go down in the harbor and help because you’ll only make matters worse,” Atwater, 92, recalled Friday at a local event to honor him at Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union.

Originally from Williams, Minn., Atwater was living in Canada when war broke out in Europe in 1939. To avoid the possibility of the 18-year-old Atwater being drafted into the Canadian armed forces, he came back to Minnesota. He worked as a lumberjack before restlessness set in and he joined the U.S. Coast Guard anyway in 1941.

He had been in the Coast Guard for six weeks and in Hawaii for three days when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Tense hours

Ordered to stay back after the initial attack, Atwater spent several hours in the sick bay, helping tend to the hundreds of wounded men. He’s done his best to suppress the memory of those hours, he said.

“I have chosen to forget about most of that,” he said.

That morning’s attack was just the beginning of Pearl Harbor’s ordeal. Everyone expected the Japanese to follow the air attack with a ground invasion of Hawaii.

As night fell, Atwater and his fellow Coast Guardsmen were handed rifles and ammunition to aid in fending off the troops that never came. A flight of four American planes was mistaken for another wave of Japanese bombers, and Atwater watched the sky light up as they came under a hail of anti-aircraft fire. Two of the planes were shot down.

“I’ve never seen a fireworks display to equal it,” he said.

The next day’s dawn revealed Atwater and his compatriots probably would have done more damage to themselves than the enemy had the Japanese actually landed: the guns they had been given were still covered in cosmoline gel from storage.

“If you’d have fired them, you’d have blown your head off,” he said.

The soldiers and sailors at Pearl were still nervous days after the attack, Atwater remembered. None of the buildings had air conditioning, and you could go on the roof to stay cool - if you were willing to risk being shot at by trigger-happy guards.

Atwater often began his harrowing tale of Dec. 7, 1941 with a preface: Barely out of boot camp and assigned to sweep an officer’s recreation hall, he had been stationed in Hawaii for only three days when the warning from loudspeakers and the roar of warplanes signaled something was wrong on that quiet Sunday morning.

From a half mile away, Atwater watched as Japan attacked the U.S. Navy Base’s harbor. Initially ordered to stay back after the first attack, he spent several hours in the sick bay later that day, helping tend to hundreds of wounded men.

In 1946, after five years of service on both land and sea, Atwater was discharged and returned to Minnesota, where he enrolled at Bemidji State Teachers College and earned a Bachelor of Science, a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science.

For 30 years, Atwater taught English, speech and journalism at high schools in International Falls, Williams, Esko and Warroad. After retiring from teaching in 1980, Atwater and his wife, Ellen, returned to Bemidji.

Attached Files Atwater.jpg
#4504173 - 01/18/20 01:45 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS — A distinguished RAF pilot Squadron Leader Bernard 'Max' Meyer who flew with Bomber Command during World War II has died at the age of 102.

Max is remembered as a war hero, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross when he was just 21 years old, as a gentleman and a true friend.

Born on August 17, 1917, in Elm Grove, Worthing, where his grandmother, Minerva Henderson, ran a laundry. It was here that West Worthing Evangelical Church was founded in 1900 and Minerva then gave the funding for a purpose-built chapel in Rugby Road, which opened in 1912.

Max went to Steyne School and talked of enjoying rollerskating at The Kursaal and fishing off Worthing Pier as a boy. He then won a scholarship to Woodbridge School in Suffolk.

He had talked of joining the Rhodesia Police and also thought he might become a surgeon, as he was good with his hands, but he joined the RAF in 1937, having seen a recruitment poster in London.

He learned to fly Tiger Moths in Scotland and was with No. 144 Squadron at RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire when war broke out.

Max was one of the first to fly the Handley Page Hampden bombers and due to the design of the plane, had to learn just by watching, before taking it up himself.

Jocelyn-Anne said: “There was room for only one person, so he was up there on his own. He said once, he was flying for nine hours solid and he was so stiff, they had to lift him out of the plane when he got back.”

His Canadian navigator, Pilot Officer William Tudhope, developed an ingenious way to heat up the cold meat pies they were regularly issued, by tying a them in a bag to the hot-air pipe used for heating the cabin.

In 1940, Max was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross by Air Vice Marshal Richard Harrison for his great courage and devotion to duty. He was later also awarded the DFC bar.

Jocelyn-Anne said: “When you think of the responsibility he had, and he was only 21. He had a natural aptitude for it and tenacity.”

By the time Max left the RAF in 1946, he had flown 62 missions and reached the rank of Wing Commander.

Max’s wife Merva, who he married in 1951, was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and they met at an RAF party. They had four children, Michael, Penelope, Tina and Rachel.

Max worked with his cousin for six years before going back into the RAF in an administrative role, at a lower rank. He remained in the forces until he retired as Squadron Leader, working in the careers information service, in 1972.

Max then went to work at Bishop Luffa School in Chichester, were he was bursar until he retired in the early 1980s.

In retirement, he was involved with the Aircrew Association and was president of the West Sussex branch from 2002 onwards.

Jocelyn-Anne said: “The RAF was still a huge connection for him but it was difficult to get him to talk about it.”

She treasures the times she visited him in his shed, where he was often busy working on his Triumph Dolomite or growing tomatoes.

Max and Merva were regulars at the Royal Air Forces Association Club, in Ashacre Lane, Worthing, and had many friends. The couple were very close and were married for more than 65 years but, sadly, she died a week before his 100th birthday in 2017.

Max was looked after at Care for Veterans in the last three weeks of his life.

Jocelyn-Anne said: “He was really glad that they took him. He felt he would fit in there and he enjoyed his time there.”

Attached Files Meyer.jpg
#4505515 - 01/30/20 10:53 AM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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AMERICA REMEMBERS – It is with a heavy heart we learn the passing of Mr. Robert Giguere, a veteran of D-Day (Normandy), Phillipanes, and Okinawa. He was 93.

In the twilight of his life, Robert Giguere, a Navy veteran who survived Omaha Beach on D-Day and later served in the Pacific Theater of World War II, prepared his own funeral arrangements -- including penning his own obituary.

He enlisted at the age of 17, with his mother's permission. One year later, on his 18th birthday, he awoke in an Army hospital in England covered in shrapnel with a bullet wound throbbing in his shoulder.

Four days earlier, Giguere rode across the choppy English Channel toward the Normandy coast with the Sixth Naval Beach Battalion. When his carrier grounded on the beach, a Teller mine detonated from beneath and tore through the ship's hull, killing several soldiers below deck.

Upon landing, his group but continued further inland where he eventually joined 16th Regimental Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, who were moving in toward a ravine where the Germans were positioned.

After crawling under barbed wire through two ditches and a minefield, Giguere came upon a German pillbox. He tossed in five grenades and then a sixth, a smoke grenade, which provided a target for the massive weapons on the Allies' destroyers in the channel.

Giguere followed the Army soldiers deeper inland, to Coleville, where they came upon an old church. Giguere said a German sniper was set up in the steeple. The men fought their way into the lower level of the church, where they found a French family being held. Giguere spoke enough French to tell the family to get out before the church was knocked down.

Giguere returned to the beach to find the unit he had started the day with. He was speaking with Amin Isbir, an officer who had taken cover near a truck, when a German shell exploded near them, killing Isbir and knocking Giguere unconscious.

After a few weeks of recovering in the hospital, Giguere was sent home for a 30-day leave in Laconia. He then shipped west to California and on to Asia by way of Pearl Harbor.

Giguere participated in the invasion of the Philippines, and for two weeks, he was behind enemy lines to deliver supplies to Navajo code talkers in the mountains. Giguere then fought at Okinawa in April of 1945, where he was eventually shot in the foot. His service at Okinawa earned him a third Purple Heart, though it didn't come until many years later. More than three decades passed before the bullet was finally removed from his foot. Giguere kept the round in a jewelry box in his home.

Giguere was set to participate in the invasion of Japan, but the war ended before the attack. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the island, and the Japanese surrendered.

"The atomic bomb saved my life," he said.

He returned to Laconia in 1946 and took a job as a machinist at Scott & Williams. He raised a family with five children and was a 35-year volunteer with the Laconia Fire Department. He was an avid hunter and fisher and also enjoyed playing golf.

He never told his children much about his time in the war, but he revealed more and more as the years went on. Dennis joined his father on a trip to France for the 45th anniversary of D-Day in 1989. They went to Omaha Beach, and Giguere showed his son the pillbox he attacked with grenades.

During the visit, Giguere's stayed at a bed and breakfast where a group of Belgian men was also staying. They were dressed in U.S. Army uniforms, circa 1944, as a way to honor the veterans who were visiting. Dennis says that when these men learned a living veteran of D-Day was staying in the same place, "they treated him like a king."

As Giguere grew older, he began to make those arrangements so his family would know what to do when he passed. He told them he wanted to go to the Veterans Home in Tilton, what he called "The Soldiers Home," if he ever needed that level of nursing care.

Family surrounded Giguere in the days leading up to his death. He passed away early Monday morning. Dennis, who lives in Bow, received a call about 4 a.m. from his sister, who was staying overnight at the Veterans Home. He drove up and was there in time to see his father wheeled out of the home on a gurney with a U.S. flag draped over his body.

The 2nd, 6th, and 7th Naval Beach Battalions, attached to the U.S. Army Engineer Special Brigades, had the shared mission of signaling landing craft ashore and getting casualties off the beach. By the end of June 1944, 452,460 troops, 70,910 vehicles, and 289,827 tons of supplies were in northern France. As a result of expert Army and Navy aid on the beachhead and medical care during the Channel crossing, a majority of the 41,035 wounded Americans reaching England were in excellent condition. The mortality rate was 3/10 of 1%.

Giguere and the SIXTH Naval Beach Battalion was awarded the Bronze Service Arrowhead, the Croix de Guerre with Palm by the Provisional Government of France and the Presidential Unit Citation 22 August 2000 by the U.S. Army.

Attached Files Giguere.jpg
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AMERICA REMEMBERS — The beautiful Anne Robson believed to be the oldest surviving female World War Two veteran in the United Kingdom has died at the age of 108.

Anne Robson, from Duns in the Scottish Borders, joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1942.

The Women's Royal Army Corps Association (WRACA) described her as a "true pioneer" who was "fiercely independent".

It confirmed that Ms Robson - who was living in a care home in Edinburgh - died on Monday evening.

It is hoped a memorial service will be held in her honour towards the end of February.

Born Gladys Anne Logan MacWatt on 14 September 1911, Ms Robson trained as a physiotherapist before becoming a teacher.

She joined the ATS in 1942 and rose to the rank of senior commander (major) as an assistant inspector of physical training.

"I didn't join up right at the beginning of the war - I think it was a couple of years," she recalled in an interview in December 2018.

"They were starting a physical training wing for women.

"I went in as a private - I thought it was better if I was going to be an officer to know what went on underground."

However, she said she quickly became an officer.

"My first posting was London district - the bombing was still going on and I saw the first 'doodlebug' fall," she said.

"I didn't know what it was but I was looking out of the window and this thing came buzzing along and I had to suddenly dive down."

Ms Robson remained in service for two years after the war ended before working at the Avery Hill College of Education in London.

She got married in 1953 and moved to Newcastle where she took up the post of deputy head at the Longbenton Secondary Modern School.

'Very inspiring'

When her husband Jack died in 1972 she moved to St Andrews before moving into residential care in Edinburgh.

Ms Robson's niece - Katharine Trotter - said her aunt was always happy to talk about her wartime experience but "never bragged" about it.

"She was a very inspiring relative, " she said.

"Over the years she had her hardships but never once did I hear her complain.

"She retained her sense of humour - and I think that is one of the reasons she had so many visitors."

The WRACA added that it was "extremely proud" of the charity's association with Ms Robson.

Attached Files Robson.jpg
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AMERICA REMEMBERS — Sophie Yazzie, a WWII veteran and member of the Navajo Nation, dies at 105.

Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Nation, was born in 1914 in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, and joined the US Army Air Corps when she was 28, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said in a news release.

"On behalf of the Navajo people, we offer our thoughts and prayers for the family of the late Sophie Yazzie, a matriarch for her family and a warrior for our Navajo people who served our country with great honor and dignity.”

Attached Files Yazzie.jpg
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AMERICA REMEMBERS - It is with a heavy heart, we learn the news that World War II veteran Mr. Gurdon F. Bores has died. He was 95.

Born Jan. 17, 1925, in the little country home south of Norwalk on the corner of the west side of Ohio 61 and the south side of Settlement Road near St. Alphonsus Church.

Bores joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving from 1943 beyond June of 1946. He was trained to serve aboard a new amphibious landing assault ship (LSM) built in Houston. It was used for island hopping the Asiatic Pacific Islands. Gurdon served on this ship for over two years.

After 54 years, he was awarded a combat action ribbon, other ribbons, six battle stars and five medals from the U.S. Navy for his service as MOMM 2nd Class Navy Petty Officer.

Following discharge of the Navy, Gurdon returned to his old job at J.A. Dombart Machine Shop working for Mr. Dombart until he sold the Machine Shop and Force Factory in 1948 to Brooker Brothers of Cleveland. He then worked as a machinist for over seven years in Bellevue, Ohio, for the former, National Farm Machinery, Cock-Shutt Farm Machinery of Canada, and The Ohio Cultivator. He worked for over 28 years for the former G.M. New Departure-Hyatt in Sandusky. Gurdon retired after 46 years as a machinist.

Gurdon was a paid life member of the Knights of Columbus 1117, Third Degree, American Legion Post 547, VFW Post 2743, Moose Lodge of Norwalk 1248, USS LSM Association, United States Navy Memorial and UAW 913.

Attached Files Bores.jpg
#4505519 - 01/30/20 10:55 AM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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WORLD REMEMBERS — Last Battle of Britain 'ace' pilot Paul Farnes dies, leaving only two alive from 'The Few' who defended Britain against the Nazis' air attack in 1940.

Mr Farnes, a Hurricane pilot, was one of 3,000 Allied airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain and was the last surviving ace - a pilot who brought down five or more enemy aircraft.

His death means there are now only two surviving members of 'The Few', who repelled Hitler's Luftwaffe during the 1940 battle in the skies over southern England.

Mr Farnes was the only member of the group who was fit enough to attend the annual Memorial Day in July last year, just a week before his 101st birthday.

He was exceptionally proud to have been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, the highest honour for non-officers.

Mr Farnes joined the RAF volunteer reserve in 1938, and in July 1939 took the opportunity to spend six months with the regular RAF.

He then converted to Hurricanes and joined No 501 Sqaudron, based in Gloucestershire, on September 14.

He moved to Bétheniville in France with the squadron on May 10, 1940, and during the Battle of France he destroyed one aircraft, possibly destroyed a second and shared two more.

But that was simply a curtain raiser to his impressive tally that followed in the Battle of Britain.

His tally of six destroyed, one probably destroyed and six damaged during the battle led him to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal on October 22, 1940.

After being commissioned as an officer, he served as an instructor and fought in Malta with No 229 Squadron as well as serving in North Africa and Iraq.

As the war ended, he was in command of two squadrons in the UK. Remaining in the RAF until 1958, he retired as a squadron leader, retaining the rank of wing commander.

Mr Farnes later ran a hotel in Worthing, West Sussex. He leaves a daughter, Linda, and son, Jonathan. Another son, Nicholas, died in 1954.

Flight Lieutenant William Clark, 100, and Flying Officer John Hemingway, 100, are now the only surviving members of The Few.

Attached Files Farnes.jpg
#4505852 - 02/02/20 12:11 AM 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 World War II veteran Mr. Denman E. Wolfe who participated in Normandy DDAY invasion. He was 98.

As a 23-year-old private, Mr. Wolfe was one of thousands of American soldiers, and one of the elite Rangers, who waded ashore on D-Day to help secure Omaha Beach at Normandy.

Mr. Wolfe was assigned to the 5th Ranger Battalion, Company D and fought in four major battles of World War II including: Normandy, Battle for Brest, Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Huertgen Forest where Mr. Wolfe was shot in the face.

In all, Wolfe spent 3 years, 11 months, and 21 days in Europe, fighting the Germans all the way.

He is one of last surviving member of the WWII U.S. Army Rangers to assault the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

Attached Files Wolfe.jpg
#4507546 - 02/15/20 10:33 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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One of the few remaining Navajo Code Talkers who used his language to confound the Japanese in World War II has died.

Joe Vandever Sr, was among hundreds of Navajos who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, transmitting messages using a code based on the Navajo language. The code developed by an original group of 29 Navajos was never broken.

Vandever enlisted in the Marines in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in March 1943 and was honorably discharged in January 1946. He worked multiple jobs after the war, including for an oil company and as a mining prospector, and stressed the importance of the Navajo language. He also was a medicine man.

Vandever is survived by a sister, several children, and dozens of grandchildren and great grandchildren. He had one great-great grandchild.

Vandever's wife of 73 years, Bessie, died last September.

He will be buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Arrangements are pending.

Vandever's death leaves less than a handful of Navajo Code Talkers still alive.

Please consider supporting the mission of The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation to help remember those who served.

Attached Files Vandever.jpg
#4507548 - 02/15/20 10:35 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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It is with great sadness; we announce the passing of World War II veteran Mr. John Anderson McGlohon known for photographing Hiroshima atomic bomb strike. He was 96 years old.

John McGlohon, who worked for more than thirty years as a firefighter for Asheboro, North Carolina, was perhaps best known for his work as a photographer for a B-29 crew that had mistakenly flew over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, hours after the first nuclear bomb released during war time had exploded.
McGlohon, a U.S. Army Air Force sergeant at the time, had joined the Army Air Corp only a few months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, but it was his work and the photos he took toward the end of the war that immortalized his name in the history books.

In recounting the story about taking the photos, McGlohon said after a brilliant flash of light temporarily blinded the pilot and gunners, he turned on the cameras in his compartment located in the aft section of the B-29.
"We realized it was something different than we saw every day," he said.

McGlohon's photos were far different than other photographs that were taken of the historic event. Planes in the area had been instructed to stay at least 50 miles away from the city, however, through a communications mishap, McGlohon's crew did not receive the orders. That meant he and the rest of the crew happened to be closer than anyone else to the nuclear bomb when it was dropped on the city.

The photos he snapped that day are some of the few existing images of the Hiroshima bomb mushroom cloud. Three days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second A-bomb was released over Nagasaki, which prompted the Japanese emperor to announce the country's surrender six days later.

After he finished serving his country, McGlohon says he never saw a print of the photos he shot over Hiroshima. He returned to his hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina, eventually volunteering for the Asheboro Fire Department, where he worked, rising up the ranks until he reached the rank of Fire Chief, a position he held for 24 years.

Attached Files McGlohon.jpg
#4507549 - 02/15/20 10:36 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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It is with great sadness, we share the news that World War II veteran Superstar Mr. Joe Demler, who was featured in Life magazine as POW, dies at 94.

Joe Demler, whose harrowing World War II experience as a prisoner of war was featured in Life Magazine in 1945, and who went on to a long, rewarding life in Port Washington, died Wednesday night.

Demler was captured in December 1944 by the German army during the Battle of the Bulge. When he was liberated more than four months later, he had lost 90 pounds from his 5-foot-7, 160-pound frame.

A photo of a skeletal Demler appeared in a 1945 Life magazine article after his POW camp was liberated.

Demler recalled in a 2015 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article how he and other POWs were forced to march many miles during the cold winter of 1944-’45 and repair railroad tracks while being bombed and strafed by Allied planes.

Prisoners had “no control over your destiny to know what’s going to happen to you," Demler said at the time. "You don’t know what to expect. At one time the talk was (Adolf) Hitler was going to kill all of us,” he said.

What helped Demler cope was meeting other prisoners of war captured after him who brought heartening news of Allied troops moving steadily toward Berlin, he said. Demler knew he only had to hold out a little longer.
“You always look forward to living. That’s what kept you alive,” Demler said “You prayed and you thought positively all the time.”

Demler had turned 19 on Dec. 7, 1944, and his unit, K Company, 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, was sent to fight in the Bulge the day after Christmas. He attended Christmas services outdoors as a chaplain stood on a jeep hood for Mass, Demler's thoughts drifting to his family and friends home in Port Washington celebrating the holiday.

While the Germans proved to be a formidable foe, soldiers also fought brutal cold and heavy snow.

Demler had only his clothing, rifle and ammunition.

"We were moving, but the weather was so bad," he said in 2015. "The snow was up to your hips. It was the coldest winter in Europe. I'm glad I had my overcoat."
Demler used his overcoat as a blanket, sleeping on floors of buildings captured from the Germans.

For Demler, the Battle of the Bulge came to an end on the night of Jan. 4 when a German Panzer IV tank fired a shot through a stone building where he was acting as a lookout on the second floor. The impact launched Demler from the floor into the ceiling. Two companies of American soldiers, more than 300 including Demler, were captured, interrogated and packed into train cars to a prisoner of war camp.

The Germans took Demler's weapon, ammunition and rations. His overcoat, the one thing that had kept him alive during the bitter cold, was burned at his POW camp because of lice.

Each day 10 men shared one pound of cheese and a loaf of German rye bread made mostly of sawdust. Demler rapidly lost weight. As more American POWs arrived, Demler learned the war would likely end soon. On the day he was liberated in April 1945, Demler weighed only 70 pounds.
A Life photographer embedded with liberation troops snapped Demler's photo, published a short time later in the popular magazine. Doctors estimated he would have likely died within three days had the war not ended when it did.

Despite Demler's emaciated condition, he was one of the lucky ones. American casualties during the five-week Battle of the Bulge numbered almost 90,000, including 19,000 killed.

It took Demler months to regain his strength before he returned home to Port Washington, where he worked at the post office for 37 years, rising to assistant postmaster before retiring in 1982. He raised three children with his wife, Therese.
"You can't have a defeated attitude. That's why I'm alive," said Demler, who never returned to Germany. "Every day I think about it. It never goes away."

Attached Files Demler.jpg

"In the vast library of socialist books, there’s not a single volume on how to create wealth, only how to take and “redistribute” it.” - David Horowitz
#4507550 - 02/15/20 10:37 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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It is with great sadness, we learn the passing of Mr. Frank Hernandez, member of the U.S. Army during World War II veteran and POW with the 83rd Division has died. He was 94.

A retired cabinetmaker, Frank Hernandez was drafted in December of 1943 into the U.S. Army while living in his native California. He was 18.

"I was a rifleman all the way through," recalls the soldier, who rose to the rank of corporal by war's end.

With the war well under way, the young soldier was initially sent to England, then to Normandy as a member of the 83rd Infantry Division, dubbed the "Thunderbolt Division." He was among the replacements for those lost during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

His first major battle was "Operation Cobra," which included fighting in the hedgerows of Carentan, France.

"They kept shelling us," he says. "We would go into our foxholes. But a mortar shell landed near me before I could take cover."

Shrapnel sliced into his leg and hip. The concussion temporarily rendered him deaf.

"The medics picked me up with a stretcher and were carrying me away when another shell came down on us," he says. "They just dropped me and took cover.

"I lay there praying," he adds. "I was always praying, you know. I think maybe the prayers kept me alive."

He was picked up again and taken to a field hospital tent, where he underwent surgery. He was then sent back to England, where he spent two months recuperating in a hospital in Bristol.

"I started walking again and one day went over to the servicemen's club," he says. "They had a jukebox playing Glenn Miller swing music. I asked one of the girls if she wanted to jitterbug. We started jitterbugging, and one of my doctors saw me. He said I was going back on duty.

"I guess I was jitterbugging a little too good," adds the veteran, who remains an accomplished ballroom dancer to this day.

He was sent back to the front lines, this time to Germany with the 82nd Airborne Division, where he fought in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest.

From there, he was deployed to Belgium, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 and into the following January.

Then it was back to Germany, where his unit took the cities of Duren and Rhineland.

Early in April of that year, he and seven other soldiers were bivouacked in an old house not far from Berlin. While the rest slept in the basement, two soldiers stood guard.

"All of a sudden about 5 o'clock in the morning, I heard some noises outside," he says. "I got up and looked and saw we were surrounded by German soldiers. Our two guards were gone."

Hernandez, who knew a little German, went out to meet the Germans after they demanded the Americans exit the house.

"I went out, and the commander told this young soldier to shoot me," he says. "He took me out to the side of the building. I dropped down on my knees and started praying."

Just then the other Americans came out with their hands up. The German commander then barked an order for all of them to be taken to Stalag 11-A.

"I remember marching through the town and people beating on us," he says. "Our bombers had been bombing them, flattening their buildings. They were getting even."

Upon arriving in the POW camp, the newly minted prisoners were interrogated.

"When they started interrogating me, asking me about my outfit, I told them, 'I no speak English good,' " he recalls with a chuckle. "I told them, 'I am a Mexican. I am from Mexico.' That got me out of the interrogation."

For the next six weeks, he was a POW sitting out the war.

"We didn't have hardly anything to eat," he says. "We were really hungry."

But the war was coming to an end. Americans in trucks soon liberated them as the camp guards fled.

"We were in an airplane to Normandy when we heard over the radio that the war (in Europe) was over," he says of May 8, 1945. "We were very happy to hear that."

Hernandez returned to France on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy in 1994, where the veteran received the French Gold Medal for his efforts to liberate that country during the war.

Attached Files Hernandez.jpg
#4507551 - 02/15/20 10:38 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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It is with great sadness; we learn the news that the beautiful Mr. Gene Higham, World War II veteran Tank Driver in Europe has died. Gene was 96.

Drafted in 1942, at 19 years of age, Mr. Higham traded his position as a coal truck driver in southeastern Ohio for that of a Sherman Tank for the 736th Battalion, 8th Armored Division, U.S. Ninth Army, Europe.

Chosen as a tank driver because he had operated heavy coal moving equipment, Mr. Higham’s life was placed on hold for his country. But Mr. Higham was more than just a driver of a Sherman Tank — he recorded the battalion’s history on a portable typewriter. He was driver and secretary for the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Ritchie.

The 736th trained at Camp Bouse, Arizona — site of the Canal Defense Light — a developmental, top secret weapon that was never deployed. It was designed to illuminate enemy positions with 13 million candle power, nicknamed GIZMO by the troops.

On March 31, 1944, the 736th departed for Europe, crossing the Atlantic in an unescorted troop transport. Mr. Higham refers to this as one of the most harrowing experiences of the war stating that the crossing was “… the scariest thing I experienced … to that point in my life.” Battling constant seasickness, Mr. Higham was on call to be present for all meetings held by senior officers.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the battalion was anchored off of Utah Beach, later landing on that fateful day. As Mr. Higham drove the lead tank, the 736th made its way across Northern Europe as the battalion engaged in several major conflicts - including: The Campaign of Northern France; the Ardennes Campaign — better known as the Battle of the Bulge; the Rhineland Campaign; and the Battle of Central Europe.

The battalion would receive 106 Purple Hearts, 90 Bronze Stars, two Oak Leaf Cluster to Bronze Stars, 14 Silver Stars, one Soldier’s Medal, and one Meritorious Unit Plaque. The battalion lost by killed in action, 26 men; slightly wounded in action, 58 men; seriously wounded in action, 17 men; died from wounds, two men.

In early April of 1945, as the tanks rolled into the Munich — a bastion of NAZI support — the Wehrmacht was weakened but also desperate and continued to put forth an intense resistance, deploying hit and run tactics. Mr. Higham refers to the last three days of the war as being very intense, with 72 hours of nonstop combat.

As the driver for the battalion commander, “… I didn’t do any of the shooting. I didn’t want to do the shooting. Think of it … little kids you’d be shooting, women you’d be shooting and this bothered me.” Mr. Higham recalled the “stench of flesh” during this intense combat. He then grew quiet.

In December 1946, he arrived in New York City with two other servicemen. All three men, needing to travel to Ohio, used the little cash they had to entice a cabbie to drink with them. Refusing to drive the men to Ohio — for obvious reasons — the men placed the intoxicated cabbie in the back of his own vehicle and proceeded to drive to Ohio. Waking up in Ohio, the cab driver was not only surprised but would discover he had lost his job upon returning to New York City. Weeks later, the three men would return to New York City, visit the very same cab company, pay the fare and convince the dispatcher to reinstate the cab driver whom they had taken to Ohio.

He left his ordinary life behind — served — then returned home to continue that life. Unlike today’s volunteer army, many servicemen during World War II, once drafted, served for the duration.

Married for 51 years, he and Helen raised three children: Daniel, Ronald and Paulette. As an employee for Macomber Steel from 1947-1972, Mr. Higham worked on the construction of the National Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Macomber Steel would relocate Mr. Higham to Fort Myers in 1972, where he worked for its subsidiary, Romac Steel, located on Crystal Avenue. He helped build Lely High School. He loved softball and helped develop the Lee County Parks and Recreation 50-Plus softball league, which was initially played at the Terry Park complex.

The 736th was one of many decorated tank battalions. For several years, many former tankers gathered in Tennessee for a yearly reunion. However, as these numbers have dwindled, the reunions are now thing of the past.

Attached Files Higham.jpg
#4507552 - 02/15/20 10:39 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Legendary Soviet World War II Veteran, Mr. Aleksey Botyan who saved Krakow, Poland from Nazi dies days after turning 103.

A Soviet World War II veteran credited with saving the Polish city of Krakow from devastation has died in Moscow. His biography reads like a thriller novel, from battling Nazi invaders in Poland to training elite commandos in the 1980s.

Over his long life, Aleksey Botyan was many things. He was born in 1917, just as the Russian Empire was collapsing and shattering into pieces. His family lived in the territory that became part of Poland in the 1920s.

FIGHTING SINCE DAY ONE
He might have lived as a village schoolteacher – his first choice of career – but in 1939 he was conscripted into the Polish Army just in time to face the Nazi German invasion. As an air defense non-commissioned officer, he spent the first days of World War II shooting at Junker warplanes.

Later, Botyan’s unit fled east and surrendered to the Red Army. The man escaped captivity and returned to his home village. Being a fugitive from the law in Stalin’s Soviet Union ended badly for many, but not for Botyan, who instead was enrolled into state security just a month before the Nazis invaded the USSR in June 1941.

Trained as a saboteur and clandestine operations expert, Botyan cut his teeth in intelligence, raiding German supply lines during the desperate battle for Moscow. After 1943 he was a deep cover agent, coordinating partisan forces in Ukraine, Belarus, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

KRAKOW UNDAMAGED
Poland is where some of Botyan’s most publicized operations took place, like the four-hour raid on the town of Ilza. The operation, by Soviet-friendly Polish resistance forces from the People’s Army, succeeded in freeing many captives and ransacking German stores for crucial supplies. But Botyan’s crowning achievement happened near Krakow in January 1945.

The southern Polish city has the distinction of surviving the German occupation virtually unscathed. Unlike many other places in Poland and elsewhere, it didn’t see intensive street battles. Retreating Nazis didn’t even bother to demolish historic monuments or strategic sites.

The official Soviet explanation for this turn of events was that the Red Army conducted a lightning offensive towards Krakow and didn’t leave the Nazis time to lay waste to the city. The current prevailing Polish point of view is that the Nazis had no intention of damaging Krakow, which its propaganda declared an ancient German city.

FLOODING AVERTED
The retreating Nazis blew up a few bridges across the Dunajec and closed the Roznow Dam. The latter could have been followed with a devastating strike against the city; once enough water had accumulated, the dam would be demolished, causing a massive wave which would tear down Krakow. Botyan and his men are credited with thwarting the man-made disaster.

The partisan network under Botyan’s command learned where explosives required for such a large demolition work were stockpiled and staged a daring attack on the place. It was an old castle in Nowy Sacz, a city southeast of Krakow, which was obliterated just before the advance units of the Red Army reached the area. Botyan was awarded Russia’s highest title – Hero of Russia – for that operation in 2007.

LEGEND AND FICTION
Botyan’s wartime endeavors, after they were declassified in the 1960s, provided inspiration for writer Yulian Semyonov. His book ‘Major Whirlwind’ and its screen adaptation tell the story of a small group of intelligence agents sent behind enemy lines to prevent mass demolitions in Krakow. The titular character is partially based on Botyan, while aspects of the plot were inspired by his actual work.

His subsequent service in Soviet intelligence is far less publicized. Botyan had a long string of clandestine deployments in Czechoslovakia and Western Germany, and he was involved in teaching sabotage techniques to the elite Vympel commando unit. He retired from active service as a colonel in 1983 but kept in touch with the special services as a civilian consultant.

He passed away today, just three days after marking his 103rd birthday.

Attached Files Botyan.jpg
#4507553 - 02/15/20 10:39 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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It is with great sadness, we learn the news that Pearl Harbor survivor Mr. Frank Wasniewski has died. He was 100.

Wasniewski was stationed with the 98th Coast Artillery at Schofield Barracks, some 35 minutes north of Pearl Harbor, but that fateful day he had traveled to the Navy yard to pick up ammunition.

A member of “the greatest generation,” Wasniewski was drafted March 26, 1941 and had planned to serve a year. He was sent near Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served four and a half years.

Wasniewski always considered himself lucky to come home alive. “It was brutal,” he said.

“Frank Wasniewski was a true American hero who stood tall in our country’s darkest hour, and stood by his fellow veterans here at home,” said County Executive Tom DeGise.

“We mourn Frank’s passing with his family, his friends, and his fellow vets, knowing that while our hearts are heavy now, they will be full of pride always that Frank Wasniewski called Hudson County his home.”

After the war, Wasniewski worked as a trailer-truck driver for the United State Postal Service for many years before retiring. He was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and a parishioner of St. Joseph R.C. Church.

Attached Files Wasniewski.jpg
#4507554 - 02/15/20 10:40 PM Re: The Passing of The Greatest Generation. [Re: F4UDash4]  
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World War II combat legend Mr. Luke Gasparre dies at age 95.

At the young age of 18, Gasparre trained to become a soldier and was assigned to the 87th Infantry Division that was tasked with breaking through the German lines. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, which was the highest casualty operation by the end of World War II.

“At one point he was in combat for five straight months,” Astoria civic leader Antonio Meloni said during a ceremony honoring Gasparre in 2014.

Following the war, Gasparre returned to Astoria having earned seven medals including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He worked for the postal service for 34 years and to make ends meet he took a job as an usher for the Mets for 55 years, the most ever in the Mets organization.

“Luke held a special place in our Mets family. He served as an usher for parts of six decades and was a decorated World War II veteran who wore his Purple Heart and Bronze Star on his usher’s uniform,” the Mets said in a statement.

“So many of our fans knew him as he always welcomed everyone with open arms and a friendly conversation. He will be missed by many and we send our heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.”

Gasparre was also a ticket taker and usher at the U.S. Open for more than 40 years. He became the longtime leader of the Tamiment Democratic Club and various other civic groups.

Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr., who represented Astoria for more than three decades, put Gasparre on the City Planning Commission “because of his brilliant mind,” and Gasparre was a longtime member of Community Board 1.

He was married to his late wife, Madeline, for 66 years and they had a family of three children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Attached Files Gasparre.jpg
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