(NOV 17, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – With a heavy heart, we learn the news that WWII veteran, and Bataan Death March survivor Prof. Ben Skardon has died. He was 104.
Skardon died days after being informed of the approval of his honorary promotion to the rank of Brigadier General, Clemson officials said.
Following his graduation from Clemson in 1938, he served in World War II as a commander.
Through leading his troops through fierce fighting, Skardon earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star with “V” device, and a Purple Heart during the first four months of the war.
On April 9, 1942, he became a prisoner of war when American troops were forced to surrender to the Japanese. He then endured The Bataan Death March.
“Everyone knows about the DEATH MARCH and it was awful. One of the worst atrocities of World War II, but what a lot of people forget is the death march was just the beginning of what those men went through,” said Ken Scar, a writer and photographer at Clemson University.
“They then had to survive three years in prisoner of wars camps, where the conditions were, calling them inhumane is an understatement, but Ben survived those three years,” Scar said.
Scar said Skardon has several near-death experiences as a prisoner of war, like being on ships that were bombed and sinking.
“The ships were unmarked, American bombers, our own planes bombed those ships. They didn’t know there were thousands of American soldiers on them and sank those ships. So Ben was on one of those ships that was bombed, and it sank and he escaped and swam to shore,” Scar said.
“After everything else he’d endured, you know, as a prisoner of war, he then had to survive those ships. He did survive and he came home,” Scar said.
Skardon survived the march and more than three years as a POW, despite becoming deathly ill. Two fellow Clemson alumni kept him alive by spoon-feeding him and eventually trading his gold Clemson ring — which he had managed to keep hidden — for food.
One Clemson ROTC student who knew Skardon, said this story inspired her.
“The will and strength that he exuded was incredible and to know all of what he went through and some people don’t even experience a small portion of that, but all of what he was able to go through in surviving the Bataan Death March and all of his years as a prisoner were as incredible and he still lived to be 104 years old. So he went through all of that and his perseverance is incredible, and his story about the Clemson ring is actually why I bought mine because it was just such an incredible story,” said Jessie Katz,
Member of Clemson University Airforce ROTC. “I think he truly embodies what it means to be a soldier and that you really can get through anything if you put your mind through it. His body was physically broken down, but he was still able to make it through everything, and I think that strength is something that I one day hope to be able to get to,” Katz said.
In 1964 he returned to his alma mater, joining the Clemson faculty in the Department of English, where he taught for more than 20 years until his retirement in 1985.
Among his numerous accolades, Skardon received the Clemson Medallion, the Alumni Distinguished Service Award, the Alumni Master Teacher Award, the Order of the Palmetto, and a Congressional Gold Medal.

(NOV 18, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – Oldest Native American WWII veteran, Julia Kabance dies at age 111.
The oldest Native American WWII veteran and oldest member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Julia Kabance joined the Army on March 17, 1943 — St. Patrick’s Day. She was 33.
She had gone to school at Haskell Indian Nations University (then called Haskell Institute) and attended the University of Kansas for a semester but didn’t have enough money to continue. A sense of duty led her to sign up for the Women’s Army Corps.
She went to a recruiting office in Kansas City, and officials put her and 24 other young women on a train to Fort Des Moines. “They don’t treat you like ladies,” she said of the trip. “They treat you like soldiers. Where we stayed, it had been stables, and they put up bunk beds for us to sleep in.”
They were sent to Fort Leavenworth to take over office jobs so that the men who had been doing them could leave to fight overseas. The men didn’t like the women for that reason.
“They said, ‘We were just pulled in. We had no choice. You just walk in because you wanted to be here,” she recalled.
“They rubbed it in all the time. I told them, ‘Well, there is such a thing as patriotism.’ I said, ‘The country’s at war.’ I said, ‘Everybody needs to help.’”
She said a sergeant major in the unit once told her they liked to hire girls. He told her, “I can get more work out of one WAC than three lazy GIs.”
Kabance spent 33 months in the Army, doing clerical work and for a time, serving as a driver until an officer realized there was just one woman among the drivers and decided that could be dangerous for Kabance to be alone around so many men.
She considered making a career of the military, but Kabance felt she ought to return home to take care of her mother.
Kabance had been the 11th of 12 children. She had two sisters, one of whom was married, but she felt the responsibility would fall to her. She cared for her mother for four years until her mother died.
After that she went back to work, first for the Air Force in Topeka until the base closed. She went back to school for accounting and worked mostly for military installations. Her work took her to Washington State and on the East Coast.
Kabance also spent a lot of time volunteering with the VA and with the Catholic Church. Kabance said her faith is very important to her.
Kabance grew up on a farm on the reservation near Holton. Her father, Frank, was a successful farmer and rancher, she said.
“Most Indians at that time had to go to the association to get permission to farm their land,” she said. “My father said, ‘I’m not going to do that. It’s my land.’”
One of her earliest memories is of her family getting its first car when she was 3 years old.
“They didn’t have self-starters then, they had to hand-crank it,” she said. “Just about the time they got it started, it went ‘Bang!’ and backfired. I wanted to jump out!”
She recalls going to town and the cars scaring horses and mules, too.
She said what she remembers of World War I as the rationing, especially of meat.
Looking at her long life, Kabance said she’s not sure she has any secrets for longevity. She said part of it may have been her independence. Because she never married, “I could do whatever I wanted,” she said.

(NOV 20, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – With a heavy heart, legendry Devil's Brigade veteran of WWII, and Ambassador of TGGF, Mr. Jack Callowhill, has died. He was 98.
Jack Callowhill was born in Hamilton, Ontario, on April 13, 1923. He grew up in that industrial city against the backdrop of the Great Depression, where he attended school and choir and was as well a “Saturday Night Soldier” in the reserves. That saw him sent off to Valcartier Camp in Quebec at the outset of the war, which was not a place he wanted to be.
Jack found the routine monotonous, so when a special notice went up – looking for volunteers for a particular unit – he volunteered. Soon he was on a train, bound for Montana. Jack would now be working and training to secure his place in an elite American Canadian unit, which came to be known as the First Special Services Force (FSSF).
Jack recalls that the training was intense; the men did parachute jump training, along with hand-to-hand combat, amphibious landings, and demolitions instruction.
After Helena, the men made their way to Virginia and Vermont to finalize their training, bound overseas. It was at this point that the direction of travel surprised the men: they were put on a train and sent west to San Francisco.
Deployment in the Pacific was not out of the question, but then they started to head north, learning that their first operation was to take place in Alaska. Their mission was to defeat the Japanese forces in the Aleutians and to push them off American soil. Jack’s regiment went ashore in Amchitka, and they were tasked with building a runway for faster aerial deployments. At the same time, other elements of the FSSF were moved into combat positions on other islands. As it happened, much of the Japanese force had withdrawn before their arrival, so the operation proved to be anticlimactic.
The request that was about to come from General Eisenhower would prove to be their real test. The men headed south and east at his behest and were quickly on their way across the Atlantic, heading for the fight in the Mediterranean.
They first stopped in Casablanca, which Jack recalls as a new world, and there they were put in boxcars and sent to Oran, and from there, they again boarded ships bound for Italy. The first stop was Naples, but the real destination was the Liri Valley and la Difensa, the mountain where the FSSF would prove its mettle.
All of their training, skill, and fitness would be put to the test as the FSSF pushed the Germans off the mountain. Jack was hit by mortar fire after the initial assault; grievously wounded, the other men somehow got him down the hill, which Jack does not remember. He ended up in Naples and then at a hospital near Tunis; his recovery took months, and then it became a matter of where to send him, as no Canadian units were in the area.
Jack made his way back to Naples, where he witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius, and then onto Santa Maria Infante, where he became a weapons instructor. Not long after, Jack met up with other men of the FSSF, and he hoped to rejoin the unit, but a doctor dashed those hopes, saying Jack was medically unfit. Reconnecting with the FSSF did secure his passage back to England, where he found himself in a Repat Depot, waiting for the return to Canada. He celebrated VE Day on the streets of London and managed to visit his brother’s grave in Ireland, having learned of his death many months after the event.
Finally, he boarded Queen Elizabeth, bound for home; back in Hamilton, Jack went to work and reconnected with a young woman in the church choir, Donna Jean. They married and raised their family, settling into the rhythms of postwar Canadian life.
In 2010, Jack and the FSSF made their historic return to North Africa, Naples, and Germany, revisiting key sites throughout their unit history. He was a big part of our mission, and he will be deeply missed.

(NOV 24, 2021) – With a heavy heart, we learn the news that World War II veteran Sydney Cole has died; he was among the conflict’s oldest surviving veterans at 107.
Sydney Cole’s story was harrowing and immediate.
He was flying reconnaissance for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, when was shot down over Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.
He wrapped himself in his parachute to survive the bone-chilling weather and his wounds, before being found by German soldiers. Not realizing Cole was Jewish — he had the foresight to toss away his dog tags — they placed him on the back of a tank, and he was transported into captivity as a prisoner of war.
Cole was born in Buffalo in 1914 and later became a qualifier in swimming for the Olympic Games of 1936. After being shot down on Jan. 2, 1945, he battled for his survival, faced with the German armed forces, along with the brutal winter weather.
He had been badly wounded by shrapnel and small arms fire when his plane was shot down.
Despite suffering horrible beatings and treatment as a POW, and shrinking from 150 to 80 pounds, Cole survived the last five months of the war in Europe by sheer will, VA officials said. His true grit as the ranking leader along with a positive attitude in the camp saved the lives of many POWs who had almost given up.
He was eventually repatriated after the Soviet Army liberated his POW camp in the spring of 1945.
After the war, Cole married and went quickly back to work, owning and developing several successful businesses including a Ford car dealership, a liquor store and athletic club in downtown Buffalo. In 2016, his old Buffalo high school, now City Honors, awarded him his high school diploma in a special ceremony.
More recently, Cole was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame. He was given a special birthday celebration this past summer at the VA Medical Center.

(NOV 30, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS -- With a heavy heart, we learn the news that Pearl Harbor survivor Larry Petretti has died. He was 98.
Larry Petretti was an ardent outdoorsman, a marksman with a bow or gun and, not many years back, was said to be the oldest still-working real estate broker in California.
The longtime Santa Rosa resident was also, among the corps of local World War II veterans who witnessed and responded to and for a lifetime carried memories of the horror loosed on Pearl Harbor almost 80 years ago, the last man standing.
Petretti, for the past seven years the president and sole combat vet in the North Bay’s fraternal organization of Pearl Harbor survivors, died Saturday after a brief decline in his health. He was 98.
With his passing, there is no longer a Pearl Harbor vet known to be living in Sonoma, Lake or Mendocino counties. No one knows for sure how many Pearl Harbor survivors remain in the nation; estimates range from a few dozen to perhaps 100. A small contingent of the centenarians is expected to be on Oahu on Dec. 7 for observances of the 80th anniversary of the surprise attack by Imperial Japan that killed more than 2,400 Americans, inflicted grievous damage on the Pacific Fleet and drew the U.S. abruptly into World War II.
Petretti, a native of San Francisco, was still 17 when he enlisted in the Navy in early 1941. He was a seaman aboard the moored destroyer tender USS Whitney, and his country was not at war, when the first of 353 carrier-launched Japanese bombers and fighter planes appeared over Pearl Harbor the Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
Like so many of the American sailors, soldiers and Marines there, Petretti was a teenager who’d enlisted in the late 1930s or early ‘40s to see the world and earn a paycheck while serving his country.
At war’s end, he returned to the Bay Area and worked a number of jobs, among them bartending and becoming a staffer of the Marin Municipal Water District. In time he launched what would be a long career as a real estate agent and then broker.
He and Kathlene married in Reno in 1966. They moved about a bit before settling in Santa Rosa 40 years ago.
In his free time, Larry Petretti savored hunting and fishing, archery and shooting. His son Shawn said he was at one point the state archery champion.
Even at age 90, Petretti continued to work as a real estate broker.

(DEC 01, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – With great sadness, we announce the passing of Pearl Harbor survivor Jack Edge. He was 97.
Leaving less than 50 known survivors of Pearl Harbor.
Edge's death, from natural causes, came 10 days before a ceremony planned to honor him on the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
In a Dec. 6, 2018, video interview, Edge spoke of keeping the memory of the Pearl Harbor attack alive.
"It's important we keep Pearl Harbor before the public because (an attack) could happen again," Edge said. He said it was an issue of national security and "young people should be alerted...it could happen again."
Edge was born in Pitts, Georgia, on Feb. 5, 1924. He joined the Navy in February 1941, likely seeking a career in the post-Great Depression era, according to his son, Dale, 64.
Edge was 17 and serving on the submarine tender U.S.S. Pelias, which was docked in the vicinity of the battleships docked at Pearl Harbor, on the day of the attack.
On the morning of the attack, Edge was receiving medical treatment aboard his ship for an acute appendix attack and was scheduled for surgery at 8 a.m.
Before his appendix could be removed, the Japanese planes attacked. The crew, including Edge, went to their battle stations, Dale Edge said.
"My dad was told he would do better at his battle station," Edge said. He said his father handled ammunition and spotted the position of enemy planes by radio for the ship’s artillery.
The report, filed on Dec. 11, 1941, by William Wakefield, commanding officer of the U.S.S. Pelias (AS-14), states: "(Personnel) went to general quarters and opened fire with anti-aircraft battery."
"The Pelias was lying at the Submarine Base dock: a good position for action against this phase of the attack," the report states.
The report indicates fire from the U.S.S. Pelias and two other ships led to the downing of a torpedo plane; a second plane was repelled and last seen "streaming smoke."
The report states the "whole ship's company performed in a most admirable way."
Dale Edge said his father's ship was a few hundred yards away from the group of battleships. The Pelias' position became known to the Japanese planes after the first wave, and later waves of planes began to fire upon the ship.
After the war, Jack Edge married Alice Ward in 1949. He served in the Navy until 1960. Edge retired from the service, he and Alice operated a faith-based nonprofit ministry near Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Maryland for members of the military. The ministry was called the Servicemen's Christian Home, Dale Edge stated.
Jack and Alice Edge traveled in an RV for several years after their time with the ministry, visiting friends they made through the Servicemen's Christian Home.
Edge finally had his appendix removed at the Naval hospital in Pensacola in 2012, and the couple relocated to Ocala the same year.
Jack Edge will be remembered as an American hero and role model for his faith and bravery.

(DEC 04, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS — Colonel Edward David Shames (June 13, 1922 – December 3, 2021) was a United States Army enlisted man and officer who later served in the U.S. Army Reserve. During World War II he was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
At the time of his death, Shames was the last surviving officer and, following the death of Roderick G. Strohl in December 2019, oldest surviving member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was Jewish and reported being deeply affected by his personal viewing of Nazi Germany's concentration camps.

(DEC 5, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS — Bob Dole, Old Soldier, and Stalwart of the Senate Dies at 98
Mr. Dole, a son of the Kansas prairie who was left for dead on a World War II battlefield, became one of the longest-serving Republican leaders.
As the old soldiers of World War II faded away, Mr. Dole, who had been a lieutenant in the Army’s storied 10th Mountain Division and was wounded so severely on a battlefield that he was left for dead, came to personify the resilience of his generation. In his post-political career, he devoted himself to raising money for the World War II Memorial in Washington and spent weekends there welcoming visiting veterans.
In one of his last public appearances, in December 2018, he joined the line at the Capitol Rotunda where the body of former President George H.W. Bush, an erstwhile political rival and fellow veteran, lay in state.
As an aide helped him up from his wheelchair, Mr. Dole, using his left hand because his right had been rendered useless by the war, saluted the flag-draped coffin of the last president to have served in World War II.
Robert Joseph Dole was born in his parents’ house in Russell on July 22, 1923, the second of four children of Doran and Bina (Talbott) Dole. His mother was an expert seamstress and sold sewing machines; his father worked in a creamery and later ran a grain elevator.
Mr. Dole enlisted in the Army Reserve during college and was called to active duty in 1943. On April 14, 1945, in the mountains of Italy outside the small town of Castel D’Aiano, about 65 miles north of Florence, the Germans began firing on his platoon. When he saw a fellow soldier fall, Mr. Dole went to pull him to safety. But as he scrambled away, he was struck by flying metal. It blew apart his right shoulder and arm and broke several vertebrae in his neck and spine.
His men dragged him back to a foxhole, where he lay crumpled in his blood-soaked uniform for nine hours before he was evacuated. He was just 21.
It was a horrifying turn of events for one of Russell’s most promising young men. Unable to feed or care for himself, he feared he was doomed to a life of selling pencils on the street.
He spent more than three years recovering and underwent at least seven operations. Back in Russell, he devised a homemade weight-and-pulley system to rebuild his strength. The townspeople rallied around him, pooling their nickels and dimes for his treatment.
After the war, during his recovery, he met Phyllis Holden, an occupational therapist, and married her three months later, in 1948. He returned to college on the G.I. Bill. He already had credits from the University of Kansas, where he had studied pre-med. With Ms. Holden’s help, he earned a dual bachelor’s and a law degree in 1952 at Washburn Municipal University (now Washburn University) in Topeka, Kan. They had a daughter, Robin, in 1954.
Dole became an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the United States Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three nonconsecutive years as Senate Majority Leader.
Before his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. Dole was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

RIP Mr. Dole.

(DEC 14, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – With great sadness, we learn the news that Mary Phillips Gettys, a South Carolina civic ambassador for decades and World War II veteran, has died. She was 101.
Gettys was the widow of U.S. Rep. Tom Gettys of Rock Hill, who served South Carolina in Congress for five terms, from 1964 to 1975.
Mary Phillips Gettys, a Chester native, was honored in 2017 by the Daughters of the American Revolution for her World War II military service with the WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. She enlisted in the Navy during WWII. She served working secret codes at a Naval base in Virginia and did code duty during WWII.
Two of her brothers were wounded during the war. Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys, a nephew of Tom and Mary Gettys, said his aunt showed her love for family, for Rock Hill, for South Carolina, and for her country through her work.
“Mary Phillips squeezed every ounce out of life,” John Gettys said. “Her service to her country, both in the military and with her husband in his role as a Congressman, was a few generations ahead of the times.
However, it was her love of her daughters, grandchildren, extended family and friends that she cherished and defined her life.”
In 2019, Mary Phillips Gettys was honored on the floor of the Congress with a special recognition by South Carolina’s 5th District U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill.
“She is a true American patriot who always has a smile on her face and has lived her life in true service to her fellow man,” Norman said in 2019.

(DEC 15, 2021) FOREVER IN OU HEARTS – It is with a heavy heart, we learn the passing of World War II veteran Mr. Kenneth A. Brown, of Pawtucket. He was 96.
Brown was the beloved husband of the late Janina “Jen” (Borek) Brown for nearly 63 years. He was the oldest son of the late Alexander Jr and Lillian (Bailey) Brown and resided in Pawtucket all of his life.
During WWII, Brown served with the US Navy during the amphibious invasion of Sicily in 1943 (aboard LST 381), the Normandy D-Day invasion in 1944 (aboard LST 25), as well as Pacific Theater amphibious operations in Burma & Bay of Bengal in late 1944 and Okinawa (aboard LST 1087) in 1945. He was also a US Army veteran (during the Korean War).
Brown was a Certified Flight Instructor for over 50 years, was a Founding Charter Member of the RI Hanger of Quiet Birdmen, RI Pilots Assn. Airman of the year 1979, Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, 2005, Inducted RI Aviation Hall of Fame 2009.
He was a 60 year, 32nd Degree Scottish Rite member of the former Barney Merry Masonic Lodge #29 in Pawtucket and current St John’s Masonic Lodge #1 in Providence. Ken served as an FAA Air Traffic Controller, Aviation Accident Investigator and N.E. Regional Aircraft Safety Coordinator during his 30-year career retiring in 1987.

(DEC 30, 2021) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS -- With great sadness, we learn that the news that Steve Lewis, a World War II veteran who was one of the last living members of an all-Black cavalry regiment, has died. He was 99.
Robert Powell, president of the NAACP chapter in Manatee County, Florida, said Lewis had been hospitalized before his death, but he didn't know the cause of death.
"We lost a legend, a great guy," Powell said in a phone interview. "I used to love listening to his stories."
After entering the U.S. Army in 1943, he was initially assigned to the 9th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Clark, Texas, where he was told to corral and get a horse and issued a saddle, bridle, horse blankets, and stirrups. The unit had gained fame after the Civil War by patrolling the American frontier, and its members were known as "Buffalo Soldiers."
The Army deactivated the 9th Cavalry Regiment in 1944 and reassigned Lewis to the U.S. Army Transportation Corps in Casablanca, where he helped supply war materials to the front in Italy, France, and Germany.
After the war, Lewis, a Florida native, earned a degree in agriculture and taught for 30 years in the Palmetto, Florida, area.

(JAN 01, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – The United States Military pays Tribute to the service of Betty White's World War II Volunteer Service.
While millions of fans mourn the beloved television star Betty White, who passed away on Friday at the age of 99, US Army paid tribute to the comedian for one of her earliest and most significant roles — as a volunteer during World War II.
In a statement released on Friday, the military branch lamented the death of White and detailed her association with the armed services.
"We are saddened by the passing of Betty White," the Army said in a statement on Twitter.
"Not only was she an amazing actress, she also served during WWII as a member of the American Women's Voluntary Services. A true legend on and off the screen."
White found work modeling in the late 1930s, but put her larger aspirations on hold during World War II in order to work with the American Women's Voluntary Services (AWVS) in 1941.
The AWVS sent female volunteers to take on roles including firefighting, ambulance and truck driving, and aerial photography.
During an interview with Cleveland magazine in 2010, White said that her assignment consisted of driving a PX truck of supplies to barracks in the Hollywood Hills — while attending dances for departing troops at night.
"It was a strange time and out of balance with everything," White told the magazine, "which I'm sure the young people are going through now."
White, a staple on numerous game shows including "Password" and "The Hollywood Squares" from the 1960s through the 1980s, was also well-known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens on the 1970s CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom "The Golden Girls," and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland."

(JAN 03, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS -- It is with a heavy heart, we learn the passing of Pearl Harbor survivor and Illinois last witness to December 07, 1941. Jim Schlegel was 102.
Jim Schlegel arrived at Pearl Harbor as a 22-year-old Army private just three months before the Japanese attack.
“I had never seen Japanese airplanes until that day,” recalls Schlegel.
“And I didn’t know they were Japanese when it was happening.”
After the Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, more than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors were dead.
Schlegel was a part of the “Mountain Troops,” caring for the horses and mules on the base. On the day of the attack, he was cleaning stables. He said the attack was “one hell of a surprise” to everyone on the island.
Schlegel chose Hawaii as his base because he wanted to see the “girls in the grass skirts,” according to his daughter Beverly Capiga. He was about to be drafted when he decided to volunteer for the Army, so he was able to choose his assignment.
By 1945, he was back in Chicago and watched at Wrigley Field as the Cubs lost the World Series.
Please join us in honoring the life of the legendary Jim Schlegel, Pearl Harbor survivor, World War II veteran, and proud patriot of our nation.

(JANUARY 6, 2020) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – Goodbye to 'Mr Never Surrender': D-Day veteran who fought his way from Normandy to Germany and who was later reunited with four-year-old girl he saved in WWII battle has died aged 97.
One of Britain's last surviving D-Day veterans who was nicknamed 'Mr Never Surrender' has died aged 97.
Alan King, a radio operator in a Sherman tank, battled his way across France, Holland and Germany after landing on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
He served in the East Riding Yeomanry as part of 27th Armored Brigade during D-Day when his tank dodged mortar fire while providing vital cover to infantry soldiers.
Mr King took part in the Battle of Cambes three days later as well as Operation Charnwood and Operation Goodwood to help liberate Normandy. After advancing through northern France, he went into the Netherlands with the 33rd Armoured Brigade and took part in the liberation of s-Hertogenbosch in October 1944.
During a tank battle in the Dutch city, he saved the life of a heavily pregnant woman and her four-year-old daughter Toos Kockan who stumbled in front of his tank. Mr King saw through the narrow slit of his tank that another 30 ton Sherman was unwittingly reversing towards the pair, and radioed a warning to tell it to 'Halt'.
He was reunited with Ms Kockan in 2016 when she was a 76-year-old mother-of-two, and went on to meet her and her family in her home city twice more.
Mr King was invited to Holland by the Dutch government to mark the 72nd anniversary of the battle of Arnhem, immortalised in the film A Bridge Too Far.
Recalling his time working on the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, he said: 'It really was a bridge too far. He left the army in 1947, two years after the war ended, and became an engineer in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Mr King was awarded France's highest honour, the iconic Légion d'Honneur, in May 2016 for helping to liberate the country from Nazi rule. He was president of the Stradbroke and district branch of the Royal British Legion and a former church warden at St Mary's church, Thornham Parva.
Mr King met the family of his tank commander Cpl Louis Wilkes at an event to mark the 77th anniversary of D-Day at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire this year. He laid a wreath with his former Corporal's grandchildren Kevin Wilkes and Sonia Bailey after they tracked him down.

(JAN 07, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS --- With a heavy heart, we learn the news that World War II Veteran, Paul R. Marte Sr has died. He was 94.
Paul was born in 1927 in Manchester, CT to Louis and Gladys (Rising) Marte. After graduating from Manchester High School in 1945, he served in the Navy towards the end of World War II.
Post-war, he attended Trinity College in Hartford for his undergraduate degree and then attended law school at Boston University. He completed his law degree in 1954 and proudly passed the bar on his first attempt. After a post-college tour through Europe, he started a small law firm in Manchester in 1955. He continued at that practice, growing it over the years, until his retirement in the last 1990s. Prior to retirement, he returned to school to attain his certification as a Master Gardner from the University of Connecticut. After he retired, he and Sally moved full-time to their island home on Block Island.
He was active in the communities where he lived. He was a member of Rotary, holding the position of president for many years. He was a Mason. He was a member of the American Legion on Block Island. He was on numerous boards over the years, both in CT and on BI. He was active in the library, the BI Gardeners, the Shellfish Commission, and Harbor Baptist Church on BI and at Center Congregational Church in Manchester. A last honor bestowed upon him was being the recipient of the Boston Post Cane award, a century-old tradition that is given to the oldest resident in the community. He enjoyed the recognition, and appreciated the honor, even though it was in his final days.
Paul loved his garden, his family (most especially his wife), reading, talking, church, martinis, and singing. He was forever quizzical and interested in a range of subjects (though gardening was always at the top of that list). He could find the funny side of anything, and he was always keen to share his inside take on things.
He was a counselor and enjoyed connecting with people. He had dozens of good friends over the years, many of who have predeceased him, but some were still part of his life up until his passing. The telephone was a lifeline to him, and even in his last week, he was making calls each day to people important to him. His mind remained sharp and his interest still keen.

(JAN 10, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS -- With a heavy heart, we learn the passing of WWII veteran Cleveland Tucker. He was 102.
Cleveland Tucker was born May 6, 1919, in Gabbageville, Georgia, as the seventh of 14 children.
During World War II, Tucker served as a cook.
"Most friends I had in were the army, and I made friends as I was there. And by me handling food, I had quite a few," Tucker recalled during his 100th birthday celebrations.
According to Tucker, he was working at a drug store on Ponce De Leon when he was drafted into the army.
One of his more clear memories of the military was witnessing a building get bombed and the ship he was on being torpedoed.
"They bombed our building we were in. Tore that building up. We just happened to be lucky," he said. "Wasn't nobody in the building worth nothing."
Tucker recalls he proudly marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and visited the civil rights legend's home and church on several occasions.
After the war, Cleveland Tucker witnessed changes in our country, and it truly warms his heart.
"It makes me feel good. It makes me feel good," he said.
The secret to his long life is no secret, and he says it's the good Lord just letting him live.
"I just think the good Lord just blessed me, and he has his reason for letting me stay here," he said.

(JAN 11, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS -- One of the three survivors of the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis heavy cruiser died. Granville Crane, was 95.
Granville Crane, 95, joined the crew of the USS Indianapolis at the height of World War II in April 1943 at the age of 16. He was one of the youngest crew members to join during the war.
Crane often talked about how he survived torpedoing and drowning with a group of other service members. A Japanese submarine torpedoed a cruiser between the Mariana Islands and the Philippines on July 30, 1945. While he waited to be rescued with the other service members, Crane recalled how attached he was to his Christian faith, and prayed aloud but made no deal with God.
After his time in service, Crane became a pastor. Crane was born on August 26, 1925, in Dorado, Arkansas.
Crane is named USS Indianapolis CA-35 Memorial, which is located south of West St. Clair Street along the Canal Walk in downtown Indianapolis.

(JAN 14, 2022) FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS – With sadness, we learn the news that Louis Roy, a 101-year-old Métis veteran of World War II, has died.
Louis Roy served in World War II as a member of the Saskatoon Light Infantry, joining the Canadian Armed Forces in 1942 at the age of 22. He served in England, Africa, Sicily, and Italy.
After the war, Roy returned to Canada, where he was a trapper and hunter before he began a carpentry career at age 43. He had 10 children. He also built himself a home at the age of 85, where he stayed until he moved into the St. Joseph's Health Centre long-term care home.
Please join us in celebrating the life of World War II veteran Mr. Louis Roy.

The day we all have dreaded has arrived and we are sad to report that our mentor, hero, and inspiration has passed. Brigadier General Charles McGee’s daughter Yvonne reported to us that her father flew West on his final flight in his sleep last night. She said she found him this morning with his hand on his heart and a smile on his face. He was 102 years old and passed away at home.
Nothing we can say here is worthy of the measure of this man. His Military service in three wars is highly decorated and widely recognized, but it is arguable that his quiet public service following his retirement is even more impressive.
Charles spent over 40 years relentlessly reaching out to young people to help them understand how they can overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential. To that end, he was our biggest supporter and most valuable resource as we developed and executed the CAF Rise Above program.
He will be widely eulogized in the days and weeks ahead, and the CAF Rise Above Squadron will have much more to say about his life and service. But for now, let us pause and remember this incredible man.