Memorial Day thanks, Dad... for your courage, contributions, and comforts...

[Ponyguy]

It's been four years ago this month, that you left us... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/cry.gif

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81st Infantry "The Wildcat Division" U.S.Army 1943-1945

Bombardment of Angaur, an island among the Pacific Palau Island group, by battleship USS Tennessee, cruisers, and Dauntless dive bombers from USS Wasp began on 11 September 1944. Six days later on 17 September, the U.S. 81st Infantry Division commanded by Major General Paul J. Mueller landed on the northeast and southeast coasts. Mines and congestion on the beach initially gave more trouble than Japanese counter-attacks. But resistance stiffened as the Americans advanced on "the Bowl," a hill near Lake Salome in the northwest of the island where the Japanese planned to make their last stand. From 20 September the 322nd battalion repeatedly attacked "the Bowl," but the 750 defenders repulsed them with artillery, mortars and machine guns. Gradually hunger, thirst, and American shellfire and bombing took their toll on the Japanese, and by 25 September the Americans had penetrated "the Bowl." Rather than fight the fanatical defenders for possession of the caves, the Americans used bulldozers to seal them inside the entrances. By 30 September, the island was secure.

Dad brought home a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his singular effort in leading a train of M4 Sherman tanks with only his M-1 rifle against the enemy on Angaur.

"The real Patriot is not the one who dies for his country... A real Patriot is the one who makes the other sonofabitch die for HIS country."(Paraphrase of Gen. George S. Patton)


Thanks, Dad...
And the rest of your compatriot ground-pounding grunts...

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Much love and
Regards from,

[tic chick]

gene,

what a wonderful tribute to your father.

i see footage of wwll battles and the horror of the concentration camps. some of my family had suffered under the hands of the germans.

these young men went into this, thinking they would come home and never did. some knew they might not come home and did it anyway.

it truly was, "the greatest generation".

i hope the lessons learned from that war will stay with all who read about it.

you are blessed you father came home. he must have passed some of that perseverance of spirit along to you.

thank you raymond masters,
jeannie

[Leeaelle]

What a beautiful tribute!! Thank you for sharing this with us. Your dad was indeed a special man.

He also reminds me ALOT of a man that was interviewed as part of a program on the History Channel about men who returned to Hawaii and Germany in (I think ) about 1995 for a 50 yr reunion. In Hawaii, they met many of their former 'enemies' and many of the Japanese men who bombed Pearl Harbor. Your Dad looks JUST LIKE one of the men interviewed, who made that trip!!! Did he he perhaps go?

I have the UTMOST respect for our Veterans. Thanks to men like your beloved Father, we live free today. Without them, it would not have been possible. God bless them all. Thank you again Ponyguy for sharing this. Hugs, Lee