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Category: Veterans in the news

  • Nation’s oldest military veteran dead at 112

    Richard OvertonAmerica’s oldest veteran, Richard Overton — credited God, whiskey and cigars for his longevity — died Thursday in Texas at the age of 112. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
    By Frank Miles | Fox News

    America’s oldest veteran, Richard Overton, who served in the Army during World War II, died Thursday in Texas at the age of 112, reports say.

    He had been hospitalized for the last week with pneumonia, his family said.

    Shirley Overton, whose husband was Richard’s cousin, said the vet died Thursday evening at a rehab facility in Austin.

    Overton, who was also thought to be the oldest living American, was born in 1906 in Bastrop County, just outside Austin, Texas.

    Overton was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army, and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese surprise attack in 1941.

    The WWII veteran served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion from 1942 to 1945, a period that included stops in Angaur, Palau; Peleliu, Micronesia; and Iwo Jima, Japan.

    Mr. Overton M1Let’s take a moment to thank and celebrate the life of Richard Overton the nation’s oldest living veteran whose passed away this evening at age 112.
    Thank you for your service, sir.

    Fair winds and following seas, Mr. Overton. I’ll hoist a glass and have a cigar in your honor. The rest of the article may be viewed here: Fox News

  • The Greatest Beer Run Ever, New York to Vietnam

    The Greatest Beer Run Ever, New York to Vietnam

    Friends who grew up in the same New York neighborhood and became part of ‘The World’s Greatest Beer Run’ while serving in Vietnam .

    If you find a few minutes to watch this video you may begin to understand why many of us believe Beer is so much more than just a breakfast drink.

    Something of a local neighborhood legend, the story has often been met with eager but disbelieving nods of approval. To set the record straight earlier this month, Donohue, now 73, self-published “The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A True Story of Friendship Stronger Than War,” a book about his beer-hocking trek across Vietnam. Here’s how he got from a bar in New York to a warzone with beers in hand.

    Jonn posted about this a while back but didn’t have the video.

  • Settlement reached in infamous ‘Norfolk Four’ case 

    Settlement reached in infamous ‘Norfolk Four’ case 

    Infamous ‘Norfolk Four’ sailors wrongly accused of a woman’s rape and murder are paid $4.9million in settlement 21 years after their conviction, following a campaign by novelist John Grisham

    • Four sailors were convicted in 1997 rape and killing of Michelle Moore-Bosko
    • Eric Wilson, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice were later exonerated 
    • The city of Norfolk has agreed to pay $4.9million to the sailors and the state agreed to pay $3.5million  
    • DNA evidence linked another man, Omar Ballard, to the crimes
    • Three of the men were granted conditional pardons in 2009 but their convictions remained on the books
    • Wilson had failed to get his conviction overturned in court because he had already completed his sentence when he brought the challenge
    • The men have long said they confessed only after being intimidated by police

    The city of Norfolk has agreed to pay $4.9million to four former sailors who were wrongly convicted of a woman’s rape and murder based on intimidating police interrogations. The state also has agreed to pay $3.5 million.

    The payments close out a decades-long case that drew widespread attention as the men’s innocence claims were backed by dozens of former FBI agents, ex-prosecutors and crime novelist John Grisham.

    ‘These guys can now put all this behind them and try to recoup their lives,’ said Tony Troy, a lawyer who represented one of the sailors.

    The men – Eric Wilson, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice – were pardoned by then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe last year of the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko.

    Omar Ballard admitted sole responsibility for the killing and is serving a life sentence

    I will not even pretend I can understand what those 4 men went through.  Nor can I imagine the emotional nightmare the loved ones of Michelle Moore-Bosko have been through.

    Source: Settlement reached in infamous ‘Norfolk Four’ case | Daily Mail Online

  • George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94

     George Herbert Walker Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and forged a global coalition to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, has died at age 94.  In a political career that spanned three decades, he lost his bid for re-election and lived to see his son win the Oval Office.

    The death of Bush — nicknamed “41” to distinguish himself from son George W. Bush, “43” — was announced in a statement released late Friday.

    “Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former President George W. Bush, said in a statement released by family spokesman Jim McGrath. “George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

    His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.

    Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined. In April, a day after attending Mrs. Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that former President George W. Bush, his son, solicited ideas for a eulogy.

    But he proved resilient each time. In 2013 he told well-wishers, through an aide, to “put the harps back in the closet.”

     

    On the day he turned 18 years old, Bush both graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and enlisted in the Navy, little more than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Less than a year later, when he was still 18, he received his wings and officer’s commission, believed to be the Navy’s youngest pilot.

    For the next two years, with World War II at its peak, Bush flew torpedo bombers off the USS San Jacinto. On Sept. 2, 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire while he was on a bombing run in the Pacific. Bush bailed and was rescued by a submarine, but his two crewmembers were killed. Bush would later say he thought of them every day.

     

    Source: George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94 

  • Oldest Pearl Harbor Survivor Dies

    Ray Chavez passed away peacefully at his home on Wednesday morning. He was 106 years old. Other veteran survivors, of the Pearl Harbor attack, recognized him as the eldest among them. He was a Navy veteran.

    As the oldest survivor, he was a natural choice when it came to veteran representation. He has been a White House guest, as well as a grand marshal for local parades. Additionally, he has been at events in California and in Hawaii.

    On the morning of the attacks, his ship spotted the periscope of a Japanese submarine. They sunk it. From the San Francisco Chronical:

    At 3:45 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941, Seaman 1st Class Chavez’s crew was sweeping the east entrance to the harbor when they spotted the periscope of a Japanese midget submarine. After depth charges were dropped to sink the sub in 1,500 feet of water, the rest of the morning passed uneventfully.

    After he served in the military, he proudly continued on with other professions. After tragically losing family members to a car accident, he adopted a young girl who would end up being his caretaker later in life.

    According to his daughter, he didn’t speak about his role in World War II until the 1990s. She ended up following in his footsteps, becoming the Navy’s first female jet engine mechanic:

    She, too, served in the Navy, from 1974 to 1991, and was recognized as the Navy’s first woman jet engine mechanic.

    You could read more here:

  • The Ghost Army of World War II

    This was a well-kept secret. It was, in fact, so well-kept for over 50 years, that no one knew anything about it, including the families of these people who worked in this unit, until it was finally declassified. It was the Ghost Army, a replicated army of equipment, tanks, landing craft, planes, etc., placed where Hitler’s spies and army could see them, and be fooled into believing they were real.

    Most of the people who participated in this project just put it behind them and got on with their lives, so much so, that when Bernie Bluestein, a local Chicago area artist who is now 95, decided he wanted to take an Honor Flight to Washington, DC, all those memories he’d let fade into the past started coming to the surface. When he went to Europe with his son Keith, now 63, he began to tell his son all of this buried, long-suppressed stuff, astonishing him.

    Mr. Bluestein was 19 when he was drafted into the Army. Because of his ability to sketch comic strips and pinup girls in Cleveland, OH, he was placed with the 603rd Camouflage Engineers Battalion, the objective being to create an entire army that would fool Adolf Hitler’s spies and aerial observers. These people were all levels of skill in art, from professional artists to students. They created everything from fake airplanes parked on what appeared to be airfields to convoys emplaced in France, to inflatable tanks with loudspeakers playing tank noises – all to fool the German army. And they couldn’t tell their families where they were (23rd Headquarters Special Troops unit) or what they were doing.

    The full story on Mr. Bluestein is here:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-ghost-army-veteran-20181110-story.html

    To keep historical records intact, an organization titled The Ghost Army Legacy Project has been formed. The link is here: http://www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org

    The first ever Ghost Army historical marker was dedicated September 26, 2018, in Bettembourg, Luxembourg.

    The marker stands on the exact spot where the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops carried out Operation BETTEMBOURG, one of their longest and most important operations.  http://www.ghostarmylegacyproject.org/news

     

  • Armistice Day 1918 is Veterans Day 2018

    11th November 1918 – Armistice ending World War I is signed.

    General John Pershing continued the attacks on the Germans, because he did not know when/if the peace treaty (Armistice) would be signed. The HistoryNet article is well worth the time it takes to read it. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Armistice ending World War I went into effect. Signed by all parties at 05:00 hours that morning, it meant that hostilities should have ended quickly. But troops were still sent into the field to fight and artillery was still fired to get rid of unspent munitions. GEN Pershing is quoted in the article below.

    http://www.historynet.com/world-war-i-wasted-lives-on-armistice-day.htm

    From the New York Times files below are archival photos taken on Armistice Day and after. You bubbleheads will note the crew of the USS Calumet, a submarine patrol, returning to the Brooklyn Marine Base from sea duty, taken on Nov. 17, 1918.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/world/europe/armistice-day-100th-anniversary-photos.html

    These photos cover an expanded period of time and are from various source, including London and Paris. Note the US troops in the parade through London’s Great Arch.

    Armistice Day became an official holiday in the US in 1938, and in 1954, following World War II and the Korean War, President Eisenhower changed the name of the Armistice Day holiday to Veterans Day. The date was moved around several times but finally resettled on November 11, where it belongs. Note the differences in the VA health care system between 1930 and now.

    World War I was supposed to b e the war to end all wars.

    It was not.

    There is no such thing.

  • Better Late Than Never

    ‘A go-getter and a pioneer’: Waukegan woman who served as World War II pilot awarded posthumously for her service

    Janice Charlotte Christensen of Waukegan died on April 26, 1965, without a veteran’s recognition for her World War II service in the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

    Known as WASPs for short, the more than 1,800 civilian volunteer young women flew almost every type of military aircraft as part of the experimental program that lasted two years.

    Near her grave at the North Shore Garden of Memories cemetery in North Chicago on Friday, Capt. Christensen was honored by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider in a ceremony that formally recognized her status as a World War II veteran.

    Schneider offered words of appreciation for the woman who learned how to fly at what is now Waukegan National Airport when she was 29, then helped establish the Waukegan Civil Air Patrol Squadron in 1942 and was accepted as a WASP in 1943.

    “They were the elite and helped the war effort. They were brave,” Schneider said.

    Though it was unavailable to be affixed Friday due to the morning’s wintry weather, a WASP medallion from the Department of Veterans Affairs will be permanently placed on Christensen’s grave at the North Chicago cemetery soon so the public can pay their respects properly, Schneider said.

    “It’s a shame that Janice and WASP like her were denied veteran status after their service — a mistake not corrected for more than 30 years,” Schneider said. “But it is truly inspiring to me, and to everyone here, that our community has come together today to pay our respect to her and all the other WASP (personnel).”

    It wasn’t until 2009 that veterans in the WASP program were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Barack Obama.

    Christensen never got to see her service recognized, but her relatives said she would have been pleased with Friday’s ceremony.

    “We were proud that my sister Janice joined the WASP (program). Her job was to take planes from where they were manufactured to where they were needed,” said Dagmar Joyce Noll, Christensen’s sole surviving sibling. “She knew that what she was doing was helping to win and end WWll.”

    The rest of the story is at the link.

    Unfortunately, Janice Christiansens is probably not the only WWII WASP pilot who has been overlooked.  I think ChipNASA could probably supply us with a directional link to a roster of them. If you have a relative whose efforts went unrecognized please speak up.

    They flew in all weather, under all conditions, to get the job done, and because they loved to fly, like their counterparts, the British transport pilots who ferried all planes of all kinds in all weathers from factories to air bases in England.  They all faced great hazards that would probably ground a lot of current pilots, and did the job they were hired to do because they loved to fly.

    It was not a hazard-free job, either. Some of these transport pilots died doing that job. So let’s give them a nod and lift a glass to all the air transport pilots, women and men both.