Category: We Remember

One of our ninjas send us the sad news that Carl Clark, a World War II sailor passed in March at the tender age of 100 years old. Clark was aboard the USS Aaron Ward in May, 1945 when six kamikaze pilots flew their payloads into the ship. One blast blew the Steward First Class across the ship and broke his collarbone. The LA Times tells about what happened next;

Though he suffered a broken collarbone, Clark was credited with saving the lives of several men by dragging them to safety. He also put out a fire in an ammunition locker that could have cracked the vessel in half.

Even though the destroyer’s captain acknowledged that Clark had saved the ship, it took roughly 67 years to be recognized for his actions, according to Clark, because of “bigotry.”

“It wouldn’t look good to say one black man saved the ship,” he said in 2011.

The captain of the destroyer tried to make up for the slight by giving him extra leave and making sure that he was not sent back to sea, Clark said.

He was belatedly awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his actions in 2012.

According to Task And Purpose, Clark, also a Pearl Harbor veteran, went on serve 22 years in the Navy retiring as a Chief Petty Officer.

NBC4 reports that after 48 years of being listed as Missing in Action, Marine Corps Reserve 1st Lt. William C. Ryan Jr. was laid beside his wife in Arlington National Cemetery the day after she was buried there;

“I did her eulogy yesterday. We had her funeral yesterday in Reston, at St. John Neumann, and today, my dad,” Azzara and Ryan’s son, Mike Ryan, said Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. He was just a day from his first birthday when his father was killed.

Ryan, a 25-year-old from Hoboken, New Jersey, was on a combat mission over Laos on May 11, 1969, when his F-4B was hit by enemy fire.

We wrote about the recovery of his remains in January, and Hondo reported the identification of those remains by DPAA. Now we can report that he has finally joined his wife.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society sends the sad news that Wilburn K. Ross has passed. He was 94 years old. His Medal citation tells the story of his award;

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty near St. Jacques, France. At 11:30 a.m. on 30 October 1944, after his company had lost 55 out of 88 men in an attack on an entrenched. full-strength German company of elite mountain troops, Pvt. Ross placed his light machinegun 10 yards in advance of the foremost supporting riflemen in order to absorb the initial impact of an enemy counterattack. With machinegun and small-arms fire striking the earth near him, he fired with deadly effect on the assaulting force and repelled it. Despite the hail of automatic fire and the explosion of rifle grenades within a stone’s throw of his position, he continued to man his machinegun alone, holding off 6 more German attacks. When the eighth assault was launched, most of his supporting riflemen were out of ammunition. They took positions in echelon behind Pvt. Ross and crawled up, during the attack, to extract a few rounds of ammunition from his machinegun ammunition belt. Pvt. Ross fought on virtually without assistance and, despite the fact that enemy grenadiers crawled to within 4 yards of his position in an effort to kill him with handgrenades, he again directed accurate and deadly fire on the hostile force and hurled it back. After expending his last rounds, Pvt. Ross was advised to withdraw to the company command post, together with 8 surviving riflemen, but, as more ammunition was expected, he declined to do so. The Germans launched their last all-out attack, converging their fire on Pvt. Ross in a desperate attempt to destroy the machinegun which stood between them and a decisive breakthrough. As his supporting riflemen fixed bayonets for a last-ditch stand, fresh ammunition arrived and was brought to Pvt. Ross just as the advance assault elements were about to swarm over his position. He opened murderous fire on the oncoming enemy; killed 40 and wounded 10 of the attacking force; broke the assault single-handedly, and forced the Germans to withdraw. Having killed or wounded at least 58 Germans in more than 5 hours of continuous combat and saved the remnants of his company from destruction, Pvt. Ross remained at his post that night and the following day for a total of 36 hours.

Marne Man!

AverageNCO sends us the sad news that Medal of Honor recipient Leo Thorsness has passed at the tender age of 85. From WAAYTV;

In 1967, Thorsness risked his life to save another aircrew over North Vietnam. Just two weeks after that action, he was shot down, and spent six years in a North Vietnamese prison, enduring daily physical and mental torture.

From the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, his citation reads;

As pilot of an F- 105 aircraft, Lt. Col. Thorsness was on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission over North Vietnam. Lt. Col. Thorsness and his wingman attacked and silenced a surface-to-air missile site with air-to-ground missiles, and then destroyed a second surface-to-air missile site with bombs. In tile attack on the second missile site, Lt. Col. Thorsness’ wingman was shot down by intensive antiaircraft fire, and the 2 crewmembers abandoned their aircraft. Lt. Col. Thorsness circled the descending parachutes to keep the crewmembers in sight and relay their position to the Search and Rescue Center. During this maneuver, a MIG-17 was sighted in the area. Lt. Col. Thorsness immediately initiated an attack and destroyed the MIG. Because his aircraft was low on fuel, he was forced to depart the area in search of a tanker. Upon being advised that 2 helicopters were orbiting over the downed crew’s position and that there were hostile MlGs in the area posing a serious threat to the helicopters, Lt. Col. Thorsness, despite his low fuel condition, decided to return alone through a hostile environment of surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft defenses to the downed crew’s position. As he approached the area, he spotted 4 MIG-17 aircraft and immediately initiated an attack on the MlGs, damaging 1 and driving the others away from the rescue scene. When it became apparent that an aircraft in the area was critically low on fuel and the crew would have to abandon the aircraft unless they could reach a tanker, Lt. Col. Thorsness, although critically short on fuel himself, helped to avert further possible loss of life and a friendly aircraft by recovering at a forward operating base, thus allowing the aircraft in emergency fuel condition to refuel safely.

From WAAY:

But, just 11 days later, [Lieutenant Colonel Leo Thorsness and Captain Harold Johnson] were shot down by an air-to-air missile fired by a North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighter, along with two other aircraft. A massive air battle ensued over the site with Air Force search and rescue crews repeatedly trying to rescue them. But in the end, they were unsuccessful.

Thorsness and Johnson were imprisoned in the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the “Hanoi Hilton.” Thorsness’s refusal to cooperate earned him a year in solitary confinement and almost daily torture. He was left with severe back injuries as a result.

In 1973, the two were freed and found out that while imprisoned, Thorsness had been approved for the Medal of Honor, and Johnson for the Air Force Cross. The awards had not been announced for their safety.

The Klamath Falls, Oregon Herald and News reports that Corporal Freddie Lee Henson is coming home since he was lost at the Frozen Chosin Reservoir in December 1950.

Hondo told us when his earthly remains were identified earlier this month;

• CPL Freddie L. Henson, A Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in North Korea on 6 December 1950. He was accounted for on 3 April 2017.

From the Herald and News;

More than 1 million Chinese soldiers crossed the border in November 1950 just as it appeared that the U.N. forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur had completely routed the Communist forces. The U.N. troops were totally overwhelmed, retreating south and suffering heavy casualties. It was amid this chaos that Henson would meet his fate, losing his life near Hagaru-ri at Twikkae Village, North Korea along the Chosin Reservoir.

Henson was declared missing in action from his unit on Dec. 6, 1950, a small blurb about his disappearance appearing in the Jan. 22, 1951, edition of the Herald and News with no further news ever to follow of his whereabouts. He was 19 years old.

Henson was declared presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953, though his remains were not recovered. He was survived by his mother, Thelma Henson, who had moved away from Klamath Falls.

[…]

An interment ceremony is planned for Cpl. Henson, but not in Klamath Falls. Lt. Col. Ken Haftorson, the garrison chaplain at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, reported that a full honors ceremony is being planned for Henson’s remains on May 4 in Houston.

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, the same folks who are going after valor thief Shane Ladner, were escorting the unclaimed remains of five Vietnam Veterans yesterday.

The unclaimed cremated remains of 5 Vietnam Vets were buried today at the Georgia National Cemetery. The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Traffic Enforcement Unit was honored to participate in a portion of the escort for these fallen heroes.

The veterans buried were –

1LT Charles J. Hodapp Jr., USA
SGT Garry L. Criswell, USAF
SP4 Christopher A. Gunter, USA
SP4 Lewis H. Klaer Jr., USA
SP4 Michael S. Nicolo, USA

Thank to one of our ninjas for the links.

Tom L. sends us a link to the news that F1c Michael Galajdik has come home to Joliet, Illinois. Hondo wrote that his remains had been identified back in February. According to the Chicago Tribune he was laid to his final rest on Saturday;

Galajdik, a Navy Fireman 1st Class, will be interred Saturday at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood. He was 25 when he was killed while aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack by the Japanese military that thrust the United States into World War II.

Crest Hill resident George Sternisha is escorting his uncle’s body from Hawaii and is expected to arrive Friday in preparation for the Saturday funeral services in Joliet.

It is a ceremony that has been years in the making.

“This was my mother’s wish,” Sternisha said Thursday from Hawaii. “I’m glad that I’m able to fulfill it.”

Last year, we wrote about Raymond Haerry, one of the few living survivors of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day that the mighty battleship was sunk by Japanese planes. His final wish was to rejoin his shipmates on the Arizona upon his passing. According to the Associated Press, that wish came true this week;

Haerry’s granddaughter, Jessica Marino, traveled from New Jersey to Hawaii with her family for Saturday’s ceremony. She handed his urn to divers, who placed it within the ship’s sunken hull. Hundreds of sailors and Marines are entombed there.

“That was the point at which I kind of lost it,” Marino said. “It was really sad, but also really sweet to see. It was amazing.”

Only USS Arizona survivors can be interred on the ship. Haerry served for 25 years in the Navy, retiring as a master chief.

He’s the 42nd survivor to rejoin his shipmates, according to the National Park Service.

[…]

“That brotherhood doesn’t go away and as he got closer to the end of life, it resonated with him,” Marino said. “He didn’t want to see the site or relive that disaster, but he wanted to relive that camaraderie.”

Thanks to Chief Tango and Chip for the links.

Here’s a video from ABC News;