Category: We Remember

The other day we discussed the special forces soldier who was killed in action while he was fighting against ISIS in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense has identified him as Staff Sergeant Mark R. De Alencar;

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, died April 8 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations.

De Alencar was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

From the Fayetteville Observer comes the sad news that Lieutenant General Thomas H. Tackaberry has passed at the tender age of 93 years. He enlisted during World War II and retired as the commander of the XVIIIth Airborne Corps in 1981. He was one of the most decorated general officers;

…three Distinguished Service Crosses, five Silver Stars, a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Soldier’s Medal, among many others — provide the full measure of a man long devoted to his country and his family.

“He never talked about his awards,” said retired Brig. Gen. Burt Tackaberry, one of his oldest sons. “He was very humble. He knew what he achieved, but was very quiet about it.”

[…]

“He loved soldiers, and he loved his children,” Brig. Gen. Tackaberry said. “He gave both a lot of latitude and a lot of responsibility, and he expected you to get the job done.”

“He was a soldier’s soldier,” his son added.

A September 1979 copy of The Fayetteville Times called Lt. Gen. Tackaberry a “grunt’s angel.”

“That’s what they call a leader who goes out of his way to see his troops have enough beans and bullets to carry them through the long trek and the fight to follow,” the author of the profile wrote.

The citations for his valor awards are listed at the Military Times Hall of Valor.

A number of you have sent the sad news that Don Rickles has passed at the tender age of 90 years. Of course, like most of his generation, Mr. Warmth was a veteran, he served in the Navy during World War II on the USS Cyrene (AGP-13), a motor torpedo boat tender. According to Wiki, Cyrene served in the Pacific towards the end of the war;

Cyrene was launched 8 February 1944 as Cape Farewell, sponsored by Mrs. G. L. Coppage. She was acquired by the Navy on 28 April 1944, and was commissioned 27 September 1944 with Commander F. A. Munroe, Jr., United States Naval Reserve, in command.

Departing Norfolk, Virginia 10 November 1944, Cyrene arrived at Manus on 13 December to escort two squadrons of motor torpedo boats to Hollandia, New Guinea. She then sailed on convoy duty to Leyte, arriving 1 January 1945.

Cyrene then served as tender for motor torpedo boats, and on 17 January 1945 became flagship for Commander, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, 7th Fleet. After the war ended, she sailed from Samar on 21 December 1945 and arrived at San Francisco on 7 January 1946, reporting to the 12th Naval District for repair work in decommissioning small craft. Cyrene was decommissioned 2 July 1946 and delivered to the War Shipping Administration for disposal the same day.

Don Rickles was honorably discharged in 1946, like the Cyrene.

Every night when I go out on stage, there’s always one nagging fear in the back of my mind. I’m always afraid that somewhere out there, there is one person in the audience that I’m not going to offend!

We talked about Captain Albert Schlegel early last month when USAFRetired sent us links to the news that his remains had been identified. Now, USAFRetired sends us the news reports of the interment of his remains and his last trip to Beaufort National Cemetery, South Carolina. From the Beaufort Gazette;

U.S. Army Air Force Capt. Albert Schlegel rode to his final resting place draped in an American flag.

The silver hearse passed under a large flag hanging over the roadway and motored by dozens of smaller flags waved by people who never knew the ace World War II aviator whose remains were identified last year after more than 70 years.

The ceremony was as much a homecoming parade as it was a funeral on a warm Thursday morning at Beaufort National Cemetery.

“This is a moment of closure,” Schlegel’s nephew, Callawassie Island resident Perry Nuhn, told a large crowd gathered with the casket. “This is a happy moment.”

The Washington Post reports that Marine Corps Private Harry Tye finally made the trip home from Tarawa;

Under drizzling skies and barren trees, they watched as Tye received a funeral with full military honors [at Arlington National Cemetery].

Soldiers handed [Tye’s nephew, David] Tincher a folded American flag and, according to Marine custom, casings from the 21 rounds fired during the service.

And two of the nation’s top Marines, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, both retired generals, helped honor the man Tincher knew only from family stories.

“I think my grandma would be unbelievably and eternally grateful for this,” said Tincher, who served for 14 years in the Air National Guard. “This was one of the things that really shaped her life, and the entire history of the family.”

Private Tye’s homecoming was yet another event made possible by the good folks at History Flight.

Hondo told us that Army Corporal Jules Hauterman Jr.’s remains were identified by DPAA in December and now Bobo tells us that he’s coming home this week, according to MassLive;

Calling hours for Hauterman will be at the Barry J. Farrell Funeral Home, 2049 Northampton St., from 4 to 6 p.m. on March 30, said Jim Mahoney, director of the Holyoke Veterans Services Department.

A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. on March 31 at Blessed Sacrament Church, 1945 Northampton St. followed by burial in St. Jerome’s Cemetery, he said.

[…]

Hauterman was a medic with the Medical Platoon, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, when his unit was attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team as one of its infantry battalions for the mission at Chosin Reservior.

“For three days and four nights, the unit battled the 80th Division of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces,” a federal press release said.

Hondo told us back in January that 2LT John Donald Mumford’s earthly remains were identified in a faraway field in what was Traianu, Romania (now Novi Troyany, Ukraine). On June 6, 1944, he was escorting a flight of B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers of the 5th Bombardment Wing on their mission to bomb and destroy a German occupied airfield at Galati, Romania when he was caught in a hail of gunfire from German fighters. Mumford was last seen by fellow pilots in pursuit of two German fighters. Later, villagers of Novotroyan- present day Novi Troyany- Ukraine, observed two aircraft with U.S. markings pursued by several German aircraft. One of the U.S. aircraft crashed in a nearby field.

Tampa Bay Times reports that he will finally make it home from war;

It never occurred to the brothers that anyone was looking for their uncle, let alone that they would actually find him after so many decades. “I thought it was a scam,” said Lynn Woolums, 67, who like his brother still lives in St. Petersburg. “I was like, ‘Really?’ It was too good to be true.”

But it was true. And thanks to the Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency, or DPAA, a unit of the military dedicated to finding missing troops, Ronald and Lynn Woolums are preparing for an unexpected visitor.

Mumford’s remains are scheduled to arrive Wednesday night at Tampa International Airport.

Now the brothers’ heads are filled with thoughts of their uncle and his last frantic moments zooming through the skies of Eastern Europe, chased by machine-gun blasting Nazi warplanes.

“This is rather overwhelming,” said Lynn Woolums, a retired advertising agency owner.

“This is unbelievable, really,” said Ronald Woolums, 68, a retired teacher.

[…]

Wednesday night, the hard work put in by people they never met to solve a mystery they knew little about will pay off for the brothers in the return of their uncle’s remains. The remains will undergo a dignified transfer ceremony before heading to the Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home in St. Petersburg. No date has been set for a service or interment of the cremains, which will take place at the Bay Pines National Veterans Cemetery.

“I’m kind of anxious about it,” Lynn Woolums said about the ceremony.

“Me too,” said his brother. “I don’t know how I’ll react.”

While the brothers say the return of their uncle will bring about a sense of closure, there’s something deeper about what happened, they say.

“It is very important that everyone knows that there are people who are still looking for remains,” Lynn Woolums said.

Thanks to Wilted Willy for the tip.