Category: We Remember

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a couple of months after it first turned up in an emailed newsletter from a veterans’ group, Together We Served, of which I’m a member, but all the election and political hoopla kept diverting my attention. Even so, throughout the approaching Christmas season, my mind kept returning to this wonderful story and the life lessons it taught a squadron of America’s finest young future leaders and how those same lessons can benefit us all. Now, as we approach the New Year and many of us make resolutions, it is a certainty that you can find inspiration for at least a couple in this story.

In the TWS newsletter Dispatches, Col. James Moschgat, USAF retired, recounts that while a cadet at the Air Force Academy in the 1970s, his and his fellow cadets’ barracks were kept spic-and-span clean by a nondescript old janitor, Bill, who went about his work quietly and efficiently, attracting little attention from the busy young men whose living quarters he maintained. His was a life of just getting by, while theirs were just getting started and aiming high, so there was little to be exchanged between shy old Bill Crawford and these youthful cadets beyond quick “good mornings” and other impersonal greetings made in brief encounters.

That all changed one weekend in 1976, when Cadet Moschgat was reading a history of WWII and came across an account that stunned him of a battle in Italy. I’ll let him tell it:

On September 13, 1943, a Pvt. William Crawford from Colorado, assigned to the 36th Infantry Division, had been involved in some bloody fighting on Hill 424 near Altavilla, Italy.

“William Crawford’s Medal of Honor Citation.”

The words on the page leapt out at me, “in the face of intense and overwhelming hostile fire… with no regard for personal safety… on his own initiative, Private Crawford single-handedly attacked fortified enemy positions.” It continued, “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, the President of the United States…”

“Holy cow,” I said to my roommate, “you’re not going to believe this, but I think our janitor is a Medal of Honor recipient.” We all knew Mr. Crawford was a World War II Army vet, but that didn’t keep my friend from looking at me as if I was some sort of alien being. Nonetheless, we couldn’t wait to ask Bill about the story.

This, of course, they did, and laconic old Bill confessed, “Yep, that’s me.” For the rest of this very emotion-filled and heartwarming story, you really do need to click here to read Colonel Moschgat’s account at Together We Served. I promise you that it will make your day better just reading how those cadets changed in their interactions with Bill Crawford. There are a couple of great pics of Bill and some excellent leadership guidelines listed by Col. Moschgat that this experience instilled in him as a future Air Force officer. And if you click on the colonel’s link to Homeofheroes.com, there is an additional surprise to this story.

Crossposted at American Thinker

BBC reports that a team of folks from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) may have discovered more remains of US service members who have been missing since World War II in the area known as “The Hump” in the mountains between Myanmar and China.

Residents of Lower Dibang Valley handed over the remains to the team recently.

Last year, the team had recovered some remains from the same region, and work is being carried out to identify them.

It is thought the remains of up to 400 Americans could still be in the remote state, which borders Myanmar and China.

Many more servicemen went missing during allied operations to supply China’s Kuomintang army fighting Japan.

Thanks to chooee for the link.

Well, Ollie finally got laid to rest yesterday, after his mysterious disappearance in 2005 when his ashes went missing after his son passed on. I’m grateful that I got to play a tiny role in his final rest. Major Zach Fike and his Purple Hearts Reunited gets all of the credit, though, as well as Rush DeWade, the chaplain of VFW Post 4695 in Hurst, Texas.

Special thanks to Mitchell “Taco” Bell for attending the ceremony for those of us who couldn’t be there in person.

Josh Powell was a West Point cadet who graduated in 2013. He was a linebacker on their football team and he graduated from Ranger School after graduation. Then he met Fabi, by all accounts, the love of his life. He was diagnosed with cancer soon after they met. They moved up the wedding date and married just last month. He passed away this week.

His wife posted this;

1LT William Joshua Powell, known as Josh by friends and family, passed away on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 in Nashville, TN. Josh was 27 years of age.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at the chapel of McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home (1209 Madison St. Clarksville, TN 37040) with the Rev. Ken Hundley officiating. His family will receive friends from 4 p.m. until the hour of service Wednesday. Full Military Honors will be rendered when Josh is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in the Spring of 2017. A unit memorial service will be held on January 6, 2017 at Liberty Chapel on Fort Campbell Military Base.

Josh entered into this life on September 11, 1989 in Henderson, Kentucky and was preceded in death by his paternal grandfather, Charles “Bliss” Powell. He was a member of the 2008 graduating class at Wharton High School in Tampa, Florida. After highschool, Josh was recruited to play football for Army at the United States Military Academy. Josh loved his Country and cherished the West Point brotherhood. Upon graduating from West Point in 2013, Josh earned his Ranger tab 6-14. Josh also had several special interests which included traveling, baseball, hunting, fishing, shooting guns, winter trips to Montana and of course UK Basketball. On November 12, 2016, Josh married the love of his life, Fabi Calborn Powell. Though their bonds of matrimony were cut short, Josh and Fabi loved enough for a lifetime.

Other than his wife, he is survived by his father, William E. Powell; mother, Jill Rey, step-father, Col. (Ret) Scott Rey; maternal grandparents, Jack and Jane Martin; paternal grandmother, Myra “Mim” Powell; brother, Charles “Zack” Powell; half-sisters, Keisha Powell Wallin, Hanna Cates; in-laws, Charlie Calborn, Marcel Calborn; sister-in-law, Arainna Calborn; niece and nephews; and French Bulldogs, Brody and Remington Powell.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to FTL SarcomaFund.org or wreathsacrossamerica.org
On-line condolences may be made at NaveFuneralHomes.com

McReynolds-Nave & Larson Funeral Home
Phone: (931) 647-3371
Fax: (931) 647-3313
1209 Madison Street
Clarksville, Tennessee 37040

According to the Army Times, he was a platoon leader in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

The other day we talked about the discovery of Ollie Eugene Worley’s earthly remains on the doorstep of VFW Post 4695 in Hurst, Texas and how we found the family to attend his service on Monday. Fox4 tells about the journey of those remains over the last 26 years;

Barbara and her sister Charlotte say they and the rest of the family attended a memorial service for their uncle when he died in 1990. They thought Worley’s son Jay had his father’s ashes.

“When Jay died, it never dawned on me where Uncle Gene was,” Manley said.

Another son, Dennis Worley lives in El Paso. He told FOX4 on the phone his brother Jay died in 2005, and he never dreamed his father’s remains were still out there somewhere.

“It’s still a mystery for probably 10 years,” said Rush Dewade, Chaplain VFW Post 4695.

The VFW post has planned a funeral at DFW National Cemetery next Monday.

Everyone in the family who’s heard about the discovery is expected at the funeral. Some haven’t seen each other for 25 years.

“Our uncle wanted to bring the family back together again,” Robinson said.

What would Gene Worley think about how his story ends?

“He’d be standing there with a big grin and laughing at the whole thing,” Robinson said.

Army Corporal Wayne Minard was laid beside his mother yesterday. The family legend goes that she died of a broken heart when he was captured by Chinese soldiers in November 1950 and died of starvation three months later. She claimed that he came to her in a dream at the moment he died. Two years before, she had given permission for him to join the Army at the age of 17. From the Bradenton Herald;

“I never thought this would happen,” said one of his nieces, Janet Stubbs.

The Army honor guard folded the American flag that had draped his casket.

At the graveside, a soldier knelt and handed the folded flag to Stubbs.

[…]

She told afterward what she knew about the family.

Bertha Minard, her grandmother and Wayne Minard’s mother, had lost her farmer husband, Wayne’s father, in 1947, a year or so before Wayne Minard volunteered for the Army.

“They were poor and struggling,” she said. “My grandmother tried to take care of nine kids.”

In September, Hondo told you that he was coming home. From the Bellingham Herald;

The Department of Defense issued a statement this week about his fate:

“In late November 1950, Minard was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, fighting units of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces (CPVF) … in North Korea, in a delaying action south to Kunu-ri,” the Army wrote.

“Enemy forces launched a large-scale attack with heavy artillery and mortar fire on Nov. 25, when the regiment was located in defense positions near the Chongchon River. By the following day, enemy fighting had isolated the unit and they were ordered to withdraw. Minard was reported missing in action as of Nov. 26, 1950.

“Minard’s name did not appear on any POW list provided by the CPVF or the North Korean People’s Army,” the Army statement said. “However two repatriated American prisoners of war reported that Minard died at Hofong Camp, part of Pukchin-Tarigol Camp Cluster, on Feb. 16, 1951.

“Based on this information, a military review board amended Minard’s status to deceased in 1951.

“In April and May of 2005, a Joint Recovery Team conducted the 37th Joint Field Activity in Unsan County, South Pyongan Province, North Korea. On April 19, the team visited a site reported by a local witness to contain American remains.

The Associated Press tells the story of Ray Richmond, 97, and his family who boarded a flight home after the ceremonies at Pearl Harbor Harbor, Ray was a survivor of that encounter in 1941 Mrs. Hawaii America, Lehua Beltrame-Tevaga happened to be a flight attendant on that particular flight;

Also on the flight were the three members of well-known Hawaii group, Makaha Sons. So Beltrame-Tevaga asked them if they wouldn’t mind singing for Richmond.

With an hour left in the flight, they went to the row where Richmond was sitting with his family. The lead flight attendant announced that Richmond was a Pearl Harbor veteran. Beltrame-Tevaga took a lei from around her neck and placed it on Richmond.

Mark Yim of the group played the guitar while Jerome Koko and Kimo Artis sang “Papalina Lahilahi.” Beltrame-Tevaga danced hula next to Richmond’s seat.

Richmond thanked the performers and Beltrame-Tevaga said he told her “it was the best part of his whole trip.”