Category: We Remember

A number of people have sent us links to the sad news that Jeffrey Wayne Bray has passed. From his obituary;

S/Sgt. Jeffrey Wayne Bray, 49, of Whiteville died Monday, October 24, 2016 in Columbus Regional Healthcare System. He was born in Randolph County on December 9, 1966, the son of Martha Woodell Lindsey of Asheboro, NC and the late John Franklin Bray. He was a decorated veteran of the US Air Force, a Senior Airman having served with a Combat Control Team and was awarded a Silver Star Medal.

From his Silver Star citation for his action in Mogadishu;

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Jeffrey Bray, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force in Mogadishu, Somalia, from 3 October 1993 to 4 October 1993. On these dates, Staff Sergeant Bray, a 24th Special Tactics Squadron Combat Controller, was attached to a joint service search and rescue security team tasked to respond to the crash of a United States UH-60 helicopter. While serving with a U.S. Army Ranger element trapped and surrounded inside a building in the city, Staff Sergeant Bray coordinated helicopter gunship fire on targets all around his position throughout the night. He developed tactics and techniques on the spot that allowed him to mark friendly forces’ locations so that helicopter gunships could destroy close enemy concentrations. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, Staff Sergeant Bray has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

We get the sad news today that Bob Hoover, a legend in pilot circles has passed at the age of 94. A contemporary of Chuck Yeager, the New York Times says that Hoover’s name is ensconced in aviation history;

Indeed, Mr. Hoover could trace the history of aviation, to the dawn of the space age, by the men he came to know: Orville Wright and Charles Lindbergh, General Doolittle and the World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and the astronauts Walter Schirra and Neil Armstrong as well as General Yeager and Colonel Gagarin.

When he was a POW in Germany, he wrote another chapter of American military history;

As a pilot with the 52nd Fighter Group, based in Corsica, Mr. Hoover, a lieutenant, flew 58 successful missions before his Spitfire fighter was shot down by the Luftwaffe in February 1944. He spent 16 months in Stalag Luft I, a prisoner of war camp in Germany reserved for Allied pilots.

Mr. Hoover and a friend escaped from the camp in the chaotic final days of the war, according to his memoir. Commandeering an aircraft from a deserted Nazi base, they flew it to freedom in the newly liberated Netherlands, only to be chased by pitchfork-wielding Dutch farmers enraged by the plane’s German markings.

Yeah, beat that story.

19-year-old Marine Private First Class James Samuel “Sam” Smith arrived at his hometown in Mississippi after 73 years on Betio Island on Saturday, acording to the Clarion-Ledger.

In the early days of the war, Smith saw action with a special weapons battalion. He was then sent to New Zealand and then into the Solomon Island campaign.

Smith wrote to his family on Oct. 10, 1943, and told them he was going back to the front. It would be his last letter home.

He was assigned to Company C, 2nd Amphibious Tractor Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, which landed on the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Island, where friendly forces were met by a strong Japanese resistance. Smith went ashore on Beach Red 2 with the first wave of the invasion and “held the beachhead against impossible assaults until their reinforcements finally landed,” his obituary said…Historical accounts say Smith was killed sometime the first day of that battle.

The article reports that fmily, friends, Patriot Guard Riders and servicemen and women met his plane when he landed in Mississippi on Saturday. He will finally be laid to rest today at the memorial that was constructed soon after his death in anticipation of his eventual return home.

Bobo sends us the sad news that Marine Master Sergeant Richard A. Pittman has passed at the age of 71. Sergeant Pittman was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 24, 1966 near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam. From his citation;

While Company 1 was conducting an operation along the axis of a narrow jungle trail, the leading company elements suffered numerous casualties when they suddenly came under heavy fire from a well concealed and numerically superior enemy force. Hearing the engaged marines’ calls for more firepower, Sgt. Pittman quickly exchanged his rifle for a machinegun and several belts of ammunition, left the relative safety of his platoon, and unhesitatingly rushed forward to aid his comrades. Taken under intense enemy small-arms fire at point blank range during his advance, he returned the fire, silencing the enemy position. As Sgt. Pittman continued to forge forward to aid members of the leading platoon, he again came under heavy fire from 2 automatic weapons which he promptly destroyed. Learning that there were additional wounded marines 50 yards further along the trail, he braved a withering hail of enemy mortar and small-arms fire to continue onward. As he reached the position where the leading marines had fallen, he was suddenly confronted with a bold frontal attack by 30 to 40 enemy. Totally disregarding his safety, he calmly established a position in the middle of the trail and raked the advancing enemy with devastating machinegun fire. His weapon rendered ineffective, he picked up an enemy submachinegun and, together with a pistol seized from a fallen comrade, continued his lethal fire until the enemy force had withdrawn. Having exhausted his ammunition except for a grenade which he hurled at the enemy, he then rejoined his platoon. Sgt. Pittman’s daring initiative, bold fighting spirit and selfless devotion to duty inflicted casualties, disrupted the enemy attack and saved the lives of many of his wounded comrades.

President Johnson awarded him the Medal of Honor on May 14, 1968 and Pittman, born on May 26, 1945 in French Camp, San Joaquin County, California, retired from the Marine Corps as a Master Sergeant on October 27, 1988.

In August, Hondo told us that Sergeant Fae Verlin Moore had been identified by DPAA with the help of History Flight on Betio Island. Sergeant Moore came home last week according to the Sheridan County Journal;

Moore was a proud Nebraskan who spent his youth on the farm on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and became a ranch hand for about five years after graduating from high school. Then, on Aug. 18, 1941, he enlisted in the United States Marines in Minneapolis, Minn. for training. On Dec. 2, 1941, Moore received orders to join Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.

His [M]arine division fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal during November of 1942. The following March, Moore became Private First Class Moore as his unit was sent to New Zealand to train for the Battle of Tarawa Atoll. He received high marks from his commanding officer and was promoted to [Corporal] Moore on July 20, 1943, and then a sergeant shortly afterward…He was killed in action during the battle of Tarawa in World War II on Nov. 20, 1943, but his sacrifice will continue to be remembered by friends and family for decades.

There are a number of pictures of the uniquely Nebraskan memorial ceremony at History Flight’s Facebook page that were posted this morning.