Category: We Remember

The Stars & Stripes reports that the POW/MIA community has lost a tireless advocate with the passing of Lynn O’Shea on December 5th. Unlike many of the folks who work to improve the government’s accounting of missing US troops, O’Shea wasn’t related to any of the folks who were unaccounted for during the Vietnam War;

She told Stars and Stripes last year that she got involved in the movement because of the name on the POW/MIA bracelet that she wore — John Jakovac. The Army staff sergeant went missing in May 1967 while on a reconnaissance patrol in South Vietnam. His remains were recovered in 1994.

After receiving little information from the government on Jakovac’s case, O’Shea undertook her own research, which led her to work with the National Alliance of Families. She had been scouring government documents and researching cases for families ever since.

President Coolidge said long ago, “The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.” We remember. America will not forget.

Please take a moment today and remember the fallen.  Each ship or base name is a link to the list of people that were killed as a result of the attack. There are still some whose names are known only to God.

 

Location or Ship	War Casualties (deaths)
Ford Island Naval Air Station	1
Kaneohe Naval Air Station	20
Midway Island Naval Air Station	4
Naval Mobile Hospital Number 2	1
Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital	1
USS Arizona (BB-39 Battleship)	1177
USS California (BB-44 Battleship)	105
USS Chew (DD-106 Destroyer)	2
USS Curtiss (AV-4 Seaplane Tender)	21
USS Dobbin (AD-3 Destroyer Tender)	4
USS Downes (DD-375 Destroyer)	12
USS Enterprise (CV-6 Aircraft Carrier)	11
USS Helena (CL-50 Light Cruiser)	34
USS Maryland (BB-46 Battleship)	4
USS Nevada (BB-36 Battleship)	57
USS Oklahoma (BB-37 Battleship)	429
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38 Battleship)	24
USS Pennsylvania (Chew)	1
USS Pennsylvania (Dobbin)	1
USS Pennsylvania (Pruitt)	1
USS Pennsylvania (Sicard)	1
USS Pennsylvania (Tracy)	3
USS Pruitt (DM-22 Light Minelayer)	1
USS Shaw (DD-373 Destroyer)	24
USS Sicard (DM-21 Light Minelayer)	1
USS Tennessee (BB-43 Battleship)	5
USS Tracy (DM-19 Light Minelayer)	3
USS Utah (AG-16 Target/Gunnery Training Ship)	58
USS Vestal (AR-4 Repair Ship)	7
USS West Virginia (BB-48 Battleship)	106
Ewa Marine Corps Air Station	6
Bellows Field	2
Hickam Field	191
Wheeler Field	35
Camp Malakole	3
Fort Barrett (in Kapolei)	1
Fort Kamehameha	5
Fort Shafter	2
Schofield Barracks	5
Honolulu	33
Pearl City	1
Pearl Harbor	1
Red Hill	1
Wahiawa	2
Waipahu	1
Wake Island	1

The Denver Post reports that Ke’Arre Stewart, an Army veteran of the Iraq War was one of the three folks killed last week in Colorado Springs. The 29-year-old Texan joined the Army out of high school and he was stationed at Fort Hood. KKTV says that he left behind a wife and children.

A few months ago, the Italian family, the Limonis, were vacationing near the town of Anzio at the Torre Astura, when the youngest member of the family, Edoardo, while snorkeling, noticed a shiny object on the floor of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It turns out that it was a dog tag belonging to Esquipula A. Roybal, a young artilleryman who was lost during the Allied landing there on January 26, 1944. he was among the 7,000 killed and the 36,000 wounded or missing US service men during that particularly bloody battle. Roybal’s remains were never found, but now his family has the dog tag according to the Albuquerque Journal;

“Joe was very surprised to hear about Esquipula after so many years,” Lydia Roybal said Thursday from the couple’s Peñasco [New Mexico] home. She was speaking on behalf of Joe, who she said is in poor health.

“My husband remembers Esquipula a little bit. He remembered his uncle putting him on his shoulders and walking to the pool hall and around town,” she said. Joe was about 7 years old when his uncle died.

Lydia Roybal said her husband is considering giving the tag to their grandson, Samuel Hern, an Army veteran who completed two tours in Afghanistan. Hern, 30, lives in Española.

The dog tag was accompanied by a note from Edoardo;

“I would like to thank you for what Esquipula did for Italy. He was a hero, he protected us and he gave his life in the service of his Country. Thank you! XXX.”

Thanks to Medic09 for the link.

Mary sends us a link to the news coverage of her POW Network 19th Annual Gala and Banquet from the Tri-Lakes News;

The gala started with the presentation of colors by the United States Marine Corps, Springfield, followed by The Hughes Brothers singing the national anthem, a reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and an invocation.

“During the course of the evening, we hope all of you will make some new friends,” Master of Ceremonies retired Lt. Comdr. Michael Jones said.

A candlelight service was featured at which everyone at their table read out loud a name who was a prisoner of war or missing in action and lit a candle in their honor.

“The lighting of this candle serves to remind us of the ultimate sacrifice our fallen comrades and their families have made to preserve our precious freedom we all cherish today,” Jones said.

This blog would have gone the way of millions of deceased blogs before us without the POW Network and Mary’s hard work.

Jonathan Turner joined the Marines in 1988 and served until 2014 when he retired. He deployed seven times including both Iraq and Afghanistan. He passed last year from injuries related to his service. His family couldn’t afford to collect his cremated remains from California to their own home in Georgia. Because they didn’t think it was appropriate for the hero to go home in FedEx box, the Patriot Guard Riders coordinated rides to escort the Staff Sergeant home all the way across the country, according to Atlanta’s Fox 5.

“The California Patriot Guard Riders contacted all of the state captains from California to Georiga and explained the situation, that it wasn’t proper to ship this war hero home via FedEx,” said Jeff Goodiel of the Georgia Patriot Guard Riders. Within days, a convoy was assembled with each state’s Patriot Guard Riders driving Turner’s cremated remains across their state and then passing those remains off to the next group of riders.

“It’s heartwarming, to see all these people here,” said Annie Glanton, Turner’s mother, “I know that he was loved by a lot of people.”

I know that it all happened back in August, but the story is news to me and I figure that the Patriot Guard Riders deserve recognition for the things they do for veterans that don’t make the news very often.

A few weekends ago, I said goodbye to my cousin, Scott, who was also a fan of this blog. He never served in the military, but hardly a veterans’ event happened back home that he didn’t attend as a PGR rider for more than a decade. Hundreds of local PGR riders attended his service and their presence was a source of strength to his family.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the story.

Of the more than 2400 US service members who were killed at Pearl Harbor, 429 were from the USS OKLAHOMA. Only 35 sets of those remains were identified in the early years since the ship sank on December 7th, 1941. The Associated Press reports that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has focused on those folks and they hope to identify 80% of them in the next five years. In the meantime, they’ve identified seven;

On Monday, officials exhumed the last four of 61 caskets containing unknown people from the Oklahoma. Many of the caskets include the remains of multiple individuals.

Families will have the option of receiving remains as they are identified, or waiting until the agency has more pieces of a body or even a complete skeleton. Navy casualty officers will let families know their options.

The names of those seven will be released after the families have been identified.

The losses from the Oklahoma were second only to the loss of 1100 folks on the USS ARIZONA.