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Note From the Editor
Greetings! This issue of Dispatches includes a story of a cursed bomber during WWII called "Old 666". It tells the story of the heroic crew on it's last mission. We also share a story on legendary sniper Chuck Mawhinney.
We hope you enjoy them.
Please let me know your comments regarding your Dispatches - things you like and things you like less. Also please contact me with any stories or articles you would like considered for publishing. I can be reached at [email protected].
All information for Bulletin Board Posts and Reunion Announcements please send to [email protected]
Lt Col Mike Christy U.S. Army (Ret)
CONTENTS
1/ View Your Entry in Our Roll of Honor!
2/ Profiles in Courage: The Heroes of "Ol' 666"
3/ Preserve Your Old Photos: Let Us Help for Free!
4/ Battlefield Chronicles: The Battle of Kunduz
5/ Do You Still Have Your Boot Camp/Basic Training Photo?
6/ Military Myths & Legends: Charles "Chuck" Mawhinney
7/ Have A Military Reunion Coming Soon?
8/ Florence Finch-Wife, Mother & WWII Coast Guard Resistance Fighter
9/ New Together We Served Military Store
10/ The Shifting Sands of War
11/ TWS Person Locator Service
12/ TWS Bulletin Board
13/ Book Review: Brutal Battles of Vietnam 1965-1972
View Your Entry in Our Roll of Honor!
As a fitting tribute to our Members of Together We Served, your service to our country is now honored in our Roll of Honor, the most powerful online display of Living, Fallen and Deceased Veterans existing today. Our 1.67 million Veteran Members, who served from WWII to present day, now have a dedicated entry displaying a brief service summary of their service and their photo in uniform if posted.
You can find your Roll of Honor entry easily - click on the graphic below and select your service branch. Then enter your Last Name in the search window at top right and scroll down. Please check your entry for accuracy and Log in to TWS to update any information on your Profile Page, such as your Last Unit, and add your service photo for completeness if you haven't already done so.
If you have any questions regarding your entry in our Roll of Honor, please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or contact our Live Help Desk at the bottom left of your TWS website.
Profiles in Courage: The Heroes of "Ol' 666"
In 1943, several U.S. airmen went on a suicide mission. Two men on the mission were awarded a Medal of Honor - the only time in WWII that two men received the same award for the same engagement. Interestingly, their careers didn't start out well.
Jay Zeamer, Jr. got his wings in 1941 at Langley Field. All his classmates became pilots and got their own planes and crews, but not Zeamer. Although he could fly and had a passion for it, he just didn't have what it took to be a pilot.
Still, he could fly, so when America entered the war, they made him a co-pilot. In March 1942, they sent him to Australia where he again tried to become a pilot but again failed. They sent him to the Solomon Islands - the same thing. Zeamer was to spend WWII as a co-pilot, navigator, gunner, and anything else; just not a pilot.
Joseph Raymond Sarnoski met Zeamer at Langley. Sarnoski got his wings, but they made him a bombing instructor, something he wasn't happy about. In 1942, they sent him to Australia where he became a Technical Sergeant, but he wasn't happy about that, either.
He wanted to see combat, so they let him fly a few missions, promoted him to Master Sergeant then sent him to the Solomon Islands to train others. Despondent, he turned to the one person who couldn't fly a plane.
As to what happened next, you must understand what was happening on the islands.
After bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan occupied territories in the South Pacific, including the Philippines which had been American property. The island of Rabaul was, therefore, Japan's key to the region.
America's priority, however, was on Europe. Since it couldn't ignore Japan, the original plan was to contain them until Hitler and Mussolini were out of the way.
General Douglas MacArthur fired the air chief in early 1942 and replaced him with General George Kenney's Fifth Air Force.
The Fifth began calling themselves "Ken's Men" and began receiving awards, including several Medal of Honors. Even Sarnoski earned a Silver Star for earlier engagements. And Zeamer? The Intelligence Section in Port Moresby.
The Japanese at Rabaul were stepping up their activities to retake the rest of the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, but US reconnaissance flights were impossible because the island's volcano kept spewing smoke. Zeamer volunteered for the job, flew below the smoke, and got his photos while the crew fought off the enemy.
He still wasn't an official pilot, but he had flown so well they stopped caring. On January 16, 1943, he sank an 8000-ton ship and was awarded a Silver Star. That should have earned him a plane and crew, but they had none to give him.
Their eye fell on old 666 a B-17E 41-2666 which was assigned to the United States' 43rd Bomb Group. By 1943, Old 666, tail number 41-2666, had suffered heavy battle damage and had gained a reputation as a cursed bomber, often coming back from missions with heavy damage.
Grounded at Port Moresby Airport, it was parked at the end of the runway where other aircrews could cannibalize it for needed parts. A military photographer told Zeamer, "I know where there's a bomber, but no one will fly it anymore because every time it goes out it gets shot to hell!"
Still, it flew and was more heavily armed than other Flying Fortresses because they'd rebuilt it almost from scratch. They increased the number of machine guns from 13 to 19, replaced the waist gunners' standard single guns with twin guns, replaced all .30 cal machine guns with the larger and more powerful .50 cal, and added a fixed-position gun that could be fired from the pilot's station. Zeamer's crew put guns where they did not even need them and left spare machine guns on the aircraft's catwalk; if a gun jammed at a critical moment, they could dump it and quickly replace it. They also mounted a gun behind the ball turret near the waist.
The group volunteered for missions no one wanted and were called the Eager Beaver - always taking the most dangerous jobs but always making it back alive. All received Silver Stars while Sarnoski got an Air Medal and became a Second Lieutenant.
By March, skirmishes against the Japanese were increasing, culminating in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The Japanese defeat gave MacArthur the plan to take the Philippines back. Called Operation Cartwheel, it meant attacking their bases at Bougainville, Buka, and Rabaul. If those fell, the Americans could take the other islands until they reached the Philippines.
But a raid against such heavily defended positions would be suicide unless they knew what they were up against. No one volunteered, so MacArthur settled on a reconnaissance flight over Bougainville. The Eager Beavers stepped forward. Two caught malaria and Sarnoski was ordered back to the US to teach, but he couldn't let the rest go without him.
Just before their 4 am takeoff on June 15th, however, Zeamer was ordered to make an additional reconnaissance flight over Buka. He was determined to ignore it. Bougainville was dangerous enough, and he wanted all the Eager Beavers back alive.
They reached Bougainville too early, however, still too dark for picture-taking, so Zeamer flew to Buka. It was worse than they thought. There were 400 new enemy fighters, and 17 were revving up to meet them. The Old 666 zoomed to 25,000 feet and flew toward Bougainville.
Japanese Chief Flight Petty Officer Yoshio Uki of the 241st Kokutai was among the recent arrivals, so he couldn't wait to take out the Americans with his A6M Zero. As they took to the skies, however, the Fortress took neither evasive maneuvers nor sped up. It was as if the Americans didn't see them.
They did, but to get proper pictures, they had to fly steadily for 20 minutes. To buy time, Sergeant "Pudgy" Pugh shot at the Japanese from the tail, while Technical Sergeant Forrest Dillman shot from the waist.
Sarnoski manned the guns at the nose, waiting for them to attack from the front. He didn't have to wait long. Uki and five others had flown ahead and were turning back to hit the Fortress from its most vulnerable point - the front.
It took them over 15 minutes to complete their maneuver. By 8 am, the two sides were on a collision course at over 500 mph over Empress Augusta Bay. Zeamer needed only one more minute before he could break off, but it was too late.
The Japanese opened fire with 20mm cannons and 7.7 machine guns. Zeamer fired back from his nose gun, hitting Uki's wings, but not before Uki's 20mm cannon smashed the Plexiglas, hit Sarnoski, cut open his side, sent him flying back into the catwalk beneath, and shredding Zeamer's legs and feet with shrapnel.
Second Lt. Ruby Johnston, the navigator, ran to help Sarnoski, but the latter waved him off and dragged himself back to his guns. He took out a Dinah and a Zero, but not before the Zero's cannon hit the cockpit, taking out their instruments and oxygen supply. More bullets found Zeamer's arms and feet, but he managed to dive down to 2,000 feet so they could breathe. Then they crashed into the sea.
Or so the Japanese official report claimed. Despite blacking out several times, Zeamer got them back to base, but Sarnoski never got up from his machine gun. He had died firing his machine gun, the only men Zeamer failed to return.
Upon landing, the co-pilot told the ground crews to get Zeamer first, but the ground crew said, "He's gone!" Zeamer, however, was not dead,
Thanks to their mission, however, the Allies knew exactly how to avenge Sarnoski at Buka and Bougainville. For completing a vitally important mission, both Sarnoski and Zeamer each were awarded the Medal of Honor, every other member of the crew was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Jay Zeamer died on March 22, 2007, at St. Andrews Village in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. He was 88.
Old 666 was returned to the United States in February 1944 and was salvaged at Albuquerque in August 1945.
Do you have old photos from your service days stashed away in a drawer or in a shoe box in your attic? Old photos fade with time and if they are not scanned and preserved digitally, they risk eventually being lost forever.
This is where TWS can help. We have just invested in a high quality Fujitsu book and photo scanner that can scan any size of photo or yearbook. As a service to our members, we would like to offer you a free photo scanning service for your most significant photos from your service which we will then return to you, in original condition, along with a CD containing your photo files.
In addition, we can upload your photos for you to your Photo Album on your TWS Service Profile which will also appear in your Shadow box and available to you to access or download at any time.
Please contact us at [email protected] for full details on this Free Service.
Battlefield Chronicles: The Battle of Kunduz
The Battle of Kunduz took place from April to October 2015 for control of the city of Kunduz, located in northern Afghanistan, with Taliban fighters attempting to displace Afghan security forces. On September 28, 2015, the Taliban forces suddenly overran the city, with government forces retreating outside the city. The capture marked the first time since 2001 that the Taliban had taken control of a major city in Afghanistan. The Afghan government claimed to have largely recaptured Kunduz by October 1, 2015, in a counterattack, although local sources in the city disputed the claim made by government officials.
Twelve hospital staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and ten patients, including three children, were killed on October 3rd by a prolonged series of U.S. airstrikes on Kunduz Trauma Centre, an emergency trauma hospital run by the agency. Thirty-seven people were injured including nineteen staff members
Initial Attack
The Taliban launched its attacks on Kunduz on April 24th, targeting four outlying districts around the city. Four days later, they largely controlled the suburb of Gortepa, while in the Imam Sahib District Taliban fighters surrounded an Afghan National Army base and Afghan Local Police forces in the area were forced to retreat on several fronts. In response to the attacks, the Afghan government dispatched several thousand army troops to the region, and President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani convened an emergency meeting with military officials. U.S. fighter jets were deployed under the authority of the Resolute Support Mission, although they did not fire on the Taliban.
Sustained Fighting
After a week-long standoff following the initial assault, government troops began an offensive on May 7th against Taliban fighters, which had largely grouped to the south of Kunduz in the Gul Tepa district. By late May, about 3,000 Afghan troops had arrived in the area, with Taliban strength estimated at 2,000 fighters, including militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The surge of government troops forced the Taliban fighters to about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) from Kunduz, back from their closest approach about 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from the city earlier in the offensive.
A Taliban counteroffensive in June brought insurgent fighters into the Char Dara District, several miles from Kunduz. On June 21st, a Taliban spokesman said that it had taken complete control of the district and had captured local police officers. A spokesman for the Kunduz District police force disputed the claim, saying that while there had indeed been fighting in the district, the Taliban only controlled about half of it and had not captured any police.
Throughout July, the Taliban continued to make gains, capturing towns outside Kunduz and in the Khan Abad District to the southeast. According to the commander of a local militia allied with the government, about 2,000 local militia members and government troops had been forced to retreat, as the Afghan government had failed to dispatch reinforcements and supplies.
Capture
On the morning of September 28th, a rapid advance by the Taliban forces from three directions displaced the government troops in Kunduz city, who after several hours retreated to the outlying airport, leaving the Taliban in complete control of the city. According to a government security official, the Taliban had been vastly outnumbered, with only an estimated 500 fighters remaining against about 7,000 government troops and allied militia members. However, local politicians from Kunduz said that the government had failed to provide leadership and support to its fighters in the area.
On September 29th, Afghan forces began a counterattack from the airport towards the city, supported by American airstrikes throughout the day in the area and U.S. Army Special Forces personnel, many of whom had been deployed that morning. However, by the end of the day government forces had failed to make headway, as the Taliban forced them back to and surrounded the airport. The government also dispatched additional troops by both air and land, though reinforcements traveling via road were delayed by Taliban ambushes.
By September 30th it was being claimed that anti-Taliban militias led by warlords were also joining the battle.
Government Counter-Offensive
Afghan and American ground forces began a ground offensive from the airport to Kunduz late on September 30th, and by daybreak on October 1 had captured several police facilities and the city prison from the Taliban. Late in the day, Afghan reinforcements arrived in the city, but American troops remained, as the Afghan forces planned to abandon their positions if the U.S. soldiers retreated as they had intended. Afghan forces also claimed to have taken back Imam Sahib, although the wider Imam Sahib District remained under Taliban control. According to the Afghan defense ministry, about 150 Taliban fighters were killed in the day's offensive.
On October 4th, Taliban fighters claimed to have recaptured the majority of Kunduz. The following day, Afghan troops mounted a counter-offensive that pushed the Taliban back out of much of the city, with the national flag raised over the governor's residence for the first time since the beginning of the battle. According to a police spokesperson, while the Taliban still threatened, their primary battle line had been broken.
On October 6th, the Taliban renewed their attacks, apparently recapturing substantial portions of Kunduz, including the central Chowk Square and the northern part of the city.
On October 13th, Taliban fighters withdrew from Kunduz after several days of heavy fighting with Afghan troops, who were supported by United States special forces and airstrikes. According to a statement published on a Taliban-associated website, the retreat was due to the prospect of additional casualties and ammunition expenditure in continued fighting.
MSF Hospital Airstrike
A U.S. AC-130 airstrike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF -Doctors Without Borders), killing at least 42 people, in a series of bombing raids that lasted from 2:08 am local time until 3:15 am on October 3rd, MSF said that the trauma center "was hit several times during sustained bombing and was very badly damaged," while there were 105 patients and 80 medical staff inside. The aid group said that it had warned U.S. and Afghan authorities of the hospital's location ahead of time, but bombing continued for more than 30 minutes after it notified military officials it was under attack.
Effects
Within the first weeks of fighting, some estimated tens of thousands of people had been displaced. In response, the World Food Program sent aid packages for about 500 families in early May. By late May, some 100,000 people had been displaced, though some began returning as the Taliban were pushed back from the city proper.
By September 30th, several Afghan parliamentarians began calling for the resignation of President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah. In response, Ghani's office replied that he had ordered an investigation into how Kunduz City fell so quickly.
Casualties
At least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed in the fighting by Wednesday, September 30, 2015, according to a health ministry spokesman. He also said hospitals in Kunduz had treated about 340 wounded. By October 5th, the government's casualty estimates were of 55 dead and 600 injured. According to a U.N. report, at least 848 civilians were killed or wounded following the Taliban attack.
Do You Still Have Your Boot Camp/Basic Training Photo?
Together We Served has a growing archive of more than 10,000 Boot Camp/ Basic Training Graduation Photos which we now display on your Military Service Page and Shadow Box. We also have a growing collection of Yearbooks which we will be making available on the site shortly.
We are still searching for Boot Camp/ Basic Training Photos and Yearbooks. So if you have yours available, please contact us at [email protected] or call us on (888) 398-3262.
Either you can send us a scanned file of your photo or you can send it to us for scanning. We will add this for you to the Recruit/ Officer Training section of your Military Service Page.
All photos and yearbooks will be returned to you in original condition along with a CD containing your scanned photo.
Military Myths & Legends: Charles "Chuck" Mawhinney
Sniper Charles "Chuck" Mawhinney, may not have the name recognition of Marine sniper Sgt. Carlos Hathcock, but military records show Mawhinney has 103 confirmed kills - 10 more than Hathcock - and 216 probable kills during the Vietnam War; making him the deadliest sniper in Marine Corps history.
To him, his job wasn't all about taking lives, it was about saving them. Every person he killed was not only one less person to kill a fellow Marine, but he was also sapping the enemies will to fight. Always at the forefront of his mind was to keep his fellow Marines safe - even when he was becoming disillusioned with America's presence in Vietnam, he extended his tour twice to keep his Marines safe.
One of Mawhinney greatest engagements came when a large North Vietnamese Army force was spotted moving its way south on Valentine's Day to attack an American base near Da Nang. But a monsoon shut down air support. So Mawhinney volunteered to cover a river crossing where the force was expected to march.
Mawhinney left his sniper rifle at the base and moved forward with an M14 semiautomatic rifle and a Starlight scope, an early night vision device.
The sniper and his spotter positioned themselves overlooking the shallowest river crossing. A few hours later, a single scout approached the river first, but Mawhinney waited. When the rest of the NVA began to cross the river, Mawhinney kept waiting. It wasn't until the men were deep into the river that Mawhinney began firing, nailing one man after the other through the head. As he describes it, in 30 seconds "I shot dropped 16 NVA soldiers with 16 headshots."
He engaged the enemy at ranges from 25 to 75 meters, nailing one man after the other through the head. As he describes it, in 30 seconds "I shot dropped 16 NVA soldiers with 16 headshots."
The two Marines then hastily fell back as the NVA tried to hit them with small arms and machine gun fire.
"I just did what I was trained to do," he says in a tone that is neither defensive nor boastful. "I was in-country a long time in a very hot area. I didn't do anything special."
The numbers suggest otherwise.
By all accounts other than his own, Mawhinney is a master of one of the most dangerous, deadly and misunderstood roles in the military. Yet for more than two decades after he left the Marine Corps in 1970, nobody except for a few fellow Marines knew of his assignment.
Other snipers have written books or had books written about them. Mawhinney always figured war stories were for wannabes and bores. At home in Oregon, he never told even his closest friends about what he did in Vietnam.
But a tell-all paperback by Joseph War, a friend, and fellow Marine sniper, finally flushed him out. The book was �??Dear Mom: A Sniper's Vietnam.'
At first, embarrassed and annoyed at losing his privacy, Mawhinney reluctantly decided to tell a cold tale of killing in service to country and is now in heavy demand within military circles to describe his techniques, his emotions, his assessment of what he accomplished from ambush.
So, what changed his mind about never rehashing Vietnam?
First, because anonymity was no longer an option, he decided he could help change the public image of snipers as bloodthirsty assassins. A good sniper, Mawhinney said, saves more lives than he takes because he undercuts the enemy's will or ability to fight.
Second, going public offered a chance to say something that might help some other scared servicemen stay alive someday.
"Once I had a Charlie in my scope, it was my job to kill him before he killed me," said Mawhinney, now 69 and retired from a desk job with the U.S. Forest Service.
Even in an age of million-dollar, computer-driven missiles, the ability of one man to kill another with a 20-cent bullet is a much-prized skill among military forces. In the ugliness of war-making, the sniper is assigned to harass, intimidate and demoralize the enemy, make him afraid to venture into the open and deny him the chance to rest and regroup.
"It was the ultimate hunting trip: a man hunting another man who was hunting me," he said. "Don't talk to me about hunting lions or elephants; they don't fight back with rifles and scopes. I just loved it."
One memory that sticks with Mawhinney the most is the "one that got away." Having just returned to Vietnam from leave, Mawhinney was getting his rifle back from the armorer, who assured him they didn't make any changes to his rifle. Trusting the armorer, Mawhinney went out with his sniper team to support an infantry squad that was in the field.
From a concealed location hundreds of yards away from where the engagement was expected to occur, his team was charged with picking off any stragglers or North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong reinforcements attempting the join the fight or thinking the area was safe from the fight.
From about 300 yards away Mawhinney spotted an armed enemy combatant in a rice paddy dike. He took the shot and missed. As a routinely deadly shot at that range, Mawhinney knew someone at the armory had done something to his scope. He took several more shots while trying to compensate for his altered scope, but couldn't hit the target, and the enemy got away.
It's one of the few things that still bother him about Vietnam. Mawhinney wonders how many people that man could have killed, how many of his friends, of his fellow Marines. He will never truly know, but it haunts him to this day.
He was invited to talk to snipers in training at the Marines' Camp Pendleton and the Army's Ft. Carson in Colorado.
"I give them Chuck Mawhinney's three rules of becoming a good sniper: Practice, practice and more practice," he said.
On the wall of the Marine sniper school at Camp Pendleton is a Chinese proverb: Kill one man, terrorize a thousand.
On another wall is a framed picture of Mawhinney as a teenage sniper in Vietnam, stripped to the waist in a mock-macho pose with the government-issued Remington M700 bolt-action rifle that he considered "my baby."
"It's good for the young Marines to see someone like Chuck who had the intangibles that you need to be a good sniper: heart, backbone, desire, and discipline," said Gunnery Sgt. William Skiles, who runs the 30-student sniper school.
When training rookie snipers, he would make sure they understood that. Their job was to kill the enemy and missing a shot or having second thoughts on taking the shot could get them or a fellow Marine killed.
Mawhinney has been a guest of honor at various marksmanship competitions around the country attended by military personnel and police SWAT snipers. He is also the spokesman for Strider Knives, which produces a knife with his signature on the blade. One of these knives is presented to the top graduate of each USMC Scout Sniper School in Camp Pendleton, California.
Other Vietnam snipers with high killing rate records include Carlos Hathcock, Eric R. England, and Adelbert F. Waldron. Their impressive records - including Mawhinney's - stood for many years until Navy SEAL Christopher Scott Kyle was officially confirmed more than 160 kills during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Have A Military Reunion Coming Soon?
TWS has nearly 1.7 million members who served in a wide range of units, ships, squadrons and duty stations. Get more people to your Reunion by sending your Reunion information to us in the following format and we will post it for free in our Reunion Announcements on Together We Served, in emails that go to our members and in our Newsletters.
Please contact us at [email protected] with the following details of your Reunion:
Your Reunion Name:
Associated Unit or Association:
Date Starting:
Date Finishing:
Place Where Held:
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Florence Finch was an atypical hometown hero. For nearly 50 years after World War II, virtually no one outside of her family knew that she was a highly decorated Coast Guard veteran and a former prisoner of war whose exploits had been buried in time.
"Women don't tell war stories like men do," her daughter, Betty Murphy, of Ithaca, N.Y., said.
And even on those rare occasions when she recalled her heroics in the Philippines- supplying fuel to the Filipino underground, sabotaging supplies destined for the Japanese occupiers, smuggling food to starving American prisoners and surviving torture after she was captured-Florence Finch did so with the utmost modesty.
"I feel very humble," she said, "because my activities in the war effort were trivial compared with those of the people who gave their lives for their country."
It was perhaps reflective of that modesty that when she died on Dec. 8, 2016, at the age of 101 in an Ithaca nursing home, the news did not travel widely. Newspapers in central New York carried a brief obituary, but her death went unreported virtually everywhere else.
It was only after the announcement by the Coast Guard that she would be buried with full military honors on Apr. 29, 2017, at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Cayuga Heights, N.Y., that word of her death spread nationwide.
Indeed, the almost five-month delay in her memorial owed something to her solicitous nature. Near death, she had made it clear that she did not want her funeral to disrupt her relatives' Christmas holidays or to make mourners travel during a dark and icy Southern Tier winter-besides, she relished the annual resurgence wrought by spring. So, the funeral was put off.
The funeral was held in Ithaca, with the military honors coming afterward, a ceremony befitting this Philippine-born daughter of an American father and Filipino mother-one who, in 1947, received the Medal of Freedom-the forerunner of today's Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest award to a civilian.
When the Japanese occupied the Philippines from 1942 to 1945, Florence Finch posed as a Filipino, but she became a United States citizen after the war. "Because she was over 18, she could have chosen to be American or Filipino," her daughter Ms. Murphy said. "When the Japanese landed, she chose to be mum, but in her heart, she had chosen to be an American."
Florence was born Loring May Ebersole on Oct. 11, 1915, in Santiago, on Luzon Island in the northern Philippines. Her father, Charles, had fought in the Philippines for the Army during the Spanish-American War and remained there after it was over. Her mother was the former Maria Hermosa.
Betty, as she was known all her life, graduated from high school and was hired as a stenographer at Army Intelligence headquarters in Manila under Maj. E. C. Engelhart. While working there, she met Charles E. Smith, a Navy chief electrician's mate. They married in August 1941, a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7th.
When the war did begin, Charles Smith reported to his PT boat. He died on Feb. 8, 1942, trying to resupply American and Filipino troops trapped on Corregidor Island and the Bataan Peninsula.
Five weeks earlier, Manila had fallen to the Japanese.
Florence (then Mrs. Smith) convinced the occupying forces that she was Filipino and, armed with superior penmanship, wangled a job writing gas rationing vouchers for the now Japanese-run Philippine Liquid Fuel Distributing Union.
Unbeknown to her employer, however, she was collaborating with the Philippine resistance movement. Her job enabled her to divert precious fuel supplies to the underground and help sabotage shipments to the Japanese. After she learned of her husband's death, her efforts became even more vigorous.
Meanwhile, Maj. E.C. Englehart managed to get word to her that he had been captured and that he and fellow war prisoners were being maltreated. She helped smuggle food, medicine, soap, and clothing to them in a prison until she was caught.
Confined to a two-by-four-foot cell, she was interrogated and then tortured, enduring repeated shocks from electrical clamps on her fingers. She never talked. She was tried and sentenced to three years' hard labor at the Women's Correctional Institution in Mandaluyong, just outside Manila.
When she was finally freed by American troops on Feb. 10, 1945, she weighed 80 pounds.
Rather than remain in her native country, she moved to Buffalo, New York, where her father's sister lived. She joined the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, or the SPARs (a contraction of the Coast Guard motto "Semper Paratus" - Always Ready). She enlisted, she said, to avenge her husband.
When her superiors learned of her wartime exploits, she was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon; the Coast Guard described her as the first woman to receive the decoration. The Medal of Freedom was bestowed for meritorious service.
After the war ended, she was discharged as a seaman second class in 1946 and enrolled in secretarial school in New York City, where she met and married an Army veteran, Robert Finch. A chemist, he was hired by Agway, the supplier of the agricultural products, and moved the family to Ithaca. Robert died in 1968, leaving behind his wife Florence and daughter Betty and son Bob.
As she was rearing her children and working as a secretary at Cornell University, her neighbors never suspected that they were in the presence of a war hero.
In the early 1990s, though, she was rediscovered by the military after she completed a government questionnaire that she had received in conjunction with plans to erect the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington. The Coast Guard named a building on Sand Island in Hawaii in her honor in 1995.
Betty decided to alert the news media about the building dedication, noting that her mother would be in attendance.
"It was the first anyone knew," Betty said. "I figured it was time. And when she came home, and people met her at the bus station, she was flabbergasted."
Florence Finch is survived by her daughter Betty and son Bob; a sister Olive Keats; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
New Together We Served Military Store
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Our Store is offered in cooperation with Military Best, one of the most trusted suppliers in the United States, who offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on all items purchased. Many items are made in the USA and a proportion of the proceeds from your purchase help support our military's underfunded MWR programs.
We appreciate your feedback at [email protected] your comments regarding what you like, what you like less and if there are any additional items you would like us to stock.
The Shifting Sands of War
It's fascinating to look at how history can be changed from a single incident, or in this case, accident. That is what happened during the Battle of Britain that impacted the outcome of not only the battle but the war itself.
In the summer of 1940, the United Kingdom stood almost alone again the might of Nazi Germany. German armies had rolled through Western Europe. Britain's closest ally, France, had been knocked out of the war by the German blitzkrieg in a matter of weeks. British troops stationed in France had managed to barely escape capture or death by evacuations at Dunkirk.
Now the British waited for an invasion. The assault began in August with German Luftwaffe attacks on British airfields, bases, and industrial production facilities. Despite being outnumbered, the Royal Air Force resisted.
In command of the German air force was Hermann Goering, a Nazi and loyal to Adolf Hitler. Goering's plan was simple, destroy the RAF and leave the island open for invasion. The British fought hard but Goering intensified attacks.
The British air command was wearing down. German attacks were continuous and heavy, leaving little time to repair damaged airfields, factories, and planes. The British were running dangerously low on airplanes and pilots.
Hitler reportedly still held out hope that Britain would ask for a peace agreement with Germany, effectively ending the war in Western Europe. To encourage this, he instructed that British targets for bombing remain military only.
Then the incident happened. By most accounts, the bombing on August 24 was an accident. German bombers, that were supposed to hit military targets outside of London, flew past and struck part of the capital itself, causing some damage and civilian deaths.
After London was attacked, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a revenge attack on Berlin. It was the first bombing raid on the German capital in the war. The raid on August 25th was small and mostly symbolic. It caused little damage to the city itself. No one was killed, but it outraged Hitler and Goering. In fact, months earlier, Goring had promised that Allied bombers would never penetrate that far into German territory.
Furious over the aggressive British action, Hitler and Goering decided on a new tactic. Using the might of their Air Force, they would concentrate on the heavy bombing of London in retaliation for the attack on Berlin.
On September 7th, in what became known as the Blitz, it began. For 57 consecutive nights, London was bombed mercilessly. Every night, air raid sirens went off, sending residents into subway stations and other underground shelters. In return, Britain managed to send more bombing raids on to Berlin and other German cities.
To increase the pressure on the population, Hitler expanded the bombing raids to other British cities such as Birmingham, Coventry, and Liverpool. Damage on the ground was severe. Toward the end of 1940, over 15,000 civilians had been killed. The plan was to terrorize the British people into submission.
Yet there was one positive result for the British as their cities were being attacked. While civilians took the brunt of the assault, military bases and factories were being left alone. Airfields were repaired. Planes were rebuilt, and new fighter pilots had time to train.
In vicious aerial battles, the RAF was also able to inflict increasing casualties on German bombers and fighters. The previous Luftwaffe air superiority balanced out and became a war of attrition, with both sides taking heavy losses.
With the air war turning against him, Hitler had to postpone the invasion of Britain. Instead, he turned his attention east toward Russia, which he would invade in the summer of 1941. Britain was saved, and Germany was once again fighting a war on two fronts, from which they would never recover.
No one knows what the outcome would have been had the Luftwaffe continued attacks on British military targets instead of civilians. But one accidental bombing of London helped turned the tide of the battle of Britain and of World War Two.
TWS Person Locator Service
Available for Together We Served members only! Together We Served has two hard working marines that devote their time and energy to help our members find long lost friends that are not yet members of our site.
If you have someone you are looking for, please send name, age they would be now and where they were from to us at [email protected] and we'll get them on the case for you.
TWS Bulletin Board
If you wish to make a post to our new Bulletin Board - People Sought, Assistance Needed, Jobs Available in Your Company, Reunions Pending, Items for Sale or Wanted, Services Available or Wanted, Product or Service Recommendations, Discounts for Vets, Announcements, Death Notices - email it to us at [email protected].
Service Reflections Video of the Month
#TributetoaVeteran - SH2 Antwone Fisher, U.S. Navy 1977-1989
Behind the Scenes at TogetherWeServed
Have you ever been at your parents or grandparents house and found a dusty old photo of some distant relative in a box? Did you wonder who they were, where they went, what they saw? If they could tell you, what stories would they have of their time in the service?
I've always looked at TWS as an online attic filled with hidden treasures if you look for them. We have over 4 million photos archived on TWS.
We have 1.7 million names. You may not remember everyone you served with but if you see one name, it may lead to another, then another and pretty soon your surrounded by old friends.
And we have stories. Reflections on Service is your way of telling your story in your own words through a 16 question self-guided interview that goes from "why you joined" to "what are you doing now" and everything in between. It is your chance to leave your legacy to your children, grandchildren and your future generations.
Sooner or later, we will become that forgotten, dusty old photograph in someone's attic. Wouldn't it be nice if when someone asked who you were, someone else had the answers.
Have a great month!
Diane Short
TWS Chief Admin
Looking for Army and Marine Corps Volunteers Memorial Team
Do you have a passion for making sure that all of our Fallen are not forgotten? This is the team for you. We have Fallen profiles that have either been orphaned or created by someone who has not been online for a very long time and there is nothing in those profiles. TWS is working to make sure that all of our Fallen profiles are as complete as possible.
If you're interested in joining our Memorial Team, please contact us at [email protected]
TWS Brochures Available
Do you have a reunion coming up and would like to spread the word about Together We Served? We now have brochures available that helps explain a little bit about who we are and what we do.
Send your requests to [email protected]. Please include your name and address along with how many brochures you require.
TWS Invite Cards
Did you know we have Together We Served invite cards that you can hand out to any veteran you meet? It even has a place to put your name, service branch and member number so you get credit for the invite.
If you would like some cards, email us your name and address to [email protected] and we will get them in the mail to you.
Add Your Boot Camp and Have Your Book Scanned
We recently received this email from LtCol Davies that we thought we would pass on. It comments on two projects of TWS that has helped find faces on the Wall.
TWS recently started gathering members boot camp group photos along with scanning members books to add to their page. Through these projects, at least 5 more faces have been added that we may not have had without your help!
If you would like to have your book scanned, contact admin at [email protected].
Reunions
Do You Have a Reunion Planned for the Norfolk Area?
If you do, please contact Diane Short at [email protected] to discuss doing a presentation for your reunion.
VA and Other News
No More Military Exercises with South Korea
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made it official Friday: the annual big military exercises with the South Koreans won't be happening if North Korea bargains in good faith on denuclearization.
President Donald Trump said after the Singapore summit last week with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that the exercises -- he called them "war games" -- would be suspended, although no mention of the exercises was included in the joint declaration after the summit.
In a late Friday statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said that Mattis "has indefinitely suspended select exercises" to include the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise that had been scheduled to begin in late August. Last year's Freedom Guardian exercise involved about 50,000 South Korean and 17,500 U.S. troops.
White said that Mattis formally suspended the exercises after meetings at the White House Friday involving himself, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.
White said that Mattis acted "to support implementing the outcomes of the Singapore summit, and in coordination with our Republic of Korea ally."
She said the suspensions applied to Freedom Guardian and "two Korean Marine Exchange Program training exercises scheduled to occur in the next three months."
"In support of upcoming diplomatic negotiations led by Secretary Pompeo, additional decisions will depend upon the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] continuing to have productive negotiations in good faith," White said.
In his comments after the summit, Trump called the exercises "too expensive" and "provocative" to the North Koreans, who for decades have also charged that the exercises were provocative and practice for an invasion.
Last week, Pompeo met in Seoul for an hour with Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of the 28,500 U.S. troops in U.S. Forces Korea, to discuss the suspension.
The U.S. had already been cutting back on the exercises in the months preceding the Singapore Summit as the opening to the North developed.
Mattis postponed the major Foal Eagle exercise earlier this year during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in South Korea, and Foal Eagle was cut back from the usual two months to one month when it resumed.
In a tweet Sunday, Trump said that "holding back the 'war games' during the negotiations was my request because they are VERY EXPENSIVE and set a bad light during a good faith negotiation. Also, quite provocative. Can start up immediately if talks break down, which I hope will not happen!"
In North Korea, a South Korean delegation met with North Korean officials on reunions for families separated by the Korean War and other humanitarian issues, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The meetings were held at a hotel on Mount Kumgang on North Korea's east coast, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry.
Air Force Light Attack Experiment Plane Crash
An A-29 Super Tucano that crashed near Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, on June 22, 2018, was part of the Air Force's ongoing light attack experiment, according to the service.
Officials said the crash occurred over the Red Rio Bombing Range at approximately 11:30 a.m. local time during a training flight, according to a release.
Two pilots were onboard. One aircrew member "suffered minor injuries and was airlifted to a local hospital," the release said. The Air Force did not disclose the condition of the second crewmember.
Because of the crash, officials at the base canceled additional flights for the light attack experiment for the day, according to a report from the Alamogordo Daily News.
Emergency response units from the White Sands Missile Range Directorate of Emergency Services initially responded to the crash. The Red Rio Bombing Range encompasses approximately 196,000 acres on White Sands Missile Range, the service said.
It is unclear if the crash could impact the remainder of Phase II of the light attack program.
Test units at Holloman are currently flying in the Air Force "light attack" experiment, an element of the service's effort to procure a new fleet of lightweight, inexpensive aircraft.
The Air Force selected two aircraft, the Textron Aviation AT-6 Wolverine and the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, to undergo more demonstration fly-offs, among other tests, at Holloman earlier this year.
The demonstrations began May 7 and will run through July, with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein expected to fly either or both aircraft at the base.
The Air Force in 2016 announced that it had plans to hold flight demonstrations with a handful of aircraft to test whether lighter, "off-the-shelf" aircraft may be usable in ongoing wars such as Afghanistan.
Originally, four aircraft - the Super Tucano, the AT-6, AirTractor and L3's AT-802L Longsword and Textron and AirLand LLC's Scorpion - conducted live-fly exercises, combat maneuver scenarios and weapons drop during a demonstration at Holloman in August 2017.
In November, key lawmakers agreed to provide the Air Force with $400 million to continue experimenting with the planes.
Cadet Who Made West Point History Among 'College Women of the Year'
A groundbreaking West Point graduate was recently named among Glamour magazine's "2018 College Women of the Year."
Simone Askew, 21, of Fairfax, Va., was the first black woman to lead "The Long Gray Line," serving as the first captain of the U.S. Military Academy's Corps of Cadets, the highest rank of student leadership.
Askew -- who was awarded the rank of second lieutenant at her May 26 graduation -- was responsible for the overall performance of the academy's nearly 4,400 cadets. She was also charged with implementing a class agenda and serving as a liaison between the student body and the administration.
Last November, the international history major was one of 32 Americans honored with a Rhodes scholarship. She hopes to enter the field of military intelligence.
West Point commandant Brig. Gen. Steve Gilland praised Askew last August after her first-captain selection, saying she exemplified the academy's values of duty, honor, and country.
Askew spoke about how she felt to be selected for the role in an interview with Glamour.
"People ask me, 'What's it like to be the first black woman in your position?' And I'm like, 'The same way it felt to be a black woman for the past 21 years.' I'm sensitive to how I perceive others because I've been frustrated with the limitations of how people perceive me," she told the magazine.
Askew also revealed she had been sexually assaulted during cadet basic training.
"The most important thing for us is not to define West Point as a boys' club. The boys aren't in charge here. I'm in charge," she said. "For me, it's about, how can we be good to one another? I'm focused on incorporating into our curriculum what right looks like, instead of just avoiding what wrong looks like."
Other students honored by Glamour this year include Amanda Gorman, the first youth poet laureate of the United States; Ann Makosinski, who invented a flashlight that runs on body heat and won Google's Science Fair; Maria Rose Belding, who created a system to alert food banks when free food is available near them; Claire Wineland, a cystic fibrosis sufferer who created a foundation to help others deal with the disease; and Karen Caudillo, a member of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program who's fighting for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Korean War American Remains to Return Home
North Korea agreed to send home U.S. war remains during the June 12 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Chad Carroll said that the U.S.-led U.N. Command was moving "assets" to an American air base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, south of Seoul to prepare for North Korea's returning of the remains of American soldiers who have been missing since the 1950-53 Korean War. At the same time, the Joint Security Area at the border is preparing for the process, but that plans were "still preliminary."
Earlier Saturday, Yonhap cited an unnamed source as saying that about 30 U.S. military vehicles carrying 215 caskets were expected to cross into the North on Saturday afternoon. Carroll called the report "completely false," but didn't immediately reply to an inquiry about the number of caskets being readied.
Between 1996 and 2005, joint U.S.-North Korea military search teams conducted 33 recovery operations that collected 229 sets of American remains.
But efforts to recover and return other remains have stalled for more than a decade because of the North's nuclear weapons development and the U.S. claims that the safety of recovery teams it sent during the administration of former President George W. Bush was not sufficiently guaranteed.
Marines Begin Issuing New Night Vision Binoculars to Specialized Units
The Marine Corps is fielding new night vision binoculars equipped with thermal imaging that can help spot buried explosives.
Marine Corps Systems Command began fielding the Binocular Night Vision Goggle II, or BNVG II, this spring to Marine Corps force reconnaissance and explosive ordnance disposal units this spring, according to a news release published this week.
The helmet-mounted night vision binocular gives operators improved depth perception at night by using a white phosphor image Intensification technology to amplify ambient light. That feature is teamed with a modular thermal imaging overlay capability, the release states.
The BNVG II includes a Binocular Night Vision Device and a Clip-on Thermal Imager, or COTI, that attaches to the body of the BNVD with a bracket.
The night vision device amplifies the small amount of existing light emitted by stars, the moon's glow or other ambient light sources, and uses the light to clearly display objects in detail in very dark conditions, according to the release.
The COTI uses heat energy from the Marine's surroundings to add a thermal overlay which allows the image to be viewed more clearly. It can help identify potential "buried explosive devices, find hidden objects within foliated areas," the release states.
"The BNVG II helps Marines see enemies at a distance and uses the COTI to detect ordnance or power sources for an explosive device that give off heat," Nia Cherry, the program analyst with Infantry Weapons, said in the release. "The COTI intensifies Marines' ability to see anything in dark conditions, rain, fog, dust, smoke and through bushes that the legacy binoculars couldn't."
The night vision device component is a compact, lightweight, Generation-3 Dual Tube Night Vision Goggle that offers "superior situational awareness compared to the AN/PVS-15, utilized by Reconnaissance Marines, and the single-tube AN/PVS-14 Monocular Night Vision Device utilized throughout the rest of the Marine Corps," according to the release.
The U.S. Army plans to begin fielding dual-tubed, binocular-style night vision goggles this fall to infantry and other ground combat soldiers.
The Army announced in February that it has money in its fiscal 2019 budget to fund the effort to give soldiers greater depth perception than the current single-tubed Enhanced Night Vision Goggles and AN/PVS 14s.
The Marine Corps plans to have the BNVG II in "full operational capability" by the second quarter of fiscal 2019, the release states.
Tricare Fees Could Change Again in January
Tricare's out of pocket flat rate care fees, deductibles and, for working-age retirees, enrollment fees could change Jan. 1st, a newly released policy update notes.
The changes would not impact Tricare for Life users.
The potential for annual fee increases or decreases is authorized in a law passed by Congress last year. But until now very little has been known about how or if those annual changes will happen.
Services and fees offered by Tricare are governed by the agency's policy manuals, which lay out the Pentagon's interpretation of rules set by Congress.
For example, when Congress ordered Tricare to provide referral-free Urgent Care access to Tricare Prime users, officials developed and published in the policy the rules for doing so.
And when Congress last year ordered Tricare Standard moved to Tricare Select, with a specific set of fees for troops and retirees who joined the military after Jan. 1 of this year, Tricare policy dictated how much current troops and retirees would be charged.
The policy manuals official public updates for coverage and reimbursements generally lags a major new rule's roll-out. For example, while Tricare's major updates went into play Jan. 1, the policy and reimbursement manual were only publicly updated June 15.
That update highlights a Tricare plan to annually alter up or down the flat rate cost shares and deductibles for currently serving troops and the flat rate cost shares, deductibles and enrollment fees for retirees.
"All fees (including enrollment fees, deductibles, and cost-shares) are subject to review and annual updating on the calendar year," the reimbursement manual states. "This section provides the policy regarding fees and the Calendar Year (CY) 2018 amounts. Annual updates thereafter will be published on the Defense Health Agency (DHA) website."
Just what those updates will be based on going forward is not stated in the manual. The cost share fees were originally based on a complicated calculation that factored average spending on each type of service, among other factors, officials said last year,
We also don't know when those new fees will be released. Officials originally published the planned fees for January of this year in late fall last year. But then different, lower fees were instead put in place just a few weeks before the changes started.
Tricare officials did not respond to a request for details on when any fee changes might be released.
For troops and retirees who joined the military after Jan. 1 or for those who use Tricare's purchased plans, including Tricare Reserve Select, fees changes are set by law, not by policy. That law says that the rates must be "annually indexed to the amount by which retired pay is increased," the reimbursement manual notes.
In other words, any fee increase will be directly tied to the annual Cost of Living Adjustment for military retirees. The higher that bump, the more the fees will go up.
You can bet officials with military advocacy organizations, like the National Military Family Association (NMFA) or the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), will be watching this issue closely.
'Hero of Nasiriyah' set to retire after 30 years of service to the Corps
On March 23, 2003, the Army's 507th Maintenance Company took a wrong turn into the city of Nasiriyah, Iraq, setting a course of history that would cost the Corps 18 Marines, and eventually earn Sgt. Maj. Justin LeHew the Navy Cross.
Six soldiers, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were captured and 11 were killed when Iraqi forces ambushed the 507th. LeHew, then a platoon sergeant with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Task Force Tarawa, was directed to rescue the ambushed Army unit.
"Under constant enemy fire, he led the rescue team to the soldiers. With total disregard for his own welfare, he assisted the evacuation effort of four soldiers, two of whom were critically wounded," LeHew's Navy Cross citation reads.
Nearly 15 years after the bloody battle that earned LeHew the nickname "Hero of Nasiriyah," the now sergeant major is set to retire from the Marine Corps after thirty years of service.
After the rescue effort, LeHew and his company of Assault Amphibious Vehicles, or AAVs, set its sights on capturing the city of Nasiriyah and secured a bridge across the Euphrates river while under constant enemy fire.
LeHew exposed himself on multiple occasions during a three-hour intense firefight to capture the bridge. One AAV was hit by rocket propelled grenades and LeHew moved to recover the nine dead or wounded Marines while under a barrage of enemy fire.
Bravo and Charlie companies pushed into the city while Alpha secured the bridge. But Charlie company was soon bogged down in an intense urban gunfight as it spearheaded down a dangerous trek of the city dubbed "Ambush Alley" by Army planners.
The Corps would lose nearly 18 Marines and seven AAVs in the fight to secure Nasiriya. Many casualties resulted from a friendly fire incident involving an Air Force A-10 that mistook the Marines' tracked amphib vehicles for Iraqi armor.
LeHew was awarded the nation's second highest award for combat bravery, the Navy Cross, in 2004.
His heroic exploits continued to Iraq in 2004 when he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for valor while serving as the first sergeant for Company C, Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit during a bloody battle in Najaf, Iraq.
On August 5, 2004, LeHew and his Marines came under an intense attack from mortars, snipers and machine gun fire by the Mahdi militia, supporters of Shia cleric and recent winner in Iraq's parliamentary elections held in May, Muqtada al-Sadr.
The battle raged until August 27, 2004. On multiple occasions LeHew moved about the battlefield under intense fire motivating his Marines to press the attack. At the Najaf cemetery, he assisted in treating and evacuating nine wounded Marines and three killed in action.
The Marine tracker is currently assigned to Wounded Warrior Battalion - East at Walter Reed Bethesda, National Medical Military Center in Maryland as a recovering service member, according to Corps officials.
His retirement ceremony is being held Friday at the Assault Amphibian School aboard Camp Pendleton, California, according to Maj Eric P. Gentrup, the executive officer for the Wounded Warrior Regiment. LeHew officially retires on July 31.
Note from Admin: Drop by the SgtMaj's profile and leave him a note of congratulations. Click here
Desert Storm Memorial to be Built on National Mall Near Vietnam Wall
WASHINGTON - The National Desert Storm War Memorial will be located on the National Mall just steps away from the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, after a federal commission approved the site on Thursday.
This illustration shows a mock-up of the National Desert Storm War Memorial, slated for completion by 2021, the 30th anniversary of the first Gulf War. (OLIN Studio/CSO Architects)
The move ends a debate of more than three years over where the newest combat memorial should be located. Supporters have been advocating for a site on the National Mall for years, and earlier this year that plan got support from the National Capital Planning Commission.
But the prominent location still needed approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts to finalize the plan, an agreement that was not guaranteed given that space on the 146-acre site in the center of the nation's capital is closely managed. The panel gave its approval on Thursday.
Scott Stump, the Desert Storm Marine veteran spearheading the memorial project, said his team at the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association was "very pleased and very relieved" by the commission's decision.
"It's in close proximity to the National Mall and the other memorials and commemorative works to where a person could actually access it, could walk to it, easily," Stump told Military Times. "We felt like if you have something that's the most beautiful memorial in the world, but it takes a lot of work for people to get there and people aren't going to visit, then it kind of defeats our purpose."
Advocates push to start work on Global War on Terror memorial
Almost 17 years into fighting, organizers say its past time to begin planning a tribute site.
The spot is located at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., just north of the Lincoln Memorial and a short walk from the well-known Vietnam memorial site. It's also less than a half-mile from the World War II Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Map showing the future site of the National Desert Storm War Memorial, on 23rd Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW near the National Mall. (OLIN Studio/CSO Architects)
When Stump's team initially began scouting memorial sites, there were more than 100 locations in the mix. Three years later, Stump said he is ready to move into the design and construction phases.
"It's been exhaustive," he said. "The average person has no idea the level of work, time, wear and tear that is involved. It's just a grueling process that we've endured."
Stump's team already has some design plans in the works, but the final design will once again require approval from the National Park Service, National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.
Looking For
7400th Air Base Group
My name is Sgt. Larry Hammons I served in the USAF. I'm looking for someone who was stationed at Sembach Air Base in Germany from 1973 to 1975 and was assigned to the 7400th Air Base Group Civil Engineers who got diabetes and is drawing disability from the VA for it. Please contact me. They keep turning me down. Maybe you can help me get mine. Thank you!
Please contact me at phone #606-231-2291 or email me at [email protected]. If you call me and don't get an answer leave a message with your name and phone number and I will call you back.
Thank you again!
Sgt. Larry Hammons
Marine James H. Grant My name is James Sampson. I recently purchased this shadow box of a Marine named James H. Grant. When I bought the box, I didn't realize his Dog Tags were inside. I would like to return it to either he or his family. I personally was not able to serve in the military but am thankful for everyone who has.
Don the Boxer
This is a long shot! I am trying to find an Army buddy from Vietnam. His first name was Don and he was our armor at Long Binh around fall of 1969 to late 1970 or early 1971. He was married and lived in Las Vegas.
Problem is I cannot remember his last name, so this is a pipe dream I am afraid. After going to the enlisted men's club for a few and he was working in the armory, we would box. He would knock me pretty hard if I got too aggressive! He saved me in a fight once too!
If anyone can make sense of this, I would love to see him if he is still kicking.
3rd Marine Division
The 3rd Marine Division Association is looking for any nurses who served in Vietnam at any time and in any location. We are inviting you to join us at our banquet on Saturday evening September 15 at the Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs. I will pay for dinner. You can contact me at the following:
1st LAR Bn Association
We are trying to get the word out about the association to members who served in 1st LAV Bn., 1st LAI Bn., 1st RLA Bn., and now called 1st LAR BN. The Battalion had four name changes from 85-93. The association just stated last year and we are looking for Marines and Sailors who served. The web site is: 1stlarbnassoc.org. If you need any other information please let me know.
Brutal Battles of Vietnam 1965-1972 is VFW's contribution to the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. This 480-page book covering some 100 military actions is an outgrowth of VFW's award-winning magazine series called Vietnam's Deadliest Battles. Running over seven years, its excellence was organized with 13 national magazine awards.
It provides the most comprehensive battle history of the war yet published in a single volume. Brimming with compelling stories, the book focuses exclusively on the perspective of the fighting man. The high drama of the battlefield is felt through words and 700 pictures, many rarely seen before.
Stirring first-person accounts reveal the raw emotions of the men at the tip of the spear. Actual participants tell what it was like to be in life-and-death situations. Readers will learn about both elite and regular units far too often forgotten. Famous battles such as Khe Sanh and Hue and other numerous firefights that are long overdue recognition.
Unlike many histories that treat the war, Brutal Battles present a complete picture of the fighting to the bitter end. Special features, fascinating sidebars, helpful maps, numerous charts, a listing of the war's most highly decorated veterans, splendid illustrations and the most in-depth combat chronology ever compliment the riveting chapters.
In all, this book contains a treasure trove of information backed by extensive research, making it a collector's reference for every home library.
Editorial Review
The narratives do not get into the politics of the war nor do they spend time describing the events on the home front. The stories are down in the dirt, sweaty, smelly, and sometimes terrifying accounts of the conduct of the war on the major battlefields of Vietnam.
This work is about the "trigger pullers" who faced the enemy in deadly contests day in and day out from the Mekong Delta to the Demilitarized Zone. First-person accounts describe the life-and-death struggles faced on a daily basis - the heroism of many, the hardships of duty in the field and the determination shown in hard-fought battles.
Make no mistake about it. This book is not a puff piece attempting to give equal credit to all. It recognizes those few of the many who know battle and faced the most trying days of their lives. It gives much-deserved full credit to the fighting soldier. It is a valuable resource not only to veterans but also to their families. It is filled with facts that will help tell the true history of the Vietnam War for generations to come.
Editor
Richard K. Kolb: Publisher and editor-in-chief of VFW magazine for 27 years (1989-2016), Kolb worked on this project over 10 years with input from hundreds of veterans. He partially authored and edited Faces of Victory (a two-volume history of WWII), Battles of the Korean War: Americans Engage in Deadly Combat, 1950-1953, Cold War Clashes: Confronting Communism, 1945-1991, and Combat Action: Cambodia to the Balkans, 1975-1991. Kolb served in Vietnam with the 4th Infantry and 101st Airborne divisions during 1970-71 in the Central Highlands and I Corps as a radio operator attached to the artillery.
The book is available for $29.95 on Amazon.com and the VFW Store.
Still, he could fly, so when America entered the war, they made him a co-pilot. In March 1942, they sent him to Australia where he again tried to become a pilot but again failed. They sent him to the Solomon Islands - the same thing. Zeamer was to spend WWII as a co-pilot, navigator, gunner, and anything else; just not a pilot.
General Douglas MacArthur fired the air chief in early 1942 and replaced him with General George Kenney's Fifth Air Force.
The group volunteered for missions no one wanted and were called the Eager Beaver - always taking the most dangerous jobs but always making it back alive. All received Silver Stars while Sarnoski got an Air Medal and became a Second Lieutenant.
They reached Bougainville too early, however, still too dark for picture-taking, so Zeamer flew to Buka. It was worse than they thought. There were 400 new enemy fighters, and 17 were revving up to meet them. The Old 666 zoomed to 25,000 feet and flew toward Bougainville.
Second Lt. Ruby Johnston, the navigator, ran to help Sarnoski, but the latter waved him off and dragged himself back to his guns. He took out a Dinah and a Zero, but not before the Zero's cannon hit the cockpit, taking out their instruments and oxygen supply. More bullets found Zeamer's arms and feet, but he managed to dive down to 2,000 feet so they could breathe. Then they crashed into the sea.
This is where TWS can help. We have just invested in a high quality Fujitsu book and photo scanner that can scan any size of photo or yearbook. As a service to our members, we would like to offer you a free photo scanning service for your most significant photos from your service which we will then return to you, in original condition, along with a CD containing your photo files.
Twelve hospital staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and ten patients, including three children, were killed on October 3rd by a prolonged series of U.S. airstrikes on Kunduz Trauma Centre, an emergency trauma hospital run by the agency. Thirty-seven people were injured including nineteen staff members
A Taliban counteroffensive in June brought insurgent fighters into the Char Dara District, several miles from Kunduz. On June 21st, a Taliban spokesman said that it had taken complete control of the district and had captured local police officers. A spokesman for the Kunduz District police force disputed the claim, saying that while there had indeed been fighting in the district, the Taliban only controlled about half of it and had not captured any police. 
Government Counter-Offensive
On October 13th, Taliban fighters withdrew from Kunduz after several days of heavy fighting with Afghan troops, who were supported by United States special forces and airstrikes. According to a statement published on a Taliban-associated website, the retreat was due to the prospect of additional casualties and ammunition expenditure in continued fighting.
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One of Mawhinney greatest engagements came when a large North Vietnamese Army force was spotted moving its way south on Valentine's Day to attack an American base near Da Nang. But a monsoon shut down air support. So Mawhinney volunteered to cover a river crossing where the force was expected to march. 
"Once I had a Charlie in my scope, it was my job to kill him before he killed me," said Mawhinney, now 69 and retired from a desk job with the U.S. Forest Service. 
It's one of the few things that still bother him about Vietnam. Mawhinney wonders how many people that man could have killed, how many of his friends, of his fellow Marines. He will never truly know, but it haunts him to this day.
And even on those rare occasions when she recalled her heroics in the Philippines- supplying fuel to the Filipino underground, sabotaging supplies destined for the Japanese occupiers, smuggling food to starving American prisoners and surviving torture after she was captured-Florence Finch did so with the utmost modesty.
When the Japanese occupied the Philippines from 1942 to 1945, Florence Finch posed as a Filipino, but she became a United States citizen after the war. "Because she was over 18, she could have chosen to be American or Filipino," her daughter Ms. Murphy said. "When the Japanese landed, she chose to be mum, but in her heart, she had chosen to be an American."
Meanwhile, Maj. E.C. Englehart managed to get word to her that he had been captured and that he and fellow war prisoners were being maltreated. She helped smuggle food, medicine, soap, and clothing to them in a prison until she was caught.
In the early 1990s, though, she was rediscovered by the military after she completed a government questionnaire that she had received in conjunction with plans to erect the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington. The Coast Guard named a building on Sand Island in Hawaii in her honor in 1995.
Now you can also purchase custom Together We Served branded merchandise. Please check out our range of ball caps, polo shirts, T-shirts, jackets and windbreakers 
Now the British waited for an invasion. The assault began in August with German Luftwaffe attacks on British airfields, bases, and industrial production facilities. Despite being outnumbered, the Royal Air Force resisted.
After London was attacked, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a revenge attack on Berlin. It was the first bombing raid on the German capital in the war. The raid on August 25th was small and mostly symbolic. It caused little damage to the city itself. No one was killed, but it outraged Hitler and Goering. In fact, months earlier, Goring had promised that Allied bombers would never penetrate that far into German territory.
The previous Luftwaffe air superiority balanced out and became a war of attrition, with both sides taking heavy losses.
TWS Invite Cards
No More Military Exercises with South Korea
Air Force Light Attack Experiment Plane Crash
Cadet Who Made West Point History Among 'College Women of the Year'
Korean War American Remains to Return Home
Marines Begin Issuing New Night Vision Binoculars to Specialized Units
Tricare Fees Could Change Again in January
'Hero of Nasiriyah' set to retire after 30 years of service to the Corps
Desert Storm Memorial to be Built on National Mall Near Vietnam Wall 
The spot is located at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., just north of the Lincoln Memorial and a short walk from the well-known Vietnam memorial site. It's also less than a half-mile from the World War II Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial.
My name is James Sampson. I recently purchased this shadow box of a Marine named James H. Grant. When I bought the box, I didn't realize his Dog Tags were inside. I would like to return it to either he or his family. I personally was not able to serve in the military but am thankful for everyone who has.
The high drama of the battlefield is felt through words and 700 pictures, many rarely seen before.
