HI ALL, I am researching and writing on a documentary book about MacArthur's Flying Column to Manila. The working title is the Flying Column Writing Project. It is a documentary about the lives of the men of the Flying Column, and those who assisted them. The Flying Column Writing Project is also a triumvirate. We share a large portion of our research with other authors, documentary film producers, researchers, and those searching for family history. If you have questions, ask, we may have the answer. If you know any member of the Flying Column, or know someone who does, I am interested in the member's life story - please contact me. On a personal level, I search for my parents' military histories. I am interested in the 41st Inf Div, the 8th Cav Reg / 1st Cav Div, and the US Army Nurses who were held POW at Santo Tomas in Manila. - rainbowtrout - PS The Flying Column was the 1st Cav Div, 8th Cav Reg, the Philippine guerrillas, the Marine Air Group from Dagupan, the US Navy, the 44th Tank Bn, and several other attached units. Although they were not part of the Flying Column, I mention the 37th Inf Div, too.
Thank you for the kind welcomes. These are the 4AM questions - the personal ones and Jack - I want to talk to you, please. You have the experiences and knowledge I keep hoping to find and I have the questions - and these a are not the "real" questions. These are the personal ones. I have many BC photos with quite a few of the guys from the 186th that were taken near Prince George and along the Frasier River in 1941, before the war. Do you know if the 41st went on maneuvers in BC? You could have known my dad, Francis Jerrett from Dilley, OR. He had been logger and also worked as a pony sawyer. His older brother was Deane - who the Army renamed David and he was with an anti tank unit in the 186th. In the time of the first battles in New Guinea, my dad was with his best friend's unit . That friend was Harold Fisk. Dad saw Lt Lt Fisk's body beheaded and that gave him at least one horrible nightmare that took time to recover from. It was only recently that I put it together with a story he had told me years before, of other men finding body parts of American soldiers cut up, wrapped in leaves, and set aside for food. I was very young when I asked him if he knew who the dead Americans were and he said, "Yes." He told me that was that incident that caused the soldiers in the 41st to decide to kill the enemy and take no prisoners. In Oz, Dad was at Rockhampton, also in Yippon. Did you go through OCS in Brisbane in late 1943? If so, I have a "class photo" to share. Did you go into the Cav in January 1944? What troop and Regiment? Were you part of the Flying Column? Which guerrilla units did you deal with? Any Huks? What was your job with them? By any chance, did you ever meet a guerrilla named Jesus Franco (he was a Colonel from Spain who had been on the Death March and escaped and joined up with the guerrillas. He helped guide the Americans from Lingayen to Manila (and he met and remembered met my mom, the nurse who took care of him at Sat Catalina, after he was wounded by the grenade that fatally wounded Capt Manuel Colayco.), Capt / Major Antonio Garcia of Pagasinan, who with two of his sergeants, dressed in their uniforms that had been hidden away for this day, and with their American flag up high on a make shift mast, rowed a leaky banca out to the Currituck during the sheling of (4AM brain won't work) _______ (the town)) and told them hem to cease fire, the Japanese were gone and the fleet was firing on and killing Filipinos) The firing was immediatey halted. Lt / Capt Tommy Cabangbang (USAFFE, who after being captured on Corregidor, escaped his placement in the Constabulary and made his way -with Villamore's help, to Macarthur in Australia where he became Macarthur's man to go by guerrilla sub - to set up the radio network - to get the guerrillas to cooperate rather than fight each other - all in the 6 months before Macarthur's return); Capt Manuel Colayco (head of the Manila AIB) American guerrillas like Ramsey, Lapham, Anderson, Chick Parsons (SPYRON) who Macarthur described as the bravest man he had ever known - later, Admiral Chick Parsons), or Diosdado (Dading) Guytingco? Somewhere, I will post Rene Saguisag's "Love or War Story" of Dading's 60 year search for a wounded American he saw on liberation night), and a famous photo of my mom tending a wounded Japanese. Did you know Walter Landry, a captain in the First Cav? He is one of my two writing partners. A few of Dad's friends whose stories he told me when I was young. Lt. Doc Roach, Lt Pansons, Gerry La Haie, Bob ___, Percy Hines, Frank Valoshin, Ove Lund, Sgts Van de Reit, a Pete who was killed on Oz, Chuck Holliman, __ Church, _Whaley, ___Koski, the pro ball player from Texas (his name slips my mind), ___ Byens, Brooks Taylor, ___ Avilla, ____Foot, Sgts Benier and Fix , Slim Mulvey (from Dilley, Oregon (in the Seabees, met up with the 1st Cav Div in the Admiralties) Sgt John Gallagher, Lt Clark Irving (his dad was Cavalry Jack Irving) and more once I get the 4AM brain awakened.
Rainbow -- Welcome, and many thanks for at least a couple of powerful posts in the early going! I hope Jack will be able to help you out! Cheers!
Thread stickied. I am going to move thread to Information Request Forum. http://www.ww2f.com/information-requests/
Hi Jack, I made several posts in 2004, searching for Slim from Dilley, and discovering his last name was Mulvey. A Stewar t Mulvey who is mis 90s lives in Oregon, but I do not know it it is he. Please let me know about any corrections. wanted: "Slim" of Dilley in the Depression, logging trees w/Francis - Washington - Family History & Genealogy Message Board - Ancestry.com Found - RE wanted:"Slim" of Dilley in the Depression, logging trees w/Francis - Washington - Family History & Genealogy Message Board - Ancestry.com Re: wanted:"Slim" of Dilley in the Depression, logging trees w/Francis - Washington - Family History & Genealogy Message Board - Ancestry.com - Rainbow Trout - Sue
Jack, Feb 29, 1944, was my dad's 28th birthday, I don't know where Slim was. I am still waiting on a reply from Richard who goes to talk with Walter. We are on opposite coasts. This is the first web page I wrote for my mom. www.cnac.org/emilscott/lewey01.htm I am waiting for Tom to finish his move and get his computer set up again so the new web page is up. It is much better that the first. Once I figure how to get a photo up, I will post a nice one of the 41st to your Hollandia pages. I must be off, my son is begging for the computer. Sue
Hi All and rbt, I have been searching for information about a US soldier which seems relevant to this post. I received a letter written by a US soldier with the first name of Leonard penned on the 17th of August, 1944 sent from New Guinea to his love in Australia. The soldier was my grandfather who had met my grandmother in Brisbane, Australia towards the end of 1943. I only know his first name from the letter as my grandmother took all details with her when she passed. I would love to find out any info which may lead me to discovering his last name so the search may continue into the man my grandmother loved so much. Any advice of were to look or knowledge you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, infoseeker
Brisbane, 1943: sun and beach and girls. An Army parade. An Army Rodeo - 141 competitors, 60,000 attendees. February 1944, Oro Bay, New Guinea, start of the Admiralty Islands campaign. Hmm. Parameters: my choice. 1) One large knitting needle in a hay stack (not a tiny quilting needle) 2) One dairy herd-size, in-barn, hay stack, freshly tossed down onto the barn floor. 3) You will feed the cows and check that hay as you fork it over ... look for birth certificate, relatives with family stories, news paper gossip, anything in a memory book or box. 4) inspect the reduced hay stack on the barn floor. Ask your Grandmother's friends,find them in her funeral guest book, address book, and bible, too. 5) improve our chances: describe the knitting needle a) What was your grandmother's name? b) What was the birth date, and the sex of the offspring? c) What was / is your parent's full name and any nick-names your parent? d) Was / is your parent's name unique, or almost the only one with that name, in your family? e) What is the text of the letter? Is there an envelope? f) birth certificate? Aug 1944? HQ, X Corps, Finschhafen, New Guinea, is my first leap into the hay stack. 0h yeah, I forgot to tell you this, the hay is the cow's food we are jumping into - and dirty hay stacks can rile some family members.