My family who served in World War II

My father was a 17 yr. old U.S. Marine private in Hawaii, bound for the invasion of Japan when V-J Day was announced. (He later served with the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Marine Division in Korea.)

My paternal grandfather was too old for Active Duty during WW II, and worked a second job at a defense plant (Ford trucks). Throughout WW I he’d served as a gunner’s mate aboard the battleship USS New York (BB-34), part of the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. He was on deck to witness the surrender ceremony of the German Imperial Navy aboard her decks in the Firth of Forth. He was a “plank-owner” – an original crew member when the BB-34 was commissioned and sailed on her maiden voyage.

My maternal grandfather was too old to return to Active Duty at the onset of WW II. Before and during WW I, He’d served as an Engineering Officer aboard the dreadnought USS Lexington (CC-1) – he also was a “plank-owner,” of the CC-1. After the war, he served as the supervising Engineering Officer while she was at dry-dock at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass., being converted into the oil-fired aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2). He retired upon her re-commissioning in 1928. When war in Europe brought the USA into Lend-Lease, he was commissioned into the US Merchant Marine Service aboard a series of transport ships. In 1942, he was chief engineering officer aboard a ship torpedoed off Cape Town. Despite his own grievous injuries, he directed the evacuation of the entire engine room crew before he collapsed and went down with the ship.

His son (my uncle) was a coxswain – also a “plank-owner” – aboard the LST-357 (a Landing Ship Tank) during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and then at the Salerno landings in September, where an all-ranks crew of just under 150 took 90+ casualties. In 1944 she moved to England, and joined the landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. The LST-357 continued to to support the post-Normandy campaigns through V-E Day.

My paternal cousin served with the "Mighty 8th" 93rd Bomber Group (Heavy), 329th Squadron as the co-pilot of Joker II, a B-24-J aircraft. On a bombing mission over Hamburg on 17 JAN 1945, flak took out two engines and mortally wounded my cousin. It was to be his final mission – he was scheduled to return stateside to see his mom and his gal before becoming a flight instructor. (He and his crew had once before been forced to land in Allied-controlled France after a bombing mission.)

 

Thank you so much for sharing your family's military service. You may want to consider creating a thread to honor your cousin in the Roll of Honor & Memories - WWII section.

 

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My son is my hero. He is a retired-on-disability U.S. Marine Corporal. He enlisted in MAR 2002 as a result of 9-11.[/SIZE][/FONT]

On his first deployment to Iraq, he served on a Quick Response Team (QRT) with the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Marine Division in the Ramadi-Fallujah area, and was deeply committed throughout the Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury) in NOV & DEC 2004. The U.S. military called it "the heaviest urban combat in which U.S. Marines have been involved since the Battle of Hue City in 1968."

On his second deployment, he served with a Light Armored Recon Team (LAR) at Sal-Sinjar, charged with preventing weapons and re-supply from entering Iraq from Syria, and blocking access to/from the Sinjar Mountains. On a night-time pursuit of kidnappers headed back for the Sinjar Mountains in a dust storm, the fighting vehicle on which he was a gunner (see photo above) drove across a deep ditch on the oblique angle, ejecting him out of the up-gun turret. He broke his right forearm, jaw, and suffered a burst fracture of two lumbar vertebrae, causing paralysis below the navel. He was med-evac'ed to Mosul, stabilized, then to Germany (Lansduhl). After a few weeks, he regained sensation and motion in his feet, and was evacuated to Bethesda. (This is when I retired from Colorado Springs to Vermont.) After 18 months of rehab & therapy in Bethesda, a medical board cut him orders for medical discharge. He has regained most of his functions.

 

Please offer your son my thanks and appreciation for his service and sacrifice. I am very happy to hear his is mostly healed, though not nearly as much as you are, I'm sure. My son spent a year in Iraq (2009-10) with the 37th ID "Red Bulls", though it was not as "hot" as when your son was there, if you know what I mean.

 

The 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division is quite a famous unit! It holds the distinctions of being the first U.S. division deployed to Europe in World War II.
Your son's deployment marked the largest deployment of the Iowa National Guard since World War II.
As of JUL 2012, only EIGHT of all the National Guard divisions are rated EXEMPLARY with regard to Key Readiness Indicators -- and of those eight, the "Red Bulls" are ranked #1 for the third time!.
Tell you son I honor his service, and say: Attack! Attack! Attack!

 

Thank you, W.P. I am very proud of him. I will pass on your greeting to him. My family does have another connection with the 34th. One of my great uncles (see signature below) served in a Tank Destroyer Bn. that was attached to the 34th through much if its time in North Africa and Italy.

I served 6 years in the MnANG with the 47th Division, which was the NG division in Minnesota from 1946-1991. The 47th sort of filled in the gap after the 34th was deactivated after WWII. In hindsight, I should have put in my 20 and I would have been a Red Bull as well.