Marine Pfc. Douglas Lightheart (right) cradles his .30 caliber M1919 Browning machine gun in his lap, while he and Marine Pfc. Gerald Thursby Sr. take a cigarette break, during mopping up operations on Peleliu on 14th September 1944.
A mystery that was decades in the making ended with just one glance.
The daughter of the World War II Marine took one look at her computer screen and recognized him.
"Oh, my God, that is my dad," said Becky Thursby Cardarella.
She knew right away that the man in the iconic black-and-white photo was her father, Marine Pfc. Gerald Paul Thursby Sr., crouching next to another Marine during the battle of Peleliu on Sept. 15, 1944.
Historians have been working to identify her father. All they had had to go on was a caption that identified the man in the photo as Pfc. Gerald Churchby of Akron.
But historians were stumped, because they could not find any Marine named Churchby who lived in Akron.
The other Marine was correctly identified as Pfc. Douglas Lightheart, who died in Michigan in 2006 at the age of 86.
The Akron Beacon Journal ran an article in August laying out the mystery and asking for help in finding Churchby.
Jason McDonald, the Web master for a World War II multimedia database, wanted to settle once and for all who was Churchby, whose photograph is now in the National Archives.
This week, three months after the story was published, McDonald said he was contacted by Michael Conrad, who had found the name "Gerald Thursby" on Ancestry.com.
McDonald said he then was able to locate an obituary for Thursby's wife, Cleo, who died eight years ago.
That led to Gerald Thursby's obituary. He died of complications from pneumonia on July 19, 1999, in Dallas. The search ended this week with the Facebook find of his daughter, Becky Thursby Cardarella of Afton, Minn.
"If you saw other pictures of my dad, you would immediately see it was him," she said.
The photo shows a young Gerald Thursby, a Marine who happened to be photographed shortly after landing on Peleliu Island. He is holding a cigarette and an M1 Garand rifle across his lap.
"He was a very easygoing, loving man," said his 55-year-old daughter.
He and Cleo were married in 1946. They had six children, one of whom, Linda, died in childhood. They had twin sons, Don and Dan, born in 1960. Don Thursby lives in Wyoming, Mich., and Dan Thursby lives in Ferris, Texas.
The remaining children are Kitty Thursby Reese, who lives in Geneva, Ohio, and Gerald Thursby II, of Ferris, Texas.
After graduating from Coventry High School, the family says, Gerald joined the Marines in early 1942, less than a month after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
While he was at war, his mother, Minnie Thursby, died at the age of 51 of an asthma attack, said his sister, Barbara Mc-Kissick, 80, of Phoenix.
"Oh, my goodness, that is Jerry," she said this week as she looked at a computer image of the mystery photo. "That is my brother."
She said her brother never spoke of the war.
McDonald said it is terrific that the correct name of the Marine has been discovered.
He said he still hopes to compare a family photograph of Thursby to the Peleliu photo to verify that it is indeed Thursby.
But he said he's confident the mystery has been solved based on a review of the Marine's discharge papers.
"There are all sorts of Peleliu researchers who always wondered who it is," said McDonald, a middle school teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y.
He said he had gotten to the point where he had given up hopes of finding out the answer to the mystery.
"I figured we weren't going to find him," he said.
It appears the error started with the photographer, who misspelled Thursby's name after the photograph was taken.
Cardarella said her father's discharge papers say he served on Peleliu Island.
"It is amazing," she said, to see the photograph of her father that has been admired by others for nearly 70 years. "What is remarkable about the whole thing is I never even saw that photo (before)."
She said her father spoke little of the battle."I think it was a memory that he wanted to forget," she said.
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Last edited by Mark in Rochester; 04-19-2016 at 07:49 PM.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
I just finished Sledge's "With the Old Breed" about the Peleliu and Okinawa campaigns, highly recommended. Both were hell, but Peleliu sounds like pure horror. All I could think of was why they had to assault the last Jap pockets at all. MacArthur wanted to invade Peleliu to protect his flank while he attacked The Philipines... the question is "From what?" The only thing that makes sense is air attack. So after the airfield was taken early on, why sacrifice all those Marines in digging out the Nips from caves? Just wait and starve them out.
Bob, I knew an old bloke, Col. Leo Rogers, who had been MacArthur's staff engineer officer in Korea. While he liked and respected MacArthur, he hesitantly admitted when I asked him is MacArthur was, as I had heard from WWII veterans, 'a self-serving, ego-driven old bastard'. There is an excellent book, And I Was There: Breaking the Secrets - Pearl Harbor and Midway by RAdm Edwin T. Layton that covers the cryptographic intelligence war in the Pacific. The author's comments about MacArthur (during the war and Japanese Occupation) are well worth reading.
A good Sample of MacArthur’s attitude to the world is taken from his early attempt to win himself a Congressional Medal of Honour. As a minor liaison in one of the repeated American interventions in Central American affairs - at Vera Cruz - he recommended himself for the medal on the basis of an incredible sounding adventure he had undertaken supposedly for useful military purpose (and without orders or permission). The mythology of this rampage through enemy territory on a hand pumped rail cars, while single-handedly shooting it out and emerging victorious from several conflicts, has been uncritically accepted by far too many people. Historian Jack Galloway, writing a book about the relationship between McArthur and his senior Australian commander General Blamey during the Second World War, employed professional athletes to try and attempt a similar feat with a hand cart to the one MacArthur claimed. They found the whole thing impossible, and concluded that the story was at least partially, if not completely, fantasy.
MacArthur to Wainwright upon leaving Corregidor
"Jonathan, I want you to make it known throughout your command that I'm leaving over my repeated protests." General MacArthur said as he looked up at General Jonathan Wainwright. The tall, emaciated General the defenders of Bataan called "Skinny" promised that he would do just that. Douglas MacArthur had chosen his replacement in the Philippines. His Academy brother would assume command of all the Philippine troops upon MacArthur's departure. Wainwright would command from the Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor, while Major General Edward King would replace him as commander of the American Forces and Philippine Scouts defending Bataan. "Goodbye Jonathan," MacArthur continued. "When I get back, if you're still on Bataan, I'll make you a lieutenant general."
"I'll be on Bataan....if I'm still alive," Wainwright replied.
As darkness fell over the South China Sea, Lieutenant Bulkeley slipped out of Corregidor in PT-41 to make the dangerous journey through waters controlled by the Japanese. It was a daring mission to ferry an American legend and hero out of harm's way. Through 560 miles of dangerous ocean and a near brush with a Japanese destroyer, General MacArthur arrived safely on the southern island of Mindanao on the morning of Friday, the 13th of March. Four days later the General arrived in Australia.
MacArthur had been ordered out of Corregidor because the President was concerned about the negative impact his death or capture would have on the American public during the critical first year of the war. To counter the propaganda of the enemy, General George C. Marshall suggested awarding MacArthur the Medal of Honor. The President agreed, and the same award his father had received 80 years earlier was presented to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia on June 30, 1942. (Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the only father and son in history to both receive the Medal of Honor.)
The defenders from Corregidor were not marched north through Bataan. Instead the Japanese shipped them across the bay to Manila where they were paraded in disgrace as a display of the Japanese superiority. As a final humiliation for General Wainwright, he was forced to march through his defeated soldiers. Despite their wounds, their illness, their broken spirit and shattered bodies, as the General passed among their ranks they struggled to their feet. It was their last show of respect for the last of the fighting generals.
In Australia, General MacArthur was furious. In his own mind he had initially resolved to die fighting to defend the Philippines. The man he had selected to complete that mission when he had been ordered to leave Corregidor had let him down. On July 30, 1942 General George C. Marshall proposed that a Medal of Honor be awarded to the last of the fighting generals. It prompted an act of resistance to a Medal of Honor award, unprecedented in the Medal's history. General MacArthur wrote, in part:
The citation proposed does not represent the truth....As a relative matter award of the Medal of Honor to General Wainwright would be a grave injustice to a number of general officers of practically equally responsible positions who not only distinguished themselves by fully as great personal gallantry thereby earning the DSC but exhibited powers of leadership and inspiration to a degree greatly superior to that of General Wainwright thereby contributing much more to the stability of the command and to the successful conduct of the campaign. It would be a grave mistake which later on might well lead to embarrassing repercussions to make this award.
MacArthur's vehement opposition to Wainwright's proposed award both surprised and stunned General Marshall. He withdrew the recommendation, and while General MacArthur prepared to keep his promise to return to the Philippines, General Wainwright was left to suffer alone in a Japanese prison camp.
Promoted to Lieutenant General, Jonathan Wainwright returned home not to the shame he expected as the commander who had surrendered at Corregidor. Instead he was welcomed with cheers, ticker-tape parades, and an outpouring of love an affection. President Truman sent word that he wanted to meet with the general.
Wainwright and his wife flew into Washington, DC on the morning of September 10th. They were met by General Marshall to escorted them to the White House. There they visited briefly with President Truman in the Oval Office. Suddenly, as if it were an afterthought, the President told General Wainwright, "Let's step outside in the Rose Garden to continue this conversation." The two stood and the President took the General by the arm to escort him outside. General Wainwright was surprised to find the Rose Garden filled with military officials, press reporters, and spectators. His first thought was that the President wanted him to give a speech.
The speech that day, was to be the Presidents, however. As President stepped to the microphone and began to read, it dawned on General Wainwright what was about to happen. When the President had read the citation he turned to the last of the fighting generals and placed the Medal of Honor around his neck. On September 5, General Marshall had revived his recommendation, and the President quickly approved the award. This time there were no objections.
Last edited by Mark in Rochester; 04-19-2016 at 07:37 PM.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
I have had other WWII veterans tell me that MacArthur was not above lying if it served his purpose, accepting credit for others' deeds and laying blame for his failures on his subordinates or others. The man was a real piece of work.
Last edited by Paul S.; 04-19-2016 at 08:28 PM.
Reason: Typographical error.
I agree with all of the above and note that MacArthur was FURIOUS when he learned of Wainwright's surrender. However, it might be interesting to you to know that when it came time to sign the Instrument of Surrender with Japan, MacArthur had Wainwright flown to Japan from China where he had been imprisoned. He greeted and embraced him and took him to dinner and offered Wainwright a command under him if things worked out. He then made Wainwright his guest of honor at the signing ceremony and handed him the first pen used to sign the surrender. Check out 5:47:
All this doesn't make MacArthur any less a self-serving buffon, just perhaps a self-seving buffoon who was capable of reflection and remorse.
Bob
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' "
Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring
Last edited by Mark in Rochester; 04-19-2016 at 11:50 PM.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
Didn't he have his own private public relations staff? Maybe they all did I don't know, but he has never held any special place to me. I think of him telling Roosevelt we have our tails in the air, and then the Japanese hit and our planes were on the ground. I've always been more of a Patton man myself.
Garand rifle across his lap.
PM
