MEMORIAL DAY

[frankderrico]

"Jake was led by love of country"....1st. Sgt. Vesser

In Memory of PFC Jacob Frank Derrico "ABSOLUTE INFANTRY"




Attachment 93620

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Sarge1998]

Both 1st cousins who died in service, Edwin in Vietnam and John's death is classified to this day.

EDWIN FRANCIS TURK JR, SP4 - E4 - Army - Selective Service 11th Armored Cavalry
Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Jan 30, 1969 - Casualty was on Jun 18, 1969
In BINH LONG, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY - ARTILLERY, ROCKET, or MORTAR
Body was recovered
Panel 22W - Line 82

[painter777]

God Bless all

[Bob Womack]

Sergeant Pilot Henry Archer "Harry" Womack, RCAF
Spitfire Pilot
1919-1941
Killed practicing air combat maneuvers near Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England
Buried at St. Deiniol's Church, Flintshire, Wales, near his station, RAF Hawarden
Probably the first war casualty from Tennessee, USA


Bob

[mmppres]

God bless every one who ever served in any branch an were for any reason front line back line they all served.

[CINDERS]

To go on a bit with Bob's post during world war II the casualty rates at the OTU's at times got to 50%+ I have a vid here on Lancaster crews training in Canada then going onto operations in ETO in one segment you see a Lancaster vertically plummeting behind trees with a great gout of flame & black smoke rising up killing all on board.
They had to train like it was the real deal just like they do today but even though the training was extensive it never really prepared them for the real deal when they were above say the Ruhr valley being coned by a master searchlight and getting pounded by flak & night fighters scraping through hoping to get to their 30 missions and out of the firing line.

I read from both sides in the air where at least the Allies had a rotational system but for the Luftwaffe their face was well and truly pressed to the grind stone till they died and allot of them did but that's why their aces were miles ahead in their kills than the allied pilots because some of them had been flying combat missions since the Spanish do with the Condor Legion.
So when we get to France they were probably due for a rest but thrown straight into fighting again except this time they encountered fighters nearly their equal the only thing that was not quite up to speed were the skill of the Brit's but they did not stay niave for long and held the Luftwaffe off fairly well at Dunkirk though allot of Army chaps cursed the RAF for a no show.
That's because they were engaged 30-40+ miles inland keeping the hordes away from the beach head so the evacuation could take place "Stuffy" Dowding did the right thing in withholding sending more fighters to France lest they leave Britain exposed with being unable to replace the losses there.

In parting those that serve and have served will always be remembered and respected in this household.

"Auspicium melioris aevi"
Definition - augury of a better age — motto of the Order of St. Michael and St. George

[Cosine26]

Korean War
There was no mention of the Korean War one TV or the newspapers.
Veteran of WWII (USN), Korea(USAF) and Cold War (SAC B-47's)
FWIW




The Korean War was a brutal war; fought against a barbaric enemy in a primitive country under the worst environmental conditions US forces were ever asked to endure. Another Memorial Day and the Korean War remains, the Forgotten War. 33,652 KIA, 103,284 WIA,~8000 MIA (still) in three years of warfare..
FWIW

[CINDERS]

A point I just found out Cosine America's greatest loss of life was not from any war abroad but from The Civil War within 600,000 casualties in 4 years with barbaric conditions all around amputations deemed easier than treatment of the wound without any anesthetic.
But I respect and wholly agree with you even here the Korean war is not well respected god forbid it took the Vietnam vets years to be respected they received a not so glorious welcome from a public that should have known better........

[Bob Womack]

I have a book about current flying WWII aircraft that has an essay on the U.K. during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. There's a memorable quote about one of the larger fighter training centers, RAF Hawarden, where my uncle trained. The quote is simply, "Life was cheap at Hawarden and many trainees died."

One of my uncle's contemporaries was John Gillespie Magee, Jr. who wrote the sonnet, High Flight in 1941, after high altitude training on the Spitfire with 53 OTU at RAF llandow, in Wales:

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

Magee was posted to No. 412 Squadron led by "Cowboy" Blatchford. He died in an operational accident in Lincolnshire on 11 December 1941, only ten weeks into service.




Bob

[CINDERS]

19 years of age flying Spitfires, my sons 19 and just into riding road bikes I cringe at that let alone one flying a fighter aircraft state of the art it may have been but it was a desperate time for the world indeed.
Thanks for the posts Bob....