LOST, FOUND, WWII CANTEEN CUP RETURNED TO HONOR ITS OWNER

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:48:10 +0000

YORKTOWN, Va. – During the Memorial Day season, Americans reflect on the memory of those lost during our nation’s wars. On Memorial Day weekend 2007, Soldiers of the 81st Regional Readiness Command (RRC) honored a member of our “Greatest Generation” in a more personal manner in Yorktown, Va.

Members of the 81st RRC traveled from Birmingham, Ala. to Yorktown, to meet retired Sgt. Lee. R. Lumpkin, 86, a local resident. They came to present Lumpkin his canteen cup, shot-up in THe horrors of batde 63 years ago on the Island of Peleliu.

Lumpkin was part of the 81st Infantry Division that served in the Pacific theater during World War II. The “Wildcat” Division saw action on Angaur and Peleliu Islands before finishing up the war occupying Japan after the surrender.

On the cup was the name Lee R. Lumpk (the “in” was blown out by shrapnel). The cup was found during casualty excavations on Peleliu by Mr. Kageyama (first name not available), the son of a Japanese major who was killed in the battle. When Dan King, a Japanese military historian in the United States, learned of this he requested the cup so it could be returned to its one time possessor, Lumpkin and he could arrange some sort of presentation. Through contacts in the 81st Infantry Division Association, King was able to determine that Lumpkin was alive and living in Virginia.

Prior to the ceremony, all had the opportunity to mingle. Soon, the presentation of the cup became the secondary purpose of their visit, however, as the current 81st Soldiers became enthralled by the stories of their 81st ancestral Soldier.

Several of the 81st RRC Soldiers visiting Lumpkin had seen combat in Iraq, but the stories he told seemed unimaginable even in light of the horrors they witnessed there. Dr. (Lt. Col.) John Boyd, 81st RRC historian and an Iraq War veteran stated, “When Sgt. Lumpkin and the 81st Infantry hit the shores of Peleliu, they were racing an enemy that was dug in. They were in caves and concrete pill boxes waiting for them. It is a true testament to the courage of Sgt. Lumpkin and his fellow Soldiers that enabled them to triumph is the face of tremendous chaos and adversity. Nothing we face in today’s warfare can compare to that,” said Boyd.

The fierceness of the warfare the “Wildcats” experienced is still reflected in Lumpkin’s voice. “It does bother the that my best buddies that I was with for three years got killed and I was the lucky one that didn’t. I could have gotten killed so easily,” he said. Lumpkin’s voice cracked as he talked about the loss of his comrades, Soldiers he too was paying homage to during this time of remembrance.

Everything about Lumpkin’s demeanor exemplified the “greatest generation.” He was a true patriot worthy of high admiration. As they drove up to his house, they were greeted by his red, white and blue mail box. Inside his home, his medals earned on the hellish beaches years before were proudly displayed. He recited the 81st Infantry fight song he learned 60-some years prior as he trained for his deployment to the South Pacific. And yes, the bullet-riddled canteen cup, that may have saved his life, was proudly displayed.

But what made Lumpkin great was his humbleness. Though the 81st Soldiers were there to recognize him, he repeatedly thanked them for their service. He thanked them for taking time out of their schedules to come and present him with his battle-tarnished cup. He even got choked up when he spoke of interacting with today’s Soldiers.

“Every time I see some service members, I’ll go up and shake hands with them because that’s what we have to do, to be behind them to do their job,” Lumpkin said. “You young fellas keep up the good work. I know you will.”

As the morning wore on, the 81st Soldiers formally presented Lumpkin with his holey canteen cup, dug up during casualty excavations on Peleliu. The cup was returned to Dan King, a Japanese military historian from a Japanese friend who discovered the cup while searching for Japanese was dead.

They offered other tokens of their appreciation as well, but none seemed adequate for what they were trying to say to this old 81st Soldier and the millions of other service-members they wanted to honor with their actions that day. The opportunity to share stories, some amusing and some sad, helped all Soldiers bond regardless of when they served.

As it turned out, a simple hand-shake and a thank-you was all this Wildcat, or any Soldier wants.

“I was never as surprised in my life as the day I got this cup. The fact that you wanted to come up here and present it to me means so much,” said Lumpkin.

By Maj. William Ritter

Public Affairs Office

81st Regional Readiness Command

(Editors note: Maj. William Ritter was one of the 81st RRC Soldiers that presented Sgt. Lumpkin with his WW II canteen.)

Story Link

WWII bomb found in Lutong

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:30:16 +0000

MIRI: A Second World War bomb that was found buried at Kampung Pasir Lutong, about 12km from here, on Sunday was successfully and harmlessly detonated by the Police Bomb Disposal Unit on Monday.

Miri Police Chief ACP Jamaludin Ibrahim told Bernama that the unit detonated the 18inch long bomb at about 9am Monday in a clearance area near the abandoned Lutong airstrip.

Confirming that the bomb was from the war, he said it was found by a 45-year-old welder who was in the midst of clearing the compound of his house at the village at about 6.30pm Sunday.

While trying to dig out the roots of a tree, the welder felt the hoe he was using had struck on rusty metal before realising that it was a bomb.

Police who were immediately informed of the finding cordoned off the area upon their arrival before the Bomb Disposal Unit extracted the explosive for safe detonation.

Meanwhile, Jamaludin advised residents in Lutong to be extra careful when doing their gardening or digging around their compound.

He added that there could be more WWII bombs scattered around the area as Lutong had come under heavy bombing during the war.

Anyone who found such bombs or came across any kind of iron material that raised their suspicion should contact the police immediately for their own safety, he added. — Bernama

Story Link

WWII Tank Found After 62 Years.

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:21:10 +0000

Matt W. sent this article to me. I can’t stop looking at this. It just looks like it was in combat yesterday or rolled out of some camouflaged area ready to blow u away. You just don’t have opportunities like this. I wish I could find a mint WWII tank in a lake.

“14 September 2000, A Komatsu D375A-2 pulled an abandoned tank from its archival tomb under the bottom of a lake near Johvi, Estonia. The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. According to its specifications, it’s a 27-tonne machine with a top speed of 53km/h.

From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the north-eastern part of Estonia. Over 100,000 men were killed and 300,000 men were wounded there. During battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured from the Soviet army and used by the German army. (This is the reason that there are German markings painted on the tank’s exterior.) On 19 September 1944, German troops began an organized retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake, abandoning it when its captors left the area…” Read more. (+ pics)

-Chad

83rd Thunderbolt Division Group Leader
Email: Chad@83rdthunderbolt.org
Website: www.83rdthunderbolt.org

Harry Patch dies at 111; last British army veteran of World War I

Kmc1945 — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:59:21 +0000

I’m sure many of you guys saw this, this is Britain’s last “combat” veteran. Only one American veteran is surviving, Frank Buckles, who is 108 and lives in West Virginia:

Patch did not speak about the war for more than 80 years before opening up about the horrors of the conflict.

Associated Press

July 26, 2009

Harry Patch, Britain’s last survivor of the trenches of World War I, was a reluctant soldier who became a powerful eyewitness to the horror of war and a symbol of a lost generation.

Patch, who died Saturday at 111, was wounded in 1917 at the third battle of Ypres near the Belgian village of Passchendaele, which he remembered as “mud, mud and more mud mixed together with blood.”

“Anyone who tells you that in the trenches they weren’t scared, he’s a damned liar. You were scared all the time,” Patch was quoted as saying in the book, “The Last Fighting Tommy,” written with historian Richard van Emden.

The Fletcher House care home in Wells, southwest England, said Patch “quietly slipped away” on Saturday morning.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the whole country would mourn “the passing of a great man.”

“The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force, ‘We will remember them,’ ” Brown said.

“We will never forget the bravery and enormous sacrifice of his generation,” said Queen Elizabeth II.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense called Patch the last British military survivor of the 1914-18 war, although British-born Claude Choules of Australia, 108, is believed to have served in the Royal Navy during the conflict.

Patch was one of the last living links to “the war to end all wars,” which killed about 20 million people in years of fighting between the Allied Powers — which included Britain, France and the United States — and Germany and its allies.

No French or German veterans of the war are still alive. The last known U.S. veteran is Frank Buckles of Charles Town, W.Va., 108, who drove ambulances in France for the U.S. Army.

Born in southwest England in 1898, Patch was a teenage apprentice plumber when he was called up for military service in 1916.

After training he was sent to the trenches as a machine gunner.

Patch was part of the third battle of Ypres in Belgium, an offensive that began July 31, 1917. It was not until Nov. 6, 1917, that British and Canadian forces had progressed five miles to capture what was left of the village of Passchendaele. The cost was 325,000 Allied casualties and 260,000 German.

Patch’s war had ended Sept. 22, when he was seriously wounded by shrapnel, which killed three other members of his machine gun team.

“My reaction was terrible,” he said. “It was losing a part of my life.”

His most vivid memory of the war was of encountering a comrade whose torso had been ripped open by shrapnel. “Shoot me,” Patch recalled the soldier pleading. The man died before Patch could draw his revolver.

“I was with him for the last 60 seconds of his life. He gasped one word: ‘Mother.’ That one word has run through my brain for 88 years. I will never forget it.”

When he was wounded, Patch said, he was told that the medics had run out of anesthetic, but he agreed to go ahead with surgery to remove shrapnel from his stomach.

“Four people caught hold of me, one each leg, one each arm, and the doctor got busy,” he recalled. “I’d asked him how long he’d be and he’d said, ‘two minutes,’ and in those two minutes I could have damned well killed him.”

After the war ended in 1918, Patch returned to work as a plumber, got married and raised a family. He didn’t start talking about his war experiences until the 21st century. He outlived three wives and both of his sons.

During World War II, Patch volunteered for the fire service and helped in rescue and firefighting after German bombing raids.

At 101, he received the Legion d’Honneur from the French government. Last year, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion wrote a poem about him, “The Five Acts of Harry Patch.”

Last November he and two fellow veterans, former airman Henry Allingham and former sailor Bill Stone, attended remembrance ceremonies in London to mark the 90th anniversary of the war’s end. Stone died in January. Allingham, who became the world’s oldest man, died July 18 at 113.

At a remembrance ceremony in 2007, Patch said he felt “humbled that I should be representing an entire generation.”

“Today is not for me. It is for the countless millions who did not come home with their lives intact. They are the heroes,” he said. “It is also important we remember those who lost their lives on both sides.”

2009/2010 WWII Weekend Video Trailer

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:37:32 +0000

Eric Over a gspmediagroup.com shared some of there handy filming work with me from WWII Weekend. If you remember a film crew walking around before and after the show. that would be Eric’s crew. He said the trailer would be available today and a rough edit of the video in a few weeks. I had the opportunity in assisting them with their video production with my jeep by chauffeuring them to location around the air field. So far it looks very nice and I’m excited to see the final video.

-Chad

83rd Thunderbolt Division Group Leader
Email: Chad@83rdthunderbolt.org
Website: www.83rdthunderbolt.org

Memorial Service for “Shifty” Powers

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:00:45 +0000

Got the email the other day. Lets all take a moment to remember this American Hero.

From: Mark Pfiefer
Sent: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 1:02 pm
Subject: Memorial Service: you’re invited.

We’re hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.
I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell “Shifty” Powers.

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn’t
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the “Screaming Eagle,” the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.

Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.

Quietly and humbly, he said “Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 .. . . ” at which point my heart
skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said “I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know
where Normandy is?” At this point my heart stopped.

I told him “yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was.” At that point he said “I also made a second jump into
Holland, into Arnhem.” I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . .
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day..

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said
“Yes. And it’s real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can’t make the trip.” My heart
was in my throat and I didn’t know what to say.

I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
Coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I’d take his in coach.

He said “No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy.” His eyes were filling up as he said it.
And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.

There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall to wall back to back 24×7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that’s not right.

Let’s give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet
way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the
veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

Mark Pfiefer

At The Front Sale

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:55:32 +0000

At the Front is having there summer sale. Check them out. http://www.atthefront.com/