Deaths in June-July 2022-- Part 7: Siragusa, Williams, Freeman and Caan

JUNE

TONY SIRAGUSA, 55

**  Charismatic defensive tackle who was part of one of the most celebrated defenses in the NFL history with the Baltimore Ravens.  Died June 22

HERSCHEL "WOODY" WILLIAMS, 98

**  The last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, whose heroics under fire over several crucial hours of the Battle of Iwo Jima made him a legend in his native West Virginia.  Died June 29.

The Greatest Generation.

*********************************

JULY

BRADFORD FREEMAN, 97

**  Last survivor of the famed American Army unit featured in the oral history book and miniseries "Band of Brothers."  Died July3.

The Greatest Generation.

JAMES CAAN, 82

**  The curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as Sonny Corleone of "The Godfather" and to TV audiences as both the dying football player in "Brian's Song" and the casino boss in "Las Vegas."  Died July 8.

His death in "The Godfather" was a real bloody mess.

A Lot Happened Today-- Part 1: USMC Birthday I Presume

Happening on November 10th:

1775--  The U.S. marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

1871--  Journalist-explorer Henry Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingston in Africa.

1919--  The American Legion held its first convention in Minneapolis.

1938--  Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on her CBS radio program.

1941--  Winston Churchill delivered a speech in London in which he said, "I have not become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."

1954--  The Iwo Jima Memorial, inspired by the famous Associated Press photograph of the Marines raising the U.S. flag over Mount Suribachi during World War II, was dedicated by President Dwight Eisenhower in Arlington, Virginia.  Marine birthday, you know.

And Some More.  --DaCoot

Celebrating Old Glory on the 200th Birthday of Its Song-- Part 3: Iwo Jima and 9/11 Flags

IWO JIMA FLAG, TRIANGLE, VIRGINIA

"Featured in the 1945 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, the iconic U.S. flag raised by the American soldiers (well, mostly Marines) during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, currently displayed at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, inspired the nation in the midst of global conflict and endures as a symbol of national resolve.

"'That photograph took off like wildfire in the psyche of the American people,' says Jennifer Jones, head of the armed forces division of the National Museum of American History.  'They needed to see we were turning the tide in the Pacific.'"

9/11 FLAG, WASHINGTON D.C.

The U.S. flag raised by three New York City firemen over Ground Zero became a poignant symbol of America's unwavering spirit after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001--and contributed to a season of flag-waving in communities and neighborhoods across the nation.

"While the whereabouts of the Ground Zero flag now is unknown, numerous other 9/11-related flags remain, such as the 2-by-3-foot flag that workers found among the mountain of rubble from the collapsed World Trade Center.  Torn and badly burned, that flag was obtained by the National Museum of American History for its collection on the 9/11 attacks and has been included in several exhibits. 'We did not clean it,' Jones says.  'We wanted the debris to be part of the story.'"

O.K., Who Has the Original Ground Zero Flag?

Dead Page: First to the Top of Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima

World War II veteran Ted White, 85, died Dec. 28, 2008.

On February 23, 1945, he watched the raising of the famous flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. He was part of a Marine Corps scouting team that had climbed the mountain to check on the Japanese. They deemed it safe and came down.

After that, another group went up and raised a flag which was deemed too small. The second group went up and raised the flag which became the subject of the famous Joe Rosenthal photo.

Mr. White could see both flag raisings, but the significance of the event did not become apparent to him until after the war.

he was wounded in the knee later in March and returned to the states.

The Greatest Generation.

Japanese Mass Graves Found on Iwo Jima

From the October 21, 2010 Toronto Star.

Two mass graves have been found on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, site of a major World War II battle in 1945.

Japanese searchers discovered 51 remains in two areas listed on American maps from the war as being enemy cemeteries. One of these might contain as many as 2,000.

Almost all of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on the island in the battle died.

The Japanese call it Iwoto Island.

Honor to the Enemy. --DaCoot

Japan to Push Recovery of Iwo Jima Dead

From the Feb. 14th Canadian Press.

The prime minister of Japan has vowed to find the remains of 12,000 Japanese soldiers still missing from the Battle of Iwo Jima. Virtually every single Japanese soldier of the 21,570 on the island died along with 6,821 Americans. There are still 12,000 Japanese missing and 218 Americans, all MIA and presumed dead.

Fighting for the island began Feb. 19, 1945 and did not end until March 26th.

Today, the island, 700 miles south of Tokyo, is uninhabited except for a few hundred Japanese troops.

The prime minister says he was inspired by Clint Eastwood's 2006 movie "Letters from Iwo Jima."

A Worthy Cause. --DaCoot

65th Anniversary of Iwo Jima

The March 8th CNN had an article "World War II vets make emotional pilgrimage to Iwo Jima" by Emanuella Grinberg.

The 65th anniversary of this horrendous battle in the Pacific is being commemorated right now. Since 1995, American and Japanese survivors of the battle have been returning to the 8-square mile island in a "Reunion of Honor." Death totals for the month-and-a-half struggle amounted to 22,000 Japanese and more than 6,000 Americans as the Japanese stubbornly fought against huge odds to defend the island.

Jerry Yellin had just turned 22 when he landed his P-51 fighter on Iwo Jima March 7, 1945. He'll never forget what he saw: "To one side, there were mounds and mounds and mounds of bodies of Japanese soldiers being pushed around by bulldozers into mass graves. And right behind our squadron area was the Marine mortuary, where they'd lay out the bodies, check their dog tags and fingerprint them for identification.

Mr. Yellin is now 87 and living in Vero Beach, Florida. He used to hold a grudge against Japan, but his son married a Japanese woman in 1988 and her father had been a pilot in the Japanese Imperial Army Air Service. Since then, his feelings have mellowed.

The Greatest Generation. --Cooter

Sinking of USS Bismarck Sea at Iwo Jima-- Part 2

There were rough seas and swells and some of the sailors died. About 3-4 hours later, the destroyer escort USS Edmonds picked Marusich and 399 others up.

Deaths from the Bismarck Sea were put at 318 and 620 survived.

Marusich received a Purple Heart and recovered at a hospital in Norman, Oklahoma, later becoming a teacher and principal before retiring in 1985.

Starting in 1988, the survivors of the Bismarck sea began holding reunions in Las Vegas. They are still having them although only 30 are still alive. Marusich plans to attend these as long as he can.


USS BISMARCK SEA CVE-95

Wikipedia did not mention the Bismarck Sea being a converted freighter, but did say it was originally launched in 1944 as the Alikula Bay before being transferred over to the Navy and commissioned May 20, 1944. It carried a crew of 923, 27 aircraft, and was 499 feet long.

On Feb. 21, 1945, two kamikaze hit the ship and it sank with a loss of 318 crew. Three destroyers and destroyer escorts rescued the survivors.


USS EDMONDS DE-406

Was commissioned April 3, 1944 and was screening escort carriers off Iwo Jima on Feb. 21, 1945. Thirty of her crew went over the side to rescue the Bismarck Sea survivors. It was recommissioned for service in the Korean War and scrapped in 1973.

The Greatest generation. --Cooter

Sinking of the USS Bismarck Sea at Iwo Jima

Todya marks the 64th anniversary of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945. The Feb. 21st Fresno (Ca) Bee had an article about Steve Marusich, 84, of Ivanhoe who was on a ship offshore and witnessed it as a 20-year-old.

On the morning of the 23rd, he was part of 10 or 11 survivors of the USS Bismarck Sea who were recuperating above deck of the USS Edmonds, when they saw the flag flying. "We noticed it. They announced it over the intercom and we all cheered."


HOW HE GOT TO BE THERE

This was the culmination of a hard three days service for Marusich. He had been a gunner on a torpedo bomber on the USS Bismarck Sea just two days earlier. According to him, the Bismarck Sea was formerly a freighter that had been converted into an escort aircraft carrier. He called it a "Kaiser Coffin" because of their being such U-Boat targets.

After sundown on the 21st, he was on the hangar deck when they were called to General Quarters. Just as he stood up, an explosion sent he and a friend flying 30 to 40 feet. "It knocked me off my ass. We stood up, and down the hangar deck we go. My ears were ringing."

The ship had been hit by a kamikaze. Then, a second one crashed into the ship. Fires caused the torpedoes to explode and water began coming in. The Bismarck Sea was the eleventh and last US carrier sunk in the war.

Those not killed got into the water and were strafed.

To Be Continued. --Cooter

Battle of Iwo Jima

The May 25th Parade Magazine ran a Memorial Day story by Larry Smithon Richard Nummer, 82, and his experiences at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

During the battle, almost all 21,000 Japanese defenders died, 6800 Americanswere killed and another 17,000 wounded.


FOXHOLE JUMPING

He said he arrived at Iwo Jima the night before the landing and remembers being served steak and eggs the next morning. Nummer went in with the fifth wave and says they would run off the beach foxhole to foxhole. He'd run up and "tap a guy on his shoulder, and he'd run a little father and you'd get into his hole, like leapfrogging. So I get into this hole and tap the guy on his shoulder and--nothing. He was gone."


SO HE PUT THE BULLET HOLE IN THE FLAG ON MT. SURIBACHI

Five days later, he and his group were the first Marines to sleep at the top of the prominent feature. Says Nummer, "On Feb. 27, my 19th birthday, we were taking turns on guard duty. My foxhole buddy had just got off to sleep, and I kind of dozed off. It was so dark. Then I heard a noise, and I turned around and shot. But it was just the flag, snapping in the wind.

"For 40 years, I never talked about it, but soon as I saw that flag in a museum, I knew I put a hole in it. It's right there--in the second stripe. Probably the most famous picture ever taken, and I stuck my little hole in it. I should have been court-martialed."


"MY FINGER FROZE ON THE TRIGGER."

One night on Iwo Jima, he was on guard duty and say a figure coming toward him. He called twice for passwords and did not receive a reply, so he shot.

The next morning, a lieutenant congratulated him and siad he could take anything off the body of the Japanese soldier he wanted. He took his wallet and bayonet.

He was always bothered by this and 40 years later, decided to return it. He met some Japanese men at a car show and they took the items back to Japan. A year later he got a letter from the daughter of the man he'd shot. She was born ten days after he left and had never gotten to meet him. She was very thankful.

Very Interesting Stories. --Old Coot

Charles Lindberg was Last Survivor of First Flag Raising

Upon further research, Mr. Lindberg was the last survivor of the first flag raising. His character was portrayed in both Clint Eastwood movies "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima."

The photographer, Lou Lowery, died in 1987 and is buried at Quantico National Cemetery, Virginia.

Charles Lindberg is buried at Fort Snelling national Cemetery, Minneapolis, Mn.

First Lt. Harold D. Schrier died in 1971 and is buried at Mansion memorial Park in Ellenton, Fl.

Louis Charlo was KIA March 2, 1945, and is buried at Saint Ignatius Catholic Cemetery, St. Ignatius, Montana.

Sgt. Ernest Ivy Thomas, Jr., KIA March 3, 1945 and buried in Roseland Cemetery in Monticello, Fl.

PFC James Michels died 1982 and is buried at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Sgt. Henry O. Hansen KIA March 1, 1945 and buried at the National cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii.

Gallant and Brave Men, All.

Dead Page-- Iwo Jima Flagraiser-- Charles Lindberg

Charles Lindberg (1920-2007)

Raised 1st Flag Over Iwo Jima: WWII veteran spent decades explaining his patrol was there hours before Marines in famous photo.

Charles Lindberg died June 24, 2007 at his home in Minnesota.

In the late morning of February 23, 1945, Mr. Lindberg fired his flamethrower into a Japanese pillbox at the base of Mt. Suribachi, then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the summit.

"Two of our men found this big, long pipe there. We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and raised it.

"Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ships' whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget. It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves," he told AP in 2003.

A picture of the moment was taken by Marine photographer Sgt. Lou Lowery. Three of the men who raised it never lived long enough to see their picture as they were among the 6,800 Americans who died in the battle.

Mr. Lindberg said his commander ordered the first flag replaced lest it became a souvenir. The second, larger flag was raised four hours later. This is the famous raising photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. Lindberg was wounded in the arm on March 1 and evacuated.

Discharged in 1946, he returned to his home in North Dakota and later moved to Richland in 1951. No one believed his story and he was even called a liar. He spent his final years trying to set the record straight. In 1995, the Minnesota legislature passed a resolution honoring Lindberg.

A Man Who Should Definitely Be Honored.