WWII
Valor Friday
This week’s subject comes to us by way of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas; Clarence Byrle Craft, a native of California, received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Hen Hill during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. He moved to Arkansas after World War II and died in Fayetteville (Washington County). Clarence B. Craft […]
Thursday tidbits
The White House says President Trump has backed off renaming Veteran’s Day to “Victory Day for World War I” . While technically, at least historically speaking, he was correct – the holiday started out as Armistice Day for the cease-fire ending at the 11th minute of the 11th hour on November 11, 1918 – the […]
Valor Friday
I’ve several times talked about men and women of valor who have received decorations from allied governments. Sometimes, as in the case of recipients of the top valor awards (such as a Medal of Honor or the Victoria Cross), these foreign decorations are nearly automatic. For example, virtually every Medal of Honor recipient in the […]
Three more ID’ed
Three more airmen from WWII have been identified, after they were lost on a low-level bombing raid over Burma. (Myanmar for you kids.) U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Charles W. McCook, 23, U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Henry J. Carlin, 27, and U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Sidney Burke, 22, were carrying […]
Vaughn Drake Jr. died, age 106
Probably asking yourself “Who is Vaughn Drake”? I was…and then found he was believed to be the oldest Pearl Harbor survivor extant. Not a huge surprise at 106; that age stands out in almost any crowd. Vaughn Drake Jr., an esteemed Central Kentuckian believed to be the oldest survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl […]
DPAA, Arlington
We’ve often referred to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the tremendous work they do identifying the remains of our fallen. Last Friday, April 4th, a C-20G jet landed at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, carrying the remains of 80 Marines killed in the battle for Guadalcanal. The plane was greeted by […]
Another bomber found
The wreck of an Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Martin 187 “Baltimore” bomber lost in WWII has been found in the Aegean in 61 meter-deep water after 82 years. They were returning from a photo-reconnaissance mission December 3, 1943, when they were attacked by two Messerschmidt Bf-109 fighters and shot down. Three of the multinational […]
WWII Bletchley vet dies
Some of you are probably aware of Bletchley Park, the World War II British code-breaking site. Like the OSS was the ancestor of our CIA, Bletchley can be considered the parent of the Brits’ version of NSA, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). I suspect from some of the comments that several of you DWs […]
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