Carl's Update on WWI and WWII Veterans

Your quite welcome Jim/Sue. Also, for Mike, I have a first edition copy of Brickhills book lying about somewhere. If I can find it, i'd like you to have it. I saw recently on a German Militaria site, a signed and first edition copy of this book for sale for around 100 Euro. Not sure what that is in US Dollars ;-))

Raymond Jacobs believed to be the last surviving member of the group of Marines photographed during the original US flag raising on Iwo Jima during WWII, has dies at the age of 82.

Apparently he passed away on January 29th in Redding, California.

Rest in Peace Raymond. :-((

Hi Mike, Mark, Jay, thank you all and I had a long reply to you all and was trying to post it when the system booted me out.

Hi Mike, I don't have the names of these guys on hand but, im pretty sure they are listed on one of the Iwo Jima Flag-Raising sites. I'll try to look for them for you buy will be at least Wednesday before I can do so.

Quote from chester7777

Carl, you seem very tuned into these things. I know you have more than a casual interest in WWII. How do you hear about these things?

Thanks for sharing the information.

And of course, may Mr. Jacobs RIP.

Chester

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Hi Jim/Sue, quite welcome. Most of the time I get lucky in hearing these things because of a news story on one of the channels or on the radio or sometimes from a friend or two at the WWII site im a member of.

I give my interest in War movies and Mil history mainly to my Mother. She got me interested in that as well as John Wayne. My Dad took part too but not as much as my Mom did. I remember one time when I was in the 2nd grade and my mother took me out of school to watch a John Wayne movie that was being shown on one of the three channels we got at the time. I think it was the first time I got to see The Flying Tigers.

Anyway, I was hooked on the movies (Dukes in particular) and then started reading History books when I was in the 3rd grade. My teacher used to chew on me about not checking out books on other subjects.

I started out reading about the Revolutionary War, then the US Civil War, Napoleanic Wars, WWI, The Boxer Rebellion, back to the Civil War including the Indian Wars, then the Spanish-American War, the Wars for Texas Independance and with Mexico, then Korean and Vietnam Wars, then back down to the French & Indian War, the War of 1812, WWI and I "graduated" to WWII and have been stuck mainly on WWII since I was 15. Occasionally I venture back down in the ages-but not for long.

Since im into WWII the most, I started off reading about the fighting with the Japanese including but not limited to our Island-hopping campaigns, Edson's Radiders, Carlson's Raiders, Doolittle Raiders, Pappy Boyington's VMF 214th Blacksheep Squadron, Guadalcanal & Iwo Jima) both were of great interest to me. It's my opinion that those were some of the hardest fighting in the CBI theater. I then got interested in the fighting in North Africa, Sicily & Italy. After about 2 years of that, my interests included D-Day (the Normandy Invasion-or as the Germans call it: The Invasion Front) the Battle of the Bulge being my favorite of the Western Campaigns. Then I "graduated" to anything and everything dealing with The Eastern Front-and it's by far, my most favorite to study. The Battles of Stalingrad, Kursk and Kharkov in particular.

Sorry my answer is long but

Take care and best regards--Carl.

The Lord has called home, Retired Lt. General: Gordon Marion Graham-(1918-2008) General Graham was a WWII P-51 D Mustang Acr. He flew 73 missions in his Mustang Fighter & had 16 1/2 victories in WWII.

During the Vietnam War, he flew 146 missions in his F-4 Phantom Jet Fighter. He retired in 1973 as a Lieutenant General. and as Lieutenant General of the Air Force.

Rest in Peace General.

Doolittle Raider, Jacob De Shazur, has passed away on March 24th at the age of 95. He was in the last B-25 Liberator Bomber, to depart from the Carrier Hornet, for a daylight bombing run that marked the first time since the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that the US attacked the Japanese homeland.

DeShazurs plane ran out of fuel after dropping his bomb load and all 5 Crewmen bailed out over occupied territory. He was a POW for 40 months until freed a few days after Japan surrendered in August 1945.

After returning home, DeShazur earned a Batchelors Degree in Biblical Literature, and then spent 30 years as a Christian Missionary in Japan.

Rest in Peace Jacob. :-(( I had his address, and never found time to write him a letter. That is something I will always regret.

Hi you all ;-))

Thank you Mark. I do try to keep up with these kind of things as best as I can. It is also something I feel I must do in posting about these Gents and making sure others know about them. To me, all Veterans are great but, for some reason that I have never known why, but the WWII vets are at the top of my interests. No offense to vets from other than WWII.

The last time I heard any statistics on the rate of deaths of WWII Veterans per day, was when I was at my Uncles Funeral in San Antonio back in 2002. The Chaplain of the Air Force, was the one who led the funeral and also gave out the then) startling numbers of how many WWII vets pass away each day. That number back in 2002, was 1,700 per day. I shudder to think of what that number is now..

I guess my Uncle was good friends with him? Anyway, I was glad to see that my Uncle got a Military Funeral that he deserved. My Uncle served in the 80th I.D. under General Siman Bolivar Buckner and one place he fought at was on Okinawa. Im not sure of where he was before then as he did not like telling about what he saw and what he had to do-can't blame him either. All I know is that he left home at the age of 17, lied about his age and joined the Army in 1938 I think?

Hi Jim/Sue, Mainly, I think I just get lucky I guess and I hear about it on some radio or TV station. It's become a habit of mine to watch out for this stuff. At times, I almost feel like a Vulture when it comes to hearing this stuff. As far as I know at this time, our last WWI Veteran still lives. :-))

Amen to what you also sad Jay.

Hi Todd, sadly yep, at the rate of im sure it's now over 1,700 per day

Now that I have found all my addresses I had, im going to start making time to write to some of these fellas. I started writing to some of these Gents about 12 years ago. I have WWII American, German, British and Canadian vets I have letters and signed photo's of. If anyone is interested in any, I don't mind sharing because I know you guys well enough to pass out a few.

If anyone is interested in any Medal of Honor Recipients addys, Knights Cross Recipients addys, addys for men who served in the Black Sheep Sq, as crew on the Memphis Belle, Enola Gay, on the Doolittle Raid, Carlsons Raiders (I think I still have a few of those?) Test Pilots, Generals, Admirals, Astronauts-just let me know.

Take care and best regards-Carl.

I can't believed I missed this one for so long?!?!?!

Another WWII Flying Tiger, called home.

April 17/2008, Flying Tiger: Dick Rossi, passed away at the age of 92. He earned two Presidential Unit Citations for his combat prowess. He died from Pneumonia at his home near San Diego, Calif.

In November 1941, he joined a secret volunteer group of pilots who travelled to China to help defend it against the Japanese. Officially designated the: American Volunteer Group (A.V.G.) the Chinese referred to the pilots as "Flying Tigers" for their aerial combat skills. December 1941, Rossi and his Squadron first engaged Zeros (Japanese fighter planes) also known as "Meatballs" over Kunming, China and shot down three of them.

During their seven months flying Combat missions over China, the AVG shot down an impressive 296 Japanese aircraft. July 1942, the AVG was disbanded. Rossi spent the rest of the war, flying for the China National Corp delivering supplies from India to China. He made 735 trips over the Himalayas. After the war, he worked for the Flying Tiger Line (as a freight carrier) for 25 years.

Rest in Peace Dick. I had the pleasure of writing to him once and speaking with him over the phone once.

PS, he was the President of the Flying Tiger Veterans Org for many years.