Friends of the National World War II Memorial is dedicated to teaching lessons of yesterday to unite
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Friends of the National World War II Memorial (Friends), based in Washington, D.C., is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to teaching lessons of yesterday to unite generations of tomorrow. Founded in 2007 by the creators of the National World War II Memorial, Friends brings visitors together for national ceremonies and experiences at the Memorial and for educational programs centered around the themes of unity, shared values and ideals, and the spirit of community.
On October 6, 1994, the House and Senate passed Joint Resolution 227, which approved the construction of a memorial in honor of World War II to be built in the monumental core area of Washington, DC. This approval was due to the lasting significance World War II had on this nation.
The photo is a throwback to our V-E Day ceremony in 2014.
On October 6, 1943, American and Japanese ships fought the naval Battle of Vella Lavella after nine Japanese destroyers arrived to evacuate troops from New Georgia island.
The battle was fought near the island of Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands. It marked the end of a three-month fight to capture the central Solomon Islands as part of the Solomon Islands Campaign.
The battle occurred at the end of the ground campaign on Vella Lavella, as the Japanese sought to evacuate the 600-strong garrison from the island. The garrison had become hemmed into a small pocket on the island's northern end around Marquana Bay.
While around 20 auxiliary ships and barges evacuated the stranded soldiers, nine Japanese destroyers fought a short but sharp engagement with six U.S. Navy destroyers to the north of the island, diverting attention from the evacuation. As a result of the engagement, the Japanese evacuation effort was successfully concluded, but the U.S. recaptured the island, ending the second phase of Operation Cartwheel. Each side lost one destroyer.
PHOTO: The U.S. Navy destroyers USS Selfridge (DD-357), left, and USS O'Bannon (DD-450), damaged at Noumea, Espiritu Santo, after the naval Battle of Vella Lavella, on October 7, 1943. Selfridge´s bow was torn off by a Japanese torpedo (note sailors climbing in the wrecked gun turret). O'Bannon collided with USS Chevalier (DD-451) during the battle, after a torpedo had hit Chevalier (she had to be sunk later).
"Navy photographer Lt. Charles Kerlee dismounting a TBF Avenger aboard USS Yorktown (Essex-class) after photographing a raid on Wake Island, October 6, 1943" (US Navy)
B-17F Fortress “The Aztec’s Curse” of the 26th Bomb Squadron immediately after an attack on Ghizo Island in the Solomon Islands, Oct 5, 1942.
Source: United States National Archives
On October 5-6, 1943, TBFs from USS Yorktown (CV-10) approached burning Wake Island, the object of carrier planes raid.
U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Marine Private First Class Douglas Lightheart (right) cradles a 30-caliber machine gun in his lap during the Battle of Peleliu Island, October 1944. Private First Class Gerald Churchby is on the left. (National Archives)
Operation Leader was an air attack conducted against German shipping near Bodø, Norway, on October 4, 1943, during World War II. The raid was executed by aircraft flying from the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Ranger, which was attached to the British Home Fleet. The American airmen located many German and Norwegian ships in this area, destroyed five and are believed to have damaged another seven. Two German aircraft searching for the Allied fleet were shot down. Three American aircraft were destroyed in combat during the operation, and another crashed while landing.
The attack followed a two-year lull in Allied aircraft carrier operations against Norway and took the German occupation forces by surprise. The choice of target was guided by intelligence gained from decoding German radio signals and reports from Norwegian Secret Intelligence Service agents; two Norwegian airmen flew with the attack force to provide advice on the local geography. In addition to sinking ships, Operation Leader damaged the German war effort by considerably disrupting the region's convoy system and reducing iron ore shipments. This mission was the only U.S. Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II.
Wesley Phelps of Neafus, Kentucky, a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 4, 1944, on Pelelieu.
Phelps was drafted and inducted into the Marine Corps in 1943 and was assigned to the Signal Battalion for one month, then transferred to the Infantry Training Battalion. He joined the 27th Replacement Battalion in September. He left the United States in October 1943, joining Company M, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines of the 1st Marine Division in December and was promoted to private first class in April 1944.
After a so-called "rest" at Pavuvu Island in the Russell Islands, the 1st Division left for the little-publicized Peleliu Island operation. After nineteen days of bitter and costly fighting, the night of October 4, 1944, found Company K strung out along the military crest of one of the coral mountains for which Peleliu is noted. With the Marines on one slope of the hill and the Japanese on the opposite slope, rifles became useless, and a series of hand gr***de battles took place over several days. During the night, the enemy launched a particularly vicious counterattack. PFC Phelps and a fellow Marine were in a foxhole when a Japanese gr***de landed with a thud between them.
Private First Class Phelps shouted, "Look out, Shipley!" then unhesitatingly rolled over on the gr***de, taking the full force of the explosion with his own body. Phelps was killed, while PFC Richard Shipley received only a tiny scratch. He was 21 years old.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 4, 1944. Phelps was initially buried in the United States Armed Forces Cemetery on Peleliu but was later reinterred in Rosine Cemetery in Rosine, Kentucky.
Manuel Verdugo Mendoza of Miami, Arizona, Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 4, 1944, near Mt. Battaglia, Italy.
Mendoza joined the Army in November 1942 and, by October 4, 1944, was serving as a staff sergeant at Mt. Battaglia, Italy. He is credited with single-handedly breaking up a German counterattack. Despite being wounded in the arm, he repeatedly fired on the attacking Germans, enabling his company to hold their position on the hill.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 4, 1944. Mendoza had died in 2001 before his Distinguished Service Cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2014.
ANGEL OF MERCY
Please read the latest essay in the Friends of the National World War II Memorial’s series by best-selling author and Friends' Resident Historian Alex Kershaw titled, “Angel of Mercy”.
Click the link below to read now!
https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/blog/angel-of-mercy
On October 3, 1942, USS Nicholas was directed to pick up a downed pilot near the shore of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. A Japanese “Zero” fighter came within range, and Nicholas opened fire with her 5-in/38 anti-aircraft guns, Nicholas’s first shots of the war at a definite enemy target. 2Lt Kenneth D. Frazier, USMC of VMF-223, was rescued from the water, treated briefly by Nicholas’s medical officer, and returned to base on Guadalcanal.
The Hollywood Canteen operated at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard in the Los Angeles, California, neighborhood of Hollywood between October 3, 1942, and November 22, 1945 (Thanksgiving Day), as a club offering food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, who were usually on their way overseas. Even though most visitors were US servicemen, the canteen was open to servicemen of allied countries as well as women in all branches of service. A serviceman's ticket for admission was his uniform, and everything at the canteen was free of charge.
The East Coast counterpart was the New York City-based Stage Door Canteen, which featured Broadway stars and was also celebrated in a film, Stage Door Canteen.
Picture: Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth serve food to soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen in 1942.
Richard Edward Kraus of Chicago, Illinois, a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 3, 1944, during the Battle of Peleliu.
In 1943, on Kraus’s 18th birthday, he was inducted into the Marine Corps after previously trying to enlist. In July 1944, his unit shipped out for service in the Pacific Theatre and arrived at Pavuvu Island to begin preparing for the invasion of Peleliu.
On October 3, he was serving as an amphibian tractor driver with a detachment of the 8th Amphibian Tractor Battalion, attached to the 1st Marine Division. Kraus and three companions had accepted a volunteer mission to evacuate a wounded Marine from the front lines but were met with enemy-thrown hand gr***des and were forced to turn back. As they were retreating, a Japanese soldier threw a hand gr***de into the middle of the group. Kraus hurled himself on top of the gr***de and smothered the blast with his body, saving the lives of three of his comrades. He was just 18 years old.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 3, 1944. Kraus was initially buried in the U.S. Armed Forces Cemetery on Peleliu, Palau Islands. In 1948, his remains were reinterred in Ft. Snelling National Cemetery, Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, at his parents’ request.
On October 2, 1942, a B-18A, piloted by Captain Howard Burhanna Jr. of the 99th Bomb Squadron, depth-charged and sank the German submarine U-512 north of Cayenne, French Guiana.
The Battle of Aachen was a WWII combat action fought by American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany, between Oct. 2-21, 1944. The city had been incorporated into the Siegfried Line, the main defensive network on Germany's western border; the Allies had hoped to capture it quickly and advance into the industrialized Ruhr Basin. Although most of Aachen's civilian population was evacuated before the battle began, much of the city was destroyed, and both sides suffered heavy losses. It was one of the largest urban battles fought by U.S. forces in WWII and the first city on German soil to be captured by the Allies. The battle ended with a German surrender, but their tenacious defense significantly disrupted Allied plans to advance into Germany.
The 30th ID began its advance on Oct. 2, using divisional heavy artillery to target German pillboxes. The Americans found that the Germans were sure to counterattack if they failed to press on to the next pillbox immediately. Heavy resistance was unexpected; one company lost 87 combatants in an hour; another lost 93 out of 120 soldiers to a German artillery strike. By the afternoon of Oct. 2, elements of the 30th ID had breached German defenses and reached the town of Palenberg. Here, GIs advanced house-to-house and fought several gruesome hand gr***de duels. The 29th ID's diversionary attacks on their flank aided the division's effort, leading the Germans to believe that that was the Americans' main attack. On the night of Oct. 2, the German 902nd Assault Gun Battalion was ordered to launch a counterattack against the 30th ID, but allied artillery delayed the start of the raid, and ultimately the attempt failed.
Harold G. Kiner of Aline, Oklahoma, a Private in the U.S. Army, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 2, 1944, near Palenberg, Germany.
Kiner joined the Army from Enid, Oklahoma, and by October 2, 1944, was serving as a private in Company F, 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division. On that day, near Palenberg, Germany, he smothered the blast of an enemy-thrown hand gr***de with his body, sacrificing himself to protect those around him.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 2, 1944. Kiner is buried at Eastern Star Cemetery in Aline, Oklahoma.
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
“With 4 other men, he was leading in a frontal assault 2 October 1944, on a Siegfried Line pillbox near Palenberg, Germany. Machinegun fire from the strongly defended enemy position 25 yards away pinned down the attackers. The Germans threw hand gr***des, 1 of which dropped between Pvt. Kiner and 2 other men. With no hesitation, Private Kiner hurled himself upon the gr***de, smothering the explosion. By his gallant action and voluntary sacrifice of his own life, he saved his 2 comrades from serious injury or death.”
Chris Carr, of Manchester, New Hampshire, a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on October 1-2, 1944, near Guignola, Italy.
Carr was born “Christos H. Karaberis” and joined the Army in October 1942. By October 1, 1944, he was serving as a sergeant in Company L, 337th Infantry Regiment, 85th Infantry Division. On October 1-2, near Guignola, Italy, he single-handedly attacked and captured five German machine gun emplacements.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 1-2, 1944. After the war, he legally changed his name to “Chris Carr” and reached the rank of sergeant first class and served in the Korean War before leaving the Army. He died at age 56 and is buried in Los Angeles National Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.
The Four Days of Naples was an uprising in Naples, Italy, against N**i German occupation forces from September 27 to September 30, 1943, immediately prior to the arrival of Allied forces in Naples on October 1 during World War II.
The spontaneous uprising of Neapolitan and Italian Resistance against German occupying forces, despite limited armament, organization or planning, nevertheless successfully disrupted German plans to deport Neapolitans en masse, destroy the city and prevent Allied forces from gaining a strategic foothold.
The city was subsequently awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor. The four days are celebrated annually and were the subject of the 1962 film The Four Days of Naples.
On Sept. 29, 1943, the 292 Jewish inmates of the Syrets concentration camp, located in the Ukrainian SSR, rose up against their German captors as their work assignment drew to a close.
For six weeks, the prisoners had been directed to destroy the evidence of the massacre at Babi Yar, when the Germans murdered nearly 34,000 people over two days, on September 29 and 30, 1941. The group had labored at excavating and burning the victims' bodies, then grinding and scattering the cremains. As it became clear that they would be executed when the work was finished, the inmates, led by Vladimir Davydov, staged a mass race to the prison walls at dawn.
The German guards, who delayed firing their machine guns until they realized what was happening, killed 280 of 292, but Davydov and eleven other men were able to escape and would later reveal what had happened.
Once N**i control was re-established in the camp, the remaining 311 inmates were executed.
Prior to America's entry into World War II in December 1941, individual Americans volunteered to fight against the Axis powers in other nations' armed forces.
Although under American law, it was illegal for United States citizens to join the armed forces of foreign nations, and in doing so, they lost their citizenship, many American volunteers changed their nationality to Canadian.
However, Congress passed a blanket pardon in 1944. Living in London, American mercenary Colonel Charles Sweeny began recruiting American citizens to fight as a US volunteer detachment in the French Air Force. However, France fell before this was implemented.
During the Battle of Britain, 11 American pilots flew in the RAF, one of whom was killed. Charles Sweeny's nephew, also called Charles, formed a Home Guard unit from American volunteers living in London.
One notable example was the Eagle Squadrons. These were RAF Squadrons made up of American volunteers and British personnel.
The first squadron was formed: No. 71 Squadron on September 19, 1940, followed by No. 121 Squadron on May 14, 1941, and No. 133 Squadron on August 1, 1941. 6,700 Americans applied to join, but only 244 Americans got to serve with the three Eagle Squadrons. 16 Britons also served as squadron and flight commanders. The first Eagle Squadron became operational in February 1941, and the Squadrons scored their first kill in July 1941.
On September 29, 1942, the three squadrons were officially turned over by the RAF to the Eighth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Forces and became the 4th Fighter Group. In their time with the RAF, the squadrons claim to have shot 73.5 German planes. Among them, 77 Americans and 5 Britons were killed.
On September 29, 1943, American soldiers liberated the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy, after a fiercely fought campaign. (National Archives)
"B-17G Fortress “Lost Angel” belly landed at RAF Kimbolton after being damaged over Magdeburg, Germany, September 28, 1944. The crew unbolted and dropped the ball turret to keep it from breaking the airframe’s back" (National Archives)
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"Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz presenting Admiral William Halsey with a gold star in lieu of a fourth award of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal aboard USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, September 28, 1945" (US Navy)
U.S. Army Captain Robert E. Roeder of Summit Station, Pennsylvania, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on September 27-28, 1944, near Battaglia, Italy.
Roeder joined the Army in 1936 from his birthplace of Summit Station, Pennsylvania and served with Company G, 350th Infantry, 88th Infantry Division. On September 27, 1944, during the defense of Mount Battaglia, Roeder repeatedly encouraged his men and directed their defense against the enemy. The next day, he was injured by shell fragments and carried to the company command post. He refused medical treatment, dragged himself to the post door, and fired his weapon at the attacking Germans while continuing to lead his men. He was killed moments later by an exploding shell.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on September 27-28, 1944. Roeder is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. He was 27 years old at the time of his death.
"The first formal raising of the American flag over Peleliu, Palau Islands, September 27, 1944" (United States Marine Corps)
United States Army Captain James H. Fields of Caddo, Texas, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on September 27, 1944, near Rechicourt, France.
Fields Graduated from Mirabeau Lamar High School in Houston, Texas, in 1939. He attended the University of Oklahoma until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in February 1942.
On September 27, 1944, he led the first platoon of Company A, located on top of Hill 265 near Rechicourt, France, for a counterattack on enemy positions the next morning. When he heard German voices that night, he told his platoon to dig in. In the morning, his platoon became pinned down by withering crossfire from two machine guns and the threat of a German tank. During the battle, half of the platoon became casualties. Calls over the radio to his unit's anti-tank officer went unanswered. Some of Fields' men wished to surrender because of the hopeless situation, and he replied, "I would rather die than surrender." In the ensuing battle, he instructed his only medic not to move; no sooner had he had given the order, the medic abandoned his position and was shot dead. Fields picked up a pistol to attempt to save the medic and, while doing so, was shot through the face, knocking out several teeth and almost severing his tongue. Undeterred, Fields obtained some gauze and wedged it in his mouth to limit the bleeding. He then picked up a .30 caliber machine gun and, firing from the hip, was able to silence both enemy machine guns. He then began giving orders for a counterattack. The men regained their courage and were able to repel the enemy. Fields refused to be evacuated until he reported his position and the enemy's strength.
James H. Fields was the first person decorated in the field with the Medal of Honor by General George S. Patton Jr. and was promoted to captain.
After the war, he was an independent oil operator. Fields is buried in the Houston National Cemetary in Houston, Texas.
Douglas Albert Munro of Vancouver, Canada, a Signalman First Class in the U.S. Coast Guard, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Sept. 27, 1942, near Point Cruz, Guadalcanal.
Munro enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1939 after attending the Central Washington College of Education for a year.
On Sept. 27, 1942, during the Second Battle of the Matanikau, Munro was in charge of a detachment of ten boats to transport U.S. Marines to the scene. After successfully taking them ashore and returning his boats to their previously assigned positions, he learned that the Marines needed to be evacuated immediately due to conditions ashore. He brought the boats to shore under intense enemy fire and began to evacuate the men on the beach. He was fatally wounded as he was positioning his boats to cover the last men to leave.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on Sept. 27, 1942. Munro is, still to this day, the only member of the Coast Guard to receive the Medal. He is buried at Laurel Hill Memorial Park in Cle Elum, WA. His Medal of Honor is on display at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Cape May in NJ. He received the Navy version of the Medal of Honor because, at the time, the Coast Guard was operating under the Department of the Navy and a Coast Guard version of the Medal was never designed or minted, despite the authorization for one in 1963.
In May 1943, President Roosevelt presented the Medal of Honor to Munro’s parents, James and Edith. A few hours later, Edith swore an oath and joined the Coast Guard. She had persisted when the Coast Guard was reluctant to allow her to join—she was 48 and a Gold Star Mother of a Medal of Honor recipient. At her insistence, she went through boot camp, requesting no special treatment. She earned a commission in the SPARS (women’s branch of the Coast Guard), ran the Coast Guard Barracks in Seattle, and was discharged in late 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant.
In remote southeastern Washington, you will find the sprawling Hanford Site, which was constructed to produce plutonium for the Manhattan Project. Within this complex is the first plutonium production reactor, the Hanford B Reactor. The DuPont Corporation was responsible for constructing and operating the B Reactor. Due to the urgency of the Manhattan Project, construction was completed in just over a year, and The B Reactor went critical on September 26, 1944. After the needs of the Manhattan Project were satisfied, the reactor was briefly shut down and then restarted to produce plutonium for roughly another 20 years, supporting Cold War efforts. In addition to plutonium production, the B Reactor pioneered the process of producing tritium for the first-ever thermonuclear test.
"US Navy African-American construction battalion personnel acting as stretcher bearers for the US 7th Marine Regiment, Peleliu, Palau Islands, Sep 26, 1944" (National Archives)
The Military Police Corps, the uniformed law enforcement branch of the U.S. Army, was officially established on September 26, 1941.
During World War II, Military Police schools were established at Camp Gordon and Fort Benjamin Harrison, and MPs also trained for port security at Fort McHenry.
Military Police soldiers moved traffic along the Burma Road, supported amphibious operations on Normandy beachheads, and managed enemy prisoners of war from Italy to the South Pacific. Thanks to the actions of 1LT John "Jack" Hyde and his detachment of MP, The Corps was heralded for gallantry at Remagen as a fighting force in numerous combat actions and as peacekeepers at war’s end.
In 1944, the Army saw the need for a unit to investigate crime involving soldiers in Europe. The United States Army Criminal Investigation Division was established as a branch of the Provost Marshal General’s Office and has continued investigative activity since.
After the war ended, cavalry units in Germany were utilized to form the United States Constabulary, a police-like patrol organization. It was disbanded in the 1950s.
In 1949, the newly formed Defense Department was in the process of reorganizing the Army when plans were developed to disband the Military Police Corps. But when Congress passed the Army Reorganization Act in May 1950, the Corps survived, remaining a separate branch of the Army.
James Gilbert E. Wright was a Scottish-born inventor, researcher and chemical engineer at General Electric who invented Silly Putty in 1943 while looking for a replacement for rubber.
The invention of Nutty Putty, later renamed Silly Putty, happened accidentally. During World War II, the United States could not obtain natural rubber from Asian suppliers, who gathered it from rubber trees. The General Electric Company was under a government contract to create an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber for the war effort. James Wright, an engineer at General Electric's New Haven, CT laboratory, was working with silicone oil—a clear, gooey compound composed of silicon bonded to several other elements. By substituting silicon for carbon, the main element in rubber, Wright hoped to create a new compound with all the flexibility and bounce of rubber.
In 1943, Wright made a surprising discovery. He mixed boric acid with silicone oil in a test tube. Instead of forming the hard rubber material he was looking for, the compound remained slightly gooey to the touch. Disappointed with the results, he tossed a gob of the material from the test tube onto the floor. To his surprise, the gob bounced. The new compound was very bouncy and could be stretched and pulled. However, it was not a good rubber substitute, so Wright and other GE scientists continued their search.
Seven years later, a toy seller named Peter Hodgson packaged some of Wright's creation in a small plastic egg and presented his new product at the 1950 International Toy Fair in New York. Its first name was Nutty Putty, but it was changed later due to marketing concerns. It is now called Silly Putty; more than 300 million eggs containing the material have been sold since.
During World War II, the Victory Corps was an American program that provided military training to male and female high school students. On September 25, 1942, Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker established the Victory Corps in conjunction with the United States Departments of War, Navy, and Civil Aeronautics. The program was designed to prepare secondary school students for possible military service and participation in the war effort. Although participation in the program was voluntary, many high schools nationwide sought to aid the war effort due to rising patriotic fervor following Pearl Harbor. For example, a survey conducted by the American Legion in 1943 found that of 232 high schools in Oregon, 86 schools had established a Victory Corps program and 96 schools planned to implement the program the following semester. The United States Office of Education aimed for every high school in the country to implement the Victory Corps program.
As the war drew to a close in Europe and Asia, the Corps was gradually phased out starting in June 1944. However, the Victory Corps Program significantly impacted the United States war effort during WWII. During its two years of existence, the program distributed a substantial amount of knowledge to schools across the country and raised millions of dollars for the war effort. Along with its practical achievements, the Victory Corps program was also groundbreaking for its time because it allowed participation from both white and African-American students ten years before public schools were desegregated.
John Dury New of Mobile, Alabama, a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on September 25, 1944, on Peleliu Island, Palau Islands.
New enlisted in the Marine Corps on December 8, 1941, the first Mobile, AL man to enlist after Pearl Harbor. On December 12, he joined the 4th Recruit Battalion at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, and following recruit training served at Quantico, Virginia.
In September 1942, Pvt New joined the 4th Replacement Battalion, Fleet Marine Force, Training Center, in San Diego, California. He sailed for duty overseas the following month and participated in the Guadalcanal campaign as a member of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He shared in the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the Division on Guadalcanal. He later took part in the seizure and occupation of Cape Gloucester, New Britain, and in the defense of the airfield near Cape Gloucester.
Promoted to private first class in April 1944, he moved from Cape Gloucester to Pavuvu, Russell Islands, to Guadalcanal, and on September 15, 1944, sailed for Peleliu in the Palau Islands. Nine days later, he was killed in action on Peleliu when he flung himself on an enemy hand gr***de to save the lives of two comrades. New was just 19 years old.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on September 25, 1944. Initially buried in the U.S. Armed Forces Cemetery on Peleliu, PFC New's remains were reinterred in the Mobile National Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama, in 1948.
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Join us live from historic Joint Base Myer - Henderson Hall for Twilight Tattoo in honor of the U.S. Army’s 247th Birthday. Tonight's Army Birthday Twilight Tattoo features the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). The United States Army Band. US Army Golden Knights. The Army Aviation Brigade. The United States Army Drill Team. The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. U.S. Army Caisson Platoon, HHC, 1st Bn, 3d Inf Regt, and more! Army Birthday Week celebrates 247 years of 24/7 global readiness and the service of the people who make that capability possible. #ArmyBday #Army247
Today, the Army celebrates 247 years of defending our Nation since its establishment on June 14, 1775. Always a ready force, we defend America around the world 24/7 -- past, present and into the future. #ArmyBDay | #AlwaysReady | #Army247
Every evening at 5 pm at Normandy American Cemetery. Thank you for bringing us here @alexkershawauthor and for helping Friends to teach the lessons of yesterday to unite the generations of tomorrow. #WeRememberThem
Thank you for watching! 🇺🇸 Join Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston as he talks to NCOs of the newly activated 11th Airborne Division during this Facebook #LIVE Townhall.
78th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration at the World War II Memorial
Thank you for joining us today as we present the National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery. We honor the courage, devotion and sacrifice of those we've lost.
Check out author Alex Kershaw discussing the little known story of how the Lincoln Memorial came under attack during WWII! #LincolnMemorialMoment
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Friends of the National World War II Memorial is proud to present the 2022 Brigadier General Charles E. McGee UNITY Award to former Secretary of Commerce and Transportation The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta for Mineta’s lifelong public service as a military veteran, Congressman, Cabinet member, and advocate for noble causes in the pursuit of educating our youth about democracy and what it means to be an American citizen. Named for a true gentleman, retired Air Force Brigadier General Charles E. McGee, who just recently passed away but who embodied and lived by the highest American ideals during his 102-years, this annual award is a significant recognition of individuals actively working for the betterment of their community and living up to the moral integrity espoused by General McGee and his fellow members of the “Greatest Generation.” Norman Mineta and Charles McGee are two men who overcame great adversity with grace, grit, and courage. In turbulent times, we will look to the example set by these two, so that we will be inspired by the power of unity and be reminded of the meaning of sacrifice. #WWII #WeRememberThem #UNITY
Jake Lindsey received the Medal of Honor for his actions #OnThisDay in 1944. Fighting in France, he led a heroic defensive action, defeating tanks, machine guns, and engaging 8 Germans in hand-to-hand combat. #WWII #WeRememberThem
"We recruit Soldiers, but we retain Families." U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville Join #USArmy senior leaders #LIVE for the Family forum townhall during the Association of the United States Army - AUSA National Annual Meeting. #ArmyFamily | #PeopleFirst
#LIVE The U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville talks about the present and future direction of the United States Army during the State of the Army address. #WinningMatters | #PeopleFirst Click here for the full program of #AUSA2021 events & speakers: https://army.mil/article/249960?dmd
Founded in 2007, the Friends of the National World War II Memorial (Friends) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to honoring and preserving the national memory of World War II and to creating the next “Greatest Generation” of tomorrow. To meet this mission, Friends sponsors an annual public lecture series featuring prominent historians; hosts an annual teachers conference in Washington, DC; and collects and archives video interviews of World War II veterans and other members of the Greatest Generation. Additionally, Friends has the lead responsibility in planning, staging, and funding five or more major national commemorative events annually and is currently sponsoring a national four-year World War II 75th anniversary commemoration. Friends relies on private support to breathe new life into the Memorial and to ensure that it continues to serve as a living lesson for all Americans.
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