tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875736858292292024-03-18T16:55:18.920-05:00"Tattooed On Your Soul"-- A World War II BlogMy Cooter's History Blog has become about 80% World War II anyway, so I figured to start a blog specific to it, especially since we're commemorating its 70th anniversary and we are quickly losing this "Greatest Generation."
The quote is taken from Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Curre, who was on the USS Tennessee that day. He died Dec. 7, 2011, seventy years to the day. His photo is below at right.RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.comBlogger4420125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-84681629297299143192024-03-18T16:54:00.003-05:002024-03-18T16:54:28.008-05:00Sure Going to Miss That 'World War II' Magazine<p>I was really saddened this past week to find out several of my favorite magazines are no longer going to be published. And one of the best of the lot was the "World War II" magazine. I was even considering taking out a subscription to it. Kind of glad I didn't now.</p><p>I got quite a bit of material for this blog from it.</p><p>Right now I am going through the April 2022 issue which has these articles:</p><p>* Mel Brooks Goes to War.</p><p>* A U.S. Sub Commander's Ultimate Sacrifice.</p><p>* How a British Intelligence Blunder Killed Dozens of Allied Agents in Holland.</p><p>Always interesting articles and little-known facts about the war.</p><p>Hope It Comes Back. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-58159814300797856802024-03-14T18:09:00.001-05:002024-03-14T18:09:19.910-05:00100-Year-Old D-Day Vet Getting Married Near the Beaches of D-Day-- Part 1From the March 11, 2024, Fox News "D-Day veteran, 100, to be married at World War II liberation site in France" AP.<div><br /></div><div>Harold Terens, 100, will be marrying his fiancee in France near where he first stepped ashore in that country as a 20-year-old Army corporal in 1944, a few days after the initial landings.</div><div><br /></div><div>He will be honored in France in June on the 80th anniversary of that country's liberation. Then, he plans on marrying his spry 96-year-old girlfriend, Jeanne Swerlin, near those same beaches. They were both married to others before and started dating each other in 2021.</div><div><br /></div><div>During the war she was in high school and dated soldiers who gave her war souvenirs like dog tags, knives and even a gun, trying to impress her.</div><div><br /></div><div>Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year as a member of a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repairman. He said that all four of the original pilots died during the war.</div><div><br /></div><div>--GreGen</div><div><br /></div>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-33692245899287985682024-03-12T12:03:00.006-05:002024-03-12T12:03:57.522-05:00USS Oklahoma Unknown from Alabama Identified<p>From March 11, 2024, WAFF 48 (Alabama) "Remains of WW II veteran from Rogersville identified."</p><p>Navy Seaman 2nd Class Cecil Thornton was accounted for in April 2019 but his family only received the news. He was aboard the USS Oklahoma on the day of the attack which left 429 crewmen dead. He was one of them.</p><p>He was from Rogersville, Alabama, and that is where he will be buried.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-15800288359373277342024-03-08T16:25:00.012-06:002024-03-12T11:57:14.032-05:00And Another USS Oklahoma Sailor to be Buried: Raymond BoyntonFrom March 7, 2024, Detroit Free Press "Michigan native killed aboard USS Oklahoma to get military burial in Hawaii this month" by Jennifer Dixon.<div><br /></div><div>Raymond Devere Boynton will be buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 20.</div><div><br /></div><div>He grew up in Grandville, near Grand Rapids and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1940, shortly after his 18th birthday. He was promoted from apprentice seaman to seaman second class in October 1940 and died just over a year later at the age of 19.</div><div><br /></div><div>His last surviving relative, nephew Harry Zies of Springtown, Texas, says the burial would have given Raymond's sister a sense of closure as she always felt in the back of her mind that he was still alive. However, that sister, Bette, Harry's mother, died in 2013.</div><div><br /></div><div>So Glad the U.S. Is Doing This. --GreGen</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-83019266578025190972024-03-06T12:27:00.005-06:002024-03-08T16:28:37.109-06:00Another Identified USS Oklahoma Sailor to Be Buried: Charles E. Hudson<p>One of the more recent unidentified USS Oklahoma dead has been identified. He is U.S. Navy Water Bidding 1st Class Charles E,. Hudson who was 39 when he died.</p><p>He was originally from Stockton, California.</p><p>He will be buried at the National Memorial of the Pacific on Oahu, Hawaii, on September 10, 2021.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-35223458125226577742024-03-04T11:51:00.002-06:002024-03-04T11:51:29.925-06:00Wreckage of Marine Plane Found in South Pacific<p>From the March 2, 2024, New York Post "Wreckage of WW II plane that vanished in South Pacific found after 80 years" by Angela Barbuti.</p><p>The wreckage of a Marine Douglas SBD Dauntless was found by Papua New Guinea locals in a jungle last month. It went down January14, 1944, with pilot Lt. Billy Ray Ramsey and gunner Sgt. Charlie J. Sciara aboard.</p><p>The plane crashed into three pieces after having left Munda Airfield in New Georgia in the Solomon Islands to target Japanese shipping in the Rabaul Harbor as a part of a large number of planes. The tail was shot off.</p><p>The bodies were not found and both were declared dead and MIA a year later. Their remains have still not been found. It is believed that Sciara survived the crash but died later in a Japanese prison camp.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-2801954796675611312024-03-01T12:12:00.002-06:002024-03-01T12:12:13.294-06:00Iowan to Receive Congressional Gold Medal Posthumously for Service in the 'Ghost Army'<p>From the February 28, 2024, Des Moines (Iowa) Register "This Iowan served in World War II's Ghost Army. Years later, his service is being recognized" by Kyle Werner.</p><p>The sons of John T. Cantrell, of Des Moines, will receive a Gold Medal for him at a special service in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol on March 21.</p><p>Today, only seven members of he "Ghost Army" are still alive and all of them 100 years or older.</p><p>Information on this top secret group was classified for more that fifty years before finally being released1996. Its 1,100 members will be receiving a Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest non-military medal.</p><p>This is coming about because of a lot of work by groups who thought they should receive the honor.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-13737155500190814332024-02-26T14:34:00.006-06:002024-02-26T14:34:55.129-06:00About Those SS Concentration Camp Guards<p>From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Stopped Dead on the Tracks" mail.</p><p>Christopher Hoffmann of Colorado Springs, Co. wrote that his uncle was a member of the 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 11th Armored Division when they opened the gates and liberated the Mauthausen slave labor camp in western Austria they had no idea what they were walking into.</p><p>He remembered that during the cleanup of the corpses, as SS officer-turned-prisoner had refused to work, declaring to a British sergeant that officers could not be forced to work under the Geneva Conventions. The sergeant pulled out his pistol and told him to shut up and get back to his job.</p><p>The SS office continued to refuse, at which point the sergeant shot him dead between the eyes My wide-eyed uncle recalled that all SS members were highly motivated for the remainder of the day.</p><p>Work Will Liberate You. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-77647283691793866882024-02-23T15:46:00.007-06:002024-02-23T15:46:50.642-06:00WW II Sergeant Laid to Rest 80 Years After His Death: Harold Hammett<p>From Feb. 20,2024, WECT News (WDAM News Hattiesburg, Ms.) by Jay Harrison and Andrew McMunn.</p><p>Sergeant Harold Hammett, USMC, left Hattiesburg for San Francisco in 1940 and later enlisted in the Marine Corps. Thousands like him were sent to fight in the South Pacific. In 1943, as a member of the 2nd Marine Division, he landed on the Japanese-held island of Betio</p><p>The ensuing fight, called the Battle of Tarawa claimed thousands of lives, including that of Hammett who was just 24 years old at the time and was one of the first killed. His family was notified a month later.</p><p>His remains were declared non-recoverable until they were found recently in Hawaii's National Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the "Punchbowl."</p><p>Using DNA, his family was found. This past week, he was reinterred at Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg.</p><p>I am so glad our government makes this identification effort. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-20437518471472542602024-02-20T17:25:00.005-06:002024-02-20T17:25:28.715-06:00USS Maryland<p>From the February 19, 2024, National Interest.</p><p>The USS Maryland was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked and sustained damage, but not seriously. It later played a significant role in the Pacific War.</p><p>The battleship featured eight 16-inch guns in four turrets and entered service in 1920. As such, she was one of America's most modern battleships due to the Washington Naval Treaty's limitations on new battleships.</p><p>Post Pearl Harbor, the Maryland underwent a rapid refit to modernize for operations in the Pacific, including improved anti-aircraft capabilities and torpedo protection.</p><p>Throughout the war, she served primarily shore bombardment roles, terrifying defenders with her formidable firepower. Despite taking a torpedo hit and suffering from kamikaze attacks, she continued to support U.S. advances, including the critical Battle of Leyte near the Philippines.</p><p>After the war, she was placed in reserve, and, despite her historical significance, efforts to preserve her as a museum ship were not pursued and she was scrapped.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-59152974032691130802024-02-19T15:53:00.004-06:002024-02-19T15:53:36.816-06:00What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 3<p>** "I'll fight of necessary to prevent racial equality. I'll never salute a negro officer and I'll not take orders from from a negroe. I'm sick of the army's method of treating these inferior swine as if they were human."</p><p>** "Why do you induct us in the first place. Even as a leopard cannot change its spots, neither can we curtail our homosexual inclinations.... I'll just try not to get caught."</p><p>** "I have been in the jungles 26 months. I was just wondering of they will take us back in the States before thus war is over. This jungle life will wreck your nerves.... Of the people back home don't think the jungle is hell just let them come over and stay for a few years."</p><p>** "Better food should be considered for men in combat. Constant diets of Vienna sausage & spam tends to decrease morale, as well as ruin a man's stomach."</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-81272343030283986562024-02-16T14:54:00.004-06:002024-02-16T14:54:29.631-06:00What Did Our WW II Service Men Think? --Part 2<p>Some of their comments:</p><p>** You people can't care for us over here in the jungles ... you folks there at home have a good bed and plenty of chow. We eat ours out of cans. Powder eggs & milk. Give us some of this King's stuff & let us enjoy our life.</p><p>** The Army would be a better place to live in, and the morale higher, if the Officers and many non-coms would not think that they are so high and mighty. Also that the privates are human.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-7612854378988693032024-02-13T17:54:00.009-06:002024-02-16T14:47:59.040-06:00What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 1<p>From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Soldier Surveys Virginia Tech University has published the transcripts of 65,000 surveys made by American GIs for the U.S, War Department in the early days of the war. Needless to say, they were anonymous and they didn't hold back with their thoughts.</p><p>Many times they were quite patriotic, but lamblasted everything from uninspired leadership to bad food. Black soldiers complained about discrimination. Whites often expressed a bitterly racist view as was common back then.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-44336461985163156302024-02-09T15:45:00.007-06:002024-02-13T17:45:31.956-06:00Marietta, Ga. Man Killed on USS Oklahoma to Be Buried at Arlington National Cemetery<p>From the February 2, 2023, Marietta (Ga) Daily Journal by Jake Busch.</p><p>John Donald, Shipfitter 3rd Class was serving on the USS Oklahoma when the attack came and was one of the 429 who died aboard the ship that day.</p><p>He was born in Ball Ground, Cherokee County on July 15, 1913, and grew up in Marietta and enlisted in the Navy in Nashville, Tennessee on July 6, 1940. His duties aboard the battleship Oklahoma included metal work, pipefitting and repairing different parts of the ship.</p><p>He received three promotions.</p><p>His was one of the Oklahoma Unknowns. After being buried in the Punch Bowl for many years, his body was disinterred and DNA testing done on his remains which resulted in his identification.</p><p>Burial will be this month at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.</p><p>Again, So Glad the U.S. Is Seeing to Identifying These Heroes. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-28270845906902519452024-02-07T09:07:00.000-06:002024-02-07T09:07:20.542-06:00New Fees at USS Arizona MemorialFrom the March 29, 2023, Beat of Hawaii.<div><br /></div><div>As of April 15, a new visitor fee will be implemented at Pearl Harbor to generate funds for the park's maintenance and provide further exhibits, new technology for visitors and security.</div><div><br /></div><div>The fee for parking goes from free to $7 a day. There willstill be no charge for admission and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and USS Arizona Memorial program will remain free of charge.</div><div><br /></div><div>To this day, the USS Arizona Memorail remains the number one in-demand destination for Hawaii tourists.</div><div><br /></div><div>That Is Still Very, Very Reasonable. --GreGen</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-4319928244950224232023-05-13T16:14:00.003-05:002023-05-13T16:14:29.646-05:00Families of USS Arizona's Unknowns Press for Identification<p>From the November 2021 Military History magazine.</p><p>I knew about the USS Oklahoma's unknowns but had never thought about the unknowns of the USS Arizona. Everyone knows of the ones entombed in the hull of that stricken ship, but what about those whose bodies were recovered, but were too messed up to identify?</p><p>The remains of 85 USS Arizona sailors are entombed at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (aka Punchbowl Cemetery) in Honolulu. They are buried as "Unknowns."</p><p>The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has announced plans to reinter ths group's remains on the wreck of the ship. What galls the families of the 85 is that there are no plans to attempt to identify them like was done with the Oklahoma unknowns.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-80314384918175097882023-05-08T13:53:00.001-05:002023-05-08T13:53:58.937-05:00Minelayer Was Converted Into a Brewery During WW II<p>From the May 5, 2023, The WarZone "This minelayer was converted into a floating brewery during World War II" by Oliver Parken.</p><p>In 19544, the British converted the HMS Menestheus into an amenities ship for Allied forces in the Pacific, complete with a brewery.</p><p>The Menestheus was originally a Blue Funnel Line shipping company vessel launched in 1929 by the same name. The British Navy requisitioned it for use as an auxiliary minelayer early in the war.</p><p>As conflict in the European Theater waned and ended, the war in the Pacific was going strong and it was determined that some of the now unneeded minelayers could be altered into so-called amenities ships to help with Allied morale in the Pacific. One of those amenities was to provide freshly brewed beer.</p><p>Before this, beer often spoiled that came from Britain or Australia.</p><p>At the behest of Winston Churchill himself, the Admiralty ordered the Menestheus and sister ship Agamemnon be converted for such duty in 1944. Both ships sailed to Vancouver, British Columbia where their conversion began.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-82742441244119147492023-05-06T09:26:00.004-05:002023-05-06T09:54:56.643-05:00Newly Restored WW II Tower in DelawareAfter 15 years and nearly $2 million in renovations and repairs a World War II-era watch tower is now open to the public at the Delaware Seashore State Park.<div><br /></div><div>The newly rehabilitated tower, known as Tower 3, is one of 15 fire control towers built as part of Fort Miles to defend Delaware Bay and River from German attack and ultimately Philadelphia.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are elevenof these towers still standing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fort Miles had 16-inch naval guns, 12-inch and 8-inch guns as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>These towers were expected to last just ten years. Each tower took 8 days to complete. They ranged in height from 40 to 90 feet. They were built to keep watch on the ocean and direct gunfire in case of an attack (which never happened).</div><div><br /></div><div>GreGen</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-18503336950846270092023-05-04T12:51:00.002-05:002023-05-04T12:51:43.090-05:00USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at Age 103-- Part 2<p>George Coburn and those others that he escaped with were the luckyones of the battleship. Because 429 of their shipmates remained trapped inside and died.</p><p>Coburn continued to serve in the Navy after that in many of the Pacific Campaigns He was aboard the heavy cruiser USS Louisville afterwards and received a Purple Heart during a kamikaze attack on his ship during the Battle of Okinawa.</p><p>The Louisville was struck by two kamikazes on consecutive days. The first one struck on 5 January 1945 and hit the No. 2 main battery (turret) of 8-inch guns, knocking it completely out of commission. It killed one and injured/burned 17 others, including the ship's commander Captain Rex LeGrande Hicks.</p><p>The second kamikaze hit the starboard side of the signal bridge 6 January 1945. Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler, commander of Cruiser Divisin 4, was fatally injutred while helping the sailors to man fire hoses to put out the massive fires. Forty-two were killed and 125 wounded.</p><p>George Coburn left the Navy in May 1946, but then worked as a civilian with the Navy doing contractor and electrician work. He and his wife Jenny settled in San Diego.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-16484053959042551992023-05-02T18:26:00.005-05:002023-05-02T18:28:09.945-05:00USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at 103<p>From the April 29, 2023, Honolulu Star Advertiser "George Coburn, who served throughout Pacific Campaign, dies at 103" by Kevin Knodell.</p><p>USS Oklahoma survivor, George Coburn died April 19 in Oceanside, California, at age 103.</p><p>He was born in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 26, 1919, but his family moved to San Diego shortly after he was born and he grew up in Southern California. Enlisting in the Navy in 1939, he was eventually assigned to the USS Oklahoma and was on board completing an inspection of the ship when the attack came</p><p>As he and his shipmates began climbing to the ship's main deck, several torpedoes hot the ship. The men became trapped beneath a sealed hatch as the ship quickly listed 45 degrees to its port side. The blast also ruptured onboard oil tanks and they found themselves slipping in oil that had pooled on the floor.</p><p>The lights went out and Coburn could hear water pouring into the ship as sailors on the ladder tried frantically to open the hatch to the deck above. They eventually got the hatch opened and he and the others managed to escape through a side porthole that by then was overhead.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-78985613387834388932023-04-29T15:26:00.001-05:002023-04-29T15:26:19.790-05:00When Did It Become World War II (Second World War)?<p>From the September 1, 2018, History "Were they always called World War I and World War II?" by Elizabeth Nix.</p><p>We call it World War II in the United States. England refers to it as the Second World War.</p><p>It is hard to pinpont exactly when the names came into use. During World War I, of course, no one knew there was going to be a second one, so there was no reason to distinguish it. Often, it was referred to as the Great War.</p><p>After initially calling the first one, the European War, U.S. newspapers adopted World War after the country entered the war.</p><p>The term "World War II" first appeared in print all the way back to February 1919, when a Manchester Guardian article used the term, much in the same way people today refer to a World War III. But in 1941, it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who labeled the conflict the "Second World War."</p><p>Even so, in 1942, he asked for name submissions from the public and over the next several weeks, the War Department received 15,000 names ranging from "The War for Civilization" to "The War Against Enslavement."</p><p>However, it was World War II and The Second World War that stuck.</p><p>Now You Know. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-53178763938383413142023-04-27T14:43:00.000-05:002023-04-27T14:43:19.899-05:00Death of Ken Potts, One of USS Arizona's Last Two Survivors-- Part 2Several dozen USS Arizona surivivors have had their ashes interred on the sunken battleship so they could rejoin their shipmates. But Ken Potts did not want that.<div><br /></div><div>"He said he got off once, he's not going on board again," according to Randy Stratton, son of Donald Stratton, another USS Arizona survivor. Stratton said that many Arizona survivors shared a dry sense of humor. </div><div><br /></div><div>That included his own father, who was severely burned in the attack and also did not want to return to the ship as ashes in an urn. "I've been cremated once. I'm not going to be cremated twice," Donald Stratton joked, according to Randy Straton, before his death in 2020 at the age of 97.</div><div><br /></div><div>"They had that all through their lives. They had the sense of humor, and they knew sooner or later they would pass," Randy Stratton said. "Our job now is to keep their memories alive."</div><div><br /></div><div>A Passing. --GreGen</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-24569548111668139322023-04-25T14:43:00.007-05:002023-04-25T14:46:44.576-05:00Ken Potts, One of Last Two USS Arizona Survivors, Dies at Age 102<p>From the April 24, 2023, ABC News.</p><p>Howard Kenton Potts died Friday, April 21 at his home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, Doris. The announcement was given by Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts' USS Arizona shipmate and close froend.</p><p>According to Stratton, Mr. Potts "had all his marbles" but lately was having a hard time</p><p>Potts was born and raised in Honey Bend, Illinois, near Litchfield and Route 66. He had enlisted in the Navy in 1939</p><p>He was working as a crane operator shuttling supplies to the Arizona that morning of attack. He said that a loudspeaker ordered sailors back to their ships, so he got on a boat.</p><p>"When I got back to Pearl Harbor, the whole harbor was afire. The oil had leaked out and caught on fire and was burning," according to him.</p><p>Sailors were tossed or jumped into the oily muck below and Potts and the others pulled them to safety.</p><p>The only remaining survivor now of the USS Arizona is Lou Conter, 101, living in California.</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-57089910278023991932023-04-22T18:09:00.001-05:002023-04-22T18:12:08.499-05:00How Many Are Left?-- Part 2<p>Currently, an average of 180 World War II veterans die each day in the United States. Over the next year, the number of WW II veterans is expectted to fall by half (from 167,284) and by 2034, a little more than 1,000 will still be alive.</p><p>These figures are according to projections by the National World War II Museum.</p><p>Number of living WW II veterans in 2022 in selected states. (To see the list of all states, go to this site in my April 18 post.)</p><p>California 15,946</p><p>Florida 14,823</p><p>Illinois 6,114</p><p>North Carolina 5,061</p><p>Wisconsin 3,700</p><p>Georgia 3,299</p><p>Iowa 1,767</p><p>Hawaii 672</p><p>Alaska 99</p><p>The Greatest Generation. --GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-722987573685829229.post-53405364771073804022023-04-20T15:04:00.002-05:002023-04-25T14:27:21.133-05:00The Greatest Generation: How Many of Them Are Left?<p>Of the estimated 16.3 million Americans who are estimated to have served in WW II, more than 400,000 were killed in action. Today, only 167,284 American veterans who returned home are still alive.</p><p>According to the National WW II Museum, there are an estimated 3,845 veterans living in Minnesota, the 16th most of all states. World War II veterans comprise 1.4% of the state's total veteran population of 265,920. </p><p>Nationwide, WW II vets account for 1% of the overall veteran population.</p><p>Nearly 80 years have passed since the war's end so that means even the youngest and latest joining members are in their 90s and 100s.</p><p>(Growing up, WW II veterans were everywhere among my parents' friends. I could never imagine them becoming so rare at the time. My dad did not serve as he graduated from high school in 1947.)</p><p>--GreGen</p><p><br /></p>RoadDoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16277792950413268265noreply@blogger.com0