Another Illinois Pearl Harbor Unknown Identified: Herbert Jacobson-- Part 2

Their bodies were not recovered until the ship was raised much later.  He was identified in 2019, but reburials were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Jacobson was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery this past September.

McDonald's father was a friend of Jacobson's in boot camp at Great Lakes naval Station north of Chicago.  The father met Jacobson's sister during a visit to Herbert's home in Grayslake and eventually married her.  They've since passed away, never knowing what became of Jacobson's remains.

McDonald, who himself later served as a staff sergeant in the Air Force, said his uncle had considered his assignment to Hawaii like going to paradise.

Before Jacobson's reburial, the family placed a few momentos in the casket-- a USS Oklahoma baseball cap, a handkerchief from Jacobson's mother with the aroma of her perfume and a photo of their home in Grayslake.

"I was overwhelmed," McDonald said.  "We've been waiting a long tme."

--GreGen

Chicagoland Pearl Harbor Survivor Everett 'Jim' Schlegel Dies at Age 102-- Part 1: Tending Mules Near the Base

From the January 14, 2022, 7ABC Chicago News  "Chicago area survivor of Pearl Harbor attack laid to rest in Norridge" by Stacey Baca.

World War II veteran Everett "Jim" Schlegel, of Norridge, Illinois,  was one of the last-known Pearl Harbor survivors from Chicago.  He was remembered today for his service and fun-loving personality.

He died December 31, 2021 and after a memorial service at  Cumberland Chapels in Norridge, he was laid to rest at  Irving Park Cemetery. He is survived by his son, Bill Schlegel and daughter Beverly  Capiga and  six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

"He really tried to make people smile.  He never was negative, he was always a positive person," his son Bill said.

When he got drafted, he had three choices as to assignment.  He picked Hawaii, not knowing that a war would find him first.  The day of the attack, he was  in the U.S. Army tending mules and making sure his fellow soldiers had supplies.  They were based in the hills near the base at Pearl Harbor.

He recalled that nobody knew what was going on.

--GreGen

Two Brothers Who Died on USS Pennsylvania Identified-- Part 2

Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Harold F. Trapp, 24 and Navy Electrician's Mate William H. Trapp, 23, were aboard the USS Oklahoma that day in Pearl Harbor when it capsized and they met their deaths.

They were from La Porte in northwest Indiana.

Distinguishing between the two brothers using their bone DNA would have been difficult except the older brother was taller, so they just measured the bone fragments.

They were born in Chicago, but the family moved to La Porte when they were young.  They earned money picking fruit and caddying at a local golf course.

Harold was more studious, serious and athletic, while William was more artistic and carefree.  Even with these differences, the brothers were extremely close.  Very patriotic, they joined the Navy Reserve while in high school.

It was William who first put forth the idea of enlisting in the regular Navy.  Harold went along with him.  William reported to the Oklahoma in 1939 and Harold the following year.

The hardest thing for the family was not knowing what happened to them until February 19 when the Navy notified them that they had been unable to locate them.

--GreGen

George Halas in the World Wars: Nearly On the SS Eastland and 1919 Rose Bowl MVP

From Wikipedia.

"Papa Bear" George Halas was not just in World War II, but also World War I.

He was founder, player and owner of The Chicago Bears as well as a founder of the NFL.  He was also a member of the first 17 inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Born in Chicago on February 2, 1895, and a very good athlete at several sports.

In 1915 he was working part time at Western Electric in Chicago when he was late for an ill-fated boat trip on the SS Eastland when it capsized killing 844 passengers in the Chicago River.  (I have written about this often in my Cooter's History Thing blog.

He graduated from Crane High School in Chicago then went to the University of Illinois where he played football, basketball and baseball.

During World War I, he was an ensign in the U.S,. Navy and played for the team at Great Lakes  Naval Training Station in North Chicago and was named MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl.  (That is correct.)  At that game, he scored a receiving TD and had a 77-yard pass interception as Great Lakes defeated the Mare Island Marines of California.

--GreGen

Raymond Barker in High School and Enlists in the Marines

Raymond Barker was very smart and went to Lane Tech High School in Chicago where you had to be in the top 10% of your graduating class from primary school.  At the time it was only open to males.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps in Chicago on 5 October 1942 and attended tank school and obtained the rank of Private First Class.  Afterwards, he was sent to Camp Pendleton in California for advanced tank training and became a tank driver in C Company, 1st Corps Tank Battalion (Medium).  Later he attended Camp Eliot where he attended diesel school and attained the rank of corporal.

During training, he kept up correspondence with his family, and his sweetheart back in Wisconsin.

--GreGen

Corp. Raymond Arthur Barker, USMC-- Part 1

From Find-A-Grave

CPL Raymond Arthur Barker

Born:  20 Dec. 1920, Delavan, Wis.
Death: 20 Nov. 1943, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, Kiribati

Burial:  Spring Grove Cemetery, Delavan, Wis.  Lot B, Block 5, Section 0

A rather tall man at 6'4".

Corp. Ray Barker Killed in Action.

Delavan--  Corp. Raymond Barker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harley Barker, former residents here, was killed in action at Tarawa, Nov. 20, according to information just recently received by his parents from the war department.  Corp. Barker had previously been reported missing.

He participated in the Battle of Tarawa as a raider in a medium tank battalion.

Born Dec. 20, 1920, at the Barker farm home, near Delavan, Barker left here during his early youth with his parents, who moved to Evanston, Illinois.  Surviving besides his parents, are two sisters, Mrs S.H. Wright, Chicago, and Mrs. J.A. Gibas, Denver, and a brother , ElbridgeS. Barker, Chicago.

Cpl. Barker has a cenotaph  in the Honolulu Memorial.  A cenotaph is a structure erected in honor of someone whose remains are elsewhere.

--GreGen

Chicago's U-505-- Part 3: About Its Exhibit, Bill Curtis and Volunteers

Of course, the U-boat itself is the focal point of the exhibit, but there are several interactive displays outside the ship, archival media, around 200 artifacts and videos narrated by former WBBM-TV Channel 2 anchorman Bill Curtis that tell the complete story of the U-505.

To actually go on board the submarine, visitors are required to buy a separate ticket for an on-board tour that lasts around 25 minutes.

Despite all the wealth of information and things to see, visitors to the sub often have additional questions and this is where the ship's volunteers stand in. The MSI has a team of thirty of them who work at the site, including 20 who are veterans.

--GreGen

Chicago's U-505-- Part 2: 75th Anniversary of Its Capture This Year

It was captured off the coast of what was French Morocco  in 1944 by Task Force 22.3, a U.S. Navy anti-submarine group commanded by Chicago native Daniel Gallery on June 4, 1944, two days before D-Day.  This past June marked the 75th anniversary of its capture.

This capture was kept top secret during the war.

The U.S. government donated the U-505 to the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in 1954 and it was displayed outside the museum for 5 years.  Chicago weather and the elements caused much deterioration to the ship and in 2005 it was moved to a specially designed indoor facility.  It is one of only four German U-boats still existing worldwide.  All of them are museum ships and not operational any more.

June 4th was the 75th anniversary of its capture and a commemoration ceremony was held at the ship that included a proclamation by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

--GreGen

Her Wedding Dress Made From Husband's Parachute-- Part 7:

Aida and Gerald Bonsonto went on to have four sons, one of whom, Vince, died a few years ago.   Gerald worked as a truck driver and wore his Army boots until they disintegrated, Aida said.

"I wanted to have them bronzed," something she did for her son, Joe, after he returned from serving in Vietnam, she said.   "But he insisted on wearing them every day, as a reminder of all he went through and why he went through it -- for freedom."   It also served as a tribute to his buddies who were killed in action, she said.

"He would say, 'Shut it off. It's not the real thing.  You've got to be there to know what it is really like,' "she said.

Aida said she is lending the dress to the museum instead of donating it, because she has several great granddaughters who might decide they'd like to wear it on their wedding day.

For now the dress will be displayed as a testament to a time when love and war intersected, creating a fahion statement.

So Glad It Is Going To a Museum.  --GreGen

Her Wedding Dress Made From Husband's Parachute-- Part 6: About That Nightgown

For months, Gerald Bonsonto recovered in hospitals in France, England and Capri, Italy.

While in France, he asked a woman to make a nightgown for his bride out of parachute material;.  The long-sleeved, sashed gown even has a nickname, "Edith," embroidered across the top left side.

Aida said that Gerald told her the cost of the seamstresses' work was two packs of cigarettes.

It was a different time, Aida said, and even though she only wore the nightgown on her wedding day, she machine sewed the originally hand-stitched seams to add durability.  She has also hand-washed the gown over the years.

Back then, the parachutes, said Jerry Bonsonto Jr., "were thin and lightweight, designed to get the men down fast so they wouldn't be targets in the air."

Caroline Bonsonto said the parachute nightgown "looks delicate but it is sturdy as steel."

--GreGen

Her Wedding Dress Made From Husband's Parachute-- Part 4: Wrote To Him Every Day

Aida "Edith" Bonsonto shared her story.  She and Jerry, her future husband, lived across the street from each other in Chicago but didn't meet until one summer night in 1938 when she ran into him as she was leaving a neighborhood ice cream shop with her sister.

He was standing on the corner with his cousin and the four got to talking.  "Before you knew it, we were walking and talking," Aida recalled.  "Then he asked me id I'd like to go to a movie."

From there they dated and spent many evenings sitting on her front porch.

By December 1942, when Gerald was inducted into the Army, the couple was going steady.  "Before he left, he asked if I would accept his ring and if I would wait for him," Aida said.  She promised she would.

"I wrote to him every day without fail.  Every day he had a letter from me.  I never stopped writing to him," she said.

A World War II Love Story.  --GreGen

Her Wedding Dress Made From Husband's Parachute-- Part 1

From the July 7, 2019, Chicago Tribune "For 73 years, a wedding dress made from husband's parachute was kept" by Donna Vickroy.

Now it's heading to a WW II museum.

That beautiful day, a crowd gathered in front of Aida's home in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood.  It was her wedding day and she wore a gown made of silk and nylon.  It was light that she felt she was "floating on air."  And, in a way, she was.

The date was June 8, 1946, and that dress had been made from her soon-to-be husband's Army parachute.

She went to Chicago's Holy Family Church and made good on her promise to marry Pfc. Gerald Bonsonto that she had made before he left to fight in World War II.  That promise had almost ended with a sniper's bullet during the Normandy Invasion.

--GreGen

World War II Planes at Chicago Executive Airport This Weekend

It's the Wings of Freedom Tour and your chance to see and walk-through five famous World War II aircraft at  the Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs.

It runs July 25-28 from 9:30 to 5:00 p.m..  Adults pay $15 and children12 and younger $5.

Featured planes:

B-17 Flying Fortress
P-40 Warhawk
B-24 Liberator
B-25 Mitchell
P-51 Mustang

You can also have a Bomber Flight Experience where you go up in one for $400 to $450 and actually fly (with dual control) the two fighters.

Quote An Opportunity.  --GreGen

D-Day + 75 Years- Part 10: American Reaction to the News, Success, But...

In the United States, Americans woke up to the news of D-Day.  A prayer service was held in Chicago at the corner of State and Madison streets.  In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell rang.

Rushing to put out an extra edition, pressmen in Griffin, Georgia, put three pages of the Evening News on the press upside down.  Send them out as is, the publisher ordered.

For awhile, it seemed that subsequent editions would bring dreadful news.  Theodore Roosevelt Jr.'s men fought their way through the German defenses at Utah Beach and were moving inland.  British and Canadian troops were advancing their own sector of the shoreline, but a disaster was unfolding on Omaha Beach.


--GreGen

Lt. Richard Fassl of the "Dogpatch Raider" B-24

From the American  Air Museum in Britain

RICHARD FASSL

On 3 February 1944, B-24D #41-24192 named "Dogpatch Raider"  lost an engine and aborted during a mission to Emden and during the landing attempt the aircraft appeared to lose control and crashed near Hempnall.     Killed in Action (KIA)

2nd lieutenant Richard Fassl was born on February 28, 1920, the son of Ludwig and Mary Fassl.  His hometown was Chicago, Illinois.

He was serving as a bombardier aboard B-24 "Dogpatch Raider" tail  #42-24192, on February 3, 1944.  The bomber, part of 93rd Bomb Group, 328th Bomb Squadron, suffered engine trouble  shortly after Takeoff, and crash-landed at its base at Hardwick.

He is buried at  the U.S. Military Cemetery at Cambridge, England.

--GreGen

Lt. Richard Fassl and George Estes Memorials in Chicago

From the August 26, 2015, WTTW PBS Chicago Ask Geoffrey.  Geoffrey Baer is a noted Chicagoologist who has many shows on WTTW about the history of Chicagoland.

The question asked was :  "There is a World War II killed in action memorial marker to George Estes at Fullerton and Cleveland streets in Chicago.  Who was he, who erected  the memorial and are there other markers like it around the city?"

It is one of a few, vanishing  ones around the city.  George Estes was a seaman second class in the Navy during World War II.  He was killed in action in the South Pacific in October 1944 and buried at sea.  He had lived with his family a few blocks away from the memorial at 2046 N. Orleans.

There is another memorial like the one to Estes two blocks west at Fullerton and Orchard for Richard Fassl.  He was a bombardier and a fellow Lincoln Park resident who was killed in action in England.

Both memorials are taken care of by the Mid=North Neighborhood Association.

--GreGen

Saying a Thank You to Lt. Richard Fassl on Memorial Day-- Part 2

Loving his new country, Richard Fassl did what he knew was right.  He joined the military.  The U.S. Army Air Corps sent him overseas to the European Theater.

There he joined the 93rd Bomb Group, 328th Bomb Squadron.

He never came home.

His remains are not home either, buried in the U.S. Military Cemetery at Cambridge, England.

Every year on the anniversary of Lt. Fassl's death, the article writer, William Dodd Brown, ties a bouquet of flowers to his memorial at Fullerton and Orchard streets in Chicago.

--GreGen

Saying a Thank You to Lt. Richard Fassl on Memorial Day-- Part 1

From the May 27, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times  "Why I will say 'thank you' to Lt. Richard Fassl on Memorial Day" by William Dodd Brown.

"It was going to be a routine mission, but something went terribly wrong.

"On Feb. 3, 1944, shortly after takeoff, the B-24 lost an engine and, returning to base, crash-landed at Hardwick Airfield in England.  Lt. Richard Fassl and eight other crew members were killed.

"There was nothing to be done except to collect the dead, say a few prayers and send a telegram: 'The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your son...'

"Richard Fassl was born in Austria.  Like so many others, past and present, he and his family immigrated to Chicago in the 1920s, hoping to find a better future.  His father, Ludwig, worked as a janitor.

"Growing up, Richard graduated from Lane Tech High School and attended the Illinois Institute of Technology for a year.  By 1942, he had a steady job with ComEd.  Like just about every other young guy in Chicago, he'd get together with some buddies on a Wednesday or Thursday night.  They'd go out bowling, have a few beers, share a few jokes.  Someday, he'd get married, have kids, and start saving for a house.

"But, the war came along.  The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor."

--GreGen

Turner Brass Works, Sycamore, Illinois

From the Made in Chicago Museum   "Turner Brass Works Est. 1871.

In a 1925 article in Sycamore's True Republican newspaper, put it:  "The world's largest exclusive manufacturer of blow torches, fire pots and braziers carry the name Sycamore to every corner of the globe and thus does the lion's share in advertising  its home city."

The company was originally in Chicago until 1907, when it moved to Sycamore, Illinois.   Especially known for their blow torches of which they were one of the biggest makers.

From 1890s to 1990s "when it closed via wrecking ball."

Vintage  Blow Torches site says:  The Turner Brass Works  originally made harness and saddle fittings, as well as components for bicycles.  By the 1890s , Turner was making blowtorches and its merger with another Chicago torch maker, the White Mfg.  Co., led to Turner becoming the largest of all the blowtorch makers.

--GreGen

WW II Vet Ray "Pops" Merrick-- Part 5: The Case of the Mess Kits and Post War

While in India, he volunteered for the night watch and as such could go to the officers' mess and they'd fix him anything he wanted to eat.  On the night shift, his main duty was to guard the planes which were each in revetments, this for bomb safety.

One night, he heard gravel sliding down one of the revetments and drew his pistol and challenged.    "I almost shot them, but I heard their mess kits rattle and knew they were Americans."  He had one himself and knew the sound well.

Mr. Merrick returned to Chicago and says the returning men were treated nicely.  He lived there until moving out to Schaumburg and has lived in Ingleside since 2009.  He went to school with his wife's brother and knew her because she used to play baseball with them.  They married when he came home and had three children.

Ray has been in the VFW, AmVets and our Post 703 since 2009.

Quite A Story.  --GreGen