Two Brothers Who Died on the USS Oklahoma Identified

From the June 20, 2021, Albuquerque Journal "Brothers killed at Pearl Harbor finally at peace" by Rick Nathanson.

As if the three brothers from Wisconsin dying on the Oklahoma that day, here is another really sad story.  Two more brothers have been identified.

It took nearly 80 years, but brothers Harold and William Trapp were finally given a  formal burial last week at the National memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.  Carol  Sowar along with ten members of her family were at the ceremony for her uncles.

Harold Frank Trapp and his brother William Henry Trapp were both on the USS Oklahoma.

--GreGen

Shorpy Home Front Photos: Riding the Rails and Kicking the Ball

JUNE 17, 2014  TROOP TRAIN: 1943--  March 1943--  "Grants, New Mexico.  Passing a troop train stopping for coal and water on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe between Belen and Gallup."  Jack Delano, OWI.  Moving troops coast-to-coast.

Jack Delano rode the rails a whole lot.

JUNE 12, 2014--  CROSSING GUARD: 1943--  March 1943--  Topock, Arizona (vicinity)  Military sentry at a bridge over the Colorado River along Santa Fe Railroad between Seligman, Arizona, and Needles, California.  Jack Delano, OWI

These above two photos are from the vicinity of Route 66.

JUNE 12, 2014--  THE P.E. CUP: 1943--  Oct. 1943.  Washington, D.C..  "Playing soccer at Woodrow Wilson High School.  Esther Bubley, OWI.  Keeping the kids healthy.

--GreGen

John Anderson, One of Last USS Arizona Survivors, Dies at 98-- Part 1

From the November 16, 2015, AzCentral by Shaun McKinzie.

John Delmar Anderson, the oldest surviving crew member of the fated USS Arizona, died November 14th.  Less than a year earlier, he had returned to Pearl Harbor with three other survivors of that ship to toast the sailors and Marines who died that day which they did on the Arizona Memorial.

Just seven Arizona survivors now remain.

Mr. Anderson was well-known in Roswell, New Mexico as deejay "Cactus Jack" who met Elvis Presley before he made it big.  Later he was a weather meteorologist.

He was born on August 26, 1917 and had a twin brother named Delbert "Jake".  The family had another four sons and four daughters.  They grew up in Minnesota.  In 1937, John and his twin Jake decided to enlist in the Navy.

John reported to Bremerton, Washington, where he was assigned to the USS Arizona and later transferred to an aircraft carrier and then a destroyer before going back to the Arizona where he joined Jake in 1940.

--GreGen

World War II Museums Show Way To VJ Day-- Part 5: National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

It was new President Harry Truman who ultimately made the decision to drop the atom bombs on two Japanese cities--  Hiroshima and Nagasaki--  in August 1945.  The devastating blasts brought the Japanese around to surrendering.

The impact of unleashing the then-new technology can be seen at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The atom bomb was developed at the "secret city" of Los Alamos, N.M., and the first test detonation occurred near Almogordo, N.M..

Curator David Hoover says, "We just present the facts.  We let people draw their own conclusions."

--GreGen

Bataan Survivors, Gray and Stooped, Proud and Unbowed in 2012

From the April 9, 2012, Alamogordo (N.M.) News by Milan Simonich.

Don "Nano" Lucero traveled from his home in Maine one last time to see his buddies who, like him, had survived the infamous Bataan Death March 70 years ago and are still here.

And, there are not many of them left any more.

There are six New Mexico veterans of it.  They met at the Bataan Memorial Building.

They saw fellow prisoners shot for simply not keeping up.  U.S. and Filipino soldiers were bayoneted for trying to sneak a drink of water.  Many were walking skeletons after liberation due to the march and slave labor camps they worked at for the duration of the war (The March was in 1942).

Mr. Lucero, then 20, describes it as "hell on earth."

Some 12,000 Americans and 63,000 Filipino soldiers dug in when the Japanese attack on the Philippines began on the same day as Pearl Harbor was attacked.  Among them were 1,800 Americans from New Mexico from the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery regiments who were called the New Mexico Brigade.

They fought on until finally forced to surrender April 9, 1942, after running out of pretty much everything.  It is estimated that between 7,000 to 10,000 died during the march alone.

--GreGen