Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 5: Like Field Artillery

For D-Day, Admiral Morton Deyo chose the Nevada to serve as the "fighting battleship" where the officer would command Operation Neptune and also be directly involved by firing its guns at German shoreline defenses as Allied troops landed at Utah Beach.

During the shoreline battle, the Nevada's guns took out 71 German tanks with the help of inland spotter planes.

Dick Ramsey said that in the early morning of D-Day, airplanes from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions of the U.S. Army Air Corps dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines on France's Normandy region with the Nevada training its naval guns towards German targets.

"We became field artillery for the 101st and 82nd," Ramsey said.  "We arrived at 1 a.m. in the morning.  We could see all the paratrooper planes coming and going."

--GreGen

The Greatest Generation Receiving Honors: Alfred Chard, Anthony Pircio and Walter Rindy

**  Ohio  WW II Veteran celebrates turning 100:  Dublin, Ohio.  Navy Lt. (JG) Ret.  Alfred Marion Chard celebrated turning 100 March 5 by watching a parade in his honor.  He was born in 1921 in Iowa and grew up there.  He joined the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1941 and enlisted in the Navy a few months later.

During the war, he served on the battleship USS Washington in the South Pacific.  After three years in the Navy, he was in the reserves for a few years more.

**  Manlius, New York  WW II Veteran turns 100.  Anthony Pircio had a parade and military honors March 5.  He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the war as a weatherman.

**  Walter  Rindy, WW II veteran, has been a member of the Mayville, North Dakota, American Legion for 75 years and recently had a surprise ceremony at the Legion.

--GreGen

The Curtiss P-40 B Tomahawk #41-13297-- Part 1: This One at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941

On July 27, 2017, I wrote about the Winds of Freedom Tour coming to the Executive Airport in Chicagoland.  I, unfortunately, did not get there, but while doing research on their planes found out that one of planes among the Collins Foundation's World War II collection is the only surviving airworthy U.S. fighter from the attack on Pearl Harbor.  However, this plane was not at the show last week.

It was a Curtiss P-40 B Tomahawk fighter like the ones the Americans were flying in the movie "Pearl Harbor."

It was one of the 131 P-40 Bs built at the Curtiss facility in Buffalo, New York, between 1940 and 1941..  Its number is Bu No. 41-13297 and it was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Corps in March 1941 and sent to Wheeler Field, Hawaii in April.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor Max Baker Dies: "That Damn Navy, They're Even Practicing on Sundays"

From the June 23, 2016, Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal "Pearl Harbor survivor from Topeka dies at age 94" by Phil Anderson.

Max Baker, 94, died June 11, 2016,. During the attack he was in the U.A. Army Air Corps based at Hickam Field.  The native of Altoona, Pennsylvania, said he had his obituary printed in at least two Pennsylvania newspapers in the days of confusion that followed the attack.

He was in his bunk thinking about getting breakfast when he heard explosions.  "My first thought was 'That damn Navy, they're even practicing on Sundays."

Running out of the barracks, he helped get ammunition and machine guns into two of the few undamaged B-17 bombers at Hickam Field.  A bomb struck his barracks and destroyed his bunk and all of his possessions except his Bible.

He served 52 consecutive months with the 31st Bomb Squadron in the Pacific Theater and moved to Topeka after the war.

--GreGen

LT. Robert R. Hatch, USAAF-- Part 1

Back in March, I went to a presentation about North Carolina's Tuscarora Indians at the Wayne County Museum (an old USO from the war) in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  After the presentation, I was touring the museum and came across a book about Goldsboro and Wayne County men who had died during World War II. 

It was opened to a page and one of the names was that of Robert R. Hatch who died January 10, 1943 in the Pacific area.  He was the son of Mrs. James J. Hatch of N. George Street in Goldsboro.

Well, of course, this sparked my interest in the man so had to do some more research on him.  My father was so impressed with the man that he named my brother after him.  When my parents took him over to meet Mrs. Hatch, she started crying according to my mom. 

Now, that is just quite a coincidence.  --GreGen