Oldest U.S. World War II Veteran, Lawrence N. Brooks, Dies at 112-- Part 1

January 5, 2021, ABC News.

Not only the oldest World War II veteran, but also believed to have been the oldest man in the country died Wednesday, January 5 in New Orleans.

His death was announced by the National World War II Museum and was confirmed by his daughter.

He was born on September 12, 1909, and was passionate about his beloved New Orleans Saints and his church, never missing a service there until the coronavirus.

Originally from Norwood, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge, his family moved to the Mississippi Delta when he was an infant.    He was one of fifteen children and lived too far from the nearest school so his parents taught him what they could.

Brooks was working at a sawmill when he was drafted into  the U.S. Army in 1940.  After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was mostly stationed with the 91st Engineer General Service Regiment in Australia.  This was a mostly black unit.

--GreGen

A Hero's Return Home, Francis Wiemerslage-- Part 5: Buried Next to His Mother Who Never Gave Up Hope

From there, a procession led by the Chicago, Elmwood Park and River Grove police departments was followed by the hearse containing Francis Wiemerslage's remains, with the Patriot Guard Riders and Rolling Thunder members following close behind on their flag-draped motorcycles.

During the 13-mile drive from Midway to the Elms Funeral Home in Elmwood Park, many cars pulled over and pedestrians stopped to stand and salute.

Once at the funeral home, Wiemerslage's casket was brought inside by members of the American Legion and Rolling Thunder.

Wiemerslage's niece Karen Hansen said thinking about the efforts of many that resulted in her uncle's returning home was overwhelming and wonderful and she hoped it would give hope to the thousands of families who haven't received closure about a missing loved one who served in World War II.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for October 23 at St. Crypian Church, then Wiemerslage will be buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in the same crypt as his brother's remains, and next to his mother Vivian, the woman who never gave up hope that her son somewhere survived.

Quite the Story.  --GreGen

Medal of Honor Recipient Desmond Doss Buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery (from Movie 'Hacksaw Ridge')-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919-March 23, 2006)

United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with the infantry.  he was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal  for actions in Guam and the Philippines.

Doss further distinguished himself by saving the lives of 75 men at the Battle of Okinawa.  He is the only conscientious objector in history to receive the medal of Honor.  His life has been the subject of books, a documentary and the 2016 Oscar-winning film "Hacksaw Ridge."

He was from Lynchburg, Virginia, and was a devout Seventh-day Adventist who are firm believers in  nonviolence.

Before the outbreak of the war, he was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia,.  he chose military service, despite being offered a deferment because of his shipyard service.  

He was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division.  Meanwhile, his brother served aboard the USS Lindsey.

Doss refused to kill an enemy soldier or carry a gun dur to his Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.  He consequently became a medic to the 2nd Platoon, Co. B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.

--GreGen

Irish Airman's Grave Found in Russia-- Part 3: Finding Relatives and the Ceremonies

The JCCC place an advertisement in the Duplin People newspaper seeking the long-lost relatives of Edmund Seymour Burke who was born in Dublin.  The story was picked up by a popular radio show host and Maureen Hayes, whose mother was Burke's maternal first cousin came forward saying that as a child she'd heard stories about Burke.

She said that her relatives never knew what had happened to him.  She attended the ceremony in 2017.

Meanwhile Finders  International, a genealogy company, also heard the story on the radio and commenced their own search and found three of Burke's first cousins.  Two of them attended the ceremony in England.

Another distant relative, Andrew Furlong,  even attended a ceremony in Russia at the Vaida Bay Military Cemetery on the Rybachy Peninsula where Burke and Beardsley are buried.  

Furlong said there were about fifty Russian airmen also buried at the cemetery who were shot down  during the Second World War and that the cemetery had been revamped in 2017 and that a Greek Orthodox priest had blessed the graves of the Russians and a British Navy chaplain had done the same for the two British aviators.

--GreGen

Percy Jones Army Hospital-- Part 1: A Varied History

From Wikipedia.

This is where former U.S. Senator Bob Dole recuperated for two and a half years after his wound in Italy during World War II.

It is now part of the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Before it became the Percy Jones Army Hospital, it had a long career, first as  the Western Health Reform Institute which opened in 1866 featuring holistic medicine by the Seventh-Day Adventists.  In 1876, it was acquired by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (invented corn flakes) and it became the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

However, the Great Depression caused the place to go into receivership.

With the United States entry into World War II, it became apparent that places would be needed to treat the large number of wounded military personnel.  

A new use was found for the place.

--GreGen

William J. Hoffman and LeRoy Weber at Pearl Harbor That Day-- Part 1

From the December 9, 2019, Wicked Local "Shore Lore:  Outer Cape to Pearl Harbor" by Don Wilding.

Two men from Eastham and Orleans, Massachusetts, (on Cape Cod) were lucky to survive that day.

William J. Hoffman, of  Eastham, was a civilian  in Naval service where he was the leading man  shipwright in the navy yard docks.  He received a citation after the battle from Secretary of the Navy Frank  Knox, reading in part that Hoffman "in on his own initiative, manning a rowboat and making repeated trips back and forth across the harbor under fire of bombers and machine guns bringing men from abandoned ships to  to the docks in the Navy Yard."

Prior to the attack, LeRoy Webster, from Minnesota at the time, but later a resident of Orleans,  was waiting on the deck of the USS Phoenix for a boat to carry him to the battleship USS West Virginia for church services.

"When the attack began, I was standing there waiting," said Weber. "If the boat had come to get me five minutes earlier, I would have been blown to bits."  The West Virginia was hard hit.

He saw the planes approaching, but, "I didn't realize it was the real thing until I got to my battle station.  I heard firing and bombs -- an then the West Virginia blew up."

--GreGen