Organizers have set a theme of "Everlasting Legacy" for the ceremony, highlighting how fewer and fewer survivors remain.
"We honestly have to know and be prepared that eventually we won't have the ability to connect with their stories and have them with us anymore," David Kilton of the NPS said.
Conter hasn't forgotten his shipmates.
He said he'd like the military to try to identify USS Arizona sailors whose bodies were found and buried as unknowns in a Honolulu cemetery after the war.
"They should never give up on that issue. If they're ever identified, I'm sure their families would want to bury them at home or wherever, but they should never give up on trying to identfy them," he said.
--GreGen
On Wednesday, December 7, the U.S. Navy and the National Park service will host a remembrance ceremony at Pearl Harbor in honor of those killed.
Last year about 30 survivors and some 100 other veterans of the war made the pilgrimage to the annual event. But, they only anticipate one or two survivors will likely attend this year's event in person. Another 20-30 veterans of World War II are also expected to be there.
Lou Conter won't be among them, however. He attended for many years, most recently in 2019. But his doctor has told him the five-hour flight, plus hours of waiting in airports, is too strenuous for him now.
"I'm going to be 102 now. It's kind of hard to mess around," Conter said.
Instead, he plans to watch a video feed of this year's 81st anniversary observance from home. He's also recorded a message that will be played for those attending.
--GreGen
This is the final entry in the story of Herbert Jacobson, one of the USS Oklahoma's unknowns who had since been identified and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. I wrote about this story in seven of my eight blogs today.
Brad McDonald has a half-inch thick booklet containing the massive amount of technology and analysis used to identify his uncle and the other USS Oklahoma unknowns.
Of the 429 crewmen killed on the ship, 22 are still unidentified, likely because DNA samples from relatives weren't available, Brad McDonald said. He and other family members are traveling from Wisconin for the burial simply feel fortunate to have closure.
"It's a solemn occasion, but there's a sense of joy involved because we've been waiting a long time for this," he said. "For me, it's nothing short of a miracle that they can identify someone who died 81 years ago."
A Great Story.
Back on October 11, 2022, I wrote about the christening of a new U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Basilone (DDG-122). It was named after World War II Marine Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone.
From the Arlington National Cemetery site.
JOHN BASILONE
Section 12, Grave 384
Gunnery Sergeant John Basolone (1916-1945) was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraodinary heroism in combat at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in October 1942. During the brutal fighting with heavy casualties on both sides, he killed at least 38 Japanese soldiers.
He returned home to a hero's welcome, including a parade featured in "Life" magazine.
But, he requested to return to combat, stating that he was "just a plain soldier" who belonged with his unit.
On February 19, 1945, Basilone was killed in action leading an assault on the beaches of Iwo Jima. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the only enlisted Marine to be honored with both the Navy cross and the Medal of Honor..
--GreGen
In the last post I wrote about his burial in Illinois after years of not being identified. I am very thankful for the DPAA and all their efforts to identify American unknowns.
This death notice from 1942 accompanied the article from yesterday and had a picture of him.
**************************
KILLED IN ACTION
Keith Warren, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tipsword of Effingham, has been killed in action, his parents were notified by the U.S. Navy department Tuesday. He was a first-class machinist.
The date of his death and details were not given. Keith, who was 27 last June, had been in the navy since 1936.
He was born and reared in Effingham county.
Besides his parents, he leaves two brothers, Dean, in the army, and Hugh, in Idaho, and four sisters, Mrs. Gail Stanford, Mrs. Frances Jean White, Betty Fay and Dalyne Tipsford, all of Effingham.
***************************
--GreGen
From the November 16, 2022, Stars & Stripes.
Beecher City, Illinois
An Illinois sailor who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has been laid to rest in his home state more than eighty years after his death.
U.S. Navy Machinist's Mate 1st Class Keith Tipswood was buried Thursday alongside his parents and other relatives at Moccasin Cemetery near the rural Central Illinois village of Beecher City.
Tipsword was 27 years old when he was killed aboard the battleship USS West Virginia.
His remains were buried as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, but they were identified this year by the defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)
Dalyne Sapp of Effingham, the last of his siblings surviving attended Tuesday's funeral sefrvice. Sapp, 86, said her brother is now buried near the family farm where he grew up among the "hills and hollers" of Effingham County's Moccasin Township.
--GreGen
From the November 13, 2022, CBSNews.
Two World War II-era planes collided while doing a flyover at a commemorative event in Texas Saturday, crashing to the ground and erupting into a ball of flames that left onlookers shocked and dismayed.
Six people were aboard the two planes when it happened and all six were killed.
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra were participating in the Air Force's Wings Over Dallas air show when they collided mid-air near the Dallas Executive Airport just before 1:30 p.m. local time.
Neither plane had flight data recorders (black boxes) so authorities are seeking photos and video from the public.
Several videos posted on Twitter showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly plummet to the ground and setting off a huge ball of fire and smoke.
Air safety, particularly ones where older military aircraft are flying, have been a concern for years. In 2011, 11 people were killed inj Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Ct., killing seven people.
The NSTB said back then that they had investigated 21 accidents since 1982, involving WW II bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.
So Sad. --GreGen
From the November 11, 2022, Las Vegas Review-Journal by Mark Credico.
Dozens of people gathered on Veterans Day at the Las Vegas Masonic Memorial Temple to pay tribute to Ed Hall who died November 2 at age 99.
In 2017, Mr. Hall received his high school diploma. He had not gotten it earlier because he enlisted in the Army at age 16. He was 18 when Pearl Harbor was attacked..
He was cleaning a frying pan in the mess hall at Hickam Field when the attack came. After he was pulled to cover and regained his wits, Hall commandeered a pickup truck and drove around the base for hours with a medic to rescue as many wounded as he could find. At one point, multiple bullets came through the cab of the truck, missing them, but shattering the windshield.
Hall lost a lot of friends that, something that he never forgot.
Hall's ashes will be interred in the Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery on Hawaii.
--GreGen
From the November 10, 2022, Press (California) by Melissa van Ruiten.
If you look west after sunset in Friday, November 11, you'll notice a familiar light shining atop Mt. Diablo.
In honor of Veterans Day, nonprofit land conservation organization, Save Mount Diablo, will be lighting the summit beacon.
This follows a joint proclamation that was issued in February of this year stating that the beacon will be lit on Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Pearl Harbor Day sunset to sunrise, beginning in 2022 and every year thereafter.
Signatories of the proclamation included members of local veterans groups, California State Parks, bational. state and local elected officials and Save Mount Diablo members.
Story continued in my other blogs today.
A Nice Touch. --GreGen
From the November 2, 2022, Stars and Stripes "Service members recently identified from past conflicts include trio killed at Pearl Harbor."
At least five service members were accounted for last month by the Defense Department agency tasked with recovering U.S. troops listed as missing in action or prisoners of war.
Three of those identified by the Hawaii-based Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) were killed at Pearl Harbor in World War II and two fought in Korea.
All three Pearl Harbor men were on Battleship Row on December 7, 1941.
Edward Conway, an electrician's mate from Auburn, Illinois, was on the USS Oklahoma. His remains were identified on October 1.
Floyd Clifford was a machinist mate from Mulvane, Kansas, who also was killed on the Oklahoma.
Keith Tipsword, a machinist mate from Moccasin, Illinois, was on board the battleship USS West Virginia.
Their remains were identified July 12 and Septrmber 27, respectively.
I will have the two from Korea in my Cooter's History Thing blog today.
--GreGen
From the November 7, 2022, Effingham (Illinois) Radio "Former Navy machinist mate 1st class and Effingham County native Keith Tipsworth returning home."
More than eighty years after his death at Pearl Harbor, Effingham native Keith Tipsworth is coming home. He was a Navy Machinsit Mate 1st Class stationed on the battleship USS West Virginia that fateful day and one of 106 crewmen aboard the ship who were killed.
His remains will arrive at St. Louis Lambert Airport on Thursday, November 10 and will make their way to Effingham to Johnson Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, November 15 at the funeral home with visitation prior to the service from 10 to 11 am.
Burial will be at Moccasin Cemetery in rural Beecher City, Illinois.
--GreGen
Fron November 4, 2022, KSN, NBC News
Edward C. Casinger was just twenty years old when he lost his life on the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. Now, 81 years later, his remains will be buried with full military honors.
He was born in Manhattan, Kansas, on May 12, 1920, and enlisted in the Navy as an apprentice seaman on July 9, 1940, in St. Louis, Missouri. He eventually rose to the rank of Fireman 2nd Class by late fall 1941.
He lost his life on the USS Oklahoma. When the ship was finally uprighted in 1944, only the remains of 35 of the 429 dead could be indentified. He was among them and buried as an"Unknown."
His remains were accounted for October 1, 2021, through the work of the DPAA and will be buried on Noevember 19, 2022, at Arlington National Cemetery.
--GreGen
From the November 5, 2022, Daily Mail by Andrea Cavallier.
Ed Hall, 99, died November 2 at the North Las Vegas VA Center. He was just 18 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
In 2020, he had said he was saddened to know that he was believed too be the last Pearl Harbor survivor in Nevada.
On that fateful day, he was an Army private and on kitchen duty cleaning a frying pan when he heard what he thought to be a malfunctioning air compressor. But when he walked outside the mess hall at Hickam Field he saw a full-blown attack going on.
--GreGen
From the November 3, 2022, KFYR TV "World War II soldier from ND identified 80 years after he was killed in action" by Hope Sisk.
Army Pfc. Robert Alexander was only 27 when he was killed by Japanese forces in a mass suicide attack on his regiment in the Mariana Islands near Guam in July 1944.
The native of Tolley, North Dakota, could not be identified until June 2022 when the Department of Defense 's accounting agency ussed dental and DNA to determine his remains.
He will soon be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, November 14.
--GreGen
From Wikipedia.
JULIUS ELLSBERRY (August22, 1921-December 7, 1941)
He was the first Alabamian killed in World War II. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Parker High School in 1938.
Enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was serving on the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) when the attack came. He and 413 other crewmen died.
The Birmingham World called him the "Crispus Attucks of World War II."
Birmingham's black community raised over $300,000 in war bond purchases towards the completion of a B-24 Liberator named "The Spirit of Ellsberry."
His body was returned to his family in September 1948 and was laid to rest with full military honors at New Grove Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
Birmingham's Ellsberry Park was dedicated in his honor in 1979.
A marker to him is also in Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham. The park is named for fellow Navy sailor and Birmingham resident Kelly Ingram, the first American killed in World War I when his ship the destroyer USS Cassin was sunk by a German U-boat on October 15, 1917.
--GreGen
