February 16, 2023
The DPAA today announced that Navy Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Cecil E. Barncord, 24, killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor was accounted for on October 14, 2016.
He was on the USS Oklahoma.
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February 17, 2023
Glen Cyriak of Lake Benton, Minnesota, was on the USS Oklahoma that day and his remains could not be identified until now.
He will be buried at a cemetery near Verdi, Minnesota.
--GreGen
The USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1916. At the time, it was one of the most powerful warships in the world. It had twelve 14-inch guns (three each in four turrets).
It saw action in World War I and in the years following the war served as a training ship and was modernized on several occasions to keep pace with new develoments in naval architecture.
Sadly, its most significant moment in history came at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when it was struck by several bombs, one of which exploded in a forward magazine causing a huge explosion.
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THE BOMB
The Japanese had turned an obsolete 16 inch shell from a Nagato-class battleship into a special bomb. They also had modified obsolete Type 88 shells in 1939-1940 to create the Type 99 Number 80 Mk 5 armor piercing bomb.
You really need to look at this articles for pictures and other information.
--GreGen
From the March 31, 2023, Rebellion Research.
This article has a whole lot of pictures of the USS Arizona dating from its construction to its end. Well worth checking it out for that reason alone.
The battleship was left where it sank for several reasons.
1. Salvaging the ship would have taken a whole lot of resources, time and manpower, something that was needed elsewhere in the war effort.
2. The ship had become the tomb for over 1,000 crew members. Moving it would have disturbed the remains of them and been disrespectful to their memory.
3. Leaving the ship where it was serves as a symbol for their sacrifice.
--GreGen
He promisd the truck drivers that he would pay any ticket fines they received during the trip. When the local authorities learned about what Art Lacey was up to, they fined him $10.
Calling the plane "The Lacey Lady" he placed it over his gas pumps as a canopy where it became an instant hit with locals and travelers alike.
By 2000, the weather and elements had taken its toll and the "Lacey Lady." It was falling apart and a favored nesting area for birds. After Mr. Lacey's death in 2000, his family created the non-profit B-17 Alliance Foundation several years later to preserve the aircraft.
Today, the Lacey Lady can be seen at the B-17 Alliance Foundation Museum & Restoration hangar at Salem Municipal Airport in Oregon.
Sure beats the blah canopies over gas stations these days.
I love it when business owners do something like Mr. Lacey. It fits right in with the Route 66 push to attract customers with something, the more oddball, the better. I'd sure stop there to fill up.
Thanks Art Lacey. --GreGen
Every thing went well until it was time to land the plane. The landing gear failed to deploy and Art Lacey had to land the aircraft on its belly. Luckily for Lacey, the bill of sale had not been signed yet and the base commander took pity on him telling him that it was "the worse case of wind damage he had ever seen" and offered Lacey another B-17 that had only accumulated 50 hours flight time so it was in much better shape.
Not wanting to make the same mistake again, Lacey convinced two of his friends, one of whom had flown B-17s during the war, to come to Oklahoma and help fly the plane back to Oregon. After a refueling stop in Palm Springs, California, the plane took off on the final leg of its journey to Troutdale-Portland Airport.
After landing, the aircraft was taken apart and loaded onto flatbed trucks for transport to his gas station in Milwaukee, Oregon. The problem was that loads needed to be shorter and not as high to permit the journey.
Knowing that he would not be able to obtain a license to do it, Lacey hired a motorcycle escort usually used for funerals and set off for Milwaukee.
--GreGen
From March 28, 2023 KSDK (St. Louis, Mo.) by Sam Clancy.
A World War II soldier from the St. Louis area will finally return home more than 80 years after he was killed.
The remains of Army Private James R. Tash will be interred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on April 7. Tash was a St. Louis native and member of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment.
He was among the thousands of American and Filipino service members captured and taken prisoners of war when the Phillipines surrendered. He endured the Bataan Death March. After the march, he was held at the Cabanatuan POW camp and died on July 19, 1942 at the age of 20.
Private Tash was buried in a common grave and his body was exhumed at the end of the war and eventually reburied at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as an unknown. In early 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency moved the unidentified bodies to Joint Base Pearl Harbor for identification. In September, his remains were identified.
Again, so happy the U.S. government and military is doing this.
--GreGen
From the March 30, 2023, WISN 12 ABC Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Waukesha, Wisconsin.
The World War II veteran known to many as "Dancing Chuck" Franzke has died. He turned 100 years old two days before Christmas 2022. He had begun dancing in his younger days, "When jitterbugging was the big thing, I was jitterbugging."
With his wife of 77 years, Bev, by his side, he just kept on dancing until earlier last year when a fall made him put up his dancing shoes.
He became a world-wide sensation in April 2020 when his dance on his front porch to Justin Timberlake's song "Can't Stop the Feeling" generated hope and optimism during the lockdowns.
Before his birthday last year, word got out that he was turning 100. People sent him birthday cards from around the country. Some schools even sent him videos of the students singing "Happy Birthday" to him.
"I'm the most fortunate old man in the whole world," Franzke said.
--GreGen
From the March 21, 2023 7 KBZK, Bozeman, Montana.
Charlie Dowd of Anaconda, 99, died. He was Montana's last-known living Pearl Harbor survivor. He was just 17 years old when the Japanese attacked.
He recalled being ordered to duck under some tables, and when he heard volunteers were requested to fight back and that he and another sailor grabbed rifles, climbed to the roof of a building and started shooting at the attacking planes.
He died Friday, March 17, 2023.
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From the Helena Independent Record.
He was born in Rochester, New York, on December 23, 1923. In March 1941 of his senior year in high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and trained as a radioman. Stationed at Pearl Harbor, he reported to duty at 11:30 pm on December 6 and worked through the night at a radio-direction finder installation on Ford Island before returning to his barracks.
When he started shooting at the Japanese, he was about fifty yards from the USS California.
Afterwards, he served for 4 years and 10 minths in the Navy and earned two Bronze Stars.
--GreGen
From the March 25, 2023, Fox 25 "U.S. sailor laid to rest 81 years after dying in attack on Pearl Harbor" by Mitchell Doening.
Lubbock, Texas.
Electrician's Mate 1st class Harvey Herber entered the Navy from Washington and served on the USS Oklahoma for eleven years before he died on his ship.
For decades his remains were at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
--GreGen
From the March 18, 2023, AP News.
The remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Gregory V. Knoll, 22, of Hill City, Kansas, were idenntified in january by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
He was assigned to Company M, 3rd Battalion, 112th Infantry regiment, 28th Infantry Division during the war. In November 1944, his battalion was overrun by German forces as they tried to capture Schmidt, Germany, in Hurtgen Forest.
Surviviors of the attack withdrew to Kommerscheidt, where Knoll was reported killed in action on November 7, 1944.
The American Graves Registration Command conducted several investigations in the Hurtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to find his remains.
His remains had been found, but unidentified and buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium in 1949. They were disinterred in 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where scientists used DNA and other analysis to identify his remains.
He will be buried on July 7 in Garden City.
I am so glad that the United States makes this effort to find our missing military people.
--GreGen
From the March 20, 2023, Monticello Gazette (MIssissippi) by Dick Hogan.
Donald Stott died on December 7, 1941, on board the battleship USS Oklahoma. He was 19 at the time.
He is returning home to Montcello for burial this Saturday, March 25.
At the time of his death he was Seaman 1st Class.
He had joined the Navy at age 17 after his father agreed and signed the papers to allow him to do so.
His nephew, Tom Brokaw, Jr., of Monticelloe said his remains were in Omaha, Nebraska, earlier this month waiting transport by hearse to Monticello. The remains will be laid to rest March 25 at Oakwood Cemetery in Monticello with full military honors provided by the U.S. Navy.
Donald Stott was born February 27, 1922 in Monticello.
--GreGen
From the December 28, 2021, Port City (Wilmington, N.C.) Daily.
Died on September 16, 2021, in Massachusetts, formerly of Hamstead, N.C.
Born in Cooperstown, N.Y. Enlisted in the Navy at age 18 and served during World War II as signalman on the battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) in the Pacific Ocean from 1940-1946.
He was at Pearl Harbor and told his stories many times.
The Greatest Generation.
From the March 8, 2023, "We Are the Mighty."
Jack Holder joined the U.S. Navy in 1940 at age 18. Born in Texas to a farm family, he would become a naval aviator and fly more than 100 missions during World War II. He flew these in both the European and Pacific Theaters of the conflict. And, he also survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In December 7, 1941, he was on Ford's Island in the middle of Pearl Harbor when the attack came. He had to dive into a ditch to survive Japanese strafing. He remembered praying, "God, please don't let me die in this ditch."
"The first bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor was about 100 yards from me." He later "saw guys swimming through burning oil in the water." After the strafing, he took cover behind sandbags in a machine gun pit, a position he would maintain for the next three days.
--GreGen
In addition to these successes, another USS New Jersey barrel was moved from St. Julien's Creek Annex to Trophy Park at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the 1990s.
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The final barrel at St. Julien's is #270 which was on the USS Iowa during World War II and the Korean War. (This barrel is also the first production barrel of the Mark 7 series.) The fate of this historical barrel is currently being decided as the USS Iowa Veterans Association and the CDsG have been fundraising the $150,000 needed to move and display the barrel at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story (to be placed near the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse) at Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The USS Iowa 16-inch Battleship Barrel Memorial will honor Navy veterans who homeported in Hampton Roads, Virginia, as well as the Army troops who defended the Cheseapeake Bay during World War II at Fort Story.
Thos effort so far has rased $90,000 and corporate sponsorships are still being sought.
Let's Hope They Get It. --GreGen
As these barrels also saw wartime service in World War II and the Korean War, organizations that might want to preserve them were approached.
These barrels were placed at St. Julien's Creek in the 1980s as replacements when the four Iowa-class battleships were brought back into active service.
Now, in 2022, we have good news. Seven of the barrels now have found a new home despite the challenge of raising the money to do so. The remaining barrel hopefully will be preserved soon.
Here are relocations since 2011:
** A USS Missouri barrel to Cape Henlopen State Park (location of the former Battery Smith at Fort Miles) in Delaware to be part of the Fort Miles Museum
** Another USS Missouri gun to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge at Cape Charles, Virginia, (location of the former Battery Winslow at Fort John Custis) to be placed in the battery's casemate.
--GreGen
