Another Canteen BUMP
God Bless these warriors!
Posted on 09/06/2002 1:34:31 PM PDT by Utah Girl
They don't exactly look like a bunch of Arnold Schwarzeneggers, seated around a table at the downtown Plaza Hotel in their air-cushioned shoes, sloping shoulders, white hair and hearing aids.
But whatever you do, don't bet against these guys.
They are the men of the 20th Pursuit Squadron, United States Army Air Corps, who were stationed in the Philippine Islands when World War II began almost 61 years ago now, in early December of 1941. First, Pearl Harbor was bombed in Hawaii, then, nine hours later, Clark Field in the Philippines was bombed, with the men of the 20th Pursuit (Fighter Plane) Squadron smack in the middle of the fight.
Twenty or more members from the original squad of 216 soldiers were lost that first day of the war. More fell during a four-month siege in the Bataan Peninsula, as U.S. and Filipino armies 100,000 soldiers strong held out against the invading Japanese until they ran low on food, medicine, fuel, bullets and energy. Still more fell during the infamous Bataan Death March — an 85-mile forced march at the hands of the enemy that lasted more than a week with almost no food, water or rest and a Japanese bayonet awaiting anyone who stepped out of line. Many more succumbed during three long years as prisoners of war, much of that time spent doing slave labor in shipyards, steel mills and coal and copper mines in Japan.
For the men of the 20th, World War II was a fight simply to survive.
By the time the war ended in the fall of 1945, 63 soldiers — about a fourth of the original squadron — returned to America. Now, more than half-a-century later, 19 remain, 11 of whom are in Salt Lake this weekend for the outfit's annual reunion.
In something of a statistical anomaly for a national unit that began in California, four of the 20th Pursuit's 19 survivors are Utahns. Three of them — Harold Poole of Salt Lake City, Johnny Johnson of Sandy and Gene Jacobsen of St. George — are healthy enough to be at the Plaza, spinning tales, while a fourth, Grant McDonald of Bountiful, is recovering from a recent operation and able to attend only in spirit.
Before the weekend is over, these veterans will take a tour of Hill Air Force Base, where the base museum contains P-40 fighter planes like the ones they once maintained and flew, they will attend the Tabernacle Choir broadcast on Sunday morning, they'll visit Utah Olympic Park, and they'll have dinner with Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson.
But mostly, they'll bond together as they have for each of the past dozen years or so, because the further it recedes, the more precious their shared past becomes.
Thursday night, as six of the group arrived, they were already passing around their old black-and-white photos of open cockpit airplanes, Clark Field before the bombing and young soldiers in the Philippines, circa 1941, with white teeth, ramrod straight postures, bulging muscles and their whole lives in front of them.
Who could have guessed the ordeal that lay in their path — a minefield of surrender, captivity, disease, slave labor and starvation that would shrink the strongest of them to half their fighting weight?
"Really, it's unbelievable to think about what we went through," said Doug Idlett of Herndon, Va., as he pored over the old photos with his old buddies. "Sometimes it's hard to believe it actually happened."
But it did happen, and seated around a table this week at the downtown Plaza Hotel are 11 tough men who are living proof of that.
/john
Another Canteen BUMP
God Bless these warriors!
If these men had not put their lives on the line, day after day, I would be a slave to the Axis.
They deserve every honor, every medal, every kind of 'thank you' that we have.
The Naval battles were incredible and brutal. Entire ships were blown up with the loss of most on board. Fire on a ship is a nightmare in peace time. Fire on a ship when the enemy is shelling you or bombing you would have to be an incredible nightmare that stayed with the survivors the rest of their life.
The bombing missions over Europe took an incredible toll. Actual land invasions in Italy and Normandy were won by sheer bravery by our guys on the land and those supporting them from the air and the sea.
This is not to take away from those who served after WWII, but these guys were as you noted, THE GREATEST GENERATION!
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