Sgt. Eddie Hrycaj is shown in his dress uniform after World War II. Photo provided
About the time Corpsman Eddie Hrycaj landed on Guadalcanal in 1943 with the 101st Medical Regiment that took charge of the 52nd Field Hospital attached to the Army’s Americal Division the tide of war was starting to turn against the emperor’s troops. Read the rest of this entry »
At 18, James Friel was on liberty in Honolulu with the rest of the fleet during World War II. Photo provided
It was pitch dark 64 years ago this past week, when Seaman 1st Class James Friel of south Punta Gorda, Fla. jumped from the fantail of the USS Walke (DD-416) into Iron Bottom Sound at Guadalcanal after his destroyer was hit by a Japanese torpedo. Read the rest of this entry »
Ken Budd looks at a scrapbook of photos taken during his four trips to Guadalcanal since 1985 searching for his brother, Robert. Sun photo by Don Moore
Ken Budd has an obsession.
For 25 years he’s been trying to locate the remains of his older brother who was killed on Guadalcanal during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. j.g. Vernon Martens served in Marine legend “Chesty” Puller’s battalion during the battles for Guadalcanal and New Briton in the Pacific during World War II. Sun photo by Don Moore
Lt. j.g. Vernon Martens United States Marine Corps was in the first wave of “Leathernecks” on the beach at Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942. A doctor in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, he came ashore with his 1906 Springfield rifle in one hand and his medical supplies in the other. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Hugo Filizetti about the time he was shipped overseas. He was 21 at the time this picture was taken. Photo provided
Pfc. Hugo Filizetti was an “expert marksman” in World War II. That was his undoing.
Here he is a second lieutenant serving in the Second World War. Clark received the Silver Star for gallantry under fire during WWII. Photo provided by Al Clark
Col. Al R. Clark of Port Charlotte, Fla. joined the Oregon National Guard in 1935 at the age of 15. Before his 33-year regular Army career was over, he saw action on the front lines in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »
An American soldier talks to several Japanese who surrendered months after U.S. forces had captured the island. Note the white flag over the shoulder of the enemy soldier at the left. Photo provided by Walter Mitchell
Cpl. Walter Mitchell of Englewood, Fla. turned part of Guadalcanal, a major South Pacific battlefield in World War II, into a 5,000-acre truck farm once Japanese troops had been defeated. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Pfc. Homer Beach shortly after graduating from Parris Island, S. C. in 1942. Photo provided
Homer Beach was a “Buffalo,” amphibious vehicle driver, in the 3rd Marine Division. The 20-year-old corporal drove assault troops ashore on Guam, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima during World World II. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Frank Garcia is pictured in the back row, second from the right in this Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper published during World War II. Photo provided
A week after the Japanese bombed the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, dragging the United States into World War II, Frank Garcia joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Read the rest of this entry »
Ray Kari, who winters at Lettuce Lake Campground south of Arcadia, Fla., had an “out of body experience” after being shot while serving as a medic in the Pacific Theatre in World War II. Sun photo by Jeffery Langlois
Pvt. Ray Kari was the youngest, least-trained medic in Company B, 169th Infantry, 43rd Division when he waded ashore in the middle of the night on a small attol just off New Georgia Island in the southwest Pacific a lifetime ago. Read the rest of this entry »
“Slim” Russell is pictured standing on the wing of an F6F Grumman Hellcat Navy fighter he flew shortly after World War II. Photo provided
“At Guadalcanal, I was almost a war hero to the Japanese,” Allard Guy “Slim” Russell of Sarasota, Fla. said with a smile. “I dropped the first 500-pound bomb on the 75-mile long, 25-mile-wide enemy-held South Pacific island. Read the rest of this entry »
Ralph Weir, 20, is pictured in his dress uniform at Kings Point, the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, N.Y. during World War II. His is the third cadet from the right. Photo provided
Ralph Weir graduated from Kings Point, the Merchant Marine Academy, on Long Island, N.Y., during the middle of World War II. He went to sea as a cadet-midshipman aboard a liberty ship full of war supplies, the John Carroll, sailing out of San Francisco, Calif., for Australia on June 3, 1943. Read the rest of this entry »
For grateful service: An Army sergeant presents Betty Turner with her husband, Hudson Turner’s, burial flag during a service held Monday afternoon at the Sarasota, Fla. Veterans National Cemetery. At Betty’s far left is her son, Philip and her daughters: Carolyn and Elizabeth. Sun photo by Don Moore
A VFW chaplain said a few words, two soldiers in dress uniforms folded an American flag into a precise triangle and handed it gently to the widow, a rifle squad fired three volleys and Taps was played as 50 mourners bowed their heads. Read the rest of this entry »
At 20 Pfc. Hudson Turner from Greenwich, Conn. has his sights set on his future wife, Betty, whom he married in New Zealand shortly after World War II. Photo provided
His story could have been a page out of “South Pacific,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hit musical set in the Solomon Islands during World War II.
Miles Carpenter of Park Forrest subdivision in Englewood, Fla. looks at a plaque listing the military engagements the light cruiser USS Phoenix took part in during World War II. He was a chief petty officer in the forward engine room of the ship throughout the war. Sun photo by Don Moore
“We were anchored at Pearl about 1,000 feet from Battleship Row when the Japs attacked,” the 85-year-old former sailor recalled. “We got underway in 17 minutes, but our path to the open sea was blocked by the battleship West Virginia that had been torpedoed and run up on a shoal to keep from sinking.” Read the rest of this entry »
When George Bothum of Venice, Fla. got out of boot camp before going aboard the destroyer USS Claxton during World War II this his how he looked at 17. Photo provided
Long before the Kamikaze attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, off Luzon in the Philippine Islands during World War II, the USS Claxton with George Bothum aboard saw considerable action in the Solomon Islands off Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Tillage earlier in the war.
In the academy: This was Harold Clark of Punta Gorda Isles at 21 when he joined the Merchant Marine Academy in 1942. Photo provided
Harold Clark served as a 3rd Mate in the Merchant Marines during World War II. He sailed the Atlantic and Pacific in slow-moving Liberty and Victory ships filled with life-saving cargo for the war front and the home front. Read the rest of this entry »
This is how Cpl. John Seelie of Englewood looked after returning from the Pacific Theatre of Operations during World War II. He served in the 25th Infantry Division at Guadalcanal and New Georgia after surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo provided
John Seelie of Englewood, Fla. was supposed to box the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He was a champion welterweight who just joined the 25th Infantry Division stationed at Schofield Barracks outside of Honolulu, Hawaii. Read the rest of this entry »
Hal Ross holds a World War II souvenir he will never forget. A Japanese 7.7 millimeter Army rifle. Sun photo by Jonathan Fredin.
Hal Ross of Port Charlotte, Fla. was trained as a member of the 10th Mountain Division in World War II, but ended up fighting the Japanese in the jungle islands of the South Pacific.
‘The 19-year-old son of a New York State Baptist minister knew he was a long way from home when he became part of the Americal Division, the 182nd Infantry Division on Guadalcanal. His unit arrived at the ‘canal late. They were used as mop-up troops. The Marines, who were there first, stopped the Japanese’s westward offensive for the first time during the war at Guadalcanal.
After three months of clean-up duty the 182nd was shipped to Bougainville in the Solomon Islands 500 miles away.
“We took the landing at Bougainville pretty easily,” he recalled. “It wasn’t long before we owned half the island and the Japanese held the other half.”
His unit was ordered on a mission to capture Japanese prisoners.
“The lieutenant in charge of this patrol pointed to me and said, ‘tomorrow morning you’re gonna be first scout.’
“That put him out front at the head of a patrol. It was not a good place to be. Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. Charles P. Bailey Sr. of Punta Gorda, Fla. in 1943 upon graduating as a Tuskegee Airman. The Germans called his all-black 99th Fighter Squadron the “Black Birdmen.” Photo provided
Lt. Charles Bailey, Sr. was the last of the line. He was the last of Punta Gorda, Fla.’s “Fighting Bailey Brothers.” The last of a family of seven sons and two daughters who distinguished themselves in war and in life during World War II, Korea and much of the 20th Century. Read the rest of this entry »
