Lt. Col. Earl Hancock Ellis (1880-1923): Marine, Visionary and Spy

Sixty-seven years ago, my late father was an eighteen year old Marine who survived the landing on Guam's Red Beach 2 with Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, the slaughter on Bundschu Ridge where only he and a dozen other Marines were not killed or terribly wounded, the largest and most savage Banzai charge of the Pacific war and fighting toward the northern jungles of Guam in the Marianas. Guam was American soil and had been taken by Japan hours after Pearl Harbor. From 1941-1944, America captured islands from Japan through amphibious assault. Vast fleets of ships brought troops to shore, covered by air and ship-to-shore bombardments from plans developed by a Marine officer in the 1920's. Though Guam was declared secured on August 10, 1944, fighting on Guam would continue after Japan surrendered.

Twenty one years before and a year before my Dad's birth, another Marine, a forty-three year old Lieutenant Colonel and the man who developed amphibious warfare doctrine, on authorized leave and in the guise of an American Businessman for the Hughes Trading Company died under mysterious circumstances on the Japanese controlled islands of Palau group in the Caroline Islands. Earl Hancock "Pete" Ellis joined the Marines in 1900 in Chicago, Illinois, as a private. Ellis served on Guam and the Philippines and was commissioned as an officer in 1901.

From 1901 up to WWI, Pete Ellis earned a reputation as planning genius and as a violent alcoholic. Ellis proved, on Guam during an exercise, that heavy artillery could be successfully landed in an amphibious attack. During a very dull dinner with a Navy chaplain, Ellis livened things up by shooting the glasses off of the dinner table. The balance of genius and self-destruction kept Pete Ellis in the game.

During WWI, Ellis rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and directed operations and planning for the 4th Marine Brigade through the Armistice. For his courage and genius French Marshal Foch awarded the Marine Brigade honors still worn of the uniforms of certain regiments and said this of Pete Ellis, "From the 2nd to the 10th of October, 1918, near Blanc Mont, Lieutenant Colonel Ellis has shown a high sense of duty. Thanks to his intelligence, his courage and hi energy, the operations that this Brigade (Fourth Brigade, Second Division) took part in, have always been successful."

Military men should and do plan for the next war and Ellis was certain that America would face the growing ambitions of Japan in a vast and bloody conflict on the earth's greates ocean. The Pacific and Japan dominated Ellis' thoughts and energies, but beer and whiskey controlled his blood stream and toxified his vital organs. Lt. Col. was hospitalized several times for alcohol related illnesses immediately after the World War, but, in 1920,he energetically drafted a study for the necessity to plan for war across the Pacific Ocean.

"Operation Plan 712 - Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia", which underlined that in the events of hostilities of Japan, advanced bases would be required to support the fleet. To include that the Territory of Hawaii constituted the 'only' support for the United States Navy due to the lack of facilities in the Philippines and Guam. In since, Japan has already occupied the Marshall, Caroline, and the Palau Islands, which flanked the U.S. lines of communications in the region by more than 2,300 miles. Ellis's conclusion in his document predicted that Japan will initiate the war, and furthermore indicating that Japan would stay near their own territorial waters until encountered by the U.S. fleet. He also added that great losses to the Marine forces would occur during the amphibious assault in what he termed "ship-shore belt". He advised the war planners to avoid 'blue-water' transfers, to form task forces prior to leaving base ports, and not to divide units up among several transports.

'... a major fleet action would decide the war in the Pacific; the U.S. fleet would be 25 percent superior to that of the enemy; the enemy would hold his main fleet within his defense line; fleet unites must be husbanded; preliminary activities of the U.S fleet must be accomplished with a minimum of assets; Marine Corps forces must be self-sustaining; long, drawn-out operations must be avoided to afford the greatest protection to the fleet; sea objectives must include a fleet anchorage.'[

Wikipedia

It is at this point the Father of Amphibious Warfare asked for and received the permission of Marine Corps Commendant John Lejune and Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. to quietly resign his commission and travel incognito through Japan's expanding Pacific empire.

A recent biography and study of Lt. Col. Ellis by Dirk Anthony Balendorf and Merrill L. Bartlett probes the mysterious death of Ellis and the loss of the charts, maps, tide schedules, and reports that were confiscated by the Japanese upon his death.

Tomorrow, I will post more on this fascinating American.

Author Scott Carmichael to Help Retieve Remains of Marines Killed on Guam

My father, Patrick E. Hickey ( carrying the tripod in the photo), died last April 25, 2010. Most of the young men in his WWII Marine Company - Able, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines were wounded or killed on this day. Author Scott Carmichael is completing a book on my Dad's Company and the battles that he never talked about for the balance of his life. I informed him that my cousin Willie had found my Dad's Seabag with the number 312 stenciled next to his name. Mr. Carmichael replied -

Wow. Do you know what the number 312 represents? The men used a numbering
system for their gear. They didn't take their seabags along as they rode
their amtraks onto the beach, of course. Seabags were left behind on the
LSTs, for later retrieval. The men numbered not only their seabags, but a
lot of other equipment and gear. 312 = 3rd Marine Regiment/1st Battalion/2nd
company. The headquarters company was always listed as the 1st company
(311). That made Able company the 2nd company in the battalion (312).
Thanks for the information about the photograph.
The photograph above was confirmed to be my Dad carrying the tripod of the machine gun.

Mr. Carmichael contacted me days after my Dad passed away. He was looking for the few survivors of Able Company. Marine Lt. Krawiec died in January 0f 2010, but the gentle and humorous Mr. Troup still lives with his wife and the horrible and multiple wounds he received on Red Beach 2 Sixty Six years ago. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Troup, back in May.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Scott Carmichael about the progress on the book and sent me two photos of Marine mess gear found by two Boy Scouts on the ridge above the Asan landing beaches, in 1961 - several Marines from the Headquarters Company were attached to Able Company in the assault on Bundschu Ridge and their bodies were never discovered and are believed to be on that ridge yet.

Scott Carmichael wants to assist in the recovery of these young men lost in July, 1944 while Liberating Guam. Here is the note -

Pat,

It’s ( profress on the book) coming along fairly well. Lately, I have been populating my outline with the many (thousands) tidbits of information which I developed during the research phase of the project – akin to putting a jigsaw puzzle together, to form a whole picture. So far, my outline runs to 180+ pages. Quite an outline. I’d estimate that the outline is 75-80% complete. Once the outline is complete, I will be either ready to write – or, burned out.

Ran into a snag while planning travel to Guam to look for the remains of our Marine on Bundschu Ridge – funding. My wife looked at the estimated cost and put her foot down. Well, I’m developing work-arounds. I’ve secured free lodging through a relative of a friend…, and I submitted an application to the USMC Heritage Foundation for a grant to cover the expense of airfare. Still waiting to hear from the Foundation regarding the grant. My travel partner – Joe Tuttle, who was one of the ‘young men’ who discovered the remains of a Marine on Bundschu Ridge circa 1961 – believes that he will be ready to go in November – just in time for your article, I suppose (though, Joe insists upon maintaining a low profile regarding this search for the remains. Joe feels fairly confident that he will be able to find them. But this is a very personal effort, for him. He feels quite guilty for leaving that young Marine on the ridge.). So…, if I get the grant, we hope to travel to Guam in November. Mention of the book project in the Irish American News would be a good idea. . . .

I don’t recall whether I provided the attached photos to you in an earlier email. Photos of the canteen found on Bundschu Ridge circa 1961 by Joe Tuttle and friends. This is the canteen which was found with the remains of that Marine. Thought you might enjoy it.

Scott Carmichael

Author Scott Carmichael Completing Book on Captain Geary Bundschu - Guam Hero and My Father's Skipper

After my Dad passed away on April 25th, I was contacted by author Scott Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael is the author of two books - one about the return of Apollo 11 and the other about a Cuban spy. Scott Carmichael has been doing research on the horrific fight for Bundschu Ridge - part of the Chorito Cliff system near Guam's Adelup Point. Ir was here on July 21, 1944 that the 21st Battlion, 3rd Marines of 3rd Marine Division landed on Red Beach One and lost more men that day than the entire 3rd Division in the Bougainville Campaign.

Mr. Carmichael had interviewed a gentleman from Michigan who had been a close friend of my father and had intended to speak with my father's platoon commander who had died in January of this year. The subject of the book is the battle and the man for whom the men of Able Company named the ridge systen - their "Skipper" ( WWII Marines refered to the Company Commander as The Skipper) - Captain Geary Bundschu, USMCR - recipient of the Navy Cross ( post.). The gentleman in Michigan and I talked shortly after my father's funeral. He and the platoon commander were badly wounded and evacuated on the first day of the battle. My father and very few of his comrades survived that fight and continued through the Guam campaign and later Iwo Jima.

I saw this news article about SCott Carmnichael's book on Apollo 11 -click my post title for more.


Carmichael, meanwhile, already has completed most of the research for his next book, tentatively titled "Bundschu Ridge." He said the book is a "nonfictional account of an effort by USMC Capt. Geary R. Bundschu* to seize a prominent ridge located inland of the Asan Beach landing zone during the July 21, 1944, liberation of Guam."

Four men in the company were left behind; known to have been killed in action, their bodies never were recovered.

Carmichael thinks he has located the body of one of the Marines whose body remains on Bundschu ridge. He said he hopes he and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii can retrieve it within the next few months.

*B

UNDSCHU, GEARY R.
Citation:
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Geary R. Bundschu (0-8276), Captain, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as Commanding Officer of Company A, First Battalion, Third Marines, THIRD Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on the Asan-Adelup Beachhead, Guam, Marianas Islands, on 22 July 1944. With his company pinned down by bitter hostile machine-gun, mortar and rifle fire during an advance up a vital enemy ridge, Captain Bundschu unhesitatingly exposed himself to an intense barrage from Japanese guns and, fearlessly proceeding forward, observed and sketched the enemy position retarding the advance of his unit. Again making himself a target for hostile weapons, despite painful wounds in the shoulder, he continued to observe enemy defenses and skillfully reorganized his men in preparation for another fierce assault against the Japanese-held ridge. Although his right arm was rendered useless by a grenade fragment when his platoon was caught in a hostile machine-gun crossfire and simultaneously subjected to a vicious grenade attack, Captain Bundschu courageously directed his men to take cover then, valiantly pressing forward succeeded in destroying the nearest Japanese machine-gun position with grenades before he was mortally wounded. His great personal courage and inspiring leadership in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Commander In Chief, Pacific Forces, Serial: 004424 (December 18, 1945)
Home Town: Oakland, California

My Dad's Pacific Part 2 and His Final Fight

Presidential Unit Citation w/2 Bronze Stars
Navy Unit Commendation w/ 4 Bronze Stars
Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Streamer w/1 Silver Star
World War II Victory Streamer

On Thursday, my brother called and told me that my sister had taken my Dad to Palos Hospital ER.

That morning, my Dad told my brother that he had 'kind of a stomach ache.' My Mom was in a rehabilitation facility in Palos Park, following a knee replacement. Mom swims and walks and her muscle tone is great. Dad has been without his girl for about a week and we thought maybe his stomach issues were concern.

Like most of the Irish and especially men of his generation, Dad believes that if one avoids doctors, one is well.

Not the case. Dad had a blocked colon and it had ruptured - probably days before. Dr. Kanashira, a beautiful Japanese American woman and his doctor, questioned Dad, 'How could you stand the agony?' With his usual understatement he replied, " I'm a Marine."

He is that. I learned from Dick Prendergast ( Leo '43) about ten years ago, just how much of a Marine this man is - They went into the Corps together at 17 years of age. My daughter Clare has a picture of my Dad, Dick Prendergast and the late Dick Burke, a Chicago Fire Captain as young tough Marines on Guadalcanal before Guam. They are skinny and hard looking eighteen year olds. Dad had just come back from Bougainville.

Dad was court-martial ed for being AWOL after Boot Camp. He went home on liberty, but his train back to San Diego was side-barred. He was late getting back; court-martial ed and offered the choice of Navy prison or the Solomon Islands. He chose the later.

Without basic infantry training, Dad was sent to Guadalcanal in September of 1943 and trained as a machine gunner with veterans of that battle. He was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines of the 3rd Marine Division. He went to Bougainville in November, 1943 and fought there.

Dick Prendergast trained to be a Signal Corps officer with Joint Assault Signal Companies and arrived on Guadalcanal in 1944. He and my Dad met up again and Dick learned why Hickey went overseas and was veteran.

They went to Guam next. Guam was a slaughter for the 3rd Marines.

At 0829, the attack was directed at the 2000 yards of beach between Asan and Adelup points. The 3rd Marines landed on Red Beach 1, on the left flank. Being closest to Adelup Point, they soon realized that the Japanese were secured in effective defensive positions within the Adelup Point and upon Chonito Cliff, the high ground overlooking the beach. . . . One tunnel system, 400 yards long, connected Chorito Cliff with Adelup Point. Japanese troops could retire to positions on the back-slope of the ridge during intense shelling, and return out to the peninsula behind the U.S. Marines landing on the beach. The Americans realized that their worst obstacle would be the 'almost impossible' terrain facing them (Lodge 1998:40). Troops advancing toward Chorito Cliff and Bundschu Ridge took heavy losses. Four times they attempted to advance up rugged cliffs covered with sword grass. Four times they were pushed back. Climbing up the 60 degree slope required two handed climbing that made it impossible to return fire. Marines lay piled at the bottom of the ridges and the others were forced back to the beaches over and over until reaching success (Gailey 1988:95-97). Heat of over 90 degrees, intense humidity, lack of drinking water, and motion sickness from the long confinement aboard the ships brought the efficiency rate of troops down to 75%. By mid-afternoon, many men were dropping from exhaustion. By day's end, the regiment invading Asan beach counted 231 killed or wounded. Of the 100 amphibious trucks (DUKW's) available, thirty-six were lost during the landing and immediate assault phase on Asan Beach. . . . Three days after W-Day, (24 July) the Southern Landing Force had its beachhead firmly established. The steep cliffs and ridges surrounding both Asan and Agat beaches again took their toll on the troops. Weighed down with the intense heat and humidity, and lacking adequate drinking water, the troops advanced on the ridges that sometimes required two handed climbing through razor sharp sword grass. The cliffs were so steep that supplies were sent up on ropes. Advancement over the ridges often required repeated efforts and caused significant losses (Gailey 1998:97).

The largest Banzai Charge of the Pacific war hit the men on Guam. One account says it all.

"On the left flank, the 3rd Marines is just having a terrible time," Eddy said. Eddy's platoon was being sent into a situation becoming more and more desperate - the battle line along Chorito Cliff and the ridge that would be named after Capt. Geary Bundschu. "You know, the Marines are always doing things like that, moving units. So ... we are detached from F Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Marines - we take the place of A Company of the 1st Battalion, 3d Marines, - we take the place of the unit of Capt. Bundschu," Eddy said.

While the entire 3d Marines met stifling opposition on and near Red Beach 1, Bundschu and the rest of Company A were particularly mauled by the enemy. Caught in the ridge by machine gun fire from above, the unit could not move forward or backward.

Bundschu would lose his life on the ridge, becoming one of the 3d's 615 men killed, missing, or wounded in the first two days of fighting. As a unit, A Company was barely hanging on. . . . Harassed by well-placed and hidden machine guns atop the cliff and above on the ridge, the 3d managed to scale the cliff about noon of July 21, reach beyond the ridge later, and onto Fonte Plateau by July 25. But its frontline by July 25 still did not solidly contact with that of the 21st; a gap also existed between the 21st and 9th. . . . Takashina's counterattack was unlike the banzai charges experienced before by the Marines in the Pacific. This one was well-planned and coordinated; the objective defined - to thunder through the gaps, down the ravines (between ComNavMar and Top O' the Mar restaurant) and onto the beachheads. There, troops of the Rising Sun would be able to put the Americans into disarray by disrupting their communications as well as halt resupply of Marines above, thus isolating them.

Through the night, Takashina sent thousands of his soldiers into the gaps, hoping that his counterattack force would reach the beachheads. The force was comprised of seven battalions funneling into four columns through the 3rd Marine Division's frontline.. . . . ( a veteran) , who had fought in Bougainville and Iwo Jima and in other battles, said the night of July 25-26 in Guam was a living nightmare. He and his men repulsed not one, not two but seven banzai charges that night.

"It was the most traumatic experience I ever had, it will live in my memory forever," he said. Fighting was at close quarters. "I had expected to be in battle, but never anything like this. When you think about fighting, you think that you're 100 yards away, but this was pretty gruesome, fighting them from 20 feet away and they're running all around you and screaming. "They were of a different culture. They did things that Marines wouldn't do - yelling, screaming. They didn't give a shit if they got killed; they just wanted to make sure that you got killed. That was what got to you - they wanted to die. They were willing to sacrifice themselves, "They were screaming at us. There was 'Marine, you die,' - they were screaming all that kind of BS, and we'd return it. I remember George Tuthill - he was one of my machine gun section leaders - and he had a loud voice, extremely loud. He'd be shooting, yelling, just things that you couldn't print.

"It's all silly, like little kids yelling at each other, but it's all desperation too." . . . The men along the front line were told that the enemy was 2,000 yards ahead. "We were beat - we were all trying to get some rest. Then a flare went up again, and like all of a sudden, I saw them. They were there, in front of us."

"Thousands ... they were like ants. Oh man, they kicked the shit out of us. They just kept coming, coming."

Dad was one of about thirteen men in Company A to survive Guam. He went to Iwo Jima as a part of the reserve force , but the 3rd Marines were ordered back to Guam where they continued to fight in the jungle until long after the War Ended. Dad came home to Chicago in November 1945 and never left. He never went on a cruise. He put the War far behind him and dedicated every fiber in his being to his wife, three kids and his Union - Local 399.

Like most WWII veterans he refered to his time in the War as 'In the Service.' Everyone else had it much worse than he did. Dr. Grasias who did the surgery on Dad remarked on the Japanese grenade fragments that he still carries.

The grenade fragments are of no consequence to the man who possess them still. A blood clot found its way up and the veteran of Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima is being hammered by an 'evolving stroke.'

I pray that the morphine drip and the other medicines allow Dad to bypass what he has stored.

Please God, give him baseball at Billy Smith Field on 79th Street, smooch and hug time with his girl Ginny, play with his grandchildren and big icy pitchers of Keeley's Half and Half ( hi favorite beer of all time - that and 'whatever you got') in the company of Donny, Bud, Jack, Bart, Sy and Mike his brothers; candy with Joan, Nonnie, Margarite, Mary, and Kathleen his sisters - his favorite and Irish twin Helen is still with us thank God; pay-back breakfasts with my wife Mary, hugs from his mother Nora and eternal peace with father Lawrence - with whom he never seemed to get along. He's earned this.

He has been up many hills and trails in the jungle, let him have smooth path to Christ.

Single User Government Run Hygiene Will Follow the Tipping of Guam

“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.” Hank Johnson, (D-GA)

Guam has been occupied by the Spanish, the Americans, the Japanese and is an American Territory. My Dad still carries Japanese grenade fragments that he got as souvenirs on Guam from July 21st through Oct. 1945, with a trip to Iwo Jima in between.

I wrote a novel, read by tens of people, centered on Guam.

Today, a Georgia Congressman warned that Guam might tip over. Thoughtful.

Hank Johnson begged America to get behind Obama Care. This intellectual Giant just might help President Obama earn government control over all of us beasts of the earth.

Hank, you are a caution.

Click my post title for more from Hank, hat tip to Max Weismann and Anne Leary's Backyard Conservative

Obama Policy of "Strategic Reassurance" - China will not rub his belly.

"Dubbed "strategic reassurance," the policy aims to convince the Chinese that the United States has no intention of containing their rising power. Details remain to be seen, but as with the Russia "reset," it is bound to make American allies nervous." NEWSWEEK

In keeping with this new, humbler U.S. profile, Obama is going to Asia with very little to offer and everything to ask. His every movement and talking point in China will be shadowed by the knowledge that the United States desperately needs Beijing to keep buying U.S. debt (of course the Chinese also need U.S. growth to resume quickly so they can keep exporting). He will do little to press President Hu Jintao on human rights or climate change, even with the Copenhagen summit looming. With no legislation on carbon emissions likely from Congress—Obama tends to defer to the Hill on everything from health care to financial reform to climate change—in Copenhagen the administration's goals have been reduced to "not letting it fail," as one Western official put it. In Japan and South Korea, Obama will have nothing new to offer on what those two countries consider thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif preeminent security threat, North Korea.

NEWSWEEK

Newsweek has a tone less than flattering of David Brooks' favorite Pants-Crease President? Newsweek going Rogue, on President Obama?


Newsweek home of MSNBC hack Jonathon Alter, who stretches every New Deal trope from his swell book about FDR into an Obama belly Rub?

This worm has done turned, Murial.

President Obama is about to bow to his sensai - the next one up!

America is defending Japan from China and North Korea and let's toss in Russia as well.

The Marines have been stationed on Okinawa since Japan surrendered - through the Cold War, Korea, and our continuing war with Islamist Fascism - which President Obama refuses to acknowledge at home and especially abroad. Japan's Prime Minister Hatoyama wanted a Marine Air Base moved out of Okinawa as well as the planned transfer of 9,000 Marines to Guam -"During the election campaign, especially to the Okinawans, I've stated that we would consider relocation outside of Okinawa and outside of the country," Hatoyama said. "It is a fact that we did campaign on this issue, and the Okinawans do have high expectations."

"It will be a very difficult issue for sure, but as time goes by, I think it will become even more difficult to resolve the issue. Especially the residents in the Futenma district will find it even more difficult to resolve the issue as time goes by." Guam NewsFactor,com

President Obama's Strategy of Reassurance is directed toward America's Rivals - particularly China and Russia -and not its Allies.

President Obama has dithered on his war in Afghanistan and all this point to his policy of retreat from there as well as Iraq.

President Obama's Justice Department decided to put America on trial in New York City with the idiotic show trials of 9-11 Terrorist that will draw and quarter America's War on Terrorism that ended in January 2009.

President Obama's Strategy of Reassurance is a policy that every friendly, timid and fawning puppy plays out on its back.

Here its is

For decades, U.S. strategy toward China has had two complementary elements. The first was to bring China into the "family of nations" through engagement. The second was to make sure China did not become too dominant, through balancing. The Clinton administration pushed for China's accession to the World Trade Organization and normalized trade but also strengthened the U.S. military alliance with Japan. The Bush administration fostered close economic ties and improved strategic cooperation with China. But the United States also forged a strategic partnership with India and enhanced its relations with Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. The strategy has been to give China a greater stake in peace, while maintaining a balance of power in the region favorable to democratic allies and American interests.

"Strategic reassurance" seems to chart a different course. Senior officials liken the policy to the British accommodation of a rising United States at the end of the 19th century, which entailed ceding the Western Hemisphere to American hegemony. Lingering behind this concept is an assumption of America's inevitable decline.

Yet nothing would do more to hasten decline than to follow this path. The British accommodation of America's rise was based on close ideological kinship. British leaders recognized the United States as a strategic ally in a dangerous world -- as proved true throughout the 20th century. No serious person would imagine a similar grand alliance and "special relationship" between an autocratic China and a democratic United States. For the Chinese -- true realists -- the competition with the United States in East Asia is very much a zero-sum game.

For that reason, "strategic reassurance" is likely to fail. The Obama administration cannot back out of the region any time soon; Obama's trip this week, in fact, seems designed to demonstrate American staying power. Nor is China likely to end or slow its efforts to militarily and economically dominate the region. So it will quickly become obvious that no one on either side feels reassured.

President Obama wants the world to know that the Bush Years are over and so are the FDR,Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and WW Bush years.

The Carter Years are here, again! God help America and our friends.

Guam Honors Two More Heroes Killed Defending America and North Korea Fires Another Missile

In the black and white photos above - Two Woman display an American Flag kept safe from the Japanese from 1941 until July 21, 1944 and another shows a memorial by Chamorros of Guam for their families and neighbors murdered by the Japanese during the Occupation of Guam. The People of Guam remain the most loyal Americans.

Ceremony Held In Honor Of Two Fallen Guam Soldiers
Written by Nick Delgado, Pacific News Center - Guam, Saipan, CNMI, Asia-Pacific

Friday, 29 May 2009 17:04
Guam

Guam - The Guam national guard held a formal banner unfurling ceremony this morning at the Guam international airport to honor two of its fallen soldiers.

Sergeant Brian Leon Guerrero and sergeant Samson Mora were killed while deployed to Afghanistan in support of operation enduring freedom in July of last year. The banners were added to the recently displaced-but restored memorial in the airport's east ticket lobby.

Earlier this year, the banners were removed and replaced with painted sea turtles. The displacement of the banners raised concerns from many of Guam's veterans. In response, the airport put the memorial back up.

Meanwhile, the airport continues to work with the national guard in creating a permanent brass memorial plaque in honor of the fallen.

The Obama Administration sees no 'imminent threat' to the American People. Guam is America's foreward base in Harm's Way. Guam has lost more of its sons and daughters defending America per capita than any Territory or State. Guam is being targeted by North Korea.

North Korea in complete mad-dog unwillingness to 'listen' fired another missile.

North Korea has fired another short-range missile off its east coast, the sixth such launch since it tested a nuclear weapon on Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency has reported.

Friday's reported test-fire followed a statement from North Korea's foreign ministry pledging to respond if the UN Security Council agreed any fresh sanctions over the tests.

"If the UN Security Council provokes us, our additional self-defence measures will be inevitable," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Any hostile acts by the UN Security Council will be tantamount to the demolition of the armistice," it said in a reference to the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953.

The North has previously test-fired short-range missiles into the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, often during periods of tension in the region.

North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on Monday and followed it up with a series of short-range missile launches, all in violation of a UN resolution.

No reinforcements

But despite the growing tensions, the US defence secretary has said that Washington is not planning to add to the 28,000 US troops already stationed on the Korean peninsula. . . .

Robert Gates said that the situation had not yet reached crisis levels and there had been no unusual moves by the North Korean military since its carried out the nuclear test.

"I don't think there is a need for us

Pakistan is going Taliban. Iran is doing as it pleases. North Korea is dominating the world stage and threatening Peace on the Planet. I am getting reports that warn of this threat from Al Jazeera, while MSNBC worries about Gay Marriage, CNN milks Roland Burris, and the news papers cover Susan Boyle.



President Obama is making Jimmy Carter look like Chesty Puller.

American Guam! Heads Up! North Korea Called President Obama's Hand.

I have never been to Guam but I immersed myself in its history to write a novel. The Hafa Adai Spirit* of the Chamorros ( the heroic People of Guam) translates to American Patriotism. Guam lost more men per capita in Vietnam and in the Wars in Iraq than any other American State or Territory.

Guam has been America's strategic chip since the Spanish American War.

Guam will become the home of the Marines in the Pacific, when the forward bases on Okinawa are closed.

Guam is in striking distance of North Korean Taepodong missles.

Last November, Ambassador Bolton warned the empathetic and elegant Obama Team:

Will North Korea -- whoever is in charge -- now kick back and wait for Jan. 20? The list of questions is far longer than the list of Mr. Obama's answers.

To repeat, it is much too early to draw larger conclusions from this one episode. On the existing postelection evidence, we cannot tell whether Mr. Obama will govern on the left or the center-left, or whether he is simply passive and risk-averse. But on balance, his conversation with Mr. Kaczynski points toward a weakening of the U.S. defense posture, indifference to allies under duress, and the need to satisfy his natural constituency within the Democratic Party. Let us now await the next pieces of evidence.

I do not believe that North Korea will attack South Korea or Japan. I believe that they will strike a crippling blow to America at Guam.

President Obama! Get smart on missle defences! The People of Guam have sacrificed enough for our country. Let's start doing something for them - ahead of the clock.

*http://members.tripod.com/Pereda-Family/id92.htm

Pentecost,Memorial Day and a Young Man's Death

Veni, Creator Spiritus is the hymn that Terry McEldowney will sing at today's 10:30 Mass for Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church here on the south side.

Terry McEldowney has one of the most powerful and rich baritones in Western Civilization - he is especially poignant when remembering our Fallen Veterans and in reminding weak Catholics like me of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Max Weissmann is the Director of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas at University of Chicago. Mr. Weissmann, an architect and philosopher, helped Mortimer Adler develop the Center. Max sent me the photos posted above.

Terry and Max know loss. Terry and Max know the power of Faith. I am proud to call each man my friend.

This is the Feast of The Ascension of Christ.

Next Sunday is the Feast of the Pentecost, which memorializes the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon Mary the Mother of God and the Twelve Apostles. This might be considered a more powerful Feast than Christmas or Easter to Christians, as it recounts the sense of loss experienced by the Apostles and Christ's Mother following the Ascension of Christ. All of us lose those we love. The saddest of us are the ones who lose themselves - forget our roots, our family, our obligations and our place in God's Hands.

Tomorrow, we also celebrate the loss of men and women who have given their lives for our Country. My Dad was a seventeen year old who went to the Solomon Islands in 1943 with the 3rd Marines, and then fought at Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima and mopped up Guam some more until he was mustered out of the service. He is now a seventeen year old octogenarian, who has witnessed the ascension of his mother, father, brothers and sisters, friends, and daughter in law ( my wife Mary). He will be at 9AM Mass in Orland Park with his bride. He will hear Veni, Creator Spiritus

A family near me, lost their baby. Jack Callahan was a big strapping eighteen year old Marist football player who died following a seizure hours before his graduation from high school. ( click my post title for Mark Konkol's touching story)

My baby son, who worked at Di Cola's Fish Market until late last night, is sleeping. My baby girls are sleeping.

On the Pentecost, God sent his Spirit to revive us. On Memorial Day, we as a nation recall the babies who sacrificed themselves for Liberty.

Tell me God does not know what He is doing. Tell me that God not only sent the Holy Ghost, but also Terry McEldowney and Max Weissmann, outside of His Plan. Faith happens, when we let go of what is meant to return to Him according to that plan and also, when we try to make sense of the beautiful, as well as the terrible, sent as a gift to each of us.

Veni, Creator! We'll remember.

Veni, creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.

Come Holy Spirit, creator, come
from your bright heavenly throne,
come take possession of our souls
and make them all your own

My Dad - Guam in 1944 and St. Cajetan's Vet Services 2008

My Dad, Pfc.Patrick E. Hickey USMCR, a machine gunner with Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines was photographed on Guam in July, 1944. He was 19 years old at the time and a veteran of the Bougainville Campaign in the Solomon Islands in 1943. The following year he would go to Iwo Jima and return to Guam where he 'checked caves until he came home in November 1945 - he had the Points. Yesterday, the kids of St. Cajetan School in my Morgan Park neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, honored the Veterans of our Parish. My Dad is featured at the beginning of the video and had trouble standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

St. Cajetan Parish is honored by the service of about twenty young men now deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He met a 'young guy' who served in the 3rd Marines during Operation Desert Storm and told him 'Semper Fi, Mac.'

Thank you to St. Cajetan's School!

Click my post title for great Southtown Star coverage of kids giving touching tribute to our heroes -Old and Young.

John McCain: Wright's Oafish Slur of 3rd Marines & Calvary at Guam - for real.

But Mr. McCain took a different approach at a news conference here when he criticized Mr. Wright for, as the senator paraphrased him, “comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our Savior, I mean being involved in that” and for “saying that Al Qaeda and the American flag were the same flags.” …
Mr. McCain said that he did not believe that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, shared those views and that he was still against the advertisement in North Carolina. But he suggested that Mr. Obama had made the subject fair play by declaring in an interview shown over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday” that questions about Mr. Wright were “a legitimate political issue.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/the-early-word-mccain-takes-up-wright-issue/


McCain and other Americans should be concerned about Wright's words - here's the real context: 3rd Marines at Guam reported by Cyril O'Brien, later White House Correspondent for the Baltimore Sun and a combat correspondent with the 3rd Marines:


The Taking of Chonito Ridge*
The following is a dispatch written by Marine Combat Correspondent Private First Class Cyril J. O'Brien in the field after the combat action he describes in his story. It was released for publication in the United States sometime after the event (always after families were notified of the wounding or death of the Marines mentioned.) This story is reprinted from the carbon copy of the file which he retained of the stories he filed from the Pacific.

Guam July 24 (Delayed)—The first frontal attack on steep Chonito Ridge was made one hour after the Marine landing.

An infantry squad, led by Second Lieutenant James A. Gallo, 24, 172 Broadway, Haverstraw, NY., approached to within ten yards of the tip. The crest bloomed with machine gun fire. In the face of it the Marine company tried its first assault. The company was thrown back before it had advanced forty yards.

For fifty hours the company remained on the naked slope, trying again and again to storm the Jap entrenchments hardly one hundred yards away. Battered almost to annihilation, the tenacious Marines finally saw another company take the ridge from the rear.

Failing in the first rush the company had formed a flimsy defense line not fifty yards from the enemy. Cover was scant. Some Marines had only tufts of grass to shield them. The Japs were rolling grenades down the crest, and blasting the Marines with knee mortars from over the summit.


Under the cover of dusk the company commander led a second attack. As the Marines rose machine gun fire swept into them. The commander, and three Marines reached the crest. The last fifty feet were almost vertical. The attackers grasped roots and dug their feet into the soft earth to keep from falling down the incline.

The commander went over the ridge. He never came back. The remaining three Marines were ripped by cross fire. One saved himself by jumping into an enemy fox hole.

Beaten again, the company retired to a small ravine, and remained there all night. One Marine, shot through both legs, was asking for morphine. Another's thigh was ripped by shell fragments. A PFC, his dry tongue swollen, tried to whisper the range of an enemy sniper.

At eleven in the morning of the 22d, with little more a third of their original number, the company rushed hillside again.

Lieutenant Gallo led an assault on the left flank of the hill, but was thrown back. Sergeant Charles V. Bomar, 33, 4002 Gulf St., Houston, Tex., with nine Marines attempted to take the right ground of the slope. Five were killed as they left the ravine. The sergeant and three others reached the top of the slope.

The Japs again rolled grenades down the incline. One exploded under the chest of a Marine nearby, blowing off his head. Another grenade bounced off the helmet of the sergeant. It was a dud.

The Marines charged into the Jap entrenchment. The sergeant killed a Jap machine gunner with the butt of his carbine. The assistant gunner exploded a grenade against his body. The blast threw the Marines out of the hole. They jumped into vacated enemy foxholes. A lieutenant who had come to join them was shot between the eyes by a sniper. The sergeant killed the sniper with his carbine.

Unable to hold their positions, the sergeant and his companies returned to the shelter of the ravine. With the shattered remnants of the company they waited for nearly another 24 hours, until darting Marines on the top of the ridge showed Chonito had been taken from the rear.

Field commanders soon came to appreciate the effect these so-called "Joe Blow" stories had on the morale of their men. The stories were printed in hometown newspapers and were clipped and sent to the troops in the Pacific who could then see that their efforts were being publicized and appreciated at home.

* 'Chonito' was misnamed on dated American Naval Maps in 1944 - The Chamorros of Guam called it Chorito Cliff

For more context- click my post title

Spike O'Donnell and Buck Weaver from The Chorito Hog Leg

Spike was embroiled in a court battle with one of the Boy
Scout contractors who ‘The O’Donnell’ had helped secure
a City contract to re-pave Ashland Avenue from 71st to 95th
Streets – about $ 200,000 net for the mealy-mouthed slob.
Spike had contacted all of the right boys from the anchor to
the top-mast of Public Works Administration and the final
sign off by Mayor Ed Kelly himself. Now the crumb welched
on consultant’s fee and went crying to the Cook County States
Attorney that Spike was shaking him down. But, hey, only
suckers beef. The Treasurer would help Spike brown the sugar
from this lump of blubber.
Joanie Cullen always talked to Spike when the Biddies and
the High hats avoided his gaze and immediate touch like Spike
was a leper. ‘Good morning Mister O’Donnell, Sister Malachy
said to say hello to you when I saw you this morning and I told
Sister that I you never missed Mass.’
O’Donnell was delighted by this skinny little chit in her veil
and with rosary beads twined around her mitt like a knuckleduster.
Joanie Cullen had eyes the size of the hub-caps on
O’Donnell’s Chrysler parked at the steps of St. Sabina’s. Father
Gorey was taking his own good time in getting down from the
sacristy in the hopes that Spike would disappear; Spike liked to
hang around just to tease the new guy taking Monsignor Egan’s
place.
‘What’d ‘Chin-Whiskers’ have to say for herself, Joanie? She
looking to take a few inches off my wallet for you fine young
woman over at old Mercy High? That crone scares me back
into Church, Honey. What’d she want any way?’
Joanie loved the gangster, like one her uncles. O’Donnell
had been shot in the back the previous March when all the
asphalt contracting hoopla had made it into the newspapers
and became an issue in Mayor Kelly’s re-election campaign
– the greater issue was whether or not Spike would live, but the
natural born tough guy recovered after a few weeks in Little
Company of Mary Hospital and his standard walks around the neighborhood. Joanie – and everyone else in Chicago – had heard
of his reputation as a bad man, but knew that tough dapper daily
communicant who was so devoted to his wife, children, brothers
and neighbors that he put out the glad hand and offer of help
to anyone he met. He was as funny as Mr. Duffy the political
boss and more at ease than Buck Weaver, the disgraced third baseman
from the Black Sox days who lived in a nice house
over in Little Flower parish on Winchester Street. Those three
men sat out in front of Hanley’s House of Happiness and played
pinochle almost every day or in front of the electrical appliance
store near the White Castle hamburger stand at 79th & Loomis.
Buck Weaver had a job as the Vice President of Standard State
Bank – the safest Bank in Chicago – because Spike banked
there – and had devoted most of his life to restoring his good
name in baseball. Buck Weaver had known that his teammates
were taking Arnold Rothstein’s payoffs but refused to be a rat
and that was the only reason that Kennesaw Mountain Landis
banned Buck Weaver from Baseball for life. All the others,
Shoeless Joe, Ciccote and the rest had snatched up the bribe and
thrown the World Series – only Buck was pure.
Joanie Cullen added, ‘Tim said hello to you too Mr.
O’Donnell and asked how you were recovering. I’ll bring the
letter tomorrow and show you where he says so. He’s training
for another battle I guess and says that he is working with two
nice boys, one an Italian kid from Ohio and the other a hillbilly
from West Virginia. Tim said the Dago is a great singer and is
with an orchestra around Cleveland, but works for Desoto and
the hillbilly got his first pair of shoes in the Marines and had
never been more than two miles from coal mines in his life. Tim
says that he is a real sweet guy and the ugliest person he ever
met and that includes Myron Muchinfuch, the usher at Notre
Dame Games.’
‘Uglier than Myron, come on that’s Orson Welles stuff.
Where is Tim, somewhere in the South Pacific again? Did he
say where?’‘Mr. O’Donnell, Tim says nothing accept that he wants
Mary Janes and Bullseyes from Morganelli’s and he always asks
about everyone else. Never know he’s in a war, if it weren’t for
the V-Mail. Al, Jack and Martin talk about the War all the
time and Al is up in Fort Sheridan – he’s a cop, like Father was,
an M.P. and keeps deserters in line.’
‘Al, always had the right makings for the Chicago Police
Department, unlike your Father who is too honest a man and a
Union man to boot. When all of the rest of those apple robbing
Micks in blue wool had no problem shooting at working men,
your father, Joanie, had the steel to tell that louse Capt. Connelly
to take a leap. That’s why you old man ain’t a cop any more. Too
honest. Al will be a Captain with his own bagman someday.
Joanie, here’s a fin – load up on MaryJanes and Bullseyes for
that brother of yours – best man with bag of tools I ever met
in my life. Tell him I did a few laps around the rosary for him.
Give my best to your mother and tell that Bog-man Father of
yours that he had better keep his ‘LOIGHTS OUT-ing’ away
from 82nd and Loomis if he wants to keep healthy and keep it
on Bishop with the other bog-trotters like himself.’
Joanie laughed like she meant it and had no school-girl giggle
which delighted the retired hoodlum more and she pocketed the
five-spot for a trip to Morganelli’s candy store on Ashland Ave.
later that day.