Local WWII veteran

It's always depressing to me to see the number of World War II and Korean War veterans in the obituaries of our local paper. Occasionally, I recognize one of them as a contributor to my museum (MacArthur Memorial). Such was the case this week with one, I won't mention him by name, but since he was a Navy doctor and a physician after the war, shall refer to him here as "Doc."

I never met Doc in person, but spoke to him on the phone after his son brought to the museum two very unique things his father had brought home after the end of World War II. These two items were Japanese Navy surgical kits - one an amputation kit, the other an autopsy kit. Doc had gotten these on the island of Chichi Jima after the Japanese surrender. Doc was part of a detachment of Marines sent to disarm the Japanese garrison of Chichi Jima and to inquire as to whether they had any American prisoners there. One of the Japanese officers let it slip to the Marine CO that they had had prisoners on the island - this confession opened up a months-long investigation, which turned into a war crimes trial. The story is told in great detail in Chester Hearn's book Sorties into Hell, and Doc figures prominently therein. I won't go into the gory details, for gory they are as the tale involves cannibalism and torture, not in that order, but many American airmen who were shot down were held on Chichi Jima. Suffice to say they never came home, nor was much recovered of some of them - you can probably fill in the blanks by now.

Talking with Doc on the phone about a year ago and hearing him recount this story and how it still haunted him, 60+ years later was truly touching. I was only vaguely familiar with what had happened there before I had the chance to talk to him, and I didn't read the book until afterward. I never got a chance to talk to him again after reading it. And that maybe a good thing - for after reading in Hearn's book about one of the island surgeons using his surgical kit to dismember American prisoners, I really just don't want to contemplate that that may well be the surgical kits he donated.

If you really want to learn about war atrocities, read Hearn's book.

Review - Confederate Alamo

Recently I had the opportunity to join John Fox of Angle Valley Press for a book signing. John is the author of Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment and more recently The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg's Ft Gregg, April 2, 1865. I had never met John before and I'm ashamed to admit that although I had it on my shelf, I had yet to read Confederate Alamo before our signing.

Finished reading Alamo about a week ago, and am very impressed. I'm not stretching things when I say that it is one of the finest battle studies I've ever read. I grew up in Richmond and some of my earliest memories are of my Dad taking me to the battlefields around Richmond and Petersburg, including Fort Gregg, and several of my friends were historical interpreters at Pamplin Park, just up the road a mile or so from Gregg, so the Ft Gregg story was not unknown to me. And of course the fact that about half of the Federal infantry from New Market participated in the attack on Gregg also interested me. However, what was unknown to me was the magnitude of the slaughter that occurred there. The word "bloodbath" in the subtitle of the book is very appropriate. It is almost inconceivable to read some of the first-hand accounts in Alamo and translate them and the slaughter they describe to the relatively small area that is Ft Gregg. How could a slaughter of this magnitude have been so overlooked for so long? Well, Lee's surrender had a lot to do with that.

In Confederate Alamo, John Fox has unearthed a wealth of previously untapped sources - evenly balanced between North and South - and places the reader at the fort amidst the crisis that was the morning of April 2, 1865, for Lee and A.P. Hill. With only 334 defenders of the fort, the number of recollections by Confederate defenders is impressive. Numerous illustrations of the ground and the officers and men involved appear throughout the book, as do about a half-dozen excellent maps by George Skoch (who also did the maps for Valley Thunder.)

This is definitely a must-read.

Review - Men of Color to Arms

Time to catch up on backlog of book reviews...We begin with Elizabeth Leonard's Men of Color to Arms: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality. But first an important disclaimer: I know very little regarding the post-Civil War United States Army, and even less concerning the black units serving in it. That said, covering the role of black soldiers from 1863 until the turn of the century is a pretty big undertaking, to say the least, so I was somewhat surprised at the book's size, with fewer than 250 pages of narrative text.

Professor Leonard begins with the Civil War career of Sgt Maj Christian Fleetwood of the 4th USCT, a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions at New Market Heights on Sept. 29, 1864, and other black units of the Army of the James. Her subsequent examination of the debate over the composition of the post-war Army is of particular interest, as is the discussion of the use of black troops for occupation duty in the former Confederate states. Although I would have preferred more military detail rather than social commentary (in parts, this reads more like social history disguised as military history), Leonard recounts how the experience for the individual black soldier on the frontier varied depending on the attitudes of their company officers. In some of the instances she cites, some white officers treated their men cruelly - even one example of murder is presented - while others recognized and appreciated their fighting abilities, finding no reason to treat them any differently from white troops, and pushed for blacks to be eligible to serve as commissioned officers. Despite the lack of military detail, Men of Color to Arms is an interesting read.

Elizabeth D. Leonard
Men of Color to Arms!
ISBN 978-0-393-06039-3
W. W. Norton, 2010
315 pages, photographs, hard cover, dust jacket

Book Trailer

First, let me apologize for the lack of posts lately. Between unexpected hospital stay and grad school, I've not had much time to post lately. In fact, I was in the hospital and had to miss my scheduled appearance at the Edinburg Old Time Festival last month.

If you've not seen the trailer for Valley Thunder, click
here

Once you've viewed it, go vote for it here

Rat Day

Off to New Market on Saturday...

And in a bit of a 'blast from the past,' the Park has graciously offered the use the "suite" in the original 1818 Bushong House for Saturday night. Methinks it is probably a little different from the 12 years ago or whenever it was I lived there before...It probably just won't look the same without my drums (Pearl Exports - burgundy - and Sabian AA cymbals in case anyone cares...), library, and Nirvana posters. (Which reminds me I never did re-pay a couple certain co-workers for putting the dead snake on my floor tom...)

Sunday is "Rat Day" - the swearing in of VMI's new freshman class. (http://www2.vmi.edu/museum/nm/rats.htm) I haven't been to one of these ceremonies in years, but they are always enjoyable - the cadets gather by the Bushong House to learn about VMI's ties to the grounds there, charge up Bushong Hill as their comrades did before them in 1864, then finally take their cadet oath.

Yours truly will be there bright & early Sunday at 8 am at the Hall of Valor, signing copies of Valley Thunder. I'll be there through early afternoon probably, so if you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

General MacArthur

OK, time for my first non-Civil War post...

As most of you know, my "day job" is Curator at the MacArthur Memorial - museum, archives & final resting place of General Douglas MacArthur, commander of Allied forces in the Pacific during WWII. Although the Civil War does fall within our "scope" because of the General's father - Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, who served in and eventually commanded the 24th Wisconsin - our primary focus is World War I, World War II, Occupation of Japan, and Korean War. One of the major differences between my earlier days at a Civil War museum and one focusing on 20th century conflicts, is the opportunity to actually talk to the veterans themselves, as well as the amount of papers, uniforms, equipment, etc still looking for a home.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of my job is getting to meet and talk to these veterans. Several years ago, MacArthur's Honor Guard held their reunion here in Norfolk. In conjunction with this, we put together a special exhibit about the Honor Guard. It was a great thrill to see these fellows going through the exhibit, many of them finding themselves in the photographs; others telling the story behind some of the photographs, and identifying their comrades in them; and discussing some of their former platoon leaders.

These were the men who guarded not just the General's headquarters, but his residence and his family as well, during the latter months of WWII and all throughout the Occupation of Japan. If you look at pretty much any photo of MacArthur during the Occupation, odds are there's one of the Honor Guard in it. There were only about 2,000 men total who served in the Honor Guard from May 1945 through April 1951. Of that number only several hundred are left. These men were hand-selected for the job, and were the epitome of "spit and polish." And they were witness to some of the most historic events and within an arm's length of some of the most important people of the 20th century. And while the world saw the version and image of Douglas MacArthur he wanted seen, these fellows saw a more human side of MacArthur and his family. To a man, they will tell you that serving on his Honor Guard, no matter the duration (some served literally for only a few days, others spent years on the assignment), was the highlight of their time in uniform.

I first became associated with these fellows in 2007, prior to their Norfolk reunion. Last year at the Las Vegas reunion, I was lucky enough to be tapped to serve on the Board of Directors of their association - one of only a handful of non-Guards to do so.

The 2010 reunion was held earlier this month in St. Louis. Sadly the numbers have continued to dwindle - only about 25 Guards were in attendance, but the number of children of former Guards becoming active in the organization is on the rise. Getting to know these gentlemen and listening to their stories from the Philippines, Japan and Korea is quite an honor.

Many of them would continue to serve at GHQ in Tokyo following MacArthur's dismissal by President Truman, serving under Matt Ridgway. The more candid of them will tell you the difference was night & day. Whereas MacArthur showed concern and took care of them, Ridgway...well, did not.

I also got a special almost last-minute "mission" during the St. Louis reunion - it turns out one of MacArthur's former military secretaries - now 96 years old - lives about 2 hours northeast of St. Louis in rural Illinois. So trusty digital recorder in hand, I made the trek up to Pittsfield to interview him. Sadly, he didn't remember much about his time at MacArthur's HQ, 1943-1945. But about 15 years ago, when things were much clearer in his mind, he had typed up a memoir. One of the few things he did remember clearly was MacArthur's young son, Arthur. A memory he has in common with nearly all of the Honor Guard.

No decision has been made yet where next year's reunion will be. But where ever it is, I'm already looking forward to it.

Events

First a brief report on my latest outing...On Tuesday August 17 I spoke to the Outer Banks Civil War Round Table at the gorgeous Duck Woods Country Club in Southern Shores, NC, about the Battle of New Market. Had a good crowd of about 30+ on-hand. Turned it into a day-trip, as it had been years since I had visited the Outer Banks. Went over to Roanoke Island - Lost Colony is still lost...and somehow I have a knack for visiting NC Nat'l Park Service sites when they are renovating their Visitor Centers - last time on the Outer Banks, the Wright Brothers VC was closed for renovations and they had set up temporary shop in a painfully small modular. Ditto that this time around for the Fort Raleigh site. And eavesdropping on other, shall we call them 'less than properly informed' visitors made me long for the days of being an interpreter (This particular visitor made the stereotypical 'why aren't there bullet holes in the monuments?' question seem tame in comparison to some of the wonderful questions and misperceptions she had...kudos to the Ranger at the desk for keeping her cool.)

Now, for the upcoming events:

Saturday August 21 - I'll be signing books at the Civil War show at the Richmond (VA) Showplace 10-4 with old reenacting buddy Marc Ramsey. Find me at the Owens & Ramsey booth.

Sunday September 5 - Back to New Market for "Rat Day." If you've never seen this ceremony, it's definitely worth a trip. This is where the incoming freshman - "Rat" - class at VMI takes their cadet oath, after charging up Bushong Hill from the Bushong orchard, as their predecessors did on May 15, 1864. For many years former Secretary of the Army John Marsh gave the keynote address; I'm not sure who has taken those reigns from him. I'll be set-up at 8 am that morning and going until...?

Next week I'll post the highlights of my St. Louis trip for the 2010 reunion of Douglas MacArthur's Honor Guard ...