In Memoriam

[Grace]

29 July 2011

US Army officer 2nd Lieutenant Jered W. Ewy was one of two Oklahoma National Guardsmen killed in action on 29th July 2011 when a bomb detonated as they were on patrol in Paktia, Afghanistan.

2nd Lt. Ewy, age 33, was serving with the 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Also killed in the same incident was Spc. Augustus Vicari

[wombat2u2004]

"The Last of the First"
The first offensive action of the United States during World War II was on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands by the United States Marine Corps.
August 7, 1942.The First Marine Division fought on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Cape Gloucester,New Britian, New Guinea, Peleliu, Okinawa.
There is a bottle of 1st Grand Cru Cognac, (circa 1920-25) that is to be opened by the last survivor among the Marines and sailors who served in combat with the division during WW II. It was estimated that it would be opened by 2010. It is in the Marines' Memorial Club in San Francisco and is in the custody of the First Marine Division Association.
Navy Pharmacist Mates served side by side with the Marines. Wore out uniforms but with their insignia. They were our beloved "Corpsman".
136 KIA with the 1st Division.
Who knows? Maybe I will be the one to raise the glass in a toast to a truly great Division.

Fideli Certa Merces - To the faithful there is just reward
Semper Fidelis -Always Faithful
To be a Marine is enough
Pfc. Thomas C. Reedy, Jr.
566495Company C, 1st Battalion,
7th Regiment First Marine Division
United States Marine Corps 1944-46

[Grace]

31 July 2011

Hawaii-based US Army Sergeant William B. GrossPaniagua, from Daly City, California, was killed in action on 31st July 2011 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, when an insurgent bomb detonated against his patrol vehicle.

28-year-old Sgt. GrossPaniagua served with the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Sgt. GrossPaniagua enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 2005 as a Combat Engineer. He previously served in Iraq in 2008 and this was his first deployment to Afghanistan.

[Grace]

31 July 2011

US Army Pfc. Brice M. Scott, age 22, was killed in action on Sunday 31st July 2011 near Kandahar, Afghanistan, during a contact with enemy forces involving small-arms fire.

Pfc. Scott, on his first deployment to Afghanistan, was a father and former North Eugene High School student in Oregon. On joining the Army, he continued a family tradition of military service going back generations.

His family told local news that "he sought out the action of the front line and died doing the job he loved."

Pfc. Scott served with the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas.

[Grace]

1 August 2011

32-year-old US Marine Staff Sergeant Leon H. Lucas Jr., from Wilson, North Carolina, died while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 1st August 2011.

Staff Sgt. Lucas served with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Twentynine Palms, California.

[Grace]

Vietnam

Soldier Missing from Vietnam War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Chief Warrant Officer George A. Howes, of Knox, Ind., will be buried Aug. 5 in Arlington National Cemetery. On Jan. 10, 1970, Howes and three aircrew members were returning to their base at Chu Lai, South Vietnam aboard a UH-1C Huey helicopter. Due to bad weather, their helicopter went down over Quang Nam Province, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.). A search was initiated for the crew, but no sign of the helicopter or crew was spotted.

In 1989, the S.R.V. gave to U.S. specialists 25 boxes that reportedly contained the remains of U.S. servicemen related to this incident. Later that year, additional remains and a military identification tag from one of the other missing servicemen were obtained from a Vietnamese refugee.

Between 1993 and 1999, joint U.S./S.R.V. teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted three investigations in Ho Chi Minh City and two investigations in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Nam Province). A Vietnamese citizen in Ho Chi Minh City turned over a military identification tag bearing Howes’ name and told the team he knew where the remains of as many as nine American servicemen were buried. He agreed to lead the team to the burial site. In 1994, the team excavated the site and recovered a metal box and several bags containing human remains. In 2006, the remains of three of the four men were identified and buried. No remains could be attributed to Howes given the technology of the time. In 2008, given advances in DNA technology, the remains were reanalyzed.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Howes’ sister and brother—in the identification of the remains.

[Grace]

31 July 2011

US Marine Sergeant Christopher M. Wrinkle, age 27, from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, died in Afghanistan on Sunday 31st July 2011. Sgt. Wrinkle, who holds two Purple Hearts, was engaged to be married to Elizabeth Cunnings.

He graduated from Dallastown Area Senior High in 2001 and had spent almost ten years serving with the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command based at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Major Jeffrey Landis, public affairs officer of the special operations command, told local news reporters.