re: Relatives that served in World War 2

Dad was in Combat Engineers, served all over Europe.died a couple of years ago at 97. I would loved to have gotten him on an honor flight, but he was fairly fragile in later years (but not his mind, he was sharp till the end). He didn’t talk about it when we kids were growing up, but talked about it in his later life.

2 maternal uncles served. One little Cajun uncle had to eat 5# bananas the day he enlisted in order to make the weight minimum. The other ended up being a French translator . Both made it home.

Absolutely the greatest generation….and the majority of them were KIDS while they were saving the world!

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My uncle was a waist gunner on a B-17 that was shot down over Holland during a bombing run to Emden. He was wounded but continued to fire at German planes downing at least one before his B-17 was fatally hit. He is buried at the U.S. Military cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. One of my bucket list items is to pay him a visit.

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I visited the Netherlands American Cemetery this year. It is a somber and respectful resting place for 8,000 Americans. The grounds are immaculately maintained. Local families initially adopted and maintained the graves.

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My grandfather was captain of a destroyer escort in the Atlantic. Protected shipping convoys. 27 years old when he was given his appointment. Crazy to think about.

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My gramps was an Electrician’s Mate on a DE. The stories he told were told fondly, the good stuff and the bad. Serving at 17 years old shaped the rest of his life and he was proud of his contribution. Looking back on it, I feel thankful that I had someone like that who laid out the benefits and downsides of service and left it to me to make my choice in life.

My stepdad was on a sub. He told no stories, but he came home in one piece. He went on to earn his PhD in underwater acoustics from Yale. He was such a great guy, and he passed away last year.

Apparently, my grandfather had a lot to do with inventing napalm along with the delivery system that was used to great success on Iwo Jima. Later on, he invented Calgonite and became a Boyd professer at Camp LSU.

We'll never be as great as these men were, unless we have to be. We are Americans, and we always find a way!

Rise above, my friends.

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He never talked about it, but when his mind started to go (he lived with us) he would yell ‘grenade’ every once in a while and scare the crap out of us

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He never talked about it, but when his mind started to go (he lived with us) he would yell ‘grenade’ every once in a while and scare the crap out of us

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Sorry bro, but I really lold at that!

Dad’s side:

Father was in the Merchant Marines and their “Liberty ship” was stopped and boarded by a U-boat on the way back from England

Mom’s side:

Father was Navy Lt. on destroyer stationed in the Guinea theatre. Made liberty a lot in Sydney.

Uncle (1) was in D-Day and was killed a month in— while in the “Hedgerow battles” — they liberated a small French town, but he was killed taking fire in front of his squad, saving 4 lives. The town erected a statue to that Army group —- and if I knew how to add pics on these threads - I would

Uncle (2) was Navy pilot in a SDB Dauntless - Pacific theatre. Was in the squad that was the 1st to successfully attempt NIGHT TIME landing on carriers.

Uncle (3) was too young to enlist in the US, so he went to Canada, and they let him in. Went to England to join the RAF. Flew a Mosquito and was shot down near Greenland.

Uncle (4) was on the USS Missouri and is actually in the picture of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

Air Medals aren't worth what they used to be. I earned one in a heated cockpit with no real threat to my life. I stand in the shadow of giants.

My uncle Dave was at Pearl Harbor. Uncle Vince was an anti-aircraft gunner. Uncle Mike was a train engineer for Graves Registration in France. Uncle Sam was marine on Guadalcanal.

All survived the war

I've posted about my uncle a dozen times on here whenever these threads come up but I'm doing it yet again because almost all of these men are gone but they should never be forgotten, especially by those of us who were lucky enough to know them.

My Uncle Loren was born in 1919, dirt poor, the son of potato farmers, in rural Idaho, and grew up in Gridley California. He died a very wealthy man, the head of a successful, and eventually, international construction firm he founded that was responsible for major projects on the West Coast and Saudi Arabia. He played a major role in the development of Las Vegas, and was a central figure in what would later be called the "Mormon Mafia" (I never said he was perfect), who worked hand-in-hand with the actual Mafia in turning a desolate desert into one of the biggest tourist draws in the US. He capped his career by becoming the head of all international construction for the LDS church at a time that they were averaging a new temple almost every month.

In between that, he initially supported his parents and siblings as a professional musician, attained a bachelors degree from BYU at 20, and then enlisted in the Army when Germany invaded Poland, where he quickly advanced to the officer corps, a commissioned lieutenant and pilot by 21.

He was newly stationed at Hickam Field, directly adjacent to Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

His Silver Star citation awarded to him for his actions on that day:

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The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant (Air Corps) Loren A. Stoddard, United States Army Air Forces, for heroism in action during the attack on Hickam Field by Japanese forces (aircraft) on 7 December 1941. Second Lieutenant Stoddard, a Pilot in the 19th Transport Squadron, proceeded to Hanger No. 17, where the squadron's planes were parked. The adjacent hangar, No. 15, had already been severely bombed. A plane close by had been hit and was burning rapidly and its proximity to the transport planes greatly endangered them. Noting this danger Lieutenant Stoddard, on his own initiative and without orders, started the motors of one of the planes after the crew had rolled it back from the hangar a short distance. Although under fire by the enemy, Lieutenant Stoddard, with a crew member observing for him through the escape hatch, taxied the plane through debris and smoke to a relatively safe position on the field away from the hangars. Lieutenant Stoddard displayed fast thinking, bravery, coolness and a great devotion to duty by his action and was an inspiration to all who saw him. The heroism displayed by Lieutenant Stoddard on this occasion reflected great credit upon himself and the military service.

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A news clipping from the ceremony. Uncle Loren is top row on the far left:



Closer pic of an American Badass:



In May 1944, he was piloting a B-24 Liberator (christened the "Bat Out of Hell") above Siapan:

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At approximately 5:22am took off from Eniwetok Airfield piloted by Captain Loren A. Stoddard armed with three 100 pound bombs (Mission H-258) to escort U.S. Navy (USN) PB4Y-1 Liberators from VD-4 on a photo mission over Saipan. The weather was good weather. Departing Saipan, one of the B-24s developed mechanical problems with a feathered propeller and began loosing altitude. This B-24 dropped back to provide escort.

Between 12:10-12:30, roughly 25 miles from Saipan, this B-24 was intercepted by 8-10 Zero that hit the no 1 and no 2 engines, causing them to smoke then catch fire in the engines, bomb bay and wing and communication with the rear of the plane was cut off.. This fire was put out by using extinguishers and diving, but the third time it caught fire the pilots decided to ditch.

Two of the crew bailed out and the B-24 managed to ditch at roughly Lat 14° 42' N, Long 146° 57' E. The B-24 stayed afloat for roughly 30 seconds and the fighters strafed the bomber and the crew in the water.

"One fighter, believed to be a "Tony", a Japanese fighter that resembled the P-47, placed himself in front of and over this group and was joined by a second fighter. They made a coordinated attack, diving out of the sun and their gunfire set fire to the number two engine on Captain Stoddard’s plane.
One of our planes (VD-4's Lt. Mather) and Lt. Sheerin of the 98th attempted to provide protection for Stoddard but the damage had already been done. Captain Stoddard managed to make a crash landing in the water about 40 miles from Saipan after two of the crew used their parachutes to evacuate the plane. Some of our people who observed the attack, reported that the fighters strafed the crewmen in their parachutes. After Captain Stoddard made a successful water landing, they strafed the wreckage and men in the water."

The following crew remained with the B-24 during the ditching: Stoddard, Hryskanich, Peschau and Manierre and survived in a raft for four days and drifted towards Saipan. On June 2, 1944 the surviving crew were picked up by a Japanese patrol and became Prisoners Of War (POW) and were questioned over the next four days. On June 6, 1944 the four were flown to Japan and interned at Ofuna Camp.

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He was officially reported as KIA and my family mourned his passing. His body was reported to be lost at sea.




The men in Uncle Loren's camp face brutal conditions. Beatings and executions were commonplace and starvation took the lives of too many. However, included in their meager rations were four cigarettes a day. Most of the men valued those four smokes far above a bowl of rice. Uncle Loren was a devout Mormon who had no use for cigarettes, and was free to trade them for extra food rations. My grandma used to joke that he was the only American POW that came home fatter than before he left.

His parents and siblings were sitting around, listening to the radio, in August 1945, as they were announcing the names of POW's that had been liberated in Japan. I can only imagine the pure joy in that room when they heard the name "Loren A. Stoddard" come out of the speaker.

He passed in 2008, accomplishing more than I could hope to in a dozen lifetimes.



And one last tidbit: many years later he was walking through a terminal in LAX when an openly crying man approached him. It was the pilot of the B-24 he had dropped back to protect before being shot down himself. His plane landed safely and the entire crew survived.