Medal of Honor Host City Program of Gainesville Texas

Mrs. Gino Merli passes

Mary Merli

Mary Merli, widow of Medal of Honor Recipient Gino Merli, was laid to rest Monday morning in Lackawanna County Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gino Merli, her son, thanked the VFW for its participation in the ceremony.

"I think it's a real honor that they've now come and paid their respects to my mom and give her the honor and respect that she always gave to the veterans," said Dr. Merli. He called the VFW honor guard a "wonderful thing."

Mrs. Merli was active the VFW post, the American Legion and her church. "She was just an outstanding lady and an outstanding mother," her son recalled. Gino Merli passed away in 2002.

Mary Merli was 81 years old.

"Medal Of Honor Hero Returns To School---Pfc. Gino Merli, 21, Peckville, Pa., holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor, returned to Blakely High School, Peckville, to complete his senior year while undergoing periodical treatment at England General Hospital, Atlantic City. He is shown at his desk, trying to concentrate on the history he has been making, as starry-eyed lassies gaze in admiration-thoughts of lessons far, far away. It was difficult day for the war hero as well as the girls. (September 9, 1945 )"

CItation: Pfc. Geno Merli.

Deaths reduce ranks to 107

The nation mourns the loss of two WWII Medal of Honor Recipients in four days.

The deaths of Marine aviator Jeff DeBlanc, who downed five Jap planes in a single mission, and Selvestre Herrera, and Arny PFC who assaulted a Nazi machine-gun nest and continued fighting after losing both of his feet in a mine explosion died Thanksgiving and Nov. 26, respectively.

Clink links below for my stories on LeatherneckM31.

Rest in peace and Semper Fidelis.                          Aviator's death leaves 108 Recipients 

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Four Host City members attend MOH Green Bay

Host City Porgram members Cliff Yow, Mike McHorse and Don Pettigrew represented the organization last week at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention held this year in Green Bay.

Maj. George Wahlen, right, required some medical attention following a transient ischemic attack (TIA--"mini-stroke"), but returned to the convention activities the next day no worse for the wear.

Wahlen and his two fellow Iwo Jima Recipients, Marines Jack Lucas and "Woody" Williams also attended.

Iwo was the most highly decorated action in US military history with 27 Medals of Honor awarded... 13 posthumously.

Lucas and his wife Ruby attended our Medal of Honor Weekend last April.

Approximately 1,200 Green Bay residents turned out for a well-organized autograph session... just one of several activities the Recipients attended during the week.

MOH News

A group of us who attended school in a small Central California town, along with one of our teachers, have gotten together to see the Taft post office renamed "Larry Pierce Post Office"-- Kern County's only Medal of Honor Recipient.

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It is my plan to invite a couple of Recipients to attend the dedication.

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Larry was a few years ahead of me at Taft High and was KIA in 1965; I never met him.  He was one of 15 from Taft--a town of only 10,000-- killed during the Vietnam War. More information.

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Another impostor bites the dust

Human Resources Command has deleted four items from the DD214 of a former soldier who recently pleaded guilty to felony bank fraud and falsely claiming he had received a Medal of Honor.

Richard David McClanahan, 29, (below) pleaded guilty to the two charges Aug. 9 in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a third charge against him, in which he was accused of falsely claiming he had three Silver Stars, three Purple Hearts and the Legion of Merit.

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Man Charged as Medal of Honor Impostor

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Terry J. Powell has spoken to veterans' groups and public gatherings numerous times while wearing a Medal of Honor that he said he received for heroic actions during the Vietnam War - claims that federal investigators say are bogus, according to court documents.

Powell, 56, of Milwaukee, has given different stories about how he came to earn the nation's highest award for valor. (Next month Green Bay will host the annual Congressional Medal of Honor Society annual convention.).

He told veterans in May that he received it for combat in Vietnam and gave a similar story to a crowd of more than 200 gathered on Memorial Day at Cory Park in the Village of Dousman, according to a federal search warrant.

In June, he told Waukesha County sheriff's detectives he was a cook on the destroyer USS O'Hara and nursed several sailors with food poisoning back to health, the warrant said. He showed the detectives a Medal of Honor certificate that he says he received from President Nixon on July 15, 1972, and was signed by Navy Secretary John Chaffee.

The warrant points out several reasons to doubt Powell's claim: the O'Hara was a transport ship decommissioned in 1961 and scrapped by 1968, years before Powell claimed to have saved the sailors. Chaffee wasn't secretary of the Navy in the summer of 1972; John Warner was. The certificate, along with others Powell had for other medals, appeared to have been altered. And Powell is not listed as a Medal of Honor recipient on any records.

A note of interest: Several weeks ago I jumped on a reporter from this paper for "winner", and suggested they could save Green Bay some embarrassment by getting it right.... Negative reinforcement does work.

"For anyone who might bump into a member of this distinguished group of heroes, one suggestion: they appreciate being referred to as "recipients" not "winners." And they didn't win the nation's highest medal for valor, they earned it."

RADM Fluckey Passes

The only surviving WWII submariner Medal of Honor Recipient, RADM Eugene B. Fluckey, has passed away at age 93.

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In addition to the Medal of Honor, the skipper of the legendary USS Barb was awarded four Navy Crosses, making him one of the most highly decorated men in U.S. history.

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I had the privilege of corresponding with him on a few occasions. He told me that he was "most proud of the fact that none of my (WWII) crew-members received the Purple Heart."

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He never forgot his WWII shipmates. The proceeds of "Thunder Below"--his wartime memoir--paid for the frequent cruises and reunions of the Barb veterans hosted by the admiral.

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His death brings to 109 the number of living Medal of Honor Recipients.

Medal of Honor approved

President G. Bush has approved the award of the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to MSgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble, USA, for his actions during the Korean War. It is the first Medal of Honor for the a member of the Sioux Nation.

Bush last night signed the bill authored by the senators of North and South Dakota which authorized the nation's highest award for valor.

"Woody" Keeble died in 1982, at age 65.

The award ends a 25-year long effort by Keeble's friends and Army comrades which determined that not once, but twice, the recommendation for the Medal of Honor in 1952, was lost.

Keeble, a platoon leader in G Co., 19th Infantry Regt., 24th Infantry Div., is cited for single-handedly assaulted several enemy positions in rugged hilly terrain which had pinned down advancing US troops. Attacking with hand grenades and his rifle, MSgt. Keeble neutralized three, successive machine-gun emplacements which ended the defilade and resulted in securing the objective.

Master Sergeant  Keeble's personal awards include the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

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Cold and uncomfortable, we made our way uphill past the even rows of dignified marble sentinels in their hundreds... straight as a battalion on parade.

There was a certain irony as we trudged toward the crest of the hill, leaning into the strong wind, heads down against a biting snow flurry of an early New Mexico spring storm. 

We reached the high ground, the apex of Santa Fe National Cemetery, a little winded and moved to the leeward side of the open-sided shelter already filled with the family, friends and admirers of Marine Capt. Raymond "Jerry" Murphy.

Jerry Murphy dead at 77

The death last Friday of Medal of Honor Recipient Raymond "Jerry" Murphy (Korea) leaves fellow Recipient Drew Dix (Vietnam) as the sole surviving Recipient of Pueblo Colorado-- the small town famous as the "Home of Heroes" because it produced four Recipients... two from the same high school.

"Jerry was one of the most modest men I ever knew," said Dix. "He was one of my heroes as a kid growing up in Pueblo. I can remember pedaling my bike on Jerry Murphy Road as a boy, never imagining that one day, Jerry would be my friend. Pueblo has lost a very special man."

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The native son heroes included Bill Crawford (WWII), below left, and Carl Sitter (Korea), third from left, who preceded Murphy, right, in death, passing away within two weeks of each other in 2000. Sitter is buried in Arlington, and Crawford at the Air Force Academy.

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Black Sand, Red Blood

Today's Medal of Honor Profile:  Jack Lucas is among seven Recipients who will attend next week's Medal of Honor Weekend here in Gainesville.

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Lucas is shown, right, with 33rd Commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C,

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There are hundreds of stories about Lucas --the youngest Medal of Honor Recipient since the Civil War--and a number of them have been corralled in “Indestructible… The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima”, his autobiography.

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Hero Flies West...

16 June, 1943: It was a photo mapping mission; Capt. Jay Zeamer's B-17 crew faced a 1,200-mile, round trip recon mission to help prepare for the invasion of Bougainville.

It would be Zeamer's 74th, and last, combat mission.

As "Old 666" neared its objective, 20 Jap Zeros lifted off to defend Buka air base. The next couple of hours would result in the only instance of World War II when two members of one air crew received the Medal of Honor for separate and independent acts of heroism in combat in the same engagement.

Zeamer's nose gunner, 2nd Lt. Joseph R. Sarnoski's Medal of Honor would be posthousmous.

Zeamer's crew would become the most highly decorated unit in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Lt. Col. Zeamer will be buried with full military honors in May at Arlington National Cemetery.

His death at 88 on March 21 brings to 111 the number of living Recipients.