Military Forums - Military Times

Military history abounds across the country — if you know where to look. From General Patton’s Cadillac to the flag that flew over Iwo Jima in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph, we uncovered some of the most
interesting artifacts on display to the public from past wars. We’ve omitted the obvious landmarks — the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington D.C., key Civil War battlefields, etc. — and included some you may not have thought of. Each one illustrates the storied past of American military campaigns from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam.


Did we find some you haven't seen? What are you favorites? Have any we may have missed?

Here are a couple of things that might be of interest to some of the readers of this board. The first photo is of an envelope that is postmarked Sept.10, 1045. After the Japanese surrenderd aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, the US carriers remained in the area. The US military occuped Japan for some time and pilots from the carriers flew missions over the Japanese islands locating POW camps and dropping supplies. My dad, who flew with VB-6 aboard the USS Hancock CV19, was one of those pilots. The envelope was among his mementos and it sat packed away and forgotten in the attic of our home for decades after the war. (After Dad died I liberated it along with other wonderful mementos.)

The second photo was taken by a Hancock pilot over a POW camp in Japan. The Lexington pilots had earlier dropped supplies over this camp and you can see the holes in the roofs of the buildings where the supplies crashed through. Also, note the "Good Old Chesty" in the lower right, a tribute to now legendary Marine Chesty Puller. This photo was later included in the Air Group 6 book that was published right after the war by members of the air group. As an interesting historical quirk, Richard Boone, the actor from the old TV series Have Gun - Will Travel was in Air Group 6. He was a crewman on TBF Avengers and was aboard the Hancock at the end of the war.



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__________________
Lisa Burke

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill

Here is a photo of the flight log book my dad kept. Every pilot was required to keep one. This page shows the last flights that he and his ACRM (aviation chief radioman) Norman Lorentzen made just before the Japanese gave up. They were flying SB2C Helldivers (divebombers) from the USS Hancock and bombing military installations on the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. The entry for August 15 is startling. They pilots and crewmen took off from the Hancock "when 40 miles from coast Hancock sent word that strike group should jettison bombs and return to ship - THE WAR WAS OVER!"

This sends chills down my spine every time I read it. If you look at the entry you will notice what appears to be a smudge over the entry. I believe that is a tear stain.

Shortly after this the pilots and crewmen flew missions over the Japanese islands searching for POW camps. The previous photos reflect that.

We visited Norman and Bob, another ACRM from the squadron, recently. They are very dear to our family and have told us so many stories about the war and life on the carriers.

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/o...n6/logbook.jpg

__________________
Lisa Burke

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill