Farewell to Old Soldiers - 2018

Gen. Anna Mae Hayes died January 7 at the age of 97. She was the first female General in U.S. military history. She began her career as an army nurse in the Burma theater during WWII. She established the first military hospital in the Korean War at Inchon and became the Chief of the Army Nurses Corps in Vietnam. An interesting lady. RIP. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/anna-mae-hays-nurse-who-became-u...

Although she wasn't a soldier, a sailor or an airman, many of their lives depended on her. Naomi Parker Fraley, the real Rosie the Riveter, is gone. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42787869

The Royal Navy's surgeon Captain Rick Jolly died January 13 at the age of 71. A few of his books include Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang and Usage and The Red and Green Life Machine: Diary of the Falklands Field Hospital. He was honored by both the British and the Argentinians for his life saving efforts during the Falklands War. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/24/surgeon-captain-rick-jolly-obitu...

Former Secretary of the U.S. Army, Togo D. West, Jr., died March 8 at the age of 75. He served in a transitional time during which roles of women in the military were significantly expanded. His earlier military career included serving as a second Lieutenant in the Army Field Artillery Corps, and rising to the rank of Captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corp. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/obituaries/togo-west-jr-75-dies-army-secretar...

Millie Dunn Veasey, pioneering sergeant turned rights activist (BBC)

When Millie Dunn Veasey joined the US military it wasn't the most auspicious of starts. "I didn't weigh more than 102 pounds (46kg) and didn't know how to tie my tie," she later recalled. But she was making history: it was 1942 and she would go on to serve in the only all-female, all-black unit in World War Two. After that, she would return to her native North Carolina and play a leading role in the burgeoning civil rights movement. Dunn Veasey died on Friday, 9 March, a little more than a month after her 100th birthday. She was one of the last surviving African-American women to have served in WW2...

Obituary: Sir William McAlpine, businessman and rail enthusiast who saved The Flying Scotsman for the nation (The Scotsman)

My interest in McAlpine is primarily his role in heritage railways, as highlighted in the obituary headline, but reading it through, he was also an old soldier:

two years’ National Service with the Life Guards

It should be remembered that the UK had conscription for National Service until 1960, so many of the generation who might be expected to die of old age and natural causes these days are in fact old soldiers.

Obituary: Johan van Hulst, the teacher who saved Jewish children (BBC)

Maybe not a soldier in the technical sense of the word, but an active member of the resistance in the Netherlands during World War II who fought not by killing but by saving more than 600 children.

Leonard King flew a Mosquito with RAF No 23 squadron during WWII. He died in a care home in Southend aged 94 on 11 March 2018.

Southend pilot: Hundreds mourn veteran with no family (BBC)

Retired U.S. Marine Corps General Bernard E. Trainor died June 2 at the age of 89. He was a combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. After retirement he became a military analyst and journalist. His books include Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, The Generals' War : The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf and The Endgame : The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bernard-e-trainor-marine-lieuten...

Famed war photographer David Douglas Duncan was a U. S. Marine in WWII and a combat photographer. He died on June 7 at the age of 102. He is best know for This is War! A Photo Narrative of the Korean War. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/obituaries/david-douglas-duncan-102-who-photo...

German submarine commander in WWII, Reinhard Hardegen died June 9 at the age of 105. He was tasked with disrupting shipments from the U.S. to Britain during operation Paukenschlaug. At one point in 1942, he sailed close enough to New York harbor that he could see the lights of the city from his bridge. Because of his marauding, the U.S. Army ordered that lights along the east coast be doused. This story was told by Michael Gannon in Operation Drumbeat. Hardegen published a war memoir in 1943, which has no link on LT. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/obituaries/reinhard-hardegen-who-led-u-boats-...

G. I. battlefield cantor Mordecai "Max" Fuchs died July 3 at the age of 96. He was a rifleman with the First Infantry Division when he came ashore on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Four months later he fought in the Battle of Aachen and afterwords sang for the first Jewish Sabbath service to be broadcast in Germany since the rise of Hitler. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/obituaries/max-fuchs-gi-cantor-dead.html?rref...

Lord Carrington died 9th July aged 99. He was best known as a politician - he was the last survivor of Winston Churchill's government, and later served as Foreign Secretary, and secretary general of NATO. However in WWII he was a major in the Grenadier Guards and won a Military Cross at Nijmegen.

UK Major General Corran Purdon died June 27 at the age of 97. In 1942, he led a huge raid on St. Nazaire after which he was captured. After escaping from Spangenberg Prison he was recaptured. When he was found to be tunnelling out he was transferred to Colditz (the escape-proof prison) until liberation. His memoir was called List the Bugle: Reminiscences of an Irish Soldier. Read more about his very interesting military career here. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/16/maj-gen-corran-purdon-obituary

Battle of Britain RAF squadron leader Geoffrey Wellum died July 18 at the age of 96. He wrote First Light.

Second world war pilot Mary Ellis dies aged 101 (Guardian)

Ellis joined Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941 and flew 1,000 planes in four years...including 400 Spitfires and 47 Wellington bombers...

Ellis shared her thoughts about the Spitfire. She described it as her favourite aircraft at her 100th birthday celebrations last year, saying: “I think it’s a symbol of freedom”

Arsène Tchakarian: French Resistance fighter dies aged 101 (BBC)

The last member of an immigrant group who fought the Nazis for the French...

https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/tuskegee_airman_robert_martin.html

Tuskegee airman Robert Martin died July 36 at the age of 99. He liked to joke that he flew 63 1/2 missions. On the 64th he was shot down and spent months trying to get back to base in Italy with the assistance of Tito’s Yugoslav partisans.

North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin, was the officer who accepted the surrender of South Vietnam. He died August 11 at the age of 90 in France, where he had fled after having a falling out with the Communist Party. He wrote Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel and From enemy to friend : a North Vietnamese perspective on the war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/obituaries/bui-tin-vietnam-dead.html?rref=col...

I'm a little surprised that I'm the first to add John McCain to this list. Truly an old soldier, and one who will be very much missed from the current political scene.

Thanks for the save John. I had John McCain over in the Literary Cemetery group. Of his numerous books the one that best describes his captivity in the Hanoi Hilton was probably Faith of my Fathers: A Family Memoir. A tremendous loss.

Though I never voted for John McCain, he served as my US Senator for over 30 years.

Only in the last few years of his life did he finally modify his strong opposition to many liberal social issues. Perhaps he knew his 2016 re-election to the Senate would be his last term ... which probably served to liberate him from the need to compromise his principles in order to get elected to office in the almost violently politically conservative State of Arizona.

As such, I'm grateful to the man. I only wish his purported "maverick" streak might not have been quite so timidly expressed at times.

Denis Norden, TV presenter and comedy writer, dies aged 96 (Guardian)

"He served in the RAF in the second world war with such other future famous names as Eric Sykes and Bill Fraser, and wrote shows to entertain the troops – and get off guard duty..."

Human rights pioneer Louis Blom-Cooper dies aged 92 (Guardian)

Lawyer and prisoners’ rights champion was key in Amnesty International’s formation

Sir Louis Blom-Cooper obituary (Guardian)

Trailblazing lawyer who was a champion of prison reform and a fearless campaigner against the death penalty...

joined the East Yorkshire Regiment towards the end of the second world war (1944-47)...

‘Her war never stopped’: the Dutch teenager who resisted the Nazis (Guardian)

Freddie Oversteegen, who has died at 93, waged a campaign of killing and sabotage – but struggled to adapt to peacetime

Retired US Army Lt. Col. William Baker died September 24 at the age of 86. He was the recipient of the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Stars. The Secretary of the Army awarded him the Pace Award in 1973 for his efforts to overturn a 1906 incident in Brownsville, Texas in which twenty African-American soldiers were convicted under false charges and received dishonorable discharges. He wrote The Role of Cost Discounting in Weapons systems Evaluations. http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/obituaries/article_76bc2222-f3f5-5103-b229-d8ade9...

US Major General Sidney Shachnow died September 37 at the age of 83. As a boy, he was smuggled out of a Nazi labor camp in Lithuania under his uncle’s coat. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/12/obituaries/sidney-shachnow-dead.html?rref=col...

Felix Smith was recruited by Claire Chennault to fly covert missions in Asia during the Cold War under the guise of the Civil Air Transport. He was initially rejected by the military because of poor eye sight, but got in on appeal. He was awarded the DFC and the Air Medal. He died on October 3 at the age of 100. He wrote China pilot : flying for Chiang and Chennault. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/obituaries/felix-smith-dead.html?rref=collect...

Sudan: former President Abdulrahman Siwar al-Dahab dies aged 83 (Al Jazeera)

He was a former military officer, who served as defence minister before he led the removal of Gaafar Nimeiry...

In 1985, popular demonstrations erupted, calling for the end of the Nimeiry regime; Siwar al-Dahab, along with a group of senior military officers, removed Nimeiry and declared the Transitional Military Council which undertook to steer Sudan's transitional period. Siwar al-Dahab promised to hold elections in a year's time, a pledge few believed in a country exhausted by civil war. However, the following year, he handed power over to a newly elected government headed by then Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Siwar al-Dahab then resigned from the political arena, devoting himself entirely to religious issues...

I was in Khartoum in 1985 during the popular uprising (intifada) which overthrew Nimeiri, and there was great rejoicing and relief when the army refused to fire on civilians and Abdulrahman Siwar al-Dahab took over as transitional president. There was perhaps even more relief when he held true to his promise to hand power to a democratically elected government after one year.

Norway: 99 year old Joachim Ronneberg: 1919-21 October 2018 ... the man who lead the 1943 attack on the Nazi Heavy Water plant in Norway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Ronneberg

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/world/europe/wwii-hero-credits-luck-and-chanc...

I hope it is not inappropriate to post this here, but as we remember the centenary of the end of World War I, this struck me as being a way of saying farewell to those soldiers from the British Empire who also fought and died:

Campaign launched to recognise Muslims and other faiths who fought in first world war (Guardian)

A campaign to recognise the people from different faiths and ethnic backgrounds who fought for Britain in the first world war, including 400,000 Muslim soldiers, has been launched ahead of the armistice centenary.

Politicians from all parties, faith leaders, former military chiefs and charities are supporting Remember Together, an initiative to highlight the often forgotten service and contribution of Muslims and other faiths...

I think it's absolutely appropriate. I would encourage any LTers who had family that fought in the Great War to remember them here. These coming weeks would be an excellent time to remember men who may not be famous, but served nonetheless. Many fought in little known battles or units that are worth pointing out. Off to research my Grandpa's unit and their actions in France.

Armistice: two men separated by four years of war and a few yards of turf (Guardian)

The graves of the first and last British soldiers to die in the first world war face each other in a Belgian cemetery

Untold history: The WWI battles that levelled East Africa (Al Jazeera)

In WWI, British Empire soldiers fought a four-year guerrilla campaign against a small German force in East Africa.

Unknown soldiers laid to rest as 'war detectives' puzzle over identities (guardian)

Member of Lancashire Fusiliers and two Australian men buried a century after they fell in Belgium

The Caribbean honours its overlooked WW1 soldiers

A forgotten soldier on a forgotten front

Both from BBC

As we discussed above, this special weekend is a good time to mention our own old soldiers who fought in the Great War. Below is my grandfather Robert Carswell who fought in France. This was a photo he had made into a postcard to send home. He didn't enlist until August 2018, but they didn't waste any time shipping them over, so he still managed to see some action. He was with a Pioneer Unit of the US Army from North Carolina. I'll be back with the correct name later. He never talked about it much. When my mother was a child her siblings used to chase each other around wearing his gas mask until they tore it apart. He was gassed with mustard gas which caused him lifelong breathing problems. Prior to that he was on guard post duty, was wounded and separated from his unit during an attack. A German farm family took him in and looked after him until he was well enough to go back to his unit. That probably explains why as a very old man he still talked about how beautiful the German girls were with their blue eyes and blond hair. He didn't have anything to say about the French or English girls.


eta - He had photos he took of various landmarks, churches, bridges, etc. My uncle (his son) photographed the same landmarks when he fought over the same ground in WWII.

Fascinating story, Varielle, but does anyone know where the German family lived? Somewhere in Alsace-Lorraine perhaps? It's rather remarkable they didn't turn him in ... as they might have been prosecuted for harbouring a member of an enemy army.

Not sure. Unfortunately there was a massive fire some years ago that burned many military records from both world wars and the Korean War. That included my father’s and grandfather’s. I would love to find out.

Hmm..... the fire destoryed my records, too, from the period just prior to Vietnam

100 years after World War I's armistice, recounting the human cost 'over there' (National Catholic Reporter)

BBC newsreader Richard Baker dies aged 93 (Guardian)

His undergraduate years were interrupted by the second world war, when he served on a minesweeper with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve...

Not sure whether you would consider the Coast Guard to be military or not in the USA?

Olivia Hooker: Tulsa race riot survivor dies aged 103 (BBC)

the first African-American woman to join the US Coast Guard

Where World War One finally ended (BBC)

It took a couple of weeks for news of the Armistice to reach Africa, so fighting continued for a while, making it "the longest campaign of that war". Most of the European soldiers on both sides got marked graves, but most of the Africans who died received no recognition. The exact death toll is unknown.

"Twenty-five nations sent porters and troops to East Africa. The entire country {of Kenya} had nearly a million people, either in the carrier corps, or in the King's African Rifles. That was one quarter of the population."

Lady Trumpington, former Bletchey Park codebreaker, dies at 96 (Guardian)

Dom Benedict Heron, OSB, has died in UK aged 97. A pacifist, he served in the Friends Ambulance Unit during World War 2.

From The Tablet, 10 November 2018

Harry Leslie Smith: War veteran has died (BBC)

The son of a miner, Mr Smith lived through the Great Depression and joined the RAF in 1941, serving in World War Two...

George Bush Senior dies at the age of 94 (BBC)

He was a World War Two aviator

George H.W. Bush: The War Years

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-12925591

War veteran, 98, dies weeks after violent robbery (Guardian)

Widower Peter Gouldstone was fatally injured during burglary at his north London home

Not a new "farewell", but an interesting snippet about the late Roald Dahl, author and old soldier (or rather airman):

Roald Dahl was an RAF fighter pilot during World War Two.

But he never picked up the medals he earned for his service.

Now, 73 years after the war ended, his family has finally received his medals from the Ministry of Defence...

Roald Dahl's family finally get his war medals, 73 years on (BBC)

Richard Overton, the oldest surviving American WWII veteran and the oldest man in the US, died on December 27 at the age of 112. He served in the South Pacific with the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion. https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/us/richard-overton-oldest-ww-ii-vet-died/index.ht...

Georges Loinger: French hero who saved Jews in WW2 dies (BBC)

French resistance fighter Georges Loinger, whose bravery and invention saved hundreds of Jewish children in World War Two, has died aged 108...

One of the methods he used to save children was to take them to the Swiss border, then kick a football over the frontier and get them to chase it...

Loinger was serving in the French army when he was caught in 1940...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/french-resistance-hero-saved-jewis...

www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/revue/georges-loinger

If you really want to pick a fight with a Coastguardsman tell them that they're not actually part of a military organization!

Travelling over the Chrstmas period I missed the death aged 77 of Lord Paddy Ashdown on 22nd December 2018: soldier, politician, diplomat, peacebuilder, former leader of the Liberal Democrat party...

Paddy Ashdown obituary (Guardian)

He joined the Royal Marines straight from school... Ashdown served for 12 years in the Marines and saw action as a commando in Kuwait, Borneo, Hong Kong and Northern Ireland where, in the early days of the Troubles, he was once required to arrest the Catholic civil rights activist and future fellow MP John Hume on the streets of Belfast. In interviews many years later, Ashdown insisted that had he been an Ulster Catholic he would probably have joined the IRA, or at least campaigned for civil rights himself...

Square-jawed, eyes narrowed as if constantly scanning the horizon, resolutely refusing to confirm or deny that he knew how to kill a man with his bare hands from his days fighting communist insurgents in the jungles of Borneo with the Marines’ Special Boat Section, Ashdown looked like a leader of a more militant party than he actually led...

Richard Overton ...

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/richard-overton-dies-at-the-age-of-112.html

Another one (or in fact two) that got missed over Christmas and New Year

Dambusters engineer: RAF appeal for funeral crowd for couple (BBC)

Victor and Edna Barnett, from Telford, Shropshire, met in the air force, and were married for 68 years... He was initially a radar engineer, while she worked in air traffic control with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force... Sqn Ldr Chris Wilson from Shropshire's RAF Cosford said Mr Barnett joined the air force in 1937, and worked on Chain Home, the first line of radar which would have notified of approaching enemy air craft during the Battle of Britain. He was then seconded to the 617, as part of the engineering team preparing Lancaster bombers for the mission, and befriended 'bouncing bomb' inventor Barnes Wallis, Mr Wilson added... He said Mrs Barnett served between 1944 and 1950.

Now they have no relatives to bury them so the Royal Air Force, which is providing a burial party, is inviting people to come to the funeral to honour this veteran couple.

Leader of Jewish partisans who fought the Nazis in Poland, Frank Blaichman died December 27 at the age of 96. He wrote Rather Die Fighting. http://www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans/frank-blaichman

From The Railway Magazine, January 2019, p 10

Ron Buckley (1917-2018), Britain's oldest railway photographer, died on December 2, aged 101. During his military service in World War II he spent five years overseas.