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Wishing all my American friends a very happy Memorial Day. Let's all take a moment to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
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As a boomer and member of an extended family of the greatest generation it is always a time for me to pause and think of the service they gave for the country. I can remember the stories vividly. Pax vobiscum.
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Thank you to the veterans, today and always. I've posted in the past about my father and his service in WW2 in the South Pacific on other sites and on Facebook. Today I want to mention a good friend of my father. Samuel Sather (Sammy) was a Seattle native, and joined up the same day as my dad, September 9th 1940. Sammy was a few years older than my dad, but that didn't stop their friendship. The both ended up in the 41St division, 116 Medical Battalion.
Both were on the Queen Elizabeth's maiden voyage to Australia as a troop carrier. My dad came back. Sammy didn't. He was gunned down on July 30th 1943 as he helped carry a wounded soldier out during the battle of Salamaua in New Guinea as US forces were attempting to gain control of Mt. Tambu. One of the other men who helped carry out the wounded soldier that day was my dad's commanding officer, Faustino Pagne.
Sammy's parents had him brought home for burial in Seattle. I remember my father placing flowers at his grave as long as I can remember, and I knew he had been doing this far before I was born. I've been carrying on the tradition and placed flowers there on Veterans Day (and on Memorial Days, and Christmas, etc) along with a flag in his memory. USA is the land of the free because of the brave.
Pictured below is the gravestone of Sammy Sather (which I do need to clean). Also pictured is my dad's outfit, pic taken at Tambu Bay New Guinea in 1943. My dad's commanding officer, Faustino Pagne is center with the hat on (standing), surrounded by his "boys", and my dad is more to the right, the tall skinny guy (dad would have been 20 yo in this pic).
In the summer of 2011 I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to take my son Andy on a college/University tour in Northern California. Dad said he wanted to come along and perhaps visit his old commanding officer Faustino Pagne. So dad was 88 at the time and Pagne was at least 4 years older... so I said, "dad, you haven't talked to Pagne in over 40 years, how do you know he's still alive?". Dad said he was certain Pagne would still be alive. Dad knew where Pagne had settled in California, in a small town named Crockett. So, I did a little online search, found a few Pagne's in Crockett and was able to get ahold of his daughter in law on the first call which led me to his daughter.... Pagne was not only alive but in great shape! So, a couple of weeks later 2 old soldiers got together for the first time since WW2 (they had talked some 40 years prior, but hadn't seen each other). It was quite a lunch that we had together with his family and they talked like they were two 20 year old guys with the same language and mannerisms of the young men they once were. I'll try and find one of the pics and post.
Thanks for reading.
Eric
Last edited by soterik; 05-30-2022, 04:58 PM.Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now....
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67S's......Comment
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Eric, just read your thread with interest. I was at my father’s grave stone yesterday. (WW 2 vet). His stone also has that black spotting/mold on it and wondered how to remove it without dulling the polished granite. The web is full of info, but rather involved. If you know something that works, let me know…..Comment
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My great-grandfather was English but he was in NSW Australia when WW1 broke out. He volunteered there as the first wave of the Australian Imperial Force and sailed back to Europe to fight in France and Flanders. His battalion saw action there throughout the Great War — their battle honours are listed on the attached image. Amazingly he survived some of the bloodiest battles of that terrible war (for example Ypres, Somme, Paschendaele). Wasn’t WW1 the war to end all wars!?
The script on his battalion’s item says it all. Photo is his Company near the famous ancient monument Stonehenge shortly before being shipped to the front. I am pleased brave servicemen from “down-under” are honoured by their countries on the ANZAC day of remembrance: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...ing-celebrate/
SteveAttached FilesLast edited by 911MRP; 05-31-2022, 08:35 AM.Comment
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To put the horrors in context for one battle alone Passchendaele around 12th October the 35th battalion of the AIF had 508 men who crossed the line but only 90 remained unwounded at the end. The photo taken at Stonehenge are the men who were that cannon fodder more than 4/5th of them dead or wounded at that one infamous battle.Last edited by 911MRP; 06-01-2022, 03:56 AM.
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Great stuff, guys. We're all lucky we don't have to measure ourselves against our ancestors.Comment
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God Bless the heroes!Comment
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I have seen a fair amount of documentaries on WW2, but when I saw the Peter Jackson movie "They Shall Not Grow Old" I was beyond speech as to what they WW1 soldiers had to endure,... and then they just went back home after it was over and just went back to work. The number of casualties as a percentage those who served and then came home was staggering. Honors to your great-grandfather!Originally posted by 911MRP View Post
For those who haven't seen the Peter Jackson movie, here's a link to the preview. For those who are not famliar with it, Peter Jackson found a great deal of archive footage of WW1, and then slowed the speed of the images to "normal" and then overlayed voices from the villages these men came from to give a better perspective of how their inflections and accents would have been (using a person to speak from their own village). There's also a number of interviews with the soldiers when they were old, but still able to give an accounting of their time in the service of their country. If you haven't seen it, just take a look at the preview... I'm sure the full movie is available on one of the services.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jackson+mo...%3DIrabKK9Bhds
EAh, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now....
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67S's......Comment
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Thanks for link and post Eric. I shall watch it. While he survived the great war he died at a young age in the 1920s. His plan had been to forge a new life down under for him, his wife and their daughter— my gran. Emigrated to other side of world 1913. But war put pay to that. Volunteered for WW1 service. There is a note in his military file that my great-grandmother declined the free passage to Australia his service to Empire had earned in 1919. I suppose the six years’ separation mainly due to war killed their marriage. Sadly he died at a young age in the hospital for incurables, after two years as inpatient. The obituary in paper mentions cause was related to his war service. He was despite being without family on other side of planet given a decent send off by friends with the town band, members of his lodges and former military colleagues in attendance. ANZAC troops are held in high regard by their communities. “His duty done” especially as he worked in what by WW11 was designated as a “reserved occupation” so didn’t need to volunteer to fight.
He had hard short but eventful life. His mother died when age 8, he was brought up by grandparents then lived with cousin when orphaned, went to work down a coal mine as a young teen, the 1911 census shows two of his children died when in their infancy, he emigrated to NSW but returned to fight in France and Flanders for what records show was per diem five shillings as a Private, his life ended after two years of being an inpatient in a Sydney hospital for incurables when he was still young man. Sounds like the hard life and war crushed him. I didn’t know all this when I used to go to Australia with my work but do have a picture of his grave which is kept well maintained. I will visit it next time I’m there.
It was nice only yesterday to find his photo and a brief mention by name in the Sydney Mail of 1917 (attached) but I’m disturbed by the phrase “fill up the gaps”. Fallen hero is a “gap”, am I reading that comment in the paper wrong or was life really that cheap?
We owe a great debt to folks like those mentioned in this thread and countless others.
Meanwhile, I’m still processing the troubling thought that I was very nearly an Aussie …. Strewth Mate!
SteveAttached FilesLast edited by 911MRP; 06-02-2022, 04:45 AM.Comment
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