Armando Ybarra, our most recently elected chapter Trustee, is not only unusual, he is unique among our chapters 550 Patriots. To start with, he is the only one among us that was wounded in the Oct 1983 terrorist truck-bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon but, it gets even better than that. Hours after the bombing, when Armando was finally pulled from all of the wreckage of the building, the photo of him being carried out by three Marines was broadcast worldwide. Among other media, it was also printed on the covers of TIME and NEWSWEEK magazines. How many of the rest of us in Chapter 1919 got that kind of publicity when wounded? (or would have wanted the...
Patriot Stories from the United States Army
BISHOP DAVIS (B.D.) McKENDREE
This survivor of the brutal conditions of the Japanese POW Camps in WWII never gave up his love of poetry, perhaps that helped him to survive. It is also a great wonder that, late in the war, he managed to survive three ocean trips on slow moving ships. In those days the U.S. submarines torpedoed everything that moved in Japanese waters. Bishop Davis McKendree was born in 1919 in the Texas Panhandle town of Vega, on the historic highway Route 66. One of his McKendree ancestors had been the first native-born American to become a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and thats who he was named after. His family called him "Bish", and more recently he has been called,...
RANDY GREENE
Aug 2003 Inductee, Wall of Honor, Texas Commission For The Blind Randolph H. Greene was born in Blue Grove, Texas in 1923. When he was 14, his family moved to Lubbock where he graduated from High School and then worked for two years as a carpenter. He entered Army active duty in Lubbock on May 21, 1943 and, after completing basic training, was assigned to Company B, 106th Combat Engineer Battalion, 31st Infantry Division. The 31st Infantry Division shipped out on February 10, 1944, and arrived in the Southwest Pacific, at Oro Bay, New Guinea, on March 17, 1944. The division next conducted a landing at Maffin Bay in Northern New Guinea and engaged in continuing combat...
WALTER B. WALDON
Walter B. Waldon was born in 1919 in Detroit, Michigan. He spent most of his growing-up years in a Michigan farming family that lived through the great depression. When he turned 21 years old he joined the Army, entering service on August 6, 1940. Walter says, I didnt go through any basic and advanced training, they just shipped me to the West Coast and I was assigned directly into the mortar section of Weapons Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis Washington. He remembers that the next year he was back home on leave when Pearl Harbor was attacked bringing America into World War II. After a period of intensive preparation for...
ANTHONY J. (TONY) GEISHAUSER
A helicopter pilot delivers breakfast to a company of paratroopers, 35 years late, and the troops love him for it anyway. Who else but Tony could pull off something like that. In 1966, Anthony J. Geishauser was a helicopter pilot in Company A, 82nd Aviation Battalion. That company, better known as the "Cowboys", was the UH-l "lift" company supporting the Sky Soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, homebased in Bien Hoa. From the way those guys flew, the paratroopers they served thought those cowboy "huey" pilots were very aptly nicknamed, and they were proud to have them around. Early on the morning of March 16th, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, on Operation...
MARCUS COHEN
Marcus was one of the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. He was with them when they were rushed to Bastogne to block the German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was wounded there on Christmas morning, 1944. His real life experience closely resembles what was shown in the movie Battle Ground. Marcus Cohen was born in 1912 in Cordele, Georgia, where he grew up and finished high school as valedictorian of his graduating class. He attended Georgia Tech and after that, lived in Atlanta for 5 or 6 years. Marcus then moved to Louisville, Kentucky and went into business. He was half-owner in Bon Art" photo studio with the partner taking the pictures...
RAYMOND L. McKEE, SR
Ray McKee is an Army Air Forces veteran and an Ex-POW who, for an extended period, endured tremendous torture and mental cruelty in addition to his painful FLAK and bomb wounds that went untreated for many days between his capture and the time he reached the relative safety of a German STALAG, POW camp. At one of our chapter monthly breakfasts he related a small part of that experience which we share with you here, told in his own words. On March 18, 1944, I was the bombardier for Lt Magneson's B17 in the 429th Bomb Squadron, 2nd Bomb Group, 5th Bomb Wing, of the 15th Air Force at Foggia, Italy. The bombing mission that day was to hit military installations at Villarba in...
ROBERT E. O’MALLEY
Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor recipient, was born to Irish immigrants in Queens, New York, and he grew up there in the city; part of a large family with children all coming of age at the time of the war in Vietnam. Bob was one of four brothers, all Marines, and all four of them served in Vietnam at the same time. He was a 22 year-old Corporal in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division in combat near the village of An Cu'ong 2, on August 18, 1965. On that day, after being wounded three times, his performance in action was to be cited for our nation's highest military award. Bob was back home in Queens when the award was approved late the next year....
James S. “Jim” Hufnall
A TALE OF THREE CAVALRY TROOPERS James S. "Jim" Hufnall, La Grange, TX Weldon S. Hoyle, Olathe, KS (passed away 12-24-2014) Stanley M. "Stan" Jankiewicz, St Petersburg, FL Patriots, Chapter 1919 (ARMY, WWII, Pacific) Article January 2000 After many years in which two of these veterans had unsuccessfully tried to assist in getting a Purple Heart award for their combat-wounded WWII buddy, they turned to our Chapter Commander, Frank Cortez, for help. That was in 1997. After Frank also had several follow-up submissions denied; finally, on November 23, 1999, the Army Board of Corrections announced the award of the Purple Heart to Stanley M. Jankiewicz for wounds received February...
FLOYD E. BENNETT
Floyd was wounded in the European Theatre during WWII, but his favorite recollection is that of his personal postwar encounter with General Douglas MacArthur. Floyd E. Bennett was born in 1924 in Livingston Parish, Louisiana where he spent his growing-up years and attended school. At age 18 he was inducted into the Army at New Orleans in 1943. He was sent off to training courses at several installations, ending up with training at Camp Callan, California. Following that, Floyd was shipped out to Europe in June 1944. He was assigned to a gun crew in Battery A, 574th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion With that unit, he participated in the Campaigns of Northern France, The...
JOHN STAVAST
John is a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. His experiences could fill a book, but, this article will only detail one very moving experience that he had in France with the infantry in WWII, and a few facts about his nearly 6 years as a POW during the war in Vietnam. Much additional information can be found about him on the internet and from numerous books about Vietnam POWs. Our immediate Past Chapter Commander, John E. Stavast passed away Sunday, July 4, 2004. John Stavast was born in Denver in 1926. His family had moved to Pueblo, Colorado and he was attending high school when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program, entering active duty March 20, 1944....
GEORGE MIGL – ARMY – WWII
George has been a life-long resident of Fayette County except for his WWII service. This veteran 84th Infantry Division, Railsplitter, went through the Battle of the Bulge and was later wounded in Germany. George I. Migl was born in Fayette County, Texas in 1919 and he grew up on a Czech immigrant family farm near Praha. George's father was born in 1855, in Czechoslovakia near the German border. He took passage to America at age 17. After two weeks in New York he shipped to Galveston and immediately moved up to then sparsely settled Fayette County, Texas where he took up farming in 1872. That was one year before the city of Flatonia was even founded. This elder Migl...