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Posted on 10/19/2003 12:05:23 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 Marine First Lieutenant On 19 February 1945, the 5th Marine Amphibious Corps (consisting of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions) landed on Iwo Jima (Sulphur Island). When the battle was over, 6821 American Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers , along with an estimated 20,000+ Japanese defenders had died. This was Americas first landing on what was considered traditional Japanese territory. It was the beginning of the end.  Marine First Lieutenant Jack Lummus, former Baylor University and New York Giants football star, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for heroism on Iwo Jima at the cost of his life, March 8, 1945. He was born at Ennis, Texas, on October 22, 1915, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Lummus. His father was a policeman. The Lummus family settled in Ennis in 1900 after having lived in Mississippi previously. Lieutenant Lummus attended Ennis High School for two years before he was forced to leave due to ill health. He finished his high school education at Texas Military College, graduating in 1937. At both Ennis High and Texas Military, he was a stand-out performer in baseball and football. While at Texas Military, he earned an athletic scholarship to Baylor University. At Baylor, the tall Texan was selected to three “All Conference” baseball squads, and, during his senior year, was picked for the “All Conference” football team and nominated for “All-American” honors. While in college, he majored in Physical Education but never graduated because of his heavy commitment in sports. In the summer of 1941, he signed and played professional baseball with the Wichita Falls (Texas) Team of the Western Texas-New Mexico League. In the preceding fall he signed up with the New York Giants and was still on their roster when he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 30, 1942.  He received his “boot training” at San Diego, California, and upon graduation was assigned to Base Headquarters, Company C, Marine Barracks, San Diego. In May 1942, he was reassigned to Guard Company, Mare Island, California. While serving in this command he was promoted to private first class on June 10, 1942 and corporal on August 14, 1942. In October of the same year he was selected to attend Candidates Class at Quantico, Virginia, and on December 30, 1942 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve. His first assignment as an officer was at Camp Elliott, California, where he served as an instructor in the Infantry School. In June 1943 he was transferred to Camp Pendleton, California, as a student officer in the Raider Battalion. Later he served as an instructor in the Raider Battalion’s Training Center.  In January 1944 he joined Company G, 2d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division. When the designation of the company was changed to Company F in March of that year, he became commanding officer of the company. On August 11, 1944, he embarked on the USS Henry Clay at San Diego and arrived at Hilo, Hawaii, seven days later and was assigned to Camp Tarawa. In October he was reassigned to Headquarters Company within the same battalion and participated in a seven-day maneuver aboard USS LST 756 from January 10-17, 1945. On January 17, he embarked on the USS Highlands and landed at Saipan on February 11. He reembarked the same day on LST 756 and landed against the Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. On March 8, when his rifle platoon was pinned down by enemy fire.  "Marines of the 5th Division inch their way up a slope on Red Beach No. 1 toward Surbachi Yama as the smoke of the battle drifts about them." Dreyfuss, Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. 127-N-110249. The Marine Corps lieutenant, after relentlessly leading his platoon against Japanese positions on Iwo Jima for two days and nights and although wounded twice, singlehandedly destroyed three devastating enemy installations. He charged forward and stepped on a land mine just before the unit reached its objective in the bitter World War II campaign. His legs were blown off. In his book "Iwo Jima" (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965), Richard F. Newcomb wrote of the fateful March 1945 day; "Suddenly he (Lummus) was at the center of a powerful explosion, obscured by flying rock and dirt. As it cleared, his men saw him rising as if in a hole. A land mine had blown off both his legs that had carried him to football honors at Baylor. "They watched in horror as he stood on the bloody stumps, calling them on. Several men, crying now, ran to him and, for a moment, talked of shooting him to stop the agony. "But he was still shouting for them to move out, move out, and the platoon scrambled forward. Their tears turned to rage, they swept an incredible 300 yards over the impossible ground and at nightfall were on the ridge, overlooking the sea. "There was no question that the dirty, tired men, cursing and crying and fighting, had done it for Jack Lummus."  But after Lt. Jack Lummus, 29, of the 27th Marine Division, was carried on a stretcher to an aid station, he told a surprised surgeon, "I guess the New York Giants have lost the services of a damn good end." His stamina enabled him to remain conscious and he raised himself briefly on an elbow. Through the ordeal, he often smiled. But despite the transfusion of 18 pints of blood, he died from the land-mine blast and earlier wounds on D plus 17 (17 days after D-Day), March 8, 1945. He was among the 1,101 Marine officers and 22,056 enlisted personnel killed or wounded in capturing the 7-square-mile, pork-chop-shaped island and its 1,500 caves and 30 miles of tunnels.  "Across the litter on Iwo Jima's black sands, Marines of the 4th Division shell Jap positions cleverly concealed back from the beaches. Here, a gun pumps a stream of shells into Jap positions inland on the tiny volcanic island." Ca. February 1945. 26-G-4122. That night he was buried by his men at the base of 550-foot Mount Suribachi. He was buried in the 5th Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima. Later, his remains were reinterred in Myrtle Cemetery, Ennis, Texas.  "Flag raising on Iwo Jima." Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press, February 23, 1945. 80-G-413988. On March 26, 1945 at 0800 Major General Harry Schmidt, Commander of the Fifth Amphibious Corps, declared the operation completed thus ending the Marine Corps' combat presence in the Battle of Iwo Jima.  "Smashed by Jap mortar and shellfire, trapped by Iwo's treacherous black-ash sands, amtracs and other vehicles of war lay knocked out on the black sands of the volcanic fortress." PhoM3c. Robert M. Warren, ca. February/March 1945. 26-G-4474. He closed his command post, and withdrew from the island on the afternoon of the 26th. The following day troops of 3rd Marine Division trudged to the east beach, and embarked aboard landing crafts that would take them to waiting transports. Fourth and 5th Divisions followed.  After 36-days and many nights of bitter fighting against General Kuribayashi's subterranean garrison ensconced in a near impregnable fortress, and their job finished, Fifth Amphibious Corps abandoned the malevolent little island to the U.S. Army. Marine Corps Official Reports: Killed in action: Officers -215.........Men - 4,339 Died of wounds: Officers -60..........Men - 1,271 Missing, presumed dead: Officers -3........Men - 43 Wounded in action: Officers -826............Men - 16,446 Combat fatigue casualties: Officers -46.............Men - 2,602 Navy Official Reports: Officers and Men Killed in action 363 Died of wounds 70 Missing, presumed dead 448 Wounded in action 1,917 Jack Lummus' mother was presented the Medal of Honor during ceremonies held in Ennis, Texas, on Memorial Day, 1946. Besides his mother, he was survived by two sisters, Mrs. Gilbert Wright and Mrs. Tommy Merritt. In 1986 the Flagship of the Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadron Three, the "First Lieutenant Jack Lummus", was christened.  MV 1st Lt Jack Lummus at sea      |
That must mean I get more fit with every bill I have to pay. OK, licking my way to fitness!
One drawback is that it is a 10-year deal, just like the tax cuts. That leaves it open to tinkering when a new administration comes in...
Today's classic warship, USS Virginia (BB-13)
Virginia class battleship
displacement. 14,980 t.
length. 441'3"
beam. 76'2 1/2"
draft. 23'9"
speed. 19 k.
complement. 916
armament. 4 12", 8 8", 12 6", 12 6", 24 1-pdrs., 4 .30-cal. Colt mg. ; 4 21 " tt.
The USS Virginia (Battleship No. 13) was laid down on 21 May 1902 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.; launched on 6 April 1904; sponsored by Miss Gay Montague, daughter of the Governor of Virginia; and com missioned on 7 May 1906, Capt. Seaton Schroeder in command.
After fitting out, Virginia conducted her "shaking down" cruise in Lynnhaven Bay, Va., off Newport, R.I., and off Long Island, N.Y. before she put into Bradford, R.I., for coal on 9 August. After running trials for the standardization of her screws off Rockland, Maine, the battleship maneuvered in Long Island Sound before anchoring off President Theodore Roosevelt's home, Oyster Bay, Long Island, from 2 to 4 September, for a Presidential review.
Virginia then continued her shakedown cruise before she coaled again at Bradford. Meanwhile, events were occurring in the Caribbean that would alter the new battleship's employment. On the island of Cuba, in August of 1906, a revolution had broken out against the government of President T. Estrada Palma. The disaffection, which had started in Pinar del Rio province, grew in the early autumn to the point where President Palma had no recourse but to appeal to the United states for intervention. By mid-September, it had become apparent that the small Cuban constabulary (8,000 rural guards) was unable to protect foreign interests, and intervention would be necessary. Accordingly, Virginia departed Newport on 15 September 1906, bound for Cuba, and reached Havana on the 21st, ready to protect the city from attack if necessary. The battleship remained at Havana until 18 October, when she sailed for Sewall's Point, Va.
Virginia disembarked General Frederick Funston at Norfolk upon her arrival there and coaled before heading north to Tompkinsville to await further orders. She shifted soon thereafter to the New York Navy Yard where she was coaled and drydocked to have her hull bottom painted before undergoing repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 3 November 1906 to 18 February 1907. After installation of fire control apparatus at the New York Navy Yard between 19 February and 23 March, the battleship sailed once more for Cuban waters, joining the fleet at Guantanamo Bay on 28 March.
Virginia fired target practices in Cuban waters before she sailed for Hampton Roads on 10 April to participate in the Jamestown Tricentennial Exposition festivities. She remained in Hampton Roads for a month, from 15 April to 15 May, before she underwent repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard into early June. Subsequently reviewed in Hampton Roads by President Theodore Roosevelt between 7 and 13 June, Virginia shifted northward for target practices on the target grounds of Cape Cod Bay, evolutions that lasted from mid-June to mid-July. She later cruised with her division to Newport; the North River, New York City; and to Provincetown, Mass., before conducting day and night battle practice in Cape Cod Bay.
Returning southward early that autumn, Virginia underwent two months of repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy, Yard, from 24 September to 24 November, before undergoing further repairs at the New York Navy Yard later in November. She subsequently shifted southward again, reaching Hampton Roads on 6 December.
Virginia spent the, next 10 days preparing for a feat never before attempted around-the-world cruise by the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The voyage, regarded by President Roosevelt as a dramatic gesture to the Japanese-who had only recently emerged on the world stage as a power to be reckoned with-proved to be a signal success, with the ships performing so well as to confound the doom-sayers who had predicted a fiasco.
The cruise began eight days before Christmas of 1907, and ended on Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1909. During the course of the voyage, the ships called at ports along both coasts of South America; on the west coast of the United States; at Hawaii; in the Philippines; Japan; China; and in Ceylon. Virginia's division also visited Smyrna, Turkey, via Beirut, during the Mediterranean leg of the cruise. Both upon departure and upon arrival, the fleet was reviewed at Hampton Roads by President Roosevelt, whose "big stick" diplomacy and flair for the dramatic gesture had been practically personified by the cruise of the "Great White Fleet."
Following that momentous circumnavigation, Virginia underwent four months of voyage repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 26 February to 26 June 1909. Virginia's appearance was transformed by the addition of new "cage" masts and the replacement of her original "white and buff" color scheme with the grey of the modern battle fleet. She spent the next year and three months operating off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from the southern drill grounds, off the Virginia capes, to Newport, R.I. During that time, she conducted one brief cruise with members of the Naval Militia embarked and visited Rockport and Provincetown, Mass. For the better part of that time, she conducted battle practices with the fleet- evolutions only broken by brief periods of yard work at Norfolk and Boston.
Virginia visited Brest, France, and Gravesend, England, from 15 November to 7 December and from 8 to 29 December 1909, respectively, before she-as part of the 4th Division, Atlantic Fleet-joined the Atlantic fleet in Guantanamo Bay for drills and exercises. She subsequently operated in Cuban waters for two months, from 13 January to 13 March 1910 before she returned north for battle practices on the southern drill grounds.
Virginia departed Hampton Roads on 11 April, in company with Georgia (BB-15), and reached the Boston Navy Yard two days later. She underwent repairs there until 24 May before putting to sea for Provincetown. Over the next five days, Virginia operated with the collier Vestal, testing a "coaling-at-sea apparatus" off Provincetown and at Stellwagen's Bank, before she conducted torpedo practices. The battleship returned to the Boston Navy Yard on 18 June.
Virginia maintained her routine of operations off the eastern seaboard-occasionally ranging into Cuban waters for regularly scheduled fleet evolutions in tactics and gunnery-into 1913, a routine largely uninterrupted. In 1913, however, unrest in Mexico caused the frequent dispatch of American men-of-war to those waters. Virginia became one of those ships in mid-February, when she reached Tampico on the 15th of that month; she remained there until 2 March, when she shifted to Vera Cruz for coal. She returned to Tampico on 5 March and remained there for 10 days.
After another stint of operations off the eastern seaboard, ranging from the Virginia capes to Newport-a period of maneuvers and exercises varied by a visit to New York at the end of May 1913 for the dedication of the memorial to the battleship Maine (sunk in Havana Harbor in February 1898) and one to Boston in mid-June for Flag Day and Bunker Hill exercises-Virginia returned to Mexican waters in November. She reached Vera Cruz on 4 November and remained in port until the 30th, when she shifted to Tampico. She observed conditions in those ports and operated off the Mexican coast into January of 1914.
Returning to Cuban waters for exercises and maneuvers with the fleet, Virginia sailed for the Virginia capes in mid-March 1914. She maneuvered with the fleet off Cape Henry and in Lynnhaven Roads before she conducted gunnery drills at the wreck of San Marcos (ex-Texas) in Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay. Virginia subsequently held experimental gunnery firings on the southern drill grounds before she spent much of April drydocked at Boston.
The American occupation of Vera Cruz in April 1914 resulted in the sizable deployment of American men-of-war to that port that lasted into the autumn. Virginia reached Vera Cruz on 1 May and operated with the fleet out of that port into early October, a period of time broken by target practice in Guantanamo Bay between 18 September and 3 October.
While war raged in Europe, Virginia continued her operations off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from the southern drill grounds to the coast of New England and occasionally steaming to Cuban waters for winter maneuvers. She was placed in reserve on 20 March 1916, at the Boston Navy Yard, and was undergoing an extensive overhaul in the spring of 1917 when the United States declared war on Germany.
On the day America entered World War I, the United States government took steps to take over all interned German merchant vessels then in American ports. As part of that move, Virginia sent boarding parties to seize the German passenger and cargo vessels Amerika, Cincinnati, Wittekind, Koln, and Ockenfels on 6 April 1917.
Completing her overhaul at Boston on 27 August, Virginia sailed for Port Jefferson, N.Y., three days later, to join the 3d Division, Battleship Force, Atlantic Fleet. Over the ensuing 12 months, the battleship served as a gunnery training ship out of Port Jefferson and Norfolk; service interrupted briefly in early December 1917, when she became temporary flagship for Rear Admiral John A. Hoogewerff, Commander, Battleship Division 1. She subsequently became flagship for the 3d Division commander, Rear Admiral Thomas Snowden.
Overhauled at the Boston Navy Yard in the autumn of 1918, Virginia spent the remainder of hostilities engaged in convoy escort duties, taking convoys well over half-way across the Atlantic. She departed New York on 14 October 1918 on her first such mission, covering a convoy that had some 12,176 men embarked. After escorting those ships to longitude 22 degrees west, she put about and headed for home.
That proved to be her only such wartime mission, however, because the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, the day before Virginia set out with a France-bound convoy, her second escort run into the mid-Atlantic. After leaving that convoy at longitude 34 degrees west, Virginia put about and headed for Hampton Roads.
The cessation of hostilities meant the return of the many troops that had been engaged in fighting the enemy overseas. Similar in mission to the "Magic Carpet" operation that followed the end of World War II, a massive troop-lift, bringing the "doughboys" back from "over there," commenced soon after World War I ended.
With additional messing and berthing facilities installed to permit her use as a troopship, Virginia departed Norfolk eight days before Christmas of 1918. Over the ensuing months, she conducted five round-trip voyages to Brest, France, and back. Reaching Boston on Independence Day 1919, ending her last troop lift, Virginia ended her transport service, having brought some 6,037 men back from France.
Virginia remained at the Boston Navy Yard, inactive, until decommissioned there on 13 August 1920. Struck from the Navy list and placed on the sale list on 12 July 1922, the battleship-reclassified prior to her inactivation to BB-13 on 17 July 1920 -was subsequently taken off the sale list and transferred to the War Department on 6 August 1923 for use as a bombing target.
Virginia and her sistership New Jersey were taken to a point three miles off the Diamond Shoals lightship, off Cape Hatteras, N.C., and anchored there on 5 September 1923. The "attacks" made by Army Air Service Martin bombers began shortly b efore 0900. On the third attack, seven Martins flying at 3,000 feet, each dropped two 1,100-pound bombs on Virginia-only one of them hit. That single bomb, however, "completely demolished the ship as such." An observer later wrote: "Both masts, the bridge; all three smokestacks, and the upperworks disappeared with the explosion and there remained, after the smoke cleared away, nothing but the bare hull, decks blown off, and covered with a mass of tangled debris from stem to stern consisting of stacks, ventilators, cage masts, and bridges."
Within one-half-hour of the cataclysmic blast that wrecked the ship, her battered hulk sank beneath the waves. Her sistership ultimately joined her shortly thereafter. Virginia's end, and New Jersey's, provided far-sighted naval officers with a dramatic demonstration of air power and impressed upon them the "urgent need of developing naval aviation with the fleet." As such, the service performed by the old pre-dreadnought may have been her most valuable.
Actually two threads because we lost the link to pictures on the first one and then when we found out Hal Moore's son put a link on his website to the Foxhole we tried to recreate the thread with the pictures intact.
This is a link to the old thread with the new thread link at the top of the page when you get there. :)
The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Lt. Col. Harold G.(Hal) Moore - Sep. 6th, 2003
How can a human being endure that much? He had to be in such shock that his body just hadn't had time to react to the injuries.
MM, I know you're on top of this and wondered if you would comment here. Thanks. -- Dave
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