The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Jonathan Wainwright - Apr 19th, 2004

www.cs.amedd.army.mil ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV
(1883 - 1953)

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Jonathan Wainwright was born the son of a cavalry officer and a descendant in a line of distinguished U. S. Naval officers on August 23, 1883 at Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory.

His father, Robert, commanded a squadron in the Battle of Santiago during the Spanish American War and died in 1901 while serving in the suppression of the Philippine Insurrection. A year later, Wainwright was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Wainwright received his commission in 1906 and began his career with the 1st Cavalry Regiment in Texas. The 1st was sent to the Philippines in 1908 as part of an expedition sent to quell the Moro uprising on the island of Jolo. Wainwright participated in the St.Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives towards the end of World War I. Following the Armistice, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff with the Army of Occupation in Koblenz, Germany and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his work in that capacity. The years between the wars were spent in postgraduate studies and training commands.



He graduated from the Mounted Service School, Fort Riley, Kansas, 1916. Promoted to Captain, and in 1917 was on staff of the first officers training camp at Plattsburg, New York. In February 1918 he was ordered to France. In June he became Assistant Chief-of-Staff of the 82nd Infantry Division, with which he took part in Saint Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Promoted to temporary Lieutenant Colonel in October he was assigned to occupation duty in Germany with the 3rd Army until 1920, in which year, having reverted to Captain, he was promoted to Major.

After a year as an instructor at the renamed Cavalry School at Fort Riley, he was attached to the General Staff during 1921-23 and assigned to the 3rd Cavalry, Fort Myer, Virginia, 1923-25. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1929 and graduated from the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1931, and the Army War College in 1934. He was promoted to Colonel in 1935, and commanded the 3rd Cavalry until 1938, when he was advanced to Brigadier General in command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade at Fort Clark, Texas. In September 1940, he was promoted to temporary Major General and returned to the Philippines to take command of the Philippine Division. that began in late December 1941.



Wainwright had little inkling of what future held. The war in Europe was already raging and he feared "that something might break over here and there he would be stuck in the Philippines missing everything." He was commanding American and Filipino troops in northern Luzon when the Japanese attacked on December 8, 1941. Wainwright commanded from the front and his skillful series of holding actions helped to make the American stand on Bataan possible. On February 7, 1942 General MacArthur decorated him with the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.


Surrender on Bataan

General Douglas MacArthur the overall commander of forces in the Philippines was ordered to leave for Australia on March 11, 1942. Wainwright succeeded him as commander of all American and Filipino forces on Bataan and was promoted to lieutenant general. As the senior field commander of US and Filipino forces, he had tactical responsibility for resisting the Japanese invasion. Pushed back from beachheads in Lingayen Gulf, his Philippine forces withdrew onto the Bataan Peninsula, where they occupied well prepared defensive positions and commanded the entrance to Manila Bay. In throwing back a major Japanese assault in January, the defenders earned name of "battling bastards of Bataan." When MacArthur was ordered off Bataan in March 1942, Wainwright, promoted to temporary Lieutenant General, succeeded to command of US Army Forces in the Far East, a command immediately afterward reassigned US Forces in the Philippines. The Japanese attacks resumed in earnest in April.



The Japanese high command issued an ultimatum on March 22nd urging the defenders of Bataan to surrender in the name of humanity. Continuous air bombardment was followed by two human wave assaults which were repulsed but the defenders were running low on supplies and morale.

Bataan fell on April 9, 1942. President Roosevelt authorized Wainwright to continue the fight or make terms as he saw fit. Wainwright chose to continue the battle from Corregidor despite the urgings of some that he leave. "I have been one of the battling bastards of Bataan and I’ll play the same role on the rock as long as it is humanly possible. I have been with my men from the start, and if captured I will share their lot. We have been through so much together that my conscience would not let me leave before the final curtain."


General Wainwright at Celilo
November 15, 1945

Wainwright and 11,000 survivors held on in the tunnels beneath the rock for another month deprived of food, sleep or hope of relief. On May 5th Wainwright wrote MacArthur, "As I write this we are being subjected to terrific air and artillery bombardment and it is unreasonable to expect that we can hold out for long. We have done our best, both here and on Bataan, and although we are beaten we are still unashamed." The Japanese began landing on the island that night and at noon the next day Wainwright called for terms. General Homma insisted that Wainwright surrender all remaining American and Filipino forces or risk the annihilation of his troops on Corregidor. At noon on May 6, 1942, General Wainwright surrendered to Japanese General Homma. A historian of the Civil War, Wainwright later said of that moment, "Suddenly, I knew how Lee felt after Appomattox.



General Wainwright spent the next three years in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines, China and Formosa (Taiwan). The man who was known to his friends as Skinny was found alive in a Japanese prison camp in Manchuria. He emerged from captivity little more than a skeleton. General Wainwright liberation allowed him to travel and attend the Japanese surrender ceremonies aboard USS Missouri (left) in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, after which he returned to the Philippines to receive the surrender of the local Japanese commander. After a short stop at Fort Shafter in Hawaii to receive his fourth star from General Robert C. Richardson Jr., he then flew home to the United States, where he received a hero's welcome and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.



General Wainwright commander the Fourth U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston from January 1946 until his retirement from the Army in August 1947. The general passed away in San Antonio, Texas on September 3 1953 and is buried at Arlington Nation Cemetary.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning PE. I think on Flag Day this June we should just post as many different pictures we have of our flag, wouldn't that be a pretty thread.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Valin.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Mayor. It is something the whole country should be celebrating.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning sw!

[Tax-chick]

Great story! I've seen some of the survivors of Bataan on the History Channel, and they are just amazing. All our WW2 vets are amazing, including my great-uncle Howard McConnell (hero name-dropping!) who won't say much about his 3 years in the Pacific!

Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio has a little museum with a large collection of POW's letters and diaries from the Pacific War. It's a great place to spend a day *without* your kids, 'cause they get bored while you're reading!

Another great visit is the Museum of the Pacific War, in the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, TX.

I could go on, but suddenly all my kids are fighting over lunch :-(.

[Valin]

Yes it is!
And now for todays ray of hope.

How Iraqi judge cornered Sadr
The Australian 4/17/04 Peter Wilson


Posted on 04/19/2004 9:49:02 AM CDT by Valin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1120405/posts

Journalist of the Year Peter Wilson is the first reporter to obtain a brief charging Moqtada al-Sadr with killing a pro-Western rival


THE radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is today holed up in Iraq's sacred city of Najaf, trying to negotiate a face-saving compromise after failing to ignite a general uprising among the nation's Shi'ite Muslim majority.
But Sadr's future does not rest with the clerics and other go-betweens who are hoping to avert a bloody showdown between his 1000-strong militia and the 2500 US troops ringing Najaf.
The fate of Sadr - the angry 30-year-old who last week pledged to destroy the coalition's campaign in Iraq - rests with a legal brief that was carefully compiled over the past year by a provincial Iraqi judge.
It is this brief that led to an arrest warrant being issued for Sadr and some of his supporters, provoking his Mahdi Army to take control of several southern towns last week, raising the deadly possibility of a united insurgency by Shi'ite and Sunni hardliners until more moderate Shi'ite leaders disowned him.

A detailed summary of the case against Sadr, which has been obtained by The Weekend Australian, shows that the prosecuting judge, Raid Juhy, has laid a much wider range of charges against the radical cleric than was previously known.
Prosecutors had announced that Sadr was charged with the murder last year of rival cleric Abdul Majeed al-Khoei, the alleged theft of religious funds from several mosques, and the murder by his guards of an Iraqi family.
But Sadr has also been charged with ordering several other murders, setting up illegal courts and prisons, inciting his followers to violence, and other breaches of the Iraqi penal code.


The barrage of charges and evidence amassed by Juhy, a Najaf-based judge, means that even if Sadr can distance himself from the killing of Khoei, he will still face serious problems in court.
The brief shows that the judge, who is responsible under Iraqi law for overseeing the gathering of evidence, has found eyewitnesses to back the charges that Sadr personally authorised the murder of Khoei, a moderate rival.

(snip)
It is those two survivors of the fight that the judge has flown to London to interview.
According to Kelly, 12 of Sadr's followers -- the stabbers and shooters -- were arrested soon after the killings, and warrants were issued in August for Sadr and several of his more senior followers.
Attempts to arrest those followers, and the closure of Sadr's newspaper for inciting violence, were met by his call for all Shi'ites to rise against the coalition forces.


When there was no general uprising, Sadr said through intermediaries he was willing to stand trial but only after the coalition hands power over to Iraqis on June 30.
"We have done no deals along those lines," Kelly says. "The only thing we would do is guarantee his safety, a fair trial and the provision of a defence lawyer if he needs one."


Sadr's insistence that he be charged after the June 30 handover carries a particular danger for him.
The coalition authorities last year struck down Iraq's death penalty, meaning he would not risk execution if his case began before June 30, but Iraqi officials are widely expected to restore the death penalty once they regain sovereignty.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning stand watie.

I see some people just can't honor Southern heroes and let them come home in peace on the CSS HUNLEY thread.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Valin. I have the recording and it always brings a tear to the eye.

[SAMWolf]

The story of Bataan and the treatment of our soldiers afterwards is a hard one to read and not get emotional about.

[Professional Engineer]

1903 Eliot Ness untouchable (Prohibition Agent for Department of Treasury-Chicago, Untouchables)

During Prohibition, my great-grandad spent several months in Canada, to evade Ness and the boys. Seems he was involved in running liquor in souped up Model-A Fords accross the border.

My grandpa was so ashamed of this, he NEVER spoke of it. He also never touched a drop of alcohol. On her death bed, my grandma, his wife, told my dad the whole story. Very cool family story.

[Professional Engineer]

1587 Sir Frances Drake sails into Cadiz Spain & sinks Spanish fleet

NavalSpankenTruppen!

1982 Sally Ride announced as 1st woman astronaut

Ride Sally, Ride!

1982 Guinon Bluford announced as 1st black astronaut

[Professional Engineer]

I've heard an MP3 of that ballad, very moving.

[Professional Engineer]

I think on Flag Day this June we should just post as many different pictures we have of our flag, wouldn't that be a pretty thread.

Good idea! I'll start trying to keep track of these now.

[snippy_about_it]

NavalSpankenTruppen!

LOL.

Running from Ness! Neat family history;, I guess he never got caught. :-)

[SAMWolf]

IMHO, Prohibition was one of the most stupid laws passed in this Country, it was the cause of more crime/gang wars than anything else before the War on Drugs.

See what a bunch of do-gooders can do when they try to legislate "I don't like it so no one else can do it" laws.

[stand watie]

VERY TRUE!

just because one is a freeper, that alone doesn't make them either smart OR polite.<P.free dixie,sw

[GATOR NAVY]

Here's an interesting link that goes deeper into some of what I pointed out. This guy is a little harsh in some cases (I agree with you MacArthur was ordered to leave, he says he ran).

JAPAN ATTACKS THE PHILIPPINES, 1941- 42

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Gator Navy.

[Humal]

What an amazing story; what an amazing man. This is another one of your posts I have saved. I have told you before, and I sincerely mean it, you do a lot to preserve our history. Have you ever considered having your posts published in book form?