Posted on 11/14/2004 8:40:56 AM PST by snippy_about_it
Looks Great!!!!
Lots of work I see.....
Goodness gracious man! Where have you been? It's so good to see you at the Foxhole.
WOW this is fantastic!!
Early on October 7th, before the relieving Allied troops arrived, the German Commanding Officer who surrounded the Americans sent a letter to Whittlesey by an American prisoner requesting his battalion's surrender. Whittlesey and George McMurtry, his second- in-command, refused to acknowledge this request and even pulled in the white panels used to signal Allied planes for fear the Germans would mistake them for surrender flags. It was widely reported in the American press that Whittlesey had responded "Go to Hell!" immediately upon reading the letter. He later denied having made the statement, suggesting that no reply was necessary.
The eventual relief occurred when several runners were able to break through the German lines to the south and lead the advancing troops to the 'Pocket'. Whittlesey was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel upon the relief of his beleaguered troops. He was relieved from further duty on October 29th and returned to the United States. On December 5th, through the issue of Special Orders No. 259 from Headquarters at Fort Dix, NJ, he was honorably discharged from the United States Army. The following day, December 6th, he was named a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest award given by the U.S. Army. His subordinates, Capts. McMurtry and Holderman would also be awarded Medals of Honor for their service in the pocket.
Whittlesey served the Red Cross Roll Call in New York City beginning in late 1919, perhaps out of a sense of duty to aid those men with whom he had served and who were suffering after their return to the States. In 1921, he was promoted to Colonel and given charge of the reserve division of the 108th, a post he did not feel he could refuse. He also was asked to act as a pall bearer at the ceremonies to honor the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, yet another reminder of all the pain caused by the War.
On November 24, 1921, Whittlesey booked passage on the S.S. Toloa, a steamship owned by the United Fruit Co. bound for Havana. Prior to this, he had put his affairs in order and paid the rent to his landlady for the following month. On November 26th, after having stayed up late drinking and talking with other passengers, Whittlesey walked to the rail of the ship and jumped overboard. None of his friends or relatives had known about his travel plans and were thus disbelieving when the news arrived from the captain of the ship that Whittlesey had been lost at sea and that he had left behind letters to those close to him. The letters were addressed to his parents, his brother Elisha, his brother Melzar, his uncle Granville Whittlesey, and to his friends George McMurtry, J. Bayard Pruyn, Robert Forsyth Little and Herman Livingston, Jr. None of the letters revealed the reason for his suicide and the recipients refused to make them public.
Much more to be found here...http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/whitt.htm
BTW hope all is well with you archy!
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Cute cardinal, thanks feather.
You showed up on just the right day. Thanks for helping everyone out with the questions. I could read it all day and still be confused.
Did I say it was good to see you. ;-)
Thanks for the links to the charts. Copying charts from a source code is tough work. Sam's had to do it with his Treadhead threads and it takes a lot of html work to get it right even when copying source code! Links are better. ;-)
LOL, and you were....
Thanks Phil for the Emblem and Seal.
LOL. We took your advice and had a short day, finished about an hour ago for today. I'm free!
LOL. Great article, thanks for the link.
I feel...
Thank you feather. It does look good for a couple of amateurs.
Wow, it's looking great!
This is the "Lost Battalion" right? What a sad end to the Major.
Thank you!
With the rotation of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the redeployment of troops in Korea, that is going to be hard to pin down.
I assume you have explored this site:
http://www.army.mil/organization/
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