LONG AFTER FADING AWAY, A FORGOTTEN MARINE REEMERGES

Boston Globe ^ | May 11, 03 | Benjamin Gadin

[gunnyg]

LONG AFTER FADING AWAY, A FORGOTTEN MARINE REEMERGES

Author(s): Benjamin Gedan, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Date: May 11, 2003 Page: 13 Section: City Weekly

Omitted from the bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, uncelebrated in World War II history texts, and long unrecognized in his hometown, former US Marine Sergeant Henry O. Hansen will be memorialized this summer with the construction of a public garden, 58 years after he helped raise the first American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945.

A triangular vacant lot on Medford Street outside Somerville's Magoun Square will house a community garden, monument, and seating area to honor the unsung veteran, marking the end of eight years of sporadic lobbying. Hansen, who later died in the fighting, is the only original flag-raiser without a memorial in his hometown, city officials said.

"They never got recognition," James G. O'Connor, director of Somerville's Veterans' Services Department, said last week. "It's been overlooked."

Planning for the park is in the earliest stages, though further along than fund-raising for the $100,000 project.

The city's Conservation Commission has not yet designed the monument, received private donations, or identified possible grant funds.

City officials have pledged no public money to the project, and plans to post a temporary sign describing the initiative have been delayed, said Anne Phelps, Conservation Commission director.

A $10,000 pledge from CVS, however, has given organizers a renewed sense of mission, providing the "driving force" behind the long-promised memorial, said Michael Fager, who is coordinating the project for the Conservation Commission.

The funds will not be donated until a new CVS store opens in the fall, said Gerald Cohen, president of SF Properties Inc., which helped negotiate the gift as part of a CVS development project in Magoun Square.

Despite the slow start and sour economy, however, organizers said they were optimistic about the prospects for additional fund-raising.

The war in Iraq could spark renewed appreciation for veterans of World War II, Fager said, adding that local World War II veterans and their relatives need no reminder of soldiers' sacrifices in the European and Pacific campaigns.

"This particular event was, for the history of World War II, so important. People don't want to forget," he said of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. "We have just finished a war, and we are reflecting on what it means."

On Feb. 23, 1945, after intense fighting, Marines from Company E, 2d Battalion reached the summit of Mount Suribachi.

Under fire, six Marines, including Hansen, secured a small American flag to a 20-foot section of Japanese iron pipe and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, according to documents in the Marine Corps University Research Archives and the Naval Historical Center.

When resistance ceased, five other Marines replaced the original flag with a larger one, and the event was immortalized in a photograph by Joe Rosenthal, which served as the model for the Washington, D.C., monument.

The second flag-raisers achieved instant hero status, and have been celebrated on websites and in countless photographic reproductions of the event.

As Somerville officials outline plans to open the city's seventh public garden, with a wrought iron fence, irrigation pipes, and perennials, officials said the time to honor the local, original flag-raiser has finally arrived.

"If you say `the flag-raising,' you see the huge monument in Washington of the second flag-raising," O'Connor said, lamenting the lack of a city memorial. "Hopefully, something will happen."

Benjamin Gedan can be reached at gedan@globe.com.

[TexasCowboy]

I've long ago gave up trying to figure out why, but the sight of our Marine Corps flag or the sound of cadence or our Marine Corps Hymn makes my back straighter and my walk firmer.

I was worried about the new breed of Marines on the eve of this latest conflict.
I had no reason for concern.
They've made me proud.

[LadyX]

Sadly, Fred, in December his beloved wife, Mags, succumbed to emphysema, and in January he and his daughters scattered her ashes at sea, per her wishes.

Not long after, he wrote several of us to not address posts to him, as he was 'going for medical treatment.'

To my knowledge, no one has heard from him or his daughters since.

[LadyX]

Might have to play my cadence calling tapes so I can go to sleep tonight..:))

[Fred Mertz]

I received a freep-mail in Feb '03 from the Cap'n.

From ofMagog | 02/13/2003 6:04 PM EST

He's still out there, I'm certain.

[LadyX]

I had mail the end of February, too, Fred.

In March, however, I accidentally hailed him with an Old Ping List, and received this from his daughter:

Re: A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day...03-04-03...It's Mardi Gras!!!!
From ofMagog | 03/05/2003 7:52 AM EST read

Dad's condition is being evaluated. We ask AGAIN that all posts or FR mail be put on hold for now.

PLEASE

thanks

======================================================

Nothing since......

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the ping.

Sorry Marine -- You're Too Old

[sit-rep]

I will honor him as I see fit

I did not know you knew him. Just thought I would let you know. Obviously you know, so carry on...

[JoeSixPack1]

OUTSTANDING!

.......do more with less, a less that is either old or an army hand-me-down?

My first issue of 782 gear was so moth ridden i thought it was just recycled boot camp stuff. Then I found out it was newly issued "old army gear"!!

Semper Fi, We ROCK! :-)

[LadyX]

Received that from Trish, too, TC, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Will recycle it to a few old friends who served in The Corps and the navy..:))

Perhaps I should post the other mail she sent for a laugh this day:

A WOMAN'S PRAYER

Dear Lord I pray
For wisdom to understand my man
Love to forgive him
Patience for his moods

Because Lord if I pray for Strength
I'll beat him to death

Amen

Double Amen!!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Dear COB,

rats ass! The Army follows orders, the Marines can't even read much less obey them. In Bagdad they were two days late, took the wrong airport, which had been abandoned, and took credit for what 3rd MECH had already done. It's like WWII where you took a total land mass about equal to Vermont, while the Navy controled the Pacific and the Army was with you all the way and also took North Africa and Europe, then you claim to have won the war alone.

If you weren't so damn old and ugly, I'd kick your rear!

BTW how about lunch this week?

[TexasCowboy]

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I KNEW if you saw that post you'd have some smart comments to make!
I got old and ugly by hanging around dogfaces like you!

Lunch sounds great!
I'm off this week; name the time and place.

[MeekOneGOP]

bttt

[JoeSixPack1]

Ahhhh,, I love the smell of comaraderie,,, it smells like victory! :-)

Which beats dog chow, but not as nourishing!

[TexasCowboy]

"Bring 'em home, or send us back! Semper Fi)"

God, I LOVE that tag line!!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Ahhhh,, I love the smell of comaraderie,,, it smells like victory! :-)

COMARADERIE!!! With COB? With a MARINE? Rats rear, I don't even like the guy, I mean he doesn't even drink!

I only copy him so he won't think I'm talking behind his back. I have no idea who reads these posts to him.

COB .... Thursday or Friday?

[TexasCowboy]

"I have no idea who reads these posts to him."

Maybe the same person that writes them for you.

Thursday works for me.
Gotta go flirt with that cute nurse in the dentist's office Friday.
No, I won't give you the name of my dentist.
She prefers Gyrenes, anyway.
'Course I ain't never seen one that didn't !

Where?

[Dubya]

THANKS COWBOY

[TexasCowboy]

"You can be in the Army, you can join the Air Force, but you become a Marine."

That bears repeating!

Good to see ya, Dubya!

[Dubya]

Good to see you too Buddy.

I'm fixen to go show a house, back later.

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2003 -- Like many Americans in the days following the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Elizabeth A. Barnes wanted to pay tribute to those
who perished.

Barnes, the wife and daughter of Navy men, decided to use her needlework skills
to honor the fallen. She endeavored to create a flag with all the names of the
9-11 victims and the 17 sailors who died in the October 2000 attack on the USS
Cole in Yemen.

When Barnes began researching her project, she realized hundreds of Americans
had died in other terrorist attacks over the past 30 years. She decided to
memorialize many of them as well.

As she started to work, Barnes found the stitching "relatively easy," but "hard
emotionally, with all the names." As more and more people became aware of her
project, volunteers offered their time and expertise to painstakingly cross-
stitch the individual fabric squares.

"When I started the Memorial Flag Project," Barnes stated on her Web site, "it
was a way of coping with the tragedies of Sept. 11. At the time, I had no idea
it was going to turn into something so large."

Although unable to include the names of everyone who has died as a result of
terrorism, Barnes nevertheless wanted to convey the scope of the tragedies.

"I firmly believe that terrorism is caused by prejudice, ignorance and hate,
and not by any certain religion, country or race," she wrote. "I hope that
through this flag, and its many varied incidents, that people will come to
understand what terrorism is, and through that understanding see the occurrence
of terrorism become less and less."

More than 1,200 people worldwide stitched 3,774 individual squares to complete
the flag that now measures 63 feet long and 35 feet wide. Each square includes
a victim's name.

For those who fell victim to terrorist attacks prior to Sept. 11, the date of
the attack is included on the individual square. Squares designed for fallen
service members include emblems representing their service branch; fallen
firefighters have the Maltese Cross; and fallen police officers show a police
badge.

When all the squares were sent in and stitched together, Barnes took the flag
on the road. She will display the commemorative work of art in Washington, on
May 25 and 26. It can be viewed on the National Mall across from the National
Air and Space Museum, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"Most people are awed by the size of it and the [number of] people on the
flag," Barnes said. "Some cry, some just give me hugs because they're very
emotional. It hits people different ways."

For more on the Memorial Flag Project and future display dates and places, go
to www.memorialflag.org [http://www.memorialflag.org].

200305204a.jpg Emblems representing each military service are part of the
pattern on individually stitched squares for fallen service men and women
included in the Memorial Flag tribute to victims of terrorist attacks.
(Courtesy Memorial Flag Project.)