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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 01/08/2003 5:34:47 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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"Warrior Wednesday" We plan to introduce a different veteran each Wednesday. The "Ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us Our Veterans.
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503rd Airborne Regimental Combat Team This history is based on March 1996 interviews of Richard M. Hess by his son Kenneth L. Hess. Richard made corrections based on personal notes and memories. All direct quotations are Richard's.  Richard Morton Hess February 16, 1945 to February 17, 1945 Typically they would be told of an invasion 3-4 days in advance. Plenty of time to get nervous. Normally they didn't know where the invasion would be until 1-2 days before. "Of course the officers knew." "At almost 20 years of age, I was still the third youngest soldier in the 503rd." "There wasn't a whole lot of talking at breakfast. It was quiet. We bivouacked on the airfield at Mindoro next to the jump planes. They got us up at 5:30 am. We were all ready to go by 6:00 and we had to stand around waiting for what seemed like a long time. We boarded the C-47's at about 6:30 and immediately took off heading north in formation." Dad was in the 3rd Battalion, H Company, 3rd Platoon, 3rd Squad. The battalion commander was Lieutenant Colonel John L. Erickson. This battalion was the first to go in.  They came across the narrow width of the island with 24 paratroopers in each C-47. "I was in one of the first planes as they came across the island in single file. When I left the plane, I could see right ahead of me, close to the ground, the B-25 and A-20 planes strafing with their 50 caliber cannons [like gatling guns]. Before we went in they bombed and shelled Corregidor for three solid weeks. We couldn't hold Manila harbor without taking Corregidor. The guns were on railroad cars. It was like a battleship on an island." The plane was at 400 feet above Topside, the drop zone. "I was the first one out the door of our plane. I only oscillated one and a half times. We had a lot of wind there. Wind steals the air from your chute and you come down faster." The records say the drop occurred at 8:30 am, but his watch was stopped cold at 8:20 when he landed. "It never ran again. I hit pretty hard, solid rock. I hit so hard it paralyzed me. I couldn't move for 2-3 minutes." He had landed in a gully in front of the parade field on Topside. About an hour after landing, he was hit by a piece of shrapnel (probably from a mortar). It hit his cartridge belt and barely broke his skin. Dad doesn't want to get specific about having shot anyone. "Let's just say I did my part. I don't want to talk about it."  North side of Corregidor "It was a real busy place, let me tell you. There was not a moment, of anything being a soft spot. It was a beehive of activity continually. There was gunfire all the time. The enemy were like bees--they were everywhere." The enemy fought using banzai charges. These were suicidal charges by from one to maybe 24 Japanese, intended to inflict as much damage to life and property as possible without regard to their own personal safety. "When you heard 'Banzai! Banzai!' the earth shook--someone was going to die right now." "The Japs were in tunnels. MacArthur and his engineers built the whole system. They'd come out 2-3 at a time, a dozen at a time. They were all around us. They'd come out firing weapons and throwing hand grenades. We'd kill them and then some more would come out. They must have had hundreds of exits. Intelligence said there were only 650 Japs on the island. Actually, there were 6500 to 9000 Japanese Marines, maybe more. Even the Japanese are not sure of the actual number of troops on Corregidor. About 900 were killed the first day. Most were killed later when they committed suicide by blowing up the tunnels. They almost took out a whole company of the 503rd when they did it. Blew them right into the air." His squad was securing the perimeter of Topside, above Middleside when he was wounded by machine gun fire at 4:30 pm.  Monkey Point after the explosion that leveled the hill and part of the 1st Battalion. The square shaped image in the back center of the photo is the overturned carcass of the Sherman tank shown above. "My lung was collapsed, I was breathing right through my chest. That bullet entered from my back. My arm was hit from the front. In other words, we were surrounded. The first things the Japs take out are the light machine guns, the BAR, and I was the BAR." "The one that hit me in the arm ricocheted off a rock. Zing, splatter! They both hit me within 3 seconds of each other." "There was a strange feeling for about 20 minutes as my heart pounded in my chest. I could actually feel the pounding--and with each beat of the heart, blood gushed violently out of my chest. I knew this was the end and I prayed the Lord's Prayer." "I couldn't get my arm down. It was like I was saluting someone. It was an hour before I could get my arm down. I don't know why." At about 5:30 pm the medics put him in the bombed out barracks on Topside which was close by. "That night I was in there they sprayed it with machine gun fire and darn near got me again. A buddy of mine got a bullet through his appendix when he came up to see me. It went through his trench knife handle, then through his appendix. They had to take the appendix out right away. The next morning they operated on me. At about 8:00 am they put my stretcher across a couple of oil drums shot full of bullet holes. I asked the doctor if I was going to live and he said, 'Just hang in there, just hang in there trooper.' They brought a Navy guy up from the beach and gave me a direct blood transfusion. I'd lost a lot of blood. I was going to die. I knew I was going to die. Then every hour, as I was still alive, I kept telling myself, 'Maybe I am going to make it' and I prayed." "The doctor was from Vincennes, IN. A real nice guy. He cut a circle of flesh around the wound, it was about a quarter inch wide and two feet long. He dropped it in a can. He said, 'If you had been turned another few degrees it would have gone right through your heart. It was as close as you can get without...' After they got it closed, I wasn't sucking air in there anymore. I was in the hot sun the rest of the day."  North Dock "I didn't see how I could live, losing that much blood. Nobody cleaned me up or anything. I was covered with blood. (This was not the place for cleaning someone up and is not meant as a complaint.) The flies just drove me nuts out there in the hot sun." "Later in the day [actually there's some chance it may have been the next day, but Dad doesn't believe he spent another night there] they started working me and about seven or eight other guys down to the beach on stretchers. There was a small hospital ship about a mile off shore from the South Dock." The trip from Topside to the evacuation point on San Jose Beach was about one half mile. "It was a long half mile." "Then we were attacked by machine gun fire. The medics set us down on the trail and took cover. I rolled off the stretcher into this shell hole. The medics said, 'Trooper, are you crazy, you want to die of shock?' After the machine gun was silenced, they helped me back to the stretcher and it was shredded with machine gun fire. I will never forget the one medic when he saw the holes in the stretcher. He said, 'Oh my god!' Had I stayed on that stretcher I would have been dead. That was just instinct for me. About an hour later we ran into the same damn problem. I'm laying on the stretcher and I had blood all over me and I had to use my good arm to keep the flies off of me. This one Jap saw me wiping the flies off my face. He lunges at my throat with his bayonet. One of our troops shot him and he fell across my legs. The Jap could have shot me. To this day I think he needed to reload his rifle or he figured he would make a quick kill without any noise."  "They finally got us down to the beach. There was the white hospital ship a mile off shore. The Japanese started machine gunning the LCI as we were about half loaded. Someone on the LCI said, 'Hurry up, let's go.' I was the last guy. Someone said, 'Let's go, that guy's dead.' They were about a hundred and fifty feet away. I raised my good arm to let them know I wasn't dead. As they got me on the LCI one medic carrying me was shot in the shoulder. It didn't seem too severe. They raised the steel ramp in a hail of machine gun fire and you could hear those bullets hitting it. Zip, zip, zip, zip... They headed for the hospital ship which we reached at about 6:30 pm." "I had a lot of respect for the medics after this operation. It took a lot of courage to get me and my wounded comrades down to and on the LCI." He didn't sleep for four days after being wounded and he never passed out. "For some reason I knew that I must not go to sleep. I was afraid I'd never wake up." "I didn't have much pain through the whole thing. They must have given me something." "To this day I feel that someone was looking out for me. Angels? My life as a soldier was over, but I was still alive." The 503rd received a Presidential Unit Citation and Dad received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his actions on Corregidor. "The 503rd also received the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. These are awards that are close to my heart."
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Today's classic warship, Kentucky (BB-66)
Iowa class battleship
Planned displacement. 45,000 t.
Planned length. 887'3"
Planned beam. 108'2"
Planned draft. 37'9"
Planned speed. 33 k. Planned complement. 2,800 Planned armament. 9 16", 20 5"
Kentucky, a 45,000-ton Iowa class battleship, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, but never completed. Her keel was first laid in March 1942. Construction was suspended in June of that year and not resumed until December 1944. Work was again suspended on 17 February 1947 when the battleship was 72.1 percent complete. The incomplete hull was launched in January 1950 to make Kentucky's building dock available for other uses.
Though several schemes were entertained for completing Kentucky as a guided-missile ship, none were pursued. Her bow was removed in 1956 to repair USS Wisconsin (BB-64). Her name was struck from the Navy List 9 June 1958; and her uncompleted hulk was sold for scrapping to Boston Metals Co., Baltimore, Md., 31 October 1958.
However, Kentucky's engines remain in service to this day, powering the fast combat support ships USS Sacramento (AOE-1) and USS Camden (AOE-2).
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| Left: Malinta Tunnel.....Middle: North Mine Wharf.....Right: Topside |
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Topside - is the highest geographic sector in the island where the terrain elevation above sea level ranges from about 400 feet and higher. Topside is said to be the nerve center of the island fortress. It is here where you will find the ruins of the following buildings: Mile-Long Barrackes, Post Headquarters, Cine Corregidor, and a number of buildings previously used as quarters for bachelor officers as well as the senior officers of the garrison. All the major gun emplacements are also located around this high ground. The parade ground, a small golf course, the old Spanish flagpole, and the reconstructed Spanish lighthouse are similarly located at Topside. The more recently constructed buildings and structures that are now found at Topside include the following: The Pacific War Memorial Dome, sculpture of the Eternal Flame of Freedom, and a museum. Mile-Long Barracks - This is a three-story concrete building which was constructed to be hurricane-proof. It was used for the billeting of American officers and enlisted personnel detailed at the garrison. The entire length of the building measures about 1,520 feet that it became popularly known as the world's longest military barracks. Although it is just less than a third of a mile long, it was, however, commonly referred to as the Mile-Long Barracks. The headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur was also located in this building. Pacific War Memorial - The memorial was erected to honor of the Filipino and American servicemen who participated in the Pacific War. Financed with an appropriation by the United States Congress, it was completed in 1968. The major memorial structure is a rotunda in which a circular altar falls directly under the dome's open center through which light falls on the altar during daylight hours. The altar symbolizes a wreath of victory with the following words inscribed on its rim: "Sleep, my sons, your duty done, for Freedom's light has come; sleep in the silent depths of the sea, or in your bed of hallowed sod, until you hear at dawn the low, clear reveille of God." The memorial also houses a museum which serves as the repository of relics and memorabilia related to the history of Corregidor. Eternal Flame of Freedom - A large steel sculpture which symbolizes the Flame of Freedom burning eternally. It is located at the rear of the Pacific War Memorial dome on a raised platform which provides visitors a breathtaking panoramic view of Manila Bay, the Bataan Peninsula, and the coastline of Cavite. Designed by Aristides Demetrios, the sculpture commemorates the sacrifices, hopes and aspirations, and the heroic struggle by the United States and the Philippines to preserve freedom for future generations. The sculpture stands as a reminder that all men will fight as one if need to be to defend a nation's liberty. Spanish Flagpole - This old historic flagpole, just like the many other relics, buildings and structures in Corregidor, serves as a reminder of the Corregidor's colorful and glorious past. The flagpole was the mast from a Spanish Warship captured by the American fleet of Admiral George Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 and erected at its present site by the Americans. When the defenders of Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese forces, the American flag was lowered down from this flagpole on May 6, 1942. When Gen. MacArthur returned to Corregidor on March 2, 1945 following the recapture of the island, he ordered the hoisting of the American flag on this flagpole. Finally, on October 12, 1947, in a moving and colorful ceremony signifying the turnover of Corregidor to the Republic of the Philippines, the stars and stripes was hauled down for the last time and the Philippine flag was hoisted in its stead. Corregidor once again belonged to the Filipino people. Cine Corregidor - To the left at the entrance to the Pacific War Memorial are the ruins of what used to be Cine Corregidor, a movie theater. It was erected during the pre-war period to cater to the entertainment needs of the personnel of the garrison as well as their families. Nothing much is left of the building except portions of its concrete walls, a stairway leading up to its upper balcony, and the concrete floor of what used to be its stage. Its former lobby now houses two black vintage cars which were used by President Quezon and Gen. MacArthur.
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Spanish Lighthouse - At its current site, the original lighthouse was built by the Spaniards in 1836. Sixty-one years later a need for a much bigger lighthouse was conceived which led to the erection of another structure to replace the old one. However, the lighthouse was destroyed during World War II. The current lighthouse was constructed on the same site at an elevation of 628 feet above sea level. Being the highest point in the island, visitors who climb up the stairs of the lighthouse can have a breathtaking view of Corregidor, Manila Bay, the South China Sea, and the neighboring provinces of Bataan and Cavite. Beside the lighthouse is a small gift shop where visitors can buy souvenirs. |
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