Obituaries

My girlfriend's Grandfather, Arno Melger, (United States Army, World War II) passed away Sunday morning at 00:31 at the age of 94.

He served in the ETO and was a translator (he was first-generation American of German parents) and spoke German fluently. He returned to civilian life in 1946 and was a resident of Red Bluff, California at the time of his passing.

Sorry to hear that GG. My condolences.

Condolences David...RIP Mr. Melger

Condolences GG.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/us/15baker.html

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: July 14, 2010

Vernon Baker, who was the only living black veteran awarded the Medal of Honor for valor in World War II, receiving it 52 years after he wiped out four German machine-gun nests on a hilltop in northern Italy, died Tuesday at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He was 90. The cause was complications of brain cancer, said Ron Hodge, owner of the Hodge Funeral Home in St. Maries.

"I was a soldier and I had a job to do," Mr. Baker said after receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for bravery, from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony on Jan. 13, 1997.

But in the segregated armed forces of World War II, black soldiers were usually confined to jobs in manual labor or supply units. Even when the Army allowed blacks to go into combat, it rarely accorded them the recognition they deserved. Of the 433 Medals of Honor awarded by all branches of the military during the war, not a single one went to any of the 1.2 million blacks in the service.

In the early 1990s, responding to requests from black veterans and a white former captain who had commanded black troops in combat, the Army asked Shaw University, a historically black college in Raleigh, N.C., to investigate why no blacks had received the Medal of Honor during World War II. The inquiry found no documents proving that blacks had been discriminated against in decisions to award the medal, but concluded that a climate of racism had prevented recognition of heroic deeds. Military historians gave the Army the names of 10 black servicemen who they believed should have been considered for the Medal of Honor. Then an Army board, looking at their files with all references to race deleted, decided that seven of these men deserved to be cited for bravery "above and beyond the call of duty."

Four of the men — Lt. John R. Fox of Cincinnati; Pfc. Willy F. James Jr. of Kansas City, Mo.; Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers of Oklahoma City; and Pvt. George Watson of Birmingham, Ala. — had been killed in action. Two others — Staff Sgt. Edward A. Carter Jr. of Los Angeles and Lt. Charles L. Thomas of Detroit, who retired as a major — had died in the decades after the war. Those six received the medal posthumously at the White House ceremony in 1997.

Mr. Baker, the lone survivor among the seven, was greeted with a standing ovation as he entered the East Room to the strains of "God Bless America" played by the Marine Corps Band. As Mr. Clinton placed the Medal of Honor around his neck, Mr. Baker stared into space, a tear rolling down his left cheek. "I was thinking about what was going on up on the hill that day," he said later.

That day was April 5, 1945. Lieutenant Baker, a small man — 5 feet 5 inches and 140 pounds — was leading 25 black infantrymen through a maze of German bunkers and machine gun nests near Viareggio, Italy, a coastal town north of Pisa. About 5 a.m., they reached the south side of a ravine, 250 yards from Castle Aghinolfi, a German stronghold they hoped to capture. Lieutenant Baker observed a telescope pointing out of a slit. Crawling under the opening, he emptied the clip of his M-1 rifle, killing two German soldiers inside the position. Then he came upon a well-camouflaged machine-gun nest whose two-man crew was eating breakfast. He shot and killed both soldiers.

After Capt. John F. Runyon, his company commander, who was white, joined the group, a German soldier hurled a grenade that hit Captain Runyon in his helmet but failed to explode. Lieutenant Baker shot the German twice as he tried to flee. He then blasted open the concealed entrance of another dugout with a hand grenade, shot one German soldier who emerged, tossed another grenade into the dugout and entered it, firing his machine gun and killing two more Germans. Enemy machine-gun and mortar fire began to inflict heavy casualties among the platoon. Lieutenant Baker's company commander had gone back for reinforcements, but they never arrived, so the remnants of the platoon had to withdraw. Lieutenant Baker, supported by covering fire from one of his soldiers, destroyed two machine-gun positions to allow the evacuation. Seventeen of the men in the platoon had been killed by time the firefight ended.

The next night, Lieutenant Baker voluntarily led a battalion advance through enemy minefields and heavy fire.

Lieutenant Baker received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second-highest award for bravery. Asked a half-century later whether he had ever given up hope of being awarded the Medal of Honor, he seemed surprised. "I never thought about getting it," he said.

Freddie Stowers, a black veteran of World War I nominated for the medal in 1918, finally received it posthumously from President George Bush in 1991.

Vernon Joseph Baker was born on Dec. 17, 1919, in Cheyenne, Wyo., the son of a carpenter. After his parents died in an automobile accident when he was 4, he and two older sisters moved in with their grandparents, who also lived in Cheyenne. The youngster developed a penchant for trouble, so he was sent to Boys Town in Omaha at age 10. He stayed there for three years, then earned a high school diploma while living with an aunt in Iowa.

He joined the Army in June 1941 and was sent to Camp Wolters, Tex., for basic training — his first trip to the Deep South. When he boarded a bus to the camp after stepping off the train, the driver shouted a racial epithet and told him to "get to the back of the bus where you belong," he recalled years later in an interview with The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. When he began to show leadership potential, he was sent to Officer Candidate School, graduating as a second lieutenant in 1942. He went to Italy in 1944 with the 92nd Infantry Division's 370th Regiment, which was composed of black enlisted men and black junior officers but had white officers in senior positions. In October 1944, Lieutenant Baker was shot in the arm by a German soldier, and when he awoke from surgery he noticed that he was in a segregated hospital ward.

After the war, he remained in Italy for three years, then returned to the United States and re-enlisted. He stayed in the Army until 1968, then worked for the Red Cross at Fort Ord, Calif., counseling needy military families. After his first wife, Fern, died in 1986, he retired and moved to a rural section of Idaho to pursue his love of hunting.

Mr. Baker's survivors include his second wife, Heidy; three children from his first marriage; a stepdaughter; and a stepgrandson.

Asked at the awards ceremony how he had felt about serving in a segregated unit, Mr. Baker replied: "I was an angry young man. We were all angry. But we had a job to do, and we did it. My personal thoughts were that I knew things would get better, and I'm glad to say that I'm here to see it."

and it was well deserved.

Battle of Britain ace Wing Commander Ken Mackenzie has died aged 92

Wing Commander Mackenzie died at a nursing home at Sibbertoft, near Market Harborough.

He served for nearly 28 years in the RAF before taking up other aviation-related posts in Europe and Africa.

He moved to Lutterworth with his wife Margaret in 2000 from Cyprus.

To mark his wartime heroism, a street in the town was named after him.

Mr Mackenzie joined the RAF at the outbreak of Second World War after learning to fly in his native Northern Ireland.

He became famous overnight when, on October 7, 1940, he attacked a Messerschmitt Bf 109.

With no apparent result, he followed it down to almost sea level in his Hawker Hurricane and, when it did not ditch, he struck the enemy fighter's tailplane with his wing, and the enemy fighter crashed into the sea.

He then made a forced landing outside Folkestone, Kent.

He spent three years in a PoW camp, and when he was repatriated he continued his service, retiring from the RAF on July 1, 1967. While in Lutterworth he took a keen interest in the efforts to mark the contribution to aviation by Sir Frank Whittle who developed the jet engine in the town.

Lutterworth town councillor Eileen Derrick, who campaigned for a street to be named after him, said: "Ken Mackenzie was such a nice gentleman and a true hero."

Mr Mackenzie died last Thursday. He is survived by his widow, two sons and a daughter.

source: This is Leicestershire

Commander Mike Crosley

Commander Mike Crosley, who has died aged 90, was a Fleet Air Arm ace and later a test pilot.
Among the operations in which he took part was Harpoon, when a convoy ferried supplies and new aircraft to the relief of the besieged island of Malta in the summer of 1942. Crosley flew one of four Sea Hurricanes allocated for air defence of the carrier Eagle.

On June 12 he was on alert on the deck of Eagle. After two hours strapped in his cockpit, he was expecting to stand down when he heard the klaxon sound. Within a few moments he was airborne, being directed by radar to an enemy aircraft; and when his flight leader turned back with engine trouble, Crosley decided to pursue the enemy alone.

He closed until the wingspan of the three-engined Italian bomber filled his gunsight, then pressed the trigger. At that moment he noted sparks coming from the underside of the bomber – it was the enemy returning fire. Then smoke burst from the Italian's engines and its wingtip came dangerously close as it dived towards the sea.

Crosley followed, determined to finish it off; but as he emerged from the cloud he saw the bomber floating on the water with a yellow life raft beside it.

He later wrote: " touched the trigger, but realised I was doing something wrong. I would like to think that I might have made friends with those seven aircrew who were picked up by a British destroyer."

The next day Crosley shot down a twin-engined German fighter-bomber. He wove in and out of the German's slipstream, and when the target filled his gunsight he fired one long burst which hit the aircraft's wing, "sparking like firecrackers".

On the third day Crosley was again involved in aerial combat and believed he shot down two aircraft: after detailed analysis he was credited with a possible and a probable, and was praised for helping to break up an air attack on the fleet.

On August 11 Eagle was torpedoed, and Crosley had just minutes in which to grab his life jacket from the aircrews' briefing room before she rolled over and sank. He quickly joined 800 Naval Air Squadron, flying from the escort carrier Biter during Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. On November 8 he shot down two Vichy French fighters in a dogfight over the airfield of La Senia, near Oran. He was awarded his first DSC.

Crosley was next appointed senior pilot of 804 NAS in the escort carrier Dasher, a ship which he thought was not only ill-fated but also ill-managed. Dasher – a converted merchant ship – began to break up while she was escorting an Arctic convoy, and Crosley was not surprised to learn that she had blown up after there had been a fire on board.

He was then selected to pass on his experience to new fighter pilots at HMS Dipper, near Yeovilton, where he flew the Royal Navy's version of the Spitfire, known as the Seafire.

By D-Day Crosley had joined 886 Naval Air Squadron, flying Seafires from Lee-on-the-Solent. His role was to direct the fire of the heavy ships which were bombarding the German defences. On the second day of the Allied landings he shot down a German Bf109, which crashed 15 miles south-west of Caen, and two days later damaged an Fw190 which he chased in a dogfight through the skies over Normandy.

He spent the weeks after D-Day flying two, or even three, sorties a day before being appointed to command 880 Naval Air Squadron; this was based in Orkney as part of 30 Naval Air Wing, which embarked in the fleet carrier Implacable and carried out a series of attacks on German shipping in the fjords of Norway. By the time the war ended 880 Squadron and Implacable were prosecuting the war in the Pacific, striking at the Japanese mainland. Crosley was mentioned in despatches, and in August 1945 received a Bar to his DSC.

Robert Michael Crosley was born on February 24 1920, the son of the tenor Lovat Crosley; the Crosley family had once owned Sunningdale Park, in Berkshire. His mother deserted the family, and Mike's early childhood was unsettled until he was rescued from a series of foster homes by his grandmother. He was educated at Pilgrims' School, Winchester, and King Edward VII School in Southampton, and finally enjoyed some stability after his father married one of his leading ladies, Rose Hignell, and established a plant nursery on the banks of the Hamble.

Mike Crosley was a Metropolitan Police constable (a reserved occupation) when war broke out, but volunteered on the day of the Fleet Air Arm strike on Taranto, November 11 1940.

After the war Crosley joined No 6 Empire Test Pilots' Course, and left the Navy to test Short's flying boats under development in Belfast. On the outbreak of the Korean War he rejoined the Navy, helping to train new pilots and flying 75 missions over Korea from the carrier Ocean.

He wrote pilots' notes for a range of aircraft, which he flew to their limits, and was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air. In 1954-55 he was commanding officer of 813 Squadron, flying the Wyvern from the new Eagle.

In 1958 Crosley was promoted commander and returned to test flying at Boscombe Down, making the first deck landings of the Buccaneer low-level bomber.

He retired in 1970, aged 50, trained to be a schoolmaster and went on to teach physics at Bramdean prep school, Exeter, and at Upper Chine Girls' School on the Isle of Wight.

Having built his first boat (a canoe) when he was 15, Crosley later constructed three Flying 15s – all called If – which he sailed against the Duke of Edinburgh and Uffa Fox. He also built a 27ft sloop, Seafire, which had to be extracted from his garden on the Isle of Wight by a crane. Crosley also made much of his own furniture, travelling far and wide to find rare veneers.

Crosley logged 2,818 flying hours in 147 different types of aircraft and made 415 deck landings. Throughout the war he kept extensive diaries, on which he based two books: They Gave Me a Seafire (1986) and In Harm's Way (1995). Together they form a history of the wartime expansion of the FAA and a vade mecum for test pilots.

Mike Crosley died on June 20. He was thrice married, lastly, in 1969, to Joan Eglen, who survives him with his five children.

source: The Telegraph.

A remarkable career...RIP Cmdr Crosley

While trying to contact relatives about my brother' passing, just found this about my uncle.

Dr. Paul C. Wermuth, Sr. Obituaries SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

"Prior to his academic career, Dr. Wermuth enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in 1943 at the age of 17, and served as a gunner-mechanic and instructor in the 3028th Army Air Force Base Unit until 1946, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of Corporal. He received the Good Conduct Medal, American Theater Ribbon and World War II Victory Ribbon for his service."

While no military hero, he was a great guy and loved to debate. He was my dad's favorite brother.