Iwo Jima Veterans Reunion

Six U.S. Marines who served in the 28th Marine Infantry Regiment with the men who raised the U.S. flags on Iwo Jima were in Nebraska at the Strategic Air & Space Museum on March 26th and 27th. Pictured below are the six men who signed autographs and spoke at the event. The veterans are from top left, Dave Severance of La Jolla, California; Robert Galloway of Gadsden, Alabama; Melvin Duncan of San Angelo, Texas; William Wayne of Yorba Linda, California; John Scheperle of Mission, Texas; and Ralph Griffiths of Girard, Ohio.
These brave veterans served side-by-side with flag raisers Harlon Block, Ira Hayes, Michael Strank, Rene Gagnon, Franklin Sousley and John Bradley. Their stories are recorded in the James Bradley best-seller, "Flags of Our Fathers." Dave Severance who was Captain Severance at the time, was in command of Easy Company whose marines raised the flag. And Ralph Griffiths was wounded by the same shell that killed Mike Strank and Harlon Block. I had the opportunity to meet all of these men, get their autographs and shake their hands. It was an amazing experience for someone like me who will never forget the price that men like these paid for our freedoms.
Here is a posterboard that I designed for the Iwo Jima event to commemorate the life and World War II exploits of my great uncle, Bob Lauritsen. I compiled Bob's story based on several letters that we exchanged back in 2006 and 2007. I was also given access to a few photos of Bob in his Marine Corps uniform that my parents had hidden away. I will post his complete story on this blog in the next few weeks.
This is Melvin Duncan, a tough-as-nails Marine who served as a BAR man on Iwo Jima. He stopped by our unit's display after the event to get his hands on Big Dave's BAR. His eyes lit up when he felt the weight of that big gun back in his hands again. It was a real hoot to see an old Marine get reconnected with his favorite rifle of the war.
Cody Williams is a strong member of our 2nd I.D. Living History Association who also shares a real interest in the Marine Corps during WWII. One of Cody's relatives fought with the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima, so we both share that in common. This was Cody's first event decked out in his new USMC utility uniform.
Here's Cody and I manning our Marine Corps display tables. Not a bad looking bunch of gyrenes if I do say so myself! We're both wearing the sage green utility uniform and the helmet cover with brown side out.
And finally, a look at some of my Marine Corps display that I pulled out for the event. The mannequin head is sporting my latest purchase, a HBT Daisy Mae utility hat. At the lower left of the photo is my complete set of 5th Marine Division "Spearhead" magazines that were given to me by Uncle Bob. It was a great event and I had a great time honoring the Marines of World War II. Coming up May 21-22 is another incredible Marine Corps event at the Strategic Air & Space Museum. The May event will mark the largest reunion of veterans of K/3/5 in conjunction with their portrayal in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific." Hugh Ambrose, author of the best-selling book, "The Pacific," is also confirmed to attend. This will be a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience that I don't want to miss. Come on out and see us!

Battle of the Bulge 2010

The men of Item Company braved the elements and headed down to Camp Clark, Missouri for our annual winter battle on Friday, January 15th. The further south we drove the snow seemed to melt away, but the fog grew more and more ominous. We awoke Saturday morning to a thick blanket of fog covering the barracks and the grounds at the old National Guard base. At 0700 we downed some coffee and donuts and then geared up for a long day of battling the Germans. This first photo is Gus, Sean and Dave gazing out over the bleak and foggy fields. Wow, what a great day for a Battle of the Bulge reenactment!
This next scene is a great shot that I captured as a platoon of the 84th Division "The Railsplitters" marched past. Seeing a full platoon of young men dressed up in authentic World War II uniforms and gear marching past you can really give you goosebumps.
At 0830 we fell in for authenticity checks, weapons inspection and instructions for the day. In attendance at the event were roughly 150 Allied soldiers and 120 Germans. The Allied and German groups were both broken down into three platoons each for the day's battle scenarios. It was pretty impressive to see that many dedicated reenactors all out on that field together.
This photo was taken during our platoon's first scenario of the day. The day began with a long brisk march uphill and then into the field to patrol for contact with the Germans. Staff Sergeant McCue took charge and moved us out to track down the hidden hun.
He's a great photo of our little squad early in the day. We had just gotten done sweeping a hill of Germans with some soldiers from the 36th Division. As you can see there was still some snow on the ground. From the left are David Jameson, Sean Cheek, Kirk Gustafson, Jeff McCue, me and Casey Sill.
Here's a cool photo of a jeep and trailer that was attached to our platoon throughout the day. Be sure to note the name "MARIE" painted just below the windshield. We saw plenty of jeeps, a German motorcycle and a Kubelwagen zipping through the roads and fields of the battle.
We broke for a quick lunch in the field around 1130. We hunkered down just outside of the village of Malmedy where the Germans had gunned down a bunch of G.I.s about a month earlier. Here's a picture of me washing down my K-Ration with a swig of water from my favorite canteen.
Here's a really neat photo of a bunch of soldiers and airborne from different units showing off a captured Nazi flag. Check out the .30 caliber light machine gun laying in front of the flag. The tall G.I. standing in the center of the flag was a guy named Jordan from K.C. This was his first World War II reenactment and he seemed to enjoy it a lot!
This photo was taken from a little hole where we fought off the Germans just south of the bridge. Gus stands resolutely watching the line for any oncoming enemy.
Here's our squad after the battle for "Heartbreak Bridge". Sean is looking over some of our hand grenades which came in handy more than once throughout the day. Our new grenades are really awesome because we just have to pull the ring and they instantly begin to shoot smoke.
Here's a rather serious looking photo of me at "Heartbreak Bridge". I'm wearing my M43 Field Jacket which I loved wearing in the field. You can pretty much load the pockets up with so much gear and ammo that you don't need a pack. Our squad fought the battle with light gear and no haversacks so that we could be more maneuverable.
And finally, a charming photo of our beloved "Wilhelm von Yukon", otherwise known as Cody Williams. Cody went to the battle dressed as a German and he fought with the regular German Heer platoon. We met up with him at the bridge and had a few chuckles about the day's events. It was an awesome battle and we had a lot of fun. I have to tip my cap to the 137th Infantry Regiment who puts on this event every year. They do a great job and are extremely well organized and friendly hosts.

Dinner at The Bohemian Cafe

Several members of the 2nd I.D. Living History Association gathered together on the night of Saturday, December 9 at one of Omaha's favorite restaurants, the Bohemian Cafe. A local legend and 13th Street landmark, the "Bohunk Cafe" has been serving up some of the areas finest European and Czech favorites since the 1920's. Our group has made several memorable visits to the Bohemian Cafe throughout our six years of existence. We once dined with the late great Bob Fowler of Nebraska's own 134th Infantry Regiment at this restaurant. On Saturday, the members in attendance were David Jameson, Kirk Gustafson and his son Logan, Jeff McCue, Scott Rowe, Cody Williams and myself. David and Jeff's wives were also in attendance. Decked out in our Class A uniforms, everyone looked pretty sharp... even "Tech Sergeant Butter Knife"! We had some great (and very filling) food and a round of tasty Pilsner Urquell beers served up in frosty porcelain mugs. I had the liver dumpling soup with Polish sausage, dumplings and sauerkraut. Mmmmm!!! We then spent the end of the meeting talking over our group's upcoming schedule of events for 2010. It was another great night with the guys and another wonderful time at the Bohemian Cafe

Band of Brothers visit Omaha

Hillside Patrol

Our small band of brothers gathered together for our August training event on Saturday, September 26th up at our Little Sioux training site near Mondamin, Iowa. In attendance were Big Dave, Gus, Scott, Jeff, Sean and myself. We spent some time reviewing our hand signals and discussed possibly changing some of them. I got picked to be squad leader for the day so that made things a bit more challenging for me. We worked on patrolling through clearings and up hillsides. Our lead scout, Scott, had some fun with his duties and informed us that he heard some Chinese soldiers hiding up ahead in a grouping of trees... So I went with the flow and from then on we immersed ourselves in a Korean War patrol scenario. We hunted imaginary little red commies up and down those hills. It was so much fun!!! We even fixed bayonets for a planned bayonet change that never happened. The hoards of Red Chinese and North Koreans may not have really been there that day - BUT THE MOSQUITOS SURE WERE!!! We spent far more time swatting at those pesky little bloodsuckers than anything else. We all gained a much deeper appreciation for the life that our Pacific warriors endured on all of those bug-infested island hopping campaigns. We wrapped up our training early because of the bugs and headed to the local watering hole to hold a little admin meeting. Big Dave was feeling generous and bought us all a few rounds. We tossed around ideas for future events, ways to increase our unit's visibility, and talked about doing more tactical events in the coming year. It was a great day and really got me to thinking more about the Korean War and our 2nd I.D. veterans who fought there. I'll end with a photo of a REAL 2nd Division hillside patrol somewhere in Korea... Through all the horrors of that war, I would imagine that quite a few soldiers did admire the spectacular vistas which lay sprawled out before them.

Back To The Basics

The men of the 2nd I.D. Living History Association gathered for our August training event on Saturday, August 22nd out at Ft. Atkinson State Historical Park. The weather was absolutely amazing for mid-August in Nebraska with a cool morning and an afternoon high around 80 degrees. We had sunny skies all day long!!! All of our core members were able to make it out for the day including Dave, Gus, Kevin, Sean, Scott, Jeff and Casey. I had the privilege and honor of being able to lead the training session for this event. For this training day we decided to go back to the basics of being a soldier in World War II. We started the day by going over the school of the soldier without arms. This included having the squad fall in, learning about intervals, the position of attention, saluting, facings and some basic marching. The squad then decided to stop for a water break and a quick lunch of K-Rations. We then moved on to practice the manual of arms for the rifle which included handling the rifle, saluting with the rifle, presenting arms, and the 15 count manual of arms. We did a lot of marching around the Council House on the fort grounds. After we felt pretty comfortable with manual of arms we trained on how to properly pitch our shelter half tents. This is something that our unit has rarely done because we have typically used Dave's GP Medium tent at most of our local events. Our three two man teams were able to successfully set up three shelter halves doing it all by the book. I then did a quick demonstration of a display of equipment for field inspection. Here is a diagram of what that looks like.
We wrapped up the day with a quick administrative meeting and we were heading home before 4:00. A lot of the guys commented that it was our unit's best training event to date. It was sure a lot of fun and we really brushed up on some valuable soldiering skills.

Independence Day 2009

The men of the 2nd I.D. Living History Association assembled once again for our annual Independence Day parade on Saturday, July 4th in Ralston, Nebraska. Making it out for this year's parade were Sean, Jeff, Cody, Kevin and his son Tyler, Paul and his son Nick, and our favorite ole' Sarge, Will Green, who was back on a visit from Colorado where he is stationed at Shriver Air Force Base. This year we marched as a color guard and were the third entry from the front of the parade. The skies were overcast and there was a little rain spitting off and on, but the crowd seemed to be bigger than ever! On the first block of the parade route I was actually overwhelmed by the sheer number of spectators. After our group finished the parade I walked back down the parade route and met up with Tracy and the kids who were hanging out with the Bruce family. I got to watch quite a bit of the parade which was still rolling on by. It was a great event once again and really made me proud to be doing what I do with this hobby.

Some of the photographs used in this post are courtesy of Robert Bruce, a very talented co-worker and friend of mine.