https://biggeekdad.com/2016/05/memorial-day-tribute/#.YpTtYCN-fdw.link
Monday, May 30, 2022
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Sgt. Robert Ladislaw USAF of the 98th Bomb Group...passed away October 5th, 2019.
ROBERT LADISLAW, USAF (Ret), SMSgt Robert Passed peacefully at the Dayton VA Hospice October 5th, 2019. He was married to his loving Wife Marian for 61 years. He is preceded in death by his Parents, Siblings, and his Daughter Therese Ladislaw. Bob will be watching over his Wife Marian, Daughter Ann (Gary) Detro, Grandchildren Marie Keaton, Lisa (Kyle) Marcum, Bob Ladislaw, and Chris Cusick. Great Grandchildren Elizabeth, Ava, and Scarlett, numerous nieces and nephews, and many lifelong friends. His Honorable Service to the United States Air Force spanned 40 years. He volunteered at the National Museum of the United States Air Force for 22 years and received the Director's Award for Volunteer of the Year. Bob was a member of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 98th Bomb Group, B-47 Stratojet Association, B-52 Stratofortress Association, Air Force Association Iron Gate Chapter, Knights of Columbus, Disabled American Veterans, VFW Post 3283, and American Legion Post 526. Bob loved his family and friends. Rest in Peace Papa. Our Family thanks the Dayton VA Hospice Staff for their compassion and respectful care of our family during this difficult time
I had the pleasure of meeting Bob and his wife, Marian in 2010 at the 98th Bomb Squadron reunion in Savannah Georgia. My dad and mother had gone to many of these reunions and Bob and Marian were a couple that they stayed in touch with over the years. I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet them in person.
THE CREW OF THE GREEN-EYED IKEY
Today is the 77th anniversary of the last mission of the flight of the Green-Eyed Ikey. We continue to honor them and those who have served so bravely defending our freedoms. May we continue to earn every day what they fought so bravely for.
CAPTAIN CHARLES H. ESTES
Monday, March 15, 2021
The 76th Anniversary of the last mission of the Green-Eyed Ikey 415th Bomb Squadron of the 98th Bomb Group
Alex and Barbara from San Diego, CA |
Bob and Marian Ladislaw from Ohio. They became good friends and made a trip to Yazoo City to visit my Mother and Papa |
These were some of the patches associated with the 98th Bomb Group |
John Formwalt, pilot in the 415th Bomb Squad of the 98th Bomb Group. |
Ralph Donnelly, pilot in the 415th Bomb Squad of the 98th Bomb Group. |
In 2010 my husband Rick and I attended the reunion of the Pyramidiers 98th Bomb Group in Savannah, Georgia. My father had attended many of these reunions and enjoyed visiting with old friends he had made at these reunions and meeting new friends and sharing their stories. I had met a few of my dad's friends while at the reunion and was saddened to hear of others who had passed on. I met many wonderful men that evening and enjoyed listening to their stories. They were happy to share them with me and I knew how much it meant to them to know someone cared to listen.
With every passing year we lose 276 WWII vets. According to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 325,574 of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII were alive in 2020. With their passing goes their stories of their heroism.
These wonderful men and women who at such a young age, responded to the call of duty to their country. I have read through my father's detailed accounting of his story in this blog hundreds of times. What it was like to go through basic training, how much he respected his crew and the friendships that lasted long after the war. He wrote of their many missions over Germany and Austria until their final mission where they were shot down. Through his words I felt as though as was there with him and his crew. Here you are this young man in your 20s in the midst of a war overseas, far from home and you and your crew must bail out over hopefully friendly territory in what was then Yugoslavia. I cannot imagine the emotions they were all experiencing. His story went on to describe how they made it back with the help of Tito's men through enemy lines. It's a great story of heroism. This was their story and I'm so glad it was told. As we lose so many of these brave men and women of that great generation, I am sad to think of all the others whose stories we will never hear. Will this next generation remember their bravery? Will they remember how a generation of young men and women answered their nations call to join with other countries to fight a war to bring freedom and restore democracy? I hope so. I remember the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg and those words remain true today.
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Burial at Arlington Cemetery - Honoring 2nd Lt. James Mulligan
March of 2018, 2nd Lt. James Mulligan and his wife, Lois, were buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. There can be no greater honor to a veteran who has served his country well. Today in honor of the 75th anniversary of their mission, 2nd Lt. James Mulligan tells his story of the mission and the remaining months as the war came to an end.
https://youtu.be/Qp6WKbR-_FI
Friday, March 15, 2019
MEDALS...THEY TELL A STORY
My sister Hope years later, took them from the drawer and together with my brother, Larry, arranged them and had it framed.
After Papa passed away, Larry had discovered some papers related to the medals, and discovered that he did not have the American and European campaign medals that had been awarded to him. He reached out to Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and shortly soon after, received the medals.
After much research, Larry visited a military store in Jackson, Mississippi, and the owner was able to give Larry great details of each of Papa's medals, dress coat buttons.
Larry then took all the medals and with the help of Hope, designed a shadow box that proudly displayed Papa's medals in a manner deserving.
Larry returned to the military store with the framed shadow box and the owner was overjoyed to see it. He told Larry, that so many times young people would bring their dad's medals in to sell, and that it was heartwarming to see that our Papa's children thought enough of him to honor him this way. "Museum quality," he exclaimed.
We have a family tradition that each year the framed medals be passed around to each sibling. It is now my year to have the medals to enjoy.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
73rd Anniversary of the Green-Eyed Ikey B-24 Mission...this blog chronicles the story of their last bombing mission
Captain Charles H. Estes, Jr. (Pilot) - My father
Sgt. Red Cochran ( Waist Gunner)
Monday, May 29, 2017
Remembering Sol Fein...Normandy D-Day Veteran
What is a Vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating
two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run
out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose
overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the
cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She (or he) is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep
sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or
didn't come back AT ALL.
He is the Parris Island drill instructor who has never seen combat but
has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and
gang members into Marines and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, or the old guy greeting you at Wal-Mart who watched from afar as the Viet Cong cut off the arms of children they had just vaccinated. And they wish all day long that their wives were still alive to hold them when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darns, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say "thank you". That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot..."THANK YOU."
It's the soldier, not the reporter, who gave us our freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who gave us our freedom of speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gave us our freedom to demonstrate.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves others with respect for the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Just say "thank you", this Memorial Day."