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SSG G Smith
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I get chills when I read stories on true American heroes.
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Maj Marty Hogan
Maj Marty Hogan
8 y
SSG G Smith I hate reading them when they have been KIA. I know the dangers of the gig, but doesn't mean we have to like it right? Freedom has never been free.
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SFC William Farrell
SFC William Farrell
8 y
Maj Marty Hogan - For sure Marty. There are many stories like this and oftentimes Ill have tears in my eyes. My wife says why do you watch this or that as it gets me so upset. Survivors guilt I guess.
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Maj Marty Hogan
Maj Marty Hogan
8 y
SFC William Farrell - Or maybe just a touch to human. I have been in a long time- by the grace of God never in combat. I have know many that were and the stories always bother me. I often wonder what decisions I would have made or what if that would have been my team mate. I continue to watch because I am proud to have been a part of something bigger than myself.
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LTC Stephen C.
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Edited 8 y ago
Extraordinary story, Maj Marty Hogan. Thanks for sharing it with us. It's not just the ordinary people in the Midwest that are maligned. The ordinary good men and women of the entire U.S. are taken for granted everyday.
My father also served aboard ship (in the Navy) in the Pacific during WWII. He made it to many of the well known islands including the Philippines and fortunately made it back home to the South. He got a job, got married, raised a family and became one of those taken for granted just like your friends from the Midwest.
However, he was one of the Greatest Generation like Rollin Fritch. You didn't forget and I didn't either. The good thing about this forum is that no one here forgets. LTC Stephen F.
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Maj Marty Hogan
Maj Marty Hogan
8 y
LTC Stephen C. Roger that Col and thanks for your share as well.
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SSgt Robert Marx
SSgt Robert Marx
8 y
It is a sign of great immaturity in thinking to malign people with a great stroke of the proverbial brush for characteristics people have no control over; however, each of us was young & dumb at one point and so gray hairs with the other signs of aging are a great honor. I certainly said and wrote foolish things over the years.
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LTC Stephen F.
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Thanks for sharing an interesting story Maj Marty Hogan about USCG Seaman 1st Class Rollin Fritch.
"When the warships of Blue Beach Attack Group were only 35 miles from Luzon’s shores, three Japanese aircraft materialized near the rear of the convoy, sweeping suddenly into an attack.
“Planes! They’re coming from the stern!” cried a chorus of voices aboard the USS Callaway, one of the attack transport ships leading the convoy.
Gunners aboard the Callaway had but mere seconds to react. Coast Guard Seaman 1st Class Rollin A. Fritch was one of the gunners who immediately leaped into action and peppered the incoming kamikaze aircraft with a hail of 20mm antiaircraft gunfire. Fritch and his fellow gunners brought down two of the planes, but the third evaded the barrage and plunged down toward the bridge, unswerving in its deadly course.
Coast Guard Seaman 1st Class Rollin A. Fritch poses in his uniform while on leave in 1943. Fritch was a crew member aboard the USS Callaway during World War II and died during a Kamikaze attack January 8, 1945.
Even as the kamikaze plane came hurtling toward him, Fritch remained at his post, forfeiting all chance of escape as he continued to fire his weapon. He fought bravely until the very moment the aircraft crashed into the starboard side of the bridge in a burst of flames that rattled the ship to its very keel.
Fritch, along with 28 other members of the Callaway crew, died in the fiery explosion."
Kudos to USCG Seaman 1st Class Rollin Fritch.
SN Greg Wright
Thanks for mentioning me LTC Stephen C.
FYI Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) CW5 Charlie Poulton SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT Forrest Stewart SPC (Join to see) PO1 John Miller PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
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SSgt Robert Marx
SSgt Robert Marx
8 y
The veterans of World War II fought with a great tenacity as free people overcoming barbarism from the regimes of the Third Reich & the Japanese Empire. Our world came much too close to fading into a nightmare of a great dark ages that would have gripped the world had those empires prevailed.
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