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This last Mothers day my wife an me drove to Ennis Texas for a visit. It was great to see family and kin. While we were talking ,my mother handed me an article from a local newspaper she was holding onto. She told me that I should research this and share. I read the story and found out a something I have never heard from my mothers side of the family. There is also a fiction book of this story from his Great nephew Tucker Axum III.
‘The Reawakening of Mage Axum’
https://www.stripes.com/the-reawakening-of-mage-axum-1.447313
I had no idea that my great aunt went through this for a very long time. This is the article from the Palestine Hearld-Press.
History of Palestine World War II veteran uncovered
By PENNYLYNN WEBB [login to see]
Jul 13, 2015
The story of a what happened to a Palestine man, missing-in-action World War II has been uncovered and is being celebrated in a historical fiction written by his great nephew.
Tucker Axum III, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and a native of Palestine, has written a book based on his great granduncle, Mage Axum, a World War II veteran who was killed in Germany in October of 1944.
Very little was known about what happened to Mage until his great-nephew, Tucker was stationed in Naples, Italy and happened to visit an American military cemetery. While he was there he struck up a conversation with the cemetery tour guide who was almost immediately able to pull up information on Tucker's long lost great-uncle.
Mage was born on May 15, 1915 in Palestine to John R. Axum and Ida I. Trim Axum. He was one of one of nine children. He married Annie M. Glenn on Jan. 31, 1938. The couple was blessed with a daughter, Sharon, on March 15, 1943. Although World War II began in September 1939 and the US didn't enter the war until after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Mage wasn't drafted until late in the war, in February of 1944. He did his basic training at Camp Fannin in Tyler Texas where over 200,000 soldiers were sent for Basic between 1943 and 1946.
Mage was then sent to the training base, Fort Meade, Maryland. Mage left the US headed to the European Theater in August of 1944. He is part of the 115th Infantry, 29th Division, Company I, as a rifleman on the Queen Mary.
Mage wrote his last letter to his wife and daughter on September 2, 1944.
On Oct. 17, 1944, two days after Mage was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge, his unit was sent out to conduct a night raid against Buscherheide. Tucker relayed, “The unit went in at dusk. They had limited success, with extremely heavy resistance consisting of artillery fire, and high velocity and machine gun fire from well-emplaced positions which prevented the Battalion from penetrating position in Buscherheide.”
Mage was declared missing in action in October 1944. On the day his wife received the news, family members had come over to spend the day. Tucker has established that Mage's sister-in-laws, Isabel Axum and Maude Axum were at Annie's house to spend the day and Annie was preparing a roast with lots of onions. They had just sat down at the dinner table when a man drove up to deliver the telegram stating Mage was MIA. However, the man was not along, he had stopped by to pick up Annie's aunt to help him deliver the news.
After a while, Tucker said that Annie Mae had the Army declare Mage dead so that she could move on with her life. She married WWII Navy veteran Milton Glenn, who later became a postman in Palestine.
When the war was over and the evacuation order had been lifted, a young farmer, Josef Rulands, returned to his family farm in Buscherheide, Germany, from the Netherlands where his family had fled to, to find a grave with a makeshift wooden cross and two soldiers' helmets, one American and one German. The farmer assumed that the grave was for a German solider. But in August of 1946 a German search committee opened the grave and found the body to be dressed in an American military uniform. In March of 1947, and American Search Committee reopened the grave and the body was taken to Ardennes American Military Cemetery in Brussels and listed as UNK X-5662.
Mage's remains were positively identified, based on dental charts, height and shoe size in September of 1947. At the time of his death, Mage has a broken upper jaw and was missing teeth from battle injuries received during the night raid in Buscherheide. His hands were also missing when his body was found.
Although Annie, as a next of kin, had been notified of where his body had been moved, she had moved to another county and Mage's family did not receive the news of what happened to their son. On April 24, 1947, Mage's father sent a letter to the Office of the Quartermaster General requesting information regarding the reburial of his son. A letter was sent to Mage's father reporting that he had been positively identified and the location of his burial. Although the Army offered move Mage's body to be interned in a family cemetery of their choice, John Axum told them to leave the body where it was. A letter was also sent to Mage's widow, who had remarried, stating that his date of death had been amended. An American flag was sent to Mage's parents. They would later give the flag to Mage's daughter.
Sharon was 13 months old at the time of her father's death. After her father was declared “deceased” no one mentioned him or what had happened to him. For 69 years she thought her father was missing in action.
He was posthumously given a Purple Heart.
Tucker also visited the German farmer, Josef Rulands, and the former resting place of his great-uncle in 2013. Tucker reported that the German family had no idea of who the young soldier was that they had found and were able to get closure from discussing Mage and his history.
With letters from Mage to his family, research obtained through war records and interviews with family members, Tucker set out to write a book about the “what if” Mage had survived the war. Tucker said he wrote the book with two movies in mind, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,” and the Warren Beatty film, “Heaven Can Wait.”According to Tucker, this book was inspired by true events, including newspaper articles from the Palestine Herald-Press. He reported, “I tried to answer in narrative form, “what if” my relative had survived the war and returned home? What kind of life would he have lived. In my novel, I surmised that he would have become a journalist with the Palestine Herald-Press.
Tucker's book, The Reawakening of Mage Axum,” is currently a historical fiction e-book on Amazon. Tucker noted that it was published online on Memorial Day in port of Pearl Harbor aboard the USNS MERCY hospital ship as an homage to WWII and his uncle.
http://www.palestineherald.com/news/history-of-palestine-world-war-ii-veteran-uncovered/article_013b722c-28c5-11e5-844f-c7966bb69c68.htm
Just to be a little clear about family. My mothers maiden name is Glenn. My great Aunt is Annie M. Glenn whom was married to Mage Axum. I had no idea about the life and death of this man and the ones left behind with no closure for many years. Some things are never spoken or talked about. Now it is time to share..... Godspeed Mage Axum
http://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=113055
Here is another part of this story from Stars and Stripes :
NAPLES, Italy — Over peach cobbler and coffee, Tucker Axum sat rapt with attention as 83-year-old Josef Rulands shared a morbid tale from nearly seven decades ago.
The grim memory of a teen-aged boy returning with his family to their farm in Buscherheide, Germany, after authorities lifted an evacuation order. A recollection of finding a grave and lone wooden cross erected in the meadow, and two soldiers’ helmets: one German, one American.
The Rulandses assumed under the dirt mound lay the body of a German soldier.
They were wrong.
In August 1946, a German search committee opened the grave on the Rulandses’ land. The body was clad in an American uniform.
In March 1947, members of the American Search Committee reopened the grave. Three months later, the body was taken to Ardennes American Military Cemetery in Brussels, laid in a grave and listed as UNK X-5662.
Rifleman Mage Axum had been classified as missing-in-action since October 1944.
On Sept. 15, 1947, officials positively identified his remains based on dental charts, the man’s height and shoe size.
From more than 90 pages of war records, letters, telegrams and web searches, Tucker Axum, 32, has come to know his great-uncle in death.
He knows the World War II soldier suffered a broken upper jaw and was missing teeth from battle injuries sustained during a hard-fought clash against heavy German resistance in a night raid to take Buscherheide in October 1944. His hands were missing when the body was found.
Tucker Axum knows the last words his great-uncle wrote to his wife, Annie Mae, and baby daughter Sharon, who waited in Palestine, Texas, for his safe return.
“Just a line to let you know that I am still okay and hope you all are too,” reads part of the letter dated Sept. 2, 1944. “Honey, I had the best dream about you and the baby last night. I only hope God will some day let it come true. I am going to keep hoping and praying that he will. Honey, I want you to pray for me and every one of us. Pray for this thing to come to a close, and I feel that it will before too long. Please don’t worry about me as I am OK. Take good care of yourself and baby. Kiss her for daddy. I love you all lots.”
He died 46 days later.
Tracing the past
Websites dedicated to reconnecting war comrades, announcing military unit reunions and otherwise documenting personal war histories are helping people like Tucker Axum trace their ancestors’ pasts.
“A lot of websites are popping up full of great information,” said author and World War II historian Martin King.
Some sites are managed by private people, relatives or veterans with a passion for keeping the history alive, King said. Others are maintained by military units and historians. The American Battle Monuments Commission is a treasure house for records. “To know these people is gold,” King said.
During World War II, divisions, brigades and units kept rather detailed war records that are becoming more accessible to the public and easier to track, King said.
“Each [U.S.] unit, down to the platoons, for example, was expected to keep daily reports on activities,” King said. “Some divisions had record keepers, people just there for paperwork and no other purpose. ... And they were quite meticulous.”
As World War II dragged on, documentation increased as more men were committed to combat, said historian and author Richard Frank. More units filed after-action reports, for example, aimed at illuminating what happened or making recommendations for future missions. These “were very candid,” making details often invaluable, Frank said.
Other sources of war documents include archives, newspapers, libraries and town halls — and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
In spite of the devastating loss of 16 million to 18 million military personnel records in the great fire in 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, some service records can be recreated if the servicemembers filed medical claims through the Department of Veterans Affairs, Frank suggested.
Passing down family history
It’s one thing to have documents, but something totally different to hear history told by someone who lived it.
Josef Rulands remembers returning to his family home in September 1944 from the Netherlands, where his family had fled. He was standing in the meadow as his father discovered the cross, the helmets, the shallow grave.
It’s a memory that has remained with him, and though painful, one he was grateful to share with Tucker Axum and his wife, Heidi, when they visited Buscherheide in May, Rulands said by phone to a German translator, who emailed the translation of the conversation to Stars and Stripes.
Tucker Axum’s research to revive his great-uncle’s past and the visit with the Rulandses has kept the story of Mage Axum alive, Rulands said. “Maybe one time, Tucker will tell this story to his kids and they also want to see the place, which is part of the history of family Axum.“
The Rulandses were welcoming but reserved during the Axums’ visit over Memorial Day weekend.
“They said the Germans didn’t talk about the war — they are ashamed of their role,” said Axum, a special agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service who, until August, was stationed in Naples, Italy. “It was a horrible time, no one wants to relive it or think about it.”
Not knowing
No one talked about it in Sharon Axum Brooks’ home either.
For 69 years, she thought her father was MIA. For 69 years, no one talked about it, though her mother knew she had been widowed.
Not knowing gave Brooks hope, she said during a recent phone interview from Palestine, Texas, where she still lives.
She was 13 months old when her father disappeared. She has no real memory of him, only of a sensation of a man holding her.
“I just know that that man was my daddy.”
She grew up wondering, “What if?” What if he sauntered into a family barbecue? Or surprised her on her birthday?
The call from her cousin Tucker in late May answered all of those “what ifs.”
“I was so shocked when I found out, so overwhelmed. But now I had closure, as bad as the news was.”
https://www.stripes.com/news/family-of-wwii-soldier-discovers-haunting-story-but-finally-finds-closure-1.238584
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. LTC (Join to see) Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas TSgt Joe C. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Robert Webster Sgt Randy Wilber SGT Jim Arnold SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth CW5 Jack Cardwell @ sp5 mark CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SCPO Morris Ramsey Alan K.
‘The Reawakening of Mage Axum’
https://www.stripes.com/the-reawakening-of-mage-axum-1.447313
I had no idea that my great aunt went through this for a very long time. This is the article from the Palestine Hearld-Press.
History of Palestine World War II veteran uncovered
By PENNYLYNN WEBB [login to see]
Jul 13, 2015
The story of a what happened to a Palestine man, missing-in-action World War II has been uncovered and is being celebrated in a historical fiction written by his great nephew.
Tucker Axum III, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and a native of Palestine, has written a book based on his great granduncle, Mage Axum, a World War II veteran who was killed in Germany in October of 1944.
Very little was known about what happened to Mage until his great-nephew, Tucker was stationed in Naples, Italy and happened to visit an American military cemetery. While he was there he struck up a conversation with the cemetery tour guide who was almost immediately able to pull up information on Tucker's long lost great-uncle.
Mage was born on May 15, 1915 in Palestine to John R. Axum and Ida I. Trim Axum. He was one of one of nine children. He married Annie M. Glenn on Jan. 31, 1938. The couple was blessed with a daughter, Sharon, on March 15, 1943. Although World War II began in September 1939 and the US didn't enter the war until after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Mage wasn't drafted until late in the war, in February of 1944. He did his basic training at Camp Fannin in Tyler Texas where over 200,000 soldiers were sent for Basic between 1943 and 1946.
Mage was then sent to the training base, Fort Meade, Maryland. Mage left the US headed to the European Theater in August of 1944. He is part of the 115th Infantry, 29th Division, Company I, as a rifleman on the Queen Mary.
Mage wrote his last letter to his wife and daughter on September 2, 1944.
On Oct. 17, 1944, two days after Mage was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge, his unit was sent out to conduct a night raid against Buscherheide. Tucker relayed, “The unit went in at dusk. They had limited success, with extremely heavy resistance consisting of artillery fire, and high velocity and machine gun fire from well-emplaced positions which prevented the Battalion from penetrating position in Buscherheide.”
Mage was declared missing in action in October 1944. On the day his wife received the news, family members had come over to spend the day. Tucker has established that Mage's sister-in-laws, Isabel Axum and Maude Axum were at Annie's house to spend the day and Annie was preparing a roast with lots of onions. They had just sat down at the dinner table when a man drove up to deliver the telegram stating Mage was MIA. However, the man was not along, he had stopped by to pick up Annie's aunt to help him deliver the news.
After a while, Tucker said that Annie Mae had the Army declare Mage dead so that she could move on with her life. She married WWII Navy veteran Milton Glenn, who later became a postman in Palestine.
When the war was over and the evacuation order had been lifted, a young farmer, Josef Rulands, returned to his family farm in Buscherheide, Germany, from the Netherlands where his family had fled to, to find a grave with a makeshift wooden cross and two soldiers' helmets, one American and one German. The farmer assumed that the grave was for a German solider. But in August of 1946 a German search committee opened the grave and found the body to be dressed in an American military uniform. In March of 1947, and American Search Committee reopened the grave and the body was taken to Ardennes American Military Cemetery in Brussels and listed as UNK X-5662.
Mage's remains were positively identified, based on dental charts, height and shoe size in September of 1947. At the time of his death, Mage has a broken upper jaw and was missing teeth from battle injuries received during the night raid in Buscherheide. His hands were also missing when his body was found.
Although Annie, as a next of kin, had been notified of where his body had been moved, she had moved to another county and Mage's family did not receive the news of what happened to their son. On April 24, 1947, Mage's father sent a letter to the Office of the Quartermaster General requesting information regarding the reburial of his son. A letter was sent to Mage's father reporting that he had been positively identified and the location of his burial. Although the Army offered move Mage's body to be interned in a family cemetery of their choice, John Axum told them to leave the body where it was. A letter was also sent to Mage's widow, who had remarried, stating that his date of death had been amended. An American flag was sent to Mage's parents. They would later give the flag to Mage's daughter.
Sharon was 13 months old at the time of her father's death. After her father was declared “deceased” no one mentioned him or what had happened to him. For 69 years she thought her father was missing in action.
He was posthumously given a Purple Heart.
Tucker also visited the German farmer, Josef Rulands, and the former resting place of his great-uncle in 2013. Tucker reported that the German family had no idea of who the young soldier was that they had found and were able to get closure from discussing Mage and his history.
With letters from Mage to his family, research obtained through war records and interviews with family members, Tucker set out to write a book about the “what if” Mage had survived the war. Tucker said he wrote the book with two movies in mind, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,” and the Warren Beatty film, “Heaven Can Wait.”According to Tucker, this book was inspired by true events, including newspaper articles from the Palestine Herald-Press. He reported, “I tried to answer in narrative form, “what if” my relative had survived the war and returned home? What kind of life would he have lived. In my novel, I surmised that he would have become a journalist with the Palestine Herald-Press.
Tucker's book, The Reawakening of Mage Axum,” is currently a historical fiction e-book on Amazon. Tucker noted that it was published online on Memorial Day in port of Pearl Harbor aboard the USNS MERCY hospital ship as an homage to WWII and his uncle.
http://www.palestineherald.com/news/history-of-palestine-world-war-ii-veteran-uncovered/article_013b722c-28c5-11e5-844f-c7966bb69c68.htm
Just to be a little clear about family. My mothers maiden name is Glenn. My great Aunt is Annie M. Glenn whom was married to Mage Axum. I had no idea about the life and death of this man and the ones left behind with no closure for many years. Some things are never spoken or talked about. Now it is time to share..... Godspeed Mage Axum
http://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=113055
Here is another part of this story from Stars and Stripes :
NAPLES, Italy — Over peach cobbler and coffee, Tucker Axum sat rapt with attention as 83-year-old Josef Rulands shared a morbid tale from nearly seven decades ago.
The grim memory of a teen-aged boy returning with his family to their farm in Buscherheide, Germany, after authorities lifted an evacuation order. A recollection of finding a grave and lone wooden cross erected in the meadow, and two soldiers’ helmets: one German, one American.
The Rulandses assumed under the dirt mound lay the body of a German soldier.
They were wrong.
In August 1946, a German search committee opened the grave on the Rulandses’ land. The body was clad in an American uniform.
In March 1947, members of the American Search Committee reopened the grave. Three months later, the body was taken to Ardennes American Military Cemetery in Brussels, laid in a grave and listed as UNK X-5662.
Rifleman Mage Axum had been classified as missing-in-action since October 1944.
On Sept. 15, 1947, officials positively identified his remains based on dental charts, the man’s height and shoe size.
From more than 90 pages of war records, letters, telegrams and web searches, Tucker Axum, 32, has come to know his great-uncle in death.
He knows the World War II soldier suffered a broken upper jaw and was missing teeth from battle injuries sustained during a hard-fought clash against heavy German resistance in a night raid to take Buscherheide in October 1944. His hands were missing when the body was found.
Tucker Axum knows the last words his great-uncle wrote to his wife, Annie Mae, and baby daughter Sharon, who waited in Palestine, Texas, for his safe return.
“Just a line to let you know that I am still okay and hope you all are too,” reads part of the letter dated Sept. 2, 1944. “Honey, I had the best dream about you and the baby last night. I only hope God will some day let it come true. I am going to keep hoping and praying that he will. Honey, I want you to pray for me and every one of us. Pray for this thing to come to a close, and I feel that it will before too long. Please don’t worry about me as I am OK. Take good care of yourself and baby. Kiss her for daddy. I love you all lots.”
He died 46 days later.
Tracing the past
Websites dedicated to reconnecting war comrades, announcing military unit reunions and otherwise documenting personal war histories are helping people like Tucker Axum trace their ancestors’ pasts.
“A lot of websites are popping up full of great information,” said author and World War II historian Martin King.
Some sites are managed by private people, relatives or veterans with a passion for keeping the history alive, King said. Others are maintained by military units and historians. The American Battle Monuments Commission is a treasure house for records. “To know these people is gold,” King said.
During World War II, divisions, brigades and units kept rather detailed war records that are becoming more accessible to the public and easier to track, King said.
“Each [U.S.] unit, down to the platoons, for example, was expected to keep daily reports on activities,” King said. “Some divisions had record keepers, people just there for paperwork and no other purpose. ... And they were quite meticulous.”
As World War II dragged on, documentation increased as more men were committed to combat, said historian and author Richard Frank. More units filed after-action reports, for example, aimed at illuminating what happened or making recommendations for future missions. These “were very candid,” making details often invaluable, Frank said.
Other sources of war documents include archives, newspapers, libraries and town halls — and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
In spite of the devastating loss of 16 million to 18 million military personnel records in the great fire in 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, some service records can be recreated if the servicemembers filed medical claims through the Department of Veterans Affairs, Frank suggested.
Passing down family history
It’s one thing to have documents, but something totally different to hear history told by someone who lived it.
Josef Rulands remembers returning to his family home in September 1944 from the Netherlands, where his family had fled. He was standing in the meadow as his father discovered the cross, the helmets, the shallow grave.
It’s a memory that has remained with him, and though painful, one he was grateful to share with Tucker Axum and his wife, Heidi, when they visited Buscherheide in May, Rulands said by phone to a German translator, who emailed the translation of the conversation to Stars and Stripes.
Tucker Axum’s research to revive his great-uncle’s past and the visit with the Rulandses has kept the story of Mage Axum alive, Rulands said. “Maybe one time, Tucker will tell this story to his kids and they also want to see the place, which is part of the history of family Axum.“
The Rulandses were welcoming but reserved during the Axums’ visit over Memorial Day weekend.
“They said the Germans didn’t talk about the war — they are ashamed of their role,” said Axum, a special agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service who, until August, was stationed in Naples, Italy. “It was a horrible time, no one wants to relive it or think about it.”
Not knowing
No one talked about it in Sharon Axum Brooks’ home either.
For 69 years, she thought her father was MIA. For 69 years, no one talked about it, though her mother knew she had been widowed.
Not knowing gave Brooks hope, she said during a recent phone interview from Palestine, Texas, where she still lives.
She was 13 months old when her father disappeared. She has no real memory of him, only of a sensation of a man holding her.
“I just know that that man was my daddy.”
She grew up wondering, “What if?” What if he sauntered into a family barbecue? Or surprised her on her birthday?
The call from her cousin Tucker in late May answered all of those “what ifs.”
“I was so shocked when I found out, so overwhelmed. But now I had closure, as bad as the news was.”
https://www.stripes.com/news/family-of-wwii-soldier-discovers-haunting-story-but-finally-finds-closure-1.238584
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. LTC (Join to see) Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas TSgt Joe C. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Robert Webster Sgt Randy Wilber SGT Jim Arnold SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth CW5 Jack Cardwell @ sp5 mark CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SCPO Morris Ramsey Alan K.
mage-axum
Posted from findagrave.com
WWII World War Two
POW/MIA
Family
Military Family
Honor
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 6
5
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Thanks David it was hard for me to put this one together. Knowing it came from family. Have a great day !
(2)
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Thank you for sharing my friend SGT John " Mac " McConnell the background on the maternal side of your family.
(3)
(0)
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Thanks CPL Dave Hoover . I had no idea about this from my mothers side of the family. Have a great day brother.
(2)
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