Air Group 16

"This documentary tells the story of Air Group 16 - the pilots, radiomen and gunners who served on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lexington in World War II. The film follows the veterans and their families as they make the journey to Washington, DC, for the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in 2004." This is a short film, about 25 minutes, and it made the point that what veterans really want is to be remembered. That is exactly what I am trying to do for Private Tebbs, a man who is completely forgotten, who died almost 90 years ago. The film also has a brief, but excellent synopsis of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, in which U.S. Naval planes delivered a knock out blow to the Japanese Navy from which they never really recovered.

The Draft

Here is Tebbs' draft card. Notice that the corners are missing. The draft boards would tell all of the African American men to do this. Turns out it was a really quick way of making sure they were drafted without having to read through the card and see what color they were. As noted in his obituary, Tebbs was one of the first African Americans drafted from the St. Louis area. I am really curious about the 1 child he lists as a dependent.

Secrets of the Dead: Dogfight Over Guadalcanal

Secrets of the Dead is an investigative history program on PBS. On this episode they recount and digitally reconstruct the famous dogfight between Saburo Sakai and Pug Southerland over Guadalcanal. Southerland was a U.S. Navy pilot and was ultimately shot down by Sakai. The wreckage was found in the late 90's and Ralph Wetterhahn traveled to Guadalcanal to find out why Southerland didn't shoot down Sakai when he had the chance. He finds an old shell, which he calls the "Rosetta Stone" of the accident and then claims that this particular shell was hit by a Japanese bullet, exploded in the wing and jammed the guns. In my opinion it could be true, but it was quite a stretch to prove conclusively, considering this plane was shot down and then rotted in the jungles for 67 years. Even more baffling is why they were investigating that aspect in the first place. Southerland lived thru the experience and reported himself that his guns were jammed. Sakai (pictured) also lived thru the war and wrote a book that looks interesting: Samurai! Besides the investigative conclusions and theatrics, the film was interesting, I enjoyed learning about the dogfight and seeing what remained of Pug's Wildcat.

SNAFU

A few weeks ago I received this medal in the mail. It was addressed to me, but inside it had a receipt for Albert Simaz, but no address or any other information, other than the fact that he had ordered it over 2 years ago. I have no idea why it was sent to me. I tried to call the Army Medal procurement center at the number indicated on the receipt, but after fighting the voice mail I gave up and took matters into my own hands. Using my skills that I am developing researching veterans, I soon found his enlistment records and then found his phone number and address on the web. I called him to confirm that he was indeed the rightful owner of the medals and to make sure I had the right address. He was certainly surprised to hear from me. I sent him the medals and refused his offer to compensate me for my troubles. Today I got a thank you card:

Mr. Kirby,

Thank you so much for forwarding my medal that the Army sent to you by mistake. It's good to see they haven't changed much since I was there (all fouled up). I was in the 1st Calvary Div. at wars end. We were one of the first units sent into Japan as occupation troops.

Thanks

Al Simaz

The Few, by Alex Kershaw

A valuable book with lots of information about 7 American pilots, with little experience, who finagled their way into the RAF and flew the hottest fighter plane on the planet: The Spitfire! These Americans broke American neutrality laws to fight for England, swore their allegiance to the King and helped save the free world during the early days of WWII. A really interesting story, but the book could have better organized. The story starts following two pilots, then switches to other pilots and ends with yet other pilots, the story isn't well woven from start to finish, but nonetheless I still enjoyed the book, even if it got a little hard to remember who was who after a while.

The Purple Heart

This week I have been working on getting Tebbs his Purple Heart. He was not awarded one during the war, nor were any of the other casualties or deaths. But, in 1932 a law was passed reinstating the medal and veterans or their families could apply for it retroactively. By 1932 both of Tebbs' parents were dead, so now it is up to me to get him his medal. Now that I know that he doesn't have the medal, I wrote Congressman Carnahan's office again today to ask how to proceed on this matter. According to what I read today, this will take some time to accomplish, but should give my speech a real punch if I can pull it off for him.

Obituary

Here is the obituary for Private Tebbs that ran in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in late 1918. The St. Louis library (downtown) has these old newspapers on microfilm.