Ray Elliott

Reflections on a Veteran - I

2011-10-02T15:02:00.004-05:00

My daughters each submitted an essay last year to the State of Illinois' "Reflections on A Veteran" competition through the Secretary of State's office. Each was honored by being selected as the winning essay in their respective grade levels and was then invited to read their essays at the Constitution Day ceremony in Chicago Sept. 14.

Here is Caitlin's middle school level award-winning entry:

Reflections on a Veteran

Growing up surrounded by veterans certainly has impacted my life in a number of ways. I have a greater appreciation for the sacrifices made by veterans. Their willingness to serve their country allows me to have the freedom that I do today.

In a civilian’s eyes, veterans are the definition of heroes. Their courage and determination allows us to pursue our dreams and achieve our goals because of the rights they have defended.

In a veteran’s eyes, however, it is only a matter of right and wrong. The right thing to do is to honor their country.

Being raised to have the upmost respect for those who serve, I can’t imagine my life if not for veterans. I’ve learned to show my gratitude openly and often. My interview with Tom Henderson, a World War II veteran, only reinforced those beliefs.

I have known Mr. Henderson for many years now, but in this interview I saw another, deeper side of him, full of memories of the war, reflections and appreciation of fellow veterans. It was meaningful to me to know what experiences he has had and to see how much he, and other veterans, have given to their communities and their country.

In times of war, the general population’s feeling is shock. Everything changes in the world around us, and there is confusion and hesitation. Veterans take initiative and respond. There are no doubts, no regrets. The responsibility to respect and, therefore, defend this country is clear.

Every night, I am able to go to sleep knowing that I am safe and at home. However, for these veterans who were miles away from home, every day was a day of survival. They always had to be ready and do what they were told to do promptly. I can’t imagine the kind of pressure and fear they must have felt in that kind of situation. Just hearing about it made me thankful for my life and what is so often taken for granted.

Constantly depending on others fighting alongside of them, strong friendships are formed. One story that specifically stood out for me during the interview was about a close friend of Mr. Henderson’s. His buddy had accidently shot himself and was buried. His body was then exhumed and moved twice. Mr. Henderson and some others who served with him did not know where their friend’s final resting place was. After research was done many years later, the gravesite was finally located. Simply knowing where his friend’s grave was located was enough to bring closure and peace to a painful memory.

After being so brave and honorable, they return home. Glad to be reunited with family and friends, but also struggling to find jobs to support themselves. Although they may be home, the repercussions and aftermath from the war leave shortages of just about everything. Through all of the conflicts following the war, their service doesn’t stop when the war does, but rather continues through organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. A night doesn’t go by when they don’t think of an event or a memory from all those years ago, far away from home.

I was particularly impressed by Mr. Henderson’s great sense of respect for his country, his community, and the people around him.

— Caitlin Elliott
8th Grade
Urbana (IL) Middle School

Study the signs to quit smoking

2011-04-05T20:56:00.002-05:00

In a recent Q&A e-mail profile in the Champaign-Urbana (IL) News-Gazette, I was asked about my bad habits. I have more than my share, but the one I chose to tell was my unsavory habit of bumming cigarettes from people who still smoke.

Smoking is no longer always socially acceptable. People from whom I bum cigarettes were pleased I didn’t mention their names in the profile. And I received a LinkedIn message from an Iowa man who attends the Roger Ebert Film Festival, telling me he’d be back this year — he’d always pull out his Marlboros when he saw me coming.

“Looking forward to some movies,” he wrote. “Sorry to say that I quit smoking cigarettes, though!”

All of which made me think I should quit bumming cigarettes and tell those of you who still smoke a version of how I was able to give up regular smoking years ago. Here goes:

The house was quiet, an inner peace kind of quiet. The man I’d come to see stood and looked at me with a half-smile on his face. His deep blue eyes sparkled like deep, cold mountain lake water. The tanned skin stretched tightly over his high cheekbones.

“So you are hopelessly addicted to that noxious and evil killer weed, tobacco?” he asked quietly. His voice had only the slightest touch of pity.

Yes, sir,” I said.

“Nicotine, of course, is a poisonous alkaloid, the chief active ingredient in tobacco that causes cancer, emphysema and heart disease,” he said. “If you want to kill yourself, there are better ways.

“Come for my advice only if you are interested in living. And if you are interested in living, quit smoking. You will enjoy living more; you will not have as many headaches; your food will taste better; and you may live longer. You will certainly smell better while you are alive.”

He paused and gestured for me to speak.

“You are kind,” I said. “I believe what you say. But I cannot quit. I have tried everything and found nothing that works.”

“Do not say you cannot quit,” he said. “There is nothing in this world that you cannot do, if it is within reach. You know in your heart what you can and cannot do. You must believe that you can achieve anything you are willing to work for.”

“I’m willing, sir. But I have tried every ritual under the sun—“

“Your ritualistic, puerile efforts under the sun are worthless,” he said.

“But what can I do?”

“If you are truly serious and believe, you will look at the Debowelled Man of Signs. He will tell you when to quit. Each constellation of the Zodiac controls parts of the body. If the sign is above the knee, you cannot quit, no matter how much you try. You will experience pain and possess the foulest of moods until you return to the evil killer weed, tobacco.”

“But, sir, how do I find out when the sign is right?” I asked.

“The sign will go down to the knee soon. It will continue down through the legs and feet and for five days when it will return to the head. You will have only those five days to quit.”

“You have told me when. Will you tell me how?”

“Like a man,” he said simply. ”You throw your cigarettes away and forget about them.”

The next week passed quickly. Before I knew it, the sign was in the knees. When the sign reached the feet, I sat smoking frantically.

When the package was empty, I bummed a cigarette. But with the sign in the feet, I thought it was worth a try and swore I’d quit. Two days later, I went back to the one who had told me about the signs.

“The time has come in which the sign is below the knee will soon be past,” he said, meeting me at the door with arms folded.

“I know. But I have quit the evil weed.”

“That is good, but the time of danger is not past. You much wait two weeks from when you have cast the evil killer weed aside to be sure.”

“I want to make sure I am successful in quitting the evil killer weed.”

“You will be successful this time, my son,” he said and put his hand on my shoulder. His blue eyes seemed to look though me. “And when you have it made it two weeks tell someone who might like to know that the sign must be below the knee if they want to quit smoking.”

The sign must be below the knee if you want to quit smoking. If that doesn’t work, try betting another smoker a thousand dollars you can quit longer that he can. That’s sure to work.

Two Marines reconnect after 65 years

2011-04-04T21:24:00.003-05:00

Just before I left for the 65^th Anniversary Iwo Jima Reunion and Symposium in Arlington, Va., last February, I received a particularly intriguing e-mail from John Butler, son of LtCol. John Butler, commanding officer of 1/27 who was killed on Iwo Jima on March 5, 1945.

The e-mail was a story of two Marines who had found each other after 65 years, both thinking the other hadn’t made it off the island alive. Both were in John’s father’s First Battalion, 27^th Marine Regiment, both in C Company, one a rifle platoon sergeant (who had been a paramarine), the other a machine gun section leader (who had been a Marine Raider) in GySgt. John Basilone’s platoon, the Medal of Honor recipient who was killed on Iwo Jima and was featured in the recent Hanks-Spielberg mini series, The Pacific.

As a result of a chance encounter, the two buddies who shook hands as they embarked on their amtracs for the ride to Red Beach Two reconnected all those years later. One man was Clarence Rea, the rifle platoon sergeant, the other man was Clinton Watters, the machine gun section leader.

“He was wounded early on,” Rea had written. “I received information that he had died from wounds. At a party in Los Angeles last Saturday night (Feb.13, 2010) for my grandson, my nephew walked up to me and said he had a fishing friend in Orange Country whose name was Mark Watters. The friend mentioned that his dad had been on Iwo.”

Rea’s nephew recalled a photo his uncle had showed him of five Marines (one of whom was Basilone) and recalled the name of Watters as one of the men. Mark Watters reportedly called his father in Medford, Ore., and asked him if he knew Clarence Rea. His dad reportedly replied, “Yes. Where the heck is he?”

During the party, the nephew tapped his uncle on the shoulder and handed him a piece of paper with Watters’ e-mail, address and phone number and told him to call when he got home. Which he did on Monday morning.

“The tears rolled on this end,” Rea had written in the e-mail. “I could not believe this, and I still can hardly believe it. We talked for an hour and a half and have been in contact almost daily since. What a reunion.”

Watters, who was Basilone’s best man at his wedding to Marine Sgt. Lena Riggi before they left Camp Pendleton for Camp Tarawa on the island of Hawaii, was originally with Basilone in 1/7 on Samoa but was in the hospital with jaundice when the battalion left for Guadalcanal where Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor. Watters was reassigned to the 2^nd Marine Division and later hooked up with the 3^rd Raider Battalion and fought on Bouganville before joining 1/27 for the Iwo Jima campaign.

“We (Watters and Rea) had been good friends and buddies all through the forming of the Fifth Marine Division at Camp Pendleton,” Rea had written. “Clint was wounded a few days before I was on Iwo Jima. He was taken to the hospital on Guam and then back to the States to a hospital on the East Coast.

“When I was wounded on March 3, I was taken to the hospital on Guam, too. I was there a little longer than usual, arguing to save my arm, which was going to be amputated. It was here that I was told that Clint had died.”

From Guam, Rea was shipped to Aiea Heights Naval Hospital in Hawaii and then back to the States to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, Calif., where he had “experimental work done on (his) arm and saved it. Rea said he was in the hospital for a year and a half, Waters said he was in one for six months.

“All these years, I thought he had perished,” Rea said. “I did not sleep most of last night (after they talked on the phone) I was so elated to know he was still with us. I will really believe it when I see him again.”

After they had reconnected, they planned a reunion in Northern California that took in Vacaville and “what a wonderful reunion!” Rea later wrote. “We spoke of many of our old friends that we lost. After 65 years we both look the same, although Clint is still the better looking Marine!”

Watters wrote in an e-mail to note “that it was almost 65 years to the day that we last greeted each other while boarding the landing craft to land on Iwo on Feb. 19. Another item we have learned since getting back together is that we have the same birth dates, only a year apart. Clarence is the old man.”

“What a joy to re-connect,” Rea told me later at his home in Grover Beach, Calif.

Support helps drive progress on making of Basilone documentary

2010-08-13T21:27:00.004-05:00

I write this awhile after returning from a two-week trip with Diane Hawkins (John Basilone's niece) to California, Oregon and Washington interviewing and filming Iwo Jima Marine veterans and other Marines who knew and served with John Basilone, all for the documentary, John Basilone: Legacy of a Hero, meeting with Tom Hanks' top assistant at Playtone and then flying to Washington, D.C., to attend and film portions of Gen. Fred Haynes' memorial service at Ft. Myers and internment in Arlington Cemetery and conduct more interviews with Iwo Jima veterans there. For your information, I've attached a draft first page of the documentary as we perceive it to open.

On the West Coast, we filmed interviews with Bill Lansford, Clarence Rea, Clinton Watters (best man at Basilone's wedding) and Chuck Tatum, all of whom served with Basilone from the forming of the Fifth Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in early 1944 until he was killed on Iwo Jima; and we filmed interviews with Iwo Jima veterans Bob Hansen (5th Pioneers) Andy Andrews (U.S. Navy) and Claro Bergevin (5th Tank) about their memories and subsequent lives. And the Los Angeles Marine Corps Public Affairs Office provided a staff member who picked up Diane, the cameraman and me and drove us to Camp Pendleton for an interview with the Pendleton historian in the Iron Mike Staff NCO Lounge (named after Iwo Jima veteran Sgt. Maj. Mike D. Mervosh) where there is a John Basilone display case with his Medal of Honor and Navy Cross citations - the original Navy Cross is there but is kept under lock and key out of sight. Afterward, we were given a brief tour of Camp Pendleton, limited because of a fire on the back side of the base, and a ride down Basilone Road. Until we have distribution locked up, we will not be permitted to film at the Basilone Obstacle Course, part of The Crucible, a grueling 54-hour course that has to be completed prior to Marine recruits receiving the Eagle, Globe and Anchor.

Besides Gen. Haynes' service in Arlington, we filmed and interviewed Iwo Jima veterans Gen. Larry Snowden, Ivan Hammond and John Huffines and attended the Iwo Jima Association of America annual meeting, initially formed by Gen. Haynes. Later, Military Historical Tours (MHT) President and CEO Warren Wiedhahn (a retired mustang Marine colonel and Korean Ware Chosin Reservoir survivor)) invited Diane and me to attend an MHT planning meeting and present the Basilone documentary plans to the group. In conjunction with our plans to follow Basilone's path to the Pacific (Hawaii, Guadalcanal, the Philippines and Australia - we've already been to Iwo Jima but are considering a trip back in March next year to add the aspect of "going back" to the documentary focus), Col. Wiedhahn agreed to assist us (Diane, a cameraman and me) in traveling to Guadalcanal on an MHT tour. Diane has a contact in Australia to help there, and I have made arrangements in the Philippines with Armed Forces in the Philippines and the commandant of the Camp Tarawa Marine Corps League Detachment on the Big Island of Hawaii for filming in those places of interest to the Basilone documentary.

Long story short, we're about 50 percent of the way through the filming of the project. Most of what remains is the trip to the Pacific, the John Basilone Parade in Raritan, N.J., in late September and a few more interviews with relevant Iwo Jima veterans - Ret. Marine Col. Gerald Russell, later battalion commander of 2/27 who passed Basilone's MOH recommendation along on Guadalcanal, and others. The going-back theme is of interest because so many combat veterans do go back to where they fought and survived, looking for something from a period of their lost youth when they left much behind.

As you can imagine, with the travel still on the agenda and the post-production editing required to get a final product, the largest financial outlay is ahead of us. Both Diane and I have contributed a considerable amount of time and money to the project with a budget we have estimated to be about $250,000. Diane has found, through a friend/colleague, an editor who is willing to get the trailer from existing film and take on the project for a token retainer and later payment to enable us to secure distribution and the required financing. The Marine veteran combat cameraman who helped us in Los Angeles is writing the film treatment, and I'm preparing the promotional material and the scheduling.

So I turn to you for financial help. You can have a viable role in guaranteeing that the documentary will be completed on schedule - and failure to complete it is not an option - and passing the story of John Basilone and his boys, as it were, down to future generations. The focus of the documentary has become a journey itself and how John Basilone's legacy of courage, honor and sacrifice has affected Diane and her family, the men and women who survived the war, many of who return to the site of their combat, and younger generations who continue to be impacted by his example. That remains the focus of our work and complements all other work on John Basilone; however, I do believe this documentary has the potential to serve his legacy better and become more lasting.

With the necessary trailer prepared for potential distributors, a representative for Tom Hanks has agreed that he will provide an endorsement both in the initial process and after completion. That endorsement is significant.

At this point, however, and to accomplish the next phase, this project needs your support both in contributions and in your encouragement of others to contribute. No amount is too small, none to large. Please direct all tax-deductible contributions to The John Basilone Foundation, P.O. Box 6778, Hilton Head, SC 29938. Whatever your contribution, we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for you consideration and support.

To friends and supporters of the Basilone documentary project:

2010-08-03T19:52:00.000-05:00

JULY 3, 2010 – I’m off for the Fourth of July weekend to help our Richard L. Pittman Marine Corps League #1231 (named after a local Marine killed at the foot of Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 21, 1945) get ready for the Fourth of July Parade and remember the sacrifices so many of our military men and women made back then, still are making and always have made for our freedom. Where would we be without them?

But before the weekend, I wanted to give you another update on the great week we’ve had in getting the John Basilone documentary project up and running. The Marine Corps Public Affairs Office in Los Angeles recommended to Diane a young Marine veteran cameraman and member of the Combat Cameraman Association just establishing himself in the field in Los Angeles who is interested in helping with the documentary. Which is the answer to one of our major needs. He does have some connections in the industry and will work with us in the Los Angeles area and will possibly be able to go with us up the coast on the July 10-21 trip. With the necessary funding only for expenses, a competent cameraman is essential now and on our trip this fall as we go from the 28th Annual John Basilone Parade in his Raritan, New Jersey, hometown (and Diane's) and follow the Gunny's route to Hawaii, Guadalcanal and the Philippines. Diane went to Iwo Jima for the 65th Reunion of Honor in March.

Anheuser-Busch, Bill Gallo’s New York City Daily News column and your contributions are making things possible at this point. Our thinking was that corporate contributions would be our primary source of funding for the long haul. But a conference call with one of the leading fundraisers in the country caused us to rethink that. This man, working gratis on a consulting basis, advised us that 83 percent of all philanthropy comes from individuals passionate about the causes they support. He suggested forming a steering committee, which I already had well on the way, and use networking skills to identify potential donors and put Diane in front of them to ask for a gift. So I turn to you for your recommendations, as well as your contributions. We will be meeting with people around the country for funding on the upcoming trip and will meet with the fundraiser on a continuing basis until we have a completed documentary on a major outlet and the DVD available.

Appreciate the Fourth of July.

Make your contributions to The John Basilone Foundation, P.O. Box 6778, Hilton Head, SC 29938.

To friends and supporters of the Basilone documentary project:

2010-07-12T22:34:00.001-05:00

JULY 1, 2010 -- I write this evening to thank those of you who have supported the “John Basilone: Legacy of A Hero” documentary project by lending your name and money by joining the steering committee. And I want to thank others of you who, while not coming aboard the committee, have made contributions and are encouraging others to contribute. Both your efforts and the response to Iwo Jima veteran Bill Gallo's New York Daily News column (“Diane Hawkins' endeavor to memorialize late uncle Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone worth your generosity”), which was very good, have helped move the project forward.

And the week has been encouraging in other ways: Rocky Sickmann, Director, Military Sales for Anheuser-Busch and one of the Marine Embassy Guards held prisoner for 444 days in the 1979-80 Iranian student revolution who epitomizes the Basilone legacy of courage, honor and sacrifice, has e-mailed that he would like to assist with a generous Anheuser-Busch Military Sales sponsorship.

And he forwarded a request for an even larger donation to the Director for Entertainment Marketing in Los Angeles, whom we plan meet with, if possible, on the July 10-21 trip to the West Coast to meet supporters and interview Iwo Jima Marine veterans who served with GySgt. John Basilone and active-duty Marines about the Basilone Obstacle Course and The Crucible, which Marine recruits must complete before receiving the Eagle, Globe and Anchor and are graduated from boot camp.

Make your contributions to The John Basilone Foundation, P.O. Box 6778, Hilton Head, SC 29938.

Lawrence 'Slats' Trower 1925-2010

2010-07-11T22:40:00.003-05:00

JUNE 28, 2010 -- We buried Marine Iwo Jima veteran Slats Trower (B/1/24) today in his Arthur, Illinois, hometown. His given name was Lawrence, but everybody knew him as Slats for his lean, wiry body that was full of energy for helping his family, community and country have the best life they could. Before he was wounded on Iwo Jima on March 4, 1945, he'd promised himself and his maker that if he survived the battle he would return to Arthur and never leave and would be "the best man he could."

After narrowly escaping with his life several times, he had his head down reloading his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) when a mortar exploded nearby and filled his body with shrapnel, some of which was still working out of his hands and other places at the end of his life, and he was carried off the island unconscious. He later woke on the hospital ship taking him to an Army hospital in Saipan. The pungent odor of rotting flesh was so strong that he later said, "It took my breath away."

After a few days on Saipan, Slats was transferred to the Naval hospital at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where he often said he was "nursed back to health by drinking large quantities of fresh milk." In a piece his granddaughter Keri Sowers wrote, titled "Lawrence Trower's Recollection of Iwo Jima," Slats, who was raised on a dairy farm in the Breadbasket of the World, said, “They had fresh milk in five-gallon buckets with a spigot on it. All we had been drinking was powdered milk. Here, I could drink all the milk I wanted. I love milk. I drank so much milk, I could moo."

By April 20, 1945, Slats was able to rejoin his outfit for training in Maui, preparing for the invasion of Japan. Before that happened, two atomic bombs were dropped, one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasoki and Japan surrendered. Slats and his outfit were sent to Okinawa where he worked first as a turnkey in a brig that was full of Japanese prisoners of war and Americans from all branches of service who had violated military rules, then as a military policeman.

With the war over two years after he was graduated from high school in 1944 and with less than two years as a United States Marine, Slats was discharged and arrived back home in Arthur to stay. Two years alter, he married Jane Craig to whom he was married 62 years and who survives him as do three daughters, Cheryl (Dan) Jackson, Connie (John) Armer, Cindy (Steve) Helton, six grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Slats worked at nearby Quantum Chemical Corporation for 36 and one half years and ran a refrigeration business for several years.

Being a devoted family man and the best man he could be was evident in his lifetime activities after he came home from the war. I first met him in 2005 after I came back from the 60th Anniversary Reunion of Honor on the island and started forming a local Marine Corps League. So I knew quite a bit about him. But other details form his obituary follow:

"Slats was a member of the Arthur Vine Street Christian Church for more than 60 years and served as an elder and youth mentor for more than 60 years. He was a charter member and past president of the Arthur Lions Club, a member of the Arthur Masonic Lodge for 54 years and 32nd-degree Mason form the Danville Consistory, a member and past commander of the Arthur VFW Post 479, a member of the American Legion for 61 years and a member of the Urbana-Champaign Richard L. Pittman Marine Corps League #1231, named after a local Marine killed at the foot of Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 21, 1945.

"Slats was awarded the Meldin Jones Fellow by Lions Club International for dedicated humanitarian services in 1989; he received a plaque from the American Legion as the most outstanding fundraiser in 1989 for selling raffle tickets and raising money; he received the State Master Gardener Excellence Award from the University of Illinois in 2003.

“For 14 years, Slats raised tomatoes for the VFW Post that provided (thousands of dollars of) scholarships for Arthur-Lovington High School graduates. He also worked with Melissa Rush's class and the fifth-and sixth-grade students in Arthur in growing vegetables and then giving the produce to food banks, churches and families in need. He loved working with the students and the community.

“In February 2006, State Reps. Bob Flider and Chapin Rose presented Slats with a copy of a resolution of the Illinois House Representatives for winning the 2005 Humanitarian Award from the Arthur Association of Commerce. In September 2009, Slats was honored to go on the Central Illinois Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II Memorial (accompanied as a guardian by his son-in-law John Armer. By this time, Slats was in extremely poor health but said he'd go 'even if I have to crawl.' He was pushed around in a wheel chair most of the day by his son-in-law and was in it when Senator Bob Dole stepped up behind him and rested his hand on Slats' shoulder for a photo.

Crawling or doing whatever he had to do to get the job done was pretty much his philosophy of life and how he went about being the best man he could after coming home to Arthur. People sometimes asked him how he could do all the things he did. Always an outspoken man with colorful language, he would reply, "By getting up off your ass and doing it."

At his visitation yesterday before the funeral, scheduled for 5-8 p.m., people lined up outside the funeral home and a steady stream of people from around central Illinois stood patiently through the slow moving line that wrapped around inside the funeral home until nearly 10 p.m. One man on his way to the visitation from more than 50 miles away had been stopped for speeding by a policeman who asked what was the hurry on a Sunday afternoon.

“I'm going to a visitation for Lawrence Trower in Arthur," the man replied.

“You mean Slats Trower, don't you?" the policeman responded, handing back his driver's license. "Slow down and make sure you get there."

The funeral today was quite fitting for a man of Slats' stature. The church was filled with family and friends who viewed a Power Point presentation of photos while music played in the background. After saying a few words, the minister asked people to share memories of Slats. That went on for a full 15 minutes before the minister added his own thoughts in a heartfelt sermon.

In his last days lying in the hospital bed while he fought to live on, Slats sometimes flashed back to the days of battle on the island and hollered out about killing the enemy and tried to remove his oxygen lines while asking for more oxygen. In the end, it was one time he couldn't get "up off his ass and do it."

At the cemetery a color guard of four local VFW and American Legion members stood tall with flags and rifles; seven Marine Corps League members stood ready for a three volley rifle salute when the order came from the commander of the unit; a bagpiper from the Champaign fire department played "Going Home" on the bagpipe while the casket was taken to the burial site; and after a few words from the minister, two active duty Marines sergeants in dress blues folded the American flag and presented it to the commandant of the Marine Corps League who in turn leaned down toward Jane Trower and presented her with the flag "On behalf of a grateful nation... ." Another one would later be presented to her by U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, who had one flown in Slats' honor over the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

As people started drifting away from the tent, a group of Marines, friends and relatives stayed back while a bottle of Crown Royale was opened and anyone who wished to poured a shot in a plastic shot glass or took a swig straight from the bottle and toasted Slats.

A local ABC affiliate had sent a camera person and a reporter to cover the funeral and will make the footage available to Diane Hawkins, niece of John Basilone, who is making a documentary about the legacy of her Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipient uncle who was killed on Feb. 19, 1945, on Iwo Jima. And Bruce Harrison, a recent University of Illinois journalism graduate was also there filming the funeral for the same reason and reported on the funeral for AM 580, the PBS station at the University of Illinois.

Slats Trower was certainly a part of the legacy of John Basilone who led the way for thousands of Marines and Americans who survived the war and lived a good life from the sacrifice of so many. I was both honored and proud to have known Slats and to be a part of his life and helping give him a wonderful parting of the life he was given.

Sadly, the only negative part of the final ceremony for a truly great man and Marine was that the Marine Corps League khaki short-sleeved shirt that set us off as Marines has been outlawed and replaced with a white shirt that is like the uniform shirts of other veterans' organization. I can just hear Slats commenting on that one: “We need to get up off our asses and get that changed and go back to looking like Marines.” And he would have been leading the charge.

Manila John Basilone's niece to make documentary about famous uncle's legacy as WWII Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipient

2010-06-09T07:53:00.004-05:00

Actress and filmmaker Diane Basilone Hawkins grew up in Raritan, New Jersey, surrounded by the echoes of her uncle's memory for his World War II heroics as the only enlisted Medal of Honor recipient to return to combat and has always been a part of the effort to keep his memory alive.

As a child, she lived in the same home as her uncle had and was always aware that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor on Guadalcanal and after requesting a return to a combat unit from the War Bond Tour that he had been killed on Iwo Jima and received the Navy Cross for his action during the invasion there on Feb. 19, 1945.

When Hugh Ambrose, author of The Pacific, and Bruce McKenna, executive producer and writer of the HBO TV series called on her to help develop her uncle as one of the characters in the series, Diane returned from Paris where she had lived for 15 years, acting in French films, directing English theater productions and making documentaries like Americans in Paris and Foreigners in France.

With her family background and experience and her uncle's stature in the Marine Corps, it soon became apparent that a documentary on his legacy was both appropriate and beneficial with the support of the John Basilone Foundation headed by her cousin, Jerry Cutter.

Consequently, Diane attended the 65th Iwo Jima Anniversary Reunion and Symposium in Arlington, Va., in February, went to Los Angeles for the West Coast premiere of The Pacific and on to Iwo Jima for annual "Reunion of Honor" on the island, conducting interviews and making contacts along the way.

"The trip to Iwo Jima where Uncle John served and died was an incredible and heartfelt experience," she said, "as was the opportunity to be with Iwo Jima veterans who survived the battle."

The focus of the documentary (John Basilone: The Legacy of a Hero) has become the journey itself and how John Basilone's legacy of courage, honor and sacrifice has affected her and her family, those who survive the war and younger generations who continue to be impacted by his example.

In Washington, DC, for the Memorial Day Parade in which she rode in the parade, Diane interviewed Gen. Ron Christmas, USMC, (Ret.), Vietnam veteran survivor of the Battle of Hue City and currently President and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and Museum near the Marine Base at Quantico, Va., and visited her uncle grave in Arlington Cemetery.

At the gravesite of GySgt Basilone on Sunday before Memorial Day, she was surprised to see flowers, pennies and other items by the headstone as you see at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. While sitting on the grass reflecting, a couple from London and a small girl walked up. They had watched The Pacific in London. The little girl had a single rose to leave and asked Diane what the writing on the headstone said. Diane read it and the girl left the rose — a powerful testimony for the documentary.

Currently, Diane is gathering archival footage, obtaining footage of current events across the country and filming interviews with relevant sources. Time is running short in reaching the aging Iwo Jima veterans, and she is interviewing and filming this summer many of those who knew and served with her uncle and also the current Marines who are influenced by her uncle and the example he left behind.

During a trip to California, Diane plans to film Marine recruits at the end of boot camp as they listen to a sergeant read the Medal of Honor citation detailing the bravery of Sgt. John Basilone during the World War II battle at Guadalcanal, then run the 54-hour Basilone Obstacle Course (The Crucible) before they graduate from boot camp and earn the Eagle, Globe and Anchor that entitles them to become Marines.

Then in early fall, John Basilone's hometown (and Diane's) of Raritan, N.J., hosts an annual parade in his honor, which enjoyed a resurgence nearly 30 years ago thanks to a very enterprising local third-grade class. The three-day event, which Diane will be filming and participating in, includes a band concert featuring World War II music, the Basilone 5K run, a Marine Corps Band Concert and concludes on Sunday with the John Basilone Parade.

From there, the plan is to retrace her uncle's footsteps to the World War II Pacific Theater, including the Big Island of Hawaii where the Fifth Marine Division trained prior to the Iwo Jima Campaign, Guadalcanal where Gunny Basilone earned the Medal of Honor with the First Marine Division, Australia where the division went for R&R and training after Guadalcanal, and to the Philippines where he served in the Army.

On Guadalcanal, she will go to the Lunga area where her uncle's action on Oct. 24-25, 1942, earned him the Medal. There, Diane will have a map of the area from two Guadalcanal veterans and Marine Corps documents for the location of the battle.

Tax-deductible contributions for travel, filming expenses and production costs may be sent to The John Basilone Foundation, P.O. Box 6778, Hilton Head, SC 29938.

At long last, writer Jon Shirota receives well-deserved accolades

2009-12-20T21:05:00.004-06:00

Jon Shirota's family immigrated to Hawaii from Okinawa early in the 20th century. He was still in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As soon as he was old enough, Jon joined the American Army and served in occupied Japan after the war. James Jones' blockbuster novel, From Here to Eternity, about pre-war Hawaii, the peacetime Army and the attack on Pearl Harbor influenced Jon's desire to become a writer.

Finally, after three years of corresponding with Jones' mentor, Lowney Handy, Jon became the last member of The Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, Ill., where he wrote Lucky Come Hawaii, an account of the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the response of those of Japanese ancestry. It's a worthy novel.

Since its publication, Jon has written other novels and several plays which have been produced both in the U.S. and in Okinawa. Now in his 80s, Jon continues to write and travel to Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, where his books and plays have been produced and re-issued in both English and Japanese. A longtime member of the James Jones Literary Society, Jon and his wife, Barbara, who spent part of her youth in an internment camp during World War II, gave the first James Jones Lecture at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., that is being presented annually while money is being raised for the endowment for The James Jones Chair in World War II Studies.

I'm posting the following brief essay so you may know a bit more about about a writer and playwright who is now beginning to receive the accolades he so richly deserves.

A barefoot boy of Japanese descent
invited to speak at a university that wouldn't accept him

"How ironic for one to be invited as a guest speaker at a university where one could not be accepted as a student.

"Jon Shirota was kicked out of high school and did not finish his junior year. He received his high school diploma after studying and passing a high school graduate's examination in the Army.

"He wanted to attend the University of Hawaii, but did not submit an application knowing that his atrocious high school grades would automatically disqualify him. Through family connections, however, he was accepted at Brigham Young University in Utah and finished in three years under the GI Bill of Rights.

"During his last year in college, he read the sensational novel, From Here To Eternity, by James Jones. It would have a tremendous effect on his life. He had been stationed at Schofield Barracks where most of Eternity took place; in fact, in the same quadrangle where Jones was stationed, and it sparked an ambitious goal.

"Jon was so enthralled and captivated by Eternity that he vowed he would one day write a novel that also takes place in Hawaii. If a haole white man from Southern Illinois can write a novel that takes places in Hawaii, why can’t he who was born and raised there?

"Of course, it’s easier said than done.

"After years of corresponding with Lowney Handy, the teacher at the Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, Ill., he quit his job as an IRS agent in Hollywood, and drove over to Marshall. He finished his first novel, Lucky Come Hawaii, at the colony, which was accepted for publication.

"The novel was eventually adapted into a play and was awarded the John F. Kennedy Center for New Plays. It was an event that led to other plays and other playwrighting awards.

"Recently, the University of Hawaii invited Jheeh University of Hawaii wanted to publish three of his plays, Lucky Come Hawaii, Leilani’s Hibiscus and Voices From Okinawa. Also, to come out with the fourth re-edited version of the novel, Lucky Come Hawaii.

"Voices From Okinawa played in Honolulu in November and December of 2009 and was extended for extra performances by popular demand. Voices is now scheduled to open in Maui, Jon’s hometown, in January of 2010. Jon has been invited to speak at high schools there, including Baldwin High, from where he was kicked out, and at the community centers. The books Voices From Okinawa and Lucky From Hawaii will be sold at the theater and at book stores.

"University of Hawaii could not accept Jon as a student, but accepted him on a grandeur scale, guest speaker at its conference.

"And the barefoot boy will be going back to Maui, not barefoot, but with a brand new pair of shoes."

Jessica's letter on Kaylie Jones' blog

2009-12-17T21:34:00.014-06:00

For another blog, check out Kaylie Jones' blog. She has posted my daughter Jessica's letter, written after reading Kaylie's recently published memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me, for her freshman English class. Jessica's letter to Kaylie is powerful, I think, and will hopefully provide some insight for her to go forward with her life. The letter follows:

"Dear Kaylie Jones,

"In today’s world, there are so many setbacks and obstacles in life that it is difficult to maintain the feeling that “it’ll all work out in the end.” There are many things that make me doubt that I am strong enough to deal with the curve balls thrown at me and to cope with the cards I am dealt.

"The challenges that we are faced with, or rather, the manner in which we deal with them, is what shapes our character and defines what sort of people we are. As I reflect on your memoir, I see the reckless and defiant girl who began drinking early in life profoundly changed by the end of the book after she has stayed sober for nearly twenty years and has had a child to be responsible for. The challenge you had to overcome was alcoholism. Mine is diabetes.

"I have had this disease since I was ten years old, and my father has always told me that I haven’t fully accepted it, to which I have always answered him, 'Of course I have; that’s crazy.' Only, I didn’t admit that it was a problem. No, everything was just fine – I thought it was no big deal to skip medicine here and there, or not check my blood sugars because I didn’t feel like it at the moment. But whether I admitted it or not, my poor control of my diabetes was affecting me – blurry vision, sick days, etc. But all along, my frame of mind was, 'Well, I’m still alive, so it isn’t really a problem. …'

"Something had to change, or things would get even worse. However, as I realized while reading your memoir, you cannot deal with a problem until you have accepted that there is one. As that famous Alcoholics Anonymous prayer says: 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.'

"I don’t truly know who I am yet. My life is just beginning, brand new and full of potential and possibility. I cannot control diabetes – I don’t know why I got it, and I can’t get rid of it. But I can control my diabetes. I can take the medicine. I can check the blood sugars. I can make healthier choices. Just as the young woman realizes in your memoir, I don’t want to leave this world with any regrets about not making a different choice … a better one. I want to lead a life that anyone could look back on with pride and satisfaction.

"Because of your book, I underwent a process. I have accepted that I cannot change the fact that I have an illness; but I will maintain the courage to keep fighting it every day. The effect it has on me can change. Reading your memoir has given me hope and the wisdom to know that I can control how to become the kind of person I want to be.

Jessica Elliott"

Closing Guantanamo doesn't solve the problem

2009-12-16T20:23:00.000-06:00

From all media reports, it looks as though President Obama is in the process of making good on one of his campaign promises: to close the Guantanamo Bay prison that has housed detainees since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the ensuing threat of terrorism and continued combat in the Middle East.

Sounds as if it'll take awhile before Guantanamo is actually closed, but a deal seems to have been made between the federal government and the state of Illinois to turn the virtually empty Thomson Correctional Center in rural northwestern Illinois into Guantanamo North to make good on the campaign promise and spur economic development in an area with a reported 11.1 percent rate of unemployment.

It ain't a done deal yet, but even if it is it doesn't look to be more than political spin — a prison is a prison is a prison. The detainees will still be in virtual lock-down, regardless of where they are incarcerated. For security reasons, that won't change. And at Guantanamo Bay, they are isolated from the citizens of this country.

How much economic development will result from bringing a mere 100 detainees from Cuba to the prison? Not much, I would think. Currently, media reports indicate there are 200 minimum-security inmates with 82 staff members in the prison with 1,600 cells.

How many more jobs will be created to supervise the 100 detainees? Not many. Even with another 100 staff members added for a one-to-one ratio and a few jobs created in the community as a result of the transfer of detainees, it's a far cry from the 3,000 jobs the federal and state officials say the change will bring. And there's still another 200 detainees still at Guantanamo. What about them?

Despite the cries that Guantanamo Bay is a recruiting tool for terrorists and alienates our allies, the function of Guantanamo will be carried out wherever the detainees go. Seems to me that it would be much better to leave them where they are and figure out what to do with them, morally and legally. Which is also something that is going to have to be done some time along the way.

With all the noise out there, reader beware

2009-12-15T19:53:00.006-06:00

Why would anyone write a blog? As my old friend Chip might say were he asked that question today, that's a corking good question. Blogs, tweets, e-mails and any number of other innovations in the day of instant communications attract all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons.

In my case, I used to write a daily newspaper column and miss writing daily and the immediacy of reaching people with what's on my mind. Writing books, editing newsletters or other writing I do doesn't quite give me the satisfaction I felt from writing every day. While nobody may ever read this blog, there's a certain cathartic effect to putting the words on paper — it was the English novelist D.H. Lawrence who said, "One sheds one's sickness in the novel." So there's that aspect of writing.

And then there are all the half-truths and outright lies you find in your in-basket daily that you want to respond to the masses. Today, for example, I received a story with the following headline: "VERY QUIETLY OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT." The story purported to be an AP-datelined account from Washington about a non-existent group called "Americans for Freedom of Information" that had released copies of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College, indicating that the president attended under the name Barry Soetoro and "received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia. ,,," Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal eligibility to serve as president in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey." Sounds ominous and foreboding, huh?

And questionable, too. So I checked Snopes, which indicates the story was false and originally filed with an AP deadline on April 1, 2009, April Fool's Day. For the rest of the story and the details, click here .

Snopes is touted as "the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors and misinformation." Quite a claim, but one that has a ring of truth to it, and that site is one place to check to see whether the tall tales sent out over the Internet are true or false. Next time you receive an e-mail that sounds phony, chances are it is. Check it out.

New wing unveiled at the National Museum of the Pacific War

2009-12-14T20:40:00.009-06:00

Just got home recently from Fredericksburg, Texas, and the new museum expansion of the National Museum of the Pacific War that took place with events on Dec. 5-7. World War II aviator and President George H.W. Bush was the special guest of honor for the ribbon cutting to open the 32,500-square-foot exhibition in his name. It's a spectacular exhibition that starts with the China-United States relations prior to our entry in the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, by the Japanese through the dropping of the atomic bomb — a very impressive museum with a great historical perspective of World War II.

Gen. Michael W. Hagee, the 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps and a native of Fredericksburg, is the president and CEO of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation. He acted as master of ceremonies for the event. (Chester W. Nimitz is also a native of Fredericksburg, population slightly less than 10,000, and the museum is located in and around his grandfather's hotel, Hotel Nimitz.)

"The beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance."

Inscription near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery

Gen. James T. Conway, 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was the keynote speaker to a crowd for some 3,000 veterans, their families and others with an interest in World War II, for the opening ceremony and ribbon cutting. Other speakers included Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Congressman Michael Conaway. But the real special guests were survivors of Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island and other iconic battles of World War II.

One man I spoke with, Navy veteran James Bargesley, was a radioman on duty and copied the message to start looking for men in the water after the USS Indianapolis had been sunk after delivering the atomic bomb, "Little Boy," to Tinian to be dropped later on Hiroshima.

In his brief remarks, President Bush said, "This museum honors those who served and those who gave their lives. They fought for a world of peace, not war, where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest tyrant's guns. Because of those brave men and women, this museum shall pass on lessons for future generations."

He also pointed out the inscription on a bench near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery that reads, "'The beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance.' And that's what makes days like today (Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day) and places like this Nimitz Museum so vitally important. It is right and it is important that we honor the genuine valor of the men and women who throughout our history have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country to the cause of freedom and perhaps, most of all, for each other. Those who survived the war are always haunted by the memory of those they lost, the friends who never came home.

"So we're also right to pause and thank the living for the honor and commitment to service they have shown and continue to show to preserve this, the greatest nation on the face of the earth. At the same time, we have a solemn obligation to pass forward to future generations the abject horror of war. Ask anyone who has been there, and they'll tell you war is never to be relished and only rarely to be celebrated. Most of all, it is documented and remembered and used as a lesson, as an example of what happens when mankind falls short of his highest aspirations. It is in the act of telling the full story of war, the heroism, the moral justice of a cause, as well as the great suffering that makes this remarkable museum such a special place."

And it is a special place. I was only able to take a brief tour of the museum, where you could spend a couple of days to take it all in, before I had to head for Austin and home to beat the weather spreading havoc across the country. I barely made it before the flight delays stranded people in the airports across the country. But I hope to return some day to spend the time worthy of the history that is documented in the museum and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the Pacific War.

National Museum of the Pacific War

Admiral Nimitz Foundation