Volume 3, Issue 4 June 2012 The Long Rifleman Louisville-Thruston Chapter
Gen. George Rogers Clark Founder of Louisville
Kentucky Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
2012 - 2013 Officers President’s Remarks President: Compatriots: John H. Huffman Sr. On Thursday, May 3, 2012, members from the Louisville-Thruston and Gov. Isaac Shelby Chapters, KYSSAR, joined with compatriots President Elect: from several other state societies to march in the annual Kentucky Douglas T. Collins Derby Pegasus Parade in downtown Louisville. A special thanks this year to Gov. Isaac Shelby for furnishing a flat-bed truck which 1st Vice President: Rev. Paul W. Smith made getting to and from the parade area much easier for participants. Judging by the cheers from spectators along the parade route, every- 2nd Vice President: one seemed to appreciate the presence of the SAR contingent. Drake W. Rinesmith As your chapter president, I have recently attended several JROTC Award Ceremonies held 3rd Vice President: in various high schools throughout Jefferson County. It has been a real pleasure to take part in (vacant) these events and to represent our society by awarding the SAR medal and certificate to these outstanding young men and women cadets. They are all part of the Army, Navy, Air Force Secretary: and Marine Corps JROTC programs, and the professionalism displayed by some of these or- Jon E. Huffman ganizations was most impressive.
Treasurer: Joseph L. Shields I want to encourage everyone to come out to Louisville International Airport on the evening of June 6th for the first Honor Flight event of the year. It’s the 68th anniversary of the D-Day Registrar: invasion, and over 100 WW II veterans are expected to arrive back in Louisville from their Jessie Hagan day-trip to Washington D.C. Come and join us in welcoming home these deserving men and women to whom we owe so much. I look forward to seeing you there! Chancellor: Stephen C. Emery If you haven’t visited our chapter web site lately, I encourage you to do so. President Elect Doug Collins has taken on the task of Web Master and has done a great job by updating the Historian: site and adding several new features which everyone should find interesting and educational. Jon E. Huffman You can visit our web site by going to
John H. Huffman, Sr., Chapter President
Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Two 2012 Kentucky Derby Pegasus Parade
Participants from five states gathered at SAR National Headquarters before being trans- ported to downtown Louisville to march in the Derby Parade. This was the fourth year in a row that SAR has participated in the annual event.
SAR Visits France
In February, Louisville-Thruston member and former President General J. David Sympson and his wife, Evelyn were among fourteen Americans who visited France as guests of the SAR French Compatriots. A week-long series of events concerning the French Alliance and the American War of Independence got underway at Ver- sailles with two days of ceremonies to honor comte de Vergennes on the 225th anni- versary of his death. Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (1719-1787) was a French statesman and diplomat who served as Foreign Minister to King Louis XVI during the American Revolutionary War. He played a vital role in negotiating agree- ments that provided aid to the American rebels. The French furnished supplies, arms, ammunition and volunteers to the colonists in their fight against Britain. While at Versailles, the group visited the apartments of de Vergennes, viewed original treaty documents from French archives, remembered him at church services and laid a wreath in his honor. The management of the Palace of Versailles hosted the events. Comte de Vergennes
The SAR group then traveled to the city of Angers, about 200 miles southwest of Paris, to the unveiling of a bust of General Louis Lebegue Duportail (1743-1802) at the military engineering academy of France. Duportail was a French military leader who served as a volunteer and the chief engineer of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Under an agreement between Benjamin Franklin and King Louis XVI of France, he was secretly sent to America in March 1777, and served on Washington’s staff until October 1783. He is a founder of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. At Angers, the French army staff and its cadets hosted the event, which featured a lecture on Duportail’s life, a social reception and a visit to the engineering museum. Gen. Louis Duportail Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Three SAR Visits France (cont.)
The week concluded with the group visiting several chateaus of historical significance in the Loire Valley before return- ing to Versailles and a farewell dinner for the Americans hosted by the Societies in France of the SAR.
(L to R) Jacques, comte de Trentinian, Etienne, marquis de Certaines and former President General J. David Sympson shown here in the library at Versailles. Jacques is Vice Presi- dent General of Europe NSSAR and Etienne is an administra- tor of the France SAR Society.
Compatriot J. David Sympson, shown with his wife, Evelyn, laid a wreath at the burial vault of de Vergennes at the Palace of Versailles.
The SAR party traveled to the city of Angers for the unveiling of a bust of General Louis Duportail at the French military engineering academy. Pictured here with David Sympson are Comte Jacques de Trentinian (3rd from left), Gen. Francis Autran, Commandant of the School of Engineering, and Lanny Patten, PASSAR (far right). Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Four Our American Heroes - Part 2
Our American Heroes - Part 2
There are 27 compatriots on the rolls of Louisville-Thruston Chapter who served in the armed forces during WW II. This is the second of a three-part series which features our WW II veterans. The third and final installment will ap- pear in the July issue.
The following excerpt was taken from remarks made by Senator Bob Dole at the Dedication Ceremony of the National World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. on May 29, 2004:
In the first week of January 1945, a hungry and lonesome second lieutenant from a small town in Kansas dispatched a message to his folks back home: “You can send me something to eat whenever you are ready,” he wrote. “Send candy, gum, cookies, cheese, grape jelly, popcorn, nuts, peanut clusters, Vicks Vapo Rub, wool socks, wool scarf, fudge, ice cream, liver and onions, fried chicken, banana cake, milk, fruit cocktail, Swiss steak, crackers, more candy, Lifesavers, peanuts, the piano, the radio, the living room suite, the record player and Frank Sinatra. I guess you might as well send the whole house if you can get it into a five-pound box. P.S., keep your fingers crossed.”
In authoring that only slightly exaggerated wish list, I merely echoed the longings of 16 million Americans whose great- est wish was for an end to the fighting. Sixty years on our ranks have dwindled. Our final reunion cannot long be Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Five Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.) delayed. Yet as we gather in the twilight, it is brightened by the knowledge that we have kept faith with our comrades. We have raised this memorial to commemorate the service and sacrifice of an entire generation. What we dedicate today is not a memorial to war, rather it’s a tribute to the physical and moral courage that makes heroes out of farm and city boys and that inspires Americans in every generation to lay down their lives for people they will never meet, for ideals that make life itself worth living. May God bless you all.
Louisville-Thruston Chapter WW II Veterans
Bethune, Everett P. Futrell, Morris E. Marshall, Malcolm Y. Swope, Samuel G. Black, Leslie E. Gray, Charles W. Myles, Edmund N. Thom, Donald C. Burba, Foster S. Hamm, Clyde W. O’Brien, Edward J. Valentine, Robert F. Camp, William H. Hillard, Jack R. Reed, Edsel S. Via, Dennis L. Carlisle, Paul D. Horine, Wallace R. Rush, Everett N. Watkins, Jennings E. Denny, Cedric F. Hurst, Charles G. Short, Clarence H. White, Novia J. Fuller, Hayden K. Lewis, James B. Snyder, Gordon A.
Futrell, Morris E. U.S. Marine Corps, 1940-1946
Morris Futrell was born March 24, 1921 in St. Louis, MO. He joined the Marine Corps on September 6, 1940 shortly after Germany invaded Poland when it seemed eminent that the U.S. would get involved in the war. He was trained as a “wireman,” whose job primarily involved the laying and maintaining of communication lines in combat situations between forward observation posts and artillery batteries behind the lines. Initially he was assigned to the 10th Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, but on January 23, 1943, he was reassigned to Auckland, NZ as part of the newly formed 12th Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. On November 1, 1943, he disembarked from the USS American Legion as part of the initial landing force at Bougainville in the North Solomon Islands. Their objective was to capture and hold a strategic airfield as part of the overall plan to cut off and isolate the Japanese naval and air bases at Rabaul. Despite prior bombardment by both ships and planes, the invading marines met heavy fire from Japanese defenders. The landing was further complicated by a heavy surf, and once ashore the marines were faced with clawing their way through dense jungle and swamps. Three days after the landing, the perimeter was only an average of 1500 yards from the beach. The last major resistance was overcome by the end of December, and Army units began re- placing Marine Corps personnel by early January 1944.
Six months later, on July 21, 1944, Morris participated in the invasion of Guam in the Mariana Islands and helped American forces liberate that island after 31 months of Japanese occupation. On Okinawa he was involved in 82 days of combat operations against the Japa- nese from the time of the initial invasion on April 1, 1945 until the final victory on June 21st. Okinawa was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific war, and the ensuing battle re- sulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during WW II. A few months later, after the Japanese had formally surrendered on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Morris was shipped to China aboard the USS Ormsby as part of the 15th Battalion, 6th Marine Divi- sion and was present when the Japanese surrendered at Tsingtao on October 25, 1945. He was honorably discharged on September 6, 1946 with the rank of sergeant. His numerous awards include one unit Presidential Citation and two unit Naval Citations. Morris Futrell - 1940 Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Six Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.)
After the war, Morris attended Murray State University in western Kentucky for five years on the G.I. Bill and earned a M.S. Degree in Education. He went to work for Bell South and remained employed by them for the next 33 years until his retirement in 1983. He and his wife, Laura, will celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary in June 2012. Com- patriot Futrell has been a member of Louisville-Thruston Chapter for six years.
Hamm, Clyde W. U.S. Army, 1942-1946
Clyde Hamm was born July 24, 1922, in Fleming County, KY and graduated from Flem- ingsburg High School in 1940. He was working for the National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, Ohio when he received his draft notice from the Army ordering him to report for duty on November 30, 1942. Clyde was sent to Camp Beale, CA, where he was assigned to a new division, the Service Company of the 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division, known as the “Black Cats.” Over the next two years he underwent intensive training at both Camp Beale and Camp Bowie, TX, which included Auto Me- chanics School and Tank Mechanics School. His division was shipped overseas and ar- rived in the war-torn city of Le Havre, France on January 29, 1945. In extreme freezing weather, they moved their tank division across France to Germany. Their primary mission was to clean out all remaining pockets of enemy troops in the Ruhr Valley left behind by the initial invading troops. On April 10, they saw their first combat near Zweibrucken, Germany. They crossed the Rhine, and over the next month proceeded to Limburg, Seigburg,
Cologn and Dusseldorf, then south through Frankfurt and Nuremburg to the Danube River at Regensburg. Clyde recalls that on one night while he was driving the tank re- covery unit, the convoy stopped somewhere in the mountains, and he fell asleep. In the meantime, the convoy moved out and left his tank and those following far behind. He’ll never forget travelling through those narrow mountainous roads with only black- out lights and a man in the turret as lookout until they were finally able to catch up to the main column. He was in Bavaria when the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. Clyde was honorably discharged on February 17, 1946 with the rank of Technician 4th Grade.
Back in civilian life, Clyde enrolled at the University of Kentucky on the G.I. Bill where he earned a Degree in Engineering. While at U.K., he met his wife, Jane, and they married on September 10, 1949. After graduation, he worked at DuPont and later South Central Bell Telephone Co. before finally joining the Kool-Air Company in Clyde W. Hamm 1965. He retired from Kool-Air in June 1997. Compatriot Hamm has been a Louisville -Thruston member since May 2003.
Horine, Wallace R. U.S. Navy, 1945-1947
Wallace Horine was born September 28, 1927 in Lexington, KY. He enlisted in the Navy in November 1945. After boot camp at Great Lakes, IL, he was assigned to the carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42). She was the second of three Midway-class aircraft carriers commissioned in 1945 and was the first American carrier to operate an all-jet aircraft for take -offs and landings. After fleet maneuvers and training operations in the Caribbean, the ship was deployed to the Mediterranean from August to October 1946. She then returned to American waters and operated off the East Coast until July 1947 when she entered Norfolk Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Seven Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.)
Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul. Wallace was reassigned to the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62), which had just returned to Atlantic waters from an overhaul at Puget Sound. During 1944-45, New Jersey had seen combat in the Pa- cific as part of the 5th Fleet under Admiral Spruance and the 3rd Fleet under Admiral Halsey. Between 7 June and 26 August 1947, she formed part of a training squadron cruising Northern European waters with over two thousand U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen aboard receiving their first seagoing experience. Before returning to the Caribbean and Western Atlantic, the battleship was the scene of official receptions at Oslo, Norway and Portsmouth, England. Wallace Horine was honorably discharged in November 1947 with the rank of Fireman 1st Class.
After his stint in the Navy, Wallace returned to Lexington, KY and enrolled in the Wallace R. Horine University of Kentucky, graduating in 1950. He and his wife, Louise, recently celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. Wallace was formerly a part owner of Lumbermen’s Wholesale Service, a business from which he retired in 1991. Compatriot Horine has been a member of Louisville– Thruston Chapter since 2009.
Hurst, Charles G. U.S. Navy, 1941-1946
Charles Hurst was born April 1, 1923 in Birmingham, AL and was in his senior year at Woodlawn High School when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The following day Chuck and three of his buddies enlisted in the Navy, and he would later finish his high school accreditation while in the service. After boot camp in San Diego, CA, Chuck was sent to Great Lakes, IL for advanced training and then to the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, MI for Aviation Mechanics School. In early 1943, with the rank of Avia- tion Machinist Mate, he was assigned to the Carrier Air Service Group and based overseas on Manus Island in the South Pacific. Manus was the largest of the Admiralty Islands located in the Bismarck Sea just north of New Guinea. On Manus he repaired and serviced planes from aircraft carriers stationed throughout the area. His next assignment was to a Flag Utility Outfit based on Samar Province in the Philippines, where he was in charge of load- ing, scheduling and routing all cargo planes for operations throughout the Philippine Islands. He recalls walking down the streets of Manila, thinking how his dad must have walked down the same streets in a previous war. In 1898, his fa- ther had fought in the Spanish American War, which started in Cuba and later spread to the Philippines. Chuck was still based in the Philippines when the war officially ended on September 2, 1945. He was honorably discharged in January 1946 with the rank of Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class.
After his return to civilian life, he went back home to Bir- mingham, AL and enrolled at Howard College (now Sam- ford University), where he attended for two years before joining Southern Bell Telephone Co. Chuck spent the next 35 years working for the telephone company, retiring in 1985. Compatriot Hurst has been a Louisville-Thruston member since 1981.
Charles G. Hurst Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Eight Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.)
Lewis, James B. U.S. Navy, 1943-1946
Rev. Jim Lewis was born October 15, 1924 in Louisville, KY and graduated from Male High School in January 1943. While a freshman at the University of Louisville, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy and sent to Great Lakes, IL for basic training. Following boot camp, he was transported by troop train to San Diego, CA, where he was assigned to the U.S. Navy Post Office School to be trained as a mailman. Upon graduating from Post Of- fice School, he was assigned to a contingent of mailmen scheduled for deployment to the South Pacific to establish a post office on the Marshall Islands. The first leg of his assign- ment was to Fleet Post Office 128 at Pearl Harbor. In December 1943, his orders were changed, and he was permanently assigned to duty at Pearl Harbor. He remained at Pearl for the next two years and was there when the war ended. In November 1945, he was shipped stateside for a 30-day leave, and following a brief assignment at Post Of- fice 125 in San Francisco, CA, he was honorably discharged on January 31, 1946 with the rank of Petty Officer 1st Class.
When first out of the service, Jim trained to be an auto mechanic. In 1948, he enrolled at Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY as a ministerial student. Following college, he enrolled at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, completing his studies in 1956. He spent the next forty-some years as a pastor of five Baptist Churches in Kentucky, three located in Metro-Louisville. Compatriot Lewis has been a member of Louisville-Thruston for 29 years and served as Chapter President in 2005-06. James B. Lewis
Marshall, Malcolm Y. Jr. U.S. Navy, 1943-1946
Malcolm Marshall Jr. was born on April 25, 1921 in Henderson, KY and graduated from Henderson High School in 1938. He enrolled at the University of Virginia and completed one year of Law School before entering the Navy in October 1942. After Midshipman’s School and submarine chaser training, he was assigned to the USS Satterlee (DD626), one of the new Gleaves-class de- stroyers, where he served as the Combat Information Center (CIC) officer until July 1945. The CIC controlled all of the ship’s radar equipment, both surface and air. The Satterlee joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in August 1943, and after two convoy escort trips to North Africa, she underwent training for a special mission assigned to her for the Normandy landings on D-Day. She was to sup- port a crack unit of 200 Army rangers in eliminating a 6-inch German gun bat- tery at Pointe du Hoc, which commanded the Omaha landing beach. After es- corting mine sweepers to the beach area on the night of 5 and 6 June, she com- menced pre-arranged fire on Pointe du Hoc at dawn on June 6. As the rangers landed and began scaling the 100 ft. cliffs with ropes and grappling hooks, guns from the Satterlee broke up enemy units attempting to oppose them from the top of the cliffs. Malcolm recalls that Germans would run out from pillboxes and drop hand grenades down onto the ascending rangers. He remembers that his ship was so close to shore that several times she touched the beach as sailors on deck were firing up at the enemy. Al- though rangers found that the battery guns had been removed before the landings, German resistance was stiff, and Satterlee provided gunfire support for the rest of the day. She remained off Normandy beaches for the next forty days Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Nine Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.) before joining the invasion force off southern France on August 15, 1944. Here she helped repel a night attack of enemy torpedo boats, sinking one from which she rescued 12 German survivors.
Satterlee returned to the U.S. in October 1944, and in January and February 1945, she escorted Quincy (CA-71) with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard to and from the Yalta Conference. She next sailed for Pearl Harbor arriving on May 16, 1945. Here Malcolm was reassigned to the Sigsbee (DD-502) which was in dry dock being outfitted in prepara- tion for the invasion of Japan. She was still in dry dock when the war ended. Malcolm was honorably discharged in May 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant.
After his Navy service, he returned to the University of Virginia and completed Law School in 1948. That same year he married his wife, Sudabelle (deceased), and the couple moved to Louisville in 1949, where he practiced law for over forty years. Compatriot Marshall has been a member of Louisville-Thruston since 1994.
Myles, Edmund N. U.S. Army Air Corps, 1942-1945
Ed Myles was born August 16, 1923 in Cropper, KY and graduated from Maunal High School in Louisville. He was drafted into the Army Air Corps in March 1942 and was sent to Kerns, Utah for boot camp and then to gunnery school in Denver, CO. After gunnery school, he was ordered to Windover Army Air Field in Utah and was one of two waist gun- ners assigned to a B-24 Liberator. At Windover, the crew was assembled and began flight training in their new plane, named Plate’s Date. In April 1944, they were deployed over- seas and stationed at RAF Halesworth, England as part of the Eighth Air Force, 489th Bomb Group, 847th Bomb Squadron. Between May and October 1944, Ed and his crew flew 31 combat missions over France, Germany and Holland, bombing industrial targets such as factories, oil refineries and storage plants. They sup- ported the landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944. Ed remembers on one particular mission his plane was so badly dam- aged by enemy Flak that the pilot asked the crew if they wanted to bail out or try to make it back to England. One engine was lost, and with the hydraulic lines cut and a hole in the gas tank, the plane’s interior was saturated with brake fluid and gasoline. The crew elected to stick with the plane, but without brakes they had to deploy parachutes from each of the
Ed Myles (front row, left) and his crew. Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Ten Our American Heroes - Part 2 (cont.) waist windows when landing at Halesworth to slow the plane down. When the plane did touch down, the nose wheel collapsed, and the airplane scraped nose-first down the runway until finally veering off into the dirt. Later they counted over 400 Flak holes in their B-24. In September 1944, Ed was shipped back to the U.S. where he once again enrolled in gunnery school, this time to train as crewman for a B-29 Superfortress. The 489th Bomb Group had been selected for redeployment to the Pacific theater, but hostilities ended before the group left the states. Ed Myles was honorably dis- charged in October 1945 with the rank of staff sergeant.
Back in Louisville, Ed worked for several companies over the years including Reynolds Aluminum, Sears Roebuck and American Air Filter. He and his wife, Mary David, also owned and operated a farm in Shelby County. They recently celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. Compatriot Myles has been a member of Louisville-Thruston since 1980.
The third and final installment of Our American Heroes will appear in the July issue of The Long Rifleman. Please make plans to join us on Saturday, June 16, 2012, at Audubon Country Club for the Flag Day Luncheon Meeting when we will honor our chapter’s WW II vets. The featured speaker on the program will be Maj. Gen. Carl D. Black (USAF Ret.). Registration is at 11:00 am. Lunch at 11:30 am. Cost is $15.00 per person. Call Joe Shields at 452-6942 to make your reservations.
Memorial Day Ceremony at Zachary Taylor Natl. Cemetery
Thirteen members of the Dr. V. Edward Masters Me- morial Color Guard marched in the Parade of Colors at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery on May 28, 2012. Volume 3, Issue 4 Page Eleven Zachary Taylor (cont.)
National Society Sons of the American Revolution
http://www.sar.org
“The Long Riflemen” Is Published Five Times Annually
Jon E. Huffman, Editor 6605 Falls Creek Rd. Louisville, KY 40241 (502) 429-8906 Former President General J. David Sympson presented the SAR wreath.
Visit Our Web Site at: http://louthrustonsar.org
Join our Color Guard! It was a relief to sit down in the 94 degree heat of the afternoon. Call Dan at 429-0382
Upcoming Events Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - Honor Flight Event at Louisville International Airport: Over 100 WW II vets will ar- rive back in Louisville on Wednesday evening from their day trip to Washington D.C. Bring your family and friends and join with us to welcome them home. Meet in the main concourse around 10:00 pm.
Saturday, June 16, 2012 - Flag Day Luncheon: Louisville-Thruston Chapter’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be at Audubon Country Club, 3625 Robin Road in Louisville. Registration at 11:00 am; Meeting starts at 11:30 am; Lunch served at noon. We will be honoring our chapter’s WW II vets. Maj. Gen. Carl D. Black will be the featured speaker. Contact Joe Shields at 502-452-6942 for reservations.