Remembering on
November 11, Veterans’ (Armistice) Day
It
has been my November tradition to write about the local veterans who served in
the Philippines in World War II who died during the past year. For me “local” means Green Bay,
Wisconsin. Every year it amazes me how
many men this relatively tiny area of the U.S. sent to the Philippines during
that war, what they were part of there, and the quiet lives to which they
returned. I present them here in the
order in which they died since November 11, 2013.
This year one of the
youngest of these ten veterans died at 87.
He was George Kornowske. He
served in the US Army from 1944-1946, in the Philippines. Returning home, George was vintage
Wisconsin. He “loved his family,
hunting, fishing, gardening and the many dogs he had throughout his lifetime. He was an avid reader.”
Claude William Johnson gets this brief note on
his war experience. He “proudly served
Aboard the USS Rocky Mount during WW II.”
The writer of the obituary, and this is typical, lets it go there. He or she might have added that the USS Rocky
Mount participated in the largest naval battle in history, Leyte Gulf in
October of 1944. It followed this
landing with a second major operation, Lingayan Gulf in Northwerstern Luzon
(January, 1945). Finally, it
participated in the Mindanao landings (April-May, 1945). Claude thus encountered all three major
geographic areas of the Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayas.
A veteran of somewhat
longer war service, Jerome (Jerry) Fostner was a member of the US Army Air
Corps. Jerry made his way with the
attack forces from New Guinea to the Philippines. His youngest child became a Norbertine priest
and is a Vice President at my college, St. Norbert College in De Pere,
Wisconsin.
My first and perhaps
finest dentist when I first came to De Pere (1968) and for some years
thereafter was Dr. Sterr. He actually
served during the war in the China-Burma-India Campaign, but his experiences
drew him later to the Philippines. In
1981 he spent six weeks volunteering as a dentist in an Indochinese refugee
camp on Palawan, the Philippines.
Another Navy man’s
service, that of Siegmund Kennth, is simply stated as, “He served in the US
Navy on the USS Bolivar.” The Bolivar
participated in the Leyte and Lingayan Gulf landings as well as the Iwo Jima
landing. “Siegmund loved polka music, to
play Sheepshead (a game played only in Northeastern Wisconsin), and spending
time with his family.” Pure Green Bay.
John A. Bennie died
peacefully on October 26, 2014. He
brings our memorial list to a close.
John joined the US Marines immediately after high school in 1942 and saw
extensive action throughout the Southwest Pacific, including the “invasion of
the Philippines.” He became a long-time
volunteer at a local hospital, “having over 2,000 hours of service.”
Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or<
www.anamericaninmanila.com>. Also there is a link for VIA Times Newsmagazine on this web site.
