November 11, 2016
We Honor ALL Veterans on this day.
First posted on November 11, 2014 Colleyville, TX
Recognition to WWII Veteran Nelson J. Thibodeaux
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Heavy Weapons Sergeant Nelson J. Thibodeaux |
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In 1917, Douglas MacArthur was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. MacArthur became Supreme Commander. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan’s surrender on 2 September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. |
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When formed and activated for World War II, the 42nd was a unique unit, as it was a reconstitution of the Rainbow Division from World War I. Except for the division headquarters, none of its earlier elements had reformed in the interwar period, so the Army Ground Forces filled its new units with personnel from every state. In late April 1945, after fierce battles in Wurzburg, Schweinfurt and Furth, the Rainbow Division was advancing toward Munich. On April 29 General Henning Linden and his aide, Lieutenant Cowling arrived in Dachau and were enroute to meet up with the 222nd Infantry for the push into Munich. They were informed that just off the main road was the Dachau Concentration Camp. According to their Official Reports, each dated May 2, 1945, prior to finding the camp they discovered a railroad track with 30-50 boxcars all stacked with emaciated dead bodies. Their party proceeded to the Camp and as they approached the main gate a German lieutenant along with another German soldier and a Red Cross worker came forward with a flag of truce. While the American soldiers covered them, the German officer said he wished to surrender the camp.General Linden officially accepted the surrender of the camp in the name of the Rainbow Division for the United States Army. |
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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, MacArthur was in charge of US and Filipino forces in the Philippines. On December 8th of that year, the Japanese invaded the islands. MacArthur’s allied army found itself on the defensive almost immediately and began a hasty retreat that ended on the Bataan Peninsula and the rocky fortress called Corregidor. The General was prepared to fight to the last man and when the order came from President Roosevelt for MacArthur and his family to make their escape to Australia, he almost demoted himself in order to stay. But MacArthur understood that his worth as a frontline commander would be greater than his worth as a prisoner of the Japanese. In March, 1942, the General and his family escaped the islands by making a harrowing journey aboard a PT boat to the southern islands of the Philippines, where they met a B-17 that flew them to Australia.
MacArthur expected to find an army waiting for him in Australia, an army that would be ready to take the fight to the Japanese right away, however that was not the case. It was not until the fall of 1944 that General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz finally planned a joint operation: the invasion of the Philippines. The invasion would see the largest sea battle in history take place in Leyte Gulf. Kamikazes were also a problem and caused many deaths. But the Japanese were in a desperate situation and by March, 1945, the capital city of Manila was in allied hands. |
| Above a Japanese Sniper’s Rifle and the Sword of a Japanese Officer hanging above the flag from a Japanese headquarters taken immediately before MacArthur’s famous return to the Phillipines, brought back by Sgt. Thibodeaux | Below a sentimental souvenir sent by my Dad to my Mom as he was preparing to leave Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. |
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Below. A captured Japanese Flags from the Philippines signed by members Rainbow Division. Over 800 Kamikaze Special Attack Corps members died, starting with the first official kamikaze attack in the Philippines on October 25, 1944, and ending with pilots who died in the attack led by Vice Admiral Ugaki, Commander of the 5th Air Fleet, soon after he heard the radio message of surrender by the Emperor on August 15, 1945. |
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