If you're a new Pack 3 family thinking about being part of the family trip to Charleston, SC in the Spring of 2010 (we only do this every other year), scroll waaaaaay down to the bottom and work up for pictures and a good sense of what happens on this outing, which gives us two nights sleeping aboard the USS Yorktown of WWII fame and a trip to Fort Sumter Saturday morning by boat to help raise the flags there.
And if you'd like to start now as 2010 trip co-ordinator, give me a holler!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
More tales from "The Greatest Generation"
If you remember in "Tora, Tora, Tora!" the Japanese pilot that everyone liked so much and who led the planes to Pearl Harbor, you may find this story interesting, from a New York Times obituary a few days ago.
* * *
Jacob DeShazer, Bombardier on Doolittle Raid, Dies at 95
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: March 23, 2008
Jacob DeShazer, a bombardier in the storied Doolittle raid over Japan in World War II who endured 40 months of brutality as a prisoner of the Japanese, then became a missionary in Japan spreading a message of Christian love and forgiveness, died on March 15 at his home in Salem, Ore. He was 95.
His death was announced by his wife, Florence.
On April 18, 1942, crewmen in 16 Army Air Forces B-25 bombers, commanded by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, flew from the carrier Hornet on a daylight bombing raid that brought the war home to Japan for the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid resulted in only light damage to military and industrial targets, but it buoyed an American home front stunned by Japanese advances during the war’s first four months.
Corporal DeShazer, a native of Oregon and the son of a Church of God minister, was among the five-member crew of Bat Out of Hell, the last bomber to depart the Hornet. His plane dropped incendiary bombs on an oil installation and a factory in Nagoya but it ran out of fuel before the pilot could try a landing at an airfield held by America’s Chinese allies.
The five crewmen bailed out over Japanese-occupied territory in China and all were quickly captured. In October 1942, a Japanese firing squad executed the pilot, Lt. William G. Farrow, and the engineer-gunner, Sgt. Harold A. Spatz, along with a captured crewman from another Doolittle raid plane. Corporal DeShazer and the other surviving crewmen from his plane, Lt. George Barr, the navigator, and Lt. Robert L. Hite, the co-pilot, were starved, beaten and tortured at prisons in Japan and China — spending most of their time in solitary confinement — until their liberation a few days after Japan’s surrender in August 1945.
Amid his misery, Corporal DeShazer had one source of solace.
“I begged my captors to get a Bible for me,” he recalled in “I Was a Prisoner of Japan,” a religious tract he wrote in 1950. “At last, in the month of May 1944, a guard brought me the book, but told me I could have it only for three weeks. I eagerly began to read its pages. I discovered that God had given me new spiritual eyes and that when I looked at the enemy officers and guards who had starved and beaten my companions and me so cruelly, I found my bitter hatred for them changed to loving pity. I realized that these people did not know anything about my Savior and that if Christ is not in a heart, it is natural to be cruel.”
Corporal DeShazer gained the strength to survive, and he became determined to spread Christian teachings to his enemy.
Upon returning home, he enrolled at Seattle Pacific College (now Seattle Pacific University) and received a bachelor’s degree in biblical literature in 1948. He arrived in Japan with Florence, also a graduate of Seattle Pacific and a fellow missionary in the Free Methodist Church, in late December 1948. A few days later, he preached his first sermon there, speaking to about 180 people at a Free Methodist church in a Tokyo suburb.
In 1950, he gained a remarkable convert.
Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese naval flier who had led the Pearl Harbor attack and had become a rice farmer after the war, came upon the DeShazer tract.
“It was then that I met Jesus, and accepted him as my personal savior,” Mr. Fuchida recalled when he attended a memorial service in Hawaii in observance of the 25th anniversary of the attack. He had become an evangelist and had made several trips to the United States to meet with Japanese-speaking immigrants.
Mr. DeShazer spent 30 years in Japan doing missionary work, interrupted only by a sabbatical to earn a master’s degree at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky in 1958.
In 2001, he was a guest at the premiere of the movie “Pearl Harbor.”
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons Mark, of Winston, Ore.; John, of Coos Bay, Ore.; Paul, of Salem; daughters Ruth Kutrakun of Seattle, and Carol Dixon of Chicago; a sister, Helen Hindman of Iowa City; 10 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.
Over the years, Mr. DeShazer met on several occasions with Mr. Fuchida, who died in 1976.
“I saw him just before he died,” Mr. DeShazer once told The Salem Statesman Journal. “We shared in that good wonderful thing that Christ has done.”
* * *
Jacob DeShazer, Bombardier on Doolittle Raid, Dies at 95
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: March 23, 2008
Jacob DeShazer, a bombardier in the storied Doolittle raid over Japan in World War II who endured 40 months of brutality as a prisoner of the Japanese, then became a missionary in Japan spreading a message of Christian love and forgiveness, died on March 15 at his home in Salem, Ore. He was 95.
His death was announced by his wife, Florence.
On April 18, 1942, crewmen in 16 Army Air Forces B-25 bombers, commanded by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, flew from the carrier Hornet on a daylight bombing raid that brought the war home to Japan for the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid resulted in only light damage to military and industrial targets, but it buoyed an American home front stunned by Japanese advances during the war’s first four months.
Corporal DeShazer, a native of Oregon and the son of a Church of God minister, was among the five-member crew of Bat Out of Hell, the last bomber to depart the Hornet. His plane dropped incendiary bombs on an oil installation and a factory in Nagoya but it ran out of fuel before the pilot could try a landing at an airfield held by America’s Chinese allies.
The five crewmen bailed out over Japanese-occupied territory in China and all were quickly captured. In October 1942, a Japanese firing squad executed the pilot, Lt. William G. Farrow, and the engineer-gunner, Sgt. Harold A. Spatz, along with a captured crewman from another Doolittle raid plane. Corporal DeShazer and the other surviving crewmen from his plane, Lt. George Barr, the navigator, and Lt. Robert L. Hite, the co-pilot, were starved, beaten and tortured at prisons in Japan and China — spending most of their time in solitary confinement — until their liberation a few days after Japan’s surrender in August 1945.
Amid his misery, Corporal DeShazer had one source of solace.
“I begged my captors to get a Bible for me,” he recalled in “I Was a Prisoner of Japan,” a religious tract he wrote in 1950. “At last, in the month of May 1944, a guard brought me the book, but told me I could have it only for three weeks. I eagerly began to read its pages. I discovered that God had given me new spiritual eyes and that when I looked at the enemy officers and guards who had starved and beaten my companions and me so cruelly, I found my bitter hatred for them changed to loving pity. I realized that these people did not know anything about my Savior and that if Christ is not in a heart, it is natural to be cruel.”
Corporal DeShazer gained the strength to survive, and he became determined to spread Christian teachings to his enemy.
Upon returning home, he enrolled at Seattle Pacific College (now Seattle Pacific University) and received a bachelor’s degree in biblical literature in 1948. He arrived in Japan with Florence, also a graduate of Seattle Pacific and a fellow missionary in the Free Methodist Church, in late December 1948. A few days later, he preached his first sermon there, speaking to about 180 people at a Free Methodist church in a Tokyo suburb.
In 1950, he gained a remarkable convert.
Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese naval flier who had led the Pearl Harbor attack and had become a rice farmer after the war, came upon the DeShazer tract.
“It was then that I met Jesus, and accepted him as my personal savior,” Mr. Fuchida recalled when he attended a memorial service in Hawaii in observance of the 25th anniversary of the attack. He had become an evangelist and had made several trips to the United States to meet with Japanese-speaking immigrants.
Mr. DeShazer spent 30 years in Japan doing missionary work, interrupted only by a sabbatical to earn a master’s degree at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky in 1958.
In 2001, he was a guest at the premiere of the movie “Pearl Harbor.”
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons Mark, of Winston, Ore.; John, of Coos Bay, Ore.; Paul, of Salem; daughters Ruth Kutrakun of Seattle, and Carol Dixon of Chicago; a sister, Helen Hindman of Iowa City; 10 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.
Over the years, Mr. DeShazer met on several occasions with Mr. Fuchida, who died in 1976.
“I saw him just before he died,” Mr. DeShazer once told The Salem Statesman Journal. “We shared in that good wonderful thing that Christ has done.”
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
If You've Seen the Movie "Glory"
The actual site of the final battle for Battery Wagner, led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and Col. Shaw, was on the low island you see on the horizon in this picture, just behind Park Ranger Donell and the Pack 3 Cubs working on raising one of the five historic Fort Sumter flags (click the image to see a larger version)
More Photos! (And more to come)
(Remember, click the image for a larger version; more will show up over the next week, but i'm a slow uploader)
Driving across the Ravenel Bridge, the largest cable stay type bridge in the world, is a unique experience
After you cross the Cooper River from the peninsula that leads to Charleston, SC you enter Mount Pleasant and immediately turn to enter Patriots Point, which is more than "just" a WWII aircraft carrier
The arm of Charleston Harbor that reached past the berth of the USS Yorktown was a steady parade of massive cargo container ships, cruise ships (a Norwegian Lines vessel was in while we were there), and a flotilla of small sailboats from the College of Charleston
So, the guys bunkroom is, as we've seen, quite snug . . .
. . .while the Ladies' Accomodations are clearly in what were the officers' quarters
Trust me, the guys who have slept on board are fascinated by these photos; we would have taken photos in their restroom area, but there wasn't room for the camera so we couldn't do it
These showers & sinks may not look too unusual to you, but from the point of view of the guys, it's hard to believe that's on the same ship; if you wanted to change your mind while washing your hands, it was necessary to step out onto the catwalk to do so, then re-enter the bunk and slide sideways back to the "head," the Navy term for a restroom.
Moms, do these shots make you want to go and stay on board in 2010?
Nah, didn't think so; but hey, you go for the amazing experience, not the comfy beds
(Out at Fort Sumter) "Um, guys . . . guys, the rope . . . guys?"
The Park Ranger helps us all out!
Back on board "The Fighting Lady," Wolf and Webelos Carlson brothers inspect the flight deck, and find all in order; behind them is "the island" where the ship's bridge and command center is located
Driving across the Ravenel Bridge, the largest cable stay type bridge in the world, is a unique experience
After you cross the Cooper River from the peninsula that leads to Charleston, SC you enter Mount Pleasant and immediately turn to enter Patriots Point, which is more than "just" a WWII aircraft carrier
The arm of Charleston Harbor that reached past the berth of the USS Yorktown was a steady parade of massive cargo container ships, cruise ships (a Norwegian Lines vessel was in while we were there), and a flotilla of small sailboats from the College of Charleston
So, the guys bunkroom is, as we've seen, quite snug . . .
. . .while the Ladies' Accomodations are clearly in what were the officers' quarters
Trust me, the guys who have slept on board are fascinated by these photos; we would have taken photos in their restroom area, but there wasn't room for the camera so we couldn't do it
These showers & sinks may not look too unusual to you, but from the point of view of the guys, it's hard to believe that's on the same ship; if you wanted to change your mind while washing your hands, it was necessary to step out onto the catwalk to do so, then re-enter the bunk and slide sideways back to the "head," the Navy term for a restroom.
Moms, do these shots make you want to go and stay on board in 2010?
Nah, didn't think so; but hey, you go for the amazing experience, not the comfy beds
(Out at Fort Sumter) "Um, guys . . . guys, the rope . . . guys?"
The Park Ranger helps us all out!
Back on board "The Fighting Lady," Wolf and Webelos Carlson brothers inspect the flight deck, and find all in order; behind them is "the island" where the ship's bridge and command center is located
Monday, February 18, 2008
Pack 3 Leads Chapel Aboard Yorktown!
Thanks to Webelos Scouts Chris Carlson and Chris Gill (and Chris' mom, Joyce Meredith on the keyboard) who assisted with the Sunday morning chapel service in the Smokey Stover Theater aboard the USS Yorktown; for more info on the subject of the homily, click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains.
The theater is actually the forward elevator bay, with the platform permanently fixed up above flush with the flight deck. We watched "Tora, Tora, Tora!" there Friday night, and "The Fighting Lady" Saturday night, which is when we learned who Smokey Stover was. It's a very special place on a very special ship. We were honored to get the chance to offer worship for 250 of our fellow Scouts and family members -- then those of us who hadn't already had to leave bolted for our cars and started the 12 hour drive back to Licking County, Ohio.
The theater is actually the forward elevator bay, with the platform permanently fixed up above flush with the flight deck. We watched "Tora, Tora, Tora!" there Friday night, and "The Fighting Lady" Saturday night, which is when we learned who Smokey Stover was. It's a very special place on a very special ship. We were honored to get the chance to offer worship for 250 of our fellow Scouts and family members -- then those of us who hadn't already had to leave bolted for our cars and started the 12 hour drive back to Licking County, Ohio.
Pack 3 & Scouting Friends Raise Fort Sumter's Flags
(Gotta give you the full size version of this one -- click on the picture to see the large format)
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