Honoring Veterans

[Kevin]

The local newspaper had an article about Sgt.  Woodrow Keeble of the Sissetion-Whapeton Sioux tribe who  was awarded the Medal of Honor "more than 25 years after his death". President Bush handed the medal to family members for his action in 1951 in Korea. Sgt. Keeble while wounded killed 16 of the enemy,  took out 2 machine gun nests by himself and saved the lives of his men. The article reported he was a Veteran of WW2 "and he received more than 30 citations, including four purple hearts".

The article said he "is the first full-blooded Sioux Indian to receive the nation's highest military award".  The VFW Post in Whapeton, ND has a big picture of him in uniform. The left side of his chest is real heavy with ribbons and medals and his left arm is covered with stripes and hash marks. The portrait was shown in the article in    The Courier-Journal out of Louisville, KY   3/4/08  ppA3

[Kevin]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23450449#23450449

Russell Hawkins remembering his step father, a Medal of Honor Winner

[V Hawkins]

Dad's name was Alpha Omega Hawkins. I'd like to rmember him and his brother, my uncle Eual Lee Hawkins. When WW2 started, Dad was stationed at Schofield Barracks on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. He was in the artillery and said he was a "radio man" he used to tel me. He joined the Artillery so he could get stationed close to home, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma is where the Artillery school was then, and is still located. He was raised just 20 miles from the fort.

 He said when the Japanese Planes flew over the middle of the island on their way to Pearl Harbor, they passed over him and others in chow line waiting for their breakfast. He said some in the chow line fell, and at first noone knew what to make of it. He and others he said ran to the supply room, broke the door in, got weapons and shot at the Japanese planes. After that he came back stateside as cadre training others as a drill instructor, and in ealy/mid 1944 he went to Europe and was in Patton's 3rd Army. He was in England, France, Luxenurg, Belgiun, Holland, and Germany. He talked about the Battle of the Bulge, the Black Forest, Hurtgen Forest, and another river -- I don't know if it was Roer or Ruhr. I think he said Ruhr. Afterwards when I looked it up it seems there were battles at both places. At the end of the war he was back in England where he spent several months in a hospital. He always said he liked the English and that they treated him like a king, like he was special. He was a very humble man, and frankly, I could never picture him being a drill sargeant -- he wasn't like my memories of what a DI was like. As I recall, they were mean, angry, and yelled all the time -- especially at me. Although dad didn't have a lot of medals, he had some, and to me he was very special. He died in 1992.

Also wanted to mention one of Dad's brothers, Uncle Eual Lee Hawkins. He joined the Army when he was very young, I believe just 17. He was in the infantry, and was killed just before the breakout from Normandy on Julu 19, 1944. Dad used to say he was saddened because his brother was buried in France, and he said no one wanted t be buried there. Everyone wanted to come home. No one from the family has ever visited my Uncle's grave as he is so far away, and that saddens me.

Dad had another brother, Uncle Joe, who was on several Pacific Islands. I remember Palau being mentioned, but I forget the others.

Vance Hawkins

[Kevin]

The Passing of Another Code Talker: (from Indian Country)

 
 Photo courtesy Navajo Nation -- Jerry C. Begay Sr., Navajo code talker 
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. ordered flags on the Navajo Nation to fly at half-staff May 30 - June 3 to honor the late Navajo code talker Jerry C. Begay Sr., who passed away Memorial Day, May 26, in Albuquerque. He was 83.

''The late Jerry Claschee Begay Sr. was a Navajo code talker who served the United States of America and the Navajo Nation with courage, honor and distinction,'' Shirley said in his proclamation.

Shirley acknowledged Begay's honorable and distinguished service to the United States, for which he was awarded the Congressional Silver Medal in November 2001 and received the Purple Heart.

''The Navajo Nation unites and offers prayers for his family during this time of grief,'' he said.

Begay was born in Sheep Springs, N.M. At age 17, as a student at Fort Wingate High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He became a code talker in the 2nd Marine Division, 297th Platoon. He participated in the invasion of the Japanese island of Tarawa during World War II. "

the Marines had 990 men KIA, the enemy had 4713 KIA on Tarawa (Wikipedia) - it was a bad, non-stop 4 day fight.
The readers may rest assured that without the Code Talkers, more than 990  Marines would  have been killed - the code was never broken and provided a tactical advantage of unmeasurable  value in the number of saved American  lives and enemy killed. Some say the war could not have won in the Pacific without the Code Talkers.

[MikePutfus]

There were Code Talkers from other Tribes and Nations as well. They were not all Navajo. Just like then per population which is about one percent of the population of the United States over twenty percent are Serving in the Military.  Just like I and many others have. Ones like him still lead the way.
To Absent Comrades.

[Kevin]

It's been 4-5 yrs ago that I read in the VFW magazine that the last Comanche code talker had passed on.  Comanches were in Europe fighting the nazis.

Those numbers you quote are very much unappreciated, the high percentage of Indians serving in our armed forces - you guys (and women) outnumber the other groups of people by a long ways.

[MikePutfus]

The numbers are right on. Our Culture makes up about one percent of the population of our Country with twenty percent Serving in the Armed Forces. That's a higher percentage than any other race/culture in the U.S.. They also tend to Serve in Combat job skills/MOS. About forty percent are Veterans having Served not in the Military.  Last year the very first Military Native Females became Officers in the Army and Air Force. 

[Kevin]

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Kevin Abourezk: Honoring a Sioux Code Talker
Monday, October 13, 2008
Filed Under: National

"Few who knew Charlie Whitepipe knew anything about the months he lay in a hospital bed in New Guinea during World War II, sick and forced to watch his buddies sail away without him.

Few knew about the young Rosebud soldier's time spent suffering from jungle rot and malaria, diseases earned from months spent up to his neck in flooded foxholes.

Few knew he was sent home after two years on New Guinea, where he served as a forward observer and radioman for an artillery unit on the American-occupied island.

He never got to use his Lakota language to transmit messages like his commanding officers had planned should their communication lines be cut.

Decades later, however, his role as one of a handful of Sioux code talkers during WWII would earn him praise from senators, presidents and fellow soldiers.

Whitepipe died June 26, 2006."