Tribute To The American Soldier

It is because of their service that we can FREELY celebrate the Christmas season.  More information about the veterans heard in the

Tribute To The American Soldier can be found at the bottom of this page.

 

The following is a video of the Tribute To The American Soldier.  To play the video, first stop the song above, then click the play button below.

 

 

 

Patriotic Medley:  While in Washington DC this summer we had the priviledge of interviewing the veterans heard in this song at the

National Mall and Arlington National Cemetary.

 

James O'Donnell of Indianapolis, IN served on the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser,  for 14 months during WWII. 

He worked in the boiler room and worked on the ships engines.   He served on the ship at Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima, Japan and Okinawa

where a Kaikaze suicide plane hit the ship and severely damaged it.  In July 1945 the USS Indianapolis delivered to Tinian island two large

boxes which included the parts for the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.  After dropping off the boxes the ship was hit by two

torpedoes and sank in 12 minutes.  Mr O'Donnell jumped off the ship a couple minutes before it sank.  Of the 1,197 men on board

800-900 floated in the water for up to 5 days.  They stayed in groups to defend themselves from the many sharks which circled them. 

Some sailors would hallucinate and swim away from the group never to be seen again.  Others would drink the salt water and die within hours. 

And others would be victims of the shark attacks.  When rescued on the 5th day, only 317 men had survived.  WWII ended 2 weeks later.

We met Mr. O'Donnell at his home in Indianapolis.

 

David Padia of Victoria, TX is a veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam.  During WWII he fought in the Battle of the Bulge

and became a prisoner of war.  We met Mr. Padia and his family while they were visiting the Korean memorial.

 

Boyce Klutts of Greenwood, IN served in WWII in 1943.  He was stationed in London as part of the 390th bomb group and was a gunner

on a B17.  On his 35th mission his plane was shot down over Wurzburg Germany.  He was captured and served in stalag 4 near the Polish

border.  He was there for 2 months when the Germans had to move them due to the allied advances.  His group marched for 86 days and

covered 600 miles until they ran into an English force which liberated them.  He stated the march was much worse than the prison camp. 

We met Mr. Klutts at his retirement home in Greenwood.

 

Rod Ingram served in WWII in 1944 as a member of the 393rd infantry.  He arrived in Germany around Thanksgiving and fought in the

Battle of the Bulge and the Bridge at Remagen where he was part of the first division to cross the Rhine river into Germany.  His group was

called the "battle babies" because after going thru specialized training they were shipped immediately to the battlefront.  During the Battle of the

Bulge in December 1944, he slept in a fox hole for a whole month and had to endure the constant snow which fell.  This battle resulted in

70,000 casualties, 19,000 deaths and was the single largest and bloodiest battle of WWII.  We met Mr. Ingram and his wife at the WWII memorial.

 

William F Harvey was a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korian War in 1950 in and served on the aircraft carrier USS Boxer.  

During his tour his ship launched and retrieved over 2,000 aircraft.  He also served during the initial conflict in IndoChina prior to the

VietNam war.   He was Dean and Professor of Law at Indiana Univerity Law School from 1973-1979.  A very dear friend of his is former

Governor Edgar Whitcomb who was a prisoner and escaped from Corregidor during WWII.

 

SGT O'Gratten of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, US Army, was the assistant commander of the relief at the Tomb of the

Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetary in Washington DC.

 

Private Wilbur VanBus served with 2nd division, 38th Infantry, Company E in the Korean War.  During March of 1953 he was on his

5th patrol when he came under fire.  Because of the fierce fire his unit withdrew.  Several days later when his troops returned to get the

casualties he was found near death and barely alive.  Due to his wounds he lost his sight.

 

Richard Passarelli, Major, US Army, served with the 2nd support brigade in Saigon from 1965-1966 during the VietNam War. 

He was very proud to be part of the 7th Finance section located in Consenuit Air Force base, Saigon.  We are very proud of you Uncle Dick!

 

Chief Eric Chandler, US Navy served in Iraq in 2006-2007.  He was located in camp Bucco Iraq which was a detention facility where

over 13,000 prisoners were held during the war.   Eric was sailor of the year for the east coast and volunteered to serve in Iraq.  His unit was

called the "sand pirates".  Eric is our son in law and we are very proud of him.

 

Sutan A Mohammad is the regimental Command Sergeant Major of the Ordnance Corp.  He has served twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan.