Categories
Veteran Blogs

#VeteranOfTheDay Marine Corps Veteran James E. Webb

[ad_1]

Marine Corps Veteran James E. Webb is today’s Veteran of the Day.

Marine Corps Veteran James E. Webb is today’s Veteran of the Day.

James Edwin Webb was born in the small town of Tally Ho, North Carolina, in 1906. Webb came of age during the Great Depression and spent his high school years working as a clerk at a local grocery store. He later attended the University of North Carolina and paid his way through school by working as a letter writer and typist.

Webb graduated in 1928 with a degree in education. He joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1930 after reading in the newspaper that the Marines were looking for college graduates to serve as pilots. Webb thought that military service might provide a way out of poverty.

“I couldn’t see anything other than eking out an existence,” Webb said in a 1985 interview, “and I felt that if I didn’t make it in the Marine Corps… I at least would wind up in New York and I probably could get a job up there.”

Webb trained to be a naval aviator at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1931. He spent a year on active duty in Quantico, Virginia, then moved to Washington, D.C., to become a secretary for North Carolina Congressman Edward Pou in 1932. Webb continued flying as a Marine Reservist while attending night school and received a law degree from George Washington University in 1936. That same year, he moved to New York to work for the Sperry Gyroscope Company, eventually becoming vice president. In 1944, during World War II, Webb returned to active duty and became commanding officer of the 1st Marine Air Warning Group at Cherry Point, North Carolina. He left the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In the decade after the war, Webb held a variety of managerial positions in both the private sector and federal government, including working as undersecretary of state for President Harry Truman. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Webb to serve as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established a few years earlier after the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite. Webb was initially reluctant, believing he was not qualified to lead NASA and that a scientist would be a better choice. However, President Kennedy convinced Webb that his management skills made him well-suited for the job.

“President Kennedy said, ‘I want you for this reason,’” Webb said. “And I’ve never said no to any president who has asked me to do things.”

As NASA administrator, Webb helped guide the United States through the Space Race with the Soviet Union and worked on developing the Apollo program to accomplish President Kennedy’s goal of getting an American to the moon before 1970. However, a fire on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida resulted in the deaths of Apollo 1 astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Edward White in 1967. He resigned from NASA in 1968, less than a year before the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon.

Webb died on March 27, 1992. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched on Dec. 25, 2021, bears his name.

We honor his service.


Nominate a Veteran for #VeteranOfTheDay

Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s #VeteranOfTheDay social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.

It’s easy to nominate a Veteran. Visit our blog post about nominating to learn how to create the best submission.


Writer: Stephen Hill

Editors: Nicolas Nunnally, Annabelle Colton

Researcher: Patrick E. Woods

Graphic artist: Brittany Gorski



[ad_2]

Source link

Categories
VIP videos of Veterans

WWII Veteran Returns Battlefield Flag to Japan



US Marine Marvin Strombo took a ‘good luck’ flag from the body of a dead Japanese corporal 73 years ago during World War II.

source

Categories
Veteran Blogs

#VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran James David Watkins

[ad_1]

Navy Veteran James David Watkins is today's Veteran of the Day.

#VeteranOfTheDay is Navy Veteran James David Watkins, who served as a nuclear submariner for much of his career.

James David Watkins was born in March 1927, in Alhambra, California. The son of a successful entrepreneurial family, Watkins’s life was perhaps shaped most by his mother, who often took him and his brother George to the nearby port to watch ships sail into the harbor. This influence likely led both sons to careers in the Navy.

After attending the University of California at Berkeley, Watkins entered the Naval Academy on appointment in 1945. He graduated from the academy on June 3, was commissioned an ensign, and joined USS Fechteler. The imminent start of the Korean War saw Fechteler deploy to Pearl Harbor in 1950, where it remained in preparation for the conflict. Watkins was detached from Fechteler in December of that year, whereupon he was assigned to submarine training at the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut.

Following his completion of submarine training in the summer of 1951, Watkins reported aboard USS Volador for service in and near Korean waters. During this time, Volador performed reconnaissance missions, monitoring Soviet and Chinese radio transmissions. In his time aboard Volador, Watkins advanced to the position of engineer officer on the Staff of Commander Submarine Division Fifty-Two. His service aboard a nuclear vessel was another key point in his service history as Watkins departed to advance his education. Obtaining a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in 1958, Watkins’ career advanced into nuclear reactor engineering, later receiving instruction at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, School of Reactor Technology.

Throughout the 1960s, Watkins continued his duties on submarines, nuclear and otherwise, serving aboard such vessels as the USS Barbero and USS Snook. Eventually Watkins’ professionalism, diligence, experience and knowledge landed him aboard USS Long Beach, the first nuclear-powered surface warship, as its executive officer in 1967. Aboard Long Beach, Watkins deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin in support of Task Force Seventy-Two during the Vietnam War.

Watkins was selected to become a rear admiral on April 27, 1971, and would serve as chief of naval operations before retiring in 1986.

Watkins earned an Officer Submarine Warfare insignia, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge, Defense Distinguished Service Medal with one bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, Navy Distinguished Service Medal with two gold award stars, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two award stars, Bronze Star Medal with Valor device, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Unit Commendation with one bronze service star, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Expeditionary Medal, China Service Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal with one bronze service star, Korean Service Medal and a Vietnam Service Medal with four bronze service stars.

Watkins died on July 26, 2012, at the age of 85.

We honor his service.


Nominate a Veteran for #VeteranOfTheDay

Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s #VeteranOfTheDay social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.

It’s easy to nominate a Veteran. Visit our blog post about nominating to learn how to create the best submission.

Veterans History Project

This #VeteranOfTheDay profile was created with interviews submitted to the Veterans History Project. The project collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans and better understand the realities of war. Find out more at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.


Writer: Milosh Mihajlovic-Klaric

Editors: Annabelle Colton, Merrit Pope

Researchers: Giacomo Ferrari, Kennady Hertz

Graphics: Kiki Kelley



[ad_2]

Source link

Categories
USA Veteran News

Congress salutes Marine veteran, the last WW2 Medal of Honor recipient

[ad_1]

Congress is giving its ultimate final salute Thursday to Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, a hero of the battle for Iwo Jima who was the last remaining Medal of Honor recipient from World War II.

Williams, who died in June at age 98, is lying in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, a tribute reserved for the nation’s most distinguished private citizens. Only six others have received the honor: civil rights icon Rosa Parks, the Rev. Billy Graham and four Capitol police officers.

Just 21, Williams was a Marine corporal when U.S. forces came ashore on the strategic Japanese island in early 1945.

Williams moved ahead of his unit and eliminated a series of Japanese machine gun positions. Facing small-arms fire, he fought for four hours, repeatedly returning to prepare demolition charges and obtain flamethrowers. President Harry Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration, later that year.

But the new tribute to Williams is about more than his bravery in combat service. It serves as recognition for a generation of heroes, now dwindling in numbers, who fought in World War II.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said Williams wanted to lie in honor as a way to recognize every Medal of Honor recipient from that war.

Lawmakers have lauded Williams throughout the week, marveling that he was so young during his actions at Iwo Jima, Japan. They have hailed his public service following his military career, which included establishing a foundation that works with local stakeholders to create monuments for Gold Star families of the fallen throughout the country.

Williams was well known in his native West Virginia. In 2018, a Huntington, Virginia, medical center was renamed in his honor, and the Navy commissioned a mobile base sea vessel in his name in 2020.

The state’s two senators took the Senate floor Wednesday to remember him.

Democrat Joe Manchin called him the “greatest of the greatest generation.” Republican Shelley Moore Capito recalled his humility, saying that when Truman presented him with the Medal of Honor, Williams remembered asking himself why he was selected for the nation’s highest military honor when Marines right beside him did not make it home.

“That shows you the kind of man that Woody Williams was, always putting his country and his comrades first and never concerned with who got the credit,” Capito said.

[ad_2]

Source link