Armed Forces

Captain Richard McNees

December 6, 2016 by denisefrisino

In the fall of 1941, a young U.S. Navy Ensign, Richard McNees, had time on his hands while he waited at the San Diego Naval Base to be shipped to Hawaii for duty. Originally from Salem, Oregon, then Washington State, Dick had just completed his training at the navy’s boot camp in Great Lakes, situated in northern Chicago. Restless, he spent his three weeks back on the West Coast reading navy regulations on how to handle top secret information. Boredom was directing his future.

Dick was fascinated by cryptography, board coding and decoding. Communication between the naval departments was getting heavy and they needed willing hands and agile minds. So, as the three weeks flew by, he eagerly amassed the knowledge of the codes. Then on the six day trip aboard the USS Tangier to paradise, the young sailor continued his studies until he arrived at Pearl Harbor on November 3, 1941. He took a required test and was given top security clearance.

He was assigned to a brand new air station at Kaneohe, which was being referred to as the “Country Club of the Navy–all new and beautiful.” Dick had a two room suite with bath in between, all to himself. The base was half empty. Life was good.

Being a Sunday, at 7:00 a.m. the morning of December 7, 1941, most of the sailors were still in bed. Dick and three others were in the mess hall enjoying their breakfast as the duty officers were returning from their scouting missions in their PBY’s. They had canvased the southern portion of the island and were back to give their reports. The first two pilots sauntered in, relaxed, it had been a beautiful sunrise with the ghost of the full moon suspended over the Pali Mountains. But then the third scout arrived breathless. Ensign Bill Tanner, commander of a PBY, had patrolled the shore to the north of Pearl Harbor and spotted a submerged submarine. He dropped a depth charge which brought the sub to the surface, and radioed in his findings. (Later it would be discovered that the USS Ward, patrolling nearby, received the transmission and sunk the Japanese Ko-hyoteki class two-man midget submarine as it was attempting to enter Pearl Harbor.)

“Are we at war?” Bill asked the few men gathered at the table. And then all hell broke loose.

Dick heard airplanes and was the first to rush out the door as a Japanese Zero came straight for him firing deadly bullets. He ducked as chips from the strafing pounding the building fell on him. Armed with a wooden spoon and pan, he ran into the BOQ, Bachelors Officer Quarters, to rally the men. In just a few moments their lives had changed forever.

McNees would continue to use his top security clearance at Pearl Harbor, where due to his specialty, one early morning, he was charged with delivering an important package at 2:00 a.m. to Admiral Nimitz, shortly after the Nimitz took over for Admiral Kimmel.

“He came out of his bedroom wearing a white channel robe. Took the package and then told me I was dismissed.” Dick beamed at his brief encounter with the man who would lead the U.S. to victory in the Pacific Theater.

As a fighter pilot, Dick led formations in several battles. He survived the battles of Midway, Tinian, Le Shima, (now Lejima), Iwo Jima, where his brother was going ashore as a navy seal, and Okinawa, to mention a few. His career spanned 35 years and he flew over 40 different types of planes.

I had the honor of going to Boeing’s Museum of Flight with Captain McNees and watch his eyes brighten as he spoke of the various aircrafts he had flown and taught generations of pilots to maneuver.

There is no replacing such a man who constantly sought knowledge and gave back to his community so generously. He was a soft spoken gentleman, a hero and one of the true “Greats” of that generation. I will forever hold dear the time and stories he shared with me, and of course, continue to give thanks for his bravery and love of America.

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Queen Mary

November 10, 2016 by denisefrisino

My godmother, Mary Sommerhauser Russell, chose to serve in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during WWII because she was tired of wearing white nylons. Nurses back then, much in demand, had a choice as to which service they could join.
“I had good looking legs and wanted to show them off. I liked the Army uniform better.”
While she admits it sounds vain, she has no regrets because, with the army, she saw real action. Mary landed on Omaha Beach in August 1944, two days after the Liberation of Paris. She was 22 years old.

She tells of sailing on the RMS Queen Mary, which had already been whisked to Sydney, Australia, to be converted into a troopship, painted navy gray, stripped of its finery and had degaussing coils added to protect the ship from magnetic mines.
For her journey to Europe the approximately 72 nurses were sequestered on the upper deck with the thousands of male troops below.
“I had a date every 15 minutes,” she smiles slyly. “But then in the middle of the night they came and made us move to a lower deck.”
Well, that got Mary’s goat. She rose early the next morning to see who had taken her precious upper deck and when she looked up, there, standing at the railing, was a well-known world leader dressed in his famous blue jumpsuit, holding his cigar. Winston Churchill traveled frequently as “Colonel Warden” on the Queen Mary, who, because of her speed, was difficult for any U-Boat to catch, and became known as the “Gray Ghost.”

Raised in Butte Montana, in a German and Irish household, Mary knew how to get a job done.
“When we got there they kept telling us we would have a hospital, but we worked in tents in the fields. To save our precious penicillin we would dig holes in the cold ground, put the vial of penicillin in a condom, then in a can and bury it. There was no refrigeration. You made due.”
She talks of how the snow covered soldiers arrived at their medic tents with disfiguring frostbite, the engineers that stayed with the makeshift hospitals to keep the equipment running, the death and hope they all lived with daily.

There is no telling how many lives she touched in an attempt to save our boys and the horror she keeps privately tucked away.
But I know that from now on I will refer to First Lieutenant Mary Sommerhauser, Mrs. Ralph Russell, who just turned 95, as the real Queen Mary–for all the love and support she gave to the hundreds of troops on the ground in the European Theater. I am so proud she is my godmother.

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The Real Classroom – The Battle of the Bulge

October 11, 2016 by denisefrisino

They came using wheelchairs, walkers, canes, or gratefully, walking with pride. The group of heroes that gathered last week in Seattle for the reunion of the Survivors of the Battle of the Bulge all sat in the warmth of friendship and memories, with their thoughts drifting to those who served beside them, fell on the field of battle, and helped them along the way.

The fought in Belgium, Remagen, Bastogne and beyond as they worked their way across Europe.

Vince wore his famous Geronimo insignia symbolizing the 101st paratroopers division that dropped from the sky not only on D-Day, but also the Battle of the Bulge.

Here are just a few of their experiences during that horrific battle.

“The army gave us these boots that had separate liners. The snow would go down the lines and freeze in our boots. So we threw those liners away.”

“The snow was so deep and we had to sleep in it, out in the open. When our Captain was injured they sent us this new guy. He told us to build fires to keep warm. We told him we didn’t do it that way out here in the middle of battle.”

“They gave us these long coats that went down to our boots, but as we marched the snow would freeze along the bottom and it would get so heavy. I cut mine off and made it into a trench coat.”

“There was this old castle-like building that we took over and converted into a hospital of sorts. We would take turns going inside to warm up and thaw out our feet.”
Yet another told how his troop had a memorial made for the Wereth 11, the African-American U.S. soldiers who, after surrendering, were mutilated and killed.

War is hell.

Ironically, following the reunion, I had dinner with my God-Mother who served as a nurse in Belgium and France.

“Their feet were so badly frostbitten, those men with Patton, it was awful. We had hundreds of them come through our makeshift hospital.”

If you want to really learn about WWII, attend a reunion of one of these incredible groups of men and women.

Just imagine, anyone in their 90’s today took part at some level helping a struggling United States to achieve victory in World War II. So, when an elderly person happens by, give them a big smile, a nod, a thank you, or even a kiss.

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