A Memorial Day coincidence

Dear Editor:

Thank you for publishing the Memorial Day biographies of all the Canton veterans who served and sacrificed their lives for us. I must admit that I developed a great deal of concern by the number of veterans who died by the influenza virus in 1918. I hope this is not a warning of what will happen if we let our guard down in how we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On another note, one of the biographies brought to light how our worlds are intertwined, even several thousand miles away and 75 years later. I was reading the biography of MM 2nd Class Parker B. Dodge. He was a machinist on the USS Luce that sank from a direct hit by a kamikaze pilot on May 4, 1945, in Okinawa. Unfortunately he was trapped in the bowels of the ship and was one of the third who perished. However, two-thirds of the crew were rescued in no small part by the heroics of the USS Wiley, which got a presidential citation for the crew’s bravery: “Handled superbly, she fought off 51 air attacks by enemy planes, on one such occasion enabling other ships in the immediate area to continue uninterruptedly the rescue of survivors from the USS LUCE.”

On that same day, my father got his distinguished flying cross for shooting down a kamikaze pilot who was engaged in a suicide mission against the USS Wiley as it was on course to help in the rescue of the USS Luce.

Sincerely,

Dan Muse

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=67819

Posted by Canton Citizen on May 30 2020. Filed under From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.