To remind us of the sacrifices of war, readers share stories of family and friends who died for their country. Read more on the Opinion page in Monday's Chronicle.
Richard Gardner
Submitted by
Cate Gardner Giusta, niece
1st Lt. Richard George Gardner, born in New York in 1946, was killed in action April 24, 1970, in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. He had been with his division less than two months. He is remembered by his sister, brother and many nieces and nephews.
Charles McNutt Jr.
Submitted by
Claire McNutt Ehrman, widow
In 1941, as a 20-year-old college student in Sacramento, I fell in love with a wonderful, kind, smart, handsome and polite young Texas A&M graduate, Charles McNutt of Beaumont, Texas, who was in pilot training at Mather Air Field. We soon were engaged and were planning an elaborate formal wedding when Pearl Harbor was attacked. So instead we were married by a chaplain at March Field on Dec. 16, 1941, just weeks before he shipped out with other pilots for the Pacific Theater.
His ship (the Langley) was bombed and sunk, but he was rescued by a Navy hospital ship, the Edsall. That ship disappeared without a trace; all aboard were listed as missing in action.
I immediately dropped out of college, drove my parents' car to San Francisco without their knowledge, and enlisted in the new Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. By August 1942, I was in training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, hoping to be sent to the Pacific Theater, where my two brothers were serving in the Navy and Marines. But instead I served stateside until 1945, when my husband's status was officially changed from MIA to killed in action.
Lee Harrison
Submitted by Rod Stewart
Lee Harrison - friend, mentor, roommate, classmate, wingman. Read about him in "100 Feet Over Hell: Flying With the Men of the 220th Recon Airplane Company Over I Corps and the DMZ, Vietnam 1968-69" by Jim Hooper.
R.C. Holub
Submitted by Gary Lee Franza, grandson
Double atypical pneumonia, a 103-degree fever, a B-17G in a muddy cultivated field with 4,500 pounds of 5-inch-by-8-foot rockets bound to each side for a 6,000 horsepower boost to a Flying Fortress with its tail wheel having to be dragged the whole length of takeoff; a ditch at 425 feet, then power poles with lines and a 30-foot tree at 450 feet when this "Fort" normally requires 1,000 feet of runway to take flight.
Are you scared yet? He wasn't.
Capt. R.C. Holub (brother of the late Leo Holub, photographer and founder of Stanford University's photography department) of the 2nd Strategic Air Depot was just doing his duty as a test pilot when he was ordered by Gen. Carl Spaatz and Lt. Gen. Jimmie Doolittle not to take off until their group arrived. Doolittle said to Holub, "Son, I'd cut that tree down if I were you!"
They didn't, and started the engines for the first-ever rocket-assisted takeoff of a heavy bomber.
March 20, 1945, was the day of Holub's and Master Sgt. Raymond L. Kirkpatrick's first site visit, and only 10 days later they were waiting to launch. They cleared the tree by a cool 29 feet and had 29 feet of runway to spare.
Jacinto Recio
Submitted by Daniel Perales of Concord, grand-nephew
Jacinto Recio was born in Brownsville, Texas, in 1908. His family was among the first settlers sent by the Spanish government in Mexico, in 1749, into south "Tejas." He worked as a truck driver at the time he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 at the age of 35.
In 1943, his younger brother, Marcelo, a U.S. Army infantryman, was severely wounded during the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in North Africa against German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's 10th Panzer Division. Jacinto was part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's force that sought to free the Philippines from the Japanese in October 1944. He was killed in action on Feb. 6, 1945, during the Battle of Luzon and the recapture of Manila.
Jacinto Recio was one of nearly 750,000 Mexican American men who served America during World War II. According to University of Texas scholar Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, they earned more Medals of Honor and other military decorations in proportion to their numbers than any other ethnic group.
Online: To read more Memorial Day submissions, accompanied by historic photos of servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice, please go to sfg.ly/9VbkQ7.
This article appeared on page E - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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