US Marine Colonel Francis Fenton (pictured kneeling) conducting the funeral of his son PFC Mike Fenton, 19, who was killed near Shuri, Okinawa on May 7, 1945. Upon arising, Colonel Fenton stared at the bodies of other Marine dead and said: “Those poor souls. They didn't have their fathers here.”
So sad. The Japanese people didn't deserve the bomb, but Hirohito and his family sure did. And he was never punished for all his war crimes.
I'm assuming within a few days of the younger Fentons death date of May 7, 1945...........not sure how fast Graves registration moved to bury KIA soldiers in theater.
That pic brought an heartbreaking thought. Someone in Supply had to order and distribute all over the world American Flags for this sad moment of which there are aways too many.
Never saw that photo or quote before. How incredibly sad... Okinawa was a horrible meat grinder. As a side note, I had a second Uncle that was involved in several battles including Iwo Jima. He was wounded at Okinawa and that actually saved his life. He came back to Texas and lived in Gilmer until he was 93. Rarely talked about the war .... his wife said he often would wake her in the middle of the night yelling or upset in a dream. He was a good man, husband & father.
Worster, It has amazed me in my long life how many football coaches from HS through college and even NFL that were marines at Iwo, Guadalcanal, et al. None of them ever talked about it, except Bum Phillips telling us about his buddy and our DC, Coach Fred Jackson. Lots of famous coaches fought over there. When I took my grandson to the Sugar Bowl (or he took me), we spent two days in the WWII Museum. When we were in the individual cubicles watching the soldiers' videos talk about the battles, I called my grandson to come quick, and asked if he knew who that was. Without missing a beat, he said, "That's Coach Akins, Drew grandpa, Marty's dad". (Not bad for a 9/10 yr old) I never knew before that that Ray Akins was a Marine in the South Pacific with a host of other future coaches.
^^^ great story & connection there Sabre. I bet your grandson will always remember that moment. It is important as best we can we share and educate what others before them did & sacrificed to keep our freedom. Yeah, one of my HS football asst. coaches was Marine in WW2. We were all warned way ahead of time never in public or private to ask him about the war, so we never knew where he served, but most likely it was the South Pacific. He was one tough SOB to have for a coach. You know all those vets, regardless of service branch, saw horrendous things like all men see / experience in all wars - not just WW2.