Last year’s moving farewell to President George H. W. Bush reminded us that the few remaining veterans of World War II will soon be gone. Yet their collective story lives on in memoirs, in oral histories, and in the work of the remarkable journalists who bravely and brilliantly rose to the challenge of reporting the war to the American people while it unfolded.
With this is mind, Library of America dedicated this year’s LOA in the Classroom initiative to placing the one-volume paperback collection Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938–1946 in the hands of teachers and students across the country. And we invited donors to the project to honor an American World War II veteran they particularly loved or revered.
The response we received was overwhelming and gratifying, and we especially touched by the many contributors who sent us the stories of those veterans they wished to honor. Elizabeth D. Lloyd-Kimbrel dedicated a gift to her father, Frank Howard Lloyd, Jr., “who is 99 years young and who served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the North African, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns (and was responsible for turning the water back on in Rome, 5 June 1944). He went on to teach high school English and history for 62 years, retiring seven years ago having taught three generations of teenagers, including the children and grandchildren of his original students.” William Creal also dedicated his donation to his father, Major William R. Creal, who “fought for the duration of WWII, and was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts in coordinating engineering support during the Allied advance following the invasion of Normandy.” Deborah Miller, whose “uncles who served in Africa, Sicily, and the Pacific,” chose to dedicate her gift to her father, Robert W. Miller, who “served in the US Army Infantry, landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day+4.” And Betsey Binet honored her stepfather, James Stevens, a WWII bomber pilot who flew his B-25, the Maxwell House, on bombing runs over Germany. “He was later captured by Japanese forces and spent nearly two years of the war as a POW in a Japanese prison camp in Burma called USA (pronounced: OO-sa). He, along with members of his crew, overcame their guards and escaped to safety.”
Jerry M. Byrd wrote of Delbert “Buck” Kitchen: “Uncle Buck was one of the finest men I ever had the good fortune to know, intelligent, honest and an extremely kind and thoughtful man. He served in some of the worst island battles in the Pacific, but never wanted to talk about it.” Jeff Wood’s dedication was to Donald Wallace “Bud” Lockhart, a western Pennsylvania farm boy who was assigned to the USS Drexler, which “was sunk on May 28, 1945, in a kamikaze attack, with 43% casualties; he survived by swimming through oil-slicked and burning waters.” Paul Jellinek honored Quinto “Chick” Erkoboni, “who belonged to the US Army 36th Infantry Division, Company ‘I,’ 141st Regiment, and fought in the Normandy Invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of the Lost Battalion. He died on April 12, 2019 in Lawrenceville, NJ.”
Below we present the complete list of dedications. (To correct or update a listing, send an e-mail to lists@loa.org.)
Ralph Adolphus Abernethy, Jr., Yeoman First Class, US Navy
Abraham Adelman
William C. Agan
Ethel Anderson
Noble P. Ashley
Charles M. Aull, 2nd Armored Division
Staff Sgt. Mark G. Baker
Frank Balzano
Lt. Herman Baron
Roger F. Bartlett, Jr.
John Lemuel Beaton, US Navy
Joseph Beckstrand
Harry Bender
Jack Berger
Yogi Berra
Ottmar A. Bodemer, PhD
Curtis Boozman, Jr. US Navy
Dr. Wayne Howard Borges, US Navy, assigned to the Marine Corps
William Fuller Borland
Rose F. Boyce, US Army Nurse Corps
Eugene T. Brandon, US Navy
Almet N. Broadhead
George Snyder Brown, US Navy CB
Joseph L. Buice
Capt. J. Clarke Burke, MD
George H. W. Bush
Michael J. Carabetta, Sr.
Walter L. Carlisle
Stanley W. Carpenter
G. W. Chapman
Wester Doyle Chapman
Donald Cole
A. Wayne Colver
1st Sgt. James C Cook, United States Army Air Force
James I. Cook
Dr. James. F. Cooper, US Navy, USS Dorchester, South Pacific
Paul F. Crawford, Sr.
Major William R. Creal
Frank W. Czaja
Elizabeth Daily
Alex Danchuk
Carl E Davis, Marshfield Mo. US Army Infantry
Cdr. Joseph Reid Davis, Jr., US Navy Ret.
Frank R. Decker
Joseph DiFranceisco
Thomas P. Dillon
William Arthur Dimmick
Sen. Robert Dole
George P. Donahue (1924-2018)
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
William Elbirn
Harry Eldredge
Quinto “Chick” Erkoboni, US Army 36th Infantry Division, Company “I,” 141st Regiment
Chester Robert Farber, Jr. US Navy
Paul H. Feldman, MD
CPO Fred Ferguson US Navy
Arthur Barden Finch, US Army Air Corps
Richard G. S. Finch, US Naval Reserve
James P. Finnegan, US Naval Reserve, USS Barney DE
Manuel Fischer
Stanley Fisher
Thomas B. Fowler
Herbert Gager
Harold T. Garvin
Stanley Gay
Admiral Lawrence R. Geis, US Navy
Anthony J. Gerve
Sanford N. Gibian, US Navy, GM3, USS LeHardy
Sgt. Melvin Giesen
Thomas Douglas Glass
Leon Gold
Harry Goldberg
Paul R. Gonda
Donal Patrick Gordon
Harvey Gosselin
George Graeser, US Navy
J. Glenn Gray
John Farrell Griffin
August A. Guidry, Jr.
Warren J. Haas
Donald N. Haldeman
Cpl. Henry M. Hall Sr., US Marines Corps Reserve, 1943-45
Jay Harrison Hall
RM1 Morris E. Hall, US Naval Reserve, 1943-45
Captain George A. Hambrecht
Robert L. Harper
Bill Harrison
John S. Harrison
Captain Newman Lane Hart, US Army
Frank Parker Hill
Dwight L. Hillard
Joseph S. Hoffmann, Lt Col, US Army (Ret)
Ralph Hogan
Albert Honewood
Finis B. Honeycutt
Robert E. Hopper, US Navy
Robert S. Houston, US Navy
Tech Sgt. Edward Hriciga, 88th Infantry, Division Italian Campaign
Charles W. Hughes
William H. Hulse
Robert T. Izumi
“Bob” Robert Jacobs
First Lieutenant James Gordon Jett (Sr.), US Army Quartermaster Corps, China Theater
Carl E. Jenkins
Donald W. Johnson
Ralph A. Johnson
Casimir Kalinowski.
Irwin H. Katz, Sgt., Infantry
Warren Keck
John W. Keirans
John F. Kennedy
John Kierans
Theodore E. Kiffer
William Wayne Kimbrel, Sr., US Merchant Marine (WWII); Sgt. Major US Army (Korea, Vietnam)
Delbert “Buck” Kitchen, US Marines, Pacific Theater
Kenneth Koch
Paul L. Kotschwar
Capt./Lt. Col. Eugene R. Kroeck
Corporal William H. Kroeck
Phillip Kuller
M. Richard Kulp
Wilfred F. Lariviere
Adolph Larra
Charles Larsen
William Lyder Larson
Wilbur P. Latz
Harold G. Lawton
Lester L. LeBeau
Joseph I. LeBlanc
James David Lee
Harry Kay Lesser, Sr., TechSgt, United States Army Air Force
David Lewis Leven
Nathaniel Lewis, Purple Heart, POW, Legion of Honor Award
Armin C. Lieder
Frank Howard Lloyd, Jr., Capt., US Army Corps of Engineers
Donald Wallace Lockhart, US Navy, Signalman, USS Drexler
George V. Logan
Dr. Adolph Lombart
Leigh Longstreet
Michael J. Lyons
Capt. Donald C. Malcolm, MD
Emil Maleski
George Francis Marion, 1st Lt., US Marine Corps, Pacific Theater (Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Saipan)
Arnold Martin, US Navy
Howard Martinson
Col. (ret.) George C. Masters
Jack H. McCall, Sr. (1922-1997), US Marine Corps, Pacific Theater
Robert B. McCall (1916-1993), US Marine Corps, Pacific Theater
Harold McClure
John J. McGurk
Glenn Rolland McLaughlin, Sgt., US Army
Col. Douglass N. McMillin, US Army
Wilbur O. Meador, S-IC US Navy 1945
The late Robert C. Medenah
Walter Oliver Merrill
William C. Meyer, USCG 1942-46
Edwin Michaelis
George Michaelis
Henry Michaelis
Louis E. Michel, Lt JG, US Navy (Red Cross)
Louis A. Miller, Jr., US Army, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Robert W. Miller, US Army
Colonel Tom Minyard
Capt. Harry E. Mitchell, Jr. United States Army Air Force
Carl A. Moldenhauer
Andrew Molitoris
Harry N. Monfort, Lt. Col.
Pedro G. Morales
Louis C. Morgenier
Warrant Officer Edward A. Mullins, US Navy
John Myers
Henry Nalivka
Edward C. Nash
Gilbert Newman
Edward C. O’Rourke
Ann T. O’Sullivan
Lt. Vernon R. Pearce
Earl Leroy Peddicord, US Navy
Sgt James A. Peden
Donald H. Percival
Dr. Charles Polan
Robert J. Poupard
Technician 5th Grade James Charley Power, Sr. (1914-2000), Transportation Corps, US Army, European Theater
Robert A. Pranger
William Boyd Pratt
George Priest
David Paul Procell
Robert Pugatsky
Chester Pysno
Robert L Quirk, US Army Air Corps, 14th Liaison Squadron
Thomas Woodman Ramsey
Eugene R. Raup, US Coast Guard
James Russel Reget, US Navy, Pacific Fleet
Joseph Rende, US Army
Helen Reynolds, US Army
Richard Carroll Rice
Vincent J. Riordan, Capt. US Army
Lt.Cmd. Robert B. Roach, US Naval Reserve
Celestino H. Rodriguez
Dr. Robert H. Rohrer
Earl Rondin
John Roslanowick
Bernard Rotko, MD
Dr. Norman Rudin, 81st Infantry Division
Cdr. William L Russell, Jr., US Naval Reserve
Robert M. Rust
Lester Salomon
Hubert E. Sanders
Walter Morton Savoy
Clarence F. Schafer
J. Leonard Scheer, US Navy
Harry Schisler, US Navy Submarine Service
John Joseph Schneider
Norman H. Schroeder
Jerry Schwartz
Morton Schwartz, US Navy
Hugo A. Schweers, Jr.
1st Lt. Malcolm Alderfer Schweiker, Jr.
Warwick Potter Scott
Joseph J. Sgorbati
Donald Brewer Shaffer
Daniel Sharp
Michael A. Shaughnessy, Sr.
John W. Shearman, US Navy (Seabee), 1941-45
Philip R. Sheridan
Roger L. Shinn
William Short
Robert James Sigler
Marshall Silverthorn
JB Skates, US Army, European Theater
Ira Burton Smith, US Army
Jesse Lee Smith, served in the South Pacific
Joseph Steven Soltis
Joseph Stahl
Leon D. Starr, US Navy
Lois Steiner, Second Lieutenant, US Army
John C. Stephenson
James U. Stevens
Murrell Stewart
1st Lt. Clifford E. Stine
Clifford Eugene Stine
Hayman Wilson Stokes
Clifford H. Stoll
Dr. Edward J. Stry 8th Air Force
Dean Swander (Oklahoma)
Clarence J. Thompson, PFC, US Army
Gustave C. Thompson, Sgt. US Army
Dr. Joseph B. Thornhill
John William Timmermeister
William Grant Tolle
Gary J. Torre, navigator, 8th Air Force
II Lt. Newton E. Towle, Jr.
John Triemstra
Ann Davis (Covington) Truitt, US Army
Harry Devere Truitt, US Navy
Thomas Arnold Turner, Sr.
Thomas Kelly Van Zandt
Thomas VanArnam
Arthur G. Villepique, US Navy
James R. Vine, US Navy, South Pacific
John Visnauskas
William W. Wade
Richard A. Walsh III
Jerome R. Way, US Navy
Lester M. Webb
Aaron Weider
Melvin Leonard Weise
Muriel Gratton Weise
Albert E. Werner
Captain Robert T. Williams, US Marines
Capt. Charles Myron Williamson, US Army Air Corp
Jerome Wirkus (b. 1922), US Navy, served on USS Birmingham, injured in the Battle of Leyte Gulf
Robert M. Wise
James Richard Wood
Barclay Jefferis Woodward III, US Navy
Charles Yurgilas
