Service worthy of praise

DON CANTRELL

Millions of Americans paid tribute to World War II veterans on

Memorial Day as they reflected on the devastating war that ended 60

years ago.

The war started a day after Japan staged a sneak bombing attack on

the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than

2,300 sailors and civilians Dec. 7, 1941. The enemy would link up

with Germany and Italy.

By September of 1945, 45 million people would be dead. Sixteen

million Americans entered military service, but 407,316 did not come

home.

Historians report that thousands of WWII veterans are passing on

every week now, prompting a flow of prayers and respect from across

the nation.

The major view from the harbor area found many outstanding coaches

and athletes serving across the globe until the war ended in August

of 1945.

The Newport ledger would find Al Irwin, former UC Irvine athletic

director; Dick Spaulding, 1938-39 Newport football coach; Wendell

Pickens, former Orange Coast College athletic director; Ray Rosso,

former OCC grid chief; and Dick Tucker, former OCC football coach,

devoting years of service to the Navy.

Irwin served as a flight deck officer aboard the U.S.S. Lexington

in the Pacific while Spaulding served as an executive officer aboard

a destroyer in the Pacific. Pickens conducted physical conditioning

programs while Rosso was a fighter pilot stationed in Hawaii.

The Harbor High newspaper, from the fall of 1944 to spring of

1945, reported the students who lost their lives. They were: Sam

Allen, Jim Harvey, William Hourigan, Max Jordan, Pat Jordan, Eugene

Marzolf, Robert Meek and Leslie Mitchell.

Although the passing of each and every one would evoke an

emotional jolt, the last figure became the most shocking casualty of

all -- the sterling quarterback of Newport’s 1942 championship

football team, Vernon Fitzpatrick. He was machine-gunned in midair by

Japanese fighter planes while parachuting over Leyte in the

Philippiines on Dec. 8, 1944.

One not listed earlier was a 1934 Newport blocking back, named

George Shafer, an Army combat infantryman who died in the

Philippines. Two of his teammates were Irwin and tackle Judd

Sutherland.

Sutherland recalled that a Harbor High social science teacher,

Mrs. Ruth Patterson, died on the brutal Bataan death march while

serving as a nurse.

And there was Billy V. Brown, a 1932 basketball player, who was at

Pearl Harbor. It was his squadron that fired the first shots back at

the enemy aircraft. Between WWII and the Korean War, he survived

seven plane crashes.

Another note on the ledger acknowledges Sparks McClellan, 1939

grid center, who earned high honors for gallant action flying Navy

Hellcats in Pacific firebombing operations.

Also, Edward C. Stephens, a 1941 running guard and ’43 student

body president. He was awarded the Purple Heart as a gunnery officer

aboard a destroyer near Okinawa after being struck by shrapnel from

the impact of a suicide pilot who crashed into the ship.

And there was a rookie crew, which included a young co-pilot named

Walt Kelly, 1936 Newport wingman, who scored a giant triumph aboard a

B-24 Liberator bomber.

A proposed night run was grounded by heavy clouds, but the crew

landed on an island, then blazed out the next morning and struck a

Japanese cruiser three times in dead center and sunk the vessel. The

incredulous adventure would stun experts since it was almost

suicidal, but the Yankee bomber skimmed the water at 8,000 feet over

the Japanese armada, then buckled the huge ship down the main

smokestack.

There were two superb backs from the 1937 Newport grid team, Glenn

Thompson and Rollo McClellan, who shined in outstanding duties aboard

big landing barges for the Coast Guard. Thompson eventually became a

rear admiral.

And there was George Barnett, a champion Newport basketball player

in the 1940s, who earned numerous medals and honors as a bomber pilot

during WWII in the Pacific.

Two Sheflin brothers, Bob, 1936 football, and Harold, All-CIF

fullback on the 1942 Newport championship team, were on ships that

sunk.

Bob could see enemy shells coming through his engine room before

he escaped and was in Pacific waters for 72 hours.

Harold, a deck gunner who suffered gas in one lung, went down with

a ship off Canada, but survived.

The Muniz brothers, Manuel, an All-CIF tackle in 1942, and Joe, a stout blocking back in 1944, both endured some dramatic hours near

the end of the war.

Manuel was wounded in combat on Okinawa, earning the Purple Heart.

Joe, arrived later, on a river cruise, to view the aftermath of an

atomic bomb that had flattened Nagasaki, Japan.

Ward Sherman, a 1939 grid lineman, served as a radio operator and

tail gunner on a dive bomber in the Pacific while Louis Glesenkamp,

1936 halfback, served as a tank sergeant on the Pacific islands.

One of the most dreadful cases centered on Army infantryman George

Mickelwait, a quarterback who was named to the 1939 All-Southern

California grid squad. He was badly injured at the grim Battle of the

Bulge in Europe by a round of gunfire across his back.

Their courage will never fade from the memories of harbor area

natives.