The

MEGAPHONE

Elwood, Indiana                      Elwood High School(s)

Volume 7, No. 11                                                                                Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Contents

-- Page numbers are active links --

Page 1 . . . In and Around Your Hometown -- Nancy Sumner

Page 2 . . . Panther Den Birthday & Anniversary Calendar -- Nancy Sumner (Our Calendar Girl)

                                Numb3rs -- Fuzzy Logik

Page 3 . . . Military Maneuvers -- Dewey W. Smith

Page 4 . . . We Give Thanks and Praise -- Charles and Deborah (Bozell) Donahue

Page 5 . . . Winning the War in Cambodia with the LA Zoo -- John R. Hocker

Page 6 . . . WW II -- Dick Cleaver

Page 7 . . . What Was I Thinking? -- Nancy Sumner

Page 8 . . . An Unpopular Opinion -- Julie (Stout) Crim

Page 9 . . . The Ol' Fishing Holes -- Jerry McClish

                                The Story of Alexis Capps -- Becky (Hahn) Capps

Page 10 . . . Memories -- M. "Queenie" (Kiefer) Cleaver

Page 11 . . . The Tree -- Ron Runyan

Page 12 . . . "Please Touch My Daddy's Star Again And Change It Back To Blue" -- Linda (Meltzer) Harris

In and Around Your Hometown

by Nancy Sumner

For this special commemorative issue, your hometown 

news has been put on hold until the December issue.

Manila-American Cemetery

Manila, Philippines

For the past 2 or 3 years, I have had the opportunity while working at the Elwood Public Library to exchange information regarding our area servicemen with a Mr. Dave Dwiggins of the Philippines. I would like to share with you an email that I received from Dave in March of this year. This email was sent to all Madison County area librarians and genealogists.

Hello, my name is Dave Dwiggins. I am a former resident of Madison County, born and raised in Orestes but have now retired to the Philippines. Despite residing so many miles away, a day doesn’t go by that I do not think of my former home, friends and the wonderful memories of there. Orestes and Madison County will always be my home and dear to my heart. 

Many of you are aware of our work here in the islands and have supported our efforts. We thank you for that and the work has paid off in successes and blessings to the families affected. Just recently with the assistance of Phyllis Leedom of the Madison County Historical Society, we were able to locate the family of Sam Calabria. Despite all of our efforts with newspaper articles, television announcements, genealogy postings and inquiries to historical societies and libraries, the family had not seen the notices. Sometimes we need to take the extra step to see to it these more senior citizens are assisted a little more closely. Luckily we did locate Sam’s brother, Frank Calabria and his wife residing in Anderson. We sent them the photo of Sam’s name as it is honored on the “Tablets of the Missing” at the Manila American Cemetery. They were thrilled beyond words. More information will be added at the bottom of this mailing. Memorial Day will soon be here soon and it will be time to honor our servicemen and women. Our endeavor takes that tradition a bit further and pays tribute to the families too. We seek awareness for our project of presenting World War II gravesite photos to their families for free from the Philippines . . . graves they have never seen. We are bringing the photographs home to Indiana. Currently we have located six families of the sixteen men that enlisted in the military from Madison County that are buried or honored at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Nearly two years ago we visited the memorial for the first time. I stepped onto the fairway smooth grasses of the 152 acre facility and immediately a sick, gut-wrenching discomfort gripped my stomach, and I struggled to swallow. It was the same unmistakable, miserable feeling I had felt when I left for Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War thirty-some years ago. My steps were deliberate and careful and my glances were heartbreaking as the crosses seemed to extend to all horizons of the rolling meadow. America was half a globe away and a loneliness was frozen in my mind. The same thought must have been going through the minds of these young men, the unthinkable notion and fear of dying on foreign soil.

My home state name, "Indiana," had always been extra special but today the letters on the white crosses seemed bolder than ever. These were the beautifully manicured grave sites of Indiana soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen killed during World War II in the defense of freedom. I held back tears as the visit to the Manila American Cemetery transformed from that of a visitor to that of a fellow soldier, brother and neighbor. I was humbled as I gazed across the acres and acres of crosses. Although each cross marked a horrible tragedy, a peaceful comfort reigned in the end of my quiet meditation, a comfort of seeing first hand this magnificent memorial and tribute honoring their Supreme Sacrifices.

I focused my camera on a nearby cross, a grave of a young man from Ohio. The thought hit me. I wondered if I could unite one of these photographs with a family member back in America. At that moment the project began and we have been bringing the graves back home to their families where they ought to be. Thus marked the beginning! 

Since that time we have united photographs with 104 families of the servicemen in Indiana and another 31 more across America with three more in line for the next trip to Manila.

My wife Apple and I with the fantastic help of Indiana librarians, journalists, historians, genealogy hobbyists and wonderful volunteers across Indiana and America have teamed up and  are discovering new families everyday that have never seen the graves. We send them free high quality photographs including the "Tablets of the Missing" via email along with the information we have gathered about each of the servicemen. They are thrilled to view them for the first time and some never knew there were graves for their loved ones. We are collecting information about their lives and especially enjoy receiving scanned photographs of the men in their military uniforms to display on our website.

The memorial is the largest facility of the American Battle Monuments Commission in the world including Normandy and Utah Beach in France, Italy, Holland, North Africa, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Saipan and Honolulu. Your institution is critical to our mission and we have our fingers crossed you will understand what can be gained with your help, true peace and genuine closure.

There are 17,202 Americans buried at the memorial and another 36,285 missing in action that are honored on the "Tablets of the Missing." The memorial honors 974 Indiana soldiers, sailors and airmen.

There’s lots of work to be done and "Time is of the Essence." We are losing the World War II veterans at the rate of about 2,000 per day across America and the families of these men . . . the ones that actually knew them, are becoming scarce at a similar rate.

We humbly request a few precious moments of your time to bring awareness of our project to your faithful patrons. No doubt we have neighbors and friends residing in Madison County that are relatives of these men. They too have never seen the graves or the names of their loved ones engraved on the Tablets. Please help us bring them that joy. Could you please make a notice with the Madison County names list, post it in your library and keep it handy for those making World War II inquiries? We ask that you inform them how to contact us via an email message. As an additional benefit, we can now offer free photos of any of the 35,000 plus names on the Tablets from across America. 

We also would appreciate any information from your files such as decorations, obituaries, death notices etc. The references we have for each man in the Madison County summary are from the Indiana State Library and indicate a date of which the War Department released the information for all newspapers in the area. That’s a good date to search.

We invite you to visit our website, “INDIANA SOLDIERS AND SAILORS” and see first hand the blessings of the families in their email messages, see the faces of these American heroes that insured our freedoms we enjoy today.

Indiana Soldiers and Sailors . . . http://fizkid.tripod.com/

Letters from families of Indiana Soldiers and Sailors . . . http://fizkid.tripod.com/id25.html

Email us for the lists from other counties . . . zenas5@yahoo.com

We thank you for the time you have spent reading our letter and apologize for its length. Our mission cannot be explained in few words nor can the feelings of the families. God Bless the families of our Indiana servicemen and those of you helping to bring these overdue blessings. Again we thank each of you for the help in brining success to this project so important to our Madison County friends and neighbors.

Our project is solely for the benefit of the Indiana servicemen’s families and for recording their histories.

Sincerely,

Dave and Apple Dwiggins

San Pablo City, Philippines

For those of you who may be interested in other national memorials, a few months ago Dave sent me the following address for the American Battle Monuments Commission -- www.abmc.gov/home.php .

Until that time, I never realized something like this existed. Even viewing through a computer monitor it causes a moment of pause and reflection. While at the site, please view the links at the left and view the movie link in the center of the page.  

As a dedication to Veterans Day, I thank you for the opportunity to share this information. For those who have shared their own story or a story from family or friends… I thank you also.

In Honor and Memory to All Veterans of All Wars… Thank You. Thank you for giving us this wonderful country to laugh, sing and play in!

Sincerely,

Nancy Sumner

Elwood, IN