Tonight, we honor two Soldiers and one Marine killed in Afghanistan. Also, we welcome home a Sailor aboard the Battleship Oklahoma, who was killed during the Pearl Harbor bombing in World War II. The Sailor was buried in Honolulu at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl in an tomb for the Unknown. Through JPAC's help, he was identified using DNA evidence from an envelope he licked in a letter to home nearly 70 years ago.
Since 2001, there have been 1114 American troops killed in Afghanistan. Since 2003, there have been 4405 American troops killed in Iraq. There are more than 72,000 persons still unaccounted for from World War II.
Please take a moment to honor their sacrifice.
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DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Brendan P. Neenan, 21, of Enterprise, Ala., died June 7 at Jelawar, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Spc. Neenan grew up in a military family. His father and grandfather, both, were paratroopers in the U.S. Army. Brendan Neenan was proud to follow in their footsteps. After Brendan completed his paratrooper school, he was given his grandfather's airborne wings by his father.
“He was the the middle child, my baby boy, the joy of my life,” his father said. “He was pretty much me.” Added his other-mother, “He always wanted to be just like his dad.”
His father told the E-prise Now.com.
Brendan had returned to Afghanistan, just two weeks ago, after a 15 day vacation back home in Alabama. He was suppose to transfer into an easier and much safer duty, one out of harm's way, just this week. But that never happened, Spc. Neenan was killed on June 7, 2010. This was one of the most bloody weeks for our troops in Afghanistan since the war began almost nine years ago.
From Enterprise now. com
“He had such a short life, but it was so full,” said Mrs. Neenan, who has raised the three Neenan children since their mother died from breast cancer in 1997. “She is his other-mother,” said Hugh Neenan. “She’s raised these kids.”
Mike Hartwick, a close friend of Brendan's, told the Enterprise Now about what made him so special.
“Man, there are just so many memories,” Hartwick said. “I always admired how sincere he was in everything he did. He had a really unique since of humor, courtesy of yours truly.”
“He was so caring,” Hartwick said. “And that’s what I’m going to miss the most: His friendship. He was the truest, most sincere, loving, caring kid anyone could ask for,” he said. “And I regret that I’ll never get to tell him how much he meant to me.”
Rest in Peace, Spc. Brendan Neenan.
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
2nd Lt. Michael E. McGahan, 23, of Orlando, Fla., died June 6 in Khogyani district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troop Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
2nd Lt. Michael McGahan was a born leader and always wanted to serve in the military. In 2008, McGahan graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in political science and a minor in history. He joined the military in November of 2008. He married his high school sweetheart in November, 2009. She will start medical school this fall. It was his first deployment, he arrived in Afghanistan in April of 2010. His father told the paper, his son had a clear plan for his life. He knew the danger, but wanted to serve. On June 6th, he was killed by insurgents during a firefight with his platoon.
His grandfather told the Orlando Sentinel:
"Someone yelled, 'It's clear. You can get up.' Everyone got up but Mike," said his grandfather, Sam McGahan of Orlando.
His father told the Orlando TV News Six:
"He knew the dangers involved, but he was willing to serve anyway, and that's the legacy that we want to remember him by," Tim McGahan said.
McGahan's son, Michael McGahan, and his platoon were attacked by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday. Michael McGahan, 23, was killed.
"He felt like he could make a difference, he could make things better, and that was his goal and he was pretty darn good at it," Tim McGahan said.
"He will not be forgotten. He did not die in vain. He believed in serving his country," Tim McGahan said.
Rest in Peace, 2nd Lt. Michael McGahan.
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. John K. Rankel, 23, of Speedway, Ind., died June 7 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
What man is a man who does not make the world better? John Rankel put this quote from Balian of Ibelin on his Facebook page as one of his favorites. Friends who knew the young Marine, saw a parallel with it. From the Indianapolis Star:
"I remembered him as an exceptional person," said Ryan Smith, Indianapolis, a close friend who played football with Rankel at Center Grove before Rankel moved to Speedway.
"Just a year ago, we were at dinner, and I remember thinking that he was an almost completely different person. He was incredibly stronger, more passionate and even more caring than before. He loved being a Marine, and it showed."
Sgt. Rankel was on his third tour of duty, twice in Iraq and was on his first in Afghanistan, when he was killed by enemy fire. Rankel joined the Marines right after high school. He was a star athlete in high school. His high school coach told the Indy Star that Rankel considered playing football for Franklin College.
"We went down there and talked to the coach, but Johnny said, 'My heart is in the Marines,' and he was off to California," said Speedway football coach Denny Pelley. "He was a quiet leader for us, not a rah-rah guy. There was nothing false about him at all."
The funeral is planned for this Saturday, June 19, 2010, in Speedway, Indiana. Patriot Guard Riders will escort the family. The family issued the following statement:
Rankel's family said in a news release that they appreciated the "outpouring of prayers, well wishes and kindness" shown to them by individuals and organizations since hearing of their son's death. They also thanked the governors of Indiana and California, where he had been stationed, for honoring their son by flying the American flag at half-staff.
Semper Fi, Sgt. John Rankel.
It was June of 1941, Gerald Lehman had graduated high school at the age of 17. He decided to enlist in the service because he needed to be 18 to enroll in college. Gerald's father had to sign the papers for his son to enter the Navy at age 17, but it was peacetime, so the father saw no problem with it. Six months later, the United States entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Overnight the father's hair turned white, said Gerald's niece, Peggy Germain, to the Honolulu Advertiser.com:
"My mother always said his (my grandfather's) hair turned white overnight" after his son's death, Germain said. "He was just shattered that he signed and ended up being responsible for his son dying."
On December 13, 1941, Lehman's parents still did not know the fate of their son, they sent a letter to him:
"News is scarce, but keep courage as here in the U.S. of A. we are all for all of you boys that are doing everything for freedom's sake as that (the Japanese attack) was about as low of a trick ever that was done to any country."
They waited for a reply. Gerald had sent some 64 letters to his family in the six months preceding Pearl Harbor. His niece said most of them, talked about how everything was "swell".
"He was so happy," Germain said. "He though the Navy uniforms were the best and that the wool was the finest and that the guys were swell. Everything was 'swell,' but he'd ask, 'Am I a forgotten man? Does anybody ask about me?' So he must have been homesick."
Navy Fireman Third Class Gerald Lehman served on board of the USS Oklahoma. She was moored in the Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor. She was outboard alongside the USS Maryland and was hit by three torpedoes in the first few minutes of the attack. Within minutes of the torpedoes, she was attacked by air and took two more hits, many men were strafed as they abandoned ship. Twelve minutes after the initial torpedoes, she capsized with her masts touching bottom. 429 men perished with her, including Gerald Lehman.
Gerald's remains were interred in the Tomb for the Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl. Peggy Germaine told the Honolulu Advertiser.com her mother and the parents were told his body was unrecoverable.
It had been the "dearest wish" of her mother, who died in 2005, to get her baby brother back for burial, she said.
In 2006, a volunteer with the USS Oklahoma group contacted Peggy Germaine about her uncle.
"I began crying and calling for my husband to hear the news," she said.
Dental records and mitochondrial DNA were not sufficient, so JPAC used nuclear DNA to positively identify Navy Fireman 3rd Class Gerald Lehman.
Sixty-eight years after he was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, DNA lifted from the envelopes Lehman had licked helped the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command positively identify the young sailor's remains.
Home at last. Navy Fireman Third Class Gerald Lehman was laid to rest on June 11th, 2010 in Hancock, Michigan. 130 family members and friends attended his funeral. Kudos to JPAC. Peggy Germaine plans to produce a documentary about her uncle in honor of her mother. We anxiously await her film.
USS Oklahoma
December 8, 1941 photo of USS Oklahoma.
From the DoD: Pearl Harbor Sailor from WWII Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman missing in action from World War II has been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
He is U.S. Navy Fireman Third Class Gerald G. Lehman, of Hancock, Mich. He will be buried Saturday in Hancock.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, the battleship USS Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits and capsized. As a result, 429 sailors and Marines died. Following the attack, 36 of these servicemen were identified and the remaining 393 were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In 2003, an independent researcher contacted the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) with information he believed indicated that one of the USS Oklahoma casualties who was buried as an unknown could be positively identified. After reviewing the case, JPAC exhumed the casket and discovered that it contained Lehman’s remains.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of his sister and nieces -- in the identification of Lehman’s remains.
More than 400,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II died. At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover, identify and bury approximately 79,000 as known persons. They include those buried with honor as unknowns, those lost at sea, and those missing in action. That number also includes the 1,100 sailors entombed in the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Today, more than 72,000 Americans remain unaccounted-for from WW II.
December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind. Its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories.
All of the U.S. fatalities can be seen here and here. They all had loved ones, families and friends. The DoD news releases are here. I Got the News Today is intended to honor, respect and remind. Click the IGTNT tags below for previous diaries.
Click the IGTNT tags to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by monkeybiz, noweasels, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, a girl in MI, Spam Nunn, JeNoCo, Janos Nation, True Blue Majority, CalNM, Wide Awake in Kentucky, MsWings, and me, Sandy on Signal.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.
Thank you to professional photographer, Tracy Knausse, for allowing me to use these beautiful pictures.