thedrifter
06-05-07, 06:47 AM
Retracing a path in history
Marine officer heads to Okinawa, where grandfather served
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
BY LARA BRENCKLE
Of Our Dillsburg Bureau
Marine 2nd Lt. Mary Nell, 24, left a training base in San Diego last week for a two-year stint as an adjutant to the 1st Marine Air Wing in Okinawa, Japan.
History is repeating itself in the Nell family.
More than 60 years ago, 23-year-old Charlie Nell, Mary's grandfather, landed on Hagushi Beach to take part in the Battle of Okinawa, the biggest battle of the Pacific Theater.
Mary Nell's assignment is less dangerous -- she'll be an adjutant, which is similar to a paralegal, for the 1st Marine Air Wing Division -- but no less meaningful.
Especially since she has another, more personal mission: searching for traces of the roads, bridges and walls where her grandfather fought as a member of 713th Flame-Throwing Tank Battalion.
In typical families, that kind of thing might seem like a destiny, mapped out over generations of fighting men and women. For the Nells, of Dillsburg, it's a bit different.
Mary's father, Carl, was adopted by the Nells as an 18-year-old who chose to stay with the family that fostered him through most of his childhood. The same is true of the Nells' second son, Rick.
The Nells said they became parents by a loving coincidence: They wanted to share Christmas one year with a child who needed a family.
They loved that child, Carl, so much that they took him in, the couple said. The same thing happened when Rick came to live with them.
Both boys eventually joined the Marines, Rick on active duty, Carl in the Reserve. They remain close to their parents, with Carl living in Warrington Twp. and Rick outside Gettysburg.
Mary Nell said she never thought about becoming part of her family's military history until a persuasive recruiter spoke to her before her graduation from Northern High School.
She was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 2006.
It's an academy tradition to give your first salute as a commissioned officer to someone special, and Nell, without hesitation, turned and saluted her grandfather.
After graduating, she decided to enter the Marines and, looking down the list of choices for stations, picked Okinawa as her second choice. Hawaii was first.
When the family got word, only then did Charlie Nell, 85, open up about the two years he spent as one of the first in the world to drive a flame-throwing tank.
He told his granddaughter the stories of his training around the U.S. and the amphibious landing on the beachhead.
"They sealed up the bottom and put two pipes up for the exhaust and air. Then we had a periscope this big," Charlie Nell said, holding his hands together in a small rectangle.
Grandfather and granddaughter pored over Charlie's original combat maps, making sure Mary knew how to find the spot outside Machinato where his tank came under enemy fire.
"We'd just crossed a little bridge," he remembered. "And they were firing anti-tank guns. They were getting kind of close because the tank was shaking, and then a bunch of dust came in. A shot hit the track, and the concussion knocked the escape hatch open.
"We all got out and got against this stone wall, waiting until the line moved further up and the recovery vehicle came."
Charlie Nell's company, which was attached to a Marine division, used the tanks to defoliate the jungle and shoot fiery trails into caves, rousting snipers and bombers from their nests.
"We'd have five guys walking with the tank," Charlie Nell said. "The Japanese had what we called satchel bombs. They were like those [suicide bombers] they have in Iraq."
It took the Allies 83 days -- from early April to late June 1945 -- to secure the island. The tanks, according to Army documents about the battalion, were instrumental in the Allied victory in Okinawa, which involved more than 584,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines.
Charlie and Romaine Nell said they are proud of their granddaughter's accomplishments.
Mary Nell is pretty proud of her grandfather, and the rest of her family, too.
"I think [the legacy of service] says we're people who enjoy the freedoms we have in this country," she said. "And we'll step up to protect them."
LARA BRENCKLE: 432-8374 or lbrenckle@patriot-news.com
Ellie
Marine officer heads to Okinawa, where grandfather served
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
BY LARA BRENCKLE
Of Our Dillsburg Bureau
Marine 2nd Lt. Mary Nell, 24, left a training base in San Diego last week for a two-year stint as an adjutant to the 1st Marine Air Wing in Okinawa, Japan.
History is repeating itself in the Nell family.
More than 60 years ago, 23-year-old Charlie Nell, Mary's grandfather, landed on Hagushi Beach to take part in the Battle of Okinawa, the biggest battle of the Pacific Theater.
Mary Nell's assignment is less dangerous -- she'll be an adjutant, which is similar to a paralegal, for the 1st Marine Air Wing Division -- but no less meaningful.
Especially since she has another, more personal mission: searching for traces of the roads, bridges and walls where her grandfather fought as a member of 713th Flame-Throwing Tank Battalion.
In typical families, that kind of thing might seem like a destiny, mapped out over generations of fighting men and women. For the Nells, of Dillsburg, it's a bit different.
Mary's father, Carl, was adopted by the Nells as an 18-year-old who chose to stay with the family that fostered him through most of his childhood. The same is true of the Nells' second son, Rick.
The Nells said they became parents by a loving coincidence: They wanted to share Christmas one year with a child who needed a family.
They loved that child, Carl, so much that they took him in, the couple said. The same thing happened when Rick came to live with them.
Both boys eventually joined the Marines, Rick on active duty, Carl in the Reserve. They remain close to their parents, with Carl living in Warrington Twp. and Rick outside Gettysburg.
Mary Nell said she never thought about becoming part of her family's military history until a persuasive recruiter spoke to her before her graduation from Northern High School.
She was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 2006.
It's an academy tradition to give your first salute as a commissioned officer to someone special, and Nell, without hesitation, turned and saluted her grandfather.
After graduating, she decided to enter the Marines and, looking down the list of choices for stations, picked Okinawa as her second choice. Hawaii was first.
When the family got word, only then did Charlie Nell, 85, open up about the two years he spent as one of the first in the world to drive a flame-throwing tank.
He told his granddaughter the stories of his training around the U.S. and the amphibious landing on the beachhead.
"They sealed up the bottom and put two pipes up for the exhaust and air. Then we had a periscope this big," Charlie Nell said, holding his hands together in a small rectangle.
Grandfather and granddaughter pored over Charlie's original combat maps, making sure Mary knew how to find the spot outside Machinato where his tank came under enemy fire.
"We'd just crossed a little bridge," he remembered. "And they were firing anti-tank guns. They were getting kind of close because the tank was shaking, and then a bunch of dust came in. A shot hit the track, and the concussion knocked the escape hatch open.
"We all got out and got against this stone wall, waiting until the line moved further up and the recovery vehicle came."
Charlie Nell's company, which was attached to a Marine division, used the tanks to defoliate the jungle and shoot fiery trails into caves, rousting snipers and bombers from their nests.
"We'd have five guys walking with the tank," Charlie Nell said. "The Japanese had what we called satchel bombs. They were like those [suicide bombers] they have in Iraq."
It took the Allies 83 days -- from early April to late June 1945 -- to secure the island. The tanks, according to Army documents about the battalion, were instrumental in the Allied victory in Okinawa, which involved more than 584,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines.
Charlie and Romaine Nell said they are proud of their granddaughter's accomplishments.
Mary Nell is pretty proud of her grandfather, and the rest of her family, too.
"I think [the legacy of service] says we're people who enjoy the freedoms we have in this country," she said. "And we'll step up to protect them."
LARA BRENCKLE: 432-8374 or lbrenckle@patriot-news.com
Ellie