thedrifter
07-02-07, 07:35 AM
A few good stories sought
CHRISSY VICK
July 2, 2007 - 12:59AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Pfc. Eugene O. Moore was trapped by 65 Japanese in his tank on Gavutu Island while fighting in World War II in the South Pacific in 1942.The rest of his crew was shot or killed when a grenade was tossed into the tank. Moore was seized by the Japanese and “knocked down, beaten, kicked, jabbed with a pitch-fork, stabbed, then picked up and bounced off the side of the tank and left for dead.”
Amazingly, he survived to tell about it.Moore’s story, written by a Marine Corps combat corre-spondent, appeared Oct. 15, 1942, in the New River Pioneer — the newspaper for the New River Air Station, which at the time was called the “New Riv-er Marine Barracks.”It’s a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Marine Corps, and something that Col. Darrell Thacker Jr. feels is im-portant to the base. He hopes to preserve items like the 1942 newspaper that relate to New River Air Station.“I’m a history major by background,” said Thacker, the commanding officer of New River. “Part of our culture and lore is history as a band of Marines.”While submitting the sta-tion’s annual historical pack-age to the headquarters of the Marine Corps, something that is a yearly requirement, he be-gan to realize New River’s his-tory was scattered all over the base and beyond.“It just became very discon-certing that is was scattered,” Thacker said.
“We ought to know what our history is as an installation.”Thacker knew then what he wanted to do — resurrect the station’s historical program. He designated Staff Sgt. Aman-da Robinson, the staff noncom-missioned officer in charge of combat camera, as the base historian.Robinson has spent the last few months making phone calls and traveling all around New River to collect any historical pieces about the air station she could find. So far, her work has yielded hundreds of old photos, weapons from previous wars and even a reel used for train-ing Marines from the previous base theater.Most of the items are from the 1950s to today.But Robinson is now making an appeal to the community.“My vision is to make sure what I start here really sets the stage for what’s to come and what we do,” Robinson said. “What I don’t want is to start something and it dies. It’s im-portant because if it wasn’t documented, there would be no history.”
Ellie
CHRISSY VICK
July 2, 2007 - 12:59AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Pfc. Eugene O. Moore was trapped by 65 Japanese in his tank on Gavutu Island while fighting in World War II in the South Pacific in 1942.The rest of his crew was shot or killed when a grenade was tossed into the tank. Moore was seized by the Japanese and “knocked down, beaten, kicked, jabbed with a pitch-fork, stabbed, then picked up and bounced off the side of the tank and left for dead.”
Amazingly, he survived to tell about it.Moore’s story, written by a Marine Corps combat corre-spondent, appeared Oct. 15, 1942, in the New River Pioneer — the newspaper for the New River Air Station, which at the time was called the “New Riv-er Marine Barracks.”It’s a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Marine Corps, and something that Col. Darrell Thacker Jr. feels is im-portant to the base. He hopes to preserve items like the 1942 newspaper that relate to New River Air Station.“I’m a history major by background,” said Thacker, the commanding officer of New River. “Part of our culture and lore is history as a band of Marines.”While submitting the sta-tion’s annual historical pack-age to the headquarters of the Marine Corps, something that is a yearly requirement, he be-gan to realize New River’s his-tory was scattered all over the base and beyond.“It just became very discon-certing that is was scattered,” Thacker said.
“We ought to know what our history is as an installation.”Thacker knew then what he wanted to do — resurrect the station’s historical program. He designated Staff Sgt. Aman-da Robinson, the staff noncom-missioned officer in charge of combat camera, as the base historian.Robinson has spent the last few months making phone calls and traveling all around New River to collect any historical pieces about the air station she could find. So far, her work has yielded hundreds of old photos, weapons from previous wars and even a reel used for train-ing Marines from the previous base theater.Most of the items are from the 1950s to today.But Robinson is now making an appeal to the community.“My vision is to make sure what I start here really sets the stage for what’s to come and what we do,” Robinson said. “What I don’t want is to start something and it dies. It’s im-portant because if it wasn’t documented, there would be no history.”
Ellie