thedrifter
09-17-07, 08:45 AM
Thanks await WWII veterans
Marines, Army medic are parade marshals
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 16, 2007
North Prairie - It's been awhile since Earl Honeyager, a Waukesha Marine who helped invade Iwo Jima, participated in a parade.
To be exact, it was 35 pounds and 61 years ago.
Honeyager wasn't wearing his Marine uniform Sunday at North Prairie's Harvest Festival parade because he doesn't know what happened to it. And if he knew where it was, it wouldn't fit anyway. So the 86-year-old grandfather wore a red hat loaded down with military commendations including a pin depicting the flag raisers on Iwo Jima.
Although he marched in the last one, a World War II victory parade in Waukesha in 1946, he rode in the back of a black Lincoln Continental convertible Sunday between Marcel Brow, a Marine and Pearl Harbor veteran, and William Pronold, an Army medic who tended the wounded during the D-Day invasion.
The veterans were a bit rusty as parade marshals at first but quickly got the hang of waving and smiling as they acknowledged the cheering throng that simply wanted to say thank you.
"It's really neat. It was a surprise" to be asked to be a parade marshal, Honeyager said as the Mukwonago High School band warmed up nearby before the parade began.
Brow, too, was surprised: "I'm sort of a shy, retiring guy, but it feels good."
Brow, 86, had just finished eating breakfast when he heard loud noises on Dec. 7, 1941, and looked up into the skies over Pearl Harbor.
"We were used to the planes practicing dive bombing. The engines sounded different, though. Then we realized it wasn't practice," said Brow, who lives in Watertown. He grabbed his rifle and began firing at the Japanese planes flying overhead.
He wasn't credited with bringing down any Japanese planes that day because firing his rifle at them was more of a "confidence builder," said Brow, whose brother Roy was killed in the battle of St. Lo in France.
Brow fought on Guadalcanal and was on Guam, preparing to invade Japan, when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Pronold, 92, who worked on the stamping line at Waukesha Motor Co. for 43 years, came ashore on one of the hundreds of landing craft ferrying the military onto the D-Day beaches. The Genesee man took care of the many men wounded on that day and for the next days and weeks and months as the allies moved through France and into Germany, sometimes going without sleep for several days.
He wasn't wounded, though he had some close calls.
"I remember once I was walking down the street, and I heard a crack go by and it was a bullet. I think it may have been in Germany. I heard it go by, it made a zinging noise. I had to jump behind a big tree in the street," said Pronold, who married his sweetheart 10 days after returning home from the war.
Pronold broke his hip a few weeks ago. He didn't know if he would be able to attend the parade, but he made it and sat in the car with a blanket over his legs.
Before the Lincoln Continental pulled onto Main St. in North Prairie, several members of the U.S. Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Center Band in crisp blue and white uniforms stopped to say a few words to the veterans, white gloves grasping gnarled hands.
"Sir, thank you for everything you've done for us," said Master Sgt. Grady May, bandmaster of the 48-member musical group, shaking Honeyager's hand.
Like Honeyager, May's grandfather was on Iwo Jima.
"Every time I get a chance to meet a World War II veteran, I do. I know it sounds trite, but what Tom Brokaw said was true. They're the greatest generation, and if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here. It's like talking to history," May said.
One minute after noon, the sound of two cannons boomed and soon a North Prairie squad car slowly drove down Main St. before turning onto Highway 59, followed by motorcycle officers, an American Legion honor guard and a flag-draped caisson pulled by two horses.
Hundreds lined the parade route - a very good turnout considering the Packers game started at noon - sitting on blankets and lawn chairs with children in strollers and dogs on leashes. A few cradled radios tuned in to the football game.
As the black Lincoln Continental crept along and parade goers saw the signs with the veterans' names and the famous battles they took part in, they cheered, clapped and waved their hands and small American flags. A few saluted. One woman stood up and yelled, "Thank you for your service."
Pronold, Honeyager and Brow smiled and waved back.
Ellie
Marines, Army medic are parade marshals
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 16, 2007
North Prairie - It's been awhile since Earl Honeyager, a Waukesha Marine who helped invade Iwo Jima, participated in a parade.
To be exact, it was 35 pounds and 61 years ago.
Honeyager wasn't wearing his Marine uniform Sunday at North Prairie's Harvest Festival parade because he doesn't know what happened to it. And if he knew where it was, it wouldn't fit anyway. So the 86-year-old grandfather wore a red hat loaded down with military commendations including a pin depicting the flag raisers on Iwo Jima.
Although he marched in the last one, a World War II victory parade in Waukesha in 1946, he rode in the back of a black Lincoln Continental convertible Sunday between Marcel Brow, a Marine and Pearl Harbor veteran, and William Pronold, an Army medic who tended the wounded during the D-Day invasion.
The veterans were a bit rusty as parade marshals at first but quickly got the hang of waving and smiling as they acknowledged the cheering throng that simply wanted to say thank you.
"It's really neat. It was a surprise" to be asked to be a parade marshal, Honeyager said as the Mukwonago High School band warmed up nearby before the parade began.
Brow, too, was surprised: "I'm sort of a shy, retiring guy, but it feels good."
Brow, 86, had just finished eating breakfast when he heard loud noises on Dec. 7, 1941, and looked up into the skies over Pearl Harbor.
"We were used to the planes practicing dive bombing. The engines sounded different, though. Then we realized it wasn't practice," said Brow, who lives in Watertown. He grabbed his rifle and began firing at the Japanese planes flying overhead.
He wasn't credited with bringing down any Japanese planes that day because firing his rifle at them was more of a "confidence builder," said Brow, whose brother Roy was killed in the battle of St. Lo in France.
Brow fought on Guadalcanal and was on Guam, preparing to invade Japan, when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Pronold, 92, who worked on the stamping line at Waukesha Motor Co. for 43 years, came ashore on one of the hundreds of landing craft ferrying the military onto the D-Day beaches. The Genesee man took care of the many men wounded on that day and for the next days and weeks and months as the allies moved through France and into Germany, sometimes going without sleep for several days.
He wasn't wounded, though he had some close calls.
"I remember once I was walking down the street, and I heard a crack go by and it was a bullet. I think it may have been in Germany. I heard it go by, it made a zinging noise. I had to jump behind a big tree in the street," said Pronold, who married his sweetheart 10 days after returning home from the war.
Pronold broke his hip a few weeks ago. He didn't know if he would be able to attend the parade, but he made it and sat in the car with a blanket over his legs.
Before the Lincoln Continental pulled onto Main St. in North Prairie, several members of the U.S. Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Center Band in crisp blue and white uniforms stopped to say a few words to the veterans, white gloves grasping gnarled hands.
"Sir, thank you for everything you've done for us," said Master Sgt. Grady May, bandmaster of the 48-member musical group, shaking Honeyager's hand.
Like Honeyager, May's grandfather was on Iwo Jima.
"Every time I get a chance to meet a World War II veteran, I do. I know it sounds trite, but what Tom Brokaw said was true. They're the greatest generation, and if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here. It's like talking to history," May said.
One minute after noon, the sound of two cannons boomed and soon a North Prairie squad car slowly drove down Main St. before turning onto Highway 59, followed by motorcycle officers, an American Legion honor guard and a flag-draped caisson pulled by two horses.
Hundreds lined the parade route - a very good turnout considering the Packers game started at noon - sitting on blankets and lawn chairs with children in strollers and dogs on leashes. A few cradled radios tuned in to the football game.
As the black Lincoln Continental crept along and parade goers saw the signs with the veterans' names and the famous battles they took part in, they cheered, clapped and waved their hands and small American flags. A few saluted. One woman stood up and yelled, "Thank you for your service."
Pronold, Honeyager and Brow smiled and waved back.
Ellie