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thedrifter
05-26-08, 08:30 AM
Captain's bars travel across 3 generations
By BDN Staff
Monday, May 26, 2008 - Bangor Daily News


This Memorial Day, I’m thinking of three generations of U.S. Marines in the Towle family, although only one of the three is deceased.

Fred Towle, who was in the Junior ROTC program at Bangor High School, joined the Marines in 1941. Refused the first time around because he was underweight, he turned to chopping logs and eating a lot of bananas to build himself up.

He had figured on serving in Europe, but instead found himself with landing parties at Guadalcanal and Bougainville in the Pacific before being wounded on Guam in 1944. He returned to service at Iwo Jima and also served in Korea. He received two Purple Hearts.

Towle’s service included many years with the Explosive Ordnance Division, doing work that included defusing many types of ammunition — including chemical — from here to Japan. He died in 1988 of leukemia.

Fred was a Bangor boy, descended from the Irish Toole family that came first to Prince Edward Island. His military service is detailed by E. Louise (Smith) Towle, his wife, in "The Smiths of Madison County, Virginia and Their Ancestors."

Their son Joseph enlisted in the Marines in 1962 and served as a radar technician and acting platoon commander in Vietnam. He later did flight training and went back to Vietnam as a fighter pilot.

Joseph’s son Jonathan, also is a Marine, and became a helicopter pilot.

In 2001, while on Okinawa, Jonathan was promoted to captain. His dad, Joseph, sent him his own captain’s bars, which originally had belonged to Jonathan’s grandfather Fred.

Jonathan Towle served in Kuwait in 2003, and Iraq in 2004. He earned his own Purple Heart on Veterans Day 2004 when the Cobra helicopter he was flying was hit by a surface-to-air missile. He landed the aircraft safely, saving not only the crew but nearby "friendly forces." He now serves in Virginia and was promoted to major last year.

Three generations of U.S. Marines — one set of captain’s bars.

Ellie