thedrifter
10-17-08, 05:42 AM
Airport hall named for WWII hero
by: D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
10/17/2008 12:00 AM
Tulsa International Airport's center terminal Great Hall is being renamed "Pfc. Albert E. Schwab Hall" in honor of the World War II hero from Tulsa who posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Trustees of the Tulsa Airport Authority on Thursday approved the recommendation of the Airport Cultural Advisory Group to rename the Great Hall.
Matt Stiner, a veteran affairs officer for Mayor Kathy Taylor and a member of the Marine Corps from 2000 to 2004, told the board he became familiar with Schwab's story while stationed at Camp Schwab on Okinawa.
A 2000 graduate of Broken Arrow High School, Stiner said he spent "some of the most miserable days of my life" at the Marines' Jungle Warfare Training Center at Camp Schwab.
"I wasn't familiar with Pfc. Schwab. I didn't know he was from Tulsa," Stiner said. "But every time I wanted liberty to go off base, they would stop you and make you recite half his (Medal of Honor) citation. It took me half a day to memorize it."
Albert Earnest Schwab was born July 17, 1920, in Washington, D.C. His family moved to Tulsa when he was young, and he graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1938. He was inducted into the Marine Corps on May 12, 1944. He attended Marine boot camp training at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. He joined the 1st Marine Division at Pavuvu Island in the Pacific and was assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
On Dec. 24, 1944, Schwab was promoted to Private First Class. In February 1945, he and the 1st Division embarked for maneuvers that eventually led to a landing on Okinawa on Easter Sunday, April 1.
Schwab, a flame thrower operator with Headquarters Company, drew the attention of famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle just days before both were killed in separate actions by Japanese fire.
One day, in mid-April, Pyle strode past Schwab's position wearing a coat with "NAVY" stenciled on the back.
Later, as Pyle wrote in one of his last columns, Schwab said, "You know, when you first showed up we saw that big 'NAVY' stenciled on your back and after you passed, I said to the others, 'That guy's an admiral. Look at the old gray-haired bastard. He's been in the Navy all his life. He'll get a medal out of this, sure as hell.' "
Pyle wrote that Schwab was a flame thrower, and "flame throwers have to be rugged guys, for the apparatus they carry weighs about 75 pounds and also they are very much addicted to getting shot at by the enemy."
Pyle knew too well.
On May 7, three weeks after Pyle was killed on a nearby island by a Japanese sniper, Schwab's company was pinned down in a valley by a Japanese machine gun.
According to the Medal of Honor citation by President Harry S. Truman, Schwab, "unable to flank the enemy emplacement because of steep cliffs on either side, advanced up the face of the ridge in bold defiance of the intense barrage and skillfully directing the fire of his flame thrower, quickly demolished the hostile gun position, thereby enabling his company to occupy the ridge."
But Schwab wasn't through. The Medal of Honor citation continues:
"Suddenly, a second Japanese machine gun opened fire, killing or wounding several Marines with its initial burst. Pfc. Schwab elected to continue his one-man assault despite a diminished supply of fuel for his flame thrower. Cool and indomitable, he moved forward in the face of the direct concentration of hostile fire, relentlessly closed the enemy position and attacked. Although severely wounded Pfc. Schwab had succeeded in destroying two highly strategic Japanese gun positions during a critical stage of the operation."
The Medal of Honor was presented to Schwab's 3-year-old son at Boulder Park in Tulsa on Memorial Day 1946.
Schwab's body was returned to the United States and buried with full military honors at Memorial Park, Tulsa, on Feb. 27, 1949.
On Oct. 3, 1959, a Marine camp constructed on Okinawa was named Camp Schwab in honor of the fallen Tulsan.
"I was a Marine at Okinawa," Stiner said. "It took me half a day to memorize his citation, and I did it, because I wanted liberty."
D.R. Stewart 581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com
Ellie
by: D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
10/17/2008 12:00 AM
Tulsa International Airport's center terminal Great Hall is being renamed "Pfc. Albert E. Schwab Hall" in honor of the World War II hero from Tulsa who posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Trustees of the Tulsa Airport Authority on Thursday approved the recommendation of the Airport Cultural Advisory Group to rename the Great Hall.
Matt Stiner, a veteran affairs officer for Mayor Kathy Taylor and a member of the Marine Corps from 2000 to 2004, told the board he became familiar with Schwab's story while stationed at Camp Schwab on Okinawa.
A 2000 graduate of Broken Arrow High School, Stiner said he spent "some of the most miserable days of my life" at the Marines' Jungle Warfare Training Center at Camp Schwab.
"I wasn't familiar with Pfc. Schwab. I didn't know he was from Tulsa," Stiner said. "But every time I wanted liberty to go off base, they would stop you and make you recite half his (Medal of Honor) citation. It took me half a day to memorize it."
Albert Earnest Schwab was born July 17, 1920, in Washington, D.C. His family moved to Tulsa when he was young, and he graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1938. He was inducted into the Marine Corps on May 12, 1944. He attended Marine boot camp training at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. He joined the 1st Marine Division at Pavuvu Island in the Pacific and was assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
On Dec. 24, 1944, Schwab was promoted to Private First Class. In February 1945, he and the 1st Division embarked for maneuvers that eventually led to a landing on Okinawa on Easter Sunday, April 1.
Schwab, a flame thrower operator with Headquarters Company, drew the attention of famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle just days before both were killed in separate actions by Japanese fire.
One day, in mid-April, Pyle strode past Schwab's position wearing a coat with "NAVY" stenciled on the back.
Later, as Pyle wrote in one of his last columns, Schwab said, "You know, when you first showed up we saw that big 'NAVY' stenciled on your back and after you passed, I said to the others, 'That guy's an admiral. Look at the old gray-haired bastard. He's been in the Navy all his life. He'll get a medal out of this, sure as hell.' "
Pyle wrote that Schwab was a flame thrower, and "flame throwers have to be rugged guys, for the apparatus they carry weighs about 75 pounds and also they are very much addicted to getting shot at by the enemy."
Pyle knew too well.
On May 7, three weeks after Pyle was killed on a nearby island by a Japanese sniper, Schwab's company was pinned down in a valley by a Japanese machine gun.
According to the Medal of Honor citation by President Harry S. Truman, Schwab, "unable to flank the enemy emplacement because of steep cliffs on either side, advanced up the face of the ridge in bold defiance of the intense barrage and skillfully directing the fire of his flame thrower, quickly demolished the hostile gun position, thereby enabling his company to occupy the ridge."
But Schwab wasn't through. The Medal of Honor citation continues:
"Suddenly, a second Japanese machine gun opened fire, killing or wounding several Marines with its initial burst. Pfc. Schwab elected to continue his one-man assault despite a diminished supply of fuel for his flame thrower. Cool and indomitable, he moved forward in the face of the direct concentration of hostile fire, relentlessly closed the enemy position and attacked. Although severely wounded Pfc. Schwab had succeeded in destroying two highly strategic Japanese gun positions during a critical stage of the operation."
The Medal of Honor was presented to Schwab's 3-year-old son at Boulder Park in Tulsa on Memorial Day 1946.
Schwab's body was returned to the United States and buried with full military honors at Memorial Park, Tulsa, on Feb. 27, 1949.
On Oct. 3, 1959, a Marine camp constructed on Okinawa was named Camp Schwab in honor of the fallen Tulsan.
"I was a Marine at Okinawa," Stiner said. "It took me half a day to memorize his citation, and I did it, because I wanted liberty."
D.R. Stewart 581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com
Ellie