1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

I think I overwhelmed the system a bit. Please look for pages 1 and 2 before you review the photos here. They will be a bit out of sequence if you don't take the extra time.

This is planned to be a series of photos taken today at Fort Rosecrans on Point Loma, San Diego. They won't be in exact chronological order.

I started at just after sunrise and continued through much of the day. Although I have more than a 1000 photos altogether, this will be some select shots.

There are two shots of just ONE of hundreds of veteran motorcycle riders paying tribute to fallen comrades today.

When you get to the ones of the children, you will discover that the kids were working without guidance or instructions -- they were just Being Kids, and they left me in tears.

The three shots of the elder Japanese woman were almost accidental. She seemed lost, looking for a cherished name, . . . the look on her face when she finally found what she was seeking touched my heart.

The remainder should be pretty much self explanatory showing the magnitude of the cemetery and the huge number of men and women who have sacrificed everything for our county, and for you and I.

As sincerely as it is possible to say this: Thank YOU to each of you who have served in the Military.

Thank You for following along so long, and for allowing me to share these with each of you.

lilac

Excellent.

koalaroo Loc: Gold Coast, Australia

Very very special.

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

I appreciate you taking the time to come look at these.

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

Coming from an Aussie, that is a real compliment. Thank you for looking.

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

Perhaps this will makes it easier for you folks to see the entire series.

Page 1: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-213966-1.html

Page 2: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-213970-1.html

Page 3: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-213972-1.html

Cattreasure

Great series

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. I assume you have looked at all three pages, right?

Cattreasure

Yes, I did. The National Cemetery pictures are excellent as are the children arranging the rocks. (my favorites)

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

The kids had me so choked up I could hardly take pictures, and they never even knew I was there. There were VERY focused.

All 24 of these photos were taken at the National Cemetery, all hand-held, and all were taken with a Canon 50D with my trusty 70-200mm f/4L -- the Non IS version.

Cattreasure

Good job. I have never photographed in a National Cemetery. Lots of other small cemeteries. I am on Findagrave.com. For some reason, I seem to volunteer for small defunct cemeteries. I must like a mystery and a challenge.

dragonswing Loc: Pa

I will always remember how I felt when I saw the traveling Viet Nam Wall Memorial. So many names. What I found disturbing was that I was told that if a wounded soldier was evaced out to a hospital outside of Nam and then died, his family had to petition to get his name put on the Wall because that soldier did not die in Nam. I still have my POW bracelet. His body was never found.
Thank you for your tribute. Very touching.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

1stJedi.......

I received your PM a few days ago, but I lost track of the one with the links in it; I just found it tonight, fortunately.

I not only appreciate you sharing these photos with us, but I especially appreciate you taking the pains to get up so early and labor all day on this very worthwhile effort; I have just finished looking at all three pages; I'm especially struck by the next to the last image; I was trying very hard to read the date of Ensign Herbert C. Jones death; I'm fairly certain that the date in 1941, Pearl Harbor Day; So Ensign Jones was one of the real hero's of that fateful day. This is one M.O.H. recipient whose story I haven't read about before.

Being alerted to this photo tribute to our fallen hero's because of my being a member of an online forum is something of a double coincidence. It's a fairly lengthy story, but I'll attempt to touch on just the highlights;

The story starts during WW 2; At the "Old Wright Field" in Dayton, Ohio, the USAAF had a big air show in order to promote the sale of war bonds. The Military had brought either 2 or 3 of the top air aces of the war to Wright Field, and each War Hero was air born in the type of plane they had flown in combat. Also taking part in the air show was an experimental fighter plane of which only three copies had been made; this plane had been flying around near the field for maybe a month or two prior to the air show, and even though it was considered to be "top secret", every took to calling it the "Flying Goose" because the propeller was on the back end, the wings near the back end, and it had canards on the nose section! At the time, I was 13 yrs old, and my sister and her husband lived within sight of the field, so I spent a lot of my time staying at their house, as I loved watching all of the military planes flying around; My brother-in-law worked at the field, doing sheet metal work on all kinds of planes. He and my sister had taken me to the field that day to watch the air show. Near the end of the show, four planes were to fly past the crowd, one after the other; the first plane to fly past was to be the Flying Goose, followed by Major Richard Bong, (the top air ace of WW2 with 40 victories ); Maj. Bong was flying his famous P-38, and was to be followed by Captain Dominic Gentile, in a P-51 Mustang. Another war ace was in the air in the "Airacomet" which was the first U.S. Jet, but it wasn't flying with the other 3 planes.

Just as the Flying Goose passed by the crowd, disaster struck… as the pilot attempted to turn and climb, the Goose went down instead of up, impacted with the ground, bounced back up maybe 15 or 20 ft and became a huge fireball; as the plane reached the perimeter fence, it struck the top of the fence, then went over the road beyond, and burning gasoline from the plane engulfed a car on the road, killing 4 or the five occupants.

At this time, there were two things that I didn't know; the official name of the experimental plane, and the name of the pilot who lost his life in the crash.

60 some odd years later, while puttering around on the internet, I found everything out! The plane was the XP-55 Ascender, (referred to by people in the Air Force as the "Ass Ender", because it looked like it was flying backwards.

At this point, (maybe 3 years ago now ) I was a member on "Airliners.net" which is the biggest aviation photography data base on the internet. There are a number of forums on A.net one of which is "Military Aviation"; When I found out about all of this information about this plane, (and I neglected to mention, but the pilot flying it was Captain William Glasgow, from Niagara Falls, N.Y. ) Captain Glasgow was a REAL war hero! Silver Star, Air Medal, Purple Heart, all during the air war over N. Africa, then he was shot down over Italy, captured by the Germans, escaped a week later, and made it back to his unit, (just barely! )

Now that I had all of this information, I did some more research, typed up a story about it and posted it on Military Aviation; (about two years ago )

Here comes the incredible part.......about two months ago, I received an email from some one whose name I wasn't familiar with; I won't mention the name out of respect for privacy. ) But I will reveal how this person fits into this story; The Late Captain William Glasgow, who lost his life in the crash that I eye-witnessed 67 years ago, was the brother of this man's father.

It turns out that he has been working with an Air Museum in Niagara Falls, N.Y. to create a fitting memorial for Captain Glasgow; he had been searching the internet for TWO YEARS, attempting to find...."some one", "any one"....who had any knowledge, or any information about the fatal accident at Wright Field, in 1944. And he found me, because I had posted that story on an online forum. Later this summer, my wife and I have been invited to attend the dedication of the William Glasgow Memorial at the Air Museum in Niagara Falls.

One more thing that I've discovered while doing the research for all of this; Major Richard Bong, the Top Air Ace of WW2, was also a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

I have a special place in my heart for those who seek to bring honor to our fallen Service Men and Women. Thank you for reading.

1stJedi Loc: Southern Orange County

Thanks for checking this collection out Gitzo. Thank you also for the story -- it makes me wish I could attend that dedication. I appreciate your feedback on my efforts. This amounts to my first effort at Photo Journalism, although I didn't realize that was what I was doing until after the fact.

I would also welcome your thoughts about the quality of the photos themselves.

Ensign Jones did indeed lose his life at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I actually like the fact that the date is a bit obscured . . . it makes folks take a hard look to be certain about what they are viewing.