Dr. T and Teatime
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Playlist for Stillwell, Indiana
Mario Lanza, Earthbound
Ted Weems & His Orchestra, I Still Get A Thrill(1930)
Kitty Wells It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (1952)
Coleman Hawkins Well, All Right Then (1937)
Erroll Garner Trio My Heart Stood Still (1950)
Woody Herman & His Orchestra Still The Bluebird Sings (1939)
Billy Eckstine & His Orchestra In The Still Of The Night (1946)
Louis Prima And His New Orleans Gang I Still Want You (1934)
Judy Perkins The Moon Still Shines On The Moonshine Still (1949)
Mills Blue Rhythm Band Everything Is Still Okay(1936)
Rudy Vallee I'm Still Caring (1929)
Fontane Sisters Still (1956)
Django Reinhardt In The Still Of The Night (1936)
Don Cherry I'm Still A King To You (1956)
Red Norvo And His Orchestra I Get Along Without You Very Well Vocal by Terry Allen (1939)
Dickie Wells & His Orchestra Dickie Wells Blues (1937)
Leadbelly Ain't Goin' Down To The Well No Mo-go Down Old Han (1939)
Rosemary Clooney And Harry James It Might As Well Be Spring (1952)
Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra Well All Right (1939)
Supertramp Bloody Well Right
Thelonious Monk Well, You Needn't
Charlotte Martin, Empty Wells
Mary Wells, Laughing Boy
Stan Getz, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto - It Might as Well Be Spring
Wells, Robert W. - 35330067 - Cpl. - 5307th - November 1, 1996
Bobby Wells died last week. He was vetteran of WWII, not your ordinary soldier, but one of Merrill's Marauders. In August 1943 at the "Quebec Conference", President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and other allied leaders decided that an American Long Range Penetration Mission behind the Japanese Lines in Burma was needed to destroy the Japanese supply lines and communications and to play havoc with the enemy forces while an attempt was made to reopen the much needed Burma Road. President Roosevelt issued a Presidential call for volunteers for "A Dangerous and Hazardous Mission". The call was answered by approximately 3,000 American soldiers. The volunteers came from State side units, from the jungles of Panama and Trinidad they came, from the campaigns of Guadalcanal, New Guinea, New Georgia they came, to answer the call, some battle scarred, some new to the ways of war, each different but with one thing in common. They Answered The Call.
The Unit was officially designated as the "5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)" Code Name: "GALAHAD", later it became popularly known as "MERRILL'S MARAUDERS" named after its leader, Brigadier General Frank Merrill. Formed into six combat teams (400 per team),color-coded Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange and Khaki, two teams to a Battalion, the rest formed the H.Q. and Air Transport Commands.
After preliminary training operations were undertaken in great secrecy in the jungles of Central India, the Marauders began the long march up the Ledo Road and over the outlying ranges of the Himalayan Mountains into Burma. The Marauders with no tanks or heavy artillery to support them, walked over 1,000 miles through extremely dense and almost impenetrable jungles and came out with glory.
In Five major (WALAWBUM, SHADUZUP, INKANGAHTAWNG, NHPUM GA, & MYITKYINA) and thirty minor engagements, they defeated the veteran soldiers of the Japanese 18th Division (Conquerors of Singapore and Malaya) who vastly outnumbered the Marauders. Always moving to the rear of the main forces of the Japanese the Marauders completely disrupted the enemy supply and communication lines, and climaxed their behind the lines operations with the capture of Myitkyina Airfield, the only all-weather airfield in Northern Burma.
The attack on Myitkyina was the climax to four months of marching and combat in the Burma jungles. No other American force except the First Marine Division, which took and held Guadalcanal for four months, has had as much uninterrupted jungle fighting service as Merrill's Marauders. But no other American force anywhere had marched as far, fought as continuously or had to display such endurance, as the swift-moving, hard-hitting foot soldiers, of Merrill's Marauders
When the Marauders attacked Myitkyina they had behind them over 800 miles of marching over jungle and mountain roads and tracks. They had to carry all their equipment and supplies on their backs and on the backs of pack mules. Re-supplied by air drops the Marauders often had to make a clearing in the thick jungle to receive the supplies.
Every wounded Marauder was evacuated, an extraordinary feat in itself. Each wounded Marauder had to be carried on a makeshift stretcher (usually made from bamboo and field jackets or shirts) by his comrades until an evacuation point was reached. These evacuation points where mostly small jungle village's, where the Marauders would then have to hack out a landing strip for the small Piper Cub Evac. Planes. The brave sergeant-pilots of the air-rescue unit would then land and take off in these very hazardous conditions, removing every seriously wounded Marauder one at a time. The small planes, stripped of all equipment except a compass, had room for the pilot and one stretcher.
At the end of their campaign all remaining Marauders still in action were evacuated to hospitals suffering from tropical diseases, exhaustion, and malnutrition or as the tags on their battered uniforms said "A.O.E." (accumulation of everything).
I'll never fergit da poem dat Bob read last veterans day. He was havin's lot a trouble walkin' but he read dis poem wid a proud salute.
At Myitkyina today they lie at rest
There were soldiers all and gave their best
They fought and died in days of rain
And preyed for sun that never came.
Through mud they crawled to find their foe
They cursed and swore but on they go
As days went by and night fell
They all slept on the walls of hell.
Artillery shells with their melody of death
Whizzed by with each and every breath
As dawn came to light the earth
Amid sniper fire through dirt
In falling rain they fought on
Hope to live by those had gone.
Myitkyina has fallen at last
They would be glad to know of the finished task
But the trails are filled with yankee blood
Of gallant men who fought died in Burma mud
Courageous men these, they fought and fell
Bless them all, God; treat them well.
Same to you, Bob.
