Pvt. Paul F. Riley, US Army WWII. KIA. Born in Cleveland, Ohio

Pvt. Paul F. Riley, US Army, 95th Infantry Division, KIA

Cleveland Veterans Memorial

Cleveland Veterans Memorial

Baseball Play of the Century

Baseball Play of the Century

National Anthem sung by the combined choirs of the service academies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE

Michael Corcoran, 8th US Cavalry, Medal of Honor recipient. Cleveland, Ohio

On the occasion of the dedication of a Medal of Honor stone at Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio
The family of Michael, Albert, James, Robert, Patti and Donna, we are delighted to have located you and be with you today. The Corcoran surname is found in ancient Irish annals. According to Edward MacLysaght, there are the Mac Corcrain sept (corcair purple), who are of the Ely O'Carroll country in County Offaly and there are the O Corcrain, who were an ecclesiastical family located near Lough Erne, County Fermangh.
Why have we gathered here today at Calvary Cemetery on behalf of one who bore the Corcoran name? Some would call these grounds a resting place for the dead. I look around me and see it is ground for the living.
In 1869, while Andrew Johnson was serving his last year as President, Michael Corcoran, a fellow 'Desert Rat,' served with the U.S. Army in the great Mojave Desert, territory of Arizona. It did not become a state until 1912. The United States at that time was younger, expanding westward to a place where the cultures of the Native American, and other Americans, clashed. Violence and savagery defined the borders
Military service in any desert is not easy duty. Back then it was even harder. Besides the dry heat of the day, the thirst, sudden nosebleeds and the surprising cold of the night, the troopers of the 8th Cavalry were confronted with the ever-present danger of violent death. In one of Corporal Corcoran's letters he wrote, "We had several fights with the Apache Indians this last winter. There is not a day but someone is shot here.....We had three men shot since we got here this spring."
The 8th Cavalry was up against the Apache; the name being a Zuni word meaning "enemy." Their own name for themselves was "Inde", or "the people." By 1869 Apaches were already veterans of fights against the Spanish Conquistadors and the Mexican Army. During Corporal Corcoran's military service the Apache nation was led by a man who has been called "a brilliant personal and charismatic leader, and immensely spiritual." We all know his name - Geronimo.
We don't know exactly what individual actions Corporal Corcoran took on that August day in 1869. We know he displayed courage, valor and unselfishness when he took action against an enemy of the day. Nonetheless, it tells us much about who Michael Corcoran was. In 1916 the government dropped 911 names from the roster of the Medal of Honor. Michael Corcoran's name was not one of them. His discharge papers simply say, "He was a good, sober and faithful soldier." His great-grandson Robert recalls that Michael enjoyed a cup on occasion.
We are here today because of our link to the past. The ancient Celts believed that death in this life meant birth into another life. And, consequently, they believed that birth into this life meant death from the other. While there can be no doubt Corporal Corcoran found himself in a situation that called upon this character and his military training, he didn't flee when danger presented itself. He respected himself and his "Band of Brothers.
General John P. Jumper, former Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, spoke to a graduating NCO Class at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. "The character we seek to define is the fire of conscience that burns within us and superintends our conduct over a lifetime. But character is out of vogue in this world, whose standards are set more by the culture of Beavis and Butthead or the Simpsons, than by the standards of, say, our founding fathers: like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. These men were truly unique. They transitioned easily from the pulpit, to the plowshare, to the musket. They wrote the history of their time with powerful words that will live forever: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers; and they used words we don't hear today, words that describe the supreme traits of virtue and character that inspired them."
The Irish, it is sometimes said, suffer from too much history. It could be equally stated that Americans suffer from too little. Corporal Corcoran's act of valor on that day so long ago speaks to us of character and individuality.
On Friday, May 31, 1889, twenty years after his actions in the desert, this loving father and husband again saw the need to take immediate action. Perhaps he heeded telegraphed warnings from Elias Unger, President of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Unger had warned that the old "South Fork Dam," fourteen miles up the Little Connemaugh River, might give away. The dam, 450 feet higher than Johnstown, held the 3-mile long Lake Connemaugh. At 3:15 pm it broke, sending a crescendo of 20 million tons of oily and muddy water rushing down the Connemaugh valley at forty miles per hour. Over 2,000 people died and thousands more were injured in what has become known as "the Johnstown Flood." Again, by his individual action, reputed physical strength and possiobly help from others, Michael Corcoran demonstrated his character by saving his family from injury or death by drowning. He moved them all to higher ground before the floodwaters devoured most of the city.
If we chose to further examine the character of Michael Corcoran we would first see the character of the parents who raised him. We would also see others who were a part of his life; brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. And we would see him in his descendents today.
Perhaps the energy created here today by our presence and our prayers, will reach the spirit of both Michael Corcoran and his spouse Johanna Culliton. Perhaps this energy will nourish their spirit... and ours as well.

Corporal James P. Brock, USMC. Born in Cleveland, Ohio

ON THE OCCASION OF THE RE-DEDICATION OF A BROOKLYN, OHIO PLAYGROUND IN THE NAME OF CORPORAL JAMES P. BROCK, USMC, VIETNAM KIA.
Sunday, July 27, 2008. 2:00 p.m.
Today is Brooklyn, Ohio’s 2008 Memorial Day. This playground is being re-dedicated to honor the memory and spirit of one of Brooklyn's own, Corporal James P. Brock. I am honored to be a part of this and I thank Mayor Patton for the opportunity to take the name of Corporal James P. Brock from a playground sign and bring him to life.
I first met Jim back in 1957 when we were both newcomer transferees to the halls of Benedictine High School. Other than my grade school friends attending ‘Benny', Jim was one of my first new friends there and I was on of his first friends there too. Like me, he was Irish-American. With his red hair, he resembled others in my family, brother Rodger and sisters Mary Jo and Jean.
After graduation, we saw each other on occasion and telephoned to stay in touch. Not long afterwards, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and I went into the Army. Once we were both home on leave at the same time but missed seeing each other. Instead, he chose to visit his sister in Cincinnati, Julie, who is Sister Julienne, a religious Sister.
During our service years, we continued to communicate. His letters followed me to Fort Hood in central Texas, the barren desert of the great Mojave that spanned New Mexico, California and Arizona, to the field near Berlin, Germany. My letters followed Jim to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Okinawa. In the autumn of 1965, his letters bore a new postmark - Vietnam.
Jim was happy that I had somehow missed being sent there and asked how I had "skated this mess." There was more than just a hint of frustration in the tone of the letters. The enemy was elusive; "you can't tell the cowboys from the Indians," he said, a reference to old American movies in which most cowboys we were portrayed as good people, and most Indians as bad people.
On December 9th and 10th, 1965, about 5 clicks northeast of Que Son (Khe San), F Co., 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines and E. Co., 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, lost eighteen of their own in an engagement with North Vietnamese Regulars. One of them, who we remember today, was a Brooklyn native and graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic Grade School. He became the first Clevelander killed in Vietnam.
Casualties of many wars were buried where they fell, or in graves in neighboring states or countries. I have prayed over some in American Military Cemeteries - outside Hamm, Luxembourg, where George Patton is rests with troops who fell during World War Two’s Battle of the Bulge. Also at Gettysburg, Antietam, Arlington and Calvary. Jim, however, was returned home.
Friends gathered at Chambers Funeral Home on Rocky River Drive to comfort his family and mourn our loss. Corporal Milton Fredrickson, stationed in San Francisco, accompanied the casket home to Cleveland. In his marine Dress Blue uniform, he stood ramrod straight next to flag-draped, closed casket. On his breast was a Purple Heart medal, awarded for wounds he had received in Vietnam.
December 31, 1965 dawned in typical Cleveland winter fashion - extremely cold with a gusty wind blowing off Lake Erie. After a Requiem Mass at St. Thomas More Church, over one hundred cars drove to Calvary Cemetery on the East Side. A Marine firing squad commanded by Staff Sergeant Louis Minter saluted their fallen comrade with a rifle volley that startled most of those present. It was followed by the haunting reverie of Taps, from a hidden bugler, then-14 year old James Ginley. Corporal Frederick son presented Corporal Brock's mother with a tri-folded US flag, "on behalf of a grateful nation." Clutching the flag, she threw herself over the gray casket and sobbed, "Oh, Jimmy." My heart was wrenched from my chest; I tasted the salt of my own tears.
I later heard Jim's younger brother, John, joined the Marine Corps, probably to avenge his brother's death. Surprisingly, he, too, was sent to Vietnam. Knowing of Jim's sacrifice, however, they kept him in Saigon. I'm surprised he got that far.
In 2006, Marine Corps veteran Corporal D.G. Marso wrote, “Jim was a wonderful friend and a great Marine. He was like a Big Brother to younger Marines in K Co, 3rd Bn, 2nd Marines, 1963-64. We wish we could have been there for you Jim.
Semper Fi, Brother. Cpl. D. G. Marso 1990351
Some things remain fresh as if they happened yesterday. Today, it is hard for me to believe it is the year 2008; all that seems so very recent. Maybe it is supposed to be that way - to remind us that forty-three years is not a long time after all in the loop that is life.
Visit his final resting place at home in Cleveland at Calvary Cemetery or at panel 4E6 on Washington’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Say a prayer not only for the repose of Corporal Brock’s soul but those of the other 58,195 names listed there. And hate war, not the warrior.
On that last day of 1965, it was still early in a war that would eventually claim so many more American and Allied lives. I now realize that most of us in Cleveland were in shock over Jim's death. And, in keeping with Irish warrior tradition, there should have been a piper at Calvary Cemetery that day.
On a recent Veterans’ Day, I returned to that gravesite for the first time since. With me were representatives from the Marine Corps League, American Legion, Polish Legion of American Veterans and the Cleveland Police and Fire Departments. And, this time, there was a piper.
An earlier version of this story titled The Day the Letters Stopped originally appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1995

Fr. Francis J. McManus, S.J., Born in Cleveland, Ohio

Seventy Catholic priests lost their lives in World War Two. Of the 37 Chaplains captured,  21 were Catholic. In the Pacific, most were serving  with Philippine Scouts or the regular Army. One was a Cleveland native, Francis J.  McManus, S.J.

Born to Bernard and Anna McManus, he was baptized at Immaculate Conception on Superior Avenue. In all probability he began his grade school education there and later transferred to Saint Agnes. A graduate from Cathedral Latin, he was later ordained in 1930 at the College Chapel, Canisianum, Innsbruck, Austria. In Cleveland he served as Assistant Pastor at St. Ignatius and St. Malachi. His last assignment before enlisting in the Navy in 1936 was at St. Mary, Lorain.   

His original assignment was in the Pacific as Chaplain on the submarine tender Caponus, formerly the Santa Leonora. It had been taken over by the Navy in 1921. When the war began in December, 1941, the ship was attacked by Japanese forces while anchored in Maravales Bay on Bataan.  Her ammunition magazine exploded causing many casualties. Fr. McManus “rushed to the blazing compartments, helped drag the living to safety, and administered Last Rites to the dying.””[i][ii] For his actions he was awarded the Silver Star, America’s third highest military decoration.

 

Prior to World War Two, the Philippines were a mission of the Society of Jesus’ New York Province.  During the war, the capture of Corregidor, an island in the entrance of Manila Bay, was the culmination of Japanese campaign for conquest of the Philippines. When it fell in April, 1942, about 20,000 American servicemen were captured. One of those was Fr. McManus.

 Fr. McManus was sent to a Japanese P.O.W. camp at Cabantuan, where it was estimated that 40 – 50 men died daily from torture, abuse, starvation and disease. While there Fr.  McManus often offered to work in place of sick men. Cabantuan would be memorialized later in the war when liberated in an operation by U.S. Army Rangers.

Another Ohio Chaplain, Celina native Fr. John A. Wilson, described McManus as “never down-hearted. He never complained. He had a keen sense of humor and was always good for a laugh. Both of us being from Ohio we spent a lot of time together.” 

During the autumn of 1944 the Japanese,  anticipating their loss of the Philippines, began shipping prisoners in unmarked “Hell ships” to Japan. Jammed into the holds, prisoners were deliberately killed through lack of water. These ships were regularly attacked and strafed by American combat aircraft or submarines. It was during such an attack in January, 1945, while the ship was anchored in Taco Bay, Formosa (now Taiwan),  that Father McManus was wounded. As reported in the Catholic Universe Bulletin in 1946, another Ohio Chaplain, Fr. John E. Duffy, wrote to Toledo Bishop Karl Alter and described Fr. McManus’ last days.

“On the death ride from Manila many strange things happened. When three bombs hit us in the forward hold while in Taco Bay, officers on all sides of me were killed. For three days none of us could get out of this hold and the Japs would give us no medical aid, but that’s too gruesome a story. Fr. Frank McManus was serious wounded at this time and died January 22, 1945 enroute to Maji.”  Fr. Duffy administered the last Sacraments. The Japanese immediately buried him at sea.

Fr. McManus was posthumously awarded  a Purple Heart , Legion of Merit and Silver Star in recognition of “heroism and intrepidity” in combat and distinguished service during the December 29^th attack., the latter being America’s  third highest award for valor.

Besides his parents, Fr. McManus was survived by a sister, Alice McManus Lane,  and brothers Richard J. and Edward J.

---

[i] “Blackrobe in Blue, the Naval Chaplaincy of John P. Foley, S.J.

[ii][ii]

FAILTE - to the website of Post #1 Irish American War Veterans in northeast Ohio

For God and Country we vow to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. As Irish-American veterans, our goal is to recognize and honor the contribution and memory of those of Irish descent who have distinguished themselves in military and civilian life.

Post #1 meets on a quarterly basis at different locations in northeast Ohio.

For more information about us send an e-mail to irishamericanwarveterans@yahoo.com, or call 440.221.2038 , or print mail the application to POB 670685, Northfield, Ohio 44067-0685..



JC Sullivan, U.S. Army, USAEUR
Commander Emeritus

Mike Friery
U.S. Army, USAEUR
First Vice Commander

Russell Davis, U.S. Army, Panama
Treasurer

Richard B. Masterson, U.S.Air Force
Recording Secretary

Kevin McGinty, U.S. Army
Sentinel

Owen and Martin Kilbane
Historians

Chaplain
tba