126th Regimental Association Newsletter

126th Regimental Association August 2021 Newsletter

Fall Meeting and Dinner

Our annual meeting and dinner will once again be hosted by Tommy Brann’s on Saturday evening, October 2, 2021. This Wyoming landmark restaurant is at 4157 South Division, between 36th and 44th Streets. Our business meeting will begin at 5:00 pm followed by a social at 6 and dinner at 6:30. Cost per person is $20 and a cash bar is available. Check out the four-item menu on the enclosed reservation form, fill it out and mail it to Bill Sobotka as soon as possible, but not later than September 24. We look forward to getting together once again.

126th Historical Archive Update

This past June, several of us travelled to Camp Grayling for the annual Michigan National Guard Retirees Association luncheon. Following lunch, we walked over to the Memorial Park next to the Chapel and were honored to hold a small dedication of the Colonel Merle H. Howe plaque.

2019-21 Association Officers

President 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President Secretary Treasurer Historian Asst. Historian Asst. Historian Sgt-At-Arms Chaplain Immed. Past Pres.

LTC (Ret) David Britten SSG (Ret) Cal Wierda 1SG (Ret) John Johnson 1SG (Ret) James Norton LTC (Ret) Bill Sobotka CW4 (Ret) Darle VanderSchuur SSG Kyle Herring SFC (Ret) Earl Jenkins SFC (Ret) Ray Hintz SFC (Ret) Bill Witte SFC Robert Scaia

The 126th Regimental Association newsletter is published twice yearly and mailed or emailed to all active association members. Inquiries regarding the association and this newsletter should be made to: LTC (Ret) Bill Sobotka 99 Skyline Circle NW Grand Rapids, MI 4950

(616) 531-3295 BillSobotka@prodigy.net

Secretary’s & Treasurer’s Report

Special thanks to LTC Ralph & LTC Edith Kelly for their donation to pay for the mailing costs of the newsletter. The cost was around $400. Their donation is in memory CWO Ralph Schmidt.

Active members: 366 Missing members: 290 Legacy Fund $ 8,826.82 General Fund $ 5,106.65 The historical marker in front of the Grand Valley Armory was dismantled back in April and shipped to the company that will completely refurbish it and provide new poles. We’re waiting on its return and have a rough plan in place to upgrade the landscaping surrounding it. We hope to have this project completed before the snow flies in late fall.

New member since last mailing: Herman Westrate

We continue with our many projects to preserve and display the legacy of the 126th Regiment. Please do your part and consider a donation to our Legacy Fund. An envelope has been provided for your convenience. If you have questions, contact Bill Sobotka (address, phone and email is in this newsletter). Thank you!

Missing members since the last mailing: Kenneth E Willyard John Schutten Thomas Foupht II

Reported deceased since our annual meeting: Nathaniel H Chang Dale A DeMarr

Treasurer’s “Snapshot” Report: Bank statement as of 31 July 2021:

Checking $ 7,593.80 Savings 3,762.99 CD 2,398.97 CD 2,250.39 Total $ 16,006.15 Cash on hand 20.00 Legacy Fund Balance General Fund Balance

Captain John Douglas Shirley

$ 10,905.56 $ 5,120.59

Note: The Annual Financial Report as of 30 April 2021 is included with this newsletter.

Legacy Fund Donors

Thank you to the 27 donors who contributed $2,912.00 to the Legacy Fund this year: John J Johnson COL (ret) Gary Krueger James Luce William Streelman Clayton Jackson Wellington (Bill) & Laurel Miller COL (ret) David Ratajik COL Ralph & LTC Edith Kelly (2) Ben J. Landheer Dennis Grames Tom Wallace CW4 (ret) Darle VanderSchuur 1SG Robert Frost Jr Vernia McCullough Duane Goltz COL (ret) Howard Becker MAJ (ret) Will Nieboer COL (ret) Chuck Holwerda Richard Bos MAJ (ret) Gerald & Delores Sadowski Ryan Schuring Paul Essenburg Walter Draeger BG Gary Tellier Ruth Wierenga Jerry H Kline Diane Byl Donations in memory of: Harold E. Krueger CPT Gerald A. Streelman Thomas A. Shurtz-Civil War CWO Ralph Schmidt Robert F Strong MG Cecil Simmons Twylla Nieboer LTC William Byl COL Mel Wierenga CWO Gordy Schoonover Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/126thRegiment/

At one time, our most proficient 3rd Battalion 126th Infantry soldier was awarded the “Shirley Medal” and would go on to compete for the “Howe Medal” at brigade-level.

These traditions more or less collapsed over the past 20+ years owing in part to the loss of the brigade and two major reorganizations and redesignations of the 126th. In hopes that we can resurrect these awards, it might be timely to know a little more about the man behind the award.

John D. Shirley was born at Comstock Park, Michigan on May 16, 1915. He and his siblings attended a one-room schoolhouse – School District No. 9 Fractional – then located on School Street within the village from 1920-25, before his family moved to the southwest side of Grand Rapids, where he attended South High School. His parents had divorced in 1927 due to his father’s “habitual drunkenness” and John, the fourth of five children born to Melvin Lee Shirley (1884-1962) and Madge Alice GeBott (1887-1947) following their marriage on Christmas Eve 1908, resided with his mother at 37 Albany Southwest, while she worked as a seamstress for the Furniture City Casket Company. His father was a carpenter, residing on north Ionia Avenue. Melvin barely escaped death in 1915 when he had plunged two stories down a temporary construction elevator shaft while in the process of tearing it down. He suffered a hip dislocation and injuries to his head and left eye, but fully recovered. One might wonder if his disposition changed after the accident and contributed to his drinking.

According to John’s enlistment record of 1940, he had completed three years of high school before he went to work to help support his mother and family. While at South, he had been a member of the junior R.O.T.C. program, placing second for the distinction of “best cadet of the battalion” in the 1932 year-end field day competition staged at the old Kent County airport in Paris Township.

The family had moved around the corner to 923 Ionia Avenue SW and John was working as a laborer and loader, when on a Friday evening in December 1938, he married Elizabeth (aka, Betty) Jean Black, a South High School 1936 graduate (photo to left) and daughter of Roy Black and Mae Sullivan. Married in the St. Andrews rectory by Msgr. Dennis

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E. Malone, John and Betty moved into her family’s home at 133 Delaware Avenue SW, while John worked as a toolmaker for the new General Motors Fisher Body plant in Wyoming Township. Betty was also employed, working as a stenographer for the Jewell Tea Company.

for I had already been in the jungle for two months. I could get where it was necessary to go, but couldn’t put out any spurts of energy. The trail…led through kunai grass. Shirley bent forward and ran along like a pheasant.”

In 1931, John had enlisted with the local 126th Infantry, Michigan National Guard, signing on to the unit at the old Grand Rapids Armory on Michigan and Ionia at the age of 16.

He moved up the ranks receiving a promotion to sergeant by 1937 and was serving with the regiment when it was called out for the Flint Sit-Down Strike that year. Three years later, he was promoted to second lieutenant, as the regiment, along with the entire 32nd Division, mobilized for a year of training in Louisiana. John attended an advance training course at Fort Benning, Georgia in early 1941, and upon returning to the regiment at Camp Livingston, was promoted to first lieutenant.

Elizabeth, like a number of other officers’ wives, had followed John south and the couple were able to live together during the training period. She soon became pregnant and in February 1942 their daughter, Jeanne Elizabeth, was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, just two months following America’s entry into World War II. That spring, Betty and Jeanne headed home to Grand Rapids and John, along with the rest of the 32nd Division, headed to Australia as one of two divisions to spearhead General MacArthur’s drive to return to the Philippines.

Having spent most of its time in Australia building a camp and trying to get troops in physical shape, the 32nd was sent to New Guinea unprepared for what it would endure. By November 1942, General MacArthur had grown impatient with the Division’s progress, due in part to a number of “suspect reports” on officer leadership and the troops’ willingness to fight. On November 29, 1942, he summoned Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger and told him to personally go to New Guinea and relieve General Harding, the 32nd Division commander. He specifically told Eichelberger, “Go out there, Bob, and take Buna or don’t come back alive.”

That same day, the regiment’s XO was instructed by the 126th Commander, Colonel Clarence Tomlinson, to attack eastward and north of Buna to establish a roadblock that would effectively cut off the enemy from their main forces in the north. A small force led by Major George Bond and consisting of Companies I and K along with machine guns from Company M, was joined with the remnants of Cannon and Antitank companies. Captain Shirley was commanding Company I, Captain Roger Keast was in command of the Antitank company, and Captain Alfred Medendorp had both the Cannon company and Company K under his control.

Following a briefing on the plan, it was reported that Captain Shirley assured the Battalion XO that “We’ll get those bastards.

Tomorrow, we’ll get those bastards.” Medendorp would later write in his memoirs, “Shirley was a bundle of energy. Every move he made was on the double. I couldn’t keep up with him, Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/126thRegiment/

At 0900 hours on the morning of November 30, Major Bond’s force moved out and at first had no trouble fighting the enemy to the front. But after a move of only four hundred yards they came under fire from all sides and Bond was wounded. Major Baetke came up from the rear, rallied the troops, and, leading the way cleared the enemy out of the kunai flat. Captain Shirley took command along with his friend Keast and the attack continued.

By 1830 hours, the long-sought roadblock to the rear of the Japanese positions had been established and the Japanese forward units had been effectively cut off. However, Shirley’s force was in a tenuous position with its supply line cut off and subject to continuous attack by the Japanese from nearly every direction. The roadblock was positioned in an open space in the midst of a swampy jungle and was not easy to defend. In fact, tall jungle trees surrounded the position and afforded the enemy with concealment for sniping and mounting surprise attacks. News of Shirley’s and Keast’s successful but costly attack electrified battalion headquarters, but the victory continued to come at a price as the position was nearly impossible to defend. The next morning, Keast was shot dead by a Japanese sniper.

On December 2, an ammunition and ration party under Captain Meredith Huggins left battalion and after five hours of dodging snipers, fought its way into the roadblock perimeter where he learned that his friend, Roger Keast was dead. Just minutes later, the Japanese launched a heavy attack, and according to a company cook named Johnson, Shirley was “everywhere,” shouting orders and beating back the enemy.

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Not long after noon, Captain Shirley’s luck ran out when he was hit. A medic dragged him into a ditch and Shirley wanted to know how was his wound. After the medic reassured him he’d be okay, Johnson reported that Captain Shirley “just slipped off into death.” Huggins took command of the roadblock that would bear his name and repulsed a number of Japanese attacks over the next several days, reassuring his battalion headquarters, “I’ll hold [this] place until hell freezes over.”

Huggins, himself, was wounded on December 5.

honor continued with the 1st Battle Group). After another reorganization in the 1960s, the Shirley Medal became the annual award for the 3rd Battalion, while the Howe medal was elevated to the 2nd Brigade level, later re-designated as the 46th Brigade.

Back in Grand Rapids, news wasn’t received of Captain Shirley’s death right away, but was eventually reported in The Grand Rapids Press on January 23, 1943, one day after the Buna-Gona-Sanananda campaign officially ended and the war on New Guinea’s Papuan peninsula had come to a close. It was the first defeat during World War II of the Japanese army in a land operation. The 126th as well as the division as a whole paid a heavy price with a casualty rate of nearly 90 percent. Army historian Samuel Milner claimed the 126th Infantry Regiment “had ceased to exist.”

By October of that year, American Legion Post 384 in Grand Rapids had organized with a membership composed entirely of veterans of World War II. The post was named for Captain John D. Shirley, and in March, the members were presented with a new set of colors from his mother on behalf of the family. It began formal operations the following year with the installation of William Bolen as its first commander. In 1946, John’s older brother, Joseph, a former Navy petty officer, was elected first vice-commander.

In November 1944, Betty accepted the Silver Star award for her husband from COL William H. McCarty, 6th Service Command, in a ceremony held in Detroit at the 728th Military Police Battalion parade ground located at Spinoza Drive and Joy Road. Unfortunately, despite an exhaustive search, a copy of the award’s citation has not been located to provide the actual wording here, but Headquarters, 32d Infantry Division, General Orders No. 41 (1944) stated it was for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with the 32d Infantry Division.” His leadership and heroism were a vital contribution to establishment of “Huggins Roadblock” on 30 November 1942 near Sananada, New Guinea; he as KIA on 2 December while holding the roadblock in the face of strong Japanese counterattacks.

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In 1959, with the splitting up of the 126 Infantry Regiment into two battle groups, the 2nd Battle Group instituted the Shirley Medal for military proficiency in Captain Shirley’s honor (the Howe Medal was the previous regimental award and that Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/126thRegiment/

Captain Shirley’s mother died in October 1947 with the newspapers proclaiming her the mother of the first Grand Rapids officer killed in World War II. In January 1949, Shirley’s body was returned to Grand Rapids and a funeral under the auspices of the 126th Infantry Regiment was held on Friday, February 18, along with burial at Rosedale Memorial Park.

Rosedale Memorial Park, Tallmadge Twp, Ottawa County Plot D-332-6

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126TH REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT 1 MAY 2020 – 30 APRIL 2021 Balance on hand 1 May 2020 INCOME Dues Interest on savings & CD's Items Fall Social Legacy Fund Donations

$10922.46

Total Income EXPENSE Postage Incorporation fee Franklin Press Fall Social Brann’s

$ 5237.05

Total Expense Net Increase Balance on hand 30 April 2021

$

$

0 37.05 0 0 5200.00

0 20.00 405.70 0 425.70 4811.35

$15733.81

Funds on deposit in Huntington Bank Wyoming, Michigan are: Savings Account $ 3552.82 Checking Account 7512.21 Certificate of Deposit 5/08/21 2398.67 Certificate of Deposit 3/28/21 2250.11 Cash on hand 20.00 Legacy Fund $10623.97 + Regimental Fund $5109.84 = TOTAL $ 15733.81 Respectfully submitted, William H. Sobotka, Treasurer

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126th Regimental Association Meeting & Fall Social When: October 2, 1700 meeting, 1800 social time, 1830 dinner Where: Tommy Brann’s Restaurant 4157 S Division Wyoming, MI (Between 36th and 44th streets) Who: Members, family, and friends of the 126th are invited Dress: Casual Cost: $20.00 per person-cash bar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Menu Choices: Order at restaurant 8 oz. sirloin steak Honey bbq chicken 1 lb. bbq pork ribs 8 oz. prime rib (medium) Name(s):______________________________________ No. attending:______ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Dinners will include a baked potato, tossed salad, and yeast roll with cinnamon honey butter. Coffee, tea or soda also included.

Send reservations to: 126th Regimental Association, C/O LTC (ret) Bill Sobotka 99 Skyline Circle NW, Grand Rapids MI 49504 Make checks payable to: 126th Regimental Association Reservations due by September 24 Questions contact LTC (ret) Bill Sobotka at (616) 531-3295, email: billsobotka@prodigy.net State, local and restaurant policies on COVID will be followed.

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