Vietnam veteran, POW George Robert Hall dies at 83

TexasGranny · February 21, 2014

Vietnam veteran, POW George Robert Hall dies at 83

Former Veteran of the Year Col. (Ret.) George Robert Hall salutes the POW flag with a tear in his eye during the 30th Annual Veterans Day Service at the Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center. Moore died Sunday at age 83. (Ryan Moore / Hattiesburg American)

By Ed Kemp
Hattiesburg (Miss.)

A Vietnam War veteran, who endured one of the longest captivities as a prisoner of war in American history, has died.

Retired Air Force Col. George Robert Hall succumbed Sunday to his 20-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 83.

“He was just a great American. He was just a strong, strong individual,” said his brother Sam Hall of Hattiesburg, a retired golfer. “You couldn’t survive seven and one-half years as a prisoner of war and 20 years with that disease and not be a strong person.”

George Robert Hall, who graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1948, spent 7 ½ years (from 1965 to 1973) as a prisoner of war of the North Vietnamese army, after his plane was shot down during a reconnaissance mission.

Andrew Wiest, director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for the Study of War and Society, said Hall’s time trapped in and around Hanoi, including at the infamous Hanoi Hilton, ranks among the longest POW experiences in U.S. history.

“His experience was about as prolonged and brutal as you can get,” said Wiest, who has written several books about the Vietnam War.

Sam Hall said his brother’s weight, normally 170 pounds, sunk to under 100 pounds as a result of the torture he endured.

George Robert Hall spent much of his captivity in solitary confinement, using a stealthy tap system on the prison walls to communicate with other prisoners.
“He was one of those that I would compare to the World War II greatest generation,” said Ted Tibbett, chairman of the Hattiesburg veteran’s committee.
“He was a true officer. He served and came back. He was in tremendous pain and came back and went to work.”

Tibbett said one of Hall’s biggest contributions to Hattiesburg was his fund-raising efforts for the Veterans’ Memorial Park downtown.

“He raised thousands and thousands of dollars to build that park and he was chairman emeritus of that park to this day,” said Tibbett.

Wiest, who grew up in Hattiesburg, remembers being about 12 when George Robert Hall was released from his captivity and returned to Hattiesburg.
An overflow crowd packed Southern Miss’s Bennett Auditorium to greet him.

“That kind of thing resonated,” Wiest said. “You knew it was something very out of the ordinary and something very much to be appreciated and honored.”

George Robert Hall is survived by his wife, Pat Hall, along with their three children. In 2005, the couple co-wrote “Commitment to Honor,” a memoir of his POW experience.

:angel:

:cowboy2:

vietnam1969 · February 21, 2014

Ross F. Gray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ross Franklin Gray

Ross F. Gray, Medal of Honor recipient

Nickname "The Deacon" Born August 1, 1920

Marvel Valley, Alabama Died February 27, 1945 (aged 24)

KIA on Iwo Jima Place of burial initially 4th Marine Division Cemetery Iwo Jima

later Woodstock, Alabama Allegiance United States of America Service/branch United States Marine Corps Years of service 1942–1945 Rank Sergeant Unit 1st Battalion 25th Marines Battles/wars World War II

*Battle of Iwo Jima Awards Medal of Honor (1945)

Purple Heart

Sergeant Ross Franklin Gray (August 1, 1920–February 27, 1945) was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor — the highest military honor of the United States — for his heroic service in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II — he single-handedly disarmed an entire mine field while under heavy enemy fire. He waskilled in action six days later.

Contents [hide]

Early years[edit]

Ross Franklin Gray was born in Marvel Valley, Alabama. He attended the elementary schools of Bibb County and went on to Centreville High School, which he left in 1939 after three years in attendance.

He went to work for his father as a carpenter. He had already worked at that trade part-time for three years and now worked another three years before he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. He played football and basketball at Centreville High and enjoyed hunting and fishing. He was a devout Protestant; in fact, his buddies in the Marine Corps called him "The Deacon."

Marine Corps service[edit]

Gray enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in Birmingham, Alabama on July 22, 1942, and was assigned to active duty the same day. After receiving his recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, he went to New River, North Carolina, and in September joined the23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Promoted to private first class in April 1943, he was transferred to Company A, 1st Battalion 25th Marines, a month later.

Private First Class Gray left for overseas duty on January 13, 1944 and landed at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands where he took part in the Roi-Namur campaign. He was made an engineering corporal in March and in June made another assault landing — this time at Saipan. At the conclusion of the fighting at Saipan, Cpl Gray took part in the landing on Tinian Island, also in the Marianas.

Promoted to sergeant in August, he attended the 4th Marine Division Mine and Booby Trap School, upon completion of which he was rated qualified to instruct troops in the laying of mine fields; the reconnaissance of enemy minefields, day and night; the location, neutralization, disarming, and removal of mines; the neutralization of booby-trapped mines; and the day and night clearance of lanes through minefields. Examined and found qualified for promotion to the rank of staff sergeant, Sgt Gray, due to the lack of openings for that rate in his organization, was never promoted to the third pay grade.

On February 21, 1945, two days after D-Day on Iwo Jima, Sgt Gray was acting platoon sergeant of one of Company A's platoons which had been held up by a sudden barrage of Japanese hand grenades in the area northeast of Airfield No. 1. Promptly withdrawing his platoon out of range of the grenades, he moved forward to reconnoiter. He ascertained that the advance was held up by a series of enemy emplacements connected by covered communication trenches and fronted by a mine field.

Through a hail of enemy small arms fire, Sgt Gray cleared a path through the mine field up to the mouth of one of the fortifications, then returned to his own lines, where with three volunteers, he went back to the battalion dump and acquired twelve satchel charges. Placing these in a defiladed area within his platoon that was protected from immediate enemy fire, he took one weighing twenty-four pounds. Under covering fire from the three volunteers, Sgt Gray advanced up the path he had cleared and threw the charge into the enemy position in order to neutralize it.

Immediately brought under fire from a machine gun in another opening of the same position, Sgt Gray returned to the defiladed spot, obtained another charge, returned to the position and this time completely destroyed it. Spotting another emplacement, he went through the mine field for the seventh and eighth time to get another charge and destroy another enemy stronghold.

He continued this one-man attack, all the time under heavy small arms fire and grenade barrage, until he had destroyed six enemy positions. At one time a Japanese grenade landed so close to him that it blew his helmet off. Throughout, he went unarmed so that he could more easily carry the charges and accessories.

When he had eliminated the six positions, Sgt Gray disarmed the whole mine field before returning to his platoon.

Although he remained unscratched through his twelve trips back and forth among enemy mines, constantly under heavy fire, Sgt Gray was killed six days later, on February 27, 1945, by an enemy shell which inflicted fatal wounds in his legs.

For his personal valor, daring tactics, and tenacious perseverance in the face of extreme peril on February 21, Sgt Gray was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman.

The coveted award was presented to the hero's father by Rear Admiral A. S. Merrill, United States Navy, then Commandant of the Eighth Naval District, at the football field at Centreville High School in the presence of the Governor of the State of Alabama, Chauncey Sparks, on April 16, 1946.

Sergeant Gray was initially buried in the 4th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima, but later his remains were returned to the United States for private burial in Woodstock, Alabama.

Medal of Honor citation[edit]

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting in the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

SERGEANT ROSS F. GRAY

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Acting Platoon Sergeant serving with Company A, First Battalion, Twenty-Fifth Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, February 21, 1945. Shrewdly gauging the tactical situation when his platoon was held up by a sudden barrage of hostile grenades while advancing toward the high ground northeast of Airfield Number One, Sergeant Gray promptly organized the withdrawal of his men from enemy grenade range, quickly moved forward alone to reconnoiter and discovered a heavily mined area extending along the front of a strong network of emplacements joined by covered communication trenches. Although assailed by furious gunfire, he cleared a path leading through the mine field to one of the fortifications then returned to the platoon position and, informing his leader of the serious situation, volunteered to initiate an attack while being covered by three fellow Marines. Alone and unarmed but carrying a twenty-four pound satchel charge, he crept up the Japanese emplacement, boldly hurled the short-fused explosive and sealed the entrance. Instantly taken under machine-gun fire from a second entrance to the same position, he unhesitatingly braved the increasingly vicious fusillades to crawl back for another charge, returned to his objective and blasted the second opening, thereby demolishing the position. Repeatedly covering the ground between the savagely defended enemy fortifications and his platoon area, he systematically approached, attacked and withdrew under blanketing fire to destroy a total of six Japanese positions, more than twenty-five of the enemy and a quantity of vital ordnance gear and ammunition. Stouthearted and indomitable, Sergeant Gray had single-handedly overcome a strong enemy garrison and had completely disarmed a large mine field before finally rejoining his unit and, by his great personal valor, daring tactics and tenacious perseverance in the face of extreme peril, had contributed materially to the fulfillment of his company's mission. His gallant conduct throughout enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of theUnited States Naval Service.

/S/ HARRY S. TRUMAN

Other recognition[edit]

The frigate USS Gray (FF-1054) was named for Sergeant Gray.

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Vietnam veteran, POW George Robert Hall dies at 83

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