.: Memorial Day Cherryfield, Maine 2011 Photographs by Joe Palmer with text by Peter Duston

1LT Peter Duston Bulger for Post 8 Cherryfield, Maine

LTC Peter Ogden State Director of Veteran Affairs and 1LT Peter Duston.

Members of Cherryfield Band left to right Rachel Brace, John Cicci,
Lucile Willey,Pam Hatt.

John and Diane Cicci received the Presidents Award for Volunteering to the Books for Soldiers Program. Presentation made by Kathy Upton.

MEMORIAL DAY – CHERRYFIELD, MAINE – 2011

Philip Farnsworth Grant was the son of Mr. Mrs. Fred Grant and a 1934 Graduate of Cherryfield Academy. After graduating from the University of Maine, he joined the Navy in 1941, training as a carrier pilot and was assigned to the USS Hornet in the early days of the Pacific War. He distinguished himself during the Battle of Midway flying the Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber (SDB) by his aggressive attacks on the enemy ships and by landing on a beach to rescue a fellow pilot who had to ditch his plane. For his exploits, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Admiral Nimitz, the Pacific Fleet Commander. Several months later in October, a major Japanese naval force moved into the Guadalcanal sector with the objective of cutting allied shipping lanes to Australia. Outnumbered 2 to 1, the American fleet met the invading forces in the Battle of Santa Cruz Island. LT Grant’s VB-8 Wing consisting of 8 SDB’s went up with other wings of dive bombers to bomb and strafe the Japanese task force of carriers and war ships. Outnumbered by a vastly larger enemy force of Zeros and dive bombers, the Americans fought hard in what became known as the most intense two hour air and carrier battle of WWII, a battle that cost the Americans dearly but kept the invading Japanese from threatening the vital Richardson Airfield on Guadalcanal . LT Grant took off from the Hornet with the first strike force at 0755 hours on the morning of 26 Oct 1942. Approaching the enemy ships, LT Grant’s flight commander’s plane’s engine seized up and he went into the water at 0926 and LT Grant was shot down approximately 4 minutes later at 0930 hours. He and his gunner were never recovered.

LT Philip F. Grant will always be 25 years old. His name is inscribed on the Wall of the Missing in the American Battlefield Monuments Cemetery in Manila, the Philippines where they remembered him yesterday at their Memorial Day observances.

LT Grants nephews, Wayne and Philip Grant received the State of Maine Gold Star Medal from the grateful people of Maine for his ultimate sacrifice.

MEMORIAL DAY – CHERRYFIELD – 2011

Embert L. Grant was born in Harrington in 1925, the only child of Leon C. and Henrietta Young Grant. He was a graduate of Columbia Falls High School, Class of 1943 and enlisted immediately into the US Army. Following infantry basic training, we think at Camp Croft, SC, Grant was assigned to Easy Company, 318^th Infantry Regiment, 80^th Division. The Division landed in France at Utah Beach on 5 August 1944 two months after D-Day. Considered the “Work Horse” of General Patton’s 3^rd Army, PVT Grant and the 80^th played a key role in the “breakout” at Avranches and the famous “Dash” across France until gas and supplies ran out. Following the “Bloody Moselle Crossing, by 8 November, the Division was within 5 miles of Saarbruecken, Germany meeting increased enemy resistance resulting from Hitler’s “No retreat” order.

The end of November 1944 found Easy Company and the 318^th Infantry in constant daily combat in the St. Avold area as the preparations were being made for the breach of the German border. On 29 November, PVT Grant was seriously wounded and on 4 December 1944, he died of his wounds in a US Army Hospital in France.

Embert L. Grant was 19 years old. His body was returned to the States following the War and was buried with full military honors in the family lot in Harrington in 1946. A large color photograph of his burial hangs on the wall of the Maine Military Funeral Honors Office in Augusta forever remembering his ultimate sacrifice.

Since we were unable to find any local family, Kevin Woodard, Commander of the Harrington Veterans of Foreign Wars Post received the Gold Star Medal and hold it in trust that Private Embert Grant will always be remembered near where he was born.

It's Maurice Moon receiving the State Silver Star Medal to recognize his wounds received during the Korean War.

MEMORIAL DAY – CHERRYFIELD, MAINE - 2011

Signalman 3^rd Class Kenneth Allen Sproul was born 30 Sep 1923, son of Allen and Estah Sproul and the twin of Katherine Sproul Bickford. A 1941 graduate of Cherryfield Academy, Kenneth was on his third convoy trip overseas serving as a US Navy Guard aboard the Liberty Ship, SS Daniel Chester French. The French sailed from Philadelphia with a destination of Dandar Shapur, Iran and was carrying a lend-lease cargo of vehicles and ammunition for the Russian Army when they were given a course, in error, into an allied mine field in the Mediterranean Sea off Tunisia in North Africa. At 0720 on the morning of 6 March 1944, Sproul’s ship hit a mine creating two large explosions, causing the ammunition cargo to explode. With the ship in flames, the crew and 87 Army passengers abandoned ship in the 10 minutes before the Daniel Chester French went down. Sproul and 3 other Navy personnel and 9 merchant marine crew were lost.

Rest in Peace Signalman 3^rd Class Kenneth Allen Sproul, Lat. 37 17’N; Long. 10 22’ E 30 miles off the coast of Bizerta, Tunisia. Sproul was 20 years old and will be remembered today at a Memorial Day Program at the American Military Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia where his name appears on the Memorial Wall of the Missing.

Joe Sproul Jr. for the family received the State of Maine Gold Star Medal in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice of Kenneth Sproul.

Ingrid Halonen (front) and Delnna Rau member of the horn section of the Cherryfield Band.

SPC Erika Yates receives the Maine challenge coin recognizing women veterans. Yates is a combat medic with the 126th Aviation Co. MeARNG.

Preston Smith receives his 50 year pin with Cherryfield American Legion, Post 8 Cherryfield, Maine. Darlene Dowling made the presentation.

Jeremiah Legg 8th grader at Cherryfield Elementary School, read the Gettysburg Address,was recognized by Col. Ogdon State Director of Veteran Affairs Office in Augusta, Maine.