logo
Memorial Day tribute in Pooler honors WWII airmen

Memorial Day tribute in Pooler honors WWII airmen

Yahoo26-05-2025
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV)—A powerful Memorial Day tradition continues today in Pooler, where thousands of flags remind us of the true cost of freedom. The closing ceremony for 'Flags for the Fallen' is set for Monday morning, with local leaders honoring our heroes.
Today's Memorial Day event honors the large military population in the Coastal Empire and wraps up a multi-day display honoring the airmen of World War II. It's expected to draw a large crowd.
The city of Pooler and the Mighty Eighth Museum are hosting their annual Memorial Day ceremony together that concludes the annual 'Flags for the Fallen' event, which features 26,000 American flags, each representing a fallen WWII airman. Today's program includes a wreath-laying, a prayer, the national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance.
The event will also include local leaders. Congressman Buddy Carter and Mayor Karen Williams will deliver remarks.
The event kicks off at 11 a.m. this morning. The community is invited to reflect on this holiday and remember those who gave their lives for our country.
All are welcome today, and it's a chance to stand among thousands of flags and remember the airmen who never came home.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

John Cruickshank, Last World War II Victoria Cross Winner, Dies at 105
John Cruickshank, Last World War II Victoria Cross Winner, Dies at 105

New York Times

time9 minutes ago

  • New York Times

John Cruickshank, Last World War II Victoria Cross Winner, Dies at 105

Flight Lt. John Cruickshank was at the controls of a Royal Air Force plane on submarine patrol in July 1944 when he spotted a German U-boat steaming placidly on the surface of the Norwegian Sea. Swooping low, just 50 feet above the waves, the plane raked the submarine with gunfire, but the airplane's depth charges failed to deploy. As Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank returned for a second run, he was now fully in the U-boat's sights, and the submarine fired a shell that exploded inside the airplane's fuselage. The bombardier was killed, and Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank was lacerated by shrapnel, though he gave no indication of his grievous wounds to his crew. He released the depth charges himself, sinking the U-boat. Wounded in 72 places, he had to be carried to a bunk as the crew braced for the five-hour night flight back to the plane's R.A.F. base in the Shetland Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank refused morphine, knowing that his co-pilot did not have the skills to land their amphibious seaplane by himself. Fuel was leaking from damaged lines, and the fuselage was gashed. As they neared home, Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank demanded to be carried back to the cockpit and propped in a seat. It was dark; despite his agony, he ordered his co-pilot to circle for an hour until daylight would allow a safer touchdown. With hands hovering shakily over the controls, he coached the co-pilot through the descent and a water landing. A doctor rushed aboard to give him a blood transfusion before he was evacuated. Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank, then 24, was presented with the Victoria Cross, the supreme recognition for valor for members of the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces. 'He set an example of determination, fortitude and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the Service,' the award citation read. The last surviving Victoria Cross recipient from World War II, John Cruickshank died this month at 105. His death was announced on Saturday by the Royal Air Force, which said his death occurred the previous week. He lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was born, and where he retired in 1985 after a postwar career in banking. His wife, Marion Beverley, whom he married in 1955, died in 1985. The couple had no children. Mr. Cruickshank, who was unable to return to military flying after his injuries and left the R.A.F. in 1946, was modest when discussing his wartime heroics. In 2004, he was present when Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a monument to the Coastal Command, the service that defended Allied ships during the war; he told the queen, 'Decorations didn't enter my head.' That same year, he told The Daily Telegraph, 'The citation said 'showed great courage' and all that nonsense, but a lot of people would have done that in those circumstances.' John Alexander Cruickshank was born on May 20, 1920, and enlisted in the British Army in 1939 after completing high school in Edinburgh. Commissioned as an officer pilot in 1942, he was assigned to the squadron based at an R.A.F. facility on Sullom Voe, an inlet in the Shetland Islands. The base was part of the Coastal Command that protected Allied supply convoys against German U-boats, or naval submarines, in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea throughout World War II. On July 17, 1944, Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank was captain of a Catalina flying boat, a widely used Allied seaplane, on a mission to protect the British fleet in the Norwegian Sea. He was an experienced pilot making his 48th patrol in his 10-man plane, an ungainly-looking propeller craft, though on all his previous missions he had sighted just one U-boat and failed to sink it. West of the Lofoten Islands of Norway, toward the end of a long patrol, the Catalina's radar lit up with a blip some 40 miles away. Surmising that it was a friendly vessel, Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank ordered a flare to be set off and a code letter to be flashed. In response, the German submarine, U-361, fired a barrage of flak. John Appleton, an airman who helped the flight lieutenant after he was hit by shrapnel — his injuries included two serious lung wounds and 10 penetrating leg wounds — told the Imperial War Museum in a 1995 interview that he was sure his commanding officer was mortally wounded. He meant to keep him comfortable as he died. 'I realized he must be in terrible pain,' Mr. Appleton recalled. 'I can see blood started to soak through into his chest, even through all his pullovers and flying gear, and so on. But he hadn't mentioned any of this at all.' 'In the back of my head,' Mr. Cruickshank told The Telegraph in 2004, 'was the worry that the co-pilot was not trained in landing a Catalina.' Airman Appleton, with the help of another crewman, carried the flight lieutenant back to the cockpit as the plane neared home, after the wounded pilot implored, 'You must help me up.' 'It was very difficult,' Mr. Appleton said. 'Not so much difficult for us, but we just thought how agonizing for a person so badly wounded.' King George VI bestowed the Victoria Cross on Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank. 'By pressing home his second attack in his gravely wounded condition and continuing his exertions on the return journey with his failing strength,' the award citation read, 'he seriously prejudiced his chance of survival even if the aircraft safely reached its base.'

National Park Peak Set to Be Renamed
National Park Peak Set to Be Renamed

Newsweek

time3 hours ago

  • Newsweek

National Park Peak Set to Be Renamed

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Teton County Board of County Commissioners is proposing to change the name of Mount Woodring in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park to Raven Peak, due to concerns about the mountain's namesake being charged with sexual assault in the 1930s. Newsweek reached out to the press office of the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey via email for comment. Why It Matters Mount Woodring was named after the park's first superintendent, Samuel T. Woodring. Woodring was charged with assaulting and attempting to commit rape against an 11-year-old girl in 1934, according to court documents. The charges were dismissed a year later because the parents of the girl did not want to put their daughter through the trauma of testifying, the name change proposal form states. The name change was proposed by the Teton County Board of County Commissioners, which said that "the name Mount Woodring is offensive." The board said that there was a "need to adopt a new name at the earliest possible opportunity." Mount Woodring was included in the U.S. Geological Survey's list of "upcoming proposals of interest" last year. Mount Woodring of the Grand Tetons Peaks in Grand Tetons National Park. Mount Woodring of the Grand Tetons Peaks in Grand Tetons National Park. htrnr/Getty Images What To Know The Teton County Board of County Commissioners has suggested the name Raven Peak, as "ravens are commonly found in the Tetons, they are considered intelligent birds, and the raven is considered significant in most Native American cultures." The board said it felt that it was important to name the peak after an animal and not a person, because "the reputation of a person can change with the passage of time, whereas the status of a raven is not likely to change as years pass." "The hope is that Raven Peak will have staying power that helps to make it a fitting name," the proposal said. In its original letter to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, there was also another possible name mentioned: Equality Peak. However, after listening to public feedback, the board found that there was "overwhelming support for the name Raven Peak," while the name Equality Peak was deemed "controversial" and met with "considerable opposition" by some members of the public. President Donald Trump has been an active proponent of historical monuments and military bases keeping their original names, signing an executive order in March titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." The administration wrote in the order: "Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth." It added: "This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light." Earlier this year, he signed an executive order changing the name of Alaska's highest peak, Denali, back to its original name, Mount McKinley and renamed the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." What People Are Saying The Teton County Board of County Commissioners, in its letter: "Ravens live in our community and in Grand Teton National Park year-round and exhibit incredible intelligence, play an important role in our ecosystem, are adaptable – thriving at high and low elevations, often performing impressive acrobatic maneuvers – and are known to be highly social and playful. It is our community's sentiment that Raven Peak is an appropriate name for the mountain where these remarkable birds live and play." What Happens Next The final decision for the name change lies with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, although Trump is able to override the board's authority should he decide to.

‘The Boys in the Light' Review: Horror, Endurance and Rescue
‘The Boys in the Light' Review: Horror, Endurance and Rescue

Wall Street Journal

time5 hours ago

  • Wall Street Journal

‘The Boys in the Light' Review: Horror, Endurance and Rescue

Eddie Willner's parents sent him to Belgium with a note pinned to his coat asking that someone—anyone—take care of the 12-year-old Jewish boy. It was December 1938 in Germany, the month after Kristallnacht, and antisemitism was sweeping across the country. Remarkably, Eddie would be taken in by a Jewish couple in Brussels. Even more remarkably, his parents would find him less than a year later. But then, in a cruel twist of fate, the reunited Willners were rounded up by the Nazis and separated one last time. Eddie's mother, Auguste, was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and killed. In 'The Boys in the Light,' Nina Willner poignantly recounts the story of two Jewish boys and the American troops who rescued them in the closing days of World War II. We meet Elmer Hovland, a farm boy from Minnesota; Sammy DeCola, a street-smart extrovert from just outside Boston; Mike Swaab, a Jewish boy one year younger than Eddie who grew up in Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter; and Eddie, the author's father. Hovland and DeCola met in Company D of the Third Armored Division. The former 'possessed something you couldn't learn in college,' Ms. Willner writes, 'a combination of a farmer's horse sense, prairie toughness, humility, and a firm belief that the group was always more important than the individual.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store