Latest news with #4thInfantryDivision
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Fort Carson commemorates D-Day's 81st anniversary
(FORT CARSON, Colo.) — Soldiers from Fort Carson and the 4th Infantry Division marked the 81st anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, June 5, at the Mountain Post. On June 6, 1944, approximately 130,000 American and Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, ultimately turning the tide for Allied troops in World War II. Thursday's ceremony honored the service and sacrifice of 4th Infantry Division soldiers who fought during both D-Day and WWII. A few soldiers also choose to re-enlist ahead of the solemn milestone. 'I am honored to serve in such a great military force,' said SPC Evan French. 'It also allows me to honor those who have fallen in combat, no matter what date, or year, or time.' In total, 197 4th Infantry Division soldiers lost their lives during that fateful battle. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Tom McDade, a Park Forest developer, landed on Utah Beach on D-Day
For those of us of a certain generation, June 6 has a special meaning. It is and will always be D-Day, the day American and British forces stormed the beaches of France during World War II. As in past years, there will be few if any public memorials commemorating the events that took place that day 81 years ago. It was only one of numerous historic events that took place in four-plus years of worldwide conflict Casualties were high. Some 2,501 Americans were killed and allied forces suffered about 10,000 casualties. Estimates show some 5,000 Allied troops were wounded with German casualties to have been between 4,000 and 9,000. There are, however, strong links between the fighting on the beaches that day in June and the development of Park Forest, a 'G.I. Town' built to house returning veterans from the war. One is the story of Tom McDade. The other two are the vial of sand I see every day and the flag honoring the man. No one knows how many D-Day veterans lived in Park Forest, but one who did, Tom McDade helped forge an unbreakable connection between those two points on the map. McDade was born in Scotland, and along with his family emigrated to Hillsboro, Illinois when he was 5 years old. He was 29 when Pearl Harbor was bombed Dec. 7, 1941. He was part of the 4th Infantry Division which landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day. After the war he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, did graduate work at the University of Chicago and worked for the Chicago Housing Authority before joining Urban Investments and Development. The company was headed by Philip Klutznick, the man who helped reshape an old golf course and vacant farmland into a new kind of community called Park Forest. McDade was a jack-of-all-trades, including taking charge of all the rental units. Trying to keep tenants happy was never an easy task. Klutznick wrote in his book, 'Angles of Vision,' that Tom invested himself in the village, living in the young community while at the same time in charge of planning and development both as a trouble shooter for the company and as a social conscience. He often directed funds from the company to worthy organizations and corporations. He may not have been the only D-Day veteran who came to Park Forest, but once said that no matter where he lived, his heart never left the community. Later in life, Tom and his second wife, Mignon, lived in a Lake Shore Drive apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. But when he retired in 1985, he moved back to a more modest abode in Park Forest, moving into a house on Lakewood Boulevard when its former owner, Mayor Mayer Singerman, left town. He was never a company man. He was always a local in his heart. Never one to test the water temperature with his toes, McDade jumped headfirst into the pool of community life. It was as if he never left town as he renewed his interest in all phases of village life, including a stint on the board of the Park Forest Historical Society. When he was inducted into the Park Forest Hall of Fame three years after his death in 1992, his widow said, 'you could take him out of Park Forest, but not Park Forest out of him.' We made the trip to the Normandy beaches nearly 30 years ago and came home with a lasting memory. This was a time before our cameras were part of our cellphones, and when people needed to load film in their cameras in order to snap a photograph. On my desk, there sits a plastic container which once stored such a film roll. Inside there are a few thousand grains of sand from Omaha Beach. I see it every day. It sits in front of a folded flag given to his wife, my wife's mother. I see both and I remember.
Los Angeles Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Army to place large metal plates on D.C. streets to protect them from tanks during June parade
WASHINGTON — The Army will place large metal plates at key points on the streets of Washington to better protect the pavement from the movements of 25 M1 Abrams main battle tanks set to roll through the capital on June 14, a U.S. official told the Associated Press. The tanks are a key part of a parade that will honor the Army's 250th birthday and fall on President Trump's 79th birthday. Since it was announced, the parade has grown in scope and participation, and one of the highlights will be columns of tanks rolling in formation along Constitution Avenue. Each Abrams tank can weigh 60 tons or more and carry a crew of four. Concerns over the tanks' weight, and what that would do to D.C.'s streets, ultimately kept them from being used for a parade during Trump's first term. The metal plates are seen as the best way to protect the streets. Each plate weighs hundreds of pounds and will be placed at points along the parade route where the tanks will turn — and where their metal and rubber-shoed tracking that helps them move can do the most damage, the official said. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said if tanks are used on the city's roads, funding to repair any damage they may do should also be part of the plans. Asked on Friday for a response to the Army's plan for metal plates, her office referred to her past comments. Movement of a single M1 Abrams tank is a loud affair — movement of 25 in unison is expected to be thunderous, the official said. The parade and celebration will likely cost between $25 million and $45 million, a White House official told the Associated Press. It will involve thousands of troops also marching in formation, in uniforms representing every U.S. conflict dating back to the Revolutionary War, which began in 1775. Each war will have 60 troops in period costume, followed by 400 troops from that same unit in their regular battle dress uniforms. For example, the Civil War will be represented by the Army's 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Carson, Colo., with 60 soldiers wearing historical costumes and 400 in today's uniforms. Overall the parade plans call for about 6,600 soldiers, 150 vehicles and 50 helicopters to follow a route from the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., to the National Mall. The late-afternoon parade will be followed by a parachute jump by the Army's Golden Knights, a concert and fireworks. Copp and Price write for the Associated Press.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
4ID, Fort Carson hold transition of responsibility ceremony
(FORT CARSON, Colo.) — On Friday, May 9, the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) and Fort Carson hosted a Relinquishment of Responsibility Ceremony. The ceremony is a time-honored tradition in the military, symbolized by the passing of the battalion colors, or command responsibility, to the incoming Command Sergeant Major. In the case of a Relinquishment of Responsibility, the incoming Command Sergeant Major has yet to arrive, so responsibility is entrusted to the most senior noncommissioned officer in the formation in the interim. Division Command Sergeant Major Alexander Kupratty relinquished his responsibilities on Friday after 31 years of service and sacrifice. 'I would like to believe I put my heart and soul into this position and that is simply because our soldiers deserve nothing less,' said Sgt. Maj. Alexander Kupratty. 'There are not off days when you are a leader, and the profession of arms is one of the hardest.' Since attending Infantry One Station Unit Training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Kupratty has served at every leadership echelon in the Army, from team leader to Command Sgt. Maj. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Her father owned Himmler's personal copy of ‘Mein Kampf' — but how?
The book had long lingered there. Known, but not acknowledged. Sitting on her father's bookshelf for decades after the war in Western Europe had culminated in an Allied victory on May 8, 1945. Except it was no ordinary book. It was Heinrich Himmler's — one of the chief architects of the Holocaust — personal copy of Adolf Hitler's Volume I of 'Mein Kampf,' replete with Himmler's own annotations. It wasn't until the death of her father, John Fletcher Sisson, who served in the 4th Infantry Division, in 1992 that author and historical preservationist Karen Sisson Marshall recognized what she described to Military Times as the 'magnitude of evil' the book possessed. But what began as a simple process of donating a piece of history forced Marshall to contemplate her own father's history — and his path to possessing such ephemera. Can you talk about what occurred after your father's death in 1992 and what led you down this path? Two days after my father died, I was asked to go through the files for my mother. As I was going through his files I discovered a 70-page manuscript that had been typed fully, that had been completed and even edited. There was memorabilia, information from World War II and and then this letter that I found with his pictures from the time he returned to Normandy in 1979. He had retraced his own footsteps and he identified on an old map where he thought they had been. I was shocked when my mother told me she didn't know anything about any of this. As I said in the book, I felt like I was meeting a man I'd never met. So then, for the first time, I actually paid attention to Himmler's 'Mein Kampf' book. I had always been aware of it, vaguely, but I didn't realize that he had kept this little book on Himmler with it. I just had never taken anything seriously about his service in World War II. So what we did was we published his manuscript into a small pamphlet and my mother gave it to her close friends and that was it. But in 2004 for a number of reasons, I decided that I was going to find a home for the 'Mein Kampf' volume. My mother came to live with us after dad died, and I realized she was getting older — that was probably the most important impetus. I began to think about this book. I'd gone back to school and gotten a degree in historic preservation and I think I was becoming more aware of the past, its ramifications. So I brought it up to her that I did not want to be responsible for the book if something happened to her. I tell the story in the book and I shouldn't laugh, but it was actually very amusing. I was just wandering around, calling people up, telling them that I had Heinrich Himmler's 'Mein Kampf' and I didn't know what to do with it. Can you share a little more about the process of deciding what to do with Himmler's book? I got my degree and this was, I think, really important. I had gone back to school and I began to think about why I was ignoring my father's role in history? That's when I began to look around the house and look at these artifacts and think, 'Who was my father?' So the book fell in line with that. Sotheby's essentially hung up on me, thinking I was a crank. And that is how I was treated, sort of like a crank by various places I would call — I probably sounded like one to be fair. You have to remember, we're in the very beginnings of the internet. That's where the Baldwin's [Bookbar comes in. I finally went in because I had bought books from him and he knew I was legitimate. He finally listened to me and he's the one who found the article on the internet about Volume II. That in turn led us to meet the curator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York and going through that whole process of learning how you authenticate something. In your book, 'Finding My Father's Footsteps' you write about two soldiers and two crossed stories. How did you resolve those of Mr. Williams and his father's, and your own? I never questioned my father, but the world has to question him. It was then that I received a phone call from Mr. Williams [a pseudonym]. Mr. Williams couldn't have been nicer. We chatted. I told him my father's story, and he said, 'Mrs. Marshall, with all due respect, I believe your father lied to you.' Just like that. What a gut punch. His father had told him that at the end of World War II, he was in possession of both volumes — one and two. So he thought my father's story had to be made up. He seemed to indicate that my father must have, for some reason, decided to take one of the books from his dad, otherwise he couldn't explain his father's story. So in the book I focused my story on resolving my father's story. I do not want to call into question his father's story, because I want to respect the fact that soldiers came home and just tell you a little bit of their experience. In this book you had to work backwards — you had the ending, albeit a confusing one, and to resolve it you had to work back from the beginning. How did you eventually come to resolve the question of your father's honor? I wish I could tell you that I was such a good researcher, but I met Bob Babcock, who is the historian for the 4th Infantry Division and he sent me the list of documents they had and I was intrigued by [Swede] Henley's name. I got copies of different diaries and journals. It wasn't until I had gone through it that I realized he'd been my father's commanding officer at the end of the war. My father's own journal ended in January [1945], but Henley kept a diary for all of the 11 months that he fought through Europe. So I followed Henley's diary knowing my father was under him. So there it was when Henley put the entry in his diary that they had taken 3,000 prisoners in Tegernsee, [Germany], on May 3. My father's story always was: 'I was the commanding officer in charge of securing Heinrich Himmler's home.' Somehow my father's story just came completely alive. He even sent a postcard home to my grandmother from Tegernsee. So I was like, 'Okay, there's no question in my mind. This is what I think happened.' The intelligence officer has to file a report, has to report back to their commanding officer and tell them what they've done. So I think my father must have been in a report, and I think William's father saw the report. And so when he said he had both copies, I think that's what he thought. I think he meant he had Volume II, and that he knew Volume I was in the system. That's what I think, but I am surmising. You write about holding Himmler's copy of 'Mein Kampf' and recognizing the magnitude of evil it possessed. Were there any personal annotations of Himmler's that stood out to you after it was translated? I drew a very strong line between Dr. [Richard] Brightman's expertise on Heinrich Himmler and what our family was doing. I actually don't know what the annotations are. I did not want explore that side of the book with him. Can you tell me a little bit about your father, John's, wartime experience? The 4th Infantry Division had a storied contribution to the Second World War — it was the first U.S. unit to land on Utah Beach, helped to liberate Paris, fought in the grueling battles of the Hurtgen Forest and in the Battle of the Bulge and was among the first units to liberate Dachau. How did researching and following in your father's footsteps bring about a different understanding of your father? It changed my life. At that moment when I stood there in Normandy, I reflected back yelling at my father at the dinner table about the Vietnam War. I yelled, 'You just don't understand that people are dying. You don't care that people are dying. You don't know anything.' I knew he had a Nazi bullet — we all knew the story about the bullet that was in his abdomen that didn't go away. That was sort of a little family joke, you know, that he still had the bullet. I obviously knew somewhere in the back of my foolish 19-year-old brain that my father had been shot at. I don't know why I never put two and two together. It wasn't until I stood there in Normandy that I put the pieces together. As you mentioned, you were among the protesters of the Vietnam War. How did researching your father's war experience affirm or alter your opinions on war and its necessity? What our generation did … it's just unconscionable what we did. I guess because we were all kids, but we somehow blamed the soldiers who were just kids like us who were sent off to war. We mixed it up. You can stand your ground politically but not conflate the politician's war with the soldier's war. It has been really nice to go to those 22nd Infantry reunions. It's mainly Vietnam vets now, and we've talked and I'm very honest when I sell the book, I always say, 'You know, if you're going to be offended by the fact that I was an anti-war demonstrator, please don't buy the book.' I've had wonderful discussions with these men. How would you like your book used as a blueprint for others? At the heart of my book is the idea of how well do we know the stories that impact our lives? What I'm hoping to do is to inspire people to go up in the attic. Get those letters down. Think about someone you love and go learn the story behind the story. You don't have to become an expert on World War II, just become an expert on your area. Every war has all kinds of stories to tell — important stories to tell. World War II called upon an entire generation to do unbelievable things and the vast majority of them rose to the occasion. And we now have these stories buried in our attics.
