90 year old veteran tells his story

90 year old WWII veteran tells a great story!

This is a very unique way to tell an extremely interesting story. Only 2.25 minutes long...watch it!

The Women of Camp Sobingo

Seattle, WA, May 9, 2008—Vanilla Heart Publishing is pleased to announce the
Public Release of Marilyn Celeste Morris’ The Women of Camp Sobingo in honor of military wives and mothers around the world, from far-flung outposts to big city complexes filled with children and military families on the move.

The Women of Camp Sobingo shares the story of four women; friends who share the life of army wives in a strange land, with husbands who serve. Raising children, making do, enduring hardships, these women survive - all but one...

There really was a Camp Sobingo, located outside the capitol city of Seoul, South Korea at the end of WWII. This military compound’s cookie-cutter “quarters” was home to the women and children who joined their Army officer husbands during the US Occupation.

The camp had a school, a post exchange, a dispensary, a commissary, and even a movie theatre (think “MASH”). Ever-present, however, was the military presence, both Korean and our own US forces and the tyranny of the Russians located across the 38th parallel, who merely annoyed the dependents with their random denial of electricity to the American contingent.

Most of the Americans had deployed to other assignments before June 25, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Those remaining escaped safely, but “The Land of the Morning Calm” would never be the same.

Vanilla Heart Publishing, of Seattle, Washington, will be hosting the online book release launch party for author Marilyn Celeste Morris and her novel, The Women of Camp Sobingo, on Flag Day, June 14th, 2008 from 5 pm (Central time) until 9 pm. That’s four great hours and four great drawings, plus giveaways, coupons and free shipping for autographed copies of The Women of Camp Sobingo. with a double discount in the bookstore during the launch party. The Online Book Release Launch Party is open to the public.

Vanilla Heart Publishing is donating $1 per copy sold between Mother’s Day, 2008 and Flag Day Launch Party to the Overseas Schools Historical Society, www.AOSHS.com to further their efforts in the preservation of this important part of our history.
A professionally produced book trailer for The Women of Camp Sobingo is available on Vanilla Heart Publishing's website. Visit the secure shopping bookstore at http://www.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com.

Kilroy Was Here

During WWII, it is believed that James Kilroy - a shipyard inspector in Quincy Massachusetts - began scrawling this phrase on ships to prove that he had been there and inspected the rivets. The ships were being built so fast that there was no time to paint them which would have covered the markings.

The phrase "Kilroy Was Here" soon traveled the globe, becoming a rallying cry and morale booster around the world. So popular did "Kilroy Was Here" became that it has been reported that the phrase and accompanying cartoon have been found on the Great Wall of China, on the Arc De Triomphe, and even scrawled in the dust on the moon!

Now, as America marks the 63rd anniversary of the end of WWII, would be an appropriate time for the U.S. Postal Service to recognize the tremendous contribution the phrase "Kilroy Was Here" made to the Allied war effort.

Visit Kilroy Was Here for more information.

Missing WWII Airmen are Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of 11 U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Capt. Robert L. Coleman, of Wilmington, Del.; 1st Lt. George E. Wallinder, of San Antonio, Texas; 2nd Lt. Kenneth L. Cassidy, of Worcester, Mass.; 2nd Lt. Irving Schechner, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; 2nd Lt. Ronald F. Ward, of Cambridge, Mass.; Tech. Sgt. William L. Fraser, of Maplewood, Mo.; Tech. Sgt. Paul Miecias, of Piscataway, N.J.; Tech. Sgt. Robert C. Morgan, of Flint, Mich.; Staff Sgt. Albert J. Caruso, of Kearny, N.J.; Staff Sgt. Robert E. Frank, of Plainfield, N.J.; and Pvt. Joseph Thompson, of Compton, Calif; all U.S. Army Air Forces. The dates and locations of the funerals are being set by their families.

Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men in their hometowns to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the secretary of the Army.

On Dec. 3, 1943, these men crewed a B-24D Liberator that departed Dobodura, New Guinea, on an armed-reconnaissance mission over New Hanover Island in the Bismarck Sea. The crew reported dropping their bombs on target, but in spite of several radio contacts with their base, they never returned to Dobodura. Subsequent searches failed to locate the aircraft.

In 2000, three Papua New Guineans were hunting in the forest when they came across aircraft wreckage near Iwaia village. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) was notified and began planning an investigation. In 2002, a JPAC team traveled to Deboin Village to interview two individuals who said they knew where the crash site was. However, the witnesses could not relocate the site.

In 2004, the site was found about four miles from Iwaia village in Papua New Guinea where a JPAC team found an aircraft data plate that correlated to the 1943 crash.

Between 2004 and 2007, JPAC teams conducted two excavations of the site and recovered human remains and non-biological material including some crew-related artifacts such as identification tags.

Among dental records, other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.