Veterans Chronicles Radio America

On Monday, Americans will pause for Memorial Day and honor the service and sacrifice of those gave what President Lincoln called their last full measure of devotion. And the reason we are often able to remember the fallen is because those who died had a friend who lived to tell the story.

That is certainly case for Don Mates and his great friend, Jimmy Trimble, a highly promising pitcher who delayed a Major League career to serve his nation in uniform.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Mates describes the lifelong bond he formed with other Marines in training. He also shares a vivid, detailed account of being seriously wounded by a series of Japanese grenade attacks in the foxhole he shared with Trimble - and the sucide attack from a Japanese solder that followed.

Finally, Mates explains why he spent so much time over the remainder of his life telling people about Jimmy Trimble and their friendship and how it forever changed his life.

It's a powerful story that exemplifies the cost of freedom and the commitment to forever honor our fallen heroes.

James Finn ended up in the U.S. Navy because he didn't want to join the Army and promised his parents he would not join the Marines. Soon he was training to be a bomber pilot and eventually deployed to the Pacific theater.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Mr. Finn tells us about flying the single engine TBF and TBM Avengers as part of a three-man crew, dropping bombs over Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Chi Chi Jima, French IndoChina and even in Burma.

Finn describes the challenge of taking off and landing on aircraft carriers and the ferocity of the Japanese air defenses. He also shares his memories of being aboard the USS Franklin aircraft carrier in October 1944 , when it was disabled by a Japanese kamikaze attack, returning to action aboard the USS Hornet, and how he heard the war was over.

Last week, we followed Don Graves and his story of service as a U.S. Marine from basic training to the invasion of Iwo Jima to seeing the raising of the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi. Now we focus on his actions and reflections over the rest of the six-week battle on Iwo Jima.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," we'll hear Graves describe his memories of the Japanese sinking the carrier escort USS Bismarck Sea while he was fighting in the mountains of Iwo Jima. He will also share details of the intense fight for Hill 362 A, losing many officers there, and using his flamethrower to help force the Japanese to retreat.

Now 99 years old, Graves also tells us about the damage inflicted by Japanese mortars and how he was able to help take out a critical mortar battery, the regular threat of Japanese banzai attacks, and the brief scare that the Japanese might be using poison gas. He even has an anecdote about a lighthearted moment with the enemy.

But his most powerful reflections center on the price of freedom, in terms of the total losses in the battle, the large number of his friends who died there, and one young Marine whose death still haunts him. And you'll hear his thoughts on the legacy of the Greatest Generation.

Don Graves was born in Michigan in 1925 and his family struggled mightily during the Great Depression. He was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He immediately ran down to the U.S. Marine Corps recruiter's office to sign up. He was too young, but on his seventeenth birthday, Graves officially became a Marine. Nearly three years later, Graves was among the Marines invading the critically important island of Iwo Jima.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Graves shares his vivid memories of learning about the attacks at Pearl Harbor, his intense training in San Diego, and his sudden new assignment as a flamethrower operator. He also shares, in great detail, what it was like to make the amphibious landing on Iwo Jima under heavy Japanese fire. Graves then describes the difficulty getting off the beach and what it took to fight to the top of Mt. Suribachi.

Finally, Graves tells us about the historic flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi that was immortalized in the Joseph Rosenthal photo and again in the sculpture ot the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

In our next edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Graves will detail the fighting in the weeks of fighting that followed the flag raising - from the brutal effectiveness of Japanese mortars to the power of his flamethrower and from enduring the loss of so many friends to the death of just one in his own foxhole. He will also reflect on the legacy of the Greatest Generation nearky 80 years later. 

Paul "Bud" Haedike was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943. Before long, he was assigned as a bombardier on a B-17 bomber crew. From the final months of 1944 until the end of the war in Europe, Haedike took part in 23 bombing missions, and none of those missions came with a guarantee he would return to base safely. 

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Sgt. Haedike recounts his first mission, which resulted in a crash landing in Belgium. He also remembers emergency landings on two other missions, what it was like to suffer through anti-aircraft fire on most missions, and how his orders shifted from precision bombing to pattern bombing. He shares the powerful story of bringing critical food supplies to the Netherlands after despicable German cruelty at the end of the war.

This was our second interview with Sgt. Haedike, recorded when he was "ninety-eight and a half" at the American Veterans Center conference in November 2023. Bud passed away in March 2024, not long before his 99th birthday. We're grateful to have known this wonderful man and for his service to our nation.

Roger "Buck" Winters was a recent high school graduate working at a tool factory in Texas when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He immediately wanted to quit his job and join the U.S. Army Air Corps. The government would not let him do either of those things at first. Winters would join the Army in 1943 and get trained as an engineer. He would be deployed to Guadalcanal and then to Cebu in the Philippines, where he would have a front row seat to history.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," 100-year-old Buck Winters tells us about his ordnance training and his work of destroying and building as an engineer in the Pacific theater of World War II. He will share what it was like to come under attack by the Japanese on Guadalcanal. He also explains what it took to find and eliminate the holdout Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender.

From there, it's on to Cebu, his shock at hearing natives speaking excellent English, and the hard work of rebuilding Cebu City. But the most vivid memory for Buck Winters is serving on the honor guard that welcomed Gen. Douglas MacArthur on his return to Cebu.