National:
I will be on the AOH National Veterans teleconference tomorrow evening. Will update next month.
State: I have made contact with Brendan Cooney the Virginia State AOH Chairman.
History and Patriotism-Irish in the Military
December 7th, this past week, marked the 81st Anniversary of the Japanese attack at Peral Harbor. Few survivors remain and even fewer can attend the remembrances held each year. Having been to the Arizona memorial, it is a sobering site. On the casualty list are Irish Americans named Callahan, Fitzgerald, Flannery, Huie, Morrison, McClafferty, O’Brien, O’Neill, and Shannon.
Also on 7 December 1944, the Army Rangers seized and held Hill 400 in the bloody Hurtgen Forest battle during WWII. The Ranger Chaplain? Father Joseph Lacy, who had volunteered to minister to the Rangers. He landed at Omaha Beach on D Day.
One Ranger described him as a “small, fat old Irishman.” When he boarded the troop transport to cross the Channel, Father Lacy told his flock, “When you land and get in there, I don’t want to see anybody kneeling and praying. If I do, I’m gonna come and boot you in the tail. You leave the praying to me and you do the fighting.” It was said he seemed to be strolling along the waterline administering the last rites, tending the wounded. For his actions on D Day, Father Lacy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation’s second highest award for bravery in combat.
