President King thanked our official greeters.
Sofie Ameloot said the coats for Operation Warm had arrived and that she would also be checking with Centerville High School next Thursday about their Adopt-a-Family program.
President-Elect Frank Perez said the sign-up for the Dec. 12 dinner will be at next week's meeting, so everyone will know how many guests you might be bringing.
Joyce Young announced that Nov. 15 was the last day to get in your two-for-one $500 donation for the Rotary Foundation, so the Paul Harris Fellows can be presented at the Dec. 12 Christmas dinner.
Forms for nominating the Rotarian of the Year also needed to be in by Nov.15.
President King said Crissy Allums attended both the Nov. 7 and Nov. 9 meetings mentioned below and found them very informative about Rotary. The next Leadership Institute will be in February, he said.
Nov. 7, Rotary Membership Training and Workshop. Registration is at 5:30 p.m. Meal is at 5:45 p.m. Start is 6:15 to 8:45 p.m. At Middletown Community Room, 601 N. Breiel Blvd.
1. District 6670, DACDB District Calendar, no charge, meal provided
Nov. 9. Rotary Leadership Institute, Session 1,2,3 at Greene County Career Center.
1. $50 registration fee is reimbursable by the club.
As per the social mentioned below, nine or ten people showed up, President King said.
Nov. 12, Social at Old Bag of Nails: 5-7 p.m. New member orientation
Our Assistant Governor Laramir Jung was recognized and then all our military veterans were asked to stand and be recognized.
Holiday Dinner: Dec. 12, with Centerville Jazz Ensemble as entertainment
President King said the next board meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Centerville Park District Headquarters building. The next meeting after that won't be until January.
Happy Bucks were collected this week by Club Treasurer Gerry Eastabrooks and Vice President Brian Hayes for the Dayton Food Bank.
Gerry Eastabrooks gave a couple of Happy Bucks, noting that her best friend is sick. Wayne Davis gave a couple bucks for Brian's eyeglass fund, as he had to have Gerry read some of the names on the list of guests, as he said they were too small.
Mike Wier gave, noting he has the complete set of the true world war, if anyone wishes to borrow.
Laramir Jung, our AG, gave for our guests and guest speaker and said her father was a WWII vet.
Frank Perez said he was happy to have been in Chicago, and Joyce said her father was in WWII. Bob Fry gave for the veterans. Dale Berry gave for the funeral of Jorge de Rio, and Matt Kuhn gave for having six generations in the military. Kitty Ullmer gave $20 for having had a father and uncle at Okinawa, and for her mom's three brothers who fought in Germany in WWII, one dying on the march to the Battle of the Bulge in December. Carol Kennard gave for the snow and its timing, as she got to stay home and play with her granddaughter instead of going to work that day. Ray Merz gave for WWII building bridges. Sofie Ameloot gave noting that her cousin said he felt like he had come out of church after being in our meeting last week. Donald Overly gave for our guest speaker, and Mario Contrerus gave for Boyd claiming him as his guest. Harvey Smith gave for our veterans and Arnie gave and Dan Sortman gave for this being his last meeting, as he leaves for a job in South Carolina, but he said he hopes to be back here in a year or so...
Jeff Senney said he was in Boston and had a great time and won $1,000 bucks last Saturday night.
Speaker of the Week: D. Ralph Young, speaking on the War in the Pacific.
Vice President Brian Hayes introduced our speaker D. Ralph Young
Brian said D. Ralph Young is a 94-year-old World War Veteran who was involved in four major invasions in the Pacific: Saipan, Tinian, Leyte, and Okinawa.
He brought along his wife Janice Young
D. Ralph Young has written a book about the War in the Pacific called Forgotten Warriors, which is currently being revised. He said while most every president has celebrated Normandy and D-Day, you never hear about the war in the Pacific, which had many more casualties than the European war. No one goes to Manila, maybe because it is not near Paris, like Normandy, he said. The Japanese have come into the 20th century with WWII, he said. Only Clinton and Obama have visited the Manila Cemetery, he said.
With 348 servicemen from WWII dying per day, there are down to about 400,000 left, he said.
He said there were different concepts to fighting the war with the Japanese, and that they didn't go north to the Aleutian islands more because of the weather than to conditions of combat.
The Japanese would commit suicide rather than surrender to the enemy, so there was no way to end the war but the way they did in the end, he said.
He credits the Navy Seabees for supplying the US ships. They supplied fuel, gasoline, medical and other needed items.
D. Ralph said he was on an APA (amphibious personal assault ship) which had landing craft that transported troops and equipment to the beach. A group of the ship's personnel had to stay on the beach during the landing to help repair any damage that might occur on the landing craft. The four larger-landing craft could include tanks with troops. He was selected to be on the beach to repair any guns that jammed or malfunctioned in any way during the invasion. His classification was gunner's mate. Two out of three going into the beach never made it, he said.
There were 96,466,660 worldwide killed during that war.
In the Pacific in Japan there were 18 killed for everyone wounded
In Europe there was one killed for every three wounded. The Japanese committed suicide rather than be captured, he said.
In Saipan, just after arriving on the beach, they were told their ship was leaving an for them to wait for the USS J. Franklin Bell to return. He said the reason was the US and Japanese were having a naval battle in the Philippines and it was thought that the Japanese fleet would try to intercept the invasion of Saipan. So the ships wouldn't be sitting ducks for a bombardment, they were ordered to disperse immediately. They were left for several days without water or food, he said. They survived by stealing from the army and marines.
The turning point for war in the Pacific was the Battle of Midway, he said. George Gay was the only survivor of 15 pilots in the Lt. John Waldron Squadron. He never received a medal of honor, D. Ralph said.
After Saipan, Tinian was their next stop. His nephew went ashore there and they saved a Japanese soldier with a transfusion. He didn't have a gun.
After Tinian they landed at Leyte, where they narrowly escaped two bombs which landed and exploded beside their ship. A US plane chasing a Japanese plane was shot down, but they managed to pick up the pilot, who was extremely mad at whatever ship shot him down. Their
fourth landing was at Okinawa, where he helped lay a smoke screen over the harbor of the landing. They got shot at by another American ship before giving them the signal who they were.
D. Ralph said the Runway Able on the Island of Tinian was the most famous airway. Colonel Tibbets left the runway with a bomb for Hiroshima and three days later Major Sweeney for Kokura, with the cloud going over Nagasaki. Sixteen hours after that bombing the Emperor decided to end the war. Some 120,000 people were killed with two bombs, he said. The Japanese had ordered 1.5 million purple hearts and the war would have gone on if we hadn't used the A-bomb, he said. The war cost about 500,000 American deaths, he said.
The picture below shows D. Ralph as a young Naval recruit. He hails from Stanford, Kentucky
and grew up poor on a small farm in Kentucky, the 11th of 11 children, he said. He joined the Navy before graduating from high school. His mother who died the next year, had prayed that God would protect and keep safe her last born son. D. Ralph Young has also written a book chronicling his life called The Power of a Mother's Prayer. He published a second edition to show how much people liked his first edition and what they took away from it.
D. Ralph's first wife, Charlotte Ray Young, of almost 60 years died, in 2008 he married his current wife Janice, who took in their daughter Marsha while she was teaching in Jakarta, Indonesia.
After his service in the war he went to college and became a successful engineer, serving in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonisia, being a member of UK-Hod, College of Engineering Hall of Distinction. His e-mail is dralphyoung@yahoo.com.
D. Ralph showed a number of lists comparing the number of casualties in the European War vs.
those killed in the Pacific.
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President Chuck King presented D. Ralph Young with Rotary's Veteran pin a few minutes before
this picture was taken at the end of the meeting.
Saipan beach June 15 1944
D. Ralph told a story about Thomas Baker, a sergeant in the Army who received a Medal of Honor. He was injured and couldn't go any farther so he told them to sit him by a tree, and just leave him with a cigarette and pistol. The next day, after driving the enemy back again, they found him still sitting by the tree, the pistol was empty and 8 Japanese were dead around him.
Invasion of Tinian town - the Island is so narrow that gun boats were able to keep the Japanese from going north again
D. Ralph went back to Saipan in 2017. Instead of stepping over dead bodies, he was stepping over sunbathers. While visiting they surprised him by awarding a medal of valor in the pacific, in remembrance of their island.
Desmond Doss was a soldier who refused to carry a gun due to religious beliefs, but he wanted to serve. In Okinawa, and he fought through gunfire and was able to recover 75 soldiers, lowering them down a cliff to safety.
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The Rotary meeting was adjourned with the reciting of the Four-Way Test