Book of Honor: Bangor Remembers Her Sons Who Died for Victory, 1941-1945. City of Bangor, Maine.

Broadcast to the Nation, 9 December 1941: The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. When we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward the ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. We Americans are not destroyers--we are builders. We are now in the midst of a war, not For conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this nation, and all that this nation represents, will be safe for our children. So, we are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows. And in the difficult hours of this day--and through dark days thal may be yet to come--we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human race are on our side. For, in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well--our hope and their hope for liberty under God.

13 May 1940, his first address to the House of Commons after assuming office to conduct the war: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say: "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory--victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move torwards its goal. But take I up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "Come, then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

Of the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 19 November 1863: Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Inscription in the Memorial Church, Harvard University, Cabridge, Massachusetts: While a bright future beckoned, they freely gave their lives and fondest hopes for us and our allies, that we might learn from them courage in peace to spend our lives making a better world for others.

Commissioned October, 1944 by the City Council of the City of Bangor, Maine. Henry C. Knowlton, Chairman with the advice of Horace S. Estey, City Manager. Compiled by the Librarian and Staff of the Bangor Public Library. Written by L. Felix Ranlett, Librarian. Engrossed by Irving Bookstein, Boston, Massachusetts. Bound by Frederick W. Young, Harcourt Bindery, Boston, Massachusetts. Photographic copying by Preston M. Williams, Bangor, Maine and Cooper Studio of Photography, Boston, Massachusetts. Finished March, 1947.

Charles Albert Bean. Radioman Third Class, U.S. Navy - U.S.S.LCT 891, Flotilla 34. 27 April 1924 - 2 January 1946. Enlisted January 1943. Trained on LCT's, Solomons, Maryland. Served on LCT's, Pearl Harbor, October 1944. September 1945, then at Okinawa. Died of accidental explosion aboard his ship, Chimu Wan, Okinawa. Boy Scout. Bangor High School, 1942 where he was drum major Student at Bangor Maine School of Commerce. Enthusiastic outdoorsman. 8229068

Wilber Elmore Bradt. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Infantry. 172nd Infantry Regiment Combat Team. 1 February 1900 - 1 December 1945. Legion of Merit. Purple Heart with cluster. Silver Star with two clusters. Bronze Star. Commanded 169th Field Artillery, Munda; 152ndm New Guinea; 172nd Infantry, Tokyo. Died, Washington, D.C., of accident. Phi Beta Kappa. Ph.D., Indiana University, 1926. Head Chemistry Department, University of Maine. Beloved teacher. Learned student of electro-organic chemistry. 0182711

James Daniel Cassidy, Jr. Chief Turret Captain, U.S. Navy - U.S.S. Washington. 15 April 1894 - 19 September 1945. His nearly thirty years in the Navy began December 1915 at Portland, Maine, and ended with his death of illness aboard the U.S.S. Washington off San Francisco. Among his ships were Wyoming, California, and Arizona. Regimental commander, Naval Training Station, Farragut, Iowa. Buried, Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California. 405962

Edwin D Rattray. Major U.S. Army Field Artillery. 8 December 1893 - 15 September 1945. Field Artillery officer, 1918-1919. Graduate of Yale, 1919. Between wars an oil operator in the Southwest, he continued in the Officers' Reserve Corps. Recalled to active service, 1942. Saw duty at Fort Knox and Camps Breckinridge and Atterbury. Died in the service of illness. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 0141484

Paul H. Eames, Jr. Ensign, U.S. Navy - U.S.S. Indianapolis. 30 September 1924 - 30 July 1945. Killed in action in the Philippine Sea when his ship was torpedoed after delivering the irresistible instrument of immediate victory. Seaman First Class, 1942-1944. Midshipman, 1944-1945. Ensign, 1945. A.B. (cum laude) Brown University, 1945, and Bowdoin College, 1945. Brown University Swimming Team letterman. Editor "Bowdoin Orient". Purple Heart. 442206

Gerald Constantine Ryder. Private First Class, U.S. Army Infantry. Company C, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division. 3 December 1924 - 14 June 1945. Participating with the "Fighting Third" in eight major battles, French Morocco, Casablanca, Tunisia, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Southern France, and the capture of Nuremberg, he died in an accident in Austria. Student at St. John's School and John Bapst High. A lover of all sports. Presidential Citation. Croix de Guerre Fourragere. 31318669

Donald Aldrich McKinnon. Ensign, Navy Air corps, U.S. Navy. Squadron 3, Flight X, Naval Air Station, Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. 18 December 1920 - 27 May 1945. Sworn in, October 1942. Received Navy wings of gold at Pensacola, August 1944. Instructor at DeLand, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Whiting Field. While teaching dive bombing died in training-plane accident, Brewton, Alabama. In civil life a carpenter. Played football for Bangor High School in his senior year. Graduated 1939. 396061

Frederic Coleman Murphy. Captain, U.S. Army. Headquarters Allied Control Commission, Allied Military Govt. 26 January 1907 - 6 May 1945. Died of accident on duty at Milan, Italy. St. John's School, Bangor. St. Mary's College, Van Buren, 1924. University of Maine, B.A. 1928, M.A. 1936. Phi Beta Kappa. Harvard, M.A. 1937. Teacher at Berlin, New Hampshire. Economic analyst, U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D.C. Musician. Ski enthusiast. 0521416

William G. Burgess, Jr. Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps - 1st Marine Division.19 June 1924 - 14 May 1945. After fighting in the difficult campaigns at Cape Gloucester, New Britain; the Russell Islands, near Guadalcanal; and Bloody Nose Ridge, Peleliu Island; he fell in action at Okinawa. A native of Bangor and student at St. Mary's School, he lived also in Glenburn and Hermon. HIs principal interest was mechanics. 350545

George T. Richards. Private First Class, U.S. Army Infantry. Company E, 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. 3 December 1925 - 2 April 1945. The youngest of three brothers in the service. Enlisted 28 February 1944. Trained with 273rd Infantry, 69th Division. Sailed overseas November 1944. Entered the fighting January 1945. Killed in action at Nepthen, Germany. Graduated Garland Street Junior High, 1942. Entered Bangor High. Member of Pleiades Grange of Glenburn. Purple Heart. 31452083

Carl F. Peterson, Jr. Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps. 22nd Battalion, 6th Marine Division.23 February 1926 - 10 May 1945. Studied one year at Bangor High School. Enlisted June 1943. Killed in action at Okinawa. A lover of the out-of-doors, who even at Okinawa always lifted up his eyes to the hills, he found more happiness in his nineteen years than do most men in thrice as many. Purple Heart. 527730

Ferd Charles Flagg. Private First Class, U.S. Army. 29 June 1919 - 21 April 1945. One of four brothers who served. Fatally wounded in action, Leipzig, Germany, 18 April 1945. Bangor High School student; in the refrigeration business; shipbuilder. Member of Maine State Guard. He loved the out-of-doors and he loved people. His daughter, Pollyanne, and his son, Douglas, inherit his happy disposition. Purple Heart. 31401469

Carl S. Spragg. First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces. Headquarters Company, Combat Command A, 4th Armored Division. 17 July 1922 - 16 April 1945. At the cost of his own life by sniper's bullets he saved his comrades trapped in a disabled tank at Renez, Germany. Enlisted 1939. Commissioned 1942. Basketball manager, Bangor High School, where he graduated, 1938. Rancher in Wyoming. Purple Heart with three clusters. Bronze Star with two clusters. Silver Star. 01011041

Ernest A. Burke. Technical Sergeant, U.S. Army Air Forces. 100th Troop Carrier Squadron, 441st Troop Carrier Group. 4 September 1924 - 13 April 1945. As aerial gunner and crew chief of a C-47, served in campaigns of Rome-Arno, Southern France, Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe, to fall in action at Nieheim, Westphalia, Germany. He lies at Margraten, Holland. Bangor High, 1942. Student at University of Maine. Air Medal with three clusters. Purple Heart. 31317911

John A. Willette. Private First Class, U.S. Army Infantry. 16th Armored Infantry, 45th Division. 28 May 1918 - 4 April 1945. Fighting with the Thunderbird Division he earned four battle stars; in Italy, Southern France, and the Rhineland. Wounded, November 1944. Later returned to combat. Killed in action in the Harz Mountains, Germany. Student at John Bapst High School. Engaged in aircraft construction. Hunter and fisherman. Purple Heart with oak-leaf cluster. 31352091

Frederick Paul Keezer. Private First Class, U.S. Army Engineer Corps. 658th Engineer Light Equipment Company. 6 July 1917 - 1 April 1945. Following service in Maine State Guard Reserve, entered Army, March 1944. Trained, Camp Selby, Mississippi. Overseas, December 1944. Killed in action, Pirmasens, Bavaria, Germany. Buried, St. Arnold Cemetery, France. Native of Hudson. Electrician, employed in footwear manufacturing and in shipbuilding. Hunter. Photographer. Father of a daughter, Margaret Lucy. Purple Heart. 31457425

John N Budway. Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, 5th Marine Division. 29 July 1923 - 6 March 1945. Wounds received at Iwo Jima caused his death. Fought, previously, at Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Enlisted 1942. Trained, Parris Island. Sailed overseas, 1944. Participated in football, basketball, and boxing at John Bapst High School where he graduated, 1941. Engaged one year in assembling Pratt and Whitney airplane motors. Purple Heart. 484003

Donald Holman Ayer. Lieutenant, 17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars of Montreal. 22 April 1912 - 4 March 1945. For distinguished services before the enemy awarded the Military Cross, 1944. Graduated, Choate School, 1930; United States Naval Academy, 1934; graduate student, Harvard University, 1937. Estate and industrial administrator. Joined the Canadian Army 4 July 1940. Fought in Normandy, Holland, and Germany. Twice wounded. Killed in action near Cleve, Prussia.