Soldier News continued - 1945

Lt. Bernard Strait, Former POW, At Home

Sidney Enterprise, July 5, 1945

 

Lt. Bernard Strait, Oneonta [Otsego Co., NY], who was liberated as a prisoner of war at Bargh, Germany, has been returned to the United States and is spending a 50-day leave with his wife at 62 Maple Street.  He was with the 8th Air Force operating from England and was shot down over Frankfort, February 4th, 1944.  He was liberated May 1 by the Russians.  [Sidney Enterprise, July 5, 1945]

 

S-Sgt. Frederick R. Heck Killed in Action

Sidney Enterprise, July 5, 1945

 

An Oneonta soldier who left with Co. G, S-Sgt. Frederick R. Heck was killed in action on Okinawa May 13, according to a War Department telegram received by the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Amand Heck of 14 Telford street Oneonta.

 

M-Sgt. Charles G. Segar Killed in Action

Sidney Enterprise, July 5, 1945

 

Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Segar of Walton [Delaware Co., NY] have been advised by the War Department that their son, M-Sgt. Charles G. Segar, was killed in action on Okinawa, May 21.  The Walton sergeant, with more than 100 points to his credit, had been expected home daily, either on discharge or furlough.  He wrote his parents that he expected to get back to the United States soon.  He would have been 24 years old on June 13.  Sergeant Segar joined C.F.N.Y.N.G. before the unit was mustered into federal service in October, 1940.  With other members he received basic training at Fort McClennan, Ala., before the Jap sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was with the 27th Division when it was rushed across the continent to the Pacific Coast after that attack, and later shipped overseas to the Hawaiian Islands.  Still with the fighting outfit supervising truck dispatching, Sergeant Segar saw action on the Marshall Islands and at Saipan, before Okinawa.  

 

Pfc. Socrates Nellis Honored at Reunion

Bainbridge News & Republican, September 13, 1945

On Sunday, Sept. 9, Mr. and Mrs. Rexford Silvey held a family reunion in honor of their grandson, Pfc. Socrates Nellis.  Those present were:  Mrs. Edna Nellis, James Nellis and fiancé, Miss Birdella Daley, of Oneonta; Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Silvey, of Beaver Meadows; Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Lanfair and family, of Otego; Mr. and Mrs. Harold Miller and family, of Oneonta; Frank Silvey, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Silvey and family, of Bainbridge.  [Bainbridge News & Republican, Sept. 13, 1945]

 

Otto Neidlinger on Bombed Ship

Sidney Enterprise, July 5, 1945

 

AOM 3/C Otto C. Neidlinger, son of Otto F. Neidlinger of Bainbridge, R.D.3 [Chenango Co., NY], was one of the heroes aboard "Big Ben," the now famous carrier U.S.S. Franklin, whose miraculous survival of an aerial bombing in the Pacific has become one of the most dramatic sea stories of the war.  The ship which the Japanese boasted they had sunk is now safely back in New York.  The Franklin was operating 50 miles off Japan with a fast carrier task force on the morning of March 19.  Many of her planes were on desk loaded with bombs, rockets and machine gun ammunition, preparing to take off.  It was at this, her most vulnerable  moment, that a Jap dive-bomber streaked out of the clouds and released two 500-pound bombs.