Download DAV Meets the Needs of World War II

DAV Meets the Needs of World
War II
The first class of the new
National Service Officer
Training
Program
at
American University in
Washington, D.C., in 1944.
From the ten classes came
the
core
of
the
DAV
National Service Program,
as well as
leadership.
the
staff
Never before was our nation so challenged than during the
historic days of the 1940s, and never before was DAV called
upon by so many disabled veterans for service and advocacy to
ensure our nation kept its promise to them. The 1940s marked a
decade of wars, medical advancements, new technology and rapid
change. And DAV responded with an innovative educational
program to train and field the National Service Officers
needed by those who served and sacrificed. It became a
landmark accomplishment for DAV and an institution that
continues to mold leaders today.
The United States in 1940 was a nation preparing for the war
that had already engulfed Europe and the Far East. In Europe,
Germany had overrun most of the western nations as Great
Britain stood alone, pounded by the Blitz and watching its
shores for impending invasion. In the Pacific, Japan had
invaded China and Manchuria as it prepared for an expanding
war to obtain the raw materials necessary for its existence.
Congress in 1940 enacted the Selective Service Act, the first
peacetime draft in the nation’s history. Still reeling from
the effects of the Great Depression, more than eight million
of the nation’s 132 million citizens were unemployed. The
minimum wage was 43 cents an hour, and the average annual
salary was $1,300. Slightly more than half the homes in the
nation had indoor plumbing.
The following year, the last year of peace until 1945,
Congress authorized the Lend-Lease Act which supplied Great
Britain, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied
nations with vast amounts of war materials produced by U.S.
industries in the run-up to war. At home, NBC launched regular
commercial television broadcasting.
For the Disabled American Veterans of the World War (DAVWW),
the tremendous increase in fundraising potential brought on by
the 1941 introduction of the IdentoTag Program was well timed.
The keychained miniature license plates for cars were a hit
for donors who now were earning enough to purchase a car. When
World War I Sgt. Laurence R. Melton was elected Commander at
that year’s national convention, no one could foresee the
series of world events that would leave him in office for the
longest term in DAV history.
Before he settled into his new duties, Melton was called to
active duty as an Army captain. Most of his time as National
Commander would see him on active duty, eventually being
promoted to major.
The seminal event of the decade, and perhaps the century, was
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941. The
United States responded with a declaration of war on Dec. 8,
and three days later declared war against Germany and
Italy—the so-called Axis powers.
Industries that had turned out consumer goods were converted
to wartime production. All civilian automobile construction
was cancelled as motor giants produced tanks, artillery,
airplanes and other weapons of war. Men enlisted or waited to
be drafted, and women left their homes to become the iron
maidens of industry.
For the only time in the history of DAV the 1942 National
Convention was canceled due to the lack of gasoline, hotel
accommodations and transportation among other war-related
problems.
The war initially focused on the Pacific as a strategy against
Germany and Italy was discussed between the United States and
Great Britain. Faced with the losses of the Philippines, Wake
Island and other strategic bases in the South Pacific, it was
the successes of the Doolittle Raid, the battles of Coral Sea,
Midway and Guadalcanal that lifted the nation’s spirits. In
Europe, the U.S. 8th Air Force arrived in Great Britain to
begin bombing missions against enemy targets in France as
Germany invaded Russia and pushed toward Moscow. In November,
U.S. and British troops landed in the French-held territories
of Algeria and Morocco in North Africa to begin offensive
operations against German and Italian forces.
At the front, the German Afrika Korps and supporting Italian
troops in North Africa surrendered to Allied forces. In July
1943, Allied forces invaded Sicily resulting in 2,899 killed
or missing, 6,471 wounded and 598 captured. After the bloody
invasion Duce Benito Mussolini resigned. In September, as
Allied forces were invading Salerno and Taranto, Italy signed
an armistice, and later declared war on Germany. The Italian
Campaign became a nightmare of modern warfare that did not end
until May 1945, with 29,560 killed and missing, 82,180 wounded
and 7,410 captured. No campaign in Western Europe cost
infantry forces more lives lost and wounds suffered than
Italy.
In the Pacific U. S. Marines invaded Tarawa in November 1943.
The invasion resulted in 1,696 killed, including 687 officers
and sailors in the sinking of the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) off
Makin Island. Among the dead was Dorie Miller, a cook who
received the Navy Cross for his gallantry at Pearl Harbor. The
Marines lost 1,009 killed and 2,101 wounded during the threeday battle of Tarawa, an assault on the 4,500-strong island
garrison. The battle, later called a mistake by General
Holland Smith in his autobiography, helped the Allies improve
the techniques of amphibious landings, plan more carefully
regarding tides and landing craft schedules and better overall
coordination, which was put to great use in 1944 and 1945.
The U.S. Navy did not seek out the Japanese fleet for a
decisive battle in 1943. Instead the Navy used aggressive
submarine warfare to strangle supply lines to Japan. The
strategy was so successful that oil shortages made any
Japanese naval attack impossible.
In 1944, Americans began the battles for Monte Cassino and
Anzio and captured Rome in Italy. The Normandy D-Day invasion
and the push to the Rhine in France; Operation Market-Garden
in Holland; the Hurtgen Forest in Germany; and the Battle of
the Bulge in Belgium and Luxembourg were the largest and
bloodiest battles in World War II—which cost the United States
19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing.
Revitalized with fleets of new warships, the war in the
Pacific reached a fevered pitch. The Army and Marines invaded
Cape Gloucester, Saipan and Guam. At sea, the Navy beat enemy
forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, dubbed the
“Marianas Turkey Shoot.”
By 1945, American bombers were regularly raiding targets in
Germany and Japan. In Europe, Allied forces from Russia and
the United States and other nations began to squeeze German
forces between them. By April 19, Soviet troops were on the
outskirts of Berlin, and Allied troops encircled the last
German armies near Bologna, in effect ending the war in Italy
on April 24. The next day, Soviet and American roops linked up
at the Elbe River, near Torgau in Germany.
Germany unconditionally capitulated to the Allies on May 7,
after thousands of German troops surrendered across Europe in
the days before. V-E Day is May 8, and celebrated around the
world.
In the Pacific, American and Philippine forces landed at Luzon
in the Philippines in January to fulfill Gen. Douglas
McArthur’s promise to return, retaking the allied nation by
March 3 and freeing hundreds of allied prisoners of war.
At the same time, U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima, which still
inspires reverence to the Marines Corps. In a 36-day assault
there were more than 26,000 American casualties, including
6,800 dead and more than 19,217 wounded. But it was the bitter
continuous fighting that inspired the words “uncommon valor
was a common virtue” which adorns the Iwo Jima Memorial of the
Mount Suribachi flag raising.
At Okinawa, the United States 10th Army would incur its
greatest losses in any campaign against the Japanese.
Initially made up of 183,000 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps
personnel, the 82-day battle would cost 7,613 men and more
than 30,000 would be evacuated from the front lines for a
minimum of a week due to wounds. Further, the largest numbers
of U.S. combat fatigue cases recorded up to that time would
occur on Okinawa.
he Navy
Okinawa
with 36
largest
fought off thousands of kamikaze suicide aircraft at
that caused the largest loss of ships in its history
sunk and 368 damaged. The Navy also sustained the
loss of life in a single battle with almost 5,000
killed and an equal number wounded.
In early August, the nuclear weapons used on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki brought an end to the war with Japan. On Aug. 15, the
world celebrated V-J Day and peace returned.
During the four heartbreaking years the war raged, newly
wounded veterans from the European, Pacific and China-IndiaBurma Theaters swelled the ranks of the DAVWW. The
organization began to prepare for another post-war era by
reviewing all the legislation and provisions that would be
required for the returning veterans.
With the 1942 National Convention canceled, the 1943
Convention in New York was a time to catch up. The work during
the past two years would take on added importance with the
large number of disabled veterans returning from World War II.
The 1943 delegates were treated to one of the best collections
of speakers to date. VA Administrator Frank Hines, Kaiser
Shipbuilding Corp. President Henry J. Kaiser, U.S. Civil
Service Commissioner Arthur J. Flemming and New York Mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia all sounded a similar theme: “Thank God for
the DAVWW: in times like these when we need them the most!”
Due to the sheer volume of service work required by returning
veterans, emphasis at the 1943 Convention was placed on the
National Service Program. Past National Commander Owen Galvin
eloquently delivered the nominating speech for James L.
Monnahan, a National Service Officer from Minneapolis. With 20
years in the DAVWW’s service program, Monnahan would return to
the NSO ranks when his term was up.
The National Executive Committee felt it was time to update
the name of the organization, and the DAVWW became the
Disabled American Veterans—DAV.
Except for the new name, there was no change in the
organization’s official seal. Still today, it features
Columbia knighting a World War I soldier in a picture taken
from the disability certificates awarded to the sick and
wounded World War I veterans.