Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Last Surviving Members Of The First Special Service Force Die

One American, one Canadian. Rest in Honored Peace


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RIP brothers....

RIP gentlemen,thank you for all you did for your countries and for freedom.

There as a group doing a tribute to them at the gun show in Calgary this weekend.

Service men/women of any era or friendly nationality deserve our honor.

Thanks for posting this with the link to the other thread. I missed that one and put up one of my own earlier this week not realizing it had already been posted. Joe Glass is my wife's uncle and I had the honor of having him as a guest in my home a couple of years ago. We attended his service on Wednesday which was very impressive. Full military honors with lots of Green Beret headgear in attendance. They told some interesting stories at the service - he served as a scout in his unit and was color blind which enabled him to easily differentiate between camoflauge netting and folaige. When he was injured with shrapnel passing through his chest and out his back, he wanted to go back to his unit but they told him he was done fighting and going home. While recovering in the hospital, they switched doctors - when the new doctor came to check on him, he was out of bed and in uniform. He told the doctor his injuries were minor and he was good to go, so the doctor released him. He stowed away in a truck to get past MP's and back to his unit. Back with his unit, his commanding officer knew the extent of his injuries and told him he could go home voluntarily or with an escort - his choice.

Joe's wife Dorothy passed away a year ago and the family didn't think Joe would last too long after her passing. Last fall, Joe successfully scheduled one last jump with a unit training at Fort Harrison. When he showed up for the jump (age 92), a Colonol obviously pulled the plug. The Commanding General at the Fort is a good friend of Joe's and Joe contacted him trying to get him to pull rank and let him jump.

JGray,

Just recently I thought I remembered seeing an article about an approximately 90 year old man making a jump. I believe he was accompanied by another parachutist.

This wouldn't have been Mr. Glass by any chance would it?

Jim

Maybe it was...

Frank E. McCauley Hicksville, OHIO retired a Major/WWII, U.S. Army Air Corps. His unit was the 61st Fighter Squadron; aircraft P-47C #41-6271 �Rat Racer". Frank still lives in Hamilton, Montana and he did complete a jump a year or so ago. Frank�s most recent birthday was last November and he is 95, I attended it and he�s running around like he�s 60, except that his legs are starting to become weak. Frank was one of the very early ACE�s in Europe and there is a lot written about him and a lot more is available on the internet. His unit was commanded by Hub Zemke�s who was from Missoula and the planes they flew were the famous P-47; Zemke�s Wolfpack. Col. Hubert (Hub) A. Zemke, Missoula, MT. Headquarters Unit. Hub�s plane was a P-47D #42-75121 HV-Z. Hub was shot down near the end of the war and became a POW. Frank moved to the Missoula area after he retired from his California contracting business; he built some of the great houses in California. I think Frank wanted to be near Hub.

I�ve had the great honor to be one of Frank's best friends ...for more than 35 years. He's always a first class gentleman in every regard and he tops my list as being the greatest and most decent man I ever knew, and I�ve known a few. He confided that he refused to shoot enemy pilots while they were parachuting (after being shot down), and thereby went against orders to do so by one of his commanders �Gabby� Francis Gabrowski. Frank�s an honorable man and to him ...fair is fair.

Frank�s wife Bobbi is still going strong and she told me when he makes it his 100th she�ll make the parachute jump with him. For the record, his plane was shot up real bad at times, but never damaged so bad that he needed to bail out. The jump he made a year or two ago was his FIRST and he told the guy with him on the jump that he still can�t see the sense in jumping out of a perfectly sound airplane. Frank just wanted to know what other guys in his unit felt when they had to exit their aircraft due to battle damage.

If anyone wants to contact Frank he�s online. He kindly answers e-mail and is a gracious gentleman and as nice a man as you would ever want to converse with. I won�t publish his e-mail in the open, but if you want it I can rely it as a PM. People all over the world have been approaching Frank and thanking him and inviting him to events (fully paid) all over the planet.

Frank E. McCauley is a NATIONAL TREASURE, as well as a highly decorated HERO. I always thank him from the bottom of my heart and give him a welcome hug every time we meet. We are loosing our men of this high caliber at an alarming rate.

Chet Walker, M.P.A. (Stoneman)
Stevensville, Montana

Interesting background, thank you.

I have a friend who I went to school with. For many years he was a volunteer with Army and Navy cadets. At one time when he was in his 40's or 50's he had a group of cadets who took parachute training and were to make a jump to pass the class. My friend said he felt he should also take the course and make the jump.

He said when it was his turn to go out he could hardly let go of the sides of the Jump door. He said "I swear to God my fingerprints are still in the skin of that plane." He did, however, make the jump and got his wings. I admitted he was a better (stronger) man than me. I could have never done it.

I get upset standing on the balcony of a tall building. In spite of this I have no trouble flying in the bush planes we take every Fall to go moose hunting.

Jim

My wife made four parachute jumps in her late teens. WAYYYYY braver than I am. I get nose bleeds on the third rung of a step ladder.