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158th Infantry BUSHMASTERS - Captain Henry A. Seebald


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Source: https://www.mcall.com/opinion/white/blog/mc-final-twist-to-story-of-slain-soldier-20160527-column.html

 

Final Twist to Story of Slain Soldier

 

By Bill White, Contact Reporter

May 27, 2016

 

War comrade had forgotten he wrote to widow

 

 

Today I'm offering the final installment in my series of 2009 columns about an Allentown soldier who died near the end of World War II and whose family reconnected with his memory and one of his combat comrades. The others ran Wednesday and Thursday.

 

Since I didn't have a new Memorial Day column in the works, this is my very small attempt to thank all you veterans out there for your service.

 

I also asked people to list the best war movies in which the hero died in or related to combat. I got little reaction, so threw the question up on Facebook this morning and the responses are pouring in. Some of them don't really fit the category, though, and I'm being picky about it. If you're a Facebook user, I encourage you to go to my page and check them out.

 

Here's my top five:

 

1. Saving Private Ryan. Maybe the best war movie ever, with a great hero in Tom Hanks, who is killed just as he reaches his objective to find and protect Private Ryan.

 

2. Bridge on the River Kwai. I ruled out "Lawrence of Arabia" because T.E. Lawrence died back in England, not in combat. But in this other David Lean epic, hero William Holden didn't survive the mission to blow up the bridge. And if you prefer Alec Guinness' Col. Nicholson as the main character, well, he died, too.

 

3. Glory. Great Civil War movie in which pretty much everyone, including leader Matthew Broderick, dies in the effort to take Battery Wagner.

 

4. Das Boot. I struggled with this, but bumped "Sands of Iwo Jima" off for this one, just because I love submarine movies and this is by far the best. And as with the John Wayne World War II classic, death comes just as you're thinking it's all over.

 

5. 300. Leonidas and the rest of his Spartans all are annihilated in this great depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae.

 

I'll mention one great war movie that came up on Facebook, "The Great Escape." If this one fit, I would rank it third, but I would argue that the two main characters are Steve McQueen and James Garner, and they both survived. If you want to argue for Richard Attenborough, then it does fit and belongs on the list.

 

Feel free to argue with me in the Comments. Meanwhile, here's the last installment of that column:

 

I mentioned last time that there was one last twist in the story of 1st Lt. Kenneth Knoll, killed in action during the World War II fighting to liberate the Philippines, and the friend who wanted to honor him with a memorial paving stone at the National Infantry Museum.

 

Henry Seebald, an Allentown native who lives in Wyomissing, Berks County, served in the same 158th Infantry Regiment. He hadn't known fellow Allentonian Knoll before the war, but they became friends, and their families back home grew close, too.

 

Seebald recently purchased paving stones for him and Knoll, and he wanted to contact Knoll's family so he could arrange for them to have photos of it. He e-mailed me to see if I could help him find them.

 

The search eventually led to Knoll's daughter, Sally Getchell, 67, of Point Pleasant, Bucks County, and his sister, Kathryn Wieder of New Port Richey, Fla. They both supplied me with Kenneth Knoll memorabilia they had tucked away in boxes. Last time, I shared two letters Knoll wrote to his wife, Elaine, and toddler Sally as he lay in a hospital. The most recent was written three days before his death.

 

"Almost 65 years later, they still touch me deeply," Getchell said.

 

The twist was that they also had a letter that Capt. Henry Seebald wrote to Elaine after the war was over. He had forgotten all about sending it.

 

"I thought to myself, "Isn't that remarkable?' " Seebald told me. "I never remembered it."

 

Here is the letter, slightly abridged:

 

"Dear Mrs. Knoll:

 

"Your letter of Sept. 2 arrived here a few days ago," Seebald wrote. "I understand how you felt about Ken's death and how it occurred. Due to censorship regulations, I was unable to tell you what I knew. Since the War ended, I can give you all the details.

 

"Our regiment took the town of Balayan about 100 miles south of Manila against little resistance. They were then given the mission of securing the towns of Lemery, Taal and Batangas and the surrounding area. The Second Battalion with Company E [Knoll's company] as the lead company moved into Lemery with little resistance.

 

"Company E, after it secured Lemery, crossed a small river separating Lemery and Taal to occupy Taal for the night. The company command post was located in one of the destroyed houses of the town. In the area of the command post were Lts. Worsham, Gewinner and Ken.

 

"While they were in a group, the [Japanese] started dropping heavy artillery on them. They started to leave the area for a safer place when a shell landed right amongst them. Lt. Worsham was killed outright by a piece of shrapnel, and Ken was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the buttocks. It traveled through his intestines almost coming through his stomach wall. (Since I wasn't there when it happened I asked Lt. Gewinner to tell me how he was hit.) They were crawling over a low stone wall when the shell hit.

 

"I didn't even know that Ken was wounded until I read in the Death's List published by our regiment that he died in a hospital from wounds received at the town of Taal.

 

"I can't tell you any more about him as I didn't know what hospital he was sent to or who had seen him after he arrived there.

 

"I'd like to tell you that Ken was very well liked by his men and fellow officers. He was killed in the performance of his duty, which is what all of us combat soldiers are subject to, but from which some of us are spared.

 

"The good Lord took Ken and thousands of other soldiers away from us, but in their deaths we have won the battle against our enemies so that now we are able to make the world safe for all peace-loving people. Ken gave his life so that you, Elaine, your child, Sally, and all the other people at home might not have to suffer and die. For no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friend.

 

"With sympathy, Henry"

 

The 158th Regimental Combat Team was known as the Bushmasters. Henry Seebald is treasurer of the organization for former Bushmasters, and he's editor of the group's newsletter, The 158th R.C.T. (Bushmaster East) Guardian.

 

Some years back, Seebald wrote a fictional speech by Gen. Douglas MacArthur that both gives the history of the Bushmasters and reflects the praise MacArthur lavished on them. You can find the full text, and other information about the Bushmasters, at bushmaster.vibobgen.com/index.htm. Seebald said he often gets requests to repeat it.

 

In the speech, MacArthur concluded, "You are brave heroes! You are among the bravest of the brave. In every battle you have defeated the Japanese, who had never been defeated in modern history.

 

"I am proud to say -- no greater fight combat team than the 158th Regimental Combat Team has ever deployed for battle. It is my pleasure to salute you Bushmasters from a job well done."

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Source: https://www.mcall.com/opinion/white/mc-bw-douglas-macarthur-20170323-story.html

 

By Bill White, Contact Reporter

March 23, 2017

 

Douglas MacArthur speech was local soldier's creation

 

This is the story of a World War II urban myth.

 

Since I've been writing about local World War II heroes, I figured it was a good time to circle back to a series of columns I wrote in 2009 on two more soldiers — and the inquiry I recently got about them.

 

The myth involves a speech by Gen. Douglas MacArthur praising the fighting qualities of the 158th Regimental Combat Team, skilled jungle fighters known as the Bushmasters.

 

My columns involved 1st Lt. Kenneth Knoll of Allentown, a Bushmaster killed in action during the World War II fighting to liberate the Philippines, and the friend who wanted to honor him with a memorial paving stone at the National Infantry Museum.

 

Henry Seebald, an Allentown native who lived in Wyomissing, Berks County, before dying in 2014, served in the same 158th Infantry Regiment. He and Knoll became friends during the war.

 

Seebald purchased paving stones for him and Knoll, and he wanted to let Knoll's family know about it. He asked me to help find them, and I eventually was able to connect him with Knoll's daughter — just a toddler when her father died — and other family members. Several of us later gathered in the retirement community where Seebald and his wife, Gladys, lived, and Henry shared memorabilia from their fighting unit.

 

As I reported in one of those columns, Seebald wrote a fictional speech by Gen. Douglas MacArthur that gave the history of the Bushmasters and praised them for their accomplishments. It ran in full in a Bushmasters newsletter, and I quoted a portion of it in one of my columns. Seebald told me he often got requests to repeat it, so it spread throughout the ranks of veterans and their families.

 

In Seebald's speech, MacArthur concluded, "You are brave heroes! You are among the bravest of the brave. In every battle you have defeated the Japanese, who had never been defeated in modern history.

 

"I am proud to say — no greater fight combat team than the 158th Regimental Combat Team has ever deployed for battle. It is my pleasure to salute you Bushmasters for a job well done."

 

That last paragraph apparently was based on what has been oft-repeated in books, online and even museums as a real quote from MacArthur: "No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle."

 

Anyway, I received the following email this winter from Jim Lankford:

 

"I am writing you regarding the fictional MacArthur speech written by Henry Seebald, a former captain in the 158th Infantry Regiment.

 

"I am a published military historian and board member of the Fort Tuthill Military Museum in Flagstaff, Az. Ft. Tuthill was used for training the 158th and related Arizona National Guard units in 1930. The museum refers to itself as the 'Home of the Bushmasters.'

 

"For some time I have been attempting to locate a copy of MacArthur's speech in order to corroborate its purported claims made regarding the Bushmasters. My examination of the correspondence/documents boxes of the Bushmasters Association Collection at Arizona State University was fruitless. I find it suspicious that a copy of this speech is not among these papers. Given my previous experience with veterans association records such an important speech would be found in this collection. Research using other potential sources has not turned up the speech.

 

"As a military historian I am trained to be skeptical of bold claims like those made in the MacArthur speech until they are verified. At this juncture I am fully prepared to entertain the thought that the speech is a fiction. My goal is for the museum to portray the history of the Bushmasters as accurately as possible. This includes eliminating false claims no matter how entrenched they may be.

 

"Can you please elaborate on your claim that it is fictional. A copy of the speech, if you have it, would be very helpful. Any light you can shed on this subject will be most appreciated."

 

I replied that Seebald made it very clear to me that he was the author of the speech and that it was presented that way in the newsletter, although I no longer had a copy of it. The online link to the full speech that I included in one of my columns no longer works, and another link I found — from someone else who thought the speech was real — doesn't work, either.

 

Lankford explained, "The speech is considered by some here as the real thing ... I don't for one second believe Capt. Seebald intended to deceive anyone. However, it would be nice if we can correct the historical record."

 

I promised to check with Gladys Seebald, 95, to see if she still had her husband's newsletter files or a copy of the original speech. She wasn't able to find anything, but she chuckled at the idea that anyone would believe MacArthur had actually delivered her husband's speech.

 

When I spoke with Lankford this week, he said he had found a copy of the speech, that it had Seebald's name on it and that the language in there didn't sound at all like MacArthur. But he still appreciated my confirmation, which is helping him to correct these stubbornly held misconceptions. "It's just mind-boggling how these things can take on a life of their own," he said, citing other examples of military falsehoods that have been perpetuated through repeated retelling.

 

Lankford isn't even convinced of the legitimacy of that original MacArthur quote, "No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle," pointing out that the original source is unknown.

 

"That sort of thing would have been somewhat atypical for MacArthur," he told me. "He was famous for not praising his people."

 

In any event, I'm glad to help dispel this myth about MacArthur's Bushmasters speech. My only regret is that Henry Seebald isn't around to hear about what he started. It would have given him a good laugh.

 

http://articles.mcall.com/2013-03-22/news/mc-bw-world-war-two-soldier-20130322_1_knoll-ken-and-thousands-158th-infantry-regiment

 

World War II fallen soldier's daughter finds peace at his grave

March 22, 2013 by Bill White

 

Sally Getchell's father died in World War II when she was 21/2 years old. He was buried in the Philippines.

 

She has no memory of him, although her mother told her lots of stories about him. The connection got a shot of adrenaline a few years ago when one of his Army buddies arranged to honor him and reached out to her, but still, she never has seen his final resting place.

 

This month, almost 68 years after his death, she finally visited his grave in Manila. Imagine those emotions.

 

I'll tell you all about it in a moment. First, a little background.

 

The fallen soldier was 1st Lt. Kenneth Knoll, an Allentown man who died on March 24, 1945, during the effort to liberate the Philippines.

 

The friend who revived those memories was Henry Seebald, an Allentown native who lives in Wyomissing, Berks County. They served together in the 158th Infantry Regiment, known as the Bushmasters.

 

Seebald purchased commemorative paving stones a few years ago for himself and Knoll at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Ga., and he wanted to let Knoll's family know about it. He contacted me in hopes that I could track them down, and I eventually did that and wrote a series of columns about Seebald; Knoll; Knoll's sister, Kathryn Wieder of New Port Richey, Fla.; and Knoll's daughter, Sally Getchell of Point Pleasant, Bucks County.

 

Seebald later hosted our families for lunch and reminisced at the retirement community where he and his wife, Gladys, live. I even ended up on the mailing list for the Bushmasters' newsletter, which Seebald edited.

 

One of the interesting twists was that Knoll's family reminded Seebald that he had written Knoll's wife, Elaine, after the war, sharing some details about Ken's death and his high regard for his friend. Seebald had forgotten all about it.

 

"The good Lord took Ken and thousands of other soldiers away from us," his letter concluded, "but in their death we have won the battle against our enemies so that now we are able to make the world safe for all peace-loving people. Ken gave his life so that you, Elaine, your child, Sally, and all the other people at home might not have to suffer and die. For no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friend."

 

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from Gladys Seebald, telling me that Sally and others in her family had traveled to the Philippines to visit her father's grave. Sally and I finally connected this week to talk about her trip. She and her husband, Bill, were accompanied by their daughters and grandchildren.

 

She told me the journey actually began with a stay in Bali, where they had friends. After the exhausting trip from there to the Philippines, they stayed in a missionary guest house courtesy of an extended family member who is a missionary in the country.

 

Finally, the day came for their visit to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, which holds the remains of more than 17,000 war dead (almost all U.S. servicepeople) and tributes to many more whose bodies never were recovered. Over breakfast, the family looked over all the photos of the 158th they had found on the Internet and re-read Knoll's letters. "It made him real for my grandchildren," Sally told me, "and refreshed my mind."

 

In the weeks leading up to the trip, she also had re-read Seebald's letter, over and over, absorbing the details of where her father had been wounded and everything else about his last days. "Bless Henry Seebald," she said. "It's a wonderful letter."

 

Sally told me her mother always had wanted Knoll's body returned home, but as Sally surveyed the sea of white crosses, she decided, "He's at the right place, with his band of brothers, so to speak."

 

The cemetery, on a sloping hill overlooking Manila, was much more vast than she had imagined from photos. "When you're standing there, looking at all these graves, it's not something you can capture on the Internet. It was overwhelming to think that each one of these had a family."

 

I asked if she had seen "Saving Private Ryan," which is bookended by powerful scenes of the title character and his family visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. She replied, "I avoided war movies all my life. I wouldn't watch them."

 

Now she was walking down the aisle of graves, checking the numbers to find her father's place on the map. She said when she passed the gravestone next to his and realized the next one would be her father's, "I knew it was going to be emotional, but it really caught me. I just lost it."

 

Eventually, she took out a pinch of home soil they had brought with them and put it on his grave, as did everyone else in their party. She gathered a handful of sand from the grave site to bring back with her, hoping to incorporate it into a piece of keepsake jewelry.

 

The grandchildren did rubbings of the gravestone, and they all spent the afternoon there, trying to absorb it all and feeling a strange sense of peace. "There's a great deal of dignity, respect, " Sally said. "It was comforting and calming."

 

As they got ready to leave at the end of the day, they got a final surprise. Someone began playing taps, a perfect ending to an emotional day.

 

 

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I'm sure there's probably more information out there but that's what I could find at the moment.

 

RIP Captain Henry Albert Seebald.

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I saw that grouping and really wanted to go after it but there were also TWO other groupings on ebay this week that I wanted and went after instead. I got the two I wanted but I hope I don't bite myself for missing this one! Great research and great pickup to whomever got it!

 

Best,

 

Bill K.

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BILL THE PATCH

I saw that grouping and really wanted to go after it but there were also TWO other groupings on ebay this week that I wanted and went after instead.  I got the two I wanted but I hope I don't bite myself for missing this one!  Great research and great pickup to whomever got it!

 

Best,

 

Bill K.

By any chance was it the 473rd inf regt stuff?, I was partaking in that one

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

 

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By any chance was it the 473rd inf regt stuff?, I was partaking in that one

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

The seller had both from what I understand at SOS and after fees he would have done better selling at the show.Friend looked at both but the seller wasn't at the table every time he went back to look and he wanted to buy both.

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BigDogMilitaria

 

The seller had both from what I understand at SOS and after fees he would have done better selling at the show.Friend looked at both but the seller wasn't at the table every time he went back to look and he wanted to buy both.

 

Yes, all the stuff he had this week on ebay was at the SOS. I do believe that the asking prices there were a bit more than the price realized in all the auctions. The seller had some really incredible trunk groupings that did sell at the show.

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By any chance was it the 473rd inf regt stuff?, I was partaking in that one

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

Bill -

 

Yes it was :)

 

Wow, if this is what didn't sell at SOS, love to see what he DID sell!!

 

Best,

 

Bill K.

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  • 2 months later...

I just wanted to say I won the Captain Seebald uniform grouping. I did not win the overseas hat. It has a good home in my collection. Thanks for the research info. I agree March was an interesting month for high quality groupings on eBay. I also picked up a FSSF/474th uniform on the same day. I think it may be a aftershock from the Show of Shows.

 

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

 

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