This is a very patriotic time of year. In addition to Memorial Day and Independence Day, D-Day and Flag Day fall between those two well-known Federal Holidays. The entire month of May is designated to honor military members and their families, past and present. I wrote about those designated days in a few weeks ago.
June also has a number of Military Holidays, some I have not heard of:
- Don’t Give Up the Ship Day (1 June)
- D-Day (6 June)
- Flag Day (14 June)
- Pause for the Pledge Day (14 June)
- US Army Birthday (14 June)
- Bunker Hill Day (16 June)
- US Coast Guard Auxiliary Birthday (23 June)
- PTSD Awareness Day (27 June)
- Operation Red Wings Observance (28 June)
Whole weeks in June are devoted to patriotic observances and honoring the military:
- America the Beautiful Week (first full week of June)
- Greencare for Troops Week (17-23 June)
- Honor America Days (14 June-4 July)
- National Flag Week (9-15 June)
I put up my patriotic decorations and U.S. flags before Memorial and leave them up until after Independence Day. The red, white, and blue colors are beautiful and uplifting, as well as patriotic!
I was going through some old Schumm family photos the other day and I found a couple interesting photos that my grandpa Schumm had saved.
My grandpa Cornelius Schumm had a sister Frieda (1893-1945), who married Richard Allmandinger (1898-1982). They had a son, Louis William Allmandinger (1925-2013), who was also my grandpa’s nephew.
Grandpa saved a couple photos of his nephew Louis Allmandinger in his WWII Army uniform, dated 1944, and a photo of Louis parachuting in Japan, dated 1947.
Louis Allmandinger (1925-2013), 11th Airborne, 1944.
Written on the back of the photo below: Jan 8, 1947. I made my first parachute landing. Yomoto [?], Honshu, Japan. Am wearing a pair of wings now. Louie.
Louis Allmandinger, 11th Airborne, parachuting in Japan, 1947.
Louis Allmandinger, 11th Airborne, 1947, back of above photo.
Louis was a U.S. Army paratrooper in the 11th Airborne. The 11th Airborne Division was activated on 25 February 1943, during WWII, and held in reserve in the U.S. until June 1944 when it was transferred to the Pacific Theater. They saw some combat in the Philippines.
The 11th Airborne was in Honshu, Japan, as part of the post-war occupation and that was where Louis made his first parachute landing in 1947.
Honshu is Japan’s largest and most populous island. Honshu contains Japan’s highest mountain, Mount Fuji, and Japan’s largest lake, Lake Biwa.
I know nothing more about Louis’ war service, but I appreciate that these photos were saved all these years.
During the war years Louis probably attended Zion Lutheran Church, Schumm, where over a dozen of their young men served in WWII.
Again, Thank You to our veterans, past and present.
