It’s time again for Memorial Day, and its personal meaning to many Americans is just a three-day weekend to start the summer season. This upsets some folks but it’s easy to see why this is a common feeling.
Most of us are blessed to be able to say that we do not have close family or friends who died while serving in the military. There are a lot of factors that drive that, not the least being that fewer than 1% of Americans are in the military today. And there are a lot of arguments on whether that is a good thing or not.
But my intention here is to set down for my children – Adam, Rachel and Nick – a little info on their not-so-close relatives who died while serving their country in the military.
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Marvin Otto Becker, Gunner’s Mate 3rd class, and Wesley Paulson Becker, Seaman 1st class were your cousins – (your first cousins, 2X removed; Grandpa Hemken’s first cousins). The brothers died in the attack on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. And another brother might have died with them had it not been for a weekend pass.
Harvey, Marvin and Wesley Becker grew up in Nekoma, KS. Harvey was the eldest, four years older than Marvin and 7 years older than Wesley. Harvey joined the Navy and was assigned to the Arizona. He had been in a couple of years by the time Marvin and Wesley joined up. They asked to be assigned to the Arizona because of Howard. Three brothers serving together on one ship was not uncommon at that time.
Harvey was married, and his wife was a nurse who had found work in a hospital in Hawaii. She rented a house, and Harvey stayed there with her when he had leave from the ship. Harvey had gotten a weekend pass for Dec. 6th and 7th, so he was off the ship with his wife. Marvin and Wesley had planned to visit them on Sunday.
But the attack early Sunday morning changed all that. Harvey got to the harbor in time to see the Arizona burning and sinking. His brothers were one of 23 sets of brothers on the Arizona who died that morning. Marvin was 23 and Wesley was 19.
Marvin and Wesley Becker are two of the approximately 1000 men who remain entombed on the Arizona.
Their names are inscribed in marble inside the monument:
M. O. BECKER GM3c (Gunner’s Mate 3rd class
W. P. BECKER S1c (Seaman 1st class)
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Staff Sergeant George D. Pavlicek was your cousin (your first cousin, 3X removed; Grandma Gerik’s first cousin, 1X removed) who lived in south Texas, near the town of Praha (where your Grandpa Gerik was born).
GEORGE PAVLICEK DIES OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION
DIED JULY 3 OF WOUNDS RECEIVED FIGHTING WHILE IN FRANCE
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pavlicek of Komensky have been notified by the war [department] that their son, S. Sgt. George D. Pavlicek, died of wounds received in action in France on July 8. He was inducted in March, 1942 and had been overseas since April, 1944. On September 13, 1944 he would have been 28 years of age.
He was born in Lavaca County and attended school at Novohrad, Shiner parochial training school, and Komensky, from which he graduated in 1937. He received his military training at Camp Barkeley, Tex. La., California, and Ft. Dix, N. J. He was in the infantry in the 90th Division.
Sgt. Pavlicek was a fine young man, a credit to his parents and to his country. He was a devout member of the Catholic Church and his life was guided by its teachings.
He is survived by his grief-stricken parents, two brothers, Franklin and Pfc. Otto J. of the U. S. Army; and four sisters, Mrs. Edward (Julia) Kainer, Eugenia, Marcelline and Georgiann.
Memorial services will be held at a future date.
George was 27 at the time of his death. His body was returned to the U.S. in 1948, some four years later, and he was buried in a family plot at the Praha Cemetery (your Great Grandpa Gerik’s first wife is also buried there.)
George is one the Boys of Praha. Worth a read.
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Private Vincent C. Sykora was your cousin (your first cousin, 2X removed; Grandma Gerik’s first cousin).
He was only two years older than your Grandma Gerik, and he grew up near where she did, in rural Baylor County, TX near Westover. They would have seen each other in church in Megargel and in school at Westover, and at family functions.
Vincent and his two sisters – Louise, who was Grandma Gerik’s ageand a schoolmate, and Estella, who was 4 years younger – had been sent to live with various relatives after their mother died in 1928.
Vincent, who was 10, and Louise, who was 8, had gone to live with their grandparents, Jacob and Louise Sykora, who lived in Westover, while little Estella, who was 4, had been taken in by my grandparents (Grandma Gerik’s parents) who had a farm a few miles from Westover.
Vincent graduated from Westover High School in 1938.
He enlisted in the Army on 18 March 1941, prior to Pearl Harbor. He was a member of A Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.
With the 192nd, Vincent arrived in the Philippine Islands on Thanksgiving Day, 1941. He spent the next two weeks preparing for maneuvers. The morning of December 8, 1941, he and the other members of his company were ordered to the perimeter of Clark Airfield after receiving word that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor just ten hours earlier. From his position, he watched as the Japanese destroyed the Army Air Corps in the Philippines.
For the next four months, Vincent helped in the fight to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. At some point, when the Filipino and American forces surrendered, he became a Prisoner of War.
He spent time in several prison camps in the Philippines, and made several voyages under terrible conditions in Japanese prisoner ships.
Vincent was killed when the Japanese transport he was on, the Shinyo Maru, was torpedoed by an American submarine on September 7, 1944. Some POWs died in the explosion while others were shot by the Japanese as they attempted to leave the ship’s holds. Still others were shot while they swam to shore. Of the 750 POWs on the ship, only 82 survived the ship’s sinking. Vincent’s body was not recovered. He was 26.
A little more info on what is sometimes called the Shinyo Maru Incident.
Vincent’s name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial along with 36,284 other names (approx. one-third of the missing in WWII).
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Private Johnny J. Brom was your cousin (your first cousin, 2X removed; Grandma Gerik’s first cousin). He was two years younger than your Grandma Gerik, and grew up in rural Baylor County, TX near Megargel.
Johnny finished high school and then enlisted on 21 September 1944. He was in the infantry, and less than one year later he died in the Battle of Okinawa on 23 May 1945. His parents didn’t know until almost a month later:
Olney Enterprise, 29 June 1945
Pvt. Johnny J. Brom, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Brom, Route 3, Seymour, was killed in action on Okinawa, according to a letter received by his parents June 21. An infantryman with the 96th Division, Brom has been in service since September 20, 1944. He was graduated from the Westover High School in 1942, and was well-known in Megargel. His parents and one sister, Anita, Fort Worth, survive.
Johnny was 22. In 1949 his remains were returned to the U.S. and he was buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
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1st Lt. James Edward Pavlicek, Jr. was your cousin (your second cousin, 2X removed; Grandma Gerik’s second cousin).
He was born in October 1942 in Wichita Falls, TX, six months after his father, James Sr., enlisted in the Army for WWII (his father parachuted into Normandy on D-Day in 1944 and was wounded in combat, but lived to be 95.)
The family later moved to Hereford, TX, where James graduated from High School. He graduated from Notre Dame University in 1965.
James attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, GA, and was commissioned as 2nd Lt, Infantry. He completed Rotary Wing Training and received his Army Aviator Wings and began his tour in Vietnam on January 12, 1967. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant while in Vietnam.
On 3 November 1967, he was the command pilot on a UH-1C “Huey” helicopter that crashed at night while under enemy fire. James and the other three crewmen were killed. He was 25.
James is buried in St. Anthony’s cemetery in Hereford, TX.
He is listed on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial wall in Washington, DC. He is listed on Panel 29E, Line 17.
During the halftime ceremonies of the Notre Dame-Navy football game on October 31, 1987, Notre Dame honored the memory of this graduate of the class of 1965. The Alumni Association presented his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Pavlicek of Hereford, Texas, with the Father William Corby, C.S.C., Award. Each year, the Corby Award acknowledges a Notre Dame graduate for distinguished military service.
James also received posthumously two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Air Medal 13th through 20th Oak Leaf Cluster.
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