RHY
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 181
- Location
- Honolulu, Hawaii
HER DAD WAS A HERO
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 12, 2011 StarAdvertiser.com
An Oklahoma woman learns her father commanded nisei soldiers in the 100th Infantry
By Dan Nakaso
Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Vikki Powell arrives on Oahu Thursday to fill in the gaps about the father she never knew — a soldier who Powell only recently learned had been awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for leading Japanese-American soldiers into battle in World War II.
Powell's entire picture of her late father — Army Capt. James Clyde Vaughn — pivoted into a decidely different perspective two months ago when she discovered the citation that accompanied her father's Silver Star in the face of machine-gun and mortar fire in Italy on October 1943 when he was a second lieutenant with the famed 100th Infantry Battalion:
"When the time came for withdrawal, Lt. Vaughn, although wounded, remained behind until certain that all of his platoon had safely withdrawn," according to the citation. "Seeing some of his men pinned down by an enemy machine-gun, he personally accounted for the enemy gunner with his pistol, thus silencing the gun and enabling the men to withdraw. Lt. Vaughn's courage and leadership under fire was highly meritorious and a credit to the Armed Forces of the United States."
For Powell, a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, the discovery that the father she grew up not knowing had won the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts with the 100th Infantry Battalion changed her opinion and made her want to fly from her home in Oklahoma City to Hawaii for the first time to honor him.
"You have absolutely no idea what this did to me, having served 20 years in uniform myself," Powell said on Sunday via telephone amid tears. "To see that my dad did this heroic thing …"
Nisei soldiers from the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington on Nov. 2, and Powell will be among those honoring the veterans at a Waikiki parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by a banquet at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.
She plans to bring pictures of her father — who died in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990 at the age of 71 — to jog the soldier's memories and to learn more about the man she never knew.
Powell also plans to write a letter to her father and place it before his ashes at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
"I've gone 57 years with having half of me that I know nothing about," Powell said. "I never had anybody to call Dad. I grew up thinking he was probably not a good person. In the past two months I found out that he was a hero. … It's been an emotional journey."
Powell's search for answers about her father might reveal more details about one of the lesser-known aspects about the storied nisei 442nd, 100th Battalion and MIS units: the Caucasian officers who led their platoons.
"I know there were a lot of people who did tremendous things during the war," Powell said. "But to me my father was John Wayne."
It's a new point of view for Powell.
She was raised in a military family by a stepfather — and a mother who had served in Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II. Her mother died in 2001 after offering little information for Powell about her biological father.
"I always knew that I was adopted, but my mother was very private and didn't share a lot," Powell said.
In 1992, Powell's half sister was doing her own genealogical research when she discovered that Powell's biological father had died two years before in Tucson.
"When I 38 years old, I finally started to find out some information about my father," Powell said.
She was stationed at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base at the time and drove to Tucson to meet with Capt. Vaughn's widow. There she saw photos of a 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed man in an Army uniform.
"I'm 5-10, so I knew where I got my height," Powell said. "My mother had blue eyes and I had blue eyes. I could see the resemblance."
Among the widow's photos was the only picture known to exist of Powell as a baby.
"I happened to have that photo, as well," Powell said.
Vaughn's widow told Powell that he had been stationed in Hawaii during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. But she provided no information about what happened next to Vaughn's Army career.
The photos also offered another puzzle.
In some of the pictures, Vaughn wears the stripes of an Army staff sergeant. In others he's wearing captain's bars.
Years passed before Powell learned that her father had served with the 100th Infantry Battalion.
Now she's boning up on the history and nomenclature of the nisei units and has asked the Army for all of her father's war records.
But the richest information might come from the veterans she'll meet this week who served with her father in combat in Europe.
"Who are these nisei soldiers?" Powell asked rhetorically. "What is this all about? So far, with what I've learned, I'm overwhelmed."
Copyright (c) Honolulu Star-Advertiser
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 12, 2011 StarAdvertiser.com
An Oklahoma woman learns her father commanded nisei soldiers in the 100th Infantry
By Dan Nakaso
Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Vikki Powell arrives on Oahu Thursday to fill in the gaps about the father she never knew — a soldier who Powell only recently learned had been awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for leading Japanese-American soldiers into battle in World War II.
Powell's entire picture of her late father — Army Capt. James Clyde Vaughn — pivoted into a decidely different perspective two months ago when she discovered the citation that accompanied her father's Silver Star in the face of machine-gun and mortar fire in Italy on October 1943 when he was a second lieutenant with the famed 100th Infantry Battalion:
"When the time came for withdrawal, Lt. Vaughn, although wounded, remained behind until certain that all of his platoon had safely withdrawn," according to the citation. "Seeing some of his men pinned down by an enemy machine-gun, he personally accounted for the enemy gunner with his pistol, thus silencing the gun and enabling the men to withdraw. Lt. Vaughn's courage and leadership under fire was highly meritorious and a credit to the Armed Forces of the United States."
For Powell, a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, the discovery that the father she grew up not knowing had won the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts with the 100th Infantry Battalion changed her opinion and made her want to fly from her home in Oklahoma City to Hawaii for the first time to honor him.
"You have absolutely no idea what this did to me, having served 20 years in uniform myself," Powell said on Sunday via telephone amid tears. "To see that my dad did this heroic thing …"
Nisei soldiers from the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington on Nov. 2, and Powell will be among those honoring the veterans at a Waikiki parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by a banquet at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.
She plans to bring pictures of her father — who died in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990 at the age of 71 — to jog the soldier's memories and to learn more about the man she never knew.
Powell also plans to write a letter to her father and place it before his ashes at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
"I've gone 57 years with having half of me that I know nothing about," Powell said. "I never had anybody to call Dad. I grew up thinking he was probably not a good person. In the past two months I found out that he was a hero. … It's been an emotional journey."
Powell's search for answers about her father might reveal more details about one of the lesser-known aspects about the storied nisei 442nd, 100th Battalion and MIS units: the Caucasian officers who led their platoons.
"I know there were a lot of people who did tremendous things during the war," Powell said. "But to me my father was John Wayne."
It's a new point of view for Powell.
She was raised in a military family by a stepfather — and a mother who had served in Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II. Her mother died in 2001 after offering little information for Powell about her biological father.
"I always knew that I was adopted, but my mother was very private and didn't share a lot," Powell said.
In 1992, Powell's half sister was doing her own genealogical research when she discovered that Powell's biological father had died two years before in Tucson.
"When I 38 years old, I finally started to find out some information about my father," Powell said.
She was stationed at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base at the time and drove to Tucson to meet with Capt. Vaughn's widow. There she saw photos of a 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed man in an Army uniform.
"I'm 5-10, so I knew where I got my height," Powell said. "My mother had blue eyes and I had blue eyes. I could see the resemblance."
Among the widow's photos was the only picture known to exist of Powell as a baby.
"I happened to have that photo, as well," Powell said.
Vaughn's widow told Powell that he had been stationed in Hawaii during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. But she provided no information about what happened next to Vaughn's Army career.
The photos also offered another puzzle.
In some of the pictures, Vaughn wears the stripes of an Army staff sergeant. In others he's wearing captain's bars.
Years passed before Powell learned that her father had served with the 100th Infantry Battalion.
Now she's boning up on the history and nomenclature of the nisei units and has asked the Army for all of her father's war records.
But the richest information might come from the veterans she'll meet this week who served with her father in combat in Europe.
"Who are these nisei soldiers?" Powell asked rhetorically. "What is this all about? So far, with what I've learned, I'm overwhelmed."
Copyright (c) Honolulu Star-Advertiser
