I’ve spent a good deal of time this Memorial Day weekend finalizing the Killed in Action page for the Company G website. It was important to me to have it finished for Memorial Day. The foundation for this list of KIA is my grandfather Ed Monahan‘s handwritten list of men, numbering 53 dead (see Photo #1). Based on the list of the dead in the back of the Americal Division’s book Under the Southern Cross, as well as an initial scan of Company G’s morning reports, and of course the burials listed by the American Battle Monuments Commission, I feel that this list is a nearly complete accounting of the dead for Company G. I’ll continue to investigate this as part of my ongoing research. I suspect that there may be some names missing from the list, but I am quite comfortable stating that those listed were in fact the names of those killed during the war. Just a few of their faces can be seen in Photo #2.
In March, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Cebu, in the Philippine Islands, as a part of a trip with the Americal Division Veteran’s Association, to witness the dedication of a new monument at the spot of a major Japanese surrender at the end of the war (read about it here). The final stop on my trip was the Manila American Cemetery, final resting place for over 17,000 American casualties in the Pacific during World War II. On the strikingly beautiful grounds of this cemetery (see Photo #3, Photo #4, Photo #5) lie the remains of 10 men from Company G. On the walls of the missing, the names of 4 other men from Company G are inscribed (see Photo #6). During my visit on 29 March 2015, I stopped to pay respects to each man. It was a powerful, emotional morning, under a bright sun, with a brisk wind coursing over the quiet cemetery grounds. With the help of my mother, Claire Ciampa, my wife Angie, and the son of another Company G man, Ed Gekosky, we had assembled small ribbons prior to my departure for the Philippines. I left a ribbon with the Americal Division insignia and a symbol of each man’s home state at each grave (see Photo #7, Photo #8). It felt like a very small gesture to me, inconsequential when measured against the sacrifice these men had made. For weeks, I had been conscious of the fact that these men had likely never had a personal visitor, given the thousands of miles separating them from home. I wanted my visit to mean something – for these men to be remembered.
I hope that others out there will see and visit the Killed in Action page on this site, to remember the great sacrifice these men made. And I hope that some will read this story on Memorial Day, to help keep all of their memories alive.