Tale of Brothers in the Pacific Theater in WWII Submitted by Mark Munn From Presque Isle County Advance and Onaway Outlook April 30, 2015

  

  
CAPTION: Wally Dagner 


  
CAPTION: Fred Dagner 

  Seventy years ago in the spring of 1945 World War II was underway in the Pacific and while 
it may seem like a distant black and white documentary on the History Channel, it couldn't
have been more real for two Rogers City brothers pictured here, Wally and Fred Dagner. They
grew up on the shores of Lake Huron where summers were never ending and graduated from out local 
high school.  Like so many of the areas young men and women, they evenutally joined the armed
services, in this case the Marine Corps.

  The United Startes was pushing Japanese foreces back across the Pacific in and island
hopping campaign that led to two of the fiercest battles of the entire war, the invasions 
of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  These battles were fought as a prelude to upcoming dreded invasion
of mainland Japan with Wally and Fred thrust right into the middle of it.  The fighting was going 
to be brutal and casualties were expected to be heavy with neither side taking prisoners Fred would 
later say.  Rogers City had already experienced a number of its military members killed or
missing in action in Europe and the Pacific including one of Fred's shipmates from the old steamer
John G. Munson, Gordon Jaeger, who had been killed in the fightin in Germany during February of 
that same year.

  Wally, a company radio man was involved in teh Iwo Jima assault and when he came off the landing
craft went into the ocean water right over his head where he almost drown.  He let go of his M1
carbine, somehow shed his heavy radio, and swam to the beach.  He managed to crawl over the volcanic 
ash beach into a shell crater that had had the remains of number of dead marines. He found an 
operating M1 Garand rifle from one of his dead comrades and right then looked up to see an enemy
soldier looking down at him whom he promptly dispatched.  the estimated time from coming off the landing 
craft to hitting the beach was approximately 15 minutes but seemed lie an eternity. Unfortunately
he said, this was the best 15 minutes on Iwo. It got worse after that.
 
  Fred had similar conditions with the invasion of Okinawa around a month later including the death of one 
of his closest friends, the best man in his wedding who was killed next to him in the foxhole they
occupied in the darkness.  Another one of Fred's friends from Alpena was wounded by enemy fire and thought 
to have been killed.  Fred would learn months later that he had survived after being rescued by an 
allied tank.

  Wally and Fred both survived the war and came back to Rogers City, Wally to be a policeman and Fred an 
electricican at Calcite, but it impacted them their entire lives.  Now days they call it post-traumatic
stress disorder, back then you were told to get on with your life and deal with it.  Fred's family
said he would say he couldn't stand the smell of a neighborhood barbecue because it reminded him of the 
smell of burning flesh and that on a hot summer day he was known to jump off the old coal tower over the
boat landing slip at Calcite into the water.  A considerable distance but he had no fear. After all, 
he had survived the war, what else was there to fear?

  There were approximately 21,000 American servicemen killed at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  Twenty one 
thousand, who never had a chance to go home, witness a beautiful sunrise out of Lake Huron, raise
a family, walk a daughter down the aisle for her wedding or find the joy and excitement of a new
grandchild.  The price is heavy.

  The brothers are both gone now, with an American Flag presented to their families at their funerals
with some of thw words spoken, "On behalf of a grateful nation," for their service and sacrifice for the 
freedoms that we all continue to enjoy in our day to day lives.  You still see the flag flying at our
cemeteries, our churches and our schools before each sporting event.  The same flag leads our local 
parades in which both Wally and Fred marched in for years after the war, as a reminder of the great
country these young men were willing to give their lives to preserve for the generations to come.





From the Presque Isle County Advance and Onaway Outlook, April 30, 2015 page 4A. 



Retyped by J. Anderson