A day to give tribute

DON CANTRELL

Saturday’s dedication of the $175 million National World War II

Memorial in Washington D.C. has prompted many harbor area residents

to extend a heartfelt salute this Memorial Day to U.S. service men

and women who served with honor.

More than 16 million Americans served during the war period that

ran from Dec. 8, 1941 through mid-August of ’45.

It would be impossible to name all the local veterans from

yesteryear, but the Pilot sports department, over the years, has made

efforts to record as many athletic field veterans as it could.

There were two memorable young men from Newport Harbor High who

perished in the Philippines from enemy fire by Japanese forces.

They were George Shafer and Vernon Fitzpatrick.

Shafer was a 1934 blocking back on the varsity grid team coached

by Ralph Reed. Shafer often blocked for the noted fullback Al Irwin.

Shafer, a rugged but soft-spoken player, was an Army infantryman, who

was killed in jungle fighting.

Fitzpatrick, quarterback on the championship ’42 football team,

and a prized baseball hitter, was machine-gunned by Japanese fighter

pilots when parachuting over Luzon in December of 1944.

“We were always two touchdowns better when Fitzpatrick was in the

game,” former Newport Harbor coach Wendell Pickens, once said.

Joe Muniz, a skilled ’44 blocking back, once said, “Fitzpatrick

and Johnny Ikeda [a ’41 running back] were about nip and tuck for

guts.”

Muniz, a Navy veteran, cruised by Nagasaki, Japan, after it had

been leveled by an atomic bomb in August of ’44.

Joe’s brother, Manuel, a second-team All-CIF tackle and a member

of the ’42 championship team, was an Army infantryman who was wounded

at Okinawa in ’44 and earned a Purple Heart.

Manuel went on to play first string for four years at Arizona

State before being offered an invitation to join the New York Giants.

Injured knees, however, prompted Manuel to decline the offer.

One noteworthy bomber pilot was Walt Kelly, an end on the ’36

Newport grid team. He also set some track and field records and

starred as a 6-foot-4 center on the basketball team. Kelly and his

B-24 mates gained banner headlines once when they destroyed a giant

Japanese cruiser at Rabaul Bay in the Pacific.

Kelly recalled that he looked back once and saw his three bombs go

right down the smoke stack.

Sadly, Kelly stepped out of a medical tent a few days later and

witnessed his plane and his mates destroyed in an explosion at the

end of the runway.

Another highly honored airman was Sparks McClellan, a center on

the ’39 grid team. He was recognized with medals for numerous heroic

acts.

McClellan flew many combat routes in the South Pacific with his

Navy Hellcat, which fire-bombed Japanese troops on island shore lines

to clear the way for U.S. Marines invading beaches.

Two other pilots were Lt. Bill Dickey, a baseball player out of

Newport in the late ‘30s, and Ray Rosso, a fighter pilot, who was in

a substitute squadron in Hawaii ready for action days before the war

ended.

Rosso, who coached Orange Coast College football from 1948 through

1955, drew national sports praise once when he directed Chaffey

College to a victory in the second Junior Rose Bowl. His 1951 OCC

team won a conference title.

Dick Tucker, who coached OCC to a triumph in the 1963 Junior Rose Bowl and directed the Pirates for 24 years, served with the Navy

Shore Patrol in WWII.

Al Irwin, who coached football and swimming for years at Newport

Harbor and OCC, including a ’56 championship football team for Coast,

was a flight deck officer aboard the USS Lexington in the South

Pacific.

Another noted OCC grid chief was Steve Mussau, who directed the

Pirates to a title in ’57. He was a solid paratrooper during WWII and

earned ample recognition.

Edward C. Stephens, a crack-back running guard for the great

fullback Hal Sheflin in ‘41, survived a brutal attack on his

destroyer by a Japanese suicide bomber in late 1945. Stephens, who

was injured by shrapnel after the plane crashed near his gunnery

officer’s post, earned the Purple Heart. After a hospital stay, he

was returned to action.

Two Sheflin brothers, Bob and Hal, spent a long time in Pacific

waters after their ships were struck. Bob avoided one shell that

split his engine room, but spent 72 hours in the ocean before he was

recovered.

Hal suffered a lost lung from gas fumes as a deck gunner before he

was blown off the ship. Brother Bill was on his ship when it entered

the harbor in Tokyo as Japanese officials boarded the USS Missouri to

officially surrender before Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

George Mickelwait, the sterling quarterback on the 1938 and ’39

grid teams who was voted second-team All-Southern California in ‘39,

suffered serious injuries at the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. Some

German fire struck him in the back. He, too, earned the Purple Heart.

George O. Thompson, a ’37 quarterback who often exhibited great

talent with fullback Rollo McClellan, joined the Coast Guard and

eventually became a rear admiral. McClellan went on to a superb

performance aboard a Navy landing barge shipping ground troops to

shore lines.

Louis Glesenkamp, an outstanding halfback from the ’36 grid team,

was an Army tank sergeant on Pacific islands. He was later admired

for teaching Newport track and field athletes how to pole vault with

skill.

They will never be forgotten.