- An Overdue Tribute
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- When Elaine Romanias, of Burke, was helping
her father with his recovery from bypass surgery more than a year ago,
she had a chance to hear some of his stories from World War II for the
first time.
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- "As I was growing up, I wondered
why my dad would have recurring nightmares, and now I understand why,"
said Romanias, a former Fairfax County public school teacher now at a private
school in Springfield.
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- One story in particular stunned her.
In December 1945, her father, Socrates George Koutsotaseos (now Taseos),
was serving as a machinist mate aboard the USS Triangulum, a Liberty ship
sailing from the Philippines to San Francisco for decommissioning shortly
after the end of the war.
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- One night, when the ship was west of
Hawaii, near Wake Island, Taseos was awakened by cries of "Soc! Wake
up! We have a problem."
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- The ship had run into a storm with high
winds and swells of 20 feet. At the same time, a water pressure problem
had led the boiler to fail. Lacking power to head into the waves, the ship
was in danger of rolling over and sinking.
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- "My crew and I were afraid to go
down into the boiler and engine rooms which were 20 feet below the ocean
level," Taseos wrote years later. "Nevertheless, it was up to
us to get the steam up to maximum if we were to save the ship and its complement
of 700 people."
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- Taseos and his crew managed to open valves
that fed drinking water into the boiler, a slow and hot process that left
them exhausted and covered with burns. Their actions saved the ship, and
the captain promised them medals for their efforts, Taseos said, but that
never happened.
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- Romanias decided to pursue the medal
for her father. She went to the Naval Archives to look at the ship's log.
Then she used the Internet to contact a living shipmate who could verify
her father's story.
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- "Taseos' inspiring leadership, skillful
application of his talent and experience to an intractable life-threatening
situation, and selfless dedication to his ship and crew saved the ship
from certain disaster," Roy Tanner, who served as the gunnery officer
aboard the Triangulum, said in a statement submitted to the Navy this year.
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- On March 31, the Navy will present Taseos
with the Navy Commendation Medal.
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- A Fitting Remembrance
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- The epitaph unveiled last month on the
gravestone of Frederic Davison at Arlington National Cemetery is very simple:
"These are his credentials."
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- The words are borrowed from the famous
comment made during World War II by Brig. Gen. Charles Conham when his
8th Infantry Division won the surrender of a German force. A higher-ranking
German officer haughtily asked what credentials Conham had to accept the
Germans' surrender. Conham gestured to some of the 8th Infantry soldiers
who had fought their way through Europe and said simply, "These are
my credentials."
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- For those who knew Davison, himself a
World War II veteran, it is very fitting that this tribute to soldiers
is on his headstone.
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- But there is much more that should be
said about the Washington native and Army pioneer, who died this year at
age 81 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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- Davison was the first black person to
command an Army brigade in combat, leading the 199th Infantry in Vietnam
during the Tet Offensive. He also was the first black person to reach the
rank of major general and to command a division, leading the 8th Infantry
in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, in 1972-73.
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- Davison was born in Washington in 1917
and received a bachelor of science degree in zoology from Howard University
in 1938. He was called to active duty in 1941 and fought with the infantry
during its brutal fight through Italy.
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- Davison made a career of the Army, and
his final assignment before retiring in 1974 was as commanding general
of the Military District of Washington. He then began a second career,
serving as executive assistant to the president of Howard University from
1975 to 1984.
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- Davison was a man who had a profound
influence on those who served with him or under him, judging from some
of the eulogies delivered at his funeral.
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- Dennis Hightower, a Harvard professor
who served with Davison in Vietnam, said Davison was a strong mentor who
was unafraid to "call you a knucklehead if your logic was flawed,"
according to an article in the Pentagram, a military newspaper.
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- In an interview with the Washington Evening
Star in 1968, Davison described what it was like to be a black company
commander during World War II:
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- "I was going to be the best captain
in the area. If I had to work twice as hard, then I'd work twice as hard.
I don't like to be whipped by anything, and I don't like to admit that
anybody is better than I am."
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