Greensburg — Editor's Note: This is a continuation of a series of stories by Pat Smith remembering the local veterans of various wars. The first two appeared in yesterday's Veteran's section. More will continue throughout the week.



Dr. James Mendenhall, son of Carl and Willa Robbins Mendenhall, was a highly respected veterinarian here from 1946 until his death in 1993.

Jim was a member of the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), a program that had been established in 1942 to identify, train and educate "academically-talented" enlisted men as a specialized group of Army officers during WW II. These men wore an octagon shoulder patch insignia showing the lamp of knowledge crossed with a sword of valor Ð indicating the mental and physical capabilities of the men.  The group was disbanded early in 1944 primarily because of the soon to be Normandy invasion.

After that group was disbanded, Jim worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1991 he shared two of his most memorable trips with me. About 750 mules had been saved from the Burma Campaign during WW II. When the mules were given to China,  Jim was sent to accompany the mules on the ship. Most of the mules had been named by the men in charge of them. One mule named Grandpa had been wounded seven times and had an insatiable hunger for K ration cheese and C ration crackers. When booby traps were suspected, the men drove a mule before them. When the mule would hit the trap it would be killed instead of the American soldier. More than half of the mules were killed or wounded. The men had great respect for the mules.

Jim said, "When we got to China, we unloaded them right onto the beach with a crane and box. Those mules were so happy to get off that ship that some of them just jumped out and ran down the beach and into town. The Chinese were scared of them. They had been used to burros which are much smaller than mules."

Jim told how the Americans had to round them up along the highways, streets and in towns and said he explained to the Chinese that all they had to do was talk to the mules. "They weren't what the Chinese wanted for transportation and I've always wondered what happened to those mules. I imagine they were eaten."  

I remember suggesting to Jim that maybe some of their descendents are still running around over there in China. "Mules are sterile," he reminded me, Ð except for the case of Kickapoo." Jim was there when a Hartsville mule named Mollie that did have a baby. They named it Kickapoo. Newsreel cameras and reporters came to Hartsville in droves to see the once in a lifetime event. Jim and Jacquelyn Jean Young were married in 1948 and they were parents of five daughters.



Lieutenant Commander Wendell G. Osborn was born in Greensburg Oct. 23, 1905. His family lived on the north side of East Washington Street, about a block and half off the square.  He graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1923 and from the Naval Academy in 1927. He was incredibly athletic and played on three winning Army-Navy teams, was on the Swim team and played water polo while at the Academy.

He served in the Navy for two years. He was in the Naval Reserve when he was called for active duty in 1940. He helped get the USS Juneau fitted out for duty and went aboard for active duty in February 1942. The ship was commissioned Feb. 14, 1942. On the ship were five brothers who wanted to serve together. The brothers became famous posthumously. On November 13, 1942, just months after being commissioned, the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Solomon Islands while participating in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Osborn was not officially declared dead until July 19, 1943. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously.

Although it wasn't encouraged by the Armed Forces, before November 13, 1942, men could serve with their siblings in battle or on ships. On November 13, 1942 that changed. That was when, during the naval battle that took place on the sea while the land campaign was being fought, the USS Juneau, a light cruiser, was torpedoed and sunk during enemy action in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

The leading destroyer of the American ship and the enemy ship sighted each other and the USS Juneau received the order, "Stand by to open fire."

An enemy destroyer and the American cruiser USS Atlanta were hit at about the same time. Not long after that the American destroyers USS Cushing and USS Laffey were hit.  The USS Laffey exploded and sank.

The USS Portland, USS Barton, USS Monssen, USS San Francisco, USS Aaron Ward were hit. The next day the Atlanta, Cushing, and Monssen had sunk. The light cruiser Juneau was hit by an enemy torpedo on the port side near the forward fire room. The shock wave from the explosion buckled the deck, shattered the fire control computers, and knocked out power. Badly damaged, the Juneau rejoined surviving American warships.

Then the enemy fired three torpedoes at the San Francisco which missed, but one of the torpedoes struck the Juneau close to the previous hit. The explosion blew the Juneau in half and most of the crew died.  A message from USS Helena reported that the Juneau was lost and that survivors were in the water.

Rescue efforts didn't begin for several days because of conditions at the time.  One hundred fifteen crewmembers of the USS Juneau survived the explosion but only ten men were rescued because of the delay in rescue. Four of the Sullivan brothers died in the explosion. The third oldest son, George Thomas, was wounded but managed to get onto a raft where he survived for five days before succumbing either to wounds and exhaustion or a shark attack.

The brothers received the Purple Heart Medal posthumously. Their names were Albert, Francis, George, Joseph and Madison. Later, two destroyers were named USS The Sullivan's and a movie was made of the brothers titled, "The Fighting Sullivans." The ad for the movie at Amazon.com states, "The Guts and Glory of the Navy! This is the movie that inspired "Saving Private Ryan." It's the true story of five brothers who fought and died together when their ship, the American cruiser Juneau, was sunk in the South Pacific during World War II." Included on the video is a 2005 interview with Frank Holmgren (last living survivor of the sinking of the USS Juneau).