Post by hc6774 on Aug 12, 2018 7:52:38 GMT -5
I attended Ed’s funeral in Worcester earlier this week. I was with a small contingent of midshipmen & staff officers from the NROTC unit at the College.
www.legacy.com/obituaries/telegram/obituary.aspx?n=edwin-meyer&pid=189813795&fhid=4842&f=portal
Ed was accepted with 114 other freshmen classmates into the recently established NROTC program in September 1941. He was graduated & commissioned with roughly half of this group in February 1944 and sent to the Pacific… The rest of them would follow in June. I believe Ed is the last survivor of this first NROTC class. I have met him several times at O’Callahan Society events. He was specially honored two years ago when the society marked the 75th anniversary of the College’s NROTC Program.
As part of her eulogy, his oldest daughter read a report that Ed, then an Ensign, submitted to his commanding officer in January 1945. His small destroyer was escorting MacArthur’s invasion force in Manila Bay.
The very detailed, graphic and literate report describes his assignment to command a ‘smoke boat’, a small motor whale boat with a crew of four armed with a smoke generator. Their mission was to protect the troop transports as they maneuvered in the predawn hours before the invasion by obscuring them from enemy shore batteries and aircraft. He was also warned to look out for enemy swimmers who would be targeting the transports. He and his crew encounter all of three threats that morning. His recommendation to his CO that in the future their armament should include rifles and a machine gun as well as the 45 caliber pistols that were issued to the crew.
She concluded "He was 21 and 10,000 miles from home when he wrote this"
The midshipmen advised the family that they will honor him by naming their new battalion conference room in Calin Hall the ‘Ensign Edwin P Meyer ’44 Room’
www.legacy.com/obituaries/telegram/obituary.aspx?n=edwin-meyer&pid=189813795&fhid=4842&f=portal
Ed was accepted with 114 other freshmen classmates into the recently established NROTC program in September 1941. He was graduated & commissioned with roughly half of this group in February 1944 and sent to the Pacific… The rest of them would follow in June. I believe Ed is the last survivor of this first NROTC class. I have met him several times at O’Callahan Society events. He was specially honored two years ago when the society marked the 75th anniversary of the College’s NROTC Program.
As part of her eulogy, his oldest daughter read a report that Ed, then an Ensign, submitted to his commanding officer in January 1945. His small destroyer was escorting MacArthur’s invasion force in Manila Bay.
The very detailed, graphic and literate report describes his assignment to command a ‘smoke boat’, a small motor whale boat with a crew of four armed with a smoke generator. Their mission was to protect the troop transports as they maneuvered in the predawn hours before the invasion by obscuring them from enemy shore batteries and aircraft. He was also warned to look out for enemy swimmers who would be targeting the transports. He and his crew encounter all of three threats that morning. His recommendation to his CO that in the future their armament should include rifles and a machine gun as well as the 45 caliber pistols that were issued to the crew.
She concluded "He was 21 and 10,000 miles from home when he wrote this"
The midshipmen advised the family that they will honor him by naming their new battalion conference room in Calin Hall the ‘Ensign Edwin P Meyer ’44 Room’
