The Sixth Beach Battalion was in
reunion in Duluth (Atlanta ) Georgia at the beautiful Atlanta
Marriott-Gwinnett Place Hotel.
Shortly before the 1944 invasion of Normandy, American
assault forces were assured by Army commanders that as a result of a
massive air and Naval bombardment of the French coast, “every grain of
sand will be turned over twice before the first wave hits the beach.”
That did not happen. The
following is a Veterans Day story of a U.S. Navy Beachmaster who never
came home to his wife and newborn daughter.
~ KCD
Beardstown war hero killed on D-Day
Fellow sailors recall Lt. j.g. Jack Hagerty
By GREG OLSON
Journal-Courier, Jacksonville, IL
November
11, 2002
Karen
Beard, of Beardstown, recently spent time with a group of heroes -
men who faced death in order to save the world from tyranny
nearly 60 years ago.
Mrs.
Beard has a personal connection to their story.
Her uncle, Lt. j.g. Almond L. “Jack” Hagerty, a Beardstown
native, was one of the heroes who lost his life alongside those men on
D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Neglected
by historians and forgotten by the U.S. Navy until recent years, 30
veterans of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion gathered in Atlanta, Ga.,
Sept. 26-30 to reminisce about their experiences and to remember
their fellow sailors who lost their lives on “Bloody Omaha” Beach.
Among
those the veterans honored was Lt. j.g. Hagerty, who belonged to
the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. The unit consisted of 363 sailors,
including nine Navy doctors and 72 corpsmen who were specially trained
to land on the beaches of Normandy with the first wave of invading
allied troops.
These
sailors were depicted in action in the highly acclaimed Steven
Spielberg movie “Saving Private Ryan.” The Naval Beach
Battalions (NBBs) were represented by distinctive red markings on their
helmets during the graphic opening scene of American troops under
intense fire.
Mrs.
Beard said the reunion of the battalion was a moving experience for her.
“I felt like I was standing in Uncle Jack’s shadow at the reunion,
being there with some of the men he trained with and went to war
with,” said Mrs. Beard. “As they told their stories of bravery
and heroism, I knew that Jack would have been like that, too. As
(cousin) Steve (Daniel) and I entered the room at the reunion, Ed
Marriott, one of the veterans, said, ‘Listen up, Hagerty’s family is
here.’”
For
Dr. Steve Daniel, of Charleston, the recent reunion of the 6th Naval
Beach Battalion provided more details about his great-uncle.
“I
learned from the men that he served with that Jack Hagerty was tough,
but
fair, and that he was not a prima donna,” said Dr. Daniel. “As one
person
told me, all of the platoon leaders (there were nine of them - all
beachmasters) in the 6th Naval Beach Battalion, including Jack, were
picked
because they were the type of men that would lead their men rather than
drive them. How true those words really are, since Jack was killed
as he led, not drove, his men off LCI-85 and onto Omaha Beach.
Dr.
Daniel said he considered himself privileged to be able to attend the
reunion and to meet the former sailors.
“They
were young men, some merely boys, and on that day in June 1944, their
bravery was enormous,” said Dr. Daniel. “They were asked to do so
much on that day and to hear them talk about their memories and to meet
them is to encounter history. Family members of many of the veterans
also attended the reunion, and it was evident they are very proud of the
men of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. It was an honor to be in their
presence. They are heroes to all of us.”
Veterans
of the beach battalion last week remembered Lt. j.g. Hagerty in a
telephone interviews.
“ROLY-POLLY
IRISHMAN”
“He
was a big, roly-poly Irishman,” recalled Joe Vaghi, of Kensington,
Md., who was an ensign and a beachmaster during the invasion. “I grew
up with the Irish, and I have a great affinity for them. On my side of
the tracks in Bethel, Conn., it was 98 percent Irish. Jack (Hagerty)
always amused me. He had a great sense of humor.
“He
was the type of person that everybody liked. He had a genuine concern
for his fellow sailors. I think his football background, along with his
Irish wit, made him the type of person that everyone enjoyed being
around.”
Mr.
Hagerty was an all-American boy. He was an honor roll student and a
three-sport athlete at Beardstown High School, graduated in 1938.
He
then attended James Millikin University in Decatur, where he starred on
the football team.
Mr.
Hagerty enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Corps in January 1942. However,
when it was discovered he had poor depth perception, he was transferred
to
the U.S. Naval Reserve.
He
was commissioned an ensign at the Naval Training School at Princeton
University, Princeton, N.J., in June 1943. Later that summer, Ensign
Hagerty married a former Rushville woman, Edna Mae Hickerson, and early
in 1944, he was sent overseas. He was later promoted to lieutenant
junior grade.
Lt.
j.g. Hagerty’s unit, the 6th Naval Beach Battalion, was formed in
October 1943 at Fort Pierce, Fla., and received amphibious training at
Little Creek, Va.
During
training at Cove Point, Md. Lt. Hagerty was commended for saving three
soldiers from drowning. Acting
as beachmaster, he saw three soldiers go off the end of a landing
craft’s ramp and into the cold water and saved the men, who were
weighted down with equipment and were non-swimmers.
His
highly specialized Navy unit also trained at Slapton Sands, England, in
early 1944 and were later attached
to the Army’s 5th Engineer Special Brigade in Swansea, Wales.
Duties
of the 6th
On
June 6, 1944, Lt. j.g. Hagerty was a beachmaster with the 6th
Naval Beach Battalion. The nearly 400-man battalion was divided into
three
companies, each of which had three platoons. Their job was to organize
the
Omaha Beach landings in the invasion sectors code-named Easy Red, Fox
Green and Fox Red.
The
commander of each platoon was a beachmaster, whose duties have often
been described as similar to a traffic cop at a busy intersection,
getting men and materials
across the beach. The beachmaster coordinated the efforts of
hydrographic sailors for beach reconnaissance and demolition, a
communications section, boat repair specialists, a medical doctor and
Navy hospital corpsmen of his platoon.
The beachmaster's priority task was to control all boat traffic coming
onto the beach and arranged for the shore-to-ship evacuation of
casualties.
Tragically,
Lt. j.g. Hagerty never made it ashore to fulfill his mission.
“We
were on deck together as we approached the beach,” wrote Lt. j.g. John
F. Kincaid Jr., a 6th NBB medical officer waiting to go ashore with Jack
Hagerty. “It was then the
first casualties occurred, and Jack assisted me in treating them. He
turned to lead his men ashore and I moved forward to treat another
casualty. At this moment a heavy shell landed aboard, killing Jack
instantly. He had left me with a big smile and an encouraging word of
‘See
you on the beach.’”
Dr.
Kincaid survived the invasion of Normandy only to be killed on a
destroyer off Okinawa in April 1945.
The
commander of the LCI (L) 85, the landing craft carrying Lt. j.g. Hagerty
and about 200 other men, later described the scene during which the
Beardstown sailor lost his life. LCI(L) stood for landing craft
infantry (large).
Lt.
j.g. Coit Hendley Jr., wrote: “Going into the beach, this craft hit a
mine, careened through a jumble of beach defenses, and finally got her
ramps down for the troops to disembark. Before the unloading was
completed, crossfire of German 88s, (artillery pieces) machine guns and
sniper fire blew one ramp off, killed 15 men, wounded another 40, and
set her blazing in three compartments. ... The guns seemed to
concentrate on the forward part of the ship, and so well did they do
their work that unloading was stopped because it was impossible to get
past the pile of dead and wounded. Finally, a hit finished off the ramp.
...
Small boats from the large transports came alongside and finished
unloading the men who had not been able to get ashore. ... The ship had
a
list from the water coming in through the shell holes. ... The ship had
been
hit about 25 times. ...There is no need to describe all the pitiful
cases. They were there and no one will ever forget.
“The
ship made it out to the transport area, 10 miles from the beach, taking
water slowly. Our emergency pumps could not keep ahead of the water. The
wounded and dead were transferred to the transport by cargo boom.”
LCI (L) 85 capsized and a demolition crew set charges to her hull,
sending
the ship to the bottom of the English Channel about 10 miles from Omaha
Beach.
Remembering A
Friend
Lt.
j.g. J. Russell Davey Jr., a young medical officer in the 6th Naval
Beach Battalion, remembered his friend, Lt. j.g. Hagerty, in a letter he
wrote to Mrs. Hagerty shortly after D-Day. “The greatest blow that I
got on D-Day, or thereafter, was when Johnny Kincaid ... late that
evening told me of Jack’s contribution to our success,” wrote Dr.
Davey. “At first, I just didn’t believe it, and my emotions at
that time are not expressible - save that my first thoughts were for
you. ... Of all the men we left in France, Jack’s death symbolizes
most for all of us, the great sacrifices of war.
Virgil
Weathers, of Shelby, N.C., a lieutenant junior grade and a beachmaster
on D-Day, said he lost several men from his platoon during the invasion,
but the death of one officer affected him greatly.
“Well
before noon on D-Day, soon after arriving on shore, I learned that we
had lost Jack Hagerty. He was one of the closest friends I had in B
Company. I felt his loss more than any of the other losses. He was
platoon commander and beachmaster for B-5 (indicating B Company, 5th
Platoon) and I was the same for B-4. He was one of those people you
almost instantly felt like you’d known all your life. I don’t think
he ever said an unkind word about anybody.”
During
the invasion, the 6th Naval Beach Battalion lost four officers and 18
enlisted men and had another 12 officers and 55 enlisted men wounded,
for a
more than 20 percent casualty rate.
Another
Navy officer remembered LT. j.g. Hagerty’s optimism.
“I
remember that Jack’s wife was pregnant at the time of the invasion,
and
he was so definite that everything would be all right and that he would
return to the states to be with his family,” said Karl Hein, of
Rockford, a
fellow beachmaster with the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. “He had good
communication skills and was a fun-loving person.” Lt. j.g. Hagerty’s wife
gave birth to a daughter, Jackie Ann, in September 1944.
The
French government awarded the 6th Naval Beach Battalion the Croix
de Guerre with palm for its efforts on Omaha Beach. However, because of
a
paperwork snafu, the battalion was not honored by the U.S. government
until 2000, when it finally received the Presidential Unit Citation for
the
“extraordinary gallantry, heroism and determination ... that
contributed materially to the capture of Omaha Beach ...”
Lt.
j.g. Hagerty¹s body was first buried in the American Military Cemetery
at Brookwood, England, and was returned to Beardstown in July 1948 and
laid to rest in Beardstown City Cemetery.
The
greatest monument to Lt. j.g. Hagerty’s life can be found near where
he
gave his life - Omaha Beach. High above the windswept sands of Omaha
Beach, there stands today a concrete and granite memorial to the men of
the 5th Engineer Special Brigade, to which the 6th Naval Beach Battalion
was
attached.
Below an inscription that reads: “In honor of the valiant Americans of
the
5th Engineer Special Brigade who gave their lives in the assault on this
beach on 6 June 1944,” is found the name Lt. j.g. Almond L. Hagerty.
A plaque specifically recogmizing the 6th Naval Beach
Battalion was added to the memorial June 5, 2001.
At the plaque’s dedication, former beachmaster Vaghi quoted
President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said: “The quality of our
American fighting men is not all a matter of training, or equipment, or
organization, it is essentially a matter of spirit.
That spirit is expressed in their faith in America.”
In closing, Mr. Vaghi added: “That was the faith we had then,
and the faith we have today. Thank
you. May God bless
America.”
The
reunion of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion “was a chance to connect with
the men that served with Jack and, in a small way, to complete the story
about Jack Hagerty and his role in D-Day,” said Dr. Daniel. “I have
been to
Omaha Beach, seen the white crosses at the cemetery, and even talked to
the
enemy himself that was there on D-Day. This former German soldier, Franz
Gockel, was stationed on Omaha Beach, and it is very possible that he
fired
upon the men of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion and LCI-85. I should add
that he gave me a copy of his memoirs (written in German) inscribed with
a quote from Beethoven: “Written in the hope that all men will be
brothers.”
New York City 1943
Atlanta, Ga. 2002
One
week before going overseas, the 30 December 1943 photograph was taken at
the Hotel Piccadilly located at 45th West of Broadway in New York City.
Seated left to right is 6th Naval Beach Battalion medical officer
Dr. Ralph Hall, Marcelia Hall, Edna-Mae Hagerty, Beachmaster Jack
Hagerty and Helen Etzl, wife of Dr. Mike Etzl.
A number of the Navy officer’s wives, including Edna-Mae
Hagerty, became pregnant before their husbands left for the ETO.
Karen Beard and Steve Daniel are remembering their Uncle Jack
Hagerty at the 2002 reunion. Wearing
the USN red amphibious patch with a gold eagle, tommy gun and anchor is
Pharmacist’s Mate Dave Bronson, who represents the 6th NBB in WWII
reenactments.
