American Legion Post 20

Joseph Jacob Foss of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on October 9, 1942, over Guadalcanal. Foss was a private in the 147th Field Artillery Regiment, Sioux Falls, South Dakota National Guard, from 1939 to 1940. By 1940, Foss enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves to join the Naval Aviation Cadet program. After being designated a Naval Aviator, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. On October 9, 1942, Foss and his group were launched off the USS Copahee escort carrier and flew 350 miles to reach Guadalcanal. Foss soon gained a reputation for aggressive fighter tactics and uncanny gunnery skills. He shot down a Japanese plane on his first combat mission, and in the several months of sustained combat, Foss had shot down a total of 26 enemy aircraft. Having matched the record of 26 kills held by America’s top World War I ace, Eddie Rickenbacker, Foss was accorded the honor of becoming America’s first “ace-of-aces” in World War II. During the Korean War, Foss, then a Colonel, was called to active duty with the United States Air Force, relinquishing command of the 175th Squadron, and served as a Director of Operations and Training for the Central Air Defense Command; he eventually reached the rank of Brigadier General. In 1955, Foss became the youngest governor of South Dakota at age 39. In 1959, he became the first Commissioner of the American Football League. He stepped aside as commissioner in April 1966, two months before the historic agreement that led to the merger of the AFL and NFL and the creation of the Super Bowl. He was also inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1988, Foss was elected to two consecutive one-year terms as president of the National Rifle Association of America. Foss suffered a stroke in October 2002 and died three months later on New Year’s Day, 2003. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. #WeRememberThem

Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright was in a Japanese POW camp in Northern China where he and other high-value Allied officers were held. As head of U.S. Forces in the Philippines, he surrendered Corregidor on May 6, 1942, and the rest of the Philippines within the following days. On August 16, 1945, a six-man Office of Strategic Services (OSS) team parachuted into (Hoten) Mukden (today’s Shenyang), POW camp in northern China, to liberate the POWs and locate the senior officers held by the Japanese. On August 19, several dozen British, Dutch, and American senior officers, including Lieutenant Generals Jonathan Wainwright and A.E. Percival, were at the Hsian POW camp, 150 miles north of Mukden. This was the first they heard that the war had ended. However, the prisoners still had to wait for the arrival of the Russian Red Army on August 24 to move out. The Japanese, noted Wainwright, left the prisoners the remaining Red Cross packages, and they "began having fine, well-cooked meals, the first sufficient food we had since the outbreak of the war. We smoked American cigarettes like chimneys." The years of captivity took its toll on the general. He had endured prison camps in the Philippines, Formosa, and China. The man who had been nicknamed “Skinny” was now emaciated. His hair had turned white, and his skin was cracked and fragile. He was also depressed, believing he would be blamed for losing the Philippines to the Japanese. When Wainwright arrived in Yokohama, Japan, to attend the formal surrender ceremony, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his former commander, was stunned at his appearance. Wainwright was given a hero’s welcome upon returning to America, promoted to full general and awarded the Medal of Honor. We are forever grateful to General Wainwright for his leadership, service, and sacrifice. PHOTO: Wainwright (right) and MacArthur greet, August 1945. #WeRememberThem