3
Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, July 3, 2019
The two lives of an American hero
Maybrook G.I. was the first American to set foot on Japanese soil in World War II
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
T
he name Fred Myers might sound familiar if you
live in Maybrook, if only because there is a park
named after him near the village government center.
History knows him as the first American G.I. to set foot
on Japanese soil in World War II. His family simply
knows him as a devoted father who died too young.
Myers joined the Army on March 10, 1942. After
completing training in Fort Jackson, S.C., and various
other locations in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Arizona,
the 24-year-old was sent to World War II’s Pacific Theater,
according to historical newspaper reports.
On July 21, 1944, Myers and his 77th Infantry Division
participated in the first invasion of Guam—a small island
which had been taken over by the Japanese about two
and half years earlier.
After several months of intensive fighting, his unit
was sent back to New Zealand for a rest, but off the coast
of Australia they were diverted back to the Philippines,
where they made the initial landings on Leyte, in October
1944.
In December 1944, Myers was first wounded and
received his first citation.
After 13 of the men in his platoon were killed and the
rest pinned down by enemy fire, Myers was wounded
when a bullet ripped through his helmet and the top of
his skull.
Refusing first aid and picking up another wounded
man’s automatic rifle, he crawled toward the Japanese
machine gun position. In spite of enemy fire directed at
him, he reached an exposed firing position and destroyed
the machine gun, killing six enemy soldiers. Myers then
formed a platoon on a hasty defense line. A counterattack
by 30 enemy soldiers was repulsed with 20 of them killed.
Myers received a Silver Star for his acts of bravery at
Leyte. From there, the 77th started attacking Japanese
owned islands. Myers became the first soldier to step foot
on Japanese soil on the Isle of Aka.
From there, Myers went to El Shima, where he was
wounded after receiving shrapnel to his chest and leg.
When his platoon was temporarily halted by enemy fire,
Myers moved alone and killed four enemy riflemen.
Working his way within 30 feet of an enemy machine gun,
he killed three more enemy soldiers. After the enemy
A decorated Veteran who was wounded in combat several
times, Myers returned to Maybrook after the war to sell
insurance.
abandoned the machine gun his platoon was able to
advance and seize its objective.
On May 9, 1945, near Shuri, Myers received the Oak
Leaf Cluster for his bravery.
Myers then went to Okinawa, where after months of
brutal battle his platoon took hill “29”, which was the last
organized resistant on Okinawa and the last organized
resistance of the Pacific War.
Myers and his unit returned to the Philippines to get
rest and replacements after Okinawa. From the time they
left the states to the time they returned to the Philippines,
there had been a turnover of more than 250 men from his
platoon, with Myers and another sergeant being the only
two left from the original group.
The 77th was getting ready to invade Japan when the
atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
ending the war.
Myers returned to the United States after a short tour
of occupation with the army in Japan. He was discharged
with the Bronze Star, the Silver Star with Oak Leaf
Cluster and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster.
That is how history remembers Myers. But his
taxi
Open 6am-10pm
Medical Transportation
family remembers him differently: A devoted father. A
successful salesman. An avid golfer.
“He was just a great dad and he loved his family,”
daughter Susan Freshko.
Freshko remembers her father as a man who loved to
spend time with his family. He was the father who took
his family for car rides, to vacations on lakes around the
Northeast, who took his daughter when he went door-to-
door selling Metropolitan Life Insurance.
He was the man who built his family’s house in
Maybrook. He was the man who sang the Beatles’ song “I
wanna hold your hand” to his daughter as he walked in
the door, coming home from work. He was the man who
loved golf and could be found either hitting balls in the
yard or on the golf course on his days off.
Unfortunately, Myer’s life was cut short. When she
was 13 years old, Freshko was playing in the pool one day
when she heard her mother scream. When she rushed
in the house, she saw her mother drop the phone. It was
then she learned her father had died on the golf course of
a heart attack.
“That was the worst day of my life,” Freshko said.
Today, Myers is memorialized by the Frederick Myers
Veterans’ Memorial Park in Maybrook. The small park
is a testament not only to all veterans who defended
America, but to one man’s huge acts of bravery.
Discount
R AT E S
without discount
SERVICE.
316 Blooming Grove Trpke
We are a Spanish-speaking offi ce.
TRAVIS TRANSPORTATION, LLC.
MODENA, GARDINER, WALDEN, MONTGOMERY & SURROUNDING AREAS
845-883-0828 • WE DO CASH CALLS
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Not in NJ), Bloomington, IL