Springfield South Dakota Veterans
  • World War I
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      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
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      • Lawrence Namminga
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      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • John Palsma
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
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      • Jake DenOuden
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies K-Ma >
      • Bernard Kastein
      • James Kirk
      • Leonard Lange
      • Ted Lindeman
      • Clarence Ludens
      • John C. Ludens
      • John "Jack" Martin
      • Richard "Darby" Martin
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
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      • Lawrence Owens
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      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
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    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
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      • Virginia McClure
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      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
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      • Robert McCollum
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      • Daryl Heusinkveld
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      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
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      • James "Uke" Uken
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PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NEIL O THOMAS

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As the wars in the Pacific and Atlantic theatres continued in the early 1940s, the young men and woman who were drawing closer to the age of induction into the service were wondering what the future held for them.   With allied prospects looking grim in Europe with the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, and problematic with the Japanese use of Kamikaze attacks and the vow of the Emperor to defend the Japanese homeland to the last person, Neil Thomas from Springfield faced his future with uncertainty. 
 
When Neil turned 18, he registered for the draft, and took his physical exam at Ft. Snelling in Minnesota. The next step in his military service was taking his basic training at Camp Walter near Dallas, Texas.  Being used to high humidity and the sometime bitter cold of South Dakota, taking his basic training in the desert-like conditions of Texas was challenging.
 
After his advanced training, Neil was told that he would be assigned to the Aleutian Islands.  However, with the victory in Europe over the Axis powers, the orders for Neil and many soldiers were changed.   While his original orders were for him to depart from Ft. Mead in Maryland to the Aleutian Islands, the change or orders sent him to Seattle, Washington in preparation for what he thought would be an assignment in the Islands of the South Pacific. 
 
The fear of the convoy being attacked by the enemy was real but the trip to Hawaii was uneventful, other than the discomfort of a South Dakotan being exposed to sea sickness.  When the convoy arrived at the Hawaiian Islands, Neil found that he would be permanently assigned to the 16th Coast Artillery Regiment of the U.S. Army.  Specifically, his unit was Battery B, 97th AAA Gun Battalion.  Due to an injury, sustained while on duty, Neil was assigned to limited duty and during that time, President Truman made the decision to use atomic bombs to convince the Japanese to end the war.  It is estimated that thousands of American GIs’ lives were saved by using the bomb to eliminate the need for an invasion of the Japanese mainland.  In bringing the war to an end, Neil’s duty assignment was changed to provide for guarding the perimeter of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
 
As soldiers with more time in service were rotated to the mainland for discharge, Neil was retrained to operate the permanently located and semi-mobile howitzer guns that were located at Diamond Head.  When operating the guns, Neil’s job was to determine and monitor the azimuth, which measures the elevation of the guns as they were fired.
 
One more duty assignment before being transferred to the mainland placed Neil in charge of one of the NCO clubs on the island.  In May of 1946 he shipped out for San Francisco, took a train to Ft Leavenworth, Kansas where he was discharged on June 11, 1946.  Neil obtained the rank of Private First Class and received the American Theater Ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, and Victory Ribbon.
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                Lawrence Namminga Jr.


Veterans' Information Links

  • https://loans.usnews.com/va-loans
  • https://loans.usnews.com/va-loans#how-va-loans-work
  • https://loans.usnews.com/va-loans#additional-va-home-loan-programs
  • https://www.help.org/substance-abuse-rehab-for-veterans/
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This web page is a work in progress. It has been created through the donated efforts of Laura Genant Martin, Dick Martin, and Jim Hornstra. When Laura was made aware of what we needed, she took the initiative to research and educate herself on how to create a web site to identify, respect and honor the military veterans in Springfield. The web site had to be easy to navigate and had to provide the viewer a method of providing feedback. Most of the written material has been provided by Dick Martin over the past couple of years with some important contributions from others, i.e. Jim Kirk.  Jim Hornstra has been the reliable source as he has been the collector of information concerning Springfield Veterans and has provided Laura much of what has gone into the web site.
  • World War I
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
    • Veteran Photos
    • Springfield Was There
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Lawrence Namminga
      • Chuck Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Fred C Hornstra
      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • John Palsma
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Jake DenOuden
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies K-Ma >
      • Bernard Kastein
      • James Kirk
      • Leonard Lange
      • Ted Lindeman
      • Clarence Ludens
      • John C. Ludens
      • John "Jack" Martin
      • Richard "Darby" Martin
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
      • Ode Odens
      • Lawrence Owens
    • Biographies P-S >
      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
      • Virginia McClure
      • Donald McMillan
      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
  • Cold War
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Robert McCollum
  • Vietnam War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
  • Middle East Wars
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • James "Uke" Uken
  • Army National Guard
    • Veteran Photos
    • Rapid City Flood
    • Japanese Internment