Retire VA 24 - 32

Marion Noel saw
firsthand the destruction
of the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
ROANOKE COUNTY'S
MARION NOEL
While Louis Silcox's sojourn in World
War II was inconsequential, Hollin's
resident Marion Noel, who was born
in 1925, was a part of a seminal event
in American history - Iwo Jima.
" The day before we landed, all we
were told was that we were going in
to take an island, " he recollected.
" We wondered why. "
Of course, explained Noel, the
reason soon became apparent to the troops. Iwo Jima lies
approximately half way between Guam and Japan, some 750
miles closer to the latter. The American invasion on February
19, 1945, was a prelude to the later attack on Japan, so that
our country would have a closer base for fuel or repairs, as
well as an airstrip.
" We thought the battle would be easy, " continued Noel, " but
the casualties were bad. "
Indeed they were, as the Marines and Navy endured 24,053
casualties and 6,140 deaths. Noel, a Navy seaman, was aboard a
350-foot-long, 50-foot-wide flat bottom amphibious craft which
was tasked with ferrying Marines and their equipment from
their base ship to the island.
" We had to take the boat up to the beach and drop everybody
and everything off, " Noel said. " Our boat was about the size of
a football field; it was like a giant shoebox. "
Fascinatingly, the iconic picture (taken by Joe Rosenthal of
the Associated Press on February 23) of a flag being planted on
Mount Suribachi has a direct connection to Noel and his fellow
Navy service members aboard that flatboat.
Roanoke native Jack
Cassell addresses
the students in Bruce
Ingram's classroom at
Lord Botetourt High
School.
" They needed a larger flag to plant on Suribachi, so they took
the one from our ship, " he said. " Of course, we had no idea at
the time that that flag would become so famous. "
Noel also nearly became a part of another seminal moment
in American history.
" In August of 1945, our ship was loaded and ready to leave
the Philippines and head for Japan, " he said. " But the word
came that the United States had dropped an atom bomb
on Hiroshima and that we could not enter Japan for several
months because of the radiation.
" Later, we did sail to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and saw firsthand
the destruction that had happened. It was devastating
to see what those bombs had done. But we were all relieved
that the atom bombs had been dropped. "
Noel said that the American troops rightfully feared the consequences,
casualties and deaths that a standard invasion of
Japan would have resulted in. He believes that the cost would
have been horrific.
TROUTVILLE'S JACK CASSELL
Roanoke native Jack Cassell, who
was born in 1926, enlisted in the U.S.
Navy and left for basic training on
D-Day, June 6, 1944 - the Allies' invasion
of Normandy. Cassell said he
was not aware of the historic event
until he arrived at Camp Peary in
Williamsburg. There he was trained
in the engineering and construction
battalion of the Navy Seabees.
Cassell possessed two very useful
traits for the Navy: the abilities
THE FORTUNES OF WAR
Whether someone survives a war often depends on a
host of factors. Jack Cassell was able to serve stateside
and Marion Noel's boat didn't have to sail to Hiroshima.
For Lewis Silcox, as a personnel carrier in Korea, he
experienced several close calls but never any direct hits.
And on September 5, 1953, he was discharged from his
post at Outpost Harry, a strategically important setting
that guarded the road to the capital of Seoul and the
flank of the entire 8th Army.
American and Greek soldiers defended the outpost
as part of a United Nations operation. In June of that
year, some three months after Silcox left, the Chinese
army attacked Outpost Harry. Over 140 U.N. troops were
killed or went missing.
to swim and type, and he was soon used in both those areas. He
taught 21 recruits from his company to swim and was promoted
to Secretary to the Personnel Officer for the Norfolk Naval Air
Station. Thus, he served stateside during the entirety of his
time in World War II.
" My mom didn't want me to enroll in the Navy at 17, " Cassell
said, " but she was very glad when I didn't have go overseas. "
The veteran credits his mother for keeping him out of combat
because she insisted that he remain in school and make
good grades.
" My job was basically to maintain the records of all servicemen
in my particular district, " Cassell said. " I was at Norfolk
from 1944 to 1946 doing that. After the war, I was often
contacted so that I could send a vet's records to a possible
employer. Later, I served in the U.S. Navy Reserves during the
Korean War. "
Some 200,000 World War II veterans remain on the scene in
America. It's fortunate that Roanoke area residents - and my
students - can still hear their stories. I
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