Memorial Day 2023: Honoring the Heroes We Lost: Private First Class Ben Quintana

Today we honor Ben Quintana, of Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. While attending the Santa Fe Indian School, Ben was a talented student of art. At the age of 15, he won first prize over 80 contestants for a poster to be used in the Coronado Cuarto Centennial celebration. Later, he won first prize and $1,000 in an American Magazine contest in which there were 52,587 entries. On February 16, 1942 Ben put his promising career as an artist on hold and registered for service in the US military.

On August 27, 1942 Ben was inducted into the US Army in Bernalillo New Mexico. After training at Fort Bliss, Texas and Fort Riley, Kansas Ben was assigned to Twelfth Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.

"After a period of staging in New Guinea, the 12th Cavalry Regiment departed as a part of the combat reinforcements of the Admiralty Campaign. On March 2, the Regiment embarked at Cape Sudest, New Guinea in four LSTs and moved to join the forward forces of the 1st Cavalry Division. On March 6, the 12th Cavalry Regiment along with the 271st Field Artillery Battalion landed in Los Negros Island with minimal resistance."

On October 12, 1944 the Twelfth Cavalry was assigned to the Leyte Campaign and helped liberate the islands from Japanese control.

"On November 9, 1944 Private First Class Ben Quintana an ammunition carrier in a light machine gun squadron was charged with protection of the right flank of his troop which was counterattacked by superior numbers. The gunner was fatally wounded and the assistant gunner severely wounded. Private Quintana refused to retire from this hazardous position and gallantly rushed forward to the silenced gun and delivered a withering fire into the enemy, inflicting heavy casualties. While so engaged he was mortally wounded. By this extraordinary courage he repulsed the counterattack and prevented the envelopment of the right flank of his troop. Private Quintana's unflinching devotion to duty and heroism under fire inspired his troop to attack and seize the enemy strong point." - Silver Star Citation of Private First Class Ben Quintana.

Ben Quintana was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his heroics during the Leyte Campaign. Ben was 24 years old at the time of his passing. He lies in rest at Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe New Mexico. Lest We Forget.

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The Last Judicial Hanging in The United States

Billy Bailey was born in 1946, the ninth of 23 children, in South Carolina, where they lived in poverty. When he grew up, he developed an alcohol addiction and had a filthy temper. Bailey also got in trouble with the law on numerous occasions, committing six felonies ranging from grand larceny to burglary. In 1979, in Delaware, after being placed in a work release facility, Billy Bailey learned he faced a potential 45-year sentence for his most recent string of crimes. After attempting to kill himself with a knife only to be stopped by his brother-in-law, Bailey asked him to stop at a liquor store. There, he robbed the clerk before knocking her down and attempting to shoot her, but thankfully, the gun jammed. He fled the scene, being dropped off by his brother-in-law at Lambertson’s Corner. There, Billy Bailey entered a farmhouse and stole a shotgun. The elderly couple inside where then slaughtered by Bailey, the man being shot twice in the chest and once in the head with the pist...

Jewish women being stripped naked by Ukrainians in 1941.

They are trying to strip her of her humanity and dignity, but look into the eyes of this brave and lovable woman, and you will see she has not succumbed to them. The decision to kill all Jews in Kyiv was made by Major General Kurt Eberhardt, Chief of Military Government; Friedrich Jeckeln, Senior SS Commander of Army Group South; and Otto Rush, Commander of Einsatzgruppe C. Sonderkommando 4a, a subordinate organization of Einsatzgruppe C, carried out the order with the support of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police SD and Order Police Battalions, which were supported by the German Wehrmacht. The shooting was carried out by Sonderkommando 4a and the 45th Battalion of the German Security Police. At the time, members of the 303rd Battalion of the German Security Police were guarding the perimeter of the execution site.

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Holocaust victim

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