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Post by Tom Aring on Mar 9, 2008 14:05:56 GMT 8
I just returned from the Philippines and Corregidor. I brought a 48 star U.S. flag to fly over Corregidor, and on the 16th of February I did just that with Paul and others. It appears there was a reason for me to have that flag with me on this trip. I have recovered the Dog Tags of what appears to be one of the 503d PRCT Paratroopers. His name was Matthew D. Musolino 503 E Company 20130787 4243A Battery D According to the 503d website, he was one of 4 members of the Mortar Platoon killed by Japanese troops when their stick dropped into Cheney Ravine, short of landing Zone A. The Dog Tags were still on the chain when found on the top of Battery Wheeler, in a trench that was recently cleaned of brush by the work crews.The trench is up against the top concrete cap of the Battery. The chain had 2 knots in it when found, both by a tag. One tag hangs on a small separate chain on the big chain. Battery Wheeler in the course of being cleaned up. The view from the trench, looking towards north-east towards topside. Vegetation now covers the berm to the rear of the battery. CFI have cleared a trench on the ocean side of the Battery. It was along this trench that the dogtags were found. The area has been cleaned back to dirt, and exposes large pieces of the machinery from Wheeler No. 1 Gun. The Dog Tags rode home in the flag I flew over the island. I would like to contact the family and get the Dog Tags back to them. Any help would be appreciated, just want to do the right thing by Matthew Musolino. Tom
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Post by EXO on Mar 9, 2008 14:13:58 GMT 8
Congratulations, you sharp-eyed dog you! Please send pics, when you can - this is news.
Presumably Musolino's body was recovered by grave registration, and returned to the USA post war, as he's not buried in Manila, nor is he on the wall of MIA's at the American Cemetery.
Bert Caloud can tell us how its possible to get a copy of his burial file - that may help tracing next of kin. EXO
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Post by Bill Calhoun on Mar 9, 2008 14:20:23 GMT 8
Fitzhugh Millican may be able to assist. He was in the E Company mortar platoon and one of those last in that stick. The first four to jump landed among the Japanese in Cheney Ravine. All four were killed.
Fitzhugh once sent sent me an account of this and I can't find it yet.
Roscoe Corder and Milligan are the only survivors in E Company I know of. I will write Roscoe, but iI am seeking information from Margee Linton if Fitzhugh has a computer and an e-mail address.
Proud I'm allowed. Bill
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Post by Bill Calhoun on Mar 9, 2008 14:39:53 GMT 8
I found what Fitzhugh Millican had written about the four being killed. He was in the same stick but behind the four who were killed.
Milligan tells that, on the day before Corregidor, as he and Revolis were tearing down their part of the tent, Revolis found a wartime penny. Fitzhugh told him he's found his luck and gave the penny to Fitzhugh.
After they got on the plane, Fitzhugh gave everybody a Tampa Nugget Cigar which they jumped with.
The order of the stick was Gulsvick, Revolis, Musolino, High, Hicks, Marcus, and Milligan. Hicks was a replacement who had come over recently in the grade of sergeant. Like many others he had taken a reduction."
I made mistake in the statement in BEA that "evidently Lt. Ball jumpmastered all three sticks." We jumped in 8-man sticks. Gulsvick, jumping first would have been the jumpmaster.
In F Company, the jumpmaster did all three sticks.
Millican goes on to say that when he got to the ground, he told Lt. Ball what had happened, implying that something should be done to go after the men in trouble. But Ball had seen the men land and what had happened to the four and instructed the other men in the stick to go to the assembly area.
Gulsvick had done whatever he could to rescue and protect the other men, and had killed a large number of Japanese with his TSMG. He was awarded a DSC, posthumously.
pia, Bill
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Post by Bert Caloud on Mar 10, 2008 11:20:34 GMT 8
Paul, Tom and others Doing the same research on line that I explained for Harvey Huskey, I found that Pvt. Matthew D. Musolino is in the same categoy as PFC Harvey. He was killed in action, his body recovered, identified and buried in a private cemetery in the United States after the war. If you send for his IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File) using the form (check for the link in the Harvey Huskey posting) you could find out what cemetery and names of family members who were informed of his death that you could possibly used to find family members to return the ID tag to. If I can be of further help please let me know. Bert Caloud Assistant Superintendent Manila American Cemetery PVT Matthew D. Musolino ID: 20130787 Branch of Service: U.S. Army Hometown: Hartford County, CT Status: KIA
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Post by Bill Calhoun on Mar 10, 2008 11:30:57 GMT 8
I have written to Fitzhugh Millican: “ You were the last man to jump in S/Sgt Edward Gulsvick’s stick (the sergeant was the mortar platoon sergeant). Gulsvick, Musolino, High, Jandro and Hicks were killed. Who was Hicks? The others I know about, but this is a new one we have no record of. You and Marcus were the only survivors of the stick.” Fitzhugh is not clear naming only four who were killed. However, he does name Howard J. Jandro as being killed immediately after Ball (in the attack upon Battery Monja.) He said Jandro was a new man who stood up and was killed. He also mentions the 60mm mortar that E Company lost. I feel this is the answer to a question in D Co. John Sanguinette was a BAR gunner in D Co. Shortly after dawn on the 17th, a yellow 60mm smoke round landed near John but failed to explode. The reason was that the arming ring had not been pulled. While John was examining the round several 60mm HE rounds came in, and they did explode wounding John. We think this was E Co.’s 60mm mortar in the hands of Japs. One is still missing if they had the eight in the stick. It is possible. The mortar platoon was last, but in most cases they filled out shortages with extras, e.g., I had a Signal Corps photographer in my plane. I don’t really think E Company had a qualified jumpmaster in every plane. Even many officers had not gone through the jumpmaster school at Ft. Benning. We had a practice jump before the Corregidor jump. A small bull’s eye was placed on the landing zone. The poop was that every one who would jump master for the Corregidor drop had to hit the zone, no matter how many time it took. They were still ferrying in gasoline and bombs for the two large airfields there, so planes were in short supply, and the practice jumps thus were in short supply. No one more than once. To those of us who had completed jump school, this was a piece of cake. We’d seen the circles before. I do know "E" Co. had the highest jump casualty rate, "F" Co. the lowest. Don Abbot, as "E" company exec, made the morning jump with "F" and did not know. Corder did not remember. I think he would have, had he made 3 passes. They were certainly memorable to me. I was very relieved to leave that C-47. I’ll keep trying to find out what happened—were there 7 or 8? Proud I'm Allowed Bill
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Post by EXO on Apr 5, 2008 7:52:33 GMT 8
Tom,
Photos of the dog tags would really help. Can't you borrow a digital camera and get a bunch of shots...when people SEE things, they remember them, otherwise a "pair of dogtags" is just a disembodied concept.
Some of the recent articles which I have posted on the website mention Musolino and the others in his stick who dropped short, into "Indian Country".
You must recognize that unlike the other bodies of those troopers who were killed on the drop, Musolino's body wasn't ever found (at least while the 503d was on Corregidor.) Locating a body attached to a parachute anopy is a given.
This indicates that Musolino MUST have landed alive and MUST have gotten out of his parachute, and MUST have been headed towards Topside.
Had none of these occurred, the "chain" would have been broken and Musolino would have been found KIA in his parachute. Thus, it is an almost inevitable conclusion that he was killed on his way towards Topside - so it is not a long stretch of the imagination to posit that he was killed near where you found the dog tags - just as he approached Battery Wheeler.
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Post by Bert Caloud on Apr 6, 2008 12:01:56 GMT 8
Yeah that would be my guess too.............next time I find my dog tags I'll make the same knots and see if that would have been a sensible procedure. I've read where it was common to cut links out of the breathing tube of Japanese gas masks to make silencers for dog tags like the black rubber ones they sell around the military bases but maybe by tying knots in the same place that kept them from clanging on each other? If you have a set on the same type chain try it! I'm not as familiar at "boonie stomping" around Corregidor as you guys are in fact I haven't even looked at a map yet to put Cheney Ravine and Battery Wheeler in perspective but..............the conjecture you can come up with is endless! Like I said you could try to research where the temporary cemeteries were on Corregidor. If while handling the bodies Graves Registration had his dog tags they could have dropped out of a pocket or off a poncho for them during the handling but it's doubtful. I don't suppose that had a priority during the fighting so when they did handle the American KIA's it had quieted down. You could probably research a 503rd's IDPF and see when they were first buried in relation to the parachute drop date. Without DNA dental work and dog tags were critical in the identification process and handling procedure (at least according to the 1944 Graves Registration Manual was to leave one tag with the body and one tag on the graves marker. If there would be an egress route for the Japanese from Chaney Ravine to Battery Wheeler that would be a more likely story. Would have been pretty easy the Japanese he landed around to hack up a guy in his parachute rig after doing his PLF. At that low of a jump altitude it would likely have been difficult to have unencumbered a weapon let alone fire it. From what I remeber reading after one oscilation if any they hit the deck. Japanese were probably no different than us at grabbing souvenirs and one of them could have stuck them in his pocket or somewhere running around with them when he got killed. Maybe threw them away at some point as running around with souvenirs would have been the last thing on his mind! It is difficult to come up with a reason for an American to take both tags off the body and run around with them other than Graves Registration handling the body. I have read where some of the KIA's were buried over at Mariveles but I have also talked to some who moved the Corregidor dead from the cemeteries up the Pasig River to be buried in USAF Manila #2 Cemetery in North Manila so I know some were also buried on Corregidor.
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Post by Bill Calhoun on Apr 21, 2008 7:40:22 GMT 8
I talked to Fizhugh Milligan this afternoon.
He said Matthew Mussolino jumped # 4, and he did land near Wheeler Battery.
He also said that there were only 7 in the stick.
As far as I can determine, none were qualified jump masters. Jumping in 3 sticks as we did, that would have been absolutely impossible. In fact many of the officers had not been through the jump masters' school at Ft. Benning.
And that in the face of the most difficult jump master task of W. W. II.
pia, Bill.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2008 4:39:40 GMT 8
I have written to the Department of the Army in charge of grave registration in the United States to try and find the location of Matthew's grave as advised by Bert Caloud. I still have received no reply. I have emailed the Army for the same information on their website, still no reply. We have certainly learned a lot about Matthew and his short time on Corregidor from Bill Calhoun, thanks for all your efforts Bill. We will "Endeavor to persevere".........
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