Military Officer - October 2008 - (Page 75) pagesofhistory War Hero Reburied Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, USA, a hero of the War of 1812, largely was forgotten until repairs to his tomb required him to be buried a second time in Washington, D.C. A hero of the War of 1812, Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, USA, died June 25, 1841, at the age of 59, while he held the position of commander of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. His first funeral was held at Congressional Cemetery in Washington and was attended by dignitaries such as then-President Tyler and former President John Quincy Adams, members of Congress, and battalions of soldiers, Marines, and cavalry. His second funeral was July 17, 2008, and was a smaller affair. Macomb’s body, along with that of his first wife, Catherine, had been exhumed a month earlier and kept at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., during a project to restore the monument atop his tomb. The 13-foot-tall, marble and granite monument that marks the grave had been leaning six to eight inches. Macomb’s remains were found in a lead-lined coffin in a partially collapsed brick vault under the monument. The funeral was attended by Macomb’s descendants, who had his remains placed in a new coffin. Maj. Gen. William T. Grisoli, of the Corps of THIS MONTH IN HISTORY I On Oct. 4, 1918, German Chancellor Max von Engineers, also attended. Two National Park Service employees dressed in the ornate military garb of 1812 helped carry the coffin. A bugler played taps, and the same bell that tolled in 1841 tolled again. M Iwo Jima Flag Raiser Given Citizenship arine Sgt. Michael Strank, one of the U.S. servicemembers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima Feb. 23, 1945, was honored with the presentation to his family of his Certificate of Citizenship July 29 at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Strank was born in Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia, and immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1922 at the age of 3. He derived citizenship when his father was naturalized in 1935, and he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1939. Four days after landing on Iwo Jima, Strank, four other Marines, and a Navy corpsman raised the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi. Strank continued to serve with his unit on Iwo Jima until he was killed in action March 1, 1945. Mary Pero, Strank’s younger sister, received her brother’s certificate during the ceremony in front of the statue that immortalizes her brother and his fellow Marines and sailor. MO OCTOBER 2008 Army Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, USA, was buried for the second time July 17 at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Baden, appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm II three days earlier, sent a message to President Woodrow Wilson requesting an armistice. World War I came to an end the following month, on Nov. 11. PHOTO: U.S. ARMY MILITARY OFFICER 75
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