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Freddie J. Falgout
PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEMORIES:
Death of Raceland native made front-page
news across the nation in 1937
By BILL ELLZEY
Courier columnist
August 15, 2001
reprinted from: http://houmatoday.com/news/stories/7090001003n6.html
It was Aug. 21, 1937, Raceland native Freddie John
Falgout’s 21st birthday. Daily newspapers across
America featured Falgout’s name, and sometimes his
photograph, prominently on their front pages.
Falgout, a seaman first class on the United States cruiser
Augusta, had been killed the day before in Shanghai,
China, when an anti-aircraft shell fell on the deck where
he was sitting. Shrapnel from the shell also injured 17 or
18 other sailors, but none critically.
Falgout’s death aboard the Augusta was the top story on
the New York Times front page; his photograph and that
of the USS Augusta were featured on the third page.
The United States was not at war, but the Augusta had
ventured up the Whangpoo River to Shanghai to help in
the evacuation of American citizens. Their lives were
threatened by escalating battles between defending
Chinese forces and the invading Japanese army for
control of the internationally important commercial city.
Despite Falgout’s death and the other injuries, the
Augusta did not return fire, a New York Times story said,
"because the officers were unable to determine whether
(the shell) came from an airplane or from Chinese
batteries" nearby.
Three American civilians had already died in Shanghai
fighting, but Falgout was the first U.S. military casualty.
And since the Sino-Japanese War raged on for four more
years until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor finally
drew this country into World War II, historians
acknowledge that Raceland’s Freddie John Falgout was
technically the first U.S. military death in what became
WW II.
Even after it was determined that the fatal shell came
from a Japanese anti-aircraft gun, the New York Times
reported that President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarded
Falgout’s death as "an unfortunate accident," which would
not alter the determination of the government to keep
the guards and warships in and near Shanghai, at least for
the present."
Back in Louisiana, the Aug. 21, 1937, Times Picayune
front page featured Falgout’s photograph in his Navy
uniform, along with pictures of his father, two brothers
and two sisters and a photograph of the family’s farm
home. An accompanying story was written by Meigs O.
Frost.
"Through this town of some 500 souls on Bayou
Lafourche today swept like prairie-fire in a dry autumn
day the news ‘Fred Falgout, he got shot and killed at
Shanghai over in China.’ "
In October, Falgout was buried with full military honors
with an estimated 10,000 people from surrounding
parishes attending the funeral. Later the Raceland
Veterans of Foreign Wars post was named in his honor.
In the years since, the significance of Falgout’s death had
slipped into obscurity, until recently, when Raceland
accountant and American Legion officer Murphy Pitre
discovered that Falgout’s fiancee, the former Louise St.
Germaine, was still living, having married and raised a
family in Napoleonville.
Pitre and others from the American Legion, supported by
the Raceland VFW post that bears Falgout’s name, led a
drive to memorialize his death with a monument to be
placed at the Lafourche Tourist Information Center on
U.S. 90 at Raceland. The monument will be dedicated
Sunday in ceremonies at the tourist center.
Among the stories of Falgout’s death Pitre has collected
is an eyewitness account by a dental officer on the
Augusta which was published in the Oct. 1978, Sea
Combat magazine. Then Commander C.W. Schantz was
interviewed by a writer for the magazine.
"If you haven’t heard it, and many haven’t," Schantz said,
"it’s a good story to know."
"On board the Augusta, discipline and routine set the pace
and although the ship and crew stood ready to meet any
emergency, the patter of shipside life was otherwise
normal ...
"The morning of 20 August was typical ... At 0520 (5:20
a.m.) two Japanese shells landed fifty yards astern of the
Augusta. It was my thought then, my conviction now, that
the Japanese, in many instances deliberately practiced
‘near misses’ on all foreign ships in the river.
"At 1710 (5:10 p.m.) that afternoon, we spotted British
troops erecting sandbag barricades on the shore. Two
Japanese seaplanes hovered high overhead. It seemed to
us that they were interested in us.
"Shortly after evening chow, the crew began assembling
on the well deck. An open-air movie had been scheduled,
epilogue to a day of strenuous duty. Laughter and
good-natured ribbing was the order of the evening as
enlisted men scrambled for places from which to view
the silver screen.
"There was a sudden, nerve shocking, out-of-nowhere
intrusion! A blinding flash! A rush of air! Screams, a low
moan!
"The intrusion was a one-pounder shrapnel shell landing
and bursting in the midst of the gathering. Seventeen
men
were injured. As the smoke cleared, F.J. Falgout, S1c, of
Raceland, Louisiana, rose from the bench on which he
had been sitting. Slowly, as though in a trance, he began
walking. Twelve steps. With each step blood spurted from
a hole in his heart. He was dead as he walked -- the first
American blue-jacket to meet death by Japanese gunfire
in their current war of world conquest.
"A catapult silo shielded me from the blast that killed
Falgout. A few inches one way or another and the first
Navy casualty of World War II, as in World War I, might
well have been a dental officer.
"On the following day, with a grim, tight-lipped crew in
attendance, I marked off the stained deck area where
Falgout died. With hot silver alloy, the shell-burst scar
was preserved, a burning memorial to an American boy, a
prophetic forerunner of mass murders to come!
"The die was cast then in Falgout’s memorial; it was just a
matter of time."
Schantz was clearly unaware of the news accounts of the
Shanghai incident; unaware that Freddie John Falgout’s
Aug. 20 death aboard the Augusta had been Aug. 21
front-page news across the nation.
"As a news story," he said, "the death of Falgout was
buried in the back pages. Our Navy had an important job
to do – the Japanese were ‘so sorry,’ but disclaimed
liability for the ‘accident.’ It was a tough ‘accident’ to
prove, but not a man aboard the ship accepted the
explanation."
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