THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE U.S. ARMY FRANK H. ONO OF DELTA, HE MUST BE REMEMBERED.

 U.S. Army Private First Class Frank H. Ono of Delta, Colorado, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on July 4, 1944, near Castellina Marittima, Italy.

Ono’s father was an immigrant from Japan, while his mother was from Ireland. He was a Nisei, which means he was a second-generation Japanese-American.

He joined the Army in September 1943 and volunteered to be a part of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, mostly made up of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and the mainland.

 During a battle on July 4, 1944, near Castellina Marittima, Italy, Ono advanced ahead of his unit and single-handedly defended his position against an enemy counter-attack. 

He then braved intense hostile fire to aid two wounded comrades and voluntarily covered his unit's withdrawal when it became necessary to retreat. 

Ono left the Army while still a private first class. He died in 1980 at age 56 and was buried in Highland Cemetery, North Judson, Indiana.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the battle. A 1990’s review of service records for Asian Americans who received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II led to Ono’s award being upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

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Early September 1944, plans were already in place to deploy the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne, all of which at that time were stationed in England, to seize a series of bridges over major Dutch waterways. 

This military operation was known as “Market Garden.”  It was the largest airborne drop in history and the most extensive U.S. military deployment ever on Dutch soil. On September 17 and the following days, more than 20,000 American troops parachuted into the south of the Netherlands near Eindhoven and Nijmegen. 

Their objective was to capture the bridges between these two cities. Ultimately, the 1st British Airborne’s attempt to secure the Arnhem bridge failed, ending in weeks of fighting in the South of the Netherlands, in which the American airborne troops were heavily involved.

Photo: September 20, 1944, civilians dancing in the square of Eindhoven, the first major town in Holland to be liberated. The German Air Force later bombed Eindhoven.

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