{"id":181111,"date":"2024-05-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=181111"},"modified":"2024-05-20T22:49:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T22:49:37","slug":"ny-army-guard-says-farewell-to-100-year-old-national-guard-veteran-of-pacific-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=181111","title":{"rendered":"NY Army Guard says farewell to 100-year old National Guard veteran of Pacific War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n New York Army National Guard Sgt. Carlos Garcia, left, and Spc. Samantha Bruce, perform military funeral honors at the burial of Wilfred \u201cSpike\u201d Mailloux, a 100-year old New York National Guard veteran of the World War II Battle of Saipan at St. Michael\u2019s Cemetery in Waterford, New York on May 7, 2024. Mailloux survived the war\u2019s largest Japanese banzai attack, which killed 502 Soldiers in the New York National Guard\u2019s 105th Infantry Regiment on July 7, 1944. ( U.S. Army National Guard photo by Stephanie Butler)
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WATERFORD, New York –A hundred-year old New York National Guard, World War II veteran, who survived the bloody Battle of Saipan in 1944, was honored by a New York Army National Guard Honor Guard team as he was laid to rest on May 7, 2024.<\/p>\n

Cpl. Wilfred \u201cSpike\u201d Mailloux, who served in B Company of the 27th Infantry Division\u2019s 105th Infantry Regiment, was a 20-year old Soldier on July 7, 1944, when the regiment\u2019s 1st Battalion was overrun in the largest Japanese charge of World War II.<\/p>\n

Mailloux, was one of the 512 Soldiers wounded when over 4,000 Japanese soldiers staged a \u201cbanzai\u201d charge against the positions of the 1st and 2nd battalions towards the end of the month-long battle. Another 402 members of the National Guard regiment were killed.<\/p>\n

A Japanese officer stabbed Mailloux in the thigh with a knife and he lay in a ditch for hours. He survived because another Soldier from his Cohoes, New York-based company went looking for survivors.<\/p>\n

Providing funeral honors at Mailloux\u2019s burial at St. Michael\u2019s Cemetery in Waterford, was \u201ca great honor,\u201d said Sgt. Carlos Garcia, an infantryman who led the two-Soldier detail.<\/p>\n

He and Spc. Samantha Bruce were aware of Mailloux\u2019s history, and wanted to make sure the service they provided was perfect, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to be perfect,\u201d he said. \u201c For every family every service is special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, who got to know Mailloux in 2014, and met him regularly until his death, described him as \u201ca sweet old guy, always very cheerful, just a nice guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mailloux, Carola said, was proud of his military service.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always wore a ballcap with his regiment and division on it, or a ballcap with an American flag on it, said Carola. \u201cHe was a great American, proud of his Army service, proud of being a combat vet,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mailloux was the last survivor of the B Company Guardsmen who were mobilized in October of 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt, after France fell to the Nazis.<\/p>\n

He had enlisted in August of 1940\u2014lying about being older than his 16 years\u2014so he could earn $5 for drilling at the Cohoes Armory, according to Carola.<\/p>\n

He was very proud to be B Company\u2019s bugler, Carola said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would practice in the basement of the Cohoes armory that way no one could hear his mistakes,\u201d Carola said.<\/p>\n

He was a real life \u201cBoogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B\u201d, just like in the 1941 Andrews Sisters Song, he added.<\/p>\n

Mailloux told a story about how he was on Guard duty one night at Fort McClellan, Alabama when a fire broke out in the mess hall, Mailloux started bugling, Carola recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019All the guys come charging out of the barracks in the middle of the night yelling what is that call, what is that call? Once they got outside, they realized there was a fire, so they put out the fire,\u2019\u201d Carola said.<\/p>\n

With Mailloux\u2019s history as a bugler in mind, the Honor Guard found a real bugler\u2014from Buglers Across America\u2014for the funeral instead of using the standard issue electronic bugle, which plays a recorded version of taps.<\/p>\n

While Mailloux was proud of his service in World War II, he didn\u2019t like talking about Saipan, Carola said.<\/p>\n

He was ready, though, to talk about the battle with his friend Staff Sgt. John Sidur, another B Company Soldier from Cohoes who saved his life after the attack, Carola added.<\/p>\n

Sidur died in 2015 at the age of 97.<\/p>\n

After leaving the Army in August 1945, Mailloux came back to Cohoes, got married, and worked for General Electric as a systems analyst until 1986.<\/p>\n

In January, Carola recalled, he told the story of Spike Mailloux, to a group of New York Army National Guard recruiters, attending a conference, he ran into at a Saratoga Springs restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked the NCO in charge, do you mind if I get the guys to raise a toast in Spike\u2019s honor,\u201d Corola said.<\/p>\n

The sergeant got everybody to be quiet, then he stood up and told Mailloux\u2019s story, Carola recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked everyone to raise their glass, and they did. And then they did the Army Hooah!,\u201d Carola said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Army National Guard Sgt. Carlos Garcia, left, and Spc. Samantha Bruce, perform military funeral honors at the burial of Wilfred \u201cSpike\u201d Mailloux, a 100-year old New York National Guard veteran of the World War II Battle of Saipan at St. Michael\u2019s Cemetery in Waterford, New York on May 7, 2024. Mailloux survived the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181113,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181114,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181111\/revisions\/181114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/181113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}