Go Back   Professional Soldiers ® > And Some Gave All.... > In Memory Of

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-15-2014, 09:15   #1
Richard
Quiet Professional
 
Richard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
MG (Ret) Robert L. Shirkey

Alamo Scout, DMOR 1st SF Regiment. Retired MG Robert L. Shirkey, Alamo Scout Team Leader (Team Shirkey), died peacefully in his sleep on February 13, 2014 at the age of 89 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was one of the two remaining living Alamo Scout Team Leaders.

RIP, Sir.

Richard


From his DMOR citation:

While serving in the Pacific area of operations, he volunteered to join the Alamo Scouts and served under General Walter Krueger. He graduated from the Alamo Scouts Training Center in 1945, and became one of only 21 officers to lead an Alamo Scout team on combat missions during World War II. Shirkey led his team on special missions on the island of Luzon, Philippines, through the summer of 1945.

On a mission of particular import to Gen. Krueger and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then Lt. Shirkey and his team, moved 65 miles behind the Japanese lines to confirm the presence of Japanese General Yamashita on the island. The team captured a Japanese officer, and evacuated him back to American-held
territory, where he confirmed to U.S. Army Intelligence that Gen. Yamashita was in direct command on the island.

Later that year, Lt. Shirkey was ordered to take his team and link-up with 200 Filipino guerrillas and then land the guerrillas on the beach in Palanan Bay with the help of the two U.S. Navy LCIs and two gunboats. When the ramp went down, the guerrilla leader balked at the idea. Shirkey moved past the guerrilla leader and led his team and the guerrillas in a successful combat beach assault. He then led the force inland where they engaged and eliminated the enemy.

He ultimately led six special-operations combat missions, including back-to-back deep-penetration missions around Bontoc and Atok, Luzon, that resulted in one of the longest periods spent behind Japanese lines of any Alamo Scout team. Later Lt. Shirkey returned to the 158th RCT (Bushmasters) to help spearhead the invasion of Japan. After the Japanese surrender, Lt. Shirkey landed on the Japanese island of Honshu.

At Utsunomiya in the Tochigi Prefecture, Japanese General Seiki, commander of the 6th Imperial Japanese Army, personally surrendered to Lt. Shirkey by presenting his centuries-old samurai sword to him. The sword is now on display in the World War II exhibits of the National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga.

(Cont'd) http://www.soc.mil/swcS/RegimentalHo...sf_shirkey.pdf
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Alamo Scouts.jpg (8.8 KB, 10 views)
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
Richard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2014, 11:32   #2
The Reaper
Quiet Professional
 
The Reaper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,778
RIP, General.

Thank you for your service, and your sacrifice.

You will not be forgotten.

TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
The Reaper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2014, 11:58   #3
SF_BHT
Quiet Professional
 
SF_BHT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sneaking back and forth across the Border
Posts: 6,627
Rest in Peace General........

You will be never forgotten !!!!
SF_BHT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2014, 12:10   #4
Joker
Quiet Professional
 
Joker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Tampa
Posts: 2,576
Rest in Peace Sir. DOL
Joker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 05:37   #5
abc_123
Quiet Professional
 
abc_123's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Savannah, GA
Posts: 2,292
RIP.

My father in law served with the Bushmasters in the PI and onto the occupation of Japan.

From looking at the declassified invasion plans, LT Shirkey and my father in law and the rest of the 158th RCT would have been sacrificed most likely to a man but for the two atomic bombs.

Glad that MG Shirkey made it to enjoy his old age.
__________________
The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
abc_123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 05:50   #6
JJ_BPK
Quiet Professional
 
JJ_BPK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 18 yrs upstate NY, 30 yrs South Florida, 20 yrs Conch Republic, now chasing G-Kids in NOVA & UK
Posts: 11,901
RIP MG Shirkey, Vaya con Dios.
__________________
Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh

"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
JJ_BPK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 06:49   #7
CDRODA396
Quiet Professional
 
CDRODA396's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 459
Rest In Peace General, and thank you for paving the way for generations of those who stove, and continue to strive, to walk your path.
__________________
"Excellence is its own punishment..."
CDRODA396 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 08:42   #8
MtnGoat
Quiet Professional
 
MtnGoat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Asscrackistan
Posts: 4,289
RIP, General.

Prayers to your family and friends.

Blue skies and soft landings.
__________________
"Berg Heil"

History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over."

COLONEL BULL SIMONS

Intelligence failures are failures of command [just] as operations failures are command failures.”
MtnGoat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-17-2014, 14:13   #9
akv
Area Commander
 
akv's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA-Germany
Posts: 1,572
Rest In Peace and Thank You
__________________
"Men Wanted: for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” -Sir Ernest Shackleton

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” –Greek proverb
akv is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2014, 05:36   #10
full cooler
Quiet Professional
 
full cooler's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Key West
Posts: 232
Rest in peace.
full cooler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2014, 20:00   #11
MR2
Quiet Professional
 
MR2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Location, Location
Posts: 3,996
Thanks for leading the way. RIP
__________________
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time - Leo Tolstoy

It's Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile - Wayne Dyer


WOKE = Willfully Overlooking Known Evil
MR2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2014, 09:04   #12
Stiletto11
Guerrilla
 
Stiletto11's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Behind Enemy Lines
Posts: 370
RIP Sir
__________________
It is those who believe that written constitutions can protect the individual from the exercise of state power who
hold to a baseless idealism, particularly when it is the state’s judicial powers of interpretation that define the range of such authority.

J. Albert Nock

Don’t let facts interfere with your insanity
Stiletto11 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2014, 09:08   #13
Chairborne64
Quiet Professional
 
Chairborne64's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Florida
Posts: 362
RIP Sir.
__________________
"Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Chairborne64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2014, 16:56   #14
Badger52
Area Commander
 
Badger52's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Western WI
Posts: 6,810
RIP Sir. I recall reading of him in Shadows in the Jungle. 65 miles in & still wanted to keep looking but they pulled them out. Some huevos.

Salud.
__________________
"Civil Wars don't start when a few guys hunt down a specific bastard. Civil Wars start when many guys hunt down the nearest bastards."

The coin paid to enforce words on parchment is blood; tyrants will not be stopped with anything less dear. - QP Peregrino
Badger52 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:11.



Copyright 2004-2022 by Professional Soldiers ®
Site Designed, Maintained, & Hosted by Hilliker Technologies