Soldiering on

All Americans who have given their lives in military service have a day in their honor, Memorial Day. Yet a few have been honored with something more tangible – a monument, an airfield, a road, a school or a museum. On this Memorial Day weekend, let’s look at some of the veterans who have given their names to some of the region’s familiar landmarks and institutions:

Ensign John Robert Monaghan (died 1899) – His monumental statue, at one of Spokane’s busiest intersections, Monroe and Riverside, has been the focal point of the city’s Memorial Day gatherings for more than a century.

But who was Ensign Monaghan?

He was the son of James Monaghan, one of the region’s earliest and most prominent settlers. The younger Monaghan became one of the first enrollees at Gonzaga College (now University) in 1887. Then, in 1895, he became the first Washington resident to graduate from the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

In 1899 he was on the cruiser USS Philadelphia, which had been dispatched to Samoa to quell warfare between island factions. American and British forces sent landing parties; Monaghan was in one of them.

An American officer, Lt. Philip Lansdale, was shot in the leg. Monaghan and some other men tried to carry him to safety, but were overwhelmed. Even after the others fled or were shot, Monaghan remained, standing above Lansdale, “one rifle against many.”

In the flowery language of a contemporary account, he “knew he was doomed, but he could not yield – he died in the heroic performance of his duty.” Both officers died.

Monaghan became a posthumous hero around the country. A drive immediately began to erect a monument in his hometown, which culminated in the unveiling of the statue on Oct. 25, 1906. The crowd was estimated at 10,000.

And this was not the only memorial to Monaghan. Two ships eventually bore the name USS Monaghan: a 1911 destroyer which was used in World War I and, later, a 1935 Farragut-class destroyer that survived Pearl Harbor and Midway, only to sink in a 1944 typhoon in the South Pacific.

Lieutenant James Buell Felts (died 1927) – Lt. Felts was the son of a prominent apple orchardist in the Spokane Valley and one of Spokane’s earliest aviators. He enlisted in the Army while still a teenager in 1916 and logged 85 hours as a pilot in World War I.

Safely back home, he became the publisher of the Spokane Valley Herald and continued to serve as a second lieutenant in the air squadron of the local National Guard.

In May 1927 he was taking one of his routine training flights from Spokane’s main airport, then known as Parkwater Field, when his engine stalled. Witnesses reported that the plane tumbled out of the sky, killing Felts and his passenger, a visitor from Chicago. Felts, 28, left a young widow and a 2-month-old baby.

Just four months later, in September 1927, Parkwater Field was renamed Felts Field “in memory of one of the gallant officers of the 41st Division Air Service,” in the words of a general at the dedication ceremony. Today, still known as Felts Field, it is Spokane’s general aviation airport.

The crash took place on May 29, 1927 – the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

Major Harold Geiger (died 1927) – Maj. Geiger was one of the Army’s pioneer aviators. He graduated from West Point in 1904 and by 1913 was commanding the Army’s fledgling aviation program on Oahu.

He served in France in World War I and was instrumental in developing the Army’s balloon and dirigible programs. He was on the dirigible USS Los Angeles when it flew across the Atlantic in 1924.

On May 17, 1927, Geiger was on a training flight in Pennsylvania when his plane nose-dived into the ground. He jumped out just before it hit, but was unable to crawl away from the flames.

In 1941, the federal government purchased Sunset Field, west of Spokane, for a pilot training facility. It was renamed Geiger Field.

The airport was called that until 1960, when it was renamed Spokane International Airport. Yet the name Geiger lives on in the airport’s code letters, familiar on baggage tags: GEG.

Major John T. Fancher (died 1928) – Maj. Fancher, known as Jack to his Spokane friends, was one of Spokane’s early fliers and a World War I pilot. He returned to Spokane after the war and was the first commander of the 116th Aviation Squadron at Parkwater (later Felts) Field.

In April 1928, Fancher was making an “illuminated” night flight at a Wenatchee air show, demonstrating some aerial bombing techniques – which, in those days, meant he dropped small grenade-like bombs.

Fancher was annoyed that some of the bombs were duds. After landing, he went back to the cockpit to inspect three leftover bombs.

“What’s the matter with these things?” he said.

He tossed two bombs across the field, one of which exploded. As he was preparing to toss the third bomb, it exploded. The bomb blew off one of Fancher’s hands, gouged out one of his eyes and caused extensive burns. He never lost consciousness, but he died the next morning.

Upon news of his death, flying was suspended for the day at Felts Field. The Spokesman-Review reported that his fellow fliers “seemed dazed, unable to believe that the man, whose personality and dynamic ability had been the dominant factor of the 161st Aviation Squadron since its inception four years ago, was dead.”

In 1929, Hardesty Road, one of the main approaches to Felts Field, was renamed Fancher Way in his memory. It retains that name today.

Major Cheney Cowles (died 1943) – Maj. Cowles was the managing editor of the Spokane Daily Chronicle and the son of Spokane newspaper magnate W.H. Cowles. Cheney Cowles was an officer in the Army Reserve, and when war clouds gathered in 1941 he resumed active service in the Army Air Force.

He served as an intelligence officer and was promoted to major. He was serving with the Second Air Force Support Command in Shreveport, La., in May 1943 when he and four other service personnel were killed when their Army plane crashed in Alabama.

In 1960, Spokane’s new history and arts museum was named the Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum. It carried that name until 2001, when the museum built a new $28 million building next door and changed its name to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

But the original building – which houses the museum’s auditorium, offices and archives – is still called the Cheney Cowles Center.

Private Joe Mann (died 1944) – Pfc. Mann was the son of a local rancher and a Reardan High School athlete and graduate. When he was 20, he enlisted in the Army and went to Europe as a paratrooper.

He was the lead scout on a patrol near Best, Holland in September 1944, when he crept up to a Nazi artillery position, killed several enemy soldiers and captured the gun. However, he was wounded four times. He was bandaged up, but insisted on standing guard that night.

Early that morning, the Germans attacked. They tossed a grenade near Mann. His arms were bandaged, so he could not raise his arms, but he yelled “Grenade!” and threw his body atop the explosive.

He died instantly, but his fellow soldiers lived. Mann was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award.

In 1958, a new Army Reserve training center in Hillyard was formally dedicated as the Joe Mann Army Reserve Center. It retained that name for 52 years until it formally closed, just last Wednesday.

Spokane Public Schools may take over the building, although it’s too early to say whether it will retain Mann’s name.

But the name remains prominent in Best, Holland, where a 20-foot tall Joe Mann monument stands on the spot where he died (a smaller replica is in the Reardan Memorial Library).

A street, a pavilion and an open-air theater in Best all carry his name. When Mann’s brother visited Holland in the 1970s, he reported that “everywhere we went in Holland, people knew our name.”

Lieutenant Colonel Michael P. Anderson (died 2003) – Lt. Col. Anderson was a 1977 graduate of Cheney High School and a longtime Spokane area resident.

He entered the Air Force after graduating from the University of Washington in 1981 and became a top pilot, aircraft commander and instructor, logging more than 3,000 hours of flight time. He was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 1995 and went up in the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1998.

In 2003, he was the payload commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated over Texas, killing all aboard. He was mourned all over the world – no more so than in the Inland Northwest.

In August 2003, State Route 904 between Spokane and Cheney was renamed the Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson Memorial Highway. In 2004, the new elementary school at Fairchild Air Force Base was named the Michael Anderson Elementary School.

And in 2005, a bronze statue of Anderson was dedicated in Riverfront Park, near the INB Performing Arts Center.

All fallen veterans – The vast majority of the region’s veterans have no roads or theaters named after them, yet they all share one of the biggest monuments of all: The Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

That’s the official name of the Spokane Arena, and it is dedicated to the memory of all veterans. It also has several outdoor monuments and indoor displays honoring veterans.

And, finally, let’s not forget the individual monuments all over our region: the gravestones of those who have died in military service. Memorial Day is a time to remember them all.