Club members served with distinction in WWII; Japan surrenders, Sept. 2, 1945

This Week In National Press Club History

Sept. 2, 1945: Japan formally surrenders in a ceremony on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War ll, in which so many National Press Club and Women’s National Press Club members served. Among them are former Club Presidents Don Larrabee, a combat correspondent in the Far East; John Cosgrove, who saw action at Okinawa on a destroyer escort in the Pacific; Allan Cromley, combat infantryman in Europe; Warren Rogers, who participated as a Marine in the battle of Guadalcanal and Frank Holeman, who performed counter-intelligence in the Pacific.

Other Club members who served were Kenneth Blackshaw, B17 bomber pilot on 30 missions over Europe; John Metelsky, survivor of the dangerous Murmansk run in the Merchant Marines; L. Edgar Prina, U.S. Navy; former U. S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd; Austin Kiplinger, Navy aviator; Pierre Salinger, a Navy veteran and Richard Malloy. Walter Cronkite covered the war as a correspondent.

Other veterans who are members of the Club’s American Legion Post 20 are Carl Cardin, John De Lorenzi, Edward Essertier, Arthur Garrison, Stephen McCormick, James McKoy, Donald Moore, Theodor Schuchat and Alvin Spivak.

Presidents of the Women’s National Press Club served as correspondents covering the war in Africa and Europe. Ruth Cowan Nash, a reporter for the Associated Press, was often attached to the Women’s Army Corps, while May Craig gave eye-witness accounts of the V-bomb attacks on London, the battle of Normandy and the liberation of Paris. Lee Miller, a photographer, accompanied Allied troops during the liberation of France and was with troops at the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau.

This list is incomplete. We would deeply appreciate further information to develop a complete roster.

Compiled by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, with information from Don Larrabee, John Cosgrove, Art Wiese, Peggy Simpson, and Ken Dalecki, current Commander of Post 20.