SPIN-OFF: OWEN PATRICK FRANCIS HAMMERBERG'S SACRIFICE DESERVES MORE THAN A ROAD BEING NAMED AFTER HIM!

Yeah, part of my "mission" to study the events of Pearl Harbor was to learn more about the West Loch area of Pearl Harbor, where Hammerberg lost his life while saving two fellow Navy divers from death.

In doing so, he bacame Flint's only Medal of Honor recipient from the WWII era; he was also Michigan's first Navy recipient of the honor. Additionally, Owen Patrick Francis Hammerberg, age 23, was America's last recipient of the Medal of Honor, awarded for his heroism under non-combat conditions. Quite a resume, I would say.

Flint honored him by naming a road after him; the date was 1954. In 1955, the USS Hammerberg, a Navy destroyer ship, was commissioned at Bath, Maine. My thinking is that if a Navy destroyer can be built to honor our Flint hero, then why can't Flint create a monument/memorial at the road named (posthumously), for his selfless act of saving two fellow Navy divers, while giving his own life in so doing?

It's gonna take Flint kids to get the job done...with the able leadership of their teacher, me, John Davidek. I'm not going to do this alone, of course. James Francis LeGrow, a Flint area native who did his student teaching with me at Flint SW Academy, will assist me in this worthwhile endeavor. We have lots of work to do...in convincing "City Fathers" that this project is deserving of its noteworthyness. We stand ready to do just that...

I'm willing to make presentations to civic clubs or any other local organizations...to get their attention to this important project. I'm told that the Ruth Mott Fund is partial to funding park projects, especially ones that improve the city aesthetically and environmentally. Add a little history, actually a lot of history to the mix, and we have a perfect match to bring the Ruth Mott people on board.

I want to involve our students at Flint SW Academy. Someone, who will go unnamed, at the highest administrative level within the Flint Schools, once told me that she hated history while in the Flint Schools. I was taken aback, telling her in a half-kidding manner that she didn't have me as her history teacher. After thinking about that shocker, I emailed her and told her that my kids were gonna be in touch with her throughout the school year...informing her about how much they LOVE history(!). I'm not attempting to be sarcastic or disrespectful...I just want her to know that there are MANY teachers in the Flint District that are more than capapble of "turning there students on" to history. Yet another goal for me this school year...