Haunting WWII Guitar Surfaces with the carved Signature of the US National Security Adviser's Father
Online, September 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Addison, Michigan - "This guitar has brought an unusual twist to the 'All American Dream' and although it's a little weird, I can't wait to share it," reported LeFerna (Arnold) Walch referring to the 1943 guitar her father carried in the Pacific during WWII. "When my dreams started filling with soldiers, the carved guitar was the only roadmap I had to find them, since my father, like many of the others, never told his daughter about the war. Until now."
The signatures of 38 men were carved into a guitar carried by USMC PFC Jim Arnold, when he was fighting in the Pacific. He recently came to his daughter, LeFerna (Arnold) Walch in a dream, when her home went into foreclosure. He left this guitar to her when he died in 1989, and now he was telling her to sell it to save her dream home. If the guitar would actually save her home like her father said in the dream, then Walch didn't want to let it go until she had found all the men and/or their families whose names were carved into the guitar. But this was not an easy task, and to add to the situation, Walch was starting to be haunted by several soldiers as they came into her dreams. She thought the dreams were caused from the stress of dealing with a mortgage holder who would not participate in the modification programs other Americans were receiving, and the many unsuccessful attempts to find a job leading her to take advantage of what America still would offer her- fulltime college aid at age 55.
Walch took the dreams seriously and researched when she could find the time. Without the money to pay a search company, and the government records division reporting a wait of 3-4 months to get her father's records, she used the free Wikipedia and found the officer's names first. One of which was a major who only carved his name as; "J.L. Jones." After finding the first name, she was almost sure that these men in her dreams were some of "Jones' boys," who made up the first USMC Amphibious Reconnaissance Division, led by Gen. Maj. James Logan Jones, Senior- father of our National Security Adviser. He made all these men heroes in WWII. But sadly, only the officer's names were mentioned anywhere, so Walch dedicated a website to this guitar and these men who were involved in over 150 missions, scouting out landmines, dangerous coral reefs and hidden Japanese gunfire, so our troops could enter the islands safely, and sometimes the last to leave the islands as well- taking care of all the dead.
Walch's WWII guitar gained attention from the historians at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and they were able to verify her research so far. Her father was part of Recon Co. B ( BRAVO ) and possibly the first VAC (5th division Amp. Recon). Most of the old records were unreadable, but they "luckily" came up with a muster roll from Feb of 1945. (The month of the Battle of Iwo Jima) When Walch received the muster roll, she was excited to find all but three of the men listed and hopes the men weren't killed in action before then. Since one of the names is "Doc," she is hoping that these men were from the base hospital where her father went with shrapnel wounds from Iwo Jima. Until she receives his medical records she can only speculate that her father continued to fight for seven months with these wounds until he had enough "points" (at the end of the war) for an honorable discharge.
This proud Marine daughter, (her father affectionately called; "Pete") created this website to share and collect information on these war-buddies. The guitar with pictures of all the carved signatures, a slightly censored naked lady and a verse from a 1943 Ernest Tubb song are all featured. She is asking for America's help to locate these men and/or their families to tell them about this amazing piece of American Hero history that has surfaced after 65 years.
The website is at http://www.ww2guitar.us. Interested parties can go here to make an offer on the guitar or just enjoy following the information gathered and shared by others-who all want to know the answer to the question;
"Does anyone know who 'Lady Dog' is?"