HARTVILLE – Buddy poppies, flags and bunting, ceremonies, TAPPS…it’s all about remembering. Remembering the sacrifice of countless men and women who have left hearth, home – and around Platte County, horse or tractor – to travel to foreign lands to fight for the concept of freedom. Memorial Day is about reaching out to the next generation to let them know the cost of freedom; and reminding fellow soldiers, while their name may not be widely known, we will continue to remember their willingness to set aside the comforts and control of their personal lives for a season, to face danger and even death, for the least of us fellow Americans.
During this time of contemplation and thanks, let’s take a glimpse into the sacrifice made by one family that impacted the local community. Let’s remember the unforgotten.
Jack and James “Jim” Webb were raised on a ranch north of Hartville in Webb canyon. “They rode their horses over the hills to school in Sunrise. Jack was known for his skills as a cowboy, following in his older brother’s footsteps. Jim was more academically oriented and loved school and learning,” Cindy Woods, niece to Jack and Jim, said as she shared stories and facts collected by her mother and close family members.

Jack graduated in 1937 from Sunrise High School, followed by Jim in 1939. Both chose to enter the war and served in the Pacific Theatre. Jack was in the Navy and Jim was a Marine. Jack met Mary Ritter while in the service, and they were married in March 1944.
On August 2, 1944, after surviving several strategic battles as a machine gunner across the Pacific (Guadalcanal, Saipan and Tarawa), Corporal Jim Webb, was injured in action at the end of the battle to take Tinian Island (one of the principal Mariana Islands) from Japanese control. The battle was fought by the U.S. to close an important line of communication for the Japanese. Thirteen days later, on August 15, 1944, he died on a hospital ship from his wounds. After the Battle of Tinian, the island was turned into the largest airbase of WWII, with 40,000 personnel and encompassing the entire island.
One year to the day after his brother died, Jack, a Machinist’s Mate 1st class, drowned in the waters of Agana Bay near Guam while testing a malfunction in an amphibious landing craft in his service as a member of the Base LVU Repair Component One. One month later, on Sept. 2, 1945, U.S. and Japanese military leaders met on the USS Missouri to sign documents of surrender to end the war with Japan.
The two had tried to connect while serving in the same theater of war, but while they each were at the same ports and encountered soldiers who had known or served with the other, they never were able to meet overseas. Jack and Jim’s younger sister, Martha Webb Hyer, served in the Navy as a WAVE stationed in Washington, D.C. “She took their death hard,” Woods said.
Originally both Webb brothers were buried in Guam, however when the national cemetery was moved to Punchbowl crater on Oahu, Hawaii in 1948, the Webbs’ remains were also moved to rest in the 50th state.
To honor the brothers and their sacrifice, Guernsey’s J. J. Webb American Legion Post 95 was so named to make sure the memory of their sacrifice didn’t fade away. A memorial was set up at the Hartville Town Hall flagpole by the Sunrise class of 1949, which was added to by former Hartville mayor Darrell Offe in recent years, to honor the memory of Jack and Jim Webb and another Sunrise graduate, Arthur Birleffi, whose death in a military training accident while testing equipment and aircraft loads for the Air Force stateside during WWII was also mourned by the community.As WWI Canadian soldier and battlefield physician John McCrae wrote in a poem to honor his dear friend who died on a battlefield amid an abundance of poppies, “In Flanders Fields” describes the high cost of war and the reason not to give up before the fighting is done. The poem is read at Memorial Day ceremonies across the country, recognizing the sacrifices of soldiers long gone, and the need to keep passing the torch of remembrance and the continued fight for the freedom they died for.