29th Division

Col. Richard W. Herklotz, a World War II veteran with more than 40 years of military service, died Monday after suffering a heart attack at the 29th Division Association convention in Hampton, Va. He was 80. Col. Herklotz was a former executive director of the association. He served in the 29th Infantry Division, 110th Field Artillery, participating in the invasion of Normandy, as well as five campaigns in Europe. He received the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and other medals. When he returned to the United States, Col. Herklotz was a full-time technician with the Maryland National Guard until he retired in 1982.

The man never talked much anyway, the boy knew, and his mom told him that when his dad got back from his tour of duty in World War II, he spoke even less. That didn't bother young Joe Balkoski so much as leave him in a state of puzzlement. "When a full sentence came out of my father's mouth, it was an occasion," says Balkoski today. "He was just a quiet, reserved guy. You rarely knew what he was thinking." Maybe that's why it made such an impact on Joe - at age 8, in 1962 - when Dad corralled him one day in their New York City apartment to take him to the movies.

The collection and preservation of war relics from the 18th century to the Persian Gulf war -- specifically conflicts that engaged the Maryland National Guard -- was the lifelong passion of retired Brig. Gen. Bernard Feingold of the Guard.General Feingold, who created the Maryland National Guard Museum at Baltimore's 5th Regiment Armory and later was its director and curator, died Thursday of cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 76.A former soldier with an insatiable curiosity and appreciation for the minutiae as well as the grand sweep of war, General Feingold possessed vast knowledge of military history, tactics, battles and personalities.

The 29th Division Association of the Maryland National Guard will conduct a memorial service Friday to commemorate the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, and a crab feast from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Normandy Room, 3919 E. Lombard St., Baltimore.Information is available from association historian Bernard Nowakowski, 410-276-0426.Pub Date: 6/04/97

Mel Sherr, the 82-year-old strolling violinist who played "Sunrise, Sunset" to decades of guests at Baltimore wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs, died Dec. 25 of a heart ailment at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Mr. Sherr, a decorated World War II veteran who landed at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, also put in 49 years with the medical corps of the Maryland National Guard."He was the pre-eminent practitioner of his art. He knew an infinite variety of show tunes, the Porter, Berlin and Gershwin music that people request," said Jack Hook, a local official of the American Federation of Musicians.

WASHINGTON -- Retired Brig. Gen. Alvin D. Ungerleider remembers fighting his way into a German-run slave-labor camp near Nordhausen, Germany, with other soldiers in his company in April 1945.They had stumbled upon a camp being guarded by about 50 German soldiers, whom they quickly overpowered. The American soldiers freed about 300 prisoners, many of them virtual skeletons."The sight that met my eyes is still burned intrinsically into my soul," Mr. Ungerleider said. "We thought we had entered the gates of hell."

50 Years Ago* Senator Tydings Saturday told delegates to the 27th annual reunion of the 29th Division Association that eminent scientists have informed him it is possible to put an atomic bomb in a projectile and fire it across the Atlantic. Senator Tydings, who was a colonel in the 29th Division overseas during World War I, said it is compulsory for veterans of World Wars I and II and all people of the nation "to stimulate their imaginations because we are playing with things that God hitherto kept to Himself."

Charles A. Lusby Sr.Baltimore firefighterCharles A. Lusby Sr., a retired acting-lieutenant in the Baltimore Fire Department and a former national commander of the 29th Division Association, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Arbutus.Mr. Lusby, who was 76 and was called "Dutch," retired in 1977 after 30 years with the department.He landed with the 29th Division -- a National Guard unit from Maryland and Virginia -- at Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day. He was a member of the 111th Field Artillery Battalion, which lost 11 of its 12 guns on its way to the beach and gave the last one to another artillery unit that had rescued it from a sinking landing craft.

Raymond A. Egner, who acted as defense counsel for Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya," during the first major war crimes trial after World War II, died Aug. 29 of complications from intestinal illness at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 94.General Yamashita led the Japanese attack in 1941 against the British garrison at Singapore and by January of 1942 had won control of the Malay Peninsula.He was convicted of allowing his troops to commit atrocities against men, women and children and prisoners of war when in command of the Philippines, and was executed in 1946.

Robert M. MillerLanded at NormandyRobert M. Miller, a retired social worker and Army lieutenant colonel who served as national commander of the 29th Division Association, died Monday of cancer at his home on Carrbridge Circle in Towson.Colonel Miller, who was 79, retired in 1975 after 10 years as a social worker for the Maryland Department of Human Resources.In 1961, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army after a career that began 26 years earlier when he enlisted in the 175th Infantry Regiment of the Maryland National Guard.