Guns & Militaria
Lot 2429a:
Description
The is very heroic and emotionally moving grouping of a US Navy-US Army veteran Master Sargent Ditlef Lagoni Jr. He joined the Navy in July 1941 and served on USS Tuscaloosa and submarines, USS Jack during the war and USS Amberjack after the war. He served occupation duty in Japan and then enlisted in the Army is 1948. He served in Korea with the 24th Division and declared missing in August 10, 1950 and later confirmed a POW and then killed in the infamous Sunchon Tunnel Massacre of October 1950. Included here are just some of the many items in this group 1) His cased KIA Purple Heart with his government engraved name on back with lapel pin. 2) 1954 dated PH award document and Accolade document from President Eisenhower. 3) 1954 newspaper article declaring his death. 4) Copy of his Navy discharge 5) Large 1941 Great Lakes photo in whites. Photo in Blues uniform with sub badge. 6) Photo of his family owned and named electric service store. 7) Copy of 2006 American Battle Monuments Commission report of his capture, 8) 2021 Dept of Veteran Affairs letter to his widow ending her benefits. 9) Copy of his wife’s 2021 death certificate. 10) 2019 letter for update from Pentagon. 11) His logbook of inspection from the USS Amberjack. 12) WWII newspaper scrapbook kept by his wife all about submarine life. 13) Blank Shellback certificate. 14) Many of his original medals, requested medals in the 1990s, ribbons, patches. WWII sub badge and combat sub badge and Naval aviation wings. one dog tag, 15) September 1950 Missing in action telegram, 16) 1954 letter from Secretary of the Army acknowledging his death and the awarding of his KIA purple heart.
There is so many photos of him in his Navy days, time living in Japan and time in the Army. The heartbreaking framed 1958 letter from a former POW from the 25th division written to the family about how he held up in captivity. It describes how respected he was by the other prisoners that he was responsible for dividing up the little food they received equally among the prisoners. There are 70 plus pages of research and contact letters with the government. To this day, his body was never found. Also included is his blue print spec charts of the submarines he was on, many newspaper stories from the 1950s to the 2000s. All of this comes inside his steel footlocker. There is so much material with many unmentioned sad and pleasant surprises in this grouping that there no way to photograph and describe it all. Sargent Ditef Lagoni represents everything noble and patriotic this American sailor/solider represents to the highest order of devotion to his comrades and his nation.
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