Battle flag proudly displayed

By Daisy Harvill | April 12, 2006

An exhibit case in the foyer of the Mike Rheudasil Learning Center of Paris Junior College displays a tattered, oil-stained American battle flag from the USS LCS(L)(3)-17, a World War II landing craft support vessel that saw action in the Pacific.

The flag was hoisted at Ulithi in the Pacific as the ship sailed to take part in the Okinawa invasion. But when the flag was struck after the battle, and a new flag hoisted in its place, Paris native Edmond Castleberry, an ensign and the ship’s commissary and communications officer, put the tattered flag in his duffle bag and brought it home, without the knowledge of the ship’s captain.

The “17,” as the ship was called, under the command of Detroit native Jack Sharpe, came through the Okinawa invasion and numerous Japanese suicide attacks without losing a crew member or suffering major damage.

In August 1995, Castleberry presented the flag to the A.M. and Welma Aikin Regional Archives at PJC for safe keeping.

Castleberry, a member of the PJC class of 1935, and Sharpe, class of 1936, left the Paris area to attend Texas A&M and Texas Tech Universities, respectively.

In the Navy in 1944, Castleberry was assigned to a new type of ship, the LCS. In Maryland he boarded his training ship on Chesapeake Bay, and when the skipper boarded, Casteberry was surprised to see Sharpe.

After training, they boarded the 17, still in the shipyard in Boston. From there they sailed to the Pacific via San Diego and Pearl Harbor. At Ulithi, they took on fuel and supplies and joined the Okinawa invasion fleet.

When they departed Ulithi, the battle flag that Castleberry and Sharpe presented to PJC was hoisted, and the 17 provided firepower and radar information for ground troops. Castleberry said 24 of the 106 LCSs were sunk or damaged in the battles of Iwo Jima, the Philippines and Okinawa.

At the PJC presentation, Castleberry referred to the times as “perilous” and said they had literally been fighting for their lives and their freedom. The old flag was one of Castleberry’s most treasured possessions, and he left it in the safekeeping of the archives at Paris Junior College.

Castelberry, the long time announcer for the Paris Municipal Band, was one of the original band members, a flutist, when it began in 1932. A prominent Paris insurance agent, he was honored by PJC as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1997.

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