Sunday, April 14, 2024

Travis Stephan Helpinstill

Name	Travis S Helpinstill
Gender	Male
Race	White
Age	18
Relationship to Draftee	Self (Head)
Birth Date	23 Jul 1925
Birth Place	Nacogdoches, Texas, USA
Residence Place	Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Texas, USA
Registration Date	23 Jul 1943
Registration Place	Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Texas, USA
Employer	Helpinstill Sales Co
Height	5 8
Weight	140
Complexion	Light
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Hazel
Next of Kin	J B Helpinstill

Name	Travis S Helpinstill
Gender	Male
Race	White or Mexican (White)
Marriage Date	28 Feb 1950
Marriage Place	Bossier, Louisiana, USA
Spouse	Gladys Snelling
Certificate Number	16??

Travis Stephan Helpenstell, 80, of Livingston, was born July 23, 1925, in the Mahl Community, Nacogdoches County. He was the son of James Bee "JB" and Addie Shirley Helpenstell. He lived at 475 Cottonwood Street as a child.

Cpl Helpenstell enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps 3 Sep 1943 at Dallas, Texas. He was assigned to "M" Battery, 4th Battallion, 14th Marines, 4th Division, FMF, on 31 Dec 1943 for which he served to duration of WW2 as a part of a heavy machine gun squad. He was honorably discharged 21 Nov 1945 at Oceanside, CA.

In January 1944 Travis sailed with the Division from San Diego, CA for the Marshall Islands, Roi-Namur in the Kwajalein Atoll. Operation "Flintlock" was the first objective for the Division. Six hours after landing on 1 February 1944 Roi Island was declared secured, and Namur Island was secured just 24 hours and 15 minutes after the first troops landed.

The 4th Division set three new records on its first operation: [1] It became the first Division to go directly into combat from the States; [2] It was the first to capture Japanese mandated territory in the Pacific; [3] And it secured its objective in a shorter time than any other important operation since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Travis then went ashore on Saipan, 15 June 1944. The severity of this battle was indicated by the 2,000 casualties suffered in the first two days of battle. The Flag was raised on Saipan after 25 grueling and bitter days of combat. The Division sustained 5,981 casualties killed, wounded and missing. This represented 27.6 percent of the Division's strength. The Japanese count was 23,811 known dead and 1,810 prisoners were taken.

Next, he went ashore on Tinian, 24 July 1944. The island was defended by 9000 plus Japanese troops. This battle lasted nine days. The land assault on Tinian had cost the Division 290 men killed, 1,515 wounded and 24 missing in action. Approximately 9,000 Japanese troops were dead and 250 prisoners taken. In recognition of its work on Saipan and Tinian, the Fourth Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

After resupply and training, Helpenstell sailed to the infamous island of Iwo Jima. The Japanese troops on Iwo Jima numbered 23,000. The first wave of Marines hit the beach at 0902 on 19 February 1945. By the end of the second day casualties totaled 2,011. At 1800 on 16 March, 26 days and 9 hours after the first troops landed, Iwo Jima was declared secured. The greatest battle in Marine Corps History was over. The 4th Marine Division paid a heavy price. Casualties numbered 9,098 which was almost half the division strength. An estimated 22,000 Japanese had been killed by the three Divisions (Third, Fourth, and Fifth, 8,982 having been counted in the Fourth's zone. Only 44 prisoners were taken by the Division.

After returning home to Nacogdoches County Travis was elected to the position of Constable. Notably to this day, he was the youngest man ever elected to a law enforcement position in Texas.

Later in life Travis had many skills, he was a real estate broker and insurance agent in Pasadena and Livingston, Texas.

Travis Helpenstell passed away Nov. 16, 2005, in the VA Hospital in Houston.

Joining him in eternal rest are, his wife Gladys Jane Helpenstell, sisters, Avis Helpenstell Maitland and Sylvia Helpenstell Hargrove.

NOTE*

Helpenstell last name is misspelled on the military headstone, but this is taken directly from his military records. For clarity's sake I have entered this memorial with the proper spelling.

Also note the battle was Roi-Namur not Boinamur

CPL Travis Stephan “Hep” Helpenstell

BIRTH: 23 Jul 1925
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA
DEATH: 16 Nov 2005 (aged 80)
Livingston, Polk County, Texas, USA
BURIAL: Helpenstell Cemetery
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USAAdd to Map

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The Flag of the Kingdom of Spain 1519 to 1821

The Spanish Flag of Castile and Leon flew over Texas for three hundred years. Spanish involvement in Texas began with Alonzo Alverez de Pineda's mapping of the Texas coast in 1519. Then, in 1542 Luis de Moscoso came to Nacogdoches and East Texas with the remnants of the Hernando de Soto expedition that had begun four years earlier in Florida. Spain's claim to Texas went back to the DeSoto-Moscoso Expedition, which claimed all of southeastern United States as Spanish Florida. Spain's occupation of Texas began in 1690 with the founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas on the Neches River. It continued in 1716 with the founding of six missions from the Neches River to Los Adaes in Western Louisiana, and 1721 with the founding of Presidio Nuestra Señora de Pilar de los Adaes----near present day Robeline, Louisiana. Los Adaes was the first capital of the Province of Texas. Texas was under the Spanish flag until Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Interestingly, the first flag used by the Spanish to claim Texas was not the familiar flag of Castile and Leon; it was a banner that had the Virgin of Guadalupe on one side and the crucified Christ on the other.

The Flag of the Kingdom of France 1685 to 1689

France's claim to a part of Texas went back to 1682, when Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Mississippi and claimed all the land in its drainage for France. For some mapmakers and politicians, this included Texas. He named this land Louisiana. La Salle came to Texas in 1685, after he accidentally sailed past his destination at the mouth of the Mississippi. He established Fort St. Louis and a French settlement on Garcitas Creek off Matagorda Bay. The settlement was ill fated from its beginning. LaSalle was murdered by his own men near Navasota in 1687, and the settlers and soldiers who remained at Fort St. Louis were killed or captured by the Indians in 1689. The Spanish found Fort St. Louis and burned it to the ground in 1690. This French intrusion into Spanish territory caused the Spanish to begin the occupation and settlement of East Texas to prevent further French invasions.

The Flag of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition 1812 to 1813

Bernardo Gutiérrez and Lieutenant Augustus Magee flew their green flag of the new Republic of Texas over the Stone Fort in Nacogdoches in August of 1812. The Republican Army of the North, as these filibusters called themselves, had come from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches to recruit and train troops with the help of Samuel Davenport. They stayed for two months, drilled an army of over five hundred men, and then marched on to capture Goliad and San Antonio. Magee died at Goliad, and his place was taken by Samuel Kemper. Kemper and Gutiérrez captured San Antonio and issued a Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas on April 6, 1813. This brief time of Texas Independence was over when the Spanish general Joaquín de Arredondo destroyed the remains of the Republican army at the Battle of Medina on August 18, 1813. Augustus Magee and Samuel Davenport, who were in charge of the militia in Nacogdoches, were both Irishmen. That might have governed their choice of the Emerald Green flag as the Republican army's standard.

The Flag of the Dr. James Long Expedition 1819 and 1821

Some Americans believed that Texas was part of Louisiana as claimed by LaSalle in 1682 and should have been included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. One of those was Dr. James Long of Natchez, Mississippi, who came to Nacogdoches in June of 1819. Dr. Long proclaimed himself the president of his newly declared Republic of Texas. Dr. Long's red-striped Lone Star flag flew but briefly over the Stone Fort and his Republic of Texas. The Spanish caught Long when he went to Galveston, where he was seeking the assistance of pirate Jean Lafitte. There they defeated him and his meager army and chased him back to Louisiana. Dr. Long returned to Texas with a small army in 1821 and quickly captured the poorly manned garrison at Goliad. However, he was soon under siege by Spanish troops from San Antonio, who recaptured Goliad and took him captive. Dr. James Long was taken to Mexico City, jailed, then freed, and then murdered under mysterious circumstances by a Mexican soldier.

The Flag of the Mexican Federal Republic 1821 to 1836

Spanish Nacogdoches came under the Mexican flag in 1821, when Mexico finally won its independence from Spain. Mexico, in order to prove its ownership of Texas, began settling its eastern parts with the Anglos as early as December 1821. In that year Stephen F. Austin was allowed to bring the first of his Old Three Hundred Settlers into his grant on the Brazos. Thereafter, Americans poured through Nacogdoches, the Gateway to Texas, in search of cheap land. By the time of the Texas revolution in 1836, Anglos greatly outnumbered the Spanish-Mexican population. The Mexican flag that flew over Nacogdoches and still flies over Mexico was adopted in 1825. It has three vertical green, white, and red fields of equal width. In the center of the white field is the Mexican eagle sitting on a nopal cactus holding a snake in its beak. In Mexican legend, this was a sign to the Aztecs that they had reached the land that was to be their home.

The Flag of the Fredonia Rebellion 1826 to 1827

For a brief while, the flag that flew over Nacogdoches was the red-and-white banner of Haden Edward's thirty-seven-day Fredonia Rebellion. Edwards had obtained a grant from Mexico to settle eight hundred families in East Texas in the Nacogdoches area. Unfortunately for him, most of the land had already been settled---legally and illegally---by the early Spanish, by Indians, and by Anglo squatters. His intrusion caused such a disturbance that the Mexican government revoked his grant. Disappointed over the loss of his grant, on December 16, 1826, Haden and his brother Benjamin rode into Nacogdoches, planted their flag in front of the Stone Fort, and proclaimed the Republic of Fredonia. They had formed an uncertain alliance with the Cherokees, thus the reason for the red and white colors of the flag. The flag carried the words "Independence Freedom and Justice" and the Signatures of sixteen of the original Fredonians. The Fredonian army consisted of no more than thirty men, the Cherokees never joined them, and Stephen F. Austin raised a militia to put down the East Texas rebellion. The Fredonians gave up their cause on January 22, 1827, and retreated eastward across the Sabine.

The Flag of the Republic of Texas 1836 to 1846

Mexican Texas became the Republic of Texas after Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna on the plains of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The first official flag was a white upside-down star on a blue background with T-E-X-A-S written between the points of the star. This flag never flew. The second flag of the Republic was adopted by the first Texas congress in December 1836. It bore a single, large gold star on a blue field. This flag was the same design as the "Bonnie blue flag that bears a single star" that was so popular among the Southern troops during the Civil War. The Lone Star flag that we now use was designed by Texas Senator William H. Wharton and was officially adopted by the Senate under President Mirabeau B. Lamar in 1839. The new flag kept the white star on the blue field, but now the blue field was a vertical stripe which occupied one-third of the flag, and it was balanced by horizontal white and red stripes, on the other two-thirds. This Texas flag has been prominently displayed for over 150 years.

The Flag of the Confederate States of America 1861 to 1865

For four years, the Stars and Bars flew over Nacogdoches and Texas. After years of conflicts of interest between the North and the South over states rights, slavery, and the right of secession, the Civil War began in March of 1861. Texas seceded and joined the Confederate States of America. It sent its Texas brigades into battle, and suffered for four years with the rest of the Confederacy before General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The most enduring of the Confederate flags during the War was the Stars and Bars with the square of blue holding a circle of the seven original seceding states. Texas was the seventh star. Because the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Union Stars and Stripes were easily confused in the heat of battle, General P. G. T. Beauregard introduced a Confederate battle flag. This was a square red flag with a white-bordered blue cross running diagonally from corners to corners. The cross contained thirteen stars representing the eleven Confederate states plus Kentucky and Missouri. This battle flag became the flag most closely identified with the Southern cause. The Confederate Stars and Bars came down in Texas after April 1863 and Appomattox, and the United States Stars and Stripes have been flying over this State ever since.

The Flag of the United States of America since 1846

On February 19, 1846, the Lone Star flag was lowered over the Texas state capitol in Austin, and the Stars and Stripes was raised. The Republic of Texas had become the State of Texas. From the beginning of the Republic in 1836, the majority of the Texians, most of whom had come directly from the States, had wanted Texas to join the Union. But many in the Union did not want Texas in the United States. Some did not want one more Southern slave-holding state, and some were afraid of causing a war with Mexico. Nevertheless, on July 4, 1845, the Texas congress voted to accept the articles of annexation offered by United States President James K. Polk, and on December 29, 1845, the congressional resolution proclaiming Texas as a state in the Union was signed by President Polk. The Old Glory that was raised above the Texas state capitol on the following February 19, 1846, had twenty-eight stars in four rows of seven stars each. Except for the four years of the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, these Stars and Stripes have since 1846 flown over the State of Texas.

Nacogdoches Texas USA

Nacogoches

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Travis Stephan Helpinstill

CPL Travis Stephan “Hep” Helpenstell

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Rosalind Langston