Shawnee, Kansas
Johnson Drive & Pflumm
GPS coordinates: 39.021051,-94.743267
Take a photo of your rally flag with the above image.

Dedicated in May 1999, honoring the WWII soldiers of the 555 AAA AW Battalion, this memorial was designed and paid for by its members. The unit was officially the 555 Anti Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion (Mobile). Their primary mission was to attack all enemy aircraft within range to destroy them, cause them to abandon their mission or to decrease the efficiency of their operation. The secondary role was anti-mechanized defense and ground support. Formed in the summer of 1943 from men all over the United States, they adopted the tuxedo dressed mascot of the unit, Mr. Five By Five.

Mr. Five by Five was from a song by Don Raye and Gene DePaul which was very popular at the time. The song describes a man “five feet tall and five feet wide.”

The mascot would be confused with Winston Churchill and called "Little Winnie" when they were in England and confused for Herman Goering and called "Fat Herman" by prisoners taken along the Siegfried Line of Germany.

In August 1944, the battalion headed to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth. The unit saw action at Omaha Beach, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and the Battle of the Bulge as they fought across the France and Netherlands. At one period of time they spent an amazing 195 consecutive days, over 6 months, in combat. They entered Germany at Cologne and were in Berlin when victory in Europe was declared. Staying on as part of the Allied army of occupation, the unit did not return to the United States until February 1946.

The unit members became tight knit and decades after their service, survivors still show up with their families for the annual reunion, which in recent years has been planned by the children of the servicemen. On Veterans Day 2006, the unit’s survivors were treated to a reception at the White House by President G.W. Bush and Mrs Laura Bush. Mrs. Bush's father Harold B. Welch served as Battalion Master Gunner in this unit.

The memorial is located directly behind a much bigger memorial at the same location. It could easily not be seen from the street because of the bushes and landscaping. Park at the coordinates above and walk 50 ft directly down the hill to find it.

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Tour of Honor-Kansas is sponsored by Cindy Dietz from Kansas City.