ALBANY, N.Y. – An upstate county has honored a local World War II veteran who survived a Pacific island attack that claimed the lives of hundreds of Americans, including scores of New Yorkers.
Albany County's Honor a Veteran Program paid tribute to the late John Goot of Cohoes on Monday, the 70th anniversary of the mass suicide attack Japanese forces launched on Saipan against the Army's 27th Infantry Division, a former New York National Guard unit.
The attack by more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors hit the division's 105th Regiment, which lost more than 400 killed and another 500 wounded. Many of the casualties were from the Albany region as well as other upstate areas, New York City and Long Island.
Goot, who was wounded at Saipan, died last November at age 91. He was honored at an American Legion post in Albany.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
