Mike Lacche Magazine: July, 2017

We honor all our veterans, community volunteers and those who give to help others this month which includes Independence Day.

S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Anthony Lacche (La'Kay) 1914 -1989 represented the fighting spirit that our service men and women take every day when defending our freedom. In coming months, we look forward to sharing more about Mike's boxing career. We honored Mike's 100th anniversary on February 13, 2014 which included a limited edition trading card.

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer 1918 - 2012 was a wonderful role model, artist, friend and true competitor. Joe Ermer was a WWII Veteran with the United States Navy and spent every day after his military service helping those around him. Joe was a passionate billiards player and always brought the best out of everyone.

In a recent interview with some relatives, we learned new additional history of Mike Lacche and his older brother Nick Lacche. Both were sons of Dominic Lacche andFrancesca Valentine Lacche; family has now confirmed that Mike and Nick had two sisters, believed to have been twins, who passed away young in Italia before the family moved to the United States.

July 27, 2017 also is the 22nd anniversary of the restoration of the Lacche family name, doing through the court system in Chelsea, Vermont.

Mike Lacche Magazine: June, 2017

D-Day 71 | June 6, 1944

Welcome to Mike Lacche Boxing, and we all take a moment of silence this month to remember D-Day and all events of tremendous courage like D-Day that allowed the rest of us to live safe, free and pursue our dreams.

The anniversary further highlights the importance of all civilians to continue to honor and remember those who put themselves in harm's way to keep the United States free. See below for some audio readings of WWII and decorated Navy veteran, Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer:

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer 

Family Dates, Milestones and Timeline

June 13: Nina Cerasoli Lacche (wife), birthday anniversary (centennial is 2020) 

Mike Lacche Boxing Magazine: May, 2017

Welcome to Mike Lacche Boxing, and in honor of the fighting spirit of this great Armed Forces boxing champion we have a new featured radio call tonight, billed as the second title defense bout. 

Click here for May's new radio call:

S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" Anthony Lacche (La'KAY), United States Army Welterweight Base Boxing Champion, Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1942 v S/Sgt. John "Johnny" Patrick Izzo.

Family Dates, Milestones and Timeline

• May 24: Anita Di Iulio Cerasoli (mother-in-law, 125th birth anniversary is 2019)

• May 27: Cesare Cerasoli (father-in-law, 125th birth anniversary is 2017)

• Last Monday of May: Memorial Day

Mike Lacche Magazine: April, 2017

Mike Lacche Boxing welcomes you, one of the more than 5,430 unique readers in more than 10 countries.

Stay tuned later this month for recap from the 2016 National Collegiate Boxing Championships (link) in Sunrise, Florida.

"With over 30 colleges and universities participating, the NCBA Championships showcase the best men and women collegiate boxers from campuses across the country to include the four Service Academies and other perennial contenders like the University of Nevada-Reno, West Virginia University and Penn State University.  Last year's team champions, the United States Military Academy (Men's) and the University of Washington (Women's) will be back to defend their crowns" -- NCBC

In honor of the sport and competition: Click here: Live from Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1942: United States Army Welterweight Base Boxing Championship: The Champion, S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" A. Anthony Lacche (Berwick, PA) versus S/Sgt. Tony D. Antonilli, Jr. (Staten Island, NY). 

Mike Lacche Magazine, March 2017

Spring is here! Mike Lacche Boxing welcomes you, one of the more than 5,200 unique readers in more than 10 countries. This month we honor the seventy-third anniversary of Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer enlisting in the United States Navy.

Before setting off to the South Pacific. Joseph "Joe' N. Ermer got his orders to report to the Receiving Station in Philadelphia. Joe Ermer was given final leave to wrap up his affairs in Washington D.C. and take his new wife back home to Brooklyn. Click here for audio version.

"When I got to Philadelphia, I found that I was part of the nucleus of the crew. The Gunnery Officer was in charge as we were building up the crew as they reported in," Joe Ermer wrote. "When the crew was assembled, we took off for Baltimore where they were finishing converting a brand new maritime C-3 into an attack transport. They were finishing up installing all the guns, etc. I got to talk to one of the electrical foreman. It turned out that he was Mr. Augusten's (Ruth's father) nephew, Arne Ludvigsen. He invited Ruth and me to stay with them as long as I was in Baltimore. Real nice people.

After that was over, we shipped out to Norfolk to have our degaussing installed; that protects the ship from magnetic mines. From Norfolk we headed for the Panama Canal. I was assigned to the First Lieutenant. On a Navy Ship, he is something like the First Mate except he is only involved in the Ship not the personnel. That is the Exec's job. I really got along with the First Lieutenant; he was a Merchant Marine Reserve Officer - a lean, dark Irishman from Boston, Joseph J. Flaherty.

We got caught in the tail end of a hurricane near Puerto Rico; it did a bit of topside damage and gave us a chance to get our sea-legs. We went through the Canal at night. No lights. I was on anchor detail. A small boat was coming towards us to pick up a line to take it to the little locomotive. We were going too fast and couldn't see how close we were to the locks. Suddenly, the old man yells for us to drop the anchor. Down goes the anchor, almost into the small boat; but it did bring us up short before we put the Panal Canal out of action.

From Panama we went to San Pedro where we got our Pacific paint job; a uniform dull blue. Atlantic camouflage was a dazzle black and gray. We wound up in San Diego for a couple of months. They were assembling an invasion fleet and we practiced landings on San Clemente Island. The surf was usually quite heavy and we wrecked some landing craft, which had to be replaced.

Our first enemy action was at Kwajalien; we were about three miles off the beach at the island with an airfield. It was manned by Japanese Royal Marines, most of whom were actually Koreans and they were much bigger than Japanese. 

One of the big problems were the covered drainage ditches. Our troops would secure an area but would find they had overrun some of the Japanese hiding in the ditches. They would pop up, kill as many as they could before being killed themselves.

We lost our first crewman, Mc Hugh, a married man in his late 30s, with children. He had been drafted from a small town in West Virginia. We also lost a young crewman. He was walking along the deck, stepped over a winch cable, which flew up and caught him between the legs. He fell through an open hatch and landed on the concrete lowest hull deck.

Soon, invasions and all that came with war became a regular part of life for Joe Ermerand his crew mates.  Stay tuned for more on the life of a true friend, mentor, artist and role model: Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer. 

Joseph "Joe" N. Ermer Memoirs (click links below to view/hear):
Celebration of Life: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of life: early childhood: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: sports in the early years: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: early years: Boy Scouts: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part one: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part two: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part three: Joseph N. Ermer
Celebration of Life: WWII part four: Joseph N. Ermer

Click here to listen live from Fort Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1942: United States Army Welterweight Base Boxing Championship: S/Sgt. Michael "Mike" A. Anthony Lacche (Berwick, PA) versus S/Sgt. Jack Q. McCary (Waltham, Mass).