The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume III: War in the Air—Combat, Captivity, and Reunion
Page 17
****************************
DID YOU LIKE THIS BOOK? If you did, please help me keep this history alive by leaving a review at the book’s Amazon webpage (bit.ly/tofsAIR2), or, in the E–book version, simply scroll to the last page of the book to be automatically directed there. A review serves as 'social proof' and tends to help get the book into more hands. I appreciate your feedback.
If you liked it, you’ll love hearing from others of the World War II generation in my upcoming books. I can let you know when they are out, and offer you exclusive discounts on some material. If I don’t have your email address, just sign up at bit.ly/RozellNewBook. No spam ever and I will never share your information.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?
Email me at matthew@teachinghistorymatters.com
FOLLOW ME ON BOOKBUB FOR NEW RELEASES!
ALSO From Matthew Rozell
#1 best seller!
The Things Our Fathers Saw, Volume I
The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation from Hometown, USA
Voices of the Pacific Theater
Description
At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later, author Matthew Rozell tracks down over thirty survivors who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. The book resurrects firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed. Here are the stories that the magazine could not tell, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today. It is up to us to remember—for own sakes, as much as theirs.
-Featuring over a dozen custom maps and 35 photographs, including never-before published portraits. Extended notes and companion website.
How soon we forget. Or perhaps, we were never told. That is understandable, given what they saw. But, it happened.
Excerpt- THE THINGS OUR FATHERS SAW
This conversation took place between the author, a married couple, and a group of teenagers about the age of the couple in the story at the time. Jim was a Marine in the Pacific battle of Okinawa, raging at the exact same time the ‘Train near Magdeburg’ was being liberated.
Jim Butterfield
I enlisted into the United States Marine Corps the seventh of December, 1943. I was 17 years old then and I went because I wanted to help fight the good war. My mother didn’t want me to go. Mary didn’t want me to go. But I heard they threw a party after I left. [Laughter]
Mary Butterfield: Yes, we went to school together and Jimmy left six months before graduation. I told him ‘don’t go until after you graduate’, but he wanted to go. He was afraid the war would be over before he could get in. So he went in, in December, and I graduated in June.
Matthew Rozell: You were high school sweethearts?
Jim Butterfield: Mary and I have been palling around for over 60 years now.
Mary Butterfield: Well, we’ve been married 61 years.
Jim Butterfield: She couldn’t wait to get married, but I think she’s changed her mind a couple times since then… [Laughter]
It was an exciting time, it was an adventurous time, and it was a proud time. I lasted 61 or 62 days up to Okinawa before I got hit. When I got hit, we were going to take Shuri Castle because the 6th Division was already in there, and they were catching it real bad. So they decided to put us in there to pull some of the people away from them—to give them a hand.
***
I don’t know where that guy, the shot came from. I got it with a rifle [shot]. I lost part of the right side of my face. I don’t know if it was a day, or two days later—I don’t even know really what happened to me—the enemy laid a mortar barrage when I was on my way to the hospital at the beach, and I got hit again, in the face! That took care of the other side of my face. I was 14 months in the hospital having my face rebuilt, and that’s why I am so good-looking today. [Laughter]
The corpsman came and said ‘How are you doing?’ I said, ‘How about loosening up these bandages, they’re killing me.’ He said, ‘No can do.’ So I sat up in the sack and started to unroll it myself. The next thing I know, I got a shot in the arm and I was knocked out again. The next time I woke up, I woke up in an aircraft. A C-54 transport. I never flew before. I had no idea where the hell I was! I put my hand out on the deck, and I just could not put it together—that I was in a plane! Someone must have had a word out to keep an eye on me, because the next time I reached out there, there was a patent leather shoe. I moved my hand a little bit, and there was a nice ankle with a silk stocking! [Some laughter] I thought, ‘Jesus, I have died and have gone to heaven!’ [Much laughter from students] I started running my hand up that leg, and she said, ‘I think you’ve gone far enough.’ [More laughter]
She said to me, ‘Jimmy, would you like a turkey sandwich and a glass of milk?’ I said ‘Real milk?’ She said, ‘Real milk.’ I said, ‘You bet your life!’ She brought it down, and there had to be something in it, because I was out again. I woke up in Guam, in the hospital. I was there about three weeks, I guess. I got an operation there. I didn’t know they did it. But what was left of my left side of the eye and face, they took out. Now see, these people knew that I was not going to see again.
The doctor came up. I said, ‘How am I doing, Doc? I have to go back up there. They’re short of people.’ He said, ‘You’re doing fine, my young boy.’ That was all I would get, see?
I didn’t know, until they told me there.
***
So here’s the climax. Every morning there was inspection with the doctors. So the doctor came around that morning. He said, ‘How are you, Jim?’ I said, ‘Fine.’ He said, ‘You need anything?’ I said, ‘Nope, I’m doing fine.’ He says, ‘Well, are you used to the idea?’ I said, ‘Used to what idea?’ He said, ‘That you’re not going to see again.’
Well, you could hear a pin drop. I said, ‘I don’t think I heard you, Doc.’ He said, ‘You’re not going to see again.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Didn’t they tell you in Guam?’
I said, ‘No! But it’s a good thing that [first] doctor isn’t here, because I’d kill him!’ I got so mad! I couldn’t really grab the idea. I’m not going to see again? … What the hell did I know about blindness? Nothing!
I said, ‘How about operations?’ He said, ‘You’ve got nothing to work with, Jimmy.’
So a pat on the shoulder, and he just walks away. The nurse comes over and says, ‘The doctor wants you to take this pill.’ I said, ‘You know what the doctor can do with that pill?’
Mary Butterfield: Don’t say it.
Jim Butterfield: I’m not going to, Mary.
So I had a hard... two months, I guess. I kept mostly to myself. I wouldn’t talk to people. I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do when I got home. How was I going to tell my mother this? You know what I mean?
So they come around and said, ‘You’ve got a phone call.’ So I went in to where the phone was. They were calling me from home. They got the message, see... This one here was on the phone [points to Mary]. I said, ‘Looks like things have changed, kiddo.’ She said, ‘No, we’ll discuss this when you get home.’ She was already bossing me around. [Laughter]
But that’s how I found out, and that’s how it happened. And after a while, I just started to live with it.
There are not days—even today—I go to bed and I wish I could see. So much I miss. I miss watching a nice girl walking down the street. I miss seeing my daughter, my wife. I even miss looking at Danny [fellow WWII Marine veteran present]. [Laughter]
Mary Butterfield: But you see, I’m only 17 to you now. That’s a good thing.
Jim Butterfield: Since we got in the conversation, when I dream, and I do dream, everything is real. Everything I knew before, I see it as it was then, not today. My wife and daughter would never get old in my eyes. When I dream of Mary, she’s sti
ll 17 years old.
Mary Butterfield: But you never saw your daughter.
Jim Butterfield: I dream about my daughter. Mary’s caught me doing this. We lost our daughter a year and a half ago. But I sit right up in bed and I’m trying to push away that little cloud of fog in front of her, but I can’t quite make her out.
Mary says, ‘What are you doing?’ I say, ‘Just dreaming’.
Jim Butterfield was nineteen years old at the Battle of Okinawa.
In the final push at the Shuri Line that cost him his eyesight, the Marines lost over 3,000 men and the U. S. Army even more. When the island was declared secure near the end of June, in Lawler’s K/3/5, only 26 Peleliu veterans who had landed with the company had survived Okinawa. It had been the bloodiest campaign of the Pacific, with over 12,500 Americans killed or missing and nearly three times that number wounded. For the Japanese, no accurate counts are possible, but perhaps 110,000 were killed.
Get the full book at bit.ly/GETTOFS
ALSO From Matthew Rozell
A Train Near Magdeburg
the Holocaust
and the reuniting of the survivors and soldiers,
70 years on
–Featuring testimony from 15 American liberators and over 30 Holocaust survivors
–73 photographs and illustrations, many never before published; 10 custom maps
–500 pages-extensive notes and bibliographical references
BOOK ONE—THE HOLOCAUST
BOOK TWO—THE AMERICANS
BOOK THREE—LIBERATION
BOOK FOUR—REUNION
ORDER YOUR COPY: bit.ly/1945TRAIN
UPCOMING TITLES FOR 2018
FROM MATTHEW ROZELL
The Things Our Fathers Saw
The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation from Hometown, USA–
Voices of the European Theater: D-DAY
*
The Things Our Fathers Saw
The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation from Hometown, USA–
Voices of the Mediterranean Theater
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo Credit: Joan K. Lentini; May, 2017.
Matthew Rozell is an award-winning history teacher, author, speaker and blogger on the topic of the most cataclysmic events in the history of mankind-World War II and the Holocaust. Rozell has been featured as the ‘ABC World News Person of the Week’ and has had his work as a teacher filmed for the CBS Evening News, NBC Learn, the Israeli Broadcast Authority, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the New York State United Teachers. He writes on the power of teaching and the importance of the study of history at TeachingHistoryMatters.com, and you can ‘Like’ his Facebook author page at MatthewRozellBooks for updates.
Mr. Rozell is a sought-after speaker on World War II, the Holocaust, and history education, motivating and inspiring his audiences with the lessons of the past. Visit his MatthewRozell.com for availability/details.
About this Book/
Acknowledgements
*
A note on historiographical style and convention: to enhance accuracy, consistency, and readability, I corrected punctuation and spelling and sometimes even placenames, but only after extensive research. I did take the liberty of occasionally condensing the speaker’s voice, eliminating side tangents or incidental information not relevant to the matter at hand. Sometimes two or more interviews with the same person were combined for readability and narrative flow. All of the words of the subjects, however, are essentially their own.
Additionally, I chose to utilize footnotes and endnotes where I deemed them appropriate, directing readers who wish to learn more to my sources, notes, and side commentary. I hope that they do not detract from the flow of the narrative.
First, I wish to acknowledge the hundreds of students who passed through my classes and who forged the bonds with the World War II generation. I promised you this book someday, and now that many of you are yourselves parents, you can tell your children this book is for them. Who says young people are indifferent to the past? Here is evidence to the contrary.
The Hudson Falls Central School District and my former colleagues have my deep appreciation for supporting this endeavor and recognizing its significance throughout the years.
For helpful feedback and suggestions on the original manuscript I am indebted to my good friend and trusted critic, Alan Bush. Alan always offers solid advice, diving into the narrative as soon as it arrives in his inbox, saving me perhaps a good deal of anguish with his timely and trusted comments. Additionally, Sunny Buchman was one of my early champions and worked to arrange interviews with the folks at her retirement community, The Glen at Hiland Meadows. My wife Laura re-typed some of the 75 year old letters and reports. My friend Rob Miller traveled to my hometown to take some very special portraits of our veterans and participate in some of our events recognizing them. The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls helped with background information on the LOOK Magazine series that profiled the Glens Falls–North Country region as ‘Hometown, USA’ during the war. To my good friend and classmate Paul Dietrich, thanks for finally getting me on board to experience firsthand a deafening, lumbering B-17 flight up Lake George and back.
Naturally this work would not have been possible had it not been for the willingness of the veterans to share their stories for posterity. Andy Doty graciously allowed me to use excerpts from his well-written war autobiography. All of the veterans who were interviewed for this book had the foresight to complete release forms granting access to their stories, and for us to share the information with the New York State Military Museum’s Veterans Oral History Project, where copies of most of the interviews reside. Wayne Clarke and Mike Russert of the NYSMMVOP were instrumental in cultivating this relationship with my classes over the years, and are responsible for some of the interviews in this book as well. Please see the ‘Source Notes’.
I would be remiss if I did not recall the profound influence of my late mother and father, Mary and Tony Rozell, both cutting edge educators and proud early supporters of my career. To my younger siblings Mary, Ned, Nora and Drew, all accomplished writers and authors, thank you for your encouragement as well. Final and deepest appreciations go to my wife Laura and our children, Emma, Ned, and Mary. Thank you for indulging the old man as he attempted to bring to life the stories he collected as a young one.
NOTES
* * *
[1] the RAF claimed 56 bombers-The number of RAF kills on September 15th 1940 is frequently cited as 185, but both sides were obviously prone to exaggeration; nevertheless, the punishment dealt the Luftwaffe that day stunned the German High Command. See Dodds, Laurence, ‘The Battle of Britain, as it happened on September 15, 1940’ The Telegraph, September 15, 2015.
[2] nearly 10,000 of these bombers would be lost-British losses were even higher, having been in the war longer. Miller, Donald L., The Story of World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. 481.
[3] The 447th Bomber Group was activated in January 1944, comprised of black aviators, several of whom were veterans of the 332nd who had completed their fighter tours and had rotated back home. They trained for the B-25 bombers but the war ended before they saw combat; significantly, they distinguished themselves in standing up to overt racism at home. See ‘The Tuskegee Airmen Story: The 447th Bombardment Group (M) (Colored)’; http://ecctai.org/tuskegee-477th-bombardment-group.
[4] Distinguished Flying Cross with four oak leaf clusters- the recipient has ‘distinguished himself or herself in support of operations by "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918’-US Department of Defense. Each oak leaf cluster represents an additional act subsequent to the first award.
[5] the racetrack- Saratoga Race Course is one of the nation’s oldest thoroughbred horse racing track, opening in the summer of 1863.
[6] Pullman cars all padded out with running water- speciall
y-padded railroad boxcars were equipped with feeding and watering apparatus specifically for transporting racehorses; the purpose was to reduce the stress and fatigue of travel for the horse, which sometimes had to compete shortly after arrival.
[7] Medal of Honor for Henry Johnson-Johnson, a New Yorker, fought with the ‘Harlem Hellcats’ on the front lines in France, the first American to receive the Croix De Guerre, France's highest award for bravery. At the time of our 2003 interview with Mr. Dart, a renewed effort to have Johnson formally awarded the medal had just been blocked. On June 2, 2015, President Obama presented the MOH to the head of the NYS National Guard, as Johnson had died in obscurity in 1929.
[8] PT-17s- Most Tuskegee pilots first trained in PT-17 Stearman aircraft; ‘PT’ meant ‘primary trainer. Though 10,000 were built in the 1930s and into the 1940s by Boeing, only two are now known to exist. http://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/boeing-pt-17-tuskegee-stearman/
[9] advanced training in T-6s-Mr. Dart continued: ‘My kids gave me a ride in a T-6 last year. Remember the airplanes that were advertised that were flying out of the field down in Ballston? They had T-6s down there. I forgot how much it cost, but it must have cost them three or four hundred dollars. My kids gave me a ride in a T-6 after all those years. I got to do a few aerobatics and whatnot. I got to do rolls and loops. It was fun and I appreciated it.’
[10] like the cars do on the Northway-Interstate 87 in upstate New York, during treacherous winter conditions.