WWII Heroes: We Were Just Doing Our Jobs

by Minton, Linda E.

  Jim, born in Union Town, Kentucky, joined the marines in October of 1942, when he was seventeen years old. He quit high school to join the service with two buddies. He didn’t tell his mom or grandmother, whom he was living with at the time.

  His job was machine gunner in the South Pacific. He was at Guadalcanal, Guam, Iwo Jima, and some of the smaller Pacific islands. He was across the bay when they were approaching the beachhead at Iwo Jima. Jim said, “We cleaned that up for them.”

  What were your feelings about the war?

  “What the hell am I doing here?”

  He had heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the radio. “I just took it as it come,” he said. “Roosevelt was making a speech, and he said we will just go over and whoop their ass for them.”

  Did you think it would last?

  “Didn’t think about it.”

  Did you see any famous people?

  Jim said he saw Bob Hope and the Andrews Sisters when they went over for a show. “I liked him,” Jim said of Hope. “Some of the sergeants and noncoms got in the front row. Bob Hope told them to move to the back and let the soldiers up front. So they did.” This was after Guadalcanal had been secured. There was still some fighting on some of the other islands.

  Should Truman have dropped the atomic bomb? Where were you at the time?

  “I thought he was doing the right thing,” replied Jim. “My nerves went bad, and I had to go in the hospital in Portland, Oregon, for about a month and half around that time.”

  Jim Meets Betty

  Jim met Betty when the troop train he was riding to California with about three hundred soldiers pulled onto another track in Eldon, Iowa. “It had pulled off to the side to let the other train pass us,” he recalled. In doing this it blocked the crossing where Betty and her friend were standing. So, as things happen, Jim started talking to her and got her name and address. They wrote letters back and forth. After Jim’s discharge, he went to Betty’s house in Eldon to see her. He was invited over for dinner. Actually he went to see her first, before he went home to see his family.

  After his visit with Betty, he went home to talk to his mom and grandmother. He told them he was going to marry Betty. So he went back to Eldon with his mother, and he and Betty were married in a church. Betty and Jim were married for seventeen years. Unfortunately, Betty was homesick for her family. She wanted to go back to Eldon to see her family more often than Jim had the money to send her. Hence an argument arose, and she packed her clothes and went back to Iowa.

  Paul Pitcher—US Navy

  “I am a loner. I don’t make many friends, but when I do make a friend, it’s for life.”

  In February 1942 Paul went into the US Navy, at age seventeen. A woman posing as his mother went with him and stated he was eighteen. Boot camp was in Farragut, Idaho. In Idaho there was no heat. His was the first company that went there. In twelve weeks he learned to swim and shoot.

  It was time to change over from civilian to navy life. He went in as a seaman second class and graduated from boot camp as a seaman first class. During boot camp Paul learned to operate a movie projector. After boot camp he was kept for another three months for training purposes, and he ran the movie projector.

  San Juan, Puerto Rico

  Paul was based at naval VR squadron, then promoted to aviation electrician mate third class. Paul went to school in San Juan for six weeks to become a radioman. He was put in the VR squadron of PBYs, amphibious patrol planes. He flew submarine patrol over the Atlantic Ocean, looking for enemy periscopes. If one was found, the patrol would radio the nearest destroyer to sink it. They would go on patrol and leave San Juan. They would refuel at Trinidad. Next they would go to Brazil and refuel in Milan, Italy, at the base there. After seventy-two hours, they would do it again, sometimes going to the coast of England. After eighteen months, they broke up their squadron.

  End of 1943—Beginning of 1944

  Paul was transferred to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Paul and his crew flew aircraft engines all over the world. After one year he was headed to Olathe, Kansas. He was a radioman for six weeks then went to aviation electronics technician school. He was in the first graduating class of AET, Aviation Electronic Technician, in the navy. He worked on radar transmitters until 1945. Next he transferred to Kwajalein Atoll Island in the Marshall Island group. They met every airplane to check every transmitter. One plane took one hour to inspect.

  Operation Crossroads

  Twenty or twenty-five miles from Kwajalein Island, an island called Enewetak Atoll was cleared of all personnel and inhabitants. They did, however, leave a goat. The island was used to test drop atomic bombs after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Paul got to ride in a photographer’s plane. At one time he had pictures of the bombs after they had gone off.

  At one point a destroyer was brought in, to see what an atomic bomb would do to a ship. The military wanted to see how much damage it would cause.

  After that it was just routine navy. In the NATS, or Naval Air Transport Service, Paul flew freight over the Atlantic area. He was in the navy but was never on a ship! He was in planes mostly. He saw enemy subs and was shot at once, but Paul was not in any combat. In 1946 he was discharged in Oakland, California, after four years in the navy.

  Patuxent River, Maryland

  One interesting story: When Paul was at Patuxent River, Maryland, he had a 1937 Ford and lived in a tar paper shack. While he was at the hangar, someone stole his generator. That night he stole someone else’s generator. He couldn’t buy one because of the lack of supply. That went on for several days until his friend, Bob Deering, said, “Pitch, let’s stop this stuff!” They became best friends for the rest of his naval career and remained friends after they were discharged. They spent every Thanksgiving together for fifteen to eighteen years, meeting in Columbia, Missouri. Bob Deering died in 2010.

  As a closing Paul said, “I am a loner. I don’t make many friends, but when I do make a friend, it’s for life.”

  Robert Poole—US Army Air Corps

  “Truman was smart. Millions of lives were saved that would have been killed.”

  In May 1943 Bob enlisted in the army air corps at age seventeen. Being underage he had to get his mother’s permission. His thoughts seem as clear today as they were all those many years ago. He said he had wanted to join the navy, but they wouldn’t take him. He felt like, “Let’s get this thing over with so we can get home.”

  His first stop was Ft. Harrison in Indianapolis. An officer said, “Anybody who drives a car, step forward.” Bob was a farm boy and wasn’t sure about it, so he didn’t step up. The ones who did ended up pushing wheelbarrows.

  Next stop, St. Petersburg, Florida. He took a train down there and was living in the best hotels on the beach. However, it was hot, sweaty, buggy, and sandy! The soldiers were doing calisthenics on the beach in their birthday suits when the leader told them to jump into Tampa Bay. When Bob saw a large fish, he got out of the water. He was told to get back into the water. He said he wasn’t going to get in the water with that big fish. The leader said, “That’s a porpoise, and it’s not going to hurt you!”

  In Miami he and some other soldiers patrolled the beach with rifles and machine guns. There were reports that a German man and woman were captured in a two-man sub along the beach. He said, “I don’t know what happened to them.” The soldiers were told to shoot out any lights left on in hotel windows, as the city was under blackout conditions. But he never had to shoot out any windows.

  While at Camp Crowder, near Joplin, Missouri, Bob gave a letter to a railroader. His father was a railroad man, so the man said he would send it to his dad for him, even though he wasn’t supposed to do it!

  There were fifty men in Bob’s squad, but they are all gone now. Bob’s job in the squad was radio operator, probably because he took radio code at Tech High School in Indianapolis.

  Later he was stationed at Camp Stoneman, California, across the mountains from Sa
n Francisco. One night he was out with his buddies and missed the bus back to camp. He and the men he was with hitchhiked for a while, but the guy they were riding with was driving too fast. So they go out and walked the rest of the way back to camp, arriving back just as everyone else was getting up in the morning. He said, “We didn’t get caught!”

  He trained in B-17 planes and rode on a Victory ship under the Golden Gate Bridge. As they were getting closer, it looked like they were not going to fit under the bridge. However, when they went under it, he saw they had plenty of room.

  On the way to the Pacific Theater, it took thirty-two days to cross the ocean, unescorted, to their destination. They had one submarine scare but didn’t see anything. The first stop was French Haven, New Guinea, during the rainy season.

  Philippines

  In September 1943 Bob was on a B-25 in Leyte, Philippines, as a radio operator. They landed on a corrugated metal runway. During his tour there, he was on about every Pacific Island, from the Philippines to Borneo. His group had a pet monkey. One day when they were playing cards, a very poisonous and dangerous snake fell out of a tree on them. Another time someone shot and killed a twelve- to fourteen-foot python, which was full of pigs! One of the local farmers had complained about losing his pigs... Well, Bob and his fellow soldiers found them.

  Bob said they did not have any food for about a month because ships couldn’t get into the Philippines. So they had to eat bananas and coconuts. He said, “Today I can’t eat coconuts, now; sometimes I can eat a banana.” After some food was brought in, the Japanese snuck down from the mountains at night to steal it. No one came out of their pup tents to stop them. On the lighter side, he saw Bob Hope one time in Leyte.

  Okinawa

  Bob’s troop had a red-haired pilot who flew their B-25. “He could fly anything!” said Bob. They wanted to name the plane “The Witch—you know, like a broomstick,” but they didn’t name it anything.

  Bob flew twenty-two bombing missions over the South Pacific, dropping bombs on many locations. They got some of the first photos of Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped. When they showed the pictures to the Japanese POWs, the POWs said they didn’t believe it. The POWs said the Japanese had people [spies] in Chicago. Bob said, “They had been brainwashed that much!”

  Bob was on an LST that carried troops and cargo during the war. They left Okinawa with sixteen LSTs, but ten were lost at sea due to a hurricane. Thankfully Bob was on one of the six that made it to Osaka, Japan. He said, “The big doors came off the LST, and I spent twelve hours at the abandon ship station.”

  Osaka, Japan

  Bob’s group were the first American troops on Japan soil. They arrived in Osaka but didn’t see anyone around. People were taking things out of stores, but once the MPs got there, all that stopped. Bob still has a beautiful kimono, belonging to a famous actress, that was in the store front window in Japan. Later, many Japanese people came out of underground tunnels. “It was like ants coming out of an anthill.” They had been told the Americans would harm them, so they hid.

  Bob took the train to Tokyo and stayed in a hotel where MacArthur had once stayed. From where it was located, he could look into the emperor’s palace grounds. After that the first sergeant told him, “The boat in the harbor is ready to take you home!” A soldier could go home with sixty-seven points; Bob had eighty-seven. The first sergeant said if he would re-up for six more months, they could bring his wife over to Japan. He said, “No way. I’m going home.” In May 1946 Bob was discharged. After that he was in the National Guard for eight or nine years. He was told if he was called up, he would go back to his same unit.

  While in Japan Bob saw some of the country’s shrines and thought they were wonderful. He said, “The Japanese people were appreciative of what the American soldiers did for them and treated them well. The emperor didn’t want war. The Japanese people are a religious people and wouldn’t give up.”

  Japan 1945

  When Bob and his unit arrived there, “There was snow up to my fanny.” He had never been skiing and thought it was a great idea to try it. He was with a Japanese interpreter and his buddy. The other guys had been skiing before and took off. Bob walked to the edge of the cliff where they had jumped. When he didn’t see them, he fell down. If he hadn’t fallen down, he would have been killed probably. He never skied again.

  In March 1944, during a delay in route in Indianapolis, Bob married his wife. They were together for sixty-five years. Betty died in 2007.

  Should the United States have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan?

  “Truman was smart. Millions of lives were saved that would have been killed.”

  Navajo Windtalkers

  Bob said, “I heard them on the radio, copied down the message, and gave it to my commanders.” There were twenty-nine original Navajos, but he never met any of them. He felt they played an integral part in winning the war.

  Indy Honor Flight

  On September 5, 2015, Bob went on the Indy Honor Flight to Washington, DC. His son went as his guardian. The Indy Honor Flight organizers do such a wonderful job honoring the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans in Indianapolis. On the flight Bob said, his mail call had sixty letters from the school where his grandson’s wife teaches. He had been a special speaker at the school on Veteran’s Day.

  On his honor flight, Bob met a ninety-seven-year-old Red Tail fighter pilot. They talked for a while and discussed the war. The Red Tail pilots, 332nd Fighter Group, were known as Tuskegee Airmen. Bob said, “The Red Tail squadron were the only fighter squadron that didn’t lose a bomber. The Red Tail escorts were always requested by pilots.”

  Present Day

  Unfortunately, on December 27, 2016, Bob died. Previously Bob had said, “I don’t want any military tribute at my funeral—no fuss, just the Masonic things.” This was the way many WWII veterans wanted things—“just get the job done and get back home.”

  Robert Sisk – US Army

  “Christmas Eve, 1945. It was the worst Christmas I ever had in my life.”

  Bob was drafted into the army at age eighteen. He attempted to join the Civil Air Patrol when he was sixteen years old, but he didn’t pass the physical because of flat feet. If he hadn’t been drafted, he would have joined the air force.

  He started his military service at Camp Atterbury on October 28, 1944. He took the train to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. As fate would have it, he contracted the mumps and was in the hospital for two weeks. Bob said, “The only thing that saved me was the mumps.” The doctor said, “You may not be able to have children.” He went on to have six children after he was discharged and married.

  While Bob was recovering from the mumps, the rest of his company were sent to Germany. They were involved in the Battle of the Bulge. Some of his neighbors and friends returned with shell shock, or post-traumatic stress disorder, as we would say today. Bob had to wait for another company to come in, “so I had to wait two weeks and do more training, probably a month’s delay.” Bob stated, “I don’t believe in consequences.” He meant that many events in his military career kept him from danger.

  The next stop was Ft. Mead, Maryland, around April or May 1945. Forty men were picked to train the Japanese-American guys, and Bob was one of them, so for one month he was a tank driver. These guys were being trained to go to Europe. “I was very fortunate to have weekends off, so I got to see many of the museums in Washington, DC, [as well as] the Washington Memorial, Jefferson monument, and Lincoln Memorial.

  “In May 1945 I was sent home for leave. I was driving my dad’s car, a 1939 Packard. The streetcar came by and took off the front end of the car! In those days you couldn’t find anyone to repair things, however, someone from my church fixed the whole front end for just sixteen dollars.” His dad was upset about the accident. “The only thing saved me was being in the service!”

  From May to July 1945, Bob was in Ft. Knox for advanced training. From Ft. Knox he was sent to Camp Adair, Oregon, for two weeks. There were fore
st fires in Oregon that “turned the skyline red, as the camp was in a valley.” They needed volunteers to fight the fires, but Bob was shipped out before he could volunteer. At Camp Anza, California, he boarded the USS Broadwater, and he was seasick. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. By that time, we arrived in Manila the war was over.

  Philippines

  “September 14, 1945. We were barely off the ship when we heard that MacArthur had signed the armistice with Japan aboard the Missouri.” Bob and his unit arrived in Manila Harbor, where much of the Japanese fleet was sunk. Their ship had to zigzag around the sunken Japanese ships. He remembered passing Bataan and Corregidor, where many horrific battles had taken place earlier in the war.

  Starting on September 17, 1945, they got off the ship about fifty miles north of Manila. We stayed in tent quarters for five days. He had K rations for lunch and dinner. He remembered eating Spam. He still eats it, cutting it up and putting it in his eggs.

  Bob and the other soldiers were put on trains, in cattle cars, and then on trucks to their permanent company—the 447th engineer depot company. This was eight miles east of Manila, with Quezon City being the closest big city. Manila was completely wiped out.

  Bob said, “Because I could type, the only one that could, I held the inventory control position in the office area. Many of these guys were going home, since they had been here for a while. Some of the men had malaria. One guy in our tent had covers piled on him, and he was still shaking so badly. I hadn’t seen anything like that.”

  Bob kept a journal of his time in the service. He read from his journal, of his war experiences, “Christmas Eve, 1945. It was the worst Christmas I ever had in my life.”