WWII Heroes: We Were Just Doing Our Jobs

by Minton, Linda E.

  “Most of the German people spoke English, and the people didn’t want this war any more than we did. They were glad when it was over.

  What did you think about dropping the atomic bomb?

  “I think it was the thing to do. I’m glad he did it. It saved a lot of lives.” Bob was in Germany when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was at the end of the war. “Some people said it wasn’t the right thing to do, but they weren’t in it. There were going to be a lot of people killed, regardless of what happened. It killed a lot of Japanese people. In a flash it was over.”

  “There were a lot of brave men over there. There were a lot of brave men that lost their lives. When you went into the service, they gave you what you needed. Since I wasn’t on the front line, it wasn’t a bad life.” Bob was discharged from the army on April 13, 1946.

  Dick Robinson—US Army

  “Italian POWS helped me load bombs that might be used to kill some of their own people.”

  Dick was an MP at Istres air base in France, in the US Army during WWII. He wanted to be a pilot, but he was an MP instead. He grew up in the Finger Lakes area of New York. He had never been farther away than fifty miles from his home until he joined the military. He joined at age seventeen, and was able to go to college on the GI Bill after the war.

  “It was a blessing to be in the service,” he said. “We didn’t feel special or [like] heroes because everyone joined the military after school.”

  When the war broke out on December 7, 1941, Dick was trying to play chess with some friends. He thought we would knock the war out in a couple of years, but it took four. He recalled the scrap metal drives to help the war effort.

  “Everybody had something to do with helping with the war,” he said. “Women worked in the factories. Ice cream was five cents, and candy bars were five cents. The whole country went to war by helping with the war effort.”

  Indy Honor Flight

  “They made you feel so special!” said Dick. “It was a great memory. They take you to the Washington Memorial and to Arlington Cemetery. I came home feeling grateful.”

  War Memories

  Dick said he never got shot at and that he was just one of the guys. He felt that the Europeans suffered because of the bombing. It was terrible. He joined the army air force, and “you didn’t have a choice—you enlisted or were drafted.”

  “The B-17 Flying Fortress was in our unit,” he stated. “I didn’t fly any bombing raids. There were four hundred thousand US people killed during the war. No one wants to kill, but it is necessary.”

  The USO was their entertainment, featuring Bob Hope and young ladies to dance with. “The Red Cross brought coffee and donuts,” said Dick. “They took their chances with their lives for us. This was the fun part of war. You could get a break from the war for a while.”

  What was the food like in the military?

  “You had to stand in line for an hour to get your food. The best job was peeling potatoes. KP was from four a.m. to ten p.m. You could sit down and talk while you were working. There were K rations in the air force, and every fourth day there was a hot meal.” After eating dried eggs, it was a long time before he could eat regular eggs again.

  In late 1946 Dick got out of the service at age nineteen. “I had seen the world!” he said. After the war he went to Sampson College and later transferred to Syracuse. In 1952 he graduated with a mechanical engineering degree. In 1954 he started working for Allis-Chalmers. “The war was over, and we were all so positive,” he said. “We would be getting married, have kids, and get jobs—happy times!”

  Patriotism

  “Nothing is free in this country. Things have a cost. This is the greatest country in the world! It cost the lives of a brother, son, father, or those who didn’t come back.” Dick further said, “It is kind of humbling. Everybody did it [joined in the war effort]. It was our country. A free country!” Dick said, “Italian POWS helped me load bombs that might be used to kill some of their own people.”

  Footnote

  Dick was a panelist at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. He said he was not afraid of dying. His father had been over one hundred when he died. There was a discussion of why people live a long time. Perhaps a positive attitude toward life had something to do with it. Dick has buried two wives and is happy living alone with his dog, even though he misses his wives very much. It seemed very important that the twenty-five or so young people in the audience understood about the war.

  Allen Sanderson—US Army Air Corp

  “When we returned from the war, we got a job and didn’t talk about the war.”

  Allen Sanderson, a P-47 pilot during WWII, flew 118 missions. He enlisted in the air force at age eighteen. Allen, age ninety-five at the time of this interview, doesn’t look like a man of that age—he is short in statue but very straight and very involved in the Evansville Wartime Museum in Evansville, Indiana. Allen is involved with getting a P-47 airplane back in Evansville. The Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, has a wonderful P-47. There are only five such operational planes in the United States. Some were given to Mexico, and the others’ whereabouts are unknown; it is also unknown how many exist today. Allen flew P-47s from 1943 to 1947 and felt they were among the finest aircrafts around.

  Have you gone on the Honor Flight?

  “I have seen it already and would not want to take a seat away from someone who hasn’t seen it.” Allen, a very soft-spoken, humble gentleman, went on to say, “When we returned from the war, we got a job and didn’t talk about the war.”

  The P-47s were used in England first, mainly as escorts for bombers. His group was the first to introduce them to the Mediterranean area and Italy. One of the highlights of his time in the service was flying in Northern Italy. He wanted to take out an enemy gun placement. He was told, “Don’t take it out—it’s the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Allen said, “Three days later the same gun placement at the Leaning Tower of Pisa put a big hole in my wing and knocked out my instruments. My wingman helped me back to Corsica.” The Germans hid in some of the cathedrals and monuments. Also they hid out at Monte Cassino, which is where Ernie Pyle was located.

  “In Italy there was this beautiful horse farm. There were probably fifteen to twenty horses there. Each night we helped him out by taking materials off his barn—ten by tens, etc. Since he was a fascist, we used the building materials from his barn to build an officers’ club.”

  How did the war change your life?

  “It was good for anybody. I was right out of high school when I joined the military. These great experiences made you grow up in a hurry. Nothing but a benefit from it.”

  Do you fly today?

  No, he doesn’t fly today and didn’t after the war, since his company moved him from the Roanoke, Virginia, area to the Midwest. He currently lives in Evansville, Indiana.

  After I visited Allen at his home in Evansville, Indiana, he continued his story from the Indianapolis Regional Airport pilots’ panel. Allen went back to Rome fifteen years ago. In Naples he told a young driver that during the war he had bombed the area around where they were. The driver couldn’t believe it.

  Did you meet any famous people?

  In January 1943 he was at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. While he was training, he went to dances where Capt. Glen Miller and his orchestra were playing. At the time Allen was a cadet. He said Glen Miller’s theme song, “Moonlight Serenade,” was his favorite song.

  Allen reflected on his time when he had just entered the military. He did his basic training in Nashville, Tennessee, but didn’t have to report until October 1942, so he played in Virginia Beach for five months. He remembered going to the Cavalier Hotel, a historic hotel built in 1927, to hear Jimmy Dorsey play and Helen O’Connor perform. The hotel was taken over by the US Navy in 1942 and used as a training facility. Financially the hotel was never the same again.

  Allen was in Nashville until early January a
nd then was sent to Decatur, Alabama, where he learned to fly. He had always wanted to be a pilot. He soloed there on the PT-13 biplane. He has flown many different kinds of planes. In July 1943 he graduated and got his wings. He went to Chattanooga and married his high school sweetheart, Jane.

  His P-47 airplane was named Lady Jane. His first impression of the plane was “about the air scoop—I could slide all the way through that!” He had twenty-five to thirty hours’ training on it. Allen states, “The P-47 is a great airplane, one of the best.” The motto of his group was “1st in the blue.”

  Next he was shipped to Africa on a liberty ship. There were six hundred infantry men and twenty-four air force people. The air force was in the bottom of the ship. Their bunks were right next to where they thawed the meat. Needless to say, they didn’t spend a lot time there. Then there was a three-day trip by rail to Tunis.

  They shipped the P-47s by boat. “We picked them up in Iran. The rest of the group moved on to Italy in December ‘43.” During that time Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Lava came down, and some of the guys lost clothes and their belongings. They got out in time, though.

  In January and February 1944, said Allen, “Goering was moving north, and we chased them to the border.” The war in Europe was about over by that time. Allen’s group blew up trains carrying supplies and dive-bombed the German sub base and airfield in the area.

  What were your thoughts on dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?

  “Happy. The war had been going on for a long time. No respect for Japan. Mr. Truman made the right decision.”

  In December 1944 he left Corsica and went home. Allen was in Las Vegas, at Nellis Air Force Base, for a while. He left the air force in 1947.

  Dr. Bill Schmidt—US Army

  “So here I am with the amphibious corps with the marines, and I swim like a rock!”

  Pearl Harbor

  “My mother remarried and we moved to Hailey, Idaho. It was on December 7th after Sunday Mass, and I went to a local ice cream parlor. There was an announcement that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. The main line railroad was where we watched the many troops being carried to the West Coast. On Monday morning the entire student body listened to Franklin Roosevelt declare war.

  “Patriotism was at an all-time high fever pitch. Two high school seniors and I traveled to the Twin Falls recruiting station to sign up for the Marine band. We felt it was our duty to sign up. All of us were underage, so parental permission was necessary. Only one of us gained permission to join. He was a farmer, so they allowed him to harvest the crops; he was inducted into active military service. The only music I heard was leaving our shores. My friend was killed on the day he was to be relieved from his post in Mindanao.

  Military life

  “Even though I was still underage, I wanted to get into the war effort. “I applied at the Bremerton Navy Yard. My first duty was a sweeper of the deck of ships in dry dock. From here I was made a timekeeper in the office with extraordinary officials. Truly this was dream come true with a permanent deferment, advancements under civil service regulations. This was not sufficient to quench my thirst for military service, so I quit what was a dream job. I applied for involvement in the V12 Navy program, but color blindness quenched this option. I enlisted at Ft. Bannock in Boise, Idaho. The recruiter said he could find placement in virtually any area. The choice that time was the Canine Corps, which was being activated. So I was sent to Ft. Warren, Wyoming. This was the dead of winter.” When this didn’t work out for Bill he applied to the Rangers, OCS and ASTP [Army Specialized Training Program].

  “I was accepted into both programs. The company commander suggested ASTP, as it required a higher IQ. I was accepted as a cadet and sent to the University of Wyoming for basic training. Each cadet was given ten choices as to his academic choice. I chose linguistics as the first choice and Engineering as the last choice. A group was assigned to the University of South Dakota, in Vermillion. My number ten choice was engineering... I got engineering! As we arrived three months ahead of time, the school was still in session, so the cadets slept in the gym and made do for other necessities.”

  “At the conclusion of basic engineering, the latrine rumor was that we would go to the University of Wisconsin for electrical engineering, we left Vermillion with some regret, but with great enthusiasm to receive a coveted degree. The enthusiasm was at a very high pitch when the train stopped, and were greeted with military music and military brass. The whole atmosphere changed when the top dog announced ‘Welcome you fighters as you now are part of the 97th Infantry.’ There certainly was no exuberance as the train began to pull out.”

  “I was assigned to the 303rd regiment and our first two staff sergeants could not read or write, so the future was bleak for college charges. One day I checked the company bulletin board, there was my name telling me I had an appointment at headquarters. I appeared and was given a battery of questions to which I replied, “No.” Just a few weeks later, I was told to once again apply, but this time I was informed that I was now part of Regimental Headquarters I & R platoon—that is intelligence and reconnaissance under the direction of the commanding officer.

  “From Fort Leonard Wood our division went to the West Coast to begin amphibious training with Marines from Camp Pendleton. For those involved this is a most rigorous adventure and a contingent of cavalry trained with at Pismo Beach and San Clemente Island. So here I am with the amphibious corps with the marines, and I swim like a rock! Completing this phase of training, the division embarked on vessels at San Diego where we languished for two days.

  “We debarked and went by rail to Ft. Lewis in Washington. We shed our tropical gear and were issued artic gear and all new shots. Next we were transported by rail to Camp Gold, New Jersey where we were double loaded on one of the largest task forces. This was the dead of winter and the North Atlantic was not at all hospitable. From the harbor of La Havre, the troops boarded rail cars and went on active military with the Battle of the Bulge. It was winter and history has recorded the elements of the action.”

  “At times we were in both the First and the Third Army. In Pattern’s outfit you better have a tie on. Very few had one in their possession; so we tore the bottom of our shirt off and made a tie out of it, in case Patton came along. He put the fear of God in the Germans. They really respected him. We went through Aachen, and the devastation was unbelievable!”

  “One Easter Sunday, on the Rhine River, ahead of the advancing troops, we were told to find billets. I remember going down the street, knocking on doors and telling these people that they had two hours to get out because soldiers were going to occupy your house. I think back, and what if plans were reversed, and that happened to us?

  Europe

  “The 97th traveled across Europe with the supplies and equipment that our motherland prepared for troops in such a short time; while the Germans had begun preparing a long time ago. We found, for the most part, their equipment was superior to ours. During the latter part of our trek, two jeeps and members were assigned to deliver a diplomatic pouch to the approaching Russian troops. We billeted near the designated area and during the night a knock on the door revealed a German general who wanted to surrender a division of troops. We could only direct them to our headquarters.

  “The next day we motored north and encountered the Russian troops who were all Mongols. They were totally horse drawn. It was as if we turned back history and were in a different era. The documents were delivered, and we witnessed some of the ill treatment to the German stragglers by the Russians.

  “We returned to headquarters and learned the division was returning to La Havre, but along the way we liberated two concentration camps, which words can’t describe. When we arrived at the port we were greeted by the original destruction.

  “The return trip was far different than the trip over. The troops were given furloughs and time to consider the liberated items. Since the 97th was one of the first to leave Europe, regulations had not been placed. When I ar
rived home in Hailey, the cordial driver offered to get my duffel bag. He did not anticipate the weight of the bag. He said, ‘have you got Hitler in there?’ All veterans enjoyed being relieved of military regulations. After the furloughs ended, the division re-assembled in Ft. Leonard Wood. We got back on the train again. There were marine guards were stationed on either end of the car to prevent any guys from going AWOL. When the train passed near a town, a concerned soldier heaved his duffel bag out the window and went AWOL.

  We were told, ‘Where we are going, you would not need any money.’ The suggestion was not heeded as our ship developed engine problems, so we had an emergency stop in Hawaii. We were given leave to wander on the island, but we had no money. One enterprising youth activated Western Union and we had a small amount of change. Everywhere we went there were vendors selling fresh pineapple, like ice cream cones in the states. Everyone partook of what little we could afford. Back on the ship, in a very hot and humid heat, we left the island. Our memory of our stop was in sharp contrast to the average tourist. Everyone who ate the pineapple suffered great gastronomical consequences as the latrine became the ‘necessary place.’”

  Japan

  “Early one morning the ship stopped, the veterans were able not only to see the array of other ships, but also check the landscape. We had seen many other active military scenes and this had to be Iwo Jima with Mt. Suribachi looming in the distance. The most traveled division was not part of the clean-up operation for claiming this forward base for the occupation of Japan.

  “There were no harbor facilities, so lighters were used from the ship to the volcanic shore. When we first hit the beach, there were hundreds of white bags, all casualties. This initial personal impact was like the very early death of the soldier killed by a booby trap. The Japanese were dug in an almost impenetrable chain of underground bastions. The final source on containment was using bulldozers to cover the entrances. All action was from ship to shore, which was terminated when a huge typhoon was sighted to hit the island. So with no means to stay on the island the entire military boarded ships and headed out to sea. While on European soil there was an adage ‘there are no atheists in foxholes; but here we resorted to praying the Rosary.’