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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Albert Engel (Part 3&4)
(2:00:53)
*Note- time code restarts
Service in Court Martial Cases (00:32)
One of the men he defended, Robert Wagner Jr. was also a politician’s son. (2:18)
The officers in the Court Martial were equally as confused on the proceedings of the court as
any other soldier. (3:10)
His first case tried was for drunken buffoonery and swearing at an officer. (3:52)
Albert served in 3 Court Martial cases. (6:09)
The first man he represented got off with what Albert thought was too light a punishment.
(6:50)
At this time (summer of 1944) Albert worked in a traveling office. (7:32)
The second man he represented was accused of driving a car unlawfully and crashing it. The
client said, however, that he was not driving that it was actually a lieutenant that Albert worked
in the office with. (8:20)
He represented 2 AWOL cases. These cases were cut and dried, the defendant was almost
always found guilty. (11:15)
Service in France (12:00)
Albert stayed in a Countess’s castle in France while traveling across the country. The castle had
been used by the German officers while under Nazi occupation. (13:04)
The countess ran a convent for young unmarried mothers. She asked Albert for help defusing
bombs and ammunition that had landed in the area of the convent. (14:55)
The women who stayed at the convent were terrified of the ammunition that was on the
premises. (16:48)
The men were served bread and wine, and the men shared their K rations as a celebration for
cleaning up the convent. (17:41)
His commanding officer had already seen action in Africa before serving in France. (21:21)
At this time (summer/fall of 1944) officers were in short supply due to misconduct of some in
the field. (22:27)
As a result of the officer shortage, Albert applied to be an officer of a bomb squad. He was
assigned to the 80th Bomb Squad. (23:12)
Service in the 80th Bomb Squad
The Bomb Squad was stationed at Laval, France
The 80th Bomb Squad was much better than his first, the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. (26:20)
Albert stayed with the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad until the end of the war in June of 1945.
(26:48)
His bomb squad followed the Tactical Air Team were his task was to keep all air fields
operational at all times. To do this the men required many tools including stethoscopes and a
multitude of wrenches. (27:00)
�
As the Squad traveled across the eastern side of France, there were a lot of bombs discovered.
(28:15)
The bombs and munitions that the men defused were U.S., French, and German. (29:24)
While working at air fields in France and Belgium, the Squad dealt with munitions that did not
deteriorate due to age. (30:30)
U.S. bombs were the most likely to be found by the squad due to Allied carpet bombing. (32:48)
Most bombs that were too close to homes or cities, had to be taken to a bomb site before they
could be detonated. (34:14)
When bombs were detonated they were buried in a 15 foot hole, filled with explosives. (35:15)
Service in Belgium (36:55)
On December 19th 1944, Albert left for Zwartburg Belgium where he spent the next 6 months.
There was already 1 bomb disposal crew there. (37:15)
At this time (winter of 1944) the men did mostly detonation work. There was so much
ammunition that the men had to prioritize what to detonate. (38:52)
This job was dangerous. There were casualties on occasion. (39:45)
The Bomb Squad traveled north through France and Luxembourg toward Belgium on December
18th. The squadron did encounter Germans in the Ardennes Forest. (41:20)
There was a British Air Base and an American Airstrip (Y-32) in Zwartburg Belgium. (43:53)
The Belgium people treated the soldiers very well. (46:24)
The soldiers and the Belgium people in the town the squadron was in decorated a Christmas
tree in December of 1944 using tinsel bombers had dropped in order to confuse anti-aircraft
radar. (49:00)
The soldiers and the townspeople would commonly exchange goods. (49:45)
Before the Battle of the Bulge, the amount of munitions the bomb squad had was so great that
Albert was given clearance to drop the bombs into the North Sea. This was later halted by HQ.
(51:41)
In the winter of 1944 Luftwaffe attacked almost every night. (53:35)
Early in the morning on December 31st 1944 the German air forces launched their final
offensive. 36 of 50 German aircraft were shot down. (56:03)
No jet fighters were used in the final aerial assault. (56:55)
The Luftwaffe spent much of their time shooting up the runway. (57:12)
There were not a lot of bombs dropped in this final offensive. (59:28)
The morning following the offensive there were many German plane wrecks on the ground near
the airfield. (1:00:45)
Albert’s squad was also attacked on December 24th 1944 by German aircraft. (1:02:40)
The Belgian civilians assisted in cleaning up some of the wreckage that resulted from battles.
(1:03:30)
On December 31st 1944, Albert received a call about a German aircraft that was shot down on
the outskirts of town. When he arrived there, body parts from the pilots could be found
scattered about the sight. (1:04:15)
The Soldiers were treated very kindly by the Belgium civilians (1:05:25)
In April of 1945 while in the Limburg province, Albert met a Belgium man (Mr. Groenen) who he
became close with. He was welcomed into this man’s home and even ate with him. (1:07:00)
The man had several younger sisters who were all able to speak English. (1:10:05)\
The man and his family had housed German officers while they occupied Belgium. (1:10:35)
�
The family that Albert was close with was told that they were still under investigation due to
their housing of German officers. (1:13:00)
The family was very wealthy. The women’s husband had many hunting trophies and furniture
carved from bone. (1:17:40)
Several years after the war while Albert was in law school, he visited the family he had grown
close to. (1:18:44)
While visiting, Albert went with one of his friends, Bob. This man was not trusted by the family
because they didn’t know him. (1:21:40)
Service after German Surrender (1:22:55) (June 1945)
Albert and his squad traveled to Nuremburg German in 1945 after the surrender. (1:22:45)
While still in Belgium, Albert and his squad traveled to some of the battlefields to see what they
looked like. (1:23:20)
After the German surrender in 1945, bomb squads were combined. This meant Albert would
command several squads simultaneously. (1:24:50)
He was first sent to an old palace in Nuremburg Germany then to an airfield at Montdidier
where he stayed from June-October 1945. (1:25:15)
Albert in and his men had little to do in Germany in 1945. The bomb disposal squads were
quickly sent back to France to carry out more munitions work. (1:25:52)
On June 21st 1945 while in Nuremburg Germany, Albert was made a captain. He was much
younger than other captains and because of this he was in Europe for almost a year after the
surrender before being sent home. (1:27:56)
While in Nuremburg Germany Albert saw an opera. The opera house was bombed out so bad it
looked like it was going to fall over. (1:28:32)
Albert’s father visited him while he was in France in mid to late 1945. His father was to meet
with Eisenhower. (1:30:12)
Albert was met at the Frankfort Airport by General Begley who helped Albert find his father.
(1:32:19)
For 8 days Albert traveled with General Begley before meeting his father at another airport.
(1:33:12)
For the next 19 days after his father’s landing, Albert traveled with his father and meet
Eisenhower in Frankfort, Germany, in September of 1945. (1:34:51)
Albert than landed in Tempelhof Airport, Berlin. Here he visited Hitler’s Bunker (1:35:27)
His father was happy to see him. He talked often about the Christmas tree farm that Albert was
intended to run after his military service. (1:37:40)
Albert and his father than ventured to Paris. (1:38:56)
His father came to Paris with other congressmen. There were other soldiers who were ordered
to come and meet their fathers. (1:41:26)
Albert and his father than ventured to London. (1:42:58)
His father spent much of his time in London in meetings. (1:44:45)
Three of the soldiers Albert was with on the trip were related to congress men and were treated
with the same political favoritism as Albert. (1:45:18)
A high ranking officer in the 9th Air Force came to see Albert. He was given the choice to stay in
the military as a commander in a bomb squad and a position as a commander. He did not like
this because he expected political influence. Albert turned the offer down. (1:47:06)
�End of Service (1946)(1:48:00)
Albert was sent to a camp near Antwerp, Belgium before being sent home. (1:49:48)
He was very anxious to go home. (1:51:07)
Albert ventured home aboard a troop ship. He arrived in at New Jersey. (1:51:40)
He traveled by train back to Washington D.C. (1:52:30)
Albert was so anxious to get out of his uniform after return home, one of the first things he did
was go down town and purchase a Zoot suit. (1:52:47)
He was discharged in New York in 1946. (1:55:26)
Thoughts on Service (1:57:30)
As much as he hated politics influencing his life he was eventually able to get out of it and
commanded his own bomb squad which he liked. (1:58:29)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Engel, Albert
Description
An account of the resource
Albert Engel, son of U.S. congressman Albert J. Engel, served in the U.S. Army from February 1943 to April 1946 in the European Theater during World War II. During basic training, Albert applied for OCS school, but due to his young age did poorly, but did receive his commission. Before being sent to England, Albert was assigned as commander of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. However, shortly after arriving in France Albert was transferred to the HQ for the 19th tactical air command. Here he was assigned to represent defendants in court martial cases. Albert than applied to be the commander of the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. He stayed commander of this squad until his discharge in 1946.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army Air Corps
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2012-02-14
Identifier
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EngelA1345V2
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b153b66b24f0fb83baabd5e578334d99.mp4
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Albert Engel (Part 1&2)
(2:05:53)
Background Information (00:20)
Born in Lake City, Michigan, in 1924. (00:29)
He grew up in Michigan and in Washington D.C. the relocation was due to his father’s work as a
congressman. (1:50)
Summary of his Father (2:18)
His father worked as a farmer when he was a boy. (2:19)
At the age of 14 his father ran away from home and began working in a lumber yard. (6:25)
His father was 1 credit short of graduating from Northwestern University in Illinois. (8:29)
His father also served in the Army. He lied about his age in order to go to officer training at Fort
Sheridan. (9:30)
His father ran a Christmas tree business. (10:45)
Due to his German name, his father’s tree business struggled. (11:25)
His father became a lawyer and latter Prosecuting Attorney. (13:56)
He had to give up his position as a Prosecuting Attorney during World War I. (15:09)
His father practiced law in Lake City at the time of Albert’s birth. (18:29)
Background Information (cont.) (19:25)
Albert has 1 older sister. (19:30)
Albert had one brother who died at birth. (25:37)
In 1933, his father ran for congress. He was elected and served 8 terms until he retired. (26:06)
He graduated from Western High School in Georgetown, D.C. (27:44)
His father’s work is what brought Albert to Washington (29:11)
Albert heard of Pearl Harbor while upstairs in his room doing homework. At the time he was
studying at the University of Maryland. Albert attended the University of Maryland due to it
being less expensive than his out of state favorite, the University of Michigan. (30:30)
Because his father was in congress, Albert saw a copy of The Day of Infamy speech before
Roosevelt gave it. (33:06)
Albert had a seat in the house gallery when Roosevelt gave The Day of Infamy speech. (34:53)
He did not have an immediate desire to enlist in the military after Pearl Harbor. (35:50)
At the time of Albert’s enlistment he had 2 years of college and 3 years of military training while
in high school through the ROTC. (38:20)
His junior year of college, Albert transferred to the University of Michigan. He was at the
institution for 1 year before going into service. (39:24)
Albert was in the ROTC. (43:04)
He did poorly at the University of Michigan. Part of the reason was due to apathy. So many men
were being drafted he believed it hopeless to study because e too would be drafted. (45:06)
Albert enlisted in the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. in 1943 at the age of 18. (46:40)
�Basic Training (47:20)
Albert received orders to report in downtown Washington where he and others would be
transported to Fort Lee, Virginia. (47:24)
For infantry training Albert was sent to Camp Wheeler. (50:01)
In training he was able to learn quickly. (50:49)
His clothes and other military supplies were issued at Fort Lee. (51:18)
After getting back to the house, his father told Albert that he already knew where he was going
to serve. He was to be transferred. This angered Albert. He believed he was being transferred
for political purposes. (54:57)
Training at Fort Aberdeen
Albert was transferred to Fort Aberdeen, Maryland. Here he began the same basic training he
had at Camp Wheeler. (57:02)
Albert did not tell the men he was training with that he was a congressman’s son. However the
men alongside him knew regardless. (58:34)
Albert applied for OCS (Officer Candidates School). (1:00:02)
At one occasion when Albert met his commanding officer, he could tell the man was frightened
by the power his father had. (1:30:00)
Albert thought he was too young to do well in OCS. He also felt depressed due to the fact that
he was being used due to the position of his father. (1:02:37)
Albert was then transferred to Ordnance Company. (1:03:28)
During this time in his training, Albert met many other men who were sons of politician. Many
had the same bleak outlook of the political influence on their lives as Albert did. (1:06:31)
Many of the drills that Albert did in basic training were ones that he was familiar with from
ROTC in high School. (1:07:36)
Albert did not do well in OCS. His officers who trained him however, were very good. (1:12:58)
He scored as one of the lowest in his class in OCS. He was, however, given one of the highest
scores of a single man. (1:14:27)
After Albert graduated from OCS, he had the choice of where he wanted to go. Albert
volunteered for bomb disposal. (1:16:09)
Bomb disposal was a job Albert liked. In 1944 he was sent to bomb disposal school. (1:16:40)
Albert trained both at Army and Navy bases for bomb disposal. (1:17:17)
During training, Albert worked on defusing both American as well as German bombs. (1:18:18)
Half way through his education, Albert was assigned commanding officer of the 80th Bomb
Disposal Squad. (1:19:30)
After training, his unit was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey to be sent to Europe in April 1944.
(1:19:30)
Voyage to Europe (1:20:20)
He sailed in a convoy. (1:20:30)
The ship carried 24 officers and 240 men. (1:22:09)
Albert was the youngest person on the ship. He was made sanitation officer while on the voyage
to Europe. (1:22:58)
�
The commander of the convoy was on Albert’s ship. Because of this, the ship sailed in the center
of the convoy. (1:24:48)
The ship hit storms fairly quickly. Many men became sea sick. (1:25:04)
The ship traveled on a northern course. While approaching the Arctic Circle, the convoy was
attacked by a submarine. (1:26:37)
One of the 3 destroyer escorts of the convoy was hit by the submarine and disabled. (1:27:20)
In response to the submarine, the convoy than turned south toward the Canary Islands.
(1:28:11)
The ship than turned north and eventually landed in Wales. (1:29:19)
Service in England (1:29:55)
Albert did not believe the men he commanded in his squad were very bright. (1:30:00)
The Squad than moved to Headcorn, England. Once arriving, the men waited there for their
supplies. (1:31:00)
When first arriving in Europe, Albert was still very naive. (1:32:56)
While waiting for his equipment in Headcorn, Albert received orders that he was transferred to
the Headquarters of 19th Tactical Air Command. (1:34:35)
This position meant that he would be following the 19th Air men into the continent. (1:35:36)
Albert was furious to hear of his transfer. He had been excited to lead the men he had trained
on bomb defusing. (1:36:40)
While in England, Albert served as ammunition and Bomb Disposal officer. This, Albert says, is a
title that meant nothing. Because of his lack of responsibility, he spent much of his time visiting
sights. (1:38:19)
On June 26th 1944 Albert was given the chance to travel across the English Channel. He was out
ranked, however, and did not get a spot on the boat to go to France. (1:40:29)
During the invasion on June 6th 1944, Albert served as a pencil pusher. He did not like this.
(1:41:58)
While in England Albert did visit London several times. (1:42:27)
There was little to do at night. Albert liked to watch the English Bombers fly over head. (1:44:27)
The first time he saw a buzz bomber, it was frightening and confusing. He had never seen
anything like it before. (1:45:45)
Albert boarded a ship in Southampton and then traveled to Utah Beach on August 1st 1944. Here
he stayed for several days after arriving. The voyage took 3 day. (1:47:00)
He crossed the channel on a coal ship. The ship was very dirty. (1:48:00)
The ships landed on portable docks set up on the beachheads. (1:49:04)
Service in Europe (1:50:35)
When arriving on Utah Beach there were tents set and the area was secured. (1:51:04)
The men than headed south and west to a headquarters unit based at St. James, in the
southwest corner of Normandy . At this time they received word that they would be giving air
cover and support to Patton’s 3rd Army. (1:52:03)
While in England, Albert was assigned to an experimental program on the Thames estuary that
was to develop a new rocket. (1:53:40)
The rockets would carried by aircraft and used to destroy buzz bombs. (1:57:14)
�
While working on this special project, Albert lived in a farmhouse. He did very little and mostly
was there just to observe. (1:59:19)
Due to the bit of law education that Albert had while in college, he was appointed to be the
defense counsel for a man who was to be court martialed while moving inland in France.
(2:01:06)
One man he was defending was court martialed for conduct of drunken buffoonery while in a
town. (2:03:05)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Engel, Albert
Description
An account of the resource
Albert Engel, son of U.S. congressman Albert J. Engel, served in the U.S. Army from February 1943 to April 1946 in the European Theater during World War II. During basic training, Albert applied for OCS school, but due to his young age did poorly, but did receive his commission. Before being sent to England, Albert was assigned as commander of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. However, shortly after arriving in France Albert was transferred to the HQ for the 19th tactical air command. Here he was assigned to represent defendants in court martial cases. Albert than applied to be the commander of the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. He stayed commander of this squad until his discharge in 1946.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army Air Corps
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-02-14
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EngelA1345V1
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1e060c896987c5cf9c980d0fa622f03f.mp4
d5549e219fcf1c2c051cc1b5ccf2a655
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3be4cab6c228e54ff738bd7265547f8d
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
World War II
Duane Endres
Length of interview (1:34:31)
(00:00:08) Family Background
Duane Endres was born in Carlton Township, Michigan on February 19, 1924
(00:00:11)
His father was a farmer of 40 acres, which was split 50/50 with the landowner
(00:00:23)
There were 8 people in the family. Any cash revenue came from the cream and
cows they had, which allowed them $.70 a week to live on. In the summer, Mr.
Endres father worked a thrash machine for a $1 a day. It was very lucrative for the
family (00:02:04)
Duane completed the 8th grade. His parents could not afford to send him to high
school. He wanted to get more education and it upsets him today when kids do not
take advantage of the opportunities offered them (00:03:11)
During this time, the state required an individual to complete 8 grades. If one
lived in a district with a high school they could attend for free; however, if one
lived outside of the district they had to pay tuition, supplies, and transportation
fees (00:03:15)
The family had a car, but they could not afford the gas. Gas was $.10 a gallon at
the time (00:03:48)
His sister attended school because his parents wanted her to have an education to
support herself. They figured that Duane and his brothers could use their hands
for work (00:04:03)
The performed numerous chores on the farm. Duane goes into detail about
specific aspects of the farm (00:04:41)
Duane stayed on the farm after he completed school until he received an offer to
work at Michigan State University in an experimental sheep and cow barn
(00:08:05)
He worked at MSU for 2 years and then he joined the Navy (00:08:40)
He was at a cousin's house near Lowell, Michigan, when he heard the news of
Pearl Harbor on the radio (00:09:10)
He received a draft notice 2 or 3 months prior, but was granted a deferment due to
his work at MSU. There is a point here where Duane discusses in detail maple
syrup and his revenues (00:12:10)
His 3 brothers were in the Army and served overseas (00:12:50)
Duane was in the Navy and never went overseas, but he did spent 18 hours on a
ship at one point (00:13:01)
(00:13:12) Basic Training
At Great Lake Training Center, Duane and 12-14 other men were lined up
asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for Marines. No one volunteered and
�
the last two men in line were chosen for the Marines. Duane told the
command he always wanted to be in the Navy when asked (00:14:25)
His training was not organized, because the officer in charge of his unit
had to leave. They participated in training when someone was available to
train them (00:15:42)
Finally, eight companies of men were given a review of drill instructions
for the final review. They did not have the necessary training and did not
pass the final review; however, they did advance beyond basic training
(00:17:25)
Duane related that the Army concentrated on cleaning rifles; whereas, the
Navy focused on uniforms (00:18:06)
He learned how to row and they had some training with anti-aircraft guns
(00:18:33)
Duane enjoyed learning how to use the machine gun and wanted to use the
double barrel anti-aircraft guns. The National Guard was chosen for this
task and Duane was given guard duty. He was upset, but soon realized no
one got to train on the guns (00:20:45)
After basic training Duane spent 3-4 days at Great Lakes before he
received orders to Oklahoma. He could not believe it and thought maybe
there was some secret mission going on there (00:21:42)
(00:22:00) Active Duty Norman, Oklahoma
Once in Oklahoma, Duane realized it was a large airfield and he was assigned to
the mess hall (00:22:20)
He learned to cooperate with others and did was he told (00:22:34)
Within a few days, he got an easy job slicing bread. He has told everyone who
went into military service to ‘act like you enjoy the job even you do not. It will
pay off’ (00:22:55)
His duties included slicing bread and taking care of the vegetable locker. He was
then transferred to a new mess hall, where he became the Master of Arms. This
job entailed supervising the cooks and maintaining order in the food line. He got
the job because he had a good attitude (00:26:00)
The Germans surrendered before he left Oklahoma. He jokingly says that the
Germans and Japanese surrendered because they knew he joined the service
(00:28:00)
He left Oklahoma, where the majority of his service time was spent, in 1946
(00:28:04)
He became a storekeeper and kept inventory (00:28:45)
Tell a story about gate guards helping themselves to food (00:29:16)
There was a North and South base in Oklahoma. The South base was where secret
operations took place, which was primarily focused on radar technology. The
North base was where pilots were trained (00:31:30)
A storm hit the base and over 100 planes were lost. There were no weather
forecasts on the radio, but an officer saw the storm coming, Duane was ordered to
the airfield to help tie everything down (00:32:25)
�
He talks about the different planes damaged during the storm. The war was over
so the loss was not a big deal (00:34:02)
The size of the base was being reduced and Duane was in one of the last men to
leave. Everyone received a souvenir cigarette lighter, but Duane did not smoke
(00:35:44)
Duane and his friend were not heavy drinkers, so they visited places in Oklahoma
and took a lot of pictures (00:37:00)
He kept in touch with this friend until 2 years ago. Duane believes he either
passed away or moved into a nursing home (00:37:57)
Speaks about sailors who joined the service under assumed names. They were
zoot suitors (00:38:40)
Shared barracks in California with a man who was difficult to get along with
(00:40:00)
While in Oklahoma, there was a record set for the number of men who drowned
in the Navy. He speaks about a lake where 5 men drowned to lack of attention by
lifeguards (00:41:05)
(00:43:00) Active Duty California
Duane was ordered to California after his time in Oklahoma. He traveled on a
troop car. It was a rugged ride and they did not eat very often. The men
complained a lot, but the food they were given was good. Also, they stayed at
Harvey Houses along the way (00:43:05)
Duane had a mild mannered friend in California, who was picked on by his
barracks mates. This led to an altercation for Duane (00:48:37)
He was at Livermore Airfield, which was an atomic base (00:51:09)
Firemen on base responded to fires in the nearby town (00:51:56)
Duane was assigned to refrigeration and worked in a locker plant (00:53:35)
One person stayed on overnight duty to take care of any emergencies. He also
kept water coolers serviced. This was his only job (00:54:15)
There was not much use for the skills he learned in California after his service
(00:55:07)
He visited Oakland, California, often and was amazed by the hills and trolleys. He
said he never saw so many pancake houses as he did in San Francisco. He tried to
take in as many sites as he could (00:56:02)
He took buses to Oakland and then hitchhiked to other places. Relates a story
about hitchhiking in Oklahoma during a blizzard. Hitchhiking was relatively safe,
but he suggests he was naïve about it, too (00:57:57)
Cigarettes were a common item to be traded for a ride. Most people smoked and it
was un-American to not smoke (01:01:00)
At one point in California, the farmer’s fields caught on fire and spread into the
hills. The sailors tried to help put it out. Duane tells a story about a captain’s van
being stuck in the hills and helicopters were used to locate it (01:02:10)
The smoke from the fire carried poison oak or ivy, which affected Duane badly.
His face was raw and fluids had to be drained. He had to go to the sick bay
regularly for cleanings (01:04:12)
�(01:05:00) Post Service Experiences
He decided to hitchhike home from California, because his family was poor and it
was an opportunity to make some cash (01:06:31)
He stayed in motels, which were a $1 a night and he got discounts, too (01:07:25)
He got a ride from a Japanese man, who had been in an internment camp. This
was one of the few men he remembered on his trip home (01:08:13)
Duane relates a time when he volunteered to clean the mess hall with DDT. He
received 2 days of leave to visit his brother in Texas. They sprayed utensils, food
containers, and numerous other things in the hall. It killed all the pests (01:08:49)
It took Duane 5 days to get home to Michigan from California. Hitchhiking was
much better than the troop train; however, he did get stuck in the desert near
Cheyenne, Wyoming for a night (01:10:37)
He returns to some stories about basic training (01:12:00)
Damaged Disc/ Would not play
Duane liked the service and says it was the only vacation he has ever had. He
went from doing hard work to soft living (01:20:47)
He decided not to stay in the service, because he thought the U.S. was going to
war with Russia (01:21:20)
He thought about volunteering with atomic testing for 3 months. He is glad he did
not (01:22:51)
Overall, Duane believes the service made him more independent. He was strongly
affected by the changes immediately after the war (01:24:01)
He speaks about the Army Air Corps and the glamour boys (01:26:38)
He relates a story from his brother’s experience at the Battle of Bulge (01:29:16)
Gives some opinions about generals in WWII (01:31:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Endres, Duane (Interview outline and video), 2011
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Endres, Duane
Description
An account of the resource
Duane Endres was born on a farm in Michigan in 1924. He was drafted into the Navy 1945. Prior to this he received a deferment due to his work at Michigan State University. He remained on the home front during his service and was stationed in Norman, Oklahoma, and Livermore, California. He was a seaman 2nd class, worked in the mess hall in Oklahoma, and was assigned to refrigeration in California. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Navy
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-04-26
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EndresD1105V
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a835e5ed602e5746400d875c7e240ba8.pdf
694919c3de46d9cd1ee043f73a3a9cd3
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Vietnam War
Roger Elliott
(16:07)
Background Information (00:18)
Born January 9th 1949 (00:19)
He served as a Sergeant E5 in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. (00:20)
Raised in Indiana. (1:00)
Roger played football while in High school. (1:20)
He finished high school in May of 1967. In October of 1967 he had already enlisted and was sent
to basic training. (1:26)
He hoped he would not end up in Vietnam. The family did have some military history. (2:04)
Roger’s siblings were ineligible for the draft due to age. (2:40)
Fort Leonard wood Missouri. (2:50)
Roger completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri . the program lasted 10 weeks.
(2:50)
The men spent much time on physical training to get the men in shape for combat. (3:10)
He took advanced training in supply at Fort Lee Virginia, for another 8 to 10 weeks after basic.
(3:30)
The men were sent to Vietnam by aircraft. The plane traveled from California to Alaska then to
Vietnam. (4:09)
Service in Vietnam (4:43)
Roger was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay. (4:45)
He served as a supply sergeant. Aside from night patrol once a month, Rodger managed the
income an outgo of supplies and delivered supplies to various units. (5:15)
Most men spent spare time sleeping or trying to relax. Most men always had their guard up.
(5:56)
There were Vietnamese civilians taking care of the base's laundry. (6:32)
Roger believed, when he was there, that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. But he still felt bad
for the Vietnamese when the U.S. pulled out. (7:13)
Roger used letters to communicate back home, but wasn’t as diligent about it as other men.
(8:12)
The extent to which men were moved around inhibited Rodger from making close friends. (9:22)
End of Service (9:25)
Roger was in Savannah, Georgia when the Vietnam War ended. (9:25)
The men were flown from Saigon to California aboard a commercial jet. Roger was not informed
of how bad the attitude was back at home was about the war. The lack of respect for the
soldiers was very sad. (9:43)
�
He is not a member of any veterans’ organizations. (10:58)
It was difficult to adjust to the peace of home. (11:20)
Roger is happy that training and military strategy has improved sense Vietnam. He is worried,
however, when he looks at the conflicts in the Middle East. (12:10)
He doesn’t believe that his service has affected him too much. (13:23)
Service did help Roger grow and mature. (14:34)
He believes that Americans are very fortunate for what they have. (15:31)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Elliott, Roger (Interview outline), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Elliott, Roger
Description
An account of the resource
Roger Elliott, born in 1949, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam as a supply sergeant at Cam Ranh Bay. After his tour in Vietnam, he completed his enlistment at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Grider, Joelle (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05-24
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ElliottR1425V
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9d9bb883bd03697548903d009236b5ea.mp4
57686d7c23bcc14ee76efa9a9c71cf5e
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b5e0c9ca2dfbed7823fdb599199ba13d.pdf
a1f140491c00b6038da6b86ea0101ec0
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History ProjectWorld War II
Albert Eitel
(57:03)
Background Information (00:10)
Born in Scottsdale, Nebraska, on December 25th 1926. (00:14)
At the age of 4 in 1928 he and his parents moved to Flint, Michigan. The parents moved to work
for General Motors. (00:30)
In 1944 his father retired. He did not lose his job during the Depression. (1:00)
He had 5 other siblings. (1:30)
He attended high school but did not graduate because he enlisted at the age of 17 prior to his
graduation. (1:45)
Albert was familiar with the conflicts in Europe but he did not have any idea of the conflicts
occurring in the Pacific. (2:12)
Albert heard of Pearl Harbor during church on a Sunday afternoon. (2:28)
Most young people Albert knew were very anxious to serve in the war. (3:35)
Albert enlisted in the Navy on May 2nd 1944 at age 17. (4:30)
He had an older brother in the Air Force. (5:12)
After enlisted the men were required to have a physical done in Detroit Michigan. (6:05)
Albert was sent to Great Lakes Naval Base for his basic training. (6:23)
Basic Training (6:30)
Training entailed rigorous physical exercises. (6:50)
Discipline was highly emphasized. (7:25)
Most of the men Albert trained with were from the mid west area of the U.S. (7:55)
After completing his basic training Albert was sent to Camp Bradford, Virginia, where the men
practiced landings in LSTs. (8:16)
At this time (November 1944) Albert was also being trained on the twin 40mm guns. (9:25)
Albert was at Camp Bradford for several weeks. (9:49)
The men were allowed to leave the base while at Camp Bradford on a weekend pass. (10:19)
After his training at Camp Bradford, Albert was sent back to Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois
for several weeks. At this time the men were training as a crew. (11:05)
He was sent by train to Southern Indiana to pick up the ship he would serve on, an LST. The ship
was than sailed down the Mississippi to New Orleans Louisiana. (11:19)
Voyage to the Pacific (11:30)
At this time Albert was a Seaman First Class, Deck hand. (11:45)
It took approx 1 week to travel down the Mississippi River. When arriving in New Orleans the
men were given leave. (12:40)
The civilians in New Orleans treated the men very kindly. (13:00)
The first captain of Albert’s ship was only about 45 years old. His second captain however had
been in the navy for about 30 years and was much older. (13:50)
�
When in the Gulf of Mexico the men did more practice on guns and running the ship. (14:35)
The ship traveled through the Panama Cannel. (15:08)
There were about 2-3 LSTs with Albert’s ship while crossing the Pacific. (16:11)
The travel across the pacific had bad weather. The LST was tossed around. Half the crew got
sick. (17:40)
LCTs (a small landing craft) were chained down on the deck of the LST. (18:40)
There was an initiation for the Pollywogs (new sailors) to Shell Backs (experienced sailor) after
crossing the equator. (19:45)
Service in the Pacific (21:30)
The ship first stopped at the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. (21:48)
Albert took a journal in spite of the fact that sailors were not supposed to keep one. He did this
by using the back of the log on the ship that was intended for recording when excess batteries
were last charged. (22:48)
He was given the job of assistant to the Storage Keeper. Albert was also given the title Store
Keeper Third Class in early 1945. (23:40)
He recalls that water and fuel were picked up at one location, tanks and men were picked up at
another island and then they were dropped at yet another island. (25:07)
Over all, the men were traveling to the Philippians. (26:05)
After some fights (such as that at Manila Bay) in the morning, sunken ships could be seen after
the battle. (27:23)
Manila had been heavily bombed when Albert arrived there. (27:58)
Albert did contact the civilians in the Philippines. These civilians were at time used to acquire
intelligence. (28:22)
Service after Surrender (29:59)
Albert was in the small village of San Fernando in the Philippines when he heard of the end of
the war in August of 1945. (30:25)
They did not tell the men of the Atomic bomb, only the Japanese surrender. (30:58)
On September 20th 1945 the ship was in Okinawa. (31:57)
On September 24th 1945 the ship docked in Korea. Albert thought the weather was cold. (32:54)
There were still Japanese Soldiers in Korea. They were not unkind to the American Soldiers.
(33:50)
After the war ended the ship’s primarily task was to ferry soldiers back to their home country.
This included Japanese and Chinese soldiers. (34:30)
Albert talked with these soldiers. They did not wish to talk about their service but they were
very smart. (35:20)
The ship also carried captured Japanese civilians in China back to Japan. (37:38)
Albert met Chinese people, but because they did not know English, communicating was difficult.
(38:10)
Once while going ashore to get mail in French Indochina, Albert was required to take with him
an armed guard. (39:05)
Life in Service (40:10)
�
He remembers the culture shock of seeing a society that had only huts to live in and did not
regularly wear shoes. (40:20)
For actives aboard ship most men played cards and occasionally watched a movie. After the war
was over the men had beer on board the ship. (41:38)
The food aboard ship was good. (42:20)
When the men were aloud off the ship, the men were typically aloud of at night and had to be
back on the ship by 12 AM at the latest. (43:40)
Albert received mail approx every 5-6 days if they were by a larger island. (45:40)
While scanning the horizon the men often spotted Japanese mines. These were hit and
destroyed from several miles away. (46:45)
Sighting of Japanese aircraft was frequent. (47:46)
While the ship was at sea near Okinawa there was a typhoon that lasted about 4 days. (49:23)
End of Service (49:54)
The trip back to San Francisco, California, took about 40 days. (50:00)
Once arriving in California, the men were placed in a camp and given a few days leave. When he
came back he was placed on a train to Great Lakes Naval Base Illinois. (50:55)
Albert was discharged at Great Lakes Naval Base in approx 1946. (52:00)
Life after Service (52:05)
He attended Baker Business College in Flint, Michigan, and received a business degree after 1
year. (52:15)
He began work as a truck driver. (52:40)
He owned a party store for 30 years. (53:40)
Albert’s service was a good educating experience. (54:50)
At times his service was frightening. (56:35)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Eitel, Albert (Interview outline and video), 2011
Creator
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Eitel, Albert
Description
An account of the resource
Albert Eitel, born in Nebraska in 1926, served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 in the Pacific theater during World War II. Albert enlisted at the age of 17. He did basic training at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, and then trained on LSTs at Camp Bradford, Virginia. He then joined the crew of a new LST at its shipyard in southern Indiana and sailed with her to the Pacific, where he participated in the campaign in the Philippines. Albert started out as a deck hand, but soon became a storekeeper. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the ship spent several months ferrying Japanese and Chinese soldiers from Korea, China and Indochina back to their home countries.
Contributor
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Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
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Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Navy
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
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eng
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Moving Image
Text
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2011-04-26
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EitelA1114V
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
video/mp4
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ba362fe33a49cbd5e07020d50ca99fcd.mp4
32849bd13ec3a6b7d7dfcbda388dc961
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/63560dff04c6f82d42b4f4dbb16040a7.pdf
e7f5e29442770dad6088b3c852a6216a
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
Keith Edmondson
World War II
Interview Length: (00:54:54:00)
Pre-enlistment / Training (00:00:17:00)
Edmondson was born in May 1924 in Wheaton, Illinois, but spent all his early years in
nearby Glen Ellyn, Illinois (00:00:17:00)
o While Edmondson was growing up, his father worked as a tailor in Chicago,
which involved commuting two hours a day, one hour to Chicago and one hour to
get home (00:00:30:00)
However, during the early part of the Great Depression, Edmondson’s
father was unemployed for a year-and-a-half (00:00:47:00)
o While Edmondson was a child, his grandfather, an immigrant from Norway, lived
with Edmondson’s family, having retired from his job of working as a sailor for
thirty years (00:00:55:00)
Edmondson’s grandfather did not have anything to do except play with
Edmondson, so he taught Edmondson how to tie all the naval knots and
told Edmondson sailing stories (00:01:05:00)
o Edmondson had two siblings, an older brother who died when he was five or six
years old and an older sister (00:01:19:00)
Edmondson graduated from high school in 1942, when he was eighteen years old, then
started attending Purdue University the following fall (00:02:01:00)
o On the Sunday the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Edmondson was at home and
he heard of the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed (00:02:16:00)
The attack did not make too much of an impression on Edmondson at the
time, although looking back, it probably should have (00:02:43:00)
o While in high school, Edmondson worked as a paperboy and he remembers
reading articles talking about the fighting in Europe, particularly the Fins fighting
against the Russians (00:02:54:00)
However, Edmondson was not too invested in following the war in
Europe, mostly because he had other things that occupied his time, such as
picking colleges (00:03:13:00)
o After the Japanese attack, Edmondson remembers being in a group of students
that the school principal was addressing, explaining about the war in Europe and
the attack on Pearl Harbor, and at one point the principal remarked that he thought
few in the audience would end up serving in the military (00:03:27:00)
In November 1942, while at Purdue, Edmondson heard about a program called the
Aviation Cadet Program, which interested Edmondson because the program offered him
a deferment on serving in the military until the end of college (00:04:13:00)
o Edmondson took the test for the program, did quite well, and was admitted into
the program (00:04:36:00)
o Unlike most of the other students in the program, Edmondson was not interested
in becoming a pilot (00:04:58:00)
�
However, only four months after Edmondson joined the Aviation Cadet Program, in
February 1943, the program changed and Edmondson was enlisted into the military and
sent to San Antonio, Texas (00:05:13:00)
o Because Edmondson was still only eighteen years old, the entire experience was
all sort of a big adventure (00:05:26:00)
o To get to San Antonio, Edmondson first went to some place in Chicago, where he
boarded a train that took him to San Antonio; by the time Edmondson and the
other new recruits arrived in San Antonio, they were all pretty dirty because the
trains were not kept very clean (00:05:33:00)
o Once in San Antonio, Edmondson was assigned to a barracks located on an
airfield; the barracks were a classification center, so Edmondson and the other
recruits had to chose between the different occupations, such as being a pilot, a
bombardier, a navigator, etc. (00:05:58:00)
Edmondson looked at the pilots training and saw the training would take
fourteen months, as opposed to only six months for training for a
bombardier; the pay difference between the two groups was small, so
Edmondson elected to go through bombardier training (00:06:17:00)
A lot of the men who went through bombardier training with Edmondson
were men who had washed out of the pilot training program (00:06:36:00)
o While at the classification center, Edmondson and the other recruits also went
through some physical training (00:06:51:00)
Shortly after choosing the bombardier classification, Edmondson went to Ellington Field
outside of Houston for pre-flight bombardier training (00:07:01:00)
o Once at Ellington Field, Edmondson and the other recruits in pre-flight
bombardier training went through more physical training, as well as book work,
with instructors explain about different aspects of the Air Corps (00:07:26:00)
During the pre-flight training, Edmondson and the other recruits were able
to travel into Houston (00:07:56:00)
After the pre-flight training at Ellington Field, Edmondson went to Midland, Texas for
the actual bombardier training (00:08:03:00)
o During the bombardier training, Edmondson primarily learned how to operate an
Norden bombsight, first on a trainer aircraft, then later aboard another aircraft,
where Edmondson dropped legitimate practice bombs (00:08:13:00)
During practice bombing runs on the trainer aircraft, Edmondson would be
aboard the aircraft with an instructor while on the ground, someone else
would move a target; Edmondson objective was to get the crosshairs of the
bombsight on the target for a certain amount of time (00:08:59:00)
The instructor kept track of everything Edmondson did, including
where a bomb would have landed had the flight been a legitimate
bombing run (00:09:28:00)
o Edmondson stayed at Midland until August 1943, when he graduated from the
bombardier training (00:09:43:00)
o While at Midland, Edmondson and the other recruits had access to go into
Midland, which was an interesting town because of the large number of cattle
ranches in the surrounding (00:09:57:00)
�
The recruits could go into town on the weekends and hear men talking
about four thousand of this and four thousand of that; as it turned out, the
men were talking about cattle (00:10:08:00)
o Later in the training, Edmondson did bombing runs over “actual targets”, which
were rings and he would drop 100 lb. bombs filled with sand, which would
illustrate where the bombs landed (00:10:38:00)
Normally, these practice bombing runs happened around 10,000’ and were
pretty useful in the training (00:11:07:00)
From his own estimation, Edmondson dropped almost all of his bombs
within 50’ of the target, which was considered very good; good enough to
become an instructor in the bombardier training (00:11:32:00)
After leaving Midland, Edmondson was assigned to the Fourth Air Force, which was
stationed along the west coast of the United States; initially, Edmondson was stationed at
Mountain Home, Idaho as an instructor bombardier in a B-24 squadron (00:11:51:00)
o Being an instructor bombardier consisted of Edmondson flying with bomb crews
over targets and see how well the student bombardier could do in dropping bombs
on targets (00:12:07:00)
Most of the practice bombs were the sand-filled 100 lb. bombs, although
there were a few legitimate bombs dropped as well (00:12:23:00)
o Edmondson spent a few months in Mountain Home before transferring to
Tonopah, Nevada, which was also part of the Fourth Air Force, where he
continued working as an instructor bombardier (00:12:32:00)
o By this time, Edmondson is barely nineteen years old and although he found
working as a bombardier interesting, the extracurricular activities at both
Mountain Home and Tonopah were pretty grim (00:13:09:00)
In particular, aircraft taking off from the runway in Tonopah had to pass
through a mountain pass and several aircraft ended up crashing into the
mountains (00:13:26:00)
o Eventually, a senior pilot at Tonopah, a major, wanted to form an air crew to
deploy overseas, so he asked some of the more senior instructors and personnel
working at the airfield, including Edmondson, to join the crew (00:13:58:00)
All the men who the major asked to join the crew said “yes”, so the air
crew was formed for deployment overseas (00:14:35:00)
o For the most part, at both Mountain Home and Tonopah, Edmondson was
younger than most of the other instructors (00:14:58:00)
During the fall of 1942, the Air Corps began expanding in anticipation of
what might happen during the war, which included building more airfields
and pushing more men through training (00:15:25:00)
After the major had successfully formed the air crew at Tonopah, the entire crew went to
an airfield near Fairfield/Suisun City, California, picked up a new B-24 Liberator, and
flew the bomber to Hawaii (00:16:06:00)
o Once in Hawaii, the entire air crew went through gunnery training, which was in
preparation for the crew heading into the combat area (00:16:28:00)
On most B-24s, the bombardier was the armament officer, although
Edmondson did not take that job to seriously because all the other men on
the bomber knew what they were doing (00:16:44:00)
�
During the gunnery training, the B-24 would fly out and strafe various
locations, mostly around a deserted island and a location south of Maui
(00:16:56:00)
o For the couple of months that gunnery training lasted, the crew was stationed at
an airfield near Kahuku, which was on the north side of Oahu (00:17:24:00)
On one side of the airfield was a pineapple plantation and on the other side
was the cannery; it eventually reached the point that Edmondson could not
stand to look at a pineapple (00:17:35:00)
o Edmondson and the rest of the B-24 crew spent two or three months in Hawaii for
the gunnery training, leaving in March 1944 (00:18:04:00)
Deployment (00:18:44:00)
After leaving Hawaii, the B-24 first flew to Johnston Island, then continued to the base
on Kwajalein Island, which was located in the Marshall Island chain (00:18:44:00)
o Kwajalein was a circular atoll, which meant the “island” was essentially a sandbar
that was big enough for an airfield to be built on it; the highest point on the entire
atoll was only ten feet (00:19:01:00)
o The 11th Bombardment Group, which the 98th Bombardment Squadron, which
was Edmondson’s squadron, was a part of, had moved to Kwajalein from Tarawa
a few weeks before Edmondson’s B-24 arrived (00:19:26:00)
Therefore, most of the other men in the squadron were experienced pilots
that had done numerous operations (00:19:43:00)
o During the first few missions Edmondson’s B-24 went on, his B-24 would “fly
wing” as the squadron would attack the Japanese-held island of Truk
(00:19:54:00)
During the attacks on Truk, the entire squadron of twelve bombers would
fly in four flights of three bombers, with each flight having one bomber as
the lead bomber and the other two bombers as his wingmen (00:20:20:00)
Until a crew had enough experience in combat, they would
normally fly as the wingmen in a flight (00:20:54:00)
o When the bombers would make their bombing runs, the bombardiers on each
individual bomber were allowed to operate independently from the other
bombers; the bombardier would set up a specific target and bomb that target while
still keeping the bomber in formation (00:21:17:00)
Later in the war, the bombing method used in the European theater of only
having the bombardier on the lead bomber using the bombsight spread
over to the Pacific theater (00:21:28:00)
Once that method started being used, all the other bombardiers
would drop their bombs based on the actions of the lead
bombardier (00:21:38:00)
Although it probably was more difficult to make a bombing run against an
actual target as opposed to what he had been doing in the United States,
Edmondson was not really conscious of it (00:22:01:00)
Edmondson should have been more worried than he was but he
was still just a kid and the entire experience was all still sort of a
big adventure (00:22:07:00)
�
o
o
o
o
o
o
Once Edmondson became squadron bombardier, his claim to fame was he
was good enough that he only had to do very short bombing runs; this
meant the bombers were not flying straight and level for more than twenty
or twenty-five seconds, which was considered very good (00:22:17:00)
When the bombers did bombing runs against Truk, they encountered Japanese
anti-aircraft fire, as well as some enemy fighters; however, because it was 1944,
there was not much in the way of enemy fighters (00:22:39:00)
Before attacking Truk, the bombers would stage the attack from the island
of Eniwetok, which was a short flight away from Truk; on Eniwetok, the
bombers would re-fuel (00:22:51:00)
The attacks against Truk were largely meant to destroy Japanese airfields
on the island or, at the very least, disrupt the Japanese Air Force’s ability
to launch aircraft from those airfields (00:23:08:00)
The airfields on Truk were large, which meant the bombers did not
have to be absolutely precise in their bombing runs (00:23:21:00)
During one of the missions against Truk, there was a radio station and
small airstrip located on a nearby island and Edmondson’s B-24 dropped
several 1000 lb. bombs, which managed to destroy both the airstrip and
the radio station (00:23:28:00)
Normally during the bombing runs, the B-24s carried between
twelve and sixteen 500 lb. bombs (00:23:53:00)
Most of the attacks Edmondson was a part of consisted of one squadron making a
bomb run at a time (00:24:02:00)
Apart from Truk, the 98th Bombardment also attacked Wake Island and often,
those missions were less than the entire squadron; in fact, during on of the
missions to Wake, it was only Edmondson’s B-24 (00:24:07:00)
On some of the missions, the B-24s had fighter escorts, although it did not happen
too often; there was a squadron of P-38 fighters in the area and those fighters had
enough range to stick with the B-24s during the bombing runs (00:24:34:00)
However, most of the time, the bombers were by themselves and they would
encounter a lot of enemy flak; by the time Edmondson’s B-24 was taking part in
the attacks, flak was a significant danger to the bombers (00:24:43:00)
It was not often another bomber in the squadron was shot down during a
mission; regardless, the bombers still took a lot of damage (00:25:01:00)
At one point, Edmondson received a Purple Heart, when during a
mission, the bomber was approaching the target and a 20mm round
from a Japanese Zero came into the bombardier compartment;
luckily, the round wedged into the forward tire before detonating,
otherwise, Edmondson might not have survived (00:25:07:00)
On a couple of occasions, the Norden bombsight was destroyed by
flak, with Edmondson kneeling behind it (00:25:31:00)
During the missions over Truk, the squadron only lost one or two
airplanes total (00:25:47:00)
At a certain point during the bombing run, there was an automatic pilot
component to the Norden that allowed Edmondson to take directly control of the
bomber (00:26:13:00)
�
However, Edmondson’s pilot was good and sometimes, he would maintain
control of the bomber while following direction indicators mounted in the
cockpit; other times, Edmondson would take direct control (00:26:21:00)
There was a significant amount of variance between what the
bomber crews did during missions in the Pacific Theater as
opposed to what the bomber crews during missions in the
European theater (00:26:47:00)
o Edmondson is unsure whether the major who formed
Edmondson’s bomber crew knew about the differences in
bomber crews between the two theaters and specifically
managed to get the crew assigned to Pacific (00:26:54:00)
o After about fifth or sixth mission, Edmondson’s bomber became the lead bomber
for the squadron (00:27:13:00)
Whenever a specific bomber did a good job, the crew received letters of
congratulations from the colonel commanding the 11th Bombardment
Group; Edmondson’s bomber received about half-a-dozen of the letters
(00:27:16:00)
Around the tenth or fifteenth mission, because Edmondson’s pilot was a
major, he was promoted to squadron leader; at the time, the promotion was
unusual because normally, a pilot with such little combat experience
would not have been promoted to be a squadron leader (00:28:05:00)
o Normally, the bombers would go on a mission every third day and in-between the
missions, the men lived a very bachelor life (00:28:32:00)
Edmondson played a lot of volleyball and did a lot of swimming; all in all,
Edmondson thought it was a relaxed, interesting life (00:28:46:00)
As the men flew more and more missions, they became more and more
superstitious, such as only eating certain foods, always sitting a certain
way during take off, etc. (00:29:07:00)
Some of the pilots were in their late 20s and Edmondson believes living
on the island was tougher for them than it was for him (00:29:33:00)
When the squadron moved to Guam, the officers spent some of the
time building an officer’s club (00:29:47:00)
o Edmondson’s bomber was stationed on Kwajalein from March 1944 until October
1944; by the time his bomber left Kwajalein, Edmondson had gone on around
twenty different missions (00:30:04:00)
In October, Edmondson’s whole squadron moved from Kwajalein to the island of Guam,
which was much bigger than Kwajalein (00:30:37:00)
o Guam was located in the Marianas island chain, near the islands of Saipan and
Tinian; Guam had previously been an American possession but was occupied by
the Japanese and won back by the Marines before Edmondson’s squadron arrived
on the island (00:30:43:00)
o The airfield on Guam was a little bit longer than the airfield on Kwajalein, which
was good for the take-offs (00:31:0:00)
o From Guam, the bombers primarily attacked the Japanese-held island of Iwo
Jima, mostly destroying the Japanese airfields on the island (00:31:26:00)
�
A couple of days before the Marines’ invasion of the island, the bombers
dropped incendiary bombs on the island’s beaches (00:31:38:00)
While flying over Iwo Jima, the bombers mostly encountered enemy flak,
although there were some enemy fighters (00:31:59:00)
At the time of the bombing missions, the Japanese had two airfields
already constructed and operating on Iwo Jima and they were in the
process of building a third (00:32:24:00)
Once the Marines launched their invasion, the bombers stopped their
bombing missions against the island, out of fear of accidentally hitting
friendly forces on the ground (00:32:45:00)
o After the bombers switched from bombing Iwo Jima, Edmondson cannot really
remember where their bombing missions were, although he does remember doing
some missions against the island of Palau (00:33:10:00)
o When the men were not on duty, they could go swimming, go into a small town
nearby, take classes, etc. (00:34:03:00)
For the most part, the men were counting missions and trying to get to
forty, which meant they could go home (00:34:31:00)
At one point, the officers got a couple of bottles of liquor and a couple
truckloads of lumber, so they began building an officer’s club; once the
club was complete, the officers spent their time there (00:34:47:00)
There was a hospital on the island and on some occasions, nurses
from the hospital would come to the club (00:35:01:00)
Because he was the squadron bombardier, Edmondson had additional,
clerical work to do when not on duty; however, he does not remember it
be too much of an effort (00:35:11:00)
Different men in the squadron reached the forty mission plateau at different times, and
once they reached the plateau, the men would rotate home; however, Edmondson’s crew
was given the chance to rotate home after only thirty missions (00:35:35:00)
At several different times, the men were able to take R&Rs back to Hawaii (00:35:54:00)
o Aircraft would frequently fly back and forth from Guam to Hawaii and whenever
someone was on R&R, he could just hop aboard on of those to get from one
island to another (00:36:23:00)
o The whole system of R&R did not seem very organized to Edmondson; to him, it
seemed the system was “catch as catch can” (00:36:41:00)
On both Kwajalein and Guam, the officers lived separate from the enlisted personnel, in
barracks on Kwajalein and tents on Guam (00:37:06:00)
o However, during the missions, there was camaraderie amongst the men and
everyone respected everyone else and the job they were doing (00:37:23:00)
Edmondson himself became good friends with most of the enlisted men
serving on his bomber (00:37:33:00)
o Edmondson’s nickname amongst the crew was either “junior” or “kid” because he
was young; however, the men respected Edmondson’s ability to make short
bombing runs, so it was a mutual respect between he and other men (00:37:50:00)
During a bombing run, the first thing Edmondson did, before the bombers even reached
the target, was take wind readings using the bombsight, which was then feed into the
�
bombsight, along with information about the size of the bombs being dropped and how
high the bombers were (00:38:25:00)
o Normally before a bombing run, the bombers would be flying at around 10,000’,
which meant the crew did not need separate oxygen supplies (00:38:44:00)
o The bombing missions were usually around ten hours long and once the bombers
were about half-an-hour from the target, the bombardier would start timing and
the bombers themselves would climb up to around 30,000’ (00:38:51:00)
o The bombers would normally have a pre-selected approach to the target and each
bombardier would know what his specific target was, based on the pre-mission
briefings (00:39:04:00)
o As soon as the bombers reached the desired approach, they would slowly turn as a
squadron onto the approach, after which the bombardiers would pick up the
targets and being adjusting the speed and altitude of the bomber (00:39:19:00)
o Each bomber needed to be at a certain point in space at a certain time for the
bomb to drop on the intended target; the problem is that enemy flak gunners on
the ground can work the situation backwards and figure out exactly where the
bombers needed to be to hit a specific target (00:39:37:00)
o Once the bombardiers were prepared to drop the bombs, the bombers would
continue on the approach and as they got closer to the target, the bombers would
open their bomb-bay doors (00:39:58:00)
o Once the bombers were over the target, the two sections of the bombsight would
come together and instantly release the bombs (00:40:07:00)
There was a small wire on each bomb that kept the arming device from
spinning, so that the only way the bombs would armed was when they
were a couple 100’ outside of the bomber (00:40:18:00)
o The bomber crews knew exactly how long it would take for the bombs to reach
the ground, so they would watch to see what happened; however, most of the
time, by the time the bombs impacted the ground, the bombers were already
turning for the flight back to base (00:40:33:00)
o The advantage of a short bomb run was that it gave the enemy gunners on the
round less time to target the bombers (00:40:51:00)
In late spring / early summer 1945, Edmondson’s squadron left Guam and moved to
Okinawa (00:41:21:00)
o When Edmondson’s squadron arrived at Yontan Airfield on Okinawa, the
American ground forces had not yet fully wrested control of the island from the
Japanese defenders (00:41:35:00)
For the most part, Yontan was secure, except for when a nearby
ammunition dump was destroyed (00:41:52:00)
o By the time his squadron had transferred to Okinawa, Edmondson had flown the
majority of his missions; he ended up flying only one mission over Japan and was
stationed on Okinawa for only a couple of months (00:42:27:00)
While the squadron was still stationed on Guam, the co-pilot on Edmondson’s bomber
was given command of a new bomber, which was subsequently shot down; the co-pilot
managed to ditch the bomber and although the Navy was sent in to find the co-pilot, they
never did (00:42:45:00)
�
Apart from the Japanese 20mm round coming into the compartment and the destruction
of a couple of bombsights, one time, Edmondson’s bomber was over a target when the
bomber’s hydraulic system was shot out (00:43:22:00)
o Once the bomber returned to base, the pilots could not lower the landing gear;
although the crew was able to lower the landing gear via a crank, they had done
that before and someone had forgotten to rewind the crank (00:43:39:00)
o Ultimately, the bomber ended up having to land without wheels (00:43:56:00)
Before attempting the landing, the crew threw everything that was
unnecessary out of the bomber and then everyone, save the pilot and copilot, gathered in the waist of the bomber and secured themselves as best
they could (00:44:07:00)
Once the bomber was on the ground, it skidded for about 1,500 yards
before coming to a stop; the crew, worried about the potential of a fire,
quickly moved away (00:44:24:00)
o Luckily, the landing did not disturb any of the propellers and within a week,
someone was using the bomber to fly back to Hawaii (00:44:35:00)
Edmondson does not remember the one mission he flew over Japan; it was close to the
end of his tour and he was just hoping that something would not happen (00:44:56:00)
o The mission took place in the latter part of July and Edmondson does remember
that during the briefing, the crews were told to avoid bombing Hiroshima, which
was near Kobe (00:45:09:00)
While on Okinawa, the bomber crews slept in tents with small bomb shelters built next to
them (00:45:31:00)
o At one point, a Japanese bomber flew over the base at night to drop bombs and
Edmondson remembers thinking how bad it would be to be killed at night, during
a Japanese bombing run (00:45:41:00)
End of Deployment / Post-Military Life / Reflections (00:45:56:00)
Once he completed his forty missions, Edmondson got transportation back to Hawaii;
while Edmondson was at Hickam Field on Hawaii, the Americans dropped the two
atomic bombs on Japan, which ended the war (00:45:56:00)
o During his service, Edmondson had accumulated enough “points” from medals
and missions that when he returned to Chicago, he was discharged from active
duty, although the military did make an effort to get him to join the Air Force
Reserves (00:46:11:00)
o In September 1945, Edmondson returned to Chicago, was discharged from the
military, married, and started back at Purdue (00:46:26:00)
Around the time his squadron moved from Kwajalein to Guam,
Edmondson was able to come back to the United States for a couple of
weeks on leave; the train from California to Chicago ran through Des
Moines, Iowa, which was home of the University of Iowa, where
Edmondson’s future wife was going to school (00:46:56:00)
When the train passed through Des Moines, Edmondson got off
and proposed to his future wife; he and his future wife had gone to
the same high school together, she a year younger, and they lived
within three or four blocks of each other (00:47:07:00)
�
o While Edmondson was deployed overseas, he wrote a lot of
letters to her (00:47:33:00)
o In hindsight, Edmondson did not know her too well when
he proposed and vice versa; she had changed going while
attending Iowa and he had changed from being in the
service (00:47:39:00)
While Edmondson was stationed on the various islands, he does not remember ever
seeing any USO shows (00:48:15:00)
While stationed on both Guam and Okinawa, Edmondson did see some of the local
population, Guam in particular (00:48:34:00)
o During the day, the men would take showers using 55 galleon drums and as local
civilians would walk along a nearby road, the men would wave (00:48:41:00)
o The civilians on Guam disliked the Japanese and were friendly to the men than
the civilians on Okinawa; however, Edmondson was not on Okinawa long enough
to really interact with the civilian population (00:49:14:00)
Edmondson feels that his time spent overseas helped mature him; when he returned to
Purdue, he was a lot better student (00:49:47:00)
o Edmondson came out of the military neutral in his perception of the war; he did
not have any great love of the war but on the flip side, he did not resent or object
to what he went through (00:50:07:00)
Edmondson did not really experience the major losses of personnel that
men serving in Europe did; all totaled, Edmondson’s squadron only lost
two or three bombers the whole time he was there (00:50:22:00)
When Edmondson returned to Purdue, he was not exactly sure what he would study;
during his high school graduation, he had heard a science award, so he decided to look at
science-related studies (00:50:54:00)
o Edmondson eventually became interested in chemical engineering, so about six
months after he returned to Purdue, he enrolled in the chemical engineering
program at the university (00:51:08:00)
Ultimately, enrolling in the chemical engineering program turned out to be
a good choice for Edmondson (00:51:18:00)
o Edmondson’s wife had spent two years at Iowa and had changed her major
several times before becoming pregnant, which caused her to not graduate from
the university (00:51:24:00)
o After Edmondson finished his undergraduate degree, he went through the
graduate-level chemical engineering program; while he was a graduate student,
Edmondson ended up working for the head of the program (00:51:56:00)
Edmondson finished his undergraduate degree in February 1948 and
stayed for an extra year to finish his graduate degree (00:52:19:00)
Although Edmondson knew it would have been better to attend a different
school for his graduate studies, there were enough things at Purdue to keep
him there (00:52:28:00)
After Edmondson finished his graduate degree, he met up with another student who had
been a year ahead of him and who worked for the Upjohn Company, a large
pharmaceutical company (00:52:52:00)
�o The other man convinced Edmondson to apply at Upjohn; at the time, Edmondson
had job offers from several different companies, including Upjohn, because at the
time, there was a demand for chemical engineers (00:53:13:00)
o Edmondson managed to get into Upjohn at a very good time and he has worked
with the company for several years before transferring to International, where he
eventually became head of the company’s chemical division (00:53:31:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edmondson, Keith (Interview outline and video), 2011
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Edmondson, Keith
Description
An account of the resource
Keith Edmondson was born in 1924 in Wheaton, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Glen Ellyn. After graduating from high school, Edmondson began attending Purdue University the following fall, which was where he heard about the Aviation Cadet Program, which offered a deferment from military service until the end of school; however, in February 1943, the government changed the program and Edmondson enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He trained in Texas, Idaho and Nevada and was sent to the Pacific in 1944 as a bombardier on a B-24. After receiving additional training in Hawaii, Edmondson's crew deployed to the island of Kwajalein, located in the Marshall Island chain. While stationed on Kwajalein, Edmondson's B-24 participated in bombing attacks against the Japanese-held island of Truk. Eventually, Edmondson's squadron moved from Kwajalein to Guam, where they began launched bombing attacks against Japanese-held Iwo Jima. From there, he went on to Okinawa, where he completed his requisite forty missions and rotated home.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Army Air Corps
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2011-04-14
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EdmondsonK1184V
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c2a462476ea8638c11d70dc8007ed9f.mp4
168746d21012e3268ca7d5600909e934
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f478de82f55bcc74daf53cc17da9da88.pdf
734cb68c40a653476e521945647bca16
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
World War II, Navy WAVs
Margaret Edema
Length of Interview: 20:02
(00:21)
JS: We’re talking today with Margaret Edema of Byron Center, Michigan. The interviewer is
James Smither of Grand Valley State University. Okay, Mrs. Edema, can you start by telling us
a little bit about your own background. For instance, where were you born?
ME: I was born in Cicero, Illinois.
JS: Okay, and what did your family do?
ME: My dad was a farmer.
JS: In Cicero, Illinois?
ME: Yes.
JS: Now, that dates you a little bit. (laughter)
ME: Yes.
JS: I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and Cicero was already surrounded by city.
ME: Yes. Ogden Avenue and Central Avenue. And there was a farm there.
JS: I can remember a farm stand in Hindsdale, in the early ‘60s. So I guess Cicero broke up a
few decades earlier. Okay, all right. And then, did he stay in that business then, through the
‘30s?
(01:03)
ME: My dad was a farmer all his life. He came from Holland as a farmer.
JS: And what’s your family name?
ME: Postma.
JS: Postma. A good Dutch name. Okay, so then, did you go through high school in Cicero?
ME: No, we moved to Hinsdale, Illinois, on another farm, and I went to high school in Hinsdale.
JS: And, out of curiosity, where was that farm located?
�ME: On Ogden Avenue, again. Same road. Same street, yeah.
JS: Okay. And was it near Ogden and York Road, or was it farther off than that?
ME: It was further south…further west than York Road.
JS: All right. Cause I grew up there, and there were still farms and fields out there, that side of
Ogden. Okay, a little aside there, for people not from Michigan, I guess. Okay, so then, you
attended high school in Hinsdale. Was the high school kind of in the downtown of Hinsdale, at
that point?
ME: Oh, yes. It was a big high school. We had a hundred in my class.
(02:05)
JS: All right. That was the building my mother tore down and replaced with the new junior high
school, when she was president of the school board. And again, another aside from people not
from Michigan. Ahh, okay. Now, do you remember how you heard about Pearl Harbor, and the
beginning of the war.
ME: Oh, everybody was war-minded. I worked in a defense plant. My sister worked at
Douglas Aircraft. And we sort of joined forces and she went to work at [Electra-motive] and I
went to work at a defense corporation that was building a plant for the Aluminum Company of
America.
JS: And where was that?
ME: So we drove together. That was in LaGrange, Illinois.
(02:53)
JS: Okay. Now, let’s see, you start working there in ’40? ’41. Or was it…
ME: Oh, it must have been ’41, I guess.
JS: Okay. And when did you graduate from high school?
ME: 1940.
JS: Okay. Now, what kind of work were you doing then?
ME: I was a secretary. Secretary to the project manager of the whole plant, which was a great
big outfit.
JS: About how many people do you think were working there then?
ME: Oh, thousands. Building, of every trade.
�JS: And so it’s an aluminum company. Were they making parts for things…
ME: They were making airplane parts.
JS: Parts. All right. Now, before Pearl Harbor, were you kind of paying attention to what was
going on in the world or were you working, doing any kind of war-type work before Pearl
Harbor? Before the end of ’41.
(03:48)
ME: I don’t exactly remember Pearl Harbor. I mean, I remember it happening, but I don’t know
where I was then. (laughs)
JS: Okay. But then certainly once the war is going, you’re actively involved in the war industry.
And how long did you stay in that job?
ME: I worked there two years. When the plant was finished, the jobs all ended. The secretarial
jobs in the office. And that’s when I joined the service.
JS: Okay. And then which branch of the service did you join?
ME: I joined the Navy.
JS: And why did you pick the Navy?
ME: Well, they had the nicest uniforms and they had, I thought, the nicest…
JS: Okay. And when did you enlist?
ME: In 1944.
(04:38)
JS: And once you enlist, how did that process work? I mean, first of all, how did you find out
about the opportunity?
ME: Oh, we had signs all over. Everybody was very war conscious.
JS: And then, take us through the process. Where did you go to sign up, and then…
ME: Chicago, Illinois. I was downtown and walked past the recruiting office and thought, I
better see what that’s all about. So I went in and before I knew it, I was signed up. (smiles)
JS: All right. Now once you were signed up, then what did you do? Where’d you go, or what
kind of training did you get?
�ME: Well, I had training before, commercial training. I went to commercial school. I had
worked three years as a secretary, so they were glad to get help before they offered me help in
the Navy.
JS: So, where was the first place the Navy assigned you?
ME: Bronx, New York, Hunter College, boot camp.
JS: Okay…
ME: For six weeks, then I went to Stillwater, Oklahoma.
JS: Now what, what kind of boot camp did they give you?
ME: Oh, that was great. Marched all over New York, it seemed like. In the rain and in the
snow. (laughter) It was February.
JS: What sort of people did they have training you?
ME: Very competent. I envied those girls who were in charge of us.
JS: Do you have any sense of how they ended up being in charge there?
ME: Oh, I suppose…I don’t really know that.
(06:04)
JS: About how old were they?
ME: Probably my age. I think most of them were college grads.
JS: And they had just gotten in before you, and…
ME: And I was only a high school grad, so we got the lower edge.
JS: All right. Aside from marching you around a lot in the rain, what else did they do?
ME: Oh, we learned about the Navy. We had lots of Navy regulations to learn, and we were
given clothes, and learned how to march. We did a lot of that.
JS: Okay. Now, having been in the Chicago area and having been in the city, we were already
more, even though you had grown up around farms, you already had more exposure to big cities
than most people had. What did you think of New York when you got there?
(06:55)
ME: Well, I tell you, we didn’t get out of there for six weeks. We stayed right there. And, then,
I had a friend who came from Chicago and who showed me New York. For one weekend, which
�was great. He was on a ship that happened to be stationed in port in New York, and so he just
happened to be there at the same time I was.
JS: So what did you go and see on that weekend?
ME: Oh, music. What do you call it, Music…
JS: Radio City…
ME: Yeah. Radio City. He took me up in the Empire State Building. Just downtown New
York.
JS: All right. So you finish boot camp. Where do you go next?
ME: I went to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to yeoman school.
JS: Now, why was the Navy in Stillwater, Oklahoma?
ME: That’s where the yeoman school was. They took over A & M University.
JS: So what became Oklahoma State, eventually.
ME: That’s right.
(07:58)
JS: Okay. And what sort of place was that?
ME: Oh, wonderful. We had girls’ dorms. It was a good place to be.
JS: Okay. Now what kind of training did you get in yeoman school?
ME: Same thing I took before. Shorthand, typing, some more Navy regs. And we marched, and
I guess, mostly discipline.
JS: And what kind of women were in there with you?
ME: Same like me. Some with more education, some with less. I would say. I found some
good friends.
JS: And how long do they have you there?
ME: Three months.
JS: Now did you get much of a chance while you were there to get off the base?
ME: Oh, yeah. I went to Oklahoma City, and I went to the little town of Stillwater.
�JS: So what was there to do around there?
ME: Well, not much. We played pool a lot. (laughs) But I went to Oklahoma City almost
every weekend because we had a service home there from our church.
(09:06)
JS: And, so, what did that mean in terms of what you could do, or what you could see…
ME: I took a bus. And I stayed overnight with Reverend Bradt and his family. And I helped her
entertain the soldiers that came there. And we fed them and all that sort of thing.
JS: Okay. Now do you remember anything particular events or things that went on there, things
that you remember in particular about being out in Oklahoma?
ME: It was windy. We’d stand on the parade grounds and the wind would blow the hats and
away they’d go and we couldn’t do a thing about it but watch them go.
JS: Okay. What time of year were you there?
ME: I was there from, oh, probably April.
JS: April til July, something like that?
ME: April til June, I left there.
JS: So they moved you out before it got really hot.
(10:08)
ME: Yes. It wasn’t hot there. It was good weather.
JS: All right. Now, once you finish yeoman school, where do they send you?
ME: Washington, D.C., to the Bureau of Ships.
JS: Okay. And what kind of work did you do there?
ME: Secretary. Same thing I did before.
JS: Okay. But secretarial work can cover a lot of different things, so…
ME: We did ship repairs. Every port that the ship’s came into, had to have a copy of whatever
went on in another report, so that if that ship came in there, they knew exactly what was done
before. And I typed a lot of ship alts.
JS: Okay. And what kinds of repairs seemed to happen most often?
�(10:52)
ME: Well, when they were bombed, the ships were bombed. And they’d come in for repairs.
They’d been out in the water a long time and they’d come in for repairs.
JS: Okay. Now, what kind of set up were you in? The Bureau of Ships, was that in…
ME: That was a very big, temporary office right next to the Washington Monument.
JS: Okay. And what kind of combination of people, or personnel were working there? Who
were you working with?
ME: I think half were civilians. Civil service people. The other half was Navy.
JS: And what proportion of men to women?
ME: Oh. I think less women than men.
JS: Okay. And then what kind of office set up were you in?
ME: Well, we had three officers who were the head of our section, and we took care of the troop
ships. That was our section. And two of us girls worked there. The other girls was a civilian,
and I was a yeoman. And men came in, officers came in and out. Very fast. I started to work
with a Commander and pretty soon, he got to be a Captain, and so out he went, back to sea some
place. And then they sent another fella in to be the head of the section, and then, so whoever
came in, I worked for them.
(12:15)
ME: And finally a Captain came, a Commander came in and he was immediately promoted to a
Captain, and a month later he was promoted to the head of the whole section. And so I went
with him, I was his secretary.
JS: Okay. Do you remember his name?
ME: Captain Brady.
JS: Now, with these officers coming in, were these guys who had been at sea already?
ME: Some were. Some were ninety day wonders. (laughs)
(12:54)
JS: And what does that mean, for people who don’t know?
ME: That means they were college grads and because of their education, they just got a rank
immediately.
�JS: And then they were sent directly from that, into your office. Was there a difference as far as
you could tell, between the ninety days wonders and the other guys?
ME: Sure, yeah. Those fellas who had been out to sea were hard core guys.
JS: And how easy were they to work with, or get along with?
ME: Okay. Very good. I had a wonderful boss.
JS: And did they tell you anything about where they had been, or what they had done?
Anything like that?
(13:29)
ME: Not much. Captain Brady didn’t talk much about his past, but he was a graduate from a
Navy…
JS: The Naval Academy in Annapolis?
ME: Naval Academy, yes. So he had been in the Navy all his life.
JS: About how old was he?
ME: Oh, by that time, he was probably forty five. Of course, I was only twenty, so you know…
JS: Yes, that was old. (laughter)
ME: Yeah.
JS: Now, what was life like in Washington at that point?
ME: Oh, lots of service people. The streets were crowded with service people.
JS: Where did you live?
ME: I lived in the barracks, right next to the Lincoln Memorial. Between the Lincoln Memorial
and the Potomac River. Right near the bridge to the Arlington Cemetery.
(14:20)
JS: And did you have to share a room with people, or…
ME: We lived in cubicle and I shared with another girl. A cubicle. All we had was a cot and a
desk and a closet. And a place to get in and out, that’s all.
JS: ‘Cause housing was certainly scarce in Washington at that point.
ME: Oh, yeah.
�JS: Some of the people I’ve talked to had to share an apartment with six people and things like
that. I don’t know. Did you like living in the barracks, or…
ME: Well, it was very convenient and very beautiful. I walked to work. I started a half hour
later than everybody else because I could stay a half hour longer. Because when they dealt with
the west coast time change, and those fellas needed help after the rest went home. So I always
stayed late.
(15:14)
JS: Okay. But they didn’t have people there around the clock?
ME: Well, I suppose they had guards. I’m sure they did.
JS: Yeah, but it was not a twenty-four, seven office at the time, like now?
ME: No.
JS: Okay. What were you able to do when you were off duty?
ME: Anything we pleased. We got in every facility free because we were in uniform.
Washington Monument, we walked in several times just because we were in uniform. And I
started to make friends with people who lived there, and went to their homes quite a bit. On
weekends. We were free on weekends.
JS: Okay. And, did you meet any interesting young men to go out with, anything like that?
ME: Oh, yeah, a lot of them. (laughs) That’s before I dragged my husband home.
(16:09)
JS: Okay. Now, when did you meet him?
ME: I don’t know. What year was that? About 1945?
Husband: ’44.
ME: ’44.
JS: And he was stationed in Washington at that time?
ME: No. He came from Aberdeen, Maryland. Sometimes he was in Pennsylvania. For a while
he was in Georgia. But he always managed to come back.
(16:41)
JS: What do you think was your favorite part about living in Washington at that point?
�ME: I think it was exciting to be there. We saw everything that went on. President Roosevelt
died while I was there. That was an exciting time. And we marched for that funeral. And, oh, I
think anything else that went on, we were right up there, front and center.
(17:10)
JS: Now where you were, did any of the higher up, brass types come through, or did you mostly
deal with the middle man office in the Bureau of Ships?
ME: Only my officer, Captain Brady. He was the only one I really dealt with.
JS: Now, describe for us what a typical day was like for you, working in the Bureau of Ships.
ME: Oh, I’d walk to work and make coffee for the guys. I don’t know why I was always elected
to make coffee, so…wash the dishes. Took dictation. My boss told a lot of stories. I did a lot of
listening.
(17:57)
JS: What’d he tell stories about if…
ME: Oh, his life. His family. He had several children, and…
JS: Okay. And was it mostly a pretty busy place?
ME: Oh, yeah. Very busy. We had about fifty people in just that one section.
JS: Okay. And then, how long did you stay in that job?
ME: The whole time I was there.
JS: And then when did you finish?
ME: February of 1946.
JS: Okay. And what kind of work was there to do, sort of after the war was over?
ME: Oh, pick up the pieces, I think. They seemed to carry on pretty much as before. There
wasn’t much difference.
JS: There was less battle damage, maybe.
ME: That’s right.
(18:50)
JS: But you still had a lot of ships out there, to bring back. Repairs and maintenance to do.
ME: We did a lot of work with the troop transport ships. With a lot of boys coming home.
�JS: Are there other things about this work, kind of distinctive things that you remember, that
stick with you, that you think back to. What now comes into your head?
ME: I don’t know. I never dreaded going to work. I was always anxious to go in the morning.
It was interesting. I didn’t type ship alts anymore. That was one good thing. (laughs) That was
done with the other echelon. I had moved up with this Captain and his work was different.
JS: Well, what kind of work did he have you do, as opposed to just the ship reports?
(19:37)
ME: Oh, I did a lot of letter writing for him. And he did a lot of, I think, his memoirs, that I
typed for him.
JS: Okay. And then what did you do after you left the service?
ME: After I left the service, I went home to Elgin, Illinois. My parents had lived in Elgin. Got a
job, as a secretary for Motorola.
JS: And how long did you stay in that?
ME: Oh, not very long, because George came home in May and we were married two weeks
later, so…then we moved away.
JS: And when do you come to Byron Center?
ME: Oh, not until this past July. Took him sixty one years to get me to Byron Center.
JS: That’s basically what we need there, so thank you very much for talking to us today.
ME: It’s been good. Been a pleasure.
(20:35)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edema, Margaret (Interview transcript and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Edema, Margaret
Description
An account of the resource
Margaret Edema was born in Cicero, Illinois and grew up on a farm, graduating from high school in 1940. She remembered everyone pulling together for the war effort. After school, Margaret began working for Douglas Aircraft where thousands of people were making parts for planes. Margaret joined the Navy in 1944 because the factory had closed and she could not find other work. She went to boot camp in New York and then began working as a secretary for a naval officer in Washington DC.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
BCTV
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Naval Reserve. Women's Reserve
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Women
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-02-05
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EdemaM
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5532e8dc660dab1118fd5e7476503377.mp4
61fcc2427d2f428f2279502cf72c4e1f
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/33d23be37ecbbed335845b0752df78df.pdf
914303833ba9bc0f2b3cb65a9b45715d
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
George Edema
(00:37:56)
(00:30) Background Information
• George was born in Byron Center, Michigan and had six other siblings
• His older had joined the service during World War Two before he had
• His father was a farmer and they owned some land in Byron
• George graduated in 1942 when he was 17 years old and then began working in a
meat market
• George received his draft papers and got a physical in January
• He started his service in the Army in March of 1943
(3:10) Basic Training
• George began training in Wyoming and had never been so far from home in his
life
• He took a troop train to Wyoming and stopped in Chicago on the way to take an
aptitude test
• Training consisted of calisthenics, marching at high altitudes, and running in cold
weather with gas masks on
• George also had rifle training and found that the physical work was not difficult
for him
• The drill sergeants acted like they were superior to the whole world
• George trained in Wyoming for 13 weeks
(8:20) California
• Here the men lived in horse stalls, but the weather was very nice
• George went to automotive school and was told that he had been in the wrong
class after eleven weeks of training
• He then had training in small arms school working with rifles and pistols for
twelve weeks
• George was asked to be an instructor in the small arms classes, but called into
ASTP after instructing for only two weeks
(10:00) Army Specialized Training Program
• George attended engineering school in California for one month
• He trained five days a week and had the weekends off
• The locals in California were all very nice to the men in the service
• George then went to the University of Indiana, but washed out after five months
because the classes were too hard
(13:45) Maryland
• George was working with the engineering corps, learning about mechanics and
working on everything except tanks
�•
•
•
•
He then went to Georgia for six weeks and trained specifically with Jeep engines
George went back to Wyoming for more training, but hurt his knee and was off
his feet for six months
He had surgery on the cartilage of his knee and then took some time off on leave
to visit his family
After his time on leave, George continued training in mechanics traveling to
Pennsylvania and California
(20:10) Overseas
• George took a ship to India from California and found that the voyage was “not
pleasant”
• Everyone was sick and the weather was bad
• They landed in Calcutta and it was a cultural shock for everyone
• George had never seen so many poor people in his entire life
• They took a train to Burma and then a plane to China to their headquarters
• George got sick with Diphtheria and had to go to the hospital
• When he was out of the hospital, he began working on repairing thing in a very
dirty and unsafe area
(31:20) Treatment for Diphtheria
• George had been on duty when his legs started to feel weird and he found it hard
to walk
• He found he had a reaction to the Diphtheria treatment and that he was becoming
paralyzed
• He had to go to another hospital in Shanghai, and get massage therapy
• After recovering, George traveled back to Washington
• On May 12, 1946 he went to visit his soon-to-be wife and her family back in
Wyoming
• He then went to another hospital in Chicago for further recovery
• He got married two weeks after he was discharged
(35:50) Life After the Service
• George began working on his wife’s brother’s farm
• He then went into business with his father in law
• George later spent 35 years in the garbage removal business
• His time in the service allowed him to travel a lot
• He had a good experience, but would never do it again
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edema, George (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Edema, George
Description
An account of the resource
George Edema was drafted into the Army in March of 1943. George traveled around the US for training and was then asked to be an instructor in small arms. He only taught for two weeks before he was called into the Army Specialized Training program. George then went to India, Burma and China for a short amount of time before he caught diphtheria and was sent back to the US.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
BCTV
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Army
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-02-05
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EdemaG
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c0920751d537d71c33155fa6fe11a7bd.mp4
c6049e0d57a7bdb2eae7f3286e24200b
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b14af11d257c8001ffad7de02b56d08e.pdf
26173d01631a433263c5fe91d7476ab2
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
August Edema
(36:27)
(00:13) Background Information
•
August was born in Byron Center, MI in 1920
•
His family had a 60 acre farm and 6 kids
•
His father worked in a shop once in a while for extra money
•
August went to work on the farm after 8th grade
•
He was drafted when he was 20 in 1941 [1942?] after Pearl Harbor had been attacked
(03:25) Training
•
On October 17, he was inducted in Kalamazoo, MI and then sent to Fort Custer
•
August then went to Camp Adair, OR, which was new
•
It took him 5 days to get there by train
•
He became part of the 96th Infantry Division
•
They trained in wheat fields, marching with rifles
•
August stayed there after boot camp to help train new recruits as a staff sergeant
•
He arrived on the west coast in 1942 and left in 1944
•
August also trained people at Fort Lewis, WA and in California
•
He received amphibious training
•
Before he left for the Military he got married and while he was on the west coast he lived
with his wife in an apartment off base
(12:07) Deployment
•
August left from Oakland, CA in July, 1944 on a troop ship that held 3,000 people and
had bunks 5 high
•
They went to Hawaii and trained for a couple months
•
After Hawaii they passed New Guinea and landed at Leyte, Philippines
•
By this time he was platoon sergeant
•
After arriving on the beach they moved into the jungle, which was hot and humid
�•
There were 2 regiments on the beach
•
They would call back for artillery when there were a lot of enemies
•
He landed on the beach on October 20 and left November 13
•
August started with about 40 men and was down to about half in the end
•
The Japanese had bunkers and HQs with old communication equipment
(25:20) Wounded
•
August was wounded on November 13, 1944
•
He was hit in the hand, leg, and neck
•
August was moved to Guam for a month, Hawaii for a month and then to California for a
month
•
The last hospital he was in was in Atterbury, IN
•
He had gangrene in his hand and they had to use maggots to fix it
•
August was discharged after the war was over
(33:43) Discharge
•
After his discharge he went home and farmed for 10 years but the doctors told him he
shouldn’t do it anymore because of his injuries
•
He then got a realtors license
•
August has a son and a grandson that went into the military
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edema, August (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Edema, August
Description
An account of the resource
August Edema was born in Byron Center, Michigan in 1920. He was drafted after Pearl Harbor was attacked when he was 20. He went to the west coast and trained in the 96th Division. They made him a staff sergeant and he trained new recruits for 2 years. After that he went to Leyte, Philippines and was a platoon sergeant. August fought in the jungle of the Philippines until he was wounded on November 13, 1944. He spent the rest of the war in hospitals in the Pacific and the US, and was discharged when the war ended.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
BCTV
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Army
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-02-19
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EdemaA
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0f266a22ccaced0b0f17b79d6d02c468.mp4
7f29efbf3640b887945d65d27c0f2564
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1b9d8ade96b01fa24b9fbd6511ac47bd.pdf
18fced3de2eb3e0476515d3c6031a081
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
World War II
Don Eckman
Length of interview (1:13:16)
(0:00:00 – 0:08:11) Background
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 25, 1925 (0:00:10)
Grew up outside of Lake Odessa (0:23:00)
Grew up with grandmother, due to mother’s health problems (0:37:00)
Grandmother lived in the country, on an 80 acre farm, this is where he grew up, and
“learned to work” (0:58:00)
Had a sister, three years younger (0:01:10)
Schooling (0:01:16- 0:04:27)
Went to country school for 8 years, a mile away from his home, and he walked to school
High School was 4 miles away, and he was bused to the school
Grandmother’s only income was from the farm (0:02:03)
Was in high school when Pearl Harbor happened, heard about it on the radio (0:02:57)
Reaction to Pearl Harbor was “too young to really know what was going on” (03:22:24)
Could have avoided going to war because of farming, which was a deferment (0:03:54)
Lost interest in farming, and his friends enlisted in the armed forces, so he joined, too
(0:04:27)
(0:04:11 – 0:07:14) Enlistment
Enlisted in March 1944 (0:04:17)
Went to Detroit for a physical, was signed up for the Army Air Force to do bookwork,
however the draft board said he had to join the Army (0:04:45)
After passing the physical, was sent the next day to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and stayed for
2-3 days (0:05:00)
After Illinois, traveled to Camp Blanding in Florida by train (0:05:14)
Camp Blanding was located on the east side of the state, located near the town of Stark
and Silver Springs (0:06:26)
Describes a big camp, the residential places the troops stayed were 8-9 man huts
(0:06:54)
Basic Training (0:07:14- 0:11:09)
Basic training consisted of learning the basics of the army (0:07:19)
Learned a lot of discipline, “learning to do what you were told, rather than doing what
you think is right” (0:07:34)
�
The things that disgusted him the most was getting the shots in the afternoon on Saturday,
which would spoil the afternoon (0:07:46)
Couldn’t leave camp for 3 or so weeks when you first got there (0:08:11)
Physical training included marches, hikes, and obstacle courses, weightlifting logs
(0:08:33)
Most guys were older than Eckman, many were married (0:08:42)
Basic training was 17 weeks (0:09:09)
On the weekends was granted liberty (0:09:16)
Trained for use of the rifle, pistols, carbines, hand grenade, bayonets, bazookas, and the
.50 caliber machine gun (0:09:40)
Was at Camp Blanding when D-Day happened (0:10:25)
Finished basic training in August, went home for 1 or 2 weeks and then was sent to Camp
Shanks, New York (0:10:42)
Stayed there until he was ready to move overseas (0:11:10)
(0:11:09- 0:54:35) Active Duty
Traveled on a ship called the Ile de France, one of the largest French liners (0:11:36)
Was a passenger in the bottom deck, on the highest bunk (0:12:09)
Was not part of a convoy, they were by themselves (0:12:41)
Landed in Glasgow, Scotland (0:13:04)
Once in Glasgow, they were sent on trains to southern England (0:13:16)
Ended up in Sunbury, England (0:13:21)
Stayed there several weeks and was put through basic training (0:13:35)
Company was divided, one half sent to London, the other half sent to France (0:14:25)
Eckman’s company was sent to a replacement depot by open top trucks (0:14:40)
Stayed at the depot 3-4 weeks (0:15:20)
Assigned to 3rd Division, Company B of the 15th Infantry (0:15:27)
Joined the company in the town of Nancy (0:15:53)
The company was refurbishing rifles, repackaging ammunition, resupplied equipment
(0:16:02)
Not very many men joined the company, maybe 3-4 men (0:16:23)
No one knew anything about infantry at the time (16:37:19)
The company had probably 50-60 men (0:16:45)
Was part of the 3rd Platoon, there were 12-15 men in that platoon (0:17:05)
After a few days, he felt accepted and part of the group (0:17:50)
Was in Nancy for a few days, they were headed to Strasbourg (0:18:16)
Strasbourg was occupied by the Germans, and the Germans intended to use it for the
winter (0:18:39)
Saw first combat in Strasbourg. Entered Strasbourg at night, entered with tanks. The first
thing he remembers hearing was machine guns (0:19:07)
Company moved into Strasbourg as the Germans moved back, never went into the city of
Strasbourg (0:21:09)
�
The Germans harassed the company with mortar and other fire from across the river
where their encampment was (0:22:28)
After Strasbourg, headed south through small towns (0:23:15)
Their job was to chase the Germans out of the small towns (0:23:35)
Came to a building that was full of women and children (0:24:49)
Encountered many German infantrymen (0:25:12)
Spent most of their nights sleeping outside (0:26:46)
Sigelsheim was a town that put up the biggest resistance (0:27:27)
Company attacked Sigelsheim the day before Christmas, lost a lot of men (0:27:43)
Hit in the leg, after 2 weeks sent back to the unit, and joined the same platoon (0:30:41)
His job was to walk point, which he maintained since began with the outfit (0:31:59)
He learned his job through experience, and learning what to be ready for (0:32:16)
He walked out of combat with his injury and was sent to a hospital in Nancy for 2 weeks
(0:33:12)
Was sent back to his unit and were sent to a town with a wall around it (0:33:48)
Joined same platoon , new platoon leader named Lieutenant Murphy and was men were
given guard duty (0:34:48)
Lieutenant Murphy was very compassionate (0:35:57)
Platoon moved towards Colmar, the fighting got more intense as the troops pushed the
Germans further against the Rhine River (0:36:57)
While serving as point man, came to an opening in a field, a German fired at him with a
machine pistol, then Eckman fired at him, shot the German in the rear, and the German
turned around and said to him “You shot me fair and square” (0:38:32)
Encountered SS troops, who liked overcoats and watches (0:39:54)
Eckman took a SS soldiers watch, Lieutenant Murphy made him give it back (0:40:15)
Never picked up souvenirs as he moved through towns, didn’t want to get caught with
anything (0:40:42)
While based in France, saw civilians in towns (0:41:34)
Civilians were friendly towards soldiers, but still scared (0:41:51)
Speaks of the mission in Holzwehr for which Lieutenant Murphy won the Medal of
Honor (0:43:00- 0:0:50:23)
Stayed with unit, near Neuf Brisach (0:53:26)
Was serving bazooka duty, with .35 caliber pistol and a bandolier of ammunition while
struck by artillery or mortar (0:54:35)
Discharge (0:54:35- 1:02:22)
Was sent to a hospital for a few days, then flew to England and stayed in a hospital for a
few months until the first of May, then took a boat back to the United States, injury
prevented him from doing any further combat (0:55:56)
Heard that the Germans had surrendered while on the ship back to the U.S. (0:58:45)
Stayed in Iowa for 2 weeks to take care of paperwork (0:59:58)
(1:02:22 - 1:13:16) Post Service
�
Came back to Michigan, returned to farming (1:02:22)
Did not go to college, went to local high school for farm mechanics (1:02:40)
Went to work for the post office as a rural mail carrier in Lake Odessa for 30 years
(1:03:04)
His “folks says he was a different person when he returned” (1:03:29)
Learned to be a lot more independent (1:03:34)
Did not hold any grudges, tried to get along with anyone, would not care to go through it
again (1:03:55)
Had one son, who was in the Air Force (1:04:19)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Eckman, Donald (Interview outline and video), 2011
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Eckman, Donald
Description
An account of the resource
Don Eckman, of Lake Odessa, Michigan enlisted in the Army in March, 1944. He was in basic training in Florida at the time of D-Day, and shipped to Europe in the fall of 1944. He was assigned to the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, at Nancy, France, and participated in fighting at Strasbourg and other places in Alsace, regularly walking point for his platoon. He was wounded twice in the space of several months, and was already on a ship heading for home when the Germans surrendered in May, 1945.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Army
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-09-21
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EckmanD1256V
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b84cf284b1d55acb5298c445f9761e23.pdf
32f2e1bf6d12a77f60680c30a484c0f1
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Cold War Era
Michael Eames
Total Time – (07:15)
Background
He was born in Buffalo, New York – May 14, 1959 (01:31)
His grandfather was born in Ireland
o He traveled to New York City where he became a policeman (01:48)
He has one older brother
Enlistment/Training – (02:25)
He decided to enlist into the Army because he wanted to become a chef (02:26)
o He wanted to receive the G.I. so he could pay to become a chef
He graduated in June, 1977 and was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey in July (03:04)
Basic training was extremely structured (03:11)
o It had a lot of training – training with machine guns, grenades, anti-nuclear
and anti-terrorist training
It was much easier to learn how to cook than it was to do military training (03:32)
He was able to learn a lot about hospital diets
Active Duty – (03:50)
In January, 1978 he was sent to the Second General Hospital in Landstuhl,
Germany (04:00)
o It is the largest hospital in Europe
The patient level was typically 150-350 patients (04:14)
o They had to deliver hot meals 3 times a day
He once served General Alexander Haig who commanded all of the troops in
Europe
He would talk to his parents on the phone (05:14)
o When talking, he had to say “over and out” or the connection would not
go through (05:18)
o He was able to write a lot of letters
After the Service – (05:05)
He was released from the service in June, 1980 (05:30)
He attended the Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park (05:39)
�
o The G.I. Bill was extremely useful
He graduated in 1982(05:58)
He was then hired in Sun Valley Resort in Idaho to become the head chef (06:03)
The Army taught him a lot about life, people, and knowing himself
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Eames, Michael (Interview outline), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Eames, Michael
Description
An account of the resource
Michael Eames was born in 1959 in Buffalo, New York. He decided to enlist into the Army so that he could utilize the G.I. Bill and eventually become a chef. Michael spent time in basic training learning how to use machine guns and grenades while also receiving anti-nuclear and anti-terrorist training. He was then sent to Landstuhl, Germany where he served in the Second General Hospital.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Beering, Ryan (Interviewer)
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Army
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05-28
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EamesM1414V
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a0e2fb6efc2e758b09a85b43f1fbf15d.mp4
63d96de2cb201b7a33020247ccf08645
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/91fb42150d57b30e18e2baa9f0abba6f.pdf
f79fb89a76c83cc658f23d172ca425f8
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Name of Interviewee: Fred Bernhardt
Name of War: World War II
Length of Interview (00:36:31)
Disc Two
(00:30) Marine Photographer
There were picture sets available to all those in the division for a price [this was discussed
because Bernhardt bought a set of photos from Saipan from a Marine photographer, and this set
is included in his file for this project—Bernhardt also states that he was in one of the pictures,
which was how he met the photographer]
Service men were not allowed to have a camera and there was nowhere to purchase film
Fred was able to purchase a nice German camera from a man in Japan
He patrolled Japanese towns all day and was then allowed to go sightseeing with his camera
once his shift was up
They stayed in a nice Japanese hotel with great Japanese food
(8:20) Unsen, Japan
This as a large, beautiful resort town
They had community baths that were very hot and large
Fred and others watched stage shows that were similar to American plays
There were about 35 men in the unit, but not a lot of other military police in the area
(14:45) Former Soldiers
There were many discharged Japanese soldiers that were not friendly to the American soldiers
They would not talk to the American soldiers or even look them in the eyes
A civilian who had seen the bomb go off from in the mountains about 20 miles away told him
that they had no idea what was going on and it was like the end of the world
Many Japanese men were trying to get American soldiers to date their daughters and take them
back to America
Some men did bring back women to the US
(18:20) Duties in Japan
Fred had been working with the military police and keeping an eye on American soldiers
The Japanese police watched the civilians and they were all pretty tough
Fred spent 9 months in Japan while Nagasaki was being rebuilt
(24:00) Transport Ship back to the US
The ship was crowded and the men had to sleep on cots
They stopped in Hawaii to refuel and this time Fred did not get sea sick
They landed back in San Diego and he traveled to the Great Lakes Naval base in Chicago
(26:20) Life after the Service
Fred went back to visit his friends and took some time off
He did not even look for a job for about two months
� He began working at the American Seating Company for about a year
Fred was then an apprentice for four years doing iron work and he eventually got his
journeyman papers
(29:15) Photography
Fred joined the Grand Rapids Camera Club and became more interested in the subject
It had been a hobby, but everyone he knew had encouraged him to turn it into a career
He began taking other photography classes and joined the Professional Photographers of
America
�Left to right: Fred Bernhardt and Jeep; Joe Pannella, R. Summers, E. A. Spellman
Fred Bernhardt as MP, Japan
�Fred Bernhardt discovering native family in hiding on Saipan after the capture of the island.
�Nagasaki
���������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BernhardtF2
Title
A name given to the resource
Bernhardt, Fred (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2007
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bernhardt, Fred
Description
An account of the resource
Fred Bernhardt enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in early 1944. He served in the Pacific Theater of WWII as an artillery observer for naval bombardments. He also served as a guard of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, and was part of the post-war occupation force as an MP in the Nagasaki area.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-11-13
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e79650c46df147a48da4e1bd93173b4f.mp4
7a4e924ed0c8075f8af2df00894ea208
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/357e5f0911edda2b4d47d31d6d96d505.pdf
15c7f5895cf6847a6200921c791f890c
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
Korean War
Laverne Bivens
Interview Length: (00:19:53:00)
Training and Service (00:00:27:00)
One day, he received a letter saying that his friends and neighbors had chosen him
to serve in the military (00:00:27:00)
o This was during the Korean War, when there was a military draft and
because of the draft, the military ended up choosing the branch Bivens
would serve in, the Army (00:00:34:00)
Following the letter, Bivens went to Battle Creek, Michigan and Fort Custer,
where he was inducted into the Army; from Fort Custer, he went to Camp
Atterberry, Indiana for his basic training (00:00:49:00)
o After basic training, he was allowed two days leave, which Bivens used to
get married (00:01:02:00)
Following the two-day leave, Bivens got on a train for Washington state, where
he then got on a troop ship and head towards Alaska (00:01:13:00)
When the ship arrived in Alaska, it pulled off at Kodiak island, where it stayed for
some time (00:01:24:00)
o Once the men had disembarked and made their way to Fairbanks, they
learned that they reason they stayed at Kodiak was that the original dock
at which they were supposed to land had blown up (00:01:43:00)
While he was in Fairbanks, Bivens was part of the 4th Regimental Combat team,
which served as ground defense for the Air Force (00:01:59:00)
They arrived in Alaska in June, 1953 and Bivens was assigned to the tank
company, although he did not know anything about a tank, except what it looked
like (00:02:18:00)
o He was eventually detached from the tank company and assigned to
headquarters, where he held security information material for the battalion
commander (00:02:36:00)
o During this time, his unit became quite acquainted with the native
Alaskans, who used their dog sleds to take the men where they needed to
go (00:02:53:00)
o While in Alaska, the men had to set up a tent in the Alaskan cold, which
would reach sixty degrees below zero at night (00:03:13:00)
While in the military, Bivens learned: authority, how to keep information secret
and he gained many friends (00:03:34:00)
His wife was with him in Alaska because she was a registered nurse and they
ended up having their first child in Alaska; his wife worked at a civilian hospital
in Fairbanks (00:04:00:00)
When he and his wife left Alaska, they took a car that they had bought there and
traveled down the Alcan Highway (00:04:29:00)
�
o They eventually made their way to Chicago so that Bivens could be
discharged (00:04:44:00)
o Camp Atterbury, where he had done his basic training, was near Chicago
and where he was discharged (00:04:48:00)
While in high school, Bivens was the president of the local FFA (Future Farmers
of America) chapter; he was preparing to be a farmer, a job that he wanted to do
(00:05:09:00)
When he came back from the military, Bivens still wanted to farm, so he went
into partnership with his father at a dairy farm and after about eight years, he
bought his own farm (00:05:28:00)
o He and his wife eventually had five children, all who were involved in the
farming (00:05:53:00)
There was times when Bivens was somewhat afraid because the men were in
Alaska to protect to coast from the Russians coming across, something that the
men thought was a real possibility (00:06:21:00)
o One time, he was out on a project and when he came back to base, one of
the buildings in the battalion was burnt to the ground (00:06:40:00)
o He later learned that the persons cleaning the building used gasoline to
clean the floors and the gasoline ended up exploding on them and burning
the cleaners alive (00:06:58:00)
o There was no one shooting at the men but they still lost soldiers in the
company (00:07:12:00)
o In Bivens’ job, there was a spy in the outfit that was getting engineering
plans for some of the unit’s equipment and sending the information over to
the Russians (00:07:17:00)
Bivens was involved in the trial, which made his fearful because he
did not know if the Russians would retaliate against him for what
he had said at the trial (00:07:37:00)
o It was not bullets bouncing around that made him fearful, but it was things
that made him wonder what was next (00:07:54:00)
The food was “tremendous” and consisted of C and K rations (00:08:10:00)
o Even most dogs would vomit of they ate the rations, which were in truth,
terrible (00:08:35:00)
o Some of the jelly cakes and crackers, amongst other things, were edible
but they still ended up eating the bad rations, because it was what they had
to eat (00:08:43:00)
o He would have much rather ate the jackrabbit and caribou that he hunted,
which was delicious (00:09:04:00)
On his spare time, Bivens would check and M1 rifle out from the supply
department and go caribou hunting, or a shotgun and go rabbit hunting, or a tent
and go out on a little trip with his friends (00:09:18:00)
o For the thirty day leave that he had, because he was interested in dairy
farming, Bivens worked on the largest dairy farm in Alaska, the Creamer
Dairy (00:09:34:00)
o He also played football with the Army team, specifically the team from his
unit (00:10:14:00)
�
There were not too many bases in Alaska, so the team ended up
flying back to the continental United States (00:10:24:00)
Because the weather was so cold, grass did not grow, just dirt, and
when it became the warm season, the dirt would dry, so that when
they were playing football, the men were playing in sand banks
and whenever they made or missed a tackle, their uniforms filled
with sand (00:10:34:00)
His wife did not come up to Alaska until she received her nursing certification
and Bivens wrote to her every night (00:11:13:00)
o Bivens’ grandmother ended up writing to him every night, so he ended up
writing to her often also (00:11:18:00)
At one point, following their service, Bivens and his comrades would get together
every three years and over time, the group has begun to meet more regularly
(00:11:50:00)
o One time, Bivens’ best friend asked if he wanted to go to church, Bivens
said that he did so they went do to a Presbyterian Church in Fairbanks,
where the two joined with the Young Calvinist group, which constituted
the bulk of the group that met after the war (00:12:28:00)
While doing his job in the military, Bivens had to be very meticulous with his
book work; everything had to be honest, correct and accurate (00:13:22:00)
o Because of that, now, things have to be exactly right for him, a trait that
sometimes annoys people (00:13:40:00)
He is not a member of any veterans association, although he does support them
(00:14:06:00)
When the Korean War ended, he was still stationed in Fairbanks (00:14:33:00)
He remembers when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in 1941
specifically (00:14:56:00)
o For the farm, they had two sets of dairy cows at different farms and they
had an old flat bed truck to go between the two farms (00:15:01:00)
o Inside the truck was a radio and they had just pulled into the drive of the
second farm to do the milking and on the radio came the news that Pearl
Harbor had been bombed (00:15:09:00)
Something that please him while he was in the Army was that for a time, he was
in Special Services and he learned leather crafting, which he taught to the other
soldiers, who enjoyed it (00:15:39:00)
o For a time, he was in charge of the Special Services purchasing and selling
and one time, they questioned him on his bookkeeping (00:16:00:00)
o They ended up taking his books to headquarters to make sure that Bivens
handled all the money correctly (00:16:18:00)
The Army did not like the way that Bivens kept the books; he did it
in an expense/income system and they wanted him to use a double
entry system (00:16:25:00)
o When they came back with his books, Bivens found out that he had more
money than he thought he did (00:16:37:00)
�
The bookkeeping incident showed that Bivens was honest, which helped him get
jobs insecurity because the Army knew that he was honest and he would not do
anything wrong (00:16:55:00)
When he first went down to Battle Creek, he was a farm boy and a young
Christian and he did not know about the world too much (00:17:22:00)
o They gathered all the men together to issue their clothing and Bivens
could not hear the sergeant too well and he asked, “Sir, could you repeat
that again” (00:17:36:00)
o The sergeant said, “Don’t you call me sir, I’m no officer” (00:17:53:00)
o Bivens was trying to be respectful but that was the military (00:18:04:00)
On the day of his discharge, Bivens and some friends from Alaska received the
paperwork saying that they were discharged, which was what Bivens had been
looking forward to (00:18:27:00)
o They went home after that and that was it (00:18:40:00)
o He had fulfilled his obligation to his country and he would gladly do it
again, even at the age of seventy-seven; if he had to fight for his country,
he would (00:18:50:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BivensL
Title
A name given to the resource
Bivens, Laverne (Interview outline and video), 2010
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bivens, Laverne
Description
An account of the resource
During his military service, Laverne Bivens served in the 4th Regimental Combat team, which the Army had stationed in Alaska as part of the defense against a possible Soviet attack. Although he served during the latter part of the Korean war, Bivens never saw combat. Instead, his job was the defense of Alaska and the Air Force bases in the territory against any aggression.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Teusink, Susanna (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-05-06
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/46bd2f4efdc57a35244c0aea21707d27.mp4
852923b0ba5baf813abe281a7840fded
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20a086e3e3e611c0e04b24e68d42e7ef.pdf
0efabf29f31f00085207c316eb4a0fcf
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Nelson Birman
(43:53)
Background Information (00:30)
Born June 19th, 1936 in Battle Creek, Michigan. (00:39)
Served in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1954-1957. (00:50)
He joined the Marine Corps a few weeks after he graduated from high school. (2:19)
His father worked as a tool and die maker. (3:25)
He attended school in Battle Creek and went to high school at Hickory Creek High School. (3:35)
He graduated from Hastings High School in 1954. He transferred there after he moved. (3:45)
He has 3 brothers. (3:56)
His younger brother committed suicide in 1951. (4:14)
When he was young, Nelson wanted to become a pilot. (5:00)
Nelson volunteered with 2 of his friends in 1954. (5:33)
Nelson joined the Marine Corps due to its reputation and his interest in growing up and
becoming independent. (8:00)
Basic Training (8:22)
Basic training lasted 12 weeks. (8:25)
He recalls how unpredictable and strict his drill sergeant was. He prepared the men to be ready
at every moment to take an order. (8:35)
Because Nelson did not make his bed tight enough one day, his rack was torn apart by his drill
instructor. (9:29)
Nelson was made an instructor later in his service. Because of this he became close friends with
many of his fellow service men. (10:05)
After basic training he Nelson was sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay for electronics
and radio training school from the Navy. (10:34)
Service at Camp Pendleton (10:39)
After graduating radio school Nelson was sent to Camp Pendleton, California where he was
given a jeep and made a radio operator. (10:40)
25-31 was his MOS. (11:00)
He was at times asked to be a bodyguard for the commandant and a guide for celebrities that
came to entertain the soldiers. (11:18)
He served as an instructor at Camp Pendleton. He trained on rifles and hand grenades. (12:12)
He served on a Marine Corps shooting team. (13:40)
He was never based overseas. He did practice landings on beaches. (14:29)
While crawling under barbed wire and live ammunition, Nelson was struck by a ricochet shot in
the left hip. (15:23)
Nelson was on a strike force, if the order came he could be overseas in less than 24 hours.
(16:39)
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He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division, 1st Service Regiment. (17:20)
Nelson was rapidly promoted to Sergeant while in the service. (17:55)
The men Nelson trained on hand grenade would often panic when realizing the power of the
weapon in their hand. There were some close calls with weaker men while in training. (19:10)
Nelson also trained men on the flamethrower.(20:05)
He was awarded the National Defense Service Ribbon and Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and
a High Expert for Shooting Medal. (20:56)
Life in the Service (21:54)
Camp Pendleton had a rodeo. The stars of the television series Gunsmoke were brought in to
appear at the rodeo. (22:00)
On one occasion Camp Pendleton was surrounded on three sides by a fire. All Marines not on
special duty were assigned to fight the fire. (24:00)
Nelson was very impressed with the officers and instructors he had. (25:01)
There were many Marines Nelson encountered that had half hearted outlooks on their military
service. (25:25)
He was somewhat disappointed that he was never served overseas. (25:50)
Nelson married Ruth with one year left of his active service. (26:34)
After he was married Nelson lived in Oceanside. (27:24)
Life after Service (27:55)
He was discharged before his time was complete in 1957. (28:00)
After being discharged from the Marine Corps. Nelson attended Western Michigan University
under the G.I. bill and studied electronics and automation. He graduated with an associate’s
degree in 1960. (28:20)
Nelson and his wife lived in Battle Creek. (28:40)
After college Nelson had several part time jobs. He then was employed by the postal service and
retired after 40 years of service there. (30:03)
He retired in 2004. (31:00)
He was also on the Bedford Michigan Rescue Squad. (31:38)
Nelson was a very skilled archery man and a member of the Michigan Bow Hunters. (32:35)
Nelson was remarried in 1995. (33:25)
His second wife died in 2010. (33:49)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BirmanN1346V
Title
A name given to the resource
Birman, Nelson (Interview outline and video), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Birman, Nelson
Description
An account of the resource
Nelson Birman, born June 19th 1936 in Battle Creek Michigan, served in the U.S. Marines Corps. from 1954-1957. Nelson spent his military career as an instructor, instructing soldiers on rifles, hand grenades, flamethrowers, and bayonets. He also was a gifted rifleman who served on a Marine Corps. shooting team.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Erichsen, Wallace (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Marine Corps
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-01-25
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa37dd1a51956687017c4e7498ad0a54.mp4
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Iraqi War
Jeremy Binder
Length of Interview 1:55:38
0:00:11 Background
• Born: October 30, 1978, in Benton Harbor, Michigan (0:00:15)
• Moved to Bridgman, Michigan in 1989 (0:00:30)
• Father worked at die cast shop, Mother worked as dental hygienist assistant (0:00:45)
• Graduated high school with acting scholarship to local Community College (0:01:10)
• Dropped out of college after first year to work (0:01:40)
• Held various jobs before joining Marines (0:02:00)
0:07:20 Enlistment
• Joined when he heard about young soldiers dying in Iraq (0:06:00)
• Felt he could be a good leader to the young soldiers (0:06:31)
• Enlisted June 17, 2003 at age 22 (0:07:04)
• Went to Marine Corp Recruitment Center (MCRD) in San Diego, California (0:07:15)
• Wanted to be demolition expert due to electrician background (0:08:30)
• Put in infantry training Platoon 1006, Charlie Company (0:11.10)
0:13:00 Training
• There for 13 weeks with 3 phases of basic training (0:13:45)
• 1st phase tested mental toughness, taught discipline, got yelled at (0:14:25)
• 2nd phase more physical workouts, hikes, night operations (0:18:20)
• 3rd phase graduation, learned parade marches (0:18:50)
• After basic training, shipped to Camp Pendleton, California (0:22:00)
• Learned how to use more heavy weaponry (0:22:30)
• Bit by a brown recluse spider and against doctor order completed 20 mile hike (0:23:27)
• Assigned military enlisted job (MOS) to be demolition engineer (0:27:20)
0:30:00 Demolition Training
• Assigned to 2nd Battalion 7th Marines, which was scheduled for deployment to Iraq
(0:30:16)
• Shipped to 29 Palms, California, for specialized training (0:31:06)
• Desert environment prepared them for Iraq (0:31:20)
• Most time was spent cleaning weapons (0:32:16)
• Kept updated on events in Middle East (0:33:30)
• One of original squads to protect battalion commander (0:35:56)
• Weapons company used .50 caliber machine gun, grenades, and demolition equipment
(0:36:20)
• Feb 3, 2004 shipped to Iraq (0:39:00)
�0:40:00 Active Duty
• Took Delta jet to Prague, Prague to Kuwait, then to Iraq (0:39:15)
• Drove to Al-Assad Air Force Base (0:43:32)
• #1 concern is keeping Battalion commander alive (0:47:00)
• Drove around a lot, change routine every time (0:45:44)
• On the move all the time, hardly any downtime (0:46:30)
• Enemy very clever, always new strategies (0:51:40)
• Saw a lot of civilians, mostly stayed away from Americans (0:59:00)
0:48:00 Notable Events
• Rear driver on convoy down Military Server Road(MSR) (0:48:07)
• Night operation convoy on black out (no lights) (0:48:20)
• Saw explosion in rear view mirror, pull over and ready for combat (0:48:37)
• IED explosion that had missed mark due to blackout (0:50:14)
• Enemy use firefight to keep you in position until RPGs and mortars come (1:09:39)
• After a while firefights stopped and only IEDs were used (1:09:50)
• Enemy was mostly farmers or locals who were blackmailed/bribed (1:10:24)
1:12:00 Injury
• May 1, 2004 around 6am (1:12:25)
• Local police colonel was informing insurgents of vehicle routes (1:12:40)
• Mission to detain police colonel and appoint a new one (1:12:50)
• Battalion commander and interpreter went inside to talk to colonel (1:13:30)
• Incoming sniper fire caused unit to take cover (1:13:48)
• About 30 min later explosion from behind (1:14:20)
• Tried to raise weapons, but couldn’t move right arm (1:15:30)
• Didn’t know he was wounded, comrade told him he was bleeding (1:16:07)
• Hit by debris, Chunk of arm was missing, brachial artery was severed (1:18:50)
• Felt dehydrated, arm felt on fire (1:20:00)
• Comrade made tunicate out of sleeve, still wanted to fight (1:21:39)
1:22:00 Recovery
• Sent to hospital at Al-Assad AFB (1:22:35)
• Felt weak like he was ready to pass out (1:24:30)
• Had to graft nerves and skin from leg to arm (1:25:50)
• Sent to Baghdad hospital for 24 hours (1:26:50)
• From Baghdad flown to hospital in Germany for 3 days (1:29:39)
• While recovering in Germany met Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Daniels (1:29:45)
• Flew to California, wound was left open to heal itself (1:31:50)
• Nerves never recovered fully, arm looks like turkey skin (1:32:00)
• Lost 14cm of median nerve, 14.5 cm of ulnar nerve, 13.5cm of brachial artery (1:33:00)
�1:36:00 Post service
• Debilitating injury left him unfit to be a Marine (1:36:15)
• Went back to school to earn college degree (1:41:25)
• Marine Corps mentality stuck with him throughout life (1:41:47)
• Associates degree in communication from Lake Michigan Community College (1:42:20)
• Majored in Public Administration at Grand Valley State University (1:42:26)
• Wanted to be a veterans service counselor, and now does this in Allegan County,
Michigan (1:42:54)
• Help veterans deal with demons and talk about their experiences (1:43:09)
• Has the pair of boots he was wearing with blood stains on them(1:55:00)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BinderJ1384V
Title
A name given to the resource
Binder, Jeremy (Interview outline and video), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Binder, Jeremy
Description
An account of the resource
Jeremy Binder was born in Benton Harbon, Michigan in 1978, and grew up in the area. After high school, he tried college briefly and then held various jobs before enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003. After training in San Diego and Camp Pendleton, California, he joined the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines and took demolitions training with them at 29 Palms, California, while awaiting transfer to Iraq. They flew to Iraq in February, 2004, and he served as part of the squad that guarded the battalion commander. He was wounded in May, and was injured badly enough that he could not return to active duty. He now works as a counselor for veterans.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
BCTV
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Marine Corps
Iraq War, 2003--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05-22
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
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PDF Text
Text
Interview Notes
Ronald Biermacher
Korean War
(16:14)
Pre- Enlistment
Born February 8, 1932 (0:15)
Served in the Korean conflict (0:40)
Achieved rank of Petty Officer, First Class (0:45)
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1:00)
Father worked for a large store that delivered to the hospitals (1:50)
Had 6 siblings (1:55)
Was a barber until he enlisted in the Army (2:20)
Also worked in several restaurants (2:40)
Enlistment
Was drafted into the Army, but knew a high ranking officer in the Navy (3:15)
Was then able to be enlisted in the Navy instead of being inducted into the Army (3:45)
Sent through an 11 week basic training that covered fire fighting, load ammunition, load
on supplies, and brass polishing (4:45)
Navy found out he was a barber, so they stuck him in the barber shop on the first
weekend he was there (5:15)
Did not get an orientation of the ship because of that (5:30)
Had 4 weeks a year of leave (5:50)
Was able to take it 2 weeks at a time (6:00)
Took regular guard duties (6:15)
Served on the USS Mississippi in Norfolk, VA (6:50)
Took all the big guns off of it and installed missile launchers instead (7:30)
Test fired missiles at drones every day (8:00)
Did not lose any friends due to war, but knew people injured onboard the ship (8:40)
Met many shipmates he still talks to today (9:15)
Stayed in touch with family through telephone and letters (9:50)
Ran into a few people he graduated with who were in the Navy (10:15)
Drank a lot of liquor for entertainment (10:40)
Also watched a movie every night, and would swim in the ocean sometimes (11:15)
Post Enlistment
Was still in Norfolk when the war ended (11:30)
It was very easy to adjust to civilian life (12:00)
Found a job in another barber shop until he had enough money to buy his own shop,
which he ran for 47 years (12:15)
Was very glad to get out of the service (13:00)
Had to learn how to get along with many different kinds of people (13:10)
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BiermacherR
Title
A name given to the resource
Biermacher, Ronald (Interview outline and video), 2005
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Biermacher, Ronald
Description
An account of the resource
Ronald Biermacher served in the US Navy during the Korean conflict. He was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia aboard the USS Mississippi, where he was a barber. After the conflict was over, he returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he continued cutting hair until he retired.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anderson, Brad R. (Interviewer)
Caledonia High School (Caledonia Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Navy
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005-05-14
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d59d2d6f063a621cac907ae987a46e41.mp4
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
John Beukema
(31:50)
Pre-Enlistment
• Born in Chicago, IL (0:25)
• Born on August 15th, 1924 (0:30)
• Spent his youth in suburban Chicago and joined the war after he graduated from
high school in 1942 (1:00)
• Neighborhood was hit hard by the Depression (1:30)
• Father was a jack of all trades, worked for a painting contractor mixing colors
(2:25)
• Mother did not work, had 8 children (2:45)
• Attended J. Sterling Morton High School in Cicero, IL (2:55)
• War was the main event in his high school (3:15)
• All his friends were drafted or volunteered, and he volunteered for the Army Air
Corps (3:30)
• Worked all through high school in grocery stores and haberdasheries (4:45)
Enlistment
• Received notice in mail that he was accepted to the Air Corps (5:10)
• Went from Chicago to Nashville, TN to the classification and conditioning center
(6:30)
• Had a battery of tests for about a month, and was accepted for pilots training
(6:45)
• Boarded a train to go to Santa Ana, CA (6:50)
• This happened about the same time there was fighting in Africa, so the Army was
training in the desert (8:00)
• Santa Ana was a pre-flight school, which contained few classes, but learned the
mechanics of flying, meteorology and physical training (9:00)
• Pre-flight school lasted several months (9:35)
• Then assigned to Rankin Field in Tulari, CA for primary flight school (9:40)
• Was the second person in his class to fly solo (10:25)
• Stayed at Rankin for two months, then transferred to Morana AFB, which was a
basic flying school (11:30)
• Flew different planes and learned different maneuvers at Morana for a few
months (12:00)
• Advanced to Williams AFB in Phoenix, AZ, learning to fly new airplanes (13:00)
• During these months of training, he always wanted to go out and fight (13:30)
• Received too many demerits, and washed him out of the program a week before
graduation (14:15)
• Had a hearing before he was washed out, and his instructors came to his defense
and he was reinstated (15:00)
�•
War
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Had to take all his check rides in three hours. If failed, he would be a glider pilot
(17:00)
Was made a pilot, but was also made to be an instructor in Basic flight school
(17:15)
Was very difficult to leave his training buddies to instruct (17:50)
After instructor school, he was sent to Gardner Field, in California (18:40)
Spent a year there (18:45)
Good duty because he got to fly for half the day, then got the other half of the day
off (19:20)
Still wanted to fly fighter planes (19:50)
Had to wait until he could volunteer to be assigned to a B-17 (21:20)
Went to Montana to be trained for bombing runs and flying formation (22:05)
War in Europe ended before he could get out of Montana (22:20)
Flew bombers in to Kansas to be mothballed for the next few months (22:30)
Was accepted in to B-29 school, lasting several months, in Hobbs, NM (22:50)
Dropped the bomb on Japan before he could get out the program (23:15)
Decided to use the GI Bill to go to Western Michigan University (24:00)
Parents moved to Grand Haven, MI, which influenced his decision to go to
Western (24:20)
Majored in Accounting and minored in Mathematics in 1950 (24:45)
Found it difficult to get a job after college, started a family in Kalamazoo (24:50)
Stayed in the Air Force Reserves after he got out of the Air Force (25:20)
Still got to do some flying in Canberra Bombers (25:40)
Post Wartime
• Was in the Reserves for a year and a half (26:15)
• Continued flying through rental (26:30)
• Had a friend that owned an airplane, so he would go flying with him (27:00)
• Would fly wherever his company wanted to him to go (27:20)
• Was, at one time, the youngest B-29 commander in the Air Force (27:45)
• Received a job in accounting, retired in 1989 (28:30)
• Keeps busy with several hobbies, including computers and woodworking (28:50)
• Stopped flying around 60 years of age (29:00)
• Took a trip to Europe, to Market Garden in eastern Belgium (30:25)
• Saw a wall that was a mile long of air crew whose bodies were never found
(30:55)
• Realized how fortunate he was that he never had to face that (31:00)
• Always wanted to fly a P-51, kids bought him a ride in one (31:15)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
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1914-
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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BeukemaJ
Title
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Beukema, John T. (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
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Beukema, John T.
Description
An account of the resource
John Beukema was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 15th, 1924. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps during World War II, and was accepted as a pilot. After flight school, he was sent to be an instructor back at Basic flight school in Gardner Field, California for one year. He volunteered to be a B-17 pilot, but the war in Europe ended. He signed up to be a B-29 pilot, but the war in the Pacific ended, as well.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McCauslin, Kelly
(Interviewer)
Spring Area District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Video recordings
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Army. Air Corps
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2008-07-19
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
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Text
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eff5c47c6ba6f21fadee4fa18e402ae3.mp4
c70ddb4066b856d350db9c45cc571534
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1bc69d0691db8bf4b215a13db50466d9.pdf
fe82d19285a148574fa8520f874e0fa1
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Cornell Beukema
(01:43:58:16)
Childhood, Family, And Education
• (00:24:13) Beukema was born on May 5, 1920 in Grand Haven, Michigan
•
(00:32:09) his father was a finisher in a piano factory; his mother had done some
"clerking" for Herpolsheimer’s Department store in Grand Rapids, also in the
Edison Department in Grand Haven
•
(00:54:22) he graduated from Grand Haven High School in 1938
•
(01:01:18) Beukema had an ambition to go to college but when he finished high
school, he had less than $50 saved; his parents, who gone through the Great
Depression, had no money
� his older brother and sister had the same problem
� his brother graduated three years ahead of him, got a job, and went on to
Michigan State University
� his sister graduated a year after his brother, but she got a scholarship and went
to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo
� his brother took civil engineering at Michigan State, and also ROTC
•
(02:23:20) Beukema himself went to college in 1939, enrolling at Michigan State,
where he took two years of ROTC; after finishing the two years, he took
advanced ROTC
No Commission
• (02:58:20) after graduating from Michigan State in 1943, he was "supposed to
have gotten a commission," but the process had changed:
� his older brother had gone to a camp during the summer and got a commission
after graduation
� by the time he came along, the government's policy had changed, and they
were sending people to OCS camps; his group was sent to Camp McCoy in
Wisconsin, in 1943
•
(04:06:13) Michigan State ROTC people were not the only ones there, they were
there from all over the country, from Texas A& M, from St. Louis
•
(04:25:00) after two weeks, he got called to Camp Davis in North Carolina; he
was "coast artillery" which was "working itself into anti-aircraft artillery" at
Camp Davis, it was called an anti-aircraft artillery school
��
•
it was supposed to have been a thirteen-week program, but to their "chagrin,"
the length of the program was changed to fifteen weeks, then to seventeen
weeks; but they added still another two weeks "because they weren't ready for
us at Camp Davis"
(05:16:14) in December 9 of 1943, Beukema finally got his commission, he
graduated from OCS; he picked guns as his specialty, but they put him on search
lights instead
� he was sent to Camp Edwards in Massachusetts; he arrived there right after
Christmas in 1943, and was there until February of '44
Fort Belvoir And Camp Rucker
• (05:58:05) then he was sent to engineer school at Fort Belvoir in Virginia
� as it turned out, he was transferred from search lights to engineers
� he was put into the engineer combat battalion, and after six weeks at engineer
school, he was sent back to Camp McCoy, to the 76th Division of an engineer
combat battalion located there
•
(06:51:090 in June of 1944, Beukema was selected to take a cadre of seventythree men and four officers to Camp Rucker in Alabama for the initiation of a
new unit, the1298 Engineer Combat Battalion, this was "the start of the 1298"
•
(07:48:16) while he was at Fort Belvoir he was injured when another officer
threw something that hit him in the head; [see timing frame 54:03:00, sections of
photographs displayed later in the interview; this object was a “big heavy clamp”]
he was "plagued" by headaches for the rest of his time in the service
•
(08:09:04) at Camp Rucker, he was sent to Second Army mine school where he
took a course in mines and demolition; he returned to his unit and was promoted
to first lieutenant
•
(08:44:07) a black battalion from Trinidad, a search light battalion, had moved to
Camp Rucker; they all thought they were all going to get out of the service, and
were "very despondent" when they did not—they were "ornery and troublesome"
� he was one of several Caucasian officers who were sent "to take over this
outfit"—all their officers had been transferred; “fortunately, the noncoms of
that unit were real sharp" and they told the Caucasian officers not to worry; "it
worked out fine"
•
(09:51:07) Beukema was then transferred to the 1015th Engineer Treadway
Bridge Company; during the short time he was with them, he injured his left leg
� there was a fire in the day room and he stepped outside onto a porch, but he
stepped onto a rotten board, his foot bent upward and back, pulling the
tendons in his leg
��
he was sent to the hospital, where they gave him cortisone shots; he was not in
the hospital long, but " in order to get around," he had to constantly go back to
the hospital for more cortisone shots
•
(11:11:09) "all this time" he courted the girl that he "wanted to marry who was at
Michigan State"; she was a freshman when he was a senior; she accepted his
marriage proposal and "it seemed to be okay with her dad"
•
(11:42:24) they were getting ready to go overseas; many people from his unit had
been pulled out individually and sent overseas already; finally they got the orders
and prepared for shipment abroad
•
(12:16:28) in the spring of '44 they got called on flood duty—there had been a big
flood in White River, Arkansas, and they were all sent there; a date had been
picked for his wedding, however
� "it just so happened that the water started receding" and they were shipped
back to their unit
Camp Shelby And Then On To Hawaii
• (13:21:15) all those from Camp Rucker had been moved to Camp Shelby, near
Hattiesburg in Mississippi; he got married; in July of '45 they went by train to
Minneapolis, and then to Vancouver Bearings near Portland
•
(14:04:04) “all this time,” Beukema was back with the 1298, and they went by
ship from Portland to Hawaii; during the trip to Hawaii, the first atomic bomb was
dropped, on August 6
� engineers who had worked with explosives like himself were "fully
knowledgeable of this"; he had taught several courses in mines and demolition
for the Second Army mine school
•
(15:10:29) at Hawaii, they started loading their ships for the invasion of Japan; he
was on an LST in a convoy of ships; they left Pearl Harbor on the day Japan
surrendered
Japan
• (16:34:29) the captain of Beukema’s ship refused to go directly into Nagasaki
without a mine sweeper ship in front of them; they anchored at Sasebo, where
there was a major Japanese naval base; they picked up a mine sweeper and then
went to Nagasaki
•
(18:01:03) there was school, which was in session at the time they arrived; the
school master gathered the children in the back of a room and explained to them
that the Americans had won the war; classes were moved into caves in back of the
school, and the Americans took over the building, and "fixed it up"
�•
(19:46:23) in December Beukema was transferred to Fukuoka, farther north near
Kitakyushu, where he was assigned to an engineer construction battalion
� they were rebuilding a Japanese airfield, and he was with that unit for a while,
not very long
� about that time, headaches began to bother him, and he was put into a hospital
for three weeks, until his "continuous" headaches stopped
•
(20:56:00) he was then reassigned to an engineer aviation battalion in charge of
building the airport; he was appointed an S3, an assistant to the one in charge, and
eventually he himself was in charge
� he had several different army units working for him, Japanese contractors, and
a huge pool of Japanese civilian labor
•
(22:07:09) he was suddenly given R & R [rest and recuperation]; the officer in
charge of all the units in that area of Japan had to go to General Douglas
MacArthur's headquarters the officer wanted to give him R & R, so he took
Beukema with him; it turned out that they were not going to be disbanded yet; the
officer told him he was "on his own" the rest of that week
•
(23:13:12) he contacted a cousin in Tokyo who was in a different unit, and they
spent the week seeing Tokyo and Yokohama; they visited the Diet (government)
building, a zoo, and climbed Mount Fujisan as high as they could, “’til the jeep
got stuck," about three quarters of the way up
•
(24:23:30) back to his unit after a week, he was assigned to group headquarters as
an S3 and eventually became the executive officer of his group; they were
quartered in "the millionaire's mansion" of the Ishibashi family, who owned and
still own the Bridgestone Tire And Rubber Company
•
(25:28:24) not long afterward, he received orders and he had enough points to get
out of the service; he got on a ship at Yokohama and headed for Seattle,
Washington
� they crossed the International Date Line on July 4; the sailors on the ship felt
they were entitled to two holidays; in a bulletin that they received when they
left the ship, the date had been labeled as July 5 even though it had been
plotted correctly
� the sailors told them not to worry, we're slowing this ship down"; they went at
"excessive speed" during the last couple of days to make up for it
•
(27:39:22) after arriving at Seattle, they spent a night at Fort Lewis, WA; they
were then released from duty
•
(27:54:24) Beukema remained in the officer reserve until 1953; he spent that time
in Lansing and trained incoming GI's; he got "disgusted" because he to fill out
their pay vouchers and he was not getting paid; he asked for a discharge, got it in
1953, and that was the end of his career in the army
�Civilian Career
• (29:23:09) he got a job as soon as he returned to the States, in Lansing with the
Michigan state highway department; he remained there until 1970 and retired
after 34 years
***the date and number of years given here are questionable, because they
conflict with his time in high school, college, OCS, his service during; his
year of retirement was probably 1980, or it may have actually been 24
years with the highway department***
•
(29:53:18) they moved "over here [Grand Haven] to a place that happened to be
in the family," by the north shore and they rebuilt it
Scrapbook
• (30:45:00) Beukema presents a scrapbook from his OCS days and displays pages
in it, commenting briefly on some of the written and printed items and
photographs in the scrapbook.
� OCS was “severe” and “rigid,” his school more so, he found out, than other
OCS schools"
� "every so often they would throw in an inspection on us and so we were
forever "GIing" the barracks"
No Athlete's Foot
• (34:49:12) one of their classmates would get a couple of gallons of chlorine and
throw it on the floor in his feet bare—"we didn't get any athlete's feet"; they “were
puddling around in it" and cleaned the floor with mops
The Rifle Inspection
•
(35:19:27) they had a "gold digger" in their class who was "forever trying to get
out from doing things"
� his name was Allen and it got to the point where everyone "detested" him
because "he was gold bricking all the time and taking off at night and never
around to do the GI in the barracks"
•
(35:43:21) one night they found out that they would have a rifle inspection the
next morning; they all cleaned their rifles and they were locked in the rifle rack by
the one in charge of locking up the rack
� Allen would stay out in the evening until late and then come back; when he
came in, they could hear him sneak in, someone called out to Allen and told
him that there would be an inspection in the morning, and he begged the
keeper of the rifle rack to give him the key, but the guy refused; Allen went
over in the dark—they would not let him use the flashlight—and he poked the
ramrod into his rifle in the dark while it was in the rack, trying to clean it
�•
(36:54:21) first thing next morning they had the rifle inspection; the “bird dog”
got to Allen's rifle, looked through it, and "you should have heard him blow his
top at Allen"; "he flunked out," "they flunked him out"
•
(37:17:25) in the last week, “the bird dogs got kinda human with us" and asked
what they had against Allen; they told them it was because of "all the gold
bricking" he did and he "would never be with us"; they understood, they had
"already kicked him out of school"
Highlights From The Memorabilia And A Photo Album
• (38:04:26) Beukema’s diary, with entries made throughout his career in the
“States”
•
(38:17:03) Beukema shows a letter from his brother who went to General Omar
Bradley's headquarters; the letter was written on Adolf Hitler's stationary
•
(41:02:24) [photographs of the cadets in uniforms, regular and dress; the dress
uniforms had prominent belt buckles in front] they had a military ball, he had a
date, a girl who used to live in Grand Haven who was a student at Michigan State
University; she had on "a nice frilly dress, real pretty"; his buckle "hooked onto
her dress right here," and it was embarrassing; they had to go outside of the hall,
in the dark, to try to get "disassembled"—getting apart ripped her dress, but it had
to be done
•
(46:45:20) [photograph of 268 radar unit] he "got to a point" where he could put
"that thing" together; at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, he would lay in his
bunk with the tent flap open and operate the search light—the radar used the
search light
•
(48:13:24) “water problems” [pictures of bridges he built]
•
(50:02:16) flood duty, they had new equipment and they had to go to Arkansas
with it [flood mentioned earlier]; they had people driving trucks who had never
driven trucks before
� a big truss bridge that carried a major highway over a big river was out, and
“they [not Beukema’s company, however] had to build a roadway around
there”
•
51:09:14 then Beukema got married; he and his wife "walked the streets" looking
for someone to be the best man at their wedding; he encountered a friend of his,
fortunately, and met two other friends to be ushers—one of whom did not show
up because Beukema neglected to tell him where the wedding was to be held [this
man's daughter-in-law is now president of MSU]
•
(52:18:11) [photograph of his “sister's boy”] Beukema did not have any boys, but
four daughters
�The 90mph Train Ride
• (55:42:01) the train out of Mississippi [Camp Shelby]: they started out with two
sections on the train; in the section Beukema was in there was a captain who was
a "very close friend" of his "all the way through the service"
•
(55:59:05) the captain obtained permission from the conductor for himself and
Beukema to ride on the caboose and they watched for "hot boxes"--they stopped
the train, they did see one, they had to put out the fire to stop the second section
and warn them that there was a train was stopped in front of them
•
(56:30:10) the captain also "talked the conductor" into letting them sit in the
engine; they rode about 800 miles “between the caboose and the engine, up to
Minneapolis; there were "big Hiawatha engines hooked up to both sections, so it
was a big long train now"
•
(57:10:19) Beukema and the captain were told to get off "right here on this side,
the detective will be on the other side" [what they were doing was not allowed, of
course]; they had to run up to where the engineer would be ready to get them
� they had these "nice seats behind the engineer and the coal man," and "what a
ride that was just watching that speedometer go up over 90 miles an hour"
•
(57:48:21) when the engineer told them "this is the end of my run," they had to
jump out again
� "now you go to get out this side," the engineer told them, "climb down the
latter," and "I"ll let you know when to jump"
� while the train kept moving, Beukema and the captain had to run to the first
car back, where the conductor caught them—"sure enough there was the
conductor with his hand out and he pulled us aboard"
Portland To Hawaii
• (59:24:23) they left Portland on "this one ship" and he was "in charge of seein’
that all the guys got on," and had to check them off; he was the last to get on
before the ship took off, and as a result, he got the "lousiest bunk" directly under a
steam pipe
� he found out that lots of other guys "had it hot sleeping too," and all the way
to Hawaii he slept on the top deck with "hundreds of other guys"
� "you did not leave that few square feet that you had during the day to go to the
bathroom or to go to eat but you had your neighbor look after your place and
you took turns"
•
(01:00:40:23) “all this time” flying fish were landing on them: "the air was just
full of these flying fish"
•
(01:01:12:20) Japan had not surrendered yet; there were no lights allowed—
messages between ships were sent by special lights, not by radio; garbage was
�"put out at night so that they'd never know where you were"; and they zig-zagged
through the water[the ship]
Hawaii To Japan
•
(01:01:48:08) they got to Hawaii, and it was "hotter than blazes" and "at
nighttime it was all mosquitoes and so we had a mosquito bar," each bunk had
one; they had to go to bed before it got dark because by then the mosquitoes were
already in there
•
(01:03:14:13) then they "loaded on an LST"; they had eighteen ships and a
destroyer escort; the food was good and they had fresh water
•
(01:04:05:09) a sailor showed Beukema where, on the prow of the ship, there was
a hatch that could be opened; one could go down a ladder in there, and because
the doors did not fit "completely tight," a "sheath" of water came in, making a
pool about three feet deep at the bottom
-"almost all the way to Japan,” he went down there every day and swam in the
pool
•
•
(01:05:38:09) they had gunnery practice one day; "the sailors showed our guys
how they did their laundry": they tied there clothes to long lines and dragged
those "maybe fifty to seventy-five yards behind the ship" through the water
� they had gunnery practice, and "our guys" shot at the clothes while "the sailors
were pulling 'em in like crazy"; for a long time after they landed at Nagasaki,
sailors still ran around with holes in their clothes
•
(01:06:34:08) they had a movie every night; they exchanged movies with other
ships in the convoy—that is how they knew when Japan surrendered
Bomb Damaged Nagasaki
• (01:07:16:13) where they were supposed to land [Beukema points to a map] in
the invasion, they were supposed to go with the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Marine
Divisions and the 1298
•
(01:08:16:19) "we came in the harbor this way over here," approaching Nagasaki
[Beukema points it out on a map in his collection]
•
(01:09:15:06) "this is really bombed, this is the worst, this is all knocked out right
here, this is knocked out by the A-bomb"
� "you could see the radiation, you could see the radiation lines on the
ground"—"so you knew exactly where it went and where it went off"
� "all these radiation lines went like this," like spokes in a wheel [Beukema
points out areas of Nagasaki on a map to the interviewer, and puts a finger on
the spot where the bomb landed and those "radiation lines"]
�•
(01:13:42:29) "the smell in Japan was terrible"—"human excrement smell was all
over"; at each rice patty land there was a cistern and the farmers would collect the
human excrement from the city, haul it out ever day and dump it into the cisterns;
they "ladled" it on their crops
•
(01:15:23:22) "all around the mountains, let me tell you, the Japs had gun
emplacements all around"—"it would have been suicide for the American forces
to invade Japan"; besides that, there were "tunnels all the way through the
mountains, all over"
•
(01:15:56:10) images of Japan, Beukema’s comrades, incidents and anecdotes in
pictures
•
(01:27:10:19) General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters was across from the
emperor's palace
Memories Of The Bridgestone Mansion [photographs and anecdotes]
• (01:28:33:27) "we had parties there all the time"
•
(01:29:20:19) when the general took over the Bridgestone mansion, there were
thirteen servants, and most were Seventh Day Adventists; there was a Seventh
Day Adventist Church a block away
•
(01:29:50:06) the number-one servant noticed a Bible that Beukema had laid on
his headstand; the first night he was there, she came up to him with a Japanese
Bible, and she wanted to talk to him; she could speak a few words of "American"
and he could speak a few words of Japanese; she wanted to discuss passages in
the Bible; "it was real nice"
•
(01:30:54:24) "they cried when we were gonna leave, we had such a rapport" [the
number one and number two servants]
•
(01:31:02:19) “they [the Ishibashis] took us”: they inherited the Ishibashis’ three
cars, a Cadillac, a Lasalle, and a Buick, "big seven-passenger ones,” and the
Americans were taken on a tour across Kyushu one day
•
(01:31:53:22) every Thursday night the Americans invited the Japanese women
to supper, and then they had a movie and dancing in "their house"
•
(01:32:23:11) photographs of the Bridgestone Mansion, the interior and the
grounds outside
How Beukema Obtained Hiroshiday Artwork
• (01:35:03:02) while he was in Japan he got a letter from his wife, who was taking
art at school; she wanted to know if he could get prints from the two most
important Japanese artists at the time, Hokusai and Hiroshiday
��
he hunted "all over"; walking down the street one day in Fukuoka, he saw in the
window of an art store "this book" [Beukema displays this on camera] and he
bought it
•
(01:36:51:09) he pointed at another print in the store, but the girl in the store did
not want to sell it to him; the girl fetched her boss, who took him into the back
room
•
(01:38:05:25) the "boss man" went to a drawer and "hauled out about twenty
pictures"; Beukema indicated that he wanted to purchase them
� the “boss man” rolled up the pictures, "tied a nice ribbon around them"
and gave them to Beukema [these pictures are still in Beukema's home,
and he displays a number of small prints on camera]
More Memorabilia
• (01:40:24:00) the kind of books he worked with teaching about demolition and
explosives
•
(01:41:39:03) Stars & Stripes put out a newspaper for GIs in Europe and Japan;
Beukema presents a scrapbook filled with cartoons he had clipped from Stars &
Stripes in Japan.
�Military Service Cornell D. Beukema
Sep 1939
Entered Mich State College in Engmg 2 yrs Basic ROTC
15 Mar 43
Sworn into US Anny Serviceby Jake Fase
Placed in Enlist Res Corps ROTC student MSC Private 36584695 Coast ArtilleryCorp
Uniform provided Classesat Dem Hall Parades Spring term Tuesdays Chris Cadet Col
Lived at Wells Hall Freshman Dorm
Sep 1941
Jones House
worked 3 jobs
Jr yr
2 yrs AdvancedROTC
Uniform purchased Classesat Dem Hall
Col Stillman sand table model ships azimuth sightingsat gym level
Data telephoned to plotting room data plotted
Plotted location (range & azimuth) phoned to gunners
Compressed air gun fires ball bearings
Dress Parades as Cadet Officers "Pass in Review" MSC Band
7 Apr 43
Ordered to active duty as Private Live in Frat houses eat at Union
12 Joo43
Graduated from MSC 14 day furlough
:2810043
To Camp McCoy disappointment When to OCS?
Shots Basic training Low morale Calisthenics Close order drill
Firing range Grenadeepisode General salute
Military discipline entire Camp
Week end leaves
"'7 c. ,-' '?c,
\AJ0. s \11 o ~5"~ C' \l
r
D'S \-
~1\G:.(G\l
E Lansing, Sheboygan,Roy Correll
Promoted to Corporal and sent to Wilmington,N.C. via train
cattle trucks to Anti Aircraft ArtilleryOCS
then to Camp Davis in
OCS school not ready delay math test Course lengthened 13 to 15 to 17 wks
Coat hanger episode Bird Dogs S.O.P.
Course extremely rigorous ridiculous orders to us punishments
March to classes Night mosquitos Citronella Hour ofCharm Obstacle course
Close order drills in hot sun Barracks inspections Rifle inspections Allen
Haircuts Week end passes after Drills Visit brother Meet brother in-law
Wrightsville Beach Salv Ay usa swim write letters....proposemarr PHYL
Bivouacs Target shooting Search lights, Automatic Weapons, or Guns
To: f's
8 Dec 43
9Dec43
Hon Discharge Corporal CDB
Grad AAA OCS as 2nd Lieut 0539350 ordered to Act Duty Camp Edwards, Mass
10 day delay en route Travel via trailoredbus nature call female passenger
Problem with lights, or was it brakes on chartered bus approachingCincyOH
20 Dec 43
Asgd to 223Rl AAA Sean;hlightBn
Boston visit Truck parkingEpisode Firing range SearchLight position
Truck driving over Borne Bridge
12 Feb 44
Relvd from 223Rl SL Bn Sent to Fort Belvoir, VIrginia EngineersTraining Course
MSC reunion
hit in head accident visit Wash DC visit Pentagon
Introduced to constr equip bridge bldg rigging
1 Apr 44
Relvd from AAA ORP Asgd to 76th Div Camp McCoy, Wise
9 Apr 44
Asgd to 30lit Engr Combat Bn at Camp McCoy
�11 Apr 44
Asgd to CompanyB 301st Engr C Bn
26 Jun44
26 Jun44
Relvd from 301st Engr C Bn Asgd 1298 Engr Combat Bn Camp Rucker Ala
Charge of Cadre 78 EM & 3 Off train lost one man at Birmingham
Asgd CompanyB 1298th Engr C Bn
22 July 44
Special Duty with 338thAAA Search Light Bn fr Trinidad (negro)
???
338th AAA SIL Bn deactivated
5 Aug 44
Relvd from SO with 1693rd EgtC Bn
7 Aug 44
SpecialDuty with 1015th Treadway Bridge Comp
Accident left knee
27 Aug 44
1 Sep 44
Temp Duty~ Anny Mine School Camp Forest, Tenn
week course travel time telegram home for money
Promoted to I st Lieutenant
9 Sep44
Mine School Course graduation
21 Sep 44
Returned to 1298th at Rucker
1 Oct 44
5 Nov 44
Asgd to 2nd Armv Mine School as instructor two courses at Camp Rucker
:
,
Back with 129Stf{
9 Dec 44
!298th movesto Camp Shelby Miss 271 miles by convoy.
17 Dec 44
Phyl visits
27 Dec 44
Phylleaves for E. Lansing and college
3 Jan 45
Leave for Fort Jackson S Carolina to teach one week course on Mines and Demolitions
21 Jan45
Return to 1298th at Shelby... Phyl accepts my phoned marriageproposal. Her dad okays.
6 Mar 45
1298th leavesfor Arkansas by convoy:White River flooding. Temp duty
26 Mar 45
29 Mar 45
Granted 15 day Iv Fly to Mich for Phyl and My wedding. First flight for me
MarriageLansing, Mich
honeymoon Grand Haven wI Phyl's dad's Buick
30 Apr 45
In Hospita1leftknee problem re Aug 7 injury
Kay Kyser
.
Released from Hosp Warren replaces Hoffman as Comp Cmdr Back with 1298th
1298th preparing for shipping out Packing Tests Lake Shelbyproject
Phyl arrives rent room fr Barrios in Hattiesburg
Biloxi weekends
11 May 45
16 Jun45
1693rd Engr C Bn activated
Twelve day leave
stays at Hoffma's in Hattiesburg
New Orleans for Christmas
8 Jul45
Companyasgnmt exchange Beukema to Comp C under Capt John Howard;
Walton to Comp B under Capt Warren
20 July 45
21 Ju145
Last night with Phyl in Camp Guest House
Phylleaves by train for E Lansing With Lucile Flickinger
21 Jul4S
1298th Engr C Bn departs Camp Shelby via two trains for the West Coast and overseas
caboose and engine riding and Hiawatha engine ride across Minn
2
�25 Jul45
30 Jul45
Arrive Vancouver Barracks, Oregon 3139 miles travel
Portland visit
Embarked on Liberty Ship SS George S Julian with Hawaii a guessed destination.
Beukema last to board
10 day voyage with flying fish and deck sleeping
6 Aug 45
Aboard ship Heard news ofHiroshima A bombing
skeptical of20,OO tons of TNT equivalent.
8 Aug 45
Arrived Honolulu, Hawaii Schofield Barracks
Tents Mosquito netting swimming tests island tour Waikiki sailing Dole pineapp
3 Sept 45
Departed Pearl Harbor aboard LST 870 from Ford Island
AWOL First Sargent too late to board not seasick, but. ...
Sept 45
22 days aboard LST 970 Honolulu to Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan
Loaded quarters water supply food paint chipping clothes washing gunnery
Movies (exchange)
reading chess playing bridge letter writing swimming
Cyclone tossed in bunk officer mess Bailey Bridge dammage dog birth
Sasebo...mine sweeper nite noises
25 Sep45
dawn view of surrender flags on mtns
Arrived Nagasaki harbor ... wait kids last meal aboard landing Maj Landry's booze
Remaining Sep, Oct, Nov, and part of Dee
School plateau one-way access-exit rice terraces odor
Atom damage building accommodations play field latrines rats rebuild bridges
Butler bldgs (warehouses) scrounging about gun implacements cave factory
Movie theater reel unwinding pet monkey accident in sewage well Church PX
10 Dec 4S
Trsfrd to 1393rd Engr Constr Bn at Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan as Asst S-3
via train tangerine bowling engagement ring near-disaster
factory accommodations less desireable Christmas dinner slow mail
21 Jan 46
Hospitalized with excruciating headache over 3 weeks
Trsfrd to 1876 th Engr Aviation Bn in Fukuoka as S-3
In charge construction! Itazuke (ex-Mushiroda) Airdrome
Various Mil Engr units Jap Contractors mise Jap workers from Pool
Negro Dump trucks
Fire
19 Mar 46
lifted dump box through City
local fire department action
Trsfrd to 1777th Engr Constmction Bn in Fukuoka Asst S-3
no change in work
Hunt for elevators for hospital
Hospitalized for headaches
8 Apr 46
Trsfrd to 1113 th Engr Construction Group at Kurume, Kyushu as Asst S-3
assist in supervision of mise operations of Group command
Shop for Hiroshege and Hoksai prints
Living at Ishibashi mansion
3
servants Ichi ban and Bible pool parties
�15 Apr 46
Temp Duty w/S th Anny at Yokohama with CO Major Redding I" Class rail travel
a weekofR& R Tokyo with Cousin... tour City Diet Bldg... Fujiyama
Easter Sunrise Service Meji Bowl
3 May 46
Asgd to 8-3 positionwith 1113th
Thursdaynight get-togethers with Ishibashis trip across Kyushu
15 May 46
Asgd to ExecutiveOfficer position With 1113tb
21 JWl46
Relv'dfrom 1113th Engr Constr Group Asgd to 4lb Replacement Depot, Yokohama
"Reppledepo"
29 JWl46
Boarded S8 Milford Victory ship in Yokohamaand set sail acrossPacific for Seattle
Calm seas enroute Tiered hammocks five decksbelow main deck
CrossedIntemat Date line on July 4th Captain, in Ship's Masthead publication.
says July 5. I believe it as a purposeful miss-statement because the ships sailors
were demandingholidaypay for two July 4ths. So they slowedthe ship to
delay our voyage by one day. Sensing the slower 12 knot progress,the Captain
correctedthe slow-downwith a record speed of 17.56knots the last two days.
10 July 46
Arrived Seattle... bussed to Fort Louis for the night
11 July 46
Left Seattle by troop trainfor Chicago and Fort Sheridan, Illinois,
ola 18 July
Promotedto Capt Off Reserv Corp Granted 47 days Lv of Absence
3 Sep 45
Released fr Active Duty Placed on Inact status ORC AsgdMich State ADM Serv Group
left for home
28 May 48
Asgd to 1125OR Composite Gp Lansing, Mich
7 Sep 48
Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd to 416th Engr Combat Bn Lansing
1 May 49
Designated CO Hq & Serv Company416th Engr C Bn
9 Oct 50
Relvd fr asgnmt, Asgd as CO Hq & Serv Comp 500th ORC Engr CombatGp Lansing
24 OctSO
Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd 5500th ORC Engr unit (trng) Lansing
19 Oct 51
Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd 5949th ORC School STU Det Lansing
1 Apr 53
Recvd Honorable Discharge from US Armed Forces
16 Jun 53
Off Reserve Appointment expired
4
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BeukemaC
Title
A name given to the resource
Beukema, Cornell (Interview outline, video, and papers), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Beukema, Cornell
Description
An account of the resource
Cornell Beukema graduated from Michigan State University in 1943, went through a series of OCS camps, engineer school, and the Second Army Mine School. He specialized in bridge building, mines and demolition. Sent to Japan after the war ended, he witnessed the destruction wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki as they rebuilt an airfield and built an airport. He remained in active reserve in the army for a number of years after WWII; he was finally discharged in 1953, and he spent the rest of his career with the Michigan state highway department. Military service timeline appended to outline.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McCauslin, Kelly (Interviewer)
Spring Lake District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Video recordings
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Corps of Engineers--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-03-08
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0b6448a973d88184cb7ec277dd3bcc5.mp4
2371be756937336f47c3cfc0c00fc507
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2ecf50b908c271b368b9b9ba80c0a815.pdf
8945f6111734960f3c272ce7657b9a25
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Kevin Bettinghouse
(20:11)
Background Information (00:21)
Born in Grand Rapids Michigan on February 13th 1960. (00:23)
He enlisted in the Air Force. (00:43)
His highest rank was Sergeant E4. (1:00)
He served as a Ground Navigational Aid. (1:30)
Kevin’s interest in electronics while in high school was what drew him to the Air Force. (1:54)
He enlisted in 1977 but was not inducted until August of 1978. (2:31)
Training (3:02)
He did 6 months of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. (3:11)
After basic, Kevin was sent to Mississippi for 8 months of training on landing systems and
tactical air navigation. (3:25)
He was also taught how to solder, though he already knew this from high school. (4:05)
Overview of Service (4:15)
After training in approx. October of 1979, Kevin was sent to Warner Robins Air Force Base in
Georgia. He was there for approx. 1 year.(4:18)
Kevin wanted to go on tour but he did not want to be on tour for 2 years. As a result he went on
a shorter remote isolated tour. In late 1980, Kevin was sent to the Aleutian Islands. (5:15)
After 1 year in Alaska, Kevin finished his tour of duty in Ohio in 1982. (4:50)
Kevin lived in barracks throughout his training and during his first year of service at Georgia.
(6:00)
The food served was often very good. (6:52)
Being only 18 when he enlisted, Kevin enjoyed the freedom of being away from home. (7:36)
Kevin tried very hard to keep in touch with his family. He wrote many letters and occasionally
called home. (8:30)
Kevin managed to make close friends. However, he found it difficult because the men were
often transferred to other bases after Kevin grew close to them. (9:45)
The biggest things that Kevin worked on were the interment landing systems. These interments
told the pilot how close the aircraft was to the center of the runway. (11:40)
He worked on C-130s, F-15s, and training aircraft. (12:41)
Kevin was given the opportunity to fly in several of the aircrafts on “hops.” These were free trips
that soldiers could hop onto to be transported between bases. (13:10)
Exiting the Military (16:35)
He left the military at age 22 in 1982. He decided to leave because he had a girlfriend and he
didn’t want to move around any longer. (16:38)
He hoped that his experience with electronics would get him a job after his service. (17:20)
�
He eventually got a job installing phone jacks and cable. (18:12)
It took time an effort to adjust back into civilian life. He was not used to having every part of his
day no longer structured. (18:50)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BettinghouseK1353V
Title
A name given to the resource
Bettinghouse, Kevin (Interview outline and video), 2011
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bettinghouse, Kevin
Description
An account of the resource
Kevin Bettinghouse, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1960, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to 1982 as a Ground Navigational Aid. After his basic training at Lackland Air Force base in Texas, Kevin spent eight months receiving technical training in Mississippi. During his Service, Kevin was stationed in Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, the Aleutian Islands, and Ohio.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Rowley, Elliot (Interviewer)
Rowley, Scott (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Air Force
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-11-05
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cfa0bb69f314eb1b55c076ca823d04ed.mp4
54c73a1f330b2f5071aa3a66a4e9e770
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d22d44913b6ca8a3d937a0c99dbb60be
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Name of War: World War II
Interviewee name: Homer Berry
Length of Interview: (00:13:59)
(00:40) Pre-Enlistment
Background
o Homer was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925.
o He joined the service [Navy] because his brother had recently been drafted.
(01:30) Enlistment and Training
Homer was sent through boot camp where he went through a lot of physical training.
After training Homer was a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer.
(02:00) Active Duty
Overseas
o Homer was on a LST that left from the Gulfport, Mississippi and went through
the Panama Canal.
o The trip took 25 days and they stopped at the Solomon Islands.
o While in the Pacific they went from island to island dropping off supplies for
troops.
o Homer felt lonely on the boat in the middle of the ocean and he was home sick.
o They often wrote letters back home.
o Food was always different depending on when they had received fresh supplies.
Memorable Moments (05:15)
o Homer had been in Saipan unloading in the harbor when a bunch of Japanese
planes flew over and attacked.
o The men were able to shoot down 7 Japanese planes.
o They had landed in Tinian and Homer grabbed a tennis shoe he found on the
ground; there was a rotten foot still in the shoe.
o They did not have many occurrences with Japanese because the Marines had
always secured the islands before their ship arrived.
(07:15) After the Service
Going Home
o While leaving the Pacific they traveled around the Aleutian Islands on the way
home.
o Homer and the other men had all been really excited when they heard the news
about the war being over.
�
Other experiences
o After his time in the service Homer worked as a fireman.
o While in the Pacific he traveled through the Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, Ten
Yen, and Guadalcanal.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BerryH
Title
A name given to the resource
Berry, Homer C. (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Berry, Homer C.
Description
An account of the resource
Homer Berry was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925. Homer decided to enlist in the Navy shortly after his brother had been drafted. After training Homer became a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer. Homer was shipped to the Pacific on a LST and they began traveling all over the Pacific dropping off supplies to other troops.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Gilliam, Zach (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Navy
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-03-12
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/90f5cb9436f3f894717656dc60bfd9d7.mp4
8bafd23988a84fbf4c68195db7345230
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/076396f6b3039d955f02d8bef64b45ff.pdf
4ce7f6b04579d756361f69c5ba63c862
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Interviewee’s Name: Fred Bernhardt
Name of War: World War II
Length of Interview: (00:40:00)
Background
Born 2/6/1927 in Grand Rapids, MI. (00:14)
Went to Union High School. (00:24)
Enlisted at age 17 in the Marines, during WWII. (00:28)
Most of his friends enlisted. So many of his friends enlisted that he would not have many
friends at home. He and a friend both enlisted in the Marines. (00:41)
Enlisted early March, 1944, the earliest he could enlist. (01:04)
About a month later, he had to have a physical, which took all day. (01:40)
The Marines avoided putting all the men from a particular region in the same unit. The
reasoning for this was that if an entire unit was wiped out, the losses would be too great for the
area. (02:06)
Sent to San Diego, Camp Pendleton for two months. (02:10)
He decided on the Marines after seeing a movie, possibly Guadalcanal Diary. (02:24)
He enlisted to avoid the draft, as draftees could not decide where to enlist. He needed parental
permission because he was only seventeen. His parents reluctantly consented. (02:45)
After Camp Pendleton, he was sent out on a ship, and was not informed where he was being
sent. (03:02)
Training
Training was difficult. (03:30)
Had to wake up at 5:00 AM, attend roll call, and do drill-work, then the rifle range, which was
exceptionally important. (03:34)
Practice at the range involved shooting at targets from various distances with an M-1 rifle. Men
were divided into grades: Marksman, Sharpshooter, and Expert. He managed to attain the
highest grade of Expert. (03:57)
After the rifle range, they were sent to practice with grenades, then automatic rifles, and then
they were ready. (04:10)
Drill instructors were very strict and tough. The two months at Camp Pendleton were the
roughest two months of his enlistment. (04:33)
He had an advantage over many of the men. He had been in ROTC for a year in high school,
and knew the commands and formations. Other men had a hard time learning the formations.
(04:53)
They did battlefield practice exercises with weapons, such as grenades, mortars and machine
guns. (05:30)
Deployment
Sent out on an APA troop transport, the SS Langford. It was a new ship. (05:44)
It was a thirty-day journey. (06:06)
The stopped at Pearly Harbor to refuel. (06:11)
There wasn't much left of Pearl Harbor. It was still a wreck, and had not yet been re-built as of
1944. (06:16)
Other parts of the Hawaiian Islands were all right. (06:37)
He was sent to Saipan. (06:50)
The trip was his first experience on a large ship. He became very ill and sea-sick. He was on
�three ships during the war, and was only sick the first time. (07:02)
From Pearl Harbor they went to the Marianas. (07:23)
Stayed at the Marianas briefly, they were nearly sent to Iwo Jima. (07:32)
The battle on Saipan was mostly over, but there were some stragglers left. (07:56)
The Japanese troops were terrified of the Americans, and would often preferred suicide over
capture. (08:07)
He helped some native (not Japanese) civilians hiding, because they were scared. (08:44)
His unit had to find hiding enemy troops. (09:06)
The Japanese Army did not treat the natives of the Marianas very well. (09:13)
He was on Saipan for about five months. (09:34)
They patrolled the islands. Once an island was secure, the air force would set up a base. The
Marianas were vital for the “island hopping” strategy. (09:46)
Atom bomb/Nagasaki
One day, his commander called out names for guard duty. (10:30)
[DVD freezes] (10:30-10:50)
They were instructed to shoot if any Japanese came by without the password. (11:03)
At the time, he thought the guard duty was just an exercise. He had been put on similar
missions before, and did not believe the situation was very important. Later that day, the atom
bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. (11:30)
He found out that he had been guarding the bomb. This took place the summer of 1945. (12:09)
He had arrived in Saipan around May or June. The bombs were dropped later. (12:24)
Tinian
He was at the battle of Tinian briefly, but then back to Saipan, then to Okinawa, and then back
to Sai-Pan. He was on Okinawa to set up a base for about a week.
The Marines would secure a beach, and then the Army would take over. (14:26)
Preparation for the battle involved a very detailed debriefing. They were shown maps, given a
history of the area, informed about the geography, and of their objectives. They were also given
an estimate on the number of Japanese civilians which were present. The Navy would begin the
operation by bombing and bombarding the target. (14:57)
He watched the bombardment from a troop transport. They were sent in on tracked amphibious
transport vehicles. (15:27)
He came in during the second wave of infantry. (15:51)
There were many explosions going on in the area. (16:10)
The Japanese resisted at the beach. (16:19)
It was a very rough ride. (16:50)
The landing craft came high in at a high speed. The front end dropped out, and the Marines ran
out for the nearest cover, while being shot at. (16:57)
They were targeted by mortars and machine guns (17:14)
The Navy continued to shell the hills. The shelling was not successful as the Japanese
entrenchments were too strong. (17:21)
The beachhead was only about twenty yards long, but very deadly as there was no cover.
(17:41)
There were thousands of Japanese infantry in the hills. (17:57)
His objective as an artillery observer was to find a target—such as tanks or important
equipment. (18:21)
He was then to radio the range to the instrument personal. (18:37)
The Navy would then fire one shell, to see how close they came. (19:03)
If the shot missed, he would provide closer coordinates, and so on until they scored a hit. Once
a hit was scored, he was to instruct them to fire at well. (19:22)
�
He was supported by infantry, but did not have a gun himself. (19:45)
There were tanks at Saipan and at Okinawa, but not at Tinian. (21:02)
He did not stay at Tinian the entire time. Tinian was a less intense battle than Saipan and did
not require naval artillery as frequently. He was only in the area for a day or two. (21:26)
Other men in his division stayed longer, to help secure the area. (22:17)
The Marines took high casualties. (22:30)
His unit had to call in reserves. (22:30)
Okinawa
There was a delay between Saipan and Okinawa. (23:30)
The Allies needed Iwo Jima to proceed on Okinawa, which had air strips. (23:46)
He was not involved at Iwo Jima, but was nearly sent there. (24:06)
The pre-combat debriefing was similar as for Tinian. (24:40)
The information was given on the boat, a few days before the operation. They were not
informed of their mission until just before it was to take place. (25:16)
His unit was in Okinawa for a few days, and then pulled back. Another unit took over. (25:34)
He had the same role as at Tinian, that of the artillery observer. (26:02)
He would provide the distance from the guns, not from his own location. (26:41)
The artillery was usually accurate, and sometimes hit the target on the second shot. (27:09)
He saw Ernie Pyle at Okinawa. (27:22)
The Marines were in the hills; Pyle was with them and taking notes. He had a uniform similar
to a Marine, but his helmet had the word “correspondent” on it. (27:22)
The hill was being shelled, and the Marines told Pyle not to approach, and to take cover. (27:57)
Pyle kept coming, and was killed by a mortar shell. (28:11)
He had never talked to Pyle, and only heard it was him after the fact. (28:13) [Ed. note: Pyle
was killed on Ie Shima, a small island near Okinawa, and by a sniper rather than by mortar fire.]
Correspondents were unusual; he only saw a few of them. (29:12)
He was at Okinawa for about a week. (29:27)
He saw very little of the natives, they took very few prisoners. Most of the Japanese troops
preferred death to capture. (29:37)
More on the Atom Bomb
At the time, he didn't know he was guarding the atom bombs. He was very confused afterward;
he could not comprehend the scale of destruction. (30:11)
He had thought they were going to invade Japan. (31:37)
When the war ended, the men experienced “great joy.” (31:51)
There was no drinking allowed in the Marines, and there was no real way to celebrate on the
island. Most of the men resorted to yelling as a celebration. (32:05)
A week or two later, he was sent do occupy Japan, as part of the treaty provisions. His unit
occupied Nagasaki. (32:45)
Nagasaki had been reduced to rubble. Some parts were left standing, but there were no people.
(33:06)
They used tents on the ground and tried to camp away from the bomb site, in a forest or on the
beach. (32:33)
There were two to four men to a tent. (34:00)
He was in Nagasaki for about two months. (34:08)
Then he was sent to Isahaya, then Obama for the remainder. (34:16)
Obama
Obama had been a resort during peace-time. (34:04)
There was a hotel, and various entertainment businesses. (34:50)
There was a nearby town called Unsen, which had a large sulfur spring. The sulfur spring in
�
Obama was smaller. (35:01)
The spring water was piped into the hotel. (35:30)
His job was to make sure there was no trouble. (35:31)
There was usually not much trouble to worry about. (34:45)
He was part of the MP force. He trained for the position for about a week. (36:01)
He was to watch the American troops, make sure they didn't get in trouble. (36:10)
The Japanese police were very good at keeping order. They were a reliable contact if any
Japanese civilians caused problems. (36:36)
The American MPs had no power over the civilians. (36:39)
He got to know many of the civilians very well, as they were very friendly. (36:24)
The Americans were often invited into households for Japanese holidays, especially their New
Year. (37:10)
He was very surprised at their pleasant reception among the civilians. Discharged Japanese
soldiers were very hostile however. (37:43)
The civilian population was mostly relieved the war was over, and many of them had been
opposed to the war. (38:12)
Many Japanese citizens spoke English, which helped as most of the Americans did not speak
Japanese well. (38:45)
He remembers the civilians as friendly and helpful. He felt sorry for them. (38:51)
He learned a lot about himself, learned discipline, and met many nice people during his career
in the Marines. (39:25)
Believes the Marines have the most rigorous training of any branch of service. (39:45)
He was very glad the war was over. (40:04)
Disc Two (36:31)
(00:30) Marine Photographer
There were picture sets available to all those in the division for a price [this was discussed
because Bernhardt bought a set of photos from Saipan from a Marine photographer, and this set
is included in his file for this project—Bernhardt also states that he was in one of the pictures,
which was how he met the photographer]
Service men were not allowed to have a camera and there was nowhere to purchase film
Fred was able to purchase a nice German camera from a man in Japan
He patrolled Japanese towns all day and was then allowed to go sightseeing with his camera
once his shift was up
They stayed in a nice Japanese hotel with great Japanese food
(8:20) Unsen, Japan
This as a large, beautiful resort town
They had community baths that were very hot and large
Fred and others watched stage shows that were similar to American plays
There were about 35 men in the unit, but not a lot of other military police in the area
(14:45) Former Soldiers
There were many discharged Japanese soldiers that were not friendly to the American soldiers
They would not talk to the American soldiers or even look them in the eyes
A civilian who had seen the bomb go off from in the mountains about 20 miles away told him
that they had no idea what was going on and it was like the end of the world
� Many Japanese men were trying to get American soldiers to date their daughters and take them
back to America
Some men did bring back women to the US
(18:20) Duties in Japan
Fred had been working with the military police and keeping an eye on American soldiers
The Japanese police watched the civilians and they were all pretty tough
Fred spent 9 months in Japan while Nagasaki was being rebuilt
(24:00) Transport Ship back to the US
The ship was crowded and the men had to sleep on cots
They stopped in Hawaii to refuel and this time Fred did not get sea sick
They landed back in San Diego and he traveled to the Great Lakes Naval base in Chicago
(26:20) Life after the Service
Fred went back to visit his friends and took some time off
He did not even look for a job for about two months
He began working at the American Seating Company for about a year
Fred was then an apprentice for four years doing iron work and he eventually got his
journeyman papers
(29:15) Photography
Fred joined the Grand Rapids Camera Club and became more interested in the subject
It had been a hobby, but everyone he knew had encouraged him to turn it into a career
He began taking other photography classes and joined the Professional Photographers of
America
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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BernhardtF
Title
A name given to the resource
Bernhardt, Fred (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2007
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bernhardt, Fred
Description
An account of the resource
Fred Bernhardt enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in early 1944. He served in the Pacific Theater of WWII as an artillery observer for naval bombardments. He also served as a guard of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, and was part of the post-war occupation force as an MP in the Nagasaki area.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Language
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eng
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-11-13
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2f47559c9afa7e56de3f91d2e984d208.mp4
0639f8766cf19015c1987ecf2ff594f0
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/34ddf3ab583a0906ea1303b410dba200.pdf
a9f1da2f4cc6524187c432b30c234a08
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Len Berkenpas
World War II
Total Time: 0:43:15
Childhood and Pre-Enlistment (0:00:20)
•
•
•
•
•
Born in 1925 in Byron Center, MI
Family was involved in farming
Attended Byron Center Christian School until 8th Grade and then Byron Center
High School, but did not finish.
Father tried to get him a deferment for the service, but because his family had 6
other boys, he did not get the deferment.
Was sent to Detroit, passed his tests, and was drafted into the service.
Training and Active Duty (0:03:55)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trained at Great Lakes Naval Station in 1943 for the Navy. This was his boot
camp.
He did not pass his swimming tests after Boot Camp, and this disqualified him
from serving and he was sent home.
The Navy made him take swimming lessons there so he could pass basic training.
However, he applied to be a ship’s cook and became good friends with the pool
attendants, so he didn’t really take any lessons. This was at US Naval Air Base
Livermore, CA.
(0:06:40) Was shipped across the country on a troop train from Detroit to San
Francisco.
(0:09:05)He was the cook at the Naval Air Base Livermore, CA.
Shifts were 24 hours on 24 off.
Attained the rank of Third Class Ship’s Cook.
Stayed on the base and cooked.
Soup was served at every meal, and some canned food and fresh food were used.
(0:14:23) They sometimes used prisoners on the camp. They would use them for
tasks like pealing potatoes.
The biggest crowds of men they had to serve were around 3000.
(0:17:30) Men would sometimes run into Livermore or San Francisco or for
recreation. They had busses that ran back and forth.
(0:21:50) Their base was not integrated. Never had any black sailors. There were
some Jews on the base but that was about it.
He reported to a Lieutenant and the other command structure above the
Lieutenant.
He applied many times to get off the base, but he was unable to during the war.
However, he was assigned to the USS Iowa after the war was over, however he
never went out to sea.
�•
(0:28:10) He was discharged in early 1946. He hitchhiked from San Francisco to
Byron Center.
Post-Service (0:35:40)
•
•
•
Stayed and worked on the family farm for 3 years and got married.
After he left the farm, he got many different jobs.
Ended up Box Board Packaging Corporation in Grandville, MI making corrugated
cartons. He stayed there for 39 years.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BerkenpasL
Title
A name given to the resource
Berkenpas, Len (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Berkenpas, Len
Description
An account of the resource
Len Berkenpas was born in 1925 to a farmer in Byron Center, MI. Was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and worked as a cook at Naval Air Base Livermore near San Francisco, CA. He did not spend any time on a ship at sea.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
BCTV
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Navy
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-06-30
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1944320e2b026994349c893cab9dfab7.mp4
d247433f99251adeccc64568c173556e
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/99f87986991e0eedc8d7d114ae42add9.pdf
7c63dbdb3ceb94ded284fcf9505bee17
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
World War II
Ronald Bergin
Length of Interview (00:42:55)
Background (00:00:00)
Born April 20, 1927
Served in WWII in the Navy as a seaman, 1st class
Enlisted in the Navy because a lot of his friends died in the Army
Had to join early because at age 18 you’d be drafted in the Army
Training (00:02:00)
Enlisted in 1944
18th birthday in April of ’45 so he had to sign up beforehand
Was taken a month before graduating, still got his diploma
Went to Great Lakes for 8 weeks of basic training
Went back to California after a week of rest
The rest of Bergin’s friends were given ships but he wasn’t
Took combat training in California
Had dropped the Atomic Bomb after combat training had finished
Thought they would be going home, instead picked up the 4th Marine Division in Okinawa and
go to Japan for the Occupation
Got as far as Guam and was dropped off; never went to Okinawa
Was on a troupe transport, very small, Liberty Ship; 1200 men in his unit
Took 16 days to go over; got into some rough storms
Barely any room; had to stay below deck, wasn’t allowed
Spent first three days in storms, a lot of seasickness; taking on a lot of water, too
�Almost went up to Alaska, a lot of mines set there
When radar picked up signal of one, gun crew had to take care of it
No more men were needed in Japan so they were dropped off in Guam
Finished the rest of his overseas duty in Guam
Guam (00:09:50)
Not many living quarters, assigned to an abandoned camp
Very hot and muggy climate
Lived in tents the whole time he was in Guam
The supply base was the second biggest after the Japanese took Subic Bay in Philippines
Supplied the whole 7th Fleet in the Pacific
All jungle there, large caves; the Japanese lived in these caves and would occasionally attack
Bergin’s fellow soldiers
A lot of insects and reptiles there
The camp itself was rough, a rough way to live
•
Facilities for showers were always malfunctioning
•
They eventually built barracks, but that was after Bergin’s unit left
Built floating docks, a huge harbor
Guam has a lot of coral reef surrounding it, so the harbor rectified this
No fresh food: powdered eggs, milk, etc.
Everything was in tents
There was a fungus from the jungle that affected a lot of men, they got used to it; a lot of
infections, as well
Was a company reporter (00:18:35)
In boot camp, had a newspaper; had taken journalism in high school
Paper was called the Great Lakes Bulletin, came out every two weeks
�•
Interviewed men; a lot of famous ball players, also a lot of high school kids
•
Bergin was considered one of the oldest even though he just turned 18
When in Guam, also wrote for the paper there
Kept him out of guard duty
Played a lot of ball: baseball and softball (00:22:10)
Held a lot of tournaments for swimmers
Movies every night; outdoors
Didn’t have to worry about entertainment at the end of the day because you’d be too tired to do
anything
There were different areas where pool could be played
There wasn’t much to do
Communication was hard, but would write letters (00:25:07)
•
Many of the men in his unit were unmarried, so they mostly received letters from family
•
Ships usually brought the mail because the planes were being used for combat
Going Home (00:28:43)
Went back on a large ship; a luxury liner converted into a troupe transport
Calm weather all the way home; made the trip in 11 days
Landed in San Francisco, California, stayed there for two days then flew to Great Lakes to be
discharged
A lot of jobs were open
About 10 million men had been in the service
So men had trouble going back to a “normal” life
Worked in the Engineering Department in Consumers’ Power (00:32:22)
•
Very busy, many farmers wanted electricity
•
Enjoyed doing it very much
�Held Japanese prisoners in Guam (00:34:21)
Two classes of prisoners:
•
Japanese Imperial Marines: under lock and key all the time; solitary confinement, prone
to committing suicide before capture
•
Also held ordinary prisoners
•
Held 30,000 prisoners of the ordinary prisoners just as the war was ending
•
Didn’t let the Japanese Imperial Marines go
Integration (00:36:50)
Blacks had separate barracks, bathroom facilities, chow halls, etc.
•
Bergin thought this was silly
Would still train together
In all branches of military, this practice was pervasive
When Harry Truman became president, he integrated Bergin’s base; 20,000 men
Took one night to do this, on a Sundays morning
•
Would eat together, have the same bathrooms, but barracks were still segregated
No problems occurred, except for an incident with seven southerners (00:40:02)
•
Went up to several blacks and tipped over their trays
•
MP’s took these seven men out, never saw them after that
•
Within a year, they integrated the barracks
One of the biggest that happened, it was turning point in history
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
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1914-
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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BerginR
Title
A name given to the resource
Bergin, Ronald (Interview outline and video), 2009
Creator
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Bergin, Ronald
Description
An account of the resource
Ronald Bergin enlisted into the Navy in the year of 1944. He was to be sent to Japan for the Occupation, but his company was instead sent to Guam. He describes the condition of the camps in Guam and the how their camp was used to test President Truman's idea for integration between blacks and whites.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Davenport, Ben (Interviewer)
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
United States. Navy
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2009-05-03
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6b39dc5b93caeb729e333efc7de72062.mp4
022c24f414f2cf6704a641816ee619eb
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dc03898d62d9ca9c19992f01d1dae181.pdf
a195a0a3916ffd19408d2ddaf8cd930b
PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project
Howard Bennink
(01:25:02)
(00:09) Introduction:
• Born in Coopersville, Michigan.
• Grew up on an 80-acre farm.
• Attended one year of high school.
(02:45) Before enlisting and depression:
• Remembers being very poor.
• All farm products dropped 50% in price.
• Stayed on farm until he enlisted in the military.
• He also worked on an excelsior plant in Grand Rapids.
• He had no idea where Pearl Harbor was when it was bombed.
• Remembers his mother saying that “Hitler was no good” long before he invaded
Poland.
(08:20) Enlistment:
• Enlisted in Marine Corps.
• Trained at Parrs Island, South Carolina.
• Main thing about the Marine Corps was discipline by marching.
• Received all WWI rifles and clothing.
(12:40) After boot camp:
• Received further training at Camp Lejeune.
• Took a train to San Francisco.
• Trained for six months before leaving the United States.
(14:20) Ship ride to New Zealand:
• Traveled by luxury liner 30 days from San Francisco to Wellington, New
Zealand.
• Many of the men got terrible diarrhea on the ship.
• The ship was never attacked, although there was a submarine warning.
(18:45) Wellington New Zealand:
• Women built camps in New Zealand--male New Zealanders were fighting for
Britain in Africa.
• As soon as they arrived in Wellington, they started reloading the ships for combat
and headed to Guadalcanal in 1942.
(20:25) Guadalcanal:
• Landed on Guadalcanal.
• First offensive United States made against the Japanese.
• Japanese landed on Guadalcanal but failed.
• Served as a rifleman on the front line while on Guadalcanal.
• Living conditions were reasonable.
• Weather conditions were tough, very warm and humid.
(25:37) Australia:
�•
•
Headed for Brisbane, Australia.
Most of the men had malaria after Guadalcanal, causing them to be incredibly
weak.
• As soon as they were on the ship, they drank Quinine for malaria treatment.
• Arrived at a camp in Brisbane around Christmas time.
• Left Brisbane for Melbourne, Australia.
• After arriving in Melbourne, he contracted malaria again and was hospitalized for
four months.
• The hospital was very nice.
• Once discharged from hospital, he was sent to Adelaide, Australia for two weeks.
• He was then sent back to Melbourne where his division lived in a cricket stadium.
(31:10) After Australia:
• Traveled to Goodenough Island for three weeks.
• Then to Finschaefen, New Guinea where they boarded their ships and sailed to
Cape Gloucester, New Britain.
• Received a Silver Star during fighting in Cape Gloucester.
• The weather in Cape Gloucester was horrible; storms and rain the entire time.
• Sent back to the United States after Cape Gloucester, on a thirty-day ship ride.
(32:50) Furlough:
• Sixty-five men were on ship along with sixty-five mental patients from the
military.
• Was able to keep in touch with family and received the Grand Rapids Press while
in Pacific.
• Received a thirty-day furlough after arriving stateside.
• Did not hear about the European theatre much while in Pacific.
(36:30) After Furlough:
• While still stateside, he received his Silver Star at a ceremony and was promoted
to sergeant.
• Trained in the United States and then received more training in Hawaii.
• Did not like Hawaii because of all the volcanic ash and the extremely cold
showers.
• Remained in Hawaii for four months and was then sent to Iwo Jima by ship.
(46:19) Iwo Jima:
• Remained on the island for three weeks until he was shot in the shoulder.
• Most of the men around him were shot in the head and killed instantly.
• The shot he received missed his carotid artery, grazed his spinal cord and went
through his back.
• As four men were carrying him on a stretcher, one was shot through the head.
• After waiting for the Japanese fire to subside, he was taken to a Marine hospital.
• He left Iwo Jima on a hospital ship to Guam, and then by plane to a military
hospital in Hawaii where he had surgery.
• He was then flown to Oakland, California.
(57:53) Atomic Bomb:
• Still recovering in a hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois when the bombs were
dropped.
�• Was relieved when they dropped the atomic bombs.
(58:35) After Service:
• Could only whisper after the service due to his injuries.
• Received the 52/20 plan; 20 dollars every week for 52 weeks.
• Worked as a barber for forty years in Grand Haven, Michigan.
• Since retirement, he helps with landscaping work at his church and is currently on
a one man mission to prevent overpopulation in the world.
• He believes that overpopulation caused World War II.
• His family has already compiled a written personal history of his service.
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FOREWORD
In June 1994, on our way back from Sugar- Mountain, N.C., our
grandson, Brent, then nine years old, spoke from the middle seat
of the mini-van, "Grandpa, you were a Marine in the war, right?
Did you have to shoot anyone?" Later he asked, "How far away
were they?"
On February 19, 1995, fifty years after the Marines landed
on Iwo Jima, Howard and I attended a memorial program in
Kalamazoo.
It was what the Navy veterans remembered and what the
Marine veterans didn't say that impressed m~.
It was after our family doctor asked Howard why he was
connected to the Veterans Administration and had sent for his
medical records that I began to think of writing.
Then in July of 1995, at a Guadalcanal Veterans reunion in
Frankenmuth, Michigan, we met a man who was writing about his
father, _an army doctor, who had worked on Guadalcanal. He hoped
to meet-someone who remembered him and the hospital there. Of
course, when the Marines were there, there wasn't any hospital
and probably no doctor either.
Finally, it was the radio/television cornrnentatorsand the
newspaper editors and the critics, who weren't there but
expressed their opinions that Pres~dent Truman should not have
authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb, even if we had to
invade Japan.
The men who carne back alive had neglected to tell how it
was!
In-August, 1995, I began to write as Howard told me about
his experiences.
Elizabeth L. Bennink
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When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
Howard was living at horne with his parents, Nancy and Harm
Bennink, and working in a factory in Grand Rapids. He was
nineteen years old.
At the suggestion of a fellow worker, that he consider the
Marines, he dropped in at a recruiting office in Grand Rapids.
He didn't know any Marines personally and didn't know much about
the Corps either. Most people in this area joined the Navy, but
on January 6, 1942, he became a United States Marine.
January 6, 1942 was a cold, stormy Monday. His father and.
mother had driven him. to Grand Rapids. The newspaper article
which Nancy' saved says that he was one of 23 young men ~ho were
instructed by Staff Sergeant Lloyd Beattie. Fifteen 6f the men
were from Grand Rapids and the remainder were from outlying
areas. The picture shows the young men wearing suits, ~ies,
overcoats and hats. Howard had not met any of them before.
The group traveled to Detroit by Greyhound bus. He was
given a physical examination which he passed in spite of "a
displaced septal cartilage to the left, and old fracture of the
nose and second degree flat feet". Howard "Bennick" was 73 1/4"
tall and weighed 158 Ibs. His vision measured 20/20 bil~terally.
His hearing was 15/15 in both ears. His chest measured ~4" at
expiration and 38 1/2" at inspiration.
Pulse was 80 before
exercise, 98 after exercise and 82 after rest. His blood
pressure was 136/88. He had blond hair, was blue eyed and had a
ruddy complexion. Actually, it was his second examination. The
recruiting officer in Grand Rapids had examined his teeth and
asked if he had, or had ever had venereal diseases.
Howard was sworn in after the physical. His serial number
was 3 5 3 6 5 8. They spent the night in Detroit.
The next
morning, they left by train, a stearn engine coach for Beaufort,
South Carolina. A camp bus took them to Parris Island and boot
camp.
The weather was milder in South Carolina.
It was 5'0 - 60
degrees during the day and a cool 30 degrees at night. They
lived in Quonset huts which housed 12 - 20 men. They slept on
steel bunks and marched to the mess hall for meals.
They got up
in the dark.
Back in Michigan, father Harm and brother-in-law John Dyke
had put Howard's 1936, gray, Tudor Ford up on blocks in Aunt
Altha Fitch's garage on Madison St. in Grand Rapids. This was
Howard's second car. His first was a 1927 Chevy that he bought
when he was sixteen. It cost $60.00. The Ford cost $250.00 in
1940.
It was at Parris Island that they were given their initial
wardrobe:
Dungarees - pants and jackets
Shoes - dress and boon dockers
Dress uniform - greens and khaki
Caps
Socks
Sweatshirts
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Two blankets
Skivie shirts
Leather belt with a brass buckle
Eight quart pail
Six inch scrub brush
Safety razor
Bar of soap
Toothbrush and toothpaste
The first three weeks were taken up, mostly, by close order
drill. The D.I. (Drill Instructor) was Cpl. Montplacer.
It was
the Platoon Sgt. that taught them how to make up their bunks and
scrub floors.
Howard says that he had no complaints in regard to
treatment.
The second three weeks were spent on the rifle range, where
they lived in tents and ate rations (16 oz. cans of pork and
beans, stew, and hash). The tents held six people. They slept
on cots with a mattress.
It was cold at night and even snowed
once.
.
His closest associates in Boot Camp were probably Harold
DeHaan from Grand Rapids and Paul Gammage from Ionia.
Howard also remembers getting two haircuts during Boot Camp.
He remembers too, how they craved sweets. They were allowed to
buy one candy bar at the P.X. during the six weeks.
Their first move was to Camp LeJeune, New River, North
Carolina. According to the book "The Old Breed", a history of
the First Marine Division in World War II by George McMillian,
Camp LeJeune was 111,710 acres of newly bought land at New River,
N.C.
"111,710 acres of water, coast:al swamp and plain, thereto
fore inhabited largely by sandflies, ticks, chiggers and snakes".'
If I interpret the book correctly, until February 1, 1941,
the Marines, all of them, were the First Brigade which grew in
number when the organized reserves were called up in the fall of
1940. Quantico, the horne of the Brigade was now too small so the:
land was bought at New River. The date, August, 1941, is
mentioned as the time the First Division set up at New River.
By December 7, 1941, the Division was still small; 518
officers and 6,871 men. By the spring of 1942 (April), it had
grown to 15,000 men. The average age was probably not quite 20
years old and about 90% of them had enlisted since Pearl Harbor.
The First Marine Division included the First Marine
Regiment, the Fifth Marine Regiment, the Seventh Marine Regiment
and the Eleventh Marine Regiment.
Howard was in the First Marine Regiment, Third Battalion,
'I' Company, Third Platoon, Fourth Squad.
Cpl. Morino was the Squad Leader, Sgt. Sylvester was the
Platoon Sergeant, and Lt. Weiss was the Platoon Officer.
The men had been issued rifles at Parris Island, a bolt
action Springfield. They took good care of it. They carried it
everywhere except on liberty.
It was even in the bunk with them
at night. They memorized the serial number, but now 50+ years
later, Howard can only remember the first two numbers, 1 and 5.
Howard's discharge papers say that he quallified with the
Bayonet, 12 February, 1942 and Special Military Qualification,
Scout - Sniper.
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�They lived in Quonset huts that looked new.
There were
eight bunks on each side. The floor was wood and there were
windows.
Their Sgt. talked a lot about combat but Howard doesn't
think that he really knew what he was talking about.
As a part of their training, they crawled across 40 acres on
their bellies. During breaks, the Platoon Sgt. would say that
the smoking lamp was lit.
That meant that the men could smoke.
Howard had started to smoke on his way to Detroit from Grand
Rapids.
The obstacle course at Camp LeJeune did not amount to much,
but one day the company hiked to the ocean. The bottom was
covered with oysters and everyone had cut feet after they bathed
nude in the salt water.
The camp had a parachute group. Those men never walked,
they always ran.
They also had a Division Band. It practiced out under the
trees and sounded good.
On March 12, 1942, Howard was hospitalized with German
Measles. The hospital had bunks stacked two or three high. A
corpsman was in charge. Howard returned to duty on March 16,
1942.
Howard remembers going on liberty twice. They went to
Jacksonville where he had a couple"beers and caught a bus back to
camp.
They also went to New Berne once. There wasn't much to do
there either, but there was a tattoo parlor and Howard received
the small tattoo on his forearm which says U S M C - 1942.
They also took a bus trip to Cherry Point about 15 or more
miles away.
Brick buildings were being erected for the Air
Force.
While at Camp LeJeune, Howard was promoted to a Private
First Class.
He is not positive, but he thinks that he got a
raise of $6.00, from $18.00 to $24.00 a month.
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Major General A. A. Vandegrift assumed command of the First
Marine Division from Major General Philip Torrey on March 23,
1942.
In mid April, a plan called Lone Wolf arrived at New River,
ordering the Division to Wellington, New Zealand at the earliest
possible moment.
It was said that Vandegrift thought that the
Division had not yet attained a satisfactory state of readiness
for combat, but he was assured that the Division would not be
expected to fight before January 1, 1943.
An advance party of officers was dispatched to select a
site. They found it on North Islarid, 35 miles from Wellington .
."The bush covered gorges' and ravines of the Tararu Moun tains are
in "spitting" distance".
The camp was built with green lumber by
New Zealand women.
New Zealand was a part of Great Britain which
had been at war since 1940. Both labor and supplies were
limited.
By the end of April, the Division was ready to move (two
weeks after the notice). On May 1, 1942, the troops went aboard
trains at New River.
Howard says their clothing and personal
items were put into sea bags and thrown in a pile.
It was the
last time he saw them. He presumed that the ship carrying them
had been sunk. At that point in time, combat loading was
considered pointless and time consuming, so personnel and gear
went into separate ships.
.
The Wakefield with General Vandegrift aboard left from
Norfolk, Virginia on May 20, through the submarine menaced
Atlantic and the Panama Canal.
The men left by train for the Pacific Coast.
Before leaving
they were told not to write letters or make any contacts.
The
train was a Pullman with sleepers and diners. They carried their
rifles and packs. The train zigzagged to San Francisco. They
were told that they crossed the Royal Gorge but Howard does not
remember seeing it.
The last night on the train, they were told to set their
boon-dockers out. Boon-dockers were their rough leather boots
which were never polished, but the next morning the porter had
them shiny. The men collected for a tip.
When they got down to the docks and the ship, it was being
unloaded of boulders. The pile of rocks was still on the docks
when the ship sailed.
The ship was the Ericsson, which was a German luxury liner
that had been seized in the New York Harbor after the war began.
It was a beautiful ship, privately owned and leased to the
Government.
Personnel were civilians.
It had two swimming pools
and beautiful paintings and wood carvings.
Howard thought that
perhaps the staterooms had been torn out because they slept on
bunks, six high.
He had no idea what part of the ship that they
were in.
They lived aboard for a week or more before sailing.
During
this time Howard rented a horse, a big, long legged one, and rode
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along the hills. '[he horse could not be ridden or led off the
main trail.
He remembers being on guard duty and needed his
overcoat.
Howard is not sure when they left San Francisco.
His
discharge papers say, "Asiatic Pacific Area, 22 June, 1942."
Howard does not remember the dining room, but he remembers
walking down the steps with rotten food on the tray.
It seems
that the refrigeration was not functioning properly.
Here after,
for the remaining three weeks, the men existed on Planters
peanuts and Pepsi Cola in glass bottles which had replac~d the
water in the pools.
The men had to purchase the nuts and cola.
Because of th~ illness arid inadequate diet, according to the
book, the men lost as much as 16 pounds enroute.
TheFirst
Marine Division was living up to their nick-name the Raggedy Ass
Marines.
Howard does not remember any big guns on the ship.
They
were not part of a convoy, and crossed the ocean alone.
They
were not told of their destination until they were at sea.
During the day porpoise followed the bow of the ship.
At night,
there were lots of lights in the water.
They were told that it
was phosphorous.
In Mother Nancy's scrapbook is a small card which says:
Piic ; Howard Bennink was duly initiated into the Solemn
Mysteries of the Deep. 'Having crossed the Equator July
1, 1942.
Aboard the R.S. John Ericsson during W.W.II.
Davey Jones - His Majesty's Scribe
Neptune Rex - Ruler of the Raging Main
The initiation ceremony did not take place as submarines were
sighted, but they were in line to be doused with water and get "a
slap on the ass with a paddle."
The trip lasted 30 days. Much of this time, they read.
On June 26, while the Ericsson was still on the high seas,
General Vandegrift was told that the Marines would invade, occupy
and defend Guadalcanal, Florida and Santa Cruz Islands and that
D. Day would be August 1, 1942. Vandegrift was upset, his
Marines would not arrive until July 11th, after 30 days of
inactivity.
In addition no planning had been done and the only
information available were naval charts which were made in 1910.
It was obvious why Douglas MacArthur and his team had not done
well in his part of the war.
D. Day was moved to August 7, still not much time to gather
information, plan, study, load 31 transports and cargo carriers,
embark 20,000 men and 60 days of supplies, rendezvous with the
Navy and conduct a set of joint rehearsal exercises.
One of the first orders to come down, was to leave 1/3 of
the supplies behind.
It was winter in New Zealand with cold driving rain.
Food
supplies melted on the docks as they were unloaded from one ship
and loaded on another, sometimes at the same time.
Howard said that they lived aboard ship, but did walk into
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the hills once.
On July 25, 1942, Howard became 20 years old.
Koro Island in the Figi's was selected for pre-invasion
maneuvers.
It was about half way between New Zealand and
Guadalcanal, 'but it was not like Guadalcanal.
It was a coral
island. After several landing vessels were wrecked attempting to
land, the practice was called off. The units spent their days,
July 28-31, riding up to the reef and back.
The convoy left Koro on July 31. Howard was aboard the
McCawley.
As they left, the men were told where ~hey were going. The
men wondered, "Where the hell G~adalcanal was and why were they
going there?" The men were uptight.
It was the unknown.
It was
to be the first offensive battle of the Pacific War.
"We never
knew what the hell we were getti,ng in to." The officers who
didn't know either, said that it was safer than at home on the
highways. Howard remembers sharpening the bayonet to kill Japs
but ended up using it to crack green coconuts to stay alive.
The convoy was almost all of the effective striking force of
the Navy in the Pacific.
It consisted of three carriers:
the
Saratoga, Enterprise and the Wasp; the battleship, North
Carolina; and some cruisers and destroyers.
Guadalcanal was the first o:ffensive waged against the
Japanese in W.W.II. The Japs had humiliated us at Pearl Harbor
and we were helpless in our attempts to aid the men of Corregidor
and the Bataan March. We had begun to think the Japanese were
supermen.
Howard remembers the trip on the McCawley to Guadalcanal.
They ate, slept or lay dreaming on the deck.
At daylight on August 7, 1942, the cruisers began shore
bombardment. At 0647, under the cover of the shore bombardment
and the planes from the carriers, the men began to go over the
side and down the cargo nets into Higgins boats under full pack.
The backpack contained the following:
Mess gear
Razor - bar'of soap
Towel
Blanket
Poncho
1/2 of a pup tent
Brush (which most of the men threw away)
Food (if you had any)
A shovel hung on the back of the pack.
You thought of your pack as your horne and your kitchen. You used
it all.
You carried your rifle and wore a cartridge belt. Attached
to it was a canteen full of water, a med pack in a metal can with
sterile gauze and yellow vaseline gauze strips 4"x6" in a canvas
pouch, ammo, and a bayonet inside a scabbard.
They headed into the beach and landed on schedule, in fact,
two minutes early, at 0908.
They jumped over the side of the
Higgins boats and into water waist high and waded in, carrying
their packs and rifle. The beach was sandy, then grassy, then
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coconut trees with lots of nuts on the ground. Here they
stopped- "Where were the Japs?" They opened a few coconuts with
their knives. Howard cut his finger.
They headed for the jungle, 200 men single file.
The vines
and branches had been chopped for a path.
By perhaps 3 p.m., they were out of water. The temperature
was about 100 degrees.
If they had anything to eat it was
probably a sort of chocolate bar. Sometime later" they crossed a
creek. They filled their canteens and dropped the pill in it.
By nightfall, they were out of water again and had to do without.
That night, they.slept op the rotten, stinky, black dirt on
the trail. The jungle was noisy and they were scared. ,Their
lieutenant was bitten by a spider. They heard him scream and
moan. They were told that he died, but Howard did not see him.
When morning came, the Marines were proud. Although there
was a lot of trigger-fingering, no one had fired. ' That was a
sign of good training. The Japs couldn't find them.
They continued on until the officers got orders to abandon
the original orders, because theyhad the wrong information.
There was no grassy knoll. There was only more jungle.
By the time Howard's Company reached the beacp, the ships
had already left, without unloading supplies. They had left
before dawn the day after the invasion. It was said that General
Vandegrift could not make his sen{or officers realize the
disastrous effect.
Howard's Company of 200 men spent the next two weeks on the
beach guarding against Japanese attacks. The times are only
estimates, He had no watch, calendar or any means of knowing
other than sun-ups and sundowns.
When they arrived on the beach, other Marines were walking
by with Japanese souvenirs. A Japanese construction unit was
discovered. They were building a large straw roofed warehouse,
part of which would be used as a mess hall.
It had canned fruit,
lots of rice, clothing and glass bottles of saki . . It was open
for the first two days and everyone ate well. Then it was
declared "off limits" and guarded.
It was here that Howard saw his first live Japs, in the
stockade. Almost all were laborers and engineers.
Some were
Koreans.
The two weeks on the beach were not bad and he remembers
certain things that happened:
During daylight hours, a Jap submarine out in the ocean
would surface and fire.
Our 1/2 tracks would tear down to the
beach and fire at the sub but it was just out of range.
One time the Japanese Commander came in too close, it may
have been hit, but it submerged in a hurry.
He saw Zeros fly at treetop heights. Once they saw a plane
with a star (U.S.) followed by a Zero and watched it go out of
sight.
They watched dog fights over the water.
Sometimes they
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could see the pilot through the canopy.
Howard saw the first u.s. planes corne in at treetop level.
The Marines were so surprised that they almost shot at them.
The Marines noticed that supply ships were not corning in.
This was bad.
They saw flashes, lots of them, out over the ocean at night.
The flashes were followed about seven seconds later by rumbles.
We know now that we lost the Quincy, Vincennes, Astoria and the
Chicago.
The Canberra was so badly damaged that it had to be
sunk. All 'together, we lost four cruisers and a destroyer was
damaged.
The Japs did not lose any and only two were damaged.
This is now called the Battle of Savo Island.
When the word got around that the Navy had left, the Marines
learned the feeling of expendability, and that they would
probably never get off the island alive.
Then the Division went on short rations, two meals a day of
captured Japanese food (fish heads and rice) .
The air raids started and we had no way to oppose them.
They would corne in high, in formation, and drop a few bombs.
About midnight, a lone plane would fly overhead, drop a bomb
and leave and then another would repeat the act.
The Marines
called this harassment, Wash Machine Charlie.
There was talk about Tokyq Rose, but Howard said that he
never heard her. He didn't know anyone who had a radio.
The Japs landed 900 men, one mile from where the Marines
were trying to hold the airfield. They did not have enough men
and that left some places in the perimeter unmanned. The air
strip was about 1/2 mile from the beach area. The battle started
about 0100.
Howard's Company was ordered to Right face, that is,
to face the Japs instead of the ocean. A company has about 200
men. The Japs had lots of ammo.
If they had broken through, it
would have been bad, but they never did. The line had held.
At daylight, the battle was over and Howard's Company moved
forward and exchanged position. They walked through lots of dead
men (the Battle of Tenaru), and upstream about a mile and set up
a position of defense. This was right at the edge of a swamp and
at the end of a runway for fighter planes.
'I' Company was in
this position for a long time, maybe weeks. Rations of rice and
coconuts were short. One day their Lieutenant got a can of Spam,
about a 4 pound can. He cut it into 30 pieces and shared.
It
tasted so good!
During this time, they saw Japanese bombers, silver colored,
two motors, so high than they looked to be the size of a quart
jar. Then they saw our fighter planes above them, about the size
of a fist.
They seemed directly overhead. The Marines did not
hear the guns, but watched the bombers fallout of formation and
spiral down. At least seven or eight fell, but they must have
fallen into the jungle. They did not see any fires or see any
fighters fall.
Although the Company was less than 1/2 mile from the
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airfield, no bombs ever landed near the Company.
The dog fights were uneven. Usually five of ours to 20 - 25
of theirs but we were desperate.
Dates and events were hazy as the Marines had no way of
measuring time.
Somehow, sometimes they moved to the other side
of the airstrip and the Company would go on patrol.
"We were ambushed on the Matamikau River. Our Lt. Weiss was
paralyzed (still living today)." Bullets zipped around Howard
but he was not hurt. The Company had a set of twins from Niagara
Falls, one was killed and the other went psycho.
"Somehow, we
got away." But Howard has forgotten how they managed to do it.
Another Company carne into the area and cleaned it up.
Then 'I'
Company went into the same area and set up a defense position on
the river for perhaps days or weeks. Usually, they went on
patrol in front of the lines with about 20 men.
It was in this area than their Company was in battle. At
sunset on October 21, the Japanese attacked with 9 - 18 ton
tanks. Only one broke through. Howard's Company was supported
by 2 - 1/2 tracks, 2 - 37rnm. guns, 2 - 50 caliber machine guns,
besides the rifle men and light machine guns. The next morning
seven Jap tanks were burning and when they walked across the
river, they found lots of dead men (estimated 600). One man in
Howard's squad lost a leg.
.
Supplies began to corne in by the last of the second month,
but Howard was not in a position to see the ships.
By September, Malaria was taking it's toll.
Sometime in
September it caught Howard. He remembers being in a big valley
and the hospital was at the top of a hill. He was so sick and
weak that he still wonders how he was able to crawl to the top.
The hospital was a tent with the sides rolled up. He was given
some liquid to drink which he promptly vomited. The act earned
him a place under the canvas for a few days. They laid on their
blankets on the ground. He does not remember being seen by a
doctor, but he was given some pills. This is recorded on his
medical history. The entry reads: 9/42 U.S.N.H. - Field
Hospital Guadalcanal - Dysentery - Malaria.
The average wight loss at this time was about 20 pounds per
man.
In October, 1,941 cases of malaria were reported. This
increased the average weight loss to 60 to 70 pounds.
In November, a naval battle claimed two more cruisers and
four destroyers. Two cruisers and three destroyers were also
damaged.
The marines were in bad shape. Their clothes and shoes were
worn to rags. They had had no shelter in four months. Their
green blankets were white with the eggs of the big blue flies.
Summer was corning on and it was hot, about 107 degrees. The
Marines were tired and sick. They felt cornered and just
existed.
The Japanese were still landing at will, but after going
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through the jungle, they too were starved and sick.
That the Marines held under these conditions was a wonder
and perhaps would not have, except for the fact they knew what
would happen to them if they were captured.
Every man kept a
grenade to kill himself.
Then one day the Army marched by.
"When they saw us ,they
asked where the Japs were - We, answered 'keep walking'."
In November, the Marines had 3,213 cases of malaria with
secondary anemia and to keep and maintain a combat line, each man
was given 20 grains of quinine daily.
On December 9, 1942, General Vandegrift turned over the
,command to General Patch,and the 2nd Marine Division.
Two days
later the 1st Division left the island.
An inscription in the cemetery read:
An whep he goes to Heaven to St. Peter, he'll tell
another Marine reporting, Sir I've served my time in
Hell.
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This account is the memories of a 73 year old veteran that
reaches back over 50 years. He is not a bitter man nor a
particularly proud man, but he was a boy who became a man at
nineteen by living through hell.
The United States was not prepared for war when Pearl Harbor
was attacked and even after, it was decided to put the war in
Europe first.
A Division is considered to have at least 15,000 men or
maybe a few more, but in December of 1941, it had 518 officers
and 6,871 men (enlisted men). The slack was made up with young
enlistees. On departure for the Pacific, the average age of 90%
was under 20 years of age.
"
The area that would become known as Camp LeJeune was
purchased in May, 1941 and these men were the builders.
Throughout the war, the First Division was first.and as good as
the men themselves could make it. Time and materials were always
scarce.
In retrospect, if there was any planning for Guadalcanal, it
was bad. General MacArthur was an Army man, who no doubt felt
that the Marines were expendable. The services were
uncoordinated. The Navy had been decimated in t~e Pacific and
the Army was attempting defense after bitter defeats. The
Marines were without support. They were dropped :off and
abandoned, to live off the lay of the land. Here, were no
reporters, no USO's, no Red Cross, no Salvation Army, no PX, no
mess halls, no food or shelter. There were only young men who
were sick, exhausted, and starved, trying to survive and they
did!
Some time later a personnel officer would say, "They were a
strange breed, this bunch that came in after Pearl Harbor. Many
of them, we discover, were officer caliber and could easily have
gained that rank if they hadn't volunteered. There's no doubt
about it but they wanted to fight.
If we resented them at New
River ... well, we learned better at the 'Canal."
Howard became a Corporal on Guadalcanal, but he's not sure
when.
Sometime, somewhere, he was given a paper to that effect.
They left the island on Navy manned boats from the same
beach that they landed on. They were taken out to the American
Legion. Howard was able to climb the landing net (cargo net) up
to the deck, but could not make it over the railing. The Navy
men took his rifle from him and pulled him over.
He cannot remember anything more. He cannot remember what he
ate or where he slept. Someone gave them liquid quinine.
The Marines were not told where they were going and they
didn't care. Later they were told that MacArthur wanted them to
go back into combat in New Guinea but the Navy said, "No way,
they are too sick."
They went instead to Brisbane, Australia. Howard remembers
the docks were up river with cow pastures on each side. They
lived in tents and slept on cots. There was even a mess hall and
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they sat at tables. They must have spent Christmas here, but
Howard does not remember.
There were lots of mosquitos at Bisbane, but the main reason
for leaving after a couple weeks was because the men were ill and
there were no' hospitals nearby.
The Division's casualties were:
621 killed in action; 1,517
wounded in action; and 5,601 cases of malaria.
The Japanese had 40,000 troops ashore. They evacuated about
10,000; 30,000 died on the island.
The Reinforced 1st Division received the Presidential Unit
Citation.
On the way to Brisbane, Twining, a full Colonel and
operations officer designed a shoulder patch.
It had a red
number one on a blue field surrounded by the stars of the
Southern Cross. The word Guadalcanal in white ran the length of
the #1.
The men designed a medal of their own.
They called it the
George Medal to express their own sentiments, "Let George Do It".
One side had an arm with Navy stripes dropping a hot potato into
a helmet held by a tired Marine. The other side pictured the
rear view of a cow with a whirring electric fan.
This
illustrated a well used Marine phrase, "when the shit hits the
fan. "
Howard says the Marines must have moved to Melbourne by
ship, because he does not remember seeing much of anything at
Bisbane.
Melbourne would have been "heaven" if they had been well,
but most of the men were sick. They set up camp on the cricket
grounds, under the roofed section. Bunks, two high were set on
the tiered seats, two legs on the higher seats and two legs on
the lower seats or steps. Here again they lived like Marines.
Their pants and shirts were rolled up and put "in the sack" while
they slept in their skivvies. The next morning, the clothes were
warm and wrinkle free, almost.
Howard was sick. He remembers seeing' an Italian doctor and
his medical reGord shows entries on 1-8-43 and 1-20-43 at the
U.S. 4th General Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. On 1-25-43,
there is a diagnosis of Tertian Malaria. On 2-7-43, he was
discharged to duty, under follow-up.
On 2-25-95, he was admitted
with jaundice, acute infective and remained hospitalized until
6-11-43.
The hospital was a new brick building, owned by the
Australians and leased to the U.S. Army.
It was six stories high
with a roof garden and balconies. Howard was in a twenty bed
ward.
It had both showers and tubs. The food was good, but he
couldn't eat. The care was good, given by U.S. Army nurses. He
was treated with pills.
Howard continued to get more sick with chills, fever,
jaundice and pain. At some time he developed carbuncles on the
back of his neck, which was extremely painful. Antibiotics were
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not yet in use.
One day when the doctor visited, he asked Howard how he
felt.
He answered that he was so sleepy and that's when things
changed.
He was moved into a private room with private duty
nurses and was given plasma, I.V. This was continued until he
was able to· drink.
His friend, DeHaan, from Grand Rapids visited him during
this time.
He came into the room, left and returned, asking if
he was Corporal Bennink.
He didn't recognize Howard.
Dawson from his platoon was also in the hospital
recuperating from a c Lr cumc i s i.on as well as malaria.
As Howard improved, the nurses would push him in his bed out
on the balcony.
Others, less ill, made use of the roof gardens,
even entertaining Aussie girl friends, until it was declared "off
bounds" .
Sometime during June, the two carbuncles were lanced and
allowed to drain.
He was still jaundiced.
He was discharged on 6-11-43 and returned to the cricket
grounds.
Melbourne became a symbol of Civilization, the- men had left
a home.
It ~as a city of friendly people. The newspaper called
the Marines the "Saviours of Australia". The songs "Mairzy
Doats'" and ":Thanks for the Memories" came from this era.
It was 'in Melbourne, that Howard met Nancy Raferty.
Dawson,
from Alabama, introduced her to him. He remembers going to a
park where there was a Triumph car show.
They went to a theater
and saw "Gone With The Wind".
Howard and Dawson were invited to
Nancy's home· for a lamb dinner.
They lived in the suburbs.
Howard remembers the steak and egg breakfasts at the U.S.D. and
the Pub, Young and Jackson, that had nude paintings hung high on
the wall.
A recent visitor says that it is still there and the
paintings are intact.
He was still in Melbourne when his five months of back pay
caught up with him.
It was about $400.00.
It was a good time.
No one wanted to work and that included
the officers, Many of the men had girlfriends and spent little
time in camp.
There was a time that Howard in a group of about eight men
went to sniper school. They were taken about 20 miles from camp,
up in the hills.
They were to get back to camp in five days and
they did.
They slept out every night, except one when they broke
into a school house with a fireplace.
Before they left the next
morning, they cut and hauled wood to replaced what they used.
Howard remembers a man in his Platoon (Jackson) who had
scabies.
He kept his fork from his mess kit hung on a nail near
his cot as a scratcher. At mess call, he'd grab his mess kit and
his fork and march to the hall.
Howard never saw him wash the
fork.
Howard became 21, July 25, 1943.
By the fall of 1943, Douglas MacArthur was remembering his
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promise to return to the Philippines. To avoid being bogged down
in New Britain's jungle, he called on the "Jungle Wise Marines"
who were becoming ornery in Melbourne.
It was to be a joint
effort with his 6th Army, but before there was any understanding
between the staffs, he ordered the Marines to Goodenough Island,
2000 miles away. The Division was moved by Liberty ships where
they set up on the open decks. The date was about September 19,
1943.
Goodenough was· a jungle,. but had more hills than
Guadalcanal. Also, the streams seemed clearer. They walked
through native villages that seemed vacant, but the Marines lived
in tents.
There were lots of, mosquitos, so their training
consisted of lots of ditch digging, to drain the swamps. They
loafed when no one was watching.
One day they saw Fuzzy-Wussies erecting a grass roofed
building. They were small, black people and "you could smell
them before you saw them". The odor was caused by whatever they
rubbed on their bodies to repel the insects. They were good
coconut tree climbers and loved to ride on trucks. Both the men
and the women were bare to the waist and wore grass skirts.
The Marines were transferred to Finschhafen a week before D.
Day on LCI's (21), LST's (24) and APD's (10). LCI's carried the
infantry, LST I S carried tanks ,.. trucks and equipment. APD' s
(LCT's) were able to carry one or two tanks and were able to land
up on the beach. This time they were going on Army money.
They were served their Christmas dinner on Finschhafen, but
the turkey neck that Howard got tasted as if it was rotten so he
threw it in the jungle.
They boarded the ship on Christmas Eve.
At 0600, on December 26, 1943, the cruisers and destroyers
opened fire.
Then the bombers flew over. The first unit (3rd
Battalion - Howard's) landed at 0746. They were unopposed.
The
jungle growth extended to the ~each. This was supposed to be a
damp flat, but the men fell into sink holes up to their waists.
This was Cape Gloucester, New Britain. The naturalist's notes of
the 1920's didn't mention this, but the northwest monsoons come
to New Britain in late December and lasted for three months.
1943 was no exception. It started to rain in the afternoon of
December 26th and a "terrific storm struck the Cape Gloucester
area" in the early hours of the 27th. The rains continued for
the next five days. The Marines were soaked and it is said that
they never dried out.
By the first night the Marines had moved to the airport and
set up a line of defense. They stretched barbed wire in the
front and tied tin cans on it. The men were spaced behind it.
Sherman tanks were brought up for the night. The men were wet
and cold and the large amounts of warm exhaust from the engines
felt good, that is, until the Marine standing next to Howard
passed out from carbon monoxide. He recovered.
The next morning, they moved forward.
There was no
�opposition.
One tank got stuck crossing a ditch.
No way could
be found to move it either way so the crew moved to the rear.
The tank was equipped with a 50 caliber machine gun on the
turret.
This was of great interest to the Marines , but as many
times as they tried, they couldn't get it to fire.
That night as before, they set up their defense line and as
before, there was no opposition.
On the 3rd day, they ran 'into lots of machine gun fire.
The
Marines couldn't see them because of the heavy undergrowth, but a
lot of men were getting hit.' Howard jumped on the back end of
the tank and the crew opened a communication door.
"I told them
to fire into the undergrowth as they couldn't see it from the
inside.
Finally, the Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. McKelvy carne
up to see what all the firing was about. 'What's holding you
up?', he asked, and then sawall the dead and wounded men. He
went back and called in 'K' Company (the support" company) with a
platoon of tanks. We followed after 'K' Company."
A newspaper article written by S/Sgt. Joseph L. AlIi, a
combat correspondent wrote an article for the Associated Press:
Cpl. Bennink was in charge of a squad detailed to support
tanks making assault on an enemy strong point. After following
for four miles, they encountered heavy resistance and machine gun
fire caused the tanks' turrets to be closed.
_
According to 1st Lt. Joseph Alessandroni Jr. of
Philadelphia, PA, Cpl. Bennink jumped onto the lead tank,
banged on the turret and guided him to the enemy pill boxes.
"I saw him repeat that very stunt seven or eight times", Lt.
Alessandroni said, "and I know he helped wipe out several other
pill boxes."
Altogether he guided the tanks to 10 or 12 of them.
Some
were occupied and some weren't.
But all of them might have been
and he was exposing himself to heavy machine gun fire every time
he went near one of those tanks.
That sort of work requires real
nerve.
After spotting each pill box, Cpl. Bennink abandoned his
precarious perch, rejoined his squad and after the pill boxes had
been blasted by 75mm fire, helped in the mopping up process with
hand grenades and rifle fire.
Cpl. Bennink, 21, is a veteran of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
He was promoted to his present rank for Meritorious conduct while
on volunteer reconnaissance patrols deep in enemy territory.
Farther on, they saw a block house, half buried in the
ground.
Inside were six or eight Jap officers who had committed
suicide by shooting themselves with rifles.
A hundred yards or so further on they saw a lean-to that
held two trunks, full of Japanese script.
The airport was next.
They counted about a half dozen
planes and not too many Japs.
They crossed the airstrip and set
up defense at the base of the hills.
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Because they were a part of MacArthur's Army, they wore Army
clothing and boots. They were also issued hammocks with mosquito
netting, but without trees, they couldn't hang them up.
It would
have been dangerous to be up off the ground at any rate, so they
laid them on the ground, crawled in, zipped them up and hoped
that the Japs wouldn't come.
On the defense line, they encountered "electrical storms and'
winds, the like of which I never saw again", Howard said, "There
was a 37mm gun about 50 feet away and the balls of fire bounced
allover the gun."
Howard remembered lots of anti-aircraft fire as Wash Machine
~harlie came over every night between two and three a.m.
There
was lots of fire, but he was never hit.
Patrols made up of volunteers left the line and had close
calls. DeHaan from Grand Rapids always liked that.
Howard
didn't volunteer anymore because Lt. Alessandroni told him that
he was going back to the States.
A couple of weeks later, a runner told him to "pack up your
things, you're on your way. II They took two men and one officer
from each Company. They were taken back to the beach by truck
through lots of mud. The LST was waiting for them.
Aboard ship, in his wet, muddy clothes, Howard walked past a
galley window and a voice called out, "Hey Marine, would you like
a cup of Coffee?1I
liThe coffee had canned milk and sugar in it,
and it was the best cup of coffee I ever had in my life. II
The sixty men sailed to Finchhaften. There, they picked up
another LST that took them to Milne Bay, New Guinea. 'They
hitched a ride on an Australian refrigeration ship, that was
hauling meat to the troops.
They slept on deck and ate steak
twice a day.
There were no vegetables, just T-Bone steak. After
three or four days their mouths were sore and they were back in
Brisbane and living in tents.
It was here that Howard met and
talked to u.s. Army men who had been there for two years
IIguarding Australia".
At Brisbane the 60 stayed right in camp, they didn't want to
miss the boat.
One day, they boarded a Liberty ship with 64 other Army,
Navy and Airmen with nervous breakdowns.
The 64 Marines were
supposed to guard them. Howard said that none of them were
violent, so on good days, they brought them up on deck.
On March 1, 1944, they arrived in Camp Elliott, San Diego,
California. Before being given a leave, he was given a physical
and his medical records say that he was physically qualified for
transfer.
Howard remembers that this was the first time they saw
women Marines. As they were being examined for V.D., they asked
the doctor if he also examined the women for V.D.
He responded
by saying yes and that it was called Port Hole Inspection. He
also said that he called the men's examination Short Arm
Inspection.
Howard was given a 15 day leave and a form request for a 15
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day extension which he could fill out and mail to an address in
Washington D.C.
Back.at Cape Gloucester, MacArthur held the 1st Marines
until May 4th and then they went to Pavuvu.
Howard said that Camp Elliott looked good after the jungle.
He was finally out of the rain and dry. He slept in a bunk and
had meals .at the mess hall.
The train that he boarded in Los Angeles was a very dirty
old steam engine. The tunnels and snow sheds were black with
soot and even the coach smelled like it. Howard remembers that
when he got home, his shirt was really dirty.
When ~he train stopped in Reno, he bo~ght a rubber snake for
the kids at home, but his father, Harm had lots of fun with it
and the nephews did a lot of B.B. gun shooting.
He arrived in Grand Rapids, on Sunday night, March 12, 1944.
About a dozen relatives were waiting for him at the station.
Mother Nancy kept a list of people who visited him at home.
Howard remembers that he rode home in the car with his
sister and brother-in law, John Dyke. John was about to be
drafted.
Howard warned him not to get in the Infantry.
"I said,
'Take anything else'." John did get in the infantry and spent
the next Christmas in the Battle of the Bulge in Europe.
Howard's own car was stil~ up on blocks, but Dykes let him
borrow their 1940 Ford several times. He drove it to Grand
Haven, and ,returned home. He used his 5 gas ration stamps to buy
5 gallons of gas.
"Things were pretty dull around here." He
also used his Dad's car. Harm had lots of tractor gas.
He also
had a flat .tire.
Howard said he was almost glad to go back to California. He
was to report to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Division, 27
Regiment at Camp Pendleton.
He had been granted the 15 day extension and it had arrived
while he was at home, and he forgot and left it there. When the
S.P. (Shore Patrol) came through the train, he had only his 15
day furlough pass. He was 13 days overdue. Howard was told to
consider himself under arrest and that they would take him off
the train at Omaha, and they did. He was taken to a recruiting
office and put in a room by himself for several hours and then
let him go. Howard asked him for a written explanation in case
he got back late, but the officer refused saying that if he
hurried, he'd get there in time, and he did.
The 5th Marine Division was activated on Armistice Day 1943
(November 11, 1943). At that time, the 1st Division was at
Goodenough Island, it's advanced staging area in preparation for
Cape Glouchester. The 2nd Division was on it's way to Tarawa.
The 3rd Division was fighting in the jungle swamps of
Bougainville. The 4th Division was in the States, but soon would
leave for the Marshall Islands. The Marine Corps now consisted
of 400,000 men, but the. end was not yet in sight so the 5th
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Division was activated.
It was to be the best trained and best
prepared division to date.
It would be organized with all it's
component units in place (engineers, artillery, medical, etc.).
Squad, platoon, company, battalion and regimental training would
follow in succession, in a detailed plan.
The Division Commander was Major General Keller E. Rockey.
The men came from boot camps San Diego and Parris Island,
training centers of Elliott, LeJeune, Pendleton, Quantico and
ship detachments. But last of all were hundreds of men who were
veterans of earlier Marine campaigns to add combat experience and
practical knowledge. Camp Pendleton was the largest of all the
Marine Corps training cen t.ers ; Complete wi th barracks,
administration buildings, sick bay, theater, post exchange and
athletic facilities with a $25,000 recreation fund!
It even had
a Red Cross unit with 15 recreation rooms.
The train took Howard to Oceanside, about a mile from
Pendleton. He reported to the Sgt. Major at the 2nd Battalion
Head Quarters. Howard promptly asked him for a 72 hour pass.
The Sgt. Major refused saying, "Put your gear away, you just came
back." Howard did not see him again for several weeks p
Howard reported to Sgt. G~bson, the 3rd Platoon Sgt., who
gave him a choice of being a squad leader or a platoon guide.
Howard chose the squad leader,:and he still feels that he made
the right choice.
"They were'decent guys."
Sgt. Graham became the Platoon Guide. He had been a
paratrooper until that unit was disbanded. Many of the Sgts.
were former paratroopers, including the Sgt. Major. Many others
were former Raiders.
The Chain of Command was well structured. The Captain and
the Top or 1st Sgt. ran the Company. The Platoon Sgt. and Lts.
ran the Platoons.
The officers had little contact with the men. The first
Sgt. relayed orders to the Platoon Sgts., who passed it on the
Squad Leaders.
It was bad if you had a poor Lt. or Platoon Sgt.
As Howard remembers they had only one bad 'Lieutenant. Sgt.
Gibson must have complained because he left. The Platoon Sgt.
actually had a lot of power.
Howard was in the 5th Division, 27th Regiment, 2nd
Battalion, 'F' Company, 3rd Platoon, 3rd Squad.
The Top Sgt. was Wilber M. Burgess. The Platoon Sgt. was
James Gibson Jr. The 1st Squad Leader was Sgt. Ronald E. III (a
former paratrooper). The 2nd Squad Leader was Sgt. Jack W. Evans
(a former raider). Howard was the 3rd Squad Leader. He had been
a rifle man.
Several weeks later Howard was sent to see the Sgt. Major
who told him that he would be awarded the Silver Star and that
the 1st Sgt. Burgess would instruct him on the ceremony.
The event was held on a Friday. The Regimental Band played
and the Battalion marched. The medal was awarded by General K.
E. Rockey. While they were waiting to begin, the General asked
�Howard' if he remembered who his Company Commander was on Cape
Glouchester. Howard said, "No Sir, I don't remember. II
General Rockey said these words:
By the virtue of the power delegated to me and with the
approval of the Commander in Chief, Southwest Pacific Area, I
take pleasure in awarding, in the name of the President of the
United States, the Silver Star Medal to Corporal ·Howard Elvin
Bennink, United States Marine Corps.
The Citation:
For distinguishing himself by conspicuous gallantry, and in
trepidity in action against a.rmed enemy forces
- Corporal
Howard Elvin Bennink, U.S. Marine Corps, leader of a squad that
was detailed to follow a tank making an assault on enemy pill
boxes, repeatedly climbed upon the tanks, under machine gun and
rifle fire, thereby attracting the attention of the driver, by
hanging on the turret and directing him to the enemy positions,
as a result of which the pill boxes were knocked out.
His example of courage, leadership and devotion to duty were
a great inspiration to all those with whom he came in contact and
were in keeping with the highest traditions of the, Navy of the
United States.
T.E. Kinkaid
Vice Admiral, tJ. S. Navy
Commander Seventh Fleet
At this time he was also given the Sgt. rating.
The General
said, "This man is now a Sgt."
And then they all went on a 72 hour liberty.'
Howard said that IF' Company was a pretty good company,
everyone came back on time and so they had liberty almost every
weekend.
Pfc. Seaman (William) was a rebel, an unmanageable loner,
a
Canadian who had once been a Raider and a good one, but now he
just didn't care. He was AWOL, so no liberty for"F' Company.
It was then, that the men took off their belts and lined up
100 men facing 100 men and Seaman had to run the gauntlet.
It
was the only time Howard saw this happen.
Liberty was a big thing and Howard met Fern.
I think she
made the memory of Nancy in Melbourne dim a little.
Punishment for going AWOL was 2 weeks in the Brig, on bread
and water.
Seaman was a really tough guy and solidly built. He had
decided that no one was going to tell him. No one ever got too
close to him, although Howard's squad thought that he should take
him on.
The day that they were leaving Pendleton, the men fell in
formation, 200 men with packs and rifles.
1st Sgt. Wilber M.
Burgess (Top Sgt.) was standing on the top step talking to the
men and down the steps came Seaman. Burgess must have said
something that Seaman didn't like, because he threw down his
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rifle and pack.
Seaman and Burgess slugged it out - - no one
separated them. They fought until they both were tired and
stopped. Burgess had a really bad looking eye.
Howard said that he never saw Seaman again until Iwo Jima.
After they had set up defense lines, he walked back about 100
yards. He saw a hole in the ground covered by a poncho.
He
lifted the poncho and there was Seaman reading a magazine.
Beside him were empty bottles of medical brandy. The sick bay
had been hit by artillery and a lot of their supplies were thrown
around.
Seaman should have been court martialed.·
Howard said that he really didn't have any best buddy. He
lived with his squad, but you were the Sgt. and assigned details
and were Sgt. of the Guards, so it wasn't wise to have best
friends.
No one had ever told him how, he just tried to act like
the other Sgts. Most of the NCO's in the outfit were older,
probably in their 30's and married.
Lots of the men were gamblers. Howard remembers going to
the head at 2 or 3 a.m. and seeing two or three green blankets on
the floor with men on their knees rolling dice. The money was
allover.
He remembers the Barber Shop on base with Mexican girl hair
cutters.
Howard remembers being taught .to put a fuse in a block of
T.N.T. to throw into block houses or caves as a part of a
demolition training course.
During amphibious training, they practiced landings from the
ocean. Howard was part of the offensive team and of course
others had to pretend to be Japs. After the landing, they had to
cross a highway and it was there that a live bullet hit the
ground about two or three feet away. They were supposed to be
using blanks. Later a man was killed, he had been shot.
It was said that President Roosevelt made a visit to
Pendleton to observe the units. Howard and his men did see a big
black convertible on the ridge.
Howard also remembers a 20 mile hike.
Howard had a birthday, he was 22 years old.
Early in August, the Division under Col. Worsham began
packing and crating for overseas.
One day near the ship at the dock, Howard noticed a man dive
off the dock between the dock and the ship. The water was about
15 feet below the dock.
Then they saw a sailor dive off the deck
of the ship into the same area. The ship deck was about 15 feet
higher than the dock, so they all ran to the dock to see what was
going on. They saw a woman's purse floating on the water, with
lots of bills.
The two men were grabbing them up.
It was quite
a sight.
Down on the dock were about 25 jeeps waiting to be loaded.
They didn't need keys for their ignition, so Howard suggested
that they take a ride and they did - - - until they were stopped
by an M.P. at the guard post. He ordered them to report to their
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Commanding Officer on the ship, which they did. He said, "Sgt.,
you should know better."
The ship left at dusk and traveled in a convoy. There was a
strict blackout at night.
It took about a week to travel to Hawaii. The Division with
General Rockey left August 12, 1944.
The ships anchored at Hilo. Howard does not remember
getting off the ship, but remembers riding on a narrow gage
railroad through beautiful country. There were sugarcane fields
on both sides of the tracks. Waterfalls came out of the hills,
clear and cold.
They saw a truckload of sugarcane back up under
a waterfall to wash off the black dirt.
The soil was black
volcanic ash.
In the distance they could see the Mauna Kea and
the Mauna Loa.
Camp Tarawa was about 65 miles in the north central Hawaii,
about 12 miles from the coast. It was in the Parker Ranch.
In December, 1943, the 2nd Marine Division had recuperated
here after it had been withdrawn from Tarawa and had named this
camp after it's battle ground. They had just left for assaults
on Saipan and Tinian. Now it would be home for the 5th Division.
When the sugarcane stopped, the train stopped too and the
men walked.
The tent city was 2600 fee~ above sea level and windy.
It
was warm and sunny during the day, but cool at night. .There were
stoves in the tents, but wood was scarce. The men slept on
canvas cots, under blankets. The tents held six men, ~o the 3
Squad Leaders (3) and the Platoon Guide and two Navy corpsmen
also bunked together.
Food was good, but they had an excess amount of canned
spinach.
When the men came in from the field, they were covered with
black dust. They needed lots of showers, but the water was cold!
Howard said that they got just wet enough to lather and then they
had to work up courage to rinse off.
There was never a line up for showers and this was. strange
until they realized that only the Sgts.· were taking showers. The
rest were taking baths in the tents with water that they heated
on their stoves.
The squad shaved with soap and cold water too, until they
got smart and brought hot rise water back from the mess tent in
their canteen cup.
In the mess tent were three big cans of hot
water which the men used to clean their utensils. The first one
had hot soapy water, the other two held rinse water. The last
rinse was quite clear and good for shaving.
Everything on the island was off limits, except wh~n in
formation, so they never got to the village of Kamuela. But
across the pasture and over the wire fences, across a deep gully
was a farm house.
Eight or nine local women had big kitchen
tables set up in the rooms and served steak, eggs and american
fries, until some Marines got drunk and caused a disturbance.
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The place was closed.
It was too bad because the food was good
and the women ran a clean place.
Alcohol was a problem in camp, but especially for 2nd Lt.
Clifford Fulcher. The scuttle-butt was that he came up from the
ranks and that he made Lt. rank when he got an officer's daughter
pregnant. He never talked to the men during regular hours, but
he did his drinking in the Officer's Club across the ravine from
the squad leaders' tent. They would see him stagger out. He
always got lost and got in the tent with the other Platoon Sgts.
Sometimes, he'd like to display his ample manly parts and brag a
little. Howard saw him surrounded by the Platoon Sgts. with
.machetes saying, "If you don't get the hell out of here, we'll
cut it off."
At least three times he got lost in the squad leaders' tent
and he'd ask them for help, so they'd grab his arm and lead him
back. He lived with a Lt. of a machine gun group. This Lt. was
a "nice little guy."
When Fulcher was drunk, he'd eye .up the
Lt. and say, "I'm going to kick the shit out of you". When the
squad leaders took him home, they'd always ask if it was alright
to leave and they'd take off.
The next day, Lt. Fulcher was as before, he never talked.
The men though~maybe he wasn't as drunk as he appeared to be.
Later on Iwo Jima, after landing on the beach and reaching
level ground, Howard located Platoon Sgt. Gibson and had his
squad headed in the direction, when someone said that Lt. Fulcher
got hit in the foot.
The men all thought that he shot ~imself.
When Howard was a patient in Aiae Naval Hospital after Iwo
Jima, he saw Lt. Fulcher. He was in the officers' quart:ers. He
was dressed in pj 's and using crutches. Some nurses back from
liberty had brought him some bottles. Howard thought that he
probably should have counted the bones in his feet before he
shot. Maybe there would have been a better place.
After Fulcher was shot on IWo, Platoon Sgt. Gibson took over
the Platoon. Gibson was very good.
"We were lucky, actually,
though Fulcher also was a good Lt."
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On the edge of camp on a hillside, there were sand bags to
sit on with a stage below. There they heard Bob Crosby, Bing's
brother, and his band. Bob Crosby was a Marine.
All of the women looked old to these young men but four or
five of them danced and explained the movements of the hula to
them.
The officers weren't the only ones who couldn't hold their
alcohol. On several occasions the NCO's were given 3.2 beer,
usually 12 bottles per man.
Sgt. Evans, the 2nd Squad Leader did
not drink so Howard had his 12 also. A Sgt. from machin~ guns
drank with him. About 2 or 3 a.m., they ran out and Howard knew
where the Platoon Guide kept his beer under his cot.
So quietly,
he thought, he pulled it out, but Sgt. Graham woke up and gave
Howard a kick. He landed against the stove and the pipes fell
down. They told him that "he had enough", and put him to bed.
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The next morning while he was still pretty shaky, they had
to see the 1st Sgt., Sgt. Burgess. They had forgotten to take
their caps off and this is a no-no. Burgess knocked their caps
off and made them stand at attention, then pick up their caps.
They were not arrested. Sgt. Burgess was the sam~ man who fought
with Cpl. Seaman at Camp Pendleton.
The men did get to the beach a couple times and jumped in,
but had to be careful because of the coral rock.
Howard went on liberty in Hilo with Cpl. Dale Skidmore and
Cpl~ Wayne Mittelstaedt, both from Wisconsin and unmarried.
They
walked up the hill to a tavern and met three officers from the
Air Force coming down. The decided that tpey wouldn't salute
them.
They just got by when one of them yelled, "Marine." We
turned around and "gave them a snappy salute." They said, "Don't
you know that you salute all officers?" We said, "Yes Sir."
In the tavern, they met some Air Force enlisted men who told
them that they were bombing some little island between their base
and Japan.
It was probably Iwo Jima.
The three of them, Howard, Skidmore, and Mittelstaedt also
had liberty together in Honolulu.
It was crowded and a .mess.
All three were tattooed with black panthers. Both of the men
were killed on Iwo. They were in the 3rd Platoon, but in
different squads.
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In November, the Marines were encouraged to sign up for life
insurance. Howard increased his from $5,000 to $10,000.
It cost
$6.00 per month or $3.00 for each $5,000. He often wonder~d what
Harm and Nancy would have done with it.
At this time the Division received an additional 125 :
officers and 2500 men for battle replacements. They would. use
them as a shore party until they were needed as replacements.
The 471st Amphibian Truck Company (Army) was attached to the
13th Marines. These were the first black troops that Howard saw
in DUKW's on the beach at Iwo.
One of the last days of training the Platoon Command was
turned over to Sgts. and Squad Leaders to Cpls. and Pfcs . .
It was known from previous Pacific battles that officer and
NCO casualties would be heavy. Howard said that Platoon Sgt.
Gibson did a good job.of talking to them.
For Christmas, they had extra beer.
I skipped over a big event back in the States. November,
1944 had an important election. If elected, Franklin D.
Roosevelt would begin his 4th term. The Republicans had been out
of executive power for 12 years. They accused the president for
staging D. Day in Europe to coincide with the Republican
Convention in June. They had many who were interested in
running, but they also needed an outstanding man. General
Douglas MacArthur was considered and MacArthur wrote Senator
Arthur H. VandenBerg of Michigan that he would not campaign for
any office, but would submit to the will of the people if he were
drafted. His personality was so abrading that Thomas E. Dewey,
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the Governor of New York was nominated on the first ballot.
On November 6, F.D.R. won the election by taking 36 of the
48 states.
Howard voted in the election on a paper ballot, but doesn't
remember anything else.
The 27th Marines boarded ships on December 27th and by
January 6th, the entire 5th Division was assembled at Honolulu.
Howard remembers the many ships tied up side by side in the
harbor.
Honolulu was a city of solid white Navy uniforms, even some
British, and not much to do except drink. ~hey were allowed
three drinks in each tavern, then if you tipped the waitress,
she'd give you one more. After that, you went to another tavern.
Howard never drank gin, but he did in Honolulu. That made
him "mellow", and he went with his friends, Skidmore and
Mittelstaedter to a tatoo parlor, where for $10.00, they got
their big black panthers on the left upper arm.
If they flexed
their muscles the cat jumped. His arm was still oozing when·he
landed on Iwo Jima.
On January 22, 1945, the Marines left Hawaii and moved 4000
miles across the Pacific, stopping at Eniwetok to refuel and then
moved into Japanese held waters.
While on the high seas, they w~re told that the target would
be Iwo Jima.
It didn't mean a thing. No one had ever heard of
it. There was a plaster relief map of the island which was used
for teaching. The officers pointed out the beaches and the p'lan
of battle.
"They didn't tell us that it was all tunnels", Howard
said.
On February 5, the convoy reached Eniwetok, where the ships
refueled. Two days later they left for Saipan.
At Saipan, the men transferred to LST's (landing ship tank).
Saipan's harbor was unsheltered and the waters were rough.
Howard remembers the transfer and the one night they spent in
Saipan. The LST's were anchored off the island. Sometime during
the night, another LST bumped into their LST The Skippers swore
a t each other, n ; - - damn you! . - - - don't you know how to .
anchor a ship!"
It was always very dark at sea (black out). You just
COUldn't see anything up on deck. The Marines were on the open
deck.
They used their life preserver as a pillow and their
poncho as a cover. If it rained, they slept under a truck. They
were required to wear their life jackets and they did as long as
it was light enough to see them. They were vest type and stuffed
with cork or "horse hair".
It was a four day run to Iwo Jima.
Iwo Jima had been in Japanese hands since 1861 and was
therefore off limits to Europeans and Americans.
Its name meant
sulfur island and there was a small refinery on the island.
There was also a sugar mill. It was 7 - 7 1/2 square miles in
size and shaped somewhat like a pork chop. The broad north side
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was rough and rocky with cliffs and boulders. The south tip had
554 foot Mt. Suribachi. The southeast beaches would be used for
landing.
There were two airfields on the island and another
under construction. There was no water on the island.
H. Hour was scheduled for 9 a.m. on February 19th, 1945.
The 5th Division plan was for the CT 27th (Howard's) and the CT
28th to land abreast on Red Beaches 1 and 2. CT 28 would land on
their left. The 4th Division would land on the 27th's right.
The 3rd Division would remain in reserve on ships until needed . .
The 5th Division (27th and 28th) would cut off Suribachi and
then pivot north.
Dawn was at 6:40 a.m. and the men got their first glimpse of
Iwo. The water was full of ships. They could see Suribachi's
cone. They had already had breakfast of steak and eggs and were
topside to pick up their gear. They were given belt type life
preservers which could be inflated by activating the carbon
dioxide cartridges. When on shore, they would be unsnapped and
dropped.
The ships began to shell the island at 6:40 a.m. and
continued until 8:05 a.m. At 8:05 a.m., B24 Liberator.s from
Saipan and 72 carrier based fighters and dive bombers pounded the
island until H minus 35 minutes, when the battle ships and
cruisers started again.
In the meantime the rifle companies moved down into the hull
where the "alligator tanks" were waiting. While still on deck,
Platoon Sgt. Gibson gave each of the three squad leaders a
container with about 24 small white pills. If any of their men.
broke down, wouldn't move, cried, or got scared, they should be.
given a pill. Howard never used them and doesn't know what
happened to them.
The LST held 200 men, with their packs, equipment and
rifles.
They walked down a cat walk about three feet wide on the
side of the ship. This was the first time the men saw the
landing tanks. They had been manufactured in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. They loaded on and went down the ramp into the water -,
They all floated and best of all, no landing nets this time.
Howard's was one of the first to hit the water. The tanks held
about 15 or 20 men. They zig-zagged around the ships until all
were out of the LST's, then moved away and circled the area.
Between the tanks and the island Navy ships were shooting
point blank into the landing beaches.
The tanks stopped circling and formed three lines. The
first line had a five man crew with 75 rom. short barrel guns and
machine guns. Howard and the rifle men were in the first wave of
troops.
There were five waves of LVT's (tanks) with assault
companies.
Howard remembers heading for the battleships and when they
were about 30 yards from it, they passed on the left of the stern
and turned right under the guns as they were still firing.
They
could see the shell and the ball of fire right overhead. He
�never again heard anything like it. This went on all the way to
the beach, then it continued, but the barrels were raised so the
shells landed further inland.
At 0900, the seven battalions of the 4th and 5th Division
hit the beach.
It was better organized than the previous
landings had been.
LT 1/28 carne ashore on Green Beach with Lt. Col. Butterfield
near Mt. Suribachi. Howard's LT 2/27 with Maj. Antonelli landed
on Red Beach I and ·Col. Butler's 1/27 hit Red Beach II. The 4th
Division landed on their north.
There was no fire on the beach. As soon as the Arntracs
stopped, the troops jumped out and sank to their boot tops in the
ashy soil. They got up and scrambled up on the higher line as
fast as they could.
They saw a pill box. Cpl. Joseph Hotovchine got hit by
rifle fire.
He was about five feet ahead and talking to Howard.
He was shot in the neck. The Platoon Corpsman who landed with
the Platoon took care of him, but it made everyone leery. The
men tried to dig in, there was lots of fire, both mortar and
artillery from Suribachi and the north. Then the shells started
hitting the beach area. This may have been when Lt. Fulcher was
wounded.
Pfc. David Snell (3rd squad) $potted two Japs off to the
left protected by a mound of sand, in front of a dug out. They
were firing at the 28th Marines. Snell lying on his belly, fired
the BAR (browning automatic rifle) at them; the ammo consisted of.
two regular bullets and one tracer bullet. He was over shooting
the Japs and the bullets were dropping into the 28th Marines.
Howard told him to stop.
In retrospect, the mound of dirt and
the dug out was an opening into the tunnels, but as yet the
Marines did not know that they existed.
The fighter planes were still overhead strafing. A Jap was
in a flexible chair-seat in a harness attached to an anti
aircraft gun.
Our machine gun squad saw this going on and fired
several rounds, but never hit him.
"We were at a stand still. Platoon Sgt. Gibson said to move:
out", so Howard told the machine gunners to hold their fire.
When he got back to his squad, Gibson said, "Let's go." They
didn't stop until they got to the other side of the island.
The leading Companies (E and F; Howard's was F, 200 men) had
orders to get across the island fast.
They were to by-pass
installations except those that threatened to hold up the
advance.
About four hours later, the tanks carne into the area. Then
the Japs opened up from Suribachi.
"The shells never did much
damage to our line, and there were lots of duds."
Howard noticed a mound of dirt with what appeared to be an
onion crate upside down on top. The Marines were all "tight" to
the ground, when a hand pushed a grenade between the slats.
"I
just looked at it, I didn't fire."
It rolled down to Cpl. Frank
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Bolek's leg and exploded.
"I don't know why someone didn't blow
that crate off, it was probably an air vent, but no one knew
about that." The Corpsman took Frank back to the beach and got
him off the island. Howard met Frank Bolek again when they were
at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital. Bolek lived in Chicago and
Howard met his parents and the family. He came to Michigan
several times and we visited him in St. Louis, where he worked in
an Oldsmobile plant. He married, but did not have any children.
He died several years ago, but several months before he died, he
called and they had a long talk about the battles for Iwo Jima.
The Japanese opened up on the beach with artillery.
"Why
they didn't fire among us, I don't know. Did they know that if
they hit the vent, they'd kill their own?" The mound was about
six or seven feet high. Bolek was Howard's only Cpl. and
directly below him in the squad. It was a big loss.
Sgt. Evans (2nd squad leader) was hit with phosphorus or
star shells. They look like fireworks on the 4th of July, but
burn into the skin for days. Howard saw him later in the
hospital on Guam.
The day was pretty much a pattern of get up, stumble a,few
yards ahead and drop again. The conversations were pretty much
the same, "We're spotted, lets get the hell outta here."
Howard's Company moved north then pad to hole up to let the
rest catch up.
Back on the beach, the officers on the control vessels were
coordina ting the landirw of the supporting uni ts and heavy
weapons. Many of the tanks were knocked out by land mines.
Three out of four rocket launching trucks were lost before they
'cou Ld fire a shot.
The weasels (water carrying tanks), which
were too small for much use in Europe were appreciated on Iwo.
The waters edge was full of mangled Amtracs, LCM's, LCVPS and
bodies. Debris piled up. The wounded arrived on the beach and
were unprotected. Many were hit a second time. The first two
boats bringing in litters were blown out of the water.
By dusk. all the .reserve units were ashore and all the main
elements excepts for Division Headquarters were on Iwo.
Howard's unit was on the edge of the airfield. There were
buried tanks, but none directly in front of them.
In front of
them were block houses, three to four feet thick, that had been
knocked out by Naval guns.
At night, the "Devil Dogs", Dobermans with their handlers
came up.
"It felt good to have the dogs."
The ships off shore fired flares on parachutes continuously
through the night. They were shot out in front of the Marine's
line and kept the area as bright as a football field.
That
continued throughout the three weeks that Howard was on the
island.
Near the airfield the Marines saw slabs of concrete sloped
so that rain water could run into tanks.
It was the only source
of water the Japs had.
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�Off to the right, all Howard could see was a wall of dirt,
but here on the high ground was the airstrip (runway). They
heard firing all day and all night. The 3rd Marines and a part
of the 5th Division were at the airport and had the hardest part.
It is difficult to remember specific times of events as days
and nights blend, but one time Howard remembers rockets as big as
garbage cans arching over them. They could see them corning and
it looked as if they were corning right at them, but they never
landed near them.
Rations were good, or at least improved from 1942. They had
cheese, crackers/ beef/ bacon, and cigarettes.
Sometimes the
canned bacon was enough for two people and with the canned heat/
they could fry it. They always had plenty of water.
The temperature was not too bad and as they moved north/ if
they scraped off the top two inches of soil/ the ground was warm.
They had plenty of ammo.
They were able to get some sleep at night.
Thirteen men were on the line in an area as far as between
our house and Sillman's (50 feet next door) and the 3rd Platoon
was made up of "good steady guys" and "the 3rd squad had lost
only Bolek."
Casualties for the entire landing force of Marines for the
first 58 hours exceeded 5/300.
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Iwo Jima was no push over. After the battle, intelligence
teams determined this was the list of Japanese guns:
12 - 320 mm. spigot mortars
22 - 150 mm. trench mortars
4 - 15 cm. coast defense guns
4 - 14 cm. coast defense guns
9
12 cm. coast defense guns
12 - 12 cm. short coast defense guns
30 - 12 cm. dual purpose guns
6 - 10 cm. dual purpose guns
5 - 8 cm. dual purpose guns
18 - 7.5 cm. dual purpose guns
1 - 150 mm. howitzer
4 - 120 mm. howitzers
6 - 10 cm. howitzers
4 - 90 mm. howitzers
5 - 75 mm. pack howitzers
17 - 75 mm. field guns
24 - 70 mm. battalion guns
70 - 90/81 mm. mortars
380 - 50 mm. heavy grenade dischargers
54 - 47 mm. anti tank guns
15
37 mm. anti tank guns
4 - 40 mm. anti aircraft guns
213 - 25 mm. machine guns
9 - 23 mm. anti aircraft machine guns
4 - 20 mm. machine guns
'29
�168 - 13 mm. machine guns
350 - heavy machine guns
480 - light machine guns
30 - tanks
61 - flame throwers
10,000 - rifles
12 - search lights
3 - radar units
200+ - rocket launches
All of this, in approximately seven to seven and a half
square miles.
While the 27th moved· north, the 28th ~as devoted to the
capture of Suribachi. The attack of the Marines began on D+ 1.
The Japs fought from a vast complex defensive system.
The caves,
like the pill boxes and block houses, with many entrances were
linked to command caves with ammo, food, water and living
quarters some 50 feet below ground.
On D+ 4, Suribachi was scaled and a small flag was raised.
This was replaced by a larger flag about four hours later and it
was this raising that was shot by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated
Press and became the most celebrated picture of W.W.II.
Taking Suribachi cost the 28th, 904 casualties (7 officers
and 202 men were killed) .
After about two weeks on the front line, 'FI Company came
back to the base of Suribachi to rest in a supposedly secure
area.
To the north east of their area, about a distance from our
house to Witteveens (100 yards) was a group of Army Engineers
rebuilding the airport. All of a sudden, the Marine's eyes began
to burn and they heard a voice on the P.A. system directed toward
the Engineers, "Evacuate to the beach." The Marines did not
move.
"It was the.most foolish words I ever heard." Some did
gather up gas masks that littered the ground where they had been
discarded. The masks didnlt have canisters, so were useless, and
while there was some gas, there wasn't enough to bother.
It
drifted away.
It was said that the Japs were still sneaking out of caves
in the area, but Howard never saw any. ~here was sporadic rifle
fire from among the Army Engineers.
After two nights of this supposedly safe place to rest, they
returned to the front line. Howard said that he felt relieved,
"We knew what was what."
They returned to the area to the north end of the island
between the second and third airstrips.
It was quiet.
Then
orders came to relieve another Company and that "didn't sound
good. "
They moved across the third airstrip and faced north, then
moved into position on a brightly moonlit night. The relieved
Company moved to the back.
Howard and his squad walked through a narrow passage between
�I
two ridges; it was perhaps two or three feet wide. He looked up
ad saw a Japanese officer standing on the edge and looking down
at them.
He disappeared before anyone could shoot. They moved
into their position, the day light came.
There was some firing, but the Marines couldn't tell where
it was coming from so they didn't try to move.
Then all of a sudden, there were shells or rockets or big
mortars which landed among the squad and platoon. It may have
been friendly fire from a Navy ship or a Marine artillery or even
a rocket battery, but it was not Japanese. Two men in the
Platoon disappeared, but no one in Howard'~ squad was hit.
Sgt. Gibson, the Platoon Sgt. wanted the men to withdraw to
a safer area around the corner of a ridge. Howard got his men
going, telling them to "run like Hell." Pfc. Stanley Swartz
stopped and said, "What? II He was hit in the wrist and through
the buttocks. He fell or crawled into a shell hole. The
corpsman must have seen it happen. He bandaged him and they made
it out of the hold and around the ridge. That was the last
Howard saw of Swartz until they met again in Great Lakes.
I met Stanley Swartz once. They spent the night 'with us
when we lived in the Barber Shop on Beech Tree St. It was
probably in 1954. He was married and had a sCm about three years
old. He had tried several jobs by that time and now was a
scientific pig farmer.
Later, we read that he was producing eggs
ahd had an elaborate system of marketing.
Shortly after that, we
lost all contact. All our letters returned.
I remember him as a
tall thin man who seemed even thinner, because his pants kind of
hung from his waist.
It looked as if he had lost a lot of
gluteal tissue.
He also had some problem walking.
I remember,
as his wife and I were doing women's work in the kitchen and he
and Howard were in the living room, we overheard him say, "How
come, all of us tall skinny Marines marry short, fat wives?" and
we both were that.
The rest of the squad made it back behind the ridge. The
Spearhead describes it this way. "CT 27 made limited gains during
the day against an irregular ridge line - sometimes called Nishi
Ridge - in the vicinity of Nishi Village. This was one of the
strongest remaining defensive positions on the island. L.T. 27
advanced 200 yards to reach the high ground overlooking the North
Coast of lWo, but after getting a blood bath from grenades, knee
mortars and sniper fire from the high jagged rocks, the troops
were forced to withdraw."
A few Japanese phosphorous or mortar shells dropped behind
the ridge and this made Howard nervous. He remembered that the
face of the cliffs were packed with little black holes about 14
inches in diameter.
About a half hour later, Sgt. Gibson received orders
probably from the Company Commander to "resume our position." It
was then that Howard made his "famous prediction", "We're all
going to be Killed", but it was an order, and they moved out.
�Howard again saw the black holes and investigated. He
couldn't see anything, because of the darkness, but most of the
fire seemed to come from that area. He still thinks that the
Japs were inside and firing out.
Then he noticed a small brush pile raise up about 'five
inches and a machine gun stuck its barrel out and fired to the
left. He didn't know if anyone was hit. The gun was withdrawn
and the brush pile settled down again. This was about as far
away as Ring's house (two houses from ours, 50 yards) from
Howard's position.
Some of Howard's squad were being hit, but
were being cared for and as Howard looked to his left, he saw his
BAR man, Pfc. Snell was hit by rifle fire.
Howard went to him;
He had been shot right through the head and been knocked into a
crater, a shell hole about six fee~deep. "He was still
quivering".
On top of the ridge and to the left, Sgt. Gibson
called down, "Can we help him?" I said, "No, he's beyond help."
The next chain of events, I will record exactly as Howard
told me.
"I crawled through the crater and was on my belly on
the side of the hole and looking at the holes in the cliff and
aiming my rifle, my head cocked over the sight. All of a sudden,
I was hit!
It threw me back and I landed on Snell's legs, I
could feel him quiver. Luckily for me Sgt. Gibson saw it happen.
The Corpsman came in and shoved gauze under my jacket in the
front and back (Frederick H. Alberty, Ph.M3C.). Four stretcher
bearers carne in the shell hole with a stretcher. They loaded me
on and started up the side of the shell hole. When I was about
shoulder high, one of the stretcher bearers was shot. The others
dragged me down into the bottom of the hole again. Another
""~earer came into the hole.
There was lots of gun fire, but it
was ~ot hitting us. They were successful in carrying me out and
around the back side of the cliff and ridge. As they were
carrying me, I looked around and up on the ridge I saw 1st Sgt.
Burgess and two machine guns set just over the ridge and spraying
bullets over the shell hole where we had been, and at the round
black holes. There was a jeep close by and they shoved my
stretcher on it. There was room for two, but I didn't see anyone
else."
"From then on, I had nothing more to do with 'F' Company,
the ~latoon, or my Squad.
I was taken to the Divisional Hospital
which was an excavated area in the ground about two feet deep and
covered by a tent.
I was carried in and laid on the ground in a
row with many others."
"'Sometime, soon after, a chaplain stood over me and said,
'Are oyou sorry for your sins?'
I said, 'I'm not Catholic.'
He
walked away."
0"1 didn't have much pain unless I moved, or I passed out.
I
don't remember the night at all. When I woke up it was daylight.
Someone told me I was leaving the island and going to a hospital
ship.
They loaded a bunch of us on a DUKW, it had wheels and a
propeller. As we were loading, I was asked if I wanted an apple.
12
!
�It was big and red, but I couldn't bite into it, I had no
strength.
I think I remember them carrying me up a ramp into the
hospital ship on a stretcher.
I was put in a bottom bunk.
I
just don't remember any of it except that just before we got to
Guam the body cast was put on.
It probably felt good, because I
couldn't move."
"When I was shot, it felt like I was hit by a sledge hammer
in my chest and shoulder.
I was weak and could only whisper.
I
thought, 'this is the way you die', and I had reason to think
this."
On D+ 20, the LT 2/27, the Regiment worn and casualty ridden
was pulled out and was not used again in the campaign.
Platoon Sgt. James Gibson, Jr. was a good Marine. He was
wounded and received a Bronze Star. He was about 10 years older
than. Howard and had been a paratrooper. He was of a sturdy
build .
. First Sgt. Wilber Burgess was also wounded in action.
·According to "The Spear Head", the World War II History of
the 5th Marine Division by Howard M. Conner, Howard's squad
finished Iwo in this manner:
Sgt. Howard E. Bennink
wounded
Cpl. Frank M. Bolek
wounded
Pfc. David B. Snell
killed.
Pvt. Kenneth C. Thomas
wounded
Pvt. Curtis C. Byrd
?
Pfc. Stanley J. Swartz
wounded
'Pfc. Malcom L. Waite
wounded
'Pfc. Howard R. Williams wounded
Pvt. Robert Torte
wounded
:Pfc. Harry S. Carothers wounded
Pfc. Douglas N. Wallace wounded
Pfc. Robert C. Smith
wounded
Pfc. John H. Whipple
wounded
Each squad was made up of a leader, a Sgt. and three fire
groups of four men each headed by a Cpl., but Howard had only one
Corporal.
Carothers, a Pfc. was the acting leader with Wallace,
Smith and Whipple.
Stanley Swartz was an acting group leader
with ~aite, Williams and Torti. Bolek was the only Cpl. with
Snell, Thomas and Byrd.
The Commanding officer of LT 27, Major John W. Antonelli was
wounded on ~ 18th with three of his officers on the front
line ..
Lt. Jack Lummas of 'F' Company was mortally wounded by a
land mine on D+ 17.
Marine infantry losses were so heavy that gaps were filled
with cooks, bakers, mortar men and communicators.
Seventy
percent of all the battle casualties occurred in the infantry
regiments and their replacements.
In July of 1995, we requested and received Howard's medical
�.#', ...~'
records. We were surprised to see how complete they were in the
midst of what must have been complete chaos. For instance on Iwo
Jima, casualties averaged over a thousand a day.
There was no medical record of treatment on the beach at
Iwo, but I saw another record, as I remember a handwritten one
that we requested for Dr. Leland Swenson in 1959 or 1960 and if I
remember correctly, he was given 13 units of blood and plasma.
It was difficult to read and interpret. The new record seems to
be bits of progress notes and discharge summaries.
It is
typewritten, but it has some written signatures.
The Hospital Ship, Howard was on was the AH10, the
Samaritan. The initial entry says 3-7-45 (date of admission)
gunshot wounds of the side of the face and chest. Tetanus and
gas gangrene shots given. This is followed by a description of
the injuries; 1. Small wound, left submaxillary.
2. Left
shoulder has two wounds - one anterior just over the outer end of
the clavicle and the other (the point of exit) over the scapular
spine. '3. x-ray of the face and skull = no fractures.
4. x-ray
of the cervical spine shows a comminuted fracture of the right
transverse process of the 6th cervical vertebra. There is' an
abnormal curvature of this portion of the spine with a slight
kyphotic curve, the apex of which is at the 5th and 6th vertebral
bodies.
5. x-ray of the left shoulder shows a comminuted
fractur~ involving the lateral 1/3 of the clavicle.
On 3-10-45 wounds were redressed with sulfanilamide and
vaseline gauze. A shoulder spica cast was applied reaching to
the base of the finger on the left hand.
Ho~ard says that he doesn't remember much about the ship,
except having the cast applied.
It was a body cast with an
airplane: splint type of cast on the arm.
These are the signatures on the reports from the Samaritan:
A. R. Aronson, Lt. (MC) U.S.N.R.
/s/ J. F. Belair
/s/ E. L. Jewett
H., J. Wiser, Cmdr. (MC) U.S.N.R.
R. W. Hayworth, Captain U.S.N.
Howard received a hospital number which accompanied him
through t.he system, #2529 KJ"K" DNEPTE and a heading on many of
the docuqlents:
not misconduct
within command
work
negligence not apparent
wounded in action against an organized enemy
received from 2nd Bn. 27 Marines
Not all the injured merited the care of a hospital ship. An
ex-Marine who was injured at Suribachi told how he was taken
aboard a troop carrier. He was placed on the floor of a passage
way while waiting to see the doctor.
He had a shoulder injury
and was worried about gangrene. After three days he got to see
�the doctor and expressed his thanks for seeing a good bone man,
but the doctor said, "But I'm not. At home I'm a kidney man."
His arm was saved, but he had to learn to write with his left
hand.
I remember a doctor who told me that the day before he was
inducted, he performed an appendectomy on a kitchen table in
Conklin, Michigan. He was a psychiatrist in the army and
thereafter. He helped Elmer Fisher adjust to his paralysis.
On 3-11-45, Howard was transferred to a hospital ashore,
which was Guam U.S.N.H. - 101, in a barracks type building. He
doesn't remember much about this hospitalization either, except
.that while he was there maggots crawled in and out of the cast.
In time the maggots turned into flies and were really irritating.
By pushing a stick in and under the cit near the wrist he could
sometimes get the varmints out. Howard thought that the maggots
had been planted as a treatment for dead tissue, but I think not.
The Navy V~terans told about the clouds of big blue flies that
they encountered as they neared the beach and the flies that
covered the wounded and dead.
On Guam, Howard saw Sgt. Evans, the 2nd Squad Leader, who
had been burned by phosphorus. He had painful burns of his neck
and arms. He came from one of the western states. He was
married and,always kept his wife's picture in the tent.
"She was
a beautiful ,girl."
Although, I am sure that it was a mutually sentimental
reunion, Howard expressed it this way, "I couldn't talk and we
were both tcio far gone."
On 3-2{-45, they recommended transfer to U.S.N.H. in T.R. or
"'Ccrntinentallimits of U.S. (T.H. means Territory of Hawaii).
Howard left Guam by plane. The littersWere secured on
racks. There were nurses on the plane as they had also been on
Guam. He was the only patient on the plane who was ambulatory,
so when the plane landed on Johnston Island for refueling, he was
asked to go to breakfast in the barracks. Once there, they
offered him anything he wanted, but he still couldn't eat. They
gave him an orange, but he couldn't eat that either.
On 3-24-45, Howard was admitted to the U.S. Naval Hospital,
Aiea Heights, T.H.
It was a large brick building about six
stories high.; The record which we have seems to be a combination
of the history and physical, progress notes and discharge
summary.
On admission after repeating the history of the injury it
says, "he has been hoarse since injury and has 'vibrating'
feeling in his throat. First week following wound pt. coughed
with some hemoptysis. Dry cough· since. Voice very hoarse.
P.E. negative except for:
1. Over carotid, in the left side of neck is palpable thrill
synchronous with pulse and audible bruit.
2. Left upper extremity is immobilized in a brachial spica with
arm at 45 degree abduction and elbow at 45 degree flexion.
No
')5
�sensory or motor changes of the hands or fingers."
3-27-45, x-ray of left shoulder:
There is a comminuted fracture involving the distal 1/3 of the
left clavicle in which the fragments appear in fair position and
alignment in the A-P view of the shoulder. A heavy plaster cast
surrounds the shoulder joint and no definite bone injury to other
bones or regions can be detected. There is no evidence of
metallic foreign bodies.
4-4-45, x-ray of cervical spine:
No foreign bodies can be made out in the neck.
.
Sometime after this Howard remembers that he and another
patient were taken into a lecture hall, where their injuries were
being discussed. The speaker (as Howard listened just outside
the door) cautioned that injuries of this nature were being
missed.
4-8-45, Operation Record:
Aneurysm operated on. Common Carotid. Arterio-Venous aneurysm
at bifurcation of common carotid. The carotid internal and
external carotid, superior thyroid and internal jugular vein~
ligated and aneurysm excised. Wound closed without drainage.
Operator· Dr. H. K. Gray.
Howard remembers before surgery in gn anteroom, a nurse told
him that she was from Lansing, Michigan.
On April 11' 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. Howard
has a faint memory of being told.
4-16-45, Sutures were removed. Wound clean.
Pt. has a
Horner's Syndrome, left side since operation. Voice is still
,..··~ry hoarse.
Injury at time of accident.
Horner's Syndrome is caused by a paralysis of the cervical
sympathetic nerves. Howard has a droopy eye lid, a contracted
pupil, and an abnormal sweating pattern.
4-20-45, Diagnosis changed this date to aneurysm (arterio
Venous) left carotid #202 DNEPTE. Reason - Complication no
misconduct~
4-22-45, Electrocardiogram - normal.
4-25-45, Wound healed.
Patient still has hoarseness with
evidence still present of Horner's Syndrome left. Recommend
evacuation to mainland for further treatment and disposition.
Hospital litter - via air.
5-3-45, transferred this day to a U.S. Government transport
to a u.S. Naval Hospital on the mainland, without formal medical
survey in accorqance with Bu Pers Circular letter 99-44 of March
31, 1944.
This section of the medical record was signed by:
W. C.· Mulry, Lt. (MC) U.S.N., Acting Division Surgeon
A. M. McDonald, Lt. Cmdr. (MC) U.S.N.R.
H. K. Gray, Capt. (MC) U.S.N.R., Chief of Surgery.
On May 4, 1945, Howard was admitted to Oakland, California,
U.S. Naval Hospital.
�:;x
,
,
5-5-45, Pt. received from overseas with the diagnosis of
aneurysm, left carotid. This was surgically repaired.
He also
has gunshot wound trough the left clavicle and out the back with
minimal drainage of both wounds. Let clavicle fractured.
Pt.
wearing a sling. Abduction to 90 degrees.
Some numbness of left
arm.
Condition satisfactory for transfer closer home pending
approval of peripheral nerve department.
Howard was given the choice of a Naval Hospital in the State
of Washington or Great Lakes near Chicago.
While at Oakland, he and others were given a pass to a stage
show.
He remembers a "gut shot" Marine who required lots of
attention.
5-23-45, transfer this date to U.S.N.H., Great Lakes,
Illinois for further treatment and disposition.
O. F. Johnson Lt. Cmdr. (MC) U.S.N.R.
L. R. Reynolds.
Howard traveled by train. He left the hospital and boarded
the train alone and he had a sleeper. He arrived at Great Lakes
on May 26, 1945. The admission physical describes his wounds.
There is a scar six inches long over the left side of the neck, a
draining wound, over the left mid clavicula spine and a healed
wound on the left scapula. He has a harsh raspy voice since the
injury.
X-ray record - x-ray examination of the left shoulder shows
an old comminuted fracture of the outer 1/3 of the clavicle with
evidence of considerable calcium, but not solid union.
"",'M'
E.E.N.T. 6-13-45, This man has a dislocation of the left
arytenoid.
The dislocation holds the left cord in midline. His
voice will probably improve still more after he gets compensated
for the new anatomical position.
Lab - cbc and urinalysis were essentially negative.
6-2-45, patient can abduct the shoulder to 90 degrees, as
well as anterior and posterior motion to 90 degrees.
Physio
therapy was staited for improved muscular tone and increased
motion.
The physio-therapy involved dusting the vertical blinds in
the Officer's quarters.
6-4-45, there was an orthopedic consultation - There is a
draining sinus from the compound fractured clavicle. 1.
Curettement of the scar. 2. Tyrothricin dressings to the wound.
(this was a substance isolated from soil bacterium.)
6-5-45, The sinus of the left clavicle was curetted this
date.
6-8-45, Increased motion of the left shoulder. There is
less drainage from the clavicle.
6-12-45, Progress is satisfactory. Draining sinus of the
left shoulder, curetted this day. Diagnosis was changed from
aneurysm antero-venous left carotid #202 to fracture compound
37
�left clavicle #2529.
6-16-45, Drainage is subsiding.
Shoulder is less painful.
6-30-45, Sinus in shoulder region healing. Drainage slight.
Has some pain.
Drainage really continued even after his discharge as bone
fragments carne to the surface. There is a piece of bone that
Nancy kept with his Medals.
7-10-45, Patient states that since injury, whenever he
flexes his head on chest, he has tingling sensation in both arms'.
X-ray of cervical vertebrae ordered to determine if fracture or
dislocation is present.
7-16-45, Range of motion in shoulder is normal. Has some
pain on abduction.
7-17-45, X-ray examination of the cervical spine shows old
compression fracture of the upper plate of C-6.
7-21-45 - 8-8-45, On leave. This was not his first time at
horne. He had been home for a short time in June. Howard does
not speak of this' as an especially happy period in his life. He
denies being depressed. Maybe he was just tired of being sick
and tired at 23 years of age. Mother Nancy had already become
hard of hearing, and could of course not understand his
whispering. Maybe that too, had some bearing.
Sometime during
his stay at Great.Lakes, Aunt Grace Doornbos visited him and they
watched Bob Feller pitch, but in Howard's words he, "Couldn't
care less." He "didn't feel good, no energy."
9-10-45, It was announced that Hiroshima was destroyed by a
single bomb and three days later Nagasaki was A. bombed. On
August 14th Japan :surrendered. While Howard was in Aiae in
""1fawaii, the remnants of the 5th Division were recuperating and
training for the invasion of the home islands of Japan. This was
frightening.
The 27th Marines had been battered. Colonel
Wornham's regiment which had landed with 36 officers and 885 men,
now had 16 officers and 300 men, including replacements. Okinawa
had come and gone with like statistics.
President Truman was the
Savior of this generation.
Instead of the invasion, they were
part of the occupation and rebuilding of Japan.
9-10-45, Orthopedic Consultation - Good function of the left
shoulder, although still slight weakness about the shoulder
girdle muscles. This should improve with use.
No further
treatments indicated.
9-12-45, ENT. Consultation - Voice has improved very much.
Dislocation of the arytenoid the same and always will be.
9-13-45, Presented with Purple Heart. Howard said that one
day, a nurse asked him if he had received his Purple Heart, he
said no so she gave. him one.
10-1-45, The Medical Survey Board met and declared the
injuries had made him unfit for service and recommended he be
discharged from the USMCR. The board was composed of:
G. H. Castle, Cmdr. (MC) U.S.N.
R. E. Diffenderfer, Cmdr. (MC) U.S.N.
38
�J. C. Becker, Lt. (MC) U.S.N.
Howard was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Great Lakes
Naval Training Center for discharge.
Howard was discharged on 10-26-45. He had served three
years, eight months and 28 days.
The length of his foreign
service was ~ year, ~ months and 23 days.
Until he left the gates in his '36 Ford, he always had to
think about "going back", but no more and he was happy!
All this happened before you and I knew Howard.
I know him
better since I recorded his experiences and I hope you will know
him better in reading them.
Of course, this isn't the end of the story. He married and
had three children, a son in-law and two daughter5in-law~, all of
whom he is extremely proud, and they in return gave him six
grandsons and one grand daughter, all fine children.
How different the world would have been without Howard.
#"·'·L. . .•
39
-----------
�In October of 1995, Howard and I attended a 3rd Battalion
Reunion at Camp LeJeune, in Jacksonville, N.C.
We met Gambino from the 3rd Platoon and Abadolla from I I '
Company, both who Howard remembered. Gambino always bummed
cigarettes. Abadolla spent many years as a wholesale green
grocer and also owned a taxi service.
Both men were living in
New Jersey. They recalled that Frank Newell, from the 3rd
Platoon who was married by the Chaplin at Camp LeJeune died about
10 years ago.
Gambino had been best man.
Others remember seeing Lt. Weiss Carried back from the front
lines on the backs of his men.
We met Griffin a machine gunner from III company.
He was
badly wounded on the Matamkau and had extensive facial
reconstruction. Although he and Howard did not remember each
other, they knew many of the same people.
Capistran from the 4th squad became Fire Chief of Chelsea,
Massachusetts.
Dawson from the 3rd Platoon survived the war and was living
in Florida.
Elbert Kinser who came in as a replacement while the unit
was in Australia, became a Platoon Sgt. and was killed by a hand
grenade on Okinawa, May 4, 1945. He was awarded the Medal of·
Honor. His hometown of Greenville, Tennessee named a street and
a bridge after him. His brother, Charles, is the Chief of
Police.
After we returned home, Howard wrote Aaron Dawson a letter,
:...........
and
within a week he wrote back. He and his family live in
'
Frostproof, Florida. He too returned to the states, but went
back to the Pacific and fought and was wounded on Okinawa.
He
had rejoined his old outfit right down to the platoon and squad.
Just before he left, back to back typhoons raked the island and
his medical records were lost, but he is still trying to get his
Purple Heart.
Little did we realize when we left· Camp LeJeune what would
result from a chance meeting with local Marines across a
breakfast table, when they asked if anyone served with the 5th
Division.
A short time after we returned home, Howard received an
application for membership in the 5th Division. He returned it
just before Christmas.
The day after New Years, he received his membership card and
the membership list. Under the letter "S" was David Snell,
Lorain, Ohio.
David was the man in the shell hole with Howard on Iwo. He
was dead!
After mulling over all the possibilities, it was still
impossible, but Howard wrote a short note.
Two weeks went by and then one afternoon, the phone rang and
4u
�the voice said, "This is David Snell, Are you O.K.?II
Both thought the other had died.
--
He was one of 27 men out of 230 who walked off Iwo Jima.
He
went to Japan with the occupation forces.
The man who died was
his ammo carrier.
Yesterday, Howard received a packet from a Fox Company
organization with other names including his Platoon Sgt. Gibson.
What a start to a New Year!
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BenninkH
Title
A name given to the resource
Bennink, Howard E. (Interview outline, video, and papers), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bennink, Howard E.
Description
An account of the resource
Howard Bennink enlisted in the Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bennink trained for six months at Camp Lejeune before traveling to New Zealand. He served in fought on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester and Iwo Jima during his tour of duty. He earned a Silver Star during fighting in Cape Gloucester, fought off several bouts of malaria, and was wounded two weeks into the fighting on Iwo Jima. Grand Haven Tribune newspaper article and personal narrative appended to interview outline.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McCauslin, Kelly (Interviewer)
Spring Lake District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
United States. Marine Corps
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Video recordings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008-01-28
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives