Squadron: Headquarters

Position:
Radar mechanic (HAB) on B24's 2nd & 3rd Echelon repairs Tune up in the plane. Take to radar shack for parts replacement if entire unit malfunctioned.

Served: Late February, 1945, to January 21, 1946 SWPA

Originally from: Indiana Enlisted in Fifth Service Command, Battle Creek, MI.

Training:
After Basic Training on Miami Beach,FL, was assigned to Camp Murphy, FL, (now Johnathon Dickenson State Park) Sept. 1943. Then to Boca Raton Airfield, Boca Raton, FL. And Langley Field, VA. Had previous training in Janesvile, Milwsukee, Chicago as a civilian assigned to the Signal Corps, 1942 - 1943.

Citations/Medals: None personal

Planes: Don't know.

Number of Missions: None. I was strictly ground crew.

Description of Missions: NA

Most poignant, sad or touching memory of the war:
Saddest: When I read the bulletin while in line at the mess hall on Ie Shima that more than 100,000 people had been killed with an atomic bomb at Hiroshima, Japan.

Funniest or most fun memory of the war:
That the 63rd (64th?)had actually dumped garbage on a rival squadron in New Guinea

Any odd or strange memories from the war:
None. I was on foriegn soil (New Guinea, Luzon, Ie Shima and Japan) for only a year. It all went by so fast that it's hard to remember very much. I do remember the night we found that we heard the war was over in mid-August 1945. Shouting, crying, dancing, gunshots--exciting but scary with all the wild shooting.

Most heroic thing I saw or did:
Not exactly herioc--but we managed to survive a typhoon that messed up a convoy of ships when we moved from Clark field to Ie Shima. We were on board an LST for 10 days. Traveled the lefth of Lyzon three times. Lost a Coast Guard cutter and crew in tow behind our LST.

Where I was and how I celebrated when I learned the war was over: See above.

How having gone to war has affected me, what comes to mind when I think of the war:
I had enlisted so I pobably felt differently than someone who had gone to war against their will. I was in one feeble air raid when a lone Jap Betty dropped some bombs on a line of P51's the night we docked off Ie Shima. Navymen "dogging" those doors between compartments to save the ship in case of a torpedo attack was not my idea of fun. My parents had always been supportive of my military service. My father had been a Marine durng the occpation of Santo Domingo and Haiti in the early '20's. They were glad to have me home and out of harms way as was I. The first thing I did was to grab a train with my mustering out($1200) in hand and head for the Ozarks in southern Missouri

To future generations:
"War is hell"...Sherman. Nobody wins in a war. Many millions of innocent people are killed. Property is destroyed. WWII was necessary since it was a defensive war. There should never be wars. The present war [Ed. Iraq 2003-4] is a monstrosity should never have been started.