They Served

From last week: "Beingshy and bashful, I was notthinking too seriously aboutgirls. Besides, I felt very immatureand thought a fewyears in college would be theright thing to do. Our classgraduated in 1939. Most ofus spent 12 years togetherand were very close. Twentyfourwere in the class withonly eight girls. They seemedmore like sisters to me thanclassmates. It was a time formaking serious decisions: goto college, go to work or jointhe Army. Looks like I did allthree hellip; The story continued: Money was not plentiful, so I laid out a year to build up some funds for college. I went to Washington State College to study civil and agricultural engineering. In September 1942 I joined an Army Reserve Unit that was to allow me to finish college in 1945. Jim Stonecipher rushed me and I pledged Phi Delta Theta Fraternity for which I have never been sorry. They taught me how to dress, study, be social, and put my best foot forward.

After Pearl Harbor was bombed and we were in war, Frankie Kessler employed me as an operator on several construction jobs since I had considerable caterpillar and bulldozer experience. The jobs were at Geiger Field in Spokane, Paine Field in Everett, the Walla Walla Airport and the Pendleton Airport. I operated a bulldozer and carryall scraper at the Umatilla Ordinance Depot job. I worked for $1.60 per hour plus overtime. It sounds very minimal now, but then it was a great deal of money.

I was able to buy a yearold 1940 Ford convertible like new for $800 and go back to college, living like a king. I was everybody's buddy with a car like that. It was a very exciting and fulfilling year living with All-American football player Dale "Pig" Gentry from Walla Walla and runner-up national basketball player champion Kirk Gebert, who lost only one game to the University of Wisconsin. There were Army, Navy, Air Corps and Marine Reserves of all kinds. We held farewell parties for each one called to active duty.

My call came March 1, 1943. The entire Enlisted Reserve Corps was called up at WSC and the University of Idaho. We boarded the Northern Pacific train in Pullman for Ft. Lewis. We left with mixed emotions of patriotism, wanting to get out of school because we were not studying with all the farewell parties, and yet not wanting to go. It was a long, sleepless overnight trip, more like a victory train than a train going to war. Our mood changed to silence when we saw those olive, drab G.I. trucks waiting at the Tacoma depot to take us to Ft. Lewis.

We left for England on September 12, 1943, on the English ship "Mauritania" and arrived nine days later at Liverpool. We had no problem with German submarines. Being a fast ship, it was allowed to sail alone unescorted and not in convoy, like the smaller merchant ships. By taking a zigzag course, a torpedo sighting was difficult for a sub to make. There were boat evacuation drills each night and day, and the English food on the ship was very bad, mostly mutton from Australia. I lived on Nestle's candy bars until they picked up the foul odors of the crowded ship. Then I got sick of them and have never eaten one since.

On October 29, 1943, we were finally assigned to the 846th Engineer Aviation Battalion, Headquarters Company, Army P.O. 644, New York, New York. My job as company electrician included taking care of three generators, maintaining the battalion telephone lines, plus setting up the radio system. I was very happy with this assignment because it allowed me to be my own boss with a jeep for transportation, a driver and a helper. We were three of a kind, and we soon learned how to look busy. In England we built an airfield near Ipswich and one near Colchester for the 8th Air Force. There are many airfields along the English coast, so close together one can hear a plane starting on the next field. It reminded me of home when the neighbor started his Caterpillar tractor. There was around the clock bombing with our 8th Air Force by day and the R.A.F. at night. We knew that crossing the Channel was in our future. Our work continued on as war went on, but we spent more time training to defend ourselves for the inevitable.

Preparing for the invasion of France reminded me of getting ready for harvest at home with no end to preparations. All vehicles had to be waterproofed with Cosmoline, equipped with overhead air intakes and exhaust pipes for debarkation on the beach. All vehicles had to be marked with our code emblem as well as all crates and equipment chests. There were three shakedowns to convince us to get rid of all our old letters, keepsakes and photographs from home. My electric equipment chests gave me a great advantage to stash my valuables.

Early morning, June 6, 1944. As thousands of planes flew overhead with their hastily applied zebra-striped paint jobs, we knew this was the big day of the invasion of France.

We were soon on our way to a staging area near Southampton. The Army uses a hurry-up and wait system. We waited several days in tents while it rained continuously with buzz bombs flying overhead night and day. The English anti-aircraft artillery tried to shoot them down, usually to no avail. At night the tracer bullets from their guns indicated there were many hits, but they just bounced off. We never wanted them brought down on top of us anyway. "Just keep on going," was all we wanted them to do.

The 846th Engineers were finally assigned to a Landing Ship Tank 221. We loaded all the battalion heavy equipment, trucks, jeeps, parts, ammunition, food and 1,500 men under the cover of darkness. Early next morning, we set sail for Omaha Beach, across the English Channel. An LST is a flat-bottom ship to accommodate beach landings, and with the rough sea, it made me a little seasick. It was necessary to make the landing at the beach during high tide. Then we waited for the tide to go out to lower the ship to the sand for unloading equipment. Arriving at the beach at about 9 p.m. and waiting until the next morning when the tide had gone out gave plenty of time for anxieties.