WWII Heroes: We Were Just Doing Our Jobs

by Minton, Linda E.

Over the palm trees they swing to the right.

  Pray to your honorable ancestors, Nippo.

  The Red Devil Squadron is flying tonight.

  Fast the Avengers slide down on your bivouac.

  The scram of their bombs turns your yellow face white.

  When you clasp the hands of your honorable fathers,

  Say, “The Red Devils were flying tonight!”

  Mtsgt. Andy Heaton, Pacific

  They destroyed thirty-five enemy ships and ten enemy planes.

  Back in the United States-

  He returned home on a ship that was carrying P-47s. He said, “Some of them may have been made in Evansville. I don’t know. They had them strapped down on the deck.”

  On returning to the States from the Solomons, Richard went to Cherry Point, North Carolina. Later he applied for flight training and passed the tests. He was assigned to a B-25 squadron. He went to Murray State Teachers College for four months of training classes in navigation, orientation, and everything pertaining to flying. He met his future wife at Murray State. They dated and were married for over fifty years. In 1996 she died of cancer.

  Giving back today

  Today he speaks at local schools about his WWII experiences and has had several write-ups in the local newspapers. He still drives and has coffee with his buddies at the local café in town.

  Richard has not missed going to Sunday school for over sixty-eight years. He has an attendance pin for each year. His goal is to get to seventy years of perfect attendance. God bless him!

  Earl Lautzenheiser – US Army

  “The Japanese tried to find us and dig us out.”

  Earl was drafted into the US Army on April 4, 1942, when he was twenty-two years old. He was first sent to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, with about a hundred other men to be sworn in and get their shots (lots of them, he said) and physicals. He had worked in a gas station with his brother before being drafted.

  Earl took the bus to Indianapolis. He was sick and was sent to the hospital for five days. When he was released from the hospital, all the other GIs in his group were gone. He was sent to Drew Field, which was a tent city, in Tampa, Florida, on the troop train. There were no buildings. He was there for about three weeks.

  From Florida he took the troop train to San Francisco, California. It took five days. There were about a thousand men on the train. No one knew where they were going at that point. “Orders were when the train made a stop, there was to be one soldier on one side and one soldier on the other side of the train to guard the exits. The orders were to shoot anyone that tried to get away,” said Earl.

  Was anyone ever shot?

  Earl said, “No.”

  Earl didn’t officially go through basic training. He had a small amount of training on five guns, including the Tommy gun, the ‘03 rifle, and handguns. Earl grew up with a rifle and shotgun, so he had no trouble with shooting.

  After five days they arrived in San Francisco, California. “They don’t tell you anything,” said Earl. Many of the men had never seen the Pacific Ocean before, so as they were going under the Golden Gate Bridge there was quite a lot of excitement. They would be returning to San Francisco in two and half years.

  Earl’s job was in the signal corps working with the radar unit assigned to the air corps. He said, “During roll call they asked if anyone wanted to go to radio training, so I said I did. The officers in charge said I couldn’t go because I hadn’t gone through basic yet.” He had missed basic training when he was ill and in the hospital. Making a joke and being silly, he said, “I won’t go overseas because I haven’t had basic training.” Earl said, “At the end of the day, I was told that I would be going overseas!”

  Brisbane, Australia

  While on the troop ship, Earl and his fellow soldiers docked in Auckland, New Zealand to pick up some civilians who had escaped from the Japanese. These people were from some islands nearby. Earl didn’t talk to them, as they were on another part of the ship. When the ship docked in Australia, there was an airplane flying above the ship with a tail sign reading “WELCOME YANKS.” Earl got a little choked up while telling this part of the story.

  “The Australians were so nice and grateful that we were there,” he said. During this time in Australia, the American troops got in groups and marched. “It was too hard to exercise on the ship, so they had to toughen you up.” They were in Brisbane for approximately six weeks. They spent the time training and assembling equipment.

  New Guinea

  New Guinea, north of Australia, was still overrun with Japanese during this time in the war. Another soldier asked Earl, “Do you have your foxhole dug yet? You will!” It was important to be protected if there was an attack.

  Earl’s unit was stationed fifty miles down the coast from Port Moresby, the capital city. The Japanese had control of the east coast of New Guinea and the tip of the island. “We were driving them back up the coast,” said Earl. “There were other platoons of radar groups set up too. Each platoon was self-sufficient, with a cook, radar operator, et cetera. Their job was to pick up enemy activity fifty miles away. That gave our guys time to get our fighters in the air. That ten to twelve minutes before the enemy got there was often

  enough time to keep people safe. Many times fighters on duty would sleep in their planes.”

  Part of Earl’s job was to tell our people the enemy was on the way by phoning or using the telegraph. “The Japanese tried to find us and dig us out.” Earl used the decoding machine and sent coded messages.

  “The worst time I had was during an air raid, when the signal went off, and I didn’t have a foxhole! Japanese planes flew right over me, just above the trees, and dropped bombs a few feet away from me.” All soldiers had their own foxholes just by their tents. Then they could roll out of bed into the foxholes.

  Earl was not involved in hand-to-hand combat, but he saw some of the captured Japanese prisoners in camp and some dead Japanese soldiers. He never got close to them or tried to talk to them. However, one of the GIs who was guarding the prisoners said, “They don’t want to escape. They have been taken prisoner, and they are happy about it. The Japanese prisoners seemed perfectly happy.”

  Coming Home

  Earl was relieved of duty on October 15, 1944, after two and a half years in New Guinea. He went back to San Francisco and then home for leave. The troops saw the Golden Gate Bridge again, except this time they were going home, so there was quite an uproar of whooping and hollering.

  After being home for a while, Earl was so cold, he didn’t want to be stationed near home in Indiana. He was assigned to a desk job in Santa Ana, California. He was sent to New York for a month for schooling, to learn to “process out” soldiers who were discharged and returning to civilian life. At that time, he achieved the rank of sergeant and was working in personal affairs.

  Family

  Earl met Su on the Super Chief train when he was returning from his grandfather’s funeral in 1945. They exchanged addresses and wrote to each other. He was discharged from the Army on October 23, 1945, and they were married on December 3, 1945. After his captain talked him into it, he was in the air force reserves for thirty years.

  A Couple of Funny Stories

  During roll call it was asked, “Who can type?” Earl said he could. Out of a thousand men, he was the only one who could type, so he got a job as a clerk. Earl had taken typing in high school. He wasn’t sure if he was the only one who could type out of all the men or just the only one who would admit it!

  Another story was that he was nicknamed Effie by the other men in his group because he was bowlegged. Effie was in a comic strip or cartoon series during the 1930’s. The lieutenant where he worked said, “Who is Lautzenheiser?” Earl thought he was joking, but the lieutenant thought Earl’s real name was Heffie [or Effie], not Lautzenheiser.

  Charles McDonald – US Army

  By Kew Bee McDonald and Robin McDonald

  Charlie’s wife, Kew Bee said, “I was a freshman, and Charl
ie was a sophomore. It was a terrible four years in high school. Times were tough for Evansville because of the Depression and the 1937 flood.” Then Kew Bee said, “When Charlie turned eighteen, he was drafted. It didn’t matter that he had not graduated from high school. He had to go anyway.” Charlie was in the army from September 1943 to March 1946. “He wanted to be in the navy, being a river man, but he was just three people away from the desk when they said they were full. He had to join the army infantry unit.

  “Charlie was assigned to New Guinea, Luzon, Philippines, and Japan. He spent eighteen months overseas.” Kew Bee has saved many commendations and letters from Charlie’s time in the army.

  When asked about dropping the atomic bombs on Japan, she said, “It was terrible what they did at Pearl Harbor. It was terrible what they did to the Japanese children. The Japanese would not have given up without the bomb being dropped on them.”

  Charlie McDonald, as Reported by His Son, Robin McDonald

  Charlie was on guard duty, and his replacement came to relieve him. When the fellow soldier asked if he had seen anything, Charlie said, “There were some Japanese soldiers over there, with white gloves and white hoods.” The replacement said, “Stay here, and I’ll be back.” He knew what that meant. He came back with a crank radio and radioed the ships. The ship’s guns blew up the ammo dump. It went off for three days and three nights. He felt like he had saved some US soldiers’ lives by helping to get rid of the ammo dump. Charlie said the shells fired by the ships looked like Volkswagens flying through the air.

  Robin also mentioned this story, which his father told to another veteran:

  Charlie was scared to death all the time he was overseas. He was just a country boy. He showed other soldiers how to shoot guns. He never wanted to know people very well, as you never knew if they would make it or not.

  Charlie got to know and respect his drill sergeant. The drill sergeant was a short guy, and he liked to box. So Charlie and the sergeant had a boxing match. The sergeant beat him well. When they landed on what they thought was a secure beach, the sergeant was standing on the beach giving orders. Suddenly he was shot in the head by a Japanese sniper and died. Charlie was scared!

  Arlin McRae—US Marines

  “K rations are the nastiest things in the world.”

  “I was one of the strangest marines you would ever encounter. My mother was a strict Methodist. She didn’t believe in any sinning at all. No sinning! I made a vow that I would do nothing that my parents would disapprove. No drinking. No gambling. No cursing. I kept that vow.” Being the youngest of 150 marines, Arlin was nicknamed “Chick”; the oldest was called ‘Pop.”

  He graduated from high school in Griffin, Indiana, one of only six graduates. He received his draft notice in 1943, on his birthday. He then explained how he became a marine. There were three desks during the physicals, and when he sat down beside the desk he asked to go into the navy, but they had reached their quota for the day. So the marine sergeant said he should go into the marines. Arlin said, “I only weigh a hundred and twenty-six pounds.” The marine officer said, “That’s OK. You will make a smaller target.”

  Arlin described himself as “a green country boy.” He was sent to a marine base in San Diego. He was told by an officer that he was in the Marine Corps now—he wasn’t supposed to be tired.

  He told of a time he was with some drunk friends near Oceanside, California, and all the problems he had getting them back to camp without getting caught by the MPs. He wouldn’t go out with them again. However, one of guys, who had a brown belt, later told him how to do some tae kwon do moves he could use to protect himself.

  He spent an extra week in basic training so he could learn to swim. To qualify, he had to swim three times the width of the pool, which he couldn’t do because his mother hadn’t believed in letting him swim at home. So when he got liberty in Los Angeles, he went to the YMCA and taught himself to swim.

  “There were eighty to a company, and I was the smallest. I hated boot camp, and I didn’t make any friends.”

  Camp Pendleton, California

  On to Camp Pendleton, where he found he was really good at throwing antitank grenades. “It fitted down over the end of your rifle, and you would fire the rifle,” he said. “It was used to destroy tanks or pillboxes.” Arlin explained that pillboxes “are like igloos—instead of being make of ice, they are made of steel-enforced concrete, and it has slits on four sides that you fire machine guns out of.”

  At Camp Pendleton, “we marched five miles morning, noon, and night. We trained on rafts and how to exit a ship and how to use netting, et cetera.” His worst experience in California was on a twenty-nine-mile hike up a mountain. Many of the guys were sick and passing out. He passed out and was sick much of the next day.

  “My regiment, the 26th division, left the States and went to help Guam. We left early, and when we got out to sea almost everybody got over their seasickness.

  Hawaii

  “We learned that Guam had been secured, and they didn’t need us. We stopped in Hawaii; between two mountains you could see the lava. We arrived at Parker Ranch, the second largest ranch in the country, with the King Ranch in Texas being the largest,” said Arlin. “The Parker Ranch leased the ranch to the United States for one dollar a year. So that is where we trained. You would think training in Hawaii would be great, but it was hot. It could be blowing red dust, drizzling rain, and the sun shining all at the same time. It was not a very pleasant place at all. If you bivouacked all night, they would bring you breakfast in the morning, and it would have a layer of red dust on top of it.”

  They trained there until Tokyo Rose said on the radio the marines were going to leave on January 1, 1945. “Tokyo Rose said, ‘We don’t know where they are going and what place they are attacking, but the 5th Marine Division is leaving January first.’ So we were afraid they would destroy our ships with our equipment ammunition on them. There were Japanese submarines around there.

  “Well, a few months prior to this we were ordered to build ammo dumps in the hills behind Hilo, Hawaii. It rained every day in the afternoon, so every day in the morning we would work building the ammo dumps and go into town in the afternoon. We would go to a movie, take a nap, or go to this little

  café in town. There was this cute little waitress who had long black hair. She was of Hawaiian and Chinese descent. The guys used to kid me about dating her, but she said, ‘My mother won’t let me date marines.’ I think she had a very smart mother!

  “She was a cashier and would leave her place and come over and talk with us. We were there for two weeks, and the last week she said, ‘Do you read shorthand?’ She wrote a lot of things on the napkin and said, ‘Take this back to camp and find someone that reads shorthand.’” After laughing, he said, “Now, where am I going to find someone who read shorthand?”

  “They got [us] up at four in the morning and put us on flat cars, and no one was supposed to know we were leaving, but everybody knew. When [we] passed the fields, the workers in the pineapple fields were tossing things down. You just never knew what you were going to catch. We left on January second instead of the first.”

  “The whole time I was in the service, I never got a furlough. My family had never seen me in a uniform, so I had this taken in Hilo and had a bunch of pictures taken before we left Hilo. They were sent to my family.”

  Why didn’t you get a furlough?

  “I got mess duty instead. I got mess duty for a whole month. So when I went to apply for a furlough, the sergeant said, ‘You are going on a trip, but you are going west instead of east.’”

  He went on to say, “You couldn’t get anything from the quartermaster. Then this lieutenant came around and said, ‘We need six volunteers to go help at the quartermaster’s shack for the navy. We are going to load some boxes onto trucks to go a navy ship.’ We said, ‘Why don’t those damn swabbies load their own ship?’

  “You know the marines are part of the navy. They can command
us to do it, and we have to do it. So I was one of the six people to load the ship. The lieutenant said, ‘There is this box of socks, and we need socks to fight with more than the navy does to swab decks. I want you to steal socks. Not just enough for yourself—I want you to steal enough for the whole company, two hundred and fifty men. I’ll tell you the boxes are long and narrow and high.

  I’ll tell you where they are located. This is what you are to do: Throw a box or two, and then wait awhile. Then throw another box or two, and I will go around in the jeep and pick them up.’”

  Arlin said, “We stole enough socks for everyone in the company. I also saw some fur-lined vests and a navy sweater that I stole too.” He laughed as he said his mother would have died. This was his first experience with stealing. When someone stole his bayonet after mess duty. The lieutenant said, “Doesn’t anyone else have one on mess duty? Son, I don’t want someone in my company that can’t take care of themselves. A good marine is never caught short, but he’s never caught stealing.” Enough said, I guess.

  Iwo Jima

  “So we were told on ship that we were going to attack a little island called Iwo Jima. None of us had ever heard of it before. Iwo Jima was an island that was shaped like a kidney. It was a volcanic island, and Mt. Suribachi was on it. We were told we were going to land at the base of it. My regiment, the 5th marine outfit, was to attack at the base of the volcano.

  “The night before the ship landed was total blackout. The Japanese were bombarding it from several different directions. We got up the next morning at four o’clock and ate an early breakfast. I went back and patched my clothes, because I kept getting letters from Mom saying, ‘We can’t buy clothes because it’s all going overseas.’ I thought, well who the hell is getting it? I had holes in my trousers, holes in the knees and seat, and holes in my socks. I patched and patched because I lived on the farm during the Depression, so I knew how to patch.