Main Street, Wyoming Classic; 108; WWII Vets

Sending our military overseas these days is a controversial subject but in the 1940s when Americans joined the war against the Nazis the fascists and the Japanese support for the effort was overwhelming. As Deborah Hammonds found out in 1995 when she sought out World War Two veterans Wilding I found many ways to contribute. They fought in Africa the Pacific and Europe. They worked at air bases here at home and in factories even on the farms. They collected old plows and pots and pans to supply metal for armaments. It seems today we're asked less to make personal sacrifice but the desire to serve in Wyoming remains high. This show honors the veterans of World War 2 but it also reminds us of our young men and women facing enemy fire today. And it's a tribute to them to you. Our program today is for family viewing. It's for parents and children grandparents

and grandchildren for friends and family. It's about World War Two and Wyoming. It's about a generation of Americans dedicated to winning a war. So the next generation could grow up free. I'm Deborah Hammons. Welcome to Main Street Wyoming. During World War Two Over 30000 Wyoming men and women served in the armed forces but the folks back home made their sacrifices too. We're going to be hearing a few of their stories from a flight nurse who helped air evacuate the wounded from the beaches of D-Day to German prisoners of war to a wilding farm girl who grew her victory garden to help the war effort. These are stories worth hearing again and again. So we never forget September 1st 1939 Germany and World War 2 began a stream of refugees last year. A young Jewish girl resorts Scheinberg with her family and eventually settled in Rock Springs

Wyoming. My father had a cousin and San Francisco who gave us a visa to come to this country so we landed in New York on Washington's Birthday 914 last boat out. Recalled her childhood friend who like millions of other European Jews died in one of Hitler's concentration camps. After we've received these. My aunt gave a party a goodbye party for all of us the flanks with a a. They also I had had an opportunity to to leave but doing the physical examination that we all had to go through it was discovered that my God had a latent case of tuberculosis. So the family was left with this terrible dilemma of not knowing who will stay with who and who will go to America. It was impossible for them for both of them to leave it and leave my gut behind. So who was going to stay behind with my good. If the mother was going to come to America on a

how was she going to make a living if the father came. You know they were it was a terrible dilemma for these people and it wasn't until after we left that we found out you know that they had stayed behind. The first I ever knew about all this was when I took my own children to the library and walking up the stairs they used to have the jackets of the books advertisement you know advertising them up the stairs and I walked up the stairs with my kids and I suddenly I'd see a familiar face say on my go bag my god it was my friend and I called my mother that night I said Did you know that they wrote a book about the plant but she said didn't you know that. No I thought and Rock Springs Wyoming I did not know that. I wanted to be upstairs. By 1940 Belgium and. America prepared for the possibility was very active very involved and very much a horse group

previous to World War 2 and in February of nine hundred forty one they went off to Fort Lewis. From all over the state for a one year trial period just to be ready in case. And what have you. And of course by the time Pearl Harbor happened in December of 1941 all those boys knew that they wasn't just for one year was going to be more than that. And right after they got to Fort Lewis they were told that they were have to give up their horses. And this was quite quite a deal some of them ended up in jail because they didn't want to give up their horses. December 7 1941 Sunday afternoon at 1:00 o'clock. The person is of the bombing of Pearl Harbor was broadcast on Wyoming radio. I was working at the Connetquot service station part time while going to high school. And it was a beautiful day. Padley was a high school student in Cody

and we came into the service station in my Model A Ford. 1931 Model A Ford. And to relieve my friend Elmer Jones and he said or you're going to have to quit driving that car to work probably because we're lure in we're going to have to save our gasoline and save our tires and I said What do you mean and he says why the Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor. And I say this is the first I had heard of it and of course that had such a tremendous effect on myself and Elmer Jones and everybody in Wyoming and everybody in the world really across America the armed forces were mobilized for World War Two. To say why you got in. It wasn't a case of should I get in or not it was just a case of when. When will I be able to get in there. And the attitude of everyone I think was lots different and now George

Sims of Douglas a graduated from the University of Wyoming and was a commissioned officer in the reserves. We went to the vision training center in California and trained to be in the desert north Africa to go over and to help run Rollo out of North Africa along with his Africa Corps. About the time we finished that their desert training in the spring of 1943 it appeared we were no longer needed in North Africa but MacArthur needed us worse. So we start all over and go through jungle training and wind up in the Pacific. Americans rolled up their sleeves and we've been doing. Registered nurse Terry Grier joined up in Oklahoma and became America's first like. We asked General Grant if there was going to be this school for air.

Flight nurses air vacuum. And he said yes. He was sure there was a they were working on it. So anyone that was interested should get in flying time. And after that when we had any extra time or time off for the next weeks we would go down on the flight line and hitch a ride on any of the airplanes we had of a group there and usually it was him. Claims that you you probably have never heard of be 18 be 18. They were bomber and then. They would send on a bus that there was no seats or anything in it. Man and Woman traveled across the country from one military base to another to receive their training. Some remain stateside while others were soon shipped overseas. Now these Liberty Ships were the things were built by Kaiser in Seattle Washington and he just killed an awful lot of them. He came to the

aid of this country really magnificently. The only thing is how they stayed afloat was kind of a mystery to a lot of us and our people on the ship. Tokyo Rose broadcast telling us. What outfit was on the ship how many were on it. Where we were. And where we'd been struck. The only thing she was wrong fortunately was we hadn't been sunk. So this makes you wonder sometimes what do you like that these guys do a lot of books. Well George Sand's recall Tokyo Rose said he remembered a North Atlantic storm during his rounds and like it she did well to move kind of like this. And I thought oh my gosh the ship is going to come apart. And after a while. I. Wasn't really I didn't care if it did come apart because I got tremendously seasick. I thought the best thing to do is get off this boat.

You know that water everything at home was going to hurt in the first year alone Wyoming collected enough scrap metal to equal five hundred twenty eight pounds per person. New production of cars and trucks washing machines refrigerators even girdles was curtailed so that manufacturing could be directed towards making equipment for the war. Each state was rationed and coupons were distributed by local rationing boards. To give you some idea of the extent of what was going on in 1044 Wyoming was given an allotment of seven new cars for the whole state. During the war Beverly Holmes was a young girl growing up east of showing him living in a farm community when they said they needed all of the scrap metal to to make tanks and airplanes and war effort things. We gathered up all of the metal the unused machinery around the farm.

We didn't have a threshing machine but we had all plows and things like that. And I especially remember my grandmother with the pots and pans because she had them in the basement where they had been doing door sometimes they'd have holes in the bottoms of them where they'd been worn out. But one especially I remember was a cast iron skillet. And it had a big crack in it of course was not a usable skeleton. But it must have been a sentimental value tour or something because she held it in her arms and then she. She thought well it's for the war effort I have to give it up so she did. This was my 4-H book and it and we called it four points for victory because we raised victory gardens so that we could help the people in China again with vegetables and produce. We had the room to grow and then we would bring our extra produce to Cheyanne for those didn't have the gardens or the room here. Food was rationed. Tuesdays were promoted and as early as the Summer of 42 President Roosevelt banned pleasure driving to conserve gasoline.

Everyone was encouraged to put their savings into war bonds. We would buy our ten cent stamps and as I remember they were like a postage stamp and we looked them into a book. And then when the book was full we could turn that in for a bond. You know I remember losing my teeth and using the penny that I got for a loose tooth to buy like wish well I might have saved some of those pennies towards a stamp. You have that much pride about it. Meanwhile the v mail letter sent home told the story of a generation of Americans learning the life of a soldier. You were to use a buddy system. Some fellow would have the cheese in his you know the fold would have the meat in his. You put it together with the crackers and you have a meat and cheese sandwich. That didn't always work out because oftentimes the fellow who had the cheese would be next to a guy who also had cheese and everybody hisself it has cheese sore somewhere else and they all had the meat. It didn't really make an awful lot of difference because whichever way you had it the fella who designed us had the

right amount of calories and vitamins and sustaining ability which made it very nutritious. Kind of a keep if you like. It was prudent to have a hole to get into when the enemy started shooting or whether it was artillery or bombs or whatever it was and we did this wherever we were. And I recall one night in New Guinea when this was going off a lot of shooting and you never really knew how much of it was from your own people and how much was from the Japanese although both were involved. It was raining pretty heavily. And I got in one of these holes. And after a while it filled up with water and I decided well enough of that in the meantime one of my cohorts in the headquarters just Hey George you know how to load this pistol in the dark. I said oh yes and I did and gave it back to him. And afterwards I thought that for an awful dumb thing for me to do if he didn't know how to handle his pistol in the

dark he didn't need it loaded away that way. We would crawl to disband earlier and find what it was we needed and take it back to our foxhole which. Was our. Dining room in her living room in her bedroom. Bathroom and kitchen. Oh learn this one foxhole. I think the most discouraged time I had was when we landed in New Guinea. And we landed at night. The place was all lit up. Like a church. We had left the Y and islands and but were blackout conditions exist. Here we were in a combat zone and everything was lit up and I thought my gosh here we are down at the end of New Guinea you can hear the Japs from here to Japan will never finish this war. But after that things look better. The decision was made to win the war in Europe first and the deployment of soldiers and equipment

intensified. Traffic and his brother had been killed in the Pacific only six months before Charles was drafted in 1943. We had such heavy losses on air crews at that time in 1943 especially the last half of 43 when we would start a barrel offensive over here. We had tremendous losses so the word was passed down that anyone in the Air Force who could pass the flying physical you know they just put on the flying status. So so that's how I happened to be a gunner on that. Going to be 17 May 12 1944 on Charlie's mission one of the biggest aerial battles of the war. He was shot down over Germany I knew I was hit because the 20 millimeter song I like loud hail on the tin rough sea had they

had exposed shells and it was shrapnel and then. It was silence and of course it knocked out our intercom so I didn't know what was going on but I knew the plane was still on course but losing altitude. So I thought I'd better get out there and and see. So when you when you rotate the turret there have been guns and in order to get out you know the guns go like this and then the trap when the Turks up there so you can crawl out they had a health I get not because because because he had wires up all over an auction mask but then my right eye guy got out he had a little port turret about a big C and I thought it was hydraulic oil. But it wasn't what it was and it was blood and. Governor say they just just blew up and they were burning because they were there he liked a suit.

Still that's something I'll never forget I mean the smell and the sound and Charlie parachuted 18000 feet and was taken prisoner when he landed in the German farm below. At this same time elaborate plans are being developed to invade France commanded by General Dwight D Eisenhower the Allied troops prepared for the largest and maybe assault in history. And nobody really knew what day it was absolutely blank in till we heard the planes going over. That the invasion had started and where we were. In course we ran outside didn't. Really it. It's indescribable. It's something you'll never see again in a lifetime. As far as you could see there were airplanes. You know we didn't go until D plus three or four days with the airplanes because they didn't have a. A landing strip on the beach at sea 47 would be filled with. Crew. Our supplies our equipment or anything.

And then once we landed on the beach at all that was removed. And when we first went in we were the first women there. And first. They had no field hospitals or anything yet. Only first aid stations. And so we were picking up. Any wounded and all that. Some I'm wounded 30 minutes or something that were there including Germans. And all with Ally. And. Friends. Soldiers that were there. And bringing them back. We had no red cross markings whatsoever so we were. Just like any other airplane. It is to be shot at. And. But we. Did we would fly back to England and unload. And then they would be transferred to a field hospital there whatever.

And I guess we were the first women that were ever part of an air crew. We were part of the crew allied troops and supplies flooded into Europe. But by December of 1944 Germans of south of the then line of American soldiers stretched across Belgium and Luxembourg. It became known as the Battle of the ball and star Wade of Port Washington he was there. This was up in my own. Weird which you know. Really. Cut off from the rest of their troop star Wade and his group walk for two days and nights without food. We come to a. Little Hill. With wide trees on it. And. The ship began. For SHORE. Start digging for shore. Some boys are strewed tired to. Dig and. Didn't.

Dig. I just. Laid there on the ground. And about that time we got through digging of. Artillery started. Pounding us. They're really pounding us. And good year. Boys Kushan you know. Some would cry you know. Getting hit you know. Shop you know. And there's question your image. Afterwards think wired down what I I just stood up and looked around and. Saw some wounded boys your. Partner

is really in. Front of me. They married and then. The night. I stood there and I tried to pray. I tried to pray but my mind wasn't there. Nothing in my mind. In which. We didn't have no blankets. And. They didn't give us no nothing to eat in. We used or how much. They just gave us one ladled of. Greens. Similar to spinach. Star we had with a German prisoner of war for 160 trials Pince was a

German prisoner of war for one year. They starved us where we want it where you really lost any ambition we tried to escape because you could because you didn't have any energy and your coat was cold all the time I was on the road three months off and we walked about 600 miles going back and forth and. Standing up barns and. That stuff and that's where we had it and we had one shower one hot shower in a year and I was there. When you marched the 600 miles you went through German villages what would happen. Holler murderers and throw rocks. But mostly they were they were just. Just just just mad at me. If our guys weren't there they they probably killed us.

During World War 2 Wyoming had profit so it is just sort of the war effort foreign trained over a hundred and twenty two thousand quartermaster specials Kasper Army provided the final phase of engine bomber crew training in the Big Horn basin right now in Japanese relocation center held over 10000 interned Japanese-Americans. And outside of Douglas a prisoner of war camp. Twenty five hundred German and Italian Laurence Laird recalled the Italian used to work the fields on our family's farm the summer of 1945. When it was time for them to go. I would tell them and. They. Told me. And they thought they were kind of tickled they didn't when they gave the pies they

thought that. Was pretty much the gentleman who was in charge of the rules for them. So he came over to Florence. They want to know there's something nice they could do for you. Could you wrote a script for a minute. Remembered. That I had heard across the farm over there and I said yes you'd like for me. They were little bearers they didn't talk to you. At

all they just for about a half an hour. Was saluted beautiful. We went down. Into the town you know where that is in a car. It was a big. Army. Track. And you couldn't drive because they were the. Streets were just packed with people laughing and shouting and drinking champagne and everything because it was so boring. Yeah. Star weed recalls his homecoming. Before I go out I want to get me. When others are big boxes of eggs. I say show hungry for eggs. And then the people. Star. You heard about me and your story coming up. And then when they get their eggs.

Yeah. Feet up. George Sims came home to his wife and a daughter had been born while he was in the city. This girl was 21 children. I first saw or so her thought was Well that isn't Daddy dad is that picture over there. After doing all the effort if we don't get the word to the generation coming up what are they going to feel. They're living out a kind of thing where they feel. The world owes me a living. And it really doesn't. Not everyone returned home. 1095 Wyoming man died in World War 2. And for those of us in the next generation we grew up hearing about the best friends the cousins the classmates the brothers who didn't come back. And when we hear their names and hear those stories of World War Two.

We will remember and honor all of those who gave so much for all of us. Thank you for joining us on mainstreet Wyoming. And driving down the road I would stay in the wheels up singing the song by oh boy just a little town boy streets extremely low clouds piled up like coal oil Ruby spun his white is the see the big old crow on a dating antelope deep in their own home me down the road. Means doing the same thing as chance road baggy clothes wheels won't do. Well you got your feet down in the main street.