Utah World War II Stories; Interview with World War II Veteran 5

AB and then they get 18 19 20 instead of thinking about going to college you're getting married they're going to war. So it really is a big sacrifice that that was made. Well you're right. Yes. OK. To me they're not doing anything different than what was expected of us. People that say to join the National Guard they were paid for their all the time that the schools they got and all that goes with it and all they're doing is on that commitment and you're defending your country and your loved ones. I think in the days of Japan if you read The flyboy book you can understand why there was such a vicious war because they were so good. That toward the Chinese people and our prisoners we had a

separate count for her they had a separate count for submariners. You know they hated us with a passion we. We got 50. I think 55 percent of all those ships going to Pacific were done by submariners. So they really had to beat us with baseball bats torches just and everything. I think people just the American people have that sort of a spirit you know prior to two thousand nine hundred forty three hundred forty three German submarines sank 400 vessels within about. 40 or 50 miles of the United States yard out of a city with New York and Gulf of Mexico and it wasn't Tell mid 43 that we developed our submarine fleet and they were a crack that German called and. Answer that call and

then our submarines were devastating. Yeah OK. Tell us about what you think about that did you know that you were having such a big impact. Well I had about a flag and I think we. Knew what percentages we were getting what percentages were sunk or damaged and. We all had the same purpose in mind that ended assassins we could so we could get home. The submariners are a highly trained bunch. There is nobody to help you when you're out there. We don't have any ambulances or anything to help us in those 51 52 but if the two boats lost I would imagine it was just a terrible way to

die. The one part or the sub that was with him on this wolf pack. He could hear the boat breaking up. As it went down to 900 feet. And you could hear the boat breaking up and collapsing. It's a terrible death. No two ways about it. Now that. You have another point what you want. Let's go back to that now. Cal during it was I was right. OK. You want me to mention it. No you want him to make it OK. All right. During your fourth patrol. Your

boat became famous because you rescued a very prominent. Individual. Can you tell us about that. Yeah he was. A young lieutenant he had two crewmen and. When he was shot down his crewman could never find him. Moved in and got him. He stayed with us all the rest of the patrol and we come to find out later on after the war was over that he was running to be president of states because of course it was George Bush the father. He during his term in office he sent us Christmas cards invitations to the inauguration. Letters very very nice man to talk to. He didn't let the press know that he was

sending all this material. So I feel like there. Is a very grateful man for what we did for him. That was off the coast of Jima often Chichi Jima his next day either which is right next to it when the but it's in the bone islands. OK. You want him to say that to me this rescue. There was another unusual rescue that your boat. Participated in can you tell us about that. It was a pilot shot down named Brecken a fighter pilot. He was shot down and was in this life raft a mile off the shore of Mount Suribachi which is already with him. And

we were notified he was down and so we went in there by periscope depth which is 63 feet and just cruised in on him and made a pass at him and he didn't want to grab it. And the shells were being shelled from the shore. And so we made another pass and we decided you better grab on and he did which it was the first time in naval history that ever. So then you pulled him out to sea away from the shore batteries and tell us about it when he surfaced. We brought the boat up to the conning tower hatch where we could open the conning tower the rest of it would be underwater of course and he was hanging onto the shares with us the periscope shares with his life raft. When we opened the hatch he had a gun pointed at the first man that opened the hatch and set out a shot if it had slanted eyes. So he was

just happy to be aboard. And while they were there they all participated in lookouts and also would go through the boat to try to see how it functioned. You know when you rescued these guys they stayed on with you till you completed your war patrol. And when George Bush was there there were four other rescued aviators. Well they they would stay on until we finish the patrol which is a month later then we left our station and went to Midway Island where we put them ashore and they were flown back to their carriers. Did any of them want to stay out of the Sub-Mariner No no no. They did however a kind of unique situation because we had had a successful patrol. They were entitled to wear their wings as well as a submarine pen.

So that made them eligible to wear both. All right well Cal thank you so much for being with us today. There anything else that you'd like to bring up. Thanks again.