Better late than never

The words of William Hurley

Before the war had started my friend Harry Lynch and I went up to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.  Harry had a car and we had twenty-five dollars each.  We stayed at this uncle’s place.  It was in a small town outside of Saranac.  We stayed there for two weeks.  They were the nicest people going. They were so nice we went back the next year.  We went into Canada the day England declared war on Germany.   When we got to where we were staying we started talking about the war.  Harry and I said, “We were not getting into the war.”  His uncle was in World War One.  He probably had thought the same way as we did.  He said, “Mark my words, we will be in the war.”  “It will never happen.”  Later Harry was on a Navy ship and I was in the Army.

                When the draft started I was in my early twenties.  The draft board classified me 4F.  After a while I had to go to Grand Central Palace, New York.  For another physical turn down.  After a while I went to Governor’s Island and I was turned down again.   Finally I went back to Grand Central Palace, this time I was drafted.  I had to report to Camp Upton on December 23, 1942, two days before Christmas.  My mother was very upset I was going into the Army around Christmas.  There were poor men being killed on Christmas Day.  I went to Upton for processing.  My biggest worry was that I would be assigned to guard the Atlantic Beach Bridge, which went from Lawrence, L.I. to Atlantic Beach, L.I.  I did not have to worry; we got our orders to be on a train for Tacoma, Washington.  The night before we were to leave we were allowed to go to the Post Theatre.  Between the Theatre and our barracks was an empty lot. I started across the lot when the guy I was with grabbed me by the shoulder.  He said, “let someone go first.  When he falls in a hole, you stop.”  That was my first lesson in the Army.

                The trip to the state of Washington was beautiful.  When we got there we were sent to an old CCC Camp for Basic Training.  The non-coms were a decent bunch of guys.  After Basic training we were assigned to a Washington, DC National Guard unit in the state of Washington.  At the time Lucky Strike had a slogan L.S.M.F.T. Lucky Strike Mean Fine Tobacco.  L.S.M.F.T. was what the troops nicknamed the handicapped.  When we got to our outfit we were met with limited service and more F*#King trouble.  Most in my new outfit were decent guys but some let us know where we stood with them.

                One time I went to the PX for a haircut.  While the barber was cutting my hair he noticed a large scar behind my left ear.  It was from a mastoid operation when I was two years old.  “Do you mean to tell me they let you into the Army with an ear like that?” the barber asked.  “They sure did!”  I didn’t tell him I was blind in one eye.  I thought he might think we were loosing the war.  He’d throw in the towel and go home and kill his wife, kids and himself.

                After about six months in our outfit the Army came out with an order that all limited service and men thirty-eight years or older could put in for a discharge.  Our outfit was spread around McCord field.  We were in Flak towers with 40mm Bofors guns and living quarters for ten to twelve men.  The morning after the order came out the Staff Sergeant came out with his pad to take down all the names of the unit.  All the guys to a man, without any talk amongst ourselves said if the outfit was going overseas we did not want a discharge.  If it was not we wanted a discharge.  I think it was the same all around the airfield even for men with a glass eye.

                About two days later the order was cancelled.  After that there was no more L.S.M.F.T.  I think the Staff Sargent saw to that.  Awhile after that our outfit moved to Camp Hahn in California.  A lot of guys were from Washington State and they cried when they got the news.  They got a lot of sympathy from the L.S.M.F.T.s.  We were near Riverside and Hollywood and that was the great part.  The outfit was changed to 380 AAA.  After the change all the L.S.M.F.T.s were sent for a physical prior to going overseas. L.S.M.F.T.s were considered expendable.  We were lined up for the exam.  People with glass eyes were ruled out.  I was behind a guy in my gun crew.  He had an awful looking eye.  The doctor said they could remove the eye and give him a glass eye.  He said no.  the doctor said, “How could you stand the pain of that eye.”  He still said no. He was marked for overseas.  Never saw him after Hawaii.

                We boarded a train for Seattle and when we got there we went aboard a ship.  Some of the guys got sick before we even left the dock.  We sailed for Hawaii.  We had Italian Prisoners of War (POWs) on board the ship.  All the guys there were drafted or enlisted.  I think the POWs were brought there to tend the crops, mainly the sugar cane for alcohol.  

The trip was great, it took seven days. The water was like glass but one poor guy was sick for the whole trip.  On the last day he tried to eat something, but all the guys made like they were going to throw up.  That finished him.  When we left the ship we got into an open train they used to carry pineapples.  We got off near Schofield barracks at a place called Whiawah.  We stayed there until we were assigned to a 90 mm AAA outfit after spending a least a year on 40 mms.

                We were assigned to battery B of the 948 Battalion and the Staff Sargent was a regular Army man.  We were not too happy about that.  He said he was Sargent K and that we had things to do.  We were happy he said We and not You.  He was the best non com we had.  He never had any trouble with any of the guys.  One time he went to Honolulu on a pass and got into a fracas with the M.P.s.  They brought him back to camp.  He was busted to private.  Soon after the roster the gun crew came out with Private K as Gun Commander.  A Buck Sargent, Corporal and T5 were not happy about that but we were.   That lasted about two weeks and he was back to Staff Sargent.

                One time in the states we were going to have a Stag Party but the chaplains heard about it.  We had a party anyway, but it wasn’t a Stag Party.  Some of the officers brought women into the compound.  One kid wrote home about the women.  All the mail from Hawaii was censored.  When the letter was discovered I thought they were going to hang him.  As for the enlisted men were concerned they could have hung them all.  When we got to the island of Enewitok our ship dropped off some supplies.  The officers got into a landing craft to go ashore.  All the troops on the ship cursed them.  They hoped the boat would sink.  Die you bastards, they yelled.  If I was on that boat I think I would have jumped overboard.

                One day a Navy fighter plane flew down the coast flat out.   When it got near the flagpole the pilot   flipped the plane over on its side and was gone.  Next day he showed up looking for his brother. People said he did that every time he came back to Hawaii.   We packed up our equipment and set sail for Okinawa.  On the way we stopped at Enewitok and Kwajalein.  One guy my buddy Sol, a great swimmer went down the anchor chain for a swim.

                One day we refueled in transit at a pretty good clip.  That was quite a thrill to watch.  Next we went to the Ulithi Islands.  Most of the troops going to Okinawa stopped off at Mog Mog Island.  The Mess Sargent set up a field kitchen with hamburgers, hot dogs and two beers per man.  We played volleyball, softball and went swimming.  I went to the beach with my friend the swimmer.  A destroyer was anchored offshore.  I said, “let’s swim out to the ship.”  But he just wanted to relax on the beach.  I started for the water and he came right after me.  I know now that he must have thought to himself, “If I don’t go with him that crazy Irishman will drown.”  How right he was.   We got to the ship all right.  It had a little landing stage by the ship’s ladder.   Not a sound came from the ship.  He looked at me and I at him and we started back..  There had to be a guard and he would shoot us if he saw us.   He would think we were Japs but any excuse would do.

                We got half way back to shore.  I could not go any further.  My friend swam around me talking to me the whole time.  I had to stop and tread water.  How many times I’ll never know.  How long?  I do not know.  If it was not for him I would have given up.  We got to the shore and I crawled out of the water and lay there.  To my friend swimming was easier than walking.  He never said anything to anyone.  I have told this story every chance I get.  It’s an obligation on my part.

                We got to Okinawa a day or two later and pulled into the bay later name for Commander Simone Bolivar Buckner, who had been killed on an inspection tour.   His father was a Confederate General in the Civil War.  There is a famous pencil drawing of him and General U.S. Grant talking over the surrender of some fort; I thing it was Fort Donalson.  When we got to the bay a cruiser was shelling the shoreline and dive-bombers were active.  When I saw that I thought, “this is no place for me.”  

Just as we were to get in the boats an order came that we should go to the island of Ieshima, the island Ernie Pyle was killed on.  Now the island was secured.  We went ashore but our equipment came later.

When our equipment came ashore we set up as fast as possible.   That night we had an air raid.  You wonder how anyone could live through the flak; most didn’t.  We had a few raids in the day but most raids were in the night.  Once when all our ships were unloading, their radar picked up planes.  All the ship’s light went out at once like someone had hit a big switch.  We were making coffee on the sand over a bonfire.  Our camp and guns were on a bluff over the water.  A Jap plane came in almost under the water.  He let his payload go but was too low and its bombs hit the top of the bluff.  I took off for our gun, uncovered it and was ready for action.  I thought I had done great, then I thought of the guy who threw the five gallons of coffee onto the fire to put it out.

                One time on Ieshima we wanted some booze to drink.  The offices had an allotment of booze.  We could get some for fifty dollars a bottle.  That was expensive so we decided to make some.  At mess we might have fruit salad, canded peaches or if you were on K.P. you might grab a can of fruit. We got sugar from somewhere.  We got water casks from life rafts.  The man who was in charge of making the booze had been making moonshine after he’d left first grade.  Finally the day came to try it out.  We went down to the beach where we couldn't be seen from the bluff.  It was a beautiful pink color but it sure had a kick to it.  All the guys involved got drunk.  I was on guard that night.  Sargent K came to inspect the guards.  He had mess cup of the brew.  There was an officer of the guard but we didn’t see him nor he us.  The war was still on and I don’t know what would have happened if we had gotten caught.

                One day a squadron of P 51s came in.  That night the Japs came and knocked out nineteen of them.  One Jap plane dropped his bombs right into the gun pit of another outfit.  All in the gun pit were killed.  That sobered us up.   It was no game.  One Staff Sergeant had a native’s horse.  My buddy from New York had a chicken and it laid an egg almost everyday.  One guy had a native’s sailboat.  He was a Turk.   When he got it fixed up he said he was going to sail home to Turkey.  I often wonder if he got off the island and got back home.  I hope he did.

                There was talk the Japs wanted to quit.  Then we got word that FDR had died and Truman was president.  A few days later Truman gave the go ahead to drop “the bomb.”  My friend the swimmer tried to explain to us how the bomb worked.  Be we knew it had to be as big as a boxcar to do that kind of damage.

                Soon after the Japs quit.  The night the war was over we got an air raid.  I think, but I am not sure that the battleship Pennsylvania, the same one at Pearl Harbor was hit.  At the end of the war we had a Typhoon.  If the fleet were at the sea for the invasion of the Japan it would have been a disaster.  A few days later the Japs stopped at Ieshima in Betty Bombers on their way to Manila in the Philippines to surrender.  The planes were white with green crosses on them.  The envoys continued on to Manila in C54 cargo planes.  The crew was interned on Ieshimma.  Our Army officers were the biggest the could find.    Every enlisted man stood around the Jap crews.  I was in back of one and I wanted to steal his flight helmet, but didn’t want to start the whole war all over again.  Some American guys took pictures of the whole proceedings.  When they developed the film they made wallet-sized albums.  God knows how many they sold.  Later I donated most of mine to the General Omar Bradley Museum at the Carlyle Barracks, in Carlyle, Pennsylvania.

                The war was over and we all wanted to go home (now).  However, there were no boats free to carry us.  The ocean was full of ships.  Most of thought at least a thousand.  With the Russians in Korea it was prudent to keep troops in the area.  We left Okinawa on January 1, 1946.  We went to Seattle via the Aleutian Islands.  On the way we passed Mount Fuji.  It was covered in snow.  It was beautiful.   The ship was different from the one we took to Hawaii.  My bunk was in the bow of the ship.  The room went up and down and side to side.  I didn’t get sick but close to it.  We had a Master Sargent in charge of the enlisted men.  He picked me and other men to be K.P. (Kitchen Patrol).  The next day he apologized for putting me on K.P.  as he didn’t know I was a Corporal.  The made me feel good.  We got to Seattle and took the train to Fort Dix.  All the men on K.P. were German P.O.W. (Prisoners of War).  From there I went home after thirty-seven months.

                It has taken me over fifty years to write it down.  I guess it’s better late than never.  But some things are better left unsaid.