DICK KREIBEL

By Sara Henning

Like most World War II veterans who lived in Whitman County when they were young, Dick Kriebel attended a small one-room school, was taught by one teacher, and had twenty to twenty-five students total going to school with him, each varying in age and grade.  The war brought unforeseen changes for everyone, including Dick. 

During the war, numerous things were rationed such as sugar, shoes, and gas.  The school's sports program stopped after the coach left for war.  During Mr. Kriebel's senior year, three classmates joined the Navy before they could finish school, unlike Mr. Kriebel who wasn't drafted until July of 1944, enabling him to graduate.  In July Mr. Kriebel, at the young age of nineteen, along with five other classmates left home to join the Army.

Kriebel was first sent to Fort Lewis where he was inducted into the Army, and then rode on a train to Camp Roberts.  Camp Roberts was a large Infantry base, which became home for Dick for about a year and a half.  Training for soldiers at Camp Roberts included crawling under machine-gun fire, going through gas chambers, digging fox holes to protect them from the tanks that ran over the top of them, searching booby-trapped houses, and bayonet practice.  This training was done to prepare them for real war situations. 

Besides training, twice Kriebel helped fight wild fires on the weekends.  He also helped paint backdrops for one of the stage shows that people from Hollywood acted out for the drafted men.  While at Camp Roberts, Mr. Kriebel was paid fifty dollars a month.  Ten dollars of his paycheck went towards his ten thousand dollar insurance policy.  There was also the chance for extra pay when he would do jobs like painting backdrops.

After six months of 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and six-mile marches, Dick and others were scheduled to be sent overseas to Okinawa, Japan.  Most of them had hoped to be sent to Europe because they thought that the war was almost over in Europe.  Two weeks before Kriebel was scheduled to leave, he was sent to the hospital with heart trouble so he missed his chance to go overseas to Okinawa and fight the Japanese.  Because of his heart, he was denied approval to go overseas.

Since he was unable to fight, he and others worked doing odd jobs around Camp Roberts.  The worked in the tarp shop, motor pool, and salvage yard.  They disposed of tires and lumber, anything they didn't want to get into the enemy's hands.  Dick, however, found all this ridiculous since many of the things he was asked to dispose of and destroy were items that were currently being rationed.

Once World War II was over, Mr. Kriebel returned home to farm in the Garfield area where he still lives today at the age of seventy-six.  Mr. Kriebel believes that the war changed him because it opened new options for him when he returned home from war, steering him into the direction of farming. 

In some ways Mr. Kriebel feels lucky, since many of those who were sent to Okinawa did not return home.  On the other hand, he so wishes he could have participated in the war overseas and wonders what he missed.  

Although the doctors at Camp Roberts told him he would not live very long because of his heart, Dick Kriebel seems to have proven them wrong.