ROBERT WEST

By Suni Wood

Robert West went into World War II when he was eighteen years old because the government had lowered the draft age from twenty-one to eighteen.  Robert was one of the first young men drafted from the Whitman County area.  He went into the Army in February, 1943. 

Robert, or Bob, had his basic training in Louisiana and then he was really in the Army.  He was involved in the European Theater of Operations starting in March 1943.  He was a Corporal and a Company Clerk.

West was involved in the D-Day invasion.  D-Day was quite an adventure for him, but he admits he was a little scared.  He was assigned on a LTS, a Landing Tank Ship.  It was designed to carry armor and troops for amphibious landings.  Robert was one of the first troops on board, for which he was thankful because it was a first come, first served type of thing.  He slept on top of a canvas cover on a truck bed.  A lot of the troops on board had to sleep on hard metal floors.  The first meal they got to eat was creamed chicken on toast, which was good the first day.  But they had to eat it morning, noon, and night for many days and it lost its appeal.

One night Bob was awakened by a strange noise and weird movement of the craft.  Suddenly he knew D-Day was here.  Even though it has been over fifty years, he still remembers what he saw at first light.  He woke up and could see different kinds of ships from horizon to horizon.  The sky was filled with bombers and fighters.  As he sat on top of his bed he saw a scene that seemed like an unreal experience.  It was like he was in a movie theater watching the news.

Next he was on the beach digging a trench, along with his partner Smitty.  They were almost finished when a French couple came by and offered them a bucket of milk.  Robert was excited, because he was a fan of milk and hadn't been able to get any fresh milk to drink since leaving the states.  Their Sergeant stepped up, grabbed the bucket and threw the milk on the ground because he thought it could be poisoned.

A storm blew in on the beach three days after D-Day.  The combat engineers had made a floating dock called "Mulberries" or "Gooseberries."  The storm destroyed a great deal of this and so endangered the supply line. 

Being a company clerk, West was able to go different places and see many different things.  One time he got to stay with a Dutch family, whom he found to be really nice.  Usually when Clerks took over someone's home, they just kicked out the people and looted their houses.  But West was kind to the people and even planned a big Christmas dinner for them, but the week before Christmas The Battle of the Bulge started and he had to leave.  Bob was in one of the first groups to cross the Rhine River.

When he was discharged it was according to the point system.  There were first class, middle class, and lower class points.  Robert was in the middle class, so he got discharged fairly early.

Robert West came from a small town and was only eighteen years old when he went into the war.  He was very naïve when he went into the Army, but when he came out he was a man and looked at things with a new perspective.  "It was a great experience," he said, "but once was enough."