PART FOUR
On Land and Sea and in the Air
Warriors, Supply, Support, Civilians
Our third set of interviews seemed almost too easy after the
big crowds we dealt with earlier in the week.
Marie Meserve, our teacher contact in Rosalia, had recruited the senior
class, all seven students, to interview and write for
When we first started talking to people in that area about
our World War II generation writing project, I spoke to the folks at the
The Rosalia seniors meet Tuesdays at
Almost everyone in attendance at the senior center told me
we should contact two graduates of
Let's start with our Colfax veteran, Jack Neil. Neil's daughters ran an ad in the Gazette on
his Birthday showing him in an Army uniform, the same picture shown in his
story below. I called Jack without a
referral and he readily agreed to an interview.
I later discovered he was familiar with our operations. Our COAST (Council On
Aging Specialized Transportation) Director, Gail Griggs, told me Jack used to
drive for COAST. Here's his story.
JACK NEIL
By Dan Ciesielski
Jack Neil grew up in
He was first stationed in
"They never tried to escape or cause problems at all," according to Jack. The hardest thing he experienced while on duty there was to keep them from fighting. There were the Northern Italians and the Southern Italians. And they would fight all the time. Then there were the Italians true to the King and there were the Italians true to their communist leader. Again, fighting ensued.
After he served at the POW camp,
Jack was sent to the Coast Artillery at
"One time," Jack said,
"A Japanese submarine surfaced and fired eleven shots at the gas tanks,
but hit nothing." The
Jack Neil said that was the most exciting thing that happened to him while he was in the Army. And yet, he served all those five years between those three places and did his part. He was discharged as a Sergeant in Communications.
Jack Neil now resides in
Claire Freeze, a long-time Rosalia resident, handed me a
couple of pages of material she has included in a family history. The first portion of that document contained
some excerpts from a diary Claire's sister, Helen Hengen, kept as a
teenager. The entries shown here, all
dated in December 1941, are presented unedited.
HELEN HENGEN
This afternoon our Swing Band went
to a show and then we practiced at our new drummers
home in
We were so surprised and it still
seems impossible.
Monday, December 8:
This morning Daddy came back from town and said all the
war vets had to report; that would include Daddy. It could be just a story. We listened to a speech by the President on
the radio at school this morning. One
woman senator voted against declaring war.
I don't know what's wrong with her, we can't
just sit and watch
Tuesday, December 9:
Nothing much today. President gave a speech tonight and another blackout announced and then declared incorrect. Radio station off again at 8.
Wednesday, December 10:
Not much news from Pacific. Two of
Thursday, December 11:
Friday, December 12:
Drum and Bugle Corp went to Lindberg. Claire majoretted and I played snare drum. Good game.
Saturday, December 13:
Claire and I went Christmas shopping and got our teeth cleaned and I took a piano lesson from Norm Thue. They aren't letting much news out on the radio the last few days.
The following notes about Helen were added by Claire.
"Helen enjoyed a challenge and ventured off to
Helen's Graduation Speech (in part): "As we look upon the world which we are about to enter as high school graduates, we realize the problems we face will be many. Instead of the usual two choices, we will have three alternatives. Should I go on to school, get a job, or join some branch of the service?"
Helen concluded her speech with these words: "In planning our future we must look ahead to the time after the war is won. Will our young people be trained only in making airplanes or shooting guns? There will be a great job for our generation in insuring the impossibility of another world war in another 20 years. We must work out a plan whereby depression, such as we were born in, is this time avoided. It is imperative that we will have young people, ready for college, being educated to carry on business, scientific research, teaching and in leadership roles for the next decade. Thus we come to the conclusion we must take advantage of all the opportunities offered us now so when the time comes we shall shoulder the responsibilities in a way that you, our parents and friends, have a right to expect of us. Thank you."
Claire journaled the following comments about the home front
war effort fought just north of
"We did everything asked of us for the war effort. At school we took money each week to buy stamps or saving bonds. Pledges were signed to help our country in anyway we could. The boys in school knew they would be drafted shortly after graduation and the farmers knew they would have a hard time getting harvest crews. Helen decided to start taking flying lessons. One of my favorite lady teachers, Madelyn Carroll, joined the WASPS and sent me a WASP t-shirt like they wore under their uniforms. We were issued rationing books which would control the purchase of sugar and gasoline. Sky watches on a hill were organized."
The Pledge Claire mentioned read as follows: "This is to certify that Claire Hengen has signed this U.S.A. Consumer's Pledge for Total Defense: As a consumer in the total defense of democracy, I will do my part to make my home, my community, my country ready, efficient, and strong. I will buy carefully. I will take good care of the things I have. I will waste nothing. By carrying out the terms of this pledge she has enlisted, is performing a distinguished service in the defense of her country and WINS her star. She is therefore entitled to WEAR her star which is hereby presented to her by McCALL'S MAGAZINE."
One line in the second to last paragraph above proved to be an
indication of the consummation of Helen's hopes and dreams. She did indeed take flying lessons when she
was just nineteen. She hoped to get her
pilot's license and venture to
This next story is about a sailor who tried hard to stay in
the service, but couldn't get past the medical requirements because of what was
diagnosed as a bad heart. He has
certainly outlived those concerns.
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
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
After six months of
Since he was unable to fight, he
and others worked doing odd jobs around
Once World War II was over, Mr.
Kriebel returned home to farm in the
In some ways Mr. Kriebel feels
lucky, since many of those who were sent to
Although the doctors at
This next man landed in
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
Robert, or Bob, had his basic
training in
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,
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
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."
When I met Don Gelhaus on interview day I learned he is
writing a book about his World War II experiences. I thought maybe he might
need some help pulling it together and said I would be glad to help
him. He said, "Well, thank
you. But Nona Hengen is editing it for
me." I kind of figured with that
kind of help he was in pretty good shape.
Look for that book when it comes out.
It should be fascinating! And
well edited. Ryan had completed this
essay just before Memorial Day so I read it at the Council on Aging & Human
Services Board of Directors meeting and the Rosalia Senior Meal on the Tuesday
after the Memorial Day holiday, just to give them an idea of what we were
producing through all the interviewing process, as well as observing the
holiday. Ryan's work was very well
received in both camps.
DON GELHAUS
By Ryan Leavenworth
The men and women who served in
World War II are the finest patriots our country has ever seen. The years between 1940 and 1946 were a true
test of our country's ability to come together and fight to preserve all of the
rights and freedoms this country was based upon. The men and women who proudly served our
country succeeded in their test and proved to the rest of the world that the
Don Gelhaus was a graduate of
After attending Fighter Pilot Training he was sent to
From
On
One of the most memorable P-47
missions he flew was on
On March 19th of that
war, Lieutenant Diefendorf led the P-47s of the 392nd Squadron in a
dive bombing attack on the Castle from seven thousand feet, followed by Major
Matheson leading the 394th Squadron in a similar attack on the
castle and adjoining town of
Gelhaus' Squadron, the 393rd,
followed carrying napalm bombs to burn up what was left. It was a mission of three separate
attacks. Each squadron flew sixteen
airplanes. Four days later, March 23rd,
Major Chester Slingerland, who was Commanding Officer of the 393rd
Squadron, was shot down and killed by ground fire on a mission near
The 367th Fighter Group
was stationed at Eschborn Air Force Base West of Frankfurt when the war in
Gelhaus and his 367th
fighter group helped the Allies gain total air superiority in
Another one of Mr. Gelhaus' most vivid memories was that of a Nazi concentration camp. He got to see first-hand the horror and atrocities that took place in those camps.
"People are now trying to say that stuff never happened. But I was there, I saw it, and it was all too real."
Gelhaus' efforts contributed
greatly to Hitler's demise. On
I asked Don Gelhaus if he ever felt afraid. His answer was, "Yes. But you have to be brave at those times. Bravery doesn't mean you aren't afraid to do something. Bravery means you do it in spite of being afraid."
There were millions of men and
women who took an active role in helping our country, whether it be troops in the Pacific or Atlantic Theater of Operations
or the millions of men and women who helped at home to make certain the Allied
troops always had the supplies they needed to survive. Our country will forever be in a debt of
gratitude for those brave and patriotic individuals. As Americans we need to make sure to show our
appreciation to those men and women so their accomplishments and sacrifices
will be remembered forever.
Way back last year at Thanksgiving time in 2000, I was
visiting with Don and Helen Cowan at a
DON COWAN
By Levi Van Dyke
Don Cowan was born in
He left home after Christmas to go through Basic Training.
He eventually ended up in
After his good-byes he left
One day when the
When Don's fleet received this
information, they set out to intercept the sub and found it exactly where their
information indicated it would be. They
forced the huge sub to surface with a blanket of depth charges. The Japanese came out waving white flags, but
when the planes from the carriers in the
Today there are expeditions in the process of recovering the gold that is still within that submarine laying on the bottom of the ocean at a depth of seventeen thousand feet. The sub went from a target to a treasure hunter's dream. National Geographic magazine documented a recent expedition that found the wreckage but was unable to extract the gold from it on their first attempt.
This was by far Don's most
memorable experience of the war. He was
stationed at an air base in
The call I made to Bob Goldsworthy was a typical one. I have a hard time saying something the same
way twice, so every call I made to all these people asking them to participate
in our project was a matter of some level of terror for me. I would call someone and get my words all
messed up, upside down, backwards, out of order, and end up feeling like a total idiot, then ask
if he or she would help us out. And they
would quietly reply, as did Bob Goldsworthy, "Yes, I'd be glad to. What would you like me to do?" This went on over and over again. So when I say "Thank you," I REALLY
mean, "THANK YOU" to one and all.
ROBERT F. GOLDSWORTHY
By Bill Scheele
(with additional notes from Our Last Mission by Bob Goldsworthy)
Robert Goldsworthy, Sr. grew up in
Rosalia and graduated from
Goldsworthy was a B-29 pilot during
World War II. He flew a plane named Rosalia Rocket as a part of the 73rd
Bomber Wing, which was the first wing of B-29s to go to the Pacific Theater in
1944. They flew out of
He was the lead plane on a bombing
run to the Mitsobisha aircraft engine factory in
The major was taken captive by the Japanese and taken
to the Kempei Tai Headquarters in
After capture he was placed in solitary confinement for what was to be over four months, during which he suffered under all the cruelty that the diseased minds of his captors could conjure up. The first day he was in solitary confinement a guard went into his cell to show him the way he was to sit. He had to sit in the middle of the cell and was made to sit at attention, cross-legged on the floor, eyes straight ahead. No movement was allowed, not even his eyes. Guards paced the corridors continually to see that their instructions were obeyed. At the end of the first fifteen minutes he thought his back would break. And he had to continue to sit like that sixteen hours a day for four months.
His cell was eight by ten and absolutely bare. A hole in the floor served as a latrine. His clothing consisted of a pair of shorts and his summer flying suit. He received ninety grams of rice a day, sometimes a cup of thin soup, and rarely a little fish cooked head, bones and all. In those four months he lost eighty-five pounds. For the first two months of his capture he was interrogated for an hour or two a day. The rest of the time he had to sit in his cell, at attention, eyes not moving.
He developed bad sores from sitting sixteen hours a day. When he once tried to sit slightly off center to ease the pressure of one such sore a guard came in the cell and kicked him in the jaw. As bad as the daily beatings were, the cold and hunger were far worse. All his waking hours he thought about food, and dreamed about food when he slept.
He was eventually moved to a more relaxed area of the Omori POW Camp where he was able to move around and even was able to do some work in a garden.
He was liberated when the war
ended. About two weeks after the
Japanese surrendered, Major Goldsworthy was picked up by a hospital ship in
The pilot of the Japanese Tony
fighter that shot down the Rosalia Rocket
survived the war too, but later died in a training mission. Several years ago Retired Major General
Goldsworthy and his wife Jean went to
Major Robert Goldsworthy's
experience in World War II was very interesting to hear. He led a bomber group over
Well, we actually did get to interview a man who presently
lives in Rosalia. I had met Don
Messinger a year or so ago when I was soliciting door prizes for COA&HS's
Volunteer Reception in October. At that
time he showed me the poster he had given his wife for Christmas while he was
in the Army. So, knowing he had been in
the service, I went back to him and asked him for an interview. Like so many people we interviewed, he was
interested in helping our young people in the county understand what life was
like during the war years.
DON MESSINGER
By Cari Heinemann
Don Messinger was born on
He was inducted at
The long time he spent away from his wife upset him, so when she came to visit him at school it was no surprise. He had previously signed a paper stating he would not bring his wife to training school. But when she showed up all on her own, there certainly wasn't anything he could do, was there?
He did experience some scary situations where he could
have easily died. One was when he was
on board a plane as a Flight Engineer trainee. He suddenly awoke from a little nap and saw
the plane was leaking oil. There was
a total supply of one hundred twenty-eight gallons of oil on the plane that
day, thirty-two gallons for each engine. Number
three engine had sprung a leak. The
Engineer, called the Crew Chief, told the pilot to feather the prop that was
losing oil.
They had a slight language barrier
at that point. The pilot and co-pilot
were fearless, battle-tested Chinese who had come to the
The Crew Chief believed the plane was capable of flight on three engines, depending on the load, possibly even two. So, he ordered the pilot to "Feather 3." Excitement overcame logic and the language barrier prevented that order from being followed. An emergency call was made to the landing field.
Since they didn't feather the prop, the plane came in under full power, finally coming to a complete stop. When it did, Engine #3 melted and quit. The force of that action dipped the point of the right wing about three feet. Had that happened at any time before the plane stopped, it would have plowed a furrow into the tarmac for a considerable distance, or if they were still airborne they would have spun out and crashed. Don was really glad his pilot had not understood the order. The wing dropping suddenly was scary enough for him.
Don experienced another encounter where he could have died, but instead he switched flights with one of his friends. Don lived, but his friend did not survive that plane's crash. After those couple of close incidents with death, Don's wife talked him into quitting flying and instead doing ground inspections.
In 1946 Don left the Army and
headed home to
That does it for student interviews. The rest of these in Part Four are folks who
couldn't get to any of the interviews, but we felt their stories certainly were
worth telling, so they talked, I listened, and here is what we came up
with.
I met Yvonne Hoffman at the Oakesdale Senior Meal Site and
after visiting with her for some time, invited her to participate in our
project so she could tell us about her husband Lenhart's military service, plus
talk about life in Oakesdale during the war.
This story introduces some of the hard to think about aspects of war,
aspects that were part of the lives of so many who saw combat.
LENHART AND YVONNE HOFFMAN
"Life changed so drastically," Yvonne Hoffman declared about the affect World War II had on her and those around her.
She was just ten years old when Hitler marched into
According to an account Lenhart
Hoffman wrote for the January 1998 Baptist
Bugler,
On
Yvonne Harnoes was born in Rosalia
in 1930, a descendant of French Canadians on her dad's side. Her mom came from
Yvonne fondly remembers the day Uncle Jasper taught her how to stop being afraid of a cow that liked to try to push the little girl up against the barn. He had Yvonne pick up a heavy piece of wood and smack the cow right between her eyes. "From then on the cow didn't bother me a bit," Yvonne smiled, "and when I went out to bring the cows into the barn, she came right along."
Her uncle and aunt raised cows,
pigs, and chickens during the war. She recalls people coming to the house,
leaving money and picking up milk, butter, and eggs that the Webbs had in
abundance, with no ration coupons exchanging hands. Her extended family was quite large and they
did put their coupon books together to get sugar. Then they would head to Penewawa, long before
the river was dammed, and pick fresh produce and fruit. They all worked together to can it and then
stored it in the Webb's storage shed.
Uncle Jasper would fill his truck from time to time with eggs, butter,
jars of cottage cheese, meat out of the freezer, and canned fruits and
vegetables and take them to Yvonne's mom and grandma in
One of Yvonne Hoffman's most vivid
memories of World War II was hearing Hitler's voice on the radio, which her
grandmother had on all the time. Grandma
also read the whole newspaper to the family, insisting that the whole household
listen and of course the war was the main focus of the news. As a young girl Yvonne was drawn by the
charisma and fanaticism of Hitler, at the same time feeling deeply unsettled by
his manner of speech. She also remembers
seeing sandwich boards on the streets of
Lenhart Hoffman saw that image of
the war in person. As a Tech V Sergeant
his lot was drawn to go to the Pacific.
He landed first in
But then he was assigned to a Cargo
Division and charged with going onto islands, such as
"I started to run," he told Yvonne many years later. "I ran and ran and ran." But he returned to duty because he was honor-bound to stand up and sacrifice for others, a trait he carried with him all his life.
He also learned that when he was on a ship and it came time to land he either jumped in or was pushed, and he was not a swimmer. In spite of that he came home unscathed, while two-thirds of his Division did not come back at all.
After his time in the war Lenhart
returned to take up a study in mechanics under the G.I. Bill of Rights which
also provided him with tools and ninety dollars a month to get him
started. He and Yvonne had three
children, adopted two, and helped raise sixty-two foster children. When the children all left home he and Yvonne
decided it was time to earn GEDs (General Equivalence Diplomas) at the ages of
fifty-seven and forty-seven. They
struggled and laughed their way through algebra and geometry, read, reviewed,
got tested, and were presented certificates of
completion at a
Lenhart passed away in 1999, after multiple health complications, just a little over a year after he wrote his story for the Baptist Bugler. His closing comment in that article well expressed his life. "God was and is my path from the time of my birth until this day. Praise God!"
I told you in the last Part that I wouldn't be picking
favorite stories, but this next one has one of my favorite lines in it. You'll see it about half way through the
story: "Nothing got by
us!" It was said with a big smile
and a wink, but it told me reams about how everyone was committed to winning
the war in whatever place they found themselves. Maxine helped me write this,
correcting my spelling and grammar just like she did for so many kids through
her years of teaching in Rosalia.
ROY AND MAXINE RAMEY
The medical people at
One of Maxine's aunts, a nurse,
came out from the east to care for those who had fallen to the flu, young men
being among the most vulnerable to its attack.
Maxine remembers hearing about how the healthy ones left in town would
carry flu victims out of the make-shift hospital and bury them at night to try
to keep panic from running through the town.
She also recalls hearing that the town of
Maxine and Roy, hearty survivors
from early on, met at the
On one assignment he left his home
in
Finally that happened in the fall
of 1941. Roy and Maxine were married in
early November that year, just a few weeks before
Odair was a large railroad siding about a mile out of
The war effort was just beginning
to pick up after
Since Grand Coulee Dam was considered a high risk for enemy attack, the siding of Odair represented more importance than its population might indicate. At the time Roy and Maxine lived there, there were only four people in the community, a total of four, Roy and Maxine and two other people. Roy Ramey stepped up and volunteered to serve as Air Raid Warden in Odair.
"We kept good watch on the
sky," smiled
"There were usually one or two
planes a day," added Maxine, who, as in all their sixty years of life
together, was right there with
Maxine and Roy both recall the days of rationing that characterized World War II days on the home front. They explained how they got a gas card to fill the tank of their Chevy Coupe. When the card was used up, they could buy no more gas. Nationwide speeds were reduced to forty-five miles per hour, even thirty-five miles per hour in some places, to save gas and tires. Nylon hose were hard to find, a problem for women who had to dress up for work. But, you could get a tooth pulled for four dollars.
"The whole nation came together with war bond sales, volunteer programs on the home front, and a concerted effort to stand behind our people in the military," Maxine recalls.
As the war progressed,
After the war Roy and Maxine Ramey
moved to Rosalia where they raised their two girls.
"There are no young ones
learning the trade,"
I interviewed Bill Norris several years ago. I was editing a novel about World War II
pilots and was interested in hearing a first-hand report, and thought I might
submit his story for local publication.
It didn't get a bite then, but I dug it out, called him and got his
permission to use the story in this book, as we did with all the stories you
see published here. He too gave his
permission for the telling.
JOHN W. "BILL" NORRIS
John W. "Bill" Norris now resides in
From
Norris and the crew, upon completion of overseas training,
shipped down the coast to
Continuing their journey, Bill's crew of ten boarded a C-46 twin engine transport aircraft similar to the earlier Gooney Bird. They began searching for the 5th Bomber Group, 13th Air Force with which they were to join up. While it would seem the Army Air Corps and the 13th Air Force would know exactly where the 5th was, that was not the case. The war was moving so fast over a huge tract of the Southern Pacific Ocean that it proved difficult for headquarters personnel to keep up with troop movement, and impossible to accurately pinpoint island base operations.
The search took
Bill's crew first to Morotai where they found a few Japanese and Australians
who had declared some kind of tentative truce with each other. Still looking for the 5th, they
flew to
The B-24 design
showed major improvements over the B-17 used out of
Bill's pilot flew their plane and crew on missions as long as fourteen hours over enemy waters with no fighter escorts. When asked if he remembers what kind of rations they were issued for those grueling flights, Norris replied quickly, with a wry grin, "Always the same: a can of Spam, a loaf of bread, and a can of V-8 juice."
When they finally
hooked up with the 5th Bomber unit, they took part in the recapture
of
Norris spoke of a
misconception he has heard frequently since serving in the war. "A lot of people thought of the Japanese
as a small nation going up against the huge
"So
When the A-bombs
fell on
Bill spent a year
at Eastern Washington State College on the G.I. Bill of Rights. After that year he went to flight training
school and earned his commercial pilot's license. He and Beverly Peterson were married in
Bonners Ferry,
So, that was the end of our student interview program. We worked our way through getting the stories
written, turned in, graded, and copies sent to me along with signatures giving
us permission to publish the student's work.
We then sent all the stories to the people interviewed, giving them full
permission to edit, rewrite, add to, delete, whatever it took to get their
stories the way they wanted them, which is the way they appear in this
book. I also turned my attention to
interviewing people from Colfax and