JOHN R. DORMAN

By Mike Broeckel

John R. Dorman, known as Jack, was a sophomore in high school when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  The next day, Monday, there was an all-school assembly where they listened to President Roosevelt declare war on Japan and Germany.

"It was an experience of growing up and wanting to do something.  I felt insulted and angry over those Japanese stabbing us in the back.  Giggly girls weren't important anymore,"  Jack said. 

He didn't mind growing up fast, because having fun wasn't as important to him as his country.  Everyone had a common thought, helping the United States.  He graduated from LaCrosse High School in 1943, then was stationed at Walla Walla to go to Officer Candidate School (OSC.)

He was there two weeks before classes started.  He learned all of the marches, rifle skills, and everything that he needed to know for OCS.  They were taught in only two weeks everything that normally took eight weeks to learn.  After the first two weeks, Jack took classes in naval warfare, sciences, history, math, and leadership.  Mr. Dorman said he only got paid thirty-one dollars a month as an apprentice seaman.  One of his greatest achievements was being appointed Company Commander at OCS.

Jack Dorman's interest in football caused him to lose interest in his studies so he washed out of OCS.  He went to Great Lakes Naval Training in Chicago for one month.  Most of the people that went to that camp called it the "rest" camp.  The reason they called it a rest camp was because most people needed time off to rest after OSC training.

"Most people just got burned out from the intense training at OSC," Jack said.

He told about one exercise they did where they would jump off a forty-foot platform into water, then take off their pants and trap air in them so they could stay afloat.  He explained, "Challenges are not meant to kill you, but are meant to be overcome."

After Chicago, Jack went to Norman, Oklahoma.  Norman was an Aviation Ordinance School where he learned to load cannons, arm bombs, and take 50-caliber machine guns and 20-millimeter guns apart blind-folded.  The summer at Norman was very humid and Jack experienced his first hurricane while stationed there.

Jack tells a funny story about Aviation Ordinance School.  "It was the last day and we were all marching to our last class.  I was the right guide for our company and I knew where we had to go, so I wasn't paying much attention to the commander.  Well, the commander called for column left and I was the only one that went to the right.  Everyone got a good laugh out of it."

While he was stationed in Norman, the United States attacked the beaches of Normandy.  The Navy was in charge of transporting the troops across the English channel on landing crafts and ships.  Some of the ships opened their troop deployment doors too early into about eight feet of water.  Lots of men drowned due to all the weight they were carrying.  And the ones who didn't drown were literally cut in half by German machine guns as the troops attempted to make it ashore. 

"I wondered if I would have had the guts to keep the ships going in after the other officers had dropped the doors early,"  Jack said.

At the end of Ordinance School, the top five men got to choose where they wanted to go next.  Jack ranked sixth.  He was stationed at a Bomb Disposal School in Washington, D.C.  There Jack had to learn to  defuse live bombs without getting blown up.  He defused Allied, German, Italian, and Japanese bombs in forty-foot holes that were dug just for defusing bombs. Jack only had to defuse bombs that he knew.  The officer in change had to defuse any bombs that were not common.  This was not always a successful process.  The officer would talk by radio to another man that was four hundred yards away from the bomb, telling him exactly what he was doing.  If the bomb blew up, the next person that had to defuse that kind of bomb would know not to make the same mistake.

"In war the Germans had everything they left behind - toilet seats, doors, hallways - booby-trapped with a fine wire filament that felt like a spider web," Jack explained.  This same kind of wire was strung in all sorts of places at the school to get the students used to always being aware of things being booby-trapped.  Wires would be placed on toilet seats, bed springs, door ways, or chairs and when you broke the wire a cherry bomb would go off," Jack said. 

While he was still in training at the Bomb Disposal School, the war ended.  But before Jack could leave they all spent one month cleaning up the base.

Next Jack was stationed at Terminal Island, Los Angeles.  There he drove a semi from San Diego to L.A. hauling disassembled airplanes and delivering goods in between hauls.  Jack told of one exciting experience at one of his stops.

"I had to drop some stuff off at a Navy prison, a prison for Navy personnel that were hardened criminals - murderers, rapists, etc.   I walked through the first set of doors, then the second set of doors, and then had to walk across the entire compound.  All of a sudden a big Navy guy - as big as a gorilla - walked up to me and asked me for my Tailor Made cigarettes.  I told him I didn't have any and he tore my shirt off, mistaking my note pad in my shirt pocket for cigarettes."  Jack said it was one of the most trying experiences he can remember.

After Terminal Island duty, Jack Dorman was discharged from the service.  He didn't think the service was a negative experience at all.  He didn't get into any trouble and would have done any and everything he was told to do.  He didn't save anyone or win any battles but he served his country proudly.  Jack said that discipline and respect were the name of the game. 

When Dorman was asked what lasting lesson he learned from the war, he answered in a few sentences.

"War is hell.  If we had not gone over and fought we would all be speaking German or Japanese.  Appeasement doesn't work.  We have to set boundaries.  There are some things worth fighting for: your God, your family, and your country.  Sometimes it isn't fun, but you have to do it.  And if you are going to do it, go to win."