Nooby here. Hello to all.

Nice to be here. WW2 forums are getting hard to find. There used to be one administrated by a Navy WW2 Vet and his son, but it seems to have vanished from the Net, sadly. I registered with it and listed my name and serial number and organization, hoping to hear from some of those I served with, but received no answers. One reason, of course, is that so many have passed on. I was among the, if not the, youngest one in my company and have to expect that all of them are not still among us. I'll make another posting after the holidays and tell a little about my experience with Operation IceBurg, the Okinawa invasion. Maybe some of you can clear up some questions I have about it and, of course, will try to give honest answers to any you may have for me. See you soon.

 

Hello "Jon in Kansas". Welcome from a "neighbor" in Kansas City. Looking forward to your posts. Enjoy.

 

Howdy, and welcome!

 

Welcome to the board, Jon in Kansas...we have war movies playing in the other room, drinks in the fridge, and MREs in the pantry. Welcome!

 

Nice to meet you Jon and welcome aboard sir. Merry Christmas!

 

Welcome to this fine place. Another 10 years? You mean 100!

 

Hello again, survived Christmas, Hope you all did too.Skipper, Slipdigit, Ulithi,Lady Prime, Belasar, L. Russo, Biak and MelKC thanks for the kind words. And MelKC neighbor isn't too far out. I remember, especially in the States when we were processing, when we would encounter someone we didn't know, the first question would be "where you from?". If he (or she) was from a state within two of ours we would consider them neighbors. Here's a thumnail description of my military career. (what there was of it.) I've tried to keep it brief as to not bore you with details. I'll try to drop a few names and addresses as who knows, you may recognize some of them.
I went into Ft. Leavenworth at the start of 1944 and was soon assigned to Camp Barkley, Texas. The old saying in Stars & Stripes was, "If your son is at Camp Barkley, call your Congressman. If he's at Camp Polk (LA) call your minister." Camp Barkley was the dregs of the universe but the people around it in Abilene were the greatest on Earth and would do anything for you. I remember them after all these years. I caught a break after seven weeks of basic training and was sent to William Beaumont General Hospital outside El Paso for a crash course in training and completed it with a Spec. Number of Surgical Technician. Had to go back to Camp Barkley and complete the basic then on to Camp Grant, Illinois, outside of Rockford for permanent assignment. They assigned me to a Field Hospital being formed at Camp Ellis, Illinois near Macomb. Then on to Camp Lee, VA for final training in the Hospital there in November, 1944. We were assigned for Europe, then our orders were changed and we went to Ft. Lawton (sub of Ft. Lewis) Washington then shipped out in Feb 1945 on the ship SS Afoundria and arrived at the bay of Okinawa on April 4, 1945. Naval gunfire woke me up, I went on the weather deck in time to see the stern of the battleship Texas swing within two hundred yards of us, getting on line to fire a broadside. The Japanese weren't waiting on the beach for us. They had decided on a hunkerdown defense and had moved south eventually to Shuri where they formed a defensive line. I was ordered to the loading detail, getting all our supplies on the Higgins boats and to the shore where trucks had already been unloaded and took the supplies to the spot where the 82nd Field Hospital was to be placed. The only danger at that time was the Kamikazes which never seemed to let up We went over the side and to the location and got the tents up and heavy equipment in place. We found within a day or two that orders had been changed. Instead of a Field Surgical (MASH if you like) Hospital, the 82nd was going to be exclusively a neuropsychiatric hospital for treatment of "battle Fatigue", "shell shock" whatever. A psychiatrist (a Captain Parker from Salinas. CA) was added to the roster and plans were made for the Surgical Technicians to be sent to the front lines as Corpsmen. The surgeons (five or six I think) were sent out to other Field Hospitals, the IIRC 31st Field Hospital being set up about two hundred yards in our rear.
My friend, Pvt. Edward Cook from Newark, N.J. and my self were ordered to start at the hospital and advance south on foot and look for craters the big naval shells had made. These would fill with water, mosquitoes would be born there and the result would be malaria, and that was what they wanted to prevent. So every morning at first light Pvt. Cook and myself would start on foot and work south, one of us with a knapsack sprayer filled with five gallons of diesel fuel heavily laced with DDT powder, one with an M1 Carbine. We would split up the arrangement every other day. We were also told to look for caves, which Okinawa is riddles with, being very careful not to get behind the enemy lines which could be as little as two miles away, and make notes as to the location of these caves. We were fired on twice while doing this duty for almost three months. We had a good supply of grenades and if we were apprehensive about any of these caves or tombs we would just lob one in.
When the island was declared secure (it wasn't) we went on an LST to the island of Mindoro in the Phillipines to wait on the invasion of Japan which was planned for November of that year. When Harry Truman dropped the bomb and the war was over, we were shipped to Korea as occupation troops and there we stayed till April, 1946 then back to San Francisco and separation at Camp Stoneman (Sacramento) then on to Ft. Douglas, Utah for orricial discharge.
Now for a question (two actually) that someone may be able to help me with. On May 2nd or 3rd, 1945 Pvt. Cook and myself were on the bluffs overlooking the Bay where the landing took place. The sirens went off, we knew the Kamikazes were coming. We saw one of them go into its dive into a ship about a mile out in the bay. It went into the deck of this ship, thru the weather deck, the bomb went on thru two more decks into the sick bay (hospital) killing almost all the doctors and nurses there and many many patients.Within seconds a smoke ring formed over the ship (later ID'd as the USS Birmingham, light cruiser) and as it rose it became bigger and bigger after four minutes the smoke ring was almost a mile or mile and a half wide and solid. Looked like a huge halo. Mr. Sledge noted this in his book The Old Breed and wondered what ship it was. While I was in Korea, one of my friends, Roy Cromer of N.. C. (I think) brought me over a magazine his folks had sent and asked if this was the smoke ring I had seen. The picture was taken from a plane (no doubt an artillery spotter) a thousand or so feet above the smoke ring looking down thru it at the cruiser in the middle of the picture. The magazine was a double spread of two pages so one would think either LOOK or LIFE but I've looked and looked for this without success. If any of you come across it please let me know.
If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Wow, is there an question left? Great! Welcome.

 

Ulrich,
Yes I was getting panicky that I was writing too much to post in one posting and forgot the second question, which is, one of the books I have on the Battle of Okinawa is by Major Roy Appelman who was an army historian, has the complete (?) listing of every unit which competed in the invasion. Guess what? There is no 82nd Field Hospital shown. I tried to contact Mr. Appelman, missed him by two years. he's no longer with us. Our Chaplain, Rev. Rupert P. Clement told me that our unit was attached to the 96th Inf. Division and I'm sure he knew of what he spoke. Could it be that because it was a "battle fatigue hospital" it would just as soon be forgotten? I think this may be stretching the conspiricy theory too much. But why? Anybody have any ideas? Or where could I inquire to check on this?

Jon

 

L. Russo, thanks for the comeback. Yes I hope someone can locate it. Back a few years ago when the picture "Pearl Harbor (what a dud) premiered I asked on a forum about the magazine and many many people responded, but were unable to find it. But it only takes one. Getting back to "Pearl Harbor", just watch "Tora! Tora! Tora!" for a real depiction of what happened.

Jon

 

Excellent post! No such thing as too much information. Hope you'll post more detailed accounts of your experiences. Look forward to reading them.

You're right about being "neighbors". Heck, you could be in Dodge City or Denver and we'd still be "neighbors"!

Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing!

 

Lou - Yes, that's a possibility. I'm looking all over for my copy of Major Appelman's book, "Okinawa; the Last Battle of WW2." In it I think, working from memory (always a bad idea) he does list the 31st Field Hospital. I know of two cases of surgery on 1st Division Marines at that hospital but not sure if they served the 96th Division. There weren't all that many Field Hospitals, IIRC so can't come up with a reason for not listing the 82nd.

Biak - OK I'll keep posting till you get tired of it. I was at a dinner at my wife's church about three years ago sitting across the table was a man a year or so younger than me who was complaining about his brother would never talk about his WW2 experience. I asked him where his brother served, he said on a destroyer at Okinawa. I told him the reason his brother wouldn't talk about it was if he told about it nobody would probably believe him.

Melissa - Four years ago I was recovering from minor surgery (didn't seem very minor to me) and my daughter said since I didn't have anything else to do why didn't I write down everything I could remember about service in WW2. I didn't think I could remember much but once started, one memory dredges up another, and before long you remember a lot. I'm glad I got it down on paper.

Jon

 

Hi Jon,

first let me thank you for your service! Than it isn´t unusual that smaller units got lost in the documents or where counted to bigger ones. My Grandpa´s unit isn´t to find too in the Wehrmacht reports.
Hope to hear more interesting stories of you!

Have an great time!