War in the South Pacific
July 16, 2008 – 6:00 amEd was one of four sons. All of them served in the military during World War II – one in the Navy, one in the Air Corps, and two in the Army. Ed was in the Army. Two served in the European Theater and two in the Pacific area.
Ed was first sent to Ft. Blanding, Florida, for his basic training. Then on to Ft. Ord, California, and then on to a base in Seattle, Washington where he embarked on an LSM for an unknown destination. The LSM was larger than an LST since it carried not only troops but bulldozers, tractors, and other heavy equipment used in building airstrips.
The first stop was Hawaii where Ed and one of his brothers managed a few visits together. Then he went on to Okinawa stopping at the Marshall Islands and Siapan to unload and load material. He was stationed in Okinawa for most of a year. Our troops had already secured the island but were not in control of the many caves where the enemy was holed up. At night the enemy frequently would sneak down and attempt to raid the base for food, but whoever was on watch would sound the alarm. Everyone looked out for one another.
Here, on Okinawa, a thunderstorm would appear out of nowhere, pour down so much rain it would be up to your ankles, but in an hour, everything had dried up to the point you would have not believed there had been any rain.
Ed was then off to South Korea – through Andong, Chung Chu, ending up in Seoul. He mentioned that if you were sick and briefly hospitalized, your group moved on without you. You would then have to board a train and attempt to catch up with them – a problem when you didn’t speak the language.
At the close of the war, Ed left South Korea to head home.
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