Do you remember where you were when you first heard about Pearl Harbor?
"Yes, I do! I was in the kitchen with my dad. I was about 18 or so, just getting out of school when I heard about it on the radio. Dad said it would probably be a couple years before they got around to (drafting) us young guys. But, I don't think it took that long! (Laughs).
How did the mood of the country change?
"Well, everyone got really upset, because (the Japanese) bombed and sunk all those ships over there with all our sailors and boys on them; some of them are still buried there in their graves. That was very upsetting to everybody. There was a lot of anger."
Did you feel like you wanted to enlist right away?
"I wasn't too excited about it because I had so many other plans. I didn't enlist right away, but some of the other fellows in my class signed up the next day! I knew we'd get called pretty soon, so I just waited until they called."
Jerry was 19 years old when he got called into service. Not wanting to be separated, his brother "Ike" signed up at the same time - they had grown up together, building contraptions in their father's grocery, and now desired to serve together. However, the U.S. military had a policy that forbids family members to serve in the same unit.
Consider this:
On Nov. 13, 1942, a U.S. Navy light cruiser was torpedoed. Later that day, as the wounded vessel was limping toward a rear-area base, she was torpedoed again, this time near the ammunition magazines. The ship blew up and quickly sank, leaving approximately 100 survivors in the water, exposed to the elements, hunger, thirst and ceaseless shark attacks. By the time the appropriate paperwork had been shuffled, EIGHT DAYS had passed before a serious reconnaissance for survivors was mounted. Of the approximately 100 crewmen who survived the sinking, TEN finally were rescued from the water! The ship was the USS Juneau, and aboard the vessel were at least 30 pairs of brothers. Most famously, however, were the five Sullivan brothers. Again, consider this:
The Sullivan parents were finally notified on Jan. 12, 1943 - nearly two months after the actual sinking of the Juneau. Father was getting ready for work when three uniformed men approached the door. Said one, "I have some news for you about your boys."
"Which one?" inquired Mr. Sullivan, to which the officer replied, "I'm sorry - all five."
It was because of incidents like what happened to the Sullivan family that Jerry and Ike were not allowed to serve in the same unit. However, their ingenuity quickly found a loophole. Jerry laughed as he explained:
"I was drafted and [Ike] knew he was going to be drafted soon, so he enlisted the same day and went with me. I was 19 and he was 18. We went to Rockford to be inducted, and they wanted to split us up, right there. They said we couldn't go together, you know. They divided (everyone) up, into lines. There was 'A' line, 'B' line 'C' line, 'D' line, and so on. If he was in 'B' and I ended up in 'C', I'd ask someone in his line if I could trade places so my brother and I could stay together. And, they always cooperated. We did that all the way until we got to Maine."
You went to Maine first?
"They needed personnel on the coast, to form the different infantry divisions, and they wanted engineer attachments with them (Jerry and Ike were with the 132nd Engineers). So, instead of sending my brother and me to camp for training like everyone else, they sent us straight up to the coast! That's where we got our basic training. We spent most of our time patrolling the coastline, with our jeeps. We'd go clear up into Canada on reconnaissance trips."
"Anyway, they were forming the different battalions, with three different engineer groups. We got attached to the 77th infantry division. They were slated to go to the Pacific. So, we shipped out by train to Seattle, where we went to Hawaii on a Dutch ship called the Slaughtered Dike. It was kind of a greasy ship, but they'd use any boat they could get to move guys over there!"
In Hawaii, Jerry underwent jungle training - even at night. In one particular incident, he was way up in a tree with a buddy, when his buddy dropped his rifle. Says Jerry, "We waited and waited, and finally [the rifle] hit the ground, so we knew how high up we were!"
Despite the U.S. military's policy on separating brothers, Jerry and Ike shipped out for combat. Their first destination was a relatively small, but strategically important island called Guam:
"It wasn't too big an island, but there was a lot of fierce fighting. We'd have to go down a rope ladder, off the side of the ship into a smaller landing craft that took us to the beach in different waves. Usually the Marines went in during the first and second waves, then we were the third or fourth."
As soon as Jerry and Ike landed on the beach, they quickly set up their radio equipment. Their job was to get voice communication established between the other engineer groups. "We had a 284 radio that was about two foot by three foot, and there we were! We went down in the [landing craft] together, set up our radio together, shared a foxhole, and never got hurt!"
"I don't know how we were so fortunate."
- Dan Wegmueller is a columnist for The Monroe Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
"Yes, I do! I was in the kitchen with my dad. I was about 18 or so, just getting out of school when I heard about it on the radio. Dad said it would probably be a couple years before they got around to (drafting) us young guys. But, I don't think it took that long! (Laughs).
How did the mood of the country change?
"Well, everyone got really upset, because (the Japanese) bombed and sunk all those ships over there with all our sailors and boys on them; some of them are still buried there in their graves. That was very upsetting to everybody. There was a lot of anger."
Did you feel like you wanted to enlist right away?
"I wasn't too excited about it because I had so many other plans. I didn't enlist right away, but some of the other fellows in my class signed up the next day! I knew we'd get called pretty soon, so I just waited until they called."
Jerry was 19 years old when he got called into service. Not wanting to be separated, his brother "Ike" signed up at the same time - they had grown up together, building contraptions in their father's grocery, and now desired to serve together. However, the U.S. military had a policy that forbids family members to serve in the same unit.
Consider this:
On Nov. 13, 1942, a U.S. Navy light cruiser was torpedoed. Later that day, as the wounded vessel was limping toward a rear-area base, she was torpedoed again, this time near the ammunition magazines. The ship blew up and quickly sank, leaving approximately 100 survivors in the water, exposed to the elements, hunger, thirst and ceaseless shark attacks. By the time the appropriate paperwork had been shuffled, EIGHT DAYS had passed before a serious reconnaissance for survivors was mounted. Of the approximately 100 crewmen who survived the sinking, TEN finally were rescued from the water! The ship was the USS Juneau, and aboard the vessel were at least 30 pairs of brothers. Most famously, however, were the five Sullivan brothers. Again, consider this:
The Sullivan parents were finally notified on Jan. 12, 1943 - nearly two months after the actual sinking of the Juneau. Father was getting ready for work when three uniformed men approached the door. Said one, "I have some news for you about your boys."
"Which one?" inquired Mr. Sullivan, to which the officer replied, "I'm sorry - all five."
It was because of incidents like what happened to the Sullivan family that Jerry and Ike were not allowed to serve in the same unit. However, their ingenuity quickly found a loophole. Jerry laughed as he explained:
"I was drafted and [Ike] knew he was going to be drafted soon, so he enlisted the same day and went with me. I was 19 and he was 18. We went to Rockford to be inducted, and they wanted to split us up, right there. They said we couldn't go together, you know. They divided (everyone) up, into lines. There was 'A' line, 'B' line 'C' line, 'D' line, and so on. If he was in 'B' and I ended up in 'C', I'd ask someone in his line if I could trade places so my brother and I could stay together. And, they always cooperated. We did that all the way until we got to Maine."
You went to Maine first?
"They needed personnel on the coast, to form the different infantry divisions, and they wanted engineer attachments with them (Jerry and Ike were with the 132nd Engineers). So, instead of sending my brother and me to camp for training like everyone else, they sent us straight up to the coast! That's where we got our basic training. We spent most of our time patrolling the coastline, with our jeeps. We'd go clear up into Canada on reconnaissance trips."
"Anyway, they were forming the different battalions, with three different engineer groups. We got attached to the 77th infantry division. They were slated to go to the Pacific. So, we shipped out by train to Seattle, where we went to Hawaii on a Dutch ship called the Slaughtered Dike. It was kind of a greasy ship, but they'd use any boat they could get to move guys over there!"
In Hawaii, Jerry underwent jungle training - even at night. In one particular incident, he was way up in a tree with a buddy, when his buddy dropped his rifle. Says Jerry, "We waited and waited, and finally [the rifle] hit the ground, so we knew how high up we were!"
Despite the U.S. military's policy on separating brothers, Jerry and Ike shipped out for combat. Their first destination was a relatively small, but strategically important island called Guam:
"It wasn't too big an island, but there was a lot of fierce fighting. We'd have to go down a rope ladder, off the side of the ship into a smaller landing craft that took us to the beach in different waves. Usually the Marines went in during the first and second waves, then we were the third or fourth."
As soon as Jerry and Ike landed on the beach, they quickly set up their radio equipment. Their job was to get voice communication established between the other engineer groups. "We had a 284 radio that was about two foot by three foot, and there we were! We went down in the [landing craft] together, set up our radio together, shared a foxhole, and never got hurt!"
"I don't know how we were so fortunate."
- Dan Wegmueller is a columnist for The Monroe Times. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
