Peter P. Devich
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Peter P. Devich and Paul Devich were twin brothers who were inducted into the Army on March 8, 1945 at Fort Snelling, Minn.
Both served as Corporals and infantrymen with the 3292nd Base Maintenance Company in Leyte, Philippines; Mariannas (Saipan and Guam); and the 56th Air Engineer Squadron.
They also served aboard the Admiral Eberly, USS Osage and John W. Weeks.
Paul said: "We took a 20-man inboard boat through channels near small (Philippine) islands. The water was very turbulent. We found two men stranded on 10-acre island (who had) lived on coconuts and seaweed for over a year. Their boat had capsized. We took them down 25 miles to another island, hailed a passing PT boat and they came in. The stranded men got on board. The last we saw of them was them waving and dancing on the stern. They went out in style with help from the U.S. Navy."
Peter and Paul were awarded the Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal.
Peter separated on Dec. 12, 1946 at Fort Sheridan, Ill; and Paul was honorably discharged on Dec. 7, 1946 at Camp Beale, Calif.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The St. Louis County World War II Project. 68.
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The following is an oral interview with Peter Devich.
(Disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge, the information provided in this oral history interview is accurate. We do not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information.)
Conducted by Dan Hartman, Veterans’ Memorial Hall Program, St. Louis County Historical Society
Recording Date: Unknown, but probably summer of 2010
Recording Place: Silver Bay Veterans’ Home
Transcriber: Susan Schwanekamp, St. Louis County Historical Society
Transcription process funded by a grant from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation
DH: Once again my name is Dan Hartman, and today we are doing an interview with Peter. How do you say your last name, Peter?
PD: Devich.
DH: How do you spell that?
PD: D-E-V-I-C-H.
DH: So what’s your middle name?
PD: Peter.
DH: So, Peter Paul Devich? What year were you born, Peter?
PD: 1926.
DH: 1946?
PD: 26.
DH: OK. And you were in what branch of the military?
PD: I was in the Army.
DH: OK. And did you serve in WWII, or…?
PD: WWII.
DH: And where were you born and where did you grow up at?
PD: Born in Buhl, Minnesota. That’s where I grew up.
DH: OK. So do you remember a lot of your childhood?
PD: Oh, yes.
DH: So how was it growing up in Buhl?
PD: It was during the Depression and things were kind of tight.
DH: What did your parents do for a living during the Depression?
PD: Well, my father was originally a miner, but since there weren’t any mines working, he got a part-time job in (the) high school. He was pretty good at doing things and taking situations on (?). He went to what they call park (?)farming. He had two cattle, some cows and some chickens, and he farmed just like they did in the Old Country. So between the work in the school and what he could do himself, he provided for his family.
DH: Sounds he was a pretty hard worker, though.
PD: Oh, yeah. Very good worker. The mines, they weren’t open.
DH: What mine was he originally working in?
PD: Well, I think he started in his first mine in Eveleth. I’m not sure about that, because it’s way back, a long time ago.
DH: Oh, yeah. No worries. So how was it growing up on a farm – park farm?
PD: It was good! We had pretty good eating. ____________like you had to have, buy sugar and coffee, and the rest _____for yourself.
DH: And what was one of your favorite meals that you had on the farm?
PD: Well, it wasn’t exactly a farm……we lived in town, but we had room for just a little _____farming. I don’t know, plenty of beef and cabbage and potatoes – we grew all ourselves.
DH: And this was in town?
PD: In town. At that time they didn’t have many houses around….a lot of empty lots all around._________because all summer they was ……….close to the other neighbors.
DH: And so, what did you do for fun during that time?
PD: Fun? Oh, we had a lot of fun. We played touch football and baseball with the neighbors and make slingshots. And then we had pasture land on the river – Quigley Creek. We always used to go through there and play at that place, too. Marbles, they were real small ones. We always set up our own. And these were a lot of scrub games (?) – choose sides for who’s going to be on what team and the next day you might be among them (I think he means among the people you were playing against in the game of the day before game.) So there was a lot of variety. And there was a whole school that was a block away. And you could play baseball up there. And we also played baseball on the street. We had a lot of room around our home, there. _____too likely so that’s how we did that, you know?
We had bocce ball (?) because the Italians were there. ___because we (referencing various games brought in by various ethnic groups?) __________________ and we’d pick up some of them.
DH: What were some of these other nationalities?
PD: Oh, there were Croatians and the Finns and the Italians _______. We learned from them – see what they do. They teach you in the process.
DH: So, what did the Italians teach you?
PD: Well, they taught you how to play bocce ball? And they were good at gardening, so you learned from them there.
DH: And was their food as good as what they say, today?
PD: Oh, probably better, because it was all fresh. They liked to garden, you know. And nowadays you get it from California. ___________ doesn’t taste good, like Minnesota grown vegetables.
DH: And so what nationality were your parents?
PD: Croatian.
DH: And they both worked ?
PD: Yes.
DH: And were they native to Minnesota, or did they come over, or…
PD: No, they came from Europe.
DH: And they still speak Croatian?
PD: Oh, sure. They spoke English, too. When they were home, they spoke a lot of Croatian.
DH: So do you know how to speak it, too?
PD: Do I know?
DH: Yeah.
PD: A little.
DH: What were your parents’ names?
PD: My mother’s name was Josephine and my father’s name was Anton.
DH: And they chose to live in Buhl, I take it?
PD: Yeah.
DH: And how many brothers and sisters did you have?
PD: Well, there were 15 altogether.
DH: 15?
PD: Yeah. Two of them died young. There were nine boys and four girls.
DH: So you had a very large family, and your father, he definitely had to work pretty hard.
PD: He did. He was willing to do it.
DH: So how was it growing up with that many brothers and sisters?
PD: It was good, because when you got to the table, and you got to discuss______you got to ______opinions of everybody else, too. And you, around the table you had to be fast because, when you were eating, you had to _______around the table! But it worked out pretty good.
DH: So where did you fall in this 15? Were you one of the youngest?
PD: I was second from the bottom.
DH: So you really had to fight.
PD: I did pretty good!
DH: And then, as you got older, and you got more into your teenage years, did you have any jobs, or anything, around town?
PD: Well, first little job I got was I cut grass and cut gardens for a fellow that worked for the mining company. For eight hours I got $.50, I think it was.
DH: Eight hours for $.50.
PD: Yeah. It was Depression days. It was hard.
Oh, yeah. People made about $2.00 a day – adults. Kids would get any job they could, you know. When I got a little older I had a newspaper route. __________
DH: What paper did you work for?
PD: Duluth News Tribune. It was called the Duluth Herald then. Then when I got money from that (I bought) ammunition, to hunt rabbits. I didn’t have enough money for the rifle, but a neighbor, a good neighbor, lent ______a .22.
DH: And what would you do with the rabbits? Would you actually eat ‘em, or….?
PD: Sure .
DH: Where would you hunt for them at?
PD: Well, there was a ___through the town and ______ . It was about 5 x 4, 5 x 5 square miles, ____square miles. Very few people lived there, ______woods, and we’d go down there.
DH: How many people lived in Buhl at the time?
PD: Well, I think there were about 2200.
DH: So that’s still a good sized crowd. So what were some of the things that you also did in your teenage years? Did you go watch movies, or…?
PD: Well, we didn’t have enough money to watch them, but we figured out a way, how to get in once in a while. ________There was a bunch of ____(chairs?) ____ there in a row by the show house. People would come out and take their keys (or change?) out and ________. So we would walk ______and see if we could find some coins and get enough to go to the show. It was 12 cents a kid, you know. And if you had 11 cents, they’d take you anyway. So _____to try. They’d say “go ahead”. When the first movie was _______, “Sing and be Happy. I think I took that for a few rides.
DH: Sing and be Happy?
PD: Yeah.
DH: That’s the first one you ever saw?
PD: Yeah.
DH: Did you like it?
PD: Sure. They started the movie, it was a goofy movie in a way, they were chasing ____ around the high _______, around the edge of a cliff, you know. And ________thought you were going to fall off, of course being the first movie, ____, you know. I remember Joan Davis was one of them in the movie. Somehow they fell off the _______, ______any more. (Much unintelligible here.) Escaped. Jumped. Got out of there, and that was the end of that one, you know. And I don’t remember all the whole rest of it. But we had kind of a preview of the next movie. They had a train coming down the track, __________(unintelligible)___ and us kids in the front, we got ___________. (Laughter)
DH: And what movie theater did you go to?
PD: Buhl Theater.
DH: So that was the Buhl Movie Theater, that’s what it was called?
PD: Yeah. Then we found our way to the library. That was a good thing, because we didn’t have to spend any money to get in there. She was friendly and kind and….(unintelligible section)…and you had to be real quiet, because no monkey business, you know. Noise.
DH: So you said you were born in 1926. Correct?
PD: Yeah.
DH: At what age did you join the military? Were you drafted, or…?
PD: I was drafted in 1945.
DH: OK. So, you were still pretty young when Pearl Harbor happened.
PD: Well, I was 15.
DH: Do you remember it well?
PD: Oh, yeah. I was ______in Buhl Park. ______hunting. And it was a real beautiful day. Warm day. I’d say about 45 – 50 degrees, in December. And just west of the park there was two Finnish Americans, ______from the mining company, and they had a loader drill, for taking core samples. We were coming out from the hunting area, and we seen where those two men were working and they had a radio on the truck. And they said “Wait a minute. We’re at war with Japan.” ______________on ______Island. I didn’t know where that was at. “Where’s that?” I says. _________one of the islands there, in Hawaii. So we went home and we were all excited about the news, you know. So we had radios in those days and we turned our big radio on and ____too staticky and it was just ______. Every station had _________you know. We didn’t know where_______ some place in the United States. ______find out. _________no bombing on the Coast. It was all Pearl Harbor. Everybody was ____crying and everything else. It was really a ______thing, you know, and the next day the United States declared war. And they really went ________. It was exciting.
DH: So, what did you think of Franklin Roosevelt?
PD: I thought he was darn good.
DH: And why was that?
PD: Why?
DH: Yep.
PD: Well, people were out of work. They started a CC Corps. And that put a lot of young boys to work. Got people off the street, with the kids, you know. (??) And they put them to work. In Minnesota, I saw them CC guys riding a military truck. And they would go and plant fish (?) and fight forest fires and make roads through the forests and clean rivers, build bridges, and I think they taught other people from Europe how to speak English. Some learned how to cook and they learned how to drive _______bulldozers and graders and they taught some of ‘em how to drive a truck. And they got paid $30 a month. _______rest of the family.
DH: And did any of your brothers…..were they part of the CCC?
PD: No, none of them were.
DH: OK. But you remember that as a really good thing at the time.
PD: Oh, yeah. It was wonderful. Because jobs were so tight you couldn’t find anything.
DH: Yeah.
PD: I was too young to get in there. That was it.
DH: Did any of your brothers join the military service?
PD: No.
DH: OK. Were you the only one that was drafted?
PD: No. You mean my brothers? Well, there was three of us. In the second World War. And two of ‘em got into the Korean War time. (Note: This section contains inherent contradictions about whether or not his brothers were in military service!)
DH: OK. And before Pearl Harbor, did you ever think that we were going to go to war?
PD: Oh, yeah. You kind of had to have the feeling, because you saw out there a big, powerful Japanese nation building up, you know. And they flexed their muscles, and they hit China in 1931 and they had their idea to complete their operation, you know. _______China, they didn’t want the United States Navy down to the Pearl Harbor area. That’s why they struck.
DH: So in 1945 was when you were drafted into the Army?
PD: Yeah.
DH: And were you happy to be in the Army, of the branches?
PD: Oh, yeah.
DH: OK. And so why do you think the Army was better than the Navy, or the ….?
PD: Well. After I got in……..I don’t think one was better than the other one but I think I the Navy was real good. And I would not have been a very good sailor, because I got seasick after about 3 days, so…..but the sailors were very kind, you know. They told us, they had different names for the mess hall. We called it mess hall, they called galley. You had to learn the language. They had their own thing. But real kind, though, and ____Pearl Harbor, and they’d bring up some food for us. __________
DH: So before you were sent overseas, where did you go for training?
PD: I went to Shells Campford (?), Texas.
DH: And what did you do there?
PD: Well, I got basic training. And hunting in the woods, and that_____Army______________(unintelligible).
DH: So you were put into the Infantry, it sounds like.
PD: Yeah, we fell right into it. We worked hard in the potato field and we were used to it. Working hard and adversity, you know.
DH: Yeah. And what division were you put into?
PD: Well, later on, I was probably going into the 41st Division and then when I went overseas, the war ended before we got there. I think the Japs threw in the towel, because they saw us coming, you know? ___________
DH: So was the war in Europe already done by the time you were drafted?
PD: Yeah, that was done May 8.
DH: And when were you drafted?
PD: I was drafted March 8, 1945. (Another contradiction, given the preceding few lines.)
DH: So, do you remember when the war in Europe was announced – when it was over?
PD: Yeah, I remember both starting and ending. But __________ (unintelligible) _____.
DH: So when Hitler died was there a lot of celebration around town?
PD: Oh, yeah. Everybody went wild. Around the whole country.
DH: And do you remember anything in particular that happened in Buhl?
PD: Yeah, the lady across the street was a little intoxicated. She took a pistol out and started shooting in the air. When my Dad came home (?) _________pointed it up in the air, went to the campaign.
DH: Yeah. Great story. So, you were sent overseas, though?
PD: Yeah, to the Philippines. To the island __________________. I saw the actual beach where they landed. It looked like a Hollywood beach. Nice and flat, you know. Not like the one the poor guys _____climb a big cliff.
DH: So yours was very flat and…
PD: Yeah. It looked just like a movie scene for Hollywood.
DH: And do you remember where in the Philippines you landed at?
PD: Oh, yeah. You mean where I landed? Well, it wasn’t too far from a place called (sounds like Ta Kow Win). ________(unintelligible)________climbed down next into a ______landing boat, made out of plywood, and _________________ sprayed water on you, bobbing back and forth. It would go right along, though. It was making good time. It came to right up on the beach, and we came off of there.
DH: Hmm.
PD: It felt good to be on solid ground. Especially when you had that seasickness, you know.
DH: And how was, do you remember the boat that you went across the ocean on?
PD: Yeah. USS Osage.
DH: And how was it?
PD: It was good.
DH: You said you got seasick. Was it a pretty bumpy ride at some point?
PD: It was a huge ship and it zigzagged around. They got there and they did that because they didn’t submarines to take a beat (??) on them, you know. So they made zigzags. They’d turn and they had the wheel (?) and they’d really work it.
DH: So did you ever see any Japanese subs while you were at sea? How many boats were in your convoy when you were coming across?
PD: Well, it looked like we were alone, but we had other ships ahead of us, pretty far away, you know, and going over the Navy practiced firing their weapons, their machine guns. (When they’d fire it - ??) they sent all the troops down below deck. ____steady, like this: boom boom, boom boom. It’s a _______method. That’s what it sounded like.
DH: So it wasn’t a constant. It was just a little…
PD: It wasn’t constant. And they had two or three barrels, not just one.
DH: And do you remember what month you arrived over in the Philippines?
PD: No, I don’t recall that, off-hand.
DH: And so what did you think of the Higgins boats?
PD: I thought it was a good boat. ________quite a serious ______ on that thing, you know. I just hoped it wouldn’t tip over. Didn’t have no tail on it, I guess.
DH: Was it a lot smaller than you thought it would be, then?
PD: No, it was pretty fair sized. I didn’t have any idea how big it was. You just serve on it, _________and stuff. It was made in New Orleans, made in Louisiana. In fact, ____after the war ______where the factory was, it was very important in ______the war. They designed it and made it to use. (Unintelligible)
DH: All right. So when you arrived in the Philippines, what did they have you do?
PD: First thing, when we got there, we went to a staging area, the 41st Division staging area, and then they just, the Division was disbanding, and we moved out of there, you know. They took us in 30 men on a truck, and assigned us to different areas on the island. And they took about 40 trucks from the unit that we were in. _____going further, and finally we got down to the last one. And I ______we were together, you know. And we got there and I think we got there late in the afternoon and then they sent us to what’s called a radar depot. And they had tents. And then we started making concrete, for a sidewalk up to the mess hall. Pushing a wheelbarrow, you know. __________get the whole thing done.
DH: And you, a little bit earlier you just said you had your twin brother there?
PD: What did you say?
DH: Did you say you had a brother there?
PD: Oh, yeah, my friend.(?)
DH: What was his name.
PD: He was Paul.
DH: So, I missed that. So your brother Paul actually went with you on this whole journey.
(Note: This builds on the already existing confusion about whether or not any of his brothers were in the Army at that time.)
PD: Chuck (?) just went back. When _____(Chuck?)___went back, that was another one.
DH: So you were helping out with the cement mixer. How long did you do that?
How long were you pouring cement?
PD: Well, we were pouring stuff like that for a couple of days. They assign you right away, until you get your new assignment, you know.
DH: Yeah. And what was the next assignment they gave you?
PD: Well, they went and we were starting to work on the, putting locks on _________the warehouse there and then not too long – a couple of days of that, they _____________(unintelligible)___. So we had four of us assigned to guard 60 men. Then we dug ditches. I hated ditches because ___________, you know. Then ___come with a big truck there, ____________. They would watch the entrance to the bridge, you know. We did that and we were also cutting back (?), you know. ______drive you crazy.
DH: And this whole time you were in the Infantry.
PD: No, we were done with the Infantry. ______________(unintelligible)______.
DH: So now you were in just kind of an engineering unit, or…?
PD: Yeah, it was a Signal Corps_______.
DH: And it disbanded because the war was over?
PD: Oh, yeah. That was all done, you know.
DH: OK. And at what point was the war over? Right when you arrived, pretty much, or…?
PD: No, later. September 2nd. The official war signing over (?) wasn’t done until 1955.
DH: OK. So you’re helping, doing a lot of engineering in the Philippines, still. You’re helping them build a bridge, it sounds like. And we’d guard the prisoners, because they were assigned to jobs, and then my brother and I decided to work with the men, and not just tell them what to do. Whatever they did, we were there. They left a ______and _____Japanese_____and I’d be ________.
DH: And how long did you do that for?
PD: Almost a year.
DH: And was it a pretty enjoyable experience, or was it pretty tough…
PD: Oh, yeah. It was very good. At first. They’d bring new men every day, from their prison camp ____. They were ___________(unintelligible)______Taiwan, Gulf of Taiwan. And ________usually silent, or tell them what to do, _______to do something, you’ve got to bend down and show them something, and all that, you know. Half the time they don’t know what you say to them, they don’t understand it, you know. ________________if you can’t talk English. _______(unintelligible)_____In fact one of them was so good that he was in the _________, learning English for three years, wanted to be like the Americans.
DH: I imagine he was pretty helpful.
PD: Oh, he was real good. He was a very intelligent man. And I heard about the Japanese army, how they live, their culture, you know. Here we honor young people. (Unintelligible)___ feel like they got a free _____. They’re the other way around. They honor the elders.
DH: And do you think they have it right or do you think we have it right, or….?
PD: Well, there’s something good about each one, you know.
DH: __________________young people growing up. ________________ Japanese had something very good, you know. Here __________________but what does he know. He’s just an old fuzzy (or funny) haired guy.
PD: I hope it’s not that bad.
DH: And what were some of the other things in the Japanese culture you thought were interesting?
PD: Well, they work together, you know. Like ______assignments, the older ones get together and they talk it up, discuss the problems, and then they have others working with them. And then they have some people younger. They have an older man. Like that. It was good for teaching each other. I would say, too, that they were pretty smart. Very intelligent people. Lot of people ______make firecrackers. ______taboo ______. ________firecrackers. Baloney. They were good at making things. Good thinkers . Anyway, they organized banks at the camp. They didn’t waste any time about losing the war. They were figuring out how to make some business ____in Japan. What they did _______________I never saw the camp. I didn’t know, you know. The ___prisoners talking to me said “We’re making banks.” (I said) “What do you mean, making banks?” He said on the weekend we organize, so when we go home we’ll have a bank and business going. _____want money. So they get a dollar a day, I guess. And there was 5000 people, so that’s $5000 a day. They would have $35,0000 together at the end of the week. They were putting two and two together, you know. I was a greenhorn, ___find my way to the PX to find something to eat. That’s what I was thinking about, you know.
DH: And these prisoners were the ones putting the banks together?
PD: Yeah, they were putting the banks together. They were smart! And they were highly adaptable. One fellow came to me and said “I’d like to take your picture.” So he started off ________. So I said “I can’t have you guys doing it for nothing.” So I gave him a few bucks. And he started a business. Yeah. ___made _____with the shot and they made beautiful cigarette ashtrays. They’re artistic. They make everything _______. ____just to walk around, ___nice, you know,______utility. So bland, you know. The Japanese always have something artistic, having a sword, anything.
DH: It sounds like you kind of had admiration, on some levels, for the Japanese.
PD: Well, I liked the way they organized things. And they worked hard. They were very, very industrious and they were willing to work real hard. And I put that together and said when you go back to the country that you’re going to rebuild, they’re going to be a country that’s going to make electrical and stuff, ______manufacturers. They’re not going to sit around on their haunches.
DH: You’re right.
PD: Yeah. ______________they’re not sitting around. ______ (unintelligible) _____to what’s coming. I said “I’ve got enough all week. I think I want to live. R & R, on the weekend.” And they would do all kinds of work. They’d want to come work. __(unintelligible)________I don’t think that was right, either, but the way they did it. If you learn one thing about them – they’re industrious. And they _____each other’s _____. _______give each other knowledge, from experience and so forth.
DH: So it sounds like you oversaw these prisoners for a while, then.
PD: Yeah. Over a year.
DH: And did you get to know any of them individually really well?
PD: Well, I didn’t know a lot of them real well. I did know the two top men, the top___. ___a couple more later, to talk to, and they said “You as a guard are very kind.” See, when you have a gun, and the other guy doesn’t, he’s at your mercy. And I think it’s cowardly to be rough on people. ______, you know. And even if it wasn’t, you don’t gain anything by that. They go home, they tell their kids and family what you’re like. ______talk, you know. And you’re better off treating them civilly. And then let them say how it was.
DH: And do you think most of the soldiers overseas felt that way, or….?
PD: No, not all of them. A few of them, when we got there, American guys, (said) you should be mean to those people, my brother got killed by them. And I said ____much you can do, pay anybody back. You can be mean if you want to. I don’t believe in that stuff. And people will listen to you if you’ve got a gun. They never even do any more____________, you know.
DH: And do you think when the war was over, many of the Japanese were just happy to have it over, too?
PD: Oh I think they had enough of it. I mean _______number of years and ____________blasted apart. There were 5 million people homeless because of the cities that got bombed. I’d say the bombing get started in 1944, because ______________Guam, many had_______________up there. That was about 1500 miles. _____________got into strategic bombing, then they started bombing civilians, because civilians ___________________planes, so they had to bomb everybody. Wars ain’t dainty. And what they call collateral damage, you know, it sounds like there’s not much happening, but wars_____________, it’s not god, but it’s happening.
DH: So how long did you serve there, did you serve over a year?
PD: Yeah. Then I got transferred to Guam.
DH: So, tell a little bit about Guam, I guess.
PD: Well, Guam was a different kind of island. And ______had a lot of vegetation. A lot of water. ______and just about everybody’s got jungle rot. And you’d scratch yourself crazy, you know._____________________(unintelligible section)___.
And was it a beautiful place, or…?
PD: Oh, yeah. Very pretty. It had palm trees, coconuts, bushes that were just _____flowers, you know. And it was a very great place.
DH: And did you ever have any down time to have some fun in this place?
PD: Oh yeah. We had Saturdays and Sundays off. And my brother and I had to kind of hang around our place, the place where we worked, in the warehouse there. We lived there, in the warehouse. ____had three boats, and we’d take care of those. And you had to have somebody always there, because of the radar ships were still ___________________not unclassified. So there had to be somebody there all the time. But ________________________ (unintelligible) cheaper, I mean_____. They had a big caged room________I said “Why tell everybody else that you got that? (Laughter)____________(unintelligible)____”Here it is”, you know.
DH: And did you ever go back to Guam after the war?
PD: No, I never did.
DH: What were some of the things you guys did on the weekends?
PD: Well, we had those boats. We’d travel all on the different islands. And then ____________________back in the camp. ________about 40 dogs, I don’t know how many ________thought they were so cute, but they don’t have a belt on, a collar, ____shoot ‘em ______every thing was making collars. Till one day, all the dogs got collared. We weren’t going to shoot any dogs.
DH: It worked. You got everyone to…..
PD: Get it done, you know.
DH: And what was the…were the beaches pretty good, or…?
PD: Yeah….they had an R & R beach, right there. We got so tired swimming, buys get home, back to camp.
DH: Were you married at the time you went over?
PD: No. I’m not married, either. I’m a single man.
DH: Hmm. And did you meet any women overseas at all, or….?
PD: Not too many. ______town there. Everybody kind of went their own way, you know.
DH: Yeah. And so how much longer were you in Guam?
PD: About six, seven months.
DH: So, at this point you had been overseas for a year and seven months.
PD: Yeah.
DH: And where did you go after that?
PD: Went back to the States. We went for a few weeks up to Saipan. _________didn’t do much more, _____examination, be on our way, back to the States.
DH: And how was your trip back?
PD: It was good. I kind of volunteered for, to keep my time occupied, in the bakery. So we were baking, you know.
DH: Yeah.
PD: So we made about a thousand loaves every day, I think. Big cement mixer, mixing bread, you know. ______supposed to be a pound. I had to assist, ________hand, I had a pound and a half, two pounds, you know. I estimated. _____________________________you don’t need that scale. I turned the loaf the wrong way. ____________________turn it upside down. __________fellow in the ___________he had three uncles who were in Honolulu______________. I got so good that they wanted to hire me. When you go to Honolulu you can get rich out there, stay in Honolulu. ______________back to the States.
DH: Why did you want to go back to the States?
PD: Oh, I wanted to go to school, do something different, you know. One thing, I wanted to get out of ______90,000 _____600% ratio, you know.
DH: And so did you go back to the States and use any of that baking skill, or….?
PD: Well, I did bake my own bread and that, yeah. But ______(unitelligible) a job, you know. ____________(unintelligible).
DH: And so when you came back to the States, was your family happy to see you, or…?
PD: Oh, yeah. __________________back and tried to pick up after we left it.
DH: When you came back, where did you arrive at? Was it San Francisco, or….?
PD: No, it was Camp Stillman, California. They went out from near Monterey, and they came back to the camp.
DH: And did you come back to Duluth by train, or did you fly, or…?
PD: No, I came back by train. We took, we went down to southern California, by train, and it was about 114 (degrees?) above there and waited for another train to come by and_____up before we got out of there, you know. Hot. _____________ we went all the way down to ________, California and we cut across to Arizona and back up through Texas and from there Arkansas, and we went up to St. Louis and over to Chicago, and we went to Ft. Sheraton, Illinois to get discharged.
DH: So you got discharged in Ft. Sheraton?
PD: Yeah.
DH: And then were you just kind of…did you take a car back? How did you get home?
PD: I took the train, the 400, from there to St. Paul and then I took the bus from St. Paul to home.
DH: OK. And were your parents there waiting for you when you got off the bus?
PD: Yeah, they were there and they were happy to see me and I started my life back there, again, and I worked in the mines. I went to work at 15, and ________.
DH: And was there any stories or anything I overlooked in your military experience overseas?
PD: No, I think you covered most bases here. It was quite an experience. And you meet people that you never would get to see. Different ideas. ____________ over there was a rivalry between the United States and Russia, ______no more, _____________Cold War____________. They talked about it. _______________ independence.________________(Lots of unintelligible comments in this section.)
DH: So when did they get their independence?
PD: They got it July 4, 1946.
DH: So you were there when it happened.
PD: I missed it by a couple days.
DH: But it would be nice to tell ‘em that they got it.
PD: Yeah, they were already transferring some of the officers to the area where we worked. ___________. And prior to that they had _____________________. They were very _______.
DH: Very what?
PD: (Unintelligible response)
DH: So, I skipped over this by accident. After Pearl Harbor, to the day you were sent over, how busy were the mines?
PD: Wide open. Really busy.
DH: And did you do any work in the mines at that time? Did any of your friends?
PD: Yeah, I did. I worked in every job.
DH: And what mine did you work for?
PD: I worked with the ____________mine.
DH: Sorry, I couldn’t hear you the first time. Where at?
PD: Near Hibbing.
DH: And you were underground, you said.
PS: Yep.
DH: Can you talk a little bit about that? Was that pretty tough work, or…?
PS: Yeah, it was tough and wet, in some places. _______they let you up. And noisy and smelled like dynamite. And rotted timbers.
SH: How far down in the ground were you?
PS: About 850 feet.
DH: And what was the…. did you have an electric lamp, or…?
PS: No, we had the gas thing…
DH: The carbide?
PS: Carbide, yeah. We wore a carbide lamp.
DH: Did you feel like you were pretty safe down there, or…?
PS: Not really. You look at it, every time they dynamite, they’re shaking the walls, and you never know if the roof’s going to come down on you or not.
DH: When you were there, did it ever come down on anybody else, or…?
PD: No. When we left, a guy got killed. Right where we were working.
DH: Wow. So partly you were kind of happy to get drafted?
PD: Well, yeah. It didn’t really faze me, I was young and energetic, gung ho, you know. And _____________. And I wanted to try it. It’s an adventure, too.
DH: When you worked for the mine, were you part of a union at the time, or…?
PD: Yeah, I was union.
DH: OK. And what union was that?
PD: CIO, AFL, both, you know.
DH: OK.
PD: ______open_______.
DH: What do you mean, they weren’t open?
PD: I went to work in open pit.
DH: Was that near Hibbing, too?
PD: It wasn’t near Hibbing, it was near Buhl.
DH: OK.
PD: Open pit’s got some advantages. It’s got some disadvantages, too.
PD: One (dis)advantage is you get wet. And if it gets too wet, the trucks don’t come out of the mines for work. Conveyor belts can get so wet, ore_______, too.
DH: And did it rain quite a bit when you were working, too?
PD: Not really.
DH: At the same time, I would imagine you felt a lot safer in the pits.
PD: Oh yeah. ___________________you can see what was going on. It was safer, you know.
DH: How many years did you work in the mines?
PD: About 4 ½.
DH: And when you came back from the war, how long did you work in the mines?
PD: 4½ years, altogether. It was a series of open pits and then later ______ mines were big, you know. Now there’s only one left. It’s up by Tower. Soudan. _____________________not working.
DH: Is there anything that I’ve passed over in your military experience that you want to have on the record? Otherwise, I’ve covered all the things (that I want to cover).
PD: Well, it’s interesting that you met different people there. One of them was Captain that was a combat veteran in Guadalcanal. Harrison field there. A lot of American officers got killed. And the Captain wasn’t a Captain then. He was a buck private. And the officer that he replaced, he took over their work. And he ran the whole thing there. And he was just a private. He was so good he ______the Japanese. _________was a soldier’s soldier, but he could think, and took command and ____cease fire, you know.
DH: His name was Captain White?
PD: White.
DH: Do you remember his first name, by chance?
PD: I don’t know, I think it was John.
DH: And you think he was instrumental in the Battle of Guadalcanal?
PD: Guadalcanal. Harrison Field. And right after that, _________. He took over the command, on his own.
DH: Wow.
PD: ______________and one of the things he said was, he laid guide wire around the perimeter, at night, and put ____out there, ________, so when the Japanese tried to sneak through there, ___________.
DH: Wow. And did you meet him?
PD: I was trained by him.
DH: What?
PD: I was trained by him. ____________was our Captain. When we first got to Ft. Hood, _____B Company, and I was _______and we had two mess halls, side by side, with a court in between, well, I talked to my brother from our area across the way. The Captain ________________, B Company, once again, ________. Transferred somebody out_______I want the twins.
DH: Wow.
PD: So, Captain White ___life by the fringe, you know.
DH: So, that’s a good reason to remember the guy. Was he a pretty nice guy, too?
PD: Very kind. When he got up there to give orders, they all snapped to, you know. They liked him and he was really good, too, (as a) commander, you know. And he would compliment the men. Tell them they’re the best and they could do it, and all that. Positive thinking. I can see why he was a good leader, you know.
DH: And what was the unit that you were a part of.
PD: I was part of the Guadalcanal operation.
DH: But he was your Captain. Who was he…?
PD: That was in Camp Hood. He was our basic trainer. They were training the Infantry. The 149th Infantry
DH: You say the 149th?
PD: Yeah.
DH: So you were part of the 149th Infantry, which was part of the 41st Division?
PD: No, not yet.
DH: OK.
PD: __________Japanese guy ____________he was hiding _________American ____hide. ______look for the guy______got him. I saw him walking around a bush, a few feet away from me and I _____________, and I let him walk away (or did not walk away - ?). I (or he?) was always innovative, ____________________ get things done.
(Interview recording cuts off here.)
