Ralph W. Andres
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Status: Featured Story
Mr. Andres served in World War II in the Pacific Theater, and in the Cold War.
He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, in the 431st Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group. His rank was Sergeant.
After World War II, he joined the Minnesota Air National Guard. He served for 29 years as a machinist. His rank was Master Sergeant.
Mr. Andres also constructed detailed models of vehicles. Two examples can be seen at the St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center (Depot) in Duluth, Minnesota. They are of the battleship U.S.S. Des Moines and a locomotive called the Mallet.
Source: Veterans’ Memorial Hall “Veteran Information Sheet” completed by veteran (see below)
Mr. Andres wrote: “I enlisted right out of high school (shortly thereafter). Two months later we were sent overseas. On the way across the Pacific, we encountered a typhoon which apparently was heading the same direction as our troopship. We encountered 50-foot waves for 11 days. It was not too pleasant. Most of the 5,000 people on board were not feeling very good. The ship’s paper noted that on a couple of the days our average speed was a minus 2 knots. We finally landed at Inchon, Korea, January 1947.
"I went to aircraft mechanics school and later to a propeller specialist school, which was in Japan. After this school I was placed in a shop that worked on propellers of all kinds of airplanes. One day, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s plane came to us for some work on #2 engine propeller (“Batan” is its name, and it can be seen at the museum in Wright Patterson, Dayton, Ohio). It is there now. We took care of that bird and many others. The 425th FTR group once had Major Bong in its ranks. But 2½ years earlier, Major MacGuire had been there, too (great pilots were rotated to various bases). I later joined the Air Guard and spent an additional 29 years there as a machinist. I had attended a night school for the machinist trade.”
