World War II Story of Edward Sheehan

This is a different blog than I normally write. It is the story of my 90 year old Grandfather's time spent in the Army during WWII. I'm sure there are some editing mistakes (as I am unfamiliar with many military terms) so please forgive. Enjoy! I don't think that the pictures will copy over in this format, but if you would like a hard copy....I could email it to you, and then you can see the images.

Ed Sheehan's WWII Stories

In 1942 my Grandpa Ed Sheehan enlisted through the draft board into the Army.  When he enlisted he knew that he would be spending at least three years in the service (most likely overseas), and was told that when the war was over he would be able to come home.  According to Grandpa, one of the main reasons for his enlistment into the Army was because many of his friends were already off to war and he was a little bored (as silly 18 year old boys often get).  Although Grandpa enlisted in December 1942, (directly after his 18^th birthday on 12/17) he did not actually leave home for boot camp until the beginning of January  1943.  When bitter cold January finally rolled around, grandpa packed up his belongings, boarded a troop train in Champaign IL and headed for his first enlistment stop – Scotfield IL (a train ride that made many stops, one of them in Belleville)  Despite the fact that he was headed off to war, not a person in Grandpa’s family came to the train station to see him off and say goodbye (insert epic sad face here).

Upon arriving in Scotfield, on a Thursday, the soldiers were checked in, inspected, provided with a basic set of rules and regulations, and given burr haircuts AS WELL AS two days leave (seems a bit premature)...so grandpa decided to hitchhike home (and was successful!).  While back home in Rantoul, IL he visited family and what friends were there – and also took up the collection at church on Saturday morning.  Although hitch hiking home to Rantoul had been no problem for him, getting back to camp proved to be much more difficult and he did not have the same hitch hiking success.  He managed to grab rides all the way to Pesotum, IL (which is a small town located on I57 just south of Champaign, IL) by 3pm on Saturday, but could not find any other people willing to give him a lift passed that point. Beginning to panic a bit, and fear Army punishment, Grandpa contacted a friend who lived in Gifford. This friend drove Grandpa the long ride to Scotfield. After being completely checked in and processed at Scotfield, Grandpa and the other young soldiers were transferred to Fort Eustis in Virginia for 12 weeks of basic training.

 

At basic Grandpa and the other soldiers were given their uniforms which consisted of: shirt, wool pants, shoes, blouse (4 button brass), two winter outfits, two summer khakis, and official dress...or OD's as they were called.  Also received was a manual of arms to learn and the new soldiers immediately started practicing close order drill.  Grandpa and the other men slept in bunk beds and had to make sure that a quarter could bounce off of them once made--those are some tight sleeping sheets! And Grandpa still makes his bed this way, to this day. Some of the duties that the soldiers were assigned included things like: laundry, guard duty, clean up of barracks, mess hall duty and the greatly hated KP duty - kitchen police.  Grandpa never had to do KP because he was always well behaved.  Basic was tough and included A LOT of parading –it was also very cold, as January on the east coast often is. The soldiers were required march in their ODs and long Army issued overcoats across 40 acres of flat ground – flat ground absent of trees, completely unsheltered from the wind and elements.

When the men weren’t marching around in freezing cold weather, they spent a great deal of time on the rifle range doing bayonet drills – typically two times a week.  Targets or intended victims for these drills were gauzy sacks full of straw.  Chesapeake Rifle Range was visited frequently to practice bayonet drills as well as shooting.

While not parading and shooting, it was possible to take a break and apply for a weekend pass. If you were a decent soldier, and well behaved, you could apply for a weekend pass while in basic.  Luckily Grandpa Ed was well behaved and orderly, and he was able to get a pass to go to Newport News, VA (where he enjoyed a much needed break from the constant cold weather marching).

After Basic Training the soldiers were given an aptitude test and IQ test, which helped the Army to decide future placement and assignments for the men.  After the results of this test the men were transferred from BT to their future home units – which means that men Grandpa had become close to for 12 weeks were all sent to different locations, in some ways…Grandpa was alone again. However, when you are in the Army there is not a lot of time to worry about losing friends, as new ones are quickly made. Grandpa’s orders sent him to Camp Stewart, GA which sounded wonderful after the cold New England winter. Despite this bit of happy news (warm weather! Yeah!) Grandpa was very homesick. Perhaps missing his new friends made this homesick feeling ever more present.  Because of this sad homesick feeling Grandpa would check his mail quite a lot, almost religiously, sometimes more than once a day, hoping to have news from loved ones (or anyone) from home.

It seemed that the flat prairie of Illinois was especially far away, as were the familiar accents and voices of that area. Most of the soldiers that Grandpa encountered and came to know at Camp Stewart were from New York or Pennsylvania. A lot of the men were Italians, hailing from Brooklyn – introducing Grandpa to interesting new accents and speech patterns.

The cold New England winters were quickly forgotten and Grandpa found himself wishing for them as he spent twelve HOT HOT HOT weeks in Georgia. Humid, sticky, so hot you cannot breath, Georgia. While attempting to survive the heat, Grandpa began training for his role in the military – radar crew. Although at this point all that they were being taught was surveillance.  They men were taught on exceptionally OLD radar (possibly the original) and the machines were very frustrating. If the men were performing their duties, doing well in training, and behaving weekend passes to Hinsdale, GA were made available. Of course Grandpa was able to earn one of these passes. He remembers venturing into Hinsdale and being shocked at the segregation. Having grown up in the North he was unaccustomed to segregation, and couldn’t believe some of the signs and behaviors that he witnessed.   What stood out to him the most were the separate black and white restrooms and drinking fountains – grandpa could not make sense of this and thought that treating people this way was sickening.   

After twelve hot weeks of radar training the whole Battalion (ABCD)  Battery went on bivouac (pronounced biv wack) in Georgia.  On bivouac in GA Grandpa became a part of D - Dog Battery Radar Crew.  Part of the Battery crew’s training was to venture out into the GA wilderness and have a "picnic.” During these so called picnics the Dog Battery would search for fake enemy aircraft (anti-aircraft) or 90mm anti-air craft AAA and then shoot them down. This was a very important training exercise, as it allowed the men to track the AA and then go through the motions of shooting it down. The long tube radar that they men were training on had a Height finder, which looked like a ten feet long tube.   The operator would look through stereo-scopic vision through the tube and then adjust knobs to locate the anti-aircraft.  Long tube radar in 1943 was soon replaced by radar (Radio Detecting And Ranging).

After all of that training, picnicking, and bivouac, the soldiers were sent on a convoy to Florida to await another transfer. From Florida the men were relocated to Suffolk Air Force Base in Long Island, NY.  That is where Grandpa became good friends with (Gus DeSalvo and many other young men).  His group was indeed Dog battery, but it was also known as the Gun battalion.  There were fifty people in each group....(A,B,C,D)  so that means that Grandpa gained 50 brothers (there were 200 total in the battalion).  Everyone in the battalion was considered a friend, but Battery D (grandpa's battalion) considered themselves a family.

At Suffolk the men had inspection every Saturday. It didn’t matter where they were on that Saturday, they were still inspected. Because of this the men were frequently inspected outside of the barracks and on the training field.  The soldiers were assigned a number while at Suffolk and the inspector would ask them for it when it came time to inspect the men.  Grandpa's number was also called his serial number which was #36443677 (which he remembered straight away when asked for it during our interview in 2009). This number could be recalled by memory, but was also found on dog tags. If the men failed to recite their number, they were in deep trouble and would have to do KP or other worse tasks.

 Sometimes  while stationed at Suffolk the men were required to camp out on the point (which extended into the water).  The men stayed in canvas tents that did little to keep out the strong wind. Grandpa said that, “That wind just seemed to cut right through you. Shew. I still remember it whistling (makes whistle sound) through those thin tents).”  Because of the cold weather training many of the men assumed that they would be stationed in Europe for the war, and began to mentally prepare themselves for war in the European trenches. Indeed they had a lot of time to worry and fret as they spent a lot of time at Suffolk, including Christmas and New Years. During these holidays Grandpa was given a pass and ventured into New York for holiday festivities. Grandpa was able to see Times Square decorated for Christmas and New Years and thought that it was absolutely beautiful. 

While at Suffolk the men had no access to showers and were frequently loaded up in trucks and sent to Riverview, Long Island in order to indulge in a shower. While there the men practiced protecting Suffolk Air Force Base (from what they weren’t sure, and they never fired any shots).  From SAB the men went back on bivouac for thirty days to learn Tennessee maneuvers (I’m not quite sure what that means….lost the note). They were given one weekend off during this time.  After these thirty days the men went by troupe train to Camp Cook, CA.  Grandpa found himself extremely annoyed with California as it was very windy there and the barracks would frequently fill with sand. 
“The sand felt like sugar it was so fine.  It seemed like I had to shake my bed all night while trying to sleep because of all the sand in it. When I woke up in the morning I felt as if I was covered in the fine stuff. Felt like it was on my teeth. Making your bed to regulation standards with all of that sand, was maddening.”  At this camp the men always carried a rifle and full field pack, and would take twenty five mile hikes on foot.

A Typical WWII era field pack (empty)

At Camp Cook Battery D was introduced to their new radar – the radar that they would be using during the War, 345 FE/CS radar.  The radar machine weighed 35 tons and was pulled by a 71/2 ton prime mover that also had a generator with it.  A spare parts van travelled along with the radar...it was fifteen feet long and eight feet wide.  While at Camp Cook they went to San Diego for Amphibious training and Jungle Warfare.  It was then that the men began to realize that they were going to be stationed in the Pacific Theater. The entire radar crew went to a marine camp in San Diego – in fact, Grandpa spent quite a lot of time with Marines throughout his military service. During the time at Camp Cook Grandpa became a corporal and was assigned to train marines marching in COD (close order drill) for thirty days time.

After time spent in San Diego the men took a troupe train to Ft. Lauton WA ....which was close to Seattle...however, they were stationed there for a very small amount of time. It was in Ft. Lauton that the men’s suspicions were confirmed, they were indeed headed for the Pacific Theatre.  In August of 1944, after almost two years away from home, the men took a Troupe Ship to Hawaii.  During this journey the ship was forced to zigzag the entire time as there were dangerous of Japanese Submarines in the Pacific ocean...because of this immediate danger the trip took thirty days instead of the original 6-7.  Ugh!    Quite often the emergency signal would go off and then men would have to go down in the hold of the ship.  The ship had 16 bunks one on top of the other, and the soldiers were basically locked in at night....from the outside of the room. No way out.  Eep!  The men trained to spot submarines were allowed to remain on deck – and the other soldiers quickly became jealous of that privlige. While on the ship the men had to shower or bathe in salt water – which felt very similar to the sand that had attempted to bathe them while they were stationed in CA. While on the ship meal time was not very exciting, and extremely predictable. Every Saturday they had navy beans for breakfast, which was a Navy tradition.  While spending time on the ship, Grandpa had to pull guard duty as he was the Corporal of the Guard (he had 10 men under his command). Due to this designation he spent much of his duty on the top deck of the boat. When the waves were very high, he and the rest of the men were secured with a rope so that they wouldn’t disappear into the strong waves of the Pacific.   

When they finally arrived in Hawaii the men were sent to  Oahu - Pearl Harbor and their unit was referred to as  505 AAA GB (Gunner Battalion). Most of the time spent in Hawaii was on the beach firing weapons. One weekend, while on leave, the soldiers ventured into Honolulu and grandpa got a haircut...the first one he would ever have done by a woman.  He can still hear the scissors cutting, and she spoke no English.  His hair had to be kept very short because of the helmets....they were steel helmets with a liner, and were very heavy – so the shorter the hair, the better! While here Grandpa quested for a new watch. He had bought one while stationed in CA but had lost it at sea. Unfortunately he could not find the perfect watch while in Hawaii (funny the things you remember). During the say in Hawaii the men were stationed in Scoffield barracks for a month, the next move for the men was to Alama Wanna Park...two blocks from the Royal HI hotel and a very ritzy beach.  They would often set up to train on Waikiki Beach and had alerts in regard to Anti-aircraft two to three times a day.  

Waikiki Beach during WWII – this looks similar to the beaches Grandpa spent time on

 During these anti-aircraft alerts soldiers would arm themselves and then station themselves upon the radar unit. During these alerts the men fired 90mm guns a couple of times.  Later they found out that the anti-aircraft that they were firing at were actually their own aircraft.... Luckily, the radar had a throw switch for friendly air craft called IFF.  If the air craft appeared to be friendly soldiers would throw the switch...intelligence would then determine friend or foe. 

After spending time in Hawaii the men finally received their direct orders and were loaded up into a troupe carrier boat.

 WWII armed troupe carrier boat

This small boat was to take Grandpa and the rest of his battalion to the Philippines, but then their orders were cut.  Once again they were stuck on a boat...they spent 60 days on the ocean – in a little bitty boat.

By this time Grandpa had become a sergeant and radar crew chief.  This meant that he would take care of unloading the radar, making sure the generator worked, and he was also in charge of setting the radar instruments up.  There were jacks on each corner of the radar as well as a twelve foot circular antenna.  It took three men to operate the radar and there was one maintenance man.  The radar machine had eight foot long compartments and gates would slide the tubes in or out.  There were 9 units on each side of the machine, and three TVs and oscilloscopes with a man on each scope.   One man stood behind the scopes at all times when the radar was on alert.  They would have to dial in aircraft by the pips on the screen.  The first guy located the aircraft, second guy determined the elevation, and the third guy determined the range of the aircraft.  Then men became so good that they could pinpoint up to seven miles away.  Range men could tell when the pips were together on the target.  Grandpa would then say fire, the men would push the pips button...cables would go to a computer....four guns in battery...three guys working the guns.  When that was all ready the Lieutenant would then say fire and push button.  The crew would ram the shell in the gun...the gun parts were always greasy.  Grandpa remembers that during one day on the crew one of the Gunner’s ended up with a backside full of grease. The breach after the 90 m.m. fired a recoil of 4ft. passed the Gunner's rear as he stood up and shot Grease all over his pants.  “I don’t know if I had ever seen anything like it. Grease shooting out in a stream, so quickly, all over that Gunner’s pants. Boy, he was angry.”

After all of this training, travling, and time spent on boats Grandpa and his men  finally were given orders to head to Okinawa for the invasion of Okinawa.  On April 1st they finally got off the boat...and got on a different boat...a land craft carrier (it should come as no surprise that Grandpa has an extreme dislike of boats).  The land craft carriers transported the men and the radar to the island they would be stationed on.

(Okinawa – Camp Foster)

Before this trip to Okinawa, while stationed in Hawaii, the men were given a vast myriad of shots to get them ready for the new terrain/climate.  They were also given adabran tablets...which were yellow and taken every day to fight off malaria. Indeed the vaccinations were to help prepare the men for the South Pacific terrain – but it is almost impossible to mentally prepare men for an invasion. Although the soldiers were sick of being on boats, and ready to do their job, the idea of invading a foreign land was nerve wracking.

Grandpa remembers the land craft carrier boats were filled tight and the soldiers had all their belongings with them:  gas masks, rifles, backpacks, changes in clothing.  Much to his chagrin, as he was beginning to really dislike boats, Grandpa was sergeant in charge of this boat.  Sometimes water would be in the boat up to 3-4 feet deep – and there was nothing the soldiers could do to prevent it (or dry off). The invasion was stressful, and navigating the boat proved to be quite difficult. However, headquarters helped them to determine the correct (and safest) direction to go and the men were able to make it safely to Okinawa island and get off the beach as soon as possible (this was very important as there were a great deal of kamikaze fighter pilots targeting invading US soldiers).

A picture of the invasion of Okinawa

While attempting to land the boat, Grandpa and his men had to circle the island once (due to rough ocean waters). During this time one of the men was shot in the leg, and this earned him a Purple Heart. When they finally they landed on beach (happy to see land after 60 days at sea) they charged in as infantry men.  The Radar crew was the last to get off the boat and unload the radar. Once everyone was unloaded and safe, the men began emergency marching (which lasted for nearly two weeks).  

Marching on Okinawa

 Men Setting up Anti-aircraft Weapons on Okinawa

While not emergency marching, soldiers would also spend their time digging fox holes (Grandpa was in charge of a crew of Korean prisoners and they were required to dig fox holes as well).  During this time many more infantry arrived as well as supply trucks.  One truck brought gallons of tomato juice...but no gas. Grandpa said, “What in the world were we supposed to do with all of that tomato juice? We really needed Gas, but we got Tomato Juice. The Italians were excited.” While spending time on Okinawa the men set up pup tents that were carried by and set up by the soldier and his partner sharing the tent. The first night on the island it rained, and rained, and then rained some more.  Grandpa and the men camped on the hillside, and everything was wet.  There was Japanese gunfire the entire night going on over head.  Grandpa says that he can still hear it.  One of his friends got hurt by shrapnel....but came back from the hospital in about a week's time.  The bombing that was going on was so scary, grandpa remembers praying.  The men had managed to set up one gun crew and it was bombed, that was Battery C, 13 crew men on 90 mm guns.  All of the men were killed...except for one man.  He could not find his shoes and couldn't get dressed fast enough to join his Battery C.  This fateful delay and lost shoes saved his life. 

Despite the rain it was VERY hot and humid, near 90 degrees.  The island that they were on was called Ieshima. It was during this time that the famous writer/reporter  Ernie Pyle was killed – grandpa says that accidents seemed to happen quite a lot, and were very upsetting.

After near three weeks on the island, the marines were able to secure it. While securing the island and setting up camps 90 mm guns were pulled by a truck...through lots of boggy ground.  A truck following the gun truck would carry the crew.  One time while on the road an old Okinawa person was attempting to drive through the murk and drove his old small truck off into a rice patty because he was so frightened by the super large piece of radar equipment that Grandpa was in charge of – all of the men laughed. A much needed respite. Grandpa says that he can still picture that little old man’s face as he drove his truck straight off of the road, right into a rice paddy. 

When not traveling or on duty men would go out and dig sweet potatoes which were plentiful.  However, digging for sweet potatoes quickly became a boring source of entertainment. Quite frequently the soldiers looked to things to do that would break the monotony and lift spirits. There was a horse on the island that wasn't well fed...its bones stuck out everywhere.  One soldier roped the horse and wanted to see if anyone would try to ride it.  Grandpa was selected because he had a high rank.  He agreed to do it, as he had grown up around horses. He quickly regretted this decision. The bony haunches of the horse gave him a terrible blister...so bad that he had to put alcohol on it! Whew!

Often times while on the island the men had to sleep in fox holes “because there were Japs in the mountains.”   Frequently soldiers were required to hide the radar equipment in camouflage  “because of the Japs.”  About two or three times a day Japanese loyalists would sneak up the hill, close to where the Americans were, and fire rifles at them.  There were also kamikaze and bonsai attacks on a regular basis. During this time d at least 2 Japanese pilots were shot down.  Sometimes at midnight Polynesians would go on walks with their goats....sadly, these innocents would then get killed by gunfire because they were mistaken for the enemy.  There were lots of eerie sounds at night.  The lives of the men were quite primitive, as they were living in tents on watery hillsides (with lots of tomato juice and bony horses!). There were no showers so the men would fill their helmets with water and wash and shave out of them.

At one point the men learned that there was German 88 artillery guns in the mountains on rails.  The German soldiers would run the guns out on rails and then fire, pull back and then reload.  The guns were usually hidden in camouflage until after dark.  There was a Shrii castle on the upper most point of the mountain and an elevator that went from top to bottom in the castle, as well as tunnels that would go to the outside of the mountain.  On a regular basis Japanese soldiers would come out of these tunnels and shoot marines.  The Japanese often used flame throwers during these attacks as well.  Finally the marines and infantry put 55 gallon drums of oil and gas in the main shaft of this "fortress" and blew them up.  This destroyed the Japanese and German main HQ. 

The men left their tiny island to travel to Okinawa as a whole battalion...however, they were delayed at a nearby naval anchorage first and despite the island control were set up to protect the Navy there.  Grandpa remembers seeing lots of dead navy men, dad men in hammocks, and lots of damaged ships. 

After the time spent at the Naval Anchorage the men were finally sent back to Okinawa and were supposed to head home in September.  The high point of this trip is that men were screened and sent back home to the U.S. While in Okinawa Grandpa was put on MP to guard and protect the Okinawa people.  Food would come in on boats for people.  There were lots of thieves (mostly GIs hoping for a treat of U.S. food) at this time and sometimes the food would go missing.  However, a lot of the times the food was spoiled or bad to eat....there was usually squid, octopus...yuck...never anything that they wanted to eat. 

While in Okinawa on M.P. duty a Typhoon hit Okinawa Harbor and it was destroyed. Grandpa remembers the sheer wreckage and terror of this event, and the major cleanup that ensued.  In January of 1946 the men were finally able to leave the Pacific Theater and return to the States. Due to the fact that many of the boat rides Grandpa had been on had turned into nightmarishly long events, the soldiers were prepared for another hellish boat ride; however, the trip home (from Okinawa to CA) only took seven days. Instead of a tiny and compact carrier the men found themselves on a fancy boat known as the Admiral Class Benson...and it took them to San Luis Obispo. Upon arrival in CA, Grandpa was processed (medically cleared) and then shipped to Chicago - finally back in Illinois after what seemed like a lifetime.  The war was over and Grandpa would resume his life back in the flatlands of Illinois, never wishing to travel by water again.  And I can't say that I blame him.