Read Online We Who Are Alive and Remain by Marcus Brotherton - Free Book Online
Authors: Marcus Brotherton
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service. Nobody ever thought I’d have to go. My brother went into the air force. He went over to Spokane, then to Douglas, Arizona. In four years he never went anywhere except those two places. I was in the service for 20½ months and was in 9 foreign countries and a bunch of states. I really saw the world.
Roy Gates
I think everybody remembers Pearl Harbor. I was a sophomore at A&M and had been to a movie that Sunday. When I came back the radios were all on, telling about Pearl Harbor. My first thought was that we were into it up to our necks. My second thought was Wow, well, here we go.
A&M was an ROTC college, so we were technically already in the army upon enrollment as university students. For the first two years you were required to be in the corps. Then you got a contract with the government to get a commission the last two years. Because of the extra training, we went to school year-round.
When we graduated they sent us to Camp Beauregard in Louisiana, then to Fort Sill for thirteen weeks of field artillery, where I went through OCS school to become an officer. From there I went to the 10th Armored Division.
What was my initial goal in the military? To get out! [laughs]. After it was explained to me what an S meant on my report (the poor grade I received for fighting with my battalion commander at A&M), I knew I wasn’t going to go anywhere in the service. So it was a matter of putting in time. But I was gung ho to get overseas and get into the fighting.
Dewitt Lowrey
I finished the eleventh grade, then got a job loading boats in the shipyards. I was making big money. I had every intention of returning to school, but by then all my buddies had gone to the service.
I tried to get into the navy with my cousin. They turned me down because they said I was color-blind. About two weeks later I went down to the post office and saw Uncle Sam pointing his finger at me saying, “I need you.” A paratrooper sign was over on the left and I said, “Now, that sounds exciting.”
So I went over to the recruiting sergeant and said, “I’ll join, but I don’t want the regular army, I want the paratroops, nothing else.”
He said, “That, I can’t assure you.”
I said, “If I don’t make it, I want to get back out and join the air force as a bombardier.”
He said, “I think that can be arranged.”
I joined up right there. I think it was after dinner. They carried me out to the country for Mama to sign my papers so I could get in. Then they shipped me out that night. I went to Fort McPherson, then over to Toccoa.
As it turned out, I made the paratroopers all right, and everything went smooth from then on.
Why did I volunteer for the paratroopers? Well, I had never done anything like that before, and it sounded like fun. In fact, it was fun—until they sent us overseas.
Fortunately, I didn’t get the same test for color-blindness that I had in the navy. With the navy, they gave me a page full of colored dots and I had to say which number was on it. I got one of those wrong, so that was it for the navy. Now, I don’t think I’m even color-blind. I can tell all the different blues and greens and yellows. But that particular number I couldn’t pick out of those dots. They didn’t give me that test for the paratroopers. I never had any trouble with the paratroopers.
Norman Neitzke
I was a sophomore in high school. It was a Sunday, a nice, sunny afternoon. I was home studying and heard about it on radio. We were just shocked. None of us knew where Pearl Harbor was. After that, we learned quickly. When we came back to school on Monday they had the radio on at school. President Roosevelt gave his declaration of war. We thought it was terrible that somebody would do that to our country. Everybody about my age group or just a little older volunteered for the service right away. I was fifteen, so I waited a bit.
Frank Soboleski
My mother and father were from Austria and Poland, and in the months before
Roy Gates
I think everybody remembers Pearl Harbor. I was a sophomore at A&M and had been to a movie that Sunday. When I came back the radios were all on, telling about Pearl Harbor. My first thought was that we were into it up to our necks. My second thought was Wow, well, here we go.
A&M was an ROTC college, so we were technically already in the army upon enrollment as university students. For the first two years you were required to be in the corps. Then you got a contract with the government to get a commission the last two years. Because of the extra training, we went to school year-round.
When we graduated they sent us to Camp Beauregard in Louisiana, then to Fort Sill for thirteen weeks of field artillery, where I went through OCS school to become an officer. From there I went to the 10th Armored Division.
What was my initial goal in the military? To get out! [laughs]. After it was explained to me what an S meant on my report (the poor grade I received for fighting with my battalion commander at A&M), I knew I wasn’t going to go anywhere in the service. So it was a matter of putting in time. But I was gung ho to get overseas and get into the fighting.
Dewitt Lowrey
I finished the eleventh grade, then got a job loading boats in the shipyards. I was making big money. I had every intention of returning to school, but by then all my buddies had gone to the service.
I tried to get into the navy with my cousin. They turned me down because they said I was color-blind. About two weeks later I went down to the post office and saw Uncle Sam pointing his finger at me saying, “I need you.” A paratrooper sign was over on the left and I said, “Now, that sounds exciting.”
So I went over to the recruiting sergeant and said, “I’ll join, but I don’t want the regular army, I want the paratroops, nothing else.”
He said, “That, I can’t assure you.”
I said, “If I don’t make it, I want to get back out and join the air force as a bombardier.”
He said, “I think that can be arranged.”
I joined up right there. I think it was after dinner. They carried me out to the country for Mama to sign my papers so I could get in. Then they shipped me out that night. I went to Fort McPherson, then over to Toccoa.
As it turned out, I made the paratroopers all right, and everything went smooth from then on.
Why did I volunteer for the paratroopers? Well, I had never done anything like that before, and it sounded like fun. In fact, it was fun—until they sent us overseas.
Fortunately, I didn’t get the same test for color-blindness that I had in the navy. With the navy, they gave me a page full of colored dots and I had to say which number was on it. I got one of those wrong, so that was it for the navy. Now, I don’t think I’m even color-blind. I can tell all the different blues and greens and yellows. But that particular number I couldn’t pick out of those dots. They didn’t give me that test for the paratroopers. I never had any trouble with the paratroopers.
Norman Neitzke
I was a sophomore in high school. It was a Sunday, a nice, sunny afternoon. I was home studying and heard about it on radio. We were just shocked. None of us knew where Pearl Harbor was. After that, we learned quickly. When we came back to school on Monday they had the radio on at school. President Roosevelt gave his declaration of war. We thought it was terrible that somebody would do that to our country. Everybody about my age group or just a little older volunteered for the service right away. I was fifteen, so I waited a bit.
Frank Soboleski
My mother and father were from Austria and Poland, and in the months before
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