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Authors: Marcus Brotherton
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Pearl Harbor we heard in the news how the egomaniacs in Europe had gobbled up country after country. That intensified the situation for us. On December 7, 1941, we had the radio on at home and heard the news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. I knew right then that I wanted to join the army. I had almost completed the enlistment process when the recruiter demanded to see my birth certificate. Earlier I had told him I was eighteen, but I was only sixteen. When I couldn’t produce a birth certificate, he told me to go home and grow up. That ended my army career for the time being.
I had so much I wanted to do in life, and with the war on I felt like I was wasting my time in high school, so I quit. (Later in life I regretted not graduating, even though after the war I took classes and got my GED.) Early in 1942 I and two friends of mine took a bus to the Twin Cities in Minnesota to try to get a job in a defense plant. We wanted to do something to help the war effort. They wouldn’t hire us in a defense plant; underage again. But the Armours meat-packing plant in South St. Paul was desperate for help, so we got hired there. That’s where I got well acquainted with blood and guts. When summer 1942 came I decided to try something different so I hopped a freight train to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and got hired to drive a truck hauling beans during the harvest. With the harvest over I heard the railroad was hiring men, so I signed on there. We rode a day coach to Needles, California, where the workers were needed.
I was awestruck at what I saw in California. You could just reach up to a tree and eat your fill of oranges and grapefruit, or sleep outside and be comfortable. But after working for the railroad for a while the heat became unbearable, so I hitchhiked to the ocean and looked for another type of work. I found a refrigerator box under a roller coaster in Long Beach and camped out. That was my home for a while.
One day I stopped by a movie set where they were filming a Western. Being used to horses, I asked if they needed someone to ride them. They said they could use me as an extra, so I signed on. I was a good-looking kid, blond, blue-eyed, well built. They asked for my phone number so they could call me in again. Unfortunately I didn’t have a phone at the refrigerator box, so that ended my movie career. Whenever I see a John Wayne movie, I think he probably got my job.
I had always dreamed of flying a plane, so I hitchhiked to San Diego to enroll in a vocational school that taught flying. I had seen P-38s at a military airport and decided I wanted to fly one in the service of my country. I attended classes so I’d be ready when the air force was ready for me, and got a job as a soda jerk in a Waffle House on Market Street to feed myself. I could eat all the waffles, banana split sundaes, malts, and sodas I wanted. With all the free fruit off the trees, I was well fed. I found a small house to rent in Ocean Beach that I shared with three other men who worked in a defense plant. I commuted to school on a bus for ten cents each way.
Five or six months after enrolling in the vo-tech school they tested my eyes and found that I was partially color-blind and had poor depth perception. They told me then that I would never be able to be a pilot. That took the wind out of my sails, so I decided to head home to see my folks. I stuck out my thumb and made it back.
In International Falls I worked on the farm, logged, hunted, and fished until I turned eighteen. On my birthday I hightailed it down to the recruiting office and signed up for the army. This time they took me right in. 1t was 1943. I rode a bus to Fort Snelling for induction and right on to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for basic training.
Ed Tipper
A football buddy and I were out at Dearborn Village, a museum featuring the life and accomplishments of Henry Ford. We were riding a bus from one location to another when somebody stopped the bus and said the United States had
I had so much I wanted to do in life, and with the war on I felt like I was wasting my time in high school, so I quit. (Later in life I regretted not graduating, even though after the war I took classes and got my GED.) Early in 1942 I and two friends of mine took a bus to the Twin Cities in Minnesota to try to get a job in a defense plant. We wanted to do something to help the war effort. They wouldn’t hire us in a defense plant; underage again. But the Armours meat-packing plant in South St. Paul was desperate for help, so we got hired there. That’s where I got well acquainted with blood and guts. When summer 1942 came I decided to try something different so I hopped a freight train to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and got hired to drive a truck hauling beans during the harvest. With the harvest over I heard the railroad was hiring men, so I signed on there. We rode a day coach to Needles, California, where the workers were needed.
I was awestruck at what I saw in California. You could just reach up to a tree and eat your fill of oranges and grapefruit, or sleep outside and be comfortable. But after working for the railroad for a while the heat became unbearable, so I hitchhiked to the ocean and looked for another type of work. I found a refrigerator box under a roller coaster in Long Beach and camped out. That was my home for a while.
One day I stopped by a movie set where they were filming a Western. Being used to horses, I asked if they needed someone to ride them. They said they could use me as an extra, so I signed on. I was a good-looking kid, blond, blue-eyed, well built. They asked for my phone number so they could call me in again. Unfortunately I didn’t have a phone at the refrigerator box, so that ended my movie career. Whenever I see a John Wayne movie, I think he probably got my job.
I had always dreamed of flying a plane, so I hitchhiked to San Diego to enroll in a vocational school that taught flying. I had seen P-38s at a military airport and decided I wanted to fly one in the service of my country. I attended classes so I’d be ready when the air force was ready for me, and got a job as a soda jerk in a Waffle House on Market Street to feed myself. I could eat all the waffles, banana split sundaes, malts, and sodas I wanted. With all the free fruit off the trees, I was well fed. I found a small house to rent in Ocean Beach that I shared with three other men who worked in a defense plant. I commuted to school on a bus for ten cents each way.
Five or six months after enrolling in the vo-tech school they tested my eyes and found that I was partially color-blind and had poor depth perception. They told me then that I would never be able to be a pilot. That took the wind out of my sails, so I decided to head home to see my folks. I stuck out my thumb and made it back.
In International Falls I worked on the farm, logged, hunted, and fished until I turned eighteen. On my birthday I hightailed it down to the recruiting office and signed up for the army. This time they took me right in. 1t was 1943. I rode a bus to Fort Snelling for induction and right on to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for basic training.
Ed Tipper
A football buddy and I were out at Dearborn Village, a museum featuring the life and accomplishments of Henry Ford. We were riding a bus from one location to another when somebody stopped the bus and said the United States had
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