Ivan R. Miller Life during WWII. Box 3 Folder 12

Transcription

1 Eric Walz History 300 Collection Ivan R. Miller Life during WWII By Ivan R. Miller October 21, 2003 Box 3 Folder 12 Oral Interview conducted by Kurt Hunsaker Transcript copied by Carol May September 2005 Brigham Young University Idaho 1

2 Kurt Hunsaker conducted this interview on October 21, 2003 in the home of Bro. Ivan Miller. The interview is approximately forty minutes. KH-To go ahead and start out, you already told me once, but could you tell me what year you were born? IM-I was born over in Parker, Idaho, on November 12, 1919, and grew up there during the depression and all. Then when this opportunity came to get my year s training I volunteered, which surprised my family and my brothers. They thought I lost my mind. My folks were not too happy about it, but I wanted to get my year over with so I could then go on to school. KH-So was it required at the time that you join the army for a year? IM-No, they were going to start drafting they said, but why at the time I signed up it was voluntary. KH-And how soon before the war was that? IM-I went in September 1940, and Pearl Harbor was December 1941, so a little over a year I was in there before the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. Then the war was on. KH-And you were saying something earlier that President Roosevelt asked people to join the war seeing that there was danger or something like that? IM-Well he could see that trouble was coming and we were the ones that were isolated, America you know. So when it came time for us to get out of training, why he could see that he needed to keep us in there because he knew trouble was coming and it was just, well December a couple of three months and Pearl harbor happened and the rest is history. When we first heard of Pearl Harbor it was on a Sunday and we had our own LDS Church service meetings there. We had quite a few LDS fellows there in company at Fort Lewis, Washington, and that afternoon one of the fellows came rushing in and said the Japs have just bombed Pearl Harbor, and I said where is Pearl Harbor? Then we all turned on the radio and listened. So, immediately we got orders to get out of the barracks cause (sic) they didn t know where the Japs might have an aircraft carrier that could come in and bomb the base. So we went out into the forest and stayed over night. I had been recommended to go to San Francisco to Letterman General Hospital for surgical technician study there. I figured well with this on I won t be going, but the next day they told me to grab my things; I was headed to San Francisco. So why They put me in charge of five other fellows and headed us off on the train heading to San Francisco. Well, there were so many troop trains that our train kept getting side tracked. So when it came time to eat again they gave us so many meal tickets on the train, and we didn t have anymore meal tickets. So, the fellow on the dining car said listen you guys come and eat and if Uncle Sam can t pay it, why Union Pacific can. But anyway they charged us for what we d eaten there so they could claim money. Well, to give you an idea, I want to dwell on that for just a minute. I went down and became a surgical 2

3 technician, I sailed to the South Pacific, I was there a year. I came back. I went to Texas to become an officer, and while I was there I got called out of the ranks, I went into the Captains office and he threw these papers at me here and said well what s this all about? And I looked and it was those meals that we had on the train. So I explained it to him. It was eleven dollars and something for the five of us to eat there. I said by golly, and I told him what the fellow on the dining car said, and I said I ll pay for them. He said no, you won t. He swore and said those stupid people back in Washington, D. C. He said they ve spent more money trying the papers had come to Fort Lewis, went to the South Pacific, came back, and came down to where we were being trained. He said I ll write them a letter on some asbestos or something. So I never heard what came of it, so one of these days they may come and say boy you really owe some money. But that shows you how sometimes people don t think. Eleven dollars and something, and they spent all of that time and money and stuff. Anyway I just wanted to share that with you. But I got to San Francisco; I told the sergeant there what I d done. He said boy I don t know whether you can charge something like that to the government or not, but he said at least you had to eat. So anyway I trained there, and we met the first boatload of casualties from Pearl Harbor. We brought them into Letterman General Hospital there, and we helped unload them, and bring them in, and treat them. That was the first time that I had seen bullet holes. I found that quite interesting. A bullet, if it isn t a direct hit, if it s on an angle here it will follow bones. One fellow got hit in the chest here, and it went and followed the ribs right around to his backbone. I could wiggle it there. Another one was looking like this and one hit him right there between the eyes. It didn t go through his skull but it went up over and was back there (pointing to the back of his head). We wiggled it and we just had to cut it and take it out. And one that I really got a kick out of was, he was out with his mouth open watching and a bullet went right through there and out there (pointing to his cheeks), but it didn t touch a tooth. He had two bandages, and I said you re going to have dimples to make the girls go crazy. But they were shot up pretty bad. A lot of pain, we did a lot of operations. But anyway I was there for three months. Then the last month I was a trainer and helped teach some of the classes. I went back to Fort Lewis in time to join my outfit and came back to San Francisco to go to the South Pacific. We didn t know where we were going. We knew we were going west. While we were there in San Francisco, the dog track they called it, I got a blister on my finger chopping wood and it blistered and broke, and then I got an infection in around there (pointing to hand). So when it came time to load onto the boat the officer said now don t show that to anybody we ll carry your baggages (sic) on the ship and after we get out to sea then we will get you in there and get that treated. And so that seemed quite a bit interesting to me; an enlisted man, the officers getting my stuff aboard for me. But anyway, the next morning after we were out to sea, why I took that in and the ship doctors were upset with me. What are you doing on this boat? You should be in the hospital. Anyway they treated it and I was in the hospital on the boat for eleven days. And Capt. Brockbank was one of our officers. He was a good LDS man from down in Utah. He stayed right with me all the way through that. And then we landed on May the 4 th, 1942, on the little island of Efati in the New Hemrity. It s called Banamantu now, the island are. But if you ve been noticing the 3

4 Church news in the last few months they ve had quite a few articles about down there, that they have the gospel there and they re really going gung ho. But when we were there, there were some Christian natives there. I don t know what religion it was, but we tried to hold our little group. We tried to hold our meetings every Sunday that we could. I ll have to admit it wasn t every Sunday. We couldn t do it. But one interesting thing happened there that I kind of remember is, we were down on the beach holding our sacrament one evening, and a (sic) aircraft carrier came steaming up the channel to go into the navy yard where they had a wire cable net they kept across there so that submarines couldn t get in. Well as it was going up there it suddenly just poured on the steam and surged ahead and the destroyer came right in back of it and started throwing these depth charges down and BOOM, BOOM, BOOM you know. And a submarine was coming in right under it, a Jap sub trying to get into the harbor there where the ships were. I m sure it was considered a suicide mission and it was by the time they got through with them. But I said that is one of the most exciting sacrament meetings I can remember. Nobody slept through that one. KH-I bet! IM-The submarine did not come to the surface, but the next morning there was a big thick oil all along the beach. And the sailor told us that they just literally blew it apart and it just sank so nobody could come to the surface. But before we left Fort Lewis Hugh B. Brown, Elder Hugh B. Brown came out there and set Captain Brockbank apart as our group leader. And then we went over to the islands there and he conducted the meetings while he was there. And then he got injured and he put me in charge, and I was in charge until I left. And one of my friends Tom Deppy, lives over in Boise now or in Eagle. I was talking to him on the phone the other day, and he said you know we were studying the book Jesus the Christ by Talmage, that was our study lesson. He said I have that book that we used there because he was when I left I don t know whether he was in charge or what. I can t remember anymore. Anyway he wound up with the book and I m anxious to see it when I get over there. But we did try to hold meetings. Then when I came back to the states I went down to Texas to become an officer. KH-How long had you been on those islands? IM-Just a little over a year. KH-A little over a year. So from the time from Pearl Harbor to that time period had been about a year or a year and three months? IM-Let s see we landed there May the 4 th of 1942 and see Dec. 7 th of 1941 was Pearl Harbor. KH-And how old were you at the time? IM-Let me see I was born in I think I was what would that have made me? 4

5 KH-Twenty-one? Twenty-two? IM-In 1940 I would have been twenty-one wouldn t I? I laid out of high school a year so I graduated in 1939 and it was during the depression. And I didn t have any money to go to school and the folks were strapped. They couldn t send me. Anyway, I decided that was what I wanted to do. And down in Camp Barkley, Texas, that s where we were being trained, man we had it tough there. I didn t get a chance to go to church at all there. They just kept us under pressure. They did all sorts of things to test you, you know to see how you d react. KH-What were you being trained for? IM-I was trained in a medical depot outfit to be a medical depot officer. See I d been in the surgical technician I was the enlisted man in charge of our field hospital in the South Pacific. I stayed right in the hospital. I helped the officers with their operations. KH-What was your rank? IM-I was sergeant. KH-Sergeant during that time, OK. IM-One night we were operating on a fellow down on the beach down right at the edge of the jungle. And we got word that he was terribly ill and we went down, two officers and myself. And he d had this pain in his side. He was on a gun emplacement down there, and the fellow that was over that thought he was goldbricking. And we couldn t do anything for him. Why then we got him opened up his appendix had just disappeared, but we didn t have any way of any tubes to put in there so I boiled some rubber gloves and cut them down through the fingers there. They were sterile, and the officer sewed that into his side there so that puss and that could come out. I sat up all night with him after they went home. And I took a couple of these tongue depressors, and taped them together and made some forceps where I could get a hold of his tongue and keep him from swallowing his tongue when he came to. He was really sick. He didn t make it; he died the next day. KH-Was that in Texas or on the island? IM-That was on the island. We didn t have you couldn t have any lights there you know to see, for the Japs to see. So we were down in the jungle kind of in a tent and we had a 25 watt generator with a little old light up above and I was trying to keep all of the bugs out of the operation while they were operating. And they just punctured a can of Ether and put gauze over his nose and sprinkled it on there and that s what put him out. We did quite a bit of work for the natives. I had one native that came into the dispensary there where or the hospital. It was a hospital-dispensary together. He d been working out in the jungle and he d cut his hand open there with his machete, and it was all full of crap you know. I spent a considerable amount of time cleaning that all out 5

6 and then put some sulfanilamide in it and then bandaged it up. He loved that white bandage on that black skin you know. And I tried to show him. Now you hold this hand up like this and just use this hand. I d tell him and he just (nodding). Well he came back at noon and he d been out in the jungle and that was all worn off and all the crap in it again. So I cleaned it up again and tried to tell him again. Now NO don t use that hand, just use this hand here. He came back again that night in the evening. So I didn t say anything to him I just cleaned it up, put his hand here (pointing to my shoulder), and took some wrap and put it around, and he never came back. So I told my grandkids that there s a native with his hand (gesturing to shoulder again). KH-That s funny. IM-Oh, I ve sewed people up and did a few things you know. KH-So then what happened in Texas once you moved to Texas? IM-Well there they trained me to become an officer and for three months I was under intensive training. But they finally commissioned me as a 2 nd Lieutenant, and then I went to training in the United States. I had month in Virginia, a month in St. Louis, and another month in San Francisco in medical depots to get the training. And that s when Helen and I decided to get married. Because they told me they thought because of my experience of being gone over there a year that I d probably be kept in the states as a trainer. So we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. I came from St. Louis and she came from up here on the buses and we met there. On November 8 th we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. We had two or three days together, and then I went back to St. Louis and she came back up here. She was teaching school, and we d agreed that when I found out where I was going to be stationed she could give them her notice and we could be there. When I got back to St. Louis they said I was headed for a cold climate overseas. I didn t know where they meant, but I figured it was Europe somewhere. So I got a delay en route and came back and had Thanksgiving in Parker. Then we were gone for two years, or I was gone for two years and went to Europe and landed in Glasgow, Scotland, went down to England, went to a medical depot G-16 just outside of Whim and was there for awhile. I was the shipping officer and the supply officer and different things in our company. And I would receive the merchandise that would be shipped in to us. I d put together field hospitals so I could send them to an outfitted army you know, or a division or something. And supposedly if I did it right they would have everything they would need, even down to the roles of toilet paper cause (sic) I d have all the instruments and everything put together. That was a very challenging thing for me Kurt. I spent long hours there at night figuring out We had three size (sic) of boxes that we got and everything had to fit in them. And so I d have to stay there at night and try to figure, well how many can we get in there, and this and that, and get it all together and then ship it out cause (sic) they were getting ready for the invasion, D-Day. And so it was an interesting experience. And they finally did have D-Day. KH-Were you in England at the time? 6

7 IM-I was in England, yes. Then I went across and landed at Omaha Beach in the last of September, first of October somewhere in there. KH-What was your impression when you saw Omaha and Utah Beaches? IM-I didn t see Utah Beach, but I saw Omaha. And I went up on the hill into a German gun emplacement. I went in to look around. There was just a slit like this through the concrete. It looked out over the beach, and up there on the wall was painted a little thing and showed all along the beach how many meters they were from this place and this place and this place, so when they set their gun to shoot they could be right on. But the thing that interested me there Kurt is one of the shells from one of the ships out at sea went through that slit I m talking about and didn t explode. It hit into the wall, Wham, Wham, Wham, and it made dents in the cement that deep (a couple of inches). I could see even the rings of the bullet as it hit, of the shell you know. I don t know what those guys were doing. When we landed on Omaha Beach Captain Vogel one of our officers and I put our pup tents together. We each had a half. Sometime during the night I was aware that he was awake sitting up. I said, Harry what are you doing? He said by damn I m resting. So I got up too. Then we shipped out of there, and they gave a bunch of vehicles to move our company into Paris. We were going into Paris. I wish I d have kept it (sic), but they gave me I was the transportation officer, they gave me a sheet the size of a typewriter sheet with a little squiggle line, here Omaha Beach and a squiggle line that said Paris. I said to the sergeant where s my map? He said that s it Lieutenant. That s it! I said how am I supposed to know where to go? He said just stay on the main road. So anyway we took off and I was in the lead vehicle trying to pilot our way there. As we left the beach there the MP was signaling go on. We went around and pretty quick we ran into a bunch of vehicles going this way and I said to the driver, well wait a minutes let s let them get by and then we ll go. I started looking around and happened to look and, wait a minute that s our outfit. They had just routed us around the block. So like Moses I just parted them and we went through. And we were doing pretty good until we came to a fork in the road that I couldn t decide which was the traveled road. Some little children were playing there and so I got out of the vehicle and went up them and pointed up the road. Paris le bahn? Wie! OK, I got back in the truck, and I said well I guess that s the right road. Then I went wait a minute. So I went and pointed up the other road. Paris le bahn? Wie! So anyway we were eenie meeny minee moe things (sic). But we got on it and it took us to Paris. We got there that night and of course black out conditions. No lights. Man I stopped and talked to a Jean Darm right there by the Eiffel Tower. I had memorized the place I wanted to go, the street I wanted to go on. He understood me and told me in French. I don t speak French. A little old man with a gray overcoat and hat came over and said could I help you Lieutenant. I said bless you re here you can. So he told me everything you know. I don t know how many miles we went before we got lost that time, but I ran into some MP s sitting there. I went over to ask them where this place was and they said you re right on the way there Lieutenant, just go down I said don t show me you come get in front of me, take me. So we got there. The Colonel had gone ahead in the Elephant Wagon as we called it, his car. When we got there he said Miller 7

8 where the hell have you been? Of course if you can imagine 150 vehicles behind you, when we stopped everybody stopped. But we made it. The next day or the next day, I can t remember which, then I took those vehicles up to Metz to deliver them to Patton, General Patton. He was trying to capture Metz. As we got up there, why while the Sergeant and I was checking them in I just saw an old World War I trench caved in, grass growing. I wandered out through the forest. There was a cemetery with thousands, hundreds or thousands of white crosses, World War I. I remember I went out there and took my helmet off and stood there and thought here within one generation we re back over here trying to settle things that didn t get settled then. Anyway I was stationed at Le Borges airport. Now does that ring a bell to you at all? KH-No. IM-That s where Limburg landed when he made his famous one way flight. That s where I was stationed. I was on detaches service there. The other lieutenant and I, we were shipping emergency medical supplies up front in these C-64 airplanes. They re a stubby airplane, one wing. They re used in Alaska. They can take off on a sharp run and everything and bring back the critically wounded. It was an interesting experience. I saw a few plane crashes and that there. Oh there s one thing that happened over in the South Pacific I should tell you about that I chuckle about. I was talking to the old native chief one day through his son, who could speak both languages. He said that eleven years ago they had a couple of missionaries over for dinner, and I said that s wonderful. He said I don t think you understand sergeant, they were the dinner these guys were cannibals. In Paris they treated us royally. It was an off limit city to everybody else but those stationed there. If you d go into a store and want something they wouldn t take any money, no, no. They were thankful. That soon changed once the troops got all in there. I had that experience while I was down at Letterman General Hospital. I hate to keep jumping around, but it just comes back to me. There was some shoe polish I liked. We had to keep our shoes polished. It was a (sic) English made. I don t remember the name of it now. But I saw a little shoe store from the hospital there so I walked up. There was a little Greek fellow running it. I asked him about this and he said yes he had one container left. So I was getting ready to pay him and he said no, no. I said wait a minute, I didn t come here bumming. I know, he said, that s the last I ve got and I can t get anymore. I said I don t feel good enough let me pay you. No, soldier, he said, you fight to save this great country. God bless you, and he couldn t take any money. (Edited conversation) KH-So that shoe polish story was in? IM-That was in San Francisco. Well my outfit went up to Liege Belgium. I was still of detached service there at Le Borges. KH-Was that during the Battle of the Bulge? IM-The Battle of the Bulge started on December the 16 th if I remember right. One of our pilots came back in and said boy there s something happening up there. Well the next 8

9 thing we knew there was just a stream of trucks taking soldiers up there and we learned after that the Germans were trying to plow through to get to Liege. Well our outfit up there didn t want them to get those medical supplies, so they moved back to Norad, Belgium, which was west there a number of miles. They d had a little Belgian girl about fourteen or fifteen as one of their secretaries there to help. Her parents were really frightened. They didn t want her to be there and have the Germans find that she d helped. They begged Colonel Herren to take her with them. So he agreed to do it and brought her back to Norad. We stayed with them. Slept out there, then came and worked at our place during the daytime. She was a sweet girl. I can t remember her name. I got her to write me a letter in French, and I sent it to Helen. KH-Can I just ask you really quick so that I understand. So the Battle of the Bulge happened and the Germans were coming from the north towards your position where you were at? IM-They were coming from the east and plowing to get to Liege. Now I was still in Paris. KH-You were still in Paris. IM-So that s when my outfit moved from Liege over to Norad. While we were when the war was over they took us over they took us into eastern France. Hugh B. Brown came to Paris and was going to hold a meeting for all the LDS soldiers that could get to it. I remember it was in the Stars and Stripes. That was the paper that the soldiers got. Major Duree came running out as I was walking by and said Ivan, Ivan your church is having a big meeting in Paris. I said yes I know that. Just then Colonel Herren came walking along and he said Colonel, Lieutenant Miller s church is having a big deal in Paris. They wanted all the LDS soldiers they can get there. Colonel turned and looked at me Lieutenant Miller it would be a pretty damn supply officer that couldn t figure out a reason not to be in Paris that day. I said thank you I ll be there. So Captain Madsen and I went in and I got to see Hugh B. Brown again and visit him a few minutes. I ran into a friend that I had. I just knew of him. Duane Sylvester, he died a few years ago here in Rexburg. He married Helen s close friend so I d heard all about him. We just talked up a storm while we d get together, when we could. Anyway that was a great experience to get to. One of the French ladies told how they had to try to hold their meeting in their homes when the Germans were all around them there and they didn t dare let them know they were holding meetings because they were really down on them for that. Anyway, that was a great experience. That was the only LDS meeting I went to in Europe. I did subscribe to the magazine, the one there in Paris or in England. They put a monthly KH-Was it called the Liahona? IM-Not then. It was See about my recall button. KH-That s all right. 9

10 IM- Anyway I subscribed to get that and got it. But we were so busy there Kurt that Sunday was just another day. We worked seven days a week, and I worked long, long hours. Twelve to fourteen hours a day trying to do this and I d stay late and tried to figure out the boxes. I got a sween palatine neurology, I guess from all that pressure with no time off. I don t know for sure what caused it Anyway, I went in to the doctor and he took a swab and touched it in cocaine and went up this nostril and touched that gangling of nerves and it turned it off just like turning off the light. Well it just kept getting worse and worse and the Colonel said Ivan I ve got to get you to a hospital where they can do something about it. They took me to this hospital north of Antwerp. Well the doctor there took a big long steel needle and rove through my cheek here, trying to hit that gangling of nerves. He was going to shoot pure alcohol in there and kill it, but he had to do it while it was hurting so he would know whether he d hit it or not. He said now Lieutenant if that gets too hard, why you tell me. So finally after banging it in there he drove it in like that (an inch or so), I said well I ve had about all I can get. So anyway, he took it out. That s when Hitler was bombing Antwerp trying to blow it off the map. He had told them to blow up the docks and everything there at Antwerp. Well the allies pushed him out of there too quick. He wanted to make a city without any docks. So then he said we ll make it some docks without a city, and he was trying to blow it up. That s when I got in all that bombing because they were going right over our head and blew the window out, glass all over my bed. I told the doctors I came in with one problem and was going out shell-shocked. I was there two or three weeks. When those bombs explode Kurt they d just make your ear drums go like this. They were shooting them down. They were V1 and V2 s. I don t know whether you know what those are. The V1 was the first one the Germans had. It sounded like a truck in second gear trying to get up a hill, and when it shut off everybody look out because it was going to go down. But the V2 was the one that got on my nerves. It went way up like this and came down. Honestly I was looking out the window to the west there one evening and one of those went right through my line of vision and I didn t see it until the explosion you know. That made you a little nervous because they had it designed to go down through a house or something clear down to the basement and then explode, and it would pulverize it. KH- Was it a type of artillery or a missile or what kind of? IM- It was a missile that they d shoot. It was not manned of course, but they d shoot it. It s like these rockets we re shooting at the moon and stuff now. KH- Like a cruise missile. IM- I ve often said that if it hadn t been for our air force, boy blowing up those factories and things up there, the war may not have ended just like well I can see the Lord s hand in it. Just one example. Their superb panzer division was there back in the beaches of Omaha. Hitler didn t think that the attack there on Omaha Beach was the real thing. He thought they d probably move up to the North there just a short distance from England you know. He held the panzer division back and wouldn t let them use it. I m as convinced as I m sitting here that the good Lord had him do it. Cause if they d have got (sic) up there it might have been a different story. I don t know how the guys made it to 10

11 shore anyway. They had a terrible time getting ashore. I just thank the Lord. Well I ll give you an example. When I got ready to come home from Europe they shipped me down to Marseilles, France. I had enough numbers, credits whatever, points so I just left my outfit and went down there alone. KH-Was this before V-day or after V-day? IM-It was after V-Day and the war in Japan had just ended. So they said I had enough points to go home because I had them all outnumbered. I got down to Marseilles, France. They just took soldiers from all different kinds of outfits and put them together to make kind of a company to come home. These guys were playing cards and everything and I didn t play cards. So I sat on a lumber pile there where they were doing some building. I kind of reviewed in my mind all the places I d been and all the experiences. I thanked the Lord for protecting me like he did. I promised him I d try to pay him back and you know Kurt, I ve never got him paid back yet. I just sat there and prayed and thanked him, all alone just as if I was the only one on earth. But he took care of me and I promised him I d try to do what I could to help. 11