Local WWII veteran shares Okinawa experiences

Local veteran Fred Long served in Okinawa, Japan, among other places, during World War II, and has stories from his time there that you can read. And he shared more with us last week.

Long, who last Saturday turned 99 years of age, wrote a series of short stories in 1999 that are still on the internet.

He had been approached by J.A. Hitchcock, a woman whose father had also been in Okinawa. She wanted to honor him and asked Long to contribute a story from there.

One story turned into more, and the stories range from describing some of the more harrowing aspects of war to funny things that happened, sometimes both.

"Another time," a story begins, "we moved and set-up our bivouac area. Shortly after, an artillery outfit moved in behind us and started firing over our heads. The enemy did not like that too well and started firing back at them. The problem was, the shells were falling a little short and into our area."

"We were pinned down for a few days and nights and, during that time, I learned to whistle like the sound of a shell coming in. One day during a lull in the shelling, we emerged from our diggings and I don't remember where we were going, but four of us were walking single file through an area that had been shelled and was pockmarked with shell holes. We had also had much rain and the holes had filled with water. I was the last one in line and without thinking, let out a whistle like a shell coming in. Suddenly the man ahead of me jumped into a shell hole in water up to his neck and started screaming for us to take cover. I did not realize that my whistle was the cause of this until, as we pulled him out of the hole, he said, 'didn't you guys hear that shell come in? It must have been a dud.'"

"It dawned on me that I was at fault, and with this big Polish guy standing there soaking wet, I was not about to tell him or anyone else that I had whistled. This is the first time I have related this story other than to my wife and if he reads this, I don't think he will come all the way from Wisconsin to kill me."

Long writes about being a truck driver for the 96th Quartermaster Company of the U.S. Army's 96th Infantry Division, driving supplies near the front lines, hauling out "spent troops" and giving them canned fruit.

He writes about bullets flying by, trading Japanese sandals for fresh loaves of bread, getting seasick while waiting out a storm in a ship for three days, seeing a ship destroyed by a submarine, and more.

"I saw a column of smoke and flame and debris about four hundred feet in the air where that ship had been," reads one detail of a story. 

Long's stories can be found at https://www.jahitchcock.com/fred.html

Long spoke to The Star last week and told more about his time in the service.

Long had enlisted in the National Guard, along with his brothers, near Kent, Washington in 1940 for what was supposed to be a year. His parents bought a dairy farm, expecting their sons to be back to help take care of it. 

"Things were getting heated up [in the war]," Long said, "so we didn't get out after one year's training. My one year turned into five years, four months and 23 days." 

Long stayed in the states for a while longer, being stationed at Camp White, in Oregon, sometimes being assigned to drive a lieutenant or colonel around, and later to drive a band around to entertain troops.

Assigned to the 96th Infantry Division, Long went overseas in 1944 to the island of Leteh in the Philippines, where several more of his stories take place.

While some fighting was going on, bullets were flying, and taking cover in a hole with a sergeant, Long ran to his truck where there were two bandoleers of ammunition, grabbed them, and ran back to the hole.

"As I was running back to the hole I thought, 'I can live without my feet; I can't without my head,' and I made a dive for the hole, and as I did a shell went off behind me and flipped me! I went into the hole with my feet in the sergeant's face."

He didn't get hit by shrapnel but recalls the sand stinging him.

The 96th Division was then sent to Okinawa in Japan.

Long's job was to back his truck onto an LST boat, and pick up supplies ranging from food, to clothing, to ammunition, and take it back to his outfit beyond the enemy artillery's range where troops could pick up the supplies as needed. 

He recommends the movie "Hacksaw Ridge," which mentions the 96th division a few times, and shows the 27th Division taking the place of the 96th after many of the 96th were killed or wounded.

His stories found online take place during this time.

Long returned to the Philippines where he eventually learned about the war being over.

He said that while he heard of some groups of men celebrating wildly, he described the group of men he was with as being contemplative when they learned the war was over.

It was also during this time that Long predicted his own future unknowingly.

"When the bomb had dropped, we knew it wouldn't be long," he said, "and the guys were showing me pictures of their sweetheart, going to go home and marry the girl, and I said, 'Not me, I'm not ever going to get married, ever.' I also remember saying, 'if I ever did get married, I'd like a dark-haired girl, shorter than I am, that doesn't drink or smoke. I'd like a boy first and then a girl, but I'm not going to get married.'" 

He made it to Kirkland, Washington, where his parents had moved, on Christmas Day, and they were glad he'd made it home for Christmas.

"One week later, on New Years Day of 1946," he recalled, "I walked into Walt's Bakery and Fountain in Kirkland, and there was the prettiest girl behind the counter. And I knew the moment I saw her that that was my wife. We started dating. I asked her to marry me. 

"I'm standing and she's sitting," he continued. "She looked up at me and said, 'I don't even know you!' We got married April 2, three months and one day after we met, and we made it for 70 years, one month, one week, and one day. And she was beautiful."

Fred and Valeta Long had one boy and one girl, just as he had thought about while in the Philippines as World War II came to a close.