Dean Whitford

Dean Whitford, U.S. Navy, Aviation Radioman, 3rd class

Dean served in the South Pacific just after World War II

Where did you serve?

The South Pacific. Okinawa, Saipan, and Majuro, I was at all three islands. Also, I was at Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shandong, China, so I got to see the world.

Could you have gotten shot down?

No, it was after the war. We were an air/sea rescue squadron (no guns) stationed at NAS San Diego. I saw V-J Day at Hollywood and Vine.

What did you do from 1944-45, after you left high school?

I went into boot camp at Jacksonville, Florida, and then radio school in Memphis, Tennessee for twenty-three weeks, then to Seattle, Washington for gunnery school. After that, I went down to Corpus Christi for flight training, and that’s where we formed our crews, then to San Diego for preparation for going overseas. We got a new airplane, a PBM-5, and we dolled it all up we fixed everything inside and then on the fourteenth of August, the war ended, and when we came back to base, they took our plane away from us. They weren’t going to send any more equipment over since the war was over, so I ended up in San Francisco on a troop ship, and that was the biggest battle I was in because there were Marines on half of the deck and Navy on the other half. There was fighting every single night, somebody would throw a shoe over and the next thing you know, everything was flying, and I don’t think there was a cot left standing. Then, I was in Kāne’ohe Bay, which is on the other side of Oahu, and there is a Naval Air Station there. From there, they assigned us to a squadron. They broke up our crew. One fellow had three kids, so he had enough points that once he got to Honolulu, they called him back again. We ended up as replacements, not as crews, but as individuals. I replaced some radio man in the VH-1 squadron, but there were enough of us that we all knew each other, and some of the guys who I went to boot camp with were in that squadron, which was pretty neat.

What does VH-1 mean?

That was air-sea rescue. Helicopters just came in at the end of World War II, and they were two-man helicopters, they weren’t rescue helicopters, they were for observation. One job we had was when some poor dolt had appendicitis on an LST [Landing Ship, Tank], and there was no doctor, just a corpsman who was 21 who had never operated for this. We went to get a doctor out of a medical facility on Saipan, a Second Lieutenant who had never been in a seaplane before, and we tried to land to get to this guy who was on the ship, but the swells were too high and the water was heavy, and we bounced off of it. We were very afraid that we would lose off afloat and wreck our plane.

So what were you supposed to be doing on this plane then?

There were three mechanics, three ordinance men, and three radio men. I was the number 3 radio man. We lived on seaplane tenders. Some were big enough to accommodate 3 or 4 PBMR on the deck for maintenance.

Could these planes land on the water, too?

We could only land on the water, we had no wheels. 118 feet wingspan, 80 feet long, 29 feet high, 60,000 pounds maximum. 200 miles per hour, 16,900 feet ceiling, 2,400 mile range, 2 Pratt-Whitney 2100 Horsepower engines.

To get the plane on a ship or land what did you have to do?

They attached wheels to bring us up onto ramps. They had huge cranes on the ships that could lift the plane up on deck.

How many crewmen were on the plane then?

There were nine enlisted men, three officers, two pilots, and a navigator. Our plane had no turrets for guns like the others, they took all of them out to lighten the airplane. We took mail to outlying islands that weren’t serviced by anybody else. The waters were really choppy, we could circle the plane to flatten out the water. We then would taxi and take off, usually with the help of JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off).

What is JATO made of and what do they do?

It was a tank of compressed air or a gas of some sort, a jet system, we just dropped them like bombs after we were through with them. There were four bottles weighing 200 pounds each.

On one little island, I think it was Makin, and we were going up and down the beach picking up all of these shells, and they were cats eyes. Once we got back to Honolulu, we walked down the main drag and we saw piles and piles of them in the store windows. Why I didn’t bring a shell home, I don’t know. A lot of people made rings and earrings out of them.

Here is a picture of the crew, and I still keep in touch with these two guys. [picture]. One is from Manhattan and other from Topeka, Kansas. I was on the phone with one from Topeka yesterday, so I still talk to them. This is our patrol plane commander, the head pilot, and he had more hours in the air drunk than the rest of us sober, it made us so comfortable! We would lounge around with all of the beer, and right behind us there was a colored man, who was the provider of the provisions for the MATS, Marine Air Transport Service. We traded him beer for things like fresh eggs, it felt as if we had died and gone to heaven, but he had all kinds of stuff in there and he liked our beer!

So there were still troops there after the war?

In fact, on Saipan, we were given R&R on the beach, so we set up a volleyball net and played there but they also warned us not to go any further. Well, I guess someone had, before us, gone exploring into the woods, but the Japs were still in the caves. We didn’t clear them all out, some Jap just came out and he thought that he was still fighting a war.

Were there still men stationed places after the war?

Oh, absolutely! There were still airfields and men stationed there except for Makin, because that was called a LORAN base, it was a navigational system used so planes could keep on track. The LORAN station there was manned by 3 guys amongst a native colony, could you imagine! The reason we went there was that they needed jeep parts and mail. The three guys had all of these natives taking care of them.

So your primary thing to deliver was mail, but if there was something else you would also deliver it too…

The purpose was Air Sea Rescue, but to keep it busy we flew mail, and one time one high muckety-muck officer, needed a flight so he could get his 50% more pay. We flew him to what is now Vietnam, and we gave them mail and things, then turned around to come back.

Did you make more money since you were flying?

Sure, I was a First Class Seamen so my base pay was $52.00 and half of that more so I ended up with $75.00. I sent $25.00 a month home. Anyway, cigarettes were a nickel, so 50-some dollars went a long way. Once we were in China, the barter system worked very well, and we traded things for American cigarettes there too. I didn’t buy much of the silks or jewelry that they had there. I did buy something, a silk kimono for my mother. It was pretty, had a great big dragon on it. I don’t think she ever wore it.

Did you get any tattoos while you were there?

No, my mother said not to get any so I promised her that but it hurt me because a lot of guys in our squadron got a little tattoo of the insignia on their shoulder. A lot of them got it, but I was one of the ones who didn’t.

This is the log book here, and we had to keep a record of every flight in this book, and everybody had to do this.

So they let you keep the log after the war?

Sure, and here we went to Tarawa in a C-47, which is a DC-3, and one of those planes blew up just after takeoff. They were hauling gasoline, and we went over there to search for the bodies of the crew of that airplane. We circled around and we also had a boat that we were in contact with down below, but that was a nasty job.

Did they transport gasoline a lot?

Well, they were transporting it to some base. One day there was a tidal wave, caused by an underwater earthquake near Hawaii. It was going to come and wash over all of the islands that we were on so we had to evacuate because we were right down at sea level, but Saipan has some hills, fortunately. So, we were all on top of the hills, and then they came around and said they wanted a volunteer to go out and look for that tidal wave. So, our pilot says, OK we’ll go. We went to look for it but nothing ever came.

Were most of those planes junked eventually?

Yes, they were. In fact, we were supposed to fly back to San Diego to be decommissioned in San Diego, and when we got to Honolulu, we had four planes that flew yet out of six, and they checked them over and said that we weren’t going and they weren’t worth saving, so we decommissioned in Oahu.

What was your average flight time?

Three or four hours but there was one that was nine hours.

So you could go nine hours without refueling?

Yes, oh yes, but most of them were only about three or four hours, maybe six once in a while from Hong- Kong to Shanghai. We had twenty-one passengers, including the crew.

Did you always fly over the water?

Sure, it was a seaplane, but we didn’t always, though, when it wasn’t necessary.

How many hours were you in the air?

I logged a total of 420 hours. I have talked to a friend of mine who logged 420 combat hours, and I couldn’t have imagined what that was like getting shot at all of the time.

When we were rotating and being sent home, I lived on five different ships, we never unpacked our stuff. Okinawa to Saipan, engine trouble, bad engine...

So what did you do once you got home?

I can’t remember now but it was about three months before I stayed home one night. I had to get out and see my friends; I was not even 20-years-old then. We would go dancing at this place about a mile and a half out of my town, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and dance until about midnight or later and then we would take everybody home. When I was younger, I took ballroom dance lessons for $ .25 a week. I had a good buddy that was there. He and I danced together. It was quite a while before I got to learn to dance with girls.

When did you go to school after that then?

I didn’t want to go to college, I knew it was available to me, but I worked for a local company called Jamesway, and I had a wonderful job called riding the hook, as in the crane bay. I flew down from one end of the crane bay and hooked up the load, flew to wherever it needed to go, dropped it, I was in the air all of the time. Eighty-five cents an hour, I thought it wouldn’t get any better and I loved it. So, my cousin came along, and he is five years older than I am, and he had started college before the war at Milton, which was thirteen miles away from our home. There were only about 400 students there when we got there, with about 300 veterans and 90 girls. Anyway, he said to me that he would take me for a ride, so he took me down to Milton. The first thing I saw was Whitford Memorial Hall. When I went into the office, and there was my dad’s cousin! You needed so many points, and you got ten credit hours for being a veteran, and I only needed 110 credit hours to graduate. So, I did it in three years and two summer schools, and I squeaked out. But, I worked the whole time so I commuted and worked up a tremendous gas bill, and so I had to work that off by working at a gas station all summer long until my birthday, August 28th, when I received the first check that was mine on my 23rd birthday. I was supposed to meet a buddy of mine and his wife and her sister, who I had dated (and was a good dancer) over at Delavan, which had a big dance hall at the time. It was paradise, so much fun and always a good time.

I had stopped at the Owls Club which is on the way to Delavan and my friend was tending bar and they served turkey dinners there so he set me up with a few martinis, and I was still hungry. I had a turkey lunch. I loaded up on food and martinis and then headed on over to Delavan to dance. I was just too tired, so I was riding back home to Fort Atkinson after my birthday celebration and a car was on the side of the road and all of a sudden it hit me. Luckily, there was a tavern across the road and they all heard the crash. I had gas all over me but I wanted a cigarette in the worst way, but none of them gave me one fortunately or else I would have been in flames right there. You could see the tire tracks all over my pelvis, and the doctor came in from Whitewater to check me out and an ambulance was waiting there the whole time waiting to take me to the hospital 30 miles away. I was in the hospital for nine weeks and at home in bed six weeks. I had a crushed pelvis and broken spine. I had an eight inch crack right into the nerve center of my back and they told my mother that I was never going to walk again. My mother was a basket case. Unbelievable. What a thing to say to tell you that we don’t think Dean will ever walk again. What kind of doctor is that, or I don’t know who it was, if it was a nurse or somebody, but that was not a good thing, she fell apart. She was at my bed crying all the time, crying on and on. Oh what a scene. It was awful. I fooled them all.

So you just fell asleep at the wheel?

Yeah. Not a good thing. It was too much celebration, I just, oh well it was one of those things I should never have done in the first place, I shouldn’t have gone over there, though I really wanted to dance with Dorothy. Oh, such escapades everybody fortunately lives through, or I did anyways.

So how old were you when you married Phyllis?

I was, well I went to work as a deputy collector of internal revenue. In college our whole accounting class took this test and only several passed it and I went into Milwaukee for training and then they sent me to Chilton, Wisconsin and so I went from Milton to Chilton.

So that was with the IRS?

Yes, with the IRS and Chilton is 2,200 fine folks with twenty-two taverns and two Catholic parishes. Imagine that. So how did that work?

Oh, man. Ha ha, lucky I’m not Catholic. Anyway, I lasted till 1952. Anyway, because without my even knowing it, my first pay check comes with a $25.00 deduction to the Democratic Party. Yeah, because it was before civil service and I didn’t particularly like that, and then there was like 6% for retirement and I’m 20 years old and I’m not thinking about retiring and then there were all kinds of deductions. My salary was $3,100.00 a year and I got a $91.00 check twice a month. Man, how could I spend all that money? Anyway room and board took away a chunk of that. I lived with a widow lady and her two teenagers, a boy and daughter. They were very, very nice and at first I had to eat all of my meals out, which I didn’t like and I got so sick and tired of it. Finally, there was another gal who advertised for a roomer and I went over and talked to her and I said is there good meals, and she said “I guess so,” and then I said okay then sign me on. Virtually less than a half block from where I was staying. She was a nut! Yeah and I had spam for dinner, I had spam for breakfast, oh man! Anyways, the room I had, had a single light hanging down on a string, you know… And I put my radio in there, it was ridiculous. And then she had a boyfriend, this was a single lady and she rightfully so. Uh, but this guy came around and he was a knife sharpener, and he had a little truck kind of thing and he went all over the place with it. But when he came home and found out that I was living in that little house with his girlfriend, no way-Jose, I had to get out now! So, I went back to Mrs. Landgolf and I said “can I come back?” ha ha ha. And so she said, “Well how about if you eat with us Dean?” “Oh my gosh, that would be wonderful!” So she provided breakfast and dinner and that was great. Ha, it was funny because she didn’t have any money, her husband had been a cashier of the bank and he was deceptive. He owed money from here to breakfast, you know, he had had a car that was not paid for, big mortgage on the house, and all kinds of problems. Anyways, so she scratched around and she got a job, part-time job at the county. She would buy rabbit and she’d tell her kids it was chicken, ha ha. It’s much better than spam.

I gave up on the government job, went to work for Dunn and Bradstreet. And I traveled from Oshkosh south all across Southern Wisconsin and I was on the road all week long. I could bank my pay and live on my travel allowance. You had to have so many unit reports; you had to call on so many people each week. Well I’d bank, because I’d get up early and make calls on the contractors before breakfast, cause otherwise you don’t find them. And so I always had something so I didn’t have to leave home till Monday morning, I’d always got home by mid-afternoon Friday. So, nice deal. So I was working at Dunn and Bradstreet and traveling and in the meantime, my dad and mother moved from Fort Atkinson to Delavan. My dad worked in Delavan for George W. Borg Corporation also. Phyllis’ dad had a very, very unfortunate thing happen, he bought a business and it was misrepresented, the income was misrepresented and he couldn’t make a go of it to make a living out of it. So he had to hang that up and he took a job at the George W. Borg Corporation. He was controller of fabric division. My dad was a cost accountant in the equipment division. There were three divisions in Delavan. So, anyway, they moved in upstairs. My mother and dad were on 4A and they were on 4B and I told you last night, our mothers got together and said you have a son, you have a daughter, that was the end of that. Phyllis and I were all squared away.

But you were happy with it?

Ha ha, of course.

Next year it will be 60 years…

Wow

…Yeah. Well, we are both very lucky. We both are fortunate to have had good health all this time and our kids are healthy. We have two children, adopted two children. So, Peter was a private adoption in Milwaukee. We had a good friend who was a lawyer and this gal came to him looking for someone to adopt her baby. He called us up.

Ah this was a nice way to do it…

Yeah, we’re so lucky. We had to go through Milwaukee County, we had to officially do that. Anyways, she had the baby in the hospital and we met her at the hospital and the rules are that the baby must be placed in the mother’s hands in the car, in front of the hospital. So, okay we did that, this is in April, cold, windy. Drove around the block, we followed them around the block and we got Peter and she said, “Here’s a picture of him they took of him, cost $3.00, if you want that.” Well sure and we gave her three bucks. And she had formula and everything that they gave her with the baby, you know. So away we go. Man, unbelievable. And, just what a wonderful happenstance. Now, with Karen, we were down here for that and we went to Illinois Children’s Home and Aid for adoption.

Interviewed 12/28/12, 10:35 a.m.