Joe DePrizio

Joe DePrizio, Army Amphibious, Philippines

Thank you for coming in to talk to us. Could you walk us through your military history?

I was in the service in April of 1943, and we were stationed at Camp Grant for a while and then we wound up in Texas. We were studying to be tank destroyers. In Texas we were at Ft. Hood which was Camp Hood then, now it is Ft. Hood.

After we finished our basic training our outfit was considered obsolete because Rommel was being beaten by Patton so they quickly switched us over to amphibian, which is the same as a tank, because we were so used to working with tanks. It operates the same as a tank. So then we went to Ft. Ort, California where we did all our basic training.

After our basic training we were shipped to a port of embarkation and then we were shipped overseas. We wound up in the Philippines and our first invasion was Luzon. I think we were on Luzon for about 3 weeks. After that we were so busy we did 37 invasions, D-Day invasions on the different islands within six months.

We just did everything and the funny part of it was that our clothes never caught up with us. We all were wearing the same clothes for six months! Well, there were no girls around. But anyway, it was fabulous because it was well set up. Our outfit was headquarters A Company, B Company and C Company, and of course we were all split up. A Company went one way; B Company went one and so forth.

But after that it was fantastic. Not too long after that in our 18 months, that’s when the A-Bomb was dropped. Of course if the A-Bomb hadn’t been dropped, we were scheduled to go to Japan on D minus 5, which would be five days before the regular invasions started. This is the top secret (gestures to book he has with him.) It’s got the whole history in it. The funny part of it is on the one page it shows that the 41st division, the 40th divisions and so on, were going to be the outfits involved in the invasion.

It happened to be on my 21st birthday, October 27. They were expecting 87% to 92% casualties, because we were a suicide mission. Then the regular invasion was going to come in five days after us which would be day plus one, to make the regular invasion on the opposite side of Japan. Of course, that was supposed to be the initial invasion where they figured at least 87% to 92% casualties.

So, I wouldn’t have been here. If Truman hadn’t dropped the bomb we would have been in trouble, we would have been in bad shape. But in the meantime we had very good officers and because of our outfit being mostly Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, we felt like we were all neighbors. We got along so well. We were fantastic and young and we had several guys in our outfit that joined when they were 16 but they lied about their age. But it was fantastic; it was a wonderful time, a wonderful life.

An amphibious tractor is a tank that has room for a whole company of infantry. There’s four machine guns on the tank, two 50 calibers and two 30 calibers, and when we were doing the landing, I was on one of the 50 caliber machine guns. The ones that were doing the driving were all older than I was, they were more mature. I was just a kid, only 18 you know, but it was fantastic, it was a wonderful time. When you’re young it’s like a vacation. You don’t realize the danger because you don’t have commitments, you don’t have responsibilities. You’re just yourself. So for us it was nothing. Most of the work was nothing. I think that was what made us so good because we were just considered to take care of our business - which was to kill the Japs and go on and that was what was wonderful about it.

So, there was an invasion planned?

It was going to be on my birthday, October 27. You can keep that book and read it, that top secret. These pictures were drawn by a Japanese artist. When he says, I’ll draw your picture, he says just sit down a minute, and he’s scribbling. This was done with a pencil, he zzzzzzzzzzzzz, and he’s all through. I couldn’t believe it, and he says well, let me see another view of you and another view.

Those are all the islands that we hit. There are so many islands in the Philippines and the reason that we did thirty-seven invasions was because most of these islands you hit from one side, then from another side, then you hit from another side. They’re islands you know and then we hit, that’s why we had to hit so many. The reason we only had five battle stars is because they consider only five of them were major invasions. But every invasion is bad no matter how you look at it, you know, but that’s what that all means. This was the tank destroyer logo and the amphibious logo. Those are the two logos.

And how many were on each tank?

Each tank could carry a whole company; most of them were between 20 and 25 people with their full gear. Here’s the nice thing about the amphibious compared to the other invasions: the other invasions that you see on television, the boats drive up and the ramp comes down. Well, the minute that ramp comes down you have no more protection and that’s how a lot of the GIs got killed.

With us, we drove up with the tank on land. We were allowed to go in one mile inside from the shore and then the guys would get out in the back, see, and this is the difference. That’s why we were more successful and that’s why very few of our GIs got killed before they got off the tank: because we drove them in right on the tank and they always had protection.

Then we would go back out again and get some more GIs and bring them ashore and get the Infantry because the boats were out in the harbor waiting for us to pick them up. The old way, the tank would come, it would be right on shore, the gate would come down and they would all get killed. The machine guns: they were waiting for them. That’s why the amphibious tractor was better. It used to be the thing that they used in Wisconsin where they would take you for a ride, those trucks, the Buffalos or whatever they want to call them. Well, that was no good either, because you shoot the tires and then you couldn’t go anywhere. They were actually regular tanks. They were huge. I didn’t bring a picture of that. I should have brought a picture of the tank. I built a model of the tank. Do you want to take a picture of that? I can bring in the LST which used to transfer us overseas. Okay, I can bring both of those in and you can take a picture.

Were the amphibians loaded on a big cargo?

When we left California, we would drive onto the ship. They called it a landing ship tank, LST. We were LVT, landing vehicle track. We would load all our tanks on them, and we would sleep on them. Of course, they weren’t very comfortable and they were very slow because it was like being in a boxcar. They would travel maybe 8 knots an hour, which is very slow and that’s how we got out there and they dumped us all out there.

But the tank is very protective as far as the GI is concerned because he’s got armor all around him. Another funny story, this I didn’t tell the kids though. We landed on the one island and we had a guy in our outfit that was from the South but he was crazy smart and he opens up his hatch and he’s looking and all of a sudden a bullet comes flying next to him. He says, “Where’s it come from?” Finally, another bullet came. He looked up and up in this tree was a Jap. So he got so mad, even leaving the hatch open, he backed up his vehicle and kept hitting the tree until the guy fell, and when he fell he landed on the tank and he got his gun and he blew his head off. But I never told the kids that. He was crazy, crazy as a fox. He was so mad the guy was shooting at him. But the tanks are wonderful. I will bring in the two that I built and then you can take pictures.

So, there were tops on these tanks?

Oh no, they were open. The tank was big enough to hold a whole jeep and then you had a pilot and a co-pilot and they were in the front, of course, and behind them was the motor. The motor was a nine cylinder radio engine, which is the same thing that is used in airplanes. It was a Pratt and Whitney engine and the GIs would be in the back and they would be sheltered. Once we got on land they would open up the back and they got out on the back instead of the front which made it safer for them.

But they’re big, the tanks are big, the LSTs are big. But that’s how we loaded. We loaded on these LST landing ship tanks and then the LVTs would be loaded on and that’s how we slept. The sad part was, I was fortunate, but unlucky. On that ship I never got seasick. That was a mistake because I had to pull KP all the time to run that ship. Everybody was so sick because it was like being in a flat boat, it is like this all the time. But I was lucky. It took us 31 days to get out there. That’s how slow that boat is.

Did you have commitments at home you were worried about?

No commitments at home. Of course, my mother and father were worried. My father who originally had been in World War I, he was very worried because when he was in World War I he was wounded pretty badly. But, thank God I never got hurt, you know, and so it was wonderful as far as that part goes. But it was the experience that we had in our outfit that was unbelievable and it was wonderful.

The funny part of it was, we used to have a story I have to tell that I tell all the kids when we are together, and you know you don’t tell the kids bad stories. They always ask you ‘how many did you kill?’ and you say you don’t pay attention to that. But I said we did have a problem in our outfit - our mess sergeant was complaining that people were stealing food. Now, this is overseas now. And, of course, when he called us together we started to laugh. We figured who’s going to steal food from the mess hall, I mean, dehydrated food and stuff like that?

Finally the mess sergeant decided to plant something. After we all went to bed, he spread flour all over the floor in the mess hall. We wake up in the morning and sure enough he saw two sets of bare footprints, and he looked at the footprints and he followed the footprints and they led to a tree. When he looked at the tree, he looked up and there were two Jap soldiers up in the tree hiding. They would be up there all day long and come down at night just to get food. The best part was that the reason we never saw them was because they were both in the nude and they blended with the bark of the tree. They were smart, they weren’t dumb; they were smart, they were young. That’s where they were every night, and that’s how we caught the two Jap prisoners who were stealing the food.

They were not only hungry: don’t forget we were in the Philippines, and it was sunny all day long. They were up there in the tree; of course there were some leaves up there which they were hiding behind. But how could you stay up there all day and sleep and everything? But they did it and then we put them in a prisoner of war camp and then we had no problem after that. Everything was fine. But, there’s always a funny part to every story. No matter how bad it gets, there’s a funny part. This is one of the funny parts but we never tell the kids the bad stuff. That’s no good. You don’t want to hear that. Nobody wants to be at war. But it was interesting, it was very interesting.

Were you drafted?

I was drafted. I was out of high school. I was drafted. I was just 2 or 3 months out of being 18 and that’s when I was drafted. The funny part was that before that I was in California because I had run away from home. When I found out the war broke out, I had to come back home because I didn’t want to be inducted in California. (Laughs)

It was our life out there, like I say, most of the people in the service were wonderful guys. They were dedicated but we were all good people, we were all good people. Till today, we are still all good people. But, we are dying, one by one, you know. But, that’s my story. Amphibious was a wonderful way to go because instead of being in Europe where it was cold and damp, we were in the Philippines where we would walk around in our shorts all day long. It was warm.

Another thing we did, another buddy of mine, his name was John Baker. In fact we just got a Christmas card from him. Him and I, we didn’t care for the Army food, so we went to one of the native women and hired them to cook chicken for us so we could eat chicken once in a while. The only bad thing about that was that it was cooked in coconut oil all the time. (Laughs)

But you always find a way to do something good, you know. But it was nice. The other thing, they used to have movies out there. One movie was the Seahawk. Of course I loved Errol Flynn. Every time they got half way through the movie it broke so I didn’t get to see the whole movie until I got home after the service. Now I have a copy of it. It’s good. It was a good life as far as we were concerned. We were treated well. Our officers and all the men were good. That was the best part.

It sounds like you’ve stayed in touch with a lot of them.

We still do. In fact, while I was on WGN for the interview about three weeks ago, the one from Wisconsin called me, Elmer Helen. He called me, he says “Hey my daughter lives in Bartlett and she heard you on the radio”. (Laughs) So it was nice, it was really nice.

In the meantime, we all get together as often as we can. My wife and I are always wondering ‘who dies here, who’s not feeling good, who’s not driving.’ The worst part is at this time in our life is when you lose your wife because nine times out of ten she’s the one who’s doing all the driving. If you lose your wife, now you’re stuck. She’s the commander.

The whole thing was bad, it was a bad set-up. The worst thing in my life, after the War was over, about 15 years ago my wife and I went to Hawaii. I have 5 brothers, by the way. Out of the 5 brothers, 4 of us served in the Army, different wars, all different wars. But my brother told me, “Joe, you don’t want to go to see the tragedies that happened on December 7. You’re going to be disappointed”. He didn’t tell me why but then I said I’ve got to go and see it. My wife was worried that I was going to start a fight because all these young Japanese people were out there taking pictures and smiling all the time and that hurt me, you know, that really hurt me. You know it’s not their fault because they weren’t even born; most of them weren’t even born at this time. But I was disappointed. It hurt me to see all them having fun and smiling and taking pictures and stuff. But then I got over it. My wife says “Joe, take it easy.” But these little things hurt you once in a while.

Do you remember where you were when you heard about Pearl Harbor?

Yeah, I’m sorry you asked. I told you I ran away from home. That Sunday we crossed into California. That was when the news came over the radio that there was a bombing in Pearl Harbor. (Laughs) I’ll never forget that. When we were in California we were young kids, of course I was only 17 at the time. We were taking pictures and we got caught by the police because we were taking pictures at the aircraft company and they said you can’t do that. They confiscated the cameras and told us to go on our way.

Why were you running away?

I don’t like to tell that. OK, I’ll tell you. It’s a good story but I didn’t think it was good. My story was that the reason that I ran away from home was, as I told you I have 5 brothers and another baby was on its way. I’m the oldest, and I’m 17, and I’m thinking, oh my God, my mother is going to have another baby. So, I left home.

How old were you when you got your first job?

Oh, I started to work when I was 8 years old and believe it or not, what I’m going to tell you is going to blow your mind. I was an accomplished glass blower at 8 years old. This one guy had a business in his basement and he was hiring us kids, and we were making 25 cents a week. A lot of money, that’s a lot of money. My mother used to take the whole thing and give me a nickel and with that 20 cents, she could feed us. She would only buy neck bones but she could feed us. But it was interesting.

I started to work at 8 years old and I’ve had more jobs than you could shake a stick at all my life. I’ve been a little bit of everything. I finally typed it out on the computer, how many jobs I had. My final job was a machinist. That was good. I was a machine builder, tool and die. I finally bought my own business. I went into business for myself as a machinist, tool and die. I used to build all special machinery and my one biggest customer was Commerce Clearinghouse. I built all their machines for them. I got 10 machines in different countries that I built for Commerce Clearinghouse, all for publication and legal stuff. It was interesting. I had good customers. Then I finally gave it up. But, I still kept working though. I worked for another company.

I think I quit working at 78. Then I went back. I like to work, I’m just a workaholic. I build stuff and I make stuff. In fact, my wife helped me and we just built a rocking chair for our great-granddaughter. So, we are going to give it to her on Christmas Eve.

I like to do things. Thank God, I’ve got all my fingers which a lot of people say, oh you were a machinist. Yeah, you’ve got your fingers. I had nice people to work for, wonderful people, gave me good jobs and everything.

I have to admit, in many, many ways I’ve been very fortunate, and I thank God for that. I’ve been very fortunate and the best thing I’ve ever done was to work with the kids. I like that. That’s my best part. I love the kids and I just feel bad about what happened in Connecticut. That bothered me.

Do you have any pictures of you or does your daughter have them?

When I went into the service we were very poor. My mother spent as much money as she could to have a professional picture taken in a uniform. But because we were poor, I treasure this a lot, my father made a frame for me out of a grape box that he used to buy when he made the wine. I can bring that in. I’ve got a little picture of me too, when I was 16 years old.

Where were you when you heard the War was over?

We were on this one island, this is where we had the prisoner of war camp too, trying to think of the name of it. But anyway, we were on this one island, trying to think of the name, Panai, and we were getting ready to make this major invasion but we didn’t know this.

In the meantime, the word came over that the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan and then all of a sudden a second bomb was dropped and the Japanese finally quit. They surrendered.

This is sad, but this is what happened. We would load our jeeps on the tanks, close the hatch, drive the tanks out in the water, pull the plug and let them sink. It was too expensive to bring them back home, so we lost not only the tank but also a jeep at the same time. That’s when we were in the prisoner of war camp and that’s when it was really nice.

The other part, I don’t know if I should mention this because it is racist. Now, you’ve got to bring yourself back to 1943 and 1946. People are prejudiced, right, so this guy that was in charge of the prisoner of war camp. His name was Teneselus. Teneselus happened to be a Jew. So, he looks at me and he says, “Joe, I know why I’m here, I’m a Jew, what’s your problem?” I said “Maybe it’s because I’m a Dago. “ We had the best rapport you ever seen. Him and I had it made.

After I drove him to the prisoner of war camp, he says you can do whatever you want and come back in five hours. That’s the kind of rapport him and I had. After the War was over, we had him at our house many times. He was a wonderful man but he claimed that he was there because he was a Jew. Like I said, I laugh a lot because I look back now and I can’t believe everything that happened and how we all survived. It was fantastic.

We had a guy on our ship, PC Schultz. He got appendicitis while we were overseas so they put him on a hospital ship and that hospital ship was hit by a torpedo. He was okay though. We were all lucky, and we had our reunions. We always talked about funny things that happened; we never talked about serious things. We talked about funny things that happened and how we got out of it. Just nice things, because nobody wants to know the bad. We were very proud of our outfit because we sure did a good thing.

This ribbon here, that’s a Presidential citation from the Philippines. We saw MacArthur when he came out there, several times, and I had all the pictures of the surrender. It was fabulous when he came out there. Everybody had a lot of faith in him. He was smart, choreographed all the invasions and how it should be done. But it was nice.

We were really proud of Bugs Bunny (the mascot of their company). OK, the name of this guy was Captain Lindsay. Captain Lindsay worked for Leon Schlesinger, who was the creator of Bugs Bunny. He says “Can we use Bugs Bunny as our logo?” and he wrote back and sent us drawings of Bugs Bunny in the tank, but with a carrot in his hand.

That didn’t go over too good so Lindsay wrote back and says “do you mind if we change the carrot to a machine gun?” He says ok, you have my permission and then I was the one who posed with a machine gun in my hand so he could redraw that, and I have the original drawing at home.

Another nice thing, I had in my jeep a movie star but at the time I was too dumb to get an autograph. In my jeep, I went to the airport with two other officers to pick up Hedy Lamarr. She didn’t impress me. First of all, no makeup, no figure, she was like a board straight up and down. But she was nice. She was a wonderful person, of course. Being I was the driver, she sat next to me. She was very sociable, talking to everybody. No one else was with her, she was by herself. She was brought to put on a show but we didn’t get invited because it was for the officers.

Then we met Red Skelton out there. I loved him. Right now, at the Senior Center I do a lot of playing of my harmonica. I like telling jokes and I always used the one thing that Red Skelton always said at the end of his program, he said, “If I made one person happy I would have accomplished something” and that’s what I use. If I can make you smile, then I have accomplished something. That’s the most important thing, to make someone smile.