Ray Tarnowski

Ray Tarnowski, Army Infantry

Ray served in the South Pacific in 1944

Tell us about the helmet you brought with you.

One thing I have never done is take the liner out of the helmet because I always felt that my life was in the helmet and I was never tempted to take it off.

In March 12, 1944, we invaded Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. I was in the infantry. There were things in combat, everything was going on and how this got involved was somebody hollered out that a couple of the men got hurt. Being a machine gunner, I have an assistant and I ran out and tossed a few grenades and that stuff. In the meantime, I felt [a bullet hit the helmet] (click here for more images) and someone yelled out, “Are you bleeding?” After they asked if “you are bleeding,” I said “Yeah,” and they hollered at me to get into the hole. There were two men that were injured in there. One was shot through the right shoulder and the other, something about shrapnel in his face. There was one man who was dead. The only way that I could get into their hole was I had to prop my legs over the dead man’s body. For that I was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery in action. That was March 12, 1944. I have some pictures. One of the guys in the outfit must have had a camera. I don’t know how we ever got pictures.

The bullet went in [the helmet] here and came out here and it just grazed my head. They took me to the hospital and there were two, I believe, doctors bending over me and I had to lie on the cot face down. They were examining my head and this one doctor said, “God, I never seen a guy so lucky in my life.” I put my head up and said, “That’s because I am a hard-headed Pollack.” (Laughter)

This is a picture of the camp where you were at? How old were you at that time, Ray?

When this happened, it was March, 1944, I was almost 21.

So, this is the village with you tents - where you lived.

Yes, that is where you lived when you were not in combat.

You were in the Army?

Yes.

Can you tell us when you enlisted?

In January 1943 I went down to enlist in the Marine Corps. At that time they could accept or reject you and if they rejected you, you could get drafted into the Army. Months later they made it so, when you were drafted you could enter the Army or the Marine Corps. Here I went down to enlist in the Marine Corps and got rejected. There were 44 of us guys down there and three of them left that night for San Diego. I was rejected for flat feet and high blood pressure. I went to the Marine Sgt. and asked why I was rejected because I played ball and everything. He said “To be a Marine, you have to be perfect.”

Like I said, this helmet, when this battle was over, I wanted to make sure I could keep it as a souvenir. But since it is government property, I went to Captain Moody, our company commander at the time, and said I wanted to keep this for the rest of my life. So he wrote a nice letter (I don’t know what happened to the letter) saying that this helmet should stay with me.

They were on a point system and gave points for every little thing you did. I had enough points to be on one of the first ships back home. I have the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in my bedroom at home.

Did you grow up in Chicago?

I was born and raised in Chicago on north Clybourn. My mother was married in 1919. They had a son in 1921. He died at the age of 6 months of pneumonia. At that time they didn’t have what they have today. I was born in 1923. In 1925, my mother and dad got divorced. I was only two years old. I never saw my dad. I have a picture of my mother and dad when they got married. That is the only picture of my dad.

How did you meet your wife?

I used to play ball. I still love baseball. [My wife] had four brothers. She was the only girl. She had a girlfriend by the name of Elaine ___. They used to come out to the ballgames. My wife’s two brothers were ball players also. They were telling me how lousy a ball player I was. After many games, I decided I had to get something going here. I went up to her and “If we win the game today, I will take you out tonight. If we lose, you take me out.” I still don’t know if we won or lost.

After Bougainville, that’s the biggest island in the Solomons, I think it is about 120 to 140 miles long. They had a volcano at one end. I got a letter from I kid I grew up with in the same neighborhood. I wondered where he was at and he was in the 37th Division on our left flank. I got a pass to visit him for a day. We graduated together from grammar school.

Was there a lot of combat or was there time in between? Were you preparing for the invasion of Japan?

You’re not fighting all of the time. The invasion was later. And then from Bougainville…

When I was taking basic training in Camp Roberts California, I hurt my knee and had to have surgery on my knee. They sent me home for 30 days. When I came back, I had to take my basic training over again so in 1943 I didn’t get involved in anything. I had I don’t know how many attacks of malaria, about 5 or 6 attacks.

When Bougainville was more or less secure, we had beaten the enemy. After we left the Solomon Islands, we went to the Philippines, Leyte, Samar, and Cebu. Most of the fighting was on Cebu. In our spare time, we had a volleyball team for recreation. Some Filipinos were standing on the side and one guy came up and said “We give you a game.” They beat the living daylights out of us.

Then in the Philippines we started training for the invasion of Japan. We were going to invade Japan November 1, 1945, at the southern end of Kyushu, Japan. I became friendly with one of the cooks from Chicago on Cebu and in the evenings I would go over and we would talk about the Cubs. We were B Company and across the way was G Company. One night about 9:00 someone from G Company hollered out “The war is over.” “What do you mean, the war is over?” We just got through fighting it. Japan asked for peace I think around the end of August.

By the time we got everything packed up, it takes time to do everything especially when you are a GI. “GI” means “government issue.” We were going to go to Japan because they were asking for peace. In the first 10 days or so of September, they signed the peace treaty. Our ship pulled into Tokyo Bay. A Japanese naval officer directed our ship in because there were mine fields in the Bay and other ships also. We were stationed in Yokohama at a camp that was for Japanese soldiers at one time.

While I was in Yokohama, I came down with malaria again. One night there was a lot of commotion and I found out that Tojo, the Japanese [premier] had been captured by our division and he tried to commit suicide. He was in the room next door being guarded by MPs. He was being taken care of because they wanted him to live so they could put him on trial. One time I peeked around the corner and he is lying in bed looking at me and I am looking at him.

They came up with the point system, so many points for the number of months in service, how long you were overseas, any awards you were given, i.e. the Bronze Star. I was one of the first ones to be selected to come home because I had so many points. Around the middle of September, we were taken to Tokyo Bay to board a ship. There were 3 divisions with a lot of high point men. There were 3 ships in the Bay and I was connected to the USS Pope. We started out about the end of September 1945. It took us about 10 days to get home. About the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the loud speaker announced that the Cubs were in the World Series. I said to the guys that I only live a mile away from Wrigley Field. Our ship was the first ship to enter San Francisco Bay. As we were approaching the Golden Bay Bridge I could only see the top of the bridge because of the fog. As we got into the Bay, we could see Alcatraz. And then we could see signs in big letters on the buildings saying “Job Well Done” and “Welcome Home.” There were barges with WAVES onboard calling “Welcome Home.” I have chills now.

We got off the ship and were standing at attention when some trucks pulled up alongside of us and some men jumped off of the truck and took our duffle bags. “POW” was on the back of their shirts. I never did know if they were from Italy of Germany. Our Company gave us a Japanese rifle to take home as a souvenir, but they took out the firing pin. I didn’t want it so when I got home I sold it for $10.00.

When we first got on the island of Bougainville, we had to dig trenches to make connections for the officers. I had the bright idea to use the dirt as protection. As I was on the top straightening out the dirt and all of a sudden I saw the dirt fly up by my foot. I was dumbfounded. I thought it was a snake or something. More dirt kicks up and a sergeant yelled for me to get out of there, they’re shooting at you. So his motto is “I have been shot at three times and hit once.”

How did you get home from San Francisco?

We took a train and when we stopped in Santa Fe and I bought my mom a postcard. I came home carrying that rifle and my duffle bag. I took a 7-cent streetcar ride on the Clybourn Avenue streetcar and got off at Webster and crossed over to my address, 2229 Clybourn. My mother lived in the rear apartment on the second floor of a three story building. As I was crossing the street, my mother was coming in the gangway with groceries. She saw me, yelled out, and dropped the groceries. The timing was meant to be.

The third day I was home, I got malaria again. That was the last attack of malaria I ever had, October 1945. I never wrote to tell my mother or my girlfriend, Veronica, that I had had malaria. I told my mother I knew what it was and told her to ask a neighbor to drive me to the Veterans’ Hospital. I was in the hospital for 7 days. When I got out of the hospital, I had days coming for my furlough which I spent with my mother and girlfriend. I had to report back to Fort Sheridan and I was reporting in, two MPs grabbed my arms. They said I was listed as AWOL. I told them I had been in the hospital.

Tell us about the “cavemen” you ran into on the island.

We were on a three day combat patrol on Bougainville sitting by a native foot path. All of a sudden a native carrying a stick and wearing a loincloth came down the path. He was followed by a bare-topped woman wearing a cloth covering her private parts. We didn’t say anything to them as they passed. We didn’t know where they were going – they could have been spying on us. We never did know.

When you left the States, you went directly to the Solomon Islands?

After Camp Roberts, we went to New Caledonia. We were in the Americal Infantry Division. When the war first broke out, they took the National Guard units from North Dakota, Illinois, and Massachusetts – from three different states. They put them on New Caledonia and that is where they got the name “Americal” – “Ameri” for America and “cal” for New Caledonia. We went to the Figi Islands to get our supplies. The Figi Islands were very nice. And then we went to the Solomon Islands. We then went to the Philippines on Leyte, Samar, and Cebu. Cebu Island is where we did most of our fighting. The city of Cebu was a beautiful place located at the dock area where the ships came in. We did a lot of the fighting there. I still remember the American planes over the mountains dropping bombs and parachutes with bombs attached. After the Japanese were removed from Cebu, we started training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended.

After we got to Tokyo Bay, some of us got passes to visit Tokyo. I never saw a bombed out area in Tokyo even though we had been bombing the city. We were riding on a train and facing someone across the aisle and a woman started to breast feed a baby. We got kind of embarrassed.

Can you tell us about your memory of Pearl Harbor, where you were?

That was in 1941 and I was 19. We had been playing ball and then we were on Fullerton Avenue hanging “dummies” of the Japanese on the posts. We weren’t in service yet but we hated what they did. Almost every week someone from the team was drafted.

When we were married 30 years, Vera and I visited Pearl Harbor. People were walking out to view the American ships that were still leaking oil. I wanted to go but my wife was scared.

I was glad that I had the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart because that was 5 extra points to come home early.

When I left, I took a train from Northwestern Station. My mother and Vera were there and I asked Vera if she would marry me when I came home. She said yes. I told her “I was going to lick the whole Jap army myself.”

Interviewed 10/15/12