The LST World War II Veteran-- Part 1

Yesterday, some friends and us boated over to Electric Harbor's tiki bar in Lake Villa overlooking Fox Lake for the $2 cheeseburger and fries special.

There was one guy there who looked and sounded a lot like a long-haired Mel Gibson, but that's besides the point. What would a big star like him be doing here with us regular folk?

A younger woman we took to be a daughter or granddaughter was there with an older gent who was really attacking some chicken wings and enjoying his Heinekin. He seemed to be quite alert and joking.

At one point, the bartender asked how old he was. He was 87.

I asked him if he had been in World War II and he said yes. I thanked him for doing that job. One of our Greatest Generation that we are unfortunately losing all too fast now.

He beamed and thanked me.

I then asked if he would tell me about some of his experiences and he was happy to do just that.

During the war, he served on a LST, Landing Ship Tank. I've only recently become more familiar with these ships and am intrigued by them. Their crews referred to LSTs as "Large Slow-Moving Targets," very appropriate because of their size and slow cruising.

I've heard others say that these were the ships that won the war as they transported not only tanks and other vehicles from point to point in both the European and Pacific theaters, but also they carried ammunition, supplies and troops.

More to come.

Thank a Vet, But Especially a World War II Vet. --Cooter

Meet a US Veteran

In just a few minutes, I'm heading over to the Fox Lake, Illinois, American Legion where they are having a meet-a-veteran assembly in the main hall.

I understand several will be from World War II and they will also have items from their service with them.

I'll be taking my cameras and tape recorders to get some of their stories which I will report in this blog.

The Greatest Generation. --DaCoot

World War II Aces Talk

The May 5th Sacramento Bee had an article about four WW II fighter pilot aces recalling their experiences at the Aerospace Museum of California. These men were in their late teens-early twenties when they battled the Germans in skies over Europe.

In order to be an Ace, you had to shoot down at least 5 enemy aircraft and only a few pilots attained that level.

They were Col. Bud Anderson, Lt-Col. Don Bryan, Col. Barrie Davis and Col. Art Fiedler. Together, these four destroyed 43 German planes.


COL. ART FIEDLER

Lived in a tent in Italy and escorted B-24 bombers on their missions. One time, he saw 2 German Messerschmidtt 109s and followed one in a verticle dive. He oipened fire with his machine guns and saw it crash. Pulling out of the dive, he found himself flying alongside the other German plane, so close he could see the enemy's pilot's red helmet and oxygen mask.

He couln't fire because his machine guns were facing forward. He firgures they flew next within 40 feet of each other for what seemed liked hours, but was probably more like 3 minutes. He unholstered his 45 and aimed it at the German pilot, hoping he would break off. Instead, the German jettisoned his canopy and bailed out. Fiedler took a phot of the parachute.

When he got back to the base, he got the name Art "Svengali" Fiedler because "He hypnotizes them into bailing out."

Fiedler had 8 confirmed kills during the war.
Anderson had 16, Bryan 5 in one day and ended the war with 13.


COL. BARRIE DAVIS

Davis shot down 6 and was almost shot down himself. On June 6, 1944, during D-Day, he mistook an enemy plane for an American and was hit. He lost consciousness and came to with the plane flying level at 20,000 feet. The canopy had blown away and he was freezing. His shoes had gotten wet while walking on the dewy grass at the base earlier in the morning, and his shoes were now frozen to his feet.

He managed to land, but his plane was shot up like Swiss cheese and a portion of the tail was gone. Metal fragments had to be extracted from his head.

The Greatest Generation. --Old Coot