Looking Back with Orin Larson during WWII

Published in the Westby Times, September 4, 2020

        What were you doing the summer you were 17 years old? I bet hanging out with your friends, working at a part time job, or maybe getting ready for your senior year of high school would all be good guesses. Westby Area Historical Society board member Fred Jefson and I recently had our temperatures checked before we socially distanced to talk with Orin Larson at the Old Times. He told us when he was 17, his father signed papers allowing him to join the Navy and the World War II fight for his country. In July 1944, Orin took the bus from Westby to Milwaukee, where he was sworn in. He then went on to the Great Lakes Naval Station for basic training.

       Orin started some good friendships during his eight weeks in basic but he got sick the day before they shipped out. He couldn’t leave for three more weeks and had to join a different crew. When his time came, Orin was briefly sent to Boston where he was able to tour the historic sights and “where I saw TV for the first time. It was a little one, black and white, only four by four inches, but it was really something.” Philadelphia came next where he got more training. When they set off on what Orin called their “practice run,” the ship traveled down the east coast of the US and farther. In Rio de Janeiro, Orin saw the huge Christ the Redeemer statue. “That was something!” he shared.

       When training was over, they headed back north to New York for supplies. After loading up the ship, it was off to the Panama Canal. It took about a day to go through the locks, Orin explained. The ship made a quick stop in Hawaii, where he got to see the wreckage of Pearl Harbor before his tour of duty took him to the South Pacific. Orin said they never knew where they were going until they got there and sometimes didn’t even know where they were. 

       The ship Orin was stationed on was fairly new, about 70 feet by 700 feet, five stories tall  and no air conditioning. It was “all-purpose,” Orin said, set up to battle aircraft, and “it took a little adjustment.” He wondered how he would find his way around. There were five planes on board that the men would put on a track to “shoot off” the boat. He was busy working in the repair department, the fire department or doing more training. “There was always something to do,” he told us; but, when the whistle blew, “you’d run like crazy!” They were never in a monsoon but experienced plenty of bad weather. Sometimes seven and eight foot waves would come across the deck. That’s when “they had to close up everything.” Orin explained danger was much closer in the many times two destroyers would suddenly appear. When they were in enemy waters, the destroyers were escorts, protection from enemy submarines. “Luckily,” Orin told us, “we were never attacked.”  

       Early on, some of Orin’s training had been done with a crew on a ship that had been hit. “They saw the bomb coming at them,” Orin explained. They could talk about what being in a battle was all about. “We knew we were in a war but we weren’t exactly afraid. We were all together and depended on each other. And, it helps a little bit to be young,” Orin chuckled. “ Everyone was pulling together. We knew possibilities (for danger) were there but we didn’t think about it.” Orin talked to other Navy men in the South Pacific who saw the Japanese aftermath in Okinawa and Nagasaki. “Thank God, I never had to go through something like that,” he told us.

       To pass what little free time they had, the guys on the ship played cards and read. “We had a library and a chaplain on board so we had Sunday services for those who wanted.” Of course, radios weren’t allowed. Orin said he was “well-satisfied and enjoyed” his military experience. He liked the time he spent in the Navy because Uncle Sam took good care of him. He was “well-fed, got some learning, had many experiences, made good friendships and even got a beer once in awhile.” 

       Orin left the Navy in August 1946. He came home from the South Pacific by way of  Northern California, took a train to the Great Lakes Naval Station where he was honorably discharged as a Third Class Petty Officer, then another train to La Crosse. All told, he spent two years and one month serving our country.

       There’s a lot more to Orin’s story, too much for today, but a life lesson he wanted to share is to “be satisfied, don’t begrudge others and be grateful for what you have.” After Orin got home from the service, he went to the bowling alley one evening. When he was outside, he saw a girl standing nearby. He asked her for a date and she replied, “I already have a date for this weekend but I don’t have one for next weekend.” He told us “I’m tickled that I talked to her because I loved her forever and still do, even though she’s gone.” Orin’s bride of more than 65 years, Evelyn, died last October. Because of her, his life was more than satisfied.

         The United States entered WWII on December 7, 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor; the war ended on September 2, 1945 when Japanese General Yoshijiro Umezu surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur. During that time, and especially during 1944 and 1945, nearly every front page of the Westby Times held news about local service men – letters mailed home, medals won for bravery in battle, sad news of someone missing, those captured or even those who died. Yet, young men like Orin, who had no idea what they would be facing, went in droves from Westby, to serve our country and see the world. In this year of the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII, blessed be the memory of those who served. Please offer gratitude with a personal thank you to any veterans you might talk with. May we never again expect to give what the Greatest Generation gave. P.S. Orin’s birthday is September 12 so please send him a card. It would be nice for him to get a few!

       The Westby Area Historical Society has every issue of the Westby Times printed many years before, during and after WWII. If you would like to read about our community’s real history as it happened, email westbywihistory@gmail.comor leave a message at 608-634-4478. We can set up an appointment for you to see the papers.