Remembering Heroes: Veterans of WWII

Written by Kathy Anderson; Published in The Westby Times, May 2017

Hilmer Anderson (L) and Howard Johnson (R)

   

Do you have a hero in your life? When asked to list one, I suspect that most people, like myself, will tell you first about their father. My dad, Raymond “Dill” Anderson, died in May 2000 and I miss him every single day. But I am lucky because  I have two additional real-life heroes on my list who have also helped me in more ways than I can tell you. This weekend, our country will recognize Memorial Day and the heroes that have served our country. I have two uncles who are not only my personal heroes, but they are genuine WWII heroes.

You may have heard the story of Howard Johnson, my mom’s brother, who joined the Air Force in 1942 after graduating from Westby High School.  He was trained as a B-17 pilot and on his 23^rdmission, on October 29, 1944, was shot down over Brux, Czechoslovakia.  After being captured, the Germans escorted him to to Budapest, Hungary, where he spent the first two weeks in solitary confinement. In mid-January 1945, Howard was taken by train, in a cattle car no less, to a POW camp just east of Nuremberg, Germany, where he was held until April 3, when the Nazis evacuated the Nuremburg camp. The POWs were then marched to Moosburg, Germany, a distance of nearly 100 miles.  While on that march, Howard escaped, was recaptured in a church, and held in a POW jail for several days until he was forced to rejoin the march. On April 29, 1945, only 15 day after their arrival in Moosburg, Howard, then 20 years old, and the other prisoners were liberated when General George C. Patton arrived at the camp. 

 

A lesser known, yet very courageous story is that of Hilmer Anderson, my dad’s brother, who joined the Navy in April, 1944. Hilmer once described to me, in his typically modest way, that “it was hard to get up at 4:00am but after the workout, a shower, and then breakfast, I felt so good the rest of the day wasn’t hard. Oh, maybe the first week, but after that it was easy.”  Basic training finished in mid-May and Hilmer arrived at Pearl Harbor on June 21, on his way to the Marshall Islands, in what became known in history books as “the Pacific Campaign.” On August 13, 1944, he was assigned to the USS Calvert, a troop transport ship, where he would spend the next twenty-two months.  On October 20, 1944, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed for the invasion of Palo Beach, Leyte, in the Philippines, Hilmer was there with the 7^thDivision of the 8^thArmy. The battle lasted for two months. A naval base had been established at Manus, New Guinea and Hilmer would be back and forth from Manus to Leyte then back to Manus three times before December 26, 1944, when the US and Philippine forces took back the Philippine Islands from Japanese occupation. 

As I continue Uncle Hilmer’s WWII Navy service story, I can’t imagine the courage and bravery it took from a small-town Westby boy. On November 5, 1944, Hilmer was there to load the 41^stDivision of the 8^thArmy and head for Leyte. On December 10, the H Airborne Division was loaded in Biak, New Guinea and headed back to Manus. The final intense battles in the Pacific had begun. On January 9, 1945, Hilmer was there for the invasion of the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. On January 23, he arrived in Cape Gloucester, New Guinea to load more troops, and on February 17, 1945, on their way to the Caroline Islands, north of New Guinea, according to his diary, the ship had to “standby” for the infamous battle on Iwo Jima. From August 13, 1944 until February 1945, the USS Calvert left port 21 times, moving throughout the Philippines, New Guinea and finally Japan. Then April through June of 1945, the USS Calvert was kept busy transporting troops during another infamous combat, the Battle of Okinawa. Although Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, Hilmer continued on assignments to Pearl Harbor and the Marshall Islands; back to Leyte, Zamboanga, and Butuan, all in the Philippines; then to Japan, to Hiroshima on October 6, 1945, Yokohama, and then Tokyo, where they “dumped Admiral Rodger’s staff and loaded troops for the states” on November 5, 1945. Shuttling between Pearl Harbor, San Francisco and Nagasaki, Japan was how Hilmer finished his service during his final six months. Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on August 6 and 9, 1945, and Hilmer was in both cities to see the aftermath and horror. He was honorably discharged on May 6, 1946 when his service was credited as 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. He earned the American Arena Ribbon, the Victory Ribbon, the Asiatic Pacific Ribbon with 3 stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with 2 stars, and the United States Navy Occupation of Japan Service Medal. Remarkably, he was only 19 years old.   

 

Telling Howard and Hilmer’s stories last week and this, you can see that heroes like them were few and far between; after they returned home, neither of them was much for conversation about the war. Howard died January 21, 2014 and hearing him tell his story on the Fourth of July weekend in  2013 was a privilege for me and our family that will never be forgotten. Hilmer’s story came to me from the few things he shared, mostly after his Freedom Flight trip on May 2, 2015, and from a diary he wrote about his service. He was a man of incredible integrity and I am grateful to have had him until August 29, 2016.   

A page from Hilmer's diary.