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Show The Payson Chronicle, November 10, 1999, Page 10 WWn Veteran Reunites With Unit On Anniversary Of Landing In Philippines citing with to the south after enlisting with the U.S. Army at the age of 20. This must have been particularly worrisome for his dear mother, Ada, whom I a A month later, on May 18, they landed on Wadke Island, where his units captain was shot and wounded, then sent home. (Other than that casualty, tropical disease would be the only cause of major suffering by members of his unit.) The last landing they w'ould make in New Guinea occurred on July 30, 1944 at Sansapor, located at the northern tip of the island. "We landed on Leyte Island in the simple ring from the 1944. telephone in his living room. It was October 20, 1999, fifty-fiv- e years to the date first of my grandpas landing in the Philippines during World War II, and on the phone a conference call consisting of four from Myrons Army unit of eleven enlisted men and eight officers who made up Detachment H 85th Fighter Wing awaited. October 20, 1944, their experiences leading up to and after that date were brought into the peacefulness of the veterans present lives. Enlisted men, Myron Olson in Santaquin, Jack Walters in Oregon, Dennis Schultz in Wisconsin, Ammon Haley in Tennessee, and their 1st Sergeant, James Miles, in Los Angeles, California spent forty minutes on the line reminiscing and updating each other of their current successes. My grandpa finally shared with me some of his war-tim- e experiences a week ll the phone-careunion, putting following to rest the theory I had established from wild tales developed from childhood cousin-chthat had Grandpa battling tribes of bloodthirsty headhunters in the was fortunate enough to know at the time of my youth, and the last of her years on this earth. Her anxiety would not have come only from the eldest of her children going off to war: each of Ada and Vivan Olsons four sons would play a part in various military capacities for our country. My grandpas brother, Doug joined the Army and fought in Germany during World War II; he was sent home before the w'ar ended after requiring a deal of surgery in the states for an injury he received while battling enemy Nazi forces. Robert (Bob), who now lives here in Payson, also served in World War II, for the Philippines on October 20, 1944," Grandpa said. "(General) MacArthur came in a few hours later. I got to see him he was with the president of the Philippines, the General of the 5th Air Force, some others." Upon Gen. Douglas MacArthurs arrival, Myron said, the revered general made an announcement over the radio to the troops which began with the statement, "I have returned." Myron chuckled as he told me about it, "He had 100,000 men with him!" While in the Philippines, Myron saw poor living conditions for its people, "It was dirty and stinky," he said. "The (Japanese) took over the rice, everything. "But we liked the kids. They would beg for cigarettes, candy, stuff like that," he said. "The men there could be good jungle fighters. There were a lot of good people-an- d a lot of pretty Philippine girls." American officers often hired Filipino women to do their laundry, as did the enlisted men, in nearby creeks. Their clothes would be pounded out between rocks until pressed free of wrinkles. "They could put U.S. Navy. Youngest brother William (Bill) would later enlist Myron Olson in photo taken in 1942, not long in the Air Force the before he headed overseas to fight in World Korean War and serveduring in France. swampy boondocks of War II. Not long after Myron joined "We were a special unit," he told me, the Army, he met my grandma, a It is hard for me to envision a person as "assigned to the 5th Fighter Command. Chicagoan by the name of Ethel Walin. as my grandpa, Myron Our assigned duty was to land with the This occurred in the summer of 1942, Olson, toting a rifle through the thick while he was stationed in Los Angeles, troops and go in and set up aircraft warnjungles of New Guinea and the Philippines California and Ethel was working as a ing systems on enemy landing fields after as a sgt. fighting with the U.S. Army in volunteer for the Information Center of the they were secured. We were under fire on World War n. Imagining him bolting for all occasions: bombing, snipers and artilAircraft Threat Warning Center for the safety from soaring bullets or worrying Coast. lery." whether the next bomb to go off would inThe unit stepped foot on the grounds of The following year, around the time my clude him among its list of casualties is New Guinea in Aftape on April 22, grandpa was sent overseas, my grandma next to impossible. enlisted with the Navy Waves, serving for I, like I presume most other descenthree years until being r dants of veterans of war from this century t 3k, discharged in February similarly feel, see my grandpa as nothing 1 t .S'' of 1946. s less than a kind and gentle man, one unA . My grandparents A. rw deserving of holding memories of an event were married on May 1 1 , I r. -' V constructed by grotesque brutality in an r r ir 1946 in a Presbyterian x X; 1 : '" y.Tenvironment of hate. e , IlI 4 church in Chicago, I feel blessed he survived, and symlinois. One month later V , f N. pathetic for the families of his peers who -- a, they moved to Myrons "V V did not. hometown of Santaquin, mr i f (v Myron has been the ideal grandpa. where their first child, a 71f This was especially the case while my son, Michael was born, i . cousins and I were growing up. r March 15, 1947. He was a grandpa with a great deal of (Michael is presently the patience. He possessed so much loneditor of this newspaper, J enfor to he used ganimity that, example, The Payson Chronicle.) dure -- - even pretended to delight in the Four more children -torture we inflicted a number of times with Karen, DeAnne, Daniel our heedless small hands, winding his britand Scott would be tle hair up tightly into a born to Myron and Ethel dozen or more Grandmas pink sponge in years proceeding. rollers. We would hover over him like They now have 22 in sit He vultures. would seething calmly grandchildren and 10 ' f his "Archie Bunker chair" positioned towards a bulky TV set, chastising us only when wed get in front of it while The WWII Officers Lawrence We Ik Show was on. Reunite Some of members of Detachment H 85th Fighter Ving (above) in a photo taken overseas Grandpa endured more than we could A t pical night in my have imagined. Jack Walters (Oregon), Albert Horowitz (whereabouts during World War II. Front Row, grandpa's Santaquin unknown), Ammon Edgar Haley, Jr. (Tennessee); Back Row, L-- Billy Chance home three weeks ago (whereabouts unknown), James Miles (California), Myron Olson (Utah), Vernon Hemingway Mjron Olson left the sheltered setting turned unexpected!) ex- (deceased), and Dennis Schultz (Visconsin). ntaquin with its shielding mountain at who-knows-whe- re. non-threateni- ng - 'v?j1t V SLf - . jr 7 jr m W Vv ( -- - - , v & - V i f - - salt-and-pep- great-grandchildr- L-- R: R: |
