History Forum / General / British History / January 2006

Well, my brother-in-law did just that and rode around in ships until
Iwo and caught some sh.t there. He still carries pieces of whatever hit
him.

A lot of youngsters did it in WWII, I think.  My own ex-father in law
did that to get away from the farm in South Texas. Enlisted in 42. He
had just turned 16 on June 6, 42 and joined the Navy.  Even today you
can  enlist at 17 with parental consent, so he basically told his Dad it
was either to lie about his age and sign the enlistment form stating his
birthdate as 1925 rather than 1926 and allow him to join the service or
he was running away. He was sick of the farm and the war gave him an
opportunity to get away. He father was an old time "padron" type that
worked his kids like slaves.  His father gave in when he realized that
Rudy was dead serious. My father in law was no softie, he had he had
been worked all his short life and was tough as nails. Apparently they
were no checking birth certificates too hard at the beginning of the
war.  He may not even have had a birth certificate at that time.

We weighed 117 pounds going in, think he was 5'5" but little guys were
not as much as an oddity back then as they seem to be now.   Became a
rear gunner radio operator in SBD's then flew combat in the Pacific as a
tail turret gunner in a PB4Y1
(navalized B-24D Liberator).  Operated out of FuniFuni and Nukefatal.

Amazingly found a photograph of him on the net on a  Island website.  A
little feller but no question it was him.  He was Mexican-American.
Through the photo his wife was able to find one of his old buds that was
the source of the picture.  Unfortunately Rudy had just passed away.

He shot down one Jap fighter. Said it just flew across  his guns and
went to pieces...didn't explode or anything that dramatic.

He also crash landed in the ocean in the "24".  The crew survived except
for the pilot. They temporarily buried him in a trench dug out of the
coral but unfortunately while lowering him in, the casket flipped an
dumped the pilot into the trench.

There was a little of perplexity as to what to do, but my ex-father in
law, with the callousness of youth suggested they just leave him like
that until he was picked up to take home.  An officer then ordered my
ex-father in law with another guy to go into the trench and get the
pilot out...the moral to the story is that an enlisted man should never
offer suggestions.

Additionally he had a story that is a typical story, so much that it is
a cliche.  While doing anti-sub duty in an SBD (carried a depth charge)
he (now a "veteran" gunner to whom teh novelty of flying was no longer
fun) was assigned to a relatively new pilot that already had a bad
reputation for being a hot shot among the gunners.  A newbie was all
excited about going on the mission and my ex-pop was glad to give him
the rear seat.

The SBD took off, the pilot put it into a steep bank and immediately
crashed it into the sea with in full view of the field. No survivors.

These stories were pried out of him over the years....he did not like to
talk about the war.

He did get exited though when an SBD (a real SBD, either owed by the CAF
or Lone Star Aviation)  flew into our area at an airshow. I took him out
to see it and for a short while he was talkative about the war, then
clammed up the next day.

There was a TV movie about the true story of a big 12 year old (I think
Ricky Schroeder played him)that enlisted and served in combat on the
Salt Lake City at Guadacanal.  Kids name was Calvin Graham.  That one
caused a negative stir I think when Graham, who got the purple heart was
found out. I don't recall hardly anything of the film.