Tom Waldecker’s Account of his Navy Experience

In 2009, at the request of Caleb Waldecker, Dad wrote up an account of his experience in the navy. Judy had this and gave it to me. Here it is:

I enlisted in the US Navy when I was 17 years old. My father had to sign my enlistment papers. We went to Bismarck, ND to do this. I was sworn in at Fort Snelling in St. Paul, MN., after which I returned home. I was called to active duty in April 1945. By that time, I had turned 18 years old.

I was stationed at The Great Lakes Naval training center in IL for my basic training. Before my enlistment, the only other person that I knew personally who was in the military was my Uncle Arlo. He was among the very first to be drafted into the Army. For the most part I did enjoy my time at Great Lakes Training center. Most of the things I learned were things designed to teach me to stop thinking as an individual, teaching me to work together with others, and respond to command immediately. I was exposed to tear gas and taught how to use a gas mask. There were classes on learning to identify airplanes. We were supposed to get to the place where when a plane zipped across the screen we could tell what it was. The image would appear for a few seconds and then be gone. I’m afraid I didn’t do well in that class. Those planes were way too fast for me.

We had a whole lot of physical exercise to build up strength and endurance. In this area I excelled. In our final testing in this area before graduation only one other boy lasted longer than I did. We marched a lot, in fact everywhere we went (one time it was 15 miles) We did not have any lockers or other usual places to store our clothes. I don’t know if the Navy still does this, but we were required to roll all of our clothes, tie them with string, and store them in a Sea Bag. Needless to say, the clothes were always wrinkled.

After Basic Training, I was shipped to a Naval Station in San Diego, CA. Travel was by troop transport, which was not air conditioned. Going across NM and AZ we sweltered. We even ran out of water on the train. At Raton, NM, we had a short stop to take on water. Everyone was thirsty and wanted off to get a drink. But the stop was not long enough to accommodate everyone. When the “All-Aboard” was called, there was a mad rush to get on, but the train moved too quickly and one boy slipped and the train cut his leg off.

At San Diego, I found that I was to be assigned to be part of an Amphibious Task Force being formed in the Philippine Islands. No one seemed to know when we would be on our way. It was said to be “any day now.” After weeks of waiting and many times packing, we all but gave up. It was while waiting that I met Eddy Rhodes, who was a high school class mate of mine. He had joined the Navy about the same time I did, but we trained separately.

We arrived in the Philippines and dropped anchor the very day that the Atomic Bomb was dropped in Japan and for all practical purposes the war came to an end. Since I was to be part of an Amphibious Task Force to train for the invasion of Japan, what would we do now? I was placed on a large stationary Transport Ship and as needed was assigned to work parties, doing this and that, both on ship and on land. Much of it was made up work, work just to keep us busy. Finally, I was assigned to a ship, LST 1020. Those letters stand for Landing Ship Tank, a craft with a flat bottom, designed to carry tanks and other equipment to a location for an invasion. But we were not going to invade anyone, and we didn’t have any tanks, just an empty cargo hold. Our assignment was to pick up and exchange prisoners of war. Japanese from French Indo-China (now Vietnam), Saipan, etc. back to Japan and then return with a load of Chinese prisoners.

On our trip from the Philippines to China we were caught in a typhoon and the ship was damaged. We put in a Shanghai, China for repairs. We were there several months. After completion of repairs, we set out for our first contingent of prisoners, stopping at Hong Kong, China for a few days. Hong Kong is a beautiful city and filled to over flowing with people. At the time I was there the buildings on the tops of the hills were all in ruins having been bombed. The prisoners of war slept, ate, and exercised in the tank deck. They provided and cooked their own meals. The meals cooking would “stink up” the whole ship. We made several such trips over the months we were involved.

The Navy food was quite good for the most part. In Basic Training you could eat all you wanted, providing you could do it within twenty minutes. But after Basic Training we were not hurried too much. Food on the ship was good, except when we were too long at sea and would run short on some things. But then I may have had a bit of advantage, for my task on board ship was “Cooks Helper.” So, I could get around and get about what I wanted that was available. Now I wasn’t a cook. My job was to care for all the eating utensils, pot, pans, etc. I had to wash all these things three times a day and put them in place for the next meal. It was not so bad. I had a good dish washer, including a very hot dryer that sterilized everything. It took me about two hours at each meal. So, I worked about six hours a day. I did not have to stand any watches. I got a full night of sleep each night.

I returned to the USA on that same flat-bottomed ship. I am not sure how long it took, but it was several weeks, for an LST does not travel very fast. Our destination was San Francisco, CA. I still remember passing under the Golden Gate Bridge, that was some sight. We stayed on the ship (maybe two months) until it was decommissioned and put in storage at Port Chicago up river from San Francisco, somewhere near Vallejo, CA.

My return trip to Fort Snelling in St. Paul, MN was by train, but this time it was not a troop transport, but a regular train. I was discharged from the Navy Seaman First Class in the summer of 1946. I don’t remember many outstanding or exceptional people in the Navy, but I seemed to gravitate toward the best, the most moral people, many of whom influenced my life, enabled me to escape some real temptations and even got me to give up smoking.

I was amazed at the number of people in Shanghai, and Hong Kong and at their living conditions. I guess what stands out the most in my experience in the Navy was going through that typhoon. The ocean swells were so great as to be almost indescribable. Imagine standing on the ship’s deck and going down in the trough of the water. Imagine holding your arms up to that they would be pointing to where ten and two would be on a clock. Now look up your arms – that the height of the water all around you. Now when the swell would lift the ship up, it would lift it with such a force that it threw the ship out of the water and you could feel the propellers hitting the air. No wonder we almost did not survive the typhoon. I never want to go through anything like that again. And yet looking back I don’t remember really being afraid.