Courtesy of Ruth Weisberg
2nd Lt. Ruth Weisberg was a communications officer stationed in the U.S. Embassy in London. She met her future husband, Ben, on the ship to England; they got married Jan. 8, 1944, riding in the back of an artillery caisson on their wedding day.

Tony Overman/The Olympian
Stan Smith of Lacey is proud of his 33 years of service in the U.S. Navy from World War II through Vietnam.

Navarre

Pearl Harbor + 60

South Sound veterans recall service in World War II

CHESTER ALLEN, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- Tenino resident George Smith was a 17-year-old sailor on the USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.

He swam through burning, oil-covered water to get away from his capsizing battleship minutes after the attack began, then later helped haul ammunition and recover dead sailors from the USS California.

"That day, itself, is like yesterday to me," said Smith, now 77.

But Smith says the World Trade Center attack three months ago was more shocking to him.

"Yes, we lost more than 2,000 people at Pearl Harbor, but this was horrible," Smith said. "We lost thousands more at the World Trade Center, and they were civilians, women and children."

Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet. The surprise attack created a whirlwind that tore many South Sound residents away from peace to the horrors of a world war.

Until three months ago, the assault on Pearl Harbor stood alone as the worst surprise attack in American history. Now it stands with the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But the nation's shock at being drawn into another war has only added poignancy to this anniversary, which could be the last major Pearl Harbor observance many World War II veterans witness.

It has narrowed the generation gap that had existed between the World War II generation and those generations that have followed, and brought a new appreciation for the sacrifices made 60 years ago.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 405,000 servicemen and women died in World War II. An additional 671,846 were wounded.

Now the toll of time is stealing away the veterans who survived the battles, the diseases and the prison camps.

The VA estimates that 414,031 of the estimated 5,032,591 living World War II veterans will die during the next year -- an average of 1,134 veterans a day.

That is why many South Sound veterans now want to share their stories:

- Pvt. Christopher Navarre and his fellow members of the 761st Tank Battalion proved the courage and ability of black soldiers during 183 days of combat in Europe.

- 2nd Lt. Ruth Weisberg, a communications officer stationed in the U.S. Embassy in London, tucked top-secret cables into her blouse and delivered them to commanders and leaders.

- Ensign Stan Smith was on board the heavy cruiser USS Wichita when it entered Nagasaki Harbor after the atomic bomb ended the war. He found himself battling to save the malnourished, mistreated survivors of Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

"Finally, a lot of people are beginning to wake up and realize that they're not going to be here forever," Weisberg said. "A lot of vets didn't talk about it much, but I don't think this should just disappear."

Courage and respect

1st Sgt. Christopher Navarre landed in France with the 590th Ambulance Company six days after D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Navarre rescued wounded soldiers as the U.S. Army fought through France, but he wanted combat duty.

"I wanted to fight back," Navarre said.

But Navarre's commanding officer resisted giving him a transfer to a combat outfit.

"I told him, 'Give me a private's rank, I don't care,' " Navarre recalled.

After taking his voluntary demotion, Pvt. Navarre joined the 761st Tank Battalion, an all-black combat unit in Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army.

Navarre became a tank gunner, and he saw plenty of fighting as the battalion rolled through France, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

Tank battalions usually stayed in combat for two weeks, but the 761st stayed in combat for 183 days, from Oct. 31, 1944, to May 6, 1945.

During that time, more than half the battalion was wounded or killed.

Navarre said black soldiers also had to fight against prejudice and the segregated Jim Crow system in the Army.

Most Americans pretend that segregation didn't exist in the U.S. Army during World War II, Navarre said, but black soldiers fought for the freedom of others while they were treated as second-class citizens by their own fellow soldiers.

"It is to our credit that we were able to win both battles," Navarre said.

Patton challenged the men of the 761st to prove their worth in combat, Navarre said.

Navarre proved his worth during an eight-day battle in March 1945, when he refused to leave his tank, despite wounds to his hand and leg.

Navarre then helped destroy 23 German pillboxes -- fortified positions that protected machine guns or artillery.

He also helped wounded U.S. soldiers while under German mortar, artillery and machine gun fire.

Navarre was awarded the Silver Star for heroism -- 52 years after his deeds. He had waited 18 years for his Purple Heart and 33 years for his Presidential Unit Citation.

After the war, Navarre stayed in the Army and fought in three campaigns during the Korean War.

After retiring in 1963, Chief Warrant Officer Navarre became a command maintenance inspection team chief for the military reserve units in Oregon and Washington. He has lived in DuPont since 1959.

Navarre said he isn't bitter about the racial prejudice in World War II or the long wait for his medals. But he believes racism will continue to hurt the United States until everyone realizes that we are all Americans first.

"I am proud to be an American who fought for my country," said Navarre, now 81. "If you've got the credits, you can demand the respect by the effectiveness of how you do your job."

Secrecy and love

World War II started in 1939, but it was barely a "blip on the screen" of Pennsylvania State University student Ruth Fournier Barker.

But by 1940, Barker was working in the cable section of the British Ministry of War Transport in New York. And by 1944, Barker had become 2nd Lt. Ruth Weisberg, a U.S. Army signals expert working in the U.S. embassy in London. She also was newly married to Lt. Col. Ben Weisberg, a parachute field artillery battalion commander in the famous 101st Airborne Division.

Ruth Weisberg's phone would often ring in the middle of the night, and she would go into the office to clear transmitted messages or hand- deliver a decoded message to high-ranking officials, such as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

"I was out in the blackout delivering messages to big shots in London," she recalls. "There wasn't any stoplights or street signs, and I'd fold up the message and stuff it in my shirt.

"The good Lord must have looked after me."

Ruth Weisberg met her future husband on the ship to England. The ship left New York on Sept. 5, 1943, with 120 women and 8,000 paratroopers on board.

"I decided that the safest place on the ship -- barring a German torpedo -- would be in the officer's lounge, playing poker," she said.

Every time she came out for air, she ran into Lt. Col. Ben Weisberg.

"I think he had spies out," she said.

On Jan. 8, 1944, Ruth Barker became Ruth Weisberg in a wedding ceremony in Newbury, England. Weisberg has two photos from her wedding day: One of them shows her and Ben riding in the back of an artillery caisson.

"You don't have cameras, pictures or journals when you're in intelligence," Weisberg said.

The war rolled on, and Weisberg endured the "Buzz Bomb" rocket bombing of London.

Her husband dropped into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

"We all knew about D-Day, but we never discussed it," Weisberg said. "The night of June 5, I looked out the window at the chimney pots, and I thought that the wind was blowing too fast and they wouldn't jump that night.

"The morning after, I got to the office, and all hell was breaking loose."

At lunch, Weisberg went to church and prayed.

After a few weeks of combat, Ben Weisberg returned to England -- and Ruth.

At the end of the war, Weisberg returned to the United States, and the first of their four children was born in November 1945.

The Weisbergs moved to South Sound when Ben retired from the Army in 1961. Ben died in 1982. Ruth, now 84, still lives in their house -- when she's not hopping onto a cargo ship for a cruise.

Ruth Weisberg didn't have to volunteer for the Army, but she's glad she did.

"We knew we had to get rid of Hitler," Weisberg said. "I didn't like the way he was taking over Europe and persecuting the Jewish people.

"I wasn't Jewish, but I sure didn't think it was the way to go, so we had a job to do."

Rescue and recovery

Ensign Stan Smith -- a 21-year-old graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy -- sailed into Nagasaki in September 1945, a month after the U.S. Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the city, and shortly after Japan surrendered.

"The place was just devastated," Smith said.

Smith's ship, the heavy cruiser USS Wichita, had the mission of recovering 10,000 allied prisoners of war from camps on the island of Kyushu. Smith was given 20 sailors -- carpenters, plumbers or welders in civilian life -- to build a reception center for the freed prisoners.

In a few days, the crew transformed a bombed-out railroad station on the Nagasaki waterfront to a center that contained a delousing station, hot showers, a mess hall and a reception area, Smith said.

"They knew their jobs," Smith said.

The center was soon crowded with starved, beaten prisoners of war, Smith said.

"Most of the prisoners weighed less than 100 pounds," Smith said. "Most of them had been so starved they would eat six swallows of ice cream and throw it all up.

"Well, we quit that and got them some broth."

Some of the freed prisoners died on the pier, Smith said.

"It was just terrible to see those guys die, how they looked and what they went through," Smith said.

Smith assigned the released prisoners to the ships that would take them home. The prisoners were from many countries, so Smith quickly gained a working knowledge of Dutch, Javanese, Tagalog, Urdu and other languages.

One prisoner clutched a small wooden box as he waited to enter the showers. Smith told him he couldn't take the box with him.

"The man told me, 'These are my brother's ashes,' " Smith said. " 'I've carried them for three years, and I'm not going to give them up now.' "

A deal was struck. Smith took off his U.S. Naval Academy ring -- his prized possession -- and gave it to the man. The man gave Smith his box. After the man showered, Smith gave him back his box, and the man returned the ring.

"I don't know who cried the most," Smith said.

Smith remained in the Navy after the war. Years later, he commanded a submarine that carried nuclear missiles with much more destructive power than the Nagasaki bomb.

Smith remembered the devastated city.

"I am thankful that I never received the order to launch," Smith said.

Smith retired from the Navy as a captain in 1975.

He still can't forget the abused prisoners that he helped 56 years ago.

"It doesn't do any good to be mad," Smith said. "Twenty-five years after the war, I went to see the Nagasaki peace memorial.

"I said to myself, 'Most of these people here hadn't been born during the war.'"

Chester Allen is city editor for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5423.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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