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Alvin
Webb: World War II Interview
by Amber N. Marchbanks (Midwest City Rotary Club Interview date April 30, 2004
Q:
When and where were you born? A:
I was born June 21, 1926 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Q:
When did you first begin thinking that the US might get involved in World
War II? A:
Well, that was about 1941. Q:
Was it before or after Pearl Harbor? A:
Ah, it was after Pearl Harbor. Well, I did know that the government was
doing lend-lease to Britain and things like that before Pearl Harbor. I did know
about that, but I didn’t really take it too seriously. Q:
OK. What was your reaction and the reaction of your family and friends
when Pearl Harbor was attacked? A:
Well, ah, I guess pretty shocked more than anything else. I had been out
milking the cows, believe it or not, and I came back from the barn and my
brother met me on the porch and said, “We’re in war.” Q:
How old were you in December of 1941? A:
I was, ah, 15. Q:
Were you already in the military? A:
No, no I was not, no. Q:
Were you drafted or did you enlist? A:
Well, that’s a long story. See I graduated from high school when I was
16, where most of them graduated at 18. Q:
Ah-huh. A:
And so when I was – turned 17, I tried to enlist in the air force, but,
ah, the day I took my physical for the air force – I’d been all the way
through and just come to the final stages, the word came down from Washington
that all enlistments had been closed because the air force – well, it was the
air corps at that time – had already decided they had all the pilots they
needed. So I did not get in, so I decided I didn’t want in the service at all!
So, then I was drafted when I was 18. Q:
How did the other men in your area feel about serving in the military? A:
Oh, they were all gone as soon as they were old enough. Everybody – no
one thought otherwise. Q:
How did your family, wife, or girlfriend feel about you going off to war? A:
Of course, I had no girlfriend – just my parents and brothers and
sisters and they were very – they were very sad, I mean, they knew it had to
be done, but they weren’t really happy about it. Q:
In what branch of the military did you serve? A:
In the army. Q:
Where did you undertake basic training? A:
Ah, I was inducted at Camp Robertson, Arkansas, (garbled) Fort Chaffee,
and I did my basic training at Camp Walters, Texas. Q:
What was that experience like? A:
Rough. (laughing) Rough. It was, ah, I was there during the wintertime
and it seemed like – our saying there was there was only one fence between –
barbed wire fence between there and the North Pole and it was down half the time
because it seemed like out in the field it was cold and frigid all the time it
seemed like. I know that’s not the general perception of Texas, but that’s
the way it was then. It was cold! Q:
What kind of things did you guys have to do when you were in basic
training? A:
Oh, march, learn to shoot rifles, learn to shoot carbines, learn to shoot
artillery, ah, learn how to take care of yourself – various methods of
hygiene, ah, ah, hand-to-hand combat – you name it – we got all those kinds
of training. Q:
After training, where did the military send you? A:
Ah, right after basic training I spent a short time at Fort Mead,
Maryland, for some advanced training, and then from there I was shipped to the
Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Q:
In what capacity did you serve during World War II? Your duty, your rank,
and the places in which you served? A:
Well, as I say, I was in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater as a buck private at
the time. I was an infantry replacement, actually, when I went overseas, and I
was on Saipan when the atomic bomb was dropped. It was flown from Tinian, which
is three miles from Saipan. So I was on Saipan when the bomb was dropped and
then I moved up to, ah, from there to Iwo Jima and at that time I was assigned
to an anti-aircraft battery. And after the war officially ended, it was a matter
of not necessarily occupation troops, but cleaning out the island of Iwo Jima,
securing the weapons and sending them home, and disposing of a lot of war
materials and that type of thing, so, ah, I was assigned to a quartermaster
battalion for a while. And then I wound up operating a quartermaster laundry for
the occupation troops on the island. I achieved the rank of sergeant at that –
I moved up to corporal and then sergeant. Q:
In terms of your own experience during World War II, under what kind of
conditions did you live and work? Like your food and clothing and . . . A:
Well, I really had no complaints. I don’t think anybody had any
complaints because I grew up on a farm anyway and we didn’t have electric
lights (laughter), so it wasn’t too bad in the service. We – we lived in
tents overseas – we lived in tents all the time, ah, but our food was
excellent. We griped about it a little bit. We had a little bit of New Zealand
butter, we called it, this was really a cheese – came in gallon cans and we
had lots of that. Sometimes our chicken or turkey – one – for a long siege
all of us on Iwo Jima, we had nothing but turkey for meat. . . Q:
Ah-huh. A:
. . . and it – some of it began to turn green time we got it, but it
was still good. Q:
I don’t even want to think about eating that kind of stuff now. What
kind of contact did you have with the people back home? A:
Only by mail – correspondence. And we had the victory mail, we called
it. A real light airmail that you could write on and the envelope was all marked
and it was all one piece of mail that you could mail home. Q:
If you feel comfortable talking about combat, please describe the combat
experiences you had, if any. A:
Ah, I actually never was in a place where I got shot at, so I didn’t
have to worry too much about that. I got awful close to it, but I never did get
shot at, so. . . I felt quite comfortable. Q:
What was your most memorable experience during World War II, combat or
otherwise? A:
Oh, that’s hard to say. I guess I did, ah, have some experiences on the
island of Iwo Jima, climbing Mount Suribachi, going down and walking across the
crater of the volcano, ah, the volcanic beaches and that type of thing –
that’s the most exciting experience – other than just the people that you
were with, which the fellowship and camaraderie with them. Q:
Yea. That’s a whole new world. I’m sure it’s hard to pick out one
experience. How long did you serve during World War II? A:
Two years. Q:
After serving during World War II, where did the military send you, or
were you immediately discharged. A:
I was immediately discharged. Q:
What kind of reception did you receive when you got back in the United
States? A:
Well, we came home. We – let’s see – on the U.S.S. Marine Fox, I
believe it was. We came under, ah, San Francisco bridge at midnight. Looked up
at it. Stopped at Oakland Army Base and was there long enough to load on a troop
train and go to, ah, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, where we were discharged and
given a ticket home and – by then a lot of people had already come home, so
the main thing about that was, when you got home all you had was your military
clothes, and clothing was very scarce from the little town I lived in. My folks
and I, we had an old car, and we drove up to – through little towns and
stopped at all the towns at the Penney’s store and I bought a shirt in each
town! That’s how I got my civilian clothes after I got home. Q:
How did your war experience affect, if at all, your relationships and
interactions with your family, friends, spouses, and/or girlfriend? A:
Well, I don’t know if it changed a whole lot. Q:
When you came back, it didn’t feel awkward or . . . A:
No, no. Didn’t feel awkward. Well received. Just went to work. Q:
Keep on keeping on, huh? Do you still keep in touch with some of the
people you served with? A:
Ah, no, not for – not the immediate people I served with. Most of those
– some of my closest lived in California, and in this part of the country –
we didn’t correspond very much, so no, I don’t really keep in contact. I
know other people that served from my hometown, but we weren’t in the same
organization. Q:
How has your World War II experience impacted you life? Did it have any
affect on your view of other wars the US has become involved with after World
War II? A:
Well, I’m sure it did. Of course, the main way it impacted my life is
that I went to college on the GI bill. I graduated from OU in 1951 and a college
degree has helped my advance in my professional life and my income and that type
of thing. And, ah, I don’t know – it’s made me – how – I think most of
the wars that we’ve been in, I’ve been in favor of. Ah, I was a little
disappointed on the Vietnam War that we weren’t allowed to win the war –
politically, we were not allowed to win the war. But, ah, I very much support
the existing war. So, ah, I don’t know. I think our country, to a certain
extent, I think some of our people are soft because they – of course, we were
a Depression generation. We had lived through the Depression, and the people now
days have never gone through that and they don’t know what hard times are or
anything like that, so I think they’re a little bit soft. And I think the
morality is severely degraded from what it was then. Ah, among our young
generation. Q:
What kind of general observations and conclusions do you have about World
War II and your World War II experience? A:
Oh, I guess I’m glad I was there, but I sure don’t want to do it
again! Q:
That sounds short, but sweet, and to the point. Rose State College |