>> This is James Newberry.
I'm here with Richard Webber on Monday,
March 22, 2016, at
the Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University.
Mr. Webber, do you agree to this interview?
>> Yes, sir.
>> Well, we'll start at the very beginning.
Could you please state your full name?
>> Richard H. Webber,
H Standing for Harold. [LAUGHTER]
>> And when and where were you born?
>> I was born outside of Buffalo,
New York in 1926, April 17.
>> So you have a birthday coming up?
>> Coming up, yes. at 90.
>> So Mr. Webber,
tell me a little bit about your childhood.
>> Well, I was raised in a small town.
My dad was a contractor,
painter in construction, and
I used to help paint and so forth.
And he was very meticulous in keeping his yard beautiful.
The garden rows were straight and so forth.
My mother was a wonderful mother.
And I had a sister and a brother.
My sister is the oldest.
She'll be 92 in April.
And my brother, he's six years younger than I am.
But we had a wonderful childhood.
We were like the dead end kids,
if you know anything about those.
We had our adventures.
We did a lot of bicycle riding,
and we had an old stone quarry next to us,
and we just had a wonderful time, good community.
>> And what were your parents' names?
>> Samuel Webber was my dad and my mother was Edna.
>> And you said your mother,
was she working in the home?
>> In the home. She was a homemaker.
>> So what are
your memories of the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
>> We went to church that Sunday morning,
and when we came home from church,
we always turned on
the radio before we change our Sunday clothes.
And we listened and Roosevelt
announced that there was an attack
on Pearl Harbor that morning,
and that's the first time we heard of the attack.
And as soon as she heard it, my mother said,
"Oh my, I hope you don't have to go."
That was her first thought.
>> And what were the feelings
going through your head at that point?
>> Mine as a young person,
I didn't think that much of it until I heard more news.
It was a frightening thing that it
could happen on one of our shores there.
>> You were still in high school.
>> Yes.
>> And how old were you?
>> Actually, let's see,
'41, I was 16.
>> Where did you attend school?
>> Depew High School in Depew, New York.
>> And when did you quit high school?
>> My dad had a stroke.
His blood pressure hit 280.
I was working with him at the time,
and we took him by ambulance. We didn't think he'd live.
And of course, he couldn't work.
His final angiitis set in, but he did live.
So I quit high school and started to work
at Curtiss-Wright building P-40s,
working on P40 airplanes.
And that was in '42.
>> Tell me about going to apply for that job.
>> I don't remember except I had
a neighbor boy buddy that I played with.
He had a job there,
and I found out I could get a job through him.
At least he introduced me to
them up over there at Curtiss.
It was only 5 miles from our home.
>> Was it a factory?
>> Yes. It's a Curtiss-Wright factory.
>> How how large?
>> They built the P-40s,
and one of the other big planes,
but it was a big factory.
>> Do you have any idea of how many employees there were?
>> No. There were thousands.
It was a big place, right by the Buffalo Airport.
>> What was your position?
>> I had to install the carburetor heater
controls right on the right side of the pilot,
and then also the terminal boxes
for the electrical and the tail end,
and the colored lights underneath.
That was my job.
>> So describe a typical working day,
from getting there,
to working there, to leaving.
>> Well, I had to run in with the union.
We were supposed to produce eight planes in a day.
And I was finished at noon.
And they said you're going too fast.
So I had to slow down,otherwise,
they would have released me, probably.
[LAUGHTER] But anyway, we produced eight planes a day.
>> Did you have breaks during the day?
>> Yes. Although I didn't need
any smoke breaks because I didn't smoke.
So I just kept
working or took a break and talked with the [inaudible].
>> And describe your co-workers?
>> Well, we had one of the girls that worked,
and she knew that I was
very particular in how I looked as far as my hair.
And I was working on
the tail end of the plane, and she came along.
[LAUGHTER] And I still remember that.
And I was ready to throw a wrench at her, but I didn't.
And I still have my little socket set at
home that I used back there in '41-'42.
>> You were able to keep it?
>> It was my own set.
>> I see. So how much money did you make?
>> I think it was 90, some dollars.
I don't know if it was a week.
It was less than $1 an hour.
>> And what did you
use the money for? Where did the money go?
>> To my home. I gave it into our family.
>> And I had an allowance, of course.
>> How much was that?
>> We had a nickel, ice cream
[inaudible] on Sunday afternoon.
[LAUGHTER] And the nice vegetable garden.
That was most of it.
>> So tell me about wartime.
This is '42-'43 that you're working this job.
Do you remember rationing? Do you remember [inaudible]?
>> Yes. Rationing. We had a ration,
only four gallon a week,
and my dad had to be careful driving.
He had an old '36 Chevy,
and he drove that to work,
but it was limited.
And then we had stamps that you could you
couldn't get certain meat and butter,
and a lot of things were rationed.
And of course, tomato soup was only 10 cans for $1.
A loaf of bread was $0.10.
And I remember that,
but we were very frugal and far as spending.
We were a poor family,
but my dad was hard worker.
We always had chickens,
and geese, and a few rabbits.
And of course, it was my job
to take care of the chickens.
And in the wintertime, I hated to clean the chicken coop,
it froze on the coop floor and I had to scrape it.
I didn't like it very much.
And had to take the coals
out of the coal stove in our living room,
and had to pick out
the coals that didn't
burn because we wouldn't waste those.
So that's what we did as a boy. Very strict.
My dad, when he'd get home at night,
he'd look over the work and he said,
now, I want this done by tomorrow night.
It'll take you an hour or all day.
All I want is it's got to be done when I get home.
>> So you said that your family went to church.
Can you describe the church you went
to and what part that your faith played in your life?
>> This was a Church of God,
Anderson, Indiana headquarters.
And it was at [inaudible] in Buffalo, New York.
It was just outside of where we lived.
We lived in the town of Cheektowaga.
That's why I always say Buffalo outside of Buffalo.
Cheektowaga in the Indiantown.
And they used to have a lot of gypsies there.
But that's where we were raised.
>> So you reached your 18th birthday in April of 1944?
What happened after you turned 18?
>> My dad, we were putting
in a cellar underneath his his home.
It didn't have a cellar, was raised up on blocks,
and I was helping him take out the dirt and so forth.
And then I got a draft notice report.
And I weighed 118 pounds at the time.
I could hide behind a telegraph pole.
And they said, they'll never take you.
You're too skinny, you can't do anything over there.
I said, I feel good.
So I went in and I passed with flying colors.
They just put down on my papers, underweight.
That's all. Maybe that's why
I got in the Air Force. [LAUGHTER]
>> You say you went in and you passed with flying colors.
What did you have to do to pass?
>> Well, they have to take a physical,
and it was a pretty heavy physical.
And that's all I remember as far as that physical,
because when I got in, I'll
tell you about that physical,
that was a little different.
But anyway, I got home,
and the week later,
I got the notice that I was supposed to
report to the Buffalo office,
and we were going to take a train to Trenton,
New Jersey, the Fort Dix,
New Jersey to be entered in.
>> So I'll come to that. I want to quickly ask,
how would you receive these notices?
>> Through the mail.
>> And what would it say?
Uncle Sam welcomes you
[LAUGHTER] and you were accepted.
>> So how did you feel about leaving
your home then at 18 to go to Fort Dix?
>> Well, our family never did travel.
We never had a vacation that I remember.
And they never traveled and I never traveled.
So this was going to be the first time out of state.
So it was new.
And our folks they took a little rough
and I remember the day
that they took me into the train station.
My brother collected the eggs in the chicken coop,
and he had one left in his pocket,
and he broke it going
into the train station in his pocket.
He had that egg in his pocket.
And I remember they
left me off at the New York Central Station.
And as the train went by the viaduct,
they were waving goodbye,
and that's how he left.
>> So you arrived at Fort Dix, what did you do there?
>> We got there about two in the morning
and we went into a large room,
where we were sworn in,
and we had to repeat what they told us to do.
And then we had to go another room
and get rid of all of our clothes,
and then go to the counter and they threw clothes at us.
They were too big for us.
They didn't care what size,
because we would be sized later.
And so that was that night.
And then we went to
our barracks for that night afterwards.
>> How long did you stay there? Okay.
>> I'm not sure, but I think it was several days,
because we went through the process
of a physical examination, I should say.
And when we went in,
they said they put needles.
They were standing on both sides of us,
a couple of needles in this arm
and a couple of needles in that one.
Someone yell, "Watch out for
the one with a propeller on,
" and [LAUGHTER] some of the guys feigned it,
and it was quite a sight, and of course,
a bunch of nude guys in there,
and things they had you do.
So that was our first experience for
a little boy away from home for the first time.
[LAUGHTER] It was a shock for an 18 year old.
>> So at what point did you head
to Bootcamp at Shepherd Field?
>> Well, that was about probably a week later.
It's always in the mid of the mornings,
and we arrived at Shepherd Field and we were thirsty.
And when we went onto the field there, they said,
"If you're thirsty, there's the water bag."
It was a lister bag,
they call it in the middle of the grass,
out in the sun all day,
and you could get water from that.
So it was hot water, we drank
it 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.
And it was terrible. Texas was worse in overseas.
Sorry, Texas. [LAUGHTER]
>> Can you describe Shepherd Field then?
>> It was nice. It was
a two deck barracks that we stayed in,
and I was on the lower floor,
and I always had trouble with people snoring,
and to get into a barracks with
30 guys all playing their tune,
I remember one night a guy
next to me was soaring so loud,
I got up and squeezed his nose and jumped back in bed.
[LAUGHTER] He stopped his storing for a little while.
But it was a new experience for me.
But it was a double deck barracks,
and the sergeant would come in every morning.
And when they blew the bugle in the morning,
we had to be out in line,
whether we were dressed or not. You'd be there.
Some were still in their shorts and others were dressed,
but we stood in attention.
Then we went in and had to make our beds up,
and then the sergeant would come
in and flip a quarter on our bed.
And if it didn't pop,
he pulled it aside and we
had to make it over, so it was tight.
So it would bounce when he put the quarter on.
So I had my quarter bounce sometimes and sometimes not.
>> Can you tell me about the food?
>> Well, I can tell you
the songs we sang while we marched.
The chicken that they serve you,
they say is mighty fine.
One hopped off the table and started marking time.
I don't want an Army life. I want to go home.
Then the coffee that they serve you,
they say is mighty fine.
It's good for cuts and bruises,
it tastes like Iodine.
And so we sing those.
That's some of food.
The food was okay,
but the Navy had better food when we had some Navy food.
>> What kind of training were you doing in Bootcamp?
>> Well, of course,
we always had to march,
and stand in line.
And of new recruits,
we didn't know the language.
And they said, "We need a truck driver today,
" and some would raise
your hand and find out they had to push a wheelbarrow.
That was the truck driver,
or kitchen police or KP.
So I never volunteered for those.
I just marched and did what I
was supposed to do partially.
Not all the time. We had to corner lot.
It was so hot in Texas.
And it was a ash fault square
that we were doing our exercises
and push ups and so forth.
And evidently, I wasn't doing it properly.
And the sergeant said,
"Do a duck wattle around the field."
So here I'm down I'm doing a duck wattle,
if you know what that is.
And a lieutenant saw me and he said, "What happened?"
He told me, "It's all right, get back in
line." I said, "Okay."
I was thankful for that.
So that was part of my training.
And then one time,
we had to jump over,
it must have been at least 20 feet,
a big hole in the ground with water,
and a rope down the middle.
And we had to run and grab
that rope and swing to the other side.
Hope you didn't fall into the water.
Well, I didn't like that idea,
so I tried sneaking around, but they caught me.
So [LAUGHTER] I had to do it and I made it.
So that was okay.
And then in the Air Force,
to fell in front of me went in the Army and
the one in the back went to the Navy
and I went at the Air Force,
maybe because I was so late, lightweight, maybe.
But, I was when we had gas masks drill,
we had to crawl under 18 inches of a barbed wire top.
And while I was under there,
they shot tear gas at us,
and we had to put a gas masks on under there.
But they didn't cut your hair as long as the Army did,
or the Navy,
and I had a little hair stuck out of my gas mask,
and I got gas in my mouth started choking.
And I got a real short haircut after that.
>> Well, you were talking about the different branches.
>> Yes.
>> How were you selected
or how did you go about choosing that?
>> When we were in line,
when they were picking out where you were going to go,
I didn't know what I was going in.
And they said, "The guy in front of me,
you're going into the Army."
And they told me he said, you're
going into the Army Air Force.
The guy at back of me, you're going to the Navy.
So I don't know if they did every other
one like that or coast guard,
but that's all I remember. That's how I got in.
>> How did you feel about going into the Air Force?
>> I was glad because I didn't
want the infantry. It's just inch.
And I didn't know how to swim. I didn't want the Navy.
[LAUGHTER] So I was glad I went to the Air Force.
>> So where did you go from Shepherd Field?
>> Shepherd field, after our first basic training,
we were supposed to go to Madison,
Wisconsin for radio mechanics school.
But it was filled,
so they said we had to take a second basic training,
which I didn't care about.
But I went through it, and we took
our 25 mile hikes at night because it was so hot,
and we had our packs on and radio men were on
one side and mechanics were on the other side,
and see who would drop out.
The meat wagon would follow us.
Some dropped out and had to ride the meat wagon.
And then after the second basic training,
why they said, "Well,
the radio school still filled,
you have to take a third basic training."
I said, that's for the birds.
I went to the headquarters there and I said,
"Do you need a typist?"
"Yeah, can you type?" I said,
"Yes, I took it in my first year in high school."
And so they gave me
a job typing while
the rest marched by, I was watching them.
And I was glad, and then
after the third basic training that they had,
we shipped to Madison, Wisconsin.
Well, they gave us a furlough.
We went home for 10 day furlough maybe,
and then we went to Madison, Wisconsin and enrolled.
>> Well, tell me about working as a typist.
What sort of office were you in?
>> It was just a open office.
It was not a booth or room.
It was like a open office area,
and I was the only typist there.
And so I type different things for them.
>> What sort of things?
>> Well, probably reports.
I don't remember exactly because that's
quite a long time ago. That was 1944.
So I don't remember quite what I was typing.
But then when I was at the radio school,
we had to build superhot din radios.
Then at the testing time,
it was time to plug in our radios to see if they work.
And when we did, we saw
smoke coming around different areas,
where they were shorting out the different radios.
Then we had to go to
a B24 bomber that had radio trouble,
and we had to find out what the trouble was.
That was part of our test.
And that was radio school.
>> So this radio school,
it was in Madison, Wisconsin?
>> Madison, Wisconsin.
>> And, when you arrived there,
how did they lay out what your training would be?
You said you build this type of radio.
Could you could you go over that in
a more basic way for [inaudible]?
>> It was super. We went into
the radio building where
they worked and where the school was,
and they had each one of us had at a workbench,
and also chair,
and we had our resistors
and other things to put in wires and so forth.
Then we had to memorize the code for the resistors.
Of course, I never forget
the poem they gave us to remember it.
Our bad boys raped our young women,
but violent gave in willingly.
Never forgot it. Each one
of those represented a color.
[LAUGHTER] I remember that.
>> Sort of a pneumonic device.
>> Yeah.
>> I see. And was that your only task to fill that radio?
What other things were you doing a radio school?
>> Well, that was the main thing, work on the radios.
And then after that, if we passed,
then we were shipped home for
a 15 day furbogh and then shipped overseas.
>> So how long was radio school?
>> I think it was maybe six,
eight weeks, maybe six weeks.
>> And as someone who was working on a radio like that,
what did you expect to
come when you were shipped
overseas if you were working on radio?
>> Well, we were supposed to work on when they have
difficult in the various planes
because when we shipped to Saipan,
it was a 29 air base.
So we had to work on any troubles that
they had in their radios.
But well, I can tell you when we got over it to change.
>> Did you expect to see combat?
>> Well, we didn't know for sure.
Radio school and the work
we would be doing over there would not
be actual combat because
the planes would come in and if there was trouble,
we'd have to take care of the troubleshooting.
So we actually didn't see the combat,
but they did, but we didn't have to.
>> Tell me about your furlough home.
>> Well, the first furlough before we went
overseas, it was tremendous.
My sister, let's see,
she is two years older than me.
My brother was six years younger
and they just thought I was the hero,
and of course, I didn't have any stripes on my shirt yet.
They didn't give you any stripes to
you actually we're doing something.
But they were happy to see me but sad to see me go again.
>> Had you experienced home sickness?
>> Yes. I wrote home well, not every day,
but my mother wrote just about every day
and I'll tell you more about that when I get overseas.
But it was a scream, really.
>> So when did you ship out?
>> I don't have the exact date,
but it was in the wintertime,
must have been January because it was very cold in
Madison was below zero and I have pictures.
The red cross furnishes a photo room.
So I took my own pictures with an old black and white
and developed my own pictures and
I have a picture of a sergeant saying,
if if Webber were to shipped out,
we were all frozen to death because I took care of
the stove and it was very cold.
But while I was there,
it was a cold experience,
I'd say but we got through it.
>> And where was this?
>> Madison, Wisconsin.
>> I see. So you're leaving from there.
>> And then from home,
we went to Vancouver, Washington,
but we we stopped at Salt Lake City for a few days.
And while I was there,
why we put Kilroy,
that was a fellow that was in the service with us.
They called him Kilroy,
and they say, Kilroy was here and Kilroy was there.
So we climbed the out behind
the capital of Salt Lake City and put Kilroy up there.
And then we went to the Mormon Tabernacle visited there.
And we were there for
just a couple of days and then we
shipped on to Vancouver, Washington.
>> When you were making your way across the country,
you stopped in Salt Lake City?
>> Yes.
>> And you had been to the Mormon Tabernacle
and Kilroy was there?
>> Kilroy we put him on the mountain back there,
and then we went to a studio and had pictures taken.
This was when I was 18 years old.
>> Where did you have this taken?
>> I couldn't tell you.
I think it was Salt Lake City.
>> And why did you have the photo taken?
>> Well, all the other guys were.
[LAUGHTER] And I'll tell
you what we did when we came back from overseas too.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So then you made your way to Vancouver,
Washington, and you shipped out from there?
>> Yes.
>> And tell me about those days at sea.
How did you adjust to being [inaudible]
>> That was a real eye opener.
Like I say, it was a 17 day trip.
The first five days, I was sea sick and we were down in
the second or third hole down below deck.
And I was on the second bunk up.
And the fellas were throwing up in
their helmets and it got to be such a stench,
I went and took my blanket and slept outside on the deck.
But the ship was going so cheerio.
And then when we go down to the chow line,
you had to hang onto your tray because if you didn't,
it would slide down to the other end and you have
to chase it and bring it back.
And that would make you sicker.
But I kept my cookies, but I was sick.
But another experience was the latrine.
Now, for those that don't know what the latrine was,
that was a restroom bathroom,
and all it was consistent was
a big trough with two by fours across,
and you sat on those two by fours.
And I think that's why I learned to get up early.
I always got up early before the rest of
them and no sense in having this stuff.
I'll go up past you as you're sitting there.
But that was it and then we'd wash some of our clothes,
we put them on a line and throw them
overboard and let the waves beat them clean.
And then we'd pull them up
and that's how we washed our clothes a little salty,
but they were okay. [LAUGHTER]
>> So where did you land first?
>> Saipan. We landed in the middle of the night.
I don't know what exact time was it,
but we had to avoid some mines
that were still in the bay.
So we slept on the ship that night and then
in the morning we had to take
landing craft onto the shore.
And then we got ashore and
they had some jeeps and trucks waiting for us.
And then they took us to our base
where we're going to be stationed.
>> What did the island look like because I
assume this is after the battle was on.
>> Yes. Saipan was one
over some quite a few months before.
There was a lot of Japs still running
around and they took us to the base.
We had our carbin rifles and our 485 pistols.
And they took us to our tents.
We had four men in a tent
and we got used to the monkeys that were there.
They used to sneak in our tent.
If we had any gum or anything, they'd steal it.
Or if we'd hang out our wash on a line by the tree,
they'd slide down it and get it all dirty,
again, we had to rewash it.
So we didn't like those monkeys.
They got us aggravated.
But I was a rebel because we got
our sea rations and they'd service beer and cigarettes,
which I was against.
I was raised up against that and fellas would
get mad at me because I'd dump
my beer out and crush my cigarettes.
They said, oh, they were getting mad at me.
I said, well, if it's poison
for me, it's poison for you.
By the way, my dad died of lung cancer
from smoking at 53 years old.
But I got along pretty good and I made
my own bed there out of two by six lumber.
They have wood all around.
We could use that and I put B 29 inner tubes.
We cut them in strips and made
a cross like this and
made our bed out of that with
bottle caps to hold the nails in.
And that was where we laid our mattress.
They gave us a mattress on there. And that was our bed.
And then I made a lounge here out of an army cot.
And we did a lot of things on side bend and at
Christmas time that was
my first Christmas away from home.
We had an old pump organ that was there.
I don't know where it came from.
There was a vacuum sweeper,
and I played the piano organ,
so I didn't know how
we could play that organ the bellows,
you couldn't work them too well.
We hooked up this vacuum sweeper and hooked
a hose up to the bellows and put the vacuum sweeper
underneath the wood floor of our tent and that would
blow the air and I play
Christmas Carols on the old organ,
and that was our experience there on that tent.
>> You knew a lot of
Christmas Carols and other songs from memory?
>> Yes, I do know other songs because when I go to
the PX they had a piano there and they said,
Webber, play some songs for us.
I'd play the Old Rugged Cross,
don't you know I said I only know hymns.
They start singing the hymns.
But I'd play by ear
because I didn't have any piano lessons.
But they enjoyed it and I did too.
>> What was your assignment on Saipan?
>> On Saipan,
they needed teletype operators, no mechanics.
Because the the bigger base was tinon right next to us.
That's where they took off with the atomic bomb and
they got it to B_29 so it was late to put the bomb in.
But they put me in the radio station,
which was 10CW operators,
which was Morris code.
And then I never did learn that.
Then they had 10 radio teletype operators
and 10 landline operators.
The landline operators, who typed
the message and it went directly to where you're going.
The radiotype you type tapes and sent them by tape.
I know at Christmas time
and you could see what you're doing.
I would make a Christmas tree
and send it to Wake Island or some of the other islands,
wish them Merry Christmas.
That's what we did for teletype.
>> When you say you sent them a Christmas tree,
what do you mean?
>> On the teletype. It was yellow paper
and they would receive it on
yellow paper on the other island.
That was called radio teletype.
Landline was a little different.
So anyway, they've received that night answer me
back and I do that to the various islands.
And then of course,
I got my private then corporal stripes.
And then after,
I'll tell you that later.
>> What did the teletype office look like?
>> It was like a barracks,
if you know what a barracks would be,
and they had little booths where
the CW operators were all along that wall.
I can still see them.
Then over here was
the landline and radio teletype operators.
Then there was a desk over here that later on,
I used as a office type when
I was promoted and I didn't do the teletype after that.
>> I would imagine that you may have had
more communication with the states
back home in this position.
Is that wrong or right?
>> No. Mostly on the islands.
And then we had a cryptography machine
which served as a decoding machine,
and we had a little incinerary thing
that if the jats would come near anything,
you had to put that on and to integrate that machine.
But I never had to use that.
And then in my tent,
they captured 30 Japanese one morning before breakfast.
Then another time I met a friend there, Elsa Milner.
He was from Chicago,
and he was a good Christian fellow and we
had good Bible study and prayer together,
and we went up into the hills to had
prayer one afternoon and while we were praying,
we saw the sign stay out, beware of Japs.
We left then after we prayed.
But of course, the war was over at
that time and it just work came to an end.
>> But tell me about
those Japanese that were captured near your tent.
Explain that situation.
>> We don't know what happened to them
because we weren't even dressed. They took them away.
But when they were to surrender,
a lot of the Japanese,
they call bloody hill.
They call it bloody hill because
37,000 Japanese committed
suicide over that hill and dropped down
to the rocks below whole families,
children and all, and they call
that bloody hill where we took off on with
our airplanes from that bloody hill off that hill.
>> So that was on Saipan?
>> That was on Saipan.
>> Was that mass suicide during the war?
>> After the war.
In fact, some Japanese just
surrendered just a couple of years ago, all those years.
They were hidden caves,
they just didn't surrender.
>> So your post was changed,
you had been on Saipan and
then you were next posted on Marcus island?
>> Yes. We flew off to Marcus,
we got onto a navy plane.
That was the first airplane ride I had,
by the way, being in the Air Force.
I thought I'd have more rides than that.
But we got on this Navy plane,
a little two engine plane.
All planes were propped then.
They didn't have jets then.
So when we got on,
it was a smaller plane and the pilot,
he forgot his watch and I had my watch on and he said,
it they had no co pilot with them.
So he said, would you come up and
sit in the copilot seat,
and then you have your watch?
I said, Okay, so I enjoyed that.
But as we were ready to take off,
the tail end when lift, he said,
throw some of that bags toward the front so
the tail lifts and we
were heading at the end of the bloody ridge,
but we got up okay.
And we flew to Marcus island and I didn't
know where Marcus island was from any place.
And he said we're arriving at the Marcus island.
We looked down and I said, where is it I was
East of Wajima It was
an island a mile long and
three quarters a mile wide without a tree on it.
It was white coral rock with bushes.
We came and landed, there was a tower there where the
Kamkoski twins from Buffalo I met on that island,
they were from Buffalo, they were twins.
I was just a short distance in
the radio room when they were up in the tower.
We lived in a tent there also.
I was there for only a couple of months.
>> Duties in the radio room?
>> In the radio room. Of course,
I did more teletype.
That was my main job.
Then I also was a clerk
taking teletype messages and sorting them and putting
them in different stalls where
the lieutenant would come in
and take some of them and read them and so forth,
and maybe give me an assignment to send something
out over the teletype. So they'd come in.
>> Do you remember any particularly significant messages?
>> No. I don't remember that.
Only those that I sent at Christmas time,
but mainly and then there was some weather reports,
we would see what was going on,
we'd send those out.
>> So you recovered a Japanese Bayonet on Marcus island.
>> Yes, on Marcus Island.
The island was about one story deep.
I think it was one story deep.
They had hollowed out into
the white coral rock and down there was
their radio room and
their equipment was still down there,
and I saw this Bayonet and I picked it up and I said,
I'm going to take that home with me and
nobody opposed me doing it.
So I took that into my tent
but they had a radio room down there.
And I remember on Marcus Island.
I was lying on my bunk one night,
memorizing scripture verses and all of
a sudden shots went over my tent and I said wow.
I rolled off onto the floor.
I didn't know what was coming off.
Even though the war was over at that time,
they still had to obey the orders.
And the fellow that was on guard,
when you got near him,
you'd say advance and he had recognized.
And this fellow didn't say anything.
He just kept coming and he was shot by our guard.
And we watched them operate on
him and they were running out of blood,
so they flew him out and I don't know
what happened to him from there.
But we were only there a couple of months
and then we flew to Guam.
>> And before we talk about Guam,
can you tell me where were
you when the atomic bomb was dropped?
>> I was still on my way to Saipan.
>> So that was in that 17-day period.
>> Well, it was right almost when I got to Saipan.
>> And do you remember hearing the news of that?
>> Yes. I heard it from our officers.
They told us about it.
We didn't hear it otherwise.
>> And what about the end of the war, V-J Day?
>> The end of the war.
Let's see, I was on Guam
when MacArthur signed it
on the truce, that's where I was.
So we didn't think much of that,
but we were happy for it
because we didn't have to go to Japan.
>> So then you were moved to Guam and
tell me about what you did there,
what you found on Guam.
>> There on Guam,
they took us to the radio station again.
Of course, we lived in,
well, they were like barracks.
They weren't actually tents.
But anyway, we lived there
four or five of us in a in a group.
And we went to the radio room,
and there I was in charge of the radio station.
I got my sergeant stripes and so I was in
charge of all the workers in there and I had a desk.
Well, it was a thing
with shelves that you put different messages in.
And I was called a message clerk
for the whole room there.
And so that was my job there receiving
messages and checking them
and putting them in different slots.
>> How many men did you oversee?
>> I'd say there was around 30 in that room,
10 each of CW and that landline and radio teletype.
>> And how long did this posting last?
>> That lasted,
let's see, I got out in August.
I got there. It lasted about three months.
And then I was up for staff sergeant promotion.
But then we also got orders that same
day that my group was going to ship home.
I said, boy, I'm not going to wait
three weeks for staff sergeant stripes.
I want to go home with my fellows.
So we shipped back to Saipan,
and then Saipan to Hawaii and Hawaii to San Francisco.
So that was our journey on the USS Mendocino.
>> And can you describe the return
into the San Francisco harbor?
>> When we were coming in,
of course, all of us, I have pictures of it at home,
I was on the gun tour
with a bunch of fellows looking
over the side of the ship.
And as we were approaching
San Francisco, we passed Alcatraz.
And then as we went under the Golden Gate Bridge,
then we got to the harbor at
San Francisco and it was
crowded with people welcoming us home.
And, of course, we didn't have anybody
welcome us home as far as
family because they're on the other coast.
But anyway, we took our baggage over
our shoulders and walked down the gangplank
and there were all the hugs and the hurrahs.
It was exciting to be
back in the good, old USA. [LAUGHTER]
>> Let me go back real quickly.
So you said on Guam,
you were the clerk in charge of
cryptography there as well?
>> No, not there.
>> So that was only [OVERLAPPING] back in Saipan.
Could you describe cryptography?
>> Cryptography was they would send decoded messages.
And of course, we would have to send those
unto whoever it was posted to,
but we never knew what the message
was because that was taboo for us.
My mother got several letters
from me with holes punched out.
I wish she would have kept them.
[LAUGHTER] I wanted to
find out what I said that I shouldn't have said.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So they had been censored?
>> Yeah. They censored all our mail.
>> And who did the censoring?
>> I don't know. It was through the mail room.
They just called us to the mail room
and we'd be outside and they'd stand
on a platform and yell out our names if we had mail.
And that's as far as we got into the mail room.
So I don't know who did the censoring.
>> Do you have any idea of how long
those letters took to make it to you?
>> No, because I got letters quite frequently.
And I got several packages my mother sent.
She didn't know any better and I
didn't either in the heat.
There was chocolates in it,
and it was all stuck together,
especially at Easter time she had Easter stuffing.
Whenever I got a package,
the guys would all gather around my bed.
It didn't last long in the package.
We all delved into it and they
had cookies with me and whatever she
had in there and separate the chocolate
from the straw she hid in there.
[LAUGHTER] But that's what we received our packages.
>> What news did your mother report from home?
>> She'd just tell what they were doing,
talk about the garden and church and the family,
and then I just told her what I was doing.
Maybe I shouldn't have told her what I was doing.
I don't know, but I never saw what she got.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So what camaraderie
developed between you and these other fellows,
the guys working for you?
>> Well, being a Christian at the time,
I got a lot of razzing.
And I remember one day,
I had my Bible on
my bed and some of the guys were jazzing me.
And there was a big fellow from Texas,
I forget his name,
but he came to my rescue.
He said, "Did you read that book he's reading?"
No. "Well, what are you razzing him about?
Let him alone." Big fellow.
And then they knew I didn't like gambling.
And one night, I was on
my upper bunk and we had floors and lights,
I remember that, and they were
shooting dice and gambling on
the lower bunk and it was bedtime.
I wanted to go to sleep. And I got mad.
I took one of those tubes out and I said,
"Guys, get out of here."
And that was a poor witness as a Christian.
[LAUGHTER] And I put the bulb back in.
I said I'm sorry and I went to bed and they dispersed.
But some of those things happened while I was there.
And then another time on Marcus Island,
I was memorizing scripture verses
and some of the guys they said,
"Webber, you're going to go to the theater
whether you like it or not."
And the four of them picked me up
bodily and carried me out.
And while they were doing, I
had my scripture verse said,
"While there hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man,
but God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you're able,
but will make a way to escape
that ye may be able to bear it."
And they dropped me like a hot potato.
I wasn't any fun [LAUGHTER] because I didn't resist.
They thought I would resist.
>> Well, so this calling that you experienced,
was that derived from
childhood or did it happen suddenly?
>> I should have told you that when I
was in Shepherd Field, Texas.
Of course, we were taught to
witness to people about the Lord,
but I was fresh,
only three years a Christian.
So I read my Bible when
no one was around and prayed when no one saw me.
Real witness.
But the barracks was empty one day,
so I went upstairs into
an upper room that had old mattresses and springs,
and I was up there with the Lord for three hours.
And while I was praying and having my do with the Lord
and my condemnation for not witnessing,
the Lord said, "I want you to go into the ministry."
I said, "Lord, I only had two years of high school.
I quit high school.
What if I do my schooling?"
I was talking to hhim just like He was there.
And he said, "Don't worry
about that, I'll take care of that."
So that's where I got my calling to go to
preach while I was in that upper room.
And from that time, I was singing going down the stairs,
I didn't care who heard me.
And from there I was a witness.
>> And that continued all through your time overseas?
>> Right. In fact,
when I was overseas in Saipan,
I think I told you I was whistling
that song and I met
the sergeant and he was a Christian too,
and so we had Bible studies
together from then on while he was there.
>> So tell me about the chaplains that were there.
What was the religion generally?
>> Well, one chaplain I had was a presbyterian.
At first, I was going to be assistant chaplain,
but I didn't want to do that.
And I couldn't officially
anyway because of my lack of education for that.
But we had nice services. They were formal.
And even on the ship,
I got a picture of us
all gathered on top of the deck with
the chaplain and they had one for the
Jewish and one for the Catholic
and one for the Protestants.
And, of course, they had on our dog tags,
P for Protestants,
and then our blood tag a blood type
O that was on dog tags too.
But we had a good relationship with our chaplains.
They had it wherever we were.
They held a lot of the places on Saipan.
Now they held our services in
the open-air theater was nice and warm,
so we had them there for a lot of our services.
>> So you were talking about the entertainment like
going to watch the movie.
What were some of the other types of
entertainment that were available for service?
>> Most of the guys were shooting dice and betting
on one another and some
for cigarettes and some for this and some for that,
which I wasn't interested in.
And then, of course, when we were in
the States, we'd go into town.
And I went to the Victory Center always,
which was a Christian place where
the other guys lived it up in town and I didn't.
So I was the oddball.
But I didn't care. I was a bullheaded German. [LAUGHTER]
So when were you discharged?
>> This was in August.
I don't know the exact date,
but it was the latter part of August of 1946.
And they took me back to Trenton,
New Jersey, for our discharge.
When we first hit shore in San Francisco, we were cruddy.
And so we went to the barber shop,
we told him, give us the works.
So they gave us a manicure,
they washed our hair, and did everything.
We said, give us the works.
And then I think
we took a train back to Trenton, New Jersey.
And then there we got our honorable discharge,
and then I took a train to Buffalo and we arrived
at the New York Central Station at 3:00 in the morning.
And it was too early to go home,
so I laid on the bench and slept a little bit.
At about 5:00, I woke up and called
a taxi and headed for Cheektowaga to our home,
and I got off the taxi out of the taxi on that morning,
I forget what day it was.
But it was a nice day.
And I looked over at the garden,
it was beautifully kept.
My dad was particularly nice garden
there and the sign in the window, welcome home, Dick.
And they knew I was coming home.
And so I walked in the driveway and as
I got looking at the garden,
by the door flew open,
my mother came out in her robe and she, "Welcome home."
And then the rest of the family,
my dad and brother and sister.
And that was my welcome home. Wonderful.
>> Yes. So tell me about
completing high school in New York.
>> I know I had to do something about my high school.
I went to the Def High School afterwards and I said,
"What can I do to finish my last two years?"
And they said, "Well, New York State Regions Board
has a special program for veterans returning,
and it's a four months period,
and you go to Buffalo to the school and they give
you credit for your phys ed credits,
three credits for your basic training and so forth."
Then for your travels,
they had a regions program,
world history and American background.
When you took that, and if you pass that,
they gave you three credits for that because of
travels and so forth and passing the test.
Then they had English,
third and fourth English test,
that if you pass that, you got that.
You had to have 19 credits to graduate. I had 20.
So I graduated, but
I was going to go to Moody Bilens
because of my friend that was there.
I went there, took my folks with me,
and I was going to enroll,
five bucks to enroll.
Well, I got home and a preacher friend of mine said,
"Well, why don't you go to Roberts Weslyan College,
it's only 50 miles instead of 500 miles
and you get a degree instead of a Bible certificate."
I said, "Oh, that sounds good."
So I went to Roberts Junior College, it was.
So I went there and they said,
"Well, we'll accept you,
but you got to
take math and you've got to take language more of that,
not enough of it with your college."
So my first year at college was rough.
I had rough because I traveled with a quartet.
I was in a school quartet called the Evangels,
so I was gone every weekend and hit 30 camp meetings
one summer and trying to do my homework at the same time.
So my first year wasn't good.
It wasn't an A year,
and it wasn't a full B year either,
but I got through it.
Then the second year was better,
and then at school,
I got involved with the ministerial.
I got involved with the radio program.
I was a disc jockey for a while.
I did lots of things at the college.
And then the second year was better,
I was President of Ministerial,
amd then we preached outside of Roberts,
the missions and so forth.
And then the second year,
I graduated from Roberts Junior College.
Well, I didn't know what I was going to do,
but New York State
allowed Roberts to put on their third year,
so I went the third year at Roberts,
and then they added the fourth year.
So I was able to go four years.
But on graduation, Roberts was not able to give us
our degree unless they
were a four-year college for five years,
so I got my degree from the University of New York,
which was better, really.
Then from there, I went home and
continued a little church that
we had started at my aunt's basement.
And then, of course, during the course of my ministry,
I got two honorary doctor's degrees,
one from Worldwide Accrediting from Richmond,
Virginia, and another one
from the Atlantic Bible Seminary.
>> Go back to starting
that church in your aunt's basement.
Tell me that from its beginning.
>> Well, a preacher friend
that got me to go to Roberts,
he helped my aunt start a school in my aunt's basement.
And her basement when she built her house,
it wasn't high enough for the floor,
so they had to fill in
causing the basement to be real short.
So when I preached,
I had to preach between the rafters,
and if I got excited,
I bumped the rafters.
And I played a Hawaiian guitar.
My mother liked Hawaiian music,
so I played Hawaiian guitar,
and to play it in that damp basement,
I had to put rubbers on,
otherwise, I would get a shock.
And we had a couple of other orchestra fellas in there.
And we had an old pump organ that we used,
somebody played the pump organ.
And we stayed in her basement till we reached about 80.
And then we found out about
this United Brethren Church called Blossom,
New York, not too far from us.
They wanted to sell their church.
So we asked how much they wanted for it.
Well, the Lutheran Church across
the street wanted to buy it for another purpose,
and they offered them 4,000.
It was an old church with a high steeple,
seated about 150 people.
And we offered them $2,000 or $3,000.
And they wanted to keep it open for the gospel,
so they sold it to us.
So we moved there with
our little group and we were there for
five years and we did a lot of
crazy things as a first time pastor,
and we dropped leaflets from an airplane.
One of our members was a pilot and he had his own plane,
so I went up after service and we dropped leaflets.
We held a parade to advertise our Sunday school contest.
And so we had the police escort with an open truck with
our orchestra in it and we marched
behind it and I drove the school bus behind it.
We did that and then we released
homing pigeons one Sunday with messages on
them to advertise the church.
We did a lot of crazy things as a first time pastor.
But we grew, and then we got
a full page spread in the Christian Life magazine,
it was a national magazine,
with a picture of our contest.
We got interested for that.
So that was our first church.
>> Tell me about meeting your wife.
>> All right. While I was at Roberts.
Of course, in the parlors,
they called it the parlors,
it was in the girls' dorm,
but it was a parlor for everybody,
and there was a piano in there and
we'd gather around singing around the piano.
So Faith's sister was
at the school and her brother was in my class, Paul.
He stayed in the barracks with me
and his sister was in the school and mayday,
and Faith came to visit.
And I was playing the piano,
and Joy and her were
watching me play and then they asked,
Well, where did he take lessons?
I said, Eastman School of Music, just to pass it out.
I never took lessons and her sister said,
why that [inaudible] he never took any lessons.
That's how I met faith.
Then we wrote letters and then our letters crossed.
Then she sent me a picture which
he brother used to take away from
me all the time and I'd have to get it from his room,
but that's how I met faith.
And she had a sister Joy, Grace, Hope,
and hers was Faith, and one brother Paul,
who they showed charity to.
>> So when did you marry?
>> Let's see. I graduated in '51.
And then I pastored for a year before
we met and so we married in '52,
June 14, 1952, and every year,
the nation puts flags out for our anniversary.
>> So was she involved with
the church that you [inaudible]?
>> Yes. She was the pianist for a while.
And then she taught class and worked with
the young people and
the juniors and so forth. She was very busy.
>> Now, tell me about moving to Florida.
>> Okay. After our second church,
it was in the outside of Dunkirk.
It was so cold.
Our phone number was called was Yukon.
That was the number before the letters.
It got so bad the snow,
you couldn't even see the school bus come by.
And I drove school bus and we have
to duck underneath the telegraph wires to get milk.
It was a farm church and
we got raw milk from the farmers.
And I got pictures of it
where a speaker was coming to our church one
Sunday and he got to our church on Saturday morning
and parked the car in the front of
our parsonage and Sunday morning,
all you could see was 6" of his car.
It was covered. Of course,
we had no church that Sunday.
But we were there for three years,
and I had bad sinus in that region.
So we left there,
and then I taught school several years in Buffalo.
And then we had friends,
relatives lived in Florida,
Newport Richey, Florida.
Well, that was actually Holly Springs where he was.
They said, come on down to Florida.
Then I thought, well,
I'll try to teach at the Bible school
at Dunedin, Florida.
So I flew down there and met with the president,
picked me up at the airport and he said,
we'd like to have you teach at our Bible school,
but you have three children.
And you'd have to have another job.
We couldn't pay you enough.
So that was out.
So I rented a car and went to Newport Richey,
and looked it over and went to the school.
They had no vacancy there.
I was going to teach there.
So then I flew home without a promise of a job.
So I kept teaching in Buffalo and Faith was doing
nursing in Buffalo for
those two years and I was preaching on the side.
So then we decided we're going to go to Florida anyway.
We're going to build a home.
So I saved my tithe money,
bought some song books, I was going to
start a church down in Newport Richey.
So we drove down there,
we left in June and we
had no paycheck from June until October.
And so we live by faith.
And I took Genesis 15 when Abraham
was told by the Lord to leave your family
and friends and go to
another country and I'll be a blessing to you,
but you have to be a blessing to others.
So I took that verse and Genesis 12: 1, 2, and 3.
So we went to Florida and our house wasn't finished,
that we were building, so we stayed
with the builders' shack.
It was so filled with bugs, it wasn't funny.
But we stayed there for a
for a month or so and then went into our house.
Then we started to go to
this Boulevard Bible church that had a split.
They didn't have a church, but they had
a Sunday school building that
seated about 100 and something.
So we started there with our children and then started
prayer meeting at our home and
then we needed a place to have a church
so we looked and we found a place at the police station.
It had a room in there, it seat
125 people with a
[inaudible] in it and they gave it to us for free.
So the first Sunday,
I put a sign and we had a sign made,
I put it on the sidewalk and a lady came
in and was converted to the Lord that first Sunday.
That was in November and then just before Christmas,
the trustees from Boulevard Bible Church
came to our house.
He said, Brother Webber,
we need a preacher.
You need a church. How much calling
would you do for $30 a week?
And I said, Well, last week,
I made 60-something calls without any pay.
So I said, We'll pray about it. So we did.
So then they had me preached and I
preached several times for them before.
So January, they took me in as their pastor.
>> What church was that?
>> Boulevard Bible Church.
So then I became their pastor.
They only had 19 members and 35 in Sunday school.
But then I was assistant teaching at the high school.
But then one day while I was teaching in September,
the teacher was out and I
had to go to get his lesson plans,
and when I went to his house,
he was shooting drugs up his arm.
So I had to report that to the principal and they said,
Mr. Webber, would you take
his job permanently for this year?
So then I taught ninth and tenth grade English
at Gulf High School.
So that supplemented my $30 a week.
>> So you're saying that you had
to teach school to make ends meet?
>> Yes. I was substituting before that,
filling in different schools but then they asked me to
take it permanent when we found this
and then I got this lesson pass.
So I taught there for a year and then of course,
after the first year,
we packed that building out.
There was no room for anybody so I told
them we're going to have to build
and some didn't want to I said,
well, if you don't want to build,
you got the wrong preacher.
But they were willing to build.
So we build a nice church, seat 400.
And when we left after
almost six years we were running 02-400.
So when did you start working for
the Oriental missionary society?
>> While we were passing at
the Boulevard Bible Church we had missions conferences.
And so we had the OMS come in for
our missionary conference in different missionaries,
and one of them was Ernest Kilborn
whose grandfather was co-founder of OMS back in 1904.
And so he called one night and he said,
Do you have a place for
a little old missionary to lay his head tonight?
This was on a Sunday night.
Come on in Ernie. He was there before.
So he came in and he sat around
the table having refreshments and he said,
No Dick, I want you to take
the regional office in Atlanta, Georgia.
It involves eight Southern states.
We want you to be in charge of.
I said, No, I'd like to preach.
I'm called to preach not to be a regional man.
They say, you can preach all you want,
but you're going to hold missionary conferences.
I said No, I don't think so.
So we went to bed and next day he left,
he said, Well, I'm going to send
you an application anyway.
Sure enough, an application came
from headquarters, Greenwood, Indiana.
So we looked at that and we
hadn't prayed about it for one thing,
so we got the application, we read it over,
we prayed about it and we said,
Well, we'll fill out and send it in.
Well, they accepted us.
So that was in May of 68.
And then I preached the rest of the year,
and I gave a last sermon December of 68,
and then we joined OMS January 69.
>> So that brought you to Georgia?
>> That brought us to Georgia.
That's where the office was.
>> Where did you settle in Georgia?
>> In Greenberg down
in South Georgia near Greenbriar Mall,
down in that section. So we were there.
Let's see 69, 70,
and then 71, it got bad down there.
The police were there and we
had cars come in and hit our car harp port
and purses that were stolen from the mall.
Police were in the parking lot shooting it
out with and so they moved us to Marietta then.
And that's where we were there for a couple of years.
And then we moved to Canton in 76,
I think it was. Yeah, 1976.
>> How many children do you have?
>> We have three children.
Daniel is the oldest.
He's 62, going to be 63 in
July 30th and then
Darryl was our second one. He's in Vermont.
He'll be 62. And then Dawn,
six seven years later, she's 54.
She lives in Kinasa.
Dan went to Asbury College,
and then he got his masters
at Cincinnati Conservatory in music.
He taught two years in Iowa,
got a full scholarship at Cincinnati Conservatory.
And he said, if you want to major in music for a living,
make sure you have food stamps.
So he got a job with Warner Brothers at a radio station,
and he interviewed intellectuals on TV.
But then he heard of this job at, what was it face?
Anyway, he got a job doing.
>> [inaudible]
>> I can't think of it now.
But I blame it on my age.
I forget so much.
But he was financial advisor.
>> I see.
>> And so he's been there ever since.
He's the first vice president
now and in Cincinnati, Ohio.
And he took his son in this year as co-partner.
So that's his job and now Darryl in Vermont.
He's in finances also through overseas.
He does a lot of computer work.
And then our daughters in Kinasa teaching in school.
>> So are you still preaching?
>> Yes, and not steady,
but wherever I get called,
I preach at our church in Marietta,
Canton, Cartersville,
and then I teach Sunday school class when I get a chance.
So wherever I can, I fill in.
>> So I want to refer to something we talked about
earlier in the interview.
You said that at Bootcamp,
you were there with two fellows
from New York. Guys that you knew.
>> Yes.
>> Can you tell me about this?
>> All right. When I flew to Marcus Island,
I met these two fellas on Marcus Island.
They were tower operators.
And one was Walter and well,
anyway, two of the fellas,
and they were from Buffalo and twins,
and we got to a nice relationship.
In fact, we had such a good relationship.
While they worked in the tower at night,
we had access to the dining hall,
and I'd go over and go up into the tower and we
had nice juicy steaks
fried in butter up there in the tower.
We do that during the night while we were together.
>> What about the two guys at Bootcamp?
There was one that went into Navy.
>> Well, they went to separate camps.
They didn't go to the same camp as I
did because I went to the Air Force.
>> So tell me about them, you were in line with
them and what happened to them later in the war?
>> Well, all I know is that they didn't come back.
One was in the Army,
one was in the Navy.
I never heard anything from them from the time we left.
So that's the last I heard of them.
>> And they were from your [OVERLAPPING].
>> They were right from my hometown, Cheektowaga.
In fact, it was his pond that we used to
skate on. Brown's Pond.
>> So Mr. Webber,
what does your military service mean to you today?
>> Well, for me, it's an honor.
It was an honor. It's so different than the other.
When the Vietnam war was breaking out,
there was such a war that wasn't there to win.
And our war everybody was together.
There was real unity.
Everybody was for us and they treated us like heroes.
It was just wonderful.
We actually felt we didn't
deserve all the blessings that they bestowed upon us.
And even to this day,
they're so good to us
and then when they see a World War II veteran,
well, there's a few of us left.
But I'll just give you an example.
I was at Costco one day and I had this hat on and I
only had two items in my hand and they were about $40.
There was a big line and I went friend I said,
would you mind if I got ahead
of you with these two items?
He said go right ahead.
So I got waited
on and the lady that I left behind she said,
now put that on my bill. She paid for it.
They were so gracious,
and we find that that's true wherever we go.
They're very very cordial to us.
So I feel it was a real honor.
Now, my brother, he was supposed to go in,
but he had a heart problem,
and so he was classified as 4F,
so he never went in,
but he's had a heart problem ever since.
>> And you're a member of the VFW?
>> VFW, and the American legion.
>> And tell me about those organizations.
>> Well, the American Legion, of course,
you have to be in the service
and have served so much time.
But with the VFW you had to serve overseas.
They won't accept anybody that wasn't overseas or was in.
They want you to be in that you been
in during the war, if possible.
But they've changed somewhat,
but I went to the VFW because I didn't like
the VFW in Akron
Georgia because they I
don't like it when they have a bar in it.
It smells terrible.
I don't like the smell of the booze in it,
and the one where I go and Marietta don't have it.
And so that's why I'm there.
And I had friends from the American Legion members
there that got us in there.
So that's why I go there. We go
the first Thursday of every month.
>> So is there anything else you'd like to add?
>> No, but I appreciate
your kindness and appreciate your asking us.
This is the first interview I've done
in such an extreme manner.
But you've been very gracious and so is everybody else,
and we thank you for it.
>> Well, thank you so much,
Richard Webber, and we'll end there.
>> Thank you.