Part One

This is a picture of Wally Holmer
in the US.Navy during World War 11
1943-1946

My biography in the US Navy. It was Dec. 1943 I got my greetings from Uncle Sam. I received my notice that I was drafted into the Armed Forces of the United States. I was 18.

I was living in Redmond. Oregon with my parents. They asked me what did I want to be in the Army, Navy, or the Marines ?

Well I left Redmond, Oregon for Portland, Oregon to get my physical examination. I did not know which one to join. So on the bus to Portland, Oregon I prayed if you want me to join the Navy make it rain in Portland. I guess the Lord must have laughed at this because it always rains in Portland. Well needless to say it rained. I went to Coeur d'Alene Idaho for my boot training.

After taking my training they offered me some rates. Which was a signal man and other things like that I wanted to get the hospital corps. But I did not have enough education to get in. So I turned down all those rates not realizing you would end up as a seaman. This is the lowest thing you could get in.

From there they sent me to Norfolk, Va. we were staying in a tent .They were getting a crew together for an LST. In the crew they had some sailors that were on some other Navy ships. They call those sailors salts. When they got their crew together they sent us to Boston, Mass. We were put in a fancy hotel. They were still building our LST. I asked Jesus for two things. That I would not get sea sick and I did not want to come back with my arms and legs blown off. God answered my prayers.

Soon they had our ship built. We left Boston. We were on our way to Norfolk Va. and we hit a storm like you would not believe.

Well most of those salts got sea sick. Very few went through the chow line that day. They were feeding the fish. I never did get sea sick.

In Norfolk we were a training ship. We would take a crew of sailors out in the ocean for two weeks and train them to run an LST. If I would had a different rate I would have no doubt been on a different ship. If I was on a different ship I could have been killed in action in the war. Therefore I would not be writing this biography. So God answered my prayers and brought me back without me being blown apart or dead.

We were a training ship till Germany surrendered. We got our orders to go to Pearl Harbor. We left Norfolk and went through the Panama Canal, it sure was hot there. We were all dressed in our white uniforms. We must have looked real elegant

When we got to Pearl Harbor. Our ship was anchored in the bay. They opened the bow doors on the ship and we went swimming. The water was nice and warm. Well I was not a very good swimmer and the tide swept me away from the ship. So they had to come after me in a small boot I guess the rest of the sailors had a good laugh at me.

The war was still going on with Japan. We got a load of equipment and we went to the Marshall Islands, Eniwetok. Off in the distance it looked like a large Island but when got close it was a very small Island what made it look so big was the ships around it We unloaded our ship and went back to Peal Harbor. We were getting another load. Over the loud speaker came the news Japan has surrendered.
We got our orders to go to Japan. We left immediately for Japan. We were at Sasebo, Japan. There was no barbers aboard our ship. I decided to get a haircut. I went out in the country and there was a barber shop. Just one barber and no one was around. I got to thinking about this after wards that barber could have cut my throat with a razor or killed me and buried me out there and no one would have known what happened to me. When I got back to the ship they said you look like a Jap. I suppose they were laughing at me. Any how it was a better hair cut man the one I got on the ship.

We made trips from Sasebo to Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Yokosuka, and Tokyo Japan. When we were at Tokyo some one wrote on the bulletin board some tiling dirty about the Captain. The Captain
said, if the guilty one does not come forward no one will go ashore at Tokyo. Well the guilty one never did show up. So no one got off the ship. That was a great disappointment to me. I would have liked to have seen Tokyo.

When we made a trip to Nagasaki. I walked into this city. I was all by my self. When I came into the outer part of the city the trees were all burned black. Of course there was no leaves on me trees. There was a factory or some kind of a building which had iron beams. The beams were tall. They were twisted and leaning over. Talk about the power and how hot that bomb was. It would be hard realize the destruction of that city. I walked into the middle of that city. It was in a large valley. There was nothing there just shale and broken pieces of glass. Buildings and people were in this large valley. In the middle of this bombed out area was some kind of a building made out of blocks or rocks it was partially standing. To the far east side was a huge concrete building. The windows were all knocked out I mink it could have been a hospital. I did not go over there.

We went back to Sasebo .Then we headed for Subic Bay on the Island of Luzon, Philippine Island on Oct 2 1945. On the way we hit a typhoon. The winds were so violent that the
ship besides us when it went down between the two waves into the swell the ship would disappear The typhoons are so violent that some ships have sunk in these storms.
We unloaded the ship at the Philippine Islands. Then we went back to Sasebo, Japan. I received my Honorable Discharge. I headed home from Sasebo and went to San Francisco, California.

Back to being a civilian again. The USS Landing ship 1009 was built by the Bethlehem Steel Company, Ship building Division, Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1944. It was decommissioned on July 1946, and transferred to the US Army in Guam. The Captain was Mc Guder. There was 8 officers and 97 enlisted men. Submitted by Wallace Holmer Sic 1348 NJB.

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