Dad's service during World War II (Part 3)

1942 -1945

My father kept souvenirs from his time in the army in a small suitcase.  He would bring it out on occasion to show us the items he saved.  I am embarrassed to say I only remember the Japanese flag, which has Japanese writing in the white background. I am sure my brother Lance remembers more  of this than I do. Grandma saved all his letters home, and he saved her replies. I haven't read all the letters ... but look forward to doing so.

Something I recently realized is he must of lied about being a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church.  If he had told the army he was SDA, he would have been placed in a non-combat role (most likely a medical unit).  I don't know if this is when he decided to leave the church, or that decision was confirmed as time went by in the army.  I do know, once he left the army, he no longer considered himself a Seventh Day Adventist. 

He enlisted on August 7, 1942, for the duration of the war, as part of the Engineer Special Brigade in which he was trained as a mechanic on amphibious vehicles. You can read more details about these special brigades in this wikipedia article Engineer Special Brigade.

He was stationed in the South Pacific.  He spent time in the Philippines, Australia and New Guinea.  You can read a summary of the places his unit was located in this document that my brother Lance put together 1458 engineer company 562 maintenance battalion.

During his time in the South Pacific he was awarded two bronze stars.  One bronze star was earned when he risked his life to move critical equipment while under fire.  The way he told the story was somewhat different. He told us that there was beer stashed in the truck that was endanger of being destroyed -- and he couldn't stand the thought of losing that beer.  

The second bronze star was earned by all the members of his unit for getting supplies and reinforcement to troops that were pinned down.  It seems that this type of honor (a whole unit receiving recognition) was frowned on by Pentagon, but the leadership awarded his unit anyway.

I have already written about his journey home after the war in this blog entry (Happy Thanksgiving)

Somewhere in the South Pacific. Bob Greenley is on the right.

Dad arrived home Wednesday, Dec. 12, 1945. In his mother's diary, she wrote "Bob came home(underlined twice) about 1pm.  Lela was outside and saw him coming, when I heard her screams I ran out to meet him in the yard.” The family was as glad to have him home, as he was to be home, after three long years.