VJ DAY

  This article appeared in the September-October issue of The Messenger. 

   “These proceedings are closed.”  With those words General Douglas Mac Arthur officially ended World War II.  It all began on “the date which will live in infamy” and for the next 1,365 days, that war impacted De Leon as nothing had before or has since.

     The De Leonians who had “a rendezvous with destiny” were not just observes of the major events going on around them as is usually the case in life.  These De Leonians were participants.  They were at the front, in the battles, making the decisions and the sacrifices.

    Men and women from Comanche County participated in almost all the major battles of the war.  They were there in the battles of Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.  They served in the Army, Army Air Corps, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, WAC’s and WAFs and even in the Canadian Air Force.  De Leonians were at Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Savo Island, the Coral Sea, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Italy, Alaska, New Zeland, India and virtually every other battle and military post where Americans served.

     One De Leonian was onboard the ship bearing President Roosevelt to Yalta.  Another one time resident, William Wrather one of the men responsible for the Desdemona oil boom, was appointed by Roosevelt to become the Associate Chief of the Metals and Minerals Division of the Board of Economic Warfare, later called the Foreign Economic Administration.  Honk Irvin coached football in the Pacific in a league that consisted of some of the great college players serving in the military.  Happy Kee spent nine months in a German prisoner of war camp.

      On September 2, 1945, the Japanese surrendered on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri and future De Leon superintendent K.H. Rowland was standing on the deck as a lieutenant  on the staff Fleet Commander Chester Nimitz.  The articles included here look at the period from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, and at several of the men and women who participated in that war.  It is intended to keep the memory of the war from slipping silently away as the years pass.

     Two of the stories account the experiences of two De Leonians that may hold a unique place in American history.  There were only fifty-seven men who were at both Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and in Tokyo Bay to witness the Japanese surrender. unbelievably, two were from De Leon, Wayne Chambers and Fred Schmidt.

     But Chambers and Schmidt were not the only men from De Leon at Pearl Harbor.  Jack Morgan was just outside the harbor on the U.S.S. Astoria which was waiting to enter the harbor.  Arthur McKamey was on the U.S.S. California                                                     on battleship row.  Roger Chambers was in Honolulu working in Naval Intelligence and there may have been others.  Nor were Chambers and Schmidt the only two De Leonians at Tokyo Bay.  Former De Leon school superintendent K.H. Rowland was serving on the staff of Admiral Chester Nimitz and was on the USS Missouri and Gayle McGinnis was on board the U.S.S. Bergen unloading supplies and watching as Mac Arthur arrived.

    For those who believe that America should not have bombed Japan, let them remember that only a few months earlier, Japan was dropping bombs on the De Leon area. 

     Let us not forget how stunned De Leonians learned of the beginning of the war when their Sunday afternoon radio shows were interrupted.  Remember too, the day all the bells of De Leon rang out signaling the start of the invasion of Normandy and how people went to the churches to pray.  And finally let us recall that Bud Morrison rushed to the City Hall to sound the fire siren letting everyone know the war had ended.  Remember V-E Day and V-J Day.

   Most of all remember the two thousand men and women from this county who served in the military during World War Ii and the almost one hundred men and women from the area who died during the war.  Today it has already become an almost impossible task to assemble a complete list of everyone from De Leon who was lost in World War II.  If you can add to our De Leon’s Heroes list please do so.