Our guest this week on Veterans Chronicles is World War two and Korean War veteran
Tom Tosky. He served in the US Navy. Tom, thank you very
much for being with us. Thank you for bite me. We just interviewed
your brother for another episode, so I know how this first answer is probably
going to go where were you born and raised? And north tempton mess you.
I was born actually in the little town of hated Bill, Okay,
and that's where we started. And then we always say Northampton because it's just
city, not a little town. A thousand people, right, And what
was it like growing up in the Depression? It was tough. And I
was brought up, you know, nine in her family when my father was
working twenty four seven, and he was a great dad. He bought us
all up and I had a lot of respect to Jimmy Fisher, who's here.
Mother. She bought us all up. She was a very nice lady.
Seventeen years old. She took over when my mother died. I was
seven years old. She was forty six, and that's where it all started.
And she was a great lady. I've stayed with her. She was
not up to ninety two and she because I'm ninety two. Now, who's
older you were, Bob, No, I'm older. Yeah, but I'm
always second class. He's important, he's a celebrity. I'm just peon down
the roads. Well, you're a pretty acclaimed teacher yourself. Well, I
worked hard at I taught myself, and I am very successful at teaching.
I still teach. I teach at the Western Mass Family Golf Center and Hadley
Match and I also teach at Banyon k Country Club in West bomb Beach.
What do you remember about Pearl Harbor day when the Japanese attacked. Yeah,
I was riding a bicycle and in the middle of our little town and somebody
told me that the Japanese has just pearl bombed Pearl Harbor. I Pearl Harbor,
didn't even know where it was, and they told me that the Japanese
that was in Hawaii. That's what I remember. By Were you itching to
get in the fight? Yeah, Well, I was a young kid in
high school and then after after a couple of years or more, I wanted
to get into service. Did you enlist? No? Drafted? I was
drafted. I was drafted nineteen forty three, and I still was in the
in Williamsburg High School. I was a senior and I been drafted. I
was going to draft board and my sister, who Jimmy's mother, said me.
She says, you tell them you're still in high school and they will
defer you. So I went there and I was standing in line, the
guy ahead of me getting interviewed by and the guy says, how you like
the Navy. He said, I don't like it. He said I wanted
to go in the Army. And the guy said, well, I was
just going to go in the Navy. Get the hell out of here.
So I said, well, when I go in there, I'm going to
keep my mouth shut. So he and then I went in and sat down,
and he says, how do you like the Navy? I was fine.
He said, get out of here. You're in the Navy. And
he did me a favor because I loved the Navy. Yeah. And I
had a nice place to sleep, nice place to eat three times a day.
Not liking the Army, but it was a great experience for an eighteen
year old kid coming out of a small town of Haydenville. Where did you
go for training? I went to Sampson, New York for eight weeks and
what did what did they teach you in that train? They just talked telling
us the basic you know, marching and you're doing all the calisthetics and and
you sho rifle. I don't know why that I was in the navy,
because I know that they from there. They they sent me uh their home,
and I went and went back in and then went went to Philadelphian Avy
Yard. They shipped me down there, and then what and then I was
shipped again to Norfolk, Virginia, the naval base down there, and that's
where I was assigned to the USS wilmarth d E. Six thirty eight,
and that was in Ballejo, California. So we went all the way across
country with a bunch of sails that were on my ship, and we picked
up or destroyer escort in bale Of California. It was and just just commissioned
and we all wanted them with a chip and then went on shakedown cruise down
in San Diego, went back. I wasn't a very good sailor a tough
tough times, but I made it. What was your role on the ship.
I was in north of Virginia and this officer come up to me.
He says, y'are you had a little talent. We're gonna make you a
sonar man. I said, says sonar man. What's that? He says,
underwater sound for submarines. He wasn't going to train you, so he
started me training, going to school and it takes a lot to get used
to the you know, the sounds of the equipment you have. And then
I went. Then they shipped me, I mean a bunch of our sailors
uh over the Lly in California. And when I got there, they had
enough SNAr man, so I didn't want the sona right away. It was
probably three months and they then one of the uh SNAr man got shipped out
and I went in took his place. And it was pretty tough the riding
on there, dee, you know, three hundred men on there, and
you bounced around like a cork all the time. It got rough. It
was tough. How big of a ship is it with three hundred men?
That's uh how much he can tell you he was our one. I don't
know how long it was, but took here five minutes to go from one
end. It didn't take it too long. It was maybe about three hundred
uh sailors down that we had. Yeah, and when did you ship out?
Uh? Well, I was in Layoff, Canada forty and then around
right after January of forty three, uh forty four, we we shipped out
and went under the Golden Breave Bridge and Towaii. From there we went out
to South Pacific and went in and stayed out there for two years. Did
you see Pearl Harbor? Oh, stayed in Pearl Harbor? Yeah. What
was it like? Oh? I didn't spend too much. I saw where
all the ships were. They got bombed during Pearl Harbor. Well, what
I was more interesting? I had a brother, Jack, and he was
in Hawaii. So I went to the Red Cross and they got me contacted
him when I saw him before I went overseas. What are you doing in
the Navy? I said, well, I got drafted and what else do
you want me to do now? But he was yeah, of course he
was. He I hadn't seen him in three years. So the first thing
he says to you is not hey, it's great that you're here, it's
why why are you in the navy? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, he
was dumping me. He thought it because when I left I was just a
little kid. Yeah, yeah, And then of course there was I was
probably fifteen sixteen years old, and when I became me eighteen, I got
drafted. So right, Oh that's that's great. Yeah. Oh so then
you went to the South Pacific. Where did you go first? Well,
we were a scientists minions Treasure Islands and the Solomon Islands, and then we
worked out of there escorting ships around around the South Pacific. You know that
we were shown after underwater sound there was already probably three or four the ease
circling the ship that it was a battle wagon or aircraft carriers or or troop
ships or supply ships and stuff like that. We were always doing that.
It varied which whatever it was we took. We've sailed around. I went
around the world twice on the South Pacific. That's so many miles we went.
Wow. Yeah, what are some of the commonplaces that you went or
did it all over the place. I'm proud of because we we have I
have five battle stars. I was in five battles and I was in the
Solomons. And then we made two small islands, Asia and Maype Island where
they were so small that we you know, we That's all we did was
to drop off the troops and then they took over the island because the island
had raid iron it and was kind of making contact with our airplanes. So
they took the islands over. And from there I went into uh Philippines and
Lady Gold got caught in the in the in the harbor, the jabsmately surrounded.
I just looked at TV the other day and they had a nice little
story about that how Admiral Halsey beat the Navy at the head of Lady Golf
when they surrounded Lady Golf and we were inside there and we are we had
to make smoke and because the torpedobombers were coming at it every I lucky,
I think we didn't get hit. One of our tankers got hit, made
a big hole in it, and they had just taken the oil out of
these oil and then shinct ship. So then we went from there and we
got ready to go to Okinawa. Let's pause right there, Tom, We'll
be right back with Tom Tosky on Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This
sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive discounts
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In Cadillac, Michigan, a program at the Veterans Serving Veterans Park is helping
to memorialize the sacrifices of their local heroes. The group has a goal to
assemble one hundred memorial picnic tables to place under the park's brand new pavilion.
So far, they have about seventy of them put together, and it's been
done with the help of several community groups. It costs fifty dollars to have
a veteran's name engraved into the table. Each one is built from the ground
up, with much of the material donated by the Home Depot. They tell
us it takes anywhere between forty five minutes to an hour to assemble just one
table, but they say it's well worth the time and effort. The Manton
High School Across country team is scheduled to be on hand next to put together
tables next week. For more great Veterans stories, just go to nationaldefensenetwork dot
com. We're back on Veterans chronicles. Honored to be joined today by Tom
Toski, US Navy veteran of World War Two and Korea. And Tom,
you were telling us about the harrowing experience in ley Tay Golf and then you
were on your way to Oknawa. It was later on when they made I
can tell you today. We landed on Okinawa April first Easter Sunday, nineteen
forty five. Yeah, that was quite a day. Tell me about it.
Well, we went in there with the battle wagons. We were screaming
for the battle wagons for submarines and they just landed. It was very little
bit resistance. So we were screening for the Arkansas battle wagon and then was
shooting their big guns overrou on the aisle. And my place when I was
a sauna man, I learned to be a sunaman and it was always up
next to the captain. That's where I station was. See because once we
got caught tact with a submarine or something like that, we took over the
ship and told the told the captain what he had to do and he just
laid it down to his speed and so forth like that. Well, we
were screening for the Akassas and the Akasa kept moving in closer because there was
no resistance. So we followed it in and just as soon as that we
got in there close. I was up there next to the captain sitting down
there. I used his binoculars to look at the what was happening on the
island. Next thing I know, there was shells going landing around the Arkansas.
They didn't hit it. Well, I told the cabin I said the
cabin I said, I said, just shooting at the kissa. He said,
yeah, I see that. We're going to get out of here.
So he started the ship to get away. Next thing and went whopo right
by us, and they we took off. He put it in full score
feet and when he did, the shelves were landing on our fantail, not
hitting the ship, and the boom going followed us out right out, and
I was there panting. Next thing I know, he's on the microphone and
he says, all right, all you guys on the fantail, better check
your skivvies. So doe that. But then we were sent out to screen
for the submarines on the island some way out and with the other ships,
and we were out there and uh, I'm telling you, you and see
how bad that was. Cami cousin were coming in. They were, I
mean hitting the ships all over the place, and we were shooting at one
with our guns and our and the aircraft guns. And the next thing I
know, there were here. He comes. He started at us. Well,
I'm telling you you never see guys just get so scared. They were.
They were jumping from one deck to the next. And I don't know
why, but they did it. And there was one guy was training a
big gun. He was training and training and training, and then he saw
the ship, that airplane guy coming down. He he was gonna jump over
the side. And one of the guys standing there grabbed him, SA get
back on your sleep. I mean that's so you never realized, you know,
until something like that happened. And it missed us by probably ten feet.
We were lucky. God will do us. Of course we had a
great captain. That guy could remove the ship so good. And uh I
was standing in there. Pretty soon this quarter I signament came up Bob Craig
and I always remember that, and he came up. He called me Ski
because my name was Algustowski. So I said, yeah, well, by
what's the matter. He said, my foot, is something wrong with my
foot? I said, well, what'd you do? Is? She said?
I jumped from from the fly from the seatle bridge down to the boat
deck and the ship that the airplane landed about ten people. So when it
blew up a rivet a little river like that that went into his foot.
So I looked down there and there it was, and I pulled it out.
I kept it for a while and I had lost it. I can't
believe it. And I told him, I said, now you can get
a purple heart. I said that you could get for jumping. And well,
we stayed there and one of the sailors aboard ship got a pentaciitis,
so we had to go in to the tall where all the ships were anchored.
There was a hospital ship there, so they sent us in there with
him. And that was lucky because the ship that took our place got collaborate,
you know, yeah, because there was seventy and there. So we
got into a tall and uh and you can be pully surprised how much uh
they were. They were even dropping different the mc couge if you're coming in
there, and they hit won lst and we were pretty close to it.
Probably you know, a mile away, and we went over there to save
all the sailors because they were jumping off the ship because the ship was burning
up. So we went and picked up those guys, and then the captain
tried to put out the fire. When he did, he swung the ship
about too close and ripped the side of the ship of our dee put a
big hole in it. And then they had sent us to Guam. I
thought, Bobby, they would send us to the state, but they sent
us to Goam instead. Let's pause right there. Tom will be right back
on Veterans Chronicles. We are back on Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus,
honor to be joined today by Tom Tosky. He's a World War Two and
Korea veteran of the US Navy. And you were just telling us the harrowing
story of Okinawa, and I keep going here. You're left us at Guama.
Yeah, we take us over to Kawam and that's when they said they
fixed us up. We stayed there about a month. I loved it because
I was playing baseball back and forth on the dock with a couple of sailors
and a couple of army guys. Walked by and I said, Hey,
where's Apo so and so? They said, oh, it's down to the
other end of the island. I said it. I said, that's when
my brother. I see my brother, I saw Hawaii. So I got
a little liberty and I bumped down it all the way about twenty miles and
the question pick it up by jeeps and stuff like that. And I walked
in and he was sleeping, and I woke them up. He said,
what are you going here? I said, well, we have told them
what happened. And he says, how did you get here? I said,
I bumped. He says, you crazy, He said, there's still
Japs on this island. I said, well I made it. The eyes
were very good. And after that we we got fixed up and they sent
us with the third fleet and we got were the third fleet and went up
off the coast to Japan to get ready to invade Japan. Unfortunately, they
dropped the atomic bomb and two of them and we were we saved us because
they they they were the war was over the side, and we were five
hundred miles off the coast of Japan getting ready. You couldn't believe the number
of ships that was off the coat getting ready to go in with troop ships,
tankers, all kinds of stuff was getting ready to go in. Well,
we went in. We went into Yokohama, okay O Bay, and
then he gave us liberty. Was so happy, happy to get liberty.
After two years out of the South Pacific. We did nothing but just go
on the island and drink beer. And just like one kid said, he
said, Tommy, you know what, we've been out of here so long,
he says, the natives to start to turn white. And I don't
know it because we hadn't seen any women at all almost in two years.
Uh, we went That was great. I went over, I had Liberty
and Yokohama and you couldn't leave. All that place was devastated. It was
burnt right down to the ground, and they dropped or nothing but fire bombs
because everything was everything was I guess wood. Yeah, And then we walked
around, uh for well probably five from ten o'clock to five o'clock. We
had to go get back over the ship. But it were so great to
just get out and you get off the ship and seize them. You know,
they were they were very funny. But we couldn't we couldn't separate ourselves
from five. Yeah, we had to grow on five five guys together because
they didn't off. You know, if you were by yourself, you might
get killed by one of the Japanese people. So we Yeah, we walked
there back and forth and was then and then we were there and about but
two weeks. Then we got the big deal go home. Loved that.
We made a pennant that went from the fantail all the way up to the
bridge, big long, We're going home, and we loved it. We
went to go back to Hawaii, did in San Diego, and then they
descend us to uh to Norfolk, Virginia lead he went down through the Panama
Canal and so quickly that but I was so happy that, you know,
after two years and eighteen years old, I was now almost twenty one.
Yeah, and become true with what would have been I have, I have
five battle Stars and show for it and came home and went to Norfolk and
gave us liberty. And I went home for thirty days and then we left.
I got there and got uh discharged. Let me go back to a
couple of those other battle stars. You talked a little bit about what happened
at leat Gulf. I just want you to talk a little bit more about
that. When it looked like the Japanese had you dead to right right right,
we were just we were caught in there was we went in with Macarter
with the ships help you know, land all the troops and and uh we
were supporting. We were screening for oil tankers and supply ships, and we
got caught here and we had to keep moving because of the torpedo bombers coming
there at us at night we could we had to sleep on our battle stations
because that there was that for about five days and we they just bring the
sandwiches we'd eat and he stayed there and made smoke. But we ran out
of smoke. So now they started to pumping out of their the stacks just
to keep covered the battle, I mean, the the supply ships that we
were screening for, and uh, well didn't finally even we could see in
the way off and the lame where the battle was really taking care of because
Halsey was up north, came back down, came back down to the because
we were screening there and did a job on the Japanese and they finally took
off. Yeah, Wow, well I was. I think the Good Lord
was with me. Yeah, clearly multiple times. I'm Catholic. When I
was an altar boy, and but I I was drafted. I said,
my last matter was by the Murphy, and he gave me a sermon to
the people I had that I was going in the navy. And I think
with his you know, being a nice priest sending me off like that,
it stayed with me. I think he took care of me. Did you
stay in the navy all the way to the Korean War or did you leave
it back? No, Bobby told you all about it his great golfing career.
I don't have that. But we both after the war was over and
came home. My brother Jack in the golf and we were all going down
to Miami to play golf and Bobbie played on the tour. My brother Jack,
myself and Bobby because Bobby always wanted to be, you know, on
the tour, So we went down and I went down with him because I
was playing well too. So we had a lot of problems. So we
get to Miami and we Bobby was there and I didn't have enough money,
so I cady for him. So he could play, and it was nice
because I met Jimmy the Merritt and you were the other guys. And ran
out of money, so I had to get myself a job, and Bobby
went working for the airlines and I got a job as a general technician or
just a delivery boy over Miami Beach and I stayed there for three years.
And I was staying there and I wanted to make it. It's money,
so I said, well, well how am I going to make some extra
money? So I rejoined the Navy and I stayed in the reserves. Well,
when the Korean War broke out, that's when they came to me and
another took all the SHNI man. I was a SONI man second class,
and they sent us and they said you got to come in and train some
of the kids because you got a lot of experience. So that's where they
sent me a board destroyer eight sixty four USS Ellison up and north of Virginia.
Uh So I stayed with the ship and with h I was the training
training. We trained about five five kids were just just came in the Navy
and didn't know much about soner. So went down there and then if but
for me, and that that's how I got I met my wife. I
met my wife. She was living in Richmond, Virginia, and the nice
little southern girl. She was very beautiful. And I went on the last
week and this other Polish kidding myself. I went to got a little toxicated,
and next even know, I was being woken up on a bus.
You want to go to nowhere? I thought, And five thirty in the
morning he woke me up. He walked. The other guy says, hey,
your tickets ran out. I said, where are we? He said,
Richmond, Virginia, and I met. I went to a dance there
and I met my wife. And but that was in the Norobab in January.
And then I got married in August of what year? What year I
was? I was saying nineteen with the career in nineteen fifty Jimmy Korean War,
I don't know. I cameray members well, but I didn't do anything.
I just stayed there and they sent me to the Mediterranean. I destroyed
to train the kids. And when three months there overseas from the Mediterranean,
then came back and that's when the war was clown down. So I had
enough points to get discharged, and I planned to get married. So we
got married while I was in the Navy, and I didn't want to stay,
and I probably would have, but since I got married, I didn't
want to do that to my girls. I got married and we stayed in
Richmond. Then then above he got famous and he said, called me up
one day, tell me you got to come back into golf. He said,
all right. He says, Jack is taking over North Amptona Country Club.
And I said fine. I says, uh, uh, let's doe
what I can do but talk to my wife. When I talked to him
into going up home and be with my brother. And that's how I got
back into golf. And I'll ask you some of the same questions. I
asked him. What is the key to to you to being a great teacher
of golf? Uh? You know, it's try I try to be simple,
don't overdo it. I learned that by trying to uh you know,
sometimes you overdo trying to tell him too much. You have to be I
found out you have to be very simple. You just wanted to think that
they're doing and then tell them to come back and see you. And I
enjoyed it and I'm I'm a pretty good teacher that I worked hard at I
studied very hard, and I was I teach up home. Now at ninety
two, I'm still they still want me to teach their so at this Western
mass family golf center owned by the nice people, and uh, I just
ye, it just didn't me being a blood. You know the golfing tskies,
where do you usually start? Obviously each player is going to have different
things they need to work on, But what's most common is it keeping the
head down, keeping that The biggest thing is I had a lamp. I
was down in Florida this winter. Bruce Leiche. I don't know if you
know who. Bruce Lasher is. Preacher. He's an he won the National
Amateur tournament. He's sixty nine years old. And I was on the arrange
and he come over. He says, you baptizing brother. I said,
yeah. They always asked me that everybody, are you baptizing brother? So
he says, to my, Tommy, can I ask you a question.
He had a couple other people standing there every day or talk about teaching,
and he says, Tommy, if you have somebody that's not keeping their balance
in the golf sway, what do you do first? I said, I
check their posture. Make me have good pasture over the ball, because if
you don't have good posture, you're you're gonna have to a lot of problems.
Well, I think he jumped about five feet off the ground. He
said, I've asked a lot of pros. You're the first one that grieved
with me. That's where I start. I start with the basics, you
know, uh posture, and I go into uh the golf swinging a little
bit at the time, timing and keeping yourself in balanced all the time.
They're they're the secrets of playing golf if you can keep yourself in balance.
Because so many people swinging they almost fall down and stuff like that. But
that's what I just enjoyed teaching that way. Well, Tom, your legacy
as a teacher is quite impressive as well. We thank you for your time
today. We thank you for your great service to our country. Thank you.
I'm just so proud of being in the service of what I did.
And if ive battles starts, I got, you know, they can't take
that away. And that's how I feel them. Yep. Outstanding. Tom
Tosky, US Navy veteran of World War Two and Korea. This is Veterans
Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit
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