Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbez. Our guest in this edition is
Willie Clements Junior. He's a veteran of the US Navy. He served in
the Pacific theater of World War Two and in the Korean War. And mister
Clements, thanks so much for being with us, thank you for having me.
Where were you born and raised? Sir? I was born in Victoria,
Texas, and I left there the first time. We're going to navy
nineteen forty five. And had there been a history of military service in your
family at all before you joined the Navy. I had a brother who went
in in January of forty one. And where did he serve? He served
in the Army. He was in the Big Window when Europe. He didn't
get out until at the end of the war. I think you really poor,
six or late forty five. Wow. How did you hear about the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? Well, Sunday morning? You know we were
all getting ready for church and such a commotion going on around the town.
You know, we didn't have communications like yeah, here we had the little
wildless radios with a battery type and having a channel strunt from one end of
the house to the other on top, running in Tenna down to the little
box. We knew it was coming because we were already almost safe fighting the
war anyway with subs, with chasing our ships done out there and in Atlantic
when we were trying to get stupp over to Europe, and German U boats
had been it's been in the news that they were fighting since thirty six almost
And when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and December seventh date and Roosevelt, I think
it was either that day or the next day he declared war on three of
Japanese, Italy and Germany. Now you entered the navy in February of nineteen
forty five. Were you drafted or did you enlist? I had joined.
I was seventeen and a half. My birthday is first of July nineteen twenty
seven, and I was seventeen and a half at nine forty five. I
went in February. I would have been eighteen that year until that coming July
in forty five. Why did you choose the navy? Well, actually that
was nothing exciting in a little town where I lived, no work, and
everybody was urt four and I was running around and wasn't going to school like
I should have. Just happened to thinking, Hey, my brothers are there,
so I might as well go go, you know, so right decided
to join, but he was in there. I went to there because I
couldn't get anything else at seventeen and a half, because I think he had
to be eighteen at that time to get the army, but they were taking
navy people in at seventeen. I got my mother to sign for me,
and of course we had to go down to city hall and get a birth
certificate. And that was hill earthed because the Justice of Peace that gave me
my birth certificate. I didn't have one there, and there was no information
on me legally. But he was doing my parents and he knew me,
and he need to meet a wife who helped bring me here, and he
related all this information to me while I was getting ready, and he wrote
me out a birth certificate stamped with the state of Texas on it. I
was ready to go. I joined up in San Antonio and caught the sutplusc
to Saint Louis to Missouri and men another little guy named Red. I think
we were about the same age I haven't seen him since then. And we
went to Great Lakes, Illinois. Wau Keegan really is where we started our
boot training at Camp Robert Small. And what did that training consists of drilling,
teaching you how to be a sailor and discipline out of pot orders and
basically what the Navy was all about. And training, well, they were
teaching how to swim and how to take care of yourself and how to shooting
forty five. And of course you know, we didn't couldn't bring him out
with us, but most of us training or started after reading and writing and
so forth. But I was already there. I could do that pretty easy.
But it was a segregated group. We was in Camp Roberts Small.
Great Lakes, Illinois had quite a few camps at that time where boots came
in to get their basic training, and this camp was Robert Small And a
unique thing about this camp Company one party one was Buddy Young. He was
a football player and his brother was in my company one eighty one. And
we were there for I think eight or nine weeks. It's hard to tell
right now, Camper, I know in April we left, we got nine
d Lee came back and they since we called Old gu which is called our
going unit, was there. We were really the schedule for Europe and that
was at April, but the ball ended in Europe in April, so we
switched around and they put us on a troop train and sent us to California.
Well, we were there until they got enough troops black troops too,
of course understand this was segregated at the time, and until they got enough
troops to send to the South Pacific. So they got us on a troop
ship and we went to Hawaiia. Paul Brown was the was a special service
out that time, and he had the football team. He was closed to
the neighbor football team at that time. We were there matter of fact by
the Young Maiden's team and he stayed in the States and I went right street
to the South Pacific. But anyway, we went to uh They put us
on a troop ship and we went to Hawaiia. That we did basic training
on how to load and offload ships and some more instructions on how to be
a sailor, and we from there. We were there for about three weeks
and we got on the lst Or landed ship and it took us to Philippines.
That was in May. I think, yeah, Bob May. But
anyway, we got to the Philippines and we went in a little air called
Manna Kenny. I have to look on the map again and relocate that.
But we did our job at Seabees, the out that that will supposed to
be attached to. But we did stevea doors work, We loaded and offloaded
supply ships, put a complete time until the wall was over in September.
When the wall was over in September, we went to Guam and we did
the construction battalion work in Guam and we built a marine drive number one of
the first pitiful highway there and uh Iguam and another. The crazy thing the
jets are still coming down. Now this was after September. Oh, I
guess this must have been around Christmas sometime. Some of the jets are still
coming out of the hill surrendering. Yeah, they was. They didn't know
the wall was over. Oh that's what they said. I think they got
hungry and they would they would come down and at the end of time with
days something mostly at night. And uh. The little thing about this was
we had a guy standing guard duty with a dummy gun. You know,
it looked like a rifle, but it was a dummy. No ammo in
it. This was worth remembory. This Japanese came down from the mountains with
a little conson huts. We had him in the roads on one side,
one role on each side of the road, and this little post where we
had standing guard duty bubbs. Jeff came down to hout and surrendered Joe.
Surrender Joe, and he threw that gun down. Start running to the camp.
Japanese coming, Japanese coming, and of course he didn't have a gun.
And he woke just by the airs up in the club and Clanson huts
and wouldn't Coanson Hut. He with Chense so it was a good place to
be. Anyway, They got him out, they got the sky and he
said that he didn't know the war was over and he was home grin so
forth. So, yeah, but that was one of the unique things that
happened there, and later on before we left there that next year. I
was able to get out in nineteen forty six because I had my mother,
all my thing I have, they dependent and I got ten extra points for
that, and also got points with being in the war zone. I was
able to get out in four to six and that's when I realized that I
need the education. So I got it. I went back to his high
school, then went to college. Well, we're gonna follow up on that
in just a moment. We're gonna take a quick break. Right now,
we're speaking with Willie Clemens, Junior, veteran of the US Navy serving in
the Pacific Theater of World War two and also in the Korean War. I'm
Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
Greg Corumba, our guest in this edition as Willie Clemens, Junior, a
veteran of the United States Navy serving in the Pacific Theater of World War two
and in the Korean War. And Willy, you gave us such a great
overview of your service in World War Two. I just want to zoom in
a little closer on a couple of the points, one of which you mentioned
in passing a couple of times both in training and then also out on the
West Coast as you waited to go into the Pacific theater. And that's of
course that at that time the military was still segregated. How did that impact
your personal experience in the service at that time? It really didn't bother me
any because I came from a segregated state. It was surprising to me that
when we left checks on the Southern Pacific, we had to ride in segregated
cars until we got to Saint Louis. And once we crossed Mason Diction of
everybody was sitting. Everybody wanted to so we just a little buddy of mine,
God, I'll remember now his name was Read and we had on the
trackers jump of sweaters of jackets and blue. I remember my pants are blue,
great pants, you know, big knees and little legs at the bottom.
And we got into Chicago in February. Snowing was coming down like all
get out, and we had on Texas clothes. White lady gave us some
comfortable as she put her for a cool around us while we were waiting on
the ail station for the train to come out of take us out to war
Keegan. So that was one of the things that our incidents that I will
always remember. And getting to war Keegan and where Great Lakes is located in
Illinois. We stay in that area for three days until we got our uniforms,
and man, it was a change to wear clothes for that climate,
ruther than the clothes that we had all coming up from Texas in the winter.
So, you know, I had us thrown any end because I thought
I was kind of interesting. But you know, being in a segregated South,
it wasn't anything knew to me to be segregated in the service. We
had no offices in the Navy. Well I didn't see it. I'm won't
say we didn't have any, but I didn't see any. We didn't have
it in our group and most of our penny offices until after a while.
You know, we were in the last one of the last organizations to integrate,
and I think the Marines, well I know the Marines was the last
one, but just the way things were at the time, and you didn't
pay much attention to it because I you could say, we would satisfied serving
our country and doing what we could to in that crazy war. So and
then it was it was an experience for me as a young black kid who
would never have left Texas had it not been for the trip in the Navy
at that time, So it was really a great experience for me. Wellie,
let's move over to the work you were doing in the Philippines now,
the onloading and offloading of the ships. What type of things were you unloading
and offloading? Was it ammunition? Was it food? Was it basic?
Everything that they would send from the States to put the service people in that
particular area. The ships, the other ships would come in that particular to
get supplied. We would empty cargo ships. We had games of eight or
twelve bubbles in a game, and we learned how to use the winches and
drive um most real things you use to pick up boxes with parklift park lifts
and use hand sables of pool ree winches up and out, and you learned
how to unload and load ships. We wasn't so much load and ships loads
the small ships that came in to get supplies for that personal ship. I
think folks would be very surprised at just how much was needed in the war
zone. You think of, you know, military supplies to actually fight the
war. But you gotta feed everybody, you gotta house everybody, you gotta
have supplies to treat with the wounded and everything else. And I'm not even
mentioning a million other things. But I'm guessing that the parade of ships to
unload and load never stopped. It didn't. We had we worked around the
clock. We worked eight hours shifts and we had three shifts and they would
alternate. We lived on what we call a floating hotel. It's a shift
that they had anchored out in Manicandi there and it didn't have a motor well,
I say engine to run. It was just anchor out. It's like
a hotel, but it had generated to do what you would normally do in
the house, you know, cooked food and everything you need in you a
regular shepherd or home. We had it available and you know that we could
get together and you wouldn't know one guy was a senior seniors payoffice or what
because everybody you didn't wear uniform with at our group that loaded unloaded the shifts,
you didn't have your rank on. Everybody knew who you were, so
it didn't make a difference. What was the weather like? Was it pretty
human over there? I can't remember any bad whether. All I know is
that we would get picked up on a boat in the morning and they would
take us to wherever the ship we had to unload and we'd see there until
we got that we're done to move to another ship. We would go back
to the two hour ship where we've slept. Now we did get to go
or R and R. They cleared the Marines, cleared out by a half
a block for us. Oh man, a cannywhere we could go. And
I never forget this. I didn't drink anything at that time, but they
had Milaha life beer and the guys would drink that beer. I'd go there
and our medioc cathlete and I'd like to run up and down a little kind
of square block that we had that was secure for us. They kept the
Japanese away from there. Now, when you got to the Pacific Theater,
we're talking late spring of nineteen forty five, was there a general idea among
everyone that we were winning and that hopefully the war would be over soon.
Well, we were taking the outlands back at that time. We're going back
to your Gyma guy, and we were really knocking him out. But the
thing when Truman dropped a bomb that just solidified everything less is hard. A
lot of people criticized Truman for dropping that bumb but I tell you, we
would have lost a lot of American personnel if they had attacked going sure like
they did normally in Europe, because the kids would be fighting and shooting and
there was no place safe that you could really go to like they did in
France. So we would have lost in my opinion, we would have lost
consimably more personnel if we would have had to attack. He destroyed a lot
of people in a lot of time, but we would have lost a lot
of people in my opinions if we would have had to go into Japan like
we did in Europe. Japan, of course, refused to surrender in most
cases, and so the fighting they were not. They were not going to
surrender until they dropped that bumb on Nasa Hiroshima, that's right. And after
dropt the first they had to drop the circling before they knew they could be
annihilated. So that got us out of there much quicker and without a lot
of loss for American life. How did you hear about the end of the
war, Well, we heard about the bum, the first bum, and
everybody was jumping up and down about that, and then we heard about the
second one, and immediately after that we had the wildest on the ship.
You see the news came over the direct Japan had surrendered, and man,
I'll tell you that was a great day. That was a great day because
we thought that we had to go to Japan. I think we were getting
ready to go to Japan, somewhere closer to Japan than the Philippine. I
think we were to move our team to closer to where we could load and
also supplies. We didn't knew it then, but that was a life blood
of the military, getting them food, drink, and we found out what
to do with the number was for liquor. You know, they slipped,
they slifted on a medical supply. There's always a way. There's always a
way now, you know, you find out things when you worked there for
a while. You know. Now, we talked a couple of minutes ago,
mister Clemens about how the Japanese would fight to the last man. They
didn't believe in surrender, and that's why if there had been an actual invasion
of the Japanese mainland, it would have been so costly to us and to
the Japanese people. But the Japanese they didn't do that. And one of
the ways that they also tried to attack even though they knew they were losing
was through Kamakazi attacks, and I believe one of your boats doing that in
Lazy. Yes, they were doing that in Lady Gulf, but we were
close to that area, but we weren't that there when they were coming over.
I complains off in the Philippines, they wouldn't go back after they came
out on the suicide mission. Anything that moved out there, and that golf
they would knock it off a dive and took because it would been disharmorble for
them to return alive, so they would not go back. How long did
you stay over there after the Japanese surrender, Well, we left the Philippines
and went to Guam and we started rebuilding Guam, and I think I had
thirty six points to get out on you know, at that time, it
depends on they were letting everybody out. You know that they didn't need military
as many military person held as they had at that time. So the first
people they let out was the reserves, okay, And just so happened hours
a reserve and I had my mother as they dependent, and then I had
points for being in the war, so I got out quickly. When they
started discharging people that they didn't need and I was I got out. I
think it was an April. I got out in time to get back in
school for my junior year, and then I got I went back and finished
my junior year and senior year that Paul and I got out. I finished
high school in part to seven, and I would have been twenty in July.
Well, mister Clements, let's pause one more time. When we come
back, we'll talk about what you did between World War Two and the Korean
War, and obviously your service in the Korean War as well. We're speaking
with Willie Clements Junior, a veteran of the US Navy, served in the
Pacific Theater of World War Two and in the Korean War. I'm Greg Corumbus
and Veterans Chronicles. We'll be right back. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Willie Clemens Junior. He's a
veteran of the US Navy. He served both in the Pacific Theater of World
War two and in the Korean War. And mister Clements, we were just
finishing up your service in World War two, and you explained how after fourteen
months in the Navy. Come April of nineteen forty six, you were discharged
and you were able to continue with your high school education. So it would
be seven years later that you would rejoin the Navy. But before we get
to that, tell me a little bit more about what you did in those
intervening seven years. Well, I wouldn't like to high school because our real
life being in the Navy, it was important to have an education. At
that time in my life, that was not a lot of emphasis put on
an education in our community, so I didn't realize how necessary it was to
get it when we were growing up. Most people when they got to be
twelve or fourteen years over in that area, they would get a job to
help support the family. I realized that, and I always had a job
doing something. But I knew I had to have an education if I wanted
to have a decent life. And that was after I came out, learned
that in the Navy responsibility for myself. So I came back. I went
to high school and I played football. I still had my age allowed me
to play, and I got a scholarship to preview an m and I went
there for three years and I got out and went to work. I got
married, went to work, I got a divorce, and I decided there
was no work there for me in Texas. I was out of school and
said, well, I was running alternative and I had to go back to
the Navy. So I rejoined the Navy nineteen fifty three and close to November.
I'm sure I think it was November. Yeah. But my life as
a surveying was good and I charged, but I still know that an education
was what I really did need and it helped me conceivably. Once I went
back in the Navy, I was older, a little wiser, and another
reason, going back in the Navy gave me an opportunities to have a little
more security because there was no work, no paying jobs. It may have
been working in Texas in Victoria, but they weren't paying anything and no benefits
or anything. And I kind of had a little forethought about getting myself ready
for what age, and I knew I needed a job to make some money
and to take care of a family. So decide the best place for me
was back in the Navy, and I was gonna stay. I was gonna
do a career in the Navy. But I got married and fifty six,
and so I decided that, hey, I gotta get out of this.
I can't go back to see being married, so I decided to get out.
Well, of course, when you rejoined the service in the US Navy
in the fall of nineteen fifty three, the major combat portions of the Korean
War had just concluded. So what did that mean for your service? Where
where did they send you? As soon as you rejoined? I got only
a destroyer in Philadelphia, USS Waldron six nine and nine, which part of
this of twenty two. And we left there and went through the Suez Canal
and around from San Diego and way you know, through the South Pacific Guam,
not Guam, but Okaanaa, and then we wound up staying in the
area of Japan and Korea for four months. We'd come back to Japan and
do our R and R and then we go back. We operated mostly with
the valotship was heard number two. But I was tracking for a quartermaster on
the ship. And tell me a little more about that. What did that
job entail? Well, in a tail of visial communications signal, and at
that time it was navigation. But my education didn't allow me to see there.
I couldn't held I couldn't held it too well. We was in Korea
for in Korea and Japan. We got to Japan and we would stop in
Yucusca and Sassebo, and those were our point of recreation when there would come
back from Korea and we'd operate near the thirty parallel from Missouri, and we
were escort most of the time that we were there. Mister Clemens, what
do you remember about Korea itself? One thing I remember that once very foggy
morning, we woke up and we had gone two miles north to the thirty
parallel and we had to get the heck out of there in a hurry.
We were were supposed to run the boat the Missouri, but we were off
based up of about ten miles, so we had to get out of and
get back below that thing before we read in the National incident. That was
one of the highlights. But another thing was that we traveled. We traveled
across from a radian in the Equator and quite quite an experience. Now,
when you accidentally went north of the thirty eighth parallel. Was it Americans who
told you you had to turn around right away? Or was it his name
was Cunningham. He came up in the morning and I had that eight to
twelve ship or twelve to eight, I'm not sure, but anyway, it
was earther than one. He came up real folgy, and he looked up
and checked his equipment and everything. He said, hey, we're in the
wrong place. So he called for the navigator, the lieutenant command, the
lieutenant he's a two striper, two big stripes and one half a stripe,
lieutenant commander. I think it was them because our captain was a full commander.
But anyway, Petrov was his name. He didn't quite know what he
was doing. I don't think anyway. The chief pay officer came in and
got aside there. But that was a thrill where the halp pull up anchor
and just run. We had to pull up anchor and scat. But that
was just some of the interesting things that we did that we had to do
while we were while we were in career. But then it was an experience
to get into Japan and other places around that particular are and for that time,
and that's a that's another thing that really helped me as far as my
education is concerned, because I don't know whether it just being around the people
are not a being in the navy. I was able to do a lot
of things. Plus I did some studying while I was there. We had
a pretty good goal of it. Matter of fact, I wouldn't have trade
that experience right now for any name in the world for anything. But being
in Korea was not like some of the dogs that was fighting in the trenches,
you know what I mean, being on the ship. We never got
off the ship to go into Korea. During the time we got off that
ship out there then was to go to going to Aucousco or Sansabo, Japan.
And when we left that we steamed. I know one particular time,
we steamed for thirty days and we had to keep up with that ballotship.
We had to refuel every four days because that ballotship would run thirty one knots
without you know, and that was unusual. Look out look m destroyer.
The top feet I think at that time was about thirty two knots, So
we had almost run the top speed to keep up with that thing. And
they had a couple of cruisers with the fellot remember I don't remember there the
name of them, but we had four destroyers that traveled as a group as
a squadron, and we had another point about division who would replace us all
the rotation as we left, So it was it was kind of little spirits,
really, mister Clemens. Just a few closing questions here. First of
all, given your service in both World War Two and Korea, when you
see a thriving democratic Japan, and then especially the vast difference between the way
North Korea is now and the free and vibrant South Korea that we have,
how does that make you think about your service. Well, I'll be frank
with you. I was proud to be part of it, and I am
now as I grow older, I am more satisfied with my participation in fighting
for the country because I feel like I feel like I've accomplished something. It's
just a good feeling to know. Now there are terms with this country.
I'm a little disappointed there are time because we got people in here in our
government now that seems to be that seems to be more like they want to
be another part of what we bought, far than what we should be now.
It's kind of disappointing to see the way that some of us say hid
it at this time, so that it's really kind of disappointing to me to
think that that could be Americans who could be so disloyal in my opinion,
or act like that. And I have my opinion about that too. It's
disgusting, really to tell you the truth, that we would have our elected
officials fighting against what we're fighting far the things that we far to guess when
I see our government going along with things that commonness people say, putent all
the rest of the countries that don't a lot of people to think for themselves,
the rule that we're going on now, in my opinion, is just
a road to ruins. Again, I'm opinionated. I'm an old man,
but I love this country and if I had to go and fight again,
I would. But there have been some changes made and we have a confidence
life thing. But we're getting right now worse than I've ever seen this country.
It's just terrible as far as I'm concerned. So, but we got
a lot of good people this country. I've still got confidence that we will
survive everything that's going on right now. I think we'll survive. I hope
we do. The gardens on outside, I'm sure that one of the things
you mentioned a few minutes ago, mister Clemens, is that President Truman desegregated
the military in between your first time in the Navy and when you came back
in nineteen fifty three. Was your experience the second time around remarkably different as
a result of that, Oh, definitely, definitely. But that was still
segregated pockets in the search. Don't get me wrong. It was never all
peaches and cream. That was some rough spots. But you know, we're
a country of individuals, and you expect that. I do. I know
it, and I've experienced it. They're good people and they're bad. But
in my opinion, there's more good people in this country than it is bad.
And I think this is going to keep us going the way we're going.
We didn't we didn't do this four hundred years just to be thrown under
the bus. So I'm pretty sure we're strung enough to take care of all
these little things that we see popping up around the country now. That people
want to take other people's love whatever away from freedom, everything, well make
everybody think like they think you just can't do it. I think this comes
to the built on the fact that everybody has a mind, and they're advisor's
individual but to majority and law, you know, rule. Like I said,
I'm opinionated, and I think I have a right to be. I
learned the right to voice my opinion and sometime to get me in trouble.
But then I don't mind. Not been in trouble all my life. I
don't mind not with me, sir, not with me. Just a couple
of questions before we let you go, m what did you do after your
military service? Well, I went to work for the government. I worked
for the government's for thirty years with time of my military time, and I
retired forty years ago in nineteen eighty three. And that was well. Like
I said, I got married when I was interviews them. And that's one
reason why I got out of the Navy, because I had a seagoing rate
and I knew that if I stayed in the Navy, which was a choice
I could have made, I wouldn't be around a family as much as I
would like to be. So I decided to get out in nineteen fifty seven
and I moved to Dayton, Ohio, and I've been here ever since and
raised the family here. Fantastic, sir. When you look back at your
military service. What are you most proud of? Well, it made a
man out of me. I went from a young law kid to a man
who knew what responsibilities were and how to accept it and how to make good
decisions sometime. But survival was what I was very most and I made it
so far, so good. And lastly, sir, we're very grateful for
you taking the time to share your story. What does it mean to you
to have the American Veteran Center hear your story and preserve it for future generations.
I hope it helps somebody, and I hope that they can understand what
I'm saying. I'm not better. I'm thankful that I was born in this
country and the opportunities that he gave me to be the success was wonderful for
me and my family. So you can't overlook that. And so this is
what I'm really proud of. And I try to do what I can,
but who will I can and do the best I can to serve by God.
Beautifully said and a perfect way to conclude, mister Clements, thank you
very much for your service to our nation, and thank you so much for
your time today. We really appreciate it and thank you for having me.
Willie Clemens Junior is a veteran of the US Navy and he is a veteran
of both World War Two and the Korean War. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicle. Hi. This is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to
Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
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