Many of our veterans have now told their stories. And some have even had them recorded for posterity. These three residents of Orange County, California decided to record their life stories on veteran videos in 2008. Now, in 2010, only two of these three are still with us.
Jim Peirano: striking back at Pearl Harbor
Jim Peirano fired at Japanese bombers from the deck of his USS Dolphin submarine during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He recalled with horror how the Arizona exploded, spraying burning oil over the water, burning hundreds. Jim remembered the looks on the faces of the young Japanese pilots as they swooped in to drop their bombs. “They had the scarves and everything. You could see them very well because they were flying so low. It was just like you see in the movies!”
Jim was upbeat throughout the interview. Happy to have witnessed so much history and somehow be able to contain his pain for the terrible loss. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Jim’s submarine left to take the war to the Japanese:
“We didn’t know anything about fighting a war,” he said. “We knew how to dive and practice the submarine. But the rest we had to learn as the war progressed.”
Jim saw the battles of Midway and Tarawa and served in the Solomon Islands, where he helped save a group of 29 missionary nuns and children. He was in the middle of the “Battle of Japan”, as he called it, and his submarine sank many enemy ships. He stressed that US forces would drop leaflets on civilians before the bombings, warning them to evacuate, a fact he said is often overlooked.
Jim left the service highly decorated and with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and then revisited Australia where he introduced the sport of bowling to that country. As he recounted these stories on his veteran’s video, Jim’s eyes sparkled. He was back in the moment.
Jim died last year at his home in Laguna Woods.
Julian Ertz: His friend begged to be shot
Former footballer Julian Ertz, still alive and now 90 years old and also a resident of Laguna Woods, California, was eager to fight in the war in Europe and trained as a pilot and navigator. In December 1943 Julian and his crew took the “south” route to England, via Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Natal Brazil and then across the Atlantic to Dakar, Marrakech and finally Britain. The plane was full of sweets for the deprived British children of war that the crew hoped to meet.
Tragedy struck Julian and his crew when his B-24 J Liberator, named “Bachelors’ Baby” due to its crew’s bachelorhood, crashed during takeoff in Wales. According to his veteran’s video account, the plane was loaded with .50 caliber shells. Julian suffered a broken back and walks with some difficulty to this day, but still considers himself lucky. He was able to take cover from the exploding bullets behind the plane’s engine, which had become detached. Five of his 10 crew and a sixth man, an unlucky hitchhiker, were killed. Booster the pet dog was also killed in the accident.
He remembers to this day the screams of Sammy Offutt as he burned alive in the rubble, begging Julian to end his misery with his gun. Julian couldn’t comply, he didn’t have the gun at hand. He doesn’t know what he would have done if he had had it. Julian returned to the US in a full body cast, then studied law and became a lawyer.
Sandy Ross: “It was not heroic. It was exciting”
Sandy Ross, who turns 88 in December and lives in Lake Forest, California, had wanted to become a pilot since his days as a Lockheed riveter, riding in cabs on the assembly line. Before the United States’ involvement in the war, he begged his father to let him go to northern Canada to join. His father refused. He didn’t have to wait long. Sandy and his brother joined the Army Air Corps and soon they were both flying P-47 Thunderbolts against German forces in Europe.
Proudly sporting his still-fitting brown bomber jacket and officer’s cap during his veteran’s video interview, World War II veteran Sandy Ross recalled some of his 51 missions in Europe. When asked about the dogfight that earned him the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and a promotion to Second Lieutenant, he said, “It wasn’t heroic. It was exciting. It was fun.”
Our World War II veterans lived through some of the most dramatic moments of the 20th century. It is important that their stories are captured for their families and future generations. Most of our WWII veterans are in their 80s and 90s and there is a real urgency to record their stories.