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Welcome to the America’s Veterans Stories podcast. Kim Monson is your host. On the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt said “it is a date that will live in infamy.” 97-year-young Col. Bill Rutledge (Ret. USAF) shares stories of four individuals that he personally knew, who were on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu where Pearl Harbor is located. Col. Rutledge discusses his experiences during WWII as a teenager living on the coast of Florida regarding German submarines off our eastern seaboard. _________________________________________________ Copyright 2023: America’s Veteran’s Stories Visit us at www.americasveteransstories.com
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World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and our other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s veteran stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
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And welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. And this show began because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied four D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 7th, 1944. And returned stateside realizing that we need to hear these stories and broadcast them and archive them. So hence America’s Veterans Stories. And I’m pleased to have on the line with me Colonel Bill Rutledge. He is 97 years young. He’s traveled the world. He has a great curiosity about people and places in history. He’s been willing to share his knowledge with us on a variety of subjects because of all of his life experiences. I know that we are learning from that. We’re really pleased to broadcast this show, which is 84 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. We thought it was very appropriate to talk about that. Colonel Bill Rutledge, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. And you sent over some notes. And you started it with a famous poem about Paul Revere’s ride was written many decades after the event. And it began on the 18th of April in 75. Now, hardly a man is still alive. And you said transpose that to December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy. And The present survivors will remember those words by President Roosevelt. And so we thought it would be great to do this show because you know people that were at Pearl Harbor. And so where do you want to begin with this, Colonel Rutledge?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, first of all, I would like to mention the nature of the four people. Two of them were actually stationed at Wheeler Field, which is adjacent to Schofield Barracks. which is up on one of the mountains in the middle part of Oahu. That’s one of the places where there was a concentration of fighter aircraft. And then the two other individuals were sort of at random. One was a man that I met when I was a member of a court. And we began talking, and he told me, well, I was there. I was at Pearl Harbor. I was from San Jose State football team, and we had gone out to play the University of Hawaii. And we were practicing, and we were going to play on Saturday the 13th. But we never played. So we were used to help all of the rehab that went on and to assist in any way we could for that week. And it goes on and on. I’ve got some more on that. And then the fourth person was Larry Nishikawa that I worked with in Japan back in the 70s. And he was a student. He was in elementary school. And that morning he was out on his way to church when things came down from all around. And, of course, he was suspect since he was Japanese. So these are the four principal sources of my information.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, so where were you when you heard that Pearl Harbor had been bombed?
SPEAKER 04 :
I was in my hometown, Fernandina Beach, Florida. I had been an acolyte at St. Peter’s Church that morning, and I had come out, back out to the beach where I lived, and I was on my way over to the restaurant, and I passed another person who was walking, and it was sort of, I’d say probably between 1 and 2 in the afternoon because of time differentials, and he said, have you heard about the japanese attacking pearl harbor and that was the first i’d heard and uh of course i knew where pearl harbor was because my father had had almost applied for a job out there the previous summer until my mother said we’re not going anywhere but they the navy was advertising nationally because they were looking for a machinist who would work in repairing ships So unlike most, I’d say 98% of Americans had no idea where Pearl Harbor was.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think that’s true with all the veterans that I have interviewed over the years. I’ve asked them if they’re World War II veterans, where were you? And many of them said, I’d never heard of Pearl Harbor before. But it certainly got the attention of Americans immediately, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, what happened also, because of the schools and everything, we knew that the president was going to talk on Monday before a joint session of Congress to go through the formality of a declaration of war existing between us and Japan, which he did. So people in schools all over America were in their auditoriums with radios turned up loud so that we all could hear the president’s speech. And it was, of course, probably the most memorable speech he delivered ever. in his 12 years as a president.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, until… I think he died in office, didn’t he?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. He died in April 1945. Yeah. Well…
SPEAKER 05 :
You said that, let’s set this up then. For people that may not know exactly what happened that morning, explain what happened on that Sunday morning, Colonel Rutledge.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Sunday morning, normally, like in most places, very quiet. Very quiet. And my dog’s in the background. Mm-hmm. So consequently, one of my friends, who I happened to have rented a house in Fort Collins with later in later years, he was a corporal and he was working in a tower at the airstrip there. And he’d been picked to work on Sunday because Sunday was always a quiet day. And so he’d gone on duty at 7 o’clock in the morning. His name was Corporal Hadwick. And so he was there, and he saw these aircraft coming in from a distance, and they were coming towards the landing strip, which was right adjacent to the tower at Wheeler Field. And he thought there were Navy planes just out on a training mission. Until as they got closer, he could see these flashes from guns going. And then he realized they’re strafing. And they’re strafing the airplanes, which were on one side of the runway. And they were also strafing tents where many of the soldiers were sleeping on the other side of the runway. And all of a sudden, because of the speed of the aircraft, the lead plane came right by, eye level with where he was in the top of the wooden tower. And he saw this big red ball on the side of it, and he could see the Japanese features in the pilot. And then he immediately recognized the fact that This was no Navy operation. This was a Japanese attack. And so I asked him, I said, what did you do? And he said, I got down from that tower as fast as I could. I don’t know how I did it. And he headed out for the barracks for security. And the other person was Sergeant Jack Culleton. And Jack was a mechanic who worked on the planes. And he was in line. the chow line, which was adjacent right there at the barracks. And he was there for early breakfast, and it was about 730 in the morning. And so when they started firing, Jack recognized what he needed to do. So he went immediately into the barracks and went to the armory. to draw some sort of weapon that he could use against them at the time he got his rifle and cartridges and loaded up and got out the door the got their planes were gone they only made one pass and they strafed and took off and had to head up other flight missions so he was there the other guy was there and then of course the young man downtown He went back to his family. But he and the other people who were Japanese, as far as ethnic background, and there were, of course, it was probably the largest segment on Oahu, they were all suspect. And one of the ironies that had happened is that the week before December 7th, The Japanese, I mean, the Navy intelligence had broken the Japanese code. Nobody knew about that. And they broke the code. That’s how ultimately they knew Midway was coming up next the following June. But at the time, they didn’t know any special Japanese code words. And the code word, code phrase for the Japanese to do the attack was climb Mount Fuji. So if somebody said something like that and they picked it up, it had no significance to them at all. But there’s always this correlation between that and the Japanese people and Japanese origin. And Fuji is very saccharine. You know, it’s a very important part of the whole Japanese culture. And then the fourth man, who was a football player, they were just in their hotel, and they were in bed. They’d practiced the day before on Saturday, and they were getting some rest. And all of a sudden, they’re awakened by all the explosions at Pearl Harbor, the machine gun noise. But the explosions were the big factor as the torpedoes were going into the battleships. So his group, who were to play the following Saturday, they did everything they could to be volunteers in the whole time that they were there. And they were there for at least two months. It was between two months and three months. Before, there were ships, commercial ships, that were able to go to Hawaii and bring people back who’d been out there on visits or like they had to play a football game. So those were my four firsthand contacts with people who were there when it all happened.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think it’ll be important, and we can do this in the next segment, to talk about the damage that the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor. So we’ll talk about just that particular damage. And then also, there was some very… I guess you might say lucky things for America as well regarding that particular attack. So we’ll continue the discussion. But a sponsor of this America’s Veterans Stories for many years is Hooters Restaurants. How I got to know them, it’s an important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism. And PBIs, those politicians and bureaucrats and interested parties. that are trying to control things. And Hooters Restaurants has, and you can find that story at the Kim Monson Show website. And they have great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and happy hour, and a great place to get together to watch all sporting events. And again, appreciate Hooters Restaurants as a great sponsor of the show.
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Thank you so much for having me. To learn more, reach out to Teresa at 520-631-9243. Teresa would love to talk with you. Again, that number is 520-631-9243.
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All Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
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Oh, oh, oh.
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And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I did want to mention the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. Pueblo is known as the home of heroes because there are four Medal of Honor recipients that grew up there. Andrew Dix, Medal of Honor recipient for actions he took during the Vietnam War. is a co-founder with brad padula of the center and they’re doing amazing work honoring our medal of honor recipients and these foundational principles of honor integrity and patriotism and then great educational materials for kids k through 12 as well as educators and they are non-political non-partisan just focused on these principles of honor integrity and patriotism And you can find out more about them by going to AmericasVeteranStories.org. That’s AmericasVeteranStories.org. I’m talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge. He’s retired from the United States Air Force. He’s 97 years young, about Pearl Harbor. And that was the attack from the Japanese onto the Americans at Pearl Harbor. on December 7th, 1941, which we are on the 84th anniversary of this attack. And interestingly enough, the Japanese fighter planes took one pass, and they were able to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships and over three airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. So, Colonel Rutledge, during the break, we were talking about some questions. First of all, I find it interesting that the Japanese only took one pass. Do you think it might have been a fuel issue? They might have been so far away from their carriers? Why did they only take one pass?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think that they were apprehensive. One thing, because there were no carriers in port, so therefore there were no planes. They didn’t know where the planes were, where the carriers might be, that they might be endangering their own carrier force, which I think they had four. And also, they were so successful on that first run that the battleship commander the commander of the fleet up there had to make a decision and I think he felt we’ve done our job we did it well and we don’t want to go back and risk it because it would be some more fighter planes and there were some B-17s coming in from the states too at the same time so it was a case of not following up with the second strike, they made the decision. But the impact was so severe that the Americans didn’t know what was going to happen, had no idea. There’s something else that’s relative, though, to the two men who were up at Schofield Barracks, and that was that all the fighter planes were all lined up instead of in their protective revetments. And the reason was because the day before, on that Saturday, and probably starting on Friday in Washington, they got word that the Japanese embassy in Washington was burning their files. This is normally a procedure that when there’s going to be an attack somewhere in the world. I mean, that’s what they do. They destroy records that might somehow help their opposition. And the same thing was happening at the legation in Honolulu. And with all the Japanese there and the government not knowing who may or may not have a sense of loyalty to the home islands. They were fearful of sabotage all over the place, but especially on their aircraft. So they ordered the people at Wheeler Field, take them all out, line them up right along the side of the runway, and that way you will have fewer people necessary to protect those aircraft over the next 48 hours. And because of moving all those people, They were prime targets for the strafing run. And so consequently, those people who were defending that area and they saw what happened and knew that they had moved those planes Saturday afternoon late, they thought there was definitely some conspiracy somewhere on the island to have done that. And many of those people never got over that feeling.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and the other thing, it’s interesting that none of the aircraft carriers were there.
SPEAKER 04 :
It was good luck. Some of the things out there were not planned. But the point, too, that why they didn’t shoot at the fuel tanks is something that, Everybody second-guessed later, but they were so concentrated on what they did, and they were so successful sinking the battleships and other ships. And at the time, even though they were using carriers to do the destruction— There’s still this concept within the U.S. Navy, and their Navy too, but especially in our Navy, battleship orientation. Battleship was the first line of defense or offense. And the carriers were, they were nice, but they were secondary in the minds of a lot of the leaders, military leaders. Well, they were wrong. The aircraft carriers had already become the most important ships on the line. And the Japanese recognized it before our people did.
SPEAKER 05 :
That is interesting. Let’s drill down to one of the guys that you knew. And we have talked about him on one of our shows before, but that was Sergeant Culleton. And it’s an interesting story because he was reported as missing in action after the Battle of Midway, if I remember right. Am I getting that correct? Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, the first time he was reported missing in action in Pearl Harbor. And the reason that happened was he volunteered very early to go down to the Navy yard to be of help there. Somehow their company clerk was not informed. And then when they had a fall in where all the people went out and assembled so they could count heads and see who was there, Jack was gone. And nobody knew anything about it. So he was reported as missing in action because they didn’t know where he was. And so that message went back to his mother in Michigan. So she got that. And then later, many months later, in June of 42, she gets another one that he’s missing in action because he truly was then because he was he was he. crew chief on a B-17 that got shot down out in the Pacific Ocean at the Battle of Midway, and he was floating around there. And of course, a third time, a year later, almost two years later, he was flying over Berlin in a B-17, and he got hit by flak, and he had to bail out. in the northern part north of Berlin, and he was reported the third time to his mother. We regret to inform you that your son, Jack, is missing in action.
SPEAKER 05 :
Boy, and you had mentioned in the notes you sent over just what would go through a mother to go through those emotions three times. Of course, the joy when she found out that he was alive. But that’s a big emotional yo-yo for a mother.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, the other problem is when a mother gets that, it takes sometimes weeks before they can get a follow-up, even if it’s good news. uh then this happened in jack’s case jack wrote letters back to his mother that’s how she found out that he was not actually wounded in pearl harbor now how long and how how he was able to get his the word to his mom when he was shot down in midway i don’t know and of course the third one that was a lot longer because that took many many weeks before he was able to communicate with his mother.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. And let’s talk just a little bit about the Battle of Midway, because I think it’s important to understand that from a historical standpoint. Because my father, when I was young, sat me down and explained how important that battle was, because it was only really about six months after the attack upon Pearl Harbor. And in the Battle of Midway, we were able to destroy several of the Japanese aircraft carriers, which that was a real turning point in the war, yes?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. We had the great good luck sinking three of their carriers. And it was key because their carriers were there. The offensive weapon in their carriers, of course, they had mostly zeros, and that was uneven in the aircraft, which was faster and better than the aircraft we had. But they also had… uh… ships behind them that they had planned to land on midway because they did not anticipate how much resistance up there they didn’t know that we had broken the code so they were going to occupy midway well midway is a one of the most northern islands in the whole chain out there where hawaii is so if they had gained control of midway then it they could have made it a major port for them so that the whole West Coast would be in constant fear, and they would have created a threat that we could only anticipate. We don’t know, but we know that that was a key turning point as far as the naval aspect, just like later on there were other key turning points as we were able to move more westward throughout the Pacific.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and the Battle of Midway was June 4 through 7 in 1942. You were living during that time. What do you remember about what happened between FDR’s speech the day after the attack upon Pearl Harbor and then to the Battle of Midway?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, in that intervening period on the home front, everything was taken to increase mobilization for readiness of war. There was an awareness all over the country that this was a battle that we had to win or we could lose our whole identity. And so people were asked to make many sacrifices. But one of the early things is they very quickly decided to establish rationing programs so that they would have vital materials available for construction of ships, aircrafts, Anything in direct support, that was done. So not only were those things which were industrial important, but as far as the home front, they also rationed food because they needed to increase the food allowance and things for a building army and navy, which… We had to go from a very small force up to the peak of the war where we had 16 million people under arms. Wow. So everything was in transition. One thing that happened really quick, they established an office of war information, a man named Elmer Davis, and it was a national censor program. So consequently, we and the public, we knew whatever they wanted us to know. But they didn’t want to reveal information, battle information, that could in any way compromise us with the enemy, the Japanese in this case. So consequently, we listened to the news, but it was always coming back much later. The technology, of course, wasn’t like it is today. There was no television. There was nobody on site. There were no correspondents. initially out in that part of the world. So the rationing program started very soon. And then all of the automobile dealers, they were not getting any production coming out of mostly Detroit. They were able to sell what they had in their inventory, but even that was rationed. My grandfather was a doctor in South Georgia, and he… went all the way to Tampa, Florida to get a new car because he had to have mobility in his medical profession. But it was very, very select. You couldn’t just go to a dealer and get something. They had to have a very war-related reason for doing this act.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. What a time. We can’t hardly even imagine.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, the impact where we were in North Florida, the impact was early on from the standpoint of maritime in that. the effect of German submarines because Hitler declared war upon America within two weeks after Pearl Harbor. I think it was a lesser time, really. So consequently, he had pre-placed their submarine fleet all up and down the American East Coast, Atlantic Coast, down into the Caribbean. And they started an action so that Very soon, even as early as sometimes in December of 1941, there were some ships that were sunk, either in the Caribbean or along the coast, but by early spring of 1942, It was really dangerous. Now, initially, we did not have blackouts.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know what, Colonel Rutledge, let’s stop and go to break and then come back and we’ll start with blackouts. Then we’re talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge regarding really World War Two. But what really started it was the attack upon America. Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. And we will be right back.
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SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. This is the 84th anniversary of the attack upon Pearl Harbor by the Japanese upon the Americans. And it is what drew America into World War II. too. And Colonel Bill Rutledge lived through this. And he’s probably one of the few people that knows people that were at Pearl Harbor. And so we’ve talked about four of his colleagues, but we’re now talking about him over on the East Coast. And he lived right on the coast there, I think on a were anticipating getting us into war as well. This was really two different enemies. They were not working together. Were they the Japanese and the Germans?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, they were war allies, but their whole operational procedures were separate. There was no coordination on that. As I mentioned very briefly before… Starting January and February of 1942, it became apparent that the submarines were a terrible threat. Now, if you could sort of place yourself in a submarine and say you’re out 15 miles out in the water, that’s about where the Gulf Stream was off the coast of Florida. So a lot of the submarines would be in that area. And if you’re looking back towards the coast, what they saw was a lot of light. And then, as they saw the light, then they could see the silhouettes of our commercial ships going by. And for some reason, it took us three to four months to finally get it through our heads that this silhouette… It’s making it awfully easy for the submarines to be able to detect our ships, whether it be commercial or military, but it was mostly commercial. So consequently, the blackout orders came out probably in about March of 1942, where We were supposed to, first of all, not do any lights that were not necessary. Street lights in all the towns were on the side facing the ocean were all painted black. Your headlights, you could not use high beam headlights. That was all painted black on the top part of the car headlights. Each house… had to have their windows so blacked out so that if anyone came along the beach there, like the Coast Guard or just volunteers earlier, if they could see light, they’d come to your house. And you’d either have to turn off a particular light or you’d have to do a better job with your blackout curtains or your blackout shades. And those things became on sale in the market in the spring of 42. So you could go to the store and you just buy those. And the blackout shades were very effective. And the drapes also people would buy or they would make. And they would go out, go on the beach or even in the towns and go out and look and be sure that they couldn’t see it. They even appointed some marshals. They would call them air raid marshals, but they weren’t really air raid. They were looking around to be sure that we were not creating a silhouette that would endanger our maritime fleet. And at about the same time in March, we saw the first sign of a sinking off of the shore where we lived. I lived right on the beach waterfront, and there was a tanker that was coming in from Texas, and it was trying to get into the port in Jacksonville. And just as it approached the entrance to St. John’s River to go in there, it was hit by a submarine. The submarine… When they initially hit it, realized that it was going to sink, they thought, but anyhow, they came to the surface and used their gun instead of more torpedoes because they were trying to don’t waste the torpedoes as long as you can do it with your gun. So they got up there with a gun and they sank the ship out there. But we saw it on fire and it was huge flames and Then after that, after it was sunk, then we had tar all over the beach in little, like little pods, and it would congeal into that, and it was there for months. It gradually dissipated because just of the weight of the tar would go down in the sand as the tide would change up and down for high tide, low tide, but it took weeks and weeks to get You know, where you didn’t have a beach full of tar.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, what else happened with you personally regarding this?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, something else right about that same time. Again, this was in March of 42. The Germans in two places. One is just south of Jacksonville Beach and also on Long Island. They landed saboteurs. They did it by submarine and… So in both places, these landings, what happened was that the landing on Long Island, one or more of the saboteurs had lived in America before. And so his English was okay. But he, for some reason, it was almost like… Today in politics, if you have somebody who’s a whistleblower, this guy didn’t want to sacrifice his life for the Nazi party, apparently. But anyhow, he helped pinpoint where people were. And so all the people were captured. They were captured at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida and captured on Long Island. And this was the saboteurs. The saboteurs. Okay. All the public knew was that there was a news release to the effect that saboteurs had been captured in the general location. And there was a guy named Walter Winchell. who was the big newsman over radio in that era. And he’s the first one I heard, because I used to listen to the news all the time after school. And he came on and said, hey, we’ve just gotten this information that they have captured people in Ponte Vedra Beach. It was an hour’s drive directly south of where I lived. And then also in Long Island. But then we didn’t know anymore what happened. What happened was that they were all brought together. They were all taken to New York. There was a court procedure, and it was all private. We never knew. We didn’t even know what was going on. And then ultimately, the vast majority of them were executed. Really? Yes. Okay. But the thing was that this landing then provoked something that proved to be a huge waste of money. Because of this, the American people in the military somewhere made a policy decision that we had to protect our whole coast. So what they did, they established… The Coast Guard established a beach patrol with horses from Maine all the way around Florida, all the way over to Pensacola, and then beyond, some of them over towards New Orleans. Because wherever there was a beach surface and where a submarine might come and drop off people, they were fearful. So… They recruited, especially a lot of people from the West, they wanted people who could ride horses. So if you were in the Coast Guard or Army or wherever you were in, you could volunteer for the Coast Guard Horse Patrol if you were a rider. So that was a hop, a real big priority. So consequently, on our island, they set up an area way up on the north end, and there was a regular corral and a whole lot of horses, and these young men would come out there and ride the horses up and down at night. You didn’t see them in the daytime. That was their purpose, to protect at night, to look to be sure that the blackout was working, and also… This was supposed to present a defensive action against landings, which was sort of naive because the beaches were long. It’s 17 miles of beach where I lived. And so a few horses and sailors riding those horses up and down, their biggest value really was protecting against the blackout. But there was thousands of horses and Coast Guard sailors. Wow. The whole war, up until the landings, well, actually beyond the landings. They didn’t really wipe them out until sometime in probably early 45. Wow. Wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I don’t think people really understand that we had German submarines on the east coast of America. And over on the west coast, was it you?
SPEAKER 04 :
There was one occasion on the west coast shortly after Pearl Harbor where a Japanese submarine went into the area near the port of Los Angeles out there near Long Beach. And there were oil rigs out there where they’re doing drilling in the ocean. And so there was some damage there. But the big damage was the psychological impact. Because when people heard that a Japanese submarine had been off of there, there was fear not only for damage from submarines, but the possibility of maybe Japanese landing on the West Coast. There was all sorts of things. So even on the West Coast, they started doing blackouts. And one of the first signs of this fear, which is in the sports field, the Rose Bowl was moved for the only time ever from California to North Carolina. Because Duke had won and was going to go to California and play. And So instead, Oregon State came by train all the way to Duke University, and they played the game on New Year’s Day, 1942, and Oregon State won. So it was one of those odd, odd situations. And to tie it to Colorado, one of the linemen playing for Duke later became… a professor in forestry at CSU and was our liaison with the NCAA for sports for 30 years after that.
SPEAKER 05 :
And what was his name?
SPEAKER 04 :
Harry Troxell.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, I’ve seen that name.
SPEAKER 04 :
Harry Troxell, and his son later was a mayor. Harry became a mayor and then his son became a mayor. But Harry was a marvelous man, and he had such experience that he was one of the leading people as far as policy in the NCAA until he died, unfortunately, in 1980 or 81. He had a case of, he had chest cancer. And one of the odd things about me being familiar with him I was teaching ROTC at CSU, and he was a naval submarine officer in World War II. Very dangerous. But he stayed in the reserve, and he wanted to get reserve credit. So he came to me one afternoon and said, Can I teach one of your classes so I can get some Navy points from a retirement program? And I said, Sure. You can take my 4 o’clock because I’ve got four straight hours of lectures to freshmen. And so he did. And I got to know him really well. And he was a marvelous man and a great loss. But it’s one of those quirky things about somebody who was so involved in what was going on. in the spring of 1942.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Okay, well, we’re going to go to break. Before we do that, I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation. As we’re coming in on the end of the year, I would highly recommend that you make a contribution. It’s tax deductible, and it’s a way to say thank you to those that have given their lives or been willing to give their lives for our freedom. That website is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org. We’ll be right back with Colonel Bill Rutledge.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories. We are talking with Colonel Bill Rutledge. He is retired, United States Air Force, 97 years young, with an amazing curiosity of people and places and history. We’re talking about the attack upon Pearl Harbor, which was on December 7th, 1941. And much happened after that. We talked about four people that Colonel Rutledge knew that were there at Pearl Harbor and also his experiences over on the East Coast. He was a teenager during that time. But during the break, Colonel Rutledge, you said something else that we should talk about is aircraft spotting. And I’m not sure I know what that is exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, what they did there was a whole series, and I don’t know who financed it or what, but anyhow, just about every community along the Atlantic coast, they built out of wood a wooden tower that was probably 30 feet high, and it had a roof over the top of it, and people would go up there there was no telephone what you do go up there and you’re looking for german airplanes and so you had binoculars up there and volunteers and they would come and go but during the daylight hours this was where they would be and they would log in with the little log book what they did and what they saw and um what was so silly is that my high school coach was a pilot. And he used to laugh about it, and he said, this is the craziest thing going. He said, there’s no airplane in the world that could get to Amelia Island, Florida. So he said, this is just psychological, and it’s for the benefit of the people who participate, and they think they’re helping the war effort. He said, but it’s not practical. It doesn’t make any sense. Another thing which had nothing to do with that, but it had to do with schools all over America. There was this great sense of patriotism in the sense of preparation, especially for the boys who were in high school, because most of them would eventually be in the military. when you figure that when the war started, even if you were in ninth grade, you were going to be in the war. I was in seventh grade, so I missed it by a year or two. So consequently, there was a greater emphasis on exercise, on physical education programs, on learning how to march and drill and do things of this nature. And then also… from the patriotic aspect. In our school, in the morning, we had one building, and it was first grade through 12. We had a big flagpole out front. Everybody would assemble at 9 o’clock at the flagpole, and there would be a flag-raising ceremony, and we had a fellow in our class who was a bugler, and he would play the bugle, and the flag would go up, and then the principal would be out there in the first something, that needed to be spoken about, it was okay. And then they would do either the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance. But this was done, again, to involve people, involve students. And it probably was significant as far as overall morale and confidence. But it was practical. One thing that was very good, they quit having requirements for teaching certificates. So some of the people we got who came to teach were better than the regular teachers. And I got the jewel. Ms. Margarine Ward came. She graduated from St. Mary’s College, which was an adjunct to Notre Dame, and Notre Dame was all men. And she came, and she was the greatest teacher I ever had in high school or nine years in post-high school education in six different college venues. She was the best, and she was innovative. And so we learned a great deal from her. And not only do you have to pass a test to her to get an A, but you also had to do book reports and do other things that she did. And so…
SPEAKER 05 :
Do you think you could credit all these years later the way you are able to formulate your thoughts and your memory? I would think that that’s related to Ms. Ward.
SPEAKER 04 :
Listen, Ms. Ward was so good that when we had English, and we only had her for one year, and we’re talking about basic fundamentals of English, she taught us so well that… I have used that for the rest of my life, wherever I went. When I was in college or anything, I never got anything lower than a B in English or anything even related to being English. And I don’t remember all the technical parts, but she taught us what was right and what was wrong and how to define this and how to express so forth and how to use synonyms and how to do this. And she evaluated everything subjectively. You never had a test, true or false, multiple choice. It was all where you had to do the narrative.
SPEAKER 05 :
Which would make you think.
SPEAKER 04 :
She introduced things that had nothing to do with the textbook. because she knew things more in depth. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Colonel Rutledge, we are out of time. I so thank you for this perspective regarding Pearl Harbor and America, World War II. I thank you so much for sharing this with our listeners.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s a pleasure.
SPEAKER 05 :
And indeed, as we hear these stories and we reflect upon those, for example, during World War II, as Colonel Rutledge mentioned, there was over 16 million Americans that were in the military. And we owe all of these people a debt of gratitude and have a responsibility as we move forward into the future to conserve and preserve this great America that they have passed on to us. And so indeed, my friends, we stand on the shoulders of giants. God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 09 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
