Oral history interview of William "Bill" Joseph Brady

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of William "Bill" Joseph Brady
Creator:: Wallace, Fredrick C.
Brady, Bill (William Joseph), 1920-2013
Date of Original:: 2003-06-18
Subject:: Landing craft
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Hope, Bob, 1903-2003
United States. Army Air Forces. Fighter Squadron, 5th
United States. Army Air Forces. Fighter Group, 8th
President Coolidge (Steamship)
Queen Elizabeth (ship)
Japan. Kaigun. Kamikaze Tokubetsu Kogekitai
Kamikaze
Location:: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, -33.86785, 151.20732
Australia, Queensland, Townsville, -19.26639, 146.80569
Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, -37.814, 144.96332
Philippines, 13.40882, 122.56155
United States, California, Marin County, Angel Island, 37.86225, -122.43046
United States, California, San Francisco County, San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, 37.81966, -122.47854
United States, Colorado, Denver County, Lowry Air Force Base (historical), 39.72306, -104.89194
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Mississippi, Keesler Army Airfield
United States, New Jersey, Hudson County, Harrison, 40.74649, -74.15626
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
hi-8
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, William Brady describes his time in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific during World War II. He recalls nightly air strikes by the Japanese; his job as an armorer; a native Philippines woman making them a meal of mudfish; and going over the mountains in a glider. After the LST in which he was travelling was sunk, he was picked up by a PT boat. A fellow soldier was hurt and died while Brady was attempting to care for him. He discusses the importance of camaraderie and mail from home. After the war, he returned to his job as a draftsman at the Worthington Pump and Machinery Company.
William Brady was in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific during World War II.
FREDERICK WALLACE: This is the beginning of an interview of Mr. William Brady. Today is Wednesday, June 18th, 2003. This interview is being conducted at the Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Georgia. Mr. Brady is a veteran of the US Army Air Force. He was in the service from 1941 until 1945. My name is Frederick Wallace, I am with AARP, and I am going to be the interviewer. Mr. Brady, as I have briefed you before, I want you to tell the story of your military experiences in your own words. Take us from the date of your enlistment in the service, and tell us why you enlisted, and take us step by step from that point on throughout your military service. And pay particular attention to both parts that are more important, that you feel were more important in your experience. And from time to time I will ask you questions if I feel there is something that you need to expand on. But for the most part you tell the story in your own words. Mr. Brady, would you begin please? WILLIAM BRADY: Okay. Born and raised in Harrison, New Jersey. And let's see how that thing went from there. Went to a point in time when they started to create an Army, Navy, and Air Force, I was living in the Newark area. Draft was used at the time, to draft members in the service. To avoid the draft I volunteered to do my year, which was available at the time. And volunteering gave me the right to choose which branch of the service I would like. I chose the Air Force, so I was in the Air Force the full time I was in the service. Initially I went to Newark, New Jersey; they shipped me down to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. That was the first association I had with any organized group. I was in Keesler Field and took some training as an armorer there; it was somewhat limited so they shipped from there to Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado. I spent most of the armament activity, learning the armory in Lowry Field. I had the experience while in Lowry Field walking around one day, and of course they have the aircraft landing and taking off, and a lot of training in the aircraft also. I had the experience of watching one aircraft fly down and fly directly through one of the hangers, to one end of the hanger to the other end. It was not supposed to be allowed I'm sure, so I understood later on that he was severely reprimanded for his activity. Okay from there I went out to San Francisco and I was on the island there in San Francisco Bay where they gathered us all together and arranged for us, a ship to take us overseas. FREDERICK WALLACE: Had you completed your training as an armorer? WILLIAM BRADY: As an armorer in Lowry, yes I did. So I was eligible to join a squadron when I got overseas, of course. From the island in San Francisco Bay was right next to Alcatraz. I didn't get friendly with anybody on the Alcatraz Island, but it was interesting to see the place and read about it. Well, I went to Lowry. FREDERICK WALLACE: Why were you on this island? WILLIAM BRADY: I'd say about three weeks. FREDERICK WALLACE: No, why? WILLIAM BRADY: Oh, just to gather, they were gathering a group together to ship them overseas. FREDERICK WALLACE: Angel Island, you tell them? I think we'll stop for a moment. WILLIAM BRADY: On the SS Mariposa and we refueled on the Marquesas Island, and went from there along with the British ship that was in the convoy. The British ship, the Queen Elizabeth, and the President Coolidge. We arrived in Melbourne, Australia April 9, 1942, we arrived in Melbourne Australia. From Melbourne we went by train to Sydney, Australia, which is halfway of the east coast of Australia. From there we went to Townsville, Australia and stayed there for close to twelve hours. The reason we were hung up there is they were loading the ship with coffins to be shipped up to the area where the fighting was going on. But we spent hours just sitting there watching them go and load the coffins aboard this ship. We went from there to the Philippines, and that wasn't much of a run but we settled in there with no problem. And we were assigned to a squadron, and there's different strips were designated as so many miles from where the ship landed. So, we were on what they call this twelve mile strip, the air strip that was the way they designated six mile strip. They all knew where they were by designating them as so many miles from the harbor. And the activity was very quick there for the fact that the Japanese were getting very active with their air strikes. So the first night we were there they come on down and had no problem, we didn't have anybody to intercept them. We didn't have any night fighters at the time. So, they came in and just dropped the bombs at leisure I would say with no interruption. And this activity with them was having no problem at all, nobody disturbing them to intercept them. This went on for seven or eight days. Every night they'd come on over. And of course the smartest thing you could do was, you know, dig a slit trench and jump in the slit trench, because they would come over, just loads of them dropping the bombs up and down, up and down the strip. And they'd pick a different strip each night, you know, to try to hit the planes that were on the ground that we were supposedly guarding. But we were obligated to maintain the planes that were on the ground. They hadn't had too much luck the first couple of nights damaging any of the craft we had on the ground. But some of the fellows that were in the trenches, they had concussions and all. I could—just very disturbing, and it would kind of tear your clothes off, not my particular case but some of the others that I was with they were close to a concussion from where the thing hit close, not a direct hit on them but maybe ten or fifteen yards away. The concussion was enough to, when I went over to look at one of the trenches, when I went over to check on one of the boys that were in one of the tents close to us. About fifteen yards away, I went over to see the one guy who had been hurt. By looking at him I could see this shattered so, it broke his skin and all over he looked like fish tail. It was shattered so. It looked like scales on a fish, unreal. But something you can never forget, you know looking at the thing. FREDERICK WALLACE: And that happened every day for about seven days? WILLIAM BRADY: Yes every night they'd come over, every night they'd come over. FREDERICK WALLACE: That must have had quite an affect on you? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, it disturbed you because you couldn't sleep that's for sure. But we had—it was a constant thing. You knew they were coming over every night so you made sure that you had enough room in the hole for the six of us to jump in this hole. Now what was going on, they would get in there they'd lighting up cigarettes, you know. I guess it was relieving for them to smoke a cigarette. I never smoked a cigarette in my life, never. FREDERICK WALLACE: You said the six of us, who were the six that you are talking about? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, my buddies, the bedroom commandos. FREDERICK WALLACE: Tell us about that group, please? WILLIAM BRADY: About the? FREDERICK WALLACE: About the bedroom commandos? WILLIAM BRADY: We were, when we got together in the armament school in Denver, we traveled together out to the San Francisco coast, and we got to be very, very good friends. And we made a point to stay close, and we just a little buddy, buddy relationship that was very nice. And we were good friends all through the war while we were there, while we were overseas, good friends. And we would protect one another anyway we could. But we had, I showed you in the pictures there, we would build platforms in our field tents we had to sleep in, what we would do, I would build platforms and we would put the tent up on the platform. And you know we'd be off the ground. So we were—kind of got together and stayed very close, and that's when I got together and made some signs and called us the “Bedroom Commandos”. I tell you that if we got to take some pictures, which we did, and send those home it got to be a laugh. You know everybody talked about “Commandos” but nobody talked about “Bedroom Commandos”. But we were buddies… FREDERICK WALLACE: Were you all in the squadron? WILLIAM BRADY: Yes, same group, same squadron. FREDERICK WALLACE: What jobs did you have? WILLIAM BRADY: Armorers. FREDERICK WALLACE: All six of you were armorers? WILLIAM BRADY: All of us were. FREDERICK WALLACE: And what does that mean, what were you supposed to do? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, we repaired the machine guns on the aircraft. You know, loaded the guns and maintained the armament equipment aboard the aircraft, anti-aircraft. FREDERICK WALLACE: Will you tell us what the aircraft was? WILLIAM BRADY: We had some A-20's, and a couple P-39's which were Pursuit P-39's. And that was at 22 slots type thing. But that was our job to maintain the armament stuff. FREDERICK WALLACE: When you were not being bombed by the Japanese, what did you do? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, that was the day, the daytime activity was to maintain the aircraft, you know. FREDERICK WALLACE: And did the aircraft fly on combat missions? WILLIAM BRADY: Did they? Yes, yes they did. Mostly of course they were daylight because we didn't have any night fighters. They weren't trained for night fighting, but in the daytime yes, very, very busy. FREDERICK WALLACE: Tell us what your average day was like? WILLIAM BRADY: Average day? FREDERICK WALLACE: Yes. Your average duty day, from the time you got up in the morning? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, from the time I got up in the morning, the first object was to hope we could find something to eat. Now I date back, I tell this story, for rations when we were overseas, we had “C” Rations and “K” Rations. “C” Rations were dated from World War I, corn beef and beets in cans with the dates on them; you know dating back to World War I. But it was acceptable for the fact it was still good. We would make an effort to better what they were what we would find in the “C” Rations, which is a plastic thing when you open them up, and what you found in there. The “K” Rations was the last to be offered, “K” that was in plastic boxes. And you had some meats and whatever the hell else they would put in those damn things. You didn't know want to, but the thing about the “K” Rations was there were three cigarettes in each one of the boxes. That was part of the ration. I didn't smoke so I was very, very popular with the boys who did, very popular with the boys that did. Of course, I wouldn't take any money for my cigarettes, but they might have offered me an extra drink of what they were mixing up with them. The rations every once in a while they would offer, or they would come up with, three cans of beer for each person. Three cans of beer, well, and it was hot. You couldn't drink it, not the way it was. But in the evening we would roll out some high octane fuel, aircraft fuel, roll it to a side of a trench. Put some burlap or some kind of linens and something in the bottom of the trench and put the beer cans in there. And roll over the large can of aircraft fuel; we would break the bond and let it drip down on the beer. In about two hours it would cool off surprisingly. Now it was a little expensive for the government to sponsor that, but that's what we did, and it was successful, the way to cool beer. That's what we did most of the day. The food, the rations weren't the greatest. You know you didn't have any mess hall or anything like that. You'd hope you would get enough inside the ration boxes that would satisfy you for a few hours until you got something else to eat. FREDERICK WALLACE: How long did you stay in this location? WILLIAM BRADY: I guess we had to be there at least two months. FREDERICK WALLACE: And then after that where did you go? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, we, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Morti [PHONETIC] and New Guinea, and some individual little places, I don't remember the names that they were. But they were close to the shore, and close to where they had maybe one air strip, you know just one air strip. And we would pull up there maybe for two or three weeks until they took over another strip and then we would move somewhere else. Or move to another part of the island, the southern part of the island. Like in Morti and the Dutch East Indies, which is another area, and that was a southern section. I'd like to tell a story of a, we were in a one area, and we helped this lady put some furniture up, she's a Filipino gal. And they were well mannered, all the Filipinos. And the interesting part about them was the penmanship was perfect, the Palmer Method of writing. You know, I remembered that when I went to school, they taught me the Palmer method. But they knew that, and that I remembered about them. But the lady wanted to do us a little favor, and she said she would like to cook us some fish alongside her house there, which, it was up on stilts. But alongside there was a small scream that was as wide as this one table, small stream. So, she said she needed a little time to go catch some fish. She got up, headed toward the stream. Walked in, took her shoes off, walked into the stream, and it was very muddy. Just the water wasn't that deep, so it was quite muddy. And she's walking in this stream, and she's feeling with her foot. And she would reach over and pull this fish in, well, the Mud Fish, okay. She'd put it off to the side, then she was back in there and she would walk a little more, walk, walk until she could feel another. She'd reach down and pull another one out. She pulled six fish out, and come on out. And said, she'd give us a couple of hours, she would need that to clean the fish, and to cook the fish. Later on we had Mud Fish for dinner, and it was very good. It was fresh fish. But it was strange, and I never forgot it was Mud Fish, I will never forget it, of course, fascinating the way that she went fishing. First time I ever saw anybody go fishing with their feet. More time in the Dutch East Indies. And let's see, I got record when I come home. FREDERICK WALLACE: When did you get to that other island, Morti? WILLIAM BRADY: Yeah. FREDERICK WALLACE: How did you get there? WILLIAM BRADY: We went aboard another ship, can't think of the name right now. But they got a good group aboard another ship, a troop ship, and that dropped us off a day later at one of the other docks. But that's, and a couple of other instances when we had to get to another strip on the other side of the mountains of course. We would take a—one of the big twin engine bombers. And they would pick a group of us up and fly us over to the other strip on the other side of the mountain, you see. Or in the one instance we had a choice of walking over the mountains or taking a ride in a glider, a military glider. So I volunteered for the glider. I didn't feel like walking over that mountain. First time I had ever been aboard a glider. The interesting part of the gliders is very—when they're pulling you before you go up in the air, they're very noisy. While they're pulling us through the air, they're Plexiglas windows, [sound], it would be noisy, you know. But when they got up high enough and they cut you loose, everything would quiet down. And everybody aboard would look at one another and I'm saying, “What the hell did I volunteer for.” No motor up in front of this thing. This is a little strange. Anyway we landed with no problem. First time I had ever been aboard a military glider, fascinating, absolutely fascinating. From there on, let's see, we covered all the air strips and got back up a little bit, and I spent three, about three weeks in a field hospital. I took some shrapnel from the night activity, and I was in the field hospital for about three weeks. FREDERICK WALLACE: Tell us a bit more about that? WILLIAM BRADY: When I was in the field hospital, it was about. FREDERICK WALLACE: Tell us why you were in the field hospital? WILLIAM BRADY: Oh, I took some shrapnel, and I went on in there and they're going to remove the metal. But while I'm in there, you know the Japanese are still flying over. It was close, the field hospital was close to where our revetment area, where we kept the plane. But they, the Japanese came over and the one guy evidently had a little bit of a problem with his plane, the Japanese guy, and he landed his plane without crashing, and they went out and captured him. He was hurting just a bit; they took him over to the field hospital where I was. And they put him in a cot about six places down from where I was laying in a cot. And that evening they come on over again, flying over, you know, Japanese, and they were dropping them. And I heard “bang” a loud noise, and then morning the Japanese pilot that was down in the bed, somebody was thinking, well, we don't want anybody behind our back. We've got enough problems with them up above, somebody shot the guy. So that took care of him. Anyway, let's see, that took care of the Philippines. FREDERICK WALLACE: You were awarded the Purple Heart, what was that for? WILLIAM BRADY: That was what it was for. FREDERICK WALLACE: Because of the shrapnel and debris? WILLIAM BRADY: Yeah. FREDERICK WALLACE: And that was from the Japanese bombs, the shrapnel? WILLIAM BRADY: That was from the Japanese bombs, but it's eerie when they're coming over every night. You hope they're not going to land one close to you. But I had one land close enough where we had the fancy tent that I used set up with the boys. The concussion, one landed close enough where the concussion took the tent and everything in it [sound] out into the field, just blew it right out there. We didn't lose anything but it was all dead. The tent was damaged, but it could have been a lot worse had it hit closer. FREDERICK WALLACE: Did the Japanese planes aim for the hospital where you were? WILLIAM BRADY: Do what? FREDERICK WALLACE: The Japanese planes, were they Kamikaze pilots? WILLIAM BRADY: The Japanese guy, yeah, he was a Kamikaze pilot from what I understand. FREDERICK WALLACE: And were there other instances on that? WILLIAM BRADY: The only one I can remember even hearing about, he was the only one. But war is a crazy thing. FREDERICK WALLACE: So after you recovered, what happened then? Where did you go? WILLIAM BRADY: Well, eventually when things settled down a little bit in the islands there, we were shipped back to Australia. And we, let's see, might have stayed there for a couple of months. And they arranged for a ship to take us back to the states. And I think we left from Sydney as opposed to—we didn't go all the way down to Melbourne but I think we left from Sydney. And the next thing I remember I'm looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge. FREDERICK WALLACE: Let's go back to when you were in the Philippines. You told us about the “K” Rations and the food and what not. What about any type of entertainment? Did you have any USO shows or anything like that come over? WILLIAM BRADY: Yes, yes. FREDERICK WALLACE: Would you like to tell us about that? WILLIAM BRADY: In one instance USO is made up of very talented entertainers as you know. And one of them scheduled to visit our camp and area was Bob Hope. And sure enough a couple days later in the evening there on, we built a stage, it wasn't much but enough for him to get up on. And he put on a show, and, unforgettable, of course, very humorous and made you laugh. But he did show up there, Bob Hope. The only one I remember come showing up on the scene was, but he got a lot of cheers and they were, all the guys of course were very appreciative of him coming over there into the night activity, and he could get hit as well as everybody else. But he did show up there and it was appreciated. FREDERICK WALLACE: So that show was good for morale, is that right? WILLIAM BRADY: Oh, yeah, very much so. FREDERICK WALLACE: And did you have movies or anything such as that? WILLIAM BRADY: No, very little of that, very rare, such a thing as movies. FREDERICK WALLACE: So you had to entertain yourselves other than the USO? WILLIAM BRADY: Pretty much so, like I said, the buddies I had were good Joes. And we could tell stories about home life, where we lived, and schools we went too. Some of them were college boys, and the activities and sports, those who played sports. We didn't have any soccer balls or anything we could kick around like that or anything, but we could pretty much entertain ourselves, the six of us in a group. FREDERICK WALLACE: Did you receive mail from home on a regular basis? WILLIAM BRADY: Did I receive mail from home? Yes, yes, very good, very much so. And that was greatly appreciated. Mail from home was fabulous, very, very much appreciated to get mail from home. FREDERICK WALLACE: When you went into the service were you married or were you single? WILLIAM BRADY: Single. FREDERICK WALLACE: You were single? Did you leave a girlfriend at home? WILLIAM BRADY: I'm sorry? FREDERICK WALLACE: Did you leave a girlfriend at home when you left? WILLIAM BRADY: Good friends, high school, all of my high school friends. A few of us corresponded, I was sending pictures. I had a picture taken with my undershorts. I had to make sure that got back to the high school, which I knew that's would that's why they would take it then. Of course, I had to be a little careful about what I sent, because I had through grammar school, and high school, had the nuns. FREDERICK WALLACE: When you got to Australia, what were your living conditions there? WILLIAM BRADY: Very nice, very nice. They could set up barracks for us, building and that thing. Didn't have to get in tanks, but they were very decent to everybody there in Australia. Everybody was, but they knew we were there for a purpose, a good purpose, to protect them too. So, they were very appreciative of us being there, yeah very much. You know what my problem is right now? I'm going to give you one guess? FREDERICK WALLACE: Should I turn the equipment off? You mentioned earlier you had experience with the Kamikaze airplane pilots that were attacking you, but you had another experience with this? Can you tell us about that? WILLIAM BRADY: Yes, we were aboard this LST, okay. And were still out in the water and this Japanese plane come over the mountainside and we could see him, and he was heading toward our LST. And sure enough he dove into the side of the LST, of course killed himself, and then which they called themselves suicide planes. You know they were schooled that way in Japan. The ship was hurt badly and it was sinking. I had a life jacket on, and I'm passing out life jackets, all I can find, to make sure the guys have life jackets on. Before you know it we're in the water, in fact the ship was going down. We were ordered to abandon ship, which we did. And I had the great experience of having a PT boat, low cabin in water about forty-five minutes. We shifted it around a little bit. But a PT boat comes along and they pulled me out of the water. I was okay, not hurt in any way, but a little nervous about the experience. FREDERICK WALLACE: So were there other injuries? Were there injuries to the other soldiers on board the LST? WILLIAM BRADY: Yes. I was on board the PT boat and one of the crew members come over to me and ask me, “How do you feel?” I said “I'm okay, I'm all right.” In the meantime there's another little gentleman lying alongside, and he was hurting real bad. So one of the crew members said, if you're okay, keep an eye on him. When he starts hurting real bad, give him a shot of this morphine, which they gave me in a tube. They left and sure enough he's hurting real bad. In one instance I went over and hit him with a shot of morphine. It seemed to settle him for a bit, whatever morphine does. Anyway it eased his hurting for a little bit. And, of course, he had the problem a short while later, and I hit him with another shot. From then on I couldn't do him any good. And to this day I can look and see his face when I'm looking down at him after that other morphine and when he fell off and he didn't experience the morphine doing any good any more. But he just about died in my arms. And like I said, to this day I still see that face, very strange, strange deal. I guess it was a month or so later in Australia and they're getting us together to head back home. Let's see, we had a—the group I was with, we were separated by now. They on aboard, I can't think of the name of the ship I was on, but it was a troop ship and we were heading home from what I understand. And it was about, took about six days for the troop ship to cross the waters and entered San Francisco. And like I said there was the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was a great sight. So, my experience overseas was over there. FREDERICK WALLACE: What did you do after you were separated from the service? WILLIAM BRADY: After I separated from service, well, let me think, went on home. Originally when I first went in I was employed by Worthington Pumping Machinery Corporation [PHONETIC]. And I went back to work for Worthington Pumping Machinery Corporation. I was a draftsman. And they took me back. And that's what I did when I got back, went back to work. FREDERICK WALLACE: And what way did your military service change you, change your way of thinking? WILLIAM BRADY: I admire those that had the talent to fly those planes. I don't think I could handle that, but the pilots did a fantastic job. I got to say I flew with a few of them that made me admire them for the fact that they could handle those things in the air, land them, take off, and whatever is involved. So, that was my experience and I admired those people. And I had to think back and feel sad [for those] that were left over, that we buried over there. I had the occasion to bury a couple of gentlemen that was in our squadron unfortunately but that happened. FREDERICK WALLACE: Is there anything else you would like for us to know? WILLIAM BRADY: No, I think that pretty much covered my experience. FREDERICK WALLACE: Well, we thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us, Mr. Brady. And I said this information will be archived in the Library of Congress, and at some future date when your grandchildren want to know about their granddad or great-granddad, they will be able to find the information by accessing through the Library of Congress. Thank you very much. WILLIAM BRADY: I thank you. [END INTERVIEW] [CJ]
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Extent:: 47:22
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
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