Webb, Alvin
Alvin Webb: World War II
Interview by Amber N. Marchbanks (Midwest City Rotary Club Interview)
Interview date April 30, 2004
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born June 21, 1926 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Q: When did you first begin thinking that the US might get involved in World War II?
A: Well, that was about 1941.
Q: Was it before or after Pearl Harbor?
A: Ah, it was after Pearl Harbor. Well, I did know that the government was doing lend-lease to Britain and things like that before Pearl Harbor. I did know about that, but I didn’t really take it too seriously.
Q: OK. What was your reaction and the reaction of your family and friends when Pearl Harbor was attacked?
A: Well, ah, I guess pretty shocked more than anything else. I had been out milking the cows, believe it or not, and I came back from the barn and my brother met me on the porch and said, “We’re in war.”
Q: How old were you in December of 1941?
A: I was, ah, 15.
Q: Were you already in the military?
A: No, no I was not, no.
Q: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
A: Well, that’s a long story. See I graduated from high school when I was 16, where most of them graduated at 18.
Q: Ah-huh.
A: And so when I was – turned 17, I tried to enlist in the air force, but, ah, the day I took my physical for the air force – I’d been all the way through and just come to the final stages, the word came down from Washington that all enlistments had been closed because the air force – well, it was the air corps at that time – had already decided they had all the pilots they needed. So I did not get in, so I decided I didn’t want in the service at all! So, then I was drafted when I was 18.
Q: How did the other men in your area feel about serving in the military?
A: Oh, they were all gone as soon as they were old enough. Everybody – no one thought otherwise.
Q: How did your family, wife, or girlfriend feel about you going off to war?
A: Of course, I had no girlfriend – just my parents and brothers and sisters and they were very – they were very sad, I mean, they knew it had to be done, but they weren’t really happy about it.
Q: In what branch of the military did you serve?
A: In the army.
Q: Where did you undertake basic training?
A: Ah, I was inducted at Camp Robertson, Arkansas, (garbled) Fort Chaffee, and I did my basic training at Camp Walters, Texas.
Q: What was that experience like?
A: Rough. (laughing) Rough. It was, ah, I was there during the wintertime and it seemed like – our saying there was there was only one fence between – barbed wire fence between there and the North Pole and it was down half the time because it seemed like out in the field it was cold and frigid all the time it seemed like. I know that’s not the general perception of Texas, but that’s the way it was then. It was cold!
Q: What kind of things did you guys have to do when you were in basic training?
A: Oh, march, learn to shoot rifles, learn to shoot carbines, learn to shoot artillery, ah, learn how to take care of yourself – various methods of hygiene, ah, ah, hand-to-hand combat – you name it – we got all those kinds of training.
Q: After training, where did the military send you?
A: Ah, right after basic training I spent a short time at Fort Mead, Maryland, for some advanced training, and then from there I was shipped to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.
Q: In what capacity did you serve during World War II? Your duty, your rank, and the places in which you served?
A: Well, as I say, I was in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater as a buck private at the time. I was an infantry replacement, actually, when I went overseas, and I was on Saipan when the atomic bomb was dropped. It was flown from Tinian, which is three miles from Saipan. So I was on Saipan when the bomb was dropped and then I moved up to, ah, from there to Iwo Jima and at that time I was assigned to an anti-aircraft battery. And after the war officially ended, it was a matter of not necessarily occupation troops, but cleaning out the island of Iwo Jima, securing the weapons and sending them home, and disposing of a lot of war materials and that type of thing, so, ah, I was assigned to a quartermaster battalion for a while. And then I wound up operating a quartermaster laundry for the occupation troops on the island. I achieved the rank of sergeant at that – I moved up to corporal and then sergeant.
Q: In terms of your own experience during World War II, under what kind of conditions did you live and work? Like your food and clothing and . . .
A: Well, I really had no complaints. I don’t think anybody had any complaints because I grew up on a farm anyway and we didn’t have electric lights (laughter), so it wasn’t too bad in the service. We – we lived in tents overseas – we lived in tents all the time, ah, but our food was excellent. We griped about it a little bit. We had a little bit of New Zealand butter, we called it, this was really a cheese – came in gallon cans and we had lots of that. Sometimes our chicken or turkey – one – for a long siege all of us on Iwo Jima, we had nothing but turkey for meat. . .
Q: Ah-huh.
A: . . . and it – some of it began to turn green time we got it, but it was still good.
Q: I don’t even want to think about eating that kind of stuff now. What kind of contact did you have with the people back home?
A: Only by mail – correspondence. And we had the victory mail, we called it. A real light airmail that you could write on and the envelope was all marked and it was all one piece of mail that you could mail home.
Q: If you feel comfortable talking about combat, please describe the combat experiences you had, if any.
A: Ah, I actually never was in a place where I got shot at, so I didn’t have to worry too much about that. I got awful close to it, but I never did get shot at, so. . . I felt quite comfortable.
Q: What was your most memorable experience during World War II, combat or otherwise?
A: Oh, that’s hard to say. I guess I did, ah, have some experiences on the island of Iwo Jima, climbing Mount Suribachi, going down and walking across the crater of the volcano, ah, the volcanic beaches and that type of thing – that’s the most exciting experience – other than just the people that you were with, which the fellowship and camaraderie with them.
Q: Yea. That’s a whole new world. I’m sure it’s hard to pick out one experience. How long did you serve during World War II?
A: Two years.
Q: After serving during World War II, where did the military send you, or were you immediately discharged.
A: I was immediately discharged.
Q: What kind of reception did you receive when you got back in the United States?
A: Well, we came home. We – let’s see – on the U.S.S. Marine Fox, I believe it was. We came under, ah, San Francisco bridge at midnight. Looked up at it. Stopped at Oakland Army Base and was there long enough to load on a troop train and go to, ah, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, where we were discharged and given a ticket home and – by then a lot of people had already come home, so the main thing about that was, when you got home all you had was your military clothes, and clothing was very scarce from the little town I lived in. My folks and I, we had an old car, and we drove up to – through little towns and stopped at all the towns at the Penney’s store and I bought a shirt in each town! That’s how I got my civilian clothes after I got home.
Q: How did your war experience affect, if at all, your relationships and interactions with your family, friends, spouses, and/or girlfriend?
A: Well, I don’t know if it changed a whole lot.
Q: When you came back, it didn’t feel awkward or . . .
A: No, no. Didn’t feel awkward. Well received. Just went to work.
Q: Keep on keeping on, huh? Do you still keep in touch with some of the people you served with?
A: Ah, no, not for – not the immediate people I served with. Most of those – some of my closest lived in California, and in this part of the country – we didn’t correspond very much, so no, I don’t really keep in contact. I know other people that served from my hometown, but we weren’t in the same organization.
Q: How has your World War II experience impacted you life? Did it have any affect on your view of other wars the US has become involved with after World War II?
A: Well, I’m sure it did. Of course, the main way it impacted my life is that I went to college on the GI bill. I graduated from OU in 1951 and a college degree has helped my advance in my professional life and my income and that type of thing. And, ah, I don’t know – it’s made me – how – I think most of the wars that we’ve been in, I’ve been in favor of. Ah, I was a little disappointed on the Vietnam War that we weren’t allowed to win the war – politically, we were not allowed to win the war. But, ah, I very much support the existing war. So, ah, I don’t know. I think our country, to a certain extent, I think some of our people are soft because they – of course, we were a Depression generation. We had lived through the Depression, and the people now days have never gone through that and they don’t know what hard times are or anything like that, so I think they’re a little bit soft. And I think the morality is severely degraded from what it was then. Ah, among our young generation.
Q: What kind of general observations and conclusions do you have about World War II and your World War II experience?
A: Oh, I guess I’m glad I was there, but I sure don’t want to do it again!
Q: That sounds short, but sweet, and to the point.
