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Three views of World War II
Catawba veterans tour memorial in Washington, D.C.
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Published: November 10, 2008
NEWTON - They are three men who all live in Catawba and served in the military during World War II. But there, the similarities end.
Each gives his own stories of the war years and each got to visit the World War II monument in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 1 free of charge through Honor Air and the Rotary Club of Catawba Valley.
Hayes Drum, 91, joined the U.S. Navy in 1939. Three years later, he would be in Honolulu when Japanese Kamikaze pilots attacked Pearl Harbor. Drum had just been promoted and was on leave, visiting a shipmate and his family in Honolulu when the attack happened.
"We heard the explosions, got up and my first thought was 'What in the world maneuvers are they doing?' Then we turned on the radio and heard what had happened," Drum said.
Drum's ship, the USS Whitney, was not hit during the attack as it was moored further out than battleship row, but he and his friend couldn't get back to the ship until things cleared up a little.
"It was a terrible sight when we hit fleet landing. There was a lot of oil in the water and ships smoldering," he said.
The thought of Japan attacking the United States was never thought of, Drum said. No one really expected it.
He was in Honolulu for six months after the United States entered the war, serving aboard the Whitney, which was a repair ship. Other ships would come to them for repairs. The ship did move out, servicing ships at Guadalcanal.
Drum also participated in transporting Marines to Tarawa in 1943, another famous battle in the war.
"After we anchored, it wasn't long before they started launching shells, but we just moved back out of range," he said.
His strongest memory of that time was of the chaplain aboard the ship bringing in bodies to do at-sea burials for them.
"But after a while, he just got on a whale boat and did the services from there," Drum said.
That ended Drum's combat duty, spending the remainder of his 26 years in the service aboard a repair ship. When he retired, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 16 years. But his trip to Washington, he said, was a "tremendous honor."
"That memorial is quite a tribute," he said. "They have an Atlantic and a Pacific part to it, and I, of course, spent most of my time looking at the Atlantic part."
Also making the trip were fellow WWII veterans Isaiah Springs, 86, and Joe Rudisill, 81.
Springs was in the U.S. Army and took part in the battle at Iwo Jima, made famous by the well-known photograph of soldiers raising the American flag in victory. That photograph was made into a statue as part of the D.C. memorial. Springs' job was to unload ships as they approached the land.
"I remember it was foggy that morning," he said of the initial invasion in February 1945. "But the most beautiful sight was seeing the U.S.S. North Carolina battleship coming through the fog."
Rudisill, 81, also served in the Army, but was based in Italy for about one and a half years, mainly charged with transporting prisoners between Italy and Germany. He was trained when rumors of an invasion began circulating, but that attack never happened, something for which he is thankful. He also is thankful for the opportunity to see the D.C. monument.
"It was a wonderful time. Not many people get to have a tour of Washington, guided by police," he said.
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