T/5 Buck Winters, U.S. Army Engineers, WWII
Description
Roger "Buck" Winters was a recent high school graduate working at a tool factory in Texas when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He immediately wanted to quit his job and join the U.S. Army Air Corps. The government would not let him do either of those things at first. Winters would join the Army in 1943 and get trained as an engineer. He would be deployed to Guadalcanal and then to Cebu in the Philippines, where he would have a front row seat to history.
In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," 100-year-old Buck Winters tells us about his ordnance training and his work of destroying and building as an engineer in the Pacific theater of World War II. He will share what it was like to come under attack by the Japanese on Guadalcanal. He also explains what it took to find and eliminate the holdout Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender.
From there, it's on to Cebu, his shock at hearing natives speaking excellent English, and the hard work of rebuilding Cebu City. But the most vivid memory for Buck Winters is serving on the honor guard that welcomed Gen. Douglas MacArthur on his return to Cebu.
Frank Wright joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942, when he was just 16 years old. Before long, he became one of the famed Marine Raiders. After deploying first to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, Wright contracted malaria and had to spend time recovering. After that, he was part of Marine...
Published 11/20/24
Lee Brousard enlisted in the Navy with the intention of joining the Naval Air Corps. But as he was traveling to Florida for flight training, the Navy changed those plans and sent him to San Diego for naval training. After completing basic training, Broussard then finished at the top of his class...
Published 11/13/24