This is the story of Corporal Ian W. Beaton’s U.S. Army World War II experiences based upon excerpts from over 400 letters he wrote to his parents and young teen age sister from February, 1943 to November, 1945.
Along with extensive quotes from his letters, the well-researched background text provides in depth perspectives about life and attitudes that prevailed in the United States in the 1940s.
What makes this author’s story different is that it is not about heroic battles, but about service in a non-combat supporting role in the military. Most of the 16 million veterans of World War II served in non-combat assignments. “They Also Serve” is really their story.
Corporal Beaton and his millions of comrades in all branches of the military served in every theater as well as in the United States. Among their dozens of military specification numbers are ‘jobs” such as clerk/typist, yeoman, truck driver, cook, baker, heavy equipment operator, fireman, military policeman, drill sergeant and airplane pilot. However, even these assignments could be dangerous occupations. In World War II, 113,000 service men and women died from “non-battle” causes usually from unfortunate accidents or illness.
In the author’s letters, we can feel his frustration about his assigned lot while at the same time, trying to rationalize his job as to its worth measured against that of others who were fighting and dying in the most important conflict in recorded history.
This story follows the author from army induction through grueling infantry training where this young naïve very nearsighted soldier excelled in his weapons training and physical conditioning. This was followed by a two-month period of uncertainty in replacement centers in California and Pennsylvania where shipping orders were issued on a daily basis. After crossing the United States twice in a three-week period on troop trains, the author was shipped to Dutch Harbor, Aleutian Islands along with thousands of other infantry-trained replacements. Their role was to replace battle casualties which were expected to be very heavy in the joint American/Canadian invasion force to recapture heavily fortified Kiska Island from the Japanese. By the time the actual invasion was launched, the 6000 Japanese defenders had been secretly evacuated back to Japan in ships under the cover of the dense fog that frequently blankets the Aleutians in the summer months. The infantry replacements became the property of the Alaskan Defense Command and they were divided up among the personnel starved non-combat garrison units stationed permanently in the Aleutians.
The author served a total of 25 months in the barren, treeless, wind-swept Aleutians including 19 months on Shemya Island, a tiny atoll in the far western Aleutians only 800 miles from Japan. He wrote to his parents that he felt like John Milton, the famous blind English poet who wrote the line, “They also serve who only stand and wait”.
Life on Shemya was hard with frequent “alerts” for possible Japanese air or commando attacks. Work was on a 24-hour basis to construct a giant B-29 airbase with a 10,000 foot runway, large “T” pier, two-lane breakwater plus all the other infrastructure necessary to support the mission of destroying the major cities in Japan. The strategy was to literally set massive fires knowing that most houses in the Japanese cities were constructed of wood, and Shemya would play a major role in this campaign. All this changed when U.S. forces recaptured warm weather islands in the Central Pacific which were closer to the major Japanese cities than Shemya. In October of 1944, a huge storm (known in the Aleutians as a “williwaw”) destroyed the newly constructed “T” pier and the breakwater and plans for making Shemya into a major staging area were cancelled. The author’s story about life on Shemya covers the full range of human emotions from despair to hope in these grim surroundings. His unit, the Post Engineer had many humorous M.A.S.H-like qualities from the outfit’s officers to the Post Engineer’s traditional mission of maintaining the post’s utilities and infrastructure on an island which had no island-wide facilities of any kind.
This story also takes us back to a different America that existed in the 1940s. To begin with, the bitter scars of the American Civil War were still around. Most “Negroes” as they were called still lived in the totally segregated south where racism was a way of life. Even African-Americans who resided in the north were subjected to race discrimination but in different forms. The U.S. military was completely segregated. Most African-Americans who served in the army were given non-combat assignments such as the Quartermaster Corps or Port Battalions usually commanded by white officers.
At that time, most Americans had never traveled more than a few miles from their homes so except for the border-states, there was little interaction among the population as a whole. There were other cultural differences. Northerners tended to be urban bred; many were first or second generation Americans. Most southerners had a family heritage of several generations American born. Many were from poor rural areas.
Imagine a young man of 18 with a southern rural background, a trained hunter and outdoorsman first meeting a loud, street-smart first generation Italian kid from New York City. Multiply this combination by a thousand and add to the mix a port battalion of African-Americans. Then put in a sprinkling of deep-south white officers and non-coms (who often referred to their northern subordinates as “nigger-lovers”). Next, throw in a couple hundred highly paid white only civilian construction workers whom everyone resented. Combine these diverse groups by throwing them together on a tiny 2 by 4 mile island in some of the world’s worst weather. Finally, give them the mission of building a monster air base and infrastructure from scratch at flank speed. That was Shemya, 1943 to 1945.
For many African-Americans, this was the first time in their lives that they had full use of “white” recreational facilities, the movie theaters and the Post Exchange. There were no signs reading, “Whites Only” or “Colored”. What kept the peace among these divisive groups? Work, weather, weapons and warnings. Everyone was working long hours, the weather was miserable most of the time, everyone was armed and there were weekly warnings of possible Japanese attacks. However, the over riding motivation was, that despite the incredible cultural, racial, and ethnic barriers, all considered themselves Americans and it was their lot to build this base and that was to be their lasting contribution to winning the war.
Meanwhile on the home front in Flint, the author’s hometown, practically everyone was involved in war work. The General Motors plants had been converted or expanded and they turned out thousands of tanks, trucks, guns, bombsights, torpedoes, shells and other badly needed war materials. In his letters home, the author described how proud he was that their machine guns and automatic 20mm cannons were made by GM.
The author’s parents and teenage sister wrote hundreds of letters offering support and encouragement to this unhappy, lonely soldier whose service felt more like servitude. He and his father exchanged views on politics, President Roosevelt’s 4th term election and his untimely death six months after his election. William Beaton and his son speculated about the post-war world and America’s role in it. They also continued their discussions about books they had both read or were reading. The author’s mother Margaret, who wrote several times a week was in charge of rounding up the “news” about her son’s friends as well as pushing all relatives to write to her soldier boy. The author says her greatest contribution was here unshakable faith that it was God’s plan that her son would survive World War II. His letters to his sister who was in the 8th grade were filled with “big brotherly advice” about school, subjects to take, teachers to avoid and dating. By the time the war ended, Donna was a senior in high school.
“They Also Serve” provides the reader with an in-depth, first hand look at an immigrant family (Donna, the exception was born in the United States). After almost three years in the U.S. Army, the author turned 21 and like his father before him, became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The event took place on Attu Island, Aleutians and was presided over by a Federal Judge who was flown 1500 miles down the chain from Anchorage. Several alien members of the armed forces, gathered up from different islands were “admitted to citizenship”, among them two Italians, formerly merchant sailors who jumped ship in a U.S. port when Italy entered the war and were later drafted into the American army.
“They Also Serve” should be added to the very slim library of World War II stories about those millions who were called but did not fight; yet set aside their prejudices and contributed to winning the war. They deserve to be included and remembered along with Tom Brokaw’s heroes of “The Greatest Generation”.
