HomeMy WebLinkAboutRoss Garrett, Brazos Valley Heroes
One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest
~ Generation" who served our country during World War II
First of two parts
By Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
A lot of veterans from World War 11 have their souvenirs
from the war. Many have their military awards and ribbons in
shadow boxes their families provided for them. Ross Garrett of
Madisonvil1e has a shadow box that, includes his Purple Heart
medal, but he also has another one that contains only an old
worn Bible opened to the 23rd Psalm.
",It was the Bible we used when we buried our fellow POWs
in a Japanese POW prison at Rangoon, Burma. It Originally
belonged to a Brit, but it was handed down from him to others
until I ended up with it. I have it because I conducted the last
burial detail before we were liberated. I've kept it opened to the
23rd Psalm because that is the passage I used on that detail."
Ross Garret is now 87 years young and still going strong.
Strong is something he had to be to survive as a Japanese POW.
Garrett was born in Nacogdoches, Texas, and raised in the Oak
Flat COmmunity in Rusk County.
"When I was about six or seven my father died and I
ended up living with the Chapman family. Mr. Chapman was
a blacksmith and I helped him in the shop after he took me
in. I remember as a teenager a Japanese man coming by the
blacksmith shop offering to buy all of our scrap metal, but Mr.
Chapman wouldn't sell to him. I don't think he had a premonition
about the war, but I'm glad to know that the shells used to shoot
my plane down didn't come from our scrap yard. ~
Garrett graduated from the Nacogdoches school in 1937
and then attended Stephen F. Austin State COllege as he could
afford to go to school. In 1941, with two years of college under
his belt, he joined the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor.
"I married my wife, Thelma, on December 14, 1941,
and headed off to the Army. I attended Des and became a
bombardier on a B-24 crew. In December 1942, I left the U,S.
and my wife, who was now pregnant with our first child. We flew
to India to carry out bombing runs on the Japanese installations
on the Burma peninsula, That area of operations was called
the China-Surma-India theatre, We flew the southern route
across North Africa until we landed at Karachi, India, where we
celebrated ChristmCl:s, I still have the program and menu from
that Christmas meal.
"When we arrived at our base near Calcutta they found out
that I hadn't been inoculated for yellow fever. , was removed
from the crew that I flew over with and was assigned to the 7th
Bombardment Group and became part of a B-24 group known
as Kavanagh's Crew, There were nine of us, and it was the best
group of individuals anyone could ever hope to serve with. First
Lt. Kavanagh was the pilot, 2nd Lt. Cotton was the co~pi'ot and
2nd Lt. Moxley was our navigator, the best navigator I have ever
known.
"We were on our 17th mission, bombing the Japanese
docks at Rangoon on May 1,1943, when the ack-ack knocked
out our number three engine. As a result we had to fall out of
formation, and the Jap Zeros came after us like sharks to blood
in the water. When the number three engine went out it took
out the electricity to our tail gunner turret, making it inoperable.
The Jap Zeros were chewing up our section, It was shot full
of holes, .
~We tried to hide in the clouds and did so for a while, but
soon realized we weren't going to be able to ma~e it back. Our
tail gunner was dead and when I pulled the waist gunner out
he was full of shrapnel and would die shortly. We knew if we
landed in the jungle we probably wouldn't survive the crash, so
Moxley, our navigator, 'Iocated the last rice paddies we could
land in before the jungle, One of the waist gunners opted to
parachute out instead of trying to survive the crash landing.
"Kavanagh and Cotton managed to land in a fice paddy
without any fatalities. Our engine~r Bodell's arm was about shot
off, We bandaged it as best we could and applied a tourniquet.
We left him there because there was no way he could travel.
Hopefully they would put him in a hospital so that he could
survive. He would not have survived traveling with us while
trying to avoid the Japanese, With the help of some locals, we
made it to the beach where the tsunami occurred a couple of
years ago. We were hopeful we would get noticed and picked
up by our guys. .
"We were digging a hole near the beach to get some water
when we were approached by some civilians. When Kavanagh
looked up from his digging, he was shot in the shoulder, The
'civilians' were Japanes~ soldiers in civilian clothes, They took
us to Rangoon Prison, the old British prison at Rangoon, Burma.
On the way we picked up Sodell from a hospital. Of the nine
members of our crew who left on that mission that day, only
three of us would survive the next two years.
Part lWo will be in next Sunday's Eagle.
Ross Garrett's name can be found on the Brazos
Valley Veterans Memoria'. For more information, to make a
contribution, or if you know a World War II veteran whose story
needs to be told, contact the BVVM at www.veteransmemorial.
.' org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.
9
The E~le
y
One in a series of tributes to nienibers of - 1 - he Gremf`sl
Generation" who served our country during World Woi II
Second of two parts
By Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
The mule members of Ross Garrett's B -24 crew were shot down
in Burma on May 1, 1943. Two members of the crew were killed
by attacking Japanese Zeros and one parachuted out of the plane
before it crash landed. He was captured and subsequently shot by
the Japanese. Crew members gave first aid to the engineer, Bedell,
who was badly injured and could not travel. He was left with the
plane as the remaining five attempted to escape the Japanese.
During their attempt to flee, another crew member was killed
by the Japanese and another was wounded when they were
captured.
The Japanese took the surviving crew members, including
Bodell, to Rangoon, Burma, and placed them in the former British
Rangoon Prison. Here's Garrett's account of what happened
afterward: ,
"When we arrived our engineer, Bodell, was badly wounded,
and Lt. Kavanagh, our pilot, was also wounded. They were treated
for their injuries, but Bodell was left in the infirmary. We had to
reuse his old bandage on his arm and you couldn't keep it very
clean no matter how hard they tried. As a result, his arm became
very infected.
"After our arrival, the Japanese also indoctrinated us in proper
obedience. They placed a table in the prison yard and you were
told to bend over and hold onto the table. A Japanese solider stood
about twenty feet away with his rifle pointed at your chest, you
were told that ff you removed your hands from the table you would
be shot. They then proceeded to beat you on your arms, back and
elbows with a cane and sometimes a pipe. If you withstood the
beading and kept your hands on the table, you lived. If you lifted
your hands from the table, you died.
"One of our Japanese guards was born and raised in Hawaii but
left to join up with the Emperor. We called him Tartan. Whenever
I went out on a work detail he would make sure he was assigned
to us. He called me 'Tex' and he worked me over with the butt of
his dfle every chance he got. After we were liberated I checked on
Taman with the British, who informed me that the Burmese made
sure Taman never made it back to Japan or Hawaii.
"One day shortly after we arrived I came back from a work
detail. The guys told me Bodell was asking for me and to go check
on him. When I want In to we him he raised up and grabbed me,
held onto me and cried like a baby. We both knew he was dying.
Two days later we buried him. That left four of us still alive.
"Lt. Kavanagh was a goad pilot and a good man and he felt
responsible for all of us. He had been wounded but I think he fell
so badly about what was happening to all of us that, more than
his wound, is what finally killed him. After we buried him, that left
Cotton, our cm- pilot, Motley, our navigator, and me."
During the time of his capture, Garrett's wdeThelma was told by
the War Department only that his plane was missing over Burma.
Thelma remembers that time: "Our daughter Sharon was born
on April 26,1943, five days before Ross was shot down. He never
knew our child had been born will after he was liberated. After I
was visited by the War Department I prayed very hard for his safety.
One night I had a dream, and in that dream Ross and two other
men walked out of the jungle toward me. I knew then he was alive
and that we would be together agaih."
As the days timed into weeks and the weeks into years, Garrett
said, more and more men in the camp died.
"it was a lot harder for the bigger guys than the smaller ones.
it seemed as 'd they shrunk faster and lost their strength faster. I
remember watching one big Australian fellow who was a boxing
champion before the war just die before us daily. I just tried to
tough it out. I couldn't do much about my situaton, so I just tried to
survive, one day at a time.
"The last few months we got different camp commanders and
things got a little better, but the problem was lack of food and
disease. Just before we were liberated I conducted the last burial,
and that is why I have the burial detail Bible and I have kept it ever
since. I'm glad I wasn't used for me."
Ross and the other two members of his crew were liberated
on May 1, 1945, exactly two years after being shot down and
captured. His weight had slipped from 165 to 110 pounds. He was
hospitalized in India and eventually retuned to the U.S. On June 9,
1945, he was reunited with his wife, Thelma, and was able to see
his daughter, Sharon, for the first time in Nacogdoches.
After being discharged he returned to school at Stephen
F. Austin State College, got his degree and taught school. He
eventually entered the extension service and in 1953 became the
extension agent for Madison County, where he remained until his
retirement
"I guess I'm lucky to be alive. To survive, you had to be strong
mentally as well as physically to cope with what happened to us. It
was tough, tough, though."
Of the crew only Garrett remains today. He has his family, he
has his memories and he has the burial detail Bible.
Ross Garrett's name can be found on the Boards Valley Veterans
Memonal. For more Information, to make a contribution, or if you
know a World War H Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact
Me BVVM at wwwveteransmemonaLOrg or Bill Ywrigkin at (979)
260 -7030.
The Eagle
Here when v., need us.
Terry Rosser, Viet Nam vet, will be the guest on
"Veterans of the Valley" this week on KAMU -TV t
Veterans of the Valley, hosted by WTAW's Tom Turbiville, can be
seen Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m.
K MU.,a uetlu
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