HomeMy WebLinkAbout John Whitley, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
John Whitley, of Iola, joined the Army in
September 1941, and had just completed his basic
training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii on Saturday,
Dec. 6, 1941. On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, he
decided to skip chow at the mess hall and sleep in.
About 8 a.m. the Japanese attacked, dropping a
bomb on the mess hall, killing everyone inside.
"It was terrible, the dead and wounded were
everywhere. We sent trucks into Honolulu to get
women to help as nurses at the hospitals. Everyone
pitched in as best they could. The gathered up what
men they could to try and defend against a landing.
The only problem was that our weapons and ammo
was locked up. When we did get our weapons and
ammo, we only got 40 rounds each. Thankfully, the
Japanese didn't attack. If they had, there wasn't
much we could have done"
Whitley and his fellow soldiers moved to the
beaches, set up defensive positions and trained to
defend the Island. After a few months, they trained
to take the offensive. From Hawaii, they were sent
to Australia to train forjungle warfare.
In 1943 Whitley, a scout for the 21st infantry,
was the lead off man for his unit. "When we hit
the beach, I took off up a trail to the left into the
jungle, but my unit took a trail to the right. I had to
backtrack to find them. Thejungle was so thick that
you never saw the sky. On the second day we came
to a opening in the jungle, but you still couldn't see
the sky, when the Air Force boys started strafing the
treetops above us. They saw the Japs in the treetops
waiting to ambush us. Between the planes and us,
we had Japs falling out of trees all over the place.
The only problem was, those strafing runs almost
got us too.,
Because of the density of the jungle, contact
with the Japanese was usually sudden and at close
quarters. "Don't ever say what you're going to do
because you don't know what you will do until it
1iappen5. ur me iz scouts in wnmeys squad, only
four, including Whitley, were left when they had
secured New Guinea.
From New Guinea, Whitley and the 21st led the
invasion into the Philippines. "We went in four days
before the main invasion to establish a beachhead.
Leyte was tough going. We were into the front
line for over a week. At one spot you could see the
ships offshore. One day a Japanese plane dropped a
torpedo into a munition ship loaded with incendiary
bombs. That was the biggest explosion I ever saw.
When the ship blew up, the explosion was so great
it also blew the lap plane out of the sky"
On Christmas Day, in 1944, Whitley, and what
remained of his unit, were loaded aboard ships to
go to Mediano. "On the ship to Mediano, we were
attacked by Kamikaze planes and one went in right
beside our ship. I thought he had us for sure."
After landing and securing Mediano, they were
placed in charge of Japanese POW's. "We didn't
have to guard them to keep them from running
away, we had to guard them to keep the Filipinos
from getting to them and killing them"
One of his buddies, just to the left of Whitley,
was shot between the eyes but the bullet only
broke the skin because his helmet stopped it. "He
wore that helmet everywhere afterthat:'Despite all
the heavy fighting Whitley was involved in he was
never wounded. "My fear left me in New Guinea.
didn't fear anything after that'
Whitley returned to the U. S. and mustered out
at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio after Germany
surrendered. "You were allowed out if you had so
many points. I had plenty of points by then."
Whitley is now retired and living in Navasota.
His name can be found on the Brazos Valley
Veterans Memorial. For more information, to make
a contribution, or to nominate a veteran, contact
the BVVM at www.veterans-memorial.org, or Bill
Youngkin at 260-7030.