October 6, 1999

Globe-trotting 142nd reunites

By Garret Leiva
Herald editor
       After traveling around the world together, supplying ammunition to Patton's 3rd Army and celebrating V-E Day amidst air raid sirens and an anti-aircraft 21-gun salute; the men of 142nd Ordnance Base Automotive Maintenance Battalion are still getting to know each other.
      Fifty-five years since those first days of basic training in Texarkana, Texas, 19 members of the 142nd Battalion gathered last week in Traverse City to share scrap book memories and renew friendships formed during FDR's presidency. The reunions - started officially in 1990 - remain a semi-annual get-together for those that traveled around the globe together.
      Historically speaking, the 142nd Ordnance Base Automotive Maintenance Battalion was activated on December 18, 1943 at the Ordnance Unit Training Center, Texarkana, Texas. The 900 man battalion consisted of four units: 3288th, a supply company; 3019th and 3020th engine rebuild and 3040th power train rebuild companies.
      Over the course of the next three years, 'have gun- have tank- have ammunition, will travel' seemed the motto of the 142nd Battalion.
      Nearly circling the globe, the Army battalion trained in California and later Mississippi before shipping out from Brooklyn, New York to Marseille, France. While overseas, members of the battalion fought throughout France and parts of Germany. Two months after V-E Day in 1945, the battalion boarded the transport ship US General George M. Randall and sailed through the Panama Canal, eventually docking in Manila after 43 days at sea. Most battalion members saw their tour of duty end around 1946 while serving as an occupational force in Japan.
      "It was a very interesting ride," noted Elmwood Township resident Pete Walters, who was 20 years old when he joined the 30288th Ordnance Base Depot Company.
      "We supplied everything from a wrist watch to a 12" gun with a six ton barrel. You worked all day packing up materials and spent all night driving tanks and half-tracks up to the front lines. You didn't have much sleep most of the time," he said.
      As an 18-year-old in the 3019th Company, Robert Moe still remembers working 12 hours, 7 days a week; including hauling ammunition for General George Patton's 3rd Army during the Battle of the Bulge. The Midland resident also finds his time spent at sea ironic given his maintenance company's supposed duties.
      "I spent more time on the water than some Navy guys," said Moe, who brought a picture of the US Randall along with a scrap book containing war photos, a ration card and a booklet filled with 10 francs coupons from France.
      While Wesley Bommer remembers his time at sea and survival training in the Mojave Desert, the Manchester, Mich. resident spoke most about his encounters with the 'enemy.' After the war ended in Europe, members of 3019th Company pulled the assignment of guarding German prisoners of war, many which were only 16 or 17 years old noted Bommer.
      "You almost felt sorry for them because many of them were just kids. They were regular guys like us, no different. They wanted to give up, they didn't want to fight in the war," Bommer said.
      While members of the 142nd Battalion swapped stories peppered with GI humor, these veterans of World War II also reflected on the serious mission they embarked on more than half a century ago. A mission that for many young men began with a draft letter exclaiming: 'Greetings ... report to - or else,' noted Ken Patterson.
      For the Delafield, Wis. resident, the responsibilities of war weighed heavy on the shoulders of a "snot-nose" 18-year-old. Returning home, however, he found himself in a paradoxical situation he still finds more than a tad ironic.
      "When I came home I couldn't go into a tavern and buy a beer or go out and vote, but I could go half-way around the world and get shot," Patterson wryly remarked.