Autobiography of Wilbur R. Thatcher (My Dad) - Installment 7 of 10
This weeks blog is installment 7 of 10 of my Dad's autobiography about growing up in Wayne County Iowa. Enjoy
I used to go to the show where the Legion Hall is now. Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers & many others. The matinee show we got a free candy bar. Later the Smith Brothers built the Wayne Theater which is still in use.
I was drafter to the Army Feb 4 1945 & went overseas in August 1945. Went to the Marshall Islands where the war was declared over. Were sent to Manilla to a replacement depot at the Philippine University & then to Tokyo Yokohama Japan area for the army & occupation. We were headquartered in Yokohama with the US Army Service Command and the 8th Army Jurisdiction. I was with procurement division originally. That means if they got it we take it. Later I was a courier from our office to MacArthur’s Headquarters in Tokyo on a daily basis. Drove a jeep & later had to take a train. We saw all kinds of radiation damage, flesh coming off the bones etc. The atomic bomb saved my hide so that made it easier.
Enroute to Japan by boat we encountered a typhoon with over 100 miles per hour winds and tidal waves. Was a rough trip. The old Liberty troop ship withstood all the storm. The waves were unbelievable after the storm subsided.
