Chapter 29 - 1967 Expo '67 & The Real World of Democracy

Chapter 29 Version 2

1967

“Do you want to go to the world’s fair in Montreal tonight?” asked John’s father at 7 o’clock on a warm summer evening. “Arlene is taking a one day trip and you and a friend could go if you want to. She is leaving at 3:00am. You just need a birth certificate and some money for admission and food.”

John asked his best friend Bobby and the two hitched a ride out of the country on short notice. When Arlene reached the turnpike, she quickly accelerated to between 85 to 90 miles per hour. She noticed that John was looking at the speedometer. “The state police cruise at 80 miles per hour so if you go over 80 miles per hour they never catch up to you. The only time I was ever caught speeding I was going 75 miles per hour” Arlene  explained.

Arlene was the wife or a widow of an air force pilot. She wasn’t sure which category she fell into. Her husband Hap had gone on a mission in Korea and never returned. As MIA, Hap was still alive and so Arlene still received the benefits of an air force wife and could shop at the Westover AFB PX. John had the Kodak Instamatic camera Arlene bought for him a the PX for a good price and John would take a “roll” of film today at Expo ’67. The Instamatic took a film “cartridge” and John had cracked open quite a few of them to develop black and white film with the 4H camera club over the past two years. John mowed Arlene’s lawn for $2.00 (just over minimum wage for an hour’s work) and fed her cats when she and her two daughters were away.

“I have to go sign some papers so I will drop you off at Expo ‘67 and we can meet back here at 5 o’clock for the return trip. Is that OK?” asked Arlene. That was fine with John and Bobby. Arlene had brought up her girl scout troop and John’s sister Susan had driven the family’s 1963 Buick Electra with part of the troop in her car. During the trip, Susan was involved in a multiple car pile up and received damage in the front and the rear. This necessitated a number of trips by Arlene back to Canada and resulted in two trips to Expo ‘67 for John.

At Expo ’67 the dominating pavilions were the US and USSR buildings as this was the height of the cold war. The Russian’s building had a sweeping roofline on a rectangular footprint while the US pavilion had a number of pop culture items on display in a large Buckminster Fuller inspired geodesic golf ball. The roofless structure leaked in many places when a thunderstorm moved through but it was dazzling in the sunlight. John bought some foreign stamps from Canada for his collection to go along with some Vatican stamps purchased at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The Canadian pavilion also had a nice selection of books by Canadian authors and John bought one as a souvenir of the trip. “The Real World of Democracy” was written by University of Toronto professor C. B. Macpherson. In it the author questioned whether rule by the majority would eventually lead to supression of the minority. Macpherson was also credited with inventing the concept of “possessive individualism” in which the individual owned his skills to be sold on the open market and owes nothing to society at large. He argued against this view as opposed to Ayn Rand who supported it.

“I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded

Communist ‘cause I’m left handed

That’s the hand to use well, never mind”

-Paul Simon’s A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission) - 1965

In the US civil rights and integration were being pursued by “negroes” who were now looking for a racial group name change to “black”. In 1968 John and a high school classmate Mike headed out to UMass in Amherst one evening to see civil rights advocate Julian Bond. The venue was an auditorium that was filled to capacity. Mr. Bond was a Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives. He had declined to cast a vote for Democratic segregationist Lester Maddox when the general election of governor of Georgia failed to give a majority to any of the politicians running for governor and the Georgia House of Representatives was called on to decide the who the next governor would be. In 1960 Julian Bond co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee – SNCC and led civil rights demonstrations and voter registrations in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. He also led student protests over Jim Crow laws in Georgia in the early 1960’s. Mr. Bond eventually was a founding member of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Georgia State Senator for many years. John expected to see an angry black man but found a well dressed, short haired, soft spoken, articulate and educated person advocating for equal treatment under the law.

“our liberal-democracy, like any other system, is a system of power….It is a system by which people can be governed, that is, made to do things they would not otherwise do, and made to refrain from doing things they otherwise might do. Democracy as a system of government is, then, a system by which power is exerted by the state over individuals and groups within it. But more than that, a democratic government, like any other, exists to uphold and enforce a certain kind of society, a certain set of relations between individuals, a certain set of rights and claims that people have on each other both directly, and indirectly through their rights to property. These relations themselves are relations of power” - C B Macpherson’s The Real World of Democracy p4

Stanley sat by his pool and recalled his shipmates on the Rocky Mount. “We had negro members of the crew working in the kitchen.  There were guys in the crew who were segregationists. If they thought they were not getting the proper respect from a negro, they would gang up on him at night when he was alone and throw him overboard in the middle of the ocean.” After some time passed and it seemed the story was not going to continue John asked “So what happened to the white guys that threw the black guy overboard?”

“Nothing” replied Stanley.

A few days later, Stanley, Joe, John and an employee of  Zywar Brothers were having their 10 am coffee break. The Zywar brothers did general contracting, house building and ran a retail store for lumber, Dutch Boy paint, and hardware from a store on Northampton Street. They built custom houses from Longmeadow to Northampton including Arlene’s house on Sutton Place in Easthampton. Each floor plan was uniquely designed by Stanley on a large drafting table in the spare bedroom of his house. Above the drafting table was a stuffed four foot sail fish Stanley had caught down in Florida – its sail fin proudly displayed. John worked at Zywar Brothers during the summer and on Friday nights and Saturdays during the school year. Before going to kindergarten, he thought his name was “John Zywar Brothers”.

John had his usual, a jelly donut or a Boston cream donut and a chocolate milk – a repeat of breakfast Joe and John had at the Hampton Grill on Ferry Street a few hours before. The town and the high school that John went to had no non-white minorities in it. “I heard a story from the police last night. A black guy drove into town and went into a restaurant near Main Street. The police were notified and an officer came and sat down at the lunch counter next to the black guy who just was served his meal. The officer told the black guy that if he wanted to leave town with his manhood intact, he would get up and leave town now. The black guy put down his fork, got up from the counter, paid for his meal and left town.”

That evening, John finished reading The Real World of Democracy.

Chapter 28 - 1944 Stanley and Edwin at the Battle of Leyte Gulf - The USS Reid Sunk by Kamikazes

Chapter 28 Version 2

1944

“We were at the Admiralty Islands we all got shore there at a place called Manus. From here we went to New Guinea – I got some coins for a bracelet there at a place called Hollandia. Also went to Lae. Next was Cape Gloucester in the New Britain Islands. When they hit the Philippines, I was in the invasion of Leyte and Luzon.” wrote Stanley on a page titled Places of Interest. These were places of interest as many of these previous landings were supported by Stanley’s cousin Edwin on the USS Reid. The Reid had been at Pearl Harbor since early July of 1944 and left Pearl on August 29^th to go to Wake Island where she supported air strikes on September 3^rd.

The Rocky Mount steamed into Pearl Harbor on August 26^th with the strategists in Washington not sure where to strike next. The beating given to the Japanese at the Battle of the Philippine Sea offered the opportunity at a large Philippine invasion that Admiral Nimitz was ready to consider. The Philippines were now vulnerable. Admiral Halsey was using air power from the carriers in the Philippine Sea to pound shipping and island military targets in the area. Halsey noted that targets on Leyte Island located in the puzzle shaped group of Philippine islands, located between the larger islands of Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south, were not showing signs of resistance. He recommended that Nimitz take advantage of the situation and invade Leyte to cut the Japanese forces in two as they were fortifying Luzon and Mindanao in preparation for an invasion there. This would be done without additional island hopping. Islands like Yap that were to be invaded would be bypassed. The Rocky Mount sailed for Manus on September 15^th.

The Leyte invasion was to be General MacArthur’s triumphant return to the Philippines and so the multiple command and communications ships needed for this massive assault were assembled south of the equator in MacArthur’s Southwestern Pacific area realm rather than from Nimitz’s Central Pacific domain. There were five AGC communications ships involved in the Leyte operation. AGC-9 Wasatch under the command of Vice Admiral Kincaid was running the operation.  AGC-2 Blue Ridge under Rear Admiral Barbey was the flagship for the Northern Attack Force. AGC-8 Mount Olympus commanded by Vice Admiral Wilkerson was the command flagship for the Southern Attack Force.  AGC-1 Appalachian was involved with Rear Admiral Conolly commanding Attack Group Able. Finally, the Rocky Mount AGC-3 with Rear Admiral Forrest Royal was in charge of Attack Group Baker. The invasion of Leyte would involve a massive movement of about 500 ships and end up as the last great sea battle in history.

The landings on Leyte Island began on October 20, 1944. The Japanese responded by implementing a plan of their own called Sho-Go. Four major ship movements would be made to Leyte Gulf to crush the invasion force. The central force would come from Singapore and refuel in Borneo before moving through the Philippine Islands through the San Bernardino Strait north of Samar Island. The central force would then travel south to Leyte Gulf.  The southern force would be made up of two groups of ships – one from Borneo and the other from Formosa that would meet in the Surigao Strait south of Leyte Island and steam north into Leyte Gulf. The final group of Japanese ships would approach from Japan from the north.

The Japanese plan was to use the northern force coming from Japan to lure Halsey away from Leyte Gulf. This part of the Japanese plan worked perfectly. Pilots who had engaged the Central Force in the Sibuyan Sea reported that this force was neutralized. Halsey took the bait and was lured northward. The Japanese Central Force turned around at night and emerged into the Philippine Sea through the San Bernardino Strait largely intact including the two largest battleships ever built , the Yamato and the Nagato, and headed southward toward Leyte Gulf.

The Japanese Southern Force made their way through the Surigao Strait to find the Allied ships waiting for them. A classic crossing the T  formation was used to meet the Japanese attackers. The single file line of Japanese ships coming through the Surigao Strait would need to turn so that their guns could be effectively fired. This made up the base of the T. The Allied ships were already turned at the top of the T. The Japanese’s only hope was the Central Force arriving from the north to wreak havoc from an unexpected direction. The Central Force was spotted and engaged by a much smaller force of Allied ships and aircraft off Samar Island north of Leyte Gulf. The Central Force, believing that the Allied forces attacking it were much larger than they were, turned back before they could wreak havoc with the troop transports and supply ships on October 25^th.

Halsey’s blunder in going after the Japanese Northern Force was masked by the Japanese Central Force turning back before getting to Leyte Gulf. Halsey could also point to the destruction of the Northern Force at Cape Engano as accomplishing the mission of decimating the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The landings on the eastern side of Leyte Island were a success. The Rocky Mount steamed back to Hollandia, New Guinea on October 24^th.  The Japanese, now seeing their Western Pacific Empire starting to collapse, called upon a new tactic to take Japan to victory – the kamikaze.

In November, the USS Reid with cousin Edwin patrolled off Leyte. On December 7^th, the Reid escorted the damaged destroyer Lamson toward Leyte Gulf a few days before meeting its fate at the hands of twelve kamikazes.

“In Reid ' s final two weeks in the waters around Leyte, the crew was able to sleep only an hour or two at a time. They were called to battle stations (condition red) an average of 10 times a day. It was a period of near constant combat. While escorting reinforcements for Ormoc Bay near Surigao Straits 11 December 1944, Reid destroyed seven Japanese planes, when the following took place:

Reid was protecting a re-supply force of amphibious craft bound for Ormoc Bay off the west coast of Leyte. At about 1700 hours, twelve enemy planes approached the convoy. The Reid was the nearest ship to the oncoming planes. Planes 1 and 2 were shot down by the 5-inch battery, and Plane 3 exploded about 500 yards off the starboard beam. Plane 4 hooked a wing on the starboard rigging, crashing at the waterline. Its bomb exploded, causing considerable damage forward. Plane 5 strafed the starboard side and crashed on the port bow. Plane 6 strafed the bridge from the port side and crashed off the starboard bow. Planes 5 and 6 apparently had no bombs or their bombs were duds. Plane 7 came in from astern, strafed Reid and crashed into the port quarter. Its bomb exploded in the after magazine, blowing the ship apart. All this action took place in less than a minute. The ship was mortally wounded but still doing 20 knots. As the stern opened up, she rolled violently, then laid over on her starboard side and dove to the bottom at 600 fathoms. It was over in less than two minutes, and 103 crewmen went down with her. The survivors were strafed in the water by Japanese planes before rescue. [2] Her 150 survivors were picked up by landing craft in her convoy.

Reid received seven battle stars for World War II service.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Reid_(DD-369)

Many of the sailors killed on the USS Reid were part of the “black crew”. This is what the engine room crew was called, probably from their appearance when shoveling coal to generate steam was a part of their job. Edwin Wojnar was a Fireman First Class when he went down with the Reid on Dec 11, 1944. Both Edwin and cousin Joe were rated as Firemen Second Class when they finished basic training at Sampson NTS. Edwin as assigned to the USS Reid and Joe went on to 16 weeks of Machinist Mate School in Boston. Edwin’s name is honored on a bronze plaque at the military museum at Sampson State Park along with other navy veterans who did not return from their wartime assignments.  While General MacArthur returned to the Philippines at Leyte, Edwin did not return.

Capter 27 - 1966 Stanley Zywar recalls Saipan, Guam and Tinian in 1944

Chapter 27 Version 1

1966

Stanley looked at the water. The blue-green paint intensified the reflection of the sky and the green trees on Mount Tom made the undulations on the surface of the water slide from blue to green and then back to blue. He just stared at the water unblinking somewhere lost in the dance of the colors.

“At first, I went up on the conning tower of the Rocky Mount with binoculars to watch the landings. Ships around us were bombed and strafed but we didn’t look like an important target I guess. At Saipan, I went up to watch. Guys on the beach were getting mowed down by the Japs. That was the last time I watched a landing.” Stanley blinked and sighed expelling air that seemed to have been trapped inside his lungs for a long time. It was a while before he drew in another breath.

The Rocky Mount sailed back to Pearl Harbor at the end of February 1944 after Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands was taken. Stanley would be looking forward to getting mail from Jeanette who had moved back home on Ferry Street from her apartment on Parsons St. It looked like it would be a while before Stanley would be coming home. Mail did come but it brought news of his brother Bill’s death on March 10^th. It was good that Joe was able to get an emergency leave and be home for the funeral but he wished that somehow he could have made it home too. But being on the Rocky Mount was a good place to be in the middle of a war. It was better than being one of those guys landing on the beach.  Jeanette and Stanley’s mother would probably agree with that sentiment but they could not be told the true nature of the ship he was on. “Loose Lips, Sink Ships”. Those stories could be told in future years but not now.

Now is the only time that matters in war.

Now the Rocky Mount was preparing for its next amphibious landing. The Japanese still controlled most of the western Pacific Ocean including the Caroline, Philippine, Formosa, Marianas and Ryukyu islands. The Japanese were preparing for an attack at the edges of their Pacific holdings with the Carolines a probable target. MacArthur was in the process of attacking the Admiralty Islands off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.

Cousin Edwin Wojnar on the USS Reid had protected landings at Saidor, New Guinea on Jan 2^nd. Now the Reid was guarding landings at Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands. Edwin and the Reid would be supporting additional landings at Hollandia, Wadke, Biak and Noenifoor until returning to Pearl in July.

MacArthur hoped to make good progress to convince the Joint Chiefs that his strategy to return to the Philippines through the southern island of Mindanao was the best approach. Admiral Nimitz in the Central Pacific had a different approach. He planned to split Japan’s Pacific holdings by attacking the Marianas Islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam in June. The Rocky Mount was being prepared for the Marianas Campaign. If these islands were taken, the main Japanese islands could be reached by the new four engine B-29 Superfortress bombers. The faster that the Japanese heartland could be bombed, the quicker the war could end.

On May 12, Vice Admiral Turner and Marine Corps Lieutenant General Smith boarded the Rocky Mount at Pearl Harbor. The set sail for Saipan on May 29^th with the intention of arriving on “Dog Day” for the landings on June 15^th. This would be nine days after the European landings at Normandy of their D-Day. Shelling of Saipan in preparation for the landings began on June 13^th. Over 500 ships converged on Saipan for the invasion.

On June 12^th after training at the Ewa Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii, Henry arrived on Eniwetok Island in the Marshalls with the VFM(N) 533 squadron taking up duties protecting those islands from night air attack. Their fifteen new Grumman F6F-5N Hellcat aircraft were equipped with the latest APS-6 radar. Henry served as staff sergeant in charge of ordinance and chemical warfare. The five thirty-three would remain at Eniwetok Atoll for nearly a year moving to Engebi Island at the northern side of the atoll on November 30^th. Saipan in the Marianas Islands was a thousand miles to the northwest of Eniwetok so the five thirty-three was not involved directly in the Marianas Campaign fighting.

The Japanese, though surprised at the boldness of the attack in the Marianas, had a plan in place. With four aircraft carriers in Philippine waters and three more in the northern Philippine Sea, “Operation A-Go” was activated by the Japanese to entice the Allies into a decisive sea battle. They wanted the battle to be close to the Philippines to have large numbers of land based aircraft from the Philippines also involved in the action. The Japanese sent a task force of carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers through the San Bernadino Strait north of Leyte Island in the central Philippines into the Philippine Sea toward the Marianas. Another task force including the three carriers was steaming northwest 200 miles east of Leyte Gulf.

On “Dog Day” evening after the invasion of Saipan had begun, Admiral Spruance who was in charge of the entire Marianas Campaign from his flagship, the USS Indianapolis, cancelled the June 18^th planned invasion of Guam. Spruance came aboard the Rocky Mount and Admirals Spruance and Turner decided to land as much men and materials on Saipan through June 17^th and then withdraw the transports to the east of the Marianas until after the sea battle was fought.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought on June 19th thru the 20^th. There was some dissatisfaction among other admirals with Spruance’s seeming less than aggressive posture as the Japanese fleet approached but the farther from the Philippines the battle took place, the better for the Allies. During the battle, the mostly inexperienced Japanese pilots lost over 550 planes to 123 for the US. Worse for Japan was the loss of three large fleet carriers. The US had all fifteen carriers survive the battle with only one battleship damaged. The Japanese fleet withdrew to Okinawa Island in the Ryukyu Islands suffering heavy losses. While historians refer to this sea battle as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, American flyers refer to this battle as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.

The significance of the Battle of the Philippine Sea was understood immediately by both the Japanese and the Americans. Air power was king. Battleships did not engage with other battleships – they protected aircraft carriers. Ship to ship engagement was by torpedo from submarines. These submarines were also equipped with radar that could be used when the submarine was surfaced. The element of surprise was now greatly diminished with better radar. The Japanese continued to attack with aircraft because inexperienced pilots reported back that the American fleet was suffering heavy losses.

We see what we want to see.

We hear what we want to hear.

We say what we think our superiors expect us to say.

Truth is the casualty.

The Japanese put up stiff resistance on Saipan and it took twenty-four days to capture the island. The final resistance was a bonsai suicide attack. Civilians on the island were urged to resist to the death to attain a very high status in heaven equal to a soldier killed in battle. Caves concealing Japanese soldiers were cleared with flamethrowers and explosives. One Japanese sergeant lived alone in a cave on Saipan until 1972. Saipan was officially captured on July 9, 1944.

Guam was invaded after over a month delay on July 21 and secured on August 10^th. During the delay, Guam was added to Admiral Turner’s duties and the Rocky Mount oversaw the landings on Guam before moving on Tinian. Tinian was invaded on July 24^th after being shelled from July 16^th to July 24^th. Tinian Town and Airfield #4 were captured on July 30^th. The Rocky Mount moved between the islands of the Marianas until it set sail back to Pearl Harbor on August 15^th and reached Pearl on August 26^th.

Stanley wrote briefly of his time in the Marianas “The next place we went was the Marianas Islands. We were in the invasion of Saipan. I went over on the island there and saw a few planes and went to look at some Jap motors. We went to Guam for a while & then Tinian”.