My Conversation with WWII Veteran Combat Engineer, Joe Berger

Recently something happened to me that I never expected. I had been invited by the Daisy Mountain Veterans organization to a neighborhood parade to celebrate Joe Berger, a WWII veteran who was turning 100. Since my father had served during WWII, I jumped at the chance to connect with a veteran from that era.

On May 3, our Anthem, Arizona, community really turned out for Joe. People wearing patriotic clothing along their protective masks, lined both sides of the street. Many participants held red, white and blue signs, balloons, and festive banners. There was even a flag honor guard, stationed a safe distance from where he was seated in his wheel chair. At one o’clock, the parade began with a steady stream of vehicles including police cars, fire trucks and cars decorated with signs of birthday wishes. As they slowly drove by Joe and his family, they honked their horns and shouted from their cars. “Thank you, Joe, for your service and congratulations on your big birthday.” Before the event ended, Joe was serenaded several times with Happy Birthday. It was a lively, fun occasion in spite of our social distancing.

After the crowd started dispersing, I made my way across the street to where Joe was seated and noticed that his smile was as wide as the street I had just crossed. From a very safe distance, I thanked him for his service. Then I asked him, “Where did you serve?” His immediate rely, “The Pacific.” Since I knew how vast the Pacific campaign had been, I wanted specifics. “Where were you stationed sir?” I asked. “New Guinea” was his proud rely. “Oh my, New Guinea! My dad was also stationed there.” I said excitedly.

For a minute, my heart seemed to stop. I couldn’t believe that I was talking with a man who understood first-hand what it was like to serve in the New Guinea jungles. I wanted to hear more about his experiences and asked his daughter if I could schedule a visit with him. She gave me her phone number, but said she needed to check with him first. Happily, he agreed and when the day finally came, I was so excited that I had gotten up extra early to prepare for our visit. Had he been stationed where my dad was a shop foreman with the 3449th Minimum Automotive Maintenance Company? More importantly, had he met Tech Sergeant, Rol Jett? That’s what I was eager to find out and I really hoped he would say, “Yes, I knew your dad”.

Joe, born in Manhattan in 1920 was not drafted; instead, he had enlisted before the Selective Training and Service Act was established in September 1940. “Why did you to join the Army when it was not mandatory?” I asked. “At twenty, I couldn’t see any future for me in New York, but the Army offered me a future. Plus, I wanted to spread my wings and travel the world,” he explained. After completing basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, he was even more eager to get far away from home. His first choice was the Philippines with Hawaii a close second, but at the time, there was no demand in either place for a combat engineer. Instead he was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone where he was part of the 59^th Engineer Combat Company.  Company A, his special combat division of 200 men, eventually left Panama and traveled through the Canal to Brisbane, Australia to join the mounting efforts to defeat the Japanese. Their job there was to train Filipino regiments and others in jungle warfare, but instead the Army had sent them to New Guinea.

For his remaining tour of duty, he would be stationed in and around New Guinea. At Port Moresby his company helped clear the jungles for additional base support and set up airstrips for the Allies’ expanding air fleet. Joe’s next assignment took him further south to Milne Bay where he did similar work and then east to Goodenough, Fergusson and D’Entrecasteaux Islands in the Solomon Sea. Each site was part of the military’s strategic plan to cut off Japanese supply lines, to establish air bases within striking distance of Japan and to regain island strongholds so McArthur could retake the Philippines. Joe’s final work in the Pacific was on the island of New Britain at Rabaul where they set up and maintained the beach heads for the Marines. As the Battle of Midway was being fought June 3-6, 1942, Joe and his company were still at Rabaul. Not until later did they realize that this decisive victory would be a major turning point in the Pacific Theater.

Joe, like most the soldiers was susceptible to jungle diseases during his stint in New Guinea. The wet swampy conditions were filled with malaria-carrying anopheline mosquitos and he got the dreaded disease complete with the violent chills, fever and weakness. Like my dad, he had ended up in the army hospital in Milne Bay. From late 1942 to January1943, malaria was rampant in Milne Bay. According to U.S. Army Center of Military History, every soldier there came down with the symptoms at least four times throughout the year. Soon Commanding officers realized they had a fierce second enemy. Malaria was wreaking havoc on the troops.

Ultimately the preventive drug Atabrine became available and a massive health campaign was developed warning soldiers to take their meds. Joe was there at the height of that malaria epidemic without the preventative drugs and the use of DDT to control the spread of mosquitos. A year later, when my dad was in the same area, he did take Atabrine which turned his skin a bright yellow and often caused nausea, headaches, and diarrhea. Yet he still got malaria.

Joe shared several of his memorable New Guinea adventures and we laughed together about his unique encounters with “southern boys”. Since the soldiers had no access to booze in the jungles, some decided to make their own. His company included several southerners who knew how to make moonshine and with their commander’s blessing, they started making “home brew” jungle style. Constructing a highly productive “still” far away from the base but close to a variety of fermentable plants, they always gave their commander the first batch. Happily partaking of this enterprise, Joe, a native New Yorker developed a new appreciation for his southern buddies. Not only did they make good moonshine, but they also taught him and others funny drinking songs. These unusual antics were important coping strategies that helped Joe and his buddies mitigate the monotony of their isolated jungle life.

There were few legitimate diversions and live entertainment was limited except for occasional USO productions.  Joe was especially impressed by Bob Hope’s USO visit to their remote base. It was Bob’s military satire and off-color humor that had the troops laughing as soon as he walked on stage. Also, the lively big band played familiar songs and featured female singers. For some guys, it had been years since they had seen an American girl in person and many hoped that a pretty girl would still be waiting for him at home. This change of scenery and first-class entertainment were a big morale boost for all the troops. It helped them briefly forget their war reality.

Joe had other adventures that he described including his first furlough in Australia. He admitted that he didn’t remember much about his two weeks stay in Sydney, Australia, except that he was glad to escape the jungles and stay in a real home. What freedom he had enjoyed without the daily grueling, monotonous, hard labor. Instead, there were unlimited opportunities to explore this exotic new environment far away from the fighting. With plentiful bars, numerous movie theaters and pretty girls in abundance, it was paradise! While a local Aussie family provided him room and board, Joe only slept there. He typically spent the day at the pubs, hanging out with other US, Brit and Aussie solders and enthusiastically drinking lots of local Australian brews. Indeed, the fuzzy memories of those two weeks in Sydney still brought a smile to his worn face seventy- seven years later.

Unlike my dad, Joe’s tour of duty was over before the war ended and he left the Pacific on a Navy transport bound for San Francisco. Once back in the states, he had looked forward to his cross-county train ride to New York, but was surprised and disappointed with his treatment. Not only were the trains crowded and dirty, but he and the other soldiers were treated like “lost travelers” and were given “nothing” not even food. It was a long, hard journey home, but at least he was out of the jungles. He had served his country in places where his skills, courage and endurance were needed and he had seen strange, amazing and beautiful parts of the world. Overall, it had been a positive, maturing experience.

While both Joe and my dad were stationed at Milne Bay and several other Pacific bases, their paths never did cross. Joe had been in Milne Bay almost a year before my dad’s July 1943 arrival. Since Joe was part of the first group of US soldiers to serve in New Guinea, his experiences were even more challenging with the entrenched Japanese and the hostile untamed environment. Even a year later, it was still a dangerous place to be. Thankfully they both had survived.

That afternoon after I left Joe, I was overcome with a profound sense of gratitude to this man who had so honestly shared his New Guinea experiences with me. From him I gained a deeper understanding of the mental and physical endurance that he and my dad needed to manage those endless days and nights in New Guinea. Fortunately, neither Joe nor my dad allowed their harsh conditions and challenging circumstances to crush their spirit. Thank you, Joe, for bringing me closer to my dad. Thank you also for your strength and courage…then as well as now. I salute you!