The following is a story my grandfather sent to a World War 2 veterans' magazine...
Fifty years ago, the 1880th Engineer Aviation Battalion was created at Geiger Field, Spokane, Washington. The reunion in Nashville, Tennessee in 1993 brought memories back to my service in the Battalion.
Also in March 1943, fifty years ago, I became an Eagle Scout, in the Boy Scouts of America. Then I volunteered in the Engineers as a water-well driller, after I finished drilling water wells for Camp Reynolds army camp in northwestern Pennsylvania. My dad was the drilling contractor. With a choice of four campsites in the United States, I chose Geiger Field.
In a request for me to be a guest speaker for a Boy Scout receiving his Eagle Scout Badge, I wondered with pride, what did scouting do for me in the service to my country?
After basic training at Geiger Field, our Battalion went to the White Sands Desert near Almogorda, New Mexico. I drilled the water well to supply the Battalion and all construction of a runway. Then on to Ledo, Assam.
Water was plentiful and no drilling necessary in our Battalion, thus I was available to operate other equipment, or do whatever was necessary. The monsoon rains created mud problems. I operated a road-grader with two other operators. The three graders, up and down the muddy roads, leveling potholes, keeping roads in fair condition. On our daily return, we would shower, removing mud and sweat.
To avoid waiting in line for a shower this day, two of my buddies said, "Come on, we're going to a creek that we know has clear water." We unclothed, soaped up, and then waded out in the creek to neck level to remove all soap. As a good swimmer, I dove in and swam to the other shore about 50 feet away.
Up on shore now, I looked back and see my buddies splashing each other in fun. Suddenly, they were trying to climb up each other to stay above water. They had stepped off a deep ledge in the creek. Knowing that they could not swim, as they had talked about in hte past, I dove deep under the water to reach their kicking legs. Swimming hard, I pushed them by their kicking legs towards the shore. When my knee struck the shallow shoreline, I stood up, my head now above water level, hollering, "Stand up, stand up!"
They finally stood up, still struggling, coughing, and spitting water. The incident over, we caught our breath, dried off, put the clothes on, and headed back to Round Hill, our campsite. My Life-Saving Merit Badge helped me save my buddies.
Another day, we three grader operators entered our shop area. I noticed a number of personnel gathered outside, concerned about something. I asked, "What is the problem?" They said that they would have to get an engineer capable to splice two 500 foot reels of cable, to become one cable 1000 feet long. It would be about two weeks for an officer to go back to the United States and search for that person. The river had risen about seven feet and they needed to run the cable across the river and back to the cable hoist to drag clean gravel out of the river for crushing to put on the air strip and roads. I asked if they had a splice kit of tools. Yes! "Let's take them out to the river and I'll splice them." They thought I was joking. No. I had spliced cable for my dad's drilling rig. Having rope knot-tying experience in the Boy Scouts as well as rope splicing, I followed through with a book on cable splicing with my dad for drilling. Cable clamps could not be used, because cable clamps could not go through the pulley on the other side of the river.
After splicing, I was now an operator of this dragging hoist. After operating this hoist several days, a heavy rain raised the river too high to operate properly, this day. Two of the work crew and I walked down to the shoreline to see snakes and other wildlife. One fellow walked to the very edge of the water. The shore slipped out from under him. He plunged helpless into the river. The river was quite muddy and deep at this location. Knowing that he couldn't swim (common talk on this job), I told my other buddy to reach to me with a bamboo limb or take his shirt off and reach it to me and then pull us into shore. I jumped in. I turned him struggling around, held him upward, and reached with my buddy's help on shore. We pulled him in, choking and spitting muddy water. We got him relaxed on the shore. In catching his breath, all he could say, as we calmed him down, was "Thank you, thank you for saving my life." My thanks to Boy Scout Life-Saving Merit Badge.
Our Battalion's companies moved up the Ledo Road further toward Bhamo. Then the Burma Road was opened from Ledo to Kunming, China for convoys. Our Battalion, 1880 Engineer Aviation Battalion, was deligated to move our heavy equipment and all to China, beyond Kunming. H. & S. Company had a convoy of 68 loads of heavy equipment; cranes, bulldozers, graders, et cetera. For 32 days, I drove a 6x6 behind the lead bulldozer loaded on a trailer towed by a truck. I welcome the position to help in any way I could. Challenges: road too narrow, hair pin curves needed widening, and small bridges over creeks, too light for heavy equipment, had to grade a road through creeks to the other side of the bridge; tow equipment when necessary.
When we reached the Salween River ferry crossing, the river was too turbulent and rising from melting snow in the mountains. So we were directed to approach the cable bridge crossing the Salween. This cable bridge was limited to ten ton vehicles. The six Chinese guards stepped up, shaking heads no. We could not understand Chinese. We shook our heads up and down, yes. They shook their heads left and right, no. I suggested that we unhitch the trailor from the jeep. Still no. Next, I suggested we remove the dozer from the trailer and put the dozer blades onto the trailer and jeep to pull. Nods yes. Truck only, yes. Dozer now only, yes. The operator said no, he was afraid of bridge collapse and he couldn't swim. Three other operators said no thanks, they also couldn't swim. I offered and was approved. Boy Scout Swimming and Life-Saving Merit Badges gave me confidence if the bridge failed. On approach to the bridge, they nodded yes. I stood on the seat and entered the bridge's wooden decking with the thought that I could leap for cable supports, or if I missed, 50 feet down into the water, where I could swim to shore. The deck rolled about six feet high in front of the dozer, wow! I reached the other side and waved okay back to the other side. All loads were arranged to Chinese head shakes yes.