December 2, 2019 • 24 mins
Young William Walker was determined to succeed. Despite segregation in the service during World War II, William rose to Chief Petty Officer First Class in the Navy – an uncommon position of authority for African Americans particularly in that branch. First managing PT rescue teams stateside and then overseeing his ship’s food supply holds in the South West Pacific, William’s history helps us understand a layer of the complicated web of racism and opportunity that African American service members met when they joined the World War.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The major objectives of a sound manpower policy. Our first,
the select and train men of the highest fighting efficiency
needed for our armed forces. You think some eno played
(00:23):
in yourself the Lift the Country. On December night, one
day after President Roosevelt declared war against the Empire of
Japan in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, then
(00:45):
double A CP sent a telegram to the U. S.
Secretary of the Navy requesting that African Americans be accepted
into the branch in positions other than as messmen. The
request was refused. A letter to the President one week
later was passed along to the Our Employment Practices Committee.
Again the Navy refused. They told me a minute, you're
(01:06):
a psychi, You're a job want JEF to the Navy.
Get the hell out of here. My brother and two
of his friends joined the Navy. My father was upset
because of Afrian American background. The Navy you own accept
them as mess attendants. Welcome to Service. Stories of Hunger
and War a production from I Heart Radio and me
your host Jacquelin Proposo. As we're starting to absorb on
(01:32):
this show, Meeting the demands of World War two involved
all citizens, in one capacity or another, Still, that discussion
with African American civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph highlights
how African Americans were not feeling welcome in the military
or in war production departments at this time. Segregation in
all branches of the armed forces greatly affected the future
(01:54):
path of these young men. Today we sit with Dr.
William Walker, an African American man who joined the Navy
in nineteen forty three. As we heard on our last
episode with George Hardy, who joined the Air Corps around
the same time, the Navy wasn't the most welcoming branch
when the war started. Now, supply positions were vital, but
(02:15):
pay grades varied widely. In the Navy. For enlisted men,
an apprentice seaman made fifty dollars a month, whereas a
chief petty officer could make one hundred and thirty eight,
the equivalent of a restaurant dishwasher today, even having a
chance at becoming a line cook or a chef. Fortunately,
President Roosevelt responded to the Navy's nineteen forty one refusal
(02:36):
to the n double a c P with a little pushback.
I think that with all the Navy activities, the Navy
Bureau of Navigation might find something that covered in could do.
In addition to the rating of investment, Roosevelt said, slowly
but surely, more positions became open to these men, and
the Navy started to open ratings to black sailors in
ninety two. William's story captures the breadth of this scenario.
(03:02):
One of one hundred and sixty thousand black World War
Two sailors. We'll hear how William's advancement in the service
changed the trajectory of his family line. But that doesn't
mean always smooth sailing and so now from his home
in Cleveland, Ohio, but slow and sit and spend some
time with William Walker. H My name is William Walker,
(03:34):
and that was the first class petty offer in the
United States Navy. My family became to Cleveland. I was
five years old in It was very eventful growing up.
I had a brother and a sister. My brother was
four years older than I and my sister was born.
(03:56):
I don't recall my father, but my mother had rhemaric
and had very good relationship with my mother and my stepfather.
My mother would always encourage me and talk about education,
be out of trouble, and this sort of thing. Because
there was a lot of vandalism in neighborhood, in our
(04:16):
age group in particular. I love school because I wanted
to graduate. That was my drive, my inspiration. I wanted
to graduate. I wanted to get out of the environment
that I was in, and I wanted my mother to
be proud of me. I had this regular job that
I would go down to the market and I would
(04:37):
meet the truck coming in with food and I would
carry patrons bags and get paid a quarter. I also
would pick up glass and different types of debris and
take them to the private shop and pick up a
dollar or two. My father would work down at the market.
He would befriended by a butcher and he would bring
(05:01):
some luftover food home. My mother would cook it and
we ate a variety of foods that people nowadays never
heard of, like chicken feet. Blue were never on welfare,
but during that period they would give grapefruit and some
kind of cereal. Government supplying this, and I can recall
(05:21):
my friends asking for some rations that wouldn't need, wouldn't use.
But we survived. She was a wonderful, wonderful we survived.
My neighbors were Mexican, Italian and Jewish, and we had
(05:41):
a little group. I was probably eight because I was
in elementary school, and we went to the y m
c A. As a group. They went in and I
was denied permission to enter y m c A. Was
nothing they could do about it. There was nothing I
(06:03):
could do about it. It was very, very hurtful. I stalked,
I cried. I told my mother, we discussed it. We're
just nothing we could do about it. Is that to happen.
She told me that this was a life and that
we would have to endure these types of incidents and
to buck up and be prepared. And from that day
(06:25):
on I have tried to. That was my first confrontation
with racism and I never never will forget it. In
some communities and players dislike to employ women. In others,
(06:49):
they are reluctant to hire negroes, instill others. Older men
are not wanted. We can no longer afford to end
such prejudices or practice. My brother couldn't eterlist because of
those physical disabilities, and he worked poor in steel and
(07:10):
steel mill, and he who told me stories of the
now blacks were treated in the steel mill. We had
a neighbor on the staff of case wasn't reserved university.
I told him I wanted to be in the medical field.
I couldn't believe that he wouldn't incourage me or say
something encouraging. But he didn't. And when I was at
(07:33):
East Technical High School with trawl boys Caucasian, I took
college prep course and also major than pattern making. But
my instructor told me, frankly, Bill, you'll never get a
job as a pattern maker outside of school. All of
these no positive reinforcement. Everything was negative. Everything was cautious.
(07:57):
I wanted to better myself. I wanted to prove and
that's why I volunteered for the Navy. It was a
way out. It was a way out for me. They
went to Chicago in October forty three. I was there
(08:17):
about six weeks at Great Lakes. The educational offer took
a liking to me. He says, I'm going to send
you to Hampton's Institute in Virginia. I spent by six months.
When I went in, I was just a semon. When
I came out of Hampton Institute of the third class.
From there, I went to Pensacola, Florida as a deer engineer,
(08:39):
and I was in charge of a group of of
course Negro sailors. We were all confined and segregated quarter
when we went into town. We went in town segregated,
and the USO was the only thing that we go
to during that period. It was a rough period, but
(08:59):
I continue to concentrate on what I had to do.
I was in charge of the PT rescue Team, had
a crew of four five and we were rescued Navy
fighters that were being trained. They would crash into the
water and we would get the bodies or rescue them.
(09:21):
I was promoted to second class. That was almost unheard of.
I didn't know very much about the ninety Nights Black pilots,
but there were no other second class Black sailors at
that period other than in the Galation. There was the aberration. Really,
there was a lot of jealousy and resentment because I
was in charge of about ninety black sailors and majority
(09:45):
of them were older than I was. During that period,
there was a horrific incident where they had black sailors
underloading ammunition and loading ammunitions and it blew up and
killed over a hundred of them. From that day on,
black sailers didn't want to do that kind of work.
(10:08):
You can't blame them. I was twenty years old and
I was in charge of these people. But I said
that I was going to personally here and I was
going to survive, and I was going to reach whatever
breeding I could get. When I shipped out, they made
me first class, first class city officer in charge of
all these people. After the break, you ain't what you
(10:33):
could get, and be thankful for what you will get.
In stay with us, you're listening to service stories of
(10:55):
hunger and war from My Heart Radio and Jacqueline Proposo,
and we're here with William Walker, now a Chief Petty
Officer first Class in the Navy. His role is about
to shift as he deploys overseas and starts to manage
his ships supply holds. In newspapers nationwide, the Navy recruited
sailors by boasting of the fabulous food they would find
(11:16):
in this branch. In our first episode, Petty Ambrosio mentioned
that because his family didn't have a freezer, they can't
vegetables for the winter of American households had refrigerators during
this time, but it wasn't until after the war that
frozen foods and freezer technology started to become mainstream. Conversely,
(11:36):
Navy ships had galley kitchens comparable to a first class
hotel kitchen, with the fineness of refrigeration capabilities, icanical dough mixers,
bread cutters, and frozen foods poured into the holds. Yet
the nineteen forty three Navy stations started to report serious
food shortages, with beef, poultry, and potatoes especially short in
(11:58):
some locations. But was a common steel from maybe supply
state side. The world was short of food because of
this war, and so it becomes a common thread this
season for our veterans to reflect on food less as
enjoyment and more as an aspect of their survival. Let's
now return with William to late nineteen and move into
(12:22):
as he boards ship and heads to the Pacific theater.
I want to let go. That's where they had some
of the biggest battles in the Pacific, where aircraft, planes
and Japanese kamakazes were all involved. Fortunately, was wasn't involved
(12:43):
directly in those battles. We were directly attacked, but we
were always in environment where we could be. We would
come through and supply whatever ship were left from the
battle with food and ammunition. That was our job. If
you know anything about how food is distributed in the navy,
(13:04):
all this stuff is in a hole and you have
a crew that works in the hole. You have a
crew that lowers the food into the hole, and then
you have a crew that takes the food to the storage.
My job was to supervised all three of these areas.
The food that we got other than the spam. We
would look at the food and we were told that
(13:26):
what we saw were raisins, yet they were actually bugs.
Then the flower that came overseas to us, and this
is what we had to eat. This is a survival.
We would get a ship road coming in or maybe
some eggs or whatever. It was a big deal. But
once every other week or so we were allocated a
(13:47):
beer a beer. Those things were lesser rations. You ate
what you could get and be thankful for what you
were getting. We will basically be on the island unloading
and back on the ship unloading, then on the island.
It was the job. I enjoyed doing what I was
doing because I got a lot of respect, not only
(14:10):
from some of the black and some of the white,
but also some of the officers of course, if you're
supplying food, they're very grateful. I don't care if it's
a battleship or canoe. If you have beers that you
can fly it to them. You were there allies. But
as soon as those conditions are alleviated, they're back into
(14:33):
the same old routine of who you are, where you are,
and what you can expect. The Navy were island hopping,
Greta and Iwajima opened out well, and all these people
who are really reliant on us to supply them. I
(14:54):
was amazed at how humanity, how people survived under traditions
that they did, unsanitary, under completely unsanitary, and they had chickens.
Are those pigs running in and out of the house
and under the house gang greene and foot floors. They
paid us a frame price. They were friendly, and they
(15:15):
were gracious that we were there to serve them. There's
nothing wrong with that. We were proud of high contribution
to what we were doing. I missed my mother's cooking
period lamb of beans and two and she could make
(15:38):
different meals out of the chicken. She was a marvelous coat.
She was a marborous coat. My mother died while I
was in service. I only like they can. We were
(16:12):
cautiously apprehensive. We didn't know whether we're going to have
to go to Japan or not. Of course we didn't
want to go there. Truman has said that if we
had to invade Japan, a million soldiers would lose their lives.
They were prepared to die, They were prepared to not surrender.
(16:32):
They had been bombed and fire bombed and every type
of weapons used on them, and they still said no.
They still said no, we want pins and needles. We
didn't know what they expect. My fellow Americans. The thoughts
and hopes of all America, indeed of all the civilized world,
(16:56):
our center tonight on the battleship Missouri M. They're on
that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbor.
The Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They
have signed terms of unconditional surrender. I returned all right
(17:24):
after they dropped the bomb. It was great. I came home.
I elected to take the g I Bill. I was
going to go to college, and I was gonna set
the world on fire. My stepfather died. We had lost
the home that I was living in. When I went
(17:46):
to service, even with my mother gone, my brother and
I were gonna survive. The two of us were gonna
make it in this world. I had accumulated a little
money in the service that I had saved. We had
some very good time together. We went to restaurants and
so forth. All seafood, always seafood. When I was in
(18:09):
school and I had nowhere to go, my brothers found
away from me to have a family with him and
his way. They would send me a couple of meals,
carry me over until the nixt check came there. My
brother was my soul. He was in my corner all
the way. He was my mother and my brother. I
(18:36):
went to Ohio State University in nineteen I went to
the movie and I had to sit in the bleachers.
And I couldn't believe, after what all I had witnessed
in my life that I had to sit in the bleachers.
It really it really affected me and uh I joined
(18:59):
the African uh Alpha Fai Alpha fraternity. We went to
a restaurant and we went into the restaurant to eat.
It was about thirteen of us and said it the
counter was a policemen sitting at the counter. Two we
ordered our food, We paid for our food and went
(19:21):
after tip. And as we walked out, the door opened
and all the tips that the waitresses had received. Let's
grew him out in the street. That was how I
was met. After I got out of the service. In Columbus,
Ohio in nineteen six, I entered dental skull. I was
(19:45):
in a class of two in a hundred twenty black.
After two years, I was called a doctor and I
had my cubicle and the patient walked in Caucasia. She
looked at me and she said, oh no, turned around
and well, talk of my junior year where I was
working ten hours a night as a mail carrier. When
(20:05):
I was being interviewed, the supervisor had my credential in
front of it. He said, if it was up to me,
you wouldn't get this job. Just like that. I had
this instructor and I was sitting at the back of
the class. He said, this is what we do, and
this is what we expect in a procedure, and if
(20:28):
it doesn't work, it's just another nigger in the wood fire.
Now mind new, Now I'm in the class a huntred.
They looked at me and see what I was gonna
do my reaction. I had to respond. I caught him
for he went out the door. I told him I
didn't appreciate this remark. He looked at me and he says,
(20:49):
just a colloquialism. I had friends that weren't at a
school that committed suicide. I thought about all of this
later in my life. The only thing that sustainably with
my experiences that I got out of the Navy. So
many professionals children were in the service. I had the
(21:12):
opportunity to see doctors, lawyers, educators, and achievers. I had
never seen these people before. They welcomed me and encouraged
me to continue my life. I was not a freshman
when I entered the freshman class at Ohio State University.
I was a major individual who had commanded a regiment
(21:34):
almost individuals, and so I knew what my potential was.
That helped me to survive and instill the ability to
tell my kids to survive. I was very fortunate, but
for every fortunate experience that I can relate to you,
there are a hundred unfortunate experiences. It wasn't until the
(22:02):
nineteen sixties that African Americans began commanding ships submarines and
shore establishments, and not until nineteen seventy four that the
Navy published any sort of affirmative action plan. But back
in nineteen forty four, twelve commissioned officers and one warrant
officer became known as the Golden thirteen, the first African
American Navy men with rank who would pave the way
(22:22):
for many more to come. William might have become one
of these officers. He became doctor William Walker. Instead, he
met his future wife, Janet BIBBNS, a captain in the
Air Force, and they had two children, Leslie and Bill.
Leslie has called William's time in the service his great leveler,
and you can head to our Facebook and Instagram, where
(22:43):
at Service podcast and Service podcast dot org to hear
her explain more about that, as well as find photos,
articles and transcriptions relating to this episode. But William remained
scarred by the racism he received when he returned home
from his service. We're going to start to ext floor
why our veterans do or do not talk about their
service experiences and what communities are doing to help in
(23:06):
an episode called Dad I Can't talk about it, So
stay tuned for that but before we go, I want
to leave you with one more clip because at times
William seemed uninterested in detailing food specifically, but there was
something young Bill wanted to make sure we knew about
his father's legacy when it comes to food in their family. Now,
(23:30):
could you explain to them, because I know how you
feel about food as a result of you growing up
in the Great Depression. Talk about how much food is
in this house right now? Over one? Why is that?
Because I said I would never have to worry about
food together in my life? Okay, never again, never ever never.
(23:54):
In our next episode, we go back to Europe with
Harold bud Long, an engineer in the Air Corps who
traveled all over laying airstrips and taking bomb sites out
of planes. Always on the move, he ate nothing but
k rations and sea rations for almost three years. Services
a production of I Heart Radio, this episode was produced
(24:14):
and edited by me Jacqueline Proposo. Ben Rosenblatt voiced FDR
for US, and you can hear Bendon me on our
old Heritage Radio Network podcast Love Bites. Mr Boddiger assisted
with this episode and Elizabeth Emery was our on site
engineer with William Our supervising producer is Gabrielle Collins. Our
executive producer is Christopher Hasciotis. Thank you for listening, and
(24:37):
thank you those who are serving and those who have served.
The major objectives of a sound manpower policy. Our first,
the select and train men of the highest fighting efficiency
needed for our armed forces. You think some eno played
(00:23):
in yourself the Lift the Country. On December night, one
day after President Roosevelt declared war against the Empire of
Japan in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, then
(00:45):
double A CP sent a telegram to the U. S.
Secretary of the Navy requesting that African Americans be accepted
into the branch in positions other than as messmen. The
request was refused. A letter to the President one week
later was passed along to the Our Employment Practices Committee.
Again the Navy refused. They told me a minute, you're
(01:06):
a psychi, You're a job want JEF to the Navy.
Get the hell out of here. My brother and two
of his friends joined the Navy. My father was upset
because of Afrian American background. The Navy you own accept
them as mess attendants. Welcome to Service. Stories of Hunger
and War a production from I Heart Radio and me
your host Jacquelin Proposo. As we're starting to absorb on
(01:32):
this show, Meeting the demands of World War two involved
all citizens, in one capacity or another, Still, that discussion
with African American civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph highlights
how African Americans were not feeling welcome in the military
or in war production departments at this time. Segregation in
all branches of the armed forces greatly affected the future
(01:54):
path of these young men. Today we sit with Dr.
William Walker, an African American man who joined the Navy
in nineteen forty three. As we heard on our last
episode with George Hardy, who joined the Air Corps around
the same time, the Navy wasn't the most welcoming branch
when the war started. Now, supply positions were vital, but
(02:15):
pay grades varied widely. In the Navy. For enlisted men,
an apprentice seaman made fifty dollars a month, whereas a
chief petty officer could make one hundred and thirty eight,
the equivalent of a restaurant dishwasher today, even having a
chance at becoming a line cook or a chef. Fortunately,
President Roosevelt responded to the Navy's nineteen forty one refusal
(02:36):
to the n double a c P with a little pushback.
I think that with all the Navy activities, the Navy
Bureau of Navigation might find something that covered in could do.
In addition to the rating of investment, Roosevelt said, slowly
but surely, more positions became open to these men, and
the Navy started to open ratings to black sailors in
ninety two. William's story captures the breadth of this scenario.
(03:02):
One of one hundred and sixty thousand black World War
Two sailors. We'll hear how William's advancement in the service
changed the trajectory of his family line. But that doesn't
mean always smooth sailing and so now from his home
in Cleveland, Ohio, but slow and sit and spend some
time with William Walker. H My name is William Walker,
(03:34):
and that was the first class petty offer in the
United States Navy. My family became to Cleveland. I was
five years old in It was very eventful growing up.
I had a brother and a sister. My brother was
four years older than I and my sister was born.
(03:56):
I don't recall my father, but my mother had rhemaric
and had very good relationship with my mother and my stepfather.
My mother would always encourage me and talk about education,
be out of trouble, and this sort of thing. Because
there was a lot of vandalism in neighborhood, in our
(04:16):
age group in particular. I love school because I wanted
to graduate. That was my drive, my inspiration. I wanted
to graduate. I wanted to get out of the environment
that I was in, and I wanted my mother to
be proud of me. I had this regular job that
I would go down to the market and I would
(04:37):
meet the truck coming in with food and I would
carry patrons bags and get paid a quarter. I also
would pick up glass and different types of debris and
take them to the private shop and pick up a
dollar or two. My father would work down at the market.
He would befriended by a butcher and he would bring
(05:01):
some luftover food home. My mother would cook it and
we ate a variety of foods that people nowadays never
heard of, like chicken feet. Blue were never on welfare,
but during that period they would give grapefruit and some
kind of cereal. Government supplying this, and I can recall
(05:21):
my friends asking for some rations that wouldn't need, wouldn't use.
But we survived. She was a wonderful, wonderful we survived.
My neighbors were Mexican, Italian and Jewish, and we had
(05:41):
a little group. I was probably eight because I was
in elementary school, and we went to the y m
c A. As a group. They went in and I
was denied permission to enter y m c A. Was
nothing they could do about it. There was nothing I
(06:03):
could do about it. It was very, very hurtful. I stalked,
I cried. I told my mother, we discussed it. We're
just nothing we could do about it. Is that to happen.
She told me that this was a life and that
we would have to endure these types of incidents and
to buck up and be prepared. And from that day
(06:25):
on I have tried to. That was my first confrontation
with racism and I never never will forget it. In
some communities and players dislike to employ women. In others,
(06:49):
they are reluctant to hire negroes, instill others. Older men
are not wanted. We can no longer afford to end
such prejudices or practice. My brother couldn't eterlist because of
those physical disabilities, and he worked poor in steel and
(07:10):
steel mill, and he who told me stories of the
now blacks were treated in the steel mill. We had
a neighbor on the staff of case wasn't reserved university.
I told him I wanted to be in the medical field.
I couldn't believe that he wouldn't incourage me or say
something encouraging. But he didn't. And when I was at
(07:33):
East Technical High School with trawl boys Caucasian, I took
college prep course and also major than pattern making. But
my instructor told me, frankly, Bill, you'll never get a
job as a pattern maker outside of school. All of
these no positive reinforcement. Everything was negative. Everything was cautious.
(07:57):
I wanted to better myself. I wanted to prove and
that's why I volunteered for the Navy. It was a
way out. It was a way out for me. They
went to Chicago in October forty three. I was there
(08:17):
about six weeks at Great Lakes. The educational offer took
a liking to me. He says, I'm going to send
you to Hampton's Institute in Virginia. I spent by six months.
When I went in, I was just a semon. When
I came out of Hampton Institute of the third class.
From there, I went to Pensacola, Florida as a deer engineer,
(08:39):
and I was in charge of a group of of
course Negro sailors. We were all confined and segregated quarter
when we went into town. We went in town segregated,
and the USO was the only thing that we go
to during that period. It was a rough period, but
(08:59):
I continue to concentrate on what I had to do.
I was in charge of the PT rescue Team, had
a crew of four five and we were rescued Navy
fighters that were being trained. They would crash into the
water and we would get the bodies or rescue them.
(09:21):
I was promoted to second class. That was almost unheard of.
I didn't know very much about the ninety Nights Black pilots,
but there were no other second class Black sailors at
that period other than in the Galation. There was the aberration. Really,
there was a lot of jealousy and resentment because I
was in charge of about ninety black sailors and majority
(09:45):
of them were older than I was. During that period,
there was a horrific incident where they had black sailors
underloading ammunition and loading ammunitions and it blew up and
killed over a hundred of them. From that day on,
black sailers didn't want to do that kind of work.
(10:08):
You can't blame them. I was twenty years old and
I was in charge of these people. But I said
that I was going to personally here and I was
going to survive, and I was going to reach whatever
breeding I could get. When I shipped out, they made
me first class, first class city officer in charge of
all these people. After the break, you ain't what you
(10:33):
could get, and be thankful for what you will get.
In stay with us, you're listening to service stories of
(10:55):
hunger and war from My Heart Radio and Jacqueline Proposo,
and we're here with William Walker, now a Chief Petty
Officer first Class in the Navy. His role is about
to shift as he deploys overseas and starts to manage
his ships supply holds. In newspapers nationwide, the Navy recruited
sailors by boasting of the fabulous food they would find
(11:16):
in this branch. In our first episode, Petty Ambrosio mentioned
that because his family didn't have a freezer, they can't
vegetables for the winter of American households had refrigerators during
this time, but it wasn't until after the war that
frozen foods and freezer technology started to become mainstream. Conversely,
(11:36):
Navy ships had galley kitchens comparable to a first class
hotel kitchen, with the fineness of refrigeration capabilities, icanical dough mixers,
bread cutters, and frozen foods poured into the holds. Yet
the nineteen forty three Navy stations started to report serious
food shortages, with beef, poultry, and potatoes especially short in
(11:58):
some locations. But was a common steel from maybe supply
state side. The world was short of food because of
this war, and so it becomes a common thread this
season for our veterans to reflect on food less as
enjoyment and more as an aspect of their survival. Let's
now return with William to late nineteen and move into
(12:22):
as he boards ship and heads to the Pacific theater.
I want to let go. That's where they had some
of the biggest battles in the Pacific, where aircraft, planes
and Japanese kamakazes were all involved. Fortunately, was wasn't involved
(12:43):
directly in those battles. We were directly attacked, but we
were always in environment where we could be. We would
come through and supply whatever ship were left from the
battle with food and ammunition. That was our job. If
you know anything about how food is distributed in the navy,
(13:04):
all this stuff is in a hole and you have
a crew that works in the hole. You have a
crew that lowers the food into the hole, and then
you have a crew that takes the food to the storage.
My job was to supervised all three of these areas.
The food that we got other than the spam. We
would look at the food and we were told that
(13:26):
what we saw were raisins, yet they were actually bugs.
Then the flower that came overseas to us, and this
is what we had to eat. This is a survival.
We would get a ship road coming in or maybe
some eggs or whatever. It was a big deal. But
once every other week or so we were allocated a
(13:47):
beer a beer. Those things were lesser rations. You ate
what you could get and be thankful for what you
were getting. We will basically be on the island unloading
and back on the ship unloading, then on the island.
It was the job. I enjoyed doing what I was
doing because I got a lot of respect, not only
(14:10):
from some of the black and some of the white,
but also some of the officers of course, if you're
supplying food, they're very grateful. I don't care if it's
a battleship or canoe. If you have beers that you
can fly it to them. You were there allies. But
as soon as those conditions are alleviated, they're back into
(14:33):
the same old routine of who you are, where you are,
and what you can expect. The Navy were island hopping,
Greta and Iwajima opened out well, and all these people
who are really reliant on us to supply them. I
(14:54):
was amazed at how humanity, how people survived under traditions
that they did, unsanitary, under completely unsanitary, and they had chickens.
Are those pigs running in and out of the house
and under the house gang greene and foot floors. They
paid us a frame price. They were friendly, and they
(15:15):
were gracious that we were there to serve them. There's
nothing wrong with that. We were proud of high contribution
to what we were doing. I missed my mother's cooking
period lamb of beans and two and she could make
(15:38):
different meals out of the chicken. She was a marvelous coat.
She was a marborous coat. My mother died while I
was in service. I only like they can. We were
(16:12):
cautiously apprehensive. We didn't know whether we're going to have
to go to Japan or not. Of course we didn't
want to go there. Truman has said that if we
had to invade Japan, a million soldiers would lose their lives.
They were prepared to die, They were prepared to not surrender.
(16:32):
They had been bombed and fire bombed and every type
of weapons used on them, and they still said no.
They still said no, we want pins and needles. We
didn't know what they expect. My fellow Americans. The thoughts
and hopes of all America, indeed of all the civilized world,
(16:56):
our center tonight on the battleship Missouri M. They're on
that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbor.
The Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They
have signed terms of unconditional surrender. I returned all right
(17:24):
after they dropped the bomb. It was great. I came home.
I elected to take the g I Bill. I was
going to go to college, and I was gonna set
the world on fire. My stepfather died. We had lost
the home that I was living in. When I went
(17:46):
to service, even with my mother gone, my brother and
I were gonna survive. The two of us were gonna
make it in this world. I had accumulated a little
money in the service that I had saved. We had
some very good time together. We went to restaurants and
so forth. All seafood, always seafood. When I was in
(18:09):
school and I had nowhere to go, my brothers found
away from me to have a family with him and
his way. They would send me a couple of meals,
carry me over until the nixt check came there. My
brother was my soul. He was in my corner all
the way. He was my mother and my brother. I
(18:36):
went to Ohio State University in nineteen I went to
the movie and I had to sit in the bleachers.
And I couldn't believe, after what all I had witnessed
in my life that I had to sit in the bleachers.
It really it really affected me and uh I joined
(18:59):
the African uh Alpha Fai Alpha fraternity. We went to
a restaurant and we went into the restaurant to eat.
It was about thirteen of us and said it the
counter was a policemen sitting at the counter. Two we
ordered our food, We paid for our food and went
(19:21):
after tip. And as we walked out, the door opened
and all the tips that the waitresses had received. Let's
grew him out in the street. That was how I
was met. After I got out of the service. In Columbus,
Ohio in nineteen six, I entered dental skull. I was
(19:45):
in a class of two in a hundred twenty black.
After two years, I was called a doctor and I
had my cubicle and the patient walked in Caucasia. She
looked at me and she said, oh no, turned around
and well, talk of my junior year where I was
working ten hours a night as a mail carrier. When
(20:05):
I was being interviewed, the supervisor had my credential in
front of it. He said, if it was up to me,
you wouldn't get this job. Just like that. I had
this instructor and I was sitting at the back of
the class. He said, this is what we do, and
this is what we expect in a procedure, and if
(20:28):
it doesn't work, it's just another nigger in the wood fire.
Now mind new, Now I'm in the class a huntred.
They looked at me and see what I was gonna
do my reaction. I had to respond. I caught him
for he went out the door. I told him I
didn't appreciate this remark. He looked at me and he says,
(20:49):
just a colloquialism. I had friends that weren't at a
school that committed suicide. I thought about all of this
later in my life. The only thing that sustainably with
my experiences that I got out of the Navy. So
many professionals children were in the service. I had the
(21:12):
opportunity to see doctors, lawyers, educators, and achievers. I had
never seen these people before. They welcomed me and encouraged
me to continue my life. I was not a freshman
when I entered the freshman class at Ohio State University.
I was a major individual who had commanded a regiment
(21:34):
almost individuals, and so I knew what my potential was.
That helped me to survive and instill the ability to
tell my kids to survive. I was very fortunate, but
for every fortunate experience that I can relate to you,
there are a hundred unfortunate experiences. It wasn't until the
(22:02):
nineteen sixties that African Americans began commanding ships submarines and
shore establishments, and not until nineteen seventy four that the
Navy published any sort of affirmative action plan. But back
in nineteen forty four, twelve commissioned officers and one warrant
officer became known as the Golden thirteen, the first African
American Navy men with rank who would pave the way
(22:22):
for many more to come. William might have become one
of these officers. He became doctor William Walker. Instead, he
met his future wife, Janet BIBBNS, a captain in the
Air Force, and they had two children, Leslie and Bill.
Leslie has called William's time in the service his great leveler,
and you can head to our Facebook and Instagram, where
(22:43):
at Service podcast and Service podcast dot org to hear
her explain more about that, as well as find photos,
articles and transcriptions relating to this episode. But William remained
scarred by the racism he received when he returned home
from his service. We're going to start to ext floor
why our veterans do or do not talk about their
service experiences and what communities are doing to help in
(23:06):
an episode called Dad I Can't talk about it, So
stay tuned for that but before we go, I want
to leave you with one more clip because at times
William seemed uninterested in detailing food specifically, but there was
something young Bill wanted to make sure we knew about
his father's legacy when it comes to food in their family. Now,
(23:30):
could you explain to them, because I know how you
feel about food as a result of you growing up
in the Great Depression. Talk about how much food is
in this house right now? Over one? Why is that?
Because I said I would never have to worry about
food together in my life? Okay, never again, never ever never.
(23:54):
In our next episode, we go back to Europe with
Harold bud Long, an engineer in the Air Corps who
traveled all over laying airstrips and taking bomb sites out
of planes. Always on the move, he ate nothing but
k rations and sea rations for almost three years. Services
a production of I Heart Radio, this episode was produced
(24:14):
and edited by me Jacqueline Proposo. Ben Rosenblatt voiced FDR
for US, and you can hear Bendon me on our
old Heritage Radio Network podcast Love Bites. Mr Boddiger assisted
with this episode and Elizabeth Emery was our on site
engineer with William Our supervising producer is Gabrielle Collins. Our
executive producer is Christopher Hasciotis. Thank you for listening, and
(24:37):
thank you those who are serving and those who have served.
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