Donald Johnson

Donald Johnson wrote: "This is the picture of our outfit attached to the 58th Fighter Squadron." The date and location are unknown.

Donald Johnson

Staff Sergeant Donald H. Johnson served in the Aleutian Islands with the 58^th Fighter Control Squadron during World War II. While he had been drafted into the Army, Johnson’s unit was attached to the 11^th Air Force. As a control tower operator, Johnson saw many unfortunate plane crashes, due to the difficult weather and terrain of the Aleutian Islands. In his oral history, Johnson recollects how supposedly Japanese soldiers would sneak into the American chow lines and eat American food.

Johnson and Joshua Bell, his interviewer, discuss Basic Training, family life, ailments, and offers to buy land in the Aleutian Islands. Johnson also remembers spending a lot of time reading and playing cards while he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. After the war was over, he attended night school for drafting, and worked his way up from railroad car unloader to President of Somerset Door and Column.

Listen to his oral history below.

• Donald Johnson Interview

  
  

  Staff Sergeant Donald H. Johnson served in the Aleutian Islands with the 58th Fighter Control Squadron during World War II. While he had been drafted into the Army, Johnson’s unit was attached to the 11th Air Force. As a control tower operator, Johnson saw many unfortunate plane crashes, due to the difficult weather and terrain of the Aleutian Islands. In his oral history, Johnson recounts stories from the Aleutians, Basic Training, and civilian life.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS/Joshua Bell

  Date created:

  08/04/2022

  Audio Transcript

  Interview with S/Sgt. Donald H. Johnson

  Aleutian World War II National Historic Area Oral History Program

  January 23, 2014 Somerset, PA

  Interviewed by Joshua Bell, Volunteer Oral Historian and Researcher, National Park Service

  This interview is part of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area Oral History Project. The interview with Donald Brydon was recorded with his permission on a digital recorder. Copies of the audio file are preserved in mp3, wav and wma formats and are on file at the offices of the National Park Service in Anchorage, Alaska.

  The transcript has been lightly edited.

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  Joshua Bell: Today is January 23rd, 2014. My name is Joshua Bell, volunteer oral historian and researcher for the Aleutian World War II National Historic area. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the oral history project, Mr. Donald Johnson.

  Donald Johnson: Oh yes.

  Joshua Bell: Could I have you say your name for the record, please?

  Donald Johnson: Donald H. Johnson.

  Joshua Bell: And when and where were you born?

  Donald Johnson: In 505 Woodland Avenue, Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

  Joshua Bell: You were born at home?

  Donald Johnson: Yes, we were born at my grandma’s house.

  Joshua Bell: At your grandma’s house.

  Donald Johnson: Mm-hm, and their names were Kunkle; K U N K L E.

  Joshua Bell: And what were your parents’ names?

  Donald Johnson: My parents were Ralph and Lorella Johnson.

  Joshua Bell: And what did they do?

  Donald Johnson: My dad was a World War I veteran; he was a Marine and he was awful upset that I didn’t get into the Marines because I joined the Army… or I was drafted into the Army.

  Joshua Bell: Where did your dad…

  Donald Johnson: I was…

  Joshua Bell: Go ahead.

  Donald Johnson: He served over in… well, he was wounded in the Battle of Belleau Woods in the First World War. He had three wounds.

  Joshua Bell: Did he talk about his service?

  Donald Johnson: Did he talk about his service? Not a whole lot.

  Joshua Bell: No?

  Donald Johnson: He used to talk about how tough the battles were. He lost a half a heel, he got wounded in the neck with a gas shell, and one testicle was shot off.

  Joshua Bell: Oh dear.

  Donald Johnson: [Laughing]. Oh dear is right, but he had seven children so I guess the other one worked!

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Oh! Do you wish he had talked about his…

  Donald Johnson: Pardon me?

  Joshua Bell: Go ahead.

  Donald Johnson: I was on six islands. The first one I don’t remember but the second one I remember well because I was there a long time. I was on Atka and then… that’s the first one; I don’t remember that one at all but then on Adak I was there a long time. That’s where I saw so many fish, salmon that spawned and come down and died and then the fox would lay on them and, boy, did they have a piece. Joshua Bell: [Laughing]

  Donald Johnson: Yes, I was at Atka, and then Adak and Kiska; Kiska, Shemya and then on Attu - that’s when the war ended.

  Joshua Bell: Now, what were your impressions… first impressions of the islands?

  Donald Johnson: Of the islands? Well, they’re barren, terrible, no trees. That’s a heck of a thing. All they have is tundra grass; tundra grass and mountains straight up. I remember some of the control towers; you had to use a rope to get up. I don’t know how the engineers got them up there to start with. I wasn’t in the first wave that landed because I operated a control tower, but that was clearly different than nowadays. We worked it on a tripod scale, you know, three people, but we couldn’t tell their elevations. Nowadays they know that. One of those islands is straight off from the cliffs and we lost a lot of pilots there because we couldn’t tell their elevation and the fog would come in, in ten minutes and we would lose them and they’d come in and hit right into that cliff. It was an awful thing.

  Joshua Bell: What kind of planes did you… did you bring in?

  Donald Johnson: Well, we had P… P-38s and P-39s. The P-38 is… the P-39 I think was the one with the tripod, just one single wheel on the front. I think that’s correct, and they would collapse sometimes when they hit the middle… they sometimes lay the middle landing strip down and them darn front wheels would go into them and then they’d roll over.

  Joshua Bell: Mm.

  Donald Johnson: Sad story.

  Joshua Bell: How many accidents would you say you saw?

  Donald Johnson: Oh, gosh! I don’t know. A dozen I’d say, or more.

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: And I only saw one… I never shot anybody but I did see one Japanese who got stranded somewhere and I saw he killed himself. He set his… he set his bayonet and rifle down in a bunch of stones and jumped on it.

  Joshua Bell: Oh geez!

  Donald Johnson: Yes, oh geez is right. You never took prisoners, the Japanese wouldn't allow that. They say if he… when… if after there were 60 something head of them, and they walked out into the ocean and drowned themselves. They were committed to their government that well.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: That was something.

  Joshua Bell: What did you think of that?

  Donald Johnson: Of what?

  Joshua Bell: Of the… the way the Japanese committed suicide like that?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I think it’s an awful thing to do. You’re not supposed to do that. But that’s what they were taught. They were not allowed to be taken prisoner.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: It’s just… it’s one of those things that come up. I have a picture of our whole outfit and it’s 40… 48 people on it. Now, that was the cooks, the guards, control operators, the whole batch. But I can’t remember our commanding chief, the general that was in charge; I just cannot remember his name. But the fellows I worked with I know a lot of ‘em. The one, um, was from New York and he never saw a tree until he was drafted into the service. He’s lived in Brooklyn, New York and he just couldn’t believe what a tree looked like. Yes, it’s amazing that some of those people never got out in the country, but I guess that’s the way it is. Nowadays, they do but I just can’t think of all the different men that worked in that. How we had to work in the dark. You didn’t dare strike a match, everything was so black at night, and how they… some Japanese was ahead of us, they would sneak into the chow line and eat with us. I remember hearing them say that time and again. They had too many, they’d been… they counted them as they came through but it was dark, they couldn’t see them so they had too many. And then they figured it out; it was Japanese entering the chow line. That’s something! Because they had to eat; they had to eat.

  Joshua Bell: Yeah. What did they guys… what did the guys think of all that?

  Donald Johnson: [Laughing] Well, nobody liked that of course, but you couldn’t do anything about it because you didn’t know them. Oh, it was… it was some experience I’ll tell you. I was… I told you how many islands I was on but I don’t remember that first one at all, but Adak I remember very well. We walked in… I’d been… I was doing high tower and I walked from one end to the other, to the other. Got a three day pass and we went from one end to the other. We lived in the crapper shack halfway through where the Japanese had built to do their fishing. That was depressing. And they have… had numbers on the wall, how many they caught by just a single strike, you know? Like one, one, then a five, and then one, one, and then another five. It was good fishing up there. There was not a lot of snow but we dug our huts in because the wind was terrible. That was the main thing. The high winds. Oh, but I remember coming out the trench from one of our Quonset huts quite often. In the morning they’d close the door shut, the snow would blow in there but we didn’t get a lot of snow, but boy, the winds. One tower we were in we had to use a rope to go up and down; I don’t know how the engineers ever got it on top of the mountain. But they did. They pulled the trucks up. I know when we went up to… to do our shifts they would pull us up or else we had to go up on a rope and come down on a rope. How in the world they ever got it up there… because I don’t remember seeing a single helicopter in that day and age.

  Joshua Bell: Oh no.

  Donald Johnson: I don’t… I didn’t think they had them then. Now your questions for me are any…

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Well, let’s see.

  Donald Johnson: I’m old. I was one of the younger ones. I was drafted on my 20th birthday and I weighed all the way 139 pounds, just a little shrimp.

  Joshua Bell: And what year were you drafted?

  Donald Johnson: Er, let me see, what… when did I go in there? I have it here somewhere. Where… what time I was… was in the service, from when to when. I have it here. That’s not it. Just give a second here. It’s all down, I have it here. January 24, ’42 to one 25, ’46, November, 11… 11, 24, ’46. I don’t see very well anymore, so one 25… one 25, ’46. I left, went out from Washington and the State of Washington, Seattle under the Golden Gate Bridge. Out in the ocean, hit a storm, went backwards for two days. Yes, we did. That’s what they said. It took us 11 days to go up there, from Seattle, Washington up to… I thought it landed at Attu but I have an marked on the map as A T A K. No, A D A… A T K A, that’s the way it’s spelt, Atka. But I didn’t… I wasn’t there very long, couldn’t have been; I don’t remember a thing about that island but I do the rest of them.

  Joshua Bell: What did your parents think about you getting drafted?

  Donald Johnson: They weren’t very happy but… and then like I said my dad was unhappy at I wasn’t… didn’t join in… join up with the marines. They wouldn't have taken me anyhow. I was too little. Just a little skinny shrimp. My dad was a big man; he weighed 238 pounds. He was broad shouldered and strong as an ox. He used to carry 200 pounds of potatoes and throw them up on the truck like they were nothing when we lived on the farm so that’s… that’s a lot of muscle.

  Joshua Bell: Sure.

  Donald Johnson: My mother was… my mother was just a small person. She was born in Johnstown where I was born and her mother was pregnant at the same time she was pregnant with my oldest brother. Yes. My uncle Claire was the same… almost the same age as my older brother, but they… Uncle Claire is dead now and so is my older brother. There were three of us out of seven. My older… younger… my sister… one sister, she had polio; she’s 88.

  Joshua Bell: Mm.

  Donald Johnson: She’s doing quite well, yes. She has enough money to bury us all; she had a good job. Yes. She put two of the kids through high school, paid the bill.

  Joshua Bell: There you go!

  Donald Johnson: They’re grand… two grand children; couldn’t beat that.

  Joshua Bell: No, I guess not.

  Donald Johnson: And through college.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: That’s very different from the 20s and the 30s.

  Donald Johnson: Pardon me?

  Joshua Bell: That’s very different than growing up in the 20s and the 30s.

  Donald Johnson: Amen, yes. Yes, we worked hard in those days, awful hard.

  Joshua Bell: What did you do?

  Donald Johnson: What did I do?

  Joshua Bell: Before the war.

  Donald Johnson: Before the war I worked in an automobile shop out in Akron, Ohio, and I had married my wife just before I left, and when I came home I wanted to go back out, I was offered a job a $89 a week, which was big bucks. She said, ‘If you go to Ohio I’m not going along’ so I took a job here in Somerset, at Somerset Door and Column for 50 cents an hour, and that’s what we started out with. Which… that wasn’t a very big pay check.

  Joshua Bell: No, I don’t imagine it was.

  Donald Johnson: I went… I went from there to being president of the company though. I worked with them for 38 years. Started out unloading railroad cars and wound up as president.

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: But I’ve been retired since I was 62 years of age, and I’m 91 now so you’d have to subtract the difference because I can’t.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Well, it sounds like you’ve put in your time?

  Donald Johnson: Yes. I lost my beloved wife though two years, two months… what’s today? 23rd… 25 days ago.

  Joshua Bell: I’m sorry to hear that.

  Donald Johnson: She was a wonderful woman. Couldn’t beat her. I’m going to miss her a lot.

  Joshua Bell: Where did you two meet?

  Donald Johnson: In church. I chased her all through high school though but we actually met in church. A neighbor used to take me along to church and that’s where I met her, and she came from a very religious family. They were all dedicated to their work. They had eight children in their family.

  Joshua Bell: Aah.

  Donald Johnson: And they’re all gone but one now, in that family, and she’s the same age as I am, 91.

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: Wow! I’m ready to go too; it’s time. That’s the way I look at it. Oh yes.

  Joshua Bell: Now…

  Donald Johnson: Are there any questions?

  Joshua Bell: Yes. When um… when did… you said you met… you met your wife and then married her, were you married before you left for the service?

  Donald Johnson: Yes, I did, just shortly before we left we ran off to Cumberland, Maryland and got married because we couldn’t get married in this state because you had a waiting period. Cumberland, Maryland you got your license, went to… a pastor and they married you and that’s what happened. We took three of our sisters along and we got married. And then I left her stranded for… I never a furlough Went back and forth across this country three times to learn my occupation and then I was on the Atlantic seaboard walk where we took our… where we got our basic training, and then I wound up in the hospital right off the bat.

  Joshua Bell: How did you manage that?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I have a condition called [lufaserum menintosis sp?]. That’s a big name but all it means is sun poisoning.

  Joshua Bell: Oh.

  Donald Johnson: And I went out on… for our drills and I had my shirt on, the corporal said, ‘Take your shirt off’. I said, ‘I daren’t do that, I’ll get sunburnt. He said, ‘You take it off or you’ll be court marshaled. I said, ‘I’ll take it off but you won’t see me tomorrow’. And I wound up getting 52 shots and now I forget how long I was in the hospital.

  Joshua Bell: Oh.

  Donald Johnson: Yes, that was a heck of a poor start but that’s the way it started out. But from then on I carried a slip; they didn’t require me to take the shirt off. That’s the reason I think I was sent up north because the Aleutian Islands instead… I thought we were going to Hawaii but we didn’t get there; we went north.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Different… a different place altogether I suppose. Donald Johnson: Altogether. They even… if you just… clothing made us think we were going to Hawaii, but when we got up to the islands we had different clothing, of course. We were well… well equipped, there’s no getting around that. We had all the good stuff to keep you warm. But it was… there’s another place, my gosh. Nothing, no trees, all you saw was tundra grass. Now, I guess… I guess the last tree is in Dutch Harbor.

  Joshua Bell: Mm!

  Donald Johnson: And then they… the engineers had built one out of concrete on the island of Attu but it didn’t look very much like a tree … but it they called it a tree. But from there we were scheduled to go to Paramushiru, Russia. But then the war ended and we came home. I don’t know what the heck we… they would want us over there for but this… this was only 90 miles away. When you get to Attu, across to Russia it’s only 90 miles, it’s what I understand.

  Joshua Bell: It’s not a very long hop, that’s for sure.

  Donald Johnson: Yes. Well, I look at these pictures and I wonder… I know that fellow from Brooklyn, New York - his name was Sancho Pasqualapino. He never saw a tree. And I only… there probably were about four of them, real close. I mean, we would… around the control towers. There were 12 of us that took shifts, it was something else.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Who else… who else was with you?

  Donald Johnson: Who else was with me?

  Joshua Bell: Operating the towers?

  Donald Johnson: Oh. Like some of them I remember their names, like Taylor in high tower and Horton and Adams. I can’t remember all of them by any means. Here, what’s this?

  Joshua Bell: That’s the list of names you gave me.

  Donald Johnson: Oh, the names; I was trying to figure out who… if anybody lived that I knew. I just can’t read them here. What’s this one? Geez, Taylor is… I don’t think any of them… There is… most of them were younger… were older than I was; I was one of the youngest kids.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] I think my grandfather was also 20 in 1942 when he… he enlisted right before he got drafted. Donald Johnson: Oh, then I… I got drafted; I didn’t enlist. My older brother wanted to enlist and he told me and they kept deferring him and deferring him because he was hauling coal to keep the ships running. He hauled coal to Maryland, down to Baltimore, Maryland and then it brings sugar back. But he started driving a truck when he was 13 years old; I don’t know how he got away with that but he did.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Must have been tall for his age?

  Donald Johnson: He was… that’s all he ever did though, all his life was… and he’s gone since 2001, he died.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: I want to… I want to go back for a minute to Pearl Harbor. When… where were you when you found out that Pearl Harbor had been attacked?

  Donald Johnson: Oh, let’s see, where would I have been? 20 years of age; I’d have been working in Ohio, Akron, Ohio, then in a garage. I had bought an old… had bought an old ’37 rolled over police car, fixed it up and ran the wheels off of it.

  Joshua Bell: Nice! [Laughing]

  Donald Johnson: It was… yes, another fellow helped me fix it up and we painted it robin egg blue. When my wife first saw it she said, ‘Oh, my gosh’. She couldn’t stand that color so we painted it… we got… we brought it back in and painted it dark blue. ‘Now that’s better’ she said, and I drove that through town 147,000 miles on that.

  Joshua Bell: Wow! Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Yes, it was… it was a good running car though. It was run fast, could get 80 miles… 87 miles an hour on the level. That was a police car. It had high speed rear it has a high speed rear end in it. Of course, nowadays they go much, much faster than that. Oh!

  Joshua Bell: Drive it like you stole it as my grandfather used to say.

  Donald Johnson: What’s that?

  Joshua Bell: Drive it like you stole it as my grandfather used to say. Donald Johnson: Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, let’s see. Um, how did you feel about Pearl Harbor being attacked?

  Donald Johnson: Well, it should have never happened, that’s for sure. It’s just one of those sad things but I don’t know what the Japanese were thinking, and now we trade with them and everything else. But they learned their lesson, that’s for sure.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. At the time were you optimistic about the outcome of the war?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I felt pretty positive that we were going to win; I didn’t think we could lose it because we were well supported and had the equipment we needed. Thank goodness I never shot a man because I don’t think I could have lived that down.

  Joshua Bell: It seems… it seems like that’s a pretty tough… tough thing to carry around? Donald Johnson: Oh, we had tough times, yeah. We… sometimes we’d run out of food for a while but then we’d catch up with it. Yes, but it’s one of those things.

  Joshua Bell: It’s amazing.

  Donald Johnson: Yes. I worked in the control tower, yes. I got my training here in the States.

  Joshua Bell: And that was…

  Donald Johnson: That was before I crossed the States.

  Joshua Bell: And you were in the Army Air Corp, correct?

  Donald Johnson: No, I was in the army, attached to the 11th air force, 59th… 58th fighter squad. I was in the army; was actually an army man but attached to the 11th air force, 58th fighter squad and that’s where I served, up in the Aleutian Islands.

  Joshua Bell: What was… what was travel to basic training like?

  Donald Johnson: Terrible! That was awful, basic training. My legs would cramp and, oh, that was miserable, but I got through it. Joshua Bell: Where did you take… Donald Johnson: The worst was…

  Joshua Bell: Oh, go ahead.

  Donald Johnson: The worst was when I got that sunburn; that was… that was awful because it took 52 shots to get me… I swelled up half my size again and that’s a condition that not many people have, but my dad had it and I… I guess inherited it because I don’t know of anybody else that’s ever had it. Lufaserum menintosis; what the heck of a name.

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: Sun poisoning; it’s just sun poisoning. Take your shirt off and you’re licked in ten minutes time so I have to wear a long sleeved shirt, have all my life, and my dad had to do the same. Long shirts and all the sunscreen you can get and cover every inch of your body that you could. That’s the way I worked.

  Joshua Bell: Well, I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t send you to South Pacific.

  Donald Johnson: Oh boy; I’d have died, that’s for sure. No, I think that’s the reason they put on my resume for Northern… To serve in the Northern Territories.

  Joshua Bell: And where did you go for basic training?

  Donald Johnson: Basic training? Atlantic City, New Jersey on a board walk! Up and down the boardwalk. Of course, we got on land too still over… that basic training was rough, I’ll tell you. This is working in the sun; that was awful but then I lost my buddies I went with. They got ahead of me somewhere and I never learned about where they got to. But you say there’s only about nine living now?

  Joshua Bell: I’ve got… well, including you I’ve got ten; ten from the 58th’s. There could be more.

  Donald Johnson: Ten from the 58th Fighter Squad?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Do you happen to know who the captain was or the colonel, whatever his rank was? I see his picture here but I can’t remember his name.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, you know what, I don’t. I don’t happen to have… I have a copy of the 58th history but I don’t… um, I don’t remember who that is. I’ll look into it and get back to you.

  Donald Johnson: I just can’t figure out who he is. I think we had a couple of different ones over the years. We were up there… well, I was overseas about two years so it’s a long stretch.

  Joshua Bell: What do you remember about the day you arrived at basic training?

  Donald Johnson: What do I remember about arriving at basic training?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Camp Atterbury, Indiana. That was… oh, long hard days, that’s what that was. And getting put on KP for misbehaving or something like that. That happened.

  Joshua Bell: Now, what… what did you do to get yourself in trouble?

  Donald Johnson: Well, just not listening properly or something. The only thing I got out of that was a broken leg, and that was on the island of Shemya I think I fell. We were playing ball and I slid into second base, broke my leg. That’s the only scar I have from the war. That’s over the hill. From that time until now I have nine broken bones so it’s just one of those things.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] You started a collection?

  Donald Johnson: Yes. I have five broken ribs, a leg and an arm.

  Joshua Bell: Hm.

  Donald Johnson: So, so be it.

  Joshua Bell: And still going?

  Donald Johnson: Oh, still going but I don’t know for how long.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] What do you remember about your first sergeant?

  Donald Johnson: What I remember… who?

  Joshua Bell: Your first… um, about your sergeant at boot camp, at basic? Donald Johnson: Boot camp? Oh, he was a Corporal fellow that directed us and I didn’t like him at all, and I don’t think he liked me but that’s okay. It’s hard work.

  Joshua Bell: What was a typical day like?

  Donald Johnson: Long hours, gosh! Get up in the morning, get your breakfast, start training. Oh, I should remember a lot more things but I don’t.

  Joshua Bell: That’s okay. That’s quite all right; that’s quite all right.

  Donald Johnson: Yes. Yes, but I can’t never forget those islands, how rugged and rough they were.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: But that’s over the hill now and now I don’t know who’s up there. But they wanted to sell us land when we… before we came home; we were offered three acres for ten bucks. Boy, did I miss the boat there! And it’s worth a fortune now but I… I didn’t want no part of it. Joshua Bell: They offered… they offered you a deal on some island property?

  Donald Johnson: Yes, Mm-hm. Yes, they offered us property on the island if we wanted to buy it. It was $10 an acre I think is all they wanted. I didn’t want any part of that.

  Joshua Bell: No, I don’t imagine so.

  Donald Johnson: Just anxious to get the heck out of there.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Yes. We got home in good shape, and my wife and I went to work. She worked in the recorder and deeds office for a while. The first child comes and then I told her we stay at home now, which she did. And we had a total of three children, and they’re all great kids because she taught them right and I give her all the credit.

  Joshua Bell: You can’t do much better than that.

  Donald Johnson: No, couldn’t have made a better choice. Yes, but she’s gone now and I have to live through that.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Donald Johnson: So be it.

  Joshua Bell: I like to think that they’re… they’re still around just in a different way.

  Donald Johnson: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: That’s for sure. Yes, we only lived in three different places since we were married. We lived in an apartment in town, then we lived in an old shack out the road, and we built this one on our own, and now it’s a string of houses where we live here. It was the first one in the field. I thought we were very out of town - three miles, but gosh, it’s grown up now. Traffic out… traffic out front, 23,000 vehicles in 24 hours…

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: … going up and down the road. That’s what they tell us. Joshua Bell: Mm.

  Donald Johnson: It’s just terrible, hey, this traffic, but we’re back off the road enough; it don’t bother us.

  Joshua Bell: Speaking of traffic how busy were the fields on the islands?

  Donald Johnson: How busy were the…?

  Joshua Bell: The landing strips?

  Donald Johnson: The landing strips? Well, at times they were quite busy. I mean, it depends on how many planes were in the air at a time, but the fog was the biggest factor up there. It would come in so fast and we couldn’t tell the elevation with it. You could tripod where they were, but you couldn’t tell their elevation. Then they’d come in and miss the landing strip - oh, we lost a lot of pilots. I don’t know the names of them, that’s for sure, but that’s the way things worked.

  Joshua Bell: Mm. Before…

  Donald Johnson: I got home… go ahead.

  Joshua Bell: Before you... um, before you got up to the Aleutians did you know that the Japanese had landed there? Donald Johnson: Oh yeah; oh yeah. We knew they were on the islands, and after they were in the Philippines too, and that’s where I thought we were going but we didn’t get there. We went north.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Where did you hope to be assigned before…?

  Donald Johnson: Where did I hope to be?

  Joshua Bell: Yeah.

  Donald Johnson: At home!

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] That’s the best answer to that question I’ve ever heard.

  Donald Johnson: I didn’t enlist; I was drafted on my 20th birthday, but then they lowered that age to 18 if I recall right.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Donald Johnson: Drafted them at age of 18 later. Oh, I don’t know how many thousands of people we lost. But if I remember, we went overseas on an old Russian trawler and when we hit that storm, if I remember correctly, it was one of them, what they called Liberty ships. He was way off to our left. One of them broke in two and we lost… there was a lot of people lost on that, in that storm because the Liberty ship… oh, how many thousands a did they have on one of them things but we only had our crew on ours, 50… 48 men but the old Russian trawler would roll and he said, ‘Don’t worry, she won't tip. But boy, was I sick! Me and Wayne King were the first ones to the rail.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] I was going to ask you what you did to pass the time on… on the boat ride up there.

  Donald Johnson: I just kept throwing up; that was most of the things. I just couldn’t keep it down. I was sick the whole darn way, but as soon as you hit land everything was okay. But pret’near near everybody got sick on that trip but some of them not quite as bad as others.

  Joshua Bell: How did it feel to get off the boat?

  Donald Johnson: Well, that was wonderful. Getting your feet on solid ground, oh, and not seeing anybody’s to shoot at or to shoot back at.

  Joshua Bell: Were you… were you concerned that that was going to happen when you got off the boat?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I had no idea what was going to happen and they didn’t tell us what was going on. But the engineers had been there before us and they were ahead of us and had the towers built; that was the way it was the whole way out in the chain. I wasn’t on the leading edge of it at all. The only person I saw dead was that one Japanese and he got stranded somehow. That never got out of my mind.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. I don’t imagine something like that would leave very easily.

  Donald Johnson: No, it don’t. Yes, like seeing my wife die; that was the next hardest. And I was there… I was there when it was happening. And my youngest daughter. So be it. You’ve got any questions?

  Joshua Bell: Sure. Let’s… how did you pass the time when you were on the islands?

  Donald Johnson: How did I pass the…? Joshua Bell: When you were on the islands, yes.

  Donald Johnson: How did we pass the time?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Well, like I said, sometimes we got a pass - we were given a couple of days off like when I’d been on high tower and I walked across the islands. We… they gave us some passes now and then, but other than that you could read and that’s what we did mostly, was read. Read books and they had a good supply of books we could read.

  Joshua Bell: And cards?

  Donald Johnson: We played cards, yes; we played cards and a lot of people gambled but I did not. Yes, that was a common occurrence there, gambling, my goodness. I saw $10,000 on a pile one time.

  Joshua Bell: Oh! Ho, ho, ho!

  Donald Johnson: That was in a mess hall and they were gambling, a bunch of guys, and they was… there was $10,000 on the pile.

  Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: That’s the largest chunk of money I ever saw. Joshua Bell: Wow!

  Donald Johnson: Yes. I forget the guy’s name that won it too; I can’t remember the…

  Joshua Bell: Make you want to go in for one hand [laughing].

  Donald Johnson: You know, I didn’t know how to play cards really. I could play 500 but not like they played, gosh. It was interesting. And I wrote letters to my wife every week but some of them got stacked up and didn’t get here for a long time, and then she wrote to me every week. And then they’d catch up maybe six at a time.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: That’s the way it worked.

  Joshua Bell: You also… you said you also played baseball on the islands. Was there…

  Donald Johnson: Oh yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Was there organized ball?

  Donald Johnson: No, we’d just pick up a team and play ball, but they tell me the reason I broke my leg was I didn’t have enough salt. They have no salt in the water. I guess you have to have a certain amount of that, I don’t know. Joshua Bell: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they would have had to bring in the water.

  Donald Johnson: Oh yeah, it all had to be… because the streams up there, I think some were very… I think if you drink… like on Adak, some of them streams were a pretty good size because the trout were… not the trout but the salmon.

  Joshua Bell: Oh yes.

  Donald Johnson: It was an amazing thing to see all those salmon. Some of them spawn and die, others do not. Different kinds of salmon. But boy, the fox… I saw a pure white fox one time.

  Joshua Bell: Oh neat.

  Donald Johnson: Up there on the islands. That was something.

  Joshua Bell: What was your favorite island?

  Donald Johnson: What was my favorite island?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: I had no favorites. I didn’t like it up there.

  Joshua Bell: Oh!

  Donald Johnson: But I was on Adak the longest of any of them.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Who was your immediate superior officer?

  Donald Johnson: I wish I could remember his name but I can’t. That bothers me. I see his picture here and I cannot think of his name to save my soul.

  Joshua Bell: Do you remember what you thought of him?

  Donald Johnson: Oh, he was a nice guy and we had good commanding officers. I can’t say anything bad about them, but they required you to do what you were supposed to do, and we did it as best we knew how. Yes, but we flew home. We didn’t need to come home in a boat, thank goodness.

  Joshua Bell: Was that your first time in an airplane?

  Donald Johnson: Oh no, no.

  Joshua Bell: What was the first time in an airplane?

  Donald Johnson: Oh, it was here at home. Before I went over I… we’d got here… I forget where it was but I have ridden them small planes, not so big, but I like flying; that’s what I wanted to be, was a pilot and I couldn’t do that. So they… when the thing was moving I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn door like I told you before, so they… it was either be a cook or be something else. I said, ‘Anything but a cook’ so that’s the reason I did this job, but it was a good job. It took a lot of training though. Boy, we studied like heck to become control tower operators.

  Joshua Bell: And what did you have to study?

  Donald Johnson: Pardon me?

  Joshua Bell: What… what did you have to study? Donald Johnson: Well, all the different codes, like Morse Code. You had to know that, and you had to know all different times of days - oh, a lot of things you had to know. How to communicate without letting the enemy get a hold of it. Like get all… dit dit dit, we’d done that a lot, Morse Code. So it was something else. The best thing was coming home.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Were there ever any attacks on any of the islands you were stationed on while you were there?

  Donald Johnson: Not… not that I saw, no, but there were ahead of us. We were in the tail end of it. We’d get in there, then they’d push them ahead to the next island and the next island, and then we’d follow up in the control towers and try to direct the planes. That was exciting.

  Joshua Bell: Mm. Were you ever concerned that there would be an attack while you were there?

  Donald Johnson: No, never confronted with any attacks, thank goodness. I was… we were in the tail end of the thing.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. The next question I had down here is did you ever want to be assigned anywhere else? I think you… you said… you said that you wanted to be home.

  Donald Johnson: No, I didn’t have a choice. They told me where to go so that’s where it happened.

  Joshua Bell: Do you remember what you were doing when you learned that the war was over in Europe?

  Donald Johnson: I remember when it ended, I can tell you that. Everybody would jump for joy. We were on Attu and I remember that quite well and… and then we had to wait for orders to come home, and then we flew home instead of coming by a darn boat. They… I can’t… still can’t ride in a boat without getting sick. I don’t think… I haven’t tried it for a long time, but I guess I don’t want to try it either. That’s the way it works. That’s a long time ago.

  Joshua Bell: Oh yes. Um, what… what did you in the… in the time between the Japanese surrender and coming home?

  Donald Johnson: Well, we just loafed around then practically on Attu. It wasn’t long though before they sent us home after the war ended. It didn’t go too long before they sent us home. I don’t remember how long it was though. I only kept some of my clothes, they offered all of it but I wish I had have kept it all. The heavy coats and stuff; I did keep uniforms and stuff but I only have one uniform here now I think. It’s all that’s left. But I never billed to become an officer or anything; I just wound up being a staff sergeant. That was it.

  Joshua Bell: Staff sergeant. Now staff sergeant back then was…

  Donald Johnson: Well, it was only a couple of ranks above that before we became an officer, staff sergeant, and then it was… I forgot the ranks now even.

  Joshua Bell: My grandfather used to…

  Donald Johnson: First sergeant and then you go into second lieutenant. After you got to first sergeant, second lieutenant, then first lieutenant and then captain, then major, then general.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] Well, it sounds like you did pretty good?

  Donald Johnson: I didn’t get quite that far. And I sent my money home because there was nowhere to spend it up there. There was no women on the islands and there was nothing to spend it on so I sent my big pay checks home and all that. Banked it all and that bought our first home; put the down payment on our first home.

  Joshua Bell: There you go.

  Donald Johnson: If she was working too then as recorder of deeds, bought our first home which was 11 acres, and an old dump of a house but it had timber… had timber on it and I cut… the timber… had the timber cut and built this house out of the timber and sold 32,000 board feet. That helped pay for it.

  Joshua Bell: There you go.

  Donald Johnson: Yeah, and it’s still standing; can you imagine that?

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] They don’t make them like they used to.

  Donald Johnson: I… I helped build a good many after this one though. That wasn’t my main job though; that was evening work helping build houses. I worked at Somerset Door and Column for 38 years. And that was a good place to work.

  Joshua Bell: I’d say.

  Donald Johnson: And they’re still in business. Joshua Bell: Well, I guess your leadership was pretty good?

  Donald Johnson: Well, it worked out, yes. I told the boy… I told my partners when we bought it - I said, ‘If we’re honest we’ll pay for it in a short period of time’ and we did it in five years.

  Joshua Bell: There you go.

  Donald Johnson: It cost… it cost a lot of money but the man that was running it before was a crook and I was… well I… when I came home I did some drafting under the GI Bill of Rights and I was drafting in the office there and I could see the president and his secretary - they took money out of the cash drawer every night, and I told the partners that went in with me. I said, ‘What they’re stealing will pay for the place’ and it did. They’re still in business but it has new owners now, of course, and they built a new plant to make columns and doors but I understand the column business isn’t the best now but the door business is good - special doors. We’ve done a lot of that work.

  Joshua Bell: You said you… you took advantage of the GI Bill, where did you go to school?

  Donald Johnson: Where did I go to school?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: You mean here at home? Yes, Somerset… Somerset High School I went to… I went to grade school, and eighth grade and grades… a single school house where we had eight grades, and from there I went to high school and I only went as far as 12th grade and graduated. Never got to college but I didn’t need that; I learned to use my hands.

  Joshua Bell: How did you… how did you use the GI Bill to learn to draft?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I went to night school…

  Joshua Bell: Okay.

  Donald Johnson: … under the GI Bill. And we studied how to draft and I… I drafted the first octagon house in this county. I drew… and then many, many, many kitchens I designed and drafted for people. I liked that kind of work. It was… and then the first question you ask the owners, ‘Are you left handed or right handed’? Did you know that?

  Joshua Bell: No, I didn’t. Donald Johnson: That’s what you had… you did; that’s what you had to ask because if you’re right handed you put a workspace… a workspace and a counter and sink. No, I didn’t tell that right - you start out with the refrigerator and the workspace and the sink and a counter, and then around to your stove, then onto the table. And if you’re left handed you go the other way around.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughing] That makes good sense.

  Donald Johnson: Yes, it saves steps.

  Joshua Bell: Yes.

  Donald Johnson: And I learned another thing - so many of the houses were built so you bumped your head on the beam that went through the center of the house. I jacked this one up an extra eight inches and put an extra bar under it to make it high enough; you can walk around anywhere in the basement without hitting your head.

  Joshua Bell: There you go.

  Donald Johnson: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Let’s see, I’ve got a couple more questions here. Were you able to stay in touch with any of the Aleutian veterans?

  Donald Johnson: Er, I did for a while but then I’ve lost track of all of them. I just… my friend at high tower, I think he… well, I know he’s deceased, and Taylor and Horton, they were all good friends of mine. I’ve lost track of all of them. But I think most of them are deceased because I was one of the youngest kids in the outfit.

  Joshua Bell: Hm. Do you, um… do you think it’s important that we have… that the government set aside the islands as a national historic area?

  Donald Johnson: The Aleutian Island?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: Well, I don’t know; is that what they want to do?

  Joshua Bell: Oh, they’ve done it; they’ve done it.

  Donald Johnson: Oh, they’ve done it. They set them aside as what?

  Joshua Bell: National historic areas.

  Donald Johnson: Oh, well.

  Joshua Bell: To commemorate the service that was done there.

  Donald Johnson: I think that’s important, yes. Because now it’s pretty well inhabited I think but in the days we were out there, there were no inhabiters except the Japanese who were fishing there, and the trappers. They had what they called trapping chaps… shacks; they had built just little shacks. Maybe they were 14 feet square; that’s where they slept and they trapped or they fished. And they… I imagine it was… well, they could have made a lot of money off of that I imagine.

  Joshua Bell: Let’s see, and um, do you think it’s important… next year is the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, do you think it’s important that preserve… um, do you think it’s important to preserve veterans’ stories like we’re doing now?

  Donald Johnson: I think so.

  Joshua Bell: Why is that?

  Donald Johnson: Well, because the day and age is… they’re different now. Everything is digital and computerized and… it’s just amazing, everything like these pilots that fly these planes, put them on automatic pilot now and then go to sleep and let them wreck, which has happened lately, you know?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm.

  Donald Johnson: No, but now there’s a story in this week’s Popular Science about the sonic boom, they have planes that go so fast anymore, it’s unreal. I read sometime back that they have one that goes from New York to San Francisco in an hour. Now, can you imagine that? You’d have to flying 3,000 miles an hour if you couldn’t land it. But now they’re talking about this supersonic boom; I guess it’s… that happens what? At 600 miles an hour or does this happen…?

  Joshua Bell: It’s between six and seven.

  Donald Johnson: Yes, between… when you get that boom. I have heard it already.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Donald Johnson: That sonic boom I guess drives people crazy. With the amount of planes in air nowadays it’s unreal. And I have a sister… I have a daughter who is down in Puerto Rico now and we hope she gets home here Sunday. She went down there on a mission a mission trip.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, excellent.

  Donald Johnson: Yeah but she… this is her second trip. That’s a poor country.

  Joshua Bell: It sure is. I’ve got one… one final question for you.

  Donald Johnson: Okay.

  Joshua Bell: Um, what are you most proud of about your service?

  Donald Johnson: What am I most proud of?

  Joshua Bell: Um, from your… from your service, from your time in the army?

  Donald Johnson: Well, I’m proud I served my country like… at the best that I knew how, and I’m proud of that. That’s the main thing that I’m proud of, but we have a great country; if we just would appreciate it. This drug business is killing our country now. People stealing and killing and everything else just to buy drugs; never heard of that when I was in the service. But now it’s just everywhere. No, we’ve got a wonderful country if we just learn to appreciate it.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hm. Well, I want you to know that I…

  Donald Johnson: Okay.

  Joshua Bell: Well, I want you to know that I appreciate you taking the time to interview for the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area oral history program, and we want to thank you for your service and… and for what you’ve done for your bit in helping secure victory.

  Donald Johnson: Okay, Joshua; I appreciate it. I hope I’ve been a little help?

  Joshua Bell: Oh, absolutely.