Title
Bob Brostad interview with Bill Feis and Jared Gledhill
Subject
World War, 1939-1945-Iowa-Oral histories
Description
Brostad was stationed in Oran, North Africa for two years as Army base ordnance and was lucky to live within the officers' club. From there, he was posted to Gray, France for another two years. When Germany surrendered, Brostad thought he might get posted to Japan, but the war ended before that happened.
Publisher
Buena Vista University
Date
12/7/2010
Rights
These oral histories are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that a credit line reads: "Courtesy of Buena Vista University Archives, Storm Lake, IA." Prior permission from the BVU Archives is required for any commercial use.
Format
video/mp4
Language
English
Type
Moving Image
Identifier
Interviewer
Bill Feis, Jared Gledhill
Interviewee
Bob Brostad
Transcription
BOB BROSTAD
Jerry Johnson [00:00:01] We're rolling.
Bill Feis [00:00:01] Okay. I'm just going to start out with a general statement. Today is December 7th, 2010, and we're interviewing Mr. Bob Brostad at-- at Buena Vista University. And Mr. Brostad is 90 years old, having been born on January 3rd, 1920. My name is Bill Feis, and along with Jared Gledhill, we'll be interviewing Mr. Brostad. Jerry Johnson is behind the camera. We'll start off with just a general question. What were you doing before the war, before you entered the service?
Bob Brostad [00:00:39] I was working in the post office and odd jobs, other than that. And before I went in the war, I was working in a restaurant, waiting to go. But I-- I volunteered for the draft and was turned down. I was 4-F. So I came home-- two of my-- two of my best friends made it. There were three of us went down. Two of 'em made it. One of 'em made it home. The other one was my cousin, he was killed in the invasion of France. And I kept trying to get in and-- and I wasn't making it, wasn't passing. And some friends came home from Chicago. They'd enlisted. So they said, "Why don't you get released from the draft board and enlist?" So I did. If you walk through the door, boy, they took you then. And so I got in. I enlisted in the ordinance. 601st Ordinance. And we went to-- we went to North Carolina for our training, Camp Sutton. And after that, we went up to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin for a few weeks, and from there we went overseas. We went overseas and I can't remember the date. It was in December, probably the 11th, 12th, something like that. We had a rough ride over. A lot of sick guys who lost the boat next to us, which were part of our guys there was two of 'em lost. They buried 'em at sea, and we landed in Oran, North-- Oran, North Africa. And it's kind of a pretty ride, the tail end of it. The first part wasn't pretty good but went through the Straits of Gibraltar, which were very pretty at night. You can see Spain and Portugal and Africa. I can't think of the name of the city on the African side, maybe you know, I don't remember. There's a-- there's a moving picture there of the city that I can't remember the name of it. Landed in Oran. And I don't know, I was on guard duty [the] first night, [chuckles] which wasn't much fun. I was in-- we had-- we were sleeping in a-- an apartment house that didn't have any roof on or windows in it. And it was just a frame building. And I was on guard duty [the] first night out behind a brick-- in a brick pile. And all of a sudden there were shells going over me. We didn't know where we were at coming in at night. And I thought we were at the front lines. [chuckles] Shells goin' over, I was scared and-- but it so happened that the Arabs were trying to break into the-- our depot. And they were just shooting over their heads, and it was goin' over me and scared me. So that's where I landed. And we were there for two years in Oran, but we were base ordnance, and we could fix anything the army had. They could fix a small rifle and the large tanks or whatever they had to be fixed if they could be fixed. If they couldn't why then it [was] junk. So from there, we went to France. We were there two years, went to Gray, France that was close to Dijon, France. Not too far from the Swiss border. We spent a year there. So I don't guess I don't have too much more to say. I had a-- a good friend-- who was a friend of mine. He was-- I think he was the youngest-- youngest lieutenant colonel at that time. I think he was 27 years old. He was in an engineer outfit. They built bridges to go across the rivers and so forth. It's interesting to see going across the Rhine River. That's quite a bridge. How they do it, I don't know. When you build a bridge temporary, that you can go over with tanks, it's pretty good. Coming back, we got to ride with the general coming back. Let us ride with him back to Oran. Flew down the Mediterranean coming back, that was smooth. The going up was rough going over the hills and mountains.
Bill Feis [00:05:03] So you were-- you were two years in North Africa and then you-- you went to France.
Bob Brostad [00:05:07] Went to France.
Bill Feis [00:05:07] Were you in southern France?
Bob Brostad [00:05:08] No, this was kind of the middle--
Bill Feis [00:05:10] Middle of France--
Bob Brostad [00:05:10] --middle of-- we weren't too far from the Swiss border. A lot of the fellows got into Switzerland, but I didn't. But that was Gray, France, and we weren't too far from Dijon. People might know where Dijon, France is. That's where I found out where my-- my cousin's husband was from or where he was north of us. I can't remember the name of the place, but I found out where he was, and I got a friend and we hitchhiked up there and got to see him and back and he ended up to be married [to] my cousin. [laughs] And he [wa]s the best man at my wedding. So. But then in France, I ran into a-- well, he wasn't my classmate. I was a freshman, and he was a senior, but I was in the officer's club. Not only carried, not only got the mail, but I also took officers' clothes to the dry cleaners and brought 'em back. And that's [unintelligible] and did odd jobs that they needed. And-- and I heard a fella talk, and I thought I heard-- knew that voice. It sounded like Jim Friedland. His brother was in my class, and he had a deep-- kind of a deep bass voice and had his glass-- sunglasses on. He was in the Air Force, you know. I was just a corporal. [chuckles] Walked up to him and saluted. And I said, "Are you Jim Friedland?" And it was. And you know, that's quite interesting clear over in the middle of France. [laughs] And talking about that, I met my best friend in Oran, North Africa. I was in the back of a command car, come at an angle like this. My best friend in high school is coming an angle like this in a six-by-six. And he had his head out the window, and I happened to see him and recognized him. And I screamed at him, and he heard me, and he stopped, and we got to talk for about 10 minutes, then he had to go. They were bivouacked outside of Oran, so. I don't know much else.
Bill Feis [00:07:22] The odds of that were--
Bob Brostad [00:07:24] I was in a kind of a bad accident and-- and going from Gray, France to Dijon to get the mail. And I was supposed to be driving and the sergeant-- we were going in [unintelligible] on the first or the first of the year [19]45. And the sergeant, he-- he's, of course, quite a bit higher than I was. He was a tech sergeant, and I had the board officer, and he said-- decided he was going to drive. So the-- we had a wet snow and you know what wet snow on blacktop does, it gets slippery. And over in France, you have the-- you have your blacktop, then you have a ditch over here, and you have little ditches that go from here into the bigger ditches. I'd never seen a road like that, but we got to spinning and hit that, tipped it over. We had a homemade wood cab on it, and the sergeant's clerk and I were in the backseat, and we were upside down. The sergeant was on his back holding the jeep up. This-- his clerk and I were-- had our heads out the back-- in the back of the jeep-- was just both our necks, and he was holding it up until some soldiers come along and got it off of us. The sergeant or the officer was hurt pretty bad, but that's the worst accident I had in the service, I guess. It was scary.
Bill Feis [00:08:51] You were in-- [crosstalk]
Bob Brostad [00:08:52] --France--
Bill Feis [00:08:52] --when Germany surrendered?
Bob Brostad [00:08:54] Yes.
Bill Feis [00:08:55] Do you remember that day when you heard the news?
Bob Brostad [00:08:58] Yeah, I remember the day. Yeah, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:09:01] And where were you and--
Bob Brostad [00:09:02] Well we was in France and I-- I was up to Germany, just, you know, catchin' a ride around with guys going someplace. But our outfit was never there. We weren't any farther than Gray, France. That's where we stayed.
Bill Feis [00:09:18] That's close enough.
Bob Brostad [00:09:19] We were based and we were attached to the Seventh Army, and we were attached to the French First Army. And so we had French in the same place we were. But the French, they had a big-- I don't know how many ton wrecker-- how many ton wreckers they had-- but anyway, they had a big wrecker parked right next to my mail truck. I had a truck, something like a-- like a pickup, like a plumber's pickup or electrician's. And they come out every morning about the same time I'd leave for Dijon, and they'd still be trying to start it [chuckles] when I get back from town. We were 35 miles or 30 miles from Dijon. They-- I don't know if they ever did get it started. [chuckles] But--
Bill Feis [00:10:13] So--
Bob Brostad [00:10:14] We had-- we also had German prisoners and Italian prisoners with us and come across from Africa with us. And the Germans were very clean, intelligent people there. And they were nice guys [unintelligible] and-- but the Italians we had-- I had to do guard duty on the boat, and they'd get sick and they set down below the same way, and they would get up, you know, go to the restroom or go to the edge of the boat. And I remember one day it was hot, sun was shining, and I was about ready to get sick, too. So I just grabbed the one guy by the hair, pointed to the side of the boat to go over there and do his thing. But I don't know much else, I guess, to tell you.
Bill Feis [00:11:09] Did you-- do you remember thinking about when-- when Germany surrendered-- did you know once that happened, if you were going to be sent to the Pacific Theater where--
Bob Brostad [00:11:25] Yeah, we were-- they were planning on that. Yeah, we'd already been over there three years, and they were thinking about sending us to the Pacific. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:11:33] Were you were you going to be doing the same thing?
Bob Brostad [00:11:37] Yes?
Bill Feis [00:11:37] In the Pacfic? Or would they have put you--
Bob Brostad [00:11:37] Well, I'm sure we would, yeah. Our outfit was-- they called it the General Motors outfit. So both of our officers were General Motors dealers, car dealers like Don Dlugosch here in Storm Lake [unintelligible]. Let's see, I think he was our C Company captain. And there's quite a bit of [unintelligible]. Our first battalion commander was the head coach for the Minnesota-- University of Minnesota football team. He was our commander, and he was a good one. And of course, a football guy is gonna be pretty good. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:12:21] How did you feel then when you found-- when you heard that Japan had surrendered and-- and--
Bob Brostad [00:12:26] That was the one that was-- was really good. We knew then we'd get to go home because we were worried about having to go that way. And so that was-- that was a pretty highlight, that we knew we were going to get to go home.
Jared Gledhill [00:12:42] Was there a lot of celebration when you heard? [laughter] Or should I--
Bob Brostad [00:12:49] Well, they said they brought in a six by six loaded up with wine or champagne, and I guess it was all gone [be]for[e] very long. So I guess we were glad to go home.
Jared Gledhill [00:13:04] Probably good to be in France at that point, wasn't it?
Bill Feis [00:13:08] So did you go-- how long was it before you got to go home? When did you--
Bob Brostad [00:13:12] You know, I don't remember that. I don't remember. We came home and I got out of the service. I was going to bring my discharge papers. I forgot it. But I think it was-- I think it was about the 11th of December that I got out, of '45. So. . .
Bill Feis [00:13:33] So, they shipped you back home and you-- then what did you do when you came home? What--
Bill Feis [00:13:39] Look for-- look for a job. [chuckles] I don't remember what I did. I guess I-- at first, I think I worked up at Arnold's Park. I got a job working up there runnin'-- we had-- did we have one, two, three-- two, three, four. We had four rides up at Arnold's Park and went up there in the spring. We set them up, and that's where I worked the first year out of service. Well, 'for' I start that I-- I worked for the implement dealer who had a bunch of grain trucks. And I went around out in Nebraska, and South Dakota, and Minnesota buyin'-- and just locating the corn and the trucks come along, pick it up. That's what I did for quite a few months 'for' [before]. Finally ended up back in the post office again. The girl that took my job-- I got back, and I ended up, I can't remember how many years I worked as clerk. I think it was five years as clerk. And then I became [a] rural mail carrier. I carried mail for 34 years, five years in the office. So then I retired and ended up down here now, so.
Bill Feis [00:14:52] For your service, What-- what are you most proud of when you think of your service in the war? What you did or what you-- when you think--
Bob Brostad [00:15:02] Well, I don't know what I was proud of myself, but as our outfit, we had a very good outfit. We had good mechanics, and we were-- I mean there were a pretty intelligent bunch of fellows. They were all-- most all of of our mechanics were Chevrolet mechanics. And as I said, it was a General Motors more or less, a General Motors outfit. And they had a lot of good friends, intelligent friends. Some of the guys had awful good jobs. We had lawyers and doctors and so forth. So we had-- we had a good bunch.
Bill Feis [00:15:45] And the-- they obviously-- the Army couldn't run without people who knew how to fix all that stuff.
Bob Brostad [00:15:52] Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:15:54] Very important.
Bob Brostad [00:15:55] Yeah, we had good men. Yeah, a lot of our-- we had a lot of fellows from Waterloo that worked out there and a lot from Detroit, Michigan. My best friend was from Grand Rapids. He was an auditor for City Service Oil Company. And so it was a lot of-- we had lawyers. We had one lawyer that died from homesickness, you might say. He wouldn't eat. And so-- yeah, we had some good men. I was proud of 'em. And I think the govern-- or the Army was, too.
Bill Feis [00:16:32] It sounds like a very interesting unit that they were able to collect together some real talent for the jobs [crosstalk] --
Bob Brostad [00:16:42] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:16:45] --they needed to do.
[00:16:45] Well, Don-- I think I told you, Don Dlugosch was-- he was a Chevrolet dealer. He was one of our captains. Had a lot of fellas from Storm Lake in our outfit. I don't know how many, it must have been probably eight, ten, from Storm Lake. I think there was five or six of us from [the] little town of Linn Grove in our outfit, so.
Jared Gledhill [00:17:11] Do you remember anything, like, specific, specific that you guys did, whether it be in Germany or-- not, Germany in France or in North Africa? Something. Anything. Like USO tour, is there a USO tour that came through? Did you guys get to see--
Bob Brostad [00:17:29] Any what?
Jared Gledhill [00:17:29] USO-- the USO? Did you get to catch a USO tour? Come through?
Bob Brostad [00:17:34] USO came through. Yeah, they did. Yeah, they have shows, yeah. It was fun. Nice to have. And sing your old songs and so forth, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:17:45] Did you get to see Bob Hope?
Bob Brostad [00:17:47] I don't remember Bob Hope. No, there. No.
Bill Feis [00:17:50] Well, they had a lot of shows, so.
Bob Brostad [00:17:52] Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:17:52] Maybe [unintelligible]. What did you-- when you were-- what did you do for your leisure time when you were-- did you get to go on leave at all in North Africa?
Bob Brostad [00:18:03] Well, like I said, I went up to-- up to-- what did I say-- that's [chuckles]--
Bill Feis [00:18:09] You didn't get to go to Paris, right?
Bob Brostad [00:18:14] Yes, I was in Paris. I was in the tower there and--
Bill Feis [00:18:18] Are we allowed to ask you [crosstalk]--
Bob Brostad [00:18:20] --paid up there on the Eiffel Tower. And I can tell you about getting on a train to go into Paris. I was telling you about Bob Peterson from Storm Lake. He-- he was in high school. He was a grade behind me-- behind in school. He and his sister. And they were very smart, and I didn't like to study too well. If I didn't like to study, I'd say something about Roosevelt. They were Democrats and my dad was a Republican. [chuckles] They took care of my study hall. But anyway, we go into Paris, why we were getting on the train. And-- and there was a bunch of these paratroopers there were on, too. And the French take their ducks and their geese and everything and chickens on the train with them. And of course, these paratroopers wanted on the train, so they were just throwing them out the window and out the doors. And they let us on-- [laughs] we got in with them. We decided we weren't going to argue with them, but we had a good time in Paris. Paris is a nice city.
Bill Feis [00:19:25] How many days did you spend there?
Bob Brostad [00:19:27] Just a couple of days, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:19:29] What sorts of things-- were there restrictions on what you could do or could you pretty much go anywhere?
Bob Brostad [00:19:35] Pretty much do what we wanted to. Far as I know we did, anyway, so. I went-- towards the end of the war. Well, after the war was over over there I rode with a friend of mine in a six-by-six. They tried to, you know, steal from each other, you know, you probably know that. [laughter] And we had a lot of stuff that we stole along the way and-- and we had to get rid of. So you get rid of 'em to other units. And so I got around France quite a bit with-- that way. What bothered me and amazed me was after the war, you'd drive along these valleys, just valleys full of tanks and half-tracks and jeeps and six-by-sixes, just laying there to rust-- rust out. They said it was cheaper to do that than it was to try to haul them home on boats, so. But that's an interesting thing. And I thought it was very interesting to see how they crossed the river up there gettin' into Germany. Rhine River, that's-- that's really something to see a bridge made like that [crosstalk]--
Jared Gledhill [00:20:53] You were talking--
Bob Brostad [00:20:55] --how they do it.
Jared Gledhill [00:20:56] You were talking about the mail. What was one of, like, the most unique things that you saw somebody try and ship back--
Bob Brostad [00:21:02] The what?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:02] What was one of the most unique things that you saw somebody try and ship back from Germany?
Bob Brostad [00:21:07] Ship out?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:08] Yup. Try and ship back home.
Bob Brostad [00:21:10] Oh, that the soldiers did?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:12] Yeah.
Bob Brostad [00:21:12] I never saw any that, I don't know. We weren't up in Germany.
Jared Gledhill [00:21:17] Or-- or in France.
Bob Brostad [00:21:19] Oh, Kaisers-- shipping guns and so forth. And you could ship a rifle home. I know I shipped one home and my cousin wanted it. So I gave it to him and he made another. I don't know how they'd redo it.
Bill Feis [00:21:32] Was that against regulations or did you just--
Bob Brostad [00:21:34] Well, you could-- No, you could do it. But you had to have permission some way or another. I don't know how you did it, but some fellows got home with a lot of stuff. I don't know how they did that.
Jared Gledhill [00:21:46] Any Jeeps? Any of your friends try and mail a Jeep back?
Bob Brostad [00:21:50] Not that I know of, no. Some of them have one. I know somebody here in Storm Lake had one [chuckles], but I don't know that [it had] come from over there-- probably came from the States. But he was in France. He was on the invasion in France. How they get 'em home, I don't know.
Jared Gledhill [00:22:08] Those are questions that most people just don't ask, right?
Bob Brostad [00:22:11] I'd like to have had one. [chuckles] As I was a mail carrier, I could have used one, but I ended up with a Jeep. I ended up with two Jeeps. They weren't Army Jeeps, though.
Jared Gledhill [00:22:23] So they worked. [crosstalk]
Bob Brostad [00:22:24] Pardon? Civilian jeeps, yeah. I think I had three Jeeps. They were-- you could really plow a lot of snow with a Jeep.
Bill Feis [00:22:35] So when you-- you said that you-- it sounds like you hopped to ride once in a while. And when you said you went into Germany, you saw the Rhine River, did you do that? Just go with some people up there when you--
Bob Brostad [00:22:49] Just catch a ride with some of the guys who were going up there. Yeah. Yeah. We had fellows that had to haul here and there and-- and haul equipment and so forth. I had friends that drove truck and haul[ed] stuff here and there. So I got around quite a bit. I was in Germany and-- and-- what's the other country up there? Can't even say the name of it. My memory isn't working.
Bill Feis [00:23:19] Luxembourg, maybe? Or--
Bob Brostad [00:23:20] Well, next to Luxembourg.
Bill Feis [00:23:22] Belgium?
Bob Brostad [00:23:22] Belgium. I was in Belgium and Germany, that's all. I should have gone to Switzerland. That's where I wanted to go. But I never got there. So that's a pretty country, I guess.
Bill Feis [00:23:35] Beautiful.
Bob Brostad [00:23:35] We weren't very far from there.
Bill Feis [00:23:40] Was there anything else that you-- you want to tell us? I mean, you-- you have a very fascinating--
Bob Brostad [00:23:49] Oh, I can't think of anything. Sleeping in the mud in a pup tent isn't much fun. [chuckles] Gettin' off a boat and climbing down those ropes into a small boat to land. Somethin' different. But it's a good education. I know the fellow that had my mail wrote before me, said "I'm glad I went to the service, but I wouldn't go again." [laughs] That's the way I am. But lot of-- been a lot more probably to stay in and got a pension out of it, but--
Bill Feis [00:24:23] Did you think about that at the time or--
Bob Brostad [00:24:26] No, I was too happy to get home, but some fellows did. Yeah. But it's interesting. I didn't tell this, when we first got over there, of course, [there] wasn't any mail. So I either had to be on guard duty, and I was in B Company when I first got over there, and then I was transferred to Headquarters company. But they had me help them put together Jeeps and six-by-sixes and so forth. They come in crates, parts of 'em come in crates, and then ya assemble them over there. That's what I did at first and-- this lieutenant and I got along pretty well and he wanted to-- wanted me to go back to my company and be with him. They'd give me a sergeant's rating right away. But I lived within the Officers Club. We lived in tennis court, in the Oran tennis court, is where we lived, and it was pretty nice to live in and had my own vehicle, and it looked better to me than doing dirty work, so.
Bill Feis [00:25:39] Well, I can understand that. [laughs]
Bob Brostad [00:25:43] Well, it don't take long after you're in the service, you want to get-- [laughs] And another thing while we were there, I mean, if you got in trouble, they didn't-- they shipped you right up to the infantry. So you wanted to behave. And I know a good friend of mine, he was-- he was-- his dad and the commanding officer, the end coach from the University of Minnesota were good friends and he got into trouble. And that didn't make any difference. He went up to the front. He came home, but so you learned to behave. [laughter] And being a sergeant, I don't think you want to get in trouble anyway. You might be a private.
Jared Gledhill [00:26:38] That's often how that works, isn't it. Usually. [laughter] I guess taking a step back to when you were in-- up at Camp McCoy, Fort McCoy up in Wisconsin. Any-- most of the-- most of that place is still around. Any-- any big memories or any good memories of-- of bein' up there?
Bob Brostad [00:26:56] No, not really. I remember, I-- I got a headache. This wasn't Army stuff. I got a headache. But there's a kid in our unit that said he was a chiropractor. I'd been to a chiropractor, so I thought, Well, I'll go down to him. By the time he got through with me and got back to my tent, the tent was going around and around, I had to crawl back to him. And-- and he finally got me out of it, but he gave me-- I never went back again. [chuckles] But up at Camp McCoy, we didn't do much of anything. Just sit there and-- I probably shouldn't tell this, but one night we went out. My friend from Linn Grove had his car up there, and we were going to a nightclub. And first town we were going to a bar, and we didn't like it there. So across into Minnesota, there was a nightclub. So we decided to go over there and and so we took off and-- and we passed a car. This kid had a DeSoto two-door, and we passed this four-door, DeSoto. And all of a sudden he went around us. Then a siren went off. We thought we were hooked. That was back, well, what was the speed limit then? 50? Think that's what it was. And so we slowed down, but it was the guy that passed us they got. And they threw a bottle out, so they got picked up. But-- but it was a funny thing because his best friend was-- when we got to the dance hall, we wasn't there very long, and the kid that had the car, his best friend was with us. And-- and what happened? I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, Jack come over to me and he says, "We're going home." I thought that was kind of funny. We just got there. But I went to the car, got in the car and started to go. I said, "Where's-- Where's Arlie?" "I don't know and I don't care." [laughs] We got to get back to the camp, and he was home. How he got there ahead of us I don't know, but I thought that was interesting. I don't know what else to tell you.
Bill Feis [00:29:21] Well, if there's anything else that you-- you, you know, as you-- as you're thinking about it, if there's anything else that you--
Bob Brostad [00:29:28] I can't think of--
Bill Feis [00:29:29] --that you're, you know, training or any other experiences that--
Bob Brostad [00:29:32] Well, we trained in Camp Sutton, and they had us marching out in--I don't know what-- whether it was a wheat field or what it was. Dusty, terrible. Camp McCoy or-- not Camp McCoy, Camp Sutton is in North Carolina, and it gets humid there at night, and you hang your clothes in the tent. They'd be wet in the morning. You'd have to put them underneath your blanket that you slept on. And, oh, I can tell you one story about coming home one night. I was out too late. Coming in the [chuckles] back of the tent. Coming in behind-- too late at night. And so I was crawlin' in the tent to get in, you know, they had about a 10- or 12-inch board along the bottom of your tent there. And I got in and the-- the guys had got a cat and a dog. We had our bug screens open and they put him in my bed [someone laughs off-screen] got him all tangled up. But I didn't think that was very nice of 'em. [To Jared Gledhill] But you wouldn't do anything like that. I could tell that by looking at you.
Jared Gledhill [00:30:49] Oh, no. Never. [laughter]
Bill Feis [00:30:55] I'm not sure if I asked this or not. Did I ask you when you heard about Pearl Harbor, where you were, and your reaction to-- to--
Bob Brostad [00:31:07] Well, we all thought, well, that's where we're going to go. We didn't have any doubt in our mind that we were going to have to go over there, too. So that was the story that was going around besides. And I don't know, they were just showing pictures of some of that on TV this morning. And it must have been terrible to see those big boats all burning up and sinking. Looked like a big boo-boo to me, I don't know. Somebody was asleep.
Bill Feis [00:31:44] When you-- when you heard about it, did you think that it would mean you would be going off to war?
Bob Brostad [00:31:51] Oh, we were sure of it, yeah. Yeah, there was talk of it, so. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:31:58] And then you tried to-- you tried to-- You had-- for the draft. And then you were 4-F. And then you-- you volunteered.
Bob Brostad [00:32:09] I enlisted and then I got in. Yeah.
Jared Gledhill [00:32:15] What made you decide the Army?
Bob Brostad [00:32:16] Pardon?
Jared Gledhill [00:32:17] What made you decide the Army?
Bob Brostad [00:32:19] I have no idea. [laughs] Everybody was going to the Army, I guess. I know a lot of fellows joined the Navy, had friends that joined the Navy, but I never thought that I'd like to be out in the middle of the ocean being shot at. [chuckles] Of course, we weren't shot at. We had some bombing in-- in Oran, but oh, I can tell you a story about Oran. We had some guys that had an apartment out-- outside on the outer edge of Or-- Oran, and when I went out to pick 'em up-- at a certain time they'd call me to come get them and [I] went out to get 'em, and on the way back, we had an air raid. And of course, you shut off your lights and pulled to the side of the road. And there was an [unintelligible] above 'em whenever they shot up anti-aircraft at the airplanes. This guy was running this [unintelligible]. And one time when they started shooting, well, he just froze right there. He had one leg in, one leg behind. [chuckles] Scared to death. I always think of that poor guy. He was really scared.
Bill Feis [00:33:31] I can understand that.
Jared Gledhill [00:33:36] I can, too.
Bob Brostad [00:33:36] But we were pretty fortunate to not have much bombing.
Jared Gledhill [00:33:44] Were you happy to make the move from-- from Oran up to-- up to France?
Bob Brostad [00:33:49] France? Oh, I don't know if we were happy. I guess you just take it as it comes. But--
Jared Gledhill [00:33:55] There's that.
Bob Brostad [00:33:57] But we were in-- it rained a lot after we first landed, and we slept in pup tents and mud. And that's not much fun. But we liked it in France. Yeah, and Oran was a pretty nice city, really. There was a lot of bad parts of it, but there was about four or five of us that met a French family outside of Oran. We'd go out there just about every Sunday. They had a beautiful orchard. They had grapefruit and oranges and stuff, and they'd feed us. We'd take some food along, too. And so, we had a good-- we enjoyed Oran. Got hot there. But enjoyed it much.
Bill Feis [00:34:44] Did you see many French civilians when you were in France? Did you interact with many French civilians?
Bob Brostad [00:34:51] Well, we were test of French First Army. Yeah. So we were-- and I don't know what you call it-- our-- where we lived it was right with the French. Yeah, but the French weren't very ambitious. Italians were less ambitious, I thought, but, yeah, I could see why the Italians were taken over pretty easy. Even France, I guess. I've been to France since, back in [19]72. My-- my wife's mother came from Ireland, so we took her back to Ireland, and then we went from there to England and over to France. And I wanted to see where my cousin's grave was. That's the one thing that-- if you ever go to France, you want to see the graveyards over there. They're just beautiful. You can't believe how nice they are. No, I was happy. I thought that his folks should have brought him home, but they wanted him buried over there. And my cousin is buried up to the front of the cemetery. There was a picture of the cemetery in the Des Moines Sunday Register. This was right after the war. And it showed his grave and the-- those stones, Italian marble, white marble that are just beautiful, and they're just as perfect as could be. [unintelligible] And they're kept well. They were still kept nice when I was over there, so I suppose they're still kept nice.
Bill Feis [00:36:30] This was your cousin? He was. He was killed in action?
Bill Feis [00:36:33] Yes. Yeah, he was in a-- he was a lieutenant. He had a half-track, but they had a different name for it. But I thought it was a half-track, but they were being shot at, and he crawled underneath the half-track and it got him underneath the half-track. His sister and her husband had found-- found some fellows that worked in that outfit and got all the information so they knew what happened.
Bill Feis [00:37:11] Well, we sure do thank you for taking the time to come--
Bob Brostad [00:37:15] Well, I hope you got all you wanted, I don't know.
Bill Feis [00:37:17] We did and more. It's very much-- we-- we ask questions and just let-- let you think about what you want to talk about. And it was fantastic. So we really appreciate it.
Bob Brostad [00:37:32] It's quite a thing to go across the ocean if you've never been across the ocean at all. We were on a-- our boat was a-- had been a banana boat and it wasn't much of a boat. But the storm we were in, the boat next to us-- the ratings on the boat were all washed off. And we had-- we were on D deck, but the C deck had water in it, going back and forth, sloshing back and forth. We were in quite a storm, and it's kind of scary when you can't see the boat. They're pretty big boats. You can't see 'em next to you part of the time. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:38:10] Yeah, you traveled the hard way. Nowadays when you hop in an airplane and you're there quick--
Bob Brostad [00:38:17] Oh, yeah. [crosstalk] I think we were about two weeks going across. They had to go down around, you know, they didn't just go straight across. So, it's-- it's a life that you learn a lot, and it's nice to think about, but I'd-- you have to be tougher than I am to want to stay there. [laughter]
Jared Gledhill [00:38:40] What did you do--
Bob Brostad [00:38:41] You think you're tough when you go. [laughter] It don't take long to find out you're not tough. [laughter]
Jared Gledhill [00:38:47] What did you do to pass the time while you were on the boat?
Bob Brostad [00:38:49] On the boat?
Jared Gledhill [00:38:50] Yeah.
Bob Brostad [00:38:51] Well, I have to tell you, this one friend of mine, he inherited a lot of money. This is back in the early thirties [1930s], he inherited, I think it was 20,000. So he was pretty wealthy at that time, and he blew it all, and he was in our outfit going over. So I was the guy that probably had the least money of anybody, and he come borrow money from me. And [chuckles] I lent him money, and-- and he'd-- he'd win it-- win it back and then he'd come pay me back. And that's all he did, all the way across. I said, "Why don't we just-- I'll lend you the money, we'll keep track, and you pay me when you get back over-- overseas." That-- that's the way he wanted to do. And he paid it all back. But most of the guys played-- played cards, played poker. I wasn't a poker player. I learned that fast. [chuckles] And you learn one thing in the service, there's always somebody a lot smarter than you are. And the guys from the city are the ones that are smarter. They're str-- street smart. And I don't know, you know, a guy tried to teach me how to play a few cards, and I lost my money pretty fast. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:40:06] Well, that that was an education right there.
Bob Brostad [00:40:08] It was an education, yeah. Blackjack was was the game. [laughs] Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:40:11] Well--
Bob Brostad [00:40:19] But I made a lot of good friends in the service, had a lot of friends. Nice people.
Bill Feis [00:40:24] Did you keep in contact with-- with them after the war?
Bob Brostad [00:40:26] Used to. We had up until-- oh, it's been probably 20 years ago, more and more than that, I guess. We used to have a reunion every year. Yeah. We had them down [in] Des Moines and Chicago and Wisconsin. Michigan. Yeah. And it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. The chaplain used to be there, pert' near very time. Yeah, but it got down to where, you know, I-- I don't have any-- I haven't had any Army friends for, I don't know how many years ago, but dead. I was one of the younger ones. And so I think my-- I think my one buck-- buck sergeant, I think he was 40-something, 42 or something like that when I first went in. He was a-- in [a] career. A lot of the fellas [were] a lot older than I was. My best friend, I think, was 32 or three. One sad thing that was sad was fellas got married before they-- just after they got in the service or just before they did. And, you know, the wives were left. And it's hard on some of them guys. I know one friend of mine, he was just about broke in half, you know, he was sick. But he was a kid that I was telling you about, going out to these people in Oran on Sundays. And we'd take pictures. They had a daughter who was 14, but she looked like she was 16, 17, pretty girl. And he'd take pictures and send them home to his wife. We told him he shouldn't do that. I mean, there was nothing going on, but, you know, they can think pretty fast and-- and it ended up in a divorce. And that's too bad. And my best-- my best friend-- he-- his wife had another fellow when he got home.
Jared Gledhill [00:42:50] I heard that was fairly common.
Bob Brostad [00:42:52] That's the sad thing about the service if you're married. Of course, nowadays I guess you can take your wife with you, can't you? Some places.
Jared Gledhill [00:43:02] Some places.
Bob Brostad [00:43:02] Yeah, of course not where they're fighting, but--
Jared Gledhill [00:43:07] I think the enemy was more worried about my wife than me.
Bob Brostad [00:43:10] North Korea?
Jared Gledhill [00:43:13] Japan.
Bill Feis [00:43:16] Well, I think--
Bob Brostad [00:43:17] What's what's going to happen? North Korea and South Korea? [Interview ends]
Jerry Johnson [00:00:01] We're rolling.
Bill Feis [00:00:01] Okay. I'm just going to start out with a general statement. Today is December 7th, 2010, and we're interviewing Mr. Bob Brostad at-- at Buena Vista University. And Mr. Brostad is 90 years old, having been born on January 3rd, 1920. My name is Bill Feis, and along with Jared Gledhill, we'll be interviewing Mr. Brostad. Jerry Johnson is behind the camera. We'll start off with just a general question. What were you doing before the war, before you entered the service?
Bob Brostad [00:00:39] I was working in the post office and odd jobs, other than that. And before I went in the war, I was working in a restaurant, waiting to go. But I-- I volunteered for the draft and was turned down. I was 4-F. So I came home-- two of my-- two of my best friends made it. There were three of us went down. Two of 'em made it. One of 'em made it home. The other one was my cousin, he was killed in the invasion of France. And I kept trying to get in and-- and I wasn't making it, wasn't passing. And some friends came home from Chicago. They'd enlisted. So they said, "Why don't you get released from the draft board and enlist?" So I did. If you walk through the door, boy, they took you then. And so I got in. I enlisted in the ordinance. 601st Ordinance. And we went to-- we went to North Carolina for our training, Camp Sutton. And after that, we went up to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin for a few weeks, and from there we went overseas. We went overseas and I can't remember the date. It was in December, probably the 11th, 12th, something like that. We had a rough ride over. A lot of sick guys who lost the boat next to us, which were part of our guys there was two of 'em lost. They buried 'em at sea, and we landed in Oran, North-- Oran, North Africa. And it's kind of a pretty ride, the tail end of it. The first part wasn't pretty good but went through the Straits of Gibraltar, which were very pretty at night. You can see Spain and Portugal and Africa. I can't think of the name of the city on the African side, maybe you know, I don't remember. There's a-- there's a moving picture there of the city that I can't remember the name of it. Landed in Oran. And I don't know, I was on guard duty [the] first night, [chuckles] which wasn't much fun. I was in-- we had-- we were sleeping in a-- an apartment house that didn't have any roof on or windows in it. And it was just a frame building. And I was on guard duty [the] first night out behind a brick-- in a brick pile. And all of a sudden there were shells going over me. We didn't know where we were at coming in at night. And I thought we were at the front lines. [chuckles] Shells goin' over, I was scared and-- but it so happened that the Arabs were trying to break into the-- our depot. And they were just shooting over their heads, and it was goin' over me and scared me. So that's where I landed. And we were there for two years in Oran, but we were base ordnance, and we could fix anything the army had. They could fix a small rifle and the large tanks or whatever they had to be fixed if they could be fixed. If they couldn't why then it [was] junk. So from there, we went to France. We were there two years, went to Gray, France that was close to Dijon, France. Not too far from the Swiss border. We spent a year there. So I don't guess I don't have too much more to say. I had a-- a good friend-- who was a friend of mine. He was-- I think he was the youngest-- youngest lieutenant colonel at that time. I think he was 27 years old. He was in an engineer outfit. They built bridges to go across the rivers and so forth. It's interesting to see going across the Rhine River. That's quite a bridge. How they do it, I don't know. When you build a bridge temporary, that you can go over with tanks, it's pretty good. Coming back, we got to ride with the general coming back. Let us ride with him back to Oran. Flew down the Mediterranean coming back, that was smooth. The going up was rough going over the hills and mountains.
Bill Feis [00:05:03] So you were-- you were two years in North Africa and then you-- you went to France.
Bob Brostad [00:05:07] Went to France.
Bill Feis [00:05:07] Were you in southern France?
Bob Brostad [00:05:08] No, this was kind of the middle--
Bill Feis [00:05:10] Middle of France--
Bob Brostad [00:05:10] --middle of-- we weren't too far from the Swiss border. A lot of the fellows got into Switzerland, but I didn't. But that was Gray, France, and we weren't too far from Dijon. People might know where Dijon, France is. That's where I found out where my-- my cousin's husband was from or where he was north of us. I can't remember the name of the place, but I found out where he was, and I got a friend and we hitchhiked up there and got to see him and back and he ended up to be married [to] my cousin. [laughs] And he [wa]s the best man at my wedding. So. But then in France, I ran into a-- well, he wasn't my classmate. I was a freshman, and he was a senior, but I was in the officer's club. Not only carried, not only got the mail, but I also took officers' clothes to the dry cleaners and brought 'em back. And that's [unintelligible] and did odd jobs that they needed. And-- and I heard a fella talk, and I thought I heard-- knew that voice. It sounded like Jim Friedland. His brother was in my class, and he had a deep-- kind of a deep bass voice and had his glass-- sunglasses on. He was in the Air Force, you know. I was just a corporal. [chuckles] Walked up to him and saluted. And I said, "Are you Jim Friedland?" And it was. And you know, that's quite interesting clear over in the middle of France. [laughs] And talking about that, I met my best friend in Oran, North Africa. I was in the back of a command car, come at an angle like this. My best friend in high school is coming an angle like this in a six-by-six. And he had his head out the window, and I happened to see him and recognized him. And I screamed at him, and he heard me, and he stopped, and we got to talk for about 10 minutes, then he had to go. They were bivouacked outside of Oran, so. I don't know much else.
Bill Feis [00:07:22] The odds of that were--
Bob Brostad [00:07:24] I was in a kind of a bad accident and-- and going from Gray, France to Dijon to get the mail. And I was supposed to be driving and the sergeant-- we were going in [unintelligible] on the first or the first of the year [19]45. And the sergeant, he-- he's, of course, quite a bit higher than I was. He was a tech sergeant, and I had the board officer, and he said-- decided he was going to drive. So the-- we had a wet snow and you know what wet snow on blacktop does, it gets slippery. And over in France, you have the-- you have your blacktop, then you have a ditch over here, and you have little ditches that go from here into the bigger ditches. I'd never seen a road like that, but we got to spinning and hit that, tipped it over. We had a homemade wood cab on it, and the sergeant's clerk and I were in the backseat, and we were upside down. The sergeant was on his back holding the jeep up. This-- his clerk and I were-- had our heads out the back-- in the back of the jeep-- was just both our necks, and he was holding it up until some soldiers come along and got it off of us. The sergeant or the officer was hurt pretty bad, but that's the worst accident I had in the service, I guess. It was scary.
Bill Feis [00:08:51] You were in-- [crosstalk]
Bob Brostad [00:08:52] --France--
Bill Feis [00:08:52] --when Germany surrendered?
Bob Brostad [00:08:54] Yes.
Bill Feis [00:08:55] Do you remember that day when you heard the news?
Bob Brostad [00:08:58] Yeah, I remember the day. Yeah, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:09:01] And where were you and--
Bob Brostad [00:09:02] Well we was in France and I-- I was up to Germany, just, you know, catchin' a ride around with guys going someplace. But our outfit was never there. We weren't any farther than Gray, France. That's where we stayed.
Bill Feis [00:09:18] That's close enough.
Bob Brostad [00:09:19] We were based and we were attached to the Seventh Army, and we were attached to the French First Army. And so we had French in the same place we were. But the French, they had a big-- I don't know how many ton wrecker-- how many ton wreckers they had-- but anyway, they had a big wrecker parked right next to my mail truck. I had a truck, something like a-- like a pickup, like a plumber's pickup or electrician's. And they come out every morning about the same time I'd leave for Dijon, and they'd still be trying to start it [chuckles] when I get back from town. We were 35 miles or 30 miles from Dijon. They-- I don't know if they ever did get it started. [chuckles] But--
Bill Feis [00:10:13] So--
Bob Brostad [00:10:14] We had-- we also had German prisoners and Italian prisoners with us and come across from Africa with us. And the Germans were very clean, intelligent people there. And they were nice guys [unintelligible] and-- but the Italians we had-- I had to do guard duty on the boat, and they'd get sick and they set down below the same way, and they would get up, you know, go to the restroom or go to the edge of the boat. And I remember one day it was hot, sun was shining, and I was about ready to get sick, too. So I just grabbed the one guy by the hair, pointed to the side of the boat to go over there and do his thing. But I don't know much else, I guess, to tell you.
Bill Feis [00:11:09] Did you-- do you remember thinking about when-- when Germany surrendered-- did you know once that happened, if you were going to be sent to the Pacific Theater where--
Bob Brostad [00:11:25] Yeah, we were-- they were planning on that. Yeah, we'd already been over there three years, and they were thinking about sending us to the Pacific. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:11:33] Were you were you going to be doing the same thing?
Bob Brostad [00:11:37] Yes?
Bill Feis [00:11:37] In the Pacfic? Or would they have put you--
Bob Brostad [00:11:37] Well, I'm sure we would, yeah. Our outfit was-- they called it the General Motors outfit. So both of our officers were General Motors dealers, car dealers like Don Dlugosch here in Storm Lake [unintelligible]. Let's see, I think he was our C Company captain. And there's quite a bit of [unintelligible]. Our first battalion commander was the head coach for the Minnesota-- University of Minnesota football team. He was our commander, and he was a good one. And of course, a football guy is gonna be pretty good. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:12:21] How did you feel then when you found-- when you heard that Japan had surrendered and-- and--
Bob Brostad [00:12:26] That was the one that was-- was really good. We knew then we'd get to go home because we were worried about having to go that way. And so that was-- that was a pretty highlight, that we knew we were going to get to go home.
Jared Gledhill [00:12:42] Was there a lot of celebration when you heard? [laughter] Or should I--
Bob Brostad [00:12:49] Well, they said they brought in a six by six loaded up with wine or champagne, and I guess it was all gone [be]for[e] very long. So I guess we were glad to go home.
Jared Gledhill [00:13:04] Probably good to be in France at that point, wasn't it?
Bill Feis [00:13:08] So did you go-- how long was it before you got to go home? When did you--
Bob Brostad [00:13:12] You know, I don't remember that. I don't remember. We came home and I got out of the service. I was going to bring my discharge papers. I forgot it. But I think it was-- I think it was about the 11th of December that I got out, of '45. So. . .
Bill Feis [00:13:33] So, they shipped you back home and you-- then what did you do when you came home? What--
Bill Feis [00:13:39] Look for-- look for a job. [chuckles] I don't remember what I did. I guess I-- at first, I think I worked up at Arnold's Park. I got a job working up there runnin'-- we had-- did we have one, two, three-- two, three, four. We had four rides up at Arnold's Park and went up there in the spring. We set them up, and that's where I worked the first year out of service. Well, 'for' I start that I-- I worked for the implement dealer who had a bunch of grain trucks. And I went around out in Nebraska, and South Dakota, and Minnesota buyin'-- and just locating the corn and the trucks come along, pick it up. That's what I did for quite a few months 'for' [before]. Finally ended up back in the post office again. The girl that took my job-- I got back, and I ended up, I can't remember how many years I worked as clerk. I think it was five years as clerk. And then I became [a] rural mail carrier. I carried mail for 34 years, five years in the office. So then I retired and ended up down here now, so.
Bill Feis [00:14:52] For your service, What-- what are you most proud of when you think of your service in the war? What you did or what you-- when you think--
Bob Brostad [00:15:02] Well, I don't know what I was proud of myself, but as our outfit, we had a very good outfit. We had good mechanics, and we were-- I mean there were a pretty intelligent bunch of fellows. They were all-- most all of of our mechanics were Chevrolet mechanics. And as I said, it was a General Motors more or less, a General Motors outfit. And they had a lot of good friends, intelligent friends. Some of the guys had awful good jobs. We had lawyers and doctors and so forth. So we had-- we had a good bunch.
Bill Feis [00:15:45] And the-- they obviously-- the Army couldn't run without people who knew how to fix all that stuff.
Bob Brostad [00:15:52] Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:15:54] Very important.
Bob Brostad [00:15:55] Yeah, we had good men. Yeah, a lot of our-- we had a lot of fellows from Waterloo that worked out there and a lot from Detroit, Michigan. My best friend was from Grand Rapids. He was an auditor for City Service Oil Company. And so it was a lot of-- we had lawyers. We had one lawyer that died from homesickness, you might say. He wouldn't eat. And so-- yeah, we had some good men. I was proud of 'em. And I think the govern-- or the Army was, too.
Bill Feis [00:16:32] It sounds like a very interesting unit that they were able to collect together some real talent for the jobs [crosstalk] --
Bob Brostad [00:16:42] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:16:45] --they needed to do.
[00:16:45] Well, Don-- I think I told you, Don Dlugosch was-- he was a Chevrolet dealer. He was one of our captains. Had a lot of fellas from Storm Lake in our outfit. I don't know how many, it must have been probably eight, ten, from Storm Lake. I think there was five or six of us from [the] little town of Linn Grove in our outfit, so.
Jared Gledhill [00:17:11] Do you remember anything, like, specific, specific that you guys did, whether it be in Germany or-- not, Germany in France or in North Africa? Something. Anything. Like USO tour, is there a USO tour that came through? Did you guys get to see--
Bob Brostad [00:17:29] Any what?
Jared Gledhill [00:17:29] USO-- the USO? Did you get to catch a USO tour? Come through?
Bob Brostad [00:17:34] USO came through. Yeah, they did. Yeah, they have shows, yeah. It was fun. Nice to have. And sing your old songs and so forth, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:17:45] Did you get to see Bob Hope?
Bob Brostad [00:17:47] I don't remember Bob Hope. No, there. No.
Bill Feis [00:17:50] Well, they had a lot of shows, so.
Bob Brostad [00:17:52] Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:17:52] Maybe [unintelligible]. What did you-- when you were-- what did you do for your leisure time when you were-- did you get to go on leave at all in North Africa?
Bob Brostad [00:18:03] Well, like I said, I went up to-- up to-- what did I say-- that's [chuckles]--
Bill Feis [00:18:09] You didn't get to go to Paris, right?
Bob Brostad [00:18:14] Yes, I was in Paris. I was in the tower there and--
Bill Feis [00:18:18] Are we allowed to ask you [crosstalk]--
Bob Brostad [00:18:20] --paid up there on the Eiffel Tower. And I can tell you about getting on a train to go into Paris. I was telling you about Bob Peterson from Storm Lake. He-- he was in high school. He was a grade behind me-- behind in school. He and his sister. And they were very smart, and I didn't like to study too well. If I didn't like to study, I'd say something about Roosevelt. They were Democrats and my dad was a Republican. [chuckles] They took care of my study hall. But anyway, we go into Paris, why we were getting on the train. And-- and there was a bunch of these paratroopers there were on, too. And the French take their ducks and their geese and everything and chickens on the train with them. And of course, these paratroopers wanted on the train, so they were just throwing them out the window and out the doors. And they let us on-- [laughs] we got in with them. We decided we weren't going to argue with them, but we had a good time in Paris. Paris is a nice city.
Bill Feis [00:19:25] How many days did you spend there?
Bob Brostad [00:19:27] Just a couple of days, yeah.
Bill Feis [00:19:29] What sorts of things-- were there restrictions on what you could do or could you pretty much go anywhere?
Bob Brostad [00:19:35] Pretty much do what we wanted to. Far as I know we did, anyway, so. I went-- towards the end of the war. Well, after the war was over over there I rode with a friend of mine in a six-by-six. They tried to, you know, steal from each other, you know, you probably know that. [laughter] And we had a lot of stuff that we stole along the way and-- and we had to get rid of. So you get rid of 'em to other units. And so I got around France quite a bit with-- that way. What bothered me and amazed me was after the war, you'd drive along these valleys, just valleys full of tanks and half-tracks and jeeps and six-by-sixes, just laying there to rust-- rust out. They said it was cheaper to do that than it was to try to haul them home on boats, so. But that's an interesting thing. And I thought it was very interesting to see how they crossed the river up there gettin' into Germany. Rhine River, that's-- that's really something to see a bridge made like that [crosstalk]--
Jared Gledhill [00:20:53] You were talking--
Bob Brostad [00:20:55] --how they do it.
Jared Gledhill [00:20:56] You were talking about the mail. What was one of, like, the most unique things that you saw somebody try and ship back--
Bob Brostad [00:21:02] The what?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:02] What was one of the most unique things that you saw somebody try and ship back from Germany?
Bob Brostad [00:21:07] Ship out?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:08] Yup. Try and ship back home.
Bob Brostad [00:21:10] Oh, that the soldiers did?
Jared Gledhill [00:21:12] Yeah.
Bob Brostad [00:21:12] I never saw any that, I don't know. We weren't up in Germany.
Jared Gledhill [00:21:17] Or-- or in France.
Bob Brostad [00:21:19] Oh, Kaisers-- shipping guns and so forth. And you could ship a rifle home. I know I shipped one home and my cousin wanted it. So I gave it to him and he made another. I don't know how they'd redo it.
Bill Feis [00:21:32] Was that against regulations or did you just--
Bob Brostad [00:21:34] Well, you could-- No, you could do it. But you had to have permission some way or another. I don't know how you did it, but some fellows got home with a lot of stuff. I don't know how they did that.
Jared Gledhill [00:21:46] Any Jeeps? Any of your friends try and mail a Jeep back?
Bob Brostad [00:21:50] Not that I know of, no. Some of them have one. I know somebody here in Storm Lake had one [chuckles], but I don't know that [it had] come from over there-- probably came from the States. But he was in France. He was on the invasion in France. How they get 'em home, I don't know.
Jared Gledhill [00:22:08] Those are questions that most people just don't ask, right?
Bob Brostad [00:22:11] I'd like to have had one. [chuckles] As I was a mail carrier, I could have used one, but I ended up with a Jeep. I ended up with two Jeeps. They weren't Army Jeeps, though.
Jared Gledhill [00:22:23] So they worked. [crosstalk]
Bob Brostad [00:22:24] Pardon? Civilian jeeps, yeah. I think I had three Jeeps. They were-- you could really plow a lot of snow with a Jeep.
Bill Feis [00:22:35] So when you-- you said that you-- it sounds like you hopped to ride once in a while. And when you said you went into Germany, you saw the Rhine River, did you do that? Just go with some people up there when you--
Bob Brostad [00:22:49] Just catch a ride with some of the guys who were going up there. Yeah. Yeah. We had fellows that had to haul here and there and-- and haul equipment and so forth. I had friends that drove truck and haul[ed] stuff here and there. So I got around quite a bit. I was in Germany and-- and-- what's the other country up there? Can't even say the name of it. My memory isn't working.
Bill Feis [00:23:19] Luxembourg, maybe? Or--
Bob Brostad [00:23:20] Well, next to Luxembourg.
Bill Feis [00:23:22] Belgium?
Bob Brostad [00:23:22] Belgium. I was in Belgium and Germany, that's all. I should have gone to Switzerland. That's where I wanted to go. But I never got there. So that's a pretty country, I guess.
Bill Feis [00:23:35] Beautiful.
Bob Brostad [00:23:35] We weren't very far from there.
Bill Feis [00:23:40] Was there anything else that you-- you want to tell us? I mean, you-- you have a very fascinating--
Bob Brostad [00:23:49] Oh, I can't think of anything. Sleeping in the mud in a pup tent isn't much fun. [chuckles] Gettin' off a boat and climbing down those ropes into a small boat to land. Somethin' different. But it's a good education. I know the fellow that had my mail wrote before me, said "I'm glad I went to the service, but I wouldn't go again." [laughs] That's the way I am. But lot of-- been a lot more probably to stay in and got a pension out of it, but--
Bill Feis [00:24:23] Did you think about that at the time or--
Bob Brostad [00:24:26] No, I was too happy to get home, but some fellows did. Yeah. But it's interesting. I didn't tell this, when we first got over there, of course, [there] wasn't any mail. So I either had to be on guard duty, and I was in B Company when I first got over there, and then I was transferred to Headquarters company. But they had me help them put together Jeeps and six-by-sixes and so forth. They come in crates, parts of 'em come in crates, and then ya assemble them over there. That's what I did at first and-- this lieutenant and I got along pretty well and he wanted to-- wanted me to go back to my company and be with him. They'd give me a sergeant's rating right away. But I lived within the Officers Club. We lived in tennis court, in the Oran tennis court, is where we lived, and it was pretty nice to live in and had my own vehicle, and it looked better to me than doing dirty work, so.
Bill Feis [00:25:39] Well, I can understand that. [laughs]
Bob Brostad [00:25:43] Well, it don't take long after you're in the service, you want to get-- [laughs] And another thing while we were there, I mean, if you got in trouble, they didn't-- they shipped you right up to the infantry. So you wanted to behave. And I know a good friend of mine, he was-- he was-- his dad and the commanding officer, the end coach from the University of Minnesota were good friends and he got into trouble. And that didn't make any difference. He went up to the front. He came home, but so you learned to behave. [laughter] And being a sergeant, I don't think you want to get in trouble anyway. You might be a private.
Jared Gledhill [00:26:38] That's often how that works, isn't it. Usually. [laughter] I guess taking a step back to when you were in-- up at Camp McCoy, Fort McCoy up in Wisconsin. Any-- most of the-- most of that place is still around. Any-- any big memories or any good memories of-- of bein' up there?
Bob Brostad [00:26:56] No, not really. I remember, I-- I got a headache. This wasn't Army stuff. I got a headache. But there's a kid in our unit that said he was a chiropractor. I'd been to a chiropractor, so I thought, Well, I'll go down to him. By the time he got through with me and got back to my tent, the tent was going around and around, I had to crawl back to him. And-- and he finally got me out of it, but he gave me-- I never went back again. [chuckles] But up at Camp McCoy, we didn't do much of anything. Just sit there and-- I probably shouldn't tell this, but one night we went out. My friend from Linn Grove had his car up there, and we were going to a nightclub. And first town we were going to a bar, and we didn't like it there. So across into Minnesota, there was a nightclub. So we decided to go over there and and so we took off and-- and we passed a car. This kid had a DeSoto two-door, and we passed this four-door, DeSoto. And all of a sudden he went around us. Then a siren went off. We thought we were hooked. That was back, well, what was the speed limit then? 50? Think that's what it was. And so we slowed down, but it was the guy that passed us they got. And they threw a bottle out, so they got picked up. But-- but it was a funny thing because his best friend was-- when we got to the dance hall, we wasn't there very long, and the kid that had the car, his best friend was with us. And-- and what happened? I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, Jack come over to me and he says, "We're going home." I thought that was kind of funny. We just got there. But I went to the car, got in the car and started to go. I said, "Where's-- Where's Arlie?" "I don't know and I don't care." [laughs] We got to get back to the camp, and he was home. How he got there ahead of us I don't know, but I thought that was interesting. I don't know what else to tell you.
Bill Feis [00:29:21] Well, if there's anything else that you-- you, you know, as you-- as you're thinking about it, if there's anything else that you--
Bob Brostad [00:29:28] I can't think of--
Bill Feis [00:29:29] --that you're, you know, training or any other experiences that--
Bob Brostad [00:29:32] Well, we trained in Camp Sutton, and they had us marching out in--I don't know what-- whether it was a wheat field or what it was. Dusty, terrible. Camp McCoy or-- not Camp McCoy, Camp Sutton is in North Carolina, and it gets humid there at night, and you hang your clothes in the tent. They'd be wet in the morning. You'd have to put them underneath your blanket that you slept on. And, oh, I can tell you one story about coming home one night. I was out too late. Coming in the [chuckles] back of the tent. Coming in behind-- too late at night. And so I was crawlin' in the tent to get in, you know, they had about a 10- or 12-inch board along the bottom of your tent there. And I got in and the-- the guys had got a cat and a dog. We had our bug screens open and they put him in my bed [someone laughs off-screen] got him all tangled up. But I didn't think that was very nice of 'em. [To Jared Gledhill] But you wouldn't do anything like that. I could tell that by looking at you.
Jared Gledhill [00:30:49] Oh, no. Never. [laughter]
Bill Feis [00:30:55] I'm not sure if I asked this or not. Did I ask you when you heard about Pearl Harbor, where you were, and your reaction to-- to--
Bob Brostad [00:31:07] Well, we all thought, well, that's where we're going to go. We didn't have any doubt in our mind that we were going to have to go over there, too. So that was the story that was going around besides. And I don't know, they were just showing pictures of some of that on TV this morning. And it must have been terrible to see those big boats all burning up and sinking. Looked like a big boo-boo to me, I don't know. Somebody was asleep.
Bill Feis [00:31:44] When you-- when you heard about it, did you think that it would mean you would be going off to war?
Bob Brostad [00:31:51] Oh, we were sure of it, yeah. Yeah, there was talk of it, so. Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:31:58] And then you tried to-- you tried to-- You had-- for the draft. And then you were 4-F. And then you-- you volunteered.
Bob Brostad [00:32:09] I enlisted and then I got in. Yeah.
Jared Gledhill [00:32:15] What made you decide the Army?
Bob Brostad [00:32:16] Pardon?
Jared Gledhill [00:32:17] What made you decide the Army?
Bob Brostad [00:32:19] I have no idea. [laughs] Everybody was going to the Army, I guess. I know a lot of fellows joined the Navy, had friends that joined the Navy, but I never thought that I'd like to be out in the middle of the ocean being shot at. [chuckles] Of course, we weren't shot at. We had some bombing in-- in Oran, but oh, I can tell you a story about Oran. We had some guys that had an apartment out-- outside on the outer edge of Or-- Oran, and when I went out to pick 'em up-- at a certain time they'd call me to come get them and [I] went out to get 'em, and on the way back, we had an air raid. And of course, you shut off your lights and pulled to the side of the road. And there was an [unintelligible] above 'em whenever they shot up anti-aircraft at the airplanes. This guy was running this [unintelligible]. And one time when they started shooting, well, he just froze right there. He had one leg in, one leg behind. [chuckles] Scared to death. I always think of that poor guy. He was really scared.
Bill Feis [00:33:31] I can understand that.
Jared Gledhill [00:33:36] I can, too.
Bob Brostad [00:33:36] But we were pretty fortunate to not have much bombing.
Jared Gledhill [00:33:44] Were you happy to make the move from-- from Oran up to-- up to France?
Bob Brostad [00:33:49] France? Oh, I don't know if we were happy. I guess you just take it as it comes. But--
Jared Gledhill [00:33:55] There's that.
Bob Brostad [00:33:57] But we were in-- it rained a lot after we first landed, and we slept in pup tents and mud. And that's not much fun. But we liked it in France. Yeah, and Oran was a pretty nice city, really. There was a lot of bad parts of it, but there was about four or five of us that met a French family outside of Oran. We'd go out there just about every Sunday. They had a beautiful orchard. They had grapefruit and oranges and stuff, and they'd feed us. We'd take some food along, too. And so, we had a good-- we enjoyed Oran. Got hot there. But enjoyed it much.
Bill Feis [00:34:44] Did you see many French civilians when you were in France? Did you interact with many French civilians?
Bob Brostad [00:34:51] Well, we were test of French First Army. Yeah. So we were-- and I don't know what you call it-- our-- where we lived it was right with the French. Yeah, but the French weren't very ambitious. Italians were less ambitious, I thought, but, yeah, I could see why the Italians were taken over pretty easy. Even France, I guess. I've been to France since, back in [19]72. My-- my wife's mother came from Ireland, so we took her back to Ireland, and then we went from there to England and over to France. And I wanted to see where my cousin's grave was. That's the one thing that-- if you ever go to France, you want to see the graveyards over there. They're just beautiful. You can't believe how nice they are. No, I was happy. I thought that his folks should have brought him home, but they wanted him buried over there. And my cousin is buried up to the front of the cemetery. There was a picture of the cemetery in the Des Moines Sunday Register. This was right after the war. And it showed his grave and the-- those stones, Italian marble, white marble that are just beautiful, and they're just as perfect as could be. [unintelligible] And they're kept well. They were still kept nice when I was over there, so I suppose they're still kept nice.
Bill Feis [00:36:30] This was your cousin? He was. He was killed in action?
Bill Feis [00:36:33] Yes. Yeah, he was in a-- he was a lieutenant. He had a half-track, but they had a different name for it. But I thought it was a half-track, but they were being shot at, and he crawled underneath the half-track and it got him underneath the half-track. His sister and her husband had found-- found some fellows that worked in that outfit and got all the information so they knew what happened.
Bill Feis [00:37:11] Well, we sure do thank you for taking the time to come--
Bob Brostad [00:37:15] Well, I hope you got all you wanted, I don't know.
Bill Feis [00:37:17] We did and more. It's very much-- we-- we ask questions and just let-- let you think about what you want to talk about. And it was fantastic. So we really appreciate it.
Bob Brostad [00:37:32] It's quite a thing to go across the ocean if you've never been across the ocean at all. We were on a-- our boat was a-- had been a banana boat and it wasn't much of a boat. But the storm we were in, the boat next to us-- the ratings on the boat were all washed off. And we had-- we were on D deck, but the C deck had water in it, going back and forth, sloshing back and forth. We were in quite a storm, and it's kind of scary when you can't see the boat. They're pretty big boats. You can't see 'em next to you part of the time. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:38:10] Yeah, you traveled the hard way. Nowadays when you hop in an airplane and you're there quick--
Bob Brostad [00:38:17] Oh, yeah. [crosstalk] I think we were about two weeks going across. They had to go down around, you know, they didn't just go straight across. So, it's-- it's a life that you learn a lot, and it's nice to think about, but I'd-- you have to be tougher than I am to want to stay there. [laughter]
Jared Gledhill [00:38:40] What did you do--
Bob Brostad [00:38:41] You think you're tough when you go. [laughter] It don't take long to find out you're not tough. [laughter]
Jared Gledhill [00:38:47] What did you do to pass the time while you were on the boat?
Bob Brostad [00:38:49] On the boat?
Jared Gledhill [00:38:50] Yeah.
Bob Brostad [00:38:51] Well, I have to tell you, this one friend of mine, he inherited a lot of money. This is back in the early thirties [1930s], he inherited, I think it was 20,000. So he was pretty wealthy at that time, and he blew it all, and he was in our outfit going over. So I was the guy that probably had the least money of anybody, and he come borrow money from me. And [chuckles] I lent him money, and-- and he'd-- he'd win it-- win it back and then he'd come pay me back. And that's all he did, all the way across. I said, "Why don't we just-- I'll lend you the money, we'll keep track, and you pay me when you get back over-- overseas." That-- that's the way he wanted to do. And he paid it all back. But most of the guys played-- played cards, played poker. I wasn't a poker player. I learned that fast. [chuckles] And you learn one thing in the service, there's always somebody a lot smarter than you are. And the guys from the city are the ones that are smarter. They're str-- street smart. And I don't know, you know, a guy tried to teach me how to play a few cards, and I lost my money pretty fast. [chuckles]
Bill Feis [00:40:06] Well, that that was an education right there.
Bob Brostad [00:40:08] It was an education, yeah. Blackjack was was the game. [laughs] Yeah.
Bill Feis [00:40:11] Well--
Bob Brostad [00:40:19] But I made a lot of good friends in the service, had a lot of friends. Nice people.
Bill Feis [00:40:24] Did you keep in contact with-- with them after the war?
Bob Brostad [00:40:26] Used to. We had up until-- oh, it's been probably 20 years ago, more and more than that, I guess. We used to have a reunion every year. Yeah. We had them down [in] Des Moines and Chicago and Wisconsin. Michigan. Yeah. And it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. The chaplain used to be there, pert' near very time. Yeah, but it got down to where, you know, I-- I don't have any-- I haven't had any Army friends for, I don't know how many years ago, but dead. I was one of the younger ones. And so I think my-- I think my one buck-- buck sergeant, I think he was 40-something, 42 or something like that when I first went in. He was a-- in [a] career. A lot of the fellas [were] a lot older than I was. My best friend, I think, was 32 or three. One sad thing that was sad was fellas got married before they-- just after they got in the service or just before they did. And, you know, the wives were left. And it's hard on some of them guys. I know one friend of mine, he was just about broke in half, you know, he was sick. But he was a kid that I was telling you about, going out to these people in Oran on Sundays. And we'd take pictures. They had a daughter who was 14, but she looked like she was 16, 17, pretty girl. And he'd take pictures and send them home to his wife. We told him he shouldn't do that. I mean, there was nothing going on, but, you know, they can think pretty fast and-- and it ended up in a divorce. And that's too bad. And my best-- my best friend-- he-- his wife had another fellow when he got home.
Jared Gledhill [00:42:50] I heard that was fairly common.
Bob Brostad [00:42:52] That's the sad thing about the service if you're married. Of course, nowadays I guess you can take your wife with you, can't you? Some places.
Jared Gledhill [00:43:02] Some places.
Bob Brostad [00:43:02] Yeah, of course not where they're fighting, but--
Jared Gledhill [00:43:07] I think the enemy was more worried about my wife than me.
Bob Brostad [00:43:10] North Korea?
Jared Gledhill [00:43:13] Japan.
Bill Feis [00:43:16] Well, I think--
Bob Brostad [00:43:17] What's what's going to happen? North Korea and South Korea? [Interview ends]
Original Format
DVCAM
Duration
0:43:19
Bit Rate/Frequency
80 kbps