Lloyd Galbraith interview with Shelby Peterson and Stephanie Puhrmann

Lloyd Galbraith interview with Shelby Peterson and Stephanie Puhrmann

World War, 1939-1945-Iowa-Oral histories

Galbraith served in the Navy in the South Pacific at the very end of WWII as a storekeeper aboard ship. He sustained a bad non-combat head wound while performing his job and suffered headaches most of his adult life as a result. They were six days from Japan when the war ended there.

Buena Vista University

3/17/2011

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.

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Shelby Peters, Stephanie Puhrmann

Lloyd Galbraith

LLOYD GALBRAITH

Shelby Peters [00:00:00] Today is March 17th and we are interviewing Lloyd Galbraith at the Communications Center at Buena Vista University. Mr. Galbraith was born on March 25th, 1925. He is 86 years old. My name is Shelby Peters, and I will be the interviewer, along with Stephanie Puhrmann. Now, sir, can you tell us what part of World War II-- did you fight in Japan or Germany?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:00:25] I was all over the South Pacific.

Shelby Peters [00:00:28] And were you-- what branch of the military?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:00:30] U.S. Navy.

Shelby Peters [00:00:33] And what kind of basic training did you have to go to-- to go through?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:00:37] Well, I went to Farragut, Idaho, for my boot camp training and Camp Scott.

Shelby Peters [00:00:45] And what was that like for you?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:00:47] Well, it was certainly different from what I was used to. [chuckles] Five o'clock in the morning until five o'clock at night, we were on The Grinder. That's a place where you learn how to walk militarily.

Shelby Peters [00:01:00] What kind of special training did you do there?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:01:04] Well, it was just basic training. They instructed us in seven weeks what would normally have taken three months. So it's-- it was towards the end of-- of the war in 1944. So, but Coeur d'Alene, is quite-- quite a place. A few-- few years ago, I had a son that was working in Spokane, Washington, which is close to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and he needed a ride home. So my older son and I went out and got him. And I looked at the places that I had already seen back in 1944, and it hadn't changed a whole lot. The lake is still as clear as the sky.

Shelby Peters [00:02:04] And then did you ship to the South Pacific right from basic training?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:02:08] Yes.

Shelby Peters [00:02:08] And what was your ship name?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:02:10] USS Lattimer. APA 152.

Shelby Peters [00:02:15] And what was it like on board of the ship?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:02:17] Well, that took a little getting used to, too, not ever having been on water before. [chuckles] But I managed. I ate a lot of soda crackers. [chuckles]

Shelby Peters [00:02:30] What kind of stuff did you do on board?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:02:33] Well, I was a striker for being a storekeeper, and I ended up being accepted in that division and was a storekeeper, third class, for nearly three years before I was discharged.

Shelby Peters [00:02:55] And were you drafted or did you enlist?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:02:58] Both. First, I was drafted as a reserve, and then after 22 months, they weren't going to let me come home because of the need for typewriter operators to check out all the things that were on-- on the ships that were being decommissioned. So I decided since they weren't going to let me go home, I was going to find out what the regular Navy was. And so I discharged one minute and re-enlisted the next on March the sixth, 1946.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:03:49] And how did you feel about that? How did you feel about going to war?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:03:53] Going to war? Didn't have any choice.

Shelby Peters [00:04:00] And it was towards the end of the war when you went--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:04:02] Yeah.

Shelby Peters [00:04:04] Did you have any fears or any ideas of what it was going to be like when you got over there?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:04:12] No. But you learn fast when your life's in jeopardy.

Shelby Peters [00:04:19] What kind of combat did you see or any--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:04:22] Well, being aboard ship, our-- our motto was, "We deliver." Either Army or Marines or whomever they wanted to take in for the invasions. And I was at the invasion of Okinawa on April the first, April Fool's Day, in 1945. That's a day I'll never forget.

Shelby Peters [00:04:44] Can you tell us about your experience with that?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:04:48] Well, my duty was to be down in the landing craft alongside the ship, and we had a ten-ton generator that was to be taken over to supply power for those that were able to get on land. And the water was just rough enough that we couldn't get it synchronized when it came over to drop it in the bottom of this landing craft. Well, I was on top of this ten-ton crate, and my job was to unhook the cables once they were slack enough so that it was placed-- so they could take it over to the invasion area. Because it was rough enough, the fellow in charge up on the main deck was having problems. So the skipper came down off of the bridge and just gave a thumbs-down, like this. And the winch operator just let everything drop. Well, the cable, the pulley, the hook and everything caught me on top of the head. And of course, I was knocked out and ended up with a-- quite a gash in the top of my head. So all the guys in this landing craft took their handkerchiefs and put it on the top of my head, and then I had to hold it. And then the skipper says, "Report for sick bay." How am I going to get to sick bay? The way you got down was the way you come back. So I climbed a rope ladder with one hand and to hold those handkerchiefs in place so that I didn't bleed to death. And not one drop of ink was put in my service records for that incident. So, ten years, almost to the day, I got the most severe headache a person could ever have, which I feel was a result of that hit on the head. And I've had headaches ever since, and I fought with the V.A. for the last 60 years, and to no avail. But the last-- last thing I was told after I had been to Sioux Falls VA Hospital in 1970 for five weeks, trying to find a-- a solution to my headaches, I had 12 different mixtures of medications that they gave me orally, and none of those worked. They would last a day, and then it was all gone. So they flew me to Omaha, which had better facilities, and I was there for two weeks. And the last thing they did is took a needle about that long and went up the back of my neck to each ear and deposited that poison in the back of my head. And it lasted one day. They said, "We've done all we can. You just have to go home and learn to live with it." That's a pretty big order.

Shelby Peters [00:08:25] And what other [unintelligible] were you involved with?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:08:28] Lingay (sp) and Gulf (sp) but that was to help the Army and the Marines secure the Big Island. They tried to-- our troops went both directions, both north and south, to-- to meet the-- the troops that were coming from the north and from the south that had been there for quite some time and couldn't make it through the lines. So we supplied the-- the force that broke their resistance.

Shelby Peters [00:09:10] And what was it like on the ship with all the soldiers coming and going and--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:09:14] Or you learn to-- I learned who all was from Iowa. [laughs] That's the first thing you do when you get to a new place is see whose all from-- if you met anybody from Iowa, it was like being a brother. Didn't see many women in the service at that particular time, especially where we were. But that's altogether different today.

Shelby Peters [00:09:41] And Pearl Harbor, the-- the bombing that got us into the war. Where were you on that day and what was your reaction?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:09:50] Oh, I was a sophomore in high school, and our superintendent-- no, our principal who was a history buff, and he knew something this-- like this was coming. He just never told anybody that. But that particular morning, December the eighth, 1941, there was sophomores, juniors, and seniors, boys sitting in the assembly hall. And the words that he spoke said that probably 90% of us would be serving in World War II. And he was right. Most of them were older than I, the juniors and the seniors. But-- and the little town of Newell lost 15 victims killed in World War II. We got a little plaque in our Legion room that identifies them. And in our World War Memorial for Veterans has all of their names on there as being casualties of World War II.

Shelby Peters [00:11:23] And when you were over in Japan, how did you feel when you learned that Japan was not going to be invaded?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:11:32] Well, we were only six days away from Japan, and we had invasion troops aboard. We were being prepared for the invasion of Japan. Matter of fact, it was the 95th Division, if I remember correctly. And we picked them up from the Philippine Islands and then headed for Japan. And we were six days from Tokyo when the first bomb was dropped. And then, of course, Nagasaki was a bomb drop, too. Well, for my time being extended with the re-enlistment, I had an opportunity to be where the second bomb was dropped two years to the day to see the destruction that it provided. Wow. Everything was melted to the ground. There was a-- what they were after was a big airplane factory, and it was a metal building. You couldn't-- you couldn't even see where it had been. And all of the volunteer crops--because the Japanese cultivated every inch of ground for food--the volunteer seeds from tomatoes and carrots and vegetables of that nature, instead of seeing one blossom come on a plant, that blossom would turn into a cluster of ten-- 10 to 20, and the carrots [chuckles] were like a whole handful of fingers coming out of the ground. But the Japanese, they-- they never touched it. They were so afraid of-- of what happened. Matter of fact, we had to coax pretty hard four other guys and I to get this Japanese boy that was going to the University of Japan there in Tokyo to be our guide, because we-- we were-- our ship was har-- harbored at Tokyo, but Nagasaki is a train ride away from there. But he finally agreed to it. But he was ten miles from where the explosion occurred. But his face and hands and arms and his skin that was exposed was scarred for life. I've often thought about him and what he's doing today, if he's still alive.

Shelby Peters [00:14:33] And what was it like to see the enemy, or what were the ideas you had about the Japanese people or soldiers that you were going to fight?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:14:44] Well, being in the Navy, we never actually got that close to them. But at Okinawa, I was stationed on a gun as a trainer, and they issued us binoculars and we could see things that were happening on-- on the beach and such. And I seen the radio tower go up in smoke [laughs] because I was able-- we were about four miles away from where the real action was at. But then, after we got all the troops off of the ship and their equipment, why, it took us three days to accomplish that. And the fourth day, we were ordered that we could leave Okinawa, and one of these kamikaze planes came at us. And they did that at 6:00 in the morning when we had general quarters. Well, being a trainer on the gun, I was the last one off of the gun because I had to secure it. So I was the last one down to our quarters. Well, I got about halfway to my bunk, and general quarters sounded again and we said, "Uh-oh, this is the real thing this time." And as I was coming topside, I could hear this ping-ping-ping go down the side of the ship. Well, come to find out, it was an Australian ship that didn't have any stoppers on their guns. They could shoot any direction. Our ship was limited where each gun could fire, but the total would cover the whole circumference. So I was pretty close to not coming home. [Laughs]

Shelby Peters [00:17:05] What did you do in your free time on the ship?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:17:09] Played basketball. We-- we had to get permission from the skipper to move some of the army equipment aboard ship or the Marines, whichever it was. And then we had a circle. The trick was shooting over here when the basket was over here. [Laughs] But they all came together at the same time, once in a while. We got pretty good at it. Matter of fact, any harbor we went into, we challenged any ship to play basketball, and we never lost a game. But we were pretty good in-- in boot camp and we'd-- we practiced every night because there wasn't any-- well, later on, there was a movie to go to aboard ship, but that was it. Basketball and movies. We've seen a lot of movies the third and fourth and fifth time. [Laughs] But you mentioned Pearl Harbor. I was at Pearl Harbor five different times. Never got to go on liberty because being in the supply department, and being the low man on the totem pole in the supply department, part of my job was to go over to the warehouses and get new food supplies. So I was always in charge of a working crew whenever we pulled in to Pearl Harbor. One time, the ship moved from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor. Well, you have to go out into the ocean to get from one place to the other there. And our landing craft was so full, we only had about six inches of clearance of sinking. So that was quite a ride. But the coxswain knew how to maneuver it, so he was well trained, and we made it before the gates closed. [Laughs]

Shelby Peters [00:19:26] What did you do while you were in port?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:19:31] In port? Well, I basically told you. Worked. [Laughs]

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:19:37] And while you were aboard the ship, did you have any fear of submarine attacks?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:19:43] Oh, yeah. Got up one morning and the word going around the ship was, Why we were lucky last night. If we hadn't 'a' been in rough water, we'd have been a casualty of a Jap sub. Because the compartment I slept in, they told us that that's where the submarine went under the ship. As the ship [unintelligible] of the ship came up out of the water, the submarine went under us [chuckles] or the torpedo. That was just one of the close calls. [chuckles]

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:20:24] Did you ever have anybody that you knew personally get wounded or become a prisoner of war?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:20:32] We only lost one individual aboard ship, and that was in the United States. After we got done unloading supplies, the fellow in charge was boatswain mate, first class. I don't remember his name, but they found one object that didn't get down in the hull. So they just took one section of the cover and they-- they got the piece of equipment down to the hull, the bottom of the hull, but when they were bringing the pallet back up, it caught the corner of the next cover, and he happened to be standing on it. And, of course, it tipped, and he went down, and then it landed on top of him. So he never survived that. But that's the only casualty we had.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:21:44] Did you ever travel in ship convoys for safety?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:21:49] Well, the reference to the three or four bullets that hit the side of the ship, we were in convoy then. Well, we were always in convoy. Matter of fact, we had the admiral aboard. That's why the kamikaze came at us because they were after the admiral.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:22:10] Did you ever see any other ships go down?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:22:13] No, but I seen one that our sister ship-- we were on what the-- the-- APA 152 was what they called a Kaiser coffin. It was one of the first ships that the seams were welded rather than riveted. And our sister ship, the seams started to split. And they had to head to Pearl Harbor. We never did hear whether they made it or not. I'm assuming that they did.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:22:54] And what did you know on the war in Germany? Or how did you feel about that when it was going on?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:23:04] You know, I didn't have to participate in that part of it.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:23:10] And did you ever have any doubts that we would win the war?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:23:15] No. Seemed like President Roosevelt had everything he needed to-- to win the war. But then when he died, we were out in the middle of the South Pacific, and we kind of wondered then--

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:23:34] How did you feel--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:23:34] But we didn't know about Harry Truman, but we found out that he was-- he was the right commander-in-chief to have after Roosevelt passed away.

Shelby Peters [00:23:48] Are there any memories that stick out to you that you'd like to share with us?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:23:55] I guess they're all memories. Some of them are quite vivid. The Okinawa thing is my most vivid one.

Shelby Peters [00:24:06] Of all of the things that you or your unit did in the war, what were you most proud of?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:24:15] Seeing the Japanese surrender, I guess.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:24:23] And where were you and what kind of reaction did you have when you-- when you heard about their surrender?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:24:33] Oh, we jumped with joy and glee. [laughs] Especially those fellows down in the holes that were going to depart our ship and be part of the invasion. That saved thousands and thousands of American lives. I'm sure it was a very tough decision for Mr. Truman, but he did what he had to do, and we all congratulated him individually within our own selves.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:25:10] And how did you celebrate that on the ship when you found out?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:25:15] Nothing special. Just-- it was just a relief to know that we weren't going to be involved in another invasion.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:25:24] What was it like coming home after that?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:25:29] Well, our ship and part of our convoy was put in what they called the red carpet fleet. And we made three trips to the South Pacific to pick up Army, Navy, anybody that was eligible for a discharge. And we stopped at all the islands, any place anybody was given permission to go home. We stopped and picked them up. So there's a lot of islands out there.[chuckles] I've been to most of them.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:26:14] How long did that trip home take?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:26:18] Well, from the furthest point that we would go, which was basically Tokyo-- but one time we went clear down into the New Guinea Islands and that was longer. But it was on an average of 16 days to make the trip. We-- we took what you called the north route. We'd leave Seattle, go towards the Aleutian Islands, and then go past Pearl Harbor. Well, we generally stopped at Pearl Harbor because by that time we-- we needed supplies and such. So it would take basically 14 to 16 days to-- it would take a whole month actually to make the round trip, and we made three of those trips. Picked up 4500 fellows that came home for discharge. We could-- we had bunks for 1500 aboard ship, in addition to our ship's company, [crosstalk] which was 500. And then we had what we called-- what was their name? They-- they manned the landing craft. And I can't recall what we called them. They were in addition to the regular ship's company. So from boot camp, there was probably out of the 500, there was, probably 35 or 40 fellows out of my boot camp company that I was aboard ship with. So they-- they came from all over the country. California, Iowa, Texas ,Louisiana. Baltimore. A lot of them had their boot camp at the one in Chicago. I can't say it right now. I'll think of it tomorrow. [Laughs]

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:28:49] Did you make any lasting friendships--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:28:52] Oh, yeah. About 20 years ago, there was a couple [of] fellows in Kansas that started a ship's reunion group. And my wife and I attended that for probably ten years. But as we got older, traveling wasn't one of our things like it was at the beginning. But some of those-- those fellows, they came from Ohio, several of them from Ohio. But we went to Myrtle Beach, Omaha, Nashville, Cincinnati, San Diego, Dallas, Texas. We basically went all over the country for our reunions because we had people that wouldn't come unless you went closer to them. And at one time, we had about 30 fellows and-- and their wives. I-- I don't think they even have the reunion any longer because most of them aren't able to travel anymore. I'm one of the more fortunate ones.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:30:13] What was it like seeing your family again after getting off the ship?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:30:19] I came home and went upstairs and my younger brother was still in bed and mercy! He didn't look like the same fellow. He was about six inches taller and spread out, took the whole bed. [Laughs] That was the biggest difference I seen, was in my brother.

Shelby Peters [00:30:44] Had you been able to stay in touch with your family before?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:30:51] Well, yes and no. All of my children, the closest one is 800 miles away. Back when they were getting out of college and needed a job, they had to go where the job was. Two of them ended up in Alabama and one in Texas and one in New Mexico.

Shelby Peters [00:31:19] So you said he re-enlisted after the war in the Navy--

Lloyd Galbraith [00:31:22] Uh-hmm.

Shelby Peters [00:31:22] What kind of jobs do you have?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:31:25] I never change jobs. I just-- just-- I did-- I wore the same clothes and everything. I knew of one fella, though, that wanted to go overseas. And he was working for the Navy in California and he'd put in for a transfer and put in for a transfer. "I want to go overseas." They wouldn't-- they wouldn't listen to him. And he never got overseas. But one day he went to work in civilian clothes. The next day he went in a Navy uniform. And that-- that happened a lot, I'm sure. He was good at what he did, and they kept him. [chuckles]

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:32:19] How long was your re-enlistment for?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:32:20] Well, it was for two years. But I ended up serving 22 more months, so that was a total of 44 months consecutive.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:32:28] What did you do after that?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:32:30] Lots of things. [chuckles] Like I say, the first thing I did was I had a semester here at Buena Vista University in 1948. Got married that same year. And so I had an opportunity to train as a parts man for an International Harvester dealer through the VA benefits. They would pay part of my wages, and then I'd get the training from the owners of the implement business there in Newell. But that didn't materialize because they sold out. And so I had to find something else. And I went to farming along with my dad. We just lived a mile apart and farmed for ten years. Well, the eighth year, the farm was sold because the owner passed away, and one of his relatives inherited it, and she didn't want to manage it or didn't want anybody else to manage it for her. So she finally sold it. And so then we had to move. So then we bought a restaurant in Newell. Did that for eight years. I still had to get up at 4:30 in the morning, [laughs] make sure the coffee was perkin' when I got to work. Of course we lived topside of the restaurant, so I didn't have very far to go to work. But I had 25 bachelors and-- and people that came in for breakfast every morning. When they'd walk in the door, I knew what they were going to order and I'd have it goin' on before they sat down. So that was quite interesting. But-- I ended up being a custodian at the courthouse in-- in Storm Lake, and I was there for 14 years before I retired. But I had some awful good jobs that I just couldn't tolerate because of those headaches. I had to give them all up. And let me tell you, that makes a difference in retirement. [chuckles]

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:35:03] Did you win any awards or honors for your service?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:35:09] No. Never went to any schooling or anything. I just did what they told me.

Stephanie Puhrmann [00:35:18] Was there anything else you'd like to add about your experience in WWII?

Lloyd Galbraith [00:35:26] Well, it was altogether a different type of war than it is today. We knew who the enemy was. They don't today. I don't think they do, anyway. So, the military, I'm sure, has changed probably 100%. But they're doing a good job, and they'll eventually come home. But I hope they don't come home until the job is finished. We didn't come home from World War II until the job was finished.

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