Title
Romaine Kischer interview with two unidentified interviewers
Subject
World War, 1939-1945-Iowa-Oral histories
Description
Kischer joined the Navy in 1938 and was trained as a machinist's mate and was trained in refrigeration and worked in the engine room on a destroyer. He traveled to the Hawaiian islands and the Gilbert islands, and tells how his ship was hit by a kamikaze plane.
Publisher
Buena Vista University
Date
4/14/2011
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
Unidentified
Interviewee
Romaine Kischer
Transcription
ROMAINE KISCHER
Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Today is April 14th, 2011. We're interviewing Mr. Kischer at the communications center at Buena Vista University. What were you doing before the service?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:12] Just a farm boy. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:00:17] Where was that at?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:18] Albert City, yeah. My father farmed there. And when Pearl Harbor was hit, and you'll talk to "Stub" [Editor's note: Stub is the nickname of Alvin Lindquist, who was also interviewed.] later, I was milking a Guernsey-- Guernsey cows. That's what-- that's-- my father had a Guernsey herd. And I was-- Pearl Harbor was hit. That's what I was doing. Milking cows.
Speaker 1 [00:00:37] What was your reaction to Pearl Harbor?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:39] Well, it didn't-- didn't-- it didn't touch you then. I mean, you know, you were just young, and you didn't know what was happening. No. You didn't realize it was going to change your whole life.
Speaker 1 [00:00:53] What happened after Pearl Harbor that was significant to you?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:57] Well, we would [have] been drafted or otherwise go in the Navy. And I decided to go in the Navy. I picked the Navy. And so that's why I joined the Navy. And we had a lot of guys from Albert City that went in the Navy. So that's where I ended up at, in the Navy.
Speaker 1 [00:01:15] What year was that?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:16] That was 1943. Yeah. Went in in '43. Yes. Fort-- yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:01:26] What made you decide to join the Navy?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:30] Just the buddies you have, the people you're around, you know. They just had an influence because so many guys from Albert City decided to dive in the Navy. So I just thought it was a good place to be.
Speaker 1 [00:01:42] Are you glad you joined the Navy over being drafted?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:45] Oh, yes, very definitely, yeah. It was an education in itself to be in the Navy because they sent me to boot camp at Great Lakes. From boot camp, they sent me to the University of Minnesota. From the University of Minnesota, they gave me four months of college there to be a machinist's mate. How you can make a machinist's mate in University of Minnesota? Well, that's what they tried to do. They try to make a machinist's mate out in for months. And from there, they sent me to Syracuse, New York, to go to a refrigeration school, which was in-- Carrier refrigeration is made in-- that's where they made all the refrigeration for the-- for the ships-- Carrier and York were there are two kinds of refrigeration. And Carrier was one of them. That's where they sent us [to] school, so they put us in private homes, just like you were in college, so when I went to college, you stayed in a-- in a-- in a home-- in a private home, and then you went to college. Because when I went to BV, we stayed in a private home. [Laughter] There was no dormitories here in BV, which was different. You stayed in private homes. They kept us in private homes. And we went to Syracuse, New York to take our training as a-- as refrigeration-- it was good training, they taught us. So when I come on the ship, first thing they ask me was, "Have you been to re-- been to refrigeration school?" And I said, "Yes." They said, "You're in charge of refrigeration." Got the job. How was my job? Was not anything special. You had to still stand your guard, still had to stand your stations, and still take care of refrigeration. Wasn't really an an asset, but it wasn't really anything-- anything that you really gain. But I got the privilege of taking care of the refrigeration. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:03:38] What else can you tell us about the training?
Romaine Kischer [00:03:41] It took me a year. I went in, went in in '42 and first year, all I did is went to school. They sent me all the school. The Navy treated me really well. Just they-- got a lot of training. First year was training, going to school, and then after that, then they put me on the-- on the ship because I was put in commission in San Francisco, the Hazelwood which put in commission then that fall. So I joined-- put on the ship-- was one of the first ones. You know, we were the first guys that were put on it, and they brought out us guys from all over to-- we were all reserves, we weren't regulars. We were reserves on the ship, and 75% of our guys were reserves on our ship, I mean, the rest were the old Navy men. But 75% of our guys were reserves.
Speaker 1 [00:04:33] Did you know anyone on your ship from Albert City? Was anyone with you?
Romaine Kischer [00:04:36] No, no, no, no, no. [Laughter] Nobody from Albert City. They [were] from all over East Coast and, you know, all over, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:04:47] How was living on the ship?
Romaine Kischer [00:04:48] Well, it was tight [unintelligible]. Our bunks were, you know, we had about, I would say, two feet between the bunk where you slept and the bunk, you know, above you. About two feet. Very tight, Destroyers are real tight. You don't have a lot of room-- three-- you have a locker underneath and then three beds on top of them-- that-- that reached the ceiling of the ship, you know, so-- you could get out of them easily.
Speaker 1 [00:05:22] Is there anything in particular you did to stay preoccupied?
Romaine Kischer [00:05:25] Keep occupied? They kept us pretty occupied from just running the ship [Laughter] as a full time operation-- You stood 8 hours on or, you know, 4 hours on and 8 hours off. And you did that twice, you know, every day. So I stood my watches and-- and then you still had to-- and had to, you know, you were-- you were pretty occupied in what you were doing, yeah, to keep that ship going. You had 8 hours on duty, 8 hours at a time in the engine room or wherever. I was stationed to the engine room, yeah. Forward engine room, which was-- I'll stop there. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:06:10] Can you tell us any more about any of the other duties that you had to do on ship besides--
Romaine Kischer [00:06:15] Take care of-- well, I stood a watch each day, twice-- you know, stood a four-hour watch twice a day and then had to take care of my refrigeration. Yeah, I was in charge of refrigeration. I was gifted. They gave me the job of taking care of the refrigeration. Yeah. And when we got out of San Francisco, one of the officers come up to me and he says-- said, "We don't have a refrigeration-- our refrigerator doesn't work up in the officers quarters," and he says, "Could you come up and look at it?" And, well, I had Charlie, which was a black fella-- was taking care of the refrigeration and-- and he was supposed to defrost it. So he took an ice pick and defrosted it [Laughter], poked a hole in it. So--so I had to-- I rigged up a coil so I could make the refrigeration work. So I become Charlie's hero. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:07:10] Was it difficult to stand guard for hours at a time?
Romaine Kischer [00:07:13] No, no, no, no, no. It was hot. Our engine room, when it-- when we lit off, after we got our-- after our boilers were lit off and our engine room was going, it run 130 degrees. That's where we-- that was-- that was our heat. That was what we were used to, 130, 30, 30 degrees. So we didn't dress very heavily, maybe sometimes, you know, sometimes just your-- your jeans and-- and strip from the top, and sometimes even cut off our legs so we-- our knees showed, you know, which we shouldn't have done, I guess.
Speaker 2 [00:07:51] While you were standing guard, what did you watch for?
Romaine Kischer [00:07:54] Well, we had to run the engines. I mean, we had-- it's the-- the bridge would give you the RPMs we had to go. We had two engine rooms, and they gave you that-- how many RPMs the screw had to go. And so they told you if you were a third speed, you had certain amount of RPMs of screw had to go. And if we wanted to raise it two-- two revolutions, they told us, and so they gave us the word. We kept that engine going at whatever speed they wanted that ship to go.
Speaker 1 [00:08:27] And where did you serve during the war? Where were you--
Romaine Kischer [00:08:29] Where did I serve? Well we started, at first-- we took up from San Francisco. After we put it in commission, we went from San Francisco to Honolulu and [in] Honolulu, we picked up the fleet there in a couple of days. And then we went to-- out to the Gilbert Islands and we started a chain of the Gilberts-- started-- then we went there for just to protect it the first time. The second time we went back, we went for the invasion, and that was a really-- a bloody battle because after the-- after the guys had went in all the-- all the-- [Kischer becomes visibly moved] I'm starting to tear up, I'm sorry. After the guys went in to the beach, you know, they were all-- I mean, they lost-- we lost-- they lost so many guys went on the beach and they were floating, you know, out there. So we had-- they had to go around and put something on top of them to let them sink, you know, they were floating outside, in the harbors there where the guys had went in. So the guys-- they just took boats and went around and fastened weights on them so their bodies would sink in the ocean. It was kind of a-- kind of a gruesome job.
Speaker 1 [00:09:49] Did you know anyone that passed?
Romaine Kischer [00:09:53] That passed away? On my ship, after we got hit with a suicide plane, I lost my whole outift was dead. All gone.
Speaker 2 [00:10:04] Can you tell us a little more about being hit with the kamikaze?
Romaine Kischer [00:10:09] Kamikaze? Well, they had three of them come at us. We got two of them, but one of them got through on the rear. And they usually-- they like to come in the rear of the ship because we wasn't protected from the back. And he got in on the back of us and and hit the bridge and killed all the officers in the bridge and killed all the officers in [the] forward fire room. Everybody in the fire room and all the bridge, all the guys were killed completely. And my outfit was where the suicide plane hit was exactly where I stood, exactly where I stood but five weeks before. Before the ship hit, I got transferred to forward engine room. I was always in the forward repair party. That was my job. I was there a year-and-a-half, but that's where the suicide plane hit, and so my whole outfit was completely gone. If I hadn't been transferred to the engine room, I wouldn't have been here today. So I walked around for a couple of days. Why am I alive? All my buddies are gone. I know today why. The Lord had reason for me.
Speaker 2 [00:11:19] What were you doing while your ship got hit?
Speaker 2 [00:11:22] I was on-- I was on the throttles on the engine, and that was my job during the GQ. That was my job. I run-- I ran-- I had the throttle, see, on the port engine room. And the suicide plane hit so close it bended [sic] bulkhead next to us. That bulkhead is a compartment, right-- is a wall ahead of us. It bent that, but it didn't break through. So we were fortunate. Everybody ahead of us was dead. And I went up on the-- went up on the deck and looked out and and here was here was-- it a forward smokestack was laying on the outside of the ship. And I looked at it and I says, "Oh my goodness, I think the fire room's out there." But it was just a forward, forward stack. I get a little teared up. I'm sorry. Here's-- here's a picture of the ship after. I don't know if you can see it. Yeah, here-- here's the-- here was-- here was-- here was-- I was right under here. There's where I was at right under here-- here's a fort. There was another stack on the front that was completely blown off, just gone. Just layed off to the side of the ship, yeah, that's a picture of it. And there's other pictures of the ship-- picture of the ship when it was in-- when we got to-- when we come back, one of the times they put us in dry dock, they-- they paint you like a zebra. See how you're painted like-- you know, you look at-- that's so when they put us in a dry dock and then they painted us. So they-- we were a gray ship till we got to Honolulu and they put us in dry dock. And that's what you look like afterwards. It's camouflage they called it. You know that's what we looked like before. This is look like-- what we looked like after we got hit with suicide.
Speaker 2 [00:13:09] What did you do after you were hit?
Romaine Kischer [00:13:12] We had-- they ordered us to get off of the ship. And so we pushed our-- we-- they told us to abandon ship. So we abandoned ship and we pushed all our-- I'll get teared up. Sorry. Well, after-- after they told us to abandon ship we-- we went off the back of the ship. They told us to-- and the guys all took off their shoes. You know how you do when you don't go in the ocean with your shoes on. So we piled our shoes. My favorite story is we had shoes piled this high on the back of the ship. So-- so we jumped off the ship, had about 12 to 15 feet to get in the water. And when you go in the water, you take off of your life jacket, you throw it in the water. You don't jump off the ship with a life jacket on you. You had the belly things that went around ya, you know, to-- that was-- you didn't have the vest-like, thinking of it. It's-- it's a belly. Navy used the belly thing that just went around you. So you threw your life jacket in and when you jump off the ship, our biggest worry was the screw is still going to be turning when we got down there because if the screw was turning and so we went down and after we jumped in, we thought, Oh my gosh, it's all over because we didn't-- we just thought we were still going down. The next minute we come out of the water. We-- we changed directions in the water, but we came out of the water and here we were. We were still alive. There was our life jackets and we-- grabbed our life jackets and put them on. And one of my-- one of my buddies had a-- had to take on a life jacket that he picked off of an aircraft, and one of the pilots-- we used to pick up the pilots alongside. So we had on this Mae West, they called them, you know, the life jacket from the-- from the pilot. And it had holes in it. And we didn't realize-- we'd go-- we'd swim so far, and then we'd have to stop and blow him up, you know. We'd have to [Laughter] so he could get over to the life raft. And we got on a life raft and we pushed all our wounded guys over to another destroyer, just like we were. We had to swim about a mile while we pushed our life. And then we were survivors for-- for-- I don't know how long, quite a while at Okinawa, and it took us a while before we got back to the ship. The guys in the front of the ship went off, and the guys on the back of the ship went off, and we all went on other ships and-- and then we were going to sink [the ship]. They decide, well, we'll sink this-- this tin can because it's too, well, too far gone, so. So they-- but they couldn't get the guys off, the Navy guys. We had all these Navy guys, and they couldn't swim. [Laughter] So they couldn't get it off so they decided we'd have to get them back to the United States. So they put us back on the ship, and we sailed it back to the-- ship to the United States with-- we made a bridge on this-- on the ship, and we sailed it back to the United States. And it's all guided from a guidance system in the back. So we guided it from the back of the ship all the way to-- to San Francisco. And then they repaired it back in San Francisco, and then and took out the Marrow (sp) Island and repaired it. Cost them $1,000,000 to do it-- to fix that ship. And we took it on shakedown and-- and the war was over. There's a lot of space in between there. All the battles we went through, yeah, we went through 12 major battles, and we [unintelligible] 12 major battles. We started at the Gilberts and went all the way-- all the islands from Holloway through from-- I got them listed here. I-- it'd take me too long to find. We went through all of that until we got to Okinawa, and Okinawa is where they got us, where the suicide plane hit us. I'm not letting you say anything. It's your turn. [Laughter] I talk too much.
Speaker 2 [00:17:16] Can you tell us about your first battle or your first couple battles? What it was like.
Romaine Kischer [00:17:22] Well, what-- you mean was I scared? I don't know if I was scared or not. No, no, it's-- it's a-- it's a different experience. You just do what you're taught to do.
Romaine Kischer [00:17:31] What-- what was your role?
Romaine Kischer [00:17:33] I was in the forward repair party, if anybody had problems on the ship, we were supposed to go help them. And that was our job as a repair ship-- as a repair party. And I was in that in a year-and-a-half and-- and I was on the telephones all the time. So I talked to all the guys and tell them what was going on. We had a plane coming in on the left. I'd say, "We got a plane coming in on the left." I was-- I was a spokesman. I was the guy that told them what was happening. Of course, then when I got transferred out of it down in the engine room, then it's altogether a different situation. When you hear the five-inch guns go off, they're five miles away. When they're-- when the forties go off, you're-- you're within a-- probably a-- three-quarters of a mile. When the twenties go off, the plane's on top of you. That's the difference. Of course, I was always up on top where they-- where the planes were coming in, and I could always-- I gave them a good view. I'd tell them about it, and what was happening. When I got over on this other ship, the guys that-- you know that we'd taken over there, says Romaine, "How come you're still alive? You're in the foward repair party. That's where--" I said, "I just got transferred out." [Laughter] So the Lord was with me.
Speaker 1 [00:18:49] Do you remember anything else from the other battles that you saw?
Speaker 1 [00:18:53] Well, I have to tell you about my-- my good shipmate. Eldon Fisher. From-- from-- he was from Eagle Grove. Eldon and I were-- same name. Fisher and Kischer. Same birthday. We were from--both from northwest Iowa. And-- and-- and we even looked alike, they said. I don't know if we did or not, but we just got to be close buddies. But he-- he stayed in a forward repair party and he was gone. And he-- so his two brothers-- [He is overcome with emotion.] I'm sorry. [Recording stops and restarts] All right, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm over-- over it-- okay. His two brothers come to see me at Albert City, and they says, "Is Eldon alive? Is there any chance Eldon could be alive?" I had to look at them and say, "No, your-- your brother's-- your brother's dead." They thought, well, maybe he could be floating in the Pacific someplace, but he was gone. I said-- I had to look at them and say, "Hey, your brother is dead." Kind of a touchy, hard time. I do all the talking. You do some of the talking.
Speaker 1 [00:20:04] Can you tell us about your Okinawa experience?
Romaine Kischer [00:20:09] When they took us-- I was on six different ships before I got back. They took us over on Okinawa, on the island. So we got to go over on the island. And [aughter], of course, I-- when I got over on the ship, I didn't have any shoes. And so one of the guys on the ship gave me a pair of shoes, but they were the wrong size. [Laughter] So I was walking around in shoes and Okinawa-- in feet-- the shoes, they didn't fit me. [Laughter] And we wanted to get-- we wanted to get, you know, clothes and stuff from the Red Cross. And the Red Cross wouldn't give us nothing. They wouldn't give nothing. We-- we didn't have any clothes. We didn't have anything on Okinawa. So we asked the Red Cross. Red Cross wouldn't give us anything. So at night we had we-- we had-- we went out and had to take somebody else's underwear off of the clothesline. I come home, told my mom, I said, "We stole underwear from the-- from the Navy guys," [Laughter] and she said, "Romaine, you wouldn't do that, would you?" [Laughter] That's--We just can't get any clothes. We didn't have any because we didn't have any records. We didn't have anything. They wouldn't give us anything.
Speaker 1 [00:21:26] What else--
Romaine Kischer [00:21:26] I got ya laughing anyway. [Laughter] I'm crying. You're laughing. That ain't right. Okay. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 [00:21:33] What else did you do while you were at Okinawa?
Romaine Kischer [00:21:36] Well, we went up-- we went up and seen how-- how the Japs lived in-- in the caves. We went up in those caves, went in the ammunition dumps. The Japs had us outsmarted in the ammunition. They-- we could-- they could use our ammunition and were shooting their guns and our guns and we couldn't shoot their ammunition. They-- they had us outsmarted. Then we went up in-- in-- and you can't believe those caves. Do you see them? They had-- had them built back there in-- in-- in the mountains, you know. And-- but I have to tell you about the prisoners. They had a prison camp there in Okinawa. And the guys-- they'd take the prisoners out each day, you know, to give them a walk around the compound and all around. Well, at night they'd come in and they'd have extra guys because the Japs were still out there, they were hungry, they were in the trees. So-- so at night they'd be-- so in the daytime when the marching guys would go in, they would go in-- they'd go in and have a meal because they were hungry. So they'd go in and get a meal and then they'd go back in their perch again. So they were freeloading off of our prison camps. [Laughter] True story. You believe it if you want to. [Laughter] Okay. Shoot.
Speaker 2 [00:22:54] What was your impression of the Japanese?
Speaker 2 [00:22:58] Well-- they were just men, but they were misled people. I mean, they were-- they were really-- what they did-- they were-- they were-- they were determined to do it. You know, the suicide planes that hit us. The first ones we seen in-- in the Philippines. We thought, oh, my gosh, your guy just lost control of that plane, that he, you know, he was dry diving at our aircraft carriers. And when they hit our aircraft carriers, they'd go down six decks, six decks through. When-- when the suicide plane came-- came down and hit the carriers, they go down-- say, go down to the galleys. They'd hit the galleys that far. [Someone] says, "Oh, he wouldn't do that." But at-- at Okinawa, they were so desperate. They just come in flying at us ,and they didn't know how to drive the plane. We-- we had a sister ship that got hit with six suicide. It looked like a junkyard. I mean, our ship was a junkyard, but it was worse than ours. Six-- six-- took six suicide planes to sink a-- sink a ship. They were poor pilots, the last ones. I mean, they just trained them overnight, you know, and give them a good night out with the women. And then the next day they went out in their plane. Here they're trying to come in and hit us. [Laughter] And they couldn't-- they couldn't guide the plane. They didn't know how. They didn't have any training.
Speaker 2 [00:24:19] You said you were at the Philippines. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Romaine Kischer [00:24:22] One of the wo-- the hotttest harbor I was ever in was the Philippines. And the P-38s were just diving all over. I never-- never was in such a hot harbor. And the P-38s-- the Army-- the Army was in there-- they were just all over, just-- just coming at us from all directions. It was hot. It was a hot harbor. Yeah. One of the worst. Never was in a hotter one. It just-- planes all over, just coming down. And they didn't hit us. I guess they didn't find us. I don't know why they didn't get us, but they didn't.
Speaker 1 [00:24:56] Was that your first experience with kamikaze planes?
Romaine Kischer [00:24:58] Yes. Well, Philippines was the first. Yeah. And then Leyte Gulf from then-- from then on [unintelligible] the first one to the Philippines, we couldn't believe it. We didn't think people would do anything like that. We thought, Oh, they lost control, and they just started up there. And then we figured it was a U.S. plane behind them, you know, that knocked them out, but they-- they were serious. They were-- they were-- they were good pilots, the first ones, the second ones didn't have much training. Right.
Speaker 2 [00:25:30] How did you manage to stay in touch with your family?
Romaine Kischer [00:25:33] You didn't hear from them months at a time. We did not see any women for one year. One year we did not see women. And when we seen the first women at Okinawa [Laughter] the guys where they were-- they were nice. They handled theirselves real nice, but they were just-- just to touch them. I mean, that was enough. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:26:00] Do you have any other stories? Like that?
Romaine Kischer [00:26:02] I'd take you all day. My stories go on and on and on. And I did-- none of these stories came back to me 'til I went on the Freedom Flight to Washington. And all these stories come back to me, you know? They just roll in [unintelligible]-- well, I can tell you one. We were alongside of an aircraft carrier and Stub [i.e. Alvin Lindquist, the subject of another interview] will tell you more about aircraft. Well, I stumbled on an aircraft carrier, but anyway, we were alongside of an aircraft carrier and a guy was standing on the side of the deck, you know, looking over, you know, how a-- what a typical sailor who wanted to look at us. And he fell over the side, and this was 65 to 70 feet to the water. This fella-- and I happened to be on the-- on the-- I happened to be on the the throttles that day. So they gave us a full-- full reverse on-- we had two screws on the ship, you know. There was two screws. And I happened to be on the-- on the-- on the port side. So we pulled the ship off to one side, and they gave me a full reverse. Whenever you-- if our ship-- if we had a full reverse, you would wash all the guys off of it. If we were going along full force and give us a full reverse, we'd just wash everybody over the top. They gave us a full reverse on one-- one-- one prop. We pulled the ship over, and this guy was saved. He didn't-- didn't-- he-- he made it. They picked him up, and he was still alive. So it was kind of-- kind of neat just to pull that ship over that fast. A destroyer is about one block long. It's a little-- it's a small ship, real small ship.
Speaker 2 [00:27:45] How was steering and--
Romaine Kischer [00:27:48] How was what?
Speaker 2 [00:27:49] How was steering the ship and--
Romaine Kischer [00:27:49] Well, they have a rudder on the back. I mean, that's all done with a hydraulic-- hyd-- electric, hydraulic. The electricity told the prop where to turn it. It's all-- it's all done with-- it's done from the bridge. The bridge, the captain. You know, in terms of wheel-- you see the old wheel like a typical wheel, and he turns it from one side to the other, but it controls the-- the prop and-- or the-- the screw in the back. And our-- our screws were in dry dock for the size-- I could stand on the center of the hub, you know, the center of the hub, and I-- you could just reach the edge of it. So you know how big the screws were. That's how big-- we had two of those. The shafts were about this big around about 12 inch. And I don't know if they were solid steel-- that came through the ship and the bearings on them. There was no greasing to them. They were mounted in teakwood, so the water absorbed in this wood around the bearings of it and that's what lubricated it. It was-- wasn't lubricated with grease. It was lubricated with water. So that's how-- how the screws come through your-- through the-- through the ship.
Speaker 1 [00:29:08] What do you remember most about those battles you were in, your numerous ones? What sticks out in your mind the most?
Romaine Kischer [00:29:16] My, I have to stop and think. It's kind of a blur-- 68 years ago. I mean, that's a long time. You know, my memory. Well, I suppose we were scared, typically. When you-- when you see a shell coming at ya, it's just like a little star coming at you, you know? That's just-- that's the part of it when you see it. And we argued what side of the ship to stand on because you had-- you had armor piercing, and you had the contact shells. Contact shells was a magnetic shell when it got so close to ya, it went wham!, and the armor piercing went in so far, and then they went, wham! So what side of the ship do you stand on? We didn't know whether they were shooting armor pierce, or if they were shooting the magnetic so-- and, of course, on our ship we'd-- we'd alternate 'em, so we had so many magnetics, so many of the armored pierce, so that I don't know what the Japs did, but we never got hit. We never got hit with one, so we were fortunate.
Speaker 1 [00:30:16] Where were you when the atomic bombs went off?
Romaine Kischer [00:30:19] Back in the United States.
Speaker 1 [00:30:21] You were?
Romaine Kischer [00:30:21] Yeah. Yeah, I was in San Francisco. And there was such a celebration in San Francisco that they-- six people were killed in San Francisco. Six people were killed in all the ramp-- in all the rampage. It was so wild uptown, we left San Francisco, and we went and hid. [Laughter] Oh, it was-- Yeah. There was a couple girls that they-- they said when the war was over, we're going to swim. And they had a swimming pool in San Francisco in one of the parks, and they said, we're going naked, and we're going to swim out there. And so that's what they did. You can see how wild it was-- yeah, they had to close all the bars. They had to close everything-- upset trolley cars, they upset everything. People just went nuts, just wild. So we left. We didn't stay there. [Laughter] Too much celebration. It was too wild for us. We'd just been to the war. We didn't want to get killed. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:31:18] How did you react to the atomic bombs?
Romaine Kischer [00:31:21] Well, we thought it was our salvation, because if the atomic bomb hadn't won-- well, we'd went-- we'd went to Japan-- we'd have had to go back and fight Japan. And we'd lost-- we'd have lost a lot of men. We lost a lot of-- Navy lost a lot of people in the Pacific. And we'd have lost twice as many. We'd have lost as many as we lost, I think. That's my personal opinion, that we'd have lost that many. It made the Japs realize that they couldn't beat us. I mean, otherwise you-- the Japs never gave up. I mean, they-- they just fought 'til the last man stood, and they would have. And so we thought that was what saved us. Then we realized the war was over, but it was brutal. It's sad that we had to do that to 'em.
Speaker 1 [00:32:06] What did you do after the war?
Romaine Kischer [00:32:08] What did I do after the war? Come back and went to BV. [Laughter] I knew after I'd been in the service, I needed to go to college. So I was going to be a refrigeration engineer. I gotta be-- I wanted to be a refrigeration-- went back to college for three years to BV, transferred to Iowa State. Twelve of us went down there. Every one of us came back home. [Laughter] We didn't-- It was-- We'd been at BV too long. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:32:37] Did you go to school on a GI Bill?
Romaine Kischer [00:32:39] Yes. Yeah. $65 a month. All-- all your supplies. You had everything. And that was a good deal. It was a good thing, yeah. I went three years under GI, and then I started farming. My father offered me a job. Offered me a job, yeah I know, it wasn't a job. He offered I could start farming. And I come back and started-- I went to-- I got a year-- a year's training to be a farmer. So it was kind of a-- GI Bill was really great for-- for me.
Speaker 1 [00:33:10] Were you able to do anything else with your GI Bill?
Romaine Kischer [00:33:13] No, just start with that. No, no, no. Basically-- basically, I went to college three years, got three years of college and [it] helped me start farming. They had a program where they helped you. We had a voc-ag instructor in Albert City that came from Iowa State and taught us, and we learned a lot of things. It was a good-- it was a good thing.
Speaker 2 [00:33:37] When were you discharged?
Romaine Kischer [00:33:40] Oh, first I'll tell you how many years I was in the service. All right. Three years, three months, three days and 3 hours. That's pretty exact, no? That's pretty close. I got discharged in [19]46, yes. '46, yeah, I wouldn't have had to stay on the ship as long as I did, and they offered me if I-- if I would stay with the ship they'd-- and take it out-- put it in commission, took it out of commission. They offered me-- they said, "If you'll stay, we'll let you be chief petty officer, which is a pretty good-- pretty fair rate in the Navy." And-- and I said, "I'll stay. I'll stay and help you take it out of commission." So I got to be a chief petty officer, which was a-- which was an honor. I didn't deserve to be a chief petty officer [Laughter] which you have about 25 men. I had 25 men, and after we lost all our guys, they gave us a whole bunch of guys from Brooklyn. Brooklyn? Oh, my gosh. We couldn't handle them. I mean, they-- all they wanted to do is fight, like, what are we going to do with these guys, you know? So we found the kingpin of the bunch, and we sent him into the Black Carpet gang in Hong Kong. After that, we had a good crew. I'd come down in the morning, I'd come down in the engine room, I'd wiggle my toes down to there and I wiggle 'em. And pretty soon the guys, they'd all grab something and go to work. Everyone want to work after that. [Laughter] You don't need don't like all my sideline stuff. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:35:18] What were you most proud of?
Romaine Kischer [00:35:20] What am I most proud of? Serve my country. Wasn't-- I think it was a privilege. I fought for America. We didn't do anything exceptional. We didn't do anything that anyone wouldn't do. We did it because we liked our country. Loved our country. Now you make me tear up again. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:35:48] Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us?
Romaine Kischer [00:35:52] Hmm. Well, I-- I have to tell you what I-- what I did to my class in-- I took-- what'd I take? Physics. I took physics at BV, and so I taught everyone in my class refrigeration. [Laughter] So everybody was in my physics class. And it was the principle of refrigeration. [Laughter] So in-- all my classmates knew-- knew refrigeration because I knew refrigeration. That's the only thing I knew-- And when I took speech, we gave all our speeches, you know, we'd tell about all our experiences in the Pacific. And he says, always, when you're taking speech, always talk about something you know something about. That's the only thing I knew about was the war. So-- and then my wife she-- she threw them all away and burned them. She said they weren't interesting. [Laughter] So that's the end of my speeches. I had them all recorded and everything. I was pretty proud. I thought I gave a good bunch of speeches. Must not have been too good. My wife didn't think [unintelligible]. She burned 'em. [Laughter] Okay.
Speaker 1 [00:37:05] You said earlier today that you went on an Honor Flight to D.C.
Romaine Kischer [00:37:09] Yup.
Speaker 1 [00:37:10] Can you tell us about that?
Romaine Kischer [00:37:11] Oh, my. You want to be here all afternoon? [Laughter] I walked two feet off the ground after going to that. The people in Albert City says, "Romaine, you're two feet off the ground." It was the biggest thrill I ever had.
Speaker 1 [00:37:26] What are a few of the places you got to see--
Romaine Kischer [00:37:30] Well, we went to all the-- all the-- all the-- all the memorials. To me, Arlington Park touched my heart. I mean, I-- you can see it on television. You can see it, you know, you can see it other places. But you got to go there to feel it. When you get to see it, when you're in Arlington Park, it does something to-- it touches your heart.
Speaker 1 [00:37:48] Did you watch the changing of the guard?
Romaine Kischer [00:37:50] Oh, yes, I was two feet from-- no. I stretch it. Six feet from where the guy was. I-- I took my wife's wheelchair with because I knew I'd wear out. And I had three high school girls that took me on-- they brought people-- they brought high school kids in from the community around. I had all these young high school kids. They would push me all over, and they brought me six feet from the changing of the guard. Yes, I was-- it was so, so good. For a little girl, she was sick, and she didn't have enough clothes on. And I can still feel her shaking. [Laughter] No, they were sweet girls. They were sweet kids. And I asked one of the guys, I says, "What-- what do you-- what grade are you in?" And he said, "I'm a senior," he says. "You play football?" "Oh yeah, I play football." I said, "Are you pretty good?" He said, "Well, I'm quarterback. I'm not too bad." [Laughter] No, they were-- and then I happened to be talking to one of the gal-- one of the gals on our tour. And-- and-- and I was telling her about hit-- the suicide plane hitting us, you know what happened. And then pretty soon Market to Market [a television show on Iowa Public Television] got a hold of the story. And so she says, "Keep talking, keep talking." So-- so I got to be on Market to Market over-- over the station here at-- at-- at Des Moines. So, my biggest fear was I'd be an embarrassment to my family. They said I wasn't. So if you want to see Romaine-- Romaine on Market to Market, he's been on Market to Market telling-- telling about his experience.
Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Today is April 14th, 2011. We're interviewing Mr. Kischer at the communications center at Buena Vista University. What were you doing before the service?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:12] Just a farm boy. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:00:17] Where was that at?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:18] Albert City, yeah. My father farmed there. And when Pearl Harbor was hit, and you'll talk to "Stub" [Editor's note: Stub is the nickname of Alvin Lindquist, who was also interviewed.] later, I was milking a Guernsey-- Guernsey cows. That's what-- that's-- my father had a Guernsey herd. And I was-- Pearl Harbor was hit. That's what I was doing. Milking cows.
Speaker 1 [00:00:37] What was your reaction to Pearl Harbor?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:39] Well, it didn't-- didn't-- it didn't touch you then. I mean, you know, you were just young, and you didn't know what was happening. No. You didn't realize it was going to change your whole life.
Speaker 1 [00:00:53] What happened after Pearl Harbor that was significant to you?
Romaine Kischer [00:00:57] Well, we would [have] been drafted or otherwise go in the Navy. And I decided to go in the Navy. I picked the Navy. And so that's why I joined the Navy. And we had a lot of guys from Albert City that went in the Navy. So that's where I ended up at, in the Navy.
Speaker 1 [00:01:15] What year was that?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:16] That was 1943. Yeah. Went in in '43. Yes. Fort-- yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:01:26] What made you decide to join the Navy?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:30] Just the buddies you have, the people you're around, you know. They just had an influence because so many guys from Albert City decided to dive in the Navy. So I just thought it was a good place to be.
Speaker 1 [00:01:42] Are you glad you joined the Navy over being drafted?
Romaine Kischer [00:01:45] Oh, yes, very definitely, yeah. It was an education in itself to be in the Navy because they sent me to boot camp at Great Lakes. From boot camp, they sent me to the University of Minnesota. From the University of Minnesota, they gave me four months of college there to be a machinist's mate. How you can make a machinist's mate in University of Minnesota? Well, that's what they tried to do. They try to make a machinist's mate out in for months. And from there, they sent me to Syracuse, New York, to go to a refrigeration school, which was in-- Carrier refrigeration is made in-- that's where they made all the refrigeration for the-- for the ships-- Carrier and York were there are two kinds of refrigeration. And Carrier was one of them. That's where they sent us [to] school, so they put us in private homes, just like you were in college, so when I went to college, you stayed in a-- in a-- in a home-- in a private home, and then you went to college. Because when I went to BV, we stayed in a private home. [Laughter] There was no dormitories here in BV, which was different. You stayed in private homes. They kept us in private homes. And we went to Syracuse, New York to take our training as a-- as refrigeration-- it was good training, they taught us. So when I come on the ship, first thing they ask me was, "Have you been to re-- been to refrigeration school?" And I said, "Yes." They said, "You're in charge of refrigeration." Got the job. How was my job? Was not anything special. You had to still stand your guard, still had to stand your stations, and still take care of refrigeration. Wasn't really an an asset, but it wasn't really anything-- anything that you really gain. But I got the privilege of taking care of the refrigeration. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:03:38] What else can you tell us about the training?
Romaine Kischer [00:03:41] It took me a year. I went in, went in in '42 and first year, all I did is went to school. They sent me all the school. The Navy treated me really well. Just they-- got a lot of training. First year was training, going to school, and then after that, then they put me on the-- on the ship because I was put in commission in San Francisco, the Hazelwood which put in commission then that fall. So I joined-- put on the ship-- was one of the first ones. You know, we were the first guys that were put on it, and they brought out us guys from all over to-- we were all reserves, we weren't regulars. We were reserves on the ship, and 75% of our guys were reserves on our ship, I mean, the rest were the old Navy men. But 75% of our guys were reserves.
Speaker 1 [00:04:33] Did you know anyone on your ship from Albert City? Was anyone with you?
Romaine Kischer [00:04:36] No, no, no, no, no. [Laughter] Nobody from Albert City. They [were] from all over East Coast and, you know, all over, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:04:47] How was living on the ship?
Romaine Kischer [00:04:48] Well, it was tight [unintelligible]. Our bunks were, you know, we had about, I would say, two feet between the bunk where you slept and the bunk, you know, above you. About two feet. Very tight, Destroyers are real tight. You don't have a lot of room-- three-- you have a locker underneath and then three beds on top of them-- that-- that reached the ceiling of the ship, you know, so-- you could get out of them easily.
Speaker 1 [00:05:22] Is there anything in particular you did to stay preoccupied?
Romaine Kischer [00:05:25] Keep occupied? They kept us pretty occupied from just running the ship [Laughter] as a full time operation-- You stood 8 hours on or, you know, 4 hours on and 8 hours off. And you did that twice, you know, every day. So I stood my watches and-- and then you still had to-- and had to, you know, you were-- you were pretty occupied in what you were doing, yeah, to keep that ship going. You had 8 hours on duty, 8 hours at a time in the engine room or wherever. I was stationed to the engine room, yeah. Forward engine room, which was-- I'll stop there. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:06:10] Can you tell us any more about any of the other duties that you had to do on ship besides--
Romaine Kischer [00:06:15] Take care of-- well, I stood a watch each day, twice-- you know, stood a four-hour watch twice a day and then had to take care of my refrigeration. Yeah, I was in charge of refrigeration. I was gifted. They gave me the job of taking care of the refrigeration. Yeah. And when we got out of San Francisco, one of the officers come up to me and he says-- said, "We don't have a refrigeration-- our refrigerator doesn't work up in the officers quarters," and he says, "Could you come up and look at it?" And, well, I had Charlie, which was a black fella-- was taking care of the refrigeration and-- and he was supposed to defrost it. So he took an ice pick and defrosted it [Laughter], poked a hole in it. So--so I had to-- I rigged up a coil so I could make the refrigeration work. So I become Charlie's hero. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:07:10] Was it difficult to stand guard for hours at a time?
Romaine Kischer [00:07:13] No, no, no, no, no. It was hot. Our engine room, when it-- when we lit off, after we got our-- after our boilers were lit off and our engine room was going, it run 130 degrees. That's where we-- that was-- that was our heat. That was what we were used to, 130, 30, 30 degrees. So we didn't dress very heavily, maybe sometimes, you know, sometimes just your-- your jeans and-- and strip from the top, and sometimes even cut off our legs so we-- our knees showed, you know, which we shouldn't have done, I guess.
Speaker 2 [00:07:51] While you were standing guard, what did you watch for?
Romaine Kischer [00:07:54] Well, we had to run the engines. I mean, we had-- it's the-- the bridge would give you the RPMs we had to go. We had two engine rooms, and they gave you that-- how many RPMs the screw had to go. And so they told you if you were a third speed, you had certain amount of RPMs of screw had to go. And if we wanted to raise it two-- two revolutions, they told us, and so they gave us the word. We kept that engine going at whatever speed they wanted that ship to go.
Speaker 1 [00:08:27] And where did you serve during the war? Where were you--
Romaine Kischer [00:08:29] Where did I serve? Well we started, at first-- we took up from San Francisco. After we put it in commission, we went from San Francisco to Honolulu and [in] Honolulu, we picked up the fleet there in a couple of days. And then we went to-- out to the Gilbert Islands and we started a chain of the Gilberts-- started-- then we went there for just to protect it the first time. The second time we went back, we went for the invasion, and that was a really-- a bloody battle because after the-- after the guys had went in all the-- all the-- [Kischer becomes visibly moved] I'm starting to tear up, I'm sorry. After the guys went in to the beach, you know, they were all-- I mean, they lost-- we lost-- they lost so many guys went on the beach and they were floating, you know, out there. So we had-- they had to go around and put something on top of them to let them sink, you know, they were floating outside, in the harbors there where the guys had went in. So the guys-- they just took boats and went around and fastened weights on them so their bodies would sink in the ocean. It was kind of a-- kind of a gruesome job.
Speaker 1 [00:09:49] Did you know anyone that passed?
Romaine Kischer [00:09:53] That passed away? On my ship, after we got hit with a suicide plane, I lost my whole outift was dead. All gone.
Speaker 2 [00:10:04] Can you tell us a little more about being hit with the kamikaze?
Romaine Kischer [00:10:09] Kamikaze? Well, they had three of them come at us. We got two of them, but one of them got through on the rear. And they usually-- they like to come in the rear of the ship because we wasn't protected from the back. And he got in on the back of us and and hit the bridge and killed all the officers in the bridge and killed all the officers in [the] forward fire room. Everybody in the fire room and all the bridge, all the guys were killed completely. And my outfit was where the suicide plane hit was exactly where I stood, exactly where I stood but five weeks before. Before the ship hit, I got transferred to forward engine room. I was always in the forward repair party. That was my job. I was there a year-and-a-half, but that's where the suicide plane hit, and so my whole outfit was completely gone. If I hadn't been transferred to the engine room, I wouldn't have been here today. So I walked around for a couple of days. Why am I alive? All my buddies are gone. I know today why. The Lord had reason for me.
Speaker 2 [00:11:19] What were you doing while your ship got hit?
Speaker 2 [00:11:22] I was on-- I was on the throttles on the engine, and that was my job during the GQ. That was my job. I run-- I ran-- I had the throttle, see, on the port engine room. And the suicide plane hit so close it bended [sic] bulkhead next to us. That bulkhead is a compartment, right-- is a wall ahead of us. It bent that, but it didn't break through. So we were fortunate. Everybody ahead of us was dead. And I went up on the-- went up on the deck and looked out and and here was here was-- it a forward smokestack was laying on the outside of the ship. And I looked at it and I says, "Oh my goodness, I think the fire room's out there." But it was just a forward, forward stack. I get a little teared up. I'm sorry. Here's-- here's a picture of the ship after. I don't know if you can see it. Yeah, here-- here's the-- here was-- here was-- here was-- I was right under here. There's where I was at right under here-- here's a fort. There was another stack on the front that was completely blown off, just gone. Just layed off to the side of the ship, yeah, that's a picture of it. And there's other pictures of the ship-- picture of the ship when it was in-- when we got to-- when we come back, one of the times they put us in dry dock, they-- they paint you like a zebra. See how you're painted like-- you know, you look at-- that's so when they put us in a dry dock and then they painted us. So they-- we were a gray ship till we got to Honolulu and they put us in dry dock. And that's what you look like afterwards. It's camouflage they called it. You know that's what we looked like before. This is look like-- what we looked like after we got hit with suicide.
Speaker 2 [00:13:09] What did you do after you were hit?
Romaine Kischer [00:13:12] We had-- they ordered us to get off of the ship. And so we pushed our-- we-- they told us to abandon ship. So we abandoned ship and we pushed all our-- I'll get teared up. Sorry. Well, after-- after they told us to abandon ship we-- we went off the back of the ship. They told us to-- and the guys all took off their shoes. You know how you do when you don't go in the ocean with your shoes on. So we piled our shoes. My favorite story is we had shoes piled this high on the back of the ship. So-- so we jumped off the ship, had about 12 to 15 feet to get in the water. And when you go in the water, you take off of your life jacket, you throw it in the water. You don't jump off the ship with a life jacket on you. You had the belly things that went around ya, you know, to-- that was-- you didn't have the vest-like, thinking of it. It's-- it's a belly. Navy used the belly thing that just went around you. So you threw your life jacket in and when you jump off the ship, our biggest worry was the screw is still going to be turning when we got down there because if the screw was turning and so we went down and after we jumped in, we thought, Oh my gosh, it's all over because we didn't-- we just thought we were still going down. The next minute we come out of the water. We-- we changed directions in the water, but we came out of the water and here we were. We were still alive. There was our life jackets and we-- grabbed our life jackets and put them on. And one of my-- one of my buddies had a-- had to take on a life jacket that he picked off of an aircraft, and one of the pilots-- we used to pick up the pilots alongside. So we had on this Mae West, they called them, you know, the life jacket from the-- from the pilot. And it had holes in it. And we didn't realize-- we'd go-- we'd swim so far, and then we'd have to stop and blow him up, you know. We'd have to [Laughter] so he could get over to the life raft. And we got on a life raft and we pushed all our wounded guys over to another destroyer, just like we were. We had to swim about a mile while we pushed our life. And then we were survivors for-- for-- I don't know how long, quite a while at Okinawa, and it took us a while before we got back to the ship. The guys in the front of the ship went off, and the guys on the back of the ship went off, and we all went on other ships and-- and then we were going to sink [the ship]. They decide, well, we'll sink this-- this tin can because it's too, well, too far gone, so. So they-- but they couldn't get the guys off, the Navy guys. We had all these Navy guys, and they couldn't swim. [Laughter] So they couldn't get it off so they decided we'd have to get them back to the United States. So they put us back on the ship, and we sailed it back to the-- ship to the United States with-- we made a bridge on this-- on the ship, and we sailed it back to the United States. And it's all guided from a guidance system in the back. So we guided it from the back of the ship all the way to-- to San Francisco. And then they repaired it back in San Francisco, and then and took out the Marrow (sp) Island and repaired it. Cost them $1,000,000 to do it-- to fix that ship. And we took it on shakedown and-- and the war was over. There's a lot of space in between there. All the battles we went through, yeah, we went through 12 major battles, and we [unintelligible] 12 major battles. We started at the Gilberts and went all the way-- all the islands from Holloway through from-- I got them listed here. I-- it'd take me too long to find. We went through all of that until we got to Okinawa, and Okinawa is where they got us, where the suicide plane hit us. I'm not letting you say anything. It's your turn. [Laughter] I talk too much.
Speaker 2 [00:17:16] Can you tell us about your first battle or your first couple battles? What it was like.
Romaine Kischer [00:17:22] Well, what-- you mean was I scared? I don't know if I was scared or not. No, no, it's-- it's a-- it's a different experience. You just do what you're taught to do.
Romaine Kischer [00:17:31] What-- what was your role?
Romaine Kischer [00:17:33] I was in the forward repair party, if anybody had problems on the ship, we were supposed to go help them. And that was our job as a repair ship-- as a repair party. And I was in that in a year-and-a-half and-- and I was on the telephones all the time. So I talked to all the guys and tell them what was going on. We had a plane coming in on the left. I'd say, "We got a plane coming in on the left." I was-- I was a spokesman. I was the guy that told them what was happening. Of course, then when I got transferred out of it down in the engine room, then it's altogether a different situation. When you hear the five-inch guns go off, they're five miles away. When they're-- when the forties go off, you're-- you're within a-- probably a-- three-quarters of a mile. When the twenties go off, the plane's on top of you. That's the difference. Of course, I was always up on top where they-- where the planes were coming in, and I could always-- I gave them a good view. I'd tell them about it, and what was happening. When I got over on this other ship, the guys that-- you know that we'd taken over there, says Romaine, "How come you're still alive? You're in the foward repair party. That's where--" I said, "I just got transferred out." [Laughter] So the Lord was with me.
Speaker 1 [00:18:49] Do you remember anything else from the other battles that you saw?
Speaker 1 [00:18:53] Well, I have to tell you about my-- my good shipmate. Eldon Fisher. From-- from-- he was from Eagle Grove. Eldon and I were-- same name. Fisher and Kischer. Same birthday. We were from--both from northwest Iowa. And-- and-- and we even looked alike, they said. I don't know if we did or not, but we just got to be close buddies. But he-- he stayed in a forward repair party and he was gone. And he-- so his two brothers-- [He is overcome with emotion.] I'm sorry. [Recording stops and restarts] All right, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm over-- over it-- okay. His two brothers come to see me at Albert City, and they says, "Is Eldon alive? Is there any chance Eldon could be alive?" I had to look at them and say, "No, your-- your brother's-- your brother's dead." They thought, well, maybe he could be floating in the Pacific someplace, but he was gone. I said-- I had to look at them and say, "Hey, your brother is dead." Kind of a touchy, hard time. I do all the talking. You do some of the talking.
Speaker 1 [00:20:04] Can you tell us about your Okinawa experience?
Romaine Kischer [00:20:09] When they took us-- I was on six different ships before I got back. They took us over on Okinawa, on the island. So we got to go over on the island. And [aughter], of course, I-- when I got over on the ship, I didn't have any shoes. And so one of the guys on the ship gave me a pair of shoes, but they were the wrong size. [Laughter] So I was walking around in shoes and Okinawa-- in feet-- the shoes, they didn't fit me. [Laughter] And we wanted to get-- we wanted to get, you know, clothes and stuff from the Red Cross. And the Red Cross wouldn't give us nothing. They wouldn't give nothing. We-- we didn't have any clothes. We didn't have anything on Okinawa. So we asked the Red Cross. Red Cross wouldn't give us anything. So at night we had we-- we had-- we went out and had to take somebody else's underwear off of the clothesline. I come home, told my mom, I said, "We stole underwear from the-- from the Navy guys," [Laughter] and she said, "Romaine, you wouldn't do that, would you?" [Laughter] That's--We just can't get any clothes. We didn't have any because we didn't have any records. We didn't have anything. They wouldn't give us anything.
Speaker 1 [00:21:26] What else--
Romaine Kischer [00:21:26] I got ya laughing anyway. [Laughter] I'm crying. You're laughing. That ain't right. Okay. Go ahead.
Speaker 1 [00:21:33] What else did you do while you were at Okinawa?
Romaine Kischer [00:21:36] Well, we went up-- we went up and seen how-- how the Japs lived in-- in the caves. We went up in those caves, went in the ammunition dumps. The Japs had us outsmarted in the ammunition. They-- we could-- they could use our ammunition and were shooting their guns and our guns and we couldn't shoot their ammunition. They-- they had us outsmarted. Then we went up in-- in-- and you can't believe those caves. Do you see them? They had-- had them built back there in-- in-- in the mountains, you know. And-- but I have to tell you about the prisoners. They had a prison camp there in Okinawa. And the guys-- they'd take the prisoners out each day, you know, to give them a walk around the compound and all around. Well, at night they'd come in and they'd have extra guys because the Japs were still out there, they were hungry, they were in the trees. So-- so at night they'd be-- so in the daytime when the marching guys would go in, they would go in-- they'd go in and have a meal because they were hungry. So they'd go in and get a meal and then they'd go back in their perch again. So they were freeloading off of our prison camps. [Laughter] True story. You believe it if you want to. [Laughter] Okay. Shoot.
Speaker 2 [00:22:54] What was your impression of the Japanese?
Speaker 2 [00:22:58] Well-- they were just men, but they were misled people. I mean, they were-- they were really-- what they did-- they were-- they were-- they were determined to do it. You know, the suicide planes that hit us. The first ones we seen in-- in the Philippines. We thought, oh, my gosh, your guy just lost control of that plane, that he, you know, he was dry diving at our aircraft carriers. And when they hit our aircraft carriers, they'd go down six decks, six decks through. When-- when the suicide plane came-- came down and hit the carriers, they go down-- say, go down to the galleys. They'd hit the galleys that far. [Someone] says, "Oh, he wouldn't do that." But at-- at Okinawa, they were so desperate. They just come in flying at us ,and they didn't know how to drive the plane. We-- we had a sister ship that got hit with six suicide. It looked like a junkyard. I mean, our ship was a junkyard, but it was worse than ours. Six-- six-- took six suicide planes to sink a-- sink a ship. They were poor pilots, the last ones. I mean, they just trained them overnight, you know, and give them a good night out with the women. And then the next day they went out in their plane. Here they're trying to come in and hit us. [Laughter] And they couldn't-- they couldn't guide the plane. They didn't know how. They didn't have any training.
Speaker 2 [00:24:19] You said you were at the Philippines. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Romaine Kischer [00:24:22] One of the wo-- the hotttest harbor I was ever in was the Philippines. And the P-38s were just diving all over. I never-- never was in such a hot harbor. And the P-38s-- the Army-- the Army was in there-- they were just all over, just-- just coming at us from all directions. It was hot. It was a hot harbor. Yeah. One of the worst. Never was in a hotter one. It just-- planes all over, just coming down. And they didn't hit us. I guess they didn't find us. I don't know why they didn't get us, but they didn't.
Speaker 1 [00:24:56] Was that your first experience with kamikaze planes?
Romaine Kischer [00:24:58] Yes. Well, Philippines was the first. Yeah. And then Leyte Gulf from then-- from then on [unintelligible] the first one to the Philippines, we couldn't believe it. We didn't think people would do anything like that. We thought, Oh, they lost control, and they just started up there. And then we figured it was a U.S. plane behind them, you know, that knocked them out, but they-- they were serious. They were-- they were-- they were good pilots, the first ones, the second ones didn't have much training. Right.
Speaker 2 [00:25:30] How did you manage to stay in touch with your family?
Romaine Kischer [00:25:33] You didn't hear from them months at a time. We did not see any women for one year. One year we did not see women. And when we seen the first women at Okinawa [Laughter] the guys where they were-- they were nice. They handled theirselves real nice, but they were just-- just to touch them. I mean, that was enough. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:26:00] Do you have any other stories? Like that?
Romaine Kischer [00:26:02] I'd take you all day. My stories go on and on and on. And I did-- none of these stories came back to me 'til I went on the Freedom Flight to Washington. And all these stories come back to me, you know? They just roll in [unintelligible]-- well, I can tell you one. We were alongside of an aircraft carrier and Stub [i.e. Alvin Lindquist, the subject of another interview] will tell you more about aircraft. Well, I stumbled on an aircraft carrier, but anyway, we were alongside of an aircraft carrier and a guy was standing on the side of the deck, you know, looking over, you know, how a-- what a typical sailor who wanted to look at us. And he fell over the side, and this was 65 to 70 feet to the water. This fella-- and I happened to be on the-- on the-- I happened to be on the the throttles that day. So they gave us a full-- full reverse on-- we had two screws on the ship, you know. There was two screws. And I happened to be on the-- on the-- on the port side. So we pulled the ship off to one side, and they gave me a full reverse. Whenever you-- if our ship-- if we had a full reverse, you would wash all the guys off of it. If we were going along full force and give us a full reverse, we'd just wash everybody over the top. They gave us a full reverse on one-- one-- one prop. We pulled the ship over, and this guy was saved. He didn't-- didn't-- he-- he made it. They picked him up, and he was still alive. So it was kind of-- kind of neat just to pull that ship over that fast. A destroyer is about one block long. It's a little-- it's a small ship, real small ship.
Speaker 2 [00:27:45] How was steering and--
Romaine Kischer [00:27:48] How was what?
Speaker 2 [00:27:49] How was steering the ship and--
Romaine Kischer [00:27:49] Well, they have a rudder on the back. I mean, that's all done with a hydraulic-- hyd-- electric, hydraulic. The electricity told the prop where to turn it. It's all-- it's all done with-- it's done from the bridge. The bridge, the captain. You know, in terms of wheel-- you see the old wheel like a typical wheel, and he turns it from one side to the other, but it controls the-- the prop and-- or the-- the screw in the back. And our-- our screws were in dry dock for the size-- I could stand on the center of the hub, you know, the center of the hub, and I-- you could just reach the edge of it. So you know how big the screws were. That's how big-- we had two of those. The shafts were about this big around about 12 inch. And I don't know if they were solid steel-- that came through the ship and the bearings on them. There was no greasing to them. They were mounted in teakwood, so the water absorbed in this wood around the bearings of it and that's what lubricated it. It was-- wasn't lubricated with grease. It was lubricated with water. So that's how-- how the screws come through your-- through the-- through the ship.
Speaker 1 [00:29:08] What do you remember most about those battles you were in, your numerous ones? What sticks out in your mind the most?
Romaine Kischer [00:29:16] My, I have to stop and think. It's kind of a blur-- 68 years ago. I mean, that's a long time. You know, my memory. Well, I suppose we were scared, typically. When you-- when you see a shell coming at ya, it's just like a little star coming at you, you know? That's just-- that's the part of it when you see it. And we argued what side of the ship to stand on because you had-- you had armor piercing, and you had the contact shells. Contact shells was a magnetic shell when it got so close to ya, it went wham!, and the armor piercing went in so far, and then they went, wham! So what side of the ship do you stand on? We didn't know whether they were shooting armor pierce, or if they were shooting the magnetic so-- and, of course, on our ship we'd-- we'd alternate 'em, so we had so many magnetics, so many of the armored pierce, so that I don't know what the Japs did, but we never got hit. We never got hit with one, so we were fortunate.
Speaker 1 [00:30:16] Where were you when the atomic bombs went off?
Romaine Kischer [00:30:19] Back in the United States.
Speaker 1 [00:30:21] You were?
Romaine Kischer [00:30:21] Yeah. Yeah, I was in San Francisco. And there was such a celebration in San Francisco that they-- six people were killed in San Francisco. Six people were killed in all the ramp-- in all the rampage. It was so wild uptown, we left San Francisco, and we went and hid. [Laughter] Oh, it was-- Yeah. There was a couple girls that they-- they said when the war was over, we're going to swim. And they had a swimming pool in San Francisco in one of the parks, and they said, we're going naked, and we're going to swim out there. And so that's what they did. You can see how wild it was-- yeah, they had to close all the bars. They had to close everything-- upset trolley cars, they upset everything. People just went nuts, just wild. So we left. We didn't stay there. [Laughter] Too much celebration. It was too wild for us. We'd just been to the war. We didn't want to get killed. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:31:18] How did you react to the atomic bombs?
Romaine Kischer [00:31:21] Well, we thought it was our salvation, because if the atomic bomb hadn't won-- well, we'd went-- we'd went to Japan-- we'd have had to go back and fight Japan. And we'd lost-- we'd have lost a lot of men. We lost a lot of-- Navy lost a lot of people in the Pacific. And we'd have lost twice as many. We'd have lost as many as we lost, I think. That's my personal opinion, that we'd have lost that many. It made the Japs realize that they couldn't beat us. I mean, otherwise you-- the Japs never gave up. I mean, they-- they just fought 'til the last man stood, and they would have. And so we thought that was what saved us. Then we realized the war was over, but it was brutal. It's sad that we had to do that to 'em.
Speaker 1 [00:32:06] What did you do after the war?
Romaine Kischer [00:32:08] What did I do after the war? Come back and went to BV. [Laughter] I knew after I'd been in the service, I needed to go to college. So I was going to be a refrigeration engineer. I gotta be-- I wanted to be a refrigeration-- went back to college for three years to BV, transferred to Iowa State. Twelve of us went down there. Every one of us came back home. [Laughter] We didn't-- It was-- We'd been at BV too long. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:32:37] Did you go to school on a GI Bill?
Romaine Kischer [00:32:39] Yes. Yeah. $65 a month. All-- all your supplies. You had everything. And that was a good deal. It was a good thing, yeah. I went three years under GI, and then I started farming. My father offered me a job. Offered me a job, yeah I know, it wasn't a job. He offered I could start farming. And I come back and started-- I went to-- I got a year-- a year's training to be a farmer. So it was kind of a-- GI Bill was really great for-- for me.
Speaker 1 [00:33:10] Were you able to do anything else with your GI Bill?
Romaine Kischer [00:33:13] No, just start with that. No, no, no. Basically-- basically, I went to college three years, got three years of college and [it] helped me start farming. They had a program where they helped you. We had a voc-ag instructor in Albert City that came from Iowa State and taught us, and we learned a lot of things. It was a good-- it was a good thing.
Speaker 2 [00:33:37] When were you discharged?
Romaine Kischer [00:33:40] Oh, first I'll tell you how many years I was in the service. All right. Three years, three months, three days and 3 hours. That's pretty exact, no? That's pretty close. I got discharged in [19]46, yes. '46, yeah, I wouldn't have had to stay on the ship as long as I did, and they offered me if I-- if I would stay with the ship they'd-- and take it out-- put it in commission, took it out of commission. They offered me-- they said, "If you'll stay, we'll let you be chief petty officer, which is a pretty good-- pretty fair rate in the Navy." And-- and I said, "I'll stay. I'll stay and help you take it out of commission." So I got to be a chief petty officer, which was a-- which was an honor. I didn't deserve to be a chief petty officer [Laughter] which you have about 25 men. I had 25 men, and after we lost all our guys, they gave us a whole bunch of guys from Brooklyn. Brooklyn? Oh, my gosh. We couldn't handle them. I mean, they-- all they wanted to do is fight, like, what are we going to do with these guys, you know? So we found the kingpin of the bunch, and we sent him into the Black Carpet gang in Hong Kong. After that, we had a good crew. I'd come down in the morning, I'd come down in the engine room, I'd wiggle my toes down to there and I wiggle 'em. And pretty soon the guys, they'd all grab something and go to work. Everyone want to work after that. [Laughter] You don't need don't like all my sideline stuff. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:35:18] What were you most proud of?
Romaine Kischer [00:35:20] What am I most proud of? Serve my country. Wasn't-- I think it was a privilege. I fought for America. We didn't do anything exceptional. We didn't do anything that anyone wouldn't do. We did it because we liked our country. Loved our country. Now you make me tear up again. [Laughter]
Speaker 2 [00:35:48] Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us?
Romaine Kischer [00:35:52] Hmm. Well, I-- I have to tell you what I-- what I did to my class in-- I took-- what'd I take? Physics. I took physics at BV, and so I taught everyone in my class refrigeration. [Laughter] So everybody was in my physics class. And it was the principle of refrigeration. [Laughter] So in-- all my classmates knew-- knew refrigeration because I knew refrigeration. That's the only thing I knew-- And when I took speech, we gave all our speeches, you know, we'd tell about all our experiences in the Pacific. And he says, always, when you're taking speech, always talk about something you know something about. That's the only thing I knew about was the war. So-- and then my wife she-- she threw them all away and burned them. She said they weren't interesting. [Laughter] So that's the end of my speeches. I had them all recorded and everything. I was pretty proud. I thought I gave a good bunch of speeches. Must not have been too good. My wife didn't think [unintelligible]. She burned 'em. [Laughter] Okay.
Speaker 1 [00:37:05] You said earlier today that you went on an Honor Flight to D.C.
Romaine Kischer [00:37:09] Yup.
Speaker 1 [00:37:10] Can you tell us about that?
Romaine Kischer [00:37:11] Oh, my. You want to be here all afternoon? [Laughter] I walked two feet off the ground after going to that. The people in Albert City says, "Romaine, you're two feet off the ground." It was the biggest thrill I ever had.
Speaker 1 [00:37:26] What are a few of the places you got to see--
Romaine Kischer [00:37:30] Well, we went to all the-- all the-- all the-- all the memorials. To me, Arlington Park touched my heart. I mean, I-- you can see it on television. You can see it, you know, you can see it other places. But you got to go there to feel it. When you get to see it, when you're in Arlington Park, it does something to-- it touches your heart.
Speaker 1 [00:37:48] Did you watch the changing of the guard?
Romaine Kischer [00:37:50] Oh, yes, I was two feet from-- no. I stretch it. Six feet from where the guy was. I-- I took my wife's wheelchair with because I knew I'd wear out. And I had three high school girls that took me on-- they brought people-- they brought high school kids in from the community around. I had all these young high school kids. They would push me all over, and they brought me six feet from the changing of the guard. Yes, I was-- it was so, so good. For a little girl, she was sick, and she didn't have enough clothes on. And I can still feel her shaking. [Laughter] No, they were sweet girls. They were sweet kids. And I asked one of the guys, I says, "What-- what do you-- what grade are you in?" And he said, "I'm a senior," he says. "You play football?" "Oh yeah, I play football." I said, "Are you pretty good?" He said, "Well, I'm quarterback. I'm not too bad." [Laughter] No, they were-- and then I happened to be talking to one of the gal-- one of the gals on our tour. And-- and-- and I was telling her about hit-- the suicide plane hitting us, you know what happened. And then pretty soon Market to Market [a television show on Iowa Public Television] got a hold of the story. And so she says, "Keep talking, keep talking." So-- so I got to be on Market to Market over-- over the station here at-- at-- at Des Moines. So, my biggest fear was I'd be an embarrassment to my family. They said I wasn't. So if you want to see Romaine-- Romaine on Market to Market, he's been on Market to Market telling-- telling about his experience.
Original Format
DVCAM
Duration
0:39:25
Bit Rate/Frequency
80 kbps