EmVP: ‘Fought for a cause’: WWII veteran reflects on time in Pacific

By Emily Spain

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    BOONE COUNTY, Missouri (KOMU) — Every day, memories of World War II fade away as the service members who fought in it age into their 90s or older. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, only one percent of WWII veterans are still living or nearly 170,000 people.

99-year-old Howell Wheaton is one of those veterans.

“I volunteered and signed up for four years in the Marine Corps rather than the draft,” Howell said.

Howell lives just outside of Columbia where he helps run his family’s angus farm, Wheaton Angus.

“I love my angus cattle. They’ve been very good to me,” he said. “I’ve always been a farm guy. Living in towns and cities is not my cup of tea.”

Some people say farming is more than a job, it’s a way of life. And in 1942, you could say the same about serving your country.

“It was a different time then,” Howell said. “Everybody wanted to, we’d been attacked by the Japanese. And, it was just the thing we did.”

He went to bootcamp in January 1943 and then spent the next two years overseas. He wore multiple hats during his time in the Pacific as a squad leader in the “Little Sixty Mortars” and as the company commander’s runner.

“His runner was either killed or wounded,” Howell said. “And he said, ‘You can do double duty as squad leader.'”

He carried messages to headquarters or other battalions and strung communication lines behind enemy lines, too.

“I strung wire all over the islands of Saipan and Tinian,” Howell said with a laugh.

Turns out, it runs in the family.

“Yeah, that’s my dad,” he said pointing to an article written about his dad’s service as a Marine in World War I. His dad also served as a runner and his efforts earned him multiple accolades.

“He carried messages continually exposing himself to the fire of artillery and machine guns,” Howell said reading the piece out loud.

Service is a part of this family’s heritage. And, it’s something his youngest daughter, Susan Wheaton, doesn’t take for granted.

“He talks about what a small number came back out of the men in his platoon, a minute number. It’s a miracle that I’m here,” Susan said. “We have the life we have today because of the sacrifices that generation made. And, it’s no small thing.”

“We were actually boarding ships for the invasion and thank goodness for that Missourian named Harry Truman,” Howell said. “My company was estimated to have 90 percent casualties when Harry dropped the bomb.”

His company was heading to invade Nagasaki when instead of a fight, the marines found the damage left behind from an atomic bomb.

“I was the second marine American to actually walk on an atomic bomb crater,” he said. “It had just destroyed and buried everything.”

“It’s not until the more recent years as he talked to other people that I’ve gotten more of a picture of what it was like in World War II and it wasn’t pretty,” Susan said. “He fought so we wouldn’t have to.”

She said her father was adamant that none of his three daughters would serve in the military.

“War is a bad thing,” Howell said. “It’s not some glorious deal. It’s life and death.”

But, he’s still thankful for his time in the service.

“I’ve been both honored and pleased that I could serve in the corps,” he said. “The only part of that war that’s ever bothered me is that I had a very dear friend that was younger than me back as kids that was more like a brother and he joined the darn corps because I did and he was killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima.”

From his cedar chest, Howell had laid out his old Marine uniform.

“A keepsake for me, I guess,” he said.

He described the stars on the jacket given to him for the invasion of Saipan and Okinawa. And the red hash marks on the sleeves carried a story, too.

“We sometimes refer to that as the stupidity mark,” he said with a laugh. “Those hash marks are for four years of service in the war.”

He earned those for enlisting for a full four years instead of the shorter stints other soldiers served from being drafted.

The uniform serves not only as a reminder of his service, but also just how precious life is.

“I’m extremely blessed that my Dad’s still around,” she said with tears in her eyes. “He never quits making friends. And he never quits being involved in the community and his business and his family.”

The uniform is also a reminder of his and other veterans’ sacrifices.

“I think it’s absolutely important that we remember that freedom isn’t free,” Susan said.

“I hope they remember it was fought for a cause,” Howell said.

A reminder that this Boone County farmer first fought for you and me.

“As I said, thank gosh for Harry Truman,” he said with a chuckle.

After the war, Howell went on to get his education at Purdue University through the GI bill.

He later married his wife, moved to Boone County in 1972 and worked in extension as Missouri’s Forage and Grassland specialist. He retired in 1985. His research is still used today.

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