World War II Comes to the Northern Plains Observing the 75Th Anniversary of America’S Entrance Into World War II (1941—2016)
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World War II Comes to the Northern Plains Observing the 75th Anniversary of America’s Entrance Into World War II (1941—2016) Papers of the Forty-Eighth Annual DAKOTA CONFERENCE A National Conference on the Northern Plains Photo credit: Glenn E. Soladay PhoCollection, Center for Western Studies THE CENTER FOR WESTERN STUDIES AUGUSTANA UNIVERSITY 2016 World War II Comes to the Northern Plains Observing the 75th Anniversary of America’s Entrance Into World War II (1941—2016) Papers of the Forty-Eighth Annual Dakota Conference A National Conference on the Northern Plains The Center for Western Studies Augustana University Sioux Falls, South Dakota April 22-23, 2016 Compiled by: Kari Mahowald Financial Contributors Loren and Mavis Amundson CWS Endowment/SFACF City of Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission Joe and Bobbi Jo Dondelinger Carol Rae Hansen, Andrew Gilmour & Grace Hansen-Gilmour Endowment Gordon and Trudy Iseminger Joan and Jerry Jencks Mellon Fund Committee of Augustana University Rex Myers & Susan Richards Endowment Joyce Nelson, in Memory of V.R. Nelson Rollyn H. Samp Endowment, in Honor of Ardyce Samp Roger & Shirley Schuller, in Honor of Matthew Schuller Glenn E. Soladay Estate (in Honor of Those Who Served in the 147th Field Artillery Regiment) Blair & Linda Tremere Richard & Michelle Van Demark James & Penny Volin Cover photo credit: Glenn E. Soladay Collection, Center for Western Studies Table of Contents Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………v Aronson, Dr. Marilyn Carlson World War II Comes to South Dakota—Preserving the Story…………….………………….….1 Benson, Bob Addie…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…21 Browne, Miles A. The War Comes to 205 North Hawthorne……………..……………………………………………....24 Buntin, Arthur From Draftee to Soldier: The Educational Journey of a Montana Teenager, 1941-1946………………………………………………………………………………………………………………31 Buntin, Arthur The European War: Editorial Attitudes of the Aberdeen American News, 1939-1941……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………45 Christopherson, Stan A. Sioux Falls in a Time of War: Reflections of Marie Christopherson…………………..…….64 Fanebust, Wayne The Frontier in a Nutshell…………………………………………………………...…………………..…..…70 Gasque, Thomas J. Place-Name Study in South Dakota: Past, Present, and Future…………………………….…79 Glanzer, Robert E. WWII Tragedy Touches Huron - Prairie Tracks Article……………………………………………91 Gunnarson, Jacquelyn Jones “ World War II Was Shortened by at Least Two Years” (Bletchley Park)………………..…94 Johnsson, Lillian The Women Who Flew in WWII - The Women's Airforce Service Pilots…………….…107 Kemp, David Why Name It Harney’s Peak?......................................................................................115 Larson, Lt. Col. George A., USAF (Ret.) Tom McDill: Survivor of Bataan during World War II……………………………..…..…………..119 iii Liesinger, Brian A. The World War II Incarceration of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain, Wyoming…………………………………………………………………….………133 Metzgar, Anthony Change on the Plains: How Depression and War Shaped a Region………..……………..146 Rahja, Jean Elliott Aberdeen’s Own “Peg” Lamont………………………………………..………………………………….178 Reidburn, Cassandra The Germans from Russia and Their Legacy………………………….………………………………185 Riter, Michael R. Exploits of Two Native American Warriors during World War II……………………………192 Timm, John Patronage: The Dark side of Politics and How It Affected the Dakotas…..………....…199 Tremere, A. Blair Records and Letters Bring the War Home: Military and Personal Communication in South Dakota, 1942—1945…………….………………………………………220 iv PREFACE On December 8, 1941, the U.S. Congress declared war on Japan, following its bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7. Within days, Italy and then Germany declared war on the United States. Sponsored by the Center for Western Studies, the 48th annual Dakota Conference, April 22-23, 2016, observed the approaching seventy-fifth anniversary of America’s entrance into World War II. The conference was dedicated to those American men and women who served their country and all humankind when freedom from oppression, genocide, and fascism weighed in the balance. Eighty presenters from sixteen states—California to New York and Washington State to Florida—were scheduled to present papers and discuss the impact of the Second World War on South Dakota and the Northern Plains. A few presenters were unable to attend, and only about a quarter of those who presented submitted papers for this compilation. The keynote speaker was the nation’s leading historian of the war in the Great Plains, R. Douglas Hurt, head of the Department of History at Purdue University, Indiana, and author of The Great Plains during World War II. He spoke about the livestock industry that sustained soldiers and citizens during the war. In conjunction with the conference theme, the Center for Western Studies commissioned John E. Miller, South Dakota State University (Emeritus), to conduct interviews with war veterans, which he discussed at the opening luncheon address. The closing luncheon featured Augustana Writer-in-Residence Patrick Hicks, who discussed his research on B-17 crews, many of whose radio operators were trained at the Sioux Falls Army Air Technical School. The author of Reveille for Sioux Falls, Augustana Professor Emeritus Lynwood Oyos, discussed the history of the Army Air Forces Technical School at the Sioux Falls airbase and was one of sixteen authors at the conference’s autograph party, held on Saturday, April 23. v Of the twenty-four sessions, thirteen addressed the war in the plains and two considered Native American topics, including a presentation by Marcella LeBeau of Eagle Butte, who served as an Army nurse. Two panels examined South Dakota politics during the 1970s, one panel discussed the life and times of George McGovern in the context of the new biography from Princeton University Press, and one evaluated Michael Lansing’s recent book about the Non-Partisan League in the Dakotas. Dedicated to examining contemporary issues in their historical and cultural contexts, the Dakota Conference is a signature event of the Center for Western Studies, whose programming focuses on the Northern Plains region of the American West. Harry F. Thompson, Ph.D. Executive Director The Center for Western Studies vi World War II Comes to South Dakota—Preserving the Story Dr. Marilyn Carlson Aronson “The miserable truth is that world wars merely ‘settle’ who is to carry the burden of civilization—briefly, until the next barbarian revolt.” (Agar, 1967, Introduction, p. 3). This harsh lesson is known today, but it was not recognized by most people in 1941, when Americans entered World War II. In fact, World War II was the last time that the “American people could indulge in the innocent illusion of ‘winning’ a war.” (Agar, 1967, Introduction, p. 3). Even, the early years following World War II were not much better: “1945-the Atomic bomb; 1946-1947 Total Disillusionment with Russia, the Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan; 1948-1949 the Berlin airlift, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Communist victory in China; 1950-1953 the Korean War; 1952-1953 the American Hydrogen bomb, followed by the Russian Hydrogen bomb. .” (Agar, 1967, Introduction, p.6). Today, we have enough science to destroy the entire human race, but not enough to feed and house the poor to prevent another world-wide barbarian revolt. If we put South Dakota’s entrance into World War II against this backdrop, we can better understand our state’s answer to the call to arms. “World War II was different from previous wars because the Germans mechanized the battlefields with their swift armored divisions, spearheaded by tanks, and bound together by electronic communications. Gasoline became as critical in military calculations as bullets and soldiers. For the first time, infantry became secondary to armor.” (Wiltz, 1973, p. 570). In fact, America was woefully unprepared for Germany’s and Japan’s effective war machines. American engineers “improved the navy’s torpedoes....and developed the jeep and aircraft carrier….Before the war ended, American technologies created the powerful Pershing and Patton tanks, the B29 Superfortress, the P47 Thunderbolt and P51 1 Mustang fighter planes, as well as the Proximity Fuse which would detonate an anti- aircraft shell if it passed close to a hostile plane.” (Wiltz, 1973, p. 570). However, America had not been totally oblivious to the possibility of military involvement before it actually happened. Robert Karolevitz (1990) explains what happened: On 16 September 1940, the Selective Service Act became law. On 16 October, more than sixteen million men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-six registered for a year of military training and service….On 29 October, a blindfolded Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson reached into a giant glass bowl to draw out number 158, designating the first class draftees—‘winners’ in a national lottery. (pp. 392-393). “On 25 November 1940, almost a year prior to Pearl Harbor, local commanders of the South Dakota National Guard received a telegram calling both active and inactive members of the 147th field artillery of the National Guard into active service. On 22 November 1941, after almost a year of training, the 147th boarded the United States Army transport Willard A. Holbrook enroute to the Philippines as the first American expeditionary force entering the Pacific arena in the prelude to World War II. On 27 November, the Holbrook stopped at Pearl Harbor for the men to enjoy shore leave. On 30 November