“It was just sunset, which is the most dangerous time because it’s very hard to adjust to the darkness. All eyes were on the water. I was on the poop deck with the 5 inch gun, and that’s when we heard that there was a torpedo coming.”

—from Marooned
for 46 Days

Those are the words of former Gardiner resident Al Becker, one of thirty-five residents at the Woodland Pond Continuing Care Retirement Community in New Paltz who have contributed their war stories for Wartimes Remembered: World War II and Korea, a unique collection released in late May. It also includes the stories of four  other former Gardiner residents:  Rob Greene, Mida Kaelin, Trina Greene and Maggie MacDowell.  

These are all unusual stories told from a point in time that is rapidly receding from memory.  Some of the veterans are communicating their stories to their families for the first time. Wartimes Remembered:  World War II and Korea is now available on amazon.com ($9.95) or from the Gardiner or Elting Libraries. To whet the appetite, additional excerpts from the  stories of the Gardiner contributors are included here: 

“As we glided over the sleeping city of San Francisco the Norden bombsight guided us over the target.  A buzzer rang.  I pushed a button, and watched as a stream of bombs fell and exploded below.  You could see where they landed and flashed in a line.  It was hard to believe we were not actually in the air.”  

Rob Greene,
My Vicarious War

“The Japanese were not wasteful so they used human fecal material to fertilize their fields.  Most of it was collected in Tokyo in large wooden buckets and placed in a row on long narrow carts to be hauled out of the city.  They were a common sight on the streets of Tokyo and the soldiers dubbed them ‘Honey Buckets’.” 

—Mida Kaelin, An Army Nurse’s Memories
of World War II

“In front of me [in Life Magazine] were spread out the smoking cities of Europe and children dressed in knee socks, sweaters, winter overcoats and sturdy school shoes (or barefoot) in winter, climbing over enormous piles of rubble.  Many of these schoolchildren no longer had a home to return to, or parents.  This was the thought that brought a sense of abysmal loneliness and lost-ness to my heart.” 

—Trina Greene,
When We Were
Very Young

“Conditions became especially bad when a reward of six million Chinese dollars was placed on the head of each American captured, dead or alive. We had to depend upon small farmers and restaurants for our food, and most of the time it became so dangerous that we had to enter towns in small, heavily armed groups. Fifty percent of the hostile troops in the area were puppet troops (Jap trained Chinese) so half the time we never knew whom to trust.”

 —Maggie MacDowell, My Brother Robert