Life in the Service: An Interview with Sam Humphrey

The following interview took place at Sam Humphrey’s house in Canton, Connecticut in April of 2003. It was a sunny Sunday around four o’clock in the afternoon. It was a very old house and the hallway I walked into was very welcoming. Mary Humphrey (Sam’s wife) greeted me at the door. She was very friendly and eased the tension right away. Sam, Mary, and I sat at his dining room table. Sam and Mary began talking about normal everyday things. We didn’t start the interview for about five or ten minutes.

Jess: So what is your full name?

Sam Humphrey: Samuel S. Humphrey.

Jess: Did you enlist in the war or were you drafted into it?

Sam Humphrey: Jeez, I haven’t been asked that in a long time. I enlisted.

Jess: Why exactly did you enlist?

Sam Humphrey: So I wouldn’t have to take a calculus test. (Laughter). No, I wanted to fly and I wanted to fly to take pilot training but I wasn’t old enough. So I moved to Canada, so I enlisted in the Royal Air Force. They would take you at eighteen. You had to be twenty in America, the United States Air Force. I went up to Canada and was put on a waiting list, so I couldn’t get in right away, although I passed the entrance test… So I came home. That’s when Pearl Harbor happened. Then they called me. So I didn’t go to Canada. My mother said they’d have to lower the age in the United States, now that we are at war. And they did. So when they lowered the age….. Meanwhile, I went to the University of Connecticut. They sent a recruiting team out to recruit people for what they called the Aviation Cadets, which was flight training, pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. They recruited fifty-two of us. Gave us our electives and even had a psychiatrist with them. They signed us up out there. Then they said we’d call you. So I went home and I came back from semester break. And I had a calculus test coming up…I didn’t know it anyway.

Jess: What year was that?

Sam Humphrey: 1942. Wait a minute. No… it was 1942. Pearl Harbor was 1941. This was the following fall. [Sam and his wife discussed the year.]

Jess: And how old were you then?

Sam Humphrey: I was nineteen. Wait a minute, 18. Nineteen. Because I was eighteen when I went up to Canada.

Jess: So what was your branch of service?

Sam Humphrey: In those days it was Army Air Corps, which later became the Air Force.

Jess: So what was your rank when you began?

Sam Humphrey: You begin as a nothing private. I came out as a Second Lieutenant. Out of the war.

Jess: Have you had any battlefield commissions?

Sam Humphrey: No, it wasn’t a battlefield commission; it was a year and a half of training.

Jess: Where were you stationed?

Sam Humphrey: Well, I eventually put in a full career, which was twenty-nine years in the Air Force. But, during World War II, which is what I think you’re talking about, I was in the South West Pacific. We were from New Guinea to Tokyo. That was our motto.

Jess: Which wars did you serve in?

Sam Humphrey: Well, I served in all three wars. I served in World War II in the Southwest Pacific. And then I was discharged, and then I was called back to college. And then I was called back to duty for the Korean War, to serve in the Korean War. I served for two years. Then [my wife] and I went out and lived in Azores for two years; and then after that, I never got out so I was still in when the Vietnam War came along. I served at the Pentagon on the Southeast Asia Project Agency under the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development. We were trying to do research and development, quick things that would help troops in Vietnam. Most of it was guided bombs and detection. A lot of detection stuff.

Jess: What were you in the war?

Sam Humphrey: Well, in World War II, I was a navigator.

Jess: Did you see any actual combat?

Sam Humphrey: Yes.

Jess: Were you ever wounded?

Sam Humphrey: No, not even close.

Jess: Did you ever receive any medals?

Sam Humphrey: Yes. A bunch of them. Hey, I’ll show you a pretty one. Mary and I went out in 1995 to the Pacific, to the Philippines and the Philippine government gave me the Philippine Liberation Medal. It was on my records all along, but I never got the medal until 1995. We went out to the headquarters of the Philippine Army and a Philippine General pinned it on me, much to his disgust, I think. His staff got him to do it. [Laughter.] And this is the Victory Medal and this is the Adriatic Pacific medal, and for some reason the Filipinos gave me this; and I don’t know why, because it is identical to the U. S. medals that I already had. Among the ones that count, I would say the Adriatic Pacific Theater Medal, which you get for being in the theater. But I have five campaign stars on it for five campaigns that I was in. I got the Army of Occupation for when we occupied Japan, and I got the Air Medal for over one hundred hours of airtime. These are the ones that count the most. All in total, I have fourteen medals and ribbons. This is a free medal, like for good conduct.

Jess: So how long did you serve for exactly?

Sam Humphrey: I don’t know what you’re asking. During World War II, I served about three years. And during the Korean War about two years. Those were compulsory. But all total, I put in twenty-nine years; I put in a full career. I was a Lieutenant Colonel. That was when we built this house… I got out of the Air Force in between times.

Jess: Was your family supportive of you?

Sam Humphrey: Yes. Mary was. [Mary Humphrey talked for a bit.] In World War II, it was all out or nothing. Mary said she wouldn’t of married me except she happened to be home on semester break the same week I was home on leave. If it had been the week, Mary would have been in finals. [The Humphreys talked for a while about when they were looking for a place to live and their meeting with Mr. McReynolds.]

Jess: Did you meet during the war?

Sam Humphrey: No. We met at school at the foot of the hill where Mr. LeGeyt lives. [Laughter. We had a small discussion about how Canton schools have moved.]

Jess: So did you make any friends during the war that you still keep in touch with?

Sam Humphrey: Yes. We can show you pictures. This was taken in the Air Force Museum. We dedicated this bench. There are about a hundred of us that belong to a group. And yes, I keep in contact with all of them. I am the Treasurer of the Association.

[Sam and Mary talked about friends and pointed out the different people in their pictures.]

Sam Humphrey: I was at Nishima when they dropped the bomb. In fact, I saw the Japanese when they asked for terms, take two petty bombers, twin engine bombers, paint them white with green crosses on them and land on Nishima and then they transferred and put them in American C54 transfer planes flew them down to Manila to prepare at headquarters where they were given the terms. Not the terms but the instructions. And I saw those airplanes.

[We talked about the U.S. only having two atomic bombs and not being sure what we would have done if the Japanese had not surrendered. The Japanese did not know we only had two bombs.]

Jess: Did anything happen to you during your experiences in the war that changed your way of thinking?

Sam Humphrey: I wouldn’t say so. I’ve never been asked that question before. It made me a great believer in the atomic bomb.

Mary Humphrey: We met a Japanese fellow in 1995, who was about fifteen when the war was over, and he said the Japanese never would have given up if we didn’t drop the atomic bomb. And many, many more lives both Japanese and American would have been lost. It saved us a lot of lives…

Sam Humphrey: But, I saw the Japanese: In fact I was on the first airplane to land in Hiroshima. I was with a team to test radioactivity from the atomic bomb. It was nowhere near the damage that Tokyo had. Nowhere near the number of people killed. I am not sure we should have bombed at all. If you bomb them, it doesn’t matter what you bomb them with. Tokyo, 30,000 people died …the buildings just burned and burned….

Mary Humphrey: It was unfortunate but they attacked us first and we fought back.

Jess: If you had to go through all your experiences in the Armed Forces again, would you change anything at all?

Sam Humphrey: Yeah, I’d been smarter. I’d have brown-nosed more to get promotions. I don’t really know what you mean, but I never regretted anything. Staying in, I don’t regret that. That was the biggest decision. I mean the initial decisions you don’t do it anyway. You got drafted if you didn’t. I suppose I could have dogged the Korean War. I was in the reserve, and they called us. It was involuntary recall. And after that the biggest decision is: do you get out? Or stay in? And I didn’t even make that decision because from the Azores I got sent back to Hansom Field, Massachusetts what they called then, “The Airforce Cambridge Resource Center.” Up here, that was good duty. That got me into research and development command rather than flying jobs. I just drifted up there about five years. It wasn’t until they sent me to California, at the missile base, that I said, “Whoa, what’s going on here – Do I really want to go?” And I put in my letter of resignation. And I went down to the Pentagon to talk to the personnel people and found out that for technical reasons it would be denied. I didn’t want it in my records if they weren’t going to approve it. So back up the tables in personnel; and I asked to see that letter I turned in, and I tore it up. That was my big decision. And no, I don’t regret that. I might have regretted it more if I had gotten out. And now we are retired. I wouldn’t have changed much.

Jess: Did you enjoy your experiences overall?

Sam Humphrey: Overall, yes. I enjoyed the excitement. I enjoyed the travel. I enjoyed seeing the world. I didn’t enjoy some of the individual experiences, but it was mostly interesting. Being a troop carrier, we were a twin-engine transfer, is what we were. I don’t know they were designed for making aerial combat assaults, dropping paratroopers, and so forth; but they are used primarily for transporting goods by air. So we got to fly all over the Pacific.

Jess: Did the idea of going into war ever actually scare you?

Sam Humphrey: No. It never did. I was one of those guys that was never afraid. Some guys just thought it is never going to happen to me. Others are scared to death.