On May 24, 2001, I was fortunate to have the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Donald Peck about his experience in WWII. The interview took place at Canton High School at around 4:30, and turned out to be both interesting and enjoyable. The interview was given to me with the intention of me composing a short story based on the facts and stories gathered from my questions. My expectations were simply that I’d hear a traumatic war experience much like the ones in movies or in the novel we read, The Things They Carried. However, to my surprise the stories Mr. Peck provided me with were quite the opposite of my expectations.
Question: What
is your full name?
Mr. Peck: Donald Eaton Peck
Question: In which branch of the service were you in?
Mr. Peck: I was in two. I was in the U.S. Maritime Service, which is technically civilian. Then I was in the United States Army… there’s a story behind that.
Mr. Peck: Oh what happened is I graduated- my dad died when I was 12, so I made my mother a promise that I would finish high school and get married when I was 21. I graduated when I was 17… back then everybody wanted to get into the American Navy. At the time (inaudible) …June 1944- the war was going pretty good for our side… but I still wanted to go because all the other guys that were over there got to go. Back then everybody wanted to get in… today you can’t get them to go in. So I tried to get into the marines with my buddy I hung out with in high school. He got into the Marines, I couldn’t get into the Marines…I tried to get into the Navy, but my eyes weren’t that great, so I couldn’t get into the Navy; so I had to go into the Army. I enlisted in the Maritime Services, which is technically not part of the Army/Navy/Marines, but they needed people, so I got into that. I took basic training in “Boot Camp” down in New York and that’s how I ended up in the Maritime Marines, before I got into the Army.
Question: What were the dates that you served from-
like from when to when?
Mr. Peck: Now when I went to the Maritime Marines, it was June of 1944 to February of 1945. Then I went into the Army in February of 1945 and I got out in November of 1946.
Question: So you were seventeen when you went in-
Mr. Peck: I was 17 when I went into the Maritime Marines and I was 18 when I went into the army… now how I got into the Army was a funny story. I went to the Maritime Corp. School down in New Orleans… I thought we were going to the Pacific, but we ended up heading for Europe, by way of Charleston, North Carolina. We got into a 2 and half hour combat- 2 and half hours later- 7 miles an hour- 23 days to get across the Atlantic. We spent 14 days in the English Channel, digging in the anchor, bringing in the anchor. We probably… (Inaudible)…we did that 14 times-15 times; we left and went to Cancun, Belgium… (Inaudible)…Xmas day, we arrived 44- I arrived in Andrew (sp?)- Then Xmas evening we went back down the trail to Cancun… We had Xmas dinner like December 29th. Then they sank the ship, I wasn’t in the war at that time, but they sank us. The deck was all civilians, but everything below deck was Army… They would still shoot at us though… (Inaudible)… and they sank us. The Army stayed there and the civilians were sent back to New York. First of all we got hit… and then we had to go to Cancun- from Cancun back to Brussels- from Brussels back to Cancun- Cancun back to Brussels… We ended up in Paris, where I spent my 18th birthday.
Question: How was it on the ship- were you afraid at
times?
Mr. Peck: No…going over we got caught in a hurricane in the gulf, and there were submarines… (Inaudible)… I spent my 18th birthday in Paris and couldn’t register… I didn’t want to register and have to fight in the French Army. So I waited until I got back to the US. By the time I got back- my birthday was in January and we didn’t get back until the middle of February and by the time I got home it was March. Now they didn’t like that I’d turned 18 and hadn’t register- I got transferred real quick- I was not happy.
Question: You
didn’t want to go?
Mr. Peck: Naw- I wanted to go back to sea- I didn’t want to go to the Army. I’d used to want to go to the Army, but then I liked the sea… that’s a little side story.
Question: What
was your rank?
Mr. Peck: Able-Body Seaman
Question: What was your job as that?
Mr. Peck: I was the guy who steered the wheel, pulled the anchor…I’m still in the Maritime Marines now. In the Army now… I made the PFC- that’s as high as I got, and there’s a story to that too…
Question: PFC- what did you do as that?
Mr. Peck: That’s- Private’s the lowest rank- PFC is one above that… you’re the grunt (laughs)… everybody tells you what to do… But when I first got into the Army, I was a combat engineer; which pretty much was deck crew…
Question: I’m
sure that you went to a lot of places…
Mr. Peck: When I went into the Army I went down to Fort Denton, then to Camp Maxi, then down to Macon, GA… Now in Macon, GA- the war in Europe was declared over and I was… sent to Paris, Texas- I went from Paris to Paris (laughing). And from there I was sent to an Oakland, California Army base, and from there I was sent to Japan.
Question: Where in Japan did you go?
Mr. Peck: Jigasaki? It’s spelled just as it sounds.
Question: Where
is that?
Mr. Peck: … about 40 miles from Tokyo… our main job there was unloading ships…
Question: Was the war with Japan still going on?
Mr. Peck: No, no. That was after; we were sent to Japan and arrived two days after the surrender… (interruption with taping) Ok where was I? Ok yeah- so they sent us over to Yokahoma and we arrived 2 days after the surrender and then we were unloading – they started this thing with the American about a month after we’d been unloading everyone. The big thing was about who got there first; Calvary Division, or the 8th Army, or the 11th Air force; and we’re sitting there reading the paper- hell we’d unloaded all three of them! (Laughs)… ok, ok. Next question…
Question: What
significant dates come to mind in your service career?
Mr. Peck: No real dates- I don’t know the dates… the day I got out (laughs).
Me: Your
18th birthday in Paris…
Mr. Peck: My 18th birthday in Paris- we won’t talk about that… you’re too young. All I can say is when I arrived in I was 17, and when I left I was 24… (Laughing) Am I blushing? … Don’t put that in your story, they’ll throw you out of school… (Laughs).
Question: What did you do when you returned
from war? What did you do right
after?
Mr. Peck: I went to live with my sister. My mother lived in Rocky Hill… and I bought my first car… and I worked as a plumber-plumber’s helper with my brother-in-law, and found out I didn’t like being a plumber. I ended up working for AARL in Hartford.
Question: Did you get married soon after you got back?
Mr. Peck: No, I didn’t get married until was 21- four days after I turned 21… to a girl I met in the AARL.
Question: What stands out? Like if you look back at your
experiences in war, what experience would- what story would you tell?
Mr. Peck: Buzz Bombs.
Question: Buzz Bombs?
Mr. Peck: Buzz Bombs- They had these rockets, VI rockets and VII rockets. Now the VI rocket- you’d see it coming- you’d see the thing burned- the fire would light, and you’d see the tail come out and the powder explode; and then you’d see it coming down. Now the VII was different- it wouldn’t blast like a rocket. You’d burn the spurs ant it had wings, and it would stop burning, and at night you couldn’t see where it would fall- you wouldn’t know if it was coming straight down of if it would go forward, or go backward, go left, go right, or keep gliding until it hit something… and those scared the hell out of me- because… you were watching it, and if the light stopped burning, you knew where it was going (laughs)… and it scared you. I think that scared me more than anything else.