Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Andrew Elmer Simko was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
We're here with Andy Simko, a veteran of World War II, with some interesting stories about his experiences. Where were you living at the time you enlisted?
I was working in Washington, DC.
What were you doing?
Working for the -- I was working for the Navy department.
And had you thought about getting in earlier than '43, since --
Well, while I was -- while I was working for the Navy, they -- I took a cadet examination at Bowling Air Force --
Okay.
-- Field. And I passed it, but they never notified me -- this is -- this is -- I passed the -- and they told me, okay, they would get in touch with my draft board. I was subject to the draft. They would get in touch with my draft board, but I had -- but I had nothing to worry about. They would call me when I was ready. Well, I tell you, one -- so one -- one day, I went back to my home in Taylor. And who comes down there but the policeman. He comes down there, and he's -- he said that we'd -- "We've been looking for you for a good many months because we didn't know where you were." He says, "But you were subject to go with the draft a couple of months -- a couple weeks ago. But you know, we couldn't find you." And I had to go along and went back to the draft board and explained it. And I told them I had taken this cadet examination, and I was told by the Air Corps that, you know, I mean, they would take care of everything. And they never re -- they never heard from them. So I got in touch with the Air -- with Bowling Field, and they says, well, the reason they didn't do anything is because the fact they didn't have -- they didn't have a birth certificate. So I had to rush -- you know, I mean, get in -- get -- I had a friend that lived in Harrisburg, and he was able to get the birth certificate, send it off to me. And when -- we sent it to Bowling Air Force Base, and they get in touch with the draft board in Taylor, and they all resolved it. And this was probably in about May or June, and I wasn't called until the end of, you know -- called towards the end of [inaudible].
What made you choose the Army Air Corps over all the other branches?
I guess I liked flying, you know, and I was hoping to become a pilot, but I went to -- we went to preflight and then -- then to flight training, but I washed out. I couldn't land a plane. I would land about five feet up off the ground, you know. So washed out. And then they sent me to -- so they sent me to bombardiering school. And I was told there that -- I mean, according to the tests and everything else, I would probably make a better bom -- navigator than I would a pilot. So I went to navigation school in Hondo, Texas, and after -- not too long, about eight weeks or so of training in Hondo, I got my -- I got my naviga -- wings, and I became a second lieutenant. And then -- then they went along. There was -- I guess it was about 150 of us graduated, and about 50 of us, they decided were going to go to -- continue on to bombardier training. And so I went -- so there was about 50 of us went from navigation school in Hondo to bombardier training in Roswell, New Mexico. And so we went through bombardier training, and then after bombardier training, then we were sent to Greenville, South Carolina for training for overseas duty.
What was it like when you first made it overseas? What was the initial reaction that you had?
Well, I don't know. I think I was a fatalist. I figured I was going to live through an experience and then I'd come back and be able to talk about it. I never figured that anything was going to happen to me. And I'll tell you later on, probably there's proof of what that -- I was destined to finish -- to come back.
Really?
Yeah. I mean, I think -- I think. Okay. While in bombardier training, you know the -- we trained in a two-engine, I think it was a Cessna, bomb training, and they had the -- two of -- two of the navigators went up. One went up, and he would drop five bombs. And then they'd alternate. And the other navigator would be in the back and would photograph what was falling, you know. Well, on one of these bombing missions, training missions, the navigator, when he was getting up, he did something because he had to -- he was behind the pilot and copilot, and he had to get up to the nose of the plane. And when he got up and got [inaudible], both of the engines conked out. So we went along, and we made a belly landing out in -- out in the -- out in the prairie, out in -- you know, out in New Mexico, out in a field there. It was successful, and they came back. And we weren't too far from the -- we weren't too far from the field, so they sent a car over and took us back.
Did you feel like you were going to bite the dust out there in the dust, no pun intended? Or did you feel pretty --
No. I was -- I felt everything was, you know, was going to turn out okay.
What do you remember about all the instructors that you ran into during your training?
Not a hell of a lot.
They did their -- they did their --
Because it was never --
-- job, but they didn't stand out per se --
No, they were -- no --
Not these --
-- no. None of them. None of them stood out because they were, you know -- some of them were teachers, you know. In navigation school, some of them were teachers, and they -- they said -- they were disappointed because they wanted -- they wanted -- they wanted to fly in navigation. So they were disappointed because of the fact that they -- they were sent to a school to teach [inaudible]. Some of them, after they -- you know, they probably taught for six months, maybe a year, and then -- then they were -- went into an active duty. But no. None of them, none of them stood out. They were just good teachers. And --
Was it -- was it grueling, the whole training? How many months or weeks were you in training, did you say?
About 12 weeks of training.
Okay.
Yeah.
Lose a lot of weight?
(laughter) No. I didn't have any weight to lose.
Most men your age at that time didn't.
Yeah. That's right. I mean, hell, I was -- I was lucky. I was -- weighed 120 pounds or something like that. So --
Do you remember the first day you landed overseas?
Well, we --
How did they bring you in? Big plane loads and --
No. No. No. We flew our plane. We flew the plane. We flew from -- from a field in Sacramento. We -- after -- after I finished -- got -- finished bombardier training, navigation/bombardier, we went to Greenville, South Carolina, where they formed our crew. And that was where we got -- where I met the -- the fellows who was going to be the pilot, copilot. And I was the navigator and bombardier, and then they had the engineer and the radio operator and tail gunner. So (inaudible).
Are you in touch with any of those people today?
Yes. With the guy that was the copilot.
Oh, that's terrific.
Yeah. Yeah. We exchange, I mean, Christmas greetings. Not too much. He's a -- he's from Iowa. Farm boy from Iowa.
Friends for life. That's pretty good.
And -- but -- you're taking this -- you're going to censor some of this stuff.
If you'd like, we can. It's okay.
Well, I've got to tell you about the guy that was a pilot of our plane, you know. He was -- he was from Hollywood. And he was -- he was pretty well hung.
Uh-oh. (laughter)
And he was always bragging about the many starlets that he -- I mean, that he had slept with and everything else. And he would [inaudible] -- he walked around. We were in the -- this was in the island of Biak, which was pretty close to the equator. And he was -- oh, everybody else at least had shorts on. You know what I mean and everything else. But he walked around naked.
(laughter)
But one day -- one day, he was wa -- one day he was washing his clothes, you know. And he had the fire going, and he wasn't happy with it. He wasn't happy with the -- with the intensity of the fire. For some reason, like a jackass, he threw gasoline on it. It all came back and burned his privates --
Oh.
So hell, he was in -- (laughter) But the thing of it is, most everybody says, "Couldn't have happened to a better guy." Because he was -- you know, he wasn't too well-liked, you know, because of the -- what he bragged about. And I never -- I never heard from him since. I don't know. He was shipped back to -- I mean, he was burned so bad, he shipped to the States and what happened to him afterwards.
He was an actor?
No. He wasn't an actor.
Just from that area?
Yeah. Just from that area. Yeah. And so we -- it was while -- while we were down in Greenville, South Carolina, when I had my parachute -- I had to bail out of the plane. Should I go in sequence or --
Oh, absolutely.
Well, one day, there was one of the -- one of the -- one of the pilots, he -- he was from Boston, and he -- I think he wanted to see his girlfriend, so he asked the commanding officer to use as a training mission, that he get a crew to fly up to Boston and come on back. And the commanding goes, "Yeah. If you can get a crew together, you know, you can." And he did. He got a copilot. And he asked me if I'd go along as a navigator. And then he had a radio operator and gunner and engineer. And I think one other fellow. One fellow was a -- strictly a bombardier. He didn't go to navigation school. And he wanted to go along on the trip. And this was around Easter -- or April. In April. April the 11th. No. April the 15th. And we took off from Greenville, South Carolina in the B-25, and it was a -- you know how some days in April are rainy, and it was a little -- so it was a little cloudy down there, but the weather up at Boston was clear. So we thought we'd -- we said okay. We'd go. But -- but we were practically in a cloud practically all the way going up. And when he got around -- of course, see, I was the navigator, and I knew we were in the vicinity of New York City, and the pilot was having trouble controlling the plane. We were up, up about 10, 11,000 feet.
What was causing the trouble?
The plane was icing up, see. Up that high, it was colder, and the place was icing up. And he told us, he said, "Fellows, you'd better put on your chutes." So we -- so everybody went out and put on the chutes. And then he was still having trouble. Finally, he said, "I guess you'd better -- better get out." So I was the second man out of it. I was the second man out of the plane. And one reason why I like to -- like to take a jump is because of the fact I was in a cloud all the way. I didn't see anything.
(laughter)
I mean, it was -- the only thing was -- was there was a little darker in other spots. And I was always afraid that the spot -- the lighter spot was -- was the ocean -- or was Long Island Sound. I knew -- know it's -- [inaudible]. And I broke clear about -- oh, maybe about five, six hundred feet from the ground and landed in an orchard, apple orchard. As a matter of fact, I landed in a tree. And about just soon as I broke -- broke free, I -- one of the other fellows landed probably about 100 yards away in the same orchard. Then we went to the -- both of us went to the -- to the house, the farmer's house, and we got on the telephone. And that was a time when they had telephone operators. And the telephone operator, "Oh," she says, "I've got some other fellows who are trying to contact -- trying to contact a" -- some -- Well, we were -- decided to go to Mitchell Air Force Base, you know, down Long Island. We'd go there and then have someone come up and take us -- take us back. And we were all (inaudible). So we -- we finally -- we finally got together. And another thing that was -- that was -- the other fellow that -- I think he was the engineer, that jumped out of the plane. He -- I left my chute in the plane -- or in the tree. You know, I mean, I just unhooked myself and did that. But he went along -- he went along and took it. He got the -- I don't know. He probably didn't land in a tree. He probably landed, and he rolled up the chute. And so we took the subway from -- from where we -- from northern -- north of New York City, all the way to Mitchell Field. And here, he had this parachute. (laughter)
What happened with the plane?
Oh, the pilot -- he finally decided to get down to a lower al -- lower level. And when he got down for a lower -- this is what he told us. He got -- the ice melted and -- I mean, and he was -- he had -- he was fiddling with his radio compass, and he finally got a station. And it end -- so he followed the radio sta -- compass in, and it was in -- then landed in Boston.
Without everybody?
Yeah. Without.
Did your buddy get to Boston to see his girlfriend?
He did. Yeah.
Good.
He was the only one. He was the pilot.
Oh, he was the pilot?
He was the pilot.
Maybe he had a plan all along to jettison everybody.
No. So we, you know, continued training -- (break in audio) After we finished, then we -- then we kind of hopped, took the -- when the crew -- filled up the crew. We flew to -- I think -- I think we made two stops on the way to -- to Sacramento, California in the plane. And there, we stayed for a couple days where they went along and -- and prepared us for getting the plane and everything else for overseas. They had to -- and we flew the plane -- see, B-25s were not a long-range plane, and flying from Sacramento, San Francisco to Hawaii was quite a distance, so we had to go on and strip everything down. Then we took everything -- everything -- You know, the plane was -- originally was built for combat, but then when they took the guns and everything else out, it would make it as light as possible. Put in an extra gas tank so we could make it. So we flew from -- we flew from Sacramento. Went to Honolulu. Landed there at Hickam. Yeah. At Hickam. And there -- there, I met Bob Hope.
Really?
Well --
Doing a USO show or --
Yeah. While -- well, I didn't meet Bob Hope there, but -- I might as well tell you the whole damn thing. But we flew -- and he put on a show at Hickam Air Force Base, and we went to -- so I saw Bob Hope. And then the next day, we went along. We flew to the next island. We island-hopped to Australia. It was Christmas Island, see. And we'd come down, and we landed. And who followed us up -- us up a couple of hours later is Bob Hope and his crew. So he -- he came, and then he put on a show for the -- he put on the show, the same that I saw at Hickam, you know, at Christmas Island. And if we got -- at the officers club, we all got together. And I'm going to show you something. We all had maps like this. These are made out of silk, in case you were shot down, you know. This happened to be the island in the Celebes, you know what I mean, in case you were shot down. And we went over -- see, these are signatures of a lot of the fellows with me. I had another one, another map. And Bob Hope and his entire crew signed it. You know what I mean. And I had a thing autographed. Here's another map over here that -- this is the one. Island Luzon. This is -- we were stationed right here, San Marcelino, a little -- right here. And I met a fellow -- didn't meet him; I talked to him on the telephone, who was in the Bataan March. And I'm going to go on there and get -- and he says -- and we're going to mark in the route that he took, you know, on the Bataan March. From here, I think, up to there.
Interesting.
Well, anyway, while we're in -- in Christmas Island, I had -- we had maps like that. And I had Hope and all his crew sign them and everything else. And so of course I -- I kept them. But when I came back from -- came back after -- after I finished my tour of duty, I went to the American Legion post in my hometown. And there -- and I had this map with me with all the signatures. And he says, "That's very interesting," he says. "I'm going to go to a -- to a state convention tomorrow, the next day." He says, "Would you mind letting me take it?" And -- you know, I mean --
Show it off?
Yeah. So I -- well, I was working in Washington, DC at the time, you know. And I left for Washington, and I've never seen -- I've never seen that. And I don't know -- I don't know what has happened to it, where it is. Maybe -- I don't know what happened.
It's framed in an American Legion post somewhere maybe.
Could be. Yeah. Well, we island-hopped, you know, from island to island till we got to Townsville, Australia. And there, they then went along -- and then they went along. That's when they put all the combat equipment back into the plane. And then from Australia, we went to More -- Moresby, which was in New Guinea. And there, I -- I mean, we kept flying missions. From -- from Moresby, went up the Nadzab, went up to an island north of New Guinea called Biak, flew quite a few missions up at that -- from that island. Then they -- then we went out to Leyte, Tacloban and Leyte. Then an island in the -- in the Philippines. And after you flew so many missions, so many, then we went up to San Marcelino, which is on the Luzon coast. And there, we -- I completed my missions at the -- well, I was flying out of San Marcelino.
Did you come under enemy fire a lot while you were up there?
Oh, our plane was hit a couple -- yeah. We had aircraft, and the plane was hit a couple times. Yes.
That's got to be a little nerve-wracking.
Yep. Yeah. It -- it was, but you know -- well, we flew so low, you know, that they really didn't have a chance -- and we come in. It was a surprise attack that we --
You were hit from the ground? Surface -- surface --
Yeah.
-- stuff?
Once -- yeah -- once in a while, we had a -- a plane would come in, but they couldn't take a chance because of the fact we'd all get close together, and there weren't too many planes coming at us.
How did you stay in touch with relatives at home when you were overseas?
Oh, we just -- writing letters. What did they call those letters? The e -- you know, the --
Email? (laughter)
Email -- no. It wasn't email. You know.
Were you excited when you got a letter from home?
Oh, yeah. Yesterday at the meal, we had a kind of a Polish meal. Kielbasa and stuffed cabbage.
Can't get much better than that.
Well --
(laughter)
So -- so --
Low cal.
So -- and some of the people complained. And I mean, the -- they said these cabbage -- stuffed cabbage seemed like they come out of, you know, I mean -- out of the refrigerator.
What do they call that? Golabki?
Yeah. Golabki.
Yeah.
Yeah. And --
My grandmother was Polish.
And so -- well, I'm Slovak. Slovak. So anyway, I went along, and I called the young man that waited on us, and I said, "Here. Take this back and tell the chef to heat it up." And he did. He come back. But then when we were talking about it, and I says, "You know, the best kielbasa I ever had was in the Philippines." And of course, they kind of -- "The Philippines?" I said, "Well, actually, they were sent home from -- my parents sent it. And that's where I had them, in the Philippines." And boy, they were -- they were de -- you know what I mean. What happened is they kind of dried out, you know. It took over a month before they got there, you know. And it was just like hard tack and everything else. But I'm telling you, you put a small piece in your mouth, and it lasted -- lasted --
Sort of like beef jerky?
That's right. But it was -- you know, a hell of a lot tastier.
How was the food in the Philippines? I mean the --
Oh, that -- that --
Awful?
Awful. It seems every time I was on a mission, all we'd have is SOS.
So you welcomed even some dried kielbasa from home?
Oh, oh, yeah. God, no. I mean, I -- I never -- never -- the food there was -- was terrible.
What did -- did you have any kind of good luck charms that -- you said -- you talked earlier about there was a reason why you were going to make it.
Oh. Well, on one of the missions from -- from our base in Leyte, we went along and scraped the -- while we were flying, we scraped the airfield. We were -- we had -- we were flying at low level, and they used parafrags. What they were was about 20-pound bombs that had a parachute attached to them. They found out -- before they had the chutes on them, they found out that they would -- they would hit the ground, skip and -- and explode, you know what I mean. And the next plane coming over would -- would be hit. So they put par -- put little parachutes on them. A large hankie, more or less, so it would slow it down. Well, on one of the missions, the -- the chute opened up too soon and caught on the end of the bomb bay. And it swung back and forth. And it -- it hit the -- hit the plane and made a hole in it.
Oh. Yeah. I'd say that's a hole. Did it bring the plane down?
No, no, no. No. We -- well --
Made it fly different.
Yeah. But there's an article in there, but the thing of it is the pilot was thinking of ditching the plane, you know what I mean --
Right.
-- coming down, but what happened, it was -- the bomb exploded pretty close to the radio operator. And he was -- he was hurt bad, see. And the tail gunner, when he thought that they were going -- we were going to ditch, he went up to the -- he crawled over the bomb bay and told the pilot, he said, "Look," he says, "if we ditch, we're going to lose the radio operator because he won't be able to make it." So the pilot decided that -- then he thought -- then he started to go up higher. And so the tail gunner thought, hell, he was going to -- now we're going to fly high up. He's going to ask everybody to bail out, but -- So he went back there and told -- it's written up in here. He went back and told the pilot that, you know, that -- to bail out, the radio operator couldn't make it. So we finally landed. He decided -- we went back to the -- we landed at the -- at our base. It wasn't -- it wasn't [inaudible]. It was only maybe about an hour, hour or two away from our base. But the good part of it is -- was that both the front wheels, both of them were punctured with the shrapnel. And when the plane landed, it just -- you know what I mean, it just -- if one wheel was still round, we would have [inaudible], and God knows what would -- what would have happened. But anyway, we got down to the end of the -- end of the runway. And before -- even before the plane's -- the propellers were still spinning. We -- we had stopped, but the propellers -- the -- the engineer got -- released the escape hatch just as we hit the ground, see, and he got up there. And just as soon as the plane stopped, he got out of the plane and slid off and then the pilot and copilot. And I was the last man out except -- you know what I mean. And I went back and I looked. I went -- after I got out, I went out there, and I looked at the bomb. And there was three bombs still in the plane --
Oh, man.
-- two of them were halfway hanging out. And that's when I ran, you know. And I told the -- I told the ordnance, I says, "There's still some bombs in there." So they cleared everybody away. And then they went in there and defused the bombs, took the radio operator, took him to, you know, a hospital.
Do you remember what it was like when you came home when the war was over?
Not too much.
No big celebration? Just --
No, no.
-- just another day --
Yeah. Just another day.
But you were happy to be home?
Oh, yeah. Well, the reason -- the reason I say I was destined to come back, we -- we flew there on -- on a point system. Not by how many -- how many missions you flew, but it was -- we got -- like I think for every three hours of flying, would go one point. If your plane was -- was -- encountered antiaircraft fire, you got another point. If it was hit, you got more points. If a plane in your group was shot down, you got more points and everything else. So I had -- I had three more points to -- and I could have picked them up from the time -- from flying from the Philippines to the China coast and back. I mean, that would have given me. And I said to them, "I think I'm going to volunteer to -- I'm going to go and fly." And I -- we had -- two of the fellows who were in my tent were -- were pilots. And they -- "You don't volunteer." They talked me out of it, got talked out of it. Well, what happened there was one of the planes that I would have been in was hit by antiaircraft fire or some kind of fire. And then he flew into the other -- he flew into the other plane, and they both [inaudible]. So --
Somebody was looking out for you.
Well, that's what I say. I always [inaudible] -- you know, the -- I would --
So you're a believer in faith is what you say?
More or less.
That's good. Well, that was a great -- (End of interview.)