Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Robert F. Sheehan 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 are at the home of Robert Frederick Sheehan. R-0-B-E-R-T F. S-H- E-E-H-A-N. It's February 20th, 2005. We are at 705 Milan Ave in Ravenna, Nebraska. My name is Angie Abels I am the interviewer and Steven Nelson is also present. Robert Sheehan is a veteran of the Navy and his birth date is September 30, 1920. He is currently living in Ravenna, Nebraska.
Robert were you drafted or did you enlist in the war?
Enlisted
Where were you living at the time?
Litchfield, Nebraska.
And why did you join the war?
Because I wanted to do what I was suppose to. Q. Okay... Why did you pick the Navy to join? A. Because I liked the Navy. Q. Do you recall your first days in service? A. Did what? Q. Do you recall the first days that you were in service? What it was like? A. Sure do. Q. What was that like?
I wished I hadn't joined! I stood in line. I stood in line all day at Great Lakes waiting to get my clothes and stuff like that.
What did it feel like? Were you nervous? How did you feel?
Well standing around with a big crowd all day why you know you you wasn't real happy.
Tell us about you boot camp or training experiences.
Boot camp. I don't know how to explain that. It was nothing special. It was just things they make a person do. You have to march so much. Of course they told you how to make your bed. Course when I went in you slept in a hammock. And then you had to learn how to tie knots and you had to make your own bed. Everybody had to take a bath and a shower and just the normal routine. You didn't march all day but you marched some.
Is a Navy boot camp different from an Army boot camp? Do they have different or is a boot camp the same for all divisions of the Army? Did you have to do anything different in your boot camp then an Army person would have to do?
I don't know anything about the Army.
Oh! That's right.
Or Marines. I was never in them. My son was in the Marines and my brother was in the Army. It's just a routine that you go through when you go in. Everybody does it. No matter who you are. Your name doesn't mean anything. You've got a number.
Did you learn a lot about things you did on a ship? Like was it....
I didn't get on a ship right away. I wanted to be a radio operator. But when I went in they wasn't taking radio operators. They had enough in school. So I was a guard at Great Lakes for about six weeks on a gate. They was going to ship me to be a gunner on a ship. And I was reading the bulletin board and they wanted radiomen at that time. So I signed up and I got her and then I went to the University of Chicago. But when I got there I was a corporal guard because I had been a guard at Great Lakes. So I was a corporal guard for awhile. Then I had about 30 men under me. And you had to be all around the building and at the mess hall and wherever we congregated because you didn't stay in one building all day, and then after that then my company... I think there was 250 people to start with. Not all of them got through it. Alot of people can't take it. So when we went to school we had we went to radio class in the morning like for code.
You had to learn to take code so much. And you had to type so much. And then another class where you had to learn to set up a message. And you was in school all day and you even went to school in the evening. They come in and checked on you to see that you were studying in the evening. There were six guys in my room at this university. And that was four months. And I didn't take code fast enough to graduate. So they gave me another month and then I graduated. From there I went to Solomon's moral and formed a crew. And we was there for awhile and then we went to New York City and Pier 92 and there was a lot of waiting. You know you was there for awhile and wait until we got our ship. Then we went to New Jersey and got our ship and then came back to Pier 42. Then they put stuff on the ship, and we got some more guys. While I was there at New York I had to go to Yeomen School. Cause I had to do all the typing for the ship. They didn't have a regular Yeoman. Plus radio I did the typing.
Was that in Morris code?
No, typing was like...the engineering officer he had to send in reports and I had to type his reports for him every so often. And umm.... Why other than why it was just everything was kind of routine everyday. And I didn't stay on watch everyday because we was in a group. And the flagship had a radio operator all the time they had about three of them. But these other ships all had radio operators, so I might stand a six hour one time and then might be have to wait for the next day or two days before I had to watch. So I wasn't on watch all the time. But they couldn't make me chip paint or do any work that would hurt my hands or nothing because I had to tj'pe. And that was what and that was the way it was on a small ship. It wasn't like being on a battle ship or something like that where they got way more men.
How many men did you have on your ship?
Well I think on the start we probably had maybe fifty or...I don't know if we had that many. But whenever we got people aboard of course I always had to make out their reports and had to send it to Washington D.C. They always know where everybody is. And when they left I had to type a deal and send it in. And then I typed for the skipper stuff he wanted me to type. And then too I took care of the mail. So in New York City I had to go have a guy with me carrying a gun and went and picked up mail everyday and every place we went. I got the mail and opened all the mail. And that went on as along as I was on the ship.
So back to your training experiences. Do you remember your instructors?
Their names?
No, do you just remember how they treated you and how they were to you? How they instructed you?
Oh they treated me like every other guy. You know. They wasn't mean there was no reason to be mean at a radio operator. You wanted to be one of them otherwise you wouldn't be there. But if you couldn't take code then they kicked you out. But most everybody could learn to type you know. And so the only reason they got kicked out, and you could be a smart guy and you couldn't take code and you could be dumb and you could take code. But you couldn't do much else.
And that taking code was Morris code?
Yeah Morris code.
Was that hard to get through to learn all that Morris code? And go through all that training?
Well I did it before I went in. Because I went to that radio school here at Kearney, Nebraska, is where I went to that.
How long did you go to radio school in Kearney?
A couple of months, maybe I don't remember. That was before I went into the Navy. So that's a long time ago. But I was wanting to go to the Navy and I wanted to be a radio operator. So that is how come I went and took that.
You served in World War II?
Yeah
And where exactly did you go? You were all over the ocean?
Well from the East coast where we got our ship we went down to Solomon, Maryland and then we had...to Chesapeake Bay and do some training. Like me I went on a ship with a guy knew what he was doing, supposedly. And was suppose to learn to do more with the radio then what I knew because they had a different radio on the ship then they do where we went to school. But he really didn't teach me too much. He swore...calling the...talked about the Navy and they finally took him off the ship. I don't know where he ended up. But I did learn enough when we got on our own ship I knew what to do. Morris code he wasn't teaching me. He showed a guy how to operate the stuff but that wasn't hard to do.
What was your ships job assignment?
We went in on the beach and to start with we carried troops in from the bigger ships, from the transport because we had ramps on the ship on both sides. So we carried troops in through because we could run in on the beach and run the ramps down so they could go off the ship. And later on when we went down the Guadalcanal, we took the ramps off and put on rocket launcher. And every rocket was equal to a five inch shell. And that rocket you could put in 10. We had enough on both sides where we set off 500 shells. But it made a pattern on the beach to clear the beach.
Did you see combat?
God, yes. Every time we went in on the beach. I seen combat, I didn't get out and do anything. I was on the ship. I wasn't an Army guy or a Marine. A guy on the ship don't get on the beach.
So you guys always stayed on the ship?
Why yeah you got a job on that ship.
Were there many casualties on your unit?
I told you we had 87 and we ended up with 28. But that was only once and that was at Iwo Jima.
Do you want to describe that for us?
Well we was sitting up from the beach and then the Japs found out they had a lot of caves in there that when they took pictures of it, because Iwo Jima is rock island. But I went in on several invasions before I got to Iwo Jima. At the Marshall Islands I went in several times, and the Ulithi anchorage and Saipan and Tinian. I was in on all of them before I ever went to Iwo Jima. And Iwo Jima was the last place I was at. That's where I got the Purple Heart. There that is where we got hit. The only time we ever got hit. WE hat to patrol along the beach to keep the Japs from swimming out to the ships. So we patrolled some of that. They could....would shoot at us so in the morning you could go out and pick bullets off the deck. Nobody ever did get hit, but I'd seen small boats blow up. Where they got death charges and stuff and that was they was up at Iwo Jima. They had those and they had guys 30 some of them. I don't remember what they called them. But they slept out of the boat and set those charges off and then the boat would come along and they had a stick with a knob on it and they would grab that and swim back on the boat. And there was thirty some and then they got on the big ship and eating dinner and suicide plane flew into it and killed them all.
So your ship got hit that once?
Only one time that it got hit hard.
What hit it?
God I don't know. Well it was shooting at us from the island.
Was it some kind of mortar or heavy artillery?
I don't know nothing about that kind of stuff. A radio man never shot a gun, unless I shot a porpoise with a pistol which I did.
So that one times that ship got hit it killed that many people?
Well it got hit in the engine room, had that hole big enough for two guys to sit in. The water was that deep over the engines. So they had to tow us from there clear back to Pearl Harbor. And they got hit in the bow because that is where a lot of guys got killed because there was around that gun up there on the bow. Anyway, what lost but you know when that going on I was up in the cunning tower and I wasn't sticking my head over I'll tell you that.
I and another guy got put on different ships. And we went on the flagship from there I got on this ship I ended up on. And he got on another ship. Same kind of ship. And his commanding officer got his head shot off. And this kid they said looked like a civ., cause I talked to guys later that knew him. He was a dang nice kid. Said he looked just like a civ., but the skipper got his head shot off. But the skipper and I don't know who else was up in that conning tower...could have been a signal but all I got was that deal in the hip.
And that is where you got your purple heart, when you got hit in the hip?
Yeah.
And that is when the ship got hit? Is that when you got that?
Sure was, there was a lot of commotion going on; you didn't just standing around looking you was a bucking.
Cause all the shots were flying?
Because the conning tower is just...you look over that is all you can get away. That is that way when you go into an island or anything other. And we went in on several islands. Sometimes go in two or three times in one island.
How long did it take them to tow you all the way back to Pearl Harbor?
Oh they towed us back to Saipan and they raised us up and put the patch on there. But then they had to take us back to Pearl Harbor and put us in dry dock because your engines is all under water so you had to tear them all down and redo them. And patch the hole up good and it takes awhile. How long I have no idea. It's whenever there is a ship available to take you for one thing.
So you were back at Pearl Harbor for a long time before you went back out to a different ship?
I didn't go on a bigger ship. I got off at Pearl Harbor. Cause that is when in the mail they was wanting radio operators they were wanting any guy who was first class or chief to go to instructor school. So I put in for instructor's school for radio and that is how I got off the ship. I was on there 22 months and I never had any vacation. I slept in Pearl Harbor I slept in a bed one night on the beach other than that I slept on the ship the whole time. So I didn't get any liberty until I got back to Pearl Harbor and I got that school and then they sent me home I had thirty days leave. The first time I ever had one... the only one I ever had. And I went to that school and I was an instructor there for awhile. And I went to that school and I was an instructor there for awhile. And either to Gulf Port, Mississippi and teach there but the war was over I was going to that school or you could get out and I had time enough to get out, because I only signed up for two years and I was there a little over three. I was a reserve a Navy reserve. So I got out.
How did you stay in touch with you family during the war?
When you were out on the ship? Write them a letter or type letters put in carbon copies and I wouldn't put a name on them and they would send them home. We all knew the same thing. When you're on a small ship everybody knows everybody and knows all about them good or bad. And some was good and some was bad. You didn't get those many guys and not have an idiot in there. I'll tell you that. Are you taking this? Do you want to know how I ended up having glasses?
How?
Well I got to where I was having headaches everyday. I had a headache so bad that I had to go back to bed. So we got by a hospital ship. So the pharmacist mate was going to take me and another guy and this other guy was just new...he was just a little over 17. And he told the pharmacist mate that his stomach was kind of swelled. He said he felt like he was going to have a baby. Everybody laughed. Anyway I went on that ship and I got my eyes checked and in a week I had glasses and I work them 50 years. And then I had a spell where I didn't have to wear them that was up at Craig when I lived up there. I didn't wear them for two years but I wear them now. But anyway I needed glasses bad but this kid the pharmacist mate come out and caught me of course and told me to back to the ship. And he said you know what happened to that kid? I said "no." They told him that he had a cancer that hardly any doctor could ever see. But his whole bottom of his stomach everything was encased with cancer. He won't live and we are going to send him home. They put him on a plane and they hit a storm and they came back and landed on the island and he died. If he would have died aboard ship we wouldn't know what happened to him. And that would have happened...happened within less than one week. That is how close he was to dying. But he was as normal as could be outside that he told the pharmacist that his stomach was kind of swelled. But he was kind of an odd kid anyway so nobody thought anything about it. But they sure thought when they came back and heard the story. They couldn't believe it. But that is exactly what happened.
What was the food like that you ate on the ship?
A lot of time the cook had to feed me because I was on duty when they ate dinner or breakfast or whatever. Then they had to bring food into me. If I didn't like what they brought me I bitched to the skipper he made them even give me coffee or a cream to put on my peaches. I didn't drink coffee and the cook wouldn't give me cream and I told the skipper and he said give him what he wants. And that's how I got 'em.
Did you eat a lot of canned food when you were on the ship or did you guys have some fresh food?
Well you don't get a lot of fresh food on a small ship, but you have to get your food from a big ship so it depends on where you are at. Down at Guadalcanal when all those ships were getting ready to go to the Philippines at that one place where we were at, cause we had to stand guard on a just like a big field but it was all water of course, but there was a channel that went into it. And they had to have someone on that channel because they had a little submarine that had two guys and they were welded in and when they got in there they would blow up these other ships, which two got in there and we was tied up beside the South Dakota that was a big ship. And the ship like from here to them houses blew up. It carried fuel. The only people who got of it were the guys on the top deck everybody else died. One of those little subs punctured and blew it up. So we untied from the South Dakota real quick because we only took about five foot of water. Them big ship got ten decks up here and ten decks underneath. Well the second one went up on the edge of the island and they had to come out with a torch. There was two Japs in there.
How are those subs powered?
I have no idea. I have no idea. All I know is someone told us that they found one on the beach because there was probably 100 ships in there or more because they were getting ready to go to the Philippines. We was at Ulithi Anchorage. That is another place we went in. I think we went in there two or three times. We went into the beach and spread them out, but then we went there and of course we had a small ship but we had to be there 8 hours. It didn't bother me because I was in there on the radio or was doing whatever I was suppose to do, but so we don't know if they went in when we was there or they had to have other ships because you can't do that for 24 hours so because everybody has to be awake when you were there.
Did you have plenty of supplies in your ship or did you also have to get those from the big ships?
One time we got some K rations because, that is when everybody was getting ready to go to the Philippines. Everything was going to the Philippines. We lived on K rations for about 2 weeks.
What is that?
They're in cans same thing as Army or Marines get. You didn't get any fresh meat; you didn't get any vegetables; all in cans. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the best...it kept us alive.
Did you feel a lot of pressure or stress?
There is no need of that. You're a damn fool if you go out and think you going to....What can you do? You're sitting out there just like a duck or a goose. At Saipan we went out and just plowed up and down one time just to keep away from them big ships for several days. We was a small ship; they didn't care about us. They was after battle ships and tankers...supply ships and stuff. We were sitting in a cove at Saipan and the whole sky lit up, just like they was having 4th of July, and everything went up like this. All the shells because they had tracers on them. And it really lit up everything. And they dropped bombs and one dropped beside us and hit an LST. And afterwards...of course we wasn't all outside; we was inside, and I slept under my radio for two weeks with everything on but my shoes and life jacket. That is where I slept, underneath my radio on the floor on the deck. But anyway on that LST it looked just like a civ cause they had lights on when that bomb went off that shrapnel through that side of that ship. All kinds of lights come out of the side of that. And these two planes came in...suicide planes like this went straight up. And they didn't either of them. There was two of them.
Did you guys do anything special for good luck?
My life jacket. You can't have a whole lot of armor on you 24-hours a day. Christ Almighty.
How did people entertain themselves?
I ended up taking a guy off the deck forcing me to radio operator and he could run a cutting torch. And the skipper he had some kind of a job. He was in the radio shack with me but they moved him out. And this guy that was with me why we someway or another found out that you could send back to the states and get a phonograph with records they sent so many records. And we was along the beach one time where they had a bunch of tanks and they had some speakers in them. And I got 3 or 4 speakers out of those tanks. I hooked that up and then we set one out on the deck and put one in our room and one in the skippers' room and different places. They played records. And then I could pick up Tokyo Rose on my radio. And she played music that was here in United States cause that was as good as we could get. And so we had a little music. And guys played cards at night you know something like that...gambling. I danced every place I went. Where there was a dance hall...I'll tell you that, New York City, Chicago, San Diego. Every Place they had a dance I went. But that was your entertainment that what else, I had been out over twenty days and never seen nothing but another ship, maybe. We always went with a few hips you know...a little ship like that they had a few other ships. I'd been in a convoy where there was hundreds of ships. Battleships, cruisers, everything, one guy got sick that was down at some island I guess the water got to him. And he got just like he looked like he was on fire. They stopped the whole convoy and put a doctor on there and he lived.
There is so much I couldn't tell you. Here is what I had wrote down. And that's just places I have been.
That is a lot of places.
That is from the time I went in to the time I got out. All the places I have been.
Do you want to read some of these?
You can read it all if you want to, if you can read it.
Started in Omaha then he went to boot camp in the Great Lakes, then he went to The University of Chicago.
No, I was a guard at the Great Lakes for awhile. Maybe you can't read that but it's on there. I was a guard at Great Lake maybe 6 weeks or more after I got out of boot camp. And I was corporal of the guard at The University of Chicago. I had about thirty guys underneath me before I went to radio school.
Do you recall any particularly and humorous or unusual events that happened when you were on the ship?
On ship?
Did you guys pull any pranks on each other or put any humor into your lives?
On a little ship about 10 or 12 foot wide and it wasn't very long. We got an officer board there to go with us a little bit. He came into the radio shack and said something about....well he is trying to be a big wheel, about me going out on the fantail which wasn't as big as this gosh dang room to do calisthenics. And there is an officer in there to start out with and he said for Christ's sake man he knows more about calisthenics than you'll ever learn. I never went out and did nothing. The stupid son of a bitch.
Another time they caught me and two guys. We didn't salute in Pearl Harbor. There was a whole lot of people and a couple of officers came along I never seen them and the two guys with me never seen them. And they called on us because we didn't salute. That was the first liberty I had. So I went back I was suppose to back aboard ship and I hadn't been off the ship for I don't know how long. They said are you going back? I said "hell no, I'm out on liberty and I'm going to stay. I'm going back at 8:00 tonight when we are supposed to." Which I did. I give 'em to the skipper. He said how come you come in. I said Jesus I haven't had any liberty forever. He said I don't blame you and he just like that and threw them in the trash.
What did you think of your officers or fellow soldiers that were on the ship with you? Did you guys get along fairly well for the most part?
We had to. That's just like a bunch of people living in a house. You either get along or you get out and you can't get out if your in The Navy your there until they send you out. So you might as well get along. Of course sometimes you might get mad at somebody; which I did quite regularly if I didn't like somebody that was no problem. Oh once in awhile we put on boxing gloves!
Did you keep a personal diary?
Did I keep a diary. No. The same thing everyday and everyday.
Do you recall the day your service ended?
The day my service ended? I sure do I was headed for home.
And where were you at? Where you at Pearl Harbor then?
I as in San Diego because I went to instructor school. I went to instructor school to teach radio and I taught practice teaching. In the mean time the war was over and so then it came by that I was either going to Mississippi to teach school or I could get out because I had my time in. So I got out.
So what did you feel like the days and weeks after? When you were on your way home and when you were home, what did you feel like?
When I got home? I was damn glad to be there.
Did you work or go back to school?
What?
Did you work or go back to school when you got home?
I sure went to work when I could get a job. Angle Was your education supported by the G.I. Bill?
My education was through the Navy.
Did you make any close friendships while you were in the service?
Did what?
Did you make any close friendships?
Oh yeah I had friends like any place else.
Do you still keep in tough with some of them?
The only one I really liked he went home and got gassed in his garage, killed him. He was from Detroit. Him and I was going in the meat business. And he got gassed and I sent him a Christmas card and it was about a month and his wife wrote me and told me he got gassed and died, but that was the only close guy. Him and I were good friends.
But other than that like I said I danced everywhere I went. Like in Chicago and New York, anyplace I could go to a dance I went to a dance. I was twenty-one when I went in well a lot of those guys were on seventeen or eighteen so they was kids as far as I was concerned. Well once in awhile one of them could want to go with me which a lot of times one or two guys would go. Go and drink beer or maybe more but a lot of guys didn't dance. But I danced all my life as long as I could find a place to dance and somebody to dance with and I always had someone to dance with and I always had someone to dance with. And that's all there was to that. There was a lot of guys who didn't dance.
Did you join a veteran's organization?
No
What did you do as a career after the war?
What did I do as a career? Well at one time I had about 100 men under me out at the ordinance plant. And the warehouse they had the lines leased. I was there until the Korean War came along and they started up again. Then I worked at the Alfalfa Mill about 30 years, I got laid off there. Worked at a junk yard for awhile. Your granddad and I had a junk yard I run it. And then I up and went to Colorado. So I worked for International Harvester that is where I retired. And yesterday I heard from tow of those guys that I retired with and I retired in '83. I talked to one of them since...yesterday he called me and another guy called me and they met a guy who was at International and he had been here and he give him my phone number and so I got two calls yesterday. They talked for 30 minutes both of them or more. And went through stuff I used to pull and crap like that. And I did pull a few things.
Did your military experience influence your thinking about war?
I hate war I'll tell you that.
Did you feel that way before you went to war?
Well I didn't know anything about it. You have to go in there before you know anything about it. It's not a good thing. I feel sorry for those guys over in Iraq. And my brother was in the Army and my son lost his leg he was in the Marines. There are things about it you don't like, but if you're in there it's going to happen. It's just one of those things. There is guys that get killed. You don't have a war and people don't get killed like Bush said. No, nobody is going to get killed. He don't know nothing about war in the first place. His dad does but he don't, I can tell you that right now. And a lot of other guys can tell you that too. He thinks he knows but that deal there in now he should have finished the one war he is at instead of staring the other one.
Is there anything else you would like that we haven't talked about in the interview?
I think we might as well quite as far as I'm concerned. I could talk until midnight if you wanted too. We left out a lot but we'd have to go down the line on that paper that I'd give you to tell you everything. And then I wouldn't tell you everything because there is things that happen in 50 years that you forget about until you make out a list. That is the first time I've ever did that. I did that today because I didn't know what you were going to ask me. But it don't tell you everything. I could tell you everything I could think of now and tomorrow I could tell you something different. But you can bet what I tell you is true. That I'm sure of.
Thanks for sharing everything with us and thanks for your service.