Edwin Kijek

Oral History Project

Edwin Kijek

I was inducted into the army on April 6^th, 1941, and I was stationed at Camp Grant, Illinois for a very short period of time. We were reassigned to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. At the time I was sent to Camp Shelby, I was put in the 135^th Medical Regiment. That was an all-Wisconsin National Guard unit. We were what they commonly call today a “MASH” unit. We had three companies that were collecting companies, three companies that were analyst companies, three companies that did hospital work, and a headquarters company. We were in camp Shelby where we learned our basic medical work to pick up patients that were knocked down on the field of battle and we were known as a litter company. Then we went to New York, boarded the troop ships, and sailed along the coast of the Carolinas. At that time it was an area where the German subs were preying on our freighters. When we got there, we were skeptical and pessimistic about how we would get through that area. Then we went through the Panama Canal and out into the South Pacific. I thought that I would be able to see what was going on when we went into the Panama Canal. We went through in the middle of the night and we were all asleep, so the next morning when we woke up we were far out to sea. Eighteen days later we landed in Brisbane, Australia and we thought we would be stationed there for a while but we were told that we had to get back on the ship and move to Townsville, Australia. We were there for several months. From Townsville, we went to Port Moresby in New Guinea and we were one of the first units in New Guinea to arrive outside of an anti-aircraft unit plus the air corps was there. We established a MASH hospital and we took care of all the patients in our local area. One of the biggest problems we had was malaria and dysentery. That was the most prevalent of the illnesses we had to take care of. Then the fighting started with the 32^nd Division fighting in the Buna area and the Owens-Stanley Range. We had a lot of patients that came in from those groups plus those from the air corps. Probably the most memorable thing that we got involved with was a writer fro either Newsweek or Time. He was found in the jungle by natives and brought into our hospital. The man was emaciated and in really bad shape but we nursed him back to reasonable health and sent him back to Australia. It wasn’t too many months later that he was back in our area doing his writing again.

Was there ever a time you thought you were going to die? No, not really. I was fearful when the Japanese “Washing Machine Charlie” was coming over in the middle of the night. He would keep us awake most of the night. There was a time when I happened to be in town picking up supplies and we were coming back and the Japanese bombers came over. They bombed the airport and the runways and if you got caught by the runway, the bomb bursts and the echoes made it sound like it was right on top of you and that was the only time that I feared for my life in that theater.

What was the hardest part of being in the war? Being away from home. When you go in you are young and you miss the family at Christmas and Thanksgiving and that works on your mind. That was the hardest part that we had to go through. When you are away from home, you are away from mother and father and brothers and sisters and you miss that. As time went on you got accustomed to it, but the first couple of years was the problem.

Was there a lot of emotional or physical stress that you had to endure? Not really, no. We didn’t have it because we were stationed behind the line. I ended up being the clerk in Headquarters Company and we were stationed quite a way behind any activity. We didn’t have any stress problems or anything like that.

What did serving your country mean to you then and now as a veteran? You have the feeling that you are doing something for your country and you are looking at what you are accomplishing. When it is all over, you are wondering if you are going to have the same lifestyle or freedom that you had in the past.

Did you make any lasting friendships during the war? I met my wife in Australia and I married her over there and we have been married over 50 years. I suppose that is a lasting friendship. When we first went into the 135^th Medical Regiment, we had approximately 1500 people there, and about 15 were from outside the state of Wisconsin, but when we went overseas, that number was cut in half and we picked up people from New York, Indiana, and Kentucky. I made a friend from Alabama, but over the years, we lost touch.

What does the word “enemy” mean to you? It means those people that were opposite me that weren’t of the same persuasion that I was. They brought on this whole thing with the attack on Pearl Harbor and from that day on, they were our adversaries. We tried to eliminate them so we could go about our business and our way of life.

What kind of reception did you get when you returned to the US? Outside of the immediate family, there was nothing. The program as it existed was by points. You were returned to civilian life by the amount of points that you accumulated for the time of service that you had. You received so many points for being overseas, so many for combat duty, and so on. Your family and your neighbors were glad to see you, but that was about the only thing we had, no parades or anything.

What did you know about the concentration camps? No, we were on our side and we didn’t get involved with any of those. The South Pacific was a lot different war. It was an island hopping operation and about the only ones that were there were in the Philippines. They weren’t concentration camps, just prison camps for prisoners of war.

Can you describe what an average day was like during the war? With us, it was getting up in the morning for roll call. Being in Headquarters Company, I had to go to the office and take care of all records being brought in from all sub medical units. We had to compile those and send them on to the South Pacific headquarters. Those people who were male nurses had their patients to take care of and the doctors had their patients to look after. That was a routine day.

What kind of equipment did you carry? We didn’t have any equipment to carry in our organization in the medical corps, the hospital had their material and we weren’t involved in that, so we didn’t have individual equipment like you might think. An infantryman would carry his rifle and ammunition, but we didn’t have anything like that except our uniforms. Medical corps doesn’t carry any weapons.

Is there a message you have for young people today about the war? War is foolish. Countries and people can’t seem to live to live together and it is a waste of mankind, a waste of energy, and a waste of a lot of things. War should never be and we should learn to live with all mankind.