World War II memoirs

By Phil Wheeler

More than 16 million Americans fought in World War 2; there were 290,000 casualties. The average length of service was 16 months. Many of these men were no more than boys when they went to war – some were not even 18 years old. Yet, they fought, and died, to insure our freedom. Most came home to relative obscurity, went back to their old jobs or found new ones, married and raised families, and lived out their lives in peace.

Most of those who still live are in their 90's, many will not talk about those times, but their stories should not be forgotten.

They are all heroes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phil Wheeler
• Release date: Dec 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311499219

Phil Wheeler

Phil is an old man living in a trailer. He likes to write about things, but his memory is going, so who knows how much longer before his kids put him in a home.

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Phil Wheeler at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Phil Wheeler

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John Robert Kinn

Born: Fostoria, Ohio

Birthday: July 13, 1922

Reason for Joining: Drafted

Branch of Service: Army Air Corps

Service Area: Europe, December 26, 1942 – October 11, 1945

Highest Rank: Sargent

John's war starts with him being drafted

It was December 26th, I had a high school education and I did well on the tests, so they asked me if I wanted to be in the Army Air Corps. I said sure – I didn't want to be in the infantry. They shipped us to Camp Perry[1], just the other side of Port Clinton. We didn't see much of it, we just took a few tests, and they shipped us out. We didn't have no training there, they were just barracks. The first night I had to be fire patrol, walk around the barracks and see if there were any on fire. We were there 3 days, and we were shipped to Miami Beach, Florida.[2]

Tough Duty in Florida

We had to stay in Hotels along the beach. They took over pretty much the whole place, the Navy and the Army, cause you couldn't train up North very well – it was too cold and snowy – so they took over the Ocean Boulevard Hotels, maybe 50 blocks. There were almost no civilians there. I was there 4 weeks, it was basic – learning how to march – we didn't have any guns; we stood guard duty with wooden guns.

From heaven to hell (and if was frozen over)

After basic in Miami Beach, I went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 35 degrees below zero – for radio school. I wasn't there long because I flunked out of the code school. We went to school from 11 o'clock at night to 7 in the morning, and we took theory for the