World War II Diary: A Personal War Story, A Personal Love Story

By Lee Dusa

Our mother, Vi Dusa, created the Diary. On December 7, 1941 she sat, along with her then boyfriend, Martin Dusa and family members, huddled around the Motorola radio, as President Theodore Roosevelt exclaimed in his thunderous voice "this day shall live in infamy". The President, along with the whole US population was shocked by the bold Japanese attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor that day. Martin and Vi looked at each other with fear, knowing that their lives would be changed from that point forward. In fact, they were right. Their lives, and the lives of all Americans would be changed. The lives of just about everyone on the planet would be changed. Millions would be killed over the next four years. All because a few deranged country leaders were crazily motivated with an ambition to rule the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667852843

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Copyright © 2022 Martin and Vi Dusa. Compiled by Lee Dusa. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-66785-283-6 (Print)

ISBN 978-1-66785-284-3 (eBook)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the authors, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Martin and Vi – Their Beginnings

Transcription of Handwritten Diary (as it was written)

Published in a Book Prepared by Vi Dusa,

Wife of Martin Dusa, August 1994

Martin Dusa Letter to Son Lee

Martin and Vi – Life Together After the War

Addendum

The China, Burma, India (CBI) Campaign – Priardoba Airfield

About the Hellbirds

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

462nd Bombardment Group

Major General Alfred F. Kalberer

Foreword

Our mother, Vi Dusa, created the Diary Book. On December 7, 1941 she sat, along with her then boyfriend, Martin Dusa and family members, huddled around the Motorola radio, as President Theodore Roosevelt exclaimed in his thunderous voice this day shall live in infamy. The President, along with the whole US population was shocked by the bold Japanese attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor that day. Martin and Vi looked at each other with fear, knowing that their lives would be changed from that point forward. In fact, they were right. Their lives, and the lives of all Americans would be changed. The lives of just about everyone on the planet would be changed. Millions would be killed over the next four years. All because a few deranged country leaders were crazily motivated with an ambition to rule the world.

Vi and Martin knew war. Vi’s father, Art Sessions, had returned only a few years earlier from the trenches of France where thousands had been killed in WWI. Vi was keenly aware of her father’s military uniform still hanging in his closet. They were aware soldiers died in combat. They also knew that in war one country would win and one country would lose. On that day in December, 1941 they were mad at Hitler for earlier starting the war in Europe. Now they were mad as hell at Japan for starting the war in the Pacific which now directly involved the US. They knew they had to fight. Everyone had to fight to beat back this enemy who threatened their way of life. They would fight. They had to win. It was fear that drove their every decision from that day forward. Fear of losing, fear of dying.

This book is about that fear. But it is also about love. And it is about patriotism. And it is about history. And it is about two people dedicated, in their own way, to doing the right thing no matter the costs. This is a story about Vi and Martin.

That radio broadcast on December 7 set the wheels in motion for Vi and Martin. After having dated for two years they immediately decided to get married before Martin left. Their wedding was seven days later, December 14. For her part Vi decided to become the chronicler of events during the war, saving every written letter with her new husband, every newspaper clipping, every family photo. She felt that a record of their lives would be important for future generations to understand, especially if their lives together might be shortened if things did not go well in the war effort. She wanted to create a history of their time together. She did a remarkable job of preserving that history and later assembling those documents into this book.

Martin immediately knew that the events of that December day would change history forever. He knew this was a big deal in the evolution of mankind, even from his background of his little formal education. For his insight we all can be forever grateful for his effort in recording, in his own handwriting, his daily activities through four years of war. His fears, failings, successes, and wonderment as he traveled around the world on a mission to win is revealed poignantly. We learn a lot about the man, our father, through his experiences and his reaction to the horrors of war he observed. We not only learn about the activities of the war, but about his strong love for his new wife, and then two years later, his first son. His constant references to Vi revealed that this love was the strong attraction driving him to want to return home. That desire led him to doing the things he felt were the best decisions he could make to enable his return.

After traveling by troop ship across the Atlantic through the Suez to India, across India by train, and then again by ship around Australia he ended up on a small island in the Pacific called Tinian. It was from there the huge B-29’s were launched in 1945. They were bombing the hell out of Japan in an attempt to end the war. He watched as 280 B-29’s would take off en masse, four at a time on parallel runways at North Field, the largest airport in the world at the time, to make bombing runs to Japan. He knew many of the crews, some of those did not return. Martin watched as the atomic bomb was being loaded into the belly of the Enola Gay B 29. That very bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, would kill hundreds of thousands. It would end the war.

Finally, he came home to his love Vi, and his first son, me. I was born in 1943. I feel compelled to share the story of Mom and Dad as they are remarkable people for their love for each other. Their first four years together were marked by fear, by separation, and yet a strong hope and confidence that if they, and their fellow countrymen, did the right thing it might turn out alright someday. In that optimism they were right. Their lives turned out exceedingly well. They had four kids. I am the oldest, followed by Jerry, Jim and finally our sweet sister Maryann.

But I also see in Dad’s diary an insight into the feelings of a man at war. A man who did not want to die yet believed strongly in the cause of the war. He wanted to win. He wanted the US to win. He was willing to work to make that happen. He was a patriot. After the war he was active in our local VFW chapter, proudly wearing his uniform as a member of the color guard at our local town parades every year. Mom was active in the women’s VFW also, selling poppies every Memorial Day. America had won. They now turned their attention to raising their kids to hopefully