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An up close and personal interview with Air Force Veteran and Togetherweserved.com Member:
MSgt (USAF Ret) Howard Ellis
WHAT PERSUADED YOU TO JOIN THE Air Force?
I enlisted in the Army Air Force on Oct. 24, 1942 - 10 months after Pearl Harbor - at the age of 17 - because our country was at war and I was ashamed to be safe at home while other "kids" from my school were already risking their lives in World War II. However, I was under-age and my mom, a widow, wouldn't sign my enlistment papers which she called a "death warrant." So I got a job as a stock boy at a men's store in downtown St. Louis, where I persuaded a floor manager to sign my enlistment papers as my "guardian." He already had a son and nephew in the military and understood my plight even though he told me he felt guilty.
BRIEFLY, WHAT WAS YOUR CAREER PATH IN THE AIR FORCE?
My career path was an odd and winding road. I served as a cryptographer stateside and in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) first in the 1074th Signal Service Co., Stateside and overseas. In late 1943 I was transferred to Major Joseph A. Plihal's 877th Signal Service Co., 16th Air Depot Group in England, France and Germany. I never knew his hometown, but heard that Major Plihal had played with the "the Green Bay Packers" in his youth. When the ETO war ended we were stationed at a base near Moenchengladbach, Germany, and from there shipped home (via Boston) for 30- day furlough prior to then being shipped "to the Pacific" to serve in the war there which ended while I was on the leave.
Actually, after visiting my mom and family back in University City, I hurried to New York City to visit my grandparents. I was having lunch with my Aunt in a restaurant on Broadway, across from the old Times Building with a rotating news sign, when it suddenly read, "JAPAN HAS AGREED TO AN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, PRESIDENT TRUMAN JUST ANNOUNCED." My Aunt went to the bar and bought me a bottle of "Southern Comfort" whiskey and sent me down to the Broadway mania. It was V-J Day and I fell in with the crowd and got deliriously "happy" when I saw this crying old lady holler out - "THE DAMN WAR IS OVER...AINT NOBODY GOING TO DIE ANYMORE!"
The 877th was deactivated at Laredo Army Air Field, Texas, and I was honorably discharged as a 20-year-old Staff Sgt on Oct. 16, 1945. I went home to University City where I first got a job as a "package-liquor" salesman in a downtown St. Louis tavern, then as a mailroom assistant at the General Foods Corporation sales-division office. But I couldn't forget the "good old days" of camaraderie and purpose I'd experienced in wartime uniform. So I re-enlisted and was assigned as a cryptographer in the Department of the Army Signal Center at the Pentagon. From there I was assigned TDY to an Army communications center during the "Operation Sandstone" Atom Bomb testing on Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. After returning to South Post Ft. Meyers, Va., as a Pentagon Signal Corps Sergeant, I was assigned to the Army HQ in West Berlin, Germany where my career took a great turn. For the command, and my security level, it was tough for the Army to have me doing what I did next; I got engaged to a German woman whose father had been an SS LtCol. My would-have-been father in law had died and so I asked the Army interviewer, "Did you ever kiss a top secret clearance?" He caved-in and let me stay in Berlin with my "Fraulein" but I was re-assigned as a staff writer/columnist on the post newspaper, "The Berlin Observer." After that I rotated home and got a civilian job which I quit to re-enlist, but this time in the Air Force. It led to a lot of new places for my wife and I and, eventually, our five kids. I've been assigned to several State-side bases since then and a tour in the Alaskan Air Command, the Strategic Air Command's old Goose AFB at Happy Valley, Labrador, where I also did a turn as base television NCO and newscaster as well as editor of "The Goose Gab" base newspaper. My last base was Castle AFB, California, where I retired as a Master Sergeant in 1965.
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN COMBAT OPERATIONS?
No, and it has embarrassed me for years, especially when I'm gabbing with a group of other Veterans and they're detailing their combat experience from WW2 to the present. During the German efforts to defeat us in the "BULGE" in Belgium in late December '45, I volunteered for "front line" but my commander held me back - he said I had too many crypto formulas locked in my head, "And if the Krauts get a hold of you, you might sing like a bird..."
FROM YOUR ENTIRE SERVICE CAREER WHAT PARTICULAR MEMORY STANDS OUT?
I guess it wasn't a "warlike" memory in particular - it was a human experience. Serving with and existing with men and women of all beliefs from all over America had a tremendous impact on me. I always remember them all and how they moulded me from a narrowed intellect, naive and green high school dropout into a worthwhile Soldier and Non-commissioned Officer. That memorable experience made this Soldier/Airman NCO evolve into a mature adult capable of good-citizenship, and a good husband and father (or so I'm told).
WHICH INDIVIDUAL PERSON FROM YOUR SERVICE STANDS OUT AS THE ONE WHO HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOU...AND WHY?
I have to say it was my OIC when I was a 19 year old Staff Sergeant in charge of an overseas code room in France and Germany during WW2. I don't doubt I earned my stripes and the supervisor status but the others in the outfit did have difficulty taking "orders" from a teen-age snot-nose. But our Communications Officer, 2nd Lt. Bob Cross (now retired LTC and still "with us") got a hold of me and made a lot of good personal and management suggestions which I followed and it worked. He used "suggestions" on me and so I quit "giving orders" per se and modified our duties and needs with "suggestions" that "this or that" might work out better etc., and seeking to incorporate their opinions. After all, we were support troops not in "snap judgment" combat. It may not make sense to the military reader but it did to me and "my troops" became "our troops." As a matter of fact I used Bob Cross's management "techniques" throughout the rest of my military and civilian careers - and occasionally in family life trying to hassle with my gang of kids.
WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER THE SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?
I retired at Castle AFB, Merced, CA on Feb. 1, 1965, and a month later went to work as a reporter for the San Bernardino, CA SUN-TELEGRAM newspaper. I worked there as a reporter, columnist, copy editor and night city editor until my second retirement on Feb. 1, 1990, exactly 25 years after the Air Force retirement. Now I just have time with my family including the TWS family, meet with veteran chums at a local donut shop and once in a rarity have time for travel or civic activities or just goofing off. It's a good life.
HOW HAS SERVING THE AIR FORCE INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND CAREER?
As I indicated earlier, in plain words it made a boy into a soldier and a soldier into a man. I learned to endure hardships without fear; I learned how to deal/cope with every type of individual in private and professional life. Most of all, I believe, it made me into a better American citizen because in my own way and in my own time it was the country "bringing me up" not just fending for myself loosely and perhaps foolishly.
HOW HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU TO MAINTAIN A BOND WITH THE AIR FORCE AND THOSE YOU SERVED WITH?
That's a damn good question. I "enlisted" in TWS less than a year ago and already I've felt at home with Veterans from all areas of the military and when I walked into the place, so to speak, I didn't even feel like a stranger. Case in point...when I had difficulty (I still do) as a newcomer dealing with "things to do" ranging from transmitting photos to gathering information there were so many great folks quickly responding with guidance and assurance. And when I'm writing of my military experiences or responding to others...there's a crowd of "joiners" who bring even more enlightenment and viewpoints into my membership...I really feel like "Family" on Togetherweserved. |
MSgt (USAF Ret) Howard Ellis
View MSgt Ellis's Shadowbox on TWS
Ellis Germany
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