A trip of a lifetime

Death passed by Irvin Gaughenbaugh during World War II.

Back then, the Fremont man was a radio operator aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger.

“I was going on duty and then came on the flight deck. I looked around and there was one wake on one side (of the ship) and one on the other,” he said.

Torpedoes from a German submarine were making those wakes.

And Gaughenbaugh’s ship was right in the middle. But the ship managed to dodge death.

“They were far enough away, they didn’t bother us at all. They just scared us,” he said, smiling as he recalled those long-ago days.

Recently, Gaughenbaugh -- now 89 years old -- had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., aboard the Heartland Honor Flight in September. His pal, Frank “Red” Wilson of Fremont, went in October. Both men said they enjoyed the trip during which they saw the National World War II Memorial and memorials to the Vietnam War and the Korean War. Both were particularly impressed with Arlington National Cemetery and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

“You can’t imagine that many people buried like that in one place,” Gaughenbaugh said.

Wilson called the changing of the guard “very impressive.” The entire trip was unique experience for two men who served their nation during some of its darkest times.

Gaughenbaugh was

21 years old when he went into the U.S. Navy in 1940 and patrolled the Atlantic for

3 1/2 years.

He and other sailors knew war was inevitable before the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

“We were experiencing German subs six months before the war ever started,” he said.

He remembers when he learned that the Japanese had attacked the harbor.

“We were in the South Atlantic off the coast of Brazil when we heard about it at about noon. It was 7 p.m. there (in Hawaii),” he said.

Gaughenbaugh said his ship was part of the first convoy that took soldiers across the North Atlantic to Europe. He credits the ship’s captain with keeping the vessel and he men safe from Nazi submarines.

“We didn’t get hit at all,” he said, adding, “I kinda prayed a few times.”

Not everyone was so fortunate.

One of his friends, who was a radioman, was scheduled to go aboard a bomber one morning.

The man was sick with a cold.

Gaughenbaugh offered to take his place, but the man wanted to make the flight.

“When they came back, his plane was almost shot to pieces. ... The man I was going to replace was dead,” he said.

In May 1944, Gaughenbaugh went to the Pacific where he was aboard the USS Breton, which brought back damaged planes for repair. He was on that ship when the war ended. He spent New Year’s Day 1946 in Toyko. Then he was on the USS Saidor, which took part in the Atomic bomb test in 1946 in the Bikini Islands.

“Boy that made an explosion,” he said of the bomb. “It was amazing. That’s about all you can say about that.”

Gaughenbaugh was married by the time he got out of the service. He came home and got a job in a TV repair shop. He had Irv’s Television in downtown Fremont in the 1960s. His wife, Virginia, is gone now, but he has a son and a daughter and three grandchildren.

Wilson, a 1944 Wahoo High School graduate, was 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

“They let me finish school and I and my friend, Bill Stewart, went in together (in the delayed enlistment). We had to have our parents’ permission,” he said.

Six days after he graduated, Wilson was in boot camp at Great Lakes, Ill.

“Bill and I got to go in the same company,” he said.

Wilson still remembers the drills and marching on an asphalt parade field.

“They called it ‘the grinder,’” he said, adding that one guy passed out from the heat.

After that, Wilson and his fellow sailors went to Fort Pierce, Fla., for amphibious training that involved smaller boats.

“They’d take us out in the ocean for training,” he said. “We had life jackets and they’d dump us overboard and you had to swim back to shore. They had boats circling in case you got in trouble.”

Eventually, he and his crewmates went to the Asiatic Pacific aboard the USS Todd. They were scheduled to be part of the invasion at Okinawa, but didn’t end up being part of it.

“Something happened and they called it off or I probably wouldn’t be giving this interview,” Wilson said.

But Wilson’s friend, Bill, ended up making that landing at Okinawa.

“That’s the last time I saw him until I got back to Wahoo. He made it back safe and we’ve been friends since,” said Wilson, who plans to see his buddy at their 65th class reunion in 2009.

Wilson’s ship was in Tokyo Bay when Japan signed the peace treaty in 1945.

He got out of the service in June 1946.

A true sailor, he married his first wife, Maxine, on Columbus Day in 1947. They had two daughters, June and Janice. He worked in the retail grocery business for 57 years.

After Maxine died, he married twice more. All three of Wilson’s wives have preceded him in death.

At 82, Wilson cherishes the memories of his recent Washington, D.C., trip.

“I enjoyed every bit of it -- the flights and the people and the camaraderie. It’s amazing,” he said. “It was great.”