Interview with Walter F Rausch-WWII Veteran

did you serve I served in the United States and were you drafted or did you enlist I am listed and where are you living at the time I'm worried in New Haven Connecticut and you recall the date when you enlisted I am listed into Reserve in March 1942 and tell us why you joined I realized that the war was going on at the time and I was offered the opportunity to enlist there were the right because of the occupation I was in and therefore it was a an opportunity presented to me and I thought it was best to to accept it at that time and what were you doing at the time I was a ordnance inspector of war materials working for the Ordnance Department and the war was going on and I was inspecting war materials that have been produced in New Haven area and and then after Pearl Harbor that was when I decided to enlist a army recruiter came into my office and said if you enlist in a newly-formed ordnance regiment the 302nd ordnance regiment they would give me a rating and I talked it over with my parents and they reluctantly said well you probably would be draft in any way so they consented and so I signed up and date they told me that I would hear when I would be called active duty so I waited all summer long and I wasn't called up until them August then in August I received notice that I should report up to for it to Fort Devens up in Massachusetts so they sent me a railroad ticket and I ended up at Fort Devens so there I was sworn in and received my shots and they told me then there go ahead home go back to work and they will call it when you were needed so I did that and finally in August of 42 I received the I notice to go and and report down at Camp sudden North Carolina which is near Raleigh and I reported down there and it was a tent camp and the unit the 3 on 2nd or 3rd regiment was visiting training getting ready to go to active employment so I then joined the Europe and they then went off troop train to California across the country and then up at Fort Ord California and in September at that time but when the West Coast was in a condition of apprehension they didn't know bro Pearl Harbor had occurred our West Coast was unprotected our fleet had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor and I don't know what defensive land defenses we had but the the California population was a very fearful of an invasion and there was a complete blackout the cars were traveling without their lights just there on their parking nights there was no street lights no lights and offices no billboards completely dark and we are fearful that but something would happen at any time we're on that alert to be ready in it there was alarms continuously you really drive our rifles and and head to the beach the the there was something that some submarines sighted off the coast of California in fact there was a shell selling of the land and in the shop that I was in charge of to get the rifles of the the troops ready they they had the fragments of the shell come into my shop and that I had it mounted and as the first shells will fall on US soil in the war the Second World War and I believe was presented to the general in charge on me I'm California so the preparations continued and Polly in December I was approached by an officer and asked if I would care to be a being become an officer and I thought about it and I said I would so he gave me application and they had a choose of three branches of the service and the signal for the Army Ordnance and me and the infantry you had to pick three branches so the application went in and it came back in the the opening they had at that time was in the Signal Corps so I then was told that I would we report down to Fort Monmouth within 30 days so they sent me a they gave me a railroad ticket and I ended up down in Fort Monmouth New Jersey to attend officers Candidate School son in January so our reporter there and spent three months and Fort Monmouth became a second lieutenant and my assignment my background and inspection of war materials they decided I was a a candidate to to be in the river for inspection agency which was in Newark New Jersey so I reported to them and and then I was a went to New York and stayed in the hotel and went to companies in that area federal telephone my radio and witnessed some of the activities that they were engaged in they were making radios at the time and other old war materials so I attended the summer they get the the products will be made and witness the testing of the trailer that was the kind of be used for communication area and what some tested in the and LaGuardia field company in the water to see if it floated it it was designed to be that they offered his ship I mean Bay's would link to be floated into Shore as a communications unit and watched and unfortunately they it wasn't waterproof and something that after near the ocean there and other I went to attend a testing of our equipment that it was proximity fuses that were put on the board on the top of shells that when they were fired that would then when at the approach of a plane they wouldn't have to hit the plane proximity fuses would go off but there was a secret that was a secret type of condition so they had to get rid of the these were defective equipment that was produced so I had to they gave me a a a sidearm to go on board a ship off the off the coast there and we took it out on him beyond the six mile limit I had taught the mobile boarding and have been sick secret material I had to make sure that the cartons were opened and they charged weren't empty they weren't there was no taken away from the people that were doing the work and preferred were all dumped overboard and even the cartons were thrown into the sea that was weak it was destroyed so those are too many incidents that I was involved in before before we keep going into more of them let's go back a little bit to - when you first enlisted sure what rank did they have you go in I was in I am listed in the Ordnance I was an ordnance inspector so therefore I I just enlisted and enjoyed the 302nd ordnance regiment okay but then when they came up to b is an officer the only opening they had at the time they put me in the circle for the Transvaal branch I went from ordinance to signal park and when you finally in August when you were finally called up what was that like for you to finally be able to serve what was a oh wait what do you mean well you had to wait that I hadn't wait that time because they weren't ready for me yeah so when you were finally called up without like they well down there I I could see that we're getting ready to do get out to go into active duty and therefore I realize that that was their mission and they were heading over going out to California we're going to the where Georgia to Pacific and I learned afterwards some time afterwards we were heading that unit was heading to to to Africa to fight Rommel in Africa because at the time we had to have a beachhead in that area so our planes could land and fight over the Pacific and the only place they could go was Africa so we had a clear spot in Africa that we could build an airport for our our planes to land so that's the reason why the US had to go to to find an area that they could have an Air Force and as usual fight in the islands so I realized that afterwards I was they didn't tell us what we were going actually but I learned afterwards that was the whole object there so but the preparations was a very expensive they they realized that they were going to to fight down an area I was in the in the shop that was getting their guns ready so the rifles would come into the shop I had and I had people that were examine the guns be sure they were accurate the sights were accurate on them and the preparation so but it wasn't my destiny to go with them and when that obeyed so I just went to a different branch of the service due to my best experience so one thing fortunately father the other so when you when you went in to the service in August did you have to go through boot camp I think out there both camps I had no training at home the only the only training I ever I went officers Candidate School officers found a school I had had some training marksmanship wearing a gas mask yeah a using a rifle and and falling around with a rifle under barbed wire I got all that yet often spent in school with basic training I didn't have any okay so what were you warrior feelings than your first days in the service what were they like for you well it was a it was a new a new lifestyle certainly I was a single living home I had finished school and looking for a job and according to the service was was new but it was certainly eased up for me when I enlisted and then they go back home again and continue working though the impact wasn't that great until I actually went to a unit that was in working order then so you went to Fort Devens first went to Fort Devens first and then you went to North Carolina right what were your duties in North Carolina what were your first days didn't orth Carolina like well it was a I was certainly involved in the preparation that was going on because we knew we were moving out and we didn't know horses and listen personnel we didn't know where we were heading but I I was involved in their preparation rosenbaum is our duty and to that extent for that it was a change of my life certainly but I tell you ready and going on a troop train was my main object at that time in North Carolina where the order were you did still inspecting all the Ordnance no I wasn't at that we were we were more on building up our equipment and doing things ready to go on a troop train so the when I arrived down there that the people they'd all been in training for some time to see the the the unit that I was with was was formed primarily for the automobile industry I in the beauty of our meeting federal cars in the order we were making trucks army trucks we're making jeeps three American things so those people our work for thee for the automobile industry the mechanics the sheets the people the welders the engineers even the salespeople they were formed the the the basics of the of the unit the three of the Ordnance Richmond there were experienced people and I when they approached the Inspection Agency they expected that those people were working with inspection a they would have some knowledge of Johnny's war materials and so forth the New Haven was a hub of activity we had Winchester Repeating Arms that made the rifles they were a new rifles coming on the scene we used to be the old Springfield rifles single-shot well the dryin garand rifle what a mattock rifles coming into being and they were working three shifts trying to turn out rifles and that time they were people were being drafted they had no rifles woman those pictures were people they were training with drum stick that with the film sticks you could see them all with broomsticks parading around there's no rifles and so other companies in the wavin were a busy AC Gilbert for example it made toys they were making flares to drop from planes so they could see where the Bombers to go and so it was hectic at time in New Haven trying to relearn what was going on in Europe and the first one when the Pearl Harbor occurred we really thrown into it and so the the whole area that war materials were being made and no more was a the domestic product companies were changing over changing from making toys of making weapons entire companies from the water making pasture tires a rotary companies are long amazing that rubber hot water bottles they were they were making bandages making things of that nature so that was my experience with them and and enjoying with the davidic forced ranging from an ordinance to Signal Corps but it was more in my line because I I wasn't inspector anyway of war materials so then after North Carolina you got on the troop train and you went to the west coast went to the west coast the ordinance much like two to four org i california and then for two or didn't that was and that was a embark action point Presidio out there to to go to the Pacific me so what will you do these out there my duties are there well I was a as I mentioned we were getting our our weapons our weapons ready I wasn't in the shop but that in charge of the shop there for getting their rifles ready examiner rifles and had I grew up under me of doing that so it was preparation for that and to move on and so after California you got the offer for the promotion correct I did I'm good right you've got offered the chance to become as well so we have an officer eight health and click that opportunity when it was offered to me and I didn't know what branch I was going to be in because they were there was ten tops attending schools and all the vices of course but it's just so happened that the Signal Corps was the window was opened I should have turned up in the infantry ii would send the infantry for that matter but that was right that was my choice it was the government's choice and what what assignment did you were given it's entirely out of my hands too so it just so happened that's what it was now before leaving California where you had talked about the blackouts that were occurring on the west coast were you ever scared or fearful at nights then some now it's been how long did the shelling know we the highest point was that sounds a restrike and and the guard position there was at the top of the bleachers you had to walk up to the top and that was the highest highest point so that's where guard duty to I was a joy duty there looking at the Pacific the to see if there was any signing of submarines at that time I was like that the kind of position where but the people were very apprehensive I got we didn't know about the Japanese yeah we know it and the East Coast there were spies German of course was German serpent people that were sympathizers in Germany we knew there was there was people that were information tethers on an East Coast but we know I think about the Japanese we didn't know if they had planted people there and so they were moving their people from the west coast they were moving them England at that time Roosevelt led said move them because we didn't we didn't know how trustworthy they were and it was a security move then 40 and 50 years later people are questioning why did we move them when we move the people like what was the either an apprehensive we had no idea how trustworthy they were and and therefore as a security move they moved them back was unfortunate but at that time what a day thought it was necessary so I didn't see much of the west coast we had I had one leaf and I leave it went to San Francisco but it was a usual raining foggy bay so I didn't see anything of San Francisco but so what happened to the unit I don't know I looked it up one time I had a friend of mine looking and try to trace the the whereabouts what happened to the dreams like nordmann's regimen they couldn't find any record of it so what happened to it I don't know okay so after the West Coast hmm the promotion went through to become an officer and then what happens so as I mentioned to you I which was they also attended school I was assigned to the Inspection Agency first at in New York and then that I was given the assignment to check wire where produce was table producers in in New England so I visited the various plants that made wire that made table wire in those days is necessary for communications there was no such a thing of of broadcasting and activity water was a wire was needed for for radios and television and and all the instruments communication instruments so I travel the various plants in New England Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut of course and it was many many plants made wiring cable I had incidents that happened one of the plants simplex wiring cable they were making a cable that was going to be laid between England and French for the invasion and this this cable was made in that's the plant took months and months to make because that'd be continuous they told a cluster channel the channel is a 21 miles wide so during my during my time there to her vagueness cable and and the cable sabotage I was falling flat cars a series of flat cars and the cable was put on the the flat charge from flex child a flat car and started up to be near storage for the invasion that was the coming years to come but during a transportation it was sabotage the the connection between the cars was broken and when they started up the Train it stretched and broke the cable and claimed to be done to sabotage well they had to turn around and start the cable all over again I took it took six months or more to to make it so that happened during my time there as they as the office were because we did have inspectors there and another incident I had was when the wire companies and in Providence this time it was found that they took off the the ties that they were on the wire the year and took them off there were defective wire and the company inspector estranged it and but could who tags on them and that was a sabotage to what it was done purposely an Apple the company was charged and I know they they arrested these people involved and I attended the at the trial they were convicted and sent to jail so that was a nuisance that was my watch there too so so then they never seek another assignment that I was going to be in charge of inspectors in certain areas so I went to Providence and they were making more materials and British planes and Providence winter plants another and types of war materials and I was there for a relatively short time I think maybe six months as though my sight was changed up to to go to Syracuse and in the servicers New York and so I went up to circus in two and had an office in the in River Road and the generatrix company there and there was no officer he was a captain up there and at that time we were the Air Force and they work when air forces was under the Signal Corps in those days it was there you know there wasn't he here corner those days and there's and there came under the symbol for that and became a branch later an independent branch but in those days the the material for the the Air Force was handled by the Signal Corps so we inspected two radios and all sorts of equipment for the certain radar warning devices all came under the Sigma quorum so we we had plates that made for the Air Force to for the Bombers radar our warnings and the tails and indi plants and to cleanse themselves the Bombers all their equipment the tracker that was all under the Signal Corps and the Air Force too so then it was better was broken up the Air Force has been bigger they haven't had their own their own inspectors on the road so then I was broken up and and the officer up there he was the a took care of the air force materials I took care of the semaphore equipment so I had the the plants under me there and they made all sorts of materials for the signal floor and I visited them the plants of the area and I joined down to other areas up and lyrics streaked so on my my main duty was to be sure the inspection is carried out properly and we were under pressure because we needed all this equipment continuously so we worked sometimes of all 20 for hours they like the plants were working to first materials were yet we knew what about the needs of the Armed Forces and we determined that we are going to fulfill those needs so that is how it ended for me I I worked there until at one time later while I'm I guess was probably about 1940-1945 they'd it was determined by Washington that all officers that had not served overseas would have to have overseas duty so I had received my orders and do a report for overseas duty and it wasn't over a month or so later that that Hitler surrendered and who the end of the war over in Europe so they cancelled the orders and I went back to work again and then there was concentrated on the Pacific down there and we of course dropped a bomb over in Japan and the orders were for my go in the Pacific are canceled so Allende that got to be like that then was up to 1996 and so I was informed that they know what they were defending the inspection service they were making the war materials they wanted they didn't need me so I was a sense I was relieved then of my duty and said and Center wait for my discharge papers so I went home then the and I think about April of 46 and I waited and waited and waited to get my final discharge so I thought it was discharged I believe it was in September of 1946 in the meantime I was looking for a job as a civilian didn't know I couldn't take it because I was doing in the army so so then I was the sergeant putting in the reserve so I was in the reserves and for a while and then I was called in the Korean War but they didn't need didn't need anybody with my experience and when I was doing they didn't need one person like me in the Korean War so they probably removed from the reserve so much how I ended up so I joined the reserve officer swordsman and I was active in that being president related of the local chapter and supported all the the veterans and I do my best to support them especially disabled veterans not that twice story just to go back a little bit when when the - when you discovered the two acts of sabotage all right um was there any fear on the part of the soldiers or anyone else that was accompanying the actual no no that the wire that there was a defective wire they were caught our thought I was that the tags were were put on at night and and the superintendent and I think a vice president of the company were books into jail we write later right I attended the trial when my achievements lecturer was called to testify he had he had a testified of Cuba evidence that the tags were worked in fact there were on detective wire so but I couldn't stay there I wasn't called as a witness or anything so I had just I just stopped in at the courtroom much trial for a while now because he stayed in New England for so long were you able to ever stop by and see your family or I was I wasn't like I was very fortunate as I was traveling and if I came down to the Connecticut I always wear jersey as a side trip I would just stopping to see them I don't Army car I was a treasured memory card and and but I had a live Ida stay up in Providence and those days people would take in soldiers especially officers as a patriotic duty I guess or they felt they should help them out so I stayed with the family very nice family up in Providence for a month I was up there and then when I went up to I went up to Syracuse I also stayed with a family up there that they're willing to put me up and buy easily a doubter anyway but I I couldn't afford very much because even though I got a an officer's pay which wasn't very much all I got from my food was twenty one dollars a month to eat on and and that was equivalent to when they cross they soldier at the base across from $21 a month to feed a soldier so I was considered off the base of they paid me the same amount so the twenty one dollars and a month is what I got from my food and then I got thirty dollars a month to pay for foreplay for my rent so the rest of the money I had to take out of my my own salary so I have very few dollars to to turn around so or buy anything so but i but i made out and I was right consider myself very fortunate the way things turned out for me I considered that there was a certainty over a year actual provenance like I put in that particular category I could have been on the infantry and and over fighting at night and the invasion for that matter because he moved around so much did you have a chance to make any friendships and the while you were serving any contacts any friendships that you made would you think your fellow servicemen did you like any no no I know they owe me the contacts I mean at the time we all slept were separated then the context I had in my with the Ordnance Department because I left them and so I never saw them again me even the officers were candidates absitively school we'd say we meet again we took each other's of dresses but it was all scattered they they were doing assignments probably with units and so I never made any real contacts permanent contacts okay so when you were finally taken off the reserve list then you got home what was your home cover like well I'm sure my mother and follower were glad to see me back again when I when I walked out the door and I was draft of my suitcase II they just hope they'd see me again so if you press for me and I guess maybe God helped to get me everything I don't know but they were glad to get me home and I was in the child in the household and so the there was certainly glad to see me and I had to settle down to to life as a civilian and but I guess I couldn't I couldn't get it out of my blood because because the first that job I know the transport aircraft was it was a plant down in Stratford and uh they were they made the Corsair fighter plane for the Navy that's the play with like all the wings but the waves came up and so they can share aboard aircraft carriers and so when I I heard that they were hiring when I was when I was waiting to get it my discharge so I went down to see them and as an inspector because they were looking for inspectors not working they were looking for perch leaning people perched in the purchasing department and that experience with materials so they said oh definitely we can usually they so when you're going to be discharged and I said I have no idea there's gonna be trying to wait for my papers and that in those days there were discharging thousands of people so on so I went there and they said oh we can use you were we're building these planes these replacements for all the planes that were lost during the war I made contracts strapped so I so very much interest in the jobs so I waited and waited and finally they contacted me and I said when he gonna be discharged so I said I have no idea that the Army is I can't urge them to discharge me to get my papers so they could be employed so they said what's I'm dying come back down to was anyway so I went down I went down to the purchase of the apartment and and I saw the vice-president of purchasing down there and he wanted to see me I was interesting to me so he said we are being pressed by the by the Navy to hit these planes going we need more fertile regions more purchasers I wouldn't be an agent I be just admire down there so wise he said where words and Fort Monmouth it's always the total secretary that get Fort Monmouth on the phone so I was sitting in his office and he says I want to talk to the commander and they they commanded honor because he is probably a general or so I don't know so I so I listened to him and he said it's the vice president of the aircraft company we had a job to do to to get it planes out for the Navy and I got a young man here we want to hire very much to help our purchasing department get raw materials we're watching what can I do for me the gentleman and and the what he's replied was what apparently okay all right well thank you very much for your help so and sure enough within a week I got a request to report from discharge that's what I was on address but I sort of white-hot his service yeah so I got I got a general working for me so so that was my experience down there so I worked for trains for aircraft or a two years and then they they decided that bridge born and Stratford wasn't a good place to tell test planes said planes up you know to climb out flying over city if something happens and they ended up in the streets of Bridgeport so they decided to move to Texas so they went down to her grand Prairie Texas outside of Dallas and they offered to send me down there and pay for me going down there but I I thought I was away for toured here's my parents were all alone I said no way so like almost became a Texan maybe they'll work for the oil companies like that but but I turned it down that look for another job so I went for a number of companies after that as a purchasing agent I was a purchasing agent and materials Ravager all the rest of my employment career and number plate number of plants and I worked for and some fell by the wayside some closed up shop something that reductions in force and so I must have worked for old five or six companies as a person agent so I had experience and wire and castings and and all sort unns virtually Asian opportunity for Mossberg and fortunately a productive Machine of bridgeport Acme wire company and the Hamden so things happen to each one some were sold just like what's happening now you know what that when people company gets old and they disappear or they're caught out by somebody else and it's like I had tried many of those things in my career so what that all works out for the best I had my wife was a very very philosophical about it when I come home and and say well unfortunately it they no longer need me the company was has been sold and they had their own Berkeley agent or were brought out on a reduction in force and so but we went through it and and because I was single it and I could I could do those things where we got married and have a couple of daughters and so what happened when I was married to they over at the storm and we I got married and moved to treasure which i and ii built a home in chaser and and then I was working those days and finally I retired and and then I gave up my home then in 90 and then the 2006 I moved here my daughter lives on the west side from the other daughter odd and Clinton so well I see the mill all the time so so my army career was a was pretty non-eventful isn't saying it I had a couple it was nobody else so I don't know this was this was at the at that device that's the one that they they talkin debate and when they put in that the water filled up to fill up something and that was a the picture of them to LaGuardia Airport at the time these other things are or the officers we had at that I think the Signal Corps so forth these are all the officers were in charge of inspections in various places yeah well be sure to get pictures so they gave me all these now you're talking the military it influenced the way you thought about war or the military in general yes it's let me instilled in me the the need to have a to have a for superior force especially nowadays to have a strong military force and to protect our the protect our country and to and we can save the world by any mana means we can't be policemen for the world either but I'm for a strong strong military in today's world fact it's more more dangerous now than I think has ever has been so the change drivers retired for that and also to take care of veterans I'm a great supporter of veterans and and all the things that they do and to take care of veterans as they and I'm contributed all disabled veterans and blind veterans hospitalized veterans and touches organizations right I couldn't couldn't below I never I never belong to a Veterans organization I didn't serve overseas so I thought I couldn't belong to the Veterans of Foreign Wars he know I'd support them contributions and disabled veterans I support them and I never join the American Legion I joined the Catholic War veterans but they they didn't amount to very much but my regard for the military is we should I keep up our services and how did how did your service and experiences affect your life personally from your time in the service well my my personal profile recently for the Armed Forces but insofar as they the my duties in the military of course helped me in my civilian life because as Inspectorate and then a purchasing agent I then had that knowledge in my civilian life to advance from my buyer to her assistant to a purging agent to a materials management due to my handling of materials I was also interested in how things were made the ability to BER to inspect them to see their Worth and so I think it it certainly had an effect on my civilian life the Hamming talking to people the value of good products I had to be sure that the service the the product at standard and metric requirements Norfolk taught both for the Armed Forces and in the manufacturing life but the they were nor a good products or something out that or being produced so in that respect they it did help me interpret life was there anything else that you'd like to share with us that we didn't go over already I don't think so I don't think so I think that some of the stories that you are listening to right now I think it's important that that is recorded that people should know and the aspects of both the Tonys and active duty but those in the homefront too that they they did there they did their job to the best of our ability even though they didn't carry a gunman and but they they and what the population cooperated with the with the service and and cooperated to try to have a victory and what their sacrifices that the subpoenas also were part of the war effort you know well then I would like to thank you for your service and I'd like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to sit down and have this interview with us well thank you very much I enjoy brand-new

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 429

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: WWII, New York Signal Corp, U.S. Army

Id: oM_-83pUZNY

Length: 61min 25sec (3685 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2016