John Goerl, now 83, was a freshman at Cal Berkeley studying for his physics final when he heard the news.
“Pearl Harbor has just been bombed,” his mother called upstairs to him in their Alameda home.
“I said, ‘Where’s Pearl Harbor?'” recalled Goerl, now an Alamo resident. The world was soon to know.
He enlisted in the Army but was able to stay in college another year before being called into active duty as part of the 24th Infantry Division. He was in New Guinea when the Allies invaded the Philippines in Lehte, and his platoon went into Mindanao in the spring of 1945, where it received a unit commendation.
His ship was at sea when the Japanese emperor capitulated on Aug. 15, 1945.
“It was like the Fourth of July,” Goerl recalled. “We had thought we were the only ones out there, but when the emperor capitulated, the ships all started shooting up flare rockets.”
When they went into Luzon in the Philippines, his lieutenant was shipped back to the States with an intestinal disorder. “Then I was the platoon sergeant, the youngest guy in the platoon, trying to tell 27-year-old guys what to do,” he remembered.
From there he went to Japan, pulling into Osaka to wait out a typhoon. Then they went 80 miles outside of Tokyo to Nagoya, the first American soldiers to arrive after the negotiators.
“Food was very scarce,” he said. “Nagoya was firebombed. The only things standing were concrete structures, like hotel buildings and, of all things, a brewery.”
The beer was very good, he recalled.
He got to know some of the Japanese laborers who worked with them to rebuild the house where they were staying, which had been half destroyed by a U.S. Navy plane. Some of the workers traded their old Rising Sun flags for canned goods. Goerl also accumulated Samurai swords and Japanese rifles that were being thrown out by the residents. He later gave these to his daughters.
“The army guys during the war were sons of bitches, but after the war the Japanese people were very cordial, very police,” Goerl said.
His biggest worry at the time was his older brother Conrad, who was fighting in Europe in the Bulge. He said somehow they would get news from the European theater, even without a radio.
Goerl and other veterans from Danville and Alamo come together each weekday morning at 10 to enjoy a cup of coffee . They met at Vally Medlyn’s, starting around 1999, and are now at Country Waffles. The conversation can be about almost anything, they say, from current affairs to what’s going on in their lives. This includes veterans’ events, such as the display of war memorabilia they were assembling at the Veterans Memorial Building and the annual Veterans Day service being held Nov. 11 at Community Presbyterian Church.
Danville resident Sam Abbott is one of the oldest veterans, at 85. He explained he is walking with a cane because he jumped from his airplane at 20,000 feet during the war. Mac McCuskey, sitting next to him, said Abbott had hurt his foot by sticking it into his mouth. McCuskey is the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 75.
But the gathering is not all veterans. David Miller, 54, says he likes socializing with the veterans and tries to make it every day since he often works evenings with his alarm company.
“I feel connected to them,” Miller said. “It’s a good way to start the day.” He also is involved with their veterans’ activities.
“Because I haven’t served, I feel responsible for what they do,” he said. “It’s my way of letting them know I appreciate their sacrifice.”
He noted that those in attendance are not always in agreement over current events but they always respect each others’ opinions.
Miller remembered others who used to come to coffee but have passed away. Like Al Grasso, who spent the night clinging to a chunk of wood in the ocean when his ship was torpedoed. Or John Boswell of Boswell party store fame, who was a Japanese prisoner of war for three-and-a-half years. Another regular, Chuck Wilson, who was in the Navy, just died during the summer.
Also both U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo and Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary N. Piepho send representatives from their offices to help them stay in touch with the veteran community.
Lee Halverson, 59, was a Marine who served in Vietnam, who does the accounting for VFW Post 75. “They got me when I stepped out of my uniform,” he said. He was discharged in December 1988 and by January 1989 a neighbor had recruited him to do the books.
Tom Hawkins, a Korean War vet, defers to the older men.
“These guys are treasures,” he said, nodding at the WWII vets. “These guys are heroes.” He said he wasn’t originally a joiner but once he began coming to coffee he understood what a great bunch of guys they are and became involved.
John Goerl and Sam Abbot go to high schools several times a year to share their war experiences.
“The first question they ask is, ‘Did you ever shoot anyone?'” Goerl said. This brings him back to his scary nights in the Philippine jungle defending the camp perimeter. “I tell them I shot but never knew who it hit.”
They also ask his views on the Japanese Americans who were interned during the war.
“Alameda had a fair Japanese population but we never mixed,” he recalled. “They did their thing and we did ours. At that time I was for it but now I’d say it was the wrong thing to do. That’s the truth: It was the wrong thing to do.”
Goerl was looking forward to seeing his grandson Clay Zusman who had just returned from his second tour in Iraq. Goerl marveled comparing communications in World War II with the troops now having some access to e-mail and telephonic communication from time to time.
“War is not a good thing,” he said but noted that during World War II, the population was supportive. When he walked into a bar in uniform, someone would buy him a drink. When he hitchhiked, someone would pick him up.
“The Korean War, the guys were forgotten about. Vietnam, I felt sorry for those guys, there was no appreciation. Iraq is bad because we don’t know who we are fighting,” Goerl said.
Regardless of their experiences, the veterans come together for coffee each weekday morning, with mutual respect – and for enjoyment. Waitresses and the other patrons seem to regard them fondly, too, these men, our national treasures.
Honor the veterans
What: Veterans Day 2006
Who: San Ramon Valley veterans’ organizations
When: 10:45 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 11
Where: Community Presbyterian Church, 222 W. El Pintado Road, Danville
Cost: Free
Artifacts on viewWhat: Museum of Military MemorabiliaWho: Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 75
When: 1-4 p.m., Friday, Nov. 10; 10:45 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11; 10:45 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 12
Where: Veterans Hall, 400 Hartz Ave., Danville
Cost: Free
