It was my pleasure to join Major General Richard Paul USAF, in a recent interview of two WWII veterans, 96 and 100+ in ages. We had an enjoyable visit with each gentleman, and the following is the presentation of their respective stories, given at the Veterans Day Memorial, Bellevue, Washington, USA, November 11, 2023, during which time both were present as honored guests.

 

ORMAND SHERWOOD’S STORY

 

ORM knew he would soon be drafted. To avoid this, he decided to take control of his life and join the Navy. He liked boats. So, in August, 1945, he went to the recruitment center. They told him they were doing Army that day, stamped his application, and that night he was on a train headed for Camp Picket, VA, and then Camp Kilmer. It was later that year, that Orm saw his first ship, joined 1440 men on board the SS Blue Ridge Victory and was shipped to the European theater. When asked how many were affected by seasickness on the journey, he replied, 1439.

 

Upon landing in Le Harve, France, his first occupied country experience was that of seeing two little kids with long G.I. spoons, eating out of garbage cans. Soon Orm was transported by rail, in a boxcar built to contain forty men or eight horses, to Vienna, Austria. Upon arrival, Orm eventually found what was to be his nine-to-five office and two ladies, Trudy and Hilda, who were to be his assistants, was told to find a billet, and report tomorrow, still with no clue as to what his assignment might be. The next day, he was told he’d been selected to serve in Headquarters Company, US Forces, where his responsibilities would include the repatriation, organization, and storage of abandoned US vehicles in the eastern Austrian countryside.

 

Perhaps one of his most memorable tasks was a special mission assigned by General Mark W. Clark. It would be a high priority flight to Paris, where he was to obtain two canisters of neon gas, available only in Paris, and needed to create an American flag for headquarters in Vienna, thus responding to the neon red star displayed on the Russian headquarters at the beginning of the Cold War. In those days, Vienna was a four-power city with Russia, US, Britain, and France in control. Image was deemed extremely important.

 

A trip to Paris, is a great adventure for anyone, and unknown to Orm before his arrival, the city was celebrating its first Bastille Day following the conclusion of the war. There was singing and dancing and drinking from barrels of wine located along the Champs Élysées, an eye-popping experience indeed for an 18-year-old. He returned to Vienna by rail, since flying with canisters was prohibited. As it turned out, the mix of the stars and stripes in the American flag was  unsuccessful, and the neon flag never flew, but it was not a total loss. Orm had been to Paris!

 

While in Paris, Orm was asked, “Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do?” He said he would like to go to the Follies Bergere. He was issued a pass, and when he showed it upon arrival, he was surprised to be escorted past the lieutenants and captains, and majors, to the front row where there were occasional sitting chairs with smoking stands, and he sat among the top brass. His priority assignment by General Clark had put him in good standing.

 

Orm was honorably discharged on March 1, 1947. His medals and awards include the WWII Victory Medal, European Theatre Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

 

After returning to the US, he met Sue in Fort Collins Colorado while working in real estate development. They have been married 42 years. When asked what he wanted after serving in the Army, he said a boat, a home, and a job. Orm pursued a successful career in commercial real estate, settling on Mercer Island in 1980, where they still reside and have been active in church and community life ever since.

 

Years later, Orm and Sue returned to Vienna to see if he could locate the wartime office where he had served. He found the building by giving the taxi driver an approximate location and vague description of the building as best he could remember. But when he attempted to go inside to locate his old office, an armed sentry told him he was not allowed into the building because of security restrictions. After trying a couple of different approaches, Orm told the sentry that, while stationed in the building, he was personally assigned a special wartime task by John Eisenhower, who at the time was an active-duty U.S. Army officer high up in Orm’s chain of command. That did the trick. The sentry immediately allowed Orm unrestricted access to anywhere in the building and Orm eventually found his old office.

 

 

RICHARD A. NELMS’ STORY

 

DICK was born in February, 1923, in Cleveland Ohio and ultimately grew up in Niagara Falls, New York. He evidenced athletic prowess and leadership abilities at a young age, becoming an avid golfer at 14, competing in track and field, and was HS senior class president before graduating in 1941. Then wartime changed any plans he had.

 

Dick knew he would be drafted and wanted to join the Air Force, but he was only 18, and his mother wouldn’t sign for him. He tried to convince her he would be safer in an airplane than anywhere else, but he had to wait several months before she relented.

 

He enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1942 and was accepted to aviation cadet and pilot training for active duty in March, 1943. He went from being a kid working in an A&P grocery store to his first flight in an open cockpit plane with a WWI pilot. He had never been in an airplane before.

 

After earning his wings in December of that same year, he was assigned to a B-17, in the 447th Bomb Group 8th Air Force, based in Rattlesdon, Suffolk County, England. Over the tenure of his service, he flew 35 missions into Germany, France and other Nazi occupied territories with a crew of 10, two pilots, a navigator, and gunners. They flew mostly daytime, high altitude flights.

 

The pilot couldn’t see the ground over the wings, and it was 40 to 50° below Zero inside the plane. Gunners wore electric heated suits and sheepskin clothes. The men never got hungry or had to go to the bathroom. Patriotism was strong. Only three times out of 35 missions were there escorts. Friendships were close among the various crews. And then they were gone. There was always one or two new shell holes from each mission. Once coming home from Berlin, where there were 2000 anti-aircraft guns pointed to the skies, they began counting shell holes in their plane. They stopped at 300.

 

“There were days I wondered if I was going to go home,” said Dick. “After combat, about 12 hours total out and back, we returned to our base, changed out of our clothes, took showers, and put on our class army uniforms for dinner, like officers and gentlemen. It helped us refocus before the next mission.”

 

Dick struck up a friendship with a chaplain that he liked, kept a journal for a while, then things became routine, and he stopped. He also helped plan and write the specifications for food and supply drops to the Marquis Freedom Fighters and others as well. Overall, Dick never lost sight of the fact that he was but one of thousands of men and women dedicated to stopping Hitler’s war machine.

 

Dick received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for his participation in the Battle of Normandy, and the liberation of France and of Europe; the Distinguished Flying Cross medal for extraordinary achievement and superior airmanship while serving as pilot on high altitude, heavy, bombardment missions over Germany and Nazi occupied continental Europe; an Air Medal with four Oak leaf clusters; the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation for accuracy in bombing; the European theater ribbon with four battle campaign stars; and a WWII Victory Medal.

 

Upon completing his tour, Nelms volunteered to remain with the 447th as squadron duty officer. In December, 1944, he returned to the US. Captain Nelms was honorably discharged in December, 1945.

 

Following WWII, he returned to civilian life, with the idea of becoming an architect. Instead he became an established advertising and corporate graphic designer in Seattle. Dick married Laurel, an ex-Marine, and together they made their home on Mercer Island with their son Garet. Laurel died in 2014. Today, Dick volunteers at the Seattle Flight Museum, declaring, there is no greater career than one that helps protect Americans. When Dick was asked what he hoped for in America, he replied, “That everyone has a fair chance, and that our leaders are more concerned about the nation than about their parties”

 

Gentlemen, all of America thank you for your service.

 

And a special thank you to all the men and women reading this who have served our great nation in active military service or as first-responders. You are our heroes.

 

May God bless you, and may Jesus keep us all close.