World War II was an event that affected every aspect of American life, especially the lives of those who directly participated in the war. Many people, like my grandpa Joe, an immigrant from Austria, enlisted in the armed forces to aid in the country’s battle. Their stories reflect the history of our country, but also represent something more: the patriotism of the American people. Hearing my grandfather’s stories of the war has allowed me to view not only him, but also all veterans and soldiers, with a greater amount of respect because their lives illustrate what it means to be an American.

In 1923 when my grandpa, Joseph Kollar, came to the United States from Jabing, Austria, there was an influx of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. Over one million immigrants came to the United States between 1919 and 1921 (Newman and Schmalbach 480). In the 1920s, Austria, like many other European countries, was recovering from World War I. Suffering from great economic depression, high inflation plagued the Austrian people. To them, the United States represented a country with "streets paved with gold" (Kollar Jr.). The United States held this position because of the rapid growth of manufacturing and shipping taking place within the country. Many people immigrated to the United States to escape the difficult situations in Europe and to start new lives in America.

Although he was only a year old when he was brought to the United States, my grandfather and his family came for many of the same reasons that other immigrants did. For my grandpa’s people, there was little opportunity. His parents were poor and they dreamed of coming to America with the hope of finding new opportunities and being able to make a home here. They did just this, settling in a tenement in the Bowery in lower Manhattan.

As a child whose father died when he was very young, my grandfather had to grow up fast. He never liked school, and was constantly reprimanded for playing hooky. He often went out to collect scrap metal and sell it. In this way, he earned a substantial amount of the family’s living. Despite his dislike of school, grandpa enjoyed the industrial arts and found jobs making metal pieces and parts for small manufacturing companies. In these jobs, he gained some knowledge about the inner workings of engines. His teenage years were spent working hard in order to help support his family, but times soon changed when war broke out. When the United States was attacked, "everybody in America joined the army, the navy, or the marines. The men knew that they had to go to war" (Kollar). In the fall of 1942, a frequent visitor of the boats and ships that docked in the boat yards near his home in lower Mahattan, my grandfather joined the Navy at the age of twenty.

As was common with many service men, my grandfather’s background had a profound impact on his service career. According to my grandfather, being sent to fight in the Pacific made life a bit easier for him. "In this way, I did not have to fight in my homeland" (Kollar). He was assigned to PT boat 359 where his knowledge of machinery and engines led him into training for the position of the boat’s engine man. As the engine man, his job was to run the boat and keep the engines working and running smoothly.

PT boats played a crucial role in the war. Their name, short for patrol torpedo boat, describes the boats’ purpose. The boats patrolled the waters of the Pacific in search of enemy aircraft and vessels. Two models existed, the Higgins seventy-eight foot PT, and the ELCO eighty foot PT boat. PT – 359 was an eighty foot ELCO model commissioned in July,1943. It was one of twelve boats in squadron twenty-seven (Laroe n.p.). As illustrated by the dimensions, limited space existed aboard ship. The appeal of the boats, however, was the fact that they possessed the potential for great speed and maneuverability. These two qualities were also among the leading assets for the protection of the boat. Aside from utilizing the boat’s speed and maneuvering capability in an attack situation, a smokescreen could be used to deter other ships, and depth charges could be used to "harass" or damage submarines. Besides this, the boat made use of weaponry. For its size, the PT carried more armament than any other naval vessel. The boats, armed with torpedoes, antitank guns, and a fairly reliable radar system, were prepared to fight attacks by both air and sea. Due to their speed, the PT boats often patrolled enemy territory at night and then returned by morning (Buckley 29-38).

In addition to this assistance in patrolling, the quick and easy maneuverability of the PT boat once saved my grandpa’s life. During one battle in Manila Bay, the boat’s engine conked out. The throttle was stuck in one position and would not move, making the boat a sitting duck for the enemy planes flying overhead. "Damn it Kollar, get this boat moving!" commanded the skipper. As a last resort, my grandfather grabbed hold of a giant wrench and slammed it into the throttle. The boat quickly lunged forward, thus enabling it to avoid being hit by a bomb that was dropped in the exact spot where the boat had been. Due to its abilities, the PT boat could "wait until a diving plane reached its release point, and then, by putting the wheel hard over…avoid the bomb" (Buckley 5). Although the action was not planned strategy, the incident with my grandfather demonstrated that the PT boats could outmaneuver aircraft.

The PT boats’ great speed and maneuverability also proved invaluable, because the fight in the Pacific was extremely difficult. Japanese expansion in the 1930s and 40s caused great wariness in the United States. Due to the U.S. isolationist policy, no forces moved in to stop the Japanese until the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States started an island hopping campaign in attempt to force the Japanese back and get them off some of the islands (Garraty 782-83). Destroying the Japanese navy also constituted part of the plan. The United States Navy had few back-up ships, and the Japanese knew that if they captured or sunk enough U.S. vessels, they could cripple the U.S. while continuing to take over islands. Here, the PT boats were valuable. As John F Kennedy once wrote, the "PT boats were an embodiment of John Paul Jones’words, ‘I wish to have no connection with any ship what does not sail fast for I intend to go in harms way’" (Buckley forward).

Being in harms way caused my grandfather to look out for his men and take care of them on several occasions. In one incident when the PT boat was on a transport carrier during a typhoon, my grandfather spent the night on the deck of the PT boat, ready to cut it loose for it to serve as a lifeboat, should the large transport ship go down. On another occasion, the boat was supposed to leave dry dock after constantly going on runs for days, despite the fact that the men were exhausted and unable to handle another trip so soon. The crew was already past the limit of the amount of time that they were supposed to be out at sea. When one of the other commanders came aboard ship to announce the departure of the PT, my grandfather told him it was impossible to leave because the engine was not working properly. When my grandfather refused to start the ship despite the commander’s orders, he was brought up on charges of insubordination. Upon being brought to the base commander, my grandfather asked of him, "Didn’t you tell me that if the engine was unfit to use, the boat should not be brought out?" The base commander agreed and reprimanded the commander because it would have been impossible for the boat to leave without risking the lives of the men. What no one knew was that my grandfather had disabled the engine in order to allow his men to rest.

Just as my grandfather had to do whatever he could to get the men necessary rest, the men aboard ship had to do whatever they could to get whatever supplies they needed, and sometimes resorted to devious methods. The sailors were always picking up things in transport and would trade them for bottles of liquor, which they would then trade for food and other necessary items. The men also ended up using other means of obtaining items, however. It was not uncommon for a group of sailors to steal a couple of gallons of gasoline or ammunition from the supply house. The same situation existed aboard my grandfather’s boat. There was a man who was a scavenger who would somehow find and bring back whatever the boat needed. He once stole sheets of aluminum, which my grandfather then traded to another ship for goods and liquor for the sailors. As soon as the items were switched around, the boat would zip out of the harbor in the blink of an eye.

While all of the events in the Pacific occurred, Americans heard stories of what happened back at the home front. The sights and stories that the public was exposed to made up the government’s war propaganda. Newsreels, films, articles and posters were created to boost the public morale and keep spirits high during the war. They also served as reminders for people to make the sacrifice and conserve resources, buy war bonds, and donate time and resource to the war effort as well. (Newman and Schmalbach 531). My grandfather inadvertently took part in this effort. Before he leaving for the Pacific, he went to get his picture taken in a studio in New York City. When he returned home, my grandfather realized that the owner of the photo shop had his picture hanging in the front window. It had remained there for the duration of the time that my grandfather spent overseas. My grandfather became a symbol of patriotism for the many people who passed the shop and viewed his picture.

While grandpa took great pride in this, he was even more proud of taking General MacArthur back to Corregidor. This event is not mentioned in history books, because, my grandfather says, the wrong PT boat number was recorded. At the time that MacArthur traveled aboard his boat, the skipper was Lt. Raymond P. Shafer, who later became the Governor of Pennsylvania. The one source that contained any indication of the trip was a short biography of Shafer under the history of the governors of Pennsylvania. It says only that Shafer "brought General MacArthur back to Corregidor in fulfillment of his famous promise" (Pennsylvania Governors 1). The number of the PT boat was never mentioned.

Part of being an American is remembering what occurred in our past. My grandfather recalls very vividly what happened to him in his experiences overseas. He is upset that some of it is not recorded and that many people seem to fail to recognize the significance of what he and other men like him fought to achieve. If he remembers this with pride, the rest of the country should also recall with pride the stories of those who valiantly fought so that freedom and America as a land of opportunity could be preserved. That is part of being an American as well. Passing on the stories to family and friends keeps the past alive. It must not be forgotten, for all of what we have today exists because these men, like my grandfather, risked their lives and joined together not as Austrians, Italians, and other separate nationalities, but as Americans to fight for the common cause of freedom that we still believe in today.

My grandfather is a symbol of America. Having fought in the war enabled him to prove to himself that he was a full-blooded American. After the war, my grandfather realized the American dream of his family by getting a mortgage for a house, and then settling down and starting a family. He used his knowledge from the Navy to make a living as a plumber. Making the dream of his parents a reality also exemplifies the great American dream of living in a land of freedom and opportunity.

The stories of my grandfather and of the other sailors are ones that bring the past to life. They give a very complementary view of the service men and how they worked closely together to fight for a common cause. These men were not stiff black and white individuals like the ones you might see when flipping through the pages of a history text. They represent the living history of the United States, a history that enables us to enjoy the freedoms and rights that we have today. Without these men, our country would not exist as it does now. It is part of our duty as Americans to listen to their stories and hear their voices. We must make sure that the voice never dies, for that voice is the voice of freedom, the voice of America.

Pictures of my grandfather and his PT boat crew

Buckley, Jr., Captain Robert J. At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1962.

Garraty, John A. The American Nation: A History of the United States Since 1865. 8^th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1995.

Kollar, Joseph. Personal Interview. 15 October 1999.

Kollar, Joseph. Telephone Interview. 2 November 1999.

Kollar, Jr., Joseph. Telephone interview. 20 November 1999.

Laroe, Steve. US PT Boats List. 8 December 1998. 21 November 1999 <http://www.uss-salem.org/navhist/pt/>

Newman, John J. and John M. Schmalbach. United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. New York: Amsco School Publications,Inc., 1998.

"Pennsylvania Governors Past to Present: Governor Raymond Philip Shafer." 21 November, 1999<http://www.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/ Historical_Museum/DAM/governors/shafer.htm>
 

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