Brandon Twp.-It’s what Army Pvt. Arlyn Wise missed that makes his World War II story so unique.
A Herron, Mich. native, Wise worked on the family farm just west of Alpena.
‘At 18-years-old, I decided I’d quit high school and apply for a military deferment to help Dad on the farm,? said Wise.
Still in the winter of 1945, Wise was drafted in the Army while still a student at Alpena High School. He reported to basic training in Little Rock, Ark. He came back to Ft. Rotunda, Dearborn for eight weeks training.
Wise, along with 200 Army soldiers of the 915 Ordinance division all from Michigan, sailed from Newport News, R.I. in the spring of 1945 for Europe and Germany on the U.S.S. Typhoon, a 350-foot merchant marine ship. The Typhoon a 1911 ship, transported Jeeps, 6-by-6 amphibious trucks and tank retrieval equipment to the coast of France.
‘We were on our way to Germany, but they never let us off the ship,? said Wise.
‘As soon as we arrived off the coast of Europe, we just sat there out in the Atlantic. Then one day, a commander came onboard and told us the war was over. Men were yelling and we figured that it’s time to go home. And we thought it was over in Japan, too. I missed the war in Europe’one week earlier and I’d be on my way to Germany.?
However, the Army had other plans for Wise and the men of the U.S.S. Typhoon. Following the end of the war in Europe in the spring of 1945, the ship was redeployed to the South Pacific and the war with the Japanese.
‘We sailed through the Panama Canal in August 1945, and I’m proud to say I never got sea sick,? said Wise. ‘I remember coming up on the island of Iwo Jima’the battle had been over since the spring. We moved on to Okinawa’the Marines had that island taken over by the time we arrived.
‘It was August and the war ended in the Pacific. I missed those battles, too. We were only about 400 miles from mainland Japan.?
‘There were hundreds of ‘Jap? planes scattered all over the island,? he said. ‘Many were kamikaze planes on the ground. We called them, ‘the last flights out.? Much of the island looks like northern Michigan? it’s heavily wooded and mountainous. Many rice paddies, too. The American soldiers helped the civilian farmers sometimes. The farmers had little ponies to pull two-wheel carts.?
‘I’ll never understand how we took that island. The ‘Japs? were dug in very well,? he said. ‘Even in early September, a month or so after the war ended, there were still Japanese soldiers hiding out in the caves on the island’they did not know the war had ended.?
Wise said at night the tenacious Japanese soldiers would come out of the caves looking for food.
?’Jap? snipers were everywhere,? he said. ‘We would spray the trees at night with a .30 caliber machine gun and they would fall out. My job there was to take care of some of the equipment. Much of the leftover war cleanup was loaded on ships and sunk off the coast of the island. ?
According to the U.S. Navy History Center in Washington, D.C., a typhoon whipped through Okinawa in October 1945 and did serious damage to U.S. ships along with offshore facilities on the island. This storm was blamed for sinking 12 U.S. ships or boats, grounded 222 ships or small craft. The storm killed 36 and injured another 100 U.S. Navy personnel.
Wise endured the typhoon by taking shelter inland off his ship.
‘We climbed in one of the Army Sherman tanks during the typhoon,? said Wise. ‘It was terrifying. That wind shook the tank, but it was the best place.?
Wise’s ship survived the typhoon and was abandoned. The U.S. Navy History Center in Washington, D.C. reported the ship was scuttled 1949 in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Wise sailed back to the United States in December 1945 and landed in Seattle. He returned to Herron.
‘I was lucky,? said Wise. ‘A lot of men had it worse than I did’I just missed the battles.?
Arlyn Wise worked as a truck driver for many years and retired in 1991. He was married to Lucille for 56 years. She died in 2006.
The couple had seven children.