Spud Walsh quit Fillmore High School at the end of his Junior Year, and stepped up to serve his Country on May 27, 1944, his 18th birthday. He earned the Bronze Star while serving on Iwo Jima. Spud is one of a recent 2016 estimated count of 697,806 WWII American Veterans still alive today.

Part 1 of the story here: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/front-page/wwii-veteran-william-thomas-%E...

PART 2 of the story:
WWII ended for Europe on May 8, 1945 when the Germans surrendered. For the United States the War came to an end on September 2, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered aboard the USS Missouri. Spud Walsh was discharged from the Navy on May 27, 1947 and he returned to Fillmore to work with his Father who owned Tom Walsh Auto Repair located at 224 Central Avenue and the building is still there today.

Spud said the first year after his discharge he worked for his Father and the Veterans Administration bought his tools and paid half of his salary and his Father paid the other half. He said they did a bit of everything; auto repair, repair of radiators and rebuild batteries. Spud eventually took over the business and renamed it Fillmore Auto Electric. After closing his business of over forty years in 1989 he went on to work with Dwayne Steel repairing orchard wind machines until the business closed. Spud then worked for J.E. Kirby at Barnett Trucking until September 1995 when he fell off of a trailer at age sixty-nine shattering his left heel in three places. After two years of rehabilitation he officially retired at age 71.

Spud was born right here in Fillmore, to parents Thomas and Ruth (Jorgensen) Walsh, in a house at 530 Stephens St. the N/E corner of Bard St. and Stephens St. In those days doctors came to the home to see their patients. Dr. Manning was the doctor that delivered Spud on May 27, 1926. Spud and his family lived at the Stephens St. address for two years before moving to 303 Third Street where Spud and his younger sister were raised. Spud’s younger sister, Marjorie, better known as Marge, (married to Frank Begga) lives in Rathdrum, Idaho. Spud lived at 303 Third St. until May 27, 1944 and the end of his junior year at Fillmore High School. Because he was 18 he knew he would soon be drafted so he voluntarily entered the United States Navy. Although he did not finish High School, while at Fillmore High School Spud “Lettered” in basketball, track, wrestling, tumbling, swimming and football.

Spud married a local girl Annette Garrison in May of 1950 and they had three children; Toni Techau, 65 (Richard) of Fillmore, Kathleen Carpenter, 63 (Gordon) of Sandy, Utah and Michael 62 (Jamie) of Las Vegas, NV. Spud’s wife Annette was killed in an automobile accident in September 1956 at Ventura and "A" Streets. Annette was westbound on Ventura Street and a fire truck responding to an emergency pulled out in front of her. Sometime after Annette’s passing Spud sold their home in Los Serenos and the three children moved in with their Maternal Grandmother Adolynn Garrison until Spud remarried. Spud remarried on May 6, 1961 and he and Joan "Pat" Marie have been married 55 years. Spud and Pat have ten grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren. Spud is a Master Mason Third Degree and his father was a Thirty-second degree.

Longevity runs strong in Spud’s genes and his Mother lived until she was 101 years, one month and one day old. Boise, Idaho Mayor Carolyn Terteling-Payne, declared the day Ruth Walsh turned 101 years old, May 16, 2003 as “Ruth Walsh Day”. Spud’s parents were married on December 30, 1923 and were married 65 years. Spud’s father, Thomas Walsh, passed away in 1989. Spud tells me his father was the Fire Chief for the Fillmore Volunteer Fire Department in the 1930’s and that his father was also a good friend of Police Chief Earl Hume. It was that relationship with Chief Hume that encouraged Spud’s later involvement in automobile racing.

Chief Hume, Spud tells me, really loved to go to the car races and was known to drive his patrol car, in uniform, to the races in Los Angeles. On one particular trip to Los Angeles with Spud and Spud’s father Thomas, Chief Hume was running late to the Midget Car Races so they drove with the lights and siren on from Fillmore to Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles in order to get there in time. Can you imagine that happening in today’s environment?
As a young man in 1957 and 1958 Spud raced a 1932 Ford Victoria 2 door sedan on an oval dirt track in Carpentaria, California. The track closed in 1959 with the building of the 101 Freeway. But, not before Spud was able to win one race at the left turn only banked dirt track. Spud still has that trophy proudly on display in his den. In the 1970’s Spud was the navigator for Don Barlow in a 1972 Ford Bronco at the grueling Baja 500 mile off-road race in Baja California. Spud also did some other racing at the Saugus Raceway.

I have known Spud since I moved to Fillmore in 1985, but to be honest I never knew his birth name! So I asked Spud how he acquired his unusual nickname? Spud first showed me a tattoo on his left bicep of a potato (potatoes were commonly called spuds) and then said, “When I was a Boy Scout and on a camping trip we had caked mud on our potatoes and put them in the camp fire.” Spud continued, “I was so hungry that I couldn't wait and pulled my potato out of the fire and ate it raw. From that day forward the Scouts called me Spud and the name stuck.” While in the Navy Spud tells me one of his best friends was called Beans. Whenever they were together their shipmates called them “Spud and Beans”!

It is men like Spud Walsh that helped make the United States strong and Americans respected around the world. Their willingness to serve our Country is legendary. Many young men were so willing to serve they even lied about their age to serve. "Calvin Leon Graham (April 3, 1930 – November 6, 1992) was the youngest U.S. serviceman to serve and fight during World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Navy from Houston, Texas on August 15, 1942, at the age of 12." But, there are many other documented enlistments of 15, 16 and 17 year old males enlisting to fight after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. They were of The Greatest Generation! All of them American Heroes!

Thank you William Thomas "Spud" Walsh for your service and your sacrifice to make this Country strong! You are truly an American Hero!

[I would also like to thank Bill Dewey for calling me about writing this article. I would also like to acknowledge that many of the facts listed in this article, in addition to Spud's memory, are attributed to Wikipedia and other WWII fact sites - Dick Diaz]

Photos taken during Spud's time aboard the USS Whitley and Iwo Jima can be viewed here:
Part 1: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/military/photos-taken-during-spud-walsh%E...
Part 2: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/military/photos-taken-during-spud-walsh%E...
Part 3: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/military/photos-taken-during-spud-walsh%E...
Part 4: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/military/photos-taken-during-spud-walsh%E...
Part 5: http://www.fillmoregazette.com/military/photos-taken-during-spud-walsh%E...

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On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, the Fillmore Police Department, Fillmore Fire Department, American Medical Response, Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Paula Hospital, and the Fillmore High School presented “Every Fifteen Minutes” outside of the Fillmore High School campus. The “Every Fifteen Minutes” presentation offers the real-life experience of a DUI-related, injury traffic collision without the real-life risks. This emotionally-charged presentation is an event designed to dramatically instill teenagers with the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol and texting while driving. This powerful presentation is intended to challenge students to think about drinking and/or texting while driving. The personal safety and the responsibility of making mature decisions when entering a vehicle with an intoxicated or in-attentive driver may have devastating consequences.

The focus of the assembly stresses that the decision to consume alcohol can affect many more people than just the one who drinks, as well as the dangers of texting while driving. This very emotional and heart-wrenching event illustrates to students the potentially dangerous consequences of their use of alcohol and texting while driving, regardless of how casual they believe their use is. This event included the participation of our police and fire departments, high school staff, local hospital, high school student actors and video production crew, community officials, the District Attorney's Office, and a wide cross-section of the community at-large. It is our goal to utilize the strength, talent and resources of business and industry to prevent drunk driving and texting while driving.

Prepared by: Danielle Ramirez, Student Worker

Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

They are known as "The Greatest Generation"! "The Greatest Generation" is a term made popular by journalist Tom Brokaw to describe the generation who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, as well as those whose productivity within the war's home front made a decisive material contribution to the war effort, for which the generation is also termed the G.I. Generation.

It should be no surprise to anyone that young men from small towns, like Fillmore, all across America entered into military service by the thousands after the Japanese pounded Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in an early morning attack that brought the United States into WWII. Since September 1, 1939, the official start of WWII, when Germany invaded Poland, Americans had been nervously watching the war from afar! WWII was the largest armed conflict in Human History! The War was fought over six continents and on every ocean. An estimated fifty million military and civilian deaths were suffered from 1939-1945!

It was my pleasure to sit down with one of those men, from The Greatest Generation, who quit Fillmore High School at the end of his Junior Year, and stepped up to serve his Country on May 27, 1944, his eighteenth birthday. William Thomas Walsh is more widely known as "Spud" Walsh will celebrate his 90th birthday on May 27, 2016. Spud is one of a recent 2016 estimated count of 697,806 WWII American Veterans still alive today. An astounding number when you know 850 WWII Veterans die every day.

Spud received his six week’s Navy Basic Training at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. After completion of his basic training in September 1944, Spud was assigned to the Amphibious Service across the San Diego Bay at Coronado Island. He was assigned to the Amphibious Cargo Assault Ship (AKA-91) USS Whitley which the Navy acquired just three months earlier after its commission on June 22, 1944. Spud and his 300 shipmates and 52 officers met the USS Whitley in Oakland, California and cruised the USS Whitley to its homeport in Sand Diego as part of its shakedown cruise before heading off to war. Half of the crew was responsible for the ship operations, and the other half were the boat crew for the 24 landing boats stored on the USS Whitley. Spud remained assigned to the USS Whitley the entire time he served with the Navy.

Soon after completing their shakedown cruise to San Diego, Spud and his shipmates aboard the USS Whitley were sailing towards the Hawaiian Islands. After some training at sea, the USS Whitley continued towards the Japanese Island of Iwo Jima. At dawn on February 19, 1945 the USS Whitley arrived offshore of Iwo Jima and was involved in the fourth assault wave upon Iwo Jima by offloading a squad of U.S. Marines from the Fifth Marine Division, ten service dogs and equipment onto the rocky island.

Little did the sailors aboard the USS Whitley know that the timing of their arrival at Iwo Jima would be five days before five United States Marines and one United States Navy Corpsman raised the American Flag victoriously on the top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. That moment would be forever recorded in military history by the iconic photograph taken by Associated Press Photographer Joe Rosenthal. Spud told me he, and his shipmates witnessed the raising of the American Flag from the deck of the USS Whitley.

As a cargo ship the USS Whitley had much needed supplies and equipment that it needed to offload on the heavily Japanese fortified island. The ship carried eight Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) equipped with 50-caliber machine guns and 16 Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP), equipped with 30-caliber machine guns. The LCM and LCVP boats were used to deliver cargo and personnel from ship to shore. The LCVP boats were made of wood and the LCM steel. The USS Whitley itself, an Andromeda-Class Attack Cargo ship had 1, 5”/38 ca. gun mount and 4, twin 40 mm anti-aircraft gun mounts and 14, 20 mm machine guns. Not a particularly large ship, the USS Whitley measured 459’2” from front to rear and had a 63’ beam.

Seaman First Class Walsh was assigned as a crewman to one of the LCM Boats and went ashore on Iwo Jima twice. Each time he went ashore it was to recruit Marines to help retrieve needed equipment stuck in the black volcanic sand beach. The USS Whitley remained offshore for eight days and her only brush with combat came on the night of February 23rd and 24th when her anti-aircraft battery briefly and inconclusively engaged two Japanese aircraft. After Iwo Jima Spud remained a crewman, but held other collateral jobs aboard the USS Whitley as the ships projectionist for the many movies shown in the mess hall aboard ship and used to entertain the sailors while at sea. Spud said he also was assigned as the ships Postmaster. It was the Postmaster job Spud said he enjoyed the most. Spud told me he did earn a Bronze Star while at Iwo Jima and the USS Whitley earned a Battle Star. Spud also mentioned that the 2006 Clint Eastwood movie "Letters Home from Iwo Jima" was the best representation of what it was like serving at Iwo Jima and he highly recommended me, and others seeing the movie.

After leaving Iwo Jima on February 27, 1945 the USS Whitley joined a convoy bound via the New Hebrides for Guadalcanal. The ship stopped at Espiritu Santo on March 15 and embarked members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force for transportation to Guadalcanal. At the latter island, she exchanged the New Zealanders for a complement of Hawaii-bound Marines.

The USS Whitley arrived back at Oahu on April 16, 1945. She conducted voyage repairs at Pearl Harbor and then underwent refresher training near Maui until May 11 when she left Hawaii with a convoy bound for San Francisco, where she arrived on May 18. Two days later, she sailed for Aberdeen, Washington, where she loaded cargo bound for Hawaii. The USS Whitley arrived at Oahu on June 12 and, after a 10-day stopover, got underway for the ammunition depot at Bangor, Washington. There, in mid-July, the attack cargo ship took on another cargo for Hawaii, returned to Pearl Harbor later in the month, and remained there through the end of hostilities on August 15, 1945. The USS Whitley was decommissioned in Charleston, SC on August 16, 1955 and was loaned to Italy in February of 1962 and renamed Mount Etna. The Mount Etna (USS Whitley) eventually was sold to Italy on May 1, 1973 for use in the Italian Navy. Unfortunately the Mount Etna (USS Whitley) was scraped in July 1979 after serving proudly both the United States Navy and Italian Navy for over thirty-five years. Over the recliner where Spud sits in his den is a black and white photograph of the USS Whitley.

Spud has an incredible memory and ability to remember dates of activities he was involved in while serving. Because I was writing so fast and furiously, and the fact that both Spud and I are hard of hearing I was fortunate enough to fact check most of what Spud had told me by referring to sources on the Internet.

[Part 2 continued in next week’s Fillmore Gazette.]

Photos and Video by Bob Crum