BY Dunn County News

When the war broke out, Monsignor (Charles) Blecha had only recently been ordained. He and another priest decided they would enlist and went to talk to the bishop about their decision.

When they arrived, they found out he was already upset about all the priests who were enlisting and leaving. This was clearly not a good time to talk to him. He made a rule that you had to be ordained for at least five years before you could become a chaplain in the service, and that ended that decision.

Father Blecha’s brother, George, was in the Army for four or five years during the war, and was in the Machine Records Unit. He was behind the front lines in many different European countries.

Ken goes to sea

After six weeks training at Great Lakes, Ill., Uncle Lloyd’s boyhood pal Ken Olson was attached to the USS Maryland out of Seattle. He was assigned to the five-inch forward guns topside and was very happy he wasn’t manning guns from down in the hull.

In December of 1940, Ken was transferred to the Far East and traveled through Hawaii and Guam before arriving at the Cavite Navy Yard in Manila Bay, where he was assigned to the USS Bittern, a minesweeper. He would learn all about mines, which would help save his life in the not-too-distant future. Cavite was a major ship repair facility and a submarine support facility.

Ken received letters from home, telling him about the family and how the crops were doing and such. In the last letter he would receive, his mother reminded him that when his tour was over to “get himself home.”

Late in 1941, his ship was scheduled to go through an overhaul, part of which was to have the ships guns removed and replaced. Soon after on Dec. 8, they first heard the country was at war, and everyone began around-the-clock shifts to finish the overhaul. At this time, two submarines — the Sealion and the Seadragon — were tied up next to the Bittern, also there for regular overhauls.

Danger from the air

Three days after Pearl Harbor, a little past noon on Dec. 10, Ken looked up from the deck of his ship to see planes coming over the horizon. Earlier that morning, there appeared to be no panic at the Navy base. Civilian workers arrived as usual, and the only sign of war was a group of Filipino workers digging an air raid trench.

This half completed trench was the only air raid shelter in the navy yard. Anti-aircraft guns were mounted around the naval yard and were ready for use.

A little past noon, the droning of aircraft engines high in the sky was followed by an air raid siren. For some reason, they were assumed to be Army Air Corps planes, but when the bombs starting falling, Marines, sailors and civilians all dove for cover.

The first bombs hit only water, but soon they were finding their marks, destroying ships and buildings. The Japanese planes were flying at 21,000 to 25,000 feet and the anti-aircraft guns had a range of only 15,000 feet, but they fired anyway and did no good on that day.

The planes did considerably damage, and things would continue to go poorly for the Americans in that first year of war in the Pacific. We weren’t prepared for the ways of the Japanese, a country where the military had become more important than the family.

Flying debris

One of these first bombs dropped hit the Sealion, which blew into the Bittner. The submarine would receive two direct hits and be destroyed beyond repair.

The USS Bittner suffered extensive damage from flying debris from the Sealion and from the fires that followed. Ken received shrapnel in his ankle area.

His ship was destroyed. He was lucky as many were killed that day. Too badly damaged to be repaired, the order was given to scuttle the Bittner there in Manila Bay.

They cooked all the beans there were in the mess hall, had one last big meal — and sank the ship. Ken was transferred to the Taniger, a minesweeper, and now was assigned to the three-inch guns.

It wasn’t until he got to this ship before he could have the shrapnel removed from his ankle area and his wounds bandaged.

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