Telling WWII veteran stories captures Grinnell man’s heart

     Brandon Johnston of Grinnell poses for a photo with Richard White, a WWII Veteran, who was in a care center in Mexico, Mo., and served on the USS Pennsylvania BB-38 during Pearl Harbor. The ship was in dry dock during the Japanese raid on U.S. forces on Dec. 7, 1941. White was one of three Pearl Harbor survivors from the Japanese attack that Johnston interviewed.

By J.O. Parker
 
        Brandon Hanssen of Grinnell comes from a family of military personnel.
      His grandfather, Kenneth Hanssen of Grinnell, served in the U.S. Army as an MP during the      Korean War and his mom’s dad, Ed Johnston, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1954-57.
       “I grew up around books of theirs and was introduced to all of the classic military movies,” recalled Hanssen. “I guess they sort of fanned the flames of my interest in the subject of the military.”
         But it wasn’t until 2016 that Hanssen’s interest in the military grew into a historical project.
        In January of 2016, Hanssen and his wife at the time became the parents of triplets, Nora, Hazel and Charlotte.
        “After a stay in the NICU helped the girls to get strong enough that they could come home, we were in for quite a year,” recalled Hanssen. “Not very much sleep was had and luckily family and friends helped us along the way.”
        Hanssen was talking with one of the ladies who helped care for the triplets about a project interviewing WWII Veterans. She suggested that he talk with her dad, Ernie Jones, a Grinnell native who lived in Newton at that point. Ernie was a sailor on the USS Pennsylvania BB-38.
       “The USS Pennsylvania BB-38 would become somewhat of a special ship to me in the future,” noted Hanssen. “At that time, it was simply an opportunity to talk to a real-life WWII veteran who had been aboard a famous battleship stationed at Pearl Harbor.”
       Unlike the USS Arizona, which would suffer a catastrophic explosion during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hanssen said the USS Pennsylvania would survive the attack mostly with light damage due to it being in dry dock the morning of the attack.
        Hanssen said the USS Pennsylvania would go on to serve throughout the Pacific and quite possibly fired more rounds than any other ship in the war.
         “I went to visit Ernie and we became fast friends,” Hanssen said. “He shared his stories with me. I visited him several times over those couple years. I built him a model of his ship and brought it to him. He was so pleased with it, he stared at it with a magnifying glass and it even sparked some new stories I hadn’t heard.
         “Before Ernie passed, he wanted me to have the ship to keep it safe and to keep his ships’ memory alive,” said Hanssen. “I have it today and it’s one of my favorite possessions.”
           Hanssen said after talking with Ernie, he  happened across an article online about another USS Pennsylvania veteran who was living in a Veterans home in Mexico, Mo.
          “I thought, what the heck? I should go talk to him also,” he said. “My grandma Beth always the traveler, said she would ride along, so off we went. I had a great interview with him; his name was Richard White.”
          After this happened, Hanssen said his grandpa Ed suggested that he should keep trying to find more WWII veterans to interview.
         “That generation was almost gone he said, and if you don’t hear it from the horse’s mouth, you never will again,” Hanssen said his grandfather Ed told him.
         After losing his Grandpa Ed to COVID, Hanssen decided that he would keep doing the WWII Veteran interviews, “For my own interest, and because he said I should,” said Hanssen.
        Since interviewing Ernie and Richard White, Hanssen, who did not serve in the military, has gone on to interview around 85 WWII Veterans over the years.
        “I saw this as a way to give back to those who did serve in that war, the Greatest Generation as they are known,” he said.
       He then went on to mention his first cousin and classmate at Grinnell, Ryan Hanssen, who served in the military.
        Hanssen said he is still doing interviews. Most of them are done over the phone along with audio recordings of their talks.
       “They are getting much harder to do now,” said Hanssen. “Sadly that generation is in its twilight. It is thought that a little more than 16 million Americans served in WWII in some capacity, with latest estimates of around 30,000 left alive and a mere 12 Pearl Harbor survivors left living as of this moment. I would love to offer to anyone who has a family member or has a connection to a WWII veteran, I would love the opportunity to talk to them.”
       Hanssen said at some point the gathering of interviews will be done, due to everything mentioned above.
        For the interviews themselves, Hanssen said he tries to follow the same sort of questions such as where the veteran is from and when were they were born.
      “I ask them about their early life, what their parents did for a living, how the Great Depression would affect their family, where they were when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor, and lastly how they got into the service, why they ended up in the branch they did, and their experiences during the war,” said Hanssen.
         Hanssen admits he is not a professional interviewer and listening to himself on some of the interviews can be maddening. 
       “I wish I would have let them talk more, or perhaps prompted with one more question,” recalled Hanssen. “I did get better as time went on. Some interviews were better than others depending on the veteran and their story.”
        Hanssen said he’s been so fortunate to have had the honor to talk to several Pearl Harbor veterans, a couple who were on the USS Arizona, two that were on the Pennsylvania, and another on the USS California.
        “There are some interviews that stand out, due to the raw emotion captured, a close call, a friend lost, or maybe just getting back home to their loved ones,” said Hanssen. “I have heard stories of ships sinking, being lost at sea, enduring shark attacks and punishment from the elements to the liberation of concentration camps.”
        “I have thought about all the different states that these men were from, hailing from large cities to small farms,” recalled Hanssen. “I think I have been able to capture such a swath of the fabric of our country and what life was like for them and how they grew up.
        “Many saw hard things during combat but also had a closeness with those they served with only they could know,” added Hanssen. “They were all just ‘doing their job.’ 
        “They shared funny stories too and ones about coming home to a wife, seeing a child they hadn’t been able to yet meet, or perhaps marrying a sweetheart and starting a family. They spoke about some of those that didn’t make it home too,” said Hanssen.
         Hanssen said there are only a handful of the more than 80 WWII veterans left that he was fortunate enough to talk with, “a testament to the marching of time.”
        “When I started interviewing them, they would have to have been around 93 to 94 years of age to have seen action during the war, now that number is around 100,” he said.
        “The oldest one I spoke with was 106 from Lowell, Mass.,” added Hanssen. “He served with General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge,” Hanssen said. “I have shared letters and pictures with many of those I interviewed and stayed in contact throughout the years. Some became good buddies who loved to hear about our Iowa crops, my daughters and how they were growing up. Often they would leave me with an anecdote or sage life advice.”
       Another interviewee was Albert Gill, a navigator on a B-24 bomber that flew nearly 40 missions in the Pacific.
         “He lived in Tennessee and had a passion for building model planes,” recalled Hanssen. “He had built more than 100 of them and was still building them past his 100th birthday. I built him a model of the carrier USS Hornet and sent down to him, in return he sent me one of his planes that I cherish. He recently passed away.”
         Hanssen said he had originally planned to try and write a book, but having young children and working two jobs, life is busy, and he’s not sure when he’ll get to that.
         “I have considered doing podcast episodes in the future,” he said. “I need to get some audio editing software and a better computer microphone. When I save up the extra money, I will look to invest in both.”
          Hanssen said he has a title for his work, but doesn’t want to let It out of the bag just yet. 
        “Perhaps someday I will try and switch gears to capture Vietnam and Korean stories,” he said of the future. “I did take the time to chat with two Iowa Korean War veterans who were both Marines at the famous Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. One of them from our town of Grinnell, Lloyd Sieck.”
        Hanssen said all who serve deserve to be honored, and one of the things he appreciates about the Greatest Generation is their self-sacrifice and love of our country.
         “I often ask them if they would do it again, and it’s with a resounding “yes,” Hanssen said. “I would hear about how hard depression was on many of their families, and how they grew up with nothing, working long hours for little pay as youngsters to just help bring food into the home. It made them ready for that war though.” 
        “Many lied about their age, left high school early and were just kids when they went off to the war,” said Hanssen. “Women took up jobs that had been formally occupied by men.”
         “I was able to talk with a Rosie the Riveter, a female officer in the WAVES (women accepted for volunteer emergency service) and a nurse who cared for injured service members when they came back state side,” added Hanssen. “Everyone contributed, from the farms to manufacturers switching to war material, people lived with rationing and donated items to the war effort. I wonder to myself if today we could do this again as Americans, when we are so divided. We live in a far more selfish and me first world, filled with instant gratification. When I am having a bad day, I only need to think of a few of their stories to realize I don’t have it that bad, and we live in this country because of their sacrifices.”
         Lastly, Hanssen said he has had the opportunity to speak with Adred Lenoir of Clanton, Ala., the last living member of his ship, the famous USS Samuel B. Roberts.
         “Adred would survive a fierce battle in the South Pacific against a much larger Japanese fleet at the Battle off Samar in 1944,” recalled Hanssen. “I was lucky enough to interview five veterans of this battle all of whom lost the various ships they were serving on plunging them into the waters of the Pacific.
         Hanssen said Adred would endure more than 50 hours in the shark infested waters, seeing terrible things.
        “I remember him telling me about what his farm was like in Alabama and there were many peach trees there. He described something that sounded just like a farm here in Iowa, pretty countryside and quite living,” noted Hanssen. “He didn’t think he was going to make it back home, but when he was finally rescued he was stark naked, and lost all of his personal possessions. He and the other survivors were sent back to California and given survivors leave. Due to missing paper work and loss of all his property, Adred was temporarily stuck there, trying to get home. He asked the Red Cross for help and they denied him. Later an officer heard of his plight and knew what he had gone through and ensured him he would get home.”
        Hanssen said Adred was boarding a train to head east when a Red Cross volunteer asked him for a donation, which he declined. He has declined every year since after his earlier treatment.
         “He had a laugh from that,” Hanssen said. “Going from near certain death, to stateside and back home in a short amount of time was an incredible feeling.”
          Hanssen said he asked Adred what it was like when he made it back to his property and to his home and his mother and father, he choked up saying, “It was beautiful.’’ 
         “I never forgot the way he said it, and it made me appreciate what we have here,” noted Hanssen. “I hope to tell their stories so that future generations can hear them, and remember them, perhaps giving more appreciation for those that are serving today, and all that we have to be thankful for.” 

      Left: Dale Watts, the long-time owner of the bowling alley in Montezuma, who hailed from New Sharon during WWII was interviewed by Hanssen as part of his Greatest Generation project. Watts served with the mortar section in the Philippians and Okinawa. Middle: Brandon Johnston’s grandfather, Kenneth Hanssen, on his dad’s side, served in the U.S Arm as an MP during the Korean War. Right: Grandpa Ed Johnston encouraged his grandson, Brandon Johnston, to continue with his WWII recording project. Johnston served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1954-57.

     Left: Harold Wolman was among the 85 WWII Veterans who Brandon Johnston interview as part of his veteran project. Wolman served in the U.S. Army in the European theatre. Middle: One of the many WWII Veterans Brandon Hanssen interviewed was L. V. Haug, who received a bronze star from General George Patton. Right: Carl Cooper, a U.S. Marine, served in the Pacific during the war and was one of the many WWII Veterans interviewed by Branson Hanssen.