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S/Sgt
Marvin J. Rodich
Guam 1945 |
My
father was a logger in Ely MN, a small town near
the Canadian border where I became proficient as
a teamster (horses), caterpillar tractor operator,
truck and semi-truck driver. We lived across the
road from the Ely Airport. It drew me to spend my
extra time there. I got my first airplane ride by
cleaning the oil from the windshield of a barnstormer
whose owner was selling airplane rides,. It was
then that I decided that logging was not the life
I wanted. A friend, Bernie Slogar from Ely, bought
an Aeronca Chief airplane. Little did I know that
I would marry his sister in the future. The pilot,
who taught Bernie to fly, got me a job as an apprentice
airplane mechanic at Stebbins Aviation in Minneapolis
at the age of 19. I became a licensed airframe and
aircraft engine mechanic. As WWII was approaching,
I went to work for Mid-Continent Airlines at the
Minneapolis Airport. At that time, besides working
on airplane maintenance, we did modifications on
Army Air Force P-51 Mustangs, B-17’s, and
installed extra fuel tanks on the B-25’s that
Doolittle used for his raid on Tokyo. No cameras
were allowed but I have pictures that were taken
through the fence in Minneapolis. Bill Ellis found
them a few years ago while researching the history
of Mid-Continent Airlines. This work kept me out
of the Draft for a while, but eventually, I was
invited to join the Army. In March of 1943 at the
age of 22, I was made an Acting Corporal to take
a group by train to Miami Beach for my basic training.
From
there I went to the Baltimore MD Martin B-26 Plant
for maintenance training. It was there that I suggested
a change from hydraulic to a mechanical emergency
landing gear extender on the B-26 using the bomb
bay hoist. They said it would never work. Shortly
after it became standard equipment on later models
and throughout the airline industry. I guess I should
have patented it!
Once
flying as Flight Engineer Crew Chief on Martin B-26’s
towing targets over the Gulf of Mexico from Lake
Charles for aerial and ground gunnery training the
pilot got lost. Although I did not get my private
pilot license till after the war on the GI Bill,
I was proud to be able to navigate us back home
without incident. The B-26’s were nicknamed
The Prostitute (no visible means of support) or
The Widowmaker but once the pilots learned not to
be afraid of it’s characteristics it turned
out to have the best loss rate in Europe.
I
was invited to go to Guam and joined the 39th Bomb
Group, 62nd Squadron, ground crew P-59 as a Staff
Sergeant. We did our best to keep the bombers flying.
When the planes were out on a bombing mission, I
worked at maintaining the equipment at the NCO Club.
We hauled supplies from the ship dock to the NCO
and Officer’s Clubs. The Officers’ Club
“misplaced supplies” gave us access
to milk, food and beer which we stored behind a
secret wall in back of the storehouse for the Clubs.
This is where I developed a taste for milk, I never
liked it before. It is like a watermelon, it always
is sweeter when picked from someone else’s
garden at midnight. This food was used when we smelled
that foul goat meat wafting from the Mess Hall.
This “Innersanctum”, as we called it,
reminds me of the secret room back of the cow barn
at home where my dad stored his “white lightening
booze” back in the prohibition days. Neither
of us got caught (in the rooms anyway)!
I
also decorated letters and Christmas cards with
my cartoon characters and pencil sketches! We also
had a photography club where I became more skilled
at developing film and doing printing with supplies
acquired from aerial photography equipment. We had
to cut the large negatives down to a size that fit
our cameras.
I
was tired of walking around the island, so I built
a scooter with a small engine from a gas pump, Mustang
tail wheels, scrap iron and V-belts. I was part
of a very elite few who had their own personal transportation.
Later other guys started building them and that
of course led to racing which put so many in the
hospital the Brass ended up confiscating all of
them.
The
base on Guam was so large we had a Minneapolis-St
Paul Club of which I am must still be a member because
I still have the permanent membership card.
After
WWII ended, we dropped food to Prisoner-of-War Camps
in Japan. I did repair work on B-29’s, P-61
Blackwidow’s and other airplanes to send back
to the U.S. I myself ended up taking a long boat
ride home in February 1946.
I
continued working for Mid Continent, which merged
with Braniff Airlines. I would drive to Ely, my
hometown, with a couple fellows from there also,
to help pay for the gas. One of them asked if he
could bring a girl along. It was Emily Slogar who
I had gone to school with and I had had one date
with her in high school. I was afraid of girls in
those days. But now, I proposed to her before we
got 40 miles out of town, and the other two fellows
proposed too. After a couple more months of courting,
she said, “Ask me again.” It was good
that I then taught her to drive before we got married
because later on she could do all the shopping by
herself. I promised her a tarpaper shack on one
of the two-acre lots that four of us Airline mechanics
had bought on a dirt road in the farm country just
south of St. Paul. I had built logging camps before
but this was a little different. Emily and I designed
our dreamhouse; we did the carpentry, electrical,
plumbing and heating work ourselves. While I worked
for the Airlines, we traveled extensively, Alaska,
Hawaii, Spain, Germany, France, England, Italy and
Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia, both Emily and I had
relatives to visit. We have three boys and three
girls and five grandchildren, all of whom we are
very proud of. I retired from Braniff Airlines in
1980, after 39 years there.
During
WWII, Emily was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps.
I was a Staff Sergeant in the Army Air Corps. I
was a month and a half older than she, with seniority,
but at home she was a loveable little General and
took care of me. We are so fortunate to have had
such a wonderful life and after over 50 years, we
still live in that “shack” I promised
Emily when we got married.
P.S. I did put siding on it. It has been a wonderful
place to raise our children, especially with the
white-tailed deer, which we still have in the middle
of the City of Eagan. |