Former politicians also braved battles

Long before they were political figures, some Oklahomans, now in their 80s, fought in ferocious battles against the Japanese and Germans.

Among them are a former governor, former Oklahoma City mayor, former County Attorney for Oklahoma County, and two former legislators.

Hero at Iwo Jima

Henry Bellmon, 86, Oklahoma’s first Republican governor, was awarded the Silver Star for bravery during the battle of Iwo Jima.

Bellmon commanded a tank platoon and was in four Marine invasions in the Pacific. At Iwo Jima, his tank hit a mine and was unable to move forward. Ahead were Japanese snipers, and mortar and machine gun crews.

Bellmon and his crew stayed with the tank, firing their 75 millimeter cannon and two machine guns to support the Marine infantry units.

“We were close enough we could hit them easily. When we blasted them, then the coastal defense guns (Japanese) which were mounted on the cliffs to the right of where we were sitting saw we were still alive, so they would blast us. But luckily, they never or didn’t have any armor piercing (rounds). They’d make a lot of racket and a lot of smoke but they didn’t cause any real damage ...,” Bellmon said.

Another day, a Japanese anti-tank gun shot 17 holes in Bellmon’s tank, killing one crew member and blowing the leg off another. Bellmon and the crew scrambled out of the burning tank, only to realize two crew members were still inside. Bellmon ran back, got the crew member who was still alive and he and the others carried the wounded man across an open field about two football fields long.

“During that time, the cannon guy (Japanese soldier) kept shooting at us, but never did hit us. But every time one of those shells went by, it just sounded like a freight train,” Bellmon said.

His Silver Star award cited Bellmon for staying in his tank and directing fire and controlling movement of the rest of his tank platoon. The award also cited him for getting into another vehicle and continuing the attack after his tank was disabled by Japanese fire.

Kamikaze fighter

James Norick, 87, twice Oklahoma City’s mayor, shot down a Japanese Kamikaze plane during the invasion of the Philippines Islands.

Norick joined the Navy in 1942 and was assigned to a fleet tug, a vessel involved in rescue work, especially for landing craft during invasions.

“Sometimes the surf would push them (the landing craft) up where they couldn’t back off. We had to go to the beach and pull them off,” Norick said.

He was a storekeeper, in charge of the supplies and payroll.

“When we would go in on the invasion, I was on one of the 20 millimeter guns. I shot down a Japanese bomber in the Philippines when they were flying in at night at low level and trying to blow up ships.”

The plane he knocked down was a twin-engine bomber, he said.

“It would fly about 30 feet off the water, and I was fortunate enough to shoot him down before he could go into a ship,” Norick said.

When the atomic bomb was dropped and the war ended, Norick was on his ship about 100 miles off the coast of Japan, getting ready with other ships for the invasion of Japan.

Wounded in battle

James W. Bill Berry, 85, twice county attorney for Oklahoma County, was wounded while flying a B-24 Liberator at 200 feet on a mission to resupply American troops during Operation Market Garden, an ill-fated battle that became a book and movie called, “A Bridge Too Far.”

Berry enlisted in the Air Corps at 19. Berry flew B-24 missions over France, Holland and Germany when he was seriously wounded on his 27th mission.

The planes flew 200 feet above the ground, trying to drop supplies to the 101st Airborne Division which was trying to hold a bridge during the Allied attack called Operation Market Garden. All the planes were being hit by ground fire, he said.

The B-24 was not meant to fly that low, Berry said.

His helmet saved his life when a sniper shot him from the ground, he said. Berry still has the helmet, which has bullet holes in it. Right before he was hit, he nearly pulled off his helmet because it kept falling over his eyes.

“I consider my combat duty with the Air Force of the United States as my greatest accomplishment. I absolutely don’t think I could have done anything to make me more proud,” Berry said. “That is the reason I enlisted. I was not a reluctant warrior. I was a happy warrior. It was a great adventure.”

Saved by the Bible

Jimmy Birdsong, 82, later a state senator, survived a German sniper’s shot to his chest when the bullet hit Birdsong’s steel-covered copy of the New Testament. Birdsong, was in the 42nd Rainbow Division that trained at Camp Gruber in eastern Oklahoma.

His mother gave him a pocket-sized copy of the New Testament that he carried in his breast pocket. It had a steel jacket around it.

When he got to the combat zone, Birdsong and others were transferred to the 90th Division, which needed more soldiers. In the next three months, Birdsong would fight in Southern France, the Hurtgen Forest and the Ardennes.

“It was the coldest winter they ever had,” Birdsong recalled.

In February 1945, his unit crossed from Belgium into Germany. Every day, the unit cleared woods of enemy troops and then went into the nearest town for the night, if it was unoccupied, and held it until more troops came in the morning.

One town, Baesweiler, was different.

“We got into the town and they opened fire with 88s and also (rifles),” he said.

Birdsong was standing beneath a two-story building. Three GIs were lying in the street, screaming for help.

He ran out, leaned down to help the wounded and was shot in the chest by a sniper. The steel cover deflected the bullet which went through his arm, he said. He still has that New Testament with the dent of the bullet that nearly killed him.

Birdsong would lie in the street for two hours before help came.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the New Testament and looked at it, Birdsong said. The doctor at the aide station said that kept him from going into shock and possibly dying.

Prisoner of war

Jack Skaggs, 85, who later became a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, was one of the Marines fighting to hold off a Japanese attack at Wake Island when the war began. Skaggs joined the Marines in 1940.

In August 1941 Skaggs and his Marine unit were sent to Honolulu and in October to Wake Island, 1,800 miles from Hawaii.

“The war started for us on Dec. 8, (1941),” Skaggs said.

It was Dec. 7 in Hawaii, but Wake Island is on the other side of the International Date Line, he said. On Dec. 11, the Japanese made their first landing attempt with an admiral and about 15 or 16 ships, he said.

“I and a corporal spotted two ships,” Skaggs said.” My battery (artillery) sunk the first Japanese destroyer.”

The Marines were heavily outnumbered.

“We had about 540 Marines, 60 sailors and 7 from the Army Air Corps,” Skaggs said. “They overran us. They had about 2,000 in the landing force.”

When the battle ended, survivors were put on a Japanese ship and taken to China. Some were executed on the ship, he said. Later, Skaggs and the others were moved to Japan where they were prisoners until the war ended. Skaggs got home to Oklahoma City in 1946.

In 2004, he received the Purple Heart for injuries suffered from being beaten by the Japanese while he was their prisoner.