WWII vet McMurry marks 102 years

On June 18, Medford resident John McMurry turned 102. Mc-Murry is the last WWII veteran in Taylor County. In a recent interview, he described his time in the war.

McMurry began by saying, “To start with, I belonged to the reserve before I went on active duty. I was going to college out in Montana, but then the war started, and I asked for active duty.” He explained that he made the request for active duty after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Soon after making the request, McMurry was active duty.

“They were running out of people. There were so many casualties over in the Pacific, in Guadalcanal and so on and so forth.

Not only guys that were wounded and killed, but malaria took a lot of them.”

Following his status change to active duty, McMurry commenced training. “They sent me and a bunch of other guys, most of them by the way were like me and had started college, out to Fort Lewis, Washington. That’s where I became a regular army man. We were there for two or three weeks. Then they sent us down to Camp Roberts, California, for basic training. Basic Training was ordinarily 18 weeks, but because of the casualties overseas, they cut it to 13.”

McMurry continued, “After 13 weeks at Camp Roberts, they sent quite a bunch of us up to Camp Stoneman, which is near San Francisco as a point of embarkation. There we sat for three weeks, waiting for a boat. Finally, a ship came, and it was a converted freighter, manned by merchant marines, not navy. The day the ship came, they had us outside, we were sitting on our barracks bags outside waiting to get on that ship. We sat all day long, until just about dark. Then they let us board the ship. As soon as everyone was aboard, they took off. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge, and some of the guys were sick as the sea got a little rough. Everyone was wondering, will I ever see the USA again? I just hung over the rail. I didn’t get sick or anything.”

The ship took 30 days to reach the South Pacific. “We landed on New Caledonia, that was where they sent us soldiers to the different units throughout the South Pacific. Anyway, I got assigned to the 25th Division, which was called the Tropic Lightning Division, and away we went to Guadalcanal.”

After some time at Guadalcanal, McMurry and the 25th Division went to New Zealand in December, when it was summer south of the equator. He then went back to New Caledonia and trained to make a landing in the Philippines, where McMurry saw the conflict firsthand.

Upon arriving at Luzon, an island in the Philippines, McMurry recalled the vast number of war ships. “It was quite an armada. There were boats and ships as far as you could see.”

At first, his time at Luzon was uneventful. “We landed and there was very little resistance. The Japanese had gone further inland and dug in. The first night or so there was nothing happening.”

Soon, conflict erupted. ‘Then the battle started. It was quite a battle on Luzon, a big island of the Philippines, quite a few casualties. I saw casualties right away. A truck with bodies in it. The feet sticking out, and they were covered with tarps. Guys that had been killed. After one of the battles, we were escorting the Chaplain to a line company and they were carrying the casualties out, some of the dead and wounded. Anyway, we came to one guy, he was on the boat I went overseas with. I recognized his face, and he was in a bad way. The Chaplain said, “Do you know me?” He said, “I know you Chappy,” while crying. Here, he didn’t have any legs. He died before they

See MCMURRY on page 10

John McMurry in

1943.

Kathy McMurry (left to right), Scott McMurry, and Karla Ramsey pose for a family photo with WWII John McMurry (seated), who turned 102 on June 18.

SASKATOON DAMM/THE STAR NEWS got him into the CP (command post). There were dead and wounded being carried out. That battle went on for several weeks.’

McMurry’s duties varied while he was at Luzon. “I was in the battalion headquarters company. They put me in the intelligence section. We went out on patrols, observation posts, escorting officers to the line companies. They had all kinds of jobs for us.”

There was one job in particular that sticks with Mc-Murry to this day. He was setting up a telephone wire to connect a message center with the command post. “The Japanese spotted us, and they started throwing artillery at us. We were kind of on the nose of a hill. We dug in, and the shells were going right over us, boom, down below. That’s pretty scary when the shells are going right across your foxhole.”

Eventually, McMurry received backup. “Our own artillery spotted their artillery. We started hearing our artillery back there, so they put them out of commission.”

The conflict in the Philippines came to an end after the Japanese surrender. “The war ended at that time. News came that some kind of a bomb was dropped on Japan. We had never heard of nuclear bombs or anything. We didn’t learn exactly what happened for a while. When they dropped the second bomb, that’s when the Japanese surrendered.”

However, McMurry’s time in the army was not over just yet. “By that time I had been overseas 2.5 years. A lot of us figured if we had to land on Japan, a lot of us would never get home. I didn’t want to go to Japan.”

The 25th Division and McMurry along with it were sent to Japan. “We had to sit on the boat a week or so before they could unload us. They put us in an old barracks. You could see rat holes by the wall. I could hear the rats at night, running up and down the floor. I was wondering if a rat was going to jump in bed with me. We moved in a more decent quarters after that. I wasn’t in Japan very long and then got on a boat to head home. That was a troop ship that felt like real luxury.”

As the ship approached Seattle, excited service members crowded the ship’s side nearest to shore. “When we were getting closer and closer to the dock, everyone was on the shore side. We got word that we had to spread out because we wouldn’t be able to dock. The ship was leaning that way.”

Following his return to the U.S., McMurry went to Kentucky. From there, he finished his education in dairy manufacturing and went to work for Land O’ Lakes in Minnesota. After that, he owned A& W restaurants in St. James, Minnesota, and Monticello, Minnesota.

It was only by chance that McMurry ended up in Medford when he was searching for a location to build his first Holiday gas station. “I had never heard of Medford. I didn’t know where the hell it was or anything.”

He visited Medford because the founders of Holiday, the Erickson brothers, flew over Medford and suggested it may be an ideal town to set up a station in. Upon arrival, McMurry was impressed with the prospects. “I came and boy that Highway 13 was busy. That’s how I ended up here.”

McMurry was involved with four Holiday stations, but he sold his shares in the stores once the other owners had built a solid foundation to operate on.

Today, McMurry keeps his mind sharp by listening to books on tape. Throughout his life, McMurry was an avid reader. Once his eyesight declined, McMurry adapted to audiobooks to continue to learn. McMurry noted that some of his favorite books are written by John Grisham and that, as a young person, he enjoyed Jack London.

McMurry’s dedication to staying in good form also applies to his physical exercise regime. He walks a mile each day to keep active. If the weather is unaccommodating, McMurry completes his walk in his hallway, which he has measured to ensure he reaches the mile mark.

To his family, McMurry is a font of knowledge and an exceptional role model. Despite hearing his stories many times, his family attentively listened throughout the interview because they knew McMurry would include new insights. Aside from his knowledge, McMurry provides them with an example of resilience. He adapts and presses on despite challenges. When McMurry fell very ill recently, he was unable to enjoy his typical activities. This didn’t deter his resilient spirit. Gradually, he worked back into his routine, and now he is back to exercising, listening to books, and enjoying time with family.

John McMurry and his fellow servicemen in 1944 while based in New Zealand.

Red Higgins performed at the celebration honoring John McMurry.

Sam Way of Medford was among a long line of well-wishers giving birthday greetings to WWII Veteran John McMurry who celebrated his 102nd birthday on June 18. SASKATOON DAMM/THE STAR NEWS