[Interview Begins]
BOWERS HEALEY: This is an interview with Don W. Homuth, who was in the United States Army from September 1942 to November 1945. This interview is being conducted at West Bend, Wisconsin on April 30th, 2008. The interviewer is Ellen Healey. Then go ahead and tell me a little bit about your background and life circumstances before you entered military service.
HOMUTH: I was born in Union America, Wisconsin, which is right here in West Bend, and I went to a country school house. All right. It reads and went to the West Bend High School in 1938, after I went during the junior senior year. I started working at the Ford garage here in Lisbon and stayed there until I went into service. I joined a group of 185 people from Wisconsin, and a furniture company that stayed together for the rest of the war, you might say. And that's all. It was started by the Automobile Association in Milwaukee at the start of the organization of the company. After we left was in September 1942 of 20th. We went to Fort Sheridan and went up to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and took our basic training. We stayed there and come with the following spring. The original company went to have Goober Muskogee, Oklahoma, and while they were moving, I was spending my time at Walter Reed hospital. Washington DC was a kidney stone operation. I returned to my company at Easter time and joined them in Muskogee and stayed with them throughout the war.
BOWERS HEALEY: What year was that? That you went back to Camp Gruber?
HOMUTH: 43. 1943. So we were there on detached service most of the time, either going to school or on inspection work through the area of Mississippi and Louisiana. Inspecting and. Getting retirement.
BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me a little bit more about inspecting what you inspect.
HOMUTH: We'd go to a camp and we'd inspect their equipment and see if they were maintaining it fairly and interviewing with the drivers of the equipment, and if we could get away with it.
BOWERS HEALEY: What was your occupational specialty?
HOMUTH: I was in an electrical service. My basic training I had in the service. Get interesting. But we didn't have a lot of work to do. We try to salvage whatever we could, basically, and replace the parts or or repaired. I was assigned to an automotive truck that had only equipment for testing and and maintaining equipment. It was interesting, but it was kind of boring. But I didn't have work to do all the time. And after we finished, stateside, we went to Camp Kilmer, new Jersey over Christmas and New Year's and spent the New Year underwater on New England and end up in Liverpool and then going to an English camp in southern England. And, the name of the city was Devizes. I don't know if you want to spell it or not.
BOWERS HEALEY: Go ahead.
HOMUTH: Anyway, we spent the time in England at that camp, and we had prisoners from Italy there, but we weren't together. They were camp right nearby. And there's camp quite a few Italian soldiers.
BOWERS HEALEY: You have any contact with them at all? Pardon. Did you have any contact with the Italian prisoners?
HOMUTH: No. Oh I read the book by. First ever. But we didn't really work with them. They had nothing to do with that turn. And we waited until invasion time. And we got down to southern England as a area where we were ready to go across to France. And our equipment, waterproof fluid, operate in water. We got to France and it was 11:00 at night, and we measured the water and we were just to get out at night around 750. But we waited until the tide went out and we drove out on dry ground.
BOWERS HEALEY: When did you get to France?
HOMUTH: France? Yes, 17th. I think it was, right here. But the seven pieces of two rivers was closed. We left the staging area. June. June 15th, 1944. And Southampton landed on Ormond Long Beach on the 17th.
BOWERS HEALEY: So what kind of information were you and your unit getting about what was happening in France, where you were waiting to go? What what did you hear of on D-Day?
HOMUTH: Well, what do you mean? Did we get it? Do we know what was happening?
BOWERS HEALEY: Yes.
HOMUTH: The only thing we would get a beer or a Stars and Stripes paper would get that. And that's not the only contact we would have as far as knowing what was happening.
BOWERS HEALEY: And any ideas what the conditions were going to be like when you got to France?
HOMUTH: Not really.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: But, it was all sandy beach and the six sixes and a duck's life. 97,000 gallons. They were there, going out to the boats and rolling them up and going back to them land, unloading again, six sixes to take it inland. And, then activity. People are still around. There was one fella just hanging in a tree by his parachute out. And not the best thing to see. Catlin.
BOWERS HEALEY: You actually saw that.
HOMUTH: There are Germans flying around and that Americans. Pretty sad, but we kept going and going, and our news seemed to be getting better as they went most of the time, as far as gaining ground and so forth.
BOWERS HEALEY: Let me go back to the beach. You said you measured seven feet and then you waited for the time to go down. What did you observe on the beach and on the beach? But what did you observe on the beach?
HOMUTH: Well, I was right there. All you could see were two trucks. Here are the trucks going on and all our cash. I said, Coleman, you can barely see anything, really, until telling broke.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: But there are these pillboxes that are out there and most of those flamethrowers and and burn them out, you know, and terrible smell of the rough concrete, little patches of, land all surrounded by trees. It was hard to travel and anywhere, and gliders would come down and they'd hit obstacles and they'd just disintegrate. And I'd see a lot of damage, a lot of destruction. It's funny when you realize, unless you were there, that other farmers were working on getting their cattle knocking and so forth. And as we're getting along, all this mess that was there.
BOWERS HEALEY: So where did you go after you landed at Omaha Beach?
HOMUTH: I went to. We went to I don't I don't remember if. Of all these common ones that you would see in a news account. Places like that. We just have not gone on television, kept going, you know. And I started to if I hadn't had the friends that we had, and we drove 100 miles to get caught up to the army, I might say I never felt like I drove a tank at 100 miles driving that day, or the rubber right off the tracks.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where did you get the tank?
HOMUTH: Well, we it was one that we had, retrieved and repaired and we had had to move it along with us. Everybody was assigned extra stuff or whoever didn't have somebody to drive it. It was an extra effort that we had to kind of keep. It wasn't. A big undertaking. All these gas, all the gas can or gas were carried in five gallon cans. That's how they transferred. And they'd stack it up and piles, you know. So. I.
BOWERS HEALEY: But how many soldiers were in the tank with you?
HOMUTH: Just two of us. Okay. We didn't have a crew just to have. We took turns driving, and that night we slept underneath it. It's warmer under there. From the heating and protection there to that. On a long run. And his and his hedgerows, as they call them, our only department. Well, and sometimes, so to speak, on the front of the light tanks, all of the tripods that they had in the beach area to keep the boats back. But the Germans put us in their field and cut the portion for the front of the line case, and all of them were built in front of most of these light tanks, and carried out the few things that open up the ways of getting out of these hedgerow.
BOWERS HEALEY: Is that where the welders part of your unit?
HOMUTH: Yeah, we have welding section, automotive section of our jewelry at intersections, very cleverly had instruments and small arms and whatever. And we had our own cooks and the whole thing where we were self-supporting as far as eating on everything.
BOWERS HEALEY: I think you said you were part of, heavy maintenance. What was your unit, your higher up unit at the time?
HOMUTH: Ours was a heavy maintenance field artillery, and we were behind the line of cars. Heavy or heavy maintenance. We could do about anything. We had equipment to haul in, destroyed equipment or, broke down equipment. Special equipment records, show trailers, trucks.
BOWERS HEALEY: And you were part of the United States Army at that time? I don't. Okay.
HOMUTH: Strictly army? No. No. So a question about it. But, something that's hard to visualize until you're there. You know, you hear about things, and if you're there, you know what it is like. These bodies and these trucks that they held on Germany. Went through our company area, and one broke down and we had repair it, and it was all full of bodies and body bags. I looked like cordwood, you might say. And they had a convoy. I was going back into France to be buried back there and and sure enough.
BOWERS HEALEY: So these were American bodies.
HOMUTH: Like the.
BOWERS HEALEY: American. What was the purpose of bringing the bodies back to France?
HOMUTH: They weren't going to bury the American soldiers and French and German. And so I was talking at that time. No, I don't know if they ever did or not. I, I don't recall. And there were towns are they farm and railroad centers where mine were targeted. And it just blew up in every direction you could think. And complete destruction was completely destructive. You might say, what a big town. But it was a rural center, so to speak.
BOWERS HEALEY: What was the name of that town? And dirt.
HOMUTH: And then on the corruption of another one. It was just about completely destroyed. It was a railroad town. And at night you'd hear the airplanes overhead and buzz bombs take off. At about time we had chow. We'd have fun bombs going over it. You'd hear it sputter a little bit after the shine, up or down and or.
BOWERS HEALEY: Tell me about a buzz bomb.
HOMUTH: It's it's shaped like a buzz. Like a bomb, a long cylinder, and it's got wings and a tail, and it had some kind of a jet engine, I guess it was. It propelled it and had more control. And it was flight. They could pick their target and come pretty close to it. And they did a lot of damage. And so they had those coming out of the mountains, I guess, and in Germany and their factories pretty often sealed with that, where they were made a daily occurrence for a long time. But our line, at least I live out there.
BOWERS HEALEY: So where'd you go next?
HOMUTH: Next? I don't know. We just moved from one town to the next, and it set up shop. Depending on the success of the Army, if you as to how fast we were going, we would just pick up and move in and behind them.
BOWERS HEALEY: And what was your primary mission? What were you supposed to be doing?
HOMUTH: I, I was supposed to be repairing electrical equipment on traction tanks. Whatever.
BOWERS HEALEY: What was your rank at the time?
HOMUTH: I ended up as a staff sergeant. I was a technical firm. And when we invested, we all more or less had rank when we enlisted, too, because of our past experience. And then we got left as the band.
BOWERS HEALEY: And, what was your rank when you.
HOMUTH: I know.
BOWERS HEALEY: The invasion.
HOMUTH: Of the invasion of two five. Okay. Yeah. I didn't get a raise until after the war in Germany or in France. Somewhere along the way, I forgotten just when. And I got that last one. This started before the war, and. But.
BOWERS HEALEY: As you were following the army, what are some of the other towns that you can recall that you went through?
HOMUTH: Oh. Is only. Germany. We got to look down and we went through Aachen, and we went from Europe and back into an amour, Belgium, which is about 70 miles and was due to the, battle of 14, I'm pretty sure that's it was. And we stayed there over winter and during, and we went back down to Arcanum during van and, crossed the Rhine on the 31st of March of 1945.
BOWERS HEALEY: What did you do during that winter? You said you kind of stayed put. What were you doing? You and your unit.
HOMUTH: Working, doing our tours as far as maintaining that thing.
BOWERS HEALEY: And where did you live?
HOMUTH: We. Well and I not going to school. We slept on a table in the in the school. Put our sleeping bag under, a table. And so it worked out pretty good for him. A lot better than tents. We only spent about two weeks and and, an operation that was before we went to Ukraine in question went miserably. It wasn't a farm. And we moved back to Newfoundland after that. We never slept in tents after. oh. And buildings of some kind version of a better pension and a miserable life. And those things.
BOWERS HEALEY: You said you were in a schoolhouse. Was there a community there or.
HOMUTH: Are there any. Are we right in town, right along the river and on the sand River.
BOWERS HEALEY: Do you have any contact with the local civilians, or did you have any contact with the people who lived there?
HOMUTH: Sure. I met a fellow that worked in, Belgium and, and Brussels, Belgium, and he lives in the and he would take his bicycle and go to the train and go up to Brussels and then take his bicycle and right to that job. He did photography work, and I got to know him pretty well. He'd take me into it, to make pictures for me, to develop my pictures. And for most of these pictures that I got and from. And I you can stand here and count on that. If it wasn't me. I refreshed my work area, so I do. Well.
BOWERS HEALEY: But how would you characterize the relationship between the American army and the local population?
HOMUTH: Well, I would say that they're all happy to see us, where we went back in and a more and have moved back. I remember that's my move when I got to the township here or Waverley and. Whatever happened there. And welcome to one man's real well here. I went all over it. I like it and wasn't pretty good feeling to have friends. But, filter was nicer than friends. So I think later area famous people, respected people or an elder. I wouldn't say anything different, like, I didn't, I didn't move to Paris and I had to. I was driving a tractor and stay with a truck. I didn't get the runaround. Parish retirement. But it's interesting.
BOWERS HEALEY: What did you see when you were in Paris and when were you in Paris?
HOMUTH: I don't remember the name, but it was in in 44 sometime. Or it must have been 44, I think.
BOWERS HEALEY: But how long did you stay there?
HOMUTH: Just a day. We went to Confer Days and took a lot of other fellows in 666, and I got the wrong job. So. It's a. Good feeling, knowing that we at least I come for something in or in, like, today's work, but.
BOWERS HEALEY: So I think you were up to March. 1945.
HOMUTH: You know very well when. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on April 3rd and then we went to later near Amerika Burg or whatever it is, I don't know, Germany. April 1st, the cost of euros. Anyway, we've got in an hour now and we spent quite a bit of time there. We were in a German paint factory there and, evidently left in a hurry because there's a lot of tanks, engines there, testing standards where they would run them and test them. And somebody went by and, part of the electrical system. So they currently used more or less to destroy the engine. But I got to the point where I wanted to see if I could get one going. So I did, and, I managed to get enough together. I got it so I could run it. And and it had we had no water at, I ran it enough to get the satisfaction that I could. Oh, it was kind of interesting. I still got a spark plugs that I sent home and different things that I got there at Engine Factory. It was just like going into a running factory here, you might say. And all the stock was there, of a couple of kind of a few, a few, things I still have, sent home. I think I sent more stuff home to anybody else in the company.
BOWERS HEALEY: Spark plugs and spark plugs.
HOMUTH: Yeah, I think I had some sort of a car when I was in. In service, some health center, 12 spark plugs home. I think one left it.
BOWERS HEALEY: For the and and good for the same.
HOMUTH: Virus flows never the same as it was for the for that particular engine. And, I had some tools and things that I sent home to it. I know I sent them airplane wheels, tires home from Messerschmitt management factory at one time, too. I sent five of those home, but, just interesting. Okay, I don't know, I guess I was fortunate to be in a company like that where I can do things where a person could never do that because you couldn't carry that much stuff with them. You have got several rifles in the same column. They've come in with six by six loads of rifles. It just goes on and on and on. And you could pick out what you wanted. There were some civilian guns or two shotguns and so forth. They took all the guns they found to. But that's their big guns, too.
BOWERS HEALEY: What kind of guns?
HOMUTH: I mostly, what was was, an Army rifle, a good shot revolver holed up in a civilian rifle. No. P30 I was known to carry personal and helpful swords to some kind of connection. Well, I got some parachute material that I sent home to and from the invasion rather than anywhere else. And I just sent pieces of parachute home for the folks to see. And we left the nanos and the Russians are moving in, and all they had was our backs, and the Germans close to the Russians took over. And if the Russians wanted something from the Germans. It was kind of a sad thing to see. All these people are moving back to their homeland and rights and nothing to go to. It's a bad situation.
BOWERS HEALEY: Did you have contact with the Russians?
HOMUTH: Not too close. You know, different than we did. I got into some of the barracks there, and they weren't very clean. You know. Well, honestly, after the war. And took us to the to the non-combat room, you know, and there are Germans over there or, Americans that are not American, but, the Jews and other prisoners and the Germans and the ovens were right across the street, so to speak, where the ovens were. There were still bodies lying there. They stripped of our clothes. Don't have my car ready to be returned. And those that were living on the other side of the street, here in a fenced in area, they were wearing these uniforms all the same thing and a straight white colored thing. And, I said, from here we go over there fighting to the perimeter, and I have some pictures of it, but I lost them. Somebody took it from me. But.
BOWERS HEALEY: Did you did you have an opportunity to talk to those people that were in uniforms?
HOMUTH: Yeah. Yeah, we were. I of course, I didn't speak too much. I was a speaker, and she got information that I wouldn't have gotten because I don't. I didn't speak English or German, but. Yeah, I think that's skin and bone, you might say. Very impressive.
BOWERS HEALEY: You remember when you were ABC.com?
HOMUTH: Not exactly. Right after the war ended. Just a couple of days later. It took us just a short touch.
BOWERS HEALEY: Who was in control of Okinawa at that time?
HOMUTH: Well, in the then it must been under the U.S. Army because we were able to go there and. No problem. We must have taken over.
BOWERS HEALEY: You said you got to go to Dachau. How far was your unit?
HOMUTH: I don't think there were more than 20. I don't think we were probably there. It didn't take long again today to recall just how long, but it was rather close. Just a matter of loading up. And I mean driving there.
BOWERS HEALEY: How many people from your unit went?
HOMUTH: Well, I don't know numbers, but I would say there must've been maybe two, six, six, maybe others. But I didn't know about it. I don't know, but there was some other management. Just from our company that went.
BOWERS HEALEY: What were some of the other. Okay. We were talking about Dachau, and some of the reactions of fellows in your unit.
HOMUTH: Is something that you wouldn't expect to ever see. A situation like that where people are just burning, burning up as fast as they can burn up and as fast as they died and they weren't interested in life at all. They just wanted to do away with these people. And yeah.
BOWERS HEALEY: You said they wanted you to see this and they took your unit there. And did they tell you before you got there what you could expect to see?
HOMUTH: Well, I think, as I recall better, we're we'll take you back home and you're not going to go home and that type of thing. It wasn't a case where you had to as I remember, you didn't force us to go. We went because of curiosity. And it. Just makes you sick when you see people practically dead and in life in that condition. And we know it's true. It wasn't somebody we made up. Then we went out to. All these people. Who would separate the men from the 11 in some cases. And take this one and take the families. What kind of a life is that? I never, never see him again.
BOWERS HEALEY: Oh, the day that you were a scout, did you see both men and women?
HOMUTH: Sure.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: Yes. You weren't pushing who they put in there. It was mostly on people. I can't say I saw any child, but I'm not sure of that. Most of grown people.
BOWERS HEALEY: What happened next?
HOMUTH: Well, then maybe after the war, we just kind of slowed up and did what we had to. And all the equipment, when we left, it was just what happened to it. I don't know. We've left and other people took over. I suppose, as I gather, I've been put in an, formation somewhere. Just like the airplanes are all lined up in rows of fire fighters and whatever, lined up in rows. And what happened to him after the war? It's hard to say. That just came to an end. And that was it.
BOWERS HEALEY: How did you get home?
HOMUTH: Did you work? I came home when we came by ship. We went over by ship. We went over. And then we came back on the, the Liberty type ship.
BOWERS HEALEY: What port did you go out of?
HOMUTH: We went out of Marseilles or in France. And I was in New York. We were up in New York. I actually went to port. I don't believe we got to the station where I'm interested. In what port? I don't think at that time, but. We have the English. I don't know if I ever had a swimming pool and no cars, no water. That's where the entertainment was. The USO, a group that was on a ship and we went over. They would entertain in that. They were set up, down and through and we sat around or listened to nurses and. And quite a few nurses there in the hospital with us and the men across with us on the way over.
BOWERS HEALEY: And they were the nurses, part of the Army. Or they said, okay, okay.
HOMUTH: But it was quite an experience for a three year period. Now we have.
BOWERS HEALEY: Now, you said you, let me talk about your unit a little bit. You joined up in Wisconsin with other Wisconsin folks, who were some of the people that you served with throughout the duration of the war?
HOMUTH: You mean the names of the people.
BOWERS HEALEY: Names, names or.
HOMUTH: Well.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where they were from.
HOMUTH: We were a lot of people from Madison and Waukee. They were main ones. I was only one for my husband, but we had Berrien, Shawano, Saginaw, Michigan was the only one in our state that was in our group. And, we covered a state. Pretty Marshall. And Mike Mills was down in that area, and we had some there on Earth. And I really think his share of his fellows are gonna have a reunion every year, have had a reunion every year. And last year I was the only one and I only found him, plus some of the other ones. And, there's I'm trying to get a list together now of who's all that living.
BOWERS HEALEY: And the reunion is, what group? What's the name of the group?
HOMUTH: I have 16, 13.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: There was one member sent out from our company and formed another unit like ours. And that was the five 15th. Don't. It pretty covers it.
BOWERS HEALEY: I think part you told me one of the things you did while you were over there, it was take photos, and you had a, person from France to help you develop. So you got a scrapbook of photos from Germany?
HOMUTH: Yeah.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay. You want to tell me a little bit about your photography while you were in the service? Your your photo taking.
HOMUTH: Oh, well. I always had a camera available as a rule, and there was something interesting with a trigger. Now I've got some here where when we entered France or France and. Some of these tanks and or whatnot, and you're just pushed off to the side of the road, completely destroyed or, blown up or hit. Was shell or was cannon fire or. Oh, cannon fire, destroyed and go out and we just moved them off to the side was still there and then. Another one came up and I've come to the area that was hit, and everyone in the crew was pretty well, destroyed. And it was pretty. And as far as cleaning it up inside and, you very scared because you don't have much of a chance to take. If you're hit, you're done now and then, like right here. So P-51 was we were, in an area where a lot of civilians were there on a Sunday and having to get together there, and 51 of us landed because we ran out of fuel. So we stopped or landed there in fuel and picked up the fuel and took off again.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where were the P-51 from?
HOMUTH: I think mainly.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: And, yeah, more or less one of them or I think it was P-51 because he had a lot of trouble saving our bombers first because, you know, protection. Here's a German motorcycle that we found. Everybody all right? And. Difference to the. Views of shop trucks and. Generators, loaders and whatever and depending on which section which they work with. This was the surrounding truck. This version from Lake Mills, which mirrors the compactor. The German say, train the engine.
BOWERS HEALEY: So you're getting quite a few pictures from. You said train stations that were.
HOMUTH: Oh, no. Not really. It was a little different. Okay. That's where we stayed for, quite a while. Here's a piece of German equipment that we gathered. I don't know what what particular battle advice, but we were to go out and get that stuff in and bring it into a collection point. Germany.
BOWERS HEALEY: Why were you doing that?
HOMUTH: Just getting out of the way. In addition, we did capture, a German 88 gun and wounded by one of our American great deals. We took the American gun up and put this on 88 on that, you know, jewelry section did that and it, you know, to 100 and take this very unit. And they went out and they did some damage. They used it and they were good. Good. This is active.
BOWERS HEALEY: There. What kind of a building is that?
HOMUTH: It on your apartment? That was a feeling. Okay. And that, you know, we didn't want.
BOWERS HEALEY: Was there anybody in it when you moved in?
HOMUTH: No, no, no. Actually wondered of it was kind of messed up. Look at everybody's waiting room. This was our advantage. We were right off the bat. You are not going to offer me too much danger. This right here, it 45 miles an hour. And the track? It was used for jewelry pieces. And carrying ammunition. And I was driving to the silver. You know, the when they get blown up. And that's right there. Was a dream.
BOWERS HEALEY: You know. Describe the latrine. I described the latrine ladder.
HOMUTH: And I didn't think it I was deceived. Okay. In an airplane, I went down to one of our farm and. That's a knock. That's rivers right here.
BOWERS HEALEY: Looks like the bridge is still intact. Yeah, yeah.
HOMUTH: It wasn't damaged much around there. What are you doing? Why? When we move back into the world. But, when and where and when really? And I talk to people, I see people. I may have seen better pictures in that time. Right. Here's one of the big records that we had to put to sleep in. This is one of the common wisdom that was made for snow country. I don't wait for for camouflage.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where did the what? Army had the weasel. Was that American army, you know. Okay.
HOMUTH: I drove, one of our moose one time. I don't know, funny thing to drive. I'm pretty good.
BOWERS HEALEY: Yeah, but, describe the size of a weasel.
HOMUTH: The size?
BOWERS HEALEY: Yes.
HOMUTH: Or about a foot. One or so. It. It's a small group. I shouldn't have anything. There's a tractor pulling on and half tractor. There was a gunman who broke the window of a shop. You know, wait right there. That's the middle of on back in. Okay. Nobody got hurt. Here's a found a note. The pictures from his wife and daughter.
BOWERS HEALEY: And he was French or Belgian. Okay.
HOMUTH: He's crippled. He's had a bad leg. Right? Basically, he's the one who took the train 70 miles to go to work and come back overnight. And that's a temporary scene over there. You see, quite a few rappers.
BOWERS HEALEY: Describe that scene, but describe the picture. You're looking at.
HOMUTH: This one here.
BOWERS HEALEY: Yes.
HOMUTH: One of them is their transportation donkey. And the other stuff around would be pretty common to see that. Appear. You know, it's this one. This is German piece of equipment that was destroyed. So there. Was a picture that fell on that house. Student academy. Here's the river right across the street from where you live.
BOWERS HEALEY: What town is that?
HOMUTH: That's the word. Using Germany German airplanes. Here's that alley that we put on the back of the truck unit. An intuitive idea was captured in German. Whose fuselage is for German fighter plane, and the fact that we are at ready for assembly to start monster collection. Yes. The building.
BOWERS HEALEY: Who destroyed them?
HOMUTH: They were destroyed. It just started there. Or Germans did at the factory where they built and built the planes. And here's another German plane for the very. Same plane. I think that was after the war. American miners came out of the voting. It's American. I met my cousin in Germany. It was under 150 miles away. Maybe was able to get over and see him one day.
BOWERS HEALEY: How did you know he was there?
HOMUTH: Sue emailed. I've forgotten just how it happened, but I think it was that. Or they were very careful about keeping everything quiet and ignored. I thought, I'm very positive. I got from from the room when you were there.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where was your cousin from and what was his name?
HOMUTH: Most gender neutral. I spent two and two. Dutch. Pennsylvania. Dutch. So they were asked questions.
BOWERS HEALEY: And let's talk about after you got back. When you got back, to the East Coast in the United States, how did you get back to Wisconsin?
HOMUTH: We took a taxi, after we got on a train. We went to Rockford. We were discharged from Rockford, and after we got discharged, took a taxi and got back to Milwaukee. And then I forgotten just how I got back to us. Been there. I probably took the train back to West Bend, I think. But anyway, we have, you have to get there. We were all happy to get out of the service. I had enough of it.
BOWERS HEALEY: And you were discharged in November of 45?
HOMUTH: Yeah. Okay. Just in time to get home to go to Germany. Okay. Yeah.
BOWERS HEALEY: You did your.
HOMUTH: First big job. How did to get that underway? And then I'm back to the same place I worked before, and I stayed there, and, I quit working. I ended up for the Ford factory in Silver Spring. So 1974, through I traveled after that, you know, she got in this, Parkinson's deal, and that was my sort of step. She passed away in 96, so I moved to where I'm living now. And in 99.
BOWERS HEALEY: Where and when did you meet your wife?
HOMUTH: I met her and a wedding of my cousin in Milwaukee in 46. And we got married in 48, and she and I ran a business, and, we, we bought the business in 50, 57, and and I'm 74.
BOWERS HEALEY: And what business was that for?
HOMUTH: Tractor. Equipment.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay.
HOMUTH: And farm equipment. And we had an excavating business along with it. So we started that. We didn't have a snow plow. I never we got do we got two girls through college and we decided to quit. So that's about the enemy.
BOWERS HEALEY: And after you were discharged, what kind of contacts did you keep up with other military people or veterans? Well, we.
HOMUTH: Had just this, annual, reunion in Milwaukee. Most generally, we had Madison and Howe for different places. But what was the best one for centrally located? And like I said before, when I don't have me alone on campus or at least one meeting, that everybody is gone. Quite a few have passed away.
BOWERS HEALEY: When you first started the reunions, how many people came to the reunions?
HOMUTH: We have 50 people. I would say at least half or more at the reunion every year because it looked like family. Reunion rose to Everybody's Got a Different story to Tell, and, they're more anxious to see each other as the years go by, too. It seems that, we've got some that we took in at a company from Michigan to come over quite often, but there are two of them actually down our street, people.
BOWERS HEALEY: Any other activities that you kept up? Or correspondence with, with fellows that you knew in the war?
HOMUTH: Of course, primarily a few, but, just in time goes. I don't get things done that you'd like to do right now. I I'm trying to get a list of those that are still moving. I don't know if I have anybody, like, I haven't contacted the veterans yet here in Westfield. Service officer. He may be able to help me. I don't recall you.
BOWERS HEALEY: Anything else you want to add about your experience in the service?
HOMUTH: Well. I guess we can't complain too much. Still having a good time? I do mean a long way.
BOWERS HEALEY: Okay, Don, I want to thank you for sharing your your military service with us. Appreciate it.
[Interview Ends]