Roy Lowe: USMC, WW2 (Okinawa) Arlington, Tx.
“I buried my head in my hands and prayed. Lord, if you will get me home…. I will be your witness for the rest of my life. I went back to my tent, and I cried for three days.” WW2 Okinawa U.S.M.C. veteran Roy Lowe.
Thomas Roy Lowe was born April 8, 1925. He is 95 years old. He and his wife celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary. “One, you got to live a long time to be married for 74 years. Two, you have to learn to compromise ALL the time and three, learn to say, Darlin I’m so sorry that I made that mistake,” laughed Roy and his wife in their home in Arlington, Tx. The couple have three children, five grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.
Roy and Doris met in 1946. Roy had just gotten back from the war in the Pacific. “I had a letter from my Aunt about a girl who lived in Ft. Worth,” said Roy slowly telling his story about how the couple met. “My Aunt gave me that girls phone number, I called her, and we went out on a date. The surprise was when she saw me at the door, she still went out with me. I saw in her that great love and the wonderful sensation of peace, harmony and happiness and I needed that type of inspiration in my life. She fit in for what the Lord had for my life to be from that time on. We went to Weatherford, got married, and been together ever since,” smiled Roy. “He was a good man and good to the children,” said Doris.
THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
On December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “I remember that day very distinctly, that was a total surprise” recalled Roy. “A friend of mine and I went to the movies. It was on a Sunday. When we got out, we heard the news Pearl Harbor had been bombed. We were shocked. Men were being drafted and food was being rationed during this time. We both realized if they bombed us, we would be going to war soon.
JOINING THE U.S. MARINE CORP
“I started thinking about the Marines when I was 15-years-old,” recalled Roy. “I had an uncle who had a photographic memory, and he remember all the battles going on in Europe. He would tell me all about the battles that were being fought. He could distinguish the difference between the Marines and the other branches of the military. That appealed to me. I prepared for the day I would be drafted or I could join the Marines.”
Roy joined the Marines just before he turned 18. “It was the day Terry Smith and I were walking down the street, and he said Roy, let’s go join the Marines. That was music to my ears and we went down to enlist. We had to get permission from our parents and go down for a physical. All my life I had poor vision and hearing. I passed, and my friend was surprised I did,” he laughed.
On May 5th, 1943 I became a Marine. We left Ft. Worth on a bus. My girlfriend was there, her name was, and Roy paused, thinking. Then his wife seated next to him, said, “It doesn’t matter,” and they both laughed. “My mother’s last words to me before I boarded the bus, was “be careful.”
“My father passed away when I was younger, saving the life of another person. The last day I saw my father alive, he kissed me and my mother goodbye as he drove off. I remember driving with my uncle Bill, my mother and my 6-month-old brother to Ft. Worth. It was raining. I did not know my father was dead. All the family gathered around and I told them my daddy will be here in a little bit. One of my cousin’s told me my dad was dead and my mother then confirmed it. I went into shock and started screaming and crying. My mother walked me to his coffin. I looked at him but didn’t feel like he was there. I realized for the first time he was dead. He had gone down into a storage tank that had poison gas in it. Thirty seconds after he went down in there he was dead. Years later I heard the story how he went in there to save someone’s life. When I was nine years old I realized I really needed a father. God became my earthly father. Everything I did wrong, I got caught and I got punished.
BOOT CAMP
Roy went to boot camp in San Diego, California. “We drilled a lot then we went straight to the rifle range. We had to qualify as a marksman and also as a swimmer. Everywhere Marines went was on a ship, so we had to learn to swim. There were a couple of Marines who couldn’t swim, so I qualified three times for swimming. I barely qualified as a marksman at 200 yards and on the ground at 300 and 500 yards because of my vision. I was born with a mouth that had the appearance of a smirk. We were standing at attention, with our rifle being inspected. The D.I. told me he did not like that smirk on my face. I had to turn around and put my back to them. I got in trouble a few time because of my smirk,” laughed Roy.
“When we graduated from boot camp my friend, Terry Smith, chose communications. I had two options. I wanted to be a Marine Raider or an Infantryman. I was surprised they sent me to the Marine Raiders. From San Diego to Camp Pendleton they drove me there in a truck and dumped me off to the Marine Raider Training Camp. A great day in my life. All my trainers had fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal. They were tough, had been there and done that.
When I was in the Raiders, Hollywood began making a movie about the Marine Raiders. Randolph Scott was the main actor. He came driving up in a limousine. He spent two weeks with us training. They wanted us to throw knives in the movie, but we were not trained to throw knives. So, we practiced throwing knives and ended up in several scenes with him,” laughed Roy. “Then it was back to the grind.
We were on a very rigid schedule from day one to learn all about the weapons of war. We qualified on rifles, machine guns, 60mm mortars, hand grenades and hand to hand combat using bayonets. We had to fight day and night. We simulated going on patrols at night, with no lights, in the mountains. We also had to go without water and food. We had very little rest and a lot of fatigue. We learned how to be hungry, tired and how to suffer. We learned under the two-man buddy system. We had one pup tent between us. Whatever you did, you did together. Our patrols were hazardous. My buddy fell and broke his leg and hip. I had the option to wait until my buddy healed or I could start all over with a new class. I chose to wait for him to recover. I started to train all over again. Unfortunately, they deactivated the Marine Raiders which then became the Infantrymen. The new class of Marines were going into field artillery and I was sent with them. I was an angry Marine for the rest of the war,” he laughed.
GOING TO WAR IN THE PACIFIC
When the Raiders were deactivated, he was assigned to field artillery. At that time, he and three others were put on a ship to Tarawa. It was November of 1943.
I went over as a fire controller in field artillery. It was a boring four-day trip. We first landed in Oahu, Hawaii and worked on putting iron sheets of metal on a warehouse. We were all put into a field artillery unit, except me and three other men. Just before we left, Marines who fought on Tarawa, landed on Oahu. They brought their hostility with them. They tore Honolulu up they were so mad at the Japanese.
Me and my three Marines were put on another ship, called the USS Bounty.(USS United States) It was a thirty-day trip. That was a vacation and a half. It was not a Navy Ship, but a commercial cargo ship. We ate and showered with the crew. At night we slept up on the deck with our guitars singing old country songs. We felt like we were on a vacation for thirty days. Then we headed to Tarawa.”
LANDING ON TARAWA
When they landed on Tarawa we realized why our Marines were so mad when we saw them in Hawaii. It was a small island. Four-thousand Japanese and nine-hundred Marines died on Tarawa. The whole island was covered in empty shells and shrapnel. It was so thick you could walk to the island on them and never touch the sand. We were there for two-weeks. I walked around the island and have the image of a child’s sandbox with a few match stems sticking in it. That was my view of Tarawa.
Two different nights the Japanese tried to bomb us. We were told where to go in case of an air raid. We heard them go off one night and it took me about five seconds to leave my tent and jump in a foxhole. I was barefooted in that foxhole for nearly thirty minutes. I had another Marine jump in the foxhole with me. The bombs dropped but never went off. They were not properly armed and they didn’t explode when they hit the ground.
We got onto another ship and headed ninety-miles southeast to an island called Abermarbel. A paradise of an island. The water was so deep and clear, it was like our ship was floating on air. Beautiful shorelines with coconut and palm trees. The natives wore cloth around their waists and nothing on top and some naked. They lived in grass huts and went swimming every day. They were the happiest people I ever saw. They walked up those coconut trees for us and throw as many as we wanted. Eating the fresh coconut meat was like cantaloupe. Delicious coconut milk. They ate with us and shared the thought that Tarawa was once more beautiful than Abermama. That was hard to believe.”
ANTI-AIRCRAFT TRAINING
Roy took another 30-day ship ride to Kauai. There he was assigned to 8th anti-aircraft battalion with the U.S. Marines. “In anti-aircraft we had a director, a height-finder, radar, two generators, four 90mm guns and a 50-caliber machine gun. As a height-finder you would align the plane with a mark that identifies the angle and also the height of the fighter plane. He measured the distance and the elevation of the 90mm anti-aircraft gun. The director would get the asthmas for elevation of the airplane and view it thru a scope. He would get feedback from the height-finder and get the angle and distance and the coordinator would focus on the target. The director would announce the firing of the guns. On Okinawa we had nothing but clouds so we had to use pure radar. The asthmas director had to follow just one line. I had two lines, the angle and the distance. We practiced at live aircraft as they pulled a sleeve and we practiced at that sleeve at full speed. We shot em all down.
We were Baker Battery and with practice and combat we were identified as the number one anti-aircraft unit anywhere. We were the best,” said Roy.
THE BATTLE OF OKINAWA
Roy was assigned to anti-aircraft. 8th Anti-aircraft battalion, when he landed on Okinawa April 4, 1945, 3 days after invasion began.
It was a miserable 30-day trip to Okinawa. We were aboard a troop ship. It was cramped with a lot of people getting sea-sick. We took a salt-water shower every three days. The food was lousy.
When we got closer to Okinawa the bay was full of ships. I saw nothing but red clay from the shore to the tops of the mountain. It was Monsoon season and was raining. The whole time I was there I never saw daylight without the clouds.
We got settled in and I had just hung out clothes behind my tent when the wind started. The tent flew up in the sky as we walked down to the mess hall. The mess hall started coming apart and flew up in the air as well. It was a terrible monsoon. On the end of the mess wall was a walk-in freezer the Seabees had just installed. No food, just the freezer. A hundred men walked into that freezer. We were packed in like sardines. That is where we spent the whole night. The next morning our camp was gone.
We were warned about poisonous snakes on the island. There were a lot of rice paddies and they were covered in snakes. We had our tents pitched on the side of a mountain. I was in my sleeping bag and felt something slimy walk across my leg. It was about twenty feet long. He kept crawling and crawling. I finally jumped up and ran out of the tent screaming, snake, snake. There they were, the whole camp. The Sargeant had put a rat rope across my legs,” Roy said shaking his head.
“The intelligence we received about Okinawa was lousy. We thought the Japanese were going to be on the north end of the island, so they sent the Marines north. The Army was sent to the south. They had two main dug-in fortifications of 110-thousand Japanese to the south. We did not meet with much opposition as we pushed northward. We were at the top of a mountain overlooking the bay.
As anti-aircraft battalion our objective was to protect the ships from the Kamikaze planes. We shot everything that was picked up on radar. We fought the Battle of Okinawa by radar.
In the daylight we saw three of the American aircraft explode and crash. They were constantly bringing in replacement supplies from the ships. The Japanese planes bombed every night until the end. They came in high and low.
When the B-25’s and B-29’s started taking off from the Yontan Airfield on the northside of the island, they attacked them. Those B-25 Mitchell bombers took off every twenty seconds and two P-51 fighters every ten seconds for several hours. They would travel to Japan and drop their bombs and land in the afternoon. Baker Company was protecting the Yontan Airfield and that is what the Japanese were trying to bomb.
I was trained as a Marine to kill. I learned to do that very well. In Baker Company anti-aircraft that I was in, NOT ONE plane ever bombed the Yontan Airfield except one.
Headquarters would not allow us to fire. We have what is called IFF, (Identification Friendly Force). This plane had an IFF and we had permission to fire. It was a Japanese plane but according to HQ it was IFF. We knew it was a Japanese plane by the sound of the motor. We knew it as soon as we heard it. It bombed us and got away.
NOTE: The Kamikaze planes hit the Yontan Airfield on 24-25 of May when a half dozen transport planes loaded with GIRETSU, Japanese Commandos hit the Airport. Eight planes were blown up, 16 damaged, 70,000 gallons of aviation fuel was destroyed.
The Japanese wanted to strand all the American soldiers on Okinawa and they opened a VICIOUS KAMAKAZI attack on the U.S. Fleet. In 48 hours, The Japanese launched 900 aircraft and sunk 34 ships and damaged 368. Over the next 6 weeks over 2,000 Japanese planes attacked our ships and 9,000 sailors were killed. It was the greatest loss ever by U.S. Navy in a single battle.
There was no sound or bombings during the day and we stood guard as they unloaded the ships. At night, it was different. We had four 90mm guns. Each gun fired ten-rounds. Each target we fired forty rounds, continuously.
The Japanese planes came in a wave. One would come in and pause. Another come in and another pause. Wave-pause, wave-pause… one after another. We shot them all down. All night long. Every night those Kamikaze pilots would attack those ships. It looked like a birthday cake with hundreds of candles lit.
I remember I had just come off a work detail and it was sundown. I was totally hungry and fatigued. I crawled into my tent and just as I laid down a bullet went right over my nose. I could feel the draft. If I had been sitting up it would have gone right thru me. I jumped up and looked out the tent. My Sargeant was looking at me. That bullet had just went thru his tent too. I knew there was a sniper nearby and he tried to shoot both of us. My Lieutenant was shot in the back and he received a Purple Heart.
One night we shot down a troop plane that crashed into the ground. I went out to the crash site and saw about 15-20 Japanese boys. They all looked like they were six-feet tall, dressed in brand new uniforms and all looked about my age. I spent my 20th birthday on Okinawa. They had parents waiting for them to come home and so did I. Their parents will never get to see them again. Our parents prayed for us while we were in the war, to come home safely. Now, their boys are dead. I couldn’t look at all of them,” said Roy pausing and looking down at carpet. There was a long silence.
“As I pushed this one branch aside it felt strange. It was a man’s intestine and I saw his hips and his legs. I found his shoulder and head about ten feet away. He had no face. I looked over and saw two black charcoal lumps. There were two Japanese boys. I couldn’t watch it anymore. I buried my head in my hands and prayed. Lord, if you will get me home…. I will be your witness for the rest of my life. I went back to my tent, and I cried for three days. I had no appetite to eat. For the rest of my time on Okinawa, I had no problem shooting down the planes, but I had a different attitude about what the Japanese were. I never saw any more dead bodies, but I smelled them rotting on the ground.
One of the scriptures in the Bible says, “There are Jehovah’s and the finest thow are, the vacant world I live.” I now know what that means. We might be filled in a world of combat, man killing man, this is God’s world and we are his people.
I saw a lot of ship’s burning. We saw a lot of planes and we hit what we shot at. Finally, the battle of Okinawa was over. After the war, the Japanese complimented anti-aircraft Battery Baker Battery on their ability and accuracy to shoot down Japanese airplanes. I remained there for the rest of the battle, 77 days later. I lost forty pounds while fighting on Okinawa.
When the Battle of Okinawa was done, we got the good news. We were going to be the first wave in the Battle of Japan on November 1st, 1945,” said Roy. “When I heard the 8th Marine Battalion was going to be in the first wave to attack Japan I didn’t think I would ever get home.
We got the news that President Roosevelt had passed away. He was not all that popular to us. A couple of months later, on August 6th and again on August 9th, President Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We got the news that the war was over. Every aircraft battery on Okinawa fired their guns, except us. We jumped into our foxholes because we got all the shrapnel from those anti-aircraft firings. The Japanese had surrendered. I was going home, the Japanese had all of me they wanted,” smiled Roy.
NOTE: Statistics Roy shared with me about the Battle of Okinawa
There were 110,00 Japanese troops on Okinawa. The invasion started on April 1, 1945 and ended June 22, 1945. Japan lost 7,830 aircraft and 100,000 troops and over 150,000 civilians including many who committed suicide jumping off cliffs in Okinawa. The United States lost 800 planes, 36 ships and 368 ships damaged with 12,281 combat deaths.
COMING HOME
“I was convinced that the Marines were the greatest military unit anywhere for any occasion. They are the best trained, best qualified mentally and they are honored. They are honored by the enemy.
After the war, Roy enrolled in college at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth in the Fall of 1946. “I knew I had to get an education to get a better view of this world,” he said. “I was getting $150. a month for going to TCU along with working a few part-time jobs. God was preparing me for my life. I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Business.
MISSION TRIPS WITH HIS SON JAY
Roy’s son Jay Lowe knew a man who had been on several foreign missions around the world spreading the Gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Roy and his son went on a mission together to Bangladesh. “I didn’t know there was a Mission to Bangladesh and didn’t know where it was,” laughed Roy. “So, in 2003, we flew to the south end Bangladesh. A hundred-and-fifty-mile float down a river. We stopped in every village along the way. A lot of curious High School aged Bangla people were there. To them, we were a sight to behold. They were curious to what we looked like. They would get right up into our face and stare. We translated to them we were from America. To them that place was filled with gold and honey. Why were you here? They wondered. We told them the Lord Jesus said he wanted you to learn be happy and be prosperous and give you his word. I shook their hand and said, I love you. We ended up giving out 10,000 pink copies of Luke, going down that river. They were in love with the Gospel. I never enjoyed my life so much,” smiled Roy.
Jay and I also went on a mission the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Middle East. They would not allow Christians to hand out literature. We were limited to preaching in one church in the country. The Arab Christians loved the written scripture, but they also loved the preached gospel too. I made a lot of people happy preaching the parables of Jesus. They love the one where Jesus sent his disciples out on the boat and he walked on water. My son and I took a second trip to UAE and this time I took the bumpiest ride I ever took on a bus. I not only preached in the church but this time I went out and handed out the Gospel and put them on windshields. One of the Missionary girls came up to me and said, Roy you have to come back to the church, you can go to jail for this. One of the natives was caught with the message and they shaved off her head and cut of her fingernails. I couldn’t’ let them do that to this girl. I went back.
FINAL THOUGHTS
“I was convinced that the Marines were the greatest military unit anywhere for any occasion. They are the best trained, best qualified mentally and they are honored. They are honored by the enemy. I left Okinawa at the end of November 1945 and went back to San Diego. I ordered a double order of ham and eggs. I was discharged from what was the Marine Raider camp at Camp Pendleton.
I landed in Ft. Worth and it was at night. I did not tell my mother I was coming home. I came home and woke them up. She just cried and cried. The next night the whole family was there celebrating my return.
What disturbs me most were the sights I saw on Okinawa. You never forget that. I saw those dead Japanese boys and when I do… I feel that hunger and fatigue. That is my memory. How I suffered on that Island,” Roy said lowering his head.
The veterans of WW2 have been called the greatest generation ever. “I am proud that I was a Marine. I have never regretted being a Marine. The Marines were far better than any other military in WW2. I think of Okinawa every day I live. Memories go, but you never forget.”
“Get your life ready with God,” Roy said finishing his interview. “He led me all the way thru the Marines. In hindsight I saw where he was directing my life. I did not leave the Raiders by chance. I did not leave field artillery or anti-aircraft by chance. I did not survive WW2 by chance. The Lord told Japan, Roy Lowe is coming and they said, we give up.”
His wife looked over at Roy and replied, “I think he is just great. He made the whole Japanese surrender and he made the war end. He means everything to me. He is all of the things God wanted him to do. I think he is wonderful. I tell him all the time, I love you. I am so proud of him for being a Marine and all that happened when he was there. I always tell him, I should have been there and I would have known what to do,” Doris laughed.
Roy Lowe recently visited Washington D.C. and a baseball game honoring Marine Corp veterans from several generations. They looked up to Roy as their hero. “Being a Marine, no matter where you are, you are honored. People recognize that Marine emblem and they come up to you just to talk to you. I was the only Marine there from WW2. They knew the Marines won the Pacific. They honor that, and we honor each other. We know what every Marine goes thru,” said Roy. “I gave my very best to the United States of America. It is my country.
His son, Jay Lowe, remembers the day well. “We were visiting the Lincoln Memorial and it started to pour down rain. He and I knew we had to get to the bus in 15-minutes. The rain coming down. As we walked slowly down those slippery steps, I felt the presence of three men walking up behind us. They were Marines and each grabbed my father by his arms and I looked up at them, and they said, “WE NEVER LEAVE A MARINE BEHIND …”
Thank you Roy Lowe for your service to our country. Thank you for your bravery, sacrifices and honor to our country. God Bless our country, and God Bless all our veterans.
NOTE: Meet other Veterans from around the country by going to the top of www.meetourveterans.com webpage and click on Branches of Service. On the drop-down menu, click one of the (5) branches of services and read each of our veterans’ stories.
“Every Veteran has a story to tell.” Phil Smith
GOD BLESS OUR VETERANS AND GOD BLESS AMERICA
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