Eldor Erdmann is a proud World War II Army veteran who used to march in parades on Veterans Day and Memorial Day and was a member of the honor guard.
Erdmann, 95, still carries himself straight and tall and said about war, “What are you gonna do if they can‘t get along, they have to fight.”
Erdmann got a deferment to stay home to farm in the town of Richmond, but he was eventually drafted on Feb. 5, 1942.
“I liked it,” Erdmann said. “A lot of guys to talk to.”
He was 22 years old when he was sent to Fort Sheridan, Ill., for basic training. Originally he was going to be part of the cavalry, but when he developed nosebleeds he was reassigned to the medic unit. That may have saved his life because it prevented him from serving on the front lines.
While training in Michigan, the group was divided into two units, one for Europe and one for the South Pacific. Erdmann thought he might be sent to Germany since he spoke German. However, he was sent to the South Pacific.
“They all liked me because I had a big smile on my face for them,” he said. “I thought that’s the best way to be.”
Erdmann spent three weeks on a passenger ship that was converted to a troop ship, sleeping four guys high on the bunks.
A harrowing time for him was on kitchen duty when he had to dump the garbage overboard at night. If he fell or if someone didn’t like him, there could have been an accident where he went overboard and no one would have missed him until the next day when it was too late.
They docked in Brisbane, Australia, but the Coral Sea forced them on to Melbourne until temporary hospitals were set up in Brisbane. Erdmann was in charge of nine men who worked in wards with men who suffered emotional and psychological stress from the war.
“They told me what they had seen,” Erdmann said.
There were eight mental wards and Erdmann said he worked the worst three. He had to transport patients to the hospital ships to be sent back to the States. Some of them would try to escape, and Erdmann, being tall and strong, had to physically restrain them. Erdmann said he tried to stay away from the wards where men had lost arms and legs and were suffering.
One night he had to sit with a soldier who was trying to commit suicide by swallowing his tongue. Erdmann had to hold a tongue depressor all night.
While there he came down with scarlet fever and impetigo and couldn’t work for a couple weeks.
“They didn’t think I was going to make it,” Erdmann said. “They were all glad to see me back.”
He was moved back to Brisbane when the hospitals were completed. As the United States gained ground in the war and secured the Philippines, Erdmann was moved there. He said the countryside was full of destroyed equipment.
Erdmann’s next move was to Japan, docking in Yokohama. He was on a hospital ship in Tokyo when the war ended.
“They didn’t want me to go home when I did go,” he said. He was on another ship home and was discharged on Oct. 23, 1945.
When Erdmann returned he went back to work on the farm and also worked full time at the paper mill in Shawano. He married Gertrude who had three daughters and a son. She died in 1991.
Erdmann has been married to Pat for eight years. There are 10 step-grandchildren, 29 stepgreat-grandchildren, and seven stepgreat-great-grandchildren.
Erdmann retired from the mill when he was 65 and stopped farming when he was 80. Erdmann is a lifetime member of VFW Post 2723 and a member of the American Legion Post 117.
In September 2011, he went on an Old Glory Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., accompanied by Eugene Widenski, Pat’s second cousin.
“That I liked,” he said. “There was so much to see I never got tired.”
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