|
John Kilway was born in Akron, Ohio and grew up in North Hill (Akron). His father was a doctor, and his mother was
a nurse. He had three brothers and three
sisters. He graduated from St. Vincent
Saint Mary High School. From there, he went to Kent State University, and also took classes at Cornel University. He liked school but thought he could have
done better. In his youth all summer,
he played baseball, football and basketball.
In the winter, he lived by the gorge so he would sled ride down it all
of the time.
He was 18 years old when he joined the U.S Army. He was very anxious and not afraid before
going to the military. He also had two
brothers in the war.
He received his basic training at Fort
Knox for ten weeks, ten weeks at Camp Chaffee and
ten weeks for Raider training at Fort Sill. He was trained to be a raider. A Raider would be stationed 15 miles from
frontlines, off on its own. He would
track anything that would come in on them and send that information to other
team members, who would fire at them, trying to take them out. It would all take 20 seconds to transmit
all of the data and fire at them.
He had many friends all over the United States because every time he would
switch at different training facilities he would meet new people. Life during the military was very cold most
of the time. There was not a whole lot
to do, and when you would be traveling from place to place on a ship there
would be a bunch of guys cramped on one ship allowing you to really get to
know those guys. The food was what it
was, food, there was nothing special about it. It was just food. It would come in cans, he would line up and
walk by a couple bins and dip his bowl or cup into it. Some bins added taste, and some removed the
bacteria.
The rules were very strict; there were only certain
places you could go. The hours were
very long, 24 hours all day while working around the horrible cold. In his free time, he would read. Every camp had a basketball team. The two types of uniforms that he had were a dress uniform and the other was a dark
fatigue. The dwellings
he was provided were the old German Haricks.
The weather was very cold because he was in Germany. He went to Germany in 1954 and came
back to the U.S in 1955. He took a
boat to Germany. From there, he traveled by train to the
border of France. It was an eight hour train ride. His first impression was that the people in
Germany did not want them
there. They were still bitter from
World War Two. His unit was Unit 26
Field Artillery (9th Division).
The 9th Division was made up of many others units. Divisions and units are both very
large. His jobs duties were being a raider. He was also the truck driver for the raiders,
and he was also the captain’s personal driver. He was fifteen miles away from the
frontlines, and he would either live in tents or fox holes. He had seen the enemy before when he was
looking at them through binoculars, and they where doing the same thing looking
back at them through binoculars. Every
post had a siren, and if that siren went off that meant the enemy had crossed
the border. One night the siren went
off, but it was just a false alarm.
That was Jack’s most frightening experience. The most interesting experience was going
on R&R, which stands for rest and relaxation. He rented a car and traveled all over Europe. He went to France and Italy and saw Rome, as well as the Tower of Pisa and more. His most exhausting experience was 30 day
maneuvers, but his most exciting experience was coming home. He was an especially good Raider. He especially enjoyed when a call would
come back to the base saying that they got a direct hit on the enemy. He was
not very good at pealing potatoes for his base.
His command officers were veterans from
World War Two. They were very
strict. He was there for
peacekeeping. There were some times he
thought that he was going to die, because in basic training there would be
somebody shooting right above you while you were crawling under thick barb
wire. There was another time where he
was in the gas chambers and thought he was going to die. He never heard any news about the war
because he wasn’t really at war but he knew what was going on the side. The most impressive weapon he saw was the Honest John Rocket. It would pin point any location you wanted
it to and destroy it.
While he was in Europe the most impressive
place he visited was Sarmish, a little town in the Alps. You would go up a mountain in a cable
car. They had tons of stuff to see and
do. The civilians hated him and his
troops. They stayed away from them
because they would always try to start a fight. One of his funny moments was when he went
to Italy. They wanted to take more pictures so that
night they stayed in a wheat field in the car. When they turned on the radio, they found
the Saint Louis baseball game. So, they stayed up and listened to the
game. While he was there, they would
go into town for dinner. The food was
very good, and the whole meal was 28 cents.
He’s attended an USO show and met the Glen Miller
Orchestra and Tex Benesky was leading the
band. He would regularly write to his
mom and dad, and his future wife. The
highest rank he received was Specialist 3.
The medals he received were Good Conduct, German Occupation, National
Security Soldier of the Month of November 1955, which included a three day
pass and a lighter. When he came back,
there was no homecoming party because they did not know when he was coming
home. Also it was at four o’clock in the morning.
After he was discharged, he went back to college and also worked at a
grocery store for a very long time.
His first job after he was discharge was working at a grocery
store. He was actually a stock
boy. He met his spouse in high school,
and they were married in 1958. They
had four children, three girls and one boy.
Now they have nine grandchildren.
His careers included working at the super market for forty-seven years
and then working at a different super market for ten years. Now he is working at the Akron Areos stadium. One
of the organizations he’s belonged to was the Knights of Columbus.
The Old German Haricks
Raider
|
