Video Log
Clayton E. Cooke
WWII
US Army
Born 05/28/22
Interviewed on 08/23/2012
Interviewed by George England
(Side 1 of 2) on minidvd
Intro
This interview took place at the home of Clayton E. “Bill” Cooke in Avon, Ct.
His rank at discharge from the army was T4-Tech sergeant.
00:00 Cooke received his draft notice, “Greetings from the President”, at his family home
in West Hartford in 1943 and left Hartford for Ft. Devens, MA. He was nineteen years
old.
Cooke’s parents, along with his two brothers and fellow employees from Railway
Express, saw him off on the train. He remembers one fellow employee gave him a fivedollar bill, which was a lot of money in those days. At Devens for two days, he received
an introduction to the army.
02: 37 He left by train for Ft. Bragg, NC, for eight weeks of basic infantry training. They
arrived on a Saturday night and were given hot chocolate. He learned discipline,
marching, infiltration techniques, handling a rifle and using a gas mask. The food wasn’t
bad. He saw a lot of corporals, sergeants, lieutenants and captains.
03:54 Without leave, Cooke was then sent Washington, DC. His new location was along
a highway on way to Ft. Belvordere, VA. It was an interrogation center for German
officer prisoners of war. He learned he was in the Military Police.
It was a beautiful spot, a former country club. His barracks were in the woods.
05:22 Prisoners were German submarine officers. One prisoner was an Italian and was
left entirely alone and had his own villa. He was fed and not required to do a thing.
The Allied forces had not invaded Germany at that time (March 1943).
The prisoners were well treated. Waterboarding was never heard of at that time.
07:05 Prisoners were often taken into Washington for a nice evening. They wore
American uniforms, so as not be a spectacle. When they returned they were “flying high”
and had special meetings, hopefully to gather useful intelligence. He was there about a
year.
08:00 During his time off, Cooke went to Virginia. He took a bus and sat down near the
front. He decided to move to a seat at the rear of the bus. Suddenly the bus driver came
up to him and ordered him to come and sit in the front. The driver added, “Or this bus is
not moving”.
That’s when he recognized there was segregation. While in Alexandria he noticed the
public water drinking fountains were segregated by skin color. This was a new
experience.
Cooke was shipped off to Louisiana to Camp Clayborne. He was now a PFC.
He considered the place to be like an enema. He was there about two months.
In addition, he had more basic training, but couldn’t wait to get out of there. The johns
wee outside. There were razor back hogs nearby, which scared the hell out of him.
He then headed for Ft. Leonard Wood, MS for additional training, including long
marches. It was just as bad as Camp Clayborne. They bivwacked and nearly froze to
death in tents.
Cooke remembers faking having a horrible toothache and was taken by ambulance to
Granite City. Ill.
His sergeant told him that Granite City Depot Company has the largest military inventory
in the US. From here it goods are shipped to foreign lands.
12:39 He was also told not to go into the working area of buildings, unless he was with a
squad, because there were many civilian women workers who were desperate for a man
and were “hot to trot, and a single man is not safe”.
Cooke was instructed to learn the army system, the methods of handling inventory, filing,
distribution and more. And, learn to set up warehouses located in a foreign country.
St. Louis, MO, was not far away, but the fellows chose not to go there. The Granite City,
mid-western people, were terrific and always greeted them at the gates. They would
invite them to their homes to meet their families and have a home cooked meal and nice
conversation. Not like in New England.
Cooke was shipped back to Virginia to a place near Camp Belvordere for about a month.
He was given new postal address and given a furlough of about a week and a half and
was told that he was going overseas.
He took the train to Hartford to spend time with his family. Afterward, he took the train
to he was off to Camp Pendelton, CA where a hugh sign greeted him saying something
about “The best soldiers in the world”.
Upon arrival he was instructed to turn in his winter uniform. He was issued new light
weight uniforms for a warm climate and realized where he might be headed…to the
Pacific on a troop ship.
17:24 He was told the ship was the USS Blatchford. It would be a new adventure. He had
never been on a boat before and was going on a trip to, “I don’t know where”.
They left from the Oakland area and discovered there were lots of ocean swells with
many ups and downs. He was told to eat all he could swallow. It would keep you from
getting seasick. It appeared to work, but many were sick as dogs..
When out to sea, they joined a convoy and later learned it was headed for New Guinea.
Some were let off at Hollandia. There he saw all kinds of red mud and lousy weather.
He gave a soldier headed for home a new tee shirt and received a New Guinea five-dollar
bill. He still has it.
After their ship embarked from New Guinea, they were told they were headed for the
Philippines. The ship suddenly encountered a power problem and couldn’t proceed. They
were adrift. Initially the convoy waited for them. They were totally without power or
lighting or cooling.
Soon the convoy departed without them and left them behind, however, not long
afterward the power problem was repaired and they were informed their destination was
Manila Harbor.
Arriving at night in the Philippines at Manila Harbor, the ship did not lower a gangplank,
instead the troops had to depart in the darkness using cargo nets hanging over the side
and descend to another vessel. He was scared to death. He clearly remembers the date
because it was announced on loud speakers that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had
died, April 12, 1945. He was there a full year.
Trucks were loaded with them and they headed to the Old Wall City of Manila.
He remembers tape being on the road directing the pathway of the vehicles to avoid
booby traps.
Upon arrival they entered some building in Manila. You could hear gunfire in the
distance and other weapons involved in battle.
21:54 Elevators were not working. They were filled with the bodies of dead Japs that had
been lying there a while. The sight and smell was horrific.
Once again, they had hot chocolate.
23:01They settled in. They were part of GENED (Genera Engineering Department), a
part of the Army engineers consisting of people with wide range of skills, older men,
mainly engineers, surveyors, construction people, bull dozer operators, i.e. people of all
trades. Their purpose: rebuild Manila infrastructure, rebuild the city, buildings, roads and
bridges. They had to clean up the city.
They established their own HQ and would soon have an administrative group consisting
of Filipino civilians on the payroll of the US army.
Instruction: Don’t touch any property of the Filipinos, i.e. churches, relics, vases or any
personal property. All had been trained as soldiers ready to take up their rifles, if
necessary. A small number were called to do some shooting.
The “Old City”, a part of Manila, was devastated by the Japanese early in the war and
then later by US bombardments.
25:05 The civilians were given food stamps. The US supplied them with food and
employment. It was not strange for our troops to hand out bread and bags of rice. It was
quite an experience.
Cooke’s first assignment was to assist in setting up a signal station telephone hookup,
something he knew absolutely nothing about. He said, “What the hell is that?
He was assigned to work with a sergeant who would teach him everything he needed to
know. Later they had five stations of switchboards.
26:40 Cooke was responsible for training the civilians on the communications telephone
exchange. They caught on fast. They spoke English and were smart people.
Sometimes, Cooke would drive two or three of his Filipinos employees to their homes at
night using his jeep. They lived on a long narrow road with houses on either side. Being
just a kid, he would speed like hell, shut off the lights and coast to their destination.
However, one next night, the jeep wasn’t available and he borrowed a weapons carrier.
He forgot how wide the rear of the vehicle is and drove it the same way. By doing so he
ripped away the outside plumbing at many of the homes as he tore down the street. There
was water running all over the place.
All hell broke loose. There were men with clubs looking for the culprit.
He sped back to the motor pool and told soldiers in charge “If you don’t tell anyone about
this, I will give you my cigarette rations for the entire time I am here”.
He called the City authorities and acted like a high military official and told them he was
from GENED and to get an emergency crew out there “immediately”.
It worked. There were plenty of blue lights with repairmen everywhere.
Back as his HQ, he did not tell anyone. “It was my secret”. About three or four weeks
went by when suddenly his sergeant told him the commander wanted to talk to him.
The commander asked if he had anything to say. Cooke replied, “I don’t think so, “Are
you sure”? Cooke, “ Don’t think so”.
Then Cmdr related exactly what had been done…. perfectly.
The Cmdr told him to go to his quarters and pack all of his gear and wait for the truck,
because he was being sent to Okinawa. There had been talk of fighting there very soon.
He was scared “ s…less”. Cooke told the Cmdr he thought it was severe punishment.
When alone with his sergeant, he was told it wasn’t true. The sergeant thought it was
funny and laughing like hell. Cooke said he got so mad that he threw his bag at the
sergeant. However, he was told he would have to pay for the damage and payment was
taken out of his pay for a long time….until his discharge. He can’t remember the amount.
Cooke was lucky. He would have no court-martial.
Cooke had never had any time off while in Manila. He knew of a sergeant, George
Bramermon, a jeep delivery driver, who was going to make a delivery to Clark Field, a
long way from Manila. He asked him if he could go with him and was told “Yes, I’d be
glad to have you.” They took off and soon entered an area outside of Manila that was still
considered the combat area. “As a kid you don’t think of danger”. There was still fighting
going on.
29:56 Cooke said there were many rice fields on the both sides of the road.
Side 2 of minidvd
On the return trip they stopped their jeep at a bar to have a few beers, but the driver was
getting anxious about the time. It was getting dark. Cooke convinced him to have “one
more beer”. Then they took off for Manila. Enrout they had a flat tire and it was now
01:02 dark. Until then Cooke didn’t think a jeep could get a flat tire.
They were in a large rice paddy and could hear “zings”, like bullets flying. He was told to
take the Tommy gun out and walk in a circle around the jeep and fire it into the rice 49
paddies and just keep firing, while George repaired the flat tire.
While stationed in Manila, Cooke had been having Filipino’s clean his clothes since they
did it better than the army. A man had his wife did the work and always delivered the
clothing.
Cooke had a couple of promotions while there, the last one to Sergeant.
One day he heard an announcement “the war is over, they dropped an atomic bomb”.
There was lots of shouting and guns going off. Everyone was happy.
13:25 Cooke had time to sit in on the trial of Japanese General Yamamoto who was hung.
The general had been brought from Japan.
When it was time to leave and head back to the US, he sent another load via the man. The
clothes were never returned. He looked all over Manila but could not find him. He would
have shot him.
All Cooke had to wear was summer clothing on his back,.
They departed on a troop ship and headed for Hawaii. It took thirty days.
On the way over in a convoy from California, it took forty to forty-five days.
16:10 They pulled into Aloha Harbor with its big neon sign, but were not allowed to go
ashore. Finally, San Frasncisco, they came in under the Golden Gate Bridge and headed
for a California camp. Not sure if it was Pendleton.
16:58 Cooke was sent by railroad to Fort Devens, Ma, for discharge, taking the northern
route. It was cold with only his summer uniform. People along the way were very nice in
17:29 the troops. The towns in the west used silver dollars and the streets were very wide.
18:24 At Ft. Devens, he was given new winter clothing and discharged.
Cooke headed for his home in West Hartford, CT. He had served close to three years. He
was a Tech Sergeant at discharge in 1946.
19:51 Cooke couldn’t get out of his uniform fast enough. He bought a complete outfit. A
new polo coat, pin stripped suit, shirts, shoes and tie.
He applied for his job at Railway Express, the job he had as a teenager in high school. It
was unionized; therefore he had seniority with his service years. He got his job back.
They bumped a woman employee.
He did that for six or seven months and soon itched for more
21:06 Cooke decided on Uconn for his education, taking Business Administration on the
GI Bill.
20:46 He went to the Ft. Trumbull, New London, Ct, campus for two years, then to the
main campus for the last two years. While there he ate lots of ham and cheese
sandwiches. They lived in old converted chicken coops. He remembers being told as
freshman, “Look to your right, look to your left, shake hands, because statistically only
one of you will make it”. That worried him. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in
Business Administration.
He soon got a job as assistant salesman with National Cash Register Company.
That was not for long. With the Korean War and the economy and iron and steel
controlled for war purposes, National Cash Register had to close down. “They let me go”.
Desperate for a job he headed for Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford.
At an intersection as he was about to make a turn, the light was red; he decided to drive
straight ahead on the green light. He wound up seeing a sign in Bloomfield pointing to
21:00 Kaman Aircraft, a company with about five hundred employees, were he got a job
in a clerical function at fifty dollars a week, more money than at National Cash Register.
23:19 He retired and followed with a sales job as a regional manager. One account was
M.I.T. In 1988 he retired to Marco Island.
25:46 In 2012, he joined the Avon VFW, after it being suggested to him by a former
West Hartford neighbor and also the wife of another VFW member.
Cooke is very happy with the camaraderie.
27:00 End
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