Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:19 | Mervin Guthmiller heard about Pearl Harbor on the radio back home on the farm. He and his friends wanted to do something, but the first stop in their quest was a packing plant in St. Paul.
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After an epic train ride from South Dakota to San Diego, it was a quick boot camp for Navy recruit Mervin Guthmiller. He remembers one morning's unusual marching maneuver that led him to the largest latrine ever, just in time.
Mervin Guthmiller had come from the farm to the Navy, from South Dakota to California to Norfolk to a seaplane tender named the USS Matagorda. The constant sub alerts on the shakedown cruise to the Caribbean caused some recruits to look for someone they weren't likely to find when they reached port.
Everyone knew it was just a matter of time. Mervin Guthmiller and his crew mates could see the massive build up in landing craft and other invasion equipment at their base in England. But they were sent to Casablanca on a difficult mission.
Before Mervin Guthmiller could return to the farm, his ship had to return to the states for retrofitting, he had to meet a friend from boot camp for an unusual handshake in Brooklyn, and he had to survive two parties.
