Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:08 | As a special treat, some actresses came to Biak to put on a show for the enlisted men. All the lights were turned off except the klieg lights. Around 8:30 that night, the show had started and a lone Japanese bomber saw the lights. He approached the airstrip and bombed it.
As soon as Leonard Meyer became 18, he got the order to go to Fort McPherson for induction. Just as Leonard Meyer's father drove up, an Army captain showed up and offered Leonard a job as his driver. Politely declining, Leonard said he would rather enlist in the Air Force. A few weeks later, Leonard was sent to Air Corps training in Mississippi to train to use a teletype machine.
While in the Pacific, Leonard Meyer came down with rheumatic fever which landed him in the sick bay. He woke up one morning and noticed the ship was anchored. A naval officer came down and explained that while he had pleaded with the captain to take Leonard back to the States, the captain had ordered Leonard to be dropped off on the shores of New Guinea.
The ending of the war resulted in everyone going back home except Leonard Meyer. He was ordered to gather all the supplies and turn them in to the quartermaster. After completing his order, he saw three Filipino girls with absolutely nothing, so he gave them two torn blankets and some K-rations. Moments later, two MPs came by to arrest him for the improper distribution of government property.
During Meyer’s free time he began his own newspaper. He would extract articles from the Army's newspaper "Stars and Stripes," and also put in stories that the troops would give him. Leonard also discusses other events that took place, such as the Lieutenant who didn't use good judgment about a plane's weight limit, a world famous rescue from the jungles of New Guinea, and the time he saw his brother in the Philippines.
