WWII Veterans

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story was written in early July after Zane Gray contacted the OA about his friend and fellow vet Fred Harvey. Gray wanted to make sure another Veterans Day did not pass without Harvey getting recognition in his hometown newspaper. This story was written prior to Gray’s death on July 30 – but follows his wishes that Harvey be honored in the OA on this Veterans Day. Zane served in the U.S. Navy as a gunner on the battleship U.S.S. Indiana in WWII.

Former Marine Fred Harvey and former Navy man Zane Gray survived growing up in Odessa during the Great Depression and combat during World War II. Now, they face another struggle: watching as the number of their high school and military friends dwindle.
   “I’ve outlived almost all my friends,” Gray, 83, said.
   “There was about 20 of us who grew up together in Odessa,” Harvey, 85, added. “Now there’s only about three left.”
   But these good ol’ boys don’t let that keep ’em down for long.
   It’s mostly laughs and fond memories when Harvey, who lives in Killeen, rolls into town to visit Gray, who liked Odessa enough to stay.
   “I’ve known Fred since junior high when we played football together. When we grew up, the population of Odessa was 2,001,” Gray said, chuckling. “I remember, because I’d like to think that ‘one’ at the end was me.”
   In 2007, Harvey published his first novel, “Hell Yes, I’d Do it All Again,” as a memoir of his years in the war.
   “I never had a flashback or nightmare,” he said, “and I think I’ve been able to talk about the war because of that.”
   After dropping out of Odessa High School, Harvey joined the Marines and became a parachutist in the 5th Division of the 26th Marines. In February 1945, Harvey joined other troops and stormed the volcanic island of Iwo Jima during World War II.
   During one night when the island advance was halted — the night he received injuries that led to a medical discharge from the Marines — Harvey and two other men were assigned to a hole made by volcanic ash.
   Sometime during the night, Harvey woke to the sound of a pistol being fired nearby and the Marine on watch informed him the enemy was in the area.
   “Then I heard it, the dreaded sound of metal striking the wooden stock of a rifle,” Harvey said in his novel. “A Japanese grenade activates by whacking its firing pin against a solid object.”
   When the Japanese soldier tossed the first grenade in the hole, Harvey cupped his hands and scooped it out in midair. Then, he said, he heard the thump again but the soldier changed his tactic. He held the grenade a few seconds longer and then tossed it. Harvey missed scooping this grenade and had to kick it away instead, his feet and legs taking most of the blast.
   “I was laying there stunned, and I looked up and there came another,” he said, recalling the experience during a recent trip to visit to Gray.
   Harvey said the third grenade exploded after he rolled the right side of his body across it, and he knew he needed to reach help. Help was about 25 yards away, but he couldn’t stand or feel his legs. So, he began to crawl with his elbows.
   “I began to fade out, and I thought this is it,” he said, “time to cash in my chips.”
   Although his injuries required a long stay in the hospital, Harvey emerged from the near-death experience with both of his legs and the ability to walk without aid.
   “He’s tougher than a boot,” Gray said, recalling both his and Harvey’s memories of Iwo Jima. “He’d probably be dead if he wasn’t so stubborn.”
   Gray, a Navy gunner in the 4th Division, was stationed on the USS Indiana battleship off the coast of Iwo Jima the night Harvey received injuries. He served three years in the Navy before starting a lifelong career as a chemist at a natural gas plant in Odessa.
   After Harvey was medically discharged from the Marines, he decided to attend college and coach football, a passion that lasted more than 45 years. Now, he’s working on his second book that will account for all the time not mentioned in the first one, elaborating on the years before and after the war.
   Harvey said his second novel would complete his memoirs by putting down in writing his experiences growing up during The Great Depression as well his experiences coaching football in Texas and on military bases overseas.