By: Kevin J. Shutt - Staff writer
News-Sun
Friday 26 October, 2007
SEBRING - Howard Bombard pauses often while telling of his experiences at Iwo Jima as a USS Highlands crewman.
He was only 24 years old in 1945 when the United States attacked the strategic Japanese stronghold, but the significance of the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi wasn't lost on Bombard.
He didn't have the luxury of sentiment then that he enjoys now.
"It really had an affect on me because we knew we were making progress, but we weren't," Bombard said.
Though he suffers from macular degeneration, the years have been kind to 86-year-old Bombard, who was a barber before, during and after the war.
He recalls events almost to the H-Hour, describing how he marched himself to the Navy recruiter's office the day "the Japs" bombed Pearl Harbor.
He worked in a Navy communications center before seeking a transfer to the Ship's Serviceman rating, which put him aboard the Highlands for her 1944 christening.
"Tokyo Rose told us where we were going," Bombard said of the Japanese propaganda radio broadcast from which the crew learned their destination after departing Hawaii, where they had conducted beach landing training with Marines.
Bombard was supposed to share these and other stories, war and whatnot, with his former shipmates at Inn on the Lakes.
But they're a dying and aging breed. Their final reunion was scheduled the week of Oct. 17.
Of the 10 who registered (which included veterans and spouses), a few had died and others became too ill to travel.
The final reunion was canceled.
Bombard and friend Delores Morey came down from Illinois anyway.
"I only attended the first and the last," he said of the reunions that began in 1991 through the efforts of Henry Sampley.
A machinist mate on Highlands County's namesake ship, Sampley volunteered his service Dec. 18, 1941. He was 17 years old.
After the war, he moved to Denver and worked on school busses. Now he lives in California.
"I kept looking in the different magazines for a reunion with the Highlands," Sampley said during a phone interview.
Finding no such listings, Sampley placed an ad and five years later the USS Highlands held its first reunion in San Pedro, Calif.
Just three people attended the first gathering, which included Bombard. The reunions continued each year, the largest drawing about 30 of the former crew and their families.
"The way I found out about it was this newspaper guy in Florida contacted me about having a reunion in Sebring," Sampley said.
He quit attending the reunions several years ago for health reasons, eventually relinquishing reestablished relationships with former shipmates.
Similar stories play out across the country as the Greatest Generation gives way to their Baby Boomers.
On Sunday, Wayne Kemler made his way over from Naples to make the final reunion a two-man event during a late lunch at Chicanes.
Bombard recalled the sinking of two Japanese submarines by a U.S. destroyer. Apparently, the boats had tracked Highlands since her Hawaii departure.
During the battle of Iwo Jima, he said, Highlands would lose all 31 of her Higgins Boats, the landing craft that brought Marines to the fight.
USS Highlands (APA 119), an attack troop transport, would eventually serve as a hospital ship to the Marines wounded on the approximately eight square mile island.
She made an un-escorted transit to Guadalcanal, loaded up with Army soldiers and sailed to Okinawa for the next assault, Bombard said.
After loitering near the Philippines, USS Highlands set anchor in Tokyo Bay, in the general vicinity of the USS Missouri, for Japan's formal surrender.
She helped remove troops from the Philippines before returning to the United States on Nov. 2, 1945.
"When you're on the ship and with the guys for a year, you get close," Bombard said. "You never forget them."
- Haskell Class Attack Transport:
- Displacement: 14,800 tons (full load)
- Length: 455'
- Beam: 62'
- Speed: 16.5 knots
- Armament: 1 5"/38 DP; 4x2 40mm; 1x4 40mm; 10 20mm
- Complement: 536
- Troop capacity: approx. 1,600
- Capacity: 2 LCM(3); 21-22 LCVP; 1-2 LCP(L); 1 LCP(R)
- Engines: Geared turbine, single screw, 8,500 shaft h.p.
- Maritime Commission VC2-S-AP5 "Victory" type modified to carry fully equipped Army and Marine Units. Vehicles and heavy stores are stowed in the lower holds. Troops are quartered in upper cargo spaces. About 20 landing craft are carried topside.
- Built at California Shipbuilding Corp., Wilmington, Calif., and commissioned 5 October 1944
Naval Historical Center Photo  News-Sun photo by LARRY LEVEY Although the official reunion of the crew of the USS Highlands had to be cancelled, two members held their own get-together at the Inn on the Lakes in Sebring Oct. 21. Howard Bombard, left, from Illinois, who served as a ship's barber during World War II, and Wayne Kimler, of Naples, a storekeeper and gunner on board the ship named after the county, chatted with each other about their experiences in the Pacific. Ship's service a surprise to county SEBRING - When the USS Highlands (APA 119) was launched July 8, 1944, in San Pedro, Calif., her namesake county was oblivious of the attack transport's existence. After 47 years, the citizens of Highlands County finally found out about the ship, her crew and their World War II role when the News-Sun "broke" the story. How did the ship get its name? During the war, attack transports were named after counties, apparently at random. A Navy historian pointed out that this was a time of war and the country needed ships in a hurry. Publicity wasn't sought, so it wasn't unusual for the honored counties not to know a ship was named after them. So, maybe it was the luck of the draw, but a World War II ship carried Highlands County into the bloody battles of the Pacific, including Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And, she had a ringside seat at the surrender ceremonies in Tokyo Bay. Shortly after the USS Highlands story appeared in the paper in 1991, an Avon Park resident saw a notice in a military magazine about a reunion of the ship's crew. He alerted the News-Sun. The paper called the organizer. And the third reunion, in 1993, was held here, followed by gatherings in 1998, 2004 and almost this year. The crew members bonded with our county right from the start. Placed at Highlands County Courthouse in 1993, a USS Highlands memorial plaque moved a sailor to express the emotional release of recognizing a county that, for so long, was just a name on the hull. Another ranked trips to Sebring second only to attending church as "most important thing(s) in my life," and others consider it "coming home." "When we first heard about the ship, we were excited," Arlene Commings of the Sebring Historical Society, said. "First, because it presents Highlands County, and no one here knew anything about it. And, it's an important piece of Highlands County history."
Sebring's Historical Society and Military Sea Services Museum have USS Highlands displays. |
