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 Captain
Peter Frederick "Fred"
Naylor, (1915-2005) was born in Chicago, Illinios on the 17 July 1915 to
Peter Frederick and Kate Elaine (Ratliff) Naylor.
1Fred
married around 1938. The maiden name of his wife is not known, but her first
name was Ruth. On 1 August 1939, they had a son, Peter Frederick Naylor,
Jr., born in Illinois. At some point after that, Fred must have moved to
Missoula, Montana, because on April 20 1942, Fred enlisted in the Army Air
Corps, indicating Missoula as his place of residence. His enlisment papers
showed he was working as a hotel clerk. Even though his marital status
was listed as "married," it is not known whether Ruth and Fred Jr. were in
Missoula with him. In any case, at some point while he was in the Army Air
Corps, he and Ruth must have divorced.
Fred described his military
service during World War II in a 2004 videotaped interview conducted by his
son Michael. A transcript of Fred's firsthand account of his military
service "in his own words" is included below, with only minor changes for
clarity and to correct some recollections of the dates when certain events
occurred.
1"I
enlisted in the cadets in the Army Air Corps shortly before I turned
twenty-seven years old because you had to be under twenty-seven to get in.
My first base was Santa Ana (Army Air Base, California), and they gave us al
kinds of tests. I had a bad cold and wasn't able to pass the eye test to be
a pilot. But my grades were such that they thought I would be a good
navigator. So I ended up in Navigation school. I spent almost nine months as
a cadet, learning how to be a navigator. When I finished
navigation school they made me an instructor, so they sent me to (Hondo Army
Airfield) Hondo, Texas. I stayed there until they formed the air/sea rescue
group. From Hondo, I went to Mississippi, They formed the crews there. The
Captain of my ship (Captain Gerard F. Wientjes)
happened to be someone who thought I was the best navigator in the world, so
I ended up as his navigator.
From
Mississippi, we went to Sacramento, California where we stayed for about a
month while they fixed our airplanes. The airplanes were all Canadian
because the Americans didn't have any PBY's with wheels and we needed to be
able to land in water or on land. We were then designated to go overseas,
and we flew from the United States to Guadalcanal. We crossed the Date Line
just before we got to Tarawa, where the big battle was. We ended up in
Australia, (actually not Australia but in New Guinea) on
Biak
Island. On my very first mission, we were
able to pick up a crew that was shot down. Every day we had a flight going,
following the bombers and fighters. And they said that once we got there,
the flights improved. The fellows weren't turning back before they got to
the target. They were staying right there because they knew we would pick
them up.
About the third flight I had, (read
mission report) we were sent into New Guinea to a
Lake
(Rombebai) site that the Americans
were using as an outpost. We were sent there because they had been
attacked by Japanese forces. We landed on the lake - there wasn't any wind
at all and we picked up this crew - they had one Japanese prisoner. Finally,
they let the wheels down on the airplane so we could stop, and the wheels
got tangled up with a bunch of weeds. And as we started out, they couldn't
get wheels back in the plane because of the weeds. The radio man (Corporal
Raymond B. Bean) and I jumped out and cleared the weeds from the wheels. For
that, I received a Bronze Star (for bravery), and so did the radio man. [see
the orders]
The Captain that I flew with (Captain Wientjes) was the one who put us in
for the Bronze Star. We were the only two to get any medals in our squadron.
(Not true, as many squadron members reveived many medals throughout the war)
Shortly after that - on Christmas Eve - we were
bombed, [photo: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4] so I spent Christmas in a
hospital bed. The Japanese loved to disturb us on holidays, and Christmas
Day was just another day to them. During the bombing attacks, the medics at
the hospital had to take me out of the bed and put me on the floor and put
blankets and mattresses over me, because they didn't know if the Japanese
would bomb the hospital or not. After the third time that they put me on the
floor, I said "Just leave me here." After I was hit, they took me to surgery
of course. That was when my buddy passed away. We were in the same tent.
There were four of us [read
Bill
Holbrook's account] in the same tent. I don't know what happened to the
other two. When the Japanese bombers were flying over, we would always be
alerted with a siren. So the sirens started going off, and as I finally got
up and started to my foxhole, the bomb hit right in the middle of my tent
and blew me into the fox hole. That's how I got all these injuries.
On Christmas Day, when I got back into my bed, a doctor came by and asked me
if I could wiggle my toes (which I could). They sent me to a hospital on
Biak and performed surgery there. They got me through the surgery and sent
me back to the States. So I was in the hospital at Baxter General in
Spokane, Washington which is where I met your mother (Maxine Hollien, who
was a nurse.) I spent six months or more there, and then they sent me over
to Fort George Wright, across the river in Spokane, for rehabilitation. When
we were at Baxter, as I told you I met your mother. And then we were married
on 11 August 1945.
I wanted to go back to my
outfit so they did send me back overseas. When I went back overseas, I had a
wife, except she wasn't allowed to come along. But this time I was with the
Third Emergency Rescue Squadron and, besides the airplanes we had six PT
boats. So when I got back there, they put me in charge of the PT boat
outfit. I didn't last very long overseas. My back started hurting every day.
I was only able to stay there about six months before I came home. They put
me on a hospital ship coming from Hawaii and shipped me home. They put me in
Madigan General Hospital (Tacoma, Washington) where they performed more
surgery to close the gap in my back, which was covered with some
transplanted skin. They cut that all out and sewed me back together."
Fred was discharged from the Army Air Corps with the rank of Captain and
after having been awarded the Bronze Star
and the Purple Heart. According to a
Banker's Life newsletter article about Fred he spent two years in the
hospital recovering from his war injuries, leaving the service when he was
thirty-one. His injuries "caused some loss of muscle and nerves on the right
side of his body, limiting the length of time he could sit or stand. The
insurance business provided a way to control his working hours and a way to
achieve his goals, both professinally and personally." The newsletter said
he started his insurance career in La Grande, using the contacts he had made
as a vocational rehabilitation counselor.
Fred and Maxine had two
sons and one daughter while living in Le Grande: Michael Robert (b. 1951)
Bradford Joseph (b. 1955) and Kathryn Ann (b. 1957). According to the
Banker's Life newsletter article, Fred was the standard against which they
measured extraordinarily successful agents during his career. He received a
number of top awards during his career.
Fred passed away on the 5 September 2005 in Portland, Oregon
at the age of ninety. (90)
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1
Exerpts from the book "The William Pinkney Ratilff Family Saga by John B.
Ratiff III
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