Joe was on board the SS America. The ship had been transformed into a troop carrier. They left in November, and when they got to Hawaii he was probably stationed at Schofield barracks. Joe Brozda was probably also stationed at Schofield barracks. It was in line from Pearl Harbor, which was named after the river that came down out of the mountains. I didn’t know that.

When Joe was shipped out from Schofield barracks he went to Kwajelin. Brownie’s ship was also at Kwajelein. Joe was assigned a detail to unload the beer and fresh water that was on the ship he noticed the ship docked next to them was the Salt Lake City, and he knew Brownie was on that ship.

He yelled to those sailors on that ship: “tell Brownie Popovich to come up and say hello.”


Brownie Popovich’s Ship Gets Torpedoed

When the Salt Lake City left the island, the navy went north through Kiska, Alaska. Brownies ship was torpedoed, and I have the story that was in reader’s digest. They had no power at all but limped into Dutch harbor Alaska, made some crude repairs, and made their way back to Washington. From there they came down the coast, and further repairs were made at Mare Island.


“I Was Proud of Joe”

Meanwhile, Joe was brought back to Hawaii for a health check up. But there were so many German prisoners ahead of them, that no one received any care.

One time in Honolulu, Joe saw a bunch of his buddies standing in line. He thought they were going to get their picture taken, but they were all standing in front of a whorehouse, and were waiting their turn.

The sailors were all teasing Joe: “hey, Joe, you’re standing in the wrong line!”

But I was proud of Joe.

While this was all going on I was working of course. I got lots of letters. The letters were all chopped up; they were heavily censored. I eventually burned all those letters. But he kept all the ones that I wrote to him. They are in a box, and Emily one’s them and she would be mad at me if I destroyed them.


I Recall Some of Joe’s South Pacific Tales

From Hawaii, Joe shipped out to Pelalau. When Pelalau was bombarded it was mostly the marines who went in. Spruance was the general who led the army at that time

While his ship was at anchor in Pelalau, Joe used to jump off the big propeller at the back of the ship. One day dawned on him that while he was up there they might just start that engine. He got really scared and never jumped off of there again.

When she left Hawaii for the second time, he was assigned to serve the air based on Kwajelein. One time Joe told me he saw a plane come in and make a crash landing. Joe picked up a few pieces of Lucite from which he made me some items that I still have. There were thousands of Japanese demand on Kwajelein, and when they use to bomb the place they knocked off the tops off all the palm trees. They called that the “Spruance haircut.”


Joe Makes a Grisly Discovery at the Change of Watch

One morning, Joe and a buddy went out to relieve the night watch. When they got there they found that their two friends had been killed by the Japanese. They had had their throats slit. One of the fellows was Luigi, and he was from Maine. I’ve forgotten the other fellow’s name, but Joe always regretted when he went out there and found those soldiers dead. They had been brutally stabbed.

Joe was on Pelalau to island and the Pelau group. It was just 5° off the equator. He remembers when the Indianapolis went down. Some of those survivors got to his island but there wasn’t any medical help for the men, so they took them to an island off the Philippines. I think it was the Simi islands. At that time Mrs. Hotnianski was on the island. When she left China that’s where they brought her.

I told the sea that she ought to write that story down, but she still hasn’t written it down. Her son in Hawaii should help her.

Back to the Indianapolis, that ship should have never been lost. The blunders were tragic.


Joe and the Boys Rig Up a Wind-Powered Washing Machine

On that island Joe and his buddies used to fish, any tell me that some of those fish were it’s so tough you couldn’t spear them. Just sent me home some beautiful seashells as well as a Japanese rifle. He also sent a machete, but I gave them all away when we moved here. I just cleaned up the house. I got a little hell for that.

On that island, they were just about 4ft. off the ocean. There was lots of wind, so the boys made a win mail to power a washing machine.

On the island, there was a Father Chiani. When they went to church, Joe used to serve as the altar boy. Joe helped father clean up the church. Joe really had the faith, and he was the only reason I hung on, because I never really had the faith. I had a lot of faith, but not in the church. I had a lot of faith in myself and I had a lot of faith in Joe. We were a really good team, just like your mother and dad (Poppy and Joe).

You know, parents are just like to farmers and you never know what your crop is going to be like.


Emily Tracks Down the History of Joe’s Brother at Anzio

Joe had a brother with a nickname of Ben; his real name was George. George had drafted after Joe, and he married the following May after we did. He went off into the army, and was killed at Anzio in August of that year. Joe always said that he was shot in the back. The Germans were in placed on the mountain in a seminary, and they were raking the beach with fire. Joe always said that General Clark should have never ordered the men and to land there. They were sitting ducks. We had thought the General Clark was a pretty good general, but he blundered too.

What Joe was overseas I remember walking up to visit his mother in Turtle creek. I asked her how she was doing and she said that they had just received the terrible news that George had been wounded.

When Emily went to Europe she went down to Anzio and found the fellow who dragged George back to get help. She actually found the family who helped George. Emily told me that Georgia’s patrol was called “the turtle.”

Emmy swears that it had to be from Turtle creek. Why else would his patrol have been called “Turtle Patrol?”

Emmy is a spectacular kid.

The war was over, and Andy was stationed at Boca Raton. When he came home, he was just drifting; he had a bad heart. That was the year that Bill was born. We named Bill William Andrew after Joe’s brother. And he was a nice man who had a beautiful singing voice. Joe had nice brothers and sisters. I just wrote to them, and sent pictures of their brother.
When Joe Returned from the War, I Didn’t Recognize Him

When the troop train came into Pittsburgh, it seemed like I was the only woman waiting there. I could see a soldier waiting me but I did not recognize Joe. I just didn’t remember him.

At that time everything was khaki. We had 15 million men called to service. When I was in high school, our population was 165 million. Today, we are 300 million, and we’re still a small country, but we’ve got a lot of money. And, we’ve got a lot of poor people.

But everything was khaki. I remember sitting at the window at Westinghouse while I was working as a draftsman. Every trained that went through on the Pennsylvania railroad was all tanks and trucks and jeeps and guns. Everything was covered and there were sentry’s on guard. But everything was khaki. That’s all I remember.

One story I do need to tell you about Westinghouse. When Joe was a senior in high school, and graduated in 1937 He got a job in the storeroom at Westinghouse.

The boss came in one day and said: “I want you to go upstairs in the K building. On the top floor there’s all this old radio equipment. I want you to smash that up and get it out of there.”

What that fellow didn’t realize was that this equipment was a living museum of broadcast history. When KDKA broadcast you could always hear the train whistle as it came to a stop. At 7:00 in the evening you could hear that whistle, and you knew it was coming from east Pittsburgh. KDKA was the first radio station in the country; perhaps the world. Joe was there when they destroyed all that original equipment.

Americans are so quick to get the bulldozer out. They bulldozed old Saint Coleman’s church, and put in something that was about the size of my house.