In April 1945, Cpl. Irv Weinbaum was stationed on Guam, part of a contingent of Army Air Force troops sent to the Pacific island after its liberation from Japanese forces by the U.S. military in July the year before.
The young farmer’s son from Ellenville in upstate New York was assigned as an aircraft mechanic on Northwest Field.
Some 78 years later, Irvin Ward, as he is now known, returned to Guam and stood on that same airfield where he was stationed during World War II.
In his mind’s eye, he saw the B-29 bomber “So Sorry II” – the one he was assigned to – take off down the runway and fly over the cliff at the edge of the airfield, heading out on a bombing mission over Japan. In all, the aircraft flew 17 missions.
Ward, a Laguna Woods resident who turned 99 on Sept. 8, returned to Guam over the summer, invited for the 79th anniversary of its liberation. Although he was not part of the liberating force, Ward was chosen to be this year’s U.S. honoree at the celebration as the “symbol of the American people who freed the people of Guam,” he said.
In two days of festivities in July, Ward, who was accompanied by his son, Adam, listened to tributes to him and the American forces. He met with dignitaries, received the “key to Guam” and the island’s emblem in stained glass from the governor, did interviews with local media, and was treated like a celebrity – first class all the way, he said.
“People came up and kissed my hand – generals, admirals. It was almost embarrassing,” Ward recalled in a recent interview at his home.
Still, he said, “it was one of the most amazing times of my life – the greatest thing that ever happened to me, especially at this age.”
Ward’s first trip to Guam, with the 20th Air Force, 331st Bomb Group, 357th Bomb Squadron, was far from first class.
The journey to the island in the Marianas, nearly 4,000 miles west of Hawaii, took 30 days by ship from Seattle, with stops in Pearl Harbor and the Marshall Islands. (Ward chuckles when he compares that to the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles he took in July, with a two-hour layover in Honolulu.)
Ward’s ship, the Cape Newenham with 1,800 personnel, was part of a convoy of seven vessels.
“Every dusk we would gather on deck, put on life jackets and look for submarine trails to see if Japanese ships were going to blow us up,” he recalled.
For the first two weeks in Guam, he lived in the steaming hot jungle, sleeping in a pup tent and eating rations, until the U.S. Navy Seabees finished building barracks.
Ward originally wanted to be a pilot when he enlisted at age 18, but he had suffered a ruptured eardrum and was disqualified. So he became an airplane mechanic, and on the ground in Guam, he wasn’t in any great danger, he said – “nothing like at the Battle of the Bulge or D-Day” in the European theater.
But he once came close to losing his life.
The Seabees were still building out Northwest Field. Ward was working out of Harmon Field, but that runway was too short for a B-29 with a full load ready to head out on a raid, he said. So the bomber had to take off from North Field, and the ground crew had to fly there to meet it.
Ward was about to board the plane, but it was full. He and some others were told to take a jeep.
“Well, that plane went up, hit the mountain, and everyone on board was killed,” he said.
Ward was matter-of-fact about his close call.
“You kind of linger on it – this is what happened. You feel bad for the guys. You think it could have been me,” he said. “But for some odd reason, I felt I was invincible. I guess it was because I was only 20 years old.”
Four months after Ward arrived on Guam – in August 1945 – a B-29 dropped the atomic bomb over Japan. The Enola Gay had flown out of Tinian, an island north of Guam, to Hiroshima.
“It was one of the most horrible things that ever happened,” Ward said, “but it shortened the war and it saved a lot of lives in the end.”
After a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, with the formal signing taking place Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
“We were very excited and happy and started wondering, how soon do we get to go home and resume our lives,” Ward recalled.
When Ward was discharged from the military in March 1946 as a staff sergeant at age 21, he had three years in the service under his belt, along with two and a half years of college (he got into college at age 16, he said).
Ward returned to Indiana University and got a business degree in 1949. He moved to California and worked as a food broker, representing nationally advertised products, before starting his own business. He retired in 1982 at age 58.
In 2012, Ward and his wife, Harriet, moved to Laguna Woods, where she died three years later.
These days, Ward lives a quiet life in his home in the Village.
He reads – Ken Follett and John Grisham are his favorite authors. He writes poetry, plays bridge three times a week on the computer, enjoys fantasy football and walks every day up to 25 minutes, among other activities. He has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“I look back with great pleasure at my life,” he said.
And he’s still thrilled about his visit to Guam in July.
“How many people get the opportunity to revisit their youth,” he said, “especially such an important time spent doing what was so important and necessary.”
