Hello all. My father was a sergeant in the US Army Chemical Corp. His was a unique story that I feel compelled to relate. First let me share the fact that my father, Terry Whatley, like all my uncles never talked about the war except between themselves. We only learned when we were grown men and only occasionally would they talk about it. After training my father was shipped to North Africa. The US anticipated that the axis would deploy and use chemical weapons (mustard gas) so WWI ordinance was shipped and unloaded. The unloading was done by the Chem Corp and taking from below deck and transferred to a small navy boat and then to shore. Unfortunately much of the WWI ordinance leaked mustard gas. My father and others donned rubber suits, gas masks and removed the artillery shells. It was so hot that they could work only a short time the solution was presented to the men that a new fabric spray on their clothes and they would be protected. My father agreed to have his trousers spray but kept his other protective gear on. The mustard gas seeped onto his skin from the waist down. He almost died from those wounds. A pharmacists mate pealed rotting skin from is scrotum and legs and used sulfa drugs to stop infection. Shipped back to the state he recovered enough to be on crutches and he shipped out to Australia. From there he went from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. That’s where his story became part of History. Visiting one day I noticed his 1000 yard stare, not a good time to interrupt. Suddenly he burst out with pleas to me to never “Don’t ever have another war with Japan!” He told me that in July 1945 his Chemical Warfare group started receiving brand new weapons of war. New Trucks new artillery that could fire the new types of chemical shells. He told me they were given shells and bombs that would airburst and splatter clear sticky jelly like over a village or city. “We were gonna kill everything!” My father was screaming when he told me this. “When people came back to their houses and touched the door they would begin to melt!” My father said the Abomb saved Japan from utter annihilation. But my fathers war was not over yet. He was sent to Nagasaki two weeks after the second Abomb was used. “I could smell it hundreds of miles out to sea.” He told me he would see dead people and suddenly they would cry out! “The Army sent me there to see what mass destruction looked like.” Radiation death! My father told me again that without the Abomb the US would have had to use chemical weapons to defeat Japan. The US Navy took all that new equipment out to sea and pushed it overboard. My fathers Army records were burned in a fire and nothing remains but his stories told to his sons.
Thank you for your attention and time
George G Whatley
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Sadly i dads file was also burned and they denied him benefits for 10ish years saying he never left bootcamp but he had all his documents and finally won. He still hasn’t received his over 500k backpay.
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