[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 175 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2481-E2482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TRIBUTE TO JOHN STRAUSS'S LIFE AND MILITARY SERVICE

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                           HON. EARL POMEROY

                            of north dakota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 8, 2003

  Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, I recently had the privilege of meeting 
with John Strauss, one of North Dakota's distinguished World War II 
veterans at the North Dakota Veterans Home. John's unit, the 164th 
Infantry Battalion, saw more than 600 days of fierce combat in the 
South Pacific. For his heroism, John was awarded a Bronze Star and a 
Purple Heart.
  I would like to include in the Record an article from the Ransom 
County Gazette in North Dakota about John's life and military service.

                    [From the Ranson County Gazette]

   NDVH Resident, John Strauss Tells of His World War II Experiences

                           (By Janet Hansen)

       John Strauss, a resident of the North Dakota Veterans Home 
     (NDVH), Lisbon, was a member of the U.S. Army's 164th 
     Infantry Batallion which spent three years in the South 
     Pacific during World War II. Strauss, who recently celebrated 
     his 90th birthday, can still recall clearly the details of 
     that time in America's history.
       Strauss was born on September 5, 1913. He was next to the 
     youngest in a family of six boys and two girls. He and his 
     younger sister, Mary Bartholomay of Sheldon, are the last two 
     surviving siblings. He was raised on a farm near Harvey, 
     North Dakota and attended the Whitby School, a one-room 
     country school located just a half mile from the Strauss 
     farmstead. He received his high school education at Harvey 
     High School, from which he graduated in 1932.
       Following his graduation from high school, Strauss worked 
     at various farm and construction jobs. He spent some time 
     working in the Sheldon area on the Muscha and Stansbury 
     farms. He milked cows as well as caring for a herd of Angus 
     beef cattle. His other jobs included working for a plumbing 
     and heating business, doing construction and cement work, and 
     spending ten months as a maintenance man at the hospital in 
     Harvey
       In January of 1941 Strauss joined the National Guard. ``I 
     was 27 years old when I joined the guard,'' commented 
     Strauss. ``Most of the guys signing up were only 18. We 
     organized our own company. Up to that time, Harvey did not 
     have a Guard unit of its own, although there were several 
     units in surrounding towns. Since there was a need for an 
     anti-tank company, that is what our unit became.''
       Shortly after Harvey's National Guard unit was organized. 
     its members were shipped to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, where 
     they underwent training for ten months. Then came the attack 
     on Pearl Harbor, which pushed the United States into World 
     War II and the National Guard into active duty.
       ``It wasn't long after the attack on Pearl Harbor that we 
     were loaded on a troop train for San Francisco. We expected 
     to get sent overseas immediately, but we were instead sent up 
     north to guard installations such as roads and bridges which 
     were thought to be vulnerable to attack by the Japanese.
       In March of 1942 Strauss and his fellow guardsmen were 
     loaded onto an old luxury liner, the President Coolidge, for 
     their long trip to Melbourne, Australia. ``The ship was 
     nice,'' recalls Strauss. ``It still had a swimming pool and a 
     continental lounge with a grand piano. I enjoyed sitting 
     around listening to various soldiers playing boogie-woogie 
     music on that piano. But the ship was very crowded! There 
     were many other soldiers besides our battalion on board. I 
     believe there were about 5,000 of us in all. The ship had 
     two-room apartments with a bath between. Each had been made 
     to house a husband and wife. The single compartments designed 
     for one person were each crammed with about a dozen soldiers 
     in bunk beds.''
       Strauss does not complain about the accommodations. He says 
     he was happy with two decent meals a day. He spent much of 
     his time on the deck of the large ship. ``I loved it on the 
     water,'' he said. ``I didn't get seasick. I liked to stand on 
     deck and watch the waves roll by.''
       After a long ocean voyage, the ship finally reached 
     Melbourne. ``We had to unload all our gear and equipment from 
     that ship onto three small Dutch ships which were waitin for 
     us in the harbor.'' said Strauss. ``They were old wooden 
     vessels with crews from the Indonesian island of Java. The 
     crew members were dirty and used to eating tired old mutton 
     for meat. It didn't look or smell fit to eat, and tasted as 
     bad as it looked, but I managed to eat enough to get by.''
       The old Dutch ships took the soldiers to New Caledonia, a 
     French held island in the South Pacific east of Australia. It 
     was believed that that island might be one of the next 
     Japanese targets. The troops immediately set about fortifying 
     the beach by digging in gun enplacements. The soldiers lived 
     in tents. It was hot and humid during the day but cooled off 
     at night. The Japanese attack which had been expected did not 
     come. Strauss recalls hearing that some troops encountered 
     problems with the Communist French but it didn't affect those 
     with whom he was encamped on the shoreline.''
       From New Caledonia, Strauss and his fellow soldiers were 
     sent to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. ``We only found 
     out a day in advance that we were to be sent there,'' Strauss 
     said. ``We arrived there just after daylight. We had to 
     unload our own ships with small boats that ferried the cargo 
     from the large ship to shore. We had only a day in which to 
     complete the job because the ships wanted to leave the harbor 
     while it was still daylight. There was too much danger from 
     Japanese air strikes to chance staying there at night.''
       Strauss said that the first night at Guadalcanal was the 
     most frightening time which he experienced during his entire 
     tour of duty. ``We sat on the beach,'' he said. ``There was a 
     lot of confusion with people milling around. There were air 
     raids going on and we were pretty scared because of the lack 
     of protection. In the evening they lined us up in formation 
     and told us to march. I did not know where we were going. I 
     just followed the guy in front of me. Suddenly all hell broke 
     loose! There were Japanese ships in the bay and they were 
     attacking Guadalcanal. The attack from air and sea lasted 
     until morning. The area was all lit up by the explosions. We 
     got initiated fast! We felt completely helpless.'' ``The main 
     target of the attack was the airbase at Henderson Field. The 
     Japanese had originally built the airstrips and the United 
     States had taken control of the base. The Japanese wanted it 
     back. Around 10,000 Japanese troops landed on the island. 
     They were on the opposite end of the island from where we had 
     landed. The Japanese would come in swarms at night but we 
     were safer on our side of the island than we would have been 
     if we had landed on the other side.''
       Strauss explained that his battalion's first objective was 
     to entrench their 37 millimeter guns along the beach. ``We 
     were sent in to help the Marines at Guadalcanal,'' he said. 
     ``We served under General Vandegrift, Commander of the 1st 
     Marine Division.
       As a result of their service under the Marines at 
     Guadalcanal, Strauss and his fellow members of the 164th 
     infantry were each awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, 
     which is given by the commander of the regiment. ``To my 
     knowledge we were the only army outfit in the world to get a 
     citation from the Marines,'' said Strauss.
       Strauss states that his main job was to guard the beach 
     area. He manned a 37 millimeter gun entrenched in the sand. 
     ``I was glad to stay there instead of going farther onto the 
     island,'' he said. ``We stayed there for six months. There 
     were a few small battles, but we were mostly mopping up.''
       ``The Marines left in January and we followed in March,'' 
     said Strauss. He explains that by the time they left 
     Guadalcanal most of the men in his outfit had dysentery and/
     or malaria.
       ``Most of us were sent to the Fiji Islands for some R & R 
     (rest and relaxation) time,'' related Strauss. Some members 
     of his division enjoyed their vacation, but Strauss spent 
     five months in the hospital because of a tropical ulcer on 
     his leg. The ulcer started as a sand fly bite and became 
     infected by his boot rubbing on it. After two and a half 
     months with no results in the treatment of of the ulcer, a 
     doctor tried grafting some skin over the ulcerated area. 
     After that it finally began to heal and he was released from 
     the hospital.
       ``I was out of the hospital for one day,'' said Strauss, 
     ``and I came down with malaria.'' I spent another two and a 
     half months in the hospital recuperating.'' By the time 
     Strauss got out of the hospital his company's R & R time was 
     over and it was time to train once again.
       ``We were in Fiji for a total of nine months,'' said 
     Strauss. ``From there we were shipped to Bougainville Island, 
     where we stayed for the next year. Again, we were sent there 
     to do some mopping up. We saw action, but it was usually 
     small attacks. However I actually saw more action there than 
     I had previously.''
       Strauss explained that he served as sergeant of a flame 
     thrower platoon. ``I had 26

[[Page E2482]]

     men under me,'' he said. ``Of those 26, 13 lost their lives 
     during our stay on Bougainville Island. Our job was to dig 
     machine gun nests out of the big banyon tree roots where the 
     Japanese had placed them. It was my job to lay down in a root 
     trench and receive the flame throwers from one of my men. I 
     would then drop the flame thrower down a hole which looked 
     like a gopher hole to try to destroy the machine guns.'' 
     Strauss would then have to scramble out of the hole as 
     quickly as possible. We continued that dangerous mission for 
     seven days but were unable to burn the machine gun nests 
     out.''
       He explains that the flame throwing itself was not the hard 
     part of the mission. The difficult part was getting back to 
     their line without being hit by enemy fire.
       He goes on to explain that on one of his flame throwing 
     missions he received a head wound which was believed to have 
     been from shrapnel but which he describes as ``just a nick or 
     scratch.'' For that wound he received a Purple Heart which he 
     proudly displays with his other medals. He also received a 
     Bronze Star for meritorious service while under the call of 
     duty.
       From Bougainville the 164th Infantry was shipped to the 
     Philippines. Shortly after arriving there, Strauss came down 
     with a strange skin disease. He received orders to go to the 
     medics and, as a result, ended up in the hospital again. 
     After a couple weeks he was shipped back to the United 
     States, since his skin condition seemed to be getting worse 
     instead of better. He was hospitalized at Harmon General 
     Hospital in Longview, Texas for a few months and then was 
     sent home for a month. An army doctor in Texas diagnosed his 
     skin condition, which had been previously thought to be 
     `jungle rot,' as dermatitis. Once the correct diagnosis was 
     made and proper treatment provided, his skin cleared up. He 
     told his doctor that he was afraid of getting it back when he 
     went back to the Philippines, since it seemed to be the dirty 
     conditions in which the soldiers were forced to live that 
     caused it. The doctor replied that he did not have to be 
     afraid of that happening because he was sending him home 
     instead.
       In June of 1945 Strauss was sent to Fort Snelling where 
     papers were filled out for his discharge. He was then sent 
     back to his home town of Harvey.
       After his discharge Strauss went back to work at the 
     plumbing and heating business where he had been formerly 
     employed. He was sent to a private machine shop in Wahpeton 
     for six months of training, on a lathe. He later spent some 
     time working on a ranch in the Bowman area. He then answered 
     an ad for a maintenance worker at the Harvey hospital and was 
     hired. He eventually became head of maintenance there and 
     worked there for six years.
       He left that position in 1969 and went to work for the 
     Bureau of Reclamation with a crew that was working on the 
     McClusky Dam. He worked at the commissary at the Fortuna Air 
     Force Base at Crosby for a while and then worked in Housing 
     and Maintainence at the same base for a couple years.
       Strauss retired in 1975, at 62 years of age, and moved into 
     an apartment in Harvey. He continued to do odd jobs in the 
     Harvey area.
       When his health began to fail in 1998 Strauss moved to the 
     North Dakota Veterans Home. ``I always had it in mind that I 
     wanted to live here some day,'' said Strauss. ``I had visited 
     the home a few times and thought it was a nice place. I have 
     never been sorry for a minute that I came here.''
       Strauss celebrated his 90th birthday with cake and ice 
     cream treats at the NDVH in September. His nephew, David 
     Strauss, Valley City, planned a big party for him. Strauss's 
     sister Mary and several nephews and nieces were on hand to 
     help him celebrate.
       Outside of some arthritis and a few heart problems Strauss 
     said he is doing fine. He explained that he got the flu last 
     spring and was sick for several months. However, once he 
     recuperated from that bout he has been back to his old self. 
     ``They are so good to me here,'' he said. ``Anything you 
     need, you get. The staff people are always smiling. I 
     couldn't have found a better home anywhere.''

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