By COLBY ROOT
Contributing writer
Introduction
Between January 1942 and December 1972, five of Burchard Bailey Root, born 1889 and Esther (Gehring) Root, born 1900, five of seven sons served in the US military. Of the two who didn’t serve, one died shortly after birth and the other sacrificed his wishes of fighting in Korea to the responsibility of maintaining the home farm during a time of family crisis. In order of age, the brothers are: Vern Russell Root born in 1921, US Navy WWII; Marvin “Hans” “Tiger” Curtis Root, born 1923, US Navy, WWII, Korea, Vietnam; William “Bill” Burchard Root, born 1927, US Navy WWII, US Army Occupation of Germany and Vietnam War; Donald Jack Root, born and died 1928; Orville “Buck” Keith Root, 1931 farmer; Gene “Buzz” Harlan Root born 1933, US Marines, Korean Conflict; and David Wayne Root born 1938, US Navy 1956 to 1959.
William Burchard Root
The third son of Hound Street residents Esther and Burchard Root to sign up for the Navy during WWII was William “Bill” Burchard Root, who turned 18 on February 26, 1945. He signed up just in time to chase his brothers into the Pacific arena and be part of the action. After boot camp, Bill was assigned to serve on the USS Gordonia, a stores ship in the Gulf of Mexico. In June of 1945, it left Mobile Alabama with frozen stores for the fleet in the Pacific. After passing through the Panama Canal, it crossed the Pacific and arrived in Oahu on July 1, 1945.
It is hard to imagine what Bill might have been thinking as his ship docked in Hawaii; his emotions must have been mixed. On one hand he was seeing the exotic place his brother had spoken about while on leave almost a year before. On the other hand, he must have known this was as close as he would get to the Pacific theater of war. Undoubtedly, he already knew that the minute the Gordonia docked, he would be reassigned and sent back to the states rather than continuing on with the USS Gordonia to resupply boats in the Asiatic Pacific Theater. By this time the “Sullivans rule” had become the standard of all branches of the United States Military. Ever since the five Sullivan brothers were simultaneously killed when the USS Juneau went down in the sea battle off Guadalcanal in 1942, brothers were restricted from serving in the same theater of war. Vern and perhaps Hans were already in the Asiatic Pacific Theater. Bill would not be allowed to continue on, even though his shipmates on the Gordonia would sail forward in ten days for rendezvous with ships in Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Bill was transferred stateside on the very day he arrived in Hawaii. He would serve on the USS Eucalyptus, stationed in San Francisco. To a boy who wanted to follow in his older brothers’ footsteps, it must have been disappointing.
The USS Eucalyptus was a net tending ship. In its own right, net tending is a dangerous job. It involves setting metal anti-submarine and anti-torpedo nets around vulnerable vessels, or around entrances to harbors and docks. Bill remained on USS Eucalyptus until he was discharged from the Navy in 1946.
By that time, his two older brothers Vern and Marvin were already home. Vern was starting a family while Marvin tried his hand at the gravel hauling business–a venture which lasted only a few months before he reenlisted in the Navy in 1946. Bill knew of his brothers’ exploits during the war.
After his discharge, Bill rented some acreage near the home farm and tried his hand at farming: Perhaps his heart wasn’t in it, since by 1949, he too reenlisted. This time he joined the army; the Navy wouldn’t give him a level of pay that acknowledges his former service. The Army would. Joining this different branch, however, meant he had to redo boot camp, or as the army calls it, basic training. After that, he was assigned to the town of Bad Kissingen in Bavaria, Germany. Bad Kissingen is near the Fulda Gap on the border with what was then the Soviet occupied zone of Germany. The Western Allies recognized the Fulda Gap as a likely location where the Soviet Union would push tanks and battalions into Western Europe, should they choose to invade. During the Cold War, the region was of significant strategic importance. It is likely Bill was in that area for most of his time in Germany.
Because the National Archive in Saint Louis hadn’t provided all Bill’s DD 214 forms, he would have resubmitted them each time he re-upped between 1951 and 1964; his family has no record of his movement in Germany. It is known that he worked as a mechanic for the Second Battalion 14 Armored Cavalry for some of that time. It is also known he met and, in 1960, married Karolina Lien of Germany.
Other than that, his history is a blur until he resurfaces in Cam Rand Bay, Vietnam, in March of 1970. On his very last DD 214 (one of only two available for his 20-plus years in the Army) he is recorded as a Sergeant first class (SFC) in Vietnam reenlisting at Cam Rand Bay reenlistment center. Now the story becomes a complete enigma. Without his previous DD 214 forms, there is no way to know how long he was in country prior to reenlisting. On this DD 214, it appears he left Vietnam only six days after reupping and was gone for seventeen months before returning to complete another six months service there. One ex-Army major who was in Vietnam and wishes to remain anonymous, reviewed the document and speculates Bill may have been on special assignment outside of Vietnam--in someplace like Laos or Cambodia. The only other explanation might be that he was back in the United States–which doesn’t seem very likely.
The last information about William B. Root’s military career is that he retired to the United States Army Reserve on December 31, 1972 in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He had achieved the rank of E8—Master Sergeant.
William Burchard Root died 1996 and is buried in St. Peter Cemetery, New Richland. Part 4 next week.
Editorial Note : The girls of the Root clan were no less patriotic than their brothers and bear mentioning here as their names may be scattered throughout the coming articles: Anita (Root) Jewison born 1922 who quit her job as a beautician to work at a factory making radio equipment for the military during WWII; Barbara (Root) Tolzmann, 1925 who was training to be a teacher at the time of WWII; Nona (Root) Smith, January 1929, who married David Smith a sailor in WWII, and whose son George was wounded in Vietnam; Iola "Odie" (Root) Schroeder Borchert December 1929; Thelma (Root) Yess 1934 who married Orville “Ibb” Yess who served in Korea; Opal (Root) Hofius 1935, who married Charles Hofius, US Army Korea. Opal Hofius, her two sons also servved in the military, Donnie Hofius and Chad Hofius.