Winnebago Man Proud to Serve Two Tours of Duty

There was no homecoming gala for Wilbur Whitebeaver when he returned to his family following two tours of duty in World War II.

"The house was empty when I got home," says Wilbur. "My family was all up near Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin picking cherries. They did that every summer to make a little extra money."

Home after serving with the U.S. Coast Guard from 1941-46, Wilbur remembers coming in the house and sitting down. He soaked up the solitude and by the next morning was on a bus headed for Wisconsin.

"I went up there, hung around and let my family feed me," he says with a laugh.

A member of the Winnebago Tribe and a graduate of Winnebago High School, Wilbur boxed during his two years at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, where he trained in mechanics. He went on to enter the military on July 18, 1941, with buddy Billy Harden. Wilbur didn’t tell his parents he planned to enlist. They had enough to worry about with eight other children at home. "We were going to get drafted anyway, so we went early."

He noticed a sign for the U.S. Navy at the recruiter’s station in Omaha. It detailed a six-year commitment. Down the hall, the Coast Guard boasted a three-year stay.

"I didn’t know what the Coast Guard was, but I joined. I liked three years better than six," he says. He boarded a train and left for Washington, D.C., that night.

Wilbur ended up re-enlisting during the war effort. "I signed up because I knew we were needed. The war wasn’t over."

He was serving in San Francisco the day Japanese bombers struck Pearl Harbor. He was told to board a ship that day headed for New Zealand. His ship, the USS Hunter Liggett, was transporting Marines and supplies for battles in the Solomon Islands. Japanese bombers struck the ship’s escorts.

"I remember being in the crow’s nest on our transport ship and standing watch," he says. "I saw three Japanese planes come over a mountain and we began shooting. One of the planes got under our fire, just above the surface of the Pacific Ocean. That plane dropped a bomb on the transport (ship) that was next to us. You could see it all." The Hunter Liggett picked up survivors.

On November 1, 1943, Wilbur, a deck hand, helped lower eight-ton landing barges into the water. The barges, full of Marines, headed to the shore of Bougainville Island which was then held by Japan’s 17th Army. "The Japanese had built a trench around the island to protect it. We took the island, which we wanted for its landing strip."