U.S. Army Air Corps Palm Desert
Harold Shaw (right) and his brother, Jerry Shaw flank their father, Al Shaw. The twins were stationed together in World War II. / Courtesy photo
Harold Shaw
Age: 87
Hometown: The Bronx, N.Y.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army Air Corps, 9th Air Force
Years served: 1942 - 1946
Rank: Corporal
Family: Wife Barbara; two children, Abbe Flemming of Palm Desert and Steve Shaw of Indio; one granddaughter
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II Wednesday through Sunday through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Morton Cohen of Rancho Mirage.
More
Twin brothers Harold and Jerry Shaw served together in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II after getting the OK from a general in Washington, D.C.
In those days, the so-called “Sullivan Rule,” named for the five Sullivan brothers who died when the USS Juneau sank in 1942, supposedly banned family members from serving in the same combat or naval units during the war.
However, according to the Department of the Navy — Naval Historical Center, no “Sullivan Act” was ever enacted by Congress or ordered by the president.
Still, the boys had a challenging time trying to get the military brass to keep them together until a close friend of their father's, an attorney, paved the way for their OK from Washington.
Shaw — whose father was a comedic actor and his mother a Ziegfeld Follies girl — was in show business as a youngster, appearing in episodes of “Little Rascals” — in the days the short, comedic segments appeared in movie houses.
“We announced a football game in one of them,” he said. “In (an)other one of them, we announced Alfalfa's invention.”
He also appeared in a schoolhouse scene in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in 1938.
The Shaw boys enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the fall of 1942 and were assigned to Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.
“I took care of the lighting when the planes came in at night, practicing their takeoff and landings,” Shaw said.
Once they were ordered overseas, the fear factor set in.
“It was scary as hell, let me tell you,” he said. “They had everybody loaded up to board the ship. You have your pack on, it weighs a ton and the waters were rough,” he added.
The Shaw boys shipped out on a Liberty ship bound for England, landing in Liverpool after an 11-day journey across the Atlantic.
From there, the boys were off to France, hiking about 5 miles up a hill — full packs and all, he said.
“The rifle was heavier than I was,” he said. “I weighed 126 pounds.”
Some of the men toppled over, unable to carry themselves and the heavy backpacks.
“These guys were falling right in the mud,” Shaw said. “We played tennis (at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles) and that gave us a little muscle.”
“Then we got on a train that was taking us into Germany,” he said.
The train had to move slowly — just one or two miles a day, he said — to avoid the enemy.
“That was a picnic,” he said sarcastically.
“We finally got to our base in a small town in Germany,” he said, when one of his superiors said, “‘I want four of you guys to come with me.'”
The twins and two other men came forward to volunteer.
“‘You're going to get in this truck, you're going to drive to the nearest town and it's going to take all night,''' Shaw said, recalling the orders.
“The driver was lost, he didn't know where the hell he was going,” Shaw said. “We're driving and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the sky opens up and the flares are going up,” lighting the sky.
The Germans were bombing a nearby area, so the men took shelter underneath the truck, where they huddled until the attacks stopped about 45 minutes later.
The group finally managed to make it to their destination and were greeted by an inquisitive colonel.
“He said, ‘What took you so long?'” Shaw said.
When the European conflict was over, “They took us out of Germany and we waited for our ship to come in to take us to Japan,” he said.
Shaw said he turned down a plum job offer before that.
“One morning our colonel came over and said, ‘I want to speak to you boys. How would you like to go to Washington D.C. and be guards at the White House?'”
Shaw discussed it with his brother.
“I told him, ‘I don't think I want to be in the White House. You do nothing but stand around.'”
In hindsight, Shaw laments that decision, knowing that he would have had the opportunity to work right in the thick of things, where President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress conducted business during a pivotal time in our country's history.
“We should have said, ‘Yes,' damn it,” Shaw said.
