Shep Sanders of Palm Springs appeared in a number of movies during his career, including the 1970 film “Kelly's Heroes,” with Clint Eastwood. Sanders played Turk, a tank crewman who is part of a larcenous gang of misfits who try to steal Nazi gold. / submitted photo
Shep Sanders
Age: 82
Born: Dec. 31, 1927
Hometown: Chicago
Residence: Palm Springs
Military branch: U.S. Navy
Years served: May 29, 1944 - May 31, 1946
Rank: Electrician's mate third class
Family: Two children, Kimberly Finkle (deceased) and Trinza Sanders of Palm Springs; four grandchildren.
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Shep Sanders wanted so badly to join the war effort, he went to great lengths to fudge his age.
“I was 16 years old. I was going to high school and I wasn't doing very well,” the Palm Springs resident said. “The war was on. I was feeling patriotic. I wanted to be involved. I was afraid the war was going to be over soon.
“I went to the Bureau of Statistics and told them I lost my birth certificate. They gave me an affidavit to fill out. I made myself a year older. I had to get my mother to sign it. It took some doing. It took some persuasion. I wasn't happy at home.”
Sanders said his age was never an issue in the service.
“I fit right in,” he said. “They knew I was young, but there were other guys that looked younger than me.”
Coincidentally, in Sanders' post-service career — as an actor — he played the part of a soldier alongside screen stars such as Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland and a sailor in a movie starring Steve McQueen.
After completing boot camp, Sanders hopped on a freighter in San Francisco, bound for Pearl Harbor and beyond.
“We went past the equator and went to New Guinea,” he said.
In New Guinea, Sanders was assigned to the USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68), a small aircraft carrier, where he was stationed in the engine room to man the generators.
The ship carried planes and pilots that were assigned to provide air coverage for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's landing at Leyte, he said.
A task force of six jeep carriers and four destroyer escorts met up with the enemy in the early morning of Oct. 25, 1944.
“I was on watch overnight,” Sanders said. “I was in my bunk at 4 in the morning.”
The ship had been “steaming in assigned area off entrance to Leyte Gulf, Philippine Islands,” according to the official deck log of the USS Kalinin Bay.
Just a few hours later, men were called to “general quarters,” which meant an attack was under way.
“We found out we were hit by the Japanese fleet coming from Formosa,” he said.
According to the log, a Japanese task force of two battleships, three heavy cruisers and eight destroyers were sighted at 7:05 a.m.
“Enemy began shelling. Salvo hitting in water close by in all directions.
“07:06 Commenced launching and catapulting.
“07:25 Finished launching and catapulting.
“Ten FM-2 Wildcat fighters and 10 TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bombers flew off the deck of the Kalinin Bay and into battle.
“10:45 Formation of enemy planes appeared and began to attack by making ‘suicide' dives on carriers.
“10:51 Enemy planes crashed on aft end of flight deck and skidded almost straight forward at high speed and in flames starting several fires which were quickly extinguished.
“10:53 Two more enemy planes made dives on the ship going into water close aboard port side amidships, carrying away part of catwalk.”
Early in the engagement, the chaplain's voice came over the loudspeaker and kept repeating, “Help is coming, help is coming,” Sanders said.
“I went topside and saw planes. Our ship got hit by two kamikazes.”
After a while, the chaplain's words took on a more somber, prayerful tone, Sanders said.
“He said, ‘Now hear this — Our Father‘”
The Navy pilots, on their way back from battle, were unable to return to their badly damaged ship.
“The planes couldn't land on our flight deck,” Sanders said. “They just ditched into the water.”
Five men were killed and 55 were injured in the attack.
In the midst of the battle, Sanders noticed the black sailors — who lived in separate quarters on the ship — were firing from guns grouped in one area.
“The blacks — they were steward mates and cooks and waited on the officers — their battle stations were segregated, too,” Sanders said.
“I remember looking at that. We were fighting a war against fascism and bigotry and I looked at that as strange,” he said.
Later, “I became very politically oriented,” he said.
After the battle, the USS Kalinin Bay limped back to Pearl Harbor and eventually made her way back to her home port of San Diego for repairs.
Sanders spent the rest of his tour of duty on the USS Saidor (CVE-117).
“I took a ride through the Panama Canal, up to Norfolk, Virginia and back to San Diego I was the motion picture projectionist.”
The movies were shown on a screen that hung down into the hangar deck.
“It was like a big auditorium,” he said.
After the war, Sanders moved to Los Angeles and used his GI Bill to fund his theatrical education at The Actor's Lab.
“I kind of liked the idea of acting,” he said.
After his schooling, he drove cross-country to New York with the hope of finding work as a stage actor. There he performed in a variety of plays.
But his involvement in the fight for equal rights for blacks and other progressive initiatives caught up with the young actor, who was thought to be involved in “un-American” activities.
“I was on a list,” he said. “I never joined the Communist Party,” he added.
Soon, he found he could no longer find work in the theater.
So he took a job with an advertising agency and settled into the Big Apple.
“I got caught up in the times,” he said. “The ambiance of New York. The three-martini lunches I was in my early 20s and I crashed after a while not showing up for work. I made my way back to California. I changed my name and I started working in films.”
Sanders got his Screen Actors Guild card in 1956 and got himself an agent.
“For awhile there, I was working every week,” he said.
“I did it for a lark and it turned into a passion,” he added.
Sanders appeared in numerous movies including the 1966 film “The Sand Pebbles” — starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Candice Bergen — and the 1970 flick “Kelly's Heroes,” featuring Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles and Carroll O'Connor.
In “Kelly's Heroes,” Sanders played the part of Turk, a member of a tank crew led by Eastwood's character.
“Clint, I loved,” Sanders said. “He was a sweetheart. He took things very easy.”
Sanders spent six months in Yugoslavia during the filming.
“I was really grateful to get the work,” he said.
“The Sand Pebbles” was filmed in 1965, over a period of nine months, in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Sanders' list of credits on the Internet Movie Database include appearances on “Cagney & Lacey,” “The Rockford Files,” “Rocky II,” “Mission Impossible,” “Here Come the Brides” and “Green Hornet.”
Sanders works as a counselor at Michael's House, a chemical dependency treatment center with locations in Palm Springs.
