A. Rea Bradley worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor during occupation duty with the 1st Marine Division in Tientsin, China.
A. REA BRADLEY
Age: 82
Born: Dec. 29, 1927
Hometown: Inkster, Mich.
Residence: Desert Hot Springs
Military branch: U.S. Marine Corps; 1st Marine Division; 1st Service Battalion
Years served: Aug. 14, 1945- Dec. 31, 1946; U.S. Marine Corps Reserves: June 1, 1947- May 31, 1949
Rank: Private first class
Family: Wife Dorothy; three children, Mark James Bradley of Prosper, Texas, Deborah Wilder of Riverside and Laura Mae Cleary of Irvine; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II 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 Dan Fanelli of Palm Desert
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii
More
A. Rea Bradley was 17 when he was assigned to active duty — just in time catch the tail end of World War II.
“I got an itching” to join, he said. “I got out of high school early and got into the Marine Corps.”
The date was Aug. 14, 1945, the day Japan agreed to a conditional surrender after the second atomic bomb was dropped.
Bradley was shipped to Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., for boot camp.
After completing his training, Bradley was briefly assigned to the Indian Head Naval Powder Factory — an ammunition dump in Maryland, considered one of the leading war-supply stations — where he worked as a guard.
By January 1946, Bradley was on his way across the Pacific for occupation duty in China.
“That's when communists were taking over China,” he said.
Bradley, a member of the 1st Marine Division, 1st Service Battalion, was assigned to the graves registration company in Taku, northeastern China.
According to historical accounts, the primary mission of the division was the repatriation of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians still residing in that part of China.
Most Marines in the division were assigned to guard supply trains, bridges and depots to keep food and coal moving into the cities, while civil war between the Chinese National People's Party and the Chinese Communist Party raged around them.
Stationed in the city of Tientsin, the service company was housed in a four-story Japanese girls school.
“There was a big pool right outside,” he said. “When we first saw it, it was filled with fish — for eating purposes — and ocean water.”
A crew of Marines was called in to remove the fish and the sea water, clean out the pool, and replace and repair the pool equipment.
“It was an Olympic-sized pool,” Bradley said. “Twelve to 15 feet deep” in the deep end.
“When the pool was finished, I was assigned as lifeguard,” he said.
Bradley, who had attained the rank of Eagle Scout, was a good swimmer and had experience working as a lifeguard.
“We taught the whole service company how to swim — NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and officers,” he said.
“You'd be surprised how many (officers) didn't know how to swim.”
Bradley also taught the men how to dive — from the pool's 30-foot-tall diving platform.
Household chores were few for the men of the service company battalion.
“Houseboys made all our beds and did all our washing,” Bradley said.
The Marines paid the houseboys “out of pocket” — about $6 a month, Bradley said.
Bradley served overseas from Jan. 20, 1946, until Oct. 1, 1946.
Bradley departed China aboard the troop ship the USS General J.C. Breckinridge (AP-176) for his return trip stateside.
Six months after his enlistment ended, Bradley re-enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving in the reserves until May 1949.
During his time in the reserves, Bradley, stationed at Naval Air Station Gross Ile, in Michigan, received flight training in Navy tankers and trainers.
“I wanted to fly,” he said. “And we flew a lot.”
After completing his service in the Marine Corps, Bradley took private flying lessons and was a licensed pilot for 60 years.
Bradley, who has adopted and raised desert tortoises for the past 20 years, is now caring for 11 tortoises, including a batch of palm-sized year-old tortoises.
