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Remembering D-Day, through the eyes of a Towanda WWII veteran

Pantagraph - 6/6/2023

Jun. 6—TOWANDA — Eighty-one years ago, on Dec. 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese Empire, Roy Lee Redding's mother drove him to the U.S. Navy recruitment office.

Redding, who turns 103 this year, was born and raised in Kansas but lives in Towanda now. He said his mother did not want him to get drafted.

"1941, Pearl Harbor Day. She took me to Kansas City to sign me up for the Navy," Redding said, sitting for an interview with The Pantagraph on Thursday, June 1, at his home.

"She didn't want me in the Army. She had two brothers in the Army, and they didn't like it," he said.

Redding is one of a dwindling number of World War II veterans still alive. More significantly, too, is that his ship saw action in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 — D-Day.

Redding moved with his wife and growing family to Towanda in 1955, and he retired from State Farm in 1985, according to information provided by his family. He also served as village president of Towanda for several years.

For decades, he has been part of the community's Fourth of July parade.

These days, he spends his time relaxing at the family home, with his great-grandson Aidan Domkuski and family helping to take care of him.

Redding remembers his time in the Navy fondly.

"I enjoyed the Navy," he said, relaxing in the sunroom, wearing headphones to amplify the conversation. "I was a gunnery officer."

During the war, Redding was a junior officer stationed on a troop and equipment transport ship, LST-504.

"I had a good crew, and we worked together real good. Had to keep the guns all cleaned up. That was a chore," he said with a chuckle. "But it was a happy time, really. Everybody just seemed to pull together. (That) made it a lot better."

Redding said his ship sailed to England from the U.S. in "one of the largest convoys that they ever sent across.

"I don't know how many ships we had. There was just ships all over the place, and they'd get out of position at night. And then, in the morning, it'd take them half of a day to get back in shape where they belonged," he laughed.

Redding said he enjoyed sailing; "I like the sea. It's calm, unless you're in a storm."

The soldiers he transported, though, felt a little different.

"A lot of them got (sea) sick," he said, smiling.

"I was fortunate with that; I never did get sick," Redding said, adding that he would get a little queasy below decks, "but if I was up in the air and got the breeze, I never got sick. So I stayed upstairs most of the time."

Redding said, despite their penchant for sea-sickness, he enjoyed the soldiers on his ship because they were from Kansas, like him.

"(Fort) Leavenworth, Kansas was close to where we lived. There was a bunch of soldiers on our ship that was from Leavenworth," he said. "That was kind of neat to see those guys who were from your hometown."

Redding said one of the few things he did not enjoy about the Navy were the drills he had to run.

But he said his sailors were "real good at taking orders and stuff. You learn a lot of discipline there."

However, smooth sailing only lasts so long.

"We had one boy, just a kid. He's 18 years old," Redding said. "He joined the Navy, and then he got scared. And it really bothered him.

"So, he took a chance and, I don't know where we were, but he, what they called 'jumped ship.' He took leave at night, and he didn't come back."

Redding said the military police had to go to his home and pick him up.

"Then he finally got settled down. You know, he was just a kid. He was scared, he really was."

While Redding said he was never scared, per se, because of the size of his convoy, there were things that bothered him.

"We had these bombers come over every night, every night," Redding said. "The same time, they'd come around bombing us, but they weren't very accurate with their bombing."

But there was something else that struck a chord and stuck with Redding all these decades later.

"One of the reflections that I have, that keeps coming back into my mind," he said, shifting in his chair, "was the first time I ever saw a dead body floating in the ocean.

"I don't know what the occasion was," he said slowly, gathering his thoughts. "But that was kind of — we wasn't expecting to see it. Kind of shocked you."

He said his sailors weren't scared before: "But seeing a dead body floating in the ocean, that scares everybody. I don't care who you are. It makes you wonder ... that was a bad feeling there. It's a feeling you never get over."

"People don't seem to be too interested," Redding said. "It was a long time ago ... very few people ask me what it was like ... very few people are interested in it."

There was a pause before Redding pivoted, "It wasn't all bad." His smile returned, and he said, "there was a lot of good times, too."

He said the ships in convoy would trade rations to suit their crews' appetites. He said they would trade canned chicken for things like eggs or potatoes.

"Trading back and forth, which was good, keeping everybody happy," he said. "That was the main thing, keep 'em happy."

After the war, Redding said he remembers climbing on ladders in New York City to watch the Victory Parades and being awed at the spectacle.

Redding separated from the Navy on Jan. 17, 1946.

His ship, LST-504, never received a proper name during wartime service. According to Naval History and Heritage Command, the ship was designated as U.S.S. Buchanan County in 1955.

It was sunk a year later as target practice.

"I remember seeing them bomb that ship when they mothballed it and gutted it — cleaned all of it and took everything out of it," Redding said. "Off the coast of New York over there, and they bombed it and sunk it. They got rid of it ... I didn't like that. I kind of liked that old ship."

Redding said he would have liked to stay in the service, but other priorities creeped up on him.

"I would have stayed in if it wasn't for my wife having a kid coming," he said. "I felt like my duty was to be home with them."

That kid was Sam Redding.

Organizers in Towanda are planning to get the old sailor back in the Independence Day Parade this year.

Contact D. Jack Alkire at (309)820-3275. Twitter: @d_jack_alkire

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