Wes Howe knew there was no hiding from the Japanese dive bombers, not on the barren shores of distant islands in the western Pacific.
“When the bombs hit, there would be a big ‘whomp.’ We’d get a big concussion where we were standing. Our shirts would puff out and our pants would puff out. That was close enough.”
Luck kept him alive, the World War II veteran from Fremont said years later.
Howe returned to Nebraska; married Katheryn Wood, who was also a veteran; worked as a mechanic and later opened a body shop.
After surviving some close scrapes during the war, Howe lived almost 80 more years. He died on the Fourth of July of natural causes at age 101.
“He wasn’t flashy. He didn’t talk a lot,” said his daughter, Mary Jo Howe, who is a veterinarian in California. “He was the ultimate quiet, generous man.”
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Wesley Howe was born Jan. 20, 1922, and grew up with his parents and younger sister on a farm near Chambers.
When he was in his mid-teens, his father became seriously ill, leaving Wes in charge of a herd of 300 livestock.
“Dad, at age 14, was running the farm,” Mary Jo Howe said. “He was a caretaker from the time he was very young.”
His father died in 1941, and the family later sold the farm.
Howe enlisted in February 1943, and the Army trained him as a truck driver. The following December, his quartermaster supply unit boarded a naval transport ship in New Orleans and arrived 64 days later in Australia.
They met up with their trucks on a beach in New Guinea in March 1944 — disassembled in crates, he told journalist Joyce Winfield of Fremont, who profiled Wes and Katheryn Howe for her 2016 book “Forever Heroes: A Collection of World War II Stories from Nebraska Veterans.”
Two hundred soldiers assembled 104 trucks in a couple of weeks — without any instruction manual or leftover parts that he could remember, Winfield said.
“He (laughed and said) that when you had a bunch of farm boys, they could assemble trucks,” she recalled in a eulogy at his funeral Monday in Fremont.
Day and night, Howe and dozens of other drivers hauled their loads from ships at sea to air bases on islands the Allies seized as they fought their way toward Japan. Without roads or ports, they drove over rough floating bridges with wooden decks to get ashore, dodging attacks from kamikaze pilots. They stashed caches of bombs and fuel in the island jungles.
In the Philippines, Howe and the other drivers faced threats from snipers while snaking along roads through narrow canyons.
He drove the rugged terrain with one hand on his steering wheel and the other on a .45-caliber handgun in his lap, Howe told the World-Herald in 2020.
“I never had to use it, thank God,” he said.
Howe was among the first American soldiers in mainland Japan after the war ended, one of 23 from his company flown to Naval Air Facility Atsugi on Aug. 30, 1945. He was just a block away from the battleship USS Missouri when the surrender documents were signed on its deck.
He was discharged 3½ months later as a corporal and soon began dating Wood. She had grown up on a farm near his family’s and served 21 months as a dental assistant in California and Florida with the WAVES (Women in Active Volunteer Emergency Service), an element of the U.S. Naval Reserve. They became pen pals during the war.
Wes and Katheryn were married in 1948 and raised three children. He worked as a mechanic at a Buick garage and a Ford dealership in Fremont. In 1965, he opened Fremont Body & Frame, which the Howes owned until his retirement in 1997.
Howe also loved animals — not just the English springer spaniels he raised and hunted with, but even lizards and amphibians. Mary Jo Howe said he once saved the life of her pet duckling, Fluffy, by massaging its neck after it swallowed a rock.
“He was very, very gentle with the animals,” she said.
Even into his 90s, Howe served as a caretaker at a local rod and gun club. He attributed his own longevity to the time he spent outdoors and eating natural foods, Mary Jo Howe said.
Mary Jane Howe said he didn’t open up much about his military service, at least not until after the publication of “Forever Heroes.” Katheryn Howe died in 2016, just before the book was published.
Winfield said she became close with all 21 of the veterans she profiled in “Forever Heroes,” including Howe.
A year ago, she said, she had eye surgery and was temporarily unable to drive. She said Howe — already 100 years old — immediately called and offered to drive her on errands.
“That’s what I love about this Greatest Generation,” Winfield said. “They are sincere, they are humble, and they’ll do anything for you.”
In addition to Mary Jo, Wes Howe is survived by another daughter, Peggy Wolverton of Omaha. His wife and a son, Charles, died before him. Services were Monday at First Baptist Church in Fremont, with burial with military honors at Ridge Cemetery.