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Page 14 October 2017
C o m m u n i t y news
Jim Wisotzkey’s Luck Held Through World War II
James Rada, Jr.
Jim Wisotzskey considers himself
the luckiest guy in the world. He
is ninety-three years old and is
still going strong. He has lived in
Thurmont all of his life, except for
a few years in the 1940s during
World War II. He survived the war,
barely missing several times when
he could have easily been among
the casualties—this is why he
considers himself so lucky.
After the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor in 1941, Jim, like many
Americans, rushed off to join one
of the Armed Forces. The problem
was that he was seventeen years old
at the time, and he couldn’t enlist
without his parents’ signature.
Grinning, Jim recalled, “I know
they wanted to get rid of me, but
they wouldn’t sign.”
When he turned eighteen,
he enlisted in the Marines and
was shipped off to Parris Island.
Apparently, it wasn’t as grueling
a time for Jim as it was for other
Marines. He actually said that he
liked his drill instructor.
At the end of his basic training,
all of the enlistees were taken into
a hall and given a test. This was the
first time where Jim’s luck helped
him out.
“I was raised by a storekeeper,
and the test was all about
storekeeping things,” he said.
He figures he must have aced
the test, because of the ninety-four
Marines in his group, he was the
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only one sent to Quartermaster
School in San Diego. The rest were
sent off to fight. Once Jim learned
how to be a quartermaster, he was
shipped off to Hawaii.
Three days after arriving, he and
the other Marines were told to line
up to get their orders to ship out
to an island where they needed to
build an airstrip. The problem was
that the Japanese were on the island
and intended to remain there.
While he was in line waiting
to board the plane, a bicycle
messenger pedaled up with a
message for the officer in charge.
The officer read the piece of paper,
looked at the line of waiting
Marines, and cut it off at a point
ahead of Jim. He and the other
Marines behind the cut-off were
told to return to their barracks.
Jim thought that he would just
be taking another plane out the
next day, but Hawaii became his
duty station.
“Of that first batch of Marines
that went out, only seven came
back,” Jim said. “It was my
name that saved me. We were
alphabetical, and I’m always near
the end of the line.”
Jim’s job in Hawaii was to gather
orders. Each morning, he was given
a list of supplies and parts that
he needed to collect. Usually, he
would go out to Barber’s Point to
meet the incoming supply ships and
see if they had what he needed. If
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they didn’t, he Photo by James Rada, Jr.
still needed to
find the items.
He would
scrounge
through
junkyards,
and also
admitted to
“borrowing”
them from
Navy planes
without asking
the permission
of the Navy.
Another
instance of his
luck saving Jim Wisotzkey is shown in front of a display of the many puzzles he has put
him was during together and mounted as an art display at Moser Manor.
the West Loch
Disaster. On spent in Thurmont, getting married.
May 21, 1944, a mortar round on He and Lilalee Caton had known
a landing ship exploded, which set each other before the war started;
off a chain of explosions and fires although, she had been fourteen
at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. and he seventeen when they met.
Over the next day, 6 landing ships She wrote to him while he was in
sank, 163 people were killed, and Hawaii and sent him care packages.
396 people were injured. Now they were both adults and
“We had fallout raining down on decided to marry on July 4, 1945.
our camp for seven days,” Jim said. The war was already won in
The incident was kept classified Europe, and the focus was on
until 1960, and so it is not a well- ending the war in the Pacific. After
known incident from WWII. Jim his leave, Jim had to return to
could have easily been one of the California for six more months. He
casualties that day, but he was was discharged as a sergeant at the
working elsewhere. end of the war and returned home
“Friends told me they saw to his wife.
Marines holding onto railings with He became a carpenter, and he
their heads missing, but they were and Lilalee raised three children.
still standing,” remembered Jim. Lilalee passed away last year, but
One time where his luck failed she did not leave Jim alone. Besides
him was when it came time to return their three children, they have
to the states. As he was waiting to seven grandchildren, seven great-
board the ship that would take him grandchildren, and one great-great-
home, he got horrible stomach pains grandchild.
and doubled over. He was taken to
sick back with an acute appendicitis,
so severe that a doctor had to be
brought in to operate immediately
on Jim.
Meanwhile, the ship sailed
without him, and it had all his
papers. He was forced to spend the
next three months recovering in a
tent area on Hawaii until his papers
made their way back to him and he
could leave for California.
As the war wound down, Jim
got two weeks leave, which he
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