World War II veterans – Raymond McKinsey

While crouching and crawling through the jungles of the Philippines and suffering through ramped disease and jungle rot on reconnaissance missions, Raymond McKinsey probably thought about the nice, cool breeze that he was to enjoy upon returning to Wyoming after World War II.

Now that breeze is his and maybe he remembers the humidity and awful conditions he fought through to return home.

McKinsey’s family moved to Wyoming from Kansas during the depression while he was still a child. Originally, the family moved to the Casper area, but McKinsey would return to Wyoming after the war and reside in Laramie.

McKinsey enlisted in the National Guard in 1940, but wasn’t called up to serve in the Army until 1941. McKinsey was initially placed in what would be the last horse cavalry division.

The horse cavalry division, made up mostly of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho citizens, first trained locally before being transferred to Washington.

While in the horse cavalry, “We polished a lot of leather. There wasn’t always a lot to do,” McKinsey said. “It was discovered during training that the horses would no longer be a viable option when going to war.

“They would drop big bags of flour on us. The planes would … bomb us with big sacks of flour when we were training,” McKinsey said.

Trying to hide a horse that’s covered in white flour at night became quite a feat and it was decided that the horse cavalry division would be disbanded and its soldiers transferred accordingly.

McKinsey joined the legendary 41st Infantry division as a Military Police Officer and was shipped back to Washington for more training. During that training he was issued a motorcycle with a sidecar, as was standard for the MPs.

McKinsey remembers driving an officer home in the sidecar one night while in training. While it wasn’t clear how the incident started, apparently someone lost a helmet and the officer was dumped out of the sidecar, which was taken off by a bus that nearly took off McKinsey’s head as well. No one was severely hurt and that just might have been McKinsey’s luck that saved them all.

The 41st was then sent to San Francisco where it camped under the Golden Gate Bridge before heading out to the Pacific. While en route to the Pacific Theatre, the plan was to stop at Pearl Harbor for some rest and relaxation.

“We were three days out of Pearl Harbor before the (Japanese) bombed it,” McKinsey said. The ship turned off all its radios and that night painted the entire ship gray covering up the American flag, he said. “When we got back to San Francisco … no one knew we were still alive.”

Upon returning to San Francisco, the 41st was shipped back to Washington for different training, and then sent to Australia.

McKinsey remembers having two guns, the M-1 Garands and a .30 caliber that was also issued prior to the carbine riffle.

“When we got to Australia … we gave (their troops) the .30 calibers. They were so happy to … get those riffles,” McKinsey said.

The 41st would make its way north through the Philippine Islands. While there, it fell under the precedence of Captain Donald LeCouvre. LeCouvre had a reputation, not only with the Army for fighting the Japanese in the Philippines, but also with the locals.

McKinsey said that LeCouvre would chase women, drink and get randy and then go into the villages and make the Japanese chase him out. There is an incident where he was captured, almost made to do the traditional walk of death only to escape, cross a major canal and spend three days flagging down an American ship to get back to his troops.

While their captain was somewhat of a wild man, he was very successful and managed to keep many men alive throughout all of his antics, McKinsey said.

McKinsey was honorably discharged through the Army points system just before the war was over, but because the ship he was on had to take a zigzagged route to get home — 58 days to be exact — the war was over by the time McKinsey was home.

McKinsey received a Purple Heart, an American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal, a Bronze Arrowhead, a Bronze Star Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and the Philippine Liberation Medal with a Bronze Star, and left at the rank of General.

After returning home, McKinsey married and moved around from job to job, eventually moving from Alaska back to Laramie. From his first marriage, McKinsey has a daughter, Linda, who was adopted. In 1960, he married Greta and had two children, Thane and Melody, and in 1966 they purchased their ranch south of Laramie where he and Greta still reside.

While at war in 1943, McKinsey wrote a letter home that was published. “Never knew what mosquitoes were before I came here. They fly in formation and sound like a jackhammer when they try to drill through your helmet. Last night in bed we got to talking about snow storms and how we enjoyed them — we were sweating at the time, and wondering what would happen here if it got 10 below zero,” McKinsey said.

From: http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/more.asp?StoryID=101120