Interview with William J. Starck, III [Undated]

Timothy J. Sanders:

What is your name, sir?

William J. Starck, III:

William J. Starck, S-t-a-r-c-k, III.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Whoo. Number III. What's your -- What's your birthday?

William J. Starck, III:

6/19/23.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And your address here in South Bend?

William J. Starck, III:

433 West North Shore Drive, two words, South Bend, 46617.

Timothy J. Sanders:

What's your phone number in case we need to get a hold of you?

William J. Starck, III:

[phone number deleted] Do you want the office? I'm still working.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Oh.

William J. Starck, III:

I'm a youngster.

Timothy J. Sanders:

What's your office number?

William J. Starck, III:

[phone number deleted]

Timothy J. Sanders:

Where were you born?

William J. Starck, III:

Mishawaka.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Oh, okay. And you were in the Army?

William J. Starck, III:

I was in the infantry -- in the Army at first, and then switched over to the Air Corps, which later became the Air Force.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Do you remember your battalion or your -- divisions?

William J. Starck, III:

I -- I didn't get into that. I went into bombardier school.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. All right.

William J. Starck, III:

And became a bombardier navigator.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh. What was the -- What was your highest rank?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, I eventually got to First Lieutenant.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Oh, okay. You went in as an enlistment?

William J. Starck, III:

Private, in the infantry. I was going to win the war.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh. The guy I just talked to was going to win the war, too. He indicated that.

William J. Starck, III:

But they changed my mind in that infantry division. I came out of spring practice at Purdue. I played football; weighed 203, and after -- went through the infantry basic, I weighed 158. And I was living in Benton Harbor, my folks were in Benton Harbor, at the time, and I came home on leave. I had to get up and walk from Benton Harbor To Saint Joe, just to keep my legs from knotting up. Wow, it was -- man... That's when I decided I didn't want to be an infantry man anymore.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure. Do you remember your serial number?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, one of them was 15313514, and the other one was AO2085220.

Timothy J. Sanders:

When did you go in?

William J. Starck, III:

I enlisted in December of '42, but I didn't go into active duty until May 20th of '43.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. So you enlisted in '42?

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And when did you get out?

William J. Starck, III:

3/1 of '46.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And you were 18 when you went in, you said?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, I was born in '23 -- '33, '43, so I was 18, yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And this is WW2. And you served in -- So where were you when you went in? You were in South Bend?

William J. Starck, III:

No, I was in Benton Harbour, Michigan.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. And I went to active duty to -- at Fort Custer, Michigan, okay? And then I ran into a little guy there that was a sergeant, Sheller Adam, who I knew from Benton Harbor, and he was a sergeant. And when we were getting ready to ship out, I thought, "Well, I'll get the word where we are going from Sheller," and he says, "I can't tell you where you are going, but you are going to be riding that train for a long time."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh.

William J. Starck, III:

And we ended up in Texas at Camp Walters.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

William J. Starck, III:

Bad place.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Yeah. A lot of those Texas places weren't very good. So you were down there and what training did you have?

William J. Starck, III:

Infantry training.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

William J. Starck, III:

It was basic infantry. I forget how long that was.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Where is Fort Walters? What's it near?

William J. Starck, III:

Fort Walters is near Mineral Wells. They used to call it "Minerial Wells, Texas," --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

William J. Starck, III:

-- which is between -- I think it's between Dallas and Fort Worth. Mary Martin from one of those plays, she is real famous, she is from Mineral Wells.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

William J. Starck, III:

Mineral Wells is just a little town.

Timothy J. Sanders:

So you were there for infantry and you didn't care for that much at all?

William J. Starck, III:

No, not at all. In fact, we had a ten mile march coming up, say, Thursday, and some guy was coming over to talk about the Air Corps, join to be an air cadet, be a pilot. Well, when I was at Purdue, the fraternity, every morning the Chicago Tribune came and there would be a plane down or five killed or ten killed or whatever. I said, "I don't want any part of that Air Corps," so I wanted to be an infantry, but they changed my mind real fast. And then I went over and I took the test on a Thursday so I would have to go on that ten mile March, and I flunked it. I didn't give a damn. All I wanted to do was miss the March. And then I could take a re-make in 30 days, which I did, and passed it, and then I was pushed over into the Air Corps.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. So from there when did you get to the Air Corps and where did you go from Texas?

William J. Starck, III:

From Camp Walters, we went to processing, I think it was at Camp Randolph, in Dallas and -- or Fort Worth, Kelly Field.

Timothy J. Sanders:

San Antonio.

William J. Starck, III:

San Antonio. Yeah. And then they shipped us to Sheppard Field in Texas. And we got into -- We had a tack officer, I think that's what you called them, who was a great football fan, and so he wanted to get a team together. And we got a team together, we had Hank Stram from Purdue and myself and another guy from Butler and a guy from Tulsa that had quarterbacked them, and they went to the Rose Bowl, I think the year before. And we got it and we won the camp championship. And from there then I started through the cadet program.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

William J. Starck, III:

And that was back to Randolph Field. All your skill, whether you qualify for pilot bombardier, navigator, and I qualified for all three. And I thought, "Well, I'll be a pilot, that's what everybody wanted to be." And my buddy came out and he is crying and I said, "What's the matter TP," and he said, "I'm going to be a bombardier." I said, "Not me, boy, I'm going to be a pilot." So I went in and this captain was interviewing me and he said, "Well, you qualified for all three, pilot, bombardier and navigator." And he said -- I said, "I'd like to be a pilot, sir," and he said, "I see you have previous service here in the infantry," which means, if you don't take what we give you, you're going back to the infantry. And I said, "I would like to be bombardier, sir." And that was how I got to be bombardier school.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And where was that school located?

William J. Starck, III:

San Angelo, Texas.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Goodfellow Air Force Base?

William J. Starck, III:

No, that was the pilot school. One side of the town was Goodfellow and the other side was Concho Field, which was the bombardier school.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And you were there then for a period of time and how did you get -- where did you end up then when you finally got to work, got out of school?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, we were in B24s at first, then Japan surrendered and then they sent us to B29 schools, and both of them were down in Harlingen, Texas. And then we went to B29 schools and Japan surrendered, so that was the end of combat. They had a program at that time called Project KC, which was -- they photographed all -- every inch of Europe, and they did it with P38s. And they had the bombardiers or whoever it was, bombardiers or navigators, would sit up on top of that pilot and run the cameras and I had signed up for that. I always loved a P38. And my dad was in the insurance business and he got the insurance at Studebaker. So I opted to get out and so I didn't get that chance to do that.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. So you got all the training and --

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah. Never got to use it

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh. What was the reaction when you went in? People -- I mean, almost everybody was going in, weren't they?

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah. Yeah. I had two guys, one fellow from Benton Harbor, Ben Lamina, and a buddy from -- No, he was the only one there when I left. I got on the bus and went to Battlecreek to Fort Custer. There was no fanfare, no nothing, you know. He just went --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Just went in.

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And when you got out?

William J. Starck, III:

Same thing.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Same thing.

William J. Starck, III:

Got out at Dayton, Ohio, and nobody there to greet you or meet you or anything, and I forgot even how I got from Dayton to South Bend. In the meantime my folks had moved to South Bend, and I don't even know how I got from Dayton to South Bend. Probably hitchhiking. Another buddy and I hitchhiked from almost in Mexico up to Benton Harbor one time. And we made better time than if we had taken the trains.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure. From Harlingen.

William J. Starck, III:

From way down in Harlingen, yeah, we were down past Harlingen. I forget what they call it. It is a big area now. Padre Island.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. Sure.

William J. Starck, III:

Padre Island. And back then it was nothing but a mud hole.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh.

William J. Starck, III:

But I guess it is quite a resort area now.

Timothy J. Sanders:

National Seashore, I think. What did you do when you came back then?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, I went to work with my dad in the group insurance business, and I've sort of been stuck. February 1st will be 56 years that I've been in the same business, the same company.

Timothy J. Sanders:

That's great. That's great. And you are not ready to retire yet?

William J. Starck, III:

No, no.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Well, you are almost --

William J. Starck, III:

78.

Timothy J. Sanders:

-- 78. No reason to retire yet. You got plenty of time.

William J. Starck, III:

Went through open heart a year ago and that cured up a lot of things, so I don't have any problems anymore, except old age.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Well, we all have that. That's wonderful. So you didn't get to Europe.

William J. Starck, III:

No.

Timothy J. Sanders:

If the war would have continued though, you would have ended up going either there or Japan?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, we were assigned to Japan --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

William J. Starck, III:

-- when the Japanese surrendered. And so that flopped that deal and --

Timothy J. Sanders:

How long after the Japanese surrendered did you get out? If you got out in --

William J. Starck, III:

'46.

Timothy J. Sanders:

March of '46?

William J. Starck, III:

I think they surrendered in '45. And they were getting rid of guys just hand over fist. I was sent to Amarillo Air Base to play football and basketball down there, so -- And I was a PT officer, physical training. So I didn't really want to get out. I was going to stay in, in fact, until my dad got the insurance of Studebaker, wanted me to come home and go to work for him, which I did.

Timothy J. Sanders:

That's excellent. And you've been here ever since?

William J. Starck, III:

Ever since, yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Did you get involved with Veterans organizations when you got back?

William J. Starck, III:

Well, I joined the American Legion up in Lincoln, Nebraska -- when we were up in Lincoln. And I think it was Post Number 1, and then I transferred to Post 303 here in South Bend, and have been a member at 303 ever since. I am not very active. I played football -- not football, I played basketball and softball for their athletic teams back in those days. But that was years and years ago.

Timothy J. Sanders:

That's wonderful. Sounds like you had a pretty good experience.

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And you got in and you were sort of in line to go and the war ended on you?

William J. Starck, III:

Yeah. I got lucky both times.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure. There is nothing wrong with that. I appreciate it.

[Conclusion of interview]