Honoring vets, Some sacrificed all, but all sacrificed some

Veterans Day is a day to honor this nation’s many military veterans, some who have served in active combat and some who have served in other ways. Some have even given their lives. All have a story to tell and all have made sacrifices to protect and serve the United States of America. Don Gose of Upton is one such veteran.

Don Gose was born in 1926 at the hospital in Hot Springs, South Dakota, to Vernie and Mame Gose. Even though his family lived in Upton, that was the closest hospital at the time. Gose is the middle of seven siblings.

Now, at age 98 and perhaps one of the last World War II veterans alive in Wyoming, he talked with the News Letter Journal about his life.

“I grew up in those years where there was absolutely no money available anywhere for anything,” Gose said, noting the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression that lasted until the end of the 1930s.

The family was close-knit, Gose said, and lived on a ranch south of Upton. Gose remembers the drought during that time, and he said the dust and wind were incredible.

“It was terribly dry during the ‘30s, … you didn’t have grass. Couldn’t even raise a garden because it was so hot and dry,” Gose said, adding that he also remembers dirt storms that would result in drifted dirt piles similar to the drifted snow in snowstorms.

“It just completely got dark in the daytime, almost completely dark, the air was so full of dirt,” Gose added.

While the 1930s were not great years, Gose said, it didn’t stop him from enjoying his childhood.

“I can’t say that I still didn’t enjoy those years as a small kid growing up on a ranch,” Gose said, reminiscing.

The drought made it difficult to graze and water cattle herds, however, which made their ranching operation more difficult.

So when Gose’s father had a chance to purchase a ranch north of Upton in the Inyan Kara Creek valley in Crook County, he borrowed money from his uncle and bought it. For a few years, Gose’s mother and the younger children, including Gose, still lived at the south ranch.

“We actually went into the dairy business. … We had eight or 10 milk cows, and I was the chief dairy-ist,” Gose said, noting that he was about 12 years old. They would sell cream and butter, taking it to the store in town.

Gose’s dad and two older brothers lived at the north ranch to raise crops and cattle, but his mother broke her arm badly and in 1940 or 1941, the whole family moved to the ranch north of Upton.

“I’ll never forget the change from living on the south ranch to the north ranch. … When we moved out north, I loved the place up there for all the different animals, birds, water. Kara Creek ran year-round,” Gose said, noting the difference from the wide open prairie of the south ranch.

Gose said that the family also had a house in town that they moved to in the winter so the kids could go to school, and he graduated from high school in 1943 when he was just 17 years old. Most of his classmates were a year older, but because the Navy took boys at 17, Gose said, by the time graduation came, there weren’t very many left to graduate.

Gose himself had enlisted in the United States Air Force but was turned away due to his vision, so after graduating, he went back to the ranch.

“Those first few years of World War II, there was no assurance that we were going to win that war. Germany was taking over the whole world. And then Japan got into it,” Gose said.

“Boy, things were pretty bleak,” he added.

In 1944, the draft was still going on, but men could volunteer for the Army and then wait to be “drafted” so the draft quota could be filled with volunteers as much as possible, Gose said.

“So I waited until they drafted me in the winter of ’44,” Gose said. He remembers having to go to town to leave for the Army, and he had to take a team of horses and sled because the snow was so deep.

In the beginning of 1945, Gose said, he was off to basic training in Texas for six months. During his training, the war in Europe ended and the focus was turned to the Pacific. The United States had invaded Okinawa and was getting ready to invade the Japanese mainland.

“When the war was over in Europe, we took special training, then, for the invasion of Japan,” Gose said.

After Gose finished basic training at the end of July 1945, he was shipped off to Okinawa to help with the planned invasion of Japan. He was part of a replacement infantry that would serve to replace troops in the invasion as needed.

But while they were on their way, President Harry S. Truman gave the order to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6, 1945.

“By the time I got to Okinawa, the war was over,” Gose said.

“I came so very close (to combat) that I still have memories of the feeling. Because my life wasn’t very valuable when I was ready to invade Japan. They forecasted that there would be a million Americans killed in the invasion of Japan if Truman had not used the A-bomb.”

“I still remember that feeling, the feeling that … I didn’t have much of a future,” he added.

Upon arriving at Okinawa, the soldiers found that a recent typhoon had caused a lot of destruction and mud, and Gose had to stay on the ship for nearly two weeks.

“There was no place on the island for us,” Gose noted.

“Finally, we unloaded off the troop ship, and they put us up on top of a hill, on a ridge, I don’t know, 2,000 of us on this hill, sloped out in rows, all we had was what we carried on our backs,” Gose said, describing his arrangements on the island.

Gose said the soldiers slept in two-man pup tents, with each soldier occupying half of a pup tent that they paired up with their designated buddy.

“We slept in those and lived in those, thousands of us on that hillside for weeks, and they brought C-rations to us,” Gose said.

After some time, Gose remembers, a jeep approached the hill and two men got out, making their way up the embankment shouting a name as if they were looking for someone.

Eventually, he realized they were yelling “Gose,” so he asked them if he was the one they were looking for.

“They were from an ordnance headquarters depot, … looking for a replacement, and one of them was the supply sergeant and the other one was a commanding officer,” Gose said.

Gose, who was eager to get out of his current accommodations, eagerly went with the two.

“I took over as supply sergeant for the 214th Ordnance Battalion,” Gose said. The United States Army Ordnance Department was in charge of weapons and equipment for the Army.

“I was the supply sergeant for the whole island of Okinawa, the 10th Army Headquarters,” he added. “We had to take in all the equipment from all the companies.”

There were so many troops and so much equipment piled up on Okinawa for the invasion of Japan, and they had to get all of that reduced.

“All the companies were going out because the war was over, and they had to turn their equipment in. So I was in charge of taking all that equipment in, putting it in depots, permanent depots on Okinawa,” Gose said.

When his job was complete, Gose came home from Okinawa in the winter of 1946 after more than a year on the island. In 1947, he was discharged from the Army, but he stayed in the reserves for three years until 1950.

Gose married the love of his life, Eda, in 1948, and the two lived on the north ranch. They shared over 70 years together before Eda died in 2019.

The couple also adopted two children, Kevin and Pamela, who admire their father. Kevin Gose said that he has always been proud of his dad, and he always thought it was cool that he went to Okinawa.

“I’m very proud to be his daughter. I have nothing but great admiration for the man,” Pamela Williams agreed.

Gose’s granddaughter, Cassie Gose, said that she remembers hearing stories from her grandfather about his time in the service.

“I admire him and how he went over there,” Cassie said.

For Gose, he said that serving one’s country is of utmost importance — to protect and defend. While he never saw active combat, he’s very proud he was able to serve his country.

“There has to be a feeling of pride in serving your country, that’s all there is to it,” Gose said.