Sisters veteran recalls tense service

Sid Eisenbeis Photo provided Ask any travel agent. You're not likely to find a cruise that takes you from California to the Hawaiian Islands, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Philippines and, then, all the way north to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

You're even less likely to keep a journal that reads, "Patrolling off Yellow Beach, Leyte Island and under intermittent air attack."

Those words were penned aboard the USS Burlington (PF 51) nearly a year before the Japanese surrender in World War Two.

Sisters resident Sid Eisenbeis was aboard the Coast Guard patrol frigate and recalls, "We saw a lot of action at Leyte Gulf. In fact, that was when the U.S. Merchant Marine suffered its biggest losses of the war."

Eisenbeis didn't start his Coast Guard service in the thick of battle in the South Pacific.

Before guarding coasts elsewhere in the world, he guarded those in Oregon, working out of Cascade Locks.

"There was a lot of concern that Japanese saboteurs or invasion forces might attack targets on the west coast," he explained.

So, Eisenbeis joined the Coast Guard Reserve under a program that encouraged prospective service members to bring in their own boats to perform security patrols.

Eisenbeis and a buddy bought a boat together and joined up.

"We flipped a coin to see who would be the skipper and who would be the engineer," Eisenbeis said. "I lost the toss, so I became the engineer."

For almost a year, their boat patrolled the Columbia River watching for saboteurs or suspicious activity, especially in the area near Bonneville Dam.

"I guess we did a pretty good job, because the dam's still there," Eisenbeis said.

When Eisenbeis' Chris Craft was replaced by new Coast Guard picket boats, he requested and received assignment to Portland. Somebody must have confused their Portlands, because he ended up in Maine for the next eight months serving as an instructor in chemical warfare countermeasures.

When finally reassigned to the West Coast, he was only there long enough to report aboard the USS Burlington and sail for the Pacific Theater. The Burlington, about the size of a destroyer, was a U.S. Navy ship manned entirely by U.S. Coast Guard officers and crew. Heading south, it was destined to provide convoy protection and support for the South Pacific campaign -- and, later, similar duty in the North Pacific.

During that summer of 1944, U.S. forces continued the "island hopping" campaign that tightened the noose around the Japanese forces holding the Pacific.

Eisenbeis described a typical escort assignment.

"We went into Morotai with four destroyers and another frigate," he said. "We escorted landing craft and provided cover as troops landed on the island. In addition to the LSTs (landing craft), we also escorted 40 PT boats into the island."

And so it went, for months, pursuing the Japanese from island to island, rooting them out and moving on to the next stronghold.

When the time came for the big push to retake the Philippines, the Burlington was in the forefront. Part of an 80-ship convoy, the ship sailed from New Guinea for Leyte Gulf in the fall of 1944.

The stage had been set for this pivotal struggle when General Douglas MacArthur's forces were driven out of the Philippines after the attack on Pearl Harbor and MacArthur made his famous vow, "I shall return."

By the time it was safe for MacArthur to fulfill his vow and make his well-photographed wade through the surf at Leyte Gulf, the Burlington and many of its sister ships had already spent months in the region and some, in fact, began heading north.

"Back then, they were still planning for the invasion of Japan, and we were expecting it at any time," said Harriet Eisenbeis, Sid's wife of more than 63 years.

"We never knew where the ship was or what was happening to the crew. Sid just said, 'watch the newspapers.'"

Harriet confided, however, that the captain's wife leaked word of the ship's secret arrival in San Francisco on its way north to the Aleutians.

As a result, many of the wives were able to rendezvous with their husbands.

Nearly sixty years later, she still has some strong opinions about President Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

"I believe that it (dropping of the bombs) probably saved my husband's life. If the invasion had gone ahead, none of us knew whether we'd ever see our husbands again," she said.

"You have to understand that it was different back then," she explained. "We were in constant fear of an invasion ourselves. We kept everything dark at night, and everyone was armed in case the Japanese invaded.

"I remember that my dad brought over an old Spanish-American war rifle so I'd have protection."

Harriet recalls that the war ended with startling swiftness.

"The bombs were dropped," she said, "and shortly afterward, I remember that my dad came over and said the war was over. Sid happened to be home on leave awaiting another assignment because the war department gave his ship to the Russians.

"He'd also been in for the whole war, so he was among the first to get out."

It was a war that took place before most people in this country were born. It was a war that shaped the world we live in today.

There are fewer people left to remember it on this Veterans Day of 2002; but, for those who do, the memories are still as vivid as ever.