Veteran is Proud of His Generation

Sam Richards, center, with his shipmates, left, Al Schulze, of Ohio, and Albert Murphy, of Boston, Mass, who is now deceased.

ST. MARY'S TODAY

ST. INIGOES --- “Yes there are a couple of German Shepherds and one Rotweiler (to welcome you),” the World War Two veteran joked, when asked if he had dogs.
“If you are looking for a war hero, you don’t have one here,” he said in a disarming manner. “I am damn glad I did not see any action.”
John “Sam” Richards, 79, born May 26th, 1926, in Mechanicsville, is an area WWII veteran who takes great pride in the fact that it was his generation that made the U.S. the No. 1 nation on earth.
And then he cracks another joke. “You were too young when Pearl Harbor happened."
At age 18, he joined the U.S. Navy, though “I could not even swim.”
One reason why he opted for the navy, but not the army, was that he hated buttoned collars. “In the navy, V neck and neckerchief was all that was required.”
Richards turned 18 on May 26, 1944, and had to be in the services because of the Great War to defend America against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. However, his high school graduation was due on June 14, 1944, and he was given a grace period of one month. On June 29, 1944 Richards was in active duty.
Richards is a nit picker when it comes to spellings. He said his training began at Camp Perry, which he prefers to spell as Camp Peary, but points out that the official documents lists the place as National Training and Defense College, Williamsburg, Va. After that, he went for basic training for radio school at Bainbridge.
“I left there and went to Camp Schumacher, right outside Oakland, California.”
He was aboard USS Haskell among one of the 2000 passengers that were being shipped to Noumea, New Caledonia.
“We were cramped in like sardines,” he said. “That was the worst period of my life. Absolutely. We went right across the equator. It was hot, very hot and miserable.”
From New Caledonia he crossed Guadalcanal in South Pacific to Tulagi. “Guadalcanal was the scene of bitter and bloody fighting,” he said, but points out he never was involved in any action. “Perhaps a secretary saw more fighting than me,” he jokes, and the only gunfire he heard in his life was during training at Camp Perry and.
He recalls the day in August 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“That was the end of the war. Period. They immediately started sending people home after that,” Richards said. In a lighter vein, Richards said he would later joke with friends that the bombs were dropped to get him back home.

He said the navy provided him good experience for training and developing into adulthood. “It teaches discipline.”

But “token garrison force” of one officer and ten men were asked to stay put at Tulagi. Richards was one of them. “The force was meant to maintain U.S. interest in the area. That was the job we had.” The base was eventually closed, and radio man Richards shifted to American Samoa.
He returned to San Francisco aboard a landing ship tank, or LST, which he calls one of the worst ships, and was discharged July 23rd 1946.
Richards said one of the dumbest things he did was to enlist as a reserve. “Like a dummy I stayed in the reserves and the Korean War broke out in 1950. I was recalled to active duty in October 1950 and sent to Patuxent Naval Air Station.” And then he jokes again, “You know where it is?”
He was finally discharged in February, 1952: “Me and U.S. Navy parted company and they will never see me again.”
He said the navy provided him with good experience for training and developing into adulthood. “It teaches discipline.”
In his case, he said, “There was no choice to be made.” But after him, two of his brothers went to serve in the air force.
A family man, Richards said, “The smartest things I ever did in my life was I married my wife. We have been married for 57 years.” He said he was just 22 when he met Edna in Clinton, Va., when he was staying with his parents after the war and Edna would come there to visit her sister.
The romance in the heady days of postwar 1946 blossomed into a lifelong companionship. The wife retired from the naval air station five years ago after serving as the executive officer’s secretary for many long years.
Richards said he knew quite well it was the sacrifices of his generation that transformed the U.S. into a super power. “It bothers me terribly how the country is being handled right now,” he said, opining that liberal Democrats had polarized society.
During World War II, the country was cohesive. They pulled together. Everyone came together, he said. “Now we have two many factions pulling in opposite directions and I don’t understand it.”
He said though he respects diversity, he disliked those who lie and misquote people. “That’s just wrong.”
He said people did not have to unite behind President Bush if he was wrong, but felt that the way he was under attack “It’s almost like treason.”
Having the best relationship with his wife, he feels proud of his two sons, Patrick, 54, and Bill, 51, “both of whom were in law enforcement and became majors on the Prince George’s county police department.”
He said he is also proud of his two daughters-in-law and four grandsons and one grand daughter. “They have never been in trouble. No drugs and no illegitimate children,” he smiles.