Robert L. McKim won’t have any problems recalling his involvement in World War II as a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
That’s because the 86-year-old Independence native has recorded his memoirs in “MEMORIES: World War II,” which is neither a history nor a day-to-day diary.
“It is mostly rambling memories about different places and things, and about how this young man of World War II days had many and varied experiences,” the 1940 William Chrisman High School graduate wrote in the Introduction.
In a recent interview, Robert recalled he had lots of “sitting time” following his 1995 prostrate surgery, so he used it to compile his memoirs so his children and grandchildren would know something about his life, which began in September 1922 with his birth at the old Independence Sanitarium and Hospital.
Sitting in his living room, Robert reminisced about growing up in Harry Truman’s hometown in the Depression and post-Depression years.
Growing up at 1013 W. Waldo Ave., he recalled being paid to pull up dandelions from the yard of Mrs. Sheehy, his next-door neighbor, who also paid him to shoot pigeons off her house so they wouldn’t “poop” on it.
When he entered high school, young Robert quit shooting pigeons and began delivering newspapers for The Independence Examiner. During those three years, he saved enough money to attend Kansas City University.
With one year of college under his belt, Robert knew he was going to be drafted. He had depleted his educational funds and wouldn’t be able to return for the 1942-43 school year.
Robert, though, didn’t wait for the draft. In the fall of 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a radio repairman – a profession in which he already had experience. When he was about 8, Robert had begun experimenting with radios. He later worked with a cousin repairing radios. It was the perfect job, and attractive, too, as the Signal Corps radio repair school was in Kansas City.
Robert was off to a great start in the military. But things, though, got better when he reported to Camp Crowder, Mo., for basic training.
It was soon evident the recruit from Harry Truman’s hometown was a cut above the other enlistees.
As Robert tells it, “I stuck out like a sore thumb because of my education. Plus I had three years of ROTC in high school and was a second lieutenant.”
Robert’s military training began as a private at the camp near Neosho and Joplin. Two weeks later he was promoted to temporary corporal and became an instructor before being assigned to Fort Monmouth, N.J., to attend Officer Candidate School. Ninety days later, he was reassigned to Camp Crowder to conduct basic training and teach general military subjects. About a month later, he was assigned to the 593rd Joint Assault Signal Company at Fort Ord, Calif., where he was readying to go to Okinawa with his outfit.
But the young officer never set foot on the South Pacific island. Instead, he received orders to report to Fort Monmouth for deployment in Europe.
Before boarding ship, Robert was given a job. He was put in charge of picking up some 100 to 200 African-American troops in Pennsylvania and taking them to France to serve mostly as truck drivers.
But these weren’t ordinary GIs. They were military prisoners who were given an opportunity to remain in prison or accept the overseas assignment. Robert was assigned to the 493rd Signal Construction Company in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army. His unit followed the fighting.
“We would string phone lines or throw them on a fence or anywhere when we were moving fast,” he recalled. “And then we would come behind, put up poles and get the lines out of the way.”
When the Germans in Belgium made a counteroffensive – leading to the Battle of the Bulge – on Dec. 16, 1944, the 493rd received orders to move north and begin stringing phone lines.
Along the way, the 493rd needed some place to get out of the bitter cold to work on vehicles. Upon reaching the village of Longwy, France, the unit took refuge in an old theater and converted it into a garage.
It was there Robert became a war casualty. Trying to warm up, he stood in the garage with his back toward a fire in a large steel drum. His bare hands were crossed behind him.
Unbeknownst to him, a French boy slipped into the garage and began stirring the fire with a large stick near some gasoline cans. There was an explosion. Flames leaped out, burning his left hand. The left side of his face was slightly burned as well.
Robert says he made a big mistake by allowing a medic to treat his burns rather than receiving treatment at the evacuation hospital. A doctor later told him that had he gone to the hospital, he probably would have received the Purple Heart for being injured in a combat zone. In his memoirs, Robert wrote: “Later I would find out that the Purple Heart would have given me 5 more points towards my total used for sending soldiers home after the war was over. I probably would have gotten home about 4 months sooner.”
As it was, Robert – then a first lieutenant – received orders to return home in March 1946 while stationed in Frankfurt, Germany.
In his memoirs, Robert says he’s not a hero. However, he prides himself as being able to perform under some trying conditions.
“I don’t know how I would have reacted in front line conditions. ... As I said in the beginning of this tale, those four years took me from being a youth to an adult. I learned a lot both about the world and the people living in it. I leave it up to others as to whether this experience was good or bad for me.”
