Morrison farmer built runways for Navy in the Pacific

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Herman Beveroth of Sterling points to men he served with in a picture of the Japanese surrender. Beveroth is seen in the picture dressed in white on the left side of the photograph. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@svnmail.com)

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Note to readers: This is the fourth in a series of Sauk Valley Newspapers articles on some of the World War II veterans who are going to Washington, D.C., Tuesday on the Whiteside County Honor Flight.

MORRISON – Herman Beveroth made up his mind: He wanted to join the Navy.

His father served in World War I before him, and his older brother already had been wounded in the Battle of Normandy.

So, the day after his 17th birthday, the farm boy from Morrison signed up.

Beveroth served with the Seabees, a construction battalion, in the Pacific Ocean on Guam and on Wake Island.

“Every darn job they wanted to give me, that’s what I had to do,” Beveroth said. “I built runways that the big B-29s would use when they were bombing Japan.”

The work wasn’t easy, he said.

“Wake Island is solid rock. There’s no dirt there.”

He was on the island, which U.S. forces had lost early in the war, when the Japanese surrendered. Part of his duties included disposing of enemy bodies.

Still, Beveroth said he didn’t mind the work.

“I’d do it again, if I was young,” he said. “It beats combining corn.”

Beveroth, one of eight children, returned to the family farm after the war ended. He met Leora, his wife of 61 years, at the Sterling skating rink.

They have four children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, “plus one on the way.”

He still works his farm – “If you want to be a farmer, you’ve got to be all farmer” – and keeps in touch with his buddies from the war.

“They’re all a lot older now than they used to be,” he said.

He remembers the song his battalion used to sing:

“We’re the Seabees of the Navy; we can build and we can fight and we can do it overnight.”

He missed the reunion for the first time last year, but said he’ll be at the next one.

The Honor Flight file

Herman Beveroth

Age: 81

City: Sterling

Branch: Navy

Rank: Shipfitter Third Class

Theaters: The Pacific, on Guam and Wake Island

Terms of service: February 1945 to June 1946

Employment: Beveroth grew up on a farm and still works 240 acres of land.

To help send vets to D.C.

To help send a World War II veteran to Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight, send donations to United Way of Whiteside County, 502 First Ave.; the Sauk Valley Chamber of Commerce, 211 Locust St.; the American Legion, 601 First Ave.; or Ward, Murray, Pace and Johnson, 202 E. Fifth St., all in Sterling, IL 61081.

Make out checks to Honor Flight of the Quad Cities.

For more information, go to www.honorflightqc.org online.

Click to view The Vets of Honor Flight main page

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