Wing and a prayer Rutland man goes off to WWII, makes service a 34-year career February 18, 2008 By Bruce Edwards Herald Staff Retired Vt. National Guard Lt. Col. William Savage with some of the medals awarded to him during his military career. Photo: ALBERT J. MARRO / RUTLAND HERALD More than 60 years later, Bill Savage still recalls the time when he was busted to private and cited for heroism — all on the same day. It was 1944 and Savage was a 24-year-old Army sergeant fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. By the end of that day, Savage lost his stripes for leaving his post, but his decision also earned him a Silver Star for heroism. Relaxing in an easy chair at his Heritage Hill townhouse on a recent afternoon, along with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Linda, Savage recalled his 34-year military career that culminated in his retirement as a colonel in the Vermont National Guard. At 88, Savage sometimes speaks haltingly, but his memory of those events so many years ago remains sharp. Growing up on Deer Street with his four brothers, Savage graduated from Rutland High School in 1938, joining the Vermont National Guard the following year. As a private, his part-time Guard duty paid $13 every three months — no small sum given the country was still mired in the Great Depression. Savage’s life and those of many other young men of his generation took a decided turn on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, plunging the nation into World War II. A little more than two months later, on Feb. 24, 1942, Savage reported for active duty with Company A, 1st Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment. It was a unit that was part of the 43rd Division under the command of Rutland native, Maj. Gen. Leonard Wing. Savage spent a year training in Florida and California when his unit was shipped to the Pacific in the fall of 1943. It was a voyage that could have been the last for Savage and his comrades. Aboard the SS Coolidge, a converted luxury liner named after Vermonter and former President Calvin Coolidge, the ship hit two “friendly” mines just off the U.S.-held island of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. The captain of the ship attempted to run the ship aground, but never made it, Savage said. “Coming into shore, he didn’t get all the way to shore because he hit coral and the ship bound right there half in and half out,” Savage said. “It only lasted approximately an hour and that ship went down.” The 22,000-ton ship sank with the loss of only two of the 5.340 men aboard, according to historical accounts. Savage’s unit, which lost all its equipment, spent several months on the island. For Savage, it wasn’t bad duty. During his high school years, he was considered an expert swimmer and was even asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic dive team. When his commanding officer discovered Savage could swim so well, the Rutland native was assigned the task of giving swimming lessons to the men in his unit. The easy duty of a swimming instructor came to and end when the 172nd was ordered to Guadalcanal to take part in mop-up operations. “We’d go out from our base case camp and all we were out there for was to search and destroy the Japanese, if we could,” Savage said. Starting in June 1943, the 43rd Division, nicknamed Winged Victory after its commander, took part in taking New Georgia in the Northern Solomon Islands, where the Japanese held an airstrip. During the New Georgia campaign, Savage recalled how the Navy Seabees construction battalion fended off the Japanese, using the blade of their bulldozers as a shield. During one combat operation, Savage described just how tough and brutal the enemy could be. It was the day the platoon’s lieutenant was killed. “He came up to this big tree that had fallen and he was trying to get over the tree and he got shot,” Savage said. “They used him as a target. They shot him five or six times. There was no way I could get to him unless I wanted to die too and I didn’t want to die.” Savage’s unit spent 88 days in combat before heading to New Zealand for some well-deserved rest. By early 1945, U.S. and allied forces had rolled back Japanese gains in the Pacific and Asia. In January, Savage, already a platoon sergeant, found himself on Luzon in the Philippines fighting a still tenacious enemy who would rather die than surrender. “They’d go into a cave and they’d stay in there and the only way to get them out of there was to blow them out,” he said. Although he saw his share of combat, Savage was never wounded. He did, however, have his share of close calls. The exact date eludes him, but Savage left his company at a rear rest area on Luzon to come to the aid of two soldiers who were hit by enemy hand grenades. His initiative cost him his sergeant stripes, but his heroism wasn’t overlooked either. “Pfc. Savage, without regard for his own safety, crawled into the draw through heavy enemy small arms fire and returned with the wounded American. He then made a second trip, again through heavy enemy fire and returned with the wounded Filipino guerilla. Pfc. Savage administered first aid to both men,” read the citation awarding him the Silver Star for gallantry. It was Wing who presented Savage with the medal during a ceremony at Camp LaCroix on Luzon. In a letter to Savage’s parents, Wing wrote: “I deem it an honor to serve in the same command with your son, who typifies the finest in the American army — a brave and gallant soldier.” When the war ended, Savage was fortunate to return home, but many of the 116 men who left Rutland with him at the start of the war never made it back. “When we were over in the Pacific a couple of years later, Gen Wing said he wanted to talk to all the boys from Rutland, Vermont,” recalled Savage, his voice breaking with emotion. “So we all went over there. There was 20 of us. That’s all that was left.” When Savage speaks of Wing, he refers to him as a “soldier’s man.” “He would come right up on the front line and you’d be in your foxhole and he’d sit down on the edge of your foxhole and talk with you, offer you a cigarette and sit there and visit and smoke a cigarette with you,” Savage said. “Now, a two-star general ain’t going to be up on the front lines, he’s going to back a ways making plans and everything else.” Savage tells the story of the day Wing chewed him out for not staying in touch with his parents. He said Wing took him aside after the general received a letter from Savage’s mother concerned about why she hadn’t heard from her son. When queried by Wing as to his lack of letter writing, Savage replied: “Yeah, when I got time,” he recalled telling Wing. The answer didn’t please the general, who ordered the young soldier to write home. “Gen. Wing gave me hell for not writing home to my mother,” Savage says with a chuckle. In the fall of 1945, Savage returned to Rutland and civilian life, but not for long. He reenlisted in 1946 and two years later was commissioned a lieutenant. He rose through the ranks of the Vermont National Guard becoming commandant of the Vermont Military Academy at Camp Johnson in 1971. After 34 years in the military, Savage retired in 1974 with the rank of colonel. In addition to the Silver Star, Savage was awarded the Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Theater ribbon and the Philippine Liberation Medal. Wing and a prayer: Rutland Herald Online
