WAC members helped win Second World War

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., September 15, 2008

Former Fergus Falls resident Trudy Brendecke, wife of the late Milt Brendecke, who now lives near her son, Chuck, and family in Boulder, Colo., was a member of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. WAC was established in 1942.

Born in Renville, south of Willmar, on Nov. 4, 1911, she was the youngest of five children. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother was a piano teacher.

Trudy, now 96, came from a long line of Lutheran ministers. Her relatives were among the founders of Luther College.

She was raised near Opheim, Mont., 60 miles from Glasgow. Her parents homesteaded land north of Glasgow near the Canadian border.

“It was windy, treeless prairie,” she said. “Our first house was a tar paper shack. My father was a circuit preacher who covered a large area of northeastern Montana.”

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, Trudy was working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, in Hoboken, N.J.

She lived in New York and took a ferry across the Hudson River to work each day. With the U.S. vaulted into World War II, she started thinking seriously about joining the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) which in 1943 became part of the U.S. Army.

Trudy enlisted in WAC in August 1943 and was inducted Oct. 18 that year.

Her first assignment was to Ft. Riley, Kan., where she moved around the finance section to learn all the posts. Then it was on to advanced training in June 1944 at Ft. Oglrthorpe, Georgia, where she had taken basic training.

“We went through many of the rigors the men did such as going through the obstacle course, hiking for five miles and learning to climb down a cargo net,” she said.

Later she and fellow WAC members arrived at Camp Stone near San Francisco which was, in her words, “our jumping off place for the South Pacific.”

Her last memory of the U.S. before being shipped overseas was while they marched from Camp Stone the three miles down to the waterfront to catch the ferry.

“We carried our backpacks containing our mess kits, change of clothing and other essentials,” she said. “As we approached the water we marched under a railroad bridge and in huge letters across the girders was a banner which read, ‘Through these portals go the best damn soldiers in the world.’ It made me proud to be a soldier.”

After 16 days at sea, the ship arrived at Oro Bay, New Guinea. Brendecke was among 18 WAC members who awaited orders from Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Hollandia in northern New Guinea. MacArthur was one of the best-known American military leaders of World War II, when he commanded Allied forces in the southwest Pacific

“Hollandia was a beautiful location,” she said. “Our military forces were working their way through numerous small islands on their way to the Philippine Islands.”

She moved with others in the MacArthur headquarters from New Guinea to Tacloban City, Leyte Province, Philippines, in 1944

“Our offices were in four quonset-type buildings and my building was right across the street from Gen. MacArthur’s home and office,” she said. “We could hear the guns booming in the distance day and night. Our WAC detachment, with the help of GIs, put on a Christmas party for 250 Filipino children.”

She remembers attacks on their base by Japanese airplanes.

In January 1945 she and other WAC members moved about 25 miles to a base at Tolosa, Philippines, where they were housed in tents. A few days after the return of Gen. MacArthur, Tolosa became the base of the U.S Navy, as well as the 6th and 13th Air Force.

In April 1945 MacArthur’s headquarters was moved to Manila. This time Trudy and other WAC members were housed in a badly war-damaged school dormitory.

Aug. 10, 1945, was a big day for them. A voice in the courtyard broke the stillness about 9 p.m., shouting, “The war in over. Japan has surrendered.” Victory in Japan Day became official on Aug. 15, 1945.

Fast forward to June 1995. It was a special time for Trudy and other WAC veterans from World War II. Groundbreaking took place for the Women in Military Service of American Memorial at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C. Trudy Brendecke is registered as a charter member.

After the war she married Milt Brendecke who, along with partner Jimmy Lysne, operated the Bottled Gas Service Co. (propane distributor, gas stoves and other appliances) across from City Café and Bakery in Fergus Falls. In retirement Milt Brendecke worked part-time for Rosenblatt’s.

“Trudy and my dad retired to Arizona in the 1970s and lived in Apache Jct. east of Phoenix,” son Chuck Brendecke said. “They had lots of contacts with Fergus Falls friends down there, seeing Ed and Joyce Weiby regularly. My dad died in 1992.”

Trudy has lived in Boulder since 2001. She has an apartment in a senior center called Golden West and lives independently, taking day trips, shopping and visiting with friends. She will be 97 this November and still gets around well.

During her years in Fergus Falls Trudy served as church secretary at First Lutheran Church. She later worked at the post office as an assistant to the postmaster.

As for organizations and hobbies, she’s a member of the local chapter of the Sons of Norway, is a member of the WAC Veterans Association and attends church regularly.

“I’d have to say that visiting with her granddaughters (Devon, 28, and Sarah, 25) is her favorite pastime,” son Chuck said. “Devon lives in Golden but works in Boulder so they have lunch together regularly. Sarah lives in Los Angeles.”

Trudy writes lots of letters to friends elsewhere and does a lot of baking.

“We always have cookies around,” Chuck said.

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