Cedar Rapids veterans share service memories

With three words, World War II veteran Floyd Ondler summarized what he witnessed as a Marine.

“War is hell,” said Ondler, shaking his head.

Ondler, 87, of Cedar Rapids, wiped away tears as he and three other veterans shared memories on Veterans Day at the meeting of the Marion/Cedar Rapids Optimist Club on Wednesday morning. Ondler captivated the group as he spoke about four beach landings in Japan.

He was in the first wave each time they landed, among about 300 soldiers.

“We were lucky if a hundred of us walked out (alive),” Ondler said.

As a bunker buster, Ondler and other Marines sought to take out enemy machine gun nests. Miraculously, he was never wounded during the nearly 40 days he spent in combat.

He survived, too, when a ship he was aboard wrecked en route to Okinawa, Japan. The ship had engine trouble, and rather than float into dangerous waters, they intentionally ran aground at a deserted island near Guam.

In about 30 minutes, ocean waves snapped the ship in half, he said. Those who survived were stranded on the sandy island for seven days.

“I'm very lucky to be here,” Ondler said.

Fellow veterans Edgerly Watts, Keith Wymore and Don Bryant, all of Cedar Rapids, also talked about their military careers. They spoke about their days in the Navy Air Corps, Army and Air Force, respectively.

Wymore was 15 years old and an usher at a theater in Ottumwa, Iowa, when the lights flipped on and an announcement was made. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.

He enlisted right out of high school, but spent most of his military career at Hawaii as an officer.

“My ambition was to go to battle,” Wymore said. “It never happened. I felt later on, in retrospect, that I was probably the luckiest Army person in the world.”