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San Francisco on April 22, 1942.
They didn’t know their destination, only that they were going to war.
Nelson was 24 and had recently made corporal. During the three-week voyage on a converted ocean liner — with seasick soldiers crammed 12 men to an overheated room — Nelson began filling the pages of a pocket-size field log.
With a pen and some colored pencils, Nelson, who’d studied drafting, drew cartoon illustrations of life on the ship and later at camp in Australia.
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When the 32nd Division headed to New Guinea, Nelson stayed behind in officer training school. He went later as a forward observer with an artillery battery.
He brought his diary with him, as well as some pens and colored pencils.
It wasn’t long before he saw action, which he recorded. Rough sketches show him pinned down by Japanese fire, then providing first aid to a wounded soldier.
“My first sight of blood,” he wrote.
About a month later, Nelson was the one hit, shot in the foot by a Japanese machine gunner as he climbed a tree.
He documented that episode, too. His drawing shows two “New Guinea Angels” — whom the men affectionately dubbed “fuzzy wuzzies” — carrying him out on an improvised litter.
Nelson recovered, and from his diary entries appeared to enjoy his time at the rear. He returned to battle in the Admiralty Islands, where he was wounded again and earned a Bronze Star for bravery.
He survived the war and went on to serve in Germany during the Korean War and later in Colorado with the Army’s last pack animal units.
In 1957, he returned to civilian life, where he made a living as a salesman of tire chains and steel buildings. But he always found time to paint.
These days, Nelson is 91 and lives alone in his Onalaska duplex, the walls hung with his art.
PRESERVING WAR STORIES
There are an estimated 2.6 million remaining veterans of World War II, but they are dying at a rate of 900 a day. In 2000, a bill sponsored by Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind established the federal Veteran’s History Project, which collects and preserves those vets’ stories.
A part of the Library of Congress, the Veterans History Project has catalogued documents and interviews with some 60,000 veterans that are available to researchers. To learn more, visit www.loc.gov/vets.
Closer to home, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison preserves and catalogs veterans’ stories and memorabilia. The collections also are available for family members and researchers to view.
For more information, go to www.museum.dva.state.wi.us or call (608) 267-1799.
