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Wisecup, Martin

It was a beautiful Sunday morning December 7, 1941, at Wheeler Field in Oahu, Hawaii. Martin Wisecup had risen early from a peaceful sleep and was looking forward to a good breakfast in the 78^th Pursuit Squadron mess hall. Sunday breakfasts were unusual because squadron members were able to request a special breakfast of ham, eggs, bacon, pancakes, and coffee, all cooked to order. What he did not expect to have with his breakfast were the sound and fury of exploding bombs and machine gun fire from Japanese aircraft during a 7:55 a.m. surprise attack on our forces on Hawaii.

Wisecup was born in a rural farming area of Brown County, Ohio and attended a one-room elementary school. When he graduated from Manchester, Ohio high school, there were no jobs locally for unskilled new graduates, so he decided to see the world. Wisecup enlisted in the Army on October 10, 1939, and specifically requested the Army Air Corps and an overseas assignment. Fortunately, the Air Corps had an opening in Hawaii. Not long after enlisting and indoctrination, he boarded the US Army Transport “Republic” in New York and went through the Panama Canal on to Hawaii.

Upon arrival in Hawaii, he was sent on to Wheeler Field with the 78th Pursuit Squadron to take basic training as well as advanced training as an armament specialist. His specialty was maintaining aircraft machine guns, loading them with ammunition, sighting in the guns, as well as attaching bomb racks to the planes and loading them with bombs. In those days, the Ford Tri Motor transport was used to pull targets that pilots would shoot at to improve accuracy. Wisecup would reel out the target sleeves about 200 yards behind the Ford Tri Motor and reel it in when practice was finished. Each pilot had bullets in their machine guns, painted in a unique color, which would leave a mark on the target sleeve to gauge the accuracy of a pilot.

Wisecup’s quarters were in one of several long concrete buildings with a mess hall and supply offices on the first floor and an open barracks room on the second floor. He had a cot, footlocker, and a small place to hang his clothes. Each building held a squadron’s unmarried enlisted men along with their top sergeant. Officers were in separate officer’s quarters. The few married enlisted men also had separate quarters. Sports took up a lot of time in those days. Boxing and softball were especially popular. Wisecup also would make very acceptable wine for his friends using native fruits. While life in peacetime military was quiet in beautiful Hawaii, most of the men wished to see some action. That wish was granted on December 7, 1941.

On December 7, before 8 a.m., Wisecup was on his way downstairs from the second floor of his building, looking forward to a wonderful breakfast in the mess hall. On the way, he heard tremendous noise outside and thought it was US Navy pilots practicing their dive-bombing. However, the noise was too loud and sustained for that. He saw the building next to his explode and later learned several pilots had been killed while at breakfast. When he looked outside, he saw the rising sun emblem on the Japanese planes so knew it was an attack. The headscarves the Japanese pilots wore were clearly visible in the open cockpits. He heard another bomb go off close by and began to run back into the barracks to get his 45-caliber pistol. Knowing that the 1918 pistol ammunition was so old that it rarely fired well, he gave up that idea. His cot was covered with fine plaster falling from the ceiling. The door of the barracks blew off from the concussion of a bomb landing nearby and barely missed Wisecup. Wisecup went outside again and noticed at the non-commissioned officer housing, many people were outside in their bathrobes watching the unbelievable event.

Wisecup went up a slope toward Schofield Barracks to a location where some bulldozers had taken out trees and expected to get into one of the holes where tree roots had been. They were full of people, with room for no more, so Wisecup sat down with his back to a tree and from a high vantage point watched the attack in disbelief. Several Japanese planes were in the form of a big circle in the sky and were coming around repeatedly to drop bombs and to machine gun the US warplanes lined up neatly on Wheeler Field. In those days, the fuselages of some aircraft were primarily made from magnesium or aluminum, which can burn in a spectacular way. As the fires started and gasoline from ruptured fuel tanks exploded, many aircraft simply disintegrated with only the engine identifying that it had been an airplane. No guns or ammunition were in the planes so even if planes had taken off, they could not have been an effective defense against the attack.

The surprise attack was designed to destroy the US Navy big ships including aircraft carriers, as well as the fighters at Wheeler Field and bombers at Hickam Field. Fortunately for the United States, there were no aircraft carriers in the area. In about 30 minutes, the attack on Wheeler Field stopped but Wisecup could see the smoke from the Pearl Harbor anchorage rising high in the sky. After the attack, some of our B 17 bombers coming in from the west coast were misidentified and met with anti-aircraft fire from our gunners. That incoming flight of B 17 bombers, coincidentally, was part of the problem in determining whether an attack was taking place.

Wisecup’s problem was that he wanted to report to his unit but was confused because this was Sunday and on Monday, he was scheduled to report to the newly formed 73^rd Fighter Squadron. Men were being told to get out machine guns for defense and to stay on guard all night for an expected Japanese landing on Oahu. No one knew the Japanese forces were already headed away from Hawaiian waters. The only available army tanks were set up in defensive positions, but they were only training tanks. A 50-caliber bullet would go completely through a training tank. As there was little official communication, the men talked among themselves regarding what they would do if a Japanese invasion came with overwhelming force. The Air Corps men agreed they would simply have to join some army unit as a rifleman or else escape to the hills around Wheeler Field and engage in guerilla warfare.

Due to the confusion, Wisecup was reported as “missing in action” to his parents. On December 8, the men were allowed to mail letters home to say they were survivors. Wisecup’s letter was not delivered to his parent’s home until mid-February.

Fighter Squadron. Wisecup finally was integrated into the 73^rd and began work on the planes that were salvageable. He took it upon himself to count all the planes destroyed on the field and determined that 138 were beyond repair.

Shortly after the Battle of Midway and after several months of aircraft repair work at Wheeler Field, his squadron was sent to Midway Island. Conditions were poor on Midway. Most of the men came down with dysentery due to unsanitary conditions caused by the multitude of flies and birds. The men immediately started to build a mess hall but had no window screening. In desperation, they used mesh aerial target practice sleeves as screening to keep the flies out of the mess hall. It was very expensive screening.

Midway was a base for anti-submarine patrols and as a refueling stop for planes bombing Wake Island to retake it. Wisecup was active as a support person to accomplish those goals. After about 6 months on Midway, Wisecup returned to Hawaii and continued in his armament work until mid-1944 when his unit was carried to Saipan on an aircraft carrier as part of a huge convoy. The convoy arrived at Saipan in late June 1944 but before the island was secure. The convoy anchored offshore and that night had a submarine scare. All ships were blacked out but after “all clear” sounded many of the men came up on deck and lit cigarettes, which in total darkness were bright enough to lead a Japanese kamikaze plane toward the ship, narrowly missing the ship Wisecup was on, but hitting the next ship. The next day, Wisecup was told to go ashore with some men and was successful in capturing an inland airfield so planes could leave the carrier and be based ashore for action; one of the few times Air Corps men were engaged in ground combat. The island was devastated and Wisecup’s group was dodging shells from the Japanese as well as shells from our ships. In capturing the island, over 30,000 Japanese troops were killed. The United States had over 16,000 casualties, 13,000 of whom were Marines.

After being in Saipan for four months, the 73^rd was transferred to Iwo Jima for more combat duty. During this time, Wisecup received a 30-day furlough and returned home to get married. In mid-1945, Tech Sergeant Wisecup received orders to go back to the states after 5 years in the Pacific. He objected, but to no avail, and was sent to Florida as a support person in the training of bomber pilots. When the war was over in August of 1945, Wisecup was discharged from Camp Atterbury, Indiana and went on the GI Bill of Rights to Berea College in Ohio to major in Agriculture. After graduating, he worked teaching agricultural skills to war veterans. Wisecup later bought a farm and operated that until 1971 when he went to work for the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a Housing Management Supervisor. Now divorced, a transfer brought him to Greensboro in 1974, and he retired from HUD in 1992.

Today, Wisecup has four sons and two daughters living across the country and he spends time visiting them and his grandchildren as well as maintaining his 11-acre farm in Reidsville. He still makes a great homemade Elderberry wine!

He is proud to have served his country but is also deeply saddened due to many friends having been killed during the war.

Interviewed 2/26/1998