America Should Honor & Never Forget World War II Heros
By Don DeBat
Even though more than eight decades have passed since the end of World War II, on Veterans Day every American should look back in time and honor those who served in our armed forces during the last “good” war.
Between December 7, 1941 and September of 1945, more than 16 million Americans served in World War II. This writer, who is a “World War II baby” born in 1944, is proud of family members, friends, and those vets I worked with and greatly respected. Those veterans served in the biggest and greatest war planet earth has experienced.
Hollywood stars such as John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, William Holden and other famed actors did their part for the war effort in dozens of World War II propaganda movies that are now being rerun endlessly during Veterans Day week.
However, real war is about endless battle stress and fatigue, missing loved ones, eating bad food, and being bitten by snakes, mosquitoes and contracting malaria. Tens of thousands earned a Purple Heart, or died in combat.
These World War II heroes primarily joined voluntarily or were drafted into the armed forces, left their families at home, and put their lives on the line for up to five or more years.
“A man who serves his country gives more than his time,” noted Rob Souvigny, grandson of Howard Busk, a U.S. Marine who served on Iwo Jima and other campaigns in the South Pacific. “A soldier gives his courage, his commitment, and years of his life to protect the freedom of his children, family and future generations he will never meet.”
Many tens of thousands of American veterans died or were seriously wounded doing that deadly work, at a salary of $2 or $3 a day. Overseas, a buck-Private’s net annual pay was $45 a month, or $540 a year. A Sargent pocketed $78.78 a month, or $943 annually. A higher-ranked Staff Sergeant earned $110.16 a month, or $1,202 a year overseas.
In World War II, U.S. combat deaths totaled 407,316 in Europe and the Pacific, and another 671,278 casualties were listed as wounded in action. Survivors earned a Purple Heart. Most also earned service medals, such as occupation, campaign and victory citations.
Now, on Veteran Day in 2026—some 85 years after the official beginning of World War II—it is time for readers of this newspaper to take time to review a few of the sad, heartrending, and heroic stories of Chicago military veterans. They were loved as family members, friends and co-workers in the newspaper business this writer knew over decades. Here are their stories:
CHICAGO DAILY NEWS WARRIORS
In 1968, this writer first met several World War II old-timers while working as a reporter on the staff of the Chicago Daily News. They were hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking combat veterans who typed news stories with two fingers. They rarely said a word about their war experiences.
• Robert (Bob) Schultz, always cool under deadline pressure, was a bomber pilot on a B-25, the twin-engine bomber featured in the 1942 raid on Japan by Gen. Jimmy Dolittle in the movie: “Twenty Seconds Over Tokyo.”
Schultz flew an amazing 32 successful combat-bombing missions over Germany and Europe. He survived, was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three clusters. However, he said few words to staffers about his experiences.
Schultz worked for the Daily News for 27 years as a reporter, chief political correspondent and finally as City Editor. He passed away at age 66 in 1989. He had three daughters. One of them, Susy Joan Schultz, proudly followed her father into the newspaper business as a Chicago Sun-Times reporter.
• William (Bill) F. Mooney was the “Old-School” man of the rewrite desk. Mooney kept a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey in his drawer for a post-deadline snort in his coffee. He smoked constantly, and spit into newsroom spittoons. A white-haired, blue-eyed veteran of war and newspapers, Mooney was respected as the fastest rewrite man of his time. Mooney talked as fast as he typed, but said little about the war. He passed away from emphysema and a bad heart in 1985 at age 66.
A former police reporter, Mooney’s speech was peppered with cop lingo, such as “they sneezed the gaffer, but the quail lammed out.” (Translation: Suspect was arrested. His wife eluded authorities.)
In 1940, a year before Pearl Harbor, Mooney enlisted in the Canadian Army Infantry and was sent overseas, where he met his future wife, Margaret, a nurse in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corp.
After the U.S. entered the war, he transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corp. He served in World War II for 54 months as a tail gunner on a U.S. B-17 bomber.
In 1943, Mooney’s flak-raked bomber was shot down in flames over Germany. He bailed out, parachuted to the ground, captured and was imprisoned for 22 months in Stalag 17, the infamous German prison camp featured in the 1953 Hollywood movie, “Stalag 17.” William Holden won an Academy Award for Best Actor in that historic movie.
After surviving the war, in the 1950s, Mooney went undercover for a month to live on “Skid Row,” a flop-house neighborhood on West Madison St., and wrote about the hard-scrabble bum-and-wino lifestyle.
In 1957, both Mooney and Schultz and a team of Daily News reporters won a Pulitzer Prize for “determined and courageous investigative reporting,” for a series of articles on Chicago and Illinois political corruption. The series focused on Illinois State Auditor Orville Hodge and his cronies, who were convicted and imprisoned for a $6.15-million fraud scheme.
• John Justin Smith, a Bronze-Star winner and Purple-Heart recipient, who worked as the Chicago Daily News as Assistant Sports Editor and Travel Editor, was another of the true World War II heroes on the star-studded newspaper staff. His nickname was “JJ.”
Smith, a quiet, slim, articulate Southwest Side neighborhood family man, served in the South Pacific with the 41st U.S. Army Infantry. In World War II, he and his band of brothers—a “fearless, volunteer platoon of misfits”—crept quietly behind Japanese lines in New Guinea to chart enemy troop movements as “Jungle Scouts.” Smith’s mates were assisted by a native Papuan Infantry Battalion in Salamaua, on the north coast of New Guinea, a large Pacific Island near the Coral Sea, a historic ocean battleground, just north of Australia.
In May of 1944, Smith was seriously wounded by mortar shrapnel in his right leg, and was partly paralyzed. Although Smith was offered promotions for his combat service, he reportedly turned them down because he believed in fair play: “It wouldn’t have been fair to [be promoted ahead of] other men who had been waiting longer than I,” he wrote. Smith earned a private first-class’s pay of $49.75 a month, or $597 a year for four years service.
His son, Tony Smith, recently published a book titled “Jungle Scouts” describing his father’s war-time exploits. The chilling and insightful 165-page book was authored by John Justin Smith in 1980, but never published until now. JJ passed away at age 70 in 1989.
Printer’s ink runs deeply in the blood of the Smith family. His uncle was author Henry Justin Smith, the famed Managing Editor of the Daily News in the 1920s, during the “Front Page” days of Ben Hecht and Carl Sandburg.
• Quiet, steely-eyed Herbert Lankford Benson, Jr. was ranked No. 1 on the Dean’s academic list in October of 1944 at the University of South Carolina. He was graduated at age 18 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.
Immediately following graduation, Benson, a gifted photographer, enlisted in the military and proudly served in the 43rd Division, 1st Calvary Division in the U.S. Army from December 6, 1944 to November 25, 1946.
Ordered to the Pacific Theater of combat in 1945, he rose quickly through the ranks because of his extreme intelligence. Benson served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur while stationed at field headquarters in Cabanatuan, Philippines.
He was promoted to the job of combat photographer and flew behind enemy lines to do reconnaissance work photographing Japanese troop movements. Benson built a photographic dark room at Cabanatuan headquarters, developed black and white Tri-X film sent to him by his father, and personally made print enlargements for Gen. MacArthur.
Although he witnessed war atrocities, later he refused to discuss them. Benson rose to the rank of Public Information Officer and earned $64 a month, or $770 a year as a Corporal T-5 (Tech 5).
On September 2, 1945, only three weeks after atomic and hydrogen bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Benson was on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay where he witnessed the signing of surrender documents by Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
His historic photographs of the surrendering Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial white stallion—a symbolically saddled, but riderless horse—were published in Time/Life magazine.
After the war, Mr. Benson was stationed in Tokyo, Japan, where he quickly learned to speak Japanese, learned to ski and developed a great love of Oriental art and fine China.
After rearing a family of four daughters and a son in Columbia, SC, oil business man Benson passed away at age 88 in 2014.
• Howard M. Busk, began his military career in 1935 at age 18 when he joined the U.S. Marines and served four years of active duty, including a tour in China. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the USS New Orleans. He was involved in pre-war Pacific patrols, tactical maneuvers, and intense training.
Chicagoan Busk, a Logan Square neighborhood resident, served in the U.S. Marine Corp. Reserve in 1940, and was employed as a clerk at the Union Stock Yards for the Armour meat-packing operation.
After the outbreak of World War II, he re-enlisted in the 5th U.S. Marine Division and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, earning $100.16 a month, or $1,202 aper year overseas.
Busk was lucky in war. Because of his prior service, and business and logistics experience, he was assigned as an aid to Line Officers. He did not hit the beaches in deadly amphibious landings, but handled administrative duties to support troops on Pacific Islands the U.S. Marines invaded.
Although he served in several historic Pacific-war battle campaigns—including the bloody invasion of Iwo Jima and Tinian islands, his job was to hold the beach, and direct manpower and heavy equipment movement.
However, Busk said he knew two of the men who raised the historic flag on the top of Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima. All six Marines on the flag raising team died in combat. While not often involved in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese, he did come home with horror stories, which he rarely shared.
On one sunbaked, mosquito-infested island, he and a buddy were pinned down by Japanese fire for more than 12 hours, in horrendous heat. During the night, Busk recalled that he heard a loud bang, and felt something warm and wet on the back of his head. His war-weary best friend, who was strung-out with battle fatigue, had committed suicide.
On September 12, 1945, Busk participated in the initial landing and occupation of Japan at Sasebo in Kyushu. On November 26, 1945, he was reassigned to the 2nd Marine Division in Nagasaki. Luckily, he did not suffer radiation poisoning from the recently dropped hydrogen bomb.
Later, he told his grandson: “I fought for this country so you would never have to. Come talk to me first, if you ever consider joining.”
After the war, Busk, returned home to meet and greet baby Marian, the first of his four daughters, who already was two years old. Later, he and his wife had a son they named Howard.
In 1975, he was transferred to Armour-Dial Co., a Phoenix-based division, and was promoted to national production control manager. He retired in 1982 and passed way in 1991 at age 73.
Celeste Busk, one of Howard Busk’s daughters, had a long, successful career as a features reporter for the Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times.
Howard Busk was a fine golfer, who referred to his clubs as “My sticks.” In the early 1980s, this writer had the pleasure of shooting a round of retirement golf in Arizona with Busk, who carved up the course like a surgeon, scoring in the 80s. He coached me to “take an easy swing, and stay in control.”
• Afredo P. Acierto, a Filipino American, and a pineapple-plantation worker, was one of the 3,000 laborers who were transported yearly from the Philippines to Hawaii during the 1920s.
Two decades later, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese sneak attack at on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, claimed the lives of 2,403 U.S. Navy sailors, soldiers and civilians.
Born in Candon, Ilocos Sur in the Philippines in 1903, Alfredo Acierto, was the eldest of eight children. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1921, at age 18, and eventually came to Chicago to live near an uncle. In Chicago, he became a naturalized citizen and started working as a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service.
Always in love with the sea, as the son of a fisherman and trader, Alfredo Acierto enlisted in the U.S. Navy when World War II broke out, and saw combat action in the Pacific. Acierto was assigned by the U.S. Navy Commander to Transport Squadron 17. He and other Filipinos fought in the Philippine Liberation action and other Pacific Campaign battles. Acierto rose in the ranks and was promoted to an important assignment, as the Navy Commander’s personal aid.
Near the end of the war, after the Japanese were defeated and ousted from the Philippines, he was based in Manila, where he awaited his discharge and orders to return to the U.S.
On leave, Acierto traveled to his hometown of Candon to visit relatives, and met Maria Pacio Guillen, a beautiful 22-year-old, school teacher who taught 6th grade. Highly educated, Maria learned to speak Japanese during the occupation and was ordered by the enemy to teach the language in local classes.
“This was important to a Filipino’s survival during World War II,” wrote Acierto’s wife, Maria, years later when she authored an 88-page family history titled: “The Legacy of a Life Well Lived.” “The Japanese demanded respect, and Filipinos were expected to act in accordance with the invader’s standards.”
While on leave in Candon, Alfredo courted Maria. Although Acierto was 41 years of age, it was love at first sight. They were married in Candon, a union that would last 63 years.
The Brides Act of 1945 made it possible for Maria to join Alfredo in the U.S. after he filed paperwork and was discharged. However, the paperwork was delayed and they traveled separately. Again, Alfredo Acerito’s love of the sea intervened.
Pregnant with Mary, her first child, and traveling by U.S. Navy ship, the General G.M. Randall, Maria was the only female passenger on board for 22 days at sea, accompanied by 7,000 U.S. soldiers returning from war.
With three military doctors, a priest and three nurses in attendance, baby Mary Randall Perfection was born at sea. Her middle name, “Randall,” honored the ship and crew. As a baby shower gift, the soldiers and crew passed the hat, and collected $896—a year’s pay for U.S. seaman at that time.
After the war, Acierto returned to Chicago with his wife and resumed his work at the Post Office, and raised three children. Acierto also pursued his B.A. in Economics at Northwestern University.
“Dad worked hard so that we could all go to college without taking out student loans,” said daughter Mary A. Ridley. He supported my mom’s university education for her B.A., Master’s and Doctorate degrees.” Acierto also helped establish the Rizal Center, a community center, and was active in many Filipino-American organizations.
Fun-loving Alfredo also knew how to party, recalled his son, Bob Acierto. “Big Al loved to dance the Twist like Chubby Checker. He had an infectious grin, and great motion and rhythm. Dad lived his life a lot like he danced—not really worrying about what others thought, but doing things that gave him pleasure—like smoking cigars and wearing his hat indoors.”
Acierto retired from the Chicago Post Office in 1959, after more than 20 years of service. He later worked as a clerk at Chicago's Continental Bank. In 2008, Alfredo Pascua Acierto passed away at the age of 104. He was buried in Chicago with full military honors. At that time, he was believed to be the oldest Filipino-American in Chicago area.
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Don DeBat is co-author of “Escaping Condo Jail,” the definitive guide to condominium living. A veteran real estate voice, he provides essential insights for navigating communal ownership at escapingcondojail.com. Stay updated on housing news at dondebat.biz. Don is currently writing “Chicago’s Game,” a look at the history and lifestyle of 16-inch softball.
“Jungle Scouts” is a chilling and insightful book authored by Bronze-Star winner and Purple-Heart recipient John Justin Smith about his behind-the-lines World War II service tracking enemy troop movements in New Guinea.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, this writer worked with Smith when he was Assistant Sports Editor and Travel Editor at the Chicago Daily News and later at the Chicago Sun-Times.
He wrote the book on his war-time experiences in 1980. His son, Tony Smith, recently published the manuscript on his father’s World War II exploits. JJ Smith passed away at age 70 in 1989.
In World War II, Smith and his band of brothers—a “fearless, volunteer platoon of misfits”—crept quietly behind Japanese lines in New Guinea as an intelligence and reconnaissance unit to map enemy troop movements as jungle scouts on the north coast of New Guinea, a large Pacific Island just north of Australia.
Over the course of more than 100 missions, they hacked through dense jungle, flanked enemy companies, and met tenacious Japanese warriors prepared to fight to the last man with snipers, ambushes, booby traps and suicidal “Banzai” tactics.
Smith, a Southwest Side Chicago family man, served in the South Pacific with the 41st U.S. Army Infantry. In May of 1944, Smith was seriously wounded by mortar shrapnel in his right leg, and was partly paralyzed.
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