Tape Number: WCWW2-071
Title: WW2 Interview with Ernest Tresch #2
Title Type: Element
Program, Series or Collection Title: Wisconsin WWII Stories: Home Front
Format: BetaSP
Creator: Derks, Mik//Producer
Date Created: 2002-09-26
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Board of Regents//Copyright holder
Subject: war
Description: Tape Number WCWW2-071

01:00:37;21 01:00:39;08 [00:00:01:17] WCWW2-071
:keywords:
Ernest Tresch - interview, part 2

Interview conducted on September 26, 2002

Joined Eisenhower's staff in Frankfurt
Father died - Eisenhower was generous
Eisenhower leaves Army
Flying VIP's
Goowill Tour = lots of fun
Regrets no interest in photos
Majority in service glad about the A-bomb
People in Palermo on rooftops during bombing
War mostly over when in the Pacific
Got to see a lot of the world
Left Air Force in '48
Flew 10 years in civilian life
Life in US after war
Last saw Ike when President
Generals have their own trains
Hitler's train

01:00:44;12 01:02:16;11 [00:01:31:25] WCWW2-071
:joined Eisenhower in Frankfurt for shuttle runs:
E - Okay, well, [cough] I was back in the states after one of those overseas runs and one morning I got a call down at the apartment, and asked for Lieutenant Tresch and I said, "Speaking". He says, This is Lieutenant George. He says, Do you have any relatives living in Germany? I says, Not that I know of, sir. And he says, Thank you, that's all I wanted to know. And that afternoon I had orders to join General Eisenhower's crew in Frankfurt, Germany. And, which was very much a surprise to me because I had absolutely no pull or drag as far as Army or politics or anything as concerned. But I wound up on the General's crew and I was over in Frankfurt about in six weeks before he came back to the states and was appointed Army Chief of Staff. And we brought him back to the States and then we made some shuttle runs. We had four shuttle runs back to Frankfurt to pick up office records and personnel and so on.

01:02:16;11 01:05:14;22 [00:02:58:05] WCWW2-071
:dad dies and Eisenhower letter:
Q - And [ cough] uh, was back in on one of those shuttle runs, and my father was taken with a heart attack. And the family knew that I was out of the country, but the only way they could get in touch with me was through his office at the Pentagon. And they immediately radioed into Frankfurt what had happened and we'd left Frankfurt and it was forwarded to Paris and we'd left there and it finally caught up with me down in Bermuda. And when we got down to Bermuda the colonel of the base came out to the airplane and told me what had happened and we immediately refueled, came on in to Washington. When we got into Washington, Colonel Stack, the general's aide was down to meet the airplane with a personal letter of sympathy from the general. And um, in the letter is stated take as much time as I needed at home. No three-day, seven-day, ten-day or anything. Take as much time as you needed at home. Don't worry about the next shuttle run, we'll get a replacement for that, but your status on the crew will not be changed any. And I mention that because it's very personal to me, but it was so typical of the general all the way through. The whole time that I was on the crew, it was so many, many times what he could do for the other guy rather than pat his own back or anything like that. It was what he could do for the other guy. Rather than pat his own back or anything like that. It was what he could do for the other guy. And at that time, I was a first lieutenant, and a five-star general doesn't have to do that for a first lieutenant. And well they had reservations by commerical airline and train and in the letter he stated if I could use his plane to a better advantage feel free to take it. And but that's the kind of a man that he was.
Q - Yeah that must have made you feel pretty good that he was willing to.....
E - And I was back for the next shuttle run.
Q - And did that behavior of had inspired a lot of loyalty from.....
E - Oh yeah, you bet.

01:05:14;22 01:06:37;14 [00:01:22:20] WCWW2-071
:shuttle runs in 1945 and transferred to Washington with general:
Q - So, on these shuttle runs, was he always, was he making that run that often?
E - No, no. No, he was there in the Pentagon, but we were just going over to pick up personnel and records and equipment and so on.
Q - And what time was that?
E - Well, let's see. That would have been in, that would have been in '45 wouldn't it. He was appointed Chief of Staff, yeah. And then I was on the crew until he left the Army and went to Cornell University and was President of Cornell and so when he went, left the service, well then I was transferred into the first Special Air Missions Squadron at Bolling Field in Washington, flying VIP out of there all the time. I mean congressmen and top Army and Navy brass and so on like that, which was very nice duty too.
Q - They must have trusted you.

01:06:37;14 01:09:19;16 [00:02:41:26] WCWW2-071
:flying with Eisenhower and other generals:
E - Yeah, I had a couple real nice trips while I was on his crew. Shortly after he came back and was appointed Chief of Staff, he made the tour of inspection of the Pacific. And so we took him out on that, we hit the islands going out and on into Manilla. And was in Manilla there for a few days, then to Korea, and down to Shanghai, China, and then hit the islands coming back home again, which was a very nice experience. And then it wasn't too long after that, that he made the goodwill tour down to Rio de Janeiro, [cough] and flew him down there on that trip. And to my knowledge there's never been that much rank onboard one airplane before or since, but we had General Ike who was a five star, General Vandenberg with the air force, three star, General Snyder and Serle (sp?) in person with two stars a piece. So where we went, why, they pretty much rolled out the red carpet. But we were down in Rio there for a week, and while we were down there they assigned a British lieutenant to the officers on the crew as our aide and his sole duty while we were in Rio was pick up the check. And then uh, well we came back up through Panama and then into Mexico City, and the same thing again there. And well, the first night the President threw a reception, the next night the ambassador threw a reception, so on down the line. And the officers on the crew were included in on all the receptions. And those people down there when they threw a reception, they threw a reception. But,

01:09:19;16 01:09:59;27 [00:00:40:11] WCWW2-071
:crew on tours with generals:
Q - How large was your crew?
E - On that?
Q - Yeah.
E - We had [cough] pilot, co-pilot, radio operator, navigator and steward. And man we ate better on the airplane than we did on the ground. We'd go into an airport and he'd [cough] go down to the mess and he'd go in and say and want that, that, that, that, and that. And he'd take it back out and put it on the airplane and then we'd, we ate good.

01:09:59;27 01:11:27;00 [00:01:27:01] WCWW2-071
:unique experience but no photos:
Q - You had a pretty unique perspective on the war during that time didn't you?
E - Oh yeah.
Q - Were you aware of what was happening in the different theaters of operation, and how the war-
E - Pretty much, pretty much. Yeah. Uh, I can kick myself all over the place because [cough] at the time, I could have cared less about pictures and so on. And but the exposure that I had there, especially while I was on his crew with the personnel and where we were and so on like that. It would have been a fantastic album, but like I said, at the time I couldn't have cared less. [cough]
Q - You're probably in a few photos.
E - Yeah.
Q - You can look through history books and probably see yourself out in the background there.
E - Yeah, but, no we were, we were with a lot of rank all the way around on that.

01:11:27;00 01:12:13;06 [00:00:46:04] WCWW2-071
:people thanked him for flying them:
Q - And when you would shuttle all of these people, when you were carrying all that rank, did they chat with you? Did they thank you for the trip?
E - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh [cough] like, well when I was flying out of the Bolling Field there on those trips, why they were all very accomodating and appreciative and uh, well they were just generally good people.

01:12:13;06 01:14:06;27 [00:01:53:17] WCWW2-071
:servicemen glad A-bomb dropped on Japan:
Q - Was there a pretty positive attitude during that period? Did they feel like the war was under control?
E - Pretty much so, yeah, yeah. There's a, I think a majority of the people in the service was real happy to hear about the atomic bomb and because that was really winding things down in a hurry then. And unquestionably so saved many, many, many thousands of lives. Of course it was a rough deal but it was, by the same token it was war too.
Q - Were you aware at all of that bomb being in the works?
E - No.
Q - No, even where you were, it never surfaced that there was anything....
E - No
Q - So what did you think when you heard about that? I mean, you knew what bombs were and what they were capable of.
E - Oh yeah
Q - So you had a pretty
E - Well it was, it was just hard to imagine a bomb would do that much damage, because our little 500 pound or 1000 pound bombs, uh, was a drop in the bucket. But, no I think the majority of the people in the service was glad that they went ahead and dropped it.

01:14:06;27 01:15:44;17 [00:01:37:18] WCWW2-071
:Palermo citizens watched bombing on rooftops:
Q - That had to be pretty amazing to you though. I would think that that, that you described the bombing of Palermo and all those different groups, I mean how many hundreds of planes were involved in that and probably that one bomb did more damage....
E - Oh yeah, by far, by far. And like that [cough] Palermo deal, like I said the town itself had never been hit before, but the docks had. And while we were in that big wide turn out over the Mediterranean coming in to Palermo, the people, uh, thought they were going to see the bombing of the docks. Instead of running for bomb shelters and so on like that, they were running for rooftops to watch the bombing of the docks. And the docks were never even touched that day. And with the type of bomb loads that we were carrying, you can imagine what happened. There was a tremendous loss of life that day, but uh.... and the Air Force wasn't the most popular thing in the world when they invaded Sicily either.
Q - Why is that?
E - Well the Air Force, the people in Palermo wasn't overly enthused about the Air Force bombing the way they did there, but got the job done.

01:15:44;17 01:16:41;22 [00:00:57:03] WCWW2-071
:feelings about bombing people:
Q - That must have been difficult. I mean you knew what you were doing, and you also knew that you were doing a job.
E - Yeah.
Q - And that this had to be done aside from the fact that this is what you were ordered to do.
E - That's right.
Q - You understood why you were doing it. How did you deal with that, conflicting feelings?
E - Well, uh, we thought about it quite a bit, but most of us we had heard and seen so much about what the Axis was doing and the results of that, that we were actually happy to be doing what we were doing. And trying to bring it to a close.

01:16:41;22 01:17:42;06 [00:01:00:12] WCWW2-071
:coalminers on strike:
E - Uh, oh, I don't know whether to mention it or not, but actually, while we were in Africa, John L. Lewis took the coal miners out on strike and uh, the fellas over there would have rather made a bomb run over the union than they would on the, where we were going. Because they just couldn't feature them going out on strike when the war was on that way. But
Q - Regardless of what they were fighting for, that was not the time or the place?
E - Yeah
Q - To disrupt that effort, the war effort.

01:17:42;06 01:20:12;20 [00:02:30:10] WCWW2-071
:when visited Pacific was told about battles:
Q - Um I was thinking when you made that tour with Eisenhower, um excuse me, of the Pacific. What was going on of the Pacific at that time? Was that, was that after Okinawa or....?
E - No, that was before Okinawa. Uh, well it was uh, right at the end of, well not right at the end, but General MacArthur was over there at the time and it was cleaning up the Pacific area there.
Q - What did.... you visited these places, what did you think about what had gone on there?
E - Well, like when we were on Corregidor for instance, um, they had a briefing there as to what all had happened during that time there. And god, the Japanese shell cases laying around there and so on, uh, well and the uh, General Wainwright, uh, when he was in the uh, caves over there and, they gave us a pretty good picture of what had actually happened and taken place.
Q - You must have been happy to be in a plane and not down there on those islands?
E - We were on Guam and Kwajalein and Iwo Jima and well, the rounds out there. [cough] Of course that was, it was all over with at that time, but....

01:20:12;20 01:21:06;25 [00:00:54:03] WCWW2-071
:never been back to any places after war:
Q - So what do you think about the farm boy from Ohio and those names are just rolling off your tongue. You didn't ever expect to be in those islands
E - Oh no, no
Q - You saw some sights.
E - Well, uh, the Air Force gave me passage to quite a few places. I don't know, the fifty some countries and islands that you normally wouldn't be exposed to.
Q - Did you ever go back to any of them?
E - I haven't. I haven't.

01:21:06;25 01:22:40;27 [00:01:34:00] WCWW2-071
:discharged 1948 and became corporate pilot:
Q - So, I think I read that you left the AirForce in what, 1948?
E - Mmmm.
Q - Tell me about that.
E - Well after I was on that Special Air Mission Squadron out of Bolling Field, I got my discharge and like I said earlier that my father had been taken with a heart attack, mother was at home on the farm by herself at that time. And so I went back there and in the meantime, why, there was a concrete corporation there in Marietta that was taking on an airplane, and the president of the company was close friend of the family's and so on. And so I had this flag job lined up when I got out of the service, so I flew the corporate airplane for another ten years after I got out of the service.
Q - So civilian life wasn't much different for you than military life.
E - Not a whole lot for awhile, yeah.

01:22:40;27 01:24:09;18 [00:01:28:17] WCWW2-071
:transferred to Wisconsin with Madison silo co:
Q - How did you end up in Wisconsin?
E - It was a company transfer there in Marietta, there was a series of mergers, but anyway I wound up in the silo division and was manager of the Baltimore branch and then I was transferred here to Madison with the Madison silo company. And uh, held the working out of the division office here. At that time I had eight plants scattered around the country and I was in charge of concrete production at all of the plants, so there was a lot of travel involved in that too.
Q - So how did you transition from pilot to to management?
E - Uh, oh I don't know.
Q - Somebody calls up and says.......
E - Pretty much, pretty much. Yep.
Q - So you never went out and looked for a job, all those jobs just came along to you huh?
E - That's right. That's right.
Q - So you got to Madison and were traveling around and.....

01:24:09;18 01:26:13;03 [00:02:03:11] WCWW2-071
:life after war and people worked hard:
Q - How, how would you describe the nature of life in the United States after the war?
E - Hmm. Oh I, I don't know just how to describe it. [long pause] I think that immediately after the war the people as an overall basis was, uh, oh very supportive of the war effort and the work that everybody was doing and much more so than what there is today. I mean today, why everybody is more, uh, [pause] oh they don't approach a job as a job that has to be done or needs to be done. There's more, uh, put in time, get paid. But at the end of the war, that wasn't the situation.
Q - Everybody was building something.
E - Right.
Q - Do you think that was a carry-over from the war effort because everybody had pulled together
E - I think so, I think so, I think so. Yeah.

01:26:13;03 01:27:54;09 [00:01:41:04] WCWW2-071
:saw Eisenhower as president and story on route to Boston:
Q - So when was the last time you saw the General?
E - When he was President?
Q - Did you go and see him? What did he have to say?
E - Uh, oh not a whole lot, I mean, it was very brief but uh, a welcome deal though.
Q - He didn't say Ernie I couldn't have done it without you?
E - Oh, no, no. [cough] But there, there's something. When we brought him back to the States to be Chief of Staff, we were supposed to land in Logan Field in Boston. And coming up out of the Azores, the weather reports we were getting was terrible, I mean it was socked in. And oh about an hour or so out of Boston, [cough] went back and told the general about the weather reports we'd been getting, and I said if we can't get into Logan, where would you like to use as an alternate? He said, look when we're on board this airplane, don't ask me any questions. When we're on the ground it might be different. But that again, was the type of fella that he was. [laughs]

01:27:54;09 01:29:39;01 [00:01:44:18] WCWW2-071
:Planes and trains for generals:
Q - When you mentioned the type of plane, I wasn't familiar with that kind of plane. What was the kind of plane you were flying?
E - It was a C-54, the same as a commercial DC-4. Except we took it through modification and plushed it up a little bit.
Q - So what was the configuration when you were done with it. How many people would it hold?
E - Uh, well we could sleep 11 on board and [pause] gosh, I can't honestly say.
Q - You can't picture, was there office space and galley space and all that just on board?
E - Mmmm. Yeah. But no we had, picked up pretty decent.
Q - So were
E - Almost as good as his train in Frankfurt. In [cough] over there in Europe at the time, during the war, all of the generals over there, had their own trains. Like our generals had their own airplanes, they had their own trains. So when he went into Frankfurt as Supreme Commander, he was said, I'll have that car, that car, that car, and that car and he made up his own train out of all of them. It was pretty plush too.

01:29:39;01 01:31:10;16 [00:01:31:13] WCWW2-071
:saw Hitler's train:
Q - But um, well like Hitler's car, uh all communications on and off the train went through that car that he could monitor any communication coming in or going out. And but then his dining car was, oh the very best in China and sterling and crystal and everything with swastikas and so on.
Q - Did you see that?
E - Pardon?
Q - Did you see that?
E - Oh yeah. Well when we were, the train commander found out that we were going to bring the general back, he had a bunch of stuff he wanted brought back to the States, So he invited the crew down to the train for dinner so on like that, see.
Q - What a life! You were invited everywhere!
E - Oh, it was tough! No, with the exception of combat, I was very, very fortunate with the duty that I had. Combat was something else but...
Description Type: Log
Format Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Format Generations: Moving Image/Original Footage
FormatLocation: Media Library
Duration: 00:30:26;00
Format Colors: Color
Genre: Interview
Genre Authority Used: PBS PODS
Language: eng
Date Of Record Release: 2009-11-20 12:00:38 (W3C-DTF)
Date Record Checked: 2009-11-20
Format Tracks: track 2: right mono
track 1: left mono
Format Media Type: Moving Image
Alternative Modes: No Captions
Subject Authority Used: International Press Telecommunications Council
Annotation: Cataloged as part of the American Archive Pilot Project
FormatIdentifierSource: Wisconsin Public Television
Date of Record Creation: 2009-11-20 11:52:37 (W3C-DTF)
Identifier: http://wptmedialibrary.wisc.edu//SPT--FullRecord.php?ResourceId=568
Date Last Modified: 2009-11-20 12:01:45 (W3C-DTF)

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