From Okinawa to home: East TN WWII veteran shares lasting memories and 70+ years of marriage

TELLICO PLAINS, Tenn. (WVLT) – Fred Schwartz graduated high school in 1944 and signed up to serve the country the next day.

“As soon as you graduated, the next day I went to the recruiting station and signed up,” Schwartz said.

He met his wife Ann during high school. They have been married for more than 70 years, and both are about to turn 100 years old.

“I didn’t know Fred too well, but because he was a farm boy and he had to go home immediately after school all the time to do chores and things like that,” Ann said.

The two stayed in touch when Schwartz headed off to basic training once he turned 18. He did not see combat in Germany or Japan.

“I was lucky enough to miss both, both places as far as any combat,” Schwartz said.

He was sent with 7,000 men to Okinawa, Japan, after the battle there in 1945, to assist with recovery.

“Everybody has been there for many years in combat and everything. They all wanted to get home,” Schwartz said.

After only six weeks of training, he became the station hospital pharmacist. He said he helped mix medications for soldiers on the island and for the Okinawans there.

“There was 450,000 Okinawans there. One third of them, 150,000 of them, were killed during the war. And then there were things that they tried to help them out, to give them jobs,” Schwartz said.

One memory stands out. A young worker asking him for a bar of soap.

“I did. And then she came back and gave me a little doll about that high, a cloth that she made just to thank me. And that was my Okinawa doll. It is still in the family. I used it every year at Christmas time to put it on the tree,” Schwartz said.

While he was away, Ann and he would send letters back and forth.

“We love the letters. So many of them though, I mean, one time we, we took them all together and at a weekend, we went out somewhere and read through them and sorted them out. We saved about 25 or 30 letters each. The rest of them were, ‘I miss you. I love you. There’s a beautiful full moon tonight,’” Schwartz said.

He added he is grateful he did not face any combat, as he was able to get home to Ann. He said he mourns those who died serving and Memorial Day is always a special day.

The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial says more than 6,300 East Tennesseans died in military service during named conflicts since WWI.