World War II ended 80 years ago and Edward J. Behling is among those still around who can give an account of a soldier’s viewpoint from that time.
Behling is 101 and lives at his home in Portage. He was recently hospitalized for swelling in his legs and heart fibrillation, but he recovered and is now home. His mind and memories remain sharp.
There were an estimated 66,000 World War II veterans still alive as of 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. There were 3,289 World War II veterans counted in Indiana as of Sept. 30, 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data.
Behling was an Army corporal stationed in Bhamo, Burma — now called Myanmar — when the war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, and then in the Pacific theater with Japan on Sept. 2, 1945.
How he ended up working in the map room connected with the radar unit can be attributed to his being adept at drafting skills while a student at Hammond Tech High School, which is now the Area Career Center.
Behling was a guy who loved to play football but then he got drafted in 1942 before his targeted graduation date the next year.
“I was scared to death. They were drafting everybody that could walk at that time,” Behling said.
The Army allowed him to finish his high school degree, but he had to take extra classes to graduate in 3 1/2 years.
“They took all my sports and workshops away from me,” Behling said.
As it turned out, those drafting classes later became an important factor in determining his Army assignment.
Days after Behling graduated from Hammond Tech in January 1943, he reported to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis and then on to Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh.
Two weeks into basic training, Behling got pulled out and told to pack his duffel bag because he was going to Tampa, Florida. For what, he didn’t know.
“You go through the whole time, and they tell you nothing,” Behling said.
Behling was told to report to MacDill Field in Tampa. He arrived on a Sunday and was told to find a cot in a huge common room.
When he reported to a gate that Monday morning, he was told in passing, “You’re in radar,” to which Behling replied: “What’s radar?”
“Radar back then was brand new. The only thing I could figure out later on is why I was picked out of hundreds and hundreds of guys is that I was in a tech high school drafting shop,” Behling said.
Radar also gave the Americans a decided advantage because Japan then didn’t have the same technology.
Behling found himself in the company of those who had just completed their training in radar and were about to be shipped out to the Pacific Theater. He was a buck private who had two weeks of basic training.
His assignment would be to work on a huge map, physically plotting the movements of planes recorded by radar units that were spread out at seven locations outside Bhamo, Burma.
After a long crossing of the Pacific Ocean, which featured their troop ship being jostled by a whale, Behling was taken inland to the then-primitive, jungle-like surroundings of Bhamo.
The site was far away from the frontlines where the battles were fought. The greatest danger came after nightfall from the swarming mosquitoes that transmitted malaria.
Behling said he worked 8-hour shifts, seven days a week. He would plot on the map what radar units in the field were recording.
“We could see it happening. We’d plot these planes coming together,” Behling said. And, Behling said you could almost tell who won after seeing the plots separate.
The routine could get boring, and they had to stick close to the camp, Behling said.
On May 8, 1945, the soldiers learned that the war in Europe was over.
However, the war was far from over in the Pacific Theater. Behling said within weeks, soldiers who had served in Europe were being transferred to the Pacific and some were coming to Burma.
While the Allied forces were gaining the upper hand, fears were raised that the war could drag on for years if there was a land invasion of Japan.
But it all changed when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, followed by another atomic bomb three days later that ravaged Nagasaki. Behling said they learned about the bombings through radio reports and hopes were raised that the war would soon be over.
Behling remembers working in the map room, plotting the movements of planes when a supervising officer came in with the best news ever: “The war was over.”
“We were jumping and hollering, we were so happy,” Behling said. “It was a great experience but I never want to do that again.”
Behling said he realized the “horrible” destruction and loss of human life associated with dropping the atomic bombs.
“My version was how else could it have ended? What else could I tell you,” Behling said.
Behling was going to return to Hammond, the city he left as an 18-year-old kid fresh out of high school who was now a 21-year-old man coming home from the war.
His high school girlfriend, Zoe, was waiting for him.
“If she could wait for me for three years, that’s the woman for me,” Behling said.
They were wed on Sept. 21, 1946, and it was a union that lasted more than 62 years. They had three sons, Edward C., Jeffery and James, who all live in Northwest Indiana. She was 80 when she died on Jan. 20, 2009.
Behling said when he returned home from the war, he joined the family construction business, Gil Behling and Son, as a carpenter. He stayed with the company his whole working life, becoming a construction supervisor. He retired at age 62.
To keep his mind sharp, Behling regularly works assembling intricate plywood models that occupy shelves in his home.
“I can’t complain. I’ve had a very good life. A very, very good life.”
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
