Wenner Hoffert - World War II
William Jacob Hoffert and Annie Lucretia Stever Hoffert raised six children on a farm on Fleet Road near the Rock Creek Cemetery. Mildred, Morris and Margery, twin of Elwood, have passed away. Elwood, Gaetta and Wenner all live in Tiffin. Mary and I have written three articles about Elwood, a retired veterinarian and this one is about Wenner, the youngest.
Wenner, like the others, went to the Eden Township District #1 one room school. The school was closed after his seventh year and he graduated from Melmore High School. Elwood got a scholarship to go to Ohio State, Gaetta became a registered nurse, but Wenner’s parents told him there was no money for college.
When he applied at National Machinery right after High School, he was told that he had to have a reference from someone who worked in the factory. The manager was Ernie Elchert. He went home thinking there was no chance to work there. Then he received a phone call that evening asking him to report the next day in May, 1941.
Except for his time in service, he worked at National until August 1985. Wenner told us how National played an important role in World War II. They made the machines that made the parts needed in the war effort such as machines for making shell casings. International Harvester and other large companies received many different kinds of machines. Wenner mostly worked on the planer in the Machining Department. His hours at National were generally from 5:30 PM until 4:30 AM with twenty minutes for lunch, time usually spent watching the huge machines and chatting with coworkers. Altogether, he spent about 43 years working for National, 29 of those on the night shift.
During the early years at National, he came to Tiffin to bring some vegetables from the farm to Elwood’s family. There, he met Monica, a sister of Elwood’s wife, Marian, who had come from the Marietta area to baby-sit the children. A romance began that ultimately led to several double first cousins.
While working at National Machinery, Wenner watched a documentary at the Ritz about Marine Boot Camp. It showed marines running obstacle courses. The commentator made it sound challenging and exciting. Wenner told his date, ‘’Hell, I could do that.’’
So he went to Cleveland to join the Marines. Not knowing where the Marine Recruiting Station was in Cleveland, he went to an information booth in the Public Square. They first tried to direct him to the Merchant Marines. He told them that he wanted to join The Marines, the ones with the red stripe on their pants. Then he found the Marine Recruiting Office in the old post office building. When he got home, he had a draft notice from the local board in Fostoria. He made several trips back and forth from Fostoria to Cleveland to persuade the draft board to release him. He was allowed to join the Marines for the duration of the war.
On January 23, 1943, after 20 months at national Machinery, he went to Boot Camp in San Diego where he was assigned to the 69th platoon. He felt there was no other place he could have gone to get more respect than he got in the Marines. ‘’ Our platoon was a close knit group.’’
After ten weeks at boot camp, he went to Mirimar just north of San Diego. Three new platoons of Marines were assembled. The commander asked for volunteers. First was Guard Duty. Many hands went up. Then there were other choices. Finally, there were about ten left including Wenner. They were asked if they wanted to volunteer for Radio School. Sure, but they didn’t know that it was Aviation Radio School!
To be continued next week.
– Percy