Duane and Marian Applequist, World War II
In last week’s column, Duane was serving as a member of a B-29 crew located near Albuquerque, NM.
The B-29 crew made extensive training flights, some as far away as Jacksonville, Florida. On July 16, 1945 in the predawn hours Duane was waiting assignment in the Ready Room at Kirtland Army Air Force Base.
“We were to make a practice bombing run over some target in the States. We had been told that there would be a slight delay because there was some maintenance work to be done on our plane
We were half asleep waiting for our plane. I remember it was strangely quiet with no activity at the base. There were no planes revving up which was unusual at that time of the morning.
All of a sudden, the Ready Room lit up like it was midday. Just as quickly, the light faded away. We ran outside to see what happened. Was there a plane crash? Funny, but there was no sound; just that brief flash of light. What was it?
Then we were told that an ammunition dump had blown up! But that didn’t make sense to us. There should have been a loud explosion.” The crew later learned that they had witnessed the light from the first atomic bomb at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, NM, some 80 miles away.
On August 5, 1945, their B-29 crew was at Pratt, Kansas, ready to leave for Okinawa. Duane had called his wife and parents, telling them goodbye. Suddenly they found themselves confined to the base, awaiting further orders. On August 6, 1945, a B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima, and then on August 9, Nagasaki was destroyed with a second A-bomb, and the Japanese surrendered.
There was talk of a possible conflict between Britain, the U. S. and the USSR and the crew stayed on alert for that. The crisis cooled off and Duane was discharged December 23, 1945 as a 1st Lieutenant. Getting home was a great Christmas present.
Duane was back in school in September, 1946 at the University of Cincinnati. Their son, Mike, was born February 11, 1950 and Duane graduated in 1951 in mechanical engineering. While he was still a student, he worked for The Standard Oil refinery in Covington, Kentucky. He continued to work for them after graduation and then was transferred to Cleveland in 1955 where he worked until he retired in 1984.
In the meantime their daughter, Barbara, had married Paul Aley and they moved to Tiffin where Paul was President at National Machinery. The Applequists moved to Tiffin in 1991 and have enjoyed seeing their two grandchildren J.P. and Kari grow up. J. P. Aley is a Columbian graduate and Kari is a graduate of Loomis-Chaffee in CT.
Their son Mike has a Ph. D. from Lehigh University and has taught in college and high school. Mike has three children and lives in Mt. Carroll, IL.
Barbara who graduated from North Park University in Chicago, taught first grade in Worthington, OH, and later in Framingham, MA. .
The Applequists from the beginning have felt at home in Tiffin. Duane served as Chairman of the Ritz Renovation Committee for seven years. He was a member of the Tiffin City Charter Review Commission. He served as a member of Church Council of Trinity UCC. He is a member of the Board of WSOS, the Board of St. Francis Home Memorial Foundation, and the Board of the Allen Eiry Senior Center. Duane is a member of the Kiwanis Club. Both Marian and Duane deliver meals from Mercy Hospital. Marian is a member of Y-Wives.
Mary and I are so glad that they call Tiffin their home.
– Percy