Local veterans offer living history exhibit Three share stories of WWII service with Army, Navy PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above: Aram "Bob" Bozian, a former store keeper disbursing 1 (SKD1) with the U.S. Navy, speaks to guests at the East Brunswick Historical Society Museum on Milltown Road Feb. 10. During World War II, Bozian took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Guadalcanal, the invasion of the Philippines and the Battle of Iwo Jima. At left: Uniforms of World War II veterans are among the items on display at the uniform. BY MARY ANNE ROSS Correspondent It was a glimpse of World War II history that no textbook could offer. Visitors to the East Brunswick Historical Society Museum on Feb. 10 got to meet veterans Aram "Bob" Bozian, of Old Bridge, and Charles "Chuck" Mickett and Woodrow "Woodie" Tangen, both of East Brunswick. As part of its ongoing exhibit on the war, the society interviewed the men, with questions both common and unusual, such as "Did you enlist or were you drafted?" "How did soldiers bath?" "What was the food like?" The veterans responded good naturedly, and while they made light of some of their war time experiences, they also told tales that left their audience wondering how they could have even survived. In response to the question about bathing, Mickett recalled what happened when he was deployed on the West Coast of Italy with the U.S. Army. "During a break, my buddy and I were laying on the beach and there was this terrible odor. I got up and started looking for a dead body, but I couldn't find anything. Then I looked down and saw what it was - my friend had taken off his shoes," he recalled. Mickett was drafted into the service and was only given two weeks' training before he was sent overseas on a refitted Queen Mary. "On the way to Scotland we ran into a rare December hurricane, and the boat was so top-heavy from the changes that had been made that we almost sank. Water poured in. Everyone thought we had been hit. There was a lot of confusion but I slept through it all. I woke up the next morning and said 'What happened?'" Mickett eventually became an acting platoon commander. He served in the Army from October 1942 to October 1945. His first post was in Africa with the 505 Coast Artillery anti-aircraft units, which was later converted to the 473rd Infantry Regiment and participated in the invasion of Salerno, Italy. CHRIS KELLY staff Woodrow "Woodie" Tangen looks on as Charles "Chuck" Mickett recounts his experiences in World War II. Mickett, a U.S. Army technical sergeant, platoon sergeant and acting platoon commander, served from October 1942- October 1945. Tangen, a former U.S. Navy chief gunner's mate, served from June 1942- August 1945. "Something happened to me during battle that changed my life forever," he said, remembering how he and his company were doing a "push" up the coast when they came across a fort that had been taken over by the Germans. "They were shooting these heavy shells. The larger they were, the longer it took for them to land," he said. "It got so I could time them - 42 seconds until they landed." Mickett heard one go off and knew it was aimed right at him. He leaned up against a terrace and prayed. "I heard a voice say, 'I want you to sin no more.' "I said I can't promise you that, but I thought about my mother and father and how they would feel if something happened to me. I said, 'I want to live, God, I want to live.'" The bomb went off about 12 feet from him. He saw the blue smoke, could smell the sulfur, but he was unharmed. "I really think I had a guardian angel," Mickett said. Tangen enlisted in the Navy when he was 17. "When I heard about Pearl Harbor I really wanted to go, but I had to convince my parents to sign the papers," he said. Tangen became a chief gunnery's mate. He described what happened the first time he was shooting at the enemy. "I blew holes in the smokestack of our ship. I almost hit the captain," he said with a laugh. "Being in the Navy was good. We didn't have it as tough as you guys in the Army or the Marines," he told Mickett in front of the audience. "We ate well. I even had a menu to choose from. Next time, you should join the Navy," he kidded. Life in the Navy may have been good for Tangen, but it was also dangerous. He was on three ships that were torpedoed. "The last time was in the Mediterranean, and they hit the magazine section where we kept all the ammunitions. I just remember hearing the explosion and waking up in the hospital six weeks later. People were speaking Italian and I thought I was a prisoner of war." It turned out the people speaking Italian were the orderlies, and they were the prisoners of war in an American hospital MASH unit. Tangen would later learn that he had floated in a life raft for six days and had been picked up, unconscious, by his rescuers. He suffered severe head injuries. "Everyone thought I would never be able to walk again, but I did," he said. He was awarded the Purple Heart. Bozian joined the Navy before the war. He was assigned to the SS Cushing and was sent to a place he had never heard of, Pearl Harbor. At the time it was a bustling port. "It was the largest naval base in the country. There were battle ships, destroyers, submarines and carriers. There was a huge dry dock," he recalled. At one point, Bosnian's ship was sent to San Francisco for maintenance. "We were there for about six weeks, when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Four days later, we steamed back into that harbor with 16 million gallons of aviation gas, and you could have heard a pin drop. It was so quiet. So different from the way it was when we left." The Cushing was immediately sent back to the West Coast of the U.S. "We patrolled from Mexico to San Francisco," he said. "Everyone thought the Japanese would attack there next." Bozian was soon in the Pacific Theater. He took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the invasion of the Philippines, the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Guadalcanal. He vividly described the night his ship was lost during the Battle of Savo Island and he was forced to jump overboard. "The Japanese liked to attack at night, so at 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, 1942, the ship was hit." Bozian was stationed at the gun in the stern of the ship. "All the men on the other side of the gun were killed, and the men on my side were OK." Bozian was ordered to assist the guns up front. "We were under so much fire I had to crawl there. The Japanese were so close I could here them talking. "The guns were already out when I got there." Bozian found a wounded sailor he knew from boot camp. "I'm no doctor, but I tried to make a tourniquet for him." Then Bozian heard a sound "Some instinct told me to duck." When he looked up, the man he was trying to assist was gone. Soon afterward came the order to abandon ship. Bozian jumped into the dark water. "We knew that the channel was full of sharks because we saw them during the day, but they don't like oil and loud noises." Bozian quickly found a lifeboat, but when he looked around, he saw another lifeboat with wounded soldiers, floating near the ship. "We knew it would have been sucked down when the ship sank." So he and a fellow sailor went back, clung to the side of the raft, kicking to get it away from the ship. Six hours later they were rescued. "Time is so different when you're in a naval battle," Bozian said. "It took 20 minutes, and then it was over." Bozian's experience in the Pacific did not end with the war. "I was assigned to the USS New York, in New York, [in 1946] and I thought I had it made," he said, adding that he was looking forward to frequent visits home and felt fairly confident the ship wouldn't be going anywhere. "It was so old, I figured it would just stay there." But Bozian was wrong, and he and the USS New York were soon headed to the Marshall Islands, where he ended up witnessing the testing of two atomic bombs. The first was detonated in the air. "They gave us special glasses and told us to keep our heads down. When we looked up we could see one of those mushroom clouds," he recalled. The second was exploded at water level. "They had an old battleship, the Arkansas, right near the bomb, and it was lifted up in the air and ripped in half." Exhibit runs through May The veterans' appearances were arranged in conjunction with the WWII exhibit at the historical society's museum. The group interviewed about 20 local veterans prior to the exhibit, which opened in November, and has included their stories. Two or three of the veterans appear at the museum monthly. The exhibit also features maps, posters, uniforms, newspaper articles, letters and other memorabilia. The exhibit will be open from 2-5 p.m. on March 16, April 13 and May 18. Admission is free. The museum is located at 78 Milltown Road.