Dear readers: I hope you have enjoyed the Handy Roots series telling how three of our Handy Heroes carried the same little Bible into war zones of three different eras.
The first, Elmer Probst Jr., was given the copper-clad New Testament when he was sent to India in World War II. His brother Eugene, though younger, was a sailor and shipped out before the Bibles were commissioned. But each had a flag in the window at the Probst homestead.
The two brothers were destined to be separated by the war and, indeed, for most of their lives after high school. Junior graduated in 1939 and went away to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Eugene graduated in 1941 and joined the Navy. As he was leaving for boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Junior was on his way home from the CCC. When the Trailways bus stopped in Fremont, Junior stepped off the bus, they shook hands, and Eugene climbed aboard. Due to circumstances during and after the war, their paths would not cross again for 11 years.
Following boot camp, Eugene was immediately sent to the South Pacific, where his tanker ship took a Japanese torpedo and sank. He described the survivors in lifeboats drifting around in the oil slick until finally rescued by the Coast Guard.
News of this reached the folks back home, but it wasn’t until he came home on leave in 1943 that he was able to personally give an account of it. Since I was a tadpole, I have virtually no real memory of his visit; however, there is what I call a shadow memory of myself tagging along behind my tall brother in Navy blues and our mother in tears as they walked the path to the post office where Gene was to catch a ride in the mail truck to Fremont and again board a Trailways bus to the West Coast.
As a member of the Armed Guard for merchant marine ships based at Treasure Island, he was in and out of San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and the Aleutian Islands. When the Armed Guard unit was disbanded, his next duty was on the destroyer escort USS Marsh, heading back to the South Pacific.
This time, Eugene had his guitar with him on the ship, and evenings found him and a buddy, Red Benson, entertaining their shipmates. He and Red developed a lifelong friendship. He was discharged in San Francisco as a Signalman First Class in February 1947.
As things were at Handy at that time, instead of going home, he found employment and sent money back. He married and had three children, and it would be another five years before he returned. But when that exciting event occurred in 1952, our parents had their entire family of eight together at Handy for the first time since Junior joined the CCC.
Little did we know the yearning Eugene had for his roots, but eventually he gravitated back to Missouri and settled in the West Plains area with his wife, Lotus. They ran a business in Caulfield for a number of years, and finally, in retirement, they moved to West Plains. Locals might remember a handsome smile in the aisle at Richards Brothers, where Eugene worked part-time.
As our tradition went, every time we got together he would play his guitar and we would sing. He loved to hear his sisters harmonize. In my childhood, his framed 8x10 picture was always displayed with hopes and prayers for his safe return — and thankfully, he finally came home.
Comments and memories can be shared with Maggie Adair via email at maggie.adair@icloud.com.
