U.S. Merchant Marine World War II Manteno, IL Flight date: August, 2019
By Cindy Krawulski, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interviews Volunteer
William Bike was born in Chicago in 1923 in the Bucktown neighborhood. He had six siblings including a brother, John, who died when he was a year old. Today, at age 96, William has outlived his other siblings but most of them lived well into their 90’s! William attended Lane Tech High School and worked for the Checker Cab company in Chicago. He got to know the city streets and how to get around. He also worked as a baker for the bakery his parents owned and his love for baking and baked goods exists to this day!
William served in the Merchant Marine as a seaman from 1942 to 1943 during WWII on ships bound for South America. The Merchant Marine included commercial and non-naval ships that carried cargo, supplies and equipment or passengers to provide Maritime services. There were civilian crewmen sailing on these ships carrying out a crucial service to get war material to the troops that were needed to fight and win the war.
These assignments carried their share of danger and casualties as the ships were treated by the enemy as war ships but were not armed or escorted. It is documented that “In WWII Mariners died at a rate of 1 in 26, which was the highest rate of casualties of any service. All told, 733 American cargo ships were lost and 8,651 of the 215,000 who served perished in troubled waters and off enemy shores.
The Merchant Marine was not officially recognized as a service branch or part of the military, specifically the Navy, until 1988. This was a year after William officially retired from his civilian job! These unsung heroes were at last recognized for their service and pivotal role in WWII when it was declared that active duty military service includes service in the “American Merchant Marine in Oceangoing Service during the period of Armed Conflict, December 7, 1941, to August 15, 1945.”
The Merchant Marine, unlike the other services, were able to choose their assignments. William sailed to Chile in South America on one of the assignments. He loved to travel any way he could, and recalled a story he told to his son, William Jr. A friend of his wanted to go on a certain assignment and the friend wanted William to go along too. William had a bad feeling about this assignment, and did not go. His friend went and later William heard news back that the ship had sunk and there were no survivors.
William is also a veteran who served our country as a Private in the Army in 1946 from June to December. He recalls going to Virginia for training and because of his experience as a baker, he was offered a cook’s job. He declined, staying true to his love of baking! Unfortunately, he got KP duty instead cleaning floors, doing dishes, serving meals, and yes, he did cook a little bit as well. The soldiers probably had the best meal of their lives with William’s baking knowledge and experience!
As Private William Bike recalls, the favorite saying of the military during service time was “Hurry Up and Wait!” We all can recall examples of doing this in our own lives but during WWII, this phrase got its start. As William recalls, they would call the troops in for a training session or military assignment, only to start the training or get the assignment hours later. To pass the time, the servicemen would come up with different games; one such game was to throw rocks into a hat or some other object to catch them in. The hat or object would be placed at different distances or with obstacles in the way to make the game more interesting.
William recalls another Army story of when his platoon was marching and ran out of water. They came to a river crossing and William purposely fell off the bridge and into the river with his canteen opened. The other soldiers all laughed but it was William who had the last laugh as now he had water to drink during the rest of the march!
In addition to his military stories, William also recalls going to Alaska as a civilian, but assigned to the Army, to build air bases. While there, in order to keep warm, he and other workers would keep dogs in their sleeping bags at night! For William, this is one of the many reasons why dogs are everyone’s best friend!
After the service, William went to work as a truck driver driving all over the U.S. and Canada. As a truck driver, he had time on the road to think about ideas that came from his entrepreneurial spirit. He liked to try out various ideas to make some extra money, one of which was selling Christmas paper. He also built his own home in the 1940’s.
In 1954 he married Jean Smolen, and they had one child, William Jr. He and Jean were together until she passed in 2014. They were married for 60 years. William was and still is very health conscious. According to his son, William Jr, his Dad insisted on eating fresh fruits and vegetables back in the day when it wasn’t the “in” thing to do! When William retired in 1987, he joined a health club! What a trend setter he was back then and is now enjoying the benefits of his healthy lifestyle at 96!