WWII comrades in arms reunite 65 years later
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

STEPHANIE BERTHOLDO/Acorn Newspapers STILL FRIENDS- From left, Kal Loeb, James Satt, Bob Strong, Harry Schwartz and Izzy Levy meet for the first time in decades to reminisce about their time shared as air cadets in 1942.

The bonds of friendship forged among five World War II veterans were recaptured last month, when the octogenarians were reunited as a group for the first time in 65 years.

Agoura Hills resident Kal Loeb, 86, organized the reunion lunch at Brent's Deli in Westlake Village. James Satt, 87, hails from Encino; Bob Strong is an 85yearold Camarillo resident; Izzy (Israel) Levy, 84, lives in North Hills; and Harry Schwartz, also 84, traveled from Monterey Park to reminisce with his war buddies about their early days as aviation cadets at the Luke Field Army Air Corps base in Arizona.

The men were flooded with memories of the 18 months they spent together at Luke Field.

Rather than risk getting drafted, Loeb said, they all enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942. "We didn't want to get killed, but we wanted to be patriotic," Loeb said. "There was a big war to fight, and no one to fight it. When the war broke out there were only 350,000 in the Army. They needed 2 million. (The government) had to build a whole organization, train them and get them into action as fast as possible."

The benefits of service

Six hundred men from Los Angeles were stationed at Luke, Loeb said, but Satt, the only one of the quintet of friends from out of state, landed in Arizona from Idaho for training. After four years in the military, he went to college and law school on the GI Bill and eventually became a judge.

The Army "was the best thing that ever happened," Satt said, but he was quick to note that World War II was a "popular war," unlike the current war in Iraq.

Schwartz said he had wanted to join the Navy but was denied because he was an inch too short. "I went across the street to the Armed Forces (office) and they said 'yep.'" He also recalled "getting (immunization) shots on both sides at one time."

Strong, an electrician who worked as superintendent on such projects as MGM hotels and the Magic Mountain theme park, said that even though he didn't fight, he "saw Nagasaki," which like Hiroshima was hit by a U.S. atomic bomb. He was warned by his superiors to never speak about what he witnessed. He also worked on bombs in Colorado and was an "instrument man" at Iwo Jima.

"When planes came toward me during takeoff, I tried to dig a hole in concrete," Strong said. "They would take off in total darkness to shoot Japanese planes."

After training at Luke, all the men worked on ground crews in the U.S. and abroad, maintaining U.S. airplanes. In 1942 warplanes were revved up by hand, with the ground crew spinning the propellers to get the pilots started on their missions, Loeb said.

Levy and Schwartz have been friends since high school. They enlisted together and kept in touch throughout the years. "I tried to go where he went," said Schwartz, a retired special education teacher.

Loeb said the friends' lives intersected periodically, unexpectedly, over the years, but they had not gotten together as a group for 65 years. Loeb remembered the date of their last time together- Oct. 27, 1942. He also recalled that in 1969 Levy happened by the Roger Young Center, a convention and banquet hall Loeb owned and operated in Los Angeles. Levy said the facility was chosen because it could accommodate students taking a bar review course.

"I went there and saw Kal," Levy said. "I hadn't seen him for 25 years."

Retire and rust

An attorney, Levy is also a certified public accountant. To illustrate why he will not retire, Levy told an "old Jewish story" about a farmer who pushed a plow through a field. "After passing another plow by the side of the road, one plow asks the other, 'Why are you so new and shiny and I'm so rusted?'" The plow, Levy said, ordered the other plow "to get up and do something and you won't rust."

"I'm trying not to rust," Levy said.

Levy repaired tanks during the war. "I wound up in the armored division in Europe," he said. To add a little flair to the recollection, Levy belted out an edited line to a song, "Tanks for the memories . . . " He also worked as a radio operator- "dots and dashes and a lot of flashes," he said.

Loeb and Levy talked about how men in the military had to improvise to get their jobs done. Levy recalled being asked by his sergeant to go to the supply room for feminine hygiene products.

"He's not going to fool me," Levy said. But the tone of his superior's voice conveyed the seriousness of the request, he said.

Apparently, sanitary napkins were a jury-rigged component used in aircraft maintenance. "I told my wife I'd used more Kotex than she would ever use in her life," Levy said.

"We didn't have anything else," Loeb said. "We had to do a lot of improvising."

Long lives,

happy days

Life after the war for the men has been, for the most part, good. Strong and his wife raised 10 children. A son and a daughter have died, but 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren are the light of his life.

"My daughters take wonderful care of me," he said.

Schwartz attended gunnery school, where Levy joked his friend had contracted "gunneria."

From aircraft mechanic to teacher of physically handicapped children, Schwartz is content with his life, and he enjoyed visiting old pals.

He and his wife, Gert, have been married for 56 years.

Loeb lost his wife to cancer in 1980 and remarried in 1982. His three daughters are successful and happy, he said.

Satt, who has served as a judge in both municipal and superior court, has been married to Sheryl for 54 years.

Their son is a psychologist and has three children. Satt has been active in the Encino community and served as president of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, he said at the Oct. 26 lunch.

Levy has been married to Nadine for 44 years. They raised three children and now enjoy their two granddaughters. "They're delightful, beautiful girls," Levy said. "They take after their grandfather."

Loeb said he will always feel close to the men he met so long ago. He joked about their common bonds today- "The only thing we have in common is we're all alive."