FORT SILL, Okla. (Sept. 28, 2018) -- Four generations of the same family attended one Soldier's basic combat training (BCT) graduation Sept. 21, at Cache Creek Chapel here.
The great grandfather, 97 years old and a World War II veteran, watched along with his wife of 71 years, misty eyed as his great-grandson received recognition amid other BCT graduates.
Pvt. Jakob Reis, who only had a few hours with his extended family before leaving the evening of graduation, said he's close to his great-grandfather. Reis went onto Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to study as a 35F, an intelligence analyst, a 16-week course. "I didn't think college was right for me at the time so I joined the Army," he said. "I met with recruiters from the Army and Navy and the Army seemed right."
Reis' great grandfather, former 1st Lt. William "Bill" Duffy reminisced that this month 75 years ago, he too, left Fort Sill for other duty assignments, having just graduated as a second lieutenant here. Reis' grandmother (Duffy's daughter) and his mother also attended Jakob's BCT graduation along with a dozen or so extended family members. Most of Reis' family who visited traveled from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Duffy also attended what was then called the Battery Executive School at Fort Sill before being assigned to the Philippines during World War II. He recounted more than 75 years of his life before his great grandson's BCT graduation that included a storied assignment as a war correspondent and media liaison during Gen. Douglas MacArthur's International War Tribunal directive, under which, Duffy witnessed two Japanese generals tried for their involvement in some of the atrocities of that period.
"I was active service from May '43 till October '46. I had had at least three years in ROTC prior to that," Duffy said. "I wasn't a journalist at that stage, but it was on my records that I was the editor, but they didn't know that."
Duffy displayed photos of his Philippines tenure.
"This is Japanese General (Masaharu) Homma, who was one of two Japanese generals who were condemned to death by trial with American (military) lawyers," he said. "The Japanese tortured and killed many people, and (Homma) was in charge of the troops that had killed. He was on trial. I saw the whole trial and I was in charge of all the commercial correspondence that came in.
"At that point I had myself transferred from field artillery. In order to be eligible to do that you had to be in charge of public relations and media. I became in charge of the public relations media department. They transferred the war criminal generals from prison to court by ambulance," Duffy said. "He was the first of two Japanese generals tried. At that time I was not a photographer.
(Homma) was in charge of the death march. Duffy explained that Gen. Douglas MacArthur -- chief of staff of the U.S. Army during the 1930s and who played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II -- vied to bring both Japanese generals to justice during the trials.
In another photo Duffy explained: "This is a shot of the courtroom five seconds after (Homma) was condemned to death. He had been a military attaché to Great Britain for years before and he could speak and understand English. When they asked him questions that he didn't like he feigned that he didn't understand. His translator would translate, then he would reluctantly answer. They shot him and hung (Tomoyuki Yamashita, the other Japanese war criminal).
"Being shot means at least you'd go to their version of Heaven. Being hung is dishonorable for the Japanese. Then they put Homma in prison and they sent for his wife and she came down from Japan," Duffy explained of another photograph.
"I squired her around for interviews and made sure they (journalists) asked the right questions without embarrassing her. She didn't speak English very well," Duffy said. "She wanted to stay there until he was shot, but (the tribunal) didn't want that so they sent her back to Japan before they did that. They didn't even tell her when he'd be assassinated. At the time of the Japanese trials there were probably seven or eight side courtrooms where they tried sergeants and troops that had charges of lower cases and a lot of them committed atrocities. All the courtrooms were filled.
"It was about two-and-a-half months from trial ending to when they were executed," Duffy said and explained that the tribunal kept the actual execution secret because of its sensitivity and controversy. He said not many people actually knew when the executions occurred.
"(President Dwight) Eisenhower said that Manila was more beat up than any European country that he'd ever visited. Downtown where the courtroom was where all the dead people were. The place was terrible. It took years for that to clear up. The Spanish settled Manila from the war. They tried to put some class into (it). The atrocities were so horrible that they didn't want them publicized as such."
Soon after Duffy's assignment in the Philippines, he started his discharge from the Army. He took a train to Chicago to get discharged and passed out in line. "They found out I had hepatitis. They didn't know what it was at the time."
Duffy said he didn't eat for days and didn't feel like consuming anything but water. Eventually, one night around 2:30 a.m., after his body had healed he became ravenously hungry. The nurse brought him a ham sandwich, which after not eating for weeks, upset his digestive system Following WWII, Duffy said he worked in sales and marketing for years and eventually became a hypnotist.
He still practices today, though part time. His book, "Does Hypnosis Really Work?" can be found online. He has several drafts of several other books he said he'd like to write. He said he attributes his longevity and health to being thankful for every day and thanking God. He said he's baffled, quite frankly, by living this long.
"I didn't have anything to do with it. It's all God."
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