I read with sadness the news that Robert Anthony Wheeler had died on Jan. 14 at Woodland Village in Chehalis at the age of 93. He was laid to rest during a graveside service on Friday at the Napavine Cemetery, which former Lewis County Clerk Kathy Sorensen Brack attended.
“He was always a wonderful supporter of mine when I was in office,” she said. “I think the biggest thing about Bob was that, at a young age, he became thankful for his life. I remember him talking about how wonderful the first meal was that he had after they had been rescued.”
I first met Bob more than two decades ago, shortly after volunteering to help with the reelection campaign of George W. Bush. We both attended Republican central committee meetings as precinct committee officers for years.
As he did with many people, Bob shared the story of his early life as a prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II. His story fascinated me, the deprivation he experienced living behind barbed wire south of Manila with his father, stepmother and younger brother. They survived by eating rice, weeds, slugs, and at times dogs and cats.
U.S. Army paratroopers rescued him and more than 2,140 starving prisoners from the Los Baños internment camp shortly before they were scheduled to be executed. Bob enjoyed sharing the story of his early years, his respect and admiration for the military men who saved him and his family, and the lasting effect it had on his life.
In 2018, Bob contacted me to help him publish the stories of his early years in a book titled “A Child’s Life — Interrupted by the Japanese Imperial Army.” He dedicated the book to his “angels,” members of the 11th Airborne Division, particularly troopers in the 511th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, and the pilots and crews of the 65th Troop Carrier Squadron and the members of the 672nd Amphibious Tractor Battalion.
In his memoir, he described the day he was rescued.
“That Friday morning of February 23, 1945, as I walked out of the barracks with my family to line up for 7 a.m. roll call, I looked up into the sky over a field near our camp and saw nine C-47 transport planes,” he wrote. “Suddenly, the sky filled with the angels, the troopers of B Company 511th, floating down as if from heaven in their white parachutes.”
As Filipino guerillas stormed the guard shacks, firing bullets, Bob dove under his bunk in the barracks — after he grabbed a bowl of bug-filled mushy rice. “I was so hungry that not even bullets going through our grass mat walls could keep me from that pitiful bowl of bug-filled mush,” he wrote in a letter to The Chronicle. A paratrooper told them to grab only what they could carry and jump on amphibious tractors before the enemy nearby discovered the raid.
Bob, who was named after his father, Robert J.M. Wheeler, was born Nov. 9, 1932, at Sternberg Military Hospital in Manila, followed less than two years later by his brother, Albert, on Aug. 16, 1934. Their early childhood seemed ideal until their mother, Esperanza (Lebron) Wheeler, contracted tuberculosis and died on June 20, 1939, when Bob was only six and Albert four. In November 1940, his father married Ida Ellen Waldeck, who escaped from Nazi Germany with only a small suitcase because, although a practicing Lutheran, she was the granddaughter of a Jewish couple. Her mother died in the Treblinka extermination camp.
In 1942, the Japanese arrested Bob’s father and incarcerated Bob, who was only nine, and his family for three years. Initially, the boys attended Holy Ghost College before the family moved to Los Baños with more than 525 other internees on April 7, 1944. Upon his liberation more than 10 months later, Bob was 12 and weighed 57 pounds. Forty-four days later, the family traveled to the United States aboard the USS Admiral Eberle, a new Navy troop transport.
In September 2018, he shared his story of life in the Los Baños internment camp during the Korean War Veterans and Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Remembrance Day at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis. Bob also served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
Whenever Feb. 23 occurred, he recalled his rescue from the POW camp and his gratitude for the angels who saved him and his family and at times wrote letters to the editor about that dawn rescue.
Bob flew to the Philippines with three paratroopers who helped liberate the camp for an interview by The History Channel for a 2004 documentary called “Rescue at Dawn: The Los Baños Raid.”
He often attended reunions of the paratroopers who rescued the camp and always grasped their hands and said, “Thank you for my life.” While they responded by saying they were just doing their jobs, he shared his admiration for their role in the rescue. He credits them for the opportunity they gave him to live his life, marry, father a son and a daughter, and enjoy nearly a dozen grandchildren.
But his brother, Albert, once an internee at Holy Ghost College like Bob before the family moved to Los Baños with more than 525 other internees on April 7, 1944, never lived long enough to enjoy those things. He hung himself in his bedroom at 16 in California. Bob’s father died in 1971 just before his 70th birthday, and his stepmother passed away in California in 2020 at the age of 105.
After graduating from San Leandro High School in Bancroft, Calif., in June 1951, Bob enlisted in the Navy and completed boot camp and radio school in San Diego before his transfer to Bainbridge Island. He met Jean Taylor at a dance, and they married Aug. 27, 1954, in Bellingham, where Jean was studying to be a teacher. They were married 71 years and raised two children, Kevin and Kelly.
Bob worked as a bank teller in Bellingham and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in sociology from Western Washington State College. They then moved to California, where he worked as chief accountant for an electronics company, then accounting officer for the city of Pittsburgh, Calif., and assistant finance director for the city of Stockton before serving as finance director in Coos Bay, Ore., and later city administrator in Clatskanie, Ore. He then worked 15 years as accounting manager for the city of Yakima, retiring in 1997. After running a financial services business, he closed up shop, and the couple moved to Napavine in August 2001 to be closer to their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren.
Bob joined the Napavine Planning Commission and volunteered as economic development coordinator, and in November 2009, ran for election to the Napavine City Council. He served on the council for six years, participated in the Centralia/Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, and represented the city on the Lewis County Economic Development Council. He resigned from the council in August 2015, saying he grew tired of beating his head against the wall.
“My main frustration is that the average citizen seems to be basically illiterate as to history, government, and politics, and doesn’t seem to care about the background and competence of the people he or she elects to public office, and, unfortunately, many never even bother to get out and vote.”
Bob, who was a regular at Ramblin’ Jack’s Ribeye, held strong opinions and often wrote letters to the editor of The Chronicle to express them, whether endorsing local political candidates, condemning bans on indoor seating during the COVID pandemic, explaining how tax levies work, urging people to send care packages to military people serving overseas, prohibiting marijuana stores and production, urging Ritchie Bros. to connect to Napavine’s water system, criticizing Democrats and repealing Obamacare.
Bob also occasionally called me with ideas for stories, such as the column I wrote after interviewing Clarence Piper, a former Tenino resident who served as a Seabee with the 135th Construction Battalion on the island of Tinian during World War II.
While we didn’t always agree politically, especially in the past decade, I always respected his right to share his opinion. And I valued our friendship.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com
