By MARIE HAVENGA
Next time you take a photo in front of the beach grass at Grand Haven State Park, say a silent “thank you” to Jacob Westra. And when you see the majestic World War II monument gracing Grand Haven’s Central Park, know that he helped with that. And America’s freedom? Well, he had a hand in that too; fighting overseas during World War II.
Westra, 97, who lived most of his adult life in Grand Haven, was back in town this past weekend to attend funerals for his brother and a friend. He took time from his itinerary to chat about his time in the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at what is now Mulligan’s Hollow, and his experiences in World War II.
Originally from Kalamazoo, Westra came to Grand Haven in 1939 during his stint in the CCC. His mind may be spry now as it was then.
“To tell you the truth,” Westra said, “I didn’t know where Grand Haven was until I went up to the courthouse in Kalamazoo and asked the lady there who was in charge of all the CCC’s,” he said. “Her name was Mary.”
When he first arrived, Westra said he was immediately impressed.
“The first thing I saw was Lake Michigan,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is going to be great.”
Westra recalls Ivan Miller, the camp’s commanding officer, and his bosses, Ed Long and Glenn Eaton Jr. Eaton later became mayor of Grand Haven.
The crews planted trees around what is now the Consumers Energy plant in West Olive and planted beach grass at the state park.
“Oh man, I planted more trees than you can count,” he said, sitting in a chair at his Best Western motel room on Friday with his daughter, Chie Chie, at his side.
While in camp in Grand Haven, Westra completed a correspondence course in forestry with the University of Michigan. He had received a degree in forestry from Michegican State prior to arrifving here.
When not planting, e spent his days swimming in Lake Michigan and hanging out with friends. In 1941, Westra and a group of CCC buddies decided to enlist in the Army together.
“There were 10 of us,” he recalled. “We had made up our minds, we were going to volunteer for service. We all marched down to the draft board (at the Armory on Second Street) and told the man, I think his name was VanWorkem, that we wanted to enlist. The American Legion had a big dinner for us, a send off.”
Then it was off to Fort Sheridan, Ill., for a couple moths before boarding a train for California for basic traning.
“That’s when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,” Westra said. “That’s where I was, out in California. When the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, they took all the troops and put them out in the field.”
Westra spent time guarding warehouses along the Southern Pacific Railroad before being transferred to Virginia with plans to head overseas.
He was scheduled to head to North Africa with another unit, but luck smiled.
“The outfit we were supposed to leave with, when we woke up, they were gone,” he said. “A month later, we hear the outfit we were supposed to go with were wiped out in Africa.”
Instead, Westra headed toward another major strategic site.
“We had no idea where we were going until we got to board the ship,” he said. “We found out were were going to England. We received and stored supplies from the U.S. in different countries while in England. One day were we notified we were going to leave our cozy homes and move out into the field. We had no idea that we were going to France.”
Westra landed in Normandy 10 days after the D-Day first wave invaded.
“We set up our base on the beach and we supplied all the troops with supplies,” he said.
But as casualties mounted, General Eisenhower told his staff instead of waiting for replacements to send some soldiers from the rear and put them in the infantry. That’s when Westra became part of the 78th infantry.
“And I survivied,” he said. Flashing a broad smile and adding that he and his comrades captured several large French cities.
One day, he received an important message from home.
“I was in a foxhole and a man came up, a Red Cross representative, a big tall guy,” Westra recalled. “He said, ‘Are you Mr. Westra?’ He said, ‘Congratulations.’ I asked him for what. He said, ‘You’ve got a new baby.’”
Westra pointed at Chie Chie, smiling.
“I kept track of her,” he said. “I kept a picture of her.”
Westra’s wife, Ruth, raise their daughter until her husband could return. And little Chie Chie, who didn’t meet her father until she was two, often hugged a photo of her solider-father while he was away.
Westra, meantime, was assigned with the 310th regiment to the Remagen Bridge.
“When we go to the bridge, we could see that the Germans had blown a big hole at the entrance of the bridge so our tanks couldn’t get in there,” he said. “Our combat engineers put planks across so the tanks could go. Before we corssed, our captain told us to grab each other by the belt loop because he didnt want anybody to fall into the icy cold Rhein River.”
Westra recalls the date, “It was March 7, 1975, when we captured the bridge,” he said. “We knew that it helped shorten the war. The war ended in Europe on May 28, 1945. To this day, as far as I know, the people at Remagen do not have a bridge across. The only way they can get across is by ferry.”
After the war, Westra went to Korbach to guard five German hospitals. He was discharged in September 1946, and couldn’t wait to meet his little girl.
“When I came home, I had a doll I picked up in Pennsylvania that was bigger than my daughter, he said, laughing.”
Chie Chie said it took her a while to learn who this man was who had entered her life.
“I didn’t know him, she said. “I just knew the picture of him in uniform. When he would come home from work my mom would say, ‘Go see Daddy’, and I’d go grab that picture.
It didn’t take Chie Chie and Jake long to develop a close relationship. It’s even closer today. Westra left Grand Pines Assisted Living in Grand Haven three years ago to live with Chie Chie and her husband on their Kentucky horse farm.
“I am so very proud of my father,” she said. “Last week, we to the Kentucky state capitol to see our senator. Our senator got us down on the legislation floor and they have my father a citation.”
Westra is a ‘computer whiz’, according to Chie Chie and communicates with 45 relatives in the Netherlands. He writes in Dutch, they respond in Dutch, and he reads it to her.
He still likes to plant things and watch them grow. He said this season’s tomato plants are already thriving outside their Kentucky home.
“We’re glad we have him with us,” Chie Chie said. “He keeps us going. Thank goodness I was one of the lucky ones. I got my daddy back from war in one piece, with no marks on him.”
The link to the story on the Grand Haven Tribune’s website is: http://www.grandhaventribune.com/Military/2016/04/04/Jacob-Westra-recalls-WWII-experiences-CCC-camp-in-Grand-Haven.html?ci=content&lp=&p=1