Photo by Erin Nelson.
Joe Hicks, a U.S. Army World War II veteran, at his home.
The city of Vestavia Hills is home to many veterans and hosts several events each year to honor those men and women who put their lives on the line and sacrifice to serve their country.
In honor of Veterans Day, the Vestavia Voice spoke to several veterans in Vestavia Hills who served in either World War II or the Korean War.
Bill Martin
From finding a missing signalman on Guam to surviving a Japanese attack, World War II veteran Bill Martin saw it all during his years in the U.S. Navy.
Martin, 96, joined the Navy when he was 17 in 1943.
“I loved swimming,” Martin said. “I knew I’d have a place to eat and a place to sleep as long as that boat was floating. That appealed to me. Marching didn’t.”
Martin served nearly three years before being discharged in 1946. He served on the USS Pennsylvania, which took a hit at Pearl Harbor, though he was not on board at the time of the infamous attack. He served as one of the ship’s operators.
Several times throughout the war, Martin’s ship drew enemy fire. In Okinawa, the Japanese fired torpedoes at the Pennsylvania after it managed to get behind a squadron of Allied forces and was not picked up. The boat was held together by four massive screws, weighing several tons each. The torpedoes knocked one off, left one hanging, bent the shaft on another and hit the ship’s stern. Still, it did not penetrate the thick steel armor plate protecting the ship, Martin said. The danger was made greater because all the doors of the ship were open at the time as the Pennsylvania was onboarding an admiral, Martin said.
In Guam, the Pennsylvania’s crew managed to rescue a Navy signalman who had been on the island since the beginning of the war. Martin said the man hid on the island with the help of natives who provided him with food, and he used mirrors to signal the ship when it was close. The crew met him and got him out of the island.
Growing up in small-town Mississippi, Martin was not a good student, he said. The Navy taught him the importance of getting an education. Martin called it the “biggest lesson” he learned in the Navy, as tests were required for each promotion he went for.
After returning from military service, he got his GED from Mississippi State and took some dual enrollment classes at Delta State Teacher’s College. His grades were good enough to earn acceptance to the University of Alabama, where he studied engineering.
While studying at Alabama, Martin married his wife, Ruby. He got a job with Birmingham Electric Co., which was owned by Alabama Power, where he stayed for nearly 37 years. The couple’s first apartment was on 16th Avenue South before they relocated to Vestavia Hills.
Martin retired in 1988 and has two sons, Bill III and Jed.
He said the Navy taught him to respect authority, to be on time and to be willing to pitch in and be a good team member.
“Everything you did was teamwork,” Martin said.
Photo by Erin Nelson.
Stan Sims, a Navy veteran, stands in front of a wall of honors in his home, presented to him during his time serving in the U.S. Navy.
Stan Sims
Working in the engine room of a “floating airport” in the Navy during the Korean War, Stan Sims got to see a great number of planes land on his ship, the USS Essex.
As an electrical assistant to the chief engineer on the aircraft carrier, Sims, 91, said he thankfully didn’t have the “exciting” job unless there were “big disasters.” In addition to making sure the ship continued to run as it should, he was able to observe Naval aviators land on the ship from the viewing spot known as “Vulture’s Row,” a high spot atop the ship.
From there, Sims saw a pilot who successfully took off from the ship 576 times miss just once, forcing him to use his parachute.
He also felt and heard the speed and power of the ship, which traveled at 34 mph.
“I thought the thing was going to fall apart,” Sims said. “Those big turbines just scream like banshees.”
They were so loud that Sims lost his ability to hear noises in the upper range.
Sims joined the Navy following the examples of an uncle and a cousin but got his first experience on the water as the understudy for a steamboat river pilot during a summer job. The job followed Sims’ reading of “Life on the Mississippi.”
“I just fancied myself the new Mark Twain,” Sims said.
He traveled from New Orleans to St. Louis to St. Paul and Cincinnati, among other places. Sometimes, he was called upon to fill the walk-in locker on the boat, so he’d jump off the boat in a city, take a smaller boat to the nearest store and pick up goods and supplies before being picked up somewhere down the river.
“That was a fine job,” Sims said.
Even after leaving the Essex at the end of the war, Sims continued to serve in the Naval Reserves, and, as an inspector general, oversaw a four-state region. Sims finished his 30 years of service in 1982, with a career that included overseeing two units as a major lieutenant commander and retiring with the rank of captain.
Sims is a self-professing train lover and has taken trips as far west as Ogden, Utah, to see the “Last Spike Ceremony,” a reenactment of when four spikes, two of which were gold, were driven into the ground to signify the completion of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.
Serving in the Navy gave Sims a sense of discipline, Sims said, which served him well when he worked for the telephone company, which he compared to the military with its regulations and orders.
“I learned to be sure I was a straight arrow,” Sims said.
Joe Hicks
For four days, Joe Hicks rode from France to Berlin, though it was not the most comfortable ride he’d ever experienced.
“They put us in cattle cars,” Hicks said. “No seats. … We were packed in there like sardines.”
Hicks, 94, was in the U.S. Army during World War II and deployed in 1945, near the end of the war. When he arrived in Berlin, the fighting was over, but the work was not done.
After arriving in Berlin, Hicks went down to Frankfurt, where he served in a motor pool. He and other drivers made sure military leaders and other VIPs arriving in the country had a military escort. One day, Hicks noticed a British colonel needed a driver, so he served as his personal driver for two months before going back to Berlin to serve in a supply room.
“I had a good deal,” Hicks said.
Hicks went to Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship after being discharged and, in addition to playing football for three years, was married while in college to his wife Imogene, who died in January of this year. The couple has three children, sons Alan and Bobby and daughter Jean Sullivan, widow of former Samford football coach and Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan, who died in 2019.
Hicks taught and coached at Ensley High School for one year and then worked various jobs, the longest being in the dry cleaning business for 20 years. He also worked in the real estate business and insurance business before retiring.
“I’ve seen it all,” Hicks said. “I’ve gone from a smaller town to a bigger town.”
