Portraits of Courage: Hiram Wells

Hiram Wells was skiing on Mount Hood in Oregon in 1941 when another skier came up beside him and told him America had been attacked.

“Word spread on the mountain about Pearl Harbor and everyone left,” said Wells, who now lives in Palmer.

Wells was living in Portland, Ore., at the time and enlisted shortly afterward.

“I wanted to get into aviation, but they were all full up in the school,” he said.

Wells was assigned to be a diesel engine repairman, which required extensive training. He trained at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a General Motors factory in Cleveland, Ohio, and a propulsion engine shop in Norfolk, Va.

Wells got married to a woman he met in Cleveland during his time in Norfolk. They wrote letters during the war and it “worked pretty good.” The marriage lasted the war experience.

Once his training was complete in 1944, he was assigned to the USS Mindanao, an internal combustion engine repair ship.

It went through the Panama Canal into the South Pacific where it had other ships come alongside and trade broken engines for repaired engines — mostly routine maintenance.

“We took in engines and repaired them or handed them new parts so they could be rebuilt and then sent them on their way,” he said.

Wells didn’t see combat, but there was once an explosion near the ship that cost many men their lives.

“An ammo ship right near us blew up,” he said. “Thirty-five guys topside lost their lives on my ship and it wounded many more.”

Wells was not injured during the explosion.

He was on the ship when word came that the war had ended.

“I was glad it was over,” he said.

He was discharged at the end of 1945. Men were discharged based on a point system. Married men had 10 points and had points based on how many months they had in the service.

Wells had enough points when his ship was in Okinawa, so he took a troop ship back to Bremerton, Wash., and went back home to Portland.

In 1951, Wells was working for a company that wanted to send someone to Alaska, and he volunteered to go.

“I liked it so much that I stayed,” he said.

Wells thinks the time he served during the war did affect him as a person.

“It was a real good education,” he said about his time in the war. “I wouldn’t want to do it again, but I wouldn’t want to give up the experience.”

Wells thinks all young men should consider serving their country, saying that service would make better people out of them. His message to today’s generation is also patriotic.

“Stay true to your country,” he said. “Don’t put up with any nonsense.”