96-Year-Old To Walk A Mile For Vets
World War II Sailor Who Survived Japanese Attack Is Guest Of Honor
POMFRET — After the kamikaze attack, Armand Jolly found himself in the water. He had no idea how he got there.
His face and hands were burned. He was still wearing a T-shirt which was covered in oil.
Five Japanese planes had hit the USS Emmons. The date was April 6, 1945. Jolly, of Pomfret, may be 96 years old but he’ll never forget that day his ship — his home for four years — was destroyed in World War II.
“The plane hit somewhere below me,” Jolly said. “I don’t know how I got in the water but I was off the ship. I was just floating along. This guy, he’s the last survivor with me — he picked me out of the water.”
Jolly, a gunner’s mate 3rd class who was awarded a Purple Heart (among other medals), ended up in a hospital in Guam, and eventually made it back to the U.S. After the war, he married and had two children. He worked in the mills and for the state highway
department.
These days, he keeps busy with yard work and attending veterans’ events. He will be a guest of honor Saturday at the Veterans Day Classic 3 Miler at the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs complex in Rocky Hill. The race, in its second year, is being put on by the AT&T Veterans Employee Resource Group of ConnecticutNew England chapter, which funds veterans’ outreach programs and provides emergency financial assistance to veterans.
There is also a 1-mile walk, in which Jolly will participate.
“I can walk a mile,” he said. “Somebody will be with me. I have a bad knee. They put a shot of grease in there once in a while. I’ll be all right.
“I’ll do anything that’s going to help a vet. I’m probably one of the oldest ones still living.”
Jolly was born in Putnam on Sept. 23, 1922. He went to school up until eighth grade, then left to work. He had nine brothers and sisters.
“I’m the only survivor,” he said. “Seven boys and three girls.
“Don’t forget, this was the Depression years. I ate an awful lot of pea soup, I’ll tell you. People were walking down the streets looking for work. People from different towns were looking for work — they called them tramps but they weren’t tramps, they were looking for work.
“I worked for 50 cents. I’d mow lawns. Split wood. Run errands. All jobs. I worked for the town. The town had roads that needed repair. People would work and get paid $1 a day, $2 a day, that’s all there was.”
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Jolly was 19 years old. A few weeks later, he enlisted in the Navy in Boston.
He went to Newport for training, then gunnery school in Chicago, then back to Boston, where he boarded the Emmons. He was part of five invasions – in Africa, Italy, Normandy, southern France and Okinawa.
The destroyer protected supply ships and troops. It helped escort President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Gibraltar en route to the Tehran Conference with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in late 1943.
It was in Normandy in June 1944 for D-Day.
“We were 3,000 yards off the beach in Normandy,” he said. “I have a picture at home of where the ship was. We fired the first shot at 6 in the morning. I was in the gun mount, so I couldn’t see too much. But when you’d get out, the water was red. A lot of guys would walk off the boats and down they’d go.
“We had an army spotter on the beach. They told us there was a machine gun nest in the steeple of the church and the Army couldn’t move. They told us where to shoot and we did. They said, ‘You hit the doors. Next time raise it up a couple degrees.’ We blew off the steeple. Now the Army could move.”
There were lighter moments, too. Jolly remembers cooking Spam sandwiches — a delicacy in wartime — in an electric oven near the fantail where Jolly slept, the back of the ship right above the noisy propellers.
Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II. Thirty-six ships were sunk; there were almost 5,000 casualties. Sixty-nine of the Emmons’ crew perished and 77 were wounded.
“I was lucky,” Jolly said. “I don’t know how. I must have jumped in. My life jacket is still near the gun on the boat.”
Jolly has six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren. His wife died of a stroke; his daughter died of cancer.
“I work around the house, work in my garage — try to keep busy,” he said. “Rake my lawn. Plant flowers for my wife. Just waiting for the day I’ll be laid next to her. I’m hoping I can make it to 100.”
For more information about the race, go to https://runsignup.com/ Race/CT/RockyHill/VeteransDayClassic3milerunwalk.