Vernon Elmer Bishop

Pre-WSC Background

Vernon Elmer Bishop was born on March 4, 1923, to Thomas Bishop and Vesta Dwinell Bishop. Bishop's parents divorced within the first three years of his life, and he went to live with John and Hattie Mae Weed in Sunnyside, Washington in Yakima County at the age of three. Weed owned a farm, and in the 1930 United States Federal Census, Bishop was listed as a "Boarder." Bishop remained with the Weeds for the duration of his childhood. Despite this living situation, records show that Thomas Bishop remained in contact with his son. Vesta remarried in 1929, and again in 1949. 

Bishop attended Sunnyside High School. He participated in numerous extracurricular activities while there, including Glee Club and Operetta all four years; orchestra during his freshman year; he had roles in both junior and senior plays, and he participated in debate during his senior year. His senior yearbook shows his personal quote as "What d'ye mean, me make a speech?" Bishop graduated from Sunnyside in 1941. 

WSC Experience

Bishop attended Washington State College (WSC) from the fall of 1941 until his enlistment in the United States Army on April 19, 1943. He registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, listing his employer as Paul Taylor, U.S. Forest Service, Leavenworth, Washington. Bishop returned to WSC for the fall term in 1942 and was selected as a member of the college choir for the 1942/1943 academic year.  He sang first bass in the Glee Club.

Wartime Service and Death

Bishop left WSC in April 1943 for basic training at Camp Roberts, in Monterey, California. Camp Roberts was the world’s largest military training facility at the time, having the capacity to train thousands of soldiers and possessing a parade area that was the length of fourteen football fields. Following basic training, Bishop was assigned to the Army’s 7th Infantry Division as a unit correspondent. He achieved the rank of Corporal.

He married Mary Glendenning, a fellow Sunnyside High School and WSC student, in Monterey on October 16, 1943. Mary worked for the Douglas Aircraft company in Long Beach, California after Bishop went overseas.

The 7th Infantry Division participated in the Aleutian Islands campaign from June 3, 1942 through August 24, 1943, then moved to Hawaii to train in amphibious landing techniques and jungle warfare. The Division landed on islands in the Kwajalein Atoll in conjunction with the 4th Marine Division on January 31, 1944, and defeated the Japanese after a week of heavy fighting. Elements of the Division also took part in the capture of Engebi in the Eniwetok Atoll on February 18, 1944, before moving back to Oahu. They remained there until mid-September 1944, at which time they sailed to join the assault on the Philippines.

Bishop participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, which lasted from October 23 through 26, 1944. A decisive air and sea battle, Leyte Gulf crippled the Japanese combined fleet, which permitted the U.S. invasion of the Philippines. The 7th made an assault landing at Dulag, Leyte on October 20, 1944, securing airstrips at Dulag, San Pablo, and Buri. They then moved north and took Dagami on October 29, before shifting to the west coast of Leyte on November 26. The 77th Infantry Division performed an amphibious landing and helped secure the capture of Ormoc on December 11, 1944, and the 7th joined in the occupation.

The division spent the next three months training for the coming invasion of Okinawa. Bishop sent word home about life in the Philippines. The Sunnyside Sun, his hometown newspaper, published a clip saying Bishop wrote to his father, saying it “rains every hour” in the Philippines. He also noted they were greeted by Japanese fliers, but most were “quickly knocked down by our very effective anti-aircraft defense.”

Another piece from The Sunnyside Sun revealed Bishop to say “it rains 24 hours a day” in the Philippines, and that he’d sent his wife some Japanese invasion money from the islands.

Okinawa was the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, located 350 miles south of Kyushu, and it offered a strategic location for Allied troops in the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. Known as “Operation Iceberg,” the 60-mile long, 20-mile wide island was fortified by a 100,000-strong Japanese garrison commanded by Lieutenant General Ushijima Mitsuru. Air and sea attacks against Okinawa began as early as October 1944, and a more focused, sustained air attack carried out by Allied air operations in March 1945 destroyed hundreds of Japanese planes. Despite this, the Japanese were still able to launch successful suicide attacks on Allied naval vessels. American underwater demolition teams and minesweepers worked through the end of March to clear obstacles from the landing beaches, and under the leadership of Pacific Theater commander Admiral Chester Nimitz, Fifth Fleet commander Admiral Raymond Spruance, and U.S. ground troop commander Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the invasion was launched on April 1, 1945.

The 7th made an assault landing on Okinawa on April 1, 1945 alongside the 96th Infantry Division, and the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions of III Amphibious Corps, driving from the west to the east coast on the first day. They engaged in a “savage” 51-day battle in the hills of southern Okinawa, while the battle itself lasted three months. The Japanese refused to engage in battle on the beaches and instead withdrew into caves in the rocky hills in an attempt to force a battle of attrition. As a result, more than 12,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines died during the battle, along with an estimated 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed, many who committed suicide. Nearly the same number of Okinawan civilians died, either as a result of battle or by suicide.

Bishop’s position as a unit correspondent meant he was in charge of area reporting on Okinawa. He was wounded by shrapnel in April 1945, but recovered and returned to active duty. According to C.B. Rodgers, Chaplain, Bishop’s job duties required him to visit different units and write reports, which took him “many hours and efforts.” On June 18, 1945, Bishop was at the bottom of an escarpment on the beach seeking information for a story when a sniper shot him in the chest, wounding him. According to Paul Hardcastle, a fellow unit correspondent with Bishop when he was shot, the wound landed just above Bishop’s heart. Hardcastle noted in a letter to Thomas Bishop that “Vernon displayed the highest degree of courage I have ever witnessed,” asking his unit to leave him in order to save themselves.

Hardcastle and four other men on the patrol instead took turns carrying Bishop, ascending to the base of the escarpment where other soldiers noted their predicament. Those soldiers provided cover fire while the patrol carried Bishop. Bishop continued to beg his fellow soldiers to leave him. Hardcastle noted that due to their location and continuing enemy fire, medics could not reach Bishop. He wrote, “It was decided to raise him up the precipice by rope…so that blood plasma could be administered. As he was being lifted another bullet hit him. The second bullet hit him in the neck, causing instant death.”

Hardcastle assured Bishop’s father that his son didn’t suffer despite being wounded, and although he only knew him for a week, he could report that Bishop was “well-liked and popular with the men because of his personality and cheerful good nature.”

Postwar Legacy

Chaplain Rodgers wrote that Bishop received a “Christian burial” in the U.S. military cemetery on Okinawa. Mary Bishop received a handwritten note of condolence from Brigadier General Joseph L. Ready dated July 21, 1945. Ready wrote, in part, the following:

It is not possible that our words can lighten the sorrow that has come to you but we pray that God will give you the strength and courage to bear his loss.

In courageously giving his life in the service of his country, he serves as an inspiration to his fellow soldiers as they go on to final victory.

            A memorial service was held at the First Church of the Brethren in Sunnyside, Washington for Bishop’s family members in August 1945. The American Legion assisted in the services and presented the American flag to Bishop’s widow, Mary. Bishop’s remains were later buried in Old Sunnyside Cemetery in Sunnyside, Washington in 1949, and a second memorial service was performed. Bishop posthumously received the Purple Heart.

            Bishop’s name was left out of both the War Records archives at WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) unit at the WSU Libraries, as well as the WSU Veterans Memorial. Due to the devotion of the Aiken family in preserving his memory, I’ve been able to reconstruct Bishop’s life. We will follow through with including his materials in the War Records in MASC and ensuring his name is engraved on the WSU Memorial.

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