WHEELING AND DEALING

Sidney Bernstein,

As told to Rocco Ross

Sid Bernstein was born in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A very social and mischievous youngster, Sid spent much of his free time on the streets of the Uptown Pittsburgh neighborhood near Duquesne University. Because he looked older than he actually was, Sid was able to get into bars and clubs when he was only sixteen years old. He met all types of people and new friends in this adult environment and was having too much fun to really pay any serious attention to the great war erupting in Europe.

Bernstein never even considered joining the armed forces. He remembers that before World War II, soldiers had a negative connotation. He thought that they were viewed mostly as bums because many poor and uneducated men who could not find a civilian job would join the army just to be able to eat and earn a little bit of money. Sid also felt no call to arms as a sense of service because he, like most people of his time, did not want to get involved in the conflict across the Atlantic.

His cavalier lifestyle, along with his negative impression of soldiers, changed completely after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In 1942, Sid was drafted into the United States Army. A large meeting was held for the newly drafted men at Taylor Allderdice High School. Reluctant, but required to attend, Bernstein showed up to find that preliminary medical screening and interviewing were already underway. Anyone who was obviously not physically suited for the army had a black X marked on his hand. Bernstein pleaded with the examiners to be given an X, but he was unsuccessful.

After being sworn into the service, Sid was sent by train to St. Petersburg, Florida. From there he made further training stops in Chanute Field, Illinois, and Long Island, New York. Finally, he was sent to a base near the coast of Maine. When Sid arrived in Maine and reported to his outfit, he discovered that they were to be sent overseas immediately. Having talked only with other low-ranking soldiers and no officers, Bernstein inquired about joining another unit that was not leaving so soon. A soldier told Sid that there was another unit stationed not far away, so he took off to find a more suitable group. The fact that he was able to undertake such a change without official orders attests to the lack of organization in those early days of the war. The newly minted word “SNAFU” (Situation Normal, All F---ed Up—or alternately Fouled Up), describing the muddled state of military organization, in this case, worked to Sid’s advantage.

When Bernstein arrived at the other unit, it was nightfall, so he found a covered truck in which he slept that night. The next morning he recalls being pulled out of the truck by his legs and questioned by officers about his identity and where he had come from. Bernstein told the officers that he was instructed to join this unit and that when he arrived, he did not want to wake anyone up, so he slept in the truck. With that flimsy explanation and no transfer papers, Sid Bernstein became the newest member of a combat engineer unit.

The same amiable personality that had allowed Sid to attract friends and women in the bars at home would soon allow him to gain the friendship and trust of the men and officers in his military unit. Sid was placed in the motor pool, where he was assigned to drive a jeep for a captain. One of his “missions” was to drive the captain to visit his girlfriend. Sid was instructed to drop him off at the town where she worked and to pick him up two days later. In return for his quiet cooperation, Bernstein was given two days’ personal leave. He quickly learned that in the military, keeping one’s mouth shut was usually advantageous.

Another job that made Bernstein popular among his fellow soldiers was his role as alcohol transporter. Alcohol was difficult to come by at the Maine base. The officers would send Sid to nearby towns to purchase beer and liquor for them. As a token of their appreciation, they would often give him some for himself. While he was at these towns, Sid would be sure to buy some alcohol for the other enlisted men in his unit.

Before long, Sid and his group were sent out on a ship bound for the South Pacific. He remembers the time on ship being tough because “you did not know exactly where you were going or what you would have to do when you got there.” When they arrived in the South Pacific, Sid’s group of combat engineers typically followed marines onto the islands and began clearing the beaches so that tanks and other armored vehicles could make their way on land. Once the area was secure, the engineers sometimes began building airstrips to allow planes to take off and land on the beach.

Such missions were not as trouble-free as they might sound. During his time on the islands, Sid recalls a lot of fighting. He remembers seeing fallen marines as they stormed the beaches of the islands. The Japanese were ferocious fighters and would entrench themselves in the tiny islands. On one particular island, Bernstein recalls that taking over the beach for an airstrip was the only objective. The marines drove the Japanese into the jungle, but they were not required to go in after them because taking over the entire island was deemed unnecessary. One day, a force of Australian soldiers came to the island and said they were going in after the Japanese. Bernstein and his friends wished them luck but knew they would probably be slaughtered. To their astonishment, Sid found that “the Australians turned out to be even more merciless fighters than the Japanese.” Before long, they returned to report that the island was free of any Japanese presence. Because of that, Bernstein gained the utmost respect for his Australian allies.

As Bernstein traveled through the South Pacific, he faced death several times. Sailing between islands, he remembers Japanese fighter planes strafing the boats and kamikaze pilots dive-bombing in an attempt to sink the ship he was on. As U.S. forces drove nearer to Japan, the fighting grew more intense. When Bernstein finally made his way to Okinawa, he saw death and destruction everywhere. The memories of that horror would never leave him. Stacks of marines’ bodies, five and six feet tall, lay all around.

The suffering and death of fellow Americans took its psychological toll on Bernstein and his buddies. On several of the islands that the combat engineers worked, they encountered liberated POWs. These men had been beaten and starved by the Japanese. “It was,” Sid says, “beyond belief.” Those images, coupled with the sight of mounds of fallen marines, caused many soldiers to lose all inhibitions in battle. Bernstein remembers that it was commonplace for Americans to shoot surrendering Japanese in retaliation for their treatment of Americans. Such was the face of war.

As chaotic and disastrous as the war was at times, Sid experienced many entertaining and jaunty situations. For example, once on an island in the South Pacific, food, water and other supplies were being delivered in bulk to a designated location before being divided and rerouted to the soldiers around the island. When the goods would get to Sid’s group, he and the other men always felt as if they were being shortchanged. Being a confident smooth-talker, Bernstein took some friends and a company truck on a mission to the depot where the supplies were being shipped. Once they arrived, Sid distracted the soldiers who were working by talking to them about women, the news or anything else he could think of to hold their attention. While he was keeping these men busy, his friends were stealing food and other items and loading up the truck they had brought. The rest of their unit was delighted upon their return to camp.

Sid discovered that another effective way to cut through red tape and get additional luxuries and benefits was to become a military police officer. However, a soldier cannot simply change his assignment designation in the military. So Sid and some friends “acquired” MP helmets and armbands and went around the islands posing as MPs. Soldiers who were afraid of getting in trouble would bribe them with money and other goods.

American soldiers were not the only victims of Sid’s schemes. He once encountered a Swiss paratrooper who had a pocketful of money. Sid and his pals convinced the Swiss soldier that they had connections that could get him all types of food and alcohol. The condition was that he had to pay up front. After handing over $300, the paratrooper never saw Sid and his buddies again.

When Bernstein was not scamming on the islands, he was fraternizing with Hollywood stars. One of the highlights of his time in the South Pacific was meeting actor Lew Ayers. Sid recognized Ayers in the Philippines, where he was working as a medic. Ayers had become famous for his part in the 1930 war movie All Quiet on the Western Front and the Young Doctor Kildare movie series. He had attempted to join the Medical Corps but was refused because of their inability to protect such a famous personage. He then declared himself a conscientious objector, resulting in a change in their decision and his acceptance as a medic. Ayers served with distinction in the Pacific Theater and New Guinea. The two spent time together talking about Ayers’s career and both of their experiences in the war.

Bernstein recalls the end of the war, when the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although not part of an attacking force, Bernstein’s combat engineers would have more than likely been involved in a land invasion of Japan had that option been exercised. Bernstein views the use of the atomic bombs as “a good decision by President Truman” because it saved so many American lives.

When the war ended, Bernstein was discharged from the army but decided that he wanted to continue working with the armed forces. Sid joined the USO and worked for them for many years. It was not until after the war that Bernstein discovered the fate of European Jews in the Holocaust. As a Jewish man himself, Bernstein had a deep sympathy for the suffering of his fellow Jews.

In 1945, Pittsburghers dedicated the downtown honor roll at Sixth and Forbes Avenues bearing the names of 1,021 residents of the First Ward who served in the nation’s military. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Although he was reluctant to enter the army, Sid acknowledges that the military gave his life discipline and direction that he otherwise may never have gained. He looks back on his days of service with both fond and earnest memories. The war permitted Sid to make many new friends, travel the world and serve his country in a meaningful way at that crucial time in history.