ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / April 1, 2000

When Roy Dufresne greets you at the door of his neat, white house just off River Road in Reserve, he grips your hand firmly and his grin lights up the room.

His enthusiasm and energy belies his 83 years. He walks quickly to the diningroom table and sits down, the gleam in his eye saying he can’t wait to tell his tale.

Dufresne is a tough guy. Back in 1936 he played for the Leon Godchaux Highfootball team. He was the fullback and his nickname was “Locomotive”because he was hard to stop when he ran with the ball.

“And remember,” he says and laughs, “we didn’t have much padding and hardly every wore helmets.”His toughness and determination helped him persevere eight years later when he was fighting the Japanese on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. Hisbravery and tenacity earned him a Bronze Star medal.

In 1941 Dufresne was 20 years old and working for the federal government building houses in Mississippi when the draft board called him up. Just beforehe was shipped off to basic training he married his girlfriend, Juanita, on June 14.

His eldest daughter Elaine was born while he was fighting in the Pacific, and it would be two and a half years before he would see her.

Dufresne was drafted into the U.S. Army and was assigned to the FirstCalvary Division.

Dufresne was trained as a gunner on a 105 Howitzer cannon. His job was toset up the coordinates for the shot. Spotters in airplanes would find thetargets and radio the location back to Dufresne, who would tell gun crew how much to elevate the gun and how much powder to use in the shells.

“I used to have to figure out the coordinates in my head,” says Dufresne.

“Now days they have computers to do all that stuff.”Dufresne also had the job of lining up all four cannons in his section.

“It was my job to get the aiming point for all four guns in my section,” he says, “and that had to be corrected all the time because the guns would move backward every time we fired.”His gun section came ashore on Leyte Island in the Philippines in October 1944 with Gen. Douglas McArthur. It was the rainy season in the Philippines,and the Japanese forces were determined to kick the Americans off the island. It would not be an easy task taking the Philippines from Japanesecontrol.

On Christmas Eve the Japanese launched a huge attack on the American forces that lasted for 36 hours. Dufresne didn’t get any sleep during thatattack.

“They were charging us all the time,” recalls Dufresne.

Because the enemy was so close to the guns, Dufresne and his section had to make rapid changes to hit any of the attackers.

A howitzer shell has seven bags of powder in it. Adding or subtracting thebags will determine how far or how close a shell will travel.

“It took us a long time to set up shots because we had to take six bags out of the shell before we could fire,” says Dufresne. “We had to make sure theshells wouldn’t go far because the Japanese were so close.”Maj. Gen. William Chase, who awarded the Bronze Star to Dufresne, wrote,”Cpl. Dufresne, on one occasion, remained at his post for 36 consecutivehours during inclement weather, not allowing fatigue to interrupt the accuracy and rapidity of his performance.”Dufresne admits that he was scared, but he says, “All I knew is that I had to keep on shooting.”When the American forces cleaned Leyte Island of the enemy they launched an attack on the main island of Luzon. In May 1944 they liberated the capitalof Manila and released thousands of prisoners.

“The people were so happy to see us,” says Dufresne. “But the prisonerswere so skinny. It was so sad.”The Japanese went on the run and hid out in caves in the hills surrounding Manila. Dufresne was ordered to set up his guns right at the foot of the hills.”We were so close to the hills,” says Dufresne, “that the Japanese guns were firing over our heads.”The Japanese were desperate in their attack.

“The Japanese would strap land mines to their bodies,” Dufresne said, “and then detonate them when they got close to us.”Again, Gen. Chase wrote, “…he assisted efficiently in firing his howitzer,even though the enemy, armed with land mines, was charging his gun in an attempt to destroy it. By accomplishing intricate operations withconsummate skill, Cpl. Dufresne enabled his section to deliver prompt andreliable artillery fire in support of the ground troops, thus facilitating their ultimate victory.”Dufresne served in the Philippines from October 1944 to May 1945, then he was shipped back to San Francisco.

“When I got to San Francisco the Japanese had surrendered,” Dufresne says, “and those people in San Francisco gave us a welcome home you just wouldn’t believe. It was a lot of fun.”Dufresne was discharged shortly thereafter, and in 1947 the Bronze Star medal was mailed to him by the U.S. Army.Later he and his wife had another child, he worked for the Shell Oil Co. andwas able to build the house of his dreams.

“This house is exactly what we wanted,” he says. “We didn’t build a two-storyhouse because we knew it would be hard to climb the stairs when we got old.”His two daughters, Elaine and Juanita, live close by and check up on him.

A widower of three years, Dufresne likes to spend his time bowling, (“I bowl an average game of between 120 and 180”), and “hanging out” with his many friends. He doesn’t know how much longer he will be bowling.”Those balls just keep getting heavier every day,” Dufresne admits with a smile.

He has been to one reunion of the First Calvary in 1975, and this May he is going to another one in Niagara Falls. He doesn’t expect to see too many ofhis brothers-in-arms.

“There are very few of us left from World War II,” he says sadly.

Roy Dufresne is very proud of his Bronze Star and his part in saving the world from tyranny almost 60 years ago. But despite the memories and thesense of triumph, he is sure about one thing when it comes to war: “I don’t miss it at all.”

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