BAMBERG – World War II veteran Harvey Kling of Bamberg once dreamed of playing in the majors. But at age 21, he was drafted into the United States Army. Just married with a baby on the way and forced to give up a pro career in baseball, “Whitey” Kling was initially bitter.

That was 67 years ago. Now as Kling slips on his wool Army jacket – which still fits – the numerous battle stars awarded for each military campaign shine. A humble sense of pride ripples through his often faltering voice.

“This is the one that really counts,” King said, tapping the Bronze Star. “It was for saving a fellow.”

Kling will be among a select group of veterans from South Carolina who will be recognized for outstanding service to their country on May 27. The Honor Flight Network will be flying Kling and fellow WWII comrades to Washington, D.C. to see “their” memorial.

The Honor Flight recognizes American veterans for their sacrifices and achievements by giving them this small token of appreciation at no charge.

While there, the veterans will see the WWII Memorial and witness the presentation of American and South Carolina flags at the South Carolina pillar. They will visit the Vietnam and Korean Veterans Memorials, the Lincoln Memorial and the Iwo Jima Memorial.

From there they will travel to Arlington National Cemetery with a stop at the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and then view the changing of the guard.

Kling’s memories are still vivid – sometimes too vivid.

“It was four years of stress and sacrifice, but I guess you might say the mission was accomplished – we won the war,” Kling said.

His stories are many and they flow through the chronology of the tense battles and encounters with the enemy. As a staff sergeant aboard a ship, Kling was part of a combat engineer team that made sure troops could safely move into an area. The war was intense in the South Pacific, Kling said, and his vessel escaped close calls from torpedoes in the bay off Dutch New Guinea and snipers in the mountain jungles. It was equally as dangerous on land as it was at sea.

“One night when I was on duty walking the beat, the (Japanese) released a gas from below us to try and make us move up the mountain where they had snipers waiting to pick us off,” Kling said.

During the attack, one of Kling’s buddies lost his gas mask and Kling didn’t think twice about sharing his as they barely escaped under heavy fire. In the Philippines, there were several skirmishes in Cebu and Leyte before they reached Manila.

“It was in Cebu that I realized what the International Red Cross could do. They were amazing, and I’ve felt that I owed them ever since,” said Kling, who has served as chapter coordinator for the Bamberg County Red Cross for nearly 20 years.

The plan was to go from Manila to Okinawa and then on to Japan, Kling recalled. Only 14 of the 38 boats in the fleet made it through a deadly typhoon.

“I was one of the lucky ones,” Kling said. “There were so many close calls.”

When the Japanese surrendered, Kling was part of the team that went in to secure the way for American troops and supplies. They set up headquarters in a hotel, where local civilian workers, paid by the Japanese government, did the housekeeping and cooking for the American soldiers. Kling was in a position to decide the pay level of the Japanese women who worked there and made a point of elevating their status to a higher scale.

Choking back tears, he told of how the women had come to see him and give him gifts when his time came to leave

“They gave me a gift – a statue of a man or a soldier with a sword and a woman lying behind him that he was protecting,” Kling said. “Giving a statue or doll was a way of showing their love for you. They were so very kind.”

When he returned from war, Kling’s daughter, Pat, was three years old and only knew of him as “the soldier in the picture,” Kling said. He and his wife, Mary Lou, went on to have a son, Jeff, and the extended family now includes six grandchildren and nine great-grands plus one on the way. Kling and his wife were married 61 years before her death a few years ago.

Kling and his wife visited Japan in the late 1980s and felt very welcomed in the bright, bustling atmosphere of the city of Yokohama. He said it was a pleasant trip that helped counter the memories of the war-torn world of the Pacific Theater in the 1940s.

“It was hard to get over the killing,” Kling said. “Sometimes I wondered if God would forgive me.”

The Honor Flight Network, which is nonprofit, receives no national, corporate or government sponsorship and operates only on donations. To find out more, go to http://www.honorflight.org.

T&D Correspondent Minnie Miller can be reached by writing to her at 138 Nature’s Trail, Bamberg, SC 29003. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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