Massaro: These 6 brothers all came marching home

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 28, 2007 at midnight

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LAKEWOOD - Six brothers. One war.

But the six King brothers were used to sharing and to getting by without much.

So they either enlisted or were drafted during World War II. There was plenty of room for them and each was sent to a different theater of operation.

One by one, their parents, Eva and Wilbur, bid their sons goodbye.

And one by one, they welcomed them home.

Some, like Lucky, 80, the youngest, enlisted in the Navy.

Some, like Jack, 83, were drafted. He picked the Navy, too, when he went in for his induction right after graduating from what is now Palmer High School in Colorado Springs.

"They were waiting for me when I got out of school," Jack said. "As soon as I got my cap and gown off, they were waiting."

Today, Memorial Day, three of the brothers are still living - Jack and Lucky in Lakewood, Pete in McCook, Neb.

The King family started out on a dryland farm south of Holly. Trouble is, there was too much dry land.

"The Dust Bowl blew us off the farm," Lucky said.

Life was hard enough on the farm even when there was rain.

"We hoed weeds in the field - barefooted," Jack said. "We never cut off any toes, though."

Lucky was too little to milk cows, but Jack's handshake shows he milked his share.

In 1939, their parents settled in Colorado Spring with their nine children still at home.

"With that many kids, there weren't a lot of extras," Jack said.

Lucky and Jack are economical with their words, sometimes pausing to get the words just right, like a guy going through his coin purse looking for the exact amount of change.

They both have shy smiles that flash and are gone. And sometimes they laugh softly when one or the other cracks wise.

Water played a big role in Lucky King's life. He was a fire control operator - a forward artillery observer who guides shells to a target - aboard the USS Charleston in the Aleutian Islands.

Jack served in the South Pacific in supply.

Pete was in the Army Air Forces, serving on ground crews that fed planes into seven major battles.

The three surviving brothers all came home with medals and nicknames.

Lucky's given name is Homer, but he doesn't care for it. Jack is really Marvin, but few know him by that. And Pete is actually Hubert.

Ralph, the oldest, was the only one wounded, suffering shrapnel wounds to his legs and internal injuries after a bomb hit near his outfit in London. He was a bridge builder in the Army in Western Europe.

Samuel was in the Army, too, and became a hospital cook in North Africa and Italy.

And Gerold was also a cook, but for the Army Air Forces, stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Samuel died in 1995, Gerold in 1996 and Ralph in 1997.

For Lucky, his tour was one of weather extremes.

During a winter storm, his patrol boat was caught in a severe storm that sent the ship pitching and yawing.

"The ocean spray would ice up as soon as it touched the deck," he said. "We were getting lower. All available hands were on deck, chopping ice. The cooks were out with their cleavers."

Lucky said he didn't see much military action, though

"We chased a sub once. I think it was for 32 hours," he said. "We didn't find it."

After the war, Lucky's ship was sent to patrol the coast of China.

"We were so used to the cold weather up there," he said. "Toward Hong Kong, it was 110 degrees on deck. Some of the guys got so blistered that they couldn't even move."

And he was caught in another storm, this time a typhoon.

"We could make only six knots in 10 days," he said. "It was so rough the cooks couldn't keep anything on the stoves. We had Spam sandwiches for 10 days."

Jack was sent by Merchant Marine ship to the South Pacific, where he was in supply, and later assigned as a paymaster.

"It took us 40 days," he said.

Then, using his hands to indicate zig-zagging, he said, "There was a lot of this" to avoid submarine attack.

Jack got out in 1946 and came back to the States. He had a hard time finding work in Colorado, so he moved to San Francisco, working as a photographer for two years before re-enlisting in 1948. He became a master chief electronics technician, retiring in 1965 and settling in Lakewood.

He was in charge of all things electrical at the old Villa Italia mall in Lakewood.

Lucky also eventually settled in the Denver area. He made his living selling car parts in bulk.

Now, he's president of his homeowners association.

After the war, the sons were welcomed home by their parents, who also moved north to the Denver area.

Having six sons in the war was hard on them. But faith was the refuge for their mom.

"They were trusting people," Jack said. "We had a mom that was very religious. She said a lot of prayers for us. I guess that brought us home in pretty good shape."

Their father, however, bottled it up for the most part.

"With six sons in the service, it had to have been hard on them," Lucky said. "Dad drove me up to Denver. He didn't say much. But there were two big tears running down his cheeks."

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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