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95-year-old Albert Markus of Fresno, CA appears on episode #667 of Hometown Heroes, airing February 6-8, 2021. A native of Hazel Park, MI, Markus served aboard the attack transport USS Pierce (APA-50) during World War II.

Albert with daughters Teresa & Saroya during his 2015 Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. For more photos, visit the Hometown Heroes facebook page.

You’ll hear Mr. Markus relate his memories from growing up in suburban Detroit, the second of four children born to Armenian immigrants from Turkey and Syria. His father was the manager of a small grocery store in Hazel Park, but when the Great Depression cost him his job, he headed to California to find work. A few months later, 9-year-old Albert, his siblings, and their mother were on a train headed to the Golden State to join their father in Fresno. Since the language spoken at home was Armenian, Al had a hard time becoming consistent in reading and writing in English. You’ll hear him express his gratitude for a teacher who patiently and compassionately helped him improve, as well as his disappointment in never having the occasion to reconnect with her.

“I wish I could thank her,” he says of that Emerson Grammar School teacher who stayed after school to help him. “A lot of people don’t go to that trouble, helping a kid who’s having problems with his school.”

Al Markus was 17 when he enlisted in the Navy in 1942.

He was in high school at Fresno Tech when Pearl Harbor and other American installations were attacked on December 7, 1941. Soon he would be quitting school to enlist in the Navy, his father signing for him since Al was only 17 years old. Three wintery months at the newly constructed Farragut Naval Training Station in northern Idaho prepared him for life as a sailor. The San Francisco Bay Area is where he became part of the inaugural crew of the USS Pierce, commissioned in June, 1943. The attack transport, which could carry upwards of 1,500 troops, would earn six battle stars for delivering soldiers and Marines to landing zones in the Pacific. Al’s initial role in the ship’s crew of over 500 was part of the deck force, tasked with facilitating the transfer of those troops from ship to shore using the more than two dozen landing craft the Pierce carried. You’ll hear him explain how he ended up in the radar division, and what his new duties entailed.

“You could see the enemy ships from a distance,” he says of the radar screen he would monitor. “And you could see the aircraft too, we had two different radars.”

Al’s ship, the USS Pierce, with landing craft visible in the ship’s davits. (photo from navsource.org)

The teenager’s time in the radar room put him in close proximity to a navigator named Kenneth Dodson, who would go on to write Away All Boats!, a depiction of an attack transport in World War II that draws heavily upon what Dodson and shipmates like Al Markus experienced aboard the Pierce. The APA in the book is called the Belinda, not the Pierce, but some of the stories are very similar. Away All Boats! was later turned into a feature film starring Jeff Chandler, George Nader, and Lex Barker. A unique distinction is that it was also the first film in which Clint Eastwood had a speaking role. You’ll find him as a Navy corpsman helping a wounded soldier on a stretcher about 92 minutes into the YouTube-hosted capture of the film that is embedded at the bottom of this page.

A young Clint Eastwood as a Navy corpsman in the 1956 film Away All Boats!

The Pierce had already landed troops at Makin Island and Kwajalein before participating in the invasion of Saipan in June, 1944. That was the first time that the ship had to use its guns to knock out enemy positions on land, and also the first time significant numbers of casualties had to be brought back aboard the Pierce. Al watched as an LCVP that had lost engine power was towed by another, both loaded with wounded Marines. When the towing boat lurched forward, the nose of the second boat turned down, spilling wounded Marines into the water.

“Some of them swam, but the guy that was on the stretcher never made it,” you’ll hear him recall of the scene he witnessed from the deck of the Pierce. “He went down. He was killed.”

That incident allowed the life and death stakes of war to sink in for a teenager who hadn’t given much thought to whether or not he would make it home from combat. As he approaches his 96th birthday, you’ll hear him reflect on multiple situations he would encounter later and express his gratitude for how they worked out, because he now realizes how some minute adjustments in detail could have cost him his life. One example of that can be found in the time a kamikaze was aiming for his ship. You’ll hear him describe that incident on Hometown Heroes, and also in the short video below:

As the war in the Pacific continued, the Pierce landed troops at Angaur in the Palaus, and then in the Philippines. You’ll hear Mr. Markus share his perspective on Douglas MacArthur’s famous return to Leyte, where Al actually came ashore a day before the legendary general. The invasion of Luzon in January, 1945 would bring another moment that Markus reflects on now as a close call.

Al visited Arlington National Cemetery with Central Valley Honor Flight.

While Al was helping unload shells that Army troops would be using on land, LCVPs were carrying troops to shore. A Japanese bomber targeted the Pierce, but his bomb landed on one of the LCVPs, killing two men aboard.

“He dropped the bomb too soon,” you’ll hear him say of that enemy pilot. “If he had waited another second, I might not even be here.”

Okinawa would be the final battle in which the Pierce participated, complete with another close call with a kamikaze. Like so many in the Pacific, Al and his shipmates were preparing to participate in the invasion of Japan when the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the Japanese surrender. After returning home, he returned to Fresno Tech to finish high school, then spent some time at Fresno State before attending Cogswell Polytechnical College in San Francisco on his way to becoming an electrician. He met his future wife in Fresno at a place called Johnny’s Cafe, and their family now includes seven grandchildren. In 2015, Al got to visit the National World War II Memorial and other sites in Washington, D.C. with Central Valley Honor Flight. You’ll hear some of his memories of that journey, and you’ll hear from one of his daughters, Teresa Dietrich, who has also written about her father’s legacy of service on her blog.

You’ll hear Teresa Dietrich discuss this heartwarming moment in Washington, D.C. on Hometown Heroes.

Visiting the World War II Memorial, which honors the more than 406,000 Americans killed while serving in WWII, gave Markus pause to appreciate his own survival.

“That’s all I can do is thank God that everything worked out good for me,” you’ll hear him say. “Some people didn’t come home, but I made it.”

As he approaches his 96th birthday, Markus remains quite active. Wherever he goes, he carries along brochures he has printed, drawing on his own experiences in how he quit smoking more than 70 years ago.

If Al sees you smoking, he may hand you one of these brochures.

You’ll hear him share how he went from plowing through “three packs of Viceroys a day” to seven smoke-free decades. If he comes across someone smoking today, he often pulls out one of those brochures in an effort to help. From the teacher who helped him learn English, to the officer who helped him transfer to the radar division, to the God he prayed to in his bunk aboard the USS Pierce, the gratitude in the heart of Albert Markus shines through the story he tells. What a privilege it is to be able to express our gratitude to him.
—Paul Loeffler

One more thank you – to Dan Dietrich for allowing us to record the interview with his father-in-law at his business, Aerial Photomapping Services in Clovis, CA. Below you’ll find the 1956 film Away All Boats! from YouTube: