EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Bob Keating grew up visiting his grandparents’ farm west of Liberal, and he would lie under a row of trees and watch the B-24 Flying Fortresses take off from the Liberal Army Airfield and fly across the Kansas sky.
“They came right up over the top of that tree row, and they never hit the house,” Keating said. “They bellied two of them in the field after the house. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, to lay there and watch those B-24s take off.”
Bob watched Liberal transform in front of him thanks to the involvement of the military.
“Rental space was at a premium,” he said. “All the help Dad hired lived in a converted grainery. There was no place in town. Then they built Blue Bonnet Courts. Liberal grew from 4,000 to 8,000 almost overnight. It was such a quick deal. I don’t know if they could do that today. Where did they get all the workers to build it? I don’t know.”
Later, Bob would find his way to Germany after World War II had ended as a part of the occupying force designed to keep the peace.
While he served his country, his main goal was to start his own farm after he graduated form Liberal High School in 1953.
“I went to Panhandle State my freshman year, and completed it,” he said. “I wanted to buy some farmland and cattle. You needed financing to do that.
I went to the banker, and he asked if I had my military obligation taken care of. I told him I was 1a. He said come and see me when you complete your military obligation.”
The designation of 1a meant Bob was eligible for service, and he would have to serve to remove that obligation.
Instead of waiting, he volunteered.
“I went to the draft board, and they said I can do a volunteer draft and put my name at the top of the list. I did that, and sure enough within a month I got called.”
Bob began basic training at Fort Bliss near El Paso. He was originally assigned to a Nike missile company. Those missiles were designed as anti-aircraft in the early years of the Cold War. But that unit was full, so Bob was put in anti-aircraft training.
He received his assignment — he was headed to Germany as part of the occupying force.
“I was trained in artillery, but they had too many artillery,” Bob said. “I got assigned infantry. I spent all my time in that. It was quite a group of men. At that time, the wall was still up. As infantry, we were ready to repel anything that would come across that fence.”
And that fence went far beyond the Berlin Wall. The entirety of German was split in two, the free West Germany and the communist East Germany under Soviet occupation.
Germany was still digging out of the destruction of World War II, and Bob got to see it up close.
“The thing I remember about it most vividly, most of the buildings that hadn’t been restored — the only thing standing were the outside walls,” he said. “All the windows were out, and everything else was cleaned out. All I could think was, ‘What if I came home and all of our buildings looked like that?’ Let’s keep the war over here if we have to have one. We don’t want to see war in our own country.”
Bob became friends with the company clerk and was able to get assigned to clerk school. He would split his time between infantry duty and learning to be a clerk.
“I made the mistake of not taking typing in high school,” he said. “I did take bookkeeping. I had to take night school to learn to type 40 words a minute with no errors. I got through that, by golly, and I don’t know how I did.”
Bob also served on a rifle team in I Company Third Platoon 60th Infantry Ninth Division.
“I shot the Automatic BR,” Bob said. “After that I would work in the office.”
Bob got to know some Germans, and even though they lost the war some still believed in the direction Adolf Hitler had led them.
“I talked with people and families, they were pretty well indoctrinated with Nazism,” bob said. “The older people. Not all of them, but quite a few. They would have pictures in their homes with a German soldier, and we would ask, ‘Where did he fight?’ They would always say the Eastern front. Never the Western front against us. I always thought that was strange that they all fought on the Eastern front but never the Western front. I never met one that did.”
American soldiers were ready to go home as the 10-year occupation was coming to an end, and Bob was there when the forces transitioned form an occupying force to a NATO support force. While the American GIs were thinking of home, the Germans were, too.
“I asked this one German fella in a coffee shop, ‘We would like to go home. How do you feel about us being here? He said, ‘We would like to see you go home, but we sure like your money.’”
While some of his fellow soldiers got homesick, Bob said he had reigned to the fact that he needed to do his duty so he could get his farm back home.
“People got homesick during their service,” he said. “Dad said, ‘You are in there for two years, accept it and go on.’ I did. I really said I am here, I will accept it. I didn’t get home sick. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to get home, but it was a different feeling.”
With the Russians just on the other side of the fence, Bob said there were incidence from time to time, but they were never reported. He knew of one man that was either gravely injured or killed at the fence, but when he asked his parents back home, they never heard about it.
“We were right next to the fence,” Bob said. “We were far enough down form where it was metal. It was just a fence. You had signs that said you are within 50 meters, then 10 meters. You were getting close. They had border guards. I never pulled border guard. I did pull ammunition guard one time with a fella from Kansas. He was one of the guys from Conklin Cars in Hutchinson. He was a character.”
Bob’s enlistment was coming up, and while he was planning his return home, Egypt blocked the Suez Canal by sinking 40 ships, preventing other ships form being able to navigate through. While that action was not related to occupying Germany, the military entered a heightened state of alert.
“I was about to come home, and they came in with a red sheet that said all leaves canceled,” Bob said. “We were ordered to return to base. No exceptions. We stayed on full alert for three days until President Eisenhower said the British and French can take care of it.”
But Bob went from a 19-year-old “green kid” to manhood during those years in Germany.
Not only did he mature, but he also broadened his world view by seeing Europe and meeting other American soldiers from places in the United States.
“For a young person who can’t decide a direction, it would be a good place to start, to get some guidance and where to go,” Bob said. “The service is the best place to be as long as you don’t get shot at. It will broaden your views. You will meet a lot of different people. Most of the people I met were from New York and Long Island. One time we had to see who had a drivers license. Out of about 200, there were five among the enlisted men. Three of us had driven. They took the train and the bus if they lived in New York.”
He also encountered something he had not seen growing up in Liberal — outspoken communists.
“The communists would come up to you on the street with propaganda stuff and how great it is,” he said. “They wanted us to leave America. ‘Oh boy communism is the greatest thing. You don’t have to worry about this or that,’ they said. One tine it nearly ended in a fight, but they were very open about communism with their propaganda, I still remember that.”
With his years of service behind him, Bob is looking forward to his 90th birthday Aug. 28. He still actively serves in the America Legion to honor those who served as a part of the Honor Guard at funerals for veterans.
“I hope we continue to provide that service,” Bob said. “It’s an important part to honor those veterans.”
When Private First Class Bob Keating completed his duty and boarded the transport ship back to New York before making his way to Kansas, he experienced a moment that he would always remember.
“When I got back to New York, you come down a gangplank,” he said. “Hundreds of soldiers get off the ship that way. You don’t think about the guys who don’t come home. How many thousands never got to come home? I was fortunate to come home.”
And because of that, coming back home to the United States means something only a soldier who served abroad can understand.
“I’d seen several European countries, and I wouldn’t have traded any of them for here. I was definitely ready to come home. If you are an American, you are lucky.”
Bob came home, married Sharon three months later, and started his life as a farmer.
Bob will be honored as the Grand Marshal of the Fourth of July Parade, and all veterans are invited to be part of the parade.
