James Wheeler, 90, talks to students Friday in Darrel Renfro's U.S. history class at Alamogordo High School. Wheeler survived a German bomb attack aboard a British transport ship and spent eight hours in 50-degree water in the Mediterranean Sea. He didn't talk about the incident for more than a half-century. (Michael Johnson/Daily News)From Alamogordo News:
Ninety-year-old World War II veteran shares his experience as part of largest U.S. troop loss at sea.
James Wheeler kept a secret for nearly 60 years, but it wasn't the type of secret people keep to protect themselves from ridicule.
Far from it, in fact.
He was instructed by his superior officers in the U.S. Army to keep it. His parents never knew and he never told his wife of 35 years, Ruth Ann Wheeler, who died in 1992.
Wheeler, of High Rolls, will celebrate his 90th birthday today. He is a World War II veteran who was part of what many historians have called "the largest loss of United States troops at sea."
More than 1,000 U.S. troops died, yet not many Americans know about it. You won't find one word about it in history books. Alamogordo High School's two junior U.S. history classes, taught by Darrel Renfro, were fortunate to hear him finally talk about it Friday.
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