WWII Stories Bring Together Neighbors Robert Lowe and Timothy Davis
Robert Lowe was just 17 when he enlisted in the United States Military in 1942. A Detroit-native, he wanted to be part of the Marine Corps, but at the recruitment office he was told that his vision precluded him from that branch of the armed services, and that he should try the Navy upstairs. When he told the Navy recruiters that he wanted to be a medic, he was warned that if he was a pharmacy mate he’d be taken by the Marine Corps. That suited him just fine.
Bob became a Corpsman in the legendary Raiders of 1st Marine Raiders Battalion, a precursor to the modern-day Navy Seals. He fought in the Battle of Guam during the summer of 1944 and the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles in WWII, starting in April 1945.
As a Corpsman, he was not able to write home in great detail. “It just hurt me,” said Bob. “I could have talked a lot more about where we were.”
Nevertheless, Bob’s letters home now fill two binders, colorfully describing his overseas experience as it unfolded. Bob was also one of the few soldiers to pick up a camera during the war.
When Bob began fighting in the Battle of Okinawa, he arrived in a company of 244 men.
“The night before I got hit, which was within two days of the conclusion of the battle, we started counting how many of us were left – there were only 28 of us out of the original bunch,” said Bob. “So we never talked with each other about ever getting home again because it was obvious with all the guys who got killed, all the fighting, shooting, bombing, the likelihood that you’re going to last through the whole thing was very slight.”
“I think he thought he would be executed and this was his last cigarette,” said Bob.
Later that day, Bob sustained a mortar attack in the battlefield. It was the four Japanese POWs who carried him out on a stretcher. “I often wondered what became of them,” said Bob.
For Bob, the war was a lesson in humanity.
“I told you about the guys who carried me back, the Japanese prisoners. I heard a voice that I realized was my own that day saying, ‘He’s just like you.’ It served me well, through the rest of my life,” said Bob. “There aren’t a hell of a lot of differences between any of us.”
Once stateside again, Bob worked his way into a walking cast, and then walking pneumonia. While recouping from the latter, he met his wife, Hope.
They married soon after and had two children, Roger and Carol. He took the GI Bill and went home to Michigan, where he earned a degree in Social Sciences from Michigan State. “It was a wonderful time,” said Bob of those days. The Lowe Family moved to Denver and Bob made his way into a career as a social worker, earned a Masters in Social Science from the University of Denver in 1971, and eventually retired from Jefferson County Public Schools in 1987 at age 62. Bob and Hope moved to Bellaire Street nearly 20 years ago to be nearer to their daughter and her kids.
Timothy Davis moved to Birch Street just a few years later. Tim founded The Greatest Generations Foundation in 2004 after he realized how few veterans are afforded the opportunity to return to the battlefield during the D-Day commemoration in Normandy, France that year. In addition to facilitating travel for veterans, the organization provides educational programs for all ages and is working to preserve the legacy of WWII soldiers.
Nearly every day at 8 a.m., Bob would walk his dog in front of Tim’s house.
Finally, Tim asked Bob a question he asks most men over 80 eventually: Had he served in WWII? Instantly recognizing Bob’s unit, Tim and Bob began a conversation that led Tim to realize that Bob was a soldier many men had been seeking for his photos and other remembrances of the battlefield. Historian Stephen Ambrose had written to Bob, but Bob was reticent to respond. Here, walking by Tim’s house every morning, was the elusive soldier that was sitting atop a small collection of singular war photos.
“This is priceless stuff right here,” said Tim, indicating the myriad albums and binders Bob has kept from the war. “We didn’t give HBO all this stuff, but we gave them a few keys to the story.”
An auxiliary benefit of TGGF is the organization’s ability to help veterans network with each other. Tim tells the story of Bob and Ed Tipper meeting on an outing to a veterans event in Vail. Tipper lives in Lakewood and had his story featured in Band of Brothers. It turned out the men had not only grown up in the same neighborhood in Detroit, but had played on the same street. While they went on to fight in two separate theaters of war, both went to college in Michigan, then settled in Colorado and eventually both worked for Jefferson County schools – Tipper had even taught Bob’s daughter. Yet the first time they met was in the TGGF van.
Still, Bob says there is a drawback to digging through the past to find old friends. These days it’s mostly news of people that have passed away.
Bob talks of going back to Guam with Tim this year, a trip he has only one reservation about.
“I carry a little baggage with me because this has to be changed all the time,” Bob said indicating the bandages on his leg from his war wound that still bleeds. “It’s like I’m still in the war,” says Bob.