Birthday celebration planned for Cedar Rapids WWII veteran who served in South Pacific

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — As he turns 100 next week, Bill McQuiston reflected on the past century, including his service during World War II.

“I didn’t want to go to the Army. I didn’t want to go to the Marines, because they both marched too much,” the Cedar Rapids man said of his decision to join the U.S. Navy in 1943, just before his 18th birthday.

His mother, Anna McQuiston, who was born outside of Prague in what is now the Czech Republic, had to sign for him at the recruitment office in the federal post office of what is now Cedar Rapids City Hall.

His family lived on M Street SW, and friends walking to the Czech business district on 16th Avenue, now known as Czech Village, would often stop and speak to his mother in Czech, outside of their house.

“We didn’t know what they were saying,” McQuiston said, noting their Scotch-Irish father, William Ray McQuiston, didn’t allow Czech spoken at home. His dad was a skilled finish carpenter who helped build the 1920’s Gothic Revival J Avenue Water Treatment Plant that still stands in Cedar Rapids.

McQuiston’s Czech heritage later nearly jeopardized his career when tests showed he was positive for opioids, related to his recent eating of poppyseed kolaches. A subsequent test rectified the situation, he recalled.

The youngest of four children, McQuiston was born in May 1925, and attended Wilson High School, but didn’t graduate. When he returned from his service in the war, he wanted to return to the classroom to earn his high school degree, but was deemed too old, so when he later was offered a diploma, McQuiston declined.

“It didn’t bother me a bit,” he said of his lack of a degree in future job opportunities.

He worked at the Wilson meatpacking plant, as well as Link-Belt Speeder in Cedar Rapids.

“When I was in the Navy, because I worked for Link-Belt Speeder, which made cranes, I was made a crane operator,” he said, even though his only experience with cranes was on the assembly line.

McQuiston had enlisted with a good friend, and was promised that they would be assigned together. That didn’t happen, and his friend lost his life in the war. McQuiston attended boot camp at Farragut Naval Base in Idaho, followed by gunners mate school.

He was assigned to the USS Essex and Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo, which was built to support the Allied effort in the Pacific.

One notable memory was catching for major league baseball pitcher Bob Feller of Van Meter, Iowa, when Feller was on a USO tour, with his hands turning black and blue from Feller’s pitches.

“He was throwing so hard,” McQuiston recalled.

The two later reconnected when Feller visited Cedar Rapids after being inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

McQuiston also had a number of eye-opening experiences during his service that took him “all over the map.”

“I repaired guns,” he said. “If a gun broke down, I had to fix it. We were constantly under fire.”

That included one close call in which a shot whizzed by his chest as he stood up.

“I was that close to not being here,” McQuiston said. “I lost a lot of friends over there, but I made it through.”

His grandmother, who lived with their family, died while McQuiston was overseas, but he didn’t learn of her death until six months later.

He remembered the excitement on the return trip home as the war ended and their ship entered the San Francisco Bay.

“We were 75 percent overloaded,” McQuiston said, with service members eating and sleeping in shifts. “We didn’t care. We were going home. I think they could’ve heard us clear to San Diego.”

He met his future wife, LaVelle Myers, after returning to Iowa after the war.

The two were married in 1947 and spent 72 years together before she died in 2020. They had three sons, Greg, Jeff and Barry, and stayed active with bowling, roller skating, bike riding and swimming with the Bender Pool Seniors in Cedar Rapids.

McQuiston continues to live in Cedar Rapids with his son, Jeff, who has a May 4 celebration planned for his father’s 100th birthday, at the 16th Avenue Grill in Cedar Rapids. Family and friends are welcome to stop by and bring a card.

“I’ve been pretty lucky,” McQuiston said. “He takes good care of me.”

Besides staying active, McQuiston credited his longevity to “the good Lord.”

“He’s let me live this long,” he said with a grin. “I must’ve done something wrong and he’s mad at me.”