by Staff Sgt. Timothy Boyer
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
5/9/2012 - TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- Master Sgt. Sam Katchmar retired in June of ΚΌ68, 20 years after he began his service to the country in the newly-formed Air Force. American-born, his mother sold their family saloon and moved, with her six children, to Poland after her husband died in a coal mine accident. The family survived in Poland by living off the land on their family farm.
Katchmar's mother left the $10,000 she earned from the sale of their saloon in a United States bank with the intention of sending her children back when they became adults, Katchmar said.
"But that all changed in 1939 with the beginning of the war," he said, referring to the beginning of World War II. "We lost contact with the U.S. so we lost access to the money my mother had set aside."
Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
"For the most part, life under the Germans was livable," Katchmar said. "It was difficult, but not worse than what we had under Polish rule. Each village had mayors, and the Germans set quotas for grain, cattle and whatever they could get - which were gathered and sent to the German government to support their war machine."
At 11 years old, Katchmar witnessed horrible things, including a piece of what the world would later call the Holocaust.
"There was one Jewish family living in our village - a husband, wife and two children," he said. "The German Gestapo picked them up one day and they were never seen again."
At their farm, located in a small village, Katchmar's family tended to cattle, dug potatoes and farmed other foods to eat.
"We lived off the land at that time," Katchmer said. "It was miserable. Around spring we would run out of food and have to hunt for mushrooms in the nearby forest to survive."
In Fall of 1944, the Russians began chasing the German army back to Berlin, he said.
"Russian soldiers started raiding our potato fields," he said. "They carried large American food cans on a piece of wire. They threw the potatoes into the cans and boiled them over the water to eat them."
"They stole whatever else they could from us," he continued. "If you had a wristwatch, they would cut off your hand to take it from you."
When the war ended in 1945, Katchmer said his mother applied for reentry into the U.S.
"It took two years, and we suffered during those years," he said, as he continued to describe the horrors of a war-torn country.
Finally, Katchmer arrived at New York on the converted Army troopship Ernie Pyle on Jan. 6, 1948. From there, his American dream began. He found himself, via train, in Pottsville, Pa.., where he was reunited with his family - who had arrived a couple months before him.
On his 20th birthday, May 11, 1948, Katchmer joined the Air Force.
"My first assignment was at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, for three months of basic training. I had no problems with the living and training conditions - it was still better than what I had lived through in Poland."
After that, Katchmer spent the first 10 years of his career in ration breakdown and supply, delivering rations to the mess halls at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. In 1958, he retrained from supply to data processing - a move that would later help him obtain his American dream.
"All my techno-training courtesy of the Air Force prepared me for a civilian career," Katchmer said. "In June 1968, I retired from the Air Force and was immediately hired by Napa County as a computer operator. It was a very good job with good benefits."
In 1990, he said he married the love of his life, who he met in 1985 while dancing at a German restaurant and dance hall in Sonoma. Her life resembles his in many ways as a German immigrant to America.
His American dream came true in 1993, when he retired from Napa County.
"I now have Air Force retirement, Napa County retirement and social security," he said.
From a war-torn, impoverished childhood to luxury cars, global travel and a new home - thanks, in part, to the Air Force, Katchmer said he "does OK."
"It's a wonderful life for two people who began the American dream journey as displaced persons," he said.
