ELMER HOCHKAMMER: FOXHOLE ATHEIST: A VETERANS DAY TRIBUTE

by Robert E. Nordlander

A myth that has been perpetuated by religionists is that there are no Atheists in foxholes. This myth originated during the Battle of Bataan in early 1942 when a young American soldier was interviewed by a representative of the media. The phrase concerning Atheists and foxholes was coined by this soldier with the media joining in to give it wide circulation.

It would appear that this statement eliminating Atheists from foxholes means that extreme stress and fear are the components that best produce belief in the alleged truth of Christian mythology. This could very well be true for some people. Undoubtedly the army of the then divine Emperor Hirohito put the "fear of God" into many American soldiers back in those dark days of 1942.

There was at least one American soldier, however, who kept his rational wits about him when he faced the soldiers of the Japanese Empire on New Guinea when victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat - as one rhetorician put it. That American soldier was Elmer O. Hochkammer, a member of the 32nd ("Red Arrow") Division, a national guard unit called to active service in 1940.

Elmer was born on a farm in Newton, Wis. (Manitowoc County) on Nov. 24, 1918. His parents were American-born German-speaking adherents of the extremely orthodox Dutch Reformed Church. In addition to being a farmer, Elmer's father was a master carpenter, who was involved in building houses and other edifices in the Manitowoc environs. Elmer's mother kept the home fires burning, a role that was believed to be "God-ordained" by members of the Calvinist sect to which Elmer's parents belonged. The family in which Elmer lived was a large one - he had four sisters and one brother.

At the age of 13, Elmer had had his fill of the formal education that was available to him in that era and was able to secure employment in a business that was a combination grocery and gas station. He stayed in that job until duty called him to serve his country in 1941. Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Elmer was able to proclaim himself "veteran," as he had participated in the famous Louisiana maneuvers where the Wisconsin 32nd ("Red Arrow") Division was sharpening its martial skills. Sloshing around the swamps of Louisiana may not have been the most pleasant experience in the world, but it did help the men of the 32nd Division prepare themselves to face the skilled jungle-fighters of the Japanese army in their initial confrontations on the island of New Guinea during the early days of the war when Australia was faced with an inevitable Japanese invasion.

Elmer was wounded severely in the Battle of Buna in 1942, a battle which contributed greatly to the ultimate defeat of the Japanese forces in New Guinea. This battle, coupled with others on land plus the naval victories over the Japanese in the Coral and Bismarck seas, saved Australia from Japanese conquest. (Upon his arrival in Japan from Bataan, General Douglas MacArthur told a shocked Australian public that only southern Australia was defensible, drawing a line on a map of Australia which became known to angry Australians as the infamous "Brisbane line").

The war wounds Corporal Hochkammer endured in the Buna campaign proved to be a "blessing" - if the word can be used by Atheists - for Elmer insofar as the rest of World War II was concerned. After his "recovery" from his wounds - he never completely recovered as his 50 percent disability check every month from the Veterans Administration attests - Elmer was assigned to a medical unit as a psychiatric aide to prepare recovering or physically recovered soldiers to return to combat.

It was as a "recovered" combat veteran working with other wounded soldiers that Elmer began to encounter articulate irreverent talk against the Dutch Reformed god with which he had grown up. Socializing with the professionals in the medical unit, Corporal Hochkammer encountered people who did not believe in the popular religious mythology that most Americans seem to cherish.

In combat, he had often reflected why a "good god" would allow the terrible things that he had witnessed to happen especially if that god were all-powerful. Apparently, all that was needed to make him realize that he was indeed an Atheist and Freethinker was to be aware of the fact that there were intelligent and humane professional people who did not buy the "God" and Jesus bunk either. Working with that medical unit for Uncle Sam in World War II proved to be a liberating experience.

Eventually, Elmer was re-assigned to stateside duty. He wound up at Camp McCoy, Wis., where he worked as an interpreter when his services were needed to communicate with German prisoners-of-war. As a speaker of "Manitowoc Deutsch," Elmer enjoyed kidding around with the prisoners in his American-accented German. He recalls that most of the German prisoners were victims of humananity's stupidity like himself and shared his humanity except for a few hard-nosed Nazi-types who had faith in Hitler's "secret weapon" to turn the war in their favor again. Many of the German prisoners were from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps.

When the war was over, Elmer returned to his old job at the store which had expanded into a dispenser of alcoholic beverages by the drink, in other words, a tavern. Later Elmer was a tavern entrepreneur himself after a stint of truck-driving with his own vehicle. Elmer's wife Mary helped him in the tavern business and also studied elementary education at Holy Family College in Manitowoc, where she received her degree. The school is now known as Silver Lake College.

After leaving the tavern business, Elmer settled down to gardening and raising a few chickens at their home in rural Manitowoc County, a home that Elmer literally built himself. Mary and Elmer have lived there ever since.

It was in the late 1940s and early 1950s that Elmer was able to introduce himself to the writings of various Atheists and Freethinkers. It was during this period that he devoured the works of Joseph Lewis and subscribed to his publication. Some of the works of Robert G. Ingersoll came his way during this period also. Needless to say, he also encountered Thomas Paine's Age of Reason . During the 1960s, Elmer came into possession of the 12-volume Dresden edition of the works of Robert G. Ingersoll. Every word has been read by him, and occasional written comments on the pages are testimonials of Elmer Hochkammer's enthusiasm for and appreciation of the contributions of Robert G. Ingersoll to the cause of Freethought and the liberation of the human mind from the superstitions spread by orthodox religious zealots.

One of Elmer's extracurricular activities has been to write letters to the press on issues of war and peace. Elmer did not come out of World War II with a burning desire to join the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The chauvinistic and ultra-nationalistic mentality of those veterans' organizations as expressed in the rhetoric of their spokespersons simply was not Elmer's cup of tea, He had seen too much killing and suffering inflicted by and endured by "superpatriots" on both siders in the jungles of New Guinea during World War II.

The author served in the United States Air Force from 1953-1957 and is a member of The 32nd Division Veteran Association. He served in an an inactive status from 1950-1951.

Contact Robert Nordlander at robertusdeusmaximus@google.com.