WESTBROOK – Lew Randall, a World War II veteran who escaped being buried alive, celebrated his 93rd birthday in Westbrook on Monday with a friend who was a boy in the Philippines when Randall fought there 68 years ago.
Randall, of Westbrook, owner of the Hereford cattle farm on Stroudwater Street, celebrated with two birthday cakes this week. A rifleman serving with combat engineers in the Pacific, he survived fierce attacks in the battle at Leyte, a province of the Philippines occupied by Japanese forces, in 1944.
Frank Burila of Westbrook, who helped Randall celebrate his birthday this week, was a 5-year-old boy at Leyte when the battle raged.
The two men met by coincidence five years ago. Randall had spotted Burila’s license plate, LEYTE, in the parking lot at McDonald’s. The pair became friends.
“I met my GI and my hero here in Westbrook,” Burila said.
Burila said the American GIs drove the Japanese out.
“One of them was Lew Randall,” Burila said.
Randall is among a diminishing group of World War II survivors whose service is being recognized during Veterans Day, Nov. 11. According to the National WWII Museum, statistics released by the Veteran’s Administration say that only 1.7 million veterans remain of the 16 million who served in World War II.
Randall, born Nov. 5, 1919, graduated Westbrook High School in 1940 and was drafted in 1943.
At Leyte, he said, “my rifle never left my hand.”
History records show the battle began in October 1944 and lasted more than two months.
On the shore at Leyte, Randall said, enemy pilots flew in over the mountains.
“There was a battle every day, every night,” Randall said
He said the enemy pilots dropped bombs fast and furious and strafed.
“You could see their face,” Randall said about pilots in low-flying airplanes.
In one attack, he dove under the body of an upside-down truck. An exploding blast nearby blew sand over the truck, and sent Randall scrambling out from the tailgate.
“I was damned near buried alive,” he said.
Burila said his dad served with the Philippine guerrilla forces against the Japanese. Burila recalled hiding in the mountains as a child with his family during the battle.
“At night, it was lit up,” Burila said, comparing the scene to a July 4th fireworks display.
The combat engineers of Randall’s unit worked night and day building a strip for “a big bird” that Randall heard was coming in. The big bird was Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
“He was a real soldier,” Randall said.
As a young man in the Philippines, Burila joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1961. He once served aboard a Coast Guard cutter home-ported in Portland. He retired in 1995.
These days, Randall is staying with his son Arthur at the farm where he grew up. The elder Randall suffered a mild stroke recently while driving his pickup truck and was hospitalized. But he is rebounding.
A nurse attended to him Monday and he struggled only slightly to recall some of the long-ago events at Leyte.
But, much of it is etched in his mind.
“I don’t know how we survived,” Randall said.
World War II veteran Lew Randall of Westbrook on Monday celebrates his 93rd birthday with family and friends. Pictured, from left, are Frank and Judi Burila; Kathleen Collins; Arthur Randall, who is Randall’s son; and the honoree, seated. Randall fought at Leyte in 1944 in the Philippines, where Frank Burila was then age 5. Send questions/comments to the editors.
