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‘Lord, how could you have been so right?’

  • Roger and Margaret Trettin in her home. Ed, Margaret's husband served in the North Atlantic, South Pacific and Mediterranean Sea during World War 2. Press photos by Thomas Nelson.

  • Roger and Margaret Trettin in her home. Margaret's husband Ed Trettin saved several sailor's lives during World War II. A picture of Ed is on the mantle on the right.

  • Roger and Margaret Trettin in her home. Margaret was married to Ed Trettin, who served aboard the USCGC Ingham during World War II.

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Ed Trettin had been farming for five years before joining the Coast Guard, shortly before Pearl Harbor was bombed in a surprise attack by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941.

Trettin was 24 when he joined the service.

“He did very well. He was just a farm boy that learned to do things well the first time,” said Margaret Trettin, 95, the matriarch of five generations and Ed’s widow.

Ed had enlisted in the Coast Guard in December 1940 and served in combat duties in the North Atlantic, South Pacific and Mediterranean Sea.

Ed and Margaret hadn’t yet met when Ed joined the Coast Guard.

Before meeting and eventually marrying Ed, Margaret was engaged to another boy.

“I knew there was somebody else out there, someplace,” Margaret said. “I didn’t know where and I didn’t know who.”

Margaret’s sister was with Ed’s brother in 1944 so his mother invited Margaret and her mother out for Christmas dinner in Rockford.

“The Lord told me, ‘This is the man you will marry,'” Margaret said. “Oh, Lord, how could you have been so right?”

Shortly after they met, Ed asked Margaret to go to the Surf Ballroom.

“And we went and we just completely fell in love,” Margaret said. “I thought, ‘Lord, how could you have been so right?” she said again.

Shortly after falling in love, Ed had to return to his duty in the Coast Guard and left for the South Pacific, to patrol the Philippines.

The Ingham

“He went there and he did very well in the Coast Guard,” Margaret said. “They were outfitting his ship as a flag ship.”

Ed became one of the top gunners for the Coast Guard cutter Ingham, which is one of the most decorated ships in the U.S. fleet, and received a presidential citation.

“He went to the South Pacific in the fall and made 11 amphibious landings while there,” Margaret said.

During Ed’s time in the Coast Guard in the North Atlantic he was in combat with German U-boats, or submarines.

“Dropping depth charges before Pearl Harbor,” said Roger Trettin, Ed’s son.

Ed spent two years in the North Atlantic and six months in the Mediterranean Sea before going to South Pacific, Roger said.

During Ed’s time in the service in the North Atlantic he saved the life of a fellow Iowan from the cold ocean water.

“The Coast Guard’s mission is to search and rescue and search and destroy,” Margaret said. “There had been a ship that had been destroyed.”

The men that had been aboard that ship were now all out in the North Atlantic’s cold water, bobbing back and forth from the waves in their life jackets, Margaret said.

“You couldn’t tell the dead ones from the lives ones,” she said recounted Ed saying.

Ed’s ship had been sent to go find any and all survivors it could.

“It was a troop ship that had been torpedoed,” Roger said. “With those ships, no matter if they were a merchant or troop ship, they couldn’t stop and pick them up if there were still U-boats in the area, because they were sitting ducks.”

After the area had been cleared of Germain submarines, Ed and several crew members got in a boat to check for survivors.

“They were about ready to give up and then they spotted him,” Roger said.

“They said his eyes looked different,” Margaret said.

Ed had big hands

Ed looked around the water and looked in the soldier’s eyes and he feebly raised his hand, Margaret said.

“The guy said afterward, he says he could remember him because my dad has big hands,” Roger said. “He could remember that big hand coming down to grab him and he pulled him out.”

Eventually the soldier made it to England and went through D-Day in Europe and survived.

“He was from Ankeny,” Roger said. “The guy found out that dad was from Rockford, Iowa.”

Ed gave the soldier a button off his coat to recognize each other.

Ed left the service in September 1945 as a petty officer first class, and took two months to return to the United States and then to Iowa.

Eventually the soldier he had saved and Ed lost contact, until one day in Rockford a truck came through.

“This big car transport came up,” Margaret said.

“I was pretty young at the time, but I remember it. He was delivering cars to the Chevrolet dealer down here,” Roger said.

At the time the soldier came up, Ed was out in the field working, Roger said.

“My older sister and I, we told my mom there was somebody at the door,” Roger said. “He asked if this was where my dad lived.”

Ed didn’t remember him at first, but the soldier pulled out the button and Ed recognized it immediately, Roger said. He thought the truck was coming to take his car because of the trouble he was having with it.

“That was kind of a common thing to give something like buttons,” Roger said. “My dad had a button from a British sailor they pulled out.”

Being in there at the right time and the right spot in the huge North Atlantic saved several lives during World War II.

“The survival rate in that cold water wasn’t too long,” Roger said.

“He said he’ll never forget that big hand coming down,” Margaret said. “He had pulled so many men out the water that he kind of lost track of a lot them, too.”

Ed died in October 2012.

Margaret worked with Dixie Phillips on a book about Ed’s time during World War II called “The Button: Ed Trettin’s Story.”

“He served very well, and all the men respected him,” Margaret said.

 

 

 

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