Madin recalls people he met overseas

Seventy years ago, John “Jack” Madin only came face-to-face with Japanese military once during his time in the U.S. Army. That was in 1945, after Japan had surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS Missouri.

And just days after Madin and other American troops met up with the Japanese as World War II came to an end, he found himself at the world’s best-known appliance maker — in his hometown.

Madin, 94, served in the Army for three years, then worked for Maytag for the next 47 years.

“I started at Maytag three days after I got back to Newton,” he said. “I would have finished at age 65 with 50 years in, were in not for the three years I was in the Army.”

Those three years were spent mostly with the signal corps in Southeast Asia, setting up new communication field gear and making repairs to some of it. Those experiences helped prepare Madin for a long career in the offices of Maytag, a marriage and one child — Carol Macksey.

Madin, who now resides at the Newton Care Center and gets regular visits from Carol, granted an interview with the Daily News to talk about his experiences in World War II. Macksey said military life definitely had its impact on her father.

“My dad wanted things to stay clean and organized — all the time,” she said. “He tried to get us to keep everything neat and tidy. Sometimes, I’d think, yeah, that’s the military in him.”

Madin was born in Denver in 1920. At about age 5, he went to live with his grandparents in Newton, where he was raised. He had a few jobs during his younger years, such as helping at a grocery store and delivering the Des Moines Tribune in the evenings.

The 1939 Newton High School graduate was sworn into the Army in the summer of 1942, as the war was starting to heat up. Madin didn’t end up on the front lines, but his signal corps saw its share of firefights at a base near Kunming, in southwestern China, and elsewhere.

“I could never understand why the signal corps was always a half-mile from the main base,” Madin said. “But we were. Sometimes, that saved us, and other times, we got targeted.”

Madin said there injuries and casualties at the base, and each member of the signal corps carried a carbine. However, the more effective anti-aircraft weapons on hand were the three stand-alone, high-caliber machine guns mounted around the building.

Madin said he met several soldiers from the Midwest along the way, including someone from his hometown of Newton. He and Bob Pritchard crossed paths in India once, and had a chance to visit briefly.

“That was kind of funny to see someone from Newton over there, by accident,” he said.

Soldiers often remain lifelong friends with those who were in their unit. Madin and his family stayed friends with Ralph Rumpert, a Missouri native, for many years, and the families took many outings together, such as going to St. Louis-area sporting events.

Madin recalls, with enthusiasm, some of the positives of interacting with the Chinese people while in the Army. He said one of signal corps buildings was along a trail that led to a temple, so the Chinese would inevitably have to pass by American soldiers on their way up and back.

He said there were groups of children that would come around, during downtime, to learn English from the Americans.

“We might have helped them, I don’t know,” Madin said. “But it helped us. We felt useful.”

Madin said he wrote a letter every day — although he knew mail was not only being screened, but may or may not get delivered. There were plenty of flights coming and going to help deliver mail, but a letter to Newton would have to pass through many hands on its way from China.

“We knew they’d look through everything,” he said. “We didn’t waste a lot of time trying to seal up a box or envelope.”

He remembers how things chained for the U.S. military once victory was one in Europe in the spring of 1945.

“Don’t think they didn’t start sending all the best planes and everything else over to our side (in Asia),” he said.

At Maytag, Madin was an office employee.

“I liked it better in the office,” he said. “It was quieter. I handled scheduling, so I’d have to go around to the different foundries and drop off schedules.”

Madin said he was given a watch and a pen when he retired from Maytag in 1986 — along with a ton of memories. He said he’s very proud to have been around the hard-working people of the Maytag plant.

At the time of his retirement, Madin said, he was the longest tenured employee the Maytag plant had ever had. No one else on duty at that point had put it the 47 years he’d been with the company.

He points out that some of the military hardware he saw in Southeast Asia might have been wartime products of the same Newton plant that he knew growing up.

His wife, Aileene Marshall Madin, whom he married in April 1946, passed away many years ago, and Carol was their only child. She gave Madin two grandchildren, Sarah and Paula, though he has no great-grandchildren at this time.

Madin said his time in the service taught him about teamwork. That’s evident when he interacts with the Newton Care Center staff. Not only does he cooperate fully as the staff draws his blood and does other treatments and other care for him, but he smiles as he points out the person who made his bed for him the morning of the interview.

Madin said being overseas in dangerous places was tough, but it helped prepare him for whatever life could throw at a person.

“We learned how to work together,” he said.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at
641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com