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Photographic memory

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Outside last week at the Chautauqua Festival-in-the-Park, the aroma of enticing foods wafted across Elizabeth Brown Memorial Park as festival-goers enjoyed a beautiful summer afternoon.
Inside the fellowship hall of Wytheville Presbyterian Church on June 24, though, a different scene was unfolding.
Kamikaze pilots dive-bombed U.S. ships in treacherous waters.
Enemy forces popped out of overgrown brush.
And through it all, one aerial photo interpreter kept his eye trained on panoramas of the unthinkable destruction all around him.
Leading Chautauqua’s “Air Surveillance in World War II” presentation, Herbert Reininger captivated his audience as he remembered his time as a member of the U.S. Army’s XIV Corps during the 1945 Battle of Manila at the tail end of World War II.
Reininger, 89, centered his talk around a series of aerial photographs taken from an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet by B-24 planes during fighting on the Philippine Islands. He also brought oblique (45 degree angle) photos of the landscape from P-38 planes and a few pictures he snapped himself on the ground.
The photos showed a number of landmarks from the battle, including the University of Santo Tomas, the walled enclave of Intramuros and Bilibid Prison.
But even more fascinating were the details in the aerial photos Reininger revealed that only a trained eye could spot.
Reininger, who has lived in Wytheville since 1982, trained as an aerial photo interpreter at Camp Ritchie in Maryland before heading to the Pacific Theater.
As a German speaker, Reininger said he actually initially was scheduled to go to Europe to serve as an intermediary between U.S. Army staff and German officials. Plans changed, though, and the Army assigned Reininger instead to learn how to interpret aerial photographs.
“In the Army you don’t choose,” Reininger said.
Despite being directed into the position, the old soldier said he became fond of his role.
“I really enjoyed it,” he said.
Reininger, who served as a master sergeant in the Army, used the aerial photos to demonstrate how he could tell which way a river flowed by the position of debris and the speed of a vehicle by its altered position in rapidly taken time-stamped photos.
He also brought along one of his old tools, a stereoscope, which allows the interpreter to see depth when looking at two side-by-side photos of the same landmark taken from slightly different perspectives.
“That is cool,” said Ryan Layman, 12, after looking at a Manila railroad yard through the 3-D viewer.
Reconnaissance photos taken over Manila were usually burned after use, Reininger said, due to their sensitive nature and the simple fact that they were heavy to lug around.
By cutting off certain identifying details stamped on the tops of the photos, though, Reininger said the Army allowed him to ship some of the pictures back home.
“These photos are the only ones that exist in the world, period,” he said about his collection, adding that eventually he plans to donate them to the U.S. Army War College museum in Carlisle, Pa.
In between pointing out details on the photographs, Reininger also sprinkled in plenty of colorful stories from his time with the “Liberators of Manila.”
Jokingly telling Ryan and his friend, Derek Richards, 13, to cover their ears while he directed his story to the four adults around the table, Reininger recalled filling up his helmet with beer after his unit made it to the renowned San Miguel Brewery.
“We never knew that a helmet could hold so much beer,” Reininger said. “You drink and drink and looked in your helmet and it was still half-full.”
He also pointed out the proximity of the palace to the brewery.
“They didn’t have to go far for their liquid refreshments,” he said.
Tuesday’s presentation also brought out a few tales of a more grim variety.
The photos of Manila showed acres upon acres of demolished buildings and smoldering fuel tanks.
After surviving Kamikaze attacks just to reach Luzon (the largest island in the Philippines, where Manila is located), Reininger said he and the other soldiers had to be constantly on alert during the battle and even in the following months as a smattering of Japanese forces lingered on the island.
“You always carried your rifle with you,” he recalled. “You slept with it, you ate with it – it was your companion.”
Even after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945 and the war reached its conclusion, Reininger recalled having one more harrowing moment.
Although the Japanese had announced their surrender, Reininger said he didn’t know how the Allied forces would be received upon their arrival at Tokyo Bay.
After reaching land and getting in a truck to drive to the Allied camp, Reininger said he realized that his vehicle was entirely unprotected in what would have been hostile enemy territory only a few days earlier.
“I made an invasion by myself into Japan,” he said with a laugh, adding that he eventually met up with fellow Allied soldiers without any incident.
Juanita Ramey, who helped Reininger display his photos during the Chautauqua presentation and has worked with him numerous times at American Legion events, said she can’t get enough of her close friend’s stories.
“He’s a history book,” she said.
Ryan, who as a student at Scott Memorial Middle School already is a history buff, was equally impressed with Reininger’s tales.
“I really liked the war stories, personal war stories,” he said.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .