Kennewick World War II veteran rides again

Getting on a half-track for the first time in 70 years brought back memories for a Kennewick World War II veteran over the weekend.

“Bumpy — I’d forgotten about that part,” Wendell Lint, 92, said about the ride in Saturday’s West Richland Veterans Day Parade.

Lint landed on Utah Beach on Aug. 28, 1944, just under three months after D-Day. He drove the half-track, which has wheels in the front for steering with tank-like tracks in back to allow it to move through rough terrain, until they reached Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s retreat in the German Alps, in July 1945.

“Probably the hardest part was night driving,” he said. “You couldn’t drive with your headlights on. All you had were the cat eyes on the next vehicle.”

Lint kept a log of his experiences and has transferred them to a computer with the help of family friend Scott Sanders.

Lint recalled sleeping in bombed-out churches and even a cabin with a wood stove near an airstrip they were protecting. Among their fears were Germans dressing up in American uniforms, so they would ask questions like how the New York Yankees were doing to throw off potential impostors.

They headed north from France through the worst winter in 40 years to aid in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He remembers losing 13 comrades on March 13, 1945.

Things eased up after victory was declared in May. Lint moved into a two-story house in Bavaria in May and then visited King Ludwig V’s castle on an island.

It was like heaven going from fields to resort hotels in Berchtesgaden, he recalled. They explored the area in a German car, making sure to avoid American checkpoints, since the car would have been taken from them.

Lint left the Army in 1946 and came to the Tri-Cities in 1948 to work as a barber for Hanford workers.

“I couldn’t find a job anywhere in Yakima or around that area,” he said. “Some guy calls me up and says they need some help down here.”

He cut hair for 20 years before taking a job delivering mail for Battelle, which he did for another 20 years.

Lint remains active, walking two to three miles each day around Columbia Center mall. He recently received an award for walking a total of 5,000 miles.

“He goes there every morning about 7 and comes over to read the newspaper,” Sanders said.

Lint got another award, the grand prize, for riding in Saturday’s parade on the vehicle owned by John Engelke of Benton City.

“I got to meet a lot of new people, people who restore old military vehicles,” Lint said. “The parade was great.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Kennewick World War II veteran rides again."