Mesa WWII vet remembers fallen comrades
May 27—Mesa resident Bernie Domsky, 97, one of the last two living World War II members of the East Valley Jewish War Veterans Post 619, this weekend will be remembering friends who enlisted in the military during the war who never came back.
"I lost one friend in Italy," he said of a high school classmate killed in Anzio. "What you think about is how fortunate (I am) and why I'm still here."
Domsky previously served as a post commander for the Jewish War Veterans and helped in their efforts to support veterans of all faiths and honor those who sacrificed their lives in service.
The Jewish War Veterans organization was created in 1896 by 63 Jewish Civil War veterans to push back on false and anti-Semitic accusations of Jews not serving in the Civil War, according to the organization's website.
Domsky is a living testament that American Jews put their lives on the line to fight the Axis Powers in World War II.
The other living WWII veteran from the local JWV Post is Chandler resident Bob Stone, 101, who served in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force under General Dwight Eisenhower.
Last week, Domsky was lively and in good spirits in his northwest Mesa apartment at the Fellowship Square community as he recalled friends and family in the service.
He showed medals, photos and a U.S. Navy certificate for crossing the equator.
He says he "loves to talk," and it's apparent as he shares stories of his service and his life after the war.
A call to arms
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Washington, D.C., Domsky enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17 in 1944 after finishing high school early with the help of teachers.
After basic training, he was assigned to an 180-foot anti-submarine ship, Patrol Class Escort 875 that was soon deployed to "the Philippine Sea frontier."
Shortly after Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japan invaded the Philippines, which was then a U.S. territory. Domesky was part of the campaign to retake the vast island nation.
"When there was an invasion, we would convoy supplies in and protect the ships that came in, and we started going from island to island to island."
Finally, he said, they ended up at Zamboanga, in the southern part of the country.
Domsky served as a seaman 1st class.
Asked what he did on the boat, he laughed and replied, "Whatever they asked you."
His constant companions were a chipping hammer for knocking rust off the ship and a paintbrush for painting. There were 8-hour watches.
He also spent a lot of time at the helm. "I could steer the straightest wake of anybody," he said.
After the Philippine campaign ended, "we knew that they were planning an invasion of Japan," he said. "This is when all the rumors (flew) and nobody knew anything about a bomb.
"There was an enormous fleet that was ready to go and participate in an assault on Japan."
"But, you know your history," Domsky said.
Japan surrendered after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
In 1946, he debarked at Pearl Harbor, then traveled to the Treasure Island naval base in San Francisco, where he caught a train to Maryland.
"My own memorial"
As the nation this Memorial Day honors veterans who died for their country, Domsky said "I regress to back in the days of my contemporaries ... and I do my own memorial."
"I had loads of friends. I wasn't the first to go into the service," Domsky continued. "I think about them because I'm the only one left."
He also plans to participate in events held at his apartment community.
During the war, 418,500 Americans gave their lives in the war effort. From Maricopa County, 514 were killed.
The ranks of those who served alongside the fallen and remember them as friends are dwindling fast.
There are about 119,000 veterans of World War II still living, out of more than 16 million who served, according to the National World War II Museum.
About 131 veterans of World War II pass each day, the museum estimates.
"I don't know why God has let me live this long," Domsky said. "Other than it's been difficult to walk, I would say I'm in remarkably good health."
Life after the war
Soon after leaving the Navy, Domsky married Charlotte, his wife of 70 years before she passed in 2017.
"We just had a great life, and she was a good wife. She was the best," he said.
Domsky first trained as a watchmaker and repaired watches for officers at the Pentagon before selling insurance and later a serial entrepreneur creating and selling businesses.
He and his wife moved to Mesa 1973, less than a year after first visiting Arizona and traveling the state for a month.
"I guess you could call it male menopause. I just wanted to do something else, and I was having problems with my health — mostly associated with cold weather."
The last of his three children was going to college, so it was good timing. His two sons now live in Tempe and a daughter lives in Florida.
Domsky and his wife loved to travel. He said they visited numerous countries including Russia, New Zealand and Australia. They lived for nine years in a motorhome traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada.
But Domsky said he "couldn't hack retirement" and kept going back to work. He finally retired from a job selling security systems for homes and businesses at age 83.
The life of adventure tracks with his advice for younger people: "Do everything that you can while you can. People put off things until it's too late."
Domsky said he also hopes people find time to mark the holiday tomorrow and remember "those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country."
"Unfortunately, too many national holidays become national shopping days. They've come days for sales. But hopefully, there's enough people that really understand Memorial Day and what Memorial Day is all about," he said.
