by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
The last time Peter Sorensen was in a parade, he was marching in it. World War II had just ended and he was marching before cheering crowds as a trim Marine sergeant in a crisp uniform adorned with medals.
However, for tomorrow’s Veterans’ Day parade downtown, Sorensen, 94, won’t be marching or wearing a uniform. He will be riding in style, wearing a red United States Marine Corps ball cap and representing all local veterans as the oldest living veteran in Jacksonville.
“That is what they tell me anyway,” he said.
Though not old enough to join the fight in World War I, Sorensen joined the Marines in 1929 and completed two separate stints in the Marines. During his first stint, Sorensen spent a little time stationed on the U.S.S. Oklahoma, one of the ships destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Having left the Marines in 1933, he was fortunately not on the ship during the attack but would soon be asked to come back to serve his country once again.
“We were out riding on Sunday, December the seventh, with the kids and we stopped by my mother’s and they had told us that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor,” Sorensen said. “So, I told my wife, ‘You had better find a place to stay because they are going to get me.’”
Sure enough, Sorensen was sent for by the Marines just after the New Year in 1942 and he soon reported to the recruiting office, which was at the local post office. He was first sent to Orlando but was soon sent back for guard and chauffeur duty for officers at NAS Jacksonville.
From Jacksonville, Sorensen was sent to Banana River Air Station, which is now Patrick Air Force Base near Melbourne, and from there was sent to be a rifle range instructor at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
At Camp Lejeune, Sorensen said he was given a great opportunity by the colonel at the base but regrettably turned it down.
“They called me up and the colonel said, ‘Do you want to go to (Officer Candidate School)?’ I told him that I didn’t want to be a second lieutenant and I didn’t,” Sorensen said. “But that was the wrong thing to do. I wish that I had done it after I got overseas.”
After turning down OCS, Sorensen was soon put into the 29th Marine regiment and boarded a train for San Diego. From there he took a three-week ride on a ship to Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands, where Sorensen and his troops received additional training.
After training for a few weeks, Sorensen and the other troops from the island were loaded upon ships to prepare for the invasion of Okinawa. Sorensen participated in the famous invasion but was quickly wounded by a white phosphorus shell. He received numerous serious burns on his arms, face and upper body and was sent to a simple field hospital for treatment.
After a few weeks, Sorensen was sent to another hospital in Guam where he was treated for the next three months. Though he received a Purple Heart for his injuries, Sorensen said he wasn’t finished fighting. After the invasion, his unit returned to Guam to reorganize and Sorensen rejoined them to prepare for the invasion of Japan.
While preparing his ship for the invasion, Sorensen said that he noticed the boat his brother-in-law was stationed on was tied up close to his own boat. After getting permission from his lieutenant, Sorensen said he went over to the boat, found his brother-in-law and was invited to a warm meal, something he had not had in a while.
“I went over there and they were eating supper,” he said. “Well, the (Officer of the Day) on deck there said ‘Take the sergeant down there and let him have some supper.’ We had been living on rations so long I didn’t know there was anything else. They had hamburgers and fried potatoes and oh boy did I fill up.”
Besides receiving his first good meal in months, Sorensen also received some very good news at that dinner. The invasion of Japan happened while he was eating, meaning the mission he was preparing for was scuttled.
From there Sorensen spent time on guard duty in China, but soon received his walking papers from the Marines and was headed back to Jacksonville shortly thereafter.
After his military career, Sorensen returned to Jacksonville and worked as an auto mechanic until 1973 when he retired and sold his auto repair shop. For the next few years, he and his wife, Ethel, traveled the country. But Sorensen, a man used to hard work, said he needed something else to do.
His wife suggested that he get into security, something he had plenty of experience with in the Marines. So throughout 1980s and 1990s, Sorensen took a position as a security guard at St. Luke’s Hospital and, later, Baymeadows Country Club.
In 1994, Sorensen quit his job at Baymeadows to take care of his wife, who was having mounting health concerns, and he has been taking it easy ever since.
But at 94 years old with plenty of service to his country under his belt and a Purple Heart on his chest, Sorensen can do what ever he wants. He has earned it.