J. Preston Van Artsdalen

He played seven games with major-leaguers during WWII.

By Petra Chesner Schlatter, BucksLocalNews.com


U.S. Army Air Corps Sgt. John Preston Van Artsdalen, 88, always wanted to fly airplanes and be a Major League baseball player. But at age 21, he enlisted in the military on Sept. 5, 1942 in Philadelphia. He was discharged Oct. 25, 1945.

During his time in the service in World War II, Van Artsdalen was a member of a baseball team that actually played a team of major-leaguers. There were seven games. “We won two games,” he said. “We played them in Manila Stadium.” He still has a photograph of his team. He proudly keeps it on a shelf in his office.

Van Artsdalen played short stop with the 12th Air Depot Group. “When I was playing against the major-leaguers, after seven games with them, I knew I wouldn’t make the major league,” he said.

“It was a heartbreaking experience, knowing you’re not going to be good enough to be in the Major Leagues,” he said. “I would have been too old. I would have been 25.”

Van Artsdalen’s days during the war were spent rehabbing aircraft. A native Newtowner, he said, “I didn’t want to be drafted. I wanted to get into the Air Corps. If you were drafted, they could put you anywhere.”

First, he went to Duncan Airfield in San Antonio, Texas. “We didn’t have basic training,” he said. “They put us right in repairing all sorts of planes. They put me on flight status.”

He left Stockton, Calif. for the South Pacific on a ship which was a converted Dutch luxury liner. Because of his Dutch name, he was given special accommodations and did not have to sleep in a bunk bed.

Van Artsdalen served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 5th Air Force in the 12th Air Depot Group. He went into the service as a private. “I was a flight engineer on a C-47,” he said. “We used it for everything.”

Everything meant using the plane for cargo, dropping paratroopers, transporting the wounded and personnel.

He said sadly that some of the parachutes did not open.

Vanartsdalen said his first assignment overseas was in Australia. “We were only there for a week,” he said about being in Brisbane.

“They brought these old planes,” he said. “They flew them out of the Philippines. We worked on them. They were B-17 and B-25 bombers.

“They would be shot up pretty good,” Van Artsdalen said. “They didn’t want the Japanese to get them.”

He went up to Townsville in northern Australia. Of all his travels during the war, Townsville was his favorite place. He said it was like the Old West.

“We evacuated all the women and children,” he recalled. “They got them out of Townsville because the Japanese were trying to invade Australia.

“The Battle of the Coral Sea was going on and we were diverted south to avoid the Japanese,” he said.

U.S. forces turned back the Japanese, Van Artsdalen said.

At one point, the U.S. advanced to the Philippines as the war progressed through New Guinea. Vanartsdalen said they went up to Leyte in the Philippines. “Ours was one of the first planes to land at Manila after the ‘Liberation.’ Runways were mined so we were very lucky,” he wrote in his memoires about the war.

As a flight engineer, Van Artsdalen replaced engines. Maintaining the aircraft was important and they made sure the planes were safe to fly.

“When they dropped the bomb, we were all given numbers,” he said. “My number was 229 to identify you when you would leave for the States. The longer you were there, the lower the number.”

In addition to Australia, the Philippines and New Guinea, Van Artsdalen went to Okinawa. He remembers when the U.S. defeated the Japanese and liberated Manila.

“Getting out alive,” was what he often thought about during the war. “Of all the fellows in the service, I had it pretty well,” he said, noting infantrymen and paratroopers had it tough. “They were fighting in the forests,” he said.

In the service, Van Artsdalen discovered he was “pretty good with a rifle.”

Baseball, airplanes and golf have been his favorite pastimes throughout his life. Van Artsdalen had played baseball for Newtown High School. He graduated in 1939.

He later played what he described as semi-professional in the area. He managed the Newtown team for several years. “We had what was called ‘The Town Team,” he said.

For years, he managed the Cardinals Little League team in Newtown.

Van Artsdalen has been a member of the Morrell Smith Post 440 of the American Legion for 64 years. He served as treasurer of the Newtown Exchange Club,

He studied business at then-Rider College as a night student while raising a family and running a successful transportation company.

Van Artsdalen was in the trucking business for 25 years and later was a school bus contractor for New Hope, Council Rock, Lower Moreland and Abington school districts.

He served on Newtown Borough Council during the 1960s. He remarked that Newtown Township and Newtown Borough did not get along.

Van Artsdalen and his wife, Jane, will celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary on May 22. They have two grown children, Betty Jane and Edward; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. The couple now makes Washington Crossing their home.

They have spent a lot of time traveling, including taking a memorable trip to the South Pacific.
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Editor's Note: J. Preston Van Artsdalen passed away on Tuesday, May 18 at St. Mary Medical Center. Our condolences go out to Jane Van Artsdalen and her family. This article is a tribute to him and his service to our country. The news of his passing came shortly after press-time.