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Elmer
and Gus
Since 1945 |
New
York, July 2007, by Denny Meyer
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Elmer
Lokkins
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Elmer Lokkins
and Gus Archilla have been lovers for sixty-two
years! Shortly after the close of World
War II when Elmer was discharged from the United
States Army and made his way to New York City,
they made eye contact in bustling midtown
Manhattan in 1945 and have been together ever
since. When I went uptown to interview
them in their home about Elmer's WWII service in
the Pacific, I thought I'd spend an hour or so
gently pulling a few forgotten memories from the
foggy past of a man in his late 80s.
Well, both of these sweet and gentle men
remember every single detail of every moment of
their incredible lives together and congenially
told me as much as possible in a few short
hours. |
| I
could have happily spent a
week listening and writing. Fortunately, a
filmmaker is spending several years recording
as much as possible for LGBT history; and much
has already been written about their enduring
triumph of love. This brief story is about
Elmer's courageous service as a young man in
WWII, mostly. But, it cannot be told
without some bits about how it all came to be;
after all everything is connected, one thing
leads to another, and the kiss of true love that
spans more than half a century does not just
happen all by itself. Elmer's war service
led to his realization that he was gay and that
New York City was the place to be, which led to
him meeting Gus, and the story goes on and on
from there. Whew. |
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Gus Archilla
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Both
Elmer and Gus had unimaginably difficult
childhoods. Due to family financial
hardships, Elmer spent most of his youth growing
up amongst 800 youngsters in an orphanage near
Chicago. Gustavo's parents both tragically
died in quick succession when he was still a
young teenager and as the eldest of nine children he went to work to rear his
sibling on his own, keeping them together as a
family in New York City throughout the war
years. It seems a blessing that these two
men were fated to meet and form such a lifelong
stable bond with each other. That was the
first hour of the interview that brought me near
tears and filled with awe. The way they
describe events, one lives every moment oneself,
tasting a meal Gus served to his siblings, and sensing the sensuality as Elmer made
the best of situations that would send others
into despair. |
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At
the age of 21, Elmer was drafted into the Army
in 1941. After the war began, he traveled
on the troop ship SS Mt. Vernon to Sydney and by
rail to Rockhampton
in Queensland, Australia, where he served as a
clerk in the Adjutant General's Office at
HQ I Corps. After operations
began in New Guinea, they moved to Goodenough
Island, and onward to a jungle base in Hollandia.
Eager
to be a part of an invasion force,
rather than typing endless reports, he
volunteered for a landing in the
Philippines. On January 9th, 1945,
a D-day, he was aboard a forward echelon
LST,
under heavy Japanese shelling, landing
on Lingayen Gulf. Surrounding
vessels were sunk with all aboard.
At the side of General
Swift, they dug a trench on the beach
using their helmets. Surviving
that, they moved onward to Dagupan, where
they established a forward HQ camp that
was under constant mortar shelling and gunfire
day and night, from Japanese firing from
the sugar cane fields.
For
his WWII service, advancing with
HQ I Corps through the South Pacific
islands, Tech Sgt Elmer Lokkins was
awarded a Distinguished Unit Badge, an
Asiatic Pacific Theater Ribbon with Two
Bronze Battle Stars, a Philippine
Liberation Ribbon with One Bronze Battle
Star, and a Good Conduct Ribbon.
Photo:
Australia 1943 |
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Australia 1943
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With
a razor sharp memory of every moment of
his war service over 60 years ago, Elmer
described the daily details of his
soldier's life, from sleeping in a
hammock over the edge of a river to the
lifelong friends he made in Australia.
In
March of 1945 he began the long journey home
from the Philippines on a victory ship that
sailed for 40 days and nights to Seattle. During
this time, President Roosevelt died at Warm
Springs, GA, and the UN met for the first time in
San Francisco. After traveling by train
around the country to visit relatives while on
furlough, he wanted to return to his unit.
But he was given a choice of heading up a unit
bound for the ongoing warfare in China or
discharge. He'd actually begun studying
Chinese, but ultimately decided to fulfill his
dream of attending college and living in New York City. And so fate turned a
page which led to the rest of his life. He
was honorably discharged in the summer of
1945.
Photo,
right, New Guinea -December 1944
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Rockhampton Australia
1943
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Hollandia New Guinea
1944
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What
happened next is a classic New York City
story. On Sunday, September 16, 1945,
Gustavo Archilla was headed home from a music
lesson at Carnegie Hall (honest, I'm not making
this up) and the two strangers' eyes met at
Columbus Circle where Elmer was watching soapbox
speakers at the southwest corner of Central
Park. (Interestingly, that was the day
that the Japanese Garrison in Hong Kong
surrendered to the Allied forces in China
--where
Elmer would have been had he taken the other
fork in the road). Elmer was 26 and Gus
was 29; they have been together ever
since. On their first date, they went to
see a radio show. Elmer ended up studying
foreign trade and personnel management at
City College (the City College Business School
later became Baruch College of the
City University of New York). |
Gus
introduced Elmer to his siblings and he was
invited to move into the Archilla family
apartment; his army stipend helped with the
rent, and he became a part of Gus' family.
Over time, the two men's families melded.
Times changed over the course of the next 58
years that they spent together. In 2003
they got married in Niagara Falls, Canada; and
only then was their relationship openly spoken
about by their relatives. At that time 19
Buffalo relatives gathered to
celebrate their marriage. Their
documentary film is being edited and should be
shown on TV or in theaters later this year.
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