For Bill Dopps, the weapons of war were a drill press and a lathe.

As battalion machinist for the 145th Combat Engineers, one of the many cogs in Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army, Dopps was so busy fixing things the Germans broke as they stubbornly defended Fortress Europe that he hardly ever got a chance to catch his breath.

"Until we got well into Germany, it seemed like we moved every day," he says of the Third Army's famous Drive to the Rhine in fall 1944. "Every day or two, anyway."

Born and raised in Yakima, Dopps was just 19 years old and newly wed to his high school sweetheart Beth (they met as juniors at Yakima High School) when he was called up in 1943.

At the time, he had been working as a machinist at a defense plant in Seattle, and it was that experience that explained his quick transfer from his original unit, the 185th Combat Engineers.

"They were shipping out," he says of the 145th, "and they needed a machinist. That's how things like that happen, sometimes."

By the time he got home, Dopps had been overseas 21 months. He had seen much of France, Belgium and Germany (not to mention England and, shortly after VE Day -- Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945 -- a memorable trip to Switzerland for some R & R).

To this day, his service in World War II remains by far the longest he and Beth have ever been separated. Two kids, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren later, their next anniversary will be their 66th.

After the war, Dopps got work again as a machinist before he hired on with the Yakima Fire Department, working as a firefighter for the better part of three decades before retiring in 1973 with the rank of captain.

Since then, he and Beth have done a lot of traveling. Age is taking its toll, but they still like to get out and are proud they've been to all 50 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.

It was on one of their first big trips across the country, in 1977, that Dopps finally saw Lady Liberty for the first time, which is pretty strange considering it was not his first trip to New York Harbor.

Seems that on his way to England in 1944, a trip he made aboard the converted Dutch liner Nieu Amsterdam, his unit had to embark at night for security reasons.

The ship sailed out of the harbor under cover of darkness. Everybody on board knew they were missing their big chance to see the Statue of Liberty, Dopps recalls.

"Passed right by it," he says. "They told us we did, anyway. I got a much better look at it the second time around."

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.