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“"fis\ [ Tar Heel Junior Historian History for Students Spring 2008 Volume 47, Number 2

On the cover: Marine Gunnery Sergeant Maynard P- Daniels Jr., of Wanchese, on duty in the south¬ west Pacific. Daniels, age twenty-six, won a state Golden Gloves boxing title as a Wake Forest College student before turning pro. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 1936 and was 1 Introduction: World called to active duty in late 1940. At right: Staff Sergeant John W. Moffitt, of War II Touched Lives Greensboro, in the nose of a B-26 Marauder plane. in Every Community The twenty-two-year-old bombardier had recently

by Dr. Annette Ayers llL scuffled with Nazi fighters over Germany, where the Ninth Army Air Force successfully attacked a railway bridge on a German supply route. Images North Carolina’s Wartime courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Blimps over Elizabeth City Miracle: Defending by Stephen D. Chalker 5 the Nation State of North Carolina 25 by Dr. John S. Duvall Michael F. Easley, Governor Beverly E. Perdue, Lieutenant Governor Enemies and Friends: POWs in the Tar Heel State Courage above and Department of Cultural Resources 26 by Dr. Robert D. Billinger Jr. Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary beyond the Call of Duty: Staci T. Meyer, Chief Deputy Secretary 9 Tar Heels in World War II by Lieutenant Colonel Hospital Cars Rode Office of Archives and History Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary Sion H. Harrington III 29 the Rails by Larry K. Neal Jr. Division of State History Museums North Carolina Museum of History Rendezvous with History: Kenneth B. Howard, Director Thomas W. Ferebee and Help from the Home Front: Heyward H. McKinney Jr., Chief Operations Officer 12 the Enola Gay Women’s Clubs Contribute R. Jackson Marshall IH, Associate Director 30 William J. McCrea, Associate Director by Tom Belton to the Cause by Jettnifer Biser Education Section B. J. Davis, Section Chief Women Step Up Charlotte Sullivan, Curator of to Serve From Hep Cats to Full Outreach Programs 15 by Hermann J. Trojanowski Birds: Slang of the 1940s Michelle L. Carr, Curator of Internal Programs 33 by Michelle L. Carr Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Activities Jessica Humphries, Program Coordinator Wilmington Helps Weld Courtney Armstrong, Subscription Coordinator 18 an Allied Victory Tar Heel Junior Historian 34 by Ralph Scott Doris McLean Bates, Editor in Chief Posters Help Win Lisa Coston Hall, Editor/Designer the War at Home Tom Belton and Sion H. Harrington III, 20 One More Glance: World by Sandy Webbere Conceptual Editors 37 War II and North Carolina Tar Heel Junior Historian When World War II Association Advisory Board Was Fought off North Annette Ayers, Mary1 Bonnett, Fay Gore, Vince 22 Visit thu North Carolina Museum of Historr Greene, Lisa Coston Hall, Jim Hartsell, Jessica Carolina’s Beaches Humpfiries, Jackson Marshall, Leslie Rivers, by Kevin P. Duffus 'Carbffmn5 A t0 AmtS: °avid Marshafl and Charlotte Sullivan Everybody's War: North Carol ‘ n arid War II; and "Showboat": The USS Do you need to contact the THJH editor? . North Carolina. Send an e-mail to [email protected]. MS^zr°^storyorg to ieam m

THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the tiistory of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers. Members receive other benefits, as well Individual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $8.00 per year. © 2008, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: North Carolina Museum of History photography is by Eric N. Blevins and D. Kent Thompson. EDITORIAL POLICY: Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the conceptual editor and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily rep¬ resent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. The text of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Serv ices to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information, call 1-888-388-2460. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $5,765.00, or $0.64 a copy. INTRODUCTION

WORLD WAR H TOUCHED LIVESIN EWERY COMMUNITY by Dr. Annette Ayers*

VH hroughout my childhood, I was until after World War II, so light came from r \ blessed with storytellers in my kerosene lamps. Women had to wash clothes IVfamily I listened to my grand¬ at outside iron kettles, draw up water by parents, parents, aunts, and hand from wells, and can vegetables in hot uncles talk about the events that kitchens with wood-burning stoves. The had impacted their lives and those of our many Methodist, Baptist, and Quaker neighbors, our community, and our state. I churches, and the schools at Shoals and realized at an early age that I developed my Pinnacle, formed the centers of the community. love of and appreciation for history by listen¬ Families in the area—like those across ing to the fascinating stories of my paternal North Carolina and the nation—were still grandmother and my mother, who shared recovering from the devastating economic experiences and hardships effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. suffered by our family during They opposed being drawn into a war in the Civil War. My mother had Europe. Men in Shoals, such as my grand¬ been well-acquainted with her father Johnie Ayers, had fought in the bloody paternal grandfather, a battles in 's Argonne Forest during Confederate soldier, and her World War I (1917-1918), and had been maternal great-grandmother, exposed to the new weapon of mustard gas. a Confederate widow who They had no desire to see the lost her husband during the engaged in a second world war. They were Civil War while she was concerned when the government passed the pregnant with her only child. first peacetime conscription, or draft, law in ae federal government As I studied history in America's history in 1939, and the first men reduced posters like this one elementary school, I quickly rortly after Japan's December 1941, , realized that the facts in our lawaii. That attack led to many uick enlistments in America s textbooks were not isolated rmed services; on December 8, happenings. They were he U.S. Navy office in Raleigh signed up 78 enlistees. Image experiences shared by people :ourtesy of the North Carolina struggling to survive the Museum of History. daily demands of life, its celebrations, and its hardships, as well as life¬ changing national and international events. While the clouds of war erupted over cen¬ tral and western Europe in the late 1930s, my family lived a normal life in the Surry County community of Shoals, at the foot of beautiful Pilot Mountain. Seasonal chores governed life in this subsistence-farming community. Families planted corn, wheat, sugarcane, the Men from across North Carolina—serving in the coast guard, marines, and navy—gather on the deck of a coast guard ship shortly before landing operations on the Japanese island cash crop of tobacco, and vegetable gardens, of Okinawa. The men are identified as (front row, left to right) Pharmacist's Mate J. A. and raised chickens, hogs, and cows, largely Hudson, of Vass; Gunnery Sergeant T. E. Leonard, of Jamestown; Platoon Sergeant Nolan Thomas, of Jamestown; Corporal L. E. Kilfoil, of Greensboro; Private First Class J. B. to meet their own needs. They cut wood in Garrison, of Badin; and Carpenter's Mate Richard S. Tillett, of Elizabeth City; (back row, left the spring and fall to heat the houses, fuel the to right) Platoon Sergeant T. P. Parson, of Lenoir; Private First Class G. C. Brande, of Reidsville; Corporal L. K. Littleton, of Badin; Sergeant H. A. Ross, of Morganton; Private cooking stoves, and cure the tobacco in the Paul T. Mauney, of Stanley; Pharmacist's Mate Robert O. Blauvelt, of Wilson, and log barns. Electricity did not arrive in Shoals Boatswain's Mate First Class Jerry N. Buchanan, of New Bern. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

*Dr. Annette Ayers is a teacher coach/curriculum facilitator at Southeastern Stokes Middle School and THJH, Spring 2008 an adjunct professor at Surry Community College. A member of the Tar Heel junior Historian 1 Association Advisory Board, she is a retired history teacher and served as the director of education and programs at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History from August 2004 through August 2007. - military played key roles in North Carolina's FACTS FAST is is is is is is is is is A is A is is every battle there. Front” by taking part in nearly Japan (August 15) in 1945. (May 8) and over as Old Hickory. It National Guard division), known of the Western earned the nickname "Workhorse and millions of lives were changed died worldwide, Allies declared victory in Europe by the time the the Pacific. A Tar important to Allied victories in led a pathfinder Heel. Army Sergeant Elmo Jones, prepare for D day. team into Normandy. France, to at About 13.400 paratroopers trained 6. 1944. The largest took part in that invasion June division fought with number of Tar Heels in a single (a former N.C. the army’s Thirtieth Infantry Division the state lost more than 40.000 es. In comparison, 2.965 War; 2,375 in World War I; soldiers in the Civil A and 1.573 in the Vietnam War. in the Korean War; of Americans died in World War H total of 405.399 was million in service. World War H more than 16.1 act of war in history. Millions the largest organized Marines from Camp Lejeune were major campaigns. 3.6 million approximately women) than 7.000 362,000 (more ing the war: Tar Heels More than 8.000 killed: North Carolinians other caus¬ combat or from War H. in died in World II: World War during population Carolina’s North. military dur¬ served in the of Tar Heels who Number As I think about the effects of World War II >v > .V taT tv tv tar tV tar ☆ ☆ t> uncles' generation who served in the military then. In my own small Mount Zion United men, including six sets of brothers, served than 150 members, my father, Leroy Ayers Methodist Church, an uncanny number of during the war. From this small church of less lines, and serve as intelligence officers recon- fighting in General George Patton's army, serving as gunners on bomber planes. Women and African American men answered the call to duty, too, serving in separate new units. on my community, I remember our friends and relatives—all the men of my father's and tar would serve in Piedmont county to the coast aircraft the navy on troop ships, destroyers, the Atlantic carriers, and submarines—from of the Pacific Ocean to the fighting infernos no farther Islands. Farmers who had traveled than to the cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, or Raleigh would land on the noitering (surveying or exploring) enemy- held areas. They would enter towns in France, Germany, and other European countries, placing pontoon bridges across rivers, and beaches of France, parachute behind enemy northwestern had never traveled from our Young men who before going abroad to fight. to arms. America's call answered but they some enlisted, included my Martin Bullin, serve six years drafted and uncle, Jim who would community local men were our from into military in 1940. service were drafted This group quickly. Some war happened mobilization for own soil, so attacked on its States had been The United North Carolina. city across small town, and community, rural lives in every neighbors, and members and of our family TH]H, Spring 2008 Neighborhood boys who had never ridden before the My parents married three days the United States to training centers for a quick, simplified version of basic training a train would travel, by bus and train, across 7, 1941, greatly lation significantly.) December as it did the lives impacted my parents' lives, live in infamy." radio, it was “a day that will be born after attack on Pearl Harbor. (I would of the numerous the war ended and am one That belief would be shattered out of the war. 7,1941. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December engineering corps. Ideally, most in the army's stay believed the nation could Americans still Hitler's when Japan, an ally of Adolf naval base at Germany, attacked the American said on the As President Franklin D. Roosevelt the state's popu¬ baby boomers who increased 2 iron, and brass in 1943 for the war scrap rubber, copper, and pans, appliance parts, radiators, food cans to old pots Image courtesy of the State Archives, pipes, and wire fencing. Archives and History. North Carolina Office of included everything from effort. Scrap drives commonly School in Cabarrus County collect Students from Coltrane of the Greensboro Historical Museum. them confidence handling firearms under pressure. North Carolina became a major military Lining site during the war. Image courtesy weapons while blindfolded. The exercise was designed to gwe, Replacement Depot in Greensboro disassemble and assemble i

Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency Robert Neal "Bobby" Garrison, of (1953-1961). The farming still was Salisbury, served in the navy from November 1943 until December 1945, done with draft horses and mules with posts in Africa, France, and . This handkerchief is one of many sou¬ plowing the fields and pulling the venirs that he sent home to his wife, mowing machines, hay rakes, and Mary White Garrison. Learn more about Garrison's service by accessing tobacco sleds. With most of the men www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/scrap gone, there was no one to supply book/index.html#. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. the day labor that farmers had counted on in previous years. Children, both boys and girls, had to work harder to help with the families' crops than they were expected to before the war. The government began the rationing pro¬ gram—which limited how much of certain items people could buy—in 1942 to assist the war effort. Families received ration stamps based on their number of members. My aunt Lieutenant Elva Wells, of Teachey, serving as an army nurse, cleans her boots out¬ and mother discussed frequently that the side a tent in Italy in 1944. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

TH]H, Spring 2008 3 WiM Charlotte ©bsen'^jj^

stamps were useless if sacrifice to preserve the local merchants did the American way of not have the items in life. stock anyway. The war Are any of your effort came first, and neighbors veterans of soldiers needed meat World War II, or of and gasoline more later conflicts in *—*»** than families on the Korea, Vietnam, the home front. Factories across North Carolina had to Persian Gulf, or Iraq? change their products to supply desperately Ask these men and needed war materials. Items that were often in women if they will

short supply in the Shoals and Pinnacle areas tell you about their Norman Blaylock, of Greensboro, shows off included washing powder and leather shoes. One experiences, and let the Japanese flag captured by his coast guard unit in the south Pacific. Soldiers of our neighbors often said she did not have a you record the stories often bring home souvenirs taken from a decent pair of shoes throughout the war, because using audiotape, beaten foe or objects associated with the area where they served. Most American those she could buy were made of flimsy materials videotape, or digital veterans returning from World War II brought home one or two such items. instead of leather. Children's toys became scarce— recorder. Pause as Many of these objects today are considered metal and other resources were needed for the war you pass local memo¬ heirlooms of a relative's military sendee. They may include guns, swords, bayonets, effort. rials, and honor those helmets, or flags. Does your family have The war ended in 1945. Most young men came who have served, any such heirlooms? Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. home by 1946 and resumed their lives of farming. been wounded, or Others took advantage of the GI Bill, which offered lost their lives to defend this great nation. Trace them educational opportunities. Many of these your family history, identify members who have men who served the United States so bravely have served in the military, and record their contribu¬ died, and more than 2,000 die across the country tions. Place flowers on the graves of our unsung each day. As we view our neighbors and commu¬ heroes on Memorial Day, Independence Day, and nities through the lens of history, we recognize that Veterans Day. Remember and honor each one, so difficult times require leadership, service, and that his or her story may be preserved.

ads, and regulations reminded people a quick look at home front shortages to save electricity, conserve heat and hot water, and stop using lights for A popular slogan during World Office of Price Administration limited decoration, advertising, sports, or War II was “Use It Up, Wear It how many new tires each county other ‘nonessential” reasons. Out, Make It Do, or Do could sell and limited the use of other The War Production Board even Without.” The military got first priori¬ items. Tin, for example, was banned told people how much fabric they ty for supplies, so people at home from new toys, art, musical instru¬ could use in a dress! It banned full faced shortages daily. Families got ments, buckles, jewelry, ornaments, skirts, knife pleats, cuffs, bias-cut books of ration stamps to buy certain "beverage dispensing units,” and slot sleeves, and patch pockets. Belts could items. Simple things—home heating and vending machines. Communities be no wider than two inches, and and cooking oil batteries, laundry and schools held scrap metal and rub¬ jackets, no longer than twenty-five soap, facial tissue, pencils with rubber ber drives. People turned in things inches. Elastic was scarce, so people erasers, paper bags and wrapping like extra keys to be melted down for tied up their underwear. In 1943 the paper, and cotton diapers—became cannons and rifles. government began rationing civilian scarce. Food items like butter, meat, Home demonstration clubs held footwear; three pairs per

milk, canned goods, cheese, coffee, and programs on taking care of This is not "A Man s World” by a long shot! year per person. Civilians even ketchup were rationed. household items so they could not often get woolen Newspapers ran notices warning would last. Topics included wraps because soldiers’ when stamps for certain items like protecting clothing and uniforms needed a lot of sugar would expire. Some areas made home textiles like blankets, wool. Nylon and silk stock restaurants “go meatless” certain days rugs and upholstered fur¬ ings disappeared—those of the week. Gas was rationed to niture from moths; clean¬ materials went to make three gallons per week per driver, so ing heaters and cook stoves parachutes. Some women more people rode buses. to prevent rust; storing drew lines on the backs of Few appliances were made during and maintaining tools prop¬ their legs to look like the war. Metal went to build tanks, erly; and keeping sewing stocking seams! planes, jeeps, and bombs. The federal machines working. Posters,

TH/H, Spring 2008 This magazine ad states that the 1941 Ford should be driven for the rest Image courtesy of the North Carolina of the war. The last new cars built by any American company during Museum of History. World War II rolled off assembly lines in February 1942. North Carolina’s Wartime Mirade: Defending the Nation by Dr. John S. Duvall*

orth Carolinians reacted with sad¬ Hemisphere," and would “give every assistance ness and concern when Germany to Britain and to all who are . . . resisting invaded neighboring Poland on Hitlerism . . . with force of arms." America, in September 1, 1939. A new world other words, had to be ready to defend itself war had begun. The Germans used and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. The blitzkrieg, or “lightning war," tactics—quickly president challenged Americans to prepare to destroying the Polish armed forces with surprise fight, if necessary. He said, “Your government tank and aircraft attacks. Great Britain and has the right to expect of all citizens that they France declared war on Germany but were take part in the common work of our common unable to help Poland. In the spring of 1940, defense," and that the future of all free enter¬ Adolf Hitler, the German leader, unleashed prise was at stake. blitzkrieg on Denmark, Norway, the Nether¬ Roosevelt's determination to provide for the lands, Belgium, and France. By midsummer national defense in 1940 led to a military 1940, Western Europe had been conquered, and buildup around the nation, especially in North only Great Britain stood against Hitler's legions. Carolina. Military base construction became a Meanwhile, in the Far East, the Japanese army major industry in the state during 1940 through continued the conquest of China that it had 1943, providing important economic and social begun in 1937. benefits to Tar Heels from the Coastal Plain to These upsetting events alarmed Americans, the Mountains. The Great Depression of the including North Carolinians, but most were not 1930s had created a legacy of high unemploy¬ eager to fight another war on foreign shores. ment and slow economic growth. By the sum¬ Embittered by the experience of World War I mer of 1940, though, tens of thousands of North and the failure of Europeans to maintain peace, Carolinians had joined construction companies they were content to stay behind the great ocean at Fort Bragg, on the outskirts of Fayetteville, frontiers that they felt protected them from and at Camp Davis, near Wilmington. Great attack. Some Americans, notably President feats of engineering and building were under Franklin D. Roosevelt, saw danger in German way. In late 1941 work began on large marine and Japanese corps facilities at aggression, and the Jacksonville and president worked Havelock, swelling the hard to educate his ranks of the employed fellow countrymen. by more tens of In a radio address to thousands. It was an the nation on May 27, economic miracle. 1941, Roosevelt North Carolina pledged that the became one of the United States would leading states con¬ “actively resist tributing to the wherever necessary, nation's growing and with all our military efforts. Before resources, every 1940, Fort Bragg—acti¬

attempt by Hitler to (Background) Parachute troops jump out of transport planes during training at vated during World extend his Nazi domi¬ Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. (Above) Officer candidates at Camp Davis practice War I as an artillery moving in combat formation during their seventeen-week training program. Images nation to the Western courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. training center—was

*Dr. John S. Duvall serves as the curator and director of the Airborne and Special THJH, Spring 2008 Operations Museum in Fayetteville. He is the author of the 1996 book North Carolina during World War II on Home Front and Battle Front. Wor!d War II

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© Army Air Base or Station £ Nava( ^ StaUon “> Axis (POW) Camps Remote Fmng Ranges German Submarines sunk + for Camp Davis off the coast of North Carolina ” C © Manne Air Base or Stabon Military Aircraft -f Civilian Airports used by the Military m Engineer Training

Major military installations and other sites in North Carolina during World War II. Image from The Way We Lived in North Carolina, edited by Joe A. Mobley. Copyright 2003 by the University of North Carolina Press. Published in association with the Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Used by permission of the publisher, http:lluncpress.unc.edu.

the only permanent military installation in the national history has our democracy been so state. During World War II, Fort Bragg grew threatened. Acutely conscious of the danger, our from a post with a few thousand soldiers to a nation is girding itself for defense and preserva¬ post with over 100,000. Nearby Fayetteville, a tion. The Congress of the United States ... in the town of 17,000 on the eve of the war, soon strug¬ session of 1940 appropriated for defense the gled to find housing for hundreds of families largest sum of money ever before appropriated who accompanied soldiers assigned to the post. in a similar length of time by any nation on The same was true in Goldsboro, home of earth, in peace or war." Seymour Johnson Army Airfield; Havelock, site The Japanese attack on of Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, which Hawaii's Pearl Harbor on also impacted New Bern and Morehead City; December 7, 1941, brought the and Jacksonville, adjacent to Camp Lejeune. United States into World War Significantly, each of these massive military II and sped up military base bases has remained construction around the state. on active and Work began at Seymour important service Johnson and Laurinburg- into the twenty- Maxton Army Air Force bases, first century. Camp Butner, Camp Sutton, Commenting and many other stations, air¬ on the impact of fields, and camps. The effect of the defense the signing of construction buildup in North contracts at each of these bases Carolina in his was magnetic, drawing work¬ inaugural address ers from communities up to a on January 9, hundred miles away to job 1941, Governor J. sites. Roads became lined with Thousands of troops trained at Camp Davis near Melville tents, trailers, and various tem¬ Holly Ridge during World War II. The base, built in only five months, covered nearly forty-seven Broughton said porary dwellings. Workers thousand acres. It operated an anti-aircraft artillery that "not since the arrived each day on foot, by bus or carpool, or training range at Fort Fisher, fifty miles south. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North beginning of our in farm trucks. The draw of the military projects Carolina Office of Archives and History. THJH, Spring 2008 included a Life magazine explained in its June 9, 1941, decent edition that a miracle had taken place at Fort paycheck, Bragg. At a cost of some $44 million, new roads, job train¬ sewers, theaters, barracks, chapels, and power ing, and lines were constructed. Over 28,000 workers, the hope receiving total wages of $100,000 a day, com¬ for contin¬ pleted buildings at the rate of one every thirty- "Victory" training rifle, ca. 1942. Because of a weapons shortage in the early months after the United States ued work. two minutes. Sixty-five carloads of building entered World War II, this nonfiring rifle was made by In La materials arrived daily on the rails of the Cape the thousands for soldiers learning how to drill. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Grange Fear and Atlantic Coast railroads. At the end of local the project, Fort Bragg was the largest military businessman Roy Rouse started a bus company camp in the nation and North Carolina's third- to carry workers to job sites at Fort Bragg, some largest community. seventy miles distant, and to Cherry Point, more Men working on military construction than fifty miles away. Camp Davis construction projects or related drew workers from as far away as Harkers defense work Island, Morehead City, Wilmington, Richlands, became eligible to Warsaw, Wallace, and other communities. be drafted into the These legions of North Carolinians accom¬ military during plished spectacular work. Their job was to 1940. After America build—almost from scratch—a network of train¬ entered the war in ing bases to support hundreds of thousands of December 1941, draftees pouring into various branches of the more and more armed services. The U.S. War Department chose workers were called southern states like North Carolina for military to service. In some bases because their climates provided more cases women training days than other parts of the country. replaced the men,

Crews built the bases in rural areas or near working on new Camp Lejeune marines take a training break to small towns with few conveniences or comforts. military bases or in enjoy their Thanksgiving meal. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Thpv nppdpd fhpatprs rhanpR recreation cen¬ defense industries. ters, hospitals, This was especially true at places like the North and post offices. Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, At Fort Bragg, where women became an important part of the expansion workforce, welding together steel plates, rivet¬ involved ing deck plates, and doing other tasks thought thousands of of as "men's work." buildings for an Across North Carolina in the early 1940s, infantry divi¬ military base construction provided the infra¬ sion and the structure for training hundreds of thousands of Field Artillery soldiers, marines, and airmen. Fort Bragg and Replacement , which was near Aberdeen, Center. In trained thousands of paratroopers and glider- September 1940 men for great airborne assaults in Europe and Fort Bragg had the Pacific; Bragg also trained tens of thousands 376 assorted of artillerymen who fought in every theater of buildings, and war. Camp Sutton, near Monroe, trained army 5,406 officers engineers. Camp Butner, north of Durham, was and men. By an infantry training center. Camp Lejeune sent June 1941, it thousands of marines to Guadalcanal and other had 3,135 battlefields in the Pacific. Cherry Point prepared buildings and pilots for the air war in the Pacific. Seymour 67,000 troops. Johnson trained bomber crews. Laurinburg-

THJH, Spring 2008 7

I than any other state. More than fifty defense- related bases and camps dotted the state, all with a major and lasting economic impact, although some closed soon after the war. North Carolina contributed enormous resources and energy to the Allied victory in World War II. The spirit of Tar Heel soldiers can be seen in a letter written by Lieutenant (Left) Soldiers training at Fort Bragg's Field Artillery Replacement Center practice shooting a Alexander Smith, of Raleigh. Smith, a mem¬ 155-millimeter howitzer, wearing gas masks and hiding within a camouflage net. (Right) New arrivals at the army's Anti-aircraft Artillery School at Camp Davis learn about "vertical ber of Company D, Thirtieth Engineers, bed making" and "putting bedding on line," or stacking it properly. Images courtesy of the wrote from Naples, Italy, on October 19, North Carolina Museum of History. 1943, to Hattie C. Smith: "The Germans are Maxton trained troop transport crews and glider on the run, even though they're proving stubborn, pilots to carry airborne troops to battle. And and surely the German soldier can see the fallacy in Greensboro's Army Air Force Basic Training Center thinking he can gain anything from fighting. It's a (later the Overseas Replacement Depot) provided shame we've had to go to so much trouble to show thousands of trained personnel, turning a southern [Adolf] Hitler and [Benito] Mussolini and [Emperor textile manufacturing center into an "army town." Hideki] Tojo that we won't tolerate their way of life, North Carolina became a national defense power¬ but now that we've started we won't be satisfied house, training more troops during the war years until they learn their lesson well."

A QUICK LOOK

uring the colonial peric eral African Americans served in the marines. But W0 after the U.S. Marine Corps was reestablished in 1798, none were allowed in its ranks. In 1940 many African Americans in the North sup¬ (Left) Montford Point marines salute. Dress uni¬ forms were not regularly issued. Most African ported President Franklin D. American marine recruits paid $54 for a dress Roosevelt in his bid for a third term, uniform, ca. 1943. Image from the National Archives hoping he would help change the seg¬ and Records Administration. (Top) Engineers from the Fifty-first Composite Battalion practice firing regated armed forces. a .30-caliber machine gun. Image from the Library Roosevelt issued Executive Order of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, U.S. 8802 in June 1941. This act created Farm Security Administration!Office of War Information Collection. the Fair Employment Practices Commission, prohibited racial discrimi¬ some 20,000 black recruits between subdued Japanese forces on Saipan. nation in hiring by defense industries 1943 and 1949. They were sent to U.S. Marine Corps commander contracting with the federal govern¬ Montford Point Marine Camp, set up Alexander Vandegrift said. "The Negro ment, and opened the door for the as a temporary segregated basic train¬ Marines are no longer on trial. They armed services to desegregate. Some ing facility within Camp Lejeune, are Marines, period.” Some stayed in military leaders spoke out against the near Jacksonville. The self-sufficient the military to serve in the Korean president’s plan. He finally recom¬ camp included a chapel, two ware¬ and Vietnam wars. Others returned mended recruiting about 5,000 black houses, a mess hall, a swimming pool, home to segregation and prejudice. men for the general service but keep¬ a steam-generating plant, a motor After 1949, the marines desegre ing them separate from the white mil¬ pool, a barbershop, a theater, quar¬ gated. Montford Point was deactivat itary. The next year, the marines, ters, and more. Separate recreational ed. In 1974 it was renamed Camp navy, and coast guard began to for¬ facilities were set up for the white Johnson to honor the late Sergeant mally recruit and enlist African enlisted men initially staffing the Major Gilbert "Hashmark” Johnson, Americans, though they would not be operation. one of the first blacks to join the accepted at established training camps Many African Americans trained marines. The original mess hall is across the country and would be lim at Montford Point served in combat now a museum. To learn more, access ited in roles and ranks. support units in the Pacific theater's www.montfordpointmarines.com or The U.S. Marine Corps enlisted bloodiest battles. After the marines http://library.uncw.edu/web/montford. 8 TH]H, Spring 2008 Courage above for bravery during the Second World War. But the following and beyond the stories offer a sample of North Carolinians noted for extraordi¬ Call of Duty nary heroism and self-sacrifice. Awards of the Medal of Honor are rare enough, but few towns in America can match the TAR HEELS IN tiny Haywood County commu¬ nity of Canton in the Mountains of North Carolina. Canton proudly claims not one but two WORLD WAR I! Medal of Honor recipients in Max Thompson and William by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Sion H. (Top) William David David Halyburton Jr. Halyburton Jr. received the Harrington III* Medal of Honor after sacrific¬ On October 18, 1944, ing his life to save another. uring World War II, the United Thompson was a twenty-two- (Above) Max Thompson single- handedly blocked a German D States government awarded a vari¬ year-old technical sergeant serv¬ breakthrough threatening his ety of medals to recognize acts of ing in the army's First Infantry unit. Images from www.finda grave.com. (Top left) Captain courage "above and beyond the call Division near Haaren, Germany. George Lumpkin, of When advancing German Louisburg, (right), receives the of duty." At the top of the pyra¬ Air Medal for Meritorious mid—and given for only the most extraordinary infantry and tanks overran a Conduct in Air Combat, for his performance as a marine dive acts of courage and sacrifice—was the Medal of nearby unit, Thompson bomber pilot. Image courtesy of Honor. Eight North Carolinians received the stemmed the tide of the enemy the North Carolina Museum of History. nation's highest award for valor between 1941 advance with a combination of and 1945, four after losing their own lives, or machine gun and anti-tank rocket fire, saving posthumously. the day for the Americans. For this singular act The second-highest United States military of heroism, he earned the Medal of Honor. medals in existence during World War II, and A few months later, halfway around the equal in rank, were the Distinguished Service world in the Pacific theater, another Canton Cross, awarded to those serving in the U.S. native made his mark. While serving as a Army or Army Air Force, and the Navy Cross, pre¬ FAST FACTS sented to individuals The Congressional Medal of Honor is *Max Thompson U.S. Army serving in the U.S. Navy, the highest award given to an * Henry F. Warner, U.S. Army, posthu¬ U.S. Marine Corps, or American military member for brav¬ mously ery “above and beyond the call of * Raymond H. Wilkins, U.S. Army Air U.S. Coast Guard. Some duy" to- action against an enemy. First Corps, posthumously North Carolinians also awarded during the Civil War, it has Other major citations and decora¬ received an award for gone to nearly 3,500 recipients. There tions include the Air Medal: Bronze were 464 Medals of Honor given for Star; Commendation Medal; Purple bravery during the war WorldWar H—eight to North Heart; Distinguished Flying Cross; almost as rare as the Carolinians: Distinguished Service Cross; Navy Medal of Honor. The * Ray E. Eubanks, U.S. Army, posthu¬ Cross; Distinguished Service Medal; mously Legion of Merit; Navy and Marine Soldier's Medal is often * William David Halyburton Jr., U.S. Corps Medal: ; and Soldier’s awarded to those who Naval Reserve, posthumously Medal. save others at great risk * Rufus G. Herring, U.S. Naval Reserve Research these awards and their * Jacklyn Harold Lucas, U.S. Marine recipients. Can you find any Tar Heel, to their own life. Corps Reserve award recipients with ships named It is not possible in this * Charles P. Murray Jr., U.S. Army after them? article to recognize all of the Tar Heels decorated

*Sion H. Harrington III—military collection archivist, Division of Historical Resources, Office of Archives and THJH, Spring 2008 History—served as a conceptual editor for this issue of Tar Heel Junior Historian. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he holds master's degrees from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and North Carolina State University. A lifelong student of military history, he served thirty years in the active army and reserves forces and now serves on the advisory boards of several history-related organizations. medical corpsman with the First Marine grenades. Two landed at his feet. Acting quickly Division on the hotly contested Japanese-held to save the lives of his fellow marines, and with island of Okinawa, Halyburton, a navy pharma¬ total disregard for his own safety, young Lucas cist's mate second class, distinguished himself in covered both grenades with his body. a manner worthy of the Medal of Honor. On May Lortunately, only one exploded. It wounded 10, 1945, without hesitation or regard for his own Lucas severely, but he survived. Lor this selfless personal safety, Halyburton rushed across an act of courage. Private Pirst Class Lucas was open area through heavy sniper, machine gun, awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the and mortar fire to the aid of a severely wounded youngest person to earn man. The brave young corpsman placed himself the nation's highest mili¬ in the direct line of fire to give first aid. While tary award in the twentieth shielding the helpless marine, the twenty-one- century. year-old Halyburton suffered a mortal wound. The city of Greensboro He gave his life so that another might live. produced two men of spe¬ Jacklyn Harold "Jack" Lucas, of Plymouth, cial note. Major George was a handful as a youth. His mother finally Earl Preddy Jr. and Staff sent the tough, short, stocky lad to Edwards Sergeant Edwin Vance Military Institute in Salemburg to Bain, both of whom served learn discipline. Lucas did fairly with the U.S. Army Air Edwin Vance Bain received two Soldier's Medals during well at the school, but he yearned Porce. Transferred from the the war, one after his death. to join the war against the Pacific theater to the famed Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office Japanese. Though only fourteen Eighth Air Porce in Europe, of Archives and History. years old, he enlisted in the U.S. Preddy received notoriety Marine Corps in 1942 with the flying a P-51 Mustang fighter plane called Cripes help of falsified papers. a’ Mighty, a name supposedly taken from one of After his initial training, Lucas his favorite expressions. Preddy was the highest was shipped to Hawaii and scoring American P-51 ace of World War II with Jacklyn "Jack" Lucas, the 26.83 air victories. He was credited with another youngest Medal of Honor assigned to a supply unit. Every recipient of the twentieth cen request for a combat assignment five ground victories and is sixth on the list of tury. Image from the collections of the United States Naval was denied. Knowing that trouble¬ all-time highest-scoring American aces. On one Historical Center. makers often were reassigned to mission, Preddy shot down an incredible six fighting units, the greatly frustrat¬ German aircraft. ed Lucas decided to try that route. But even this On Christmas Day 1944, while flying with the tactic of causing trouble did 352nd Lighter Group, not work. One day he noticed Preddy shot down two troop transports in the nearby German fighter planes and harbor and realized that an was in close, low-level invasion was about to take pursuit of another when place. Sneaking away from he was mistakenly shot his unit, he hid aboard one of down by American anti¬ the ships, not revealing him¬ aircraft fire. Though he self until the fleet was well survived the crash, Preddv out to sea. soon died. He was given Lucas was right about the the Distinguished Service possibility of action on this Cross after his death. trip. During his second day Tragically, his younger on the Pacific island of Iwo brother, William Rhodes Jima, and only five days after Preddy, also a fighter pilot,

his seventeenth birthday, he Dr. F. D. Bluford, president of North Carolina Agricultural and died in action a few and several others were Technical College in Greensboro, presents a to the months later. widow of First Lieutenant Sam Bruce. Bruce had been killed in ambushed by Japanese sol¬ action in Europe in January 1944. Family members usually Bain was a remarkable diers throwing hand received honors for those who had been killed in action. Image man whose first brush courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

10 TH]H, Spring 2008 with fame came on April 18, 1942, when he flew as a gunner on the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese homeland. Forced to bail out over China after the raid, Bain was rescued by local farmers. He later received the Military Order of China from Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Soong May-ling. But Bain was already a hero. Earlier in the war, he had rushed back into a burning air¬ craft after a training accident to save the lives of fellow crew members at great risk to his own life, for which he received the prestigious Soldier's Medal. Reassigned to the Mediterranean Sea area— and after having flown the required number of George Preddy, the top-rated P-51 fighter ace of World War H Image from the collec¬ tions of the . Access zvww.nationalmuseum.af.mil to learn more. missions to qualify him for a return trip home— Bain volunteered to fly one last mission. He was December 30, 1941, only twenty-three days after helping fill out a crew for a pilot friend who the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, needed one more mission to earn his own trip Fisler was on patrol in a seaplane when his crew home. After bombing the rail yards outside of spotted men floating in the rough seas below. Rome, Italy, their plane took a direct hit and Unsure of the stranded men's nationality, and began going down rapidly. Sacrificing his own realizing the dangers involved in trying to land chance to parachute to safety, Bain made sure in rough seas, Fisler radioed his headquarters at each of his fellow crew members got out of the Pearl Harbor requesting permission stricken aircraft. By the time the last man was to attempt a rescue. Due to the risks out, the plane was too low for him to jump. Bain involved, officials at the base denied and the plane crashed into the sea and were permission. Fisler asked crew mem¬ never found. For his supreme sacrifice, Bain was bers if they wanted to leave the men posthumously awarded an unprecedented sec¬ to drown or risk their own lives in ond Soldier's Medal. an attempt to rescue them. They Two naval aviators from the Tar Heel State wanted to try saving the men. received the Navy Cross, the naval equivalent of Miraculously, Fisler's plane was the Distinguished Service not torn to bits or swamped when it Cross, for actions during landed on the turbulent seas. Using a Frank M. Fisler, thought to be the war's first Navy Cross World War II. Winston- small rubber boat, the rescuers spent recipient. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Salem's Commander three dangerous hours picking up Office of Archives and History. Norman Mickey “Bus" the nine men, who turned out to be Miller led VB-109—a Navy the crew of an American bomber. The weight of PB4Y Liberator bombing the extra men made it a challenge for the heavily squadron—in the Pacific overloaded seaplane to take off. By another mir¬ theater. An exceptionally acle, it got airborne and landed safely back at brave and skillful pilot, base. Thought to have received the first Navy Norman M. Miller was credited with destroying or Miller is credited with the Cross of World War II, Fisler personally received damaging sixty-six Japanese astonishing feat of destroy¬ his medal at Pearl Harbor from Admiral Chester vessels. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina ing or damaging sixty-six Nimitz. Sadly, Fisler would lose his life during Office of Archives and History. Japanese vessels, not combat in March 1943. including small craft! In addition to his Navy The story of North Carolina in World War II is Cross, he earned at least fourteen other military filled with fascinating tales of ordinary people medals and awards. who placed the lives of others before their own, Hailing from the tiny community of Ivanhoe courageously performing extraordinary acts of in the southern tip of Sampson County, then heroism. Many brave Tar Heels sacrificed for the Ensign Frank Moore "Fuzzy" Fisler served as a good of others, and in doing so, wrote their navy pilot with patrol squadron VP-51. On names on the pages of history.

THJH, Spring 2008 11 Rendezvous with History: Homs w. Ferebee ail ne Mi Bay by Tom Belton*

fi* OB homas Wilson Ferebee was born was "the best bombardier who ever looked ■ % into a large farm family outside through the eyepiece of a Norden bomb- Mocksville in Davie County on •sight.") America's most closely guarded November 19, 1918. Little did his military secret was development of the atomic parents realize that their son bomb. At Wendover Field, Ferebee was one of would become one of North Carolina's most the men trained in B-29 bombers for future famous war heroes. Tom Ferebee attended atomic bombing missions. As part of the local public schools and excelled in sports in training, bombardiers were expected to be high school and college. At able to drop a single large bomb with Lees-McRae College in Banner pinpoint accuracy from thirty thousand feet. Elk, he lettered in track, basket¬ As soon as the bomb left the plane, the pilots ball, and football, and he were told to make a sharp turn away from the looked forward to a major- target area to protect the crew from the atomic league baseball career. explosion. (No atomic bomb had ever been Unfortunately, a football injury dropped, so no one knew exactly how the ended these plans. So Ferebee explosion would affect the plane above the joined the Army Air Corps in target area.) the summer of 1941, only Because of his extensive combat experience months before America's entry and reputation, Ferebee was responsible for into World War II. all of the bombardiers in training at Following flight school, Wendover Field. After completing training Ferebee received additional there, the 509th Composite moved to the training as a bombardier. He Pacific theater in late May 1945. It set up base soon found himself dropping on the island of Tinian in the Mariana chain, bombs over North Africa and only fifteen hundred miles from the Japanese Young Tom Ferebee at school in Nazi-occupied Europe as part mainland. At Tinian, Tibbets remained the Mocksville, ca. 1932. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of of the crew of a B-17 airplane. only crewman in the group who knew they History. During this time, he made two had been training to drop an atomic bomb. lifelong friends in Paul Tibbets, At 2:45 a.m. on the morning of August 6, a talented pilot, and Theodore "Dutch" van 1945, Tibbets rolled down a runway on Tinian Kirk, a skilled navigator. Ferebee flew as in a B-29, named Enola Gay after his mother. bombardier in the lead B-17 that made the The plane headed toward the Japanese main¬ first American strike against occupied Europe. land with van Kirk and Ferebee among its He also flew as lead bombardier on the first crew. At 8:15 a.m., over the city of Hiroshima, mission during the North Africa invasion. Ferebee opened the bomb bay doors and While in Europe, he flew more than sixty released an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little combat missions. Boy." The atomic bomb exploded with a In 1944 he was ordered back to the United blinding flash forty-three seconds later, States and assigned to the newly formed and destroying much of the city. Casualty figures top secret 509th Composite Group at vary. Despite the devastation and the deaths Wendover Field in Utah, at the special request of thousands of people caused by the bomb, of Tibbets. (Tibbets once stated that Ferebee Japanese leaders refused to discuss uncondi-

TH/H, Spring 2008 *Tom Belton works as the curator of military history at the North Carolina Museum of 12 History. In 2006 he was one of the museum staff members who traveled to Orlando, Florida, to meet with Mary Ann Ferebee and retrieve the Ferebee collection of artifacts. He served as a conceptual editor for this issue of Tar Heel Junior Historian. especially enjoyed spending time work¬ ing in his garden, being with his family, /&* and going to military reunions with his friends Tibbets and van Kirk. Ferebee remained a loyal Tar Heel, returning to the state when possible to visit his brothers and sisters. The men of the Enola Gay found themselves in the news again in the early 1990s. A planned exhibit at the

In this autographed picture of the Enola Gay backing over a bomb pit to load the atomic bomb for the August 6, Smithsonian 1945, mission to Hiroshima, Japan, the top of the bomb—nicknamed "Little Boy"—is visible in the pit. Image Institution in courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. Washington, D.C., tional surrender. A few days later, the United created an uproar with American World War States dropped a second atomic bomb on II veterans over the museum's controversial Nagasaki, killing thousands more. On August presentation on the use of atomic weapons to 15, 1945, Japan agreed to the surrender terms, end the war. Because of the national outcry, finally ending World War II. President Harry Smithsonian officials eventually scaled down Truman took full responsibility for the use of the exhibit, displaying the Enola Gay itself atomic weapons. Most Americans believed with minimal text. Like his friends Tibbets— that the two bombs had saved thousands of who died November 1, 2007—and van Kirk, Allied and Japanese lives in the long run, by Ferebee never regretted his role in the ending the war without an invasion of Japan. Hiroshima mission. He believed atomic Ferebee had flown sixty-four combat mis¬ sions in both the European and Pacific the¬ aters and had played a major role in ending the war. The bombing of Hiroshima became the most historic event of World War II. Ferebee and the other crewmen of the Enola Gay were hailed as national heroes. Ferebee chose to stay in the military as a career and served in a variety of assignments. After World War II, he flew on B-47s, and he then flew on B-52s during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When he retired in 1970 he had earned numerous citations and medals, including the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, and the Air Medal with thirteen oak-leaf clusters. At that point, Ferebee had become "triple rated"—able to serve as a bombardier, navigator, or radar operator. After retiring, he sold real estate in Florida for a while, but he Ferebee's other side. lmg, ofth, „ Q °“ ™

THJH, Spring 2008 13 weapons had saved both American and Japanese lives by ending a long war. When Ferebee died on March 16, 2000, he was buried in the cemetery at the Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Mocksville. His headstone is a simple, unas¬ suming government-issued Retirement photograph of Colonel Thomas W. marker indicating the resting Ferebee, taken in 1970. place of an American veteran. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. In 2006 Ferebee's widow, Mary Ami, donated a large collection of items from her husband's military career to the North Carolina Museum of History. Many of these items are now on display in the museum's exhibi¬ Tom Ferebee during flight training, ca. 1941-1942. Image courtesy of the North tion A Call to Arms. Carolina Museum of History.

a quick look at some other Tar Heel faces of World War II Katherine Lee Harris Adams had flown military aircraft. As Adams missions by the time he returned to the WHO: A Durham native (1919-2002) said “The WASP got their stingers out!” states in 1945. who loved, to learn about anything relat¬ The women began to tell their story for SO?: The Ninety ninth Pursuit Squadron ed to aviation when she was the first time. For thirty years, the gov¬ of the U.S. Army Air Corps, better growing up. She became a civil¬ ernment had kept their records sealed. known as the was the ian aviator as a student at Few knew of their contributions. first African American military flying Duke University. Civilian unit. The Airmen got their name from pilot training programs at Vernon Haywood Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama colleges and universities WHO: Haywood where they trained. They joined with accepted one woman for (1920-2003) grew up in three other all-black fighter squadrons to every ten men. Raleigh. One night form the 332nd Fighter Group, which WHAT: Adams joined the when he was playing flew more than 15,000 sorties and Women Airforce Service in his backyard a destroyed more than 250 enemy planes. Pilots (WASP) in 1943 and dirigible, or blimp, Sixty-six aviators were killed in action. ' served at Napier Field in lit up the sky as it The group’s success helped pave the way Dothan. Alabama for much passed overhead. for desegregation of the armed forces. of 1944, solo flying and test¬ The strange aircraft ing repaired AT-6s, and ferry fascinated the young Thomas Oxendine ing planes from Napier to other boy. "From that WHO: A Lumbee Indian from Pembroke, bases. Her unit disbanded in December moment on, I sort of born in 1922. 1944. but Adams instructed flight cadets got the [aviation] bug,” WHAT: After completing flight training until the end of the war. Haywood recalled years later. at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, SO?: The WASP at Napier Field He attended Hampton College in Virginia Florida Oxendine was assigned as a scout were lucky. The commanding one of six African American institutions observation pilot aboard the USS Mobile. officer welcomed them. They offering civilian pilot training at that On July 26, 1944, he landed his ate meals in the officers' time. seaplane in the midst of mess (dining hall) and lived WHAT: After completing his instruction Japanese gunfire, in adverse Westray Battle ; in the nurses’ dorms. in 1941, Haywood studied at Tuskegee weather, to rescue a downed Boyce, William C. ; However, officers at some Institute in Alabama. In 1942 he was fellow airman. For this he Lee, Robert ’ bases resented women called into the Army Air Corps, became a received the Distinguished Morgan, Edward pilots, and women some¬ member of the 332nd Fighter Group, and Flying Cross. F. Rector, and times had to provide their got sent to Italy. He served fifteen SO?: In November 1942 *. the Navy B-l own places to live. In the months as a fighter pilot in the Oxendine had become the ! Band __ 1970s, soon after their thirti- Mediterranean. Haywood flew P-39s, first American Indian com¬ T|jp|Wr* eth reunion, WASP veterans P-41s, and P-51s on missions escorting B missioned as a naval avia¬ were excited to hear that the navy 17 and B-24 bombers to their targets. He tor. He later served in Korea was training a small group of women to rose through the ranks and became com and Vietnam and was director be military pilots. Media reports stated mander of the 302nd Fighter Squadron. of plans for the navy's Office of that this would be the first time women He flew 356 combat hours in seventy Information in the Pentagon. Images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. 14 THJH, Spring 2008 Women Step Up to Serve by Hermann J. Trojanowski"

uring World War II, over 350,000 D women from across the United States served in the military. More than 7,000 of these women came from North Carolina. As far back as the Revolutionary War, women had served with the military as nurses, cooks, and laundresses. However, these women were considered civilians and not mili¬ tary. It was not until World War I, when some women served in the U.S. Navy as "Yeomanettes," that women were considered part of the military. Between 1917 and 1919, over 11,000 Yeomanettes performed mostly clerical duties to help relieve the navy's labor shortage. Women, with the exception of nurses, Corah Wykle (left), of Hollywood, California, and Ruth Yanke, of Morley, Michigan, would not again be part of the military until both privates first class, record the observations of a flight balloon at the U.S. Marine Corps Cherry Point Air Station. The two were measuring data such as wind direction World War II. and velocity, information helpful for upcoming flights. Image courtesy of the North In the late 1930s, while World War II raged Carolina Museum of History. in Europe and Asia, many government and military leaders in the United States believed 1942 the U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve the country would eventually be drawn into was established. Its members were called the fighting. Military planners feared the SPARS, an acronym for the Coast Guard motto armed services would not have enough men to "Semper Paratus—Always Ready." The Marine do the job. They believed that women in the Corps Women's Reserve was established in military could contribute to the war effort. But February 1943. Its members were sim¬ many people were against the idea. Despite the ply called women marines. opposition, in May 1941 Representative Edith The WASP (Women Airforce Rogers, of Massachusetts, introduced a bill in Service Pilots) group was established the U.S. House of Representatives to create a in August 1943 but did not have mili¬ women's corps in the army. In May 1942 offi¬ tary status. These women ferried and cials established the Women's Army Auxiliary flight-tested military planes, towed Corps (WAAC), giving women auxiliary but not targets for male pilots to shoot at, military status. Auxiliary status meant that and transported passengers and women did not receive the same pay, legal pro¬ cargo from 1943 to late 1944. Thirty- tection, or benefits as men. Females did get eight of the 1,074 WASP lost their military status when the army disbanded the lives during the war. Because they North Carolina native Ni Wiglesworth (right) and f WAAC and established the Women's Army were considered civilians, they were women marines at Camp Corps (WAC) in July 1943. sent home at the expense of their Lejeune, ca. 1944. Image a of the Nina Johnson Wiglesi Other military branches quickly followed the families. WASP veterans finally Collection. army's lead. In July 1942 Congress established received military status in 1977. the U.S. Navy Women's Reserve, better known A common theme on recruitment by the acronym WAVES (Women Accepted for posters for women was "free a man to fight." Volunteer Emergency Service). In November Although women in the military did not serve

*Hermann /. Trojanowski is assistant university archivist at the University of North Carolina THJH, Spring 2008 at Greensboro. He has interviewed more than 85 women veterans for the Betty H. Carter 15 Women Veterans Historical Project. Access the project's Web site at www.wvhp.org. in World War II had to share a two-person stateroom with 12 combat, their other women. They slept in bunk beds three service in other decks high and shared a small positions bathroom designed for two allowed many people. Everyone slept in their men to fight fatigues, a type of uniform, overseas. and boots, in case they were Women held attacked and had to abandon jobs such as ship quickly. Leonard was sta¬ bakers, clerks, tioned in North Africa and control tower Italy. In 1944, while serving in operators, Italy, she wrote her mother

cooks, cryp¬ asking for candles, cake pans, Lucile Griffin Leonard, tographers, and food coloring, so she September 1943. Image cour¬ tesy of the Lucile Griffin dental techni- could bake birthday cakes for Leonard Collection. I dans, driv¬ the wounded troops.

Dorothy Hoover, of A*,* ers, instruc¬ Daphine Doster Mastroianni, of Monroe, tors, labora¬ served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps from pilots), ,-ye «—* 1- Dorothy Hoover Collection. tory techni¬ 1942 to 1945 as a surgical nurse stationed in cians, New Zealand, Fiji, and mechanics, nurses, parachute riggers, pharma¬ India. While in the South cists, photographers, radiomen, spies, store¬ Pacific, she became friends keepers, X-ray technicians, and more. They with Red Cross worker Joe served all over the United States and some¬ Mastroianni. When the war times in dangerous zones in Europe, North ended, Mastroianni Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. returned to his wife in New Many North Carolina women who served York. Doster returned to during World War II have shared their military Arkansas and later to North experiences through oral history interviews Carolina, remaining single.

conducted for the Betty H. Carter Women Daphine Doster Mastroianni, In 1992, after Mastroianni's Veterans Historical Project based in the ca. 1942. Image courtesy of the wife died, he and Doster Daphine Doster Mastroianni University Archives and Manuscripts depart¬ Collection. reconnected and married. ment at the University of North Carolina at They had seven wonderful Greensboro. Here are just a few of those stories. years together before his 1999 death. Dorothy B. Austell, of Shelby, served as an Lucille Ingram Pauquette, of Greensboro, undercover agent in the WAC from June 1943 joined the Marine Corps Women's Reserve in to July 1946. One of her assignments was to March 1945. She was a postal clerk at Cherry find out why so many of the planes flying from Point Air Station until her discharge in June Bear Field near Fort Wayne, 1946. Pauquette had two brothers and two sis¬ Indiana, to England were crashing. ters who also were in the military during the She caught three men sabotaging war. Her parents were very gas tanks, which would have proud to display five stars in caused the planes to explode in their window, which let midair. To this day, she remains everyone know that they had sworn to secrecy about most of her five children in service. wartime work. Virginia Russell Reavis, of Lucile Griffin Leonard, of Onslow County, was a nurse Sanford, served as an army dieti¬ in the Army Air Force from tian from 1943 to 1945. She recalled 1942 to 1945. In 1943 she the trip across the north Atlantic became an air evacuation Lucille Ingram Pauquette, Dorothy B. Austell, ca. 1943. Ocean on the Louis Pasteur, a nurse and flew with wound¬ October 1945. Image courtesy of Image courtesy of the Dorothy converted British ocean liner. She ed American soldiers and the Lucille Ingram Pauquette B. Austell Collection. Collection.

THJH, Spring 2008 **With the exception of the photo at the top of page 15, all 16 photos illustrating this article are from the Women Veterans Historical Collection, University Archives and Manuscripts, Jackson Library, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. German prisoners of war back to the United the WAVES from November 1943 States from England. One of the most horrible to July 1946 in Classified things that happened during Communications and Personnel. her flying days was when her She recalled being too thin to plane crashed during takeoff. pass the WAVES physical. She ate The plane, hauling gasoline nothing but bananas and milk for General George Patton's shakes for several days to gain Anna Jean Coomes Woods, troops, crashed because of ice weight. Woods did finally join the ca. 1945. Image courtesy of the on its wings. As the plane WAVES, in spite of only gaining Anna Jean Coomes Collection. skidded down the runway, it one pound and becoming sick hit other planes lined up in a from all the bananas and shakes. row, causing them all to catch The women who served during World War II

Virginia Russell Reavis, ca. on fire. Reavis scrambled off faced challenges. Often their parents, other 1943. Image courtesy of the the plane as quickly as possi¬ family members, and friends did not want Virginia Russell Reavis Collection. ble and gave first aid to the them to join the military because of slander crew chief, who was badly and rumor campaigns, which accused women injured and later died. who joined to be of low morals. Many people Davetter Butler Shepard, of Sampson felt women who served in the military would County, served with the WAAC and WAC from not make good mothers. The military often 1943 to 1945. When her treated them like schoolgirls instead of mature neighbors found out she women. Females were was signing up, they held to higher educa¬ accused her of going into tional, moral, and skills the army just to have rela¬ standards than men. tionships with men. Of African American course, such gossip was women faced not only untrue and did not keep gender but race dis¬ her from joining the mili¬ crimination. tary. Shepard was a mem¬ All the women inter¬ ber of all-African American viewed for the Betty H. units at Camp Breckenridge Carter Women Veterans and Fort Knox, Kentucky, Historical Project are where she worked in the proud to have served. motor pool driving a truck that carried sup¬ They joined the mili¬ plies around the base. She recalled sending tary for a number of part of each fifty-dollar monthly paycheck reasons—to work, to home to help the rest of her family. learn new job skills, to WAC Emma Dale Love, of Charlotte A minor) J: ■ — Millie Louise Dunn Veasey, of Raleigh, travel, to better their a ruined budding in France * &*££? mage courtesy of the Emma Dale Love Collection. served in segregated African American units of lives, to earn more the WAAC and WAC from 1942 to 1944 as a money, and to contribute to the war effort. company and supply clerk. She Their time in the military made them remembered that most of the black more self-confident and independent, community at the time disap¬ and it opened up new opportunities. proved of women joining the mili¬ After the war, many former service- tary, but that did not stop her. women took advantage of the GI Bill to When her WAC unit got off the further their educations and enter train in Scotland, some local resi¬ careers that had previously been closed dents had never seen black people, to them. They rightly considered them¬ Veasey recalled, and said, "Look at selves trailblazers and pioneers for the the women in Technicolor." women who later served during the

Anna Jean Coomes Woods, of Millie Dunn Veasey. Image Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf wars, and in western North Carolina, served in courtesy of the Millie Dunn the modern military. Veasey Collection.

THJH, Spring 2008 17 V is N A MENU Vtf.’TH R A T* OK! K £

uring World War H, as part of efforts Gcipden to stretch supplies to support the nation’s military, the fj.£. govern¬ ment issued families ration booKs liKe the one at the right (image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of A CARDEN Mill History). "Ration booKs let people buy limited amounts of some (Above) Posters urged families to items, such as sugar or coffee. How do you thinK this affected plant Victory gardens. Image courtesy of the North Carolina what everyone ate? Museum of History. (Right) First Try planning a menu under these conditions. The chart below graders from North Elementary School in Forsyth County grew shows the prices of common grocery items. £ome items also big radishes in their gardens, ca. require you to 1943. Image courtesy of the State spend a certain Archives, North Carolina Office of Food Prices and Rationing Points Archives and History. from Raleigh's News and Observer. March 1943 number of your family’s ration [ ■ ^ o help stretch Apples: 33 cents per 2 pounds. 20 points Bisquick: 37 cents per box, 18 points points to buy the H food supplies Bread: 10 cents per loaf. 0 points listed amount. JK» on battle front Bugles snacks: 19 cents per box, 5 points Imagine that you and home front, the Butter: 22 cents per pound, 20 points Cake mix: 18 cents per box, 18 points must plan one day government urged people to plant uihat was Cheerios: 14 cents per box, 7 points of meals—-breaK- called a Victory garden. In North Carolina one weeK in February Cheese: 35 cents per pound, 12 points Coca-cola: 5 cents per bottle, 10 points fast, lunch, and 1992 was designated as Victory Garden WeeK, with the slogan Coffee: 24 cents per pound, 42 points dinner—from this ‘Vegetables for Vitality Needed for Victory in the War.” Cookies: 22 cents per box 22 points Com 13 cents per can. 18 points list of food. Your Families, schools, and businesses planted food in yards and Crackers: 19 cents per box. 5 points budget for the empty lots. Businesses sometimes closed early so families could Eggs: 35 cents per dozen, 0 points day is $2, and you go home to worK in their gardens. Canned foods were rationed, Flour: 66 cents per 10 pounds, 18 points Grits: 9 cents per box, 3 points have 98 ration and shipping of vegetables across the CJ.£. was limited to save Ground beef: 27 cents per pound. 0 points points available. gas and rubber. £o people could maKe a big difference in their Jelly: 24 cents per jar, 40 points Lemon juice: 27 cents per bottle, 9 points How difficult diets and save ration points by growing food. They grew as Lunch meat: 33 cents per pound 0 points was it to plan the much as they could to eat in the summer, and revived the old Margarine: 17 cents per pound 2 points Mayonnaise: 20 cents per jar. 0 points meals? How do practice of canning foods and storing them in cellars and Milk (evaporated): 9 cents per can, 1 point your menus com¬ pantries for the winter. During summer 2993, nearly half the Noodles: 5 cents per box, 18 points Orange juice: 19 cents per can. 0 points pare with what food grown in America came from home gardens. By the end of Peanut butter: 25 cents per jar, 9 points you might eat the war, "Raleigh alone had four thousand Victory gardens. Popsicles: 29 cents per box, 22 points Potatoes: 39 cents per 10 pounds. 0 points now in a day? Are In North Carolina in 2999, 28 million quarts of food were Rice: 10 cents per pound 3 points there foods that canned, 30 million pounds of meat cured (from families’ live- Sausage: 35 cents per pound, 0 points you thinK Tar stocK), and 8 million pounds of fruits and vegetables dried for Shrimp: 53 cents per pound 12 points Soup: 9 cents per can, 10 points Heel families ate home use. Spinach: 15 cents per can, 18 points a lot or a little of Would you liKe to try growing a Victory garden? Plants recom¬ Steak: 40 cents per pound 13 points Strawberries: 28 cents per pound 0 points during World War mended included: beans, beets, carrots, peas, radishes, lettuce, Sugar: 31 cents per 5 pounds, 80 points II? How do you spinach, chard, onions, cucumbers, parsley, summer squash, Syrup: 23 cents per jar, 80 points thinK they coped parsnips, leeKs, turnips, cabbage, brusseis sprouts, broccoli, Tomato juice: 10 cents per can, 20 points Tuna: 24 cents per can. 6 points with shortages? peppers, cauliflower, tomatoes, eggplant, endive, and rutabagas.

THjH, Spring 2008 18 1) A leaflet with instructions on what to do during an air raid and a metal helmet issued to Civil Defense volunteers during the war. 2) Women's Army Corps (WAC) members (left to right) Mercedes Jordan, Carrie Hamilton, and Wilmett ave you heard the saying that a • a North Carolinian serving in the mili¬ Grayson of Wake County learning to operate machinery, ca. 1944. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of picture is worth a thousand tary overseas Archives and Histonj. 3) A crowded elementary school in words? Photographs and other • a woman or an African American man Fayetteville in 1941, when Fort Bragg's expansion swelled the population. Image from the Library of Congress, Prints and artifacts can ten us a lot about history. who just enlisted in the military and began Photographs Division, U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of What can you learn by studying the pic¬ training in North Carolina War Information Collection. 4) A1943 doll dressed as an American soldier. 5) A children's book that included stickers tures on this page and their identifying • a child living near the North Carolina for marking battle sites and victories, as well as a page for get¬ ting autographs from service members. 6) Pins worn during information (.righti? What do you still won¬ coast the war to recognize family members in service or member¬ der about each picture? • a child living near one of the state’s ship in the United Service Organizations. 7) A silk map with parts of Europe printed on each side. Aircraft crew members Try using the information from one or major military bases or defense industries often carried such maps for use if shot down in enemy territo¬ more pictures on this page, page 37, or • a volunteer for the Civil Defense or a ry. The cloth made no noise when unfolded and could be wadded up. It could be used to protect the head and neck the bacK cover—along with your creativi¬ group liKe the United Service from sun, or as an emergency sling or bandage. 8) Flight ty and what you learn from reading this Organizations (U£0) or Tied Cross Officer Russell M. Maughans, of Statesville, with his dogs and B-26 Marauder plane the Carolina Clmriot. Maughans served in issue of Ter Heel Junior Historian—as What was daily life liKe before the war? the Ninth Army Air Force's European operations. 9) First you write a one-page journal entry or a What is it liKe now? What challenges do Sergeant Walter Morris prepares to make a jump with the 555th Infantry Battalion, called the "Triple Nickels." The bat¬ short letter. you face? What do you worry about? How talion was the U.S. Army's first African American paratrooper To write this letter or journal entry, do you have fun? unit, activated at Camp Mackall in 1944.10) Plane-spotter cards designed to help citizens recognize the silhouettes of imagine that World War n is under way, For some topics, you may want to do Japanese, Italian, and German aircraft passing overhead. Cards also showed outlines of Allied aircraft. Unless noted, and you are one of the following people: further research' images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

Read and save this leaflet; it may save your life some day! MEET YOUR AIR RAID WARDEN!

Your Air Raid Worden bring* you this leaflet so you may know what he or the can do to help you protect yourself in cose of air raids. Your Warden is your friend. Welcome him—get to know him- He ha■ some advice for you on which your life may depend' Do these things when the Air Raid Warden colls: 1. Have him meet every member of your family. 2. Tell him where you are to be found when you are away from home—where you work. 3. Tell him about any member of the household who ia ill or handi¬ capped. Tell him about all small children. 4. Show him the room you intend to use as a refuge room, ask his suggestions for fitting it up. Follow them—he knowsl 5. Aik him what are the official air raid warning signals, the official “all clear." for your community. ^ t.1- ** jprr 6. Show him your atrie or gorret, ask his suggestions for protecting it against incendiary bombs. Also garages or outbuildings. 7. Show him where go* and electric shut-oS switches are, in all buildings. 8. Ask him to point out good shelter in the neighborhood, should you be caught outdoors in a raid sometime. 9. Answer his questions—trust him; be is a sworn public ofticial. and must know in order to protect you. 10. Carry out his suggestions for storing emergency water, sand, etc., cheerfully and prorap dy. War

Warden’s name is, what he looks like, best friend in an emergency. He can Victor^ your shore in defeating the Japs, Naxis. BATTLEb.

F H. LA GUARDIA, of Civilian Detente.

THJH, Spring 2008 19 POSTERS Help Win the War at Home by Sandy Webbere*

"In the time of war what is said on the enemy's side . . . is always propaganda, and what is said on our side ... is truth and righteousness."

—Walter Lippman (1889-1974), journalist, writer, political commentator

ropaganda relies on the emotions P and beliefs of individual people to control popular opinion. Before World War I, President Woodrow Wilson used posters to convince Americans to enter the war on the side of the British. It was during this period (1917-1918) that posters became a vital tool to achieve a national goal—winning a war! World War II will be remembered for many things, including all the different battle fronts, bombs, and bombers like the Enola Gay, This is the Enenuj which dropped the first atomic bomb on WINNER R. HOE & CO., INC. AWARD - NATIONAL WAR ROSTER COMPETITION / Make \ Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. HEU) UNDER AUSPICES OF ARTISTS FOR VICTORT, INC.-COUNCIl FOR OEMOCRACT- NOSEUM OF NOOERA ART •* your own \ In North Carolina and across America, (Above) This award-winning 1942 poster alerted Americans to the presence poster about • another important battle was waged through of their enemy. (Below) Many World War II posters reflected women's rationing, • changing roles. Images courtesy of the University of North Texas Libraries. the use of propaganda posters. Posters women J oining : the war effort, • provided the psychological ammunition need¬ and children were happy to "make do or do or another ; ed to convince Americans that the war was without." They volunteered, recycled, and con¬ theme feted / right, and their side would (and should) win. tributed to the effort to win the war. Posters' ’• in this arti- .* But the line between truth and propaganda messages linked the military front with the clef / • • could be a fine one. Both sides—the Allied (the home front, using some common themes.

"good") and the Axis (the "evil") powers— manipulated public opinion in order to keep Women Mobilized—We Can Do It! up enthusiasm and morale at home and Before World War II, most American women convince everyone of their responsibilities to were housewives who stayed at home after help the soldiers overseas. they got married. When the men went off to By June 1942 the federal govern¬ war, massive labor shortages result¬ ment of the United States, private ed. Posters glorified and glamor¬ industry, and communities were ized women doing their part in the producing posters. President factory, office, and military, a major Franklin Roosevelt created the component in the Allies' victory. Office of War Information (OWI) to distribute posters to every Because You Talked—Keep Quiet! American post office, school, The government alerted citizens to library, store, restaurant, and rail¬ the presence of enemy spies: road station. "Words are ammunition." Posters were distributed at the Americans felt that the enemy was beginning of each month. Adults everywhere and would be listening

TH)H, Spring 2008 *Sandy Webbere is an associate curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. Her 20 specialties include the home front during America's wars, the Revolutionary War period, celebrations, recreation, and other topics. a to their conver¬ J* HAT WAS THAT TERM? Allied powers is the name given to the sations about ft troop locations . World War n alliance of countries includ- t-T ing the United States, Britain, France, and movements. Af Australia, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Posters warned x Union, Canada, and Greece who opposed everyone that the Axis powers. their loved one £ The Axis powers consisted primarily of ft might end up A Germany, Italy, and Japan. being killed if w they started ^ Morale means a sense of common purpose; a or enthusiasm, loyalty, and confidence rumors. The ^ about a task at hand. gold star in the ft , . .1 3 Another common poster theme was to not vy President Franklin Roosevelt was the thin pu&lcl IU give away military secrets. Image courtesy of ty-second president of the United States right indicates fhe University of North Texas Libraries. U and the only one elected to four terms. He the death of a jy served from 1933 until his sudden death sailor, as a result of someone's "careless talk." j% on April 12, 1945. Roosevelt is credited with the economic recovery from the ft Great Depression in the 1930s, and during Reaching Out to Meet the Needs a World War n he provided leadership Posters informed diligent citizens that, against the Axis powers. through recycling efforts, the lives of their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers would /y Propaganda is the spreading of particular a ideas, information, or rumors to help or be saved. Children collected scrap metal, toys, hurt a cause, person, or institution. bicycles, and paper to be transformed into jeeps, tanks, planes, and other needs. They even collected cooking fat to be used in mak¬ ing bombs! fully volunteered, supported rationing, col¬ lected scrap metal, or worked in factories. Rationing—"Don't you know there's Inexpensive to produce and ever-present, a war on?" posters appealed to patriotism and made Posters reminded everyone that the military common war goals everyone's business. got first priority on sup¬ plies. Throughout the United States, shortages and rationing became Afe travel? part of daily life. People received only three gal¬ lons of gasoline for their cars per week! For most of the war, no American cars or tires were pro¬ duced for the home front. Everything made was sent to the battle front. American posters won the hearts, minds, and support of people on the home front and made World War II everybody's Posters reminded civilians about the need to con¬ war. Each poster had an serve supplies such as gasoline (above) and to col¬ important message. lect materials that could be reused to make mili¬ tary products (left). They stressed that the mili¬ Across the country, tary needed supplies worse than those on the young and old success¬ home front. Images courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History.

THJH, Spring 2008 21 ARQUNA’S BEACHES

US

_after two o'clock in the During World War I, three U-boats sank ten morning on Monday, January 19, ships off the Tar Heel coast in what primarily 1942, an earthquake-like rumble was considered a demonstration of German tossed fifteen-year-old Gibb Gray naval power. But by 1942, U-boats had ►from his bed. Furniture shook, become bigger, faster, and more deadly. Their glass and knickknacksVrattled, and books fell presence in American waters was not intend¬ from shelves as a thundering roar vibrated ed for "show" but to help win World War II through the walls of thcAhouses in Gibb's for Germany. Outer Banks village of Avon. Surprised and The abbreviated name "U-boat" comes concerned, Gibb's father rushed to the win¬ from the German word unterseeboot, meaning dows on the house's east side and looked submarine or undersea boat. However, U- toward the ocean. "There's a fire out there!" boats were not true submarines. They were he shouted to his family. Clearly visible on the warships that spent most of their time on the horizon, a great orange fireball had erupted. A surface. They could submerge only for limited towering column of black smoke blotted out periods—mostly to attack or evade detection the stars and further darkened the night sky. by enemy ships, and to avoid bad weather. U- Only seven miles away, a German U-boat boats could only travel about sixty miles had just torpedoed the 337-foot-long U.S. underwater before having to surface for fresh freighter. City of air. They often attacked ships while on the Atlanta, sinking the surface using deck-mounted guns. Typically, ship and killing all about 50 men operated a U-boat. The boats but three of the 47 carried fifteen torpedoes, or self-propelled men aboard. The "bombs," which ranged up to twenty-two feet same U-boat long and could travel thirty miles per hour. attacked two more Experts have described German U-boats as ships just hours among the most effective and seaworthy war¬ later. Less than six ships ever designed. weeks after the Within hours of the U-boat attack near Japanese bombing Avon, debris and oil began washing up on the of Pearl Harbor, the beaches. This scene seemed to be repeated hostilities of the constantly. For the next six months, along the Second World War East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, at least had arrived on sixty-five different German U-boats attacked America's East American and British merchant ships carrying Coast and North vital supplies to the Allies in Europe—cargos Carolina's beaches. of oil, gasoline, raw vegetables and citrus This was not the products, lumber and steel, aluminum for air¬ first time that craft construction, rubber for tires, and cotton

German U-boat U-123 attacked three ships— German U-boats for clothing. By July of 1942, 397 ships had been sunk or damaged. More than 5,000 peo¬ island on January 19, 1942. Ima '""7°*yff of ?f Kevineras had come to United States waters. ple had been killed.

TH]H, Spring 2008 “Kevin P. Duffus is an author and documentary filmmaker who specializes in North 22 Carolina maritime history. He lectures for the North Carolina Humanities Council on topics including World War II along the state's coast. (Above) "We'd hear these explosions most any time of the day or night, and it would shake the houses," one Outer Banks resi¬ dent remembered about the U-boat attacks during World War II. Ships like the eight- thousand-ton oil tanker Dixie Arroio (left) fell victim. German U-boat U-71 torpe¬ doed the tanker at 9 a.m. on March 26, 1942, about ten miles from Ocracoke Inlet. Images courtesy of Kevin P. Duff is.

The greatest concentration of U-boat attacks boat one day when they nearly rammed a U- happened off North Carolina's Outer Banks, boat, which was rising to the surface directly where dozens of ships passed daily. So many in front of them. The elder Stowe's eyesight ships were attacked that, in time, the waters was not very good. He told his son, who was near Cape Hatteras earned a nickname: steering their boat, to keep on going—he "Torpedo Junction." U.S. military and govern¬ thought the vessel ahead was just another ment authorities didn't want people to worry, fishing boat. "I said, 'Dad, that is a German so news reports of enemy U-boats near the submarine!' And it sure was," Stowe recalled. coast were classified, or held back from the "He finally listened to me, and we turned public for national security reasons. For many around and got out of there just in time." years, most people had no idea how bad The war cut back on one favorite summer things really were. But families living on the pastime for Outer Banks young people. "That Outer Banks knew—they were practically in summer we had to almost give up swimming the war. in the ocean—it was just full of oil, you'd get "We'd hear these explosions most any time it all over you," Mrs. Ormond Fuller recalled of the day or night and it would shake the of the oil spilled by torpedoed tankers. Gibb houses and sometimes crack the walls," Gray remembered the oil, too: "We'd step in it remembered Blanche Jolliff, of Ocracoke vil¬ before we knew it, and we'd be five or six lage. Even though ships were being torpe¬ inches deep. We'd have to scrub our feet and doed by enemy U-boats almost every day, just legs with rags soaked in kerosene. It's hard to a few miles away, coastal residents had no get off, that oil." It is estimated that 150 mil¬ choice but to live as normally as possible. "We lion gallons of oil sort of got used to hearing it," Gibb Gray spilled into the sea said. "The explosions were mostly in the dis¬ and on the beaches tance, so we weren't too scared. I remember along the Outer we were walking to school one day, and the Banks during 1942. whole ground shook. We looked toward the Some local resi¬ ocean, just beyond the Cape Hatteras light¬ dents thought house, and there was another huge cloud of Germans might try smoke. That was the oil tanker, Dixie Arrow." to sneak ashore. Some Outer Bankers came closer to the war Others suspected than they would have preferred. Teenager strangers of being A-29 bomber planes like this one began to help Charles Stowe, of Hatteras, and his father watch over ships off the Tar Heel coast because of spies for the enemy. the U-boat threat. Image courtesy of Kevin P. Duff is.

were headed out to sea aboard their fishing "We were fright- M THJH, Spring 2008 ened to death. We locked our doors at The military set up top-secret sub¬ night for the first time ever," said q marine listening and tracking Ocracoke's Blanche Styron. Calvin facilities at places like Ocracoke to O'Neal remembered strangers with detect passing U-boats. unusual accents who stayed at an Many people who lived along Ocracoke hotel during the war: “The l the coast during World War II rumor was they were spies, and the remember having to turn off their hotel owner's daughter and I decided Maude White, villagem post¬ house lights at night and having mistress at Buxton, was a U.S. to be counterspies, and we tried our Navy secret coast watcher. She to put black tape over their car best to follow them around, but we was responsible for observing headlights, so that lights on shore "unusual activities" and report¬ never caught them doing anything ing them to the Coast Guard. would not help the Germans find suspicious." Image courtesy of Kevin P. Duffus. their way in the darkness. Even At Buxton, Maude White was the so, the government did not order village postmistress and a secret coast watch¬ a general blackout until August 1942. By then, er for the U.S. Navy. She was responsible for most of the attacks had ended. observing unusual activities and reporting On April 14, 1942, the first German U-boat them to the local Coast Guard. In 1942 one fought by the American navy in U.S. waters couple with German accents attracted atten¬ was sunk sixteen miles southeast of Nags tion by drawing maps and taking notes about Head. Within the next couple of months, three the island. White became suspicious, and so more U-boats were sunk along the North did her daughter, who would follow the pair Carolina coast: one by a U.S. Army Air Corps from a distance—riding her beach pony. After bomber, one by a U.S. Coast Guard patrol being reported by White, the strangers were ship, and one by a U.S. Navy destroyer. North apprehended when they crossed Oregon Inlet Carolina's.total of four sunken U-boats repre¬ on the ferry. Records fail to indicate whether sents the most of any state. By that July, the or not the strangers really were spies, but commander of Germany's U-boats became White's daughter became the inspiration for discouraged. He redirected his remaining the heroine in author Nell Wise Wechter's warships to the northern Atlantic Ocean and book Taffi/ of Torpedo Junction. Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, Germany Slowly but surely, increased patrols by the considered its attacks against the United U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, and States a success, even if they failed to win the planes of the Army Air Corps, began to pre¬ war. Gerhard Weinberg, a professor of history vent the U-boat attacks. Blimps from a station at the University of North Carolina at Chapel at Elizabeth City searched for U-boats from Hill, has since called the war zone off the U.S. high above, while private yachts and sailboats coast in 1942 “the greatest single defeat ever with two-way radios were sent out into the suffered by American naval power." ocean to patrol and harass German warships. As the years have passed, most of the phys¬ ical evidence of World War II U-boat encoun¬ ters off North Carolina's coast has vanished. Submerged off the state's beaches are the remains of at least 60 ships and countless unexploded torpedoes, depth charges, and contact mines. Even today, small patches of blackened sand offer reminders of the mas¬ sive oil spills of 1942. On Ocracoke Island and at Cape Hatteras, cemeteries contain the graves of six British sailors who perished in North Carolina's waters. Many people living in the state don't know about the time when war came so close. But older Tar Heels who lived on the coast back then remember. In A U.S. Navy blimp flies over a convoy of ships to protect it from fact, they would love to tell you about it. German U-boats. Image courtesy of Stephen D. Chalker.

24 TH/H, Spring 2008 A QUICK LOOK Blimpt over Elisabeth City by Stephen D. Chalker*

efore the United States entered World War n in of blimp operations, this number dropped to one ship every two ^December 2942, only one lighter-than-air—or blimp- and one half months, and these were lost while not being protect¬ S base existed on the East Coast, in Lakehurst, New ed by blimps. In the bigger picture, blimps around the United Jersey. With the growing possibility of war with £tates escorted 89,000 ships during the war, and not one was lost Germany, however, the U-S- Navy already had begun to the enemy while under their protection. to seriously iook at its defensive capabilities. High on the list was After the war, Weeksvine remained in limited use until mid- the protection of shipping and harbors. At the time—in an age 2957, with blimps and an early helicopter anti-submarine squadron before helicopters—the best vehicle to do this job was the blimp. calling it home. Another interesting use of the blimps in the area The blimp could hover, fiy slowly with convoys for extended peri¬ was to look for moonshine stills! Crews, though, said they would ods, and carry the sensors and weapons needed to detect and rather look for submarines. Why? £ubmarines didn’t shoot at them. destroy German submarines. Blimps operating from a base in north¬ The navy kept a small staff on the base until the federal gov¬ eastern North Carolina would be able to protect ships from the ernment sold it to the £tate of North Carolina in 2964. (Weeksvine Delaware Bay to mid-£outh Carolina, including in the important was used as a test site for things like communication satellites and Hampton "Roads and Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia. £o officials NA£A projects.) In 2966 Westinghouse Electric bought the facility, decided to build a new base-. Weeksvine Naval Air £tation outside using the base and hangars for storage and later as a place to of Elizabeth City. build cabinets. TCOM was formed in 1971 as a subsidiary of When completed, Weeksville covered 822 acres. It had ten miles Westinghouse in of railroad tracks, a steel hangar with space for twelve navy “K” Baltimore, ship blimps, and housing for 700 enlisted personnel and 150 offi¬ Maryland, for cers. It cost more than $6 million. A second hangar was completed building and on July 25,2943; this was the first of seventeen such wooden installing teth¬ hangars built in the United £tates during World War II. The first ered communiCc blimp squadron, called a ZP or Airship Patrol, stationed at tions (and later Weeksvine was ZP-24, established June 2,2992. surveillance) sys During World War n, blimps from Weeksvine escorted ship con¬ terns using voys off the coast and did search and rescue work, often hovering unmanned, and lowering emergency equipment. The workhorse of the ZP unpowered teth squadrons was the “K,” or “King,” blimp. These nonrigid airships— ered balloons— with no internal frame, unlike dirigibles, such as the Hindenburg, basically low-fiyi Shenandoah, and Macon—were 252 feet long, and could carry a communication crew of up to 28. The blimps were armed with fifty-caliber satellites for de.„, (Above) A typical U.S. Navy blimp crew. On a typical mission, machine guns and depth charges for antisubmarine work. The K oping countries. the crew would fly for twelve to fifteen hours at a time. Blimps ship had endurance at cruising speed (sixty miles per hour) of over TCOM, and several had beds and cooking facilities. (Below, left) World War II blimps in a hangar at Weeksville Naval Air Station. Each was thirty-eight hours and a range of twenty-two hundred miles, mak¬ airship companies 252 feet long, almost as long as a football field. Images courtesy ing it ideal for convoy escort duties. £quadrons generally had six K leasing space, used of Stephen D. Chalker. ships and several smaller training blimps. the wooden hangar On June 20,2944, the navy transferred squadron ZP-24 to until August 2995, when a spark from a welder’s torch turned the French Morocco in North Africa, and it made the first transat¬ world’s largest wooden structure into its largest bonfire. lantic flights by blimps. £quadron ZP-24 replaced ZP-24 at TCOM moved into the steel hangar, converting it back into a Weeksvine and contin¬ blimp facility from a furniture factory. Today with the suspended ued patrols until the end ceiling removed, the 460-ton doors operating again, and the roof of World War H, when it refurbished, this grand old lady of lighter-than-air is back in busi¬ was disbanded. "Records ness. Along with TCOM, Airship Management £ervices Inc. has show that before blimp moved onto the former base, building and servicing the largest operations began, one blimps flying in the United £tates. Every blimp operator in the ship was lost to German United £tates except Goodyear, which has its own hangars, uses submarines off the coast TCOM’s hangar for servicing and building blimps. £eventy-eight of North Carolina every years later, blimps still fiy over Elizabeth City! other day. With the start

*Stephen D. Chalker is a logistics operations coordinator at TCOM, LP, in Elizabeth City. He has an THJH, Spring 2008 extensive collection of photographs and artifacts related to the Weeksville Naval Air Station, which he has 25 heavily researched and is writing a book about. Chalker has assisted zvith exhibitions for sites that include the Museum of the Albemarle. Visit www.elizcity.com/weeksnas/to learn more. Enemies and Friends: POWS in the Tar Heel State by Dr. Robert D. Bi/linger Jr. * L

W' VB hey were not from the Tar Heel AA M ^State. They spoke foreign languages and wore different uniforms from those of the American military They had names that sounded strange to Tar Heel ears. They were among the thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) who spent time in North Carolina during World War II. Farm kids sometimes saw foreign prisoners helping with their fathers' peanut harvests, picking cotton on a neighboring farm, or cut¬ ting pulpwood in the woods nearby. Attending a baseball game in Charlotte or sitting in a restaurant or movie theater in Monroe, North Carolinians might encounter Italian-speaking members of Italian Service Units—former Crew members of the German U-352, captured in May 1942 off the North POWs who had taken an oath of alliance to the Carolina coast after the U.S. Coast Guard sank their vessel, became pris¬ new anti-German government in oners of war held at Fort Bragg. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Italy and gotten American uniforms and day passes to see Sicily, Italy, in July 1943, and held as a POW at the local sights. Camp Butner. Max Reiter, a fellow prisoner at Who were these foreign Camp Butner, had been a member of the strangers? Each had his own Waffen-SS (the German Nazi Party's own interesting story. For example, armed military unit) and was wounded and Heinrich Bollmann—a POW at captured in Normandy, France, in June 1944. the camp at Fort Bragg—was res¬ They all came to North Carolina as enemies cued from the U-352 sunk by the of the United States, but many later left as U.S. Coast Guard off the North long-term friends of Americans and one another. Carolina coast in May 1942. Because of the relative secrecy of the army's Giuseppe Pagliarulo—a soldier of POW program, few people—other than the 's army cap¬ guards who ran the camps and the civilian tured in Tunisia, Africa, in May employers who “leased" the services of POWs 1943—later trained as a member from the military—even knew about the POWs of an Italian Service Unit at in the Tar Heel State. Today many people still An Italian Service Unit member learn¬ ing to be a lineman at Camp Sutton, Camp Sutton in Monroe. are not aware that there were thousands of war which included a major prisoner of Matthias Buschheuer—a POW war camp. Image courtesy of Edith Long. prisoners held here. of Indian Trail. at Camp Sutton—was a veteran Some of the first prisoners to arrive in the of Erwin Rommel's Afrika United States were Italians. By the end of 1943, Korps, also captured in Tunisia, Africa, in May nearly 50,000 Italian POWs were held in 27 1943. Fritz Teichmann was a member of the camps in 23 states, including North Carolina. German Fuftwaffe (air corps), captured in Camp Butner was one of the major barbed-

THJH, Spring 2008 *Dr. Robert D. Billinger ]r. is the Ruth Davis Horton Professor of History at Wingate 26 University. The University Press of Florida has just published his book Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State. wire-encircled camps, with about 3,000 Italian wartime American press described then I. POWs. After the collapse of Mussolini's regime For all of them to be "Nazis," they in September 1943, the new Italian government would have had to be loyal supporters had allied itself with the United States. The of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist next March, the American army created Italian German Workers Party. In fact, not all Service Units (ISUs) of approximately 30,000 the "Germans" were even Germans, let Italian POWs who were willing to take an oath alone "Nazis." Camp Butner's "nation¬ of allegiance to the new Italian alities" compound at one point held government and serve as non- 332 Czechs, 150 Poles, 147 Dutchmen, A Camp Sutton Christmas combatant auxiliaries to 117 Frenchmen, 34 Austrians, 11 pamphlet from 1945. The cam, had an art studio for prisoned American forces. About 3,500 of Fuxembourgers, and 1 Lithuanian— f war. Image courtesy ofMalco, these ISU men came to Camp men captured wearing German uni¬ nvette, of Gainesville, Florida. Sutton in Monroe in spring 1944 forms but forced to fight by German for special training at the army oppressors. (Earlier there had been Russians engineer facility. Other than Pine and even Mongolians.) While Hitler did attract Camp in New York State, Camp many non-German volunteers to his armies, Sutton held the largest number some "volunteers" had been coerced. Once of ISU men at that time. While at captured, a number of them revealed their anti- Camp Sutton, the men received Nazi feelings and proclaimed their desire to American training and uni¬ aid the Allies. These prisoners were separated forms. They were allowed to from other German uniform-wearing comrades leave the base, and one can because they declared themselves loyal to their imagine how their presence respective national governments in exile. aroused local people's interest. Within the larger North Carolina POW camp The Italian Service Units in system, there were real German soldiers who the Monroe area attracted posi¬ were anti-Nazi, too. For example, the Nazis tive attention from the press and had condemned Friedrich Wilhelm Hahn, a the public in ways that the former member of the Waffen-SS, to two years German POW presence throughout the state of imprisonment in the concentration camp at did not. The Germans, as POWs, were not Dachau for "showing favoritism to Jews and allowed outside American military camps political prisoners." Later "rehabilitated," unless closely supervised on work details Hahn returned to a regular German military approved by the military. At the end of the war in WHERE THE ROWS WERE Europe, in May 1945, there were 378,000 German prison¬ ers of war held in 155 base camps and 511 branch camps in forty-six of the forty-eight states. North Carolina had 2 major POW base camps: spe¬ cially barbed-wire-enclosed camps within the larger American military bases at Camp Butner and at Fort Bragg. Each of these held Locations of German POW Camps between 2,000 and 3,000 in North Carolina During World War II German POWs. There were also 16 smaller branch camps 1. Fort Bragg (Fayetteville) 7. Williamston 13. Hendersonville 2. Camp Butner (Butner) 8. Hew Bern 14. Moore General Hospital (Swannanoa) across the state, each with 250 3. Camp Mackall (Hoffman) 9. Scotland Heck 15. Whiteville 4. Camp Davis (Holly Ridge) 10. Seymour Johnson Field (Goldsboro) 16. Greensboro to 350 Germans, so that North 5. Camp Sutton (Monroe) 11. Ahoskie 17. (demon Carolina held a total of some 6. Wilmington 12. Winston-Salem 18. Roanoke Rapids

10,000 "Nazi" soldiers, as the The locations of German prisoner of war camps in North Carolina during World War II. Image courtesy of Dr. Robert D. Billinger Jr.

THJH, Spring 2008 ^ unit and was captured by American forces. He during the final became a prisoner at Camp Mackall. Nikolaus months of Ziegelbauer, a POW in the camp at Ahoskie, was World War II, another victim of Nazi "justice." A German with the libera¬ political opponent of the Nazis, he had spent tion of concen¬ time in concentration camps before being tration camps "allowed" to join the German army. and POW P POWs in North Carolina worked on military * camps m bases, on local farms, and in agricultural indus¬ Germany. The tries—especially pulpwood harvesting—when harsh treat¬ civilian labor was not available. They largely ment of con¬ went unnoticed. Of course, farmers who con¬ centration tracted with the American military for laborers camp courtesy of the North Carolina M, 1'^ this one-1mage ' Camp Sutton POWs repairine tTT °f H‘St°^ (Below left) knew of the German presence, but otherwise the inmates and !mage C°UrteSy °fMth ^ of^jraU ** Unif°rm ' federal government kept the POWs a relative some POWs secret. One may look in vain for the rare in German hands—compared to what wartime newspaper story about German POWs seemed, to some people, to be in the state. Occasionally there was an FBI notice "coddling" of German POWs in America— of an escape or a story about the recapture of aroused a major public outcry in the spring of escaped POWs, but not if the military could cap¬ 1945. Though Germany abided by Geneva ture the escapee without public knowledge. Convention rules for the most part when it came Newspaper coverage and public knowledge to POWs, it took the U.S. Army several months were intentionally limited until the end of the to convince a congressional committee, the war, to uphold the Geneva Convention. Many press, and the public that the treatment of POWs countries, including the United States and in the United States followed that same treaty Germany, had signed that international treaty in and had saved the lives of American servicemen 1929. It was designed to ensure safe and fair in German hands. treatment for captured troops. One of its provi¬ By the spring of 1946, the final POWs had left sions was that prisoners of war not be subjected North Carolina and American shores. More than to public half of them spent another year or two as pris¬ ridicule. Another oners in England or France, helping to restore provision was those war-torn countries. But many former that POWs POWs returned to their native countries with should be good feelings toward America. Over the last housed, fed, and several decades, the author of this article has clothed in the talked with many former German POWs who same manner as spent time in North Carolina and other states, the troops of the meeting only a handful with negative feelings nation that held about their time in America. They generally them captive. were treated well and met with inherent friend¬ Though there liness from their guards and civilian agricultural were a total of employers. Since the end of the war, many twenty-nine POWs, including Max Reiter, have visited North escape attempts Carolina and been well received. * • from North Why not? In a newspaper article in November Carolina POW 1945, the state director of the War Manpower camps, only one Commission said that the POWs had performed was "successful." In 1953 Kurt Rossmeisl—a nearly two million man-days of labor in North Camp Butner escapee from the war years— Carolina's agricultural and other rural indus¬ turned himself in to the FBI in Cincinnati. tries. Many "Nazi" and "Fascist" POWs turned The attentive general public only learned of out to be useful home front workers. Some even the German POW presence in the United States became lifelong Tar Heel friends.

28 THIH, Spring 2008 A QUICK LOOK Hospital Cars Rode the Rails by Larry K. Neal Jr. *

uring World War n, the CJ.£. Army had a series of railroad passenger cars built to carry wound- _ed soldiers from hospital ships to military hospi¬ tals across the United States. Instead of regular seats or sleeping rooms, these cars used bunKs to transport the troops. The bunKs allowed easier loading and unloading of litters, or stretchers. The history of these cars, though, actually begins during the American Civil War. Many consider the Civil War the first modern war, because of weapon and technology advancements. As battle casualties mounted, U-S- Army leaders looKed for better ways to move injured soldiers to area hospitals. Hospital cars were construct¬

ed from existing railroad passenger cars, with bunKs replacing (Above and below) The exterior of the U.S. Army Hospital Unit Car at the North seats. Because of rough tracKs and poor construction meth¬ Carolina Transportation Museum was restored in 1996, and the interior was completed in November 2007, due in part to a North American Railway ods, the ride in these hospital cars included plenty of jolting Foundation grant. Museum volunteers led by Jeanne Morse did most of the and jostling, causing more pain to the wounded soldiers. The restoration work. John Bechtel, master mechanic for the museum, helped com¬ plete it. Images courtesy of the North Carolina Transportation Museum. hospital cars operated as part of dedicated trains, complete with a boxcar to provide meals. This style of car could handle the 30,000 wounded soldiers pro¬ During World War I, the unit car was developed. jected to return to the United States each month in 1999 and This car contained a Kitchen and a ward section for patients. 1995. Officials developed a new design in 1995, authorized it in Most of these cars operated overseas, moving wounded sol¬ 1999, and built it in 2995. Each of these new hospital unit cars diers from the battlefield to hospital ships headed bacK to the included a full Kitchen, a receiving area with side doors facing CJnited States. These cars operated in hospital trains staffed each other, a pharmacy area, room for 36 patients (including a by American Tied Cross doctors and nurses. six-bunK mental ward), two small rooms for doctors and nurses, At the beginning of World War n, the U-£- Army had three a bathroom, and a sterilization room for medical instruments. types of hospital cars; ward cars, ward dressing cars (which The first order for one hundred cars was placed in late 2999, included a small surgery area), and Kitchen cars able to feed up with delivery in early 2995. Another order of a hundred cars, to 500 people. These cars operated out of New YorK, New numbered 89900-89999, was delivered between May and August YorK; Hampton "Roads, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; 2995. The North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer New Orleans, Louisiana; and £an Francisco, California. The has U-S- Army Hospital Unit Car 89980 on display in its Robert trains operated as one unit, with hospital cars moving from Julian Roundhouse. port to hospital. The train out of Hampton "Roads often ran The military used hospital railroad cars again during the through North Carolina on its way to hospitals in Tennessee. Korean War, between 2950 and 2952. Several were used in hospi¬ Walter Freeze, a veteran from China Grove, remembers tal train service out of the Korean port of Pusan. The car cur¬ riding the hospital train from Hampton Roads rently displayed at the museum may have been through North Carolina to a hospital in part of this service, because it has tie-down Memphis, Tennessee, during 1995. Freeze was rings underneath it that would be used to wounded in Europe, treated, and placed on a secure it to ships. hospital ship bound for the CJnited States, The army surpiused and sold all the hospital then onto a hospital train operated by the cars during the 297os. The North Carolina 2329th Service Command Unit, Third Service Transportation Museum got its car in 2980 Command Casualty Trains. Freeze could see with the help of Dr. D- E- Ward and the North his hometown from the train, but he was not Carolina Medical Society, which helped raise allowed to leave the train to see his family and money to buy it from Mutual Distributing friends. He later returned to China Grove, Company of "Raleigh. The museum and its foun¬ where he lives today. dation are proud to open to the public one of The surgeon general in charge of the CJ-S- the few restored U-£- Army Hospital Cars— Army Medical Department wanted a return to preserving a part of World War n history vital the unit car design used during World War j. to the welfare of returning American troops.

* Larry K. Neal Jr. is the manager of visitor services at the North Carolina THJH, Spring 2008 Transportation Museum in Spencer. To learn more about the museum and its 29 offerings, access www.nctrans.org. 'HUp’fvo rw 'UbtysAs /U)***e*, & C'Ctxh' (/o+rf/i+$*&€’'%(> ^5U- (/&**&€' by Jennifer Biser*

^palking out onto the top deck of to his bunk and quickly scribbled out a letter to Kf. ;B-n & his aircraft carrier on a warm his friend W. B. Keziah in Southport, telling | vBV morning in summer 1945, him about the plane. He wrote, "The next time W Ensign Billy Bragaw breathed you are over in Whiteville and should see any Wr w deeply the salty air of the of these worthy ladies of the Junior Woman's Pacific Ocean. Closing his eyes, for a moment Club, I wish that you would express to them he felt as if he were back among the salt my personal thanks. Tell them that this plane, marshes of his Southport home. Returning to which they bought, is the last word in carrier reality, Bragaw stood back as a small fighters." fighter plane landed and taxied Bragaw knew that women at along a deck full of fighter home were working hard Ufye planes in Admiral William for the war, but it had Halsey's fleet. The plane NORTH CAROLINA never affected him so per- was a Hellcat Fighter like the one Bragaw CLUBWOM ANK MINUTE MAIDS had flown on his last attention to the mission. Bragaw rec¬ plaques affixed to ognized his squadron numerous ships, leader crawling out bombers, and planes. from the plane. If he had, he might Pointing to the have seen that in plaque just forward raising money for the of the cockpit, the war by selling war squadron leader said, bonds, the women of "I thought we'd let the General Federation you fly this one, since of Women's Clubs of it's from the ladies of North Carolina (GFWC- North Carolina." NC) had added nearly fifty Miaote Maids of the Cm as boro Junior Woman'* Club, wrarinj coalurno of previous wars, use an antiquated car as a mubilo Bragaw read the inscrip¬ bond booth to popularize their slogan, “Don’t Be a Bach Number—Buy War Bonds.” bombers and fighters to tion on the small, shiny February, 1944 War Service Number the navy's fleet, as well as plaque: "This aircraft funded an army Members of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of North Carolina made was bought through major home front contributions, including creative war bond sales campaigns. hospital ship, the an equal amount in Image courtesy of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of North Carolina. LflVkspUT By SUppOft war bonds purchased ing and equipping the by the Junior Woman's Club of Whiteville, United States military. North Carolina club North Carolina." As part of the nationwide women played a role in winning World War II. Sixth War Loan Drive, the Whiteville Junior During the war years, women contributed to Woman's Club had sold $99,345.55 in war morale and to the Allied cause in a number of bonds, an amount that more than covered the ways. Many served in the military's auxiliary cost of production of the Hellcat Fighter. units for women, such as the Navy WAVES A smile crept over Bragaw's face as his mind (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency drifted again, this time to Whiteville. Last time Service). Actresses in Hollywood and female he had been home, he had driven there to musicians volunteered and took their shows on attend a dance. Now, with only minutes to the road, entertaining troops. When the draft spare before his next mission, Bragaw ran back hit professional baseball by taking the most

THjH, Spring 2008 Jennifer Biser graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with a B.A. in histon/. 30 She won the 2006 North Carolina Museum of History student essay contest for her honors thesis on the GFVVC- NC during World War II. Currently, Biser is volunteering with the Christian Appalachian Project in eastern Kentucky. She plans to pursue a master of arts in teaching and teach high school social studies. Organized in Mew York City in 1890, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) united individual women's clubs across the nation in order to better promote education, philanthropy, public welfare, moral values, civics, and fine arts. Diming World War H the GFWC included 2 million women in 16,000 clubs from the forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska. At that time, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Carolina (GFWC-NC), established in 1902, had 314 clubs representing 10,887 Tar Heel women.

Like women's clubs, schools mounted bond-selling campaigns. Students at Laurel Hill School in Scotland County sold enough bonds during 1943-1944 to pay for three talented athletes into military service, women Fairchild PT-19s like this one. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. began to play softball professionally. Across the country, women traded their skirts and purses Carolina clubs saw these nationwide drives as for trousers and tool aprons. They swapped a perfect chance to mobilize their members. their rural homes for city dwellings, going to During the Third War Loan Drive, the North work in factories and assembling things like Carolina federation aimed to raise $360,000. ships and planes. Such women got the nick¬ This amount would equip an entire regiment, name of . or approximately 3,000 soldiers. Clubs across Members of the General Federation of the state not only met that mark, they doubled Women's Clubs of North Carolina (GFWC-NC) it, selling enough bonds to equip two regi¬ were another group working for the war. Clubs ments. The Fourth War Loan Drive became across the state—such as the North Carolina known as the "Buy a Bomber" campaign. Sorosis in Wilmington, the Raleigh Woman's North Carolina club women raised money for Club, and the Whiteville Junior Woman's twenty-four bombers during this drive. A few Club—participated in a range of programs con¬ months later, during the Fifth War Loan Drive, tributing to national defense. Their most com¬ the GFWC-NC partnered with two sister mon projects included sponsoring activities to organizations, the North Carolina Federation of boost soldier morale, such as hosting dinners Flome Demonstration Clubs and the North and dances; volunteering in Red Cross sewing Carolina Nurses Association, to raise $4,040,000 rooms, knitting sweaters and making bandag¬ to fund and equip a hospital ship. After es; and selling war bonds to finance the fight. exceeding the goal for the drive by over $1 mil¬ Efforts to sell U.S. war bonds and stamps lion, the federation "bought and supplied" the were by far the most extensive and significant ship Larkspur, one of eighteen ships in the U.S. work of the GFWC-NC clubs. The costs associ¬ Army's hospital fleet. ated with World War II were so high that the Even after this tremendous gift, club mem¬ federal government had to borrow money from bers continued to finance the fighting. During the public. The U.S. Treasury did this by selling the Sixth War Loan Drive, the Whiteville group war bonds and stamps. A person could buy the purchased the Hellcat Fighter piloted by most popular Series E bond for $18.75. Ten Bragaw as part of a larger campaign: "Air years later, the Treasury paid the investor $25 Armada for Our Navy." By the end of the war, when the bond matured. Stamps could be the North Carolina federation ranked fourth purchased for a lower price and placed in a out of the forty-eight state organizations in booklet, until the amount of stamps bond sales. In all, the group's members con¬ equaled the cost of one bond. tributed $12,179,245 to the war in this way. Most bonds were sold dur¬ Innovation and determination enabled the ing seven nationwide women to sell such an impressive amount of war loan drives. North bonds. For instance, the Junior Woman's Club

(Left) Individuals often wore buttons declaring that they had bought war bonds. Groups and schools sometimes received medals recognizing their bond efforts. Images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. ONDS THjH, Spring 2008 31 cv made Whiteville the first tobacco market town in commended North Carolina to launch the tobacco bond pro¬ North Carolina gram. The club set up booths to sell bonds in six club women, tobacco warehouses in Whiteville. Women encour¬ saying, “The aged tobacco growers to buy bonds with five cents work you do from every pound of tobacco sold. The campaign helps to short¬ eventually extended to every North Carolina en the war, and tobacco market town. every day saves Another common and trendy way to sell untold lives." Adults and children bought war bonds and defense stamps was to make and sell corsages Men like stamps at stands set up made of war stamps: “warsages," to be worn in Bragaw and everywhere from movie theaters to bank lobbies place of floral corsages. Club members assembled women who (right) like the one warsages and sold them in war bond booths, became Rosie where this middle schooler volunteered. stores, restaurants, hotels, bus stations, and even the Riveters Some schools, like on the street. Women who typically wore floral may be the Burton Elementary in Durham (above), held a corsages on Easter or other holidays and on formal best-known monthly drive where students contributed occasions put on these arrangements. Men even heroes of coins to buy bonds. exchanged their boutonnieres for a more patriotic World War II. Images courtesy of the State Archives, North pin. Wearing stamps, not flowers, became the fash¬ But members Carolina Office of ionable trend. This type of creativity, coupled with of North Archives and History. patriotism and determination, enabled North Carolina Carolina club women to achieve what they did for women's clubs became civic soldiers and worked the protection of democracy. determinedly for the war effort as well. Such In the midst of the war, R. L. McMillian, the women were, in their own way, home front heroes. director of Civilian Defense for North Carolina,

white background with a red bor a quick look at life at home der) to represent each family mem¬ ber on active duty and a gold star to Always In Their Thoughts represent a family member killed in During World War n, people back home came up with ways to service. Some towns and colleges recognize and feel close to their loved ones serving in the mil¬ posted honor rolls of citizens or itary, while showing patriotism. One way was to wear a spe¬ alumni in the military, marking the cial piece of jewelry reflecting the loved one’s branch of serv¬ lists with gold and blue stars. ice. Children had service dolls, which might look like a family member who was away. Games and other products had mili¬ Gening Inventive tary themes and often featured patriotic colors of red, white, Lots of products we know today and blue. Sales of maps increased 600 percent during the war, debuted during World War n— Families and businesses dis¬ with children often using colored pins to mark battles over¬ M&M’s and Silly Putty, just to name played banners seas where family members or friends served. two. A few years before the war, (above) and sent Victory holi¬ The “V” for victory became a common symbol of commit Forrest Mars Sr. noticed soldiers in day cards (left) to show sup¬ port for the war and military. < ment to the war effort. People took the "V Home Spain eating pellets of chocolate Images courtesy of the North Pledge,” sent “V-mail,” grew “Victory” gardens, put encased in a hard sugar coating that Carolina Museum of History. together “V” cookbooks and recipes, and wore “V” kept them from melting easily. Soon, jewelry. V-mail was written on special letter in 1941, Mars was selling his own version as M&M’s Chocolate sheets that were photographed and then con¬ Candies. They became a favorite of American GIs, who could densed on microfilm for delivery by plane. After get them in cardboard tubes as a convenient snack. By the . the film was developed, reduced versions of the late 1940s they were widely available.

3 letters could be made for recipients. About 1,700 Meanwhile, Japan had invaded many rubber producing letters on film could fit into one cigarette companies of the Far East, cutting off America’s supply and

GRC-G'TI'NGS packet! Because V-mail weighed so much less hurting efforts to make things like tires and boots. The War j than regular mail, sending a letter this way Production Board asked U.S. industry to develop a synthetic 1 reduced by about a month the time it took to rubber compound. In 1943 James Wright, a General Electric reach the troops—to about six weeks by boat engineer, made a gooey new substance that bounced when and twelve days or less by air. tossed on the floor. No practical use was found. But in 1949 a Stars also became a popular symbol. Service-star banners toy shop owner and marketer began to sell the substance as a first appeared during World War I. North Carolina women toy. By 1950 the toy was named Silly Putty and packaged in often made these flags, which included a blue star (sewn on a plastic eggs.

32 THJH, Spring 2008 What about 5pam?f his luncheon meat was invented in 1937 and became well known during World War II. The Hormel Company sent 15 million cans of 5pam to Allied forces every week during most of the war! From (HepCats) t0 (FullBirds Slang of the 194-Os by Michelle L. Carr*

•hat is slang? Slang is awesome and It separates the group from outsiders and creates a slang is ridiculous. Slang is the bee's sense of community. Teenagers have developed knees, the cat's pajamas, and the cat’s their own slang for decades. Young people use meow. Slang is far out, groovy, and these words and phrases as a way to set them¬ even dynamite. Slang is bad and selves apart from older generations, who are con¬ sweet, hot and cool, and hip and crazy. Slang is also sidered old-fashioned and out of style. fresh, fly, and phat. People draw most slang terms from popular cul¬ Those are seventeen different slang ways of say¬ ture, such as music, books, and film. Slang from ing that slang is good, but what is slang? According the 1940s is no exception. At the beginning of the to the dictionary, slang is an informal vocabulary decade, many popular slang terms came from the whose meanings may quickly change. A slang jazz and swing music community. The language expression may suddenly become widely accepted that the musicians used, and the lyrics of their and just as quickly outdated. In the 1920s, for music, influenced the way teenagers spoke. This is example, twenty-three skidoo was a trendy way of similar to the way that rap music can reflect the saying “to leave quickly." Today the phrase is youth culture of today. Words like cool, groovy, and rarely used and even more rarely understood. hep can be traced back to musicians of the 1940s. Sometimes slang provides a name for a newly When America entered World War II in 1941, developed object. For example, walkie-talkie is the military expressions began to creep into everyday popular name for the small two-way radios that vocabulary. Servicemen and -women created slang members of the American military used during expressions, such as afidl bird to represent a full World War II. It is much simpler to call the gadget colonel, or military acronyms such as WAC or a walkie-talkie than a "portable, two-way communi¬ WAVE. These terms appeared in letters home or in cation device." newspaper articles and radio reports about the Slang is often created as an in-group language. war. Civilians quickly came to recognize and use military slang in daily speech. Above my pay grade—Don’t ask Hi-de-ho—hello To the left are a few slang expres¬ me Hit the silk—to bail out, use a Armored heifer—canned milk parachute sions from the 1940s, drawn from pop¬ Bandit—enemy fighter I’m going ffehin’—I’m looking for ular music and a 1943 army slang Bathtub—motorcycle sidecar a date dictionary. See how many you can rec¬ Cook with gas—to do something Killer-diller—good stuff ognize. Are any of these terms still right Licorice stick—clarinet used today? Have their meanings Dead hoofer—poor dancer Motorized freckles—insects stayed the same, or have they Flap your lips—talk Mud—coffee changed? If you want to be a hep cat Flip your wig—to lose control of Morth Dakota rice—hot cereal or kitten, the next time you flap your yourself One striper—private first class lips, use some of these slang terms, Gammin’—showing off Popsicle—motorcycle and you will be cooking with gas. GI— Governmentlssue, an Snap your cap—get angry American service member (Background) A radio, ca. late 1930s, like those that might have been Stompers—shoes found in many North Carolina homes during World War II. Families Gone—knowledgeable often played cards or parlor games including checkers or chess Threads—clothing Hairy—old, outdated together while listening to the radio. Radio was the center of many What’s buzzin’, cousin?—How’s homes in the days before television, and long before computers. In Hen fruit—eggs it going? addition to news, families listened to music, comedy, and dramatic Hep cat/kitten or cool shows. Hit songs of the era included Chattanooga Choo Choo, Whistle Dixie—to be wrong or cat/kitten—hip person Sentimental Journey, White Christmas, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Don't Sit mistaken Under the Apple Tree, and The White Cliffs of Dover. Many slang expres¬ Hi sugar, are you rationed?—Are sions of the 1940s began in the jazz and swing music community. Yuck—a foolish person you going steady? Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History.

*Michelle L. Carr serves as the curator of internal programs within the Education Section THJH, Spring 2008 of the North Carolina Museum of History. AN ALLIED VICTORY WILMINGTON HELPS WELD by Ralph Scott*

ecember 6, 1941, was one of those On this beautiful D wonderful and clear, sunny day, as John stood Saturdays in early December for on one side of his which southeastern North Carolina father to watch the is famous. John Sawyer**—who launch of the first had turned ten in July—and his father. Bill, ship built at the stood in a crowd before a large ship on the shipyard, the SS Wilmington waterfront. Bill Sawyer worked as a Zebulon Baird Vance, welder at the North Carolina Shipbuilding he was proud of his Company there. Jobs had been scarce in the area father's role. following the Great Depression, and Bill had A long line of only recently started work at the shipyard. cars approached the Now the family had a decent place to live, crowd, led by provided by the government to war workers, Wilmington police and with the growth in Wilmington, a new job on motorcycles and as a police dispatcher had opened for John's state highway patrol mother, Martha. John and his fourteen-year-old cruisers with sirens sister, Nancy, went to a good school with other blaring. The line children whose parents worked during the day. stopped in front of the ship, and Governor J. The federal government, through a special pro¬ Melville Broughton and several officers of the gram for war workers, provided a place for the shipbuilding company exited the lead limou¬ children to play safely after school. With the sine. Other limousines had brought naval offi¬ family's added income, John and Nancy had cers and other government officials to the things that their cousins who lived on a farm launching ceremonies. The Vance—as a working did not. In Wilmington they had a library and vessel in maritime service, designated with "SS" clean water that came from a big tank John for "Steam Ship" before its name—was built could see soaring up into the sky. His cousins in under a contract with the U.S. Maritime the country had to pull up water from a well, Commission. Other vessels built at the yard and because they did not yet have electricity. sold to the U.S. Navy would be designated Bill Sawyer's job at the North Carolina "USS," or "United States Ship," to indicate that Shipbuilding Company was to weld together they were vessels in the armed forces of the large sections of steel plate about the size of a United States. trash Dumpster into the major parts of a ship. John's father had told him that only ten months ago, the large industrial plant where the shipyard stood had been a rolling sandy pine forest next to the shores of the Cape Fear River. A Wilmington company, Orrell and Underwood, along with a Charlotte company, V.R Loftis, had started construction February 3, 1941, on what would become North Carolina's major industrial effort during World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt had asked Congress for the money to build ships like the Vance, called Liberty ships, to carry ammunition, trains, tanks, guns, and A caravan of fifty trailers—on its way to provide temporary housing in Wilmington— stops for the night outside Washington, D.C. Work in building ships and in other other supplies to the Allies in Europe, including wartime industries brought lots of people from surrounding areas into North Great Britain. These Allies were fighting against Carolina towns. Image from the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection. another group of countries—including Germany

THJH, Spring 2008 *Ralph Scott is the curator of printed books in Special Collections at Joyner Library, East 34 Carolina University. He is the author of The Wilmington Shipyard: Welding a Fleet for Victory in World War II when Bill Sawyer's brother needed help bring¬ ing in the crops on the family farm, the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company did let Bill have time off to take in the tobacco and soy¬ beans.) At the shipyard's peak in 1943, over 20,000 people worked there. Around 1,600 of these workers were women. Thirty percent of the workers were persons of color. Some 56 per¬ cent of the workers lived in the city of Wilmington, with hundreds of people commut¬ ing more than twenty-five miles to the yard from across southeastern North Carolina. Some work¬ ers walked from nearby houses, while most drove or rode buses. Seven months after work began on the Vance, the ship was ready to be launched into the Cape Fear River. The platform party walked up several flights of stairs to a small deck in front of the ship. There were speeches by Governor Broughton; Homer Ferguson, the president of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company; Wilmington native Roger Williams, the president of the North Carolina Shipbuilding (Above) A big crowd turns out for the dedication and launching ceremony for the USS Zebulon Baird Vance in Wilmington on December 6,1941. (Below) Company; and Emery Scott Land, the chairman The Vance, a Liberty ship, heads out into the Cape Fear River after the of the U.S. Maritime Commission. The group launching. The North Carolina Shipbuilding Company built many vessels like this one during World War II. Images courtesy of the State Archives, North then approached the ship, and the governor's Carolina Office of Archives and History. wife, Alice, broke a large bottle of champagne against its bow. At the same time, shipyard workers under the Vance knocked out large blocks of wood called keel blocks, and the vessel began to slide into the river. Tugboats standing by let loose with shrieking steam whistles. Car horns honked, and excited spectators yelled as the Vance moved into the middle of the channel. The tugs towed the ship to a special pier called an "outfitting pier," where work would be finished up. After its trial run past Bald Head Island and out to sea, the ship would be released to the Maritime Commission. After the Vance was secured to the outfitting pier, the platform party and all the other guests and Japan—called the Axis nations. The United attended a large outdoor reception with lots of States was not yet at war on December 6, but food and drink. It was the biggest party John this would change quickly after the Japanese had ever been to, and it was still going on when navy suddenly attacked the American naval his mother got off work and took John and his base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the next day. sister home at eight o'clock that evening (several By May of 1941 the keel had been laid for the hours before the party ended). The next morn¬ Vance, and Bill Sawyer had gotten a job. In the ing, the Sawyers went to church and came home summer, welding was hot, hard work—all day, to eat with their cousins, who had come into and some nights and weekends. The shipyard Wilmington to see the new ship. That afternoon, ran three shifts, twenty-four hours a day, seven people began to run around shouting that the days a week, every week of the year. (That fall. Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Quickly,

** Editor's Note: ]ohn Sawyer and his family are fictional characters. But their story is typical of THJH, Spring 2008 that of many North Carolinians who worked at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company during 35 World War II. And the other elements of this article are completely based on historical fact. shipyard police escorted civilians out of the the 1990s. The military called some back into yard and set up a security perimeter at the service during the Korean, Vietnam, and first main gate. Soon, America was at war. Gulf wars. In more recent years, airplanes carry During World War II, the North Carolina most military supplies, and there is less need Shipbuilding Company built 243 ships for the for steel ships. Will we need another war ship¬ Maritime Commission and U.S. Navy. Some yard in Wilmington again? We can never be 126 vessels were initially built in what was sure. If so, the people of North Carolina stand called the standard Liberty class. American ready to help again. shipyards constructed about 2,700 Liberty class vessels in seventeen facilities along the East, West, and Gulf coasts. Most of the vessels A QUICK LOOK served during the war in convoy duty to Europe and the Soviet Union. at wartime production Starting in 1943, the North Carolina Many factories and industries switched to produc¬ Shipbuilding Company built 117 better, faster ing goods for America’s World War n effort. In vessels in what was called the Victory class. Greensboro, for example. Blue Bell made clothing for the armed forces; Vick Chemical made rocket fuel; These were high-pressure turbine ships Proximity Manufacturing Company made tent and cam designed to carry American supplies across the ouflage material; and Carolina Steel focused on military vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean for the pro¬ contracts. Hanes Knitting Company in Winston-Salem jected invasion of Japan in the fall of 1945. switched from making women's hosiery to churning out Some 543 Victory ships were built during the men’s underwear for overseas troops, and Cannon Mills in Kannapolis made yarn for war, with about 32 percent of the total being machine-gun belts. Shipyards in constructed in North Carolina. The North Wilmington, New Bern, and Carolina Shipbuilding Company was the Elizabeth City built submarine largest wartime industrial effort in the state. chasers, minesweepers, and While other ship and war plants operated in cargo and troop ships. Federal contracts brought some $10 bil¬ the city and across the state, no other facility lion to North Carolina as its cit¬ had as great an impact. izens labored to provide textiles, In January of 1945, Bill Sawyer received a lumber, ammunition, metals, notice from the local draft board that he was and food. needed for service in the army. For a time, it •'Every man in the armed service of the United States has looked like he would be sailing to Japan on some article made in North one of the vessels he had helped build. After Carolina,” Governor J. Melville entering the army and going through basic Broughton said in 1944. training, he was transported to Hawaii in July With a record number of on a passenger liner, escorted in a convoy by men in the armed forces, assembly lines, farms, and other heavily armed navy ships. But Sawyer got civilian jobs faced worker news in August that the Japanese had surren¬ shortages. Factories targeted dered to the Allies at a ceremony in Tokyo Bay women with aggressive on the deck of the battleship Missouri. advertising campaigns. In North He soon came home from the army. By that Carolina nearly 1 million women helped make rockets, ships, towels, and duffel time, the shipyard had closed and become part bags. Some publicity campaigns especially aimed at of the North Carolina State Port at Wilmington. women who had never worked outside the home, Having learned how to operate and repair glorifying the new “working woman" as attractive and radios in the army. Sawyer got a job with the confident, pitching in to help win a war. War industries local radio station—which was investigating a also provided new opportunities for African Americans. Some got well new system called television, an outgrowth of paying jobs in urban areas outside radar systems he had worked on. their rural, primarily agricultural, The Sawyers were proud of the work that communities. Some moved to north the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company had ern cities for such opportunities.

done during the war. Many of the ships came (Top to bottom) Women at Mecklenburg Iron Works in Charlotte make home after World War II and were anchored in flage nets from burlap garland. Completed nets were compressed by hydraulic lifts before being packed in heavy waterproof paper for shipment overseas. the Cape Fear River and other rivers well into Dale L. Ward, of Crumpler, welds at the navy shipyard in Charleston, South TH/H, Spring 2008 Carolina. Many Carolinians found defense jobs in the state or neighboring 36 states. This soldier's duffel bag was made at Burlington Mills in 1944. Images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. r - 7 York, ofChocowinity.Hewasservingasa One MoreGlance:WorldWarIIandNorthCarolina radio gunneronaB-25withtheairforcein 1) Twenty-two-year-oldSergeantHaroldC. parachute riggeratanavalairstationin 3) FrancesCummings,ofGreensboro, their seventeen-weekarmytrainingcourse. ing gasmasks.Suchmarcheswerepartof get usedtomarchinglongdistanceswear¬ Camp Davis'sAnti-aircraftArtillerySchool almost twoyears.2)Officercandidatesat Burma. Hehadalreadybeeninservice Corps femalereservists stationedatCamp relieve malesailorsforseaduty.4) Marine were storedonceamonthtodryout mois¬ working inadrylockerwhereparachutes Lakehurst, NewJersey.Cummings is Volunteer EmergencyService)trainsasa the WAVES(WomenAcceptedfor were senttovariousnavalairstations to graduating fromtheprogram,women ture accumulatedwhilepacked.After Administration. 5)PrivateHaroldDarnell, Africa. Afarmerwhoenteredthe service in Camp Davis—marryinthepostchapel of Illinois,andPrivateMiriamEdwards, Celia Mix,andViolaEastman.Magefrom American IndiansMinnieSpottedWolf, Force ServiceCommand. 8)Corporal quartermaster's truckdriver.Fifteenth Air December 1941,Wallinwasserving asa overseas serviceinItaly,England, and who hadcompletedtwenty-ninemonths of 7) PrivateHughE.Wallin,ofMarshall, North CarolinaOfficeofArchivesand History. ca. 1943.ImagecourtesyoftheStateArchives, around awarbondsalesboothinRaleigh, Hartness, chaplain.6)Womengather a ceremonyconductedbyMajorRobertW. Army's Anti-aircraftArtillerySchoolat New YorkCity—bothattachedtothe the NationalArchivesandRecords Lejeune in1943included(lefttoright) THJH, Spring2008 from theLibrarx/ofCongress,Printsand Administration/Office ofWarInformation Thirtieth Division—thedivisionthat spend timetogetheronanAmericanbase tesy oftheNorthCarolina MuseumofHistory. August 1944.Unlessnoted,imagesare cour¬ ing GermansinDomfront,France, ca. repair communicationlinescutby retreat¬ included thelargestnumberofTar Heels— Collection. 10)Twomembersofthe army's Photographs Division,U.S.FarmSecurity (United ServiceOrganizations)club.Image Bragg, andothersoldiersvisitaUSO Forty-first Engineers,stationedatFort Franklin Williams(holdingrecord)ofthe the otherwasdeployed.9)Sergeant other accidentally,neitherknowingwhere the EighthArmyAirForce,ranintoeach in England.Thetwobrothers,bothwith Lieutenant ThomasA.Hood,ofRoseHill, Harvey Hood,ofSwanQuarter,andFirst 37 4650 Mail Service Center Tar Heel Junior Historian Association North Carolina Museum of History Raleigh, NC 27699-4650 &3

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