HEADER PAGE 1 MEMORIES OF WAR Jack Harman, 87, with his medals in his home in the Thornridge section of Levittown in Falls. “There are some things that stay with you. I can’t forget them, even after all this time,” he said. “Almost 70, almost. For me, these memories are triggered, but I’m just never sure by what,” Harman said, sitting at the kitchen table of his home in the Thornridge section of Levittown. He is 87 (“Soon to be 88,” he told me), and is a retired Bris- tol Township police officer. In front of him are medals from the campaigns he was in as a member of the U.S. Navy in World War II. He’s one of 10 children who grew up in Bristol, the son of a railroad engineer. When his younger brother, Edward, enlisted in 1945, it was front page news in the Bristol Cou- rier. That’s because Edward was the sixth of the Harman children, including two sisters, to enlist in wartime service. Jack Harman enlisted in the Navy in 1943, two months be- fore he turned 18. Enlisting gave him the option to choose Jack Harman and memories of war his service. “Growing up in Bristol, I had been around water all my life; I liked boats, so I picked the Navy,” he said. Even after all these years, Jack Harman cannot ditch the war “I was assigned to an outfit called the Armed Guard. It’s memories. Convoy ships burning at sea. The frightened eyes of really an unknown branch of the Navy,” he said. “Two thou- a soldier headed to raging battle without a rifle. A childhood sand men were killed in this outfit in the war, and about 360 friend from Garden Street, gone now, what is it, 70 years? ships were sunk. We were the gunners on merchant ships A merchant vessel identical to those on which Jack Harman served as a gunner during World Continued on page 21 War II. If struck by enemy fire, orders were that the gunners were not to leave their posts until the “decks are awash.” Even the captain could leave before the gunners. PAGE 2 “Cover Photo Credit: © John Minchillo | AP / Layout and Design: Karmen Piland” and Design: | AP / Layout Minchillo © John “Cover Credit: Photo Officers for 2013/2014 Charles A. Lloyd, Chairman & Sec.Treas. 1985-2013 115 Wall Creek Drive Rolesville, N.C. 27571 1-919-570-0909 • [email protected] Ron Carlson 616 Putnam Place Alexander, VA 22302-4018 Board of Directors C.A. Lloyd ..................................................NC CA’s LETTER TO CREW John Stokes ................................................. CA Dear Y’all which includes the widows and orphans and other friends: 6/25/13 Don Gleason ...............................................KS Clarence Korker ..........................................FL Joe Colgan. ................................................MD I will start this “Letter to the crew” to let you know we are still around. If you care Gerald Greaves .............................................RI to, you can turn now to page 34 and read a precious letter from Arnie Latare and the Al Sniff ........................................................FL Ia/Wi Ag/MM crew. I know it came from the hearts of each of them and I really Kenneth Sneed ............................................ IN Ralph McNally ...........................................OK do appreciate what he had to say. I will take it into consideration and try to fade out Ernest Stoukas ............................................. NJ sometimes after the Christmas Holidays or sometimes in 2014 IF DONATIONS Richard Hudnall. ........................................ AZ CONTINUE. I just went through a six day postal delivery recently and I thought, Zed Merrill .................................................OR “IS THIS ALL” and then more came in. I hope I can give a (2) “two” year window . Joe Esposito ..................................................IL None of us are getting younger but it’s great for us survivors like you and I. Latare Bernard Stansbury .......................................VA Forrest Flanagan ........................................WV sent me his 65 page service time and I hope to put into a booklet and maybe a CD. D. Wayne Sherman ...................................MO If you care for a copy, let me know so I will know about how many to print.. Arnold Latare ...............................................IA Bob Ober ................................................... OH I had put off the S.S. JOHN W. BROWN Museum crew over a year, and 2 docents, J.F. Carter ................................................... LA Howard Long ..............................................SC Norman Feil and Bob Jackson from Pa. who are on the staff came down and took a James Duncan ............................................GA lot of material back to the ship from one room. Now, I have to clean up my computer Tom Dufrense ........................................... MA room and I sort out more material, I hope they can return, or; I can get someone going John Haynes ................................................ IN to Baltimore to take it. Norm E-Mailed me to say they had sorted things out and had on the BROWN to be looked over and placed for others in charge to look over and Trustees placed where needed. My navy knife is already on display. Some things of MM nature C.A. Lloyd ..................................................NC Theo Schorr .................................................PA was placed in the MM part of the Museum. MM get your things in also. Nathan Phillips .......................................... TX Arthur Fazzone .......................................... NY They left the letters from the crew that I had saved that they couldn’t use so I Louis Tew ................................................... CT called the N.C. Military Archives in Raleigh and they said not to throw anything Jay Wildfong .............................................. WI Henry Harrison ......................................... WA away and to save the rest for them to look over. After I had sorted out all the po- Mervil Yarbrough .......................................NV litical letters and “Dirty Joke” letters, he took six boxes of material with him and Leo Feist ....................................................WV I had 5 more ready to go now and they are there now. Now, I have one more room Chaplains to sort. Latare’s will be in the next boxes to go. Students will look at them in years Lyle Kell .................................................... WA to come and get the feeling of where you went and what you did in WW II. Many Buck Donaldson .........................................TN photos went to the BROWN and a lot went to Raleigh so generations may read a letter to me from you, but there were so many, it is impossible to say whose went ATTENTION where. If you have any items or letters to your Mom and Dad, your girl friend (or You know where you are. some one else’s girlfriend) you would like to have in the Archives, send items to You know where we are. the ship, or; letters to me. Send them now. “Do Not” let them be trashed. We know where we are. But we don’t always know I have saved many photos I located that was taken in the past and sent to me and I where you are. have inserted into this POINTER if there is room. Many have already gone to be Please notify us when you move. with their Maker and ancestors. It was a hard decision to sort out individual ones Non-Profit Organization so I picked them at random and clarity and they all represent all of the crew. I hope Tax Exempt No. 74-2316668 you understand and remember the reunions where most were taken or the places in the WW II photos, if you were there. I hope to have more in POINTERS to come. Remember, I “STILL” can’t move as fast Had one is of the late George Carpenter who held the first meeting at Winchester, as I did when I was in my twenties! When Ky. who started it all but I misplaced it again.. I hope he has followed us all the way. you call, let the phone ring so I can get to it! -CAL Officers - Gunners - Signalmen - Radiomen - Corpsmen - Waves - Boatswains - Coxswains - Ship’s Company - Radarmen PAGE 3 CA’s LETTER TO CREW Fred Mullinax of the Ozark College student tour group kept me informed daily by E-Mail on tour. It was like being there and having a front row seat. I forwarded it out to many of you. I saved it so if you want it, E-Mail me your request. Hope- fully, they will make a CD of the sites visited. Fred asked me to go and 3 more AG. I couldn’t go and I suggested he make it 2 AG and 2 MM as we were on the same ships delivering the men and goods and he agreed. Thanks Fred for giving both crews the honor to be represented along with your 4 Air Corps men. Hope to get another POINTER out for the fall so have a great summer. Remember, if I haven’t heard from you st since 2010, I will have to put you on HOLD until I do. Take care-YOU HEAH! (calloyd) LETTERS FROM THE CREW H H H H H H H H H O O O Hi, Lloyd, I am the guy who wrote a vet- Saw your E-Mail in the Susquehanna eran profile of Gene Alexander in the No- Valley Mariners Chapter and thought you vember and December 2012 issues of the would like to see this. If it goes through, I can 50-Plus Senior News, a free monthly news- send you the one before this one. Have a great paper circulated in six south-central Penn- WEEKEND--LUCKY. Lucky you didn’t sylvania counties. Through Gene, I met go to MURMANSK!! SEE page 39. another Navy/Armed Guard veteran, Al- Enjoy. Advise if received. calloyd vin T. Kemble Jr., who survived 34 days in H H H H H H H H H a lifeboat with 18 others, whose merchant ship was sunk in the North Atlantic by a German sub in 1943.