WW II Airborne Legend Kenneth 'Rock' Merritt Dies-- Part 1: 'I Can Fill Them Boots'

From the March 12, 2021, Fayetteville (NC) Observer  'We lost a phenomenal paratrooper,  leader and airborne legend':  The loss of World War II veteran" by Rachael Riley.

Kenneth "Rock" Merritt was well-known around the Fayetteville and Fort Bragg area.  He jumped into WW II battles and retired  as the 18th Air Corps' top enlisted senior advisor.

He died March 10.

Originally from Oklahoma, Merritt was an 18-year-old mess attendant  working with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  He had already gotten the nickname "Rock" by picking up rocks around the camps he was at.

"It was raining.  Someone threw me into the cement mixture,"  Merritt said.  "It was powdered and I got out and my uniform would stand up and they dropped hard rock and came up like a rock

Merritt said a general came over and called him "Rock."  The name stuck.

When the CCC closed down, he joined the Army at age 19.  (He almost joined the Marines, though, as he thought their uniform looked better.  The recruiter convince him to join the newly-formed paratroopers unit after saying he could make $50 more a month in it.

"They had a large picture of a paratrooper floating down, and across his reserve was a Thompson submachine gun and the caption below says, 'Are you man enough to fill these boots?'  I told them, 'I can fill them boots, and since you're going to give me  $50 more we can forget about them Marines."

--GreGen

World War II Veteran 'Nick' Joswiak Turns 101: How Did He Become 'Nick'?

From the Feb. 15, C&G Newspapers, Michigan by Brian Louwers.

He received his second dose of virus medicine Feb. 15 and also celebrated birthday number 101.  Just a few days earlier he had bought lunch for 130 people in his building at Park Place Heritage Village in Warren, Michigan.

"Nick" Joswiak was born in Texas in 1920 and his family suffered during the Great Depression so at age 16. he left them and moved to Detroit where he worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps.  After Pearl Harbor, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and enlisted in the Marines which he did in 1942.

This is when he received his "new nickname."  When asked what his name was, he replied "Adolph Joswiak."  They told him, "You can't have a name like that and join the Marine Corps."  He told them to give him a nickname and that was when he became "Nick."   The name stuck.

He fought the Japanese for the next three years in the Pacific.

He landed with the Marines on Guam, New Caledonia and Okinawa.  Much of his time was with the 2nd Marines.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor, Battle of Bulge Survivor Turns 100-- Part 2

Fifteen years ago, George Murray wrote a 62 page memoir and this is taken from it.  He continues with his Pearl Harbor memories:

"It took me about about an hour and a half, using a variety of transportation such as a taxi or bus (to get back to Schofield Barracks).  When I got there I found we had no casualties although a bomb had been dropped not too far from our barracks."

Last year, George Murray, a long-time resident of Anniston, Alabama, was recognized as the last-known Pearl Harbor survivor in Alabama.  He has since moved to Texas to be near family.

He spent 30 years in the Army and was also at the Battle of the Bulge.

Mr. Murray was born March 31, 1919, and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Jobs were hard to come by in 1936, and at the age of 17, with his parents permission, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and traveled the country working on projects.

In 1939, he enlisted in the Army and joined the Chemical Warfare Service which provided such things to the military as gas warfare training and smoke screens.

--GreGen

Camp McCoy, Wis.-- Part 4: Preparing for War

From www.mccoy.army.mil

Following World War I, a Citizen's Military Training Camp was set up at Camp McCoy to provide men of high school and college age military training.  This would primarily prepare them for National Guard or Reserve duty.

In 1933, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was set up at the post.  This operated until 1939.

In August 1940, the site was used for the Second Army Maneuvers involving 65,000 soldiers from seven states.  In the summer of 1940, the last horse-drawn artillery left the post.

More than 45,000 acres were added to Camp McCoy between 1938 and 1942.  Construction of facilities to house, train and support 35,000 troops began.  Some 8,000 local workers built over 1,500 buildings at a cost of $30 million.

--GreGen

Camp McCoy, Wisconsin-- Part 3: Served As a POW Camp and In Korean War

The South Post of the Camp had served as a Civilian Conservation Center before the war, but during World War II, that was converted into a prisoner of war and Japanese-American relocation camp.  It was the largest holding facility for Japanese POWs in the Continental United States and also housed several thousand German and Korean prisoners.

I had never heard of Korean prisoners of war in World War II.  Koreans who fought for Japan.

The camp was briefly deactivated after World War II, but the Korean War saw its reactivation as a training center until 1953 when it was again deactivated.  In 1973,  the Army reactivated Camp McCoy  as a permanent training center and the following year officially redesignated it as Fort McCoy.

So, it was Camp McCoy until 1974.  Today, it trains some 100,000 troops a year as a Total Force Training Center. It is also the headquarters of the Navy's Mobile Construction Battalion- 25  (Spades and Clubs).

--GreGen

German POW Camp in Wilmington, N.C.

From the April 2, 2018, Wilmington (NC) News-Journal "Rotary learns about local prison camp" by Wilmington Rotary.

Kay Fisher from the Clinton County History Center spoke about the World War II German POW camp in Wilmington.  German prisoners included Nazis and some who opposed the Nazi doctrines.  There were also Italian  and Japanese prisoners.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed 155 prison camps and 511 branch camps across the United States (actually a lot of those were camps previously used by the CCC).  Anywhere between 250 to 750 prisoners were in each camp.

In Wilmington, the POW camp was on the Hubert Barrett property on Doan Street.  It housed 250 prisoners who were guarded by 50 U.S, military personnel.

There was fear that if enemy prisoners were mistreated that would lead to American prisoners receiving the same treatment.  Actually, from what I have read, if you had to be a prisoner in World War II, being held in a prison in the U.S. was not bad at all.  Indeed, many former German prisoners, on release, returned home, settled their affairs and moved to the United States.

German prisoners were first processed in Casablanca.  U.S. POW camps ended October 13, 1945.

--GreGen

Looking Back to September 1941: The CCC Wants You

From the September 28, 2016, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

1941, 75 Years Ago:  "There was a a time when the CCC was faced with too many applications.  Today the steady decreasing unemployment problem has caused the corps to start a recruiting campaign.  Today the word goes out that the Civilian Conservation Corps is seeking young men for service between the ages of seventeen and 23 years.

"If a young man signs for CCC service and his parents are on relief he receives $8 a month and the balance, $22, is sent home.  If they are not on relief the CCC recruit still receives $8 a month and the $22 is deposited into a savings account in his name."

As we neared the war, at this point just a little over two and a half months away, young men were either entering the military or found work in war production factories.

A Way to Take Care of the Great Depression.  --GreGen

Bedford Man Recalls Attack on Pearl Harbor

From the June 7, 2016, Fredericksburg.com  (Va,) by Rachel Smith.

Leonard Peverall, 94, had this to say about it:, "If I was a foot taller, I would have lost my head."

He was on the USS Pennsylvania about to have breakfast when the attack began.  He ran up to the top deck.

"We didn't have any idea what was going on; it wasn't until we heard the bombs that we knew.  I was on the top deck and could see airplanes coming over and the commander said to 'man your guns.'"  The Pennsylvania was strafed and shots hit about a foot above his head.

Afterwards, he served the rest of the war on the USS Canfield and steamed into Tokyo Bay in mid-September 1945, after VJ-Day.

Before joining the Navy, he was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Military Pay 1940-1941-- Part 1: The Selective Training and Service Act

In the last post I mentioned that CCC members received $30 a month ($22 of it sent home) and when I wrote that, I got to wondering what new military personnel were paid at that time.  It amounted to the same thing.

From the NavyCyberSpace site.

On September 16, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the "Selective Training and Service Act of 1940" which consolidated base pay for all military personnel using the Navy/Coast Guard Model 1922.

This then applied to all active Army, Navy, Marine and Coast Guard enlisted men.

--GreGen

Looking Back: Join the CCC in 1940

From the September 9, 2015, MidWeek  (McHenry County, Illinois) MidWeek "Looking Back."

"If there are any young men in the county who can't get a job without experience and can't get experience without a job, the Civilian Conservation Corps may be the answer to their problems.

"The CCC offers healthful, outdoor employment with $30 a month pay, including maintenance (food, housing, medical and dental care) of which $22 goes to the assistance of the boy's family and $8 is used by him in camp.

U.S. Army soldiers were initially paid $30 a month 1940-1941 and essentially received the same benefits.

The CCC experience provided an excellent introduction to military service as it was run essentially as a military undertaking.  No doubt a lot of our servicemen in the war received their initial training in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

--GreGen

Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor Walter Bailey, 96

From the June 23, 2016, Everett, Washington Herald "Pearl Harbor survivor Walt Bailey was a true outdoorsman."

Walter Bailey, 96, died May 27, 2016.

Mr. Bailey joined the CCC for two years during the Depression and cut trails, built shelters and fought fires in the Cascade Range.  He sent his mom $25 of the $30 he made each month.

In 1941, he joined the Army and was tending flower beds outside his barracks when the first shots were fired December 7, 1941.  He grabbed a rifle and fired seven shots at the Japanese planes.

Much of the war was spent training German shepherds as guard dogs and operating searchlights and radar equipment.  In 1944, he was at Leyte Island in the Liberation of the Philippines.

--GreGen

North Carolina's Fort Macon in World War II

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina "Fort Macon" by Paul Branch.

In 1923, the Fort Macon, built between 1826 and 1834, was deeded to North Carolina by the federal government and became the second area acquired by the state for public use in what is today the system of state parks.  During the Great Depression, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at the site restored the fort and constructed recreational facilities.

On 1 May 1936, Fort Macon State Park officially opened as the first developed, functioning park in North Carolina.  The park was an instant hit and grew in popularity.  The Works Progress Administration established a public beach at the site in the early 1940s.

When the United States entered World War II, the old fort went to war once again.  On 21 December 1941, Coast Artillery troops occupied the park for military defense purposes.  By November 1944, when German U-boat activities off the coast of North Carolina subsided, the fort was deactivated.

The Army terminated its lease on 1 October 1946, and the property was once again returned to the state and resumed its former role as a state park.

--GreGen

Deaths of Two More Pearl Harbor Survivors in 2013

From the Oct. 9, 2013, Pittsburgh Trib Live "Work was way of life for Pearl Harbor survivor" by Debra Erdley.

Nelson Ferguson, 93, died Oct. 6, 2013,.  He was one of 11 children who joined the CCC at age 17 and sent part of his earnings home to support his family.

He joined the Army in 1940 and was in the Signal Corps in Hawaii that day.  He later served in northern Australia and Dutch New Guinea.

From the Oct. 3, 2013, Paducah (Ky) Sun.  Carl E$. Golightly was born in 1924 and died Oct. 1, 2013.  He joined the Navy at age 17 in April 1941 and was on the USS California during the attack.