What Is North Carolina's Order of the Long Leaf Pine?

In the last post I wrote that Wilmington's Wilbur Jones had been given this honor.

It is one of the top honors that the state can bestow.

It is granted to those individuals who have shown extraordinary service to the state and is the highest award granted by the governor.

Nominations can be made for those with 30 or more years to the State of North Carolina.  A request formit must be made by a human resources officer for state emplyees.

Some others who have received the award:

Ricgard Petty

Andy Griffith

Charles Kurault

Billy Graham

Dean Smith

--GreGen

Wilbur Jones Receives North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine

From the February 8, 2023, WWAY 3 ABC Wilmington, N.C.

The Order of the Long Leaf Pine was presented to Wilmington resident  and native Wilbur Jones on Tuesday night  during the City Council meeting.

Captain Jones received this prestigious honor for his  service to the Tar Heel State.

Jones is a veteran, author and historian.

He also plays a role in having Wilmington named as the first American World War II Heritage City.

The amount of knowledge this man has on Wilmington during the war is amazing.  He is to World War II as Chris Fonvielle is to Wilmington's Civil War history.

A Well-Deserved Honor.  --GreGen

North Carolina's Fort Fisher Not Just a Civil War Fort (It Had a Role in WW II): Living History Program Saturday

From the October 12, 2022, WWAY 3 TV, Wilmington, N.C., "Fort Fisher hosting free WW II living history program."

The Fort Fisher State Historic Site in Kure Beach, N.C.,  will host "Homefront 1942 and Fort Fisher" this Saturday.

The event is a living history program aimed at  highlighting the fort's lesser-known history as a WW II anti-aircraft training base to recognize those who served and supported the military and home front  effort.

The free, family-friendly  program will feature civilian and military re-enactors, educational displays, weapons demonstrations, a headquarters tent, a PX, WACs and Army nurses.  The young at heart can hone their targeting skills with the site's anti-aircraft artillery Nerf  gun and participate in the "Paint the Toy Soldier" workshop (and you canb take those soldiers hone).

To me, the absolute best part of the event will be the appearance of author, historian and retired Navy Captain  Wilbur Jones who will present "Growing Up in Wartime Wilmington:  America's First  World War II Heritage City" at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.  in the Spencer Theater located inside the visitor center.

The event is open to the public and will run from 10 a.m. to 4  p.m..

Nerf Me.   --GreGen

Edward Everette Talbert U.S. Navy Sailor from USS Oklahoma Identified

From the November 3, 2021, 11 ABC WTVD (North Carolina)  "NC sailor in Pearl Harbor attack finally accounted for."

After 80 years, a North Carolina sailor is finally coming home.

Navy Seaman 1st Class Edward Everette Talbot was one of 429 crewmen who died on the USS Oklahoma that day in 1941 when it capsized after being hit multiple times by torpedoes.

He will be buried March 26, 2022, in his hometown of Albemarle, North Carolina.

--GreGen

USS North Carolina-- Part 8: Making It Local and Not Your Grandparents' Battleship

There is another irony in the Battleship, with all its focus on  history, they have to keep a constant eye on the future.

One situation Terry Bragg wants to address is increasing local visits to the ship.  Some locals act almost as if they don't know the ship is there.  Bragg says they hear all the time from locals that they haven't visited the ship in 20 or 30 years.    "It shouldn't just be people from Ohio who are enjoying (it)."

Sixty percent of the ship's visitors come from more than four hours away from Wilmington.

Bragg says one of his goals  is "to awaken the Wilmington community to this great resource for service and  education, and this wonderful attraction right here in your backyard."

Mentioning a $2 million renovation that was done to the Battleship's  visitors' center, Bragg said:  "You  don't really know the Battleship if you haven't been here in the last five years.  We're not the Battleship of your grandparents and your parents.

Looks like to me that the USS North Carolina could not be in anyone else's better care than she is with Capt. Bragg.  And, as I say in the picture of the USS North Carolina at the top of the blog, my favorite warship ever built.

A Big Fan.  --GreGen

USS North Carolina-- Part 7: Development?

As we look to the future, it is possible that the USS North Carolina might have some more neighbors on the west bank of the Cape Fear River.  Developers have been eying this land for years, and most recently this month.

Terry Bragg points out that the Battleship was named  a National Historic Landmark in 1986, which gives it certain protections.

"You couldn't put up a Walmart next to the Battleship," for example, or  do "anything that could encumber our historical significance," Bragg said.

Bragg says he has met with several developers over the years who were interested in building on the west side of the river by the Battleship, but the costs they would sustain for building in a flood plain, infrastructure, lack of sewer and water and meeting federal guidelines were just too cost prohibitive.

One project Bragg sees as having possibility is the development of a park on Eagles Island by the ship.

--GreGen

Battleship USS North Carolina-- Part 6: 'Living With Water'

Their solution to the climate change situation, according to Bragg. is to make access to the ship sustainable into the future is a project called "Living With Water."

The first phase of the $4 to $5 million project, which Bragg said is currently funded to about $2.3 million, involves raising the level of the current parking lot and creating  a "constructed wetlands," or so-called "living shoreline" around it that can better handle the effects of climate change.

And the timeline for the project is estimated to be around 2023, with a second phase  centered on the often-flooded Battleship Park slated for 2024.

"We can deal with climate change," Bragg said, by using  this "cutting edge technology (of living shorelines) that has not been used  that much locally.

--GreGen

Battleship USS North Carolina-- Part 5: Climate Change Now a Big Problem Because of Flooding

During a ceremony that attracted media from around the state, a cofferdam that allowed work to be done on the USS North Carolina was flooded and the battleship floated once again.

Next up  are meetings with contractors to discuss $1 million in repairs, funded by Hurricane Florence recovery funds, to the ship's main mast where the steel is deteriorating.

"Now that  the ship itself has been stabilized," Bragg said, "the big wolf on our doorstep  is climate change."

At this point, according to Bragg, the Battleship site, which includes a park, parking lot and a road to the facility, sees some kind of flooding three out of five days a year, increasingly caused by  high tides on the Cape Fear River.  This not only causes damage to he infrastructure used to operate the Battleship and its surrounding site, but also  forces closures and delayed openings.

Some well-known  attractions in North Carolina, most famously like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, have been physically moved in order to deal with threats from encroaching water.

But, Bragg says the Battleship isn't going anywhere.

"The Battleship will never be moved.  People don't realize how big it is," said Terry Bragg, and getting it under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, which was built in  1967, after the Battleship was already in place (1961), would be nearly impossible.

"We have a suitable site, even though the Cape Fear River is not the Cape Fear River of 60 years ago."

--GreGen

USS North Carolina-- Part 4: Repair It or Scrap It

The day-to-day operations of the Battleship,  however, from the salaries of the twenty-five full-time staffers to IT support, insurance and more is "100% receipts funded," Bragg said.  "Everything is paid for by funds made at the battleship" from entry fees, gift shop sales, event rentals and more.

Not long after Bragg started his tenure, the battleship would face a major challenge.

"When I got there, there were many  compartments (on the ship) that were flooded," according to Bragg.

Then, the head admiral of the U.S. Navy in charge of ship inspections and repair "sent me a letter saying the Battleship North Carolina either needs to be repaired or scrapped in accordance with the donation contract" with the state of North Carolina.

From that point on, he said, his main goal, along with enhancing  both the Battleship's staff and the quality of educational displays and programs, was "to fix the Battleship."

This past June, the $14 million repair project was completed.  Featuring a walkway that goes around the entire ship, it involved literally  cutting and replacing  parts of the Battleship's steel hull that had deteriorated over the years.  (In the gift shop, you can buy knives and other steel products made from parts of the Battleship's hull that were replaced.)

--GreGen

USS North Carolina-- Part 3: Serves Three Functions for the Wilmington Area

From the start, the "Showboat" of World War II, as she was called, was in Wilmington to impact tourism, especially after the city's #1 industry , the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, left.  It also came to serve as a World War II memorial and a floating museum.

It has continued to serve all three of those functions for sixty years, said retired Navy Captain Terry Bragg, who has been executive director  of the Battleship North Carolina since 2009.

As Wilmington's number one tourist attraction (other than arguably the nearby beaches), the battleship is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in eastern North Carolina.

"Our numbers are so much bigger than anybody else's,"  Bragg said.   "We're still maintaining our obligation as the economic engine of the area."

One thing people don't understand, Bragg said, is that  the Battleship is  "technically  an enterprise of the state" overseen by the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission, which was established in 1960.

The state has "an obligation to the U.S. Navy to maintain the ship, according to Bragg, and the state can appropriate money for repairs when needed, which has happened in recent years.

--GreGen

USS North Carolina Celebrates 60th Anniversary in Wilmington-- Part 2: It's History

But even as the battleship exists today as a celebration of U.S history, it is now a part of Wilmington's history itself, and it is positioning itself to be a part of the city's future for decades to come.

The story of how the USS North Carolina came to Wilmington in the first place is an epic onto itself.

It involves then-governor  Terry Sanford, the North Carolina legend, the first president of the renowned Wilmington Azalea Festival Hugh  Morton, nickel-and-dime donations of hundreds of thousands of  school children including me and my brother) from across the state.  

Then, there was Wilmington's own James S. "Jimmy" Craig, who got the idea to bring  the USS North Carolina back to its name-sake state after getting the idea after Texas bought its name-sake USS Texas to Houston in the 1940s.

--GreGen

WW II Wrecks Off NC's Coast-- Part 4: How Many Shipwrecks in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

One of the biggest mysteries of the Graveyard of the  Atlantic is just how many  shipwrecks it holds.  Some experts say 5,000 and others say it is more like 2,000.

Bo matter the number,  the wrecks collectively tell an important story about the United States

"You can throw a rock and hit a shipwreck off North Carolina,"  said Tane Casserley.    "We really have the story of America's rise  as a super power off the coast."

That story includes German U-boats coming to North Carolina, where they sank unarmed merchant ships.  Of the 1,700 men lost in the Battle of the Atlantic, about 1,200 were U.S. merchant marines.

The merchant ships they preyed upon will be a key component of the proposed marine sanctuary expansion, says Casserley, who is resource protection and permit coordinator for the sanctuary.

--GreGen

World War II Wrecks Off North Carolina's Outer Banks-- Part 1: Some Can Move

From the September 6, 2021, Independent Tribune "Shipwrecks can go 'missing' off Outer Banks.  Here's why NOAA team went hunting for 13" by Mark Price of the Charlotte Observer.

They call it the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" off the coast of North Carolina. Ships sink, but do they stay where they sank?  That's what a team set off to see recently.

The fact is, historic shipwrecks can move and appear to go missing at times.

With this in mind, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent an expedition to check on the status of 13 known shipwrecks, most of which were tied with acts of war.  This is also part of a proposed expansion of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Currents and storms off Cape Hatteras sometimes cover and uncover shipwrecks, even move them.

Among the best-known examples of a shipwreck "moving" off the North Carolina coast took place in 2011 when a shipwreck known as the Spar (a former Coast Guard ship sunk as an artificial reef) was moved about 200 feet by Hurricane Irene.

--GreGen

Hull Repairs Finished on USS North Carolina-- Part 2:

Atlantic Coast Industrial Marine Construction, a Wilmington company, cut and replaced steel on the bow as well as repainted affected areas of the hull,  according to a release on the battleship's website.

The USS North Carolina arrived at Wilmington in 1961 after serving in World War II.  I was ten at the time and very proud to have done my little part in saving the ship.  Many pennies, nickels, dimes and some quarters were donated by school children across the state to pay for part of the expense of acquiring the ship.

It then suffered over fifty years of corrosion from the Cape Fear River and plans for repairs to the hull had been in the making since at least 2010.  At first, it was planned to have the ship towed to Norfolk, Virginia, but then the idea of leaving it where it was and building the cofferdam was adopted.  At least, the ship remained so people could tour it.  Of course, then came the you-know-what in 2020.

The Battleship North Carolina is not tax-supported and relies primarily on admissions for operating expenses.

--GreGen

Hull Repairs Finished on USS North Carolina-- Part 1

From the July 20, 2021, WXII 12 News NBC, AP.

The nearly four year project to repair the hull of the battleship USS North Carolina, moored across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington, North Carolina, was officially over Tuesday, July 20, when waters from the river flooded into the temporary barrier (cofferdam) erected around the ship.

A Wilmington-based company cut and replaced steel in the now and also did work and repainted affected areas of the hull.

The $11 million project began in August 2016 with the construction of a cofferdam around the ship which allowed work crews to drain the river water out and have access to  the ship's brittle hull.  With cofferdam construction completed in May 2018, work was begun t replace steel at the ship's water-wind line which began in June 2020.

--GreGen

Another USS Oklahoma Unknown Buried: William Eugene Blanchard

From the June 15, 2021, Daily Reflector (Greenville, B.C.) "Killed in Pearl Harbor attack, sailor's remains finally laid to rest in Elizabeth City" by Chris Day.

Petty Officer 1st Class  William Eugene  Blanchard died December 7, 1941, when the battleship USS Oklahoma was sunk.  He was a boilermaker on the ship.  He was born in Tignall, Georgia, and was a blacksmith by trade before he enlisted in the Navy in  1936.  His wife, Laura  Ann, was from Bremerton, Washington, and he met her while in the service.  They were married in 1939.  

On Monday, June 7,  nearly 30 people, including several members of his family, attended a memorial service at  Twiford  Funeral Home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  The service began at 1:56 pm, which in Pearl harbor would have been 7:56 am, when torpedoes struck the USS Oklahoma.

His son lives in Elizabeth City.  He was buried at New Hollywood Cemetery.

--GreGen

Monument Placed By Nazis at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 4: What To Do With It?

There are other monuments around the United States dedicated to German POWs who died in captivity during World War I.  One stands in Asheville, North Carolina and another in Utah.  Unlike the monument in Chattanooga, however, they were  erected with the help of the American Legion and their inscriptions included both German and English versions.

This begs the question these days of should the monument be allowed to stand or removed in this day of Woke and Cancel Culture.  We al know of the campaign to remove Confederate monuments, whose adherents consider Confederates to be essentially American Nazis.

After World War II, symbols of Nazi Germany were removed by order of the victorious Allies.  But, according to one expert, a monument like the one at Chattanooga would have been allowed to remain.

From time to time, members of the German consulate in Atlanta have traveled to Chattanooga to lay a wreath at the monument.    Every year, a detachment of German soldiers stationed at Georgia's Fort Benning visits the graves of the buried POWs.

As for the monument itself, there are no plans to move or remove it.

According to a member of the National cemetery Administration: "Federal statute directs [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to maintain all memorials and monuments transferred to the department.  In keeping with national shrine standar5ds, these sites are maintained in the same manner as other sites."

--GreGen

Monument Placed By Nazis in Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 2: World War I German Sailors and Soldiers

In February1933, the Chattanooga Daily Times reported  that the German government  was planning to place a monument  in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.  Days before, on February  4, the remains of 22 German sailors who had died at Hot Springs, North Carolina, were reburied there, joining the graves of  dozens of German POWs who had died at nearby Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.  A local Presbyterian  minister delivered the prayer service.

The remains were buried in secret and the local newspapers did not learn about it until the next day.

All this came five days after Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany.  A few weeks after that, the Nazi paramilitary  organization, the SS, started the first concentration camp for political prisoners at Dachau.

Meanwhile, the German diplomatic mission in the United States was also changing.

Thanks to President Roosevelt's New Deal, the U.S. military handed the Chattanooga National Cemetery over to the Department of the Interior on August 10, 1934.

--GreGen

Remains of USS Oklahoma Sailor Identified: William E. Blanchard

Navy Boilermaker  1st Class William Eugene Blanchard.

His grandson, Chris Blanchard and another family member provided DNA samples.  Williams legs, part of his pelvic bone and  most of his skull remain.

He was 24 at the time of his death.  Blanchard was identified on January 4, 2021.

His remains will be reinterred at New Hollywood Cemetery, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  He is survived also by his son,  William Eugene Blanchard of Elizabeth City, N.C.

Funeral services with military honors will be held June 7, 2021.

One of the people writing condolences said that her father, Boilermaker 1st Class  John Neil was also on the Oklahoma that day and along with another shipmate were able to  crawl through a gap in the hull and swim to safety, mostly underwater because of fires burning on the surface.

All his life he thought about his fellow shipmates who did not survive and that William was never forgotten.

--GreGen

Dunn NC's Favorite Son, General William C. Lee, 'Father of the Airborne'

From the Feb. 4, 2021, Chowan (NC) Herald ""Week in NC history."

On February 5, 1844m William C. Lee, the "Father of the Airborne" suffered a heart attack which ended his military career. 

Born in Dunn in 1895, Lee volunteered  for the United States Army in World War I.  After the war, he remained in the Army and, in 1939, was assigned  to the Chief of the Army's office in Washington, D.C..  There, he became part of a maverick group of officers advocating for the development of an airborne army infantry force.

The Army authorized  the development of a test platoon of paratroopers, and placed Lee in charge.  When the Army raised two airborne divisions, Lee received command of the 101st.  He oversaw its development and training and was instrumental in getting airborne and glider operations going at Camp Mackall and Laurinburg-Maxton Army Base.

The inclusion of the airborne divisions in the Normandy Invasion in June 1944 was a direct result of Lee's work.    Unfortunately, because of the heart attack, he wasn't able to participate in the attack. However, the members of the Screaming Eagle 101st Airborne were ordered to yell the name "Bill Lee" as they jumped out of their transports above France in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, D-Day.

Lee died in 1948 and is buried in Dunn.

--GreGen