Goldsboro, N.C., U.S.O. Club-- Part 1: Goldsboro Woman's Club Building

From "A History  of the Goldsboro Woman's Club" by Emma R. Edwards and Ovelia  D. Rockwell.

The Goldsboro Woman's Club erected their own building in 1927.

During World War II, the Woman's Club went all out for the effort.  They sold war bonds among many things, but by far their biggest effort was when they "enlisted their beautiful building for the duration."  They inconvenienced themselves by doing so and had to find other places to meet.

One week after Pearl Harbor, the building became a defense center and later a city and county headquarters for rationing.  Red Cross Air Raid classes were also held there.  But, by far the biggest effort involved becoming the recreational headquarters of the newly established Seymour Johnson Field, a major Army Air Force Base.

The Woman's Club offered its building to the U.S.O. on a nonprofit basis, giving it the privilege of making interior alterations as needed.  Six agencies of the United Services Organization started using the building in August 1942.

--GreGen

Donald Allen, WWII "Nose Art" Artists Died in 2013-- Part 2

Donald Allen, a Cleveland native, graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1941.  His job in the air force was to ready planes for sorties.  he avoided painting nude women, unlike many others doing "Nose Art."

He painted more than fifty designs on P-47 Thunderbirds and P-51 Mustangs.  Reproductions of his "Nose Art" are on display at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, N.C., where a street is named for him.

He volunteered as a waist gunner on a B-17 shuttle of bombers from England to Italy to Russia in 1944 to service aircraft on each stop and was awarded the Air Medal for his role.

--GreGen

Goldsboro, NC's Seymour Johnson Air Force Base

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

Seymour Johnson Field, Goldsboro, was activated 12 June  1942 as Headquarters, Technical School, Army Air Force Technical Training Command,  In 1943 is began training personnel for deployment overseas as replacements.  It became the home of the 75th Training Wing.

The 326th Fighter Group as assigned to the beas October 1943 and trained pilots for P-47 Thunderbolt fighters from January 1944 until the end of the war.  The based also housed German POWs and, after the war, became an Air Corps separation center from September 1945 until it was deactivated in May 1946.

In the early 1950s, Goldsboro Mayor Scott B. Berkely, a WWI  aviator and John Dortch Lewis led a campaign to reactivate the base and on April 1, 1956, Sewymour Johnson Air Force Base reopened.

And That's How It Came to Be.  --GreGen