Shorpy Home Front Photos: 1942, Careful With Those Butts!!

JUNE 19, 2014, ENNIS THE MENACE: 1942.

September 1942.  "Civilian defense.  Fire protection.  The careless smoker causes more fires each year than any other person in the country.  he is to blame for 87,000 separate 1941 fires, which resulted in the loss of many lives and destruction of 14 million dollars of property.

"Whether he falls asleep with a lighted smoke or is careless in the deposit of burning cigars, cigarettes , or matches, he is always a menace."  OWI.

Photo of a man asleep on a couch holding a lit cigarette on a newspaper.  He is about to drop it.

Smokey the Bear Would Be So mad at Him.  --GreGen

Shorpy Home Front Photos: Making Parachutes

JUNE 19, 2014  PIONEER PARACHUTE: 1942:

August 1942.  "Production.  Parachute making.  As these two girls thread shroud cords through the material, these yards of silk become more recognizable as one of the parachutes turned out by this eastern plant.  Pioneer Parachute Co., Manchester, Ct."  William Ritasse, OWI.

COMMENT:  The company became Pioneer Aerospace Corporation and in 1988 was purchased by Zodiac Parachute and Protection and still makes parachutes and aerial delivery systems.

COMMENT:  Manchester was a major center of silk production for over a century.  It is nicknamed "Silk City."  The first silk factory opened in 1804.  It had been in decline during the years preceding World War II, but the war gave it a great boost.

--GreGen

Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor Gary Rossi in 2015

From the April 19, 2015, Stow (Ohio) Sentry  "Stow school crossing guard and Pearl Harbor survivor mourned as a 'great guy'" by Jeff Saunders.

Gary Rossi, 93, of Talmadge, a school crossing guard since the 1980s and Army veteran died April 10, 2015.  When the attack started, he was in the mess hall having breakfast and planning on going to church when he heard an explosion.  he and a group of men ran outside and heard explosions at Wheeler Air Base, about a mile away.

In early 1942, he was sent to Guadalcanal, but saw no other action after that.  He returned to the United states in 1944 and served in Missouri for the rest of the war.

--GreGen

Another Barrien County Pearl Harbor Death: George E. Jones on USS Downes

I was unable to find out much information on George Edwin Jones who was a Petty Officer 3rd Class, Radio man Third Class on the destroyer USS Downes (DD-375) during the attack.  There is a famous picture of the wrecked destroyers Downes and Cassin in the drydock with the battleship USS Pennsylvania after the attack.

There were 142 enlisted and 5 officers aboard during the attack.  Twelve of them died, including Mr. Jones.

His grave is at Riverview Cemetery in St. Joseph in Barrien County, Michigan. and his marker reads "First soldier/sailor from Barrien County killed in World War II.  Pearl Harbor."

--GreGen

Michigan's Barrien County's Pearl Harbor Surivors-- Part 3: Louis E. Harris and Wesley Graham of the USS Oklahoma

From Find-A-Grave.

Wesley Ernest Graham  and Louis E. Harris were on the USS Oklahoma that day.

From the Benton Harbor, Michigan News-Palladium, February 16, 1942.

"TWO B.H. BOYS LISTED AMONG DEAD IN PEARL HARBOR RAID."

Louis E. Harris, Jr., 21 and Wesley Graham, 21.  A telegram was sent to Mr. Louis E. Harris, Sr, saying his son, a musician on the Oklahoma "after and exhaustive search" had been "officially declared to have lost his life in the service of his country."

Wesley Graham's father also received a similar telegram.  His son had been a seaman first class on the Oklahoma..  Wesley Graham's younger brother, Ernest O. Graham had also been on the Oklahoma but had been transferred before the attack and was recently home on a ten-day furlough.  Wesley had enlisted in 1940.

Both Graham and Harris had been trained at Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago, Illinois.

Their unknown remains were buried at Hawaii's Honolulu memorial Cemetery in the Punchbowl.

here's hoping that their remains will be identified now that all of the Oklahoma's unknowns have been dug up for DNA testing.

--GreGen

Michigan's Barrien County's Pearl Harbor Survivors-- Part 2

I found out that Don Alsbro is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army and president of a veterans organization called Lest We Forget.  I wasn't able to find out about him at Pearl Harbor.

There was an article from the Dec. 4, 2006, Berrien County, Michigan Herald Palladium about another survivor, William Wenger, 82 at the time, who was going to make his third and final trip back for the 65th anniversary commemoration.

He was on the destroyer USS Hull and said he was seventeen at the time of the attack and weighed 120 pounds soaking wet.

--GreGen

Michigan's Barrien County at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941-- Part 1

There are still two Pearl Harbor survivors living after the death of Robert Flaherty earlier this month.  They are Don Alsbro and John DeFields

John DeFields was on the destroyer USS Shaw that day.  There is a photograph of a huge explosion taking place on that ship.  He was hit by shrapnel by one of three bombs that tore the ship apart.  He remembers: "I was going to take the ammunition belt off and jump ship.  I looked down and I was all sticky.  I had a hole in my gut and my heart came up into my mouth."

He swam to safety.

I also went through a long list of Barrien County men who died in the war and found that three of them met their deaths at Pearl Harbor:

Wesley E. Graham
Louis E. Harris, Jr.
George Jones  on the USS Downes

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor Robert "Bob" Flaherty Dies

From the March 22, 2016, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor (Mich.) Herald Palladium "Pearl Harbor survivor, longtime mayor dies" by John Matuszak.

Robert "Bob" Flaherty, 96, one of Barrien County's last Pearl Harbor survivors died March 17, 2016.  He was mayor of Watervliet for 18 years.

He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and shipped to Pearl Harbor in February 1941, serving on the USS New Orleans and escaped injury in the attack December 7, 1941..  In 1942, he was forward gunner on the destroyer USS Laffey off Guadalcanal when it was sunk with much loss.  Uninjured, he drifted in the ocean for five hours before being rescued.

At the end of the war he was stationed in Miami training to pilot landing for the planned assault on Japan.

--GreGen

Female WASP Pilots' Fighting Arlington-- Part 4: Reasons

At the current rate of about 160 burials a week, space in Arlington National Cemetery is expected to run out by mid-2030.  There are  50,600 burial plots and 35,548 inurnment spaces left.

According to Arlington spokeswoman Jennifer Lynch, "We're looking at the cemetery as stewards.  We're running out of space."  She said that the job done by the WASPs was commendable, but "it does not reach the level of inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery."

Elaine Harmon's family argues that point.  there are about 100 WASP pilots still alive though not all want to be buried there.  So, they're not going to fill it up.

Representative Jeff Denham, R-Calif., says that if the issue is space, more space should be found at the cemetery.  The military shouldn't "pick winners and losers" in determining who should be buried there.

"They were brave pilots who served our country proudly."

WASP member Jean Landis, 97, of El Cajon, Calif., said that after fighting so long for recognition, the Army's decision leaves a bitter taste.  "A veteran is a veteran, don't you have the honor and the privilege to be buried in one of our national cemeteries?"

I am wondering if this also means they can't be buried in another national cemetery?

--GreGen

Female WWII Pilots Fighting Arlington-- Part 3: Eligible and Then, Not Eligible

In 2002 Arlington National Cemetery's administrator said that WASPs were eligible for full military honors when being buried at Arlington and that they had been eligible since 1977.  Bit in March 2015, a month before Elaine Harmon died at age 95, Army Secretary John McHugh rescinded that decision saying that they were eligible only for burial in all cemeteries run by the VA.

However, WASPs understood they were entitled to all benefits of being veterans, including the right for a spot at Arlington.

Of the 15 WASPs interred or inurned at ANC, 15 would have been eligible for other reasons:  Some were buried with a spouse or served their country in other ways after their WASP duty.

--GreGen

Female WWII Pilot's Kin Now Fight Arlington-- Part 2: 38 Died in Service

Ninety-seven House members have signed a bill to allow all WASP members to be inurned at Arlington and a bill has been sponsored in the Senate.

The WASPs flew more than 60 million miles domestically, test-flew and repaired military aircraft and ferried male officers around the country.  They even towed targets during live-ammunition training.

Thirty-eight died  while serving.

Congress finally granted them military and veteran status in 1977.  In 1984, they each received a World War II Victory Medal and in 2010, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

It sure strikes me how long it took Congress to do this.

--GreGen

Female World War II Pilots Now Fight Arlington National Cemetery-- Part 1: Elaine Harmon

From the Feb. 4, 2016, Chicago Tribune by Sarah D. Wire.

The late Elaine Harmon was one of about 1,000 female pilots who served stateside during the war to free up male pilots for combat.  After the war, she helped persuade Congress to recognize the women's service and grant them veteran status and benefits.

Today, her ashes are sitting in her daughter Terri's closet in Silver Spring. Maryland, because she and other Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) have been deemed ineligible for burial at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC)

The Army says that even though they are considered veterans, that doesn't entitle them for burial at the best-known National Cemetery.

A Change.org petition has been filed by the Harmon family and has so far collected over 54,000 signatures.  Legislation has been introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate to overturn the Army's decision.  They want Harmon's remains to be stored in an urn in a crypt at ANC.

Something That Never Should Have Happened.  The Army Should Be Ashamed.  They Were Veterans.  --GreGen

Wilmington, N.C. in the War-- Part 2: U-boat Attack at Kure Beach

Other parts of Wilmington's role in the war can be found at The Wilmington Railroad Museum and the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science.

Wilbur D. Jones was a U.S. Navy captain who came back home in 1977 and he has a two-hour tour that he gives to showcase Wilmington's World War II sites.  He was seven when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  His father and mother were active volunteers during the war.

The first stop ion his tour is Robert Strange Park, the site of a German POW camp where about 550 members of Rommel's Afrika Korps were imprisoned.

Then they go to Fort Fisher, an old Civil War fort that saw use as as an anti-aircraft training site.  The famous Bazooka guns were tested here.

Then, it is on to U-boats at Kure Beach.  A cottage on Atlantic Avenue is believed to be the site of the only German attack on the U.S. eastern seaboard.  On a night in July 1943, a U-boat surfaced off Kure Beach in view of a couple sitting out on the cottage's front porch and fired several shells from its deck gun at the Ethyl-Dow chemical plant, 1/2 mile away where an aviation component fuel was manufactured.

The shots missed, but a few days later a German submarine was sunk about 20 miles offshore.

The final stop is at the Hannah Block Historic USO.

--GreGen

Wilmington, N.C. in the War-- Part 1: American World War II City

From the March 16, 2016, New York Times "The Battles of Wilmington, N.C.-- in World War II, That Is" by John Hanc.

Wilbur D. Jones, 81 was born in Wilmington and for the last 16 years has led an effort to recognize his city's role in the war effort and turn Wilmington into a sprawling "museum of the home front."

He wants Wilmington designated as the "American World War II City" and has worked with local legislators and testified before Congress on its behalf.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved creating the title and bestowing it on a new city every year.

Wilmington's biggest World  War II attraction, of course, is the battleship USS North Carolina.

--GreGen

Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor Harold E. Leal-- Part 2

Mr. Leal's battle station was lookout on the mizzenmast of the USS Tennessee, but he was unable to get to it because of the heat and smoke from the Arizona and Est Virginia which were engulfing his ship.  Instead, he did other duties and served as needed.

He spent many hours in the sick bay moistening the gauzed wounds of burn victims.

Later in the war, he served on the oil tanker USS Cuyama as a radio operator and later on the USS Hopewell and was at the U.S. Advance Base Torokina in Bougainville, Papua, New Guinea.

Later he was an aviation machinist with the Air Transport Squadron 13 until honorably discharged from the Navy in April 1948.

--GreGen

Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor Harold E. Leal, USS Tennessee-- Part 1

From the March 16, 2016, Galt (California) Herald  "Family, country mourns loss of Pearl Harbor survivor."

Harold E. Leal, 92, died March 1, 2016.  service was held March 10.

On December 7, 1941, he was at Pearl Harbor on the battleship USS Tennessee on Battleship Row next to Ford Island.  Normally the Tennessee would be berthed on the outside of the USS West Virginia, but that ship was scheduled to depart before the Tennessee, so it was outboard that day.  As a result, it suffered a lot more damage and casualties.

Mr. Leal was off duty and below deck reading a magazine when he felt his ship lurch.  A shipmate ran down the ladder yelling that they were under attack and then he heard the alarm.

--GreGen

Shorpy Photo Home Front: Going Swimming and to a Circus

From the Feb. 17, 2016, TRUNK SHOW:  1943--  July 1943.  July 1943.  Montgomery County, Maryland.  "Bathers on the side of a pool at the Glen Echo amusement park."  Esther Bubley, OWI.

Comment:  Glen Echo was whites only until 1961.

FROM THE MARCH 13, 2016 SHORPY  SERIOUS FUN: 1962--  July 1942, Klanmath Falls, Oregon.  "At the sideshow of the circus."  Russell Lee, OWI.  Young couple staring intently at something with a ferris wheel and lighted ride in the background.

Obviously a circus or carnival of some sort.

Even with the war on, fun was still had.

--GreGen

Oldest Pearl Harbor Vet Still Pumping Iron at 104-- Part 2: Spotted Japanese Sub at 3:45 A.M.

Ray Chavez was born in San Bernardino in 1911 and grew up in San Diego where his family ran a wholesale flower business.  At age 27, he joined the Navy and was assigned to the minesweeper USS Condor based at Pearl Harbor.

At 3:45 a.m., on the morning of December 7, Seaman 1st Class Chavez was on his ship, sweeping the east entrance to the harbor when they spotted the periscope of a Japanese mini submarine.  depth charges were dropped, but no damage sighted.  The rest of the morning was peaceful.

He was asleep at home in nearby Ewa Beach when the attack came.  His wife ran into the bedroom and said, "We are being attacked."  Mr. Chavez ran outside and saw everything black from all the burning oil.  A friend in a passing car picked him up and they sped off to the harbor.

He spent the next nine days on continuous duty and didn't know for ten days whether his wife and daughter had survived.

Over the next four years of war, he rose to the rank of chief and served in transport ships in eight Pacific battles.

--GreGen

Oldest Pearl Harbor Vet Still Pumping Iron at 104-- Part 1: Ray Chavez, USS Condor

From the March 8, 2016, San Diego Times-Union by Pam Kragen.

It is estimated that fewer than 2000 Pearl Harbor survivors remain.  Ray Chavez is one of them and is the oldest, at 104.  And he still pumps iron, even at that age.

He turned 104 this week.

Last December, just seven of the old men were healthy enough to make it back to Pearl Harbor for 74th anniversary of the attack.  Mr. Chavez was one of them.

The next oldest survivor is Colorado's James Downing, 102, had been considered the oldest survivor until last summer.  Both hope to attend the 75th anniversary this coming December.

Ray Chavez did not return to Pearl Harbor until the 50th anniversary in 1991.

In San Diego, Ray Chavez is quite the celebrity. Last August, he threw out the first pitch for the San Diego Padres Armed Forces Day.  He goes to Personally Fit Gym in Rancho Bernardo twice a week and has been doing that regularly for the last three years.

--GreGen

Extreme Daylight Savings Time During the War: "Double Summertime"

From the March 13, 2016, Atlas Obscura "The Extreme Daylight Savings Time of World War II" by Jessie Guy-Ryan.

And, there are some today who are complaining about having to change all the clocks the last couple days, and may were late for work today.  But, it was even worse for some countries during World War II.

From 1940-1947, the United Kingdom set their clocks ahead not one, but TWO HOURS in something referred to as "Double Summertime."  The government reasoned that it saved fuel and, during the Blitz, gave workers extra time to get home before Black Out.

Vichy France also had "Double Summertime" from 1940-1942.  In 1945, Berlin and Soviet-occupied Germany were on Daylight Savings Time.

In the United States, meanwhile, we had "War Time" from 1942-1945 when it was Daylight Saving Time all year long.

Quit Yer Gripin'.  --GreGen