Hoist a Glass for Red Today-- Part 1: World War II Veteran

From the May 30, 2016, Chicago Tribune editorial.

Red Madsen came home from war and led an ordinary life.  Even after seeing all the bloodshed and destruction.

When he died, his daughter wrote an obituary about his life and wartime service.  She knew that he had advanced island to island and was approaching Japan in the weeks before the two atom bombs ended the war.

Not until his death did she learn that he had earned a Bronze Star for combat heroism.

Part of the obit:  "Harry N. 'Red' Madsen, 76, retired railroad brakeman, died September 15, 1996, in Audubon, Iowa, 13 miles from where he was born."

--GreGen

Celebrating Wilmington's Role in World War II-- Part 2: "America's World War II City"

"America's Wor
"A retired U.S. Naval Reserve captain and historian, Wilbur Jones began a quest in 2007 to have Wilmington named 'America's World War II City.'  He was motivated not only by the city's contributions during the war years at historic sites, including the Cape Fear Museum, Shipyard Market, Burgwin-Wright  House, and the most visible symbol in the city: the steel-gray, flag-fluttering behemoth known as the Battleship North Carolina.

"Jones has persisted in his pursuit of a bill that would grant the historic designation, but legislation has stalled.  Happily, 2018 is looking better for Jones' dream."

By Susan Stafford Kelly

Hannah Block Historic USO Building
120 South Second Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
(910) 341-7860

Celebrating Wilmington's Role in World War II-- Part 1: Wilbur Jones

From the January Our State (North Carolina) Magazine  "The Liberty Armada" by Philip Gerard.

Without a doubt, Wilbur Jones is to Wilmington, North Carolina,  in World War II as Chris Fonvielle is to Wilmington in the Civil War.  I'd sure like to meet him and have him give a tour of the sites.  he has even written two books on it.

"A wartime youngster, Wilbur Jones well remembers the constant activity surrounding shipbuilding in his hometown of Wilmington, particularly the social events taking place just as constantly at the Orange Street USO.  The building has been preserved as a community arts center, as well as a public museum featuring furniture and signage, plus the original floor and piano, Hannah Block, for whom the building is named, played the piano when she worked at the USO."

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 14 Launching the Liberty Ships SS Vance, Dare and McKay

Several very interesting photographs accompanied the article.

**  Crews prepare the SS Zebulon B. Vance for its launch from the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, which stood at the site of the current Port of Wilmington.

**  Building Liberty Ships was dangerous and deadly.  Some 115,000 workers were injured and 15 died during the five years the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was in operation.  Shows the cranes and at least two Liberty Ships under construction, one of which was the SS Virginia Dare, named after the first white English child born in the New World.  She was born at what is now called the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island.

**   On July 30, 1942, the SS James I McKay was christened in Wilmington by Mary West Cromartie, a descendant of the ship's namesake, a North Carolina congressman from the 1800s.   Shows the bottle of champagne breaking on the bow.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 13: North Carolina Shipbuilding Company Closes Down

The ships launched by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company's ships are considered among the best and most efficiently built vessels of the war.  But on April 16, 1946, the last ship, the SS Santa Isabel, sled down the ways.  The company shutters its operation and releases most of its 25,000 workers.

The site sat vacated.  But, after nearly five years of negotiations, on November 15, 1949, the state port authority was created with a fifty-year lease on the northeast section of the yard.

Part of the site will be developed into the Port of Wilmington, a modern deep-water port -- planned but never realized after World War I.

The Liberty Ships at last retired from the high seas.  But two of them are still operational.

--GreGen

N.C,'s Liberty Armada-- Part 12: Pearl Harbor Was the Next Day

The dignitaries at the SS Zebulon B. Vance's launching retired to a luncheon at the Cape Fear Country Club.  Workers like Elverton Shands headed for home.

Scarcely 24 hours later, Shands was listening to the radio.  "It was the Washington Redskins nd the Bears game," he recalls.  A newscaster interrupts the game to report the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.  "Well, I knew my father was in the Navy.  ...And I came downstairs and I said, 'Daddy, where's Pearl Harbor?'"

His father told him.

And the war was on, and the Liberty Ships were on their way.

--GreGen

U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War

United States involvement in the war started slowly with an initial deployment of advisers in the early 1950s, grew incrementally through the early 1960s and expanded with the deployment of full combat units in July 1965.

American forces actually fighting in the war came to an end in 1973, but it wasn't until April 1975 when the last U.S. personnel were evacuated as Saigon fell to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

Those who served active duty in the armed forces from 1955 to 1975 are recognized on March 29.

The Vietnam War was my generation's war.

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 11: Launching of the Vance and Its Service

The SS Zebulon Vance was the first of 243 ships to be built in Wilmington at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Companyduring the war.  Most were of the Liberty Ship design, but others were of the Victory Ship design which were faster.  Twenty-seven were sunk.

But, the Vance is lucky.  It survived a torpedo attack and floating mines on the dreaded Murmansk, Soviet Union, run.  It then was part of the transport fleet for the invasion of North Africa.  Later it did duty as a hospital ship, renamed the USS John J. Meany.  Its final duty in the war was to transport war brides home from Europe.

But, back to its launching.  Spectators mobbed the riverbanks.  The Vance was festooned stem to stern with nautical flags.  It slid down to the river stern-first.  Tugboats blasted their whistles and then nudges the ship alongside its fitting-out dock.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 10: SS Zebulon Vance Launched Dec. 6, 1941

The first Liberty Ship to slide down the ways into the Cape Fear River, then, was the Zebulon B. Vance.  It was 441.6 feet long, 56 foot beam and displaced 14,100 tons with a draft of 27.8 feet.

It was manned by 44 officers and crew and could carry more than 9,000 tons of cargo:  440 tanks, 2,840 jeeps or 230 rounds of small arms ammunition.  It cost $1,610,000.

These Liberty Ships were not just being built here, but in shipyards all along the seaboard.

The launch took place on December 6 in a short ceremony with brief remarks.  North Carolina Governor Joseph M. Broughton also spoke.  His wife, Alice W. Broughton christened the ship with the traditional bottle of champagne.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 9: South Carolina-Named Ships Launched in North Carolina?

The first of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company's designated "Liberty Ships" scheduled to be launched in December 1941, was to be named Francis Marion, honoring the American Revolution guerrilla leader from South Carolina.  Others were to have the names Nathaniel Greene and Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War generals from Rhode Island and New Jersey.  Four more were to be named after South Carolinians:  John C. Calhoun, Charles C. Pinckney, William Moultrie and Edward Rutledge.

These names struck a blow to local pride and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter to the United States Maritime Commission in charge of the ships reading:  "Thus, it would appear that, to date, South Carolina has gained more recognition than any other state in the number of vessels constructed here."

Just weeks before the Marion's launch, the name was changed to Zebulon B. Vance, the Civil War governor of North Carolina.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 8: 24,000 Workers At Peak and USOs

There was a new high-speed turbine shop at the yard that was so top secret that it was not placed on shipyard  maps.

The North Carolina Shipbuilding Company continued to grow and eventually employed 25,000 workers. and dispensed a payroll of $50 million a year.

Wilmington was transformed into a boomtown as young workers with money to spend mingled with soldiers, sailors and Marines.  A growing number of USOs, bars and nightclubs sprang up.  The USO at Second and Orange was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and became quite a social hub.

Junior Hostesses and Liberty Belles danced with servicemen, mend their uniforms and serve them refreshments.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 7: Three Shifts, Women and U-boats

The shipyard swarmed with workers 24 hours a day working in three shifts.  Women were allowed just to work the first two shifts, never the graveyard shift or below decks to avoid compromising situations.  The company provided on-site day care for their young children.  But women with no children are more valued as workers.

At night, the shipyard is illuminated by nearly 2,000 floodlights.  Easier for the people to work, but there was a danger.

Captains of ships passing by offshore complained that on cloudy nights with no moon, they were silhouetted against this bright light and perfect targets for the waiting U-boats.  On the night of March 12, 1942, the tanker John D. Gill, bound for Philadelphia, was torpedoed near the mouth of the Cape Fear River by a German U-boat.

Future sea trials for newly commissioned vessels were conducted entirely in the river because of the German U-boat threat.

--GreGen

Wreck of the USS Juneau Found

March 21, 2018, Newsweek  "USS Juneau:  Warship sunk by Japan in World War II discovered two miles beneath the Pacific"  Cullom Paton.

Found 2 1/2 miles deep off the coast of the Solomon Islands on Saturday, march 17.  It was found by Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and brings his total of historic shipwrecks he's found to six.

It was sunk by the Japanese in November 1942 with the loss of 687 naval personnel.  That includes the famous five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa:  George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert.  These five demanded they be put on the same ship despite the Navy's policy forbidding family members from serving on the same ship.  A destroyer was named after them.

The Juneau had been commissioned just a year before it was sunk in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Paul Allen has also found the USS Lexington, USS Indianapolis, USS Ward and USS Astoria as well as the Japanese battleship Musashi and the Italian destroyer Artigliere.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 6: Fast Growth and Role of Women

The North Carolina Shipbuilding Company took shape in a matter of months.  It sat on 57 acres along the Cape Fear River, had its own bus terminal, cafeteria, police and fire departments and even its own hospital.

Four hundred Newport News employees were transferred to Wilmington from Virginia.  But, more than 500 men and women were recruited locally: plumbers, carpenters and electricians along with unskilled trainees who would have to learn on the job.

At first, women had to do less strenuous jobs, but quickly showed they were capable of more physically demanding jobs such as plumbing and welding.  They dressed in slacks and blouses and wore work shoes.  This last thing was made difficult because steel-toed work boots came just in men's sizes.  Many wore Boy Scout shoes or went with open-toe footwear so broken toes were a constant hazard.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 5: Blacks and Whites At the Shipyard

Work gangs on the ships were integrated.  White and Black men worked alongside each other doing both skilled and unskilled jobs.  But dining, restroom and locker facilities were strictly segregated.  White workers read the Shipyard Bulletin, while Blacks read The Colored Shipbuilder.

Discrimination by Maritime Commission contractors was prohibited, but that usually was not the case.  During periods of racial tension, Backs and Whites exited the shipyards through separate gates.

The article didn't mention if there was a difference in pay rates between Blacks and Whites.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 4: Housing Projects for Workers

The N.C. Shipbuilding Co. was able to get Federal subsidies to construct three housing projects for 900  workers and their families.

Greenfield Terrace was a permanent one to house 300 white families with rents starting at $27.50 a month.  Lake Village had temporary fabrication houses for another 475 white families.  The 126 black families had Hillcrest Extension, a permanent community with rents from $10 to $22.

The two white communities were located near Greenfield Lake, just north of the shipyard and an easy commute.  Housing for the black workers were several miles away.

Buses served all three communities and eventually there were 140 trucks and buses  ferrying people around.

These buses were often crowded qt the end of shifts and workers got to them as past as possible to avoid being straphangers and standing.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 3: Using New Technology

What they had planned for this new Cape Fear shipyard was to construct 37 new cargo ships at a cost of $42 million.  They would be built to a uniform design adopted from the British and to be used in all American shipyards to build these ships, to be known as Liberty Ships.

They could be modified for use as tankers and fitted out with anti-aircraft guns.  They would carry supplies to England through the Lend-Lease Act of 1941.

Plus, they would be built using new technology.  Instead of the traditional expensive and time-consuming method of riveting steel plates, workers would build the ships in modules and weld the pieces together.  This had never been tried before in ocean-going ships.

The Liberty Ships were not expected to hold up for more than a few years, but the speed of construction and efficiency were deemed to be worth it.  The Allies needed supply ships right away and these would fit the bill.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 2: Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.

From Colonial times through the Civil War and during World War I, the Great War, the Cape Fear River had been the site of shipyards and construction.  Bit no new ship had been built there since 1918.

Now, the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company set up shop on the east bank of the Cape Fear River.  It is a subsidiary of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.  Wilmington had won a battle with Morehead City, N.C., to get the company.

The Newport News Shipbuilding Company is renowned for its craftsmanship and the teamwork of its shipwrights, but it is notoriously anti-union and right away ran into trouble from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  The company's president, Homer Lenoir Ferguson, was the son of a Confederate veteran and has a fierce work ethic and an abiding respect for those who work with their hands -- including Blacks.  He routinely hired black workers for skilled positions such as machinist, riveters, engineers and welders.

He becomes the head of the company when his predecessor, A.L. Hopkins, died when the Lusitania was torpedoed in the Great War.  Ferguson is 68 years old, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who studied naval architecture in Glasgow, Scotland -- the nation that produced revolutionary fast blockade runners used by the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Many of them came to Wilmington.

--GreGen

N.C.'s Liberty Armada-- Part 1: No Peace On Earth in 1940-41

From the January 2018, Our State Magazine  "The Liberty Armada" by Philip Gerard.  Part of the magazine's "1940s The Decade of Transformation" series.

This is the story of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company of Wilmington, N.C..

When America went to war in 1941, the Navy turned to Wilmington to provide ships.  The city's response helped secure victory for the Allies and left a lasting mark on the North Carolina Coast.The Whiteville News Reporter on Jan. 1 headlines read "New Year's Greetings --  Peace on Earth 1940."  Later, it headlined, "National Defense Expansion Urged By The President."

In November 1941, the Wilmington Morning Star reported:  "U.S. Warship Torpedoed While On Convoy Patrol in the North Atlantic."   It went on to say that 77 men of the USS Reuben James, including seven officers, remained missing and were feared dead.  The ship's skipper, Lt. Cmdr. H.L. Edwards, had married a Wilmington, N.C., girl just six years earlier.  I have been writing a lot about this ship in this blog and will continue to do so.

Later, that same month, the tanker SS Salinas was torpedoed by a U-boat.

War Is On its Way to North Carolina.  --GreGen

Keep the Spirit of '45 Alive-- Part 2: Ray Henders

Ray Henders of Fox Lake, Illinois, was just 17 when he enlisted in the Navy.  he was also part of a barbershop quartet that entertained U.S. soldiers overseas during the Vietnam War, which led him to a singing part in the John Hughes movie :Baby's Day Out."

He said that many Americans lost family members in the war, but was a time when they would stand up for what they believed in

--GreGen