Fort Eustis, Va., in the War

I wrote about Fort Eustis in my Not So Forgotten Blog: War of 1812, because it was named after War of 1812 veteran Abraham Eustis who eventually became a brevet brigadier general and was the first commander of Fort Monroe.

To find out about it, click on the Not So Forgotten War of 1812 in the My Blogs section to the right of this.

--GreGen

WW II Vets Honored At Pearl Harbor Day Ceremony-- Part 1

From the December 9, 2017, Ocala (Fla.) Today by Andy Fillmore.

The ceremony was held Saturday.  JACK EDGE, 93, is a Pearl Harbor survivor.  he was in the U.S. Navy from 1941-1950.

Three other World War II vets were also honored.

Navy Chief JAMES PHILLIPS survived his ship being sunk by Japanese kamikazes though 200 of his crew mates died.

Former Ocala Mayor DOUG OSWALD  survived freezing conditions and was wounded on a night patrol.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivors Recognized in Nebraska and Iowa

From the December 6, 2017, Omaha (Neb) World Herald  "Pearl Harbor Survivors, Heroes Recognized At Events in Nebraska, Iowa" by Steve Liewer.

There living Pearl Harbor Survivors:

William Barsell, of Wahoo, was at the Navy barracks ashore.

Ed Guthrie, of Omaha, was on the USS Whitney

Melvin Kennedy, of Grand Island, was on the  USS Riegel.

The family of Lt. jg Aloysaus Schmittm, a Catholic chaplain from Dubuque, Iowa, will receive a posthumous Silver Star.  He was below deck on the USS Oklahoma as it capsized and let 12 other sailors go before him and escape through a small porthole.  This cost him his life.

He was one of the Oklahoma unknowns until DNA identified his remains and he was buried in Dubuque 14 months ago.

--GreGen

Quincy Pearl Harbor Survivor Says People Shouldn't Forget

From the December 7, 2017, Patriot Ledger (Mass.) "People shouldn't forget says Quincy survivor of Pearl Harbor" by Zane Razzaq.

Bill Keith, 95, is among the last Pearl Harbor survivors in the state of Massachusetts.  One Dec. 7, 1941, he was a 19-year-old on the USS West Virginia.  he managed to escape his sinking ship when sailors managed to open a hatch.

He was supposed to spend the day relaxing, but didn't get much of it.

After the attack, he attended corpsman school in South Dakota.

--GreGen

Three Pearl Harbor Survivors at Dec. 7 Commemoration in Wilmington, N.C.

From the December 7, 2017, Wilmington (NC) Star-News  "Locals salute veterans, remember Pearl Harbor" Ben Steelman.

Twenty-five World War II veterans were in attendance at the USO/Community Arts Center Building in Wilmington.  Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., noted Wilmington World War II authority was there as well.

Three Pearl Harbor veterans were also there:

Harold Garrish who was an ensign with the Fleet Gunnery Party on Ford Island.

William Hendley was on the USS Oklahoma.

Leslie "Bud" Hollenbeck was a signalman on the USS Pennsylvania.

Jones also recognized three Wilmington residents who were killed in action December 7, 1941:

Signalman Harvey Howard Horrek on the USS Arizona

Boatswain's Mate Herbert F. Melton on the USS Oklahoma

Radioman 2nd Class Clyde Carson Moore on the USS Shaw.

Jones was seven years old on December 7, 1941.

--GreGen

More USS Oklahoma Unknowns Identified

**   May 6, 2018  U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class EDWARD F. SLAPIKAS,  24    The Newport Township High School 1942 yearbook was dedicated to him and to Petty Officer 3rd Class Keith Jeffries who died on the USS Arizona that day.

**   May 3, 2018    HENRY GLENN TIPTON,  20.   His service will be June 8 at the Wings of Honor Museum in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

--GreGen

Hemp For the War Effort in DeKalb County

From the April 25, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1943, 75 Years Ago.

"Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones announced that the Defense Plant Corporation had authorized eight contracts with the Commodity Credit Corporation to provide eight hemp processing plants, two of which will be built in DeKalb County.

"The two plants which will be built in this county will be located in Kirkland and Shabbona."

Hemp for the War Effort.  --GreGen

Collecting Guns For the War Effort

From the April 25, 2018, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1943, 75 Years Ago.

"Guns for the navy club received an additional impetus when Otto Babcock, chairman of the committee at Waterman for the collection of firearms, reported at police headquarters in DeKalb with 30 weapons and most of them very fine specimens."

Collecting Gubns For the War Effort.  --GreGen

World War II Vet Gets Wish to "Dance With a Pretty Girl"

From the April 25, 2018, Fox 5 News  "Sorority grants World War II veteran's final wish to dance with a pretty woman."

The Iota Mu Sorority at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg held a dance for Paul Sonnier who is bedridden and near death.

Nice Thing to Do.  --GreGen

Statue Controversy in North Carolina-- Part 3: To Honor Five Who Died in Crash

One night in 1943, three Russians, one Ukranian and a Canadian were killed when a seaplane bound for the Soviet Union crashed in the Pasquotank River.  Since this was top secret, their sacrifice was never publicly recognized and forgotten for decades.

After Project Zebra was declassified in 2013, efforts to honor these men and the others in the project got underway and a monument was designed to include three figures, one each of a Soviet, United States and United Kingdom aviator.

Back in 2017, the Elizabeth City, North Carolina, city council unanimously approved the statue.  But the new one voted against it.

Myself, I think they are over reacting.  There is nothing wrong with the statue which should be erected.

--GreGen

Statue Controversy in N.C.-- Part 2: Training Soviet Aviators for Anti-U-boat Operations

One council member who voted against it believes it could be a Trojan Horse from which the Russians could disrupt the internet or electrical system in the United States.  Plus, Russians are known for their hacking now.

A Russian-American joint commission on POWs and MIAs wanted the monument in Elizabeth City because of a top-secret World War II operation at a U.S. Coast Guard station located there.  Recently declassified documents say that "Operation Zebra" helped train about 300 Soviet aviators to find German submarines and bomb them.

The U.S. east coast was always under threat of German U-boat operations, and, of course, the U.S. was supplying weapons and food to the Soviet Union along the Murmansk Arctic convoy run, which often was under U-boat attack.

--GreGen

Statue Plan Starts Mini-Cold War in N.C.-- Part 1: "Operation Zebra"

From the March 30, 2018, Chicago Tribune "Statue plan starts mini-Cold War in one U.S. city" by Martha Waggoner.

During World War II, the United States and Soviet Union were allies and hundreds of Soviet aviators were trained on the North Carolina coast as part of a secret spy project, but now an effort to honor this project has set off a mini-Cold War in a small American city.

The Russian Ministry of Defense wants to pace a 25-ton bronze monument in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Much of the now declassified "Project Zebra" was carried out nearby.  Russia will pay for the 13-foot tall monument and the city will pay for the development of the park on the bank of the Pasquotank River.

But with the international tensions and fears of Russian hacking of U.S. elections, Elizabeth City officials have rejected the plan.

--GreGen

World War II Marriages

Harry "Red" Madsen met his wife, Betty Kaplan, while in the Army.  She was from Brooklyn.  He was from Iowa.  It is not likely they would have met had it not been for World War II.  I wrote about him April 3 and 4  "Hoist One for Red."

Last month I wrote about the Liberty Ships and the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, N.C., and the first ship launched, the SS Zebulon Vance, eventually ended up carrying war brides back from Europe.  Again, not likely these new wives would have met their husbands had it not been for the war.

My wife's father, Ambrose, grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Her mother, Frances, grew up in Kansas.  Amby was stationed in Kansas which is where they met.

The War Taketh Away and Giveth, I Guess.  --GreGen

Shattering the Martini Glass Ceiling-- Part 4: Bar Maids or Bar Guys?

In 1950, the Tribune picked up an AP story from Detroit with the headline "Grandmas fight to keep jobs -- as bartenders."  It described the plight of a barowner who was being pressured by the local bartenders union to fire "his elderly barmaids."

One was 50 and the other 51.

He said: "I don't want to put the girls out of work.  They are the best help I've ever had and they've been with me since 1942.

"But, if I don't sign the contract, the union will keep picketing my place and I won't be able to get any beer.  I have to sign it or go out of business.  Ah, me!!  Such a business!"

Hey, Let's Face It, Bar Maids Are Much Easier On the Eyes Than a Bar Guy.  --GreGen

Shattering the Martini Glass Ceiling-- Part 3: Losing Their Jobs After the War

After the war, most of the female bartenders lost their jobs, bit about 30 were still working.  The Chicago bartenders' union set April 30, 1946, as the deadline for tavern owners to fire the women.  But, it id say that a woman could continue to work behind the bar is she either owned the tavern or was the wife of an owner.

Union rules and laws stayed on the books until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to the lifting of most bans.

--HreHen

Shattering the Martini Glass Ceiling-- Part 2: "Barmaids-For-The-Duration"

These barmaids-for-the-duration" as they were called in 1945 were hired on the condition that they resign as soon as the men came home.  That year, the local bartenders union admitted 123 women who "already have donned the apron and taken to swabbing the mahogany."  They worked under union rules and earned the Chicago minimum wage of $45 weekly.

And, the women did just fine at their new jobs.  They seemed to have the touch.  One union boss declared, "When it comes to mixed drinks they appear to have the touch."  A man from Decatur said: "Maybe it's their instinctive food mixing ability.  Anyway, they can shake or stir up a whiskey sour or cocktail as if they were at home stirring up a cake."

--GreGen

Shattering the Martini Glass Ceiling-- Part 1: Rise of Women Barmaids in World War II

From the October 16, 2016, Chicago Tribune  "Raise a glass to barmaids of WW II era"  Chicago Flashback by Lara Weber.

"Call it the shattering of the martini glass ceiling -- that moment when bar and tavern owners decided that a woman could pour a pint or mix a Manhattan as well as a man."

And, it took a war to get women there.

For much of U.S. history laws and local customs prevented women from working as bartenders.  But when the U.S. entered World War II and thousands of men shipped overseas for military service, women went to work in the bars.

--GreGen

WASP Special Delivery-- Part 3: Ferried Aircraft, Target Practice and Transporting Cargo

During World War II, the WASP organization was largely made up of the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAF).  It was formed to free male pilots for combat duty overseas..

Of the 25,000 women who applied, fewer than 1,900 were accepted.  In addition to ferrying aircraft from factories, their duties included towing targets for anti-aircraft practice (such as the ones at Camp Davis and Fort Fisher, N.C.), simulated strafing and transporting cargo.

During the course of the war, they flew nearly every type of aircraft.

Many of their planes were not exactly in good shape.  In the course of performing their duties, 38 brave women lost their lives.

--GreGen

WASP Special Delivery-- Part 2: Aircraft Plants Camouflaged

The flight leader is kneeling and pointing to a specific rendezvous point on an aerial map, reinforcing the path of the WASP flight plan.

Their mission is to ferry five P-38 Lightning fighters to a port of embarkation where the planes will be shipped to bases overseas.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, several defense plants on the U.S. west coast, including Lockheed, were heavily camouflaged with netting and artificial foliage to resemble farmland as seen from the air.

You can see the camouflage overhead in the picture.

WASP Special Delivery-- Part 1: WASPs Flying the Planes

From the 2018 Paralyzed Veterans of America calendar, May.

Picture of five women in flight gear looking at a map on the ground with a bomber behind them.

WASP SPECIAL DELIVERY  "This is not a time when women should be patient.  We are in a war and we need to fight it with all our ability and every weapon possible.  Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used."  --Eleanor Roosevelt.

It is late Autumn 1944.  On the tarmac of the Lockheed Aircraft Plant in Burbank, California, a group of four Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) are gathered around the flight leader.  She is kneeling and pointing at a map.

--HreHen