LEROY MCCLUSKY

Leroy Stanley "Roy" McClusky


360 Champion Ophelia Road

Dublin, GA 31021



World War II Interview

21 September 2000

By: Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler

Typed By: Jimmie B. Fowler



I was in Rossville, Georgia working for Peerless Woolen Mill on December 6, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. When I came out of the factory after work, the news was out about the attack. Peerless Mill was making materials strictly for the military (blanket and uniform materials). They gave me a job so that I could play ball for the local baseball team. I had just finished the season of professional baseball in the lower league. So I was up in Rossville working.



When I got home, I had a greeting from the draft board in 1942. I had about a month so I joined the Navy and was in the Seabees. I was twenty-three years old. I chose the Navy because I liked the Navy and thought the Seabees would be light construction. I had some construction experience. I joined in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We were sent to Nashville, TN for a final examination. After that, they sent us back home before they called us. They called us about the last of October or first of November. We went back to Nashville for another physical.



I was a part of the Battalion when I got to Norfolk, VA for basic training. We boarded the Tennessee Central Railroad, a small railroad and went through Knoxville on the way to Virginia. It took two days to get there. Of course, you can imagine that we were all young and we had a good time. We would run out of something to drink, so when the train was going slow up a mountain or hill, some of them would get off and buy something to drink and run to catch the train. That's how steep the mountains were through there.



I was at Norfolk about three months. We took regular basic Navy training and then we took advanced training and Marine training. We went to the rifle range, field maneuvers, and marches on the beach. I remember this Marine thought he could march us down. I was in good physical condition and young. So he got pretty upset with us because he couldn't beat us down.



From there, we were shipped out to Fort Hueneme, California. That was the staging area for deportation. From there, we went up the coast to San Francisco and went out from there. I was not assigned to a ship; we were on a troop ship and went to Hawaii. The first stop was in Maui, Hawaii. We stayed there about a year and built a Navy Training Air Base. When we completed that the 42nd Seabee Battalion relieved us. I was in the 39th Seabee Battalion.



After going through another series of advanced training there, we went to the island below us and loaded on a ship and went to the Marshall Islands. As we followed the war, we were not there very long. We were just cleaning up. The Marshall Islands were small, barely sticking up out of the water. By the time the Marines and Navy got through there, there was nothing but stubby trees.



We went to the Mariana Islands. After a stop on Guam, I was stationed on Saipan. I don't remember exactly how long we were there; it was a good long while. We went in right behind the Marine's so the island was secure. We built warehouses and roads. We were on the upper end of the island. The Army Air Force was on the south end of the island. We could see Tinian from where we were but we didn't have to secure it we didn't want to. The Air Force was down there and we watched the B29's go out and bomb Japan. One afternoon about six o'clock, the planes were coming back in and some zeros were right on their tail and shot them all down. We recovered from that and just swept them out of the way into the ocean and got some replacements. When I was leaving there, my commander asked me why I didn't stay there and go to Japan with him.



We had no idea that the war would be over. It was a long about July.



I was not married then, but had not been home in about three years and I wanted to go home. I did go home and while I was home, the war was over. I was stationed in Providence, Rhode Island and the proving grounds were there. I was in charge of all the equipment there. I kept records of all that came in and all that went out. I was Chief Petty Officer at this time. I was there from September until the last of December. I was scheduled to go to California to a school. Not being married, I didn't have enough points. I decided I would get out and was sent to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.



My girlfriend, Mary and I had planned to get married. I had not heard from Mary in several months and my friends told me she was headed home. We had written so many letters that we were just "wrote out". When she came in, I met her at the train station in Chattanooga. She was certainly surprised at that. On January 3, 1946 we got married.



I was discharged December 1945.



The Seabees were a good outfit to be in. We had our own rifles, machine guns, and that sort of thing and if we had to we would use them. Of course, I worked with a carbine doing my groundwork. The last day that I was on Saipan, we captured some Japanese prisoners and brought them in. We were getting a lot of lamb and goat from New Zealand and we'd eat that stuff about every way we could. We didn't like it either. We started feeding that to the Japanese and they wouldn't eat that either. We had the natives fenced in a compound and they were no trouble at all. There were some sugar mills there and we leveled them and they used the old tin to build them some leantos and shelters. It rained a good bit there. The Japanese gave us a lot of trouble there. We had an awful lot of air raids. We lived in tents in Tent City.



At night when you'd go to bed, you would put by your bed: your shoes, a pair of pants, your rifle, your helmet, and a thick jacket. You'd get dressed on the fly when you heard the air raids!



They liked to have run us crazy. You couldn't sleep! We would bomb in the daylight. At that time the P38 was a new airplane. They never were able to handle it very well. It had two tails. I remember one time we were standing outside in the chow line and two zeros came over and two of the P38's came over one time and just crossed, and tore those zeros all to pieces. We had ships in the harbor at Saipan on Christmas 1945. The Army was in command of that island at that time. They wouldn't let them fire until a particular time. When they'd turn those ships loose, you could walk on the flack up above there. It was something else! One time when I was working in a field right near the dock, the siren went off. I saw the airplane fly up and down through there. I got up and watched it. When they started strafing us, I found me a foxhole. I got out of the way. Most of the things we had there were just a nuisance.



Saipan was pretty good duty but we got tired of it and wanted to go somewhere else. We were ready to finish the job. I was in the military for about four years.



It was not a bad tour of duty since I was not married. When we came through Hawaii, we had a good bit of freedom; there were lots of good athletes. The Army sent a lot of special service troops over there. I can't remember all the big names that came over. But I remember Joe Diamago, Tom Ferrick, Johnny Myers and others. They were on the island of Oahu.



Note: My wife, Mary (deceased five years ago) was a 1st Lt. in the Army Nurses Corp and stationed in Jacksonville, Florida before going to China-Burma-India area. She joined before I did. We were not married at this time, but corresponded as much as we could. Of course, all our mail was censored so when you got them it was just what was left of them.



We had already decided to get married so about two weeks after she returned home after the service we were married on January 3rd. She was very patriotic. She was proud of being in the service. She was from a family of ten and at one time nine of them were in the military service.



We were married forty-nine years before she died. I was real proud of her and I miss her very much.



I was born in Jackson County, Alabama and my father moved to Chattanooga when he found employment there. We moved to Chickamauga, GA, about twelve miles south of Chattanooga when I was twelve years old and that's where I spent most of my life.



My father was William Lee McClusky.



My mother was Maggie Mae Shirley.



Our daughter is Shirley McClusky Tyner.



My wife, Mary Gallaher was from Decatur, Tennessee daughter of Lula and Frank Gallaher.





Notes:

I went to high school in Rossville, Georgia. The year that I started high school, my mother died and daddy took us out for a little while. The high school at Chickamauga had real tough courses like Latin, Algebra, Science and English. It was semi-private and very strict. I got behind and dropped out for about a year and a half. So that was the reason I went to Rossville High School where I graduated. I was a good athlete plus they had real good semi-pro ball equal to professional and they picked up good amateurs. That's when I really got started.



I don't know how many people know Joe Engle but he was president of the Chattanooga Lookouts, a farm team for Washington Senators



I went to Florida spring training with them and played "A" ball. But then they farmed me out and sent me to Thomasville, Georgia. The last year that I played was in Dothan, Alabama. After the war, I didn't try to play anymore. I had been out for four years and gotten married and it was time to settle down and go to work.



I have two brothers, William Thomas lives in Tallahassee Florida and Waverly Jerome lives in Nashville, Tennessee.



I retired from J. P. Stevens Company here in Dublin in 1984, after twenty years.





Interview by Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler, Sr.

July 12, 2000