INTERVIEW WITH SGT. IRA T. GARNTO
2ND Bn. Hq. Co., 121st Inf., 8th Inf. Div. 1st Army
Sgt. Ira T. Garnto enlisted in Co. K, 121st Infantry on Aug. 1, 1940. After was transferred to Regimental HQ in the intelligence section. After 2 more years I was transferred to 2nd Battalion as Intelligence Chief. I enlisted originally for three years. Many of the men enlisted for only year. After Sept. 1941 and especially after Pearl Harbor, the original Co. K broke up. Only about 10% of the original members of the Company K saw combat in Europe in 1944-45.
I enlisted on August 1, 1940 and in a few days went on maneuvers in Mississippi for three weeks. After I graduated high school in 1940, I thought to myself that I should go ahead and join for a year. We knew Capt. Clifford Prince would let us out after a year if we had a hardship, besides I needed the work. My daddy died in 1928, when I was six years old. I had two older sisters and two younger brothers. My mother invested the insurance proceeds in the First National Bank in Dublin, which went bust that year. We lived on a farm just outside of Brewton. Mamma managed to hand on to the farm in 1942 when she moved to town across from Jefferson Street Baptist Church. My brother was shot down in China on the Yangee River. He was in a B-24 and they were skip bombing. I didn't know what that was, but it was where they would come in low and drop their bombs so that they would skip into the boats. They told us that we would be in the army in three more weeks.
We got to come home on just about every weekend from Fort Jackson, if you could afford it. Some times they charged five dollars to bring you home. We used to ride two in the front and three or four in the back. Some of the men bought cars. You could get one for 800 or 900 dollars. I remember E.L. Stephens bought a car. The 121st was at Fort Jackson when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Actually I was at home when they bombed Pearl Harbor. I had come home riding in a car with Capt. Prince.
While I was there, they tried to get me to go to Officer Candidate School. I wanted to serve my country, but I didn't think that being an officer was for me. They selected two of us to take a test to go to West Point. You had to have the affidavits of two officers, pass a physical, and provide a birth certificates. I had the two affidavits, which I still have, and the birth certificate. About that time we were transferred to Ft. Leonard Wood. It was cold there. In all of the confusion in moving to a new place, the chance passed me by. I remained a Sergeant because I had a lot of lateral transfers. I didn't want to go to O.C.S., but I would have gone to West Point if only for the education. It would have taken me out of the war because I would have finished after the war. I would have had to sign up for seven years which would have put me in Korea. I would not have been killed in World War II, but I could have been in Korea. That may have saved my life. They also tried to make me Battalion Sergeant Major.
We trained in old clothes. They must have been from World War II. We lived in tents in the first winter. We didn't have much equipment. We had to use old stove pipes as mortars.
After we left Fort Jackson, South Carolina, we went on maneuvers in Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The army began assigning Georgia draftees into our regiment, which was then part of the 30th Infantry. We went to Ft. Leonard Wood for about six months and then out west to the desert for another six months. After we returned to Camp Forest, Tenn., we went to New Jersey where we left for Ireland in the winter of 1943.
We went to Northern Ireland after leaving the states. I remember General George Patton talking with us. We were originally to be a part of his 3rd Army. Then we were assigned to the 1st Army. We went to Brest. They underestimated what it would take to clean up there. There were fifty thousand Germans there.
We arrived at Utah Beach, Normandy on the 4th of July. There was no fighting there, but we could still hear the guns, probably close to St. Lo. I rode in a jeep. When it left the landing craft it dipped into the war and wet us. That tickled Gen. Walker. He was killed in a few days. We lost a lot of officers in the first few weeks.
In Normandy, our first mission was to straighten out a bulge in our lines. It took us eight days. Then we sat there for eight days waiting on the tanks to show up. I dug a hole next to one of the hedgerows, which had a bush that looked like a redtip, but I don't think it was really a redtip. A mortar shell came in one night through the hedgerow and caved in my hole. It didn't go off. Another one came within ten feet of my position and tore up my raincoat and cut my telephone wire. It didn't go off. I don't think it would had killed me if it had, but the concussion would have jarred me real bad. Our liaison officer was shot. They asked me to take replacements up to the lines which I did two times. We had gotten down to about 50% strength in Normandy by August, 1944. When we got out of the hedgerows, we got into open fields which were bad. Sleeping was tough. In the day, you thought about and hoped the night would come so the Germans couldn't see you. At night, you thought about someone coming in and getting you.
Our unit never got the credit for the job we did in Normandy. In all of the pictures and films I have seen, I have never seen a soldier in them wearing our division's patch, the 8th Infantry. Sometimes we used to see the skies filled with bombers heading toward Germany. Sometimes they bombed the enemy right in front of us. They were so close they jarred us.
We got into some trouble at Brest. The bombers came over and bombed the Germans, but as soon as they left, the Germans came right back out and starting shooting again.
On the Battle of Hurtgen: The 28th Division had been kicked out of the forest. They had lost almost all of their men. We went in to relieve the 101st Airborne Division. We got there about Thanksgiving. The 28th went to Luxembourg where we came from. They really got kicked during the Battle of the Bulge. The trees in the Hurtgen Forest were in bad shape. Every battalion was quickly engaged. They were mostly pine trees, split and splintered. I remember sleeping sitting up some night. I served in the headquarters 2nd battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Henry B. Kunzig. I was in the forward Command Post with Col. Kunzig. He wanted a messenger from each company and wanted someone in charge of the messengers. I took four messengers from each of the four companies in our battalion back to Col. Kunzig's bunker and remained there with Col. Kunzig.
I was walking into the Town of Hurtgen following the capture of the town. I had just come into the edge of town and was standing by a German tank in front of the first building on the left (see p. 35, 121st Infantry History). I was waiting on my next orders when I heard an artillery round coming in. It hit the tank with a strange thud, but it didn't explode. I was lucky.
It started snowing after a few days, but the snow was much better than the sloppy mud. The slop was worse than the snow. It slowed us down. Many of our casualties came from frostbite. The tanks had no way to go in the mud in the forest. I guess we just outlasted them.
Gladstone Daniel (David G. Daniel, Jr.) is the only Laurens County man that I remember being killed in the battle.
On the Battle of Ruhr Pocket (see page 53, History of the 121st Inf. Regiment): That scene (the one depicted in the book) is very real to me. The Colonel asked me to get four German prisoners who spoke English to work KP duty in the kitchen.
Along the Roer we had a lot of night fighting. It was boogerish, but we had less casualties. At Cologne, Emory F. Scarborough was killed in an auto assembly plant. He had been promoted to Second Lieutenant on the Battlefield. He was in Headquarters 3rd Battalion and they were waiting for directions. I believe George Allen Tindol may have been there. They did manage to get a few trucks from there. We stayed in cellars, but when the warm weather came the snow began to melt and it began raining in on us down there.
The 1st and the 3rd Army after they crossed the Rhine came together in a pincer and cut the Germans off. It was one place where there was a right smart bit of trouble when a 74 ton tank with 120 mm guns came out toward us. The army had assigned a platoon of Black soldiers to F Company. There were not actually part of the company, just attached to it. They did pretty good. They fought together. One of them found a German bazooka and shot it at one of those tanks and stopped it. Another man picked up a Browning automatic rifle and shot the Germans as they came crawling out of the tank. The two men were rewarded with a pass to Paris and a promotion to sergeant. One of them was awarded a Silver Star. That was as close as we came to having an integrated unit. There were a lot of Blacks in the Quartermasters. From then on, we didn't get much fight, but there was some in some of the towns.
When the Germans got out from behind their tanks they surrendered. They just quit. They came out the cellars and surrendered. I stayed with Col. Kunzig everywhere he went after the Hurtgen Forest. On our last drive we went to Schwerin near the Baltic Sea. Col. Kunzig said very little. A German captain wanted the Colonel to go with him to the German Headquarters. I followed his jeep. The Germans were still armed. I stayed outside and didn't go in. A Lt. General surrendered an entire corps to us. They came marching in for three days. There were about 214 thousand of them. They didn't want to surrender to the Russians.
We lost about a thousand killed and four thousand total casualties. Our unit met up with the Russians, or that's what they say. I saw one Russian and he looked liked he was lost.
Interviewed by Scott B. Thompson, Sr., November 20, 1999.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
DUBLIN'S ADMIRAL
The Story of Admiral Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr.
Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr., moved to Dublin at the age of nine in 1913. Braddy was a son of Robert E. and Neva Eudora Braddy. The Braddys lived on Maiden Lane in Dublin on the site of the First Baptist Church Life Center. After attending Dublin schools, he attended Gordon Military College and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1927.
In 1942 Lt. Commander Braddy commanded the U.S.S. Bernadou, an old four stacker tanker, which was built in 1918. “The Bernadou” was named for Commander John Baptiste Bernadou, a hero of the Spanish American War. The ship was originally designed to combat submarines in World War I. The ship was launched four days before the armistice. After it was commissioned in 1919, the “Bernadou” saw sporadic service in the Atlantic Ocean. In the fall of 1939, the “Bernadou” was re-commissioned and went assigned to the Atlantic Ocean on neutrality patrol. The ship had a maximum speed of 35 knots and was just a little longer than a football field. The usual complement of a crew was about one hundred fifty.
Before the United States declared war on Germany the “Bernadou” carried Marines to Iceland in July of 1941. For the next year the ship remained in the Newfoundland-Iceland convoy in the North Atlantic. The first missions of Braddy’s ship were anti-submarine patrols. On October 25, 1942 Braddy's ship, nicknamed the “Bouncing Bee”, was assigned to carry troops into French North Africa for an attack in November, 1942. Along with the “U.S.S. Cole,” the “Bernadou” was assigned to an attack group heading for the port of Safi, French Morroco. The mission of a destroyer was to provide close-in combat support for landing troops. It was a suicide mission. Braddy’s ship was designated as the lead ship to land the first wave of infantry troops on shore.
The “Bernadou” was a part of the Southern Attack Group of the Western Naval Task Force. On the night of November 7th and 8th the attack group moved away from the main convoy. The ships moved to a rendevous point to await the signal for an attack. Just before dawn the eagerly awaited attack signal came.
The “Bernadou” and the “Cole,” commanded by Lt. Cmdr. George G. Palmer of Charleston, South Carolina, steamed toward Safi.
At 3:30 a.m. the two ships moved out headed for the harbor. H-hour was set for 4 a.m. The ship was filled with troops. All of her smokestacks had been removed to disguise her identity. It rode low in the water and was difficult to identify with her mast down. Through unchartered waters, the two ships moved their shops toward the harbor entrance. Their passage went quietly at first with a scout boat in the lead. With companies of the 47th Infantry aboard, the “Bernadou” was challenged at 4:10 a.m.. A spot light from the hills above Safi spotted Braddy’s ship. A signal from shore was answered by the same signal. The light went out. The shore batteries opened fire with their French ‘75s. The two ships along with others to the rear opened fire on the batteries. The pre-dawn skies were lit up by brilliant streams of tracer bullets and the mouths of the big guns.
Braddy ordered the ship to proceed full steam ahead. At 4:28 a.m. the ship rounded the north end of the mole. Braddy took the “Bouncing Bee” through narrow and difficult approaches to the harbor mouth. The task became increasingly difficult when machine guns began firing from jetties. Lookouts on the bridge spotted a bell buoy at the mouth of the harbor. The ships continued under heavy cross fire. Braddy and Palmer guided their ships through a multitude of vessels anchored in the harbor. Braddy ran his ship at near full speed right into the shoreline, which was lined with rocks. This daring maneuver allowed all of the assault troops to land immediately and avoid small arms fire. Cmdr. Palmer guided his ship to a dock where he unloaded his men. The invaders swarmed the shore and reached their objectives. In the dash for the harbor, not a single life was lost. The resistance from the shore soon ceased to exist.
Braddy’s good fortune continued to hold. The beaching had been eased by an underwater sandbar. It was substantial enough to hold the ship in place while the assault forces unboarded, but was not enough to cause any fatal damage to the destroyer. The “Berndaou” and four other destroyers began providing escorts for tanks and troops for the assault on Casablanca on November 10th.
For his actions in guiding his ship safely into Safi under dangerous night conditions, Lt. Commander Braddy was given the Navy Cross and an award from the Belgian government. The Navy Cross is our nation’s second highest award for heroism in the United States Navy. Secretary of the Navy Knox cited the commanders for their actions “with gallant and resolute purpose, and at grave risk to his own life and the safety of his ship and men, they successfully countered all opposition in the accomplishment of a vital and strategic mission.” Vice Admiral Henry Hewitt, in command of the invasion, cited Braddy and Coles’ ships with a large measure of the success of the operation. Admiral Hewitt nominated the two ships to the Navy’s roll of distinguished ships. The entire crew was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions in the successful operation.
After the landing at Safi, the “Bernadou” returned to Boston where she remained on convoy duty until February of 1943. She made a convoy run to Gibraltar in March and in May departed for Algeria. In July, 1943 the ship took part in the occupation of Sicily. Two months later the “Bernadou” aided in the landings at Salerno. After two convoy trips to North Africa in the first half of 1944, the ship retired to the easy runs from the east coast of the United States to the Caribbean. The Bernadou arrived in the Philadelphia Naval Yard for decommissioning on July 17, 1945. On the last day of November, 1945, the grand old lady, who had served her country so well in earning five battle stars, was sold.
Commander Braddy was also a close and personal friend of deaf and blind American author, Helen Keller. His sister, Nella, wrote a book for Reader's Digest on Helen Keller, and her mentor, Anne Sullivan. Nella Braddy also earned national acclaim for her biography of the author, Rudyard Kipling. Robert Braddy retired as a Rear Admiral on October 1, 1951. Admiral Braddy died on August 14, 1965 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Robert Edgar Braddy, Jr., moved to Dublin at the age of nine in 1913. Braddy was a son of Robert E. and Neva Eudora Braddy. The Braddys lived on Maiden Lane in Dublin on the site of the First Baptist Church Life Center. After attending Dublin schools, he attended Gordon Military College and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1927.
In 1942 Lt. Commander Braddy commanded the U.S.S. Bernadou, an old four stacker tanker, which was built in 1918. “The Bernadou” was named for Commander John Baptiste Bernadou, a hero of the Spanish American War. The ship was originally designed to combat submarines in World War I. The ship was launched four days before the armistice. After it was commissioned in 1919, the “Bernadou” saw sporadic service in the Atlantic Ocean. In the fall of 1939, the “Bernadou” was re-commissioned and went assigned to the Atlantic Ocean on neutrality patrol. The ship had a maximum speed of 35 knots and was just a little longer than a football field. The usual complement of a crew was about one hundred fifty.
Before the United States declared war on Germany the “Bernadou” carried Marines to Iceland in July of 1941. For the next year the ship remained in the Newfoundland-Iceland convoy in the North Atlantic. The first missions of Braddy’s ship were anti-submarine patrols. On October 25, 1942 Braddy's ship, nicknamed the “Bouncing Bee”, was assigned to carry troops into French North Africa for an attack in November, 1942. Along with the “U.S.S. Cole,” the “Bernadou” was assigned to an attack group heading for the port of Safi, French Morroco. The mission of a destroyer was to provide close-in combat support for landing troops. It was a suicide mission. Braddy’s ship was designated as the lead ship to land the first wave of infantry troops on shore.
The “Bernadou” was a part of the Southern Attack Group of the Western Naval Task Force. On the night of November 7th and 8th the attack group moved away from the main convoy. The ships moved to a rendevous point to await the signal for an attack. Just before dawn the eagerly awaited attack signal came.
The “Bernadou” and the “Cole,” commanded by Lt. Cmdr. George G. Palmer of Charleston, South Carolina, steamed toward Safi.
At 3:30 a.m. the two ships moved out headed for the harbor. H-hour was set for 4 a.m. The ship was filled with troops. All of her smokestacks had been removed to disguise her identity. It rode low in the water and was difficult to identify with her mast down. Through unchartered waters, the two ships moved their shops toward the harbor entrance. Their passage went quietly at first with a scout boat in the lead. With companies of the 47th Infantry aboard, the “Bernadou” was challenged at 4:10 a.m.. A spot light from the hills above Safi spotted Braddy’s ship. A signal from shore was answered by the same signal. The light went out. The shore batteries opened fire with their French ‘75s. The two ships along with others to the rear opened fire on the batteries. The pre-dawn skies were lit up by brilliant streams of tracer bullets and the mouths of the big guns.
Braddy’s good fortune continued to hold. The beaching had been eased by an underwater sandbar. It was substantial enough to hold the ship in place while the assault forces unboarded, but was not enough to cause any fatal damage to the destroyer. The “Berndaou” and four other destroyers began providing escorts for tanks and troops for the assault on Casablanca on November 10th.
For his actions in guiding his ship safely into Safi under dangerous night conditions, Lt. Commander Braddy was given the Navy Cross and an award from the Belgian government. The Navy Cross is our nation’s second highest award for heroism in the United States Navy. Secretary of the Navy Knox cited the commanders for their actions “with gallant and resolute purpose, and at grave risk to his own life and the safety of his ship and men, they successfully countered all opposition in the accomplishment of a vital and strategic mission.” Vice Admiral Henry Hewitt, in command of the invasion, cited Braddy and Coles’ ships with a large measure of the success of the operation. Admiral Hewitt nominated the two ships to the Navy’s roll of distinguished ships. The entire crew was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions in the successful operation.
After the landing at Safi, the “Bernadou” returned to Boston where she remained on convoy duty until February of 1943. She made a convoy run to Gibraltar in March and in May departed for Algeria. In July, 1943 the ship took part in the occupation of Sicily. Two months later the “Bernadou” aided in the landings at Salerno. After two convoy trips to North Africa in the first half of 1944, the ship retired to the easy runs from the east coast of the United States to the Caribbean. The Bernadou arrived in the Philadelphia Naval Yard for decommissioning on July 17, 1945. On the last day of November, 1945, the grand old lady, who had served her country so well in earning five battle stars, was sold.
Commander Braddy was also a close and personal friend of deaf and blind American author, Helen Keller. His sister, Nella, wrote a book for Reader's Digest on Helen Keller, and her mentor, Anne Sullivan. Nella Braddy also earned national acclaim for her biography of the author, Rudyard Kipling. Robert Braddy retired as a Rear Admiral on October 1, 1951. Admiral Braddy died on August 14, 1965 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Friday, December 11, 2009
THE GERMAN-ITALIAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMP, DUBLIN, GEORGIA
Last remaining barracks, 2009
Troup St., Dublin, GA
Laurens County needed help in gathering the crops that would be ready for harvest in the summer through early fall. The gentlemen requested that a camp be set up at the County Farm on Highway 441 just above the present Interstate highway. Vinson contacted Col. I.B. Summers of the Prisoner of War Division of the Federal government. Col. Summers advised Vinson that the location of camp would not be easy because of the lack of trained prison guards. Vinson, undaunted, contacted Col. R.E. Patterson of the prison camp at Camp Wheeler, near Macon. Col. Patterson echoed the doubts about a camp for Dublin.
Under the guidelines of the Geneva Convention of 1929, prisoners of war must be paid eighty cents per day for labor outside of the prison camp. Prison labor was limited by the number of guards, not the number of prisoners. The Farm Labor Advisory Committee, consisting of Bob Hodges, Wade Dominy, C.L. Thigpen, R.T. Gilder, H.W. Dozier, Frank Clark, D.W. Alligood, and A.O. Hadden continued to press Vinson to acquire the camp to help in the harvest. Finally, Vinson succeeded and the army allowed some prisoners to be sent from CampWheeler.
The first couple of hundred prisoners arrived on August 26, 1943, under the supervision of Capt. Henry J. Bordeaux. The first prisoners were Italians. The camp was not located on the county farm but on the site of the old 12th District Fairgrounds where the New York Yankees, Boston Braves, and St. Louis Cardinals had played and where the cowboy hero Tom Mix had thrilled thousands with his traveling circus. The fairgrounds played host to thrilling feats of athletic skill by Olympic champion Jesse Owens in 1940, along with a barnstorming game with two Negro league teams. The fairgrounds were bounded on the north by the railroad east by Troup Street, south by Telfair Street and West by Joiner Street.
The prisoners arrived just in time to help with the peanut harvesting in Laurens and surrounding counties. The camp was completed in three days under the Army Corps of Engineers and the Quartermaster Corps. After the camp was set up, the prisoners were immediately taken to the fields. The men were used to chop cotton and stack peanuts.
The recently completed naval airfield near Dublin soon began handling the first direct air mail into Dublin. The guards were getting letters from Fort Benning flown into Dublin every other day. The civic and church groups made the guards feel at home with parties, home cooking, and entertainment at the service center in the Henry Building at 101 West Jackson Street. It was not long before the soldiers could return the favor. A young woman was lying in the hospital in desperate need of a blood transfusion. No local donors with a matching type could be found. Her friends called the camp commander, Col. S.L. Irwin for help.
Several volunteers arrived at the hospital within ten minutes. The soldiers came back for a second transfusion. The patient recovered. Nearly every one of the 250 guards stationed at the prison camp responded to the call of Lehman P. Keen, chairman of the 3rd War Bond Drive. The German prisoners adapted well to the South and were even heard singing "Dixie" after a hard day's work on the farm.
By October, the need for farm labor had significantly declined. The Army planned to move the camp by mid- October. The Fourth Service Command granted permission for the camp to remain open into November. One half of the five hundred prisoners were moved in the third week of October along with their guards under the leadership of Capt. Jennings. New guards were brought in to replace those who left. Shortly, the camp would close down for the winter.
Just as the allied forces began the invasion of Europe in June of 1944, the German prisoners returned to Dublin. It would be a long hot summer for the German prisoners in Dublin. One prisoner was killed by a falling tree on Snellgrove plantation. The prisoner was working with the pulpwood crew of Robert Cullens. On July the Fourth, three prisoners, Josef Damer, Jeorge Fries, and Willi Pape escaped while on a work detail at the Warner Callan Farm near Scott. They were captured the following day. Some people say that the prisoners just got lost in the woods and were not attempting to escape. The commandant of the camp instituted harsh disciplinary procedures as a result of the escape. The prisoners countered by staging a sit down strike - refusing to work on the farms. Within a few days, calmer heads prevailed. The matter was settled. By the end of the summer, the situation had eased, and the Army guards had enough free time to play baseball, basketball, and football games against the U.S. Navy at the new naval hospital.
Many of the local people bore no hatred to the prisoners. Nearly every Sunday morning the prisoners would march from the camp down Academy Avenue and turn north on Church Street for mass at the Catholic Church. Along the way the Germans sang hymns. The prisoners cooked their own food. Inside the camp there were many good cooks. Some people parked their cars outside the camp fence to catch the sounds of the beautiful German songs and get a sniff of the delicious German dishes being prepared inside the wall. Janice W. Williams of Wrightsville has a vivid memory of seeing a truck load of Germans passing through Johnson County one day. “One man stood in the back of the truck facing the front as their leader. I would watch them go through and they were strong, healthy men. Someone said they didn’t want to escape because they were out of the war and well fed,” Mrs. Williams remembered.
One day while Oliver Bennett was working in the paint shop at the Naval Hospital, he noticed a German prisoner, by the name of S. Pretscher, sketching a picture of his girlfriend on a piece of scrap cardboard. Bennett was so impressed that he asked the man to paint a picture for him. Bennett secured the necessary materials - a linen towel stretched to form a canvas and a the paint. Pretscher went into his studio, a tent on the prison grounds, and diligently worked on the painting, which was a country scene from his homeland. Pretscher presented the painting to Bennett who remained friends after the war ended. The beautiful painting remains in the Bennett family today.
The prisoners came back for one more summer to help the farmers in harvesting their crops, which were still needed for the effort. With the end of the war in August of 1945, there was no longer a need for the camp. The camp closed in early January of 1946. Today, one lone barracks from the camp still stands at the corner of Troup Street and the railroad. It serves as a living reminder of the a time which we all hope will never be seen again.
Monday, November 23, 2009
THE LAST CHRISTMAS BEFORE WORLD WAR 2
Christmas in Laurens County in 1940
The year was 1940. It would be the last Christmas before the war. It was a Christmas when Dubliners and Laurens Countians put their differences aside and celebrated the birth of Christ in its true form. A little commercialism could be found, but the main focus was the religious aspect of the 25th of December. Many were worrying about the impending war in Europe. More than a hundred local men and boys in the Georgia National Guard were training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina for a war they hoped would never come.
A county-wide celebration began on the courthouse square in the late afternoon of the 12th. Several thousand citizens gathered in downtown. Streets were blocked off for several blocks in all directions. Late shoppers were serenaded by the bands of Dublin High School and the Laurens County Marching Band seated on a specially constructed grandstand. Music filled the air - broadcast from loud speakers in the courthouse tower. The boys of Cadwell, Dudley, and Rentz vocational classes aided Georgia Power employees in stringing the lights on trees and the courthouse itself. A manager scene was constructed on the grounds. The lighting also included the traditional tree of lights on the Carnegie Library grounds (now the museum).
Another part of the display of lights was a new neon sign placed on the steel frame of the river bridge wishing new comers a "Merry Christmas!" Later the sign was change to read "Welcome to Dublin" for west bound travelers and "Thanks, Come Again" for east bound visitors on their way out of town.
Dr. C.H. Kittrell, President of the Dublin Lions Club, served as the master of ceremonies. He hailed the gathering "as the most impressive Christmas display our community has ever had."
Dr. Kittrell praised the unity shown by members of the community and its significance in the Christmas season. The Rev. Claude E. Vines prayed for world peace in his invocation. Bob Hightower, chairman of the event, praised the spirit of cooperation by the business and professional men of Dublin, except the five "scrooges" who refused to donate to the program. In all, Hightower and his associates raised more than fifteen hundred dollars. Rev. W.A. Kelley, Superintendent of the Dublin District of the Methodist Church, called for a renewed observation of the spiritual significance of Christmas. By then, children began tugging on their parents sleeves asking "when are they going to turn on the lights?" Mae Hightower made here way to the stage where she threw the lights, just at the moment of dusk. In eclectic voices the crowd filled the air with "oohs", "aahs", and "wows."
The second phase of the celebration came five days later. The ladies of the Dublin Garden Club, led by its president, Mrs. Carl Nelson, sponsored a city-wide outdoor Christmas lighting contest. Mrs. Howard L. Cordell, Sr. and Mrs. Marion Peacock headed the committees which were able to secure out of town judges to evaluate the fifty-four contestants. The judges made their decisions based on the suitability of the lights to the type of home, the size of the decorations in proportion to the size of the house, and the total artistic and color effect of the decorations.
Mr. and Mrs. O.L. Chivers, whose home still stands on Bellevue Ave. across from the Piggly Wiggly, won the first prize. The George T. Morris home, now home to the Chamber of Commerce, finished in a second-place tie with "Green Acres," the home of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Geeslin. Third place was awarded to Mr. and Mrs. James F. Nelson, Jr.
Rev. Ralph Gilliam led an impressive and inspirational candlelight service at Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church on the Sunday before Christmas. Participants in the program included Blanche Coleman, C.C. Crockett, Leah Kittrell, Charles Alexander, Sara Veal, Noble Marshall, and the music club of Dublin High School. The choir of the First Baptist Church presented a cantata at the regular Sunday morning worship service. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus came to Buckhorn Methodist Church for an "Old Time" Christmas.
The third major event of that Christmas was a county-wide Christmas Carol program on the courthouse square, just two days before Christmas. A.J. Hargrove, the master of ceremonies, presided over a program which featured thousands of local school students. The children assembled at the school building downtown (now the City Hall.) One group, after another, formed on the school grounds and marched to the courthouse serenading parents, shoppers, and merchants along the way. At the courthouse they did an about face and marched back down the other side of the street. At four o'clock many church choirs assembled at the courthouse for the main part of the program which featured the traditional songs of Christmas, featuring soloists Mrs. Annelle Brown and Blanche Coleman.
An integral part of that Christmas in 1940 and each one since then has been the giving of gifts, especially the toys for the children. Smith's Jewelry had special last minute gifts for momma and daddy or for the special girl or man. Silverware sets sold from $15 to $150.00. Bill folds and belt sets were popular at two dollars or so. Bulova, Waltham, and Elgin watches were the most popular, all for less than forty dollars. A solitaire diamond engagement ring sold for $49.75 with the matching wedding duet for only $24.75. America's finest glassware sold from 25 cents up to $12.00.
Across the street at Lovett and Tharpe, shoppers could shop until 10:30 on Christmas Eve for the last minute gifts. For the boys, Daisy air rifles were a dollar, Wilson basketballs were two dollars and seventy-five cents, and Wilson footballs sold for a dollar and twenty-five cents. The Westfield bicycle, the top of the line, went for the sum of twenty-eight dollars. Tricycles were four dollars and wagons brought three dollars apiece. For the lady of the house, a husband could pick up a new Frigidaire refrigerator, range, or water heater for $120.00 and up. Tree light Strings, the old-fashioned kind with larger light bulbs, sold for fifty cents to a dollar.
Santa Claus came that night. Toy lead soldiers, baby dolls, comic books, and tea sets, along with the requisite new sets of clothes found their way under the trees. For the last two decades the county and city had suffered through a long and dark economic depression. Things were beginning to change. As Charles Dickens said in his "Tale of Two Cities," "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." Our country was about to enter into a world war that would change the course of the history of man forever.
That joyous season of Christmas had two sad postscripts. Homer Jordan and M.C. Kincey broke into McLellan's Department Store. The two men helped themselves to the contents of the store early on Christmas morning. Otherwise, Sheriff I.F. Coleman and Chief J.W. Robertson reported that the day passed quietly, the only Christmas in recent memory that they didn't have to lock up a few drunks." While all but ten local National Guardsmen returned home for Christmas, two Monroe Georgia soldiers were passing through Dublin on their return to Camp Stewart. Just as Sgt. Roger Malcom and James Peters passed under the Merry Christmas sign on their way to Hinesville, they lost control of their car and crashed into the bridge. Sgt. Malcom didn't survive. It was his last Christmas. Christmas is a time to cherish with your family and friends. Remember the true "reason for the season" and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The year was 1940. It would be the last Christmas before the war. It was a Christmas when Dubliners and Laurens Countians put their differences aside and celebrated the birth of Christ in its true form. A little commercialism could be found, but the main focus was the religious aspect of the 25th of December. Many were worrying about the impending war in Europe. More than a hundred local men and boys in the Georgia National Guard were training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina for a war they hoped would never come.
A county-wide celebration began on the courthouse square in the late afternoon of the 12th. Several thousand citizens gathered in downtown. Streets were blocked off for several blocks in all directions. Late shoppers were serenaded by the bands of Dublin High School and the Laurens County Marching Band seated on a specially constructed grandstand. Music filled the air - broadcast from loud speakers in the courthouse tower. The boys of Cadwell, Dudley, and Rentz vocational classes aided Georgia Power employees in stringing the lights on trees and the courthouse itself. A manager scene was constructed on the grounds. The lighting also included the traditional tree of lights on the Carnegie Library grounds (now the museum).
Another part of the display of lights was a new neon sign placed on the steel frame of the river bridge wishing new comers a "Merry Christmas!" Later the sign was change to read "Welcome to Dublin" for west bound travelers and "Thanks, Come Again" for east bound visitors on their way out of town.
Dr. C.H. Kittrell, President of the Dublin Lions Club, served as the master of ceremonies. He hailed the gathering "as the most impressive Christmas display our community has ever had."
Dr. Kittrell praised the unity shown by members of the community and its significance in the Christmas season. The Rev. Claude E. Vines prayed for world peace in his invocation. Bob Hightower, chairman of the event, praised the spirit of cooperation by the business and professional men of Dublin, except the five "scrooges" who refused to donate to the program. In all, Hightower and his associates raised more than fifteen hundred dollars. Rev. W.A. Kelley, Superintendent of the Dublin District of the Methodist Church, called for a renewed observation of the spiritual significance of Christmas. By then, children began tugging on their parents sleeves asking "when are they going to turn on the lights?" Mae Hightower made here way to the stage where she threw the lights, just at the moment of dusk. In eclectic voices the crowd filled the air with "oohs", "aahs", and "wows."
The second phase of the celebration came five days later. The ladies of the Dublin Garden Club, led by its president, Mrs. Carl Nelson, sponsored a city-wide outdoor Christmas lighting contest. Mrs. Howard L. Cordell, Sr. and Mrs. Marion Peacock headed the committees which were able to secure out of town judges to evaluate the fifty-four contestants. The judges made their decisions based on the suitability of the lights to the type of home, the size of the decorations in proportion to the size of the house, and the total artistic and color effect of the decorations.
Mr. and Mrs. O.L. Chivers, whose home still stands on Bellevue Ave. across from the Piggly Wiggly, won the first prize. The George T. Morris home, now home to the Chamber of Commerce, finished in a second-place tie with "Green Acres," the home of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Geeslin. Third place was awarded to Mr. and Mrs. James F. Nelson, Jr.
Rev. Ralph Gilliam led an impressive and inspirational candlelight service at Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church on the Sunday before Christmas. Participants in the program included Blanche Coleman, C.C. Crockett, Leah Kittrell, Charles Alexander, Sara Veal, Noble Marshall, and the music club of Dublin High School. The choir of the First Baptist Church presented a cantata at the regular Sunday morning worship service. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus came to Buckhorn Methodist Church for an "Old Time" Christmas.
The third major event of that Christmas was a county-wide Christmas Carol program on the courthouse square, just two days before Christmas. A.J. Hargrove, the master of ceremonies, presided over a program which featured thousands of local school students. The children assembled at the school building downtown (now the City Hall.) One group, after another, formed on the school grounds and marched to the courthouse serenading parents, shoppers, and merchants along the way. At the courthouse they did an about face and marched back down the other side of the street. At four o'clock many church choirs assembled at the courthouse for the main part of the program which featured the traditional songs of Christmas, featuring soloists Mrs. Annelle Brown and Blanche Coleman.
An integral part of that Christmas in 1940 and each one since then has been the giving of gifts, especially the toys for the children. Smith's Jewelry had special last minute gifts for momma and daddy or for the special girl or man. Silverware sets sold from $15 to $150.00. Bill folds and belt sets were popular at two dollars or so. Bulova, Waltham, and Elgin watches were the most popular, all for less than forty dollars. A solitaire diamond engagement ring sold for $49.75 with the matching wedding duet for only $24.75. America's finest glassware sold from 25 cents up to $12.00.
Across the street at Lovett and Tharpe, shoppers could shop until 10:30 on Christmas Eve for the last minute gifts. For the boys, Daisy air rifles were a dollar, Wilson basketballs were two dollars and seventy-five cents, and Wilson footballs sold for a dollar and twenty-five cents. The Westfield bicycle, the top of the line, went for the sum of twenty-eight dollars. Tricycles were four dollars and wagons brought three dollars apiece. For the lady of the house, a husband could pick up a new Frigidaire refrigerator, range, or water heater for $120.00 and up. Tree light Strings, the old-fashioned kind with larger light bulbs, sold for fifty cents to a dollar.
Santa Claus came that night. Toy lead soldiers, baby dolls, comic books, and tea sets, along with the requisite new sets of clothes found their way under the trees. For the last two decades the county and city had suffered through a long and dark economic depression. Things were beginning to change. As Charles Dickens said in his "Tale of Two Cities," "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." Our country was about to enter into a world war that would change the course of the history of man forever.
That joyous season of Christmas had two sad postscripts. Homer Jordan and M.C. Kincey broke into McLellan's Department Store. The two men helped themselves to the contents of the store early on Christmas morning. Otherwise, Sheriff I.F. Coleman and Chief J.W. Robertson reported that the day passed quietly, the only Christmas in recent memory that they didn't have to lock up a few drunks." While all but ten local National Guardsmen returned home for Christmas, two Monroe Georgia soldiers were passing through Dublin on their return to Camp Stewart. Just as Sgt. Roger Malcom and James Peters passed under the Merry Christmas sign on their way to Hinesville, they lost control of their car and crashed into the bridge. Sgt. Malcom didn't survive. It was his last Christmas. Christmas is a time to cherish with your family and friends. Remember the true "reason for the season" and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
OWEN K. COLLINS
A Hero Remembered
Lynn Sewell sat by her father's bed. He was dying. His deaf ears could not hear her sobs. For hours she clutched his hands and stared through his blind eyes into her father's soul, remembering the good times they had and trying to imagine the horrors her daddy had suffered through. Owen Collins had many battles in his life, but he never lost sight of what was really important to him, his family and his friends.
On the day after he died, Lynn went back to her father's room to gather his belongings. She rarely saw the children of her father's roommate, who had also been in the latter stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Lynn and the woman began to talk. She mentioned that her father had been a prisoner of war during World War II. The roommate's daughter responded, "So was my father." "My dad was at Moorsburg," Lynn said. Lynn never expected what the lady's response would be. You see, the man who had lived in the same nursing home room for three months with Owen Collins was a prisoner of war, but he was a German soldier imprisoned in an English P.O.W. camp.
Lynn wasn't surprised. For years Owen Collins rarely talked about the war. Although he suffered much in the camps, Collins never held a grudge against his German captors, who were "pretty good" to the prisoners. Though his rations were scant and tasteless, he did say that the guards were older men with young sons of their own and their meals were not much better than his. "He always saw the best in people," Lynn fondly remembered. One sign of his times in the camp came when it was time to feed his dogs. "He always overfed the dogs because he was hungry in the prison camp and he could not stand to think that they may be hungry," Sewell added.
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Owen Collins in Stalag 7 (4th from left)
Owen Kitchens Collins, the baby boy of Bryan Lee Collins and Laura Kitchens, was born in Dexter, Georgia on February 28, 1915. The Collins family moved to Sandersville and eventually to Decatur, Georgia, where Owen graduated from high school and went to work for the Standard Coffee Company.
Love came into Owen's life in 1936 when he went on a double date. He fell in love with the other boy's date and married her nearly two years later. They lived a long and happy life together for more than fifty five years.
At the age of 28, Owen enlisted in the United States Army. Leaving his wife and baby boy behind, Collins shipped off to England and prepared to land on the shores of France. As a member of General George S. Patton's Third Army, Owen and his division fought their way through the hedgerows and fortified villages of France in one brutal battle after another.
Collins was carrying a bazooka when the orders came through to take a house filled with Germans. Not knowing the order had been rescinded, Owen continued his advance. Upon reaching the designated objective, Owen realized he was all alone. Deciding that he would be killed or captured if he retreated, he concluded that his only option was to take the whole house, which he did. In doing so, Collins was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action. It would be one of two times that Owen would receive the nation's 3rd highest honor for heroism.
There was nothing different about the morning December 20, 1944. It was cold, unmercifully cold. The Battle of the Bulge was raging about Bastogne. Owen and Frederick Svoboda were busy digging their fox hole when they were captured by a German picket. They were taken to Stalag 7 near Munich. While in prison, Owen was forced to eat a diet mainly of bread filled with sawdust. Always looking to help those in need, Owen would gather potatoes while on work details outside the prison, hide them in his specially designed long johns, and cook them for his friends on a stove which he fashioned from pieces of metal he picked up along the way.
A week before the end of the war, Stalag 7 was liberated by the 14th Armored Division. Owen traded his cigarettes for a Brownie camera. He took pictures of his camp, his fellow prisoners, and the planes as they flew overhead. These pictures can be viewed by going to www.moosburg.org.
The Collins family moved to Blue Ridge in 1947. When Kit, the oldest child, went to school with no electricity, Owen put electricity and a light in his son's classroom. The next year, Owen had the entire school wired with electricity and lights. When anyone needed anything fixed in the neighborhood, Owen was there with tools in his hands and a smile on his face. "He would have given anyone the shirt off of his back if he thought it would help them." Lynn recalled of her fathers unceasing desire to help those in need.
Owen's first heart attack struck him at the age of 38 in 1953. Collins, a top salesman for Beck & Gregg Hardware, was forced to hire a teenage student to carry his heavy catalog when he called on his customers. Thirteen years later, Owen suffered the third attack on his heart. Forced to retire, Owen turned to what he loved best, woodworking, hunting, and fishing. His custom-made gunstocks were prized collector's items and heirlooms. His doll houses, game tables, and refinished furniture were considered works of art.
L-R: Kit, Doug, Owen and Lynn Collins (Jan not born yet)
Whether hunting with his best friend Cliff Wilson or fishing with his entire family, Owen loved the outdoors. There was the time when he and his children were sitting in his boat fishing. The baby girl Jan, three years old at the time, was the only one not to catch a fish. When the appropriate diversion came, Owen secretly reeled her line in, placed a good sized fish securely on the hook, and quickly and discreetly placed it back into the cool mountain lake. "She thought she had caught a fish and was the happiest girl in Blue Ridge," Lynn fondly remembered.
After surviving a war, months in a P.O.W. camp, and three heart attacks, Owen fought the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease for the last twenty years of his life. Giving up the keys to his car wasn't as bad as giving up the keys to his riding lawnmower on which he gave rides around the back yard in its trailer. In his retirement, Owen took in a troubled young man who lived across the street. Years later, the then grown man told Owen's daughter that her father was responsible for turning his life around because of the love and guidance he had given to him.
To his nation and his family Owen Collins was a hero, not just because he was a soldier and a prisoner of war, but because he was a wonderful father, keen businessman and expert craftsman and most of all, a good friend. Like the many members of the "Greatest Generation, " Owen Collins most important contributions to America did not come on the cold muddy battlefields of France or in the fact that he survived the horrors of the stalags. They came from his gifts to his community, his family and his friends.
Lynn Sewell sat by her father's bed. He was dying. His deaf ears could not hear her sobs. For hours she clutched his hands and stared through his blind eyes into her father's soul, remembering the good times they had and trying to imagine the horrors her daddy had suffered through. Owen Collins had many battles in his life, but he never lost sight of what was really important to him, his family and his friends.
On the day after he died, Lynn went back to her father's room to gather his belongings. She rarely saw the children of her father's roommate, who had also been in the latter stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Lynn and the woman began to talk. She mentioned that her father had been a prisoner of war during World War II. The roommate's daughter responded, "So was my father." "My dad was at Moorsburg," Lynn said. Lynn never expected what the lady's response would be. You see, the man who had lived in the same nursing home room for three months with Owen Collins was a prisoner of war, but he was a German soldier imprisoned in an English P.O.W. camp.
Lynn wasn't surprised. For years Owen Collins rarely talked about the war. Although he suffered much in the camps, Collins never held a grudge against his German captors, who were "pretty good" to the prisoners. Though his rations were scant and tasteless, he did say that the guards were older men with young sons of their own and their meals were not much better than his. "He always saw the best in people," Lynn fondly remembered. One sign of his times in the camp came when it was time to feed his dogs. "He always overfed the dogs because he was hungry in the prison camp and he could not stand to think that they may be hungry," Sewell added.
+%26+Buddies.jpg)
Owen Kitchens Collins, the baby boy of Bryan Lee Collins and Laura Kitchens, was born in Dexter, Georgia on February 28, 1915. The Collins family moved to Sandersville and eventually to Decatur, Georgia, where Owen graduated from high school and went to work for the Standard Coffee Company.
Love came into Owen's life in 1936 when he went on a double date. He fell in love with the other boy's date and married her nearly two years later. They lived a long and happy life together for more than fifty five years.
At the age of 28, Owen enlisted in the United States Army. Leaving his wife and baby boy behind, Collins shipped off to England and prepared to land on the shores of France. As a member of General George S. Patton's Third Army, Owen and his division fought their way through the hedgerows and fortified villages of France in one brutal battle after another.
Collins was carrying a bazooka when the orders came through to take a house filled with Germans. Not knowing the order had been rescinded, Owen continued his advance. Upon reaching the designated objective, Owen realized he was all alone. Deciding that he would be killed or captured if he retreated, he concluded that his only option was to take the whole house, which he did. In doing so, Collins was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action. It would be one of two times that Owen would receive the nation's 3rd highest honor for heroism.
A week before the end of the war, Stalag 7 was liberated by the 14th Armored Division. Owen traded his cigarettes for a Brownie camera. He took pictures of his camp, his fellow prisoners, and the planes as they flew overhead. These pictures can be viewed by going to www.moosburg.org.
The Collins family moved to Blue Ridge in 1947. When Kit, the oldest child, went to school with no electricity, Owen put electricity and a light in his son's classroom. The next year, Owen had the entire school wired with electricity and lights. When anyone needed anything fixed in the neighborhood, Owen was there with tools in his hands and a smile on his face. "He would have given anyone the shirt off of his back if he thought it would help them." Lynn recalled of her fathers unceasing desire to help those in need.
Owen's first heart attack struck him at the age of 38 in 1953. Collins, a top salesman for Beck & Gregg Hardware, was forced to hire a teenage student to carry his heavy catalog when he called on his customers. Thirteen years later, Owen suffered the third attack on his heart. Forced to retire, Owen turned to what he loved best, woodworking, hunting, and fishing. His custom-made gunstocks were prized collector's items and heirlooms. His doll houses, game tables, and refinished furniture were considered works of art.
Whether hunting with his best friend Cliff Wilson or fishing with his entire family, Owen loved the outdoors. There was the time when he and his children were sitting in his boat fishing. The baby girl Jan, three years old at the time, was the only one not to catch a fish. When the appropriate diversion came, Owen secretly reeled her line in, placed a good sized fish securely on the hook, and quickly and discreetly placed it back into the cool mountain lake. "She thought she had caught a fish and was the happiest girl in Blue Ridge," Lynn fondly remembered.
After surviving a war, months in a P.O.W. camp, and three heart attacks, Owen fought the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease for the last twenty years of his life. Giving up the keys to his car wasn't as bad as giving up the keys to his riding lawnmower on which he gave rides around the back yard in its trailer. In his retirement, Owen took in a troubled young man who lived across the street. Years later, the then grown man told Owen's daughter that her father was responsible for turning his life around because of the love and guidance he had given to him.
To his nation and his family Owen Collins was a hero, not just because he was a soldier and a prisoner of war, but because he was a wonderful father, keen businessman and expert craftsman and most of all, a good friend. Like the many members of the "Greatest Generation, " Owen Collins most important contributions to America did not come on the cold muddy battlefields of France or in the fact that he survived the horrors of the stalags. They came from his gifts to his community, his family and his friends.
Friday, October 23, 2009
THE FIDDLING FULLBACK
The Story of Wex Jordan, Jr.
The story of Wexler Jordan, Jr. is a story of an all-American boy. He was born on December 8, 1920 and grew up during hard times. He lived most of his life in Dublin and was a star football player for the Dublin Green Hurricanes. He was described by those who knew him as tall and handsome. He loved to play the violin and was tagged with the nickname of “The Fiddling Fullback.” “Girls swarmed around Wex, who always took time to play with his dozen younger first cousins, “ remembered his cousin Marilyn Brown.
Wex played football for Dublin High in the 1935 and 1936 seasons. In 1935, Wex played guard for a Dublin team which ended the season as District Champions. In his senior season in 1936, Wex shifted to fullback where he did it all for the Dublin offense, passing and running for touchdowns and extra points.
After leaving Dublin High School, Wex played two seasons of football for Middle Georgia College. The following fall Wex enrolled at Georgia Tech. He was determined to make the team despite his small size. Weighing in at 175 pounds,
Jordan tried out as a lineman. Before the season was over, he had been tabbed by his fellow players and coaches as “Hardrock.”
In the 1940 season Wex Jordan rose to the top as a guard for the Ramblin Wrecks. Georgia Tech was coached by the legendary W.A. Alexander. The backfield coach was another legendary figure at Tech. He was Bobby Dodd. Tech started off the season with a romp over the lowly Howard University eleven. Tech
nearly came back to defeat the powerful Irish of Notre Dame in the second game.
We was the defensive star in a 19 to 0 defeat of the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tech’s up and down season continued with a 9 point loss to Auburn. The Yellow Jackets stayed down with a drubbing by Duke and Kentucky in successive games. Following a one point lost to Alabama at home, Tech lost its fifth game in a row to Florida, followed by a loss to the bitter rival Georgia Bulldogs by the score of 21 to 19. The Yellow Jackets earned some consolation when they defeat the California Golden Bears on Christmas Day.
The year 1941 would become the most important year in the life of Wex Jordan. In fact it was probably the most important in the lives of millions of other Americans. Tech began the 1941 season an easy victory over Chattanooga.
Following a 20 to 0 loss to Notre Dame, the Jackets bounced back with a victory over Auburn. The winning streak was short lived when the Engineers lost to Vanderbilt and Duke. The Jackets defeated Kentucky before losing their last three games to Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Wex and other Tech defensive lineman gained one consolation from their loss to the Bulldogs. All American and Heisman Trophy winner, Frankie Sinkwich, was held to only sixty yards on the ground.
Sinkwich praised the play of Wex and the other Tech guards. Wex was cited by his coaches as having his best games against Notre Dame, Alabama, and Georgia. He was awarded the Rhodes Trophy as the most valuable player for the 1941 Yellow Jackets.
For his outstanding play at guard, Wex Jordan was named to the All - Southeastern team by the sports staff of the “Atlanta Journal.” The only other Georgian on the team was his rival, Frank Sinkwich. The good news game on his 21st birthday. The bad news in the paper that day was the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese air force. The holiday game with California was never played and things would never be the same again.
Wex, like all of the other male students at Georgia Tech, got their first taste of military life in ROTC In his senior year of Army ROTC at Tech, Wex was chosen as Captain of Company B of the First Battalion. He majored in Civil Engineering, attained honor graduate status, and was a member of the Army ROT C fraternity, The Scabbard and the Blade. Wex Jordan graduated from Tech in the spring of 1942. Wex Jordan entered the Army Air Corps and earned his wings in 1943.
It was a fall Thursday morning - Veteran’s Day and the 25th anniversary of the end of World War I. It was a day which in the past ten years, Wex would have spent preparing for the next football game. It was a day to remember those soldiers and sailors who had give the last full measure. First Lt. Verne Yahne was leading a five plane formation at the Naval Air Station in San Diego, California.
Lt. Yahne’s oxygen supply failed causing him to black out. The Lieutenant’s plane went into a steep dive and fell apart just as the pilot began to regain consciousness.
Jordan, the second pilot in formation, was unaware of the lead pilot’s fate. He took his P - 38 fighter plane down following the leader’s dive. Jordan could not pull his plane out of the dive and bailed out. As he was parachuting to the ground the wing of Jordan’s plane struck him, killing him instantly. Lt. Yahne made a safe landing in the bay.
B. J. Sessions, of Dublin friend of Jordan’s, was taking judo classes. An air raid alarm sounded - a usual occurrence in the early years of the war. Sessions ran outside in time to see to debris of the planes falling. The remnants of Jordan’s plane nearly fell on the building where Sessions had been taking judo classes.
Sessions ran two blocks to the site of where Jordan’s body had landed. One look told him that the man was dead. Sessions didn’t get a close look and returned to his classes. The instructor asked Sessions if he knew Lt. W.W. Jordan, Jr., who had just been killed in a air accident. Sessions was stunned in disbelief. He had
known Jordan all of his life and considered him a hero. Sessions wrote the Jordans and told them of his witnessing of the tragedy.
Major Victor Walton, commanding officer of the San Diego base, had the difficult task of informing Jordan’s parents, that their only son had been killed. The family was devastated. Mr. Jordan suffered what was believed to be a minor heart attack. Major Walton assigned Captain James Stevens to escort the body of
the fallen hero back to Dublin for burial. Funeral services were held at the First Christian Church with the Rev. Robert S. Bennett officiating. A honor guard from Cochran Air Field in Macon performed the military rites during the services. The Jordan’s selected We’s high school buddies as pall bearers. Mike Harvard, Johnny Morrison, George Hadden, and Frank Hancock were allowed leave from their military service to carry the body of their fallen comrade to its final resting place.
Also serving as pall bearers were friends Ed Harpe and Billy Hightower. One of Dublin’s and America’s finest young man was laid to rest in Northview Cemetery. His life story was all too short and his death, so senseless and tragic. Jordan lived his life as an example of what is good about America. He was a true - underline the word “true” - hero.
Sources: The Blueprint, 1939-1942, Dublin Courier Herald, Dec. 11, 1941, November 12, 1943, November 17, 1943, November 19, 1943, Laurens County Historical Society Newsletter, May, 1997.
The Story of Wex Jordan, Jr.
The story of Wexler Jordan, Jr. is a story of an all-American boy. He was born on December 8, 1920 and grew up during hard times. He lived most of his life in Dublin and was a star football player for the Dublin Green Hurricanes. He was described by those who knew him as tall and handsome. He loved to play the violin and was tagged with the nickname of “The Fiddling Fullback.” “Girls swarmed around Wex, who always took time to play with his dozen younger first cousins, “ remembered his cousin Marilyn Brown.
Wex played football for Dublin High in the 1935 and 1936 seasons. In 1935, Wex played guard for a Dublin team which ended the season as District Champions. In his senior season in 1936, Wex shifted to fullback where he did it all for the Dublin offense, passing and running for touchdowns and extra points.
After leaving Dublin High School, Wex played two seasons of football for Middle Georgia College. The following fall Wex enrolled at Georgia Tech. He was determined to make the team despite his small size. Weighing in at 175 pounds,
Jordan tried out as a lineman. Before the season was over, he had been tabbed by his fellow players and coaches as “Hardrock.”
In the 1940 season Wex Jordan rose to the top as a guard for the Ramblin Wrecks. Georgia Tech was coached by the legendary W.A. Alexander. The backfield coach was another legendary figure at Tech. He was Bobby Dodd. Tech started off the season with a romp over the lowly Howard University eleven. Tech
nearly came back to defeat the powerful Irish of Notre Dame in the second game.
We was the defensive star in a 19 to 0 defeat of the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tech’s up and down season continued with a 9 point loss to Auburn. The Yellow Jackets stayed down with a drubbing by Duke and Kentucky in successive games. Following a one point lost to Alabama at home, Tech lost its fifth game in a row to Florida, followed by a loss to the bitter rival Georgia Bulldogs by the score of 21 to 19. The Yellow Jackets earned some consolation when they defeat the California Golden Bears on Christmas Day.
The year 1941 would become the most important year in the life of Wex Jordan. In fact it was probably the most important in the lives of millions of other Americans. Tech began the 1941 season an easy victory over Chattanooga.
Following a 20 to 0 loss to Notre Dame, the Jackets bounced back with a victory over Auburn. The winning streak was short lived when the Engineers lost to Vanderbilt and Duke. The Jackets defeated Kentucky before losing their last three games to Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Wex and other Tech defensive lineman gained one consolation from their loss to the Bulldogs. All American and Heisman Trophy winner, Frankie Sinkwich, was held to only sixty yards on the ground.
Sinkwich praised the play of Wex and the other Tech guards. Wex was cited by his coaches as having his best games against Notre Dame, Alabama, and Georgia. He was awarded the Rhodes Trophy as the most valuable player for the 1941 Yellow Jackets.
For his outstanding play at guard, Wex Jordan was named to the All - Southeastern team by the sports staff of the “Atlanta Journal.” The only other Georgian on the team was his rival, Frank Sinkwich. The good news game on his 21st birthday. The bad news in the paper that day was the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese air force. The holiday game with California was never played and things would never be the same again.
Wex, like all of the other male students at Georgia Tech, got their first taste of military life in ROTC In his senior year of Army ROTC at Tech, Wex was chosen as Captain of Company B of the First Battalion. He majored in Civil Engineering, attained honor graduate status, and was a member of the Army ROT C fraternity, The Scabbard and the Blade. Wex Jordan graduated from Tech in the spring of 1942. Wex Jordan entered the Army Air Corps and earned his wings in 1943.
It was a fall Thursday morning - Veteran’s Day and the 25th anniversary of the end of World War I. It was a day which in the past ten years, Wex would have spent preparing for the next football game. It was a day to remember those soldiers and sailors who had give the last full measure. First Lt. Verne Yahne was leading a five plane formation at the Naval Air Station in San Diego, California.
Lt. Yahne’s oxygen supply failed causing him to black out. The Lieutenant’s plane went into a steep dive and fell apart just as the pilot began to regain consciousness.
Jordan, the second pilot in formation, was unaware of the lead pilot’s fate. He took his P - 38 fighter plane down following the leader’s dive. Jordan could not pull his plane out of the dive and bailed out. As he was parachuting to the ground the wing of Jordan’s plane struck him, killing him instantly. Lt. Yahne made a safe landing in the bay.
B. J. Sessions, of Dublin friend of Jordan’s, was taking judo classes. An air raid alarm sounded - a usual occurrence in the early years of the war. Sessions ran outside in time to see to debris of the planes falling. The remnants of Jordan’s plane nearly fell on the building where Sessions had been taking judo classes.
Sessions ran two blocks to the site of where Jordan’s body had landed. One look told him that the man was dead. Sessions didn’t get a close look and returned to his classes. The instructor asked Sessions if he knew Lt. W.W. Jordan, Jr., who had just been killed in a air accident. Sessions was stunned in disbelief. He had
known Jordan all of his life and considered him a hero. Sessions wrote the Jordans and told them of his witnessing of the tragedy.
Major Victor Walton, commanding officer of the San Diego base, had the difficult task of informing Jordan’s parents, that their only son had been killed. The family was devastated. Mr. Jordan suffered what was believed to be a minor heart attack. Major Walton assigned Captain James Stevens to escort the body of
the fallen hero back to Dublin for burial. Funeral services were held at the First Christian Church with the Rev. Robert S. Bennett officiating. A honor guard from Cochran Air Field in Macon performed the military rites during the services. The Jordan’s selected We’s high school buddies as pall bearers. Mike Harvard, Johnny Morrison, George Hadden, and Frank Hancock were allowed leave from their military service to carry the body of their fallen comrade to its final resting place.
Also serving as pall bearers were friends Ed Harpe and Billy Hightower. One of Dublin’s and America’s finest young man was laid to rest in Northview Cemetery. His life story was all too short and his death, so senseless and tragic. Jordan lived his life as an example of what is good about America. He was a true - underline the word “true” - hero.
Sources: The Blueprint, 1939-1942, Dublin Courier Herald, Dec. 11, 1941, November 12, 1943, November 17, 1943, November 19, 1943, Laurens County Historical Society Newsletter, May, 1997.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
MARY MCCLUSKEY, NURSE
Mary McCluskey knew she wanted to be a nurse, even if it meant she had to do things that girls shouldn't have to do. From those very first afternoons she spent volunteering at the East Tennessee Public Health Office, Mary knew she wanted to help people. In September of 1933, Mary began her nursing studies at Erlanger Hospital Nursing School in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
She took great consolation in comforting patients with warm baths, extra blankets, fresh sheets, and hot water bottles. Surgery was a challenge - no room for error. The hospital was very poor in those days. Remember it was in the middle of the Depression. Mary and the other student nurses spent their free time making bandages and folding gauze. The nurses even made their own cotton balls, saline solutions. Rubber gloves were patched and IV needles were sharpened. The most dreaded chore was the preparation of plaster of Paris casts. Mary and the other nurses enjoyed the hospital nursery the most. The Emergency Room was the most exciting, especially on the weekends. The worst part of the hospital, other than the
sickness, was the Operating Room Supervisor, who was extremely tough on the student nurses. In her first year of school, Mary was allowed $11.00 a month to spend for non necessities. Every morning the nurses stood inspection, just like in the military.
Mary passed her Nurses Board examination. She was assigned as Supervisor of the Colored Wards at Erlanger Hospital. Her salary skyrocketed to $60.00 a month. Mary joined the American Red Cross as a Red Cross Nurse.
While with the Red Cross she was assigned to Camp Forest to aid Mississippi flood victims. She earned $8.00 for a 12 hour day. Mary was looking for a "place to land." After working for a summer at a Philadelphia Graduate Hospital, she landed at Peerless Woolen Mills in Rossville, Georgia. It was in Rossville where she met her future husband, Roy McCluskey.
As the United States became more involved in World War II, Mary decided that she wanted to be an Army Nurse. She left home in September of 1942 for Stark, Florida. Roy joined the Navy. Mary spent 26 months at Camp Blanding in Florida. It was the 2nd largest infantry training camp in the United States. She volunteered for duty in a field hospital overseas, but never got the chance to go.
Mary was assigned to the surgery and then to the Chief Nurse's Office. As a day supervisor, Mary had charge of 3200 beds. The beds were arranged in two rows of 1600 each. The rows were so long one could not see from one end to another.
When her boss, Col. Maley, was transferred to the China, Burma, India Theater of operations, Mary and a friend were invited to go along with her. Mary was sent to Brigham City, Utah, where she trained with in the 172nd General Hospital. From Utah, Mary was flown to Bermuda. The conditions aboard the plane were very uncomfortable. Mary spent a few days in Casablanca, North Africa, before arriving in Karachi, India in December of 1944.
Mary’s assigned hospital was in a desert. When anyone went outside, they had to wear sunglasses and head scarves. One night Mary was invited to go jackal hunting with two male officers. Mary's job was to shine the light. The trio didn't kill any jackals that night. They did kill one dog, a rabbit, and a vulture. The two men chased a poor pregnant cat, but Mary turned off the light, refusing to let the trigger happy officers shoot it.
While off duty, Mary and the nurses enjoyed shopping in the Indian shops. She met many officers of the famed "Merrill's Marauders," who were building "The Burma Road." The food wasn't that good - certainly like her mamma's. In February of 1945, she was transferred to New Delhi. She never forget the sight of the Taj Mahal in the Indian moonlight. In April of 1945, Mary and her fellow nurses participated in a memorial service for Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the end of the war drew nearer, the action became more intense. Twenty nurses were killed in a plane crash.
By April of 1945, the nurses were moving closer to China. After a stop in Calcutta, the nurses found that there was no hospital as they were told. To their disappointment, the nurses were put on detached service. It seemed that the commanding general had taken materials which had been intended to be used to construct a hospital. The general built a palatial home for himself, much to the dismay of the physicians and nurses.
With the aid of General Chenault's "Flying Tigers" the medical crews began building a hospital on their own. Chinese women and children make bricks out of clay and straw. Despite it being the rainy season, they worked all day to get the hospital built as soon as possible. Life in the hospital was getting better. One night while dancing to music, Mary heard the announcement that the war with Japan was over. "Everyone stood still. We were unable to believe our ears. Then everyone started screaming and crying. We kissed like it was New Year's Eve," Mary wrote. The male officers ran to retrieve bottles of liquor, which had been secreted away in anticipation of the end of the war. After a short celebration, the medical crews were evacuated back Shanghai.
Mary and the other nurses took advantage of their liberty and went into Shanghai to go shopping. Mary did a little Christmas shopping. She even bought her wedding dress. Mary left China in November of 1945. On December 6, 1945, nearly four years to the day after the beginning of the war, Mary saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. After a short stay in Des Moines, Iowa, Mary returned to Chattanooga, just in time for Christmas. She had been all the way around the world in the service of her country. Mary had a Merry Christmas that year, grateful for all her blessings. On January 3, 1946, Mary and Roy were married. Roy and Mary moved to Dublin when Roy came to work with J.P. Stephens and Company. Mary wrote of her experiences in a book which she called "We Have Come A Long Way." Her story, like every nurse, is a story of untiring and devoted service to their community and their country.
She took great consolation in comforting patients with warm baths, extra blankets, fresh sheets, and hot water bottles. Surgery was a challenge - no room for error. The hospital was very poor in those days. Remember it was in the middle of the Depression. Mary and the other student nurses spent their free time making bandages and folding gauze. The nurses even made their own cotton balls, saline solutions. Rubber gloves were patched and IV needles were sharpened. The most dreaded chore was the preparation of plaster of Paris casts. Mary and the other nurses enjoyed the hospital nursery the most. The Emergency Room was the most exciting, especially on the weekends. The worst part of the hospital, other than the
sickness, was the Operating Room Supervisor, who was extremely tough on the student nurses. In her first year of school, Mary was allowed $11.00 a month to spend for non necessities. Every morning the nurses stood inspection, just like in the military.
Mary passed her Nurses Board examination. She was assigned as Supervisor of the Colored Wards at Erlanger Hospital. Her salary skyrocketed to $60.00 a month. Mary joined the American Red Cross as a Red Cross Nurse.
While with the Red Cross she was assigned to Camp Forest to aid Mississippi flood victims. She earned $8.00 for a 12 hour day. Mary was looking for a "place to land." After working for a summer at a Philadelphia Graduate Hospital, she landed at Peerless Woolen Mills in Rossville, Georgia. It was in Rossville where she met her future husband, Roy McCluskey.
As the United States became more involved in World War II, Mary decided that she wanted to be an Army Nurse. She left home in September of 1942 for Stark, Florida. Roy joined the Navy. Mary spent 26 months at Camp Blanding in Florida. It was the 2nd largest infantry training camp in the United States. She volunteered for duty in a field hospital overseas, but never got the chance to go.
Mary was assigned to the surgery and then to the Chief Nurse's Office. As a day supervisor, Mary had charge of 3200 beds. The beds were arranged in two rows of 1600 each. The rows were so long one could not see from one end to another.
When her boss, Col. Maley, was transferred to the China, Burma, India Theater of operations, Mary and a friend were invited to go along with her. Mary was sent to Brigham City, Utah, where she trained with in the 172nd General Hospital. From Utah, Mary was flown to Bermuda. The conditions aboard the plane were very uncomfortable. Mary spent a few days in Casablanca, North Africa, before arriving in Karachi, India in December of 1944.
Mary’s assigned hospital was in a desert. When anyone went outside, they had to wear sunglasses and head scarves. One night Mary was invited to go jackal hunting with two male officers. Mary's job was to shine the light. The trio didn't kill any jackals that night. They did kill one dog, a rabbit, and a vulture. The two men chased a poor pregnant cat, but Mary turned off the light, refusing to let the trigger happy officers shoot it.
While off duty, Mary and the nurses enjoyed shopping in the Indian shops. She met many officers of the famed "Merrill's Marauders," who were building "The Burma Road." The food wasn't that good - certainly like her mamma's. In February of 1945, she was transferred to New Delhi. She never forget the sight of the Taj Mahal in the Indian moonlight. In April of 1945, Mary and her fellow nurses participated in a memorial service for Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the end of the war drew nearer, the action became more intense. Twenty nurses were killed in a plane crash.
By April of 1945, the nurses were moving closer to China. After a stop in Calcutta, the nurses found that there was no hospital as they were told. To their disappointment, the nurses were put on detached service. It seemed that the commanding general had taken materials which had been intended to be used to construct a hospital. The general built a palatial home for himself, much to the dismay of the physicians and nurses.
With the aid of General Chenault's "Flying Tigers" the medical crews began building a hospital on their own. Chinese women and children make bricks out of clay and straw. Despite it being the rainy season, they worked all day to get the hospital built as soon as possible. Life in the hospital was getting better. One night while dancing to music, Mary heard the announcement that the war with Japan was over. "Everyone stood still. We were unable to believe our ears. Then everyone started screaming and crying. We kissed like it was New Year's Eve," Mary wrote. The male officers ran to retrieve bottles of liquor, which had been secreted away in anticipation of the end of the war. After a short celebration, the medical crews were evacuated back Shanghai.
Mary and the other nurses took advantage of their liberty and went into Shanghai to go shopping. Mary did a little Christmas shopping. She even bought her wedding dress. Mary left China in November of 1945. On December 6, 1945, nearly four years to the day after the beginning of the war, Mary saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. After a short stay in Des Moines, Iowa, Mary returned to Chattanooga, just in time for Christmas. She had been all the way around the world in the service of her country. Mary had a Merry Christmas that year, grateful for all her blessings. On January 3, 1946, Mary and Roy were married. Roy and Mary moved to Dublin when Roy came to work with J.P. Stephens and Company. Mary wrote of her experiences in a book which she called "We Have Come A Long Way." Her story, like every nurse, is a story of untiring and devoted service to their community and their country.
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