“December 7, 1941 — a date that will live in infamy!” were the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. With that declaration, every community in this country was involved in the “war effort,” and Tyrone, Pennsylvania — a long distance from any military installation — was recognized all over the country for its strong participation.
The Youth
The Tyrone High School jumped in with both feet. In 1940 (prewar), it saw the need for, and introduced, an extensive course change in vocational education where previously only carpentry and cooking classes were available. The vocational department expanded its list of classes to include: machine shop, carpentry, electrical maintenance, radio repair, auto repair, broadcasting, and drafting.
As the war intensified, adult education classes were offered in mechanical drafting, machine shop, and engine repair. All of these classes prepared adults to enter the workplace to provide the necessary products for war. The classes had 300 hours of instruction and consisted of mostly females.
In 1942, a Junior Red Cross program was implemented. The members helped raise money for their senior Red Cross Organization, which provided valuable services to the men and women serving our country. The high school band marched in parades adding to the patriotic spirit of the send-offs of the Sheridan Troop and the draftees. The glee clubs expanded their program repertoires to include patriotic songs that they would perform at school, church, and community events.
There was a Future Craftsmen’s Club. This club contributed to the war effort not only by providing the training to high school boys that they could use after graduation, but also by building models of war aircraft that were used for training by the Army, Navy, Civil Defense, and other organizations.
In 1943, the high school yearbook was dedicated “To the Tyrone Boys in the Service.” Pictures of former classmates in uniform were proudly displayed for the years 1937–1942. Page 4 of the yearbook saluted the Mannino family: Angelo (Marines), Victor (Marines), Charles (Army), Albert (Army) and Dany (WAAC). Even the teaching staff had members serving in the military and their pictures were also featured. The Tyrone Area Schools participated in a scrap metal collection drive and this netted $275.00.
There was no Tyrone High School yearbook published in 1944. Paper was needed for the war effort, and even though it was available, the class of 1944 decided not to publish a book.
The Minute Man Award
The theme of the 1945 yearbook was again saluting former classmates. Miss Alice Musser was the faculty advisor for the sale of United States government stamps and bonds. Beginning in the first full year of the war, the local schools participated in a stamp and war bond drive and raised about $22,000, or $291,200 in today’s economy. Children could purchase 25¢ war stamps to paste in war bond booklets. Every $18.75 in stamps could purchase a $25 war bond.
To encourage the students of the high school to participate, Miss Musser instituted a Minute Man Award, and any homeroom achieving 90% participation within a one-week period got to hang a star with their classroom number on the Minute Man for the following week. A total of eleven homerooms of twenty-two made the grade and posted their numbers. Classrooms not making the grade had their star consigned to the “dog house.” The first school in town to show 90% school participation was Washington. Such patriotic support won the “Minute Man Flag,” which was displayed below the American flag.
During the Sixth War Loan program, our schools bought a field ambulance costing $1,950. Another project sponsored by our schools was the buying of enough stamps and bonds to cover the cost of equipping as many servicemen as there were local boys in the armed forces. To equip one soldier with trousers, shirt, socks, shoes, gloves, poncho, blanket, and personal and barracks equipment cost $129.
The library featured books and pamphlets that aided students in understanding the complex forces behind the war. The library opened its doors to the National Draft Board and registered boys who were eligible to be drafted for military service.
Clair Turnbaugh told me that he graduated in 1943½. He received his draft notice during his junior year. Since the high school had developed an accelerated program to help boys in that situation, he completed his senior year in three months and entered the service as a graduate.
Soldiers Park and Big Yank
The Tyrone Garden Club met on June 17, 1942 to complete the necessary paperwork to lease a section of property between 14th and 15th Streets and Lincoln Avenue and the railroad tracks from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It later became known as Soldiers Park and was dedicated to all present and future soldiers of Tyrone. The residents of Tyrone jumped to help make this endeavor a reality. All the flowers, shrubs, park benches, a fountain, birdhouses, gravel for a path, and grass seed were donated to The Green, later renamed Soldiers Park.
The Reliance Manufacturing Company, better known as “Big Yank,” was established in Michigan City, Indiana in 1898. It produced work shirts known as “The standard work shirt of the world.” During WWI, it clothed the United States armed forces, supplying large quantities of “olive drab” shirts for the millions of Yanks who went “over there.” That was the inspiration for the trademark “Big Yank.” In 1933, they opened their Keystone plant in Tyrone, which provided thousands of shirts and pants for the U.S. Navy. During WWII, the company as a whole produced more than 51 million items for the military. They were awarded an “E” award for Excellency in the production of parachutes and were the single largest supplier of them for the military.
The J. R. Wald Company
Unless you lived in Tyrone during the war years the J. R. Wald Company may not be known to you. John R. Wald was born in Chicago in 1888. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Christiania, Oslo, Norway. In his twenties, he was named superintendent of the Prison Labor Division of Pennsylvania. He settled in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania because of its central location and because of the Pennsylvania Institutional Reformatory. One of Mr. Wald’s chief contributions to correctional industries was a patent for a special die, which punched out automobile license plates. In 1924, Mr. Wald announced that the prison manufacturing system was producing about 10,900 plates daily.
J. R. Wald struck out on his own in 1924 to start a prison consulting service. He opened his first munitions plant in Milton, PA, where he produced primers for the M-1 rifle ammunition. In 1943, due to a military district regulation, Mr. Wald had to close his Milton plant and move it to Huntingdon. This plant also was short-lived as the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation was directed by the War Department to settle in Huntingdon — in the building Wald was using. He understood that the local community wanted the new long-term employment Owens-Corning could provide, so he moved his (hopefully) short-term operation to Tyrone.
Mr. Wald first rented the Cloverine Salve facility owned by the Wilson family. Since it was set up for the production of salve, he had to redesign the plant for the production of munitions. By the time Wald’s company completed the move, there were five munitions facilities in Tyrone. When the Sheridan Troop was activated, the Armory was left empty and became the warehouse for the company. The Rupert Chevrolet building on 10th Street and the building where City Pharmacy is now located on Pennsylvania Avenue were both converted into munitions plants.
The Tyrone plants produced bomb nose fuzes (chemical and mechanical) that were used to detonate bombs. At the peak of production, their monthly quota was approximately 100,000 units. They also made grenade adaptors for the M-1 rifle. The number of employees ranged from 1,200 to 1,500 — mostly women. They were known as the “Wald Girls.” Morale was very high even though they worked every day of the year including Christmas. They met every quota that was set by the government. Daily, the plant employees were served coffee and handmade doughnuts. The plants even had music piped in to help ease the monotony of the work.
On February 17, 1945, the Tyrone plants received the Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence. Over 3,000 people attended the ceremony held in the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona. Entertainment for the evening was provided by Tyrone’s own Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. The master of ceremonies stated, “We are here to recognize the high proficiency in war production by the plants of John R. Wald Company located in Tyrone… in which the quality of workmanship and precision cannot be overstated. The Wald employees have kept faith with the men on the fighting fronts.”
Janet Boytim recalled that each evening a group of ladies would meet at the Tyrone YMCA to fold bandages for the Army. “We had very specific instructions, provided by the Army, pertaining to how the bandages were to be folded and what the finished size could be. Then an Army representative would pick up the completed bandages so they could be sterilized before being sent overseas.”
Tyrone Borough Council
From the minutes of the Tyrone Borough Council, 1941–1944, a few ways the local government was involved in the war effort:
- Any borough employee who left to serve his country would get his job back upon his return.
- An ordinance was passed in conjunction with the Home Electric Light Company dealing with “blackouts” of the community in the event of an air raid. Faye Steele, a high school student at that time, said there was more than one occasion when she had to duck into a dark alley when an air raid drill was called.
- The Borough purchased 1000 gallons of gasoline for Borough-owned vehicles to keep them running in case of federal rationing.
- Flashlights were purchased for the Auxiliary Air Raid Firemen and Police. An air raid lookout tower was located on the hill just above Gray Memorial Field at the north end of Clay Avenue.
- At the request of the War Department, there were to be no Christmas streetlights or town Christmas trees. Local merchants approached the Council and asked for permission to erect a nativity scene on the corner of 10th Street and Washington Avenue. They also asked for one illuminated tree to be put up at the train station, which would be of special significance with the activation of the Tyrone-Waring Canteen. Council gave permission with the stipulations that there had to be a “blackout” switch on both displays and no white lights used.
- $50 was taken from the scrap metal fund drive for the purchase of a siren so that all residents could be warned in the case of a blackout.
- A 100 x 300 ft. ice-skating rink was constructed in December 1943 in the empty lot owned by the American Legion at Lincoln Avenue and 15th Street.
The American Guidebook
In 1945, when the war was almost over and patriotism continued at a high level, The American Guidebook, prepared by the Tyrone Chapter of the American War Mothers, was distributed. This 148-page booklet was a tribute to the United States and local servicemen and women.
The first few pages of the booklet showed all the ranks and insignias for the Army, Navy, and Marines, since many of the residents of Tyrone could not identify the ranks of the tens of thousands of service personnel who traveled through Tyrone by railcar. The next section contained a mini-biography of each of the presidents. One section explained how to address mail to our servicemen being held as prisoners of war. The next pages contained “What All Americans Should Know” — the Bill of Rights, the American Creed, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Monroe Doctrine, the Gettysburg Address, the Flag of the United States, and the Etiquette of the United States Flag.
The last section listed the name of each serviceman and woman who served from the Tyrone area. The Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Red Cross, and the U.S. Cadet Nurses Corps were all represented. An asterisk was placed behind the names of the individuals who had given the ultimate sacrifice. There were a total of 2,076 names listed including 61 who had lost their lives. That was a 2.9% death rate. For a town with approximately 8,500 residents to have contributed that many service personnel is absolutely amazing.
Information for this article came from interviews with Jeffrey Adams, John Dearing, Clair Turnbaugh, Janet Boytim, Faye Steele, Richard Merryman, and Richard and Ann Searer; the Tyrone High School yearbooks from 1942, 1943, and 1945; the J. R. Wald Company; the Tyrone Area Historical Society; and the Tyrone Borough Council minutes 1942–45.
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