War Years Remembered

Third of three articles by Bob Dollar.

Researching and writing three articles over the past few months, I have learned much about many of the organizations that were active in Tyrone during WWII and have had the privilege of talking with some very special people.

Faye Steele’s Scrapbook

I interviewed several long-time Tyrone residents and graduates of Tyrone High School, beginning with Faye Steele. Faye described herself as a collector of many things. One item of interest to me was a scrapbook she made during WWII. Faye had original newspaper clippings of Tyrone boys who gave the supreme sacrifice. Each clipping mentioned where the serviceman was serving at the time of his death and had a small write-up about his life before he entered the service. There were many clippings of Tyrone servicemen who were missing or wounded in action.

One listing in particular caught my attention. It was about Lt. John “Jack” A. Hiller. Jack Hiller was my closest neighbor when I was growing up. I knew he was in the Air Corps during the war but never totally understood what he did or what his war experience involved. On 18 June 1944, the B-17 Flying Fortress, on which Jack was bombardier, was shot down over Hamburg, Germany and he was taken captive. U.S. Ground Forces later liberated him.

Whenever the paper ran an article on multiple family members in the service, Faye cut them out. Some of the family names mentioned were: Nearhoof, Weller, Bailey, Bickel, Leitzell (included a father, 2 sons, and a daughter), McMonigal, and one family well-known in this area — the Mannino’s (4 sons and a daughter). The family with the most service members listed was McNelis (Private, James; Private, Eugene; Private, Richard; Private First Class, Bernard; Private First Class Max; and Seaman 2nd Class, Paul).

The last section in Faye’s scrapbook included 17 pictures of former employees of the Reliance Manufacturing Company (Big Yank) who were serving in the armed forces.

Mr. Bob Woomer and Mrs. Anderson

Mr. Bob Woomer told me that he was 10 years old when the Canteen was in operation and remembers seeing it. He, along with many other youth of the town, sold the Canteen News to local residents. He said he never sold many, but I look at it as his small part in the overall war effort, and for that he can be proud. Mr. Woomer has a set of the Canteen News publications and even today re-reads the articles.

One afternoon when I got up (I work nights) I found a phone message from a Mrs. Anderson who lives at Epworth Manor. She said she had some Stars and Stripes magazines from the war era that I could have if I was interested. She was waiting for me in the lobby with a box. When I opened it there were 18 issues of — not the Stars and Stripes, but the Tyrone-Waring Canteen News! I couldn’t have been more pleased.

Clair Turnbaugh, Class of 1943½

Another long-time resident of Tyrone and Navy veteran is Clair Turnbaugh. Clair told me that in the 1940s Tyrone was a busy place. There were about 12,000 people living here. At the age of 18 all boys were required to register for the military. When Clair turned 18 and received his call to service, he was a junior in High School. He said there were nine other boys in Tyrone High School at the same time who were in the same situation. The Tyrone school system established an accelerated program so that the boys could graduate high school in 3 months.

The day Clair graduated he was to report to the local draft board, but he had already decided to join the Navy; so he went to Altoona and signed up with them. After leaving Altoona he reported to the Tyrone Draft Board. The man in charge was not happy, to say the least. He insisted that Clair was going into the army, but on September 13, 1943 Clair and several others met at the Tyrone train station to go to Pittsburgh. After arriving there, they were shipped in as many directions as there were boys in the group. His destination was Camp Perry, Virginia. He was officially a Mechanical Mate 2nd Class, in the Navy as a Seabee.

One day the sergeant in charge had all the men line up and said that if their name was called they were to line up behind him. Clair said they started at the beginning of the alphabet and stopped with the letter R. The rest were dismissed back to their holding groups. It turned out the names that were called were to be replacements for rubber landing craft operators and were sent to Italy, as the troops there had an eighty-five percent casualty rate during the Anzio landing. He said he was never so happy in his life that he had not volunteered for something. It was his tendency to do so, being among the youngest in his group.

His next stop was in California for more advanced training, then on for a 35-day unescorted (without the protection of a convoy) voyage to New Caledonia and New Guinea. He spent 21 months in the South Pacific. In the April 1944 issue of the Canteen News, page 8 featured a picture of Clair, which read “with the Seabees in Iceland.” I would now like to set the record straight — that was a misprint.

Clair said there was a Japanese pilot they named “Washing Machine Charley” who would fly over the base and randomly drop a bomb or two, but never doing much damage.

He also said that on one occasion the whole base was sitting at the outdoor theater they built to watch a movie when part way through the showing, the film broke. He was looking around, and sitting on the other end of the bench about five feet from where he was sitting, was a Japanese soldier, in full uniform but with no weapon. He said he looked again to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing and it was an enemy soldier. Clair said he knew he had to do something — but what? Nothing more appropriate came to mind so he stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs “JAPS!” At that, all the Americans ran in one direction and the Japanese soldier ran in the opposite direction, into the jungle. Several days later the local villagers caught the soldier.

John Dearing’s Lost Records

Another long-time resident of Tyrone is Mr. John Dearing. John told me that when he reached the age of 18 he registered for the military, as did every 18-year-old boy. For some unknown reason, there was a box of draft records lost, and John’s registration was among them. As a result he never received the call to active service. John said that even today he has very mixed feelings over this. All his friends left for the service while he stayed behind. I have been told that John was a tremendous help around town as few able-bodied young men were available to help those who were not so able-bodied.

John mentioned that he remembers the Athletic Park closing down during the war years due to lack of funding by the PRR. Because of the war effort they were unable to maintain the park.

The Fifth J. R. Wald Plant

In my first article I wrote about the J. R. Wald Company and that the location of the fifth munitions plant in Tyrone was unknown to me. After talking to Mary Brunner of Tipton, I have learned that she was one of the Wald Girls, and that the fifth plant was in the Pontiac dealership building near the corner of Washington Avenue and 10th Street. This building is presently occupied by Hamer’s automotive repair shop. Each year the Wald Girls have a reunion. In 2012, only 7 were able to make it to the get-together.

Dorothy Glenn and the Red Cross

After a recent presentation at the Tyrone History Museum about the Tyrone Division of the PRR, I was privileged to renew an acquaintance with Mrs. Dorothy Glenn. Mrs. Glenn shared with me an article from a 1943 Tyrone Daily Herald. Her husband was serving in the Army with the 727th Railway Operating Battalion in Tunisia. Tech. 4th Grade Thomas Glenn was a member of a team of four officers and twenty-nine enlisted men who were attempting to bring out two ammunition trains that were abandoned after a rapid enemy advance. This group was working fearlessly to disable the two locomotives when the enemy forces closed in. The group, along with a number of civilian refugees, escaped capture by going through the desert.

The original object of the Red Cross Societies was to render aid to sick and wounded soldiers on battlefields and in military hospitals in time of war. In the Tyrone Chapter, the work was divided among many volunteers. Mrs. Samuel Graham Jr. (mother of Mrs. Ann Searer) headed the Home Services section. Mrs. Graham’s job as executive secretary was to be the main link between the service members and their families.

The Assistant Staff Corps, Mrs. Charles U. Getz, chairman, had twelve members who assisted in scheduling and registering blood donors. The Canteen Corps, Mrs. Harry C. Fernau, chairman, prepared refreshments at the donor centers and mass feedings in times of disasters. The Motor Corps, Mrs. W. W. Westbrook, chairman, furnished transportation for blood donors to and from the blood bank in Altoona.

Surgical Dressings section chairman, Mrs. A. J. Dickson, led a group of volunteers in making over 318,000 dressings. Ninety percent of all the surgical dressings used by the armed forces during WWII were made by volunteers. This group also put together 544 bags containing soap, cigarettes, etc., which were sent to troops waiting to be sent overseas.

Lastly, in the Tyrone Chapter, the Knitting Group, chaired by Mrs. Harry L. Getz, put together 70 sweaters, 75 helmet liners and 20 watch caps in six months. There were 45 volunteer knitters working on this project.

Did You Know?

Some interesting facts taken from the Canteen News:

• About eight percent of the population of the United States was in uniform in 1944.
• Due to the food shortage, all the zoos were growing their own corn, soybeans, cabbage, and watermelons to feed the animals.
• On November 23, 1945 Great Britain celebrated its first Thanksgiving as a tribute to the United States.
• In 1943 the average consumption of cigarettes in the United States was 94 packs per person yearly.
• One $25 War Bond would buy 62.25 gallons of high-octane fuel for a plane and it took 12,500 gallons of this fuel to train one pilot.
• It cost $50 million a month to feed our army in France, alone.
• In this war there was one vehicle for each nine soldiers, in the last war (WWI) the ratio was one vehicle to ninety soldiers.
• A Colonel in the Japanese army was paid about the same as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.