Part 3
"Life is made up of marble and mud."
-----Nathaniel Hawthorne, in
"The House of the Seven Gables"
It took an excursion last fall to the unique structure in Salem, Massachusetts, to understand. My rewarding endeavor - making the acquaintance of the World War II veterans - began back in 2016. Of course, it wasn't without challenges. Most, however, can be attributed to me being untimely or unconvincing. A host of then-surviving local World War II veterans I regrettably never got to visit - George Alexander Harris, Haley M. Carter, James T. Creel, Ubert Terrell, Arvelee Mizell, L. E. Toney, Douglas Guy, Hershel Kennedy, Doris Yates Magee, and L. C. Terrell among them.
In addition, there are others who were already gone. Doyle Thigpen, husband of Janie, completed Aviation Cadet School and became a Sergeant in the Army Air Force during World War II. Sgt. Marjorie Ball Wright, an Angie native and sister of Rodney Ball, enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on December 21, 1942, after which she served until her honorable discharge in November of 1945. Benton E. Bickham, Jr., husband of Walterine, served in World War II as a Sergeant in the United States Army, part of the 82nd Airborne. He participated in the North African campaign, along with the Invasion of Sicily. Sergeant Howard M. Miller, husband of Sylvia, participated in campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe. Charles William Tanner of Bogalusa was inducted into the United States Army and took part in the campaigns of Rome-Arno, North Apennines, and Po Valley. Also from Bogalusa, Paul Joseph Fontana served with Company H, 172nd Infantry Regiment of the veteran 43rd Division, United States Army, in the Pacific theater.
And there was Billy Hobgood, of Tylertown, who survived Pearl Harbor. He was on the Battleship California which sank when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941 - bringing the United States into the Second World War and changing the course of history. The late Bill Ryals, a friend of my father's in Bogalusa, shared the story with me. All three of them hailed from Tylertown. Mr. Bill said that Hobgood survived the bombing by swimming, holding his breath, and coming up for air in places where there wasn't fire. Clyde Benton Williams, brother-in-law of Joetta Pierce Williams Burris, of Bogalusa was also at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed.
Serving in the Marines at Pearl Harbor, in the aftermath, and in the South Pacific, was Henry Creel, husband of Mavis. A rifleman, in the 4th Marine Division, 23rd Regiment, he was wounded on June 17, 1944, in the invasion of Saipan. He honorably served thereafter as a guard at Camp David and also Warm Springs, Georgia, where President Roosevelt often visited the residence known as Little White House. When FDR died there, Henry Creel was part of the entourage selected to accompany the President, on his final journey back to D.C. What an honor.
Back to the living, I made hay while the sun was shining - seeking out the World War II veterans still with us. It was Larry McGuire (1917-2016) who kindly pointed me in the direction of his neighbor - coach and educator Ed Logan (1927-2021), and wife Betty, with whom my lessons in humility continued. A Yeoman, 2nd Class, assigned to the Carrier Aircraft Service Unit #65 in San Francisco, Mr. Ed performed substantial administrative and office work, completing paperwork on enlisted personnel. Everything in the Pacific during World War II came through San Francisco. Dedicated, Mr. Ed stayed on with the Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit, after the CASU training base was decommissioned.
Then, I was on to the Merchant Marine, and Lawrence Sylvest (1926-2021), husband of Nell. I was especially interested in learning more, as my father's youngest brother was a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. Mr. Lawrence first went to Pearl Harbor, on an ocean-going tugboat tied to a floating dry dock, which was used to repair Navy Ships. Then, keeping the engines going, he joined the Army Transport, traveling trans-Atlantic, starting on September 19, 1944, for thirty-one days, on a Y106 tanker to Europe. Once across the Atlantic and the English Channel, he transported fuel on the Seine River in France. And his duties didn't end in May of 1945. Promoted to Chief Engineer, he transported boats in Europe.
Back to Washington Parish, Vernon Thomas (1918 - 2016) was waiting in Bogalusa. I made it just in time. Ninety-seven years old when we talked in 2016, I remember him like it was yesterday. He was a jewel of a gentleman, in addition to a World War II hero and Prisoner of War. Drafted into the service in February of 1942, Mr. Vernon was an antitank gun crewman, a gunner on a 57mm gun, going from North Africa to Sicily and on, into Italy. At Anzio, he and his unit were captured, those who weren't killed. Transported by boxcar to Augsburg, Germany, he was imprisoned in Stalag-7B, working on a German farm, until he was liberated 14 months later by the Americans.
In southern Germany, Augsburg is due south of Schwerin, Germany. And Schwerin, in northern Germany, is where my father, a liaison pilot, was stationed at the airfield before the war's end - and the town I will tour next month.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mr. Vernon's daughter Donnis Sanders. She has become one of my most faithful friends. I've convinced myself that our dads knew one another in Bogalusa - hers at the paper mill and mine at the medical center. In any event, my friendship with Donnis, the direct result of this column, is one for the ages.
•Stay tuned for the next installment, next year, on local World War II heroes.
