Chapter 22 - 1943 Jane's DAR Trip to Boston; Henry Joins the Marines

Chapter 22 Version 2

1943

“Jane, can I talk to you for a minute?” asked Aurelia’s mother Helena when Jane arrived at Aurelia’s house on Ferry Street. Jane nodded.

“Aurelia has been talking about quitting high school and going to work full time. Her sisters did this but Aurelia is a senior and I would really like to see her graduate from high school” said Helena.

“She has been asking me to quit and to go to work with her. But I want to graduate and then go to beauty school. I will try and keep Aurelia in school until graduation” said

Jane to Aurelia’s mother.

Jane was a good student and some of her teachers recommended that she go on to college and become a teacher. However, she had already made up her mind to go to hairdressing school. Her teachers had chosen her to be the school representative at a DAR day at the Boston State House. She went by train and met another representative going from Amherst on the train. Both girls were assigned to a DAR representative who took them out to lunch after a morning of meetings and presentations from state lawmakers. When the DAR rep found out that none of the girls in the group had ever been to Boston before, she declared “Then we need to see Boston!”. For most people in Western Massachusetts, Boston was a world away. Instead of going back for the afternoon sessions at the statehouse, the DAR rep and her lunch companions were off to see the Old North Church, the Boston Common and other historical sites. They passed many men in military uniform who were in Boston training and working on the war effort. On the train back to Boston, Jane thought about who Aurelia’s Henry could be or whether there was actually a Henry in Aurelia’s future.

There was a Henry. Aurelia’s Henry was closer than she could have imagined. He worked at 1 Ferry Street down the street where Aurelia lived and he lived at 37 Ward Avenue just a block away from Jane’s house on West Lake Street.

Now, there are family stories and they sometimes can be corroborated from data from the town hall or from military records. If the stories are sparse in details, there are always story tellers who are more than happy to add details to make the stories more enjoyable for the listener or the reader. For Henry the stories were few with minimal description. The stories were 1) Henry lit his tent on fire trying to burn a spider while on the deck of an aircraft carrier; 2) Henry was involved as a marine in seven amphibious landing assaults; and 3) Henry could never have a lamp in his bedroom after the war as he would wake up swinging and destroying any lamps in the room. That is all we have for stories about Henry related to World War II. Anything else is an embellishment.

Henry’s military records do shed some light on what he did before and during World War II. Before the war he worked at Hampton Company on Ferry Street working his way up to foreman after 3 ½ years. As foreman, he was supervising 12 girls and making sure that they operated their fabric machines correctly. The next year he was promoted to shade matcher doing inventory control and shipping.

Until the end of 1942, a minor (under 21 years old) needed his parent’s waiver to join the military. Henry’s widowed mother Cornelia signed his waiver on Nov. 14, 1942 when he had just turned 20 years old. He joined the marines as a volunteer private on 12/7/1942 exactly one year after Pearl Harbor was attacked. A day later he was on Paris Island, South Carolina for basic training. There was no “hurry up and wait” for Henry. It was all “hurry up”.

After basic training, it was off to Camp Lejune in New River North Carolina for just four days before being transferred to the marine aviation base at Cherry Point North Carolina. On May 22, 1943 it was off to Ordinance School as a PFC – Private First Class – for 14 weeks in Jacksonville Florida. Henry graduated 55^th in a class of 86. He stayed in Jacksonville as an instructor that came with a promotion to corporal. On December 20^th, it was back to Cherry point as a chemical warfare specialist with a sergeant’s rank. But Henry was not done yet for 1943. By year end he had joined Squadron 533 VMF(N), a Marine night fighter squadron under the command of Major “Black Mac” Magruder. The squadron was nicknamed “Magruder’s Killers” and they were training to go to the Pacific. Henry was promoted to Staff Sergeant “Aviation Duty” Temporary on March 1, 1944. The five thirty-three left for Pearl Harbor on April 16, 1944 aboard the USS Long Island, an aircraft carrier.

Did Henry set his tent on fire on the deck of the USS Long Island? Henry’s military records make no mention of any such incident in Henry’s entire military career. It may be true or not be true but it makes a great story with or without embellishments. There is a picture of the USS Long Island on April 27 1944 with its aircraft to the front of the flight deck and a large tent visible at the rear of the flight deck. So the five thirty-three did move into the Pacific on an aircraft carrier with a tent on the flight deck. It took about nine or ten days to get from San Diego to Pearl Harbor so it is very possible that this is a picture of the USS Long Island with the five thirty-three on board including Henry.

The USS Long Island was the first escort carrier that was a converted cargo ship. A landing deck was installed atop the cargo ship and the Long Island was the first ship that proved that this conversion could be done. It also became a prototype for baby aircraft carriers in the future. It was deployed in the Pacific in 1942 and made an impact at the Battle of Guadalcanal. 

The 1951 movie Flying Leathernecks, starring John Wayne who never was in the military, made reference to the USS Long Island in the Guadalcanal battle. The movie also follows its VFM squadron to the Battle of Okinawa where the five thirty-three would eventually be involved.