Legiononie's Cafe Italiano

“Cead Mile Failte” or a hundred thousand welcomes was the Irish greeting for the American Legionnaires and guests at Camp Cecil Perkerson in Greenville at their monthly meeting held Monday, March 14^th. Being the week of St. Patrick’s Day but having lots of pasta and sauce on hand, the Irish and Italian cultures conveniently intertwined for a delicious spaghetti supper.  Standing by the Irish decorations provided by Toots Hobson are Miriam Holliday, Isabel Keller, Mary Anne Harman, and Babs Gordon. 

John Albert Swanson

Greenville’s American Legion FDR Post 186 has been conducting interviews at Camp Cecil Perkerson of our World War II veterans for the Library of Congress’ Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans’ History Project.   The following interview of John Albert Swanson was conducted on March 4, 2010 and is in his own words.

   I was born November 27, 1924 in Greenville on Jarrell Road in Meriwether County. I went to the Jarrell Road school, near where Meade was, and walked to school-about two miles everyday.  We had two teachers and the school went through the 7^th grade. One teacher was for grades 5-7 and the other for children up to 5^th grade. After 7^th grade, I walked to Greenville to school. 

   My buddy was Lonnie Thrash, and we walked through the fields to Methodist Hill where the old school was.  My dad worked in Manchester, and when it rained he automatically stopped by and picked me up and even got me out of school. I dropped out in the 8^th grade, but I finished 7^th grade. I was the only kid in family and I had farm chores to do everyday: cut the wood and to smoke the meat.  We had a smokehouse and we used a two person saw to cut wood.

   As a boy, I used to see FDR. My grandmother lived where Meade was and lived on a hill and FDR came through on the train to Warm Springs and everyone would be out by the tracks waving and cheering him on-I saw him as a little boy.

   I registered in 1942 when I turned 18 as I had gotten a letter from the government telling me to report. We reported and I had to go to Ft. Benning. I had hoped to go into the army. We all lined up with no clothes on and they asked me if I wanted to be a Marine. I did not. We stayed at Benning a couple of days and they sent me to Augusta with another black man from Warm Springs.

    We got to come back home but then caught the bus in Greenville on the south side of courthouse steps and went to Atlanta and there we boarded the train and rode all night. It took all the next day to get to Camp Lejeune, NC and then a truck picked us up to take us into camp. We had a pretty rough introduction to the 48th platoon: we’d wake up and get out early and have our exercise and come back and get breakfast but over in the day they’d call us back out and we’d march practically all day. My buddy was with me, but he did something wrong and the last time I saw him was with rifle over his head and he was running. I didn’t see him anymore. I’ve got one little scar on my neck. I wasn’t doing an exercise right and the instructor called me out and hit on head with the butt of the rifle. It bothers me now, but I never had it on record.

   I wasn’t used to so many people.  They’d call us out into the night at 1 am and make us stand and they’d talk and the mosquitoes were bad.  You couldn’t help slap at one and then they’d say stand at attention another hour, but then someone would slap and it’d be another half hour standing there. If somebody did something, we’d all get punished for it. Training at Camp Lejeune was teaching togetherness-whatever we did we did together; we got punished together and it made everyone think about togetherness. I finally made it through training and then they said we had to go overseas.

   We boarded a train to go to California. We went through Atlanta where we wanted to get off and go home. St Louis was hot as it was the last of July. The desert was rough and hot too, but we stopped along the way and went to nice restaurants. I still can feel the hot air going through the dessert. We finally got to Oakland.

   We stayed there five days before we boarded the ship. We boarded around 1 o’clock but didn’t leave ‘til around 5 as the sun was going down. I remember going under the Golden Gate Bridge-tears rolled partly because it was the 3^rd Sunday in August and I was supposed to be in church!

   I got seasick but got over it in a couple a days.  It was a big world; we were in the Pacific and we were on a ship. Some say they can’t sleep with the ship noise and lights. The ship creaked all the time. We’d get up in morning, and we played cards. When you’d look around, there was nothing but water-no other ships.

   We were worried abut getting killed; we got over in dangerous waters where the Japanese would set off bombs. I finally saw land after 27 days on ship. We stopped in New Caledonia and got off the ship.  After we got off, I was going for lunch and saw James Jackson, my Odessadale friend. We talked about where we would go next. I was afraid of some places because we had heard they all got wiped out there.

   We stayed at New Caledonia six months and went to the Philippines to an island that had fighting there.  My job was as a guard guarding rooms and I drove a truck. We guarded an area in a coconut grove with coconuts falling everywhere. I got so tired of coconuts: we drank the milk and ate it. I drank so much of it that I got tired of it. I had to guard a gate in the coconut grove and once two white guys came and wanted to come in. I told them no, I had a 45, but I really carried a carbine. I grabbed the carbine and the guys took off.  I had no more problems with anyone after that.

   I was not a drinker and they used to issue us two beers every night and I’d give mine to my buddy in the tent. Finally, I tried it and drank it from then on. When we went to town we drank rum. I didn’t know we had to cut this stuff and woke up two days later tied to the bunk because I was rolling off. That experience caused me not to drink now.

   We left there after a year. One night there wasn’t too many of us, 10-15 guys not a whole platoon, the island was secure, but we were sitting there talking and way up on the mountain there was a flashlight moving. I knew it was the Japanese. We walked all night, shot at it, but couldn’t get it.  We walked all the night after that and we fought a battle when we caught up with them. They would hide in caves on the islands and we used flamethrowers to get them. That was the way we fought during that time, knock everything down and burn it up-that’s the only way you were going to win. We tore everything down and secured it, and then walked over the whole island and secured it.     When we got to Okinawa, we had to dig foxholes. We made a great big foxhole for everyone in case they couldn’t make it to their foxhole.  The sirens would come on and we’d run to the big foxhole and get in. Many times I dove in foxholes praying I had made it fast enough.

   We finally got the call the war was over. That was in October 1945 and there was joy everywhere that the war was over and we were going home. We boarded an aircraft carrier that was so big you couldn’t see a guy at other end or he’d just be a dot. We got home in nineteen days. We came through Pearl Harbor and came on in under the Golden Gate, got on smaller ship and went back to Oakland, then back to North Carolina in five days to get discharged.

   We came back through St. Louis where our records got lost. We would have been home for Christmas of 1945 but ate Christmas dinner North Carolina. I was discharged on the 4th of January. The captain came by and asked if we wanted to rejoin and I told him I’d let him know.

  Every payday I’d take out 10 or 20 dollars but there was nothin’ to spend it but on candy or toothpaste and I didn’t need the rest of the money. Sixty six dollars a month was a big deal! I came home with a lump of money I had saved.  I didn’t want anyone to steal it so I put it in my sock and brought it home. I bought a car-1941 Chevy-and a fabricated house my daddy and I would put together.

   After the war I went to Michigan and worked in the car industry. They had me down in foundry room-dust and smoke with nothing over the nose. It was good money-double that of the military but I couldn’t take the dust and worked there two weeks. I was a janitor mostly and I kept machinery working by adding oil.  If I didn’t see anything to do, I didn’t do anything and they said I was lazy. I went over to Chevrolet and worked 1 year and 8 months then I came home and got married

    I went back and worked with Chrysler but it was the worst job I had-Chrysler laid us off every year if they’d see we had a couple dollars in the bank. After thirty years and seven months in Detroit I came back to Greenville in 1994. We had some real cold days in Detroit, but in the Pacific, we never had a cold day.

   Military food wasn’t good. We had Spam. “What do we have tonight? Spam. What do we have today? Spam.” I said I would never eat Spam again. Everybody got excited when we got real eggs ’cause they’d use powdered eggs.

   I earned one stripe in the Marines then I got another. I made it to the marksman level with rifle training. I could shoot pretty good –I used the M1 rifle, had a .45 and a carbine. We turned in our weapons when we left the military. I was given the World War II Victory Medal, the Marksmanship Medal, and the Pacific Medal.

   I was in some really rough spots; I was lucky to make it out alive. Recently I thought about fighting the Japanese and I was so loud in my sleep my wife woke me up. Those people were farmers and sometimes we made camp and used their gardens eating their potatoes and greens, but I didn’t eat any of it.

   I couldn’t believe I was coming from Georgia way over to California and then seeing the world. I didn’t think anything about it then as it was a job. But now I think and wish I had put more into it.

Merry Christmas-2010 Christmas Party

"Number 6, Lady  Number 6?"

"Do I hear fifty dollars?"

"What fun it is to laugh and sing . . ."

Bon Appetit-our cooks for the evening.

Making spirits bright . . .

"Let me tell you what you can do with that . . ."

Christmas Dinner and Party!

American Legion Post 186 will celebrate Christmas 2010 at the post with a Christmas party and dinner on Saturday the 18^th of December at 5 pm. The cost for the dinner is $10 a couple or $5 if single.  There is no charge for the widows of former members.  There will be a fun Christmas gift exchange (white elephant/Yankee swap-there are many names for it): women are to bring a $5 gift for a woman and men bring a $5 gift for a man.

Veteran’s Parade 2010

American Legion Post #186 was well represented at the parade in Manchester.

Hubert J. Whitlock and Pierce Tidwell have a great ride underneath them.

Toots Hobson designed one of the floats and made the decorations and costumes worn by the riders:  Jake and Morgan James, Joshua London, and Machala, Mitchell and Mathew Ralich.   The posters and the Purple Heart were made by Vic of JT Signs of Manchester.  Putting the float together on the trailer (loaned by Kerry James) was accomplished by Ed Hobson, Toots, Danny Sharp, John Norris and Buster McCoy. The week before the parade was wet and windy and cold so many thanks to those with red noses and frozen fingers who did the work.

There were a lot of moments that brought back good memories:

WWII Veterans Interviews: Norman Rowe

Greenville’s American Legion FDR Post 186 has been conducting interviews at Camp Cecil Perkerson of our World War II veterans for the Library of Congress’ Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans’ History Project. Norman K. Rowe of Luthersville was interviewed February 25, 2010 and the following interview is in his words.

Norman Rowe

I was born September 1926, six miles from where I live now. It’s about six miles from Luthersville in the Wooster Community (it was not called that then). The house I was born in had been there until ten years ago.

   My parents farmed. We had crops and I plowed an old mule. We raised cotton and corn. The corn was for the farm and family and what was leftover you sold. We had milk cows and as I got grown got we went into the beef business. The farm was 60-80 acres 60 now, then it was 80.  My brother took one side of road and I took other.  The side I took had the house I live in which was already built when the family moved into it. It was built in 1833.

   I have lived in this house where I am now since 1931. I graduated from Luthersville

High School in 1943. It was a class of ten with five girls and five boys. Most boys

enlisted a few months after graduation-two went with me to Macon. We went to the post

office to join up. I chose the Navy because I didn’t want to be walking on my feet in the

army! I thought I would like the Navy and tried it.  I enlisted in the Navy in Macon

in1944. I was first in the Naval Reserves then joined the regular Navy and served from

1943 to ’53. I changed from the Navy to the Air Force because those fellows were riding

in airplanes everywhere and they got to come home more often! I was in the Air Force

from 1953-73 when I retired.

   I made several trips around world in the Navy. I was sent to the Great Lakes for basic training and finished in six weeks.  We had to fall out every morning for roll call and the 3^rd time we fell out I was assigned to a ship-glad to go because there were so many of us and it was very confining.

  We left the Great Lakes and went on a cattle car-I’ll never forget they had freight cars and cattle cars and they stuffed us in them to go to San Francisco.  The food wasn’t too bad. We cooked right there in the cattle cars in pots on stoves and served. We were all issued a mess kit plate made of metal that folded and had a cup and knife, fork, and spoon and you kept that through your tour and always carried it because that was the only thing you had to eat out off. It had U.S. Navy on the handle. I’ve still got it and use it occasionally.

   We were issued a hammock, a mattress about two inches thick, and clothes. You carried that with you and if you lost it, you had no place to sleep. The ship had no bunks or beds but an open space with chains on the walls and you hooked your canvas mattress on those chains. We stacked them three people high. I slept on the top bunk. I still have the canvas mattress at the barn. I made sure I didn’t lose it! We stayed in San Francisco several weeks before we were assigned to a ship.

   There was a staging area for 60-100 men and I was in one group.  This fellow came and talked to us and it was the first fellow I had seen with a star on his shoulder. It was General MacArthur and he explained to us what we were going to do. He wanted us to take all these islands back from Japan. I thought it was real nice that he explained what we were going to do and how to do it and he said, “I’ll see you on the beach.”  He was inspiring; he gave us a pep talk and it helped.

   We had two large boats and two small boats and my job was to drive one of the small boats with men to the shore; the large boats took tanks, jeeps, and big equipment. We got the boats off the ship using a hydraulic crane or by letting the big ship take on water and tilt so we could let the boats down in ocean. I was out at sea when I learned how the big ship unloaded. We never trained on anything like that during basics; it was train and learn as we’d go.

   There was usually mass confusion because there were so many people there and you didn’t know what was what. The ship could carry 6000 men at a time and would come within two miles of the shore and we fellows with small boats had to bring the men in safely to the island.  They came off the side of the ship on rope ladders and into our small boats-there were many accidents just getting from the ship into the boat. They all stood in the boats, 60-100 standing up, and when we got to the beach, I’d let the ramp down and they’d try to get to shore.

   It was tough-time and time again when I went to the beach not a single man had made it. You saw your friends go in the water. I don’t know how many we lost but I read later one of the toughest places was Iwo Jima and that Americans lost 10,000 men and the Japanese lost 30,000 in the three days we were there. I remember carrying seamen into shore and between the dead Japs and dead Americans I couldn’t get through the water-there were too many dead men floating in the water. But we got the soldiers to shore and we got the job done. For a period after the war I had nightmares from what I saw, but I got over it, blocked it out.

   I still get information from the Navy Department and get magazines and they tell stories about different battles. All I can say is the Lord was with me. I was sitting right up there, in front, under fire. One of the men gave me a steel plate, and I remember holding in front of me to protect me and it helped.

   Throughout 1944 we went to islands like Saipan and Marshall. We would go in a group of 50-60 ships that left and went from island to island. I found my ship was a replacement from the Normandy invasion.  I was not in Europe but talked to fellows who called us “the replacements.”

   We knew the Japanese were on all these islands. “Mass confusion” best describes the scene: the air was full of helicopters and blimps flying around the islands in such a large operation. You had to keep in your mind what you were supposed to do and get the job done. Today communication is better but back then we didn’t have so much. We got aboard the ship and the captain would get on the loud speaker and maybe it worked, but if it didn’t, he hollered and you hoped you heard it all.

   When we went into the island we carried rifles and flame throwers. Flame throwers were a big thing because the Japanese were in caves and were shooting at us from them. We’d discharge the flame thrower in the cave opening and you could hear them holler ’cause it got everybody in there.

   We would leave as many men on the islands to hold them as we could spare. We survived the best we could. Some had mattresses to throw on the ground some didn’t. If you were wounded you were sent to the medics on the beach and treated and if you survived, you were sent back to the hospital ship. We normally had a hospital ship close by. Lots of times I would take a bunch to the beach and bring wounded back to ship to drop them off-it was a fast turn around. Most of the time they were loaded and unloaded with rope ladders or we’d drop a basket down for the wounded and pull them up by hand.

   The men knew the job that had to be done.  Storming a beach they would fall in and do it. There were some that lost their mind and went berserk and your buddy had to hold you down because you couldn’t stop or you wouldn’t get into beach. It was do or die. And you knew you had to do it. 

   The water depth varied sometimes we’d pull up to beach and drop the ramp on dry ground, next time in five feet of water and they had to wade-you went in as close in as you could go. I’d say “get out” and they jump out and then you’d backup. The coral was rough. Sometimes it was sandy, sometimes muddy, but coral could cut the boat or cut your feet to pieces. I have seen it too rough to go in so we’d back up and go 100 yards down the beach to where it was perfectly smooth.

   When the war ended I was in Guadalcanal. We had gone there and invaded it and took it over and we were loading ships with supplies to invade Tokyo and we were told we’d take over Japan so we had to take supplies with us.  We always left from the port after midnight so no one could see you or know when we were leaving.

   When we heard that the war was over we were excited. We threw the trucks, bulldozers, and all heavy equipment overboard when they said you fellows can head home. We opened the side and dropped everything over in a few hours. There are a lot of 2 ton trucks, tanks, and bulldozers at bottom of ocean.  We carried some stuff with us but we had to make room for men and we wanted to come home.

   I got home six months later. I was transferred to another ship that carried the wounded to San Francisco. Then they moved me by troop train from San Fran to Jacksonville, Florida to get discharged in 1946. I was in the active reserves and stayed in that for several years but I guess I couldn’t stay still long so I joined the Air Force.

   Last few years I have lost contact with many. Most have passed on. I went to reunions at first but haven’t for the last ten years.

   I got married in 1948 to one of those five girls that was in my graduating class-Georgina Martin lived right up the road from where I lived.  We wrote letters while I was in service. She did more corresponding than I did because she could write better than I could. We married 12 December 1948 and lived in Atlanta for about a year then came back to Luthersville and the homeplace.  She had family in the Air Force and one in the army and one was a pilot.  Between getting out of Navy and joining the Air Force I got into politics and was a county commissioner for four years and worked at several other jobs. I had a friend who was working for Holiday Inn and said if I came to Birmingham I could be the food service manager. Hotel management was a good job and I enjoyed it but it didn’t suit me so I moved on and joined the Air Force first with food service then as club manager of the NCO officers club. I went to the Philippines and moved about every two years: Tampa, Florida, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and more. I flew into Korea twice taking equipment but didn’t stay. 

   After the Air Force, I came back to Luthersville and was county commissioner again. I went to UGA for a short period of time under the GI Bill. I did not finish my degree in personnel management.

     Shore leave did not happen much. I was a young fellow and in San Francisco or Treasure Island we were at liberty for 2-3 days.  I visited San Diego, went to the zoo and to Mexico. Tijuana-that was a knock down, drag out place!

   Pranks went on all time as you had to do something for amusement. We had these bunks that hung from the ceiling bulkhead and they’d get in there and short sheet us. You’d jump in at night tired, or they’d put in a balloon full of water and it would burst.  Typical GI harassment and pranks.  Or you’d fold the sheet back and they’d used a bottle of ketchup and you’d see the red on your hand and think you’d cut yourself. Showers and toilet pranks- you name it, GIs would think about it and do it.

   The black market was something I didn’t involved in it except to get silk hose stockings or we always managed to get a case of beer here and there and trade it for this or that or cigarettes or food or entertainment. I went to USO shows. I remember meeting Bob Hope and got his picture signed and he handed it to me. USO shows had well known entertainers and when I ran the club in the Philippines we had contracts with some to come there-it was always a big deal when they came.

Spaghetti Supper at American Legion

Camp Cecil Perkerson Post 186 will be holding a Spaghetti Supper on Saturday 18th of September from 5:30 until 7:30.  Meal ticket price is $5 and children under six are free.  Tickets may be obtained from Larry Whitlock, Claude Harman, Larry Dunaway, Dan Branch, Buster McCoy, Pete Johnson, Rob Cato, Ed Hobson, and John Norris.

Come and enjoy!