AND SO GO THE GALLANT
January 1942


Today’s article is the first in a series of forty-five monthly articles which commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War II  and honor those Laurens Countians who served in World War II on the home front, around the country and across the oceans, in both military and civilian roles.

Dublin and Laurens County had made it through Christmas, a quite different Christmas than ever before.   Everyone has wished for a quick end of the war, but all feared a very long and dreadfully deadly war which could last for many, many years.

On the first day of the year 1942, newspapers across the nation published a long list of lieutenant colonels breveted to colonel.   Included in that list was the name of Col. Calvin Hinton Arnold, who was based out his parent’s home in Dublin, then a city of 8,000 people. Col. Arnold, a native of Swainsboro and a veteran of World War I, would eventually become a brigadier general in the U.S. Army.

On January 4, just 29 days into the war, the ministers of Laurens County led a mass meeting at the courthouse on a Sunday afternoon to discuss civilian defense operations and the new restrictions on automobile tires.   On that same day, 18 Jewish soldiers stationed at Camp Wheeler in Macon, traveled to Dublin to enjoy a special day of entertainment, food and fun in the homes of Dublin’s Jewish families, which included the Kaplans, Leases, Caplans, Dunns and Hankins families.

John Couric, Jr., (left) a former Dublin and Macon, newspaperman and future father of television news anchor, Katie Couric, enlisted in the United States Navy and reported to Norfolk, Virginia for intense Naval training.   He served in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific.  As a member of the Naval Reserve, Couric retired in 1965 with the rank of lieutenant commander.

A seven-hour air raid test was held on January 12 under the direction of Air  Warden Director  W.H. Proctor at all of the 14 air raid posts around the county, each manned by 20 men working on shifts.  

One of Dublin’s first airmen, Lt. William H. Keen was commissioned at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Victoria, Texas, Class 42-A, Keen had attended North Georgia College.

Twenty-one-year- old Robert Adams, son of Judge Wiley Adams, wanted so desperately to joined the air corps that he overcame his underweight status by “stuffing himself with milk and bananas.   Lt. Adams got his wish to fly, but on September 12, 1944  he would be shot down and killed over Europe.

Two of Dublin’s most active and experienced  fliers, W.H. “Bud” Barron, Jr. and Isadore “Izzy” Lease, joined the Army Air Corps Ferrying Command out of Nashville, Tennessee, where they flew planes from the Vultee Company plant to their points of departure.  Barron would go on to become one of top leaders in the amount of miles flow by U.S. Army Air Corps pilots during the war.

Dublin residents had read of the details of bombing of Pearl Harbor in newspapers and magazines and saw moving pictures of the raid on newsreels at city’s only movie theater,  Rose Theater, but few had heard specific eye witness accounts, which came from Laurens County’s first war refugees.

Mrs. Flora. Perry, speaking to a Macon Telegraph reporter, from the home of her sister in law, Mrs. John Rowe, on Joiner Street, said, “I was at my home near Hickam Field when the raid started, and like most everyone else, thought at first it was our own planes coming overhead.”

“Pretty soon, however, my next-door neighbor and I, who were standing together in front of the house realized it was something else when the bullets started to fly and we saw bombs being dropped on the barracks about a mile away,” Mrs. Perry continued.

I did not panic, but I took my baby inside the house and stayed there until the authorities came to remove us to Honolulu.

“I’m  glad my husband, L.B. Perry, a boatswains mate, wasn’t there because he might have been killed. He was on duty aboard a naval vessel somewhere out at sea,” recalled Perry who didn’t see him at all until she reached a port in California.

Mrs. Perry could not express any exciting details concluding, “ That’s all there was to it.  The shooting stared and after my baby and  I got inside there was nothing to do.  We just stayed there waiting for it all to get over with.”

The attack came closer than she originally thought when she founded a bullet hole in the screen door of her house.  Mrs. Perry and her baby  moved to Honolulu, where she stayed until Christmas before traveling to California and coming home to stay with her husbands family home in Dublin.

Near the end of January, Laurens County began to finalize its civilian defense plans. Under the leadership of Dublin Mayor Dee Sessions, Assistant Civilian Defense Chief, Stanley Reese, Dublin Police Chief J.W. Robertson, Fire Chief C.D. Devereaux, and city aldermen; W.P. Tindol, Martin Willis, E.B. Mackey, D.T. Cowart, and Freeman O’Neal, the local manager of of the Georgia Power Company.  

Members of United Daughters of the Confederacy and American Legion Auxiliary, at the suggestion of the fervent patriot, Miss Adelaine Baum, served sandwiches and hot coffee to those men being inducted into the service as well as any troops passing through just as the ladies did during World War I.  H.H. Dudley agreed to buy sandwiches and coffee for African American selective service inductees while M.A,  Ingram  served the troops around the induction centers and train depots.

A call was sent out for members of the home defense corps.  All who are not classified as  1-A were still need to provide an adequate as possible defense in the event of an enemy attack.  A sufficient number of women and black men have registered.  The most  urgent needs were air raid wardens, auxiliary policemen  and fire fighters.  Missing in the plan was the lost of one of two Dublin hospitals, Claxton Hospital, which burned the weekend after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

While the first quota of $5000.00 quota for the Red Cross had not yet been met, money was still coming in contributions from less than a dollar to the $87.50 donated by George T. Morris.

An early sign of how difficult life was going to be on the home front came at the end of January when it was announced that quotas for automobile tires were going to be cut in Laurens County.    Later that spring food and other essential critical items began to be rationed.

TWO STREETS AT THE CARL VINSON VA MEDICAL CENTER NAMED FOR PEARL
HARBOR HEROES



On the hospital grounds of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center Dublin, Ga., you will find two abiding memorials to those who lost their lives on that infamous Sunday in December, 75 years ago.   Nearly three years after their deaths, the Navy Department named the streets of the naval hospital under construction in Dublin after naval personnel killed during World War II.  Among those honored were two officers who were killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Johnson Drive, the main drive which runs from the entrance to the west toward the west end of the VA campus, is named for  Commander Samuel E. Johnson, of Clanton,
Alabama, was killed while serving as a physician aboard the U.S.S. Arizona.

Commander Johnson, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, was serving aboard the Arizona as the Senior Medical Officer in the forward dressing room when the attack began.

         Commander Johnson and 1176 other men were killed as the ship was destroyed and sunk by enemy aircraft bombs and fire.

U.S.S. ARIZONA

(above)

Alexander Drive, which runs from the Middle Georgia State University building, by the water towner and toward the  rear entrance along Bellevue Road was named for a dentist,  ieutenant Commander, Dr. Hugh Rossman Alexander.

Lieutenant Commander Hugh R. Alexander, of Belleville, PA, was awarded the  Navy and Marine Corps Medal  for heroism in operations against the enemy Japanese forces on  December 7, 1941, while attached to and serving on board the U.S.S. Oklahoma.  Lieutenant Commander Alexander was aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma during the attack made by the Japanese against the United States Naval Forces at Pearl Harbor. As a result of damage by the enemy the Oklahoma capsized shortly after the attack was begun, entrapping Lieutenant Commander Alexander and others in a compartment where portholes provided the only possible means of escape.

U.S.S. OKLAHOMA
(left)


Despite his knowledge of the desperate situation in which he was placed and with complete disregard for his own safety, Lieutenant Commander Alexander heroically went about the crowded compartment and deliberately selected the more slender of those entrapped whom he conducted to the portholes and aided them in making their escape through these narrow openings. Continuing his intrepid action until the end, Lieutenant Commander Alexander gallantly laid down his life in order that his shipmates might live. This action on his part rendered him individually conspicuous among his comrades and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

THE LAST OF THE GREATEST GENERATION

This picture of the American flag was signed by those local veterans of World War II who attended the ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor held at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center, December 7, 2016. 

HEADLINE, DUBLIN, COURIER HERALD, DECEMBER 8, 1941

EYEWITNESS TO INFAMY

EYEWITNESS TO INFAMY

Pancakes were all that Marjorie Wilson could think about as she drifted in and out of her Sunday morning dreams. It was just another normal sunny day, or so Marjorie thought. When she could practically smell pancakes, Marjorie rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, got out of bed, put on her robe and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Marjorie perhaps was thinking of the grand times  she and her husband Bob had  when they first arrived in the tropical paradise of Hawaii in the spring of 1940.  Pleasant thoughts turned into nightmares. Did it not seem real? Was it all a bad dream?

The date was December 7, 1941. The place was Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The clock in the Wilson house was about to strike eight. Marjorie Hobbs Wilson, daughter of Walter A. Hobbs and Mary Arnold Hobbs, awoke from dreaming about pancakes to witness a nightmare, the momentous bombing of Pearl Harbor, which turned the world on its head.

Marjorie's husband, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Major Bob Wilson, had been  stationed for more than a year and one half in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. Relations between the United States and Japan had begun to deteriorate. Many expected a war, but not that soon, and not in this way.

Bob was the first to awake that morning in the Wilson household. The Wilsons heard no alarms, no air raid warnings. Bob, running up the steps of the couple's two story house, said, "Honey, you are missing a good mock war." The roar of planes near the naval base wasn't unusual. In fact, the Wilsons and other servicemen and their families had grown accustomed to planes engaging in maneuvers. Sgt. Major Wilson looked out the window again and realized that this time, it was no drill.

Marjorie, who had been working as a war nurse,  looked out the window. "The Jap planes were flying so low over our house that the wheels were almost rolling on the roofs. I knew it was the real thing when I saw a bomb make a direct hit," she recalled.

Bob Wilson, a veteran of the first World War, ran to his closet and began to put on his Marine uniform. Marjorie turned on the radio. Frantic broadcasters were constantly announcing that Japanese planes were attacking the Island of Oahu and for all men to report for duty at once. Bob got to his unit as soon as he could.

Marjorie Wilson first ran to the home of her girlfriend, Margaret De Sadler. Then Marjorie and Margaret went over to Harriett Hemmingway's house. As they ran down the streets, Mrs. Wilson recalled running along a quiet street, but seeing real bombs exploding nearby.

"Several girls had gathered there and we were there when the worst part was going on," Marjorie wrote in a letter to her parents later in the day. Mrs. Wilson recalled, "There were about seven kids there and all scared stiff. Harriett was almost out of her head. She has two little boys, one three and one five." I haven't been scared so far. I don't guess I've got enough sense to be."

More of the wives and their children gathered in the house. While the attack was on, the ladies kept their children calm by lying on the floor with them and drawing pictures. "I never knew anything about drawing before, but after that session, I think I am a pretty fair artist," Wilson chuckled. When one piece of shrapnel came inside the house, the children were herded into an interior room. Marjorie reached down and picked up the metallic souvenir.

Margaret accompanied Marjorie back to the Wilson house, where they put some clothes in a suitcase just in case they needed to evacuate to the hills. Bob Wilson returned to his house to make sure Marjorie had a radio to hear special announcements as all regular radio programming was suspended.

During the carefully premeditated surprise attack, Mrs. Wilson observed, "Some of the youngsters in the service ran out on the field shaking their fists at the Japanese planes even when they saw a bomb falling their way." She observed one Marine cook firing away with his anti-aircraft gun. The man suddenly remembered that he had a chocolate cake in the oven and ran to make sure it wasn't burning. "It was a silly thing to think of at a time like that - but those boys did enjoy the cake when the fireworks were over," she fondly recalled.

On that Sunday night, practically every light in Pearl Harbor was turned off. Marjorie and Margaret pulled down a mattress from the upstairs and tried to get some sleep on the downstairs floor. Marjorie took out a pen and wrote a letter back to her parents promising to let them know how she was doing as often as she could. " I know you are frantic with all the news you are getting over the radio today.   As soon as I can, I'll send you a wire, but I don't know now when that will be possible," she also wrote.

"We spent a pretty quiet night. Of course, Margaret and I both slept with one eye and one ear open," Marjorie recalled. The ladies had some comfort in the fact that a sentry was stationed right in front of her house.

At one o'clock in the morning, Alfred Sturgis rang the door bell and invited the ladies to come stay with him. Sturgis, who had worked all day at the Navy yard, couldn't drive his car during the blackout periods. Sturgis took Marjorie's letter and made sure it made it back to Dublin, just in time for Christmas.

After the initial shock, things at Pearl Harbor seemed to return to normal, or at least as normal as it could be under the circumstances. Marjorie remembered the blackouts every night. She recalled seeing Japanese merchants being rounded up and hauled in front of late night tribunals. She regretted that she and the other wives rarely saw their husbands. The ladies had gas, lights and water for the next day, but military officials cut off the water after reports that insurgents had poisoned the water supply.

Marjorie Hobbs returned to Atlanta three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She didn't want to come home and leave her husband behind. "I got my orders so here I am - and I am going to try to find some kind of war work to do as soon as I can," she told Celestine Sibley of the Atlanta Constitution.

Marjorie eventually returned to Dublin. She was a member of the John Laurens DAR, the Shamrock Garden Club and the first president of the Dublin Service League. Bob Wilson made it home safely too. After retiring as a Warrant Officer from the Marine Corps, Bob owned and operated the Western Auto Store in Dublin.  Later Bob managed  the Muse's Department Store in Atlanta.. He died on October 28, 1980. Marjorie Hobbs Wilson died on July 20, 2002 and is buried beside her husband in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.

It was on this day, seventy-five years ago, when Marjorie Wilson woke up from a comforting  dream to witness "a day which will live in infamy," a day when the  world changed forever.

EYES TOWARD THE SKY

In the summer of 1941, all eyes were turned to the sky, hoping that they would not see what they were looking for. In that last summer before World War II, the fear of an invasion by the German or Japanese air forces was all too real.  Accordingly, around the nation and in almost every Georgia county, air observation posts were organized.

 After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the fears multiplied beyond a near panic, especially on the west coast.  By the summer of 1942, those constant fears were quelled to some degree, but only a few people didn’t turn their heads skyward when they saw a plane, friendly or not.

Plans were already in effect to curtail electrical use in the City of Dublin by turning off residential street lights.  A local defense corps was organized to begin training in the event of an invasion.  Scrap aluminum drives were held to conserve the suddenly  precious metal.

On August 8, 1941, the State Defense Corps of Georgia named Dublin insurance agent, W.H. Proctor, to organize a corps of volunteers to serve as observers at fourteen local observation posts in Laurens County.  Each post would require a minimum of 20 persons, male or female.  The posts would be under the overall command of Dr. Charles Hodges, head of the local State Defense Corps unit.

Each post was commanded by a chief and an assistant chief.  Access to telephone lines was critical.  If an enemy plane was spotted, the observer would call a central location in Dublin, where the message would be relayed to state officials.

The initial posts were established in Dublin, Harmony School, Rentz, Cadwell, Alcorn, Buckhorn, Dudley, Montrose, Garretta, Chappell’s Mill, Blackshear’s Ferry, Brewton, Lovett and the home of N.P. Metts.

Within the first two days, the Dublin Post 31 was completed with F. Roy Orr as the Chief and Harry Hill as his assistant.  Other initial members were: R.H. Hightower, E.T. Hall, G.C. Moore, R.C. Garrard, Cordie Green, Arthur Adams, F.M. Aiken, Roy Pope, J.D. Sheppard, George M. Prescott, E.E. Cook, Albert Duncan, Drew Perry, T.A. Lane, T.E. Kellam, E.L. Black, Jr., L.C. Malone and O.C. Hattaway.

In the Buckhorn Community, J.W. Lord, Joseph R. Lord and H.W. Dozier served as the Chief and 1st and 2nd assistant chiefs.  Ralph T. Lord, J.O. English, Wilbur Lord, Homer Dorsey, J.M. Warren, W. H. Hobbs, L.F. Warren, Tom Kemp, M.C. Wall, Parks Daniel, Charlie Thomas, A.U. Hogan, R.W. Parker, J.D. Holliman, J.B. Howard, R.C. Hogan, Jr. and J.M. Wall rounded out the observation crew of Post 76.

Post 93 in the Thomas Cross Roads Community was headed by Ancil Chavous, O.C. Brown and J.M. Wolfe.  I.E. Wood, Arthur Wolfe, R.H. Lee, O.C. Brown, Jim Henry Montford, J.R. Fordham, J.P. Ellington, Olaf Thomas, R.H. Roach, J.D. Hogan, Jim Will Ward, Ike Jenkins, A.W. Barfoot, J.H. Mathis and P.P. Payne rounded out the observers.

N.P. Metts, W.M.. Dixon and T.D. Bailey headed the Chappell’s Mill Post No. 95 along Highway 441 North with the aid of Freeman Barron, C.C. Wright, Drew Horne, W.P. Perry, J.D. Hogan, J.L. Allen, J.O. Cannon, H.B. Cannon, W.F. Towson, J.F. Starley, W.J. Renfroe,C.H. Hudson, S.J. Garner and J.M. Allen.

  In the first week, more than half of the post had chiefs.  In addition to Roy Orr in Dublin, Walter B, Daniel of Garretta, A.W. Dominy of Alcorn, N.P. Metts of Chappell’s Mill, Y.H. Thompson of Montrose, Sam Hinsley of Buie’s Mill, C.J. Bedingfield of Cadwell and Hugh Grant of Rentz had volunteered to serve as chiefs in their home areas.

Mock air raids were scheduled for October, although most of the rural units were not ready due to a failure to receive orders for operating procedures.

Just six days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Fiorello La Guardia, head of the Office of Civilian Defense placed a full page ad in the Dublin Courier Herald and other papers around the country instructing Americans in an air raid to keep cool, stay home, put out their lights, lie down and stay away from windows.  LaGuardia, the iconic Mayor of New York City, urged all Americans to volunteer to serve as air raid wardens or serve their country in the Civilian Defense Corps.

  Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Col. Irvine F. Beiser, in command of the Georgia State Defense Corps, urged the citizens of Georgia to establish an ARP (air raid post) for every 32 square miles amounting to 1106 in the state.   The Colonel suggested that each community appoint an air raid warden for every 500 people in addition to tripling auxiliary police forces,  offering more emergency medical services and first aid training in every home and improving maintenance of public transportation and communications.

Air raid wardens were charged with the responsibility of observing which lights were showing during a blackout, warning occupants of buildings, directing pedestrians to shelter, reporting to the control center of any fallen bombs, reporting fires detecting and reporting the presence of poisonous gas and assisting victims in damaged buildings.  Each air raid warden served 500 people.  Although he or she possessed no police powers, it was their duty to work with all law enforcement officers.

In late February 1942, a rally was held at the Dublin City Hall to insure that all wards of the city were fully manned.  Mayor Dee Sessions invited all officers of the Civilian Defense Corps to be present as well as all citizens who were asked to serve as auxiliary policemen and firemen.  Nearly 90 Dubliners were charged with the responsibility of managing the volunteers during an air raid.  All officers were required to attend 30 hours of air raid training.

On March 11, 1942, Freeman R. O’Neal, Laurens County Commander and Georgia Power executive, began the implementation of air raid plans with the assistance of executive officer, Stanley A. Reese.  O.F. Ludwig, a local electrician, was appointed as the area air raid warden of Dublin.  A board of officers, composed of  T.C. Keen, comptroller, M.A. Rogers, personnel officer, Coke Brown, property officer, and Mrs. J.A. Middleton, billeting officer, were appointed to aid Warden Ludwig.

Other civilian heads were Martin Willis, Chief of Firefighters, Chief J.W. Roberston, Chief of Police workers, W.P. Tindol, Chief Air Raid Warden, Dr. R.G. Farrell, Chief of Emergency Medical Services and  E.B. Mackey, Chief of Public Works and Utilities.  Eugene Cook, a future Attorney General of Georgia, was named as Vice Chief Air Warden.   H.H. Dudley was the head of the African American efforts in Dublin.

After the first hundred days of the war, at least 448 persons in Dublin and Laurens County were undergoing training for civilian defense with an additional 213 citizens  enrolled for civilian defense duties.  Seventy five men and twenty five women were training for air warden duties.  Other students included: 171 auxiliary firemen, 136 auxiliary policemen, 5 men and 25 women who served as emergency medical personnel, 10 men and 1 woman worked as staff corps members, 20 men trained as demolition and clearance workers and 10 women aided the war effort as emergency food and housing workers.

By early May, the first air raid sirens arrived.   Ten months into the war, W. H. Proctor notified all of the air raid volunteers that they could “take it easy” for a while.  Proctor thanked the men and women who “have kept a constant vigil at their posts.”   The directors of the area center in Savannah proclaimed that the air raid defense system along the Atlantic Coast was so effective that further participation of inland residents was no longer necessary.  Despite the furlough, the system remained in place under the direction of Proctor and his three assistants, F. Roy Orr,  T.R. Napier  and Emory Whittle.

As the tide of the war turned in 1944, the role of air raid wardens and air observers came to an end.

LAURENS COUNTIANS IN WORLD WAR 2

A Brief History of Our Involvement

It was during the early morning hours of September 2, 1939, 75 years ago, while most Laurens Countians were still asleep that the British government declared war on Germany because of its unwarranted invasion of Poland.  World War II began.  Officially, the United States remained neutral. Despite our country’s detached stance, locally Laurens County men continued training at the National Guard Armory in anticipation of the inevitable conflict. 

Dublin and Laurens County once again stepped forward and sent thousands of young men into military service during World War II.  Scores of Laurens County boys joined the National Guard, which was attached to the 121st U.S. Infantry division.   The Guard mobilized in September of 1940 into Federal service.  

Alta Mae Hammock and Brancy Horne were the first women to join the W.A.A.C..  Marayan Smith Harris was the first woman to join the WAVES.   Louise Dampier also served as a yeoman in the U.S. Navy.  Seaman Elbert Brunson, Jr. was onboard the U.S.S. Greer on September 4, 1941.  The destroyer was the first American destroyer to fire upon the dreaded German U-boat submarines in an incident which accelerated the country’s declaration of war against Germany.  Despite strong support from all the communities of Central Georgia and Cong. Carl Vinson,  the powerful chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, the federal government denied the location of a naval air training station on the Oconee River just below the city due to the lack of a large labor force and the heavy infestation of mosquitos in the area.  

Before the United States officially entered the war, Lester F. Graham, a Dublin marine, was among a thousand U.S. Marines assigned to protect American interests in Shanghai, China which was under attack by the Japanese army in the summer of 1937. 

Several Laurens Countians were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Marjorie Hobbs Wilson and her husband were eyewitnesses to the bombing.   Also at Pearl Harbor on the “Day of Infamy” were  George Dewey Senn, William Drew, Jr., Bascom Ashley, Walter Camp, Joel Wood, Harold Wright, Charles Durden, Hardy Blankenship, Rowland Ellis, Wade Jackson, Nathan Graham, Obie Cauley and Claxton Mullis.  Lts. William C. Thompson, Jr. and Everett Hicks were serving in the Philippines and Woody Dominy was stationed on Wake Island.   Mess Attendant 1st Class Albert Rozar served aboard the U.S.S. Gudgeon in the first submarine patrol into Japanese waters. 

Alton Hyram Scarborough, of the D.H.S. Class of '37, was the first of one hundred and nine casualties of the war.  Robert Werden, Jr. loved to fly and was so anxious to fly planes in World War II that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  When the United States declared war, he joined the Army Air Force, only to be shot down and killed in the early years of the war.  

Capt. Bobbie E. Brown of Laurens County was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the assault on Crucifix Hill in Aachen, Germany.  Capt. Brown, a career non- commissioned officer, personally led the attack on German positions, killing over one hundred Germans and being wounded three times during the battle.  Capt. Brown was the first Georgian ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, along with eight Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars.  At the end of the war, Captain Brown was the oldest company commander in the United States Army and first in length of service.

 Paratrooper Kelso Horne was pictured on the cover of Life during the invasion of Normandy.   Lt. Horne, a member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division and one of the oldest paratroopers in the U.S. Army, parachuted behind German lines near St.  Mere Eglise in the night time hours before the amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Ensign Shelton Sutton, Jr., a native of Brewton and a former center for Georgia Tech, was killed while serving aboard the U.S.S. Juneau, along with the famous Sullivan brothers.   Nearly two years later in 1944,  the U.S. Navy commissioned the U.S.S. Sutton in his memory.

 His teammate Aviator Wex Jordan,  an all-Southeastern guard for Georgia Tech in 1941 and Tech’s Most Valuable Player, was killed in an air accident while training in San Diego on Veteran’s Day in 1943.

Like the fictional Captain John Miller in “Saving Private Ryan,” Dublin and Laurens County teachers left the classroom to fight for their country. Robert Colter, Jr., who had been teaching Vocational-Agricultural classes at Cadwell High School was killed on February 20, 1945 in Germany. Captain Henry Will Jones, (left)  the Vocational - Agricultural teacher and football coach at Dexter High School and a paratrooper, was killed at Peleliu Island in the South Pacific in October 18, 1944.  In recognition of his exemplary valor, Capt. Jones was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

  Lt. Lucian Bob Shuler, (left)  a former Cadwell High School basketball coach, was an ace, having shot down seven  Japanese planes in combat.   Captain Shuler was awarded eleven Distinguished Flying Crosses and twelve Air Medals.

 Cpt. William A. Kelley, a former Dublin High School coach, was flying the “Dauntless Dotty” when  it crashed into the sea on June 6, 1945.  The B-29 Superfortress was the first B-29 to bomb Tokyo.  Kelley and his crew, who flew in a bomber named “The Lucky Irish,” were the first crew in the Pacific to complete 30 missions.  They were returning home to headline the 7th War Bond Drive when the accident occurred.


 Randall Robertson and James Hutchinson, both only a year or so out of Dublin High School, were killed several weeks apart on the same beach on Iwo Jima in 1945.  

Hubert Wilkes and Jack Thigpen survived the fatal attack on  the “U.S.S. Yorktown” at the Battle of Midway.    John L. Tyre volunteered for six months hazardous duty in southeast Asia in an outfit dubbed “Merrill’s Marauders.”  The Marauders, the first ground soldiers to see action in World War II, fought through jungles filled with Japanese soldiers, unbearable heat and slithering snakes.  Only one out six managed to make it all way through the war. 

Lt. Colonel James D. Barnett, Col. Charles Lifsey, Col. George T. Powers, III,  and Lt. Colonel J.R. Laney,  former residents of Dublin and graduates of West Point, were cited for their actions in India and Europe.   Laney was a member of the three-man crew of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, the world’s fastest transcontinental plane, when it crashed into a Washington, D.C. suburb in December 1945.  Lt. Col. Laney survived the crash to complete a distinguished thirty year career in the Army.   

James Adams, Morton C. Mason, Wilkins Smith, Russell M. Daley, Gerald Anderson, Marshall Jones, Robert L. Horton, Loyest B. Chance, Needham Toler, William L. Padgett, Joseph E. Joiner, W.B. Tarpley, Owen Collins, Loy Jones, Thurston Veal, James B. Bryan, James T. Daniel, Cecil Wilkes and others  were surviving in P.O.W. camps in Germany, while Alton Watson, James W. Dominy, and Alton Jordan  were held prisoner by the Japanese.  Lt. Peter Fred Larsen, a prisoner of the Japanese army, was killed by American planes when being transported to the Japanese mainland in an unmarked freighter.  Future Dubliner Tommy Birdsong was digging coal in a Japanese coal mine when an atomic bomb near Nagasaki was dropped.  Earlier he survived the infamous "Bataan Death March."   Other future Dubliners who survived the Bataan Death March were William Wallace, A. Deas Coburn, and Felix Powell.   

      Commander Robert Braddy, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy,  was awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest honor for naval heroism,  for his actions in North Africa in November of 1942.  Rear Admiral Braddy retired from the service in 1951.









Captain William C. Thompson was awarded a Silver Star, two Gold Stars, a Navy Cross and a Bronze Star for his outstanding naval submarine service.  Captain Thompson was the executive officer aboard the submarine Bowfin, which was credited with sinking the second highest Japanese tonnage on a single war patrol.  Thompson was aboard the U.S.S. Sealion when it was struck by Japanese planes at Cavite, Philippines.  The submarine was the first American submarine to be lost in World War II.  Both men are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Captain Thompson’s  first cousin, Sgt. Lester Porter of Dublin, led the first invading forces over the Danube River in nearly two millennia.  Marine Corporal James W. Bedingfield, of Cadwell, was awarded a Silver Star by Admiral Chester Nimitz for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the Japanese at Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, on February 6, 1944.   His kinsman, Capt. Walter H. Bedingfield, was awarded a Silver Star for heroism in setting up a field hospital in advance of American lines at Normandy on D-Day.   T. Sgt. Thurman W. Wyatt was awarded a Silver Star for heroism when he assumed command of his tank platoon following the wounding of the commander and guided it to safety.   Tech. Sgt. Luther Word  was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for heroism,  just prior to his being killed in action.  Lt. Paul Jimmy Scarboro was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry as a pilot of a Super Fortress in the Pacific Ocean. Sgt. Frank Zetterower was awarded the Silver Star for heroism when he was killed in action while trying to rescue wounded soldiers.

Captain Alvin A. Warren, Jr., of Cadwell, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 70 missions in the Indo-China Theater night and day through impassable mountain ranges and high clouds.  Walter D. Warren, Jr. was a member of the famed Flying Tigers in China-Burma-India Theater.  Flight officer Emil E. Tindol also received the same award, just days before he was killed in action  while “flying the hump” - a term used for flying over the gigantic mountain ranges of India and Burma.    For his battle wounds and other feats of courage and bravery, Lt. Clifford Jernigan was awarded the Purple Heart, an Air Medal and three Oak Leaf clusters in 1944.   Lt. Garrett Jones was a highly decorated pilot who participated in the first daylight bombings of Germany.  Calvert Hinton Arnold was promoted to Brigadier General in 1945.  Lt. Col. Ezekiel W. Napier of Laurens County, a graduate of West Point, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Brigadier General.  The "Pilot's Pilot," Bud Barron of Dublin, was credited with the second most number of air miles during the war, mainly by ferrying aircraft to and from the front lines. Barron has been inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.    Dublin native Lt. William L. Sheftall, Jr. flew 74 missions in Italy and was awarded the Silver Star for heroism.  Sidney Augustus Scott, the Chief Engineer of the  SS Charles Morgan, was awarded the Merchant Marine Meritorious  Service medal for his heroism in the landing of men and material on the beaches of Normandy just after D-Day. 

PFC Wesley Hodges was a member of the 38th Mechanized Calvary Recon Squad, the first American squad to enter Paris on August 25, 1944.   Seaman James T. Sutton survived the sinking  of the “U.S.S.  Frederick C. Davis,” the last American ship sunk by the German Navy.     The 121st Infantry of the Georgia National Guard, which was headquartered in Dublin until 1938 and of which Company K and 3rd Battalion HQ Co. were located in Dublin, won a Presidential Unit Citation for its outstanding performance of their duty in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest during Thanksgiving 1944.  Edward Towns was cited for his meritorious service to the submarine forces of the United States.  Curtis Beall, after being voted by his classmates as the most outstanding senior at the University of Georgia in 1943, joined his brother Millard in the United States Marine Corps.  Capt. John Barnett, a twenty-one-year-old Dubliner and twice a winner of the Bronze Star Medal for heroism, was credited with being the youngest executive officer in the United States Army in 1944.  Lt. Arlie W. Claxton won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. These are only a few stories of the thousands of Laurens County's heroes of World War II.   Charles Yarborough and Reuben Whitfield were among the sailors who witnessed Japanese officials sign the official surrender agreement aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. 

Major Herndon “Don” M. Cummings was a bomber pilot in the 477th Bomber Group.  Though his unit was never saw active duty overseas, Major Cummings and his group were known as a group of units collectively called the “Tuskegee Airmen.”  Cummings was incarcerated along with a hundred other fellow pilots for attempting to integrate an all-white officers club at Freeman Field in Indiana in 1945.  Through the efforts of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and the actions of a newly sworn President Harry Truman, the pilots were freed and later exonerated of all charges against them.  Cummings remained in the reserves for twenty years after his retirement from active duty.   He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W.  Bush and was an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. 

Two other Tuskegee Airman who were raised in Laurens County were Col. Marion Rodgers and Col. John Whitehead.    Col. Rodgers was a squadron commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron after the war.  Col. Whitehead was the first African American test pilot in the Air Force and was one of the few Tuskegee Airmen to fly in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Laurens Countians supported the war effort on the home front. A State Guard unit was formed by over-age and under-age men.  Everyone from school children to grandmothers did their part.  Many Laurens Countians commuted to Warner Robins and Macon to work for the war effort. Laurens Countians opened their homes to soldiers from Camp Wheeler, near Macon and British R.A.F. cadets from Cochran Field in Macon.    Angelo Catechis bought war bonds with his life's savings to help rescue  his family in Greece.   The women of Laurens County worked diligently on the home front.  The women made bandages, surgical dressings and sponges by the scores of thousands,  along with knitted garments.  Carolyn Hall, blind since birth, was one of the most proficient knitters in the community.  Laurens Countians contributed hundred of hours of time to the Red Cross, U.S.O. and numerous Civilian Defense programs. Bessye Parker Devereaux was the first woman in the Charleston, S.C. shipyards to be awarded the Outstanding Worksmanship Award by President Roosevelt.   In the summer of 1944, the U.S. government honored the citizens and Laurens County for their contributions to the war effort by naming one of the reconditioned "Liberty Ships" the "U.S.S. Laurens." 

When the final tallies were counted, one hundred and three Laurens Countians lost their lives during the deadliest war in the history of the world.  Many, many more were wounded.  Life here would never be the same.  In an ironic way, the war changed everything for the better.  Economic opportunities, with the establishment of the U.S. Naval Hospital and J.P. Stevens and the influx of thousands of new residents, catapulted the county into an economic boom which still continues day.