RETIRED ASHEBORO FIRE CHIEF INADVERTENT WITNESS TO WORLD HISTORY
“I am the last person on earth who can tell this story first
person,” said 93-year old John McGlohon.
His audience overflowed the Asheboro Public Library to the point I
suspected the Fire Department might ask some to leave.
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| JOHN MCGLOHON LOOKS OVER MAXINE FEREBEE PRUITT'S MEMORABILIA HER BROTHER, TOM, WAS BOMBARDIER ON ENOLA GAY |
That concern became moot when the Asheboro mayor introduced
McGlohon, “John started as a voluntary firefighter in 1948, came on full-time
with fire department in 1955, and retired in 1985 as fire chief. He also served 18 years on the Asheboro City
Council.”
Obviously, no one would be leaving at the Fire Department's bequest until the chief had his
say.
When a standing room only crowd turns out on a steamy summer
evening – for a speech by a retired public servant – expectations rise. John McGlohon fulfilled all expectations, and
more.
He and his older brother, Robert Ashley McGlohon, were born
in Guilford County but the family moved to Asheboro when the boys were very
young. The older brother became an Army
Air Forces bombardier and killed in action during World War II.
As a photographic specialist, Technical Sergeant John
McGlohon flew reconnaissance/mapping missions over South America while mapping
the Southern Ferry Route to Europe. He
helped map the Alaska Highway and chart the air route over The Hump between India
and China.
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| THIS B-29 CREW SURVIVED BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME T/SGT JOHN MCGLOHON IS THIRD FROM LEFT (STANDING) |
The August 6, 1945 mission for his B-29 crew was to map
Japanese coastlines in preparation for the Invasion of Japan.
While McGlohon’s crew took off from Guam on their 15-hour
mission, another Tarheel’s B-29 took off from Tinian. Mocksville’s Tom Ferebee was the bombardier
aboard that aircraft, the Enola Gay.
Neither of the B-29 crews realized the other was in the air.
The Enola Gay made history that day – for McGlohon’s
aircraft – not so much. At least, not so
much for 50 years.
Per McGlohon, “Back on Guam that evening, we learned about
the Hiroshima bombing. Having seen and
photographed the humongous blast, we surmised a bomb had hit a fuel or
ammunition dump – my photos would verify the hit for the pilot.
In those days, film came in 9½ inch by 500 foot long
rolls. I didn’t stick around for
processing, since the word was out that the war would end soon. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to all my
crew-members.
Nagasaki was hit on August 9, Japan surrendered on September
2. I was back home in Asheboro by
October 5, 1945. I haven’t had the urge
to leave since.”
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| T/SGT JOHN MCGLOHON |
McGlohon told family and friends about his Hiroshima
photographs, “A few newspapers carried my story. I made a good number of talks. The military higher-ups remained in denial –
I couldn’t have cared less.”
Over 50 years after taking the only close-range photos of
the Hiroshima mushroom cloud, McGlohon attended a reunion of his outfit in
Tampa, “I walked in and saw the photograph I had taken displayed on the
wall! It was still labeled top secret,
and dated August 6, 1945. I told my
wife, that’s the photo I took!”
While McGlohon, the only surviving crew member, has quietly maintained
his resolve about the photo over the decades, questions and accusations have
come and gone. As Joe Knox wrote in the
Greensboro Daily News on August 3, 1975, “It was an accident. It was a mistake. They (3rd Photo Reconnaissance
Squadron) shouldn’t have been there.”
On a brighter side, Chatham County’s Ken Samuelson
interceded for John McGlohon. After two
years of interviews and meticulous research, Samuelson documented McGlohon’s
claim to his photo taken over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Among other things, Samuelson discovered
McGlohon’s photo had been published by a military newspaper as early as August
11, 1945 – with no credit to the photographer.
McGlohon now has the rest of the story – an officer in the
Guam Army film laboratory saved the film and brought it back to the States
after the war. Following his death, it was
donated to the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum in Tyler, Texas.
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| HOMETOWN HERO, JOHN MCGLOHON, DREW STANDING ROOM ONLY CROWD |
McGlohon married a former Army nurse cadet in training,
Marietta Jane Gellback, on April 30, 1948.
She is now deceased. They were
active members of Asheboro’s First United Methodist Church. They had two sons, Bob and Steve, two grands,
and five great-grand-children.
After the war, McGlohon operated an Asheboro photography
studio for several years and even served a stint as photographer for the
Greensboro Daily News.
