Ol'Harry

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. 

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. 

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.”

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 (3^rd 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.

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.