HOLLYWOOD MARINE, BUT NOT BY CHOICE

Marines who go through recruit training at San Diego are often called “Hollywood  Marines.”  This referral comes almost exclusively from Marines who underwent “real” recruit training at Parris Island. 

EDWIN CANTER FIRST SAW WW II COMBAT AS A SEA-GOING MARINE

Edwin J. Canter was a Parris Island Marine who became a “Hollywood Marine” by the most unfortunate of circumstances.  “During the Invasion of Iwo Jima, our rocket truck lost its differential as we off-loaded onto the beach.  A tank towed us inland a ways – overnight, two of our men robbed a knocked-out truck of its differential -- we were in business again.

On my 14^th day as rocket crew chief, I was shot off the rocket truck by a Japanese sniper.  Rocket trucks always drew an angry fusillade of counter-battery fire, so my buddies knew they had to get me away from the launch site fast.

A U.S. Coast Guard motion picture crew happened to film my buddies as they tried to move me to a safer place.  However, when enemy shells started coming in, my buddies dropped me and dove for cover.    I was wounded again, this time by shrapnel -- the two Coast Guardsmen were killed.”

CANTER BEING MOVED TO SAFER PLACE AFTER BEING HIT BY SNIPER

Canter underwent surgery on the beach and was placed aboard a hospital ship which took him to a hospital on Guam.  He was later moved to a hospital in Hawaii, and finally to hospitals in Oakland, California and Norfolk, Virginia.

 

Even though the film crew perished, the film survived and made its way into numerous newsreels in the states.  The sequence eventually became part of the 1949 movie, “Sands of Iwo Jima,” starring John Wayne. 

U.S. COAST GUARD FILM SEQUENCE USED IN SANDS OF IWO JIMA
CPL EDWIN CANTER KEYED IN NAMES OF EACH ROCKET CREW MEMBER

Now in his 97^th year, Edwin Canter is the most improbable of “Hollywood Marines.”

His demeanor is much more akin to an educator than Marine – as it should.  After graduating from Appalachian State University, he served Wilkes County Schools for 35 years – eight as a teacher, and 27 as a principal.

An undergraduate and master’s degree isn’t all he received as a Mountaineer.  While they were college seniors, he and a Forest City coed, Ruth Bridges, were married in June, 1948. 

One daughter, Rachel Canter Yarbrough, and her husband, Jack, live in Greensboro.  They have two children – Ryan and Rebecca.

Canter was born on the last day of December, 1920, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and graduated from Millers Creek High School in 1938. 

He hasn’t strayed far from his mountain roots, excluding his travels as a World War II Marine.  He makes his home nowadays on Brushy Mountain Road in Moravian Falls, North Carolina.

“I joined the Marine Corps in Winston-Salem on July 7, 1942.  After boot camp, I went to Sea School, after which I went aboard USS Santa Fe.  We entered combat against the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands in July, 1943.  We bombarded Attu and Kiska initially and supported the U.S. landing at Kiska in August, 1943.  Marines manned 20 millimeter gun turrets on the cruiser -- it wasn’t long before I had a perforated ear drum.  After that, we spent four months patrolling the area to prevent Japanese naval operations,” Canter recalls.

After Canter’s tour on the Santa Fe, he completed infantry training at Camp Elliott in California.  From there, he shipped out to Camp Beaumont, on Hawaii’s Oahu Island, where he underwent 4.5 inch rocket training.  Upon completion of that training, he was assigned to the 1^st Rocket Detachment, 4^th Marine Division – destinations Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima was the deadliest battle in history for the Marine Corps, almost 7000 Marines were killed in action.  Canter and his Rocket Detachment went ashore on D-Day, February 19, 1945.  Four days into the battle, the Stars and Stripes went up on Mount Suribachi.  Ten days later, Rocket Crew Chief Edwin Canter went down.  Even though the battle for Iwo Jima would go on until March 26 -- for Corporal Canter, the war was over. 

In addition to his purple heart (he should have been awarded two purple hearts), his Marine Corps decorations include presidential unit citations for Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima; Navy unit commendation for Iwo Jima; and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign ribbon with four stars.

ONLY TWO OF CANTER'S IWO JIMA ROCKET CREW SURVIVE
"I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO REACH THE OTHER SURVIVOR IN SEVERAL WEEKS,
AND I AM WORRIED ABOUT HIM," SAYS CANTER

It would be difficult for a single Wilkes County resident to have missed meeting Edwin J. Canter over his 96 years.  He was inducted into the Wilkes County Hall of Fame in 2015. 

His associations include the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1142, Disabled American Veterans, Wilkes Business and Professional Club, American Legion, Kiwanis Club, Wilkes County Retired Teachers Association, and Marine Corps League.

A charter member of the Brushy Mountain Fire Department and Brushy Mountain Ruritan Club, he is an active member of Wilkesboro United Methodist Church, where he has been a member since 1959.

GLENWOOD HAD WW II GIRLS TOO

An iconic poster dominated the Greensboro community of Glenwood's landscape during WW II, entitled, GLENWOOD BOYS IN SERVICE.  This column offers equal opportunity recognition of a Glenwood girl.

POW WIDOW LOOKS OVER POSTER OF WW II
NEIGHBORS FROM GLENWOOD COMMUNITY

  

Helen Hayworth could have easily jumped to the conclusion she had picked the wrong G.I. for her beau.  Since platoon-sized groups of soldiers came and went from her Glenwood home for meals, parties, and fellowship, she had many to choose from. 

“Our house seemed to be a magnet for out-of-town soldiers.  My father would bring a carload of them home with him sometimes.  Many took their meals with us, but others  were happy just to sit around on the porch and talk,” Hayworth recalls. 

“They were all very nice.  The fact that my father was a Greensboro policeman may have had something to do with that.  My mother pampered them with food and attention.  She said, ‘I know someone would do the same for my boys.’  My brothers, Robert and Tommy served in World War II.”

While none of the soldiers who visited the Hayworth home passed Helen Hayworth’s  muster, one she met at a July 4^th parade did.  “He was from the north, but I really liked him.  He came back to Greensboro on several weekends to see me.  He promised to write after he went overseas. 

I was so terribly disappointed when I didn’t hear from him for months on end!”

The truth be known, Corporal Antonio (Tony) Sanginite, a Brooklyn, New York native, may have written his southern belle while in route overseas.  Unfortunately, outgoing mail went down with his ship.  It was torpedoed by Luftwaffe bombers three miles off the African Coast in November, 1942.  Hours later, it was torpedoed by a German submarine, after which the USS Leedstown (AP-73) went down in 10 minutes.

Sanginite swam ashore and fought as an infantryman.  His 39^th Infantry Regiment swept across North Africa until the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in February, 1943, where he was captured as a prisoner of war. 

Per Helen Hayworth, “Months after he promised to write, I finally heard from him – a solitary postcard notifying me he was a prisoner of war in Italy.  I couldn’t even write him back, there was no return address.” 

Meanwhile, Sanginite escaped from the POW Camp in Italy and rejoined U.S. forces, only to be captured again.  This time, he was imprisoned in Northern Germany.  This time, the war was over for him.

A SANGINITE GRANDSON SERVING AS ARMY OFFICER VISITED THE WW II GERMAN STALAG IN WHICH HIS GRANDFATHER WAS IMPRISONED AND BROUGHT THIS PAVER FROM THE RUINS FOR HIS GRANDMOTHER

For Helen Hayworth, it was another postcard – with no return address.

“Tony was liberated after VE-Day and came straight to Greensboro – he didn’t even go see his mother in New York.  When he knocked on the door of our house on Highland Avenue, I almost died! 

My sister had just married a returning veteran – they had a big church wedding.  I didn’t want a big wedding – I just wanted to marry Tony.  In less than a week, we had gone to York, South Carolina for our wedding.  It couldn’t have been better – the Justice of the Peace had a room all fixed up, a piano player, and everything!”

Tony Sanginite spent the rest of his life in Greensboro, working first as a mechanic and later with the post office.  Health ramifications, likely related to his POW experiences, took his life at the early age of 61.  The Sanginites have one daughter, Toni Price.

Helen Hayworth Sanginite is now 92.  She and Toni, along with Toni’s husband, Randy, remain active with the American Ex-Prisoner of War Association. 

The historic Glenwood Boys in Service poster, which hung for years in Glenwood’s Grove Street Café, was broken out at a recent AXPOW meeting.  Of the 200 photos, Sanginite knew most of them.  In some instances, “I don’t remember that boy’s name, but I remember where he lived.”

She has a cache of other memories as well, such as meeting Amelia Earhart, “I met Amelia through a friend, Jean Benson.  Jean lived out on High Point Road and flew her own plane.  Amelia visited her when she came to Greensboro.”

She also has memories of the Preddy brothers – preceding their World War II heroics.   “The Preddys were distant cousins.  When their family came to our home to visit, the Preddy boys tried their best to aggravate my sisters and me – they were very good at it.”

Sanginite attended McIver Elementary and Central Junior High Schools and graduated from Grimsley High School, class of 1941.

In addition to raising her daughter, she worked for Joseph Ruzicka Book Binders and Pilot Life Insurance Company.  An active member of the Greensboro’s First Moravian Church, she has taught Sunday School, sang in the choir and served as president of the Women’s Fellowship, “I always try to do what I’m asked.” 

She and her sister, Dorothy, served food at Potter’s House for over 20 years.

Should a poster of Glenwood girls who kept the World War II home fires burning be found, I expect Helen Hayworth Sanginite’s photo to be front and center.

  

   

         

MUSIC MAJOR WITH UNUSUAL CAREER PATH

Having known Bob Mays for several years on the Greensboro senior golf circuit, it was surprising to learn his first real job was teaching high school music in Aurora, Ohio.  “I put on the first minstrel show in those parts.  The folks there had never seen anything like that before, they ate it up,” he recalls.

Sensing the surprise remained, he presented his college diploma – East Carolina Teachers College, BS in music education.  

VOCALIST BOB MAYS AND BAND LEADER DON TREXLER

Next were photos performing with the Don Trexler Singers, and others singing with opera star, Beverly Sills.  “I had the captain’s role in H.M.S. Pinafore at the Lyric Theater at the Town Hall,” he added.  I was a believer long before he mentioned his longtime involvement with the Greensboro Oratorio Society.

Mays grew up in Hopewell, Virginia, where he played football, ran track, and worked part-time at the post office.  He had never heard of ECTC scholastically, but had heard the school had loads of good looking girls. 

Post-war dormitory rooms were in short supply.  As a freshman, Mays and a buddy rented a room in the home of a Greenville lawyer and Congressman.  As an ECTC senior, Mays married Lina Weddington, the lawyer’s daughter.  Lina Mays died in 1997.  The Mays’ progeny includes two children, three grands, and four great-grandchildren.

Mays doesn’t fit the mold of the typical music major.  He had joined the Marine Corps in 1943 on his 18^th birthday.  His stops in the South Pacific included Guadalcanal, Pavuvu, New Caledonia, and Okinawa.  In a surprising match of experience and training, Mays was assigned to Headquarters Postal Section.

On Easter Sunday, 1945 – Okinawa D-Day -- Mays learned stretcher-bearers and riflemen were more in demand that postal personnel.  “For weeks, I helped bring back wounded Marines from the front to the shore and placed them on boats bound for hospital ships.  It was a long, laborious process – so many of them didn’t make it.  What we would have given for helicopters to do what we did!” 

While the loss of many Marines and soldiers on Okinawa still wears on Mays, he remains empathetic towards the U.S. Navy, “The kamikaze attacks were devastating.  We spent many nights in foxholes watching our ships defend themselves.  Sometimes, it was as if a fireworks display was being put on just for us.”

After the island had been secured, Mays returned to his postal chores, “Some troops had not received mail in over sixty days.  Huge stacks of mail had accumulated.  We eventually got it distributed and made lots of Marines happy.”

About the time mail call was caught up, training began for the invasion of Japan.  That became moot when the atomic bomb dropped in August, 1945.

If Mays thought the formal surrender of Japan meant a ticket home, he was wrong.  His unit boarded a troopship bound for China, where thousands of armed and undefeated Japanese soldiers awaited repatriation.  Duty as a China Marine was enjoyable for Mays, he was back in the postal section again.

In March, 1946, Mays was discharged.  He planned to enjoy Hopewell for the spring and summer.  The Hopewell post office had other plans, “They found out I was home and told me to come back to work immediately.  We only had one rural route and only two of us knew where everyone lived – the other guy hadn’t had a vacation since I left.”

Back at ECTC, Mays was vocalist for the dance band and selected to Who’s Who Among College Students.  He was befriended by the president of the college, Leo Jenkins, who had also been a World War II Marine.  Jenkins befriended other Marines as well.  “He even signed us up as an unorganized Marine Corps Reserve Unit.”

Then came the Korean War – the unorganized group of Marine Corps Reservists were called back on active duty.  “I spent two years at Camp Lejeune, primarily teaching GED English and math skills.”

After his brief career as a music teacher, Mays joined New Dixie Lines, a Richmond, VA trucking company owned by a cousin.  He became operations manager for NC, which brought him to Greensboro. 

Mays joined Pennisi Insurance Company and eventually became part owner.  He purchased the company upon Pennisi’s untimely death in 1969.  The business was quite successful over the years.  Of the many honors Mays has received, his recognition as ECU Alumni of the Year in 1973 is his favorite.  In 1999, Mays sold his agency to BB&T.

It was a cold, snowy day when I visited Bob Mays.  Multiple Zebco fishing outfits were rigged, ready and stashed in the living room – evidently for warmth.  On a wall nearby was a mounted largemouth bass of trophy dimensions.   “I know of an old mill pond up the road that is absolutely loaded with big bass like this,” he excused.

MAYS PREFERS FISHING OVER GOLF NOWADAYS

Mays is a member of Irving Park United Methodist Church.  Yes, he has a longtime affiliation with the choir.

MCKEESPORTERS ENJOY CALLING NORTH CAROLINA HOME

The late night radio message from an east-bound B-17 from Tokyo was stark but calm, “I am 25 minutes from Oahu with 20 minutes of fuel.”  A second message followed a few minutes later, “Now ditching.” 

SEAMAN BILL MCKENZIE AT SEA

Within minutes, air traffic controllers directed search planes and rescue ships to the anticipated crash area – an extremely remote area 65 miles west of Honolulu.  Additionally, four Navy destroyers in route to Japan via Pearl Harbor were ordered directly to the crash scene at flank speed.

USS MCKEAN DD-784

Aboard the ditched B-17 was a contingent of top officers from General Douglas MacArthur’s Tokyo headquarters, including Ambassador George Atcheson Jr., Chairman of the Allied-Council for Japan.  Hand-cuffed to Atcheson’s wrist was a briefcase filled with sensitive Japan treaty information to be personally delivered to President Harry S. Truman.

The next morning, three survivors were picked up by a Coast Guard cutter after a Marine Corps fighter pilot spotted the wreckage and an overturned raft.  Navy and Coast Guard ships recovered five bodies and another sank during recovery efforts. 

Among the four bodies never recovered was Ambassador Atcheson, a World War I veteran, 27-year Far East diplomat, and General MacArthur’s top adviser. 

Gunnery Controlman Bill McKenzie was standing bridge watch aboard the USS McKean, one of the four destroyers mentioned earlier.  “We were looking forward to a liberty call in Hawaii when ordered to bypass the Islands and go directly to the crash scene.  We searched for three days and nights, with specific orders to watch for a survivor or body with briefcase containing highly confidential documents.”  

SEAMAN MCKENZIE TESTING U.S. NAVY'S ORIGINAL
FAIL-SAFE FIRE-DIRECTION SYSTEM

McKenzie entered the Navy in June, 1946 after high school graduation in McKeesport, PA.  (McKenzie, from McKeesport, aboard the McKean, has to be a linguistic analogy of mention!)  “After the B-17 crash diversion, the remainder of my enlistment was spent on occupation duty out of Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan.  The Japanese people were very nice to us – any problems were brought on by our own troops.”

A former high school classmate invited McKenzie to Tokyo, “We met accidentally on a train.  He was an Army draftsman in the Supreme Commander’s Headquarters in the Dai-Ichi Building.  It was a memorable event for me to see General MacArthur in the flesh!”

Following his Navy discharge, McKenzie graduated from Muskingum College (now University), a United Presbyterian school in New Concord, OH.  He later earned a Master’s Degree in finance from University of Pittsburgh.

Realizing I knew less about Muskingum College than they knew about the Mississippi Southern College my wife and I attended, the McKenzies filled me in.  “John Glenn dropped out of Muskingum during World War II to become a Marine Corps aviator – on his way to earning six distinguished flying crosses and becoming the first American to orbit the earth, U.S. Senator, etc.  His dad was a New Concord plumber, and John married a Muskingum coed.  They were faithful in returning for school reunions.

I deferred mention that Hall of Fame kicker, Ray Guy, came from our school -- punting and orbiting the earth don’t have a lot in common.

After working initially with Gulf Oil Company, Bill McKenzie spent most of his business career with US Steel Corporation, “I primarily did real estate work, which involved heavy travel all over the country.  I slept on business in all but three states!”

McKenzie’s father was a 54-year old school teacher when Bill was born, “He made $60 per month and made me promise: don’t swim in the river; don’t play in the old coal mine; don’t hop freight trains; and don’t marry a school teacher.”

In addition to his livelihood, McKenzie found his life’s mate at US Steel – the former Carol Newcome and Bill McKenzie have been married 57 years.  According to Carol McKenzie, “We have three children -- a son and daughter in the Triad -- another daughter in Texas.  At the moment, all our grandchildren are in Texas – one in high school and three in college.”

BILL & CAROL MCKENZIE MAKING MANY MORE
NEW FRIENDS @ FRIENDS HOME-GUILFORD

The McKenzies are pleasant and enthusiastic folks, but most pleasant and enthusiastic when sharing about their grands, “Our twin grandsons are at Southern Methodist University – one is a kicker on the football team, the other is earning two engineering degrees.  Our other grandson is a Sam Houston State University senior and hopes to become a professional golfer.  Our only granddaughter is a high school junior who is a competitive dancer.

After two of their three children settled in the Triad, and after extensive travel around the world, it isn’t surprising that the McKenzies found Greensboro in 2007.  They are members of Fellowship Presbyterian Church and relatively new residents at Friends Home Guilford.

Harry Thetford is a retired Sears Store Manager who enjoys writing about veterans.  Contact him at htthetford@aol.com

        

   

KNIGHT FAMILY MADE ULTIMATE SACRIFICES IN WW II

Columns sometimes end in cemeteries -- this column began in a cemetery -- during a recent Dr. Max Carter-led tour of the New Garden Friends Meeting Cemetery.  Carter mentioned the tragic loss in 1943 of almost an entire family when a military airplane crashed into their Guilford College home.

WW II BROUGHT CASUALTIES TO THE HOME FRONT TOO -- CORNELIA KNIGHT LOST HER MOTHER, TWO SISTERS, AND ONLY BROTHER

For a writer about veterans, that begged further investigation.

World War II was raging in 1943, but Oliver Knight, of Route 1, Guilford College, North Carolina did not figure to send anyone from his Quaker family off to the war.  Demographics, as much as his Quaker faith, gave him this assurance. 

His household included a wife, three young daughters, a seven-year old son, and an adult sister – hardly a cache of conscription candidates.

As a Greensboro mail carrier, Knight surely kept up with the war.  He knew the Marines had secured Guadalcanal; that Army Air Forces were pounding Nazi-occupied France and Germany; that General Patton’s troops had secured Sicily; and the Allied Invasion of Italy was underway.

While his neighbors along Oak Ridge-Guilford College Road were sending family members off to the war, no one from Oliver Knight’s family would be going.

As ironic as it was tragic, World War II came to the Oliver Knight family -- a U.S. Navy fighter plane crashed into their two-story frame house on Monday afternoon, September 14, 1943.  Next door neighbors heard the explosion and said the house enveloped in flames and dense smoke in seconds.

According to the Greensboro Daily News, “The fighter plane clipped a tall pine tree 150 yards to the rear of the Knight home, plowed through the garden and wire fence, entered the kitchen and blasted through the building to the front room.”

Killed instantly in the burning inferno were Mrs. Oliver Knight, her 19-year old daughter, Wilma, her 11-year old daughter, Dorothy, and her seven-year old son, Oliver, Jr.

SAD DAY FOR QUAKER FAMILY OF KNIGHTS AND QUAKER FAMILIES
OF NEW GARDEN FRIENDS MEETING

Oliver Knight’s life was spared because he had momentarily stepped from the house to gather fruit from his grape arbor.   His sister, Louetta Knight, survived by climbing out a window onto the roof of the front porch, where neighbors helped her down. 

DESPITE TRAGIC LOSS OF FAMILY MEMBERS, OLIVER KNIGHT HAND-CRAFTED
THIS POSITIVE FRAME OF MIND 

His 17-year old daughter, Cornelia Knight, a rising sophomore at Guilford College, escaped through a broken window on the first floor – they were treated and released from St. Leo’s Hospital.

Navy LT (JG) Marshall W. Mathiesen, 35, of Oakland, California was identified by the newspaper as pilot of the fighter plane.  His mangled body was found on the front lawn of the Knight home – he left a wife and four-year old son.

Mathiesen was attached to the Ferry Division at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City and thought to be ferrying a new fighter plane to Atlanta.  Witnesses said it sounded as if he had engine problems.  He had been cleared to land at Greensboro-High Point Airport, but crashed before he was able to land.

It was further speculated the pilot was making a desperate attempt to crash land in an open field across Oak Ridge-Guilford College Road from the Knight home.

Wilma Knight, 19, the oldest Knight daughter, was ironing on the back porch when the plane hit.  She had worked at Pilot Life Insurance during the summer and was just days away from entering Guilford College as a rising junior, majoring in sociology.

Dorothy Knight was a fifth grader and Oliver Jr. a second grader at Guilford School.

The Knights were active members of New Garden Friends Meeting, where the mass funeral was held.  One casket held the charred remains of the mother, two daughters and a son. 

Oliver Knight Sr. died on January 17, 1974 and is buried alongside his family.

The Knight sisters had been day students at Guilford College, but after the tragedy, Cornelia lived on campus, “Being among students was a tremendous help in keeping my mind off the tragedy,” she recalled recently from her apartment at Friends Home Guilford.

“I majored in English and even though I wasn’t keen on teaching, I did get a teacher’s certificate.  I taught English at Guilford High School my first year and later switched to the seventh grade – by then I was absolutely in love with teaching!” 

HER CHEERY PERSONALITY KEEPS HARMAN'S CHILDHOOD LOSSES BELOW THE RADAR OF MOST OF HER FRIENDS HOME GUILFORD NEIGHBORS

Many of her teaching years were in Mount Airy, the home of William Albert Harman, whom she married in 1947.  The Harmans first owned a Western Auto Store and later built and operated a grain mill until they retired to Sebring, Florida.  He died in 2001.

The Harmans had two sons, two grands, and five great-grandchildren.  At least some from this list are in line for minutely cross-stitched Christmas tree ornaments, crafted in love over the summer by the Oliver Knight family matriarch – named Cornelia, now 90, in honor of her grandfather, Cornelius, who managed the Guilford College Farms.

CORNELIA KNIGHT HARMAN'S GRANDS & GREAT-GRANDS KNOW SOMETHING
CRAFTY AND UNIQUE WILL COME THEIR WAY ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS

Louetta Knight lived in spinster-hood until age 67.  She married John Gurney Gilbert on February 26, 1961 – he was 84.

World War II casualties were 291,557.  At least four more should be added – the Quaker Knights from Route 1, Guilford College, North Carolina.

90-DAY WONDER NOW 95

Frank Heberer was one WW2 veteran I could hardly wait to write about.  He and I retired from the same company.  We were both from Mississippi.  Our Sears’ work-a-day paths often crossed.  He was an accountant – I was the accountee.  We both chose Greensboro for our retirement homes.

Heberer reflected, “I was raised on a farm.  When the price of cotton dipped to five cents per pound during the depression, we lost our land and my dad worked as a rural mail carrier.  I don’t know how he did it, but he scraped and managed to send me to Ole Miss.”

Heberer graduated from Ole Miss in 1943.  His timing for WW2 could not have been better.  “I was a ROTC graduate but they sent me to OCS at FT Benning as a Corporal.  In a matter of 13 weeks, I became a 90-day wonder,” he explains. 

LT. FRANK HEBERER 

    

LT. Heberer spent the early months of 1944 in Texas, training recruits bound for Infantry Replacement duty overseas.  Some of those trainees likely landed at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Heberer wasn’t far behind, “I walked ashore on Omaha Beach as a replacement officer on July 12.  I joined the 30^th Infantry Division on August 14, 1944 – it was my 22^nd birthday!”

It wasn’t lost on Heberer that the life expectancy of 2^nd Lieutenant Platoon Leaders wasn’t good when he took over his platoon in Company F, 2^nd Battalion, 120^th Regiment, “I was a mighty lucky soldier!”

The 30^th Infantry Division advanced across France and into Belgium, taking heavy casualties as they moved.  During the Battle of the Bulge, Heberer’s luck ran out.  He was wounded by shrapnel – on Christmas Day, 1944.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE CHRISTMAS GIFT WASN'T HEBERER'S FAVORITE

“I was evacuated to England for treatment and rehabilitation.  By the time I rejoined my outfit, it was just before VE-Day.  Our Division received good news, we would be among the first to return to the states – the bad news was we would immediately start training and equipping to invade Japan!”

Heberer and his 30^th Infantry Division returned to the states aboard the Queen Mary.  The division had lost over 3000 men and over 13,000 were wounded in action.  Heberer earned a combat infantryman’s badge, two bronze stars with valor device, a purple heart and campaign ribbons for combat in Northern France, Rhineland and Ardennes.

 After one year, he was back in Germany as part of the U.S. Constabulary Force.  “Luckily, the war crimes trials had just ended, and the cold war had not begun yet.”

In 1948, Heberer left active duty for a job as comptroller with Sears in Greenville, MS, but remained in the Army Reserve.  I was lucky again -- when the Korean War started, they did not call me back.“  In 1949, in First Presbyterian Church of Canton, Mississippi, he married Elizabeth Shipley, his high school sweetheart. 

FRED BINDER LOOKS OVER HEBERER'S HIGHLY-VALUED
GERMAN WEAPON -- BINDER'S FATHER WAS ARMY OFFICER
WHO ALSO SERVED DURING THE WAR TRIALS

  

After an assignment in Jackson, MS, Heberer worked four years in Winston-Salem and 10 years in Charlotte.  In 1965, he came to Greensboro.  In 1987, he retired with 39 years of Sears service.

“I found it hard to work at Sears, start our family, and stay in the Reserve but they made me commanding officer of the Jackson, MS unit so I couldn’t quit at the moment.”  Heberer never got around to quitting – after 28 years of combined service, he retired as a full colonel.

For years, I kept track of Frank Heberer’s age by reading tennis box scores by age bracket on the city, state, southern and national level.  “I competed in U.S. Tennis Association Senior Tournaments for over 35 years,” Heberer says. 

The Mississippi native and his friend and long-time doubles partner, Dr. George Simkins, a black dentist and NAACP leader, may have raised a few eye-brows.  Their friendship extended far beyond the trophies and championships they won together.

The doubles team of Heberer/Simkins won multiple state championships in various age groups, often playing down into a younger bracket.  Heberer recalls, “George and I planned to play in the 2001 championship at Old Providence Racquet Club in Charlotte, but he withdrew when he learned it was NCA&T homecoming weekend.  George suffered an aneurysm at the football game and never recovered.” 

Heberer won the 1988 NC over 65 championship with Charlotte’s Bob Jones as his doubles partner.  Jones’ basketball-playing son, Bobby, may be better known in these parts. 

Heberer still looks, acts and talks like a tennis player, even though his tennis is relegated to television nowadays.  “My knees sidelined me in 2010.”  His last competitive tennis came at age 88. 

94-YEAR OLD RETIRED COLONEL PROUDLY FLIES OLD GLORY EVERY DAY

Married over 66 years, Elizabeth and Frank Heberer are members of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.  They have two grown sons and one grandson.   

      

            

SUITCASE HOLDS CACHE OF MEMORIES

The phrase, “Living out of a suitcase,” means more to 92-year old Jane Doner Fredrickson than to some. 

PRE-WWII SUITCASE AT LEAST 84 YEARS OLD
STILL HOLD TREASURE CACHE OF INFORMATION

 

Along with her mother and sister, Fredrickson lived out of a suitcase during almost three years of Japanese imprisonment during World War II, “That suitcase was given to me by my grandmother in 1933.  She impressed upon me how different it was from most suitcases, inasmuch as it had linings.”

LEZAH ANDERSON ARNEY, ANN FREDRICKSON WILLIAMS,
JANE FREDRICKSON, & TONI SANGINITE PRICE.
ARNEY, WILLIAMS & PRICE ARE CHILDREN OF WW II POWS
FREDRICKSON WAS A CIVILIAN WW II POW

Jane Doner Fredrickson than to some.  Along with her mother and sister, she lived out of a suitcase during almost three years of Japanese imprisonment during World War II, “That suitcase was given to me by my grandmother in 1933.  She impressed upon me how different it was from most suitcases, inasmuch as it had linings.”

Fredrickson was born on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines to school-teaching parents.  Her father taught several years before associating with a coconut plantation on the Island of Mindanao – her mother continued to teach in Cebu.  Jane Fredrickson attended the all-girls Santa Teresa Academy.  She was the only American in her school. 

All was well with the Doners.

Then came the war.

 “My father couldn’t get back to Cebu, so when evacuation was ordered on Christmas Day, 1941, my mother, sister and I left for the hills along with other American and British civilians,” Fredrickson reflected recently.  “I volunteered to work on the waterfront, but when the Japanese started bombing the docks, my supervisor, an Army colonel, said he needed a man who could jump on a truck and carry a gun.  At that time, I wished I had been a boy!

About 15 families stayed in two houses on a sugar plantation for a few days, but when we heard Manila had fallen we moved further into the hills.  We lived in bamboo huts with nipa thatch roofs until May 1, 1942 when we surrendered to the Japanese.

Imprisoned on Cebu, we were first kept in a house, then a jail, and eventually moved to an abandoned junior college building, formerly used as a barracks by Japanese troops.  The building and grounds were indescribably filthy!

In October, we were moved to Club Filipino, a wooden building with thatched roof.    In December, 1942 we went aboard a Japanese ship – five days later we reached Manila and were taken to Santo Tomas.  We remained there until liberated by American troops almost three years later.”

A few housekeeping items are in order here:  Manila’s University of Santo Tomas was taken over by the Japanese and used as their largest internment center.  Upward to 3700 Americans were imprisoned at Santo Tomas, more than at any other location. 

Jane Fredrickson’s father, Landis Doner, survived the Mindanao Death March after his capture.  In January, 1944 he was moved to Santo Tomas – the family was together again, but not under the most favorable of circumstances. 

During the battle to retake the Philippines, Allied Forces bombed Japanese facilities in Manila and Santo Tomas was shelled by the Japanese. 

The rest of the world learned about Santo Tomas in the March 5, 1945 issue of Life Magazine.  According to Life, “The liberated Americans were sick, hungry and subdued.”  Jane Fredrickson this as a vast understatement.

She would know.  Should she forget, there are the three versions of her diary for reference.  She has the rough draft, written on scraps of paper as inconsequential as Japanese cigarette pack wrappers.  Later came a hand-written transcription and finally, a typed version.

WW II PRISONER OF WAR KEPT DAY BY DAY JOURNAL OF CAPTIVITY

“The Japanese guards routinely confiscated and destroyed personal diaries.  I was caught writing in my diary, but they let me continue when told I was doing school work.”

Fredrickson had entrusted a Filipino friend with her Cebu diary, “Wrapped in oilcloth, he buried it under his bamboo house.  After the war, we made contact and he shipped the diary to me.  In the meantime, he and his wife had a daughter – they named her Jane!”

During her imprisonment, Fredrickson found out just how wise her grandmother had been, “I kept writing every day, the linings in the suitcase made wonderful hiding places.”

WRITER MOST APPRECIATIVE OF GREAT AMERICAN
SHARING HER TREASURED MEMORABILIA

After the war, Jane Doner Fredrickson graduated from Penn State University, where she met and later married Robert A. Fredrickson, a World War II cryptographer.  The family moved to Greensboro in 1949.  He taught history and music at Greensboro/Grimsley High School for 35 years.  She taught Spanish and English at four Greensboro Middle Schools.  Robert Fredrickson died March 13, 2015 at 91.

The Fredricksons had two children, Ann Fredrickson Williams and Craig Fredrickson, as well as four grandchildren.

In 1992, Jane Fredrickson received a letter from Santa Teresa Academy, “They invited our senior class back for our official graduation – 50 years later.  I was honored to be the keynote speaker.”

She is an optimist, as her mother must have been – Millicent Doner wrote to her hometown newspaper as Santo Tomas was being liberated, “We are fashionably thin due to slow starvation.  We’ve had narrow escapes and shells are flying over our heads as I write, but no one is afraid – our Boys (American GIs) are here now!”