Farragut United States Navy Training Station

 

 

When my father was drafted into the Navy during World War Two, he was sent to Farragut Idaho to the Farragut United States Naval Training Station.  "In the wake of the Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, U.S. military planners chose 4,000 rural acres in North Idaho for the Navy’s new training center. The inland site was believed to be far enough from the coast to be safe from another Pearl Harbor-style attack.

The government used the War Powers Act to move seven families off the land and began building the Farragut Naval Training Station on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille." Source

After the war, the area was reclaimed and became Farragut State Park.  I remember being told that my father wasn't able to learn how to swim, and his instructor told him that if his ship sank, to head for the bottom and run like hell.  I don't know if that is true.  

Information about Farragut U.S.N.T.S. is available HERE. 

A Photo of My Mother (and a History Lesson!)

In rummaging through letters and photos, I found this photo of my mother (Lula May Jeter) .  I'm not sure how old she is in the photo, there is no date on it.  I believe she was in her early twenties (she got married at the age of 24 on December 24th, 1939).  This is one of the very few professionally done photos of her so I became interested to see if I could find out anything about the photographer.  What I found was very much a surprise to me!

Edgar B. Smith was a commercial photographer in Wichita.  

"Edgar B. Smith may have done more than any one, single photographer to preserve a memory of the Wichita scene during the growth years of the 1920s to 1950s.
Smith learned his trade in the studio of Wichita photographer Homer T. Harden, who trained him as an apprentice during his high school years. At that same time, Smith enrolled in the first flying class taught by Clyde Cessna and was one of its three graduates in 1917.
 
After serving in World War I as a photographer for the Army Signal Corps, Smith eventually returned to Wichita, his hometown. He went into business with Maurice Hodge in 1924. According to a newspaper of the time, Smith-Hodge Photographers announced that they had opened up a new field of commercial photography. This new venture consisted of "making colored photographs of traveling men's samples… The customers are able to see the exact likeness of the article they purchase without the salesman being burdened with a number of large cumbersome grips… All the coloring is done by hand."

The partners worked together for a year or two, and then Hodge left Wichita for San Diego. At that point Smith combined his skills in photography and aviation to launch a long career as an independent commercial photographer. His photographs of thriving Wichita businesses are complemented by his aerial views of the downtown commercial area, the aviation factories, and the milling and refining district. This distinctive legacy earned Edgar B. Smith the reputation as "The Dean of Aviation Photography." (Source: http://www.wichitaphotos.org/exhibit/exhibit.asp) 

Mr. Smith was a prolific photographer.  You should search for Edgar B. Smith at the following web site: http://www.wichitaphotos.org/ .  You will be amazed at the breadth of his work.

My Great-Grandfather’s Grave

Those of you who have known me for a long time, know that my maiden name is Chabino.  When I was growing up, I was curious as to the origin of my name.  My father was estranged from his father and mother so he was no help.  As I got older I began the genealogical journey to figure out where I came from.  

Eventually the journey led to the grave of my great-grandfather in Seiling, Oklahoma (northwest of Oklahoma City).  His story is fascinating.  

John Henry Chabino was born on May 3, 1843, in Burlington, Vermont. His father, Antoine, was 32 and his mother, Marie, was 24. Antoine's surname was Charbonneau.  Antoine was born in Canada and emigrated to South Hero in Vermont in about 1835 where he married Marie Robillard.  So how did Charbonneau become Chabino?

In about 1850, the Charbonneau's made the journey to Wisconsin where the family settled.  At the age of 18, John Henry enlisted in the Union Army and fought in the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry on the Kansas/Missouri border.  It is at the time of his enlistment that his name is put on the roster as "Chabino".   In 1862, at the age of 19 he married Rebecca Phelps (she was 15). They proceeded to have six children together and lived in the Fredonia area.  After a bit of a scandal, John Henry and Rebecca divorced.

John Henry moved to Pratt, Kansas and in 1888 at the age of 45 married 14 year old Ida Bishop and they participated in the last land rush into Oklahoma in 1893.  The family settled in Seiling, Oklahoma. By the age of 35, Ida was a Civil War Widow, receiving a pension for her under-age children.  My grandfather was Clarence Chabino born in Pratt Kansas in 1889. 

A letter to my father from James Forrestal

The picture here is of James Forrestal, the first United States Secretary of Defense.  In World War I, he enlisted in the Navy and ultimately became a Naval Aviator.  He eventually reach the rank of Lieutenant. After the war, he returned to Wall Street and made his fortune.  He also became involved with the Democratic Party and helped Franklin Roosevelt become president.  (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal) 

Forrestal became Secretary of the Navy in May of 1944 and Forrestal led the Navy through the closing year of the war and the painful early years of demobilization that followed. As Secretary, Forrestal introduced a policy of racial integration in the Navy!


You might wonder why I would write about Forrestal here in my blog.  When I was going through my father's papers from the war years, I found the following letter that was sent to him from Secretary Forrestal. I was very impressed with the tone of the letter, especially in contrast to the tone of politics today.  Enjoy the letter.

 

Zamboanga

Recently I have been reading the letters that my father sent to my mother during World War II. I was born in 1947, after he returned.  He was drafted in January of 1944 with two children under three.  Although I have not yet found the letter, I remember my mother telling me that my father was able to tell her where he was in a letter. All of the letters were censored and they were not allowed to tell anyone where they were. He wrote in a letter that he was "at the place where the monkeys have no tails". My mother said that there was a popular song of the day called "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga". I always suspected that this was a bit racist and didn't really pursue it farther.  My father served in the Navy aboard a Landing Craft Infantry (Large). These ships transported soldiers from large troop ships to the beach.   

My father took a picture of Moret Field in Zamboanga with a sign, "They Have No Tails in Zamboanga". 

This made me curious and I made Google my friend and found the following.  First of all the background for the song.  The quote below is from Wikipedia.

"The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga" is the official regimental march of the 27th Infantry Regiment, as the "Wolfhound March". The lyrics of this official version were written in 1907 in Cuba by G. Savoca, the regimental band leader (died 1912), after the regiment was formed in 1901 to serve in the Philippines. According to Harry McClintock, the tune was borrowed from an official march of the Philippine Constabulary Band, as played at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. One version was collected as part of the Gordon "Inferno" Collection. As with many folk songs with military origins (such as "Mademoiselle from Armentières" from World War I, the song becomes a souvenir of the campaign for those who served." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkeys_Have_No_Tails_in_Zamboanga )

Below is a video clip from the movie "They Were Expendable",

Moret Field was renamed when the Marines landed at Zamboanga on March 10 1944.  The objective was the nearby San Roque airstrip. Taking over that site, the Marines renamed it Moret Field after Lieutenant Colonel Paul Moret, a well-known Marine aviator who had died in a transport crash after taking off from Noumea, New Caledonia in 1943.

Post Card Memory

I've been cleaning out my office at home. I found a small box with lots of letters and postcards from my father to my mother.  My father was drafted into the Navy in late 1943 (at the age of 34).  He was one of the oldest on his ship (a Landing Craft Infantry). My sister was 3 (born in December of 1940) and my brother was 1 1/2 (born in July of 1942).  This postcard was sent to my mother January 30, 1944.  He was on a train somewhere in western Nebraska.  Luckily my mother lived close to her parents who helped her with the children.  Luckily for me, my father returned from the war.  I was born in 1947.