My Granddaddy James Paul Stalls, Jr (1917-1987) enlisted in the Seabees (US Navy) on November 4, 1943. When he told his mother Minnie Virginia Richards (1896-1974), she became very upset and worried. He told her that she had nothing to worry about because the Seabees went in after the fighting was over to rebuild. Shortly after telling her this an article appeared in the newspaper about the Seabees holding off an enemy until the troops arrived to defend.
Throughout his life Granddaddy went by his middle name Paul, but in the Seabees he was known as Jimmy.
Granddaddy was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII. On the troop ship to the Aleutian Islands there were torpedo boats all around them. A lot of the men were crying, scared. Granddaddy decided to just go to sleep so that if they were hit by a torpedo he wouldn’t be awake for it.
Granddaddy fell in love with Alaska and years later wanted to return for a visit, but he never got the chance.
While he was stationed in the Aleutians he was assigned to the sign shop. Officers were impressed by his artistic talent and would ask him to do various artistic projects for them. As a result of these projects he and his friends were provided with special reserved seating for movies. There were frequent earthquakes in the Aleutians, and he said that it was difficult to watch a movie as the image would bounce from the ceiling to a wall and to another wall.
His best friend was William Yernipcut from Anadarko, Oklahoma. Once when Granddaddy and William were shooting craps, William refused to shoot. He told Granddaddy that friends don’t gamble against each other.
One day one of Granddaddy’s friends came into the sign shop to tell him that a Russian Navy ship had arrived at the harbor and there were women sailors aboard. Granddaddy had not seen a woman in so long that he ran right out to the dock. He said that there was only one woman on the deck waving to them. Even though it had been so long since he had seen a woman he still did not find this one attractive. He said, “She was the ugliest damn woman and had no teeth.”
Russian and American soldiers alike kept notebooks with them to exchange vocabulary. The pages of Granddaddy’s Seabee notebook are below.
Saw your post on Digg. Thanks for sharing. I created a post to honor my Grandpa as well. http://bit.ly/tmfGab Please RT if you get a chance.
Saw your post on Digg. Thanks for sharing. I created a post to honor my Grandpa as well.