by Mary Lou Walters
Three WW II veterans from Petersburgh were honored in a complimentary trip to Washington DC to see the WW II Memorial. The trip was sponsored by The Patriot Flight, which pays for the trips without any cost to the veterans. For our veterans, it was a long but wonderful day. As they made their way from Albany to Washington and back they reported that they shook thousands of peoples hands and were often hugged and thanked.
Joseph Caverly was in the Navy from 1943 to 1945. He moved from fitness school to underwater demolition. He was one of four instructors who taught 400 sailors to be the first Navy frogmen. As this training completed, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and these men were not needed for the invasion of Tokyo Bay after all.
Mason Hubbard was in the Marines from April 1944 to February 1946. He was based in the South Pacific in the 2nd Engineers Battalion of 2nd Marines. He moved from island to island building roads and airstrips. He was in the largest convoy in history as the United States prepared to invade Japan. Mason remembers that as they waited for the surrender to be signed, he could look out from the ship he was on and see hundreds of ships that would have been involved in the invasion. During this wait, the sealed invasion orders were opened and Mason learned that had the bomb not been dropped he would have likely been one of the expected sacrifice of 8,000 marines in the invasion. After the official surrender, the engineers went into Nagasaki to set up communications and generating plants. But each man only stayed for 10 days because of the high radiation levels.
Howard Walters was in the army from 1940-44. When he joined the National Guard the war scare was on and he joined to fight along side his brother. When the United States declared war, he was inducted into the ‘Federal Service’. However, his brother was left behind because he had nine children to support. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands as an ambulance driver in the medical division of an infantry division. Eventually he moved into cooks and bakers school and then became first cook.
Each man came home, married and became important leaders in their communities. Joe became a leader of Parks and Recreations Development in San Francisco and numerous New York Communities. He won the Pugsley Medal in 1999 for his work in that field. Mason ran a refrigeration business for 45 years and was the town of Petersburgh Supervisor for 14 years. Howard ran a furniture building/restoration business and has been a church elder at Petersburg Baptist Church for many years.
Petersburgh and our nation have much to be thankful for because of the sacrifices these man have made in their military, professional and personal lives.