Page 65 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

WORLD WAR II

World War II started on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I was 13 years old
at the time, and I remember when the announcement came in over the radio, on a Sunday morning after
we got back from Sunday School. Pa was off somewhere preaching and I don’t know where he was
when he heard that the war had started, but he and ma as well as the rest of the family were all greatly
concerned because our brother Tribble was stationed at Pearl Harbor at that time.

After the bombing, the military prevented any soldier or sailor from corresponding with any person back
in the States, and it was several weeks before we knew whether Tribble had survived the attack or not.
That is one of the most miserable times that I ever remember my mother having to go through.

We knew that the Government was not allowing any mail to go out of or into Hawaii for a period of
lime, so all we could do was sit and wait. As soon as Guy Markham would bring our mail on the rural
route every day Ma would hot foot it out to the mailbox to see if we had heard anything from Tribble. It
was several weeks before she was able to stop coming back from the mailbox disappointed, because
finally after a few weeks she got a letter from Tribble. Not only did she get 1 letter but she got about 6
which had been written al different times, but every one of those letters had been censored and certain
parts cut out. The Government was taking no risk that any military personnel would give away any
secrets that might filter back to the Japanese.

We were then allowed to write to Tribble, but we had to be careful what we said in the letters, because
before our letters were delivered to Tribble they were opened and censored by the Bureau of the Navy,
and this went on for several months before we could finally feel free to send and receive mail without it
being censored.

Tribble of course had survived the Japanese bombings, although he had been outside mustering his men
for morning roll call when the first bomb fell. Shortly before that he had been promoted to the Officers
rank of Ensign, which is the lowest ranking Commissioned Naval Officer, so he had gone all the way
from the lowest man on the ladder when he joined, being an apprentice seaman, all the way up through
the ranks including Chief Petty Officer and then Warrant Officer which is the highest rank in the Navy
for Non-Commissioned Officers. Tribble said he was having morning roll call, when the first bomb
struck, and he said he gave the order to seek cover and of course everyone did. I don’t think any of his
men were actually injured in the actual bombing, and of course he was not, but he spent the rest of
World War II serving in the Pacific theatre of operations in first one ship or another. The only reason I
bring this in at this lime in my book is because of the tremendous impact it had on my mother, not
knowing whether her oldest boy was dead or alive. Of course pa was concerned too, but he did not show
it as much as ma.

One other thing that demonstrates Pearl Dicks’ intelligence and foresight was that during World War II
when absolutely no automobiles were being sold, except to the military, she realized that one day the
war would be over, and that there would be a tremendous scramble for the first cars to be made available
to the general public.

Therefore, she decided to go up to Sanders-Allison Plymouth Dodge dealer, where she talked to Mr.
Sanders and persuaded him to take a deposit from her and promise to deliver to her the first Plymouth
available for sale that came to their agency after the war. He agreed to this and kept his promise. She got
the first Plymouth to come to Columbia County after World War II. My sister Fay, whose husband was
Austin Gay, (who was in the army serving in Europe), she decided what ma had done was pretty smart,

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982