Saturday, June 12, 2010

“Unsung Heroes - The Ledger” plus 3 more

“Unsung Heroes - The Ledger” plus 3 more

Unsung Heroes - The Ledger

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 08:54 PM PDT

BARTOW | Sgt. Jordon J. Corbett stepped off the train at a little station in Texas on the way home to Polk County. It was late 1945, and the war was over.

Resplendent in his paratrooper uniform, starched pants bloused into jump boots so bright you could actually see your face in them, paratrooper's hat and wings, he still had that college football player physique.

Although never deployed overseas, he and a fellow paratrooper with him that day had just finished a secret mission that many Americans are not aware of even today.

The two paratroopers eagerly walked toward the station cafe and were told they could not go in. Blacks had to go around to the back door to be served.

Neither man went to the back, but instead stepped back on the train and made do with snacks. They observed military police escorting German prisoners of war through the front door, however.

"A lot of us went through quite a bit. We were patriotic. We wanted to serve our country, but we wanted the same rights," he said.

Today, J.J. Corbett, 87, retired teacher, school board member, former bank director for Citrus & Chemical Bank, twice named as Florida Track Coach of the Year and a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, looks back on his military service with pride.

As historians have said of most black service members from World War II, Corbett had to fight on two fronts, one against the foreign enemy and one against racism at home. He was in one of the most elite professions in the army: airborne.

A native of Pierce, 19-year-old Corbett had just finished a semester of college at Bethune Cookman College on a football scholarship when he was drafted in January 1943.

After going through induction at Camp Blanding, he was sent to Camp Tyson, near Paris, Tenn., primarily a barrage balloon training base. Many of the soldiers trained there went to Normandy on D-Day and set up the barrage balloons to prevent German aerial attacks.

But Corbett was sent to Fort Bragg for artillery training and then to Fort Bliss, Texas, for anti-aircraft training.

SIGNING UP FOR AIRBORNE

"Most of the training there (at Fort Bliss) was in the New Mexico deserts," he said. "And I found out there that they were looking for volunteers to form a black paratrooper unit. I signed up."

Corbett and other volunteers then went to Fort Benning, Ga., where they trained with the all-white 82nd Airborne Division.

"A lot of the men in the 82nd had been killed or injured in the Battle of the Bulge and the fighting in December, and we thought we were going there, but we didn't," he said.

After training ended in January 1945, the black paratroopers were formed into the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

It was difficult finding enough men to staff the battalion because many commanders refused to let their best soldiers volunteer. The requirements, both physical and in intellectual, were very high for entrance into the airborne training, Corbett said.

It is the irony of segregation in those times that while making excuses on one hand why black soldiers couldn't do the job, white commanders on the other hand kept their best black soldiers from joining.

"A large number of us were from the South, and we knew about segregation. But a lot didn't, and it was more difficult for them. You'd get on a bus and there would be plenty of empty seats, and the driver would still make you go to the back anyway," he said. "When they showed movies on the base the white troops were seated first and we marched in last and had to sit in the balcony."

After graduation and the presentation of their jump wings, commanders of the black paratroopers warned them to carry their papers and documentation with them at all times to prove they were paratroopers, Corbett said.

"When I got my (paratrooper) wings, MPs stopped me and said 'You are out of uniform soldier.' The paratrooper uniform was distinct with special insignia on the cap, the pants bloused into jump boots (instead of regular dress shoes). I think a lot of it was that the Army didn't put out that it had black paratroopers," Corbett said.

THE TRIPLE NICKELS

The 555th, nicknamed the "Triple Nickels," was one of the few all-black units that had black officers. Because of segregation and concern that there might be friction between white and black combat soldiers, the 555th didn't go to Europe, Corbett said.

The majority of the 555th were sent to Pendleton Field in Oregon with a small detachment to Chico, Calif., for one of the most dangerous - and most secret - operations within the United States during the war.

The Japanese were working to find new weapons and developed Fu-Go, fire balloons, and launched 9,300 into the upper west-to-east wind currents toward the United States.

A little more than 300 struck the Western states of California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho with one reported as far east as Indiana, Corbett said, and some in Canada.

In addition to causing numerous forest fires, the fire bombs were responsible for six deaths when members of a church picnic tried to move one that had landed nearby.

According to the Seattle Times, the balloon killed the five children and one adult when it exploded, but few Americans ever knew of the incident.

"They didn't want the Japanese to know that any of them had made it to the United States," Corbett said of the balloons.

When the balloons landed in the thick forests, the 555th members became the first "smoke jumpers," jumping out of planes to extinguish the fires. Since forest fires were often caused by other factors, such as lightening, the Army was able to keep the dangerous missions secret.

"Some of those trees could be 200 feet high. They gave us rope to rappel down to the ground, but on the first jumps the rope was only 50 feet," he said. "We ran into some real experiences; of course, we were young and strong. The rangers worked with us. It was a different type of training, even the jumps, and we had to learn demolition, too," he said.

"You could have a fire almost put out and it would spark and then all of a sudden, zoom! A big fire would start back up," he said

During one jump Corbett hit the treetops hard and was slammed into a tree, hurting his back. The injury still flares up from time to time.

HOME AGAIN

When they returned to their homes after the war, black soldiers found the South still steeped in segregation; in some cases even more so because of the disciplined training black soldiers had achieved.

"There were a couple of police around here who made it a point to stop black soldiers," Corbett said. "One in particular would stop the car and shine a flashlight in the car with his other hand on the holster. Then he'd say, 'You have a good night,' and try to act like everything was OK," he said.

But the message was clear: mind your place, Corbett said.

With so many new veterans clamoring for college under the GI Bill, Corbett was unable to get back to Bethune Cookman or other all-black colleges in Florida. He was given a football scholarship to North Carolina A&T College by a coach he knew.

After two football seasons, the back injury acted up and ended his college football career.

He graduated with a degree in mathematics and began teaching at Union Academy, where he met Eva, who also taught there. They were married in 1954 and have a son, Jerome, who is a senior director in the school district.

A CHAMPIONSHIP COACH

Corbett began coaching football and track and field and coached track teams to state championships.

In 1968 and 1969, Corbett coached the Union High School track team to state championships and later began coaching and teaching at Bartow High School, where he is listed in the Hall of Fame. He taught at BHS and coached teams until his retirement in 1980.

Each year the high school hosts the J.J. Corbett Invitational Track Meet.

But it was hardly a retirement of sitting on the porch. As an early founder of the Mid-Florida Credit Union ("My membership number is 14," he said), a school board member for 12 years and on the board of Citrus & Chemical for 14 years, Corbett had plenty to do.

Few knew of his service record. He attends the reunions of the 555th almost every year and plans to go this year's reunion planned for Minneapolis in September.

In April, Corbett attended the 82nd Airborne awards where he was named 555th Parachute Battalion Man of the Year.

"(His military service) probably means more now than it did then," Corbett said. "Everybody had a story when they came back. We were disappointed that we didn't get into the action, but I realize now that what we did was important, and I'm proud that we helped our country."

To view The Ledger's Honor Roll of World War II veterans go to http://www.theledger.com/polkwwiiveterans/

If you would like to be included or have a family member or friend included in the Honor Roll you can find the form online at http://www.theledger.com/wwiivets/

[ Bill Rufty can be reached at 802-7523 or bill.rufty@theledger.com. ]

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Local heroes given Queen's honours (From Times Series) - Times Series

Posted: 12 Jun 2010 12:36 AM PDT

Local heroes given Queen's honours

12:14am Saturday 12th June 2010


    Dozens of unsung local heroes have been rewarded for their efforts in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

    They include MBEs for Philip Kelsall, resident organist at Blackpool Tower, Susan Gibbs, an announcer at Fenchurch Street station in London, and James Fitchie, from Newtownards, County Down, who is honoured for services to ploughing in Northern Ireland.

    A 45-year "love affair" with Blackpool's Tower Ballroom has resulted in an MBE for organist Phil Kelsall. The 53-year-old is never happier than playing the ballroom's Wurlitzer - which is one of the most famous in the world.

    Susan Gibbs, 58, a station announcer nicknamed "the voice of Fenchurch Street" spoke of her pride at being made an MBE. She has worked as a announcer at the station in the City of London for 16 years.

    The divorced mother-of-two from Southend, Essex, received the award for her services to transport. "I've never been a person who's had ambition, but now it feels when I'm no longer here I'll have made my mark."

    Help for Heroes founder Bryn Parry admitted that he felt embarrassed to learn he and his wife had been awarded OBEs. The former soldier said the honours were recognition for the hundreds of thousands of supporters who have raised more than £50 million for British servicemen and women wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Mr Parry, 53, and his wife Emma, 50, were inspired to set up the charity in October 2007 after meeting badly injured troops at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. They have gone on to raise millions of pounds for projects including Army convalescence centres around the country and a new gym and swimming pool at the military's main rehabilitation centre, Headley Court in Surrey.

    Responding to news of the honours, Mr Parry paid tribute to the efforts of Salisbury-based Help for Heroes' many fundraisers. "It was very embarrassing - that was our first reaction. It's very awkward when you consider all the things that other people have been doing," he said.

    After more than 30 years digging the furrow, James Fitchie has been awarded the MBE for services to ploughing. The Queen's Birthday Honour followed a lifetime of good work, including raising more than £100,000 for charities and helping to groom younger members of the farming fraternity for life in the fields.

    The head of Scotland's busiest lifeboat station paid tribute to the service as he received an MBE. Tom Robertson of the Queensferry RNLI Lifeboat station said he had not been expecting the award after almost 40 years of service. The 69-year-old said: "I think it's a great service and I'm proud to be part of it."


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    Nate, 'Baby' become heroes - New York Post

    Posted: 11 Jun 2010 10:35 PM PDT

    BOSTON -- They were the most unlikely of unlikely heroes, Boston's Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Nate Robinson. One, Davis, began the season with a broken hand of his own doing. The other, Robinson, started out on a broken Knicks team, a remnant of the master plan originally formulated in the mad scientist lab of Baron Isiah von Thomas.

    Yet Davis and Robinson largely were responsible for saving the Celtics from almost certain NBA Finals doom as part of a bench-driven lineup that energized the Celtics and tied the series with the Lakers to set up a 2-2 scenario for tomorrow's Game 5.

    "Their intensity was at a level that our starters wouldn't have been able to match," coach Doc Rivers said yesterday of the four subs, Davis and Robinson included, who teamed with Ray Allen for more than nine minutes in the fourth quarter of the 96-89 victory.

    So the subs plotted another remarkable moment for the Game 4 memory banks of this storied rivalry. The Celts' 2008 comeback from 24 points down. Magic's junior sky hook in '87. McHale and Rambis and the clothesline in '84. And now Shrek and Donkey and slobber.

    Huh?

    "We're like Shrek and Donkey. You can't separate us," said Robinson, after Davis insisted he didn't know his little buddy scaled his back in one of his caffeine-overload celebrations during the remarkable late-game surge.

    The slobber? That was on display for all to see, courtesy of replays and a screen roughly the size of Fenway Park. Following a Paul Pierce three-point play, saliva came out of Davis' mouth during a particularly feisty war whoop.

    "When you're in the moment, you're in the moment. If I slobber, snot, spit, please excuse me. Kids, don't do that," said Davis who scored nine of his 18 points, using his girth and strength to negate Lakers length that was severely strained through the loss of Andrew Bynum. "Have manners and things like that."

    A mature thing to say. And that pleases the Celtics because maturity has been an issue for both Davis and Robinson. Davis broke his hand in an early morning fight in October, fresh off signing a new contract. Not quite a mature act.

    "He still has his days," Rivers said. "We laugh, but he did earn the name 'Big Baby,' and it wasn't from his size."

    Then there's Robinson. His time in New York has been well chronicled, including his stay in coach Mike D'Antoni's doghouse. Robinson arrived in February, but it feels like he has been a Celtic forever.

    "When I first came, the guys welcomed me with open arms. I just felt like I've been here for years. So that made it easy for me to make the transition from the Knicks, and then just coming in playing, I know how to play the game of basketball," Robinson said. "I just feel like a kid that's just at the park."

    An older, wiser kid -- but one also who still has moments. Witness his witless technical in the fourth quarter. Hey, work in progress and all.

    "Nate grew up during the playoffs. It took him a while," Rivers said. "When he first came in, he wanted to play like he had played all his career. It took him some time. You could tell in practices. Demeanors changed, he was less talk, he was focused, less mistakes. When you do that, that gives the coach confidence to put you in the game."

    fred.kerber@nypost.com

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    Paratrooper Fought Two Foes: Enemy, Racism - The Ledger

    Posted: 11 Jun 2010 09:37 PM PDT

    BARTOW | Sgt. Jordon J. Corbett stepped off the train at a little station in Texas on the way home to Polk County. It was late 1945, and the war was over.

    Resplendent in his paratrooper uniform, starched pants bloused into jump boots so bright you could actually see your face in them, paratrooper's hat and wings, he still had that college football player physique.

    Although never deployed overseas, he and a fellow paratrooper with him that day had just finished a secret mission that many Americans are not aware of even today.

    The two paratroopers eagerly walked toward the station cafe and were told they could not go in. Blacks had to go around to the back door to be served.

    Neither man went to the back, but instead stepped back on the train and made do with snacks. They observed military police escorting German prisoners of war through the front door, however.

    "A lot of us went through quite a bit. We were patriotic. We wanted to serve our country, but we wanted the same rights," he said.

    Today, J.J. Corbett, 87, retired teacher, school board member, former bank director for Citrus & Chemical Bank, twice named as Florida Track Coach of the Year and a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, looks back on his military service with pride.

    As historians have said of most black service members from World War II, Corbett had to fight on two fronts, one against the foreign enemy and one against racism at home. He was in one of the most elite professions in the army: airborne.

    A native of Pierce, 19-year-old Corbett had just finished a semester of college at Bethune Cookman College on a football scholarship when he was drafted in January 1943.

    After going through induction at Camp Blanding, he was sent to Camp Tyson, near Paris, Tenn., primarily a barrage balloon training base. Many of the soldiers trained there went to Normandy on D-Day and set up the barrage balloons to prevent German aerial attacks.

    But Corbett was sent to Fort Bragg for artillery training and then to Fort Bliss, Texas, for anti-aircraft training.

    SIGNING UP FOR AIRBORNE

    "Most of the training there (at Fort Bliss) was in the New Mexico deserts," he said. "And I found out there that they were looking for volunteers to form a black paratrooper unit. I signed up."

    Corbett and other volunteers then went to Fort Benning, Ga., where they trained with the all-white 82nd Airborne Division.

    "A lot of the men in the 82nd had been killed or injured in the Battle of the Bulge and the fighting in December, and we thought we were going there, but we didn't," he said.

    After training ended in January 1945, the black paratroopers were formed into the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

    It was difficult finding enough men to staff the battalion because many commanders refused to let their best soldiers volunteer. The requirements, both physical and in intellectual, were very high for entrance into the airborne training, Corbett said.

    It is the irony of segregation in those times that while making excuses on one hand why black soldiers couldn't do the job, white commanders on the other hand kept their best black soldiers from joining.

    "A large number of us were from the South, and we knew about segregation. But a lot didn't, and it was more difficult for them. You'd get on a bus and there would be plenty of empty seats, and the driver would still make you go to the back anyway," he said. "When they showed movies on the base the white troops were seated first and we marched in last and had to sit in the balcony."

    After graduation and the presentation of their jump wings, commanders of the black paratroopers warned them to carry their papers and documentation with them at all times to prove they were paratroopers, Corbett said.

    "When I got my (paratrooper) wings, MPs stopped me and said 'You are out of uniform soldier.' The paratrooper uniform was distinct with special insignia on the cap, the pants bloused into jump boots (instead of regular dress shoes). I think a lot of it was that the Army didn't put out that it had black paratroopers," Corbett said.

    THE TRIPLE NICKELS

    The 555th, nicknamed the "Triple Nickels," was one of the few all-black units that had black officers. Because of segregation and concern that there might be friction between white and black combat soldiers, the 555th didn't go to Europe, Corbett said.

    The majority of the 555th were sent to Pendleton Field in Oregon with a small detachment to Chico, Calif., for one of the most dangerous - and most secret - operations within the United States during the war.

    The Japanese were working to find new weapons and developed Fu-Go, fire balloons, and launched 9,300 into the upper west-to-east wind currents toward the United States.

    A little more than 300 struck the Western states of California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho with one reported as far east as Indiana, Corbett said, and some in Canada.

    In addition to causing numerous forest fires, the fire bombs were responsible for six deaths when members of a church picnic tried to move one that had landed nearby.

    According to the Seattle Times, the balloon killed the five children and one adult when it exploded, but few Americans ever knew of the incident.

    "They didn't want the Japanese to know that any of them had made it to the United States," Corbett said of the balloons.

    When the balloons landed in the thick forests, the 555th members became the first "smoke jumpers," jumping out of planes to extinguish the fires. Since forest fires were often caused by other factors, such as lightening, the Army was able to keep the dangerous missions secret.

    "Some of those trees could be 200 feet high. They gave us rope to rappel down to the ground, but on the first jumps the rope was only 50 feet," he said. "We ran into some real experiences; of course, we were young and strong. The rangers worked with us. It was a different type of training, even the jumps, and we had to learn demolition, too," he said.

    "You could have a fire almost put out and it would spark and then all of a sudden, zoom! A big fire would start back up," he said

    During one jump Corbett hit the treetops hard and was slammed into a tree, hurting his back. The injury still flares up from time to time.

    HOME AGAIN

    When they returned to their homes after the war, black soldiers found the South still steeped in segregation; in some cases even more so because of the disciplined training black soldiers had achieved.

    "There were a couple of police around here who made it a point to stop black soldiers," Corbett said. "One in particular would stop the car and shine a flashlight in the car with his other hand on the holster. Then he'd say, 'You have a good night,' and try to act like everything was OK," he said.

    But the message was clear: mind your place, Corbett said.

    With so many new veterans clamoring for college under the GI Bill, Corbett was unable to get back to Bethune Cookman or other all-black colleges in Florida. He was given a football scholarship to North Carolina A&T College by a coach he knew.

    After two football seasons, the back injury acted up and ended his college football career.

    He graduated with a degree in mathematics and began teaching at Union Academy, where he met Eva, who also taught there. They were married in 1954 and have a son, Jerome, who is a senior director in the school district.

    A CHAMPIONSHIP COACH

    Corbett began coaching football and track and field and coached track teams to state championships.

    In 1968 and 1969, Corbett coached the Union High School track team to state championships and later began coaching and teaching at Bartow High School, where he is listed in the Hall of Fame. He taught at BHS and coached teams until his retirement in 1980.

    Each year the high school hosts the J.J. Corbett Invitational Track Meet.

    But it was hardly a retirement of sitting on the porch. As an early founder of the Mid-Florida Credit Union ("My membership number is 14," he said), a school board member for 12 years and on the board of Citrus & Chemical for 14 years, Corbett had plenty to do.

    Few knew of his service record. He attends the reunions of the 555th almost every year and plans to go this year's reunion planned for Minneapolis in September.

    In April, Corbett attended the 82nd Airborne awards where he was named 555th Parachute Battalion Man of the Year.

    "(His military service) probably means more now than it did then," Corbett said. "Everybody had a story when they came back. We were disappointed that we didn't get into the action, but I realize now that what we did was important, and I'm proud that we helped our country."

    To view The Ledger's Honor Roll of World War II veterans go to http://www.theledger.com/polkwwiiveterans/

    If you would like to be included or have a family member or friend included in the Honor Roll you can find the form online at http://www.theledger.com/wwiivets/

    [ Bill Rufty can be reached at 802-7523 or bill.rufty@theledger.com. ]

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