Small Town America in World War II: War Stories from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION This book is an account of the experiences of select individuals from my hometown, Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, who lived through World War II. My primary aim was to determine how that war affected the lives of the town’s inhabitants as well as the effects of the conflict on the town itself. War, by its very nature, has always been a catalyst for change, and the Second World War was no exception. The war put an end to the Great Depression of the 1930s and brought on a newfound prosperity as America became, in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words, “the Arsenal of Democracy.” According to one authority, World War II was the “closest thing to a real social revolution in the United States in this century.”1 The war touched every man, woman, and child in the United States. There was a shared sacrifice by nearly every person. Scarcely any community of any size was spared. Virtually every family had a father, son, daughter, or close relative serving in the military. Never before or since have so many people been displaced in such a short period of time. The military mobilized 16 million men and women, and the Bureau of the Census reported that in 1945 some 15.3 million civilians had moved to a different county from the one in which they lived in 1941.2 The rapid and sudden migration of civilian workers toward war production centers often taxed or overwhelmed existing local educational facilities and community services and created housing shortages. Particularly for women and African Americans, the war created a vehicle for social and employment gains. The need for labor, as the draft drew workers into the military, opened new opportunities for groups outside the mainstream of American life.3 2 SMALL TOWN AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II For the millions of men and women who served in the armed forces, the war took them to places they had only read about or heard of before entering the military. Those who saw combat and experienced firsthand the horrors of war returned home with different attitudes and outlooks. Often they returned to communities they no longer recognized. They came back to hometowns that were, in many ways, alien terrain after their years of military service. Having helped win the war, the veterans also returned with a newfound confidence and sense of achievement after having lived previously through the economic hopelessness of the Depression years. Millions of GIs, while contemplating their discharge from the service, saw in the future an opportunity for upward mobility for both themselves and their children. Nowhere is this better understood than in the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (better known as the GI Bill of Rights), arguably the most successful social welfare program in US history. In short, it underscored the commitment to security and prosperity that was so much a part of the American Dream.4 But what about my hometown of Wrightsville? Did it experience these changes? Did defense contracts swell the town’s population, thus overburdening its schools, housing, and community services? Did the war lift the local economy from the depths of the Depression? Did large numbers of its people move elsewhere in search of better jobs? How did the war affect the women and minorities who lived there? How many men and women from the town served in the military? What did the servicemen and women experience overseas that had a profound effect on them? How had the war changed the returning veterans? To answer these questions and to determine if World War Two did, in fact, change the town and its inhabitants in significant ways, I conducted a series of oral history interviews with Wrightsville residents who experienced the war first hand at home and abroad. Before going into the interviews and the answers they provided, however, a brief history of the river town called Wrightsville is necessary. INTRODUCTION 3 The Susquehanna River was Wrightsville’s reason for being and was the determining factor in the town’s economic history. From its beginning , Wrightsville served as a transit point across the Susquehanna. In 1733 John Wright, one of the original settlers on the east bank of the river, established a crude ferry to carry people and livestock across to the west bank as they moved into the interior seeking land. As a result of Wright’s business venture, the community established on the...