Interview of Jack Duffell
Transcript Number 061

My name is Paul Zarbock, I'm the interviewer in the project to interview World War II veterans. We're located in the public library of Whiteville, North Carolina. Today's date is the 10th of July in the year 2001. Our contributor today is Mr. Jack Duffell and I'm going to ask him as I've asked all the rest, when did you get in the military and how did you get in the military? Were you drafted, were you enlisted, were you captured and forced into it (laughter)? How did it all start, Jack.

DUFFELL: Some years ago when I was still a very young fellow, I was not the best of students and so while still in the young part of high school, I decided I'd go into the service. I had to get my parents' permission and so I enlisted in Florence, South Carolina at the post office on the 4th day of January 1940. Went down to Sullivan's Island out of Charleston, South Carolina, for my basic training and in April, April 29th I believe it was of the same year, we left on a troop ship, the S.S. Hunter Liggett which was later sunk someplace during the war, but it had nothing to do with me getting on that miserable trip through the (Panama) canal into California. From there, we went on out to Honolulu.

INTERVIEWER: What branch of service were you in?

DUFFELL: At that time, I had enlisted in the Coast Artillery and not a lot of people know what the Coast Guard artillery is now. But we'll get to that in a moment or two. We landed in Honolulu and through some military secrets and so forth, I was assigned to Fort DeRussey which is 16th Coast Artillery and this is in the downtown residential section of Honolulu down on the south shore. We were, I guess, in miles maybe 3/4 of a mile from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. At that particular time in 1940, it was a great tourist area, even probably more now than it is - Lana Turner and these girls were out there and we made it a point to be seen and to be seen with them.

INTERVIEWER: Excuse me Jack, who was Lana Turner? You and I know, but a couple of years from now...

DUFFELL: Lana Turner, she was one of the really hot apples from Hollywood at that time. She was I guess, gosh I can't even think of the names of the new ones nowadays, but she was really an attractive person and was well known. But anyhow the 16th Coast at Fort DeRussey, we had two large disappearing cannon and the associate battery next to us was the 55th combat train, they had two six-inch guns and they were mobile. Our guns were 12-inch disappearing carriage type guns. By this, I mean these were guns that were hidden from the ocean. You couldn't see them, but they were loaded with pallet charges and projectiles and then pallet charges of course. Through a tripping mechanism, the gun came up over what we called a parapet fired and disappeared back down and recoiled, we'd set the gun and your point of aim was determined. In my particular case, we had an observation post on the Punchbowl in Hawaii which is now a military cemetery. Another observation post was on Diamond Head and our master gunner had plotted our gun positions in relation with those two places - one man in Punchbowl with a target and give us an azimuth and one man in Diamond Head would do the same thing. 

Inside the control room of the gun battery, we had metal arms that represented the shoreline and we'd cross those arms and then we had to plot who had a straight arm and he would run it out and determine the range to the target and we would spot three different lines that we were given three different azimuths and once we got three lines in a row, we would fire on the fourth or maybe the fifth shot. Assuming that the captain of the ship or the target hadn't turned, the idea was we would hit it close enough that we would create a good bit of damage. 

Keep in mind now that we were firing 1600 pound projectiles, high explosives in some cases and some of them just on DVD But that's the way it was and we shot two or three times during the course of the time that I was there prior to the 6th of December.

The 6th of December we had just finished a maneuver with our ammunition and arms and we had turned everything in on Saturday night, most of us, myself included, all went out on the town. And Sunday morning, all hell had broken loose. We didn't know what created it until we got the word from somebody that the field was hit and that's how we got the word that we were under attack other than the fact that the planes were flying around. But most of us hadn't even heard the planes because we were still in the bed sleeping.

INTERVIEWER: How far were you from Hickham Field?

DUFFELL: In a straight line, I guess from Hickham to Fort DeRussy was probably 6, maybe 10 miles. 

INTERVIEWER: So you could hear explosions.

DUFFELL: And once I had the gun batteries, we could see the planes dropping bombs on Pearl. We only had one bomb that came in close to us and that was dropped evidently by a Japanese pilot who had lost his way and he dropped it in the mountains near a hospital. If I remember correctly, that was St. Francis Hospital. It was the only bomb that was dropped anywhere close to us. 

In addition to the 55 caliber guns that we had with battery Dudley which was next to us, which was that 55th combat training I mentioned, and our larger guns, we had four 3-inch antiaircraft guns mounted on the ____ ground so that was the initial deal was to go man those guns. Of course, we didn't have anything to shoot at. The Japanese didn't come where we were. They came in at Pearl and came in and raised cain in both places. Had they been able to come in on the north shore where Schofield Barrocks was that landing may or may not have been as well or better, in other words, what I'm trying to say - I believe they probably could have made a landing up around Schofield Barracks except for the fact that Schofield Barracks is where the elite military of the United States was at that time. It was just a ground forces of excellence. I mean they were really the good boys.

So when we got all squared away and we did get our rifles out of the supply room and got our ammunition...

INTERVIEWER: How could you get the rifles out of the supply room?

DUFFELL: We had to find the supply sergeant and get him back on base.

INTERVIEWER: He wasn't on base?

DUFFELL: He wasn't on base.

INTERVIEWER: And the rifles were locked in the gun rack.

DUFFELL: The rifles are locked in the gun rack and of course we all had our field packs and everything at the head so it was matter of getting your pack and waiting to get your rifle or getting your rifle and reporting to your gun station. As I said, we first started off with the 3-inch stuff, nothing shooting, so we went to our major hard artillery and that's where we stayed. Keeping in mind now that nothing had been prepared for food at the time except in the mess hall. They were fixing Sunday morning breakfast. But there was no preparation made to get it over to us. And to be perfectly frank with you, people were just wandering around because particularly at night, when night came on is when you didn't make any moves outside unless somebody had called ahead and let them know you were coming. It was a good way of getting shot. Even though we were remote from the real action which was at Pearl, the tension was so great all over the islands by that time that the civilians didn't go anywhere and the military didn't go anywhere unless you had to. 

After things settled down, which was some period of time, and I don't have these dates and so forth, I stayed there with the Hawaiian Seacoast Artillery Command and we test fired the big guns and made sure our powder charges were all adequate and eventually my organization along with some others all went out to Fort Shafter and became a part of the task force 248 and we were considered then as secondary infantry. Suddenly we were changed from artillery men to infantrymen and we stayed with them all the way into the Philippines.

INTERVIEWER: At the time of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, how long had you been in the military and how long did you have to go?

DUFFELL: I went in the military January 1940. I was on the island in April of 1940 and I was supposed to come home in April of 1941.

INTERVIEWER: When did you get home?

DUFFELL: I got home in August of 1945. You've got all of 1940 when I got there from April to, my two years would have been up in April of 1942, 1941, isn't that right?

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

DUFFELL: Instead of that, I got retained.

INTERVIEWER: Did anyone ask your permission to retain you (laughter)?

DUFFELL: I made the comment that old first sergeant, his name was Lampett, and we called him Wimpy Lampett, he developed that name because of the way he ate, but I told him that I was a short-timer and he changed it to a retainee and said I was in for the duration. So I didn't get back home until August of 1945. That's back on the west coast which was a big deal. I came back home under the point system and had to be replaced in the military specialty. 

At that time instead of being in the artillery setting guns, I had gotten into the administrative part of it and was working with G3 which is operations, a portion of the task force and we were stationed on Leyte at that time. And the time came for me to come back home and see I had gained overseas these things we had on our sleeves, overseas bars. I believe at that time it was set up for every six months. I had a sufficient number to come back, but I couldn't be replaced, didn't have anybody to come back, didn't have anybody coming from the States to us with my military specialty which was an administrative clerk at that time with my rank. 

So I took a reduction in grade from staff sergeant to sergeant and the first time somebody came in that had that military, that grade, I came home and stayed out for a year working with the South Carolina Highway Department. For some reason, I didn't like that many people telling me what to do all the time, so I went back into the service and then when I went back into the service in 1946, I stayed in until I finished my time in the late part of 1961 which gave me my 21 years, 9 months and 9 days.

INTERVIEWER: Let me take you back to...you're no longer a coast artillery man, you're now in the infantry. What division were you in? Do you remember?

DUFFELL: I was in the headquarters of the 248th Task Force. It was a group, if there was a battalion number, now I cannot remember.

INTERVIEWER: Where did you go? What happened to you then?

DUFFELL: Well when we finally got lined up to leave Hawaii, we went from there on out into the Pacific in numerous air raid alerts and submarine alerts and so forth and fortunately we were not hit. On past Rabaul, on past Eniwetok and we made the landing on Leyte Island in the Philippines at Orwoc Beach which is a part of Leyte.

INTERVIEWER: That was about 1944?

DUFFELL: It had to be in 1944 or late 1943. I wish I had brought some stuff, I was told to do that, but I didn't. You see I came home in 1945 so it had to be in 1944. And that's where we stayed until I did come back. When we came back, it was a glorious time and we landed in San Pedro, is that right? I'm asking you, I can't even remember. And they took us up in the mountains to Camp Hahn, I believe is correct and there I saw the military efficiency that I had never seen before. We left San Pedro by train to the mountains and everybody had their own duffel bag, which is not where I got my name, but it's very close. This was all being handled for us. 

We got off the train and went into a debriefing tent wondering where all of our duffels were. We were told not to worry about it. We were shown where the trains were and where the mess hall was and that's where we really had a time. Anything you wanted from watermelons to steaks and how many you wanted. We were taken to a bivouac area, bedded down with clean sheets and blankets and so forth. The next morning we got up and went to the train and lo and behold, all of our stuff was right there waiting on us. Then it took about six days I think by train to come across the state of Texas. 

I was discharged at Camp Gordon, Georgia and that pretty well brings us up until when we're talking about in 1945, late 1945. 1945, I was with the Highway Department. That's not as an officer, that was as a maintenance type of person. I reenlisted and still in the grade of sergeant because I had had to drop a grade. Wasn't long after I got back in that I picked that stripe back up and at that time, I went back in and served still in administration working in the orderly room. 

From there we moved from Greenville, South Carolina. At Foulk Field, we were with the 477th Air Service group and that outfit moved, 9th Air Force, moved to Greenville, South Carolina and from there, I forget how long I was there, and of all my traveling, I can only say this parenthetically, on one or two occasions have I run into somebody that I served with and there's a fellow here in town that he and I remember some really vivid days and nights in Greenville, South Carolina. He has a business here in town so I won't call his name, but we meet every once in a while in a coffee shop and recall some of these things. He's even brave enough to introduce me to people as an old wartime buddy, a military buddy of his. He's a fine fellow.

But after going back in and being in Greenville, 9th Air Force moved up to Langley Field in Virginia. Now I've gotten away from the war entirely which is perfectly all right with me. I was still in administration, but had a chance to go to crypto school which, for those of you who know, of course it's handling encrypted messages and I went to Scott Field in Illinois for training in that.

INTERVIEWER: What year was this?

DUFFELL: Probably 1950-51.

INTERVIEWER: So the Korean War had started?

DUFFELL: Yeah, I'm sure it had. So after that, and to get there for these people who might eventually see this and not know what it's all about, your background had to be pretty good to be able to go to what we call now CBI's, investigations, let the military grant you clearances to see certain data that came through. During the time that I was in the service, I guess I had as high a clearance as an enlisted person would have. In the meantime now, during the same period of time, I had progressed from staff sergeant to tech sergeant and had gotten into the crypto end of the business which is a type of communications as you know. 

Later on, I was promoted to tech sergeant and finally I had a chance to become master sergeant. In the meantime, I got shipped from Langley Field to Tripoli in Africa and when we got there, I guess the biggest part of my life, I have to stop for just a minute because even though she's passed away, it would be a shame for my son and my daughter to know that I skipped that part. 

I married a beautiful person named Irene Butler. We had two children, both adopted, Marty and Vicky, but Marty didn't come along until a little bit later on, but Vicky and Irene and myself ended up in Turkey because when we got to Tripoli, they had no space for us, no slack on the table of organization, so they sent us into Turkey, Tankara. My family joined me there. We spent about a year and a half and to bring us up to date now, when I came back from Turkey, I came right here to Whiteville and bought a 1958 station wagon, preparatory to go into California. That was going to be my assignment so the family went out there. But in the meantime, Marty came along and to bring you up to date - both my daughter and my son are adopted. So my daughter held my son all the way to California. He was about that long. And in the back seat behind there was our cocker spaniel. 

So we spent some time out in California stationed at McClelland Air Force Base. We were living pretty good at that time and I had been promoted to master sergeant. I was in the West Coast Gateway Station, the Gateway Station being where all of the Pacific traffic came in and disseminated to the different places in the state. We had one on the east coast and we did, we enjoyed California. It was fine, but then came the time for an old sea shipment again. 

And at that time, President Eisenhower said no more dependents to Japan so I had to bring the family back home which was down in Tabor City, North Carolina and I went on to Japan and while I was there, the wife got terribly ill and I put in for retirement, but when I got to the west coast, I keep getting ahead of myself, when I got to the west coast on the way to Japan, sitting there as a master sergeant at Travis Air Force Base, I met another noncom master sergeant by the name of Bill Haley and in the conversation of where you're going and so forth, he was going to Japan and me too. What do you do, I'm an NCOIC out of the Gateway Station, well I'm the NCOIC out of the West Coast, we both ended up in Japan on the way and we went for senior master sergeant promotion. We were promoted on the way. The quota came through and when we landed in Japan, we were both senior master sergeants.

We ended up in an organization 6th something communications squadron, two senior master sergeants occupying a tech sergeant slot and so this didn't last long. So Bill Haley immediately started looking to teletype and I think he finally ended up going down there, but I haven't seen him since. I got a picture of Bill and myself both in dress uniform and I look at it once in a while. I guess, I don't know how long I've been talking here, but I would tell anybody that if the situation ever gets back to where it's stable enough that you can see your way clear, the military is a good place to be. You have a good stable income, you have a good retirement system or did at that time and if we ever got our politicians to leave it alone, maybe we'll get back to it.

As I told this gentleman before we started this thing, if it wasn't for my age, if they would let me retrain, I enjoyed my military service to the extent that I'd go back tomorrow. I guess that's about all I got to say, Paul.

INTERVIEWER: You said your wife was terribly ill before you went overseas or did you find out she was ill when you got overseas?

DUFFELL: My first wife, Irene, was a diabetic and she really got sick after I was overseas in Japan and this is one of these deals where the military tries to work with you as close as they can. I was in a position where I could send messages pretty well through the Morse system and also through the Red Cross system and also through the chaplain. The chaplain worked of course with the Red Cross, but it seemed like me being over there one day, I'd get a message that Irene was in the hospital and I'd make a telephone call or send a message and then she's out of the hospital. She had an intestinal thing that went along with the diabetes. But after I came home, I was blessed with the fact that she lived for another two or three years and finally died of a heart attack and she was a registered nurse and well-liked and one of the, I say now and I said then, one of the better nurses that they had in the hospital at that time. So my son is a minister and my daughter is a housewife and I'm a happy guy. Will that do it?

INTERVIEWER: What a life. I'm going to take you back again, Leyte, at the landing. What day after the invasion, was it D + do you remember?

DUFFELL: It had to be D + one or two. I mean I was not on the initial assault, but we still had a lot of gunfire going on.

INTERVIEWER: I was going to ask, were they shooting at you and you shooting at them?

DUFFELL: Well somebody asked me the other day, I don't remember if it was my grandson, somebody asked me the other day, have you ever killed anybody. I think we were talking about one of these things around Whiteville or something, I said no, not that I know of, but I've shot at a lot of people. I don't know that I ever got anybody killed when it was not intentional except to say, you know, I put up some gunfire.

INTERVIEWER: But you'd do it again if you got retrained and were a little bit younger.

DUFFELL: I would go back tomorrow if they would give me a period of time that I could retrain in my same field in cryptography which I'm sure is quite changed by now after all these years. And that's the beauty of the military. I'm still, they're still paying me. I retired, I've been out longer than I was in, put it that way, and they're still paying me and some of these politicians are not happy about that.

INTERVIEWER: Well I'm going to ask you, as you know, that last question and I'm going to suggest the same thing that I've told other people, that you look right into the camera and realize that you're talking to generations you may never live to see and would you tell them, what was all the battling and fighting and military, what did it all mean. How would you draw a circle around that and what would you advise?

DUFFELL: Well we've had battles way back in biblical days and some of these things have been settled to the satisfaction of the people that instigated, some of them have not, and I think in the long run, we're going to find that war is not the way to go. Things can be settled in some way, shape or form through negotiations, some kind of talking, in a lot of cases, arbitration, compromise. There's got to be some way that you can do these things without killing your neighbor. So I don't think it serves any purpose. Had I known that, I may have left.