Wilmington NC – What did You do in the War Daddy?

Thursday, January 31st we took a day trip to Wilmington, North Carolina. In addition to being known as the hometown of Michael Jeffrey Jordan it is the home port for the now retired battleship USS North Carolina. Even though it was launched in 1940, it is still similar to the USS Maryland, the ship that Ron’s dad was on during WWII. Almost the entire ship is available for self-guided tours and we took full advantage of it.
Ron’s father was on a submarine prior to the war, and received a promotion from Baker 2nd Class to Chief Commissary Steward. It is hard to imagine, but the submarine did not have a budgeted position for another chief, so he ended up transferring to the Maryland. He was there on December 7th, 1941 and stayed on the ship until their war was ended by a series of Kamikaze planes at Okinawa.
If you have never seen a battleship, take the opportunity to visit one. They are an impressive ship with a streamlined bow and this REALLY wide midship structure. For us it was an opportunity to see what Bob Rilee did in the war. We went down to the lower decks and saw his duty station, the galley and the mess hall. As a Chief he was responsible for the ships food stores and food preparation. One of the things he started when he first went to work as a baker was to find out the birthdates of his shipmates and bake birthday cakes for them. When you are out at sea for months at a time having someone care is a major morale boost. His two nicknames in the galley were Stew Meat and Belly Robber. We also went through all the crew quarters, the infirmary and the other day to day places. It was a real special chance to see the life of a World War 2 warrior. As you can see from the above picture warriors also had to be less than modest about their bodily functions. Privacy was not something available on a ship with over 2300 crewmen.

After touring the ship and downtown Wilmington we went to the little community of Kure Beach. We were not able to find a really nice beach to walk on, but we did find an old Confederate post, Fort Fisher. It was a fort on the coastline used to protect the blockade running ships. This supply line was the last opening for supplies to reach Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. After a massive amphibious assault by Union forces Fort Fisher fell on January 15th, 1865.

There were still mounded earthworks left from the old fort. While there we also had a red fox run across the road and pose for us.

After bidding adieu to North Carolina for the first time on our trip we headed back for dinner at Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach and got ready for our next journey; a pilgrimage to Chapel Hill and Durham North Carolina. That will be coming up in our next post.