This is my third year
working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each
week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails
Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and
exciting ways.
My husband’s father, George J. Gorrell, was twenty-eight
years old when he was inducted into the Army Air Corps on 27 July 1943 in San
Francisco, California.[1]
He was single and had been living in Sacramento. Previously he had left his
hometown of Webb City, Missouri to attend the Curtiss Wright Technical
Institute in Glendale, California.[2]
He completed the Master Aviation Mechanic Course of 1920 hours on 11 July 1941.
He was living there as a student when he filled out the draft registration on
16 October 1940.[3]
He later worked at the Sacramento Air Depot at the McClellan
Field in Sacramento, California. He completed another course in Hydraulics on
25 May 1942.[4]
His occupation there was a landing gear assembler.[5]
According to the diary he kept while in the service,
volunteers were asked for at the base and George volunteered along with a
friend, Maurice Paul. He spent the first week at the Presidio in San Francisco
and then he traveled by train to Los Angeles, then to El Paso, Texas. After a
week there, they traveled by train to Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts.
Then down to New York to sail to England aboard the Queen Elizabeth.[6]
By August of 1943, George was serving in England.[7]
His diary never mentions his exact location, though he appeared to be near
Liverpool, as he mentions taking short weekend leaves there. He served as an
airplane hydraulic mechanic. He rarely wrote about his work, but rather
mentioned people he’d see, movies he attended, and the trips taken to London,
Glasgow, and Wales.[8]
He made corporal 4 May 1944. He later wrote on May 17 that General Eisenhower visited the
hangars and they were issued British made battle jackets.[9]
After the German surrendered in 1945, he was assigned to a new
squad and sent to Europe, traveling first by plane, then across France and
Germany by train. He was promoted to sergeant on November 21 and on December 12
he promoted to Staff Sergeant. He served in Germany until February 1946.[10]
He and was discharged from the service on
11 March 1946.[11]
We are very fortunate to have his diary and many of the
letters he wrote home to family. He wrote often to his father, mother, and
three sisters, Bertha, Ada May, and Clare. He also had a camera with him and
knew how to develop and print the images, though he did not have an enlarger,
so the photos are basically contact prints.
I do not have his service file and need to order that. Once
I have that, I might learn the units he served with. Then I can obtain morning
reports for his units and learn a little more about his service. He was never
under fire, though there was probably fears of German bombing missions on their
base. He was able to do quite a bit of sightseeing.
What else I need to do is transcribe the letters and scan the
many 120-sized negatives he took in Europe. Then I will be able to create a
very nice biography of his life during World War II.
[1]
Honorable Discharge, George J. Gorrell, no. 39 137 673, Gorrell Family Papers,
privately held by Lisa S. Gorrell, [address
for private use], California.
[2]
Certificate from Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute, Grand Central Air
Terminal, Glendale, California, Master Aviation Mechanic, George Joseph
Gorrell, July 1941, Gorrell Family Papers.
[3] "U.S.
WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, " database and images, Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com), Los Angeles Co, California, Spec. Prec at
Curtiss-Wright Tech Inst of Aeronautics, Glendale, no. 3598, George Joseph
Gorrell.
[4]
Certificate of Training, Sacramento Air Depot at McClellan Field, Sacramento,
California, 1942, George J. Gorrell, Gorrell Family Papers.
[5]
Honorable Discharge, George J. Gorrell, no. 39 137 673, Gorrell Family Papers.
[6]
“Diary of George J Gorrell,” typed transcript from notebook purchased at the
Presidio of Monterey PX, dated 1943-1946, Gorrell Family Papers.
[7] “Our
Men in Service,” Joplin (Missouri) Globe,
14 Sept 1943, p. 9, col. 2.
[8] “Diary
of George J. Gorrell.”
[9] “Diary
of George J. Gorrell.”
[10] “Diary
of George J. Gorrell.”
[11]
Honorable Discharge, George J. Gorrell.
Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you Lisa for such tremendous information. It's much more than I ever knew about my dad. I look forward to seeing the biography you mentioned. Again, thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have diaries and letters. Good work!
ReplyDelete