Harris recalls Navy career, early days in Alleghany County
By LAURA THORNBURG
Staff
In 1944, a young General "Bert" Harris heeded a call to serve his
country, even if it meant having to sneak off the Glade Valley farm
on which he and his family resided to the Naval Recruitment Office in
Winston-Salem to do it.
One of two sons of World War I Army veteran Tom and Lura Harris, Bert
felt compelled to serve his country—just not in the same military
branch as his father.
"I did not want to be in the Army because I just didn't picture
myself crawling on my belly and pounding mud all the time," Harris
explained. "In December of ‘41 on, my mind was on the U.S.A. I just
continued to know that the height of my ambitions was to join the
Navy and get off the farm. My daddy was working me to death."
Speaking of what led to his joining the Navy, Harris stated, "What I
basically done, my daddy was set on me going into the Army. He was
going to make me wait until I was 18 and let them draft me. I sneaked
off and went to Winston-Salem to the recruitment office. I enlisted,
talked the recruiter into coming back home with me with the paperwork
so I can get my daddy over at the post office over in Glade Valley
and get him to sign the papers. He would not be embarrassed by
refusing to sign the papers and he did."
With a smile and chuckle, he added, "That was a little conniving, but
I done it. I did manage to get him to sign those papers so I could
get in the Navy without being drafted. I was getting close to draft
age when I enlisted. I'd been on him for a year to let me join the
Navy and get him to sign the papers and he just wouldn't do it. When
I got back with them papers, I had to somehow manage to get him over
to the post office and me and that recruiter walk in and bring the
papers up and I said, ‘I just joined the Navy how about putting your
signature on it?' The recruiter's standing there explaining the Navy
to him wholeheartedly and I got his signature on it.
"I'm sure he didn't want to be embarrassed by refusing," Harris
continued. "To top it off, I told the recruiter that he was a World
War I vet. I didn't think he wanted to show a non-patriotic actions
at all." Pointing to his head, Harris said, "I had it all figured out
in my head how to do all this."
Reality Check
The oldest son of Tom and Lura Harris, he found himself in the middle
of a reality check of sorts when he joined the Navy.
He remembers, "When I joined the Navy, I went in blind-sighted
because I'd been at home for 17 years, I think I'd been to town
twice. Never been in a theater. We didn't go anywhere, we all worked,
we had to. My father was a disabled vet (who served in) World War I.
Up until the end of World War II, he never drew a disability pension.
When he did, it was about $10 a month. His disability originally was
$10 a month when he first started drawing it."
License to Drive
During his first tour of duty, Harris learned how to drive, being
able to drive from the Okinawa base to White Beach to pick up food
for he and his comrades.
Harris remembers, "I learned to drive a vehicle out there because
they came out there one morning and they said a supply ship was
coming into White Beach ‘and we need volunteers.' I was the first one
in line because I was a hungry young boy. I wanted something to eat.
I crawled in one of those old Red Marine Engine International four-
wheel-drive long range Tandems and got it in first gear and I took
off. I drove in first gear for about seven miles down there to the
beach. They started unloading and the first thing they put on my
truck was a pile of apples and I grabbed me a pocket full of apples."
A driving novice, Harris said he kept the vehicle in first gear and
four wheel drive during his "maiden voyages," and eventually ventured
other gears after watching others as they drove around the compound.
Amazingly, he never had an accident when he was there.
Making mention of the supplies, he stated that some had to be taken
to China.
Harris commented, "The stuff that had be hauled to China had to be
hauled down about 11 miles down to Buckner Bay, that's where the
piers were. I drove one of the trucks and they went and put it on the
ships that went to Shanghai, China. We dropped it off there and let
them distribute it wherever they needed it the most.
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