Greetings From Jupiter - Personnal & Professional Interest

1. Your Name: Josh.

My name is a reference to the USS West Virginia (BB-48). While I did not have any known relatives serving on that ship, the 50th annivesary of Pearl Harbor occured when I was young and helped spark my interest in military history. The battleship provided a sort of personnal connection because it was named for my home state and its moment of glory at Surigao Strait occured on my birthday (albeit many years before I was actually born).

2. Age: 33.

3. Origins: originally from West Virginia, but grew up in SE Florida where I still reside.

4. Specifics: The naval war in the Pacific has always been my prime personal interest in WWII.

However, I now have an additional professional interest in World War II due to working for a historical society. I am specifically interesting in hearing from veterans who served at Naval Radio Station Jupiter (aka Station J), Coast Guard Station Jupiter, Camp Murphy (Southern Signal Corps), or otherewise served in the military in any branch at any time in the Jupiter, Florida area - especially during World War II.

I would also like to learn more about the US Navy's shore-based Radio Direction Finding (RDF) network. Station J in Jupiter operated as part of both the strategic and tactical RDF nets listening for German U-boats.

Also, there is a local legend that some crewmen from a U-boat were captured on the beach at Jupiter and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Kentucky. I've heard lots of towns on the Atlantic Coast have such a story and I suspect it is probably a myth, but I would be interested in learning what official records I might consult to prove it one way or the other.

5. Hobbies: I like to visit historical sites in general, but especially military-related ones. I do a variety of gaming, albiet mostly non-historical. I'm also a geocacher and avid reader.

6. Other Topics Of Interest: American Civil War, lighthouses & lighthouse keepers, genealogy

7. Miscellaneous: I have two known relatives who served in World War II, both now deceased.

Thomas Hargrove (great uncle) was an Army chaplain's assistant in Europe 1944-1945.

Max Westenhaver (maternal grandfather) was a medic/corpsman (probably Army, but I'm not certain) in 1945 and served on Okinawa. I am told that one of his duties was to run to wounded men under fire and determine if they could possibly be saved, or if they should be left to die.; he was wounded when a surrendering Japanese set off a grenade.

 

Welcome to this forum WeeVeeJosh !

 

Any American who served in the battle of Okinawa deserves to go straight to the top floor of Heaven. Do not pass Go.

日本人も。

 

Welcome Josh, My maternal family sprang from south eastern West Virginia (Greenbrier county) and I consider it my 'second' home.

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

Welcome to the Forum, Josh.

 

yes, it would be great to hear about a different aspect of the war.......welcome

 

Being a native of Kentucky my whole life, I just cannot resist asking...but does the legend tell where exactly those crewmen were sent to in Kentucky? I just got really curious when i saw that.

Edit: I did a little search and came across this: http://www.gentracer.org/powcampsKY.html

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

It's a lovely state that I want to go back and see more of, although the mountain roads sometimes make me uneasy when driving.

My earliest years were spent in Hampshire County. Through my genealogy research, I've learned my paternal family was/is mostly from Pendleton, Randolph, and Mineral counties (and just across the border in Garrett & Allegany counties, MD), but I've got some distant paternal ancestors in ancestors in late 1700s Greenbrier (Summerfield and Nelson families). One side of my maternal family is from Berkeley County and the other side is from KY (Barren County), with one branch passing through Greenbrier before moving on.

It does not; it's a pretty vague legend which is one of the big reasons I am skeptical about it. If German POWs had been taken off the beach it would seem like it would have been the talk of the town, especially since it was a small town of a few hundred people back then.

 

Alrighty, I was just curious. Thank you for clearing that. I did find some interesting stuff about POW camps in Kentucky, looks like I'll be occupied with that now . Like i mentioned before: welcome to this forum WeeVeeJosh

 

Thank you for those links.

Regarding the PBC page: I work in the last building pictured at the bottom of that page, which is the last building remaining from the station.

Here's some more info from our website: http://www.jupiterlighthouse.org/jupiter-lighthouse_history7.php We are particularly fond of the "Bananas" congratulatory message sent to the RDF network at the end of the war: http://www.jupiterlighthouse.org/pdf/jilmimages/Bananas.pdf Some of my coworkers just find the use of "meat pie" and "bananas" as amusing, not being familiar with the nature of WW2 message padding. Having read about Leyte Gulf I'm quite familiar with the idea, although I am surprised the padding had not been removed from this message when decoded (especially since this was well after the "Turkey Trots" incident).

Regarding my relatives: I would tell more if I knew more. I need to request their service records so I can learn myself. My grandfather was dead before I was born and I only met my great uncle once (I live in FL, he was in CA). From what I've heard from other family members, I doubt either of them would have been willing to talk about their experiences. My grandfather being wounded on Okinawa speaks for itself in terms of being scarred, figuratively and literally. For my great uncle, he was a very smart man with an Ivy league education who studied game theory and philosophy for fun, and was fluent in Latin (probably also French and/or German). I have a photo of him in front of a bombed out courthouse in France with a lengthy note on the back about the symbolism of the picture - war as the destroyer of civilization and justice. (EDIT: added that photo as my profile image)

 

Welcome to this fine forum Josh, nice to have you with us.