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When Japanese bombers attacked U.S. Navy ships at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Clarence Piper was a high school sophomore visiting his uncle in the hills of Oregon and read about the attack in the newspaper.

That sneak attack on the naval base at Hawaii, which killed 2,403 people and destroyed eight battleships and 11 other vessels, changed the lives of Piper and millions of other young men in the United States who served in the military to defeat the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy.

“Everyone was involved in World War II,” said Piper, 98, who moved to Woodland Village in Chehalis a few years ago after living two decades in Tenino. “The country was just completely unified, and we all expected to serve one way or another.”

He didn’t enlist because he had no idea what he could do. But Uncle Sam sent a draft notice ordering him to join the military after graduating from Sumner High School in June 1943. When he reported, the Navy needed workers for its naval construction battalions, known as Seabees.

My thoughts flew immediately to John Wayne’s portrayal of civilian contractor “Wedge” Donovan in the 1944 film, The Fighting Seabees, but when I mentioned it, Piper chuckled, describing it as “a total exaggeration.”

“We weren’t much in combat,” he said of his time on Tinian, a small island about 50 miles north of Guam and 5 miles southwest of Saipan where he arrived in the fall of 1944. “I mean, there were a few spots.” 

He opened his copy of The 135th Review USNCB, where three men killed on the Marianas island of Tinian were memorialized on the first page of the book commemorating the work of the 135th Construction Battalion.

One night, Piper’s friend, Kenneth Ross, an excellent marksman, stood guard on the perimeter when Japanese tried to sneak into camp. Ross shot and wounded a man, who then pulled out a grenade, held it to his chest, and blew himself up rather than risk being taken prisoner. Piper said his friend had been plagued by guilt and remorse after shooting the soldier and watching him die. Then, on Nov. 7, 1944, Ross, a religiously devout man, died in an accident while cleaning his gun.

“The Marines had done a good job of clearing the island, but there were still holdouts,” Piper said. “You are kind of told to stay on base.” 

But on March 18, 1945, three men ventured outside looking for souvenirs and ran into a Japanese unit hiding in a cave. The enemy killed two men — Homer Cameron and Charles Schroeder — while the third escaped to report the losses. 

As a laborer in D Platoon, Piper worked with experienced equipment operators on construction crews on Tinian. He erected Quonset huts and served as what was called a “wagon driller.” They used pneumatic air drillers to dig 4-foot-deep holes that they stuffed with dynamite to blast the coral and make way for the runway. They stripped dirt from the coral to build the runway for B-29 pilots. At 18, he didn’t know anything and simply followed orders, he said.

“You could plan on doing kitchen duty about once a month for a week,” he said. 

He worked six days a week with Sundays off. They ate a lot of spam, fricassee chicken they called SOS, and powdered eggs, and received an allotment of two beers a month.

Piper, who was born in February 1925, grew up in the Puyallup Valley, the youngest of Francis “Frank” and Stella (Sausser) Piper’s seven children. His father worked as a logger, and his mother tended the children, a big garden and a few cows, chickens and pigs. The family also raised raspberries on their five acres. His mother canned a lot of meat, fruit, and vegetables.  

“It’s quite a nice place to grow up,” he said. “It was right in the heart of the Depression, and we were as poor as it can get.”

After spending his first eight grades in a two-room school in McMillin in Pierce County, with eight students in his class, he studied at Sumner High School. He played basketball and enjoyed Christmas plays and singing programs.

In high school, Piper saved money to buy his first car, a 1929 Model A, but couldn’t travel far on his ration of four gallons of gas a month.

“We could drive it to school about three times,” he said.

A farmer friend a year younger than him had more gas ration stamps, so they could drive farther together, even once traveling to Eastern Washington. “He had to supply gasoline for the rest of us,” Piper said.

After he was drafted, Piper was sent to Camp Perry near historic Williamsburg, Virginia, for boot camp, where they did a lot of calisthenics, obstacle courses and marching to improve their physical condition. Assigned to a unit, he spent time in amphibious training at Newport naval base near Providence, Rhode Island, and then in Gulfport, Mississippi, where they did construction work for the Army. He traveled home by train for Christmas leave before sailing on May 18, 1944, aboard a converted French passenger liner. They stopped in Hawaii, where the construction battalion spent two months at Pearl Harbor building barracks. As a Seabee who drove nails and sawed boards, he didn’t expect to see much combat.

When they sailed the Pacific Ocean, Piper said, their converted passenger liner with its huge diesel engine traveled at more than twice the speed of the convoy’s Liberty ships, so periodically it pulled to the side and maintained a zigzag pattern to avoid Japanese submarines while revving the motor until the rest of the ships caught up.

On Oct. 24, 1944, the 135th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at Tinian, where average annual rainfall was 75 inches, twice the annual precipitation of the Puyallup Valley. 

“It was a muddy mess really,” Piper said.

Tinian, an island at most 10 miles long and less than 40 square miles altogether, was formed by a coral reef exposed as the ocean receded rather than by volcanic eruptions like many islands.

“It was flat,” Piper said, “so it was ideal for building a large airbase. The north end was very flat and didn’t have as much vegetation on it. That’s where the airfield was started.”

From Tinian, B-29 pilots to launch bombing raids on Tokyo, Japan, about 1,500 miles away, which took 12 hours round-trip. Piper recalled before he joined the military when, on Feb. 18, 1943, the prototype B-29 bomber crashed into the Frye Meat Packing Plant south of Seattle, exploded, and killed eight men on the plane and 20 workers in the building. That happened on his 18th birthday and kind of set back the program, he said, but by the time he served on Tinian, B-29s there flew round-the-clock bombing raids to Japan.

" ["post_title"]=> string(72) "Julie McDonald: Navy Seabee recalls work on island of Tinian during WWII" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(71) "julie-mcdonald-navy-seabee-recalls-work-on-island-of-tinian-during-wwii" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-10-12 19:39:05" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-10-12 19:39:05" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "https://villageconcepts.com/?p=14371" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [1]=> object(WP_Post)#4700 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(14272) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2023-04-26 21:12:41" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-04-26 21:12:41" ["post_content"]=> string(2468) "[caption id="attachment_14273" align="aligncenter" width="1314"] From the 2023 issue of The Faces of Skagit County[/caption] Village Concepts of Sedro-Woolley: Country Meadow Village brings retirement to life every day for their residents. They offer a wide variety of events and activities to promote lifelong learning and enjoyment. "We have an amazing group of employees dedicated to our residents," said David Bricka, program director. "Many have been with Country Meadow Village for more than 10 years." The retirement community offers assisted and independent living for everyone in a peaceful, countryside setting. Village Concepts was started by Bill Brown more than 50 years ago. The thirteen communities located in Washington are still managed by the Brown family. Under the Brown family's ownership, Country Meadow Village opened in 1993. As part of the three-generation family-owned business, Country Meadow Village treats their residents like family. "We have no delineation between our assisted and independent residents," said David. "Everyone can gather to celebrate all our events and activities together." David has been Country Meadow Village's program director for over 14 years. He always makes sure the community, which is everyonoe's home, is festively decorated for all seasons of the year. Last Christmas, more than 17,000 lights glowed inside and out. For Independence Day, the place is festooned with flags, bandanas and a custom-created "Welcome, Loggerodeo" banner over the entrance portico to celebrate Sedro-Woolley's oldest continuous 4th of July celebration in Washington. There are so many other fun activities including the patriotic door-decorating contest for all residents. Sedro-Woolley's mayor serves as guest judge for the event. Winners are announced at the annual root beer float social held in the courtyard. Country Meadow Village is hosting the multi-chamber after-hours event in September 2023 to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It's obvious that David and all of the staff work hard to ensure all residents feel like they're truly part of the Country Meadow Village family. One thing many Skagit Valley residents don't realize is that Country Meadow Village houses the satellite branch of the Sedro-Woolley Museum." ["post_title"]=> string(29) "The Face of Retirement Living" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(29) "the-face-of-retirement-living" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-04-26 21:14:22" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-04-26 21:14:22" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "https://villageconcepts.com/?p=14272" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [2]=> object(WP_Post)#4745 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(14021) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2022-08-08 21:37:56" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2022-08-08 21:37:56" ["post_content"]=> string(11505) "[caption id="attachment_14022" align="alignleft" width="640"] Woodland Village’s eight centenarians. Back, from left to right: Louise Carpenter, 100; Agnes Wasson, 101; Dottie Docherty, 100; Eileen Wikokff, 101; Shirley Nelsen, 101 and Glenna Ralff, 100. Front: Jim Van Ackren (left), 100 and Pearl Miller, 103.[/caption]

Woodland Village in Chehalis celebrated the lives of eight centenarians on Monday. Ahead of the celebration, The Chronicle was able to interview four of them as they reflected on their more than 100 years of life and shared their experiences.

Louise Carpenter, 100, was born on April 15, 1922, in Bellingham. She grew up on a “little” farm in Snohomish County. In Carpenter’s telling, her childhood was a simple one.

“I didn’t do very much,” she said.

Carpenter recalled what it was like when her family first got electricity on their farm when she was 7 years old.

“I can remember when we got electricity because I was in awe of the electric light,” Carpenter recalled.

When the Great Depression began in 1929, Carpenter said her family learned to deal with the new economic realities.

“Well, we just did without,” Carpenter said. “I don’t remember suffering much, but we didn’t need much.”

After World War II began in late 1941, Carpenter began working in the shipyards of Puget Sound as a sheet metal worker. As the war progressed, she was given the opportunity to learn how to fly.

“It was really exciting to me,” Carpenter said. “We had to go to Spokane because there was no flying on the West Coast because of the war.”

After the war ended in 1945, Carpenter got a job as an aircraft communicator at the airport in Toledo, where she lived for 50 years. Carpenter managed to live a remarkably independent life well into her later years, living on her own until she moved to Woodland Village last July at the age of 99.

Today, Carpenter, who had one daughter with her husband, is the grandmother of four grandchildren.

[caption id="attachment_14024" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Centenarian Shirley Nelson smiles alongside Peggy Brooks during a celebration at Woodland Village in Chehalis on Monday.[/caption]

Shirley Nelsen, 101, was born in Rochester 10 minutes after midnight on July 2, 1921. Like other people her age, Nelsen lived through the Great Depression, experiencing levels of poverty common to that era.

“At that time we were quite young, but I remember my mom telling people later on that she robbed our piggy bank to buy bread,” Nelsen said.

Nelsen’s father was a mechanic and often had to move his family around to find work during the Depression, eventually moving to logging camps in California where they had no electricity and had to use kerosene lamps for lighting. But in 1932, Nelsen’s family was dealt a blow when an earthquake struck the state.

“We moved back up after a week of aftershocks and so my dad said, ‘We’re going home,’ and so we moved back up to Washington again (even though he didn’t have a job),” Nelsen said.

As a young adult, Nelsen took a civil service exam at the Chehalis Post Office, after which she was hired as a secretary for the surgeon general’s office in Washington D.C., arriving in time for the beginning of World War II.

“I can remember vividly where I was when I heard the announcement that Pearl Harbor had been attacked,” Nelsen said. “I was in my room and had the radio on when they announced the attack.”

Nelsen remembered the difficulties of life during the war, when wartime restrictions meant major changes in people’s daily lives.

“We did what we had to do, like conserving gasoline, and we had stamps to buy sugar and meats so we prioritized things because you couldn’t go in the grocery store and buy anything you wanted,” Nelsen said. “We did whatever we could do to help.”

Around 1943, Nelsen moved home to be near her family again. She said she wanted to be closer to her loved ones since “you didn’t know what was going to happen” during the war.

Thinking about the world events she’s lived through, Nelsen said two of the most notable were the death of Thomas Edison and the moon landing, in part because of her longstanding interest in technology and the future. 

“I was always interested in what’s going to happen in the future. We used to go to movies that were about the future, which we’re living in now,” Nelsen said. “The moonwalk of course was very exciting for me.” But Nelsen also found some aspects of advances in technology frightening. She called life during the Cold War “scary” because of the spread of nuclear weapons. “Your imagination could kind of take off about what could happen,” Nelsen said. “Work hard, travel, learn how other people live and tell the truth,” Nelsen said. “‘Tell the truth, pay your debts and learn to say no,’ my father used to say. That should about cover it.” In her long life, Nelsen has been blessed with two daughters, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. [caption id="attachment_14030" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] Centenarian Eileen Wikoff poses for a photo alongside her daughter, Linda Fenske, during a celebration at Woodland Village in Chehalis on Monday.[/caption] Pearl Miller, 103, was born on Dec. 9, 1918 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The oldest resident at Woodland Village, Miller’s descriptions of the major events of her life were often direct and to the point. Describing her experiences during the Great Depression and World War II, she said both were “horrible, just horrible,” adding of the Great Depression, “We had nothing.” Miller told The Chronicle her favorite memory was visiting the World’s Fair in 1936, but that was hardly the only exciting experience of her life. “I’ve been to Europe and Asia, I think I’ve been to Africa,” Miller said. She has three children and many grandchildren. “Grandchildren?” Miller asked, “Now you’ve put me on the spot.” Asked if she had any advice for young people, Miller had a couple of suggestions. “Pay attention to your grandparents and don’t spend your money just because you have it. Save it,” Miller said. “My folks didn’t have any money. They didn’t have anything.” [caption id="attachment_14025" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Centenarian Glenna Raiffe smiles while talking to friends and family during a celebration at Woodland Village in Chehalis on Monday.[/caption] Glenna Ralff, 100, was born on March 31, 1922, in Hibbing, Minnesota. During World War II, Ralff served in the Navy, helping provide medical care before becoming a pharmacist mate while stationed in Brooklyn, New York, where she lived in barracks with other young women. After the War ended, she attended Washington State University and studied business, eventually getting a job as a hostess for Trans World Airlines. “I didn’t like the idea of getting out of school and working in an office,” Ralff said. Ralff recalled events from her life, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. “I remember the Kennedy assassination. I saw him get shot (on the news),” Ralff said. “That was shocking. That’s all you can say is shocking.” Another event Ralff remembered was the moon landing. “It was an unusual experience, not many people went to the moon,” Ralff said. But for the many world events she’s witnessed in her 100 years, she still continues to be surprised, pointing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as something that has shocked her. “I think this war with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has been the most shocking thing in the last few years,” Ralff said. “It’s been unbelievable.” She’s also had memorable personal experiences, including driving a dogsled team while living in Alaska. She even recalled once driving her dog team through the snow with her 18 month old daughter. “I was just an outdoor person,” Ralff said, giving a simple explanation for her outdoor ventures. In her long life, Ralff has had the privilege of seeing her family grow. Through her two daughters, her family now spans several generations, including her two great-great granddaughters. [caption id="attachment_14028" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] Agnes Wasson, who celebrated her 102nd birthday this week, talks with her grandchildren and great grandchildren during a birthday celebration at Woodland Village in Chehalis on Monday.[/caption] Carpenter, Nelsen, Miller and Ralph were joined by their fellow Woodland Village centenarians on Monday for a celebration of their long lives. The names of the other four centenarians, who were either unavailable or chose not to be interviewed by The Chronicle, are Eileen Wikoff, Jim Van Ackeren, Agnes Wasson and Dottie Docherty. " ["post_title"]=> string(91) "100 Years and Counting: Woodland Village in Chehalis Celebrates Lives of Eight Centenarians" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(90) "100-years-and-counting-woodland-village-in-chehalis-celebrates-lives-of-eight-centenarians" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2022-08-08 21:42:06" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2022-08-08 21:42:06" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "https://villageconcepts.com/?p=14021" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } } ["post_count"]=> int(3) ["current_post"]=> int(-1) ["before_loop"]=> bool(true) ["in_the_loop"]=> bool(false) ["post"]=> object(WP_Post)#4697 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(14371) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2023-10-12 19:38:41" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-10-12 19:38:41" ["post_content"]=> string(8718) "[caption id="attachment_14372" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] At left, Clarence Piper, 98, talks about his experiences in World War II during an interview with columnist Julie McDonald. In the photo at the right, Clarence Piper, far right, described Tinian as a muddy mess. Photo published by The Chronicle[/caption]

When Japanese bombers attacked U.S. Navy ships at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Clarence Piper was a high school sophomore visiting his uncle in the hills of Oregon and read about the attack in the newspaper.

That sneak attack on the naval base at Hawaii, which killed 2,403 people and destroyed eight battleships and 11 other vessels, changed the lives of Piper and millions of other young men in the United States who served in the military to defeat the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy.

“Everyone was involved in World War II,” said Piper, 98, who moved to Woodland Village in Chehalis a few years ago after living two decades in Tenino. “The country was just completely unified, and we all expected to serve one way or another.”

He didn’t enlist because he had no idea what he could do. But Uncle Sam sent a draft notice ordering him to join the military after graduating from Sumner High School in June 1943. When he reported, the Navy needed workers for its naval construction battalions, known as Seabees.

My thoughts flew immediately to John Wayne’s portrayal of civilian contractor “Wedge” Donovan in the 1944 film, The Fighting Seabees, but when I mentioned it, Piper chuckled, describing it as “a total exaggeration.”

“We weren’t much in combat,” he said of his time on Tinian, a small island about 50 miles north of Guam and 5 miles southwest of Saipan where he arrived in the fall of 1944. “I mean, there were a few spots.” 

He opened his copy of The 135th Review USNCB, where three men killed on the Marianas island of Tinian were memorialized on the first page of the book commemorating the work of the 135th Construction Battalion.

One night, Piper’s friend, Kenneth Ross, an excellent marksman, stood guard on the perimeter when Japanese tried to sneak into camp. Ross shot and wounded a man, who then pulled out a grenade, held it to his chest, and blew himself up rather than risk being taken prisoner. Piper said his friend had been plagued by guilt and remorse after shooting the soldier and watching him die. Then, on Nov. 7, 1944, Ross, a religiously devout man, died in an accident while cleaning his gun.

“The Marines had done a good job of clearing the island, but there were still holdouts,” Piper said. “You are kind of told to stay on base.” 

But on March 18, 1945, three men ventured outside looking for souvenirs and ran into a Japanese unit hiding in a cave. The enemy killed two men — Homer Cameron and Charles Schroeder — while the third escaped to report the losses. 

As a laborer in D Platoon, Piper worked with experienced equipment operators on construction crews on Tinian. He erected Quonset huts and served as what was called a “wagon driller.” They used pneumatic air drillers to dig 4-foot-deep holes that they stuffed with dynamite to blast the coral and make way for the runway. They stripped dirt from the coral to build the runway for B-29 pilots. At 18, he didn’t know anything and simply followed orders, he said.

“You could plan on doing kitchen duty about once a month for a week,” he said. 

He worked six days a week with Sundays off. They ate a lot of spam, fricassee chicken they called SOS, and powdered eggs, and received an allotment of two beers a month.

Piper, who was born in February 1925, grew up in the Puyallup Valley, the youngest of Francis “Frank” and Stella (Sausser) Piper’s seven children. His father worked as a logger, and his mother tended the children, a big garden and a few cows, chickens and pigs. The family also raised raspberries on their five acres. His mother canned a lot of meat, fruit, and vegetables.  

“It’s quite a nice place to grow up,” he said. “It was right in the heart of the Depression, and we were as poor as it can get.”

After spending his first eight grades in a two-room school in McMillin in Pierce County, with eight students in his class, he studied at Sumner High School. He played basketball and enjoyed Christmas plays and singing programs.

In high school, Piper saved money to buy his first car, a 1929 Model A, but couldn’t travel far on his ration of four gallons of gas a month.

“We could drive it to school about three times,” he said.

A farmer friend a year younger than him had more gas ration stamps, so they could drive farther together, even once traveling to Eastern Washington. “He had to supply gasoline for the rest of us,” Piper said.

After he was drafted, Piper was sent to Camp Perry near historic Williamsburg, Virginia, for boot camp, where they did a lot of calisthenics, obstacle courses and marching to improve their physical condition. Assigned to a unit, he spent time in amphibious training at Newport naval base near Providence, Rhode Island, and then in Gulfport, Mississippi, where they did construction work for the Army. He traveled home by train for Christmas leave before sailing on May 18, 1944, aboard a converted French passenger liner. They stopped in Hawaii, where the construction battalion spent two months at Pearl Harbor building barracks. As a Seabee who drove nails and sawed boards, he didn’t expect to see much combat.

When they sailed the Pacific Ocean, Piper said, their converted passenger liner with its huge diesel engine traveled at more than twice the speed of the convoy’s Liberty ships, so periodically it pulled to the side and maintained a zigzag pattern to avoid Japanese submarines while revving the motor until the rest of the ships caught up.

On Oct. 24, 1944, the 135th Naval Construction Battalion arrived at Tinian, where average annual rainfall was 75 inches, twice the annual precipitation of the Puyallup Valley. 

“It was a muddy mess really,” Piper said.

Tinian, an island at most 10 miles long and less than 40 square miles altogether, was formed by a coral reef exposed as the ocean receded rather than by volcanic eruptions like many islands.

“It was flat,” Piper said, “so it was ideal for building a large airbase. The north end was very flat and didn’t have as much vegetation on it. That’s where the airfield was started.”

From Tinian, B-29 pilots to launch bombing raids on Tokyo, Japan, about 1,500 miles away, which took 12 hours round-trip. Piper recalled before he joined the military when, on Feb. 18, 1943, the prototype B-29 bomber crashed into the Frye Meat Packing Plant south of Seattle, exploded, and killed eight men on the plane and 20 workers in the building. That happened on his 18th birthday and kind of set back the program, he said, but by the time he served on Tinian, B-29s there flew round-the-clock bombing raids to Japan.

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