More reasons why Carteret Co. deserves “WW II Heritage’ status:

We’re continuing to collect stories that reinforce why Carteret County, N.C., is worthy of consideration to become a “World War II Heritage Community.” It may take an act of Congress…through a formal resolution.

Whereas No. 9: Pilots from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point who trained at MC Outlying Field Atlantic frequently practiced bombing targets at nearby Piney Island Bombing Target 11 (BT-11), part of the Mid-Atlantic Electronic Warfare Range.

 

Piney Island is an appendage of Carteret County that juts out into the Neuse River about where it becomes the Pamlico Sound. The 10,000-acre island is uninhabited and is mostly wetlands.

 

Retired Marine Col. John Rahm of Oriental, a columnist at TownDock.net (shown below), terms BT-11 a “national asset,” providing large-scale training grounds for east coast Marine units as well as other pilots from Department of Defense branches.

 

“No live ordnance is used on the range. The bombs do not explode. They are inert cement replicas that weigh and free fall like the real ones,” Rahm said.  

“The only explosives used at BT-11 might be small spotting charges embedded in the nose of the bomb to aid in scoring the impact.” Results are a part of an aviator’s permanent performance record, he said.

 

“To prevent entry, the range is ringed with 15-foot navigational daymarks to warn boaters of the danger. Despite the prospect of some good fishing, it is best to stay out of the bombing range,” Rahm said. Trespassing onto BT-11 territory is a federal misdemeanor.

Whereas No. 10: The Civil Air Patrol established Coastal Patrol Base 21 in Beaufort in 1942, part of a master plan to help protect the U.S. coastline from Maine to Mexico.

 

Volunteer pilots flew more than 24 million miles over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in single-engine planes to help win the battle against German U-boats that were preying on coastal shipping early in World War II.

 

There were 75 CAP volunteers at Base 21 in Beaufort during World War II, in addition to a mangy pooch named Curly, the official mascot. One of the volunteers had local roots. She was Elizabeth Ann Wade of Morehead City, a clerk-typist.

Maj. Frank Dawson was commander of the North Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. As a civilian, he was fondly known as the best pickle salesman in the South.

He commented about how warmly townspeople treated the Beaufort-based CAP volunteers, welcoming them and providing them rooms in their homes and cottages. “Lasting relationships were formed, even a marriage or two,” Maj. Dawson reported.

A section of the official Base 21 yearbook commented about conditions at the airfield. “Flying from the field wasn’t an easy job…few military type planes could have made a landing or take off from it. But the little putt-putt jobs (single-engine planes) soon learned every blade of grass, every pebble, every grain of sand, every puddle or mudhole…successfully getting into and out of the sky.”

The Beaufort officers’ club was a multi-use facility, also serving as the chapel, theater and poker den, according to the Base 21 yearbook. No detail was too small: Albert Barden of Raleigh “painted the privies.”

 

A CAP historian remarked: “During World War II, CAP pilots had no option but to ditch their planes at sea should their single engine quit. Each aviator who splashed became a member of CAP’s famed ‘Duck Club.’”

 

Beaufort had 11 “Duck Club” members, with Lt. Robert Wagstaff of Kannapolis cited for going into the drink twice. He also had two nicknames – “Waggy” and “Wigglestick.”