Newport’s connection to WW II deserves its own chapter

Whew. Just in the nick of time. To put the finishing touches on a lengthy formal resolution about why Carteret County, N.C., deserves recognition as a “World War II Heritage” community, we can turn to a special military section published in the November 2024 edition of Our State magazine to bolster our case.

 The issue arrived in mailboxes of subscribers in mid-October. Editors begin: “For the more than 720,000 veterans who call our state home, North Carolina’s deep military tradition is a live point of pride. Our former and current service members – and the communities that support them – are beacons of bravery and possibility.”

Our State’s writers fanned out to report on: Fort Butner, an Army training camp that “sprang from the fields north of Raleigh” amid World War II; Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune at Jacksonville; Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro; the Army’s Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in Fayetteville; and Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City.

Best of all is the piece titled “The Jets Next Door,” written by Ryan Stancil of New Bern, who credited Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock with having “built an unshakable bond between two eastern North Carolina towns: Newport and Havelock.”

Stancil personalized his account by interviewing Newport native Kyle Garner, who is the Planning and Inspections Director with the Town of Beaufort. He is the son of the late Derryl Garner (shown below), the man who served for several decades as Cherry Point’s “chief advocate.”

As a teenager, Derryl Garner entered the apprentice program offered through the Naval Aviation Depot aboard Cherry Point; he graduated in 1950 as an aeronautics engineering draftsman. He never left the air station.

At the time of his retirement in 1992 (after a 42-year career), Derryl Garner was serving as Manager of Systems Safety Engineering. He received the “Meritorious Civil Service Award” from the Department of the Navy.

Stancil commented that Derryl Garner’s “dedication to the base was matched only by his love of Newport” and his immediate family.

One of Kyle Garner’s fondest memories occurred as a boy in the 1970s, when his father took him aboard the base one early morning. They went to the top of the control tower.

“Suddenly, a roar filled Kyle’s ears,” Stancil said. “A silver bullet raced across the horizon, dropping in elevation as it approached the tower. The roar grew louder, its pitch climbing. The Harrier jet hovered, then entered a slow, near-vertical descent, finally coming to rest on the tarmac.”

Kyle Garner witnessed the first demonstration flight of a Harrier jet in North Carolina.

 

Stancil said that Derryl Garner was approached about running for the Newport town council in 1977, but his boss at Cherry Point suggested: “Hell, Derryl, run for mayor instead. Be the top dog.”

Derryl Garner was elected mayor in 1977…and reelected in every election thereafter until 2013 when he opted to step down after serving 36 consecutive years as Mayor of Newport.

When the Department of Defense, through its Base Realignment and Closure Commission, was considering shutting down a number of U.S. military bases in the early 1990s, Derryl Garner was recruited by North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. (shown below) to help stand up in support of the state’s military bases. Derryl Garner testified before the commission in 1993.

 

The final report recommended closing 33 major sites, but none in North Carolina.

Derryl Garner deserved much of the credit but accepted none. That’s the kind of person he was. He died in 2017 at age 85, but his legacy still looms large.