THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411020188
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COURTLAND LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
REMINDERS OF A near-death experience of a local resident are among the items from World War II on display at the Rochelle-Prince House.
They are parts of a Japanese suicide plane - kamikaze - ``that crashed within eight feet of me,'' said Herbert Cobb. ``It was under my gun turret on the battleship New York.''
The 76-year-old retired real estate broker and appraiser was sweating out the Battle of Okinawa at the time.
``I saw the plane coming in. The door of our turret was slammed shut. I was left outside,'' said the former turret captain. ``Rivets from the plane got in my clothes. I took off my shirt - rivets everywhere.''
The Cobb mementos are part of the Pacific Theater of War exhibit at Rochelle-Prince House.
Its counterpart, a look at European Theater of War memories, is on display at the Southampton Agriculture & Forestry Museum about two blocks away.
Both exhibits end Dec. 7 - 53 years after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the act that brought America into World War II.
Some Southampton County residents who became involved in the battles - people now in their 70s - have contributed mementos, photographs, uniforms and souvenirs to the exhibit.
A collection of photographs by Dr. Ira D. Hudgins, a former Army chaplain who was a major, is one of the most fascinating offerings.
The retired Franklin Baptist Church minister's black-and-white pictures run the gamut from destruction to love.
Some show the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum there are pictures of churches he helped build, weddings he conducted.
One of the latter involved an Australian soldier and a member of the American Women's Army Corps.
``I saw them two years ago in Australia,'' Hudgins said. ``They have five grandchildren.''
He has on display at Rochelle-Prince some pictures taken from captured Japanese soldiers; And there are photos of New Guinea natives, innocents caught in the middle of the fray.
Hudgins is particularly proud of his photographs of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
``I saw him a number of times. He did a remarkable job,'' Hudgins said. ``There were fewer casualties in the Pacific than there were in Europe due to his management.
``I had no idea the Japanese would ever recover. They did, thanks to MacArthur's leadership,'' he said. ``I visited the country later. I found the people polite, but I never knew what they were thinking.
``At first, they ran for the hills,'' Hudgins said, ``afraid that our men would rape their women.''
That fear was based on the propaganda fed them by the Japanese government.
Record books and log books are on display, one belonging to F. Bert Pulley, a retired lawyer who was a radioman first class in the Navy.
He flew in a two-man plane, the Curtiss SB2C-2, best known as the Hellidiver.
Jewelry made out of shells - the destructive kind, not those found at the seaside - are displayed by Dot Urquhart whose late husband, Lt. Cmdr. Charles F. Urquhart, brought back from the war.
And there is this story from 75-year-old Harold Atkinson:
``It just so happened, the morning Ernie Pyle was killed, I'd gone back to the beach to pick up some supplies. Somebody said - there's Ernie Pyle. We'd just gotten by Ernie when this machine gun we'd been looking for opened up.''
Atkinson remembers the scene on Ie Shima island during the battle for Okinawa - he remembers the death of Pyle, World War II's most respected journalist, known for his writings and his friendship with the servicemen he wrote about.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, who mixed sensitivity with humor, had traveled with American troops in Africa and Europe before he went to the Pacific.
``He was a friend of the 77th Division,'' said Atkinson, a member of the 302nd Engineer Combat Battalion, a component of that division.
``Ernie and a colonel hit the ditches as we did. Unfortunately he raised his head at the wrong time. They got him right in the temple. That was all she wrote. Somebody said he'd just been killed.
``It was just one of those unfortunate things - it happened to a lot of our boys,'' he said. ``One of our sergeants designed the monument that was over his grave.''
The grave of Ernest Taylor Pyle of Dana, Ind., 45 when he was killed, is in Honolulu's Punch Bowl Cemetery.
Atkinson is executive director of the Elms Foundation, home of the Paul D. Camp Family; executive director of the Camp-Younts Foundation; executive director of the Ruth Camp Campbell Foundation.
He worked for the City of Franklin for 30 years, retiring after many years as city manager. MEMO: The exhibit at the Rochelle-Prince House on Main Street features the
Pacific Theater during World War II. The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m.
the first Wednesday and the first and third Sundays of the month. For
more information, call 654-6785. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
Dr. Ira D. Hudgins, above, a chaplain in the Pacific Theater of
World War II, stands near a Japanese flag that still has a spot of
blood on it. Below, Herbert Cobb examines some fragments of a
kamikaze fuselage that exploded near him during the Battle of
Okinawa.
by CNB