AG and MM Board

Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Russ Webb on September 2, 2009, 5:43 pm

We signalmen took a four-week course in visual communications used in convoys and by Allied merchant shipping in WWII called Mersigs, taught on the East Coast at a naval station at Noroton Heights, CT, on the site of an old soldiers home dating back perhaps to the Civil War.

On the Easter weekend of 1943, I, an eighteen-year-old, signalman third-class, had a week to go before reporting to the Armed Guard Center in Brooklyn. A Quartermaster second-class named Shultz, also taking the course, who bunked near me suggested we spend the weekend in New York City and away we went, with Shultz leading the way.

We caught a train down to New York, ate at an automat, caught a show at Radio City Music Hall, and found a clean, cheap place to bunk for the night. The next day we went to the top of the Empire State Building, the top of the Statue of Liberty, and looked at Wall Street and other places.

On Easter morning we got up early and took in the annual Sunrise Easter service at daybreak. We ate at an automat and started walking up a ritzy street (probably Park Avenue) were we met lots of well-dressed women going to church in their Easter outfits. Shultz said women are alike all over the world, just pick out one and stare real hard at her, and I guarantee she will stare right back and you will be the one who will have to look away. Holy smoke! Old Shultz was right!

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Bob Tassinari on September 3, 2009, 4:00 am, in reply to "Some memories of Noroton Heights"

MEMORIES.I was at Noroton Heights in the Feb-March period in 1943. For limited PE we paraded through the streets of the town. I do recall that one of our instructors was an SM from the Juneau - one of the few survivors of that cruiser the previous fall..

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Russ Webb on September 6, 2009, 3:29 pm, in reply to "Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights"

Bob, about a week before I left Noroton, we were taken across the road and down the hill to what appeared to be a new obstacle course. It would have given a commando or a paratrooper a tussle. I had to drop out before the finish line.

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Russ Webb on September 3, 2009, 11:04 am, in reply to "Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights"

The signalman from the Juneau was named Joseph Hartney. He died in his 50's or 60's from leukemia, but his daughter Donna assured me by e-mail several years ago that he had enjoyed a full life. After retiring from the navy and living in California, he bought some old P-51 fighter planes, learned to fly them, and fixed up the cockpit so that he could take one of his kids along as a passenger. There is only one survivor from the Juneau still alive the last time I checked and he was the one who lost a chunk of his rearend to a sand shark but survived.

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Russ Webb on September 3, 2009, 4:46 pm, in reply to "Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights"

I just checked and found that the last survivor from the Juneau passed away in May of 2009. His name was Frank Holmgren.

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Fran Kent on September 3, 2009, 1:00 pm, in reply to "Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights"

As a radioman, I was at Noroton Heights in the early spring of 1943. I remember Joe Hartney, then a signalman second, who received a Purple Heart at a ceremony carried out while I was there. It was impressive, especially for a boy of scarcely 17 years. Hartney was a capable instructor and one of those signalmen who waved semaphore flags with what could only be called artistry.

Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights

Posted by Roy Brown on September 10, 2009, 7:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Some memories of Noroton Heights"

I was a Signalman who graduated from Noroton Heights, Conn., Mersigs School. I was there during the month of March 1944.
The most outstanding memory there was one night when we were told entertainment would be held in the messhall.
The "entertainment" was five gentlemen dressed in very expensive xlothing and wearing "fedora" hats. These men were the writers of some of the mos famous songs ever written including "Easter Parade", "People Will Say we're in Love", and othrs. Yes...the men were Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Frank Loesser!
These were some of the greatest song writers in the world! They took turns plaing songs they had written and we joined them It was a wonderful evening and took our minds off the war and everything for an hour and a half!
Roy Brown

« Back to index

[ AG and MM Board ]