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thedrifter
12-23-06, 07:09 AM
Basically Camp Davis put itself out of business’
December 23,2006
Chrissy Vick

HOLLY RIDGE — Justin Raphael remembers his first Christmas away from home. It was a lonely one.

At the time, Raphael was a first lieutenant in the Army stationed at Camp Davis during World War II. He was told he wasn’t allowed to go home to New York City that year. It was a trying time for Raphael, who later dealt with the death of one of his best friends, killed by a misfire in Surf City during training.

More than 60 years later, Raphael still tears up about the incident. The memory is still fresh.

It’s one of many stories that caused Wilmington author Cliff Tyndal to write a tribute to veterans like Raphael who sacrificed so much during World War II.

“These people deserve it — they sacrificed, they served in war, a lot of fellow soldiers were killed and wounded,” said Tyndal, 48, who teaches history at Bladen Community College in Elizabethtown. “And I thought it was fascinating how their memories of Camp Davis were crystal clear, indelibly etched. It’s amazing to me how much they remembered about 60 years ago.”

Tyndal’s book, “Greetings from Camp Davis,” published by Chapel Hill Press, came out earlier this year and tells the history of Camp Davis, an Army base that dissolved in late 1944 after four years in operation in Holly Ridge. It’s something that has captivated Tyndal since he was a child growing up in Pink Hill.

Tyndal remembers driving by it on the way to family vacations at the beach. His father, a World War II veteran, would point out Camp Davis and tell Tyndal stories.

“Later I found out my grandfather helped build it, he was a carpenter there,” Tyndal said. “I just found it fascinating that there was this great big Army base in Holly Ridge functioning and all of a sudden it just closed down and disappeared, almost like a ghost town.”

A few buildings, chimneys and streets in the woods remain today, but otherwise the base has virtually vanished. Tyndal worked on and off for 10 years retracing just why the base closed down and its impact on the area.

“As I did research I began to find out how much it really affected all of North Carolina — it and Camp Lejeune were really the propelling forces that jump-started eastern North Carolina and got us out of the Great Depression,” he said. “The base played a tremendous part in WWII by training anti-aircraft troops.”

By exploring the National Archives in Washington D.C., the N.C. Office of Archives and History in Raleigh and interviewing a number of veterans around the country, Tyndal discovered a lot of history about the short-lived base.

A large number of troops went through Camp Davis — thousands who “had an impact on the war effort,” Tyndal said.

“People don’t realize how important it was,” he said. “We needed a good air force for that war, and before that we really didn’t have one. We basically went from a crawl to a sprint in a very short time. (The base) symbolizes one of the great mobilizations in WWII, where you take civilians and turn them into soldiers.”

One training exercise included soldiers pulling targets while planes shot at them. Others fired over the ocean, where the shells would fall into the water. The soldiers even did training at Fort Fisher.

The camp did so well that it shut itself down six months before the war ended, Tyndal said.

“We began winning the war, and we didn’t need as many aircraft troops,” he said. “It had fulfilled its mission. I always tell people that basically Camp Davis put itself out of business.”

Other stories of its history stand out, including how commanders tried to keep the soldiers entertained by busing in women from Wilmington for dances. Also, how base commanders attempted to keep the Marines of Camp Lejeune separate from the Camp Davis soldiers due to a number of fights between the two.

“You would rarely see soldiers in Jacksonville or Marines in Wilmington because of that,” he said with a laugh.

Tyndal covers a number of areas in his book, including the social impacts of the base. It brought in a “melting pot” of religions and cultures rarely seen in the area before, Tyndal said.

It also impacted the economy by providing a number of jobs — people commuted from 100 miles away to work at Camp Davis.

“My grandfather drove every day from Lenoir County with other farmers in the winter to work here,” Tyndal said. “In the first week of hiring they literally had a riot and had to call in the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department because everyone wanted a job.”

A number of soldiers came back to settle in the area and still live here today. But most are in their 80s and 90s. Tyndal’s father, an Army tank commander in the war, pushed him to release the book last year before all the Camp Davis veterans disappear.

“There are thousands of WWII veterans that we’re losing literally every week —that’s one reason I wanted to get the book out, as a tribute to them,” he said.

And while Tyndal’s father was never able to see the book, he rests easy knowing that others have.

“In many ways it’s a tribute to the men and women that built the base, trained there and fought in WWII,” he said. “It’s their story — not mine. I’m just a storyteller. I don’t want people to forget all the sacrifices these people made.”

Contact staff writer Chrissy Vick at cvick@freedomenc.com or by calling 353-1171, ext. 239.

Ellie