thedrifter
05-14-07, 07:51 AM
Korean War makes a Marine sergeant out of Mansfield grad
By RON SIMON
News Journal
ONTARIO -- Tom Hillman, recently married and still recovering from a nasty bout of rheumatic fever, never expected to be drafted.
Even with a war raging in Korea.
A 1946 graduate of Mansfield Senior High School, Hillman and his wife, Norma Jeanne Mowrey, were married in July 1950. Just before Christmas that year, his draft notice arrived.
"I just never expected it," Hillman, 78, recalled. "About 20 of us from Mansfield were shipped over to Canton for physicals, and while we were there they told us we were all going to be Marines."
"That really suited me because a lot of my relatives had been Marines."
So Hillman and the other Mansfield recruits were shipped to Parris Island, S.C., for basic training.
"It was just as bad as they said it would be. They cut it back to nine weeks then because they needed men for the war," Hilliard said.
But not every Marine was headed for Korea. The Corps sent Hilliard to auto mechanic school at Camp LeJeaune, N.C. And from there to a special school in Virginia to learn how to waterproof trucks and other vehicles for amphibious landings.
By that time, Norma Jean had joined him.
"She was pretty unhappy when I turned down a chance to drive generals and colonels in Washington, D.C. It was spit and polish and that wasn't for me," Hillman said.
Instead, the Hillmans stayed at Camp LeJeaune and Hillman joined a 155mm gun battery, part of the 2nd Marine Division. Hillman's job was to take care of all the Jeeps, trucks, weapons carriers and other vehicles that kept the battery mobile. His favorite was the battery's bulldozer.
Among the oddities Hillman encountered was the nation's first and only atomic cannon.
"People laugh when I tell them I saw one of those atomic cannons, but they were real," Hillman said.
The cannons could fire a shell with a nuclear warhead but the only place they ever did that was at a test site, he said.
Hillman, who eventually became a sergeant, said his battery was most often at sea, headed for the island of Vieques off Puerto Rico.
"The Navy just shot that island to pieces and so did we," he said. "It was a target practice island we just shot the daylights out of it. We made three separate trips down there and we always seemed to go during the hurricane season."
During one trip aboard a huge Navy landing craft or LST, Hillman said a hurricane hit and tossed the fleet around.
"Our trucks were chained to the deck but the chains came loose and some brave soul (Hillman) had to crawl out there and get them chained up again."
At one point the seas were so rough the LST actually began to crack up, Hillman said.
Hillman became very familiar with Vieques Island.
"There was just one small village and a lot of wild horses on the island. Once the firing spooked the horses and they ran right through our chow line," he said.
On another occasion the constant firing set parts of the island on fire and Hillman, at the controls of his bulldozer, helped contain the blaze before it could reach a small village.
He thinks those may have been the two or three hardest days he ever had as a Marine.
When the Korean War was over, so was Hillman's tour of duty.
He and Norma Jeanne came home, settling on the Mowrey family farm that straddled U.S. 30 east of what is now the main Ontario shopping centers.
The couple live in a house they built on Olive Drive in the 1960s.
They had three children. Barry, an Army Master Sergeant, served for 27 years and now lives in Latrobe, Pa. Geoffrey runs a machine shop in Ashland and the couple's daughter, Tammy Hillman, lives in Mansfield.
The couple has seven grandsons and Hillman is proud to say three of them have earned college degrees.
Hillman spent most of his working life in the asphalt paving trade and was the Madison Township road superintendent for 10 years.
He said every time he retired another job offer came along. Now, in his 70s, he actually has called it quits.
But not for the Soap Box Derby.
Hillman raced his own derby entry in 1939 and 1940 when the race was run on the very steep Sturgis Avenue hill.
Two of his children, Geoffrey and Tammy, drove homemade racers in Mansfield races. One grandson, Nathan, made it all the way to competition in Akron.
Hillman, an active member of the Korean War Veterans, Richland County Chapter 51, has run the chapter's Soap Box Derby entries since 2004.
So far, the chapter has sponsored drivers Ian Jones, Amanda Sabourin and two brothers, Roscoe and Isaiah Thompson.
Hillman said Isaiah will be the driver when the race is held on Saturday, June 23.
ronsimon@neo.rr.com 419-756-7269
Ellie
By RON SIMON
News Journal
ONTARIO -- Tom Hillman, recently married and still recovering from a nasty bout of rheumatic fever, never expected to be drafted.
Even with a war raging in Korea.
A 1946 graduate of Mansfield Senior High School, Hillman and his wife, Norma Jeanne Mowrey, were married in July 1950. Just before Christmas that year, his draft notice arrived.
"I just never expected it," Hillman, 78, recalled. "About 20 of us from Mansfield were shipped over to Canton for physicals, and while we were there they told us we were all going to be Marines."
"That really suited me because a lot of my relatives had been Marines."
So Hillman and the other Mansfield recruits were shipped to Parris Island, S.C., for basic training.
"It was just as bad as they said it would be. They cut it back to nine weeks then because they needed men for the war," Hilliard said.
But not every Marine was headed for Korea. The Corps sent Hilliard to auto mechanic school at Camp LeJeaune, N.C. And from there to a special school in Virginia to learn how to waterproof trucks and other vehicles for amphibious landings.
By that time, Norma Jean had joined him.
"She was pretty unhappy when I turned down a chance to drive generals and colonels in Washington, D.C. It was spit and polish and that wasn't for me," Hillman said.
Instead, the Hillmans stayed at Camp LeJeaune and Hillman joined a 155mm gun battery, part of the 2nd Marine Division. Hillman's job was to take care of all the Jeeps, trucks, weapons carriers and other vehicles that kept the battery mobile. His favorite was the battery's bulldozer.
Among the oddities Hillman encountered was the nation's first and only atomic cannon.
"People laugh when I tell them I saw one of those atomic cannons, but they were real," Hillman said.
The cannons could fire a shell with a nuclear warhead but the only place they ever did that was at a test site, he said.
Hillman, who eventually became a sergeant, said his battery was most often at sea, headed for the island of Vieques off Puerto Rico.
"The Navy just shot that island to pieces and so did we," he said. "It was a target practice island we just shot the daylights out of it. We made three separate trips down there and we always seemed to go during the hurricane season."
During one trip aboard a huge Navy landing craft or LST, Hillman said a hurricane hit and tossed the fleet around.
"Our trucks were chained to the deck but the chains came loose and some brave soul (Hillman) had to crawl out there and get them chained up again."
At one point the seas were so rough the LST actually began to crack up, Hillman said.
Hillman became very familiar with Vieques Island.
"There was just one small village and a lot of wild horses on the island. Once the firing spooked the horses and they ran right through our chow line," he said.
On another occasion the constant firing set parts of the island on fire and Hillman, at the controls of his bulldozer, helped contain the blaze before it could reach a small village.
He thinks those may have been the two or three hardest days he ever had as a Marine.
When the Korean War was over, so was Hillman's tour of duty.
He and Norma Jeanne came home, settling on the Mowrey family farm that straddled U.S. 30 east of what is now the main Ontario shopping centers.
The couple live in a house they built on Olive Drive in the 1960s.
They had three children. Barry, an Army Master Sergeant, served for 27 years and now lives in Latrobe, Pa. Geoffrey runs a machine shop in Ashland and the couple's daughter, Tammy Hillman, lives in Mansfield.
The couple has seven grandsons and Hillman is proud to say three of them have earned college degrees.
Hillman spent most of his working life in the asphalt paving trade and was the Madison Township road superintendent for 10 years.
He said every time he retired another job offer came along. Now, in his 70s, he actually has called it quits.
But not for the Soap Box Derby.
Hillman raced his own derby entry in 1939 and 1940 when the race was run on the very steep Sturgis Avenue hill.
Two of his children, Geoffrey and Tammy, drove homemade racers in Mansfield races. One grandson, Nathan, made it all the way to competition in Akron.
Hillman, an active member of the Korean War Veterans, Richland County Chapter 51, has run the chapter's Soap Box Derby entries since 2004.
So far, the chapter has sponsored drivers Ian Jones, Amanda Sabourin and two brothers, Roscoe and Isaiah Thompson.
Hillman said Isaiah will be the driver when the race is held on Saturday, June 23.
ronsimon@neo.rr.com 419-756-7269
Ellie