thedrifter
01-18-09, 07:42 AM
Boyhood skill led to military mission
Dan England,
Jim Conn pulls the brass contraption off a shelf — it’s the size of a Grammy, and at first glance, it looks like something he might use to hold up a row of the hundreds of books that occupy his Greeley home.
He changes that thought with a tap and a smile. Tap, tap, tap. Morse code. That code was a big part of his life, especially in the earlier years. His mastery of it made him a career. It also made him a veteran of World War II.
Conn’s life was just about planned out for him when he was only 1, after his father deserted the family in 1924. His mother, a schoolteacher, went to live with her parents, and when Conn was old enough, he helped his grandfather, a station agent, at his train depot every day after school.
He loaded and unloaded baggage and freight, delivered telegrams and learned Morse code from his grandfather. It was the language of train operators back then. By the fifth grade, he could telegraph, and occasionally he filled in for his grandfather when he got sick because, at that job, there was no sick time, no vacations and no days off.
At night, after he graduated from high school and worked at the railroads, using the skills his grandfather taught him, he would listen to the SOS calls as enemy U-boats sunk ships off the East Coast. He taught himself the International Morse code that way.
So he was well-equipped when Pearl Harbor happened and he wanted to join the U.S. Marines.
“There was a groundswell of patriotism at that time,” Conn said. “It was just the feeling at the time.”
He could not enlist because he was only 18, but he could volunteer, and after enduring a series of tests to see where he could fit, he scored 100 percent on the International Morse Code exam. The Marines didn’t believe it, so he took the test again and again scored perfect. From there, it was on to radio school, where he became a radio operator.
For most of those four years, in a lonely room, usually at night, he triangulated Japanese submarine locations by listening to their code and translated Japanese communications code. He earned a trip to the U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to work in the commandant’s communication office. He’s proud of that move — and he should be, given that only the best earn that spot. He would later go back to railroads for a career before retiring and working for a while as an auditor.
He said — time and again — that he was not a hero.
“I only did what they told me to do, and I only went where they told me to go,” Conn said.
Jim Conn
Age: 85
Hometown: Kenyon, Minn.
Family: Wife Susan, two daughters, Pam and Alice.
Current residence: Moved to Greeley in 1969.
Occupation: Retired as a railroad executive after working as a station agent for many years, then as an auditor 25 years ago.
Branch of service: U.S. Marine Corps, January 1942 to July 1946.
Served: As a radio operator, first off the coast of California on San Clemente Island, later in the U.S. Marine headquarters.
Rank/assignment/MOS: Sergeant.
Ellie
Dan England,
Jim Conn pulls the brass contraption off a shelf — it’s the size of a Grammy, and at first glance, it looks like something he might use to hold up a row of the hundreds of books that occupy his Greeley home.
He changes that thought with a tap and a smile. Tap, tap, tap. Morse code. That code was a big part of his life, especially in the earlier years. His mastery of it made him a career. It also made him a veteran of World War II.
Conn’s life was just about planned out for him when he was only 1, after his father deserted the family in 1924. His mother, a schoolteacher, went to live with her parents, and when Conn was old enough, he helped his grandfather, a station agent, at his train depot every day after school.
He loaded and unloaded baggage and freight, delivered telegrams and learned Morse code from his grandfather. It was the language of train operators back then. By the fifth grade, he could telegraph, and occasionally he filled in for his grandfather when he got sick because, at that job, there was no sick time, no vacations and no days off.
At night, after he graduated from high school and worked at the railroads, using the skills his grandfather taught him, he would listen to the SOS calls as enemy U-boats sunk ships off the East Coast. He taught himself the International Morse code that way.
So he was well-equipped when Pearl Harbor happened and he wanted to join the U.S. Marines.
“There was a groundswell of patriotism at that time,” Conn said. “It was just the feeling at the time.”
He could not enlist because he was only 18, but he could volunteer, and after enduring a series of tests to see where he could fit, he scored 100 percent on the International Morse Code exam. The Marines didn’t believe it, so he took the test again and again scored perfect. From there, it was on to radio school, where he became a radio operator.
For most of those four years, in a lonely room, usually at night, he triangulated Japanese submarine locations by listening to their code and translated Japanese communications code. He earned a trip to the U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to work in the commandant’s communication office. He’s proud of that move — and he should be, given that only the best earn that spot. He would later go back to railroads for a career before retiring and working for a while as an auditor.
He said — time and again — that he was not a hero.
“I only did what they told me to do, and I only went where they told me to go,” Conn said.
Jim Conn
Age: 85
Hometown: Kenyon, Minn.
Family: Wife Susan, two daughters, Pam and Alice.
Current residence: Moved to Greeley in 1969.
Occupation: Retired as a railroad executive after working as a station agent for many years, then as an auditor 25 years ago.
Branch of service: U.S. Marine Corps, January 1942 to July 1946.
Served: As a radio operator, first off the coast of California on San Clemente Island, later in the U.S. Marine headquarters.
Rank/assignment/MOS: Sergeant.
Ellie