Winston County Well Represented in Merchant Marine During WWII

As Veteran's Day approaches, we salute our veterans and would be honored to publish any information about local individuals that served our country. If you have something to share of a positive nature, please provide by email to admin@winstonwebnews.com

Many Winston County men and women served during and just after WWII in the uniformed services of the United States. Most are well known as the Army, Army Air Corp (later to become the Air Force), Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.  There was an additional uniformed service which was not as well known and many times almost forgotten. This was the United States Maritime Service and was better known as the Merchant Marine. The gateway to becoming a merchant seaman was the U.S.  Maritime Service, which ran the training schools for the boys (or men) who wanted to become Merchant Seaman. Winston County was well represented in the Merchant Marine. Those that we know of personally (there may be others we don’t know of but no one has been left out if known to us) are in the following list:

Brothers – “Buddy” Bray – LHS 42, Jack Bray- LHS 41, Jamie Bray – LHS 45, Paul Chambliss- LHS 43 (Chambliss became a Bar Pilot at the mouth of the Mississippi River piloting American and Foreign flagged ships into the river from the Gulf of Mexico), Red Fancher- LHS 42, Charlie Fancher- LHS- 42, Rufus Herrington- LHS 42, Krop Harris – LHS 43(Harris had his first and only ship torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea and was injured, picked up at sea and suffered the results of his injuries the rest of his life. He was believed to be the only sailor from Winston County at that time with a lifetime disability.), George McCully- LHS 42, Robert McCully- LHS 45, James Richard “Jimmy” McMillin- LHS 43, Deck Roberts, LHS 43 (McMillin and Roberts were third cousins and always shipped out together), John Pearson, LHS 43, Ross Woods – LHS 43, Norman “Muddy” Rhodes of HighPoint, Clinton Smith – LHS 45, Harry Wallace( ship radio operator), “Dollar” Clay of Claytown,  ______ Edwards from Betheden, Buddy Crawford and Pat Hudspeth – LHS 47.

The Winston County Merchant Mariners were spared any casualties during the war but as a uniform service, the Merchant Marine had the highest casualty percentage rate of any branch of the service.

Seamen were promised a Seaman’s Bill of Rights like the GI Bill but it was never provided. Many of the previously listed seamen eventually served in other uniforms as late as the Vietnam era. They served our nation proudly as merchant seamen during and immediately after WWII.

Paul Chambliss and Robert McCully

Editor’ s note: Listed dates may either be graduation dates from Louisville High or the period in which attended or participated in football at LHS.