Mayport goes to war : Call up begins

Name/Title

Mayport goes to war : Call up begins

Entry/Object ID

2021.59.26

Tags

Library newspapers

Description

Mayport goes to war : Call up begins by Joe Pickett. This article was submitted to the Public Affairs Office of Naval Station Mayport for approval and publication in the Mirror, the Naval Station newspaper on June 15, 1990. Have draft version and final version. In November 1940, 92 officers and enlisted personnel of the Organized Second Division from the United States Naval Reserve Armory at Southside in Jacksonville. marched behind their new Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Maynard R. Sanders. This Armistice Day parade marched east on Forsyth Street. Lieutenant Commander Maynard R. Sanders had been called to active duty only the month before and assigned to Southside where he replaced Lieutenant Commander R. Malcolm Fortson. The initial call-up of personnel to the Organized Second Division was selective and focused on men who were experienced veterans of WW I and had achieve petty officer status. Chief Petty Officer J. W. Nunn and GM1 W. Frank McGrath in August 1940.were some of the first called-up. They were assigned to recruiting duty and enlisted 40 men into the Second Division. Some of the local men recruited and on active duty by December, 1940 were GM3 Hoban, GM3 T. J. Dixon, B1 E.P. Decottes, GM3 G. W. Schill and Coxswain E. B. "Sea Gull" Newman. In the summer of 1941, these men, none of whom served at Mayport, were sent to the Armed Guard training school and were reassigned to the Armed Guard forces, first of the guncrews in WWII. Chief Commissary Steward James N. Williams served in WW1 and retired from the Navy on Sept. 7, 1936. Later, on Nov. 26, 1940, he was called to active duty and was reassigned to Mayport from Southside in Dec. 1941. He was stationed there throughout the war. Lieutenant William M. Gordon, USNR, and Lieutenant Karl H. Anderson, USNR also were reassigned to Mayport One day in December 1940, Lieutenant Commander Sanders and his 100 officers and enlisted men marched to the parade field where he read the commissioning orders for the new Frontier Section Base at Mayport. If war was to come, the unit was ready! They didn't have long to wait as the call-up came on December 26, 1940.

Collection

Library

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Newspaper

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Serial

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Other Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Search Terms

Naval Station Mayport (Fla.) -- History., Sanders, Maynard R.

Publication Details

Call No.

Newspaper shelf filed by shelf location