In this continuing series, I'm in Darktown, a hamlet in Whitehall Township, speaking to Mike Bednar, well-known railroad authority. He is recalling when his father left the close-knit community to serve with the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Joseph Bednar was 25 years old, married and eligible for a deferment, but he, as other Darktown boys, enlisted to serve the country. He left from the Egypt Elementary School in November 1943. Joseph was assigned to the 135th U.S. Naval Construction Battalion (The Seabees).

Camp Peary, Va., was the scene for a four-week boot training camp, advanced combat training at Camp Endicott, R.I., and construction techniques at Camp Hollyday in Gulfport, Miss. After completing a construction project in Hawaii, the unit was sent to Tinian Island in the Pacific.

The Pacific island was occupied by the Japanese. The island was only 48 square miles with steep rocky cliffs and dense vegetation. The Marines invaded the island on July 24, 1944. With the aid of the Seabees and their heavy equipment, the beach head was expanded with rapidity.

The Seabees were assigned to airstrip construction. Over 20 Japanese air raids and sniping kept our men under attack but the construction continued. The airfield projects would require the greatest earth-moving feat ever attempted by the Navy. On Dec. 20, 1944, the first 8,500-foot B-29 field was commissioned and the first giant B-29 Superfortress landed the next day. Soon Tinian would be one of the greatest military air dromes in the world.

"My father spoke very little about his Seabee experiences," Mr. Bednar says. "In his final years he related how Japanese snipers attacked. One night they charged the camp from a number of caves, he grabbed a hammer to defend himself. Our boys killed the Japanese. Using drills similar to those our cement companies used at home, they drilled holes above the caves and dropped in explosives to blast out the enemy."

Mr. Bednar's father also witnessed a B-29 crash when a tire blew.

"The plane slammed into a number of other planes, causing a massive explosion," he says. "He related how he attempted to crawl into the coral runway."

Tinian became a major base for the air war against Japan. These fields would greatly contribute to the end of World War II. Joseph Bednar and the Seabees constructed the airfields from which Captain Paul Tibbets would fly the B-29 "Enola Gay" and drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Another bomb would bring Japan to surrender and the war was over.

But before the bomb, the Island of Okinawa, only 325 miles from Japan, had to be seized. The fighting was so intense that Lt. General Simon Bolivar Buckner was killed by the enemy on June 16, 1945. The Seabees quickly constructed base camps and facilities; then came the news Japan had surrendered.

The military now faced a challenge from nature, as the battalion had its first introduction to a typhoon. All day, dreary men worked in driving rain to secure their tents but in spots where the full force of the wind hit, their precautions were useless.

The storm would prove to be the strongest and most destructive in 20 years.

Wind in excess of 150 miles per hour reduced the camp of the 135th to a mass of twisted steel and broken lumber. Most of the battalion spent the night in caves. Food was brought in from the Philippines.

The next morning the weather was clear and the Seabees were back on the job, doing what they do best "Build and Rebuild."

In 1946, "The 135th Construction Battalion a Seabee Odyssey" was released, a pictorial history covering all phases of battalion life from Camp Peary to Okinawa to the allied Victory over Japan.

In the book we find the name of a Darktown boy who left to serve the nation with many of his neighbors – Joseph M. Bednar, Water Street, Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania.

***

In two weeks we will visit the Darktown War Memorial.