Meals-on-Wheels Celebrates the "Greatest Generation" during March for Meals Campaign
Johnson County man braved German submarines and torrential typhoon during World War II

Chester McCurry of Burleson is not one to shirk his responsibilities. The Meals-on-Wheels client is able to laugh about it now, but when he was a teenaged sailor, he took his guard duty very seriously. 

Aboard a naval destroyer escort ship where he was guarding the sonar room, McCurry stood his ground and denied access to an officer whose name was not on the entry list. Two officers approached him but only one name was on the list. McCurry informed the pair of that one of them would not be granted access. "I told him, 'I'm sorry you can't come in, your name is not on the list,'" McCurry recalled. "I think he said he was coming in."

"I had a 45 (gun) and I just laid my hand on it and said, ‘No sir, you're not coming in here.'" Visibly frustrated, the pair bristled and then ambled away. "I didn't find out until later the man I threatened was my Skipper," McCurry admitted. "I'm surprised he didn't court marshal me."  Uh-oh.

McCurry was part of a crew on one of eight to 10 escort ships that accompanied destroyers in the Mediterranean carrying a variety of cargo – artillery, tanks, construction equipment and sometimes soldiers – during World War II. "We had no idea what was in them," McCurry said. "It could have been all troops. It could have been all supplies. We never knew because our job was to just get it through." 

McCurry said they went across the Atlantic several times during his tour of duty. "One of our trips into the Mediterranean when we were still out in the Atlantic, we got a warning that the German torpedo bombers are on their way, but we were way ahead of where we should have been," McCurry said. He said the Germans mistakenly fired on an empty convoy that they assumed was the target in question. "We saved ourselves by speeding up," McCurry said. 

McCurry was part of the combat information center and he relished his work in the radar room, where he and his shipmate kept the craft on course as well as steering clear of imminent danger. When he joined the Navy his rank was Seaman 1st Class but before his tour concluded, he had achieved a title he is proud to have earned, Radar man 1st Class, and it was none-too-easy to have acquired after his initial fiasco with the officer who determines when you are promoted and why.

The Germans weren't the only enemy on the high seas, McCurry explained. When a typhoon ravaged the waters – their ship bobbing about on the ocean like a wayward cork – the crew became the hapless victims of mother nature's wrath. "We were so small that if a wave came, you went into it," McCurry said. "We were headed back to Subic Bay and I was on the radar." McCurry said the hold handles were supposed to remain stationary but with the ship so unsteady, the equipment was unable to determine a bearing and began rocking back and forth – momentarily unable to distinguish an anchoring point. "We were just that far from flipping over that's how close we came …we could have been (lost) in the typhoon," McCurry explained. The Skipper's expertise saved the crew, McCurry added. "He'd asked, ‘What's your course?' and he would be told and he'd change about 15 degrees immediately and it brought the ship back where it was supposed to be," McCurry said.
"He was a good Skipper even if I did try to kill him." 

Though he didn't know Goldie during his military stint, Chester met and married the woman who would be instrumental in documenting his military reunions. Something of a shutterbug, Goldie proudly photographed and chronicled their nostalgia-inspired meetings that included a trip down memory lane into the radar room of a convoy ship where McCurry spent most of this time.

Like the McCurry's and the many others Meals-on-Wheels serves, the month of March has been set aside to honor them – most, part of the "greatest generation." On Saturday, March 27, to help raise monies for the program, Meals-on-Wheels will be hosting a benefit, Remember When…a Fabulous Forties' Fling. The event will be an evening of swing dancing, dinner, a "live" radio show featuring 1940's celebrities, and chances to win prizes at their annual fundraiser. It will be held at the National Guard Armory located at 618 N. Grand in Waxahachie, beginning at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $75 each, or tables for 8 for $1,000 which include happy hour, dinner, photos, and entertainment. Sponsorships are also available at varying levels.

"We are excited about our upcoming benefit and clients like Mr. and Mrs. McCurry will be attending the event," said Amy Jackson, director of development. "They will be some of our honored guests during the evening to share their stories, but most importantly the night will be dedicated to helping the elderly, homebound in our community," she added.  
          Meals-on-Wheels is a community-based, non-profit organization serving the homebound elderly and disabled residents throughout Johnson and Ellis Counties. For more information about the "March For Meals" events or about Meals-on-Wheels services, please contact Meals-on-Wheels at 817-558-2840 or www.servingthechildrenofyesterday.org .
###

"March For Meals" is a national campaign, initiated and sponsored by Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA), to raise awareness of senior hunger and to encourage action on the part of the local community. Senior nutrition programs across the United States, like Meals-on-Wheels of Johnson and Ellis Counties, promote "March For Meals" in their local communities through public events, partnerships with local businesses, volunteer recruitment and fundraising initiatives. For more information on the 2010 "March For Meals" campaign please contact Meals on Wheels Association of America at www.mowaa.org.