William Siniard
Seaman 2nd Class
Gunners Mate US Navy
Europe and Pacific 1943-1947
Seaman 2nd Class
Gunners Mate US Navy
Europe and Pacific 1943-1947
Bill and his family are originally from Brevard, as in....since the 1700’s. He volunteered for the Navy at age of 17. He and his 3 brothers served in the military and 17 members of his family in total served in WW2. Bill went to Maryland for Basic Training and then to Brooklyn, NY t the Armed Guards Center. He was a gunners mate assigned to a US Merchant ships that were traveling the Atlantic in convoys. He made 5 trips to Europe. The first trip was guarding a ship full of tobacco headed to England. "I went through the Suez Canal and down the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers."
When VE came along he was sent back to the US and then on to Okinawa. He was a gunner’s mate on the USS Anchor which was a repair vessel. “We were like a floating garage”. Bill was there when the war ended
He was discharged on January 26, 1947. He went back to Brevard where he was a truck driver and also worked for his brother’s garage repairing cars and trucks. He also ran the projector at his “daddy’s drive-in….Daddy charged $1.00 per car load.” His wife sold the popcorn. In 1952 his first Paycheck was $28/week.
Before the war “my daddy ran a trucking company in Brevard, NC. One time he sent me to Canton to move furniture for a family and they had a 10 year old girl named Frances and I didn’t pay her no-never-mind.” When he came home from the Navy he ran into her in Brevard at the Chatterbox Sandwich Shop. In 1949 on Christmas day he and Frances “eloped in South Carolina and were married by a one-armed judge. It cost $5.00.”
His most vivid memory was his last trip to Europe on April 6th going though St George’s Channel, which is between England and Ireland. At 5:27 in that afternoon he was in the chow hall eating dinner when a German submarine hit them with a torpedo. Everyone put on life jackets and jumped into the life boats. It was a small submarine with 2 or 3 men in it. Everyone got picked up before too long.
Bill worked for the Ecusta Paper company for 37 1/5 years where he retired as a supervisor. “Everything’s worked out pretty darn good. We have four children and have had a pretty good life.”
When VE came along he was sent back to the US and then on to Okinawa. He was a gunner’s mate on the USS Anchor which was a repair vessel. “We were like a floating garage”. Bill was there when the war ended
He was discharged on January 26, 1947. He went back to Brevard where he was a truck driver and also worked for his brother’s garage repairing cars and trucks. He also ran the projector at his “daddy’s drive-in….Daddy charged $1.00 per car load.” His wife sold the popcorn. In 1952 his first Paycheck was $28/week.
Before the war “my daddy ran a trucking company in Brevard, NC. One time he sent me to Canton to move furniture for a family and they had a 10 year old girl named Frances and I didn’t pay her no-never-mind.” When he came home from the Navy he ran into her in Brevard at the Chatterbox Sandwich Shop. In 1949 on Christmas day he and Frances “eloped in South Carolina and were married by a one-armed judge. It cost $5.00.”
His most vivid memory was his last trip to Europe on April 6th going though St George’s Channel, which is between England and Ireland. At 5:27 in that afternoon he was in the chow hall eating dinner when a German submarine hit them with a torpedo. Everyone put on life jackets and jumped into the life boats. It was a small submarine with 2 or 3 men in it. Everyone got picked up before too long.
Bill worked for the Ecusta Paper company for 37 1/5 years where he retired as a supervisor. “Everything’s worked out pretty darn good. We have four children and have had a pretty good life.”