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TU€W9
KinCS MOUNTIMM MIRROR
VOL 90 No. 10
KIN OS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA MOM TUKSDAY, FEBRUARY •, IMW
15c
HGRhLD
German U-Boats Waged War Off Hatteras In 1942
ByTOMMeINTYRE
Editor, Mlnror-HMAld
During Worid Wnr Two Stanley E.
tUnei Ml dootroyOr escort duty with didn’t come at sea. It came earlier
the Ooaet Ouard.
Numerous tlmee during these
voyages Green saw batUe acUon.
ott the outer
Green, of Boiling Springs, told the
Green crossed the Atlantic eight But his first experience with war Kings Mountain Rotary Club Thurs-
$600 Raised
(. in Local MOD
The March of Dimes campaign
against birth defects reached a total
at $600 In contributions this week.
Mrs. J. D. Barrett, chairman for
the drive for the American Legion
Auxiliary of which she Is president,
said that perswis who have not
turned In their collections should do
so this week. Persons not contacted
who want to make contributions
riiould forward them to Mrs. Barrett
at aoa Parii Dr.
All proceeds are earmarked for
research and local polio patlento.
day something of that experience,
which was totsOly unknown by the
rest of America In IMS and is even
today not too widely known.
Lcgioi! Dance
Saturday Has
“Free Spirits”
American Legion Post lU wUl
sponsor a dance Saturday featuring
“The Free Spirits.”
Dancing will be gram 8:S0 until
midnight. Admission Is |8 per
Apolio Moon
Landing Topic
"Moon Landing, Apollo n” Is
program topic at Tuesday
(tonight’s) meeting of Dixon
Oommunlty 4-H Club at 7:80 p. m. at
Dixon Presbyterian Church.
Kevin Bridges, a leader In the
club, will show slides of the 1969
space project.
Mrs. Frances Bridges, leader,
said that aU young people and
visitors are Invited to attend.
I
THE KINNAKEET ADVENTURER - Stanley
teacher - administrator and anthor-leoturer, Is seen
Kings Mountain Rotary Club last Thursday. TIm Bol
spent U years as principal-teacher for Tar Heels on tl
called themselves Kinnakeeters.
Green, retired
re taOlagto the
I native McIntyre
Hospital Contracts For New
Department Of Emergency Medicine
A new department has been added
at Kings Mountain Hospital, ac
cording to Dr. John L. McOUl,
chairman of the hoqiltal board of
expand and update emergency
medical services to the citlsens of
KlngB Mountain. Dr. McGill said a Department
I, president of
eld, “The new
Emergency
The Department of Emergency
fedlcina was created In an effort to department.
contract has been signed with Dr. M. Medicine wlU operate under rules
T. Keene of Morganton, who will and regulations Mtjvoved by the
organise, manage and staff the medical staff and the board of
Df THE EB ROOM - Left to right are Dr. Richard Crowley, Dr. M. T.
Keene and Dr. Kenneth McGill, shown here la the Kings Mountain
Hospital emergency room. Dr. McOUI was performing surgery on a
patient’s injured fin^rs at the time of this photo.
Dr. George W. Plonk will serve as
liaison between the department and
the medical staff.
“After the local physicians
offices are closed for the day,” Dr.
Adams continued, “emergency
outpatient services will be provided
by emergency physicians under
contract to staff the emergency
room at the hospital from 6 p. m.
until 8 a. m. to reUeve local
physicians.”
Dr. Keene, a member of the
American OoUege of Emergency •
Physicians, emphasised that
patients will continue to have access
to their personal physicians, who
will continue to be on call for their
respective cUnlcs and offices. These
physicians may ask their out
patients to be treated by the
emergency physician on duty in the
hospital emergency room.
All hospitalised patients will be
attended by their personal
physician, or the physicians on call,
although file emergency physicians
will assist In any hospital
emergency.
Dr. Keene said, “I h<q>e to recruit
permanent emergency room
physicians for the 8 p. m. to 6 a. m.
service. Two qualified physicians I
have talked with have expressed an
Interest in coming to Kings Moun
tain.”
Dr. Keene said the physicians she
Is Interested In recruiting are ones
who have completed medical school,
their Internship and are second,
third or fourth year students In their
chosen fields of special medicine.
The Department of Emergency
Medicine began Oct. 1.
might tell file public that ships had
reportedly been destroyed off the
coastof America,’’ Green said. “But
never that thoee ships were sunk by
German subnuuinea right off Cape
Hatteras.”
In fact, Hatteras Is the closest
enemy ships ever got to America
during the eariy years of American
Involvement In Worid War Two.
“Through January, February and
March and Into April, 1943, 60 ships
were torpedoed and sunk off the
North Carolina coast by German
U-BoaU,” Green said. "And even
more amaslng Is the fact that during
that time not one enemy sub was
touched or destroyed.”
Green said the alnrianes were too
busily Involved elsewhere, but
added, “Once they were sent to to
the coast It wasn’t long before that
German threat ended.”
January 1943 was the beginning of
the last semester Green would serve
as principal and teacher to the
school children of Avon near Cape
Hatteras. Graduating from imc at
(3im>c1 Hill In 1980, Green was hired
to serve as both principal and
teacher for the community of 700
people. He held the Job for 13 years.
“I think It Is safe to say that the
school children of Avon were the
only American children who ac
tually witnessed first hand part of
Worid War Two fought,” Green said.
From where the old school
building sat the students could look
out the window and see the ships and
sea and see the explosions and fire
and hear the noises . as the sub
marines waged war. In time the
children and adults In the com
munity grew used to the sound.
“In May 1943 at 10 a. m. we held
commencement exercises In the
auditorium,” Green said. "One
young boy was standing making his
address. Suddenly there was an
explosion coming from the sea and
the force rattled the buUdlng,
causing a window with cracked
glass to shatter and fkll to the floor.
The children and the adults only
looked at the broken glass and went
right on with the exercise as If
nothing had happened.”
Green said esuiler on In the year
people did get excited about the
noise and window rattling caused by
the sea battles. “And once two young
boys were tossing a baseball when
one of them missed his catch. The
ball broke out a window and there
was hysteria for awhUe over that.”
After 13 years among the Kin
nakeeters, as the people of Avon
called themselves. Green was ac
cepted as one of them and when his
Uth year as educator - ad
ministrator was to begin, the Kin
nakeeters advised him to Join the
Ooast Guard before be was drafted.
"You don’t want no part of the
Army,” Green was told. "Being
Ooast Guardsmen was a way of life
with those people and everyone from
Gran<b>a on down to grandson were
members. So, I Joined the Coast
Ouard.”
Green was assigned to the Big
Klnnakeet Ooast Ouard SUUon four
miles north of the school where he
had taught for a dosen years.
Only <Hiee did the Kinnakeeters
ever see any of the enemy In person.
"One night when when there was
no wind and a calm sea some Ger
man sailors came ashore In a small
boat,” Green said. “They walked
Into a little store and bought fresh
milk with American money, then
disappeared Into the night. By the
time Coast Ouard station was
alerted and men dispatched the
saUors were long gone.”
But the idiyslcal evidence that war
was being waged off the North
Carolina coast was present then,
according to Green. "There were at
tlmea oU slicks as far as the eye
could see.
"And once our commander
rousted us because ‘men were
coming ashore.' We prowled the
shores during a terrific storm and
didn't see any of the reported In
vaders until dawn broke. The In
vaders were sailors off a ship that
had been torpedoed by U-Boats,”
Green said.
Of all the men who arrived on the
North Carolina coast that morning,
only two survived. The rest had
frozen to death In their open boats.
"Many of the men were clad only
In pajamas," Green said. “None of
them wore coats. Their ship was
attocked and sinking too fast for
them to grab any clothing before
abandoning ship."
In 1971 Greene had the story of
how he went to Avon and of his 13-
year tenure there published In a
book entitled “Klnnakeet Ad
venture.” In the book he touches on
the foregoing stories and of his
students and the people of the
community. Since the book was
published. Green said he has been
asked many times If his stories are
true, given testimony that still what
really happened off the Outer Banks
Is not widely known.
“I checked with some oil com
panies concerning the ships, the ol)
tankers, that were sunk off Oape
Hatteras during those 90 drys In
early 1943," Green said. “There
were 38 tankers sunk and each
carried about 100,000 bsurels of oil.”
To match that equivalent today It
would require 6,813 truck tankers.
And lined up end to end, those tanker
trucks would stretch 863.10 miles.
Nurses Group Meeting
Tonight At Depot Center
Registered nurses In District 39 of
the North Carolina Nurses
Association will gather Tuesday
(tonight) at 7:80 p. m. at Depot
Center.
District 31’ Includes Cleveland,
Gaston and Lincoln Counties.
Program topic will be “Nuree
Practitioners,’’ "Who?, What?,
Where?”.
Guest speakers will be Alice
Mason, R. N., Fantlly Planning
nurse practitioner, and Gall
Harrington, Family nurse prac
titioner. Both are of Gaston County
and are employed by Gaston County
Health Department.
AU area nurses are Invited to
Foster Families Project
Scheduied By KM Baptists
SONG BEVIVAL18T - LaVerae
Tripp, above, and the Happy Hour
Singers and Song Revival Band will
appear In concert at Trinity Chnroh
of the Living God on Sat., Feb. 18th,
at 7:80 p. m. me interested eom-
The Kings Mountain Baptist
Association and the Baptist
OiUdren’s Homes of North Carolina,
Inc. wlU sponsor programs In area
churches throughout February and
March, to enlist Christian famlUes
who wUl serve as foster famiUes.
PhlUlp Morrow, director of the
Charlotte Family Resource Center,
a regional office of the Baptist
ChUdren’s Homes of North CkuoUna.
wUl be at the Bethlehem Baptist
Church, Rt. 3, Kings Mountoln.
Wed., Feb. 7. at 7 p. m.; at the First
Baptist Church of Grover Sun., Feb.
U, at 7 p. m.; at the Zoar Biq>tlst
Church, Shelby, Sun., Feb. 18. at 7p.
m.; and at the First Baptist Church
of Kings Mountain on Sun., Mar. 18,
at 7:80 p. m.
Christian famUles who have an
Interest in knowing more about the
work of being fOster parents or the
work of the Baptist ChUdren's
Homes of North Carolina are Invited
to attend one of these meetings for
more Information.