Adm. David W. Bagley-- Part 6: Service During WW II

On April 4, 1942, Rear Admiral Bagley relieved Rear Admiral Claude C. Bloch as Commandant, 14th Naval District (headquartered at Pearl Harbor) and  Commander Hawaiian Sea Frontier.  He served in that capacity until January 1943.  On February 1,  he assumed command of the Western Sea Frontier  (Sea Defense of the West Coast of the United States), and on March 30, 1943, had the duty of Commandant 11th Naval District (Great Lakes Training Facility in Illinois).

He held the 11th Naval District position until January 1944 and continued to head the Western Sea Frontier until the following fall.

Promoted to  vice admiral to date from February 1, 1944, he was relieved of that duty on November 17, 1944.  Eleven days later, he returned to Oahu and resumed duty as Commandant 14th Naval District and served in that position until July 25, 1945.

On August 20, he reported for duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and served on the International Defense Board, the United States-Mexican Defense  Commission and the Permanent Joint Board of Defense.

Quite a Busy Time for the Admiral.  --Cooter

The Spanish Flu Hits Illinois in 1918-- Part 2: Horror Stories from Great Lakes Naval Hospital

Chicago ran out of hearses.  Signs were posted banning public funerals, and limiting funerals to no more than ten attendees, in addition to the pastor, undertaker and necessary drivers.  No bodies were allowed in churches.

A U.S. Public Health Service Officer named Jo Cobb working at the city's Marine Hospital wrote a friend,  "Our beds were filled as fast as emptied."

Navy nurse Josie Brown, who served at the Naval Hospital at Great Lakes (in nearby North Chicago) wrote:  "The morgues were packed almost to the ceiling with bodies stacked one on top of another.  The morticians worked day and night.  You could never turn around  without seeing a big red truck loaded with caskets for the train station so bodies could be sent home.

"We didn't have the time to treat them.  We didn't take temperatures;  we didn't even have time to take blood pressure.  We would give them a little hot whisky toddy; that's all we had time to do.  They would have terrific nose bleeds with it.  Sometimes the blood would just shoot across the room.  You had to get out of the way or someone's nose would bleed all over you."

When it comes to pandemics, there is no rational basis to believe that the early years of the 21st century will be different from the past.    If a pandemic strikes, it will come to Illinois.

As of April 13, 2020, the cases and deaths in Illinois due to the coronavirus are 22,025 cases and 794 deaths.

--Cooter

The 1918 Flu Epidemic Hits Chicago-- Part 2

By mid-November, Chicago had experienced 38,000 cases of it and another 13,000 had its deadly companion, pneumonia.  In the end, some 10,000 Chicagoans had died.  The epidemic began in the city September 8, 1918,  when several sailors reported sick at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.

Military bases had been jammed across the country after the U.S. had entered World War I and these proved breeding grounds for the highly contagious disease.  By September  21, the commanding officer of the base said they had 800 cases.

The September 28, Chicago Tribune said that Fort Sheridan, the Army's base in the Chicago area, had logged 120 cases that day alone, making a total of 300 cases.

Every theater and public hall in Waukegan and North Chicago closed  In North Chicago, schools shut down.  However, the Chicago schools remained open.

Then, the incidences of the flu exploded.  On October 8, the Tribune reported  135 deaths and 1,342 new cases.  The next week, the paper reported  more than 2,000 new cases were happening every day.

--Cooter

Ray Boro, Korean War Navy Vet-- Part 1

I visited with well-known Legion member Ray Boro in March and interviewed him about his service to our country.  He is a regular at the Drop Zone Bar at the Legion and called "OROB" because of his name.  In the service, his nickname was "BoBo" though he is not sure why, perhaps they didn't know how to pronounce his name.

He was born in Chicago on August 30, 1930, but spent most of his life growing up in Lakemoor, Illinois.  At one time he attended a one-room schoolhouse there and was a graduate of McHenry High School.  For awhile after graduation he delivered milk door-to-door.

Ray and his buddy enlisted in the Navy on October 13, 1950, at age 20, with the hopes of serving together,  and spent eleven weeks doing basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station.  At least here, he and his buddy were near each other, but in different training groups because they were placed alphabetically.  But that ended after graduation.

Pensacola, Florida's Corry Field was Ray's destination.  His buddy went to Guam.  Here Ray received his AD classification as an airplane mechanic.  He was there for 18 months when he was transferred to the VF-44 Squadron based at Jacksonville NAS in Florida.

--Cooter

Illinois' Camp Logan-- Part 3: Echelon and Aiken

Echelon Target System and Aiken targets were used.  An Echelon Target System was a rifle range with various distances to the targets.  Soldiers would qualify at the 200 yard one and proceed every 100 yards to as far as he could successfully hit the Aiken targets.

Use of Camp Logan by the Illinois National Guard was heavy from 1902 on.

There was also live fire by artillery and Gatlin guns.  During World War I, the nearby Great Lakes Naval Training Station took over Camp Logan for overflow.  The WPA made improvements from 1934-1937.

Great Lakes used the base again during World War II.

The caretakers cottage and pump house from the 1890s are still there.  there is also a flagpole, 2 garages, headquarters, one barracks as well as one tool and two store rooms remaining from the 1910s.

--Cooter