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Diabetes may have
cost Allison G. Catheron II a chance to attend
West Point, but he found a way to make sure his insulin dependence didn’t keep him
from military service during World War II.
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Allison G. Catheron II
Allison G. Catheron II of Franklin was a
Civil Air Patrol sergeant when he was
stationed in 1944 with the 22nd Tow
Target Squadron based at Hyde Field in
Clinton, Md. |
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“Because I had
diabetes since age 9, I knew I was not going to
get into regular military service,” he said. “So I
trained with the Civil Air Patrol, beginning in
March of 1943.”
The Civil Air
Patrol (CAP) was organized in December 1941, days
before Pearl Harbor, by civilian pilots and
aircraft owners eager to assist with the war
effort at home. While attached to the U.S. Army
Air Corps, CAP pilots and technicians flew tow
target, military transport, courier, border patrol
and anti-submarine missions.
“German
submarines were causing a lot of trouble along the
coast,” Catheron said. “The CAP had 21 squadrons
patrolling the sea between Maine and the
Gulf of Mexico. At first I was
with the 17th Anti-Submarine Squadron, which was
based on Long Island.”
CAP pilots and
crew flew 500,000 hours during World War II, and
64 were killed during the war years. CAP pilots
received the first Air Medals presented in person
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the war.
Catheron came from
a military family. His father, Robert Scott
Catheron, was a dental surgeon from Nova Scotia
who served in France twice during World War I.
After one stint with the Royal Army Medical Corps,
he served a second tour of duty in France as a
major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
“My father
reconstructed the faces of soldiers who had been
hit in the face,” he said. “I remember we had a
book of photos of his patients before and after
surgery. Some of the work he did with those
wounded men was pretty dramatic.”
Another World War
I veteran, U.S. Army Maj. Lyman Sheridan Frasier,
met Catheron through the Civil Air Patrol and was
eager to nominate him for admission to West Point.
“And he would
have, too, if I hadn’t had diabetes,” Catheron
said. “I would have liked to have been a
professional military officer, but that wasn’t
possible. I became a forester.”
Catheron, now 80
and living in Franklin, was 19 when he dropped out
of high school in Needham, Mass., to begin his training
with the Civil Air Patrol. After being based in
New York while on anti-sub
patrol duty, he was later reassigned to CAP tow
target squadrons in Maryland and Delaware that
assisted in the training of gunners manning
coastal anti-aircraft batteries and aircraft
spotters using searchlights.
“I mostly worked
security, but I did fly on both day and night
tracking missions as an observer, helping pilots
fly the ship some and running the radio,” he said.
Many of the
missions he crewed involved Stinson single wing
aircraft and enclosed-cabin Waco biplanes. His one
close call occurred during a storm while on an
after-dark mission being flown in a Waco involved
in searchlight spotter training.
“We were flying
down over Cape Charles in Virginia one February
night when a terrific wind storm came up and we
were blown inland,” he said. “The door of the ship
blew open, and the pilot asked me to go close it.
Just then, as I was headed toward the door, the
ship took a tremendous dip, and I came close to
going out.”
Catheron was
wearing a parachute, but had never been to jump
school.
“Our training
consisted of someone saying: ‘Here’s a parachute;
put it on.’ I knew what to do if I needed to use
it, but I had never jumped.”
Catheron held the
CAP rank of sergeant when he was discharged in
June of 1945. After completing high school in
Massachusetts, he eventually enrolled at the
University of
Maine.
Like other
civilians who had served with the CAP, Catheron
was not eligible for G.I. Bill benefits used by
many regular military veterans to pay college
tuition costs. Nonetheless, while studying at
UMaine, he continued his military training.
“I joined the
infantry ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps]
program,” he said. “I wasn’t paid, but it allowed
me to go through basic infantry combat training
with the 82nd Airborne’s 505th Regiment. I really
enjoyed it. We wore regular Army uniforms and were
issued M-1 rifles and trained in small arms. I
grew up with small arms. The first gun I ever shot
was a Luger pistol.”
Catheron’s
involvement with the military ended in 1950, when
he graduated from UMaine with a degree in
forestry. Seven years later he married his wife,
Shirley. The couple has two children.
Military service,
Catheron believes, builds character and instills
discipline. He’s not in favor of mandatory
military service.
“I’d much rather
have it remain voluntary,” he said. “I think you
get better soldiers that way.” |
