October 25, 2002

Looking Back On Oroville’s Heroes

By Stu Shaner

 

These stories are about the men and women who went to war so that we might be free. This column is dedicated to all our Veterans. It will use articles taken from past Oroville Mercury Registers. Many of those mentioned in these stories came home. But as you will learn, many young Oroville men did not. They gave the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Oroville Mercury-Register, January 18th, 20th, 22nd

 

On a sadder note:

CARTER'S SON DIES IN CRASH

E. W. Carter, of Montgomery street was notified Friday that his son, Eugene W. Carter Jr., 21, was one of the 13 persons killed last December in a plane crash near Arizona. The boy was a member of the Army Air Corps and had been in the service more than a year. He is survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister.

 

GERMANY'S FORTRESS

A NINTH AIR FORCE TROOP CARRIER BASE, EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS 

LT. HILL FLIES IN A C-47 OVER GERMANY’S FORTRESS

First Lieutenant Gene E. Hill of Chico and Oroville is flying over "Hitler's Fortress Europe" in a C47. A veteran of combat paratroops missions over Sicily and Italy and holder of the Air Medal and two Oak Leaf Clusters, he was one of the first over the Cherbourg Peninsula in the early hours of D-Day. His ship carried part of the first wave of paratroops. He is the son of Mrs. L.M. Hill of Chico He attended Oroville schools and before entering the service in March 1942, was employed by the Meadow Valley Lumber Co. of Quincy. The Ninth Troop Carrier Command has recently been cited for "the exceptional results produced in the greatest and most successful airborne operation in the history of world aviation.”

 

LOCAL GIRL GRADUATES FROM CADET NURSES

Miss Margaret Fuller left recently from San Francisco after spending the holidays at home. While there she was scheduled to take the physical examination for army and navy nurses and the state board examination for registered nurses. She is a graduate of Quincy high school and Yuba junior college. She trained at the University Hospital for a year and when the Cadet Nurses’ Corps was instituted in July 1943 was one of the first to join. Miss Fuller said the University was one of the first hospitals to have a Cadet Nurses' Corps. A very high standard must be reached before the 'government will install this training program.

 

 

CUNNINGHAM TO ORGANIZE NEW SUBMARINE SCHOOL

Eugene S. Cunningham, chief motor machinist's mate in the U. S. Submarine Service, has been assigned to Mare

Island where he will organize a new sub- marine school. Cunningham, the son-in-law of Jay E. Partridge of Oroville, with Mrs. Cunningham visited in Oroville last summer after many months sea duty. He has been in the submarine service for more than eight years, altogether having re-enlisted after Pearl Harbor. For the past six months he and his wife had resided in New London, Conn., where Cunningham was an instructor in the service. The couple are living in San Francisco now. Raymond Mitchell, Partridge's other son-in-law, was recently promoted from private first class to corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mitchell's wife, the former Katherine Partridge, is employed in the county recorder's office.

 

Stu's notes: I misplaced the Fat story. We will get to it later. I have found in my research for the Dam memorial and now the Veterans Memorial when you think you have all the names you find another one. This is all we know about Eugene Carter, was he from Oroville? His parents and brothers and sisters lived here. We will find out. All we do know is that he died in the service of his country.