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By: Colin
1-4-06
My grandfather, Robert F. Daugherty, was born in Coshocton,
Ohio in 1925. He was the first child of Robert E. and
Dorothy Daugherty. The only other sibling
was a younger sister named Donna. He
grew up during the depression and attended Sacred Heart Elementary and High
School. Some of his hobbies were
hunting, fishing, and playing golf. These hobbies would serve him well in the
Marines
He was only a junior in high school when the USA
was brought into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Willing to fight, he enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps two months after his graduation in
the summer of 1943. Basic training
took Robert to North Carolina then to
California before being shipped overseas to fight in the Pacific
Theater. During his
tour of duty, he saw places such as Hawaii, the Philippines,
the Virgin Islands, and China
where he would live for a year following the end of the war. It was at this time his unit flew guard for
Chiang Kai-shek who would later become
the first president of Taiwan.
He made it to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant
and his main job during the war was aerial gunner. He flew mostly in the SBD
Douglass Dauntless and the Helldiver. In flight, he was seated facing the tail of
the plane. With excellent hand-eye coordination,
he received medals for sharp shooting. Any combat experiences he may have had,
however, have been lost as he never talked about them much when he returned
home.
One funny but unfortunate incident in which he was involved
took place in the Caribbean Sea. His unit thought they spotted an enemy submarine. In an effort to stop it, they ended up
bombing what turned out to be a whale.
His year in China
was an eye-opening experience for this backwoods boy from central Ohio. The winters in China
were very cold. He found the people to
be very poor but helpful. One man whom
he befriended was a great help to Robert and his fellow
marines in the barracks. He didn’t
meet too many of the native Chinese but did have some humorous experiences
with some locals. He once told a story
about some young Chinese boys who sold some fireworks to him and his fellow
marines. Problem was the fireworks
were duds with no gunpowder inside them.
The fuse would burn down and the shells ignite, but nothing would
happen.
He was in a unit of 178 men, many of whom live on in the
pictures of them with my grandfather.
Guys with names like: Lt.
Foley, Leo, Dick, Jim Gallagher, Lou, Dillan, Frank, Dink Waldron, and
Chet. Another friend, Sgt.
Stacey Hammel, died in combat.
Robert received his honorable discharge in 1946 and came home
to Ohio. In 1951, he married my grandmother,
Barbara, and they moved to Cleveland
where they started a family. In the
middle 1970s, itching to get back in the air, he enrolled in a ground school
and became a private pilot. He would
be flying again, only this time, facing frontward instead of backwards.
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