Huntington History

Seventy years ago, the United States was drawn into a second World War when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  Although several Huntington men were stationed at Pearl Harbor or elsewhere in Hawaii at the time of the attack, it appears that only one was killed.  John Grubbs Little of Northport was a 1935 graduate from the Naval Academy stationed aboard the USS Utah.[1]

Eric Noeldechen, a Huntington Station resident, was aboard the USS Enterprise.  At the time of the attack, the aircraft carrier was about 215 miles west of Oahu.[2]  Noeldechen went on to see considerable action aboard the Enterprise over the course of the following year.  The ship sank 19 Japanese ships and downed 185 Japanese aircraft.  In 1942, Noeldechen transferred to the submarine service.[3]

Wilfred A. Ruland, Walter Schlossberg, Edgar and Donald Hazleton, Kenneth Babcock, Anthony Fusaro, and Kent Gale were stationed in Hawaii or somewhere else in the Pacific.[4]

On the home front, parents did not hear of the fate of their sons for weeks.  The papers even reported the death of one Hicksville native, who later was reported alive and well.[5]  People were nervous.  Just three days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the air raid alarm sounded in Huntington twice, once at 6:00 a.m. and again at 8:40 a.m.  Residents didn’t know what to make of the alarms and were especially concerned about their children.  School children were instructed to go home when the second alarm sounded, but parents were concerned about sending them back to school after the all clear was given.  The resulting confusion and calls from the merely curious jammed the phone lines preventing officials in charge of civil defense from getting their calls through.  Notices were placed in the newspaper instructing that when the air raid warning sounds, people should avoid the use of the telephone “for curiosity or any purpose except in case of an actual emergency.”[6]

The FBI instructed local police departments to interview all Japanese residents and order them to remain indoors until further notice.  The day after the attack, Lloyd Harbor police picked up two Japanese nationals for failing to abide by the alien registration law.  They were taken to New York later in the day.[7

Residents were asked to bring waste paper to the Defense Paper Depot on Stewart Avenue.  “Worthwhile” books were collected to provide to servicemen overseas.

More than one senior at Huntington High School left school before graduation to enlist.  Peter Campbell was a popular member of the Huntington High School football team who left school in May 1942, just a month before he would have graduated, to enlist in the Marine Corps.  He loved to hunt in the woods around Huntington.  He would often cut school to go hunting.  But he had a gentle side as well that led him to nurse an injured bird back to health and to care for homeless dogs.  He was engaged to get married.  But in November 1943, he was killed while scouting enemy positions on Bougainville Island, a part of Papua New Guinea.

His parents were presented with a Bronze Star Medal for Campbell’s heroic actions.[8]  But they were devastated by their loss.  Two years after he would have graduated, the high school planted an elm tree in his honor during an Arbor Day celebration.  The ceremony on the front lawn of the school included a rendition of the Marine Hymn by the high school band, a recitation of “Creed to My Rifle,” dedication of the tree in Campbell’s honor and the National Anthem.  The principal of the school, Robert L. Simpson, also shared a letter he had received from his former student:

You know I thought I’d be the last one in this wide world to miss the old school.  I guess it’s the company of all the kids I miss most and the football games.  Somehow or other I seem to connect hunting with my school.  I guess that’s because I cut school so much to go hunting.  I can still go hunting, though.  Pretty soon now I’ll be hunting with my buddies, for more dangerous game than I found at home.  It’ll be good hunting, though, and it will have more purpose behind it than just plain sport.  It will be so the people all over the world can keep going to schools like H.H.S. and so that the boys can keep playing football, and so that the girls can have their football heroes.  It will be to preserve our grand old American customs and traditions.  So that there will be lots and lots of kids going to those football games with minds free from fear or oppression.  They will be able to cheer with all their hearts, not because they have to but because something inside of them makes them want to.  Believe me, if I and all the other young Americans have anything to say about it, all these things will remain unchanged in our great country.

I’m not very good at putting down on paper what I feel inside me, but that’s just about how I feel about it, and I guess everyone else in this country feels the same.  We’re going to win this fray just like some of our school songs say.  It will be a big fray but not too big for good Americans to handle.  Good luck to all at home.[9]

 Eventually 3600 Huntingtonians would enlist—127 of them would be killed.