INTRODUCING…
George Clement – Danny Governick – Harry Governick
MOM’S WWII STORY
The following story about Alberta Mae High-Clement-Governick-Murphy (also known as “Mom”) was submitted to St. Louis PBS station KETC (Channel 9) and was posted at their “Your Stories” site. I’ve included the full story here, because Channel 9 finally, after several years, took it down.
An incident occurred while Mom was working at the Small Arms Plant, in St. Louis, which resulted in an FBI investigation.
My mom worked at the St. Louis Small Arms Plant during WWII – blew the whistle on a night shift foreman who always came in drunk, and was so obsessed with his production quota he forced workers to allow defective ammunition to pass inspection.
A young woman working there wanted the other workers to sign a complaint petition against the foreman… when push came to shove, Mom was the only one who signed… she and the other woman were fired.
As the male security guard was escorting the two out of the building, Mom asked to go to the ladies room. After she entered the ladies room, she wouldn’t come out, staying in there all night. The guard was not allowed to enter the ladies room. Mom figured that as long as she was fired, she wanted to speak to the authorities (military brass) the next morning to explain her side of the story. Mom’s young husband was a marine in training for duty in the pacific. For her, the incident leading to her firing was personal.
After Mom’s speech to the “brass” the next morning, she was reinstated as an employee, but because of resentment she caused with some of the other workers, who felt she had threatened their jobs, she was assigned to a different workstation at another building… Mom refused the offer, deciding instead to plan a trip to California to see her husband before he would leave for war.
Three days later the FBI showed up at my grandmother’s flat near Howard Street and Jefferson Boulevard looking for Mom to question her. Their sudden appearance scared the heck out of Grandma, who lied to them by stating her daughter had moved to California. Mom wasn’t afraid of the FBI. She “turned herself in”. After she told the story to the FBI, the foreman at the Small Arms Plant was fired.
Mom made her trip to California, and was able to see her husband when he was on liberty from the base. Less than a year later her husband was killed on Saipan when a defective grenade blew up in his hand before he could toss it.
25 years later Mom flew to Guam, where I was recuperating from a bullet wound inflicted by a complete stranger who didn’t like me cutting a path through his Vietnamese jungle. During her three week visit, which was the talk of the Island, we had lunch with the Governor and Guam’s U.S. Senator, were invited to a reception for the newly appointed Commander-Naval Forces Marianas and dinner at the Marine Colonel in charge of the Marine base on Guam.
As a result of Mom’s visit, the Colonel sent a memo to Marine Corps headquarters requesting that I be reassigned to duty with the Marine Liaison Office on Guam, rather than returned to Vietnam to complete my tour of duty. Two days before Mom left Guam, the orders were approved. This was July, 1967. The Tet Offensive took place in Vietnam in January, 1968. Every man in my unit was killed.