J. R. Coffey was born June 10, 1924 in Plainview Texas. His parents Homer and Beulah Coffey moved to western Oklahoma where he grew up on a farm and attended school at Sweetwater Oklahoma. He enlisted in the U. S. Navy August 5, 1943. He went to boot camp at San Diego, California. After completing boot camp he was assigned to gunnery school at the San Diego Destroyer Base. After gunnery school he was assigned to the Armed Guard and was sent to the Armed Guard Center at Treasure Island, California. On October 28, 1943 he was sent to Seattle, Washington. A month later he was sent to Portland, Oregon. On December 3, 1943 he was assigned to the SS Frank B Linderman as a S1C gunner. It was a new Liberty. ship that had just been launched. The gun crew hauled all the ammunition and put it in the magazine, cleaned all the guns and made ready to go to sea. The ship sailed down the Colombia River to the ocean and on a shake down cruse to San Francisco, California. While there the ship was loaded with cargo and sailed in convoy to somewhere southwest of Hawaii. From there the ship made its way alone and arrived in Milne Bay New Guinea on January 12, 1944. It sailed from port to port among the islands and returned to the U. S. for another load. It arrived March 17, 1944 and departed March 23, 1944. It returned to New Guinea, Good Enough Island and several other islands. A field kitchen was placed on deck and the ship was loaded with army troops and sailed to Hollandia, New Guinea where they were taken ashore by LCM's to fight the Japanese. The ship returned to San Francisco in September 1944. J. R. was detached from the ship and went home on a 15 day leave. When he returned to Treasure Island he was sent to San Pedro California and assigned to the SS ESSO Montpelier on October 16, 1944. It sailed for Hawaii with a load of fuel for submarines. After pumping the fuel off at the submarine Base in Pearl Harbor it returned to the U. S. It made two more round trips to Hawaii. After returning to San Pedro it was reloaded and sailed to Guadalcanal. While there an ammunition ship exploded killing all aboard. It was a terrific blast. It was rumored that a Japanese submarine torpedoed it. The Montpelier returned to the U. S. in February 1945. It was loaded with fuel and sailed to Ulithi. While there a kamikaze plane dove into an aircraft carrier anchored in the bay. It caused a lot of damage and killed or wounded some sailors but did not sink the ship. The gun crew of the Montpelier were at their gun stations but were not in range to fire. The Montpelier left Ulithi and sailed to the Panama Canal and continued through the canal on May 20, 1945. It continued on to Cartagena, Columbia, South America. He was among the two thirds of the Armed Guard crew that received shore liberty, while there. The ship was loaded with crude oil and sailed to New York arriving June 1, 1945. It was emptied and placed in dry dock. SIC J. R. Coffey along with the rest of the Armed Guard crew were detached from the ship and assigned to the Brooklyn Armed Guard Center. He was given a 26 day delay in route and went home, then to the Armed Guard Center at Treasure Island. He was assigned to the Naval Ammunition Depot, Mare Island, California. He was a squad leader of twelve seamen. They segregated and stored ammunition. While there he and his squad went to sea on an LST and dumped outdated and odd lots of ammunition, from the depot, into the sea. The voyage lasted about a week. He was discharged from the Navy at the U. S. Navel Personnel Separation Center at Shoemaker California on March 15, 1946. J. R. married Ellen Holt from Utah on February 14, 1946. After he was discharged they traveled to Utah for a visit with her parents then went on to Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma and received a degree in Industrial Education in 1950. He taught school in Ripley, Oklahoma at the Ripley High School for one year. In 1951 he was hired by the U. S. Air Force as an Instructor in the Aircraft Mechanics Course at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. He worked as an Instructor, an Equipment Specialist, and a Training Specialist for 32 years. As a Training Specialist some of his duties required him to travel to Air Force bases all over the world. He visited some of the places where he had previously been when he was in the Navy Armed Guard. He retired from Civil Service March 2, 1984 and is living a life of leisure with his wife in Burkburnett, Texas. They celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary on February 14, 2000. They have two daughters, one granddaughter and one grandson.
|
|
|
|
|
