VOL XVIII. NO. 14
SEPTEMBER 2. 1950
Entered u Mcond-cUM metier. Jv
1.
18».
at
МЦЦ
North Caroline, under Ui* Act of
ЫагсЬ
3. II
Cherry Point: Big Business
Not only is it l»itf business for Uncle Sam.
IhiI il
«I. чо
plays an important part in the
economic welfare of eastern Carolina.
By CARL GOERCII
MAJOR-GENERAL LOUIS E.
WOODS is head man at the
Marine Corps Air Station.
Cherry Point: a man with a dis¬
tinguished record of service;
affable, courteous and a fine gentle¬
man in every sense of the word.
Two or three weeks ago. a party
of visitors made an inspection trip
at Cherry Point. Governor Scott
was there, so were officials of that
eastern Carolina railroad that the
state owns, and so were a number
of other people, including Mrs.
Harry P. Edwards of Sanford.
«Note to Mrs. Edwards: Ed
Buchan of Kinston told me this, so
please hold him responsible.»
The visitors had a perfectly
splendid time, and General Woods
proved to be a wonderful host.
When they got ready to leave. Mrs.
Edwards walked up to General
Woods — M a j
о
r-General Woods,
that is held out her hand, smiled
brightly and said: "Lieutenant. I
can't begin t»> toll you how much
I have enjoyed myself here."
The General never even blinked.
He made a nice bow and let it go
at that.
Location
Cherry Point, in case you don’t
know, is located between the Neuse
River and US-70, about half-way
between New Bern and Morchcad
City.
Ask the average person what
he knows about this base and he’ll
tell you that it is used by the
Marines to train men in the flying
service. Ask him for additional
information, and chances are that
he ll tell you that’s all he knows.
So far as he goes, he is correct.
but the trouble is that he doesn’t
go far enough.
Here's another question:
Who is the biggest employer of
labor in Eastern North Carolina:
not military labor, but civilian
labor?
Well, let’s see: there's the Caro¬
lina Pulp Company in Plymouth,
there are cotton mills in Green¬
ville, Kinston and Wilmington, and
there are several other large in¬
dustrial plants in the Coastal Plain
area. But if you mention any of
these, you’re wrong. The biggest
employer of civilian labor in
eastern Carolina is Uncle Sam. and
his plant is located at Cherry Point.
Many Civilian Workers
In addition to training men to
fly. it also is necessary to keep the
planes in the best of condition In
order to accomplish this, a depart¬
ment has been set up, known as
Overhaul and Repair, or — more
briefly — as O. & R. And about
eighty per cent of the workers in
this department are civilians.
Altogether there are more than
2.000 workers. All of them, with
the exception of about a dozen
women and girls, are men. Eighty
per cent of 2,000 is
1.ШЮ
the ap¬
proximate number of civilians
working in O. & It.
But if eighty per cent are civi¬
lians. why aren’t they all civilians?
The answer is that this tremen¬
dous shop and all its workers can¬
not be moved to the warfront zone.
A lot of repair work on planes has
to be done there. The Marines who
are being trained in mechanical
work at Cherry Point are the fel¬
lows who will have to do this job
in some other part of the world
when the necessity arises.
Large Acreage
There are 13.000 acres of land
in the Cherry Point Marine Corps
Air Station. There are many large
buildings, many residences for
officers and men. and many other
structures. In addition to this,
there are planes and there’s this
repair department we’ve just been
telling you about. The estimated
total value of all this land, build¬
ings and equipment is around
SI 00,000,000. and the average an¬
nual cost of maintenance is $4.000,-
000.
I flew down to the base on
Tuesday of last week in my little
Cessna- 140. As a rule, civilian
planes arc not permitted to land,
but the necessary arrangements
had been made in advance so far
as 1 was concerned, and I wasn't
worried. Just the same. I kept a
wary eye on the dozen or more
Marine planes that were buzzing
around the base; some in flight,
some landing and some taking off.
And I imagine that they were
keeping an equally wary eye— if
not more so— on this little mos¬
quito of a plane in which I was
traveling. The control tower radio
operates on a different frequency
from the radio in my plane, so
related calls on my |xirt proved
unavailable. I decided to take my
chance and land when I could. Fol¬
lowing a big Corsair. I got a green
light from the tower and came in
without any trouble The guy in
the Corsair gave me a funny look
as he taxied past, as much as
( Continued on page 18)
THE STATE, SEPTEMBER 2. 1950
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