This is the second post about my grandfather Art Cubbage’s service in the US Navy. After completing Service School Command in 1944, Art was stationed, and spent the remainder of his time in the Navy, at the Personnel Separation Center at Camp Shelton near Norfolk, Virginia.

Camp Shelton was an armed guard training center, but at the end of World War II it served as a separation center.[1] Art was a Yeoman and most likely worked in the offices at the PSC. I am pretty sure that Art is at the far right on the phone in the picture below.

As a Yeoman, Art performed secretarial and clerical work. Yeomen would “deal with visitors, telephone calls and incoming mail. YNs organize files and … order and distribute supplies.”[2] As a Yeoman, Art most likely wrote or typed letters, directives, forms and reports, as well as maintained files and service records.

The insignia the uniform of a Yeoman is crossed quills with the nibs down.

In this picture of Art, you can see the insignia under the Navy eagle. There are a handful of pictures of Art and his friends and fellow Yeomen during his time in the Navy. Only a couple are marked, so we can only guess which are from Training at Great Lakes and when he was a Yeoman in Virginia. One picture is of the Fifth Naval District building, which was at the Norfolk Navy Yard. There are others that are most likely of the Norfolk area. 

Art is on the left in both pictures. The woman in the picture to the left and the man in the picture to the right show up in several of Art’s Navy pictures. I am guessing that they served together, as they both have Yeoman insignia on their uniforms.

These were probably taken at the Norfolk Navy Yard, which was about eight miles west of Camp Shelton.

While Art was stationed in Norfolk, his wife, Agnes, and sons, Corky and Jeff, moved from Ohio to Pittsburgh’s North Side to live with Agnes’ parents, Elizabeth and Charles Merz.  These are a few pictures of Agnes and the boys during that time. I wonder if she sent them to Art in Norfolk?

Agnes, Cork, Jeff, summer 1945crop

Agnes, Cork, Jeff, winter 1945crop

Next week is Art’s discharge from the Navy.

SOURCES:

[1] “Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia,” Military Installations, (http://www.militaryinstallations.dod.mil/MOS/f?p=MI:CONTENT:0::::P4_INST_ID,P4_CONTENT_TITLE,P4_CONTENT_EKMT_ID,P4_CONTENT_DIRECTORY:4960,Installation%20Overview,30.90.30.30.30.0.0.0.0,1 : accessed 6 October 2017).

[2] “US Navy Enlisted Ratings,” Archive.org, (https://web.archive.org/web/20061211231100/http://navyrotc.berkeley.edu/resources/gouge/Ratings.pdf : accessed 6 October 2017).

© 2019 LAURA CUBBAGE-DRAPER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.