U.S. NAVY

Vernon Bickford

Vernon Bickford of Hancock answered his nation’s call June 16, 1944, though he was not quite finished with high school. He eventually was awarded his diploma in 1948, by which time he was a father as well as a veteran.

After boot camp in New York state, he was forwarded to a distribution center in California and eventually assigned to a troopship. That’s about as far as that relationship went.

“It got sunk before I got on,” Bickford recalled.

Then came the USS Gallatin, one of 117 attack transports constructed on a furious schedule at a Portland, Ore., shipyard. The Gallatin was assembled in an astounding 54 days and rushed into service in the fall of 1944. Destination: Tokyo.

Seaman 1st Class Bickford worked as a deck hand as the Gallatin sailed from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, the Marshall Islands, Guadacanal, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Admiralty Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines.

“We crossed the Equator six times,” he recalled.

Although he once watched as a Japanese torpedo whooshed beneath the bow of his ship, Bickford never learned fear, for he was 18 and immortal.

“It didn’t bother me a bit,” he said.

What he did learn was geography. West Coast, East Coast, Panama Canal and the Pacific: he took it all in and to this day shares the view that travel can be very educational.

During his time at sea, he corresponded with a girl back home, Laverne Merchant. She was a high school acquaintance, nothing more, when the correspondence began. But the letters evolved into love letters.

He was in the Philippines, preparing for the invasion of Japan, when the bombs were dropped in August of 1945.

“That saved our skins,” he said.

Given the number of troops bound for the home islands invasion and the furious resistance of the Japanese, Bickford has no doubt: “Oh yes, the bomb saved lives.”

Bickford was honorably discharged May 30, 1946. He and Laverne were married that year. The G.I. Bill helped him learn the carpenter’s trade, which led to a 40-year career with the Maine Department of Transportation. He retired as foreman.

Vernon and Laverne have three grown daughters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Vernon has kept busy in retirement doing custodial work at the Hancock Grammar School and mowing lawns.

— Stephen Fay