U.S. ARMY

Merval Porter

Merval Porter Sr., 82, of Bar Harbor admits he was lucky “many, many, many times” while serving with the 486th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion during WWII.

He recalls a bomb attack from which he and two others escaped with their lives but the incident left him nearly deaf.

Born in the Aroostook County town Monticello, Porter was a resident of Houlton when he enlisted in the army at 21. The year 1943 was just beginning; it would not be until year’s end that Porter was shipped to Europe with his unit. In the months between enlisted and shipping out, the 486th trained at several installations, starting with Fort Devens in Massachusetts.

Most of the 800-member outfit was made up of men from New England, according to Porter. After a short stint at Camp Shanks in New York the group moved on to basic training at Camp Davis in North Carolina.

“We called it Swamp Davis,” said Porter. “There was a wooden walk to get into the barracks.”

From North Carolina the battalion went to Louisiana for maneuvers training and then on to the firing range at Camp Hulen, Texas. On Dec. 3, 1943, in New York, Porter boarded the Queen Mary with thousands of other troops and sailed to Scotland. The ship that later became a luxury liner was responsible for transporting record numbers of troops during World War II.

“There was nothing luxury about it,” said Porter. “We were stacked four bunks high in every room.”

From Scotland the 486th took a train to Camp Hayes in England where they remained until D-day on June 6, 1944. Porter was on guard duty the night of the invasion.

“I looked up in the sky and it was full of lights,” he said. “I woke up the troops and told them the invasion was on. Sure enough, we woke up the next morning and France had been invaded.”

The 486th landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 23, some 17 days after the invasion. Here the unit was assigned to protect the 3rd Armored Division and was attached to the 67th Armored Field Artillery.

Pitched into battle, the unit traveled to St. Lo, a base in France, to continue the fight against German soldiers.

Porter was a gunner in a half-track, a machine that has regular truck tires on the front and tank treads on the rear. The vehicle was armed with 50 caliber machine guns. One of his most memorable experiences during the war was when his guns jammed while his half-track was being attacked by a German fighter plane.

As he tells it, the 486th had made it into Germany through Belgium by December. They were ordered to backtrack nearly 100 miles to France after the Battle of the Bulge began on Dec. 16, 1944. Traveling on a dirt road out of a small town in Germany, Porter recalls there were white sheets hanging everywhere.

“We were escorting six half-tracks loaded with ammo,” said Porter. “A German fighter plane came at us and it was awful low. I was waiting with my guns when all four jammed.

“We were told to wait until we could see the whites of their eyes,” he said.

Porter remembers a member of his convoy asking, “Why the hell didn’t you keep shooting? You had him.”

When the Battle of the Bulge was cleaned up, the 486th was sent back to Germany until the war ended in May 1945. The unit was brought to France to ship out but a big storm delayed their departure for a week.

It was December 1945 before Porter arrived home to Houlton. Seven months later on his 24th birthday, June 29, 1946, Porter married his high school sweetheart, Daisy.

He trained and worked as a mechanic until 1950 when the Porter family moved to a Mount Desert Island dairy farm. As well as farming, Porter worked at Richards Garage as a mechanic for three years. In 1968, he began working in maintenance at MDI Hospital and became laundry manager within a year. He also drove carriage horses for 12 years at Wildwood Stables during summers. After 15 years, Porter retired from the hospital.

The Porters have five children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. One grandson from Swan’s Island is especially intrigued by Porter’s war stories.

He received four medals for his service during WWII and met then Vice President Truman when he visited the soldiers.

“I was pretty proud to be in the service,” said Porter. “I never resented it for a minute. At times I wish I could have done more when I was in there but it just wasn’t possible.”

— Sarah Hinckley