By KEVIN FLOWERS
Morning News staff reporter
John Taylor
knew a young black man in the U.S. Navy of 1942 would not have it easy, but he was determined to get an education and serving his country seemed like a good way to do it.
""I did not have any real ideas
about what the service was going to be about, but I knew I could go to school by joining, and that is what I did,'' said Taylor, owner of the John W. Taylor Funeral Home, 1400 Parade.
In his two years of Navy service
Taylor managed a vehicle garage and served on a minesweeper ship in the Pacific Ocean.
He, like many black soldiers, did not see combat because the armed forces had yet to be integrated. Taylor says he does not
hold a grudge.
""There were things that were disappointing but as a young black man in the Navy, who are you going to complain to? The more you holler, the more you get into trouble.
""But
I will tell you this - I am not sorry I joined. I had a lot of good experiences in the service.''
Taylor, a Midland, Pa. native, said he decided to serve his country after many of his friends began enlisting.
""Everyone, it seemed, wanted to go off and join the Army, but I wanted to do something different.''
The Navy was his choice, and soon he was off to the Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Ill.
""I was in an all-black training outfit, and did not really have any ideas of what this would all be about or any real opinion on the war, really,'' he said.
During his training, Taylor found he both liked
and had a penchant for repairing gas and diesel engines. Following his stint at Great Lakes, he was sent to Hampton, Va. for more training.
""I was there for about nine months, and I really began to
like it then, because it gave me knowledge about motors and cars,'' he said.
""After that is when I was sent to Seattle, Wash., to manage a vehicle department there.''
At the Seattle vehicle depot,
Taylor was responsible for maintaining and repairing Navy vehicles that carried ammunition to nearby ships.
""It was an OK unit when I got there, but it really was not being run right,'' he said.
""Myself and the others there really took pride in fixing it up, making the place run more efficiently.''
""Myself and the other seamen got the place in order.''
After four months in Seattle,
Taylor was selected by a commanding officer to attend an advanced training course in gasoline and diesel engine repair in San Francisco, Calif.
He never took a lesson.
""I was never really told why, but I
had heard rumors that no black had ever taken that class, and they were not going to let one,'' he said.
""I was disappointed, but again, what was I going to do? I could not fight the Navy from the
inside.''
Instead, Taylor was sent back to the Seattle area. This time, he was assigned to the minesweeper.
At the time the area was designated a war zone, which meant it was deemed sensitive to enemy
attack. Many buildings in the area had guns on their rooftops, he said.
""We checked out the entire area on the sweeper - the Aleutian Islands, all over,'' he said. Luckily for Taylor and his fellow
sailors, they never encountered problems.
While in the Seattle area Taylor did encounter a man he was impressed with, a black Navy seaman named Dory Miller.
Miller, Taylor said, was at Pearl Harbor when Japanese
forces attacked. He was on shore watch when a seaman next to him, manning a ground gun, was hit by gunfire.
At that time, Miller was forced to make a choice, Taylor said.
""He said he did not
even know how to work a gun, but he grabbed it and started shooting back,'' Taylor said.
""He shot down a plane doing this. I will never forget meeting him.''
Despite Miller's tales of
heroics, Taylor had no desire ""to try and become a hero.''
He was discharged in 1944 after developing rheumatoid arthritis, and he returned to Midland. Later, he enrolled at the Pittsburgh Institute
of Mortuary Science.
Taylor got his education, as intended. He has the Navy to thank.
""I became a funeral director because of my service,'' Taylor said. ""I will never regret that,
or the people that I met.''
