Throwback Thursday - Marion Crawley, WWII Radioman

He was also involved, in a big way, with the local Boy Scouts. And he spent a lot of time with the local chapter of the amateur radio club. He was happily married and had two kids. Yes, he had an exciting and productive life during his time in Athens. But Wait!

The adventurous and most epic chapter of his life unfolded while he was in the military during World War II. Let us pause, at this point, to note the source of the following adventure stories. While cleaning out a bedroom in her parent’s house in 2008, Daisy (Crawley) Franz, came across a big stack of papers. She calls the find ‘a treasure.’ It was a memoir, written by her father, Marion, of his adventures during World War II. Daisy spent a lot of time organizing and putting it into a book. The result is a fantastic book entitled: “CBI Radioman, A Memoir, (the story of my military days) by Marion Crawley.

Marion served in the Army Air Force. He joined the Army’s radio school, where he learned all the ins and outs of the radio world. He would practice sending and copying code. He was able to break down coded messages. Apparently Marion did well at the radio school. Lots of soldiers flunked out. He learned subtle but critical sounds received on his radio. For example, “click-click” meant ‘a friend’ and “chirp-chirp” meant ‘a foe’.

He learned such emergency procedures, such as, if his plane is shot down, it was the radioman’s responsibility to destroy certain radio parts. It happened that the Army Air Force was looking for some good radiomen for a special mission. Marion was selected. The top-secret operation was to use a radio control bomb. This bomb was to be used for hard to get to targets. The large bomb used a transmitter to steer the bomb left and right by an operator using a joystick. This was called the Azon Bomb. During many traditional bombing missions, the bomb would often miss their target. The Azon Bomb would help considerably by guiding the bomb to its target.

Crews were selected for this project and they made their way across the country by train from San Francisco to Fort Dix, New Jersey. This was a ‘top secret’ mission and the personnel involved were under tight security. No one was allowed to leave the coaches, except for food and bathroom breaks, during their long train ride. Even a public restaurant was cleared of all civilians before the special missions crew was allowed in for a meal.

All personnel on this mission were required to carry a .45 automatic pistol at all times. There were multiple threats of court martial and jail time if anyone talked about the ‘top secret’ project with any one, except those in your group. (Gee, I hope all this information has been declassified.) On this train, our group was headed into war. There were others coming home from war. At one point, our crew had to pass through a car full of soldiers coming home. There were guards posted on each end of the car. Our boys were laughing and joking as they passed through. The guards told them to “keep quiet”. Some of the crew was upset about the demand from the guard.

A bit later, the crew’s leader lit in to the complainers. “ “Do you know who you men were talking to?” Jordan (the leader) was quite upset with us. “These men at each end of the coach were guards. Those men in that coach were suffering from combat fatigue. One man just went off his rocker and banged his fist into a window, breaking it and cutting his hand quite badly.

Those men were eyeing your guns and would easily have gotten one. So now, by God, go through that coach next time quickly and be quiet.” No one uttered a word after Jordan’s talk. This shocked us into being a bit frightened and careful.” When Marion’s crew arrived at Fort Dix, they knew that they were on a secret mission, but they had no idea as what it was. A colonel welcomed them during a briefing. “You men are about to enter training for a very secret mission.” He noted that the enemy would be after them to find out what sort of secret warfare they were using. The ‘top secret’ training began.

Next week we will find out about the training and the big overseas trip. Marion Crawley’s book is available at the Little Professor Book Store in Athens.

If anyone has any memories or comments about Marion Crawley, please drop me a note. I will add it to my notes. John Halley. jhalley@athensmessenger.com