By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
“That’s the gun I fired,” said 91-year-old Wade Hillard during a demonstration of World War II rifles at Saturday’s D-Day gathering at the Price of Freedom Museum on Weaver Road.
Hillard, who lives with his niece, Rickie Stirewalt on Spring Oak Drive, served in the Army for four years after which he was drafted by the Navy to serve another year.
Don Shupe of Salisbury demonstrated the use of the M1 Garand combat rifle, which fired off eight rounds from one clip. The Germans learned to recognize the sound the clip made when the rounds were all fired, he said, and would then attack.
The Americans, however, realized what the Germans were doing and would have others rifles loaded and ready to fire when one finished. The Germans came out, he said, “and the Germans went down.”
Shupe said more than four million of the combat rifles were manufactured before the end of World War II.
Paul Gill of Huntersville demonstrated an M1903 A3 bolt-action rifle used in training. The rifle had to be loaded with a clip containing five rounds and didn’t fire nearly as quickly as the other rifle.
Bobby Mault, who started the military museum in the cafeteria of the old Patterson School, planned the event to observe the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the first day of the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944.
The planned World War II re-enactment was canceled due to the threat of rain. But just like with any other project he’s worked on, Mault said when one thing doesn’t work out, something else turns up to take its place.
“I always put my efforts and commitment out there,” he said, “and the Lord helps out.”
Four hours into the seven-hour event, 170 people had signed the visitors book in the museum. Mault, who plans to expand the exhibits into the main school building, said some people never made it inside.
Displays of military memorabilia, including several restored Jeeps, were spread out on the grounds on the other side of the school. Members of The Old Hickory Association were among the people displaying war equipment, uniforms and various other memorabilia.
The association’s mission is to preserve, restore and display military memorabilia from the World War II era to ensure that the sacrifices made are not forgotten. Members include veterans and people who want to honor them.
Neil Trivette of Boonville, for example, joined as a way to honor his father.
Member Walt Sowinski of Greensboro manned the command tent set up as part of the exhibit. “This would be the nerve center for the company,” he said.
The furnishings included lanterns, maps, an old-time typewriter, radio and switchboard equipment and makeshift desks and chairs for the operators.
Sowinski said the memorabilia is all privately owned. “We’re not subsidized by anybody,” he said.
Old Hickory Association past president Don Shupe collects radio equipment, Sowinski said, while member Robbie Lamb of Charlotte collects medic equipment.
Jay Callaham of Greensboro, who served in the National Guard in the 1970s, filled three tables with military memorabilia from his collection. The rarest, he said, is an emergency ration tin from World War II, still containing the rations including beef bouillon and cocoa beverage powder.
Soldiers were instructed not to eat the rations unless authorized by their commander, he said, so most either ate them or threw them away at the end of the war and the tins rotted.
Callaham said he has purchased the items in his collection at yard sales, auctions and on eBay. Some people don’t know what they have when they sell them, he said. The emergency rations tin, for example, was advertised on eBay as a cocoa tin because it had cocoa powder in it.
Other items in his collection included a mustard grenade, soldiers’ diaries and New Testaments, an English-French/French-English dictionary, diaries of military personnel and New Testaments of soldiers in the trenches.
One New Testament had a metal cover reading “May This Keep You Safe From Harm.” Callaham said people bought these for their loved ones in service thinking the metal cover might help protect them.
He pointed to a military wristwatch in his collection, explaining that before the war, men carried pocket watches because wristwatches were considered feminine. Pilots were the first to start wearing them, he said, because they didn’t have time to reach into their pockets to check the time.
Five-year-old T.J. Cline, dressed in camouflage and an Army hat, sat in a 1945 Jeep restored by his mother’s boyfriend, Michael Hinson of Salisbury. Hinson and his parents, Joyce and Gleen Hinson, have been collecting military memorabilia for years.
A drill sergeant for the Army, Michael Hinson explained that the brown Montana Peak hats worn during World War II are now designated for drill sergeants as an honor of distinction.
Bobby Harrison, a retired Rowan County Sheriff’s officer, pointed out the different guns in the collection of Marvin Jones, also of Rowan, including several machine guns. Jones displayed a German banner brought home by his stepfather, Fredrick Y. Regent, in 1945. The banner was taken off a wall in Berlin after the Normandy Invasion.
John Kirkman, who was assisting with the event, helped coordinate the outdoor events while Mault greeted visitors inside the museum. Though he is not a veteran, 75-year-old Mault said he can still remember how hard it was at 8 years of age to watch his four brothers, James, Ray, Claude and Ed, leave to serve in World War II.
There was a time when three of them were missing at the same time, he said. Back then, Mault said the telephone didn’t ring unless it was an emergency.
“I can still see my mother and daddy going into shock when the telephone would ring,” he said fighting tears. “I get emotional.”
Fortunately, all four returned home safely.
Mault said his massive collection of military memorabilia began when Dan Ritchie of China Grove gave him his Civil Air Patrol manual, log book and other equipment to display at the Texaco station he has run on N.C. 152 for years. After that, he said other veterans started bringing in their uniforms, equipment and memorabilia for him to display.
Worley King of Saw Road, who walked by while Mault was talking, for example, gave him his U.S. Army drill sergeant uniform to display.
James L. Nesbitt of Kannapolis spent some time looking for his unit in the Army 1st Battalion 16th Infantry in one of many books spread out across the tables in the museum. Saturday was Nesbitt’s first trip to the Price of Freedom Museum, though he had seen some of the uniforms and memorabilia displayed in Mault’s service station.
Nesbitt received a Purple Heart for his service in the Vietnam War. He was injured three times, including being burned by napalm and injured by a grenade and shrapnel.
“It was a politicians’ war,” he said of Vietnam. Once, when some dignitaries came to visit the troops, Nesbitt said he shared that opinion only to have them move on to someone else, and he ended up “getting chewed out” by his commander.
His brother, Ivan, also served in Vietnam and was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot in combat.
Mault enjoyed seeing all the people in his museum. An artist rendering displayed at the entrance shows his plans for the school building, including separate rooms for each branch of the military and an auditorium for films and presentations.
It is his hope that teachers will bring school groups to tour the Price of Freedom Museum and that veterans will use it as a gathering place.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.