9/25/2023 0 Comments Executive assault 2 assembly plant![]() ![]() “With Local 66, he helped put the steel up on Maag Library at Youngstown State University, did bridge work,” he said.Īmong the more high-profile projects was Duffett’s role as a master mechanic during the initial construction of General Motors Corp.’s Lordstown Assembly plant in 1964. Throughout his career with the Operating Engineers, Duffett exemplified the life of a proud union man, his son said. He married the former Louise Welther in 1952, and the family settled in Canfield. Local 66 plans to recognize Duffett’s service and union work in its upcoming quarterly newsletter.ĭuffett returned to Ohio and to farming for four years before heading back to Youngstown and the construction trades, Jim said. Wydick said that 17,891 members of the International Operating Engineers served during the war 273 of them were killed. Truman announced the atomic attack on Hiroshima. 6, 1945, Duffet was aboard an LST – an acronym for Landing Ship, Tank – that would have been used to support the invasion when President Harry S. Once Okinawa was secured, Duffett was dispatched to Guam, where he helped construct Quonset huts, pontoons and barges to be used for the invasion of Japan. He then disembarked on a hospital vessel that participated in the invasion.Īfter Iwo Jima, Duffett’s battalion was sent to the Philippines and then to Okinawa, ferrying supplies to Marines on the beachhead. “We built pontoon causeways for the invasion of Sicily and Italy,” he said.Īfter additional training stateside, Duffett was shipped to Hawaii where he operated a crane and constructed additional pontoon causeways – this time in preparation for the assault on Iwo Jima in February 1945. “I ran a crane most of the time,” Duffett recalled during an interview for PBS Western Reserve Television’s “Northeast Ohio War Stories.” ![]() Navy Construction Battalion, more commonly known as the “Seabees.” He completed basic training in Rhode Island, and then in 1943 was shipped to North Africa, stationed near the port of Oran. His father would eventually earn his union card as a crane operator while working alongside his father, George – a crane operator at a local steel mill. “He grew up in farm country,” recalls Duffet’s son, Jim, of Raleigh, North Carolina. He grew up on a farm in Sandusky County, Ohio, before moving to the Mahoning Valley, where he secured work from a company contracted by the Pennsylvania Railroad. But Wydick noted that Duffett’s career in the Mahoning Valley is just a part of his lifetime of accomplishments.īorn in 1922, Duffett was among the generation that bore the brunt of the 20 th century’s most turbulent and devastating periods – the Great Depression and the second World War. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |