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A conversation with 92-year old U.S. Navy Veteran Carroll Lane

While there’s still time, I wish every young person could meet Carroll Lane, one of the Greatest Generation and one who was involved in World War II, history’s greatest war. That young person would carry the memory of someone born in the early part of the last century into the next century.

Church friend Gary Gilbert had told me about Carroll and had linked me up with retired teacher Donna Treece, Lane’s granddaughter, who was on hand at the visit with Mr. Lane. Meeting Carroll was a joy.

The 98 year-old still has a stout body, a full head of hair, who mows his own large lawn, and who has a distinct memory of earlier Hamblen days, along with his wartime experiences.

James ‘Carroll’ Lane was born at home on June 13, 1925, the oldest of 3 sons and 3 daughters of Jim and Zonna Ford Lane. Of those siblings, a brother and sister are still living. At the time father Jim was a Jefferson County farmer where upon James’ birth, Mamie Black, a black family friend helped Zonna until Dr. Carroll could arrive for the delivery.

Carroll’s father would find a job at the Morristown Knitting Mill, later the Lea-Wayne Mill, where after spending a half year of school in Jefferson County and with the family moving to Morristown, young Carroll would attend Rose School. He recalled that the school then looked like a new building. After finishing the 5th grade, he would leave school to work on Will Bell’s farm in the orchard, strawberries, and hay for $1.00 a day.

He recalled Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

“We didn’t realize it until Monday or Tuesday,” he said. “We had a battery powered radio that we saved to listen to the Grand Ol’ Opry. We got a book of ration stamps to where we could only buy so much coffee and sugar and other needs, but Dad traded with D. H. Mays and he’d always carry Dad out a box of stuff that was supposed to be rationed.

“Mr. Efis Moore wouldn’t sign up for the stamps. He had a little one-horse wagon and would drive to town once a week. His shoes were worn out and some people got him some new ones and scuffed them up so that he wouldn’t know they were new. I worked during the war when I could pick up a day or two of work.“

Carroll would receive his draft notice in Sept. 1943 and was sent to Ft. Oglethorpe for a physical. After passing he was told that he had the choice of the Army, Navy, or Marines, and replied that he would take the middle one – the Navy.

For basic he was sent to the Great Lakes training area, where he told that basic training wasn’t too tough. During training he made friends with an old Navy seaman who had “hashmarks all the way down his arm”, and who advised him to “do his best and he’ll come out just fine.”

Carroll took that advice which would serve him well in the Navy.

Following basic, Carroll would return home on leave to marry Marie Daniel, a Grainger County girl who was then living in Hamblen’s Noe’s Chapel area. Carroll was living in the Crockett’s Ridge area when they met and recalled a cherry orchard there.

After returning to duty, he was sent to Grosse Island, Michigan, where he worked for the regimental maintenance section that took care of the post. While there, he was with some British cadets who were learning to fly the old Stearman two-winged planes. After leaving Grosse Point, he was sent on to Hastings, Nebraska, to an ammo depot, where in a short while he would be transferred on to Treasure Island in California.

While at Treasure Island, he was in a detail working on the damaged aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Intrepid, where his name was called out to be on the crew of the Indianapolis, but missed the call. That ship would later be sunk after delivering atomic bomb parts to Tinian Island.

He would then be assigned to the Destroyer Escort Conley DE-306, where his job was to manually steer the boat if the hydraulic steering went out.

Launched in January, 1944, the destroyer escort was 289 feet long and carried 15 officers and 183 enlisted men, with the main mission of protecting convoys from Japanese submarines. After training off Hawaii, the Conley served off Iwo Jima from February 19 until March 1, 1945, and guarded a convoy to Okinawa, where it arrived on April 9. During those battles, the Conley’s mission was to screen the ships and provide direct support for the landings.

“We had a little ship and when we hit rough water the bow would go down and lift the stern out of the water. We could hear our propellers whirling in the air”, he told. “I never did get seasick, but those long swells would make you woozy. We had bunks 3 deep that were on chains, and we pulled them up during the daytime. A Mississippi boy was our chief cook and we got fed good. He didn’t believe in putting sugar in the cornbread like the northern boys had expected, and everybody helped him when he needed help.”

Aside from assisting the other ships with mail and such, another of the Conley’s missions was to serve as a decoy against the enemy. “We went ashore in the Philippines and part of it was tore all to pieces,” he recalled.

“The people were in bad shape. A Japanese airplane that had crashed with two of the crew drowning while a third was rescued and brought aboard our ship. We put him in a locker and then the crew got him to autograph dollar bills. We put him on a hospital ship and later, when we got to California, a translator told that he had signed “Help Me!” on the bills. I wish that I’d kept that dollar bill. After they had dropped the bomb and the war had ended, some enemy subs hadn’t gotten the word and were still sinking ships! We brought back some Marines and fixed them some pork chops, but the greasy pork chops made them sick.“

Following the peace signing, the Conley returned to the U.S. and went through the Panama Canal to Pascagula, Mississippi, where they spent Navy Day and enjoyed some good seafood before heading back to the Great Lakes. The Conley would be scrapped shortly after war.

Carroll was discharged at the Great Lakes center and boarded an L & N train to return home and recalled the “clickity clack” of the train going over the rails. His dad picked Carroll up in his ’37 Chevrolet and Carroll used his mustering out money to set up housekeeping.

After returning home, he started working for Harve Taylor, where after 5 years he moved on to a job with Charlie Pope at the Walnut Woodworking plant for another 5 years. His next job would be at Forrest Products, where he stayed until Seymour Gerson left the plant, when Carroll would move to the Morristown Foam factory where he stayed until his retirement in 1999.

Carroll recalled the early ‘50’s in Morristown when Paul Gose and “Greasy” Roberts would race on the track located on the then western edge of Morristown where there would be a lot of wrecks.

“I remember the shacks at the Poor Farm in Russellville,” he added.

James and Marie would have sons Donnie (now deceased) and David and would have two granddaughters and a grandson who would provide James and Marie with a five granddaughters”. James and Marie would be married for 53 years and 9 months before Marie would pass away in 1997.

Nine years Following Marie’s passing, Carroll would meet Sara Fay Conley at church and the couple would be married in 2006. Sarah would pass away in 2022. “She liked to go and I did also, and we wore out two automobiles and enjoyed ourselves..

The Lord blessed me with two wonderful ladies,” he ended.