1943 - Wartime America, Small Town Santa Fe

1943 - America at War and winning. In the Pacific, in Europe, in northern Africa, the allies were turning the tide of the war.

At home, Americans faced rationing of cheese, meat, canned food, shoes and gasoline. And coffee, sugar and butter. But Americans didn’t just give up the luxuries, they gave as well, holding drives to collect scrap metal, rubber and cooking fat. And they invested millions of dollars in war bonds. Women took the place of men in the factories and America knuckled down to the job at hand.

Santa Feans did their part, too. Daily, the newspaper encouraged citizens to save cooking fat, paper, scrap metal and rubber for the war effort. And they did.

The paper even carried a chart of enemy planes, just in case a Japanese zero was considering strafing the Santa Fe Plaza. The paper reported who was drafted, who was killed or injured in the war, who got medals and who came home.

The War was personal in Santa Fe. When Corregidor fell in May 1942, thousands of Americans, hundreds of them New Mexicans serving in the 200^th Coast Artillery, were taken prisoner. Those few who survived the infamous Bataan death march were held in camps deep in the Philippines. New Mexico Governor John Dempsey immediately began plans to get an information flow to New Mexicans with sons and brothers held prisoner as well as efforts to get the prisoners as much aid as the Japanese would allow.

One prisoner, Sgt. Walter Charles Kiesov, managed to get a postcard to his mother, Mrs. Charles Kiesov, reporting that he was well. Sgt. Kiesov was first reported killed at Bataan but then his name appeared on the prisoner list. Other Santa Fe boys, thought to be lost, turned up at prison camps in the Phillipines, including Pvt. Francis Bert Powell, son of M/M C.F. Powell of Garfield Street, Sgt. Francis Van Buskirk, son of M/M J.A. Laudenslager, Corp. Rubel Gonzales, son of Mrs. Frank Gonzales, Candelario Street, Corp. Joe T. Lucero, son of Mrs. Willie Lucero, East Alameda and Corp. Ray Tucker, son of Mrs. William T. Tucker, Ninita Street. Many more such notices were received throughout 1943.

And the local paper also highlighted our war heroes, two. Sgt. Manuel Duran received a purple heart for injuries he got while saving his crew members and his bomber, attacked returning from a bombing mission. A fierce fire broke out and Sgt. Duran assisted the wounded, jettisoned ammo which was about to blow up and put out the flames. He is the son of Mrs. Matt Duran, widow of the late Matt Duran who ran the Torreon Shoe Shop on College Street.

And Lt. Edwin Lamme also won a purple heart for serious injuries to his hand when his Flying Fortress was hit by an anti-aircraft shell over France. Ed, the son of M/M Kenneth Lamme who ran a photography studio in Santa Fe, was most famous as the youngest ever to graduate from St. Mikes High School, called St. Michael's College in those days.

Major Miguel A. Otero wrote home to tell of a chance meeting with another Santa Fean – Sgt John Stevenson in North Africa. Both were in the Air corps and ran across each other at the same post exchange. Otero was a lawyer in town, the son of Governor Miguel Otero and married to the famous flyer, Katherine Stinson Otero. Stevenson was the advertising manager for the New Mexican until he was drafted.

Silas Garcia went off to the Navy in style, courtesy of a party thrown by the Misses Mary Jane Montano and Eloisa Baca . Guests included Charlie Thayer, Joe Padilla, Joe Frank Ortiz, Don Rodriguez, Mike Abeyta, Bennie Gonzales, Pete Alarid, Eddy Apodaca, Walter Stark, Tilly Baca, Alice Lucero, Margaret Martinez, Viola Tapia and Ferbie Longacre. Games, dancing and refreshments for all.

Capt Finlay MacGillivray of Santa Fe demonstrated he was proud of his Scots ancestry when his named his bomber the “Hoot Mon.” In 1943, McGillivray was serving in New Guinea piloting A-20 attack bombers. In fact, he received the Air Medal and a letter of commendation for his service there. Mac was a Santa Fe High School graduate and a football star at UNM before the war and he wrote often to his mother, Della MacGillivray, at 130 W. Houghton Street.

Wondering about the women in the war effort? Then consider Lena Alarid, the first Santa Fe girl to enlist in the WAVES – that's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. She was a nurse stationed in Washington D.C. and held the rank of lieutenant. She was the daughter of Fred Alarid, 206 Chapelle. Eight other Santa Fe girls were in WAVES in 1943: Eloisa Eckert, Paulina Gonzales, Hulda Hobbs, Dollie Ruth Johnson, Jane E. Means, Ernestine Quintana, Irma Wildering Smith and Mary Francis Sullivan.

And six Santa Fe girls were on the front page of the monthly newsletter for the Tulare Air Base in California as the prettiest aircraft mechanics around or “gal wrench-wrestlers,” as the newsletter put it. They were Ernestine and Teresa Alarid, Santana Gonzales, Anita Bustos, Amy Norton and Agnes Lucero. According to the newsletter, the six were trained at the Santa Fe municipal airport where these “belles of the balpeen hammer” learned their craft.

1943 – Wartime America, Small Town Santa Fe.