Norman McCall knows that "Ships Designed To Sink" (submarines) are not everyone's cup of tea, but during World War II he lived in one for three years. Not only that but Norman volunteered to join the Submarine Division of the Navy and was the only submarine veteran from Cameron Parish during World War II.
     Submarines were cramped for living spaces, sometimes hot and dark, sometimes dropped down into the deep like a rock, but when you talk to Norman McCall about living in a submarine, you®ll see a gleam in his eyes as he proudly tells about the accomplishments his submarine, The USS Jack, which sank more Japanese tankers than any other American sub with a total of 30 ships, during World War II.

​EARLY DAYS IN GRAND CHENIER
     Born Mar. 2, 1924, Norman McCall, spent his childhood in a small home on the bank of the Mermentau River in Grand Chenier with his parents Henry and Gladys McCall, and siblings Claude V. "Pete" McCall, Henry "T-Boy", Emma and Oma.
     Norman still remembers two toys that he had as a child, both of them homemade, stilts, and a marsh buggy made with 2 x 4s and evaporated milk cans.
     Those were the years of The Great Depression so Norman had to help the family, including milking cows morning and evening, spending hours every week weeding the garden, and helping with any other chores he could. In between that he attended school at the tiny Grand Chenier High School,
where he graduated with 21 other students.
     Most of his early years were spent on the water, since he came from a long line of boatmen. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather,

Alcide Miller, who operated a schooner, the E. O. Gladys, named for Miller®s wife, Emma, and his daughters, Olive, Oma and Gladys, in which he made
frequent trips to Galveston. Miller would carry passengers, oranges, and bales of cotton grown on the Cheniers to Galveston, and would bring back passengers, merchandise and supplies, for his dry goods store at Grand Chenier.
     Norman's father, Henry McCall, married Alcide®s daughter, Gladys Miller, and he operated a wooden single screw boat, 18' x 55', which
hauled supplies between Lake Arthur and Grand Chenier.

​THEN CAME WAR
     Norman McCall was 18 years old and going to college at Louisiana Tech, when he heard about World War II. Right away he joined the Navy's Submarine Branch. He was sent to San Diego, Calif. and went through Basic Submarine Training, Electrical School, Electric Torpedo School, and Gyrocompass School, which took about six months. From the very beginning McCall was assigned to the Submarine USS Jack.
     "I didn't tell my parents that I'd joined the Navy Submarines," he said, "but having lived on the water all their lives, they probably wouldn't have been surprised."
     Most men who joined the submarines during the war liked the fact that in a submarine they would be right on the front line of the war. They could shoot torpedoes at enemy ships and see the result. This seemed much better to them than being a member of a huge crew on an air carrier, or destroyer,
which were usually too far away to witness the result of their warfare.
     "I can still remember the first time that I went down in a sub," says Norman, "and it was scary! I wasn't claustrophobic, but I knew my life depended on the entire crew of the sub. One wrong move could be catastrophic."
     "In a submarine you lose track of time and since you're underwater most of the time, you don't know which direction you're going, unless you study the instruments on the vessel".

​THE FIRST TIME
     The first day, of the first patrol, that Norman McCall went on, he faced a new life, under water, in his new home in the Submarine USS Jack, where he would live with 83 other men, for the next three years on a submarine that was 311 ft. 5 & 1/2 inches long, and 27 ft. & 1/2 inches in diameter.
     "My job description was Diesel Electrician," said McCall. "We had three shifts, four hours on and eight off. During our work time we inspected and repaired the diesel engines, the electrical equipment on the sub, and made sure the 20 torpedoes were ready to go. The torpedoes were powered by alcohol and air."
     "When we had to make a quick dive underwater," recalled McCall, "it was like riding a fast elevator, but we soon got used to it. Before we went out on patrol, hunting the enemy, our Captain was given sealed orders. He could not open them for 24 hours, so we didn't know where we were going or which Japanese convoy we were chasing, until we got to our designated position.

​PRESIDENTIAL CITATION
     "Our submarine, the USS Jack," recalls Norman, "received a °Presidential Citation of War® for our First, Third and Fifth Patrols, which were in the Pacific, East China Sea and South China Sea.
     During the First Patrol we were following a Japanese convoy of four tankers. With speedy maneuvering, and accurate torpedoes, we were able to sink three tankers, and heavily damaged the fourth. This was a major set back for the enemy."
     "The Third Patrol was memorable because we sank four tankers in 24 hours! This was in the South China Sea. It was a moonlight night and after the battle was over, our Captain surfaced and let the crew witness the tall columns of fire from the tankers, seeming to reach up to the sky."
     "The Fifth Patrol, listed on our citation took place in three different areas - South China Sea, Philippine Sea and Celebes Sea - in which we sank at least two Troop Transports carrying 3,000 soldiers preparing to invade New Guinea. We actually made six more Patrols in the Pacific and in the South China Sea. When MacArthur was getting his troops ready to return to the Philippines, we were sent to patrol the shores around Manila and sink enemy ships that were protecting it."
​
TORPEDOS, DEPTH CHARGES & BOMBS
     "Our greatest dangers were from torpedoes shot by Japanese subs, depth charges from their ships, or bombs dropped by their planes. Japan seemed to have technology as good as, and in some cases better than ours."
     "Whenever we needed repair or supplies, such as torpedoes, fuel, food, or water, we would go to Perth, Australia and stay there for a few weeks until ready to return to battle."

​AFTER THE WAR
     Shortly after World War II ended, Norman McCall returned to Cameron and began a new life. He met Phyllis Donnateli, who was his sister, Emma's, roommate. He began dating her and they married in 1950. Soon they had two children, Doreen and Phillip Alan. But their wedded bliss ended abruptly in 1957 when Hurricane Audrey blasted ashore destroying most of the parish and taking 425 lives.
     Among the victims were Norman's wife, Phyllis, and their two children, Doreen and Phillip Alan. The tragic story of their deaths is told in my book, "Hurricane Audrey".
     After Audrey, the Bishop of Lafayette put Norman McCall in charge of the project of building a shrine in front of the Cameron Catholic Church, "Our Lady Star of the Sea". Pictures of Phyllis and daughter, Doreen, were used by the Italian sculptor as guidance for the statue of the Virgin Mary and the little girl standing beside her on the front of the church.

​BIRTH OF MCCALL'S BOAT RENTALS
     After the war Norman McCall went to work for Pure Oil Company as captain on an ex-minesweeper. When Union Oil bought Pure Oil, McCall bought a 50-foot crew boat and a 65-foot utility boat.
     In 1967 he started his own company, McCall's Boat Rentals, Inc. and gradually bought boats to build his company. While it was expanding, Norman ran for Police Jury and served one term as a juror. He also purchased a large farm in Longville and stocked it with cattle.
     As his boat business continued to expand, he built the first 4-engine crew boat in 1970, then a 5-engine crew boat in 1984, and the first 6-engine crew boat in 1989. The next year he built the first 185-foot crew boat ever delivered in the world.
     In 1996 McCall's Boat Rentals merged with Seacor Marine and now McCall boats are sent all over the world, as far away as the African Coast,  South America, Central America, Mexico, Quatar, Azerbaijan, where they support offshore oil and gas exploration and development projects.
     After his first wife's death, Norman married Joyce Colligan and they have three children, Alan, Phyllis and Joe. Norman has been, and continues to be, active in many organizations, especially the U.S. Sub-Vets of WW II, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Lions Club, Farm Bureau, American Legion and Wildlife and Fisheries. He also took up Stock Car Driving and enthusiastically pursued this hobby for a number of years.
     Since Hurricanes Rita, Gustav and Ike when he again faced destruction of his home and business, he has moved his home and business to south Lake Charles but his heart is still in the land of his birth, in Cameron Parish.

JENNINGS - Imagine rolling yourself into a ball, like an armadillo, and squeezing yourself into a space barely big enough to hold your contorted body.
Now imagine that you will be stuck inside this little claustrophobic ball for eight hours at a time, breathing oxygen through a mask to stay alive and controlling two .50-caliber machine guns, all while flying over enemy-held territory at 29,000 feet, where the outside temperature is 60 degrees below zero.
 
Retired Staff Sgt. Ben Miller, 88, of Jennings, did this 33 times as an 18-year-old ball turret gunner on an Army Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress in the skies over Europe during World War II.
Drafted at the age of 18 in 1943 from his home in Jennings, Miller was shipped off to Logan, Utah, as a cadet for pilot training.
 
Slated to be shipped to California to finish his pilot training, the program was cut and Miller was not able to solo and gain his pilot wings. He was transferred to gunnery school and was trained to shoot down enemy fighters with the .50-caliber machine guns that gave the Flying Fortress its name. The mounting casualties in the air war over Europe forced the Army Air Force to ship Miller to England to man the ball turret on a B-17.
 
He sailed from New York to England aboard the Queen Mary, along with actor Mickey Rooney. “I saw Mickey Rooney on the deck of the ship, but I never got to talk to him,”  Miller said.
 
The Atlantic crossing was dangerous in itself, with many soldiers never making it to England. “It took us nine days to cross because we had to zigzag to avoid the German submarines,” he said. “I was flying combat missions for the 8th Air Force just a few days after landing in England,” he said.
 
On Dec. 11, 1944, Miller flew in the bombing raid on a major railroad complex in Giessen, Germany. The railroad facility was a key strategic target because it handled the transportation of vast amounts of German army resources. The city also was the location for the subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
 
Enemy fire wasn’t the only threat to Miller’s survival. Stuffed into his tiny ball turret gun position in the belly of the B-17, Miller’s oxygen mask froze up and cut off his air supply at 29,000 feet. He had to scramble to take off his oxygen mask, disconnect his heated gloves and jacket from their electrical connections, and open the door to the turret so that he could climb back into the aircraft with his other crew members before passing out from hypoxia.
 
"I thought that was my last day on Earth, but I came through and here I am today," he said. His buddies on board were able to get an emergency oxygen tank to him.
 
Life in the ball turret on a B-17 was especially dangerous. Only small-statured men could fit into the cramped space. “I flew the first five missions without a parachute because they didn’t have a chute small enough to fit with me inside that little frozen ball,” he said with a smile.
 
Enemy fire caught up with Miller and his crew on Christmas Eve 1944. “The first time I was shot down, we were hit over Frankfurt, Germany, and ended up crash landing in Belgium.” Miller said.
 
Miller had to climb out of his ball turret before they crash landed because he would have been crushed inside the bottom of the plane.        "We had to scatter and make our way back to England on our own because the Germans were all around," Miller said.
 
The B-17 had a 10-man crew, and it was every man for himself to get out of enemy-held territory because 10 American soldiers in a group would attract the attention of the enemy.
 
Miller’s luck continued as he was approached by a young boy as he made his escape from the crash site. “I couldn’t understand a word he was saying, but I could tell he wanted me to follow him to his home,” Miller said.
 
When they arrived at the boy’s home, he showed Miller identification papers and a pistol given to him by the U.S. government that proved he was a member of the underground resistance and would help Miller get back to his base in England.
 
After spending Christmas with the boy’s family, Miller rejoined an engineering outfit that had seized a castle previously occupied by the Germans. Miller stayed with the engineers for nine days before being transported back to his base in England.
​
He immediately returned to duty and began flying more bombing missions. On Valentine’s Day 1945 while on a bombing raid to destroy the oil refinery and weapons factory at Chemnitz, Germany, he was shot down for the second time.

"We got hit real bad," he said. “The flak (air-bursting anti-aircraft artillery) blasted us. Two of our engines were hit and caught fire. One of my buddies caught a load of shrapnel in his leg and was banged up real bad. The shrapnel that tore his leg up barely missed me.
 
"We landed with two of our engines on fire." Having landed on the allied side of the lines, Miller and his crew were back in England on flight status in no time.
 
When asked what was the scariest part of the missions, Miller replied, "The flak exploding and spraying us with shrapnel. The flak was so close and rough that by the time we hit Belgium our formations were all busted up and scattered. The booming noise as the shells exploded was unbearable."
 
          With victory declared in Europe, Miller waited for his orders to ship him to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. Fortunately for him the war in the Pacific ended before he received his orders to go.
 
"Boy was I relieved when we got word of the Japanese surrender," he said.
 
Miller left England for Iceland, and then to Mississippi to await his next assignment before becoming an inactive reservist. He was later called up for the Korean War but was never deployed. He ended his military service in 1952 as a vehicle technician at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
 
Miller’s wife of 59 years, Martha, was just a young girl while he was serving his country. “I was only 9 years old when he was over there fighting,” she said. "All I remember about the war was working at my daddy’s gas station and pasting stamps in the stamp books."
 
Miller kept a diary of his days in combat. "I just wrote in it when I thought about it," he said. "There would be days I didn’t pay any attention to it." The diary is among other keepsakes from his service including his medals, letters from home and old black and white photographs.

------------------------------------------------NOTES------------------------------ 
Ben Miller is a descendant of Jacob Miller and Anne Marie Thaison/Theigen and Jacob’s son, Jean Miller and Marie Francoise Mayer.
 
Ben’s parents are Bernard Miller and Anna Marie Clement. He married Martha Blackledge.
 
More on these families at www.FamilyAtLouisiana.com. Books of interest may be purchased at www.lulu.com. 
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Purchase Jean Miller Louisiana Family book, Vol I
and Vol II
​