Norval Caples

Norval Caples ’53 chose a unique way to remember his part in World War II. He recorded his experiences in a special booklet published and distributed to his family and friends.

A record of memorable experiences is built around a series of biographical sketches focusing on particular individuals who served with him aboard the destroyer U.S.S. HENRY A. WILEY.

One sketch centers around a shipmate who showed a picture of his sister to Caples and suggested he write to her. A correspondence began that ended in Caples’ marriage to Lola Hamby ’67 who majored in Art Education.

Caples, who now lives in Gainesville, GA, embarked upon his navy career after basic training as a member of a 20 millimeter gun crew aboard the brand new destroyer in a Brooklyn, N.Y. shipyard. The ultimate destination was the South Pacific.

He recalls numerous experiences in combat and explains that his living compartment was located directly beneath a large gun turret, and “when those guns were fired, our whole area would vibrate viciously, dislodging the fireproof material covering steam pipes overhead. We’d return to find our bunks covered with pieces of insulation and the area would be hazy, as though in a deep fog, from the particles of asbestos and spun glass insulation material suspended and dancing in the air we breathed.”

After several months, Caples said he and his shipmates, “had crammed more fear, excitement and adventure into our lives than we’d experienced all put together until then.”

During combat, if a Japanese aircraft came in low, larger guns in the turret just above his crew fired almost horizontally, “with their huge projectiles hurtling outward just a few feet over our heads, leaving whirling rings of gun powder in the air, visible to the naked eye, and madly rotating with a series of ‘whirr’ sounds,” recalled Caples.

“With our own 20-millimeter guns going ‘dada-dada’ the larger guns going ‘boom’ and the Japanese seeking to wreak mayhem all the while, my own conscious mind could think of but one word to describe it all, prompted by one of Mom’s religious books predicting the fiery end of the world -HOLOCAUST.”

In his publication, Caples shares more incidents of combat and gives the reader an understanding of what life was like for servicemen during the war. He includes other accounts of combat situations, normal shipboard procedures, describes many unforgettable characters and even includes a vivid description of burial-at-sea.

When the war ended, Caples and his shipmates found themselves off Japan’s coast at Sasebo. He recalls the destruction and devastation of the once active seaport famous for ship building. He gives a meaningful account of the emotions he felt and lessons he learned working with the defeated Japanese in removing mines from Sasebo Bay. In November, 1945 he began his voyage back to the United States by way of Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal to Norfolk, VA.

Caples, who grew up on a farm near Westminister, Md. arrived home on New Year’s Day, 1946.

Now retired, Caples and his wife enjoy retirement in Gainesville. They have two daughters,Charlotte (Vickie) Smith and Diane Hudgins, and four grandchildren.