(no audio) (water rushing) (water rushing continues) - [Narrator] In the dead of winter, for the families of Slatersville, there was always one tradition that no child would ever forget.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - When I was young, I was a little pigeon-toed, and I tripped on a lot of things.

That's how I got the name Stubby.

(gentle music) - I started skating when I was four years old.

I'd go to school with my skates over my shoulder.

(gentle music) - My brother's birthday was December 8th, and so we always figured that was the date when we could start skating in Slatersville in early December, - Run down like a son of a gun and get on the pond right down there near the dam and skate all day long.

(gentle music) - So it was two or three of us rolled up these big balls of snow and we piled one on top of the other.

And then I went and carved out George Washington, the bust part of it.

- We used to have snow up to the windowsill.

The roads were always snowy, because the plows weren't like they are today.

- My father used to take me up skating, and I remember going with double runners.

- And you could see like maybe six people.

You'd see those sparks flying.

That was a lot of fun.

But it was the boys, they had to carry that thing up and down.

- We could take our sleds to school because there were no cars around.

So it was safe.

- [Narrator] Every child in Slatersville felt safe, until one day they didn't.

- I am Genevieve Choate and I am 98, come August this year.

It's startling.

(laughing) - [Interviewer] And we're here with Genevieve and Paul Choate, who are three days away from celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

- Paul and I were married 70 years.

We had a wonderful life.

I had three children, Culver, Nancy, and David.

- My father graduated from Harvard in 1939, and in July of that year- - Went to work for the Kendall Company, Slatersville, Rhode Island.

- [Genevieve] Oh, we had a little, tiny apartment upstairs over a French-speaking couple.

We were sitting in the kitchenette listening to the news when we heard about Pearl Harbor.

(explosion roaring) - FDR is in his third term, and he declared that the U.S.

is not nearing an entrance to war.

- December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

- That was very shocking.

He loved airplanes, so he went in the Air Force.

But he was so thin he couldn't get in unless he gained five pounds.

He kept eating bananas and bananas.

And when he got to Texas, he had to eat more bananas (chuckles) just before they weighed him.

And he just made 125.

- Since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

- [Narrator] Like all of America, mill villages were propelled into a world of change.

Some would live through it, some would not.

But there would be no mistaking this community's effort to rally together for a common cause.

From adapting to new wartime demands on the home front to the exodus of its young men and women overseas, Slatersville in every facet of its existence would be forced to answer to a whole new calling.

(lively music) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (crowd shouting) (crowd shouting continues) - [Narrator] In 1939, Germany, under Adolf Hitler's fascist Nazi party, invaded Poland.

Over the next six years, the war would grow into the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 85 million fatalities.

Most were civilians, with tens of millions killed in genocides, including the Holocaust, as well as due to starvation, massacres, and disease.

After Japan attacked the U.S.

fleet at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the U.S.

entered the war against the Axis powers.

(patriotic music) Those who remained on the home front took whatever action they could.

During this time, three men used their 8mm movie cameras to capture what was happening in Slatersville.

They were Carl Christiansen, Henry Stone, and Tom Mundy, who had an idea for the music hall right behind him.

- Yeah, that was a big hall.

That was a big deal.

We had movies up there Saturday night.

(lively music) That was condemned.

You could no longer use it, because it was not considered to be safe.

The projection room up in the end of the hall.

Silent movies.

- [Narrator] But long before fire codes put an end to that, Tom used his filmmaking skills in that space for a specific purpose.

(projector whirring) In May of 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Office of Civil Defense due to fears that enemy aircraft were capable of reaching U.S.

shores.

They supported local communities in organizing volunteers to create procedures for air raids, blackouts, first aid, and fire control.

A Ground Observer Corps watched for enemy aircraft.

In order to inform, recruit, and increase morale and patriotism, films were made on the home front.

In Slatersville, filming took place inside one of the commercial blocks, which also functioned as an emergency call center.

And this film, which has no sound, was likely projected with a script read out loud to accompany the actions.

And at times it looks like the cast was having a little too much fun.

And they also needed some practice carrying the wounded.

One boy who seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much was Elliot Eggleston.

- They used to have blackout drills in Slatersville.

It was a psychological thing, because we weren't going to get bombed.

They couldn't get to us from Germany or Japan.

(siren wailing) But they would have a blackout, and air raid wardens would go around and bang on your door if they showed a light.

- About 1942, '43, we had air raids.

My father was on the fire department for the mill.

And whenever there was an air raid warden, he had to leave.

Now, I remember being scared that he was gone, and left alone in the dark.

- It seemed like we always ate good.

We had a victory garden.

All the people on Ridge Road had a victory garden.

There was an open field.

You raised carrots and beets and potatoes and lettuce and cabbage, and all kinds of stuff, because you couldn't get vegetables, and you couldn't get meat.

- Everybody helped everybody next door, you know?

You had a garden, and they didn't have one.

You had a surplus and you'll grow a bunch of butternut squashes and give them away, you know.

- You didn't have a steak.

If you got a can of Spam, you would have something.

That was all right.

- Survival.

It's survival.

- It was terrible.

But we know it was.

- [Narrator] Wartime conditions radically transformed gender roles throughout the country.

Women had worked in Rhode Island mills for over a century, but with so many men away at war, it was the women who filled more roles, including positions of leadership.

- Mother had a job.

She went down to one of the stone buildings.

She was in the room above Frank Air's barbershop.

She had a telephone, and her job was to call Providence if a plane flew over Slatersville.

Now that is so silly, but that was her job.

And she had to try to identify the plane, try to guess at the height that it was flying, and report to Providence there was a plane coming.

That was the psychology at the time.

People were scared.

(birds chirping) - [Narrator] But during the war, there still remained one place in Slatersville where its people, especially its children, were not so scared.

- Well, I used to spend all the time on the lake.

We called it Kendall Pond.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - We'd hurry up and get our work done early in the morning, and all summer long, we would just pack something to eat, or just go put our bathing suits on first.

(lively music continues) - Because we'd go up by the Catholic church, St.

John's, and go up to it that way behind the cemetery.

(lively music continues) - [Narrator] And from that spot, every kid knew the way to their Sandy of choice.

But not so much today.

- There was First Sandy, which was near St.

John's Church.

- First Sandy was too rocky, and stumps from trees sticking up in the water.

It was closer to the dam.

I didn't like it there.

We'd walk up to Second Sandy through the woods, because- - The Second Sandy was the best.

- Because the water was shallower there.

- But make sure you don't go over your knees, because we didn't know how to swim.

(laughing) - And then there was Third Sandy, which was up off Tift Road.

But we didn't use that one very much.

I mean, you had to really walk to get there.

- [Narrator] But there was one place near the upper dam that was arguably the most beautiful spot in the entire village.

And it was there that Reverend Harvey Eastman had plans of his own.

- Reverend Eastman was here for the longest period of time.

He's the pastor that has served the longest.

(water rushing) He had a place out of town a little bit, on the lake, called Toonerville.

- [Narrator] Eastman named it after the 1920s comic strip by Fontaine Fox, which was about a rickety trolley car.

And there was a good reason for that.

- Well, the road in was exceedingly bumpy.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - Most of the people from the church, we all went at one time or another to Camp Toonerville.

I'd forgotten that.

As a matter of fact, we used to have to walk across the dam.

We would walk there, or sometimes they would send a boat from the island and bring us over.

- Then there was a cookhouse.

There was no running water, no bathroom.

There was an outhouse.

This was open to the Boy Scouts of the village.

And they would come up and camp out, or stay in one of the cabins and go swimming, and mother would fix the meals for these kids.

- Don't forget, back in those days, there weren't all these eateries.

We didn't go to McDonald's and all those places.

So life was really different.

That's about all the kids had in those days.

That, and Camp Toonerville.

- [Narrator] The campsite became the spot for countless outings in the '30s and '40s, when it was, and still is, one of the most beautiful sites in all of Slatersville.

But the place was also a hotspot in other ways.

- One camp for girls and one camp for boys.

And guess who was in the middle?

(chime dings) We kept them away.

- [Narrator] But that plan didn't really work.

♪ Me and my girl ♪ - A lot of times, they would be high school sweethearts up there, and just before sunset, they would snuggle up to the girls there and say, "I got a canoe.

You wanna go for a canoe ride?"

You know, those fellows that would take the girls on the canoe rides married them.

- And that's where I met my future husband.

He used to come and sit down after he got through work, and he'd come and sit on the beach there and watch us.

- [Narrator] But long before that, the children of Camp Toonerville knew it was run by a man who truly cared about them.

- Reverend Eastman was a wonderful man.

- He would gather people around him.

He was like a magnet.

- Historically, we've not always been wonderful to our kids.

And during the Depression and the war, fun and kids didn't necessarily go together.

And people, because life was so hard, didn't always think about their children.

But Mr.

Eastman did.

- [Narrator] Perhaps that's because his ministry had been shaped years earlier after he committed a homicide, (somber music) an event so shocking it even made the front page of "The New York Times."

(somber music) - [Judy] It was in Temple, New Hampshire.

He was pastor of the Congregational Church there.

- [Narrator] At the time, the 25-year-old reverend had successfully won over his community.

One day- - [Judy] He was at work on a farm, and a call came for all men to get their guns and come.

And everybody had a gun, because it was rural and they needed to eat.

- [Narrator] Enter retired Brigadier General James Miller.

At his residence- - He had a maid and a butler.

And the butler decided that he wanted to marry the maid, and the maid didn't want him.

- [Narrator] That's when the butler, a man named George Marcotte, abruptly quit his job.

Before giving notice, he stole the general's revolver.

- He went berserk, and decided that he was going to kill her if he couldn't have her.

- [Narrator] Days later, Marcotte returned to the residence, infuriated with liquor, and a loaded gun, forcing his way into the house.

The general and the housemaid escaped.

- All of the available men were asked to come to the house.

- [Narrator] The men tried to talk Marcotte down, but the butler was out of control.

(gunfire popping) - He was shooting at the group of men with guns.

And my grandfather, unfortunately, was the one that killed him.

(gunfire popping) (butler grunting) (body thudding) - [Narrator] Eastman's shotgun fired the round that hit Marcotte in the forehead, killing him instantly.

- [Judy] It was self-defense, and the man was shooting at them.

However, he did go to trial.

- [Eastman] I didn't really take aim, but I saw that he was presenting his pistol to me.

And if he took one more step, it would be right among us, the minute the corner of the house, and would've hit somebody.

So I fired.

I've thought it all over carefully, and I feel justified in what I did.

If I had not shot him, he would've shot one of us.

- [Narrator] Some called the reverend's actions unnecessary.

Others called it murder.

And several families left the church.

After weighing all of the evidence, the judge ruled the reverend's actions to be justifiable homicide, and discharged him as a prisoner.

The young pastor was forever shaken by the tragic event, which he wanted to forget.

- He wouldn't talk about it.

People wanted to know all of the things that people wanna know, but he said, "I killed a man.

You can't talk about that," so.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Throughout the war, Reverend Eastman took the time to write letters to the young men and women who were deployed throughout the world.

And he did this for all who were serving, regardless of whether or not they were a member of his church.

Eastman's detailed accounts provided a much-needed anchor for all who read them.

- [Eastman] We are rapidly becoming a young manless village.

Seventy have gone from the mill, and more must go soon.

About 30 from our small church community are gone.

Some of them have just been shipped out of the country.

I send a letter to all of ours about every three weeks, and get some wonderful replies from all over the country.

We have them in about every branch: Marines, Navy, Army, Air Force parachute troops, and what have you.

Lots of anxious hearts here just now.

(gentle music) Today's paper speaks of a new offensive in the South Pacific, and we wonder if some of you fellows are in on that.

Rationing is still a bother, though not as bad as it was.

Beef and lamb are really scarce.

Looks as though some people might find the fuel problem troublesome this winter.

But I guess we shouldn't have to worry.

We are doing all right in all ways and have no word of complaint.

- The mill gave the town focus in a town where everyone seemed to know everybody else.

And there was a real sense of community.

Sports became increasingly important.

Football, for example, there was a team called the Slatersville Red Raiders.

And I can remember they had their field in an area which is where the Pacheco tennis courts now stand.

The Red Raiders played in a league that was created by a coach and educator from Burrillville named Tom Eccleston, a legendary coach.

And his team was the Burrillville Mules.

And Burrillville was a very similar community.

It was a community built by the mills and around the mills.

The Red Raiders were extremely popular.

Mobs turned out for their games.

But I just remember the hitting, the equipment then wasn't anywhere near as good as it is now.

The mill provided that sense of community that made athletics that important.

It was a way that a town could see people they knew participate, and take certain pride in.

- [Narrator] And no one in Slatersville built on that pride more than Carl Christiansen, who used his property as a place to bring the community together.

- Dad was born in Millville, and I guess when he was two or three, they moved to Buxton Street, to the farm.

- [Narrator] Carl and his wife Ruby had two children.

There was Barbara and her brother Donald.

- My father was Donald Christiansen.

We would come up for Thanksgiving every year, and I was always impressed by the size of my grandparents' property.

- [Barbara] He always loved Slatersville.

And as a young boy, he would go through the woods and thought that this would be a great place to build a house eventually.

The house was finished.

We moved in.

The next year was the big hurricane.

- [Narrator] It was the infamous Hurricane of 1938 that devastated the region, killing 100 in Rhode Island alone.

Among its structural casualties was the steeple of the Congregational Church, which Tom witnessed firsthand.

- Oh yeah, I was there.

We were playing on the common, it was after school.

And the storm came up and the spire came down and landed right in the driveway.

(laughing) - [Barbara] And that's when the cabin was built.

- [Carl] Because the Hurricane of 1938 knocked a bunch of trees over, and my grandfather took them to the mill and had it made into logs for a cabin.

And that cabin sat right next to a pond.

- Before the house was built, he had the pond dug out, and it was a swimming pool.

As the season changed and the winter came, that became a very popular season.

- All the young people gravitate over to the mud holes or to the Slatersville Reservoir itself.

- [Narrator] And of course where there was ice, there was hockey.

- [Scott] We never played much hockey out on the big pond, because there it was a little bit treacherous.

(lively music) We had one or two of that age group drown through the ice in the reservoir.

- [Narrator] It was tragedies like these that gave birth to a much bigger idea.

(gentle music) - [Barbara] Donald wanted to play hockey and I loved to skate.

(gentle music continues) All the townspeople would come through the field.

- Actually, it all started with one little pond.

- [Barbara] There were six boys in town, started a hockey team, and they thought they were pretty smooth guys.

- I was playing with the Slatersville Indians.

There were only about 12 to 14 of us on the team.

Donald was the goalie.

Willie Schnorr was on the hockey team too.

I remember going up to his house, and before a game, he'd have to milk about 10 cows.

(cow mooing) His hands were so strong.

- I'd be shooting the puck against the boards and bang, bang, bang.

And I guess I woke him up a lot of mornings, Barbara says.

- [Stubby] Wally Stone, Warren Jenks, Willie Schnorr, Harold Monroe, Timmy Estee.

- [Narrator] And Stubby King, to name just a few.

- A group of people from North Smithfield who were playing at the Christiansen facility created a team and called it The Flying Farmers.

- Ah, that's my team.

- [Arnie] Not lost on people who were still a lot of farmers in town.

And I know my dad, Herb Bailey, played for the Flying Farmers.

- We asked Reverend Eastman, "What the heck can we call ourselves?"

He says, "Well, what's the matter with Flying Farmers?"

We're not real farmers, but most of us do have a garden.

- [Narrator] But by 1940, Christiansen's Pond had become so popular, he decided to expand.

- [Stubby] He had enough land up there, so he decided to get a bulldozer in there and make a real regular-size rink.

But that was more or less for the older kids.

- The town was very fortunate that the Christiansen family had built a hockey rink on their property.

It was visible from my house on North Main Street, the house I grew up in.

So I could see what was going on.

They had a 130 by 70-foot rink with wooden boards, and lights so they could play at night, and benches, so that hockey became a hot sport here.

- He built a log cabin with a fireplace in it.

We could go in and get our feet and hands warm on a real cold night.

- [Narrator] But the games played were not only limited to teams within the village.

- Over at Christiansen's, we used to play against Mount St.

Charles.

Now they were a good hockey team.

And our big thing was to beat Mount St.

Charles, one way or the other.

- It was a disaster.

They were so good.

We didn't even belong in the league with them.

Even when we used to play Burrillville, Burrillville used to have their own little ponds to skate on.

They were more organized than we were.

- [Narrator] But inevitably there would come a time when the battles over which team was best no longer mattered.

The focus shifted, and the boys on the ice would trade in their hockey jerseys for military uniforms.

- My grandfather was on the draft board, and people thought he was gonna try to keep my father out of having to go to the war.

And some people were surprised when my father went in.

- [Narrator] Like millions of Americans, in 1942, the boys who played at Christiansen's Pond enlisted in the armed forces.

One by one, they left to serve their country, while the industries that employed their families were forced to quickly reshape their own products to fit the urgent needs of the U.S.

military.

- During World War II, we were at 100 percent production because of the war.

- [Narrator] Northern textile mills that had struggled to hang on for decades were revitalized by wartime contracts for the creation of uniforms, parachutes, tents, and more.

And the Slatersville Finishing Company, under the direction of Henry Kendall, was no exception.

- [Henry] Early realization of the importance of evolving new products, and improving existing products, led us into the development of research laboratories.

Our search for new products, and new uses for old products, has gone on unceasingly from that day to this, in all parts of our business.

- We were heavily involved in baby diapers, sanitary napkins, and surgical dressings.

From surgical tape to industrial tape, or what today is known as duct tape.

We were using all of these products in various ways that would support the Defense Department.

- They manufactured the mosquito netting, yeah.

- [Clarence] We were making this fabric, they called it protection net.

- [Tom] A lot of it for during the war then.

- We would weave that fabric down south, bring it up here, bleach it, dye it all olive drab, OD, for camouflage.

They shipped it all over the world.

Where I spent my time was mostly in the tropics over in Burma.

We certainly used the netting there.

- It was quite prosperous for them to be in that business at that time.

- [Narrator] And Tom would know.

- I thought, well, my two brothers, they were in the war then.

So I says, "Well, I wanna join up."

So I went down to the recruiting station.

I told them I wanted to be a pilot, and Carl Christiansen was the head of the draft board in North Smithfield.

And I said to Mr.

Christiansen, I says, "I wanna be reclassified."

He says, "What do you wanna do that for?"

I says, "Well, I wanna join up and they won't take me."

- [Narrator] First off, he was too short to be a pilot.

As a kid, he'd been given the nickname Tim, as in Tiny Tim.

At 5'3" he would need to grow another inch.

He also didn't have the education required to fly.

- Well, he says, "You gotta be a high school graduate, and you have to have two years of college before you could classify to be a pilot."

So I didn't have either one of those.

So the sergeant was a good guy at the recruiting station, and he says, "Why don't you go home, study up on mechanics."

I went back and I took the test, and I passed the test, I qualified.

So I got in.

That's how I finally got in.

- [Narrator] Tom flew alone for 112 missions in the Asian Theater, where he engaged in combat and even blew up a few bridges, mainly over China, India, and Burma, where he was shot down by a Japanese air base.

He was rescued after surviving a crash landing on a long sandbar.

- Every soldier going into a combat zone would carry with him a big bandage in a sealed container.

(gentle music) It would be there in the event he got wounded and needed it.

We had to ramp up producing all these bandages, and we had plants operating in Chicago, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, all of which had to be coordinated.

- [Narrator] Which meant that employees like Ben Heslin, who supervised the dye department, were working hard to meet the demand under a rigorous wartime schedule.

- [Ben] Other places that were getting government work and an overflow, couldn't handle it.

We used to get a lot of that work.

We'd run three shifts regular.

- [Bob] How many people did you have working there?

- [Ben] Oh about, I don't know, 4 or 500.

- [Bob] 4 of 500?

- [Ben] Yeah, I had two shifts, and I had 50 men in each shift.

- [Bob] You had the dye house?

- [Ben] I was the head of the dye house.

- [Bob] Was the dye house Building 5, down at the far end?

- [Ben] That was the dye house, the waterside, you know?

Actually at the water.

- [Narrator] But after surviving an accident in his youth, it was remarkable that Mr.

Heslin could do this job at all.

- [Ben] Well, first of all, when I was a young kid, the movies in those days were not guns like today, it was swords.

And "The Four Musketeers," you remember that?

- [Bob] I Certainly do.

- When he was 10 years old in Scotland, he and a chum were like making believe that they were dueling with a stick.

- [Ben] We were fooling around with the canes, imitating the musketeers fencing.

Well, I wore a patch.

I had one perfectly good eye and one that wasn't so good.

- Would you know, the kid.

- [Ben] So this kid poked me in the good eye.

- It was an accident.

- Of course.

- They were both 10.

And he literally lost the sight of the eye.

Now when you think about that, this is the amazing thing, of all the professions to get into.

- Dyeing, I know.

- With one eye.

Matching colors?

How did that ever happen?

And would he be looking at something like fabric, and he'd have it right up here?

And I said to him one time, I said, "Dad, wait a minute.

One eye?"

And he'd have to differentiate degrees of color, you know?

And he said, "Ah."

He said, "You do what you have to do."

And he said, "It was just everything I didn't have in that eye, literally, I was able to develop in this."

His skill was so acute.

(lively music) - [Ben] See, it's a continuous process so that nothing overruns, you know?

But people who lived at, you know those little houses I told you about?

- [Bob] Oh, yeah.

- [Ben] Well, they could go over there- - [Bob] And walk home for lunch.

- [Ben] Yeah, and a man could watch the machine.

So I always let them do that, you know?

But one of the new guys we would get was a superintendent from the plant.

I couldn't get along with him.

He made me stop that.

You couldn't do that.

If they could go home and have a good meal, and they weren't stopping the machine, what was the difference?

Wasn't that better?

- [Bob] No, they feel you get more out of them in the afternoon.

- [Ben] Well anyway, I always felt for my men.

I always felt it it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have a job, you know?

- [Narrator] Ben Heslin was truly dedicated to his work.

But as the years went by, he gradually saw the consequences.

- He used his eye too much, right?

- No, there was pressure on it.

A lot of pressure, yeah.

I'm sure the vessels were overworked from doing the double duty that they had on the eye.

- [Narrator] And by his early sixties, his doctor had to deliver the news.

- The doctor was heartbroken.

to tell my father that he lost his sight in that eye as well.

And the first thing out of my dad's mouth, what do you think it was?

"It's all right, doctor.

I had my sight all these years, and if God took it away from me, I'll still go on."

- Oh yeah, he did.

He bounced back.

- Well, I mean.

- He was so precious.

He really was.

- But what a legacy he left for all of us?

- I know.

- About coping with life.

- I know.

- [Narrator] Speaking of legacies, there was one event that all wartime employees of the Slatersville Finishing Company remembered fondly, a milestone so significant that everyone who spoke of it had a memento to share decades later, as the rooms in which this honor was achieved sat vacant and abandoned in silence.

And Elliot had his very own collection.

- And this is the Kendall paper that was put out August of 1943.

"'E' flag ceremonies at three plants."

Walpole, Slatersville, and the other was Griswoldville, wasn't it?

Yeah, Griswoldville.

They all got the Army-Navy "E."

- [Narrator] The Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to companies during World War II whose facilities achieved excellence in production of war equipment.

It was created to encourage industrial mobilization and production of wartime materials.

By war's end, only 5% of the more than 85,000 companies involved would receive it.

Slatersville was one of them.

- The president of the company, Mr.

Kendall, came.

(gentle music) Some of the Army officers made a beautiful, beautiful presentation for the employees of the Slatersville Finishing Company.

- I was in the Navy at the time when they got that.

My dad was rather happy.

That kind of boosted up the morale of the whole town.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - I found my mother and dad and myself and my brother, Alan, are in this photo.

My mother is this lady, and that right there is me.

(lively music) - [Narrator] "Your Army-Navy "E" pin is enclosed in this sealed envelope.

After the National Anthem is played, the "E" pin is yours.

At that time, you may put it on.

It is your badge awarded to you by the Army and the Navy as evidence of your plot in the meritorious production achievement."

- [Colonel Rogers] Production for victory in this war must be all-inclusive and continuous.

Each job from the mines and forests and fields to the actual battlefront is a chain.

You at Slatersville forge a strong link in that chain.

Each person in this plant is now entitled to wear the Army-Navy "E" Award emblem.

Be worthy of it in the days to come, for our job is far from finished.

(typewriter clacking) - [Narrator] After two years of writing his letters, Reverend Eastman's project had grown so rapidly that members of his church, and others throughout the village, made donations to cover the cost of his postage.

When he couldn't keep up with the typing, Ralph Chamberlain, an office manager in the Slatersville Mill, typed for him, while the Ladies Guild from his church addressed each and every envelope, including those sent to his sons Thomas and Robert, who were stationed in the South Pacific.

- There's a story about there was a blizzard one time and the buses weren't running, and he couldn't get his story to the Woonsocket "Call."

They said he walked to Woonsocket, which was four miles away, to deliver his story and then walked home.

I find that a little far-fetched, that's a pretty good hike.

(typewriter clacking continues) - [Reverend Eastman] Not a great many men have come back here, and most of them are not discharged yet.

I imagine the number will increase soon.

Many of the women are doing some kind of war work, and it is hard to get church work done.

Our Sunday school has been hard hit, and we are in great need of teachers.

Tom must be somewhere in the South Pacific by now.

There are a lot of Slatersville boys scattered around those islands, and it is possible he may run across some friends.

Several such meetings have been reported by other fellows from here.

(birds chirping) - [Narrator] This was the home of Lillian and Henry Stone, and they had a son named Wally.

Henry enjoyed using his Revere 8mm cine camera around the time his only son had enlisted in the Navy.

When he was finally deployed in 1943, Wally made sure to write his parents as often as he could, and whatever he mailed from the other side of the world, they stored in this tin box.

- [Wally] September 6th, 1944.

Dear Mother and Dad, just a few lines to let you know everything is okay and I am feeling fine.

I hope you are feeling good and that everything is going okay at home.

I sure would like to have Dad's movie camera.

So far it has been very interesting and I'm enjoying it very much.

Traveling sure is an education in itself, as I am finding out.

(quirky music) (quirky music continues) (quirky music continues) I sure am a long way from Little Rhode Island now, and I'm going further.

I really look forward to it all as it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Every time I go to sleep, even if it's for a half hour or so, I always dream of home.

It's so real that in a way I feel better.

How is the car business?

Have you got many cars left?

It's raining like the dickens right now, but it will soon clear up.

It has never missed a day without raining yet.

It's generally around noon.

It rains for an hour, sometimes two hours.

Yesterday it rained about all day.

Gee, I'd sure like to be able to go down to the barn and work on my car, or fool around something like that, and know that with a few steps you'd be in your own house.

That's about all we do here is work on engines, mostly diesel.

But I have a Chrysler Marine of my own to take care of.

How about Harold Monroe?

I wonder where he is.

Is William Schnorr still in the States?

- My grandparents came over from Germany and that's a strange thing, because I was over there as a bombardier dropping bombs on some of my relations.

But the thing was, they were good marksmen too, you know?

(laughing) But I don't like wars.

I hope I never live to see another one.

- [Wally] December 25th, 1944.

Dear Moth and Dad.

Well, here it is, Christmas.

It sure doesn't seem like it.

It's better not to think of it as Christmas, and then you don't feel so bad.

Today was also one of the hottest days we've had.

Last night we sang carols and then had a movie, "The More the Merrier."

After the show, we went back to the hut and talked about other Christmases.

Some of the guys felt real bad, as they are married and have children.

Just think, I've been in since '42.

That sure is a long time not to be your own boss.

It seems like just a short time ago that I was going to school every morning and doing all the things the gang of us used to do.

Time sure does fly.

Gee, I sure wish I was back seeing the old places again.

It seems like only yesterday that the whole gang of us used to sit up on the lawn of the Town Hall around the common of the church, wishing that we were old enough to have cars and motorcycles and whatnot.

Boy, I can't wait to get back to hockey.

I'll probably have to learn to skate all over again.

Have you heard anything about Joe Bassett yet?

Gee, I hope he's all right.

I sure felt lousy when I heard he was missing.

That will be the first one of our gang.

But he must be all right.

I know he is.

Well, so long for now, and take things easy.

Love, Wally.

(birds chirping) (birds chirping continues) - [Narrator] Before Wally's deployment, others from the village had been killed in the war.

(gentle music) Like Private Thomas Logan, who participated in the liberation of Rome.

After serving as one of the Yank troops in the invasion of southern France, Logan was killed in the 179th Infantry Regiment, which suffered the second highest number of casualties during the war.

(gentle music continues) Years later, he would be buried in St.

John's Cemetery.

As the war trudged on, Reverend Eastman continued to send his letters.

(gentle music continues) - [Reverend Eastman] All of you remember the Kozlik boys, don't you?

Edmund, the youngest, served on the destroyer escort traveling with Atlantic convoys.

He was killed recently when his ship was torpedoed.

(explosion roaring) He was married to a fine young woman.

They had their own home, and she is to have a child in a very short time.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Narrator] One day a new letter came for Wally.

(dramatic music) - [Wally] Today I got some very bad news.

It sure made me feel awful, and I still feel that way.

In the letter I received from Mr.

Eastman, he told of Warren Bassett getting killed.

I can't believe it.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't.

Gee, he's one of the real gang.

I can remember when I first brought him up to camp.

(motorcycle engine roaring) Then when he got his motorcycle, and we went riding a lot.

(motorcycle engine roaring) Oh, how I wish this war was over.

I'd give anything if it wasn't true.

Gee, it just doesn't seem real.

Just think, he had to die for what?

That's what I wanna know.

We don't even know what we're fighting for.

What the heck do those people care that are always stinking and kicking just because they have to go without a little something.

If they only knew what we had to give up and go without.

- [Narrator] The day after this photo was taken, Warren Bassett left for Europe.

He was killed in France six days later.

As messengers visited families to deliver news of the fallen, their siblings and friends were often inspired to enlist in the armed forces, and to pursue military careers of their own.

One such family from Slatersville proudly carried this tradition on for generations, even after being faced with a loss of their own.

(gentle music) (bell ringing) - My dad drove a cement mixer for Rosenfeld Concrete for 33 years.

As a boy, being like 10 years old, I would really enjoy going with him.

So this one day I saw him speaking to an individual on the sidewalk, and I knew what a police officer looked like.

I knew what a firefighter looked like, but this uniform was different.

So then my dad shook his hand.

He got back into the truck, and for the first time in my life I was witnessing something that I've never seen before.

And that was my dad was crying.

And I said, "Dad, my big, six-foot-two dad, why are you crying?"

And he said, "My brother was one of those, you know?"

And I said, "What, your brother was what?"

He said, "He was a Marine."

And he said that with so much pride and so much dignity that I knew from that day forward, if I ever wanted to make my dad proud of me, then I just found a way.

I didn't wanna go to college, I had enough with school.

If it weren't for hockey, I probably wouldn't have graduated.

But the other reason I joined was because of my uncle.

(gentle music) Growing up, my dad had a photo of him over our mantle, and he actually had a rifle that he utilized in the war.

An M1 Garand, that actually hung above our fireplace for decades.

My dad's family, of the seven children, four of them were in the war.

- [Narrator] As the youngest of seven can still recall.

- I had Kirby, Gus, Paul, and Anita all in the war.

And I had a very good life with all my brothers and sisters.

- I joined the Marine Corps right after high school in 1985.

And my aunts, Priscilla and Jacqueline, they would send me all of this information on my uncle, because I would ask about him.

And I did many years out in the Pacific, and I would go by right where he was.

I did 20 years of research trying to find more about him.

- [Narrator] Because for over half a century, no one ever knew exactly how Herbert LeClair had died.

- The rumor was that he was shot by a Japanese sniper, and he died on the Isle of Eniwetok.

But I could never find that information.

So what I did is I started reading books about the 5th Amphibious Corps, that's the unit he was in.

So I did find this book written by a retired colonel in the Marine Corps, called "Swift, Silent and Deadly."

And my uncle is named in this book three times.

They refer to him as Platoon Sergeant Frenchy LeClair.

That guy right there is my uncle, my dad's brother.

This is on the USS Kane, which is a destroyer that they brought the Japanese lieutenant from.

So throughout the war, if you were in the Pacific Theater, you did a lot of island-hopping campaigns, from Guadalcanal all the way to Hiroshima.

And that's what they did, 'cause they wanted the airstrips so they could bomb Tokyo.

That was the plan.

So he did a lot of these.

He did 14 of them.

After many island-hopping campaigns, he ended up being on the island of Eniwetok, three-quarters of the way towards Japan.

Herbert went onto this island prior to the battle.

He did the reconnaissance of the island, went back, told the commanders what they were looking at, size, activity, location, unit, time, equipment, everything.

They formulated a plan, they attacked the island.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (cannon blasting) Herbert went to the next island with his six-man recon team.

And what they would do is from island to island, he would be one step ahead of the invasion force, reconning the next island.

When he was doing that, the island was called Muzingbaarkikku.

It's the next island over from Eniwetok.

It's only about 500 yards away.

The 10th Marines out of New York were shooting machine guns on a strong point.

The fire from the machine guns was landing on the next island, where him and two other recon Marines were shot by their own people.

They didn't know.

Herbert was hit in the right shoulder, and he was hit with a .308 round.

That's a pretty big bullet.

They medevaced him to the hospital ship off the coast, where he died on the ship.

He was actually killed by friendly fire, and it was just a huge mistake.

- [Narrator] Herbert LeClair was a platoon sergeant who was on his way up to being promoted as a second lieutenant, but his body would be buried on the island of Eniwetok.

- When it did happen, Father came to our house.

He came in in the kitchen, and he said that Herbie had been killed.

at Eniwetok.

And we all cried.

But we all prayed too.

Yes, we knew we weren't the only ones, so we had to sit up and take it.

We had to, because we had to keep going, yeah.

My father sent for the coffin.

We don't know if it was him or somebody else, but somebody got a good Catholic funeral, which meant a lot to all of us.

Yes, and I think we did a good job.

And he's still in the cemetery where we put him.

- [Interviewer] Where was he buried?

- [Priscilla] With Ma and Pa.

Yeah, so they're together.

(birds chirping) (somber music) - [Wally] I received three letters from you today, and one from Billy, so I did pretty well.

When I think of the gang, I think of Warren Bassett not being with us anymore.

When I heard, it was about the worst shock I've ever had.

I just sat on my cot and a million things ran through my mind.

I know it must have hit his folks hard too, but I guess that's just the way it had to be.

(explosion roaring) (explosion roaring continues) (explosion roaring continues) (somber music) - I remember the end of World War II, V-E Day.

(bell ringing) It was a big day.

Going over and as a youngster, let's see, I was 11 years old, ringing the church bell until you're worn out.

Then they'd ring, somebody else would ring it for a while.

(bell ringing) (gentle music) - My father rarely spoke of the war.

One thing that was interesting, when my son was probably in about sixth grade, they had an assignment where they had to talk to a veteran.

So he talked to my father, and my father said, "Well, I was in the war.

And then once I was out, I was done.

I took all those clothes and everything and threw them away."

(gentle music) There would be some other veterans, and they'd still be wearing their army coats and things like that from when they were in the military.

And he didn't want any part of that.

(gentle music continues) - [Wally] December 21st, 1945.

Dear Moth and Dad, I've been waiting a long time to write this letter, and you've been waiting a long time to get it.

Well, here it is.

I'm starting on my first leg of the journey home.

I check out tomorrow morning, and leave here for the receiving station at 13:00.

I'm not gonna send any telegrams or phone, but you'll see me when I walk in the back door.

Tell Dad to pile the work up, because I'll have to keep working to keep warm.

Take it easy.

Love, Wally.

- [Narrator] Following the end of World War II, posts for the Veterans of Foreign Wars were established throughout the United States, and they were often named after those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

- Officers and members of the LeClair-Kozlik-Logan-Bassett VFW Post 6342, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

We are assembled once again to express sincere reverence.

This monument represents the resting place of many departed comrades who served in all wars.

Our presence here is a solemn commemoration of all those men and women, an expression of our tribute to their devotion to duty.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) - Memorial Day is the day we honor a very special group of Americans, the men and women who served our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

These were people much the same as we are.

They had the same dreams, hopes, and ambitions.

But when called upon, they put aside their personal interest and answered a higher calling.

In dying, they passed on towards a legacy of liberty and freedom, and they also passed on towards a commitment to preserve what they had died for.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] As they returned home, the mill village life they knew so well, for reasons beyond their control, would slowly begin to fade into darkness.

But during the war, (typewriter clacking) someone wrote a poem that we discovered in a photo album, and to this day, its author is unknown.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Narrator] "Here's to Wally, who lives on the hill.

Here's to the Schnorrs, Edward and Willie.

Here's to Donald and little Stubby King, also to Blackie who played left wing.

A memo to Stoney and Little Tom, and the Kelvar boys who live on the farm.

To Vincent and Charlie and Barney, my pal, and to the Monroes, Gordon and Hal.

They are now spread all over the Earth, and are fighting for all they are worth.

They're only kids between eighteen and twenty, but what they have seen sure is a plenty.

Sometime they'll return to their little town when the axis have all turned upside down, and then they'll all play some good old hockey.

Why, Barney might even be Sea Joe's jockey.

(gentle music continues) This will be all for this little skit, because to my studies I now must flit.

And although it is short, you'll all agree: they'll all be back.

Just wait and see."

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