Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

Around the Fourth of July, I always try to come up with some patriotic idea for my column, something relating to American history. I do this for obvious reasons; people want to read about America while they burn their hot dogs and get firework injuries. So this year, I decided to go with World War II, because it’s an American theme, and because I have a speech on World War II coming up and this will help me memorize the details.

Clinton County played a much bigger part in the war than people realize. I have made that comment before, generally to an audience of scoffing and shocked looks, but it’s true. People don’t realize what an important part we played—Without Clinton County, the war would have played out a little differently.

American Aniline, near Mount Vernon Street in Lock Haven, produced a colored dye that went into the smoke grenades used by the military. The dyes were specially designed to be lightweight, burn quickly enough to create colored smoke, but not burn up the dye, stable enough to store, and give off bright colors visible from ten thousand feet away. Colonel S.E. Whitesides said about American Aniline,” You have consistently met our shipping dates and the dyes you have shipped to us have always satisfied our high and rigid specifications.”

We created the Piper Grasshopper here. The Piper L-4 Grasshopper was a version of the Piper Cub designed specifically for the military, with more windows to increase visibility, and painted drab green to match all the other military vehicles. It was called the Grasshopper because it was designed to land and take off in small spaces. In fact, a Grasshopper was involved in the last dogfight of World War II.

Meanwhile at home, we had America’s first female test pilot working for Piper. Alma Heflin was a teacher who’d been inspired to become a pilot after seeing an emergency landing as a child. She bought a plane from William Piper, and then got a job with the company. She was pressed into service as a test pilot while all the male pilots were overseas flying the Piper Grasshoppers in the war. She lived on the east end of Lock Haven.

At home, precautions were taken because Clinton County was so involved in the war. Zindel Park in McElhattan was closed to the public, because it connects with Lock Haven’s city water supply, and there were concerns that the Nazis were going to poison the water. If that sounds ridiculous to you, remember that we were manufacturing grenade smoke and spotter planes here. On June 24, 1942, there was an enforced blackout as a practice run in case of a bombing—Residents had to turn off their lights and block their windows, so as not to create a target of themselves.

Perhaps biggest of all, we helped make the nuclear bombs, too. Yes, those nuclear bombs, the ones that ended the war entirely. Pennwoven Wire of Castanea provided a metal mesh that was integral in constructing the nukes that were dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was kept as a big, classified secret at the time, but immediately after they were dropped, PennWoven requested permission to go public. As it didn’t matter by that time, the government allowed it, and the newspapers ran stories about PennWoven Wire helping to make the nukes.

So, yes, Clinton County had a direct role in winning the war. It’s why we got a reward for it—After the war was over, the French government sent a train through America, called the Merci Train. It contained forty-eight train cars, one for each state, and each one was filled with gifts to thank the states for their participation. Clinton County got a gift, a sculpture of a bison….But, hey, that’s another column.