Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

I just looked it up, and it seems the internationally recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day is on April 24, 2025.

If you’re reading this on the day it’s published, then, it’s time to take a moment and reflect on the horrible acts during the Holocaust, and the people who lost their lives.

I want to commemorate it. My column mainly focuses on local history, but a lot of the time, there are connections I can use to write about these huge worldwide events. So, is there a connection between Lock Haven and the Holocaust?

Well, yes, to some extent. We helped to end it.

Clinton County had a much bigger role in World War II than anyone realizes. We actually played a crucial role in helping to fight, and eventually end, the war.

For starters, the obvious—We had Piper Aviation making the Piper Grasshopper, a military spotter plane named for its ability to take off and land in tight spaces. The Army ordered thousands of them to find and report on enemy troop movements. Though the plane was an unarmed model, plenty of soldiers found their way around that. One man named Bazooka Charlie strapped actual bazookas to the wings, and blew up tanks with them.

A Grasshopper fought the last dogfight of World War II. Two pilots chased down a German Storch when it tried to make an escape, shot it down with their pistols, and made the pilots land in a beet field.

On the home front, we also had America’s first female test pilot. Alma Heflin was a talented pilot who worked as a secretary for Piper. When the male pilots were all sent to fight the war, she was pressed into service as a test pilot, making the cover of some national magazines for her efforts.

Regular citizens at home participated by holding blackout drills in case of an attack. On June 24, 1942, people shut off their lights and covered their windows. The chief warden of this event was Chalmer Edwards of Castanea, a WWI veteran. He took charge of making sure everything went smoothly, and when the sirens went off at 8:30 PM, most of the locals turned off their lights. (There were some fines for the ones who refused.)

American Aniline was a paint and dye company that pitched in during the war by creating some colored dyes used in the smoke grenades. When soldiers threw smoke grenades as signals or distractions, the color from the smoke was made right here along Mount Vernon Street. 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.”

One of the biggest secrets at the time surrounded Pennwoven Wire of Castanea. During the war, they were involved in creating the nuclear bombs that were eventually dropped on Japan to end the war. Pennwoven made a metal mesh that was critical in the construction of the bombs. It was a classified secret at the time, but the day after the bombs were dropped, the company contacted the Pentagon to ask if they could go public. The military agreed, claiming that there was no point to keeping it secret anymore, and it hit the front page of the newspapers the next day.

The Holocaust was a terrible time. The stories are heartbreaking. But as we look back, at least locally, we can take a little bit of pride in having helped end it.