Harold Hegerle was born in Minnesota. In 1936 the family moved to San Diego, CA. where Harold graduated from Point Loma High School. After high school, Harold went to a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Calif. because there was no work. The men there built roads, one of which was the Pacific Coast Highway between San Simeon and Carmel.

Then Harold got a job as a civilian working in the Commissary at the North Island Naval Base, Coronado Island, CA, That’s where he was when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His brother Earle was stationed at Pearl Harbor and survived the attack. A month later, Jan. 1942, Harold joined the Navy where his first job was coding and decoding teletype traffic to various fleet commands in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.

The Navy wanted pilots, so Harold took pilot training, but he said he “washed out” and was sent to Point Loma to become an engineer. His rank changed from Seaman 3rd class to Machinists Mate 1st class and he was assigned to the Mobile Naval shipyard at Mobile, Alabama. They were to oversee the completion of a supply and repair ship under construction. It was commissioned as a supply destroyer escort. When the ship was commissioned and sent to Norfolk, VA, Harold’s crew went with it.

Eventually his ship became part of a convoy headed for Bermuda. Everybody had duty watching for submarines. His ship was a destroyer escort tender. And its job was to protect bigger ships from submarines. They carried torpedoes and depth charges. Depth charges were launched from Y-guns mounted near the fan tail and would throw depth charges off the side. They also carried supplies and equipment to the bigger ships. Harold spent 18 months on duty in Bermuda.

In Oct. 1944, when he got word that his brother Earle had been killed in a training mission plane crash, Harold caught a destroyer escort back to Boston and then flew in an Army Air Corps plane to Wyoming. The Red Cross had set up the next leg of the trip trying to help him get to his brother’s funeral, but he missed the funeral by two hours because a higher-ranking officer usurped his seat.

When he returned to active duty, his ship was on the move and Harold ended up at Williamsburg, VA, where there was a captured German submarine. His job was to oversee the prisoners on yard clean-up.

Harold's sister, Charlotte, was with the Women's division of the Marine Corps & stationed at Charleston, SC. While he was on duty at Williamsburg, the two were able to meet at Richmond, VA.

From Williamsburg, Hegerle was sent to Port Hueneme in CA. He spent the rest of the war there in charge of a stockade and as a storekeeper. He mustered out in Feb. of 1946 after 4 years, one month, and two weeks of service.

Harold met his brother’s widow, Eileen Herron Hegerle, for the first time when he went to San Diego for Earle’s funeral. She and her baby son then moved back to her family home in Potter County, South Dakota.

When Harold got out of the Navy, he and some buddies stopped to see Eileen and visit her family in South Dakota. Harold then applied for GI bill benefits and was accepted at Cal-Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo, CA, where he completed a three-year course in animal husbandry. Every summer during those years he came to South Dakota to work for Eileen’s uncle Orville Ellenbecker on the farm, to play baseball, and to court Eileen. Most farmers worked until dark, but Orville was a big baseball fan and would let Harold off early to practice baseball.

Harold had taken horse shoeing at Cal-Poly which put him in good standing with Eileen’s dad because Harold could shoe his horses for him.

He and Eileen were married in Aug. of 1950 . Eileen and Earle’s son William Roy “Billy” was their oldest child. Four more were born to Harold and Eileen: Kelly, Kevin, Holly, and Mary Ann. Tragically, Billy was killed in a farm accident in 1956.

About living in Potter County, South Dakota, Harold said, “I just love it here.”

Harold Hegerle (1920)