Transfer

Julius A. Lockett (SN: 34419986) graduated in 1939 with a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College and worked as a teacher until October 1942, when he was inducted into the US Army as a Private. Like most African Americans, Lockett was not considered eligible for service in a combat unit; he was assigned instead to the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS). Soon after this assignment, he probably saw a training film, “You Are in the Chemical Warfare Service, Soldier Brown,” which promised that any private could become a commissioned officer, regardless of race or color and with or without attending college.

Lockett would never become a commissioned officer, instead rising quickly through the ranks as a non-commissioned officer. By October 1944, he had become First Sergeant in the 705th Chemical Maintenance Company (Aviation). The 705th was one of many “colored” units in the CWS with white commissioned officers and African American enlisted men. Few specifics are available about this period of Lockett’s military service in the secretive CWS, but belated recognition in 2001 to soldiers in a similar unit, the 701st Chemical Maintenance Company (Aviation), helps shed light on the duties and dangers Lockett’s unit might have faced.

A detachment of seven soldiers from the 701st crossed the Atlantic on the SS John Harvey, transporting 2000 mustard-filed M47A1 bombs to Bari Harbor in Italy. Mustard bombs were never used during WWII, but the US and other Allied nations maintained large stockpiles at home and abroad, ready to “retaliate in kind” if Germany or Japan initiated chemical warfare. On Dec. 2, 1943, the soldiers from the 701st were preparing to unload their cargo when the harbor was attacked by German bombers. The John Harvey burned for several hours while the soldiers from the 701st and others worked to extinguish the flames. Despite their efforts, the ship ultimately exploded, killing all onboard and releasing mustard agent which killed and injured a large number of soldiers and civilians in the surrounding area. CWS soldiers killed in the explosion were 1st Lt. Howard Dale Beckstrom; Sgt. Broadus J. Jamerson Jr. Pfc. Bennie G. Taylor, Pfc. Charles E. Thompson, Pfc. Fred Wilson, Pvt. Wilson Brodie, and Pvt. Willie Tensley.

In October 1944, Lockett and the other enlisted men in the 705th Chemical Maintenance Company were reassigned to the 770th Chemical Depot Company (Aviation), under a different group of commissioned officers. Soldiers in Depot companies needed more advanced skills than those in Maintenance companies since they were expected to manage large, diverse stockpiles for extended periods. The work could include, for example, transferring mustard agent from bombs into bulk storage tanks and replacing it with napalm or other materials. Unlike toxic chemicals, incendiaries like napalm were used extensively by the US during the war. Most of the privates in Lockett’s company began their new assignment classified as “Duty Soldiers III” (590) and would need to become “Toxic Gas Handlers” (786). The upgrade would also enable the company to work with the full range of toxic and non-toxic chemical bombs then available, including phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen chloride and more.

Lockett’s company remained at Barksdale Field in Louisiana for nine months, learning to operate an overseas chemical bomb depot. After Germany surrendered in May 1945, the focus shifted to the Pacific. Japan had indeed used toxic chemical weapons in China during the 1930s, and many Allied planners considered it almost inevitable that Japan would use them again to repulse an invasion. Okinawa was expected to be a key base from which B-29s and other bombers could deliver that chemical response in kind or perhaps even an American first use of toxic chemical weapons. Lockett and the other soldiers of the 770th were on track to support chemical bombings if the order came.

On July 21, 1945, the officers and soldiers of the 770th left Seattle harbor with 15,000 other troops on the USS Colbert, bound for US airbases being constructed in Okinawa. A D-Day style invasion of the Japanese home islands was planned for November, but Japan surrendered in August while the Colbert was still at sea. The 770th Chemical Depot Company reached Okinawa near the end of August. They helped guard what they called the “China Bomb Dump,” helped rebuild structures damaged in a typhoon and performed other duties. In November 1945, Lockett was transferred out of the Company and began the process of returning to the US for discharge.

Julius Lockett lived a long and successful life. He married Valerie Tolbert immediately after his return to the US, earned a Master of Business Administration Degree from Atlanta University in 1948, and held high-level academic and administrative positions that included serving as Bursar at Morehouse College. He died in 2006 at the age of 96, two years after the death of his wife.

In 1971, shortly before the US returned control of Okinawa to Japan, Operation Red Hat removed 13,000 tons of US toxic chemical munitions which had been secretly stockpiled at Chibana Ammunition Depot on Okinawa. Most of these munitions were relatively new, intended for potential use in Korea or Vietnam. Some, however, dated from WWII. All were transported to Johnson Island, where their safe destruction was finally completed in September of 2000.

Julius A Lockett