Love in a time of war

Posted

A few times a week, when the sun is out and the wind is gently whispering through the trees, Jack Caldwell can be found at the Port Townsend Golf Club, winning.

“Ninety-four years old, and he can still kick our butts on the golf course,” said Patsy Caldwell, Jack’s daughter.

A golfer since he was 12, Caldwell has had many years of practice to perfect the sport. He has been playing the links in Port Townsend since he was a sophomore in high school.

“I was the only one in high school that golfed,” Caldwell said. “So, I came down to the golf course and who did I team up with but one of the head honchos, George Welch. George said ‘Hey, son, you want to join me?’ And I said, ‘Yessir.’ ”

Welch, a banker, insurance man, photographer and one of Port Townsend’s historic figureheads, helped establish the golf course in 1927 and presided as club president for many years.

“I beat him,” Caldwell said with a mischievous grin.

Many years later, Caldwell is still out on the Port Townsend course, regularly shooting 41s and beating his kids and grandkids. But even though his life is the picture of peaceful retirement, Caldwell has lived through some of the most turbulent times in history.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Caldwell served during World War II. On D-Day, he was on the USS Augusta. He lived in London during the blackout, when buzz bombs and rockets flew overhead at night. And through it all, he managed to find love, stay humble and live with a positive mindset.

“I had one of those cushy jobs,” Caldwell said, remembering Operation Overlord, otherwise known as the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. “I was the admiral’s driver. He let his staff come aboard for the invasion that night, the five of us. Otherwise, I would have been sitting on the beach not knowing what was going on, and he knew that.”

Caldwell was sent down to the English Channel to help set up small amphibious bases on channel ports so ships could have a place to dock and stay for a few days before the invasion.

On the day of the invasion, he was aboard the Augusta, a Southampton-class heavy cruiser, which was the flagship.

“We didn’t fire as many rounds as the other ships did. The reason for that was we didn’t want to attract fire to the flagship, to the admiral,” Caldwell said, adding that other sailors would jokingly call the ship “the Augusta with the wooden guns.”

“We did fire, though,” Caldwell said. “I wish now that I had counted, but 20 to 40, it could have been 60, rounds until daybreak. I heard and saw everything that went on. It was the event of my life. At the time, I was only 20 years old.”

 

LOVE IN THE MIDST OF WAR

The story of the war isn’t complete without mentioning his Rose.

Before the invasion, Caldwell was stationed in Derry, Northern Ireland, where he met an Irish woman named Rose Molloy, whose parents owned a restaurant that served fresh eggs, as opposed to the powdered eggs the sailors were used to eating.

“That was a prime location for us sailors,” Caldwell said. “We loved it. And that’s where I met her.”

Their love story was interrupted by the invasion of Normandy. But after the USS Augusta returned to London, Caldwell had a week’s leave. He returned to Northern Ireland to marry Rose in October 1944.

“She was a princess,” Caldwell said. “Rosie was something else. And she probably kept me on the straight and narrow to show me the right way. I know she did.”

After their honeymoon, Rose and Jack moved to London, where the war was raging on. He took the bus every day to naval headquarters, where he worked as a driver. Around them, bombs crashed buildings down as the Germans continued their heavy attack on the city.

“As they said about the rockets, you don’t hear them. If you see one, you’re dead,” Caldwell said. “Now with the buzz bombs, those were the ones you could hear. And they would generally come over at night. We heard some of those come over, and we’d lay there thinking, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ ”

During their time in London, Jack drove the streets during the blackout, learning the city’s layout like the back of his hand. Rose sheltered in the city’s underground subway as bombs fell. And at night, they prayed the buzz bombs would pass over them.

“It was a scary time,” Caldwell said, remembering when he saw a rocket come down on a building down the street from his bus stop. “When that bomb went off, I said, ‘Hey, we gotta go down there.’

“‘No, Yank, stay right here,’ the Brits would say. ‘The help is coming.’ Sure enough, in about three or four minutes, the ambulances, all of the governmental aid would come. And so we boarded the bus and went to work. That’s the way it was in London.”

 

RETURNING HOME

On VE-Day, Jack and Rose were on the streets, celebrating with the Londoners. Soon after, they returned to Port Townsend, where they began their family in 1946.

While the war had ended, the turbulence of life never ended for Jack and Rose. After he got a job at Crown Zellerbach Paper Co. in Port Townsend, Jack worked for the mill over the course of his career, and the family was transferred five times to other Crown Zellerbach plants in three different states. Their seven children – John, Phillip, Patsy, Kathy, Tom, Molly and Kevin – were born in Washington, Louisiana and California.

After retiring, the couple moved back to Port Townsend, where Jack now lives on property that belonged to his family for many generations, right next to the golf course. Even though Rose passed away three years ago, he finds peace in everyday life and takes to heart the words of his favorite song: “If you should survive to 105, look at all you’ll derive out of being alive.”

Healthy, happy, and with many memories to ponder, Jack doesn’t know what the secret is to being 94 and still being able to play the sport he loves. But his best advice is to stay positive, no matter what life throws at you.

“I don’t let things discourage me,” he said. “Because I know it’s all temporary. To me, nothing is permanent.”