PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A World War II US Navy veteran who lives in Washburn stopped by the Sargent Family Community Center on Wednesday, Oct. 25 to be honored for both his and his family’s contributions to the war efforts.
Larry Boaz presented David McCarthy’s story of service to a crowd of seniors in the Senior Center of the Sargent Family Community Center, with Arthur Moreau organizing the presentation.
Three weeks ago, McCarthy, 95, gave an oral interview about his actions and those of his brothers while serving in the military during World War II as part of a new exhibit at The National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
The recorded interview will go into a new wing of the National WWII Museum called the Liberation Pavilion focusing on what happened at the end of WWII and the postwar period that followed. The new wing is opening to the public on Nov. 4. McCarthy will be there to witness the grand opening on Nov. 3.
The Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity and veterans service organization, flew McCarthy to the museum through its Soaring Valor program in early October. It included a tour and he later met with the assistant director of the museum to do the interview for the archives.
“[My brothers] left me behind, so I had to catch up with them,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 years old on April 7, 1945 following his three brothers – Paul K. McCarthy, who enlisted in the Navy in 1942, Francis Leo McCarthy, who enlisted in the Navy in 1943, and Robert Xavier McCarthy, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944.
David McCarthy was deployed to Okinawa from June to August 1945 for a possible build-up to invade Japan.
The ship McCarthy was on was the U.S.S. Abatan AW-4 with around 265 navy officers serving on board converting salt water into distilled fresh water for the naval fleet.
He saw no combat and after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he was sent to China to the Yangtze River working with PBY amphibious aircraft and tugboats.
McCarthy was discharged between June and July of 1946, but enrolled in the Seabees shortly afterward where he served for 10 years. There were around 250,000 Seabees that served during WWII, McCarthy said.
“They used to say if you want anything and you can’t get it, [then] go see the Seabees,” McCarthy said.
The Seabees built the roadwork, houses, tunnels, airfields, and bridges for the Marines and other branches of the military, but were a part of the Navy, according to McCarthy. Seabees are the construction battalion for the Navy.
Some of McCarthy’s projects during his decade with the Seabees included modernizing an old German air strip for the U.S. air force in French Morocco in 1951, and building seven bases in Antarctica for scientific research for the French that began in 1957. It was also where McCarthy had to build his first coffin for a friend who fell into a crevice while operating a vehicle during a refueling run.
“He was afraid of the ice and the snow because you had to be careful where you walked because of the crevices,” McCarthy said.
Later, divers retrieved the man who had died in the accident.
Serving in the Seabees helped McCarthy later in life when he owned his own construction company called David A. McCarthy & Sons. He was awarded five medals for Navy Good Conduct, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, WWII Victory, Navy Occupation Service, and Antarctica Service.
McCarthy was born on March 23, 1928 in Somerville, MA. He was one of eight boys and five girls in his family’s household. He lives in Washburn with his daughter Lisa McClay.
