American Hero, Neil Robbins (1923-2003), 671st Medical Hospital Ship Platoons WWII – 1943-1946

Neil Robbins, one of 11 children to John Emmett Robbins (1877~1951) and Bertha Belle Ernst Robbins (1890~1966), was born September 12, 1923, in Medford, Oregon because they didn’t have a hospital in nearby Jacksonville where his parents lived.

One of the oldest communities in Oregon, Jacksonville began with the discovery of gold in 1851. Jacksonville was a thriving commercial center during the gold rush, with saloons, gambling halls, and other businesses catering to prospectors. The town served as the county seat and grew rapidly. However, when the railroad bypassed Jacksonville in favor of nearby Medford in 1884, many residents and businesses relocated. Some affluent merchants still constructed impressive mansions, and a new County Court House was built in the same year. By the 1890s, agriculture had supplanted mining as the primary industry in the region.

Jacksonville remained largely unchanged for the next five decades while neighboring communities experienced growth. The county seat was officially moved to Medford in 1927. The Great Depression and World War II had a significant impact on the local community, but paradoxically, these events played a role in preserving Jacksonville’s historic heritage.

When Dad was 1 month old, Jacksonville was put on the national “historical map.”

How a botched train robbery led to the birth of modern American criminology.

On October 11, 1923, three brothers — Hugh, Ray and Roy DeAutremont — boarded a Southern Pacific Railroad train called the Gold Special near the Siskiyou Mountains in Oregon. The trio planned to rob the mail car. But instead of making off with their fortune, they killed four people and blew up the mail car — and the valuables inside. A huge manhunt followed, and authorities called in up-and-coming forensic scientist Edward Oscar Heinrich, a UC Berkeley lecturer and alumnus, to help solve what became known as the Last Great Train Robbery. He didn’t know that the case would put him on the map as a pioneer in modern American criminology.

Train robberies are often associated with the 19th century, featuring notorious figures like Butch and Sundance or Jesse James targeting railroads. However, an unfortunate and violent train robbery took place in 1923. On October 11 of that year, three individuals, the DeAutremont twins, Roy and Ray, along with their younger brother Hugh, staged an ambush on Southern Pacific train #13 in southern Oregon, as it emerged from a tunnel.

Their objective was to seize $40,000 in gold that they believed was being transported in the mail car. Elvyn Dougherty, the railway mail clerk, was inside the secured mail car when the brothers approached. Unable to gain entry, they resorted to using stolen dynamite and a detonator from a construction company to blow open the door.

Unfortunately, due to their lack of expertise, the brothers miscalculated and used an excessive amount of dynamite. The resulting explosion completely destroyed the car, killing Dougherty and causing significant damage to the mail. In their attempt to avoid leaving witnesses, the brothers also fatally shot the conductor, engineer, and fireman of the train. To their dismay, they found no gold and escaped the scene empty-handed. Despite their efforts, they managed to evade authorities for nearly four years.

Ultimately, the brothers’ run from the law came to an end when Hugh DeAutremont was apprehended in February 1927. He had enlisted in the army under the alias James Price and was stationed in the Philippines, where he was identified by a fellow soldier. Although Hugh claimed ignorance about his brothers’ whereabouts, his arrest reignited public interest in the case, leading to the recognition and subsequent capture of Ray and Roy in Steubenville, Ohio, a few months later. The two had been living under the name Goodwin. All three were convicted and handed life sentences.

Amidst the estimated presence of 9 million wanted posters adorning every nook and cranny of the globe, the world’s gaze rested upon law enforcement for swift apprehension of the notorious DeAutremont brothers. Little did they know that destiny had conspired to turn this saga into a pursuit that would span nearly four arduous years. The relentless pursuit consumed a staggering half a million dollars, immortalizing it as the legendary “World’s Greatest Manhunt” of its time.

Hugh DeAutremont was granted parole in 1959 but tragically passed away merely two months later in San Francisco. Roy, while serving his sentence, underwent a frontal lobotomy and was released on parole in March 1983, only to pass away three months later in a nursing home. Ray, after being paroled in 1961, worked as a custodian at the University of Oregon for several years before his death on December 22, 1984, in Eugene.

FIND SHINY METAL –– START A GOLD RUSH

Jacksonville – the Gold Rush Town of Oregon

Until 1851, Jacksonville (at the time known as Table Rock) was just an obscure town in Jackson County, Oregon. But that suddenly changed when gold nuggets were discovered in Jackson Creek. Almost overnight, the sleepy Jacksonville woke up to a sudden bustle and activity that totally change its faith.

Within a year more than 2,000 miners and settlers swarmed into the Rogue River Valley. A large number of Chinese people settled in Jacksonville at the time, making it the first “Chinatown” in Oregon. By the winter of 1852 Jacksonville was buzzing with saloons, gambling halls, shops and even a bank

In 1966, Jacksonville was designated a National Historic Landmark. Gold may be a far-away memory in Jacksonville today, but it was the gold after all that made this place famous in the 1850s

When the railroad bypassed Jacksonville in 1883 in favor of the new town of Middleford, later renamed Medford, Jacksonville’s fortunes reversed. During the ensuing decades, the town’s buildings fell into disrepair. The threat of bulldozers leveling the downtown core in the late 1960s brought out a renewed interest in preservation. Today Jacksonville is a National Historic Landmark District and looks much as it did 150 years ago.

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NEIL ROBBINS ENTERS HISTORY

Events of 1923 serving as the historical backdrop to Dad’s birth on September 12th…

January 10 – The last US troops leave Germany from WWI.
February 16 – The burial chamber of Tutankhamun is opened and the sarcophagus is found.
March 3 – The first issue of Time magazine is published.
March 9 – Vladimir Lenin suffers his third stroke, which renders him bedridden and unable to speak; consequently he retires from his position as Chairman of the Soviet government.
March 18 – In the Bronx, Yankee Stadium hosts its first game. Babe Ruth hits a three-run homer to defeat the Boston Red Sox 4–1.
May 28 – Women wearing trousers is legalized in the US.
July 20 – Pancho Villa is assassinated at Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua.
August 3 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge is sworn in by his father, as the 30th President of the United States, as a result of the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in San Francisco, a day earlier.
September 1 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing more than 100,000 people.
October 16 – The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio is founded.
November 8 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government; police and troops crush the attempt the next day. Hitler is arrested three days later.
December 6 – The U.S. presidential address is broadcast on the radio for the first time in the US.

Also born in 1923…

• Ira Hayes, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (d. 1955)
• John Bradley, U.S. Navy flag raiser on Iwo Jima (d. 1994)
• Chuck Yeager, American test pilot, NASA official (d. 2020)
• Ed McMahon, American television personality (d. 2009)
• Jean Stapleton, American actress (All In the Family) (d. 2013)
• Wally Schirra, American astronaut (d. 2007)
• Don Adams, American actor, comedian (Get Smart) (d. 2005)
• James Arness, American actor (Gunsmoke) (d. 2011)
• Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of state and national security advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
• Sir Richard Attenborough, English actor, film director (d. 2014)
• Cliff Robertson, American actor (d. 2011)
• Hank Williams, American country musician (d. 1953)
• Charlton Heston, American actor (The Ten Commandments) (d. 2008)
• Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut, the fifth person to walk on the moon (d. 1998)
• Bob Barker, American game show host (The Price Is Right)

Don’t know too much about Dad’s early days as a kid but in 1941, right after turning 18 yrs old, he joined the U.S. Army earning the assignment of Technician Fifth Grade and was stationed on the USS Pinkney, an evacuation transport ship. The Pinkney served at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Luzon invasion, the Philippines campaign, the invasion of Iwo Jima, and finally the assault on Okinawa, the bloodiest campaign in the Pacific, with around 50,000 Allied casualties.

Pinkney returned home safely post-war with six battle stars but missing 18 crew members who were killed in action.

It was only after weeks of Internet searches that I found my Dad’s ship assignment during World War II. Dad’s participation aboard the hospital transport ship is probably the reason he never told any stories about his military service. As a kid, I never even thought to question him about that. As I grew older it just never occurred to me to ask him about other parts of our family history either … it just wasn’t a topic that any of our 4-member nuclear family was interested in for some reason.

Neil Robbins (1923-2003)
U.S. Army, WWII, 1943-1946
Technician Fifth Grade
671st Medical Hospital Ship Platoons
Buried at Eagle Point National Cemetery
Eagle Point, OR

NAVY DEPARTMENT: OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS Full text of “HISTORY OF USS PINKNEY (APH 2)”

Department of the Navy: Online Library of Selected Images: USS Pinkney (APH-2), 1942-1957

USS Pinkney, an 11,500-ton evacuation transport, was built in Oakland, California. Originally intended for civilian use under the name Alcoa Corsair, she was taken over by the Navy while still under construction and commissioned in November 1942. During 1943 and most of 1944, Pinkney operated in the South Pacific, evacuating the wounded and sick from the combat zones to rear areas and providing general transportation services. From September 1944 through April 1945, she took part in operations to capture the Palaus, the Philippines and Okinawa, taking in combat forces and taking out injured men. On 28 April 1945, while off Okinawa, she was crashed by a Kamikaze, receiving damage and casualties. Following repairs, Pinkney spent the last part of 1945 and the first months of 1946 supporting the occupation of Japan and returning veterans to the United States.

Immediately after the war started, the Navy began to convert fast merchant ships to naval auxiliaries. SS ALCOA CORSAIR was among the first to be taken over for the Naval Service. In February 1942. the ship was converted to an attack and hospital evacuation transport. Her passenger spaces became hospital wards and officer accommodations and her cargo compartments were altered to berth combat troops and equipment. Her swimming pool, passenger public rooms, and promenade decks disappeared or were changed beyond recognition. Dual-purpose and anti-aircraft guns were installed. Her open decks were fitted with landing boat chocks and davits. The ship was girded for war and was named USS PINKNEY (APH 2).

Wikipedia…

Technician fifth grade (abbreviated T/5 or Tec 5) was a rank of the United States Army from 1942 to 1948.[1] The rank was created to recognize enlisted soldiers with special technical skills, but who were not trained as combat leaders.

Technician fifth grade (abbreviated as T/5 or TEC 5) was a United States Army technician rank during World War II. Those who held this rank were addressed as corporal, though were often called “tech corporal”. Technicians possessed specialized skills that were rewarded with a higher pay grade but had no command authority. The pay grade number corresponded with the technician’s rank. T/5 was under the pay grade 5, along with corporal. Technicians were easily distinguished by the “T” imprinted on the standard chevron design for that pay grade.

Honors and awards

USS Pinkney (APH–2) earned six battle stars during World War II:

• Consolidation of Solomon Islands – Consolidation of southern Solomon Islands, 8 February to 20 June 1943
• Western Caroline Islands operation – Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands, 15–20 September 1944
• Leyte operation – Leyte landings, San Pedro Bay, 30 October to 3 November 1944

• Luzon operation – Lingayen Gulf landings, 9 January and 2 February 1945
• Iwo Jima operation – Assault and occupation of Iwo Jima, 24–26 February 1945
• Okinawa Gunto operation – Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 1 April to 8 May 1945

Qualified on-board personnel were authorized the following:

• Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive 28 April 1945 – Okinawa)
• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (6)
• World War II Victory Medal
• Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp)
• Philippine Liberation Medal

The National Museum of the Pacific War: Joe Fields Oral History.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joe Fields. He was born in Benton, Kentucky on 29 June 1926. Upon graduation from high school in May, 1944, he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois. Fields describes several of his experiences while in boot camp. He attended Radio Operator’s School and was assigned as a member of the commissioning crew of USS LSM-96. The vessel sailed to Pearl Harbor, embarked a radar intercept squadron (8th Air Warning Squadron) and landed them on a small island off of Okinawa on 1 April 1945. He describes the efforts made by his crew in assisting several American ships in distress over the ensuing days, including evacuating patients from the hospital ship USS Pinkney (APH-2), which had been hit by a kamikaze.

Bringing Them Home: The Navy’s Hospital Evacuation Transports of WWII

Casualties and injuries are almost always apparent in war, not to mention diseases and illnesses that can occur in hostile environments such as thick forests, isolated islands, and the middle of the ocean. Yet, for American troops deployed in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during the Second World War, it was almost impossible to access immediate medical care, particularly on island battlefields that were hot, rainy, and riddled with mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and yellow fever. Not exactly ideal places for a hospital ashore. This is where hospital ships come in together with evacuation ships, aka floating ambulances of the American forces that would provide medical support and ferry incapacitated men into safety. Mostly slightly smaller than hospital vessels, evacuation ships rose to prominence notably at the end of World War II, when they delivered men home.

So while the navy and army built Hospital ships to initially treat the wounded, the navy undertook the additional step of creating purpose-built Evacuation ships that could be armed and be able to make the return trip with troops and supplies for the vast reaches of the Pacific front. Of course, this made them legitimate targets for attack by enemy forces, so the military made sure that the wounded placed aboard them were ‘ambulatory,’ meaning that they could get around on their own and be able to man life rafts and boats if the ship was bombed or torpedoed on the way home.

The Army would build some 24 Hospital ships during WWII, while the Navy would build 15 Hospital ships, but just 3 Hospital Evacuation Transports were ever built.

The Grey-Hulled Cousins of Hospital Ships: A Short History of the Navy’s Evacuation Transport Ships

In February 1943, as part of her first official mission, USS Pinkney transported troops to the Florida Islands and then evacuated wounded Marines from the bloody battles of Tulagi and Cavutu. Soonafter she was called upon to transport casualties from mobile and base hospitals in the Solomons and New Hebrides to New Caledonia and New Zealand. Over 19 months of action, Pinkney proved its versatility and mettle in answering the call. She transported torpedoes and ammunition to the island of Tulagi and to warships; she embarked and carried Army and Navy nurses to forward deployed hospitals across the Southwest Pacific. At one point, Pinkney was even called upon to transport French war brides and their babies from New Zealand to New Caledonia.

Beginning in September 1944, as naval forces turned its attention to the island of Peleliu, Pinkney carried part of the First Marine Division into action and then stood offshore for five days maneuvering around enemy mortar fire before loading up with casualties (including some of the same Marines she transported) and evacuating them to the Admiralties. She, Tryon and Rixey were later assigned to the Philippines where they played instrumental roles in retrieving casualties from ships damaged from Kamikaze attacks in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On April 28, 1945, while supporting operations in the Battle of Okinawa, Pinkney’s superstructure received a direct hit by a Kamikaze. The attack penetrated four decks down and killed 16 patients and 18 members of her crew. Pinkney was later repaired and returned to action.

USS Pinkney (APH-2) participated in the Philippines, Luzon. Named after Ninian Pinkney, who developed the field of surgery and medicine for the U.S. Navy before, during, and after the Civil War.

USS Pinkney (APH-2) was a Tryon-class Evacuation Transport that was assigned to the U.S. Navy during World War II. Medical equipment and personnel were provided by the Army. Pinkney served in the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations and returned home safely post-war with six battle stars but missing 18 crew members who were killed in action. Following extensive fitting out and shakedown, USS Pinkney, an Evacuation Transport, departed San Diego, California, for Pearl Harbor and the South Pacific Ocean, 27 January 1943.

In early October, she returned briefly to the Solomon Islands, then sailed for Hollandia, then the Philippines. Into November, she evacuated Leyte casualties to Hollandia, Mantis, and New Caledonia. In December, she prepared for the Luzon invasion. On 9 January 1945, she landed Army troops on the Lingayen beaches, and, once again, assumed responsibilities for the care and evacuation of casualties, this time to Leyte.

On 2 April, USS Pinkney participated in the feints against southern Okinawa, then shifted to the Hagushi assault area where she landed U.S. Marine combatant and hospital units on the 10th. Casualties, from ships and from ashore, were soon filling her hospital wards. Caring for patients and expediting transferral of others to the hospital ship USS Samaritan, she dodged enemy shells and kamikazes until the 28th.

Struck by a Kamikaze:
On April 28th, 1945, at 1730, a low-flying kamikaze was spotted closing the ship. Seconds later USS Pinkney was rocked by an explosion and the after-end of the superstructure was walled by a sheet of flame. Ammunition began to explode. Water lines, electrical conduits, and steam pipes ruptured. The crew immediately formed rescue and damage control parties. Live ammunition was thrown overboard. All but 16 patients, killed in the initial explosion, were transferred to safety.

Ancestry.com references:

(Grandfather) Isiah Whittington was born on August 4, 1896, in Georgia. He had 5 children. He died on May 4, 1956, in Worth, Georgia, at the age of 59, and was buried there. (unknown heritage)

Isiah Whittington married Florence Alderman in Worth, Georgia, on June 10, 1917, when he was 20 years old.

(Grandmother) When Florence Whittington was born in 1908 in Colquitt, Georgia, her father, Fuller, was 40, and her mother, Irene, was 29. She married Isiah Whittington on June 10, 1917, in Worth, Georgia. They had five children in 12 years. She died as a young mother on March 8, 1937, in Worth, Georgia, at the age of 29, and was buried there.

Fuller Alderman was born in 1868 in Georgia. He had four sons and three daughters with Irene Alderman between 1897 and 1909. He lived in Valdosta, Georgia, in 1910. (unknown heritage)

Irene Alderman was born in 1879 in Georgia. She had four sons and three daughters with Fuller Alderman between 1897 and 1909. She lived in Valdosta, Georgia, in 1910. (unknown heritage)

(Grandfather) When John E Robbins was born in 1877 in Iowa, his father, Horace, was 22. He had five sons and six daughters with Bertha Belle Ernst between 1909 and 1932. He died on April 21, 1951, in Medford, Oregon, at the age of 74, and was buried there.

(Great G-Father) When Horace Allen Robbins was born on December 26, 1855, in East Templeton, Massachusetts, his father, Samuel, was 22. He had one son in 1877. He died on March 21, 1934, at the age of 78.

(2nd Great G-Father) Samuel Allen Robbins (Horace’s father) was born on April 27, 1833, in Nelson, New Hampshire. He had one son in 1855. He died on May 14, 1910, in Randall, Kansas, having lived a long life of 77 years. (unknown heritage)

(Grandmother) Bertha Belle Ernst was born on November 3, 1890, in Oklahoma. She had five sons and six daughters with John E Robbins between 1909 and 1932. She died on April 7, 1966, in Pittsburg, California, at the age of 75. (unknown heritage)

(Aunt) When Esther Robbins was born on March 21, 1917, in Olympia, Washington, her father, John, was 40, and her mother, Bertha, was 26. She married Louis Alexander Walch in May 1936. She died on February 28, 1990, in San Pablo, California, at the age of 72.

(Uncle) Louis Alexander Walch was born on July 12, 1916, in Talent, Oregon. He married Esther Robbins in May 1936. He died on March 31, 1969, in Medford, Oregon, at the age of 52.