US Navy, 1942-1945
On Friday, November 1, 1940 The Marceline News printed a List of Serial Draft Numbers. Mann
Howe Taylor was #457.
On Friday, October 23, 1942 The Marceline News carried the following:
Mr. Taylor Leaves Nov. 3
Equipped with three pipes, four cans of smoking tobacco and three large boxes of matches, M.H. Taylor Jr., will report the morning of November 3 in Kansas City for active duty with the construction corps of the navy. He will be sent to Norfolk, Va., for training and after a month or two there, will be sent to some other naval base for construction work. By January 1, if he hasn’t taken over the duties of General MacArthur in Australia, his many friends in Marceline certainly will be disappointed. In the navy, Mr. Taylor will be a carpenter’s mate and he has been practicing several weeks on some chicken coops at the Taylor farm.
In 1943 an Official Report on Marceline Group was reported in The Marceline News via a letter to W.V. (Doc) Drennan from Lt. Irl McNeal, son of Mr. and Mrs. A.I. McNeal of Marceline. Excerpts follow:
“Somewhere in the Southwest Pacific, Oct.15, 1943. Dear Mr. Drennan: This is the official report of the Marceline personnel in the Pacific. To date, there are four of us. “Slick” Taylor is on the same island with me. Harry Carter was here but now has moved up to a new point.
Maj. Cotter Murray is on and off this island.
Slick is doing fine but was very much upset because he did not get the contract for the new ice cream parlor that just opened here. However he feels there will be more in the future and he will be able to gain his share. While Carter was here, the three of us – “Slick”, Harry and I – spent several evenings together.”
Excerpts from The Marceline News, Friday, February 23, 1945
“Slick” Taylor Has Qualified For WPA
Back home after 2 years in the South Pacific, M.H. “Slick” Taylor says he is now the best pick-and-shovel man in the business and now is fully qualified to become the WPA director after the war is over.
Mr. Taylor, who is in the Seabees of the navy, arrived here early Sunday for a visit at the home of his mother, Mrs. M.H. Taylor, other relatives and his many friends. Before entering the navy, “Admiral” Taylor was a general sales manager, the director of personnel and the ambassador of good will for the Mcallister Brothers organization here.
His two years in the Southwest Pacific have been devoted entirely to construction work for the navy; and bragging about Marceline, Musselfork water and the pretty girls in this section of the world… He told all of his “buddies” that Marceline was the capitol of Missouri and that Yellow Creek was wider than the Mississippi. And they believed him.