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Wednesday, December 7,2022
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3B
Navy veteran’s flagpole honors fellow service members
Julia Hansen Dawson County News
Ret. navy senior chief petty officer John Croix served in the
military between 1961-1988.
Photo submitted to Dawson County News
U.S. Navy veteran John Croix's new flagpole, pictured here
with his son's vintage car, displays flags from four military
branches in his front yard to honor former and current ser
vice members.
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
Ever since his move to the
Dawson County area in 2018,
retired U.S. Navy senior chief
petty officer John Croix has been
determined to honor fellow ser
vice members with yardside
flags.
After two unsuccessful
attempts, John has finally real
ized his long-held goal, with the
American and four military
branch flags now proudly hoist
ed atop a custom flagpole in his
front yard.
Veterans from John’s
Wednesday breakfast group
helped him hoist the flags for the
U.S. government, army, navy, air
force and marines during a Nov.
19 ceremony in front of his
Williamson Road home.
The ceremony followed two
months of efforts by John, son
Gary Croix and a former neigh
bor and friend, Bobby Summers.
When John and his wife, Mary
Frances, lived on Red Rider
Road, he’d tried to put up a
cheap flagpole with the
American flag before, but the
wind broke it down twice, he
said.
So, John set his sights on a
bigger display and found a via
ble option through the Ohio-
based Admiral Flag Poles com
pany. He saw the company’s
pole with a yardarm and mount
on each end.
The only problem was that
John wanted to display flags
from four branches, not just two.
So they added two more hoists
and took the three existing cleats
or flag lines, which were
screwed into the flagpole, and
mounted them on horizontal
boards installed at the bottom of
the flagpole.
Two new flag lines were also
mounted along the boards’ hori
zontal formation.
John said Gary helped with a
lot of the work, particularly the
labor-intensive portions.
Cement had to be placed
around the ground pipe into
which the flagpole would fit.
John also rented a manlift to pick
up and drop the pole into the
pipe.
“That flagpole is over 35 feet
tall, and it takes a lot of weight
in the bottom to keep it from
falling over,” John said. “We put
129 sacks of concrete in the bot
tom.”
They also installed lighting so
that the flags could be continu
ously displayed. Otherwise, John
said he’d have to take the flags
down at sunset daily. And that
wouldn’t be an easy task to do
alone, such as with the American
flag’s six-by-10-foot size, he
added.
“He said he’s never seen a
yardarm with four hoists on it
before,” John said of Admiral
Flag Poles owner Rick Henne.
“And he’d never seen one with a
cleat arrangement like I’d made,
so he was very impressed.”
Years of service
John Croix served in the navy
over the course of 26-and-a-half
years, retiring as a senior chief
petty officer. Between his stints
in the military, he spent several
years out doing related civilian
jobs.
Fike many Americans his age,
John served during the Vietnam
War, entering the military in
1961. That wasn’t the only big
change in his life around that
time, though.
John said he and Mary
Frances, who were “high school
sweethearts,” wed right after he
completed boot camp in April
1961.
He learned the ins and outs of
being a jet mechanic at a naval
air station in Beeville, Texas,
before going to nuclear power
school.
So began multiple several-
month-long deployments for
John, each followed by three-to-
six-month stints back in the U.S
before the next assignment.
In October 1965, John first
deployed on the nuclear-powered
destroyer-type ship the USS
Bainbridge. The vessel was the
fourth ship to carry that name
and the first of its kind in the
navy, according to the military
branch’s history website.
During the ninth-month
deployment, he worked as a
steam plant mechanic, helping
run the ship’s engine room.
Throughout that time, the ship
navigated the Vietnamese coasts
providing gunfire support to mil
itary personnel in the country,
John said.
The destroyer’s personnel also
monitored maritime trade to
make sure arms and munitions
weren’t getting from North
Vietnam to its Viet Cong allies to
the south.
As they navigated waters off
of eastern Asia, John said his
ship would have to use the
Philippines as a stopping point in
between Hong Kong or Taiwan
and Vietnam due to conditions
set out in various international
treaties.
As part of military efforts, the
ship also fired harassment and
interdiction shell rounds around
the enemy’s locations.
“It was to keep them up and
deny them sleep,” said John, “but
mostly, it denied us sleep.”
After the USS Bainbridge
deployment, John served on the
USS Maddox. While tinkering
with a bearing on the ship’s main
deck one day, he was unknow
ingly sprayed with the harmful
Agent Orange, a chemical herbi
cide used by the U.S. military.
At the time, John said he
wasn’t wearing a hat and thought
the droplets hitting his head were
just from a plane dumping fuel
before landing.
“After I retired, I came down
with diabetes, and there was no
trace of it in my family. I didn’t
know where it came from,” John
said. “I thought Agent Orange
only affected the guys in [the]
country, and then I found out I
got sprayed.”
Agent Orange has been linked
to millions of Vietnam veterans’
deaths and/or illnesses. In 2019,
the Blue Water Navy Vietnam
Veterans Act added over 1.8 mil
lion sailors to the federal govern
ment’s compensation program
for service members exposed to
the toxic chemical.
Following the second deploy
ment, John temporarily exited
the navy and attended aircraft
mechanic school. He went on to
work at multiple aircraft engi
neering companies, followed by
his job working for the U.S.
Postal Service.
After his reentry into the navy,
John was stationed on an
amphibious ship for 15 months.
Then came a stint from 1976-
1979 on the USS Kirk, the
destroyer-class escort best
known for its previous efforts in
the evacuations from Vietnam.
During that deployment, John
was stationed at the U.S. Navy’s
Yokosuka Naval Base, located in
Japan’s Tokyo Bay along eastern
Honshu, the country’s main
island. While he frequently came
and went on deployments, his
family adjusted to daily life in a
small fishing village.
Since many Japanese people
spoke English at the time, it
wasn’t difficult for them to make
their way around the city. Mary
Frances took part in regular out
ings to make arts and crafts with
area women, while an elementa
ry-aged Gary played and shared
American culture with his
Japanese peers.
John’s family was also taught
the right way to cook rice, as
shared when a Japanese male
college student visited them one
time to practice his English.
“She (Mary Frances) made it
just the way she’d always made
it, [with] two cups of rice and
four cups of water in a pan. He
told her ‘You can’t make rice
like that. You have to have a rice
cooker,”’ John recounted. “And
the next time he came, he
brought us a rice cooker so we
could cook rice properly.”
Interestingly enough, Gary
would later enter the Navy and
serve at the U.S. Marine Corps’
Iwakuni base, located on south
western Honshu, from 1993-
1996.
After serving in Japan, John
was sent to the naval air station
in Kingsville, Texas, where he
served in supply and public safe
ty roles, including as the sta
tion’s master of arms or police
chief.
Then in 1982, John relocated
to Norfolk, Virginia, where he
served until 1985 on the USS
John King. After that assign
ment, he got orders to serve on a
battleship, but he faced a dilem-
ma-he wanted to be able to
attend Gary’s upcoming wed
ding.
“They said, ‘We’re going to
deploy. You can’t go,” John
recalled of his superiors. “And I
said, ‘wrong answer.’ I wasn’t
there when he was bom. I wasn’t
there when he graduated high
school. I thought, ‘I’m going to
be there when he gets married.’”
Instead, John was transferred
to Norfolk’s type desk within the
Naval Surface Forces Atlantic.
For the next three years, he was
responsible for handling vessel
maintenance orders to be ful
filled by the shipyard or by a
contracted third party.
Then in June 1988, when it
was time for him to go back out
to sea, he decided he was tired,
enough so to put in his retire
ment papers.
He worked for about 10 years
with a company that handled
similar navy ship contracts, but
after U.S. military budgets were
slashed in the late 1990s, he
stepped down from working
there, too.
The decrease in military con
tracting put “so many people out
of business in Norfolk, it wasn’t
funny,” John said.
Even after people were laid off
from such businesses, employers
would later hire back on many
workers to complete projects still
trickling through before laying
them off again, he added.
After moving on to another
manufacturing-related job, John
retired from civilian work sever
al years ago, with he and Mary
Frances eventually moving down
to northeastern Georgia.
Now, John can appreciate the
most recent fruit of his and his
helpers’ labors-the flagpole.
One car passing by his front
yard honked and waved in
approval while the pole was
being installed. After the flags
were raised, an elderly couple
also driving by stopped to visit,
drawn in by the patriotic display.
“They live down the road
about a mile from us. He’s
retired from the [U.S.] Army,”
John said of the husband, “and
he came to ask me about the
flagpole and where it came
from.”
FROM 1B
Basketball
Dawson established a lead
through Reed and Trey Harvey,
who combined for a dozen points
in the second quarter.
Another player who helped
build the lead was Owen Walls,
who had himself a productive
night with scoring and rebound
ing.
Heading into the third quarter
holding a 32-25 lead, the Tigers
maintained — but did not expand
— their advantage.
Reed would carry the load in
the third quarter, scoring 14
points and keeping the team
afloat to lead 57-51 going into
the fourth quarter.
The scoring for Dawson would
even back out in the final quarter
and the collective effort would
result in the 74-63 final score.
For the girls team, a spate of
turnovers in the second and third
quarters would put them behind
an opponent that took advantage
of those miscues.
“We just weren’t disciplined in
the first three quarters,” head
coach Will Anglin said. “We
allowed the momentum and our
frustration to affect the way we
played.”
Early on, the offense was effi
cient, with Kirklyn Porter scor
ing seven first-quarter points.
Trailing 19-18 after the open
ing quarter, the Fady Tigers
struggled to score until just
before halftime, narrowing their
deficit from 29-19 to 34-29 at the
half.
With the contested shots and
resulting turnovers piling up in
the third quarter, East Jackson
led 52-39 heading into the fourth
quarter.
By the time Eva Bishop and
Abby Samples-Slaton found
their shooting touch, it was just a
little too late for the Fady Tigers.
Their baskets helped cut down
the deficit but Salton’s final shot
to make the score 62-61 went in
just before the final buzzer
sounded.
“I was really proud of how we
fought back,” Anglin said. “Non
region games like this are great
for your team because you learn
how to respond to adversity.”
The boys and girls teams will
begin their region slates at home
on Tuesday, Dec. 6, against West
Hall.
FROM 1B
Media Day
so far this year,” Cottrell said.
“With the growing pains last year,
a lot of these guys played signifi
cant minutes as sophomores.”
Cottrell also sees this season as
one to gradually build up the
team’s identity and strengths.
With only one senior on this
year’s roster, there is plenty of
room for growth.
“With these [juniors], they are
setting the standard for the next
group,” Cottrell said. “Fast year
was a transition year in a lot of
ways. This year, if it translates
into wins that’s great, but I really
like the direction we’re going in.”
3. Wrestling team laying
foundation for success
Wrestling team head coach
Arron Haynes has long been able
to maximize the potential of his
squads, but this season presents a
unique challenge.
While there is quality on the
team’s roster, a lack of quantity in
weight classes means that points
will be hard to come by.
But Haynes expressed confi
dence in Ms team’s progress thus
far, with the few older wrestlers
helping lead several freshmen
who moved up to the varsity
squad from the two-time defend
ing region championship middle
school team.
“This year we have a lot of
youth,” Haynes said. “We’ve got
some experience down there but
they’re just young. We do have a
core group of juniors who are
going to lead them.”
While Haynes expects the team
to learn lessons and face some
growing pains, he is also confi
dent that the team will improve
tMough those experiences.
“By the time we get to region,
we’re not going to worry about
our youth a whole lot,” Haynes
said. “We’re just a varsity pro
gram and we have to get ready
for older people that we’re wres
tling.”
Three Things We Heard
1 - Junior swimmer Michelle
Castro talked about the swim
team’s bright future, pointing
out how competitive many of
the younger swimmers are both
for Dawson County and their
club teams.
“Our younger swimmers are
really good. I’m really
impressed. Maybe I could learn
something from them,” Castro
said. “[They] just push every
one to become better.”
2 - Senior girls basketball
player Calleigh Famb talked
about how Anglin’s energy has
helped improve and further
bring together an already tight
ly-knit group of players.
“He is very energetic on and
off the court and it really gets
us through practice whenever
he pushes us and encourages us
every day,” Famb said. “We do
lock-in every single day, work
hard and try to get better.”
3 - Junior Caden Reed, along
with Trey Harvey and Ethan
Parker, offered his thoughts for
the team’s goals from the per
spective of an important vocal
leader.
“I’ve always been a pretty
vocal guy — not afraid to say
something when it needs to be
said,” Reed said. “Us three
have been in the program since
we’ve been freshmen, so now
is the time to step up. I think
all three of us have shown
vocal leadership and leadership
by example. That’s what it’s
going to take to lead a young
team.”