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Rockport Heroes Remembered!
Rockport WWII Soldier Series Number Five.
2/12/06
Updated on 11/12/13.









This Military Series Is Designed To Give Honor To Those From The Rockport Area That Served Our Country. I Have Not Left Out Anyone Intentionally, As I Can Only Include Those That I Have Information About. If You Know Or Aware Of Anyone That I Have Not Included, Please Feel Free To Send Me Some Material And I will Include Them In The Series. Thanks.

Music is an old Military Tune from the early thirties. It is "When The Guards Are On Parade."

Web Page by jrd.








James Maddox.

The Following Write-Up Is By James Maddox. Thanks Jim.


I entered military service July 9,1941. Was discharged honorably on October 8, 1945 after 4 years 3 months. Two of those years were with the 100th Fighter Wing of the XIX Tactical Air Command of the 9th U S Air Force. My unit was one of those in the 9th that gave Air to Ground support to General Patton's 3rd Army in it's march across the European Continent. At war's end we were at Frankfort, Germany. Later moved to a camp near Nurnberg, Germany. We received 6 bronze combat stars for our participation in 6 of the campaigns.


James D. Maddox.

The State Journal, Frankfort, KY. 10/15/07.

Services for James D. Maddox, 88, of Frankfort, will be conducted from Harrod Brothers Memorial Chapel at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday. Burial will follow in Frankfort Cemetery. He died Saturday at the Frankfort Regional Medical Center following a brief illness.

A native of Ohio County, he retired as an assistant director for the Department of Education, Division of Vocational Agriculture Education for Kentucky State Government. He graduated from Western Kentucky University where he received his bachelors of science degree. He also received his masters degree from the University of Kentucky. He was an executive secretary with the Young Farmers Association, an executive secretary with FFA, director of the Kentucky FFA Leadership Training Center in Hardinsburg from 1954 to 1971, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII and he served military duty in Europe. He was a member of the V.F.W Post 4075, and a member of the First Baptist Church on St. Clair Street in Frankfort.

Surviving him are his wife of 60 years, Jane Smith Maddox, Frankfort; son, David Kelley Maddox (Katherine), Richmond, Va.; daughter, Theresa Maddox, Puryear, Tenn.; three grandchildren, Matthew Alan Garrett, Puryear, Tenn., Jennifer Wynn (Johnny), Puryear, Tenn., and Kayleigh Barbee, Richmond, Va.; five great-grandchildren, Austin, Rachel, Katherine Wynn, Dakota, Tyler Garrett.

He was the son of the late Caperton Coleman Maddox and Maude Barnard Maddox, and also preceded in death by four brothers.

Rev. William A. Carter and Dr. David Hinson will officiate.

Active bearers will be Tony Marraccini, Bill Durrett Jr., Sonny Adkins, Elliot Allison Jr., Clarence Curtis, Sam McElroy, John Semones, Bobby Shouse, J.W. Wilson, Paul Winters, Virgil Tillett and Bob Tipton.

Friends may call from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Harrod Brothers Memorial Chapel. Flowers are welcome but contributions may be made to the H.O.P.E. Fund of First Baptist Church, 201 St. Clair Street, Frankfort, Ky. 40601. Military honors will be observed at the graveside by the V.F.W. Post 4075.






Lester Durham And Bill McGuyer.

Lester Durham, on the left in the above picture, was drafted into the Army in the early part of World War II. He served during the war and was honorably discharged and returned to Rockport to finish his working career. His responsibility in the Army was similar to the Navy's "C Bees". His outfit followed the first wave of Soldiers and Marines. They would construct bridges, levies and other objects that would permit the larger trucks and equipment to follow with the needed material to sustain a large group of Soldiers and Marines. If it could be built from wood and other material, Lester's outfit would built it.

Next to Lester, in the above picture, is his lifelong buddy and future neighbor, Bill McGuyer. Bill was drafted into the Army at the same time that Lester was drafted. They completed part of their first training together and then went separate ways to eventually return to Rockport. A few years after the war, Bill and his family would settle near Lester and his family.

The following paragraph is about Bill and is an addition by Harold Welborn.



Bill MuGuyer-Soldier
Bill McGuyer.

Bill had a "special" time in the Army Air Corps in WWII. He was a gunner on a B-25 Billy Mitchell light bomber. While in Europe on a mission over Italy his plane was shot bad enough so they had to crash land near the Mediterranean Sea. In the landing Bill's leg was badly injured. The Germans took him to Vienna, Austria to a good surgeon who saved the leg and then to a prison camp in Germany. He stayed in the Camp, a Stalag, for 22 months. At about the end of the war the Russians overran the Germans and liberated the camp and Bill was finally free to return home. His leg was pretty good, but never normal, and his hair turned grey during the imprisonment. He said sometimes they only had potato peeling soup for food and even water was in short supply. He also said the Camp guards didn't have much better food near the end of the war. Before shipping out for Europe he had married his wife, Gladys Welborn, and sometime after he was over there his wife found she was pregnant. Their first daughter, Judy, was a toddler before Bill got to see her. Bill often told the story of his liberation; when the Russians freed him they gave him a bicycle, a liter of vodka and a 45 revolver. He said, "He suspected they wanted him to get drunk and shoot a few Germans to get even." His wife didn't know if he was dead or alive for months. She learned when someone who met him in prison escaped and made it to England where they wrote a letter to inform them he was a captive of the Germans.

These two guys never hesitated when called to service by Uncle Sam. They like countless others just picked up their old ditty bag and went off to war. After serving two years and after their responsibility was complete, they returned to friends and family to Rockport and settled in to raise their family. Thanks heroes.




Ben Durham-Soldier
Ben Durham is pictured above in his World War II uniform.

Ben Durham was a 1940 Graduate of Rockport High School. In this period of time, in American History, the United States was at peace, but a war was looming in Europe. The area talk was about the United States being drawn into a war. The European Jews were being exterminated and the rest of the World must have had their head in the sand as nothing was being done to stop this mass carnage. Ben Durham was a young man, just out of high school, and he felt the need to join the Army and help rid the world of mass murderers and especially those that were killing people just because they were a certain color or of a certain religion. On August 10, 1940 Ben joined the Army and was sent to Fort Knox to start his basic training. As a high school graduate and a desire to stay in the army, Ben made rank in a timely matter and soon he was wearing the stripes of a Corporal. His intentions of being a career soldier was halted after Ben hurt his back and he was discharged from the Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas on June 21, 1942. With honorable military discharge papers, for medical reasons, in hand, Ben came back to Rockport to ponder on a future. The injured back required the use of a back brace to alleviate the pain, but wearing the back brace was just to binding for Ben. He gave up the back brace and lived in some back pain for the rest of his life.

Ben's military life was mostly unknown to others and especially to family and friends at home. When asked if he went overseas during his short Army Career, Ben would answer that he was sent to India. Whether true or not, most people would never know. It is doubtful that he did, as Ben had rather tell a person a "Tall Tale" than to be completely honest. Seems that anytime a person was getting too personal about Ben's life, and if Ben was asked, the answer was suspect as being the truth. Ben was just that way.

With an injured back and some military assistance, Ben ended up in Lexington, Kentucky. The first few years of being in Lexington was in a whirlwind as Ben married Irene and started an Automotive Radiator Repair Shop. The shop was a very successful operation and the young couple bought a house in Lexington on Highland Park Drive. Ben would live in this house until he died. His wife lived there until she needed assistance and then she moved to an assisted living home in Winchester, Ky.

Ben and Irene had a very enjoyable and long life together. There were no children from this marriage. Ben had a son from a previous marriage. Franklin Allen Durham, the son of Ellen Griffin and Ben F. Durham, was born in 1945. "Frank" stayed in the Rockport area, but visits were many and there was a loving and nice relationship between Ben and Irene and Ben's son and family. Ben and Irene ended up with two grandchildren and had their life fulfilled. Their retirement life was a satisfying one. Ben died a few years back and Irene continued to keep house in Lexington until she had to move to an assisted living home. She recently died and Ben and Irene are buried in the Lexington, Kentucky area.










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jrd