In 1944, with the country at war, many American men were joining the armed services to support the cause. But as Arthur Caron of Gorham fought just to enlist in the military, he had a different cause: finding his brother.

Not knowing if his soldier brother was dead or alive, Caron thought he might learn of his brother’s fate if he could just join the Navy and sail to the Pacific theater. Caron never got the duty he so badly wanted. He never had a chance to find his brother, who survived capture by Japan and eventually returned to the United States.

With Memorial Day on Monday, May 30, Caron spoke with the American Journal about his service during WWII and his unsuccessfull attempts to search for his brother.

“I wanted to go to the Southwest Pacific in the worst way,” said Caron, who is now 85.

Caron, who grew up in Westbrook, previously had been discharged by the National Guard in Westbrook in 1940 because he was a family man. A subsequent attempt to volunteer for naval service during World War II was also rejected because he was married and had a child.

He was working at the Dana Warp Mill on Bridge Street in Westbrook. Caron didn’t know at the time that a mill boss had gotten him three deferments to keep him working at the mill.

When Caron found out about it, he asked a mill secretary to write a letter to the draft board. He was notified two weeks later to appear for a physical. “I want to go in the Navy,” he told military authorities in 1944.

Army and Navy officers argued over his assignment. An Army captain said Caron wants the Navy, while a naval officer noted that Caron had Army training. Caron, who knew the head of the draft board, was eventually allowed to join the Navy.

A disappointing assignment

He soon found himself in a bunk on a passenger train on an overnight ride to New York from Union Station in Portland. Completing boot camp at Sampson, N.Y., he was ordered to duty in the Caribbean Sea not the Pacific duty he longed for.

Caron was assigned to Naval Air Station Key West in Florida. He was a crewmember aboard Navy aircraft, hunting for enemy submarines. He was promoted to the rank of carpenter’s mate 2nd class on his tour of duty there. As a memento, he has a coconut inscribed “10-6-44 NAS Key West.”

At one point, Caron thought he would get his chance to search for his brother when he received orders to board a ship for China. Caron came so close to shipping out. He had tossed his belongings onto a pile of sea bags on a truck, which was to deliver it to the ship.

But, the Navy switched his assignment before he walked up the gangplank. An officer ordered Caron’s sea bag off the pile. It wasn’t his first disappointment.

Caron, who had three brothers in World War II, thirsted for sea duty. “I thought I might find out something about my brother,” he said. “I wanted destroyer duty in the worst way.”

Dejectedly claiming his sea bag from that truck, he got papers to a prisoner-of-war compound at a naval base in California. The Navy assigned a German POW to Caron for repair work. Caron still recalls the man’s name, Alfred Geuthner, who couldn’t speak English.

Caron couldn’t speak German, so he communicated by using his hands to instruct Geuthner. After the war, Caron was discharged on the West Coast in 1946.

A uniform for a parade

Returning home, he packed away his uniforms for 59 years. They were mothballed until recently.

“Where’re my uniforms Charlotte,” Caron asked his wife about six months ago, deciding he would finally attend a parade in uniform.

After his wife let out his dress blue Navy jumper, he donned it for a parade in Portland earlier this year. It was the first time he wore his medals. He said his wife did a good job getting him and his uniform ready for the parade. But, “I’ll never wear it again,” he said.

Caron, who uses a walker or a cane as an aid in walking, rode his motorized scooter in the parade. His buddy, Donald Woodbury of Gorham, a Vietnam veteran, loaded Caron’s scooter into his pickup and took Caron to Portland.

A member of American Legion Post 62, Caron will watch the Westbrook Memorial day parade from his usual post, near Walker Memorial Library. During a couple of parades in recent years, he said a uniformed veteran he did not know mysteriously dropped out of parade formation to snap a salute. The man refused to rejoin the parade until Caron returned the salute.

The Conservation Corps

Before joining the Navy, Caron had served with the Civilian Conservation Corps. Later, as an air raid warden in Westbrook during World War II, he made sure citizens drew black shades over windows at night so no light could escape in observance of the mandatory blackout.

“People in Westbrook were fearful,” he said.

His beat was the area of Central, Brackett, Mechanic, Saco and West Pleasant streets. In the winter, the walk was cold. He took action when he saw the marquee lit up at the closed and unattended Realto Theater on Main Street. Caron smashed a window to get in to put the lights out. “I did my duty,” he said.

Caron has three children, and Charlotte, his second wife, has two. The five children are girls. Arthur and Charlotte, who have been married 20 years, have 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Caron said his mother had eight sons who served in the military. “That’s the proudest part,” he said. “I’d do it all over again.”