Stone enlists after Pearl Harbor bombing
<p>Clyde Stone when he attended his Farragut boot camp reunion.</p>
When Clyde Stone graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1941 he had no idea that World War II was approaching.
Born in Bonners Ferry, Stone was one of eight children. He worked at Safeway in downtown and then at the old Shell station on the north side. It was while he was working at this gas station when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
This is what made Clyde decide to join the Navy in October of 1942.
“Farragut was close by and I went to Coeur d’ Alene and signed up there,” said Stone.
He trained at the Farragut Naval Training Station which was a major training base for the Navy during WWII. Clyde wanted to be an aircraft mechanic and trained at the historical Naval Air Station in Norman, Okla.
From there he graduated in 1943 as an Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd class.
Stone’s journey took him to Ford Island which is in the middle of Pearl Harbor and he was assigned to Squadron VR-10 and worked on Martin PBM Mariner flying boats. These were patrol bomber flying boats.
Following the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the flying boats were used on anti-submarine patrols, sinking their first German U-Boat, U-158 on June 30, 1942.
“The Navy flew the flying boats from Ford Island to Brisbane, Australia, because the runways had been bombed by the Japs,” Stone said.
Stone’s squadron moved to Rodgers Field which is now Honolulu International Airport. He was made an inspector of the flying boats and inspected them for a short time until he changed to R5D and CD-4 land planes. He never worked on these land planes but did inspect them.
After Stone spent 39 months in the Navy, he returned to Bonners Ferry where his wife was waiting for him. He worked for his father pouring concrete for a time then he worked for Lindsey Helmer Hardware in downtown Bonners Ferry.
Until recently Clyde worked for the U.S. Forest Service.
“I am 88 years old and I just can’t do the job like I used to do,” said Stone.
His daughter Lori Edwards lives in Bonners Ferry and works at Boundary Community Hospital.