Quite often Shep would mention being stationed in Florida, but never mentioned the name of the camp.
Based on comments Shep made about the camp being located next to West Palm Beach, it appears that it must have been Camp Murphy now "Johnathon Dickinson State Park" According to the website two of the original buildings still stand.
A top secret radar training facility, it was named for Col. William Herbert Murphy, an U.S. Army pioneer in electronic equipment and it operated from April 1942 until 1944.
Source: Jim Clavin
[Gene B] Just listening to Shep Jeff's 4/2002 CD set, WOR 11C, dated 3/26/60 (about the 11th one on the disc.). About 36 minutes in. Shep says he was in the radar camp located next to West Palm Beach. I just checked my printout of Camp Murphy (radar camp, now Jonathan Dickinson State Park) web page, which says, "...located twelve miles south of Stuart on U.S 1 HWY." The google map for West Palm Beach shows Stuart just to the north of West Palm Beach. (Atlantic coast just east of Lake Okeechobee) For me this pretty well confirms that Shep was indeed at Camp Murphy. Comments: 0
Research Notes
Notes - 3 found
Source: Gene Bergmann (Date: 07-20-2007) Just listening to Shep Jeff's 4/2002 CD set, WOR 11C, dated 3/26/60 (about the 11th one on the disc.). About 36 minutes in. Shep says he was in the radar camp located next to West Palm Beach. I just checked my printout of Camp Murphy (radar camp, now Jonathan Dickinson State Park) web page, which says, "...located twelve miles south of Stuart on U.S 1 HWY." The google map for West Palm Beach shows Stuart just to the north of West Palm Beach. (Atlantic coast just east of Lake Okeechobee)
For me this pretty well confirms that Shep was indeed at Camp Murphy.
Source: Gene Bergmann (Date: 06-24-2007) Camp Murphy
Jonathan Dickinson State Park
16450 S.E. Federal Highway
Hobe Sound, Florida 33455
Martin County
(561) 546-2771
This site is located in the Southeast region of the state.
DIRECTIONS
Jonathan Dickinson State Park is located twelve miles south of Stuart on U.S. 1 HWY.
Operated by the Southern Signal Corps School and sited on 11,200 acres, Camp Murphy served as the Army's top-secret radar training facility. Named for Col. William Herbert Murphy, an U.S. Army pioneer in electronic equipment, the camp operated from April 1942 until November 1944 to provide research and development resources to the military. As many as 1,000 buildings were constructed for use by a complement of 854 officers and 5,000 men stationed here during this thirty-one month period. Pilots from NAAS Witham at Stuart flew training missions over Camp Murphy to provide “targets” to the students learning to use the radar equipment.
Acquired by the State of Florida when abandoned by the military, Camp Murphy became Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Two WWII era buildings remain in use by the Park Service.
Source: Gene Bergmann (Date: 11-26-2006) Jim, below is from the discussion group, 11/06, and it seems to provide some good circumstancial evidence as toe the whys and wherefores of
Shep's service and early release. As I distrust Wikipedia, I checked google for Camp Murphy and got the same basic info, including an aerial photo: http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/wwii/sites.cfm?PR_ID=103
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In the way of a reply to my post that began this thread, I heard yesterday an episode on Mass Backwards in which Shep recalled his being at a separation center at Ft. Dix. He recalled it was a cold December and that there were POWs there. All this is consistent with the Dec 1944 discharge date in his army record. Since other members of his company were also being separated, there was nothing special about his separation.
I could only conjecture that he and his company were engaged in coastal radar and the latter was no longer needed at the time.
I have recently learned that the age of conscription was lowered from 21 to 18 late in 1942. Given Shep's birthday, he became cannon fodder in July 1942, the month of his induction.
