Iron Side Up: November 2026

Russ and Betty White

My maternal grandfather, Philip Simeon Mattingly, served the United States as a Merchant Marine and is my earliest ancestor I have been able to authenticate that served the country. He sailed aboard the USS Moshulu, a four-masted cargo vessel, originally named the Kurt, which sailed under the German flag. It was seized in 1917 when the United States entered WWI and was renamed the Moshulu (Dreadnought in the Seneca Language) and carried goods from the US to Manila and Australia, and reloaded with goods on return voyages. Grandpa Matt was laid up in Australia for nearly two years while the Moshulu was repaired after being damaged in a typhon.

While this was not armed service to the country, the Merchant Marines are defined in Wikipedia as, “The United States Merchant Marine refers collectively to U.S.-flagged commercial vessels, both privately and federally owned, and the civilian mariners who crew them. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, and engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States.” This service set the stage for three of grandpa’s four children to enter the US Navy and then several generations thereafter.

My Uncle Bill (William Mattingly) and my Uncle Johnny (John Mattingly) served in the US Navy during WWII.

Uncle Bill served on the submarine, the USS Sargo, as she patrolled and engaged the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Post war, he became a civilian pilot and flew coast-to-coast in a single engine plan, an early Cessna, I believe. He was always an adventurer and bigger than life around family home at Wishon, Bass Lake, California. As you’ll below, both his service to the country and his flying were inspirational to his two sons.

A good description of the USS Sargo’s WWII service can be found at:

USS Sargo (SS-188) - Wikipedia

Uncle Johnny served on the USS Birmingham, a Cleveland-class light cruiser which served in both the European and Pacific theaters. The Birmingham took two hits during the Solomon Islands campaign. An Aichi D3A Val attacked the ship, which inflicted fatal damage to the plane but not before the Val released its bomb which skipped on the water to strike the starboard quarter. Soon after, another aircraft hit Birmingham with a torpedo on the port bow. While the ship survived the damage, my uncle was severely injured, mostly while pulling shipmates from the afflicted areas of the burning ship. A more detailed description of her service and the battle can be found at:

USS Birmingham (CL-62) - Wikipedia

The Korean War began in June of 1950 and my mother, Betty Jean Mattingly, enlisted in the US Navy to follow her brothers’ example. Our first Wave, she served in a variety of positions supporting the war effort. The Navy found her natural ability for accounting and spent time in the records departments. Her final post was at NAS (Naval Air Station) Seattle.

My dad, Russell Jay White, enlisted around the same time as my mom. You might see where this is headed. Dad’s last tour of service was aboard the USS Point Cruz, a Commencement Bay-class escort carrier based out of NAS Seattle.

Mom loved to swim and had the most beautiful freestyle I’ve ever seen. She spent many off hours at the base recreational hall swimming. She caught the eye of a certain seaman who worked some of his tours at the facility. My dad brought mom on to the rec center staff for some of her service hours, they dated, fell in love, and were married, June 1, 1952. Shortly before the Point Cruz went underway for operations off the coast of Korea, my mom became pregnant with me and was discharged from the US Navy as there was no pregnancy policy for Waves at the time.

Dad was overseas when I was born and we would not see each other until I was five or six months old. The legend is that in his excitement at received the transmission aboard ship that I was born, he ran around the huge ship finding his friends until he slammed one of the iron doors on his thumb. I never lived it down.

Members of the next generation to serve are my cousins, William Mattingly (Billy) and Robert Mattingly (Bobby). I have fewer details on their service during the Viet Nam War but know enough to tell you all some. They entered the war early on. My ‘opportunity’ wouldn’t come until toward the end of the conflict.

Cousin Billy served in the US Navy, taking after his father, Uncle Bill. He made a career of his service and would leave after more than 20 years to drive trucks and open a transport business. I know that during the war, Bill ran gunboats on the rivers of Viet Nam. Cousin Bob served in the US Air Force and flew jets during the war. He was an accomplished pilot and sometime flew the US Air Force Thunderbirds. He left the service and flew commercial passenger jets until his death from cancer at an early age. Anything younger than I am is too early.

When my opportunity came to get drafted for the Viet Nam War came, I was at an away game for the Glendale Junior College Vaqueros. We were not allowed to see our draft numbers until after the game. Mine came in at 253 with numbers below 150 being targeted for the draft. Our starting center, Eric Broderson, came in at number 1. He enlisted the next day and deferred his entry until after our season was over. I declined to crash the party by enlisting and would later face Eric in an alumni game when his four years was up.

I thought about enlisting and have often wondered why I did not when the basketball career and engagement ended. I’ll take my family, over 50 years with Cindy, our three kids with their amazing spouses, and our seven grandkids as confirmation that I made the right choice.

My cousin Lee did not serve and was the oldest of our generation. It’s possible that at 6’8” plus they may have thought him too easy a target. He was ten years my senior and when his daughters started coming along, it was easiest to call them and think of them and love them as cousins. Lee’s oldest daughter, Demaris Craw went from Fresno State on a volleyball scholarship into the US Navy for a career. She served during Desert Storm and repaired ships at sea. She is awesome.

Somewhere, by some miracle, she met a young US Marine by the name of Steven Brown. They dated, he fell in love with Demaris and her daughter Katelyn and they had a wonderful life until he succumbed to cancer. I am uncertain as of this original writing, exactly what Steve did for them, but he was a bad-assed marine. He later served in various stateside positions.

I mentioned Demaris’s and Steve’s daughter Katelyn. She is currently on her first duty station as a Navy Nurse, specifically a Labor and Delivery Nurse. The photo below of the youngest member currently serving is Katelyn’s daughter.

I totally appreciate the sacrifice these family members made for our country. God bless them all.

Keep the iron side up.

Jerry White

Postscript: I would be remiss if I did not mention the first responders in my family though they never bared arms: Jim and Rich Mattingly served long and intensely as wildfire fighters and my son-in-law, Taylor, now with the Nevada Department of Forestry in their wildfire division as a district supervisor. Oh, and Cindy’s cousin’s son who is with the Santa Barbara Fire Department.

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