Biography of William W. Slattery
CCCMan, Company 791, Camp Lightning Creek, Black Hills, Custer, South Dakota
United States Navy
My name is William W. Slattery, enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps at age 18 in South Dakota and served at Camp Lightning Creek, nine miles west of Custer, South Dakota in the storied Black Hills.
My Camp served the United States Forest Service (F14) in construction, forest fire fighting and forest preservation (thinning, etc.) My specialty was leadershiip and stone masonry.
As an enrollee of 21 months I had two promotions: 1. Assistant Leader ($36 a month) 2. Leader ($45). I assisted Civilian foremen with work crews and barracks discipline.
In the C.C.C. my camp company was #791. I played on the camp basketball and baseball teams. My summer work was mostly as stone mason on the construction of a new Harney Peak lookout tower and in the winters stone-work construction of an organization camp called the Bob Marshall Organization camp.
After a few months out of the Cs I joined the U..S. Navy in World War II, January 15, 1942. I graduated from high school at the little town of Spencer, South Dakota just before reaching the age of 18 in 1939. Upon leaving the Navy in 1945 I enrolled at the University of South Dakota and was graduated in 1948.
As I write this in the year 2001, November, the buildings we built in the CCCs, the lookout tower and the Marshall camp, still stand. I enjoyed the Civilian Conservation Corps. I am now 80 years old and a retired news writer. My address is P.O. Box 90855, White Mountain Lake, AZ... 85912.
----- William W. Slattery
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