Ulysses

THE REAL MCCOY

>

> Photo & story by William Hughes

> bhug82@yahoo.com

>

> PORT DEPOSIT - Everyone has a good story to tell. The older you get,

> the more they are. Some people have traveled the states, some the

> world. For Ulysses Grant McCoy, 90 of Port Deposit, he is a part of

> United States history. His life could be a movie. Ulysses was a Navy Seal diver and part of the

> testing of the atomic bomb and other nuclear weapon devices at the

> Bikini Islands in 1946. He does not hear as well as he used to, but

> when shown a picture, he can tell you things that people marvel at.

> Many know Ulysses as "Fidge," a nickname for a fidgety

> little boy growing up and it stuck. The once Shouns, Tennessee

> resident and son to Frank and Evelyn McCoy, just outside of Mountain

> City, he has accomplished so much in life, you might wonder how anyone had the

> time to do it all. For a while, he worked for Dr. Bud Jack, whom Dr.

> Jack Road is named.

"He used to say, if it wasn't for Mountain City, Maryland wouldn't

be a state," his daughter Donna Sue McCoy-Crowl said about the

relocation of so many of the southerners to this area. "He's the

youngest of eight. His father died when he was 18 months old."

When Ulysses was 14 years old, he decided to go into the Navy which

was for ages 16 and up, but wanted to send money home to his mother

during the depression. Stationed at Camp Peary in Williamsburg,

Virginia. "I was at the Naval base in Hawaii," he said. One of his

jobs was to help clean up Pearl Harbor after the December, 7, 1941

bombing attack by Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft. He was at Bikini

Island (Pikinni Island meaning coconut place) during the July 1946

testings termed Operation Crossroads. "They blew up the old

battleships for testing the atomic bombs," said Donna. Many may

remember seeing the photos of the massive mushroom clouds. The

historic photos of the atom bomb testing are an awe-struck moment of

destruction. "We were the only personnel that got those pictures,"

Ulysses remembered.

As a Navy Seal diver, Ulysses picked up some of the radiation from

the Operation Crossroads experience. Later his doctor told him he

would lose all his hair and never have children. Both of those

statements turned out to be false.

Ulysses went on to marry his wife Susanne in 1948 while first

getting her attention by whistling to her at the mailbox.

For a time, he took part in the Civilian Conservation Corps. It

was a chance for relief families to be employed during the depression.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's, public works "New Deal," hired more

than three million people and built 800 parks by planting over eight

billion trees from 1933-1942. The job was rigorous and something

Ulysses is also proud of.

The avid outdoorsman liked being close to nature and after working

his farm on McGrady Road, settled on a bigger one near Port Deposit and was determined

to take care of his family. "He's open hearted and would give the

shirt off of his back," Donna explained. "He was always a gardner and

had a dairy of 17 Holstein cows. He built this farm for his family, to

stay in the family. That's his joy. He was one of the first to start

the farm bureau in the county. Once he retired, he got into

squaredancing with the Susquehanna Squaredancers."

One other of his many interests was his McValley Riding Stables. "We

had a riding stable here and I would take people on trail rides,"

Ulysses said. "You don't see that too much anymore."

"I think it's amazing to come from the hills of Tennessee and end

up being what he is today," Donna said. "To be in the depression as a

little kid. One of eight and then take care of his family."

And his country.

Done