Published: October 22, 2008 04:27 pm            

WEB SPECIAL: CCC alumni honored by Pine Knot Job Corps Center

Friday, October 17, was a day to honor the past and celebrate the future.

Pine Knot Job Corps Center paid tribute to five Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) alumni to mark the agency's 75th anniversary. Established in 1933, CCC was the federal government's effort to put thousands of young men affected by the Great Depression back to work.

Today's Job Corps owes much to the CCC, in that both provide on-the-job training and instill a spirit of community service in participants. Local Job Corps director Teresa Dunn-Frank noted similarities between today's students and the alumni present.

"They lived through hard economic times and frankly you are too," she told her students.

The ceremony was bittersweet as welll in that this year marks the final national reunion of CCC alumni.

But the day was mainly one of celebration with Daniel Boone National Forest archeologist Randy Boedy leading a presentation on CCC camps which were located in or near McCreary County, including Bell Farm, Stearns, Greenwood, Cumberland Falls and Baldrock.

The ceremony closed with the attending alumni "passing the shovel" to Job Corps student Johnathan Robinson who was selected to plant a yellow poplar on campus in honor of the millions of trees planted during the CCC's 1933-1942 tenure. Participating in that portion of the program were:

• Kelsie Meadows — Bell Farm Camp, January-June 1942; US Navy, 1942-1945; Pine Knot Job Corps Center

• Edward B. Murphy — Bell Farm Camp, 1939-1941; Army Air Corps, 1942

• Warren Hale — Bell Farm and Baldrock camps, 1940; US Army, 1942-1944 (Silver Star and Purple Heart)

• Stan R. Cornelius — Hardinsburg, KY Camp, 1933; and Camp Chalois, ID, 1934

• Hansford Murphy — Stearns Camp, 1938-39; US Army 1942-1945.

        

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