Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2017

56 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestofMP.com feature I t’s hard to imagine that when the United States entered World War II, the small town of Mount Pleasant and the entire East Coast were targeted by Hitler’s U-boats. A dozen mines intended to destroy American merchant ships were laid around Charleston Harbor, and the possibility that those submarines could glide undetected to Shem Creek or Hobcaw Creek was very real. Bread wrappers from Claussen’s Bakery – a popular Columbia bakery at the time that distributed its products in the Charleston area – had even been found in U-boat wreckage, indicating the Germans had indeed come ashore undetected. It was an incredibly uneasy time, and one that drove many brave souls to enlist. When his uncle was killed in a U-boat torpedo attack off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, Bryan Rowell’s interest in joining the U.S. Navy was cemented. He enlisted as soon as the tobacco crop was gathered at his family’s farm in Horry County the following fall. Today, a 94-year-old longtime Mount Pleasant resident, Rowell vividly recalls his time in the Pacific Photos courtesy of the veterans. BY ANNE TOOLE In the Name of Freedom Meet Local War Veterans Bryan Rowell, right, became interested in joining the U.S. Navy after his uncle was killed in a U-boat attack.