Freehold native served

country & community

By dick metzgar

Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — Eugene "Bo Bo" Nowack emerged from the depths of the Great Depression in the late 1930s to serve his country and community with distinction.

Nowack, a lifelong resident of the borough, was a battle-hardened veteran of 22 when his Navy destroyer, the USS Rodman, shelled the Normandy beaches early on June 6, 1944, in an attempt to soften up German resistance to the massive D-Day invasion by Allied troops.

In 1994, Nowack was selected to serve as the grand marshal in the borough’s Memorial Day parade during the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion.

Many years after the war he would serve key roles with the Freehold First Aid and Emergency Squad and American Legion Post 54 in Freehold.

Nowack, 80, died on Oct. 30 at the home of his daughter, Linda Delaney, in Colts Neck.

Before and after World War II, Nowack worked at the old A&M Karagheusian rug mill and then later worked for the borough in the water and sewer department until his retirement in 1984.

Despite all of his involvement in his community, Nowack was a down-to-earth man, according to his family and friends. He joined the first aid squad in 1955, 10 years after returning home from the war, reached the rank of captain of the squad in 1960, and attained life membership in 1980 after 25 years of service.

"To the world at large, Eugene ‘Bo Bo’ Nowack was not a household name," Harry R. Carter of Howell, who was a cadet with the first aid squad when Nowack was a member, wrote in tribute to Nowack. "Statues will probably not be built in his memory, nor will schools be named after him. He was one of the guys. He was a true old-time working man in the truest sense of the word. However, his impact upon my life and the lives of many of my fellow cadets in the Freehold first aid squad is immeasurable."

Nowack also served as commander of the American Legion post in Freehold.

"He did a lot to keep the post alive and active while he was commander," said Wayne DuBois of Freehold, also a former commander of the post.

Nowack graduated from the West Freehold elementary school in Freehold Township in 1937 and attended Freehold High School, his daughter said.

He joined the U.S. Navy in early 1942, not long after the United States had entered World War II.

The USS Rodman became actively involved in the war in late 1942, Nowack told the News Transcript in a May 1944 interview. The mission of the destroyer was to seek out and destroy German submarines in the North Atlantic, he said.

"The North Atlantic was always rough and cold and tough on the crew," Nowack said. "Coming topside to stand duty in the rough and cold weather was a risk in itself. Several sub contacts were made and depth charges dropped. Later we saw oil slicks and debris and assumed we had made a hit."

The destroyer operated out of Iceland and Greenland and picked up Allied convoys heading for Murmansk, Russia, with supplies, he said.

"We convoyed about 38 merchant ships to Murmansk," Nowack said. "About half were torpedoed by the German submarines and sunk."

The destroyer returned to the United States in late 1943 for repairs and new equipment and then was assigned to escort American troop ships to England, Nowack said.

"We made at least 10 of these trips from the United States to England, the veteran recalled.

After its D-Day duties were completed, the USS Rodman headed south toward Spain and the Mediterranean to support the invasion of southern France, Nowack said.

He was transferred to another destroyer, the USS Ludlow, in August 1944, which saw duty off the coast of France before heading to port for repairs.

"Our job done in Southern France, we headed to the Pacific toward the Japanese," Nowack said. "We had several encounters with the Japanese off Saipan and Tinian. We had big trouble at Okinawa with kamikaze planes and shore batteries. Then came the A-bomb and the rest is history."

From serving his country to serving his community, Bo Bo Nowack was one of a kind.