FARMER LOVES HARVESTING NAVAL HISTORY

Bootheel farmer Paul Crouthers Jr. has no ocean to play in, but he's got several hundred miniature military ships.

Crouthers farms 3,000 acres near New Madrid, raising soybeans, milo, corn and wheat. But Crouthers would rather be standing on an old battleship than driving a tractor.

In his spare time, Crouthers collects miniature military ships and plows through naval histories.

"I've been interested in this for 22 years," said Crouthers, who has over 400 naval vessels, miniature replicas of Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, British and American ships.

Each of his metal ships is only a couple of inches in length. They are scale models, with 1 inch equaling 100 feet.

Most of them are replicas of World War II-era battleships, aircraft carriers, destroyers and other vessels.

He has put together displays depicting some of the famous naval battles of World War II.

Tuesday marked the 52nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Crouthers observed the occasion with a display at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau, depicting the U.S. fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor as it would have looked prior to the attack on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

A 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet of plywood painted blue and green depicts the water and land in the area of the harbor. Situated on the board Tuesday were 44 ships, including battleships. Combine bearings do duty as gasoline tanks on Crouthers' Pearl Harbor layout.

On a nearby card table are displayed ships depicting the Japanese strike force, which attacked Pearl Harbor, as well as ships of the U.S. fleet that were at sea at the time of the attack.

Crouthers paints the scale models and delves into the history of the ships.

"I enjoy researching certain ships, how they looked, and where they were at" during the war, he explained.

"I'm still collecting more," said Crouthers. "I could collect ship models until I'm 90."

The Pearl Harbor display attracted the attention of a number of veterans Tuesday.

Veterans Home resident George Shelton, who is from Holcomb, served aboard the destroyer USS Sampson, which was involved in a number of naval battles in the Pacific. Shelton was stationed in Boston when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He and his shipmates were soon dispatched to the Pacific.

"We had Christmas dinner at sea. We didn't come back until July 4, 1944," he recalled.

He remembers the time in May 1944 when four or five Japanese fighter planes attacked the Sampson and other vessels near New Guinea. The aircraft were all shot down. Another time, Shelton's ship destroyed a Japanese submarine.

Crouthers' fleet includes a model of the Sampson. Gazing at the miniature ships brought back memories for Shelton. "I just feel I am part of it," he said.

Crouthers said part of the enjoyment comes from meeting Navy veterans who served aboard the various vessels during the war.

"It becomes a bit more than a hobby when you meet real people," he said. "Sometimes you get hold of a person who will tell you everything. I could sit here for hours and talk to veterans like that."

Crouthers' interest goes well beyond Pearl Harbor. "To me, Pearl Harbor is only one of many battles."

Crouthers has plans to do a D-Day display, depicting the Allied ships off the beaches of Normandy. It's a major undertaking, however. "There were so many ships at D-Day," he pointed out.

The scale-model ships help bring history to life, said Crouthers. "History is a big hobby of mine."

The miniature ships help him visualize the world's great naval battles.

They also come in handy for war games. "I used to do a lot of war games, but it takes too much time," he said.

On family vacations, Crouthers searches out old military ships to visit. He's visited a number of battleships that have been turned into museums and even stepped aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown.

For Crouthers, it's a hobby that remains very much afloat.