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Rob Helton: It is October 12th, 2012.
Mr. Thomas: Uh huh.
Rob Helton: I’m interviewing Mr. Gene Thomas, and we are in Mr. Thomas’ home in
Pyatte, North Carolina. I am Rob Helton, a student at Appalachian State University,
and this interview is being conducted as part of Dr. Judkin Browning’s American
Military History Course for the Appalachian State Library, and we will begin the Oral
History now.
Mr. Thomas, When and where were you born?
Mr. Thomas: I was born in Michaelsville in Yancey County.
Rob Helton: Yes sir, what year was that, or what is your birthday?
Mr. Thomas: 28
Rob Helton: Of…? What year?
Mr. Thomas: …September the 19th, 1928.
Rob Helton: And where were you raised?
Mr. Thomas: I was raised in Avery County.
Rob Helton: What did… What did your family do?
Mr. Thomas: Well, my Dad was an engineer, and… he worked for Russ engineering
company and retired there. They sent him all over, everywhere. Put in steel mills,
paper mills, and all that stuff. And all he done was read the blueprints and tell them
what to do. He had a big 554 acre farm in Highland County, prettiest place, it’s up in
Virginia, but I came down here and stayed with my people most of the time. I’d go
up and stay for maybe a week or two with him. My mother died, and he married
another woman up there, she had a big farm, 220 acres of land, and one of these big
colonial homes. And Dad had a new ranch type home built there. And, there was
three of us children. I had a sister that’s older than me and a brother that’s four
years younger than me, and he went in the Navy. And my sister lives in Morganton,
out there like you’re going out 64, out there a ways on the left. Nice place, but she’s,
she’s had so many strokes and she has to go with a walker, won’t let her drive her
car no more. And her daughter’s living with her.
Rob Helton: So when and why did you join the Army?
�Mr. Thomas: I’d just a, I’d never seen the ocean or anything before, up in these hills,
and… and I’d… Radio was all we had had back then, no televisions or… And I just
wanted to do something for my country.
Rob Helton: So where did you go to enlist?
Mr. Thomas: I… They was a guy come through had… he, they was a, he’d… asked us a
lot of questions and then he put us on a bus in Marion and sent us to Ft. Bragg, and I
wanted to, they had things up all over Ft. Bragg there. ‘Join the Airborne, $50 extra a
month for jump pay’ long as your on jump status. Well that’s what I wanted, and I
wanted to jump. (laughs) That’s all I thought about, jumping out of an airplane.
Rob Helton: And… I think you mentioned earlier but, you had an early childhood
desire to jump?
Mr. Thomas: Yeah
Rob Helton: Would you mind telling that story again?
Mr. Thomas: My mother told me about going to the county fair, and seeing this man
go up in a balloon. And I said, well how did he get out of it? She said, he parachuted.
Well I said, what’s a parachute. She said, you come down like a big umbrella you
know. I ruined every umbrella she had! We had this big barn and a big chicken
house and I’d jump off of that chicken house. (Rob laughs) And I just wanted to do
that so bad, I thought what a thrill that would be, come floating down. But it wasn’t
so good when they were shooting at you, you know that?. (Rob laughs)
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. So what, when… do you remember the… your enlistment date?
Mr. Thomas: Yeah. The 8th day of… I was sworn in the eighth day of February,
1944.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: At Ft. Bragg, and then they sent me from there to Ft. Jackson to take
Basic Training. And it didn’t last long, then they shipped me on to Ft. Benning,
Georgia, which is down there right out of Columbus, Georgia you know.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: Across the river from Alabama, the Chatahoochee River runs down
there. And before we ever jumped out of an airplane, they’d put a harness on us and
we’d slide down this cable, and that’s how we learned how to land, you know. Do a
PLF and all that. And then they had them 250 foot towers, they’d pull us up in them,
but the chute was already inflated. Had four big arms that was out, and… The
Sergeant on the ground, he’d say ‘pull it to the left, pull it to the right.’ Before we
�ever jumped out of an airplane we went through all of that. And then we started
jumping out of them old C 47s.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: And that was a thrill, I tell you, that was a thrill. And I loved it! And
then they took us in the rigging tent, where they rigged the chutes on these big long
tables. And we, you could hear a pin drop buddy, we thought we was gonna jump
with the chute that we… rigged you know? But we didn’t. They had riggers that was
good. And they had come out with that old C5 chute, which wasn’t worth a hoot. It
didn’t have no panels out, and they was hard to maneuver you know. And then the
next chute I jumped was a T7 chute, which had one panel out, and you could
maneuver it pretty good you know. And then they got that T10 chute, and boy that
was a dandy! And I just loved it.
Rob Helton: And so after jump school, you were assigned to the 101st Airborne?
Mr. Thomas: 101st.
Rob Helton: Do you remember which Regiment and Company?
Mr. Thomas: Yes, sir. I was in the 506th Parachute Regiment, 3rd Battalion, A
Company. And my commanding officer in Europe was from Lexington, North
Carolina. Colonel Robert Sinks, he was a full bird Colonel. And I thought the world
of him, and then we had a Captain, he was from Pennsylvania. Richard Winters, you
may have read something about him.
Rob Helton: (humorous) Yes, sir. I believe I’ve heard of him.
Mr. Thomas: He was one fine man. That man, he didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he
didn’t cuss. But he was a leader, that man… I’d have followed him through hell, well
I did! (Both laugh) But he died along back, I kept telling Georgia (Mrs. Thomas) I
said we need to go up to Hershey, Pennsylvania and see my buddy. He was a
Captain when, well he was a First Lieutenant then he made Captain. And he was just
such a good leader, that man was a leader, and he didn’t mind killing. Cause we had
a job to do.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: And buddy he was right with us, all the way. When we jumped in
France, St. Mere Eglise, France. I had a friend from, well he was originally from
Alabama, but they lived in Winedot, Michigan. Went up there, his people did, to
work in the factories you know. Building Jeeps, tanks and… And Donald Barragut
was his name, and that, and he got wounded three times. And he was another fine
guy, buddy. He was 19 and I was 16. And, we trained a lot after we got to England.
We trained in England, then we went up in Scotland and trained some, and then
�back to England. And then… D Day was coming up, that was the 6th day of June,
1944, and they had rushed us through everything. They needed us bad, and me just
a kid. And I had some good men that was older than me, they was a lot of help to
me. And we jumped, come down behind the German lines. St. Mere Iglis, at night. It
was just a little after midnight when we jumped, and then that was D Day, that’s
when they was gonna land at Normandy you know, and all them beaches up through
there. And… we fought up there, and… they was… right out of St. Mere Iglis, there
was swampy country and the Germans had filled it, flooded it with water and a lot of
the guys drowned in it. We come down right in St. Mere Iglis, and… they issued us
these little snapper bugs. You click it once and then you hear two clicks and you
knew it was your buddy, some of them in your company or platoon. And we fought
there, and fought through them hedgegrows a long time up through there. And then
they pulled us back to England. Newbury, England. And… we’d fall out and thought
we wasn’t going when the weather was bad, and rainy and windy. And finally one
day Eisenhower, I’ve got pictures of that, where he give us a pep talk, and wished us
the best. And see, he was a… MacAuthur had the say so, not MacAuthur, but
Eisenhower had the say so what to do. And after that, after they pulled us back to
England we trained some more, and then… September 17th, it was on a Sunday, and,
we pulled a glider behind us till we got to the drop zone, and cut him loose. And the
German’s was shooting at us, you could here them bullets go ‘pew, pew, pew’
through the chutes! And I got it on the ground and I come down right on the edge of
a little cornfield and I was getting out of my chute and I heard them cornstalks a
rattling. Well here come a German soldier. And I’d just got out of my chute, and I
had a carbine rifle, and… I whirled around, and there he was. He was ready to lay it
on me buddy, and I whirled around and I shot him. Shot his helmet off, and the
bullet went through his head, and he had on glasses. I’ll never forget him, that’s the
first one I killed in Holland. Had to kill. And… after that it didn’t bother me. They
had told us that, don’t think of them as a person… think of them as an object, and if
you don’t get that object, he’s gonna get you. It didn’t bother me no more after that.
And… we fought there in Holland, there at Mannehoven, Hell’s Highway they called
it up through there. And after that they pulled us back Camp Mourmalande, France.
And then on… 16th of December they loaded us up by trucks, had all coloured
drivers, the Redball Express they called theirselves.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: And they hauled us from there, they wouldn’t go all the way into
Bastogne, we had to walk in with snow up to our knees. And that first night we slept
out in the field, and then we went on in and set up a perimeter around Bastogne.
And then we fought there… and… my foxhole was here and then went on up out to
the end. One night there was a jeep come up there, had a driver and a Second
Lieutenant in it. And buddy I jumped out of my foxhole cause a lot of them Germans
was wearing our uniforms.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
�Mr. Thomas: And I made him advance and be recognized and give me the password
for that day, and they did. I run him through the mill. And my mother had sent me a
carton of chewing gum for Christmas, and I was chomping on that stuff! And he said
soldier what have you got in your mouth? I said some chewing gum that my mother
sent me. He said spit it out! I said is that an order or a request? He said that is an
order! Said the Germans can hear you a chewing that chewing gum. (Rob laughs) I
said they must have pretty damn good ears. (Both laugh) He got back in his jeep
and he left. And we fought up there, it was awful, terrible. Ten below zero, and in
that Ardennes forest you know, out of Bastogne. And then we went on up to
Norville, little town right out of Bastogne. We fought up there, I, we didn’t have no
food, we run out of food and about out of ammunition. And, them Germans boy,
they was, they was good fighters, I can say that. So, I seen this barn and a house way
over here out of Norville. And I told my buddies, I said I bet you they got some eggs
over there. And I said, I found out what the password was gonna be, and nobody
else would go, we was starved! So I left right before dark, and went around through
the woods and circled back down, there at Norville. And… I went to this barn and
went in the barn and there was a big German police dog in there. And he run me up
the steps up into the hayloft, and it had a gate there and I slammed that gate to. And
his teeth looked that long buddy! (Indicates length of forefinger) (Rob laughs) And
I was afraid to shoot him you know, didn’t whether they was Germans there or
what. But finally a girl come out of the house and, with two milk pails. Was gonna
milk the cows and… she… wanted to know if I could do that you know. (Indicates
milking a cow) They spoke French and that was all. And I did, and I hadn’t had a
bath in I don’t know when, and took me in their house, nobody there but her and her
mother. And her Daddy was a doctor and he was in Brussels. And her and her
mother was running the farm. And I got to take a good bath, and they fed me, and I
kept showing them what an egg was. And they, they knew what I meant, and they
had some of that five star cognac, they give me some of that, took me in this
bedroom and I slept under a duck down comforter, and I set my rifle right there and
slept with my forty five pistol right here where I could get it. (Indicates across his
chest) And I looked, and I said get me up before it gets daylight. And they filled me
up a thing kind of like a flour sack with eggs, and I went back up and circled around
through the woods and come back up to where our perimeter was. And I got halted,
and they could have court marshaled me for that. And… but my buddies covered up
for me, and we had these little gas stoves about that high and about that big around.
So we scooped snow up in our steel helmets and boiled them eggs! (Both laugh)
Over that little thing there were it had our helmet over it. And the next day this
officer came up there and he said where in the h e double l did all these eggshells
come from! And one of them said I think old Thomas found a hens nest! (Both
laugh) Covered up for me buddy! But we had eggshells everywhere, or we’d have
starved to death. Well, it did let up a little bit and they dropped us some food and
ammunition, medical supplies and stuff, and the Germans beat us to it. They got it,
and we went for days and days… And first warm food I remember we ever had was
an old corn meal mash, they’d cooked up. And buddy I thought that was the best
tasting stuff I ever tasted in my life, cause we was hungry. And we fought up there
for a long time and then this… Maxwell Taylor was my Division commander at that
�time, but they had sent him back to the states. And General Anthony C. McClauliffe
was a two start general and he went with us to Bastogne. And one day these, this
German motorcycle come in with a, waving a white flag and an enlisted man and an
officer. And wanted to talk to our commanding officer. And I could speak pretty
good German, and we blindfolded them and took them into Bastogne, where General
McClauliffe was. And, he told them, said we got you surrounded we want you to
surrender, and he said Nuts you damn Krauts, said we’re just beginning to fight.
(Both laugh) And they couldn’t figure out what that was! He went back to their
outfit and told them what McClauliffe said, they couldn’t figure that out, nuts what
that meant. Meant for them to go to hell, we, we just wasn’t going to give up.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: And we made it through that, lost a lot of buddies. After that they
pulled us back into southern Germany. South of Munich, and… sent us to, down to
Landsberg where that concentration camp was. Landsberg. And we liberated them
people, that was the most sickening thing I’ve ever seen in my life. They had these
big barrels there of false teeth that had gold in them, and they’d… take their teeth
out and pile them in them. And then they’d put people in these gas chambers,
women and children, they thought they was gonna get to take a bath, and they’d
turn the gas loose on them, killed them in there. And then they’d put them in these
furnaces and things and… cook them. And that place stunk so, they finally gave us
some things to go over our nose and mouth, to keep that smell down. And them
poor people was eat up with body lice, and they come holding their arms out
wanting to hug us, we’d just have to back away from them. I was so sorry for them,
they were Jews, Polish, Czechs, different nationalities they had there in that
concentration camp. And… we killed the Germans out around the perimeter, you
know, where they had that. And this… they was a building right across from us and,
‘ka ping ka ping’ they was shooting at us, and I spotted him in an upstairs window
and I blowed him all to pieces. I was, at that time I was a 60 millimeter mortarman.
And we come back in to Germany and… there was a river that run down through
here. My buddies was down here dug in right beside the river, and I was shooting
over their heads at them Germans that morning. And I had to move it I don’t how
many times, me and the other guy did, took two men. And I was a feeding that
mortar so fast that throwed one in and one was coming out! And that one coming
down hit that last one I’d thrown in and it went ‘zup zup.’ I’ve got books that’d tell
you the whole story. And it went down, they heard it coming, making a yodeling
noise. But it hit in the water, didn’t hit them. And this guy, Donald Barrugut wrote
this book… Said ole Gene, old Thomas come closer to killing us than the Germans
did. Well I finally got zeroed in on them over there across the river, and I knocked
them German guns out, and got a Bronze Star for that. And… then we went on in to
Austria, cleaned the Germans out of there. We first went into Salzburg, and then on
up to… what was the name of that little old place… And we fought up there, then
they brought us back to, into Germany to Berchetesgarten for a rest, you know. And
we seen this boxcar setting on the side track. And had big cables, it, it was sealed,
sealed up. The car was, the railroad car. Some of the guys got some big cutters and
�hacksaws and we cut that seal off of that box car. And it was loaded with gold
bricks, all in that thing. And we was studying about how could we get to
Switzerland, or bury it and come back after the war. (Rob laughs) And he made us
quit, Colonel Sinks did, said that don’t belong to you. And they was some salt mines
there, and old Goering, he had all kind of stuff in them salt mines. Pictures and
everything, that they’d took off of the Polish and all them. And we was wondering
how we could get that to Switzerland, or digged up. And then… we went back into
where we was at in Berchetesgarten and… then Roosevelt died. He was in Warm
Springs, Georgia, you know. I seen guys break down and cry about it but… He, he
was a good President, I was, I mean, I was raised a Republican, you know, and he
was a Democrat, but I’d have voted for him again if he’d of run, you know. It didn’t
make no diference, I just voted for the ones I thought done the best job, in the
Presidential elections, been that way ever since. But, they fell us out one morning
there, this was in 1945, and they fell all the NCO’s out one morning and we didn’t
know what they was gonna do with us. They finally told us to, we gonna send you to
Breruth (?) and take constabulary training to guard those war criminals in
Nuremburg. And they sent us down there, and we… had a big long haul getting
down to the prison. And each one had a war criminal to watch after, kept a light a
burning 24 hours a day. And then we had to record, had a clipboard there, every
hour I looked in their cell, whether he was sleeping, or reading, or standing, or
whatever. And then we had to go to the courtroom, and… I never seen so many
lawyers in, in my life there. And they give them different sentences, on… what they
had done you know, war criminals. And they hung ten, I watched that, there in the
gymnasium. And… after that I was wanting to get out of Nuremburg. I’ve been there
where Hitler, I’ve stood right where he made his speeches there at Soldier’s Field.
And after that, I got to come home, I come home and stayed out 28 days. If I’d stayed
out over 30 I’d have lost my rank. And I reenlisted. Put me on a bus at Spruce Pine
and took me to Greenville, SC. Airbase down there. And I was sworn in again, and
then from there I went to, over in the Pacific. I was in the… Marianas Islands, and
then I was in… oh what was the name of that bunch of islands… oh anyway it was
Kwajalein and Naniwetaw (?) and all them there. And then I come back to the
States, and then the Korean War broke out. And I was at Ft. Lewis, Washington, and
I was at Camp Carson too. Then up to Ft. Lewis. And they sent us to Japan, I mean
we went to Kobe, Japan. And… then they fell us out and put us on a train to sent us
all the way down to Sassibo (?), Japan. And we sailed from Sassibo to Pusan, Korea.
And then we fought all the way up, all the way up to the Yalu River. And we come
back down, the Chinese, we fought the Chinese there, and then at Koon Ri they come
over on us again, and was about to over run us, the Chinese was. And they said it’s
every man for himself, and there was an old weapons carrier sitting there, and they
was a Turkish Brigade a fighting on our left down below us. And the British on the
right. And we put that thing up on that railroad track, a bunch of us, about 5 got in
it, and bump bump bump going down through there to where this Turkish Brigade
was. We fought there, and then I finally got back with my outfit, I was in the 38th
Regimental Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Then I got hit, we’d took this hill,
and they overrun us there. And the next time we went back up I got hit. And they
flew me from there to right out of Tokyo, to a hospital. And kept me there a long
�time, and then finally flew me on to Walter Reed, and I had the awfulest seizures
from that nick I got here in my head. Seizures, seizures, and they kept me there a
long time. I didn’t want to come out… And they put me out, said I wasn’t fit you
know, to… to… fight. And… stayed there a long time. I got to come home, and… I had
the old women, they come and hugged me and told me son, we’ve prayed a many a
night that God would bring you home. And I believe they did, and I made it home.
And that wound up my military career.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Do you mind if I ask a couple of follow up questions? About…
(Mr. Thomas shook head.)
Rob Helton: Do you… Do you remember how much you were paid a month when
you went and joined the Army?
Mr. Thomas: It was about twenty seven dollars a month, I believe.
Rob Helton: And then you got jump pay on top of that?
Mr. Thomas: Yeah, fifty dollars as long as you was on jump status.
Rob Helton: Was that… was that comparable to anything that you could have made
in the States?
Mr. Thomas: Well back then things was cheap, back in the early ‘40s and ‘50s. But I
don’t’ regret it a bit, I’d go back tomorrow if they’d take me.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. When you, when you jumped into Normandy and Holland do
remember what your jump kit consisted of?
Mr. Thomas: What?
Rob Helton: Your jump kit, your weapon and equipment?
Mr. Thomas: Well, I jumped with a carbine rifle and a forty five pistol. But I was a
mortarman, and I’d took training you know, to operate a mortar. And I got pretty
good with that mortar buddy, I tell you. Till throwed that one in, that one was a
coming out and it liked to killed my buddies. (Laughs) And I really liked to fire that
thing, drop it in, bloop, shew. But it was something. But when I was in Korea I just
had a rifle, I’ve fired a M1 rifle and a carbine till the whole side of my face would be
blue. Them little Chinese was tough, I can say that.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Before the Korean War broke out, did you know where Korea
was, or know anything about it?
Mr. Thomas: Never heard tell of it.
�Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Now when you… when you got into Korea do you remember
what the, the date or the month?
Mr. Thomas: It broke out in 1950 and we got there… it was… what… in July, first of
July when we got there. And buddy it was rough, I tell you.
Rob Helton: And, so you were there during the winter.
Mr. Thomas: Yeah
Rob Helton: Do you have memories that stand out from the winter fighting?
Mr. Thomas: Yeah, I remember this old boy from Austin, Texas. They’d had a
bunker there and we got in this bunker, it was cold. God it was cold. The moon was
shining bright that night. We had trip flares set up down here at the foot of the hill,
and… and if the gooks would come across then they’d hit that trip wire and just light
up everything, you know. And my buddy, I kept hearing something a grinding and a
chopping and he, he was in sleeping bag laying right behind me, and I was watching
down there, which way we thought they was going to come in. And I kept hearing
that noise, finally it got daylight and he says, he had false teeth. He’d pulled them
out and laid them on a rock. And that rat had chewed his teeth! (Both laugh) Plum
in two! That’s what I could hear, cause I knew if they come in down there they’d trip
them trip flares. And his teeth just fell apart, his upper plate. And froze, and hungry,
that, that was rough. We went hungry too during the Bulge, eat K rations whenever
we could get them. But it was a rough go, I don’t want to go back to Korea. I’d love
to go back to Germany and all them places where we fought, and Holland. Belgium.
Austria. I thought Bavaria, down there in Southern Germany, was the prettiest
country. It was pretty and… and different places, and then most towns was blowed
all to pieces, you know. And… But they put us, after that they sent us to Bamberg,
Germany. And it was time for me to come home, after the Nuremburg trials. And
they sent me, we rode cattle cars from Bamberg, Germany to Laharre, France. And
there we caught a ship, brought us back to the States. And, but I didn’t stay out but
28 days, you know, and back in there I went.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Before you got to the concentration camp, had you and the
other soldiers, had you been told anything about concentration camps or ever been
informed of… what was happening in those?
Mr. Thomas: Oh yeah, yeah we knew what was a happening. And… that’s the most
sickening thing, that I saw in the war, was them poor people. Lord, it was awful.
And another thing, them SS troopers, I know you’ve heard of them.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
�Mr. Thomas: Up there at Malaby, Belgium. They took a whole bunch of our men
that was prisoners of war, most of them was in the medical corps. Lined them up
out in the field, snow on the ground, and had a German army truck here and they
rolled the tarp up and they had a machine gun in there. Fifty caliber machine gun,
and then they just started mowing them down, and they was two escaped, run
through the woods and got away to tell the tale. Now this was back in Belgium. And
I remember what McClauliffe told us, says don’t take no SS men prisoners. Says, you
know what to do. We didn’t take no SS prisoners. We lowered the boom on them
buddy.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: And a lot of them had our uniforms on, you know, behind our lines.
Some spoke perfect English. They’d trained them when they was just young, and…
Korea wound, wound me up though, I draw a little pension for getting hit.
Rob Helton: Would you describe your wound from Korea?
Mr. Thomas: Huh?
Rob Helton: Would you describe how you were wounded in Korea?
Mr. Thomas: Yeah. I’ve got a hernia right here that I’ve had that’s bothered me ever
since. There was a pile of rocks there, and they was a shell hits them rocks and it
throwed a rock and hit me right there. And then next I got shot threw the hand, and
then when I got my head busted, that’s when they sent me to Japan. And then I
wound up in Walter Reed. And… kept me up there a long time, I’d have them
seizures, I’d be just like sailing through a tunnel or something. And I could see a
light, and then they’d, they, they give me all kinds of medication for it. And I finally
got to where I could think some, you know. And… And, it bothered me a lot. And
they put me out.
Rob Helton: So, obviously, it’s on the other side of the world, but how was the
fighting in Korea different from Europe during the Second World War?
Mr. Thomas: Well, it was different, because… you know just a regular German
soldier, he was like us, he had to fight. And… I’ve… well it says thou shall not kill, but
I killed a lot of people, but it was in uniform, you know. And, I used to have the
awefulest nightmares in the world. And… I’d… come out of the bed, my wife couldn’t
sleep for me, you know. And I’d dream the enemy was coming in on me, and my
bullets just come to the end of the barrel and dropped down on the ground. And me
a slugging it out with them with a bayonet. Now we had to do that, in World War
Two, fix bayonets. And… I’ve, I’ve rammed them so hard I’d have to shoot my rifle
to get my bayonet out of them. But, it bothered me, one of my buddies come to see
me, he was from down in Hudson, below, there out of Lenoir. Thad Tungmire (?).
And he come to see me, my wife told him about how I was having them nightmares.
�And he talked to me, he said Thomas, I’m going to tell you one thing. He said, if you
don’t start talking about that, and get it out of you, you’ll go plum crazy. And I was
crazy enough! (Both laugh) Way it was. But, I survived.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. So after you got out of the Army, what did you do then?
Mr. Thomas: Started trucking. Yeah I run… out to California, Oregon, Washington,
into Vancouver, British Columbia. And up in Canada, and up to LaChute, Canada,
which is right out of Montreal. And then… then I’d run up to Peterburg, Canada.
And I had a contract to haul the stuff up there. And… then I come back and I just
kept trucking. Made good money. I’d bring home a thousand dollars a week. And
one week I’d put it in savings, and the next week I’d put it in checking. But buddy, I
run out across them deserts and didn’t have no air conditions, no power steering
back then. And all I wanted to do was drink water. And we had a, we had a Lister
bag I’d hang on the front of my bumper, to keep the water cool, and we suffered, and
I laid right with it till I retired. Drove 57 years.
(Recorder almost falls)
Rob Helton: Excuse me. Are you a member of any veteran’s organizations?
Mr. Thomas: Yes, sir. I’m a lifetime member in the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars and
I’m a lifetime member in the DAV, Disabled Veterans.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. And you’re also a member of the Honor Guard?
Mr. Thomas: Yes, sir. I’m on the Honor Guard, been on it a long time. Well I’m the
oldest man on the Honor Guard, I was there when they formed it in the VFW. And
we’ve done a great job, we’ve went all the way to Charlotte, and down to South
Carolina, burying veterans everywhere. And a lot of my buddies is dead, they’re
gone, they’ve been dying lately here. We watched this DVD of one of my friends, last
night. He died down at Johnson City at the VA Hospital. And Georgia and I’d go see
him. And he fought in Italy, and war is hell, I can say that.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Have you participated in any reunions or other events?
Mr. Thomas: …No. I had a chance to go to reunions, you know, of the 101st
Airborne, but I never did go. Then I was invited to come to Bush’s Inaguaration, and
stay in the Mayflower hotel, have livery, limousine service to the President’s ball and
dinner. And all that. And… I just didn’t go. So, then the next, I got them in my car
out there, they wrote old letters, they invited me to come and sit four days in the
Senate circle to represent the state of North Carolina. (Both laugh)
Rob Helton: Now you also spoke at Appalachian’s World War Two symposium this
year?
�Mr. Thomas: I did, I sure did.
Mrs. Thomas: Oh that’s another thing, you remember that…
Mr. Thomas: World War Two…
Mrs. Thomas: Round table. Veteran’s Round Table.
Mr. Thomas: Yeah, over in Boone.
Mrs. Thomas: That round table over there.
Mr. Thomas: Yeah, we have meetings every month.
Mrs. Thomas: Been there since it started.
Mr. Thomas: And… Had me on television. Georgia was with me when they had me
on television. If we had time I’d like to show you all of that, but I don’t guess you’ve
got time.
Rob Helton: Well we’ll see sir. Is there anything else that you can think of that
we’ve left out?
Mr. Thomas: Well, I know I’ve, I’ve left something out… My brain don’t work like it
used to. (Both laugh) But… I was out there to fight for my country, and I put my
heart and soul into it.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. Well sir, I’d like to thank you for conducting this interview and
also thank you for your service.
Mr. Thomas: Well I want to thank you too.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir.
Mr. Thomas: Proud of you.
Rob Helton: Yes, sir. And this concludes the interview.
Mr. Thomas: Alright.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project
Description
An account of the resource
Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Thomas, Gene
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Helton, Rob
Interview Date
10/12/2012
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
1:10:22
File name
2013_063_Thomas_Gene_interview
2013_063_Thomas_Gene_transcript
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Gene Thomas, 12 October 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Helton, Rob
Thomas, Gene
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
12 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War, 1939-1945
Korean War, 1950-1953
Veterans
Thomas, Gene
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Gene Thomas of Avery County gives his somewhat glorified account of his service in WWII and the Korean War. He fought all over Europe against the Germans, and preferred it to the Korean War. He was shot in the head in the Korean War and has been part of the DAV ever since.
Avery County
basic training
C47
concentration camp
DAV
Fort Bragg
France
Gene Thomas
Korean War
mortar
parachute regiment
Roosevelt
St. Mere Iglis
WWII