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Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Tom Collins (Sergeant)
U.S. Army
1967-1970
Vietnam War
October 14, 2012
Joseph Lingo: This is Joseph Lingo here interviewing, Mr. Tom Collins, a retired veteran. Mr.
Collins, could you please state your date of birth and where you’re from?
Tom Collins: My date of birth is 2/4/43 and I’m originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’m
a Philly boy.
Lingo: Could you tell us a little bit about your early life before you were in the military?
Collins: My early life Ok. When I was eleven years old, I was the oldest of four, the youngest
being five. My mom passed away of a woman’s cancer. So being the oldest of
eleven years old, I had to take over while my father had to work. So I had it pretty
rough as a youngster. I could not enjoy my childhood as well as my two brothers
and my sister did. So, when I came home from school, I had to get the dinner
ready at eleven years old. And while my two brothers, Joe and Eddie, and my
sister Mary Anne were out playing, and when they came home from school. So,
that went on all the way until I graduated high school. Whatever. Got married at
twenty years old, which was too young because, it did not last but about four and
a half years. About twenty-four and a half years old.
At twenty-five, I get a letter in the mail stating that I’d been drafted. So at
twenty-five years old, I was drafted. Didn’t have a clue (laughs). Didn’t have a
clue. Had I been working…I was working already for five years at a bakery in
Philadelphia called Tasty Cake. And I am about 5’11”, 212 lbs at the time and not
really in shape, but not bad. But, all I knew was, I knew I was going to Vietnam
sooner or later. So, being drafted, had to go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for
basic training. And had it rough. Had eight weeks of rough, because, by the time I
was done, I had bloody hands, calluses like you wouldn’t believe. But from 212
lbs I went down to 185 lbs of all solid muscle, in a matter of speaking. But it was
good for me, really. Made a better man out of me than I was already. So, and from
there, went to Vietnam eventually, which most of us did. Got to Vietnam and the
replacement center over there , and what we would do when we got off the plane.
We got there at night. And all you can see is…mortar shells, in the night, just
going back and forth. And I got off the top step to come off the plane, and I just
said “Oh shit! I know I’m gonna die.” First thing a guy thinks of, I mean, here I
am, a city boy, never shot a weapon in my whole life. Yeah, I’m sorry, shouldn’t
say that. I used to go hunting up in Pennsylvania with my buddies for deer and
pheasant but other than that, I’ve never shot a rifle, so to speak. And, I, you know,
took my step off that plane. You just know that you were going to die. That’s the
thought of everybody that goes, that went there. Believe me. Because we talked
later and everybody thought the same thing. “Well, I’m not coming home.” I
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�thought the same thing. And, got off the plane, and all you could do. It smelt like
you were in an outhouse. That’s what it smelt like there. Like you were in an
outhouse, standing inside of an outhouse. I said “Oh shit!” But, from there, we
went into a bus. They drove us somewhere and next thing you know, we’re being
placed in different units. Now, myself, I went to military police school in Fort
Gordon, GA.
Lingo: This is the army, right?
Collins: Yeah. Yes, the United States Army. Correct. Military police, we had, were in control of
all the military. There was no such thing as MP’s at that time, in the Marines, the
Navy, Air Force, or whatever. Air Force had Air Patrol. Navy had SP, Shore
Patrol, but the Military Police were over them. So we had jurisdiction over all the
military as Military Police. And, but that’s all changed from what I understand
today. Everyone has to go to military police school in their own organizations.
Military, the Marines, Navy, Air Force and it’s all changed. So, so, anyhow, we
go, and the next thing you know we’re standing outside and this SGT comes
walking down He’s telling people, you’re going here, you’re going there, you’re
going there, you’re going into the infantry, you’re going to such and such a unit,
you’re going here, you’re going there. And this guy’s sending me out into the
jungle as an infantry. I say “Whoa Sarge! Yo! I wasn’t even trained for the
infantry.” I said “I was trained to be a Military Policeman.” I said “What the hell
you doing?!” You know, I didn’t get too cocky. Because, he understood what I
was saying, and he had orders for military police to certain companies to go to.
So, he said “Ok, ok. Collins.” He said “You go to the 716th, Company A which is
located in Saigon.” I said “Ok.” And then there was a couple of other guys that
were assigned to the 716th in Saigon. But there was A, B, and C companies so I
was thankful for that, I think. Untill, pretty thankful, I guess. Now, I figure, well,
whatever. Do you mind? I got to have a swig of water.
Lingo: Yeah, that’s fine.
Collins: I get to talking too much, I get dry. So…Now let me see. This is 19,…1968, January.
And anyhow, when I first got there as military police, we had shit duty.
Consisting of, you had to sit in a tower at a depot, all around Saigon. Saigon
consisted of all the generals that ran the war over there, all the big officers. Where
their headquarters or their billets were in Saigon and the 716th Military Police
which is the 18th Battalion were the ones to take care of them and make sure
nobody bothered them in a manner of speaking. Getting to the bad point here.
Which was the Tet Offense. I’m glad I was on patrol at the time. Eventually, I
earned myself patrol which you don’t get right away when you’re a newcomer.
You got to earn that.
Lingo: Would you briefly describe patrol? What that means, exactly.
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�Collins: Yeah. Patrol: 12 hour days and what is it? 151, no, M51 jeep; no top. You didn’t have a
top on because you can see on the roofs and the tops of the houses and buildings
of Saigon as you patrolled your district, just like a cop. We had an M60 machine
gun mounted in the back of us with several thousand rounds. Plus we carried an
M16 and a .45 military issued. Plus a vest, a vest, steel pot. The vest, thing must
have weighed thirty pounds to wear that thing. And we just patrolled on anything
unusual. We’d look into or if we got a call to go to a fight in a bar. Things of that
sort. Shooting, whatever the radio operator from the military police building
would send us depending on what patrol you were working. I worked the fifth
district so most of the time, if not all, while I was there, I was in Car 51 and the
guy on the radio at the police building. Can’t even think of the name. We called
him Waco. So, anytime Waco called you, you’d respond to him. He’d just say like
for instance “Car 51. Car 51 this is Waco.” So either myself, depending on who’s
driving, or my partner who would pick it up and answer him “Waco this is 51.”
And he would send us possibly to a fight, a shooting, or whatever. And come to
find out, while I was there, not knowing how big, as far as the surroundings,
Saigon, Vietnam was. Come to find out, there was like five million people that
live in Saigon. And five million people, you didn’t trust them. Not a one. Not a
one. You didn’t know who they were. Many times, many times, they were VC.
What they were called VC, Viet Cong; the enemy. You just had to constantly look
while on patrol, day or night. Night time, thankfully, I’m glad in a way I had day
patrol while I was there. 12 hours on, 12 hours off, no time off. I think for about
three or four months after I was there, you just go out and have a couple beers,
shoot the bowl with the guys, whatever, or you just stay and write letters, or
whatever.
But…I was always on the defense; every day, every minute, every hour of
the day. If you weren’t you couldn’t really let yourself lose, really, and not pay
attention to your surroundings, and to this day, 43 years later, I am still the same
way. I don’t trust anybody I don’t know, to this day. I go out with my wife to a
restaurant, and I have to sit in a certain area so I can see everybody, because I
don’t trust anybody that I don’t know. The only people I trust are veterans, my
brothers. Other than that, I always think that “I don’t know you, I don’t know you,
I don’t trust you, I don’t trust you.” Because that’s the way it was there. You
don’t turn your back ever on anybody, ever, in a combat zone, other than your
own buddies; your own brothers. Because it’s happened, number of times. Just
like we’re on patrol, I’ll give you an example. Day time, night time, it doesn’t
matter.
Day time, these Vietnamese people would drive these little Hondas.
There’d be two on one most of the time, on a Honda, when they were going to
work. There were times where it happened, didn’t happen to me, thankfully, they
would toss a grenade in our jeep. You got to understand, you’re driving a jeep
and you got amongst you thousands of people on Hondas! It’s like you’re in the
middle, they’re on the sides, they’re in front of you, they’re in back of you, you
got to be constantly looking, all the time. I used to teach my guys that because
once I made sergeant, I had to teach all these young guys. I was 20, I turned 26,
man, and there’s guys that are 18, 19 years old that I’m working with. That’s the
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�oldest they are. They were from cities, like myself, and a lot of them were from
Ohio, New York, Detroit, cities like that. They were like me, you know. They
didn’t think like this before. And once you’re older, and because of my
upbringing, because of what I had to do at a young age, I had a lot of common
sense and I knew what to look out for and whatever; roof tops, you got to keep
your eyes on the roofs, because it happened, when Tet started, they were on the
roofs, everywhere, the snipers. They killed, you know. We had a lot of my
brothers killed as military police.
When the VC attacked Saigon, in Tet, what they called Tet, was the New
Year for the Vietnamese people. That was what they called Tet. And, this offense
became known as the Tet Offense. Now, thank god after it was all over, I come to
find out, approximately, there were 4000 VC, trying to take over Saigon. And
there was a thousand of us in A, B, and C Company of the 716th Military Police.
We each had a section of Saigon, out to Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base, that was C
Co, and B Co was in the middle of Saigon,. I was in A Company, which was in
Cholon, which was known, they were mostly Chinese people that lived in the
Cholon area, which was a bad area. So I come to find out later on. It was a very
bad area, Cholon. There again, you just have to keep your eyes open and be
prepared, and keep a round in the chamber at all times. You don’t want to have to
stop, when somebody starts shooting at you, you don’t want to have to stop and
say “Wait a minute!” <click clack> Put a round in your 16, your .45, you better
have a round in there all the time. Just be able to take the safety off and do what
you got to do. And that’s what happened when the shit hit the fan.
Eventually, it hit the fan, man. I mean, unbelievable. It’s in books, there’s
pictures of us, the military police, the 716th,…we lost 24 brothers, man. I mean,
from snipers up on the roofs picking MPs off at the embassy, which we had…the
Marines were there protecting the embassy, the American Embassy there. And,
there was only two Marines, which was a joke, so the Military Police were sent
there to protect the ambassador and whoever worked there, and whatever and all
that. We lost like…eight or nine MPs there alone, just picked off, laying in the
street, laying by their jeep,…the VC, what they had done was built tunnels across
the street, and they would come under ground, across under the street, and up into
the embassy, into their grounds. And, the guys, the MPs that got there first, all
around the embassy, they see these little V, these little Gooks, they called them
Gooks, or whatever, the VC, the Viet Cong, they see them popping up out of the,
out of the dirt, you know? And they just picked them off, once they found out
from various areas of the grounds. Just like I said, they build tunnels across the
street, right under the embassy.
They were prepared. And…you just killed as many as you could, because
if you didn’t they were going to kill you. There’s no doubt about it. You had to do
what you had to do to survive, otherwise you were dead. You’re just dead. “It’s
not a game.” That’s what I used to tell my young boys. “It’s not a game.” ‘Cause
once I made Sergeant they gave me a squad of 18 and 19 year old fellas. And like
I said, I’m 26 years old now. So…you try to teach them. You just don’t trust no
body, you don’t get too close, other than your own brother here, and that’s it,
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�man. Bar girls and that kinda stuff, don’t get too close. You don’t know who’s
who, and…it’s unbelievable.
Tet Offense went on for several weeks; two and a half weeks. That’s all it
was; shooting and killing for a couple two and a half weeks or so. Unbelievable. It
was…it’s like you could make a movie out of it. But, my understanding from it
was that when it was all over, we killed, so they say, over 2,400 of them. And we
did get help from the…I think it was the 25th Infantry came to help us, so…we
drove them out, you know? They were dead all over. Streets, and if you look up,
if you go buy some DVDs, you’ll see, you’ll see that, in the streets, dead just
laying all over,…our MPs are in the streets dead, too, stuff like that, which…I
was glad, I was glad to get home! At the end of ’69. I was there for two years.
They wanted to make me E-6, but I said “Nah.” I was offered E-6 and a $5,000
bonus, and that was 1969. And I said “No, I don’t think so. I just want to go
home.” I still have three months to go now, so, each day, man, it’s just, it’s like,
each day, man. You’re just looking around, you don’t want to get involved,
because what happens is if you get involved in a killing now, or whatever, it’s
like, you can’t go, because now you have to go to a court and all kinds of junk.
Now you got to understand, we’re working with civilians, and we’re military
people. We’re in their country, so what happens is, [brief interruption from Mrs.
Collins] a big major shooting goes on, and now you got to go before a court,
because you killed one of their people, or whatever it was. So, just things of that
sort, because it’s not like Tet. Tet was over now, so now we got everything under
control in the military. Back in Saigon we got it under control again. And…right
before I left, about three weeks no, not before I left I had four months [counts
months to himself], I had five months to go and had two of my buddies killed.
They were on patrol, they were second shift. B Company, and I knew them , and I
was just talking to them at the PX, just when I got done with my twelve hours, I
went to the PX, I had to buy some stuff, and these guys were given' the regular
guys a break, and the PX, and all your main head quarters or buildings for
the…big officers always had an MP outside.
Lingo: And “PX” is…?
Collins: The Commissary. We called it the PX at the time…[ Post] Exchange…I forget what the
“P” stands for, it’s been so long, but the “X” stood for “Exchange”. Well, that’s
the Commissary where you go buy cigarettes, and whatever you want, cigarettes,
liquor, clothing, like…civilian clothing, shoes, and stuff, cameras, you could buy
cameras,…and I didn’t know at the time, but you could buy a car, and have it
ready by the time I came home. I could have bought, like, a ’69 Camaro for half
price. Uhh, God, when these guys told me what they done I said ‘I didn’t know
you could buy a car!” They said “Yeah, at the Commissary, at the PX!” I said
“You’re kidding! What?” Yeah, they had an area, you could buy books, you could
buy any car you wanted that was out at that time. If you were there in ’68, you
could buy a ’68 Camaro, you could buy ’69, you could buy a charger, and just,
any kinda car you wanted <brief interruption from Mrs. Collins>. Any engine you
wanted, and I didn’t, man, I didn’t know that, cause when I got home, I bought a
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�’69 Charger when I got home, so, whatever. I could have gotten it a lot cheaper
and with a big, big engine, I didn’t know. Whatever.
I,…there again, my two buddies, brothers I’ll call them. Each of them had
three weeks to go. They were getting ,counts months to himself., they were
leaving in September, and on the 31st of June, they worked the second shift, they
were Company B, and they were told to go to a bar fight, and they went inside the
bar to see what was going on and whatever, and next thing you know, we heard it
later at night, we were woke up and told us that both of them were shot and killed
in the bar while they were on duty. A…an ally killed them. One of our allies; a
south Vietnamese officer, a major, shot and killed them; he was drunk. They
didn’t have their pistols drawn or nothing, man. He just come out drunk, coming
upstairs room in this bar, and the story we were told was he had this .45 in his
hand, and he shot and killed both of them as they were coming up the steps to see
what the ruckus was, and I just got done talking with them several hours ago,
shooting the shit with them, and, whatever. And to this day,…in honor of them, I
have their names on my vehicles; our, my two vehicles we have here; my wife’s
and mine; I have there, in little, in little white print, I have their names and the day
they were killed. On both sides of my vehicle, back window, side windows; on
each of my vehicles. In honor of them. So, every time someone looks at them, I
want them to think of them two guys. I lost other guys, other buddies too, but
uh…
Anyhow, I couldn’t wait it get home. Guys in the field had it rough, in the
jungle, but a lot of them weren’t shot at as much as the MPs were, in Saigon,
believe me. Because Charlie, they called VC Charlie, too; he was known as
Charlie; he wanted to make a big hit and Saigon was the capital of Vietnam. So, if
they could take over Saigon first, now the Tet offense, the VC on the same day
started, which was the 32st January, they started this Tet offense at once, all over
Vietnam. Not just Saigon, it was all around Vietnam. They tried to take over all
the cities, and whatever, and it was just like all hell broke loose in the country of
Vietnam at the time called the Tet Offense. It wasn’t very nice, it wasn’t very
nice, let me tell you. Let me tell you. Cause now, you’re even more spooky on
patrol, as myself, and my buddies and brothers, were even more spooky. I didn’t
trust anybody then, and now I m even worse, until I was getting ready to leave. I
stopped, I caught, 5 deserters over there, in Saigon. Un-freaking real. Can you
imagine being a deserter for five years? For four years? I got one with three years,
and one for two years, and I think one for one yea.
That sounds strange, but I did. And you know, just by stopping guys ,and
checking them out, and looking at them, and saying “something’s wrong with that
guy, I know it. I can tell by the way he’s dressed.” You know, I mean he’s got
fatigues on, jungle fatigues on, and a bonnie hat, but something’s wrong. He’s got
the wrong shoes on. He don’t have boots on. Or if he has boots on, there’s
something, there’s just something wrong.” And I used to teach my younger guys
“when you’re on patrol, you look out for certain things when you stop a person.”
And that was unbelievable. I come to find out that the desk sergeant “Hey SGT
Collins, this guy’s a deserter for five years” and I said “you got to be shitting
me!” What they do when they go desertion, you know after they go AWOL after a
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�certain time, then they’re deserters. what they do is they stay there with the
Vietnamese people and they live with them people, and those people give them
false identification, and they make up ration cards; at the time you had a ration
card, you could only buy so many things at the PX, at the Exchange, and you stop
a guy and you ask them’ for their ID, and you can tell by looking at their ID that
something’s wrong with it, the coloring is off, and what unit are you with and
where’s your pass, and they make an excuse up, and so you get on the radio, you
call in, Desk SGT calls back, they never heard of them, they don’t know who he
is, so you say okay, and right away you cuff them. But first, you, you search them.
So, here I am m, I have three weeks to go, so now I’m training y young guys, and
they know what to do by now, but I always tell them, I said “while I’m on the
radio, you keep an eye on him. If he tries anything, you do what you need to do.”
So I’m searching this little fella, that I, that I stopped, I put him up on the wall,
just like a regular cop does, we were trained like regular police were. And, found
this little guy, had a .45 tucked in the front of his belt, covered over with the
jungle fatigues because it covered them over, see, you weren’t tucked in or
nothing, your jungle fatigues, they were just laying out. Well this little guy, had a
.45 tucked in his belt, in his belly. I felt that, boy I got, you don’t know, like this
right, and I took it out. And I had him spread, you know with his feet and his
hands up on the wall. And when I pulled that out, I just kicked his foot, his leg
from under him, and he just went <whap bang>! Down on the ground! And then I
checked the .45 that he had, and don’t; he have a round in the chamber. That even
pissed me off even more! He had a round in the chamber, which means ,if he had
the opportunity, he would have used in on me or my partner! It was ready to
shoot. All he had to do was pull the trigger. That pissed me off even more! So, I
cuffed him right then , and I basically threw him in the jeep. I had to watch what I
was doing, because there’s people around, because it’s a PX, it’s a civilian area, a
military area where people are going into this exchange area to buy stuff, so you
had to be careful, but I did give him a couple shots to the ribs before I threw him
into the jeep, and I got to talking with my partner, I said “See that? Don’t ever
take your eyes off anybody you stop, never!” I said “Now, just to say we put him
in the jeep without searching him,…because maybe he’s sweet talking you or
some bull. He’s got a gun, with a round in the chamber, were driving the vehicle,
he’s sitting back there cause were gonna take him to the station, and he pulls that
out,” I said “because you never searched him ,or you never cuffed him neither.” I
said “I just want you guys, you guys, to know, what you got to do, man. You just
can’t trust anybody.”
I was glad to get home, well not the way I was treated though. I flew back
to Philadelphia on December 21st, or the 22nd. I think it was the 22nd. I thought I
was, I thought I was welcomed home, but I wasn’t. Once I got in the airport, I was
spit at, by two guys walking in the airport and they called me a “baby killer”, and
I just didn’t understand what was going on, cause I wasn’t told about it in
Oakland when I was getting out of the army. Now they must started telling people
behind us, when they were getting out, because they were told “Don’t even wear
your uniform to home.” To me that was bull shit because I’m wearing my uniform
home, because was proud of what I done. Thankfully I came home alive. There
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�were 59,000 guys who didn’t come home, that were killed. 59,800 something.
So,…at least I was alive. My workplace didn’t want to give me my job back after
working there for five years. I was pretty well pissed after I got home, I really
was. I think after couple of days, like less than a week, I wish I was back in
Vietnam, at least I had the respect of my own people. And I knew I could trust
them, too. You get home,…you were treated like shit. I couldn’t understand it. I
just got bitter. More bitter. I think I got bitter form that, a lot. And I drank a lot
after that. Drank a lot. Didn’t care. Didn’t care. I looked for a fight, anytime you
wanted a fight; I was ready. For somebody to say something wrong to me. I’m
ready to kick you’re ass, or you’re going to kick my ass, either or! But I’m going
to let you know. “Don’t talk to me that way”, or whatever. I guess what I was
looking for was respect for what I done, and I didn’t get it. To this day, I just
don’t, I never forget it. I tell people that, I said “If I could come across those two
guys that spit at me, I was carrying my duffel bag, and I was just happy to be
home, those guys looked over at me and just both of them spit at me, and called
me a ‘baby killer’. And I swear to God, I didn’t know what was going on. I just, I
stood there dumbfounded and dropped my duffel bag and looked at them. And I
just said ‘What the hell just happened here?’ If I was on my, my game, I’m gonna
say, cause I had a .38 in my duffel bag that I took with me. I would have shot both
of those guys, I really would have. I would have killed them. Or I would have
shot them in their knee caps. I really would, cause I didn’t care what happened to
me. All I know is you treat me like this,…if I wasn’t as happy, so to speak, as I
was, and glad to be home, honest to God. I would have grabbed that .38 out of my
duffel bag and would have just went after them and shot them. Simple as that.
You ain’t spitting at me no more. I didn’t deserve that. Who the hell do you think
you are, spitting at me after I just, what I went through. You don’t, you don’t
know what I went through…You don’t walk in my boots, so to speak. Anybody
who ever says anything…You don’t know what a Vietnam Veteran went through,
or a World War Two Veteran, or a World War One Veteran. You don’t know
what they went through. You don’t know what I went through; ‘cause you didn’t
walk in my boots.”
And that’s that I was thinking about. I was afraid, every day, even though
I was back in the city, a city of 5 million people; you didn’t know who was who.
And it’s the same shit that’s going on in Afghanistan. Their regular,…so to speak,
their military is shooting our people in the back. You’re supposed to be allies,
working with one another. And you wonder why these people, these men and
women, who come home, and why they are the way they are. It’s… Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder is what it’s called, believe me, I mean, been there. I’ve
seen guys that are really bad with that. I know guys, to this day, that are bad with
that and it still continues with them today. Forty some-odd years later and it still
happens, some guys. And, it’s not their fault. It’s the country’s fault. Vietnam was
a bad war. It should have never happened. Never. The government had no respect
for us at all, and the people neither at that time. It just wasn’t right. Too many
people, over 58,000 people got killed and it wasn’t right. A bunch of kids, a lot of
them, bunch of good kids like you and,…like yourself and your friends. And they
weren’t given the respect,…anybody can tell you that was in Vietnam, bad war.
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�Really was. Really was. No respect for us, and it pisses me off to this day. I’ll
never forget it and I’ll never let it go. People say “How can you hold on to that?”
You don’t understand! You weren’t there! You weren’t treated like I was when I
came home. I was ready to, “Holy shit! Why are you treating me like that?” I even
asked the cab driver that took me home from the airport. I said “What the hell was
going on?” Why am I being treated like this? I said “Holy shit! Is this the way it’s
going to be?” You know? I said “If that’s the case,” I told my father when I got
home, I said “If that’s the case, I want to go back1 At least I was treated well
there by my own people!” My brothers and all, you know. But, of course, that
didn’t happen. I thought it out and went back to my old job, ‘cause I…I
threatened them to go to the government, you know. It was a big company in
Philadelphia, the bakery, I was there five years already and I went back looking
for my job about a month later, and…”Oh, we, someone else is on that job.” And
I said “So?” I said, “I’m guaranteed my job.” I said, “I didn’t ask to go. I was
drafted.” And, you know, whatever. And that guy, that boy, that boss, that
supervisor, I wanted to kick his ass, right then and there. I wanted to kick his
ass,…I felt bad because he was smaller than me. And that’s probably why I didn’t
do it! Because I would have dropped him right there, believe me! And I just, I just
got so pissed, and I said, “Well you know, we’ll see about that.” I said “I’m going
to go to personnel and talk to them.” Which I probably never should have told
him that, because he ran in the office when I went over to go get the elevator to go
upstairs to talk to personnel.
I know he ran in his office to call them and tell them that I was on my
way. “Well, you’re a hot head. You got a chip on your shoulder.” “Well son of a
bitch! I’m deserving of my job and you don’t want to give me my job back? What
do you mean I got a chip on my shoulder?” And even after I got my job back,
years later…”Tom, you got a chip on your shoulder.” I said “I don’t got a, I don’t
have a chip on my shoulder, I’m just telling you like it is! And you don’t want to
hear it! That’s the problem!” You know. If I have something to say to you, you’re
telling me one thing, and I have an answer for you, and that answer you don’t
want to hear, that’s what it is. Don’t tell me I got a chip on my shoulder. Where I
used to drink at around the corner from where I lived in Philly, I used to go to,
walk to the bar, and became friends with some guys.
This one fella used to sit there after he’d come from work, and he had an
office job. Me, I’m busting my ass all my life as a laborer, but whatever. I used to
go in for some drinks and got friendly with this fella, and he used to tell me after a
while, when we’d talk. He said “Tom, you got a chip on your shoulder.” I said,
“Man, don’t you freaking tell me I got a chip on my shoulder just because you
don’t want to hear what I have to say.” I said “You don’t want to talk to me, I
could care less, I mean, I’ll go and sit in that corner, that’s not a problem”. I come
in here to get a drink, and you don’t want to be bothered just because you don’t
like what I got to say. I have a chip on my shoulder. Yeah, okay. People don’t like
it when you tell the truth about things that they don’t want to hear, that they really
don’t. Whether it’s about the Vietnam War, or I have a problem with the way
veterans are treated today, coming back home, I have a problem with that. My
wife and I donate to about 4 different, things for the military, which I’m proud of.
9
�We don’t have a whole lot to donate, but we do, several times a year, for each
organization, a few dollars helps, here and there. But, the way they’re being
treated when they come home, it’s the same junk the way I was, the way I was
treated, all us Vietnam Vets, when we got home, were just treated like dirt, honest
to God. They didn’t want to give you your jobs back, they didn’t, they didn’t want
to hire you because you’re a Vietnam Vet. In other words, you were a bad person.
“Oh we were doing what our country, the United States of America, asked us to
do.” And for that, we’re bad people, you know. I mean, I just,…it’s very hard to
understand. It really is.
That’s about it. I mean, I’ll be 70 years old very shortly, and…I should
have died ten years ago. I have a thing form Agent Orange, which Agent Orange
was a thing that was sprayed in Vietnam, to kill all the foliage, the trees and
everything, It was supposed to kill it all, which it did, and its killed a lot of
Vietnam Vets too over the years, that come up with cancer. There must be twenty
five to thirty different diseases that they found out Agent Orange caused, and
mine is…I had a five way bypass done, ten years ago. Now I have a Pacemaker
defibrillator, and this is my second one, as you can see the scar up here is my first
one. And what they had to do was change one about five months ago, because the
battery was running low and it was no good. So they had to move the pocket and
put a new one down here. And what it is, defibrillator Pacemaker is they have a
wire that goes down my heart. So if I have a problem with my heart, one or the
other will take over. So, and, I didn’t find this out until as far as what caused it
until about a year and a half ago.
All these years I had been home. And they finally caught up with me ten
years ago. I had a heart attack here, because my wife and I had been living here
for twenty six years, and…one day at work, Monday morning, bang! Heart attack.
So, that was April 22nd, ’02, right? Yeah, ’02. And, ’03 November was when I
had to be cut, and I had a triple bypass, well, apparently, two, two of the…of the
veins didn’t take. So, before the doctor and team went home, because it was a
Saturday morning and they don’t do heart, things, transplants, or no, not
transplants, heart operations on Saturday. They normally really don’t do it, but
apparently when they tested me and did my thing on Friday afternoon, they seen,
they were all, up in the high 90’s that were blocked, all of them. So, I was a
candidate for Saturday morning, and down in Charlotte,…so, they cut me open,
did me an ICU, and something wasn’t right. This I found out later through the
head nurse. She said “Tom we thought you were gone.” She said, and she said “I
had to call the doctor, get him back here,” She said “In all my years as a head, as a
nurse in ICU, I never seen what happened with you; with the machines. In other
words, these things where they go ‘beep beep beep beep beep’ well they’d go
‘beep beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeep’ it’d stay there!” She said! And she said “I
had never seen that before!” And she said “Oh my gosh!” She said “I knew I had
to call them back!” Which the doctor knew, that when she called back something
was wrong. So they had to re-cut me open. That’s why the scar is so thick.
Normally now it’s like a little hair. Or normally now what they do is they come
up here, from what I understand; under your armpit. And, they had cut me re, they
had cut me open again, and they do two more. She said, she said “Tom, you,” she
10
�didn’t tell me, she wouldn’t tell me, and I was trying to get it out of her. She said
“You shouldn’t be here.” I said “Well where should I be?” Now you got to
understand, this is my first time being in a hospital my whole life, and I’m 59
years old , in a hospital, with a heart attack, and open heart surgery, and all this
other junk ,and she said “You should have, you should have gone.” I said “Gone
where?” You know, I was trying to get her to tell me. I was trying to hear her tell
me that I should have died. She said “You should have passed.” I said “What are
you talking about?” I kind of knew what she was talking about; I just wanted to
get her to tell me. I said “Are you trying to tell me I should have died?” She said
“Yes”, but she didn’t want to put it in them words. She said “Yes, Tom. You
should, you should not be here.” She said “All of the nurses up here, all the nurses
in ICU don’t know why you’re still here. In fact,” she said, “we started calling
you ‘that miracle guy’”. I said well, I guess the good Lord wasn’t, my wife would
say “He wasn’t ready for you to go up there and give him a hard time!” I said
“Probably not, I guess I got more work to do; I’m not ready yet.” And that was
ten years ago, and I’m very thankful, really.
That was tough, man….I was in the hospital for nine days, and that was
tough. Anyhow, that was all my understanding, and the VA said that it was form
all the Agent Orange being sprayed, over in Vietnam. Now where I was, over in
Saigon, I come to find out, through people, by reunion people, we have a reunion
every two years, the 716th Military Police, every two years we have a reunion
somewhere, and those guys were telling me “Hey Tom, did you know that Saigon
was the second, if not the first, heavily sprayed area in Vietnam? And do you
know why? Because of all the generals that were there, and all the officers that
were in Saigon, their headquarters, where they… billets were and the hotels they
stayed in, and all that kind of stuff. That’s why. So when they sprayed, they
sprayed like hell, to kill everything on the, on the outside of Saigon, you know?
That’s why. And a lot of us, being, well even them people living in there, us being
MPs and whatever, we’re breathing in that stuff every day. So ,and it,…a lot of
my buddies dies, have dies, from what it done to them; giving them cancer. It’s a
cancer causing thing. It really is, amongst a lot of other things that they found out,
over the years. I do get compensated, a few bucks for it. Not a whole lot, but it’s
something, I guess.
So I’m living my life! Very interesting, especially when you’re in the
military. I think, I think, by the way I was treated, I often wondered, I stayed,
went back or said “Yes, I’ll take that five thousand, now I can order my car!” Like
a ’69 Camaro, or whatever. But I didn’t do it, and I probably would have made a
life out of it. Because I was good at what I done; at Military Police. And that was
why they wanted to make me E-6 <Staff Sergeant>, because I was good at what I
done. I mean, I stopped a lot of thing from going on,…I’ve seen two VC, on one
of those Hondas, stick, C4 <plastic explosive> on one of the military buses. And I
didn’t know what it was at the time. I was watching, and as I watch people, and
we had a military bus, that brought a lot of these military people to this PX, in
Cholon. And just watching this Honda, with two guys on it, you know the little
people. And all of a sudden I see the Honda stop, and the guy in the back goes
like <motions with hand> and they took off. So what does that tell you? Well that
11
�tells me he just stuck something up on the left, rear,…wheel well! And right
away, I couldn’t leave my post, because I was the fella that was working the front
gate. So I called in for a patrol right away, and I told them, I said “You better get
the bomb squad here!” I said “I’m positive, I’m sure they just stuck a piece of C4
Up there.” And they were going to wait until that thing got loaded, and then blow
the damn thing up., with all them people in it. And sure enough, it was; it was a
plastic on that rear wheel well. So because of me, thankfully, and I was given a
citation for it, which I was, just doing my job, but whatever.
That’s all I got to say! And I’m hoping I can live a lot longer!
Lingo: That’s pretty incredible!...
Collins: And I have shot and killed people over there, not because I wanted to, but because I had
to. One time we were going on duty…
The rest of the interview is lost because the recording equipment ran out of room on its storage
device.
12
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/b70f1e0de4833b34f2764dc83b9d0c0c.mp3
142d6d37781e4065eace3aded14cf064
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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.
File size
59.6 KB
118 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Army
Officer Rank
Officer rank (major, private, etc)
Sergeant
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lingo; Josheph
Collins; Tom
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Lingo, Joseph
Interviewee
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Collins, Tom
Interview Date
10/14/2012
Number of pages
12
Duration
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0:51:50
Date digitized
2/5/2015
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a86579bd35619a295936d42d1f3c7e29
142d6d37781e4065eace3aded14cf064
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Leah McManus
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Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
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300
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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.
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UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
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48000kzh x 16 bit
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Electronic File
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5018_Collins_Tom_2012_1014_M
5018_Collins_Tom_20121014_audio_A
Title
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Interview with Sergeant Tom Collins [October 14, 2012]
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Oral History
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English
English
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Lingo, Joseph
Collins, Tom
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<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.
Description
An account of the resource
Sergeant Tom Collins, born in 1943 in Philadelphia, was drafted during the Vietnam War and went to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for his basic training. He entered the army and was trained as a military policeman. He served in Saigon on a patrol squad. He says to this day, even in civilian life, he doesn't trust people he doesn't know after his experience in the military and having to constantly be on the look-out.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Collins, Tom
Veterans
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
United States
Personal narratives, American
Interviews
army
draft
Fort Bragg
military police
Saigon
Vietnam War
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/a6b71683a78084e78fc5011a16611d49.pdf
aac04c2dcfbbd529fec35f62d942f60b
PDF Text
Text
Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Richard Gilbert
U.S. Army
1968-1971
Vietnam War
October 15, 2012
Cody Spiker: My name is Cody Spiker, interviewing Richard Gilbert at 214 West Academy
Street, his residence. [Cherryville, NC] Mr. Gilbert, when were you born?
Richard Gilbert: I was born March 27th, 1948.
Spiker: Where were you born at?
Gilbert: I was born in Franklin NC, which was way up in the mountains up in the corner of the
state. But I grew up in Lincoln County.
Spiker: Lincoln County, when did you move down to Lincolnton, or Lincoln County?
Gilbert: Oh, probably when I started school, around First grade. You know, about seven, six or
seven, something like that. I think I actually started second grade down here, so. We moved up
on highway 27 out in the country.
Spiker: Okay, so your family is from the Appalachian Mountains actually?
Gilbert: Yeah my mom was born in the mountains, my grandmother and grandfather yeah,
basically homesteaders, so.
Spiker: Okay, one of the things that they are pushing for in this interview process is people from
the Appalachian Mountains, (“Oh” -Gilbert) the Appalachian area, veterans form this area so
that’s excellent. So, which war did you fight in?
Gilbert: I fought in Vietnam. Yeah I went, I got in the army, let’s see, it would have been ’68. I
think, and then I went to Vietnam in ’69. So, I went in in December, I went to Vietnam I
December of ’68 and came back in December of ‘69.
Spiker: Ok, and where you a volunteer or were you a draftee?
Gilbert: Well, I was a volunteer. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. I didn’t really
support the war but I knew that needed a college education and I didn’t really have a way to pay
for it. So, I saw that as a way of getting an education an you know, so, I enlisted for three years.
Spiker: Okay, so at the time that you enlisted where were you living at?
1
�Gilbert: I was living in Lincolnton and I was attending Lincolnton high school, and I was in my
last year. And there were several of us who talked about it and decided we would go see a
recruiter, and so we did. We all went in together; there was about, I don’t know, eight or ten of
us.
Spiker: So you were about eighteen?
Gilbert: … Somewhere along in there, it was just after high school.
Spiker: What branch of service did you enter?
Gilbert: Well, since I enlisting and I got the opportunity to pick, I had some choice and they told
me what was open. Artillery, a couple things, communications, and military police and I
decided that I would go military police. Sounded exciting. (Spiker chuckles and says, “MP’s
lead the way.”)
Spiker: So you obviously enlisted into the Army?
Gilbert: Right.
Spiker: Do you recall your first days of service? Like when you went to basic training? What
was that like?
Gilbert: Oh I remember the first day of training like it was imprinted in my brain, (Gilbert
chuckles) It… we had about a week or so before we actually started basic they had us in a kind
of holding pen, which was extremely boring, there was nothing to do except you know what
freedom we had to go to the PX and eat. That was about it. So… when we were ready to start
basic they put us on the bus and drove us over to our company and then I think you can imagine
what happened after that. Hahahaha. It was in July at Fort Bragg and I think that was probably
the hottest place on earth. And… it was a pretty miserable day.
Spiker: I can imagine. Do you remember any of your instructors?
Gilbert: Oh yes, lets see, there was… a Corporal Norris who had… he was an interesting
character. He had been in the Army and… served and came back home and somehow or another
he was in the reserves and didn’t attend the meetings and got re-drafted, (Chuckles) so they
pulled him back in and they put him as… in our company as a trainer, as an instructor. …There
was a couple of Drill Sergeants, you know I guess if I thought about it I could probably
remember their names but I can’t right at the moment… it was interesting. I learned a lot about
the Army. The Army travels on its stomach, the food was great. Everybody else complained,
but I ate like a king… there was a fairness. They picked on everybody equally, (Chuckles) It
was… interesting. I got kind of an insight into Army thinking which… and I respect that, I
really do. I respect that. I didn’t like being in the Army but I did respect it. You know.
Spiker: You mentioned earlier that you went to talk to a recruiter with a couple of fellows from
your high school; did you end up going to basic training with those fellows.
2
�Gilbert: As a matter of fact, we all went through basic training together… all in the same
company except two of use. Two went into the company next door and the rest of us were in the
same. I went in with a guy named Steve Rice from High Shoals and… Steve, Steve was tough
guy. He was real tough; he was a street cred guy you know. He carried a hawkbill knife and
(chuckling)... you didn’t mess with Steve. But… Steve and I were good friends… he and I, we
stayed together all through basic training and.. we did some crazy things together… (“Do you
want to explain some of those?” -Spiker, laughing) Oh, I’m glad to tell you one. We had to do;
you know we had to spend the late afternoon and evening crawling under barbwire while they
were shooting over the top of us in training. And they had these bunkers placed out there that
had artillery simulators in them. And I went first, I was in a wave that went in and crawled under
the barbwire, and then Steve came after me. I said Steve I’ll meet you at that center bunker and
we’ll smoke a cigarette before we go on. And we did, and we both got chewed out (Chuckling)
seriously chewed out. But we did, we had to hold it so nobody could see the light from the
cigarette, we passed it back and forth. And the artillery simulators were going off and the
ground was shaken, all the bullets going over head and all that stuff. It was pretty exciting.
Spiker: So after basic training you went to your MP school, where was that at?
Gilbert: That was at Fort Gordon Georgia. (“Fort Gordan Georgia.”-Spiker) Yeah, and I did not
know it snowed in Georgia, but it sure did. (Chuckling) Yeah, I graduated on November the 22nd
because I remember it was… it got pretty cold down there… it definitely snowed. We had a
bout three or four inches one day. That was fun, we got to drive jeeps in the snow, out through
the hills. We did a night driving class… so we had to keep our interval and that kind of stuff. It
had snowed on the ground so it was a lot brighter than the sergeant liked but…(chuckles) It was
good.
Spiker: So… when you finally graduated… MP school where did you go after that? Did you go
directly to Vietnam or…?
Gilbert: No, I got, I got leave. I came home…for… I got a, I think a thirty day leave. And
then… I reported to… California… and I don’t remember all the details of this but… we had to
stay in… It was right next to the Navy compound and… we could see the swabbies walking
around. Course, you know how soldiers…they are… there is always enough competition to start
something. So, there was always some yelling back and forth across the fence and… I thought
California was kind of neat. I didn’t get to see a whole lot. There was a building there, it was
building 590, which, you know, can you imagine… They must have shipped cow in it because
this thing was huge. It was long and wide and all the bunks were three bunks high and close
together. They were… sending a lot of people to Vietnam. Yeah… I stayed in building 590.
That’s… kind of a famous landmark I guess if you look at the history books.
Spiker: Lets backtrack for a minute, when you said you had leave. Did you come back home?
Did you have a significant other at the time?
Gilbert: I had a girlfriend (“okay, what was her name?” –Spiker) Harriette, Harriette, yes
Harriette Gurley. (“Where was she from?”- Spiker) Cherryville (pronounced Chur-a-ville)
3
�(“Cherryville, okay.” –Spiker)… Cherryville and Lincolnton were big rivals so… me dating
Cherryville girls was… kind of a risky thing, but I found out that your Cherryville girls were
very attractive. (“Yes sir.” –Spiker) …I dated here almost a year before I went to Vietnam and
then several years afterwards and then we got married.
Spiker: Okay…When did you actually get boots on the ground in Vietnam?
Gilbert: It would have been December of 1968. I don’t remember the exact date, but… flew
into… Long Binh and then flew from Long Binh to… Quin Yon and that’s where it think, if I
remember correctly or company command headquarters was there and we had two platoons at…
well that was battalion and then we had… another, our main area where I was, was in Pleiku.
And.. Quin Yon is right on the coast, so I got to see the ocean. Of course, Cam Ranh Bay we
did... in-country training. We did a couple weeks of in-country training in Cam Ranh Bay…
Pretty place too. Nice white sands azure sea and sea snakes. (Chuckles, “Did you encounter any
sea snakes?” –Spiker) No, no but they always warned us if you go out into the ocean be careful.
(Still Chuckling) So, but it was a beautiful place I loved it. Vietnam was a beautiful country….
So, Cam Ranh Bay and the I went to Quin Yon; and from Quin Yon I went to Pleiku and that
was where I was mainly stationed. We did have two other, little satellite outpost that we… we
convoyed. So, we would convoy up to the pass from each side and then we would convoy
back… and we would you know, switch of the convoys…. My route was up to the what was
called the Mang Yang Pass, if I remember correctly…. It was real gentle going up on one side
and then It was real steep going down the other side. And there were tanks parked all over the
place on the down-side of that.
Spiker: Now a days there is two different MP’s, you have the Combat MP and the Garrison MP.
Was that still so back in Vietnam?
Gilbert: Well no. I was a 95b10, hahaha, everybody was a 95b10, it was… completely different
I guess from… what’s going on today. It was… our main focus was convoy escort and… then
town patrol, where, you know, you… actually patrolled in the streets of… like Pleiku or An Khe
or some place like that. And… that was pretty much it. There was none of the urban warfare
kinda stuff that you guys have gone through, so….
Spiker: Okay… while you were in Vietnam did you see any combat?
Gilbert: Ambush or two…I got blown out of bed one morning. That was exciting. A rocket
landed between where I was and the mess hall and blew a pretty good size hole in the ground.
And there was a sandbag wall between me and the explosion so I was okay, but I woke up
looking at the floor coming up at my face…and… I couldn’t hear anything. It was just.. ringing
in my ears. I was armorer at that time. They put me in the arms room. I was taking care of the
weapons, and we had florescent lights in the arms room and it blew every one of them out but
one. There was only one burning and that was pretty exciting. We lost a guy that morning, he
was a dog handler. Killed him and his dog as they were going on duty, it was very early in the
morning so…
Spiker: And do you remember his name?
4
�Gilbert: I don’t, I didn’t know him… we had two barracks of MP’s, one of infantry who helped
guard our perimeter and then we had a dog handler… barracks…you knew them in passing, but
you didn’t really work very close. Those guys mainly were perimeter guys and they guarded the
ammunition supply dump and that sort of thing. We would mainly patrol and come back. You
know, we considered them as part of our unit, I mean there was no doubt about that but…there
wasn’t as much interaction as there was you know.. with the other MP’s. We had our own club.
Spiker: Really? Tell me about that.
Gilbert: Well it was up on the little hill and it was the road runner club because it was our
mascot and… the MP’s didn’t do well at other peoples’ clubs for some reason… But the club
was just a small little separate building with a bar and… served soft drinks and beer. No hard
liquor. No one was eligible for that… occasionally they would hir, you know, a little
Vietnamese rock band and bring them and they would you know have a couple of Go Go Girls or
something like that.. It was just a nice little club.
Spiker: You mentioned your unit a minute ago, I forgot to ask your unit number.
Gilbert: Oh Lord, let me see. Gah, that’s just been so long. It ws the 504th MP CO, and
Battalion, I think If I remember correctly, I was in Company B. I was in B, 504th MP Battalion
at Pleiku. But that’s been a while, don’t quote me, hahaha.
Spiker: Okay, other than being an armorer, did you have any other details…jobs?
Gilbert: No, that was the only really specialized job that I did. They… our armorer had…the
person who was serving as armorer had left, and…they “Okay you’re good with tools, go down
there and keep the record.” Course you know everybody does things like paint numbers on jeeps
and that sort of thing but that was the only one that I had actually just a separate job. It wasn’t
that bad, there were only two of us and we had… it was one on and one off. We slept, we
actualy had a bunk in the arms room so we could actually sleep in there two…so, there was
always one of us in the arms room, so. If any thing happened we could unlock everything. I did
have a station… if we were attacked, from the arms room I was to move up on to a bunker that
had a .50 on it. I was to… be part of the .50 crew on, if else had…if I had expended all the
ammo that was where I went. (Chuckling)
Spiker: So, that never happened though?
Gilbert: No. Our attacks were mostly rocket attacks, which were pretty long, big rockets and
then of course mortar attacks, we would get those every once in a while. Ambushes would be
anything from a few pot shots to a couple of mortar rounds coming in to some sort of improvised
device… every once in a while they’d blow a bridge up and we would have to put a defile
around it and you know, keep and eye on that. But, I think the road was probably the most
dangerous thing. That’s where we, we got more people hurt. Mainly form accidents…rain, mud,
jeeps turn over. We also had an armored vehicle, we had V100, which I think now is obsolete,
5
�we probably sold them all to some other country. I really liked it because it had a 318 Chrysler
engine in it with a four barrel carburetor… (Chuckling)
Spiker: Can you tell me about some of your most memorable experiences while deployed to
Vietnam?
Gilbert: Oh, wow, let’s see. Well I can think of a couple things… I enjoyed shooting rats at the
mess hall at night that was fun, with a crossbow. We would get Vietnamese crossbows and
shoot the rats and try to stick them into the wall and that was fun. I used to like to drive out to a
… yard, you know the local indigenous people…there was…the French had built a damn near
this little village and I used to sneak out their and lay out underneath the trees and just sleep. It
was just a whole different…the kids around and all that kind of stuff. Little kids you know how
they just want to play and I’de go out and skip stoned with them things like that. It was a good
way to kind of relax.
Spiker: So were…was everybody able to just go out?
Gilbert: No, this was something that really wasn’t sanctioned. Haha, but… you would have your
radio on and if there was no convoy…you’d just have to run the road by yourself, just you and
your… you’d have a driver and an interpreter and then a gunner on the jeep who had a
M60…But if there was nothing going on we’d kind of sneak over, it wasn’t just about a quarter
of a mile and just sneak over…relax a while. Have lunch and then get back on the road. It might
have been breaking the rules a little bit, but it wasn’t that serious. It was no, no real threat to
anything. It was just a little way to unwind.
Spiker: Do you remember much from the end of your tour?
Gilbert: Well, I remember when I got short. They took me off duty, I think the last couple of
weeks they take you off duty and then put you on light duty where you’re basically cleaning up
barracks and taking new guys around to get their equipment and showing them where everything
is and things like that. And then, they start processing you out, you have to send your whole
baggage and that sort of thing back…and then I think I caught a ride we was always thumbing
rides on airplanes or something. I went over to the Air force base, which was right behind us, so
I went over and thumbed a ride on a transport and it was a great ride. I remember going back, it
was fantastic because the back door was open a couple of feet. And it had a big crack and I
could look down on the jungle and there was no one else on the plane except the pilot, co-pilot,
crew chief, you know, and me. And I was in the seat, the last seat, just strapped in, looking out
the door at the jungle going by. It was pretty cool; it was a good flight back.
Spiker: You say… getting short…for the sake of the interview can you explain what that is?
Gilbert: Short is when you’re getting ready to go home and your friends will present you with a
swagger stick. And its usually a bullet with a stick stuck in it. (chuckles) And it’s carved to look
like a long, little swagger stick, or it’s a shell with a stick stuck in it, then you kind of stick that
under your arm and you walk around with it and everybody knows you’re short, you’re bragging
you know…and then of course you would make the twoe fingers close together like
6
�that…(Demonstrates fore finger and thumb about half an inch apart)…short, and people would
be envious. And of course you would have your short timers calendar up n the wall with all the
X’s over everyday that you been there….
Spiker: What rank where you when you went in and when you came out?
Gilbert: Oh, Lord. I remember being an E2 for about three weeks-four weeks and then they
made me a E1; I guess an E1 and then they made me an E2. I think that when I got out of basic
they made me a E3. And then when I got o Vietnam I became a Spec4 and I stayed that, or
should I say, I stayed that until I got back to the United States, I did get busted. Not real proud
of that but…I lost my rank for about a month but I made it back. I was basically a good guy, just
little things happen.
Spiker: Yes sir, yes sir. So, while serving did you earn any awards/medals?
Gilbert: I had just regular Vietnam medals…I did have a whole bunch of unit citations and all
that kind of stuff…I didn’t get any wounds or anything like that. I just tried to stay out of trouble
and not get killed. I did think I was dead one night though. I ran out of the barracks, we had an
attack, and I ran out in the middle of the night and they had dug a ditch across the walkway and I
had forgotten about it and the next thing I know I had came too looking up at stars. I thought I
had been hit, I start trying to feel for things and, I figured I would get a purple heart for that but
they wouldn’t give it to me for some reason. (Spiker laughs) No, falling in a slit trench was not
considered being wounded in action…
Spiker: Oh, it was a slit trench?! My goodness, haha. Oh, that’s rough (Gilbert laughs)
Gilbert: It was new thank goodness.
Spiker: Oh good, so there wasn’t anything in it yet.
Gilbert: They had just dug it. It could have been worse.
Spiker: It could have been a lot worse. How did you stay in touch with your family while in …
[Vietnam]
Gilbert: Well, we had a new method of communication. It was the cassette tape. My wife, well
my fiancé at the time, we sent cassettes to each other. I got lots of letters. I wasn’t as good at
writing as she was…she…basically, I had a couple of pounds of letters by the time I got to come
back.
Spiker: What was the food like, over there in Vietnam? You said you liked the Army food.
Gilbert: Well, I always thought it was great. The cooks were well trained, they were good. Our
company had one cook who was, all he did was make pastries, so we had fresh bread and cakes,
pies. He would make breakfast rolls and sweet rolls…I guess I was a chow hound because I
liked to eat late. I would have breakfast at eleven o’clock at night and like if I was going on duty
7
�and skip the morning breakfast, and eat late…. I never really complained about the food. It was
all I wanted and there was plenty of it, and it was good food, it wasn’t just empty calories…
occasionally we had steak and baked potatoes. Something weird happened, strange happened
when I was in, this was when the Army tried a little experiment. They actually, for the evening
meal, they sold beer in the mess hall. Your limit was two, but they were “tall boys”, you know,
tall ones. After the evening meal, if you were off duty, you could have as many as two beers in
the mess hall. Now I don’t think that lasted too long, but that was an unusual, this was strange
for the Army. That getting very liberal here.
Spiker: So it sounded like ya’ll had plenty of supplies while you were there.
Gilbert: We did run short in Vietnam, we ran short of canned drinks for a while, in the PX and
all that kind of place it was just, something happened and for about a month we couldn’t get soft
drinks and things like that for a while. They were short supply…you could get them. A lot of
guys would take cases of drinks, buy them at the PX and then take them and trade them on the
black market… that kind of thing is always going on.
Spiker: Other than shooting rats, how did ya’ll keep yourselves entertained?
Gilbert: Well, we had a day room, and there was tv, and that’s where I saw the moon landing
cause that happened when I was…you know… there. Then we had magazines and occasionally,
if you had a good friend, you could sneak into the commo bunker, the command bunker, the
communications bunker and you could make a phone call or get a phone call… so, one of my
friends actually called me from Vietnam, he was in another company a couple of hundred miles
away, and he’d call me and we’d talk every once in a while. But that was bellow the radar
(Chuckles “Yes sir.” –Spiker) ...there was always an emergency phone call if somebody at you
home needed to get up with you, you could, it would have to bounce all over the place to get to
you, and there was no guaranty that it would get there, but you could make a phone call to the
states every once in a while. It was not something that was easily done, at least in my unit.
Spiker: I meant to ask you, your buddies from high school, did any of them get assigned to your
unit with you?
Gilbert: No, I was the only MP. The rest of them, I think maybe about half of them ended up in
the infantry and I know one of them became a medic or maybe two of them. Two of them
became medics and I don’t really remember the rest of them….Did have one that went to
Chemical Warfare school. Yeah, I remember him. He went there, he was a pretty smart guy.
They grabbed him up, and I don’t think he went to Vietnam, he went to Washington and, or
some place, kept him stateside. He was real, he was a smart guy.
Spiker: After your three years was up…or did you spend all that three years in Vietnam?
Gilbert: I did not. When I came back from Vietnam I was stationed in Maryland at Fort Meade.
There were…Fort Meade was Basically riot control for the city of D.C. at that time, and this was
when, you know, everybody was rioting about everything. There was always some kind of
march going on somewhere. So, that’s where I was, and I applied to Gaston College and got an
8
�early out to go to school. I got about four months out early to go to college. That was just like,
exciting like going into the Army. It was great. I was ready for college then.
Spiker: Did you use your GI Bill to go to college?
Gilbert: I sure did. I got almost four years of college out of three years in the Army.
Spiker: Nice.
Gilbert: Yeah, at that time it was a full, about a hundred and ninety dollars a month if you
weren’t married, so, I think it went to a little over two hundred dollars a month if you were
married, as I recall. But you know you could live cheap in Boone, it was a hundred dollars a
month in rent…
Spiker: So, you went to Appalachian State as well?
Gilbert: I did.
Spiker: Good, good. Were you married to Harriette at that time?
Gilbert: We got married the year that I transferred from…it would have been my third year of
college. We got married just after I graduated from Gaston. I got an AA form Gaston and then
we got married and she started graduate school because she was ahead of me by four years. And,
I had just started my third year at Appalachian.
Spiker: Did you retain any friendships from the service while you were still in college and
throughout life?
Gilbert: A few but unfortunately they have gone by the wayside, most of them. I can’t, only the
ones that are from Lincolnton that I went to school with I still see them occasionally. Most of
them are, you know, you just lose touch.
Spiker: I understand. While…studying at Appalachian State what was your major?
Gilbert: I was an Art Major.
Spiker: Art Major, and did you go on to fulfill your dreams in art?
Gilbert: Well, I got out from Appalachian, my wife and I were married, we moved to Dallas,
NC and I started teaching at William C. Friday Middle School.
Spiker: What did you teach there?
Gilbert: I taught art, my degree was actually art education, so, either being an artist or being a
teacher was…either way. It was convenient and there was a job…I didn’t know I was going to
like teaching though. She talked me into…I was just going to be an art major, she’s the one who
9
�talked me into being an art education major she says you might want to teach, you don’t know,
you know. You might not do well as an artist when you first get out. So, why don’t you just do
that, it’s just a few extra courses. I said, “Alright.” …and I kind of like teaching.
Spiker: So, you continued to teach until?
Gilbert: Well I taught for about…six years and then I went to work for a mining company, but
there was financial incentive. Yeah, I got a pretty good raise to move into the mining
industry…I went to work in a lab for them and got to do all kinds of wonderful and interesting
things in mining and in a lab and chemistry and special projects…mainly why they hired me was
because I knew a little bit about chemistry, I knew a little bit about ceramic engineering, I knew
how to weld, I knew how to do some electrical work, so that art background of kind of knowing
a little bit about a lot of stuff, but not being an expert the said, “Well good, we’re going to put
you in special projects.” So, for about twelve years. It was a good job, excellent, I was never
doing the same thing for very long they were always pulling me around and making me do all
kinds of crazy… I mean learned how to survey, learned how to use a computer. Just everything.
Spiker: After that job you went on to teach again?
Gilbert: Well I stated teaching college off and on as an adjunct professor, not a full time
professor, but just in part time. And then I’ve done that ever since. I worked as a computer
programmer at Doran Mills in Shelby. I worked in the printing industry for a couple of years as
a trainer, I would install systems and train people on how to use computer systems and use
programs like photoshop and how to do touch up editing and I was a font expert I guess you
would say. And all of those electronic font things…and then I got back into teaching again in
middle school. An then…this will be my tenth year and last year. And I will retire.
Spiker: Congratulations. Well, I think that’s pretty much all I have. Is there anything else that
you would like to add to…
Gilbert: No, I enjoyed talking to you.
Spiker: I have as well. I have as well. I do appreciate it.
10
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c96ca3742e967c7d579080db60668489.mp3
33274ab687bac5808732c11c00bd0f44
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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.
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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
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Spiker; Cody
Gilbert; Richard
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Spiker, Cody
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Gilbert, Richard
Interview Date
10/15/2012
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10
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0:35:06
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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.
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UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
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5018_Gilbert_Richard_20121015_transcript_M
5018_Gilbert_Richard_20121015_audio_A
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Interview with Richard Gilbert [October 15, 2012]
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Oral History
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English
English
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Spiker, Cody
Gilbert, Richard
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<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>
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
Richard Gilbert served in the army for three years during the Vietnam War. He was a volunteer right out of high school, and figured the military was his only way to get to college. He was stationed in Pleiku, Vietnam and worked as a military police officer. He saw very little combat but his base was ambushed a couple of times. After the 3 years were up he majored in art at Applachian State and worked as a middle school art teacher.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Gilbert, Richard
Veterans
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
United States
Personal narratives, American
Interviews
army
Fort Gordon Georgia
Fort Meade
GI Bill
military police
Pleiku
Vietnam
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/aac695d61df54203b2af110e2d327212.pdf
eec3359ddc30fcbf9c753b0b4a212cd9
PDF Text
Text
Oral History Interview of
Lieutenant Colonel Bryan D. Green,
U.S. Army (retired)
Interviewed on September 22, 2011 by Michelle Littlejohn on behalf of Dr. Browning's
2011 Fall American Military History Course at Appalachian State University. This
interview took place at Bandys High School in Catawba County, NC where Lt. Col.
Green is the current Senior Army Instructor for the JROTC program.
�Transcript of Oral History Interview with Lt. Col. Bryan D. Green, U.S. Army, retired
Date: 22 September 2011
Location: Bandys High School, Catawba NC
Project for HIS 3823, 2011 Fall .
Michelle Littlejohn: This is Michelle Littlejohn of Appalachian State University. Today
is September the 22nd. I am at Bandys High School in Catawba interviewing Lieutenant
Colonel Bryan Green.
Okay, Lt. Col., to start with, what's your birth date?
Lt. Col. Bryan D. Green: I was born the 25th of September 1961 in Davie County near a
town called Mocksville.
Littlejohn: Okay, is that in North Carolina?
Green: Yes ma'am, North Carolina.
Littlejohn: Okay. Now when you decided to go into the military, you said you did the
ROTC program at Appalachian?
Green: Yes.
Littlejohn: What made you want to do the program?
Green: Well, I had graduated from high school and I wanted to, I wanted to go into the
military and my parents really didn't, weren't to excited about the idea of military
service. My dad had served in the Navy, my grandfather in the Army and relatives had
served in the Army prior to that. And it was the lure of doing something different and
growing up in an area where you had furniture factories and textile mills there just wasn't
a lot of opportunities in Davie County.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: So I went to Rowan Community College for two years and worked for a year as
an Assistant Store Manager with B.C. Moores and I really didn't, that really wasn't my
thing so they had a program at Appalachian State where you could transfer your two year
Associate Degree into a four year program.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: And I don't know if it was a fairly new program or it's a pilot program but I
looked into that and then called the recruiter, recruiting officer, the RO at Appalachian
State, Captain Rogers and he got me hooked up to go to basic training and did whatever
he needed to do to get me signed up for the fall semester so that, that summer I went to
Fort Knox to basic and then started Appalachian in the fall as a cadet in Military Science
�III student. And the program was a Bachelor of Technology, Bach - Bachelor of
Technology and Business Education. I think the program was set up to train you to be a
community college instructor.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: Or you could teach public school but you'd have to get your teaching
certification. So I think I belonged to the department of Education there at Appalachian
as well as the ROTC department. And so I took that adventure and then did my two years
at Appalachian and then, and then by the time I was ready to graduate in '84 there still
wasn't any real job opportunities out there so I decided I was going to go ahead and give
the Army a try and went on active duty.
Littlejohn: Okay. How did you enjoy the program at Appalachian?
Green: It was, it was great cause you already had a ready set made of friends.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: And you already had friends and people that were there. You already had a team
that you were part of, so it made the college experience a lot more pleasurable because
you know, you going in you don't know any body and Col. Michael Scott was the
professor of Military Science at the time and he was a Special Forces guy so we did a lot
of fun things in ROTC at Appalachian. And while I was there I was in the Scabbard
Blade and we did the football games, had to color guard and ushers for the game stuff. So
got to see a lot of the home games there at Appalachian. Then they had started something
called the Gold Bar Recruiting Program. So I got selected my last semester of my senior
year to enter the Gold Bar Recruiting Program which was a good deal because they paid
you as a Second Lieutenant and you recruited for Appalachian State so that also became
my internship for my degree. So that worked out well. And so I was getting paid, you
know, in lieu of not getting paid cause I was making- you got paid as a cadet by the
Army and then I, my first semester I worked making doughnuts and getting up at three in
the morning and going to the cafeteria and making doughnuts for a semester and then I,
once I lived in Bowie and then you know walking all over the place and walking down to
the cafeteria I said, you know I got an RA job so I was an RA the other semesters I was at
Appalachian. So it was a good experience. I love Boone and that environment so I got to
come on active duty early and work for Appalachian State till about November.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: And then went to my officer basic course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas so I, I can
say I was probably one of the first Gold Bar Recruiters for App.
Littlejohn: Okay.
�Green: So I got to come on early and got to go to all the feeder colleges for Appalachian
State.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: They had a old four wheel drive Dodge Ram and that was my vehicle so that was
pretty fun driving down the mountain and up the mountain to the various colleges that
feed Appalachian State.
Littlejohn: So how was - you went through. boot camp?
Green: Went through basic at Fort Knox.
Littlejohn: Basic ... How was that?
Green: It was an eye opening experience cause they were students, college students,
from all over the country there at Fort Knox. To enter ROTC you either have to go
through Military Science I & II as a freshman and sophomore or you would have to
complete a basic training equivalent. Given the time frame I didn't have time to go
through the Army standard basic combat training so cadet command ran what they call a
Basic Camp which is equivalent to, they give you your credit for basic training at Fort
Knox and the Drill Sergeants had just finished with a cycle of recruits for the Army and
now they had cadets. They had all college students and I don't think they differentiated
very much between cadets and college students but it was a good experience. It was
filmed on same site that the movie Stripes was filmed on cause they still have the World
War II wood ...
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: They had just filmed Stripes not too long ago so.
Littlejohn: Oh wow. (laughs)
Green: It, it was definitely a, it was a leadership experience cause they do the same thing
they did twenty years ago, you know, you rotate into leadership positions, you have to
lead your squad or platoon or company.
Littlejohn: How did that differ with the officer training after you left the ROTC program
at Appalachian?
Green: Well, once you, once you earn your commission you are now a Second
Lieutenant and they expect you to act and conduct yourself as a Lieutenant. We weren't
treated like trainees but any means but they expected a high standard of behavior from
you.
�Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Okay. Let's see. Was there any memorable experiences frnm the
training program that you took away or - ?
Green: Met a lot of folks from all over the country. Especially the ones from Boston you
know they eat with a 'folk and a spoon.' We saw quite a bit of attrition cause a lot of
folks thought that this, this was gonna be an easy ...
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: Six weeks at Fort Knox and it was actually physically challenging. You were
under mental stress.
Littlejohn: Uh-huh.
Green: So the first week there was quite a few that didn't make it.
Littlejohn: Okay. And once you finished officer training, where did you go from there?
Green: After I finished my officer basic course at Fort Sam Houston I was assigned to
the 197111 Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia to 2nd Battalion 69 111 Armor as their
medical platoon leader. I got there in January and the brigade was deploying to Reforger
in Germany so I was there for three days and just long enough to draw equipment and get
on a plane and go to Reforger which is Return of Forces to Europe. This was during the
Cold War so every, every year that as a show of force to the Soviets, the U.S. would
deploy units from the States as well as deploy units and draw equipment in country. We
actually brought our equipment from Fort Benning, which the big climate difference
between Fort Benning, Georgia and Europe so we had a lot of issues in January on this
exercise. Actual unit arrived in Amsterdam and the main body flew into Luxembourg and
that's where I came in and I literally met my platoon on the ground during Reforger. And
then from Luxembourg we went to Kaiserslautem. And Kaiserslautem was a staging base
and from there we did the exercise all across Germany. It was a cold field, field
experience but a good leadership experience to be with a combat brigade on a major
exercise like that.
Littlejohn: Okay. Where did you go after that?
Green: Well I spent two years in the 2nd Battalion 69th Armor and then I was moved to
the main forward support battalion in the 197111 to Bravo Company and spent another
almost year and a half at Fort Benning and after Fort Benning I applied for flight training
and got accepted, made it through flight training up to Instruments and then decided
flying helicopters wasn't for me so then they sent me to the 4111 United States Army
Readiness Group to train reserve component forces ·in Indiana and Ohio.
Littlejohn: Okay. Now where did, where did your career take you after that?
�Green: After serving as a Readiness Group Advisor I went to the Transportation Officer
Advanced Course - it was in Readiness Group that I got involved with deployment and
transportation stuff and after the Transportation Officer Advance Course at Fort Eustis,
Virginia was assigned to Korea to 8th United States Army to the Yon Son Army Garrison.
I originally was slated to go to 2nd Infantry Division but showed up in country, I ended up
being the Installation Transportation Officer for the Yon Son Army Garrison. As a young
Captain in a Major's job and had a fleet of about 1200 vehicles, 700 employees both
Korean Nationals, Korean Service Corps, soldiers - had about 32 soldiers - and we did
the whole range from shipping people's pots and pans to running a transportation motor
pool to driver's training. I guess the highlight of that tour was doing the, cause we had 72
buses there in the fleet and 24 of those buses were ambulance buses so we did a
repatriation ofremains from the Korean War so that was pretty cool. And handled the
cars for the general officers. It was an interesting, good tour, learned a lot about
transportation.
Littlejohn: Did you enjoy your time in Korea more than you did in Germany?
Green: Well I would go, I would be going back to Germany several times over my career
but Korea was a good tour. It was an eye opener, an eye opening experience especially to
see the demilitarized zone which is like a mile Ion- mile wide, most fortified border in the
world. Unless you've seen it, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to fathom that you know we are
always at the close brink of war there on the demilitarized zone. Most folks never see that
and hear the speakers blaring, see the North Korean soldiers and at that time there was
still Russians in North Korea. Korea was a good experience.
Littlejohn: Okay. Now after you left Korea, where were you assigned?
Green : I was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. And it's a
mechanized division. They had just redeployed from Desert Shield I Desert Storm. My
advance course had gotten cut early, cut - cut - reduced by I think two months and they,
there was several of us on the slate to go to the Middle East but the war ended early so
they had to reassign us so I got reassigned to go to Korea and then by the time I got back
from Korea most of the divisions in the States had redeployed back so I arrived at Fort
Stewart as the 24th had redeployed from Desert Shield I Desert Storm and then of course
there was a reduction of force after that operation so I saw a lot of friends get rifted out of
the military. I went to the Main Support Battalion in the 24th Infantry Division, served as
the Adjacent for the battalion that was 1200 soldiers ih the battalion, 7 companies and we
had detachments up at Hunter Army Airfield that supported the aviation brigade. And
then I commanded a company in the Main Support Battalion. That was a good experience
being a company commander and after that they asked me to come up on Division Staff
so I came up on Division Staff as a Senior Captain, worked as the Division
Transportation Officer for three months until the actual Major came in from Command
and General Staff College. And during that time, you know, I saw several deployments,
everything from Haiti to Suriname to the Middle East. It was good, good experience
working on Division Staff and rotations to the National Training Center.
�Littlejohn: Uh-huh. Do you have any particular memories from any of those
deployments that you Green: I remember one field exercise. A guy I worked with was from Alabama, a big
tall, lanky guy, Major Floyd Driver. And he was a quiet, quiet guy, you know, he wasn't
real loud and boisterous. But we were out on a field exercise and a gator had wondered
into our bivouac area and I had the night shift, he had the day shift, was getting ready to
change shifts, it was early in the morning and this gator had wondered almost up to our
top. And I had never seen anybody actual wrestle a gator in real but he wrestled this gator
and took some parachute cord, tied his mouth shut, tied him up and then the MP's came
and got the gator later that day. So it was a good thing he knew how to handle a gator.
Littlejohn : It sounds like it.
Green: Cause we didn ' t have any ammunition or anything to take care of that alligator.
Littlejohn: So did you see combat in any of your deployments?
Green: I was never sent direct - well I was sent to the war zone in Bosnia. I had finished
my tour at Fort Stewart and was offered a command in Alaska as a Port Commander. So I
took the tour to Alaska. And got to see most of Alaska and the West Coast. Several
deployments of moving the brigade in Alaska to Thailand or down to the Joint Readiness
Training Center at Fort Chaffee. Moved ammunition and after I finished my command
tour in Alaska I went to Combined, the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee,
Virginia, which I worked in Director of Combat Developments for fielding this new
Striker Brigade, that's, that's what we worked on was the Striker Brigade it's called
Strike Force and it ended up being the new Striker Brigade that the Army has. And while
I was there I was sent to, deployed to Bosnia - originally supposed to go to the
Intermediate Staging Base, Logistics Base in Tazar - but when .I showed up they told me
not to unpack my bags, that I was doing down range to the 1st Armor Division. So I spent
one night at the ISB and then was down range with the 1st Armor Division and spent the
rest of my tour down range with 1st Armor in Bosnia as part of Stabilization Forces Eight.
Yugoslavia, former Yugoslavia was basically the whole place was mined with mines.
You could see signs of war everywhere. If you just think of a place where they didn't
pick up the trash for about five years and you got Bosnia.
Littlejohn: Oh wow . How did it feel to be over there? Was the feeling more intense than
it had been in Korea or - ?
Green: Yeah because, you know, actually seeing the mass grave sites and what hatred
does to people and the horrible conditions these people had endured and it made you
proud to be an American.
Littlejohn: At any time were you afraid or fearful for your life or were you guys in a safe
zone?
�Green: No, we were actually in the operational zone. We had to have two vehicle patrols
when you went out in certain sectors, three vehicles in other sectors, had to take a
machine gun, combat life saver, had to draw your basic load cause it was still fairly
dangerous. Crime was very bad because of the civil war that had been going on in
Bosnia. People were still being found dead. General Ellis who was the commanding
General of the 1st Armor Division actually put in one, one day, in an average day we
would have 97 combat patrols and all the logistics that goes to support all that and that's
what we tracked as the DTO, Division Transportation Office. So saw a lot of stuff there
in Bosnia.
Littlejohn: Did any of your men ever get injured while you were deployed?
Green: As I look back through the career a lot of, almost every NTC rotation they would,
somebody would lose their life in training. It was just the nature of the training. The
Army is very safety conscious so it happened either with the unit I was with or with the
unit that was there. Anything from getting pinched between two vehicles or a rock hitting
a soldier in the head being thrown up from another tract. Of course the operations at night
we were still fielding night vision devices at the time so one morning at National
Training Center a tract flipped over, broke a guy's neck. Everybody that was inside the
Fire Support Tract was injured so medevaced, all those got medevaced out. While I was
in Bosnia, the only injury was to one of the contractors. They were working on a bull
dozer and the guy didn't block up the blade correctly and the blade fell on him and the
son was up at Camp McGovern.
Littlejohn: So while you were away, how, what happened with your family? I know you
have children so ... When did you get married?
Green: Got married in 1984 and first child came along in 1986 while I was at Fort
Benning and then the other two came along when I was at Fort Stewart. I'd say military
life is pretty hard on family especially if you get to be, your kids get old enough to be in
high school. Changing high schools is a lot harder than changing elementary schools and
elementary kids tend to make friends a lot easier than kids when they're in high school.
But I guess, looking back, it made them a stronger person.
Littlejohn: Okay. Did any of your children go into the military?
Green: No. My son, his eye sight was really bad so he wouldn't have passed the physical
for eye sight and my two daughters had asthma so asthma is a discriminator for entering
the military. He, he had thought about it but as a graduation present I got his lasik
surgery.
Littlejohn: How would you have felt if they would have joined the military since your
family was not for you going into the military?
Green: I would of been proud of them. And still proud of them.
�Littlejohn: Okay. So while you were away, what would you guys do to entertain
yourselves or-?
Green: Usually there was no time for entertainment. It was long days when you were
deployed, anywhere from 18, 20 hour days. There was days when you deployed you
don't, you don't, the events dictate your schedule so a lot of time you'd go for a couple
days without sleeping. But I can't remember anything enter-, some of the troops, you
know, occasionally play cards and stuff but by time you figure in their guard mounts and
duties, you know, as well as doing their regular jobs, there wasn't a lot of entertainment
time. Now places like in Bosnia, the USO was there and, you know, they had morale
welfare recreation had facility there and occasionally they'd show movies during, at least
one or two movies, a week. I think they brought the Dallas cheerleaders in but I didn't get
to go see them.
Littlejohn: Okay. Where did you go after you left Bosnia? Did you get to come back to
the States?
Green: I came back to the States to Fort Lee, Virginia and then, and after I got back from
Bosnia was offered a job at the Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas. And the Battle Command Training Program trained division corps and brigade
commanders so basically I was with a team of Majors and Lieutenant Colonels that
trained general officers and staffs of those, of war fighting divisions. So I started out as a
Combat Service Support Observer Controller and after, after a year there I was promoted
to Lieutenant Colonel and became the Boss Chief, Chief of the Combat Service Support
Team. So during that time I traveled and saw every division in the Army including some
of the Guard, Guard Divisions and we'd do something called a War Fighter exercise
where we'd train the commanders and their staff
Littlejohn: Okay. So did you enjoy that experience?
Green: Yeah. It was good experience, met a lot of folks.
Littlejohn: Okay. And after you left that position, where did you go?
Green: Left that position, I was offered a job in, at Transportation School as the Deputy
Assistant Commandant and during that time I spent about a year as the Commandant and,
and then Second Gulf War broke out and had deployed of the ?1h Transportation Group.
General Dale at the time asked me to, to go over and take what was left of the ?1h Group
which was a provisional battalion of about 1800 soldiers, 7 line companies and 3
detachments of Army buses, so I did that.
Littlejohn: Where exactly did you go?
Green: I was actually station - I was rear detachment at Fort Eustis.
Littlejohn: Okay.
�Green: But during that time we, we had everything outside of the theater of operations in
Iraq so we had boats in Spain, we had boats in the Mississippi, we had boats down in the
Caribbean supporting Special Forces, we had stuff down in South America supporting
Special Ops in the Amazon, we had part of our company deployed out to Fort Lewis,
Washington for a joint logistics over the shore operation and then, a given day out of that
battalion we had about 90 soldiers that did funeral detail for that area of Virginia.
Probably the hardest part, we had, I had, even though I only had 1800 soldiers, I had
about 6,000 family members that were left behind so the operational side was second
place to taking care of families.
Littlejohn: Where did you go after that?
Green: After that I went back to the Transportation School and retired.
Littlejohn: Okay. So how long have you been retired?
Green: Been retired since 2004.
Littlejohn: And how did you end up at Bandys High School?
Green: Started looking around, you know, cause I saw another reduction in force on the,
on the rising and I ran into a JR OTC instructor there at Fort Eustis and I sort of came
across the program when I was a Gold Bar Recruiter at Freedom High School cause that
was one of the schools I went and sat up at so I said, "That sounds like a good job. I think
I would enjoy doing it." So I applied to about six different schools and also applied at
Freightliner and some other places, Target Distribution Centers, and cause a logistics
officer' s in fairly, fairly high demand. So I got offered a job at Hickory and it was a new
program so I started the program at Hickory and then after working at Hickory, I, I
worked, Bandys was my host school so they were the ones that were looking after me as
a new program and when Mike Colbert retired, I moved over to Bandys out in the county.
Littlejohn: What made you stay in the military for all those years because you had many
different positions, I'm sure you probably could of found a job fairly easily with your
experience?
Green : I would say it was the people.
Littlejohn: The people? Do you still keep in contact with people that you were deployed
with or people you led?
Green: Yeah. I still, I still maintain contact.
Littlejohn: Do you see them regularly?
Green: No, not regularly.
�Littlejohn: Okay.
Green: Ever so often.
Littlejohn: Every so often, huh? So what was your most memorable experience being in
the military, the one thing that you took away from it?
Green: Wow. That's a hard question. I'd probably say the camaraderie. You work for
some good people and then, there was always a few turds in there but there's turds in
every organization.
Littlejohn: What was probably the biggest drawback of spending your life in the Army?
Green: Being deployed away from your family. It takes its toll after a while but it was
probably harder on the families than it is the servicemen.
Littlejohn: Okay. Did you receive any awards or medals for your time in?
Green: Yeah. I, I received a few. You need to know what they are?
Littlejohn: If you'd like to tell me, that'd be great.
Green: I got, I got 8 Meritorious Service Medals, 8 Army Commendation Medals, 4
Army Achievement Medals, a NATO Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, a
Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, probably missing some in there but, quite a few
awards I reckon.
Littlejohn: How do you feel with your current job as the JROTC instructor, how do you
feel that affects your, or your impact on students? Do you feel like you instill in them the
lessons that you took away from the Army so that they may want to follow that career
path themselves?
Green: Well, our mission is not to recruit for the Army. We're more, our mission is to
motivate young people to become better citizens and we're more of a character building
program, teach leadership, we teach life skills, we teach them how to be confident, teach
them how to dress. So we're, we're preparing them for life after high school cause there's
no other program that'll teach a high school kid how to be responsible and how to be on
time and how to follow instructions and how to gain some confidence cause, you know,
there's, where else can you go and lead a squad or lead a platoon or a company and we
use drill and ceremony, we teach teamwork and discipline, so and we do have students
that do decide to go into the military and they, they do very well. If you, if you take
JROTC and complete three semesters, you can enter the military- the Army, the Navy,
or Air Force- as a, in the grade of E3 and that's about $500 a month raise. Puts you
ahead of your peers so within a year you'll make your Specialist, within two years you
could easily become Sergeant and then if you decide to go the officer route, you already
�know how to wear a uniform, you know how military rank and chain of command works .
You got a few leadership skills there to get you started and, so you're ahead of your peers
even in ROTC if you, you learn what you needed to learn in JR OTC. But a lot of our
students, I would say only 2 to 3% go into the military and the rest go ahead and pursue
college or a career path in a trade.
Littlejohn: Do many of them go on to the ROTC programs at college?
Green: We, we' ve had, we usually have, like see last year's class, one at UNC Charlotte,
2, 3 joined the military. It varies from year to year based on you know, their academic
performance, you know, can they get accepted into a college.
Littlejohn: What would be your advice to them if they went into the military?
Green: Do your best. And be honest and lead by example.
Littlejohn: Okay. That's very good advice. That's good advice for everyone I believe.
What do you plan to do after you finish up here at Bandys?
Green: Probably retire and raise chickens or something.
Littlejohn: (Laughs) Do you plan on returning home or you gonna stay in this area?
Green: I hadn't decided. I like Catawba County and I, there's still a little bit of the farm
left in Davie County so I hadn't decided whether I'd go back to Davie County or not
cause I got a lot of friends up this area.
Littlejohn: Okay. Well I really appreciate you taking your time to talk to me and it was a
pleasure to hear your story and I'd like to thank you for your service to our country.
Green: That's all you needed?
Littlejohn: Yep. Is there anything that you wanted to add?
Green: Nah, I don't have anything to add.
Littlejohn: Okay. Thank you.
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/36018e7b8b932beba559f4f37cc2c0d8.wma
ecff57664d5b47ba4e5a5f0001e20136
Dublin Core
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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.
File size
1.11 MB
28.8 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Army
Officer Rank
Officer rank (major, private, etc)
Lieutenant Colonel (retired)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Littlejohn; Michelle
Green; Bryan D.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Littlejohn, Michelle
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Green, Bryan D.
Interview Date
9/22/2011
Number of pages
12
Duration
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0:31:18
Date digitized
2/10/2015
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alphanumeric code
317530bcdee466bc2707b7c18e334580
ecff57664d5b47ba4e5a5f0001e20136
Scanned by
Leah McManus
Equipment
Epson Perfection V600
Resolution
300
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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.
Source
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UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
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A/V rate (48,000kzh x 16 bit)
48000kzh x 16 bit
Format, original
Document
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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/.
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5018_Green_Bryan_20110922_transcript_M
5018_Green_Bryan_20110922_audio_A
Title
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Interview with Lieutenant Colonel Bryan D. Green, U.S. Army (retired) [September 22, 2011]
Type
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Oral History
Language
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English
English
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Littlejohn, Michelle
Green, Bryan D.
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Lieutenant Colonel Green grew up in a military family in the 1960s in a small town, and saw his chance to make something of himself in the military. He didn't join right after high school, but went to basic training over the summer and started at ASU the following fall as a cadet in Military Science. He served most of his time during the Cold War. He now works for Bandys High School in the Junior ROTC program.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Green, Byran D.
Veterans
Cold War
United States
Interviews
army
cadet
Cold War
Fort Knox
Lieutenant Colonel Green
military science
ROTC
Senior Army Instructor
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d39503147dcd02e0b5d5af5a60ec8377.pdf
fdc07aab56631b4e17745e4304ac1520
PDF Text
Text
Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Samuel McNeill
U.S. Army
1952-1954
Korean War
October 14, 2012
Jackson Sams: Today is October the 14th and we are interviewing Sam McNeill in his home in
Candor North Carolina. Sam can you...Sorry this is for a history class at Appalachian State
University and my name is Jackson Sams. Sam can you go ahead and tell me your birth date?
McNeill: 7-11-31
Jackson Sams: Ok and other people attending are Coy McNeill, Sam's son and my stepfather.
Sam can you go ahead and tell me the war and branch you served in.
McNeill: I served in the army in Korea and I was in the quarter master. I was in the service
center there, service center number two. We serviced textile goods for the second and third
division and the fifth regimental combat team, and I believe there’s some other Ethiopian outfit
there as well as a Turkish outfit there that we issued supplies to. like I said it was a quarter
masters center textile mostly clothing, armored vests, tents, cots, things like that soldiers used
over in Korea and if item brought in could be repaired we repaired it like clothing or armored
vest or whatever if it couldn’t be repaired we issue them a new one. a new whatever and also
showers there where loads of soldiers would come in from the line and they would shower and
they had new they issue them new clothes there they leave there’s and issue them clean clothes
to leave in and they'd do that every so often and we had in our compound we had a tailor shop an
armor vest shop, tent shop, they had stove shop to repair or issue new stove small or large ones
and machines shop to repair anything that the machine shop could repair, small items. and there i
stayed there for 16 months took a break and went to Japan take a weekend sometimes and go
down to Seoul or Dong Won Po, where our headquarters was.
Sams: Ok
McNeill: and (...) what was pretty much it for 16 months
Sams: Wow that seems like quite a job. Do you remember your rank while you while you were
in Korea?
McNeill: I was a corporal
Sams: A corporal ok
McNeill: yeah
1
�Sams: And now what was where was the exact place you served?
McNeill: Its right at the center of right back of the 38th parallel we had a service center to the
left of us number one we were number 2 in the center and there was another number three over
on the mountainous side (...) where you have the Sea of Japan coming in over there and that seas
between I guess that’s what you call the sea between Korea and Japan.
Sams: Ok, now when you were in Korea, I know Coy has told me stories but can you tell me
exactly why you went were you enlisted or did you join yourself?
McNeill: I was drafted.
Sams: So you were drafted?
McNeill: I was drafted, I didn’t join, no.
Sams: ok
McNeill: I went in in the fall of 52' and got out of in the fall of 54' and (...) seemed like a more
than 16 months but that’s what it was over there not counting going coming. (...)
Sams: Now while you when you were drafted where were you living at the time?
McNeill: In Moore County in Eagle Springs in Moore County [North Carolina]. And I went to
Raleigh to be examined when I was called I was called back to Raleigh again. You want me to
keep on talking?
Sams: Sure as much as you want
McNeill: went from Raleigh to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, stayed there a week while they
outfitted us with clothes. Then sent us up highway number one again on up through Raleigh to
Virginia we did a train and and (...) I’m having a blank...
Sams: That’s ok take your time
McNeill: thought I never would. Fort Lee, Virginia which is near, back this side of Richmond
right out from what is that town there... can’t pull it out.
Sams: Its fine you don’t...
McNeill: anyway its Fort Lee, Virginia we stayed there. We took basic and I don’t remember
exactly how many weeks but after basic training we stayed there and just moved on over to the
quarter master school... were we I was in the class studying textile repair. It was just a class room
filled with desks and sewing machines we learned to use the sewing machine to repair shirts and
pants things of that nature and (...) when I got to Korea I didn’t do any of that they had Koreans
civilians to do the repair work. I was just shop foreman I was over the shop I received and issued
2
�the armored vests was my shop and that’s what I did the whole time I was there. they had more
than armor vests they had the whole armor suit for the engineers that worked in mine fields and
things like that and the war they called a truce three months after I was there. They started
turning a lot of vests in and we had a pile as long as from here to that building. 100 foot and
highest piles of armor vests and we had to go through and grade them and save the good ones
and destroy the ones that wasn’t repairable and that took a long time after they signed the truce.
Coy McNeill: Didn’t you find body parts in some of those?
McNeill: yeah we had found body parts in some of those armor suits
Sams: Wow.
McNeill: Where the engineers use to set mine fields and take up mine fields you could
occasionally find something in there you didn’t want to see... but... after a while before I come
home we just practically without anything to do. it just kinda when the call the truce we just
mostly processed and turned in things and packaged them and get ready to send them to
somewhere else or back here.
Sams: Now when they called the truce sorry how many months did you say you were in Korea?
McNeill: I was there 16 but only three months while the fighting was going on
Sams: ok alright.
McNeill: It was a relief for it to stop you could sleep better you didn’t hear boom boom all night
long.
Sams: I bet that was good
McNeill: And...
Sams: Can you tell me some of the more memorable experiences you had? Maybe a funny story
or something that really stands out in your mind?
McNeill: the first week there before I was assigned to the armored vest shop. you didn’t have
anything to do they'd make you a shotgun guard on a truck that’s going to Dong Yong Po and
getting ammunition and hauling it across the 38th parallel and they'd have what you call a
shotgun you did that the first week you were there and then after you got your job like I did in
the armored vest shop I didn’t have to do that anymore that was the experiences that the roads
were puffy dust and it strangle you just be an inch thick in dust and stop along the way and snack
something it couldn’t get to a meal but you'd carry along something like I’m trying to think
packages we had then were K rations and C rations we would take and fix a drink or get crackers
and food out of a can.
3
�Sams: And is that what you ate a lot of times?
McNeill: that’s the first week I ate a lot of C rations.
Sams: How were those?
McNeill: they'd keep you alive and but then there wasn’t very tasty they weren’t good. And but
they were keep you going for longer than a week if you had to... I don’t know or if I’m suppose
to say this or not but when I got over there all the equipment they had was old World War Two
trucks ‘40 and ’41, ‘42 models and I was dumb founded I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and
we had alternators to make our electricity and they were old 4 cylinder—same engine as in a
jeep—old flat headed mackin motors four cylinder engine then after they signed the truce. they
started sending in new trucks automatic transmission GMCs new just didn’t have them when the
war was going on but after the war seems like we got plenty equipment.
Sams: That’s interesting
McNeill: our generators were we had four of those little four cylinder flat headed engines for a
generator to create electricity they could send us one diesel that would replace four of them.
Sams: O wow
McNeill: Produce the same amount of and the guys that had to stand by to repair them and keep
them going man it just it just made their job much easier they didn’t have to be working on
engines all the time they could just put fuel in them and set back and watch them produce.
Sams: That’s great, that sounds good.
McNeill: we had a funny saying we'd say that happened after Eisenhower become president and
we had all that all that old equipment we used when we fighting the war then when after we
signed the truce we were just swamped with new equipment and it didn’t add up to us over there
using it but that’s the way it was.
Sams: Now when you in Korea did you ever have contact with your family? Did you ever keep
up with them?
McNeill: Course some people would write every day some people write once a week some
people would write once a month I think I averaged I’d say three times a week anyway and when
I went on R&R to Japan I got to call home and talk to my folks and call Betty we were engaged
then and I called her and talked to her and woke her up in the middle of the night I wasn’t
thinking about the time difference and what time it was back here I just had a chance to call and
did it while I had a chance.
Sams: Right
4
�McNeill: But she was kinda groggy I woke her up
Sams: So I know you mentioned when you were on leave you went to Japan. What else would
you do while you were on leave?
McNeill: we go down to Seoul for three days sometimes the headquarters was right below there
in Dong Won Po but the old capital building for Korea was in Seoul and it was turned into a PX
for US soldiers it’s amazing what you could find to buy in there it just it just a department store
like you could find all kinda things you might want to send somebody a present home you could
find it there you had to look out ahead and get it while you were there and have it to mail at the
proper time but it was fun just going down there and walking through that and seeing what they
had and being able to buy that you needed put in a package and take it back with you. you could
get food or something that you might need that you didn’t have I’m not thinking of something. I
might get a better flashlight than the one I had issued to me
Sams: Ok, O Ok
McNeill: and things like that a razor shaving equipment and it was good to have of course in the
PX at the service center we had more than you might think for you had food, cigarettes, Tobacco,
some clothing that you might be able to wear but what was fun was they had two pump shotguns
in there and after you pulled guard you had the next day off and we could check those guns out
and go out pheasant hunting. We could always find a Korean that would be our bird dog for a
pack of cigarettes
Sams: O wow!
McNeill: and we'd scare him up and if we missed him he'd fly over a little hill this guy would
run around and flush him back over you so you could have another chance at him.
Sams: Wow
McNeill: And that was right much fun on maybe if you pull guard the night before you'd sleep til
12 and then go pheasant hunting that evening and it was real relaxing you could forget your job
and it wasn’t so aggravating for a day or two
Sams: That’s great.
McNeill: It was it was a relief from work but it got to where before I left you could get more
things in the PX at the service center than you could when I first went there. It was much more
comfortable after the truce was declared it was much, serving was much easier.
Coy McNeill: Ask him if he had any dentist over there.
Sams: I know that you had one story that I've hear about getting a tooth pulled could you share
that with us?
5
�McNeill: O yeah that was terrible. Wisdom teeth the first two come through and our bottom had
just broke and I was advised to get them pulled so we had to go up behind the third division
medics and man that was crude it was just an old tent and I do believe I sat on a stump and they
had two, two by fours nailed on the back of the stump and one this way to lay your head like that
and one fella held my head like that while the other chiseled what was left of those what was left
of the wisdom teeth out and man that that hurt and of course they give you what they had in your
hand and of course when you left they’d give you left they'd give you a hand full of ACP its
suppose to be the same thing as aspirin but we always said it weren't you'd have to take two to
make one aspirin back home
Sams: Right
McNeill: that’s what they give me I got back to my tent you want me to tell it all Coy?
Coy McNeill: Sure
Sams: You can talk as much as you want
McNeill: I didn’t get there in time for supper and I couldn’t eat anyway so when I was R&R in
Japan I got me a bottle of whiskey and I put it in my locker and I was hurting and I said I gonna
drink some whiskey and I drank a little too much and the next morning I woke up with my head
hanging off and blood just dripping and I thick headed and I couldn’t remember having a tooth
pulled and I said lord that whiskey created an ulcer I’m bleeding I’m bleeding from my stomach
and after while I got up and went out back and threw up and then cleared my head then I
remember having teeth pulled then the feeling was coming back but that was a prank I pulled on
myself taking too much whiskey for pain reliever after having them teeth pulled I got a good
scare from that the next morning when I woke up.
Sams: I bet so. Now, Now when you, when your service ended tell me kinda that experience and
did you come straight home or did you go back to Japan? Or how did you do that?
McNeill: we went to Pusan and stead of coming through Japan like we did coming we left yeah
the ship we went over on was an old converted liberty ship and its twenty four hundred troops on
it plus the crew so there’s probably 3000 people on it and the sea was rough and it rode rough but
coming back the ship come from Japan and it had some wife’s of men who were able to stay
with their husbands in Japan and most times there would be officers and their wives were already
on the ship when they stopped by Pusan and we loaded on but that was two stacker and it was
much more comfortable it rode... twice as good as the one going over it would cruise and not
beat you to death.
Sams: Right
6
�McNeill: And all of the all the dependents were on the top deck and we were on below deck but
really we would stay outside all day long and it was just it was just pleasant cruise coming home
on that big longer ship with two big engines that could just , just more comfortable.
Sams: That’s great. Now when you came home did you come through San Francisco or.
McNeill: We did we came there and got there at four o'clock in the morning and then ordered us
all out on deck with our duffle backs and we sat on them duffle bags til day light we still sitting
there til 9 o'clock before they started letting us depart get off. And we were shouldering our
duffle bags and was getting off and we saw these young girls and boys to out there all dressed
alike they had oxfords on ankle socks girls had plaid skirts and they were welcome us home I
though this is nice this is nice for them to come down here and do that for troops coming in. that
boy walking alone with me we served together in Korea he ask them what they were doing there
where they were from did they have a loved one or something they were greeting and that busted
our bubble they said they were from the school up on the hill and when troop ships come in they
paid them five dollars and give them the morning off to go down and welcome the troops.
Sams: O Ok. Well this has been a great experience talking to you. Is there any closing remarks
you wanna talk about?
McNeill: I’ll probably think of something after you leave but its good reminiscing about it it
was... I think about it a lot to myself don’t talk a lot about it but I do think about it a lot to myself
but the only place I think I got unnerved over there while I was riding shotgun on the truck
hauling ammunition and a big convey we went in behind the line and they went to shelling us
over there and they told them to scatter the convey so truck drivers one would go this way one
would go that way and got in the rough terrain that thing bounced and I fell off.
Sams: O wow
McNeill: He went on of course and later that night I found him we went up a trench there’s a
mountain in front of us they all ordered us up that trench to wind around and go up and he went
just a few feet and stop and waited on me he knew I would come through eventually and he was
kidding me about he was he been there and bout ready to rotate home. He was a tough dude from
St. Louis Missouri and he loved to rag me about how upset I got that night.
Sams: Very good. Well this has been great and glad we could do this thank you for your time
McNeill: Your welcome Jackson and I hope it serves you well
Sams: It will I’m sure. I’m sure it will be listened to for years now
7
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/37277063fcfda48a38b595c7bc34882f.MP3
5f1336fd3864f5bd266d5d987fdecd0f
Dublin Core
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Title
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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.
File size
52.3 KB
30.2 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Army
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Sams; Jackson
McNeill; Samuel
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Sams, Jackson
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
McNeill, Samuel
Interview Date
10/14/2012
Number of pages
7
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:21:59
Date digitized
2/6/2015
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alphanumeric code
ec1071013a3922b4660798156356d6a2
5f1336fd3864f5bd266d5d987fdecd0f
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Leah McManus
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Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
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300
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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.
Source
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UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
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48000kzh x 16 bit
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Electronic File
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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/.
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5018_McNeill_Samuel_20121014_transcript_M
5018_McNeill_Samuel_20121014_audio_A
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Samuel McNeill [October 14, 2012]
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Language
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English
English
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Sams, Jackson
McNeill, Samuel
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Corporal Samuel McNeill, born in 1931, was drafted in the Korean War. He served in the US army and mainly worked in the textiles industry. He traveled often on leave, and got to see Japan and Seoul, Korea.
Subject
The topic of the resource
McNeill, Samuel
Veterans
Korean War, 1950-1953
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
army
corporal
draft
Korea
Seoul
textiles
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/9243e75c151f64b6e6cf68d1eb9574e3.pdf
15f60274a5a82ac23eb0238ec0836577
PDF Text
Text
I
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--~~~LIONS
ROAR
EDITORS
Shelby E. Hor t on
Ed i tor I n Chief
Ed Shur ts
Powe ll Ball
Bil l Anderson
---
-
THE WEEKLY BULLETIN OF THE LIONS CLUB
~-----
I
�LION PP LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS again regaled us--as
only Leo can--with a few mome n ts of fun and frolic as ·
expressed by him in Lionism and in War.
Today Lion Leo
shared with us a mQ st interesting episode of his
personally command~ering most of a truck load of beer.
Some of this beer got accidentially broken.
But if
, memory serves Ye Ed correctly, Leo managed somehow to
make short of the contents remaining in a number of
\ bottles.
Wheth er Lion L eo was "all" or not he managed to
).have the pt•ovet•bia l "go od time".
1
-
----
Lion PP Leo continued his historical reports on
nutrition.
He t·eminded us how the tr·oops were fed
dehydt·ated food dm·ing WWI I.
The pancake s, potatoes,
eggs, nilk, lemonade, etc., fooled no one.
It si mply
kept the troops lean and mean.
Lion Leo is still
developing dehydrated whiskey.
BY WAY OF BUSINESS :
1.
Please pick b a d< up on your Hysterical Moment s ,
Lion Leo .
2.
The Club v uted to meet bi-weel<ly af ter next
wee k' s meeting.
We all received notes o f th an ks and appreciation
fro m our wonderful ~ait~es s , wh o m we all know as Elsie,
who expresses l ove for al l and that she will miss us
e ve t·yone .
· ted primaril y of
Li~n ~eo's HY,s,t':t'i7,a~n:o~::t~e~:~~~~~atio!"'s among the
a descrlptlon _of ~otkY
d
·ttin the confines of one of
American soldlers encampe Wlhl ·d for Lion Leo to
the Pacific Isl an~ s .
It was hat. sembled a pig about as
.
e t·-tantly wagged hi s 11 ti 1 e
e
. ·,;
desct'l b e "P ot•ky" lnasmuch as
t
did a d o g · but h e co n ~
L
'"'-'ch as le
.
d'l
l'ttle clown.
Appat·ently,
eo
1
·
Y
d
c l1 meant a lot to eac tl
t al 1 a nd wa s a ft' l. en
and he we re g reat pals an ea
lt~ "\.~he:_:r . - - - - - - - - - - - : : - - - ·
o~ ~ ~
- 4 .
Mom ents , pp Leo reminded us
During his weekly · Hysterlca 1
•
Joe Sternberg as a fun d· .
talset,
·
that on one o~c~~lo~ ~~:"club a couple of circus performances.
engaged on be a
~ .
a s•lbstant ial feed bill and
T~e circus be~a~=l~n:~b:~= ~~:b, b~iled it out be keeping a
Llon Joe, on e_ ts as collatera l.
The Club recouped some
couple of elephan
.
1
d
f elephant manure to some local
of its money by sell1ng oa s o
fat•met·s.
Nevet• a d•Jll moment~
_ .... r"'-'_ ... .
-
- - - - - - -- ·
Lion pp Leo read a not her page from WWII.
He had received a
Cht• i stmas pt•esent shipped in a co n tainer mat•ked "eggs",
champagne and ~can of beans~ He stored the beans in his gas
mask and did not open them until the next inspection.
He was
amazed to find a 2 oun c e bottle of whiskey instead of beans.
Con c l~sion - ope n you Chr i stmas p r esents on time.
�,..
Our Historian, Lion Leo Finkelstein , gave another of his
highly am u sing reports from the Pacific Theatre in World War II;
It seems that some of his buddies and he on one occasion in
particular experienced a rather serious air attack.
Immediately
I
I
thereafter, one earned the name Starvin Marvi n and our own pocket
pianist became known as " Leo the Hero" what time he wasn't called
Foxhole Finkelstein.
Without a doubt, foxholes were handy things
to be in with the Japs dropping bombs all over the place .
I
.I
· .·!"
.•
After which , Lion Leo Fi nklestein furnished us with another of his hilarious
reports from WWII. It sccmG th~t Cpl . Finklcstcin and a couple of scr 6~ants
were dispatched across the airbase to deliver a bomber to another section of
the field. Cpl. Finklestein was ordered to sign a receipt for over a million
dollars worth of aircraft ; then while apparently he was at the controls,
Sgt .
hooked a cle-trac to the nose of the airplane and. delivered it to
the nearest refueling stop where Cpl. Finkelstein ordered "fill er up" and i t
took 3,000 gallons of high octane avi ation fuel for that purpose. Lion PP Leo
was grateful that he and the sergeants wer e not required to pay for that load
of gasoline out of their own. pockets. Thanks Leo, for the memories.
CLUB HISTORIAN:
I
I
Lion Leo gave another funny report of some of
his exploits in the South Pacific during World
War II--this time in poetry--and as usual, he brought the house VD WN
Historian Report by Lion L~oa Turtle racing was held in check
:n Asheville, NC years ago. Lion Leo and the Lians Club voted
not to sponsor a tut't 1 a race nor buy an ad in the newspaper.
Lion Leo said that he saw nothing wrong with pl•ying
solitaire in ones ho•e but, public turtle racin~, never.
Li on Leo gave us a reading from h i s letters from the great war ti the home
front. It has be en brough t to our attention from his reading t hat one never
let Lion Leo help with your laundry at home . Ci ty Saniation 'could l e arn a lot
from Lio n Leo's understanding of Gar-Bage removal might save our land fill?
Hist o rian Re po rt gi v e n by Lion Leu t o br i ng u s up t o d a t e on WWI I , gav e us
a r e po rt o n hi s g a inin g a pr ize g 1
·eatc r than any mi l itary a wa rd-a r ea l
ma ttress ( Na val Is s ue ) no t a dr e a m as Lion Leo sa id,in 1943 a ma t tre ss mea nt
yo u had r each e d t he t op !
L «:.on l. e u
th i S
l<•: vc
:
1 r:. l-< •-.
-ve
'· " " •
'-' "· •J ~, •.~e\1, on t h t>
Hep (·,· ·t:
,
H t s·l· .;,• Jr,1 L
e d ge o f
O l.lt'
seats vn t h
�~
Lion Leo gave us today's Historian Report . Lion Leo says that it is possible
to take a ba~h out of a helmet but it i s ~nwise to try and sit in the helmet
to do so. L1on Leo described to us the proper procedure involved in bathing
ou t of a helmet and gave us a very good idea th at we don 't want to be without
our bath tubs again. I f we are , thanks t o Lion Leo we will not b~ caught
dirty-handed.
Lion Leo r ead to us on his thoughts of World War II - he feels that wh e n
people are bonded together by a force of arms and dange r is near - that no
matter what walk of life you come from - nor your beliefs - you become one
when a common danger confronts the group and each person can take strength
from th is bond . A very good and t rue story Lion Leo - in war and in life .
Lion Leo gave us a outline of how t o be King of a South Seas Island
to be a king maker.
and how it feels
-
r-
If you think that you are pay1
"ng too m
ucl1 f or Ice Cream, see Lion Leo. He can
get the price down, PLUS he can get you a tax deduc tion. Lion Leo, I like
strawberry.
Ntli ••rta.nr •• a;om._.~.
-
~-
_
•
· -- -··
.. ............,.....
_,
4:1o'~
-
,
""\T~,. ~.., ....,. p"A r!oJ,P~0'\.. 4'......_
~
Li on Leo gave us a History report on his pet Lizard of the 1940's
and some somber thought s on the real ity ' s of war .
(),,,_
.... _",.. _''"" ,, .... ,..
... : .... . _ . . ..
- ····
·~
-
Lion Leo amused us with several historical le tter s out of the Past (WWI I )
concerning "Furlough Home':' and "Gas Masks". Reminders of several important
meetings :
Li on Leo gave his letters to the home front--seems Lion Leo became very
tci~se to his helmet during those years overseas .
To*ard the close of Lion Greer ' & remarks, Lion Leo arose to his feet and
annJ~nced
th at in the early days of the Depression, he was tipped off that
many of the b3nks in Asheville would fail and t hat any fun1s that he had i n
the Am:rican National bank should be removed in the form of cash . 1nis immediat e l y
prior to his leaving
As~eville
to attend a funeral in Florida . Lion Leo told
his secretary to go down to the bank and withdraw all of the fun1s that he
had on deposit and stash them away in the company safe . When he re't urned from
Flo rida, he found out that the American National Bank had indeed faile d and
he asked his secretary if she had withdrawn the funds and put
the~
in t he
safe . She stated " I certainly did and they are no* in the safe in the form
of a Cashier ' s Check. "
--·--------
Lion Leo gave a n other interesting report of his exper iences
during his WW2 ordeal!!
-I
�-~~~LIONS
\
R<)AR
....__
---
~
~-- .
Shelby E. Ho rt on
:':d.itor In Chief
Dick Davis
J.O . McCollum
Bruce Hunter
&"ltecril~,
crz.e.
THE WEEKLY BULLETIN OF THE LIONS CLUB
TODAY'S PROGRAM: Ou r Historian Lion Leo Finkelstein filled us in
on the time when the Club royally entertained North Carolina's
then Governor and his daughter.
was dating a girl
na~ed
Lion Leo (before he met Sylvia )
Pearl and wanted to bring her to the
wingding; but he had orders to sit be s ide and keep the Governor's
daught:er happy.
This
ta~i<.
We~
::su
uu.cl n ~
LhCiL Lht: wiuut.e tltt:
banquet was over he left the Governor's daughter and immediate l y
returned to Pearl.
A nice sidelight to history, Leo .
Historical Report by Lion Leo works out to this- In Jail call Lion Leo and tell
him you can be his caddie.
Not only will you get out of jail, but you will
let Lion Leo win a $1,000 . 00.
~I
A historian report was given by o ur lion Leo and once again
we were on the High Seas as Lion leo and Lion Miller were
improving re l ations with Cuba certain Boat Capt iams-also Lion
Leo seems to be involved in the legal course of due Justic e
in the city of Miami, Fla .
Leo gave a historian report. It was about Judge Ca the y
or Leo ' s Caddy . If you missed it ask Leo to te l l
you
about it . (I did not \Hite "Lion Leo ", doesn't Leo mean
Lion)?
Lion Leo gave a entertaining an d humorous re port on his Arm y
experiences during World War II.
Oh, what memorie s this
resentation brought back to those who served our country in
ot•ld Wat' II.
Unfot·tunaltel for those not present, your
ditor wa s laughing so much he failed to take notes .
If you
is s ed it , wh y not join us each Wednesday for fun and
llowship .
�Lion Leos Historical report today was another letter to the home front. Lion ·
Leo wrote that with a can of Salmon and 109 % alcohol and a friend who lives in
Alaska, you can sell stock in the Finkels~ein mining and dreaming club. How many .
shares did you sell Lion Leo?
J\
. . I
In addition to getting to hea~ ·the wonderful songs as played by the trio,
we ~e:e regaled again by Lion Leo's rem1n1scences of GI ·days in the South
Paclflc. If only all wars contained so much humor a~d camaraderie!
See You Next Week.
S.E.H.
' .
.
Lion Leo Finkelstein gave us his weekly Historical Report , this week from Guadalcanal
50 years ago. He described the Southside Social Society Club with details of it's. <
construction, roof to floor and wh"at went within.
I -.
. ..
I -
.
Lion Leo gave us some WWII farming tips. He said to know the farmers daughter
and you w~ll know the crop(s). Lion Leo, we really look forward to hearing
your wonderfully entertaining stories every week. Have you ever thought of
having them published? I know I would love to have a copy.
The program closed with Lion Leo entertaining us in his
inimitabl~
fashion with mere stories about the South Pacific
during World War II.
Needless to say, Lion Leo kept us in
stitches; but we all had sobering thoughts when he quoted from a
letter that he had written "Dear Mom . "
Particularly touching
were the thoughts that he expressed by way of appreciation for
her as parent, cook, nurse, housekeeper and teacher.
Brings back
memories, doesn't it?
See you next week and the weeks after. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
S.
E.
H.
Histori•n report was given by Lion PP Leo, who also was the
social director of Club Pacific Ocean, : WW II was to help
stop boredo• in Tisho•indo, OLK.
--·--..::----_,
Historian report: As given by Lion PP Leo Fjnkelstein
regarding WW2 was well presented with several humorous
statements.
-
�Page 2
·-
The Lion's Roar
January 30, 1991
.
Lion Leo gave his historian report-Date Line Salt Lake City-Duty on the
Home Front! Seems soldier Leo, of the U. S. Army Air Corp . had time to pick
up a pass-time to wait on bus(s)- MP's and then to dance the nice away with
soft drink and t he ccmpany of a member of the Officers Corp. to escort the
young .Lady hoote. Going to a pl ace called "Bunnies" finding .Bunnie alonehelp her close the place down-putting a dime in the till to balance the
cash drawe r-then escor ting lovely Ms. Bunny back to her Hotel-where she
ask oun own Lion Leo to come on up and have a nite cap, before going to
catch his bus back to camp. (now Lion Leo says we must wait till next week
to hear th e end?) Now what could Happen?
I ; Lion Leo went Upstairs?
2 . Lion Leo missed the bus?
3. Lion Leo said thank you but he was needed at USO reading room?
WWII ADVENTURES as reported by our peripatetic PP Leo
Finkelstein:
While stationed with the Army in or near LA, he met and
to appreciate the many fine qualities o~ h~s and our .
beloved Sylvia, who at the time was a recep~1on1st at a ~ov1e
studio, and was. instt'tJmental in h~lping a s1x year old gu.·l
obtain a part in a movie.
Accord1ng to Leo, she and a fr1end
were dining in a hoi polloi establishment and asked for the
check.
The Chef r.ame out and said, "thet'e wi 11 be no ~heck
because you helped my daughter get the part that was g1ven
het•. " Thank you, Leo, for the entertaining way . t~at you .
present your recollections and adventures.
We JOln you 1n
the sentiment that "Sylvia is as sweet as ever."
ca~e
WWII report was given by Lion PP Leo Finkelstein.
Ye Ed al~ost forgot:
PP Lion Leo read to us another of
his letters from the South Pacific.
This time he had written
about snakes and he had told about how "hissed off" a lady
snake became when irritated by her rept·ilian boyfriend.
Enough of that, Lion Leo!!
Before the program, PP Leo regaled us again with one of
his tales from an Army Air Corps Base.
He had written a
letter fro• said base to friends and relatives whose subject
was the PX.
He called it a co~bination of gPneral store and
night club and you can take it from there.
�Apparen t ly we're in moderately good heal t h;
o therwise ,
probably would have been a health and welfare report.
As i t
t here
was,
Lion pp Leo Finkels t ein regaled us again with one of his
reminiscences-- t his t ime abo u t
Keep'em coming, Leo.
PP Joe Sternberg's fa t her.
You always se t
an in te resting and humorous
to ne for our mee t ings.
LION pp LEO FINKELSTEIN regaled us with another of his
tall tales.
This time again about PP Joe Sternberg's father,
a well known ladie s ' man in his day .
It seems that Mt· .
Ster•nbet•g cautioned his childt·en not to "go to no t•oadho uses"
t w0 0 t' t h t' e e t i me s h and-t' u n n i n g •
F i n a 1 1 y , h i s d au g h t e t' P i P e d
up and said, "What's the matter·, daddy, at'e you aft•aid that
we ' 1 1 f i n d y o u t h e t' e ? "
' N1 f f s a i d , e h , L e o ·
.1
Lion Leo e n tertai ned us with one of his youthful
adventur e s wit h the Sternberg' s .
Lion Leo was invited on an
overnigh t t rip to Mt . Pisgah with three members of the Class
of 19C.1.
Aftet' tt·aveling to Mt. Pi s gah in Mt·s . Stet•nbet·g ' s
seven pas se nger Mo rman automobile, they enjoyed a meal of
p o s s 1.1 m and sweat pot at o e s , v en s i on and beat' s t e a k s .
Aft e t'
the group had made camp for the nigh t and Mrs . Sternberg had
returned to Asheville , Eva S t ern berg broke out a Bromo
Seltzer bottle, which contained some of Mr. Sternberg s best
bourbon .
Editors note:
The rest of the story was deleted to
p r o tect the innocent .
Lion Leo gave 1.1s anothet' outsta nding w ,
1
this time about the senior members of :~ d War II re port,
other mattPrs .
As always Leo we
, e.club along with
" h istot•ical" t'ep ot•t.
'
'
appteclate yo1.1r
PP Leo Finklestein brought another humorous ancedote
about Lion Joe Sternberg and his father.
In the days when
you traveled to Waynesville by car and then caught a train to
Murphy, Old Man Sternberg went ab out buying and selling cow
hides and junk and sometimes his son, Joe, accompanied him
all the way to Murphy.
On one occasion, after he had
acquired a local bank, the elder Mr. Sternberg lent a circus
$200.00 and took an elephant as collateral.
The elephant, of
course, ate too much;
and the only way the bank could recoup
was to sell the manure to a local nursery and florist shop
Middlemont Gardens.
'
�Lion Leo g ave us an outline of the histo ry o f unsec u red
l oans given to tho se in need and h o w the se loan s help keep
the "Stt• eet Walker s " o ff the stt•eets o f A s~oev i lle.
4.
PP Le o Finkelstein announce d that t h e Historical
Committee is r unning thin after his having reported
on so many events and l et te"t' s, et c . ; and it wi 11
wel c o~e your contributions to t he Committ e e's
i n v e n t o t' y •
Lion Leo Finkelstein amused us with his story of the
legalization of alcoho l sa l es on October 1st, 1933.
Prior to
October 1st, when Lion Leo was presi d ent of a local mens
club, it was his duty to supply dt•inks to the membet'S .
After
a local Rabbi returned from his eventful trip to Baltimore,
and after much discussion regardi n g the legals of the
situation, evet·yone in the clt.\b decided that the only thing
to do was to have dt•inks aftet' the meeting.
Lion Leo also
pointed out that amazingly enough , 150 members sho wed up for
the event, compared to the normal 40.
Thank you, Lion Leo,
for entertaining us once again .
Lion Leo also asked that
anyone who can contribute a tale to the Hi sto rica l Committee
do so .
Lion Leo rega led us ag-« i-n with ~ume of his t'eco-llections
of by-gone da ys in Asheville .
There were times during the
' 20s when a half-carat diamond would support a loan of $50 . 00
and other iteas sustained similar loan values percentagewise .
How times have changed!
Lion Leo regaled us once more today with quite an
i n t e t' e s t i n g t a 1 e w i t h t h e mo t' a 1 o f t h e s t o t' y be i n g , " I f y o u
i ntend on committing suicide, be aware that you could be
a t't'e st ed!"
LION LEO regaled us again with some of his memories of
Asheville and its enviorns-- this time an experi ence o f th e
late It·ving S . Cobb, who, as a g•.1est of Gt• ove Pat'k Inn, got
teed off at the then cur fe w on a ut o mobil es .
Author Cobb
later wr ote an arti cl e that appeared in a l ocal new s pape r
entitled "The B•.mk of Buncombe".
Of co•.wse, Lion Leo ga v e
the hilarious details of what brought on sa id article .
Thanks, Leo , for your entertaini n g reminiscences .
Lion Leo o n ce aga i n Qave us an insi~ht into t h e Trades and
Pt·ofit of ~..Jl·J II in the So 11 th Pac1fic "nth ta l es of RadiosJvloney - l<nive s a n rJ Beel' .
-.J
1
-"
0
1
1
�!HE WEfKLY
A '.t g '.t s t
1 4'
...
8ULLETI~ OF THE LIONS CLUB
-
19 9 1
Lion Le o entertained us today with a tale about the
Doctor who came into his establishment to purchase a gun .
Aftet• the sale was complete, Li on Leo said, "Thank you , sit•. "
At t h i s t h e man t' e p 1 i e d , " I ' m n o t a ' S i t• ' , I ' m a Doc t o t• ! "
The next day, the Doctor used the gun to commit suicide .
After learning of the suicide , L i on Leo won d ered to himself
why the doctor didn't j ust ~rescribe so me p ills to do the
.job.
Upon t•eflection, Lion Leo decided that if medication
co s t ~ t hen !•!h :?. t i t do e s t o day , and s i r: c e t h ere 1·J e t' e no
restrict ions for purchasing a gun in those days, it must have
been the most inexpensive way to go about the task at hand.
Thank you, Lion Leo, fot• shat•ing , s•.tch an intet•esting tale of
the past with us .
- - - - · - - - - - --1
PP Leo Finkelstein presented another of his historical
(so metime s hyst erical> musings.
This time he reported on
havin g ren t ed twenty 12-g auge shotguns to arm so me special
deputies se eking to prevent a grou p from South Caro lina fr om
breaki ng a strik e at the Beaco n Plant.
These guns must h ave
been he l pfu l because no violence occurred and no c h ange wa s
made in the labo t• sit•.tation .
Also, in 1934, PP Leo was
appointed a special d ep ut y a nd delivered a bra nd ne w shotgun
to th e Gro ve Park In n where he was told to go to the back
d o o t' t h a t mo n e y t o p a y f o t' t h e g u n wo l.t l d be t h e t• e •
La t e t' ~ h e
f o u n d o •.t t h e c o •.t 1 d , i f h e want e cl t o , g o t o t h e ft· o n t d o o t'
wi t h o t' w i t h o u t a g u n .
T h an k s , L e o f o t• y o •
.n· g o o d wor' d s t hat
add spice to our meeting s .
-----
-
L ion Leo Hi storica l /Hysterica l re po rt to da y was another
en joyable moment .
Lion Leo really needs to write a book.
(Think of it as a fund t•aiset•, b•Jt don't tell the Tail
Twister).
Anyway , today Lion Leo showed us how to come home
from WWII, get a jo b as a commis s ione r· , not get paid, b ut
beco me a n an gler of eels. Ha !
Lion Leo, my advise is to use
the belt buckle method .
THE WEEKLY BULLETIN OF THE LIONS CLUS
August 28,
1991
TODAY'S MEETING
was cal l ed to order at 12:00 noon by L ion
Presi d e nt Dave Perkins.
Lion Pres. Dave also led us in the
Pled ge of Allegiance .
The s inging of America and the Nort h
Carolina Lions Song was once a gain l ed b y Lion Sec. Joe
Parsons with backup on the keyboards with none other than
PP/Hysterical/Historical Lion Leo Finkelstein .
�Lion Leo's Hysterical/Historical 1/2 hour today was
another enlightening report.
He spoke of Lion Joe
Sternberg's civic involvement with the Lady's Aide Society
and how ~500 .~0 in dGnations would be a drop in t he bucket.
He also said if Lion PDG Shelby had been around they probably
co uld have gotten off cheaper fo~ the violation of subletting in a department store .
Thank you Lion Leo !
·----------------·-----------·..,Lion Leo once again amused us with one of his
Reports .
The theory behind the story is that
dimes, maybe we would be better off in a dark
Thank you, Lion Leo, for another enlightening
past.
,
-
._
___
.-,......_..._.
Hi storical
"if we were
pocketbook."
tale from the
TODAY'S PROGRAM
Our Program Chairman, along with our
schedu led speaker for today, were both unable to attend.
But
we did have a good pt•ogt'am aftet' all, as Lion·Leo t'egaled us ..
with another of his dissertations entitled ''I remember when .
If you wet·e not pt•esent , you missed a _t·eal tt·eat.
Thank you,
Lion Leo, fot' coming tht•ough once aga1n.
AND THEN OUR REAL PROGRAM:
Lion piano player Leo Finke lstein
amused us somemore by reading letters he had sent to the club
when he was in the South Pacific {during World War II) • . When
Lion Leo was drafted someone from the club asked him to let us
hear from him while he was in the service.
he kept his promise.
of his letters.
He sa id he would, and
We are fortunate indeed that he kept copies
If you were absent today you missed a good one.
J. M. P.
J ant.tat·y 2:=.: ,
-·-·--------·-~----·----
1992
TODAY'S MEETING was promptly called to order at 12:00 pm by
L1on ~resident Dave Perkins, f oll ow ed by the Pledge of
Allegiance led by Lion John 8erdie, afterwhich Lio n PP Powell
Ball gave the invocation .
The singing of Ameri c a and The
North Carolina Lions Song wa s directed by Lion Sec . Joe
Parsons and our Sanctimonious 3 , L io ns Fritz & David
Albertso n and l_io n PDG Jack Cole accompanied by the
Histerical PP Leo Finkelst ei n.
...
__.,--
----------------------~...
______________________________.
�c0~~
-----
EDITORS
Shelby E. Horton
Editor In Chief
Ed Shurts
Powell Ball
Bill Anderson
VOLUME 5
LIONS
ROAR
~
-----·· .
&"ke"tL~, 'f1.e.
THE WEEKLy BULLETIN OF THE LIONS CLUB
NUMB~R
"'=l_ \
3 .__
.
L o for another of
upon
h
told
PRESIDENT DAVE then . cal l ed World Llon II e
LION
f
War
.
Toda y
e
hi s much-anticipated memolrS o
d
g r oup of his friends
about the aplomb with which he a~ ~ some Japanese planes and
accepted the news of.the appro:~e :roup was typical of the
warship s .
The r eactlon among
d German perfidy :
We went
Ame ri c an res pon se to Japanese ~nd
dent persons .
After a
cef11l and 1n epen
int o that wat~ as pea
.
. ved came out the same wa y . - - great v ict ory , we who survl
-L I ON LEO r egaled us ag a in with s ome of hi s tale s from the
Phillipines during Wo r ld War II .
Thi s ~ime he told ab out a
socia l event at which the Fillipino lad1e s present took.off
their shoes and danced in their stockin ged <?> feet.
L1~n
ated that this was an expt·ession of the "tt·u e mean1ng
L eo s t
.
' th
of sox appeal".
Thank you, Lion Leo, fat• s har1ng w ~
us
your interesting Worl d War II e x perience s and e s pec1ally for
the humor you b ri ng to the Club.
B1STORIAN'S REPORT fr om t h e b ig WW II brought fort h a POEM f r o m the Sou th
Seas (slands.
Seems Lion Leo Finkelstein was !:>olefull y lamenting that tht!
13th Air Fo rce Bombardiers in trying to rid this o ne i s J and of J apa ne se by
targetinK Headq u n. r t,0.rs and
M
ilitary
Instal lation:3
on
the
I zl a.nd ,
e rro neously, m i~takenly , accidentally, 5orr o wf ully h it
t he " Red Light"
W
omens faci l ity ri~stroyi ng the only r ecreational facility o n this I sl~ nd .
Victory o n acquisition of thi s Island did not make them e ntirely happy witb
the Bombardier s l ack o f skill . Touche' Lio n Leon.
LION LEO aga1n r egaled u s with some of his escapades in the
S outh ~acifi c during World War II .
T hi s time in comments
about h l s - -as a Co r poral - -having s igned a rece i pt for a one
rn1 l l1c•n doll<:tr' aH' plane used to help blast t he.Japanes e into
submiss1on .
1-Je look for•war'd every Wednesday, Lion Leo, to
learning from you ho w the war wC:ts · won both serio u sly and at
times hilariously .
Thank you for your re minders of histori c
a n d amus ing events .
�IJ=:.Lion Leo Finkelstein shared another of his "Hysterical;
Historical" reports, so named by Lion President Dave Perkins,
with the club today dating back to WWII on the South Pacific
!sl~nds .
Th~rP wa~ some discussion about nicknames a~d oUr
vet·y own Lion Leo was named "Leo the Li or.1" and after a dive
into a foxhole during an air raid was then renamed as
"Fox hole Finkelstein".
Thankyou, Lion Leo, for your very_
intet·esting reports of a time long past, but most assuradly
not fot•gotten.
~ PROG~ was. courtesy of Lion Leo from the Swaying Palms of the South Seas.
~ Bis ~~ary ~s one of those that told us about all those dogs and snakes he
~nto out t,here. Was that before or after our bombers blew up the house
ill r~pute, Leo ..... . ... .. Got to talking about all those fox holes.
\ Didn't th~nk we had added that term "foxes" to our vocabulary until the
~ 1960's. Great stories Leo. Keep it up.
ran
~ of
LION LEO then filled us in some more on events in the South
Pacifi c during World War II.
He commented that it was safer
to be in a fox hole on a Pacific Isl~nd confronted by
Japanese soldiers than it would have been on the streets of
Asheville in an automobile driven by one's wife or
gi rl- f r iend.
Li o n Leo gave an interesting solution t6 the problem of
prostitution in Asheville. Seems like he mentioned someth~ng
about the possibility of having someone na~ed Queen Elizabeth
not to be confused with the Queen of ~ngland, to run a
reputable ??? business of the above mentioned??? Wel l,
th a :"'l<you Lion Lee , I am sure that the Asheville J:•olice Dept .,
and other Law enforceme n t a gencies would appreciate your
viewpo i nts!!!
Ll(JN LEO then p t· o c eeded to t•egale us ~.oJitl1 mot·e sto t• ies abo1.tt
Mar tne s , Army and Air Force 1 n the Far East during World War
1 1.
He s tated that they all s •
.tbsisted on an d pt•actically
evet·ything was dehydt·ate d "except the weathet·" .
The next item on the agenda entitled "Hysterical
Moments" consisted of another hilarious report of his
activities both on the ocean and on Guadalcanal by Lion Leo.
And on this occasion, he
He a 'l ways keeps us in stitches.
reminded u s that many tourists pay thousands of dollars to
see ocean and sky and he watched b~p ov~r a period of
se ~ era l days at no e xpense whatever to h1m.
�-------·----After these announcements, Lion PP Leo was called upon
to refresh our memories of WWII by letting us in on some of
his exper·iences in the South Pacific.
Today, he emphasized
Ne w Caledonia from which he wrote a letter to the Asheville
Club indicatin g he c ouldn't tell much o f anything by way of
des cribing the place .
But he did tell us t hat a farmer's
daughter on the island asked him if s he could do anything for
him and Leo a~ked her if s he had some music and a way to play
.--
lt .
S he produced an elderl y r~cord player and pla yed what h e
thought might be either some island music or some up to d a t e
boogie wo og ie.
Wl-,at he hear·d wa s "good old mountain music
P 1 a Ye d · by a t' e a l h i 1 1 b i 1 1 y band • "
-
---
--- .J ~-
LION LEO presented ~ome of his hilarious experiences during
WWII .
This time he told abcut helping "Corporal Mark"
furnish security in the nighttime for 60,000 pound bombers,
their mess hall, wareho1.1ses, etc. on an island in the
Pacific.
Such duty led to full stomachs and happy
experiences for both of them; and their consciences were
clear because their missions were accomplished and the base
and its armaments were secure and the cause of peace was
being advanced.
-
-
- ·-------- -
----
Some of Lion Leo ' s she nanig ans in the South Pacific were
reported by him in letter fo rm during WWII.
And in this
i n~tance,
consis ted of some hilarious experiences in particular among three
friends who managed somehow or another to purchase some $8.00 per
gallon ice cream for 8.3 cents per gallon .
That has to be the
best small business venture in the ?istory of the world.
Keep i t
up, Lion Leo, we are enjoying your Pacific Island adventures as
much as you did !
L1o n Leo ' s "Hy st et• i ca l M o ~o~ent s " co ncentt•ated today upon
s n ahes a nd bit•d s and ot ll t-r' u r1Ll ~~ l ·r·ab le c t• eatut•es as they wet' e
tol t.n•a t e d ( ? )by Amer· ican Gls in Ti s h omingo dtn•i nu WI-JII.
Genet·a l S het•m a n ~-J as r· ight:
" vJa'r' J S l1ell!" ( as the Bos ni c.,ns
and Se t'bs 1·1 ill tell y ou).
lh a nl< you, L ion Leo , fot' "mal<ing
o ut' day " as s o of t e n you h ave done.
I
I
�LEO'S LINES about doing his dirty linen in a stolen "Mess Ball" Bucket, with
l/2 Box Rinso; 1/2 bottle Clorox on a time delay schedule really can crack
you up , when you realize you're in the South Pacific on an island during
World War II.
A 50 year old story will go over at our club anytime Leo .
Don't try it out in our sister Clubs . Leo learned that dark socks do fade on
white shorts .
Leo did learn that 24 hours soaking doesn • t get them any
cleaner.
Leo did turn in the Stolen Mess Ball Bucket , requisitione d new
socks and shorts . Good Story Leo . Grizzard could learn a trick or two from
YOU .
Lion Leo F1nkelste1 n o n ce agai n gave us 1ns1g ht i nto the
dare i ng deeds of o u r fig ht i n g me n a nd wo me n o f t h e Sout h
Pacific .
Letters to Mother, L ions a nd Fr i ends tol d of the
creatures, small woodland thi ng s th at mig h t b e f o un d in on e s
fox hole-.
Lion Leo entertai n ed us with two letters written on two
seperate is l ands in WWII.
W can appreciat e h ow L eo had a
e
bad case of "Island Fevet' 11 b lt t was a bl e t o la ugh a b o Lt t i t.
We c h e t' i s h o ut' h 1 s t o t ' i c a 1 01 o 01 en t " e v tH' y we e k •
II
of
Cons ist ed primarily of som e more L L io n
TODAY' S PROGRAM
d
in t h e South Pacifi c and elsewhere .
eo
Leo's escapa es
.
..
db e 11 to a blind
described the last moment~ o fh ~~~l~: r :o:h i ~e h e r e fused to
dat e i n "a p rop e r mann er,
w
d .d
describe .
BLtt after much prodding ft-om TT Ann , he
1
d e s Ct' i be as
she said no . "
II
.
h
got his hands on some copies of
PP Guy Penland some o:
1933
In o n e of them appeared
the Roar dating a s t
fart batche =~feet ~ hat o n a street car in
o
.
L 10 n Leo's statemen
ntly had previ o sly sewn a
Asheville , a b~xom lady c:p~~r~er sk i rt .
And , in an effort to
secret pocket 1n t h e baf
for car fare
s he kept strugg l ing
retrieve a nicke l t h ere r om k. t a nd the ~an b ehi nd ~ er <L io n
with the said back of h e r s lr
.d
d that he pay her car tare .
She sa l ,
Leo?> S ltggeste .
d o n't kno w you" to which he res po nded, " I
"Absolutely not, ll ther · but you have unbuttoned my pants
.
don ' t k n ow you, e
,
three time . "
. k · ng all of the fore g oing c o nstituted -To Ye Ed's th 1 n 1
'
"
Ltld s e\ y--"a verdammt gut
p t•ogram .
as the Germans WO
c
See you next week .
S . E.
H.
�I-
TOOAY'S PROGRAM consisted of long-missed renditions b y our
own Band; Fritz and Dave Albertson, PDG Jack Cole, and . PP
John Heatherly on the washboard.
Much missed was PP Leo
Finkelstein <our teller of tall tales of the Far ~ast during
WWII years> .
The observance of Yo m Kipper necessitated Li o~
Leo's and othe~'s' absence.
Fellow Lions, w~ missed ev'el'y' one
of yo •
.tL and y ou missed a whale of a good ' musical p~·o g ~'a m.
Anytime the Santimonious 7--or any po r tio n o f it--plays , the
sound s ar• terrific and most enjo ya ble.
Needless to say,
thei r rendition of DIXIE ("oc..\r National Anthem") is second to
none in the whole wide world and it is indeed a pleasure to
s tand and salute when they play it, which we did.
Thanks,
f e 1 1 ow s, f o ~>' yo u r t i me and t a 1 en t •
P 1 ease k e e p 1.1 s on y o u r
list of bookings.
-------
LION LEO
did h i s usual humorous presentation of
facts and figures <?> of life in the Pacific during WWII.
~his time he told us of flies of great size and number which,
when hungry, ate any and everything in sight; but at ot he r
times t ·urned u p their noses at mess hall fare--as appat• ent 1 y
did some of the troops .
Lion Leo amused us with his WWII story of the
.
ext t•ao t•d i na-r·y Wheell ng and dea l ing necessar y t o obtain the
• s_i_mp l e_ c..~ ~ t.n._ ~f___:__m a_ t_r e_ s _______
__
l_
: '_:_Y__:o : a _ t_ _ s__.
'
And c.s u s ual , Lion r r LDO Fl nkelstei n ga v e his fam ous report
,..•,..• "'
.ttl
on WWII reg ard ing t he d • · es of the service personnel in the
Pac ific Island s .
PP Lion Leo entertained us royally again with tales of the
best way to fight a war known to any of us:
with wit and humor.
These particu lar tales centered around Ki sho min go , Ok lah o ma and
kept us in stitches.
\-
\
Lion Leo regaled us again with so me of his expe riences
in the South Pacific during WWII .
The instance that he c i ted
indicated that he h ad been ~- efe t• t•ed to as "Leo The Het· o "
un t il at hi s first a i r raid he ran twelve ot h er Gl s to the
neat' est covel' .
Aft e ~, t h a t 1 th ey l<n e w hi m as " Fox h o 1 e
Finkelstein" .
If foll~s c ould enjoy the Bosnian W
at· a s muc h
as Lion Leo enjoyed hi s , there would b e no reason to sto p
the blood s hed .
�2. Knowing Lion Leo as we all do, there wi~l be so•e _
sidesplitting laughs. ~ou'll rue your absence--1f it occ~~s
-for •any years to co••· You owe it to Leo and to yourse
to be there!!
&.
---
----------------------
Be sure to attend neMt week's •eetinga Lion PP Leo
Finkelstein will have a large part of the progra• and will
speak on "The Love Life of a Soldier in WWII." We have two
assurances a
1.
There will be no pornography or e•barrasing
state•ents such as we see and hear on the radio and
television.
TODAY'S PROGRAM
was presented by Program Chairman, Lion Helen
Smith, who introduced Lion PP Leo Finkelstein and Lion Ann Rice.
Lion Leo had put together a script containing some of his highly
hilarious experiences as a soldier in the Islands of the Pacific
during WWII.
It took the form of questions--as posed by Lion
Ann--and answers by Lion Leo and was entitled "The Love. (?) Life
of a Soldier in WWII."
To Ye Ed the funniest episode referred to the fact that a
much maligned bombardier spotted a red light
the women on the island."
~nd
"blew up all of
All present got many belly laughs out
of today's program; and we thank you Lions Helen, Ann, and Leo
for presenting to us so many opportunities for same .
To Lion Leo:
Please keep reducing your memoirs to writing
and make them available to all of us in book form.
\
Lion Leo then regaled us with another of his Hysterical
Moments, this time in ve~y amt~sing poetry.
Keep up the good
work, Lion Leo, yot1
ft1r~1~h us wi ~ h wonderful opportunit ·
to laugh; "the best med1c1ne".
les
,,
�Following Father Bob's exposition, Lion Helen called upon
Lion PP Leo Finkelstein for another of his highly humorous
experiences on islands in the Far East.
This time, Lion Leo · read
to us some excerpts ·of letters he had written home--primarily to
his
m~ther--about
Hanukkah and Christmas.
These letters told the
great contrast between conditions where he was and conditions in
the home kept spotleis and extremely comfortable by his
"Mom".
belo~ed
To Ye Ed these letters bespeak of the tremendous love and
affection a young soldier had for his beloved mother and the
wonderful memories that he had of his home and homeland.
Lion Historian Leo added another jewel to his co l lection
of letters from the Sout h Pacific.
The Historical report was given by Lion Leo Finkelstein aMd
was most ent~rtaining as usual. ~hank you Lion Leo for
sharing part of your past with us.
~
Lion Leo then gave us the benefit of •ore of his very.
pleasurable "Historica~ Mo ~ents." This ti•e he reflected
upon experiences that he and so•e friends had at the old
Asheville High School--if me•ory s~rves correctly--at or
about 1922.
According to Lion Leo, those were interesting
and memorable days indeed; especially when an auto•obile was
available.
Thanks, Leo, for sharing with us so•e of you~
wonderful •emeries that re•ind us of how A•erica was and
perhaps could be agian.
PP Guy Penland presented the Eye
Clinic Report as follow:
Total Units of work for January,
455; &7 referrals to personal Physicians were made; Eye
Glasses donated, 38 and 22 sets of lenses; Eye Exa• and
Glasses provided by the Clinic, 2 pair; Eye Care Assistance
provided through the eye glass program, 27; Volunteers
donated 111 hours of service.
L utlo Leo 1 .s. rtl<td s tein once <.\ y.:.\in e nt e t•tc.\ined lts with his tc.de s
f r•cm WWII.
t4 s a lo.-:c.>.ys, it is a.n enjoyment fot' all of us.
\
Lion Leo was back and gave u s one more story from the South
Pacific.
As usual it was su{t~ble for the day.
-----------------------
�~~\'LlONS
ROAR
EOITOKS
~~~lby ~.
Hurtun
£ditor ln Chief
Ed Shuru
l:'uwdll Bt~ll
Bil I Andt>r 111on
THE WEIKLY IULLITIN 0' THI LIONS CLUI
SPECIAL 70TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
January 27, 1993
Today's •eeting was held in a party at•osphere with lots
of hats and horns dispensed by Lion Tail Twister Ann Rice.
The delicious •eal was supple•ented with a large, chocolate
birthday cake. The •eeting was ~alled to order at noon by
Lion President Dr. Al Anderson. The Pledge of Allegiance was
led by Lion PP John Heatherly and the invocation was given by
Lion J.W. Kibler.
Lion PDG Ji• Parker introduced our distinguished guest
Lion DG Tony Dalton.
Lion DG Tony congratulated us on our
70th anniversary •aking us the oldest club in District 31A.
We can also clai• the oldest president of a 31A club, Lion PP
__.Leo FinkelsteiQ, and the oldest •e•ber, Lion PP Bill Plu••er.
L~on Tony urged us to intensify our fund raising for
"Sight First" this year and our •e•bership drive to add at
least 10% •ore •••bers.
The district •ay be rearranged if
overall •e•bership continues to fall.
By the way, Lion Leo will be 88 in June and Lion Bill
will be 9& the sa•i •ontR. --
~
Lion PDG Jack Cole gave a brief history of our club.
We
were sponsored by the Wiryston-Sale• Club and beca•e the 10th
Club in North Carolina when we received our charter on March
22, 1923.
There were 50 charter •e•bers. The oldest ljvjgg
..-p~sldent a L.;igp Lep (1939-ML) followed by Llon - DanFurr
<1943-44>.
The band started ~n the 70's under the leadership
of Lion PP Sheriff Charlie Long.
Lion Leo retired and
started playing the piano while Lion Jack soon joined as a
fiddler.
The band now known as the 'Sancti•onious Seven'
consisted today of Lions Fritz <and son Dave>, Ben, John,
George, Jack, and Bill.
This was Lion Bill Anderson's debut
on the dru•s and he sounded quite professional without
rehearsing or •usic.
The band proceeded to play our old
favorites: 'Loneso•e Road Blues', 'Yes Sir That's My Baby',
'Five Foot Two and Eyes of Blue', 'In the Good 01'
Su••erti•e', ' I ' • Forever Blowing Bubbles', and closed with
their the•e song 'She Wore a Tulip & I Wore a Big Red Rose'.
awe»
'I
Lion PP Leo entertained us with so•e early history of
he club.
He spoke of •eeting in the '30's in the S&W
afeteria when •eals cost less than t1.00.
He spoke of a
elebration of so•e obscure event when 97 •e•bers out of a
possible 100 attended a stag party on Beaucather Mountain
hi!:h illu~tr~ted tt;a pa1•ticipat.iu11 in those days.
Leo's
re•iniscence is always a•using and sti•ulating.
\~
�LION LEO presented another install•ent of his historical <I
call'•• "hysterical"> experiences in Uncle Sa•'s Ar•y during
WWII.
The funniest part of today's install•ent had to do
with the •any uses of his hel•et; particularly under his bed.
It brought the house down when Leo told us that during a"
~------~ ~
J
~specti~
wh~~der hts bed, it was found to contain
. 1
'•
pretty near a gallon of kickapoo joy juice.
This after •any
I other valid and necessary uses. Please accept, ~eo, ~ur
heartfelt appreciation for the wonderful •anner 1n wh1ch you
lighten the burden of our lives.
And please extend to
Lioness Sylvia our very best wishes for a speedy and co•plete
recovery.
J
t b k memories of Tokyo Ro~e
Lion Historian Leo brough
ac
.
seductive dialouge,
Sh
~ oduced popular ~auslc,
during WWII.
~ P~
rican troop movementc.
Leo
and u~canny predlctlons of Ame h could receive her progra• .
requested a r~dio !rom _home so :he roup electrical experts
His radio arrlve d ln pleces . and
~ ~atic until Leo showed
.
It 5 recept1on . was "t
e~~
t•easse •bled 1t.
After that it wot• k e d
his talent fo r repair by d r opplng 1 •
..
.... ···fine!
_____ ..
.....
_
--
-- --
_
___ ___ _ _
f sharing fo x holes with 4
hazardsfo
.
L ion Leo . re pot•ted the yearned or t h e d ay the int t'•.lders "
WII
He
th
foot lizards 1n W
•
t
In response to
e
s.
Wo •.lld be limit ed to flies, bees and _an sourc e of i"r•t•itatio n in
1
d that his maln
TT's probing heal owe
with Miss Anderson.
....
Tishomingo were the bed bugs in
_ ---
~_.~------ ~----------------------------
Leo's Hy~terical Mo•ents con~isted this ti•e of tales about
trips to interesting and colorful plac~~ a•ong interesting
and colorful people during his Basic Training •onths at Mia•a
Beach. Leo should, if he hasn't already, ~eek forgiven•~•
for the •anner in which he obtained at lea~t one pass and for
so•e of h i~ act~ and thought~ while us ing ~••e i n various
places of infernal devices. So•• way to ~pend a portion of
the world'~ greatest war! We congratulate you, Lion Leo,
upon your •any intere~ting and happy experiences. And keep
the• co•ing.
Li on Leo
wo t• ld doesn't
Moments" Lion
many things a
up, Lion Leo.
misse d hi s ca ll in g.
He ' s "a poet, but the
k now it." Dm•ing hi s h ig h l y "Hyste~· ical
Leo regaled us with rhymed recollections of the
GI can do with his helmet •. J<eep diggin' ' em
They nev er f a il to brighten o ur day.
The Health a nd 1.-lel fat•e Rep o•• t given by Lion Fathet· Bob
Douglas revea l ed a brief hospita l stay by PP Histo ri a n L eo
Finke l ste in.
Lion Leo i s resti n g at home and we wish the
be st fo t• him.
<l-Je mi ssed you, Lion Leu! !)
\
�Immediately following the above announcements , Lion
President Al called upon L;on pp Leo f or h ~s weekly "Hysterical
'
~
Report" .
Lion Leo commented that t h is report was #71 on WWII of
a total of 150 such reports.
This time he discussed (if memory
serves co rr ectly) a ten mile march with a
ri~e ,
a te nt with metal
pegs , field rations , a mess kit , toothbrush , a canteen of water
a nd other odds and ends of military equipment hanging from his
back and shoulders and arms.
The way he described this
experien ce was very amusing to all of us; but to him at the time,
especia lly in a hot desert su n, it couldn't have been and wasn't
amusing to him.
But we thank you, Lion Leo , for you r
reminiscenses and for your having done your patriotic duty-serving your country and doing "everything (they) could get (you)
to do" .
Keep these reports coming--for they enliven our
me e tings.
Leo ' s Hysterical Moments consisted this time of Leo's
P t·esct•i pt ion fot· a "Good Day" .
The D i ><i e Band -- "l•Je Play
and pl ay and nevet' get vleat·y .
1-Je' 11 Jazz yo u up and mal<e yo•.t
ch e e t' y , We ' 1 1 ma k e yo u d a;, c e z. n d n e v e t' s i t s t i 1 1 , You ' 1 1 h av e
to shimmy , agai n st you 1-1ill" .
Leo said i n c l osing Apt•il 15
1981 was the 50th Reunion o f Asheville ~ligh School Class of
22 .
And Leo says the Days of Good Spi t• its an d pat•ting a t'e
gone !
A 5 e v i d e n c e by o 1.11' p t' o !] t' a m I 5 o t' n b i c s .
"f h a n I< s L e o f o r'
the days gone by.
In his "Hysterical Military Moments ," Lion Leo told
about how on Guadalcanal he managed t o "pt•ocut•e" enough ft•esh
water to take a bath.
All of us wh o served in the military
k n ew and wet•e reminded that in the service, "pt•ocure" is
another word for "steal".
On e thing abo u t it , in that place
and in that climate, Lion Leo co uld only be congratulated and
not chastised for operating as he did.
Lion Leo once again l' Epo.· l; c• J o n his a dventut· es d•.:t'ing
WWII - thi s time t' epot•ting on the nout•is hrnent of s almon in
the ca n along with the beve1•age of c hoi ce , Jungle J uic e ,
which or-iginat ed ft •o m t r eated a l coho l.
Nice job, Lion Leo.
�rz.l
Today, PP L ion Leo F inl<el s tein t•e g a l e cl u s agai n v1 ith
s ome of h is ta ll ta le s .
Today ' s episod e c o n s i s ted of a n
expos e of i c e crea m profit s and/or los ses d ur ing WWII.
It
see ms th at one of h is partner s , S i l be rste in <? >, wh o h a d a
tremendou s r eputation as a tra~er , was i nvo l ved wi th L i on Leo
in said ice c t• eam tt•an sact i e n s 1-Jhet•eby al l concet•ned t t.wn ed a
handsome pt•oflt .
Than l<s , Lion Leo , fot• shat• ing th is
e><pet•ien c e vJith u s .
1-Je l oo l< fcn· wat•d to yoa.n· I·J ee ~<l y t t• ip s
"d 0 1·10 me mor· y l a n e ".
Today ' s 1 et 1ng ended , ..., .:.:; '' "q ... py notr.:; C\ 1l d t h e r. e><t or. e
ne
will s t art a nd finish th e sa me way.
See you t h en ; a nd in
between.
S.
E.
H.
TODAY'S PROGRAM co n sisted ~rima~i1y of Club busi n ess and
po e m s a ' ' d t' e mi n i s c en c £> s a 5 t' e n d P t' e t ' b y t h e T e 1 1 e t• of T a 1 1
Ta l es , PP L eo F .i•ll <e l s l:td n.
'ltli s C l• lll ~p· eat l y t:\f.lp t·t~c i -:lte s
y u u , L i o n L e o 1 a 11 d y o u 1' man y a n11.1 5 i 11 y e x p e t • i e n c e s ( i n c l•J d i n y
ob s et•v ing top l e ss v1 0 111 e n in t h e Pao:: ifi c , eve n t h ou yh yo u l ost
out on so me obse t· vat io n s bec.;n1se of feat• th e darn ' bo a t would
s inl< ) .
l.J e d o n' t b l ame yu11 , Lio n Leo, b11. l; it s •
.we \'IOt.tld ha ve
bee n nice to h ave t il e J..llP<:\ ~ UI ' e o f see iny jn pict1.wes 1-1hat you
sa1•1 fit · s t - ha nd .
Th an l<s a yi:\in , Lion Leu , fot' s hat•ing 1·1it ll •1s
yow· many a m•J s iny a nd del j ~~ ll tf •.ll l-Jl.Jll expet• ience s .
PROGRAM
Rs today~ pl' OY I't:\ m vi <.\ S to CO I• s i s t of c l•.1b busi ne ss
a n d we fl ad none, Lio l• PP Le<' Fi nl<e l stei n s h .:n•etJ ~o1ith u s so me
s tcoi- ies t · ~yc:\tui ny i.i·~ Si.t> r' lliHo·r ~ ~ 1-t s" a l ways L i on Leo ha s a
~o1ay 1
·1ith wot•ds "'' llU Ci'\11 m<:\l<e yo •.l l a uHh at t h e dt•op of a HAT .
Th a n l< yo•J Lion Leo fot• a ll of the sto t'ies yo u h a ve s ll a t• ed
v-1 it h tl s , fot • all of l: he st u n ts y(PJ 1 ve pulled tht•o•Jgh the
yeat• s And fot ' a l1o~ay s ma ldny •1 s lau yh!!
__ . . .. -
_'""' ___ _
P . S.
Lion Leo, we mi sse d yo ut' "Hystet• i ca l Mome nt s " today t a nd
hope you will be i:\b l e to bri ng u s two epi~o~es at the ~e~
me e t i n g •
R 1 s o , t h e Ash e v i 1 1 e L i on s C l • b .) o 1 n ~ t h e Ro at ~ n
.l
s e n d i n g v e t' y b e 5 t ~<li s h e s f o t' y o o d h e a 1 \; h t o L 1 o n e s s S Y 1 v 1 a ·
S ub seque n t
to the
proy~am ,
Lion L eo was ca ll ed upo n to
g i v e u s an 0 1; h e t' i n s t a 1 1 111 e n t o f " 11 ; s t e t ' i c a 1 mo me n t s " 1'1 i t h i n a
mattet' of a ppt· oximately ti·IO minutes , whi c h he did to
•.lpt•oat•ious l au gh te t• a nd app l a•.1se . . Ke ~ p the se moments •
.1p,
Lion Leo .
They ar e a w onde~ful h 1 ghl1ght .
See you next we ek a nd succe ed ing Wednesday s .
S.
E.
H.
�FROM LION FATHER BOB' S Health a nd W lfar e Report , we learned
e
that PP Leo Finkelstein pl a ns t o be back with us on
Wedn e sda y .
We are all thankful, Lion Leo , that you are
making as much pt•ogt· ess phy s i ca lly as you at•e and we hope
th a t Liones s Sylvia i s making t he same kind of progress.
To
both of you go the be s t wish e s of the members o f the
Asheville Lions' Club .
Lion Leo's "H ystet• i c al Moments" came out of his WWII
e x pet·i en c es in the As i a ti c Theatet· .
"Our Boys" did a bang - up
job over there unde r s ome very adv ers e circumstanc es ,
in c luding we a ther .
·ro illustra te, Li o n Leo said there wasn't
muc h use in the tents "to sweep dit•t off of dit·t . "
Lion Leo
reminded us also that the weather was the subject of
c omplaint s practically 24 hour ~ p d r day between many amusing
military experien c es.
Ke e p 'em c oming , Lion Leo .
L io n P DG Jim P a rker woul d lik e t o re mind h is fellow Lion s that if
anyone find s Lion Leo's dog, pl ease give h i m a ca ll.
S ee you s oon!
ATR
Today ' s meet iny fea ture d variou s i te ms o f b u si nes s a n d
they inc l uded reports , most o f wh ich we re good to h ear a nd
i nd ica t e d a c on s id e t•a bl e a mount of h a t•d 1-JOt' k o n the par·t o f
many d i ffe t·en t L i on s .
Befo t· e 1
•1e go t i nto muc h of the
busine s s , PP Leo read a L et t er to th e Edi t or o f the
As h ev i l l e-Ci t iz en Tim e s d a t ed May , 1978 whi c h b ea u t ifully se t
~ort h wh at a wo nd erfu l worl d we wou l d have if ev er ybo d y i n i t
was as eC'-I me ni ca ll. y di s posed a s Out' t h e n "Unho ly Tht· ee"
c o mposed of a P r-otesta n t Pr-o fessor· of 1•1 u s ic, a t·e t i r· ed Jewi s h
Pawnbl'okel' , and a Cathol i c Pt• i est .
And d id t h e y eve r· ma l<e
bea u tiful mu sic 1: 0 \jl~ t h e t•?
Th e l ettet· was sig n ed "Sy lv ia
Fin l<elstein" and e xpt•e sse d tile tr· u e feelinys of ever•y on e of
us •
We s t i l 1 a t' e b l e s s e d b y h ~ v i n g a P r• o t e s t an t v i o 1 i n i s t , a
Je wi s h p i a ni st , a nd a Ba p tist so ng le ade l' .
~Hl o f v1hom we
appreciate a n d t h a n k .
Lion Leo p1•ovided •Js 1-1i t h yet. a 1wtl1et' ll is tCJl' ic.:d l' epor· t , J.
t e 11 d t o t 11 i n k t ll a t L i o " L f? o i s " o t t e 1 l i n g t h e c o mp 1 e I; e s t u r• y
~o-Jiten h e spea l<s o f Ti s l .arni ngo a nd l<l s . nnder·so n,
( lli s typiny
teache1·> . Has anyone e l se noti ce d that L eo c ontends that h e
h as had ma n y typing l ess o n s a n d has ma n aged to pe t· fect h is
typing speed to a met'P. 3 121 1·1or· d s pet• mi n •
.tte ??? H01-1 ma n y times
have v1 e hea1· d a bo•.1t Room 35 a nd h as Lio n L (!O eve>l' pr•od u ced a
photo of l•l s . nnd f!l 'S 0 11 ??? Le t' s pay be tte t' attentio n to vJh a t
Lion Leo 1s n ot telli119 u s the next t i me ~o-1e get a Ms .
And e t'SOn r'e p o · · t! ! !
.
�L ~ on PP L e o once a g a i n e n l; e r·· I; a i n e cJ u u r' y t' u up 1·d t t 1 a 11 o t h !o! r
l-l yste l' l ca l l'loment , t h i s ti me a bOllt J t.dy 11 , 1 9'+0 when the
~"l s h evi l le L i o n s Cl ub 1•1a s n a me d l; h e Lat' [!e s i; &· l•losi; Repr•ese nt al;ive
of Civi c Cl tJb s in Asheville.
Thi s d tJt' ing Li o n Rubet•t E . E~ l i s '
19 39- 1 94121 pt·es id ents ter·m_ _ _
.
Th e Hea lt l1 & Welfare report wa s give n by Li o n Father Bo b a n d
we were sadde n ed to h ear that Lioness S y l via ha s taken a fa l l
wi t h h er wa lk er and that L io n Helen S mith h as b een a t h o me
with the Flu .
Hope to see both of these beauti f ul ladies
back i n the s wing Qf thin y s very soo n .
Lion PP J oe P c-w son s J.ed tJs 1t1h il.e Li o n F•P Fi n~n,~ lstein
p 1 a y e d f o t ' 1.1 s a nd IfI e s a n g i 11 f u 1 1 v o i c e < m i n u s L i o n .J o e
'S ullivan 1·1hom lfJ e missed ve t·y muc h) one ve t•se c.1 f Amet• ica and
the No rth Caroli n a Lio n ' s So ng .
~~-----------------
After enjoying a good meal - - as mo st of t h em ar e --we were
t' o y a 1 1 y e n t e t' t a i n e d by L i o n L e o ' s " H y s t e t' i c a l M o me n t s " •
L i on
Leo brought bac k me rn o1· ies of As h evi lle High Scho ol when h e
told abo tJt diffet•ent ones of tJ S who go ofe d of f a nd i mbi bed
/ s od as i n stead of meeti ng st udy ha l l , whi c h wo uld have do ne u s
mtJch mo t·e goocJ .
- - - ----·-- -------··
/
Fot' t h e " H y 5 t e t' i c a 1 1'1 o men t " o f t o d a y , L i on L e o t' e mi n d e d '-' s t hat
the wo t•d " Retit•ed" me a n s seve t• al no ' s inc luding in hi s wo t•d s , "no
Thank s, Li on L eo , fir thi s remi nde r .
It giv es quite a bit
money ".
for thought befor e more of us take that ste p.
Kee p' em
of f oo d
co ming!
Dut• ing Li on Leo ' s "Hy s tet• i ca l ttl o rn e nt s ," ~ti e le c:n·ned that dm·i n ~l l·JWI I
in the j ungl e s , he experienced t h e prese n ce o f bugs wh ose s i ze you
w 0 u 1 d n ' t b e 1 i e v e and 5 n a I<e s a ! 1>1a y s " at t h e t' e ad y " t o d o i n A me t' i ca n
t r oops .
We h ope s u c h nec essity n ever o cc u rs a g a in .
t; h a t
On f ut• l o tJgh in (- sheville a nd We5tet· n No1·t h Cat• oli n a , Li. on L eo felt
)
he ~;1 as j n or· n ex l; "t el Heave n.
Thet•e' •; n o di sse nting vote ft·o m a n y
of u s '
S.
E.
H.
P. S.
Today ' s "H ys tet• .i ca l l' lo tn e n t " 1-Ja<; cl i s pen s 1~d \•lith in t he
int e t•est of time .
But lfle l oo l< fot•w.:n · t1 , Li.o n Leo , to ne xt
week ' s hilari-ty .
�ROAR
EUll'ORS
Sh e 1by IL llortou
Editor lu C.:hi ef
EtJ Shu rt s
I'owe 11 Da 11
Uill Autl erso!l
VOLUI'IE
11
~~
&~heuiL~~
cyz.e_.
THE WEEKLY BULLETIN OF THE LIONS CLUB
1
\JOVEMBE R 17,
1993
1
\JUMBER 2
TODAY'S MEETING
wa s called to order by Lion President Bill
Anderson in apt time after which Lion Barbara Browning led u s
in the Pledge of Allegiance a nd Lio n Father Bob pro"ounced
t h e Invocation .
Our usual three :
Lions Joe , Leo and Jack played and l ed
u s in the singing of one verse of America and the North
Cat•olina Lions ' Song .
Felloi'J Lions, we don ' t know how
thankful and how appreciative we ought to be for these fine
musicians who contribute so much to our meetings .
Ye Ed
knows of no other club in our Di s trict which is so bles sed
and we thank all three of them for their tale nt~.they so
generously and effectively share with us: and we ~ re
particularly grateful for their regularity a nd faithfulness .
Thanks agai n to all three.
l Autle r so!l
;-
NovemiJet'
·~ .
.
.:·; \.•'
199:?; .... . . ·', ...
, -~
·J
.. ./
"...._ _:;.tr
,, ~
I
.
.....__ ~
The regu l ar W~dnesd ay me e ting of The Asheville Lions Club ~as
calle d to order by Lion President William R. Anderson at
12 : 01.
The Pledge of Allegiance was given by our new est Lion
S tan Liberman <More About Lion Sta n Later).
Invocation wa s
L .i. o n Sect' e t at' y J o e S u 1 1 i v an a i d e d
g i v en b y L i o n Fat h e t' Bo b .
b y t h e n11. 1s i c a 1 on e <L i. o n L e o > , l e d 1.1 s i n s i n g i n g Am e t' i c a and
the Lio n s So ng.
Lion Leo g ave u s so me more ar my stories .
He told us of h is
furloug h home, hi s overseas tra ining and having to learn a
new languag e .
Lion Joe S ullivan suggested Lion L eo may have
been in the WAC .
As us,Jal it I'Ja_ _amusi n g and nostalgic .
s
·-=-- - - - -
'•
�Today ' s meetiny was hiyhly improved and intensified by
t h e pt• esence of t h e S a n c l: imonio•.t s Se ven <min•.t s PP Leo, 1--1hose
perf or ming at the po c ket piano was s orely miss ed) composed ,
this time, of Li.ons a nd l' ut• met' L.i o n s :
Ft·it z and D<.w e
Albet·tson, Shet•if·f (and PP> Lion Ch .:n • l e y Lo ng, Lion Bob
flloot·e, PDG Rt?d Hoyl e and PDG Lion Jac l< Cole who dit•ected the
Band and led us in pl aying and s i.nying so tne tt•adi.tional
carols and other Christma s songs .
The Sanctimonious S even
(thi s time five) dedi c ated to tile memot' Y o f Lion r-athet'
Ne a gle "I' 111 Fo1· evet' Blov1ing Bu b bl es ," 1
·1hicl1 they played <.~ nd
sa ng with muc h yu s to .
/
Lion P r e side n t B ill cJi c1 s h o 1--1 up du r ing so me of the open i ng
ex er c i s e s , whi c h c on sis t ed p r im r.n · il y of oo.n· s inging acap e .lla the
• •.tal two s ong s und e t' th e dit•ectio n of L. i on Joe Pat•s on s .
.ts
~)nd it
was Ye Ed' s p r i v ileg e a ~ a in to s t a nd bes id e ~ ion J oe S ullivan , who
a l1-1a y· s mit•ac ul oLt s ly m a n a ~1 e s to l<eep me s ome~~ h e t· c ne a t' on key.
Ne edle ss to s ay , Li o n s Leo a nd Jac k and their musical instrument s
we re s o r ely mi ss ed.
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMEMTS were dedicated to some of the
time that he spent in Vietnam .
He said that American
soldiers weren't bother e d very much , if any, with rats :
they
could n' t live in t h at climate .
He also told us t hat
demon st t·ation s and iJt'Ait:: ti c~ with g as masl~s t'eminded h im of
different brand s and flavors of whiskey regardless of the
set·io•.tsness of th e tt·a ining.
That ' s one way , Li o n Leo , of
c ondoning some of th e a s pe c t s of s o ld ier ing.
Le t ' s hope that
none of us or any o f tho se c oming after u s will be subjected
to such tt· ai ning; but, if s o, let's also hope that it 1--1il l be
taken i n stride as you did and the same kind of humor will be
e >< pet' i e n c e d .
----VOLUt'lE
1
JANUARY 12 ,
199LI
1\IUMBE I<
2
•'
TODAY'S MEETING was ca ll ed to o r de r c l ose to a p t t im e by our
Fearl ess Leader , Lio n President R ill .
The Pl e d o e of Al l e 9 ia n c e was
l e d b y Lion Ann Rice a nd th e I n vocati o n ~·1 as pt• onounced by Lion J. 1.-J.
Ki ble r a fte r wh ich we sa ng Ame r i ca a nd th e No r t h Car ol ina Lions'
S ong l e d b y L i o n J o e a nd a cc om pa ni e d b y L i o n L eo a t th e po c ket
p iano.
Wel c om e b ac l<, Lion Leo, 1·1 e mi ssed you te t' t' ibly and a~ways
s ing muc h c lo set' to " o n l<e y " wi t h yo • at th e keybo at' d.
J
1.-Je m1sse~
Li o n J a cl< a nd hi s violi n t o d ay ; b u t , h opeful l y , a ll of you m•.ts1c1ans
1--1i ll be bac l< a nd in fin e fe t tle next wee l<.
L.
Leo r ep orted on hi s la und r y activity during WWII .
Lion Leo
lOn
· t e a n in t et•es t ing Lion.
We sLwe do look forwat~d to
appeat•s to be qu~
k
Th a nk y oll f at' s hat• ing a part of you t' life with
your re p o r ts eac
we e .
·
us .
�Lio n Leo gav e u s ye-t a nother of hi s t' eports ft• om the Gt~and ole'
past.
This one yave us insjght i nt o t h e weapon known a s the
S aturday Night S pec i a l . Thank you a g ai n Lion Leo for ta king your
ti me to ente rta in our c lub eac h week .
Lion leo gave us a neat p r ogra• today on the cost of ice crea• during WWI.
He said after paying $19.75 a gallon for ice cream back in WWI, then today's
ice cream prices were alot better, but after he did alot of calculations he
figured the actual cost of Crem de le Crem was only 7.5~ cents per gallon.
_ Thank you Lion Leo fo ~ your Hilarious Hyster~.c.t1"1 Moll!en~.
....•
.~------------------~
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENT wa s an outstan ding st·ory of the
World War II specific area.
Good job Lion Leo for the
outstanding story.
During hi s "Hyste t' i ca l Moments" Lion Leo kept u s in stitches
telling of his many amusing expet•iences wi th Ins dog SEX .
You can
remembet' them be ttet' than I; but they wet~e all a s "funny as a Ct' utch".
Keep 'em coming Lion Leo, they brighten ou ~ d ay a~ does your and Lion
Jack and Joe's accompaniment in so ng-leading.
-
- - -------- -
(ion pp Leo Finkel stei n again had us i n stitches as he ~ead _ in poet ry
<?> fr om some letters he had sent back from his military dut1es 1n and
around Asia.
This during his "Hyster ical Moment s ."
giving us so much to laugh at and ~ .j~~ ·
Thanks, Li o n Leo, for
.
"
L
Finkelstein b ra gged about
I n hi s "Hystet' lca l ~1oments ' Lion eo
d th U S Air Force
.
e • •
f u 1 cooper ation between th e U. S t Navy an pe rsonal way of life
the wonder
.
,
in his
d ut' ing WWII and the tremendous 1m~t ovemen
,
"
as a result of having recei ved a Navy Mattress.
Lion Leo mentioned more n a ~e s ;
in Naval Su pplies.
Con~ratu lat~on s,
r eminding us of good th1ngs s ue as
J LION
l
b t h h d a t least one good friend
u _ e Le: and keep if you will,
t~::nhapp~ning ev~n' in time of war.
LEO'S "Hyst e t•ical Moment c;; " will be heat•d next we ek in
the interest o f time.
�27
,
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENT consisted of <•ostly unkind) words
about dehydrated elements that we put in our sto•achs after mixing
with water during WWII.
Among other things Lion Leo told us that
dehydrated le•onade could well serve as battery acid.
Several of
us concur.
Thanks, Leo, and please continue to brighten our
meetings with your "Hysterical Moments".
----------------------------~
'
Lion PP Leo t~e ad us a ·letteor ft~oll WWII about his Ait~
Force latrine.
Although it sounded luxurious by G.I.
standard s , it was s o infested by insects and spiders that Leo
couldn't enjoy his customary quiet time to read the paper.
Lion PP Leo read us a lett e r from t he South Pacific written during WWII
i ndi cati na how h e was ab l e to influence the l oc al electi on fo r chief by
\ q ood old ~merican e n terprise.
Lioh Bill introduced his quest Matt Bradley.
We are
delighted to have Lioness Sheila Douglas back with us and
pray that her h~aling continues.
Li o n Father Bob reported
that Lion PP Powell Bal l is back at St . Joseph's in roo~ 906.
We solicit continued praye rs for his health.
The annual installation of officers for next year will
be held on June 22, 1994, at the r egt1lar meeting.
Lion DG
Dave Butler will preside.
Please make plans to attend and
gi v e Lion Bill or the Clinic a head count.
Lion PDG Jack Cole urged each of us to give (or pledge>
Direct your check to
Lion Treasurer Ra y Joiner.
Th e campaign's goal is $146.00
pet~ membet·.
~o Campaign Sight First this month.
,.. .. . .
l.&...,.
TODAY'S MEETING was ca lled to orde r by Lion Presid~nt Bill
at the usual time.
The Pledge o f Allegiance was led b y Bev
Watson and the Invocation pronounced b y Lion Father Bob.
We
sang the usual two songs as led by Lio ns Joe and Jack.
We
really missed Lion PP Leo in this regard and hope that he can
arrange his s c hed ule to be with us at the regular meetings.
LION LEO'S HYSTERI~AL MOMENTS: Took us back to the Asiatic Theater and
how the military trained and honed recruits into real Soldfers, Sailer s,
and Marines.
But, from discussions around poker tables and other gaming
devices, none of them lost their individual American independence and true
patriotism.
Nor did Lion Leo ever l o se his wonderful humor and gift of
saying so even though now he spends his time between his home and the
Summit, where Liones s Sylvia is confined to bed.
�PP LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS consisted of one of his letters to Sylvia in
which he could not tell her exactly what he was doing or where he was.
But
she and home were greatly mis sed by t h at particular GI in the pacific.
Lion
Leo also told us about a group of Asheville High S chool students, including
himself and our departed Lion Joe Ster nb erg in a Marmon automobile in which
a good time was had by all.
They drove to the fo~t of Mt . Pisgah wh ere they
enjoyed <?> "yams and 'po ss um".
Lion Leo entertained us with several more letters
from the WWI I et'a.
His new addt•ess i s :
Leo Finkelstein
The Su mmit Alt218
Asheville, NC 28805
.Phone :
299-Lt883
Lion PP Le o read a WWII letter about how he survived R&R
with Ms. Anderson at the Payne Hotel .
The jury is waiting
for Part II of the episode.
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS c onsisted of his
re a ding a l etter from a WWI mo the r to her overseas
son in vJhich, among oth e r· thing s , s he s tated "The
Cole f a mily acro s s the ridg e had a baby boy, whom
they named Jacl< . "
Lion Leo r• e a d a let te t' wt• it te n to him by a c lose ft• iend in 19 5 b to pay
a debt incurre d in 192 1 involving NC b as ke tba ll.
The c he c k was written for
$1 . 35 with in teres t compounded a t 6 ~ annu a lly .
<8 u n d a y > A. C • T •
9- 11
played,
~'J C'\ ro o ·- Leo
I~"Y I10 a o · d
r.,., , I :< t'
-
r= ~ nl<el~te t n ,
Eie•;er· J y
G~or·ge
-
G •.d 1 d ,
1=-' IJG .J. l-1.
1 tddl t ! - ) G F .
-:•r.
Dt' l l fil :.>-
l~ .:·l: ~ oto,
f<e d Hoy 1 e
Jac l< Cc,J e
l'! at ro E: ~·I S
A 1- t•eewill co l lectJ!•n r· l ·1 ' '9 . 00
the
f i v e L i on s
~·1 as
given t o
b~,nd .
\Thet•e v1as appt' o><imately 7 0
)1!-l> (.lt~
attP. n rJon g.
9-20 <Tues> Cresentview Manor <Lutheridye>
7 Lions played:
:
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�Lion PP Leo t' ead liS sever• 1
written prior to High ~chool
a
poe~s f~om his notebook
poems exposed hidden talent
g~ad~latlon ln 1921. The
career choice kept him off ~h tV ls t~o bad that Leo's
• _
e audev1lle circuit.
Lion Leo's Hysterical Moments consisted of some very
amusing poems that he composed while a student at
Asheville High School back in the early 1920s.
His
Thanatopsis to Algebra was most fitting; especially to
those of us who struggled so unsuccessfully with that
subject.
Keep bringing these gems to us, Lion Leo.
They
brighten our meetings beyond measure •
. .
Lion PP Leo's "Hysterical Momemts" this ti
wer~ ~o~e amusing recolle ct ions of youthful
me
actlvltles in the Asheville High School of 192~
Ke~p 'em co ming, Lion Leo. They continue to c .
br1ghten our day.
Lion President Ann reminded PP Lion Leo that he owes
us two Hysterical Moments, one of which he disch~rged
today telling about his typing teacher, Miss Anderson, of
Tishomingo, Oklahoma and the fact that she had the
pleasure of enjoying the only private bathroom in
Tishomingo.
This was in Tishomingo's only hotel and was
not far from the dining area that also served for linen
and storage and a place for lumber.
Under Miss Anderson's
tutelage, Lio~ Leo ' got up to 30 words per minute on the
typewriter.
Good gain', Leo and keep'em comin'.
L i on Leo' s "H y s t e t• i c a 1 Moment " co ns i s t e d o f h i s r e co'-'" t i n g
an eKper ience occa sioned by his having so ld a Saturday
Night Special to a doctor' who pt•oceeded to take it home
wher e he shot himself.
~t l~ast he didn't do it in the
courthouse, Thank Goodness.
Lion PP Leo reported a recent occurance at the
Ashwood Apartments of the Su•mit retirement home
which resembles an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
We are
still trying to figure out who was under the bed.
He also t'eported the formula for ",jungle juice"
developed during WWII ~hie~ led to marketing of
speculative gold mine stock.
Thanks Leo.
Don't get
caught.
2f
�Lion Leo'~ "Hysterical Moments" consisted of some of his
poignant 111emories of WWII.
He told about "Waiting in Lines"
and timed various activities:
some in minutes and some in
seconds.
But Lion Leo said that while he was in the Service
it took a :ull ·sundC\y to t'ecuperate from the Saturday night
before.
L1on Leo closed by reading to us a copy of a letter
he wrote to "Dear Mom" in which he expressed the tremendous
contrast we all experienced between home and the military.
He
spoke for all of us when he expressed to his mom love and a
deep appreciation for the many good things she did for hi~
that so easily ca111e to mind to one particular soldier.
.
&. Lion Leo gav~ . det4iled instructions on taking a bath
out of a helment during WWII.
His instructions were somewhat
vague but he declined a generous offer to demonstrate the
technique at a later •eeting.
Too bad, he could qualify for a
~uppor~ . role on NVPD Blue.
Leo's Hysterical Moments consisted of a detailed
description of Christmas in 1943 on Guadalcanal among
Lion Leo and several Gis engaged in conquering the
Japanese.
Mail call at that particular time was usually
very heavy--even for Lion Leo, who had requested no 111ail
Ot' gi'f·cs.
B•..1t he wcas loaded tou.
The Asheville Lions
Club's then secretary <who later beca•e a District
Governor> Lion Wesley Brown sent Lion Leo a box of eggs
in the middle of which was a can of beans, which Lion Leo
hid in his gas mask without opening until his birthday
many moons away at which time he discovered in the can
among some cotton batting two ounces of good bottled in
bond whiskey.
That had to be the finest can of beans
Lion Leo ever opened.
Keep' em coming, Lion Leo.
We all
1 ove' em.
-PP Ll0n L~o put u~ in
became obvious to him that
~ prior to WWII.
Keep th ~ se
l Lion Leo; we love them and
~·----
- ..- - -···--
atitche~ ov~~ th~ fact that it
he would not make Sergeant
Hysterical Moments coming,
we love you.
Shortly thereafter, PDG Jim Parker presented and
PDGs Jack Cole and Your Truly pinned Melvin Jones Awards
(about as high as you can get in Lionis•> upon Lions Leo
Finkelstein and Joe Parsons.
This honor is well deserved
by both of them and as ti111e goes on others of the Club
will be so signally honored.
Congratulations to both of
o~r new Melvin Jones Fellows.
Keep on keepin' on.
I .\
�3J
LION LEO' S "HYSTERICAL MOMENTS"
consisted of a quote
from the As heville Citizen-Times repeating and extolling
Lion Leo's classic poem written from the South Seas
during WWII in which Lion Leo expt•essed ovet• and over " I
:· W na Go Home " and he gave many good t•easons therefot·.
an
All of u s , if we could, would h av e joined in that
t' e f t' a i n •
A g a i n , o u t' t h an k s , L i o n L e o , and k e e p tl p t h e
good work .
Ye Ed is convinced t hat belly laughs are
" good for the s oul" .
Hi storica l Report: As usual L i o n L eo k eeps u s in
stitch es with hi s letters to t he c lub from WWII~
Thank you L ion Leo for s h ari ng a p art of yo ur l1fe
w i th u s.
-ACllVl TY REPORT
ASHEVILLE LIONS CLUB BAND
"THE SANCTIMONIOUS SEVEN"
DATE :
Fe l:w • .t <.~t' Y 2lt, 1-:19::5
7 :00p m
1.-JHI-:: RE : n- e b o mi t D i n in!] f<t• om
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ht>Ut' c.\ nd .=2:1.!) m Ln •.rt es f ot• a 1'1 a t•rl i f:~t•as p a t· y.
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yea1·· s old J otne ~.:: 0th, ~·J i.th h is p la n o lt..·a di T
orJ the band
rl a y ~~ cl mo s l. a 1 1 o f t h e s o n o ~ r ·1 a y a .i r, '' e t' 1 1, e y e :n · s
; ··
hy \.to e u c:ontl. t•I C:t ro y cd ' t iH! i _,~. td !! lo Cc a l;\,o=T od lloU \·J e l·' e
tntl S t c n m ~J illltL: nt a~·y a nd ent l-o•.t Sl -'.'I St l•c 1n appr' ec i ._~1;lon
nf t i H~ b And' s ~~ t ;t:ertain m e n ·t.
Refr•es t1111ents wer•e ser·· ved and Lion Leo v1as pt• esented
a $1tltl7l .t!.10 c h Pc lc fot ' t h e l1and' s pet' fot• ma n ce by troe
S u111 mi t C<, l iJCor'ation , a t1cl tllo' l o!• d o v e r' to L1o n B e •Jt>l' Ly
1.-J.::d :L IIlo fo l ' dero s il. in t:,a tld :1I' C<J •.tnt .
Lion Leo aga in l<ept us in st i tc he s t•ec ot.tn t i ng
a dv entu re s i n the So uth Pacific during WW II .
He stated
that letters to a nd from him were real morale builder s .
But the Ce n s o r kept mes si ng u p the letters b y taking o ut
of them any pat•t tt1at he didn ' t lil<e O t ' did not a gt•ee
with .
�F Jack Cole
73 Ev~lyn PI
Asheville NC 28801
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Lion 1)1= Le o t•ead a h1s t ot~ 1 cal n ofe 1n h1s0l.ary about a p reacher who pawn ed his Bible at Leo ' s sho p every
Monday duri n g the Great Oepre ss io~ f o r $10.
Every
Thursday he bought it back for $11 .
F inally after Leo
recovered his 'capital ' , he let the preacher k eep his
Bibl e a nd just passed the $10 back and fort h.
Lion Leo gave a one par a g ra ph preview of next week ' s
t isttorictal mo m~nt .
h
It c on c erns hi s a lternative solutio n
o s r~ee · - ~J C.\ nng as opposed to that u s ed by the
As h evi ll e poli ce in 1qq2 .
11
~
-
Lion Leo's Hysterical Moments c onsisted of a
~
description of a trip he and Police Lt. Frank Hagen mad~ ~
to Charleston, South Carolina several years ago.
They
had heard of "Queen Elizabeth" and her group of "girls"
who occupied a brothel knownas •Red Brick" and proceeded
to visit same.
Each of Queen Elizabeth's "employees" had
a health certificate hanging in her room and there were
different prices for different services.
According to Lion Leo, he and Lt. Hagen requested
and paid for the ~ery . minimal in services; but,
apparently, each swore the other to secrecy and Lion Leo
at the conclusion of his dissertation stated that he
would •answer no questions".
As with so many of Lion
Leo ' s experiences, •those were good ole days•.
Thank
you, Lion Leo, for sharing with us so many amusing and
memorable occasions as undergone by you--sometimes in the
company of others.
You always manage to keep us and any
visitors in stitches.
Don't ever let up.
TODAYS PROGRAM was i nt.rnnur.Pn hv l i n n PP P~,,
Lion Leo Finkel s t ei n's HYSTERICAL MOMENTS re minded
us of the time when L io n Joe S t ernberg' s fa the r invited a
Anot he r
g rou p of friends t o hi s hom e to play po ke r .
friend who may or ma y n ot have been invited turned them
in and the gam e was ra ided by APD .
When the of fic e r took
down name s, he later l earned that Mr. Sternbe rg h a d gi ven
him s pecif ic n a~es , all of which began with t he fir st
eight l etters of the He brew a lph a bet.
It is doubtful
that any of these f ictitious persons ever showe d up for a
court appearan ce .
PLEASE NOTE:
In t he course of his remarks Lion Rick Eaton
suggested that we begin no\<~, as individuals, to make
plans to par ti cipate in encouraging and he lping boys a nd
git•ls of grade s 3-5 to "bm•geon out the best th at in them
is" an d r•emain in sch oo l a n d out of tt·ouble .
Ye Ed can
think of no more worthwhile project .
Today Lion Leo answered one of the questions that
P. S.
arose l ast week about " Quee n Elizabeth ' s Git· ls" .
He a nd
Officer Hagen ~let•e in t he " Red Bri c k" for "informat ion"
/ on 1 y .
See you next week .
S . E .H.
'"'- ....... -
'" -
.....
- --
'
33
�·· -
,,
__ ... .,
Lion PP Leo Finkelstein, club historian, read from a
1920 edition of the Asheville High paper.
It mentioned
his participation i ·n the Dixie Jazz Band and contained
one of his poems about the band.
Then he read from a
1981 edition of . the ·Asheville Times about the class's
50th reunion.
Memories of the Jazz Band were still fresh
as well as the fact that Leo was one of the lucky few to
have a car back in those high school days.
Our
Sanctimonious Seven was well known about town even back
in 1981.
Next week Leo tells of "The Love Life of a
Soldier in WWII".
D~
- "U..L
\..IIC"
WTt::
1 '
\J..I...t.JI..I..'-'•
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS consisted of two
parts, one of which was--as usual--very funny.
The other
~ndicated that within the past several days a lady at the
Summit Retirement Center sang to the accompaniment o1
Leo's rendition on the piano of "How Much Is That Doggie
i ~n The Window".
When her husband commented to Lion Leo
~hat she had been through the years a wonderful musician;
but this was the first time that he <her husband) had
~ heard her sing in years.
Lion Leo stated that he is now
1 eternally grateful for his mother's having insisted on
his practicing on the piano at least one hour per day
I during his childhood.
After that, Lion Leo stated that his lovely wife,
}. Sylvia, suffering from Parkinson's told him that he, Leo,
had an affair with a nurse and same was bruited about
r among conversationalists and the media.
But all of Leo's
. sincere and painstaking efforts to ascertain the name of
the nurse were to no avail.
Tough luck, Lion Leo, but we
I add our congratulations for having been so a·ccused. Keep
comin'.
~~
'
~~---'P1R1&1r"~S=f>'RI IAR~ II
'r
was 1 n+ rn i'tn~as>'f
k u
• ~ ... ~
o--~ 4
..
- X
•
LION LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS:
As promised, Lion Leo reported on "The love lif• of
a GI du r ing WWII." Lion Leo mentioned, during a date 1
•weather"; Li on Stan Lieberman, apparently somewhat
befuddled, wondered out loud if Leo didn't mean "whether '
or not" .
It is presumed that his partner of the opposit~
sex may have had an answer.
Considering all of the circumstances of being 3/4 of
the circumference of the Earth away from home, it ia no
wonder that Lion Leo and his cohorts kept singing the song with the refrain "I Wanna Go Home".
----···--I
mo~ion passed.
Lion PP Leo reminisced receiv
he could listen to Tokyo R
ing a radio overseas so
nev~r worked proper! untiose during WWII .
The radio
the table.
After th~t th 1She accidently knocked it off
Leo as back-up for diffic:ltquadron Commander assigned
you haven't lost your touch L:!~ctronic repairs.
Hope
L
1 -l - -
D -- -~
•
.
�// LION PP LEO'S HYSTERICAL MOMENTS co~sisted ~f an expose'
of one "Smokey Joe", a mess sergeant with Lion Leo in the
Pacific Theatr e .
As Lion Leo stated "It pays to be on
/ the good side of an army cook" .
Nothing in Leo ' s
, Hysterical Moments ever indicated that he or any of his
buddies ever suffered from malnourishment.
It seems--to
' say the least--that Smokey J oe was 3 good friend to have
1 and once told Lion Leo that he wanted to go home to see
his wife and new baby.
Lion Leo replied with the
universal phrase "I just wanna go home".
Lion PDG Jack Cole presented information as to the
activities of the Sanctimonious Seven, our splendid band
will be extended a special invitation to our annual
PATRIOTIC PROGRAM, which will be featured at our June 28
meeting.
Hopefully, the band will give mus~cal emphasis
to Yours Tr uly ' s pro and con remarks pertinent to the
status of PATRIOTISM IN OUR GREAT COUNTRY.
The Band's last appearance was at Greentree Ridge
Rest Home on Sweeten Creek Road where they were most
cordially received and sincerely invited back.
Members
of the Band who were present: Leo, Beverly, Bill
Anderson, "Red" Hoyle, John Matthews and Jack Cole.
Absent were: Charlie Long, recovering from a staph
infection, Bob Moore <a mashed little finger prevented
his playing the banjo> and Ben Skillman, who had a
conflict.
----
t
~·---
The scheduled speaker ca ncelled but Lio n PP Leo was
able to fill in with ~mp romptu read ings fro m hi s
historical records .
He started wit h t h e M
iss An derso n
episode but agai n did not take us beyond h er private
quarters .
He digressed into the miseries and comforts of
w W II . He finished with a poem ti t l e d " A Dog Na me d
Sex ".
The club was hig h l y a mused and we passed the 1 : 00
p . m. adjournment without even rea lizing it.
See you next week .
E.
L.
·s.
---- -
S inc e o ur gqe st and s
I
nu r se s , Lion L e o-s et th
tp e a {er were both r e giste r ed
e one of the meet ing b t 11 "
us of Medical T t~ eatment that h
,
.
.
y
e
lng
severa l do c tors for a n unspeci;i::c: l ved ln 1933 from
treatment wa s fini s hed L
a lady.
By the time
emotionall y , a nd f i n an~iaeo was exhau. s~ed ph ys ical ly,
lly.
The audie n ce a gt•eed th-"'t
_ nothing h as c h a ng e d.
___
"'
~---- ....
..
I
�36
\'
Lion VP Ed dismissed us with best wishes for good
health and happiness among all .
We thank all concerned for an interesting program
and for what is being done to make Asheville and Buncombe
County better places in which to live; but there is one
area wherein all of us are usually blest-but today was an
exception--and that is in the person and tremendous good
humor of Lion PP Leo Finkelstein and his •Hysterical
Moments".
Better luck next week when we hope Lion Leo
will again make our meeting and our day so highly
enjoyable by his wit and good humor .
See you next week .
S. E. H.
Les t Ye Ed f o rget s , Li on PP Leo' s Hys ter i c al M ments
o
co n siste d of th o ught s be f ore WWII and though t s dur i ng
a nd /or a ft er that event.
Among other things, Lion Leo
stated t h at be fo r e WWI I he was not v ery religious, but
d uri ng i t h e prayed for a f u r l o ugh and wa s granted mo re
in t h at he came t h rou g h the Pacif i c Theater pr etty much
un scathed.
Keep ' em c o ming ' , Le o , they br ighten every
meetin g.
The meeti ng was a d jou r n ed with thanks and good
wish es to all.
Today ' s meet i ng was wi t hou t a formal progr am, but
/ time was we ll spen t i n t h at Li on Le o 's Hysteri cal Moments
were extended a little be y o nd the u s ual and really had us
\ in stitches especially when PP Leo saw his name change in
the Pa cific Theater d u ring WWII Fr om "Leo the Hero " t o
"Foxh ole Fi~kelstei n " as a r e s ult of hi s hav ing buried
himself in cin e during a Japan ese a ttac k i mmediately after
h avi n g had a refresh i n g s h o wer.
It is a t r emendous
contribution to our meeting to rece ive such wo nde.r ful
i n formatio n from t h e "H o r se ' s mouth" .
Keep 'em d omin'
Lion Leo; they add so much t o the Ashe ville Club' s
enjoy ment of its regul ar meet i n gs .
Ye Ed wi s hes that all
Li o n s had such a privilege.
Ag ain, f e llo w Lions, we have
much to appreciate e nd to be t h a nk f ul f o r .
Let ' s do whet
we can to bring in ne w members end vis ito rs to enjoy with
�Lion PP Leo showed us the original composit i on of
our Lions Song published in 1941 by two blind musi c ians.
J. Marshall Pakham wrote the words and Alice Evelyn
Morris the music.
Leo reported that they married each
other and lived happily ever after. ------
37
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VOLUME 7
JULY 19, 1995
NUMBER 3
TODAYS MEETING was called to order by Lion President Ed
Krause at approximately 12:00 noon.
After the Pledge of
Allegiance, J.W. Kibler pronounced the Invocation and we
then sang one verse of America and the North-carolina Lions' Song led by Lion Joe accompanied by Lions Bev and
Jack.
We then were informed that the Sanctimonious Seven
have now become the Sanctimonious Nine, all of whom are
expert with their various musical instruments.
On June 28, 1995, many of this group played
patriotic tunes as requested by Ye Ed in conjunction with
his annual Patriotic dissertation.
All concerned were
deeply grateful for this and other wonderful appearances
by this great band.
On that occasion the keyboardist
was--as on so many occasions-- Ef_k~o Finkelstein w~se
90th bir ! h ~~~-~ ~cele~rated on June 20, 1995.
Many
h.?PPY return!lr. Lion Leo .
On July 14, the Sanctimonious Nine were in concert
at the Marjorie McCune Home for o ne hour at the
conclusion of which was sung "Amazing Grace".
Welcomed
to the group were two of the residents who sang a duet
and co ntributed beautifully to the last hymn.
PDG Red
Hoyle participated with the band and his wife, Christine,
was in the audience.
On that occasion the following
co n stituted said Sanctimonious Seven: Lion PP Leo
£~~~~~ a~o; Lion Beverly Watson, Yamaha' keyboard;
PP Bill Anderson , drums; PDG Red Hoyle, Irish Bodhrans
drum; PP Charlie Long, washboard; his son Michael Long,
banj o; Noell Beckman, dulcimer; PDG F. Jack Cole, fiddle;
PP Bill Anderson's daughter gave him assistance with the
drums; and John Matthews, guitar.
We thank Joan Hyatt
for arranging this program; and on behalf of the
residents of the Marjorie McCune Home we thank all of the
San ctimonious Nine for their wonderful contribution to
the quality of life not only of the residents but also
the many others enjo ying their talented and friendly
performanc~s .:.. ____ - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -
�of Allegian c e while Lion PDG Jim Pat~ ker offet~ed the
Invocation.
Lion PP Joe Sullivan led the singing (in the
absence of Lion Secretary Joe Parsons> accompanied by
Lions Jack and Bev.
Lion Jim Parker introduced his son Darrell who is
past-president of t~ock Hill Lions Club in South
Carolina.
Dart•ell p,icked the winning t•affle tic!iJ!t
claimed by Lio-~ Leo. - .....~-..~ · ···· ....H, .. _...
· ··Lion Rick Eaton reported encouraging progress by the
Golf Committee .
Members are actively soliciting sponsors
and players.
Remember that the Tournament is Wednesday,
August 1&, at the Grove Park Inn Country Club Golf
Course.
The rPgu lar meeting will be held at the Golf
Course.
Our own DG Guy Penland thanked the Club fo~ their
anticipated attendance at the District 31-A Lions Cabinet
Installation.
About thirty have bought tickets.
The
Club pledges full support for Lion Guy's task as District
Governor thi s year .
Lion J.W. Kibler questioned the propriety of an ad
in the July issue of ."The Lion."
It advertised: that the
new f't1irage 71210 radat~ .dete o: tot· makes one 's car "invisible"
to police radar.
A spirited discussion followed
concet~ning t he mot•a lity vs.
economics of the issue.
A
resolution will be drafted for the Club's attention next
week.
Program Ch airman Lion Rick introduce d Lion PP Ann
Ri ce as out• speal{et'.
Lion Ann pt•esented awat•ds " F~t·
Out s tanding Set~vice and Devotion to Lionism, 1994-95."
Th ose receiving awards wer e :
Karen Torrence
J.W. Kibler
Steve Stelzer
Joe Sullivan
Brad Pippinger
Dave Perkins
Jim Phillips
Shelby Horton
Ed Shurts
Jim Parker
Joe Parsons
Guy Penland
Stan Lieberman
Ray Joiner
Rick Eato n
Leo Finkelstein
oe Gu'rlotta· '
Jim Dutton
Jack Cole
Bev Watson
Bruce Hunter
Charlie Miller
Lion Ann presented a verba l s ummary of each person's
service wit h the a ward.
Ann ha s a real personal touc h
wh ich create s bonding within the c lub.
We ap pr eciate all
the more h er serv i ce as Presi d e nt l as t year a nd her
c ontinuing pre se n ce with u s .
See you next week!
E. L. S.
Dates to Re~ember:
Re gul ar meeting of the Asheville
Li o n' s Clu b o n Wedne s d ay , August 2 nd at 11 : 3121 a .m.
There wi ll be a fo llow-up Auction for E liada Home on
Saturday , October 7 , 1995 .
J
~
�wno pat'1: I""C'I"'pC\1..
--e-rr:-~-----·
.
Lion Leo's Hysterical Moments consisted of an
explanation of some of the City of Asheville's water and
sewer problems <where have we heard this expression
before?) in 1922.
Lion Leo, as always, had a tet•rific
grasp of the amuiing lacts surrounding that situation.
And he was kind e'nough to share them with us as we 11 as
some physical problems that he was having at about the
same time.
Lion Leo had doctors one and two and Doctor two was
very important to the patient; because he happened to
have what Lion Leo t•efet•t• ed to as a "roto-rooter".
At
any rate, at whatever cost financially and from the
standpoint of pain and suffering Leo snapped out of it
and, as you know, was at today's meeting to show for it.
Keep'em comin', Leo; we enjoy your Hysterical Moments as
much as some enjoyed hearing about OJ's recent
acquisition of a special commuting limousine that he
guaranteed to deliver every customer with "time to kill."
I
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-
Lion Leo shared a historical moment with us by reading a
letter that he wrote to the club right after WWII.
He
extolled the virtues of Asheville which he appreciated
all the more after returning from overseas combat.
We
all share Leo's enthusiasm for Asheville which is home to
many of us now.
\l
---
\ there•
f h'
During the meal L.ion Lleo brought ~IS . some more o
1S
"H sterical Moments".
This time desct•1b1ng the snakes
an~ dogs that occupied a tent floor during WWI~. And Leo
swears and be durned that he had not had anyth1ng to
drink since arriving at that particular ba~tle a~ea.
No
hether or not to bel1eve L1on Leo.
vote was taken as t o W
_ .. -~-...~ ; _ __ , _ ...___,~,._ _
1
said that Bill Williams, a
.
Lion PDG Jack Cole S
h
timonius Seven, ha d d 1e d
dedicated member of t e
a:~ment of silence.
Lion Jack
recently.
He ~equ~ste=oafor his support of the band from
then thanked L1on PP L
I
s the "Unholy Six".
.
·
when it was cnown a
•
the be~1nnlng
• d
humorous letter from WW2 about
L1on Leo then tea a
1 Ch ' f
le •
:
d the election of the loca
how he 1n f 1 u en c e
t:wu:u:ll.ex··:...,...._pi.\:.Cl.g.:t::.aUD-...L.rulLl:!~M~----;t-'
-~--- ~ ~- L---;~ ~ Hystericai ~oments"-consisted of an '
s
L1on . eo
· ·
' . o
f "Ret it•ement L1v1ng, " which he
intt·oduct1on t~ u~ old
y ars" (sounds like Lion Leo 1s-:
des cri bes as h1S Go
e~
e.
.
· ·
The S1~mtn1
1 1V 1 ng in ~ - t ) •
enjoy1ng
L
·.
PDG Jack Cole for faithf1.1lly
We are indebt e~ -to LlOn .
.
l .
Leo to o•n· meet 1ngs.
bt• inging _1 on
. L ' · PP Dt• Joe Schandler gave him l a
Lion Leo sa1d •1on .
.
"
d h
I
/
•
"
I co•.tld see better
an
e
0
new p ait" of gl~~se s - ~ "so I could hear better·." He ~o~
obtained a heat 1ng a1ft hoes "so I could walk bettet·."
s
a wa l king cane and so doing very well, and we h ope
.
.
, 11 .
"'11 L 1 on Leo 1 s
.
L 10n L eo,
.
'
1n ""
.
.
t
Jll s t lceep' em c om1ng,
IA
Sy lv 1a Js oo.
·
.
Lione ss
. ·1 M
ts" continue to enliven our
.
I yol..lt" "Hystet' l Cd
omen
.
I
1
I meet i n g s.
c·c ,..
I
I
TODAY' GFR88RAM wes ~"~• n "" ''to L ••
'
T -
�'LIONS
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VOLUME 9
NUMBER 2
In Lion Leo's Hysterica l Moments we were told that
as a GI, Leo co uldn't understand why in the Air F~rce he
was requ ired to marc h so darn ' d muc h .
He a l so sa 1d that
whil e in Timo s henka the water syst em failed and the Army
General ordered hi s men to stay out of Timos h e nka for
that reas on .
Lion Leo c ouldn't under s t a nd that either ;
be c a u se the soldiers he knew never drank wate r when they
e n 1; l n t n t o 1.'111 d n y 1-'J a y .
L i o n L e o a 1 s o t o 1 d u s t hat be f o t' e
111
t h e wat' h e seldom went to bed befot•e 4 : 121121 a . m. ; but
uri n g hi s war time ser vi ce th at was his usual hour to
ar i s e.
K e e p ' e rn c o mi n g , L i on L e o •
Yo •.n' d i a t' y i s a 1 mo s t
intere s ting as Senator P ack wood's . .
Om·' "gue st wa s· Lion PP Leo's son - in-law Jack $tAd ams
ft•om Sact•ament o , Cali fot'n i a .
Wel co me, Mr. Adams;t and
thi s goes for a ny and all of our meetin g s .
Rile; T w;"..Ss...QND-ANNQYNbE-MEN+· ..- - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- S
PDG Jack Cole described the Lion's Club Ba nd as third
performance at Th e Sum mit.
We were well r epres ented bo th in
quality a nd numbers in that PP Leo played the piano and he and
t h e rest of the Sanctimonious Seven played for nearly an hour
and were well received and the audie n ce was we l l and happily
entertained for--a s n oted--the third ti me by this group.
No wonder, since they played and sang sn many of t he o ld
favorites .
Other performers were Jo Ann Roberson, Lion Bev
Watson, L ion Bob Moo re , PP Ben Ski llm an , PP Bil l Anderson and
PDG J. W "Red Hoyle. "
.
To be noted:
the Sanct imonio us Se ven
enjoyed playing as much as the audie n ce enjoyed hearing .
To
Ye Ed th~t is a bsolutely wonderful in that a ll c oncerned were
given the pt• ivi lege to "ENJOY , ENJOY"!
Thanl<s a g ain
Sanctimoniou~ Seven .
You a re first-c l ass ambassadors ; a n d
your Club appreciates this fa c t a nd you immense l y.
-------~----------Lion Leo filled us in on some more of the U. S. Army ' s
utie s in the Phillipines .
Appat· ently, one thing that
tt racted the attention of the U.S. troops --inc luding our good
uddy , Lion Leo--was the number of pretty Filipino girls in
1
the area a nd the availability of severa l of them in the matter
1
of the soldiers ' acqui r ing d a nce partners .
And, according to
PP Leo, considering theit' footwear·, many of t he m had " sox
appeal" (fuss at Leo, not me!> .
Again , we thank L ion Leo fot'
lightening our l oad with humor!
Keep 'em co min'!
�YU\.1 :
Lion PP Leo , Club Historian , took us for a s troll down
Mem ory Lane for the Ashev ill e Lions .
His s tori es are not o n ly
h untot' o u s, but highlight the a c hiev e ments of L ionism in the
past so we b eco me motivated to do lik e wise.
He re ports of the
t im~~ when m e mb~ r~ hi p n ~trn bet ' l!LI 1n t h e h u ndt• eds ,
when 97 of 1171171
members attended programed act i vit ies , and wh en 2 or 3
b sences from meetings p rompt e d escorts by the police .
Leo ' s
q memories ar e i n va luable t o the C lub and we l ook forwa r d to
each ne~1 gem .
T+
• ·- -
\
�Shirley Honigman Sari in. a native of
Gastonia NC studied at the University
o f North Caro lina and at the
American Academy o f Dramatic Arts
in NY. In 1947 she married Ralph
Sarlin and moved to Liberty where
she immediately became involved in
civic and humanitarian endeavors.
S he wa s act ive in her hus band 's
business. Sari in Dept. Stores and later
with him in Sarlin Business Service.
S hirley has se rved o n nume ro us
boards inc luding the Pickens County
Library Board, the Pickens County
Mu seum Co mmi ss io n. C le mso n
Little Theatre, Tri County Technical
Foundation . and on the Advisory
Boards o f the Women's Program s
and also the Nursing Program at TriCounty Technical College. She is a
charter Board member o f the Pickens
County American Cancer Society and
continues to serve on that board. She
served eight yea rs as Chairman o ft he
Pickens County Arts Commiss ion
( now ca ll ed th e Pi c kens County
Cultural Commission) and is serving
her twc:nty-seventh year as a member
of that Commiss ion. She is currently
a member o f the Executi ve l3oard of
th e C resce nt Mu s ic C lub of
Grcc:nvillc.
Shirley has served as pres idem of the
Liberty Wonwn 's C lub. the Liberty
Matron s League and the Liberty
Friends of the Library. She has also
served as 7th District President of the
S.C. Ameri can Legion Auxiliary and
as Dert. Parliamentarian of' the S.C.
American Legion Auxiliary. In 1974.
S hirley returned to col lege and
graduated Magna Cum Laude from
Southern Wes leyan Uni\'ersity. Since
then she ha s been busy " ith acting.
her first love.
To encourage talented Liberty lligh
Sc hoo l student s. each ycnr she
presents awards fo r exce llence 111
music. art and drama.
3../ Timl's0utloo!..
In recognition o f her dedicat ion to
and promotion of the arts, the Pickens
County Council named the Purchase
Prize of the Annua l Juried Show of
the Pickens County Museum in her
honor. In 1982 she was selected as
C itizen o f the Yea r by the PickensLiberty Lions Club. Shirle~ and her
h~1sband Ralp~l have four children and
nme grandchildren.
T HE S HABllAT SE DE R PICN IC
on August 23. the last one o f the
seaso n, s ho wcased Is rael i fo lk
danci ng led by our acco mplis hed
Rebbitzin Susan Ratner.
IN T H E NEWS last Ju ly 13 under
J theAshevillc C iti zen-Times headline
1" Finkleste in tickles
the ivories to
entertai n Summ it reside nts•· was a
· picture o f himself, and a s hort article
S hirley ha s be e n an active a nd wh ich said, in part, " Leo Finklestcin.
in volved mcrn~er ~ f Congregation ~ 91. who was the piano pl aye~ for t.he
Beth Israel and 1 Sisterhood for the Lions C lub combo, the SanctnnoniUS
ts
past 40 years. During this long period J Seven, is playing the piano fo r the
o f tim e. she has le nt her outs~m~d.ing J Wednesday luncheon cro wd at The
e ne rgy and s uppo rt to actiV ItlcS. Summit retirement residence.''
events and causes far too numerous
to mention.
On July 30. on the front page o f the
Ne ighbo rs secti on. the lead article
was all about Evelyn Wiley, who died
T emple Beth ha-T cphila
last Decem ber. She was the wife of
Ash eville NC
the Temple· s ind isr ensablc custodian
by Marjorie Schachter
Edward Wiley. She was a teacher of
spec ia l educatio n stude nts fo r 28
THE
llR OT H ER II OO D & years and was nam ed 13uncom be
SISTER HOO D jo intly he ld the CountyTeacher of' theYea rinl989.
annua l Temple pic nic at Recreat ion
Park on Sunday, August 18. with the O n WLOS TV o n Wed nesday.
enthu siasti c partic ipati o n o f what August 14 at 6: 30 pm. in connection
seemed to be more people than ever. with a program heing set up at the
T he ho t dogs a nd hamburge rs, municipal course fo r blind golfe rs, o f
prepared by the incomparable chef w hi c h Joe is o ne. there was Joe
Bob Janowitz and his he lpers. a lithe Sulli van himse lf be ing lined up for a
lixings. the sweet watermelons were golf shot.
ingredient s of a wo rld -c las s
traditional picn ic. l lclpers included On Saturday. August I0, on the front
Maurice Gettlcman. Kerry Friedman. page of the Religion sect ion. was an
Dick Braun. Jack Bennctan. Arnie artic le about th e Commiss io n o n
Sgan. Bo b Hn1 s ka. and Bob Soc ia l Action o f Refo rm Judaism's
Janowitz's friend Bobbie Schac m e. first Adult Mitzvnh Corps. An n and
An unforgettable sight wa s Rabbi
Robert Ratne r, Ph D, disappearing
into the di stance, egg in hand,. in hot
pursuit of someone too small and far
away to recognize. in the course of
the raw-egg-catc hing kid s' ga me
tha t ' s become a pi c ni c fixture.
Dignity? Some yoke! Fun! Eggstra
helpings.
Rubin Feldstein were mentioned as
part of a group bui!cling a house under
the aegis of the Corps.
On the front page o f the Business
Section on Sunday, August II. there
was an article ab o ut American
T hres ho ld o f Enka. make r o f
disposable products for the med ica l
indu stry. Bo b Bayer. co mpa ny
Ouoher
�getting the Jewish people to look
ahead and plan for their future. The
year 5757 represents next year when
the Temple expects to conclude the
process and begin implementing the
plans which the congregation and
board have identified.
Under the leade rship o f Alan
Blumenthal , Vice Pres id en t of
Planning and Geri Zhiss, Chairperson
o f " Project Joseph - 5757'', the
congregation will participate in the
process through focus groups and a
written survey. " Project Joseph 5757'' recommendations are
scheduled to be made in May. 1997.
Contact the offi ce for location.
2nd Mondays will meet at Temple on
October 14 at 7:30pm.
The Executive Board will meet at
5:30 pm on October 14, followed by
a full Board Meeting at 7:30pm.
Tot Shabbat will be celebrated at
Temple BethEl on Saturday, October
19 at 9: I S am.
Robert and Elizabeth Davis, Albert
and Joyc:: Garson, Jerry and Lisa
Goldberg. Dav id and Bel/ita
Jacobson. Neil and Janel Kaplan.
David and Francine Kors. Cliff and
Lois Laxer, Jay and Katluy n Levy,
Ken/ and Suzy McKinney. !.anJ' lllld
Dale Polsky. Alan Rosenberg. Steven
and Francine Tar/owe.
r;::=============~
Com mittee and Auxiliary Meetings
for the month of October include:
October 14
Board of Directors
7:30pm
October I 0
7:30pm
Choir Practice
October 2 1
Religious School Board 7:30pm
October 17
7:30 pm
Choir Practice
October 30
Social Action Committee 7:30pm
Temple Beth E l will se nd a
contingent to the annual Crop Walk
on October 27. There will be a picnic
at the Temple at I:00 pm. Contact Jeff
or Mindy Passe at 847-5267 to sign
Our First Friday Family Shabbat up!
was on October 4.
Attenti on Se ni o rs ! J o in Rabbi
The Board of the Sr. Youth Group, Bennett on October 28 at 12:00 pm
LIBERTY, met on Sunday, October for the monthly S.enior Seminar, a ~=============~
6 at the Temple at 2:00PM.
lunchtime ed ucational forum. Bring
your own lunch- the Temple will
The Te mpl e Beth EI/Don Mallins prov ide drinks.
Beth El Synagogue
Go lf To urrt amen~ wa s he ld at
Raintree North on October 7.
Ma ze l Tov to the following on Greenville SC
becoming a B'nai Mitzvah in October by Rita Alexander
The Senior Social Club presented an at Temple Beth El
Th e S ister hoo d o f Be th Israel
evening with Rabbi Bennett 's and
Synagogue held the annual Barbara
Cantor Shepherd's ·'Dueling Guitars"
October 5
Shimlock Torah Fund Luncheon at
onTuesday, October 8.
Lee Weingarten, son of
Beth Israel Synagogue on Sunday,
Andrew and Amy Weingarten
Oc tober 13. 1996. This occasion
The Service of Healing was held at
October 12
honored Shirley Sarlin, selected as
Temple Beth El on October 9.
Heather Shap~ro, daughter of
" Woman of Achievement" for 1996David and Susan Shapiro
1997.
Project Joseph-5757 Focus Groups is
October 19
being held o n October 9, 16. & 23
Michael Desarno, son of
The Torah Fund Ca mpaign is a
and November 7 & 13 at Temple.
Jack and Susan Desarno
projec t o f Wome n 's League for
Please contact the office for times and
October 26
Conservative Judaism through which
to reserve your spot!
Jeffery Gerst, son of
members support the development,
Paul and La urel Gerst
strengthening, and maintenance of
The Bereavement Support Groups ~~~~~~~~~~~~~::e..4v
the Jewish Theological Seminary of
wil l meet at Temple Beth El for six Best wishes on the arrival of:
America: The Sem inary, in add ition
consecuti ve weeks at I I :30 am on Riley Klein. daughter of Amy and to training rabbis and cantors, also
Th ursday mo rnin gs, beg innin g Robert Cohen, born June 5, 1996.
educates teachers, soc ial workers, and
October 10.
la y peop le and se rves as a
Welco me t o the foll o wing ne w fountainhead o f the Conservative
Lunch 'N Learn, a noontime Bible members of Temple Beth El:
Jewish moveme nt th roughout the
Study for busy profess iona ls, will Diana Ades, David and Andrea world.
meet at 12:00 pm on October 14. Birnbaum, Mall and Susan Cohen,
October
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VOLUI'IE 4
APRIL 1, 1998
':
NUI'IBER 1
..
Today's meeting was cal led to order in a pt time by First Vice President
Lion Rick Warren in the absence ot our fearless leader, President Rick
Eaton . Ye Ed was called upon for the invocation after which~Lion PP Joe
ParsonsJled us in the singi ng of our usual two songs. Your
Truly
sorely
!~sed the opportunity to sing beside Lion Joe Sull
n . Hurry
back, Joe, because the entire membership of the Club misses you and
your valuable comments.,
'
Lion Frank called upon those present to furnish comments about
Lionistic health and welfare . Lion PDGs Jack Cole ang_ ,ve ~.e.2.r~~
upon th.e condition ot highly va_!trarit"e P ':__t~ c:._!_r:!i'~8l-s_:!Il' . L ~o i ,t. ·
;f1!"teThg g-o -tr'eatmen"t7t -S.!:..2.-C?_.S ~;-o~.t !_Pparent : y ·"-~ is _ s.~~) ,!.c~ t<!_
·:c)CI
·~.fj)...LtG.:...s ome_£_.t__::~hue..-t:Jt~uJ~~ u £fi....e~and ~!'~ s
ng •
~ ently, pros the ti_cs a r ~ .in th ~ . .!?.,f_f i ~S,:_.. L ~~--t:]O
.!.,._in h_i~
~~e~.~ ~!- -~3 '_s •
• is determined to overcome any disability and to return to us as soon as
his doctors will allow. And hopefull y , that is ver y soon indeed.
!:!.!..i!!J:J.
-
.
.
- .......
Following are comments ot PP Ann Ric'e p ert inent to the soon to be Horse
S how as promoted and/or sponsored by thi s Club; be ready when called
upon. This annual s how is a good
fundraiser and need s the help of all
who wi ll to be ever gainful in att endan ce and f inan ci al s uccess .
Please do not hesita te to volunteer .
Today's program consisted of comment s pro and con regarding Club
busines s and its upcoming election of n ew officers and directors .
lion Jack Cole in t roduced Donald F. De cke r, a new member of the band,
("The Sanctimonious - ever how many") and a hot prospect for membership
in our organization. From comments among those pre s ent today, he will
be a most welcome addition to our roster.
Lion Ed S hurt s reported that the Asheville Lions Club held a banquet at
the Biltmore Town Hall on l'larch 2 8, 1998, to c elebrate the club's 75th
anniversary.
It was attended by we l l over fifty members and guests.
The mu sic was s upplied by the Sanctimonious Seven led by PDG Jack Cole.
Band member s included: JoAnn Robers on, Beverly Watson, Annie l'lae
Love lace, Frances Aik en , John Ma t thews, Jqy Peterson, Bill Andersan ,
and Don De cke r .
lion VDG Jim Edgar wa s ma s ter of ce remonie s. Af ter introduci ng the gue s t s , h e gave a s hort h istory ot our c lub. Our third
org anizational meeting was held on December 22 , 19 22, with fifty
c ha rt e r me mber s attending. That is t he ott ic ial d ay that we·· received
our c harter. The speaker at th e mee ti n g delivered a sp eech which is
stil l appr opr i ate today . He sai d, "A Lio n is one who has achieved
s uccess, wh o h as lived well, laughed often and loved much, •.• who has
lett th e world a bette r place than he found it, . . . who has always looked
tor the best in o thers and given the best that he has • . • "
In the 1960's our c lub grew to 170 members which was the second largest
club in the State. This cl ub conducted an annual Horse show,
esta blished an Eye Clinic, and was one of the few clubs to have a
musical band. Our club has furnished nine District Governors to
District 3 1-A including Lions Shelby Horton, Jack Cole, Jim Parker, Guy
Penland, and Tom Parsons. We have sponsored 12 new clubs including
Asheville preakfast , Greater Asheville , West Asheville, Blao ~M ountain,
'I
~
�Brevard, Burnsville, Canton, Hendersonville, and Weaverville.
Lion PP Leo F i~kelstein was s. chegJ,tl.ed to gi~ U§. 5A-b.t-~cu;.!.s._I!J......!!l..QIIle.(lt
ciilled " r1hmemb er Wilen." ~&e :fi;-'t'.i on Leo was in the hosoital
~~
~
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wo_p~g.!;,...~~._Cl T L I!.,.~.~-~.!1-..B.es~ _
~~-!ll!.'lt·" Leo takes us bac K to the ~.o:_hen he :roTn
e.d tfiJ._~,.!.. .!:t...._,_J,n
Y
l
-
a- -
--- --·-..
.t~o ~..! 'days . ~rs._1E~ ~"!D...!.D ~t~~C?:f!-:~!;.•.i y;..•..~!J!,I.!!.)'S
g·oiicl to
~receive Leo's sense of n um·or and continuity with the _east .
-~...
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. . . .;.. .
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Our speaker was Lion Stewart Humphrey of the Enka Lions Club .
He is'
also CEO of Eliada Homes and District 31-A chaplain. He had a great
sense of humor and kept us entertained. He ended with thoughts based on
Lion's Code of Ethics and summarized by our motto "We Serve . " His
address reminded me of the charter speech gi v en 75 years agl referred
to abovef :
~-
Donald F. Decker was inducted into the club as a new member.
Lion
Decker has lived in Florida, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He plays
a saxophone so is already in the band.
He i s sponsored by Lion PDG
Jack Cole. Welcome into the Club Lion Don .
(
Lion President Rick Eaton presented plaques to the five members of the
club who have more than 50 years of service.
They are Lions Jack Cole,
Leo Manley, Charlie Miller, J.O.
McCollum, and Leo Finkelstein. Lion
Leo has 6B years of service.
Lion PDG Guy Penland presented Lion PP Ann Rice with a special award in
gratitude for the hard work that Lion An~ faithfully performs for the
Club. Lion Ann is indeed a prime-mover who gets things done .
The> me>al '"''"" cate l"u.d by F.-i na Frionds. It was e><ce!lent and plentiful.
The arrangements for the banquet were hor d~ed by ooohaLrman Lion pp Ann
Rice and Lion pp Bill Weber. It was a lot of work but everythLng went
smoothly. Thank you Lions Ann and Bill ror your leadership.
The Club graciously invites every person to come down to the Asheville
Lions Eye Clinic and purchase any of the pic t ures that were taken at
the banquet by photographer, Larry Horton, nephew of Yours Truly, for
only $1.00 each .
See you ne><t time.
S. E. H.
SLATE OF OFFICERS FOR 199B-1999
PresidentFrank Warren
1st Vice President- Buddy Riesenberg
2nd Vice President- Bill Weber
3rd Vice President- David Walls
Secretary-Ed Shurts
T reasurer-Jan Grove
Lion Tamer- Stan Lieberman
Tail Twister- PP Rick Eaton
ONE YEAR DIRECTORS
TWO YEAR DIRECTORS
Randy Bu c k n er
Roger Darrough
PDG Jim Parker
PP Ann Rice
PP Joe Schandler
Beve rly W<~tson
Dave Perkins
PP Brad Pippinger
PP Ed Krause
PP Jim Dutton
'
:
J
.i
�Lion PP Ann Rice reminded us that the Horse Show ads need to be turned
in by April 13, which is a Monday.
A sign-up sheet will be available
at the next meet ing for assignments during the Horse Show . We will have
three shows on Saturday, 11 am, 1:30 pm and 7 pm, please mark your
calendars and volunteer for those assignments as you are able.
We have '-'acancies and need Lions for the following
Wed.
1
Program Sales
2
Lions Club Booth:
1
Skyboxes:
2
Gates:
1(F)
Ribbon Ple!i:
:
1
1
Announcer:
Prayer:
Thur .
1
2
1
2
1(F)
1
1
Fri.
1
2
1
1
1(F)
1
1
Sat;. ..
2
2
Sat ..
2
2
2
1(F)
1
1
sho~o.~s:
2
2 (F)
1(M)
1
i
Sat ......
1
2
1
1
i~ (F)
1
1
Saturday 10:30 am
Saturday 1:00 pm
Saturday 6 : 30 pm
Monday 5/11 6 pm
1 Lion
Set Up Sho1.1
Tear
Oo~o.~n
Saturday 5/16 10:30 pm
1
Sho~o.~
Lion
Please volunteer generously as you have in years past an~ le~ ' s make
this the best Horse Show we have ever had! I l l
,
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IH£ lSHfVlll£ lJUS CLUI B0
-;10 Of OII((IORS viii 111t tho Hh
Ytdnndty of uch •onth 1t noon, 111tlng phct to bt
tnnounctd .
I' •
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4/ 15 ·'Regular Club Meeting at noon at
the Best Western
4/29 Club Board of Directors meeting
at noon at the Cornerstone
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HEALTH & IfELFARE
Lion PP Ann Rice for receiving
an appreciation award
Lion Bev Watson
Lion Nancy Penland
4/7
4/30
I I 0 N S 1 I II A 0
:
Lions PP Jack Cole, Leo Manley,
PP Leo Finkelstein, Charlie Miller,
J.O. M cCo lum ior receiving
l
awards for 50 years of service
or more
r II -; II r V II
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Lion Leo Finkelstein
Lioness Beatrice Gullotta
\
U F F I (; E RS & B 0 II RU M f: M8 E R S
1997 - l 998
OFF iCE RS
I Vf. IIR IJl R.
Pre s . - Rick Ea t o n
arre n
1 s t VP - Frank W
2 nd VP - Bu d dy Rel s e nb e r g
Se c . - Ed S hu r t s
Tr e a s ur e r - Ja n Grove
Lio n Tamer - Jo e Gul.lot ta
Ta il Twi s ter - Bi I I W ll e r
e
J
o h n 1:1 e ,. d i e
PP .J i m llut t on
P UG S he l by Horton
ller. ky Nunnaley
P P Rrad P i ppinqer
2 YEAR OIR.
Randy Buckner
Roger Darrough
PUG Jim Parker
PP Ann Rice
PP Joe Schandler
�ROAR
I:DITOA8t
BheUay a. llorto"
Ed I tor•ln•l:h t el
£d••rd 1.•
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tlhurt•
cJ!~h~ville.-,
A•eoa J•l• IL&.IItur
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I he •· euular me et inu ot tho Ashevi ll~ Lion , Club WdS Cdlled to order by
Lion Pr·es ident Riel~ Eato n p1·o mpl..ly at noon. lion PP Joe Parsons led u s
in si nging. Lion PUG Jack Cole ill tr-<Hiu ced h is guest Da n F. Decker who
wa s a l ion about '10 y~a•·s ago . lie i;, interested in membe r s hip in this
t.lub . Lion Ja ck would li.ke to see him in l. h e ha n d s i11ce he plays"
tenor sax .
L1on Jc1c: l~ c~l s o reported' t l tclt l.lt tJ bc~n d I'"" pl"yed yesterd"Y • Sc1 int
Pa t 1 i c k ' s Ddy, a L t h e 1\ s h evi 11 e lf o ,J J L11 l-en Le 1 . Seve n melflb e • s
·
·
·
ra•· t i cipate d in Lh e ba 11cl . fh e y pli:1ye d dl>uuL ~ 0 song!> tor an audience ot
about !.>U
,~es id u nt :3 .
e n t hu siastic .
lite
flle:ty
s ony
alo n q wj l. l t
t ile
band •·ece ived" gra t u tly
l>ond
o r
:j.L~
and
wet · ~
lot
re •· torming.
rnost
Lion PP Leo Finkel,tein yave a hi s l. ori c al report a b o u t earl y As h eville .
tte told ot a raitl by Lh e po l ice 0 11 a r,· ientlly po ker party. lrte h ost
ide n t i I i e cl h i s 9 u e s t s by t h e t· i ,. s L l:l 1 e L L e ,. s o I He b r e w a 1 ph a h e t . T h e i ,.
11 a111e s were duly r· ecordetl and rul>l i s hecl d S s u c h IIII.ICh to t he amuse me n t o t
1. h ose who s poke It e h ,. e w . He to 1 d o I a · h>., s e be in g " r me cl by ll is t a the r
i
with weapon s trorn hi s s tore . rh e she ril· t ' ~" s relieve d to lear n that al l
tl1e weapor 1s h ad be en r~e l . tJt~ n ed provi n q l.ltdl . Lite pos se were good
c i t izen,. The se we1· e the clay s wlte11 a ni cke l wnultl buy a s h oe s l1ine or a
Licket on the lo cal troll e y.
Lion Pf' lJil.l W"l>er reminded uc. o t· Lit " /~t.l1 Cltd r·t:er 1\nnlv e rSet i"Y Banquet
on Ma•·c tl ~tlth dt: tho:. t:liltmo t·e r own flail..
Ll: i s Ju c dted in Biltmore
Forest on Vanderbilt Hoatl I . 9 mil es t r om Lhe Uillmore Dairy Bar. Li o n
0 i 11 c. 1 so r· e1ui. nded 11 s o t Llle Wh i I. e Cdne " ""dy sale at Wed Mart o n Good
Friday, April lOt h.
Lion Bev Watson introduced our s pe~ker 0 1· . Andrew Cahn . D r .
with Lhe Chinese Actrpttrl ct: ttr· e & ll c r· ho I ogy C li.nir. on Monttord
s po ke ot Chinese ~ledi c ine a s " " 1\ll:ernalive Medi c ine.
Ca hn is
Ave. He
Chinese medi c i ne is a CO IItfll et c m ed i cc~ l "Y'>LH m tltat has diagnosed,
t.t·e" Led dnd pt" eve n te d il I n ess t or ove •· ~J ce n t urie s . Whil e i t can
•·e medy ai lmen t , and alt.e •· st,.,t.es or min cl, Chinese medici n e Ciiln also
"nltance •
·ec upera t.lve powe1· , i rnm 1111 i t.y ' " '" tile Cd pa c i t y tor plea su re.
w n ,-(, "n d r: ,. e a l.i v r L y •
Lltcll. Aruuric.111 C0 111pc1 11ies are studying the
( lltnP....,\~ ''"·: di• .i. •• c- d l e n ow pe r~ mi tte d Lo he
pr i mary c dre physi c i d n ~ in Ll 1e s t: dte ut" New Me x i co : Chi n ese me di ci ne i s
n o w covtt r ed by Jll>.;:.Urc1IIGC in NM ." M c.rty s t.a Le s d r·e Tollowl ng this e x a mpl e.
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tnnounctd .
3/25
Board of Directors Meeting at Noon
at the Cornerstone Rest. on Tunnel Rd .
3/28
The Asheville Lions Club 75th Charter
Anniversary Party at Biltmore Town Hall
\
..
SPEC lAI. RECOGNITI ON
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
a
0
.
HEALTH & WELFARE
•
'
Dave Perkins
Martin Gross
Jim Phillips
Randy Buckner
3/ 10
3/ 13
3/2 1
3/29
I ION <;
1.11111 Ill'
II '; III V II Ir INI . . . OF F I CFHS
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2 11 d VI' - !Ill d d y I! a I £. P. II lo e I' q
Sec. - F d S l11o rts
Tr e a s urer - Jan Grove
1 Inn Taoner - Jue H11ll. utta
Jail lwl st:e o - Hill Wehe o
·
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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
Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
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
Lions Roar: History of Lion's Club
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
107_03_03_HistoryOfLionsClub_M
Description
An account of the resource
Historical reports from the time when Leo Finkelstein served as historian of the Lions Club.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Lions Club (Asheville, N.C.)
Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
Rights
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<a title=" In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable" href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0//" target="_blank"> In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable </a>
Format
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PDF
Source
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<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title=" Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/27" target="_blank"> Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Type
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Text
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Extent
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50 pages
Coverage
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Asheville (N.C.)
Spatial Coverage
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https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
1987
army
fellowship
history
Lion's Roar
report
South Pacific
World War II
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/9a3c963615579222b51fabe068e65305.pdf
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LETTERS FROM LEO: World Warn Correspondence to the Asheville Lions Club
by Leo Finkelstein
Patricia Beaver, Editor
published by The Center for Appalachian Studies
Appalachian State University
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�LETTERS FROM LEO
WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ASHEVILLE LIONS
CLUB
LEO FINKELSTEIN
Patricia D. Beaver, Editor
Published by : The Center for Appalachian Studies
AppaJachjan State University
Boone, NC 28608
1997
�INTRODUCTION
....
.c~c.j..,.~
l~' .Jol.A ·
Leo Finkelstein was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1905, and in 191 I began school
at the Montford Avenue Grammar School. He graduated from Asheville High School in 1922,
where he was business manager of the Hillbilly, the school monthly magazine, as well as pianist
for a musical group. From playing saxophone with the Asheville Shrine Club Maiching Band in
the 1930s to piano with the Sanctimonious Seven for the Asheville Lion' s Club in the
1990s, Leo has served his community though music, humor, business acumen, and community
leadership.
In 1922 Leo took over management of Finkelstein's Pawnshop, a downtown Asheville
institution, which Leo' s father Harry Finkelstein opened in 1903 shortly after immigrating from
Lithuania. Since his retirement from Finkelstein' s in 1970, Leo has continued to be actively
involved in the civic, fraternal, and religious life of the community.
A member of the Asheville Lion' s Club for over sixty years, Leo has regaled his fellow
Lions with his unique view oflife in Asheville and beyond. Inducted into the U.S. Army Air
Corps in 1943, Leo was seen off at the bus by Lion C. Fred Brown, past president ofthe
Asheville Lion' s Club and former Vice Mayor of Asheville, who advised Lejo to send letters back
to the local Lion' s Club. Leo complied. What follows is his record of experiences and
observations which were copied and sent back to the Asheville Lion' s Club, to be read at
meetings during World War II.
Following induction at Camp Croft, South Carolina, Leo endured Basic Training at Miami
Beach, Florida, before being sent to Tishomingo, OkJahoma for training as an Air Force Clerk.
His collected stories were recorded in a diary, given to him by Miss ~th Anderson, Leo's typing
teacher at the Oklahoma College of Agriculture, where soldiers train~ to be clerks in the Air
Force recei ..·ee iA&tA:IGtiett. The majority of the following stores, vignettes, and poems originated
in the Philippines, where Leo served until4he final days of the war.
�MY LIFE IN THE SERVICE
rhe Diaxy of Leo Finkelstein
109 Lakeshore Drive
Asheville, North Carolina
SERVICE RECORD
Transfers
Spartanburg, SC
Columbia , SC
Miami Beach, FL
Tishomingo, OK
Kearns, Utah
Pittsburg , CA
Camp Croft
Camp Jackson
414 Training Group
Murray State College
501 Training Group
Camp Stoneman
Induction
Reception
Basic Training
A.A.F.T.T.C. (E&O)
O.R.T.C.
P.O .E. (Staging
San Francisco, CA
New Caledonia
New Caledonia
Guadalcanal
Los Negros
40th Ship Co.
6th Replacement Depot
6th Staging Area
394th Bomb Sq . (H)
394th Bomb Sq. (H)
Wakde
Noemfoor
Morotai
Samar
Leyte
Seattle, WA
Fort Bragg , NC
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq.
394th Bomb Sq.
394th Bomb Sq.
93rd Repl.
Fort Lawton
P . O . E.
South Pacific
Novmea
5th Bomb GP (H)
13th Air Task
Force
F.E.A. F .
F.E.A. F.
F.E.A. F.
F.E . A. F.
P.O . E.
P .O. D.
Separation
Aree~)
Letter sent Home From
~ami
(H)
(H)
(H)
(H)
January 12 , 1943
January 19, 1943
January 23, 1943
March 29, 1943
May 31 , 1943
Oct.
Nov .
Nov.
Dec.
Dec.
20, 1943
1 , 1943
23, 1943
11 , 1943
19, 1943
Auq. 20, 1944
Aug . 22 , 1944
Sept. 26, 1944
Nov. 4, 1944
March 2 , 1945
July 14 , 1945
Aug. 20, 1945
Sept. 1, 1945
Beach
I am still on the sun- kissed shores of Miami Beach and have been well
educated in my advanced training .
I have learned six new cuss words
(especially) for top Master Sergeants , how to use an electric potato peeling
machine , how to go to Miami without a pass, how to stand at attention (while
half asleep), how to shine my shoes with the minimum amount of energy.
I have
been told that I will be shot if I go AWOL or fall asleep on guard duty and
will get half- shot if I drink too much whiskey (like I didn ' t know).
I have
had so many instructions on making beds , cleaning out toilet bowls and other
domestic duties that I think I would make a better wife than a soldier.
I
have been taught to jump off of nine foot fences on the obstacle course and if
I refused to do it - I would be locked up here.
If I did things like that at
home - I would be locked up there.
I have been taught that if a pretty girl
walks by- I c an look, think and wish, but I'm not allowed to talk or whistle
at her.
I have been taught to stand at attention and not move while a fly
does calisthenics on my nose. This is the army Air Force.
~
From Tishomingo, Oklahoma
Tishominqo was an Indian Chief who died here in the early part of the
nineteenth century and t~is place has been dead ever since. This is the spot
where the capitol of some Indian tribe was situated and today it is a spot
where 500 soldiers are studying to be technicians in the Air Corps and at the
same time improving their technique with the co-eds on the campus of this
colle ge.
*'***•**********
�nn. ~t /\\
/
/
IV -~
\
My mail has been so light lately, I'm getting to t hink my BOis reaching
all the way back to Asheville.
--***** **'* **-lf**~~t
Something happe ned to the water works in Tishomingo and the Army
Officers found that the water wasn't pure so none of the soldiers can go into
town until the town government gets the water works fixed.
T can't imagine
soldiers going to town to drink water but I guess some of t he officials are
scared one of them will get drunk and take a bath in i t .
.......... .... .. ..........
Refore the war T thought being i n the army woul d be a thrilling
adventure - but now I know Sherman was right .
I
Before the war I thought the Air Corps was a mechanized force - but now
wonder what the Hell I 'm marching for.
Before the war, I thought floors we r e to walk on - but now I 've found
they are to sweep and mop on.
Before the war, I thought the Asheville-Citizen was a rotten newspaper but now I enjoy reading one four days old.
Before the war, I would drink a cocktail before dinner - but now I drink
milk with my dinner .
Before t he war, I would go to bed sometimes at 4 AM - but now I get up
at 4 AM.
Before the wa r, I was particular about what girl T took out - but now
I'm not so particular.
Before the war , I struggled over a golf course - but now I struggle over
an obstacle course.
Before t he war, T u sed to shine at a dance - but now I shine my shoes .
Before the war, I cussed at a golf ball - but now a sergeant cusses at
me because I'm not on the ball .
Before the war, I didn ' t have much r eligion- but now I pray for a
furlough .
****** .. *****•**
In the Army you are always in a hurry to get somewhere so you ' ll have
more time to wait after you get there.
The obstacle course is so tough here that they take us on a nine mile
hike to get limbered up so we can make it .
******"*****"****
A
I reached the height of my social career in Tishomingo yesterday when my
typing teacher , Miss Anderson, invited me to have dinner with her at the
Payne Hotel in the heart of Tishomingo . Miss Anderson is not only the best
looking lady teacher on the campus , but a nice person to t~lk to and get all
the information about the r eligi ous, social, f r aternal, and political life in
~rmy
�6
this county .
I arrived at the Payne Hotel exactly on time - for who am I to keep a
lady wait ing who invites me out to dinner and pays t he check. My first view
of the interior of the hotel was depressing and to be conservative and brief
with my description of this institution (founded in the stage coach days) is
that it was a pain. Nevertheless, my companion was nice and the kindly smiles
of an understanding teacher to a lonesome soldier helped greatly to make my
evening a success.
W entered the dining room with a great deal of precision and grace,
e
dodging some water that was leaking from the second floor through the ceiling
and dripping on the dining room floor.
Part of the plaster had already fallen
from the ceiling and I felt surely the balance would come down at any minute.
The dining room was also being u sed for a linen supply room and lumber s torao~
room.
During our meal a lady would bring in dirty linen, pile it on the
floor, and carry c l ean linen out. I never could figure out why all the l umber
was stacked in the corner and was afraid to ask.
After dinner my teacher took me for a personally conducted tour through
the darkened, dirty and low-ceilinged halls to room #35 (where she lives) and
behold - there T visualized her p ride and joy, a private bathroom - the only
one in Tag Hotel .
To be continued ...
This place is thirty mi les from a telegraph office and so far from
civilization that one gets awful lonesome at times.
In fact o ne soldier got
so lonesome that he got married on the telephone last night .
This is a dry place, both in climate and drinking alcohol. It seems
that Tishomingo is so dry that even the bootleggers don't sell it.
***•***********
They believe in getting married young here and I haven ' t found a single
girl over 22 years of age, so I haven ' t found a suitable lady my age to take
out. Would take some of the younger ones out but their papas keep shotguns
and they know how to shoot straigh t out West.
Many times jn my lifetime I have heard about people seeing snakes ,
especially at moments when more spirits were absorbed than the system could
stand. This county here is very dry.
In view of this fact I realized that I
had not had a drink during the time I had been here - so it wasn ' t whiskey .
Therefore i t must be a live snake and there it was on the barrack's floor
crawling and wiggling and sticking its tongue out at me.
That is not the only type pet that is found in our barracks. Just last
week we discovered a couple of live frogs and now and then a stray dog will
walk in to look us over .
At night we are blessed with some miniature bombers to help put us to
sleep. These extra large bugs are supposed to be June bugs but I know bugs
couldn't grow that large in the one month of June. They gain a lot of
�8
Today we we~e given a demonstration of war gases. I was told to put on
my gas mask and was placed in a chamber filled with tear gas. Everything was
lovely until I was instructed to t a ke the mask off and breathe the stuff which I did very reluctantly. My eyes burned , my nose burned, my throat
burned and I cried and c ried and c~ied so they let me out into the fresh air .
After partially r ecovering , I was informed t hat I would be s ubjected to
several other popular brands of gasses and all I had to do was sniff each one
(li ke a hound dog sniffs at a rabbit track) and associate the smell with
something I had s melled i n civilian life. Thi s was easy and my a n alysis was
as follows :
Chlora-Pic knon gas smelled like corn whiskey .
Phosgene gas s me lled like scotch whiskey .
Chlori ne gas smelled like rye whi s key.
Mustard gas s melled like bourbon whis key .
Hydrogen- mustard gas smelled like otdinary coo ki ng whiskey.
****** *********
This camp is a c ross section between a conce n t ~ation camp and t h e
Buncombe County c h ain gang. They keep you i n this camp a couple of months
before you are sent to a combat zone . The y figure if you can live here t wo
months wi thout serious complications that you s hould be able to live at any
othe r point in the worl d for ten years .
. ........ * .. **'It'*****
It ' s so dirty here and I ' m so used to i t that if I ever get back home on
a fu r lough I ' ll have to s prinkle sand in the b ed so I can sleep .
We are not troubled with rats here - they can ' t live in this climate .
I went to Bunny's Beer Garden l.ast night and stayed to 5 AM a nd took
Bunny home . Bunny's husband is in the Navy . t tried to be faithful to t he
Air Corps , but I couldn ' t find an aviator's wife who owned a beer garden.
****•***+'*+ ** **
Below is a schedule of how I s p e nt a
w~ekend
here:
W
aiti n g in line to get a pass
Waiting in line to get a bus to town
Waiting in line to let an MP check your pass
Waiting in line to use phone to call q irl
Waiting to get taxi to go after gi rl
Waiting in line to get permit to buy a pint of whiskey
W
aitinq in line to buy whiskey
Waiting in line to qet seat i n restaurant
W
aiting for waitr:-e!'ls to bring gin ger ale and i ce
Waiting in lin e for street car to t ake girl home
aiting fo r girl to make up her mind (to kiss me good-night)
W
Walking to bus station
Explaining to 1st sergeant why 1 was 1ate getting back to c amp
Resting up from Satu rday night's activities
30 min .
43 min.
9 min.
10 min .
52 min .
28 min .
27 min .
40 min .
12 min.
11 min .
02 min.
13 min.
5 min .
All day Sunday
The worst food in the Army Air Forces is served in the mess halls of
Kearns Field, Utah.
A soldier here was getti n g something to eat out of a
�9
garbage can today and a Lieutenant nearby said, "Here you! Do you think you
are better than the rest of the men on this field - get on in the mess hall
and eat!"
***************
I've had details on this post from the telephone operator on the firing
range to the office boy in the Commanding Officer's office, but my most
interesting detail was handed to me today when I was made "Garbage Man" for
the Mess Hall. Now don't think that a garbage man ' s job is just an ordinary
bit of work. To the contrary, i t takes a man who can stand gruesome odors and
one who has specialized knowledge of slop and other varieties of waste.
Neatly lined up outside of the kitchen of the Mess Hall are thirty-six
GI garbage cans. My main duty was to see that the right stuff was put in the
right can. There were certain cans designated for wet garbage, dry garbage,
vegetable peelings, fruit peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, bones, ashes
and trash : You must be careful not to put coffee grounds in the slop as i t
will kill the hogs. Tea leaves will make hogs very sick and if there is any
broken glass in i t - it won ' t do the hogs any good.
I was quite proud of myself when the K.P. Sergeant complimented me on my
work. The onl y thing that worried me was that I was doing all this for the
benefit of hogs and pigs.
Recently deodorized,
Leo
I was told that every good soldier should know how to do his own
laundry, so I decide that I • m going to do some wash.ing for myself. I tried to
find out the best method for washing clothes but it seemed liked very soldier
had a different system : After much cal cul ation and thought I start on what I
think to be the correct procedure. The first thing I do is steal a bucket
from the Mess Hall. Then I go to the PX and buy a box of Rinso and a bottle
of Clorox.
I put half the box of Rinso and half the bottle of Clorox in the
bucket f illed wi th hot water and p l ace my underwear and socks therein . The
directions on the box said to soak for one hour but in o r der to do a good job
I figured I would put the bucket of clothes under my bed for a day or two.
Everything was coming along fine until the Lieutenant came through the
barracks on an inspecti on tour and saw the bucket of c l othes under my bed.
I
couldn ' t explain how the bucket got out of the Mess Hall or why I was doing my
laundry during duty hours. The next thing I knew - I was restricted to the
Post for a week.
Nothing was going to stop me so I started to wash the c l othes .
I found
that the dye had run out of the socks and had got in the underwear and I
couldn't get the dye out of the underwear or back in the socks. Therefore, I
went up to t he Supply Sergeant and signed a statement of charges and got
mysel f some new underwear and socks.
Now I'm all washed up trying to wash my own washing.
***************
rrom Ca~~p Ston..aan, CA
I can't tell you where I ' m at because the censor wouldn't like it.
I can't tell you what kind of clothes I've been issued because you would
�10
know where I was going.
I can't tell you about
~he
camp because
i ~s aga ins~
~he
rules .
I can't tell you about my equipment because it would jeopardize my
security.
I can tell you this though - I had a date with a girl by the name of
Sylvia who used ~o live in Chicago, who is now living in Los Angeles and who
is visiting some friends in a city near here and she is just as sweet as ever.
***************
The PX here reminds me of a country store with a night club atmosphere .
You can buy anythi ng from beer to buttons with pret~y littl e teen-age girls to
serve you. At very reasonable prices you can have coffee, doughnuts, cakes,
sandwiches, drinks or ice cream, a gift for mother, a souvenir for sister, a
can of shoe polish, a bottle of ink, a bath towel or your favorite pipe
tobacco : A nickelodeon bell ows forth music in one corner whi le a group of
soldiers are singing favorite songs in another. A Lieutenant-Colonel walks in
without a neck tie. A captain is talking to a private in a friendly manner .
A sergeant is conversing with a smiling WAC. Here is the common meeting
ground of our f i ghting men and women - a last gathering place on ~heir nati ve
soil . Soon we will be bound for strange lands and new assignments.
***************
Pre. Boat on
Paei.~ic
oa.an
Here I am on a boat on the Pacific Ocean. While I don't have the
accommodations of a Cook's tour, I can see the same scenery that many people
pay thousands of dollars to see (ocean and sky). The sleeping quarters are a
little crowded and the bunks are so close to each other that many times I wake
up with another guy's foot in my face or his knee in my stomach. The latrine
is also a little crowded. Traffic is so heavy inside (if you can get in ) that
it would make a New York traffic cop crazy trying to keep things st~aight. If
you ever have to go, you got to go about an hour before you think you got to
go so you will get there in time to go - then it takes about twenty minutes to
get from where you go to the wash basin .
Believe me, Firestone, if I could go out to your cabin for a month and
have the privy at my disposal and that creek with fresh mountain water to do
my laundry in - I'd be the happiest man in the world .
***************
Here I am on an island in the South Pacific with nothing to write about.
I can't write about the weather , I can't say whether it's hot or cold, rainy
or dry. I can't tell the name of the island or the name of any towns near
here or even if there are any towns on the island. I can't tell you if the
country has mountains or plains or desert lands. I c a n't even tell you the
col or of the soil, I can't tell you about the animal life, the birds; the
fish or the insects .
I can't tell you if the natives are white or black or
yellow.
I can ' t tell you what language the y speak or what country owns the
island. I can't tell you if we are near an ocean, a river or a lake. I can't
tel l you about the military personnel or equipment : I can't tell you about my
duties . I can't tell you anything that would demoralize the civilians back
home - so I'll close.
�I want to tell you a story about a farmer's daughter on an island in the
south Pacific . While out walking yesterday I stopped at the farmer's house
and bought some cake and pie from the farmer's daughter. I asked her about
some music and she brought out an ant~que model Victrola with some records. I
thought I would hear some music with a South Pacific rhythm but instead it was
some good old North Carolina mountain music played by a hillbilly band.
Something always happens to remind me of home - damn it.
J'roa Gu.clac•nel
Mosquitos are big here. One lit in the runway and they put seventy
gallons of gas in it before they found out it wasn't a P-38.
***************
Back home it was said that money isn't everything in life. over here it
might be said that money isn't anything in life. There is no place to spend
it and nothing to buy. A free movie at night is the height of our
entertainment. A bottle of beer once a week is the extent of our drinking.
We look forward to mail call and chow. Mail from home is our greatest morale
booster. On the walls of our living quarters are the pictures of a girl back
home, a favorite movie star or maybe a scantly clad native girl. We see
strange animals, lizards, and insects and often wonder why they like to crawl
in bed with us. We search the region for souvenirs left by the Japs. We are
visited by natives who wear a towel where their pants ought to be. We work
hard, eat plenty and sleep well. There is no complaining here - we are just
one big happy family.
We have moved into our new wigwam known as "The Southside Social and
Society Club, South Pacific Branch, Incorporated." Believe me it is a
masterful piece of architecture in solid mahogany. Our foundation is made of
empty gasoline barrels. our roof is made of empty bomb box tins. We got our
lumber from an old torn down latrine. We did steal a few good boards after
dark when nobody was looking. Our light sockets are home made out of airplane
parts . We also have various pieces of antique furniture made out of shipping
boxes picked up at the mess hall. We have a front porch. Our roof don't leak
(very much). The entire frame-work of our house is covered with mosquito
netting and at a distance the shack appears to be a huge bird cage with
monkeys running around in it. Anyhow its home and it is good to know that we
again have a place to call our own.
***************
"Spot is a dog - a white dog with one black spot over his right eye.
Spot is the mascot of a certain crew who maintained a certain airplane at a
certain field in the South Pacific. Spot knew 'his' airplane - the airplane
his crew worked on. Spot would ride out on the bus to the field every morning
and would jump off at the bunker on which his airplane was parked. He knew
the location of his plane just like a civilian dog would know the location of
its home. He stayed by his a.irplane in all kinds of weather and admired the
splendid way his crew kept the ship in shape. Not long ago the airplane
didn't return from a flight therefore the crew didn't go out to the field.
Spot would ride out to the field on the bus as usual every morning and would
jump off at the bunker that had held his plane. For many days that followed I
could see Spot standing there, a l one, on the empty bunker, waiting for his
airplane to come home.
***************
�12
I discovered a new animal today.
It was a lizard, four feet long ,
running around in my front yard . The reptile looked like an alligator but it
didn ' t have the same disposition . It was supposed to be harmless but he
didn ' t look very sociable to me. His skin looked like it would make a good
traveling bag but since I wasn't going anywhere , I didn ' t try to capture the
thing. He finally ran down in my fox hole and I am hopin g , in the event I
have to use that fox hole some night, that he won ' t be there with a wife and
family. Anyhow, I am looking forward to the time when I can get home, where
there is nothing to bother me but house flies , bumble bees and ants .
***************
This is a dehydrated war . our breakfast is made at the mess hall with a
powder: they mix with water. 0ut of this mixture comes hot cakes , pan cakes,
flat-jacks and wheat cakes and t hey all taste alike . One gallon of dehydrated
potato powder is mixed with water and out comes five gallons of mashed
potatoes without mashing them. The dehydrated eggs at the mess hall have a
sign on them reading " eggs" because they don ' t look like eggs or taste like
eggs. The dehydrated milk turns out to be dark grey a nd putting i t in the
dehydrated coffee keeps you from getting an infection from the stuff . The
dehydrated lemonade could be used for battery acid but we use it mostly for
washing our mess kits.
If somebody would only invent dehydrated whiskey - that would be a great
a contribution to the war effort. Our mail is even dehydrated into V-mail.
Yes, everything is dehydrated around here except the weather .
I am now a politician.
of his tribe.
I was the cause of a native being made " chief "
This is how it happened.
A certain native I called "Joe" would come over to my shack to visit me
and even though he taiked very ~ittle English, I found out from him much about
his life and the customs of his people . These poor devils work for ten cents
a day. They sign up for a year and are paid in full at the end of their
contract. Joe always admired a larqe knife that I had . This knife was sent
to me from home, being one that I had jn my collection, hanging on the wall of
my bar room. Every time I showed it to Joe a big smile would come over his
face , his snow white teeth would shine like pearls, his eyes gleamed with fire
and he would say over and over, " Nice, I like. Nice, I like! " He would
carefully caress the etched figure of a lion on the blade and would gaze for
minutes at his image on the shiny steeL
One day Joe came over to see me .
He had five American dollar bills
wra pped in an old cloth bag. He offered me the five dollars and his war club
for my knife. f traded wi t h h im and he left my shack the happiest man I've
ever looked upon. I followed him over to the native village and there the
whole tribe gathered around and made him chief because of his ability to
acquire such a wonderful knife. Never would I have thought, when I nailed
that knife to the wal l of my bar at home, that someday it wou ld be the cause
of a man being made chief of a native tribe on an island in the South Pacific.
***************
There are no sheets, no mattresses, no pillows, no springs on my cot but
when I ~. ay down to go to sleep I acquire a feeling of comfort and contentment .
Sometimes I gaze at the stars shining in the t ropical heavens . Other times I
listen to the rain beating down on the tin roof . There are no pains , no
nerves, no responsibilities , no vain regrets, no anticipation of gathering
difficulties, no financial probJems to di·sturb my hard earned slumber. I wake
up in the morning and look at the mountains around me. Their lofty peaks
�13
me of the mountains at h ome . Th is is a wo nderfu l place to lead a n easy
ci f c but frankly I would not hesitate to accept a n y opportun ity to go back to
my civilian life once again .
·:e.~nd
********'*** ****
Parts of this a r ea are cov ered wi th ;ungle vegetation.
Enormous tree
trunks covered with s nake like vines , stran ge flowers and inhabited by
screeching parrots tower above the semisolid mass of bamboo , palms , ferns ,
writhing roots , creepi ng l izards a nd t housands of energetic grasshoppers .
There are hellgrammites and s piders to be had on the island but personally I
could do well without t hem, especially after seei n g t he effects of their
bites.
*********"" ••••*
Letters , letters , letters - that ' s t he only way I have to kee p in touch
with the old country (the United States) and what a problem!
Lette r s to my
mother must be dignified and cheerful. Letters to my f r aternal brothers, the
police department and some of the girls I used to go with don ' t have to b e so
dignified.
Letters to the Lions Club must be interesting and to the point.
Letters to my attorney, accountant , and manager should eKpress my appreciation
for their faithful services even though I ' m wonder ing if t hey a re o n the job .
In my letters to my Rabbi , I try to be rel igious . In my lette rs to my social
club, I try to be a beer drinker and an expert ca rd player . Letters to my
best girl must be affection ate even t hough I t h i n k she is going out with a
couple of sergeants. In my letters to my banker I am optimistic , cautious and
hopeful .
In all my letters I can ' t say anything that would demoralize the
people at home because I know they are having a tough time with ration points ,
wh iskey shortages, War Bond Drives and taKes . Finally, T have to please the
censor but he has an advantage over you - he can cut out what h e don't like .
Foxes don ' t live in a fox hole. It ' s a place we run in, crawl in, fall
in, sl ide in, scramble in o r jump in in event of an air raid. Mack and T got
orders to fill in an old one by our shack . Mack is lazy as Hell and since I
was getting up in years we decided to get a couple of natives to do the job .
Mack went over to the native village a nd negotiated for the job, usi ng two
bucks of mine for payment, which T furnished very reluctantly. W
hen the
natives started to fill the hole with dirt , a snake , five feet long , ran out .
Mack, being a country boy, picked up the snake by its tail and Powers (a
butcher in civilian life) , chopped his head off with an axe before I stopped
running. The neKt thing to come out was a ground rat. One of the natives
caught him with his bare hands and killed it before I could stop run ning . The
next thir.gs to come out were four centipedes about a foot long apiece. One
bite from one of these huge worms and you run for the dispensary as fast as
you ca n, cussing your draft board ail along the way with words unfit to write.
The fox hole is now filled up so guess I'll take a nap because I'm tired out from runnJ.ng.
•+ ............ ....., .... .., ... .
From Los Neqros-Admdralty Islands
Prior to my induction i~ the army I considered myself a respectable
upright citizen of Buncombe County , North Carolina . I was always honest
except for a few times during my childhood days when I swiped onions from Mrs .
Roberts ' garden, stole an apple from Mr. Book ' s grocery store and helped
myself to all the cherries I could eat from a n eighbor's cherry tree .
My
ch~ldhood
habits started again the other day when I volunteered (by
�14
request) to help unload several barges of beer. Even though our secret
weapons are not guarded , each barge of beer has armed guards.
I found that if
I accidentally dropped a case of beer that sometimes several bottles would
fall out and in gathering up these bottles sometimes they accidentally got
inside my shirt and as long as they were inside my shirt , I didn ' t see any
reason not to drink them .
Do you think I ' ll go to Hell for this?
********** * ****
On this beautiful (to some people) island in the Adrniralt¥ Group one can
sit under a swaying palm tree (until a coconut falls and bounces off your
head) and admire the sun- kissed shores (through sun glasses to keep from going
blind). You may breathe deeply of the fresh air (saturated with the smell of
st3gnant salt water) and gaze at the moon (providing you can see t h rough ¥OUr
mosquito net).
In the daytime you can enjoy the cool refres h ing rains (if you
don't mind getting as wet as a drowned r at) . In the evenin gs i t ' s your
privilege to see a new movie featuring William s . Hart or Fatty Arbuckle and
go back to your tent knowing you will have a good night ' s sleep (providing you
take sleeping pills) . It is thrilling to search the jungle for souvenirs (if
you don ' t mind picking up booby traps).
If you get the tooth ache you can go
to the dentist . If you don ' t feel like working you can go on sick call .
If
you get homesick you can go see the chaplain. This is an ideal place to be .
Every morning at breakfast time I am greeted by " Porkie. " He is a
little pig and a cute little pig at that . He could be part dog because he
looks up at me and wags his tail. He could be part wild boar because he
pushes me around with h is nose . Anyhow in this G·o dforsaken country I welcome
most any kind of a friend and believe me Porkie is my friend because he will
let me pet him and feed him . Nobody knows where Porkie carne from . Maybe the
Japs left him here or maybe he wandered down into the camp from the hills.
There have been some suggestions about killing Porkie and roasting h im over a
fire but I don ' t think there is any danger of that happening because we can ' t
eat Porkie and have him too .
***"~~"**'********•
Sometime ago while I was on a troop transport a warning came over the
loud speaker than a Jap battleship and two destroyers had been sighted .
I was
playing checkers , some other guys were playing cards , some reading . You could
hear a number of wise cracks about the situation but nobody seemed to be
disturbed .
We were all in the same boat and i t appeared that regardless of our
religious beliefs, political opinions , social or financial standings in
civilian life, that being in the same boat under these conditions united us in
the closest bonds of fellowsh ip . True this war has made soldiers of us but in
(doing so it has not destroyed that individuality, humor and tolerance we
possessed . In my opinion it has cemented firmer in us these necessities of a
peaceful democratic society .
(Adapted from an instruction booklet)
Suppose you got lost in the jungle . You would have nothing to worry
about as far as food is concerned . You may eat , with safety, anything that
the monkeys eat and you can even eat the monkeys. They are considered a
delicacy by the natives.
�15
More than likely you would start your day off with a breakfast of
grasshoppers. The legs and wings pulled off , toasted on the end of a stick or
fried in coconut oil, they are not at all displeasing to the taste. Of course
if you dcn't like grasshoppers you could eat winged ants , or termites
particularly the queens and the eggs of ants .
For dinner I would suggest roasted rat smothered with lizard tails .
Rats are plentiful and have a taste similar to large fruit bats. Lizards are
also plentiful and the meat from the hindquarters is preferred. A nice
seaweed salad would be appropriate. Strangely enough seaweeds are not very
salty and their water content is fairly fresh.
In general, the pink, purple
and the reddish or green seaweeds are best.
For dessert I would recommend
water lilies with chopped white grub worms.
Supper should be your biggest meal. You could start out with snake meat
sliced li ke bologna, wild sweet potato chips and fern tips. All s nakes are
aood to eat - even the poisonous ones , if the head is cut off immediately
after capture . Your soup could be turtle soup season ed with bamboo shoots and
the buds of palm trees . A salad of bananas and figs would go good i f you
could find some. Your main course may be porcupine stew or broiled kangaroo
steaks with hard boiled bird eggs on the side.
Seriously speaking all the items I have mentioned in this letter are
edible and you don't need any ration points to get them.
Was just thinking what i t would be like to have an Asheville Social Club
here. To begin with you wouldn't have a modern building like the one at home.
It would be a frame building covered with n etting or straw. The structur e
wouldn ' t need a heating plant because we have an abundance of that here. You
wouldn ' t be able to sell beer. The members would have to drink chlorinated
river water and like it . The poker players wouldn't be able to concentrate on
their hands as the roar of airplanes overhead would disturb them. You
wouldn't be able to call a taxi to go home. You would have to wa lk - maybe in
some pretty deep mud. You couldn't hold a dance as there are no women to
dance with . The rummy players would have to be satisfied with old dilapidated
cards as new ones are rare. The trustees would hav~ no worries since there is
no place to spend any money. There would be one advantage of havi ng the Club
here - you guys wouldn't have your wives calling you up at 1 AM to come home.
***************
I got caught with my pants down. I went into the latrine this morning
to enjoy a good smoke and to read the funnies. Gracefully, I made myself as
comfortable as possible on the GI equipment therein, relaxing and watching the
flies , red ants, and lizards playing football , follow-the-leader , and other
games on the rafters and walls . Suddenly, I noticed a spider sitting right
beside me - not an ordinary one with wire size legs , but one whose size
reminded me of the lobsters I used to eat at home, and whose legs reminded me
of those of Gloria Swanson . The gruesome and monstrous creature crawled
slowly toward me and J. had no trouble doing my duty - it scared it out of me.
In order that you might become acquainted with my dai ly routine here , I
am listing activities below:
6 AM
Wake up. Complain about the heat. Shake my shoes to see if any
centipedes are parked inside .
Put on my clothes .
6 : 0 4 AM
Think about washing my hands but decide it is too much trouble
so I start for chow.
�16
6 : 06 AM
Look for Porkie (the pet pig) but he don't seem to be around
G~ess he is still asleep - the l ueky hog.
yet.
6 : 15AM
After a short argument I get the cook to turn my egg over
becau se I don't li ke it half done .
6 : 35 AM
wash my mess kit and complain about the heat .
I
Go back to my tent .
6 :4 0AM
decide to postpone the job .
boo ks like it n eeds clean i ng up bu t
6 :41 AM
Lay down on my cot and read a f e w pages of a wild west story .
7 : 10 AM
Complain about the h eat.
7:30 AM
Cl imb on a GT truc k and ride ou t to my office at the field.
The truck jars so much i t almost shakes my kidneys loose .
7 :4 5 AM
Arrive at my office (a tent) and dust off the furniture . I
don' t have to s weep the floor because it is a dirt floor and it don ' t do no
good to s weep t he d irt off of d i rt.
8 : 00 AM
Sgt . Luec k comes in singing. Can ' t imagine why he is
singing so early i n the morning.
I soon find out the reason - he made Staff
Sergeant on a new rating list .
Sgt . Lueck says that I didn ' t make C::orporal on t he n e w list:
8 : 05 AM
because the squ adron is lou sy with corporals and some of them will have to
die , transfer, go home or get promoted before I cou l d get another stripe .
Capt . Gardn e r comes in and offers S/Sgt. Lueck congratulations
8 : 20AM
a nd me h is sympathy . He tells me t hat h e d i d h is b e st: to get me a rati ng a n d
he thin ks he will be able to push me up n e xt time.
9 : 00 AM
Pfc . Runnels comes in a nd wants to know if I ma de corporal.
W
hen he found o u t I didn't he s uggested I e nter a complaint .
I explained that
I wasn' t makin g the a rmy my ca r eer and it didn't make mue h difference one way
or another.
do the same thing I d i d at 7 : 10AM.
10 : 00 AM
I
11 : 00 AM
Leave t h e field for the camp area in the same kidney-shaking
11 : 15 AM
Arrive at the camp area .
truck .
11 : 20 AM
Stop at the PX and since they were sold o u t of candy, cookies
and food , I didn ' t buy anything.
11 : 31 AM
Thought that
I
would wash up but
I
go to chow instead.
11 : 59 AM
Lay down on my cot fo r my noon time nap.
heat and fall asleep .
Complain abou t the
1 : 30 PM
1 : 45PM
that
I
Wake up and j ump on the truck going back to the field .
Arrive at the offiee a nd it is so hot I
take my s h irt off .
1 :47 PM
The flies , using my back for a landing field , worry me so much
put my shirt back on .
2 : 10 PM
Some pilot does a buzz job with his p l ane over
~y
tent a nd I
�17
go out to see if the tops of the coconut trees are still there.
3 : 00 PM
I do the same thing I did at 10 AM only twice as much!
4:00 PM
My day's work done.
I hop on the truck for the camp area .
Caught one of the new easy riding trucks wi th eight wheels and no spring.
4:20 PM
Went by the mail room for my mail which didn ' t arrive.
4:30 PM
Against my better judgement I took a shower.
5:00 PM
Chow.
5:15 PM
Write letters.
7 : 00 PM
Moving picture sta r ts .
previous occasions , I go see it again.
Since I ' ve seen i t on only three
10 : 00 PM
Lights out . Discussion of various topics goes on between the
members of the tent. The subjects under discussion will be omitted for the
benefit of any person under eight years of age who might read this.
In this area we have the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy.
I
am in the Army Air Forces and my old friend , Harry Murdock, former assistant
circulation manager of the Asheville Times, is in the Navy. Now, we see each
other often , and in order to show how much the Navy will cooperate with the
Army , Harry agreed to procure for me an item that the Navy has and the Army
has not.
(The method of obtai n i ng this item will not be revealed at t his
time . ) I had not looked upon one of these luxuries for nine m
onths and when
he brought it to me, it was too delightful to d~scribe - too wonderful to
believe . It was more welcome than an umbrella in t he rain, an ice cold drink
on a hot day or a fur coat by a chorus girl. There wa s never such beauty in
the mountains of western North Carolina at autumn time - no such glamour in a
sunset on the ocean or a bathing beauty content. It was more invigorating
than a scotch and soda or a banana split. Never before had I bestowed upon me
such a gift and now when I go to sleep on that second hand "Navy issue "
mattress , I ' ll dream of days to come when I can be home again .
**************•
Dear Mom:
When I try to eat this GI food, T think of how I ate at home - it ' s then
I think of you dear mom.
When I look at my floor of dirt , I think of how the floors at home were
so shiny and clean - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I try to go to bed at night, T think of the soft bed T had at home
with clean sheets and clean pillow cases - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I have the toothache and nobody here seem to care - it ' s then I
think of you dear Mom.
When buttons c ome off I try to sew them on - it ' s then T think of you
cear M
om.
Yo u were my cook, my nurse, my advisor, and my teacher and now when I
n eed o ne of these - it's then I think of you dear Mom .
�18
'**************'*
If you should become ill all you would have to do is call the doctor and
h e usually fixes you up.
A sick airplan e is a different story . To begin with t h ere is a c rew who
makes general repairs on t he ship . Besides t h is crew there are propeller
specialists , engine specialists , hydraulic specialists , bomb-sight
specialists , men who specialize in changing engines , radio men who repair the
radios , a tire c h a nge departme n t , a section that looks after parachutes, life
rafts , emergency rations , oxygen bottles and fire e x tinguishers , a supply
department for parts needed, a refuel u n it to service the ships with gas and
oil , inst r ument specialists , welders , sheet metal men , electrical experts ,
painters , ordnance men to load bombs, armamen t men to look after the guns,
carburetor specialists , guards to guard the planes , a clerical staff to keep
the records, inspectors , crew chiefs to supervise the crews, flight chiefs to
supervise the cre\ol chiefs a nd line chiefs to sup ervise the flig h t c h iefs .
Aren ' t you happy t h at you do not requi r e as muc h atten tio n as a n
airplane to keep you i n shape?
•• ••***********
Over here, far a way from home , I think a lot a nd what do you think I
think about?
First of all , I think a good deal about my family , my loved o n es and my
friends I left behind .
ountain, Pack Square , Vance M
onument , Mom's
I also think abo ut Sunset M
cooking , the shiny floors i n my hous e - t he
gr~en
grass i n the yard.
Happenings that didn ' t seem important at the time now seem to be great
events .
I think of the time when I was in the second grade of grammar school
and stole an apple from M . Book's Grocery Store on Cherry S treet . I remember
r
the fjrst licking my daddy gave me for throwing a rock at my sister- he s h ook
me so hard that the cuff links fell out of my shi r t sleeves and I never could
find them . I thi n k about the first time I went fish ing and caught a fish.
I
remember the time I went hunting , killed a deer, and was s orry that I did it.
T t h ink about my golf games at Beaver Lake. I can recall the ti me J almost
had a fight with Dr . Robinson at a Temple Club meeting. I think of the time I
beat John Vance i n an e l ection for trustee of t h e Elks Lodge. M fondest
y
memories are of the c h ildren around town who called me "Uncle Leo. " I think
about the Christmas day whe n I played Santa Claus with the members o ·f the
Lions Club at the Salvation Army Chapel .
I think of the n ight that I , a
bachelor, presided at a Father and Son Banquet at Congregation Be th-HaTephila .
I think very little of the materialistic things I left behind. I
realize now that the important things in my lifetime - the things that mean
the most to me now were just little things , j u st everyday happenings.
•****""*********
Corporal Mark is a great g u y and that is why t like to do a favor fo r
him if I can . Well, I am the guy who makes up the de t ail list and Corporal
Mark requested that I put hi.m on the roving guard detail. Now, a r oving guard
has a comparatively easy job . He gets a jeep , rides around all night and sees
that no one steals one of our heavy bombers (weight 60 , 000 pounds). Corporal
Mark is very efficient in his guarding because he goes beyond the usual call
of duty and guards, not only the bombers , but the mess hall and other places
where food and supplies are stored. Corporal Mark is very successful in
�19
obtaining various types of edibles while on guard duty and during the early
morning hours h e and I devour this food wi t h a great deal of pleasure and
satisfaction to our always hungry stomachs. Now Corporal Mark is an upright
and honest fellow and T think he was getting the idea that we weren ' t justly
e n titled to the extra stuff to eat . That idea soon vanished because I told
him about the amount of taxes the government was hitting me for while I was
over here fighting for world peace so we decided that we could go on procuring
this nourishment without hesitation and with a clean conscience.
** * ************
From Waltda , New Guinea
I
Wanna Go Home
Here T ~m ~n enli~ted man ,
Getting along the best I can,
The officers h ave stea k while I eat Spam,
I wanna go home.
W
omen I c ~ave the~e is no doub t ,
Can ' t have nurses here about,
Because the officers take them out ,
I wanna go home.
M n like me will get the blues,
e
No whiskey for us a nd that ain ' t news,
Because the officers get all the booze ,
I wanna go home.
I can ' t get a furlough regulations say,
I can ' t rest and I can't play,
But the officer s manage to find a way,
I wanna go home.
*****'"'**** .. ****
The Engineering Office sent sergeant Reville and me over to the other
side of the field to get a new bomber for our squadron.
I sure felt important
when the fellow over there asked me to sign a receipt for the ship. Can you
imagine Pfc. Finkelstein signing for $250 , 000 worth of airplane? I assure you
it was less trouble for me to get that airplan e than it would be for you to
kiss a bride at a wedding . I climbed up in the pilot ' s cockpit while Sergeant
Reville hooked his eletrac to the nose wheel of the plane . Now Sergeant
Reville can pull these 60 , 000 pound monsters around the field with his eletrac
just like a baby pulls a wagon around the living room and knocks over all the
furniture only Sergeant Reville never knocks anything over . He pulled me and
the airplane down the taxi strip to our area where I stopped the gasoline
truck and said, " Hey Corporal , fill her up . I think she will take about 3000
gallons. "
As he was filling it up I recalled the time when I was home on my
furlough and needed a little extra gasoline to drive my girl up to my favorite
parking place on Beaucatcher Mounta in and return home (at a decent hour - of
course) . Well, I went to the rationing board and they would only give me five
gallons - the stingy devils. Wish they could see me now getting 3100 gallons.
The only trouble over here is that I got no automobile and no girl to drive up
a mountain.
******* .................. .
Thousands of Japs had landed ,
�20
Near the land of the rising sun ,
On an island in the Pacific ,
They had nowhere else to run .
Now on this tiny island,
A good size town was found ,
The Japs - they took it over,
And wandered all around.
Our bombers got their orders,
And took off on the mission,
To save the town if possible,
And bomb the Jap position.
One bombardier was fearless,
And always on the ball,
This flight he made a grave mistake ,
ith no excuse at all .
W
He aimed right at the target,
He carefully fjxed his sight,
He missed the Jap position,
Hit a house with a big red light.
Now when we take that island,
And give the Japs a trimmin ',
W 'll still be cussin ' the bombardier,
e
Who blew up all the women .
**************
It all started when I received one of Finkelstein's $7;95 rebuilt
watches. A guy offered me an old radio and twenty- five dollars in cash for it
and I traded . Money is almost useless over here but I managed to give the
twenty-five dollars to another guy who gave me a half gallon of home-made
drinking beverage wh ich I think was made out of fe~ented canned corn and 100
octane gasoline.
I pooled my half-gallon of imitation "Carolina corn " with a
fellow who had a case of beer and we proceeded to drink it all up but he
passed out before we finished and I had ten cans of beer left on my hands as
my share of t h e party . I traded the beer for a pipe , ten packages of tobacco ,
a pocket knife and a fountain pen. I traded the knife for a flashlig ht and
three cans of beans. I ate the three cans of beans and traded the fountain
pen for an electric light socket , a cigarette lighter and two dollars.
I
invested the t wo dollars i n a crap game, won eight dollars, took the proceeds
and bought a radio tube to fix my radio.
I traded the radio for a boat which
later sank. I traded three packages of tobacco for four cigars and three air
mail stamps .
I smoked the cigars and used the three air mail stamps to write
to three friends back i n t he States requesting from each a box of food. Now,
when and if I receive these boxes of food , I will be able to render to you a
complete financial statement as to how I came out on the watch.
******* * *•*****
Here in the jungle we don ' t have houses fo r house flies to live i n but
we do have house flies . These flies look like the flies at home ~who have
survived the fly swatter , but they don't lead the same kind of life. They
follow us wherever we go but they don't follow us to the mess hall because
they don't like the Gl food t he mess sergeant slings at us no more than we do.
Once in awhile, if a fly gets about half starved, he will fly around the mess
hall looking for something to eat . They are persistent devils and they won ' t
~
�21
be shoo'd away like the American flies.
Quring din ner one made eighteen dives
at my mess kit before I got him. Many of these brave flies , who dare eat our
food, just turn over on their backs after the first bite , kick their legs up
in the air and die.
It ' s a rough war- even for flies .
The war seems to be getting longer every day.
***************
From Noamfoor
Starvin ' Marvin's real name is Sgt . Marvin Binion but we call him
Starvin ' Marvin because he never gets enough to eat. In fact none of us get
enough to eat - only he complains about it more than we do.
Now Starvin' Marvin has given everybody in our tent a name . Luke the
Droop is really Sgt. Lueck, chief engineering clerk. Ed the Red is a crew
chief on an airplane. Herman the German is chief clerk in Tech Supply and Leo
the Hero is nobody else but me, an ordinary clerk who is fed up with the setup.
Luke the Droop has been overseas thirty months and expects to go back to
the States on the "Rotation Plan" only i t hasn't rotated far enough to reach
him yet. on this account he is very cautious during air raids because he
figures he is going home soon and he wants to get there in good shape .
One night Hoim the Woim (which is a short name for Herman the German)
woke us up yelling "Air Raid. " Luke the Droop was dressed and in a fox hole
before any of us got out of bed. By the time I put on my shoes and grabbed my
clothes everybody was gone including Ed the Red who moves very slowly
especially when it comes to doing any work on his airplane.
I wandered out of the tent , the moon was shining brightly and everything
seemed peaceful to me . It wasn ' t peaceful long and I beat five guys to a jeep
and crawled under it. It was my first air raid experience and now I imagine
I ' l l be know as " Foxhole Finkelstein" instead of Leo the Hero .
************** ...
Written from Morotai
My Helmet
My helmet is a useful thing ,
To wear upon my head,
It's made of good materials ,
And feels almost like lead .
My helmet makes a wash bowl,
I can use it any place ,
I fill it up with water,
And wash my hands and face.
My fox hole roof is awful low,
I can ' t stand up in there,
So I put my helmet on the floor ,
And use i t for a chair .
Now if I want a ba5ket,
To hang down from my bunk,
�22
It sure does make a lovely thing,
To hold all kinds of junk.
Now if I ' m sentimental ,
For flowers and that rot ,
I fill it up with good old dirt,
~nd I got a flowe r pot.
Now if I want to take a nap,
Beneath a weeping willow,
I place it down upon the ground ,
And U5e i t tor a pillow.
No w when I ligh t a candle ,
need a candlestick ,
I tur n the helmet upsid e down,
It always does t h e t r ick .
~d
Now when my socks get di r ty ,
the odor isn ' t right ,
I fill the thing with soapy water,
~nd let them soak all njght .
~d
Now hard boiled eggs are something ,
I always did admire,
So I fill the helmet full of water ,
~nd put them on the fire.
Now when we had a dim out,
There ' s no use to be afraid ,
I put the helmet on the light ,
And use i t for a shade .
Now when this war is over,
(I ' ve often heard it said) ,
The helmet ' ll be a useful thing ,
To keep beneath the bed.
finis
***********•***
Littl e Wacs
Real cute
They want
Parachute.
In c hute
Silk cloth
Real cl~a n
Very so ft.
Love pilots
With skill
Get c hutes
~t will.
Take back
To shanties
Make many
�23
Pair panties .
Interesting facts about Life on the South Pacific Islands with the Air forces:
A whiskey still can be made out of hydraulic tubing , an oxygen tank and
other airplane parts.
Corn whiskey can be made out of fermen ted canned co rn .
American whiskey may be bought from S35 to S60 per quart.
A motor boat can be con structed from two airplane belly tanks and a
small power unit.
The silk cloth in parachutes may be used to make panties for nurses and
Wacs .
All natives are friendly - there are no cannibals.
In trading with the n a tives you can get more with a Bible or a piece of
cloth tha n you can get with money or jewelry.
100 octane gasoline may be used for cigarette lighter fluid.
Gasoline is easier to procure than water. Sometimes it requires written
permission to get five gallons of wate r for laundry purposes . Gasoline is
available in any quantity for any purpose.
There are more sna kes per square mile in the mountains of North Ca rolina
than in the j ungle.
It is safer in a fox hole during a n air raid than riding in a n
automobile back home wi t h you r wife drivi ng it .
********* .. *'****
All natives are friendly i n these parts. There are no cannibals .
That's more than I can say for the tax collector back home .
Taking a bath o u t of a helmet is more complicated than you thi nk.
Nevertheless , the job can be done without exerting too much effort if t he
following di r ections are complied with:
Never try to sit in the helmet.
P1ace it o n a corne r p o l e o f a tent a nd
stand beside it . Buckle the c h in strap and let i t h a ng down like a flower
basket.
rill t he helmet full of water . Get the water i n a legitimate manner
if you can, otherwise steal it from the mess hall or the officer ' ~ showers there is ~J ways plenty there .
Place a copy of you r home town n e wspaper on the
ground (the Sunday edition is best because i t has more pages and makes a
softer bath mat) . Take a cake of soap and using the water in the helmet
lather up from feet to head or head to feet - it don't make no difference.
Before the soap drjes , fill the helmet with fresh water and pour ove r top of
head. This is repeated until all the soap is washed off. If the water is too
cold , there is nothing you can do about it . Dry with a towel either clean or
dirty. Shake all a nts and bugs out of towel before using.
In the event of an
air ra1d during the p r ocess of taking the bath , go to your fox hol e at o nce.
ALter the " all clear" start all over from the beginni ng.
�24
************ .. **
A j ungle snake,
on Guadalcanal ,
Went crawling over ,
To see his gal.
He found his gal,
Did not feel fit ,
She had a cold,
That wouldn't quit.
And every time,
That she would cough ,
The jungle snake ,
Would get hissed off .
Master Sergeant Johnson and I started the evening off by opening a can
of salmon a nd ended up by opening a gold mine or at least we planned to open
o n e after the war.
Sergeant Johnson, after looki ng at the label on t he above mentioned
salmon can, told me that he was once foreman of the cannery in Alaska that
canned this particular can of salmon. He insisted on telling me about the
different species of salmon , the white salmon , the pink salmon and I forgot
the other colors he mentioned. Anyway I wasn ' t i nterested in the colors of
salmon in Alaska because I was hungry and the only salmon I was i nterested in
at that particular time was the salmon in the can .
In order to be sure we wouldn ' t get poisoned by the salmon, we took
several shots of Jungle Juice before and after eating the fish .
For you r
information Jungle Juice is made of 190 proof medical alcohol, colored and
flavored with burnt sugar and diluted w.itl'l a small quantity of water.
Jungle Juice seems to build up conversation and the conversation drifted
all around Alaska. We finally got on the subject of gold and gold mi nes.
According to what Sgt. Johnson said , he had done a goodly amoun t of gold
hunting in Alaska and was well versed in mineralogy . We figured we could buy
a seaplane after the war from the Navy at a fraction of the original cost , fly
to Alaska, land on the many i naccessible lakes , pan their shores for gold and
get rich quick (if the income tax man don ' t find us) .
I have written all my friends back horne offering to sell them stock in
the Finkelstein- Johnson Expedition to Alaska.
Smoky Joe's horne is just a little bit south of Asheville, North
carolina. He is one of the cooks down at our Mess Hall, a good guy, and a GI
who can sympathize with all the other G.Is who have to eat the food he
prepares.
Before the war Smoky Joe owned a Load house on the highway going south
from Asheville, and, after talking with him I found that I had patronized his
institution on numerous occasions during my younger years . Since we were
practically neighbors in eivilia n life 1 we felt that we should eontinue over
here as good neighbors and so we are . There is no better friend in the Army
than a cook because when you get hungry - he is the only man who can help you
out .
In passing , I might mention that Smoky Joe, Starvin' Marvin and I have
on numerous i nstances enjoyed eating surplus stoeks of food from the M
ess
•
�25
Hall.
Smoky Joe told me about Sheriff Brown taking his automobile away from
hi m enee beeause the Sheriff had feund some whiskey in it that he (Smoky) was
transporting to his road house . Now, Smoky is fighting to get his freedom his freedom to go home and dodge the Sheriff some more, and there is Starvin'
Marvin who wants to go home to see his wife and two year old boy; a child that
he has never seen~ and so it is with me - I want te go home - I just want to
go home.
***************
Less than twenty four hours after we landed here we found it - a path
that wound its way through the jungle to a dance hall. Now I have danced in
New York night clubs, patronized dine and dance places in Mexico, attended
parties in exclusive social clubs in Havana, and participated in barn dances
in the hills of North Carolina but never have I witnessed a set-up like this
one. The dance hall was a native hut with a grass roof and a wood floor. The
admission price two pesos. The band consisting of a saxophone, banjo and drum
played familiar tunes like "Johnnie Get Your Gun" and "A1exander's Ragtime
Band." Seated around the dance floor were several Filipino girls in their
recently washed dresses. It was your privilege to dance with them but before
doing so you had to remove your shoes and place them under the girl's chair.
GI shoes are dangerous weapons, while jitter-bugging with these fair (slightly
dark) bare-footed girls and it is while dancing in your socks that you get the
true meaning of "socks appeal".
********** *****
I made Corporal but:
1.
It was easier for me to date a New York chorus girl.
2.
I expended less energy in climbing to the top of Ht. Mitchell.
3.
I had fewer headaches going through the depression of 1933.
4.
It was less trouble to figure out my 1942 income tax return.
5.
course.
6.
It took a smaller amount of skill to break a hundred on the golf
It took less will power to stay sober on New Year's Eve .
(I expect to make Sergeant during World War III.)
**************
Since Finkelstein, Silverstein and Stein live in tent 99 anything is
liable to happen. We play. We play gin rummy almost every night and I do not
hesitate to take Stein and Silverstein on in any gambling activity that might
be beneficial to my financial status. I am glad to take their pesos as both
smoke my cigars without any offer of payment for same. Silverstein talked so
much that the CO made him news commentator for our radio station. Stein's old
man manufactures shirts in New York City and his son, a chip off of the old
Stein, tries to take the shirt off the back of everybody he does any trading
with. So with the oratorical ability of Silverstein, the progressive attitude
of Stein and my Finkelstein knowledge of big business, we procured ten gallons
of ice cream at a cost of 8 3/10 cents per gallon. It may interest you to
know that the market price of ice cream on this island is $7 per gallon.
�26
I will relate to you with brevity just how this trade was made.
I
received from Finkelstein's an item of merchandise retail value $9.75. Stein
and Silverstein, under my supervision, traded this item for the ten gallons of
ice cream . Off hand it would seem that the cost of the ice cream would be 97
~ center per gallon but that is not true.
I do not expect to pay
Finkelstein ' s Inc. for this item of merchandise , and as a stockholder i n said
corporation I have instructed them to c harge the accoun t off as a loss . They
will not lose the $9.75 as the wholesale cost is less than this amount and
furthermore they can deduct the loss from their income tax returns. After
much scientific calculation I find that my stock in Finkelstein ' s Inc. has
decreased in value 83 cents therefore the cost of the ice cream to me was 8
3/10 cents per gallon.
******* ********
Assorted Duties:
chopping down trees
digging a well
hauling poles
hauling fire wood
hauling coal
fighting forest fires
sorting merchandise at warehouse
sorting salvage merchandise
smashing tin cans
hauling water
finance clerk
detail clerk
runner for headquarters
stacking lumber
pulling weeds and grass
cleaning barracks
watering trees
loading and unloaaing trucks
loading and unloading freight cars
loading barracks bags on boats and trucks
cleaning hatches on boats
latrine orderly
painting machinery
communications clerk
engineering cler k
�27
Editor's Note: At the end of his tour of duty, Leo Finkelstein returned home to Asheville, North
Carolina to resume management of Finkelstein's Pawn Shop. Leo recalls meeting Webb Ellis,
another Asheville Lion's ~ub member, on the boat coming back to the United States from the
Phillipines. The boat landed in Seattle, Washington the day the war was over with Japan, and
they were discharged at Fort Bragg N.C. on September I, 1945. Ten days later Leo and Sylvia
Bein were married by a judge in the Harlem section of New York City. In deference to hjs
mother's wishes, they were again married agaifl by Rabbi Unger in Asheville. Leo and Sylvia,
parents of Leo Finkelstein, Jr., a faculty member at Wright State Uruversity in Dayton, Ohio,
reside at The Summit Retirement Community in Asheville, where Leo is pianist with "The
Sanctimonieus Seven" and active member of the Asheville Lic:m's Club.
�.
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LETTERS FROM LEO
WORLD WAR II CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ASHEVILLE
LIONS CLUB
LEO FINKELSTEIN
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�INTRODUCTION
Leo Finkelstein was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1905, and in 1911 began his
education at the Montford Avenue Grammar School. Leo graduated from Asheville High School
in 1922, where he was business manager of the Hillbilly, the school monthly magazine, as well as
pianist for a musical group. From playing saxophone with the AsheviJie Shrine Club Marching
Band in the 1930s to piano with the Sanctimonious Seven for the Asheville Lion's Club in the
1990s, Leo has served his community though music, humor, business acumen, and community
leadership.
In 1922 Leo took over management of Finkelstein's Pawnshop, a downtown Ashevillt>
institution which Leo's father Harry Finkelstein had opened in 1903 . Since his retirement from
Finkelstein's in 1970, Leo has continued to be actively involved in the civic, fraternal, and
religious life of the community.
A member of the Asheville Lion' s Club for over sixty years, Leo has regaled his fellow
Lions with his unique view oflife in Asheville and beyond. Inducted into the U.S. Army Air
Corps in 1943, Leo was seen off at the bus by Lion C. Fred Brown, past president of the
Asheville Lion's Club and former Vice Mayor of Asheville, who advised Leio to send letters back
to the local Lion' s Club. Leo complied. What follows is his record of experiences and
observations which were copied and sent back to the Asheville Lion's Club, to be read at
meetings during World War II.
Following induction at Camp Croft, South Carolina, Leo endured Basic Training at Miami
Beach, Florida, before being sent to Tishomingo, Oklahoma for training as an Air Force Clerk.
His collected stories were recorded in a diary, given to him by Miss Ruth Anderson, Leo's typing
teacher at the Oklahoma College of Agriculture, where soldiers trained to be clerks in the Air
Force. The majority of the following stories, vignettes, and poems originated in the Philippines,
where Leo served until the final days of the war.
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SERVICE RECORD
Transf'ers
Spar tanburg , sc
Columbia, sc
Miami Beach , FL
Tishomingo , OK
Kearns , Utah
Pittsburg , CA
Camp Croft
Camp Jackson
414 Training Group
Murray State College
501 Training Group
Camp Ston eman
San Francisco , CA
New Caledonia
New Caledonia
Guadalcanal
Los Negros
40th Ship Co .
6th Replacement Depot
6th Staging Area
394th Bomb Sq. (H)
394th Bomb Sq . (H)
Wakde
Noernfoor
Morotai
Samar
Leyte
Seattle, WA
Fort Bragg , NC
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
394th Bomb Sq .
93rd Repl .
Fort Lawton
?------ ---
Letter Sent Home From
~ami
(H)
(H)
(H)
(H)
Induction
Reception
Basic Training
A. A. F . T . T.C . (E &O)
O.R. T . C.
P . O. E . (Staging
Area)
P . O. E .
South Pacific
Novmea
5th Bomb GP (H)
13th Air Task
Force
F .E.A. F .
F . E . A. F .
F .E. A. F .
F .E. A.F.
P . O. E.
P . O. D.
Separation
January 12, 1943
January 19, 1943
January 23 , 1943
March 29 , 1943
May 31 , 1943
Oct .
Nov.
Nov.
Dec.
Dec.
20 , 1943
1, 1943
23 , 1943
11, 194 3
19, 1943
Aug. 20 , 1944
Aug . 2: , 1944
Sept. 2b , 1944
Nov. 4 , 1944
March 2 , 1945
July 14 , 1945
Aug. 20 , 1945
Sept. 1, 1945
Beach
I am still on the sun-kissed shores of Miami Beach and have been well
educated in my advanced training .
I have learned six new cuss words
(especially) for top Master Sergeants , how to use an electric potato peeling
machine, how to qo to Miami without a pass , how to stand at attention (while
half asleep) , how to shine my shoes with the minimum amount of energy . I have
been told that I will be shot if I go AW
OL or fall asleep on guard duty and
will get half- shot if I drink too much whiskey (like I didn ' t know). I have
had so many instructions on making beds , cleaning out toilet bowls and other
domestic duties that I think I would make a better wife than a soldier . I
have been taught to jump off of nine foot fences on the obstacle course and if
I refused to do it - I would be locked up here. If I did things like Lhat at
home - I would be locked up there.
I have been taught that if a pretty girl
walks by - I can look, think and wish, but I ' m not allowed to talk or whistle
at her. I have been taught to stand at attention and not move while a fly
does calisthenics on my nose . This is the Army Air Force .
From Tishomingo , Oklahoma
Ti shomingo was an Tndian Chief who died here in the early part of the
nineteenth century and this place has been dead ever since. This is the spot
where the capitol of some Indian tribe was situated and today i t is a spot
where 500 soldiers are s tudying to be technicians in the Air Corps and at the
same time improving thejr technique with the co-eds on the campus of t h is
college.
***************
�5
My mail has been so light lately,
all the way back to Asheville .
I ' m getting to think my BOis reaching
***************
Something happened to the wa ter works in Tishomingo and the Army
Officers found that the water wasn ' t pure so none of t h e soldiers can go into
town until the town government gets the wate r works fixed.
I can ' t imagine
soldiers going to town to drink water but I g u ess some of the officials are
scared one of them will get drunk and take a bath in it.
Before the war I thought being in the army would be a thrilling
adventure - but now I know Sherman was right.
I
Before the war I thought the Air Corps was a mechanized force - but now
wonder what the Hell I 'm marching for.
Before the war, I thought floors were to walk on - but now I ' v e found
they are to sweep a nd mop on.
Before the war, I thought the Asheville-Citizen was a rotten n ewspaper but now I enjoy readi n g one four days old.
Before the war , I would drink a cocktail before dinner - but now I drink
milk with my dinner .
Before the war, I would go to b ed sometimes at 4 AM - but now I get up
at ll AM .
Before the war, I was particular about wha t girl I took out - but now
I ' m not so particular.
Before the war, I struggled over a golf course - but now I s truggle over
an obstacle course .
Before the war, I used to shine at a dance - but now I shine my shoes.
Before the war , I cussed at a golf ball - but now a sergeant cusses at
me because I ' m not on the ball .
Before the war, I d i dn ' t have much religion - but now T pray for a
furlough.
***************
In the army you are always in a hurry to get somewhere so you ' ll have
more time to wait after you get there.
*********'******
The obstacle course is so tough here that they take us on a nine mile
hike to get limbered up so we can make i t .
I reached the height of my social career in Tishomingo yesterday when my
army typing teacher, Miss Anderson , invited me to have dinner wi th her at the
Payne Hotel in the heart of Tishomingo . Miss Anderson is not only the best
looking lady teacher on the campus, but a nice person to talk to and get all
the information about the religious , social , fraternal , and political life in
�6
this county.
I arrived at the Payne Hotel exactly on time - for who am J to keep a
lady waiting who invites me o ut to dinner and pays the check. My first v iew
of the interior of the hotel was d epressing a nd to be conservative and brief
with my description of this institution (founded in the s t age coach days) is
that it was a pain. Nevertheless , my compan jon was n ice and t he kindly smiles
of an understanding teacher to a lonesome soldier helped greatly to make my
evening a success.
We entered the dining room with a great deal of precision and grace ,
dodging some water that was leaking from the second floor through the ceiling
and drippi n g on the dining room floor.
Part of the p laster had already fallen
from the ceiling and I felt surely t he balance would come down at any minute .
The dining room was also being used for a linen s upply room and lumber storage
room.
Du ri ng our meal a lady would bring i n dirty line n, pile i t on t h e
floor , a nd carry clean lin en out. I never could figure out wh y all the lumber
was stacked in the corner and was afraid to ask .
After dinner my teacher took me for a personally conducted tour through
the darkened, dirty and low-ceilinged halls to room #35 (where she livesl and
behold - there I visualized her pride and joy , a private bathroom - the o~ly
one in ~ iotel.
1"'""' I"
To be continued ...
This place is thirty miles f rom a telegraph office and so far from
civilization that one gets a wful lonesome at times . In fact one soldier got
so lonesome that he got married on the telephone last night.
This is a dry place, both in climate and drinking alcohol. It seems
that Tishomingo is s o dry that even the bootleggers don't sell it.
••*************
They believe in getting mar r ied youn g here and I haven ' t found a single
girl over 22 years of age , so I haven ' t found a suitable lady my age to take
out . W
ould take some of the younger ones out but their papas keep shotgut:s
and they know how to shoot straight out W
est.
Many times in my lifetime I have heard about people seeing snakes,
especially at moments when more spirits were absorbed than the system could
stand. This county here is very dry.
In view of this fact I realized that I
had not had a drink during the time I had been here - so it wasn ' t whiskey.
Therefore it must be a live snake and there it was on the barrack ' s floor
crawling and wiggling and sticking its tongue out at me.
That is not the only type pet that is found in our barracks. Just last
week we discovered a couple of live frogs and now and then a stray dog will
walk in to look us over .
At night we a re blessed with some miniature bombers to help put us to
s l eep . These extra l a rge bugs are supposed to be June bugs but I know bugs
cou l dn't grow tha t l arge in the one month of June. They gain a lot of
�7
altitude and all of a sudden will dive at you and manage to find the one bare
place that is out from under t h e cover .
Otherwise t here is nothing much to bother you in Tishomingo. No pretty
girls to get your mind off of your studies and you don ' t even have to be
afraid of Indians because they are all tame .
************* * *
From Kearns , Utah
My frie nds never seemed so numerous - my bed never felt softer - my
heart never beat faster - my Hudson never purred so smoothly - days never went
by quicker - Mama's food never tasted so delicious - Patton Avenue never
looked so glorified - the mountains were never more thrilling - the grass
never looked greener - the girls never seemed prettier - the sun never shone
brighter - and The Lions Club never looked better as i t did on my furlough
home .
Don ' t know what the city debt is now but take my word for it - Asheville
is worth every damned penny of it.
***************
Am here at an overseas replacement training center and considering the
tough training I ' m getting now - it looks like the Army is going to make a
commando out of me instead of an Air Force Clerk .
****** *** ***** *
The Air Corps is just like our G.I. laundry:
you get out of it just
what you put into it , but you ' d never recognize it.
***************
(Copied from another source)
~J~~
~\.
"After returning from my Homing uevice' (furlough), I went to Salt Lake
City and done some Blind Flying (date with a girl one has never seen). W
e
we nt to the USO and had some Battery Acid (coffee). The Hash Burner (cook)
didn ' t do so well that n ight so we didn ' t eat , instead we went out to look for
some Serum (intoxicating beverage). After a few drinks I had to tell her to
roll up her flaps (stop talking) . Then she left me and I had to go on ~
Patrol (search for more female companionship) . Believe me, I walked so much
that night that I was ready for a Dog Show (foot inspection) ."
***************
Yesterday I went on a ten mile hike in the blazing sun and a dust storm
with GI shoes on my feet , leggings on my legs , a steel helmet on my head, a
cartridge belt around my waist with a first aid kit and a canteen full of
water beating against my side, a gas mask on one shoulder , an eight pound
rifle on the other, a pack on my back with a tent, a tent pole, 5 tent stakes,
a tent rope , a raincoat, a blanket , a knife, a fo rk, a spoon, a cup, other
mess equipment , a suit of underwear, a pair of socks, a handkerchief, a towel ,
shaving cream, shaving brush, toothpaste , a comb , a razor, a mirror, soap, a
bayonet i n my belt and two hand grenades in my packet .
I spoke several cuss words out loud before I returned.
I'll be court marshaled for that?
***************
Do you think
�8
Today we were given a demonstration of war gases. I was told to put on
my gas mask and was placed in a c hamber filled with tear gas. Everything was
lovely until I was instructed to take the mask off and breathe the stuff which I did very reluctantly. My eyes burnedt my nose burned, my throat
burned and I cried and cried and cried so they let me out into the fresh air.
After partially recovering, I was informed that I would be subjected to
several other popular brands of gasses and all I had to do was sniff each one
(like a hound dog sniffs at a rabbit track) and associate the smell with
something I had smelled in civilian life . This was easy and my analysis was
as follows:
Chlora-Picknon gas smelled like corn whiskey.
Phosgene gas smelled like scotch whiskey.
Chlorine gas smelled like rye whiskey.
MUstard gas smelled like bourbon whiskey.
Hydrogen-mustard gas smelled like ordinary cooking whiskey.
This camp is a cross section between a concentration camp and the
Buncombe County chain gang. They keep you in this camp a couple of months
before you are sent to a combat zone. They figure if you can live here two
months without serious complications that you s hould be able to iive at any
other point in the world for ten years.
***************
It's so dirty here and I'm so used to it that if I ever get back home on
a furl ough I'll have to sprinkle sand in the bed so I can sleep.
***************
We are not troubled with rats here - they can't live in this climate .
•••••••••••••••
I went to Bunny's Beer Garden last night and stayed to 5 AM and took
Bunny home. Bunny's husband is in the Navy . I tried to be faithful to the
Air Corps, but I couldn't find an aviator's wife who owned a beer garden .
...................
Below is a schedule of how I spent a weekend here:
Waiting in line to get a pass
Waiting in line to get a bus to town
Waiting in line to let an MP check your pass
Waiting i n line to use phone to call girl
Waiting to get taxi to go after girl
Waiting in line to get permit to buy a pint of whiskey
Waiting in line to buy whiskey
Waiting in line to get seat in restaurant
Waiting for waitress to bring ginger ale and ice
Waiting in line for s treet car to take girl home
Waiting for girl to make up her mind (to kiss me good-night)
Walkinq to bus station
Explaining to 1st sergeant why I was late getting back to camp
Resting up from Saturday night ' s activities
30 min.
43 min.
9 min.
10 min.
52 min.
28 min.
27 min.
40 min .
12 min.
11 min.
02 min.
13 mi:n.
5 min.
All day Sunday
•••••••••••••••
The worst food in the Army Air Forc es is served in the mess halls of
Kearns Field, Utah. A soldier here was getting somethinq to eat out of a
�9
garbage can today and a Lieutenant nearby said, "Here you! Do you think vou
are better than the rest of the men on th~s field - get on in the mess hall
and eat!"
•••••••••••••••
I've had details on this post from the telephone operator on the firing
range to the office boy in the eommanding 0fficer's office) but my most
interesting detail was handed to me today when I was made "Garbage Man" for
the Mess Hall. Now don't think that a garbage man's job is just an ordinary
bit of work. To the contrary, it takes a man who can stand gruesome odors and
one who has specialized knowledge of slop and other varieties of waste.
Neatly lined up outside of the kitchen of the Mess Hall are thirty-six
GI garbage cans. My main duty was to see that the right stuff was put in the
right can. There were certain cans designated for wet garbage, dry garbage,
vegetable peelings ) fruit peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, bones, ashes
and trash . You must be careful not to put coffee grounds in the slop as it
will kill the hogs. Tea leaves will make hogs very sick and if there is any
broken glass in it - it won't do the hogs any good .
I was quite proud of myself when the K,p , Sergeant complimented me on my
work. The only thing that worried me was that I was doing all this for the
benefit of hogs and pigs.
Recently deodorized,
Leo
***************
I was told that every good soldier should know how to do his own
laundry, so I decide that I'm going to do some washing for myself. I tried to
find out the best method for washing clothes but it seemed liked very soldier
had a different system. ALter much calculation and thought I start on what I
think to be the correct procedure. The first thing I do is steal a bucket
from the Mess Hall. Then I go to the PX and buy a box of Rinso and a bottle
of Clorox. I put half the box o f Rinso and half the bottle of elorox i n the
bucket filled with hot water and place my underwear and socks therein. The
directions on the box said to soak for one hour but in order to do a good job
I figured I would put the bucket of clothes under my bed for a day or two .
Everything was coming along fine until the Lieutenant came through the
barracks on an inspection tour and saw the bucket of clothes under my bed. I
couldn't explain how the bucket got out of the Mess Hall or why I was doing my
laundry during duty hours. The next thing I knew - I was restricted to the
Post for a week.
Nothing was going to stop me so I started to wash the clothes. I found
that the dye had run out of the socks and had got in the underwear and I
couldn't get the dye out of the underwear or back in the socks. Therefore, I
went up to the Supply Sergeant and signed a statement of charges and got
myself some new underwear and socks .
Now I'm all washed up trying to wash my own washing .
•••••••••••••••
l'roa
ea~~~p Ston~,
CA
I can't tell you where I'm at because the censor wouldn't like it.
I can't tell you what kind of clothes I've been issued because you would
�10
kn~w
where I was going.
I can't tell you about the camp because its against the rules.
I can't tell you about my equipment because it would jeopardize my
security.
I can tell you this th(!)ugh - I had a date with a girl by the na.me of
Sylvia who used to live in Chicago, who is now living in Los Angeles and who
is visiting some friends in a city near here and she is just as sweet as ever.
'***************
The PK here reminds me of a t'!C!)Unt.r:y st(!)re with a night elub at.JIIC!)sphere.
You can buy anything from beer to buttons with pretty little teen-age girls to
serve you. At very reasonable prices you can have coffee, doughnuts, cakes,
sandwiches, drinks or ice cream, a gift for mother, a souvenir for sister, a
ean of shoe polish; a b~ttle ~f ink; a bath towel or your favorite pipe
tobacco. A nickelodeon bellows forth music in one corner while a group of
soldiers are singing favorite songs in another. A Lieutenant-Colonel walks in
without a neck tie. A captain is talking to a private in a friendly manner.
A sergeant is conversing with a s~l i ng WA~ . Here is the common meeting
ground of our fighting men and women - a last gathering place on their native
soil. Soon we will be bound for strange lands and new assignments .
•••••••••••••••
l~ ~AaJ/~
rra. Boat on Paoif'ic ocean
Here I am on a boat on the Pacific Ocean. While I don't have the
accommodations of a Cook's tour, I can see the same scenery that many people
pay thousands of dollars to see (ocean and sky). The sleeping quarters are a
little crowded and the bunks are so close to each other that many times I wake
up with another guy's foot in my face or his knee in my stomach. The latrine
is also a little crowded. Traffic is so heavy inside (if you can get in) that
it would make a New York traffic cop crazy trying to keep things straight. If
you ever have to go, you got to go about an hour before you think you got to
go so you will get there in time to go - then it takes about twenty minutes to
get from where you go to the wash basin.
Believe me, Firestone, if I could go out to your cabin for a month and
have the privy at my disposal and that creek with fresh mountain water to do
my laundry in - I'd be the happiest man in the world •
•••••••••••••••
rroa
Hew caledonia
Here I am on an island in the South Paeifie with nothing t.o write about..
I can't write about the weather. I can't say whether it's hot or cold, rainy
or dry . I can't tell the name of the island or the name of any towns near
here or even if there are any towns on the island. I can't tell you if the
country has mountains ~r plains or desert lands. I ean't even tell you the
color of the soil. I can't tell you about the animal life, the birds, the
fish or the insects. I can't tell you if the natives are white or black or
yellow. I can't tell you what language they s peak or what country owns the
island. I can't tell you if we are near a n ocean, a river or a lake. I ean•t
tell you about the military personnel or equipment. I can't tell you about my
duties. I can't tell you anything that would demoralize the civilians back
home - so I ' ll close.
�11
**************1r
I want to tell you a story about a farmer ' s daughter on an island in the
South Pacific. While out walking yesterday I stopped at the farmer ' s house
and bought some cake a nd p)e from t h e farmer ' s daughter.
T asked h er about
some music and she brought out an antique model Victrola with some records . I
thought I wo uld hear some music with a South Pacific rhythm but instead it was
some good old North Carolina mountain music played by a hillbilly band .
Something always happens to remind me of h ome - damn it.
*'** *•**** .. *'***?
From Guadacana.l
Mosquitos are big here. One lit in the runway and they put seventy
gallons of gas in i t before they found out it wasn't a P-38.
******* ********
Back home it was said that money isn't everything in life. Over here it
might be said that money isn ' t anything in life. There is no place to spend
it and nothing to buy. A free movie at night is the height of our
entertainment . A bottle of beer once a week is the extent of our drinking .
We look forward to mail call and chow. Mail from home is our greatest morale
booster . on the walls of our living quarters are the pictures of a girl back
home, a favorite movie star or maybe a scantly clad native girl . We see
strange animals, lizards , and insects and often wonder why they like to crawl
in bed with us. W search the region for souvenirs left by the Japs . We are
e
visited by natives who wear a towel where their pants ought to be. We work
hard, eat plenty and sleep well. There is no complaining here - we are just
one big happy family.
We have moved into our new wigwam known as " The Southside Social and
society Club, South Pacific Branch , Incorporated. " Believe me it is a
masterful piece of architecture in solid mahogany . Our foundation is made of
empty gasoline barrels. Our roof is made of empty bomb box tins. We got our
lumber from an old torn down latrine. We did steal a few good coards after
dark when nobody was looking. Our light sockets are home made out of airplane
parts . We also have various pieces of antique furniture made out of shipping
boxes picked up at the mess hall. We have a front porch. Our roof don ' t leak
(very much) . The entire frame-work of our house is covered with mosquito
netting and at a distance the shack appears to be a h uge bird cage with
monkeys running around in it . Anyhow its home and it is good to know that we
again have a place to call our own .
***************
"Spot is a dog - a white dog with one black spot over his right eye .
Spot is the mascot of a certain crew who maintained a certain airplane at a
certain field in the South Pacific. Spot knew ' his' airplane - the airplane
his crew worked on . Spot would ride out on the bus to the field every mo rni ng
and would j~p off at the bunker on which his airplane wa s parked.
He knew
the location of his plane just like a civilian dog would know the location of
its home . He stayed by his airplane in all kinds of weath ~r a nd admired the
splendid way his crew kept the ship in shape . Not long ago the airplane
didn't return from a flight therefore the crew didn't go out to the field .
Spot would ride out to the field on the bus as usual every morning and would
j ump off at the bunker that had held his plane .
For many days that followed I
could see Spot standing there, alone, on the empty bunker , waiting for his
airplane to come home.
********* ******
�12
I discovered a new animal today.
It was a lizard, four feet long,
running around in my front yard . The reptile looked like an alligator but it
didn ' t have the same disposition. Tt was supposed to be harmless but he
didn't look very sociable to me . His skin looked like it would make a good
traveling bag but since I wasn ' t going anywhere , I didn ' t try to capture t he
thing. He finally ran down i n my fox hole and I a m hoping , in the event I
have to use that fox hole some night, that he won ' t be there with d wife and
family . Anyhow, I am looking forward to the time when I can get home , where
there is nothing to bother me but house flies, bumble bees and ants.
**********"*****
This is a dehydrated war . Our brea k fast is made ~ t. the mess hall with a
powder they mix with water. Out of this mixture comes hot cakes , pan cakes ,
flat - jacks and wheat cakes and they all taste alike . One gallon of dehydrated
potato powder is mixed with water and out comes five gallons of mashed
potatoes without mashing them . Th e deh ydrated eggs at the mess hall have a
sign on them reading " eggs " because they don ' t look like eggs or taste like
eggs. The dehydrated milk turns out to be dark grey a nd putting it in the
dehydrated coffee keeps you from getti n g an infection from the stuff. The
dehydrated lemonade could be used for b attery acid but we use it mostly for
washing our mess kits .
If somebody woul d only i n ven t dehydrated whis ke y - that wo u ld be a g reat
a contribution to the war effort . Our mail is even dehydrated into v-mail .
Yes, everything is dehydrated a r ound here except the weather.
*****•*** ... ****
I am now a politician.
of his tribe .
This
i~
I was the cau se of a na t i ve being made " chief "
how it happened .
A certain native J called " Joe'' would come ove r to my shack to visit me
and even though he talked very little English , I found out from him much about
his life and the customs of his people . These poor devils wor k for ten cents
a day. They sign u p for a yea r and are paid in full at the end of their
contract . Joe always admired a large knife that I had. This knife was sent
to me from home , being one that I had in my collection , hanging on the wall of
my bar room. Every time I showed it to Joe a big smile would come over his
face, his snow white teeth would shine like pearls, his eyes gleamed with fire
and he would say ove r and over , " Nice , T like . Nice, I like! " He would
carefully caress the etched figure of a lion on the blade and would gaze for
minutes at his image on the shiny steel .
One day Joe came ove r to see me .
He had five American dollar bills
wrapped in an old cloth bag. He offered me the five dollars a nd his war club
for my knife.
I traded with him and he left my shack the happiest man I ' ve
ever looked upon. I followed him over to the native village and there the
whole tribe gathered around and made him chief because of his ability to
acquire such a wonderful knife. Never would J have thought, when T nailed
t hat knife to the wall of my bar at home , that someday it would be the cause
of a man bei ng made chief of a native tribe on an island in the south Pacific.
**********'*****
There are no sheets, no mattresses, no pillows, no sprin gs on my cot but
when I lay down to go to s leep I acquire a feeling of comfort and contentment.
Sometimes I gaze at the stars shining in the tropical heavens . Other times I
l is t e n to the rain beating down on the tin roof. There are no pains , no
nerves, no responsibilities, no vain regrets , no anticipation of gatherin g
difficulties , no financial problems to disturb my hard earned slumber . I wake
up i n the morning and look at the mountains around me . Their lofty peaks
�13
remind me of the mountains at home. This is a wonderful place to lead a n easy
life but frankly I would not hesitate to accept any opportunity to go back to
my civilian life once again.
Parts of this area are cove r ed with j ungle vegetation . Enormous tree
trunks covered with snake like vines , stra nge flowers and inhabited by
screeching parrots tower above the semisolid mass of bamboo , palms, ferns ,
writhing roots , cree ping lizards and thousands of e n ergetic grasshoppers .
There are hellgrammites and spiders to be had o n the island but personally I
could do well withou t them, especially after seeing the effects of their
bites.
Letters, letters , letters- that ' s the only way I have to keep i n t ouc h
with t h e old country (the United States) and what a problem ! Letters to my
mother must be dignified and cheerful .
Letters to my fraternal brothers , the
police department and some of the girls I used to go with don ' t have to be so
dignified.
Letters to the bion s Club must be interesting and to the point.
Letters to my attorney, accountant, and manager should express my appreciation
for their faithful services even though I ' m wondering if they are on the job .
In my letters to my Rabbi , I try to be religious . In my letters to my social
club, T try to be a beer drinker and a n e xpert card player . betters to my
best girl must be affectionate even though I think she is going out with a
couple of sergeants.
In my letters to my banker I am optimistic , cautious a nd
hopeful.
In all my letters I can ' t say anything that would demoralile the
people at home because I know they are h aving a tough time with ration poi n ts,
whiskey shortages , War Bond Drives and taxes . Finally, I have to please the
censor but he has an advantage over you - he can cut out what he don ' t like .
Poxes don ' t live in a fox hole . Tt ' s a place we run i n, crawl in , fall
in , slide in , scramble in or jump in in event of an air raid . M
ack and I got
orders to fill in an old one by our shack . Mack is lazy as Hell and since I
was getting up in years we decided to get a couple of natives to do the job .
Mack went over to the native village and negotiated for the job, using two
bucks of mine for payment , which I furnished very reluctantly . When the
natives started to fill the hole with dirt , a snake , five feet long , ran out .
ack , being a country boy, picked up the snake by its tail and Powers (a
M
butcher in civilian life) , c hopped his h ead off w1th a n axe before T stopped
running. The next thing to come out was a ground rat . One of the natives
caught him with his bare hands and killed it before I could stop running. The
next things to come out were four centipedes about a foot long apiece. One
bite from one of these huge worms and you ~un for t h e dispensary as fast as
you can , c ussing your draft board all along the way with words unfit to write.
The fox hole is now filled up so guess I ' l l take a nap because I'm tired out from running .
From Los Negros-Admiralty Islands
Prior to my induction in the army I considered myself a respectable
upright citizen of Buncombe County , North Carolina. I was always honest
except for a few times during my childhood days when I swiped onions from Mrs .
Roberts ' garden , stole an apple from Mr. Book ' s grocery store and helped
myself to all the cherries I could eat from a neighbor's cherry tree .
My childhood habits started again the other day when I volunteered (by
�14
request) to help unload several barges of beer . Even though our secret
weapons are not guarded, each barge of beer has armed guards . I found that if
I accidentally dropped a case of beer that sometimes several bottles would
fall out a~d in gathering up these bottles sometimes they accidentally got
inside my shirt and as long as they were inside my shirt, I didn ' t see any
reason not to drink them. Do you think I'll go to Hell for this?
***************
On this beautiful (to some people) island in the Admiralty Group one can
sit under a swaying palm tree (until a coconut falls and bounces off your
head) and admire the sun-kissed shores (through sun glasses to keep from going
blind). You may breathe deeply of the fresh air (saturated with the smell of
stagnant salt water) and gaze at the moon (providing you can see through your
mosquito net).
In the daytime you can enjoy the cool refreshing rains (if you
don't mind getting as wet as a drowned rat).
In the evenings it's your
privilege to see a new movie featuring William s. Hart or Fatty Arbuckle and
go back to your tent knowing you will have a good night ' s sleep (providin g you
take sleeping pills). It is thrilling to search the jungle for souvenirs (if
you don ' t mind picking up booby traps).
If you get the tooth ache you can go
to the dentist. If you don't feel like working you can go on sick call. If
you get homesick you can go see the chaplain. This is an ideal place to be .
******* ... '**'~~~'***'*
Every morning at breakfast time I am greeted by " Porkie ." He is a
little pig and a cute little pig at that.
He could be part dog because he
looks up at me and wags his tail . He could be part wild boar because he
pushes me around with his nose . Anyhow in this Godforsaken country I welcome
most any kind of a friend and believe me Porkie is my friend because he will
let me pet him and feed him. Nobody knows where Porkie came from. Maybe the
Japs left him here or maybe he wandered down into the camp from the hills .
There have been some suggestions about killing Porkie and roasting him ove r a
fire but I don ' t think there is any danger of that happening because we can ' t
eat Pork]e and have him too .
Sometime ago while I was on a troop transport a warning came over the
loud speaker than a Jap battleship and two destroyers had been sighted. I was
playing checkers , some other guys were playing cards , some reading.
You could
hear a number of wise cracks abo u t the situation but nobody seemed to be
disturbed.
We were all in the same boat and it appeared that regardless of our
religious beliefs, political opinions, social or financial standings in
civil ian 1 if~, that being in the same boat under these conditions united us in
the closest bonds of fellowship.
True this war has made soldiers of us but in
doing so it has not destroyed that individuality, humor and tolerance we
possessed. In my opinion it has cemented firmer in us these necessities of a
peaceful democratic society.
*************•*
(Adapted from an instruction booklet)
Suppose you got lost in the jungle. You would have nothing to worry
about as far as food is concerned . You may eat, with safety, anything that
the monkeys eat and you can even eat the monkeys. They are considered a
delicacy by the natives.
More than likely you would start your day off with a breakfast of
�15
grasshoppers . The legs and wings pulled off , toasted on the end of a stick or
fried in coconut oil , they are not at all displeasing to the taste . Of course
if you don ' t like grasshoppers you could eat winged ants , or termites
particularly the quee n s and t he eggs of ants.
For dinner I would suggest roasted rat smothered with lizard tails .
Rats are plentiful and have a taste simi l ar to large fruit bats.
Lizards are
also plentiful and the meat from the hindquarters is preferred . A nice
seaweed salad would be appropriate . Strangely enough seaweeds are not very
salty and their water content is fairly fresh .
In general , the pink, purple
and the reddish or green seaweeds are best .
For dessert I would recommend
water lilies with chopped white grub worms .
Supper should be your biggest meal .
You eould start out with snake meat
sliced like bologna, wild sweet potato chips and fern tips. All snakes are
good to eat - even the poisonous ones , if the head is cut off immediately
after capture.
Your soup could be turtle soup seasoned with bamboo shoots and
the buds of palm trees . A salad of bananas and figs would go good if you
could find some .
Your main course may be porcupine stew or broiled kangaroo
steaks with hard boiled bird eggs on the side .
Seriously spea king all the items I have mentioned in this letter are
edible and you don't need any ration points to get t h em.
*** .. **'*********
Was just thinking what it would be like to have an Asheville Social Club
here. ~o begin with you wouldn't have a modern buildin g like the one at home.
It would be a frame buildjng covered with netting or straw. The structu re
wouldn ' t need a heating plant because we have an abundance of that here.
You
wouldn't be able to sell beer.
The members would have to drink chlorinated
river water and like it. The poker players wouldn't be able to concentrate on
their hands as the roar of airplanes overhead would disturb them.
You
wouldn ' t be able to call a taxi to go home . You would have to walk - maybe in
some pretty deep mud . You couldn' t hold a dance as there are no women to
dance with . The rummy players would h a ve to be satisfied with old dilapidated
cards as new ones are rare.
The trustees would h a v e no worries since there is
no place to spend any money. There would be one advantage of having the Club
here - you guys wouldn ' t have your wives calling you up at 1 AM to come home.
**** •* *********
I got caught with my pants down.
I went into the latrine this morning
to enjoy a good smoke and to read the funnies . Gracefully, I made myself as
comfo.r table as possible on the GI equipmen t therein, relaxing and watching the
flies, red ants , and lizards playing football, follow-the-leader, and other
games on the rafters and walls.
Suddenly, I noticed a spider sitting right
beside me - not an ordinary one with wire size legs , but one whose size
reminded me of the lobsters I used to eat at home, and whose legs reminded me
of those of Gloria Swanson. The gruesome and monstrous creature crawled
slowly toward me and I had no trouble doing my duty - it scared i t out of me .
In order that you might become acquainted with my daily routine here, I
am listing activit~es below :
6 AM
Wake up . Complain about the heat . Shake my shoes to see if any
centipedes are parked inside .
Put on my clothes.
6 : 04 AM
Think about washing my hands but decide it is too much trouble
so I start for chow.
6 :06 AM
Look for Porkie (the pet pig) but he don't seem to be around
�16
yet.
Guess he is still asleep - the lucky hog.
6:15AM
After a short argument I get the cook to turn my egg over
because I don't like i t half done.
6:35 AM
wash my mess ki t and complain about the heat.
I
6:40 AM
Go back to my tent.
decide to postpone the job.
Looks like it needs cleaning up but
6:41 AM
Lay down on my cot and read a few pages of a wild west story.
7:10AM
Complain about the heat.
7:30 AM
Climb on a GI truck and ride out to my office at the field .
The truck jars so much i t almost shakes my kidneys loose.
7:45 AM
Arrive at my office (a tent) and dust off the furniture. I
don't have to sweep the f l oor because it is a d~rt f l oor and i t don't do no
good to sweep the dirt off of dirt.
8:00 AM
Sgt. Lueck comes in singing. Can't imagine why he is
singing so early in the morning. I soon find out the reason - he made Staff
sergeant on a new rating l i st ,
8:05 AM
Sgt. Lueck says that I didn't make Corporal on the new list
because the squadron is lousy with corporals and some of them will have to
die, transfer, go horne or get promoted before I could get another stripe.
8:20 AM
Capt. Gardner comes in and offers S/Sgt , bueck congratul ations
and me his sympathy. He tells me that he did his best to get me a rating and
he thinks he will be able to push me up next time.
9:00 AM
Pfc. Runnels comes in and wants to know if I made corporal.
When he found out I didn't he suggested I enter a complaint . I explained that
I wasn't making the army my career and it didn't make much difference one way
or another.
10:00 AM
I
11 : 00 AM
beave the f i e l d for the camp area in the same kidney- shaking
11:15 AM
Arrive at the camp area .
do the same thing I did at 7:10AM.
truck.
11:20 AM
Stop at the PX and since they were sold out of candy, cookies
and food; I didn't buy anything .
11:31 AM
Thought that I would wash up but I go to chow instead.
11:59 AM
Lay down on my cot for my noon time nap.
heat and fall asleep.
Complain about the
1:30 PM
Wake up and jump on the truck goi ng back to the field ,
1:45 PM
Arrive at the office and i t is so hot I take my shirt off.
1:47 PM
The flies, using my back for a landing field, worry me so much
that I put my shirt back on.
2:10 PM
Some pilot does a buzz job with his plane over my tent and I
go out to see if the tops of the coconut trees are still there.
�17
3:00 PM
I do the same thing I did at 10 AM only twice as much!
4:00 PM
My day's work done.
T hop on the truck for the camp area.
Caught one of the new easy riding trucks with eight wheels and no spring.
4 : 20 PM
Went by the mail room for my mail which didn ' t arrive.
4:30 PM
Against my better judgement I took a shower.
5 : 00 PM
Chow.
~ : 4~
PM
Write letters .
7:00 PM
Moving picture starts.
previous occasions , I go see it again.
Since I ' ve seen it on only three
10 : 00 PM
Lights out. Discussion of various tepics goes o n between t he
members of the tent. The subjects under discussion wi ll be omi t ted for the
benefit of any person under eight years of age who might read this.
Tn this area we have the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy . 1
am in the Army Air Forces and my old friend , Harry Murdock, former assistant
circulation manager of the Asheville Times , is in the Navy. Now, we see each
other often, and in order to show how mu~h the Navy will cooperate with the
Army, Harry agreed to procure fo r me an item that the Navy has and the Army
has not.
(The method of obtaining this item will not be revealed at this
time.)
I had not looked upon one of these luxuries for nine months and when
he brought it to me , it was too delightful to describe - too wonderful to
believe.
It wa s more welcome than an umbrella in the rain, an ice cold drink
on a hot day or a fur coat by a chorus girl. There was never such beauty in
the mountains of western North Carolina at autumn time - no such glamour in a
sunset on the ocean or a bathing beauty content . It was more invigorating
than a scotch a nd soda or a banana split. Never before had I bestowed upon me
such a gift and now when I go to sleep on that second hand " Navy issue''
mattress , I'll dream of days to come when I can be home again.
Dear Mom:
When I try to eat this GI food, I think of how I ate at home - it's then
I think of you dear mom.
When I look at my floor of dirt, I think of how the floors at home were
so shiny and clean - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I try to go to bed at night, I think of the soft bed I had at home
with clean sheets and clean pillow cases - it ' s then I think of you dear Mom.
When I have the toothache and nobody here seem to care - it's then I
think of you dear Mom.
When buttons come off I try to sew them on - it ' s then I think of you
dear Mom.
You were my cook, my nurse, my advisor , and my teacher and now when I
need one of these - it's then I think of you dear M .
om
~-*~** *********
�18
If you should become ill all you would have to do is call the doctor and
he usually fixes you up .
A sick airplane is a different story . To begin with there is a crew who
makes general repairs on the ship. Besides this crew there are propeller
specialists, engine specialists, hydraulic specialists, bomb-sight
specialists• men who specialize in changing engines; ~adio men who repair the
radios, a tire change department, a section that looks after parachutes, life
rafts, emergency rations, oxygen bottles and fire extinguishers, a supply
department for parts needed, a refuel unit to service the ships with gas and
oil• i nstrument specialists, welders, sheet metal men; electrical experts,
painters, ordnance men to load bombs, a~ent men to look after the guns,
carburetor specialists, guards to guard the planes, a clerical staff to keep
the records, inspectors, crew chiefs to supervise the crews, flight chiefs to
supervise the crew chiefs and line chiefs to supervise the flight chiefs.
Aren't you happy that you do not require as much attention as an
airplane to keep you in shape?
................
over here, far away from horne, I think a lot and what do you think I
think about?
First of all, I think a good deal about my family, my loved ones and my
friends I left behind.
I also think about Sunset MOuntai n, Pack square, Vance Monument, Morn's
cooking, the shiny floors in my house - the green grass in the yard.
Happenings that didn't seem important at the time now seem to be great
events . I think of the time when I was in the second grade of grammar school
and stole an apple from Mr. Book's Grocery Store on ~herry street. I remember
the first licking my daddy gave me for throwing a rock at my sister - he shook
me so hard that the cuff links fell out of my shirt sleeves and I never could
find them. I think about the first time I went fishing and caught a fish. I
remember the time I went hunting, killed a deer, and was sor~y that I did it.
I think about my golf games at Beaver Lake. I can recall the time I almost
had a fight with or. Robinson at a Temple Club meeting. I think of the time I
beat John vance in an election for trustee of the Elks Lodge. My fondest
memories are of the children around town who called me "Uncle Leo." I think
about the Christmas day when I played Santa Claus with the rne.m bers of the
Lions Club at the Salvation Army Chapel. I think of the night that I, a
bachelor, presided at a Father and Son Banquet at Congregation Beth-HaTephila.
I think very little of the materialistic things I left behind. I
realize now that the important things in my lifetime - the things that mean
the most to me now were just little things, just everyday happenings.
Corporal Mark is a great guy and that is why I like to do a favor for
him if I can. Well, I am the guy who makes up the detail list and Corporal
Mark requested that I put him on the roving guard detail. Now, a roving guard
has a comparatively easy job. He gets a jeep, rides around all night and sees
that no one steals one of our heavy bombers (weight 60,000 pounds). Corporal
Mark is very efficient in his guarding because he goes beyond the usual call
of duty and guards, not only the bombers, but the mess hall and other places
where food and supplies are stored. ~orporal Mark i s very successful in
obtaining various types of edibles while on guard duty and during the early
morning hours he and I devour this food with a great deal of pleasure and
�19
satisfaction to our a : ways hungry stomachs. Now Corporal Mark is an upright.
l
and honest fellow and I think he was getting the idea that we weren't justl y
entitled to the extra stuff to eat . That idea soon vanished because I told
him about the amount of taxes the government was hitting me for while I was
over here fighting for world peace so we decided ~hat we could go on procurin g
this nourishment without hesitation and with a clean conscience.
***************
From Wakde , New Guinea
l
WfiDDil
Go Home
Here I am an enlisted ma n ,
Getting along the best I can ,
The officers have steak while I eat Spam,
I wanna go home.
Women I crave there is no doubt ,
Can ' t have nurses here about ,
Because the officers take them out ,
I wanna go home .
en like me will get the blues ,
M
No whiskey for us and that ain ' t news ,
Because the officers get all the booze ,
I wanna go home .
can't
can ' t
But the
I wanna
I
I
get a furlough regulations say,
rest and I can ' t play,
officers manage to find a way,
go home .
********"'**"**'*1r
The Engineering Office sent Sergeant Reville and me over to the other
side of the field to get a new bomber for our squadron . I sure felt important
when the fellow over there asked me to sign a receipt for the ship. Can you
imagine Pfc . Finkelstein signing for $250,000 worth of airplane? I assure you
i t was less trouble for me to get that airplane than i t would be for you to
kiss a bride at a wedding . I climbed up in the pilot ' s cockpit while sergeant
Reville hooked his eletrac to the nose wheel of the plane . Now Sergeant
Reville can pull these 60,000 pound monsters around the field with his eletrac
just like a taby pulls a wagon around the living room and knocks over all the
furniture only Sergeant Reville never knocks anything over. He pulled me and
the airplane down the taxi strip to our area where I stopped the gasoline
truck and said, " Hey Corporal , fill her up.
I think she will take about 3000
gallons ."
As he was filling it up I recalled the time when I was home on my
furlough and needed a little extra gasoline to drive my girl up to my favorite
parking place on Beaucatcher Mountain and return home (at a decent hour - of
course) . W
ell , I went to the rationing board and they would only give me five
gallons - the stingy devils. W
ish they could see me now getting 3100 gallons.
The only trouble over here is that I got no automobile and no girl to drive up
a mountain.
***************
Thousands of Jnps had landed,
Near the land of the rising su~ ,
On an island in the Pacific,
�20
They had nowhere else to run .
Now on this tiny island ,
A good size town was found ,
The Japs - they took it over ,
And wandered all around.
Our bombers got their orders,
And took off on the mission,
To save the town if possible ,
And bomb the Jap position.
One bombardier was fearless,
And always on the ball ,
This flight he made a grave mistake,
With no excuse at all .
He aimed right at the target ,
He carefully fixed his sight,
He missed the Jap position ,
Hit a house with a big red light.
Now when we take t hat island,
And give the Japs a trimmin ' ,
We ' ll still be cussin' the bombardier,
Who blew up all the women.
It all started when I received one of Finkelstein's $7 . 95 rebuilt
watc h es . A guy offered me an old radio and twenty-five dollars in cash for it
and I traded. Money is almost useless over here but I managed to give the
twenty-five dollars to another guy who gave me a half gallon of home-made
drinking beverage which I think was made out of fermented canned corn and 100
octane gasoline.
I pooled my half-gallon of imitation "Carolina corn " with a
fellow who had a case of beer and we proceeded to drink it all up vut he
passed out before we finis h ed and I had ten cans of beer left on my hands as
my share of the party. I traded the beer for a pipe , ten packages of tobacco ,
a pocket knife and a fountain pen. I traded the knife for a flashlight and
three cans of beans.
I ate the three cans of beans and traded the fountain
pen for an electric light socket, a cigarette lighter and two dollars. I
invested the two dollars in a crap game, won eight dollars, took the proceeds
and bought a radio tube to fix my radio.
I traded the radio for a boat which
later sank. I traded three packages of tobacco for four cigars and three air
mail stamps . I smoked the cigars and used t he three air ma il stamps to write
to three friends back in the States requesting from each a box of food.
Now,
when and if I receive these boxes of food , I will be able to render to you a
complete financial statement as to how I came out on the watch.
Here in the jungle we don ' t have houses for house flies to live in but
we do have house flies. These flies look like the flies at home who have
survived the fly swatter , but they don't lead the same kind of life . They
follow us wherever we go but they don't follow us to the mess hall because
they don ' t like the GI food the mess sergeant slings at us no more than we do .
Once in awhile , if a fly gets about half starved , he will fly around the mess
hall looking for something to eat. They are persistent devils and they won ' t
be shoo'd away like the American flies.
During dinner one made eighteen dives
at my mess kit before I got him. Many of these brave flies, who dare eat our
�21
food , j ust turn over on their backs after the first bite , kick their legs up
i n the air and die.
It ' s a r o ugh war - even for flies .
************** *
The war seems to be getting l onger every day .
* ******* ** *****
From Noemfoor
Starvin ' Marvin ' s real name is Sgt . Marvin Binion but we call h im
Starvin ' Marvin b e cause h e n ever gets enough to eat . In fact none of us get
enough to eat - only he complains about it more than we do .
Now Starvin ' M
arvin h as given e ve rybody in our tent a name . Luke the
Droop is really Sgt. Lueck , chief e ngineering clerk. Ed the Red is a crew
chief on a n airplane . Herman the German is chief clerk in Tech Supply and Leo
the Hero is nobody else but me , an ordinary clerk who is fed up with the setup .
Luke the Droop has been overseas thirty months and expects to go back to
the States on the " Rotation Plan '' only it hasn ' t rotated far enough to reach
him yet . on this account he is very cautious during air raids b ecause he
figures he is going home soon and he wa nts to get there in good shape .
One night Hoim the Woim (which is a s h ort name for Herman t h e German )
woke us up yelling "Air Raid. " Luke the Droop was dressed and in a fox hole
before any of us got out of bed. By the time I put on my shoes and grabbed my
clothes everybody was gone including Ed the Red who moves very slowly
especially whe n i t comes to doing any work on his airplane .
I wa ndered out of the tent , t he moon was shining brightly a nd everything
seemed p eaceful to me . It wasn ' t peaceful long and I beat five guy s to a jeep
and crawled under it. It was my first air raid experience and now I imagine
I ' ll be know as " Foxhole Finkelstein " instead of Leo the Her o .
************k**
Written from MOrotai
My Helmet
M helmet is a useful thing ,
y
To wear upon my head,
It ' s made of good materials ,
And feels almost like lead .
My helmet makes a wash bowl ,
I can use it any place,
I fill it up with water,
And wash my hands and face .
M fox hole roof is awful low,
y
I can ' t stdnd up in there,
So I put my helmet on the floor ,
And use it for a chair.
Now if I want a basket ,
To hang down from my bunk ,
It sure does make a lovely thing,
To hold all kinds of junk .
�22
Now if I ' m sentimental ,
For flowers and that r ot ,
I fill it up with good old djrt,
And I got a flower pot.
Now if I want to take a n ap,
Beneath a weeping willow,
I place it down upon the ground,
And use it for a pillow .
Now when I ligh t a candle ,
And n eed a candlestick,
I turn t he h e lmet upside down,
It al wa ys does t he tric k.
Now whe n my socks get dirty,
And the odor isn ' t right ,
T fill the t hing with soapy water,
And let them soa k all night.
No w hard boiled eggs are somethi ng,
I always d i d admire ,
So I fill the helmet full of water ,
And put them on the fire .
Now when we had a dim out ,
There ' s no use to be afraid ,
T put t h e helmet o n t he light,
And u se it fo r a shade .
Now when this war is ove r,
(I ' ve often heard it said) ,
The h e lmel ' ll be a useful thing,
To keep beneath the bed.
finis
*********""'*****
Little W
acs
Real c ute
They wa n t
Parachute.
In chute
Silk cloth
Real clean
Very soft .
Love pilots
W
ith skill
Get chutes
At will .
Take back
To shanties
Make many
Pair panties .
�23
Interesting Facts about Life on the South Pacific Islands with the Air Forces:
A whiskey still can be made out of hydraulic tubing, an oxygen tank and
other airplane parts.
Corn whiskey can be made out of fermented canned corn.
American whiskey may be bought from $35 to $60 per quart.
A motor boat can be constructed from two airplane belly tanks a nd a
small power unit .
The silk cloth in p arachutes may be used to make panties for nurses and
Wacs .
All natives are frie ndly - there are no cannibals.
I n trad i ng wi t h t h e nati ves yo u ca n get more with a Bible or a piece of
cloth than you can get with money or jewel ry.
100 octane gasoline may b e used for ciga r ette lighter fluid.
Gasoline is easier to procure than water . Sometimes it requires written
permission to get five gallons of wa ter for laundry purposes. Gasoline is
available i n any quantity for any purpose .
There are more s na kes per s quare rn.i le in the mountains of North Ca rolina
t han i n the jungl e .
Tt is safer in a fox h ole during a n air r aid than riding in an
automobile back home with your wife driving it .
All natives are friendl y in these parts . There a re no cannibals .
That's more t h a n T ca n say for the tax col lector back home .
Taking a bath out of a helmet is more complicated than you thi nk.
Nevertheless, the job can be done without exerting too much effort if the
following directions a r e complied wi th:
Never try to sit in the helmet.
Place it on a corn er pole of a tent and
stand beside it . Buckle the chin strap and let it hang down like a flower
basket .
Fill the helmet full of water . Get the water i n a legitimate manner
if you can , othe rwise stea l it from the mess hall or the officer ' s showers there is always ple nty there .
Place a copy of your home town n ewspaper on the
ground (the Sunday edition is best because it has more pages and makes a
softer bath mat) . Take a cake of soap a nd using the water in the helmet
lather up f r om feet to h ead or h ead to feet - it do n ' t make n o difference .
Before the soap dries , fill the helmet with fresh water and p o ur ove r top of
head . This is repeated until all the soap is washed off . If the water is too
cold , there is nothing you can do about it . Dry with a towe l either clean or
dirty. Shake all ants and bugs out of towel before usi ng .
I n t h e event of an
air raid during the process of taking the ba t h , go to you r fox hole at once .
After the "all clear" start all over from the beginning.
* * ******* **** **
A jungle snake,
On Guadalcanal,
�24
W
ent crawling over,
To see his gal.
He found his gal,
Did not feel fit ,
She had a cold,
That wouldn ' t quit.
And every time ,
That she would cough,
The jungle snake ,
Would get hissed off.
Master Sergeant Johnson and I started the evening off by opening a can
of salmon and e nded up by opening a gold mine or at least we pla nned to open
one after the war.
Sergeant Johnson , after looking at the label on the above mentioned
salmon can , told me that he was once foreman of the cannery in Alaska that
canned this particular can of salmon.
He insisted on telling me about the
different species of salmon, the white salmon, the pink salmon and ! forgot
the other colors he mentioned. Anyway I wasn ' t interested in the colors of
salmon in Alaska because I was hungry and the only salmon I was interested in
at that particular time was the salmon in the can.
In order to be sure we wou ldn ' t get poison ed by the salmon , we took
several shots of Jungle Juice before and after eating the fish.
For your
information Jungle Juice is made of 190 proof medical alcohol , colored and
flavored with burnt sugar and diluted with a small quantity of water.
Jungle Juice seems to build up conversation and t h e conversation drifted
all around Alaska . W fi nally got on the subject of gold and gold mines .
e
According to what Sgt. John son said , he h ad done a goodly amount of gold
hunting in Alaska and was well versed in mineralogy. W figured we could buy
e
a seaplane after the war from the Navy at a fraction of the original cost , fly
to Alaska , land on the many inaccessible lakes , pan th~ir shores for gold and
get rich quick (if the income tax man don ' t find us).
I have written all my friends back home offering to sell t h em stock in
t h e Finkelstein-Johnson F.xpedition to Alaska.
Smoky Joe ' s home is just a little bit south of Asheville , North
Carolina. He is one of the cooks down at our Mess Hall , a good guy, and a GI
who can sympathize with all the other GTs who have to eat the food he
prepares .
Before the war Smoky Joe owned a road house on the highway going south
from Asheville , and, after talking with him I found that I had patronized his
institution on numerous occasions during my youn ger yea r s . Sin ce we were
practically neighbors in civilian life , we felt that we should continue over
here as good ~eighbors and so we are. There is no better friend in the Army
than a cook because when you get hungry - he is the only man who can hel p you
out .
Tn passing , r might mention that Smoky Joe, Starvin' Marvin and I have
on numerous instances enjoyed eatin g s urplus stocks of food from the M
ess
Hall .
Smoky Joe told me about Sheriff Brown taking his automobile away f rom
him once because the She riff had found some whiskey in it t h at he (Smoky) was
�25
transporting to his road house. Now, Smoky is fighting to get his freedom his freedom to go home and dodge the Sheriff some more, and there is Starvin'
Marvin whe wan~s te go heme ~o see his wife and two year old boy; a ehiid that
he has never seen, and so it is with me - I want to go home - I just want to
go home .
................
rraa s-r; Phi.l.ipp:lna za.
Less than twenty four hours after we landed here we found it - a path
that wound its way through the jungle to a dance hall. Now I have danced in
New York night clubs, patronized dine and dance places in Mexico, attended
parties in exclusive social clubs in Havana, and participated in barn dances
in the hills of North Carolina but never have I witnessed a set-up like this
one. The dance hall was a native hut with a grass roof and a wood floor. The
admission price two pesos. The band consisting of a saxophone, banjo and drum
played familiar tunes like "Johnnie Get Your Gun" and "Alexander's Ragtime
Band." Seated around the dance floor were several Filipino girls in their
recently washed dresses. It was your privilege to dance with them but before
doing so you had to remove your shoes and place them under the girl's chair.
GI shoes are dangerous weapons, while jitter-bugging with these fair (slightly
dark) bare-footed girls and it is while dancing in your socks that you get the
true meaning of "socks appeal".
***************
I made corporal but:
1.
It was easier for me to date a New York chorus girl.
2.
I expended less energy in climbing to the top of Mt. Mitchell.
3.
I had fewer headaches going through the depression of 1933.
4.
It was less trouble to figure out my 1942 income tax return.
5.
course.
6.
It took a smaller amount of skill to break a hundred on the golf
It took less will power to stay sober on New Year's Eve.
(I expect to make Sergeant during World War III.)
**************
Since Finkelstein, Silverstein and Stein live in tent 99 anything is
li.a ble to happen. We play. We play gin rummy almost every night and I do not
hesitate to take Stein and Silverstein on in any gambling activity that might
be beneficial to my financial status. I am glad to take their pesos as both
smoke my cigars without any offer of payment for same. Silverstein talked so
much that the CO made him news commentator for our radio station. Stein's old
man manufactures shirts in New York City and his son, a chip off of the old
Stein, tries to take the shirt off the back of everybody he does any trading
with. So with the oratorical ability of Silverstein, the progressive attitude
of Stein and my Finkelstein knowledge of big business, we procured ten gallons
of ice cream at a cost of 8 3/10 cents per gallon. It may interest you to
know that the market price of ice cream on this island is $7 per g.allon.
I will relate to you with brevity just how this trade was made. I
received from Finkelstein's an item of merchandise retail value $9.75. Stein
and Silverstein, under my supervision, traded this item for the ten gallons of
�26
ice cream. Off hand it would seem that the cost of the ice cream would be 97
~ center per gallon but that is not true.
I do not expect to pay
Finkelstein's Inc. for this item of merchandise, and as a stockholder in said
corporation I have instructed them to charge the account off as a loss. They
will not lose the $9.75 as the wholesale cost is less than this amount and
furthermore they can deduct the loss from their income tax returns. After
much scientific calculation I ti nd that my stock i n Finkelstein's Inc . has
decreased in value 83 cents therefore the cost of the ice cream to me was 8
3/10 cents per gallon .
***** ... ***'**'****
Assorted Duties :
chopping down trees
digging a well
hauling poles
hauling fire wood
hauling coal
fighting forest fires
sorti ng merchandise at warehouse
sorting salvage merchandise
smashing tin cans
h auling water
finance clerk
detail clerk
runner for headquarters
stacking lumber
pulling weeds and grass
cleaning barracks
watering trees
loading and unloading trucks
loading and unloading freight cars
loading barracks bags on boats and trucks
cleaning hatches on boats
latrine orderly
painting machinery
communications clerk
engineering clerk
�~
21
Editor' s Note: At the end of his tour of duty, Leo Finkelstein returned home to Asheville, North
Carolina to resume management of Finkelstein's Pawn Shop. Leo recalls meeting Webb Ellis,
another Asheville Lion's Club member, on the boat coming back to the United States from the
Phillippines. The boat landed in Seattle, Washington the day the war was over with Japan, and
they were discharged at Fort Bragg N.C. on September I, 1945. Ten days later Leo and Sylvia
Bein were married by a judge in the Harlem section of New York City. In deference to his
mother' s wishes, they were again married again by Rabbi Unger in Asheville. Leo and Sylvia,
parents of Leo Finkelstein, Jr., a faculty member at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio,
reside at The Summjt Retirement Community in Asheville,~ Leo 9 pianist with "The
Sanctimonious Seven" and active member of the Asheville Lion' s Club.~
!t
(Z.IE:(Ylrl.IN 5
WA-$ UNTIL f2£C£N-n u
,I
�
Dublin Core
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Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
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Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
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Title
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Letters from Leo: World War II Correspondence with the Asheville Lion's Club
Language
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English
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107_03_02_LettersFomLeo_M
Description
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Letters of correspondence between Leo and the Lion's Club in which he describes his military training. He talks about his daily schedule, his comrades, his longing for home, and his new perspective on life. Patricia D. Beaver is editor.
Subject
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Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Lions Club (Asheville, N.C.)
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PDF
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1943
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<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
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Text
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55 pages
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Asheville (N.C.)
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https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
Air Force
army
Camp Croft
corporal
duty
jungle
letters
Lions Club
Miami Beach
military
Phillipines
poetry
Smoky Joe
Tishomingo
World War II
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/01960216be4ee229714ccaa206000404.mp3
03837348455d7a41f98649aa039deee5
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/f5c73dbeb653a11dfe71f857bd2ca0ed.pdf
e97c546aa19368502908d42e68e3f8c9
PDF Text
Text
Transcription of Oral History Interview with Robert Helton.
October 2, 2012
Boone, NC
Brindley Polk: I’m Brindley Polk, interviewing Rob Helton at Belk Library on the Appalachian
State campus in Boone, NC on October 2, 2012. So Rob, when is your birthday and where were
you born and raised?
Rob Helton: My birthday is 26 May 1983. I was born in Hickory, North Carolina and I
was..grew up outside of Hickory in a little town called Hildabrad.
Brindley Polk: Always in North Carolina…always lived in North Carolina?
Rob Helton: Yes, other than when I was in the army I’ve always lived here.
Brindley Polk: Alright. When and why did you choose to join the army?
Rob Helton: I signed up in May of 2003. I had…I was here at App, it was my first semester
when 9/11 happened and then of course the invasion of Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq in
2003. Initially I thought wow Afghanistan will be over really quick. I had always wanted to join
the army ever since I was a little kid. It had always been a goal of mine. And so I thought I’d
graduate college and become an officer and probably spend a career in the military. And then we
invaded Iraq in 2003 and that really…I felt like this was going to last awhile and if I didn’t get
into it that it would be over before I got there. Oddly enough, I was calling my friends to
congratulate them in 2005 on graduating from Baghdad, so I miss called that one but…it was
still a good decision so…
Brindley Polk: So you say you wanted to be in the army ever since you were a kid. Is that
because there was family history in military service…or?
Rob Helton: No, in my dad’s time…he still tells the story of going to MEPS to register for the
draft but other than that he never went. He had two brothers who were drafted for Vietnam. But,
other than that there is no real family history. I had nine uncles and out of that one of them joined
the army voluntarily and spent a career in it, but I didn’t really know him so…O but my brother,
my older brother did spend six years in the Navy in the ‘90s. I was, he is ten years older than me
I was the little brother that’s probably the family history that most drove me to joining the
military.
Brindley Polk: OK. So did you hear any interesting stories from your family members or was it
really talked about too much?
Rob Helton: It really wasn’t spoken of. Dad always told me that uh none of them were the same
after they came back and I remember when I was a little boy…the movie o my goodness was it
Platoon? One of those eighties era Vietnam movies came out and my uncle saw part of it on TV.
And there was talk in the family for a little while because the pastor had to come out to talk to
him and he had to get some counseling because it had, I guess just disturbed things that he had
buried away. So, that was really the only thing that was talked about and my grandmother kept
my uncles silver star in the drawer in her bedroom which I didn’t know what it was at the time
�she showed it to me once. That was, I guess it was family history that was kept under the…kept
below the radar I guess.
Brindley Polk: Which service branch are you in and why did you join that one?
Rob Helton: I joined the army. It was what I always intended to join. I wasn’t going to go in the
air force. My brother always regretted joining the navy in a sense. He’s very proud of it but I
think he wished he’d joined the army. And the marines was just a whole different, and it still is a
whole different thing so…The army had the job that I wanted because I’ve been interested in o
tanks in stuff since I was a kid. I mean, I saw one in a parade once and I never could get enough
of them so I always wanted to do that.
Brindley Polk: What can you tell me about your basic training experiences?
Rob Helton: There’s probably a lot of stories but I went to Fort Knox. My actual date that I went
in was 23 October of 2003. So, we in processed at Fort Knox. And that’s, I will never go to the
state of Kentucky again because of that place. But, it was a good experience I guess. I got in with
a pretty good group of guys. We of course had our platoon idiot. It was, I mean it was
challenging in some ways but I guess the hardest part was the separation being cut off from the
world. I had just come straight from college to do this so having no information except for what
they gave me was the hardest part. Physically it wasn’t that bad, getting yelled at all the time
really didn’t bother me that was like expected. It was part of the experience and everybody
wanted it. I think my favorite memory that comes out of basic training was…it was a few weeks
from graduation. I had been sent out to do what’s called staff duty. You go up to the headquarters
of your training unit and you sit there and an actual sergeant, a real soldier sits up at the staff
duty. You’re just there to mop the floors and do other stuff for two hours and so everything was
done when I got there so the sergeant that was on staff duty he says just go over and sit down on
this couch and the couch faced the front door. The front door is where everyone walks in. He
says just make sure you call “At ease” if the sergeant major walks in or attention if the colonel
walks in. No big deal. I sat down, and I was exhausted. You know, we’re just finishing up one of
our exercises and I to this day don’t think I was actually asleep but my eyes may have been open
but the brain was not…nobody was home, and in walks a sergeant major. He went on a tirade
and by this point I had learned to block out pretty much everything except when to say yes
sergeant major or no sergeant major. The thing is, two years later that same sergeant major had
come to my regiment, the 3d Cav, to be the regimental sergeant major and he picked me out of
my entire troop in just sort of a horse shoe around him, he was talking to us. He picked me out
and says I remember you; you’re the one that slept on staff duty. And out of my mind, out of my
mouth oath bided comes sergeant major I wasn’t asleep. He was picking on me I think but at the
same time that’s not something you do but it was an interesting little exchange and to this day
I’m amazed that two years later he can remember this one me, that one little private that was
asleep with his eyes open sitting, you know sitting up. That was probably the best little memory
out of basic training for me. Other than that getting to play with Bradley’s was awesome. It’s like
a 35 ton, it’s like the ultimate four wheeler except it has tracks. You learn so much and it is just a
great experience I guess. I was sick of it by the time it was over with. O and I learned my first
double standard that is worth sharing.
Brindley Polk: Which was?
�Rob Helton: My first sergeant was this very intense man and he got very upset at somebody one
morning because he heard a private complaining about having to carry so much weight in their
ruck sack. And he comes out with this ruck sack that looks three times the size of ours and it’s
just this big ball, it’s a backpack, but its all full of stuff. And we’re like wow. We’re ruck
marching like, I think its twelve miles or so and he says I will never tell you to do anything I do
not do myself and neither will your drill sergeants. And then most of the drill sergeants have
these giant fluffed up ruck sacks. Well, on Fort Knox there are four hills and that is one thing
that came down from my uncle who volunteered, he went to Fort Knox. And he asked me if
misery, agony, heartbreak, and defeat were still used. They’re hills that are practically vertical
and you have to walk up and down them. I mean I’m not kidding; you put your hand to actually
hold yourself up on agony.
Brindley Polk: O Wow.
Rob Helton: It’s, it’s miserable. So we actually went through all…I don’t know how they got
route to go through all four. You can’t even buses down them that’s how steep they are. Actually
they’re gated against buses. But…we get to the range we’re going to and it starts to rain so the
drill sergeant tell us ok grip your ruck sacks, which you just take four and make a little square,
and then you take a poncho and wrap it around them so they don’t get soaked. They said make
sure you get the first sergeants and ours together. Well, one of our guys goes over to pick up the
first ruck sack after the drill sergeant walks away. He sticks his hands in the straps and he goes to
haul on it and he falls over backwards. We were like what? What did you just do man? And we
go and pick it up and its full of pillows. So he walked the twelve miles with us and I’m sure at
some point in his career he’s carried that ruck sack full of you know, weight or rocks or whatever
but to stand in front of a group of privates who have been in the army only a few months and tell
them I will never tell you to do something I don’t do myself and then find out that you’re faking.
Brindley Polk: Yeah that’s something (laughing).
Rob Helton: Yeah, so I probably better cut the basic training off there though, we’ve got a lot
more to cover.
Brindley Polk: Alright sure. Where were you deployed during your service?
Rob Helton: I was deployed to Iraq twice. From March of 2005 to February of 2006 I was in
Baghdad and then from December of 2007 to March of 2009 I was deployed FOB Kalsu. Which
is about forty clicks south of Baghdad.
Brindley Polk: Ok, and how long…well you just answered that question sorry. What was it
like…how did you like your experience over there?
Rob Helton: I loved it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It…there are a lot of guys
who came back with a negative perception of Iraq. I can’t wait to go back some day as a tourist. I
think in about 10 or 20 years it should be calm enough for us to do that. But, you know it’s an
amazing place and amazing people. There are very few places in the world where you can get in
a vehicle in the morning and thirty minutes later you’re standing beside ruins that are five
thousand years old. And you can still find people who live, it’s like, as though it were biblical. I
mean, their implements are wooden…they live in literally straw and mud huts with their animals
living in a little wing of their house. And then you also have the modern city side but you’ll see
�a heard of camels get herded, you know they’ll be herded through the town by I guess betowin in
the middle of the day. I mean it’s this mix of the ancient and the semi modern. There’ll be a
Nissan factory here and then a little clay kiln where they cook bread. On the ins, they just slap it
on the inside of the kiln. I mean how basic can you get? So, I think it was in some ways a very
beautiful country. It has its downsides. It gets really hot in the summer and it rains and it gets
cold in the winter. But, you know that’s little things that you have to deal with and I think that it
was probably the best thing that I’ve ever gotten to do.
Brindley Polk: Did you see any combat while you were over there?
Rob Helton: Yes, I did. First tour was much worse than the second. Probably that has to do with
Baghdad. I think it also has to do with the army hadn’t yet found its way. Thinking about this, I
picked out a few stories that are appropriate and also I think illustrate a point. So, I think the first
one that’s the most…probably the funniest actually I think it’s hilarious but a lot of people talk
about their baptism by fire when you start reading history or their first experience in combat. My
first experience was defining but it was also probably the best experience you could possibly
have. It was in the early summer 2005 and part of our area of responsibility included check point
2-8. At one point this had been known as the mixing bowl. It was the most lethal area in Iraq. We
had controlled it to the point that insurgents just couldn’t plant bombs under it anymore. But, the
reason it’s called the mixing bowl is there’s two four lane highways that look just like interstates
intersect and there’s a large over pass that goes over both highways, so it’s this confusing jumble
of bridges. It kind of looks like the interchange in Atlanta actually is the thing that comes to
mind.
Brindley Polk: Spaghetti junction?
Rob Helton: Yes. So it was a confusing little place to be and my patrols were originally
supposed to be a click north of there, about a kilometer. We weren’t supposed to be out after
dark which everyone who’s seen the movie Black Hawk Down knows you don’t plan on that, and
I thought that’s been built in the army’s memory. Some of us learned from the movies or learned
from experience to always carry your night vision and always have what’s called an infrared
chemlight, we usually call them IR. To the naked eye it’s this little plastic tube that’s just red but
in night vision it glows. Apparently, the National Guard’s night vision is not calibrated to see
that but the regular army we can. There’s a little joke to that that I’ll explain later. Sure enough I
carried a box of them in my salt pack; I carried my night vision goggles with me on my vest. So I
was always ready but at the same time I was always carrying extra stuff. Well, we get to what
we’re, what’s supposed to be the end of our patrol our lieutenant meets with the last sheik that
we’re supposed to meet with. A sheik is like a local chieftain, and even in Baghdad the
neighborhoods have sheiks. We hear some firing coming from around 2-8. We can hear
obviously, AK-47 fire which is distinctive, but we can also hear small arms fire, U.S. small arms
fire being returned. So we get in the trucks and our lieutenants try to call and find out who’s in
contact. It turns out it was the other scout platoon, and they weren’t really good about informing
anybody of what they were doing. When we got there we see some soldiers stretched out behind
the guard rail on the side of the highway, and there’s this large embankment that goes down. It’s
fairly steep but it’s about fifty feet to the ground because in Iraq everything is flat so when they
build they highways and they need to make a bridge over something, they just made a big mound
of sand and one highway will run over the other and its all manmade. So they’re up on top of this
manmade berm and they’re firing down into this small, it’s not really a neighborhood more like a
�hamlet I guess but…and there’s someone firing back at them, and there’s at least two sources or
fire. Well the lieutenant decides that we’re going to go down there and find these guys. And it’s
getting on towards dusk but nobody really thinks about night vision or to say anything and he’s
giving us a little briefing up here on the highway. There are rounds flying by every once in
awhile but we’re standing behind a truck. It’s just kind of a neat little experience just like wow
this is it, we’re really going to do it this time. He says the rally point for our section is going to
be behind the bridge pilings. For some reason we had starting wondering around in front of the
truck and all the sudden they cut loose with another burst of fire and the Lt’s says alright lets go.
To me the last instructions issued were the rally point is going to be down there at the bridge
pilings, so I hurtled the guard rail and started sprinting down this embankment. I don’t know how
far I got but I’m guessing it’s about ten steps and I hear Helton what the hell are you doing? I
look to my left and there’s absolutely no one out there, I came to a dead stop and I was like o I’m
by myself and I turned around and sure enough everyone’s up behind the guardrail. Somehow,
everybody but me understood lets go to mean lets go to the guard rail and then we’re going to go
down the bridge. Suddenly I realized I’m the only target out here, I’m the only show in town, so
I start running back up the hill and it feels like there’s lead in my entire body, I’m sure I was
running fast but it’s like eternity to get back to the guardrail, and every once in a while you hear
a round smack in the dirt. I don’t think they were really shooting at me but they were shooting at
something. I got across the guard rail, the Lt calls me an idiot ands like what do you think you’re
doing? He’s like alright now our section is going to move down to the bridge pilings. Well I just
tried to do that but yes sir. We finally get down to the bridge piling and the other section gets up
under the eve of the bridge, where the bridge meets the bank. All seems to be going well but we
realize in the last couple of minutes we’ve lost all sunlight. Suddenly the Lt realizes we don’t
have night vision, he looks around and says does anyone have their night vision goggles? And
it’s like I do sir and pulled them out of my pouch and mounted it on my weapon. He looks
around and he’s like anybody got any IR chemlights? I was like they’re in the truck sir. So he
kind of whispers to the other group, he’s like hey you guys have any night vision or IR
chemlights? One of the sergeants had his night vision with him that was it.
Brindley Polk: Wow.
Rob Helton: So he looks at me and it’s probably the biggest deer in the headlights moment in my
life. Because o my god he is really going to tell me to do this. He says Helton go back to the
trucks get as many night vision goggles as you can and all the IR chemlights you can get and
we’ll cover you. It flashed through my mind that this son of a bitch is really going to get me
killed today but I said yes sir. When they started laying down cover I ran back up the
embankment. Well, there was firing coming from the insurgents and I’m sure they were just
shooting back in response to being fired at but when you’re running and there are bullets being
fired at you for the first time it feels like every single one of them has a homing beacon, like
you’re wearing a homing beacon and they’re coming right at you. I’m sure that wasn’t the case
but I ran faster than I’ve ever run in my life. I hurtled the embankment going uphill, I still don’t
know how I did that wearing all my equipment but I gathered all the night vision and all the
chemlights that I could and when I started taking night vision goggles out of this one truck, the
sergeant who had been left back up there in charge was like you better keep those straight. Like
its dark, they’re being shot at, I don’t think anyone cares right now who belongs to which set of
night vision, but whatever. So now I got it all together and I was like man I got to go back down
this hill. This is where it gets really interesting because I didn’t wear night vision on my helmet
�and it wouldn’t have helped me anyway because it’s two dimensional. There is no depth
perception. You can’t tell how deep something is or how wide it is. I was like alright, I’ll I’ve got
to do is make it back down this hill. I jumped the guard rail and start running. I made about three
steps and because no one bothered to design drainage on these highways these big gullies have
formed in the embankment. And so, like I said I took about three steps and when my foot came
down it did not touch ground where it was supposed to, and I had an instant to just think damn,
and then my foot hit the ground 6 inches 8 inches lower than it was supposed to but it was pretty
shallow or pretty narrow I mean, and I started tumbling. I had a bag over my shoulder so it’s me,
a rifle, and a bag tumbling. Somehow, I am proud to say I rolled out of it, combat roll I do not
know but I got back on my feet and started running down the hill again. But the problem is I had
gotten disoriented so I ran straight back into the same gully and did the same thing again. This
time I rolled a little further and I know the word idiot went through my mind at some point
between all the uffs and umphs but I got out of it and started running again and realized the
ground was starting to flatten out and I ran into a thorn bush. So, I took a couple of minutes to
extricate myself from that probably less than a minute but it was painful and slow process from
where I was sitting. You can still hear fire every once in awhile. I finally make it to the bridge
piling and the Lt says why were you making all that noise? And I’m thinking are you serious?
You sent me back up there, I come all the way back down, I just went through all that and I
brought you night vision that you should have had and this is all you can say to me? But of
course I just I’m sorry sir and handed him the bag. We got everything spread out. We ended up
moving into the little hamlet, we search every single house. There were a couple of more times
where we fired at the insurgents because there was fire coming towards us. No big deal. By the
end it, it wasn’t a big deal anymore which is the amazing thing it probably lasted for twenty
thirty minutes. By the end of it we were like o they’re just shooting in our general direction
again. It was a great experience because nobody got hurt us or them. We all received our combat
action badge which was a big deal, it’s just a little badge that goes on your uniform but everyone
can see that you’ve actually seen combat. Yeah, when you are a new sergeant and you show up
to a unit all your new little privates see you their like o wow we’ve got a combat experienced
NCO and it’s like you have no idea. Actually, my commander a couple of years later in the MP’s
he says Sergeant Helton what did you get that cab for? Well sir it’s just a little fire fight around
2-8. I tried to make it sound all nonchalant because I don’t want to explain the tripping and the
falling and anything else. He’s like that’s some good shit sergeant and he moves off. I’m like you
have no idea you really don’t but…
Brindley Polk: That’s, that’s great. I feel like you said it last for probably 30 minutes maybe? I
bet it seemed like a lot longer especially running.
Rob Helton: It did, it did. The other thing we realized we didn’t have was water.
Brindley Polk: O!
Rob Helton: So I was like my mouths full of dust, dust is coming out of my ears, it’s in my
weapon and I suddenly realize I’m completely thirsty and nobody had water. We’re not going to
go back to the trucks for that so by the time it was over we were all…if you’ve ever seen a camel
drink water it takes awhile, and that’s what we looked like. We’re all a bunch of camel’s
drinking water. But that was my baptism by fire, my first combat experience. I think it was all
downhill after that but you know that’s one of the highlights of…I guess it’s one of the big
highlights in the army is that I have a story that I am proud to tell that most people would be
�humiliated by I think because the tripping and the falling is pretty clumsy but you know it was a
learning experience and at the same time I can’t imagine how a first, a first contact or whatever
you want to call it could go better because there was no bad memories that came out of it. Just
learning a lot of things like the lieutenant’s and the sergeant’s actually started to enforce the
policy of carrying your night vision and keeping a chemlight stuffed in your vest and making you
carry water. We added a little weight to our trip but after that there’s another story that’s really
important to me, it was in July of 2005. It was a little more complicated because…I didn’t
mention this before about the school but App State was a very liberal school before the war and I
remember after 9/11 there was a protest on campus and the students dressed up like terrorists.
The only kind of terrorists we know of at that point, they dressed up like the PLA. I’m sorry the
PLA that’s Chinese, the Palestinian group actually that is the PLA, but in any chase Yasser
Arafat. That was the only terrorists that any of us knew about we saw them on TV all the time in
the 90s. I guess the 90s were a really different time. I had sort of come up with this time of peace
and we had Desert Storm I remember that as a kid, and I vaguely remember the invasion of
Panama in 89 but war was this thing that just didn’t exist anymore. You would have peace
keeping missions like Bosnia and Somalia even though that didn’t turn out so well it was a peace
keeping mission. When I told my advisor that I was leaving the university in 2003 that I was
joining the army, another advisor popped her head in the office and said don’t do it you’re
ruining your life. That was the kind of attitude we had here on campus. It just wasn’t…it was a
different time. I had heard a lot of stuff when I would go home or see on TV about how we
were…actually there was an entire debate in this ethnic and issues class I took and the professor
was incredibly anti-military. In the class, pretty much the entire class was me against them but he
talked about how we were just killing innocent people in Afghanistan at that point we’d only
been in Afghanistan, and he’s like military you just don’t understand they’re all brain washed.
We are not brainwashed, but whatever. It is a form of programming in the military but it’s not
the point that you can’t think for yourself. In any case I…I usually try to digress around this
story but it’s important for me to have it recorded. There was a highway right in front of my
FOB, a fob-Ford Operating Base but no one really cares what it stands for its just another base.
We took out a patrol one night to meet with a Shake and our troop commander was actually
going with us, he was Captain Sidel he was an absolutely outstanding officer. He was more or
less in charge of the patrol but our lieutenant, Lieutenant Tom Wiesel he was a young lieutenant
but he was also really squared away and knew what he was doing so he was really running the
show, the problem was we were in the rear truck because you don’t put the commander of a
troop in the lead or the rear of the convoy that’s the most dangerous position, so he goes in the
middle somewhere. We ended up being the last truck in the convoy which is not normal for a
lieutenant’s vehicle. All of that’s sort of superfluous anyway. We got on the highway and just
south of our fob was a traffic circle and it had an old base for a statue of Saddam in the middle of
it so you couldn’t see the other side from where you know you couldn’t see one side from the
other. Halfway around the traffic circle on the western side was a small side road, and there were
walls around it and a little market place. You really couldn’t see down the road unless you were
right in front of it. Essentially, you had three roads coming out of this traffic circle and this is a
pretty big threat to us when we’re in humvees. These are up armored humvees they’re ML-14’s.
The latest and greatest models but they weren’t impervious to large explosives, especially ones
that are in cars. The big concern was one day we’re going to be going around this traffic circle
and if we’re all too close together, the trucks are too close together, and somebody runs a what’s
called VBIED, vehicle born improvised explosive device, if someone runs one that’s big enough
�into the center truck then the other two trucks are going to be damaged and we’re all going to be
stuck in the middle of this traffic circle. We had come up with this policy that the first vehicle,
well the whole convoy would slow down and the first vehicle would go as fast as it could
through the check point and for 50 to 100 meters past the traffic circle and then all the other
trucks would repeat this process. This worked because we kept distance and spacing but the
problem was when you’re the last truck going into the traffic circle nobody really knows what
you’re doing. We never thought this was really a problem. O, and our radios did not work that
well because we had these jamming devices to jam cell phone signals but they also jammed our
radios. We can’t really talk to each other without turning off the jamming device; you turn the
jamming device off that means insurgents can detonate bombs using cell phones. So it’s kind of
a catch 22 I guess. In any case, our convoy came up to the traffic circle and the first three trucks
went through exactly as planned and our truck was set to fall. We got through the traffic circle
just fine. We were a little ways behind the third truck but not too far we were still going pretty
fast. I guess I should explain the lieutenant sits in the front right seat, I was sitting behind the
driver, our interpreter was behind the lieutenant, and our gunner was our sergeant and he was
actually facing to the rear with his weapon that way he could cover any vehicles coming up
behind us. Well, we’re almost to the point where we are going to slow down and I hear the
gunners scream o shit, and he starts trying to make himself one with the inside of the truck. I
mean, he was doing his best to get down through the gunners hatch, which is not normal. Usually
if anything happens they stand up and get on the gun or they say hey we got something that
might be coming up. There’s no warning, no firing, no nothing he just tried to get inside with us.
I had just enough time to consider how really odd that was when the back of our truck was
impacted, is the best way to put it. If you’ve ever been in a rear end accident, it was the hardest
rear ending I’ve ever felt. This guy was probably doing 50 to 60 miles an hour. It hit our truck so
hard that it actually damaged the transmission, it knocked the truck out of gear, it shorted
everything out inside, it turned the truck kind of sideways and this is a heavy vehicle. Our driver
wasn’t wearing a seat belt and he also didn’t have his helmet strapped under his chin so his
forehead impacts the steering wheel and knocks him out. The gunner had not…this is just a list
of complacent things but he had not put the retaining pin for the machine gun in the mount, so he
know has himself and an M240 sitting down inside the turret. The machine gun is just down in
here with him so he has no chance of using it at all. The interpreter Bob was a little shook up but
through all of this I kind of caught the Lt’s eye for just a split second and we were both thinking
the same thing at the same time, we got to talk about it later. See when a VBIED is set to
detonate usually they have what is called a crush wire in the bumper so when it impacts
something it completes the circuit. The two wires connect and the bomb goes off. This takes
everything out of the hands of the driver because he doesn’t actually have to push a button it’s
not like the movies, he just hits it and it blows up. However, if that fails or if his local
neighborhood insurgents or whatever don’t think he can do it they’ll rig a secondary trigger
device. Either he has it, if he doesn’t think he is going to make it to the target or the locals will
rig up a cell phone detonator just in case he doesn’t keep his nerve up, and they’ll blow it up for
him. It just kind of flashed through our heads that we’re dead already if this thing goes off we are
all going to die, we might as well go out fighting. We both jumped out to engage the car and
somehow Sergeant Garcia picked that 240 up out of the turret with him and he shouldered it like
Rambo and he started firing. The problem was he didn’t actually start firing at the car he started
firing at the back of our truck so for the rest of the tour there were six little holes in the back of
our truck. Which was not really what he was supposed to do but whatever. He actually did block
�the fire into the car but it was just like a mad minute on the range, everyone is firing as fast as
they can. Somehow we hear Godfrey say guys get in, he woke up and he got the truck back into
gear, essentially back into gear, and so somehow the Lt scrambled back into the truck and I got
back in the truck, Sergeant Garcia stopped firing at some point and we just started limping down
the road in this truck. Lt says Garcia what the hell just happened? He’s like sir he came out of
that side road and the car had no headlights. This is all critical stuff but it was dusk dark, there’s
no headlights, the car was swerving, and speeding up towards us and we have our lights on
because we need everyone to know we’re there. This was after curfew, no cars were supposed to
be on the road except us. So, essentially it looked in the old sense that if it looks like a duck,
quacks like a duck then it must be a duck. It looked like a VBIED and therefore it had to be one.
What was supposed to happen was Sergeant Garcia should have stood up and engaged the car
with his weapon because it’s obviously intends to impact our truck. Well, no one knew what had
happened to us and our radios were off but thankfully the commander who was two trucks in
front of us heard firing from a couple hundred meters down the road, ordered the convoy to stop.
The truck that was supposed to be in front of us hadn’t even noticed that we weren’t there. They
turned the convoy around and they caught up to us. We kind of met in the middle I guess. We
turned the whole convoy around to get back up to the car. By the time we got there the driver’s
side door is open and there’s this group of men leaving. The Lt and I jumped out and we stopped
them. They were just civilians but they had stopped to help this man, he was still alive when they
pulled him out of the car. They said he was really shot up and everything but he was alive, so
they put him on a bongo truck. A bongo truck is just a little pickup truck, flat nosed they’re
everywhere in Iraq. They put him on one to go up to the hospital. We just couldn’t believe the
guy was alive but we had to secure the scene because we thought this car was a bomb. We called
for EOD, explosive ordinance disposal. As usual they took about 45 minutes to get there. They
had to finish up whatever game they were playing on Xbox because that’s what they were always
doing. Hardest working people in Iraq because they are involved in combat from sun up to sun
down on that stupid TV but anyway. At least every time we went in there that’s what they were
doing but in any case they got out there, they used a little robot to clear the car. They get a guy in
a bomb suit and he actually goes up and opens everything in the car and they’re like if there are
explosives in this vehicle they’re really well concealed because we can’t find them. We
started…I started to get a real sinking feeling. They did find whiskey bottles in the back
floorboard. What we had run into, or had run into us was a drunk driver. Whether he was an
insurgent or not really didn’t matter at that point because what he had done had met all the
criteria of a VBIED so we, you know, there was no legalistic talk but over the years I’ve had
time to reason it out. Under the loss of laws of land warfronter (inaudible) and everything and
under our rules of engagement he met all the criteria so legally and I guess from the armies
standpoint morally we did nothing wrong but in the end none of that really changed the fact for
me that we killed an innocent man and he was guilty of nothing more than drinking and driving.
Which is foolish and selfish but…he really didn’t deserve to get shot. On the flip side of that we
could not have done anything else except sit there and just waited to die which is…I don’t know
from where we were sitting that’s what was going to happen. That’s not what a soldier does I
guess, that’s not what real soldiers do. So there was no way out of that situation without someone
being prepared to die I guess. I wrestled with that for a long time but finally I just came to the
conclusion that there’s nothing I can do about it and we all did what we thought was right at that
moment. That’s I guess the problem with war, every war.
Brindley Polk: You have a protocol to follow.
�Rob Helton: Yeah, well it’s also a matter of survival that you want to survive. You know, it still
amazes me that the Lt and I both thought we were just going to die at some point, at any moment
it’s all over with and we wouldn’t really know but we were not going to sit there and take it so
you know, how can we both be thinking the same thing at the same time and just glance at each
other and catch each other’s eyes and know that. Then of course there’s the whole thing with my
sergeant. That was just a series of wrong, wrong, and wrong but you know that happens and
nothing was done to him for it and he straightened himself up later I guess. That was an
experience that to me kind of explains so much else that happens in Iraq. When I hear about a
number of things that are not explained there are some recent incidents that have happened in
Afghanistan, they don’t fall in the category but in this case this man yes he was not supposed to
die, he was not an insurgent to our knowledge but there was nothing else we could do with him.
Do innocent people get killed in war, the stupid term collateral damage, yes it does happen but it
is not intentional. Like that professor used to tell us in class, we did not go out seeking to hurt an
innocent person. As a matter of fact professionals, you pride yourself on not involving the
innocence, leave them alone. I better get moving on because I don’t want to take too much time.
There’re far too many stories to share but especially from both tours that’s just from my first tour
that’s the first couple of months. There are a lot of just mundane details. There are a lot of days
where somebody shoots at you, you shoot back and then it’s like well where did they go? Then
you go looking for them and you can’t find them. Or there’s just an IED that goes off and you
spend 6 hours waiting on EOD to show up to just clear the area. There was a lot of that but one
of my favorite illustrations of how the propaganda machine of the insurgents works is third cav,
every line platoon or every line troop is split up into two platoons of scouts and bradley’s which
are like the little miniature tanks. I hate calling them that but it’s the easiest way to explain it.
Cause scouts have so much pride we are not tankers. Here’s two platoons’ of tanks and you all
work together and usually you each split off from your platoon to work with part of another
platoon from tanks. The tanks require very sophisticated units. They use what’s called a gas
turbine engine. It’s basically a jet engine but rather than having a nozzle to produce thrust it has a
drive shaft to produce torque. They’re fascinating, they’re actually comparatively quiet
compared to a diesel of the same size but they’re gas guzzlers and they’re extremely complex.
The maintenance on the engine itself is done by civilian contractors who are like LockheedMartin or somebody I don’t know but they…that’s all they do. Our mechanics are required to do
like the little things, the grunt work like unhooking the hoses and things. Well sometimes this
little process doesn’t go very well and in this case it didn’t because one tank the fuel line did not
get properly reconnected. This engine is producing 1500 horse power it’s really hot. In the
middle of winter if you’re really cold you want to stand behind one because it’s pretty awesome.
They’re really easy to spot when there’s snow outside because there’s this big fan of dry land
behind them. In the desert nobody wants to be anywhere near it unless somebody is shooting at
you, in that case you want to be as close as you can. We…I can’t even remember which tank it
was, it was from 4th platoon I’m like 90% certain of that because they had the worst luck
but…anyways this tank catches on fire in the middle of Tampa. MSR Tampa is this big four lane
highway just south of Baghdad. Highway one to the Iraqis’. In any case it catches on fire; well
the crew figures it out. The tracks on fire they try the fire extinguishers and everything nothing is
working. They all get out of the track, they try and start throwing their equipment off and my
patrol rolls up to it right as they’re bailing the last of their equipment off the track. Our
lieutenant, old eagle eyes, he looks across this there’s this large canal just to the south of the road
and he sees a van over there and someone has a video camera filming this tank burning. He’s like
�o no no no no they’re not doing that. We have to back track up the highway to the nearest bridge
which is like a mile up the road. We get across the bridge and now we’re going down this little
bitty dirt road it’s like a cart road and its right under this power line so even when we turn off the
jamming systems we still can’t get a radio signal. It doesn’t really matter because all we’re going
to do is sprint; you know drive a mile back down to this road. We get to the van and suddenly
there’s one guy there and no camera. We’re like hmmm wonder where the camera went probably
to Al Tizera but whatever the case is he’s doing nothing wrong, we search the vehicle there’s
nothing in there that indicates he’s been filming. We ask him where the camera is, o I don’t
know I’m here alone you know. Our commander has no arrived at the burning tank which is not
far away it’s like 150-200 meters. There’s no way to talk to each other because we can’t get our
radios to work and we can’t yell at each other. Our Lt is like we’re going to drive back up to the
bridge and we’ll get a signal and talk to the commander then come back down here. We leave
two trucks there, we take the other two and we drive back up. The only reason that’s important is
because we’ve crossed the same section of road three times. Well we get back to the van, the
other two trucks are getting kind of antsy, they’re ready to leave so we all get back in convoy and
we start driving out of this dirt road and we come to this…it’s like a small dip just a meter less, a
meter lower than the rest of the road. The truck in front of us disintegrates by the hood of it does.
The truck the body itself was fine, the whole crew was fine but the wheels go different directions
the hood actually flies, I even remember watching it out my window craning my neck to watch
as it just flipped and flipped and landed in the canal. It was just crazy to watch and we all of
course come to a dead stop. The Lt and I got out and we jumped, we ran all the way up to this
truck start pulling everybody out and they’re dazed. I mean the nose of the truck if nothing else
impacted the dirt and kind of stopped so they’ve all been thrown around pretty hard. We ended
up calling in a medivac for the gunner because he’d been jarred around so bad they were afraid
he’d broken his ribs but it turned out they were just bruised. In any case, the whole incident
destroyed a truck everybody was fine that’s great. Somehow the insurgents had not set this bomb
off. The worst they could have done was when we only had two trucks out there alone but they
didn’t do that so they managed to destroy a humvee. Well, a couple of weeks later somebody
managed to pull up, I can’t remember if it was on you-tube or in one of those other sites, but it’s
a video of that tank burning out on the highway and it’s a clip from Al Terzera and they’re
claiming responsibility for blowing up this tank. The problem is they can’t really blow them up
unless the tank actually runs over a bomb they’re too well armed but sure enough there they are
claiming responsibility. Yes we’ve destroyed this American tank; you know the imperialist
aggressors or whatever. That’s the propaganda machine that was insurgents. They were masters
of editing video to make it look like they were responsible for things that they didn’t actually do.
There’s a famous example of a medic who was shot in the chest but he was wearing his bullet
proof vest. The insurgent video shows him just falling over, the rest of the video shows him
getting back up and running around like what just happened to me.
Brindley Polk: Dazed and Confused.
Rob Helton: Exactly. Am I taking too long?
Brindley Polk: No, no you’re fine I’m enjoying your stories.
Rob Helton: OK.
Brindley Polk: Did you see any casualties while you were in combat?
�Rob Helton: Yeah, we had six killed my first tour and one permanently disabled and we lost our
interpreter as well. Actually, that is one of the couple of things that I would like to mention
because there are some people in particular that I would like to mention. There are a lot of names
that I don’t want to throw into the interview because I still know them and I don’t know, you
know I didn’t go ask them hey do you mind if I bring up what you did but… there’s sergeant first
class Christopher Phelps is the first one I’d like to mention. He was a platoon sergeant for the
fourth platoon. He’s a tanker a career tanker, he was getting ready to retire. He had some really,
really cute kids and he talked a lot about them, I’m going to go fishing with my son all the time
when I retire. He was really looking forward to that. Platoon sergeants and Cav, I guess any
combat arms they’re infallible they’re immortal. Nothing can ever happen to them. They’re
never tired, they’re never hungry and I mean this literally. They just seem to eat when they feel
like it and they sleep when they feel like it. If they don’t get to they don’t seem to mind all that
much, they might be a little more testy than other times but… Sergeant Phelps was a very
approachable platoon sergeant. I very rarely interacted with my own platoon sergeant but
Sergeant Phelps you could just…he liked to laugh and he liked to joke but he was also very
tough and very serious, he was a formal drill sergeant. Sometimes we would split into what were
called quarter troops they would take a section and a half of Bradley’s, so three Bradley’s, and
two tanks, there were only four tanks in a tank platoon, and so they would take the platoon
sergeant from the tank platoon and the platoon leader from the scout platoon and then just
reverse that for the other sections and it’s called a quarter troop. You got equivalent, four
equivalent levels of fire power or four equivalent blocks of fire power. The leadership is all
integrated so it’s a really great idea actually, it works out really well. That’s what we had done
for a month we were working out of…o my gosh I can’t remember the name of that FOB.
Anyway, it was the southwest FOB on byop because we were conducting operation safe skies.
That’s a whole different story. The rest of the time we were at FOB talk and we had already
moved back there. I went to eat breakfast with my buddy Buckles and if there’s one thing the
army does right its breakfast. Every morning there’s eggs, there’s bacon, there’s ham, there’s
French toast which is my favorite. This morning in particular there had been an IED attack the
night before and had killed a local, or a third party, third country national basically a truck driver.
The bomb had been sitting right next to us when we were stopped at one point and we didn’t
realize it so I’m having one of those I’m lucky to be alive moments and I’m like I’m going to
have some awesome French toast this morning because this is my little pleasure in life. I got a
couple of slices and I got the syrup, and I got the whip cream, and I got the little strawberry
topping and we had all of this it was awesome, every morning. I go to sit down with Buckles and
Sergeant Phelps comes over and I don’t know how to describe him, he was black as night and
just this big guy but he always had this funny looking grin on his face. He comes over; he’s
really sitting down with Buckles because he knows Buckles pretty well. He looks at my plate, he
goes Helton that is some Martha Stewart shit right there and he’s talking about the French toast,
and he’s like I swear to it you’re going to eat breakfast with me every morning for the rest of this
tour and you’re going to fix me some French toast. I was like roger Ser. And we had a nice little
breakfast conversation. It was a distinct memory of Sergeant Phelps. You’re only vaguely aware
of what the other platoons are doing most of the time at least soldiers are because it’s not
important for us to know. My section went on patrol that day and we came back late that
evening, we cleaned up cleaned our weapons. Well it’s free time you can go to the gym, you can
go to the phones you can do whatever so I told my sergeant hey I’m going to go over to the
phones and call my girlfriend. I went over there and called my girlfriend of the time, talked to
�her for a little while. I stopped by the chow and grabbed a snack and then I go back to the
barracks. This is old Iraqi army barracks they look like they were falling down but they worked.
I get there and I get upstairs and it is dead quiet. I realize that my entire troop is not there, no
one. Never at any time is everyone gone and I walked down…I get up my nerve and I walk down
to the platoon talk, the tactical operation center, it’s really just the platoon I’m sorry troop
headquarters and it’s where all the radios and things are, and it’s locked and there’s no one
inside. I felt really…I mean it’s the worst feeling that I’d had at that point because I realized that
my, everyone I know, everyone I trained with is gone right now and I don’t know where they are
and I don’t know what they’re doing and I’m not there. I’m freaking out a little bit, and I’m a
private that’s allowed you just do it. I walk back to my room; I think I actually ran back, I got all
gear together. I had everything set up so I could throw it on in a moment’s notice and I walk over
to our neighbor troop, killer troop, and they’re our rivals but I went to basic training with some
of their guys so I found my buddies and I’m like hey man do you know where my troop is? This
is a really stupid question because there’s like 130 of us. He’s like hey man yeah iron hog got
called out for something and they’re headed up north and I don’t know what’s going on dude. I
was like well listen if you hear anything or if you guys get called out you come get me I’m ready
to go just come get me. So I went back to my barracks and I broke down one of my weapons and
started cleaning it because it’s the only thing I had to do. Eventually, I start hearing people
coming back into the building and this is a couple of hours later and the entire time I’m flipping
out because I just know my guys are involved in some big battle somewhere and I’m not there
with them. The thing is when you come back in the buildings after patrol even if you’re, I mean
maybe if you’re dead tired, most of the time you’re joking with each other you’re like yeah I’m
going to call Trip’s wife you know my other girlfriend or something. It’s just guy talk, and we do
it all the time and everything is dead quite. All I can hear is their equipment as they’re carrying it
scraping on their uniform. I walk out in the hall and there’s Stevenson, and Sergeant Rode and I
think I think Lawson. They look at me and Sergeant Rode goes where the hell were you at? I said
I’ve been here for hour’s sergeant. He just kind of shakes his head and goes pshh and walks on
down the hallway. Well finally the rest of the troop gets back, and my whole platoon gets back
and I start finding out what happened. The issue was that Sergeant Phelps patrol had been
traveling up Tampa towards Baghdad airport and this new bomb that we’ve never heard of called
EFP, explosively formed projectile, had gone through his truck and it had amputated three of his
limbs and both of his drivers’ arms and continued on out the other side of the truck. Until this
point we thought we were pretty safe inside our vehicles. It was a pretty big shock in itself. The
amazing thing was the medic that was on scene, Beaton who is absolutely outstanding, kept him
alive and got him on a medivac bird and got him to Baghdad. The driver survived and Sergeant
Phelps lived for seven and a half hours. That is almost impossible with that level of trauma but
the reason the entire troop went is because we all received the same inoculation so that everyone
who is eligible, and I would have been because I’m an O-, was taken up there and everyone who
was the same blood type, he had one of the really common blood types, so everybody because
we all have the same stuff floating around in our blood stream. Everybody that wasn’t his blood
type could provide security on the way back because you’re obviously going to be a little weak
because they’re not just taking like a blood bank sample this is like draining you. That just about
killed me knowing maybe my couple of whatever liters or whatever would have made a
difference. I don’t think you can live if they take liters but that’s the idea. That really hurt
but…that was the first time that we lost somebody and I mean it wasn’t the first casualty in the
regiment that was actually the regimental sergeant major. It wasn’t the first casualty in the squad
�rant that was a kid that drove his tank off into a ditch and drowned. There had been others but it
was the first one for our troop and to lose Sergeant Phelps, platoon sergeant was earth shattering.
His poor driver, who’s name I can’t remember, his baby had just been born he hadn’t been sent
home for it as far as I know so at some point you realize that he’s never going to get to hold his
son with his own arms so he’s going to have to use his prosthetics. That gets really disturbing
after a couple of years of thinking about it. In any case it was a rough experience but Sergeant
Phelps apparently was still talking to everybody even when he was so badly wounded. They
could make out most of what he was saying; he was still looking after his soldiers. His
driver…this poor kid that got to us a month before he deployed, at most it was three months
before he deployed but I think he was in the last group. He actually, in spite of the fact that he’s
lost his arms actually kept his mind in the game and asked the gunner to grab the wheel because
he couldn’t stop the truck, or he couldn’t steer the truck. That level of commitment, you know
I’ve never been wounded thankfully but they were incredible soldiers. Sergeant Phelps’ family I
know they were taken care of but I’ll never forget him and I’ll never forget seeing his family
around the troop and things. I really hate that he didn’t get to take those fishing trips. It’s hard to
realize that someone can spend an entire career in the military and then everything gets snatched
away right at the end. At the same time he was very proud and I know that he would have been
out there with his soldiers. Our other casualties, fourth platoon got hit hard during the
deployment. Like I said, their tank burned up, they lost their platoon sergeant, one of their
soldiers; then they lose their lieutenant, their replacement platoon sergeant and two of their
soldiers. Lieutenant Smith, I don’t remember his first name he was from Durham, North
Carolina. Sergeant Freeman had just come to us I don’t really know anything about him except
that at his memorial they said that the first thing he told the first, our first sergeant was I’m going
to be sergeant major in the army one day. That’s a pretty lofty goal when you’re not that far up
on the list but he was determined. The other two were Reyes and Pope. Pope sticks out in my
mind because he was one of the comedians. Every platoon it seems to be the case is issued an
idiot and a comedian. The idiot is there to make everyone else look better and the comedian is
there for the laughs and he can keep everybody going. Pope was that guy for fourth platoon. He
would do these things called who-wa-days. Now you have to understand Pope was stop lost he
wasn’t really supposed to be there but he you know made him be there. He would paint his face
up in camo paint and he would put on his spurs, he would put his spurs on his boots and
apparently he would even strap his Stetson to the top of his helmet. He would go on mission like
this and he would get out of his truck, or get out of the tank and the Iraqi’s would be staring at
him like who is this idiot? His platoon sergeant and everything allowed it so nobody is going to
stop him but that was just Pope’s way and he had some really funny stories. He had some really
close buddies in the troop and they were really funny to watch because they could say one word
and all of them would bust out laughing, that’s just the kind of guy he was. They were killed by a
VBIED at checkpoint 32. They were actually searching cars under a bridge and that was the
same day that our interpreter Bob was killed. That’s another casualties of the war that I don’t
think gets mentioned a lot but the interpreters some of them were absolutely outstanding, other
ones you never knew if you could trust them or not. We weren’t really sure if they were
interpreting what you were saying or just telling both sides what they wanted to hear.
Brindley Polk: Right.
Rob Helton: Bob was really good he was a school teacher before the war. He was just this nice
quiet little guy and we eventually finally got him to start expressing himself a little more. Like
�hey Bob when we’re mad, when we’re yelling you need to be yelling too that way they
understand that we’re mad. Otherwise they might just think we’re being stupid or something. He
really got the picture and he was a great little guy. He was always asked us what words meant
because he couldn’t understand what we were talking about. Usually they would be swear words
but sometimes it would be really significant stuff and it’s like alright Bob, get your notebook out
let me explain. Really cool guy and we lost him that day too. That was a rough experience
because the thing that they don’t show in the movies is somebody has to clean up afterwards and
that’s usually just soldiers, we get sent out to clean it up. When it’s your friends it’s not…it’s not
easy but at some point your mind shuts off what you’re actually doing and you just develop a
process of dealing with it and I guess just kind of shut it out. That was a bad day for fourth
platoon especially because they’ve lost over a quarter of their platoon at this point. There are
only 16 guys in a tank platoon, and they’ve lost 5. Really rough for them, they never got enough
replacements so we ended up having to stick some scouts over there to work with them. The last
casualty was actually my really good friend Jared Kubasak. He was from Rocky Mountain,
Virginia and his parents are Dana and Daryl Kubasak two wonderful people. Jared, Lord God
don’t let me misquote the date, but it was 12 December of 2005. We’re on a routine patrol,
nothing new nothing different. We’re just going out to set up some positions and his Bradley
commander, I’ll refrain from using his name, but he got lazy and decided to take a dirt road
instead of a hardball, paved road. The thing was we had been strictly ordered unless it was
necessary for a mission or in direct pursuit of the enemy we were not to come of the paved roads
because you can’t bury a bomb under a paved road. You can, but you’d have to fill it back in
whatever. Well he got lazy and took a dirt road ten meters from a paved one and there was a
bomb buried there and it went off and killed Jared. It blew a hole in the floor of the track…I
don’t know two or three feet behind Jared and I’m sure the concussions what killed him. The
thing was the track caught on fire; of course the radios aren’t working so our lieutenant if he had
not been looking back through this little tiny hole between the hatch and the top of the turret, he
just for some reason was looking back that way, and he saw the detonation. I was asleep in the
back of our Bradley cause there’s nothing else for me to do and I feel it stand up on its nose
almost. That only happens when the driver actually slams on the brakes normally you don’t use
them you just take your foot off the gas and it’ll stop by itself. We actually, there was sliding and
a really steep angle down the nose and I was like Jesus what just happened? I’m trying to get my
little helmet on to be able to talk to the rest of the crew which didn’t work anyway but for some
reason it’s just the reaction I had, and I’m like hey Godfrey what’s going on man? The track
spins around and we start flying back in the other direction. Nobody can tell me anything, I get
my helmet on and I’m like o yeah it doesn’t work. I just get my gear ready because I’m sure
whatever is about to happen is going to be serious. The thing is we get there and the drivers hatch
pops open and I watch Godfrey climb out through the hell hole, the hell hole is just a gap
between the back and front of the track where the driver can climb through. I watch him jump
out of the track and I started to open the turret door and the turret spins and it’s like wow, what
what’s going on here? I did hear the Lt yelling and I knew he was gone. I realized that two
people had just gotten off my track, nobody’s let the ramp down to let me out, there’s a crew
door we never opened it but I did this day. As soon as I get it open I’ve got…o my gosh what
was his name, a sergeant from the other track from Jared’s track is yanking me out through that
hole. It’s a little tiny door but he pulls me modally out of the door and is just yelling for a fire
extinguisher. He is in a panic and I have no idea what he is talking about until I look. I get
around from, I step away from the track and I see that their track is on fire. I grab a hold of him
�because he is obviously in a panic and I just kind of shook him and was like hey, hey is anyone
still inside? He said Kuba is still in the front, and we called Jared Kuba all the time you just
shorten every bodies name. I pretty much just forgot about him or and just ran to the track
because Jared was my friend and it doesn’t matter if they’re your friend not you don’t leave
somebody like that. We all got to the track and the Lt and Godfrey are already trying to pull
Kuba out and the track commander is just running around like a mad man I have no idea what
he’s doing. He did get a fire extinguisher eventually and he sprayed the top of the flames for
some reason, he was obviously a little out of his mind. I got up on the track and this thing is
obviously busted really bad like the engine is on fire and is right in front of us. Well I can see
Jared and he looks perfectly fine. Bodily he is completely intact. We actually, they initially
pulled on his gear and had pulled his vest and his shirt off and his skin wasn’t even broken, he’s
just kind of sitting there. We’re all three pulling and the problem with fire is the inside of the
track started catching on fire and we’d already tried all the fire extinguishers nothing worked; the
internal fire extinguishers the hand-held fire extinguishers wouldn’t stop the burning. The flames
actually started getting in the ammo this took a couple of minutes. Well we finally realized what
had happened was that the engine had been knocked off its block and had come through the
firewall between the driver and the engine. The engine sits right next to the driver, or the drivers
next to it whatever. It had pinned his legs inside and there’s no way we were going to be able to
move the engine block and there’s no way to get him out, at least at the time we didn’t think of it
later we realized what we could have done but it would have been rather gruesome and we
weren’t prepared for that in the moment I guess. In any case, the fire got into the ammunition
that’s stowed in the back and there’s no way around that…there’s also two tow missiles mounted
on the side of the turret, those are pretty big explosives and eventually they’re going to blow up.
The big problem wasn’t the small arms ammunition in the back, the little just regular
bullets…they’re not really a problem I guess and we didn’t really think about them at first. The
problem is that the ammunition for the 25 mike mike (25mm) the main, the little automatic
cannon that the Bradley has is in plastic crates and its high explosive. They’re small but enough
of them blowing up in a small space like that were going to get, basically it’s going to kill us.
We’re not thinking about that, Godfrey and I weren’t, and that’s…the Lt if he had not been there
to make the call and tell us to leave…I don’t think it…we probably would have stayed there until
we died but he looked at both of us he looked at Kuba and he says guys we’ve got to go. We
kind of just… that was a stunning statement, you’re taught from day one to never leave anybody
and we didn’t really realize at the time we weren’t really leaving him we just had to get away
from the track but we both just kind of glanced at him like he was an idiot and we went back to
what we were doing. He grabbed a hold of us and he’s like we have to go now and so we did and
that was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. Literally, there are things that I say every once in
awhile this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, no. Leaving my friend was hard, the worst. That
was the first time that I had ever really been angry…at the insurgents. To this day I’m not mad at
them but at that particular moment I was because why did you have to do this, you know. That
bomb could have been there a month, six months it had just been sitting there waiting and it was
on a crushed switch, the same concept as a crush switch in a VBIED but you just run over it and
it detonates the bomb. It’s the perfect weapon because it’s just going to wait. In any case, I was
mad but thankfully I exercised self control because you’re just looking around and you’re just
like man is there anybody to shoot at right now, and that sounds terrible but I never acted on it. I
know some people that didn’t maintain that level of discipline but thoughts, strange thoughts go
through your mind. We just pulled back to a minimum safe distance and watched the track burn.
�Probably the most annoying part of the day outside of…no that wasn’t annoying losing your
friend that was devastating. Annoying is our squandrant commander pulls up and Lieutenant
Colonel Brown comes out and he sends us back to the base without the track, without Kuba. He
says that my guys are going to take care of this we’ll watch it burn down you guys go back to
base. To this day I cannot forgive him for that because that was the wrong answer he should have
let us stay there it was…it’s his funeral fire and his dad is actually the one who put it that way.
We became very good friends when I got back, he called it his son’s funeral fire and he’s right
that’s what it was. There’s no need to go into the details of how that turned out but we recovered
the track, and Jared was recovered in the sense that needed to be done. That was the first time
that I really got to up close see the cost of war because after it was over I felt a need to see his
family. We had talked about going to visit each other. Hey my parents live in Rocky Mountain,
my dad’s a big gun nut you guys would get along great…hey I’m just down in Hickory you
could come visit and so I called them when I was on my post deployment leave and his dad’s
response was you are shitty me right? I thought he meant he didn’t want to see me and he’s like I
would love to meet you, you are for real right? I went to meet them and they are two of the most
wonderful people ever and they’re what is called gold star parents because they lost their son and
he was also their only child. That has been very hard but Dana, his mother, has found some
really amazing outlets and they honor their son. They go to all… the warrior’s walk down in Fort
Stuart, they’ve gone to visit the memorial for 3d Cav…they stay really active and really positive
and I love them dearly. They came down and had Christmas with us last year even they’re like
family. You see the cost of war in the lives around them as well because Jared’s friends were all
there in Rocky Mountain. It’s devastating for a small town. There’s a memorial that dates back to
the Civil War, everyone in Franklin County, Virginia who’s been killed in a conflict. Of course
the Confederate dead, World War I, and World War II, Jared is the only name on his side. It just
says Gulf Wars 1991 and there’s no end date and his name is there and that’s it. One man from
Franklin County, Virginia but you can see the affects. It makes it…it makes the reality of war
much more significant. In any case, those are our casualties. My second tour there was only one
incident and they lived that day but…it’s what I call a hidden cost of the war. Two men, Alex
Knapp and James Hackimer, both lost both legs. They lived then and they…James actually
received prosthetics and he was learning to walk again and he was thrown out of a roller coaster
in upstate New York last year and killed him. I saw the article on yahoo initially and there were
comments like who would let a double amputee on a roller coaster? It’s like o my gosh, you
can’t comment on something like that because James Hackimer if he wanted on that roller
coaster he was going to get on it. He was that kind of guy. The first time he and I ever met we
argued, we were yelling at each other. I think the second time we ever talked to each other we
were yelling at each other. It doesn’t matter, when I saw him after we got back it was a 15 month
tour by the time we got back to Germany he recovered enough to come see us. You see them,
you hug them and they’re like brothers it doesn’t matter how you felt about each other before.
Knapp ended up dying of his injuries two years ago so there’s one guy that’s still alive, Meyer. I
told him I was like dude you got to, you got to keep kicking. He’s tough, he’s a good guy. Those
two, Knapp and Hackimer, they are just as surely casualties of this war as anybody else, just as if
they died there on the battlefield. The thing is they got to come home and see their families.
Hackimer got to see his kids, Knapp got to see his parents at least they got that chance a little
extra time. It was very inspiring to read Hack’s mothers words after he died. She said we were
gifted with two more years with him or another year and a half I think, it was borrowed time but
we got it and we were fortunate. That really you know to me is an inspiration. She took a
�tragedy, double tragedies but she turned it into the right you know positive. That was kind of I
don’t know, in my own way of dealing with the war there are many other things that I…there are
some things that I just wouldn’t want to talk about but in any case there’s a lot to deal with and
some guys can’t handle that some guys box it up. After listening to Dana and Daryl and reading
that quote from Hacker’s mother and so many others I realized that boxing it up and trying to put
it away, that’s the wrong answer...because you’re turning yourself into another casualty. No one
likes to talk about all the veterans who commit suicide, the veterans who have severe post
traumatic stress disorder; they can’t live a daily normal life. For myself I learned to live with it,
to make it apart of myself. This is an experience that I chose to have and I wanted to be there.
There’s no reason to block all of that out and try to…a friend of mine up here said one time that
he puts it in a box and every once in awhile it comes out and plays with him. I was like that’s not
how I’m going to live my life…in these tragedies I guess I found my inspiration for living. Those
were our guys that we lost I’m sorry I got kind of poetic there for a second.
Brindley Polk: That’s fine and you’re way of living, and you’re back here at App even after
leaving. Why did you come back?
Rob Helton: Well there’s the whole transfer credits thing. I’ll just go ahead and get the mundane
reason out of the way, I mean I had a lot of credits here I qualified for academic forgiveness
because I was a dumb kid like a lot of other people that go to college. I in a way was looking for
the challenge because I didn’t expect App to be what it is now. I thought it was still going to be
that real liberal hippy anti-war anti-military school and it’s not. My first day back in class, twice
I was told…in both classes I couldn’t get out of explaining that I’d been in the military for the
last six years because they were very specific about where’ve you been what have you been
doing? It’s like well I’m either going to sound like an idiot since I hadn’t been in college since
2003 and it’s 2010 or I can explain, so I did. In both cases they were like wow we would really
like to hear about your experiences. I was like what?! What did you just say? Are you serious?
You know when I left here people were looking at me like I was some kind of a leper and now
it’s like you’re happy to have me here. That’s the experience that I’ve had consistently. You
know, it’s really heartening because I know my uncles were, as I said family history was just
buried under the rug as far as their time in Vietnam but that’s the way it was in the entire
country. They had to suffer and in some cases it’s been forty years since they’ve been back
almost I guess it’s 2012. Closing in on forty years that they had to suffer and because they did
because of what they went through and being ignored and being spit upon and everything else,
veterans today don’t have to be treated like that. People understand that even if you don’t like the
war, I have a good friend up here that’s a Core Man that’s a marine medic. He’s a navy personal
who’s was a medic with the marines. He was in the invasion of Iraq, he completed his time
honorably he got out and he became a war protester with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans against
the war or Iraq veterans against the war or one of those groups. He actually organized…he
helped organize the protest down at Crawford, Texas at the western white house (bushes house?
In audible) I don’t agree with what he was doing, he was protesting at the same time I was in
Iraq but at the same time I was like dude that is awesome way to go and that’s sort of where the
country has come to. Most of the country, there are still people out there who don’t like us. They
treat us so much better so much nicer. The weekend I proposed to my wife in Blowing Rock we
stayed at one of those little cabins over there and the morning that we were checking out I left
my at that time fiancé at the front desk and I went and got my jeep and pulled up to the front. I
walk in and the lady hands me a couple of hundred bucks in cash I was like what’s this for? You
�had to pay in advance…well she said that’s the military discount if you had told me you were in
the military I would have given you the discount to start with so here it is. I said you don’t have
to do this. She said no I appreciate what you’re doing, I appreciate you all and she said if you
ever come back make sure you tell me you’re military. Yes ma’am I’ll do that. It just wasn’t
something that I told people. One of my friends says real professionals don’t do that and you
know what he’s right. It’s your job it’s your profession. It used kind of annoy me when I was in
Atlanta airport coming or going from Iraq and people, random people would walk up to me and
say I want to thank you for what you’re doing. I said how do you know what I’m doing? I
understand now how they feel because I thank young veterans, I thank older veterans because I
realize there are a lot of men and women that came before me but the point is…that…I’m sorry I
got off subject but Appalachian has changed so much and it’s so much more positive now. I’m
not sure I’m a big fan of the whole football thing, still haven’t gone to a game but you know it’s
at this place I have seen 9/11, invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq, I’ve seen the end of war
in Iraq and the death of Osama Bin Laden. The exact opposite reaction that night there was a
celebration on campus and yet for 9/11 there was a protest in support of the terrorists saying that
America brought this on itself and this is all our fault you know we deserve this. I was like wow
what a difference and that’s ten years later, what a difference ten years makes. I’m sure it’s a lot
to do with University leadership and also the…I’ve got to admit I think the student body is a
little smarter than it used to be. When I came here the first time they were a little stuck on
themselves; now it seems they’re more open and actually interested in questioning things. It’s a
great place and I’m really glad I chose to come back here.
Brindley Polk: Good. Do you have any future plans? You know, more military service maybe?
Rob Helton: No more military service. I am happy and my wife and I are going to be content
raising a family down in Burk county and hopefully in the next year and a half, two years
because there’s always more school and more dues to be paid I will be a police officer
somewhere down in that area Hickory, Morganton, Lenoir somebody that will take me. If they
think that I’m qualified enough. I did have three years of MP time and I was a sergeant for
that…that’s my plans basically live life work to support my farming habit have a little couple of
cows a couple of kids and live a happy life.
Brindley Polk: In that order cows then kids.
Rob Helton: Pretty much you’ve got to get the cows before the kids.
Brindley Polk: Well, is there anything you would like to cover in this interview?
Rob Helton: …There were a lot of things, but there’s one particular story I just want to share.
Because there are a lot of guys that came back with really negative impressions of the Iraqi’s and
I did not actually. You have to understand that there’s a word not popular in America called
peasant, they still exist. These are people who have no education no real future but their just
filling their spot in society over there. They’re not the majority of the population and I met some
really fantastic people. There were two in particular Major Quessey and Colonel Salman,
thankfully I don’t know their first names. Just a little explanation of why I felt so great about the
Iraqi’s and why I felt there was a future for the country of Iraq. Major Quessey was actually, he’s
called a Sayyid he’s a direct descendent to Muhammad through his daughter Fatima. This
generates a lot of respect from the locals, wherever he went he was well respected. He was also,
�he was a very handsome man he the perfect mustache, the perfect hair all the time. Very French,
his mannerisms because he was educated in France so he had this curious way of holding a
cigarette, crossing his legs he’s obviously different from everybody else. He was incredibly
educated incredibly just…like I said he’s like a movie star. We weren’t really sure about him at
first because it’s like wow how does this guy, how’s he really going to stack up in this? Well in
March of 2008 Letada Alsod already cleared an uprising and it was against the Iraqi forces. The
local affiliate was called Jay Shalimadi, Jam is what we revered to them as. They were to attack
all Iraqi security forces. Eventually what ends up happening is they attack our Iraqi police that
we’ve been training. This is the reason that I had changed jobs was to train the Iraqi police. I
took it very seriously I was very happy to train them. Yes, you did not turn your back but at the
same time like with the officers we sat down we drank tea we talked we became friends, and I do
mean friends I trusted these men well some of them. Major Quessey was one of them. We get a
call one day that there’s been a patrol ambushed two pickup trucks full of IPs had been attacked
with an IED. Most of them were down and there’s a serious fire fight in our town. The town is
called Tunis, it was…it had a different name before the war but it was changed for some reason.
Just a little town on ASR Jackson that four lane highway that runs up to Baghdad, it’s like 40
kilometers straight south of Baghdad. Nothing really to it just the highway runs through and
there’s a technical university there it was kind of operational. Well anyway, we get all of our
equipment together we go rolling out there and we get to the station and the IPs tell us that Major
Quessey and all the officers and all the IPs are down at the end of town and so we get back in the
trucks and we go flying to the traffic circle in the middle of town, we go around it the wrong way
we get on the highway an we’re headed south. I’m in the lead truck and I can see something
flashing in the distance and I’m like what is that? It’s like a little camera flash ping, ping. As we
get closer I realize that it is a chrome plated AK-47 on some body’s shoulder and there’s only
one person that has one around there and that’s Major Quessey. He is standing, as we get closer
this al resolves itself, he is standing in the center of a highway open to everything. There are
bullets flying by, there are rockets being fired at him. He is standing out there with his chrome
plated AK-47 on his shoulder, a pair of aviator sunglass, and what we call a chicken vest. It’s not
bullet proof it’s not proof against anything but he’s got it on. He is standing out there directing
his IP’s standing as tall and proud as anything, not afraid in the least not slowing down for
anybody. When we pull up the insurgents all stop firing and as it turns out their orders were in
this up rising to not engage with us to not engage with the United States forces or I’m sorry
coalition forces we weren’t American forces at that point. In any case, they were only to engage
the Iraqi’s so they stop firing and they all fun away. We’re still concerned that he’s going to get
shot so we’re running out there like sir Major Quessey you’ve got to get down please, you’ve got
to come over here and take cover. You know, this is all going through and interpreter and he says
no my friends I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine they won’t shoot me. I was like well it looks like they were
doing a pretty good job at trying and you know you could put him in a crowd of Iraqi’s and he’d
stand out anyway he’s also fairly tall. He’s standing in the middle of a highway with a flashy
rifle and big sunglasses, yeah he stands out but he was so brave and so courageous, so
committed. He loved his country dearly. I’m sure with his education he could have gone
somewhere else but he chose to stay and he had a beautiful family. Eventually he was promoted
and moved away from our station which is good for him, he got promoted. He had also once
been personally decorated by Saddam they had a picture of that, he’s all pale faced and he looked
really scared. Saddam is shaking his hand looking all happy and it’s because he got injured
during a raid during the Saddam period. He was…what did he do, o yeah he busted up a car
�hijacking ring basically single handedly basically it was a funny story but we don’t have time for
that I guess. In any case we got our new commander Colonel Salman. The only thing that we
were told about this man was that he was getting out of prison. So we’re like well we’re getting
an IP commander who’s getting out of prison this is wonderful. Well, he shows up and he’s this
really happy guy. He’s a pretty big guy and he’s always smiling and he’s like my friends, my
friends and he actually I think he understood English fairly well because there were times that
our interpreter would not have time to explain what we were talking about and he would just say
something in Arabic. He couldn’t speak it but he could understand what we were saying. He was
a former intelligence officer in the Iraqi army. He was in the invasion of Kuwait, he’d
experienced American fire power first hand but he didn’t hold a grudge so pretty, pretty good
guy. We had to get him to explain to us why he’d been to prison and he says that’s not really for
me to tell you so we had to go down to see the district commander who explained that Colonel
Salman is so committed to his job and he’s the best IP commander you will ever meet. Really
why is that? He explains in 2004 that Colonel Salman was actually working with us, with the
American forces and he was not scared of the insurgents and they kept threatening him. They
finally executed his son to discourage him and he would not quit. What he does instead, and I
don’t know how this relates or how it fits together exactly but this is just what the district
commander told us that Colonel Salman had been trying to prosecute this local shake that was
really involved in the insurgency but he was also really wealthy and politically connected so no
one would touch him. I was like wow it’s like the mob. Well, he got fed up with the process and
so he went to the market one day where he knew the shake would be and he pulled out his pistol
and killed him. That was…and he surrendered immediately thereafter to be tried and put in
prison so he was. Under their laws, under their legal system after a certain amount of time I
guess the family can forgive you. If they do then you’ve committed no more crime and you’re
released so they forgave him after a year and he was sent to us at the station in Tunis. We
realized that he had no fear and that he would do his job and a couple of months later, and he was
absolutely outstanding he was very tough but also very fair with his IPs. He brought a more
militant stance to it and expected them to, for instance when they report to him in the American
military you salute your officers and their military you salute as well but it’s more of a flat you
put the back of your fingers against your forehead thing but they also do this little weird hop and
stomp. There’s no other way to describe it they kind of hop off of both feet, they stomp the left
on then the right one in sequence. It’s really funny looking but he required them to do it and
normally they didn’t have to so he was very serious. A few months into him being there, one
morning he’s not at the station and he’s supposed to be. He’s never late, he’s never called in sick
he’s a diabetic even and he doesn’t call in sick. We were sitting here kind of morose because
we’re like wow he’s dead, we know he’s dead he has to be dead he wouldn’t be late otherwise.
Well, we were wrong. Three hours later he walked in all smiles my friends, my friends and he
offers us some baklava which is this nice little dessert. He offers to buy us lunch, I’m so sorry
I’m late you know and the interpreter is having a hard time keeping up with him. Finally, he’s
like I’m so sorry I must explain why I was late and he said this morning I go out to get into my
car, he drove himself around. Most of them had bodyguards and escorts and they needed them.
Colonel Salmam did not need them apparently but he goes out to get in his car and he realizes
there is a bomb under his car so most people in America we would call in and be like hey my
tires flat I can’t make it today. No, he goes inside he calls an Iraqi EOD team they come out
disarm the bomb. As soon as it’s taken away he gets in his car and he comes to work. He was
that committed.
�Brindley Polk: Wow.
Rob Helton: No fear, he went out that day with us and did a walking patrol around town which
was highly unusual for officers to do, Iraqi officers. He loved his job he loved his profession.
Amazingly that station was the only was considered tier one station in the entire babel province.
Babel province was considered the key to Iraq and this station was considered self-sustaining by
the we left. That had some, a lot of it had to do with our troops. My squad worked very hard with
that station, the other squads looked very hard with the other stations. A lot of long hours a lot of
training from our soldiers but it also had to do with Colonel Salmam and that particular station
because he you know made them a tight knit group. They day that we realized that we were
succeeding, and that was one of the big clues in Iraq. You rarely realized you were succeeding in
anything. The day we realized we had succeeded was our latest MP battalion commander was
rolling in they were like a revolving door we got new commanders all the time that’d be a long
explanation but he rolled through and he congratulated my squad leader when he got to the FOB
because our IPs had what’s called muzzle awareness. They had their weapons pointed at the
ground and their fingers off the trigger. Every other Iraqi army and police…you would never see,
would carry it either across their chest with the muzzle pointing at everybody to their left or their
right depending on which hand they used or they carried it up on their shoulder so the muzzle
was usually pointed at somebody’s head behind them. Their finger was always on the trigger and
because of the rudimentary nature of the safety the weapon was usually on fire and I have
actually seen them shoot themselves in the foot, shoot another… my first tour we worked with
the Iraqi army some and we saw them shoot each other in the leg by accident, all of it’s an
accident. He was, this new Colonel was really impressed that our IPs out of the thousands that
he’s seen across Iraq have achieved muzzle awareness and that’s exactly what he said. He’s like
you guys have done such hard work. Hard work well, yelling at them every day to stop pointing
their weapons at us. That is part of it but also teaching them that this is the smart way to do it
because what if your family is walking by another IP do you want him pointing his weapon at
your family? No, you learn to integrate the lessons to them. It’s also a matter of respect. In
fifteen months my squad was never once touched. When Hackimer, Knapp, and Meyer were hit
we had just rolled through that checkpoint literally five minutes before that so the bomb was
already there. My commander to this day probably convinced it wasn’t there but it was, it had to
be and they didn’t touch us. There was a lethal attack one day in our town and we had just left,
we had rolled by the same stretch of road and no one had touched us. There were small arms
incidents where another patrol that was right in front of us would get lit up or behind us but
never once did they touch our squad. It’s not because we were soft on them it’s not because we
didn’t do our jobs I’m convinced to this day it’s because we showed respect to the local people.
That was a big thing to me and my first patrol outside the wire my first day in my second tour or
the first patrol I actually did with my soldiers. I unloaded my gunners machine gun when we got
to the station because he’d been pointing it at people till we got there and that’s what he’d been
trained to do. He had been brought over to my team after like two weeks before we deployed so I
hadn’t had a chance to train him in how I wanted him to do the job. He’d been trained to point
his weapon at anybody who got to close and this including cars well there are thousands of cars
in Iraq. They go see their grandma’s they go to the market they go for a drive. They do
everything that we do and he was pointing his weapon at them scaring the living daylights out of
them. We got to the station and the first thing I do was climb up on top of the truck and took his
rounds out of his weapon and he’s looking at me like I’ve shot his dog or something and he’s
like sergeant what am I going to do if they attack us? You put them back in you know it’s not
�hard it’s not complicated but until you can show me that you’re not going to shoot and innocent
person you’re not getting them back and so we rolled all the way back to the FOB like that
several hours later. The next day I was tempted to not even let him put them in again but I was
overruled on that but it was one way to teach a lesson and he never once fired a shot. No one, not
one of my soldiers ever fired a shot. I did not even so much as point my weapon at anyone for 15
months. There were times that I would have been justified but I had learned that lesson my first
tour and I chose to verbally or you know make little hand signs to basically play the situation out
non- violently and it worked out, I’m fortunate that it worked out in my favor. It was a definite
slave in my conscious I guess, I call it my therapy tour but I got to do the right thing for 15
months and it was awesome and I got to do a lot of cool things my first tour. I got to do air
assault missions that was cool. There’s nothing greater than the feeling of getting on a helicopter
and flying off into the dark to land on top of some little terrorists stronghold which it turns out
none of them were. It was exciting and it was cool to be young and the tip of the spear and it’s a
great guy like all of these combat vets, it was great. In the end we didn’t accomplish anything
that was the big lesson that I took from the war. That killing insurgents detaining them or
whatever it doesn’t accomplish anything. The only thing that ever worked was working with the
locals respecting the locals and when we did that and did it right, this will be the last, the last one
I promise.
Brindley Polk: OK.
Rob Helton: One of my great, the most fulfilling experience of my life. My squad leader went
on leave in December of 2008 so I was left in charge. And this was… well it was going to be
boring because we weren’t really going to be doing anything. There was no big training to do,
we were just going to do routine training the entire month he was gone. If you’re on a 15 month
tour you’ve got a lot of leave. I had been looking forward to it for months because I get to do
things the way I want to so the first day I said hey this is what we’re going to do while he’s gone
and it wasn’t different from what he did it was just more organized. That’s a different story. Day
two that he’s gone I get the call that the new brigade in town, there’s this new unit had taken
over their called land owners. MPs don’t own the area they don’t responsible for all the security
we’re responsible for the Iraqi police and training them. We operate within the land owners area
but we aren’t responsible for all of it. Well, this new brigade came in and they had this hard
charging attitude like a bunch of dummies, like a bunch of cowboys actually. They managed to
shoot the district attorney. He’s not called the district attorney in Iraq but whatever the equivalent
is and I’m told, the lieutenant is standing there telling me this like he’s ordering popcorn or
something and he’s like O and he’s a personal friend of Colonel Salman or something so take
your squad out there right now and make sure Colonel Salman is still with us and find out what
you can. He always said the dumbest things he goes tootles and he walks away and I’m like
sweet Jesus did he just say all of that to me? They shot the district attorney? This is going to be a
nightmare you know the whole area is going to be up in an up roar. Well, I get the squad together
and we roll out there and this is way off schedule I mean this is like we’ve already done our
patrol that day, we did some training that day and now we’re rolling out to what I’m assuming is
about to be like hell on earth. We get to the station and Colonel Salman’s actually very calm,
very polite and explains to me that the district attorney he’s already talked to the man’s wife.
They were personal friends sure enough and she told him that that day the doctor had given him
the final prognosis of his…it wasn’t type two diabetes it was something else but basically he’d
been given a death sentence at least in their medical system did their best. He decided instead of
�being a burden on his family he was going to commit basically death by soldier so he called
everybody in his family and that’s a lot of calls, and he called all of them. He told them he loved
them and how much you know don’t worry about him and the funny thing in their society they
didn’t question this at all apparently that was some of the statements that we got later. Then he
went to a place where he knew American patrol would pass by and we were always armed we
have to be its not that at that point that we felt the need to be it’s just that it’s best to be prepared.
Well, the particular intersection he chose to do this at was within 150 meters of the FOB, you
could literally see the walls from where he was and its what was a truck washing, a gravel
washing station and these trucks full of gravel would pull up and they would just run water over
the gravel for some reason. He pulls up next to that and he waits for the first patrol to go by
which happens to be what’s called a log pack it’s a big supply convoy and he opens fire. The
funny thing is that you wouldn’t have known it but you don’t realize this when you’re being shot
at but he wasn’t actually aiming at them. All of the bullet holes were in the concrete, the asphalt.
He was intentionally aiming away from them but he knew they would shoot back. Now they
didn’t do a very good job. The fist truck the weapon jammed they didn’t get a shot off, the
second truck same story, third truck got a shot off didn’t hit anything, the fourth truck finally
gets one round off and their gun jams because it’s not been cleaned and that one shot killed him.
By the time that we got out to the station, and understand this is only been like two to three
hours, our IPs had already taken the digital camera that they had been issued by the army and
they’d already gone out and done a full investigation. They collected every shell casing; they had
put gloves on and collected the man’s weapon. They’d even collected a few of casings from our
weapons well that stupid brigade anyway. They collected them off the side of the road, they
collected all of the forensic evidence and they taken crime scene photos they had taped it off,
they had gotten lists of names of interviews, interviewed everybody that witnessed it and
anybody that wasn’t there that had witnessed it they went and found them and interviewed them.
They coordinated all of this by themselves. Now we had been training them for a year at this
point but they did all of this. I wish I could remember that major’s name but we called him
snoopy because he looked like snoopy, major snoopy basically. He was in charge of it and
everybody when they met him thought he was kind of you know not too sure how smart he was,
he was extremely intelligent but you had to get past the fact that yes he is Iraqi he doesn’t speak
English big deal. You know, nobody over here does well almost nobody if they do we employ
them to an interpreter but he’s actually really intelligent he was a good police officer. He took
the training that we’d been giving him for a year and the equipment and he conducted a full
forensic investigation and determined that the Americans were not at all at fault. Which I think
everybody was kind of scared that they were going to find that we were and it’s going to get in
the newspaper and everything else. Again, we it was not we because we weren’t part of those
idiots. They made us stand in a formation Christmas Eve, or New Years Eve and lit us all up and
it was horrible. There’s a whole different story about how stupid they were. That was routine for
them but they weren’t at fault. The funny thing is I had to go through my chain of command to
try to request their statements, their witness statements. They had all their soldiers fill on out and
essentially they blocked me, they wouldn’t allow me to have any of the statements but they told
me, they told my platoon sergeant actually at the it was one of the information meetings that
senior people have that tell your sergeant to get all of the Iraqi evidences get copies of it at the
very least, originals if you can and bring it back here to the FOB for our investigators. My
sergeant came and told me this, platoon sergeant, and Sergeant Moore and I had had a tricky
relationship till I got to be the squad leader for a month and then he loved me because I worked
�really hard at it because I’d been wanting to do it for so long and I had an objective to work out.
He and I sat down and I was like sergeant honestly I can’t go tell them that because our own
people won’t give me the witness statements that our troops provided and he’s like you know
you’re absolutely right and so we fought this tug of war with this Brigade which the thing is we
didn’t have a leg to stand on we didn’t have anybody high enough up to be like hey brigade
commander you will turn over this information because he’s a colonel, a full bird colonel and the
most we could muster was a lieutenant colonel. Now, he should have done it out of professional
courtesy. He at the very least could have gone out to the station it was like if you got up on the
highest point on our police station you could vaguely make out the line of walls of our FOB it’s
pretty close. If he’d really wanted to he could have gotten a helicopter and flown out there but
that’s just to me the example of why we ended up I say losing the war. It was a lot of it had to do
with attitudes people that weren’t willing to look at the Iraqi’s as people that weren’t willing to
treat them with respect. When the first…well when a field grade officer can just totally ignore
common courtesy of what should be his equivalent field grade officer out here who’s trying to
conduct a professional investigation and this is our future in this country is to build up the Iraqi
police. There’s an old quote about something about democracy can’t exist in a country policed
by its army. I’m sure I’m miss quoting it terribly but that’s the basic idea. Building their police
was the future and he wasn’t committed to this he was committed to combat operations and this
is in 2008, actually 2009 at this point early 2009 and he’s not with the program because he wants
his soldiers to have combat experience he wants to be a combat commander. He doesn’t want to
conduct a counter insurgency where you build up the local forces so you can get yourself out.
That’s why we lost Iraq, it’s not because of a basically some wild scheme to kill innocent
civilians as again that ethics professor philosophy professor said in 2001 or 2002. It’s because
people in the positions that they’re in most a lot of field grad positions basically didn’t want to
commit to the mission that they had they wanted the mission they wanted or they wanted to
make the mission that they desired therefore they went to combat. That’s just my final thought
there’s a lot more and we would be here for hours I’m sorry I’ve taken so much time as it is.
Brindley Polk: No, no it’s perfectly fine. Thank you so much for doing the interview.
Rob Helton: Thank you for interviewing me.
Brindley Polk: It was a lot of good information.
�
Dublin Core
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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.
Helton, Robert
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Polk, Brindley
Interview Date
10/2/12
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
1:39:12
File name
2013_063_Helton, Robert
2013_063_Helton_Robert_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
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Interview with Robert Helton, 2 October 2012
Creator
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Polk, Brindley
Helton, Robert
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>
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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
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25 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound
Subject
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Helton, Robert
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Rob Helton gives a detailed account of his experience in the military for 6 years 2003-2009. He was deployed to Baghdad and describes it as an interesting place, a mix between the ancient and the modern. He shares stories about his time abroad, his basic training in Fort Knox, and his experience returning to civilian life in 2010.
army
ASU
Baghdad Iraq
baptism by fire
Fort Knox
Major Quessey
Sargeant Phelps
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cc6dd45e66960ce41289f32a7163ddd2.mp3
c26703b26d9d8994ac75814b3a66878d
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5fa78b194eb186e0d7915d7ad08b4a56.pdf
24c4f4840dde6ba4c4f7bf0cd97d1c5f
PDF Text
Text
Sterling Hardy
IDS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Ok, First off who are you?
Haston Gray Haymore
Ok, and you are from Dobson?
Yep, from Dobson
We are doing this interview in his home in Dobson, North Carolina. Today is March 7th 2011.
When were you born?
January 3rd of 48'.
Ok, ( ... )I am doing this interview as part of the United States Military History class under, Dr.
Browning, Appalachian State University( ...) Ok, were you drafted or did you enlist?
I was drafted.
Ok, when were you drafted?
It was 69', it was in April of 69'
Ok.
It was about twenty to twenty five drafted out of our county .every month.
Ok, what branch of the service?
Army.
Army, Ok.
Where did you do your basic training?
Fort Bragg.
What was that like?
We'll it was not to pleasant, cause when you was drafted, you didn't want to be there, but, it was
one of them things, it was on of those things, you know you had to do. Wasn't anything you
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
could do about it. We had to do it. And when we was drafted we went through the recruiting
center in Charlotte.
Right.
I was drafted in the Army. We all or a big group of us sat in there, in chairs, in rows, sergeant
came out said you, you, you, you four come on with me, you just joined the Marines. I was the
fifth man. So I stayed in the Army. ( ... )
Now I know that Basic Training is pretty, pretty strenuous, is there anything that kind of sticks
out to you about the training?
Not, not really, they put you through each week with a different type training it was, I know the
first few weeks they was alot, alot of running and exercising. Then, then things kind of backed
off, then rifle range, different things like that, kind of backed of a little bit.
Right. I pretty much know that the weather was insane ..
The weather was hot in Sanford, Sanford was the hottest was always Fort Bragg, Fayetteville
was always on the map was the hottest spot in North Carolina.
Yeah.
It was hot. ( ... )
How long were you in basic?( ... )
I think it was nine weeks.
I know it kind of varies.
Yeah, I think it was nine weeks.( ... )
Now once you completed basic where did they ...
Once we completed basic we, I was sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, that's the outskirts of
Washington, D.C.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Ok.
I was, I got the, they call it aMOS, my job, the job was Generator Repairs. We stayed in Fort
Belvoir for about, that school lasted, two months. Two to Three Months, Generator Repairs,
showed us all how to operate generators, repair them. ( .. ) Then we was held over there, we all
knowed we was going to Vietnam. But they was a few that didn't. But, we was all prepared for it
and they held us there for, for probably two months deciding on when we was going to get, just a
doing chores, duties just waiting on to get our orders to go.
And, when did you get your orders fmally?
Oh, I don't know, I don't know the dates of it, but, I know I was in the military from 69' into 70'.
Then I got my orders to go, then the orders was for twelve months.
Right
You had to go for twelve months. ( ..) Yeah and I went to Benewah, Vietnam stayed there. And
everything was going pretty good there and I had opportunity, now I was justa I was justa, in for
two years( .. ) I just in for two years, And I had the opportunity to stay forty-four extra days,
cause when you left Vietnam, you had five months or less left they wouldn 't send you anywhere
else, they would just send you on home. So I was one of the few lucky ones. I stayed in the
military for nineteen months.
Just long enough ..
Just long enough to get my, they would not I was there for five months they would not send me
know where else. So I, I was lucky enough got extended over there for forty four days.
Ok. Now what was the area in Vietnam like that you were in?
I was on a Aviation unit. Like I said I was supposed to have been a generator operator. When
you go over there, you do what they tell you to do.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Right.
It didn't, that didn't mean nothing. I was from a we'll maybe operating a generator, refueling
helicopters, and down to flying door gunners. You name it, we done it. You have a job title but,
that don't mean nothing.
Right. The United States Military basically says you know we need, so many guys for this and ...
It don't make know difference what you was trained for you was there.
Now that must have been pretty interesting being a chopper gunner what was that like?
We'll you was setting a chopper from a hundred feet in the air to five thousand feet in the air.
You had your legs swinging out behind a M-60. And it it it was it was interesting.
I'm sure you did a variety of things but, what was the primary purpose?
Our primary operate, was suppose to be operating a generator. But, really I did more refueling
helicopters than anything else.
Right.
When you actually went up in the chopper what did you usually do, did you just patrol or
support?
We use thing what we did is carrying after they was a battles, things they would just go out and
check. See what was, we was carrying the high ranking officers out.
OhOk.
The helicopters you got a pilot and copilot and a crew chief and door gunner. The crew chief and
door gunner served the same purpose. The door gunner took care of when you came back in,
door gunner took care of cleaning the weapons, make sure they had ammo. And the crew chief
took care of the helicopter. The pilot, copilot they was gone, they was gone to the airconditioning.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Right.
So we was left there to do the work and so actually the they was only four people on the
helicopter. And we was carrying some of the high ranking officers out, couple of them.
Doing like recon, post battle reports and everything.
Yeah that was what we was doing. Just flying, Just flying, just checking, just checking on the
just making reports on whats what was happening.
Now, did you actually see any of the Viet-Cong or the North Vietnamese Army or ...
Oh yeah, oh yeah everybody did oh yeah.
Did you actually see combat with those troops?
Not that much. We kinda stayed on the backside, we didn't see that much of it.
Right.( ... )
Actually our unit what our unit done we took the Vietnamese soldiers out early in the morning
let them do the combat then we'll go back and pick'em up. Thats actually what our job was.
Right. What did you think ofthe South Vietnamese, did you think they were capable soldiers just
like me or ... what?
No, no, no, no, no no, they wundn't. They was smart people now, they was smart. They could
take almost nothing and make things out of it. ( .. )
So ..
We's throw away enough stuffthey can make they can make a, they can build anything out of it.
Right. And, really, and I guess the reason the United States really wanted them to go was
because you know it was their own backyard, they know the terrain ...
We'll Vietnamese, North Vietnamese moved in took over the South Vietnamese just like the the
Iraq moved in Kuwait.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Right.
And thats what happened there we was moving the North Vietnamese back to the North.( .. )
Actually we was helping the South Vietnamese.
Did you think that was a good purpose for you to be there?
A waste of taxpayers money all the lives everybody, everybody will agree with me that it was a
waste of taxpayers money.
Now as a just a soldier did you think you know that you were doing good, doing a good service
for the country or did you think ...
No, no. We were not doing nothing for the United States we all was there cause we was told to
be to go there.
Right.
Even your top ranking officers and everybody. We just had orders to go there.
I suppose it was a big part of a fear of communism, expanding you know really the reason we
were there, because the North Vietnamese were communist and they were backed by the Soviet
Union and we did'nt want them to control South Vietnam, which was you know I guess
democratic.
We'll thats truth. When one, When one country starts taking over another country and start
running it the way they want to thats true, thats why we was wanting to get the South
Vietnamese back where they belong.
Did the South Vietnamese people were they happy to see you there or..
Oh yeah, oh yeah they they was they was
Where there, did you get alot of support from the civilians did ...
Oh yeah, we did we did actually we had civilians help us on base, they come on base and help us
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Ok, well lets see, were there any interactions between you and the South Vietnamese that really
stood out did you see them do something or anything that really jumps out in your memory.
No, the South Vietnamese they was a, they was quiet and they was calm, they was no way like
the American people.
Right.
They was no comparison, they's laid back. No hurry. Theysjust wundn't no way like them, you
can't compare them to the United States.
Right.
We all theys alot of difference there. The South Vietnamese they was good people now, they
wouldn't do anything to harm us.
We'll thats good. ( ..)I know theres alot of Viet, soldiers that served in that war really complained
about having to deal with the Viet-cong which, you know were civilians but they would really
strike at US forces and South Vietnamese forces
You were talk the Viet-cong that was more talking about the North Vietnamese.
Right.
What was hard now it was hard determining .. .
Right.
The North from South
Cause they ..
Thats where your hardest part is you didn't know they was a north you did know they was north
you didn't know they was south. You had to be careful.
Look the same, spoke them same language ...
Look, look a thats right, same langauge all looked the same.( .. )
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
So while you were there what was you know the food like? Were you we'll supplied, did you ...
Oh yeah, the military, military they keep you supplied first class. We We, the food was right
theys ok. That wasn't a problem.
We'll that was good.
Yeah Yeah, we was definitely we'll supplied now.( .. )
Did you get you know any leaves you know R and R at any point and time.
Yeah a I went to a a Taipei, Taiwan for a week.
Ok.
That was a, I know you've seen alot of a stuff you by here made in Taiwan.
Right.
I was there for a week. Taiwan is a nice little country now.
Ok.
It was it was interesting.
Where in Taiwan were you at?
Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan.
I'm not familiar with that country is that...
I'm not either.
Was that on the ...
I was, I was there for a week
Was that on the coast or..
It, It is on a coast. Yeah.
So, spend alot of time at the beach?
No, No, I actually never did see the beach. Actually where we was at was in the mountains.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Ok.
Taipei, it was a little city called Taipei.
We'll what did you do while you were there in the city?
Party, what else everybody everybody done that. We'll we did alot of site seeing. They was alot
to see in the mountains there and they had alot of lot a they had alot of tourist there, actually it
was the military. And that was one a, when you go on they call it Rand R you had several places
you could pick from. That was one of them. And they was setup for the American troops to come
in and they had alot sight seeing.
We'll thats good. We'll what did you do to you know keep in touch with your family back here?
Wrote letters, I tried to write at least every other day.
Right. And I'm sure that they wrote often as well.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, they, family was we'll supportive and we write when we would write home,
we'd take the envelope just write up in the the a right-hand comer, where we'd put a stamp we'd
write in free. We didn ' t have to buy stamps, just write in free and ..
We'll thats good.
And, of course they'd see that the letters got delivered.
We'll did you receive any like a care packages from home?
Yeah, we, I's we's always constantly getting something from home. That was a real treat, when
when, you get a package especially Christmas. You, You, You, get some cookies or something
or other something baked from home. And wrap it, where it could be shipped it was that was
different. That was a real treat.
We'll thats good, thats good. Did you see any soldiers that say didn't you know receive anything
from home, that were you know kind of over there on their own.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
The, yeah you'd we'd see some yeah, they was always some around that didn't a really didn't
hardly get any letters or anything. Yes it was kind of kind of heartbreaking to see that but( .. )
We'll, I know that the military trys to keep troops entertained, try to keep them from being bored
cause thats you know a big part of being on duty some times, when your not fighting its just kind
of monotonous. Did you see you know say the USO or other. ..
Yeah, bout six weeks or two months after I was there, before I left here I went to a, I'm a race
fan , I went to Charlotte Motor Speedway, I think it was a the summer race. The world 600
largest race and during that race they was doing some filming. I think it was one of Burt
Reynolds movies. I can't think of the name of that movie, Speedway I think, is the name is the
name of the movie. I believe it was and actually they was filming some during the race and
before the race started they had some a cars on the track and with the crowds there they was
filming it.
Right.
And the biggest portion of that movie was filmed at Charlotte. And I was there at the race track
and here I go to Vietnam bout a month, six six weeks, no month two months after I was there
they got that movie over there and I couldn't believe it. I said I was there just a few months ago.
That, That was a great feeling. We's just sitting outside and the had a movie projector setting up
against a building, sitting out there on the ground watching a movie. But, it still was a movie
sitting on the ground didn ' t make no difference where you was sitting at still a movie.
Yeah, Yeah, how often did you get to see a film?
Once in a while they, they would get one in probably about every month.
Ok.
I mean thats, thats a real treat.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Right. We'll did ...
Went down to, we's in a, sitting in a little bar, Saigon, Saigon is a large city. Saigon is a huge
city, but the city you, you, wouldn't see no tall sky scrapers, like you would here.
Right.
Largest building you'd see there wouldn't be over four or five stories high. And we's sitting at the
USO club and this lady come down and said, "the, oversees line is open, anybody wants to use it.
They's about four of us jumped up, "Yeah." So we talk and, oversees line was open so we called
home. And I talked a pretty good while, I know at the time momma and daddy said the power or
the phone bill for that one call was seventy some dollars. Anything in nineteen seventy that was I
don't know how long I's talking but, we took advantage of it.
Yeah, why not?( ... ) Did you make any, you know, friends with your fellow soldiers?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah we did everybody was everybody on base was close.
Everybody was, cause we all was there for the same purpose. They's one guy l's real close with I
met, once I left I didn't even see him.
Right.
He was New Jerseyan. But, there was one guy from Concord, he come up and seen me couple
times, since then after we's home.
We'll were those two guys basically your closest friends over there or....
No, I tell you what no we all was close.
So it didn't matter ...
It don't matter, everybody was close ...
Ok.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
And nobody, nobody fussed and argued. They didn't, that many, that many people together,
nobody, bickered nobody, fussed, nobody argued. We was there for a job and none of us wanted
to be there but, we was there and had to make the best of it. ( ...)
Did you keep like, a diary or anything?
No, no no no I don't think, I won't say nobody did ..
Yeah.
I real dare say nobody did.
Kind of an unusual thing ...
I made alot of pictures and the pictures only thing we can find was, film. I carried one of them
old instamatic camera's in my pocket bout' wore it out. I carried one of them things in my pocket
and only film I could buy was slides.
Right.
I had put on the slides, and some of the kids got them and tore them apart, I don't know, probably
have them refurbished. I don't know where they at now. Pictures I didn't care nothing about.
Yeah.( ... ) Lets see, has anything else that you would like to say about you experience in
Vietnam?
No, no it, it, it was, it was a real experience. Its, its something, I wouldn't take nothing for and
nobody, nobody round here, people here in the United States, never been there they just wundn't
believe it.
Right.
It, it it justa, you wouldn't believe its on Earth, way the people lived, you you just wouldn't
believe it.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
We'll I, the only thing I've seen, is I've seen you know pictures in books and the occasional film,
I have no way of knowing what it was like ...
All the pictures, films you see, some of them is close to it, none of them, none of them is exactly
accurate.
Right. We'll when did you finally, get sent home?
It was in, I think it was in November. It was in November of70'. Cause I was only away one
Christmas.( .. ) So I, I lucked out on time wise ..
Right.
So I stayed one year and fourty four days, over there.
So, you basically got an honorable discharge ..
Oh Yeah ...
Cause you were done with the service ..
Oh yeah, when we went in to basic training in Fort Bragg, course they's a big group of us we
talking about thousands.
Right.
We all, about the second day there, all they did no training, they's doing testing, they's testing see
how, see what we knowed. Thats what they was doing, they was testing us. The following day
they called us out by groups. This, this is actually what they done now, they was calling us out
by groups, like, twenty-five thirty to a group. They was telling us, you scored better then
anybody here. You got the top score. And all these thousand's peoples here you got the top score.
And you can go anywhere you want to in the United States. Will send you anywhere you want to
go, but, we got to get you signed up for another year. You wouldn't believe the people signing
up. I said, I know what this is about, nope I didn't.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
So ..
And those people signed up for another year and they got sent where they wanted to go for one
year. Got that one year up, they went to Vietnam.
Bet that makes people upset.
Oh yeah, oh yeah they was upset. This one little guy came in Vietnam over there he was all
upset, he was in Germany. Had it made in Germany, had his wife there, so as his years up, she
went home, he went to Vietnam.( ... )
We'll when you carne back home, you know what was one of the first things that you did? I
know there's, you've heard soldiers say you know the fust thing, I want to do when I get home is
go do such and such or get something to eat that...
That that that was, we'll you, you, you, always got your own places you like to eat at. All of you
got things you want to do. Just, you want to go out and see, see the boys you used, to see
everybody. Andjust get out and see what kind of changes is made in the country, but its just
good to be home.
I guarantee it. Did you go to school after you got home?
No, no no ...
Ok, so you went straight to work then ...
I went and come back, I went went to work.
And, I guess it was you and your daddy right?
Yeah, yeah yeah we, we we's building houses. See it wundn't, it probably wundn't about two
years after I was back we got married.
Ok.
See, I met Becky, at Fort Bragg ...
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Really?
Basic Training. Yeah ..
What was she doing there?
She was down there visiting another guy from Mount Airy, her boyfriend at the time. Thats
what, she was she was visiting him and thats where I met her at( ... )
We'll you know shortly there after lets see what four years or so the war ended did, how did you
feel about that?
I thought it was about time, about time bringing all them soldiers home. Shoulda ended a long
time ago.
Right.
Like I say, I won't, everybody, everybody says that was useless ...
Yeah ...
All those lives lost, all the money we spent over there, I still think it was useless.
Yeah it is hard to see what we you know gained from it, something thats tangible, you know
something you can grab aholt of, you know say we did this, and we gained this from it you
know.
We'll this, the the war in Kuwait, now when Iraq, overrun Kuwait, now see we had alot of
American people in Kuwait. I don't think we had anybody in Vietnam. I don't think so now. But,
we had a good reason to protect Kuwait..
Right.
So you thought that war more so than the one that you fought in was correct...
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I really think we'll everybody right now thinks George Bush Sr. didn't finish
his job. But, he done what he said he was going to do, get the Kuwait out of, or get Iraq out of
Kuwait and he did.
Right.
So everybody, everybody agrees on that war, but, no Vietnam War I don't, I don't think find
hardly nobody agree on we, we should of been there.( ... )
What do you think about the war that we are in now, or I guess you could say Wars?
We'll I, I think thats something we don't have no choice, really I don't, I really think, I really
think they jumped the gun a little bit to quick.
Right.
But, I believe it should have been, I don't think we, I, the war probably, it had to be done, but, I
don't think, I really think, they ought to have settled it before we went over there. Start blowing
the place up.
Yeah, I should have been done through diplomacy ...
Yeah, I, I, I think that should have been first, I really think, George Bush all he was after was
Saddam Hussein.
He was after. ..
After Saddam ...
After blood to really ...
He was cause that man tried to kill his daddy, he tell, he said that on the news, so( ... )
We'll, we're almost finished here, I got just a few more questions. Did you join say a veteran's
organization?
No, no, no, thats no, when I got out of the military that was it.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
You wanted ...
Nothing, to do with it, I had done my part, that was it. But, closer I get in the sixties, I'm we'll
self-employed and self-insured and it was costing us a fortune, me and Becky both. It was
costing us a fortune, insurance sales, bout three years ago, I was about, I was six .. Fifty eight or
fifty nine I got on with the VA. Started going to the VA clinic where I could cancel my
insurance.
Right.
That has saved me a ton of money. I'm in with the VA right now.
And are you happy with ...
Oh yeah, they'll treat you, they'll treat you good. Their real good to me.
We'll thats good. Lets see ... ( .. .) We'll you said you'd seen a couple guys since then ...
One of the guys he had married my first cousin, Bobby Duncan. He lived in Mount Airy. Yeah
I've seen, me and him, he he came, he came and looked me up one day and we talked a little
while. And, like I say he was married to my first cousin and recently he's passed away.( .. )
Is there any other people that you've ...
Anybody else I've seen in Vietnam no.
Right.
No, No
Lost Contact...
Really when I left, I left and I think everybody felt the same way.
Yeah, but, I'm pretty sure that your satisfied with the service that you gave and ...
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah I was I done, I done, what they sent me over there to do.( .. )
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
We'll is there anything that you learned over there or saw over there that effected your civilian
life in any way?
Make you appreciate the United States more, it will, it will make you appreciate the United
States. ( ... )
Oh, have you ever been to Washington and seen the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?
Oh yes, oh yeah, I have ...
I bet that was experience ...
We'll now see I was a, they, when I was at Fort Belvoir for my training, theys really not a part of
Washington D.C, I hadn't been through. At the time been through the White House. Becky and I
got married we went to Washington D.C on our honeymoon. I got her picture standing under the
breeze way of the front of the White House, where you see the cars pulls in ..
Yeah.
I got her picture standing out there, we's out there in front of it, and I made her picture in front of
the White House. Been through part of the White House. The Capital Building, I don't think
there is a corner in that building we hadn' t been through. We you off on the weekend, we toured
Washington.
We'll thats good.
So they's not a part of Wash .. the Capital, I don't think not a corner we hadn't seen and they's
been alot of changes made and we went up to, went up and seen the Vietnam Memorial. Yeah,
and I tell you its something else to see.
Yeah, thats something that I personally want to do is I want to go to Washington and I want to
see you know not just the monument or the Capital and all that but, I want to see all the war
memorials ...
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
We'll we've, we've seen it all but, Vietnam Memorial it just a just this wall with all these guys
names on it. but, what gets you you look at all these names, you stand and look at them ...
Yeah and they just go on and on ...
Justa, just that many of them and the only one on that wall that I really know was Paul Mouse's
son, Barry Mouse I think that was his name. Earl Mouse was the brother..
Right.
I went to school with them, Wilkes County. And, I actually don't think you here from Surry
County really nobody's name from Surry County is on that wall. I don't think now, it might be.
Cause when you look the names up you look them up by the counties.
Right.
Under North Carolina you go down under the counties and thats the way you look the names up
and they tell you where they at. But, I've not seen the WWII Monument which, they gonna,
Veterans going up there now and seeing, I hadn't seen that. It wundn't built at the time.
I think thats a great thing ...
but, we went through the Washington Monument, Jefferson Monument, we we've seen it all.
We'll thats good. And I think personally thats a good thing that the triad is doing is taking you
know those North Carolina Veterans ...
That is good thing, I highly support that, you know Candy our daughter went on one of those
trips as a nurse.
Yeah.
She really enjoyed it.
I'd like to volunteer to go myself when I get out of school.
�Sterling Hardy
HIS 3823
Dr. Browning
March 14, 2011
Right. It would be, it would be a good thing. She really enjoyed it it was a stressful day, those
people, those people got to be in pretty good health to make that trip.
Yeah.
Some of them in wheelchairs, some ofthem not, but thats, thats, thats, a good thing.
Yeah. We'll is there anything that you'd like to add at all?
No, you leave I'll probably think of something or other but, not right now, not right now.
Alright, we'll I thank you and .. .
I, I hope this, everything works out.
Alright.
�
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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.
Haymore, Haston Gray
Interviewer
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Hardy, Sterling
Interview Date
3/14/11
Duration
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0:37:55
File name
2013_063_Haymore_Hasten_interview
2013_063_Haymore_HastonGray_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
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Interview with Haston Gray Haymore, 14 March 2011
Creator
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Hardy, Sterling
Haymore, Haston Gray
Source
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<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>
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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.
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20 pages
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English
English
Type
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Sound
Subject
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Haymore, Haston Gray
Veterans
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Haston Gray Haymore is a veteran of the Vietnam War. He was deployed for one year and forty four days to Benewah, Vietnam, and worked alongside the South Vietnamese soldiers. He describes them as "good people" but very different from the Americans. Haymore states strongly his opinion that America should not have entered this war, that it was a useless endeavor and many lives were fruitlessly lost.
army
Benewah Vietnam
Fort Bragg
Haston Gray Haymore
honorable discharge
Viet-Cong
-
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PDF Text
Text
Spiker 1
Cody Spiker
Browning
His 3823
15 October 2012
Oral History Report: Richard Gilbert, Vietnam Veteran, Born in Appalachia, and Appalachian
State University state graduate.
My name is Cody Spiker, interviewing Richard Gilbert at 214 West Academy Street, his
residence. [Cherryville, NC]
Mr. Gilbert, when were you born?
I was born March 27th, 1948.
Where were you born at?
I was born in Franklin NC, which was way up in the mountains up in the corner of the
state. But I grew up in Lincoln County.
Lincoln County, when did you move down to Lincolnton, or Lincoln County?
Oh, probably when I started school, around First grade. You know, about seven, six or
seven, something like that. I think I actually started second grade down here, so. We
moved up on highway 27 out in the country.
Okay, so your family is from the Appalachian Mountains actually?
Yeah my mom was born in the mountains, my grandmother and grandfather yeah,
basically homesteaders, so.
Okay, one of the things that they are pushing for in this interview process is people from the
Appalachian Mountains, (“Oh” -Gilbert) the Appalachian area, veterans form this area so that’s
excellent.
So, which war did you fight in?
I fought in Vietnam. Yeah I went, I got in the army, let’s see, it would have been ’68. I
think, and then I went to Vietnam in ’69. So, I went in in December, I went to Vietnam I
December of ’68 and came back in December of ‘69.
Ok, and where you a volunteer or were you a draftee?
Well, I was a volunteer. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. I didn’t really support
the war but I knew that needed a college education and I didn’t really have a way to pay
for it. So, I saw that as a way of getting an education an you know, so, I enlisted for three
years.
�Spiker 2
Okay, so at the time that you enlisted where were you living at?
I was living in Lincolnton and I was attending Lincolnton high school, and I was in my
last year. And there were several of us who talked about it and decided we would go see a
recruiter, and so we did. We all went in together; there was about, I don’t know, eight or
ten of us.
So you were about eighteen?
… Somewhere along in there, it was just after highschool.
What branch of service did you enter?
Well, since I enlisting and I got the opportunity to pick, I had some choice and they told
me what was open. Artillery, a couple things, communications, and military police and I
decided that I would go military police. Sounded exciting. (Spiker chuckles and says,
“MP’s lead the way.”)
So you obviously enlisted into the Army?
Right.
Do you recall your first days of service? Like when you went to basic training? What was that
like?
Oh I remember the first day of training like it was imprinted in my brain, (Gilbert
chuckles) It… we had about a week or so before we actually started basic they had us in
a kind of holding pen, which was extremely boring, there was nothing to do except you
know what freedom we had to go to the PX and eat. That was about it. So… when we
were ready to start basic they put us on the bus and drove us over to our company and
then I think you can imagine what happened after that. Hahahaha. It was in July at Fort
Bragg and I think that was probably the hottest place on earth. And… it was a pretty
miserable day. (Gilbert and Spiker Chuckle, “I can imagine.” -Spiker)
Do you remember any of your instructors?
Oh yes, lets see, there was… a Corporal Norris who had… he was an interesting
character. He had been in the Army and… served and came back home and somehow or
another he was in the reserves and didn’t attend the meetings and got re-drafted,
(Chuckles) so they pulled him back in and they put him as… in our company as a trainer,
as an instructor. …There was a couple of Drill Sergeants, you know I guess if I thought
about it I could probably remember their names but I can’t right at the moment… it was
interesting. I learned a lot about the Army. The Army travels on its stomach, the food
was great. Everybody else complained, but I ate like a king… there was a fairness. They
picked on everybody equally, (Chuckles) It was… interesting. I got kind of an insight
into Army thinking which… and I respect that, I really do. I respect that. I didn’t like
being in the Army but I did respect it. You know.
…You mentioned earlier that you went to talk to a recruiter with a couple of fellows from your
high school; did you end up going to basic training with those fellows
As a matter of fact, we all went through basic training together… all in the same
company except two of use. Two went into the company next door and the rest of us
�Spiker 3
were in the same. I went in with a guy named Steve Rice from High Shoals and… Steve,
Steve was tough guy. He was real tough; he was a street cred guy you know. He carried
a hawkbill knife and (chuckling)... you didn’t mess with Steve. But… Steve and I were
good friends… he and I, we stayed together all through basic training and.. we did some
crazy things together… (“Do you want to explain some of those?” -Spiker, laughing) Oh,
I’m glad to tell you one. We had to do; you know we had to spend the late afternoon and
evening crawling under barbwire while they were shooting over the top of us in training.
And they had these bunkers placed out there that had artillery simulators in them. And I
went first, I was in a wave that went in and crawled under the barbwire, and then Steve
came after me. I said Steve I’ll meet you at that center bunker and we’ll smoke a
cigarette before we go on. And we did, and we both got chewed out (Chuckling)
seriously chewed out. But we did, we had to hold it so nobody could see the light from
the cigarette, we passed it back and forth. And the artillery simulators were going off and
the ground was shaken, all the bullets going over head and all that stuff. It was pretty
exciting.
So after basic training you went to your MP school, where was that at?
That was at Fort Gordon Georgia. (“Fort Gordan Georgia.”-Spiker) Yeah, and I did not
know it snowed in Georgia, but it sure did. (Chuckling) Yeah, I graduated on November
the 22nd because I remember it was… it got pretty cold down there… it definitely
snowed. We had a bout three or four inches one day. That was fun, we got to drive jeeps
in the snow, out through the hills. We did a night driving class… so we had to keep our
interval and that kind of stuff. It had snowed on the ground so it was a lot brighter than
the sergeant liked but…(chuckles)(“Definitely”-Spiker) It was good.
So… when you finally graduated… MP school where did you go after that? Did you go directly
to Vietnam or…?
No, I got, I got leave. I came home…for… I got a, I think a thirty day leave. And then…
I reported to… California… and I don’t remember all the details of this but… we had to
stay in… It was right next to the Navy compound and… we could see the swabbies
walking around. Course, you know how soldiers…they are… there is always enough
competition to start something. So, there was always some yelling back and forth across
the fence and… I thought California was kind of neat. I didn’t get to see a whole lot.
There was a building there, it was building 590, which, you know, can you imagine…
They must have shipped cow in it because this thing was huge. It was long and wide and
all the bunks were three bunks high and close together. They were… sending a lot of
people to Vietnam. Yeah… I stayed in building 590. That’s… kind of a famous
landmark I guess if you look at the history books.
Lets backtrack for a minute, when you said you had leave. Did you come back home? Did you
have a significant other at the time?
I had a girlfriend (“okay, what was her name?” –Spiker) Harriette, Harriette, yes
Harriette Gurley. (“Where was she from?”- Spiker) Cherryville (pronounced Chur-aville) (“Cherryville, okay.” –Spiker)… Cherryville and Lincolnton were big rivals so…
me dating Cherryville girls was… kind of a risky thing, but I found out that your
�Spiker 4
Cherryville girls were very attractive. (“Yes sir.” –Spiker) …I dated here almost a year
before I went to Vietnam and then several years afterwards and then we got married.
Okay…When did you actually get boots on the ground in Vietnam?
…It would have been December of 1968. I don’t remember the exact date, but… flew
into… Long Binh and then flew from Long Binh to… Quin Yon and that’s where it
think, if I remember correctly or company command headquarters was there and we had
two platoons at… well that was battalion and then we had… another, our main area
where I was, was in Pleiku. And.. Quin Yon is right on the coast, so I got to see the
ocean. Of course, Cam Ranh Bay we did... in-country training. We did a couple weeks
of in-country training in Cam Ranh Bay… Pretty place too. Nice white sands azure sea
and sea snakes. (Chuckles, “Did you encounter any sea snakes?” –Spiker) No, no but
they always warned us if you go out into the ocean be careful. (Still Chuckling) So, but it
was a beautiful place I loved it. Vietnam was a beautiful country…. So, Cam Ranh Bay
and the I went to Quin Yon; and from Quin Yon I went to Pleiku and that was where I
was mainly stationed. We did have two other, little satellite outpost that we… we
convoyed. So, we would convoy up to the pass from each side and then we would
convoy back… and we would you know, switch of the convoys…. My route was up to
the what was called the Mang Yang Pass, if I remember correctly…. It was real gentle
going up on one side and then It was real steep going down the other side. And there
were tanks parked all over the place on the down-side of that.
…Know a days there is two different MP’s, you have the Combat MP and the Garrison MP.
Was that still so back in Vietnam?
Well no. I was a 95b10, hahaha, everybody was a 95b10, it was… completely different I
guess from… what’s going on today. It was… our main focus was convoy escort and…
then town patrol, where, you know, you… actually patrolled in the streets of… like
Pleiku or An Khe or some place like that. And… that was pretty much it. There was
none of the urban warfare kinda stuff that you guys have gone through, so….
Okay… while you were in Vietnam did you see any combat?
…Ambush or two…I got blown out of bed one morning. That was exciting. A rocket
landed between where I was and the mess hall and blew a pretty good size hole in the
ground. And there was a sandbag wall between me and the explosion so I was okay, but I
woke up looking at the floor coming up at my face…and… I couldn’t hear anything. It
was just.. ringing in my ears. I was armorer at that time. They put me in the arms room.
I was taking care of the weapons, and we had florescent lights in the arms room and it
blew every one of them out but one. There was only one burning and that was pretty
exciting. We lost a guy that morning, he was a dog handler. Killed him and his dog as
they were going on duty, it was very early in the morning so… (“and do you remember
his name?” –Spiker) I don’t, I didn’t know him… we had two barracks of MP’s, one of
infantry who helped guard our perimeter and then we had a dog handler… barracks…you
knew them in passing, but you didn’t really work very close. Those guys mainly were
perimeter guys and they guarded the ammunition supply dump and that sort of thing. We
would mainly patrol and come back. You know, we considered them as part of our unit, I
mean there was no doubt about that but…there wasn’t as much interaction as there was
you know.. with the other MP’s. We had our own club. (“Realy? Me about that.” –
�Spiker 5
Spiker) Well it was up on the little hill and it was the road runner club because it was our
mascot and… the MP’s didn’t do well at other peoples’ clubs for some reason…(Spike
Chuckles)…But the club was just a small little separate building with a bar and… served
soft drinks and beer. No hard liquor. No one was eligible for that… occasionally they
would hir, you know, a little Vietnamese rock band and bring them and they would you
know have a couple of Go Go Girls or something like that.. It was just a nice little club.
You mentioned your unit a minute ago, I forgot to ask your unit number.
Oh Lord, let me see. Gah, that’s just been so long. It ws the 504th MP CO, and
Battalion, I think If I remember correctly, I was in Company B. I was in B, 504th MP
Battalion at Pleiku. But that’s been a while, don’t quote me, hahaha.
Okay, other than being an armorer, did you have any other details…jobs?
…No, that was the only really specialized job that I did. They… our armorer had…the
person who was serving as armorer had left, and…they “Okay you’re good with tools, go
down there and keep the record.” Course you know everybody does things like paint
numbers on jeeps and that sort of thing but that was the only one that I had actually just a
separate job. It wasn’t that bad, there were only two of us and we had… it was one on
and one off. We slept, we actualy had a bunk in the arms room so we could actually
sleep in there two…so, there was always one of us in the arms room, so. If any thing
happened we could unlock everything. I did have a station… if we were attacked, from
the arms room I was to move up on to a bunker that had a .50 on it. I was to… be part of
the .50 crew on, if else had…if I had expended all the ammo that was where I went.
(Chuckling)
So, that never happened thoug?
No. Our attacks were mostly rocket attacks, which were pretty long, big rockets and then
of course mortar attacks, we would get those every once in a while. Ambushes would be
anything from a few pot shots to a couple of mortar rounds coming in to some sort of
improvised device… every once in a while they’d blow a bridge up and we would have to
put a defile around it and you know, keep and eye on that. But, I think the road was
probably the most dangerous thing. That’s where we, we got more people hurt. Mainly
form accidents…rain, mud, jeeps turn over. We also had an armored vehicle, we had
V100, which I think now is obsolete, we probably sold them all to some other country. I
really liked it because it had a 318 Chrysler engine in it with a four barrel carburetor…
(Chuckling)
Can you tell me about some of your most memorable experiences while deployed to Vietnam?
Oh, wow, let’s see. Well I can think of a couple things… I enjoyed shooting rats at the
mess hall at night that was fun, with a crossbow. We would get Vietnamese crossbows
and shoot the rats and try to stick them into the wall and that was fun. I used to like to
drive out to a … yard, you know the local indigenous people…there was…the French
had built a damn near this little village and I used to sneak out their and lay out
underneath the trees and just sleep. It was just a whole different…the kids around and all
that kind of stuff. Little kids you know how they just want to play and I’de go out and
skip stoned with them things like that. It was a good way to kind of relax.
�Spiker 6
So were…was everybody able to just go out?
No, this was something that really wasn’t sanctioned. Haha, but… you would have your
radio on and if there was no convoy…you’d just have to run the road by yourself, just
you and your… you’d have a driver and an interpreter and then a gunner on the jeep who
had a M60…But if there was nothing going on we’d kind of sneak over, it wasn’t just
about a quarter of a mile and just sneak over…relax a while. Have lunch and then get
back on the road. It might have been breaking the rules a little bit, but it wasn’t that
serious. It was no, no real threat to anything. It was just a little way to unwind.
Do you remember much from the end of your tour?
Well, I remember when I got short. They took me off duty, I think the last couple of
weeks they take you off duty and then put you on light duty where you’re basically
cleaning up barracks and taking new guys around to get their equipment and showing
them where everything is and things like that. And then, they start processing you out,
you have to send your whole baggage and that sort of thing back…and then I think I
caught a ride we was always thumbing rides on airplanes or something. I went over to
the Air force base, which was right behind us, so I went over and thumbed a ride on a
transport and it was a great ride. I remember going back, it was fantastic because the
back door was open a couple of feet. And it had a big crack and I could look down on the
jungle and there was no one else on the plane except the pilot, co-pilot, crew chief, you
know, and me. And I was in the seat, the last seat, just strapped in, looking out the door
at the jungle going by. It was pretty cool; it was a good flight back.
You say… getting short…for the sake of the interview can you explain what that is?
Short is when you’re getting ready to go home and your friends will present you with a
swagger stick. And its usually a bullet with a stick stuck in it. (chuckles) And it’s carved
to look like a long, little swagger stick, or it’s a shell with a stick stuck in it, then you
kind of stick that under your arm and you walk around with it and everybody knows
you’re short, you’re bragging you know…and then of course you would make the twoe
fingers close together like that…(Demonstrates fore finger and thumb about half an inch
apart)…short, and people would be envious. And of course you would have your short
timers calendar up n the wall with all the X’s over everyday that you been there….
…What rank where you when you went in and when you came out?
Oh, Lord. I remember being an E2 for about three weeks-four weeks and then they made
me a E1; I guess an E1 and then they made me an E2. I think that when I got out of basic
they made me a E3. And then when I got o Vietnam I became a Spec4 and I stayed that,
or should I say, I stayed that until I got back to the United States, I did get busted. Not
real proud of that but…I lost my rank for about a month but I made it back. I was
basically a good guy, just little things happen. (“Yes sir, yes sir.” –Spiker)
So, while serving did you earn any awards/medals?
…I had just regular Vietnam medals…I did have a whole bunch of unit citations and all
that kind of stuff…I didn’t get any wounds or anything like that. I just tried to stay out of
�Spiker 7
trouble and not get killed. I did think I was dead one night though. I ran out of the
barracks, we had an attack, and I ran out in the middle of the night and they had dug a
ditch across the walkway and I had forgotten about it and the next thing I know I had
came too looking up at stars. I thought I had been hit, I start trying to feel for things and,
I figured I would get a purple heart for that but they wouldn’t give it to me for some
reason. (Spiker laughs) No, falling in a slit trench was not considered being wounded in
action…(“Oh, it was a slit trench?! My goodness, haha. Oh, that’s rough” -Spiker)
(Gilbert gawfaws) It was new thank goodness. (“Oh good, so there wasn’t anything in it
yet.”- Spiker) They had just dug it. It could have been worse. (“It could have been a lot
worse.”)
How did you stay in touch with your family while in … [Vietnam]
Well, we had a new method of communication. It was the cassette tape. My wife, well
my fiancé at the time, we sent cassettes to each other. I got lot’s of letters. I wasn’t as
good at writing as she was…she…basically, I had a couple of pounds of letters by the
time I got to come back.
What was the food like, over there in Vietnam? You said you liked the Army food.
Well, I always though it was great. The cooks were well trained, they were good. Our
company had one cook who was, all he did was make pastries, so we had fresh bread and
cakes, pies. He would make breakfast rolls and sweet rolls…I guess I was a chow hound
because I liked to eat late. I would have breakfast at eleven o’clock at night and like if I
was going on duty and skip the morning breakfast, and eat late…. I never really
complained about the food. It was all I wanted and there was plenty of it, and it was
good food, it wasn’t just empty calories…occasionally we had steak and baked potatoes.
Something weird happened, strange happened when I was in, this was when the Army
tried a little experiment. They actually, for the evening meal, they sold beer in the mess
hall. Your limit was two, but they were “tall boys”, you know, tall ones. After the
evening meal, if you were off duty, you could have as many as two beers in the mess hall.
Now I don’t think that lasted too long, but that was an unusual, this was strange for the
Army. That getting very liberal here. (“Yes sir.” –Spiker)
So it sounded like ya’ll had plenty of supplies while you were there.
We did run short in Vietnam, we ran short of canned drinks for a while, in the PX and all
that kind of place it was just, something happened and for about a month we couldn’t get
soft drinks and things like that for a while. They were short supply…you could get them.
A lot of guys would take cases of drinks, buy them at the PX and then take them and
trade them on the black market… that kind of thing is always going on.
Other than shooting rats, how did ya’ll keep yourselves entertained?
Well, we had a day room, and there was tv, and that’s where I saw the moon landing
cause that happened when I was…you know… there. Then we had magazines and
occasionally, if you had a good friend, you could sneak into the commo bunker, the
command bunker, the communications bunker and you could make a phone call or get a
phone call… so, one of my friends actually called me from Vietnam, he was in another
company a couple of hundred miles away, and he’d call me and we’d talk every once in a
�Spiker 8
while. But that was bellow the radar (Chuckles “Yes sir.” –Spiker) ...there was always
an emergency phone call if somebody at you home needed to get up with you, you could,
it would have to bounce all over the place to get to you, and there was no guaranty that it
would get there, but you could make a phone call to the states every once in a while. It
was not something that was easily done, at least in my unit.
I meant to ask you, your buddies from high school, did any of them get assigned to your unit
with you?
No, I was the only MP. The rest of them, I think maybe about half of them ended up in
the infantry and I know one of them became a medic or maybe two of them. Two of
them became medics and I don’t really remember the rest of them….Did have one that
went to Chemical Warfare school. Yeah, I remember him. He went there, he was a
pretty smart guy. They grabbed him up, and I don’t think he went to Vietnam, he went to
Washington and, or some place, kept him stateside. He was real, he was a smart guy.
After your three years was up…or did you spend all that three years in Vietnam?
I did not. When I came back from Vietnam I was stationed in Maryland at Fort Meade.
There were…Fort Meade was Basically riot control for the city of D.C. at that time, and
this was when, you know, everybody was rioting about everything. There was always
some kind of march going on somewhere. So, that’s where I was, and I applied to Gaston
College and got an early out to go to school. I got about four months out early to go to
college. That was just like, exciing like going into the Army. It was great. I was ready
for college then.
Did you use your GI Bill to go to college?
I sure did. I got almost four years of college out of three years in the Army. (“Nice” –
Spiker) Yeah, at that time it was a full, about a hundred and ninety dollars a month if you
weren’t married, so, I think it went to a little over two hundred dollars a month if you
were married, as I recall. But you know you could live cheap in Boone, it was a hundred
dollars a month in rent… (“So, you went to Appalachian State as well?” –Spiker) I did.
(“Good, good.” –Spiker)
Were you married to Harriette at that time?
We got married the year that I transferred from…it would have been my third year of
college. We got married just after I graduated from Gaston. I got an AA form Gaston
and then we got married and she started graduate school because she was ahead of me by
four years. And, I had just started my third year at Appalachian.
Did you retain any friendships from the service while you were still in college and throughout
life?
A few but unfortunately they have gone by the wayside, most of them. I can’t, only the
ones that are from Lincolnton that I went to school with I still see them occasionally.
Most of them are, you know, you just lose touch. (“I understand.” –Spiker)
While…studying at Appalachian State what was your major?
I was an Art Major.
�Spiker 9
Art Major, and did you go on to fulfill your dreams in art?
Well, I got out from Appalachian, my wife and I were married, we moved to Dallas, NC
and I started teaching at William C. Friday Middle School.
What did you teach there?
I taught art, my degree was actually art education, so, either being an artist or being a
teacher was…either way. It was convenient and there was a job…I didn’t know I was
going to like teaching though. She talked me into…I was just going to be an art major,
she’s the one who talked me into being an art education major she says you might want to
teach, you don’t know, you know. You might not do well as an artist when you first get
out. So, why don’t you just do that, it’s just a few extra courses. I said, “Alright.” …and
I kind of like teaching.
So, you continued to teach until?
Well I taught for about…six years and then I went to work for a mining company, but
there was financial incentive. Yeah, I got a pretty good raise to move into the mining
industry…I went to work in a lab for them and got to do all kinds of wonderful and
interesting things in mining and in a lab and chemistry and special projects…mainly why
they hired me was because I knew a little bit about chemistry, I knew a little bit about
ceramic engineering, I knew how to weld, I knew how to do some electrical work, so that
art background of kind of knowing a little bit about a lot of stuff, but not being an expert
the said, “Well good, we’re going to put you in special projects.” So, for about twelve
years. It was a good job, excellent, I was never doing the same thing for very long they
were always pulling me around and making me do all kinds of crazy… I mean learned
how to survey, learned how to use a computer. Just everything.
After that job you went on to teach again?
Well I stated teaching college off and on as an adjunct professor, not a full time
professor, but just in part time. And then I’ve done that ever since. I worked as a computer
programmer at Doran Mills in Shelby. I worked in the printing industry for a couple of years as
a trainer, I would install systems and train people on how to use computer systems and use
programs like photoshop and how to do touch up editing and I was a font expert I guess you
would say. And all of those electronic font things…and then I got back into teaching again in
middle school. An then…this will be my tenth year and last year. And I will retire. (“Well,
congradulations.” –Spiker)
Well, I think that’s pretty much all I have. Is there anything else that you would like to add to…
No, I enjoyed talking to you.
I have as well. I have as well. I do appreciate it.
�
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.
Gilbert, Richard
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Spiker, Cody
Interview Date
10/15/12
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:35:06
File name
2013_063_Gilbert_Richard_interview
2013_063_Gilbert_Richard_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 Richard Gilbert, 15 October 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Spiker, Cody
Gilbert, Richard
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.
9 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Subject
The topic of the resource
Gilbert, Richard
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Personal narratives, American
Description
An account of the resource
Richard Gilbert served in the army for three years during the Vietnam War. He was a volunteer right out of high school, and figured the military was his only way to get to college. He was stationed in Pleiku, Vietnam and worked as a military police officer. He saw very little combat but his base was ambushed a couple of times. After the 3 years were up he majored in art at Appalachian State and worked as a middle school art teacher.
army
Fort Gordon Georgia
Fort Meade
GI Bill
military police
Pleiku
Vietnam
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/a37bce8f0201f6e5c21032635fd0c251.mp3
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PDF Text
Text
Transcript of Oral History Interview with Medical SFC James Farley
March 9, 2011.
Boone, NC
Anna Tyor: Well my name is Anna Tyor .. and I will be interviewing Mr. Farley. It is
March ...
Medical SFC James Farley: .. the 9th ..
Tyor: the 9th! For my Military History Class. So first of all I just wanted to ask you,
where were you born and when?
Farley: I was born in Newark, NewYork. .. 19 ... June 7th, 1966.
Tyor: Alrighty, and uh ... why did you first join the military?
Farley: (pause) I was raised one county over from here .. course during that time ...
Tyor: (interrupts) I'm sorry, I don't know if I can hear you ...
Farley: ok. .. (moves forward in his chair) I joined the military in June of 1984 upon
graduating high school. I started out in the United States Marine Core. Basically
because ... there was not a whole lot of employment opportunities during that time
frame in the Appalachians.
Tyor: Alright. And .. why did you pick the service branch that you joined?
Farley: Wel 've been in two services. I picked, the Marin Core ecause it was the
Marin Core ya know? ..1 was in the infantry for my f st to . ater on .. .l chose to
finish m areer in the Army-Because ... the Marine or didn't have medics and I
wanted to be a medic. So ..
Tyor: Oh, well that's interesting. So how long were you in the
opposed to the Army?
Marine~e
s
Farley: 3 years
Tyor: And did you like either service better than the other?
Farley: ... Not really? I liked each about the same. I liked my job in the Army better.
Tyor: oh ok, as the medic?
Farley: Right.
Tyor: So where did you get your medical training?
�Farley: At Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Tyor: OH ok, my dad had his medical training in Texas. Urn, so what was ... basic
training like?
Farley: Basic training, I did with the Marine Core on Paris Island, South Carolina.
That's uh, probably the toughest 13 weeks of my life .. .l was glad I'd done it 'cause of
course the Army didn't make me do it again (laughs).
Tyor: Definitely. So did you serve in any wars?
Farley: I did.
Tyor: Which ones?
Farley: .. .I'm a Desert Storm, Desert Shield veteran, Gulf War in 1991. I
have ... served in the Balkans and I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Tyor: Ok, and were you a Marine, or Army?
Farley: Army.
Tyor: Army, ok. And what was your particular job .. .l guess in each war?
Farley: I was a combat medic.
Tyor: Combat medic, ok. And did you ...were you awarded any medals during your
time?
Farley: I've been awarded the bronze star ... the combat medical badge ... 2 awards.
And an ARCOM.
Tyor: And how did you win these medals? If you don't mind.
Farley: (pause) Oh, serving a company in the ground forces of the United States in
combat.
Tyor: Alright. So when you saw combat, what was your most memorable experience
during this time?
Farley: Oh! That's a tough one!
Tyor: (laughs) yes, it's a heavy question!
Farley: yeah, that's a tough one ...
�Tyor: or a couple
Farley: (pause) I would just say, just normal, you know Medevac flights coming in
and having to set up landing ... zones to receive the patients. And .. .it was ... not a
whole lot really specifics ... I do ... have a memory. I guess my most vivid memory, we
had a, I won't really call it a direct, combat for medics are a little bit different,
ok. .. during OFl. .. we had a school out in the town ofTikrit. I think the insurgence
had it, but, they put land mines on the playground. And when they let out for their
kids or whatever, to call recess or whatever, a lot of them got ... set off the mines and
all of those got brought to my aid station.
Tyor: Oh gosh, that's terrible.
Farley: So it was about a 24-hour period of working on kids which I wasn't used to.
Tyor: Yeah, you wouldn't think ... going in for the Army. Well ... that's very sad ... And
definitely a memorable experience. So I guess, what factors kept you going through
experiences like that? Just like a bond with your soldiers, fellow soldiers, or your
family, like letters?
Farley: My soldiers. You know ... as you get ... progress through the system, you know
I was a E7, which was a Sergeant First Class, my last combat tour in Iraq ... and given
the opportunity to leave I wouldn't have, to be with my soldiers, you know?
Tyor: Definitely. I've been reading a lot of books for ... my different military history
classes and it seems that that's the general bonding. That's an amazing thing ... So
when you were serving, how, how did you guys entertain yourselves just on the
down time?
Farley: (laughs) Oh! A lot, a lot of rooks and spades. Yeah.
Tyor: (laughs) Well, that's a good way to do it ... did you look forward to mail and
things like that?
Farley: Yes ... unfortunately I was always ... with the Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom
I've done, number one, the initial push in, and so mail really wasn't established
during my combat. It was for follow on troops, later but ... I was on my, on my actions
but I was kind of in with the first ground forces
Tyor: So it was harder to get it in?
Farley: Yeah, couldn't get much mail.
Tyor: Well, urn, how do you feel...how did you feel when your service ended? or .. .in
each war?
�Farley: Well, of course I was glad to be coming home to my wife and children. You
know ... I was happy ... I was happy to go ... to return home.
Tyor: And where did you return to? To Boone?
L.eoMII
wo
Farley: No ... actually I was still in the Army ... After Desert Storm I returned to Fort
Lindenwood where I was stationed ... and OIF ... and returned to Fort Hood, Texas.
~
Tyor: Oh ok, so how did you make it up to Boone?
Farley: I'm from Johnson County, Tennessee. I retired, I'm retired. I retired in 2006
from the Army ... now I work here as a Department of the Army civilian employee.
I'm a civil servant. But I was raised in Mountain City, Tennessee. Just one county
over ...
Tyor: Oh yeah, I've been over to Mountain City, it's a good place. Well this is a good
place to retire then?
Farley: Oh yeah. I've been blessed to be ... to still get to play with the Army too ...
yeah.
Tyor: Definitely, definitely .... so actually when you first got back from your
service ... did you go back to school...or did you immediately start up a new job in the
Army or what exactly did you do?
Farley: Are you talking about (cough) when I retired or when I returned from
overseas combat?
Tyor: When you returned from overseas, sorry.
Farley: Oh I would normally PCS to a new job. After my last combat tour I got
promoted to ES, and l...once I got back to Fort Hood I received orders to be a First
Sergeant in Sol).th Korea. And I moved to Korea for a year.
~ou(
Tyor: Wow, what did you think of Korea?
Farley: Oh I liked it. I've done three tours in Korea, I liked it.
Tyor: Yeah? What did you like about it?
Farley: (pause) I liked the culture, I mean the people are are great. There's almost
no crime.
Tyor: Yeah, I've heard that...
�Farley: It's a really educated population there, you know ... ! like everything about
Korea! I mean, if I didn't have family here I would probably move to Korea. (laughs).
Tyor: I've heard that about Korea! I've actually looked into Korea, teaching English
there, through like the TEFL program.
Farley: Oh yeah, very great experience ... again I can't say enough good things about
Korea.
Tyor: Well, that's a good thing to hear ... well, have you kept up with the people that
you've met while you were serving? Or your fellow soldiers?
Farley: I keep a couple ... ! keep in touch with a couple of them, of course everybody's
got face book these days so it didn't take them long to find me when I created an
account! (laughs).
Tyor: (laughs) Oh yeah, I made my dad do that too ... well I guess, is there anything
else you like to add that we didn't cover? Any last words?
Farley: (pause) Well ...not really. If this is going to go to a Jot of young people .. .!
mean I would highly encourage a career in the military, you know, it teaches
citizenship ... responsibility ... you know and ... ! mean honestly ... we wouldn't be sitting
here doing this interview of course because you needed to do it on a veteran ... !
mean it opens up so many windows for you ... you know there's a ... there's a lot of
negative in our country right now ... ! won't say people looking negative on the
military but if you realize only one percent of Americans ever serve.
Tyor: That's a small percentage.
Farley: ... so our story isn't heard a Jot.
Tyor: Well there is a lot of respect, I know, that goes towards the military. I think it's
extremely important so I want to thank you so much for having this interview with
me!
Farley: Your welcome. (shake hands).
Tyor: And thank you for taking the time out of your day to do it.
�
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.
Farley, James
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Tyor, Anna
Interview Date
3/9/11
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:09:44
File name
2013_063_Farley_JamesA_interview
2013_063_Farley_James_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 James Farley, 9 March 2011
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Tyor, Anna
Farley, James
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.
5 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Subject
The topic of the resource
Farley, James
Persian Gulf War, 1991
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Army
Medical Personnel
Description
An account of the resource
James Farley served as a Medical SFC in the army for several years. He is a veteran of the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He began in the Marine Corps, but decided he wanted to become a combat medic and did his medical training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He continued to serve the army in the States until his retirement.
army
Desert Storm
Fort Sam Houston
Gulf War
Medical SFC
Operation Iraqi Freedom
US Marine Corps
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7b64d54795133a68bf9a1048f24a75a0.pdf
f829a20d40985f1fd30335bd18e724a7
PDF Text
Text
Transcription
Veteran Interview: Daniel P. Elliott
Interviewer: My name is Brendan Elliott from Dr. Browning's Fall 2012 American Military History class. And
today I'm here interviewing my grandfather, Dan Elliott. So, let's start out with our first question: During the
conflict that you were involved in, where were you living [pause] at the time?
Interviewee: Well I […um...] was one of the young, younger people in, in the, at that time and about I turned
eighteen…in 1943, in August, and so consequently I signed up for the Draft, had to sign up for the Draft at
that point, and then living in Shreveport with my parents. I had just dropped out of college because I found
it to be kind of disturbing situation to try and study and have all the people going, coming and going; that
sort of thing.
Interviewer: Um, and so were you drafted or did you enlist? And how old were you?
Interviewee: Well as I said I was eighteen years old, and I had tried to enlist in the Navy, but I had the
problem of [...] near sightedness and color blindness..and uh the, the recruiter said that he would promise
me that I could stay in a, in a recruiting station in Kansas, just to make sure the, that the Navy was safe with
me and my eyes, and so consequently I, I decide not to get in the Navy and waited for the Draft to take
place, which happened in [stutters while collecting thought] the middle of October, late of October of
[nineteen] fourty three.
Interviewer: And why did you want to join…the military?
Interviewee: I, I didn't really want to join, but by the same token, uh, I, when I was drafted I was drafted
[pause] and we all knew that the threat of what [stutters while collecting thought] the Nazis were such that
the [again stutters while collecting thought] it took an effort from everybody to try to get, uh, do something
to stop this, what they were doing because they were relatively inhuman and they were doing things that
you wouldn't believe could be don…people would do to each other, and so, logical on that basis if you
thought about it, you needed to do something to stop the Nazis and really what reason joined [interviewer:
mhm]
Interviewer: Um, and why did you pick the service branch you joined? You said originally you wanted to join
the Navy, then, you were drafted into the Army. Why did you want to go to the Navy in the first place?
Interviewee: I, having been a sailor all my life to that point, I just, I, I had a love of the sea, and so
consequently I, that was my reason for trying but uh, when that happened, didn't happen, well the Army
was my next choice because I couldn't fly, because of my eyes and I didn't really want to be a m…You'd say a
ground man for the Air Force, so I took the Army.
Interviewer: Um, can you describe any of your training or boot camp experiences?
Interviewee: Well, you know [clears throat] was, we were [pause] in the um […] the boot camp
experiences…One of the, one of the first things they did was they took you on a, on a [stutters while
collecting thought] a real long hike [chuckles] at night and so that you, you really got very, very um [stutters
while collecting thought] matter of fact [pauses] probably twenty percent of them dropped out. I didn't
drop out, I, I got a little sick, but I [interviewer: mhm] stayed with it. And, and seemed to make out alright
with that, but then most of the training was drilling and, and learning what the Army was about and
�learning, learning the other, uh shooting, and learning how to handle the gun, just […] take them apart, that
sort of thing. And it, it was a [pause] probably a six…three to six months period. The one, the one
experience I had, of course having gotten in the Army in October, late October we ended up getting up in
Oregon and uh [pauses while collecting thought] Christmas came. And um, I, I had the privilege of kitchen
duty [translation from context] on Christmas day. And I got to wash dishes, for EVER [chuckles]. [Stutters]
And I always remember the mess, mess sergeant, he was a pretty nice guy and he came over and helped me
wash. And the reason I had to do that […] because of the guy who was supposed to be on KP went AWOL to
go home to see, wherever he lived was relatively local so […] and he came back, but he had been home for
Christmas [interviewer: mhm] but I was in Oregon and not Louisiana [chuckles] for Christmas.
Interviewer: And which wars did you serve in?
Interviewee: Well, I, I only, the service I did was World War Two.
Interviewer: And where exactly did you go?
Interviewee: Well, [clears throat] let me just tell you, a little bit we did before we went overseas. Because
actually, [clears throat] as we um [pauses] got through with the training at Camp White we went to Camp
Housen, Texas; which was just above, above Dallas and […] while there, they sent us, they sent a group of us
out to do machine gun [...] aircraft [pauses to collect thought] shooting, trying to shoot down aircraft from a
truck, uh fifty [.50] caliber machine gun, and so [stutters to collect thought] that was out of El Paso, Texas
and we found out what a dust storms were. Because [stutters while collecting thought] sand would start
blowing around there and you had to clean the gun before you could even shoot [interviewer: mhm]. Then
from there we went to West Virginia; up and around the Elkins, West Virginia there's a great big National
Forest there and they were using it for training areas and in there I had the opportunity to become a
mountain climber trainee and we went up and trained for about a week or ten days being instructed on how
to climb mountains in case we went to Italy where mountains were; [Interviewer: mhm] we didn't do that.
But then, from there we went over to um […flips through notes] Camp Picket in Virginia and learned about
build…bridge building and which was part of our combat engineering training and [pauses to collect
thought] it was on the Susquehanna River I believe is what the name of the river did all that. At that place
we knew we were getting close because they gave us a [order] to go home and tell everybody goodbye. And
from there we went to New York […] to Fort Slocum which was just off of New Rochelle and […] we did get
to go into town to visit New York City a little bit, but I didn't get to go see my brother who was in Staten
Island at that point. He was working for a ship yard. And actually, we left New York on the twenty-second
of October, on this converted Italian luxury liner, the Saturnia and we were in a convoy that took eleven
days to go across the Atlantic, and we ended up in South Hampton [United Kingdom] then we went to
Delamere Park which was near North Hampton and where we were stationed for the time being but we had
been moving around over England to open several replacement camps and old camps so that replacement
troops could be taken care of when they came in for the second invasion of England with these replacement
troops. […] We left England, Christmas week, 1944, and we [clears throat] didn't, didn't know whether we
were gonna go to the, to the remaining of The Bulge [Battle of the Bulge] which was up around Bastogne or
where we were going, but we finally when we got into Le Havre, they sent us out to a plowed field where we
spent about two or three days waiting for the trucks to take us up. And we went to the Maginot Lines
[clears throat] and we stayed there two or three days and then we went on up to Bouzonville, France which
was near Saarbrücken [Germany] where we spent time trying to reinforce […] the area, because there was a
rumor that the Germans might, when stopped at The Bulge, they might come around […] that area, so we,
we put out […] demolition for, for bridges and trees and such in case they came we could blow up things and
stop them from moving very much. And while we were there, I was transferred […] I was in the 187th
�Engineers at that point, and while I was there they, I was transferred to the 44th combat engineering
battalion, which had been decimated by the Germans during The Bulge. And so, at that point, I moved over
to Bastogne which was where they, they were stationed out of […] The Bulge had been stopped
[Interviewer: mhm] and were moving things, started moving up. [Takes pause to catch breath and collect
thoughts] There was a great push from Bastogne to um, by the Americans to recoup, Americans and the
British and the others recoup, the ground, so we did everything we could to keep supplies moving, on the
front, maintaining roads and bringing up time, every time we moved up, up with the troops and we moved
North through Aachen [Germany] and into Cologne [Germany] then to Koblenz [Germany]. When we got to
Koblenz that was where the Moselle River came in and met the Rhine River. It was across river, we, we were
able to, at point, we had, having all the trucks and vehicles we had, we went down and confiscated a few
cases of wine so that we could have a taste of the good German wine that they, we had heard about
[Interviewer: mhm] in the old days. Then uh, [skimming through notes] from there we, we traveled over
several […] towns, Frankfurt [Germany], and Kassel [Germany], and then finally at the end…the war ended,
we were in Plowen [Germany], which was right at the edge of Czechoslovakia, which is East Germany so to
speak [Interviewer: mhm]. And that's kinda where we, where we stopped, and we stayed there for uh, until
the Russians came, […] the Russians came over to take over that area [Interviewer: mhm] which was, that
was part of the agreement put in […] at the end of the war; they were going to get East Germany so to
speak.
Interviewer: Um, and so you've mentioned a little bit about combat engineering, but um, so next question
would be what is your job or your assignment […] as a combat engineer?
Interviewee: Well I, I was actually enlisted as a, to start with as an electrician […] then uh finally I got to be, I
mean I got transferred [...] the captain picked me out, saw that I was a…He was a construction […] man and
he had some kind of building business back in the States. And he saw that as an engineer he thought may I,
we would be compatible so consequently we, we got together and I ended up being his driver…but they had
me listed as a clerk typist [chuckles] and just so that because of the way, the way the rules were…I guess
[Interviewer: mhm]. So anyway, they, they […] we never did really do anything that except build odds and
ends of things and we…mostly just taking care of roads, troops, and trying to make sure everybody was safe
where they were as combat engineers. […] While we were going across uh, Germany, there, we hit one spot
which was close to where the Remagen Bridge was still standing. The Germans had actually demolished all
the crossing spots for, over the Rhine river, except somehow or another they had missed this one and we,
we anticipated…the Army anticipated that, that sooner or later, they were going to try and blow it up
somehow or another, which with the cannon shots or what have you. But, so what we, what we as
engineers had to do was to go up the river about fifteen miles and build a pontoon bridge across the Rhine
River. It took about three […] battalions of pontoon companies, or three companies that brought pontoons
to get the, enough pontoons to go across and we had the grading that sat on top of the um […] pontoons
and that […] it took about a day and a half to build all this, and our two couple of days, and it was kind of
under fire [Interviewer: mhm] and there was, there was always a smoke screen being generated so people
couldn't see, so people couldn't see what was going on and if you sat there in a truck, or so along the this
track, these tanks would come along and they couldn't see where they were going [chuckles] and we
couldn't see where they were going either, so you always were nervous about where, if you were safe to be
around there because of the traffic that was going on. [Interviewer: mhm] And it was, that was, I guess that
was the biggest that thing we did in the whole, in our, our, my part of the war because it, that, that uh,
whole number of troops and vehicles go across the Rhine [River] safely where they, on this bridge
[Interviewer: mhm].
�Interviewer: So you said you were kind of under fire, did, did you, during the building of this bridge. Did you
see any combat at, during this time or at any other point during your service?
Interviewee: Well [clears throat] um […] I, I really never did have anybody just, I was never was in a fox hole
or never was in, in that, that kind of situation where it was man to man or what have you [Interviewer:
mhm] but most days it was cannon fire or one time we had machine guns somewhere, somebody was
running a machine gun at, at the road we were going across and we had to do something about that…but
generally speaking we, we never did have direct fire on our operations. [Interviewer: okay] But sometimes
we were in front of the troops, sometimes we were in the back of the troops and sometimes […] it was
just…there was a […] at that point, there was a great deal of disorder in the Germans so that you, they didn't
know exactly what they were supposed to do or how they were supposed to do it so consequently we, we
could be in a place which was front of the troops, but, they, they, there won't be many troops, many
German troops around, to um […] to harass us or to fight with us I guess.
Interviewer: Um, were you awarded any medals, citations or anything similar during your service?
Interviewee: [Reviewing notes] They uh, the medals that I, that I received, were the European [the uh]
Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War Two Victory Medal; nothing specific. Thank goodness I
didn't ever have to have a Purple Heart [Interviewer: mhm]…It just didn't happen […] in our […] place.
Interviewer: Um, during the time of service when you were overseas, how did, did you stay in touch with
your family? Uh, and how did you do that?
Interviewee: Well […] directly everything was by correspondence and [Interviewer: mhm] […] we had…I'll
say, semi-reasonable […] mail service. Sometimes, matter of fact, we had better mail service than we had
water service…go a month without a shower [chuckles; Interviewer: mhm] a lot of the time, but, but they
mail service…somehow or another, they, they managed to get the mail, […] to us at some point. We didn't, I
guess you didn't really think about it all that much except […] we knew they were alright so, [Interviewer:
yeah] so that was not our, our concern, would have been our concern…but they were fine. [Interviewer:
Alright].
Interviewer: Um, during the, the more difficult or stressful days that you had during your service, was there
anything special you did for good luck or to, uh, motivate yourself?
Interviewee: Well, [Reviewing notes] What they […] all of us kind of […] passively, got in touch with God
occasionally because we just, we […] somebody's gotta be looking out for you [Interviewer: mhm] and I
think, and you don't think about it very much as you do it because we didn't see very many um, didn't see
very many […] services […] church services by any means […] there were a few and so, you were very
pleased to be a part, part of it if you were there somewhere. […] I guess really […] in my case, the, the stress
was not really that much that you really got hung up on it [Interviewer: mhm] you got…on occasion you got
frightened but by the same token it would pass very quickly in, in our case.
Interviewer: Um […] what did you think of your fellow officers and…your officers, and fellow soldiers in
your…element?
Interviewee: As I, as I went in as a trainee, was to start with, we had a, a quadruple…people who had been in
Alaska for two years […] and came back and there they, they were the cadre who formed the 187th
[Engineers] and they, they were, they were princes…they had, they had been through it all, they had, they
knew what to do…and they, […] they didn't make it easy, but they, they knew how to handle…the things
�because of the, what the discipline they had had and when I transferred into the other outfit, well they, they
[…] they were at peace; we were all in it together, and most of us weren't, weren't uh, profession soldiers.
There were a few scattered among, but uh, […] we were all just there to try to do what we had to do and,
and survive really. And I don’t know, I don't ever remember there being any real antagonism between any
of the people, one way or the other. And the officers, were…they were, I'll say, very, relatively decent
people to, to have to deal with us [Interviewer: mhm] and, we didn't have any real complaints.
Interviewer: Okay. Um, and what was one of the more interesting or memorable experiences you had
during your service?
Interviewee: Well, that's, as I told you before […] the building that Remagen Bridge, replacement
[Interviewer: mhm] the pontoon bridge, that was, that was a […] that to me was the outstanding thing. A
matter of fact, it's kind of interesting with that […] back here in the states in this day in time…a friend of
mine, […] that was ill and we were sitting there talking and he sai…I told him about…he was over in Europe
too and he was with a photography group that took pictures of things happening for the record…and I told
him about building this pontoon bridge, he said "I've got a picture of the pontoon bridge" [chuckles]. And
so he dug it out and uh, sure enough it was, it was, it looked like the one we had [Interviewer: mhm]
couldn't be positive, but it was a pontoon bridge. And […] so it happened that uh, […] we talked about it
[stutters while collecting thought] and he actually…his pilot, that he, he worked as a mechanic on the plane
[Interviewer: mhm] that took pictures. And the pilot, came down to visit him in Brevard, where we are. And
so they, he said, "would like you to meet the pilot…" [chuckles] "…who took the pictures." And uh, so I got
him to autograph the picture that I [chuckles]. Which was kind of an interesting thing to have happen to,
something […] which was [Interviewer: small world] a long time ago. [Chuckles] [Interviewer: yeah].
Interviewer: Um, do you recall the day when your service ended? Um, where were you? And do you know
how long, you, were overseas for?
Interviewee: They uh […] January the 26th, 1946 was when I was discharged. And I was at Camp Shelby,
Mississippi near Hattiesburg [Mississippi]. And I had been in it for two years and three months. And
um…they […] I had been back in the States for about three or four months before I was discharged; I came
back in the fall of that year and just […] by circumstance. [Interviewer: mhm] And the thing that happened,
with me, the 44th Engineer, Combat Engineer went, came…when the war was over, in Germany, they sent
us down to Marseille…and they, they dis, disbanded the group […] and I was on the, in the […] ordinance
group that was scheduled to go to Japan [Interviewer: mhm]. [Clears throat] And uh, we were up in this
holding area waiting for the ships to come in that were going to take us to Japan to land aboard there; from
what we know…and what happened was that President Truman ordered the Atomic Bombs to be dropped
on Japan, and uh, first thing you know, the war was over with [Interviewer: mhm]. And the, after the second
bomb, the, the Emperor declared […] surrender…[Interviewer: mhm] total surrender. And so consequently
we, we were sitting up there and just happened that four days before…four days later we were supposed to
get on the ship. So consequently, instead of trying to disperse us, redisperse us into Europe, they, they just
went ahead and sent us home [Interviewer: okay]. And so I got home a lot sooner [chuckles] than a lot of
my friends who were over, still over in Europe. And, but we got home in the fall of [19]46. Spent the time
there and, and then I had to go, I had to stay in the Service because I didn't have, didn't have enough points
to get out yet [Interviewer: okay] and so consequently, that's why I ended up in Camp Shelby, Mississippi for
about two, three, or four months. [Interview: okay]
Interviewer: Um, did you make any close friends while you were in the Service?
�Interviewee: At this point [chuckles] uh, um, what…how long ago…it's been so long ago that, [Interviewer:
mhm] yes, we had, we had, we had a lot, very…you know you'd have your two or three guys that you really
liked being with or work with what have you…and uh, stayed in touch after the war for…I'd say several years
and then you saw that you'd, you're not gonna ever get together again [Interviewer: mhm] so,
something…so consequently, they, you kind of dropped, dropped the friends over the time […] of course,
you're creating new friends so [Interviewer: yeah], in your businesses and what have you that you've done.
Interviewer: Alright, Um, and when you got back, did you go to work, or did you go back to school?
Interviewee: When I first got back, I, I really kind of did a little bit […] retraining about things but, […] I ended
up working as a rodman for a surveyor…a one person surveyor. And I worked in that for about six months
and then, he worked me hard enough that I decided that I really needed to go back to school [Interviewer:
mhm] and so that's why that, that fall, I went, started back to college from where I had been before. And
then […] the next three years I guess, was taken up with college and I graduated from there in June of [19]49
with a mechanical engineering degree. [Interviewer: okay]
Interviewer: Um, and, the next question would be: what did you go on to do as a career after the war?
Interviewee: Well, I went up to become a sale, manufacture's rep with my brother, but there was a problem
with my doing that in Baltimore [Maryland] and so consequently I ended up getting a job with the Baltimore
Gas Electric Company for about a year and a half. While I was doing that, I met some people that worked for
W.R. Grace Chemicals and this was chemicals, phosphate chemicals, chemical fertilizer company and also
silicone gel. And, and they asked me to come work for them as a project engineer. And I stayed there for
about ten years, but then I finally ended up in Florida with them; working in the phosphate mines. Then I
decided […] One of the people I met, suggested maybe I would enjoy being with a consultant engineering
group, in Atlanta [Georgia]. And so I applied and uh, went to [pause] H.A. Simons, Simons Eastern Company
[Interviewer: mhm] in Atlanta, Georgia and stayed there thirty-four years. I enjoyed being project engineer,
project manager, […] and chief estimator for the company. [Interviewer: mhm]
Interviewer: Um, did your military influe[nce]…experience influence your thinking about war as a whole, or
the military in general?
Interviewee: Well, my personal opinion: war is not good, but there are people not satisfied with their own
lot in life and they want to take away our freedom because of their lack of ability [Interviewer: mhm] in their
country. And someone has to repel these crack pots, as I'll call them, and our armed forces are working hard
to let us maintain our existence. And they should be given great credit and support. And the politics of
maintaining a world order is very, a very complex situation between the haves and have nots.
Unfortunately, the situation we have with, between the UN and the rest of the world…all the things we try
to do […] make it difficult to live […] make it difficult for us to live In peace [Interviewer: mhm]…which we
haven't had for a long time at this point. [Interviewer: yeah]
Interviewer: Um, well I don't have any other questions. Is there anything you would like to add about,
before your experience, military service, during or after?
Interviewee: Well, I think, one of the things…with having graduating high school at the age of sixteen and
then going into the Service at eighteen, gave me an opportunity to grow up and understand things a little bit
better. And I found out that having a degree and having an education does make a difference in the way
�that you live, and think and consequently, I that's why I went back to college…was to do that. And I'm
pleased that I got, had enough brains to take advantage of it.
Interviewer: Alright, well thank you…for answering these questions and doing this interview with me.
Interviewee: It's my pleasure. Say thank you for letting me, asking me to give you my experiences because it
gave me a chance to relive it a little bit and refresh my memory. And it […] I had to look up a couple of
things on my atlas [chuckles] some names that I had pointed, had thought about and hadn't done anything
with in a long time. Thank you very much.
Interviewer: You're welcome.
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/00b8a1910d2811951a9bd940d663e9ba.mp3
a3e39bbe1b990699cf3ea035f89aca13
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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
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Interviewee
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Elliott, Daniel P.
Interviewer
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Elliott, Brendan
Interview Date
10/15/12
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0:33:51
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2013_063_Elliott_Daniel_interview
2013_063_Elliott_DanielP_transcript
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Interview with Daniel P. Elliott, undated
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Elliott, Brendan
Elliott, Daniel P.
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<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>
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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.
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7 pages
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English
English
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Sound
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Elliott, Daniel P.
World War, 1939-1945
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Daniel Elliott is a WWII veteran who served for almost 3 years as a combat engineer. He says his biggest accomplishment was helping to build a pontoon bridge over the Rhine River so that American troops and vehicles could pass safely. He was released from duty a bit earlier after the Japanese were bombed and the war ended. He went on to study mechanical engineering and worked as a surveyor.
army
Battle of the Bulge
Camp Shelby
combat engineer
Daniel Elliott
Nazi
Rhine River pontoon bridge
WWII
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/91d8a54b5c86514d02cc6163aae2df44.mp3
38d4c534cd12fd61f2af0f4cb04e8bb4
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0a1c019749fe7afe9eb7483b5267b8a0.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Military Oral History Interview Transcript
Joseph Emerson Mitchell Sr.
Charlotte, NC
16 October 2011
DM: David Mitchell
JM: Joseph Emerson Mitchell, Sr.
DM: Hello this is David Mitchell interviewing Joseph Emerson Mitchell Sr. on 16th, October
2011at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina for American Military History. When did you
enlist in the military?
JM: I enlisted in the military in November 13, 1950.
DM: 1950?
JM: Yes.
DM: How old were you?
JM: Seventeen.
DM: Why did you decide to join so young?
JM: Well, I needed a job.
DM: That was it?
JM: No, I always did like the military, my brothers was in the military. And I always wanted to
be a soldier. And due to limited opportunities in civilian life at that time it seemed like a good
thing to do.
DM: Were all your brothers in the military?
JM: I had five brothers; four of them were in the military.
DM: Four of them? Did they all deploy, go overseas, and fight the wars?
JM: My two oldest brothers were in World War Two; one was in the Navy and one was in the
Army.
DM: So why did you decide to join the Army as oppose to the Air Force or the Navy?
JM: Because of the Joy brothers, most of them were in the Army. I had three brothers in the
Army.
1
�DM: Did you ever wish you joined the Air force, or…
JM: No.
DM: When you enlisted what job did you want?
JM: Well, at that time they assigned you a job. After basic training, I was in the signal corps,
pole line construction. Then they turned around and sent me to mechanic school, auto vehicle
maintenance. Then when I got out of mechanic school, that's when I started working as a military
mechanic, army mechanic.
DM: How was that for you?
JM: Well, it was very good at the time, I didn't think much of it but after staying in the military
for 26 years and 10 months and 26 days, I arose to the rank of warrant officer. And as hook back
on it that was a dream for me because at that age I really didn't know what I wanted to do or be.
So they made the choice for me which they picked from to be aptitude test; it was a battery test
that you took when you went in the military.
DM: So in 1950, you went to basic training, then did you go to your individual training?
JM: My unit was a signal unit, signal construction unit, what they did after we got settled about
8 or 9 months into the military they trained us into different sections; supply, maintenance,
administration. And I was chose to be in automotive maintenance. And they sent me to Fort
Jackson, South Carolina for mechanic school.
DM: And that's when you got involved in the ordinances corps?
JM: Yes.
DM: How was your overall experience in the military?
JM: Well, it had its ups and downs, its good times, and its bad times. You got to understand that
I entered in the military in 1950; the military was a segregated affair. Black troops served in one
part and white troops served in the other. In fact, during basic training we had a white cadre
training black troops and we've had some incidents for instance our white cadre told us we sound
like a bunch of monkeys. And at that time everyone rebelled so they had to relieve him. But that
was just one incident.
Other then that things were pretty good. After I left Fort Jackson I went to Fort Rucker in
Alabama, which was our holding station and then my unit went down to Fort Bliss, Texas and
after I got to Texas we were assigned duties pertaining to our unit. In fact they had us there for
about 30 or 40 days with no mission for us then moved us to Fort Hood, Texas and that's where
we got our mission for pole line construction and I was lucky enough to stay there for about two
months.
2
�Then they ordered me to go to Korea. I didn't get to Korea until February 1952 and when I got
there to my surprise they assigned us to integrated units, and the unit wasn't bad, the people were
good and everyone got along all right. I stayed there for 12 months and the policy was that the
people, when you got to Korea you stay in the unit and the people that you came in through, after
awhile they rotate and then you could get promoted up the ladder to take their place. And my
position would be battalion motor sergeant but I ran into some racism there due to the fact that
we had a new maintenance officer there named Mr. Nobles.
Corporal Jones and myself were the only two black ranking men in the motor pool, so instead of
promoting us he took some white boys and promoted them had them active jacks and Jones, and
me he wanted us work for him. So we went to the company commander, the company
commander took us out of the motor pool and we had various details; cleaning up mess halls and
driving the gas truck and all the things like that.
Except for that one incident I think Korea was pretty good. And I returned from Korea in
February of ‘53. And was stationed in Camp Bell Rock, Nevada and that's when during the time
they were experimenting with atomic explosions, nuclear explosions.
So I stayed down there for three months or four months and they sent me back to Fort Ord in
California and there I was discharged. So then I left there went back east and I listed in the
reserves to keep my right because you can't stand out for 60 or 90 days, you lose your rank and at
that time I was a corporal.
So after I got in the reserves I stayed in the Reserves for about three or four months and then I
volunteered and went back to active duty. And it just so happens to be that when I went on active
duty they sent me down to Fort Jackson, SC for reassignment. I wanted to go back North due to
the racial policies during those days; which is very segregated in the south.
Black people were treated like crap as far as I was concerned because see I was from the north.
But anyway, when I got down there they told me the only way I could go north was to volunteer
to go airborne training. So I volunteered to go airborne training never thinking that I'd be
jumping out no airplane. But anyway, they sent me to Fort Bragg and I got involved with the
82nd Airborne Division, America's God of Honor and I stayed there from '54 to '60 and people
were just doing some serious soldiering, we had problems you know, we had racial problems in
the higher ranks.
But then I went to Germany. I went to Germany in 1960 and pulled three years in Germany, and
at that time the Cold War was going on and the military is very strict. In fact, we had a curfew
and we had to be in bed during the weekdays at 11o'clock and 12 o'clock on the weekends. We
were doing some serious training; we would move into the field regardless of the weather winter
or summer and stay 30 or 50 days sometimes. So later the Berlin wall went up and there was a
confrontation, this was during the time of Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy had ordered
that Cuba to be blockade and during that time I was in the airborne unit and things were very
tense.
3
�So we were on a 24 hour notice, we loaded out ready for combat. They said when the word
comes you just got to go and that was it But what I want to emphasize, I was in the airborne
artillery unit and the Berlin guys said it was 110 miles down in ties with Soviet territory in order
to get to Berlin the American sector, which was West Berlin.
Our mission was to fly over Russian territory and pass shooting to reinforce the Berlin guys but
then the Cubans backed down, not the Cubans, the Russians backed down in Cuba and that done
away with that crisis. So after that crisis we never had an extreme crisis besides when the Berlin
Wall went up, and after pulling three years in Germany, I returned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The 101st Airborne Division and there we done some serious soldiering too.
We stayed in the field a lot, the troops were all right, and you had your pockets of resistance as
far as black and white. But normally everything was pretty good. Old soldiers like myself they
were used to everyone getting along pretty good, it was the young boys that come off the block
come from these homes with people who were taught this mess about declarations of people;
that's where the problem was. But if you moved up in the ranks like I did it wasn't any problems
because you was snatched a lot and that got them squared away. So during my training with the
101st Airborne I stayed there for 18 months.
And we went to field to two deformations with field problems, we went to one field problem in
Iran were over there for 21 days and pulled an exercise for the show of Iran up and down them
hills. And then we turned around and turned to Fort Campbell, but before we would get back to
the base, the airplanes couldn't get out because of the sand storm came up and we had to stay out
of the dessert for about three or four days before aircraft could come in to get us out.
They finally got us out and then we flew back to Fort Campbell, we stayed there for about 60
days and the commander named Colonel Wolfe would volunteer us for all kind of different
activities and missions. So then we moved out to the Mojave dessert for 30 days and that didn't
move too well with the troops; we just left Iran and went through various field problems.
We got back from Operation Dessert Strike because it took 30 days moving up and down
Nevada, Southern California and parts of Wyoming. So then we returned to Fort Campbell,
Kentucky after that and we had a lot of complaining because there were no commission officers
and everyone wanted to transfer out. So then the division commander, we had to stand down in
the first brigade so then they got up gave us little break down.
I was assigned to infantry in Fort Campbell in the 322nd Infantry, 1st Battalion but while I was
there I got transferred down to 2nd Artillery and I stayed there until I volunteered to go to
Vietnam. And I stayed at Fort Campbell in '64 till '65 it was a total of 18 months. And then I left
there and got to Vietnam in June of '65. I stayed in Vietnam for a year.
My job in Vietnam I was an advisor so at that time they called I-Corps and at that time we were
the first consistent army division for the republic of South Vietnam and my job was in
administrative logistics advisor, making sure that on the out-post the advisors got resupplied.
Whatever they needed we did it; helicopter rides into the jungle and wherever else plus riding up
and down Highway 1 to the city of Wei the imperial capitol in South Vietnam to as far north as
4
�Quan Tri, is just on the border of South Vietnam, and after 12 months there, and I returned to the
states.
Well, let me go back a little bit let me go back until I was there until '65 and '66. We had an
uprising in the auburn divisions when it turned against the government and the government they
pulled away from the government they didn’t want to be in the government, so then they took
representatives from the government to the first division headquarters to try to talk them into
political sentence to get back in the South Vietnamese army like they was suppose to.
They were all just satisfied with people protesting and all of that kind of junk. But anyway,
during that time we had negotiators from down in Denang, which was 100 miles down the road
from South Vietnam. They came up to negotiate the division commander to come back into the
government. One incident that I remember specifically was when the helicopter came in, there
were thousands of Vietnamese out there demonstrating against the government. When the
chopper landed the negotiators got off and went to headquarters and there they negotiated with
the commander.
When they got out they got back on the chopper to leave the South Vietnamese, the second
lieutenant got in the crowd and took a pistol and shot at the chopper and when he did that all hell
broke loose. Someone got him; he cut loose with an M-16 and started cutting up people all kinds
of people. But the chopper got out of there and went back to the Nag. In the meanwhile, we were
only 109 surrounded by thousands of Vietnamese, troops and civilians. We went back to our
compound and the rumors went down to intelligence that they were going to attack the
compound and kill all the advisors. We got back there armed, and the S-3 operations officer told
us we had to prepare for an attack.
The South Vietnamese were going to attack the compound and he was going to go in the street
and negotiate with him. In the meantime the South Vietnamese Army was coming from
Sauzewae and it was going to move in to rescue as help to get on the run by the Vietnamese. But
as it turned out to be the major told us that he was going go out when the crowd came down and
talk to them.
The word was if they turned left and went to the compound we had to open fire, we did
everything we could do because they were going take us out regardless. So what we had were
these barbed wire barricades along the perimeter and all kinds of sandbags, we had the works. In
the mean time, this is all in one day, here comes these thousands of demonstrators coming down
the street and as they come down the street they tore down one of the barbed wire blockades. But
instead of turning left to come in the compound, they kept on straight.
When they did that everyone was relieved because they knew they weren't going to attack.
Because they had word that they had tanks they were going to attack us with so in the mean time
we had a marine battalion that was moving in from Pumpa, just moving in not the army but the
US marines and they were going support us in the fight against the South Vietnamese Army.
They tried to take us out and at that time I had about 45 days to rotate and of course you know I
was on pins and needles, needless to say. As it turned out they still demonstrated until the day I
5
�left and we couldn’t use the highways. On my day of rotation they had to bring in choppers and
we had to ride the choppers out to process out of South Vietnam to come back to the states.
That was one of the incidents but Vietnam as a whole was combat zone. And that's the way it
was suppose to be, you knew what you signed up for. So after that deal, I rotated back to Fort
Bragg, 82nd Airborne Division and stayed there for about two weeks. Next, I was sent over to
Special Forces and I worked over there for about a year. But during the time I was in Special
Forces I got appointed to warrant officer from the “Mr. Man.” They had a mission to go to
Thailand to give something to the Thai government.
I was picked to go to Thailand after certain training and different aspects of the job, which I was
going to be instructing. In the mean time an order came around saying I was not to go anywhere
unless I can return within 30 days because my appointment said that warrant officers couldn't be
there until April and this was in March and that team had to be in Thailand by March.
The colonel in Thailand and Special Forces called the Department of the Army got my
appointment and sent me to go so I could go on that mission to the 3rd Special Forces in
Thailand. In the meantime I stayed there for 54 days as a maintenance instructor on gun,
artillery, vehicles, and half tracks; all ordinances equipment.
After returning from there I went to Fort Bragg and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. I
was an auto maintenance technician for the 1st Battalion of the 325th Airborne Infantry Battalion
in the First Brigade. It was definitely harder being an officer than being an enlisted man because
it was challenging.
The challenge was at that time the white soldiers didn't want to respect the black officers, like
they wanted to respect the white officers. So you really had to get into some messy situations.
And you had to demand respect and if every time you turned around there was going to be some
kind of complaint about you wasn't doing this and you wasn't doing that but that wasn't the issues
some of these old boys just ain't want to take no orders from no black officer or black NCO.
In fact, I had a motor sergeant that went to the company commander and told him he couldn’t
work for me. And that company commander reassigned that sergeant. But see I want to tell you
something see up until that time in the Army, no sergeant could go to the company commander
and tell him he did not want to work for no officer and get reassigned. This was strictly racism
on that deal. So I went and talked to the company commander and he said, “Well you know he
wanted to work for you so, on and so on.”
And I said “Why?” And he couldn't tell me why. Anyway, as the story goes on to tell I stayed in
that battalion for 18 months from 1967 to ’68, and during that time they sent me up to Fort Knox,
Kentucky to motor officer school. I went up there and I stayed for two months. Three months
later then I came back to my unit and by the time I came back to my unit I was order to go back
to Vietnam. This time I went to Vietnam as a warrant officer and was assigned to the Infantry.
First of the 14th Infantry in the First Brigade, in the 4th Infantry Division. I ran into a lot of
problems you know, we got shot at and we had soldiers who had all kinds of problems.
6
�We had soldiers that didn't want to do what you tell them. It was a normal Army everyday life.
But being an old soldier by that time I had been in the Army, had been in army almost 17 years, I
“knew the ropes” in the military, so it wasn't any big deal about it. I had just transitioned from
NCO to warrant officer. I stayed there for a year and then they sent me on orders to go to
Germany for three years.
So instead of going to Germany I extended six months in Vietnam (laughs), and was assigned to
the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bonson in Vietnam. And that's where I run into some more racial
problems down in the lower ranks. Due to the fact that the higher ranking people at that time
they were squared away. We had a good battalion commander, had good XO, and had good
company officers. We had some of those old…a whole lot of NCOs tried to get next to you. But
see. I had been in automotive maintenance my entire time in the military, so there wasn't nothing
you could tell me, I could tell them. So then again there you had to demand respect.
For example, one night I was on duty office and the duty officer…he takes control of the entire
brigade during after duty hours and walks the perimeter and all the people within the different
units report into him about any kind of attack any kind of incidents. Pertaining to what might be
an attack by the VC or Vietcong. I had one unit, I had the mortar platoon and I had got
information that there was metal-to-metal contact on bunker 54 and to my knowledge at that
time. I thought it would be setting up mortars. Because that's how you set up mortars, you got a
metal base and a metal tube.
Anyway, I got the information from the outpost. I called into the mortar platoon and requested
flares over bunker 52 and I didn't get it. Time was passing I went to find out why we weren't
getting fire from the mortar platoon. The mortar platoon told me that the unit they attached to cut
off the power so they didn't have any lights for the plotting board where they could plot the grid
coordinates on the board to fire the mortars so anyway it was what you call a military
intelligence battalion. So I got out of my office and went up to the gate and they wouldn't let me
in because it was top secret.
I told them get the company commander down there and he came down there and I explained to
him they won't turn on the lights and the boys down there don't have no lights and they can't fire
the mortars because they can't see the M10 plotting boards you know and the generators weren’t
working. He had the nerve enough to tell me that the “good ole boys” from Texas and Alabama,
that they were doing this…and I said, “Well, you know what they doing? He said what? You
don't want me to use that word do you?
DM: Go ahead say what you would like.
JM: Well, they were doing these ole boys from Texas and Alabama they were calling the mortar
platoon a bunch of niggers. Now you know that is outlandish in a combat situation. Anyway, I
got that squared away. But in the mean time we were hit several times with 122 rockets by either
the Vietcong or the North Vietnamese soldiers and we had to defend ourselves. Not against a
ground attack but against mortar and rocket attacks that sometimes came at numerous occasions.
I think it happened about three times when I was there.
7
�They had the 122s and the mortar attacks happened about three times the LZ, which is landing
zone north of us. Landing Zone English lost about 75 men in a mortar attack, when they hit us
they didn’t get anybody because everybody was fully alerted. I stayed there six months before I
left there. Except for the lower ranking people, they tried to give me a hard way to go.
Anyway, I came back to the states and my intentions were to go to the operation personnel and
find out why I had to go to Germany after I just got through spending 18 months in Vietnam. I
got in my Class-A uniform and I went up to OPAL (operations personal) and walked in to see
this full bird colonel. I saluted him and said, “Sir why do I have to Germany? He replied that
were having a lot of racial problems in Germany.
And we needed black officers in Germany. He told me that I was an outstanding officer (laughs)
and we need your type in Germany to help quail this racist situation we got going on. Then I
asked him if there was any way I can get off those orders. He told me no, I could not. But I could
go over there and talk to the warrant officer. I said, “Sir the warrant officer works for you, he is
going to do what he is told just like I'm doing what I'm told. He said, “Well, Mr. Mitchell I tell
you what you have a good trip.”
It came to my attention and saluted him did an about face went on back packed my bags and
went to Germany for three years. But man let me tell you, something the type of soldiers in
Germany at that time they were nowhere like the soldiers that come in my time. These gentlemen
reflected society.
Okay, during the Civil Rights era these same individuals came in the military and these boys
didn’t take any crap okay. These guys, if an incident happened to a black soldiers 30 or 40 miles
away before you know it there would be 100 soldiers from another garrison at that garrison to
protest with those soldiers against the incident perpetrated on them by a Caucasian soldier if it
was true. And to give you some specific incidents they had what they call in them days a "dap."
These young gentlemen would get up and do all these kind of hand signs and clap hands and
shake and do all that stuff and they were in a theater one day and they was getting ready for a big
field proper. This one soldier got up, which was unheard of, and said to the battalion commander
"Why do we have to go to the field just cause you said so?!" (laughs). This was in 1970 and man
you could hear a rat pissing on cotton it was so quite you know? And that was so bad but then
they all got up and they went through what we called “power check.” They did all this dapping
and they said, “Power check.” That was something else I'm serious. In the military back in 1973
in Europe it was a hot bed of racism.
Because everybody was getting on it. And the young soldiers in those days is not taking the stuff
that the older soldiers and the before generations were taking. Because you don't call them
“boy,” you promote them when they suppose to be promoted. You don’t put anybody over them
with lesser rank, like they did to me on a couple of occasions. I didn’t take it. In Vietnam they
had a big racial problem. There was a big incident when a general went to Vietnam to assess the
performance of the military. He found out that the troops in the forward units of the field, they
were pretty good but then when you got back to the support units in the rear area there were a lot
of racial problems. Racial problems existed when one guys would sing a country song and the
8
�other guy would sing a hip-hop song or whatever you call it, and the words would go out and
then there would be a fight.
Getting back to Germany, they had several incidents with soldiers rebelled against injustice as
far as the military I won't go into each incident because the military takes care of its own. And I
pulled three years in Germany by that time I had...23 years in the military. Then I returned from
there to Fort Belvoir, Virginia that was a good assignment, it was a happy assignment. The
responsibility wasn't as great as being tied up in a combat infantry unit or a air defense unit in
Germany, but like I said in Germany, it was a hot bed.
Everybody was trained that the Russians were coming across the border, and that's what you
were there for to stop, so they ain't take no mess you had to be ready for 24-hours a day, this was
during the Cold War. My second time in Germany I was assigned to an Air Defense artillery
battalion, which was a missile battalion. A hawk missile battalion, which was designed to shoot
down aircraft. I pulled three good years thereafter no problems and I came back to the states and
I was flown to Ft Belvoir and stayed up there from 1974 to ‘75 and they called me up one day
and wanted to send me to the senior warrant officer's course. I didn't want to go because I was
getting close to my retirement.
I was thinking about getting out, after 25 years but anyway they told me they would send me to
college for two years if I went to the course so I took the course and went down to Alabama and
spent six months down there. I left there after six months and went to Korea and spent a year
there with the 2nd Infantry Division. I was assigned to a supply and transportation battalion. They
had racial problems there but the commander general he nipped it in the bud.
So it wasn't too much going on if it was it was undercover. And I will give you an example like
all the white troops use to hang out at one bar and all the black troops use to hang out at one bar.
They broke that up by doing this what they did was they told each club owner that they had to
play so many country western songs, that they had to play, so many jazz songs they couldn't just
play one brand of music they had to play music for all the troops. Okay, what was the word they
used? It wasn't jazz, not hip hop, it was...
DM: Rap?
JM: No, let's put it like this…they had country western music and they had soul music. You had
to play so much soul music and you had to play so much country music, and there would be no
congregation of no one race at no one bar. Everybody go to the same bar otherwise no one went
to the bar. At one point they even contemplated everybody putting on uniform to go to town and
that broke it up right then, it wasn't no, if there were racial problems it was undercover. Because
it was... and it wasn't no wide spread deal. I stayed there from 1976 to ‘77 and returned to the
states at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I returned in February of 1977 and stayed there in a
maintenance battalion at Fort Bragg until 31 December 1977.
I decided to get out the military at that time due to the fact there was a whole lot of things going
on. There were still racial problems and you could tell that the military was a long way from
being straightened out. To make a long story short, during my time in the military I saw a total
9
�turnover as far as race problems, a turnover in promotions, and I will give you an example. I was
in a unit in Germany as an E-5, a sergeant E-5 for seven years.
I was the first black soldier to get promoted to the grade of E-6 in that battalion in six years. We
all held down command positions. Motor sergeant, chief of the gun, section chiefs in the artillery
batteries which all call for sergeants. Chief of firing battery which call for E-7, chief of the gun,
the gun chiefs all called for E-6. And during that time this particular battalion with the hierarchy
that had in there it wasn't too many black soldiers getting promoted to a grade above E-5.
But then we got a new battalion commander in and he was more along the John F. Kennedy
style. He was for justice for all and that was a big change in the military. This was back in 1962
to ‘63. Then things begin to change and people began to get more of what they deserved instead
of being politicians trying to politicizing their way up the ranks. But anyway I retired after 26
years 10 months and 26 days at Fort Bragg at S0 3rd Maintenance Company.
I got out and to look at my overall military career I say it was a good thing because I had done
things in the military beyond my wildest dreams of a man of my education when I joined the
military. When I joined the military, I was a high school dropout and I went to school in the
military and got a GED, and worked my way from private to chief warrant officer.
To provide you an example, I was an E-5 for seven years before I got promoted to grade E-6, but
after I got promoted to the grade of warrant officer I got promoted from W1 to W3 in less than
five years. I was the top 5%. Telling you that little story will illustrate to you that I was no goof
up, that I knew what I was doing but that's just the way it was.
The military was a grand thing, it always has been and always will be, it has its problems but the
military takes care of its own. And everything gets straightened out. Like I said, to assess the
entire situation I would say that I advise any young man that if want something to do and want a
challenge I advise him to go ahead and joined the military if he got what it takes. And that's
about all I got to say about it. Does that satisfy you?
DM: Yes, that's good. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Any regrets?
JM: The only thing I have is, you see with being a soldier, you see a young soldier is gullible to
a lot of things and there is a couple places around the military installations these people a lot of
them don't have your best interest at heart Because to give you a good example. When I came in
south in 1954, I was a corporal in the 82nd Airborne Division and made 122 dollars a month base
pay, plus 50 dollars a month jump pay that made me 177 dollars.
To get the idea that when you're dealing with the civilian population, if you have this idea that
everybody is on the up and up is not so and I advise any person who ever been in the military,
going in the military, to think about before he commits himself to anyone outside the gate around
any military installation before he does some long hard...research.
Don't take people's word for it because you have people who say one thing and do another. In the
meantime, you have people who would sacrifice their life in Korea. You get tied up with
10
�somebody you don't want to be and its all ties in with being a soldier. I believe now, I got a son
in the military which tells me now, and I been reading what General Petreus said how they
briefed the soldiers on these financial holes and all these scandalous things that happened to a
soldier around these military post, which I think is outstanding. That's about all I have to say
about the military except that I have no regrets and if I had to do it all over again I'd do the same
thing.
I'd like to have a little better education you know, but then I wouldn't of had to go to school in
the military (laughs), but other than that I got a good retirement. I have disability that was on me
when I joined the military. I went in without any defects, but when I came out that's when I
found all these defects. And that all contributed to being a soldier. I didn't ride the sick book. I
went to work every day and only went to sick call whenever I had to. I want to bring this to
attention, while I was in the military and in Vietnam, I earned three Bronze Stars and didn’t get
them for just sitting around. You can do the same thing if you get out there and get with the
program. And that’s it.
DM: Alright, dad appreciate it.
11
�
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.
Mitchell, Joseph E.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Mitchell, David
Interview Date
10/12/11
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
45:01 min
Copyright
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. .
Tag
Army, signal corps, mechanic, NCO, enlisted man, ordinance corps, African American, Fort Jackson, Fort Rucker, Fort Bliss, Korea, Camp Bell Rock, Fort Ord, Army Reserves, 82nd Airborne Division, Germany, Fort Campbell, 101st Airborne Division, Operation Dessert Strike, 322nd Infantry, Vietnam, Special Forces, 325th Airborne Infantry Battalion, Fort Knox, 4th Infantry Division, infantry, Germany, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vietcong, North Vietnamese, NVA, racial tension, racism, Fort Belvoir, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Bragg, 3rd Maintenance Company, Bronze Star
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 Joseph Emerson Mitchell, 16 October 2011
Subject
The topic of the resource
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Korean War, 1950-1953
Mitchell, Joseph Emerson, Sr.
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Joseph Emerson Mitchell, Sr., interviewed by David Mitchell, first enlisted in the United States Army in 1950 at age 17. Mitchell speaks about his experiences serving during both the Korean and Vietnam wars, including stories of the breakdown of segregation and racism in the military.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mitchell, Joseph Emerson
Mitchell, David
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>
Extent
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11 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
airborne training
army
Korean War
military mechanic
pole line construction
race segregation
Vietnam War
Warrant Officer