World War II Memories

Fred Miller of Gruver is pictured above aboard the USS Amethyst during World War II.

by Dorothy Hudson

World War II was the largest and most costly war in terms of life and material that the planet has ever seen. A number of people still living in Hansford County were directly involved in the War as service members or as part of the Home Front. Not enough has been done to capture this history for future generations and have it in a place where it could be accessed by families, teachers, and historians.

KACV-TV of Amarillo has sponsored a program to interview and film as many of the participants as possible by using the high schools in the area. Spearman High School teacher Mollie Holton (Mrs. Steve) and her Junior American History class filmed 14 of these interviews this past school year. With the help of Mandy Derington they are now creating DVDs so that each interviewee can have a DVD of his or her visit before the camera. Mrs. Holton plans to place copies of all the DVDs in the Hansford County Library.

To find out more about the interviews go to www.kacv.org/war and click on "explore stories." Next type in "Spearman." That will produce brief descriptions of the interviews as well as links to several short video clips.

R. L. McClellan, Ralph Blodgett, Rue Sanders, Mary Haun Schumann, James Cunningham, John Trindle, Wilma Clark, Granville Boyd, Alton Ellsworth, Edna Bassell, Billy Miller, Cecil Reynolds, Don Knox, and Irvin Davis are the subjects. Harry Stumpf, interviewed by the Perryton High School, is also in the group from Spearman.

This is a wonderful start at saving our history.

To expand this effort Cathy Smith has offered to print the World War II memories of service members and those on the Home Front in the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman. From these we propose to make scrapbooks and CDs for the Stationmaster Museum in Spearman. 

Let me encourage all who know their stories (personal or family) to take this opportunity to put them down on paper. 

Pictures and information may be taken to the Reporter-Statesman (310 Barkley Street), mailed to WW II Memories, % Reporter-Statesman, 213 Main Street, Spearman TX 79081, email to reporter@spearmanreporter.com, or they may be given to Dorothy Hudson, 733-2562, 806 Cluck Avenue, Gruver TX 79040, or emailed to dhudson862@gruver.net. 

Gene Fletcher

I want to go back to the year 1941. As a sophomore in Gruver High School, I would have my sixteenth birthday. I would say I was a good student, one who sang in a quartet, played in the band, and played football and basketball – just an average sixteen-year-old enjoying life.

One Sunday afternoon, a group of friends and myself had just returned from a movie in Spearman. When we pulled into Gruver later that afternoon, we could tell something had happened. Cars were parked along Main Street. People had gathered in groups and were talking. We began to inquire about the unusual gatherings on Main Street on a Sunday afternoon. The reply was, “We have been attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.”

At that time the Japanese government had two delegates in Washington, DC talking with our State Department. That evening, people gathered around their radios to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt give his address to the nation. Very famous words were spoken on that day, December 7, 1941, telling us that bases on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii had been attacked and bombed. I remember one phrase he said, “This is a day which will live in infamy.” At that time, I really didn’t know what infamy meant. Webster says, “One with evil reputation brought about by something grossly criminal,” and that day, December 7, 1941, was just that! The President said he would ask Congress to declare war on Japan, and they did.

I graduated from Gruver High School in May, 1943. I would be 18 years old on December 12, just the right age for the draft. Very soon after I became 18, I received that famous letter, “You’ve been classified as 1-A. You must report to Lubbock, Texas, for a physical examination.” January, 1944, I reported, had my examination, and was asked if I had a preference regarding the different branches of service – Army, Navy or Marines. I chose the Navy. Very soon after being accepted in the Navy in early February of 1944, I received a letter to report to Lubbock for final instructions, and they would tell me when I would take basic Navy training.

I had a high school sweetheart, Josephine Gross, who I had known all her life. We had been boyfriend and girlfriend, off and on, since the first grade. That February I asked her to marry me, and she said, “Yes.” On February 16, 1944, I married my sweetheart, and we had fifty-eight wonderful years together. The only time we were ever apart was during the two years I spent in the Navy. We have two children, Kathy and David.

I took my basic Navy training at Camp Farragut, in Idaho. I was there for six weeks training. I was then transferred to Treasure Island, San Francisco, California for assignment. I was there for two months. Our destination was the Hawaiian Islands. We landed in Pearl Harbor in June, 1944. We lived in Tent City, which was located at Pearl Harbor. I got my assignment while there to Naval Air Station, Squadron VR12, Honolulu, Hawaii.

I worked as a dispatcher servicing seaplanes, PBMs, PB2Ys, landplanes, R4Ds, R5Ds, R4D-C4ys, R5D-C54s. Our work consisted of fueling, oil and gas, and loading and unloading cargo. I could have liberties (leave) in Honolulu Wakiki Beach.

During the end of my tenure in Hawaii, the R5Ds became plans for transporting the injured from the South Pacific back to the States. They also became passenger planes to transfer military personnel. I served there eighteen months; while there, I got to see many servicemen from home: E.H. Taber, Marvin Shapley, Elmo McClellan, Donald Sayre, Tom Spivey, my cousin Ted Voiles, and my brother-in-law Harold Ormon.

The Hawaiian Islands were known as the crossroads of the Pacific. I came home from there in January, 1945, and was discharged from the Navy with an Honorable Discharge in February, 1946. I’ve lived in Hansford County, Texas, all my life except for the two years I gave to Uncle Sam. I will be 83 years old December 12, 2008.

Four Stavlo Brothers in Service

reprinted from the December 16, 1943 edition of the Spearman Reporter

Four sons of Mrs. Betsy Stavlo, who lives four miles west of Gruver, are in the armed forces. The Stavlo family moved to Hansford County. The father, Ed Stavlo, died in February, 1938 of a heart attack.

Mrs. Stavlo has three [sic] other sons. They are Eddie, who works at the rubber plant in Borger, Oscar, who lives at Texhoma and farms in Hansford County, and Art, who lives at Sunray and also is a Hansford County Farmer, and Elvin, a farmer in Gruver.

Brief sketches of the four boys in service follow:

Pfc. Lloyd Stavlo, a member of the first draft in 1941, is now serving with the 142nd infantry of the 36th division. He was recently reported by the war department as seriously wounded somewhere in the Mediterranean area of battle. He is a graduate of Gruver High School and Clifton Junior College. Pfc. Stavlo was returned to a New York Hospital on December 5th.

Pfc. Gunder (Sam) Stavlo is serving with the 359th infantry of the 90th division somewhere in the Pacific. Also a graduate of Gruver High School and Clifton Junior College, PFC. Stavlo received his training in Abilene.

Ensign Joel Stavlo, who entered the service in April 1942 is now a naval flier with the Atlantic fleet. A graduate of Clifton Junior College and St. Olaf College of Norfield, MN, Ensign Stavlo received his training in Dallas and Corpus Christi.

Aviation student Harold Stavlo entered training in September 1943 and is now training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. He is a graduate of Gruver High School and North Texas State Teachers College in Denton.

J.C. Miller

I was born on the old Miller farm about 7 miles north east of Gruver in 1921. After graduating from Gruver High School in 1940, I worked at the Gruver Roller Bearing Factory for Mr. Gruver until after Pearl Harbor. Later, several of us went to San Francisco and worked in defense for awhile.

I decided that I needed to help fight the War, so I came back home and enlisted in the Army Air Force at Spearman on September 25, 1942. From there I was sent to Borger and then on to Lubbock to begin a day that I’ll never forget. Sent on to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, I got there at 2:00 a.m., started processing and got to bed at 5:00 am. They got me up at 5:25 a.m. I never went to sleep, and took written tests the rest of the day. This was the beginning of my 3 years 3 months of military life.

I was sent to Amarillo Air Base and then to Dalhart Glider Base where I was assigned to a glider as a mechanic. We were required to ride in the glider that we took care of. I guess they didn’t trust our work. When I took one of my rides, the pilot put our glider in a real steep dive. It was RED Lined at 120 miles per hour, and I saw we were at 140. The glider wings were flapping like a bird. I think he was trying to scare me, and he did. The copilot started for the door to jump, and I was doing some serious thinking as to my next move, because I had never made a jump.

Although a lot of the gliders did crash, those that survived were sent to help in the invasion of France and Germany. They were designed to carry troops and material behind the enemy lines.

After a tour as a glider mechanic, I was sent to Garden City, KS Air Base to crew chief BasicTrainer-6s. These were small, single engine planes that were used to train pilots for gunnery combat. After about a year I decided that I would like to be a pilot. I was accepted for cadet training and was sent to Miami Beach, FL, then to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for schooling and some hours of flight training at Coe College. I was in a hospital with a serious ear problem when my squadron was sent to Santa Ana, CA. As soon as I was able and, after a physical at Santa Ana the flight surgeon recommended I be grounded. I couldn’t stand the altitude, so no more flying.

I was sent back to Amarillo Air Base to go to a Gunnery School. The flight surgeon there put a stop to my going to that school. I was sent to Eglin Field in Florida. This was the base where Jimmy Doolittle and crews learned to fly off a runway marked like an aircraft carrier’s flight deck. They were practicing with B-25s that were to be used to make the raid on Tokyo. A lot of the planes didn’t make it into the air and were still at the end of the runway where they had crashed.

After going through two hurricanes at this base, I asked for a transfer and was sent to Hunter Air Base at Montgomery, Alabama to a B-29 Engineer School, I was still there in school when the war ended. I was given a choice of a commission or a discharge. I took the discharge on December 1, 1945 but asked to stay in the Air Force Reserves. This turned out to be my big mistake as within a year or so I was called back into service and was assigned to the 502nd B-29 Bomb Squadron on its way to Saipan. However, my ear problem kept me from having to go. I am convinced now that The Good LORD had other plans for me other than flying an airplane.

After returning home I worked for Don Hudson at his Phillips Service Station. While I still lived in Gruver, I met and married Beth Uptergrove, a Spearman girl. Next I worked for Lee Oil Company in Spearman 10 years and then for Phillips Co. poly plant in Borger 10 years. My last job was with Pantex near Amarillo. I retired after 31 years, 3 months and 3 days.

Beth and I have two sons, Ed and David, who both graduated from Texas Tech University. Ed works for an engineering firm, Pro 2 Serve, based out of Amarillo. He and his wife Joyce have two children D’Aun and E. J. David has a Farmers Insurance Agency in Amarillo. Beth and I still live in Borger and celebrated 62 years of marriage on September 7th, 2008.

Cecil Ralston

Cecil Ralston was born on December 20, 1924, at the Ralston homestead in Gruver, Hansford County, Texas. He was the third son of Robert H. and Lillian Holleman Ralston. Cecil grew up in the Gruver area and attended the Gruver schools. One of his favorite pastimes was to entertain his brothers and sisters by drawing cartoons.

In October of 1943, with his good friend Dayton Barkley, Cecil left school and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He and Dayton were sent to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, for boot camp, before being sent to the Pacific Theatre for the remainder of World War II. While in boot camp, Cecil achieved the designation of Superior Marksman. At the time of his enlistment, Cecil already had two brothers serving in the U.S. Armed Services: Jesse was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Liscombe Bay in the South Pacific; Orie was serving in the Marine Corps, and has been deployed to the Pacific front with the company that would later raise the flag on the island of Iwo Jima.

During World War II, Cecil was stationed in the Pacific Theater, and saw combat on the islands of Okinawa and the Ryukyua Islands. While in Okinawa, Cecil was found and taken to a hospital ship to see his brother, Orie, who had been critically wounded. He was always amazed that his superiors could find him amid all that was taking place on the island, and would transport him to see his brother.

In October of 1945, Cecil was assigned to the occupational forces in mainland China, where he saw many of the hardships confronting the Chinese people. He came to admire and respect many of the values and the knowledge of the Chinese, and had the opportunity to see much of China, including the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City. Many of the opportunities came as a result of his forming strong relationships and friendships with a Chinese doctor and his family. They opened the doors for Cecil to see many things in China that would not have been accessible to the ordinary Westerner. In 1946, Cecil as transported back to the United States aboard the battleship USS Missouri, the same battleship upon which the treaty was signed between the United States and Japan.

Cecil returned to the United States with the intention of re-enlisting in the U.S. Marines. He was, however, persuaded to leave the military and enter into farming and ranching with his father, Henry Ralston, east of Gruver. Until the end of his life, Cecil spoke very little about his combat experiences, though he looked upon his time in China very positively.

In 1946, Cecil met Margaret Reed, daughter of Dennis and Eleanor Reed, of Spearman. They were married on December 4, 1948. They eventually made their home 2 1/2 miles east of Gruver, and three sons were born to Cecil and Margaret: Dan, Alfred and Mike. Cecil was engaged in farming and ranching in the Gruver area until his death on June 29, 2001. He was pre-deceased by his parents, Henry and Lillian Ralston; three brothers, Robert Henry (who died in infancy), Jesse Fred (who was killed in a pre-dawn Japanese torpedo attack upon the USS Liscombe Bay on the Gilbert Islands in November of 1943), and Orie Robert (who died in 1960); and one son, Alfred Dennis (who died on August 4, 1998).

Cecil gained a world-wide reputation for his knowledge of antique automobiles through his hobby and his passion of restoring the very earliest Ford automobiles. He acquired one of the few complete collections of brass Ford automobiles built between 1903 and 1909. He restored all of the automobiles to mint condition, despite finding only rusted parts of many of the cars. He was considered an expert on early Fords and their restoration, and was consulted by other antique automobile enthusiasts in Sweden, the Netherlands, England, Australia, and throughout the United States. His first restoration was a 1915 Ford Model T, which was the first car owned by his father. Cecil was honored posthumously by the Ford Motor Company on the occasion of its 100th year of production, as a person who had made significian contributions to the past and present of Ford Motor Company.

Robert L. Elliott

“I will be so glad,” the young boy said, “when I can be a man: till the soil, harvest the crops, serve my country, do the things my daddy can.”

His father stood by the kitchen window and looked out at his father sitting in the shade: “It sure will be great when I can retire - these old folks, they have it made.”

The old man stood by the garden gate and leaned heavily on his cane as he watched the children run and play, wishing that he could be a boy again.

I grew up on a farm southeast of Wheeler, Texas, during the depression and dust bowl days. My sister, brother and I walked two miles to a country school. (It was not uphill both ways, but it sure seemed like it!) When I turned 17 years old, I dropped out of school and joined the navy. After 10 weeks of boot camp, several weeks at Camp Shumaker, and a week at Bakersfield, it was off to Treasure Island to catch my ship - the U.S.S. Mustin DD 413, lovingly called a tin can. We passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and headed for Pearl Harbor.

We were at Pearl getting ready for the invasion of Japan when World War II ended. After several months at sea, we came back to Pearl to rig our ship for the Bikini Bomb Tests. Every instrument imaginable was installed to record the effects of the nuclear bombs. We sailed to the Marshall Islands and anchored ship. We boarded a transport ship and moved several miles out to sea where we could watch the atom bomb tests. We had to wear special glasses. Our ship was sunk along with many others.

We were shipped to Bremerton, Washington, to put a new destroyer in commission, the U.S.S. Hollister DD 788. After a shake-down cruise in Puget Sound, we were off for what was supposed to be a trip around the world: from Seattle back to Pearl, from Pearl to Midway, Midway to Guam-Siam to Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombs were dropped, then to Korea, waiting for high tide to go up the Yangtze and Whang-poo rivers to Shanghai China.

We spent Christmas day, 1946, and several months in China. There was still fighting, and the nights would light up with artillery fire between different forces. From China, we sailed to Russia, back to Hong Kong and Singapore, then back to Bremerton Naval Station dry dock for repairs and upgrade, and then back to the South Pacific.

I was discharged on my 21st birthday, 1948. I then signed up for the Navy Reserve.

When the Korean conflict started I was called back into service. It was a different ball game this time around. Instead of a destroyer, I was assigned to a special unit to see what we could do with an experimental ship at National City Navy Yard. We took an old LST and converted it into an aviation repair vessel, the U.S.S. Fabius ARVA-5. After stops at Pearl and Midway, we docked at Okinawa for tests. We were caught in a typhoon and were lucky to survive.

From Okinawa we went to Yokosuka, Japan, which was to be our home base. From Japan we went to Korea, where we would run upon the beach and drop our ramp in order to take on airplane parts and repair them. On our way back to Sasebo, Japan, we ran into another typhoon and ice storm. We were stranded in the rocks for several days. Tug boats could not budge us. Finally two destroyers came and towed us to Yokosuka and dry dock. Our experimental ship was dubbed a failure and recommissioned.

There is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t think about my boyhood buddies who gave their lives for our country, I also remember my wife’s brother, Weldon Johnson, who lost his life in the Battle of the Bulge; my brother Perry Elliott, who fought in Vietnam; Leroy Sheets who lost his life in the Bataan Death March; and the brave men and women who sacrificed all. May God bless those who have served this country at home and abroad, and those serving today, and may God bless America.

Robert came home to Wheeler, Texas and went to work for Southwestern Public Service at Pampa. After 18 years of service he went out on his own as an electrical contractor. In 1973 he went to work for Texas New Mexico Power Company in Perryton. In 1976 he was transferred to Spearman as District Manager. He retired in 1990.

In 1953 he married Cleavene Johnson of Briscoe, Texas. They are the parents of one son, Alan Elliott of Amarillo, and four daughters, Elaine Bain Swart of Spearman, Beth Brown of Amarillo, Charlotte Sheets of Spearman, and Cindy Franklin of Stratford. Robert is a past president of The Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce. They have lived at 1104 S. Bernice in Spearman for 32 years.

Roy Lee Uptergrove

Having moved to Hansford County from Oklahoma as a 2-year-old in 1925, all of my schooling was at Spearman. I graduated in 1940 and went on to Aircraft School in Wichita, Kansas and Fort Worth. Then I returned to the farm to help my Dad. While there I built my first house -- on the farm for my parents.

I signed up in the fall of 1943 in Pampa and by doing that, I could pick the branch of service that I wanted in. I did not want the Navy because I could not swim. I did not want the Infantry because I did not like to walk. So I chose the Air Corps {as it was known then} and luckily I got in.\

In March 1944 I left Spearman with two others on a bus going to Fort Sill, Oklahoma Induction Center. I was sent from there to Wichita Falls, Texas for basic training. I wanted to be a pilot, but they had other plans. The war was winding down, and they needed fewer air crewmen. So, I was sent to Chanute Field in Champaign, Illinois to a cryptographer school. We had to have security clearance because the machines were classified as secret. Some were pretty sophisticated and others pretty simple. After learning how to operate these machines that would encode and decode messages, I was ready for overseas service.

I was sent to an overseas processing center at McClellan Field at Sacramento, California. That bothered me because I did not want to go that direction, but most generally one does not have the say. Next came Greensboro, N. C. for about the same kind of processing.

Ready now for overseas, I was sent to Newark, New Jersey for a trip to Europe, by a Liberty ship. We were in a convoy of about 40 ships; the troop ships were in the center with oil tankers around the perimeter. We were about 400 miles from England when our engine quit. It was a little disturbing when the rest of the ships just pulled around and left us out there by ourselves. It was a welcome relief when a British Lancaster bomber came and circled around us until we were up and running. We caught up with the rest by the next morning. There always seems to be someone who would say that we are only two miles from land -- but it is straight down.

I went to a place in England where soldiers were coming in and going home. I was there longer than I was supposed to be because my orders to go to Iceland were rescinded. While there I visited with several crewmembers going home after completing their missions. They all said that I should be glad I did not make it earlier. And after hearing their stories, I was.

After a brief time in Prestwick, Scotland, I was attached to the 8th Air Force at the communication facilities in Gloucester, England. Messages would come in as confidential, secret or top secret. They were handled accordingly as indicated on the message as routine, priority, operational priority, or urgent. This was very interesting, and no one without security clearance could come in the code room. In case we were invaded by the enemy, we had an incendiary bomb to place on the coding machine to melt it down. We were open for business 24 hours a day seven days a week.

We had four crews with about 3 men each for three shifts, so one crew was off on any given day. I was there on V E Day; England was overjoyed, as were the rest of us.

Next I flew from London to Frankfort via Paris. From there I went to Wiesbaden, Germany where I was stationed at the headquarters of the 5th Wing Army Airways Communication System during the fall and winter of 1945.

Finally I got my orders to be discharged and started home. I had another ride on a Victory ship named Wooster Victory from Le Havre, France. The Statue of Liberty surely looked good to me coming home. I received my discharge at San Antonio, Texas, and got home February 6, 1946. secrecy and communication are vital especially in wartime, and I am proud to have had a small part in W W 2.

Editor’s note: Roy came home to Spearman, and after a short stint as a shop foreman in a garage at Sunray, he began his career of building houses. In 1949 he and Betty Parks of Morse married and became the parents of three daughters and one son. On August 1, 2007, they moved to a new house in Aubrey, Texas in the Dallas area to be near their children. Their address is 305 Glenview Drive, Aubrey, TX 76227-6253. Roy’s email address is rlupter@sbcglobal.net

Maurice Fred Miller

After being born and raised in Hansford County, I moved to California when I graduated from Gruver High School in 1938. I was living in San Francisco when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I remember the guard at the magnesium plant where I worked rushing in to tell us about the bombing. He had just heard it on the radio (there was no TV at that time).

A few months later I returned to Gruver to check on my draft status. I found out that I was going to be drafted in about two months. Because I didn’t want to go into the Army, I returned to San Francisco with plans to join the Navy. I joined the Coast Guard instead.

First came boot camp at the Government Island base in Alameda, California. After boot camp I was stationed in San Francisco for a short time and then transferred to the Farallon Islands off the San Francisco Bay. After several months there I was assigned to the USS Sea Wolf, and then to the USS Amethyst.

Our duties were sea rescue, weather reporting, and operation of a Radio Direction Finding station for air traffic between the mainland and Hawaii. There were three stations: 500, 1000, and 1500 miles from San Francisco. Each station was a five-mile square that we had to stay in. We were usually on the 1000-mile station for one month and then we would spend two weeks at Treasure Island, our base in San Francisco Bay. After that we would return for another month.

We took part in the rescue of a B-29 crew who had to ditch because of engine failure.

Homeward bound from Saipan after 10 missions over Japan, the Superfortress Mishap II had two engines fail simultaneously. By the time they could locate the closest station ship, the third motor had also gone. The pilot brought the plane down from 19,000 feet to 2500 and gave the order to bail. The plane exploded as it hit the water, and all would have been killed instantly if they had stayed with the plane.

Fifteen of the twenty airmen who parachuted were saved. A few were in the water 6 hours before we could reach them. Three bodies of the missing five were also rescued.

In January 1946, we returned the Amethyst to its home district in Long Beach, California. On February 14, 1946, after 3 years, 5 months, and 6 days of military service. I was discharged at the Terminal Island Separation Center.

Once my Coast Guard days were over I came back to Gruver. While home, I met and married Henny Wiehink from the Netherlands. We had two children, Gene and Mamie. Gene and his wife, Chris and their two children, Sterling and Dana live in Pensacola, Florida. Mamie lives in Arlington, Virginia.

I received a BS and MS degree from Oklahoma State University, finishing in 1953. After working for Continental Oil Company for 13 years in the geophysical exploration department, I then went to work at Louisiana State University’s Rice Research Station in Crowley, Louisiana. I retired in November 1991 after being a Cajun for 26 years.

We returned to Gruver in November of 1991. Henny died December 17, 1991. I have kept our home in Gruver. Much of my time is spent at my computer and in great trips with my daughter Mamie.

Lee Royce Hudson

Lee Royce Hudson was inducted into the Army on January 8, 1942 At Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was the youngest of Ed and Hattie Hudson's four sons. The Hudson family had moved from Sarcoxie, Missouri to Gruver in 1929 when Ed became townsite manager. Lee graduated from Gruver High School in 1934 but returned to Missouri with his parents and brother Max before the war leaving brothers Turk and Don in Gruver. Turk and Don also served in World War II -- Turk as a belly gunner on a B-24 Liberator in Italy and Don in the Army in Germany -- while oldest brother Max got a deferment to continue with his wheat farm in Texas.

Lee served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater as part of "G" Company of the I28th Infantry, 32nd Division. He had wanted to fly but was made a rifleman in the infantry instead. (His orders for the Air Corps arrived two days after he left for the Pacific.)

After a period of training in Australia, the 128th Infantry was sent to Papua (New Guinea). Lee served in both the Papuan and the New Guinea campaigns which both saw brutal combat with the Japanese. He was hit by flack on October 19, 1942 in the village of Pongani. The incoming flack killed New York Times war correspondent Byron Darnton who had been standing next to Lee. Darnton was the tenth American war correspondent killed in action in the war and may have been the first killed in the Pacific Theater. Lee was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds.

During the years Lee spent in jungle warfare, he suffered from malaria at least three times. Its effects followed him home. Once during a long march he fell and told his men to go on without him. The reply they gave their sergeant was, "no, we'll stop here until we can all go."

Lee rarely spoke of his wartime service but in later years he would tell of some of his experiences and of the conditions he and the other men had endured. One particularly memorable story involved fellow soldiers in his company. They lived in foxholes and had been in close quarter combat with the Japanese. Every man was under intense pressure (and most were sick with tropical diseases). Two soldiers in a foxhole would take turns standing watch, one relieving the other in the wee hours of the night. One soldier had killed his "buddy" by accident on being suddenly awakened. It was Lee's turn the following night to share a foxhole with that tightly wired soldier. To avoid another such mishap, Lee wisely told his buddy to give him his gun before he went to sleep. One can only imagine the strain on these battle weary troops.

Lee's Division -- the 32nd or Red Arrow Division -- saw a total of 654 days of combat (15,696 hours), more than any other U.S. division in the war. It had 41 months overseas and participated in 6 major engagements in 4 campaigns. It was the first division to fight an offensive action against the Japanese in the southwest Pacific. All of the Pacific battles yet to come were able to benefit from the lessons learned by the 32nd in the jungles of New Guinea.

Lee's division had initially received training geared towards defending Australia against a Japanese invasion. The division got very little training in jungle warfare once the decision was made to carry the fight to the Japanese. Weather and disease worked against the men as well. In parts of New Guinea, average annual rainfall was over 300 inches per year. Lee told one of his great nephews that it was possible to fall asleep at night in a dry foxhole only to wake up in the morning with water up to your neck. At least drinking water could be caught in a helmet so you wouldn't go thirsty.

Lee mentioned that mail call was very infrequent but on one occasion when his name was called out from some distance away he knew he would be receiving the sad news that his father had passed away. Indeed, this is what happened.

In the fighting on Luzon, the 32nd Infantry "Red Arrow" Division was a relatively small part of the ground, air and sea force that faced the task of freeing the Philippines; nonetheless, bitter fighting still lay ahead.

The 32nd landed on the Lingayen Gulf beaches at the end of January, 1945 and fought along the Villa Verde Trail. By March they were in some of the most difficult terrain they had faced since the beginning of the war. The Japanese had used the terrain to their advantage by constructing cave positions which had to be reduced one by one. April saw more hard fighting.

Lee's 128th Infantry was down to about 1500 men -- less than half of its authorized strength. But by the end of May the Division had accomplished its mission -- the Villa Verde Trail had been secured thus hastening the completion of the Luzon campaign. Four months of fierce fighting -- including hand-to-hand combat -- were now over.

Lee was awarded four bronze stars for the four Pacific Theater campaigns in which he fought: Papuan, New Guinea, Southern Philippines, and Luzon. He was also entitled to wear the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Campaign ribbon, six overseas bars and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one bronze star.

Lee was honorably discharged on August 15, 1945 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri with the rank of Tech Sgt. He went home to Sarcoxie and resumed his work with Shell Oil Company. He also resumed his courtship of Jimi Pitts and they were married on June 28, 1946. Lee and Jimi had one daughter, Donna Hudson (now Mrs. Norman McGinty). Donna was named for Lee's brother Don. Jimi passed away on January 31, 1960. Lee married Mary Lou Allgood in 1968 and they enjoyed 36 years together until Lee passed away in 2004.

I.T. Spivey

I was born twelve miles west of Gruver in 1921. My parents named me Isaac Terrell Spivey and called me I. T. Later, when I left Hansford County, I was called Terry. My first year of school was at Lakeside in a one-teacher school. Then after a year of school at Texhoma, I attended the Gruver School. After I graduated in 1937, I spent two winter semesters at Draughon’s Business College in Lubbock. Next I attended Panhandle A&M at Goodwell, Oklahoma for one year and Texas Tech in Lubbock for one semester.

In 1943, I joined the Army Air Corps, and spent my first months training on the west coast. After a period spent as an instructor of flight training at a B-24 Bomber school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was sent to the South Pacific in July of 1944. Much of my time was spent in the seat of a B-24 Bomber fondly named the “Red Headed Woman.” I flew 50 missions in 18 months.

Our outfit in the 13th AAF, called the Bomber Barons, made history bombing such targets as Truk, Yap, Woleai, Palau, and others. Of the missions I flew, three stand out above the rest. For example, we were cited for flying a 2500 mile round trip, the longest ever flown by B-24’s, to bomb the Balikepapan oil fields in Borneo.

On another mission we were coming up on a ship we thought was a transport. I saw the ship with smoke coming up from the side and realized that it was a battleship shooting at my plane. A shell burst nearby. A piece of 1/2 inch pipe almost 4 inches long and filled with thermite tore through the plane, hit my leg, and caught my flack suit and the upholstery of the plane on fire. I still have the piece of pipe.

While stationed on a South Pacific island, my crew and I were assigned to fly one of only two B-24s over Saigon to get pictures of the oil refineries nearby. Caught completely by surprise, the Japanese offered almost no resistance, and we were able to return with our valuable photos. But when we got back, the gunner dropped the film. It rolled all the way down the hill and exposed it all. We had to go back the next day and do it all over again.

This time the Japanese were waiting. There were fighter planes everywhere. One of our guys counted 45 fighters. They would pass you and come in from 12 o’clock high so close you could see their eyeballs.

We would not have stood a chance, except that the Japanese were flying old, poorly conditioned planes. They must have been young and inexperienced pilots because of the war’s toll on their airmen. Fighter after fighter dove on us, guns blazing, while our guns were firing back. They didn’t know how to shoot, and my gunners couldn’t shoot any better than they could. The problem was that our gunners were not trained on how far to lead a very fast moving target. We were traveling about 200 mph and the Japanese were approaching straight on at 400 mph, making the rate of closure 600 mph. Consequently, our gunners were invariably shooting behind their target. Several Japanese pilots resorted to diving head-on into our planes out of frustration.

Our plane had a large chunk shot away, but it took us back to base.

Editor’s note: For this mission I. T. was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the highest decorations given to American aviators serving their country.

I had already returned to the States when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war was soon over. I retired as a Major in the Air Force Reserves in 1959.

Jessie Hatch and I were married in August of 1945. We started our married life in Gruver where I was High School Principal and girls’ basketball coach, as well as a classroom teacher and junior high coach. In the summers of 1948 and 1949 I attended New Mexico University. Beginning in 1949 Jessie and I operated Spivey Super Market for 5 years. Then we moved to Green River, Utah before ending up in Farmington, New Mexico where we sold boats and lumber.

We have three daughters and a son. Our first son died as an infant. In August, 2008 we will celebrate 63 years of marriage.

Jewel Ward

Jewel came with his family to a farm in Hansford County when he was 5 months old. He attended school at Spearman first, but when the new brick school was opened in Gruver in 1930, he enrolled there and graduated from high school in 1935. His next goal was to graduate from Texas Tech University and then become a doctor. The Depression and the Dust Bowl meant he would have to earn much of his way. By the time War was declared, he had completed three years at Texas Tech and was working in Amarillo at Walgreen’s to earn money for the next year’s schooling.

On February 10, 1942, Jewel was drafted into military service and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas. Eight days later, he was transferred to Company A, 83rd Infantry at Camp Roberts in California. In March, with very brief training, he was sent to Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii to be in Combat Service. Most of this early time was spent on guard duty on Ewa Beach.

Then there was a blackout of information as to Jewel’s whereabouts. He had been transferred to the Service Company of the 35th Division as a mechanic. Later we found his 35th Division was joined to the 25th Division, which was known as the Tropic Lightning Division. Its patch was in the form of a taro leaf with a jagged stroke of lightning in the middle.

On November 1, 1942, Jewel’s unit was informed that they would be going to the South Pacific. Then they were given less than a month of intensive training in jungle and amphibious operations before they began joining convoys heading for Guadalcanal.

After Pearl Harbor the Japanese had seemingly become invincible as they overtook the land around the Pacific perimeter from Japan south to almost Australia. With their powerful navy and invasion of the Solomon Islands, they were trying to cut the route from California to Australia.

The landing on Guadalcanal beginning December 17, 1942, was the first attempt to reconquer the invaded country. Jewel’s outfit took up the defense of the Henderson Airfield perimeter. In November of 1943 he was able to write about it.

His letter states, “was in combat one month--the longest days I’ve ever known; Old Mother Earth really felt good more than once and we didn’t waste any time digging foxholes to sleep in.”

One of the funny stories Jewel told later was of a soldier at Guadalcanal who was sitting on a barrel saying that he wasn’t afraid and wasn’t going to dig a foxhole. Just then there was a blast that knocked the barrel out from under him. From then on he could dig a foxhole faster than anybody.

After the Guadalcanal campaign was over, Jewel and the 25th Division moved on to what was to become the New Georgia campaign and another bad time in the jungles.

Next came Vella La Vella. This landing wasn’t as bad he wrote, “but a funny feeling to look up and see the dive bombers diving at you. Thank goodness they missed.”

He also added, “The Japs were bombing and strafing us before we landed and then there was no let-up for 3 days and 3 nights. It seems like yesterday, the gun crews were super, and made one appreciate the good things of life.”

After 11 months of terrible jungle warfare, something nice happened. The Division was sent to Auckland in New Zealand for Rest and Relaxation during November and December. Jewel wrote of how wonderful the people were to them. All too soon, it was on to New Caledonia for training in preparation for the liberation of the Philippines.

During this training period Jewel was awarded the Expert Infantry Combat Badge In May of 1944. In August he was promoted to T/4 Technical Sergeant. A bright spot was visiting with Elmer Ayres of Gruver, the only person he knew from home. Elmer was sent home soon after.

On January 11, 1945, the 25th Division came ashore to move to an assembly point on Lingayan Gulf of the Philippines. Then began a period of 165 days of continuous combat with the enemy. Finally, they were relieved and returned to a rest area.

Jewel wrote little of this period. He mentioned a truck driver giving each soldier a fresh egg, which they boiled and ate before bedtime--“best egg they’d had in a year!” A pig was bought from a farmer and then roasted on a piece of pipe. “This was very good eating.” Most of their meals were K-rations.

Jewel left Luzon for home the day before World War II was officially declared over on September 2, 1945. He spent one week on Angel Island before going to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas where he was discharged on September 21, 1945. He hitchhiked home.

Jewel spent 3 Christmases overseas and 3 years and 7 months in the army.

His decorations and citations included the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 3 bronze battle stars, the Philippine Liberation Medal with 1 bronze battle star, and a Good Conduct Medal.

Back home again, Jewel became a partner with his brother Autra Ward in the Ward Supply hardware store and in farming. In 1957 he sold his partnership in the store to Autra and bought the Ward family farm.

Jewel and Betsy Dahl married and raised their family southeast of Gruver. Their son J. W. and his wife Rhonda live in Gruver, and their daughter Ann and her husband Russell McClure live near Amarillo. Their daughter Karen died with leukemia at the age of five.

Jewel died January 5, 2001 after 52 years of marriage. His wife continues to live on the Ward family farm.

(This information comes from the letters that Jewel sent his Mom--42 letters in 1942, 36 in 1943, 40 in 1944, and 19 in 1945. Jewel did not talk about his army experience, except to mention something funny that had happened.)

Jack Hart

reprinted from the Aug. 6. 1995 issue of the Amarillo Globe-News; written by David Browser

Morse native Jack Hart was a 21-year-old P-38 pilot when he was introduced to the atomic age from an altitude of 33,000 feet.

It was only his third mission of the war after joining a photo reconnaissance squadron on Okinawa in August 1945. It wasn’t until his early morning briefing on August 10th that he knew where he was going and what he was to photograph. His destination was Nagasaki, Japan. His assignment was bomb damage assessment photos of the atomic bomb that had been dropped the day before.

Hart was born on his grandfather’s ranch near the community of Morse. He graduated from Gruver High School and headed for Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

By 1943, the army was calling up advanced ROTC cadets and Hart wa sent to California for training. Delays with orders and schedules brought the Iowa cadets back to campus, where Hart asked for a transfer to the Army Air Corps.

He went through preflight and primary training in California then headed for LaJunta, CO, for advanced training in B-25 bombers.

The novice pilots went to Oklahoma City for about two weeks then to Coffeyville, KS, to prepare to go overseas. It was in Coffeyville that he was introduced to the twin-fuselage, twin-engined, single-seat P-38. He was trained as a reconnaissance pilot. Instead of guns, the nose of his fighter held cameras.

The Texas Panhandle native finished first in his class.

“They headed me right on overseas,” he said. “The rest of the class finished up two weeks to a month later. They never did go over, most of them.”

Hart left from San Francisco, few to Hawaii, Wake, the Philippines and joined his new squadron in New Guinea. While at New Guinea, Hart received word that his older brother, a major in the Fifth Calvary, had been killed on Leyte in the Philippines.

About mid-July, Hart arrived on the island where some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific had just taken place.

He flew reconnaissance missions over Tokyo and Yokohama, and then, on August 10th, he was told he was to fly over the site of the second atomic bomb blast.

“The way I remember it, all they told me was ‘You’re going to go up there to Nagasaki, and you’re gong to fly in there at 33,000 feet. You’re going to take pictures, and then you’re going to come back,’” Hart said. “I can remember what an easy flight it was. I didn’t have a bit of trouble. I came right out on those check points there.”

He said he was well trained in the procedures he had to follow.

“You can go back to the training we had there at Coffeyville, KS,” he said. “I took off there on one mission, flew to Canadian (TX) and shot the railroad yards there and flew out to Clovis, NM and shot the airfield out there. Then I flew back over Gruver (where he had graduated from high school only a couple of years before) and buzzed it pretty good, then went on to Coffeyville. If you can fly all that and it’s just a breeze to you, then you’re not gong to have much trouble anywhere.”

But Hart still puzzles over why he was chosen for the flight.

“I’ve never figured out to this day why they picked me to fly up there and photograph that place,” he said. “They had more experienced pilots than me, by a whole lot.”

He flew from Okinawa to Nagasaki under clear skies.

“It was a beautiful day,” he said. “You couldn’t have asked for a prettier day.”

Flying up the Ryukyu Islands that separated the Pacific Ocean from the East China Sea and led to Kyushu, he turned, angling along the bays and islands of southwest Japan to Nagasaki.

The flight was uneventful as he made land fall, spotting the string of islands he used to check points on his way to his target. What Hart wasn’t prepared for was the devastation he saw below him.

“I didn’t have any idea I was going to see anything like the destruction that I saw,” he said. “It was a clear day. You could see down there. You could see all those Japanese down there pawing in that stuff. That’s something I wondered about for some time. They always talked about all that radioactivity and how it killed people, but they were down there digging in it. All over the place.”

Hart had heard about the atomic bomb that had been dropped on Hiroshima only a few days before, and he new another one had been dropped on Nagasaki the day before his flight - the B-29 bomber that had dropped the bomb on Nagasaki returning from its mission - but Hart admitted that he didn’t know what an atomic bomb was until he saw below him the rubble of what had been a major city.

“I knew if it didn’t end and they kept dropping those, there’s no country that could have stood up to that,” Hart said. “I think they were ready to keep on dropping them. It took a lot of guts for (President) Truman to make that decision to drop those bombs.”

His thoughts, as well as those of others in his squadron, were of home. The war was over, and they would be going home. Hart’s reconnaissance squadron had been brought in to photograph the Japanese shoreline and it appeared such sorties would not be needed.

“You can imagine, everybody was sitting there in Okinawa,” Hart said. “Everybody immediately started thinking bout home. The war was going to be over.”

Japan surrendered unconditionally a few days after Nagasaki.

Many of Hart’s squadron went home and resumed their civilian lives.

“All those thoughts of home didn’t exactly materialize for me,” Hart said. “They sent me on up there in the Occupational Army.”

Hart spent another year in Japan. He now lives in Amarillo, though he still farms and ranches.

Editor’s Note: Jack and his wife Bobbie continue to live in Amarillo. Hansford County is still the home of most of his family as both his son and his daughter live here. Jerry and Christi Hart with their family have a country home outside of Morse, and Ginger and Bill Pittman reside in Spearman. Bobbie also has a daughter in Spearman, Kitty and Frank Edwards.

Betsy Dahl, WAC

I was born in the Oslo Community of Hansford County and received my first seven years of schooling there in the one room Oslo school. As there was no local high school at the time, I was sent to the Clifton Junior College Academy for my freshman year. Finally Oslo got a school bus, and I completed my last three years at the Gruver High School, graduating in 1938. Then I attended Amarillo Business College before beginning to work for J.B. Cooke, Sheriff and Tax Collector at the Hansford County Court House.

While I was working there, War was declared. On May 14, 1942 President Roosevelt signed a bill creating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. I had seen Fern Gower , the daughter of Dr. Gower of Spearman, wearing her uniform as a member of the WAVES. This made me want to serve my country, too.

In late summer of 1942, I enrolled at Lubbock, Texas and then reported at Fort Des Moines, Iowa for three months of basic training. Upon completion, I became Private First Class and was assigned as Company Clerk there. I was delighted, as this meant no more mess assignments, such as cleaning the kitchen and mess halls.

Our foot lockers were our big problem. It was to be just so, like a regular male soldier’s. Well, we didn’t wear the same clothes as they did. Where could we put our bras and other personal items? Sometimes inspection was passed but many times not with never an explanation. Quite often it was left in a mess.

Sometimes we would see General George C. Marshall on a visit. He seemed to enjoy watching our parades the most.

In December, 1942, I was transferred to the now defunct Fort Simms in Washington, D.C., where I was a clerk for the Officers’ Payroll (home and overseas). We traveled in a blacked-out train from Des Moines to Washington, D. C.

In March of 1943, I was promoted to Tech 5 grade and became part of the 150th Tech Company of Washington, D. C. In May I was sent back to Fort Des Moines to attend Officers Candidate Course with three other WAACs. After graduating in July, I was commissioned 3rd Officer or 2nd Lieutenant in the WAAC. Next I attended Intermediate Officer School and completed those courses in August. Besides training in leadership, communication, and administration, we also studied hygiene, first aid and marching. We covered so much material that they called us the “90 day wonders”.

Due to the distance from Oslo to Des Moines and gas rationing, none of my family could attend my graduation, but two aunts that I had never met, came the 70-miles from Hampton, Iowa to be with me.

By this time a new bill had been passed that discontinued the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Many conservative army officers, as well as enlisted men, hated the idea of women in the army,

But by this time we had proven we could do our jobs and release the men who had done them to fighting overseas. A new group called the Women’s Army Corps became part of the regular army, and everyone was discharged from the first group. Not all re-enlisted, and I was one of those. While I had been away, my only brother, John Dahl. was sworn in the army, and my father had become ill. I was needed on the farm back in Oslo. An honorable discharge on September 18, 1943 ended my military service, but I have never regretted the year I spent in the WAAC.

Before leaving Fort Des Moines, I was able to go to Hampton to see my mother’s brothers and their wives who had come to see me graduate. I had never had a furlough, so I was eager to get back home after the little side trip.

Upon my return to Hansford County I again worked under J.B Cooke at the Court House in Spearman and then became head of the Gruver City and School Tax Office. Jewel Ward and I married and raised a family on the farm southeast of Gruver where Jewel’ s parents had moved in 1917 when he was 5 months old.

Our son J. W. and his wife Rhonda live in Gruver. Our daughter Karen was the first girl to be born in the Ward family in 40 years. She died at the age of five of leukemia. Our second daughter Ann and her husband Russell McClure live outside Amarillo.

After we had celebrate our Golden Wedding and had two more years, Jewel died January 5, 2001. I still live on the family farm southeast of Gruver. For fun I like to travel, read, and do oil paintings.

William Don Hudson

William Don Hudson, always known as Don, was born in 1914 in Sarcoxie, Missouri. When he was 14 he moved to Gruver, Texas where his father Ed was the townsite manager. Don graduated from Gruver High School in 1932 as class valedictorian and entered the working world during the Depression and the Dust Bowl.

By 1939 when the War had begun in Europe, Don was operating the Phillips 66 service station in Gruver. His parents had moved back to Sarcoxie, but he and his brother Turk liked the Panhandle and stayed.

In October of 1940 a Federal Draft Law was passed that required all the young men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register. A few from Hansford County were called for the one year of mandatory service. On the second registration, July 1, 1941, Don was called for service. He went to Amarillo by bus and then to El Paso by train. There at Fort Bliss he was inducted into the Army on July 12, 1941.

Don was asked what branch of the Army he would prefer. Based on Pete Maupin’s recommendation, he asked for the Signal Corps. The reply was that he was being put in the Infantry. Then he was sent to the new base at Camp Walters near Mineral Wells for his basic training. His next stop was Fort Snelling in Minnesota. While he was training there, the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and the U. S. entered WWII. Drafted men could no longer expect to serve for one year but for the duration.

When his training ended at Fort Snelling, Don was given a chance to choose his next base. As he chose Camp Crowder, near Neosho, Missouri, one of the officers took him aside to tell him that they could get him closer to Texas. Don admitted that his family lived in Sarcoxie, about 40 miles from Camp Crowder, and that is where he was sent.

Don always felt that being sent to the newly opened Camp Crowder was a lucky break. Soon after his arrival the First Sergeant chose him and a few others who knew how he wanted things done to stay and make his life easier. While the other soldiers who trained there were sent on to battles all over the world, Don was nearby when his father died. He was also able to take his mother and two grandmothers out for a drive on occasion. Meanwhile his younger brother Lee was fighting in bitter campaigns in the South Pacific, and his older brother Turk was a belly gunner on a B-26 flying missions in Europe. His oldest brother Max had been called up by the draft board, but he was given a deferment to sell the wheat that he had raised on the farm he rented west of Gruver.

As a member of the Military Police, Don’s duties included escorting prisoners to bases in many parts of the United States. Finally, after 3 years, he was among a group that was transferred out of Camp Crowder. Most of his colleagues joined outfits in Europe and wound up in the Battle of the Bulge. Don was one of the few who were given additional training and then, on April 7, 1945, sent on a 10-day ocean voyage to Scotland. While he was at sea, he learned of President Roosevelt’s death. From Scotland he was sent on to Germany where he joined the 399th Infantry and became a replacement in the famed Hell on Wheels 2nd Armored Division.

The War in Europe was soon over with May 8, 1945 designated as V-E Day. Don then became a part of the German Occupancy. At first the soldiers were forbidden to fraternize with the Germans. By the end of June, however, that rule was discarded as unworkable. As First Sergeant, Don assisted the Company Commander by supervising various tasks and field duties, as well as making out morning reports, sick book, guard rosters, duty rosters and furloughs. His own most memorable furloughs were to Switzerland and the French Riviera.

On January 19, 1946 Don left Europe on another 10-day boat trip and was soon given an honorable discharge at Fort Dix, New Jersey on February 3. He had given 4 years, 6 months and 22 days in the service of his country, but he had always felt fortunate he never fought in a battle.

After returning to Gruver, he resumed his work as operator of the Phillips 66 station and began farming with his brother Turk. Later he became a full time farmer and rancher. He married Dorothy Hart.

In May of 2008 their four daughters and their families honored them with a party for their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

Oliver Wallin

Oliver Wallin, the son of Arthur and Minnie Wallin, was only 18 years old when he enlisted in December of 1943. He left behind his family and childhood chum and sweetheart to train for and take part in the Normandy invasion.

Oliver survived the brutal beach landing on June 8th (two days after D-Day) and got as far as Saint Lo, France, with his battalion. The capture of Saint Lo was imperative if the Allied troops were to break out of Normandy and push on across France to drive the Germans out and liberate this country. Saint Lo was captured on July 18

His battalion went on into the South of France, where Oliver was injured on August 10, 1944 when a hand grenade caught Oliver. He realized immediately that he had lost his leg and sustained multiple injuries, but there were no survivors around him to offer first aid. (It was later learned that he was the sole survivor of his entire battalion at Saint Lo.) He managed to make a tourniquet for his upper leg out of his belt and a second tourniquet for his arm from his handkerchief, and then Oliver crawled one-half mile until he reached the medics behind the front lines.

Months and months followed in the military hospital in Temple, Texas for this 19-year-old Gruver boy.

Opal, who married him soon after his discharge, says, “Oliver always felt fortunate that he came back as whole as he did. He wore a prosthesis the rest of his life, and at times needed crutches, but he told people he wasn’t disabled, only handicapped.”

The Wallins were engaged in farming and reared three children over the following 43 years. Oliver died of cancer in January of 1989.

“He never talked much about the war, “Opal muses today. “He never felt any bitterness in the loss of his leg because he loved his country and believed he had been meant to fight to keep it free.”

History of a Uniform

Don Hudson still has the dress uniform that he wore as World War II ended. We got it out during the July 4th weekend for his grandchildren to see. I was surprised at how much of his military history was evident to anyone trained to read the language of the different emblems.

The short army jacket is the Eisenhower style that was introduced in 1942. The colorful patch at the top of the left sleeve tells us that his outfit was the 2nd Armored Division, and their slogan was “Hell on Wheels.” Below that is a chevron that shows he was a First Sergeant. Farther down and above the cuff are 2 gold cloth bars each of which denote 6 months of overseas service. Below them is a diagonal slash in olive drab bordered with black that tells us he was in service at least three years.

Don's ribbons for service and awards are no longer pinned to his jacket, but it does have an odd squashed diamond insignia above his right breast pocket.

There is a wreath with an eagle in it on the yellowish background. This badge was issued to WWII veterans when they were about to leave the service with an Honorable Discharge. It also allowed them to continue to wear the uniform for up to 30 days after they were discharged, since there was a clothing shortage at that time. The Military Police could see this insignia and know they were in transit and not AWOL.

The soldiers thought the eagle looked more like a duck, and because they were going home, the saying was that they took off like a “ruptured duck.” Thus his emblem gained its nickname.