I’d been aware of the possibility of a personal military service
obligation from the time the United States entered World War II in December,
1941. The war effort was at or near its
peak when I first enrolled at Howard Payne in September, 1943, so healthy young
males had impending military service in the back of their minds even if they
were able to spend some time in college first; I was no exception. The reality of our duty became increasingly
obvious as, one by one, classmates left school to answer Uncle Sam’s call. Some, unfortunately, never returned. Foster Holmes, a fine
young Brownwood man who had entered HPC with me, left for the Army toward, or
shortly after, the end of that first year and was killed in action within a
short time.
Foster was
one of relatively few personal acquaintances who died in WW II military
action. I can think of only five more:
·
Bobby Simandl, a
submariner, who had been a year or two ahead of me at La Feria High School.
·
Mr. Philip Murray, my sixth-grade
math teacher and La Feria High School band director, was killed at Normandy.
·
Lucian Goforth, one of
Virgil’s brothers, was killed in the Aleutian Islands (after having trained in
California deserts).
·
Mr. Lester Jameson, a Texas
A & M graduate who taught Vocational Agriculture at Tolar High School in
the years immediately preceding WW II, was commissioned early in the war and
was killed in action soon thereafter.
·
Army Air Force Captain J.W. “Red” Goodwin, nine or
ten years older than I and a first cousin of my dad’s, a center and captain of
prewar University of Texas football teams, was killed April 22, 1944 when his
P-47 Thunderbolt crashed at Hoefen, Germany.
He was buried at Leige, Belgium.
J.W.’s wife (the former Virginia Lynn Martin of Bangs) died of leukemia in January, 1945; they had no children.
Although
J.W. was a cousin, I didn’t really know him, and may never have even seen him,
for his family moved from Granbury (his place of birth) before I was born. I felt as if I had known him, for his older
brother, Leroy, was my dad’s favorite cousin; Leroy visited in our home at
Acton from time to time when I was a kid, but I don’t remember having seen any
of his siblings.
◊◊◊
I tried to volunteer for the Army Air Force during the summer of 1944;
I would like to have learned to fly. I
passed the aptitude examination at Fort Worth’s Meacham Field, then later went
to Dallas and took the physical exam, but wasn’t accepted because my weight
wasn’t adequate for my height. I had
grown to be 5’ 8˝” tall, but only weighed about 115 pounds; I needed to weigh
129 pounds to qualify for pilot training.
The effort
of going to Fort Worth to take the aptitude test wasn’t without reward, for I
received a free airplane ride (in a small monoplane) over North Fort Worth
after taking the exam – only the second time I’d ever flown (Mr. Estes had
taken me for a similar Sunday afternoon plane ride during the summer I worked
for him).
Dr. T.J. Cross, our family physician,
suggested a weight-gaining regimen, but I didn’t reach the requisite 129 pounds
before time to start HPC’s 1944 fall semester, so I re-enrolled (although I was
almost eighteen), hoping to be able to finish enough of the semester (before
being called into military service) to earn credit for the courses I took. I signed up again for Social Science and
English courses under Miss Annie and Miss Haskew, respectively, Accounting
under Mr. Hicks (the Dean of Men), Analytical Geometry under Miss Faye Hogan (later to become Mrs. Johnson), and Chemistry under Mr.
Winebrenner, my physics teacher of the year before.
◊◊◊
I registered with Selective Service on September 27, just a couple of weeks after
the fall term started. Later in the
semester, before receiving an induction call, I took/passed the Eddy Test, an electronics aptitude
examination named for the Captain who headed naval electronics programs, which
(1) enabled me to be routed to the Navy when called up for induction and (2)
entitled me to a Seaman First Class ranking, a shorter time in boot camp, then
a series of schools leading to an electronics technician’s rating.
The
knowledge I had acquired in high school and college physics courses enabled me
to pass the aptitude tests for (1) the Army Air Force and (2) the Navy’s
electronics program; the latter success allowed me some control over the type
of military training I would receive.
Registration for the military
draft and the things it led to (e.g., taking the Eddy test in Fort Worth and a
pre-induction physical exam in Dallas) were distractions from college classwork. I didn’t learn much that fall, but Dean Z.T.
Huff awarded me full credit when I withdrew just before the end of the term,
inasmuch as I had passing grades in all courses; I’m sure the grades were
higher than I deserved.
◊◊◊
My greetings from the President
of the United States, issued from Selective Service offices in Fort Worth, ordered me to report for induction into the
armed services on January 23, 1945. I
left HPC about a week before that date, went home to Fort Worth, transferred my
church membership back to Poly Baptist, and attended a surprise “going away”
party (put on by kids of the church) at Betty Estes’ house. I reported, as ordered, early on the morning
of January 23 at the designated site in downtown Fort Worth, and, along with a
sizable group of Tarrant County inductees, was bused to the Dallas induction
center.