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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJames T. "Jim" Stuckey, Brazos Valley Heroesone in a series of tributes to menthers of "The Greatest Generation" who served our country during; World war Il James T "Jim' Stuckey had a long and successful career in the construction business, building more than 100 hones in the Pasadena, South Houston, area before refiring to the Keith conmu- nity in Grimes County . But his first venture into the homebuilding business began in Sardinia Italy, during Word War 11. When the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred, Stuckey, a recent graduate of Iola High, was listening to the radio report of the bomb- ing at the home of his girlfriend, later to be his wffe. "1 knew then I would be going to war. I didn't want to be in the infantry, so I volunteered for the Army Air Corps. I stayed home until after Christmas of 1942 and then went on active duty." Stuckey did his basic training in Wichita Falls, Texas, and gun- nery school in Jackson, Mississippi. Before going overseas, he was sent to McDill Feld in Florida. where the crews of the planes were assembled and trained together. "At McDill, we were losing a plane and craw almost every day to training accidents. It seems we were losing planes as fast as we received then. The phrase that was used by everyone was 'One a Day in Tampa Bay.' I and my crew had our training difficulties also because we, too, crashed into Tampa Bay. Fortunately, no one was injured and we all survived to go to North Africa" Stuckey left with 25,000 other sokliers for Norwich, England, on the Queen Mary. The "OM" as she was called, was chased by German submarines on the way over and in the process of avoiding a torpedo, cut one of Its escort ships in half. "When we landed in England, it was getting bombed pretty much on a daily basis. One day I was standing in a street under a bridge watching the bombs being dropped when one landed under the end of the bridge where I was standing. lt didn't go off, thank goodness" Stuckey soon headed fathe invasion of North AMoa, landing at Oran in Algeria on the second day of the invasion. "We walked and rode atrain toTafa i, where we leveled off the desert to make a landing field. It started raining the second day and continued for several days. We want from knee-deep sand to knee- deep mud. When a plane left the steel mats we put down, they would sink to the belt' of the plane. We on out of food because our supply ship had been sunk and we had to borrow food from the British, mostly kidney stew. k smelled and tasted about like you would imagine kidney smelling and tasting. like someone had gone to the bathroom. If you're hungry enough, you can eat anything. "We moved to an old German airreld after we ran the Germans out of Tunisia. When we entered, we found the Germans had left a lot of booby troops for us, remember one Arab boy losing a hand when he tried to take a fountain pen that had been left behind by the Germans." Stuckey and his fellow airmen bombed southern Holy prior to the invasion, then moved to Sardinia to be able to bomb all of Italy. While in Sardinia, Stuckey began his constructor career. "We managed to 'appropriate' some cement to make concrete blocks that we used for the walls. With some corrugated metal we also'appropriated' fathe roof, we built a dam nice house. always wanted to go back and see if it is still standing." Stuckey and his fellow airmen bombed Southern France from the island of Corsica. From Southern France, they bombed the remainder of the European theatre. Stuckey was never injured. His closet call was having some shrapnel glance off his harness gear. When the war ended, Stuckey was sent to help at a German POW camp in Wiesbaden, Germany. "I was bored, so I volunteered to drive a truck back to Paris. While I was gone, my name was called to go home. That was the last time I volunteered to drive a truck or leave for any other reason." Stuckey came home on October 11, 1945, and was discharged on October 18,1945. He had been gone for three years and ten months without ever being allowed leave. He was never able to see or talk to any family or friends until he aoved home in Iola on October 18, 1945. On October 28, 1945, he was marred. He and his bride soon moved to Houston, where he eventually ended up in the construction and insurance business. He now has a cattle operation in the Keith community in Grimes County. "I never could understand anyone being a draft dodger. I always thought If its worth living in, it's worth fighting for." Jim Stuckey's name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Park Memorial. H you would like to make a contribution or know of a World War II veteran whose story should be published, please contact the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial at www.veterans- memorial.om or Bill Youngkin at 260 -7030.