Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMilitary Panel Group 02Moderator - Debbie Jasek (DJ) Transciptionist - Sue Hosea Interviewees - Buck Henderson John Blasienz Bill Henzel Bill Chastain Hazel Chastain Memory Lanes Oral History - Military Buck - My name is Buck Henderson, and I was one of the four people that met a few times and started coming up with ideas for this and developed the questions here. A couple of things about myself I'm Class of `62 at A &M. I retired from the Army in 1984 and came back to the Commandant's Office. I was lucky I got to teach ROTC here from `70 to `74. I'm married to a young lady, some of you might know her parents, Romy and Mary May Sorenson. I married their daughter. DJ - Who? Buck - Sorenson. Romy and Mary May Sorenson. DJ - Sorenson. Buck - Lives on the first block here on Pershing Street. But we came back in `84 and as I say, I've worked for the Commandant's Office and I'll be retiring the in a couple of weeks and starting my third career over at the Association of Former Students. John - My name is John Blasienz. B-1-a-s-i-e-n-z. I was born in Bryan, Brazos County in 1925. I was raised here and graduated from A &M in the class of 1947. Had a little... I meant the Class of 1947. I actually graduated in 1950 due to a little war time experience with the Navy Construction Battalions. I worked for the State of Transportation which used to be the Highway Department, for 37 years and retired in 1987. Henzel - I'm F.W. Henzel, I go by `Bill". I was born and raised here. My Dad was a professor and department head as such... They lived on the campus property, we lived on the campus property. I went to Consolidated School and then when it came time to select a college, there wasn't any doubt in my mind. But I did surprise my parents I guess by going into the dormitory and being in the corp. A &M had quite a bit of hazing going on in that day. So, I had a few misgivings. I spent four years, graduated in `41 with a reserve commission. I didn't have to look for a job since the Army had already sent me a notice and what I thought was going to be one years service turned out to be five. I came back here, joined the A &M staff and worked in various capacities for 36 years and I'm still here thank goodness. Bill - I'm Bill Chastain and I was born in Seminole I.T. (Indians Territory. Laughs) turned out to be Seminole, Oklahoma. So I went to school there until I was 17 years old, and my father went to Arizona, and of course went along with him I graduated from the Tucson University of Arizona. After that why the Depression came along and I joined the Marine Corp. I spent 4 years in the Marines regular service and 4 years in the reserve. After getting out of there, I worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and I worked there for 17 years. I became district manager and then started my own driving school. I had met a young man who had a driving school in California and he wanted me to go work for him I 2 was about ready to get out of Singer anyway. They'd changed their method of operation to the point where I didn't agree with all the things that they were doing. I went to work at this man's driving school, I worked for him a year. And then over in San Pedro, the man that had the school there, developed some kind of dropsy and couldn't work anymore, so I opened a school there. It's still in operation. I sold it about 20 years ago now. It's called Easy Driving, I don't know if you've ever heard of that or not. Hazel - To make a long story short you came to College Station. Bill - Yeah, to make a long story short, I came to College Station to visit my son -in -law, who, Dr. Blines Dowel, he worked at that time in the Physical Education Department. I met Hazel, I went to AARP meeting and she was there. I was single and I forgot to mention her. I met Hazel and I was single and she had just lost her husband a three years previously. And I thought, well that's what I've always heard what good cooks these Texans are. So I got acquainted with her. We became well acquainted enough to decide to do this thing together from here on. And we've been... Hazel - 22 years tomorrow. Bill - That will be 22 years tomorrow. I guess that brings me up to date. Hazel - He just wants to tell you he hadn't been here all this time. DJ - Oh, OK Hazel - He's just been here about 23 years... Bill - I've been here 21, 22 years. 3 Hazel - So he doesn't know much about what we're going to talk about that happened here. Bill - Well I know quite a bit about it. Hazel - Well, I mean what happened here. Bill - I was very interested in the fact that I had 2 grandsons and a granddaughter that were graduating a year or so from A &M. DJ - That happens a lot of times where one starts it and the whole family gets pulled in. Hazel - Anyway, we're an Aggie family from way back. My first husband was in the Class of `23, my son was in the Class of `53, they are both deceased. My son -in -law was in the Class of `46, they had their 50th anniversary last year. I have a great- grandson down here now who is a senior and a grandson who has been out for 20 years. So we're an Aggie family from way back. I came here in 1937 with my first husband who was the Associate Director with the Ag Extension Service for 37 years here. He was associate director when he retired. I signed the petition to get College Station Incorporated, so I've been included in all these things. It'll be 60 years this year, 60 years. I think they signed it in `38. It was `38 when it was signed because we came to the 50th anniversary party in `88. I was bom in Leesville, Louisiana. My first husband was from as far west as you could get almost, Pecos. DJ - What part of Louisiana? Hazel - Leesville. What did she say? Henzel - Where is it located? Where in Louisiana is it? 4 Hazel - Oh, Louisiana. Ft. Polk is located just outside of Leesville and between De Ridder, La. DJ - Leezman. Hazel - Anyway, I said I must like the state of matrimony. I've been in it since I was 18 years old, except for the three years I was a widow. I've been here all these years and loved every bit of it and didn't want to leave at all when he tried to get me to go to Arizona. I said, `no, you stay here ". Anyway, its been a great life here close to the campus. I used to know everybody. DJ - Now its different. Hazel - Now most of my friends have gone by the wayside. DJ - Do any of you have any members of your family that were in the Spanish- American War? (no answer from anyone) Do you remember that? Do you know that maybe your father or whatever? (no answer) What about World War I? Ya'll are kind of gapped. That was kind of the way I was. I had one grandfather that was too young and one that was too old for both the Spanish - American War and actually for World War I. Henzel - My dad was waiting to be called up, since it didn't last that long. DJ - Yeah, it didn't last. Henzel - He never made it. Debbie - OK. Hazel - Well I would say Bill Henzel's father was the head of the department when my son -in -law was in school and he just loved him. He called him "Pop Henzel". 5 And he married my daughter Virginia Pruitt. "Y" was the only place to have a reception unless you went to Maggie Parkers over in town. We had a reception at the "Y" and Mr. Henzel furnished all the plants and everything and decorated the "Y" because he and Chester were very fond of each other. I remember that very well. DJ - Do you remember where you were when Pearl Harbor struck and remember that we were entering W.W.II? Does anybody remember where they were that day? Hazel - I do. John - I suspect a lot of us do. DJ - Yeah, I think everybody does because I've talked to a lot of people about that. My birthday is December 7 so I've become a Pearl Harbor... Buck - But not 1941. DJ - No, not 1941. I've become a historian on December 7 as a result of that. Can you remember? Buck - Well, I was 10 months old. DJ - Well, where were you? Do you remember what your parents...? I'm sure your parents have told stories. Buck - What I remember of course, I lived in little town Jacksborough, what I remember is when the war ended. I can remember the siren going off in Jacksborough and then I can remember my uncle coming home a few months later from W.W.II, but 6 I was just at that age. I do have my stamps though. Even as a baby, my mother had stamps to ration out. John - I was in Milam County near the Clarkson Community, which is a rural community We were visiting my grandmother there. My parents were from Milam County. I remember me and my dad walked outside and he was immediately concerned. I was 16 years old and he said, "if it lasted long enough, you're going to get in it ", which I did. DJ - Mr. Henzel? Henzel - I had been on active duty for 6 months and was in Fort Sill, Oklahoma since I was in the artillery, field artillery. Yes, I remember real well. We didn't know what was going to happen then. DJ - Mr. Chastain? Bill - Yes, is there anything you want to talk about? What? Hazel - Just where were you for Pearl Harbor? Bill - Oh, Pearl Harbor. I was in Hollywood, California for Pearl Harbor. In fact we had a meeting, I worked for an insurance company and I had a bunch of Japanese men on the line. In fact, I think they were practically sold and after Pearl Harbor, there was nobody to sell there because they took them and put them in a concentration camp over around Hulla Bend and Casa Grande over in that area in Arizona. DJ - Mrs. Chastain, do you remember? Hazel - I certainly do. We had just finished lunch I think that Sunday. The children wanted to go see a John Kimbrough movie that played in town at the theater. When we 7 heard the news, we didn't want to leave but they wanted to go see John in this picture. They came on the radio and said, "that wherever you were if you were going to the movie or anything they would announce what was going on and what happened ". So we took off and went downtown to the movie to see John. DJ - So when you had heard that we had entered a war, do you remember any of your male relatives going off to join the service right away or which branch of the service do you remember? Do you remember any of your uncles or anything like that, cousins going off to war? John - No, I don't remember. I know some of my cousins went but at this time I don't remember any specifics. DJ - OK Mr. Henzel? Henzel - I have a half a dozen cousins that ended up by going in. The other one I remember was a pal joined the Air Force but didn't get back but the rest of them did. DJ - Mr. Chastain, do you remember any cousins or brothers? Hazel - Anybody going off to war? Your family going to the service? Bill - Yes, I stayed in lA all during the war. I wanted to go. I went down the morning after Pearl Harbor and tried to enlist. They said, "no, we'll call you when we need you ". I had 2 daughters at that time, and I knew people who had 3 or 4 and went in. They must have looked me over better than I thought, decided to keep me home. So I stayed lA and I got my notice to appear for exam and I was examined. I went home and sold my car, I was all ready to go overseas. Then they changed the age limit again. I was in that group that was one years difference so they put me back in 1A. I stayed there until the end of 8 the war, I didn't get in the scrimmage. But I would have, one of my best friends in Tuscon that was with me on that examination and he was in the Belgium Bulge. He got in prison camp and had beautiful white curly hair when I knew him When he came home, he was just as bald as a cue ball. DJ- Mrs. Chastain? Hazel- I had a bunch of cousins. One of them was in the Navy and stayed on the Battleship Independence and stayed until he retired. My first husband was called up, he had been a Captain of his company here at A &M. They called him up, sent him a note saying they would give him back Captincy and he would be eligible to go. So he was getting ready to go. That wasn't long after we came down here, the next two years. He was thinking about getting ready to go when they wrote him and told him that he was too valuable in the Agricultural Department, so he wouldn't have to go. So that was it. Buck- I might add one thing here. My father -in -law wasn't able to come, he was Class of `35. He worked as you talked about the depression. He worked with the CCC and was in the National Guard. He went with us. This is Romy Sorenson over on 125 Pershing He was with the 36th division. He was a S -3, they went to North Africa and Italy. He was a S -3 at the Rifido River when the 36th had a tremendous loss, but he did come back here in `46 and has been here since. He came back and was with Ag Engineering. DJ- Great, now we want to talk a little bit about what it was like during WWII. Things like, somebody's already mentioned, the ration cards, and also think about what it was like with the newspapers, sending and receiving letters. Maybe some of the censorship that went on when your family got letters from the people that were serving and or the radio 9 programs, talking about the war. Or when you went to the movies, they had the news reels, that type of thing Any kind of memory you've got about what it was like during the time the war was going on. What was different about life during the time that the war was going on? John- Well, for a teenager in high school at the time, interested in athletics in Bryan. My memory was that things went along pretty much, the school had all of their activities. I remember, I guess I remember `cause my annual shows this big picture of scrap metal at Stephen F. Austin, where we collected metal for the war effort. The athletic teams and the football team, particularly in the Fall of 1942, traveled in private automobiles. The school could not afford or could not find the gasoline for their buses. My father was with the Lawrence Grocery Company and they had commercial gasoline tickets and apparently plenty of them, so he could get extra gas and drive his car and some of the other parents drove their cars when we traveled. The district in our high school was divided into two sections, so that we did not play as many games or travel as far as usual. Other than that, as I say, being 16 -17 and interested in athletics, we didn't worry too much about the war. DJ- Mr. Hemel, what do you remember? Bill H.- Well, I practically made a career out of staying in Oklahoma. Whenever gas was available and I had some time, I would come home to College Station. I don't remember a whole lot, other than the gas rationing. I know at one time, because my father was on loan to McCloskey General Hospital at that time in Temple, in a new building or hospital. They had asked him to come over and landscape it. He got gasoline and was able to get a new set of tires. That was quite an accomplishment. I came home one time and when I 10 started back, he had switched those tire to my car, which was quite a sacrifice on his part. It enabled me to make a couple more trips before I had to go overseas. DJ- O.K, Mr. Chastain. Bill C.- I was at lA all the time and I finally got called so I sold my car. I had a new car, just the year before I had bought it new, and I sold it because I thought it would just sit there without gas and without gas, it wasn't worth much, so I sold it. When they changed the rating again and put me back at 1A, I was carless and had a job that demanded a car. So, I went out and bought a piece of junk and that's what I drove for the rest of the war. I remember that they were rationing gas and everything else at that time. I just figured an automobile would be a worthless thing to my wife. She didn't have any gas, so she couldn't drive it. And that's about the extent of my remembrance. Hazel- Well, I can remember the neighbors used to get together and go grocery shopping by carpool. Mrs. Horsley, Mrs. Burns, Mrs. Lindsay, and myself used to make all the grocery stores that had sales where you could use the stamps. Also, I remember, that you couldn't buy hose. I had one pair of black nylon, beautiful hose and I still have them now; with the seam down the back. They said if you kept them in the refrigerator in a jar, they'd last longer, so we always had a place in the refrigerator for my hose. One of them finally got a runner in them, but I still have `em I should have brought them! (all laugh!!) I remember about the gasoline, of course. I had a friend who was ill and she had to have a car, so she was issued special gas of course. She'd come pick us up and take us to town to go to the movies or do something like that. And the shopping, of course, buying shoes and things for the kids wasn't so good, but we got along. Wait a second, I want to tell 11 you about the hose. When I told my husband," those hose are terrible, I'm not gonna wear `em, I'm just going bare - legged!: He said," I don't care if Mrs. Roosavelt goes bare- legged, you're not goin' barelegged!" He was gone a lot because in his job he was traveling. He'd be gone sometimes a week or two at a time, so I'd go bare - legged when he was gone. Then they put out this "leg make -up" and you could make it look like you had on hose. (all laugh!) One day, we had two boys, two veterinary students, who had to move out of the dorm when they had all of those freshman come in. You know, if they went to school they could stay out of the army and they moved out all of these five year vet students, so they were just standing on the steps of everyone's houses up and down Walton drive that had a big house. They thought they might get a room, so anyway, we took in two boys, which incidentally became a lot like our family. And they had this little car and they'd go back and forth to the Veterinary School, and one afternoon I was sitting outside, nobody had air conditioning in those days, doing something in the yard. I think I was peeling peaches or pecans or something, and they stopped the car while I was sitting there just to say "hello" and speak. And one looked down at me, one of these boys, they called me mamma, and said," mamma, have you been wadin' in the mud ?" (all laugh) But that was the end of my leg make -up! Buck H.- I could just ask one question: Of course I told everyone that I was born in '40, but one of the things I remember, my grandmother raised us and my mother died when we were fairly young, but I can remember, chicken feed sacks, is how my Aunt would make clothes for my two sisters. I don't know if that was everywhere, but I just remember that growing up. 12 Hazel- It was everywhere, I think Buck H.- She would go down and pick out some chicken feed sacks at the feed store based on the material. Hazel - There were pretty prints and everything, I remember all that. John - They did that with feed sacks and flour sacks also. A lot of people bought flour in big bags in order to get them. Hazel - They had white ones and colored ones and everything in prints. DJ- The next thing we want to talk about is what it was like around here, in the College: what you remember was going on at the college during WWII, and what went on with the band and the newspapers and the news going out of A &M, the training in the corps and that type of thing if you remember anything about that. John- I came out here in `43 as a "frog." All the freshmen coming in were dormed in Milner Hall, separated by military units. DJ- Milner? John- I believe that Milner is on the map as Reynolds now. DJ- The math department, right? John - Right there by Sbisa was where Milner was. We had three high deck bunks in each room, so three of us had to stay in a room. You had to attend drill one day a week with your unit and you had to try to learn and remember all those names and you didn't' see them but for one day a week. My main concem at that time, I had hoped to join the Navy, so I was trying to get in before I became 18 and not get involved in the draft. I'm afraid that I wasn't a very good student. My father was able to allow me and another friend of 13 mine, to drive to Houston every month and try to get in the Navy during that period of time. That's about all I remember. Later, I know that the junior and senior classes were drafted and it really decimated the corps at that time as the war continued. Buck H.- You know, one of the things I remember from doing a lot of reading. I have a good job now at the corps center, the museum over on campus here. I have lived in the history of WWII here, but I was amazed at everything that was turned over to the Federal Government and all of the troops that were here training here on campus. and this was more really in 1944 -45, then came in signal mechanics and everything else. The school was very small, went to a trimester, but I was just amazed at the number of military troops that were here. I also read that A &M was the first school in WWI to turn the facility over to the Federal Government and they did it again in WWII. There must have been thousands and thousands of GI's undergoing training around here before they shipped off. John- A lot of my high school classmates joined the V12 program and they stayed in college and then got a commission when they got out. I went on and joined, took my draft thing in June. I went to Houston and was inducted in the Navy and then I ended up in the seabees, the naval construction battalion. DJ- Where were you stationed in the Navy, were you stationed towards the end of the war? John- Well, this was in `43. I went down to Camp Perry, Virginia for 12 weeks of training, that base is now a FBI/ Secret Service training center. I couldn't even get in it when I went there to visit. Then they shipped us to California. The same day that McArthur returned, our battalion was landing supplies on Lehte Island, the Philippines. 14 So that was my experience in the Navy, so then I came back and was discharged in February of 1946. DJ- My daddy went in 1944, and he was in the Navy in damage control, so that was the reason I asked you where you were trained. Buck H.- I apologize, I have to go to a meeting, but on the ration statements, one of the things I was interested in was how many items during WWII were rationed. We know tires and sugar. Hazel- Clothing, shoes, sugar, coffee, butter Buck H.- I know gasoline Bill H.- It was possible to get, just not on a regular basis. At least that's what little I remember. John- Well, I remember the wholesale company, my dad taught me about the things that were in short supply. They were delivering groceries to grocery stores all over, particularly in Brazos County. And they kind of had their own rationing system for items that were short and maybe not rationed. And the bureaucracy of the thing was that they tried to use all of their gasoline every period, so that they wouldn't get stuck short of ration tickets for the next period. That's one reason that he and some of the other officers had gasoline for their private vehicles that maybe other people didn't have. Bill C.- I don't think anyone every really got that much out on gas. Of course, a lot a lot of businesses did I'm sure, but I didn't, I seemed to have plenty, not plenty but sufficient. (Buck Henderson leaves, encourages Corps Center visitation) 15 DJ- Mr. Hemel, would you like to tell us about what you remember when you came back and visited, about what the corps was like, or maybe some things that you heard from your friends that were still here. Bill H- Most of my trips home were of rather short duration, since I was gone from 41 to 46. DJ- How hard was it to get leave when you were in the military during that time, was it hard or did you get mainly a three day pass or a weekend pass, is that what you get? Bill H.- It wasn't too hard while I was at Fort Sill and I was at Fort Sill for three years, as an instructor at the field artillery school and stuff like that You had "x" number of days you accumulated , but most of my trips really were on weekends because half of the time you were on alert, meaning don't leave, you may leave anytime. I just wasn't here enough to shed any real light. DJ- What did you instruct at Fort Sill? What pieces of equipment did you work with? BRIM.- Being a field artillery school, we instructed or put on demonstrations for all the hundreds of people that had been drafted or were coming through and had to find out everything they could learn about heavy artillery and so forth. I thought I was going to get stuck there, but finally they decided to send me overseas. I was lucky, I suppose, getting in on more or less the tail end of things Fort Sill was my second home for three years and then the other two were in Europe, so I wasn't in College Station except for very short times. DJ- Where were you when you were in Europe? 16 Bill H.- Well, we landed in Great Britain or Wales. Finally we went across into France and fortunately the fighting had been pushed back to almost Germany and so we didn't have any problems getting across the English Channel or anything like that. But, France and Germany were the main places I was. Hazel- He wasn't here during the war, so he won't know anything about during the war here. You know we had a group of Navy and Army and Marine kids here during the war. 17 -18 year olds here in some sort of training. We had a big house up on the campus, one of those large two -story houses that we called the Rec. Hall They had asked some of the older ladies to chaperone. If their daughters wanted to go up that was fine, the boys would enjoy talking to them, but they came over there every evening. I worked up there about three years, sometimes once or twice a week at night in the early evening before nine, before they had to leave. They just congregated there all the time. They had gamerooms and a coke machine and snacks. We got to know some of those boys real well because they were just seventeen and they felt like we were their mothers. We invited some of them out to the house and the last night they were here, they couldn't leave campus at all, they were "shut in." So the night before that we had several of them over for dinner and my son got a big kick out of it because those Marines would do the Manuel of Arms for him and he was just 8 or 9 years old. My daughter was just 14, but those boys buzzed around her like a bunch of bees around honey. And of course she wasn't old enough to go out with any of them, but we'd have big dances and I'd chaperone for them. That was them main thing I remember, working for the Red Cross. 17 DJ- What do you remember about whether there was local support groups in the churches or maybe some of the organizations around here for the people who lost somebody due to the war. John- No, I don't have any memory. I vaguely feel like I remember hearing my parents talk about it in the church because when someone was killed, everybody was pretty upset about it and everybody had stars to put in their windows to serve as people. Hazel- I know they had a Memorial Service for Paul Haines Jr., who was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. And then the Lipscomb boy whose father owned a drugstore up on Northgate, was killed. I remember going up to some sort of memorial service for them. John- I had a friend that was killed, but I think that was after I went into the service. DJ- What about how it affected local businesses: Did prices go up during the war? If they did, did they arrange credit? This was a time when many women began working outside the home. What did you think about that type of thing John- I believe that there were federal price controls that pretty well maintained all the prices, weren't there? Hazel - They put a ceiling on them so they couldn't go up any higher. Bill C.- I was at singer at that time when Harry Truman was President and they had to price everything, Then we'd get word ten days later that we'd have to go back and change all of the prices of these sewing machines and every piece of equipment that was in the store. It was a mess, really to keep up with the price adjustments. Camcorder - They didn't have price adjustments on rent. Near Leesville they rented chicken coops to soldiers. 18 Hazel- I remember that as my mother had a Florist Shop in Leesville, La and most everyone rented their spare rooms. John - The price of rent went up since then, it's never stopped! DJ- Also some of you may remember the filming of the movie, `We've Never Been Licked ", which was probably something very big here at A &M in 1942. What do you remember about that? John- I was in high school and we would drive out here and stand around and watch them filming some of the scenes. DJ- What was it like having the different actors and actresses here, do you remember anything about that? John- I don't remember much about that, but when I was in Hollywood, we'd go to the Hollywood canteen and we met a lot of well -known actors and actresses there. I don't remember being impressed as a teenager. Bill H.- I missed that. Hazel- Well, I was right in the big middle of that. They asked for people to come to the stadium to be in the crowd. Everybody in the community would go down practically. I remember seeing the main actor, I can't remember his name. He had to borrow boots and everything from somebody, a pair of senior boots. I remember being out here and watching them shoot a few shots. It was real interesting, the community was...I remember seeing so many of the old- timers that were there. DJ- Starting to wind down through the war, what was it like returning as a veteran after having been in and returning to the community and finding housing. I know that was 19 probably and making decisions on whether to continue college or find a job. What do you remember about that after you got out? John- I came back from the Pacific in December of 1945 and they gave me what they call a thirty day leave. I came home, and stayed until January and went back to Dallas to a Naval Station up there and within a few weeks, I was sent to Camp Wallace and discharged. Then I came right back here and the semester had already started. Because we were veterans, they let us register and get started late, so I started back to school quickly. I didn't have a whole lot of reaction, I was single and my parents lived in Bryan so I could live at home and everything was paid for as far as books and tuition and supplies. As veterans we even got a monthly stipend, so that made everything work out well. I had malaria two years in a row as a result of being in the Pacific, I guess. Because there we had aderbrin everyday, which all it did was keep the symptoms from showing up (chuckle, chuckle) Hazel - That was about the time they built all those housing units. Wasn't it for army students? John- Shortly after that, they built the Henzel area. The wooden two -story barracks. I think for married students, those that were married during the war. They had it pretty rough from a financial standpoint, because they didn't get any more money than I did as far as monthly payments. Their wives had to work. Hazel- That's when they built those first project houses. 20 John - Those apartments, I think were old barracks that were moved in to make four apartments out of each one. Because the couples that lived in there said you could hear everything, that went on in there in all four apartments. DJ- Oh yeah, I remember that. When I came up in 1972, I was moving into the first dorm here at Kreuger. Well, the dorm wasn't finished when the fall semester started, so they took the 340 something girls and farmed us out to whoever would take us. I had friends from home who were in the old barracks housing. In the Hensel housing and I stayed there the first two months of college in one of those old barracks. And you could hear everything that was going on in all four apartments because they were paper -thin walls. Bill C.- You couldn't get much work done with that could you? (ha, ha!) DJ- Mr. Henzel, what do you remember about coming home? Bill H.- Well Hazel - Great joy! Bill H.- Having parents here and being single, there was no great difficulty. I do remember having enough money when I was released from Fort Sam in San Antonio. The first thing I had to do was buy several suits and civilian clothes because I just didn't have any. So I lived with my parents for several years until I got married. I had worked as a student in the Fiscal Office here and they were kind enough to offer me a job, which I didn't particularly want, but I took it. DJ- Where were you during VE day? And where were you VJ day the day the war ended completely? 21 John- Well, I was in the Philippines at the time and our battalion was building what we called a tank form. Metal tanks for oil and gasoline. I think at the time they only held 55,000 drums of fuel. They were very large. It was too hot to work on them in the daytime, so we worked night shifts. We were out on the job when VE was announced. Of course we all stopped working and celebrated for the rest of that particular session. The next day we came back and went back to work because the Japanese were still involved. DJ- What can you remember about VJ day? John- I don't remember if I was on work detail or not, although everyone was expecting it after the atomic bomb was dropped and we were all looking toward it. Immediately after the surrender, seabees were offered an opportunity, if they wanted to go to Japan as part of the occupational forces. Some took it, but the rest of us dispersed almost immediately and went to these holding camps and whenever there was a ship available, many of us loaded up and headed back to the US. DJ- Mr. Hensel, what do you remember about VE? Bill H.- Well, I was in Germany in Bavaria near Munich. There were enough rumors going around that they pulled quite a few units "out of the line" so to speak, to save lives. Sure enough three or four days after we got pulled out, it was there. Of course everybody was very happy about it and suddenly we began wondering , "OK, what about Japan ?" So a lot of us sweated that out for 4 or 5 months or whatever it was. Probably we were happier with that, or as happy because many of us probably would have been shipped to Japan instead of back home. 22 DJ- What do you remember, Mr. Chastain? Bill C.- I was just trying to think I can't remember, it's been a long time! DJ- Yes it has. Bill C.- I was very happy when it was over. I was still IA waiting to be called. DJ- What do you remember Hazel? Hazel- Well, I remember the telephone rang at about two o'clock in the morning and do you remember Mr. Byron Winstead? Bill C.- Yes. Hazel- He was the head to the publicity department with the university. My husband was out of town, so the phone rang and I answered it and it was Mr. Winstead. He said, "Get up and turn on your television" no he said, "turn on your radio, the invasion's started!" So I remember staying up all night listening to the radio. DJ- Is there anything else that y'all would like to add that we haven't talked about? Bill 11.- You don't want to get us into war stories now! DJ- Where were you at because I was stationed in Germany and in that area with the air defense artillery. Do you remember any of the towns? Bill H- Well, actually the fighting was, when we got there, late - comers, thank goodness. We were in the Czar Region, the coal mining region We gradually worked our way south. The Germans were defeated even then, but it didn't keep people from getting killed and we lost a few people from mines and artillery fire, but we didn't take the casualties that the infantry did. I remember Augsberg and Munich. Mostly they kept us out since we had rather large artillery pieces that shot a long way. They kept us in the smaller towns and 23 we could shoot a long ways. General Patton was running all over the place and it was kind of hard to keep up. DJ- Do you have anything you'd like to add, Mr. Blasienz? John - When we went to the Philippines, it was somewhat interesting to me because I learned later that as our convoy ships, which were primarily supplies, went into Lehte Gull; there were two enormous Naval battles both North and South of us going on. I learned later in history, that had the Japanese succeeded in either one of those battles, then they would have plowed right into our convoy and really could have messed up that invasion from a military standpoint. Answering some of your earlier questions, I spoke of my mother who used to bake cakes in cans or put cookies in cans and seal them and mail them to us. After 6 weeks, they'd get to us in the Pacific and they'd still be good eating. Those mailed in boxes were all crumbled. I also found when I was in California I made a little record on a plastic disc. You could go into a booth and talk to your parents and have it recorded on that little disc and have it sent home and they could play it on their record player. That was one way of correspondence that I had never seen before, it was the forerunner, I guess, to the tape reorder. Camcorder- Do you still have these records? John- I have it somewhere at home, I'm having trouble finding things Hazel- I saved a lot of things about Earl Rudder because we knew him in Brady. My first husband, James Prewit, hired Earl to measure cotton during the depression for the farmers. That's the first time I ever saw Earl, sitting at James's desk. Knowing him all of these years, Margaret was teaching school over there and of course they got together 24 later. I had all this stuff about him and I asked Margaret this morning if she'd like to have it. She said, "oh yes ", because their house burned. At 87 years old, I'm not going to be here much longer (Ha Ha!) And somebody's going to have to go through that stuff and throw some of it away. Some of it I spent so many bittersweet hours going through, I couldn't stand to throw it away. John - In the paper they had information about rationed items. In other words this says ration calendar: Gasoline books void at midnight on March 31st, 5 lbs Sugar- expires June 2nd, Shoes- good indefinitely, canned goods- dates for different ration tickets. This was in the Houston Press, my mother cut it out. I found this folder that she had labeled. "ration books." My father took a cotton classing course in 1932 and his tuition was $5 and his fees were $20. DJ- Was it down here? John- Yes, at A &M. He was a cotton salesman and factor for years. Hazel- We used to go to Guion Hall. In those days we could mention God on the campus. We had a religious "Emphasis Week" every year. The kids and the professors and everyone in the community went. There would be a visiting minister and the one thing I remember that was so funny, several older ones would sit together when we went up there because it was mostly filled with kids. The minister was telling a story about a preacher who got up and was preaching against whiskey and beer and alcoholic beverages. He said, "we're gonna get together and throw it all in the river. He ended his sermon and said, `Brother John will lead us in a song page 26, "Shall We Gather at the River." (laugh 25 loudly) It was a good thing we had people like Fred Waring and good music, tenors and everyone. It didn't cost very much, it wasn't like OPAS. John- Even in the late 50's and early 60's, Wednesday night was a church night on campus because I belonged to Our Saviour's Lutheran and we always had a thing on Wed. night for students. We were still able to go on campus and talk to those who said they had a Lutheran preference. Our Saviour's was begun in 1938 having services in the YMCA every Sunday morning. Hazel - The "Y" was where they used to have a lot of services, non - denominational or something When my first husband was in school down here, they had to march every Sunday morning to the chapel. Down Military Walk to Guion Hall. I still think that they could have left that beautiful building. They tear down everything. It was the only real pretty building we had down here. They ruined the Main Building by putting the Oceanography building that sticks up way above it. That just makes me sick everytime I look at that. There are no two buildings alike on this campus. Almost every other school in the US that I've visited, the buildings are all in the same style. John- Back in the 30's one of the larger building programs went on: the Petroleum Engineering building, the Chemistry building. A friend of mine, his father was an architect, who designed a bunch of those structures that were built during that period of time. Hazel- That's the reason everything's different because the architects school. I pulled a faux pas one night, we used to have a faculty dance every month. Everyone would dress up and it was right after they'd built A &M Consolidated School. A friend of ours, who 26 was visiting said. "What are they building across the street, it looks like chicken coops!" Well, it sure does, but it was A &M Consolidated. Well, one night I was sitting by this fellow and they were talking about new schools and I said," one of our out of town friends says it looks like chicken coops." Well, I was sitting next to Bob Roulett, the man who designed it, didn't' know it at the time. John- I'll probably do that someday over Bryan City Hall. During the war, before I left here. I was pretty sure I was going to the Pacific because I was in California at the time. My father gave me a map of that part of the world and he numbered all of the island Because our letters were censored, you couldn't write home and tell anyone where you were. So we had a dog in our backyard and there was a lot of trees in Bryan at that time, so our dog would kill a lot of opossums. So I'd write home and say, "Well, I guess old Butch has killed about 12 opossums by now!" Hazel- You had a code! 27 9marks: Copy editing and second audit check b City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Memory Lane: M 'litary Lane Final copies: Typed by Oral History Stage Sheet Bill Hensel Interview No. Name Interview date Interviewer Debbie Jasek Interview length 2 hours Interview Place room 127 at the C deference Center Special sources of information Date tape received in office 2/19/97 # of tapes marked Date Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Recd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on 2 / 1 9/97 Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- if yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Ch el s i Conway Pages 27 Date 3/7/97 (name) First audit check by Samantha Scobie Pages 27 Date 3/14/97 (name) Sent to interviewee on 3/20/97 Received from interviewee on Proofread by: 1) Pages Date Z� Pages Date Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Date: Original photos returned to: Date: Indexed by: Date Sent to bindery by Date Received from bindery Date Deposited in archives by: Date (name) Pages Pages Date` Date emarks: Memory Lane: Military Lane John Balsienz Interview No. Name Interview date 2/19/97 Interviewer Debbie Jasek , Interview length 2 hours Interview Place Special sources of information Date tape received in office 2 / 19 / 9 / # of tapes marked 2 Date 2 /19/97 Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Rec'd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on 2 / 19 / 97 Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions - if yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Ch el s i Conway p ages 2 7 Date 3/7/97 (name) • First audit check by Samantha Scobie (Com Sex . •a �7 Date 3/1 (name) Sent to interviewee on 3/20.97 Received from interviewee on Copy editing and second audit check by Final copies: Typed by City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Oral History Stage Sheet Proofread by: 1) _Z) Pages Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Original photos returned to: Indexed by: Sent to bindery by Received from bindery Deposited in archives by: (nam Pages Pages Pages Date Date: Date: Date Date Date Date Dat ("(/ Date Date narks: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Oral History Stage Sheet Memory Lane: Memory Lane Interview No. Name Hazel Chastain Interview date 2/19/97 Interviewer Debbie Jasek Interview length 2 hours Interview Place room 127 at the C inference Center Special sources of information Date tape received in office 2/19/97 # of tapes marked 2 Date 41 i y i y 1 Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Recd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on 2/19/97 Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions - If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Chel s i Conway Pages 27 Date 3/7/97 (name) Firstauditcheck Samantha Scobie(Com. SErv) page -27 Date 3/14/97 (name) k i Received from interviewee on / Copy editing and second audit check by y e D C (n� Final copies: Typed by Pages Sent to interviewee on 3 /20/97 Proofread by: 1) Zi Pages Date Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Date: Original photos returned to: Indexed by: Sent to bindery by Received from bindery Deposited in archives by: Date: Date Date Date Date Date Pages Date 9marks: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Memory Lane: Military Lane Name Mr. Wm G. Chastain Interviewer Debbie Jasek Interview Place room 127 at the Special sources of information Date tape received in office L / 19/ 91 Original Photographs Yes Describe Photos Oral History Stage Sheet Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee on L / 19 / 97 ReCeived Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: , C.' . L � First typing completed by � --=• to L = �_"" 27 P Y Pages Date 030797 First audit check by Samantha Scob Ser.)Pages 27 Date 03 -14 -97 (name) Sent to interviewee on Received from interviewee on Final copies: Typed by r 4 Proofread by: #of tapes marked 1 Date 2/19/97 No # of photos Date Recd 3/20/97 Copy editing and second audit c heck by indexed by: Sent to bindery by Received from bindery Deposited in archives by: Interview,No. i ` Interview date Interview length Z n rs. Conterence Center 1) Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Original photos returned to: Pages Pages Pages Date: Date: Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date /