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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMilitary Panel Group 03Oral History Project - Military Moderator: Mary Jane Hirsch Camcorder Operator: Carol Zeigler Transcriptionist: Mary Lancaster Interviewees: Charles Baker, James (Jim) Moore, James Mendl Hirsch - ...for the first time James Mendl, Charles Baker, and Jim Moore. This interview is taking place in room 104 of the Conference Center at 1300 George Bush Drive, College Station, Texas. This interview is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Advisory Committee of the City of College Station, Texas. It's part of the Memory Lane Oral History Project. Now at this point, I would like for each of you to introduce yourselves. Tell your name and this is so this recorder can identify your voice with your name You might tell something about yourself, how long you've lived in College Station, and then later we'll get into a list of questions I have for you to think about that deal with the military. So let's start with Mr. Mendl. Mendl - I'm James Mendl. I live in Bryan, Texas. I was bom and reared in this area, close to Allen Academy where I was bom, delivered into this world. Hirsch - How interesting. Mendl - I might add that my parents came over from the old country, from Europe, and they came from Czechoslovakia, and I'm the first generation here, and I also might add that my father was the owner and operator of the Uniform Taylor Shop on Northgate, which made all the Aggie uniforms, and I imagine a lot of the older Aggies here will recall that. Hirsch - Oh, really. That's fascinating. Mr. Baker. 1 Baker - I was born over in East Texas but I grew up in Navarro County, near Corsicana. Hirsch - Just a second. This is Charles Baker. Baker - I grew up in Navarro County and came to A &M first time for the annual 4 -H round -up in 1935. I just fell in love with the place and met many new 4 -H friends. Then, when I graduated from Blooming Grove High School, the Ag teacher encouraged me to come to school down here. I came and after many years, whipping Hitler and having some more career, I ended up here again on the Agricultural Extension Service staff. Hirsch - And lived here ever since? Baker - Yes, off and on. I've had foreign tours, two years in the Dominican Republic, 5 years in Mexico and 2 years in Uruguay. Hirsch - That's interesting. Mr. Moore. Moore - Yeah, my name is Jim Moore, class of `49. Probably the youngest of the three here. I was born in Greenville, Texas out in the start of east Texas. We had a big sign there when I was growing up, "blackest land and the whitest people ". Now they've changed it to, "the blackest land and the friendliest people ". Big cotton farming country out in the black land out there. Then when I was 11 years old, I moved to Dallas. My father got transferred to a job in Dallas and graduated there in `44. Then I went into the military for a couple of years and came to A &M in `47 and I'm the class of `49. I first came on the A &M campus in `42, my brother was class of `43. I ate my first meal on campus at Sbisa dining hall with my brother, and I retired from the military, spent 30 years in military. I took a commission from A &M and retired after 30 years. 2 Hirsch - That's very interesting. I have a list of questions for you to think about to perhaps contribute to the military in this area from 1900 - 1949. That's what we're thinking about. I'd like to go through these questions very quickly so you'll see what they are and you'll be thinking about them. And the first one pertains to the Spanish American War. If anyone in your family had anything to do with that war, if you have letters, photographs, or memorabilia from that war. The second question is the same sort of thing for World War I. And then the third question, where were you when you heard about the United States entering World War II? What did you do next? What was your family doing for a living at that time? Number four, who in your family, yourself, or men, or women, joined immediately? How old were they, and which branch of the service did they join? Where did family members who joined go for training? How long was it? And where did they go after that? During World War II how did you or family members send or receive letters, talks about censorship, telegrams, newspapers, movies, radio, telephone calls, local or overseas, or transportation during World War II? What was it like around A &M College during World War II? Explain about going to Guion Hall on the A &M campus for orientation about World War II. Were there local support groups for families who lost loved ones? What about churches at the time? What do you know about Bryan Air Force Base during World War II, Bryan Coulter Field? What did your family do, factories, shipyards, did they work in a prisoner of war camp? How did World War II affect local businesses? And what was it like on the home front regarding rationing, blackouts, and so on and so on. So let's go back to the Spanish American War, does that 3 apply to anyone here? Did you have family or anybody connected to that one? World War I? Baker - My father entered the service but he never went overseas. The war was over before he was called to go overseas. I believe he trained down in San Antonio. Hirsch - Oh, is that right. At Fort Sam Houston maybe? Or another place. Baker - I really don't know. Hirsch - Was he in the Army? Baker - He was in the Cavalry for a very brief period of time. Hirsch - The cavalry. He rode a horse? Baker - Uh -huh. It might not have been San Antonio, it might have been south of there. Moore - Fort Bliss? Baker - I don't believe it was Fort Bliss either. Might have been down on the border. Hirsch - But it was in Texas probably? Baker - In Texas I believe. But it was a brief period of time. Hirsch - Okay. Can you tell us where you were when you heard about the United States entering World War II? Baker - Oh, I sure can. It was a Sunday afternoon, I'd gone to the movie over at Guion Hall. You know, not too long before they moved the movies to Guion Hall. They had been over in the old assembly hall. In that year they were showing in Guion Hall on Sunday aftemoons. I came out of the movie walking back to Law Hall when all at once, guys were hanging out windows, shouting and going on. So I called to one of them along there in one of the dormitories and asked, `what's going on here ? ". I can't remember 4 which hall it was but it was between Guion and Law Hall. He answered, "Oh, the Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor ". I rushed to my room, turned on my radio and was glued to it for a period of time. There was a lot of excitement around the dorms. Many were shouting and everybody knew they were going to be a part of the war. Everyone on the A &M campus knew that they were going to be early in now that the war was going on. Hirsch - Were you a senior? Baker - I was a senior. Hirsch - You were a senior. So did you go ahead and graduate? Baker - Yes, I graduated. The following class of `43 did not graduate. Is that true or do you remember? Moore - I don't recall. Mendl - No, they graduated my cousin. Baker - They graduated `43? Mend1- They had a speed up program where they went year round after when World War started in `41, and they went 3 or 4 semesters a year. Baker - `42 all graduated. We went immediately to our post of duty where we were assigned. Hirsch - Were you an officer then? After graduation... Baker - Yes. I had received my commission the same day I received my diploma. In A &M, we had the commission ceremonies and final review on the same morning. Hirsch - You went into the Army? 5 Baker - I went in the Army. I went into the Quartermaster Corps. I had been in what we thought was the greatest branch of service in the world, the Cavalry here at A &M. Be sure you call it Cavalry, not Calvary because that's one thing we learned from Sergeant Seager. The number one horsemanship instuctor in the Cavalry was Sergeant Seager. He served in the German Cavalry in World War I. The first time we arrived at the stables for horsemanship training, he lectured us and drove this point home hard. He didn't want to hear anybody call it "calvary". This is not calvary, this is the cavalry. Hirsch - Okay, I didn't know that. Baker - I was in the cavalry regiment at A &M three and a half years. December 7, 1941, the time of Pearl Harbor, the decision was made in the Pentagon that World War II would not be fought with horses, so all cavalry cadets were immediately transferred to other types of training When we arrived on campus after Christmas vacation, we had to make some choices. We could transfer to other training based upon our course of study here at A &M. As an agriculture major, I could not transfer to the engineers because I didn't have the requirements. I only had 2 or 3 choices. One was the infantry and another was the quartermaster. The story told among cadets was that quartermaster might be a good choice because there was only one soldier killed in World War I in the quartermaster. He tripped over a broom and broke his neck. This was a good story on campus. I transferred to the quartermaster for my last semester of work. I then went to my military assignment at Cheyenne, Wyoming Hirsch - My goodness. Baker - Fort Warren. That got me into the Army. 6 Hirsch - Okay, well thank you. That was interesting. Mendl - I have a question, where did you go to summer camp? Baker - I went to El Paso. Mendl - Fort Bliss? Baker - Fort Bliss. That was cavalry between the junior and senior year. And that was a great training experience, a great training experience. Of course, we were joined by cadets from ROTC units around the nation. The A &M cadets stood out, they were superior in all aspects. They assigned us horses and we spent our summer training out in desert camp, very rustic... We spent most of our time riding those horses in the desert and across the Oregon mountains between there and Las Cruces. That was very interesting and good training for horse cavalry. That's also when I decided that I didn't want to be in an armor unit. At Fort Bliss, there were tanks and tank units. To me, they were tin cans and I couldn't picture myself in them. I didn't like to walk enough to be in the infantry, so it was the Quartermasters. Hirsch - So it sounds like the quartermaster was the right choice. Baker - Quartermaster was the right choice. Hirsch - Mr. Mendl, do you have some information about where you were when United States entered World War II? Mendl - Well, yes, I was at home, it was noon as Charlie mentioned, and we were in the dining room of our home and of course it came on that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Hirsch - Excuse me for a minute. Were you a student then? Mendl - Yes, I was class of `42. And by the way I was one of the students that didn't graduate that year, Charlie. Hirsch - So you were just at home just for a visit? Mendl - Yeah, well I, as I said, I was born and raised here and so I was living at home. I only took two years of military so I didn't have a commission like Charlie did. Hirsch - Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. Mendl - And so after we heard that, why I decided to go to downtown where all the boys and kids, you know they always went to the Creamland, you know Creamland was a drugstore hangout, and we discussed all the different things that were happening in the world at that time. And so I decided not to even re -enroll to A &M the second semester in January, because my draft came up and I was drafted into the Army at Fort Sam Houston. And I stayed there about five days and I was transferred into the, into an outfit that Charlie said he didn't want any part of I was part of the 5th Armor division for about nine months. After I had been in the armor for two months, I realized that I also didn't want to be in one of these tank outfits. And so, at that time, there was a drive on to train pilots, they had a pilot training program. And so I made an application to become a cadet, which I didn't succeed in graduating from because I was washed out because I got airsick doing aerobatics. And so the commanding officer, in his statement, made the remark that I should be washed out of all flight training and all flight duties. And so I was assigned to a re- assignment area, where they assigned us to school. I went to a state school in South Dakota and from there I went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was assigned to the second statistical control unit there, which is the forerunner of the computer age. 8 Hirsch - What was in the, were you in the Air Force then? Mendl - I was in the Air Force then. After I was transferred out of the armor division, I went into the Air Force. I ended up in Colorado Springs in the statistical control unit. I stayed there for a number of years, no, a number of months, I guess it was about a year or so. About that time the 21st bomber command , which had 29's, assigned us to the B -29. I ended up on Guam and, uh, stayed there for about a year and they asked us to volunteer to go over seas, so we did, a bunch of us did, part of the 33rd statistical control unit, and, uh, I serviced the 21st Bomber Command until the end of the war. Hirsch - Those were the bombers that went to Japan or I guess all over the South Pacific. Mendl - They were based on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Of course before, some of them, were based in, uh, China, and they, you know, but, uh, most of them at that time of the war, they were on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Of course we, uh, the Marines conquered the, uh, Iwo Jima, and we used that as an emergency landing strip, uh, coming back from Japan because all the bombers were severely hit, you know, and they had to land before they could get to Guam. I spent two weeks on temporary duty on, on, Iwo, but it was months after it was secured of course. Hirsch - That's interesting. Mr. Moore. Moore - Well I was 14 when the war started, (Laughter), I was at home in Dallas and, seems like to me somewhere between 11 and 12 o'clock I was playing out in the front yard, with a friend of mine across the street, another kid came running across and said the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. `Course I ran in and listened to the radio and, but one interesting thing that happened that, I graduated from high school in June of `44 and 9 went right into the service at 17, but while I was , we, sort of lived out in the country and they had a Navy pilot training airfield not too far from our home and, so we were down in a creek playing, bunch of us down in the creek playing and all of a sudden this big B -17 came flying just at ground top level, was on fire, and landed out there, made a forced landing out there in a field just over our, over our heads, but that was sort of exciting, so we all ran out there, and `course, uh, they got fire extinguishers and everything, and got the, got the thing out, but, I, I went in, uh, volunteered to go in the military service in June of `44 and they sent me to the University of Oklahoma for a year to study engineering, and then, when I became 18, they sent me to Camp Fannin Texas, which is where Tyler is, Tyler ,Texas, where the Medical Center is now, Texas Medical School and Hospital, I guess. Hirsch - What year was that? Moore - That was in `45, June of `45, that I went to Camp Fannin, Texas, in Tyler. And then from there I went to El Paso, Texas, caught the train to Tyler and took us, Jimminy Christmas, seemed like, forty hours to ride a train from Tyler, Texas to El Paso. (Laughter) And I went into what they called the Coastal Artillery, out at Fort Bliss and I was assigned to a, uh, Group Headquarters, as company clerk, or some kind of clerk job that I had. And then in `46 I got out and then came to A &M in February of `47. Hirsch - And then you made a career in the military. Baker - What did you end up at, what? Moore - Well, I went back in, uh, artillery when I graduated from A &M, then transferred into Quartermaster Corps, so I spent most of the time in Quartermaster Corps. 10 Hirsch - I'd like to stop now and get on the other side of the fence and say that I was living in College Station, when the war started, I was 11, I think, or so and, uh, my father was in the reserves. He was a reserve officer, so he was called in almost immediately and went to Dallas and the family, we went with him, so, I lived in a different town, well a different school every year during the war, we moved. But interestingly, one of the places we lived was Tyler because my father was, uh, sent to Camp Fannin, he was the P.I.G., Postal Inspector General at Camp Fannin, he was an engineering professor here at A &M so when you said Camp Fannin I went whoa. Moore - What was his name? Hirsch - T.A. Munson was his name, he was a Civil Engineering professor here at A &M and also in 1935, let me just throw this in, he was called into active duty to go to a C.C.C. Camp since this is from , from 1900 to 1949, that might be interesting. And, uh, so we were gone, at that time we were living on the campus in A &M, and, so we were gone that year, uh, 1935, to, and lived in Lufkin where they had this C.C.C. Camp, so that's one thing relative to people, okay....the next thing, uh, uh, who in your family, it says, joined immediately, how old were they, uh, certainly, uh, you, yourselves are the ones that joined. Was there anyone else, anyone in your family from Bryan? Mendl - Well my brother, uh, just a little bit older that I, uh, he was already in the military, and he was in the Air Force, and I think at that time the war broke out, or shortly after that time . In Alaska, he spent, he was there about a year, I think that's all they allowed you to stay in Alaska, and he came back, and but of course I was drafted and, uh, 11 a number of years, no, a number of months later, my oldest brother was drafted. He ended up over in Okinawa. Hirsch - Was he in the fighting there? Mendl- No, he was with the postal unit over there. Baker - I had a foster brother who was about 15 years older than I, and he had done twenty years in the Navy before World War II. He retired and came to Corsicana where he opened a little radio shop. When World War II broke out he went back to the Navy and he did ten more years. My biological brother, oldest one, went to the Navy and spent the war on the West Coast, never at sea. My middle brother was at Hillsboro Junior College when he decided to go to the Air Force for pilot training He went all the way through pilot training before he washed out and then retrained as a navigator. He went to Europe and was shot down over Germany. He and fifteen others that got out of planes safely, were picked up by civilians, and taken to the little town jail. Most of them were wounded, and were asking for medical attention. The civilians took them out of jail to take `em to a doctor, supposedly, but as they were walking them down the street, somebody began to open fire killing all of them except one, who escaped. The German Army picked him up, and after the War he wrote letters to families of all he knew of the fifteen. He gave the story of my brother's last flight. Hirsch - So otherwise you might not know what had happened. Baker - We, wouldn't have known the details. The remains were transferred from Germany to Holland after the war and the decision was made to leave them there. I entered into that decision. I encouraged that they be left over there because I didn't want 12 the trauma opened up over here, and I knew that he was a gung ho type person, and would want to stay with his buddies. That's the reason that I encouraged my mother not to ask for his body to be brought back. They would've returned the body. Hirsch - This is something I didn't realize people had the face Baker - Yes, in her case, anyway, she had the option of bringing him home or leaving his body there. Those were the only one's, of my immediate relatives that I know who served in the military in WWII. I continued in the Army Reserve until 1969 and went from the Quartermaster, to the General Staff Corps. Hirsch - Any body else? Moore- Well I had a brother that was going to A &M when the war started and, uh, he was the class of `43, they had a, they went to a speed up program, so they actually graduated a semester early, but because they didn't go to summer camp they were brought in to the military service as corporals and, uh, were sent to OCS. Hirsch - So they didn't get a commission? Moore - They did not get a commission because of the fact that they had not gone to summer camp, and he went, he started a Fort Walters Texas out at Mineral Wells, Texas and then went to, they sent him to, infantry OCS at Fort Benning, and then they transferred him to Jacksonville, FL, where they had another training center, what they called the Infantry Training Center, and he, the second Liutenant stayed there for six of seven months and then they, he went up into Kentucky, I've forgotten what fort he went to a fort there and then he went as a replacement training center person, he went to 13 Europe, he went into the 75th Infantry position, and he was in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium there and he was wounded on December 24, 1944. Hirsch - Oh my, Christmas Eve. Moore - And Christmas Eve, and he had gotten five machine gun bullets and they transferred him back to Temple, Texas, where they had at the time, I've forgotten that hospital, big, and it's still, it's down and it's a VA hospital, but it was a military hospital in 1940, and he stayed there for two or three years actually. Hirsch - Oh in the hospital. Moore - Yeah, and then he came back on, retired, or got out of the service, then he got offered a regular army commission so he went back in. He'd been out two or three months so he was offered a regular army commission so he came back, so he retired from the, from the military. Hirsch - Do you know what sort of training they had at A &M during the War? Did they have military people here? Baker - Yes ... Moore - Well when you say training, you mean they had tack officers and things like that but ... Hirsch - Well no, I meant the had people who weren't necessarily students, or did they? Mendl - Yes they did, but I can't give you any details. Moore - Seems like they even had some Navy training there too. Mendl - Yes, they had, they had Naval training there. Hirsch - I thought they did. 14 Moore - Well they did because see I went to University of Oklahoma, and they had Army and Navy up there and A &M also. I was hoping to g to Texas A &M, so they had some students, they did send some students to A &M. I always wanted to go to A &M ever since I was knee high ... I remember when, in 19 -, what was it, `40 when we lost to University of Texas, lost, and I was about 13, and I cried on the radio when we lost six to nothing I think, but cried. Baker - Yeah "bookie" Pugh couldn't play that day, and our offense wasn't in sync. The offense couldn't get it done that day. Moore - But they did have Army and Navy people at A &M. Baker - Marion Pugh's name was Dookie. Moore - Is that right? He had a knee injury I think, didn't he? Baker - I think so, he couldn't play, that was definite. Moore - Yeah. Hirsch - I see Ellen from time to time. Baker - It was right up until almost game time before they knew they couldn't use him. I think Marlon Jefferiees was probably quarterback for the game. Mendl - Was that in `42? Moore - `40 Baker - Team of `40. Moore - Well, it was in `40, but it was, there have been ... And then we went to the, what was it? The Cotton Bowl in `40. That was played in January of `41 that we played the Cotton Bowl. 15 Hirsch - What letters during World War II? Was there any receiving -letter censorship? Did any of you experience that? Anything you want to contribute? ? - Tell then, you know, this movie, we've never been licked, I can identify some of that. Hirsch - you know, that's mentioned in these questions, tell us about that. ? - I can identify - Hirsch - We don't have to stick to these questions, anything you have to contribute. Moore - My brother was in that movie. Hirsch - Really? Moore - One of the guys, the wildcat, running down the halls and it was like... ? - Well there is a lot of is a lot of realism in there, they, there's a lot true to life in there, and the romantic part of it hit me a little bit. Hirsch - Oh yeah? ? - You probably, you... Hirsch - Yes. ? - Okay, she was my girlfriend but unfortunately I wasn't number one. Hirsch - Oh, okay, all right. (The tape is uncomprehensive here) Hirsch - . this area, and before World War II, during World War II, after World War II. Baker - I was telling Mary Lancaster... Hirsch - Are we ready? Okay. Baker - The Aggies reached our peak enrollment about my time, we had about seven thousand students. 16 Hirsch - This was when? Baker - My class was the class of 1942. Hirsch - What was before that? Baker - For 1938 through 1942, we really were expanding and reached our peak about 1942, before World War H. After World War II we had the boys coming back from the service and we went on up to 9,000 or more. In those years there were all these boys here and no girls. The girls in Bryan were referred to as the Bryan 400. That included anybody over 13 years of age. Hirsch - Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. Baker - Beverly Sparks was the most popular girl, at that point in time. I don't know if she lived in Bryan or College Station. Hirsch - I believe Bryan. Baker - Beverly Sparks married Bill Braley. Hirsch - Yeah. Baker - She was the most popular one by far, and the youngest one that went to the Aggie dances. She must have started when she was 12 (laugh) cause she was awful young when she started going to the Aggie dances. The Aggies were at a great disadvantage. My first two years down here I was a country kid, I mean I was, green, green, green as grass from the country. My dad pulled up in front of the project house number eight, which was Navarro County House. He helped me get my little tin foot locker out of the trunk, turned around, shook hands with me and said, "son, I'll see ya' at Thanksgiving ". He got in the car and left! I was standing there in the street and didn't know what to do. Here 17 cam this little banty- legged sophomore who turned out to be from the project house. He said, "Who are you ?" I said, "I'm Charles Baker." He said, `You are Fish Baker! And don't you forget, Fish Baker." "Who are you ?" and I said "I'm ", and I caught myself I said, "Fish Baker," (laugh....) Okay back to the girls. Right across the street from the project houses were tennis courts. One day we were on the front house there, and , uh, there were two girls out there, playing tennis And one of `em was a little Mexican girl and, the sophomores made a few remarks about needing her telephone number. One said, "Fish Baker, go get her telephone number." I was a bashful young kid at that point, but I knew I'd better do it, because these guys were pretty hard. So I went out there and introduced myself; and her name was Peggy Medina, I remember. Her father worked in Sbisa. I got her telephone number but before I went back, I made another copy for myself (laugh)....I took it back to the sophomore and gave it to him I never did make contact with Peggy, but at least I was smart enough to make a copy of the number. The dating situation was pretty rough. The Freshmen and Sophomores didn't have much of a chance with the Bryan 400, and the very few that there were in College Station. There weren't very many professor's daughters here. I sat in class in the science building, A &M high school in the middle of the campus, across the street from the science building during recess period, the girls would come out and sit on the grass or stand around and talk in groups. I was sittin' there in my class with the windows open, big windows with no air conditioner or anything, and I didn't get anything out of the class. Never. It was always recess when I was in that class and it was a hard class for me to get through. Hirsch - (Laughing hysterically) 18 Baker - I was really fascinated with Elizabeth McNew. I spotted her, but I didn't meet her for about two more years. At that point in time, I became sort of obsessed with her. Later on I met "Lib ", and we dated some. She married Don Little, a band member, after our graduation. She, she went to college at TSCW after high school. Another girlfriend was Mary Beth Winkler I never dated "Itch ", but we spent many hours on the phone together. We liked to talk, we spent a lot of the time on the phone. Those were my romantic experiences. Hirsch - Very interesting, very interesting. Baker - The other Aggies were having the same difficulties. Hirsch - Not enough girls... Baker - One of my roommates my sophomore year was from West Texas. His name was George Mallard Mallard Insurance. Hirsch - Uh -hum Baker - He had a cousin down here by the name of Lucille Yeager, in Bryan. George Adams, and George Mallard teamed up double dating. Mallard would date George's sister, "Sissy" Adams and George dated Lucille. (Tape incomprehensive) Hirsch - What about after the War, coming back here? James, did you ... What was it like, coming back out of the Army? Mendl - Well, as I said, I didn't get to finish A &M, I only had one more semester to graduate. So I came back and enrolled in A &M and graduated in the first class back from the War. 19 Hirsch - Is that right? So you were able to continue your education. Did you use your G.I. Bill? Mendl - No, I didn't. I don't believe the G.I. Bill was in effect then. Hirsch - No, it wasn't. That was way before - Mendl - It was after World War II. It was several years, maybe a couple years after that before they put it into effect. Baker - When did you come back to A &M? Mendl - Pardon? Baker - When did you come back to A &M? Mendl - I came back in `46, the war was over in December of, I mean August of `45. I got home 4 months later in December. So I enrolled in January I guess it was, in `46 and finished up, I guess it was May. Hirsch - So were there freshmen in the Corps? As well as ... Mendl - Well at that time there was, I don't think there was much of a corps because everybody had plenty of ... military, and I think that we had a pretty small Corps here in `47 up in Bryan Air Field. But there weren't very many that were over in there. I don't recall - Baker - Seems like today we have 2 or 3 thousand in the Corps. Hirsch - Did any of the veterans go into the Corps? Moore - Well the way they had it, if you, you didn't have to go into the Corps, and then if you wanted to, if you're a veteran, they had veteran units, where they, the hazing and everything was not as prominent as if you were just came in as a fish or a frog. What I 20 elected to do is that I wanted just to come in and be in the Corps, I didn't want to go through all the hazing involvement, so I went in, when I came here, they sent me out to Bryan Air Field in February `47, and I went in as a frog. Hirsch - Oh yeah, middle of the year. Moore - Well I had had some, no if you had some prior college, you came in as a frog. Hirsch - You were a Sooner, weren't you? Moore - Yeah I had gone to University of Oklahoma for a year, so, now I came in on the G.I. Bill. In fact, my whole A &M education was paid by the G.I. Bill. Which was a really good deal for me. It paid for books, tuition, and they gave you $75 a month to live off. Hirsch - That bill is one of the most significant bits of legislation this country has ever accomplished. (Tape is incomprehensive) ? - The story is that we'd got up on the side of Mt. Fugi to get, what happened is, that, the 34th regiment of the 24th entry collision got annihilated in Korea. And the only thing they had left of that regiment was colors, so they brought it back to Japan and they formed the 34th regimental combat team out of that. And I was put into their artillery, the 69th field artillery supporting one of the battalions. And we went to Mt. Fugi on maneuvers, for preparation to go to Korea, so at that particular time, I was up there on April the 21st, I think it was 1951, they had a big Aggie Muster. Hirsch - Oh, yeah. ? - In Tokyo, so in my outfit was about, I don't know, four or five west pointers, and we became real good friends and everything. So I said, `Shoot, why don't you guys come 21 and go to the Aggie Muster with me ?" And they said, `Well, you go ask the old man if he'll let us go, and we'll run, and we'll go catch the train, " you know in Japan trains run all over the place , and you can catch' em , and they're on time, and right when they leave at a certain time, they're gonna leave, they leave at that particular time. So anyway, the, our commanding officer said, `Yeah, okay you guys be back ", cause we were getting ready to go to Korea, and uh so we went to the Aggie Muster to Tokyo Officer's Club, Tokyo, Japan's Officer's Club, and I had four or five west pointers with me. And so we always called Westpointer's Ringknockers. Hirsch - Ringknockers? ? - Yeah, cause they had, you know they had `Big 'ol" ring like A &M did and they stuck together like the Aggies did. So after we got out of the Aggie Muster, this guy told me, he says, `You callin' us ringknockers, then how `bout you guys ?" (laugh) They were really impressed with it was about three, three to four hundred Aggies at that Muster. And then shortly thereafter we shipped out to Korea. Hirsch - And that was in `51? ? - Uh -hum Hirsch - And that actually ended in what? ? - 55, I think it did. Hirsch - Oh, okay, all right. ? - Somewhere in there. `53? Hirsch - `53. Well we have just five minutes. Carol needs to leave at a quarter to 12. So is there anything else anyone would like to add? I just love to hear these stories (laugh...) 22 I think it's wonderful. Uh, my list of suggested topics includes: Explain what it's like as a returning Veteran particularly to our area: Housing, job, cost of living, medical facilities, marriage, having children, and so on. It also says "did you encounter any famous generals ?" So anything anyone would like to - ? - Well in Vietnam I got to meet General Abrahams. In fact, he was a, remember, he was at, Thompsons Airport Base in the headquarters out there at ... headquarters. Hirsch - And he was what? ? - He was the commanding General of the whole Vietnam area. And he was pretty interesting. He used to play volleyball everyday. Hirsch - Oh, he did? (chuckle) ? - And smoke cigars. I was in charge of making sure he had all of his cigars, he had to send off special to get, he had big 'ol long cigars, about that long, and everyday he played volleyball as part of his exercise and he eventually died ()flung cancer. I guess it's probably from smoking those big `ol cigars. But, that caused that. Baker - One little thing on activities here on the A &M campus, before World War II was the hazing that took place. I was happy to go through it, although during those first six weeks, I was scared to death, absolutely scared to death. After that I decided I'm gonna get that paddle everyday so let's earn it! So I spent the rest of the year doing things to sophomores that would earn the paddling. I always obeyed whatever I was told to do, with one exception. That was one when the sophomores came to me and told me they wanted me to go down to Ed's, and, get some beer. Hirsch - Is that Ed's ... ? 23 Baker - I wouldn't do it. They beat me and beat me but I never did go, I didn't go. You remember the song, "I'd rather be an Aggie than be a mean old so and so "? "Let's go down to Ed's and drink our cares away ". A big thing back in those days was Ed's. I never went to Ed's under any conditions. Hirsch - And that was out at Wellborn Rd, toward Wellborn? Baker - Yeah, not very far, just a very short distance. I had one classmate who was very tenacious, if that's the right word, when he had a few drinks. He would go there nearly every weekend and pick on one of our football players. He'd get the good beaten out of him. He'd wear his bruises and black eyes all week long and on the next weekend, he'd be ready to go again. Hirsch - You mean fighting? Baker - Fighting! Hirsch - With a football player. Baker - He'd fight a football player. (laugh) Moore - When I was in Japan when McArthur was relieved, oh, and sent him out to the airport, they had all the military forces that were, from his headquarters down in Tokyo out to the airbase, they had it lined with military people, and I was on of those standing out in line at- and then later on what was ironical about it, this was like in `50, and in `71 his aid worked for me. Hirsch - Is that right? Moore - Yeah, and, war officer had been his aid for 20, like 25 years. And he was, we were in Portleaf, VA, and he was sent there specifically because they put McArthur's 24 Museum and Memorial up in Narcoal, VA. So in his order, he had to be stationed within a hundred miles of that museum and every birthday, General McArthur's birthday, he met his wife at the museum. Hirsch - Mrs. McArthur? Moore - Yeah, Mrs. McArthur at that museum, and he really had some fascinating stories to tell about General McArthur. Hirsch - I bet he did! Moore - And, uh, but he started working for McArthur as a cook, as a corporal, and then he worked up his way as a W -r Warrant Officer I said, `well how did you get promoted ?" Oh, he says, "After every so often ", he says, the general would say , "well, it's time for you to get promoted ". And he would write a little letter and say, "I want to promote this, this guy ". And he went all the way from corporal to W -4 Warrant Officer, working for McArthur and then when McArthur retired, you know a five -star general doesn't retire. If you're a 5 -star general, when you got out of the military service, you stayed in as a five - star general and got paid and was authorized free aides. And he was one of the aides that was with `em stayed in New York city up at Waldorf Hotel, you know McArthur had a suite up at Waldorf Hotel. And, he used to go get his laundry, and take dry cleaning and stuff like that, so when he died, they sent him to Fort Lee, Virginia. Hirsch - Anything else? We have about a minute. Baker - The first name on this list here is C.J. Allen. I used to swing the paddle on him when I was a senior. Moore - That's the guy that's a Cadillac dealer, isn't it? 25 Baker- Yeah. He was my orderly, he made my room every day, and kept my room clean and my beds made and all that. I swung the paddle on him, when he needed it (laughter). Moore - You were getting ready to be a general, I guess. Mendl- To show how old we're getting my wife taught his wife. Baker- Is that right? He married a local girl? Mendl - Yeah, Charlie was saying that we didn't make much headway with the girls in this area when the Bryan boys and the College Station boys had a really difficult time cause all the Aggies dated the Bryan girls and boys and the first Bryan girl I dated, I married her. (laughter) Hirsch - Wonderful! Wonderful! Baker - Didn't want to take a chance of her getting away? Hirsch- I know, that has to be hard, really. Do you have anything else about this area, James? Mendl - I'll probably think of it after we leave. Baker - He has two boys that have made a name for themselves. Mendl - I'd like to say, Charlie, you were talking about not saying "calvery", you have to say "cavalry", well, I have a grandson that's a senior here at A &M, he's in the Air Corps but he's also in the Cavalry. And he rides in on the first horse that's at all the football games, and that's his name, Jonathan Mendl, and so that's kind of interesting. Hirsch - That's great! Baker - One of his sons is an expert in the Czech languages and has written books. Mendl - And teaches Russian in Pflugerville. 26 Baker -Yeah, and another son is the all time Defensive Back from Abilene Christian University. He played football and was a little squirt. You can't imagine him ever being a defensive back, but he was. He was the all-time defensive back with Abilene Christian. Mends - They were playing in the Southland Conference back in 1969. Baker - You have a nephew, was it? He was an all - -time Bryan great football player, wasn't he? Johnny Mendl? Mendl - Yeah. Baker - He a nephew, or what? Mendl - No. That was my brother. Baker - That's your brother? Mendl - Yeah, Johnny Mendl. He was the first one, the first one to win the MVP award for Bryan High in 1935. I think that was the only State Championship we ever won in Bryan, in football. That's when we were in class, they called it Class B. Class A or Class B. Class A football you know, Class A or Class B. Hirsch - I guess were going to have to end it now, and uh, so you can sign off if you want. Baker - (laughter) Sorry it's so interesting. Hirsch - It is. Mendl - See, when you look at how these two cities have grown together, back when we were going to school there was a highway between Bryan and College Station, and it was a little trip to go into those places, and just a two lane highway with the forest and just open plains between it. 27 Baker - We had a bus service and I believe, it might have been my senior year when they began a fleet of taxi cabs. I believe it was the Aggie Cab Co. or something like that with a bunch of new Dodge automobiles. We had a taxi service running out here. Hirsch - I didn't know that. Baker - This was been my senior year. Mendl - The Ags couldn't even have cars (laughter) back in those days. Baker - Well, I brought a car down here my senior year after Christmas. I went to the bank, got a loan, and bought a car. I brought it down here and had to keep it at Northgate. Sgt. Seigert lived at Northgate and rented me a car space very cheap. (Tape is incomprehensive) Baker - We had one campus policeman, and once he caught me on campus in the car. I took of and he followed me up Wellborn Road trying to stop me. I never did stop, I just kept going. Hirsch - Carol, you need to go now, right? Okay. So we'll officially end our session. Thank you very much for coming Did you know my cousin, Walter E. Porter? He was in about the class of ... He was here for the 50th anniversary. 28 'narks: Memory Lane: Copy editing and second audit check by City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Oral History Stage Sheet Military C harles Baker Intervie v� Name Interview date Interviewer Mary Jane Hirsch Interview length Interview Place GS Conference Center Special sources of information Date tape received in office 2 /19/97 # of tapes marked Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Recd Describe Photos Interview Agreement and tape disposal form: Given to interviewee onY I ` l Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions- if yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by Co L. Le.e VU a Pages 3 0 Date S/8 3/ ° 7 I� (name) ( First audit check by 12, �,X Pages 6 Date_y_p_241_2_ Sent to interviewee on 5 191 Received from interviewee on Indexed by: Sent to bindery by Received from bindery Deposited in archives by: (n e) Proofread by: 1) Photos out for reproduction: Where to: Original photos returned to: Date Pages Date (name) Final copies: Typed by Pages Date Pages Date Pages Date Date: Date: Date Date Date Date Memory Lane: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Oral History Stage Sheet Military Name James Moore Interview No. Interview date 2/19/9/ Interviewer Mary Jane Hirsch Interview length Interview Place CS Conference 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 dispo l form: Given to interviewee on - / 19 Received Yes No Date Signed Restrictions - If yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: First typing completed by 1,r' � , rN I ■r Pages 2 n Date S / a3/7 First audit check by 2- (Uice), N% ,) Pages 2 d Date 7 Sent to interviewee on 5 l g ame) Received from interviewee on Copy editing and second audit check by Pages Date (name) Final copies: Typed by Pages Date Proofread by: 1) Pages Date 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 'narks: 'narks: City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral History Project Memory Lane: Military Oral History Stage Sheet Name James Mendl Interview N. Interview date Interviewer Mary Jane Hirsch Interview length Interview Place CS Conference Center Special sources of inforrnation Date tape received in office 2/19/97 # of tapes marked Date Original Photographs Yes No # of photos Date Recd Describe Photos Copy editing and second audit check by Pages (name) Final copies: Typed by Pages Date Interview Agreement and tape dispo I form: Given to interviewee on ,7/1 1 Received Y� Date Signed No Restrictions- if yes, see remarks below. Yes No Transcription: _ First typing completed by CO 1A Pages 3 C Date n1 P319 ame) First audit check by m p , - / Pages 30 Date r Sent to interviewee on 5-I (am ) a (9 7 Received from interviewee on Date Proofread by: 1) Pages Date 2 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