HomeMy WebLinkAboutBill Adams Transcription #1City of College Station
Heritage Programs Oral History
Interviewee: Bill Adams
Interviewer: Tom Turbiville
Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt
Place: College Station, Texas
Project: Veterans of the Valley
00:00: Tom Turberville (TT): To meet and know Billy Joel Adams, you would not believe he’s 86 years old. A&M Class of 1941. He credits good genes for looking at least twenty years younger.
Bill Adams is retired as an A&M Marketing prof. But long before that career, came his two hitches in the U.S. Army. A veteran of World War II and post-conflict Korea. Hi I’m Tom Tuberville,
this is Bravo Brazos Valley brought to you by Meece and Associates. We’ll be back and we’ll talk about Bill Adams. Super veteran. Right after this.
[Meece and Associates Ad]
00:58: TT: Take it back to 1941 graduation day at A&M for Bill Adams, followed by not much of a summer break.
01:04: Bill Adams: We had final review. After final review, I took off to San Antonio. Reported on Sunday to Fort Sam Houston for one year active-duty training.
01:15: TT: Then from Fort Sam to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. That was in July.
01:18: BA: For a three-month battery officer’s course. Basic course for artillery officers coming in on active duty. I do remember that we had officers, second lieutenants all of us,
from LSU. From Oklahoma. From Colorado. From Ohio State. Purdue. Michigan State. I believe Yale had someone there.
01:40: TT: Then to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he was stationed on that Sunday morning. December 7, 1941.
01:47: BA: That was Sunday definitely. It was a day off. I was down in the motor pool washing my car. Had the radio on. And then when life changed for lots of us.
01:59: BA: After Pearl Harbor, Bill Adams recalls the training and the urgency, picked up the pace at Fort Braggs.
02:05: BA: I didn’t have July the 7th, 1942 to look forward to being back in Texas. We were in training there of course. And it began to intensify greatly. And I will never forget one
time, somebody came by and told us, “All your trucks have been moved. But we order you to move those Hollisters back down yonder somewhere. By hand. And these were definitely larger
Hollisters than we had been accustomed to. And that was the last day that I wore my
A&M boots. Through all of the physical exercise and physical a-, activities of that day. My legs just swelled up and I had to cut my boots off.
02:45: TT: Early 1942 back to Fort Sill for a year as an O.C.S. instructor. Then to the 20th Armored division at Camp Campbell, Kentucky as a battery commander. It was there he found
out, to his surprise, that he was a professional motorcycle instructor. [chuckle]
03:00: BA: I took two turns at it. And they said I was qualified. I was a expert. A period of time later, a colonel said, “Adams, we have to train some motorcycle rider to go overseas.
You are the designated one.” So having been on one twice, I then had the opportunity to train some.
03:23: TT: Billy Joel Adams was finally about to head overseas into action. Tomorrow he’ll talk about Europe, the drive to Munich, crisis on the autobahn, and re-upping to Korea. Veteran,
Billy Joel Adams of Bryan. I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo Brazos Valley.