Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBill Adams Transcription #2City 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): Yesterday we introduced you to Colonel Bill Adams. U.S. Army-Retired. A&M Class of 1941. Served stateside as an instructor in field artillery. Fort Sill, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Bragg. But then as the war went on, he started to wonder, would he ever get sent to the action. 00:17: Bill Adams (BA): To pursue the war properly, we had to get there and be a part of it. And, it was a great relief when, yes we got the Calvary trained and went to our own training and preparation for overseas movement. 00:31: TT: Hi, I’m Tom Tuberville. This is Bravo Brazos Valley brought to you by Meece and Associates. We’ll be back to talk more about his service in Europe and Korea with Colonel Bill Adams of Bryan, right after this. [Meece and Associates commercial] 01:09: TT: Bill Adams was the operation’s officer for his unit nearing the Rhine River near Cologne. 01:014: BA: Moved in to position just on the west side of the Rhine River and just a bit north of Cologne. We could see the power and the fires in Cologne on good days. And we reinforced the fires of the 82nd. As they were holding the west bank. They were not, the 82nd was not in an offensive mode at that time. They were merely holding, securing the west bank of the Rhine. 01:42: TT: Now his specific job as Operation’s Officer. 01:46: BA: I was involved in the planning and the disposition of the artillery as it supported various, other units that, when we went back to our division and that, those operations so. All of the operations movement, fire, everything like that, did come through my section, yes. 02:07: TT: If there’s one day during the war that Bill Adams recalls with clarity, it was the day his unit moved in to Munich on the autobahn. 02:14: BA: Things didn’t go exactly as we planned that day. One of the tank, tank companies on the north side of the autobahn ran into a German anti-tank school. And they lost sixteen and seventeen tanks that day. As we were moving, I decided that we should pull off and establish a little headquarters rather than just the communications that we had in the half- track. And I didn’t do right. I didn’t follow some of the stuff that I had taught previously at Fort Sill about reconnaissance. And pulled off into a bog and got my half-track stuck. Then, we got our experience with, direct experience with some German .88 millimeter guns. 02:56: TT: Yes, snipers were the biggest threat, being bracketed by enemy fire. And they were, but they survived, made it to Munich and on to Salzburg. After the war, Bill Adams came home, briefly retired from active duty until 1948 when Korea was going full-force. And he re-upped. Was sent to Germany initially. And as the Korean conflict was winding down, was sent to Korea to plan in case it heated up again. Then his career took him to the Pentagon where he made decisions concerning officers applying for civilian schooling. He himself went to Tulane for graduate courses during this peacetime. All this before his distinguished career as an A&M professor of marketing in the School of Business. 86 year-old Billy Joel Adams, of Bryan. Veteran and we salute you. I’m Tom Tuberville. This is Bravo Brazos Valley.