HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlo Sims, Brazos Valley HeroesE
She is a country girl and proud of it. Fraulein "Flo"
Sims was born and raised in College Station in the
1920s. In 1942 her older brother enlisted in the Army.
She soon followed his lead and enlisted in the Women s
Army Corps, or WAC.
"When I got out of school, I worked over at the
Texas A&M University's laundry. In November of 1942
1 decided I was tired of washing other people's clothes
and decided I was read to do some re al work. So I went
to Houston to enlist. We stayed in Houston for the first
part of training. Later I was transferred to Nadogdoches.
While there I took my first tests and received the rank of
private first class.
"Being a secretary wasn't what I had in mind, so I
continued training and was sent to Fort Polk. Our first
task was to clear a pasture for the incoming POWs. It
was a heavily wooded pasture, se they gave us axes
to chop down the trees. I had to tel one girl to put hers
down and not pick it up again a she was likely to kill
herself or someone else. She was' 't a country girl like
I was.
'The man at Fort Polk gave me my first training of
driving for the Army. We would cole around the pas-
ture in the trucks and tanks. Thet told us they hoped
we wouldn't have to leave becaue they were having
so much tun teaching us. But lame we did. When we
headed to Fort Rustin to get on th train, my truck was
one of the last out of Fort Polk.
"We boarded the train at Fort Latin and headed to
Oglethorpe. Georgia. On the way 0 got off at the wrong
station and ended up stranded saewhere in the coun-
try We were finally picked up and ode it to Oglethorpe,
e
whre I started my motor trenspoaraming.
"On the few occasions we werellowed a break from
tramin we would head to lookotMountain or visit the
beautiful churches in Oglethorpe."
B 1943 Sims had finished er motor transport
training and was stationed at NEPort News, Vi mile.
While she was there she marohedhe married ani she
worked - unknowingly for a time on the invasion of
Normandy.
"One day I looked at the cocDn my supplies and
realized ft was the code for the lasion of Normandy.
By that time it was about over. I typical day started
at 5 a.m. and sometimes didn't and till 8 or 9 at night. I
was responsible for getting my truck, which looked tike
a to gcattle truck, picking up my detail man end then loatl- before
delivery t p the e shi p S. Som If I timed it right k l as
a to board the ships. I was lucky enough to board
the Queen Elizabeth when she was docked.
"In the winter it would snow in Newport News. One
morning I picked up my detail man and he asked me
how I was going to be able to drive in the snow. He
thought that since I was from Texas I wouldn't know
how. He may have been from New Jersey, but I proved
him wrong.
"Another of my jobs was to drive an ambulance
from the pfor over to Camp Patrick Henry, which was a
25 -mile dove, to drop off the POWs. We always had a
MP go along with us for safety. One young man I was
transporting asked me where I was from. When I told
him Texas he looked at me quizzically and said: 'Texas
belongs to Mexico.'
"While I was in Newport News we periodically got to
march for the dignitaries and I was always chosen to be
one who marched. A lot of generals would be there, and
after we were done marching we would get introduced.
I also met George Herbert Walker Bush when he came
through.
"In 1944 they told us that the war was ending and
did we want out or did we want to stay. I was up for
sergeant, but since I was planning on leaving anyway,
I chose to get out. My husband stayed on for another
year'
After Sims'e husband left the service and Newport
News they returned to College Station. She went to
Houston in 1948 and received her beautician's license.
Sims ran her own shopp for 25 years and now works at
Crestview Retirement Gommun�ty.
"We were treated so good in the WACs. I don't regret
a time In the Army or any of the years I served."
Flo Sims' name can be found on the Brazos Valley
Veteran's Memorial. For more information, to make
a contribution, or if you know a World War II Veteran
whose story needs y o be told, contact the BWM at
wwwveteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979)
260 -7030.
The E gle
One. in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest