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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJohn Mack Prescott, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Or. John Mack Prescott of College Station, the retired dean of the biochemistry department and former vice president of Texas A&M University, once had a life much different from that of an academician. That different life was during World War II. As he remembers: "I was born in 1921 in San Marcos and grew up there, graduating from San Marcos High in 1938. I enrolled in what was then called Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos, now Texas State University. I majored in chemistry aid graduated early in August 1941. "I knew the war was coming and I decided to join the service, but before I could, I would have to have some significant corrective surgery to repair a congenital defect. I had the operation and was recuperating at my parents' home in San Marcos. They were out visiting friends on Sunday, December 7,1941, when they heard about Pearl Harbor and called me. War had now come, as I thought it would. "While recuperating, I got a job at Dow as a chemist. When I was healthy enough, I volunteered for the Army Air Corps in July 1942. I passed my physical but did not pass my flight physical. I would not be allowed to fly and was placed in the Enlisted Army Air Corps Program. I was called up in March 1943 and was sent to study meteorology in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "I was eventually sent to Chanute Field, Illinois, for further training in meteorology and received my commission as a second lieutenant in November 1943. I guess the Army decided to send us close to home if they could, because I was assigned to San Marcos Airtield. While there I met Kathryn Ann Kelly, a student at Southwest Texas, who apparently was impressed enough with this second lieutenant that she agreed to marry me. "I was assigned to teach navigation cadets about meteorology. It was my first experience at teaching and I found I enjoyed it. Once you are assigned to the teaching command, it is hard to get out. I wanted tp get closer to the action, and one day a TWX came in requesting weather officers for immediate assignment overseas. My friend Bill Sherman and I immediately volunteered. When the war was over, I was able to make it home. Bill didn't. "We were put in a plane to Clovis, N.M., to be part of a bomber weather recon program. This was happening because General Curtis LeMay, who was commanding the bomber command in the Pacific, needed up-to-date, precise weather reports over Japan and the Japanese wouldn't send him any. It apparently made him mad, so there we were in Clovis. "They asked if we would be willing to fly and take a flight physical. I said yes to flying but thought I wouldn't be able to pass the flight physical. I passed. It is amazing that I couldn't pass when it is something I wanted to do but how easy it was to pass a flight physical when they !, wanted me. "We crewed on a B-29 and got our plane at '. Herrington, Kansas. I ended up on Guam flying with the 468th Group flying recon. This group had been transferred from India, where they had already lost 13 planes flying over `The Hump.' They put us in the bombardier section of the plane with our meteorology '', equipment. "We ended up being stationed on Tinian Island. There were two airfields on Tinian, and we flew out of the north one. The west airfield was heavily guarded and we never flew there or visited there. That was where the (atomic) bomb was loaded and then dropped on ';`. Japan. We learned about it when everyone else did and ''. still didn't know I was on the same island with it until after the war was over. "The formal surrender of Japan occurred on September 2, 1945. I was in our plane doing recon ?° that day and remember looking dowri at all those ships below us: We were all hoping to go home soon, ',,' but I received orders for the Philippines. It was not the ? direction I wanted to go. I was engaged to Kathryn and wanted to go home and get married. "We began to fly a lot less because our experienced ;. mechanics were being sent home. To take our planes and equipment home, the Army began to send out new and inexperienced crews to fly the planes home. If we 'l flew them back and landed in the U.S. we would be eligible for discharge. My friend Bill Sherman elected to fly back with one of those crews. The plane crashed and 3 all aboard were lost." j Prescott was discharged in May 1946, was married in June 1946, enrolled in graduate school at A&M and i~ became afull-time lab instructor in the chemistry ';; department. Prescott received his Ph.D. in 1952 from ' the University of Wisconsin and came back to A&M, I; where he remained until his retirement. "I remember the friends I lost in the war - boys I had grown up with and known all my I'rfe. My generation '!! was thinned of some really quality individuals. But as a country, we need to be prepared to defend vyhat we have. People who count on the gpod will of other nations and people are likely to be severely disappointed." Dr. John Mack Prescott s name can be found on the !! Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www. veteransmemorial. org or Bill Youngkin at (979) ' 260-7030.