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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBillie E. Howard, Brazos Valley Heroes ~c W 3S '"r,'Sxw +r x Billie E. Howard By Bill Youngkin cars going as fast as we could safely go, which was between Special to The Eagle 20 and 30 miles per hour. Needless to say, accidents were common, but so were air raids by the Japanese. Our job was Most often when one was drafted into the military, his to keep things running no matterwhat because withoutwhat background mattered little as the military would train youfor we were supplying to China, they couldn't have held out. what its needs were. In the case of Billie E. Howard of Calvert, "Our camp was a bunch of bamboo huts with grass roofs. he continued his pre-war job in the Army. He was a railroad Our perimeter guards were Gurkha troops from Northern man before the war and that is what he continued to be for India. These guys were 6 feet 3 or 4 inches tall and very the rest of his life. But, part of it was spent as a railroad man imposing fellows. While I was there the only attacks we in combat during World War II. had from the Japanese were by air. The Japanese tried on a Howard turned 90 on August 11, having been born in the regular basis to disrupt and attempted to destroy our railroad Durango community in Falls County in 1919. He graduated and camp. Whatever they hit, we repaired and had the trains MIR from Lott High in 1938 and soon after began his railroad running again right away. career. According to Howard, "My brother and I decided to "Since we were the beginning point we were probably leave the family farm and we headed to Houston. I was able of greater interest to the Japanese than the other units along to get a job as an apprentice fireman with the Southern the 450 to 500 miles of track. Since the Japanese weren't Pacific Railroad. I was happy to have a good job with a good having much luck with their raids, they finally bombed our company. I got married and was settling into life as a railroad camp with incendiary bombs. Every structure in the camp man when I received my draft notice in 1942. burned to the ground. "I was drafted into the Army and sent to Mineral Wells, "We didn't want to create another fire source, so we Texas, for my basic training with the 36th Infantry Division. hauled in every old wooden box cars they could find in India. When I finished basic training, someone apparently read my That is what we lived and worked in until the war ended. file and sawthat I had railroad experience. I received orders for We also had Japanese troops come through the jungle from New Orleans to join the 721st Railroad Operating Battalion. time to time and place mines in the tracks. What we did j The 721st was a reserve until out of New York City and most to overcome that was to place two flat cars in front of the were former employees of the New York Railroad. Because engine. When the mine exploded, it would only damage the I had completed basic training, I was promoted to buck track and the flat car, We would toss aside the damaged flat sergeant in Company B which was a car repair company. car, fix the track and get moving again. "My next orders were to California where we boarded "When the war ended, I was sent to Camp Fannin to be ship aboard the LISS Mary Bolton, a converted passenger ship. discharged - where by wife met me. That was the first time I We stopped in Tasmania, Australia, and from there to North saw myfirstson, who was nowabout3 years old. I returnedto Africa. We unloaded, set up and began conducting more work at Southern Pacific because they gave me a letter when I training until we were ordered to re-load, board ship and sail was drafted telling me that I could get my job back after the to Calcutta, India. war. When some of the workers complained that the new guy ' "That first day in India, we were welcomed to being in a had more seniority and a betterjob than them, I just showed combat zone. As we were off-loading from our ship we had them my discharge papers. That stopped the complaining" an air raid by Japanese Zeros. They came in shooting up the After 42 years with the railroad, Howard retired and is docks and we scattered like a bunch of chickens. Fortunately, now a cattle rancher in Calvert. He stayed in the Army reserve, no one was hurt. , eventually being commissioned as a warrant officer. When "We were organized into five units. I was in the 719th and asked about what his service experience meant, Howard was re-located to Porbandar, India. That was where a narrow responded, "Thank God1 got back in one piece. We did what a~ gauge railroad began and ended at the Ledo Road into China. we could to end the war and I think we helped. If asked to do Each unit had 90 miles of railroad that we were responsible it again, I sure would" for maintaining. We were assigned the first 90 miles, which If you want to have a name added to the Veterans also meant we had to unload off the regular gauge track and Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, re-load on the narrow gauge line we operated. or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs "The cars only had 29,000 pound capacity and the to be told, contact the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial at majority of the cars had no brakes. A common train was 60 www.bvvm.orgorBillYoungkinat(979)776-1325. ThP Farr1..