Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with M. James Walker was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
Good afternoon. Today is May 28th, 2010. My name is Samantha Brown. I am conducting an oral history interview at the Court Reporting Institute of Dallas in Dallas, Texas, with Meredith James Walker. Sir, if you could state your name and address for the record.
Okay. My name is M. James Walker. Professionally, I am known as M. James Walker. My friends call me Jim. My given name is Meredith James Walker. And what was the other part?
Your address.
Oh, address. I live in Richardson, Texas.
And what's your date of birth?
August 13, 1926.
Okay. And as you know, we're here to talk about your service in the military during World War II. Were you drafted or did you enlist?
I enlisted, and I enlisted the day after D Day. They didn't actually put me on active duty, but -- for another month or so. But I went down and signed up D Day, and I -- I was 17 years old, not quite 18. And my mother refused to sign at first, and I explained to her that, in a couple of months, I'm going to be 18, and you won't have a choice. And I wanted to join the Navy. That was kind of her preference, too; being from Galveston, she kind of leaned towards the Navy. So I really had a preference.
What year was that that you enlisted?
That was 1944.
And where were you living at the time?
In Houston.
Were you born and raised in Houston?
I was born in Kerens, Texas, which is about 70 miles southeast of here, near Corsicana.
So what made you decide to enlist? What branch of the service did you go into?
I went into the US Navy and -- officially, it's the Reserves. At the time -- that's the only way they would take us at that time, was the Reserves.
Okay. What made you decide to enlist in the Navy Reserves?
Well, it was -- it was wartime, a very patriotic time, you know, and being a youth, I was highly influenced by the heroes that they were showing in the movies and things like that, and I was just itching to join the fight. Although I never saw combat, so ...
Why did you choose the Navy?
I think it's -- well, I don't really know. I just always had a preference; and, as I say, my mother always thought it was better, too. I don't know. It just appealed to me, being, you know, at the time, 17 years old. That -- you really didn't need much reason; you just kind of liked doing things.
So where did you go to boot camp or training?
I went to San Diego, California for three months.
And what was that like?
Well, I enjoyed boot camp. As a matter of fact, I had ROTC training in high school, and the leaders, the Navy people -- there were two men; I don't recall their names, the drill sergeant people and so forth -- found out about it, and they put me in charge of the drilling of the other -- the enlisted men. And I enjoyed that, because I was -- it's one of the things I liked doing, but it didn't gain me anything, rankwise.
Do you remember your instructors in boot camp?
My what?
Your instructors at boot camp.
My what?
Drill sergeants, your instructors.
Oh, no, I don't remember -- I remember them, but I don't remember their names. They were pretty distant people. But I did most of the drilling and marching of the men, whereas they would just go off somewhere. They were noncommissioned personnel.
Okay. After boot camp, where were you stationed?
Well, after boot camp, they sent me home on leave for a month. And then I came back to San Diego, reporting there. And then, almost immediately, they sent us to San Bruno, California, which is just outside of San Francisco. And we were there -- that was, I think, until November -- November, late November. And that was -- let's see -- September through November, yeah.
How many years were you in active duty?
About two years. Two years. Going back to San Bruno, if you don't mind me cutting in on that, we were -- they said we were -- they were putting together our unit, which was an aviation overhaul unit, and we had no idea what that entailed. But soon after, in December of '44, we were transported to a ship. It was just a troop transport ship, and then, from there, by convoy to Guam. And that's pretty much where I stayed, in Guam. I arrived there about January, early January, right after the 1st of the year, in 1945. And in a few months, Iwo Jima happened and Okinawa happened, and then the war ended in August of '45.
What was your job in the Navy?
I worked in the shops on the Navy air base that was gone at the end -- I mean, the air strip. And there were certain parts that had to be replaced on airplanes. And one of the first jobs I had was to take those parts, and they had cosmoline on them, and we had to dip them in big vats to remove the cosmoline, and then rinse them off and clean them up so that they would be usable on airplanes. And other jobs, I worked in the power plant, generation of electricity. I worked -- after the war, we had more men than we had jobs to do, so I signed up for KP duty. And there wasn't much work there either, because we had an oversupply of men, but I was just waiting out my time. So from August of 1945 to about a year later, roughly, I stayed on Guam. I don't -- I really don't have a glorious story to tell you. I was in a combat area, but I wasn't in combat myself.
That sounds like a good thing!
Yeah.
While you were in the service, were you able to keep in touch with your family?
Oh, yes, by mail, by mail only. And I can remember one time -- I hadn't written in a long time, and I had night duty, and I woke up -- I was awakened by a lieutenant, and he wanted to know what I was doing in bed during the day. I had to explain that I worked nights. And he said, well, write your mother, and I don't want to have to come back again. Apparently, she complained enough where they looked into it. They were -- they were pretty good about that.
So tell me about the station and your barracks. What was it like there?
On Guam, we had quonset huts, and they're -- it was an interesting place. I mean, we were quite comfortable. But we had large rats, big as cats, and they'd get on our porch and bark like a dog. Really. I kid you not. Huge rats. No, we actually didn't have a whole lot to do after the war ended.
What was the -- did you guys feel like you had plenty of supplies and everything that you needed?
Oh, yeah. We had more food than what we knew to do with, and, you know -- most of the planes were eliminated. They were dumped in the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, and -- they just rolled them off the aircraft carriers. And speaking of aircraft carriers, I did come back on one, called the USS Siboney. I'm not sure how it's spelled, now. There used to be a song called that. In fact, I could probably sing it to you if I had a voice.
So what was it like on the carrier?
It was -- it was pretty great. There was a description in the paper not long ago about another veteran, and it pretty much described what we went through. The people assigned to the ship never really interfered with what we were doing. Of course, it was after the war, and there was no ordnance or anything. The airplanes were gone. And it was open-hangar day, and we could play basketball on hangar day, provided, of course, you could keep up with the basket. Sometimes they would roll over to the side, you know, and your ball -- your ball would continue on the arc that you'd sent it. And we had good food, excellent food, on that aircraft carrier. Pretty fair sleeping arrangements. They were still -- these cots that folded down from the wall and canvas underneath that you see. And while I was on Guam, I lost all my Navy formalwear, and I had to borrow somebody's outfits and -- to come home, once I got home, but -- we never wore anything but fatigue-type things on Guam.
So when you say you lost it --
I lost -- I had no idea what happened to my uniform, the blues and the whites. So we had some kind of green-type dungaree-type things and plus blue jeans, and that's all we ever wore when we was on Guam.
You mentioned playing basketball on the carrier. Did you have any other forms of entertainment, or how did you guys keep yourselves entertained?
Well, we had movies and a little bit of USO-type things, no really big names or anything like that. But that's about it. And the movies weren't too -- too frequent. They didn't have those that much.
Are there any particular humorous or unusual events that stick out in your mind?
You know, it was really kind of uneventful, except -- being on Guam was, of course, the main thing. And, oh, when we arrived on Guam -- I might mention this -- there were no coconut trees' tops left. They were all blown off. They were just like sticks. But they grew back rapidly. And I'll never forget that. It was very pleasant, temperaturewise, and just a nice place to be, really.
Did you ever have any interactions with civilians in Guam?
With civilians, no. It was prohibited. And we did pass -- I did have -- what do they call it -- oh, the duty where you go and try to round up the Japanese that were still hiding in the mountains. And, of course, we didn't find any, but we saw evidence of them. And in doing so, we would pass through villages, but we were prohibited to make any contact with them at all. And I did see Japanese prisoners that were POWs that were allowed to clean up our beaches and things like that. And what struck me is that those men were not the typical Japanese; these were great, big six-foot guys, 200 pounds, maybe more, very muscular, and I understand they were called Royal Marines. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what we were told. But I could probably -- if I had time enough, I could probably -- a couple of stuff like that, but basically it was uneventful as far as wartime stories go. But, you know, it's like I tell a lot of people that -- in the presentations that we make for Honor Flight, students, primarily, it took all kinds of jobs to get that war done. Some stayed home; some had to fight the battles, and in between. And I was in between. That's all I can say about it.
Did you meet -- did you stay in contact with any of your fellow --
I did not. I don't know why, but when we got home, we just went into civilian life as quickly as we could. My objective was to go to college, and so -- which I did. After I got out, I went to the University of Houston. I wanted to stay close to home, and at that time, the university was a private school and was doing quite well, then, as a university. And I went there for four and a half years, got a degree, a bachelor of science degree in geology, but I never worked as a geologist. I worked -- went to work for an oil company, but -- I found it was much more interesting work to be a person who buys oil and gas leases from people, landowners and whoever.
Was your education supported by the GI Bill?
Yes, very definitely.
When you were in the service, did you keep a personal diary?
I did not. I wish I had, but I did not.
Did you take any photographs?
I have a few, but I gave them to my daughter. My son went through them, and he archived them and -- some -- you know, digitized them. My daughter has what few I had kept. One time I had a lot of them, but, you know how -- how it is, old photographs.
Yeah. Do you recall the day your service ended?
Yes. Yes. They sent me to Camp Wallace, which is Hitchcock, Texas now, and -- that was an old Army camp down there, I believe, but that's where I was mustered out. I can remember that very well. And I believe that was in August of '46, if I'm not mistaken.
What did you do in the days and weeks after you returned home?
Well, I -- when I came back from Guam, they immediately gave me a 30-day leave, and -- so that gave me a running start about being prepared to go to college, and then I was mustered out in August. And soon thereafter, in September, well, the school was started, so I kind of had a running start there.
Have you joined any veterans organizations?
I belong to the American Legion, actually called Happy Warriors, who meet over here at Love Field in the History of Air -- what is it -- Air History Museum or something like that -- once a month, and that's comprised of mainly flyers and people associated with aviation. And they call themselves Happy Warriors for the reason that they're happy that they made it. That's the truth.
You mentioned that you worked in the oil fields after your --
Uh-huh.
And that was your lifelong career?
That was my career, yes, for 35-plus years, more like 40.
Has your military experience influenced your thinking about war or the military, in general, today?
Well, I'm still very patriotic, and I support the United States in whatever they do, pretty much, in the way of war. Being a veteran myself and knowing other veterans, I think that -- I think that's very common among us, you know. So Vietnam, Korea, what we're doing in the Middle East, I support, yeah. I hate to see the people dying, the Americans that are dying on this, actually, for world peace -- not specifically the United States, but for world peace. That's the way I feel about it. I don't know if that has anything to do with my military career or not; maybe it's just maturity. But actually it makes me think of something else that, when I went into the Navy, later I thought, I'm very grateful for that because I still hadn't matured when I got out of high school. It gave me time to think about things and what I wanted to do. I still was somewhat confused when I went to college, but I got it sorted out pretty much in college. So, you know, that's about all I can say about that.
Do you have a family history of -- do you have past family members that have been in the military?
Not really. My brother served during the Korean conflict, and that's about it. But my grandparents and uncles and so forth -- well, I've had one uncle that was in the Army in the Pacific, and that -- I can't say we had a whole lot of that in our family, no.
Is there anything that you would like to add that we haven't covered in this interview today?
I don't think so. Like I said, I don't -- I don't have an illustrious Navy career.
Well, we still appreciate you coming down, and we thank you for your service.
I appreciate it, Samantha.
Did you get married somewhere along the way?
Yeah, okay, I didn't think about that. I did. Did I ever! Well, I married in 1955 to Nema, N-E-M-A, Walker -- now Walker. Her original name was Cochran. And we have two children, and each of those have two children, and we have two great-grandchildren. And I've got one set of grandchildren that are elementary school age, and my great-grandchildren by my granddaughter are in elementary school, too, so -- and my son married late.
How did you get involved with Honor Flight?
That's a very interesting thing. I'm glad you would ask that because I'm real pleased about it. My friend, Ray Carrio, called me one day and he says, I want you to come over to the house. I've got something to show you. So he showed me some DVDs on Honor Flight. And at that time, we did not have an Honor Flight group in Dallas or the Dallas area. And he lived in Garland, by the way. So his daughter, Cindy Carrio, had actually -- is actually the founder of this organization. And there was about four or five of us that started it. Later, it grew to six, eight, 10. And we met in her living room in Garland, and I lived in Richardson, not far away. And we discussed whether or not we can do this, and we did. We got enough money to send the first crew some -- let's see. That was September of '08, and we sent the first crew on June 1 and 2 of '09. So what's that, about nine months? Nine or 10 months later, we had enough money to send them. So I went as a veteran, but I was also a member of the committee. Since then, we have a really fine lady that is our president now, and she has really expanded the thing. You probably know who I'm talking about?
Sandy? Sandy?
Rhonda Ensey, E-N-S-E-Y, Ensey. And she's done a marvelous job. And she sent two under her -- of our group. So I still work with the Carrios in fund-raising. I visit schools and various groups, and I raise money that way. In fact, I just received $600 from the St. Joseph Catholic School in Richardson. The students and teachers got that up.
Prior to getting involved with Honor Flight, had you been to Washington, DC before to see the Memorial?
No, that's my first -- well, I had been professionally, but in an in-and-out situation. I fly in and do business and leave. But I never made a tour of it. And this was the first time I'd been there on a tour and especially for the monuments. I might add that in -- in our group, we were the first people that Walter Reed allowed to come in from the outside, that is, outside of the families and personal people like that, of the injured soldier, and that was a very moving scene for me, because -- it still is -- because you have the modern-day warrior and these old warriors, and there was this noncommunication for -- nonverbal communication -- excuse me -- going on between them, and I could feel that too, where we -- we know how it is. You could --
It's an instant bond?
What?
It's an instant bond? You always --
Yeah. Well, like I say, nonverbal communication, but it was in the air, you know. It still affects me today.
What do you do with Honor Flight? Can you trace, briefly, a trip?
Well, as I say, my friend Ray and Cindy and a few others have made presentations of our program to various groups and people and contacted everybody we knew, which kind of expanded your world quite a bit, telling them about it, and we'd get contributions. And I might add that the -- there was a 14-year-old boy over at Prince of Peace Catholic School who got so interested in this. We made a presentation to them in their school, and this was for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. And there's a lot of interest in schoolchildren now about World War II. And this little -- this young man, very impressive fellow -- his name is Scott Northcutt -- got together with his counselor and other people and got the students so enthused that they raised $6,000. And then he went out and raised another 2,000 on his own. And now he's employed on our -- (laughing). I'd love for him to continue. But it's that kind of thing, you know, that's one of our biggest contributions.
When someone goes on an Honor Flight, can you tell us, like where do you fly? Do you stay overnight? What do you do?
Well, our first flight, we went American Airlines, and we had a little more time than what they have now because of schedules. Southwest Airlines has become the official transporter for Honor Flight nationally, and we get about 35 free tickets from them for 35 veterans that we send. And I might add that 35 is the number -- the most -- usually, the most veterans that we can take, and the reason is because of the limitations of the bus that is used to transport us around Washington. The other 15 are -- or 20 is made up of guardians, and there's usually one guardian to three veterans. And then we have staff people that go -- that actually conduct the tour and serve as a guide. So that's 50 to 55 people. So 35 is the magical number for the number of veterans that we've sent, you know, one way or the other, one or two more. Where was I?
You go to -- well, I know you see the World War II Memorial.
Yes.
Where else do they take you?
But getting back to Southwest Airlines, they carve off some time because of where they land and having to go back and forth. But, anyway, they do pretty much the same thing, but it's much more rushed today. We see the World War II monument; we go to the Iwo Jima monument and the Korean, and then we have a dinner that evening where the veterans get up and tell their story, if they want to, and usually have a performer to sing. And then, the next day -- we spend the night in a motel. The next day, we get up and go to Walter Reed, and make another tour of the World War II museum -- monument, and then a bus tour around town just for sightseeing, an hour or so, you know, just that little bit, and then fly home. And, of course, we have quite a group send us off and reception. And when we landed in Washington, D.C., there was quite a group there, too, waving their flags and applauding and all that stuff. But there was a lady that shouted out of the crowd and -- she grabbed me and she said, "You saved my life." And I said, "Oh, how did I do that?" And she said she was a French Jew as a little girl and in a concentration camp, and the Germans had hauled them off to there, and they had killed her mother and dad, but she lived through all that. And so, to her, I represented the veterans that were there to rescue them, you know, and that was very touching. We had a lot of tears going. But it's that kind of thing that really -- really affects a veteran and he's so happy. You know, one of them said he left as an 80-year-old person, and when he got home, he was 25 years old, felt like it. But there's a lot of joy. And the way Rhonda Ensey has arranged for the reception when they come in now -- and also when they leave, I understand, because I didn't make the last couple -- they have the police bagpipers and drummers. Oh, man, that's fantastic.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Well, just on -- back on Honor Flight, I might say that -- I will say that everything is done by volunteers. Everything is donated. There's nothing -- no one's paid a salary. We have very few expenses, of course, but everything is raised by donations. It's been exciting for me for the last few years, really.
In taking the trips and in meeting with the people that you run into, have you seen anybody that you were stationed with in San Bruno or in Guam or at any time in your service?
Oh, I've never seen anybody else I knew back then, yeah. There's one fellow that I was pretty much associated with back then as a friend that lives in Connecticut, and I think he -- according to the information I could find, he's still living, but I'm a little reluctant to contact him. I don't know why, but I am.
He'd probably be happy to hear from you.
Yeah. Well, I talked a lot, but I didn't tell you very much.
Oh, we've totally enjoyed it. You have some good stories.
Yeah.
Honor Flight, of course, I can talk about quite a bit. I've got to give credit to the ladies that are doing it right now. I don't know if you saw this lady that I greeted in the hall there, Peggy Marlow. She works with Rhonda quite a bit. In fact, she was co-president for a while. I don't think she's called that anymore. She can tell you quite a bit about it, too.
Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. (End of interview.)