DONALD C. JOHNSTON, SR.

World War II Interview


By: Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler

Typed By: Jimmie B. Fowler



Donald C. Johnston, Sr.

2200 Peacock Drive

Dublin, GA 31021

12 October 2000



On December 7, 1941, I was visiting my parents in Sasser, GA where I was born in 1916, and we heard the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio.



I graduated from Sasser High School in 1933 and entered Georgia Tech when I was sixteen years old. I didn't do too well but I didn't fail a subject.



At the beginning of World War II, I was in Thomaston, Georgia working for Thomaston Mills. This was about four and a half years after graduating from Georgia Tech in 1937 with a degree in Textile Engineering. This was my first job after graduating. I had a Reserve Commission in Coast Artillery from Georgia Tech as a 2nd Lt. When War clouds started forming, I wanted to get my years of service in and get it over with.



I had a good friend from Sasser, Georgia, my home town, Col. Joiner who was a full Colonel in Washington D. C. I contacted him and asked how I could get on active duty. He said they weren't taking many right now from Coast Artillery, but if I would transfer to the Quartermaster Corps, I would have a better chance of being accepted. And that's what I did.



I had a 1st Lt. Commission in the Reserves and I transferred to the Quartermaster Corps. I was soon ordered to report to the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot.



I was there for a while and after two or three months of indoctrination, I was transferred to the Atlanta Army Service Forces Depot. It was located in the old Candler Warehouses. Shortly after that, they began building this monstrous Army Service Forces Depot in Conley just outside of Atlanta. That's where I eventually was assigned to the Quartermaster Section. I was there through various levels of responsibility. Eventually I was made the Quartermaster Supply Officer. There was an article in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution that stated I was the youngest Quartermaster Supply Officer in the U. S. Army.



I asked for active duty overseas. Things started moving around a little and I was given a tour of duty in the Command and General Staff School at Leavenworth, Kansas.



Ann and I were married in 1942 at St. Phillips Cathedral in Atlanta. I was ordered out immediately. So we spent our honeymoon traveling to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. We spent our honeymoon in Rome, GA, Paducah, KY, St. Louis, MO, and finally out to Fort Leavenworth. My first memory was that it was 17 degrees below zero when we arrived at Fort Leavenworth. We had to get our own living quarters. I thought I was going overseas right away but they sent me back to Atlanta where I did head up the Quartermaster Supply Operation.



The war was in progress then and we were sending supplies overseas.







My tour of duty in Europe I was with General Frederick Strong and he and about forty of us were flown over to Orly Field in Paris, France. We were responsible for inventorying equipment in the various depots in the entire European Theater.



I was fortunate that I had a room in a nice hotel in Paris, France. It was enjoyable. I traveled over to Belgium, France and England to inventory supplies.



This was in preparation to transfer all these Quartermaster supplies to the Asiatic Theater.

When the Japanese bowed out of the war all the work we had been doing to transfer supplies to the Japanese area was no longer needed. So we were ordered back after three months to the Seattle Army Services Depot. That is when I was discharged in 1946.



I was in the Service for five years. I got three promotions up to Lt. Col. I never had to serve in the Pacific. I was fortunate.



I felt a little guilty just being there in Atlanta. But about that time our little girl, Louise was born and Ann stayed with her parents in Atlanta while I was overseas.



My father was George Washington Johnston and my mother was Eula Mae Chapman from Perry, GA. She didn't like Eula Mae and preferred to be called "Chappie".



I was an only child.



My wife is Ann Austin Johnston from Yonkers, New York. Her parents were George and Marguerite Austin.





We have three children, Louise J. Mimbs, Donald C. Johnston, Jr. and Judith Davis.



While I was at the Atlanta Depot, I had to go to Washington quite often and in the Quartermaster General's Office, was Col. John P. Baum. He was a full Colonel. We were doing a pretty good job in the Atlanta Depot area. He and I became good friends. He told me he was going with a company, J. P. Stevens. He had learned about it from his good friend, Colonel Robert T. Stevens, Secretary of the Army. Mr. Stevens was one of the original personnel of the J. P. Stevens Company. He told Mr. Baum that he was planning to locate a plant in the South. He asked Mr. Baum to go with Stevens Company and find a location for this plant. Mr. Baum traveled all over the United States and finally the location lay between Farmville, Virginia and Dublin, GA. Mr. Baum recommended Dublin, GA and that's why I came here.

The first thing he did was send Ann, our one-year-old daughter, Louise and me up to New England to learn about the woolen business. My experience in Thomaston had mostly been in cotton finishing. We were there about a year and half observing the woolen mills operations in the New England States.



I am active in the Rotary Club, was President in 1951-52, enjoy photography and community affairs.



I was among the citizens responsible for getting someone to head up our Library. We advertised in the National Library Journal and received some applications but the one from Sue Williams from Michigan was the most outstanding. It was my responsibility to fill this vacancy. It was enjoyable getting someone to be Director. I contacted her and we hired her. She did a good job for nine and a half years, but after then she wanted to go to Alaska to be with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.