EDSEL HOBBS

Interview by Johnnie Faye Taylor

Army Air Corps, 20th Air Force

(changed to 8th Air Force),

11th Combat Cargo Squadron

Edsel is the son of Robert (Dee) and Ellen Jones Hobbs. He was born and raised in the Marie Community of Laurens County, Georgia.

Edsel graduated from Dublin High School in 1941. At the time Edsel graduated, Dublin High School was located in the building now housing the Dublin City Hall. He started to Work at Wynn-Balsey Pontiac Company on South Jefferson St. the day after graduation. His position there was assistant bookkeeper at the salary of $8.00 per week. Edsel worked for Wynn-Balsey for about 3 months. He left that job and started working for George Morris at the Service Coachline Office. Edsel's job was working with the agents' statements. This job allowed him to work more hours and his pay was increased to $17.00 per week.

On the afternoon of December 7, 1941, he learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor while at his friend's (Evelyn Hogan) house. Edsel knew life would change for him as well as all Americans. He just didn't know at the time exactly what effect it would have on him.

After the United States entered the war, Edsel left Dublin and went to Central Florida. He got a job at the Banana River Naval Air Station. The airport and runway were just being built at that time. Edsel worked as an employment agent hiring construction workers. He later worked as an office clerk when they discovered his ability to use an adding machine with speed. Edsel's pay was $35.00 per week. The Banana River Naval Air Station is now the location of Cape Kennedy.

Edsel was drafted in 1943. Boarding the bus in Dublin was difficult. Edsel had suffered from Erysipelas since he was a child. (Erysipelas is caused by the strepococcal bacteria.)

He was having a flareup of the painful disease at the time. Edsel was told he had to report to the induction center at Fort MacPherson in Atlanta even if he was sick. He was inducted into the Army Air Corps on August 13, 1943 at Fort MacPherson. After his induction, Edsel was sent to the base hospital for treatment. He stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks.

Upon release from the hospital, Edsel was sent to Keesler Field, Mississippi for Basic Training. He was at Keesler Field for 3 months.

Edsel travelled by train to Las Vegas, Nevada for further training on airplanes. He was scheduled to fly as a tail gunner on a B-17. While at Las Vegas, he realized his eyesight was not good enough for being a tail gunner. Just taking the guns apart and putting them back together was hard to do because of his eyesight. Edsel went to the flight surgeon to have his eyes rechecked. He failed the eye exam this time. A tail gunner position was not in his future.

More health problems occurred when Edsel was put into a pressure chamber to see if he could handle flying in an airplane. He had severe swelling in his head as a result of the pressure chamber test. Edsel spent 5 weeks in the hospital in Las Vegas before his head started draining the fluid buildup.

The Army Air Corps transferred Edsel to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for radio school. He was there for several months while training for a radio operator position on a flight crew.

Upon completion of radio school, Edsel went to a base near Maldin, Missouri where he did some test training in airplanes. Some of this training involved the airplanes pulling gliders.

Orders came for Edsel to go overseas. En route to China, he went first to Fort Wayne, Indiana then on to West Palm Beach, Florida. He left the Continental United States on March 12, 1945. From West Palm Beach, his next stop was Puerto Rico where they stayed overnight before going on to Natal, Brazil. Their orders were to stay overnight in Natal before leaving on the next leg of their journey. The crew liked Natal. The pilot decided to "get sick" while there. The crew enjoyed their week in Brazil. Finally, it was time to travel on to Ascension Island where they again stayed overnight. Their next stop was the Central part of Africa.

Edsel and the other crew members arrived there in the middle of the night. There were no lights. Edsel remembers going into dark tents. There was no sleep that night. When they looked out of the tent all they could see were eyes. They learned the next morning that the area had numerous Jackals. Edsel learned that the eyes they had seen during the night had belonged to those animals.

The next morning, sleep or no sleep, it was time to move on. They flew to Karachi, India. Karachi is now in Pakistan but during World War II that area was known as India. Edsel and the crew were only in Karachi for a short time. During that short time, he saw people dying on the streets from starvation. The dead people were picked up periodically and taken to an area where the bodies were burned on pyres. Ed remembers the terrible sight and the terrible odor.

Edsel's next duty was in Dinjan, India. He arrived there on March 25, 1945. His squadron was housed in bashes. Bashes are basically round poles holding up thatched roofs. One night they had hurricane force winds that blew the bashes down. They just collapsed with people in them. Edsel remembers all their clothes got wet. It was a dark night and trying to locate their wet clothes and putting them on was no fun. One of his "bash mates" was a truck driver. The men stayed in the truck until morning.

The only things left standing that morning were the mess hall and the latrine. Both of those had been more strongly constructed. Injuries were light from the overnight storm. One man had a broken arm and another man had a broken leg. All in all it could have been much worse.

Tents were pulled out. The men began putting them up. It was a bad day! Nobody there had put tents up before so it was like on the job training. To make matters even worse, more hurricane warnings were posted during the day. The tents were tied down well and this time the weather report was wrong.

Edsel was flying in a C-47 troop carrier. The crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot and Edsel as the radio operator/navigator. From India, they flew paratroopers and supplies to drop zones in Burma. Many mornings their departure time was 3 or 4 AM. They didn't return to their airfield until 8 or 9 PM. The days were very long and their passengers were nervous and afraid. Edsel recalls several instances when he had to push a paratrooper out of the airplane. He also recalls a time when the paratrooper was holding on to him so tightly that he almost left the airplane with the man. The real scarry thing about that was that Edsel was not wearing a parachute. Edsel spent several months in the location prior to his transfer to Kunming, China.

The monsoon season was in full swing when Edsel's squadron arrived in Kunming. In fact, the entire time he was there it was rainy season. Most of the flights were instrument takeoffs and landings. The ground could seldom be seen from the air.

One of the jobs assigned to Edsel's crew was the relocation of an entire Chinese Division. They had to be moved over the Hump. The Hump is the only area in the Himalayas that is low enough for C-47's to go over. In addition to transporting the men in the Chinese Division, their equipment required transport also. Among the items moved by Edsel's crew were mules. They could carry 2 mules on each flight. They continued this operation until all men, equipment and mules were relocated.

The Chinese men got airsick and would make a real mess on the airplane. Edsel was responsible for the condition of the plane. He remembers only taking his .45 pistol out once and showing that he was serious when he told the men to clean up their mess. From then on, all he had to do was put his hand on his pistol handle.

The pilots sometimes flew low over the Yantzes River in China. Chinese citizens could often be seen in their small boats on this river. A favorite naughty act that some of the pilots enjoyed was to buz the small boats that created waves and capsized the boats. Edsel remembers being uncomfortable with that activity. Some pilots thought this was great fun.

Edsel made another stop in Africa while he was overseas. The Africans had open air markets and were always happy to see the Americans. They especially tried to sell diamonds to the Americans. Some of them were real and some were fakes. Edsel decided he didn't know enough about diamonds to buy any while he was there. Begging was rampart on the streets. It became routine to have many kids around you begging wherever you went.

At one time, the military sent in some C-46's. These planes had bigger fuselages than the C-47's and were sometimes overloaded with the additional gasoline they could carry and the cargo. Edsel did not like being assigned to fly on the C-46's. He remembers one day when 3 of the planes crashed because of overloading. The battalion colonel had a C-46 for his use. He asked Edsel if he would like to fly for him as his radio operator/navigator. Edsel told him he'd rather stay with the C-47.

Edsel would often stand between the pilot and co-pilot on takeoffs. One day the plane just wouldn't get above the tree top level. Edsel thought they would crash for sure. He looked down and saw the landing gear was still down. He pulled the lever to lift the gear and the airplane lifted immediately.

One flight entailed hauling gasoline in 55 gallon drums. There was no banding or roping around the drums in the cargo bay. The drums started moving about during the takeoff. Edsel doesn't know how he managed it but he was able to get the drums under control. That was a close call!

One day the crew received orders to pick up 3 missionaries from a dirt strip in a remote area. Rules did not require radio silence on these trips, however the messages were coded. Edsel's pilot couldn't believe the orders were for real. He broke regulations by radioing for confirmation without using code language. The message was verified. For breaking regulation, no major problem was incurred by the pilot.

Edsel's crew did pick up the 3 missionaries who were waiting for them at the dirt strip. The missionaries couldn't speak any English. They had all their worldly goods, which amounted to 1 bag per person. As the plane was taking off with it's passengers, Japanese troops neared the field. They began shooting at the airplane. The plane was able to successfully lift off the ground before any damage took place.

Food at the base was not bad. The men ate in the mess hall and always had cooked food. Depending on their flight schedule, their meals were sometimes at odd hours. They did not have to eat C-Rations. Once or twice Edsel ate in town.

Begging and thievery were a problem at the base. Guards had to be posted around the mess hall and the airplanes.

Edsel was allowed to go on R & R while in China. Those men who were eligible for R & R were taken by trucks called 8Xs. About 20-25 men per truck were transported to a lake in a hilly area of China. On the way, the truck Edsel was riding on lost it's brakes. He and all the others were terrified as they went down a mountainside with no brakes. The week was nice in spite of the problems getting there. During that week, Edsel enjoyed duck hunting.

Occassionally, Edsel went into town. He remembers one trip when he took a nurse to a native restaurant in town. They traveled by jinrikisha (we call these rikshaws today). Edsel also visited the Jewel Temple while in China. The beauty of the temple really impressed him. That was about the only sightseeing he was able to do while there.

An unexpected pleasure occurred in China when Edsel's cousin visited him. His cousin, Athel Hobbs, was stationed in China at a different location. Athel now lives in Milledgeville, Georgia.

About this time, Edsel's Erysipelas flared up again. The Army Air Corps policy was to return men to the United States when they had completed 1000 hours of combat time. When Edsel went to the flight surgeon with his medical problem, he was sent home. The medical problems occurred at the same time as Edsel's completion of his 1000 hours of combat time.

Edsel travelled to Calcutta, India for transport back to the United States. He was put on a ship going to New York via the Suez Canal on October 27, 1945. There was a severe storm in the North Atlantic en route home. Many people on board became seasick. Edsel remembers going to breakfast one morning when only 8 people were in the chow line. Just as they got the trays ready for the men, the boat took a lurge and the trays hit the floor upside down. Breakfast had to be cooked again.

Almost 30 days after leaving Calcutta, the ship docked in New York on November 24, 1945. Edsel rode the train to Augusta, Georgia where medical treatment was available to him. Though Edsel's medical treatment in Augusta would last for several weeks, he was allowed weekend passes to go home sometimes.

The first week-end pass he received, Edsel left the base walking to U.S. Highway 1 where he thought his best chances were to hitch a ride to Dublin. From previous experience hitchhiking, Edsel had found it best to travel alone. The chance for hitching a ride was greater if only 1 person needed a ride. As he walked along, he became aware of a soldier walking about 100 yards behind him. He was silently hoping to reach the highway and secure a ride before the soldier got to the highway. This did not happen. The soldier caught up with him and it was Edsel's brother, Earl Hobbs. Earl was then stationed at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and was en route to Dublin for the weekend. A happy reunion took place beside the highway. A car from Dublin came along, stopped and gave the brothers a ride on to Dublin.

The medical treatment Edsel received in Augusta was not sufficient. He was sent to West Virginia for further medical care. He spent some time in West Viriginia but doesn't remember of what duration.

Edsel was discharged from the Army Air Corps in February, 1946 at Fort MacPherson, Georgia. He had been awarded several medals for his service during the war. Among those medals are the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Chinese Distinguished Flying Cross, the Asiatic Pacific Service Medal with 2 Bronze Stars and the Air Medal with 3 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters. His total service time included I year, 10 months, 2 days in the United States and 8 months, 13 days on overseas duty. Edsel did well with his promotions during his military service. He achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Edsel took the bus from Fort MacPherson to Dublin. Between Atlanta and Macon while riding along, he met a soldier. The soldier told Edsel he had no money and no place to stay overnight in Macon. Neither Edsel nor the soldier could get buses from Macon to their destination that night. When they reached Macon, Edsel rented a hotel room that he offered to share with the soldier. During the night, the soldier robbed Edsel. When he woke up the next morning his money, his bags and the soldier had already left Macon. Edsel then knew why the Army recommended the discharged men mail their final military pay home instead of carrying the check or money on their person.

The bus arrived in Dublin around 10AM. About 2 hours later, Edsel got a phone call from his uncle suggesting that they go into the tractor business as a partnership. In 1946, Dublin Implement Company started doing business. They were dealers for Allis Chalmers and Oliver Tractors. The company also sold tractor equipment. Business was booming and the company did well until 1965. Edsel opened a new business in 1965. He built 4 new metal buildings on 441 North and the Dublin Dodge and Rambler Dealership opened for business.

The year Edsel started up the Dodge and Rambler Dealership, farmers began receiving money from the government to not grow cotton. About 13 two row cotton pickers had to be repossessed in 1966. That action proved to be more than the business could handle so Dublin Implement Company closed it's doors to the public in 1966. The Dublin Dodge and Rambler Dealership also closed.

In the meantime, Edsel got married on February 24, 1951 to Iris Fordham of Dublin. The couple had been dating for 4 years. Edsel and Iris became parents to 2 boys during the following years. Their sons are Edsel David Hobbs and Donald Phillip Hobbs.

Edsel started to work for the Lifetime Gate Company shortly after Dublin Implement Company closed. He was manager and salesman there until 1980. Edsel travelled several states selling the gates and continued managing the manufacturing plant at the same time.

In 1980, Edsel began having heart problems. Bypass surgery was necessary in 1981. When Edsel recovered from the heart surgery, he went to Eatonton, Georgia where he and his sons purchased a fiberglass business from Horton Homes.

During the 3 years or so of owning the fiberglass business, Edsel and his wife lived at Lake Sinclair. (They did keep their home near Dublin while away.) The fiberglass business was not for the Hobbs family. They began to feel like someone who knew more about fiberglass could do a better job with it. They sold the business and Edsel and Iris returned to Dublin.

Edsel worked for AFLAC Insurance for 12 years before retiring for good. Edsel went to a school in Dublin to learn how to sell. The G.I. Bill covered the cost of the school. The lessons he learned at the school were used throughout his working career.

He continued to have some health problems with his heart. In 1998, he underwent his 2nd bypass operation. The Eryiseplis problem has recurred several times since his war service. It had begun when Edsel was about 2 years old and just keeps flaring up periodically. Edsel has also continued to have symptoms from the damage he received while in the pressure chamber at Las Vegas early in his military experience.

Edsel and Iris are active members of the Marie Baptist Church. They are involved in all aspects of life in their community. Their 2 sons have grown up and become assets to the cities where they live. One lives in LaGrange, Georgia and the other one lives in Baxley, Georgia. Their 4 grandchildren are a pleasure to Edsel and Iris.