J. ROY ROWLAND, JR.

World War II Interview


September 20, 2000

By: Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler

Typed By: Jimmie B. Fowler

Dr. James Roy Rowland, Jr.

103 Woodridge Rd.

Dublin, GA 31021







I remember very vividly what I was doing on Sunday afternoon, December 7, 1941. I was working on the high school newspaper in Wrightsville at the High School that I graduated from. I was coming out of the school building that afternoon. Mrs. J. C. Oliff, who was the wife of the Superintendent of the School, came running across the road and shouting to us, "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor." I didn't really understand the full impact at that time. I knew the territory of Hawaii was under the control of the United States Government. I didn't realize at the time how that was going to affect my life. It certainly made a big difference. After high school I went off to college for a couple quarters and then I ended up in the Army.



I enlisted because so many of the guys my age were enlisting and thought it was something I should do also. I enlisted to go into the Army Specialized Training Program. But at that time there was a lot of casualties and there were a lot of young people enlisting in the Navy and Air Force. Actually the Army needed some additional people to replace those who were being killed and wounded in Europe and in the Pacific. The Army Specialty Training Program at that time was really a subterfuge to get young people into the Army. I shall always remember that I was processed at Ft. McPherson, GA. I was put on a troop train at night. The next morning at daylight, we got off the train, fell into formation beside the train and the officer got up on a platform and said, "I want all of you to know that you are in an IRTC Program (Infantry Replacement Training Center). You are to train for the next seventeen weeks to replace those casualties that are occurring in Europe and the Pacific."



So for seventeen weeks we were in Basic Training at Camp Blanding, Florida and then I was assigned to the 13th Armored Division in Camp Bowie, Texas. This was August 1944.



The Division was mobilized and in December we were loaded on a train and taken to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, a Port of embarkation.

It was a staging area.



We boarded the Liberty Ships in December and crossed the Atlantic in a convoy and landed in Le Havre, France early in January 1945. My ship was the "General Black" as I recall. We were down in the hole of the ship and there were ten bunks on top of each other with just enough room to squeeze into the bunk. You almost couldn't turn over, particularly if the one above you was heavy. You would almost have to get out to turn over.



We had a couple of submarine scares and were cautioned to keep absolutely quiet and not tap on the hull of the ship. It was pretty scary!



This was my first opportunity to see what the destruction of war was really like. Le Havre was absolutely destroyed. All the buildings were bombed down and it was a mass of twisted metal. It was really awesome to look at. And I had never seen so much snow! It was about six feet deep. That was a lot of snow for a small town boy from middle Georgia. It was really cold! I couldn't believe how cold it was.



I was a rifleman in Company A, 16th Armored Infantry Battallion, 13th Armored Division. We went to a staging area in Normandy not far from Rouen, France and spent about six weeks there getting all our equipment together.



Then we loaded up in our half-tracks and went south toward Zwiebrucken, Germany and Saarbrucken, France where the siegfried line was. That's where our artillery first got into combat on the German-French border. We went north in the half-tracks covering a lot of territory pretty fast and went into the Rhur Valley.



This was the industrial area of Germany and it had been bombed unbelievably. There were a lot of cleaning-up operations because the Germans still had a strong hold on that area and we spent a couple or three weeks in the Rhur Valley trying to secure those areas.



After that, we came south to Barvaria and General Patton's 3rd Army and were involved in combat for about a month in clean-up operations in Southern Germany.



We went to Austria. (This was May 8, 1945.) The war ended there for us. We were about fifteen or twenty miles from Salzsburg, Austria. This was a terrifying time! There was a lot of anxiety going on. We all knew pretty well that the war was coming to an end, but I guess what was going on in everybody's mind was "Am I going to be the last one to get killed in this war?" So there was a lot of apprehension as well as a lot of relief when it finally ended.



I have heard the life of an Infantrymen described as "Long periods of boredom interspersed by periods of sheer terror." That's exactly what it was. We would ride and ride and wait and wait and ride and then all of a sudden we'd be in contact with the enemy. It was unbelievable terror.

We were in the Army of Occupation for several months and then left Europe in early July 1945. We arrived back in the States around the 20th of July. We were in Germany from May until July. Our orders were that we'd get a thirty-day leave and then report to Camp Cook California for processing and cross the Pacific in LST's for the Invasion of Japan.



I've read a lot about the use of the Atomic bomb and read articles of opposition but I don't believe I would be sitting here talking to you, if it had not been for that Atomic bomb. It was an awful thing to happen, so many people were killed and the radiation problems that followed for years and years.



But there would have been thousands of military people from our country not to mention the countless number of Japanese military and civilians as well, if we had to invade that island.



We were in Camp Cook California for staging to cross the Pacific. I guess the military was trying to make arrangements as quickly as they could to discharge as many people as they could. I was just sitting there waiting. I was anxious to get out, I wanted to come back home and go to school. In the meantime, on my thirty-day furlough Luella and I got married on August 3, 1945. So I was anxious to get back home. I got transferred from Camp Cook to Ft. McPherson to the Military Police there. I spent the last couple or three months in the Military Police at Ft. McPherson. I was discharged there in May 1946.



When I was at Camp Cook, I got a couple of furloughs to come home by train. It took about five days to get to Macon. It was hot, no air conditioning, windows open, coal burning locomotive and no opportunity for a bath. The soot and grime were awful, but I did make a couple trips. We'd do anything to get home for a few days!



I couldn't get into the University of Georgia in Athens because of the many Veterans' coming back so I went a couple quarters at South Georgia College, Douglas. Then I went to the University of Georgia to do pre-med and then got into the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. When I first came back I knew what I wanted to do, but had difficulty getting into college (even South Georgia).



I was a city mail carrier for a little while. The regular mail carrier, my Scout Master when I was in the Scouts had to have surgery so I took his place for a few months before getting back in school.



After Medical School, I did a couple years of internship and residency in Macon and then went to Swainsboro for six months. In 1954, I came to Dublin to practice with Dr. John A. Bell and this is where we have been since then.

An opportunity came in 1976 to run for a State House seat while I was still practicing medicine. I made a run for it and was successful. I served three terms (six years) in the Georgia House of Representatives. I liked public service; my family has always been involved in politics.



There seemed to be an opportunity to run for a US House Seat. I did that and was successful and spent six terms (twelve years) as a U. S. Representative. It was a great experience!



I'd like to make a comment about the World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington. Recently it seems more attention has been given to World War II. It is not just the Veteran's of World War II. It was the civilian population also. It was a National unbelievable effort on the part of everybody in this country. We had rationing and everybody accepted that, and the fact is there was black market. Sugar, food, tires, gas, and clothes were rationed. A lot of people who didn't go into the military went off to work in the industrial complexes such as ship building, etc. The whole population, the military and everyone played a part. Anyone who was not a part of that doesn't understand. To talk about the World War II Memorial is really a memorial for everybody. Where they are talking about putting it on the Mall and the opposition against that is appalling to me. Because we may not even have a mall as we know it, if we had lost that war! So it is absurd when people talk about the memorial distracting from the appearance of the mall. We have a Vietnam Memorial, a Korean Memorial and all the wars we have been involved in has a memorial and I think the mall is the place where the World War II Memorial should be.



My father was James Roy Rowland, Sr., a lawyer and always involved in politics. He was District Attorney and a Superior Court Judge.



My mother, Jerradine Marilyn Brinson was from Wrightsville. She was Director of the Welfare Department (now DFACS). My grandfather on my mother's side was a pharmacist, his father was a physician, and he had a brother who was a physician and another brother who was a pharmacist. So I kind of leaned in that direction.



My father's family was in politics. My grandfather on my father's side was in the State Senate and State House.



So the medical and political field came natural.



My wife, Luella Price and her family lived in the country at New Home. Her father was Travis L. Price, Sr. and her mother, Zona. Luella came to Wrightsville for her last two years in high school and we were classmates. That's how we met.



We have three children, Mary Lou, Jane, and James Roy III. We have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.



I have a brother, Joe, an attorney in Wrightsville who is also the Magistrate there.





Note: Dr. Rowland's memorabilia include a shadow box filled with the following:



A Bronze Star Medal awarded for Meritorious Achievement in Ground Combat against the armed enemy during World War II in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations. (copy of Citation attached)



A second Bronze Star medal awarded for Military service in line of combat.



Campaign ribbon of the European Theater of Operations with two Campaign Stars, one for the Rhiland and the other for Central Europe.



"Ruptured Duck" lapel pin that was given at time of discharge.



Combat Infantryman badge



Medal for sharp shooter as Rifleman



American Theater Medal



Victory Medal



Good conduct Medal