WILLIAM WALLACE

WILLIAM WALLACE
“A True Survivor”

For the last fifteen years, millions of persons all over the world  have tuned their television sets to watch the popular television show Survivor.  The king of reality of shows features everyday people who endure the elements and undergo a variety of contests.  Sixty five years ago, William Wallace and thousands of other American soldiers and civilians faced the same challenge.  However, this challenge was real. It was constantly brutal,  frequently deadly and unfathomably heinous.

William Wallace, son of Lase and Frances Wallace, was born on April 1, 1922 and grew up in Millen, Georgia.  After his graduation from High School, William enlisted in the Army Air Corps and began his training at Fort McPherson in Atlanta.    Private Wallace was assigned to the 27th Bombardment Group (L)as a tail gunner.  The group was assigned to duty in the Philippine Islands in November 1941.  Wallace was at his station when the Japanese attacked the island chain on December 7.

The invaders launched a ferocious siege upon the American and Filipino forces, who had little food and an ever dwindling supply of ammunition.  After the three months of constant fighting, the American forces surrendered.  William was taken prisoner and along with thousands of other prisoners, was forced to endure the infamous “Bataan Death March.”  The weakened men were force-marched sixty miles in intense heat.  The only drinking water was found in mud puddles along the way.  Rest periods were rare.  Slow walkers were beaten.  Stragglers were bayoneted.  Six or seven hundred men were left dead on the side of the road.

After three months and fifteen hundred deaths at Camp O’Donnell, the prisoners were transported to the nefarious prison at Cabanatuan.  William remained there until September 1943.     It was in the latter months of 1943 that the Japanese government began to transport American prisoners back to the mainland to work in the coal mines.   Wallace and six hundred other prisoners were crammed into the hold a cargo ship, which set a course for Osaka.

Along the way, the ship detoured to Formosa in China.  The men were sent to a coal mine and were worked more than a half day, every day.  William was forced to push a heavy coal car up hill.  Any slip might result in a beating.    A prisoner’s daily diet consisted of three cups of rice.  If they were lucky, the men were given a prize morsel of meat, a pickled grasshopper, known to its consumer as a “Georgia Thumper.”

By 1944, William was assigned to a coal mine of the Rinko Coal Company in Japan. Conditions in the mine were unbearable.  The men were placed in an open building, left to face the brutal winters with virtually no shelter.  Each man was given old clothes to wear and a single blanket to keep them warm.  On the coldest of nights, six men would lie on one blanket and lie together, three with their heads on one end and three at the other end, with the five blankets on top.  At least the meals were better.   Stewed fish and boiled soybeans were added to the customary, but highly treasured, three daily cups of rice.   Once a week, the men got a bath.

Wallace described the winter of 1945 as the worst.  Snow falls ranged from three feet and more.  In order to avoid work and gain a stay in the hospital, Wallace would hold his breath and fall flat into the snow to make it appear that he had lost consciousness on six or seven occasions.  His captors never realized his ruse.  Had they done so, he would have been immediately executed on the spot.  “Getting out the snow, the freezing rain and still being allowed to eat was worth the risk,” said Wallace.   During that winter, William suffered from dysentery and double pneumonia and spent Easter Sunday, his 23rd birthday, in the hospital.

Conditions in the camp began to deteriorate rapidly.  The men began to steal food and cigarettes from each other, but were strongly disciplined if caught.  Distribution of food was scrutinized down to the pro rata bean and crumb of rice.

William was not released until the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  When he left the coal mine, he weighed 87 pounds.  Constant hunger and debilitating malaria and beriberi nearly killed William.  Thousands of others who weren’t so lucky.  

In August 1945, William returned to the United States and entered a hospital in California.   When he arrived home,  he possessed six stitches in his head, a result of an unprovoked attack by a Japanese civilian with a large chunk of coal.   After a period of recuperation, William returned to Georgia.  Among the first to greet him was his high school sweetheart Mary Dickey.  The couple married in 1946, but William believed his obligation to his country was not yet completed.  He returned to the Army Air Corps for a three-year hitch.  Though he tried to live a normal life, the haunting memories of his incarceration prevented William from sleeping with a light off for more than eight years.  Talking about his experiences was difficult, if not impossible.  It wasn’t until the survivors held their first reunion when William began to relate the horrors of his internment.  Wallace’s  remembrances are featured in Donald Knox’s “Death March,” the story of the Bataan Death March and its survivors.

Wallace told Knox, “the further we went into captivity, the worse it became.”  He began to doubt whether or not he could ever survive, but came to realize “that the human body can suffer nearly everything and still survive.”

William Wallace graduated from Mercer University with a double major in religion and history.  For forty-one years, he served small rural Baptist churches in our area and worked at Warner Robins AFB until poor health forced his retirement in 1943.  His last sermon was delivered in 1991.

In January 1992, nearly fifty years after his capture,  William Wallace was presented the Congressional Prisoner of War Medal in his hospital bed by Congressman J. Roy Rowland.   Never bitter toward his captors, Wallace was disappointed that Japanese Americans interned in camps in our country were given a reparation of twenty thousand dollars, while he and the four thousand survivors and the families of the five thousand who died never received a cent of compensation.

The Rev. William Wallace died on February 27, 1995.  The lung disease he contracted in the camps eventually killed him.   Wallace survived one of the most brutal prison camps in the history of the world.  He endured to serve his fellow man and to espouse the word of the Gospel and spread the message of peace and love toward all mankind.  On this Memorial Day, take a moment to remember William Wallace and the millions of brave Americans who sacrificed their lives, their homes and families to preserve our freedoms.

THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN OF LAURENS COUNTY

SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS

Some 85 to 90 years ago, three young Laurens County boys played in the cotton fields and stared into the sky as their parents and the older members of their families picked cotton and other crops from the field.

Hardly any of them had ever seen an airplane in their young and isolated lives.  In the next two decades, each of them would not only learn what an airplane was, they would learn to fly some of the fastest airplanes in the U.S. Air Force.

Each of these three men took separate career paths.  One flew bomber planes, another fighter planes, and the last one flew jet planes higher and faster than few people had eve flown before.

On Veteran’s Day, the State of Georgia will honor these three men by naming the intersection of U.S. Highway 80 West and the U.S. Highway 441 By-pass as the Herndon Cummings, Marion Rodgers, John Whitehead Tuskegee Airmen Interchange.  

The legislation was sponsored by Representatives Matt Hatchett, Bubber Epps and Jimmy Pruett at the request of Laurens County Commissioner, Buddy Adams, who has been the driving force in honoring veterans in Laurens County since his election to office in 2008.   Adams proposed legislation to name the two legs of the by-pass for Lt. Kelso Horne,  the cover man of Life magazine’s first D-Day issue and Lt. Col. Clyde Stinson, who was awarded two Silver Stars for heroism and was one of the highest ranking officers killed in actual combat in Vietnam. 

     Of the estimated one thousand men who bore the title of a “Tuskegee Airmen,” three of these remarkable aviators can call Laurens County, Georgia home.  

One, Major Herndon Cummings, was a native of Laurens County, while two others, Col. John Whitehead and Col. Marion Rodgers spent portions of their childhood living in Laurens County.  The legacy of these three men lived well beyond their years as a separate unit of the United States Army Air Force.  Laurens County’s three Tuskegee Airmen went on to remarkable achievements in aviation for decades beyond their service during World War II.

   Herndon Cummings was born on April 25, 1919 in the Burgamy District of Laurens County, Georgia.  The son of Joseph and Mollie Hill Cummings,  Don’s interest in aviation was sparked on Christmas Day in 1928 when his father gave him a toy German zeppelin.  His interest in flying was forever sealed in 1936 when Don and his brother took a five-dollar ride  in a Ford Tri-Motor plane.  As the plane soared in the skies west of Dublin, Don underwent a life-altering experience.  "By the time the plane landed, I knew what I wanted to do," he recalled.   

     Cummings enlisted in the Air Corps on June 25, 1942.  He trained in the B-25 bomber at Tuskegee and later at Lockbourne Air Force Base in Columbus, Ohio, where he would later make his home.   Of the nine hundred to a thousand men who successfully completed their training at Tuskegee, most trained as fighter pilots in the P-51 fighter and other fighters. 

     Lt. Cummings was assigned to the 477th Bomber Group, which was based at Selfridge Army Air Field, Michigan in 1944.  Many of the members of the group were commanded by white officers, who according to some, favored white officers over the black officers.  Concerns over racial troubles in Detroit forced the group to move to Godman Field near Fort Knox, Kentucky.    By March 1945, the 477th was uprooted again and moved to Freemen Army Field at Seymour, Indiana.  

    The field at Freeman maintained two clubs, one for supervisors and one for trainees, but were defacto separated between blacks and whites.  In the early days of April 1945, the relationships between the commanding officers and the black pilots began to deteriorate rapidly.   On April 9, 1945, the day of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, more than 100 of the airmen were arrested and placed in jail for twelve days until they were released by order of new President, Harry S. Truman.  

     Just weeks after they were freed,  Lt. Cummings was promoted to captain to command a bomber.  After completing his four-year stint in the Army Air Corps, Cummings served in the Air Force Reserve and attained the rank of major before retiring after twenty years of service.

     Cummings earned a commercial pilot's license, but never utilized it because there were virtually no opportunities for employment of black pilots.  He went to work laying bricks in order to support his family and send his two daughters to college.

In one of his last official reunions with his fellow Tuskegee airmen, Major Cummings was invited to sit on the stage during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.  He died some six months later on July 2, 2009.

Marion Rodgers was born in Detroit, Michigan  on September 23, 1921 and raised to about age eight in Dublin, Georgia until his family moved to New York.   Rodgers grew interested in aviation when a man in the neighborhoold began to restore a damaged bi-plane.  From that point forward, Rodgers would spend his free time going to airports watching plans take off and land.  

           Not immediately accepted into flight school at Tuskegee, Alabama, Rodgers was first assigned to an anti-aircraft artillery unit and the served a short term as a radio operator.  Eventually, Marion was accepted into flight school at Keesler Field.  In May 1943, I'm sent to Pre-Flight Training at Tuskegee Army Air Field.

Rodgers trained at Moten Field before returning to Tuskegee where he flew the Vultee BT-131 for the requisite 80 flight hours.  Promoted to the much more powerful AT-6, Marion earned his 2nd Lieutenant wings.

             After flying the P-40, P-39 and P-47, Marion was assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron, the famous unit eternally known as the “Red Tails.”  In 69 combat missions Lt. Rodgers  flew 370 hours as am escort for B-17s and B-24s. 

After the war, Rodgers was eventually promoted to command the 99th Fighter Squadron “The Red Tails”  at Lockbourne Air Base.  In 1948, the Air Force was integrated under orders from President Harry S. Truman.  Col. Rodgers, a twenty-two-year veteran of the Air Force and a 17-year Civil Service worker, spent one year working for N.A.S.A. as a program manager on the mission of Apollo 13.  In technical circles, Rodgers was prominent in the development of electronics and communications procedures with N.O.R.A.D..

           After his retirement in 1983, Rodgers became known for his exceedingly kind contributions of his time  to public organizations in his home town. He also attended as many events honoring the Tuskegee Airmen whenever and wherever he could.   In his spare time, Rodgers spent many fun times with his wife Suzanne and engaging in his favorite hobby as an amateur radio operator.   

         Just a few weeks ago, Rodgers, 93 years old,  was treated to one more flight in a P-51 over Camarillo, California.  The flight in the fighter plane which turned the tide of the air war in Europe came nearly seventy years after his first flight.

Col. John Whitehead, known to his fellow pilots as “Mr. Death,” was born in Lawrenceville, Virginia in 1924.  Like Col. Rodgers, Whitehead spent several of the years of his youth in Laurens County.  Lt. Whitehead flew several missions over Europe in World War II.

Col. Whitehead was the Air Force’s first African-American test pilot.  Many of his hours in the air came while he was a pilot instructor for the Air Force in the 1950s.   A former President of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., Whitehead was given his nickname, not because he cheated death on many times, but because of his gaunt looking face, supposedly resembling that of a skull.

  

In his 30-year career, Col. Whitehead spent more than 9,500 hours in the air, with some 5000 of them coming in jet aircraft.  In January 1951, Whitehead was featured on the cover of Ebony magazine.  

After serving as a pilot in Vietnam and retiring from the military, Whitehead served as an instructor and Air Force Liaison at Boeing and  Northrop Aircraft.   

Whitehead was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters,  the Air Medal with seven oak leaf clusters and numerous other citations and medals.   He was a man of firsts, the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Experimental Test Pilots School, the first African American to fly the B-47 bomber and the first African American to serve as an instructor of jet pilots.

THE FLY BOYS

Since the first biplane flew over the skies of Laurens County just about a century ago, our young men, and a few young women,  have dreamed of flying up and into the skies above us.   Many of these young men went on to serve in the Air Force during the wars of the 20th Century.  On this Veteran’s Day, let us salute the Fly Boys, the warriors in the skies.

The first glimpses of the flying machines came during fair and festival times when barnstorming pilots thrilled thousands of curious onlookers.  

The first Laurens County pilot was Corporal Walter Warren.  Warren, a member o the American Expeditionary Force, was the first American airmen to be wounded in World War I in early December 1917.

After World War I, flying became a national obsession.  It was in 1919, when Dublin, then one of the largest cities in the state,  became the destination of pilots around Georgia.  Recruiters out of Souther Field in Americus flew in and out of Dublin in hopes of getting some local boys in the seat of plane.

But it was in the 1930s, when interest in flying exploded.  The Dublin City Council established the first airport on the Phelps Place on Claxton Dairy Road in 1929.   Mayor T.E. Hightower urged that “Dublin be put on the air map of the United States Aeronautical Association as soon as possible.”  “All the world has taken wings and Dublin must take to the air, too, or be left behind,” Hightower added.   Another landing strip was on the west side of town on the E.T. Barnes place on the Macon Road.  This primitive landing strip, probably located near the Dublin Mall

The kids of Dublin formed a Junior Birdmen Club in February 1935.  Emory Beckham was elected the wing commander, while Jack Baggett was chosen as the club captain.  Billy Keith served as the secretary-treasurer.  Other members of the club were Earle Beckham, Luther Word, Owen Word and Jimmie Sanders.  The club, organized to promote an interest in aviation, was the only club between Macon and Savannah.

The enthusiasm of the Junior Birdmen inspired city officials to begin construction of a municipal airport two miles south of town on the Dublin-Eastman Highway south of  the present site of Mullis’ Junkyard.  With the support of Monson Barron, the city’s oldest aviation afficionado, Clafton Barron, and Ellison Pritchett, who had worked for Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas, a four plane hangar was constructed on the site.  Local officials continued to push the Barnes site on Highway 80 West, as well as the Cullens site in East Dublin on Highway 80 East.  Neither of the three sites ever attained the status of a first class airport. 

By far, the greatest interest in flying came when the United States entered World War II. Robert Werden, Jr. loved to fly and was so anxious to fly planes in World War II that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  When the United States declared war, he joined the Army Air Force, only to be shot down and killed in the early years of the war.  

Lt. Lucian Bob Shuler, a former Cadwell High School basketball coach, was an ace, having shot down seven  Japanese planes in combat.   Captain Shuler (LEFT)  was awarded eleven Distinguished Flying Crosses and twelve Air Medals.   Cpt. William A. Kelley, a former Dublin High School coach, was flying the “Dauntless Dotty” when  it crashed into the sea on June 6, 1945.  The B-29 Superfortress was the first B-29 to bomb Tokyo.  Kelley and his crew, who flew in a bomber named “The Lucky Irish,” were the first crew in the Pacific to complete 30 missions.  

Lt. Colonel J.R. Laney,  former residents of Dublin and graduates of West Point, was cited for their actions in India and Europe.   Laney was a member of the three-man crew of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, the world’s fastest transcontinental plane, when it crashed into a Washington, D.C. suburb in December 1945.  Lt. Col. Laney survived the crash to complete a distinguished thirty-year career in the Army.   

Marion Rodgers,  (LEFT) who spent his early years in Dublin, was a squadron commander of the Tuskegee Airman in the years after World War II.  Major Herndon Cummings was a Tuskegee bomber pilot in the 477th Bomber Group. Cummings was incarcerated along with a hundred other fellow pilots for attempting to integrate an all-white officers club at Freeman Field in Indiana in 1945 in one of the country’s first major civil rights incidents. John Whitehead, who grew up in Dublin like Rodgers, was the Air Force’s first African American test pilot, was also a Tuskegee Airman. 

Major Herndon Cummings

 Col. John Whitehead

Captain Alvin A. Warren, Jr., of Cadwell, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 70 missions in the Indo-China Theater night and day through impassable mountain ranges and high clouds. Walter D. Warren, Jr. was a member of the famed Flying Tigers in China-Burma-India Theater.  Flight officer Emil E. Tindol also received the same award, just days before he was killed in action  while “flying the hump” - a term used for flying over the gigantic mountain ranges of India and Burma.    

For his battle wounds and other feats of courage and bravery, Lt. Clifford Jernigan was awarded the Purple Heart, an Air Medal and three Oak Leaf clusters in 1944.   Lt. Garrett Jones was a highly decorated pilot who participated in the first daylight bombings of Germany.   Lt. Col. Ezekiel W. Napier of Laurens County, a graduate of West Point, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Brigadier General.  The "Pilot's Pilot," Bud Barron of Dublin, was credited with the second most number of air miles during the war, mainly by ferrying aircraft to and from the front lines. Barron has been inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.    

Near the end of the war, the U.S. Navy established an airport northwest of Dublin to support the Naval Hospital in Dublin.  That airport became the Laurens County Airport after the war.       Passenger and air freight service began in and out of Dublin in 1945 with flights on Southern Air Express Airlines.

J.P. McCullough was an aviation instructor in the Air Force.  Among his more famous pupils were two of the country’s better known aviators, United States Senators John Glenn and John McCain.

Major James F. Wilkes, (left) a Forward Air Controller flying a modified civilian Cessna airplane, was awarded a Silver Star for directing fighter aircraft in between friendly and enemy positions and saving the lives of many American soldiers.  Major Wilkes also won two Distinguished Flying Crosses and fifteen Air Medals. Lt. Col. Holman Edmond, Jr. in his two tours of duty in Vietnam was awarded 2 Bronze Stars and 17 Air Medals. 

Today, flying remains a popular pastime in Laurens County. And, still there are young men who fly missions for our country on a regular basis to preserve the freedoms e still enjoy at home and around the world. 

Lt. George Spicer

                                                                   Lt. Roy Malone

LAURENS COUNTIANS IN WORLD WAR II

A Brief History of Our Involvement

It was during the early morning hours of September 2, 1939, 75 years ago, while most Laurens Countians were still asleep that the British government declared war on Germany because of its unwarranted invasion of Poland.  World War II began.  Officially, the United States remained neutral.  Despite our country’s detached stance, locally Laurens County men continued training at the National Guard Armory in anticipation of the inevitable conflict. 

Dublin and Laurens County once again stepped forward and sent thousands of young men into military service during World War II.  Scores of Laurens County boys joined the National Guard, which was attached to the 121st U.S. Infantry division.   The Guard mobilized in September of 1940 into Federal service.  

Alta Mae Hammock and Brancy Horne were the first women to join the W.A.A.C..  Marayan Smith Harris was the first woman to join the WAVES.   Louise Dampier also served as a yeoman in the U.S. Navy.  Seaman Elbert Brunson, Jr. was onboard the U.S.S. Greer on September 4, 1941.  The destroyer was the first American destroyer to fire upon the dreaded German U-boat submarines in an incident which accelerated the country’s declaration of war against Germany.  Despite strong support from all the communities of Central Georgia and Cong. Carl Vinson,  the powerful chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, the federal government denied the location of a naval air training station on the Oconee River just below the city due to the lack of a large labor force and the heavy infestation of mosquitos in the area.  

Before the United States officially entered the war, Lester F. Graham, a Dublin marine, was among a thousand U.S. Marines assigned to protect American interests in Shanghai, China which was under attack by the Japanese army in the summer of 1937. 

Several Laurens Countians were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Marjorie Hobbs Wilson and her husband were eyewitnesses to the bombing.   Also at Pearl Harbor on the “Day of Infamy” were  George Dewey Senn, William Drew, Jr., Bascom Ashley, Walter Camp, Joel Wood, Harold Wright, Charles Durden, Hardy Blankenship, Rowland Ellis, Wade Jackson, Nathan Graham, Obie Cauley and Claxton Mullis.  Lts. William C. Thompson, Jr. and Everett Hicks were serving in the Philippines and Woody Dominy was stationed on Wake Island.   Mess Attendant 1st Class Albert Rozar served aboard the U.S.S. Gudgeon in the first submarine patrol into Japanese waters. 

Alton Hyram Scarborough, of the D.H.S. Class of '37, was the first of one hundred and nine casualties of the war.  Robert Werden, Jr. loved to fly and was so anxious to fly planes in World War II that he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  When the United States declared war, he joined the Army Air Force, only to be shot down and killed in the early years of the war.  

Capt. Bobbie E. Brown of Laurens County was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the assault on Crucifix Hill in Aachen, Germany.  Capt. Brown, a career non- commissioned officer, personally led the attack on German positions, killing over one hundred Germans and being wounded three times during the battle.  Capt. Brown was the first Georgian ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, along with eight Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars.  At the end of the war, Captain Brown was the oldest company commander in the United States Army and first in length of service.  Paratrooper Kelso Horne was pictured on the cover of Life during the invasion of Normandy.   Lt. Horne, a member of the famed 82nd Airborne Division and one of the oldest paratroopers in the U.S. Army, parachuted behind German lines near St.  Mere Eglise in the night time hours before the amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.   Ensign Shelton Sutton, Jr., a native of Brewton and a former center for Georgia Tech, was killed while serving aboard the U.S.S. Juneau, along with the famous Sullivan brothers.   Nearly two years later in 1944,  the U.S. Navy commissioned the U.S.S. Sutton in his memory.  His teammate Aviator Wex Jordan,  an all-Southeastern guard for Georgia Tech in 1941 and Tech’s Most Valuable Player, was killed in an air accident while training in San Diego on Veteran’s Day in 1943.

Like the fictional Captain John Miller in “Saving Private Ryan,” Dublin and Laurens County teachers left the classroom to fight for their country.  Robert Colter, Jr., who had been teaching Vocational-Agricultural classes at Cadwell High School was killed on February 20, 1945 in Germany.  Captain Henry Will Jones, the Vocational - Agricultural teacher and football coach at Dexter High School and a paratrooper, was killed at Peleliu Island in the South Pacific in October 18, 1944.  In recognition of his exemplary valor, Capt. Jones was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.   Lt. Lucian Bob Shuler, a former Cadwell High School basketball coach, was an ace, having shot down seven  Japanese planes in combat.   Captain Shuler was awarded eleven Distinguished Flying Crosses and twelve Air Medals.   Cpt. William A. Kelley, a former Dublin High School coach, was flying the “Dauntless Dotty” when  it crashed into the sea on June 6, 1945.  The B-29 Superfortress was the first B-29 to bomb Tokyo.  Kelley and his crew, who flew in a bomber named “The Lucky Irish,” were the first crew in the Pacific to complete 30 missions.  They were returning home to headline the 7th War Bond Drive when the accident occurred.  Randall Robertson and James Hutchinson, both only a year or so out of Dublin High School, were killed several weeks apart on the same beach on Iwo Jima in 1945.  

Hubert Wilkes and Jack Thigpen survived the fatal attack on  the “U.S.S. Yorktown” at the Battle of Midway.    John L. Tyre volunteered for six months hazardous duty in southeast Asia in an outfit dubbed “Merrill’s Marauders.”  The Marauders, the first ground soldiers to see action in World War II, fought through jungles filled with Japanese soldiers, unbearable heat and slithering snakes.  Only one out six managed to make it all way through the war. 

Lt. Colonel James D. Barnett, Col. Charles Lifsey, Col. George T. Powers, III,  and Lt. Colonel J.R. Laney,  former residents of Dublin and graduates of West Point, were cited for their actions in India and Europe.   Laney was a member of the three-man crew of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, the world’s fastest transcontinental plane, when it crashed into a Washington, D.C. suburb in December 1945.  Lt. Col. Laney survived the crash to complete a distinguished thirty year career in the Army.   

James Adams, Morton C. Mason, Wilkins Smith, Russell M. Daley, Gerald Anderson, Marshall Jones, Robert L. Horton, Loyest B. Chance, Needham Toler, William L. Padgett, Joseph E. Joiner, W.B. Tarpley, Owen Collins, Loy Jones, Thurston Veal, James B. Bryan, James T. Daniel, Cecil Wilkes and others  were surviving in P.O.W. camps in Germany, while Alton Watson, James W. Dominy, and Alton Jordan  were held prisoner by the Japanese.  Lt. Peter Fred Larsen, a prisoner of the Japanese army, was killed by American planes when being transported to the Japanese mainland in an unmarked freighter.  Future Dubliner Tommy Birdsong was digging coal in a Japanese coal mine when an atomic bomb near Nagasaki was dropped.  Earlier he survived the infamous "Bataan Death March."   Other future Dubliners who survived the Bataan Death March were William Wallace, A. Deas Coburn, and Felix Powell.   

      Commander Robert Braddy, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy,  was awarded the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest honor for naval heroism,  for his actions in North Africa in November of 1942.  Rear Admiral Braddy retired from the service in 1951.  Captain William C. Thompson was awarded a Silver Star, two Gold Stars, a Navy Cross and a Bronze Star for his outstanding naval submarine service.  Captain Thompson was the executive officer aboard the submarine Bowfin, which was credited with sinking the second highest Japanese tonnage on a single war patrol.  Thompson was aboard the U.S.S. Sealion when it was struck by Japanese planes at Cavite, Philippines.  The submarine was the first American submarine to be lost in World War II.  Both men are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Captain Thompson’s  first cousin, Sgt. Lester Porter of Dublin, led the first invading forces over the Danube River in nearly two millennia.  Marine Corporal James W. Bedingfield, of Cadwell, was awarded a Silver Star by Admiral Chester Nimitz for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the Japanese at Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, on February 6, 1944.   His kinsman, Capt. Walter H. Bedingfield, was awarded a Silver Star for heroism in setting up a field hospital in advance of American lines at Normandy on D-Day.   T. Sgt. Thurman W. Wyatt was awarded a Silver Star for heroism when he assumed command of his tank platoon following the wounding of the commander and guided it to safety.   Tech. Sgt. Luther Word  was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for heroism,  just prior to his being killed in action.  Lt. Paul Jimmy Scarboro was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry as a pilot of a Super Fortress in the Pacific Ocean. Sgt. Frank Zetterower was awarded the Silver Star for heroism when he was killed in action while trying to rescue wounded soldiers.

Captain Alvin A. Warren, Jr., of Cadwell, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying 70 missions in the Indo-China Theater night and day through impassable mountain ranges and high clouds.  Walter D. Warren, Jr. was a member of the famed Flying Tigers in China-Burma-India Theater.  Flight officer Emil E. Tindol also received the same award, just days before he was killed in action  while “flying the hump” - a term used for flying over the gigantic mountain ranges of India and Burma.    For his battle wounds and other feats of courage and bravery, Lt. Clifford Jernigan was awarded the Purple Heart, an Air Medal and three Oak Leaf clusters in 1944.   Lt. Garrett Jones was a highly decorated pilot who participated in the first daylight bombings of Germany.  Calvert Hinton Arnold was promoted to Brigadier General in 1945.  Lt. Col. Ezekiel W. Napier of Laurens County, a graduate of West Point, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired from the Air Force in 1959 as a Brigadier General.  The "Pilot's Pilot," Bud Barron of Dublin, was credited with the second most number of air miles during the war, mainly by ferrying aircraft to and from the front lines. Barron has been inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.    Dublin native Lt. William L. Sheftall, Jr. flew 74 missions in Italy and was awarded the Silver Star for heroism.  Sidney Augustus Scott, the Chief Engineer of the  SS Charles Morgan, was awarded the Merchant Marine Meritorious  Service medal for his heroism in the landing of men and material on the beaches of Normandy just after D-Day. 

PFC Wesley Hodges was a member of the 38th Mechanized Calvary Recon Squad, the first American squad to enter Paris on August 25, 1944.   Seaman James T. Sutton survived the sinking  of the “U.S.S.  Frederick C. Davis,” the last American ship sunk by the German Navy.     The 121st Infantry of the Georgia National Guard, which was headquartered in Dublin until 1938 and of which Company K and 3rd Battalion HQ Co. were located in Dublin, won a Presidential Unit Citation for its outstanding performance of their duty in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest during Thanksgiving 1944.  Edward Towns was cited for his meritorious service to the submarine forces of the United States.  Curtis Beall, after being voted by his classmates as the most outstanding senior at the University of Georgia in 1943, joined his brother Millard in the United States Marine Corps.  Capt. John Barnett, a twenty-one-year-old Dubliner and twice a winner of the Bronze Star Medal for heroism, was credited with being the youngest executive officer in the United States Army in 1944.  Lt. Arlie W. Claxton won the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943. These are only a few stories of the thousands of Laurens County's heroes of World War II.   Charles Yarborough and Reuben Whitfield were among the sailors who witnessed Japanese officials sign the official surrender agreement aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. 

Major Herndon “Don” M. Cummings was a bomber pilot in the 477th Bomber Group.  Though his unit was never saw active duty overseas, Major Cummings and his group were known as a group of units collectively called the “Tuskegee Airmen.”  Cummings was incarcerated along with a hundred other fellow pilots for attempting to integrate an all-white officers club at Freeman Field in Indiana in 1945.  Through the efforts of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and the actions of a newly sworn President Harry Truman, the pilots were freed and later exonerated of all charges against them.  Cummings remained in the reserves for twenty years after his retirement from active duty.   He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W.  Bush and was an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. 

Two other Tuskegee Airman who were raised in Laurens County were Col. Marion Rodgers and Col. John Whitehead.    Col. Rodgers was a squadron commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron after the war.  Col. Whitehead was the first African American test pilot in the Air Force and was one of the few Tuskegee Airmen to fly in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Laurens Countians supported the war effort on the home front. A State Guard unit was formed by over-age and under-age men.  Everyone from school children to grandmothers did their part.  Many Laurens Countians commuted to Warner Robins and Macon to work for the war effort. Laurens Countians opened their homes to soldiers from Camp Wheeler, near Macon and British R.A.F. cadets from Cochran Field in Macon.    Angelo Catechis bought war bonds with his life's savings to help rescue  his family in Greece.   The women of Laurens County worked diligently on the home front.  The women made bandages, surgical dressings and sponges by the scores of thousands,  along with knitted garments.  Carolyn Hall, blind since birth, was one of the most proficient knitters in the community.  Laurens Countians contributed hundred of hours of time to the Red Cross, U.S.O. and numerous Civilian Defense programs. Bessye Parker Devereaux was the first woman in the Charleston, S.C. shipyards to be awarded the Outstanding Worksmanship Award by President Roosevelt.   In the summer of 1944, the U.S. government honored the citizens and Laurens County for their contributions to the war effort by naming one of the reconditioned "Liberty Ships" the "U.S.S. Laurens." 

When the final tallies were counted, one hundred and three Laurens Countians lost their lives during the deadliest war in the history of the world.  Many, many more were wounded.  Life here would never be the same.  In an ironic way, the war changed everything for the better.  Economic opportunities, with the establishment of the U.S. Naval Hospital and J.P. Stevens and the influx of thousands of new residents, catapulted the county into an economic boom which still continues day. 

JAMES COOPER - A WIDOW'S STORY

MORE THAN JUST A NAME ON THE WALL

War is a horrible thing.  When you are a twenty-year-old bride and your prince and the love of your life is nearly half way around the world, it is a long and lonely time.  Dianne Cooper loved her husband James more than anyone she had ever loved.  To this day, more than forty-six years later, after an exploding grenade ended their fairy tale love, Dianne still remembers the twinkle in his eye and cherishes the love they shared a lifetime ago.

With the coming of the Moving Vietnam Wall to Dublin a few weeks ago, those cherished memories burst forth once again.  Memories of the days of waiting, hungering for his touch, waiting, waiting, for her darling prince to come home to her flashed through her mind as if it was 1968 all over again.

Dianne sat down and remembered the grand times before Vietnam and the lonesome days after James had to go away;


"When the moving wall arrived in Dublin, it inspired me to write my story.  

James and I became engaged during Christmas of 1965.  He was the man of my dreams.  We married on August 12, 1966.  I was 18 and he was 22.  As my father escorted me to him the night of our wedding, I thought "finally we are going to be together forever."

Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper left that night for our honeymoon in a brand new automobile - a gold Plymouth Fury right off the show room floor!  Someone had written on the windows - JUST MARRIED! WATCH GEORGIA GROW!  Tin cans were tied to the back.  We rode down what was called "the strip" in our town of Dublin.  Then we headed to Savannah.  We stayed at the Thunderbird Inn.  They welcomed us with moon pies and RC colas.

In the early spring of 1967, James received the letter informing him that he was being drafted.  He was sent to Ft. Benning for training, then received orders for Vietnam.  When he arrived there, I began to receive letters.  He told me he was at a base camp, weapons platoon, living in a tent and it was so hot.  But he would always tell me that he was okay.

I wrote him daily while counting the days as the song rang over in my head, Unchained Melody, Wait for me I'll be home.

In late December 1967, he received a week of R&R in Hawaii.  I couldn't wait to board the plane to see him!  It would be our last Christmas together.  After a wonderful week together, with bags packed, it was time to say goodbye again. He called a cab to take him to the airport.  He would not let me go.  We both fervently waved as I stood on the balcony looking down and he stood on the street looking up at me.  Afterwards, it was like he was thinking that we would never see each other again.  I cried for days on end.  I tried to think positive and focus my thought that he would be home in July.

In the late afternoon of May 9, 1968, my world shattered.  Two men in uniform knocked on my parent's door.  They came in, took their hats off and asked me to have a seat.  I immediately asked, "what is it?"  All I remember was that he said, "Your husband has been killed."  The song, Unchained Melody ended.  No more waiting.  A widow at 20.

It took two weeks to get his body home.  We had lots of friends and family who came to support us.  He was buried with full military honors.

In his last letter he talked about coming home to me and his family and how he couldn't wait to see us when he got off the plane.  Oh, to read his letter what he was saying and knowing he was gone.  It was the worst time ever in my life.

Although after 46 years, I have moved on with my life.  I still miss James to this day.  I remember the twinkle in his eye and will always cherish the love we shared.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a memory no one can steal.

My eight-year old granddaughter looked at our wedding pictures and asked me if that was a crown I was wearing. I said yes, I was his princess and he was my prince.  It was a true fairy tale that ended too soon.

You will find SP4 James E. Cooper on Line 37 of Panel 56E on the wall.

He for me, was more than just a name on the wall."


There are nearly 58,300 names carved on the reflective black, 493- foot Vietnam Wall.  There are ten thousand fold more victims of that war: parents, wives, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Dianne is one of those victims.  She still carries the scars of her fallen hero and prince.  For those of us who didn't lose a friend, a relative or a husband, we can not begin to fathom the unbearable pain, the endless loneliness, and the urge to be bitter.

In a small way, maybe the coming of the wall to Dublin can begin to heal the wounds of those who lost something of themselves back in the dismal days of the war in Vietnam.  For those who did lose loved ones, rest assured that the more than 15,000 people who came to the wall at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center came there to pay their deeply sincere respects of eternal gratitude and abiding love to more than just the names on the wall.

LAURENS COUNTY IN WORLD WAR I

WORLD WAR I
The War to End All Wars


They once called it the “War to End All Wars.”  It came nearly fifty years after the cataclysmic American Civil War and nearly 100 years after the end of the War of 1812.  Unlike the bombing of Pearl Harbor or Fort Sumpter, this war, which resulted in the direct deaths of 16 million people, including 116,000 Americans and 50 Laurens Countians, began somewhat inauspiciously with a Serbian national’s  assassination of Archduke Ferdinand Franz and his wife Sophie  on June 28, 1914.    A month later on June 28, Austria-Serbia declared war on Serbia.  Three days later on the last day of July, Germany declared war on Russia. Then one by one, the powers of Europe chose sides and declared war against one another.

Within a week, troops from the United Kingdom moved into France. By the 12th of August, the first World War began.  The United States remained somewhat neutral until the beginning of 1917.  Troubles south of the border in Mexico led to the reestablishment of the Local Guards in Dublin in May of 1917.  Judge R. D. Flynt and Captain W.C. Davis, a former commander of the unit, helped to organize local men, who anticipated that they would be going overseas within a few months. A couple of months later,  Lt. J.C. Minnenant, organizer of the Dublin Guards, left for France. Lewis Cleveland Pope was elected Captain of the Home Guards, the senior home guard organization in Georgia at the beginning of the War.   At the end of 1917, the Guards were led by Captain, L.C. Pope; First Lieutenant, Dr. E.R. Jordan; Second Lieutenant, W.M. Breedlove.  Lieutenants Jordan and Breedlove had replaced C.F. Ludwig and R.D. Flynt.  Carl Hilbun was elected First Sergeant.

On June 5, 1918, a large celebration, complete with a parade, speeches and a flag raising ceremony, was held on the first Draft Registration Day.

Within a week, patriotic Laurens Countians had already purchased more than $30,000.00 in war bonds.  Some of Dublin’s more prominent Yankee Doodle Dandies, Dr. C, A, Hodges, Peter S. Twitty, Mayor of Dublin, Dr. Sidney Walker, Dr. Landrum Page, Judge  Roy A. Flynt and Theron Burts, Gratton Corker, and Turner Schaufele signed up to go over there for Uncle Sam.

Even Dublin's mayor, Peter S. Twitty, Jr., enlisted in the U.S. Army.  Both Twitty and his  successor, Ozzie Bashinski, donated their salaries to the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A..
The first men drafted were:  Early L. Miller, Alva D. Rozar, R.C. Dawkins, Herbert T. Pullen, Charles G. Payne, Horace C. Spivey, Albert A. Rountree, John Johnson, Willie C. Smith, W.H. Horton, Gordon F. Daniel, C.B. Brantley, D.W. Knight, W.H. Flanders, A.G. Murray and Raymond Bennett.  The first alternates were:  J. Aurice Keen, Floyd Murray, C.P. Perry, James H. Pritchett, and George W. Jackson.

Among the first Negroes in Georgia to be drafted in the Army were a contingent of Laurens County men.  Many Negro soldiers were used primarily in support and transportation units.  Few were assigned to actual combat duties.

Civilians, Mrs. T.H. Smith, Dr. U.S. Johnson  and T.R. Ramsay led the local chapters of the American Red Cross.  By May 7, 1918, War Bond sales, under the direction of James M. Finn, exceeded a half million dollars.  Laurens County was ninth among Georgia counties in war bonds sold and third in Georgia counties which had exceed their quotas.

Not all Laurens Countians were excited about the entry of the United States into a world war.   By mid August, the city council was vowing to fight any anti draft meetings which might be held.   Chief among the opponents  was the highly respected and admired jeweler and optometrist, Dr. C.H. Kittrell, who was forced to resign his position on the school board at the request of the city council because of his unpatriotic  stand against the way America got into World War I.

Dublin and Laurens County furnished nearly 1100 men to the armed forces in World War I.   Corporal Walter Warren of Dexter was the first American aviator to be wounded in France in early December 1917.  

Cecil Preston Perry became the first Laurens Countian to die in action in the summer of 1918.  James Mason, who first served in the Mexican War of 1916,  was the first Dubliner to die in action. He died in France on July 29, 1918.  James L. Weddington, Jr., of the 6th Marine Corps Regiment, was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on July 10, 1918 for his heroism in carrying many wounded men off the battle field to field hospitals for several hours, risking his own safety in the process.  Lt. Col. Pat Stevens was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre for extraordinary heroism in action south of Spitaal Bosschen, Belgium, on October 31, 1918.  Lt. Ossie F. Keen was awarded the Silver Star.

Sgt. Bill Brown of Dexter was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and was one of only 34 Americans to be awarded the French Cross with a Star for his heroism on October 14, 1918 at the battle of Cote de Chattelon.    

Coley B. White survived the sinking of HMS Otranto.   Four hundred thirty-one other American and British soldiers and sailors did not.  Oscar K. Jolley survived a stint as a prisoner in a German P.O.W. camp.  Fortunately, the war was relatively short and only  fifty Laurens County men lost their lives.

Even as the war was ending the work of draft board continued.  It would be another six months before things in Dublin and Laurens County returned to some semblance of normality.

A nationwide influenza epidemic  killed many of the county's older citizens during the months before and after the end of World War I.  The county board of health closed schools and banned public meetings for several weeks. The epidemic finally waned in the spring of 1919.

Two lasting impacts of the war were the reorganization of the Dublin Guards, a state militia unit, as  Co. A. of the 1st Battalion of the Georgia National Guard.  The unit, which was the first National Guard unit in the Southeast,   has evolved to a support company and is still active today.  The company's first captain, Lewis C. Pope of Dublin, served as Adjutant General of the Georgia National Guard in the 1920's.   Another, highly negative impact of war was the rapid decline of Dublin and Laurens County’s stature as one of the largest cities and counties in Georgia.

An ephemeral legacy of America’s victory against Germany came during the euphoria following the end of the war.  Enough residents of Academy Avenue convinced the city council to rename the avenue in honor of Woodrow Wilson.  A few weeks later, more prominent and powerful residents persuaded the council to reverse their hasty decision.  To compensate for the hasty faux pas, the city planted a tree on the grounds of the high school, which has long since died or cut down.


Some of the casualties from Laurens County.

THE ROLL OF HONOR

 John W. Adams, George L. Attaway, Walter Berry, James Bradley, Leon F. Brannon, Fisher Brazeal,  Linton T. (Leonard) Bostwick, Joseph J. Bracewell, James Brown, Tom Watson Bryant, Sammie Burke, David Burton Camp, Freeman Coley, Ashley Collins, William Coney, Alvin T. Coxwell, Samuel Evans, James W. Flanders, Clarence David Fordham, Oscar Fulwood, John W. Green, James C. Hall, Archie Hinson, Syril P. Hodges, Delmar M. Howard, Ben F. Howell, Wallace C. Huffman, Jesse Kelley, Frazier Linder, Dewitt Lindsay, Ed McLendon, Walter E. Martin, James Mason, George McLoud, Jessie Mercer, Rayfield Meacham, George C. Mitchell, Robbie  New, Cecil Preston Perry, Wilbur Pope, John H. Sanders, Roger O. Sellers, John Stevens, Ed Stuckey, Louis M. Thompson, Edgar Towns, Fleming du Bignon Vaughn, Ed Washington, George Windham, James A. Williams, Henry K. Womack, Wayman Woodard, and McKinley Yopp.