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Contact Info
Home Town Clio, Alabama
Last Address Montgomery, Alabama
Date of Passing Sep 13, 1998
Location of Interment Greenwood Cemetery - Montgomery, Alabama
He enlisted Oct 20, 1942 not long after getting a law degree. He had worked his way through law school by boxing, doing food service jobs, and driving a cab. In the USAAF, he entered pilot cadet training but washed out. It turns out he had gotten spinal meningitis in basic training and this prevented him from becoming a pilot. He trained as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer and then flew B-29 combat missions in the Pacific. While doing so he served under Gen. Curtis E. LeMay who later in life would become his political running mate. Due to his health problems he was given a medical discharge in 1945.
WWII - Pacific Theater of Operations/Western Pacific Campaign (1944-45)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description (Western Pacific Campaign 15 June 1944 to 2 September 1945) Attacks on Truk, where the Japanese had a major base, continued as preparations were made for the invasion of the Marianas. The American troops that landed on Saipan on 15 June 1944 met bitter opposition; but, after a desperate Japanese counterattack on 7 July, organized resistance soon terminated. Tinian, invaded on 25 July, was won by I August. Guam, which had been seized by the Japanese on 10 December 1941, was invaded on 20 July and regained after 20 days of fighting. With the conquest of the Marianas, the United States gained valuable bases for an aerial offensive against Japan itself. To provide bases for operations against the Philipgines, the Palaus were invaded in mid-September. Later, aerial attacks were made on Formosa to support the invasion of the Philippines and Okinawa.
