World War II Veterans

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  Henry Ahola

  Born in Massachusetts in 1925, Henry Ahola was the son of Finnish immigrants. During World War II, he volunteered to serve in the Army Air Corps and shipped out to Guam, where he worked in a telephone office circulating messages among military units stationed in the Pacific. After the war he worked for the Lockheed corporation in Georgia. 
  
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  Topics: War in Europe, Pearl Harbor, Rationing, Military Training, North vs. South, War in the Pacific, The USO, Postwar America
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  Roger Amidon

  Born in Ohio in 1928, Roger Amidon served as part of an occupational force in Nagoya, Japan, after World War II. His military unit helped to restore power to the city, where many Japanese remained homeless a year after the war. Amidon repaired radio teletype machines on the night shift and spent much of his free time traveling around the country. He moved to Georgia in the 1970s. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, Rationing, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Postwar America
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  Harry Anton

  Born in Minnesota in 1923, Harry Anton volunteered to serve in a supply unit recruited through the General Motors Company during World War II. He spent two years on a base in North Africa before transferring to the infantry during the Battle of the Bulge. While crossing into Germany, Anton was struck by a German bullet and spent several weeks in recovery. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, Military Training, War in Europe, Postwar America
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  Richard Bailey

  Born in New York in 1922, Richard Bailey worked as a toolmaker’s apprentice for General Electric before enlisting in the Army Air Corps. He served as a B-26 pilot during World War II, leading crews of six on pre-invasion bombing missions over Europe. By the end of the war, Bailey had flown 65 missions including three on D-Day. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Military Training, War in Europe
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  Edith Bond

  Born in southwest Georgia in 1921, Edith Bond worked at St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company in Jacksonville during World War II. In 1944 she enlisted in the Navy as an officer in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She had postings at the Bureau of Ships in Washington, D.C., and the Pensacola Naval Air Station. After the war she enjoyed a long career in social work.
  

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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, FDR, North vs. South, Military Training, Arsenal of Democracy, War in the Pacific, Women in War, The Atomic Bomb, Victory Celebrations, Postwar America
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  Theodore Britton

  Born in North Augusta, South Carolina in 1925, Theodore Roosevelt Britton, Jr., moved to New York City when he was ten years old. Britton joined the Marine Corps in 1943 and maintained the muster roll for his military unit in the Pacific. He attended New York University and served as ambassador to Barbados and Grenada under President Ford. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Military Training, FDR, First Black Marines, Racism in the Military, War in the Pacific

   
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  Alton Cadenhead

  Born on a farm in Troup County, Georgia in 1924, Alton Cadenhead enlisted in the Marine Corps after the Pearl Harbor attack. Serving as a corporal in the Third Marine Division, Cadenhead was injured in the battles of Guam and Iwo Jima. After the war he worked as a mechanical engineer. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, FDR, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Victory Celebrations, Postwar America
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  Robert Chester

  Born in New Jersey in 1928, Robert Chester entered the Navy in the final year of the war. He served as a gunner's mate aboard the USS Ludlow, which convoyed ships into Japanese ports during the American occupation. After returning to the United States, Chester took a long-term job in the explosives and chemical industry. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Victory Celebrations, Postwar America
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  Michael Cox

  Born in 1944, Michael Cox grew up in the small town of Molina, Georgia, close to his World War II veteran uncles, George Mack Hamlett and Alvie Lowell Hamlett. While “Mack” served in the Army in Europe and “Lowell” served in the Navy off the Florida coast, both Hamletts documented their experiences with letters and photographs.
  

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  Topics: Military Training, War in Europe, Liberation, FDR, Postwar America
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  Jimmy Doi

  Born in Oxnard, California in 1925, Jimmy Doi was the son of Japanese parents who emigrated from Japan in the early 20th century. He spent two years in the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona, before he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After the war Doi moved to Georgia to work in the poultry industry. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, The Atomic Bomb, Japanese American Internment, FDR, Arsenal of Democracy, Military Training, War in Europe, Postwar America
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  Harper Dolvin

  Harper Dolvin was born in Atlanta in 1923. Drafted into the military during his first semester at the University of Georgia, Dolvin trained as an aircraft mechanic and gunner in the Army Air Corps. Stationed in England from 1942 to 1946, Dolvin flew 13 bombing missions over Germany as a replacement for soldiers who were injured. After the war he opened a used car business in Atlanta. 
  
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  Topics: Military Training, War in Europe, Postwar America
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  Faye Edwards

  Born in a coal mining town in West Virginia in 1923, Faye Edwards took a job at a defense plant in Baltimore during World War II. In 1944 she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and completed two tours of duty in Europe before transferring to Japan. There she met her husband and started a family. She currently lives in Newnan, Georgia. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Arsenal of Democracy, Women in War, Military Training, War in Europe 
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  Reuben Griffin

  Born in rural southwest Georgia in 1923, Reuben Griffin was initially deferred by his local draft board because he was considered more useful as a farmer than a soldier. By 1944 the need for soldiers was so great that Griffin had to leave his farm behind. He completed training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, and spent a year as part of an occupational force in Japan. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, FDR, Arsenal of Democracy, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Postwar America
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  Guy Gunter

  Born in 1918, Guy Gunter grew up in Atlanta, where he worked as a salesman for General Electric before World War II. In 1942 he completed glider pilot training and shipped out to North Africa. He piloted gliders during the invasions of Italy, France, and the Netherlands. After the war Gunter founded an appliance company.
  
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  Topics: Military Training, War in Europe
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  Alan Hall

  Born in Cincinnati in 1926, Al Hall begged his mother to sign his enlistment papers when he was only 17. A signalman in the Navy, Hall served in a secret mission to Le Havre, France, during the D-Day Invasion. He was part of a unit that erected a flashing light to signal Liberty ships approaching the coast with supplies. After the war Hall was transferred to Atlanta in his sales job. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Military Training, War in Europe, Holocaust Resistance, Victory Celebrations, Postwar America
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  Elizabeth Hickcox

  Born in New Jersey in 1924, Elizabeth Hickcox lived with her grandparents during the Depression. After high school she worked for Standard Oil before joining the Navy in 1944. Stationed in Washington, D.C., Hickcox worked as a Navy cook preparing hundreds of meals each day. Later in life she moved to Georgia to be closer to her children. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Arsenal of Democracy, Military Training, The USO, Women in War, Victory Celebrations
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  Crawford Hicks

  Born in Kentucky in 1921, Crawford Hicks piloted a B-17 Flying Fortress on nine missions over Germany during World War II. On his tenth mission Hicks was shot down and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III. Liberated by General George Patton’s Third Army in 1945, Hicks worked for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) after the war. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, Military Training, War in Europe, Prisoner of War, Victory Celebrations
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  Joseph Hudson

  Born in 1925, Joseph Hudson grew up in his grandfather’s home in Virginia. During World War II, Hudson worked at the Richmond Army Depot before joining the Army in 1944. He trained at Fort Lee and spent two years in India, where he sorted used materiel en route from the Burma Road. After the war, Hudson reenlisted and spent several years in postwar Germany. 
  
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  Topics: Pearl Harbor, Military Training, Racism in the Military, War in the Pacific, Postwar America
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  Alonza Jones

  Born in Alabama in 1926, Alonza Jones grew up in Columbus, Georgia. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943 and served over two years in the Pacific, both on Guadalcanal and Okinawa. After the war he built airplanes for the Lockheed Corporation and later obtained a job with the United States Postal Service. 
  
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  Topics: Military Training, First Black Marines, Racism in the Military, War in the Pacific
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  Joanna Kimling Stubbs

  Born in 1952, Joanna Kimling Stubbs grew up in Marietta, Georgia, where her father, Eugene Kimling, was an engineer at Lockheed. Although born in New York City, Eugene Kimling spent the World War II years in Germany, trapped there after visiting his grandmother in September 1939. A mandatory member of the Hitler Youth, he survived Allied bombings and joined the U.S. Army after the war.
  

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  Topics: War in Europe, Military Training, Postwar America
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  Harry Kone

  Born in Baltimore in 1920, Harry Kone worked as a welder while attending the University of Wisconsin. In 1942 Kone enlisted in the Marine Corps and sustained injuries while unloading a ship at Guadalcanal later that year. He recovered in a military hospital before serving in the Bougainville Campaign in 1943. After the war Kone taught English in Chicago city schools. 
  
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  Topics: Arsenal of Democracy, Pearl Harbor, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Racism in the Military, Postwar America

  Harry Kone's Georgia Focus Interview (air date: November 2016):
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  James Pack

  Born in 1923, James Pack grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio. After his military enlistment in 1943, Pack chose to enter the Marine Corps. He served in the 20th depot company, taking part in the invasions of Saipan and Okinawa. After the war Pack worked as a civil servant for the city of Detroit before retiring to Georgia. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, Military Training, First Black Marines, Racism in the Military, War in the Pacific, Victory Celebrations, Postwar America
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  Hillard Pouncy

  Born in 1922, Hillard Pouncy grew up in Eufaula, Alabama. After graduating from high school, he attended Tuskegee Institute, where he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a bombardier in the Tuskegee Air Squadron. After the war Pouncy earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University and worked as a chemist for Union Carbide. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, The Tuskegee Airmen, Military Training, Racism in the Military
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  James Russell

  Born in West Virginia in 1925, James Russell joined the Navy during World War II and served on the USS John D. Henley, or “Lucky John D,” in the Pacific. The ship provided offshore support during six major battles: Saipan, Guam, Tinian, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. After the war Russell started working for a telephone company and settled in Georgia. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Rationing, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Postwar America
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  M. Alexis Scott

  Born in Atlanta in 1949, M. Alexis Scott is a journalist whose family founded the Atlanta Daily World in 1928. Scott’s father, William A. Scott III, served as an army reconnaissance sergeant and photographer during World War II. In April 1945, he was one of the first Allied soldiers to enter and photograph survivors of Buchenwald concentration camp. President George H.W. Bush appointed him to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 1991.

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  Topics: The Great Depression, Kristallnacht, Military Training, Racism in the Military, War in Europe, The Camps, Liberation, Postwar America, Remembering the Holocaust, Second Generation

   
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  Lorenzo Wallace

  Born in Atlanta in 1919, Lorenzo Wallace graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and Morehouse College. In 1942 he joined the Marine Corps and shipped out to the Marshall Islands as a part of a radar group. After the war Wallace worked for the United States Postal Service and later served as doorkeeper and sergeant-at-arms for the Georgia State Senate. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Military Training, First Black Marines, Racism in the Military, War in the Pacific
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  William Wallace, Jr.

  Born in Macon, Georgia, in 1954, William Wallace, Jr. joined a family with a strong Christian faith and deep roots in the state. Wallace's father, William Wallace, Sr. was a veteran of World War II and survivor of the Bataan Death March perpetrated by the Japanese government against American prisoners of war in the Philippines.
  

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  Topics: The Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Prisoner of War, Liberation, Postwar America, Second Generation
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  Richard Weber

  Born outside of Buffalo, New York in 1926, Richard Weber worked in an airplane factory before joining the Army Air Corps in 1944. He served as a teletype operator on the islands of Saipan and Guam. During his service, Weber memorized Bible verses in his tent at night and went on to become a pastor after World War II. 
  
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  Topics: The Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, Arsenal of Democracy, Military Training, War in the Pacific, Postwar America