| Description | Educator, farmer-rancher. His experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Early family history in Montague County, Texas; his pre-war education; his enlistment in the Navy in December, 1942; his acceptance in the V-7 Program, 1943; Midshipman School, Columbia University, 1943; his failing out of Midshipman School and transfer to the U.S. Naval Training Center, Newport, Rhode Island, for yeoman training; assignment to the USS Little at Bremerton, Washington, August, 1944; gunnery practice off the Hawaiian Islands, December, 1944-January, 1945; Iwo Jima Campaign, February-March, 1945; his personal observations of the flag-raisings on Mount Suribachi; Okinawa Campaign, April, 1945, and the Little’s assignment to radar picket duty at Station Ten; his ship being hit by four kamikazes and sinking on May 3, 1945; rescue in the water by his shipmates; survival in the water for three hours before being picked up by LCS(L)-25; lasting effects of his World War II experiences. |
