Civil engineer. His experiences in the Persian Gulf Command and the Pacific Theater during World War II. Early family history; education at Texas A&M College, 1928-32; various civil engineering positions; service in the CCC, 1934-35; prewar Reserve training; induction into the Regular Army at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 1940-43; combat engineer training at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1943; assignment to the Persian Gulf command with the 352nd Engineer Battalion, 1943; building of roads for the shipment of U.S. military aid to the Soviet Union; Kurdish rebels; his relations with African-American combat engineer troops; desert living and working conditions; his return to the States and assignment to the 1346th Engineer Battalion at Camp McCain, Mississippi, 1944; his transfer to Okinawa with the 10th Army, 1945; construction of bomb dispersal sites; personal encounter with General Joseph Stilwell; digging of temporary burial sites for American dead; training for the invasion of the Japanese home islands; his personal attitudes toward the Japanese military and civilians; postwar career in the Army Reserve.