Leighanne Hudson interviews her grandfather, Tom Hudson. 213

Leighanne: Do you remember when you first heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor?

Tom: I sure did, it was on the day that school was out a bunch of us was walking; we were taking our evening walk.

Leighanne: What was you reaction?

Tom: I didn’t think that it would amount to much; I thought it was just something that would blow over and be ended pretty soon.

Leighanne: What did you think of what was going on in Europe before we entered the war?

Tom: Well it was the same thing about the Pacific I thought that Hitler and Mussolini and he was finally going to fight themselves and it wouldn’t affect any other part of the country.

Leighanne: What did you think of Hitler and Mussolini?

Tom: It was a bunch of crooks trying to get something for nothing.

Leighanne: What were you doing before you entered the service?

Tom: I was still in school, not thinking anything at all about what was going on in Europe and I was not really worried about it.

Leighanne: Where you drafted or volunteered?

Tom: I was drafted.

Leighanne: What branch of service did you enter?

Tom: I entered the Army.

Leighanne: Where did you go for basic training?

Tom: Camship in Mississippi.

Leighanne: How did you get there?

Tom: I got there by train.

Leighanne: Had you ever been that far from home before?

Tom: No, No I suppose that before the war I wasn’t much further than Wytheville, which was about seven mile from my house.

Leighanne: What was basic training like?

Tom: It was rough, it was one of the worst deals I think that I have ever went through, because they was really preparing us for killing that was our main purpose of the army.

Leighanne: What was your drill Sergeant like?

Tom: He was a fine man he worked with ever one of us. And tried to improve our skills and everything be wasn’t good at.

Leighanne: Were there very many recruits in other places?

Tom: Oh yeah, yes we had people there from all over the United States and we had some Filipipinos there.

Leighanne: Did you make many friends?

Tom: Yes you had to make friends because everyone you was with was people that you would be fighting with and living with.

Leighanne: What were you trained to do in the service?

Tom: How is that again?

Leighanne: What were you trained to do in the service?

Tom: Well I mostly was trained for is what we were going in there for was to kill. And to watch about ourselves and end everything as quickly as possible.

Leighanne: Did it help you later in life?.

Tom: No it didn’t because what I learnt in the service didn’t do a thing for me in life.

Leighanne: Do you think you experience in the service helped you in general?

Tom: In some was yes it taught me to respect other people and to honor and respect our nation.

Leighanne: Where did you go from basic?

Tom: From basic I went to Fort Mead in Maryland.

Leighanne: How did you there?

Tom: We went by troop train.

Leighanne: What was it like?

Tom: Well it was just about like it was in basic training they taught us how to abandon ships, how to full fill pack, helped us swim back to the ship, and get back to the ship on rope.  All kinds of things like this.

Leighanne: When did you ship out overseas?

Tom: When, I don’t really remember what date that was. I shipped out in sometime of December 1944.

Leighanne: Where did you go and how did you get there?

Tom: We went to England and went aboard troop ships.

Leighanne: How did you feel?

Tom: I didn’t know really what to fill because it was different country and different people and a different way of traveling for the rest of the trip.

Leighanne: Did you ever think you would see home again?

Tom: Well after a while you get where the thing of home leaves you and your thinking more or less of what you are going to do the next day and for the next fifteen minutes.

Leighanne: What unit were you in?

Tom: I was in the sixty-ninth division. It was the eight seventy ninth-peal-artillery battalion. I was in communications

Leighanne: Who was your commanding officer?

Tom: General Elliot B. Dension.

Leighanne: What was he like?

Tom: He was a fair man he was a good man to get along with.

Leighanne: Where were some of you fellow soldiers from?

Tom: Where was some of them from. Well we had some there from Mississippi, some from New York, several from Virginia, they was all over the United States. Like I said before we had some from overseas and we had some Indians.

Leighanne: Do you remember any of their names?

Tom: Not really, not really I don’t remember I have forgotten their name names they was all nice people.

Leighanne: Did you keep up with them after the war?

Tom: Not really no.

Leighanne: Did you learn about the people by serving?

Tom: Yes, yes when you are with people as much as I was you learn something about everyone; everyone has a different nature of life.

Leighanne: When did you first find out where you were going overseas?

Tom: At about three days before I really went.

Leighanne: Did you prefer going to Europe or the Pacific?

Tom: I preferred going to Europe that was my choice if I had a choice.

Leighanne: Why?

Tom: On account of the climates and Europe you wouldn’t be fighting in the jungles and I thought that Europe would be better but I had no choice. I had no choice where I was going. Like I say it was in about three or four days when they said that we were going to go fight and when our troop ship and troop train left out everything was blacked out on it we didn’t know where we were until we got to the port and we got off hopped the troop train at the docks and ready to board ship. That night and we stayed out in the harbor until early morning and then it was several days that we were really going to Europe.

Leighanne: Did you land in Africa?

Tom: I landed in England.

Leighanne: Where did you stay?

Tom: After we left the ship they moved us in a big college a huge building with bunks that is all there is to say.

Leighanne: Where the local people friendly?

Tom: Well some were and some were not. Some thought we weren’t needed over there. I think they changed their mind after a while.

Leighanne: Did you get to know any of them?

Tom: No, I never knew any of them.

Leighanne: What was the food like?

Tom: Fish and chips that was most of their diet and that was what we would get that was what was on the street we would buy fish. Most of our food was prepared for us and we ate in our barracks.

Leighanne: What was the weather like?

Tom: It was rough the weather stayed very foggy and best I remember the night we landed there it was cold and snowy.

Leighanne: What was your job in the service?

Tom: I was in the communications, I was in radio communications, I installed telephones making sure the telephones are in the front lines and kept in working order.

Leighanne: What were you trained to do?

Tom: Well like I said before what I was really trained to do was communications and to take care of myself.

Leighanne: What kind of weapon did you use?

Tom: I had a thirty-caliber Carbine.

Leighanne: What campaigns were you involved in?

Tom: Well I got battle for American theater and European African Middle East Theater and WWII Victory Ribbons. Also I was secret line and I crossed the Rhine River.

Leighanne: Who were your generals in charge?

Tom: The General G.M. Halertion he was a one star general.

Leighanne: Who were you fighting?

Tom: Germans.

Leighanne: Describe in general what was happening?

Tom: Well to describe being in a war it is. You was really taking care of yourself and trying to move the object of it is trying to move. As long as you were a moving you was obtaining your mission.

Leighanne: What role did you have?

Leighanne: What was the scariest moment in the war for you?

Tom: Well really all of the moments was scary, my worst scare was repairing a telephone line it was on sixth line. I was repairing a break in the line it was laying flat on the ground they throwing heavy artillery on us and I found a hole that I was going to get into if it really got worse. The hole that I had seen but there was a man in it that was six foot tall two hundred pounds I had to lay there by myself, and sweat it out.

Leighanne: Were you ever wounded?

Tom: No I was never wounded.

Leighanne: Did you lose many of your friends?

Tom: Well all of them was your friends and we did we lost several.

Leighanne: Describe what it was like being shot at?

Tom: It is hard to say how it feels to be shot at because, the best thing to do is if you are being shot at is to find somewhere you can get into were you are down and not standing up. It is scary its hard to explain how a person really fells to be shot at.

Leighanne: What were your feelings about the Germans and the Italians?

Tom: The Germans is people they were fine people. The Italians they were fine people. Their leaders is the ones that we were bitterly against, but they were really fine people I liked them.

Leighanne: Did you talk to any prisoners?

Tom: No not really, no I never talked to any prisoners.

Leighanne: How did civilians greet you?

Tom: They were fine, they were people but when we went through after the shooting was over they were fine people and they greeted us.

Leighanne: Did they treat as liberators or as heroes?

Tom: As heroes because they were liberated to.

Leighanne: Do you remember any funny jokes or stories?

Tom: Funny things that could have happened. I did have one I was involved in, it had been a year or more since I had a fresh egg and we moved in this big farm lot late in the night and the weather was bad and the first place we found to get in out of the rain was a chicken house so we threw our blankets down on the ground and got in and the next morning I found an old hen setting on a nest and I got her egg. And I put it in my coat pocket and as soon as I got a chance to fix me a fire I will fix this egg. I put my coat on and we picked up some many chicken lice in the chicken house when I got outside I was beating my coat against the wall to the lice off and I busted my egg. That was the worst.

Leighanne: Did you write and receive letters in the army?

Tom: Yes I wrote as much as I possible could and received letters is one of the finest things that it was. But most of our mail was slow and it took a while getting to us. Several days to a month out of date before the mail could get to us.

Leighanne: Who did you write to?

Tom: I wrote to my mother, and to my bothers.

Leighanne: Were letters a great comfort to you?

Tom: Yes that was a great comfort to me. To be out in combat like that and receive a letter from home.

Leighanne: When and how did you come back home?

Tom: The day I came back I can’t remember I was there for eighteen months. Or two years. We came back on a victory ship. And a victory ship is a small ship and in Europe we had an awful storm at sea. We were down below most of our time traveling back. It got awful boring to be below deck with the heavy storm bouncing around.

Leighanne: Where you glad to be back?

Tom: Yes I was really glad to get back home.

Leighanne: How did people treat you?

Tom: Fine. People treated us fine, people was glad to see us and really welcoming us back.

Leighanne: What did you after you first came back?

Tom: Well the first thing that I done was when we got to Fort Meed Maryland was look for a place where you could discharged, but in the meant time I rejoined three years as a reserve. So really my service record shows that I have had six years of military service.

Leighanne: Did it take a while to adjust to civilian life?

Tom: Not really the government paid us fifty one dollars a month we really enjoyed getting that extra money we had one of the best baseball teams that has ever been around here with boys that was coming back nothing to do but draw our money and play baseball, and fish.

Leighanne: Do you fell WWII was justified?

Tom: In a way it was in a way it was justified it was it got rid of Hitler he was a mad man. He was a man that should have been taken out before any shots was ever fired.  

Leighanne: How do you think it compares to the war like Korea, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf?

Tom: You can’t compare it. With the wars that are coming off of today, because the war back in WWII with Europe and the Pacific. You never had a dry place a lot of the times to set down or lay down your if you was lucky that if the weather was half way decent is eating a good meal. And the troop now of days in combat have there kitchens follow them along and they have better everything.

Leighanne: Do you think the U.S. should return to a volunteer army and reinstate the draft?

Tom: Yes it would be better I think. They need to be more stricter with the people they have got in there.

Leighanne: Why do you think they need to reinstate the draft?

Tom: To reinstate the draft, they could more or less choose what type of people they want in the service.