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Gary Banta, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Feb. 11, 2010) Gary Banta joined the Army in 1967, well into the Vietnam War. he both drove and rode shotgun on truck convoys, delivering supplies to the hotspots where choppers and aircraft could not land. It was a year tour that certainly had it’s danger. Later he was assigned to Ft. Knox where he did indeed see the gold! And he was a chaplain’s assistant in Germany.
Gene Barber, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed May 9, 2007) Gene Barber served the people of Williamson County as its sheriff for seven years, sold cars and lumber and delivered the mail in the years before that. But that all came after his 33 year months at sea, serving aboard the carrier USS Corregidor during four major battles of World War II’s Pacific Campaign. Plus, you will not find a bigger Bob Wills fan. They were both born in Kosse, Texas.
George Cox, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed May 4, 2005) 23-year-old tank commander George Cox of rural Brazos County, was a member of the 746th Battalion when he starred the horror of the war straight in the face. June of 1944 was when George Cox was one of those who lived to tell the story of D-Day and the stand made at beaches called Juno, Gold, Sword, Omaha and Utah. He recounts the final months of the war, when he earned his Purple Heart and Silver Star as a player in five major battles.
Gerald McCaskill, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed September 18, 2008) When Gerald McCaskill boarded the Battleship USS Tennessee in June of 1944, it was the first ship he had ever seen. He would see plenty of it over the next 15 months, including combat action throughout World War II’s Pacific theater. The Tennessee had already seen plenty of warfare, including on 7 December 1941, docked at Pearl Harbor alongside the ill-fated West Virginia and Arizona on that day that will live in infamy. Over HIS time on the Tennessee, it’s travels took it to Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Guadalcanal, Palau, the Philippines, back to Pearl Harbor and Saipan and within a mile of the beaches of Iwo Jima for that Marine invasion to Mt. Suribachi.. on to Okinawa, and eventually to Japan. The Tennessee was badly damaged at least twice after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack at Tinian and later a suicide attack to the quarterdeck.
Gerald Roop, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Oct. 4, 2006) Captain Gerald Roop is a proud Okie who lived in the Brazos Valley for more than 40 years. He was a sound officer in World War II. What’s a sound officer? You have to know about “flash and sound” to know what he did. It was not a large unit but an extremely valuable one, that put itself in harm’s way though combat at the Battle of the Bulge and other resistance in their march through France and into Germany.
Glenn Morgan, U. S. Navy, World War II (Interviewed March 16, 2005) Glenn Morgan served aboard the USS Indianapolis, he was one of its buglers. He was a board that fateful ship when it was torpedoed and sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 30 July 1945, after delivering the parts of the bomb to Tinian island. Glenn Morgan was one of 317 survivors who floated for four days and four nights floating in the Pacific, fighting off shark attack and exposure to survive. This is one of the most remarkable stories of World War II. Glenn Morgan -- survivor USS Indianapolis.
Gordon Kennedy, U.S. Army, Korea/Vietnam (Interviewed Jan. 29, 2009) Gordon Kennedy had seen a lot of the world during his 31 years of military service. Service that included a 15-month tour during in Korea during that War, and then a year in Saigon, near the end of the Vietnam War. When he left his final tour of duty, in Jamaica, he had hardly even heard of Bryan, Texas...It was his next duty assignment as an intelligence specialist. He and his wife Lucille were married some 60 years.
Dr. Gordon Pratt, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Aug. 5, 2010) Not every World War II Veteran served overseas as they had jobs or were being trained for essential jobs stateside. Such was the case for Dr. Gordon Pratt, who joined the Navy in 1943 and was put in the V-12 program. It was a College Training Program that sent future commissioned Officers to colleges and Universities to complete their training and to help the war effort as a result of their education. Between 1943 and 1946, more than 125,000 men were enrolled in V-12. They included such servicemen as Football Coach George Allen, Sen. Howard Baker, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Johnny Carson, and Jack Lemmon.... and a dental student named Gordon Pratt from Dallas. After the war, he served as the dentist for nearly two years on board the USS President Adams, a World War II Transport Ship. And then later at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Dr. Pratt practiced for 40 years as a dentist in Bryan until he retired in 1997 and one of his five children, Gordon Pratt, Jr., has been a dentist here for nearly 25 years.
H.J. Marsh, U.S. Army, WW II/Korea (Interviewed June 25, 2009) H.J. Marsh considered his timing quite fortunate. A 1945 high school graduate of San Jacinto High School, by the time he joined the Army, World War II was over. His unit served occupational duty in postwar Korea and while he says there was not much action at that time, his service was still valuable in keeping the peace that had been hard earned in the Pacific Theater. Korea, after all, was under Japanese rule during the war -- and after the war, the split between North and South Korea was even more defined. HJ Marsh says it was then that he first heard the word communism, during his service between World War II and the Korean War, which started in 1950.
Haskell Monroe, Texas A&M Historian (Interviewed 2005) Haskell Monroe never took a class at Texas A&M but he taught a bundle of them and if there is anyone who could be considered a foremost historian of Texas A&M it is Haskell Monroe. This six part series of Bravo Brazos Valley is indeed fascinating. Haskell Monroe the encyclopedia of Aggieland.
