Christmas is a sad time for some people. Especially those who have loved ones far away fighting a war. My husband was in the Navy during World War II. He spent Christmas 1943 away from home for the first time in his life. He was 18 years old.
Times of War during Christmas
After all these years my family has returned to the military. My husband, Eddie and his four brothers were all in the military during the 1940’s and 50’s. They were in the Marines, Coast Guard, Sea Bees, Navy, and Air Force. All enlisted during war time, the first four during World War II, and the last one during the Korean War. Now my daughter Kristi knows what her Grandmother Wauson went through. Her youngest daughter just married a young man in the Army, who spent a year in Iraq, and will be going to Germany next summer. Her youngest son enlisted in the Marines awhile back. He will leave as soon as he graduates from high school next spring. Her oldest daughter’s new husband just enlisted in the Marines, and will be leaving the end of January. Three sons in the military during a war. I think we ought to put Gold Stars in the windows again.
Going to boot camp is no fun, and these young men know that. But they are ready. Their Grandpa went through it, and it made him a better man, I think. Eddie is proud of his grandsons, and so am I. But my heart reaches out especially to the mother. My mother-in-law went through it and it was hard. But they all came back after the war.
Two years after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor; Eddie was working in the armory in San Antonio. He was only 17 years old. He had graduated from Pleasanton High School in May.
That day, in 1943, his cousin, Gilbert Wauson, from Yoakum, came by to see him and said, “Let’s go join the Navy!” Eddie and Gilbert went to the Recruiting Office, and before the day was over, they had rejected Gilbert and Eddie had enlisted in the Navy. He had to go to San Diego alone, without anyone he knew. He and Gilbert were sad.
“But, I was excited to be going”, Eddie said, “All of us recruits boarded the train in San Antonio, heading for the San Diego Naval Training Station. There was a bunch of us. One guy I really remember, cause he was this big ole’ country boy from Uvalde. He was big and thought he was really tough. Someone had some “refreshments and we drank all the way to San Diego. We thought we were men! We were going to fight for our country.”
He laughed, “I called it “social drinking”. We had “refreshments” till it all ran out.”
Eddie continued with his story, “When we got to San Diego, they met us with this bus and gave us all a sea bag. It was where we were to put all our clothes. They took us to this place where they issued us all our uniforms, from pants and shirts to underwear, socks, and shoes, and jackets. We were taught how to roll them up in little bitty rolls and pack them in the bag.”
“Each piece of clothing had a hole in each side, with a string attached to it. We left that building and headed for the barracks, most of us dragging that heavy sea bag behind us in the dirt”, he said.
“Suddenly this big guy comes up and starts yelling at us, yelling, ‘What the h--- do you think you are doing, dragging those bags? Put them on your back. Those are the clothes you are going to wear!’ and he added a few more words that I can’t say,” Eddie said.
Eddie couldn’t remember his full name, but they called him “Young-Michael”, all one word, and he had been an All American football player at the University of Texas. He said, “I think he was what they called a Bosn’s Mate”.
Eddie and his buddies put their bags up in the barracks and were told to go out to the flagpole. They were shown the lanyards coming down from the flagpole and were told to get in line.
Young-Michael yelled at the top of his lungs, “Listen up, men, I am going to teach you what it means to fall out and it doesn’t mean to fall out of the bunk, it means to get in line. I am tough and I am mean. I am going to teach you what it means to be sailors. I am going to whip you from boys into men”.
“Sure I was scared! It scared me to death. He wasn’t talking very nice!”
Eddie went on with the story, “Then he yelled, ‘I want you to know I am running this show, and I am in charge and if any of you have a problem with that, just step out of line!’”
“Well”, he said, “This great big ole boy from Uvalde stepped out of line and stood there”.
“Young-Michael walked over and hauled off and knocked him back 10 feet, and he was out cold, and then he said, ‘Anyone else?’ No one said a word”, Eddie laughed, “From that day on, no one questioned his authority”.
Eddie continued, “Then they showed us how the lanyards were lowered enough for the sailors to hang their wet clothing on them, by tying the clothes to it, with the two strings on each side of their clothing. We had to tie square knots, NOT granny knots. We were left to do that the rest of the afternoon, after taking all our fresh clean clothing and getting them wet in tubs. Every man hung his uniforms and underwear and socks on those lanyards, while the Bosn’s Mate and his men left”.
Later Young-Michael came back and he and his men inspected the clothing tied to the lanyard lines. When they didn’t find a square knot, the piece of clothing was thrown into the dirt, still wet of course. Finally at the finish, every piece that had not been tied with a square knot was lying in the dirt. There were hundreds of pieces of clothing lying wet in the dirt.
Eddie said, “Then we were told to line up, and they started us marching and we marched all afternoon, back and forth, across those clothes lying in the dirt, until they were so ground up with dirt, they weren’t even recognized. Then we had to wash them and hang them back up again, with square knots”.
He laughed, “From that day on, not one of us ever tied another granny knot. We knew how to tie square knots”.
The six weeks in boot camp in San Diego made boys into men, and they knew how to follow authority. They were being prepared for what was ahead in the South Pacific where they would all be on ships, for the next three years. This was easy stuff compared to what was in store for these young sailors from Texas. Eddie left home a 17-year-old boy, who thought he was a man, and when he returned after the war, in 1945, he was different. Boot camp was nothing compared to the ravages of war.
Eddie spent his first Christmas away from home that year. It was hard. All those young sailors struggling with becoming men, and they yearned for their families, their mothers who loved them more than anyone, and Eddie was very close to his mother. He said that was a very sad Christmas, and even sadder December 26th which was his birthday. He was 18 years old now, but it was like another day. Six weeks of boot camp passed by slowly, and finally by the next summer, he had shipped out to sea on the USS Sandoval, its maiden voyage. He spent the next Christmas in the South Pacific too. He went to the Navy a boy, and came home a man. Christmas of 1945 he was home for Christmas the war was over.
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Times of War during Christmas
