Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day 2009 Reflections at Tinney Chapel
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Tinney Talk, Observations by Joe Dan Boyd
FIVE VETERANS OF WORLD WAR II were members of Tinney Chapel UMC on Memorial Day, 2009.
CARL GRIFFIN WAS 18 when he entered U.S. Marine Boot Camp at San Diego, California, before shipping out to the South Pacific, where he spent World War II at faraway places with strange-sounding names: New Caledonia, Banika, Guadalcanal, Vella Lavella, Eniwetak, Peruata, Bougainville, Guam. After the War, Carl attended SMU on the GI Bill, married Zonnie in 1947, earned a commercial pilot license and retired in 1989 after 37 years as a mechanical engineer.
GLEN WOOD WAS A FARM BOY in Collin County, Texas, when he joined the U.S. Navy, and was assigned to the USS Maryland before shipping out to the South Pacific. Later, Glen reported to Bremerton, Washington, for assignment to CVE-92 Windham Bay, a light Aircraft carrier, and still later to Fleet Airwing 14 in San Diego, where he remained until his discharge in 1945. He & Fanella moved to Winnsboro in 1984.
CARL GRIFFIN WAS 18 when he entered U.S. Marine Boot Camp at San Diego, California, before shipping out to the South Pacific, where he spent World War II at faraway places with strange-sounding names: New Caledonia, Banika, Guadalcanal, Vella Lavella, Eniwetak, Peruata, Bougainville, Guam. After the War, Carl attended SMU on the GI Bill, married Zonnie in 1947, earned a commercial pilot license and retired in 1989 after 37 years as a mechanical engineer.
GLEN WOOD WAS A FARM BOY in Collin County, Texas, when he joined the U.S. Navy, and was assigned to the USS Maryland before shipping out to the South Pacific. Later, Glen reported to Bremerton, Washington, for assignment to CVE-92 Windham Bay, a light Aircraft carrier, and still later to Fleet Airwing 14 in San Diego, where he remained until his discharge in 1945. He & Fanella moved to Winnsboro in 1984.
HAROLD LENIUS WAS 23 & MORE THAN 3 YEARS MARRIED when he kissed Janette goodbye, completed Navy Boot Camp in Idaho and boarded a troop ship bound for Brisbane, Australia. Later, Harold served in the Admiralty Islands and the Philippines, eventually retiring to Winnsboro, where his beloved Janette passed from this life on January 9, 2004.
WOODRUFF F. (WOODY) WILKERSON was 21 when he entered basic training at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, before serving the US Army and US Army Air Force in England, Ireland, Africa, Sicily, Italy and Algeria. His decorations include the Parachute Badge, Combat Badge, Bronze Star, 2 Purple Hearts & Presidential Citation. Woody, discharged as a Corporal, still has his lifetime pilot license, says his wife, Lou.
TRAVIS J. BREWER entered WWII as a Private, and was discharged as a Sergeant after earning a Purple Heart and surviving the Battle of the Bulge. Travis also earned a Bronze Star for “superior leadership, coolness under fire, devotion to duty and skillful supervision as a gun commander” with the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 30th Infantry Division, during late 1944, in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His wife, Frankie, is the Wise Ones Sunday School Teacher at Tinney Chapel UMC.
