Guest Feature by Mrs. Katie Hunt
Luckily, I was mostly sheltered from the effects of the war. I was only 10–14 years old during WWII. It was a Sunday evening in 1941 when our family gathered around the radio and F.D. Roosevelt told of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy Air Service. On December 11, 1941, the US declared war on Germany.
That spring, my oldest brother was drafted into the Army. He was 23 and married. The day he left, someone took a group photograph — my brother, Buddy, his wife, Ruth, my mother, Annie, my youngest sister, Buford, my other brothers, Ren, Dwight, and myself. I remember that it was very emotional to tell him goodbye.
There was very limited communication while he was gone. Months passed and we relied on the news from the radio or the Newsreels in the movies. There would be daily visits around the country by a Western Union boy delivering telegrams to homes of soldiers if their son had been killed in action. My mom lived in fear daily, looking anxiously out the window whenever a Union boy would pass by.
My dad worked for the Works Progress Administration during the depression, but when the war started, he went back to college to study as an electrician. We then moved to Orange, Texas where he worked on the battleships in a ship yard. At school, we would sing all the patriotic songs every day and during physical education period, we learned to march, which was a fun experience for us kids.
Certain foods were rationed, such as butter, sugar, bacon, cheese, meats, coffee and lard, but not the fresh vegetables and fruit. Automobiles, gas, tires, were also rationed. Families received food stamps to use. In those days, the US was safe as the battles raged in Europe and Asia, so we didn’t worry about getting hurt at home. I remember traveling on the train to my sister’s home in Morgan City, LA, and seeing lots of soldiers on the trains as well, going place to place.
My brother was stationed with General Patton at the German front. He was a mechanic and worked on the trucks for his unit. During the battles, he lived in foxholes for many months at a time. Soldiers were given cigarettes and pills that kept them awake for a week at a time. He spoke of being at the Anzio Beachhead, wading through mud up to his waist and was one of the few lucky ones who survived. He was wounded at Anzio and received two Purple Hearts.
I only heard about the war from the little bits and pieces gathered from my brother after he returned. He rarely spoke of the experience. My memories are not horrible during the war because I was a young child and we were protected in the US. It was only later that we found out about the atrocities of Hitler and the heartbreaking aspects of the war.
