Engineer Memoirs
side were in the Civil War. My mother was a Yankee born in Iowa. She moved to
when she was about four, in the late 1890s. Her father had been in a farm
accident in Iowa and had lost his left arm. He found that the weather was too severe,
and so moved the family south to Centreville, Mississippi, about 1896. Both she and
my father were residents of that area of Mississippi.
Q ..
Lake Village was a pretty small town. What were some of the main interests that you
had as you were growing up?
A
Well, in terms of life events that are significant: I started school in 1922, first grade, and
in January of 1923 I was severely burned. As a result I was confined at home for
several months because of third degree burns on my back and arms. I recovered and
was told later, when I appeared for my first physical as I was coming into the Army,
that I would not be accepted because anyone with scars that heavy was bound to have
physical impairments. Fortunately, I was able to convince them that I didn't, and it was
not a major problem. I still, of course, carry the scars of that burn. Because of this I
to learn to walk again after more than two months in bed. Nowadays I'm
sure they wouldn't keep someone in bed that long, but in those days they thought
idleness was the desirable thing.
Then in 1927, I remember very vividly the flood on the Arkansas and the Mississippi,
the lower Mississippi River. I was in the
grade, and we had gone to school. The
river was very high. There was much concern, and around 9:00 or
in the morning,
word came through the school that the children should be dismissed. The levee had
broken on the lower Arkansas River near its juncture with the Mississippi, and they
anticipated flooding. We went home. I lived about three miles from the school, and I
remember that evening watching the water rise in the back of our place. The next
morning the lake and the flood water were one and we were totally flooded. My mother
was just recovering from an operation, and she and we three boys went by skiff and
small outboard motorboat for about six miles until we reached high ground. We went
the next five miles or so on a railroad
and then caught a train to go to my
grandfather's in Mississippi, the original home. We crossed the Mississippi River at
Vicksburg on the last train that ran before the water got so high that it was impossible
for trains to run. They crossed on a ferry at the time. My early life was heavily
influenced by what was one of the major civil works activities of the Corps. It was the
Jadwin
which was developed in 1928 for control of floods on the lower
Mississippi River. Whether or not that really had anything to do with-certainly it
didn't at that time, but later may have had some influence-my coming into the
Army-I'm not sure. Maybe a little later we can get into that aspect of my career.
I did participate in extracurricular activities in high school. I played football, I weighed
all of 155 pounds, which was not significant for a football player, and beyond high
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