Category: Letters

Doris [my grandmother] has two relatives that reached the General ranks in the Air Force. She had a cousin in Ardmore named Jack Thurman. He was in the Seabees during WW2 and was a 2nd Class Petty Officer. He had two sons that went to West Point Military Academy. One of the boys reached Brigadier General. He was the commander of Zweibrucken AB Germany when Wayne [my uncle] was stationed there. The other one reached Major General. Wayne has a book written by a (now deceased) General that was the first commander of Space Command at Colorado Springs. Well, in his book he told how General Thurman was used as the pit bull of the Air Force. If the Air Force had a base commander that the gen. staff at the Pentagon wasn’t pleased with they sent Thurman to the base. He would go there and find enough to fire the commander. What a job. I knew old Jack, he was a butcher at a grocery store. He must really be proud of his sons to make flag rank (general or admiral).

Note: You can read more about Major General James D. Thurman, one of the men referenced in this section of my grandfather’s letter, at his Ft. Hood, Texas biography page. He is currently — I believe — Commander of the Multinational Division, Baghdad, commanding 29,000 troops from all nations allied with America and fighting in Iraq. He is not in the Air Force, but rather the Army. An informative article, Why I Serve: Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, helps unravel more details about Maj. Gen. Thurman’s background:

FORT HOOD, Texas, Aug. 26, 2004 — “I came from a very patriotic family,” explained Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman on why he joined the Army.

“When I was just a little guy, I remember going to Memorial Day with my grandfather, a World War I vet, and the whole town would turn out,” recalled the commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division. “He didn’t talk much about being in war, and he didn’t ask for medals or recognition. He made me realize early in life that the liberties and freedom we enjoy are not free.”

In the northwest corner of Thurman’s office, a rubber chicken hangs on a polished wooden plaque. The message is simple: “There ain’t no free chicken in the world, you’ve got to work for stuff.”

He said the quote represents a lesson he learned from his grandfather during his upbringing in the rural Oklahoma town of Marietta, population 3,000.

Framed flags, certificates, awards and photographs cover the walls of his office; memorabilia from almost three decades of service to his country.

“There are memories and people attached to everything on these walls,” Thurman said recently. “They represent something positive to me, even the rubber chicken.

Thurman’s father and three uncles served in World War II and Korea. And Thurman still vividly remembers the day in 1966 when his older brother arrived home from college and told his parents he was leaving school to serve in Vietnam.

“There are values and a sense of duty and responsibility to this country that I was raised with,” he said.

“There are 10 divisions in the Army and I have the honor to command one. Being with soldiers and being out there making a difference in the world, that’s why I serve. The most precious thing we have are the sons and daughters of this country and I am proud to serve with them.”

(Tam Cummings is editor of the Fort Hood, Texas, Sentinel News.)

More links:

• Iraq Pictures (blog)
• New Iraqi Government Initiative is Step Toward Brighter Future
• Chaplain Preston’s Report
• Incoming general has strong ties to largest Army post

A Google search will return a lot of sites mentioning Major General James Thurman, as he was recently in the news when he ordered an investigation into the killing of of a family of four in Mahmoudiya. I can’t find any information on a second general in the family, but did find several references to two Thurman brothers who were generals in the Air Force. They were born in North Carolina, and I am not sure I am related to them for that reason — as far as I know, the Thurmans in my family lived in the Oklahoma/Texas areas in the last 100 years. In a recent e-mail, my fellow Thurman researcher and second cousin once removed, Chris Stofel, said, “I’m attaching a letter I sent to our cousin Jerry Thurman, grandson of Albert, a little while back. Jerry’s brother Jim (James D.) Thurman is a general in the army.” Maj. Gen. Thurman and his brother Jerry would also be my second cousins once removed. My information is that Jerry Thurman is a retired colonel. I think it could be that our cousins, James and Jerry Thurman, were confused with the Thurman brothers General Maxwell Reid Thurman and Lt. General John R. Thurman, III (who are no relation as far as I know). Doing some digging, I was able to find references to the book my uncle has. It must be From One Stripe to Four Stars by Gen. James V. Hartinger, who was the first commander of Space Command at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs, but I can’t search inside the book to see the full name of the General Thurman he referred to. It is probable that it is either General Maxwell Reid Thurman or Lt. General John R. Thurman III rather than my own relative, Maj. Gen. James Thurman.

Click on the thumbnail below to see an image of Albert James Thurman’s WWI Draft Registration Card (Albert James Thurman was the grandfather of James Thurman and Jerry Thurman). Note: It is a poor quality image and difficult to read.

I located Albert James Thurman on the 1930 Census with his wife Mollie. Open this thumbnail image and scroll down to line 58 (near the top):

He has a son Jack W., who is 6 years old. This is my grandmother’s cousin Jack that my grandfather referred to in his letter. Here you can view Albert James Thurman’s 1920 census record:

I think this is an interesting example of how a story is passed down or told in a family, and details change or are otherwise unclear, which can result in conclusions that may not be correct.

Perhaps I should list the jobs I have had in my military career.

1. Ditch digger and pipe installation on Attu perhaps this makes me a pipe-fitter.
2. Rigger on Mobile crane — Philippine Islands . Since the Navy bestowed the rank of MoMM3C (Motor Machinist Mate Third Class) I was supposed to be a mechanic.
3. Mechanic at Motor pool on Hensley Field, (AF Reserve unit or sometimes called “week-end-Warrior.” This base was between Dallas and Fort Worth.
4. Photo lab at Vance AFB, Enid, Oklahoma.
5. Photo lab at Perrin AFB, Sherman, Texas.
6. Photo Instructor at Lowry AFB, Colo.
7. Technical Writer of Air Force Manuals and Training courses at Lowry AFB, Colo.
8. NCOIC of Photo Lab at Toul Rosiers AB France.
9. NCOIC of Manual Processing division at Schierstein, Germany. Also called IRCEP Intelligence Research Center — Exploitation Photo. We had a Machine secion for aerial reconnaissance film. I put in lots of time processing photos from spies behind the Iron Curtain. Yes, lots of Russian military were also US spies.
10. Technical Writer at Lowry — again!
11. Command Manager of all AF photo labs in Europe. 13 labs from Turkey, Spain, England, Germany, Italy, and Holland.
12. Retired from AF at Lowry AFB.

My job in USAFE was in Recce operations, Europe under a Col. Andrews and our next in command was Major General Creech. He was later a full General in charge of the AF in Germany otherwise called CINC USAFE.

In this continuation of writing about thing[s] I recall I may write about things previously written. Please remember that old men suffer from memory lapse. Also, I may even embellish tales previously written. These two faults were discussed recently on a T.V. program. Historians say that us old WW2 Vets do this a lot. We tend to remember a little but lie a lot and we tend to embellish stories every time we repeat them. These were discussed at length when the Smithsonian tried to put the Enola Gay B29 bomber on display with the placards saying that the U.S. did not need to drop the A-Bombs as Japan was ready to surrender. They implied that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed needlessly. The uproar from WW2 Vets made them change their stories. [See Wikipedia’s article on the Enola Gay for a discussion of this exhibit.] On the personal side of the issue I am thoroughly convinced that the A-bombs saved my life. I was in training at a base on Samar for being used as an underwater demolition job in Tokyo Bay during the second invasion of the Mainland of Japan. (The First was down on the very south island.) UDT men or commonly called Frogmen have a very short life. They were met by Jap frogmen who had spear guns — or from the demolition charger. When I was not needed to give my life during the planned invasion I was returned to “Seabee” duty. We — those in training — were placed on inter-island Ferry boats and taken to Cavite Naval Base in Manila Bay.

At Cavite we were placed on trucks and taken on the route to the big naval base at Subic Bay. Along the route the commander of the Convoy of truck[s] tried to “give” us to other units along the way. He couldn’t give all of us away and we wound up [as] surplus work slaves to existing unitls at Subic Navy Station. I was assigned to a work crew at the “lumber yard.” Actually I was called a rigger on a mobile crane used to lift lumber off trucks. Then the Filipino workers sorted and stacked the wood. The main job I did was play cards — to be interrupted when a truck of lumber arrived. Really rough duty.

Halloween is coming soon. The Halloween that occurred when I was a kid was different from the social event of today. We did the trick part, but the treat didn’t happen at all. Our main trick was tipping over the outhouse, trashing the place in general. Teachers and principals bore the brunt of our meanness. One year we even put a horse-drawn wagon on top of the school house. I don’t know how the kids were able to put a wagon on the schoolhouse because they had real problems getting it down. Another time we put a snake in a teacher’s desk. Real inspirational things — but no treats.

Another stupid thing was taking a shoe box, filling it with barnyard droppings. Then wrap the box in brown paper and place it beside the road. We would be hidden nearby to see the unsuspecting finder unwrap their finding. Big fun. I heard that one such prankster put a wildcat in a box. This time… about a hundred yards down the road all four doors slung open and the car ran into the ditch. And we thought we were having fun.

When I was a kid we could go to the movie for a dime. When you were 12 years you had to pay adult fare of 25¢. Boy there was sure a lot of eleven-year-old kids in those days.

When [we] were stationed in France, Doris [my grandmother, Udell’s wife] had to carry a “French I.D. card.” She even had to carry it when she hung clothes on the line. If caught without it she was subject to arrest and [would be] jailed. The only amazing thing about this card is that it was required of all American women over 16 and French prostitutes! The card didn’t identify which category you were. The French tried to force the Canadians to this indignity, but the Canadian general told them where they could stick it.

And then I get orders to Wiesbaden, Germany and that my family should stay in France as I would have base quarters within a month. One of the items on my base clearance was to visit the French cmdr. office to return the I.D. card to the French. I told them my wife was not leaving France and needed to keep the card. It was a standoff until I told those Frogs [sorry — that was the term he used!] I was going to call HQ USAFE and tell the Inspector General of the trouble. They went ahead and cleared me by exacting my solemn promise that we would drive by when I returned for my family. I still have the card! Well, Wayne [my uncle, Udell’s son] has it. The Frogs deny the existence of this card, but I have one.

When I was a toddler Dad had to tighten the bearings on his ’28 Chevy. Well, when finished it was too tight for the starter to start the motor. They needed to get it out of the driveway to the street where they could pull it and get it going. We were hand-pushing it out to the street. There was a ditch by the sides of the road and when they almost had the front end on the level road the truck rolled back into the ditch area. I was shoving on the front fender, fell down, and the truck ran over me. We never went to a doctor, but I couldn’t walk for a long time. Mom pulled me everywhere in a little red wagon. I finally walked again. For some reason I was X-rayed after retirement and the doctors asked me when I broke the bones in my foot. I told them I had never broken my foot. They showed me on the X-ray — I guess that happened way back when I was about four years old. Back in those days you never went to the doctor unless you had money. We never had money. I saw my first doctor when I went into the military in 1943. When I went to school I needed eyeglasses to read the stuff on the blackboard. The teachers would allow you to move around the room so you could read the blackboards. I got my first glasses at age 17 when I saved enough money to get them at Plainview [Texas].

While on Attu I had horse-traded for a clarinet! Later a soldier stationed on Shemya (island near Attu) wanted it and traded me a Jap officer’s class book/diary. It was a hardback book made for officer training with many pictures of all the Japs in his class with much about his training — then the last of the book was blank where he had wrote about his military life. He was a very good artist and had lots of illustrations. Anyway, about a week before coming home someone stole the book. I couldn’t report the theft because I was supposed to turn over such intelligence for their [superior officers’, government] use. I sure wish I had it now. I strongly suspected a so-called buddy from Forth Worth of stealing it.

I had a buddy on Attu named Richard E. Cook. He and I were very close buddies. He went to Montana State University and even said he enrolled me there too and reserved a place for me in the dorm. Well, I went to Texas Tech instead. He studied Chemical Engineering and later got a job with Dow Chemical at Midland, Michigan. He was in charge of the factory making Saran Wrap. I should have went north to study.