Oral History Interview with Taylor Abney

Philpot: This is Jonathan Philpot. It’s…February 23rd, 2008, about, I believe it’s about 10:30—10:40 a.m. I am at the American Legion with Taylor Abney, and we’re going to talk about his army service…in the South Pacific. So…if you don’t mind, just…tell us your, your date of birth and occupation and introduce yourself a little bit.

Abney: Ok…introduce myself now?

Philpot: Mm-mm.

Abney: My name is Taylor R. Abney. I was inducted in the United States Army August the 17th, 1944. I was discharged August the 26th, ’46. My tour of duty consisted 1:00of Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. I was sworn into the service there. And from there, I was transferred to Camp Lee, Virginia for my basic training and…my tech…technical training. The basic training it…it was primarily…con…is considered a weapons training in the, the knowledge of weapons and how they use them, and…well it was a…we also went through maneuvers which were…got pretty rough, rough sometimes but…that’s what they expected of it, basic training to, to tell you and, and it, and we 2:00also were involved in base, in these maneuvers during the basic training period that we…that we…trained at. And then after my basic training was over with, that consist—I think it was…at, at the basic period was…eight weeks after the eighth week of ba…basic was up, then we went to what we called the technical training. This technical training was…involved the, the type of service that we, we would, we would performing…while in the service. And…I was, I was transferred to a…it was a unit…that pertained to hospitalization…and 3:00so we had to, what we did during this training, we had a unit…it was…some, something like a…a laundry unit that did…did cleaning, primarily…we were attached to a hospital, and all the hospital, the, the sheets and different things that would otherwise would be taken to a laundry to be…sanitized and, and s…cleaned and so forth, this unit did that for us on the, and I was in charge of this, this unit, and seeing that everything was taken care of. It consisted of myself, and approx…approximately three or four other men, and, and mostly this fo…this for was for units that was off the base. I mean, we have…well like…with…they’d 4:00have a temporary hospital set up and taking care of the, the wounded, and deal with material and, that they used, I mean that…had to be…cleaned. They would, they would bring that to us, and which we run it through the, the, the type of washers and sterilize it until we had a, had a, was in charge of. And…they would, they would come out to s…the, the clothing or…well, not only the clothes and any, any material that came, like bed sheets, pillowcases, 5:00and different ki…kinds of gowns and things like that, all of those were sterilized and they c…and it was this come, we would, we would sterilize those and they would go back to the, to the hospital. After that, see I think there was a…I had sixteen…let’s see…I think, I think I had sixteen…I believe it’s sixteen weeks of technical and, and basic training in, in that category. Then from there, after the training…at…we had…had ceased, or had ended, then I was transferred to Camp Beale, California for shipment overseas. We stayed at Camp Beale, California for 6:00approximately, maybe four or five, five weeks getting prepared to…to sail, to our destination. And that…that ( ) a destination took us to…see, Camp Beale, California, let’s see, I went to… Philpot: Well, let me, let me ask you a quick question, I guess, about that. As, this is just something I picked up in some of my, my other in…interviews. When you were going through all this training, did…well, I guess first I wanted to ask you what maneuvers was like. You said that was, that was really rough. What, what did they have you do?

Abney: Well we, we’d go through the, some procedures that…they expected us as do that on maneuvers we go out in the field, and like…well, say for instance…that it, the, 7:00and that on the, on the, I’m getting in to the…m-m-m let’s see… Philpot: The, the other thing I was going to ask you….

Abney: Well our, our, our ( ) anyway, our basic training, it compared to infantry training, medical training…and anything that, that would…that we would do, would be to report we could help others and make, make everything safer, and what it would be, I think.

Philpot: And… Abney: Sometimes that would, sometimes that’d be overnight, sometimes we’d be gone a week 8:00at a time, I mean on maneuvers, doing different types of military work, I mean.

Philpot: So, would they sort of set you a task that you had to, to do, or… Abney: Yeah, we had ni…we, made, we have…we’d go on bivouac and maybe at night we, that we, we’d go on…they’d have certain training areas they w…we’d have to maybe, maybe set up a…a…well, I was trying…( ), well they, it’s, it’s been so long ago, I mean it’s kind of hard to… Philpot: Sure, sure.

Abney: …get to that, get to that.

Philpot: I did want to mention real quick, I forgot, I was supposed to say at the beginning and I forgot, that if, if we get anything, if I ask you something you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to talk about it, you know… Abney: Yeah.

Philpot: That’s… Abney: Okay.

Philpot: …I figured.

Abney: But I, I can’t remember all, everything we, we did, I mean I know we, like we’d go on maneuver some, we, we, we…maneuvers were just compared to actual being in, 9:00actual combat…and that…that’s what they, they would throw at us, I mean, and we had to set, face the consequences and, and react to, as to what we would, what we, we would do and they would keep a record on me too, I, I guess on the, what…how, how we…reacted, I mean, through these tra…these maneuvers.

Philpot: Did you…did you enlist, or were you drafted, or… Abney: I was drafted.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: And I was…in charge of the, the unit that we were…that we had to, with the hospital. I was in charge of that, which…seeing that the maintenance was done on the…on the unit itself, and we usually had, I think about eight, 10:00eight personnel on the unit itself doing the, doing the work, and I had to, if anything went wrong with the…well, like the, it, it, it ( ) looked like a tractor trailer, I mean, what the unit was that big, maybe bigger, and it had all this…this equipment in there t…for these ( ) washers that you washed, you did the laundry with, you had extractors that…dried the…the garments, and…and also sterilized them, and…and I had to make sure that, that if anything went wrong with any of this equipment, I was responsible for seeing that it was taken care of and repaired and ready for use I mean, and that, that’s a long way back I mean [Chuckling] that old, this old memory 11:00of mine is not…not too swift, I mean but…and that’s, that’s about it on the… Philpot: On, on the training and everything?

Abney: The training it…yeah, that’s of, that was about it, I mean, that we had. Of course we, they would, they would also, I have, we’d have night…session where we have to go out and, and do certain things. They would, they would post something up somewhere that we were to locate it and…and this, something, they were always finding something. Of course they do, which would be beneficial to our military service, I mean.

Philpot: Okay. Where did they, where did they send you…once you got out of training?

Abney: Let’s see from there, let’s see, training, 12:00well I went to Camp Beale, California for shipment overseas, and what I did there I’d, oh, primarily, we just did…they just posted, we, we’d be assigned duties here and there, I mean, primarily waiting for our, our, our destinati…I mean to get ready to go overseas. That’s what my primarily we just did, mostly details, I mean that they’d issued every day.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: Didn’t stay too long at that…that camp there (clears throat) and…let’s see, from there, let’s see I, I, we’ve already covered the Philippines I… Philpot: Huh, I don’t think so, I think you, you, you got to California.

Abney: I stayed Camp Beale, California, I went, then I went to…I 13:00was, I was shipped to the Philippine Island—Islands, of Luzon, and, and, well I did…we worked with the, with the people there and I, I still, we’re still having the same unit. I mean we had to, had to work with those people, that our, doing the same details that we had at Camp Lee, Virginia, that in our training. And…I don’t, I’m, how long it, it took us, I, I don’t know how long I was on Luzon with the, I’d say maybe three or four months, if it’s that long, I mean, with the… Philpot: I don’t really know what was going on in, in the Philippines at that time, Is, is it just sort of a base there, or is there… Abney: Oh they had, they, now, most of the fighting was over with when, when I, when I got in there. Yeah they, they had the, they had quite a few battles there on 14:00the Island of Luzon. Well all those islands around there that they, they had…but we, I was force at, we, we were lucky, I mean we didn’t have to use any, any of our weapons… Philpot: Right, right.

Abney: …I mean we’re in. Now of course we weren’t infantry, I mean if we, if we’d been on the infantry, we’d been maybe out on the island somewhere on maneuver, but ac…actually looking for the enemy, because the enemy was there.

Philpot: I, I see, okay, so this, this was like at a field hospital, and… Abney: Yeah, uh-huh.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: But I mean, we had in basic training when we, we had, we had…they’d taught us the use of arms, you know… Philpot: Right, right, mm-mm.

Abney: …and, but… Philpot: Okay.

Abney: I’m thankful I didn’t have to…have to…use any of them.

Philpot: Okay, well…let’s see. I, I’m not going to go through all these questions, 15:00because I mean, we, we’d be here all day, you know, they’re just sample questions but I, I wanted to take… Abney: Well then… Philpot: …some of them ( )… Abney: …then anyway, after I left the Philippines…Luzon in the Philippines, I went to Nagoya, Japan, and that, that’s after the war, the war ended, then…to Fort Sheridan, Illinois for…where I, where I was discharged from.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: But… Philpot: So, I, did, was that, then also a field hospital in Japan as well?

Abney: In, in Japan, I mean that, that’s one of those so we, they, these hospitals, our unit we had then…we would, they had…on the, we, they’d, were, they 16:00were placed near the hospital where we could get all our hot water and then they’re a lot better than the one we had out on the island where, where you…you had to g…do, do your own, get your own hot water base where you cam…camped. But this was just like being in the city, you’d hook up that hospital there. And we did the, we did a lot of the, their…laundry for that hospital there.

Philpot: What, what kind of s…I’m trying to imagine what this was, was, was like, what kind of structure what, what we’re talking about, like this is a…like a building, or… Abney: No.

Philpot: …tents, or what?

Abney: It, it, it, it had wheels, but, this for instance using a, just a tractor that a, that a truck pulled… Philpot: Right.

Abney: …and it, the tractor set…it, it was equipped with all this…these different…units on there to do certain thing.

Philpot: Right.

Abney: And then it was…used that diesel fuel, as fuel, I mean the unit moved it.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: That…I mean they, they could do the job, I mean, 17:00the… Philpot: Did they, they transport the, that unit by…I guess by ship? Is that how they, they put them where they wanted to be?

Abney: They, wanting, one they had come by shipment, in, in Japan, that, that, that was the one that we had. I mean we, when we got to Japan, I mean they, and, then a, they assigned us to this hospital we’d be working at, I mean, the unit was there, so the… Philpot: Right, right.

Abney: …then… Philpot: Okay. Let’s see, let me…ask you some from this list here. If you could…did, I mean had you gotten married yet, or anything like that? Did you leave anybody behind, you know, when, when you, when you were drafted? I guess you were—how old are you? Were you eighteen did you say?

Abney: Yeah, I was eighteen, yeah.

Philpot: Okay. And I believe you’re, you’re… Abney: Oh, my wife. I was married.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: And then, 18:00then, then I had no, no children, I mean, and stuff like that. She—of course she went back to her parents and stayed with them until I got back out.

Philpot: Did she…were you, were you all able to write letters back and forth?

Abney: Oh yes, uh-huh.

Philpot: Would, would she…what, what would you say, you know, what would you put in a letter?

Abney: I would tell her where I was at, what I’d, what I’d done, maybe that, that previous week or whatever, on this one, and how I missed her, and all [Chuckling] like that, and I’m looking forward to coming home and… Philpot: Did…they, they ever take the scissors to your letter, you know… Abney: No.

Philpot: …like if you wrote something… Abney: No.

Philpot: …you weren’t supposed to say.

Abney: No that never happened. So I must did, I did something right, I guess.

Philpot: Okay…let’s see…was, this seem [Chuckling] e…everybody 19:00I’ve asked this to, they, they laugh. It seems like a weird question, but…do you associate any, any smells or tastes with your service time over—overseas?

Abney: No.

Philpot: None. Laundry, there wasn’t, like bleach, or, you know, I mean, nothing… Abney: They, no that.

Philpot: …smell like… Abney: That didn’t affect us at all, I mean. In fact it probably better than some we had on the islands. I mean it, it…that’s how we, we had our own detergents, I mean with the, on the, if we ran out of some, which we very seldom did, I guess they, they would come up with something.

Philpot: Okay…what did you eat, when, when you were there? Is it C rations, or K rations, or did they have a… Abney: Well they usually, we have a, a…we have a group there that…that was set up the, with me, he be outside meals. We had cooks, something like th…they would, they would 20:00set up tarpaulins around like that and they, they cooked the meals for us.

Philpot: Was it kind like a mess hall?

Abney: Yeah, but if we, if we was somewhere, that these convene it, these convenience what, when we didn’t have those, then we’d use our mess kit—I mean our, our rations, which would be issued rations, I mean, that we, we’ve done that quite often.

Philpot: But what, what was that like, I mean what did you get in that?

Abney: It wasn’t, wasn’t bad, you’d get hungry it’d taste pretty good.

Philpot: Okay. What, what, what was in it, like… Abney: They looked, just cans. I don’t know [Chuckling]. Some of them called it shit on a shingle, [Laughter – Philpot] on a shingle.

Philpot: I’ve heard that before, actually.

Abney: But…if you’re hungry, I mean you, you’ll eat, you don’t pay too much attention.

Philpot: Right, right, this like potted meat and… Abney: Right, uh-huh.

Philpot: Okay. Let’s see…This 21:00is another that everybody always laughs, but…did, did you feel…pressure or stress, you know, while you were in the service…as far as… Abney: By…where I was at and what the, no, that’s something, I mean, sure I would like to, I would like to have been home, I mean you get homesick sometimes and, and you get thing, things on your mind, but…it didn’t last long, I mean, we…we were all about in the same hole, I mean we’d get together and reminisce a little, you know, and, but we was always looking, we always looked forward, when this war was over, and then we could, we could go home to the, to our loved ones. 22:00But otherwise, everything went fairly good, I mean it, and the units I was in, and the one I was in charge of, we all got along, I mean, we had some fine people, I mean they, we all worked together, and then a lot.

Philpot: Do you…do you still keep in touch with any of them or… Abney: No, not, I haven’t. None of them was around close, close by.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: I haven’t…I haven’t heard from one of them.

Philpot: Did…let’s see, did—some of these questions are, are also about, you know, about your time bef…before the war. Did you have any, any favorite music or anything during the, the war years?

Abney: Oh hell (clears throat), yeah I like, a lot of hillbilly music I mean [Chuckling], I like that or rock and roll, I mean that…that’s all right, I… 23:00Philpot: Okay.

Abney: …I wouldn’t…it, it was good enough, I mean I, wasn’t—I didn’t get carried away with it, I mean, with music, still don’t today, but, I like music.

Philpot: I, I, I didn’t know how much even, how much opportunity you would have had to, to listen to it.

Abney: Well now, after things had calmed down, we, they, we, we’d go in town to those night…joints in town, town and we could. They had, they had music going on in there, you know. We’d drink a beer and kind of try to sing along with them or something [Chuckling] like that, but, otherwise… Philpot: Okay.

Abney: …we did all right.

Philpot: Let’s see, did you have a sports team or anything that you, you followed before you left?

Abney: A what?

Philpot: A sports team? Fan of anybody?

Abney: No, uh-uh, 24:00no I just… Philpot: I never cared about sports team.

Abney: That’s the only sports team we have maybe on a, on the weekends ( ) come out to play ball or something like that.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: Everybody was involved in it.

Philpot: So let’s see…did you have a hard time when you came back, you know, just adjusting to, to being out of the military? Was that hard for you?

Abney: No, no it wasn’t, I…let’s see, I was trying to think about when I got out, did I…I had to find me a job, another job, I didn’t go back to the same job that I had prior to, to going in the, the army. You know, the wife and I, we, when I came back…we stayed with, we stayed around…her family and my family for a while, then we, we decided I would, I needed to get out and find me something to do, so we went to Cincinnati, Ohio, 25:00and I went to work there, at the…one of the factories there. From there I worked with the—I got a job with the railroad, I, I worked at the railroad and retired from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but I had, I had a real good job with the, the railroad.

Philpot: Okay. Let’s see…well then you already told me what, what you thought in your, you fellow soldiers, that you really had a good group with you… Abney: I did.

Philpot: Did you all ever play pranks on each other, in… Abney: Oh yeah [Chuckling], if you didn’t do that, I mean, you, you had to do something, I mean, but they, they were, they’d take it pretty well, I mean.

Philpot: So, so you… Abney: They’d get you… 26:00Philpot: …you were more on the, on the giving in than the receiving end.

Abney: [Chuckling] and they, they’d get, they’d get you back though.

Philpot: Was there any, any one in particular that sticks in your mind that was particularly good or anything…or, or even that [Chuckling] some, something somebody did to you?

Abney: Well, no they might (clears throat) they might catch your, your uni…your clothing, somewhere like that and tie a knot in the pant leg, you know, or something like that, and…oh no, nothing real bad I mean, but… Philpot: Right, right. Just…all, all, all in fun then.

Abney: Oh yeah!

Philpot: Okay. Did you…have any feelings about women being in the military, or… Abney: No, no, not…not, I, I guess we, we were wishing sometimes 27:00we could date one of them, but here I was married [Chuckling].

Philpot: Yeah.

Abney: But, but it’s, that’s wishful thinking and, some of, some of the men probably would, did date some, but I never, I never did.

Philpot: Okay. Let’s see, I wanted to ask you did you, did you get any medals or, or anything like that?

Abney: I, I left them at home, had them in the p…well I’ll tell you who I got on this, but I, I had them all, got them all in a frame that, and I was going to bring it and son-of-the-gun, I, I got the, I got the m…the Victory Medal, I got the Asiatic Pacific Theater ribbon, I got the good conduct medal, I got the Philippine Liberation and the Army of oc…occ…occupation medal.

Philpot: Is that your…your discharge document?

Abney: Yeah, this is, this, this…that’s my discharge there and then that, in the back of it is some…( ).

Philpot: I see. Did you ever know anybody that got a dishonorable discharge?

Abney: No I…sure didn’t.

Philpot: It seem—seems 28:00like…most of the World War II people I have talked to were, were all pretty solid about what they were there for and getting the job done and everything. Well, that’s really neat! Did…I wonder why they, why they took your thumbprint on the, on the… Abney: I have no idea.

Philpot: …do you know?

Abney: No. This…I th…this one is a certificate of fitness that’s why I, [Chuckling] that is my physical, I guess. And… Philpot: Is, is this…this is, is this the test they give while you’re still in, to make sure you’re still fit?

Abney: No, that was… Philpot: …or, or ( )?

Abney: …that was before I went in, prior to going, that’s, otherwise…the, 29:00that give them, give them something to go by, well he is all right [Chuckling]… Philpot: Right, right.

Abney: …we draft him.

Philpot: Right. Okay. Let’s see…do you…what—well, I guess given your, your age…at the time you went in, I don’t, I don’t know if this will apply, but did you have any…wha…what had you heard about the war in, in Europe before Pearl Harbor? Anything, or… Abney: Well just that we were involved in it, I mean it, for that. I wasn’t, I wasn’t looking forward, I had a lot of friends were drafted too prior to me going in the service, and…and I always felt that I wasn’t no better than they, they were, I mean, I was called and… Philpot: Right.

Abney: …I do what I am supposed to do.

Philpot: So it’s, you pretty much knew you were going to have to go… 30:00Abney: Oh, no doubt about it.

Philpot: …sooner or later.

Abney: I, now, I was tur…I was turned down once. I had…a ruptured appendix, and…had, had to be hospa…hospitalized and, and…cause gangrene I think, began to step in and so they turned me down on that ( ) the first time when I took the physical. But then, I mean I, I got over that, I mean, and…I still carry, carry the scar yet, I mean, but…my appendix, they, they ruptured, I mean, before I got to the hospital. I was a, I was a mess. They, they didn’t think I could, I was even going to make it, but I did, and…and I got over that, and…that, I think that’s why they turned me down the first time, from that. The second time I mean, they hadn’t forgotten [Chuckling] you, so I… Philpot: How l…how long did they wait before they, they called you back in for the second physical?

Abney: Let’s see… Philpot: Was it like a year, just a few… Abney: …I, I, I say, it, it’s approximately a year, maybe longer.

Philpot: Okay. 31:00Do you remember…what you were doing, you know, when you were, where you were, what you were doing when you heard the war ended? Well I guess, I guess you were still in the service.

Abney: I was, I was in the service when it ended. I was looking forward to going home then, I know that.

Philpot: How, how long did you have to wait after the end of the war before you got to go home?

Abney: I’ll say, I’m, I’m guessing now, it didn’t seem like it was too long, maybe three or four months… Philpot: Oh, that’s… Abney: …like that.

Philpot: …not too bad.

Abney: to leave. I mean that can be more or less, I mean that.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: But I was ready.

Philpot: I 32:00imagine so. Huh…let’s see, we talked about what you did…as far as the, a job and everything. Did you have any, anybody in the service you’re particularly close to, particular good friend, or… Abney: Oh, oh yes, this [Chuckling] and I don’t…li…lives a distance down, he lives, one buddy him they thought we was brothers, I mean, we were so close, Antoine W. (Alamore?) was his name, he is from Lou…Louisiana, and he was, all the time him and I we were together, I mean real close, just like brothers, and I, I never heard from him since I left and, and I don’t know if…I guess instead of getting addresses or some like that, we just wanted to get home, I mean, but…he was a…real close friend then.

Philpot: Okay…Huh, I wa…a question on the list is, it’s just kind of funny, given that we’re in the…American Legion and all, but did you join the veterans organization, and, and if so, why? 33:00Abney: Primarily, I guess just to, to be with other veterans and we can sort of reminisce, you know, with one another. That’s primarily I…and…why I did.

Philpot: Did you—is this the only one you joined, or did you join the VFW, or, or any of the others?

Abney: N-n-n…I don’t, this is the only one, I guess, I… Philpot: Okay. Have you ever…ever had a reunion for you…or, or you know, has your unit ever had a reunion or anything like that?

Abney: No.

Philpot: Okay. How, how would you say that your…your service and experiences overseas have affected your life?

Abney: I th…I think that it, it made, it, it made you 34:00aware of what, and, and being with, enemies of foreign people, I mean, countries that we, like Japan, the Japanese people, the Filipinos and different one like that, it’s seeing what they’ve gone through with and how we, when we went into…this one big city we went in, in Japan…but we, my outfit was about the first one in ( ) city over in Japan. Anyway, we, when they let us go up in t…that we, they, we, we were restricted for quite a while 35:00there because they didn’t know how, how they, they would react or what the people would do, you know. But then, when they did…let us go out…oh…I’m thinking…in Nagoya, likely no…Nagoya, Japan, that, that, that was one of the large cities, and we could…and you look at it and see what our planes did to those…those buildings, I mean, oh it was pathetic. I mean they ( ), but…we started walking, we had to, they won’t let us go out in singles, we’d go out eight and ten, and we be walking up the street here and these…kids, scared, they’d just se…they’d run and scream, and…scared to death, I mean. But that didn’t last long, I mean I, even the…the women, they would do the same thing. I, probably I can understand why, probably they, they, they was, would they’re going to be raped and all this stuff like that, you know, which no…not, not to my knowledge happened at, in our outfit or anything like that. I, I felt sorry for the people 36:00themselves, I mean, knowing that around their city they’re modest, I mean, their homes and everything, had these little kids that we, and we always carried candy with us, oh they, they loved that, so, so we, then after, I think after we’d been there two or three months, you s…you see, you began to see the change then. Oh, they, they were they were our friends then, I mean, kids, I mean, oh, well they, they had these…women, I, I guess you call them…well we called them whore houses here, I mean the, over there they call them, they call them Hong Kong Shacks, I mean, and the, these little kids, they’d use these little kids run out going “pom-pom Joe” want, and if you ask him who, he said my mommy [Chuckling], like that, you know, that, that was sad, I mean, they, and all, that was, that’s kind 37:00of raw to the…the, the United States kind of starting putting a close watch on that, I mean, probably venereal disease and like that, and that…the good thing they did. Otherwise I, the only thing I, I didn’t learn the, the Japanese language, I mean [Chuckling] I, the, should have I mean, but…they were, they were learning English before we, we could get to learn the Japanese.

Philpot: So were the, were the people very different then as far as in the Philippines as well from the Americans?

Abney: Yeah. The, the Filipinos, they…it seem like they were a little closer to us, I mean it’s not that they, they appreciated us more than, than the Japanese, I mean. But…but…Japanese…it, 38:00it was sad to go into those cities and, beautiful cities, I mean, see what our planes had, had done to them, I mean. And the Filipinos they, the Japanese had mistreated them see, there was a lot difference in how we treated them than, that the Japanese had treated them, the Japanese.

Philpot: So, so the Filipinos were glad to see you then.

Abney: Oh yes, they were.

Philpot: Okay.

Abney: But I would like, I would like to stayed there in the, the Philippines, I mean I, I loved that place, that, but you’re in the service like that, you go where they tell you.

Philpot: Huh… Abney: But, in the long run it is an experience—I wish that I had the…taken more notes and, and before, that I paid more attention to…what was going on, 39:00or like that, which I didn’t, this…but I guess the first time, you don’t even think about ( )… Philpot: Right, right.

Abney: …like that. You want to get your…time in and give up, get on home.

Philpot: Okay. Well…these are, just a few, few questions about sort of your, your thoughts on…how, how…do you feel like it’s important…that, that students, and, you know, people today study the stuff, you know, about…history in general, but specifically the war and that kind of thing?

Abney: Do you think what now?

Philpot: Do you think it, or, or why is it important for people to, you know, to hear about all of this, with the, to, you know, to, to study the war and history in general.

Abney: What it should give them a, a little idea of what the war is all about, 40:00I mean it, I think, when you’ve actually seen these…a, a, a people that it, that have been…another country has taken over their country, I mean, and see the reaction of these people and…I think it…it ought, it’ll le…it’ll make you appreciate your own country, more so, than anything, that uh, that uh…we lost a lot of our boys too, I mean, and, that’s sad, but either way, somebody is going to lose, the enemy is going to lose or, or the, the opponent is going to lose one during a war, like that. It’s just…the way it goes.

Philpot: Is that…do you feel like things have changed ove…a lot over the past 41:00sixty years as far as… Abney: I belie…I’m, I think so, I really, I really do.

Philpot: I guess in, in terms of, of community, would—did you feel like it was, it was different when you left than from when you came back and, or…and, and, or even just how has it changed from, from when you got back to how it is now?

Abney: Well I, I thin…I think it, it’s, it’s changed for the best, I mean, because, I mean people that ha…the men and women that were actually involved in some of this, I think their, their attitude is, is changed quite a bit. I mean, I don’t mind that, I mean, but…it ma…it…find out the, nobody, no country I don’t think any country benefits from, from a war, I mean, the…but…I 42:00m…I, I think it, it made a person up for me personally, I meant, after what I have seen, it made me more aware of what a war can do to a country.

Philpot: How do you, how do you think it changed…our country…as far as have to go through that?

Abney: I, I, I believe, I actually believe it’s changed our country quite a bit, I mean. Of course we…our country was primarily the conqueror, they, they did…didn’t lose too many…battles, I mean, they, and they had the, the equipment and things to do it with, and, and being on other foreign soil too, I mean. Yeah, I believe, it might have been a different story if the, if it happened right here in the United States. People would have a different attitude, 43:00I’m quite sure. If they, if they was involved in it Philpot: Okay. Well…that, we, we actually have gone over, almost all of the, the questions in the, in the back section there so…let’s see…is there anything that you want to add or talk about that we’ve not, you know, has not come up in the interview so far?

Abney: No, but I…I was, I was interested in this interview on me, I mean, of course I made it, I didn’t have…answer to all of it on me, but I mean it…( ) something like this it, it helped them to get the, just get the attitude and…of, of the people that’s actually been in service in these foreign countries, 44:00things like that, it…I think it’ll help.

Philpot: Huh…oh I did, I did want to ask you. When you got back, was, what was that like, I mean, was it…you know, parades and, and, you know, how were you treated by the people when you got back?

Abney: Oh, we were treated, not—no parades, I mean, the people, just being with your family and all like, and friends, I mean that, that’s, all that’s what [Chuckling] all those years and months you, you’ve been looking forward to it, laugh and to…really something. Then they, well they have, one time they had this…this cities now they have, like Veterans Of Foreign Wars, and different organizations, you can go now—they have, they have one in Irvin, that’s where my, my old hometown I mean, and they have…I think their, 45:00their lodge up there and, similar to this one here, I mean, I think they s…I think they serve beer and liquor, I mean there, in Irvine, it said Estill County is a dry county, and I, the wife and I we wonder, we got some friends of ours and they patronize that place quite often and they, I, I don’t go, I don’t, we don’t patronize but they tell us about it, you know, about the, the drink and then all like that, but it’s a dry county, we’ve, we asked just between her and I we wonder why they don’t raid those places, they, you know like some bootlegging joint, I mean, some individual, maybe selling whisky or beer on the side, they could, they get wind of that and they, they gonna raid that place.

Philpot: Maybe there is some sort of… Abney: Some, somebody is getting paid off or something. I don’t know what they…unless…well, 46:00like I said, you, I don’t know, I guess, I don’t think you have to be a veteran to join it, not, I don’t know for sure, I mean a lot of, a lot of veterans who are members of it.

Philpot: Well…I guess we’ll…I don’t know what I did with that…I’ll have you look at this release form that, you know, we talked about at the beginning and…unless there is any, anything else you want to add, we’ll…call it finished.

Abney: No I, I just, I just hope I’ve answered some of your questions, I mean it ( )… Philpot: Yeah I think, I think it’s really good as far as people… Abney: To talk about it, yeah, that… Philpot: You know, la…largely all anybody ever hears about is the fighting, but you don’t know what goes on and how that ha…you know, I mean it, it takes a lot…a lot of people to keep the soldiers out, you know, that you don’t necessarily know about this 47:00(sort of thing?) Abney: Yeah we had our, we had our own weapons, I mean, of course we…we’ve had with the O-3 rifle during basic training, we trained with the O-3 rifle and the car…the carbine with it, and…and that, I think on the rifle range I got, I got a sharpshooter. I don’t, I don’t know whether I got the medal on that or not, I mean, but…I don’t think… Philpot: Did you have to—when, when you said you, you were allowed to walk around in Japan in groups, did you have to go armed when you did that?

Abney: No, no arms at all, we weren’t allowed any. 48:00Now this…oh yes, it goes through that, the M-1 Rifle, I was qualified [Chuckling] with that one there, ( ).

Philpot: Oh, I see, mm-mm.

Abney: But…We al…also the carbine, the carbine rifle too, it was small one.

Philpot: All right, well, thank you very much for talking like that.

Abney: Okay I, I should have been up more to date on some of these things.

Philpot: Ah, that’s okay, that’s… Abney: I sort of tried to go over some of them, when I…when what’s-her-name called me and asked me to come in today.

Haynes: Why I’ll go ahead and, and stop this, and then… “END OF INTERVIEW”