Oral history and review of World War II veteran conducted by Harold Phillips for the Hangley Library Archives and the Winchester Frederick County Historical Society. Today is the 21st of June, 2002. The veteran is Mr. Rector S. Brown.

My name is Rector S. Brown. I grew up in West Virginia in a small town called Chloe, and I attended -- graduated from Calhoun County High School in the spring of 1941. I grew up on a farm, so at the conclusion of the summer I went to West Virginia Wesleyan College as a freshman in the fall of 1941.

The attack of Pearl Harbor, of course, interrupted our education, and having been playing football at West Virginia Wesleyan College, we had a split season as far as school was concerned, so the individuals who were not drafted during the athletic school year, we went to another school in Charleston, West Virginia, called Morris Harvey.

Was that most of the football players?

Yes, most of them, yeah. Well, some volunteered and some were drafted, yeah.

Did you go there on an athletic scholarship?

Yes, on an athletic scholarship. And so at Morris Harvey we had enough of their players left, and we concluded the season in 1942. And at the conclusion of the season, we all went to the recruiting station and volunteered. But they prolonged our induction until August the 1st, and then we were inducted into service in the Navy, and we went to Great Lakes for eight weeks of boot camp.

Were you together at boot camp, most of you who played football there?

Eight of us was in boot camp together, and we were all from West Virginia College at different places, yeah. And it was -- it was a very good group. We enjoyed it. If you can enjoy boot camp, we enjoyed it. So at the conclusion of our stay in boot camp, we were picked into special groups, and having had very physical studies at the same colleges and having participated in sports, a group of us was sent to Bainbridge, Maryland, to what we call Physical Instructor School, and we were there for another six weeks of special training. And from there we were departed from different directions, and I went from Bainbridge to the ________ Building in Boston for reassignment. And we were, from there, went to Eastport, Maine, doing rehabilitation work for veterans who had been overseas who were there for a little recreation and retirement and recuperation and so forth. So we spent a year and a half from there as a rehabilitation into the -- into that program. And then from there, I was ordered -- I had orders from there to go to the Treasure Island in California for reassignment. And we were there for only a week.

What kinds of things would you do at the -- in the rehab program?

Different exercises for people who had certain injuries or who had certain problems. And we kept them busy out of bed and that type of thing, that we had them march and --

They probably learned to walk again and do --

Yeah, walk. Plus the fact that some of them probably would have permanent injuries, we did as much with them as we could do with those kind of things.

And so as a result of, going from Treasure Island, we were sent overseas, and we traveled by transport boat, and we went to a little island called Eniwetok, and we were there for a short time. Did practically nothing there because they just -- this was an Air Force base primarily. And so at the conclusion of my stay there, they flew us to Manila in the Philippines, and we were reassigned to the Island of Luzon. And there we ran rehabilitation as well as recreation program, and to finish out the whole thing. Most of the action as far as the war was concerned was gone by that time.

About when was that?

That was in June of 1945. '45. Okay. And then the only problem is that they warned us against Japanese snipers who may not at this time realize the war was over. So we had to be a little careful with that kind of thing, but no disturbances that I recall. So we were there until the surrender, and we were sent back to the States. We left there the 1st of March, and we got back to the -- to the States, and I was discharged from Bainbridge, Maryland, on April the 20th, 1946. And so when we got our discharge, came home. Of course, I was in love with a country girl, and so we got married on the 1st day of May in . And following that, I worked in the oil fields during the summer and came back to college in West Virginia Wesleyan in August of '46. And we stayed there for two more years, played football, graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan in the spring of 1948.

And from then on, I've been in the coaching and teaching business from 1948 to 1988. So the different places we've been, we've grown to enjoy it very much.

Did you do the GI Bill at all?

GI Bill, yes. Very much, very much so. We had a scholarship, but the GI Bill was the thing that really proceeded, and, of course, we had a baby in 19 -- July of 1947. So we had barracks, they had -- they built veterans -- 32 units for the veterans at Wesleyan.

And so we occupied one of those until we graduated and moved out.

What were the barracks like?

There were eight units, eight units with four in each unit. And it was built with primarily wooden -- wooden materials and temporary-type things. And so there were four families who lived in each -- in each section or each unit.

Did they look like the actual troop barracks that they built?

No, no, they were -- they were just long, extended buildings that --

They didn't --

-- were put together. The bedrooms overlapped in each unit. It was strictly a temporary type of a facility, but very comfortable. We had a very good time in those two years. Everybody was friendly, everybody knew everybody, and it was a real good atmosphere.

Were the colleges overcrowded with veterans at that time?

There were a lot of veterans, but not overcrowded.

It wasn't overcrowded?

No. We did very well as far as the classrooms. Compared to most of them, we were very comfortable, probably maybe 30 to a teacher, and it worked out very well.

But they didn't expand the colleges to take care of the veterans?

No. It was -- it was pretty much all stabilized. Of course, Wesleyan has been an old college going way back, you know, established by the Methodist school and has been there for a long time. But since that time, of course, they've expanded, and it's got many, many more things than what we had.

Many of the colleges did expand to take the extra veterans, like Tech.

Right.

I wouldn't have gotten into Tech except they expanded for the veterans.

Yeah, we -- this is, you know, in the last 15 years, the Methodist Church provided for them some and the alumni provided some, and so today it's a very, very beautiful campus with, I don't know, several buildings. Many have been built in the last 20 years.

Did you ever hear from any of the people that you worked with in rehabilitation, any of the patients?

Well, yeah. Bill Pugh (ph) and I, Bill is a good friend of mine. We were together in school all the way through college. And -- but we separated in the Navy. He went to North Carolina, the B-12 program.

But he and I stayed exceptional -- the whole family stayed exceptionally close. Yeah, there was a number of individuals that we stayed in contact with.

Did you join the American Legion and the VFW or anything like that?

No. No, I didn't get into all of that. Coaching and teaching, we didn't really have time to go to meetings.

Were you able to play football while you were in the service?

Yes. In fact, we did when we were in boot camp, Bill and I played with the Great Lakes team. Since we were there the 1st of August, we were there until -- until we broke camp at the end of October. So, yeah, we played some football there with them. There was a lot of guys that was there.

There were some great service teams. Remember Army Navy?

Oh, yeah.

The military academies, all the great stars that they had. Even the Marines had a team. Bill Van (ph), was he with the qualifier group?

He -- I'm not sure. He may have been. Bill and I, when we played together, we had a game with Ohio State, had a boy by the name of Russell Thomas who had played for Charleston High School, and they made him -F because of his knees and so forth. But he was playing for Ohio State at that time. That's the only game I really remember really knowing anything about him. He was awesome playing. But it was a great time as far as we were concerned. We were never in danger, you know, and so it was -- it was enjoyable.

Anything else you'd like to add?

No, not except for I, after we were married, I have four daughters, and we've had nine grandchildren and now two great grandchildren, and we've enjoyed the family immensely.

Did you have other brothers that were in the service as well?

Yes, I had a brother that was also in the Navy, and I had another brother who was in the Air Force, he was a colonel in the Air Force. Of course, he went in, he had finished his college work and had taught one year and started the second year, and he was drafted in October of 1942.

So they took all of the boys out of your family into the service?

Well, I had an older brother that didn't, didn't go in. Yeah. An older brother, he worked -- he worked at the military plant, so forth. And my wife, I might mention my wife, when she graduated high school, went to Akron and worked on airplanes and so forth.

Okay.

So she, I call her A. J. Whitman, and I don't know whether she appreciates that or not. But she -- she was over there, she went to school part of the time and she also was a secretary in the office most of the time.

Had you met her before?

Yeah, we grew up, practically grew up together. Right. Yes. She -- she only lived a mile down the road from where I grew up, so we knew each other for years.

So she might be someone for us to interview. She may have a contribution.

Well, she might.

How long was she on the job?

Probably a year and a half, two years. A year and a half, probably. She graduated in the spring of '44, and then she went from there. So probably a year and a half until they started. Many of those people, of course, the war was over by then, they let them go.

Did you get anything of value out of the service other than the opportunity to serve your country? Anything else?

Oh, yeah. Travel experience. Meet a whole host of people. Yeah, it was --

Have you been able to use what you've learned from the service?

Well, I use it, yeah, I use it for teaching jobs in history to a great extent, yeah. Yeah, it benefitted. I got a lot out of it, like I say. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't want to do it again.

Because actually, it, you know, when you think about it, it took away basically three years of your education. But yet it was necessary to be done.

Somebody had to do it so, consequently, I was part of it, and I don't regret it. I'm glad that we did.

Well, thank you very much.

All right. You're welcome, Harold.