Transcription: James Clements ________________________________________________________________ Today is Wednesday, May 16th, 2013. My name is James Crabtree and today I’m interviewing Mr. James Clements. This interview is being conducted in support of the Texas General Land Office Veterans Land Board Voices of Veterans Oral History Program. I’m at the General Land Office Building in Austin, and Mr. Clements is at his residence in Austin, Texas, as well. Sir, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us today. It’s an honor for our program. James Clements: Thank you. Sir, the first question that I always like to start off with is please just tell us a little bit about your childhood and your life before you entered the military. James Clements: Well, it’s pretty simple. I was born in Haskell County, Texas, in 1924, August the 20th, 1924. My father was a farmer and he and mother were married I think a little better than 50 years and had five children. In ’29, he left the farm in 1929, due to he lost it actually. The bank didn’t foreclose, he just gave it to ‘em. And he was a bridge builder, went into that, and dams, and the carpenter type thing. He worked all his life, and that’s where I got into that particular business as well. I have a brother who served in World War II, and I have a brother who served in the Korean War, in the Navy. Of the five siblings, where were you in the order? James Clements: In the middle. Yes sir. And do you remember where you were when World War II started? James Clements: We were in Corpus Christi, Texas, when daddy, my father, was working on the naval air station down there. They were just about to complete that thing I think, and we had been down there about a year. I remember this well. He had gone to see my grandfather on the other side of Abilene, a little community there, and got the news on the radio of course, and he had a new Chevrolet car and it got too hot coming back, so he really was frightened because my oldest brother was at Pearl Harbor. Oh he was. So tell us sir about that and when you got any word from him if you did. James Clements: Well, it was strange. Of course radio was pretty simple. You didn’t see anybody and you took for granted everything was true. Our first reports on the damage there was terrible, and it was, there’s no question. I saw part of it later on in my life, not the bombing or anything, but the havoc that was created by the bombs. My brother was on the USS New Orleans which was a heavy cruiser, and they were there, and his ship, “praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,” I think the chaplain of his ship was the one that said that, and he came through it fine and the ship was not hit. How long did it take before your family got word though that he was OK? James Clements: Well I think we probably had a day and a half, something like that, two days. And as promptest we could. I don’t know, I don’t recall just how it was. I was in high school and don’t remember all of that of course. 1 It’s probably safe to assume he might’ve sent a telegram or something of that sort. James Clements: He did, yes. What was it that made him go into the Navy before the war? James Clements: Well, he had tried several different things to make a living. He was I think 18 or 19 years old when he went in, and it just seemed like the service was something that he wanted to be in. He had been in about two or three years when the war started. I don’t recall just exactly when he went in. So when the war started, obviously your family was worried about your brother. Did you think that there was a chance at some point that you would be going into the war, too? James Clements: I don’t think there was any doubt that I would be going, just a matter of when. And then at that point because you were still in high school, did you expect to get drafted or did you want to go ahead and pick your service? James Clements: I expected to be drafted. And you were fine with going in whatever branch you were assigned or did you want to enlist? James Clements: Well, we had a little discussion about that in San Antonio, that’s where I went, the draft board sent me down there with 150 other people. When I went through the line physical and all of that with all these people, the Marines were standing pretty close by with their man who was selecting people, and he took my papers and went through ‘em and marked on them – this man would be good material to be selected. I looked at that and I didn’t want any part of the Marines. So we went on through and I got to the man handling the Navy part of it and I said look here, I don’t want this. I come from a family with sailors in it, and I want to go to the Navy. I knew I was physically able, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind about that. He said well we can take care of that, and he did. He was able to get my name removed from that Marine Corps, but it was an experience, it really was. Why was it you didn’t want to go in the Marine Corps? James Clements: I had some friends that lost their lives rather rapidly. I did not want the infantry in the Army either. You wanted to stay in the Navy. James Clements: I wanted to stay in the Navy. This was my 18th birthday, August the 20th, 1943. They gave me a 7-day delay in orders. I came back to Austin and got my business organized, what little business I had. And then did they send you out to San Diego? 2 James Clements: Out to San Diego. The strangest thing, too, they lined us up in alphabetical order and about halfway down, they were taking sailors for boot camp at Corpus Christi, and I was hoping I’d get to go down there because I’d lived down there and got to high school. No, they took you from A to something, and that something sent us on out to San Diego. What are your memories, sir, of basic training? James Clements: Well, the main problem that I had, profanity is just something that’s not in my family, let’s just say that. And it just seemed to me like that I was directed at with all of this stuff that they were throwing out, and I finally talked to the Chief Petty Officer and I had to pull some extra duty because of my activity in objecting to a bunch of this stuff, but anyway, I talked to the Chief and he said well, I want you to know one thing. It’s not directed at you. And I said well you can’t prove that by what I see and what I hear. Anyway, he said well, a little later on in this you will learn what this is all about. He said my advice to you for the next three weeks, that’s how long it would be before we got out, is to obey every order and take it like it was directed to a mule or horse or whatever. Anyway, I said _____. And I told the First Class that was in charge of us, I’m with you, let’s go. And so I didn’t have any more trouble with it, and later on, I did find out the necessity of following orders. Sure, and obviously, too, the Navy is pretty famous for their profanity I think. So you hear people say they swear like a sailor. James Clements: Exactly right. I’m thankful I came out of that without that, without tattoos and without the profanity. I think you’re right. It’s possible to do it, but there’s a lot that succumb to it. James Clements: You bet. So during your training, besides profanity, what were kind of the biggest things that they were doing? I guess they were teaching you how to swim and put out fires on ships and that sort of thing? James Clements: Number one, physical training, it was a lot of it. I had surgery just before I was drafted for a hernia and it had not completely healed up, and they went ahead and took me anyway. My dad says you can’t have him. He said just think we can’t. This is one of the reasons. But anyway I was exempt from a certain amount of the physical training for the period of time. I think the stress test and all of this that we went through, or they went through, I missed that. The physical drill with arms and all the rest of it, it was, we had automatic weapons, we had rifles. I qualified as an expert marksman, which if I ever went on shore that’d be $4 a month.