ERNEST CAMP

@Walton Media Services


The Wiregrass Poet



Ernest Camp was born in Swainsboro, Georgia in the early years of the 1880s. As a 12 year old, Ernest entered a Swainsboro printing office. At 16 years of age he began publishing "The Swainsboro News". Soon he began to work for the rival paper, "The Forest Blade." Camp began writing poetry at an early age. His works were published in Swainsboro and Adrian newspapers. Camp moved to Dublin in 1903 where he assumed the duties as editor of "The Dublin Times". Ernest Camp was a prolific poet, composing at least one poem every day, the compilation of which he called "Learned in Laurens". Ernest was soon given the name of "The Wiregrass Poet." He left Dublin for a short stint with "The Brunswick Journal." On January 1, 1906 Camp settled down in Monroe, Georgia taking the position of editor of "The Walton Tribune." He was only twenty five years old and made only $50.00 a month.



After one year Ernest Camp, bought all of the "Tribune's" stock and became the sole owner of the paper. Camp served two terms as president of the Georgia Press Association from 1925 to 1927. He was always interested in politics, especially those of the Democratic party of Georgia. He never held a political office. In 1912 he attended the Democratic national convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson. He returned to the convention twenty years later as one of the delegates who nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1928 and again in 1936, he served as an elector to the Electoral College. Camp was actively involved in Georgian Oscar Underwood's candidacy for President in 1924.



Ernest Camp and Irene Natalie Sanders were married in Dublin in 1905. Mrs. Camp's father, James Barnes Sanders, was a well respected attorney, mayor, and school teacher in Dublin. Her mother, Alice Ramsay, was a daughter of Col. Whiteford S. Ramsay, the most beloved man in Dublin during the latter half of the 19th century. Col. Ramsay served as minister of the First Baptist Church for over two decades and in 1876 founded the current day Laurens County and Dublin City school systems. Irene Camp died in 1932.

Ernest Camp was also known as the "October Poet." He was born and died in that month. His three published works from the presses in Monroe were: "Autumn Odes" (1923), "Autumn Anthems" (1938), and "Sojourns in Song." (1940). Camp died on October 22, 1957. Walter S. Robison eulogized Camp by saying "Ernest could hear voices. He read sermons in stones, books in the running brooks. I only wish I could read his description of the beauties of Heaven! In the glowing words of Sidney Lanier, 'His song was but a living aloud, his work a singing with his hand.' " In 1962, Ernest Camp was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame. He joined fellow Laurens Countian Hal M. Stanley and preceded Ernest Rogers and Madge Hilbun Methvin into the prestigious group of Georgia newspaper writers, editors, and executives.



One of Camp's favorites subjects was love or the loss of love. He entitled this poem:


A BUCKHORN FAREWELL

Goodbye Miss Mary Johnson,
My love for you has fled.
You pinched me in the stummick
and you cracked me on the head.
You throwed me down the stair steps.
You kicked me out the door.
And now I think I've reason
For feeling mighty sore!
Goodbye, Miss Mary Johnson,
I loved you very strong,
And though my heart is breaking
I'll have to move along.
You called me Simple Simon
And you called me ugly Dan,
With a shotgun at your elbow
And a broomstick in your hand!
Camp seemed to have an attraction to goings on in the Buckhorn Community. This is one his more humorous looks at farm life in the Buckhorn community.

A BUCKHORN NOTE
'Taters in the 'tater patch (Rilly, go
to scratchin')
Breeches holy all around (Mary, go to
patchin')
Fences down an' cattle out (Johnny, go
to nailin')
Young'uns cryin' "grub is out" (Sally,
go a frailin)
Cotton waitin' in the fiel' (Sammy go
to pickin)
Syrup drippin' from the keg (Roger go
a lickin)
Prices off an' money short (Henry, cuss,
I'm saying)
Clouds aire dark - a storm is on (Jenny,
go a to prayin')

TOMMY BIRDSONG

A True Survivor

Tommy Birdsong was a true survivor. Being a prisoner of war, especially on the Pacific islands during World War II, was not like "Hogan’s Heroes" nor the over hyped, over staged, and immensely popular "Survival" shows on television today. It was worse than Andersonville, worse than Elmira, and worse than Alcatraz. Birdsong and thousands of Americans were humiliated, brutalized, and tortured beyond any standard of human decency. Birdsong survived. Most didn’t.

Tommy Birdsong, a native of Gordon, Georgia, was a young golf pro in Jacksonville, Florida. This best years of his life were ahead of him. Birdsong was one of the first men drafted in the National Guard in 1940. After training in Texas, he was sent to San Francisco and thence to the Philippines in July 1941.

Just three days before the invasion at Pearl Harbor, Birdsong and his artillery unit were transferred to Corregidor, an island in the Philippines. The Japanese attacked on December 7th with two hundred thousand men against seventeen thousand Americans and some sixty thousand Philippine soldiers in the Corregidor defense lines. In a television interview on "Dublin Today," Birdsong said, " It always like to say this, they say it was a surprise, but it wasn’t a surprise to us. Because McArthur was the commanding general there at the time. He moved us into the field with live ammunition three days before they bombed us - so they knew about it. We were ready. We thought we were ready, of course."

The Americans were overrun by two thousand Japanese who were in the initial amphibious assault. The invaders also landed in North Luzon, up from Bataan. Japanese fighters attacked Corregidor and the surrounding islands. Birdsong's anti-aircraft battery shot down seventeen planes before it was transferred to Bataan, a more easily defendable peninsula on the flank of Corregidor. Day after day, night after night, the Japanese pounded the American fortifications on Bataan. The well fortified Americans turned back a major attack in February of 1942.

Thirty minutes after noon on April 9, 1942, General Edward King surrendered his American forces on Bataan. Birdsong and thousands of his fellow soldiers were force marched to Bataan in what became known as the Bataan Death March. On the second day, Birdsong and many others "hit the bush" and escaped by swimming back to Corregidor. Birdsong described the events: "We were captured, surrendered. My unit stayed together on the march, the so infamous "Death March." I didn’t know at the time, we had about nine thousand American soldiers and about forty thousand Philippine soldiers. On the second day of the march, we kept my unit together- there were one hundred and fourteen of us in my unit - out of the two hundred or so. We had fought for the last three months. Everybody turned infantry. Civilians, Americans, all came from Manilla to Bataan. They retreated there. It had Marines, sailors, everybody in my platoon, fighting like infantry. It was pretty rough, "The Death March." It guess you have read about it.

On the 2nd day, we hit the bush. We had planned it - passed the word up. We were going to try and escape. We were going through the jungle on a narrow trail. When we all hit the bush, we all made to Mariveles. We were on top of Mariveles Mountain. We made it down to across from Corregidor. They were coming from Corregidor to pick up all they could in boats. Some of them swam across, it was about a mile across there. I fortunately got a boat and made it across. We lost two men in the escape, only two men out of one hundred and fourteen, which was fortunate."

The fighting on Corregidor lasted about a month. The Americans were completely surrounded. The American Navy, still reeling from the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, was unable to launch a rescue mission. Japanese ships and planes constantly bombarded the well fortified American positions. Then came the invasion. Birdsong recalled, " They just overwhelmed us. There were thousands and thousands of Japanese. We were captured again on Corregidor. We stayed there a month. The night they invaded us on Corregidor - it was surrounded by water and ships. I had a BAR (a Browning Automatic Rifle). It fired it until it froze up. There were many Japanese attacking us. Then we were taken. General Wainwright finally surrendered the Philippine command. I was there when we surrendered. I was about thirty feet away from him when he surrendered to the Japanese. We were rounded up and organized into units of five hundred and were taken to Manilla for the so called "Humiliation March." They had "lost face." It had taken a month to take us on Corregidor. They paraded us in the "Humiliation March." We were sent on up to Cabanatawon. It guess you read about that in the papers - about the infamous Cabanatawon Prison Camp," where hundreds of men were dying of malaria and malnutrition. The prisoner's diet consisted of three things: rice, rice, and more rice."

Japanese soldiers paraded the American prisoners in the streets, kicking anyone who couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up the pace. "They were barbaric. There is no way to describe how they were at that time. This country has never had the full story. There have been books written about it. No one believes it. We called it "humiliation." They lost face because we had held out so long on Corregidor for a whole month. They had the entire army and an air force. We had no air force, of course, no navy, but we were there with our guns. We were pretty well fortified with our big guns. We held out for a month. They lost so much face. They wanted to get even with us," Birdsong said.

Birdsong was kept in Cabanatawon Prison until November of 1942. The Japanese crammed Birdsong and another five hundred or so Americans into ships, if you can call them ships, bound for Japan and Korea. Tommy was sent to Japan. They called them "Hell Ships." Birdsong was put down in the hold of a freighter - nothing to eat, except something every now and then, just to keep them alive. On the way to Japan just off the coast of Taiwan, an American submarine attacked Birdsong’s ship, oblivious to the fact that it was packed with Americans. Americans commanders assumed it was a fleet of Japanese freighters. Three ships were sunk. One of them had Americans in it. Two of them were freighters. "They didn’t sink my ship of course," Birdsong said.

The prisoners had very little possessions, sometimes only the clothes on their back, which eventually were worn into shreds and threads. Many only had their hope and their faith. " I wanted to live. It’s hard to kill a man when he doesn’t want to die. If a man has hope, he can live. Fortunately during the second year I was in there, I got a job in the kitchen cooking rice. I had that job nearly a year. I normally weighed about one hundred seventy five to one hundred and eighty pounds. I was a tall man. When I got of prison camp, I weighed ninety pounds - that’s how much I had to eat," Birdsong remembered.

Birdsong and his group, or what was left of them, arrived in Osaka, Japan. The temperature was below freezing, 23 degrees - weather not exactly fit for frayed khaki short sleeve shirts on the shoeless Americans. Two Hundred and twenty five of the five hundred men died in the first year. Those who were able, were forced to dig coal in deep mines. Birdsong was down to ninety pounds having lost half of his body weight. By 1945, only a single dozen of the original 500 men were left.

The survivors kept praying, hoping for their freedom, before they died of malnutrition. The bombing raids until July, 1945 rained havoc all around their position, but never struck their compound. Birdsong's best friend was killed by a guard. Birdsong remembered, " We were eventually sent to Nagasaki - that’s where they dropped the atomic bomb. I was down in the coal mine. I watched out the windows just before they dropped the atomic bomb. You’ve heard of the sky being black with airplanes, well, there were airplanes everywhere. They dropped bombs all around the prison camp. I mean they tore up the place. But not one bomb fell in our camp or in our compound. That’s how accurate they were. They knew where we were. We were working down in the mine. I was down in the coal mine when they dropped the bomb. I was right outside of Nagasaki. We thought it was an earthquake, because rocks and everything else fell. We came out the next morning. They brought us out. We had to wear our masks and everything over our faces. You can still see where my hands are burned. That’s from the radiation. You’ve read about the atomic bomb and what it did. It’s hard to describe it. The whole big city - it was just wiped out - nothing standing. I was a few miles outside of Nagasaki when the dropped the bomb. Our camp was in Nagasaki, so we were sent through the streets. Everything was just leveled. Fortunately, right after that, they surrendered. They kept us in the camp. We didn’t have to go back to the coal mines. That was the second atomic bomb they dropped. Hiroshima was the first. This was the second."

"There was no way to describe the relief we felt. At first, we couldn’t believe it. We thought that they would fight until the last man, because they did that in Japan. They told us this. We saw evidence of this in the Philippines. They attacked us there and they kept coming toward us until the last man in the platoon. We mowed them down. They were yelling "Banzai!" and such as that. They were religious fanatics. They thought that if they died in battle that they would immediately go to heaven. We thought that we never expected to get out. It didn’t think I would, unless there was some sort of armistice or some sort of negotiations. That was the only thing to hope for. We never thought the Japanese would surrender. Of course they did, and I came back."

It took another week after the second atomic bomb was dropped for American B-29 bomber pilots to begin flights to drop food to the prisoners into the camps. Birdsong and the other lucky ones were caught in a strange place with no idea of how there were get home. American bombers tore up Nagasaki and most of the rest of Japan in eight months of bombing missions. Decades after the war, Birdsong met McGrath Keen, Sr. in Dublin. The two men related their experiences during the final days of the war. After a few minutes, Birdsong and Keen concluded that Keen, flying the "Lucky Lady," was one of the pilots who dropped boxes of food and clothing to into Birdsong’s camp. A few days later, the paratroopers jumped into the camp areas. They secured the area, commandeered a train and took Birdsong and the rest of the men in Nagasaki before boarding on an aircraft carrier.

Tommy cried. He was crippled at the time. A Japanese guard hit him in the back of the neck with the butt of his rifle and broke his neck. There was no doctor available. An old army corpsman fashioned a brace by wrapping a rope around Tommy’s neck Tommy spine healed, but it grew back crooked. He was beginning to get partially paralyzed on the right side. After the liberation, Tommy stayed. McArthur took the survivors back to the Philippines.

Birdsong’s family received a notice that he was missing in action. Everyone thought he was dead, except his mother. "She never gave up. Without my faith I could not have made it through. We had church and prayer meetings - not like our churches, but we would get together and pray. That helped me a lot. Oh Lord, that helped me through, " Birdsong tearfully remembered.
Tommy Birdsong won the Bronze Star for heroism. In fact, his entire unit won the Bronze Star, the fourth highest award that you can get in service. The unit award came from the gallantry in the fighting in the Philippines by a special Congressional citation.. Tommy was wounded twice and received the Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster. Congressman J. Roy Rowland, Jr. of Dublin helped Birdsong get a Prisoner of War Medal. Tommy Birdsong downplayed his hero status, " The heroes are left back there. The heroes are back on Bataan and on Corregidor. The ones who came back were fortunate and with the help of the good Lord, that’s the only reason they did."

Birdsong survived, but barely. He was severely beaten about his neck with a rifle. Three of his vertebra were shattered and permanently fused together. From that day on, he couldn't hold his head up straight. But he did hold his head high the day he came out of the depths of Hell and every other day after that. He was returning to the freedom which so many millions of young men and women had fought so valiantly to defend. Tommy Birdsong came to Dublin in the 1960s as the golf pro at the Dublin Country Club. The Birdsongs moved back to Dublin in the 1980s. Birdsong passed away a couple of years ago.

EDWARD WHITEHEAD, THE OLDEST BOY SCOUT

FORMER DUBLIN MAN HONORED
AS THE OLDEST BOY SCOUT IN THE UNITED STATES

On May 9, Edward Whitehead turned 102. As one of eighteen children of Dave and Hattie Whitehead, Whitehead was born in Dublin, Georgia in 1907.




The Arbor Day Foundation honored Whitehead on April 24, 2009 with its first Arbor Foundation Centennial Award at the Dauch Scout Center in Detroit, Michigan. “I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. It seems like I have been collecting awards since before most of you were born,” said Whitehead.

The Whitehead family moved to Albion, Michigan, where he joined the Boy Scouts at the age of fifteen in 1922. As a scout, Edward earned many badges, including the Silver Beaver, the highest honor a boy scout can receive.

Whitehead remained active in scouting as a scoutmaster, cub master and adviser after he moved to Detroit, where he lives today. He still is somewhat active as he works in the scout shop of a scout center and occasionally at a day camp. The former truck driver credits his longevity to a good diet and plenty of rest. He estimates he has worked with more than three thousand scouts. “There are a lot of lessons you can learn. You learn about honesty, about doing good works, about helping others,” Whitehead said.

References: Freep.com, (Joe Rosseter, Free Press, CNET News.com

OFF TO THE WILD BLUE YONDER

BEN COCHRAN

Give Ben Cochran a ball and he will throw it, hit it, catch it, run with it, or perhaps even kick it. Give Ben Cochran a ball and he will learn about life, teamwork and friendship. So, when it came time to look for a university to continue his education, the United States Air Force Academy was the logical choice. In Colorado Springs, Ben could continue to play football, but he could also serve his country and pay his own way through college, just like his father and grandfather before him, who retired as an Army captain and an Air Force major respectively.

Sports has also been part of the Cochran household. Ben’s parents, Guy and Tina, were outstanding athletes at Dublin High School back in the 1970s. Guy played three sports, while Tina was an outstanding basketball and tennis star for the Irish. Ben’s sisters, Shellie, Tanner and Carlin, were all outstanding tennis players just like their mom. "He had no desire to play tennis, but he developed good eye and hand coordination early when his mother made him tennis balls from about the age of three until he started tee ball," said Ben’s father Guy. Ben’s destiny was on the football field however, though there are many who think baseball might be his better sport. "I grew up in an extremely competitive household with three older sisters who had great success in their sport as well as the challenge to living up to my mom with her achievements at UGA. Tina was a state tennis champion, both in high school and at the University of Georgia. Tina set several records for the women's basketball team at the University of Georgia and was one of the top 15 draft choices in the first Women's Professional Basketball League.

Ben sees athletics as a huge part of his life, right behind God and his family. He sees the positive influence that sports can have on someone, believing without a doubt that his athletic endeavors have prepared him for the challenges of life itself. "From learning how to work hard and build character to communication and building cohesiveness on a team, athletics have played a vital role in the development of these areas," Cochran said. In his senior year, Ben guided the Dublin Irish to their first state championship since 1963.

The most obvious reason Ben decided to pursue enrollment at the Air Force Academy was the opportunity at a chance to play D-1 college football. "I did not know much about the academy at all until I started getting recruited by them. After learning a lot about the school and the opportunities here I was much more interested in the possibility of attending a military academy," Cochran remembered. Ben knew that going to college was going to pay his own way. If he would be blessed to receive an athletic scholarship that would be good. Had he not received an opportunity Ben was determined to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather Cochran. "I was planning on trying to go through an ROTC program like my father and grandfather to pay my way through school while having the opportunity to serve my country also."

Ben believes that athletics and military teamwork are similar in many ways. "The military understands the value of athletics, therefore, if you are not an inter-collegic athlete, you are required to participate in intramural sports every semester while at the Academy," said Cochran.




Football practices definitely prepare you for the physical aspects of Basic Training and training thereafter. Cochran feels lucky to have Coach Holmes get in his face just a few times over the years and really cut loose with some less than favorable words yelled directly in his ear. Ben maintains, "When these "butt-chewings" happened, I didn’t know they would be so beneficial in preparing me for later down the road when upper classmen tried to break, pressure, or intimidate me and my fellow freshman."

Recognition for the freshman culminates into one extended weekend. Starting on a Thursday, freshman are treated and beaten down with physical exercises, more strenuous than ever. About a hundred upperclassmen focus in on about thirty freshmen per squadron. It is the event that most people define as a huge difference between AFA cadets and ROTC folks. "Well I was real good at getting in trouble as a 4th classmen (freshman) and had a problem with grinning," Cochran chuckled. Coach Holmes identified this problem in his freshman year of high school but was never able to straighten it out. Ben remembered, " I had told Coach all year that they would not and could not break me and that I would not stop grinning no matter what."

During the recognition period the new cadets go through the Assault Course, which is the most intense and physically demanding course at the Academy. Ben fondly remembered "Going into the course, I started my little grin. After about a dozen upper classmen had already yelled in my face one finally asked, "Who do you think is going to get tired first, me blowing my whistle or you doing grenades?" Every time the senior blew the whistle Ben had to do what is known as a grenade or up-down, jump on the ground, do a push up and jump up. Responding to his questions, Ben flashed the best grin he could give and proclaimed, "I guess you will be blowing your whistle." For a solid hour Ben was forced to endure every single obstacle and grenades between every repetition. Cochran believed his classmates almost enjoyed it as much as he did because they only had to watch him being pulled aside every exercise. "But I will say," Cochran recalled, " that the upper classmen gave me credit for my work after the course and never did I once stop grinning."

The most enjoyable part of the Air Force Academy to Ben is the people. "I have some of the best friends in the world out here that we know each of us would die for the other, speaking both figuratively and literally in the possible situations that might face us in the coming years. The most frustrating part the AFA are the rules and hand holding that goes on. You can’t go to the bathroom without someone knowing when and where you’re going." At the Academy Ben has found some of his best friends ever. He said, "When you eat, sleep, workout, hangout, study, practice, and try to survive together, you become real good friends with those guys.

When Ben is not studying, playing football or drilling, he and his buddies head up the backside of the mountains, where they set up a camp, hunt turkeys in the morning and fish for trout in the afternoon. And, what a place to enjoy the outdoors in the outdoor paradise of Colorado. In point of fact, Ben’s nickname "Buck" comes from a hunting term. Though no one actually remembers how he came to be known by the name was that he was a buck among a family of does.




As for the moment, Ben is still undecided what he wants to do after college and after his career in the Air Force is over. He is interested in pursuing a job as an acquisitions or contracting officer, but he hasn’t ruled out flying either. He also hasn’t given up the idea of coming back to work in the family business, Cochran Brothers, which has been in Dublin for nearly a century.

CAPTAIN RAYMOND TALBIRD

CAPTAIN RAYMOND TALBIRD
An Officer, a Gentleman, and a Hero

I first met Captain Raymond Talbird at his pool side apartment in his son’s backyard. Captain Talbird, a native of Macon, lived most of his life in Florida before moving to Dublin. He was a hero. He is still a hero. The evidence of his heroism hangs on his bedroom wall - not one, but two Silver Stars for gallantry in action, a Bronze Star for heroism, as well a plethora of service and campaign ribbons. He, like many of his generation, saw their mission in World War II as a job to do . Do it, do it well, and hope like heck that you would make it back home. His sometimes atypical leadership style led to the saving of many of the lives of his men.

Captain Talbird was placed in Command of Co. A, 395th Infantry Reg., 99th Infantry Division. The company’s first combat was just before the Battle of the Bulge. Talbird remembered, "There were three rifle companies in our battalion. The company commander of Company B was real "gung ho." The Colonel asked the company commanders what they thought about going into battle for the first time. The Captain of Company B was ready to go. The Captain of Company C said about the same. When the Colonel asked Talbird what he thought, Talbird said, " I told him that I had never been in combat before. I didn’t know if I would run or not, but I would have to wait and see. B Company took the point. They made a cardinal sin when they moved through an open field. The company commander was shot and killed. C Company took the town, but their company commander was dressed highly and walked with a swagger. When one of his men saluted him, he was shot and killed. After that, A Company took the lead most of the time," Capt. Talbird said.

Capt. Talbird relates the following story: "After the Battle of the Bulge, we got orders to pull back from the position we were holding. Col. Hendricks told me that we were trying to dodge the Germans. At the time we had no contact with the Germans. The company commanders talked with the Colonel to figure out where was safe. We finally found out that it was the Germans who told us to pull back and that it was a false report. Things got rough after that. We got separated. I was on a road leading back to the area where we were supposed to congregate. A jeep driver found me and asked me if I wanted to ride back. I told him that there were things I needed to do and that I would walk back. I think it was about fifteen miles. My wife always said that I stretched it to twenty five miles. I saw many men with their feet frozen. While I was walking back my feet began to hurt terribly. I kept walking then had to sit down beside the road. I cut my boots off and my feet were badly swollen. I put on a pair of fleece lined shoes and started walking again. By the time I got back to battalion, my feet had stopped hurting. I had a doctor look at them and told myself that if they were too bad, that I might get to go home. I couldn’t feel the pain any more and thought it must be really bad if I couldn’t feel the pain. The doctor took one look at them and told me that they were fine - that I had done the right thing and the reason that they didn’t hurt anymore was that they had circulation in them."

The Captain’s own words tell his story best. " One time we had to dig in opposite some German pillboxes. We had to occupy that position because we were being stymied by those pillboxes. You couldn’t move during the day because they would take pot shots at you. We had to move at night. They brought our food in at night. We had two men in a foxhole. One would stay while the other went back to eat. One time one of the men went to sleep in the foxhole. When his buddy returned, he was startled and fired his rifle killing him. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want his family to learn how he was killed. I reported that he was killed in action."

"I was ordered to take one of those pillboxes. We attacked at night. I instructed one platoon to take the pillbox. They came back and said that they could not find it. It was hidden in the snow and very hard to find at night. I sent another platoon and they came back with the same story. You couldn’t use your compass, because you would have to light it to see it. I called battalion and told them I was going to take the whole company to find it. I had no compass, so I just started walking like I would walk around the block at my house. I told my men to go around the knoll and when daylight came to shoot toward any movement. It sounded like a war going on. The Colonel called on the radio, I told him that I was trying to take a pillbox and that I would get back with him as soon as I could. We found the pillbox and took it out. I always walked up front with my company. I learned that the Germans would shell us with their mortars at the rear of the company, where the company commanders were usually positioned. I can’t remember, but I think that was when I won my first Silver Star."

"We were following General Patton who was moving lickety split after Normandy. We were to move in behind him and to mop up the towns. Normally we had two tanks and the infantry walked in behind them. But as we went along we would find vehicles beside the road. We were way behind Patton, so I used every vehicle we could find so that my men could ride instead of walking. Sometimes we had to get out the vehicles and walk into town. Patton had sent out orders that the infantry should walk like it was supposed to do. So I continued to let my men ride on the tanks and put the others in trucks. We were told that we would be sitting ducks. I told them to put a machine gun on my jeep and that I would lead them in. We entered one town and I saw a German officer at the end of town waving a white flag. He told my interpreter that he wanted to surrender to the highest ranking officer. My interpreter told him that I was the highest ranking officer. He told my interpreter that I looked like a private. I showed him my captain’s bars to show him I was an officer."

On March 25, 1945, fifty five years ago this week, Capt. Talbird personally led a squad of riflemen and three bazooka teams in an attack. During the action, he continuously exposed himself to heavy enemy fire in supervising the movements of his men. Capt. Talbird was directly responsible for knocking out two of the deadly German 88 guns. He was also responsible for the destruction of a personnel carrier and an anti aircraft gun, in addition to the capture of twenty-two prisoners. For his gallantry in action, Capt. Talbird was awarded his second Silver Star, a truly remarkable feat.

"We were supposed to cross the Danube River on April 27th. At 1100 hours, I went to the bank to oversee the loading of the boats and to get the boats across the river. I had no inkling there were Germans across the river. I saw no activity over there. The engineers were ending their preparations and the first elements were preparing to cross. I was the S-3 of the first battalion. Suddenly, I had an awful feeling that we should cross further down with no problems. I tried to get the regimental commander to delay, but he responded that this would be just a routine crossing. I was on the phone to the 2nd Battalion commander. He said that I was fooling regiment, but I wasn’t fooling him. I informed him that the first battalion was lost and not prepared to cross. I thought to myself that it would be suicide. The 2nd battalion went down to the bank, loaded the boats, and moved out into the war. Then all Hell broke loose. They were shot all up out in the water. There was nothing I could do. I waited and crossed the river five to six hours later about five to ten miles away with no problems," the Captain remembered. For his meritorious service in deploying his troops in a manner which saved their lives, Captain Talbird was awarded a Bronze Star.

Captain Talbird will tell you right up front that he had done things that he didn’t want to do and didn’t think he could do. His primary mission was to do what was best for his men - an attribute which naturally led to the accolades of his heroism. The next time you pass by Pineridge Subdivision, remember that the gray-haired man who lives out by the Al Talbird’s pool is and will always be an officer, a gentleman, and most of all, a hero.

BOB SHULER

BOB SHULER
A Pacific Ace

We buried Bob Shuler yesterday. By military standards he was an "ace." He was a handsome and shy man who never liked to talk very much about his war experiences. Maybe the number of planes with people inside of them wasn’t as important as others might think. Bob Shuler died last Friday. He, like the fictional John Miller in "Saving Private Ryan," was an American school teacher who left the school room to save lives, not to take them. Unlike Captain Miller, he returned to serve his country for many decades to come.

Lucien Bob Shuler was born on the 3rd day of January in 1920 in Griffin, Georgia. He attended Griffin public schools and Young Harris College. Shuler was principal of the grammar school, taught 7th grade home room and coached the six-man football at Cadwell High School in the years before World War II. His basketball and football teams won county championships and Sixth District championships.

Shuler began his military career on August 4, 1941 and became an Army-Air Force aviation cadet on December 7, 1941, the first day of our country’s entry into World War II. Just over six months later, Shuler was commissioned a Second Lieutenant upon his graduation from flight school at Stockton Air Force Base in California. After a two day respite, Shuler reported to Morris Field, North Carolina to train as a fighter pilot with the 20th Fighter Group. On August 16, 1942, Lt. Shuler was transferred to the 15th Fighter Group stationed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii. On the 1st day of February, 1943, Shuler was reassigned, this time to the 44th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, which was then assigned to the strategic military island of Guadalcanal.

While flying on a routine patrol with Lt. Doug Curry on the afternoon of June 16, 1943, Lt. Shuler shot down his first enemy plane. The two pilots encountered two Japanese Vals, one of which Shuler’s fire sent plummeting into the ocean. On August 1st, twenty five to thirty Japanese Zeros encountered Shuler’s flight from behind and above. In a head-on attack, Shuler destroyed a Zero over the island of Gizo.

Three days later, nine P-40 American fighters were scrambled to meet a flight of twenty five Zeros. The planes met at twelve thousand feet above the ocean. Shuler, in a high speed attack, downed one enemy plane. " I picked out one that had passed under us in a dive. I thought at first that he might be a dive bomber, but later saw that he was a Zero. Firing a few bursts in the dive, I really got him as he pulled out. I let him have another burst as I pulled out. I saw him hit the beach and explode," Shuler said. After climbing back up to the remainder of the flight, Shuler made two additional attacks, downing two more Japanese fighters. "Using my speed, I gained back my altitude and was back in the fight. I leveled off and found another Zero in my sights. A long burst from my guns caused him to flame and explode in midair. Turning to the left, I found myself in a similar position as before; another Zero appeared at close range. I opened fire and saw my tracers converging on the Nip. His wings began to rock, and he fell off into a vertical roll. I followed him down, firing all the way long. The plane, blazing from the cockpit, came out of the roll and went into a slight dive. The canopy came off, and the pilot stood up with one leg on the wing and the other inside the plane. Pulling the parachute ripcord before he had left the plane, both the plane and chute went down in the flames," Shuler later reported. After spotting a lone Zero, Shuler downed it for his fourth victory of the day. "As I turned off onto the fourth Zero that passed about five hundred feet above me, I closed in and opened fire. Although I seemed to have been getting hits, the Zero didn’t want to burn, but I continued firing until his left wing and cockpit flamed. I tagged onto another Zero, but my guns were out of ammunition after the first burst," Lt. Shuler recalled. His seventh and final victory occurred on August 10 over western New Georgia.


Bob Shuler's P-40, 68th Fighter Squadron

For his extraordinary achievement in the air battle, Lt. Shuler was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Army Air Force. That day, an important one in the war in the Pacific, was the day when American forces captured the Munda Air Field. In one hundred and thirty eight missions, Lt. Shuler was officially credited with the destruction of seven enemy planes and the probable destruction of seven more.

Shuler himself was once forced into the water. He was drowning, being pulled down by the weight of his equipment, when a sailor pulled him out of the water. "The worst thing that ever happened to me during the war was the two weeks on that Navy ship until I was able to return to duty," Shuler commented.

Lt. Shuler continued to serve as a flight commander and squadron operations officer in the South Pacific until January 18, 1944. He was then transferred to Pinellas Air force Base in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he served as a pilot and aerial gunnery officer until the end of the war in September 1945. During the war, Shuler, piloting P-40 Warhawks and P-38 Lightnings, was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Army Air Medal with eleven Oak Leaf Clusters, a Distinguished Unit Citation, and various other medals, which he always kept in a drawer and never said much about them.


Before the end of the war, Lt. Shuler returned to Dublin to marry a Barbara Fay Bedingfield, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett Bedingfield, in a wedding service held in the First Methodist Church. The wedding announcement, along with highlights of Shuler’s aerial exploits, made the front page of the Atlanta papers, with the caption under Shuler’s photograph reading "Pacific Ace Downed by Cupid."

After the war, Shuler continued his education at Mercer University in Macon, where he obtained he B.A. in English in 1948, all the time remaining on the inactive reserve list. While at Mercer, Shuler served as President of the "M" Athletic Club and was a member of the student government, Kappa Phi Kappa fraternity, Blue Key National Collegiate Honor Society, Sigma Nu, and was named as "Who’s Who" in national social fraternities. Shuler returned to active military service in September of 1949 as an instructor at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama.

When the Korean war broke out in the summer of 1950, Shuler was assigned to combat duty as a fight commander. Shuler served for three hundred and sixty three days in Korea. While he was not engaged in aerial combat as he had been in World War II, Shuler flew one hundred close in combat support missions in Korea. On one occasion, Shuler was called upon to destroy a train. Shuler’s guns struck a bull’s-eye just as the train began to exit an underground tunnel. In over five hundred hours of combat missions, Shuler was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, twenty three Air Medals, Presidential Unit Citations in both wars, and Campaign Medals with three stars in both wars.

Shuler was transferred from active combat duty to Scott Air Force Base Illinois, where he served until July 1952. He served for three years as Assistant PAS at Oklahoma State University. Shuler returned to the Pacific in October 1955, where he served in Japan until June of 1958. As the Cold War began to really heat up, Shuler was assigned to duty as Chief of Flying Safety of the 1st Missile Division at Vandenberg Force Base in California. In March of 1959, he was transferred to Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, where he served for nearly five years. Shuler served in the Strategic Air Command as Commandant of the 8th Air Force NCO Academy, as Commander of the 99th Air Refueling Sqdn., attended the War College at Maxwell Air Force base, and as a member of the Silk Purse Group in Manchester, England. Col. Shuler concluded his thirty- year Air Force career with a three year stint as head of the Air Force R.O.T.C. at Virginia Tech University. Shuler retired in 1973, and his family came back home to live in Dublin, where he resided until his death on March 9, 2001.

AL HATCHER, JR.

A Wonderful Life

As he sits in his desk chair in a room affectionately known as “the dawghouse,” Al Hatcher looks around his eclectically decorated room with its red and black walls, painted in tribute to his alma mater, the University of Georgia. What he sees is a room filled with memories, memories of bitterly fought political campaigns, his cherished family and old friends. After nearly a half century of public service, Al Hatcher is retired now. Gone are the long nights awaiting election returns. The weekly commutes to Atlanta are no more. But the memories remain. There are the stories, too, tales of the days when politics wasn’t just an art, it was a science.

Albon Lee Hatcher, Jr. was born in 1929 in Dublin, Georgia. His father, Al, Sr., a 1925 graduate of the University of Georgia, moved to Dublin to open his practice, which included a term as City Attorney of Dublin and as a deputy assistant attorney general under Eugene Cook, an old family friend from Wrightsville, who served as Georgia’s Attorney General longer than any other man, before or since.

If you ever noticed it, his name was painted on one of the windows of the Hicks Building in Dublin, where it remained until recently when it was removed and given to Al by the building’s owner, Dubose Porter, in appreciation for Al’s service to our state. Al’s grandfather, Alonzo Lee Hatcher, who was the first of four Hatcher family graduates of the University of Georgia, was a delegate to the 1912 Democratic Convention, a Georgia State Representative and a Judge of the City Court of Wrightsville. Stephen Stincer, Hatcher’s grandson, recently graduated from the University of Georgia. He now attends law school there. “He just finished writing his first opinion. I am extremely proud him,” says Hatcher of his grandson, who is clerking under federal court judge, Avant Edenfield.

Al attended Georgia Teacher’s College in Statesboro in the late 40s. In 1952, he took a job as a “reading clerk” under the tutelage of Joe Boone of Toomsboro, longtime Clerk of the Georgia House of Representatives. “Back then, every bill passed in the House of Representatives had to be procedurally sent to the Senate,” said Hatcher, whose job it was to knock on the door of the Senate, be recognized by the door keeper, and run down the aisle to front of the chamber where he would bow down and read the caption of the bill and present it to the Lieutenant Governor, the presiding officer of the Georgia Senate.

After a year in the House of Representatives, Al entered the United States Army where as Sergeant Hatcher, he served as a regimental instructor in military courtesy for three years. In his squad were Bob Roberts, who owns 23 Wendy’s restaurants and Curtis Loftis, who named his son Al since his friend Al didn’t have a fourth Al. (A picture of the two Als hangs near the front door of the “Dawghouse.)

In 1956, Al Hatcher graduated from the University of Law School. He never took up the practice of law, but chose instead to work in the insurance adjusting business in Brunswick, Georgia, a move which led to his true calling in life. “I was in Brunswick and managed Peter Zack Geer’s 1962 campaign for Lt. Governor locally. He was impressed by the way I handled his campaign and asked me to be his campaign manager for the entire state. We worked almost eighteen hours a day,” Hatcher remembered. Peter Zack Geer won the democratic primary in September 1962 for Lieutenant Governor, which was tantamount to election. The old county unit system was abolished by the courts. Laurens County had four units and two representatives, Johnson county had two units and one representative. The House of Representatives had to be reapportioned under the one man one vote rule.

The same thing happened in the Senate, where the number of senators was increased from 54 to 56. Another election was held on October 16, 1962, and qualifying reopened.

Also that year, a young peanut farmer from South Georgia contested the election in Sumpter County. His district encompassed Sumter, Terrell, Quitman, Clay Counties and maybe two or three smaller counties. The reason for the contest was that they had many absentee ballots, where dead folks voted, all whom voted in exact alphabetical order in Georgetown. The farmer won the election and was the last Senator to be certified to office. Peter Zack Geer, as the newly elected Lt. Governor, had the power of committee appointments. Geer consulted with Al, his chief aide, on the appointments to senate committees. The Sumpter County farmer called Al and met him in the Lt. Governor elect’s office in the William Oliver Building. “All of the committees had already been selected. He said that he was interested in education and requested that he be put on the committee,” Al recalled. “Instead, Geer created a new committee the House Higher Education Committee and named the Plains farmer as its first chairman. As a state senator, the farmer helped to develop higher education in Georgia, including Georgia Southwestern College in Americus,” Al continued. By now you have guessed just who that farmer was. Yes, it was Jimmy Carter, a future Governor of Georgia and President of the United States. Hatcher looks back fondly on his days as a chief aide to Lt. Gov. Geer. “Carl Sanders, the new governor, and Lt. Governor Geer worked well together. That wasn’t always the case.” Lt. Gov. Geer developed Georgia’s first Administrative law code,” said Hatcher.

Hatcher believes that it the Senate of 1963 and 1964 was the most dynamic Senate in Georgia’s history. “ It was Culver Kidd’s first year in the Senate. Zell Miller was in his second term from Young Harris in Towns County. “Beginning in 1963, there was Harry Jackson, a Columbus businessman; J.D. Fuqua, probably Georgia’s number 1 businessman; Carl Sanders, governor elect of Georgia; Peter Zack Geer, Lt. Gov. elect and first in his class at Mercer; Charlie Parnell, later a floor leader and judge of the Court of Appeals; Julian Webb, later a judge on the Court of Appeals; Garland Byrd, the previous Lt. Governor. It was also the first year of Hugh Gillis, the nation’s longest serving state senator, first represented Laurens County.”

Just at the back of his ancestral home, a home which he lives in today, was the Ingram home. “My best friend was Conley Ingram,” Al fondly recalls. We were in the same class and he was the best marble shooter in Dublin without a doubt,” Al continued. Conley, a son of George and Nan Ingram, left Dublin to attend Georgia Military College, where he and Al roomed together in the 10th and 11th grades. Conley managed Geer’s campaign in Cobb County, which brought him to the forefront of state politics. Ingram became a Juvenile Court judge, Judge of Superior Court, and a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, being appointed by Gov. Jimmy Carter, for whom he had actively campaigned for. When Senator Richard Russell, one of the political icons of Georgia history, died and Governor Carter had to make an appointment to replace him, his three choices were former governor, Ernest Vandiver; David Gambrell, who married Luck Flanders of Swainsboro, and Conley Ingram. Gambrell was the one selected.

During the 1966 Georgia governor’s election, former governor and leading democratic candidate, Ernest Vandiver became ill and was forced to withdraw. Into the open field of candidates came Ellis Arnall, who had been governor from 1942-46. Speculation was rampant as to who else was going to announce their candidacy. Vandiver went to Washington to see Herman Talmadge to see if he would run for governor. Talmadge ended all speculation after 72 hours, declining instead to remain in Washington, where he would be a more effective leader in the United States Senate. Jim Gray, the editor and publisher of the Albany Herald announced. Fellow south Georgian, Jimmy Carter, threw his hat into the ring. Then came the incomparable and irrepressible, Lester Maddox. Peter Zack Geer decided not to run. What followed was a very bitter campaign, which ended in a run off. Ellis Arnall and Lester Maddox were the top two vote getters. Lester Maddox won the runoff, but didn’t get a majority of the votes. Ellis Arnall offered himself as a write-in the general election. Bo Calloway was the Republican nominee. Georgia required that a governor get a majority of the votes. “Bo got the most votes, but not a majority. Arnall garnered about 75 to 80 thousand votes. It was then up to the General Assembly to name the next governor. All three television networks were present and covered the deliberation for part of that afternoon,” Al remembered. When Peter Zack Geer, still the presiding officer of the Senate ruled Rep. Harris of Brunswick’s motion to have a new election out of order stating it was the assembly’s constitutional duty to elect a governor and that’s what they were going to do, the election of Maddox, the democratic candidate in an assembly dominated by democrats, was assured. After the general assembly’s elected Lester Maddox governor, Hatcher went to the rostrum and called the governor’s office to tell Gov. Sanders that they had elected a governor. Superior Court Judge Harold Ward, of Dublin, was there in the governor’s office that day and was called down to swear Gov. Maddox in.

Al Hatcher’s term as Lt. Governor Geer’s aide came to an end that day as a new lieutenant governor was also sworn in. But his life in state government was not over, it was just beginning. Hatcher served as Deputy Insurance Commissioner of Georgia from 1967 to 1970 under the Maddox administration. For fifteen years beginning in 1975 and ending in 1989, Al Hatcher served as a senior field deputy for the Georgia Department of Labor during the administrations of George Busbee and Joe Frank Harris. In 1989, Al Hatcher was chosen to be the Director of Transportation for the Georgia Public Commission. One of the members on the commission was Billy Lovett, who grew up just around the corner from Al’s home. This wasn’t Al’s only neighbor who was involved in state government. In addition to Justice Ingram and Commissioner Lovett, there was Hardeman Blackshear, who lived across the street. Blackshear served as Deputy Comptroller General at the same time that Hatcher was serving as Deputy Insurance Commissioner. Next door to Hatcher’s home is the old Hardwick/Peacock, where for a brief time before Al was born was the home of Gov. Thomas Hardwick, who was a former United States congressman and senator and who appointed Rebecca Lattimer Felton as the country’s first woman senator. At the other end of the block lived Peyton Wade, who was a Chief Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals.

During his time out of state government, Al worked as a developer of shopping malls and apartment complexes. He developed Hatcher Point Mall in Waycross and Hatcher Square Mall in Milledgeville, as well as Williamsburg Village, Dublin’s first true modern day shopping center. Among his other projects are the Beechwood Apartments in Athens, the Tumlin Woods Apartments, also in Athens, and the Holly Hills Apartments in Dublin, one of our city’s first two story apartment complexes.

About six years ago, Ernest Vandiver , who had been governor of Georgia from 1958 to 1962 and who had as his executive secretary, Peter Zack Geer, was visiting the Golden Isles of Georgia. During his administration, Vandiver had the insight to purchase Colonel’s Island near Brunswick. Today it is the one of the biggest ports of entry of cars in and out of the United States. Hatcher remembered, “ Governor Vandiver rode over there and they wouldn’t let him on the island. He came back to the King and Prince Hotel, where he joked about what had happened, especially in light of the fact that it was his administration which had helped acquire the island.” Hatcher talked with Bobby Rowan, the chairman of the House properties committee, and Hugh Gillis, who in Hatcher’s opinion was the best senator Georgia ever had, and told them of the dilemma. Senator Gillis offered the bill to name the facility Port Vandiver at Colonel’s Island. The resolution passed unanimously.

During his thirty-five years of public service, Al Hatcher has been honored time and time again. He has been named the Outstanding Employee of the Labor Deparment. Gov. Joe Frank Harris named him as one of the states’ five outstanding employees in 1985. For his long and faithful service, Al was awarded the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Service in State government. As a businessman, Al has been named to Who’s Who in America for Developers.

Halloween Day, 2001 was Al’s last day on the job. “I enjoyed the legislature the most,” but my work on the Public Service Commission regulating the safety of public transportation was so rewarding,” Hatcher says. Al has worked, directly or indirectly with ten governors of Georgia: Herman Talmadge , Marvin Griffin, Ernest Vandiver, Carl Sanders, Lester Maddox, Jimmy Carter, George Busbee, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller and Roy Barnes. “ I was closest to Senator Talmadge. When he ran his last senatorial campaign, the one he lost, he asked me to be his campaign manager,” Hatcher commented. Al declined his offer, but wondered, “what if I had accepted the senator’s offer, would I, could I have made a difference in the election in which Talmadge suffered a heart wrenching and razor thin loss?” There is one corner of his room dedicated to the governor he admired the most. If you closely look you will see an inscribed picture of Al with senator and astronaut John Glenn. In another corner are Al’s college diploma along with those of his father, and his grandfather. Still another corner is dedicated to Peter Zack Geer and a host of old friends from his days in politics. Last, but not least on the north wall of the old outbuilding of his South Calhoun Street home which he and his wife, Gay, call the “dawg house,” is a section dedicated to his beloved Georgia Bulldogs.

It has been a wonderful life for Al Hatcher, but it is not over yet. He, as always, still enjoys his family, telling a story about politics and speaking fondly of good old friends.