>> This is James Newberry.
I'm here with Alonza Jones on Thursday, December 11th,
2014, at Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University.
And Mr. Jones, do you agree to this interview?
>> I agree.
>> Please state your full name.
>> Alonza Jones, A-L-O-N-Z-A Jones, JO-N-E-S.
>> And Mr. Jones,
when and where were you born?
>> I was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
Jefferson County at then it was the Hillsman Hospital.
But now I don't know the name of it.
I think it's the University of Alabama Hospital.
In fact, last I heard of it,
it was the University of Alabama
because nobody knows Hillsman Hospital.
>> And what's your birthday?
>> August 19th, 1926.
>> And can you tell me about your early family life?
What what were your parents' names?
>> My parents' were name Teresa Brown,
and before she married,
her name was Teresa Brown, and Arthur Jones.
My father died when he was about 36 years old.
So I don't know too much about him because I was
a little toddler enjoying life as a child.
Life wasn't too plentiful for me.
[NOISE] My mother was working at a mill in
Columbus named Swift Mill.
And my father was working at the same place.
It was Swift Mill in Columbus, Georgia.
And we went to school there in Columbus.
The first school I remember
was a lady teaching
children on the side for the parents,
I think, for two or three dollars a week.
Her name was Annie Battle.
And from there, we went to a Clapton School.
Clapton was a city school run
by Prof. Marsha and quite a few teachers,
I can't recall all of their full names,
but we got along good.
I used to get spankings for nothing.
I appreciated that now.
Since I'm grown, I appreciate
all the spankings I got for nothing.
But anyway, we came up
through Clapton School from the first grade through,
I think, through about the sixth grade or seventh grade,
and we went to Spencer High School in Columbus, Georgia.
And from there, we
finished Spencer and in
turn got a little job in Columbus.
But the job wasn't paying much.
So most of the fellow were leaving.
In the summertime they leave and go to Maryland,
Connecticut 1 to pick tobacco.
And I was one that didn't
go because I had
a little job paying me
just about as much as they were making.
Anyway, I left there and came back to Columbus.
I left a little job
in Columbus and so staying my grandfather.
And in turn,
I left him and came to Atlanta where my mother was.
She had remarried again.
And and I in
turn stayed with them for
a year and start messing with the boys in Atlanta.
My mother didn't like it because the boys in
Atlanta were more rough than the boys in Columbus.
>> What were they getting into?
>> They would get into anything.
Anything except drugs.
I didn't know anything about drugs then.
But the thing that was bad at that particular time,
things that were bad was gonorrhea.
And my mother, she's always talking to me about,
don't do this and don't do that.
Well, I got tired.
I said, well, I'm going to do that what other boys done.
I'm going to secretly get in service.
So I went to the draft board.
[LAUGHTER] I went up there a year before they called me.
So my mom say, what is this?
I said, I'm going to try to get in service.
It worried her because World War II was
just at a little European goal then.
Japan hadn't did anything.
But anyway, my momma talked and talked.
My stepfather told me that the best thing I
could do was get in service.
And that's what they did.
They called me to
take the military exam to be accepted in service.
So we went to Fort Benning.
>> Well, let's go back a little bit.
Was your stepfather in the military?
>> Yeah, he was.
>> And where was he posted?
>> He was posted in Atlanta here.
It's a little place called 101 Ali Street.
It was taken in the black soldiers as
they come through and didn't have nowhere to stay.
So they took them in overnight,
put them on the train the next day,
wherever they were going to.
And 101 Ali Street was where my stepfather
start getting his promotions.
>> You were already familiar with the military then?
>> Well, yeah, I was familiar with
the military a long time
before then because Columbus was infested with soldiers.
Soldiers were coming in day and
night and it was just soldiers here,
soldiers there, soldiers there where you go.
But anyway, the time after the draft got me,
we went to Fort Benning,
passed that physical exam there.
So they told us at
the end that the Army had his quota for that day.
You can get the Navy,
you can get the Coast guard or you can get
the Marine Corps. And I didn't like.
I said, well, I said,
I take the Marin Corps
and everybody took the Marin Corps.
They had to go to the Navy,
they had to leave there and go to Macon,
Georgia. Take another physical.
So we all went.
We took another physical.
And they gave us
paperwork when we were supposed to report.
And they gave us a ticket
and go to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
>> Why did you choose the Marine Corps?
>> Well, I chose the Marine Corps because of the fact
that the fellas always
talking about the Marines do this and Marines do that.
So I chose the Marine Corps.
Quite a few of us choose the Marine Corps.
We didn't know anything about the Marine Corps,
but we all knew about
the Army because most
of us had been raised up around the Army.
And so [NOISE] from there, we went in training.
We go to training evening,
the next day we
was in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
And from then we started catching it.
What I mean catching it.
Everybody had been walking around like they wanted to,
[LAUGHTER] but they started saying yes, sir, no,
sir and all of that stuff,
the boys started cursing.
It was something, but I'm glad that it all
happened because back then that time,
because we doing what they wanted to do.
And we in turn
start taking training and everything you do,
you had to do it on a double.
What do I mean double? If you go to the restroom,
had to run to the restroom.
If you go to the chair line,
you had to run to the chair line.
Everything you had to do, you had to do it on a double.
And there was training.
And some guy used to get the fighting
and they used to get the fighting so
much until a man is told to say,
fight, you ain't finished fighting yet.
Go on and fight some more.
So that's the way it was. And so after
that we started taking our GI training.
We had to learn the general orders.
They gave us some general orders
to take charge of these folks in
all military department in Bute.
It was a nine of them.
I'm trying to think.
What it nine general orders?
I think it was about nine or 10.
No, I think it was about 11 general orders.
Because you got to just ask,
what's the 12th general order?
[LAUGHTER].
Nobody knows. And so the man said,
well, if you don't know the 12the general order,
you can't go nowhere.
You put us on restriction
until we learned the 12th general order.
The 12th general order is
not a journal order that's down there.
They had 11 general orders,
but the 12th general order was,
be damn sure you know the 11.
That was off record in the military scene.
But if anybody asked you,
where's your 12th general order?
So my 12th general order was,
be damn sure you know the 11.
Actually the 9th one,
you had to spit that out.
The 8th one, you had to spit that out.
They kept pilling you until you
learn all of those general orders.
>> Do you remember some of them?
>> I remember a whole lot of them,
but I can't remember in sequence.
The first general order was to take
charge of this post and all government property in view.
Two, to walk my post in a military manner,
keeping always on the alert and observing
everything that takes place within sight of hearing.
Three, to be especially watchful at night,
and during the time of challenging,
to challenge all persons on a near
my post and allow no one to
pass without proper authority.
And so you go through
that way and go through this whole secular of all them.
They grade you on that.
Then they start give you a riffle.
They tell you to take that rifle apart.
So you learned how to take that rifle apart.
The first rifle I had was M1-03 30 caliber.
So I had to take that rifle apart.
Then they talking about putting it back together,
blindfolded [LAUGHTER].
Well, didn't mean put it together
blindfolded but they did a good job.
I've done it. I did a good job.
After that, we were taking
marching calisthenics and different things
every day, how to march.
First step off you take is on the left.
And it is a funny thing.
But anyway, you find
some guys they still
couldn't think about which was the left.
And when they tell you to call them
left or call them right,
some guys will be going right,
some be going left and rifles just hitting up
against each other and hitting
up against everybody's head.
It was a funny thing.
But it was showing you discipline.
>> Were your drill instructors black or white?
>> Well, we had some black drill instructors.
We had some white ones.
But when I went through,
we had all black instructors
because they came through before.
But now, first beginning of it,
you had some guys I'll tell you about that
had transferred from the Navy to the Marine Corps,
there's black, and they already knew how to
march and how to drill different things of that.
Anyway, after that we went through
the challenges of learning
different things and learning different orders,
how to take orders.
And that was a difficult thing.
And see, most of the things you
went through was really teaching you how to take orders.
Some guys didn't know how to take orders.
And sometimes you order to be so
nasty spoken until you wouldn't want to take them away.
But anyway, we learned how how that was done and why.
So that was one thing that I'm glad that I went
through because you learned how to
take things you really don't want to take.
>> Did you ever go off of base?
>> Off the base? No. We never did go off the base,
not while we were in training.
The only time we went off base is
after we got through training.
Yeah, I went off base.
The first place I went was New Bern, North Carolina.
And after I had took my training,
Menife we decided to go off base.
You had to be tacked.
You had to be sharp. I had to have creases everywhere.
And then I went off the base.
And that's when we started drinking beer.
A beer bottle,
he said, what is that?
Well, the civilians got mad with the soldiers,
got mad with the Marines because they had to
take a bar and they had had a table full of beers.
And they wouldn't give the civilians nothing.
So the civilians got mad and they start
throwing balls and everything and start to fight.
I lost my cap, what they call a little cunt cap.
And I didn't know how to, I say, what are we doing?
Said man, you better start fighting
these folks like they fighting you.
That's the funny thing about it.
But anyway, I heard and got out of the pace.
You heard MPs coming and he's arresting everybody here.
I went out of the back door somewhere.
Well, I got that out and put my cap on.
I ain't had no cap.
So I said, well, I have about $3 or $4.
I went over to the little place
that sell supplies to the Marines.
I bought me a cap, I went back and got on the bus,
went back to camp without them catching me [LAUGHTER].
And, guys, I say,
I'll never go to town again.
But anyway, I went to town again.
I went to Jacksonville.
Jacksonville was just right next door.
You had your pass in your pocket.
Only thing you do is show it.
Anybody asked for a pay,
you got a pass? Show it to him.
That's it. But anyway,
we lived there and we did our training there.
We went to Raleigh, North Carolina once.
They had a school there.
I forget the name of the school.
Anyway, that's where you meet
the so called decent girls, see.
We met girls, and they rejoiced, we rejoiced.
Everybody got a girl name and everybody
writing letters too [LAUGHTER]. It was a fun thing.
But what wasn't funny was
that if somebody do
something and they couldn't find out who it was,
the whole patoon was on restriction.
So everybody found out who did it then they
side to tell and when they tell on the fella,
they feel they get mad.
And he'll come back and pull bunks over.
It wasn't as modern then as it is now.
But we had bunk here,
bunk up there, too high bunk.
Man sleeping up there, a man sleeping down there.
So guys would come back and get the fighting at night,
you'd hear bunks faling.
You just couldn't get used to it, see.
But anyway, we had a good time.
On the base, when you didn't have no money,
you can go to the slop shoot.
Slop shoot was where they sell beer.
>> On base?
>> On base.
>> We called it the slop shoot,
but it's the PX.
The PX was where they sell different articles.
But slop shoot, they went in and sold the fellas beer.
You didn't have to have no pass to go off, go there.
But anyway, it was good.
We had quite a good time there.
So when time come,
let's finish out of training,
man to us,
you get your clothes ready you're going home.
We went on Fellow.
I went home, all the girls
jumping all over me [LAUGHTER].
>> Because you're in uniform?
>> Yeah, you're in
uniform and you finished your training.
You got your little medals on you,
you finished your training,
you think you were a big man then.
You still don't know nothing [LAUGHTER].
But anyway, we stayed
on Fellow for about a week and a half.
We had to go back to camp. Went back to camp,
back to Montford Point.
Got on the list.
It's on the list.
He sent soldiers here.
He's in military men there.
And that's the way we went.
So I was on the list going to
New Orleans for further shipment overseas.
I was glad of that.
I had never been nowhere in my life no way.
We left there going to New Orleans, Louisiana.
We left there and when we were supposed to
eat was in Columbia,
South Carolina, I think.
After we left the post,
we supposed to eat in Columbia, South Carolina.
They didn't have anything for us there.
So we went to another place that was in Columbus,
Georgia, I think it was.
They didn't have anything for us there.
>> You mean they didn't have any food
for you at any of these places?
>> No, they didn't know anything about
no black troops coming through there.
And so the guy got mad.
They started spending their money
buying something to eat,
because you had to start regular eating.
At home, you wouldn't have been eating like that.
You had to start regular eating
every day at the same time.
So your stomach was calling for that time [LAUGHTER].
And so Columbus didn't give us anything.
So they said well Birmingham was the next least food.
They called Birmingham.
When we got to Birmingham,
people had a table full of everything out
there. What was that for?
No, we don't get no black troops, nothing.
Red Cross served black troops.
And so Captain Templin he got mad about all that stuff.
He was our commander
because he was the man carrying us to New Orleans.
>> That's Captain Templin?
Yeah.
>> Do you remember his first name?
>> I think the name was Robert Templin.
I'm not sure his first name now.
I think the name was Robert Templin.
He's a tall man.
He should have been a general.
Because he'll talk to you,
he'll smile with you.
But he was just a military man.
And Captain Templin went
somewhere in Birmingham and
he called the people and told him
this train is not leaving here
until these people get something to.
This train is not leaving here.
Everybody got scared for Captain Templin.
He's acting just like a general.
Anyway, train didn't leave there.
After while food started coming in.
Everybody got stomach tight everything.
So it made him clean up all
around the train where they've been
had those sandwiches and paper and stuff.
Made them pick all that up.
So after that they got through that.
Train head on to New Orleans then.
So that was good.
And we've got the New Orleans.
We went out to a naval base somewhere.
He put us at a naval base down in New Orleans.
So we stayed there until they
called orders out for us to leave there.
We had a nice time in New Orleans.
>> What did you do?
>> Well, we weren't doing
anything according to the training.
But we went on leave.
Everybody went on leave.
And so we were on leave in New Orleans.
Everybody acted right.
Then nobody get in the brig, nothing like that.
Anyway, the next morning,
they called a roll.
Everybody went where they supposed to go.
And the ship stayed there all that day.
Everybody wondering when is it going to leave.
Somebody was saying, they're going to leave at night.
No, not going to leave at night, everybody gets working.
And so the ship left that morning,
about four o'clock I guess.
Somebody said, he's taking the ropes off the ship.
Everybody started going up on deck.
And having to go back down on deck.
Smoking lamp is out [LAUGHTER].
You couldn't smoke not up on deck.
So anyway, it's a good thing.
It is teaching you all the way.
It's giving you the facts of how life was going to be.
Anyway, we got on there
and out there in the Gulf of Mexico,
you look around, you didn't see nothing but ships.
It was ships, look like they just stacking up on.
But all that day nothing but ships.
Later that night, we were
down in the bottom deck playing cards.
Somebody said, boy all them ships gone.
So everybody started going up on deck.
And we were on LST.
LST was a slow ship, Landing Ship Tank.
And we in turn
got scared because he said they ain't left us a hand,
ain't got no submarines to take
care of us, nothing like that.
But anyway, we didn't have
no difficulty until about two days
before we got to Hawaii.
And somebody said, boy,
I did a service out there, they're going to get us.
That service didn't want us because
it wasn't that LST was nothing.
Now all those big ships,
big battleships and cruises and things like that,
they said they got to wait just like that.
But anyway, he left through those small ships,
and I grouped them and I think it
was about four ships out there by themselve.
But nothing happened to us.
We were blessed And
we got toHawaii.
He told everybody,
don't go to that pineapple field.
They didn't go to the pineapple field.
But what they did, two or three of them,
took the bayonet, go to that,
reach over and get a pineapple.
He didn't nothing to know somebody looking at us.
[LAUGHTER] And that's what got us.
So when we got back to our little base there,
they started calling names out, calling names.
What they calling my name for?
Well, see, I know I
had cut me a pineapple and I ate that pineapple.
But he said,
everybody we call go to Barrack 11.
So we all went to Barrack 11.
Other men out there.
Well, what what they got us for.
We were the ones out there cut
them pineapple we weren't supposed to,
see because there was a Dole, D-O-L-E pineapple place.
And so we couldn't
go on leave. Everybody went on leave. [LAUGHTER]
>> You stayed behind?
>> We a lot of us stay behind
[LAUGHTER] because we got Dole pineapples.
>> Where were you in Hawaii?
>> We ride up from Honolulu.
>> I don't know the name of the place.
I ride out from Honolulu.
But anyway, it's a sad thing.
It's teaching you.
And from that,
we waited a few days there.
Then he let us on another ship going to,
what it was, going to this place he called, no.
Anyway, it was a place there.
It's now a pleasure place.
I say they call it every now and then on
this Wheel of Fortune.
But anyway, we left there,
we left Hawaii, going to this place.
I forget the name. It will [inaudible].
When we got there, they had some big dark natives there.
They were in the British forces.
They couldn't speak English.
We couldn't speak what they spoke.
[LAUGHTER] So one of
the big black fellows up there when he saw a sergeant,
he's big too, he went over and hit, Sergeant [FOREIGN].
Sergeant saying, [FOREIGN].
What the hell you mean?
[FOREIGN] back to you.
[LAUGHTER] And he grabbed him and hugged him.
He was saying, hello.
But Sergeant didn't know what he was saying.
[LAUGHTER] He said, hello back.
And everybody started saying, [FOREIGN].
>> So these guys were in uniform too?
>> They were in British uniform.
They were in British uniform.
[FOREIGN]
Something of that.
Anyway, it was a nice place though.
It was a nice place.
We had a nice time there.
We didn't stay there more about a day and a half,
we shipped out again.
But everywhere we go, we was on
LST 39 landing ships tank,
where door open and the tanks come out.
And they had tanks go
low down at the bottom of that thing.
They can't have tanks over there to get an accident.
Anyway, we went on.
So we got to, if I had my list,
I could tell you, but I don't know.
See, everything I had that I made history of,
all I went through, I had put it on a sea bag,
what I went through.
I don't know where it got to.
>> Were you were on Guadalcanal?
>> Yeah, I was on Guadalcanal.
>> [NOISE] So how much later was that?
>> Well, that wasn't long after we left this place.
Because we went to Guadalcanal
and so while all those trees
had been shut down,
all those coconut trees,
we had a good time now too.
Because only thing we did was drill
and went out to arrange, shut your rifle.
Come back, clean it up.
Keep your rifle clean at all times.
Everybody couldn't shoot the rifle all at the same time.
We were shooting though. Getting used to the recall.
And after that.
Guadalcanal, it got so good then.
The Guadalcanal was secured then.
They had a Red Cross Club there.
And so I was going to go down to
Red Cross Club and shoot some pool.
When I was on the highway,
thumbing a ride, went to the Red Cross.
And I got stopped. He said,
"That's bad news, ain't it?"
I said, "What's bad?" He said,
"Well, President Roosevelt died."
God. And that hurts your heart too.
Because that was the thing.
And so I went on to the Red Cross.
I didn't shoot no pool.
I just sit and listen to the radio.
>> He'd been president for
12 years since you were little.
>> Yeah. That's right. And that hurts you.
And after that, we kept listening news.
And it said, Truman would be the president.
And from there, we [inaudible] it.
Of course, MacArthur was the commander over there.
And MacArthur gave the Marines hell.
We made the voice out.
With the help of God and a few Marines,
MacArthur gained back the Philippines.
[LAUGHTER] I tell you.
And I don't think President
, Missouri.
>> Truman?
>> Yeah, I don't think
Truman liked that MacArthur too well, either.
>> I don't think so either.
>> See because when Truman got in charge,
Truman had MacArthur come back to the states,
let him stood off of his water.
When he got to I
think I don't know how in the world that they let him go,
but let him go.
Because we were training like hell.
Some evenings I didn't think I'd live the next day.
Because some days we go out
there and they have us dragging through mud.
Well, [inaudible] all my elbows dragging,
[inaudible] through mud like
that dragging, just dragging.
>> So you were doing a lot of
training and drilling even there?
>> That's right.
>> And you went on to Okinawa and you said,
things got a little stiff on
Okinawa. What do you mean by that?
>> Things got a little stiff on Okinawa.
Because my God,
they got everything trained up to make somebody said,
go to make an invasion in China.
You can hear [inaudible] everywhere.
[inaudible] was flying somewhere, everywhere.
What do I call [inaudible] lies the GIs put out.
Man, so on and so.
And they had a little army paper.
But that army paper were nothing.
It'll give you a little facts,
a few facts about things.
But it was nothing.
Like if you get news now.
If somebody come in and
open that door and tell you so and so,
you can rely on that.
But now you couldn't rely on it,
because it's so modern now
until you can take a picture of
man and send it home
to his mama and daddy
and they can talk to him is what I'm saying.
But then you couldn't even call.
>> Did you write letters home?
>> You had letters going back and forth.
You had everything moving back and forth.
But not like now.
See, you got this modern convenience now.
You can take your little radio out and call
home, I'm all right.
But then you couldn't even tell
the folks on the letter where you were.
You don't tell them where you are.
I think you tell how many troops are there, you see.
Because Japan knew just about how many troops were
there because they could see the ships
coming in and going out,
you see and it shows.
But anyway, when we were out one day,
had just come off the little
training phase that we were on.
And somebody come out and hollered, ooh.
Bringing news, [LAUGHTER] what I mean?
Telling dropped the A bomb.
Hell, A bomb. What in the hell A bomb?
Turns out, it's the atomic bomb,
dropped the atomic bomb.
And we were so scared about
that atomic bomb because they
had talked so much about it.
That thing will tear you up.
But anyway, he said,
Japan, we dropped that on Hiroshima.
And said, man, it just devastated that place.
In fact, about four or five days later,
we went to the movie and they showed it.
And so about four or
five days later after they had dropped the first one,
Japan didn't believe it.
They said that you
find something you think is a malfunction.
They thought that that bomb had
just a malfunction bomb you see.
So they dropped another one.
Japan threw up the hands.
[LAUGHTER] Everybody start hollering there, ooh.
We all got glad.
>> Do you remember where you were
when you knew the war was over?
>> Yeah, I was on Okinawa.
>> How did you-all celebrate?
>> Pow, take your rifle.
Man then comes out,
you don't shoot up all this ammunition.
You don't know what's happening.
That's where we were. In fact,
they start saying,
you go home after about four or five days over there.
They had air raids, all that.
[LAUGHTER] We'll go to all the [inaudible] holes.
There were no air raids.
I guess they get peace and quiet on the island.
But anyway, that's a nice thing we had.
It's not like it is now.
I see the fellas now when they come in.
Good to hear them in. I said they have a bit of time now
because only way they transferred us was by train.
But now, you get where you're going now by
plane. It is a good thing.
>> So when did you return home?
>> I returned home about
the first
of the year in '45.
I believe it was '45.
>> It would've been late in '45 like winter?
>> It's been winter. It's like about that long.
>> But you had to have enough points?
>> Yeah, you had to have points.
>> And how did you earn points?
>> You had to have
so many months in service like two months.
And I had been over there for about 27 months.
Well, that's two for each month.
But now I wasn't married.
>> If you've been married, you'd have more points?
>> Yeah. The guy was married,
he had some points because he was married.
If he had the children,
he has some points because he had children.
And see, just about
my whole unit was
ready to go because the fact they had enough.
So they got us on a big ship.
And this is a ship was going.
You looked like you go down like that,
and when you come back up, you're looking at the sky.
So we got back to California.
We got back and saw Gordon Gate.
>> You came in through San Francisco Bay?
>> Yeah.
>> And when did you make your way back to Georgia?
>> Well, we got back to California.
They kept us there at
this big camp in San Francisco,
I mean, then this big Marine camp.
I can't think of the name now.
In fact, we stayed there about four
four days then they started peering us off.
So many of a day. So that there was going on.
I had to report
back to
Mara Point Captain on the same day.
So that's where we came back and I
stayed I guess about about nearly two weeks.
They wouldn't give you two weeks.
They'll give you about a week
and a half or something like that,
and you to report back to that camp base.
Anyway, one of the good things about
it. And I stayed down.
I got out and discharged with the ruptered duck.
What rupted duck.
It's a little duck they store up on here.
Little rupture. They call it the ruptured duck.
It was a yellow, and it was a duck.
They call it a ruptured duck,
that mean you've been discharged.
So you can go on in and get arrested.
Civilians got you,
the military got you,
whoever wanted to get you.
But anyway, you got
your raptured duck and your papers you go home.
>> Did you go back to work after being discharged?
Well, I went back to work,
but I didn't get
the job I wanted because the job that I had left,
they had made some kind of reservations
for fellas did come back get
their old jobs back but I didn't get my old job back.
The man told me, said he didn't need nobody then.
I said, I well, I'll tell you what.
We'll call you as soon as we possibly can.
We have somebody. I told the fellow that fellow said,
well, they didn't do me like that.
I said they gave me a job next day.
Well, it's a little job working at a candy factory.
In fact, I stayed there for a while,
I started to go back in the Marine Corps.
I said, no, I think I just go and try to find a job.
So I finally found a job driving a truck.
I drove the truck for a while.
I put in for the post office.
They didn't have enough then.
They let me know something later.
So after that,
I went to Lockheed.
>> Lockheed Aircraft?
>> Yeah.
>> In Maryland?
>> I went to Lockheed.
>> Can you tell me about what you did at Lockheed?
>> Well, I took training there.
You had two weeks of training to take.
And if you pass that training then you get a job.
And you can believe me, everybody
everybody was studying like hell.
So I took training.
I passed the sealing.
That was one of the jobs.
Riveting was another one.
And splashing was another.
So I took all three of them and I got all three of them.
I worked there for quite a while
until Eisenhower got in office.
When Eisenhower come in office,
Eisenhower started his junk [LAUGHTER].
We all start lik did you throw up and hit
a little be cone
for all those bees and nestin.
You hit that, they swam all over you.
He swammed all over the plant.
>> So people were angry?
>> Well, they were angry,
but they they knew it was over and they knew
they couldn't be keep making planes or things like that.
>> And you've been working on the C-130?
>> Yes, C-130.
>> Is that correct?
>> C-130.
>> Did you work alongside white co-workers there?
>> Oh, yeah, working alongside white co-worker.
>> So it was an integrated factory?
>> On the job.
And after we left there.
After Eisenhower got through his layoff,
I come back and got the truck driver job
back because the man liked the way I had done it.
And so the post office called me back and I went there.
I was making more money at the post office.
>> long were you with the Postal Service?
>> I was about 27 years I retired there.
>> Can you tell me about your family?
>> My family, I married too when I got out of service,
and we stayed together for 13 years.
And she wanted a divorce.
So I gave her that divorce,
though she's still mad with me today because of the fact
that I had told
her lawyers that I would take her back then.
But when I went up in the court room,
I looked over and saw her she's like,
I said, hell, I don't want this.
I guess they had notified the jury
that I was going to take her back.
So they asked me what did I want to do?
I said I wanted to divorce.
And she looked at me, that was it.
When the case was over,
I was outside on the steps
and she come over there start cussing me out.
And it's good it was a man with this brown uniform,
he said, look, lady said,
why do you want to mess with him?
I said she got the divorce she wanted.
I said, she put me in for the divorce.
I said she got it. I said, now, what you want?
You're this and that.
He said if he tell me to put you in jail,
I can put you in jail now because you cussing him out.
I said, that's all right.
I started walking away.
And she said, you.
I said, well, that's all right.
And then I got the divorce.
They took half of my payroll.
I took a divorce and they took half my payroll.
But when she first put in for, I decided divorce.
When the first told me, said, man,
if that's for you, I get off the road.
See, I had trained myself to scheme, see.
And scheme, if you could
scheme and take care of that scheme,
you get you a better job.
So that's what I did.
I got a better job.
And I was making some two time
what the people at the post office were making.
Because I was on the train and when you're on the train,
you got to learn this and that,
learn when to make a catch.
You got to learn what you're running on,
what I mean by what you're running on the next stop.
So you can get that mail out and put it in
that sack and let them
have it so they can get it off, see.
Well, I had learned that and I told the fella I said,
yeah, you're right there.
He said, well, tell you.
He said, you go to the office and
tell so and so if you want to
come off for a while. That's what I did.
And they took me off and they saved me.
Where I'd have been paying her two or $300 more a month,
they saved it down to $107.
>> When did you remarry?
>> About three years later.
>> And did you have children?
>> Yeah.
>> How many?
>> Three.
>> And have you received
awards for your military service?
>> Award?
>> Awards like the Congressional Gold Medal
there. You're going to show us that?
>> Yeah. I'll show you that.
>> When did you get this medal?
>> I got that medal after I met
one of the fellows and he told me about this.
I said, well, I don't know anything about it.
>> I just want you to hold it in front of you there.
>> Yeah.
>> So you received that medal in 2011?
>> Right, 2011.
>> And if you could show us your hat there.
>> It's written Montford Point Marine Association.
>> And how long have you been a part of
this Montford Point Marine Association?
>> I guess about eight months now. Somewhat like that.
>> So it's recent?
>> Yeah, recently. But it
haven't been going on a long time.
I didn't know anything about it.
So the fellows told me about it and they
invited me to come up there to see
them. And here is this.
>> And this is the certificate
that goes along with the metal?
>> Yeah.
>> Thank you for showing us that.
And Mr. Jones, why did you agree to speak with me today?
>> Why did I agree to?
>> To speak with me today.
>> To speak with you? I'll tell you this feller told me
that he had somebody he wanted me to see.
I forget his name.
>> That's Fred Morton.
>> I said, okay. I said,
whenever he wanted to see me then, I said,
well, I said I don't know.
He said, well, I don't know
when it will be when you can see him.
He said, I call you.
I said, okay then.
And so that's the way it happened.
>> Do you think it's important to share your memories
like this and with future generations?
>> Well, it's important.
Because it was important to me,
the things I went through.
Learning people, learning how to be with people.
Sometimes you can get your head knocked off.
But it just did.
But it's good to be a fighter for a country.
>> Do
you think
the country has changed
a lot or not much since World War II?
>> The country has changed a lot. Changed a lot.
You don't have to ask me, you can ask others.
Some people don't appreciate a little change at a time.
I appreciate a little change because
a drastic change will make you to set back.
>> Maybe people aren't always ready for a big change.
>> That's right. They're not
always ready for a big change.
Sometimes they were below it. I've seen it.
>> How do you think that your military service
helped contribute to the Civil Rights Movement,
especially in the South?
>> Well, it's not me. It's them.
Civil Rights Movement has helped a lot.
But sometimes you can talk so much until
you lose some goodness.
>> Well, Mr. Jones, thank you for talking to me today.
We'll go ahead and end it there.