“Today is September 6, 2009, I am Brooke DeBettignies and I am interviewing Gerald DeBettignies. I am in his [home in] Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. DeBettignies is my grandfather my father’s father. He is eighty-five years old and was born on April 8, 1924. Mr. DeBettignies served in World War Two. Mr. DeBettignies was in the 82 Airborne Division and held the rank of sergeant.”
BD: Mr. DeBettignies were you drafted or did you enlist?
GD: I was drafted.
[0:00:40]
BD: Where were you living at the time you were drafted?
GD: I was living in New Anton, Iowa.
BD: Did you get to pick the branch that you were drafted into, how did that work out?
GD: You have to volunteer to be a paratrooper. They cannot draft you, They have to draft you first, then you can volunteer to be a paratrooper.
[00:01:05]
BD: And why did you volunteer to be a paratrooper?
GD: Well, I was interested in getting over the World War Two as fast as we could and I thought that was the best way I could serve.
BD: So you served in World Two correct?
GD: Yes, Yes.
[00:01:18]
BD: Where exactly did you get to go?
GD: I took most of my time in Benning in Fort Benning, Georgia.
BD: Do you remember arriving?
GD: Yes.
[00:01:26]
BD: What was that like?
GD: It was in August and it was unbelievably hot, warm, mucky, but we had to drill so many hours a day anyway.
BD: What was your first assignment?
GD: First assignment was a regular paratrooper.
[00:01:48]
BD: What exactly do you get to do when you’re a paratrooper?
GD: Well, the training was quite extensive, We learned to jump from certain altitudes, starting with probably eight or nine feet, and doing up to 20 foot off of varies fixtures and staging areas they had built out there. And then we prepared for our first jumps from a plane.
BD: Cool! So tell me a couple of your most remember able experiences.
GD: My most memorable experience would be my fifth jump-is when you get your- you graduate and you get your paratrooper wings. And at the conclusion of that there’s always a big celebration for a couple of days.
BD: Now what’s the celebration like, like what would you get to do?
GD: -the celebration was mainly entertainers that were traveling across the country the Bob Hopes the in that class of people would come in and train for two days each time another class graduated.
[00:2:25]
BD: So, how exactly would you get to earn the medals?
GD: Well, they sorted your different degrees off of how quickly you advanced in your training, -First did you made your fifth jump and you graduated and you got your paratrooper wings, on my seventh jump I had broke my foot–was hurt.
BD: Oh.
GD: And as result, I was not able to go overseas with my regular unit, I was preparing to go at that time.
[00:3:17]
BD: Were you happy you weren’t going to go, or did that disappoint you?
GD: I was very unhappy because we had a lot of friends through those three months of training.
[00:3:25]
BD: Did you stay in touch with your family?
GD: Oh, very, very close a weekly basis at least, mostly by letter. Telephoning was not very popular at time.
BD: Did you get to telephone them ever?
GD: Oh yes, I’d say on a monthly basis.
[00:03:43]
BD: What was the food like?
GD: The food was always good, but there were soldiers that would gripe about it and said it wasn’t good, that’s just their privilege. The food had to be very good because of our intense training, very nutritious.
BD: Did you always have plenty of supplies?
GD: Yes, very well supplied they had the best of everything.
[00:04:06]
BD: Did you feel pressure or stress?
GD: No, I did not; I did not, not at the time. Looking back on it I can see that there had to be some stress there.
BD: Was there ever something special you did for good luck, some kind of ritual or anything?
G: No.
[00:04:26]
BD: Then how did people entertain themselves when there was down time?
GD: Downtime we would–go to the–post-exchange which was an entertainment center, they’d have movies, of course all the beverages, soft drinks you wanted, and, of course, they serve food there, which we called treat food like hamburgers and that kind of thing.
[00:04:50]
BD: What did you do when you were on leave?
GD: On leave I would always go home to visit my parents.
BD: Um, where did you travel while in the service?
GD: Basically, my entire time was spent at Fort Benning, Georgia.
[00:05:09]
BD: Were there any humorous or unusual events that went on.
GD: Oh many, tricks they played on one another but not all the time.
BD: Do you remember any of these tricks?
GD: Well, a favorite trick was short sheeting a bed, where you, take the sheets off and pull them up and then pull them back up under the pillow, so when the guys stay out late, then run to get in bed and they can’t get in, only half way. That was the number one, and it worked every time.
BD: Did you keep any photographs from the war?
GD: Yes.
BD: Who were the different people in the photographs?
GD: They are mostly me.
[00:05:55]
BD: What did you think of your fellow soldiers?
GD: I thought that they were the top of the pick. We all had to be six foot tall, we all had to be under a certain weight, and we–they spent a lot of time telling us how intelligent we were. Course a lot of that turned out to be brain washing.
BD: Did you keep a personal diary?
GD: No, I did not.
BD: Do you recall the day your service ended?
GD: Yes, I do.
[00:06:26]
BD: Now what was that like?
GD: Well, it was a sad day because I had a medical discharge. I didn’t have a choice whether I stayed in or go out. I had to go home. I had to leave. Because you’re leaving the best friends you had on earth.
BD: Where were you at the time.
GD: Fort Benning, Georgia.
[00:06:47]
BD: What did you do in the days or weeks afterwards?
GD: Days and weeks afterwards, in the first of May and two weeks I spent with my folks exclusively, with my parents.
BD: Did you work or go back to school?
GD: I went to work.
[00:07:01]
BD: Where did you work, what was that like?
GD: I went to work for a wholesale grocery company, and that was one of my doctors’ advices from the medical center, military medics, because my injured foot, and that would give that good time to heal up and it wouldn’t be lifting too much as a salesman.
BD: Did you make any close friends while in the service?
GD: Very close.
BD: Do you still keep in contact with any of them?
GD: Unfortunately they’re not living.
[00:07:36]
BD: So tell me more about your career after the war?
GD: After the war, I chose sales as the career. I thought I’d be right for, the best living I could with the limited education I had, and it turned out to to be very a successful career.
BD: So what exactly did you do?
GD: Well I sold clothing, and after a given time,–a sales period, territory of four years. I was called into Chicago as a sales manager. They were stationed in Indianapolis, I was a Chicago area sales manager. And after four and a half years of that, I was offered the national sales manager job in New York.
BD: Wow. Did you enjoy–?
GD: I did. And that involved moving my family out east and they replied that they would give us a place to live. It was either Long island, New Jersey or Connecticut. After an extensive search we found Connecticut for the greatest schools. And with two children ready to enter high school that was a consideration. It was a little out farther commute on the train for me, after all we weren’t there for that reason; we were there for the education.
[00:09:04]
BD: Did your military experience influence your thinking about the war or military in general?
GD: Yes, it did.
BD: And can you expand on that?
GD: Yes, I figured that they said they certainly had the finest troops in the world and I do believe that, however they could have on expounded that a lot. By picking the proper individuals for the proper jobs, and I thought that was kind of a random assignment in the service, which wouldn’t necessarily give the best results.
BD: And what did you think of the military before you joined. Like, did you always want to join?
GD: No I did not, I hadn’t given it much thought, it was just the thing to do, I had two brothers in the service and I figured I should go to help. If they’re out there I should be there too.
[00:10:02]
BD: So when you were drafted were you happy about this?
GD: Yes, I was.
BD: Do you still attend any reunion?
GD: Our outfit did not have a reunion because they had lost 92% of their personnel in Normandy and France.
[00:10:21]
BD: How did your experience in the service affect your life?
GD: Oh I'm sure I'm a better citizen because of it. Service taught us a lot of discipline, and cooperation definitely. In the end you have to cooperate in this world no matter what career you’re in.
BD: Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t already covered?
GD: No, I think we have pretty much covered everything.
[extended interview later]
[00:10:56]
BD: So tell me a little about what a day in the life of a paratrooper was.
GD: Well, they start sharp at 5:30 am, and you’re up and fall out in formation. And then they go for a run; the length of the run was determined by how advanced your training was. The maximum run was twenty-six miles before breakfast. This wasn’t speed run this was just a jog. And then as you prepare to go over seas, you were running with partial and then with adding weight every day until you came to complete combat while you ran. And then the same thing prevailed as we progressed in our advanced–in our parachute jumps to go overseas. We kept adding weight until we came up to our full combat load which was seventy-one pounds. I had my seventy-one pound weight the day I broke my foot. And they could determine they hit a hard cluster of land that Georgia clay. Otherwise there was nothing they could have found in the field, any extremely hard object I could have hit. And they could not find it. They were intereseted in the future of the jumps in that area, if there was danger.
[00:12:35]
BD: So how exactly did you hurt your foot, you hit something hard on the ground when you jumped.
GD: And just laid my foot back against my leg, otherwise totally normal jump.
BD: And we were talking about the day after you do your training, what would happen after that?
GD: In the morning they’d come back, shower, breakfast, fall out again, into formation. And depending upon how advanced you were in your training what we did those days it was very intense. They wanted every job you did to be a perfectionist, because you and your partner’s life depended on it when you’re in combat.
[00:13:25]
BD: So did you do different drills, or what did you have to do.
GD: Well, everything a soldier did is pretty hard to describe, you can be drilled out in formation on a field for hours at a time practicing drills, and everyone has a purpose. It’s all based on a command that will be given during combat. And discipline is number one. If they told you to walk right in front of a gun you have to do it.
BD: Can you give an example of some of the drills they would do?
GD: Well, describing a drill is very–unless you can see it in action–they would do what they call turn about and so on and so forth. That was if you had actually jumped into combat and you were running, you’re still in this formation when they give a certain command, every one that they give was to save your life. And it’s very difficult to give each one with out seeing it in real life.
BD: Then after you were done with your drills then what would happen?
GD: We would fall out for lunch, then the same thing again. We would have a small rest period after lunch. Then we could fall into formations again for after noon training.
BD: That seems like a lot of training.
GD: It was very intense, but very necessary.
[00:14:47]
BD: When you broke your foot, what was your hospital experience like? What was it like after your broke your foot? Do you remember that day?
GD: Yes, I couldn’t stand up. So they came with the military ambulance and took me to the hospital. And for the first series of x-rays and everything like that they just cut your boots off, and didn’t take time unlacing them or anything. Same way with your uniform, everything was just cut off.
BD: Did you get to keep the cut up uniform?
GD: I could have I suppose, but I didn’t.
BD: What exactly did they do to you in the hospital, what did you have to go through?
GD: Well, they didn’t do anything right away because of the intense swelling; you can imagine how much swelling that was. They had to wait for the swelling to go down before they could attempt anything. I think that was a period of four days.
[00:15:42]
BD: And so I know you broke your foot, but what exactly had happened? Did you fracture some bones, or how many bones did you break and what did they have to do to fix it?
GD: I broke all the bones in the instep. Layed it right up back against my leg.
BD: And what were some of the treatments that you had to go through?
GD: Well, the treatment was all post surgery, after they did the surgery, and of course, they’d give you various exercises. First of all, while your lying on the bed they’d come–nurses would come and move your feet when inside the cast as much as they could to keep everything knitted they call it, to come back together.
BD: Was this very painful?
GD: Painful, but not extremely so. In fact, it felt good as it healed.
[00:16:35]
BD: As I understand, you had two brothers who were also in the war?
GD: Yes, older brothers, and the oldest brother Neal was in the anti-aircraft division.
BD: And what did he have to do?
GD: Shoot down any other [enemy?] planes, they spend a lot of time identifying those planes, they identify those planes by silhouette only, because obviously they’d be to far away to pick up the numbers off the wings. They study months on the silhouette of planes. Just a small silhouette could determine what kind of plane it was and who it was. The only thing they wanted to guard against was shooting down our own planes, that was a cardinal sin, which happened right along.
[00:17:20]
BD: And your second brother?
GD: In the navy.
BD: And he–what did he get to do?
GD: He was a, what do you call it, a keeper? They furnish all the supplies, in charge of the supply room. It had a special name, I forget now. And he was an officer in that division.
BD: And what was his name?
GD: Vergil.
BD: Did you guys get along when you were little?
GD: Sometimes.
[00:17:57]
BD: So I understand that you didn’t have to go when you were drafted since you were the third member.
GD: That’s right, that came about as a result of the famous Sullivan brothers who five brothers who went into service together, from the_______[?] thirty minutes from my hometown, they went into the navy, they were all killed in one incident, and as a result of that the government passed off right away that no more then two from one family could be taken in. You could volunteer, that third one, but you could not be drafted. Instead, I told you I was drafted, officially I was–the Sullivan brothers came after that.
[00:18:47]
BD: So why did you choose to go?
GD: Our country was at war and I wanted to get it over with and get back to normal life. Everything was anything but normal, everything was rationed. The American people could be commended on that, they gave up their supplies, like coffees and all that stuff, they sent it all to the service people. Even paper goods, they didn’t use napkins for instance, they all went to the service.
BD: So, how did you earn your leave?
GD: Well, if you were a good soldier, so to speak, you didn’t do anything wrong, you were eligible for leave. You could apply for leave. And of course so many could only go at a time, so whether you went depended on how many had already applied, and whether you were eligible.
[00:19:46]
BD: What did you do when you went on leave?
GD: Basically, take in movies in town that was about all there was to do, unless there was one of these big shows that traveled the nation, and traveled worldwide at that time during training troupes. Basically, other than that, go to a good restaurant, a good movie, a good nights sleep. That was a sleep after sleeping in the barracks.
[00:20:13]
BD: So do you have any remember able stories about any of your certain leaves?
GD: Oh, I did tell you the one about the barber, didn’t I?
BD: No.
GD: When my friend Bernie, I didn’t like the way they cut it there, you can get it cut for free out there at the base. But I said when we get a leave, I wanted to get a hair cut with Bernie there.
[00:20:45]
BD: And who was Bernie?
GD: Bernie was my best friend who was training with me and he had joined the paratroopers with me.
BD: Okay.
GD: So, I went to get in the barber chair and he walks up to the barber, the barbers putting this big sheet around my neck, getting ready to cut my hair and he says, “he’s a good guy and looks alright, but he’s deaf he can’t hear anything, you got to get up and just really yell in his ear if you want to ask him if he wants it shorter or anything.” So here I sat the whole time with the barber and when he turned me around to the mirror, I didn’t look in that mirror because I just couldn’t keep from laughing. And we got through it all right, and I got out on the street and I said, “Bernie the only thing that would keep me from killing you, is because they’d kill me.”
BD: So the whole time the barber was just screaming in your ear?
GD: Oh mercy. I kind of pity the poor guy.
BD: So–
GD: I think some of the people sitting there caught on before it was over with.
[00:21:49]
BD: So tell me a little more about the short sheeting. How exactly did that work out?
GD: Well, we would wait until people were supposed to be in their barracks, they were not in their barrack that evening, because their going to have a final bed check at nine o clock.
BD: And what were the barrack like?
GD: The barracks were just rows of beds.
BD: Oh, okay.
GD: And you were responsible for your little area around it, like you had a trunk where you kept your laundry and things like that. So the guys would go out and do anything in the world except be in the barracks, so five minutes before the bed check they’d come in, running in to be in bed. When the lights went on, they had inspection. And here they had the whole thing full of guys all curled up in bed because they could only half get in bed. Of course, then it was everybody’s up mopping the floor for punishment.
BD: So how did you short sheet a bed? What exactly did you have to do?
GD: You took the top sheet, and brought it back up under your pillow, so when you sit down your body weight is on that sheet, and you could not straighten it out.
BD: And how many times did this happen to you?
GD: Probably half a dozen. And there was always the punishment that came with it because you were doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing.
[00:23:23]
BD: So after the war I understand you did a lot with some companies.
GD: Yeah, the basic company I went into was a clothing company.
BD: Was it Lee?
GD: Yes, Lee. I started as a salesman out in the country and small towns.
BD: Can you tell me a little more about that?
GD: Yeah, they were makers of men’s and boys clothing at that time, small and ladies clothing. I just went out and you’re selling something good really. You got to remember to know your product, tell the truth and if you say you’re going to be there the second Tuesday of November, then you better be there the second Tuesday. And basically that’s all I did. The guy ahead of me hadn’t been doing those things, so I had a tremendous gain, and of course, they came along and offered me promotion [as] a salesman in the Chicago division. They were very kind and said, “We don’t want you with two little kids to be living in Chicago. That’s too busy a place. We will have you live in Indianapolis–that’s more decent.” It was very nice, that’s how we came out to live in Indianapolis.
[00:24:38]
BD: So your family had to make a lot of sacrifices?
GD: Well, a sacrifice anytime you change positions, because it involves them moving to a new residence, and friends.
BD: How did your children–
GD: At the time I think they felt a little abused. Both of them on different occasions have said, “We are better people on account of it because we know how to mix with people from all the different parts of the United States.” After all, they all had to go through the first two weeks then you have your own friends anyway.
BD: Have you told your children a lot about your experience in the war?
GD: Not all about, no.
[00:25:24]
BD: If it ever came up, do you think they would follow you in the military?
GD: I’m sure they would if their country needed them, yes.
[00:25:39]
BD: So what ever happened to your friend Bernie?
GD: Well, [Bernie] went overseas at the time of our entire outfit went over, and then one of the boys that survived over there came back, and when I came in to talk to him, he said that even right down to the end Bernie was pretty smart. He said, as we went outward, they were shooting us right out of the air because they knew where we were coming down and we didn’t, so he played dead right away. But they shot him anyway.
BD: Wait, what happened?
GD: He just fell limp in his harness.
BD: Oh, okay.
GD: And then Smoky went ahead and did that, and they still shot him right up the leg with a machine gun.
BD: And he didn’t live through that?
GD: Bernie didn’t live through it, Smoky did. He came back to the United States.
BD: And is he still living today?
GD: He is. He lives in Iowa, and I showed him to my sister Joan.
BD: And do you ever still talk to him?
GD: Not in the recent years, maybe five years I haven’t talked to Smoky.
[00:26:51]
BD: Were you good friends with him before?
GD: At school, yes–good friends.
BD: Did you guys ever have any remember able moments, that you could talk about?
GD: Not with Smoky, because he wasn’t that close (I did go to school with him)–other then just the things that would happen to a normal boy as a class rather than individuals.
BD: And what grades were you?
GD: I was with him from second grade through the eighth grade.
BD: Are there any other people in the service, any important people that you want to talk about?
GD: No, I knew them the best of the–you work in a pretty close area, and they were the best that I would remember the most things about.
[00:27:41]
BD: Were there many other pranks that you played?
GD: Yes, but they were very quiet in comparison to that one. The other one [what] they would do was they would put a match in your shoestring and light the other end of it, and by the time it burns up to where you were, you’re waking up on the ceiling.
BD: What exactly would they do?
GD: They would give you a hot foot, they’d put the fire end of a match up underneath where the shoestring meets the shoe, they would light the bare end, and by the time it burned up, you’re long gone. Once you got a hot foot there’s no way around–there’s no way you got hurt that bad, just maybe a little bit of a burned foot sometimes, just for a day.
BD: Okay. Were there any other tricks you would play, maybe when you got outside of the war?
GD: They would play tricks with people’s food. If you sat down to eat, and you forgot a spoon or something, by the time you got back you got so much salt in you food you couldn’t eat it. So you got to know, if you forgot a spoon, you’d eat with a fork rather then to go ahead and go get one.
BD: So would people laugh at these jokes, or did anybody get mad?
GB: Oh, they’d laugh. Some people would get mad, but, you know, originally if someone got mad at something like that then your kind of sore head. So they’d be sure not to do it again that’s all.
[00:29:20]
BD: Were there any jokes like that going on with the higher ranks of people?
GD: Yes, all the way to the top. We were not alert when it happened, but we heard about them.
BD: So, going back to how living was, what would happen if you ever got sick, like, with just the common cold.
GD: When you get sick, if you got hit with the common cold in the morning you would have to turn into the med center and they would take your temperature–tell you how severe it is, one thing or another. They had temporary meds they would put in just for a day, but if you’re really sick, like if you needed surgery, then you went to the hospital immediately, and people did need surgery. Well, and they had the finest fields of medicals that have ever been known in the world for our, well, working soldiers.
[00:30:11]
BD: Did you ever have this problem; did you ever get a little sick?
GD: Yes, I’ve had a nasal–in the throat.
BD: What was that like?
GD: They give you some medicine and send you back to the barrack for the day.
BD: Did you ever get off of any training or anything?
GD: Because of illness?
BD: Yes.
GD: No
BD: Was that hard?
GD: No, no. You want to go training everyday, because you became part of the unit, your friends were doing it, you knew why you were doing it. You were doing it to save your friend’s life, and serve in combat, and if you missed some part of it, well that was your loss.
[00:30:52]
BD: Other then salt being snuck into the food, how was the food?
GD: The food was extraordinarily good.
BD: Like what kind of food would they have?
GD: Well, they would have a lot of protein, like they would have beef or veal or pork every day, fish twice a week. And it was always, all you wanted no restrictions.
BD: And what was your favorite?
GD: I think they had some beef and noodles that I liked very much; I always smiled when they had it any way. And, of course, desserts were there everyday if you wanted them they were there.
[00:31:28]
BD: And how were the living spaces?
GD: The living spaces were small but very adequate, you don’t need a lot of space to lay down, and that’s all you did in the barrack, was sleep.
BD: And were they comfortable?
GD: Yes, very comfortable.
BD: What could you bring?
GD: You couldn’t bring any civilian clothing, just all army clothing, and shoes, socks, under wear
[00:31:52]
BD: And what was army clothing like?
GD: Very high quality, all the same color which was a green, and you had initials you had put into your clothes because you send out your clothes for laundry every week and that’s how they kept them sorted, they came back neatly folded, experts.
BD: Were there any limits to how many pairs of shoes you could have.
GD: Yes, there was you could have two.
BD: Did that ever become a problem, like did you wear one pair for training and one for everything else?
GD: Yes, we used one for dress and one for training.
[00:32:33]
BD: Tell me more about learning how to jump as a paratrooper.
GD: Well, they had what they call staging areas; they were coming into training so fast. I said I was in Fort Benning Georgia, but actually Fort Benning, Georgia was so crowded that we were training in Phoenix City, Alabama, across the Chattahoochee River. And staging areas were set out–they call them staging areas because when you went to this certain area you were at a certain stage of you training. When you moved on to another staging area you were at another. Instead of moving the training area, they moved the people. You went on around a half circle and when you came out you’re graduated over, you got your wings and you went into combat.
BD: Do you remember your first day, the first time you jumped?
GD: I sure do.
BD: What was that like?
GD: Well, there really wasn’t much to it, they trained us so skillfully to jump a little higher each time, so there was never really a fear of jumping. Truthfully, the jumping and landing of paratroopers was the most over-rated thing in the world, it was pretty hard to land improperly. The only thing that was a little bit rough was when you baled out and a shroud line pulled open your back chute, and when your chute opened you got quite a jerk.
BD: Really.
GD: But that was the only thing that was bad at all, landing was nothing compared to that.
[00:34:06]
BD: So, how important is the timing of when you open up your chute?
GD: You don’t have a choice the chute opens itself.
BD: Oh, okay.
GD: As you jump out the lines are fastened in the plane and as you jump they pull and break that pack and the chute drops out.
BD: So your trusting that the person up there knows when to pull your shoot.
GD: But he doesn’t all your on is a ring, you let it slide down until you come to the door, you jump out and that breaks your…
BD: Oh, oh, okay. So once you’re out–
GD: They did have an emergency chute on the front, and when you jump you have your finger in it in case you needed it; it was just a small shoot.
BD: Did people ever use that?
GD: Oh yeah, people got excited. And that was when you were really in trouble and one would pull the air out of the other, then you’d really go down.
[00:34:53]
BD: Does it ever actually hurt your arms, because the jerk, it pulls on your arms?
GD: No, you pull up and everything is spring loaded when you do that, your jumping like this and you got your arms and your knees become flexed just like that, and you got your knees to bend backwards and it sounds like its almost impossible to get hurt, but they did.
BD: And did you find it fun, or scary or–
GD: Oh, intensive fun at that age, you actually look forward to a jump.
BD: Do you remember the first time you ever jumped? Where you scared?
GD: Yes, I think I would be a liar to say no.
[00:35:33]
BD: Do you remember you first thought.
GD: Anxious not scared maybe–
BD: Do you remember your first thought jumping out?
GD: Yea, I got to thinking, why did I do this I guess.
[00:35:52]
BD: So, what did you think of the war when you were growing up?
GD: Well, I–when I was growing up I just thought of war as a terrible thing because I heard my father talk about it. My father had been in World War One.
BD: And what did he do?
GD: He was an engineer, building bridges in France, and he told about how disastrous it could be, how much it rained, every time you’d get up front where there was gun fire, there’s rain invariably. And he talked about having twelve to fourteen days rain straight, where you couldn’t lay down and sleep. So I just felt the same way he did, whenever your country needed you, you should go. And he never hesitated a minute to get going, he just figured that’s what you needed. And another thing, the start of the war when we got in with Germany, we went in to take them out of Africa. They had come down to run down the poor people of Africa. And they sent down their highest trained German, oh sir, he was good, R. Rommel You could see them on newspapers, beating up on our army, national guard over there and it made me all the more anxious to join the service.
BD: Do you know how your mom felt about the war. ?
GD: My mother was pretty neutral she never said much.
[00:37:19]
BD: And how did this war change you as a person and change your view on the war?
GD: I don’t think it changed me a lot as a person, more insistent upon getting in there and getting it over with because that’s what it was going to take.
BD: And do you still feel the same, that war is pretty awful or–?
GD: The war is the nastiest thing that could happen to any country, because today we hear about a few deaths, but we don’t hear about 63,000 people that are crippled, handicapped, lost their eyes, just as an end to the most recent war, I think strongly that we ought to do something about it.
BD: Well, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for this interview. Again, this is Gerald DeBettignies interviewed by Brooke DeBettignies on September 6, 2009. Thank you for the information.
[End of interview: time on meter?]
