Veteran Interview with Roy Cooper (D)
(4:34) Mr. Cooper tells about traveling home on furlough from Cold Bay, Alaska and the choices he had to make concerning his career in the Army.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Interview with Roy Cooper May 12, 2010 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Clip 4 Roy Cooper: S...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/123 |
| format |
Electronic |
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| collection |
War Years at Home and Abroad Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| topic |
Military life |
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Military life Veteran Interview with Roy Cooper (D) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life World War 1939-1945; Military occupations |
| description |
(4:34) Mr. Cooper tells about traveling home on furlough from Cold Bay, Alaska and the choices he had to make concerning his career in the Army.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Roy Cooper
May 12, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Roy Cooper: So then I had to go back by a certain time, which I guess it was about a week furlough. And I rode the train from Seattle, came straight across Minneapolis and St. Paul and Chicago and then down to Nashville and then down to Florence and then I went back the same way. Course I didn’t have a sleeper or anything like that. So anyway, I, I went back. So from, from Seattle, I stayed there, I was in the Air Corps at that time and I worked there, they had little jobs that tried to keep us busy and then they sent me to Amarillo, Texas and in Amarillo we went through a lot of mental tests and equilibrium tests and different autom—let’s see, auto—, auto-pilot tests that they took to see if a person was qualified, you know, and I passed all the tests and everything and my name went up on the board as qualified to go into the pilot training. And course at that time if you, if you didn’t make a pilot, you would either make a navigator or a bombardier, if you, you know, was, could pass the tests and everything. But my name got up on the board as qualified and then after, I guess, about two weeks I thought I was setting there ready to, I thought, ‘Well I‘m going to school just anytime, whenever, whenever they call me, when there’s an opening.’ Then there was another bulletin that went up on the board and said that anybody that had ground force experience would automatically go back to the ground forces and so, the, that’s something I really didn’t want to hear. So I was sent to an infantry division, I really didn’t, didn’t want that to happen, but I, I didn’t have any choice on that. And I was a Sergeant at that time and I was in a, a company and was a squad leader. During that time our company had a, a little show of a thing and had some, some other musicians in there, too. They borrowed a guitar, I didn’t have an electric guitar at that time, I just had the other one. But they, they borrowed one for me. And we played for a show that they had down there and then the band, they had a division band and, and some of their fellows was down there and they had a cracker jack band but they didn’t have a guitar player for their dance band and so the next day or a couple of days they come up there and got me to come down to the band, they, they wanted me to transfer into the band. But he said, “The, the, the hitch is that if you, if you do decide that you want to transfer,” said, “we want you to, to come down here, but we don’t have any Sergeant ratings open and the only thing that we have, the best is a 1st class private and then if we have openings then, then we’ll promote you.” Well I, since I’d gotten married I thought I couldn’t take the cut in pay and course my wife was still here in this area and so I turned it down. Well, that was another mistake that I made. The first one was when I decided to leave the band and go into the Air Corps. I should have stayed with the band, because they had moved us back up into that area and it looked like that we were gonna go back to full band duties. And of course that’s what all of us wanted. And so that was the first mistake. And then this one, when I turned that down, that was another mistake because, cause that would have been a good, good deal if I’d moved, but I’d had to take a cut in pay. So I was in this infantry company and we were running programs all day long, training, and we would march a way off out into the country and then run infantry problems all day and, and come back in and it was, it was pretty tough. |
| title |
Veteran Interview with Roy Cooper (D) |
| titleStr |
Veteran Interview with Roy Cooper (D) |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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FLCPLwar123 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/123 |
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http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/war/id/123 |
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1705462192735780864 |
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Veteran Interview with Roy Cooper (D)World War 1939-1945; Military occupations(4:34) Mr. Cooper tells about traveling home on furlough from Cold Bay, Alaska and the choices he had to make concerning his career in the Army.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryRoy Cooper2010-05-12sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionMay be protected under U.S. Copyright laws. Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Roy Cooper
May 12, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Roy Cooper: So then I had to go back by a certain time, which I guess it was about a week furlough. And I rode the train from Seattle, came straight across Minneapolis and St. Paul and Chicago and then down to Nashville and then down to Florence and then I went back the same way. Course I didn’t have a sleeper or anything like that. So anyway, I, I went back. So from, from Seattle, I stayed there, I was in the Air Corps at that time and I worked there, they had little jobs that tried to keep us busy and then they sent me to Amarillo, Texas and in Amarillo we went through a lot of mental tests and equilibrium tests and different autom—let’s see, auto—, auto-pilot tests that they took to see if a person was qualified, you know, and I passed all the tests and everything and my name went up on the board as qualified to go into the pilot training. And course at that time if you, if you didn’t make a pilot, you would either make a navigator or a bombardier, if you, you know, was, could pass the tests and everything. But my name got up on the board as qualified and then after, I guess, about two weeks I thought I was setting there ready to, I thought, ‘Well I‘m going to school just anytime, whenever, whenever they call me, when there’s an opening.’ Then there was another bulletin that went up on the board and said that anybody that had ground force experience would automatically go back to the ground forces and so, the, that’s something I really didn’t want to hear. So I was sent to an infantry division, I really didn’t, didn’t want that to happen, but I, I didn’t have any choice on that. And I was a Sergeant at that time and I was in a, a company and was a squad leader. During that time our company had a, a little show of a thing and had some, some other musicians in there, too. They borrowed a guitar, I didn’t have an electric guitar at that time, I just had the other one. But they, they borrowed one for me. And we played for a show that they had down there and then the band, they had a division band and, and some of their fellows was down there and they had a cracker jack band but they didn’t have a guitar player for their dance band and so the next day or a couple of days they come up there and got me to come down to the band, they, they wanted me to transfer into the band. But he said, “The, the, the hitch is that if you, if you do decide that you want to transfer,” said, “we want you to, to come down here, but we don’t have any Sergeant ratings open and the only thing that we have, the best is a 1st class private and then if we have openings then, then we’ll promote you.” Well I, since I’d gotten married I thought I couldn’t take the cut in pay and course my wife was still here in this area and so I turned it down. Well, that was another mistake that I made. The first one was when I decided to leave the band and go into the Air Corps. I should have stayed with the band, because they had moved us back up into that area and it looked like that we were gonna go back to full band duties. And of course that’s what all of us wanted. And so that was the first mistake. And then this one, when I turned that down, that was another mistake because, cause that would have been a good, good deal if I’d moved, but I’d had to take a cut in pay. So I was in this infantry company and we were running programs all day long, training, and we would march a way off out into the country and then run infantry problems all day and, and come back in and it was, it was pretty tough.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,123 |