Veteran Interview with Leroy Makinson (C)
(4:10) Mr. Makinson tells about his wife’s designation as a Gold Star Mother and his work on military aircraft.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Interview with Leroy Makinson June 8, 2011 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Clip 3 Leroy Makinson: Now, my wife here is a Gol...
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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/172 |
| 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 Leroy Makinson (C) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life Airplanes, Military; War casualties |
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(4:10) Mr. Makinson tells about his wife’s designation as a Gold Star Mother and his work on military aircraft.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leroy Makinson
June 8, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 3
Leroy Makinson: Now, my wife here is a Gold Star Mother, if you know what a Gold Star Mother is.
Clint Alley: I don’t know what that is. What is a Gold Star Mother?
LM: You know back in, we, back in the, during World War II, we had it in World War I, [unintelligible], Korea and Vietnam, people would put flags in their window and, ah, if you had five sons you’d have five flags there with a star on it and ah, in any case you had somebody in that household that was in the service. And if you had a gold star then that meant that somebody was killed, see, and her son was killed in Vietnam and he was from Florence and his name is out there in the Florence, ah—.
Mrs.Makinson: In ’66.
LM: 1966. He was in the First Marine Division, killed in Vietnam. Eighteen years old.
Mrs.M: Eighteen years old.
CA: Oh, me. Um. That’s ah, really sorry to hear that.
Mrs.M: Hard to live with. Hard to live with.
CA: Yeah.
Mrs.M: Yeah.
RH: Bless your heart.
Mrs.M: Not knowing what he went through, you know, all of it and then lose him.
CA: What was his name?
Mrs.M: Roger Bryant.
CA: Roger Bryant.
Mrs.M: B-r-y-a-n-t.
CA: I’m very sorry to hear about that. Mrs.M: Thank you.
LM: I saw this, too; I found this when I was looking through some things, too. Here’s some more pictures of when, you know—
CA: Yeah.
LM: ―when I was in the service and, and that was, those were, I think, most of those were taken when I was in Bermuda.
CA: Yeah.
RH: I know one gentleman we spoke with, he was in the Korean War, he was actually a prisoner of war, but he said that, ah, when he came back home, that his reception here was, was quite unpleasant. The people, you know, were not happy that he was in the Korean War. Did you have any experiences like that?
LM: I didn’t have that experience and the men that I’ve talked to generally had not had that experience, either. Now, Vietnam, that’s a different thing.
RH: Right.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: Ah, but those were just snapshots that I took at the time.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And when we were in Bermuda we, we lived in barracks like that because we had a lot of hurricanes.
CA: Oh, yeah.
LM: And, ah, and actually, that base where we were was a, was a commercial airlines, too, so when the war broke out they immediately fenced off our part from the commercial and, because they were afraid of Russians or sabotage or whatever.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: But, really my experience was pretty mild.
[Break in interview]
CA: Did you have a particular favorite kind of aircraft to pilot?
LM: Well, of course, I wasn’t a pilot, really; I was a flight engineer, you see.
CA: Oh, yeah.
LM: I worked on military transports, worked on a few bombers, and I flew in a, what they call a Grumman SA-16 Albatross and they were still using that during the Vietnam War. And, ah, I spent a lot of time with that. As I say, they would hold about fifteen people and we could drop, drop people out or we could land in the snow. And then, we landed, we’d land on the water out in Detroit Bay or Lake St. Clair up there.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: But I had it really easy, considering. Lot of people that are in our group were Navy people that bombarded from battleships or from—minesweepers or they were on the front line.
CA: Ah, where did you have basic training?
LM: San Antonio. August and September and October. Bad time of the year to go to Texas. Like I said, from there I went to Rantoul, Illinois, not too far from the University of Illinois and then to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, or, Springfield, Massachusetts area and then to Bermuda and then back to Michigan.
CA: So they moved you around quite a bit it sounds like.
LM: In four years, yeah.
CA: Well, Rhonda, do you have any other questions?
RH: I think that’s all.
CA: Well, we thank you so much for coming and talking to us today.
LM: Um-hm.
RH: Thank you.
CA: And you—it’s really good to hear your story. We appreciate your service, too. |
| title |
Veteran Interview with Leroy Makinson (C) |
| titleStr |
Veteran Interview with Leroy Makinson (C) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLwar172 |
| url |
https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/172 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/war/id/172 |
| _version_ |
1705462192952836096 |
| spelling |
Veteran Interview with Leroy Makinson (C)Airplanes, Military; War casualties(4:10) Mr. Makinson tells about his wife’s designation as a Gold Star Mother and his work on military aircraft.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryLeroy Makinson2011-06-08sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionMay be protected by U.S. Copyright laws. Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leroy Makinson
June 8, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 3
Leroy Makinson: Now, my wife here is a Gold Star Mother, if you know what a Gold Star Mother is.
Clint Alley: I don’t know what that is. What is a Gold Star Mother?
LM: You know back in, we, back in the, during World War II, we had it in World War I, [unintelligible], Korea and Vietnam, people would put flags in their window and, ah, if you had five sons you’d have five flags there with a star on it and ah, in any case you had somebody in that household that was in the service. And if you had a gold star then that meant that somebody was killed, see, and her son was killed in Vietnam and he was from Florence and his name is out there in the Florence, ah—.
Mrs.Makinson: In ’66.
LM: 1966. He was in the First Marine Division, killed in Vietnam. Eighteen years old.
Mrs.M: Eighteen years old.
CA: Oh, me. Um. That’s ah, really sorry to hear that.
Mrs.M: Hard to live with. Hard to live with.
CA: Yeah.
Mrs.M: Yeah.
RH: Bless your heart.
Mrs.M: Not knowing what he went through, you know, all of it and then lose him.
CA: What was his name?
Mrs.M: Roger Bryant.
CA: Roger Bryant.
Mrs.M: B-r-y-a-n-t.
CA: I’m very sorry to hear about that. Mrs.M: Thank you.
LM: I saw this, too; I found this when I was looking through some things, too. Here’s some more pictures of when, you know—
CA: Yeah.
LM: ―when I was in the service and, and that was, those were, I think, most of those were taken when I was in Bermuda.
CA: Yeah.
RH: I know one gentleman we spoke with, he was in the Korean War, he was actually a prisoner of war, but he said that, ah, when he came back home, that his reception here was, was quite unpleasant. The people, you know, were not happy that he was in the Korean War. Did you have any experiences like that?
LM: I didn’t have that experience and the men that I’ve talked to generally had not had that experience, either. Now, Vietnam, that’s a different thing.
RH: Right.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: Ah, but those were just snapshots that I took at the time.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And when we were in Bermuda we, we lived in barracks like that because we had a lot of hurricanes.
CA: Oh, yeah.
LM: And, ah, and actually, that base where we were was a, was a commercial airlines, too, so when the war broke out they immediately fenced off our part from the commercial and, because they were afraid of Russians or sabotage or whatever.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: But, really my experience was pretty mild.
[Break in interview]
CA: Did you have a particular favorite kind of aircraft to pilot?
LM: Well, of course, I wasn’t a pilot, really; I was a flight engineer, you see.
CA: Oh, yeah.
LM: I worked on military transports, worked on a few bombers, and I flew in a, what they call a Grumman SA-16 Albatross and they were still using that during the Vietnam War. And, ah, I spent a lot of time with that. As I say, they would hold about fifteen people and we could drop, drop people out or we could land in the snow. And then, we landed, we’d land on the water out in Detroit Bay or Lake St. Clair up there.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: But I had it really easy, considering. Lot of people that are in our group were Navy people that bombarded from battleships or from—minesweepers or they were on the front line.
CA: Ah, where did you have basic training?
LM: San Antonio. August and September and October. Bad time of the year to go to Texas. Like I said, from there I went to Rantoul, Illinois, not too far from the University of Illinois and then to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, or, Springfield, Massachusetts area and then to Bermuda and then back to Michigan.
CA: So they moved you around quite a bit it sounds like.
LM: In four years, yeah.
CA: Well, Rhonda, do you have any other questions?
RH: I think that’s all.
CA: Well, we thank you so much for coming and talking to us today.
LM: Um-hm.
RH: Thank you.
CA: And you—it’s really good to hear your story. We appreciate your service, too.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,172 |