Veteran interview with Paul w. Shockley (J)
(5:58) Mr. Shockley describes serving in the Army at Saudi Arabia and his return to the states and transfer to West Point.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Paul W. Shockley January 27, 2010 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Clip 10 Clint A...
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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/96 |
| format |
Electronic |
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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 Paul w. Shockley (J) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life Military service; Military academies |
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(5:58) Mr. Shockley describes serving in the Army at Saudi Arabia and his return to the states and transfer to West Point.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Paul W. Shockley
January 27, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 10
Clint Alley: Now, were you in uniform when you were in Saudi Arabia?
Paul Shockley: Yeah, I was in uniform.
CA: So you didn’t have to go in civilian clothing or anything?
PS: No, we wore their headpiece that on special occasions that we had a parade or special dignitaries or something the king wanted everybody to, you know, to look alike, so he asked, you know, the soldiers to wear this headpiece they gave us. I brought mine home with me but, I don’t know what happened to it. But, it was just a large scarf and you folded it in half and throwed it over your head, let it come around above your eyebrows and then you put this rope, I forgot what you called it, it had a special name and then you put it over that cloth and you could adjust it and pull it down to make it fit and then, you know, you looked just like a other Arab.
CA: Yeah.
PS: And some of us growed mustaches and we could grow a mustache or a goatee or a beard or anything we wanted to, you know.
CA: Um- hm. What sort of things did you do while you were in Saudi Arabia, just exactly?
PS: I’d have to kill you if I told you.
CA: I was afraid you’d say that.
PS: It, ah, we was advisors to the Saudi Arabia. We was in the military, we was top secret and we was advising, advisors to the Saudis. And that pretty well tells it.
CA: Yeah. So you stayed there about a year then?
PS: One year.
CA: One year.
PS: June to June.
CA: Okay. And then did you come back to Fort Benning after that?
PS: Yeah. I come back to Fort Jackson, South Carolina and I stayed there a couple of weeks and then I got transferred to Fort Benning and I went back to Fort Benning and I was in the 3rd Division, as reorganization of an infantry division and we stayed out in the woods on maneuvers in the field all the time, you know, and I stayed six months or longer there. They were going to, in a month or two, go to Germany for four years and I’d just spent a year overseas and I didn’t want to go back overseas for four years. And I had two small babies so I called a friend of mine at the Military Academy at West Point and that would have been in Saudi Arabia with me. And I said, “ There’s absolutely no transferring out of the 3rd Division, they won’t even accept a application for a transfer. Can you do anything for me?” And he said, “ Give me your name, rank and serial number and the outfit you’re in.” And I did and about a week later I got orders from the Department of the Army, Washington, D. C., transferring me to West Point. And the commanding general himself of the 3rd Division called me to his office and said, “ I want to know how you swung this transfer.” Says, “ I had assurance from Department of the Army that nobody would be transferred out of this division.” And I says, “ I don’t have the slightest idea, General.” I said, “ You know as much about it as I do. I just follow orders.” I said, “ I’ve got my orders and they say for me to report immediately to West Point. So I guess I’m on my way.” And he says, “ I guess you are. Get out of here.” So I, I left and I went to West Point. And my youngest son was born at West Point.
CA: And your, your wife had gotten out of the, the service at this time?
PS: Oh, she, ah, she got out six months after we got married.
CA: Oh, okay. So she’d been out for quite a while.
PS: Yeah. Yeah, she got out.
CA: Well, what was it like at West Point? Did you enjoy that service?
PS: Not really because everything is devoted to the cadets. I mean, everything is geared to, for the cadets’ training; a soldier don’t mean nothing. If you’re not at least a general they won’t even hardly speak to you. We run the Thayer Hall, which is the cadet mess. It would seat thirty- six hundred cadets, three times a day. On the end of it, it had the, the building is hundreds of years old and it had a mural of every war that had ever been fought, ever been fought, I mean, all the way back to Christ and they’d make those cadets, the ‘ plebes’, the first year cadets, they’d ask them questions from the different wars and they had to stop eating till they got the answer. And they couldn’t look up on the mural either, they had to look at their plate or look straight ahead. It was quite an ordeal. They’d come in, some of them would slip over to the kitchen and eat out of the garbage can and they’re, we’d feed them if we had any food left over, you know. We throwed mostly everything out, we throwed everything out, but sometimes there’d be one or two, never over two or three cause if they caught them they’d expel them, you know. They was real strict on them. Especially the first year.
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Veteran interview with Paul w. Shockley (J) |
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Veteran interview with Paul w. Shockley (J) |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/96 |
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Veteran interview with Paul w. Shockley (J)Military service; Military academies(5:58) Mr. Shockley describes serving in the Army at Saudi Arabia and his return to the states and transfer to West Point.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryPaul W. Shockley2010-01-27sound; 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 Digital Archive
Interview with Paul W. Shockley
January 27, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 10
Clint Alley: Now, were you in uniform when you were in Saudi Arabia?
Paul Shockley: Yeah, I was in uniform.
CA: So you didn’t have to go in civilian clothing or anything?
PS: No, we wore their headpiece that on special occasions that we had a parade or special dignitaries or something the king wanted everybody to, you know, to look alike, so he asked, you know, the soldiers to wear this headpiece they gave us. I brought mine home with me but, I don’t know what happened to it. But, it was just a large scarf and you folded it in half and throwed it over your head, let it come around above your eyebrows and then you put this rope, I forgot what you called it, it had a special name and then you put it over that cloth and you could adjust it and pull it down to make it fit and then, you know, you looked just like a other Arab.
CA: Yeah.
PS: And some of us growed mustaches and we could grow a mustache or a goatee or a beard or anything we wanted to, you know.
CA: Um- hm. What sort of things did you do while you were in Saudi Arabia, just exactly?
PS: I’d have to kill you if I told you.
CA: I was afraid you’d say that.
PS: It, ah, we was advisors to the Saudi Arabia. We was in the military, we was top secret and we was advising, advisors to the Saudis. And that pretty well tells it.
CA: Yeah. So you stayed there about a year then?
PS: One year.
CA: One year.
PS: June to June.
CA: Okay. And then did you come back to Fort Benning after that?
PS: Yeah. I come back to Fort Jackson, South Carolina and I stayed there a couple of weeks and then I got transferred to Fort Benning and I went back to Fort Benning and I was in the 3rd Division, as reorganization of an infantry division and we stayed out in the woods on maneuvers in the field all the time, you know, and I stayed six months or longer there. They were going to, in a month or two, go to Germany for four years and I’d just spent a year overseas and I didn’t want to go back overseas for four years. And I had two small babies so I called a friend of mine at the Military Academy at West Point and that would have been in Saudi Arabia with me. And I said, “ There’s absolutely no transferring out of the 3rd Division, they won’t even accept a application for a transfer. Can you do anything for me?” And he said, “ Give me your name, rank and serial number and the outfit you’re in.” And I did and about a week later I got orders from the Department of the Army, Washington, D. C., transferring me to West Point. And the commanding general himself of the 3rd Division called me to his office and said, “ I want to know how you swung this transfer.” Says, “ I had assurance from Department of the Army that nobody would be transferred out of this division.” And I says, “ I don’t have the slightest idea, General.” I said, “ You know as much about it as I do. I just follow orders.” I said, “ I’ve got my orders and they say for me to report immediately to West Point. So I guess I’m on my way.” And he says, “ I guess you are. Get out of here.” So I, I left and I went to West Point. And my youngest son was born at West Point.
CA: And your, your wife had gotten out of the, the service at this time?
PS: Oh, she, ah, she got out six months after we got married.
CA: Oh, okay. So she’d been out for quite a while.
PS: Yeah. Yeah, she got out.
CA: Well, what was it like at West Point? Did you enjoy that service?
PS: Not really because everything is devoted to the cadets. I mean, everything is geared to, for the cadets’ training; a soldier don’t mean nothing. If you’re not at least a general they won’t even hardly speak to you. We run the Thayer Hall, which is the cadet mess. It would seat thirty- six hundred cadets, three times a day. On the end of it, it had the, the building is hundreds of years old and it had a mural of every war that had ever been fought, ever been fought, I mean, all the way back to Christ and they’d make those cadets, the ‘ plebes’, the first year cadets, they’d ask them questions from the different wars and they had to stop eating till they got the answer. And they couldn’t look up on the mural either, they had to look at their plate or look straight ahead. It was quite an ordeal. They’d come in, some of them would slip over to the kitchen and eat out of the garbage can and they’re, we’d feed them if we had any food left over, you know. We throwed mostly everything out, we throwed everything out, but sometimes there’d be one or two, never over two or three cause if they caught them they’d expel them, you know. They was real strict on them. Especially the first year.
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