Woody:  Twenty-one.

Zarbock:  And you mentioned off camera that you had two brothers who were in the service at the time.

Woody:  That’s right.

Zarbock:  What branch were they in?

Woody:  Uh.. They was in the infantry.

Zarbock:  They were in the army?

Woody:  Yeah, army infantry.

Zarbock:  Where were they stationed sir?

Woody:  Uh.. In Camp Fleming [ph?] Florida.

Zarbock:  So the war came along and did you enlist or were you drafted?

Woody:  I was drafted. Uh.. I went in on uh.. January 8, 1943.

Zarbock:  And where did you do your basic?

Woody:  Fort Leninwood, Missouri.

Zarbock:  They shipped you all the way from North Carolina?

Woody:  Yes.

Zarbock:  Where were you sworn in? I’m sorry, were you living in Spruce Pine at the time?

Woody:  Yeah. Uh.. I left Spruce Pine on a bus, a bus loaded of draftees, and we went to Spartan Rigs [ph?] after. And there is where we got our uniforms, our clothing and was actually became soldiers.

Zarbock:  They gave you your shots and stuff like that.

Woody:  Yeah. I went from there to Columbia, South Carolina for a very brief stay, just a matter of days, and from there on into Fort Leninwood, Missouri.

Zarbock:  And what did they have for you at Fort Leninwood?

Woody:  Well, I was in a 13-week training cycle. At the end of the first week it came over the loud speaker for me to report to the orderly room immediately. I wondered what had I done now. But I went and they said I see on your records you can file uh, saws. “Yes, I can.” Said “We got a handsaw here we’d like for you to file and set.” I did. And then I said, “Now I need a needle.” And the sergeant that was in charge there said, “We didn’t want anything sewed up,” says “all we wanted was the saw filed.” And I says, “I need a needle to know whether I got the setting properly.” And I showed him– got my hands up like this uh.. where the needle’d slide down. I said, “If it’s set properly the needle will slide all the way from the big end of the saw down to- to the tip.” He got a big kick out of that. Then he called the commanding officer and he got still a bigger kick. And I showed him the needle doings and all and uh..– but he says, we still didn’t want anything sewed up so they got a big laugh out of everything and I got to be known that night. And- and the day after the 13 week training cycle and the next week it came over the loud speaker for me to report to the orderly room, turn in all my web equipment and be ready to ship out in 15 minutes.

Zarbock:  Now, what do you mean by web equipment.

Woody:  All my- all my bedding and everything. Everything to be ready to ship out in 15 minutes. So my buddies that I got to know in the short length of time there they helped me get ready and I went out on the company street and the sergeant from headquarters picked me up and they moved me approximately 500 yards to uh.. the 8th group tool warehouse and they put me in charge of the 8th group tool warehouse and I was there for nine months.

Zarbock:  What was the warehouse?

Woody:  Uh.. 8th group tool warehouse and I was to keep up tools and check tools out to training people and check ‘em back in. And that- that was my job there for nine months.

Zarbock:  You were a private weren’t you?

Woody:  Uh.. they made me corporal out there right to begin with.

Zarbock:  I was going to say, that’s a responsible job.

Woody:  Yeah, yeah, it was a responsible job and- uh.. but because I had some experience is why they put me in that.

Zarbock:  So you’re now a non-commissioned officer.

Woody:  Yeah, I’ve got the- I’ve got the annual here Fort Leninwood annual showing me as a non-commissioned officer right there in uh..– within two weeks time.

Zarbock:  What happened then? You were there for how long did you say?

Woody:  Nine months. Then, uh.. the officer that was in charge of the uh.. 8th group tool warehouse come tell me, says, Woody I- I’m sorry to tell you what I’m about to tell you, he says, WACS [ph?] are taking over all these jobs like this, he said, we gonna have to uh.. let you go.

Zarbock:  I’m sorry who’d taken…?

Woody:  WACS, they were gonna take it over so… Uh.. we talked on a while, he says “I- I sure hate to see you go because” he says “you been an important person in- in this capacity.” And uh.. he said, “They is one thing I could do for you,” he said, “would you like to a school?” I said, “Yes, I sure would.” And he says, “I’m gonna send you down to classifications and I’m gonna give you a letter to take down to lieutenant so and so.” And I went down and- and told him what I was there for and he says, “I’m sorry,” he says, “all the slots are filled up for school so I can’t send you to a school.” And uh.. I had the letter uh.. my officer had sent down, I- I raised it to him, he read that and “Oh, he says, “that- that puts a different situation on it.” He says, uh.. “We’ll uh..– we’ll send you to school and red line a trainee.” So that’s what they did. They sent me to San Antonio, Texas to ordinance school and I was there for a considerable length of time. I don’t remember just how long. But then I went from there to Camp Clayborn, Louisiana and…

Zarbock:  You’re still a corporal?

Woody:  Yeah. And at Camp Clayborn, uh.. a Lieutenant Tilly [ph?] came to me and he says, “Woody, I see on your records you’ve had woodworking experience.” I said, “Yes sir.” He says, “Can you build a loading ramp?” And “Yes sir I can.” So, uh.. he t- took me and showed me where he wanted the loading ramp built for troops that are moving out or that have to walk up and– and showed me what the plans were and said can I build it? I said “Yes I can.” He says, “Can you make me a bill of material you will need?” “Yes I can.” So I made him a bill of material that I needed for the loading ramp and he furnished me a lot of help and we build it. Then he came to me, he says, “Woody, you done an excellent job.” He says, “I got the credit for it” but he says, “you- you’re the one that done it.” And now he says, uh.. “If there’s anything I can do for you” he says, “don’t hesitate to name it.” I says, “I’d- I’d like to have a pass to go into New Orleans.” He says, “Come with me to the orderly room.” So he gave me a pass. And all the other fellas who had- it was active company (inaudible) uh.. and they was wanting passes, they wouldn’t let ‘em have it. (laughs) I was lucky from day one.

Zarbock:  Hw far was the camp from New Orleans?

Woody:  About 200 miles.

Zarbock:  How did you get to New Orleans?

Woody:  Well I went to Devil’s Elbow and got a- a train. (laughs)

Zarbock:  How long were you in New Orleans?

Woody:  How’s that?

Zarbock:  How long were you in New Orleans on pass?

Woody:  Oh just a matter of uh..– it was 10 days.

Zarbock:  Okay. And then you came back to camp.

Woody:  Yup.

Zarbock:  And what happened to make you famous after that?

Woody:  Well we went from there to Camp Sanks [ph?], New York, from Camp Sanks to– to uh.. England.

Zarbock:  What outfit were you in when you went overseas?

Woody:  I was the 693rd Engineers, that plaque over there. I was assigned to that in Camp Clayborn, Louisiana so uh.. we went to England and the first formation that was called for uh.. Woody to fall out. And I was- as I say I was a corporal then and uh.. lieutenant so-and-so you’ve got Woody’s detail, and Captain so-and-so and you’ll be on Woody’s detail, Sergeant so-and-so you’ll be on Woody detail. I wondered what’s a happening here. And he called out about 15 or 20 guys to be on my detail, then he- then my commanding officer came to me, he says, “Woody I meant to have got to you sooner but” he says, “I been so busy I couldn’t.” He says, “I want you to take charge of this bunch with- with buying lumber.” He says, “I told him my dad was in the lumber business, and I grew up with it and had it on my record.” And we was buying lumber from the English government to- to use and the English is very uh..- very sensitive about to measure it, they want it to be right. And they put me in charge of measuring lumber. They told us that we don’t want you to do a thing but measure to it and have these fellas to do it. So…

Zarbock:  You’re doing the brainwork?

Woody:  I- I really was. Well, as I told you earlier, uh.. so many of the young fellas they referred to them as drugs to a cowboy. Uh.. the- the military liked to get a hold of fellas from the Western North Carolina, the east Tennessee, like somebody had been brought up on the farm had to- you had to work, so I was that way all the way through. Uh.. then I was in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Holland and all the places I went uh.. they- they kept me doing work around the orderly room, uh.. repair work I done that. They wouldn’t put me on guard duty because they figured that (inaudible) bombing England might drop an tear up things and they’d have me there to do repair room. I was lucky from day one.

Zarbock:  How long were you in England before you went over to France?

Woody:  Well I got into England on Easter Sunday of uh.. ’43.

Zarbock:  Is the weather as bad there as they claim to be?

Woody:  Yes, it’s a lot of fog.

Zarbock:  Cold?

Woody:  Wasn’t all that cold. But uh.. I went- I went in there from uh..- in England, I got there on Easter Sunday and I left there about 16 days after D-Day. I was scheduled to be on D-Day but they- the shipping instructions got fouled up somewhere. And there again I was lucky. And from uh..- went- went over into Cherbourg, we went through France mighty fast, went up into Arlan [ph?], Belgium.

Zarbock:  I’m sorry, what was the name?

Woody:  Arlan, Belgium, that was real close to Bastogne. I don’t remember the exact miles but it sure close to Bastogne. And I stayed in Arlan and my job there was winterizing jeeps. The weather was real, real cold then and I’d be winterizing jeeps and doing woodwork and what have you, stuff needed to be done uh.. around the orderly room. So, uh.. that’s why they wouldn’t put me on guard duty.

Zarbock:  That was supposed to have been one of the coldest winters in the history of weather making?

Woody:  Oh, I guess it was. It was about impossible to dig a foxhole. The ground had froze approximately 18 inches deep. If we was lucky enough to find a foxhole that the Germans had had in training earlier and filled up with leaves and brush, they could be taken out and we could get in the foxhole and have a- a comfortable place.

Zarbock:  Where were you sleeping? Under canvas or were you out in the field?

Woody:  Out in the field, out in the field yeah. That was Battle of the Bulge.

Zarbock:  Had half of a tent or did you put up a pup tent?

Woody:  Uh.. a lotta cases you didn’t even have time to put up the pup tent.

Zarbock:  Just wrapped yourself in that…

Woody:  Yeah. And as I say, if we were lucky if we could find a foxhole that the Germans had had.

Zarbock:  Did you have a mess hall?

Woody:  The- the cooks would bring the food to us. When we had a- a permanent base, a- a fairly permanent uh.. situation, we had a mess hall. But not every day not by any means.

Zarbock:  We’re not talking about gracious living are we?

Woody:  No, absolutely not.

Zarbock:  Were you catching any incoming fire, artillery fire, small arms fire?

Woody:  Well, I was in the area where the fire was over our heads a lot. And I was lucky I never– I never got a scratch, not one.

Zarbock:  So you were in the next town over from Bastogne.

Woody:  Yeah, not- not the next town, I was in Arlan. There was a- there was another little town between Arlan and Bastogne.

Zarbock:  What was it, the 101st?

Woody:  Hundred and first was right in there and the 82nd.

Zarbock:  And the 82nd?

Woody:  Yeah.

Zarbock:  Were you supporting those troops or what was your mission?

Woody:  Well we uh..- we supplied water purification trucks and KW generators and that type of thing and normally we wasn’t- we wasn't in the front but when there was an emergency they put everything they had out there. And I- I’d go out there when they was calling. But normally I was back at camp doing woodwork.

Zarbock:  When you say woodwork, what do you mean by woodwork?

Woody:  Winterizing jeeps. It was so cold the officers rode jeeps and it’s so cold they- they’d about have to have them winterized over- where they used the plywood uh.. I- I put doors and closed ‘em in on the jeeps.

Zarbock:  So you weren’t just draining the radiator you really mean you were winterizing.

Woody:  Yeah, that’s right.

Zarbock:  Was there a heater in the jeep? I don’t remember.

Woody:  I don’t remember either.

Zarbock:  I don’t think there was.

Woody:  I don’t believe there was a heater. I don’t believe they had a heater in them.

Zarbock:  No it was a vehicle to get from here to there and get back.

Woody:  Yeah, that’s right.

Zarbock:  Were you up at the front at any time in the fighting?

Woody:  Uh.. they tell us we were the head of the frontlines 90% of the time. We was convoying back all- all through uh..– through Belgium and Holland and back into Cherbourg, France, picking up these uh.. generators and water purification trucks. And they’d take us to a non-strategic area ahead of the line to when the combat fellas got up to us uh.. we had it there for ‘em. As I say, I- I wasn’t on the frontline except in emergency when they- when they’d gotten really close, they’d call us out and we- and we ha nothing but carbine.

Zarbock:  I was going to ask you, what weapon did you carry? M-1 or a carbine and you’re saying carbine.

Woody:  Carbine is all we had.

Zarbock:  That’s a good weapon but I mean it’s a short range.

Woody:  Yeah, it’s not- yeah.

Zarbock:  You’ve got to get the enemy up close.

Woody:  Yeah. Our vehicle was shot full of holes, many, many times, convoying and hauling this stuff up to the front.

Zarbock:  Did you lose any men in your outfit?

Woody:  Lost one man. And uh.. he was a Sergeant Siegert [ph?] from Pennsylvania. And uh.. we found the- the strip off of his helmet, the cloth strip that come down, it looked like it had been shot off. We found it while he was out on patrol and we thought well he was killed. And about a month later, in Minz [ph?], Germany our commanding officer called a formation and he says, “Men, I’ve got a letter here I want to read to you.” So it’s uh.. from Sergeant Siegert. He was back in- in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He had- he had got uh.. captured and uh.. had– was a war prisoner, uh.. was released and they’d sent him home. That’s the only man we lost.

Zarbock:  What were the civilians like when you were going through towns and in between towns and what have you?

Woody:  Oh, I- they was nice people, all the people I met was real nice people. A whole lot nicer then than they tell me they are today. They tell me in France today the GIs is not respected at all.

Zarbock:  Yeah. But they didn’t speak any English did they?

Woody:  A lot of ‘em did.

Zarbock:  But were they starving people? Do you remember, what were your impressions? The war had been going on for years.

Woody:  It had been going on, but they seemed to be in good shape. They was glad that Germany took.. in France they was- especially glad …not the Americans, that the Germans took over. But the Germans made things good for ‘em. In Paris, when we- when we pushed the Germans out of Paris the French people they felt that was the end of the road.

Zarbock:  I got to ask you Woody, were you still a corporal?

Woody:  Yeah. When I went into the 693rd engineers the– the table of organization, wasn’t sets that I could go hire, I had to take what was left in the table of organization. That’s what they told me the reason was.

Zarbock:  What was the commanding officer like?

Woody:  Well, uh.. in the States here before we went over and while we was in England and all, a lot of the GIs said, well, if we go into battle with him he won’t come out. They implied that they would get the company commander if the enemy didn’t. But in– in uh.. Arlan, Belgian when uh.. we was called on an emergency one night and there were German tiger– German tanks right across from us and was aimed right on us and we– we wasn’t uh.. combat men, we was– fellas was lighting up cigarettes and making noise about any and the Germans was watching us. And uh.. other officers they wanted our- our officers to- our commanding officer to send a patrol down. And that’s where we lost Sergeant Siegert. He said “I’ve sent my last one out,” he says, “If there’s any more patrols sent out,” he says, “you can send them outta your company.” And we respected him after that, everybody respected him.

Zarbock:  He proved himself.

Woody:  He sure did yeah.

Zarbock:  My other reading, as I remember, said that it was very foggy. This is the battle of Bastogne, the Bulge. It was very foggy, it was very, very cold, very thick overcast sky, but all of a sudden it broke. And the allied air power could come in and start changing the battle. Do you remember that event?

Woody:  I remember when the- the first uh.. sunny day came along we hadn’t had any air support at all. I was in- in Arlan [ph?], Belgium at that time and the sun came out and it looked- looked like it was gonna be a good day for air support and pretty soon we looked up and there was planes overhead. I said “boy, we getting air support today” and all at once they started dropping bombs on us. And uh.. the Germans had captured uh.. some of our planes, theys the one’s that were dropping the bombs. Of all places to go I went under a gas tank. (laughs).

Zarbock:  Now you knew better than that didn’t you?

Woody:  No. You’re in a place where bombs are being dropped, so you’re not going- you’re not going to be choosy what you go under.

Zarbock:  You’re not going to out and buy some real estate.

Woody:  No. (laughs) I didn’t know if the tank was full of gas or not but I found out later it was. Bomb sure didn’t hit it.

Zarbock:  So after the Battle of the Bulge what happened to you in your military life?

Woody:  Well uh.. I went to- to Trier. I was in the adv- advance party that went into Trier, Germany; got in there about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The city was bombed that morning by our- uh.. our plane. May not have been our planes it could have very well be Germans, I don’t know. But anyway the- the town was bombed. We found a comfortable place to stay in the Portanagra [ph?] Hotel in Trier. And we looted the place good. The civilians that was there left their luggage in the closets and uh.. they got out and left as quick as they could. As I say, we looted the place good. And the next morning before we left we drove trucks into the wine cellar and we loaded trucks with champagne and wine and what have you and we took that on into Rhein-Main.

Zarbock:  Trier was a very, very old, old, old city. Was it burning and on fire when you got there?

Woody:  Some of it was on fire. The- there wasn’t all that much damage on the first bombings ‘cause I was just there overnight. Got in about 4 in the afternoon and left the next morning.

Zarbock:  People who have never been in combat don’t understand that your life goes on when you’re in combat. You got to change your underwear, you got to have new socks, you got to get ammunition up to you and all of these things you either have them or you may not be around very long.

Woody:  In the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge some of the boys didn’t get a bath for six weeks. Dirty clothes. It was terrible.

Zarbock:  And a glass of fresh milk was about as easy to come by as hen’s teeth.

Woody:  Well, the- the civilian people there they really was good to us.

Zarbock:  Were they?

Woody:  Yeah.

Zarbock:  Not the German civilians but the…

Woody:  Well uh.. no, the Belgics and the- the other people.

Zarbock:  By the way, have you been back there since?

Woody:  No I haven’t, I’d like to go.

Zarbock:  You really ought to try.

Woody:  ‘Cause my wife don’t like traveling or we’d have been back. I’ve been- I’ve wanted to go and she- she never wanted to go.

Zarbock:  Well let’s see, this is now the spring of 1945.

Woody:  Yeah, that’s right.

Zarbock:  And the war ended in the summer of 1945.

Woody:  I believe it’s May of ’45.

Zarbock:  May of ’45. Now what happened to you after the Battle of the Bulge? The fighting was over probably just to make it easy by January 1. So you moved through and moved over to Trier.

Woody:  I was only there- I went through Tier but I was only there from 4 o’clock in the afternoon till the next morning.

Zarbock:  Long enough to stop for a little drink.

Woody:  Yeah. We left there and- and went to Rhein-Main and I’m- I’m not sure how long we was there but when the war was officially over they sent us to uh.. southern France to- to Marseilles, France to a kind of staging area, getting us ready to go to the Pacific. And that’s when Truman had the bomb dropped so that made me respect uh..- made me respect old Harry mighty much (laughs).

Zarbock:  That’s right, there were a fair number of soldiers and sailors who were getting packed up to go to the Pacific.

Woody:  Yeah. If the bomb hadn’t a been dropped over there uh.. that’s where I was heading for.

Zarbock:  So you really didn’t spend much time in occupied Germany.

Woody:  That’s right, not too long.

Zarbock:  Where were you when the war was over.

Woody:  In Rhein-Main.

Zarbock:  What happened that day? How did you get the news?

Woody:  Stars and Stripes.

Zarbock:  The Stars and Stripes is a newspaper right?

Woody:  Yeah, yeah.

Zarbock:  Big headline?

Woody:  Oh yeah.

Zarbock:  How did you celebrate?

Woody:  I just remember being all as happy as can be. Thought we were going home first, then when the orders come through to go to Marseilles to a staging area in uh..- in preparation for going to the Pacific we wasn’t… That turned happiness into sadness.

Zarbock:  The morale must have gone straight down?

Woody:  Yeah.

Zarbock:  You know, I’ve asked other people; I’m going to ask you. Did a chaplain ever come up and talk to you?

Woody:  Oh yeah, sure thing.

Zarbock:  Tell me about that.

Woody:  Well, they did- they’d wanna know what a- if uh..- if we was Christians and that sort of thing.

Zarbock:  Did they ever do anything out of the way for you, give you a gift?

Woody:  No, don’t know that they ever did.

Zarbock:  But they talked with you.

Woody:  Yeah.

Zarbock:  Were you smoking in those days?

Woody:  I never did smoke. Never did smoke and I never did drink. All this- all this booze that we got out of Portanagra Hotel if I’d been a drinking fella I really would have had it. A lot of fellas did drink excessively.

Zarbock:  But there weren’t any drugs in those days were there?

Woody:  Not too much.

Zarbock:  I never heard of any myself. You don’t hear everything. But your C rations they always had free cigarettes in those things. What did you do with your cigarettes.

Woody:  Sold ‘em.

Zarbock:  I was gonna say they were gold for heavens sake.

Woody:  Yeah, and- and convoying back as I was telling you earlier from– from Arlan, Belgium, back to Cherbourg, France we outrun the PX supplies uh.. going through France. That’s how fast we went through. But when it got back down to picking up more uh.. water purification trucks and generators and all, the PXs caught up with us. So I had an armload of cartons of cigarettes and as I went back through Paris I sold ‘em all and got a big price for ‘em. I don’t remember what. But then I- I visited a brother. I wa- the brother of mine that’s in this picture here, the one wearing a cap, uh.. he was in southern France, he’s in military police stationed in Southern France.

Zarbock:  Did you meet him?

Woody:  Yeah. What happened when I got to the st- to the staging area there I went in and- and told my commanding officer, I said, “I’ve got a brother in this area some place.” And he said, “you don’t know where?” And I said, “No, I sure don’t.” “Well” he says, “come on in we’ll go to the Red Cross and I’ll find him.” So I hadn’t been in his- in his office not but a matter of minutes until uh.. he got on the phone and got the Red Cross and they says, “Your brother is at Aix, A-I-X, France.” So uh.. he says, “Go to your camp and get dressed and get ready.” He says, “You can take my jeep and go visit him.” So before I got dressed he said “Here’s a jeep and here’s a driver.” And he said to pick Woody up and take him where he need to go. So we went to Aix and found uh.. the outfit my brother was in but he was not there, he was on detached service up in Avignon, France. So we went up there and spent the night with him and I visited with him a good deal while I was there.

Zarbock:  Strange things happen in wartime.

Woody:  Yeah, yeah.

Zarbock:  He was okay.

Woody:  Yeah, fine.

Zarbock:  Your brother was finally discharged and came back to the States.

Woody:  Yeah. And he a par- he helped me build the shop here and we was partners for a number of years. He died last year.

Zarbock:  This is an older brother?

Woody:  Yeah, he was two years older than me.

Zarbock:  Well, so you’re at Marseilles, France and you’ve got orders to go to the Far East and then you read that… How did you get the news about the atomic bomb?

Woody:  Well I- I don’t know the commanding officer got the news and he canceled our– our movements. Instead of sending us over there we still got on ships to come home, we came home on the JC Breckenridge.

Zarbock:  How long did it take you?

Woody:  Seven days.

Zarbock:  Not bad.

Woody:  It was 13 days going over. We landed in Camp Malstanis [ph?], Massachusetts.

Zarbock:  Still a corporal?

Woody:  Yeah.

Zarbock:  How long did it take to get your mustard up?

Woody:  Don’t remember the exact date. It just before Christmas of ’45 I was discharged.

Zarbock:  So you were living in Spruce Pine?

Woody:  Yeah, my home was in Spruce Pine.

Zarbock:  You got back for Christmas?

Woody:  Got what?

Zarbock:  You got back for Christmas?

Woody:  Yeah, yeah.

Zarbock:  I’m going to ask the last question I’ve asked other people. What did you learn from all of that being in the army and being overseas?

Woody:  Well, it was an education in and of itself. Uh.. I- I learned to get along with people and that type of thing. I’ve never been hardly out of the county here before that came up. And when– when I got my discharge they was- was gonna give us $20 a week here at the unemployment to sign up. The first week the employment agent says, “Woody there’s a job opening in the county.” I says, “What is it?” He says, “Teaching.” I said, “Well I’m not qualified, I didn’t go to college.” So then I- but I inquired what the job was and it was shop teaching in high school. And the next week the- the uh.. employment agent says, “The job is still open Woody.” And uh.. I says, “You know, I’m interested in that,” I said, “I understand it’s shop work.” And he says, “That’s right.” And I says, “I’m interested.” He says, “Go to your- the uh.. superintendent of schools and- and talk to him.” He says, “I think he might hire you.” So I went to him and he is Professor Deaton [ph?] his son and I was in high school together and got to know his son real well. And Mr. Deaton said “Woody,” he say’s “as much as I hate to” he says, “but I- I absolutely cannot sign your application because you’ve not gone to college.” And I said “yeah, that’s right.” And he said, “Uh.. You’ve got your service record with you haven’t you?” And I said, “Yes I’ve got it right here.” And he says, “Let me look at that.” And he looked at it, and he seen where the military had sent me and- I was in Cambridge, England, they’d sent me to the University of Cambridge to learn to measure lumber the English way because I was measuring lumber, that- that was my job was measuring lumber right along. And he wanted me to go to that– to the University and learn to- to measure.

Zarbock:  The metric system.

Woody:  Yeah. So uh.. When Deaton seen that on my record he says, “Woody, I’m gonna approve your application ‘cause” he said “I feel like you just as qualified and maybe more as some college graduate.” Now he approved my application and I taught for seven years before- I- I taught- I was teaching when my brother started this shop. I was lucky from day one, I really was. I’ve told that story to a number of people and they- they can’t believe it.

Zarbock:  Woody, that’s wonderful. Have you got anything else to say?

Woody:  No, I think that does it.

Zarbock:  Well I’m proud to have met you. And I’m glad you came back alive.

Woody:  Yeah, you know I am.

Zarbock:  Thanks sir.