Interview of George Hampton
Transcript Number 112

DECEMBER 13, 2000

HAMPTON: I joined the National Guard in 1937. My name is George Washington Hampton. I was born February 22, 1919, in the state of Missouri and I joined the National Guard in 1937 and then we were mobilized on December 1940, and I was a drill sergeant. My enlistment was up in July of 1941. I got out of the Army, went to work in a civilian job and then when the war broke out a few months later, they called me back in, but they called me back in as a private.

So I decided I would go to the Airborne and on my way from Indiana up in a camp up there and on the way to Fort Benning, Georgia, I met a staff sergeant, Airborne, stood tall. He said, "Kid, where are you going". I said, "I'm going to the Airborne". He said, "Why don't you turn around and go back". I said, "Why". He said that I was too young and too little. "You can't make the Airborne". I said, "Excuse me just a moment Sergeant, don't you have wings on your chest". He said yeah. I couldn't get him then. So I'm going into Fort Benning, Georgia, meet me there. He said, "Kid, where are you going". "I'm going to the Airborne". "Why don't you leave now." He says, "You're too little and too young. You can't make it". I said "Sergeant, you made it, I'll make it". By that time, I was getting fed up because he said I couldn't do something. Well my motto is if someone tells me I can't do anything, I'll do it regardless.

So the next morning was Sunday morning. The sergeant fell out, 250 of us. We started for a run. He looked at me and he said, "What are you doing here". I said, "I'm going to the Airborne". "You're too little and too young. Get out". I said, "I'm going to the Airborne". So we started running. We ran for two hours under that sergeant and a couple of other sergeants. By that time, there was a little less than 200 of us. So that sergeant fell out and another group started. We just kept running.

11:00, there's only about 75 of us. We ran into 12:00 without stopping. There was myself and a good friend of mine which I met and about ten of us is all that made it to 12:00. So the sergeant came out and he said, "You little S.O.B. you". He said, "I guess you are determined to make it". I said, "I'll make it or I'll die, Sergeant; that's what I'll do."

So I went to jump school and I made it and I made PFC the first Saturday. The second Saturday, I made corporal. The third Saturday, I made sergeant. Two months later I made E6, a platoon sergeant. So our unit went overseas to France.

INTERVIEWER: What year was this, George?

HAMPTON: That was in 1944. So we went over to France and our division was the 13th Airborne Division. We were in strategic reserve. Actually we never had any exact combat. Our job was to clean up. If there was anybody there, take him in, take them as prisoners, whatnot, but I was selected twice to lead a group of people, my platoon, and to capture concentration camps. But we got on the plane, get ready to go, they called us back. They were sorry, the British captured that camp so we went back. 

So that went on and a few weeks later, the same thing. So then the war was coming to an end. It wasn't very long off so got a mission to go up in northern France on the border of France and Germany to secure a village up there. They were supposed to have been SS troops up there. So we got in the plane and we fly off. Before we left, the colonel said, "Now George, your plane is #1. You'll be the first person out of the plane. The other people will follow you". He said, "The spot for you to jump is there's a village on your left side by a creek. That is in France. And down on the ground will be one tree in this large area". He said, "When you see that tree, you go ahead and jump".

Well I looked and there was the village, there was a tree so I gave the command to my platoon, "Let's go". Well there was no green light on so the rest of them went before me. I got on the ground. I got my machine guns and mortars and set them up. Here I'm looking and the planes are flying right on by me, nobody jumping. So I got my weapons in position and I decided to go down and see what was down in the village. So I got down close to the village and there was an old Frenchman walking around in the yard in the back of the buildings.

I whistled at him and he came up to me. So I didn't smoke, so I had a carton of Camel cigarettes. I gave him a carton of cigarettes and took one out of a pack and lit it for him and he began to smoke on it. I gave him a large bar of chocolate candy. He put that in his pocket and smiled and he said, "Sergeant, you're lucky". I said, "How is that?" He said, "They heard your planes a'coming and they jumped in a truck and they all went back to Germany."

So two hours later, here comes my colonel. They brought his vehicle in by a glider. So he saw me and he said, "Well George, you did what I told you to do, to jump on that tree." I said, "How come you didn't jump". He said, "We didn't get a green light". I said, "Neither did I get a green light. You told me to jump on a tree, I jumped on a tree". I said, "I secured the village already". He said, "What's done". I said, "Nothing now". 

He said, "Did you fire your weapon". I said I hadn't. He said, "Well what where were all the Germans". I said, "They're on a truck headed back to Germany". He said, "You didn't shoot nobody". I said, "No". He said, "Well I can't give you a credit for making a combat jump because you didn't shoot at nobody". I said, "Well, that's not my problem". I said, "They saw me. They were afraid so they left". 

So after that was over with, it was about a week later, the war was over. So he called me in. He said, "First, we got to start some special training". I said "All right, what do we do." So he told me, so I started the training for our company. We trained for about two weeks. He called me in and said, "Well before we get the troops out, go get their ammunition out of the ammunition dump. Everybody get your combat equipment, everything ready and we'll go have a steak dinner". 

So we had steak and eggs for supper that night. We loaded, got on the ship and he said, "Where are the first order". I said, "Sir, I don't know. I haven't seen the first order. He's gone somewhere". "Well", he said, "Get them all on the boat, get them in their bunks, settle down. So I got that all done and sometime late in the evening, here comes the first sergeant and he said, "Here's my rifle. Turn it in. I'm not an American citizen. I'm a Frenchman. I'm not going nowhere else with you people". I said, "Fine, get out, go".

So one of my troops in my platoon got bit by a spider on the hand so I took him down to the ship's doctor and the doctor looked at it and he said, "Well, he's bad off. You gotta take him off the ship. Get his records and take him down to the gangplank and take him to the Army hospital. So I go down the gangplank and I see this Frenchman in a little old car sitting out there and I asked him did he know where the hospital was. He didn't know what I was talking about. I said made a sign like a cross. So we took him to the hospital.

The doctor looks at him and said "Well, you're lucky. If you had been an hour later, he'd have been dead". He said, "You're going back to the ship because you're going to be going somewhere pretty soon. He said, "If you can, get here at 5:00 in the morning and I'll have him ready for you". So the next morning I go back down, here's the same Frenchman. So we go back to the hospital, get the soldier, bring him back to the ship. Then in the night when I had taken him to the hospital, I came back on the ship and just got stretched out myself and the guns began to go off.

Bells were ringing, whistles were blowing and the captain of the ship says, "Just relax boys as the war with Japan has just ended". We're going "What?" We'll be there nine days and seven hours. So as far as you could see were troop ships. He said, "We're the only ship that's loaded. We're going to go home. The rest of them will come along later". So that was the end of the war.

We found out later that we were going to the Pacific and our mission was to drop on Tokyo, but the atomic bomb settled the war so we got to come home.

INTERVIEWER: George, do you think they did the right thing by dropping the atomic bomb?

HAMPTON: Al, they didn't tell us what it was until we got home and then we found out.

INTERVIEWER: But you didn't have to go.

HAMPTON: We found out...they just said the war is over and that was enough for us. Nine days later we were home or in New York. So the colonel called me into the office and he says, "George" he says, "All the officers are going home from here. The war is all over. I want you to take the rest of the troops of our division. There's a trainload of them now. You take them back to Fort Bragg. You will have no officer, you'll be the only...you'll be in charge". 

I said, "Now look Colonel, you know and I know I'll never get to Fort Bragg with half of these troops". He said, "Well, the war is over". I said, "First time we go through a little town and it's close to their home, they're going to jump off". He said, "Well, you can't do nothin' about it". He said, "The war is over. If you get to Fort Bragg with a few troops, you did your job". So I did get to Fort Bragg with about half of what I left New York with.

From there we were given 30 days of convalescence leave to go home and came back when I was made first sergeant cause the first sergeant didn't come back either. So from there on, I remained in the Airborne. I spent 20 years in the Airborne total. In 1950, I was a first sergeant, L Company 504, 82nd Airborne Division. My chute collapsed cause my clerk came underneath it and stole my air and I rode down. I couldn't pull my reserve because I was tangled up in my main lines, so I couldn't pull my reserve. 

So the colonel was on the ground and he saw me and he knew it was me because he knew what plane I'd come out of. He came up to the officer up in the field and he asked for my company commander. He said, "Did George get killed". He said, "No, he didn't get killed. He's over there making out the report". He said, "He had to get killed because he fell so far. He fell approximately 700 feet with a partial parachute opened". He said, "Well he's not dead, he's right around there".

So he came around and looked at me. My nose was broke, eyes black, bloody all over. This shoulder was fractured. This one was hurt. Five vertebrae in my back were fractured. My knees was hurt. Bone in my leg was fractured. I got up and walked off and walked into the field. 

He said, "Get up and go to the hospital". I said, "Colonel, this is my CP. Get out. When I get ready and I finish up my report, I'll let you know". Well I didn't go to the hospital. I didn't go until Wednesday of the next week. The colonel came to my office. He picked me up in his arms, carried me out, put me in his jeep and tells his driver, "Take me to the Womack Army Hospital". 

So I go to the Womack Army Hospital and the hospital commander came and looked at my x-rays, examined me. He says, "You're messed up. You'll never be able to stay in the Army". He said, "We're going to have to give you a medical discharge". I said, "No, I don't want a medical discharge". So I went back to the colonel's office and I told him, I said, "They want to give me a medical discharge, but I don't want a medical discharge". Well he and his hospital commander, they had a few words and I didn't go to the hospital. I stayed on in. I stayed and jumped for 12 more years.

I suffered, I suffered bad with my back, my shoulders, my legs. Finally, on December 1, 1962, I was still on jump status, still jumping, I got my discharge, regular retirement. So I applied for disability in December 1962. Well they sent me up to Winston-Salem to be examined up there. When I walked in to the doctor's office, I had to shift my leg. I couldn't bend over, I couldn't walk and the doctor looked at that with my papers in his hand and said, "What are you trying to beat the government out of". I said, "What did you say, Doctor". He said it again. I said "Thank you, sir. I'm going to go call my congressman. He would like to know your name and what you just said to me". 

"Oh no, no, no, no, please don't do that. I'll get fired. I'll have to examine you now". I said, "Doctor, your mind is made up. You're going to put down on the bottom of my records injuries due to nonmilitary activity". That's exactly what he put. It took me from February 1963 until October 1998 to prove to them that I got hurt in the service.

INTERVIEWER: That's unbelievable, George. George, do us a favor. Put this hat on. Before we terminate here, I want them all to see you, the goodies on your hat. That's it. It took you 20 some odd years to get this sorted out.

HAMPTON: It took me from 1963, February of '63, to October '98.

INTERVIEWER: Whew. Wow!!

HAMPTON: To prove that I got hurt in the service.

INTERVIEWER: Well go on, continue.

HAMPTON: So a friend of mine called me up and he says, "George, why don't you write Major Albritton a letter. He's still living in Fayetteville. I've got his telephone number for you". So I called Major Albritton up. He said, "Why George, I happen to be the umpire on the problem that you were running and I'm the one that greeted you and your company. I saw you hit the ground. I saw you get hurt. It was reported back to me that your back was broke, your shoulders were hurt, busted, both legs, nose, ribs".

So he wrote me a letter explaining what he had saw of the jump because he was close by and I gave that to Congressman McIntyre. Congressman McIntyre applied again for disability. So then with this eyewitness, a living eyewitness, a major, about 10 days later, I got 60% disability. So McIntyre's office wrote another letter, said "We didn't ask for 60%, we asked for 100%. That's what we want". So a few days later, I get another letter stating I'm a 100% disability.

So Washington said I should be given back pay until the day that I got hurt, but Winston-Salem says, "No, we can't do that. We can only give him 16 months back pay". So I'm now trying to get the back pay back to '81 when I retired on Social Security. I retired because I was no longer able to work. So I got a letter from them a couple of months ago stating, they had it a year, they said, "We can't advance his records above anybody else. We have to go as we receive those requests, but if he can prove to us that he has a life-threatening disease, well then we can do that".

Well in October, excuse me, in March of '99, I was operated on for cancer of the prostate. In March 2000, I spent 30 days in the hospital taking radiation for cancer of the lung. So my doctor gave me that letter. So now I got a letter last week stating that now they would pull my request out of the thousands that they had and try to put it as far forward as they can so I'm waiting on trying to get back pay until '81 and so I can buy me a house that I can live in because I live here on the island. I live in a 700 square foot house and I can't get a wheelchair in. I can't get around in a wheelchair. 

So I'm hoping that I will get my back pay so I can buy something comfortable for me to live in for a few more years. I'm 81 years old. Cancer two different places. I don't know how much longer I'm going to live, but I would like to live in a decent, comfortable place until that day.

INTERVIEWER: I have a question, George. What kind of job did you get in after you left the Airborne back in 1963?

HAMPTON: I took up being a mechanic. I couldn't do complete work all the time. I could just work part-time because my back hurt too bad, my legs hurt too bad and my shoulder hurt too bad. So I worked at different companies as a mechanic. I found people that would give me a break, let me do work part-time, what-not. In February 1981, I retired on Social Security and I haven't been able to hold a job, well I haven't tried to work since then because I'm not able.

INTERVIEWER: Are you married, George?

HAMPTON: I'm married, yes sir.

INTERVIEWER: Got children?

HAMPTON: I have children by my first wife. I'm sorry that was before World War II and I go to war, you know what happened.

INTERVIEWER: Okay, well thanks George and I hope they solve this problem in Washington for you. I think we all hope for that. It's been a pleasure to meet you.

HAMPTON: I have a wonderful wife. We live down on the far end of the island here on Middleton Avenue.

INTERVIEWER: What's your address here?

HAMPTON: 139 North Middleton Street, it is, in care of Post Office Box 38, Oak Island, North Carolina.

INTERVIEWER: All right, George, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much.