Reflections of My Life by JL Byars – page 4
I was still in Scurry County in July 1941 when my number came up. I was working for Southern Pacific Railroad out of Houston. The job was a defense job, and I could have been deferred. I talked it over with my superior and decided to get the year behind me and then return to work. That year became four years and three months, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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I left for the service on July 3, 1941 and spent the first night in Sweetwater. The next day some large groups of us were loaded on a train and sent to El Paso, Texas. There on July 5th I was sworn in as a Private in the U.S. Army. We were then put on a troop train for Louisiana. I was stationed at Camp Polk, near Leesville where I went through basic training.
Since I was “only in the army for a year,” Doris and I decided to get married on October 25, 1941 when I came home on leave from Camp Polk. One of my brothers-in-law made a remark that he would pay for the license and the other brother-in-law said he would pay the preacher – so far they still owe me!! Doris was working at Ira for her aunt, Ava Moran in a boarding house for oil field workers. Friday and Saturday we got the marriage license, her dress, I asked her Dad for “her hand in marriage,” borrowed my brother-in-law’s car and Saturday night we were off to the Church of Christ preacher’s house in Snyder (no phones then, so we couldn’t call ahead). He was on vacation so we started hunting another preacher. We found a Methodist preacher at home, but had to wait until he got out of the bathtub!! We spent our “one night honeymoon” in Sweetwater. On Sunday night my sisters Jack, Ivo and Hazel gave us a wedding supper, inviting members of both our families. I had to go back to camp and Doris stayed with her parents. We thought it would only be for a few months, but Pearl Harbor changed that!!