Page 80 - Anthology

LORRAINE RODRIGUEZ

LEST WE FORGET LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY

MY DAYS IN WWII

As sophomore at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale on December 7, 1941, my first concern was
the safety of my favorite cousin who was a Marine on the U.S.S. San Francisco at Pearl Harbor. The
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family worried for three weeks before we knew that he had survived unhurt; this was before the days of
instant communication by e-mail or easy long-distance phone calls, and we had to wait for a letter from

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him. He eventually joined Carlson’s Second Marine Raider Battalion , went in on Guadalcanal and
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made other hazardous landings in the Pacific, and thankfully, came home and survived to the age of 78.

I happened to be in a strategic spot on Southern’s campus as part time secretary to
Dr. Richard Beyer, head of the History Department, chairman of the oversight Faculty Committee on
Athletics, and co-chairman of War Bond sales for Jackson County. Our office was centrally located on
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campus and we became a kind of hub for war-related activities. The faculty organized a Faculty Gift Club,
with regular dues, to buy and prepare goody boxes for our students in service. I helped with packing. We
received many letters thanking the faculty for those boxes, giving details about life in the service, etc.

This led to my assignment on the college weekly newspaper to write a column called "Southern Salutes".
( I was on the staff of the newspaper for nearly three years, eventually rising to the position of Editorial
Adviser my senior year.) In this position I was assigned to the Army "beat".

The Air Corps had taken over a dormitory on campus and housed pre-cadets there. There were so many
wannabe pilots that the flight training schools were full, and these fellows were assigned to colleges to
take courses for credit, against the day that they would return from the wars and resume their education.
Incidentally, one of these fellows was George McGovern. 12

The editor of the school paper, who was a coed and my good friend and classmate, said she envied me
the assignment she gave me–as reporter, I had the run of the front office of the Air Corps detachment,
staffed by a Captain, the Commanding Officer, and two Lieutenants. Once I was even treated to breakfast
at the mess hall! The cadets were either from New York City or the Heartland.