I came to Brisbane with General MacArthur – his whole office moved from Melbourne to Brisbane in July ’42. I was a Staff Sergeant in Supply and Logistics – moving troops, ships and supplies. We moved into the AMP building in Queen Street, now MacArthur Chambers. I still visit there often, as I am involved with the new MacArthur Museum.
I have been blind in the left eye since birth but managed to hoodwink the Army for twenty-six years! Actually, the doctor at my medical noticed, but marked my blindness as “correctible with glasses” – they really needed men then.
In 1943, I spent three months at Camp Columbia, Wacol, at the Officers’ Training School: I am still in touch with some men I met on the course. There was just one Negro in the group. This was OK by me, because I did not come from the South, where segregation was still strong.
I was no academic, and I was booted out in the last cut. This was OK because I was already a Warrant Officer – it would have been a cut in pay.
I married an Australian girl: we met in November 1942. The American Red Cross ran dances at City Hall and invited groups of girls to provide partners for the US soldiers. Joan came with a group from the Brisbane Markets, where she worked. I asked her for a dance, then another and another, then asked to escort her home. After the tram ride, we arrived at her front door, and I asked if I could kiss her. “Oh no” she said “Mum might be looking out the window.”
But we were married in February 1943. We honeymooned at Binna Burra in a log cabin and hiked all through the area. And we have now been married for sixty-two years.
My father-in-law, Victor Staines, worked at the Darra Ordnance Depot as a guard on horseback. He was from New Farm, but he had always had horses, so he applied and got the job. There was accommodation there, and he came home most weekends, when he wasn’t rostered on.
He laughingly told us a story of riding the perimeter one night, when he saw two men ahead walking in the bush. Suddenly they screamed and ran! They were newly arrived Negroes at Camp Freeman, and they had been surprised by their first kangaroo crashing through the bush across their path.
In September 1943 I was sent to New Guinea, assigned to a port battalion in Port Moresby as Warrant Officer. Like many labour and transport battalions, this was a coloured unit, with white officers. We had to supply the push as it moved north towards the Philippines.
I was in the signals office on Biak Island off NW New Guinea on VJ Day, August 12, 1945. (It is quite wrong to call it VP Day, as the war extended into the Indian Ocean too). I had just had leave of 45 days approved, and I realized immediately that I’d have to get out quick smart before all leave was cancelled. So, I bluffed my way out to the airfield.
I waited all night, and the noise of celebration was continuous – gunfire, tracers and flares exploded from ship and shore. Everyone was whooping it up.
I took the first plane to Brisbane – a trip of eleven hours – and my mother-in-law couldn’t believe when I walked into the kitchen. It was a great surprise for Joan – and a wonderful end to the war for us.
I returned to the US in March 1946, and in three months Joan joined me as a war bride. There was a local War Brides association – a lot of men brought back wives from all over the world! We lived in Oregon for nearly twenty years and had our three children there. But in 1964 we brought our family back to Brisbane, and here we are…