Oral history interview of Griffin Lee Chalfant, Sr.

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Griffin Lee Chalfant, Sr.
Creator:: Wallace, Fredrick C.
Chalfant, Griffin Lee, Sr., 1917-
Date of Original:: 2003-06-11
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Africa, North
Antiaircraft guns--Germany
Messerschmitt Bf 109 (Fighter plane)
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (Fighter plane)
Airplanes, Military--Decoration--United States
Marauder (Bomber)
Douglas DC-3 (Transport plane)
United States. Army Air Forces. Bombardment Group, 320th
C-47 Skytrain (Transport plane)
Martin B-26 (Transport plane)
Nose art
Location:: Italy, Pantelleria Island, 36.8314576, 11.9450395
United States, Florida, Hillsborough County, MacDill Air Force Base, 27.8472, -82.50338
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Missouri, Saint Louis County, Jefferson Barracks, 38.50283, -90.28039
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
hi-8
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Griffin Chalfant describes his experiences in the Army Air Force in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy during World War II.
Griffin Chalfant was with the Army Air Forces during World War II.
FREDRICK WALLACE: Today is Wednesday June 11th, 2003. This is the beginning of an interview with Mr. Griffin Chalfant. Mr. Chalfant is a veteran of the United States Air Force and served for a period of in excess of twenty years. He served during World War II in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and various other places. The interview is being conducted at the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia. My name is Fredrick Wallace, I am the interviewer. Mr. Chalfant this is your history, we would like for you to begin by taking us from the time of your enlistment into the service, and why you entered the service. And take us from that point on from your various assignments to the date of your retirement from the service. Will you begin please? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: All right thank you. I enlisted in February of 1942 and I wasn't drafted that was one the things that you talk about, are you drafted or are you not drafted. So, I had to do a lot of finagling. I took the draft board lady out to lunch, and I got myself in as an enlistee. I went into Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. And from there went to Texas, and for, I can't remember what the name of it was, but nevertheless it was a place where some of the happenings were that it snowed and the dust blew at the same time. So, it was a very unusual place but from there I was sent to Denver, Colorado for gunnery, a gunnery maintenance school as an armorer. It was us all the inventory of guns and bombs and what have you that was available or that they were using. I was taught to maintain, and break them down, build-- put them back together, and after a short time there, was shipped to an active unit which would be the 320th Bomb Group at MaGill Air Force Base in Florida. It was the first assignment, and it was just being organized and they were equipped with B-26 Marauder Bombers. And at that time there was a short wing of bomber, but the main thing about it, it was, it had lots of power in the engines. So, they were just organizing it, they didn't have a complete complement of the right crews or what have you so, I had a chance to pick up and get on a crew, which was unlike what I had been taught to do. But, so I did. Well, I had a nickel's worth of radio experience in the past and then I got on as a radio operator. And so, I was little then, and so the crew that I was assigned to, well, [asked if] I would be a good tail-gunner, not realizing what I was getting myself in for. I said, oh sure, I'll do anything to be up there flying. And this went on from McGill we went to Lackland and stayed, there were episodes that happened there, then at Lackland the expression of “one a day in Tampa Bay”. And that was the B-26 was having trouble. And since we found out in years and years after that, that there was a filter on the carburetor, it choked up the carburetor and caused the engine to stop, and so no more than they got off, well, they then went into the Tampa Bay. So, we lost a lot of aircraft then but nevertheless we kept on flying. From Lackland, or from the Florida area, we started toward, we went to Indiana for getting everything together. You're picking up new aircraft too, and also, let's see, bulletproof tanks, fuel tanks, and then we got more training. I had more training in radio, and I got to where I was pretty fair with receiving and sending Morse Code, and what have you. But we were there for a little while, but we were entertained by some pretty good talent, I think Glenn Miller came by there, and they were making their rounds, all the places, and we enjoyed that. FREDRICK WALLACE: Were you assigned to a specific aircraft at that time? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: It was still a B-26. FREDRICK WALLACE: And was the crew the same? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: The crew make-up wasn't yet, but close to it. And when we left there we were assigned to aircraft, and that was at Morrison Field in Florida. Morrison was outside of Daytona, no, it was down further than that. But about halfway down in Florida, and that's when we started picking up more aircraft and we dropped one, we swapped tanks, picked up a lightweight tank because we were studying… FREDRICK WALLACE: When you say tanks what do you mean? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Gas tanks that we carry in the bomb bays. And so we were briefing on going the northern route to get to North Africa, that would be up through fjords and around in Greenland and Iceland and that way and into England and on down. But the time we got through all our extra-curricular activities, why meaning there was more, we got more involved and actually the happenings of the aircraft, and so we went the southern route. So, we went down through Brankin [PHONETIC] at Puerto Rico, that's when we were made up as a crew, just before we left there. And went to Brankin, we stayed overnight there, and then to Georgetown, that's British Guinea and over to the corner across the equator, we actually crossed it twice, to Berlin and Brazil and gassed up, went to Ascension Island. And that, you got to hit that baby on the head otherwise you're out in mid-nowhere, and flew into Ascension Island. It had, it's all volcanic, it's all volcanic, and had a runway that reminds you of a rollercoaster. It was pretty, it was quite a thrill to take off and land on the thing, but nevertheless I did get a chance, we were there a couple of days, and could roam around and hike over the volcanic ash, it was all over the place. From there we went to Accra, that's on the Gulf Coast, it's on the insert of Africa, and that was a place that we found that had ant hills about, at least three to four foot high. And they assigned guards to the planes, and the guards said, well, you don't leave anything there. They were unusual looking bunch and they said they don't ask questions they just start cutting, not bayonets but, oh my God what were those big knifes? FREDRICK WALLACE: Machetes. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Big knife was machete, thank you. So you could hear them coming, they didn't have shoes, just sort of like swoosh, swoosh, swoosh sound. It, off in the distance it felt it was eerie, but nevertheless we never went back to the aircraft, that was beyond belief. FREDRICK WALLACE: What was your destination? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: It was Accra. FREDRICK WALLACE: No, what was your destination? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Destination was Ilorin, North Africa. And from there we went to Robertsfield [PHONETIC] at, that's where right now that's one of the emergency stations are for the… FREDRICK WALLACE: What country was that located in? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: That was irrelevant, Robertsfield is, oh, Liberty, no not Liberty but, they have a flag. MALE SPEAKER: Liberia. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Huh? MALE SPEAKER: Liberia. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Liberia, thank you, Liberia. In fact, we got stuck there for four days. We got to the place where our bomb bay door wasn't closing, so we all sat down and we took cloth and worked on a certain piece of item of the actuating cylinder that would make the doors close when they're supposed too, but anyway very good time. We took a canoe trip, or a trip down the river and I got to a place where the natives were and sell me a baby, for I figured it was a small amount, and this was getting weird. We were looking for monkey up that's out of the area, but nevertheless from there we went on to Banfora [PHONETIC], that was all run by the English, and nothing exciting happened there except for it was New Year's. And from there on up to Marakesh where we did cross the Sahara and we had to fly extra high. We had to fly at 12,000, which we normally don't fly but the whole underside of the aircraft was all orange and from the reflections of the sun on the sand and on the underside of the aircraft. But we did make Marakesh okay. Marakesh, nothing exciting there except that the [Unintelligible] and then on into Oran. And that got to be quite a task there. Lots happened there, we were just—we were right behind the invasion of Oran when we arrived, and we stayed in big barracks, eerie cold things that, with one ceiling light, but it was better than where we went next. We went to a place they called Tapahroe [PHONETIC] which sounds like mud and it was. And we had pup tents that we stayed in at Tapahroe and we still flew, and we thought it was indignant have these types should be stuck in pup tents. But anyway we got rained out and they had to move us in with the officers on concrete floors but it was better than the straw, bunch of the straw, straw bags that we had made up for sleeping in pup tents, so okay. FREDRICK WALLACE: What was your mission? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Mission, it was to push across North Africa and remove the Germans from North Africa, that was the push on Rabaul, on Rabaul. And just as we were there that massacre happened, or in North Africa, where they got the best of our people so one of our other groups, there was three groups of us, one of the groups had to come back and they started doing training again. And so we waited there for a month at least and then we finally moved up Phillipsville which is just this side of where everything went bad, and that's where the Germans got us by the tail, and it was all over with, and we started bombing. We started our really big push on bombing and we first went up to Sardinia and we bombed it. Tthat was our first mission. The second mission was on the shipping in the Tunisia Bay, and it looked like they were sitting waiting on us. And everything blew loose, the 88, 88's is quite a gun but it was on the wrong side, it belonged to them. And I thought, we got caught and caught in something and I don't know what happened but it sounded like somebody should be outside the plane taking shovels full of sand and gravel and throwing it at the side of the plane, which was the flak going off and was making holes on the side. FREDRICK WALLACE: You were flying over Sardinia? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: We're flying over Tunis. FREDRICK WALLACE: Over Tunis? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Over Tunis, right. FREDRICK WALLACE: And where were you based at the time? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: We were based at Phillipville left bank, that's below Constantinople and up in the mountains right. It's not Constantinople anymore; I think it's something else. FREDRICK WALLACE: Istanbul? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Huh? FREDRICK WALLACE: Istanbul. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Istanbul, thank you, right. Nevertheless I did get to go, I'll tell you how I got to go, but we caught—so we started down and our wingman, we had two wingmen, because we did have a scary bombsite. We were the leader on this little, and there were eighteen of us up from group, and we lost twelve of them on this trip. And we started down; we were receiving all kinds of troubles. We got pretty well shot up, we lost an engine, and it knocked out our supply for the liquid supply [PHONETIC]. And so they—we thought that on the way down they were starting seeing ammunition—bullets flying past us and hitting the other, both engines. And then the co-pilot motioned to both the turret gunner and myself to get on back. So, I went to go back to my position, the tail-gun, but it wasn't there. It was shot away, nothing there but a big hole. So I went back, on the way the turret gunner and myself both noticed that we had a bomb hung up in the bomb bay, a two hundred and fifty-pounder. And so right away we laughed, we wired it down so that it wouldn't, even if we crashed landed, why, it wouldn't go off. Then we went and took our positions and as we went down we were receiving short battery shots, and our right wingman he was taking them for us. And he got his nose all shot, the nose of his aircraft all shot away, and he took a big beating but he covered us as we went down. And finally he made a big circle and landed in a wheat field or right near a barn, a Moroccan barn. And the bomb bay doors just kind of gobbled up and swooped down and just brought all that dirt up into the plane, and we didn't know what was happening. It was a weird and wrong in our positions for our crash land. And the belly gunner he took the position behind the co-pilot, he douples in behind him and then when you stop you throw open the top doors above the pilot, co-pilot, and he goes out first. Well, when he did he put his foot in the middle of the co-pilot's back and after the dust settled and everything, the co-pilot was the only one that got hurt from the waist gunner hitting him in the back. And he really wasn't hurt; it was just something to talk about all night long. FREDRICK WALLACE: What caused the airplane to go down? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: It was shot up. It was the right engine, the right engine was inoperative and the left engine was losing power. FREDRICK WALLACE: Was it shot by all the aircraft on the ground? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: It was shot by 88's. It could have been by the FW-190 that was on our tail. FREDRICK WALLACE: That's an airplane? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: FW-190 is a German fighter, right. The ME-109 and the 190's were in our area. FREDRICK WALLACE: Mr. Chalfant, I wanted to ask you to go back and give us some details concerning your missions. How were you assigned to missions, what was your day like on a day by day basis at the former sites? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Okay. Well, they had an operation area where early in the morning, it could be anywhere between four and five o'clock. You'd go to the operation area and they had, I think you see it, right now you see it on the History Channel where they have a big map of where they're going to go, and they keep it covered until everybody gets in there. And then you'll see the route that we're going to take, that's all up on this big board. Then they give you the briefing as to what, we knew what we were carrying, because we helped load it the night before, which kind of bombs we had in our aircraft. And of course our guns, we just make sure that we had enough fifty calibers in our guns. I carried, I had two 250 and they had long streams of supply, supply and attach to each gun. And by the way, the B-26 has two bomb bays which the thing is they had big cans where they could put a lot of ammunition, but they sacrifice the use of that, not putting that much ammunition only carrying about a third of what you're supposed too because of the weight, making the two tails heavy. So, we quit taking a lot of fifty calibers there, didn't need them anyway, and didn't shoot that much, but nevertheless that when I did, I was glad I had it. We would go to the aircraft with all the armament the night before. So, the next day we saw where we were supposed to go and what we're supposed to bomb. They gave us the take off time and where we gathered up at about – to make a circle, picked up everybody one by one, then headed to the target. FREDRICK WALLACE: Can you expand on that please? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Yeah. FREDRICK WALLACE: When you say they picked up everybody one by one? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: I'm sorry, yes, right. Well, the first planes go off and they make a large circle. I'm going to call it a 360. Start a 360 degree turn, and as they're doing that the next planes are coming and joining them, and the ones behind them. And by the time they come around at 360 again, which is about twenty minutes, they come around again, they've picked up all, all the other planes, all eighteen have gathered in this formation, eighteen planes that would be, and in little bits of three's, a leader and join men. The way that works is that even when they drop the leader has a Sperry bombsite but the wing men don't. And two, the wing men are enlisted men, so if they do they'll open the bomb bays. And on top of the B-26 are two lights but they're flush, and they can see it, the other bombardiers can see this. And when the red light's showing and when the green light goes on, that's when he drops his bomb that's when the lead plane drops his bomb and the wing men drop their bombs. And is that okay, we've got them all lined up all in formation and heading toward the target. But this particular day . . . FREDRICK WALLACE: And there were eighteen airplanes in the formation? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Eighteen in our group, yes right. FREDRICK WALLACE: Okay. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: And, we don't know what happened but all of sudden we're slowing down, and it seemed like we're dead in the water, something happened. The group or the planes in front of us, let's see, we're stacked up about from eight thousand to ten thousand, and it seemed to stop. We're not in mid-air, but oh we caught holy hell from that, and that's when we got our engine shot out and everything went wrong. But we did happen to get to the target and we dropped our bombs, but I don't think they hit the target. To this day I don't think they hit the target, but nevertheless. FREDRICK WALLACE: What was the target? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: The target was a shore where they unload boats and things. So, that's when everyone split up and they were on their own. FREDRICK WALLACE: So you were intercepted by German? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: No, we were intercepted by 88's, the anti-aircraft. FREDRICK WALLACE: So anti-aircraft. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: That anti-aircraft you can look down, and when you see a little flash down below, you can see this black dot coming right up at you. And that's scary, believe me, right. So anyway we were picked up after the big dust storm and everything else when we landed. We were picked up by, an ambulance came to us. We thought, oh boy, I don't know who this belongs too. It belonged, it was from the Australians. They were there. And they thought, well they're going to pick up the bodies, but we were all in good shape, except the boy with a sprung back. That was one of the jokes of the day, and we needed a good joke. But nevertheless they picked us up and we went on, oh, we took the Sperry bombsite with us. And every night where we stayed under we would locked up in a safe, but nevertheless I'm getting a little bit head of it. But that night we stayed in a tent with some of the Aussie wounded, and had endless chain of smoking. We smoked everything we could get our hands on, but we were a big _________, in having going down through all that. FREDRICK WALLACE: So was this an American base that they took you to or? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Australian, you're right. FREDRICK WALLACE: In North Africa? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: And it was supper time. And what they asked us did we have our “irons.” And that one didn't strike us as funny, but that's what they called their knife, fork, and spoon. So, we don't carry our knife, fork, and spoon, they dug up a utensil for each one of us, and we ate, I guess. I don't recall what it was or anything. But we did bend down and watched other planes come by, or come back from bombing over the same place where we'd been. And we saw a couple of them shot down, and some of the people bail out of them, and all kind of gory things happened that night. One fellow bailed out and the parachute didn't open. It was just, it looked bad coming down, and it was a good distance from us. So that night all we did was talk and talk. But all night long we could hear the artillery going on, just, oh, I mean I'd say about a mile from us. And so, finally we got out of there and started heading back. We had to go clear across North Africa, and from there we went to Suez [?], FREDRICK WALLACE: Can I stop you for a minute. How did you head back, like what kind of transportation? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Any kind of transportation we could get. And we had all kinds of transportation. We left out of there in a truck. FREDRICK WALLACE: So you were not flying? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Yeah, we weren't flying, no. And finally at one place we did get a C-47, but this was three days later. We got a C-47 to take us back to our outfit. But they knew that we hadn't been killed right then, that's why because the plane that went down with us, they went on, they got back. They didn't give our clothes away or anything. A real good friend of mine was in that plane, and he's still alive. He lives right down in McDonough. FREDRICK WALLACE: So when you got back what happened? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Well, within a few days we attempted another mission, but the pilot he, I'm going to use this expression, he turned “white knuckle”. I think the whole thing kind of shook up his nerves and nervous system, and he began to make up different deficiencies with the plane. And we did two missions, or started two missions and we aborted them, we turned back because he saw something wrong. And from then on he never flew again. So we stayed, we waited around until we made up a new crew. The co-pilot took over as the pilot, picked up a co-pilot, and we flew around training together for—it seems like about a month. But I hear tell that it was only about a week or two. It was two weeks at least before we started flying again, and that pilot is still alive. He lives in Plant City, Florida. But then we started this thing seriously, and we started some real, very interesting missions. And coming out of North Africa, and then we moved, we moved up to the Tunis area. That's where this picture that we have was taken, in Tunis. We kind of attached ourselves to one plane which had a big picture of a pistol packing mamma on the side of it. It was, you know how they used a lot of the Varga Girls to illustrate whoever they're going to illustrate. But our swaggering insignia was on one side and the girl was always on the right side. And we had some good painters there in the outfit. FREDRICK WALLACE: When you say you attached yourself to this airplane, what does that mean? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: That means that we tried it, whenever we went on missions we tried to get that aircraft. But it flew a lot more than we flew it. FREDRICK WALLACE: So you would fly the same airplane all the time? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: No. FREDRICK WALLACE: But you were with the same crew all the time? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: That's true, that same crew. We were all together, right. That time that we were out, delayed, that's when I made a trip up to Istanbul and around different places. I found out that there was a friend of mine, I knew this friend was up in the area, so you get around and see the land and what have you. But from Tunis we made—we started making trips to Sicily. We were in on the Sicily invasion. But the one thing that we did that they never mentioned. There was an island over there, with, boy it was loaded with guns, anti-aircraft guns. But it wasn't Malta. You never flew around Malta; Malta was over to the other side of us. And we always steered away from Malta, because those boys were sharp with anti-aircraft. And it was the English that held Malta, but they didn't want anybody coming near Malta. So the other was Pantelleria , and it was loaded with anti-aircraft guns, but nevertheless we started working on that, on Pantelleria, working on it, meaning one and two missions a day to bomb the gun emplacements on this island. FREDRICK WALLACE: Were they German or Italian? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: They were German. And finally we dropped pamphlets on it, saying, okay, if you give up just put a big white cross on the runway, you know. And it was another three or four days before the white cross appeared, but in the meantime we're still dropping bombs on each gun emplacement. And they were well built, and finally we took Pantelleria without stepping foot on it. And from there on was the invasion of Sicily. And we were in support of the army, and everything went pretty good there. On up to, we also did side bombing missions to Salerno across to Rome. We bombed Rome on Easter, but it knocked Rome itself from the air from Rome. And so, we, let's see, Rome and that's when we had the worst weather we ever had. When we went to briefing that morning, to Naples, there were some fuel tanks—fuel tanks there, a big fuel farm, gasoline farm. And we're after that, because that's where they were supplying the Germans with their fuel. And we got there and they were briefing us on the flak of the anti-aircraft, and they said, well the best we can figure is, worst this way and bad that way. So right down the middle of it is your best bet. And that's the worst mission I was on. That's when everything went loose. There were pieces of aircraft were falling all around us, I saw an engine over here going down, just the engine, the propeller. It looked like a helicopter, and just pieces of B-26 all around us. But we didn't catch a thing, and we broke there and broke out to the Bay of Naples, and there stood a big German, a German battleship sitting down there, and he started to shoot at us. And I said, man, we don't want anymore of that, and you get to the point where you talk to yourself. And nobody in the back, in the back to talk to anyways, so we broke out of there. And I got on the way back, then we started letting down toward North Africa, our base. And I sent back a radio message that what we'd seen down on the big ship, and they acknowledged that. But that's the only time I had to use a radio, or send back a message of any significance. FREDRICK WALLACE: All total how many missions, combat missions, did you fly? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Forty-six. Of the forty-six before we ever went into combat, outside of our area, I had six missions out looking for subs. We were carrying depth charges in our bomb bays. And I didn't really see or the front end of my airplane, I know those other guys, we never did know, we never dropped any. But we did get credit for the missions. So my total was forty-six. FREDRICK WALLACE: Over what period of time? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Over fourteen months. FREDRICK WALLACE: So you were there for fourteen months? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Yeah, fourteen months, right. FREDRICK WALLACE: And every day you were not flying, what did you do during the days you were not flying? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Roamed around, drove around. We just roamed around, like I said. We went, and we negotiated with the natives. We traded some winter underwear for eggs, and things of that sort. What they wanted was a mattress cover, those were choice things. One time we came about a ham. But a lot of the other fellows in the squadron got hams, and so they put on a big search of all the hams that were stolen. And what we done, we'd taken and wrapped up our ham real good and buried it. Well, we had a pet dog, and when they started inspecting the dog started digging up the ham. Well, right away we called the dog; we called the dog off of it. But that was some of the things that happened; we did get out and look around. FREDRICK WALLACE: So after your, you completed the forty-six missions, did you return to the United States? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Well, we moved up to Sardinia, that's where I came back from. And I got sick up there, the food was too soft, I mean nothing went right. Or the wine was too green, I don't know, but I got yellow jaundice real bad. And I wasn't about to turn myself in because all of the fellows had jaundice, and they just put them in the hospital and feed them a lot of sugar and candy, you know candy and stuff like that. So I came back, we flew out of there to—back to Casablanca, oh, no, we went to Algiers, then Algiers to Casablanca. And we caught a boat from there and I didn't turn myself in as sick until I hit the boat. And, boy, they had wonderful food on that boat, but I sure didn't want any of it anyway first time I say so many real good food. FREDRICK WALLACE: What was your first base after returning to the United States? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: I was a month in the hospital. FREDRICK WALLACE: Where? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: In St. Louis. FREDRICK WALLACE: St. Louis? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Yeah, Jefferson Berry's Hospital [PHONETIC]. And there's where they went through my veins. Each day I had a litter of glucose and distilled water once on the side and then that side, and flush out my whole blood system. FREDRICK WALLACE: Did you fully recover? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: And then from there. FREDRICK WALLACE: Where were you assigned to? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: I applied at the well [?] and the war was still on, and I thought well, by gosh, if I've got to go back, I want to sit up front. So I actually applied for pilot training. And so when I left there, I left there, and went to, for R&R to Miami, Florida. Stayed in some real nice hotels and went through the questioning and everything about getting into the cadet program. And so when it comes to pass that I made it, but there was a long line of individuals wanting to go, and so they shipped us out to different places and became what they called “on the line trainees”. That was a peculiar looking group, but they were in part they were a lot of returnees. A lot of fellows that had been shot up a little bit, and we went through a lot of military custom things, a lot of marching and what have you. And that's when I went; I was stationed at Greenwood, Mississippi. I ran across a very interesting, a lot younger lady, and which, after the time I left there, well, we still, she was a telephone operator in a nearby town. But how I met her, this is interesting because the group of us went up to Memphis and stayed in a hotel, and we were about six of us in one hotel room. And we got ripped off that night, and the only guy that had any money, had it in his breast pocket. The rest of us had lost everything and so we came on back on the bus. And the bus stops halfway between Memphis and Clarksdale, Memphis and Greenwood. A couple, a couple three young ladies got on, and one, I had a cold by the way, I wasn't much on building up any relationship. FREDRICK WALLACE: Did this young lady eventually become your wife? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Absolutely, right, and she eventually became my wife and we saw a lot of each other then. And we made arrangements to, after I got in the flying—let's see, I left there and went from there to San Antonio, and that was more military. And all the cadet officers had swords, and I had myself a sword, a saber. And it was a peculiar looking bunch, it was one squadron there and they all had wings and medals, but that's all they had. They had the cadet insignia on their arm and the cadet insignia there. But they all had medals; they were eye openers all around. But nevertheless we did leave there, and we had arrangements then for my wife and I to get married in the next station, which would be Tulare, California. FREDRICK WALLACE: We're approaching the end of our cassette. So, can you sum up and tell us, what was the most significant part that you remember of your service? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: So much of it and like, I know what it was. The most significant, really in all good credit the most significant part, and for the longevity of the thing and the pleasantry of it, was the fact that I got a real good young lady as a wife. She loved to travel and everything, it was beautiful. Sometimes I look back and I've only been married fifty-eight years, and that's fair to say that is the most significant thing that is so outstanding, a wonderful lady. FREDRICK WALLACE: If you were to talk to young people today what would you tell them about your experiences in the service? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Well, I can't isolate it, the little instances, that's about it. Of some of them, which we told here about being shot down and some of the things that happened, mainly I think they're more interested in the combat aspect over there. I'd emphasize that. FREDRICK WALLACE: Would you encourage them to enter the service? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Absolutely, it's a wonderful thing. FREDRICK WALLACE: Why? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: It's good for you. It helps you along, it kind of dictates what you're going to wear for the day. You don't have to worry about that part of it, but it lays a good plan for your existence. I don't know if the discipline is as prevalent today as it was then, but we found it very good, very good for us. FREDRICK WALLACE: Well, other than your wife what else did you have to show for your period in the service that you're proud of? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Three wonderful boys, is right, for a fact. FREDRICK WALLACE: Would you encourage them to make a career in the service? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Well, what we did there, we kind of let them run their own way. And they ran good and clean, and highly praised by us, by mother and father. FREDRICK WALLACE: Well, very good, thank you very much. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: My pleasure. FREDRICK WALLACE: For sharing your experiences with us. Is there anything else you would like to add? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Have? FREDRICK WALLACE: Would you like to add, is there anything else? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Oh, add, right. FREDRICK WALLACE: To say to the American people? GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Keep yourself in good mind, don't loose the faith, praise the Lord. FREDRICK WALLACE: Okay, thank you very much. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: Sure. FREDRICK WALLACE: We certainly appreciate you sharing your experience with us. GRIFFIN CHALFANT: My pleasure. [END INTERVIEW]
Metadata URL:: http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/351
Additional Rights Information:: This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Extent:: 47:33
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Holding Institution:: Atlanta History Center
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