Every time we turn on the news today, we hear about the war over in the Holy Lands. How horrific that we could desecrate Jesus’s homeland. It makes me think about the war that was going on when I was born in the forties.
My mother and daddy married in March of 1940 and by December of 1944 they were both employed by the United States Army at Camp McCain in Elliot, Miss in Grenada County. This camp consisted of 42,000 acres and was named after a Carroll County native, Major General Henry P. McCain.
My dad did not pass. His army physical when he was called to active duty during the summer of 1942. They both needed jobs and wanted to help the war movement and working at this army base seemed a logical thing to do. Camp McCain was the home of Company1, Third Battalion, 301st Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division. This is written on the papers my mother kept tucked away all these years. She had their badges they were required to wear in a cigar box in a drawer of her chest. The pictures on the badges made them look so young. They were my mother was 20 and my daddy was 23.
My mother went to work in one of the many laundries that washed and ironed the soldiers’ uniforms. My daddy worked in the jeep and truck divisions keeping the soldiers means of travel moving.
There was also a prisoner of war camp here on the base where as many as 7700 Germans were housed. These POW worked in the laundry alongside my mother. She said they talked some, but no one could understand what they were saying.
The laundry did such a poor job with the soldiers’ uniforms, most of them began doing their own laundry. The laundry either lost or tore up the clothes. Mama always said it was the POWs, not the home people.
Some of the POWs worked in the nearby cotton fields as well.
My daddy was born with a working knowledge of machinery. He was a natural to work in the repair shops. He said it was mostly changing oil, repairing brakes, or just everyday wear and tear of the jeeps and trucks. He learned a trade here that would make his future family a living for the rest of his life.
The soldiers here were trained to use advanced infantry techniques and wee in a holding pattern until they were needed in Europe and in May of 1944, they received orders to be shipped out and my parents’ jobs ended shortly thereafter. The 50,000 acres was sold, except for 3000 acres and the buildings were deactivated and torn down.
My mother and daddy knew what the war caused, how it tore families apart, threw our country into a depression, but as they would tell us about their time there, it was a learning experience and a somewhat happy time in the beginning of their marriage.
My mother’s rendering of Baked Spam
(The kitchens at Camp McCain relied mainly on canned food products.).
Cover one can of Spam with crushed pineapple and the juice and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes at 350*.
She would serve this, she said, with macaroni and cheese from a can.
