Honoring a Soldier and Texaco Coveralls

[2002#3]

 

John E. Wilkins, Medic, U.S. Army (1925-2005)

      My '02 garage seemed like an appropriate place to display my late father-in-law's Texaco coveralls.  He landed on D-Day (Utah Beach), walked through four countries, and was wounded three times.  When he came home in 1945 he opened a small one-bay Texaco service station in Pacolet, SC.  He bought these coveralls when he opened the station and wore them there for several years.  His Purple Heart license plate can be seen on my workbench.

     He loved cars (especially the 1973 2002 I drove for 34 years) and would have been overjoyed to know about all you/us guys and how deeply you/we love our old BMWs.

Larry

[Son of Marty]

??? This was a generation that refused to say it can't be done. My dad told me of flying into a a grass field at the highest accessible point in New Guinea in a c47 using a map drawn on a old grocery bag.

[PaulTWinterton]

19 hours ago, 2002#3 said:

walked through four countries, and was wounded three times. 

 

Great story.  Thanks for sharing. 

[Mike Self]

On 3/3/2021 at 10:03 PM, Son of Marty said:

My dad told me of flying into a a grass field at the highest accessible point in New Guinea in a c47

Our unit in Vietnam flew those same WWII Gooney Birds--these weren't the AC-47 gun ships, but EC-47s--electronic warfare birds, unarmed and even then over 30 years old.  One of our pilots flew the same C-47 his dad had flown in WW II--the tail numbers matched.  A very rugged aircraft--there are still several hundred still flying even though the last one came off the assembly line in 1945...

 

Larry I like everything about your display except for that wrong-color-blue parking sign...should be a much darker blue with a Blue Devil on it...

 

mike

[roadhog0]

Great way to honor him! I love it! I believe my dad flew on C-47's as a radio tech. One of his better stories was they were flying the Navy band to Midway I believe from Hawaii. They took off, and immediately dropped an engine (lost a jug). They came back and had a jug put on it, took off again, lost another jug shortly after takeoff. By that point I believe the band was too late and ended up not going. He has a handful of stories of going places and coming in an engine down. Good ol' radials on old planes....

[02Les]

While we're talking 'long walks'; my Father was a Japanese POW and a couple of years ago I very belatedly decided to find out details.

 

For those with a few minutes to spare can read this shortened version.

 

William Tom Edward Cartwright - edit.docx

 

For those with interest in the life of the Jap POWs, the book is still available.

 

[OriginalOwner]

Fantastic Display with the coveralls.

 

Incredible story of the Japanese POW's.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

[JerryC]

On 3/4/2021 at 2:03 PM, PaulTWinterton said:

 

Great story.  Thanks for sharing. 

+1

Jerry