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‘The best generation’
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| H&N photo by Lee Juillerat Frank Vaughn holds a photo of himself while he talks about his years of travel before finding a home in Lakeview. |
Frank Vaughn served in World War II before finding a home in Lakeview
By LEE JUILLERAT
H&N Regional Editor
Frank Vaughn grew up with cold running water, kerosene lamps and a one-holer outhouse.
In the Army during World War II, he as Japanese fighter plane aimed for him, and during his travels, the 86-year-old saw the country and the world.
“I have lived in the best generation and seen the development of airplanes and automobiles,” Vaughn says, now retired and living with his wife, Ann, in Lakeview. “I don’t think there will ever be another generation that sees so much progress.”
Before coming to Lakeview, during 22 years with the Bureau of Reclamation they moved 15 times, mostly to small towns. Before that, he bounced around in the Army during World War II, spending tours of duty in places as diverse as Alaska and Australia, Hawaii and the Philippines.
And even before “Uncle Sam called,” he and a friend gallivanted around large chunks of the country taking on whatever jobs were available.
Vaughn’s vagabond life began Aug. 21, 1921, in Heryford, Texas, the 10th of 12 children. His father, William Alvin, or W.A., was a farmer and rancher who raised mules.
“He claimed tractors put him out of business,” Vaughn says.
Heryford was Vaughn’s home until 1940, when he and a friend traveled to Colorado.
They took a job ferrying cars from Denver to Salt Lake City, “but there wasn’t any work in Salt Lake,” so they bummed a ride with truckers toting loads of onions back to western Colorado.
They earned money picking pinto beans, lettuce and carrots. He crushed rock and built concrete houses.
“We just looked for whatever work we could.”
He worked as a laborer on military bases near Phoenix, Ariz., for 75 cents an hour. When that job slowed, he took a job building an electrical substation for the Bureau of Reclamation for 67-1/2 cents an hour.
“It wasn’t long before we were making 95-cents an hour, so we came out money ahead.”
Things changed that summer.
“Uncle Sam called in September of 1942,” Vaughn says.
His Army training took him from California to Kansas and back to California, where he learned how to send and receive Morse code.
The following April he and his unit boarded a transport ship in California.
In May, they arrived in the Aleutian Islands, where “the snowflakes looked they was a big as a dollar.” While fighting the Japanese at Attu, he remembers “more troops were disabled by frostbite than enemy fire” and tells of williwaws, “Winds so strong you stood at a 45-degree angle.”
It was on to Hawaii and Kwajalein, where he spent the battle sending and receiving messages, before returning to Hawaii. That September, he and others were packed aboard another transport — “We didn’t have any idea where we were going, but we knew it was for combat” – that stopped at the Admiralty Islands, Australia and the Philippines, where the action was frequent.
“Nearly everyday at noon, it seemed like the Japanese would send in planes to strafe the field. We got to see several dog-fights (battles between Japanese and American planes),” he says. Vaughn recalls one particularly low-flying enemy plane: “It looked like it was pointed right at me.”
Having experienced warfare, including ongoing travels to Leyte and Okinawa, Vaughn has his opinions of Hollywood films — “To me, the movies glorify it too much, that John Wayne and Audie Murphy stuff.”
Vaughn is proud of his military service, but is skeptical of wars.
“Basically, a war is good for the economy and bad for the country. I’m 100 percent against this darn war we’re in right now. The worst thing is our boys are getting killed for somebody else’s money and power.”
After being discharged from the Army in 1945, Vaughn worked as a carpenter before moving to Colorado Springs, Colo. He took a job as a surveyor with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1947 and, a year later married Ann “in the church we met in.” The couple moved to Lakeview in 1970 and has two children, Linda Sue, who died of cancer in 1991, and Dorothy Ann, along with a bushel of grand and
great-grandchildren.
In the Army during World War II, he as Japanese fighter plane aimed for him, and during his travels, the 86-year-old saw the country and the world.
“I have lived in the best generation and seen the development of airplanes and automobiles,” Vaughn says, now retired and living with his wife, Ann, in Lakeview. “I don’t think there will ever be another generation that sees so much progress.”
On the move
Before coming to Lakeview, during 22 years with the Bureau of Reclamation they moved 15 times, mostly to small towns. Before that, he bounced around in the Army during World War II, spending tours of duty in places as diverse as Alaska and Australia, Hawaii and the Philippines.
And even before “Uncle Sam called,” he and a friend gallivanted around large chunks of the country taking on whatever jobs were available.
Early life
Vaughn’s vagabond life began Aug. 21, 1921, in Heryford, Texas, the 10th of 12 children. His father, William Alvin, or W.A., was a farmer and rancher who raised mules.
“He claimed tractors put him out of business,” Vaughn says.
Heryford was Vaughn’s home until 1940, when he and a friend traveled to Colorado.
They took a job ferrying cars from Denver to Salt Lake City, “but there wasn’t any work in Salt Lake,” so they bummed a ride with truckers toting loads of onions back to western Colorado.
They earned money picking pinto beans, lettuce and carrots. He crushed rock and built concrete houses.
“We just looked for whatever work we could.”
Odd jobs
He worked as a laborer on military bases near Phoenix, Ariz., for 75 cents an hour. When that job slowed, he took a job building an electrical substation for the Bureau of Reclamation for 67-1/2 cents an hour.
“It wasn’t long before we were making 95-cents an hour, so we came out money ahead.”
Things changed that summer.
“Uncle Sam called in September of 1942,” Vaughn says.
His Army training took him from California to Kansas and back to California, where he learned how to send and receive Morse code.
The following April he and his unit boarded a transport ship in California.
Dry land
In May, they arrived in the Aleutian Islands, where “the snowflakes looked they was a big as a dollar.” While fighting the Japanese at Attu, he remembers “more troops were disabled by frostbite than enemy fire” and tells of williwaws, “Winds so strong you stood at a 45-degree angle.”
It was on to Hawaii and Kwajalein, where he spent the battle sending and receiving messages, before returning to Hawaii. That September, he and others were packed aboard another transport — “We didn’t have any idea where we were going, but we knew it was for combat” – that stopped at the Admiralty Islands, Australia and the Philippines, where the action was frequent.
“Nearly everyday at noon, it seemed like the Japanese would send in planes to strafe the field. We got to see several dog-fights (battles between Japanese and American planes),” he says. Vaughn recalls one particularly low-flying enemy plane: “It looked like it was pointed right at me.”
Glorifying war
Having experienced warfare, including ongoing travels to Leyte and Okinawa, Vaughn has his opinions of Hollywood films — “To me, the movies glorify it too much, that John Wayne and Audie Murphy stuff.”
Vaughn is proud of his military service, but is skeptical of wars.
“Basically, a war is good for the economy and bad for the country. I’m 100 percent against this darn war we’re in right now. The worst thing is our boys are getting killed for somebody else’s money and power.”
After being discharged from the Army in 1945, Vaughn worked as a carpenter before moving to Colorado Springs, Colo. He took a job as a surveyor with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1947 and, a year later married Ann “in the church we met in.” The couple moved to Lakeview in 1970 and has two children, Linda Sue, who died of cancer in 1991, and Dorothy Ann, along with a bushel of grand and
great-grandchildren.
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lawalters wrote on Jan 14, 2008 8:06 AM: