THE FORMATIVE YEARS Wallace H. Cameron Colonel USAF (Ret)

The Great Depression of the 1930's, seven years drought with stunted crops for livestock feed, no money to repay farm loans and the dust bowl storms driving familys from their homes---these were the events that influenced my formative years. When the West was opened to Homesteaders at the turn of the 19th century, my grandfather with wife, three sons and one daughter settled on the virgin Plains of Eastern New Mexico. In 1907, Arthur Worthington Cameron , Sr. established a Post Office to serve the growing community. Thus, Cameron,New Mexico, population 6, was born. The Post Office faithfully served a far flung rural population until consolidated in 1967 with Grady, NM .. Then, Cameron, NM disappeared from the Map --forever. My father,Arthur W. Cameron, Jr. left his Homestead in 1910 to go to Kansas City to study for the Ministry. Subsequently he Pastored churches in Kansas. Missouri, New Mexico and Oklahoma. In 1927 , he gave up full-time ministry to return to Cameron , NM to help his father who was becoming too old to continue farming. I was seven years old, and their I remained until entering Military Service , January1942. Dec. 7, 1941--Pearl Harbor Day--when the Japanese bombed Military Intallations on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, I was completing my Sophmore second semester at NM A&M. I was night-clerk at the Herndon Hotel in Las Cruces, NM and an Army Recruiting Sgt stayed at the Hotel for several days. He wasted no time trying to convince me that I should apply for pilot training with the US Army Aviation Cadet Program. At that time, sixty college credit hours were required to apply and I would not have them until the end of the semester. The Sgt. finally convinced me that I should complete an application, but NOT _sign_it until the semester ended. At Christmas time I was home with my parents at Quemado,NM and in early January , 1942 , I received orders from the War Department to report to Santa Fe,NM for my physical examination as an Aviation Cadet. Whether by accident in the paper-shuffling by the Sgt, or on purpose an_ unsigned_application launched my military career. I am recording these events in my life, not because the world is breathlessly waiting to know, but for my posterity. The Veterans' Adminisration recently announced that World War 2 veterans are dying at a rate of 1500 _every_ day! Soon we will be no more and with us will go the stories of our contribution unless told before it is too late. I am now the " Patriarch" of our branch of the Cameron Clan. There are existing and ever-sprouting twigs on this Geneological tree that know very little of their ancestory. This mini-biography can be a starting place for more detailed research by future generations,should they desire. ©whcameron 2ooo

Vote for this site Aw-inspiring Top Sites