Adam Hinojos
95TH BOMB GROUP (H)
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
2003 REUNION RENO, NEVADA
(Interviewed by Janie McKnight)
JM: This is Janie McKnight. Today we’re interviewing Adam Hinojos. Adam, just for the record, could you state your name, today’s date, and where we are.
AH: My name is Adam E. Hinojos, and we’re at Reno, Nevada and this is September the 10th, 2003.
JM: And what were your dates of service with the Army Air Corps?
AH: I started in April, 1942. And I was discharged March 1st, 1946.
JM: And what were your dates with the 95th Bomb Group?
AH: I joined the 95th Bomb Group in Walla Walla, Washington in ‘42 - I think it was November of ‘42. Then we traveled to Sioux City, Iowa - Rome, New York - went overseas. We were stationed in Framlingham, England, and we went from there to Horham - station 119 at the base there. And I was there until July of 1945, when I transferred out of the 95th to the 100th Bomb Group, while the 95th returned back to the states.
JM: And what squadron were you in, in the 95th?
AH: I was in the 64th service squadron, 49 service group. I was in six months – they changed our name to the 457 Sub Depot. And in early 1945, they changed our group’s name to 859th engineering squadron, which I was transferred under that.
JM: And was your principle job with the 95th?
AH: The principle with the 95th, I worked in the orderly room for the squadrons, and the privileged job of driving our commanding officer, because our commanding officer became a member of a court of the Eighth Air Force, where they tried court martials. And any time he had to travel different towns in England, I’d travel over with him, and took him there, and went up and picked him up. And that was my first principle job. The next principle job, my commander says, I want you to take care of all the mail of our squadron. I’ll make your responsibility that you get the mail to the people, whether they’re working in the hangers or not. You have my jeep, and I want you to keep the morale up. That is my interest in my group, he says. So I carried out his orders.
JM: Tell me about when you enlisted. Where were you living, and how old were you, and what kind of training did you have before you were sent overseas?
AH: I was just getting out of high school, and I had good training at carpenter work. And I help build the Lemoore Air Force Base before I joined the service. I volunteered; I went into the ___________________, California recruiting office, and I joined the Army Air Corps with the intention that I wanted to be in the Air Force. They sent me to Los Angeles where the recruiting station, and at that time they said we’re not taking personnel to the Army Air Corps at the present. They sent me back home for a week, and then they called me back. Then I was in Fort MacArthur for three days. Then they transferred me over to Pendleton, Oregon where I took my basic training. And I went to Air Corps school there – personnel section. Then I was transferred then to become a member of the 64th service squadron, which was in Walla Walla, Washington. And we traveled from there to Iowa, then to Rome, New York, Utica, New York, and then we were shipped out on the Elizabeth. And we were there and going across. The funny part of going across - when we shipped out I had my _____________ and cap, good shoes and everything. And I put them in, locked them in a cabinet with typewriters and everything to get them overseas. And we were out three days on the water, they informed us we were not going to Africa. We were going to England. So all the supplies went to Africa, where I lost my cap and shoes. And we got moved (once) we got to the United Kingdom.
JM: So when you got to England, did you undergo more training there, or did you just start working right away? Tell us about your early days in England.
AH: My early days in England, it was nice. It was not much more training. I worked for a while, and instead of working for the - I worked in the orderly room. I also worked for the quartermaster supply of the squadron. And then I helped work with the Air Corps. But my principle was to work with the orderly room. And take care of the mail was the first principle. The commanding officer said, you take care of that and when you go on a trip, I’ll assign the jeep or the automobile car that you’re going to drive me where I tell you to take me. So that was my principle jobs.
JM: And when you got to Horham with the 95th, tell me about the work you did there.
AH: In Horham with the 95th? My job never did change much. I did a lot of transportation of moving not only the commanding officer, but all the officers in the squadron. If they want go somewhere, to another base, they ordered a jeep or whatever transportation out of the motor pool, and I drove them. As it is, in the United Kingdom, and officer cannot drive off the base. So the enlisted man had to drive them off the base, while an officer could drive on the base, but not off the base. That was interesting to me. So I was busy. We had eight officers in our squadron. So it was either one or another of us. The enlisted men in my group said, boy aren’t you lucky. You always travel around the country. (Chuckle)
JM: Did you meet any interesting characters along the way, or hear any interesting stories in your job?
AH: Well, no. I actually didn’t that I can recall right now at the moment, you know. I got to talk to a lot of English people by traveling one place to another, you know. And enjoy the country. I’d go back now - I couldn’t drive in England now, but I could then. Of course the difference between now and then is there wasn’t much traffic in England during the war, except for military vehicles are in the road - that’s about all - British or American vehicles. And very few civilians had a car travel, other than doctors and like that. They had automobiles, but that was it. And it was easy to travel. It was easy for me to drive. I’d just keep right on the edge of the road, that’s all (laughing) - in an American vehicle.
JM: And most of the transportation that you did, was that from base to base?
AH: Mostly from base to base. Yes, I was going from base to base. I only had the privilege of going to London three times and thank heavens. London was a busy city (chuckle).
JM: Were there any aspects of your job that you really liked, disliked, or...?
AH: I’ll tell you the truth. I really enjoyed delivering the mail to the personnel, because I could see the reactions of the faces of them, of all the GI’s that were in my squadron, you know. I called their names, if I gave them a letter from their mother or parents or sweethearts or wives, I could see their expression. One fella I can remember - he’s passed away, Otis Freemer - he said, you brought me an unlucky letter. His wife wrote him a letter - she wanted to divorce him, you know. He’d always remind me of that. He always joked with me about it afterward. I enjoyed overseas. I enjoyed myself. That was one person I’ll always remember. He really like to dance. (Chuckle)
JM: Tell me about your living quarters, and what your every day life was like there.
AH: My living quarters in England - I was lucky. They had a Nissen hut, which was the quartermaster supply room for the squadron. And the front of it was the quartermaster supply, and the back of it, we cut it in half, and there were four personnel that lived there - Hymie Scherer, who was the quartermaster supply sergeant, David Dorsey, Bill Austin, and myself. And we were there until we moved. David Dorsey transferred out of the 457th when they transferred all administrative air force supply in a different department. And that’s when we lost David Dorsey. But then there was Hyman Scherer, Bill Austin, and myself that were there. And I really enjoyed it, because we had a little privilege there. And I had another, I don’t know how I’m going to express myself with this - Once a month personnel of the squadron had a physical, every fifth of the month. The first sergeant, Doctor Basset, and I, we had a physical, at 5 o’clock in the morning. I knew, when the Doctor called out first sergeant Robert Thorp. Good morning Adam. Tomorrow we get up at four in the morning. We get early in the morning for the physical. And that was my job. So some of the personnel people that had (asked me) “When’s the physical Adam?” And I says, “I don’t know. Nobody tells me.” But my commanding officer said not to tell nobody. This physical is required by law for every enlisted man. When you’re told, don’t tell them. We’ll do it, and that’s your job. So that was one of my jobs. (Chuckle) I believe, my commanding officer, George Wood, is interested to keep his enlisted men personnel happy. He always told me, Adam, you know all these personnel. If you think there’s a problem with a man, let me know. And to this point, he taught me something that I really learned. When I joined, when I came to my first reunion in Las Vegas in 1983, my wife said, do you think you’ll know these people? Yes. Because I can put the faces 25 years back - how they look, and I have. I recognized every person. I can just imagine how old he is - I never missed a one. By being in contact and passing the mail, I got to know each one. Everybody had a different personality. And I had no problem with none of them, unless I didn’t bring them a letter or something. It’s not my fault. (Laughing)
JM: You actually handed out the mail to the men of the 95th.
AH: No, the men of the 454th - my squadron. Only my squadron. Right. As a matter of fact, there was one guy that used to bring the mail for the whole base. All I can remember – his name was Pinky. He went from - I don’t know where they picked the mail from - but a certain spot, and he brought the mail to us, base 19. All the mail for all the squadrons. And then each squadron had a mailman. And I wish I could remember each of their names of the squadrons. I don’t remember who the mailmen were now. Of course, we always met and talked about how things were, you know. But the only guy I can remember is Pinky, the guy who had the privilege of going off the base to bring the mail to the base.
JM: Do you see quite a few of the people that you remember from back then?
AH: Yes, I do. When I came to Las Vegas, I don’t know if I mentioned that, but there was only four personnel there - people that I knew. One officer, Murray Helms, which he’s still alive right now, Bill Austin and David...no, not David Dorsey, excuse me. Russ Myers and George Briggs. And ___________________. There was only four of us. That was in Las Vegas in 1983. And I thought to myself, surely all the members from my squadron can’t be all dead by now. So I went back home, and there was a high school student - a friend of ours whose father and mother were close friends of ours - he was studying to be a journalist. And I was talking to him. He says, you know what, if you let me write a letter to get all members of the 95th Bomb Group and assigned to every newspaper - let me the pick the newspapers - and I’ll send them a letter. You pay the expenses and see how many show up. I says fine. So he did that. It cost me a hundred, pretty near $200. I was happy to do it. In turn, I think it was 292 in this Bomb Squadron that he found. And I found 87 members from the 64th service squadron. And I was real happy.
JM: By writing a letter to...
AH: By writing the letter. I found one from Hawaii, and one that was in Alaska. And when we were at the reunion in 1991 here - at the same hotel here - it was known as the, oh man. It wasn’t the Hilton then. It started with a B. I can’t remember now. I had 28 members from my squadron attend that reunion. And I was really happy. I just pretty near cried to see them.
JM: That was 1991?
AH: Right. When I was president of the Association that year. I was really happy there. Two or three months, one of the boys that was here that I hadn’t seen for a long time, he passed away then. And now, they’re pretty near all gone now.
JM: Tell me about what you did during your free time. If you were driving all over the place while you were working, what did you do when you had free time?
AH: Well, the free time. This is going to be a funny joke - free time. Like I said, we were living in a Nissen hut. David Dorsey and I were in competition (for) girlfriends. (Laughing) I talked to David Dorsey. He said he had a girl in Scranton. Now he always wrote a letter. And David Dorsey could really type. I never took typing in high school, so I typed with one finger. But I learned to type while writing letters. So we wrote letters. He had the girlfriend and wrote letters every night. So my typing helped me, because when I was transferred out of the 95th Bomb Group to the 100th, I went into the 351 Bomb Squadron at the 100th Bomb Group, and I got the job of making the payroll. And I tell, that was the job for me. So I went up to the finance office, and a sergeant named Colin, he says, “Adam, don’t worry, I’ll show you how to fix the payroll for a bomb squadron, and all the flying officers.” Because you had to make a voucher for each flying officer, which means typing. In my time, just as the war ended, I was typing the payroll, and I worked ‘til midnight to get that pay ended when the war was ended. Everybody was celebrating, I was typing the payroll. That was my happiest job. I’ll always remember that.
JM: Serving your country - serving your countrymen.
AH: Yeah. I learned to type there, I’ll tell you. (Laughing)
JM: So, let’s get back to what you did during your free time. You were saying how you and David Dorsey were in competition with a...
AH: Writing letters to her – he was writing letters to her. I’d write letters. That’s what we did at night then. I never did go out. I was never a beer drinker, so I never went anywhere to drink beer, you know. And I never went anywhere to go dancing. And when I started going out was when my friend, when I went to Walla Walla, Washington, my friend came in. I became friends with him. I got to Walla Walla, Washington in the evening – I can’t remember the date in November. And we were only there three days and they pulled out. Well the same day that I arrived there at midnight, John L. Williams came in from the east coast. And we bunked in the centers of the barracks. He was the next bunk – came in and woke me up when I got up. He says, my name’s John Williams. I said, I’m Adam Hinojos. He said, what are you doing? He said, I just came back from cook school. So he and I became good friends, to the point that, when we got to England, they transferred all of the cooks out of the 64th service squadron to the combat mess - not the combat mess, the ______________mess. And one of our cooks went over to the combat. And John Williams and I became very good friends and he went to Scotland one day to visit some friends. In our squadron, we have a person Darvon Dunbar. He was a Philippino. His father was brother to John Robertson in Scotland. And he married a Phillippino girl in the Philippines. When the war started, he sent all his children, which was two boys, and a daughter, to New York to get educated here. And they had a plantation, and he became a prisoner of war – I’m talking about the father. So when the war started, the boys joined the service. Darvon Dunbar ended up with the 64th service squadron. So when he got in England, he knew he had an uncle – John Robertson wrote a letter to him. His daughter, John Robertson’s, answered the letter, and signed his father’s name. So he went up and visited them. When he went up to Scotland, Annie Robertson, who ended up to be my wife, Annie Hinojos, and her girlfriend, wanted some pen pals. So they told Darvon Dunbar, when you go back to base, you get some pen pals to write us. So he got a hold of John Williams. And John Williams started writing to Eva Jarvey. And he said, Adam, I’m going to go to a furlough. Why don’t you take a furlough and go to Scotland? Come with me. So I got a furlough, went to Scotland, and I met Annie Robertson. And see, then I had lot of free time. I was always going to Scotland on weekends when we could get away. And that’s the reason I transferred out of the 95th to the 100th Bomb Group, to get married.
JM: Because that was closer to...?
AH: Well, no. Because we had to get permission, and the 95th was coming home. So I stayed on to get married, we had to transfer. Then we had to get permission and go to see the chaplain of the base, who at that time was Chaplain Hinkley, Father Hinkley. And we met him. For some reason, our papers got lost when we had them done, and we had to redo them again. We went back to see our chaplain Hinkley again. At that time, we had to (interview) the girls. We had (to interview) Eva, and my wife Annie. They got interviewed the way they interviewed the GI’s too. So when we finished the interview, Chaplain Hinkley I remember said to Annie, he says, I’ll give you this pen and a piece of paper. He said, I want you to write what you’ve been telling me. So my wife thought to herself, she told me later, I’m going to get a test. He said, I want you to write what you told. Well, see, my wife had a Scottish brogue, and that’s what was throwing him off. But Chaplain Hinkley gave us the key of his jeep. He said, drive around the base, take them in a B-17, so we did that. It was nice. So Chaplain Hinkley happened to be our chaplain for the 95th Association. So when I met him in Pennsylvania, he remembered that. And I’ll always remember that, and I’ll always like Chaplain Hinkley. He was really nice to us.
JM: So you got to ride in a B-17?
AH: No, we got to walk into it – show the girls a B-17. He said, just don’t get off the base. Let’s stay on the base. I’ll always remember that – that’s the first thing he told us. When we got to the interview before for the tape you have in Arizona, Chaplain Hinkley said, I’ll do this interview if you and Annie go with me. So that’s how we got the interview because (we went with him). We always kept in contact with Chaplain Hinkley, until he passed away.
JM: That’s a wonderful story.
AH: It sure is, you know. And another thing, I want to say this. That letter B in B-17 and 95th Bomb Group means a lot to me because when I got discharged, I went to work for a big corporation in Lemoore there. It was a big cotton farm – they farm in Australia and everything. And that’s the __________________ Company, and theirs was the diamond B. And I worked under the diamond B for 36 years. So the B means a lot to me.
JM: An important letter.
AH: An important letter – yeah. From a diamond B, from a B from the 95th, to the B of the diamond B.
JM: So you got married when you were over there.
AH: Overseas, right.
JM: And did you stay over there, or did you come back pretty soon after?
AH: I stayed there until after 100th transferred out, we went to the chemical company, and we stayed there and we closed the bases in England. We closed seven before I came home in February of ‘46.
JM: With your bride.
AH: No, she came home later. She came home in August of ‘46. What happened there, when I got at Camp ______________, California the Army wanted to discharge me the last day of February. So working in Finance and everything, I knew that if I stayed one more day, my wife would get one more allotment. So I played hooky, and then got out March 1st. So I gave her one more day allotment. (Laughing)
JM: Any other experiences with the 95th that you would like to tell us?
AH: Well, I would like to find out something that happened to us in the 95th. My first sergeant, Robert Thorpe, Hyman Scherer, and I don’t remember – there were four of us – was it Bill Austin or – it could have been Bill Austin. There was four of us anyhow. We were going to the mess hall in the morning for breakfast when there was an accident just above our heads. I believe it was a B-17 and 24 crashed while they were rendezvousing. So the first sergeant said, let’s go and see where they landed. So we went back to the barracks, got in a jeep, and drove out. And we found the B-17 – it had crashed outside of the base. We got there. The plane had burned completely, and the only thing that was standing still was the seat of the pilot and co-pilot. The officers were still there. The burning fire, so Robert Thorpe says, we can’t leave these poor souls burning. Let’s get – we had some blankets, so we got each a blanket, removed the pilot and the co-pilot, and brought them off (the plane). And we no sooner got them down when the MP’s got there and gave us the dickens. They said, you guys had no business here. I said, they were burning in fire. We removed the bodies. And to this day, I don’t know who the plane was, or who was in it. I wish we could find out. I always pray for those poor souls. He couldn’t tell me. He remembered that crash of the plane. He said, Adam, I just can’t find out. It wasn’t our plane; it was a plane from a different group. But it was a B-17 that landed. And I do know it crashed into a 24. It was cloudy, and one plane was too far behind. And we saw the crash in the air.
JM: Have you talked to Ed Charles? He was historian for a while. Do you know Ed Charles?
AH: I know Ed Charles.
JM: You might ask him, you know. He’s done a lot of research on his own, and he might know.
AH: I’m Catholic, and I always pray for souls like that, even to this day. But it would be easier to pray if I knew the names.
JM: Yeah.
AH: That’s the only (bad incident) that I can remember, you know. It’s something you had to do, whether the MP’s liked it or not. That’s how we felt anyhow.
JM: You have to act on your conscience – do what you think is right. Any other experiences, maybe some funny things that might have happened, or some happy things that you remember.
AH: A funny thing, you know. My buddy, John Williams and I, after he and I got close friends, we each had a bike and we’d go bicycling on the weekends, you know, when there was nothing to do, we were off duty. We cycled to different towns. One time we cycled clear to Yarmouth – I think it was out on the coast there. And we were so tired coming back that we decided to take a shortcut through the airfield. And that was a no-no. (chuckle) We were so tired, the MP’s picked up. They told us, because he had a different commanding officer because he was transferred. They told George Woods, and George Woods called me to the office. Adam, what happened? I told him, I said...well, he said, that’s fine Adam. He says, I know you didn’t mean it, so just stay on the base for a couple of days. And I said, well, I never go anywhere. But that was the only funny part. We were both so tired. We thought, gee, I can’t go clear around – (the airfield) (chuckle) But someone was watching.
JM: So you returned home after the war was over. What was your homecoming like? You didn’t get the parades and flags
AH: No, I didn’t get the parades and flags. As a matter of fact, I got in ________________ March 1st. I went up to my last inspection to the dentist. And I got my papers, got a ticket on Greyhound, came down to Goshen, California, and I got a bus to go to Lemoore, California where I lived. And I arrived there at midnight. And I saw Pinky, who was a police officer. He saw me and he said, “Hey Adam, welcome home.” I said, “I just got home on the bus.” He said, come on, get in. I’ll give you a ride to your home. He knew where my Dad lived. See, my Dad and I only lived together. My mother died when I was 8 months old, and my Dad raised me. So I was the only member of the family. So when the war came, my Dad asked me, what are you going to do? I said, Dad, I’m going to go into service so I can go into the service that I want to go. I don’t want to be called into the Infantry. I don’t want to be drafted. I want to just join to get to the part of the service I’d like to be in. So my Dad, I woke him up. He was real happy to see me, you know. So then I went back to working, carpenter work. What I did then, we took the barracks from the Lemoore Air Base – the Lemoore Air Base by then was closed down - transferred all the barracks to make housing for GI’s and their wives in different towns. We moved the barracks and made them into houses. We took some of them to different towns, Lemoore (and) all the surrounding areas are Fresno – even to Fresno. As a matter of fact, when we were in Fresno, we were coming home and there were four of us in the car. I had a lunch bucket on my left side. As we coming to town, someone forgot to stop at the stop sign, and hit us right square center. I had my ribs busted from this side, my lunch bucket on the inside. I ended in the hospital and my wife was still overseas, you know. So I spent three months without doing anything until Annie arrived in August of ‘46. And the funny part there. When she arrived, she couldn’t find out where she was going to, so some lady on the train – she was coming across country – told her to send your husband a night letter, and tell him you’re arriving. And she said she was going to ride in _________________, California. And she gave me the date, so I met her. I had an old ‘35 Chevy, so I got over and met the train, waiting for the train to come in. She didn’t recognize me. I had gained a little weight. When I went to the service, I weighed about 214 when I was in the service. When I came out of the service, I weighed 155. When she saw me, I weighed about 190 pounds. So we got up there - got her clothes and everything in, and she, not knowing the country in the month of August, she had – she was wearing a fur coat. (Chuckle) And then the car wouldn’t start (laughing). The fuel pump had gone out. And the fella up the street was a Montgomery Ward store. So I took the fuel pump out, and went over there. I had no money, so she had some money left over, because when they came home, they were not allowed to bring no more than $50 from the United Kingdom. So she had some money. She gave me $5, and I changed it and – the fuel pump cost me $3 and something. I got the fuel pump started, and to this day I’m paying the $5 (laughing). But we had a big welcome home. We had a Spanish dinner at home for her. And she wasn’t used to Spanish food. She said, corn on the cob? She said, we don’t eat corn in England. She said, that’s for feeding to the chickens and hogs, you know. (Chuckle) Of course, she’d never eaten hot salsa, you know. But we had a nice time.
JM: Now since you were married to a Scottish girl, did you go back over?
AH: Oh yeah. We went back. She went back with our two children, Joanne and Johnny. And they were, let’s see, I can’t remember how old they were. They were both in school, and they went back. They stayed three months over there. I told her, do you want to go back, do you want to stay with your folks three months with the kids. So at times, they got back just the day before school started. And when they got back, that had the Scottish brogue. (Chuckle) So, the kids enjoyed it. And then I’ve been back – my wife and I have been back there I guess five times now. And we went back, and our daughter’s been with us back. And our son’s been back with us. One time, he went back with us. And we enjoyed it. We enjoyed it, and they enjoyed the ones. Now all our relatives come back and see us. When I was with the 95th, I was always fighting to have a reunion in Texas. So when the 95th had the Reunion in San Antonio, I couldn’t make it. The kids decided to give us our 50th anniversary, and our anniversary’s on the 18th of September, which is about the same time the reunion is going on. So we stayed home. And we had written to all the nephews, my wife, and every one of them says, sorry we can’t make it. So we had a reunion in the Holiday Inn by the airport. And our friend, Frank Coleman, who has gone through Lemoore Air Base during the war, says “I’m going to come over to your 50thanniversary, but I’m going to come a day early so I can go visit what’s left of the base in Lemoore. So my son came over. He’s living in San Diego, came over. And my wife said, you come and pick us up and take us to the Holiday Inn so we can greet the plane, and then he’ll bring us back home, when he goes to see the base. And my son says, no, I can’t do that. I’m too tired tonight. The question was, we found out later, when we went up to the reunion the next day they picked us up. They said, wait a while here in this door. And the Holiday Inn had two doors at the opposite end of the hall. We said okay. Now we come in, and the player recorder of Scottish music. As we went in from one door, she and I, I walking with our daughter, Annie walking with our son. On the opposite side, the door opened to the all of Annie’s (relatives). (Emotional) That was a big shock, alright. She said, where am I going to put everyone? But the kids had taken care of the housing for us. And when they were all here, that same year Annie and I had traveled to Phoenix and Arizona, and went to see the Grand Canyon for the first time. When they came in, they all wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, so we had to go back again (Laughing).
JM: That’s a wonderful story.
AH: We have Harry and Anne. They have come in. They attended the Portland, Oregon reunion with us. And they’re associated members from overseas. They would have come this year, but he has a heart. He needs to have his heart operated, but the socialize medicine in England – he’s been having problems for nine year or more. He was in the military service in Britain with it, and then he was a police officer. He retired with it. And they tell him, when you have a heart attack, we’ll take care of it. And that’s funny. I sure wouldn’t like to be a member of socialized medicine for that reason. He called me and said, I wish I could have come. They told me I couldn’t take long trips. Right now, as a matter of fact, right now they’re in Germany. They took a trip to Germany. The call us about every two weeks. Either we call them, or they call us. So we keep in touch with the family.
JM: We’re getting toward the end of the tape here. Is there anything else that you would like to add about your time in World War II?
AH: World War II? Well, like I said, I was officiating in I think it was ‘82 - ‘83. Who went to the reunion in New Orleans – outside of New Orleans - what was the name? Ricky ....Ricky Frankel, who was a - Frankel who....
JM: Oh, Art Frankel.
AH: Art Frankel. He say’s Adam, don’t you want to talk about your commanding officer? (?) Here’s his address. I didn’t know where his address was. It said George Wood. He said here. So I copied his address and phone number and everything. And he lived in _______________, California. So when I got back from the reunion I called him. And he said, hi Adam, how have you been? I says, fine. I says, George, I’d like to come visit you. Adam, I’d like to see you. So the first weekend that I kind of had a furlough, I went up there. I had a vacation from the company that I worked for. I went up there the first week and visited him. I went up and I got hotel and I called him from the hotel. He says Adam, come on down tomorrow morning. We’ll see you. And we visited him and we had a good acquaintance. And then he took us traveling around for a while. He went to the reunion in Seattle, when we were in Seattle, Washington, he came to the reunion. And as a matter of fact, Bill Austin came to that reunion. And I was hoping that he would be able to come, because like I said, Bill was one of the guys – he, David Dorsey and I and Hymie Scherer lived together for all that time. I’d just come in from a tour from that Seattle Reunion there, and I’d just come in the door, and I was looking at the roster. And somebody says, Hinojos. And I turned around. I knew the minute I heard the voice, I knew who it was. I says, Bill Austin. I understand his voice. And George Wood rented a car and took us around Seattle. He was stationed one time in the war in Seattle. And while he was driving us around town, he laughed. He looked in the mirror, and he said, Adam, you know what I’m laughing at? He said, when you were overseas, you drove me around. Now here, I’m driving you around. (Chuckle) That was an incident for you – to see guys. So then, I think it was when we were in the reunion in Philadelphia. Art Frankel asked me to go help him count the money. And I forgot who was the secretary at the time. The money had been taken in, so we went into the room and counted the money. And I was talking to Art Frankel, I said I knew a person who was in my squadron – we should have him here. He says why? I said because he was a banker. He said, get a hold of him. So going back to this young fella that was in journalism. When he asked me to do all the writing for the newspapers, he said Mr. Hinojos, is there anybody you would like to talk to right now if I get a hold of them? I said David Dorsey. He said where? I said, well, he lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I know he’s gotten married. I don’t know if he moved out of town. All I can tell you is he always talked Scranton, Pennsylvania. His name was David E. Dorsey. He said, well let me go get into my phone connection to the town of Pennsylvania and see if I can locate him. Finally, he was upstairs, and he says, Mr. Hinojos, would you take the phone downstairs? I’ve got David Dorsey for you. And so when I talked to David, he was so happy. And I said, David, why don’t you join the organization? I sure will. Give me the information. Gave him the information. That’s how I got David Dorsey to the 95th, and he became our treasurer.
JM: Well boy, you have made a big contribution.
AH: Yeah. David Dorsey, when he was in the service, I said what did you do, Dave? He said, I was a bank teller. Well when I find David Dorsey at that time, I said, what are you doing Dave? He says, you won’t believe it. I’m retiring as a bank president. And he sent me the clipping. You know what a bank president looks like? Heavy and husky? Well that’s what David Dorsey looked in the paper. I still got the clipping at home, I think. (Chuckle) So that’s how David Dorsey – he was happy. He said, Adam, I enjoy it. Because he liked doing what he did with money. And I’ve been with David Dorsey many a times at his home. He’s got a nice daughter. She brought him here. He’s pretty sick. Sally called and said I wish you’d get somebody from the 95th to help my father. He’s getting lost. So I called Sally and says why don’t you come with your father with the reunion. So this is the first one. And I think if I talk to her, she’ll go to Washington.
JM: Wonderful. Well thank you so much, Adam. We really appreciate your taking the time today, and also for all your contributions that you’ve made, not only during World War II, but to the history of the 95th.