From World War II to Vietnam

Hanging out with the Thursday morning breakfast veterans’ group, the “Deplorables” (yes, they still go by that name) always puts a smile on your face. The camaraderie shared by the group’s members is admirable and makes one grateful for their service to this country.

One particular member, John East, born in far West Texas, the son of an oil field driller, attained the rank of Lt. Col. In the Air Force and served the country for 22 years from 1942 until 1964. Remembering his start in the service, it was a call of duty.

“I was 22 and married with 2 children and one on the way. I was driving in my Chevrolet Coupe from Beaumont, with my wife and two kids to China, Texas. I heard the news (Pearl Harbor) on the radio. I told my wife, ‘I’m going,’ and she said, ‘I know,” said East.

“I wanted to fly. I saw an airplane in 1939. I said to myself, ‘I have to have one of them.” He signed up with the Army Air Corps and soon had a B-17 to fly. He flew 31 bombing missions.

“All the way into Poland, Berlin eight times, factories of some kind…there was something on the ground and we dropped a bomb on it,” East said matter-of-factly. He especially liked Poland, as that is where the Germans trained their new pilots, an easy target.

After the war, he left the now U.S. Air Force and returned to his wife Dollie and children. But after a short time he was recalled and served the tail end of the Korean War. He was stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands to “rehab the telephone circuits” during the Korean and Cold Wars.

“I worked both sides of the oceans, Europe for World War II and the other side for Korea. (I had) communication responsibility for that area.” He was then transferred to Washington, D.C where he served through the beginning of Vietnam. When he retired in 1964, after 22 years he “walked across the street to NASA Headquarters and worked there” during the Mercury Astronaut program.

“My daughters used to babysit astronauts’ kids,” when the family lived in Clear Lake area of Houston and worked at the Johnson Space Center. The family then really retired to Wimberley.

Moving to Wimberley did not slow him down. He had a new project; he needed a house to go on the 13 acres they owned. “I built the house with my own two hands. It is 26,000 square feet, two stories. With my own two hands,” he said with a wide, wide grin.

He still lives in that house, with his grandson’s family as the upkeep of the house became too much to take care of, “and they allow me to live there.” His sense of humor is keen for a man who celebrated his 98 birthday a few weeks ago.

He was married to his wife Dollie for 75 years when she died. A son has also died. His two daughters are in their 60s and 80s.

But East just keeps going strong and attends the Thursday morning meetings, happy to not only being at the weekly breakfast meetings, but also hanging out with his good friends and his comrades in arms.