Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham introduced the latest installment of the General Land Office’s Voices of Veterans Oral History Program, featuring Boatswain Mate 3rd Class Gayle Bowen’s account of his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, according to a GLO news release.
Bowen was born in Post, Texas, in 1927 on a farm, and his family later moved into town, where his father worked with automobiles and operated a gas station where Bowen worked alongside his siblings, the release said. Despite the hardships of the Dust Bowl, Bowen recalled in the interview, “I didn’t know we were poor.” His father traded auto parts and vehicles for goods including food. “We made it real fine,” Bowen said.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked during Bowen’s seventh-grade year, he was deeply affected, according to the release. “I was devastated, as was the rest of the family. From that time, I was just wanting to get in there,” he said. His older brother was drafted into the Army, and while his family missed him, Bowen remained eager to enlist, the GLO said.
In 1944, at age 17, Bowen and a friend convinced their fathers to allow them to join the Navy, according to the release. After basic training in San Diego, Bowen was assigned to the 4th gunnery division aboard an aircraft carrier and served as a temporary mess cook.
Bowen described the moment his carrier, the USS Franklin, came under attack on March 19, 1945: “At 7:07 in the morning, a Japanese plane came in through the clouds… It dropped two bombs on us,” he said. He was in the mess hall peeling potatoes near fellow sailor Homer D. Simms when the attack occurred, according to the release.
The interview is archived in the GLO’s Office of Veterans Records and is available to researchers and the public, the agency said. More than 500 veteran stories have been documented through the Voices of Veterans program to date.