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Al Wainscott relaxes at
home in McKenzie
McKenzie's Al Wainscott spent many years in locales
far removed from West Tennessee, though his mother, then
living in Chicago where his father was a street car
conductor, chose the family farm in the Bell Store Road,
Tumbling Creek vicinity as his birthplace on March 9,
1926.
There, Al smiles proudly, stands the "most beautiful
country church there is" - Tumbling Creek Baptist Church
- on land donated by his maternal grandparents.
After finishing the fourth grade in Chicago, Al returned
to the farm with his parents, Clarence Wainscott and
Georgie Lawrence Wainscott, and their brood of four
children - three boys and a girl - of which Al came
second.
A year later the family moved to Gleason where Al
attended school and where his father and a business
partner, Dudley Rooney, were partners in a grocery
store. After two years in the business Rooney sold his
share to J.C. Dillinger, followed six months later by
the sale of Wainscott's half to J.D. Dillinger. The pair
continued operation of the store for many years.
Back on the farm, Al walked eight miles to school in
Gleason where he was on the football team from the
eighth grade through graduation. His father returned to
Chicago for work after his junior year though his mother
stayed home so Al could finish his schooling. He made
the All Weakley County football team in 1943 before
graduating in 1944 during the height of World War II.
"At the time if you were in the first half of your
senior year (and your number came up) you were drafted;
if you were in the second half you were deferred until
after you graduated," Al explains with a wry smile. "I
graduated one night and left the next morning on the
train to Camp Shelby. That's how fast they took you."
Following basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, he was
trained in the signal corps as a forward observer, a
treacherous vocation that would place Wainscott at the
front of battle from which he, among crews of three men
each, could direct artillery fire and lay telephone wire
to bypass the need for handheld radio communications
that were often intercepted by the enemy.
From Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, Al and thousands of other
soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division made their way
across the ocean in a 22-day journey slowed by the
necessity to zig-zag through waters made dangerous by
German U-boats.
After reaching France, the perilous journey turned into
a nightmare as the men fought their way north toward the
Siegfried Line only to face devastating losses in the
Battle of Hürtgen Forest in the winter of 1944.
During his first rotation to the front lines on
observation patrol in a routine that generally involved
three days at the front and three days back, a land mine
took the lives of the sergeant and lieutenant in his
crew, while throwing him out of the vehicle. Wainscott
continued the mission with a new jeep, a new sergeant
and a new lieutenant.
"That was the first trip, it didn't take long to get
acclimated to war time," he declares.
The crew would locate the highest building from which to
make their observations, then would run wire from the
front to the rear guard. Operations took place in a
T-trench with the switchboard set up in the top of the T
while the operator worked in the lower portion.
The Germans would stick pins in the lines to disrupt
communications, leaving Al and others to crawl on their
stomachs in search of the problem, or, most often, to
take the easier route of running a new line.
The men learned as well to stay close to trees whose
tops would fall in a deadly onslaught after the Germans
discovered the treetops felled by mortar or artillery
fire caused more casualties than weaponry.
"More than 24,000 Americans were killed, missing,
captured or wounded" in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest,
according to the 28th Infantry Association Website,
while "another 9,000 succumbed to the misery of trench
foot, respiratory diseases and combat fatigue." An
estimated 28,000 German soldiers became casualties as
well.
The site concurs with Al's assessment of the futility of
the battle, which, he says, was marked by "many
blunders."
"I can only remember one or two people and then only by
first name," he complains, frustrated at losses that,
throughout the war, resulted in the division being
replaced in strength three times over as young men met
their dooms on foreign soil.
Al went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge where
close fighting resulted in his capture three times in
one day as enemy and friendly forces repeatedly over-ran
each other. He was awarded two Bronze Star medals,
designated for soldiers who "while serving in any
capacity in or with the Army of the United States after
6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by
heroic or meritorious achievement or service... in
connection with military operations against an armed
enemy..."
On June 18, 2002 the still grateful French government
bestowed upon each of the veterans of the 28th Infantry
division of 1944-45 a certificate honoring them as the
first group to liberate Paris, France during the war.
Back on American soil, Al was home on leave in
preparation for deployment to the Pacific theatre when
the war ended with Japan's surrender.
At Boston Harbor,
returning troops were greeted with boats carrying USO
girls, prompting soldiers to jump overboard in their
joy to be home. The return trip took just six days
compared with 22 days zig-zagging through U-boat
infested waters enroute to France.
Later assigned to Camp Swift, Texas, Al was aboard a
troop train in Kankakee, Illinois when a conductor
advised there was just one stop - in McKenzie Tennessee
- before continuing their southward journey. Al placed a
quick call to his cousin Myrtle Dillinger in Gleason,
who alerted his parents.
"When the train got to McKenzie they were waiting," he
smiles happily, "It was just a few minutes but we met!"
While at Camp Swift, Al says, he played football on the
division artillery team and went out for the boxing and
basketball teams. A scrimmage with the University of
Texas Longhorns before his discharge resulted in the
university's invitation for three among the Army team to
attend the University of Texas on the V-12 military
scholarship program that allowed veterans to participate
in college athletics.
With credit given for his Signal Corps training, Al
attended the University of Texas as a member of the
football team while earning his degree in electrical
engineering.
He worked for Western Electric in Chicago for a
year-and-a-half to two years, then received a call
advising the switchboards in Greenfield and Sharon were
to be modified. He came to Tennessee to complete the job
then stayed on with the phone company in Martin until
the day he fell from a utility pole while making repairs
during an ice storm and broke his arm.
"I said I wasn't climbing no more poles," declares Al,
who then went on the road as a magazine distributor over
a crew of six salesmen, traveling "all over the
country."
During a trip to New Jersey he met his first wife,
Betty, with whom he was married for 20 years. Their
daughter, Debbie, who lives in Washington, D.C., is the
mother of three of Al's grandchildren.
While married to his first wife, Al says, he caddied for
seven years in private golf clubs in Boston and New
Jersey. For three years, he played halfback for the
semi-pro football team, the Boonton Panthers, then
played another year with the Franklin Miners, whose
owner, Al relates, helped start the AFL. He then joined
the New York Titans for a two-year stint in the pro
league.
He worked at ITT as project manager in charge of
developing the FAA glide path control system for
airports. Another project involved building a ship to
shore radio system for the Navy after which he embarked
in an assignment at the D.E.W. (Distant Early Warning
System) line in Point Barrow Alaska.
"It was very cold," says Al, "Sometimes we didn't
venture out it was so cold. I only stayed six months -
it was enough."
He also worked for Westinghouse making televisions,
radios and stereos.
"During this time I met a scientist from Bell Labs and
they were starting a new company in the solid state
field," he says, "I was plant manager. We grew our own
crystal in solid state form, sliced and polished them,
then built them into solid state equipment. We were
bought by Raytheon."
Back home he became active in local politics, first
being appointed as Recreation Commissioner and then
running a successful campaign to become a member of the
Danville, New Jersey City Council. During his second
year as a council member, he relates, the mayor's death
resulted in Al's appointment as mayor for the rest of
his term.
"I did not run for the second term because I was getting
too active in other things," says Al, who was heavily
involved in the affairs of the American Legion,
including serving as commander, and was also active in
the 40/Et 8, "an independent fraternal organization of
veterans organized in 1920 as an honor society of
American Legionnaires in which membership is by
invitation. Its title is derived from French boxcars in
World War I that transported both men and horses to
battle, on the sides of which were stenciled their
capacity: forty men or eight horses. Al also served as
commander of this organization.
He laughs at the changes in his holiday observances over
the years, recalling the Fourth of July was once the
first big holiday of the year. After "numerous years",
that changed to Mother's Day when people would gather at
church for dinner on the grounds and an all-day singing.
"Then came Tater Town Day," he smiles, "I never missed
one."
Labor Day, in earlier years, meant an early flight from
Newark, New Jersey to Memphis where a rental car was
waiting for his trip to Gleason. It was on one of these
trips, on Labor Day, 1980, that he met his wife, Mary
Catherine, to whom he was married on his birthday, March
9, after a six month courtship.
"She had a son and daughter and they have been the joy
of my life," Al says proudly, "They accepted me into the
family, very much so."
Al and Mary Catherine had met originally 38 years
earlier during a summer internship in Memphis while Al
was in college. "We never saw each other again until
1980," he muses.
Al worked as a salesman with Zep Maufacturing out of
Atlanta, Georgia for 30 years, during which he earned
"many accolades" for his skills in selling, including
Salesman of the Year and the President's Award for 25
years. The last two years of his career, he worked from
the company's Paducah, Kentucky office, where his
sister, Joyce Hall lived, before retiring to McKenzie
where he managed the V.F.W. for two years and served as
the manager of the Country Club for two and a half
years.
He now works as a sales representative for the
Memphis-based Topmost Chemical and Paper Company,
selling janitorial supplies.
Besides Debbie's three children, Al and Mary Catherine
have three grandchildren from children Scottie
McCullough and Sue Ray as well as four great
grandchildren.
Al lost his parents in a devastating three-car accident
in McKenzie on Mother's Day 1964, the day his brother
Charles was to be ordained as a minister.
During his extensive travels, Al was present for five
World's Fairs. His plans are to keep working and playing
golf. He's a 40-year member of the American Legion, a
life member of the VFW and a member of the Carroll Lake
Country Club. |
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