Oral history interview of Alfred Paul Cadenhead

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Alfred Paul Cadenhead
Creator:: Lacy, Margaret
Cadenhead, Alfred Paul, 1926-
Date of Original:: 2004-06-23
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Communications
Memorial Day
Atomic bomb
Cadenhead, Alton Roy, 1924-
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Wallace, Henry A. (Henry Agard), 1888-1965
Ingram, Irving S.
O'Neal, Janie
Tanksley, Jeff
Scott, Robert
United States. Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944
United States. Army. Judge Advocate General's Corps
United States. Army. Airborne Division, 82nd
United States. Parachute Infantry Regiment, 504th
University of West Georgia
People:: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Location:: United States, Florida, Clay County, Camp Blanding, 29.94686, -81.97324
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Georgia, Troup County, 33.03351, -85.02834
United States, Georgia, Troup County, LaGrange, 33.03929, -85.03133
United States, North Carolina, Cumberland County, Fort Bragg, 35.139, -79.00603
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: MovingImage
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Paul Cadenhead remembers his childhood, education and career as a paratrooper and later as an attorney. He grew up in a sharecropping family; later he supported his family by working in a mill and going to school in the evenings. He worked as a messenger in Atlanta and recalls landmarks such as Terminal Station, Union Station and the Rialto Theater. Knowing the war was approaching, he kept himself fit by using the stairs instead of the elevators in office buildings such as the Candler building. Enlisting in the Army, he became a combat communications paratrooper, jumping with 100 pounds of equipment. His final jump was a simulated jump into Japan in preparation for the invasion, which was halted due to the atomic bomb. He relates many stories of people and events that influenced his life, and describes the mood of the nation at the end of the war. After the war he remained in the Reserves and earned a law degree.
Paul Cadenhead was a paratrooper during World War II.
A. Paul Cadenhead Veterans History Project Atlanta History Center September 16, 2004 [Tape 1, Side A] Interviewer: [inaudible] My name is Margaret Lacy, and Mr. Alfred Paul Cadenhead is here to speak to us this morning. Thank you very much, Mr. Cadenhead. Cadenhead: Thank you for having me. Interviewer: Where do we want to begin? When you first started or when you got in the service? Cadenhead: Well, I originated down in Troop County in a rural community called Oak Grove on Turkey Creek. Like so many Americans in those days, we lived in houses without electricity, without plumbing. And World War II really sort of introduced us to civilization, which we later adopted and which, because of World War II and the G.I. Bill of Rights, we became professionals and rather successful. And we're grateful to it. But my early years were in rural Georgia. We had only one teacher for all of high school, for the first two years of high school. Then I was privileged to go to Chipley High School, which is now Pine Mountain High School. I graduated. From there, I could not afford to go to college, but the very sensitive and very helpful superintendent there got me into a vocational school at Carrollton, where I studied sheet metal and welding. And having an undying desire to go to college, I was enabled to go from that vocational school to college from the help of Dr. I. S. [?] Ingram at West Georgia College. There, knowing that I was headed to military, I finished two years in a year and three months. And then came to Atlanta. And again, knowing I was headed for the service, I took a job as a messenger, a temporary job as a messenger and delivered Western Union messages all over Atlanta. I knew how many steps there were to the top of the Candler Building, to the top of the Rhodes-Haverty Building because… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Oh. Oh, yes. This is true and I did walking, of course. Knowing that I was headed for the military, I wanted to be in physical shape. So instead of riding an elevator, if I had a message to deliver on the twenty-second floor of the Candler Building, or whatever building I was in, I would walk up the twenty-four floors or whatever there were. So at that time, I knew how many stairs there were to the top of each building in Atlanta. Then I went into the service. I signed up for immediate induction. I went through the draft process, but I signed up for immediate induction. And six weeks after I was eighteen, I was in uniform in basic training at… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: That's correct. At Camp Blanding, Florida. And from there, after basic training, I volunteered for the paratroops and after getting my wings, still at eighteen, I volunteered for Special Services and got into combat communications, where our special training was to jump in, set up a communication network to have the larger forces come in. Well, of course, we were looking toward the invasion of Japan. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Paratroops? I volunteered. [counter-85] Well, actually, when I went in the service I wanted the Marines because that's where my older brother was. And, of course, they were full and I got the Army. So I decided I wanted something more than that. So I volunteered for the paratroops. Interviewer: And that's your first [inaudible]. Cadenhead: I had never been in an airplane. My first eleven times up, I jumped. I made a total of thirteen jumps, two of which were after the war ended. Eleven…the sequence…and I kept a diary of all the jumps, which you have. The first five are made in five consecutive days to get your wings. And then after getting your wings, then you either go into specialized training or head out as a replacement in some paratroop infantry regiment. I got into specialized training, made six more jumps there in combat communications and those were the heavy ones. Those were ones where would jump with a hundred pounds tied to you of communications equipment with simulated combat situations. Different from your qualifying jumps because there all you did was make the jump. Then the interesting thing, I think, and shows how many of us were saved, my eleventh jump was on August eighth, 1945. And it was a simulated invasion jump into Japan, and it was pretty horrible. Artillery, live machine gun fire, all of that that you would expect in actual combat, even though it was simulated. That was on August eighth. Providentially, on August ninth, the second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and instead of invading Japan, I cooled my heels in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, just waiting to be discharged, so. Interviewer: Japan would have been bad. Cadenhead: The casualty rate of the invasion of Japan would have been horrible. I therefore, at any time I hear President Harry Truman being criticized for dropping that second bomb, I stage a defense for him as if he were a client [laughs] and I am defending him. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: But it was interesting and it opened up many doors. As I said, I grew up in rural surroundings and through the G.I. Bill, when I came out of the service I was able to attend Emory Law School in what there is known as the classes of World War II veterans, because all of us who entered then were older, we were not fresh out of college, we had lot of experiences. I graduated there and adopted Atlanta and Atlanta adopted me and I've had a very happy and successful career as a lawyer. And I attribute it all to my service in World War II and the avenues created through the G.I. Bill. Interviewer: Do you think that [inaudible] later [inaudible]? Cadenhead: No. Oh, it did. Yes. Interestingly, on some of my jumps. When we would have nothing to do at night out in the wilderness, I would stick a law book in my pack and I would study it while I was out there. I had just an undying dream of becoming a lawyer, that I thought was impossible. But… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I did. And I've always said, and I think statistics will sustain this, that instead of an expense to the government, the G.I. Bill was a tremendous investment. Because if you take my case only, just think how many times over I have repaid in taxes the cost that it took to get me through law school. And if you multiply that by the millions of others like me, it doesn't take much imagination to see that the government made a wise investment in elevating persons like myself from poverty into successful and contributing citizens. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Not an awful lot because I was in specialized training. I went to Fort…to Camp Blanding for basic training. From there I volunteered, at the conclusion of that training, for the paratroops and was held over. Two of us were held over when our company shipped out. The other one, a fella named Culpepper, was coming with me to the paratroops but he washed out in the paratroop training and didn't make it. So I was the only one from our company in basic training to qualify as a paratrooper. So I came to Fort Benning. Then after that, in the specialized training, went into…I assume it was [inaudible]. I'm sure it was an adjunct of Fort Benning called the Alabama area. And took this specialized training there and then as I said, instead of heading to the West Coast for the invasion of Japan in August when the second bombed dropped, I then went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and came out of the field into headquarters company where I had a real soft job there [inaudible]. It was in the headquarters plans and training where we planned the jumps. And I made only two jumps at Fort Bragg. We called them morale jumps up there because the troops were waiting to get out of the service and waiting to be discharged, and if they didn't jump they got sloppy. And so, we in headquarters just called it a morale jump and we would get together plans and make jumps and we made two, I made two in that scenario for a total of thirteen jumps. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Yes. We had…well, we had three persons to a station and at the station you had to have various equipment. You had to have a generator. Then it was done by hand, not by battery, so you had to have a generator. Then you had to have a radio to send out the signal and then, as might be expected in a jump you could damage machinery, parts, so we had a spare parts bag. One guy would jump with the…one guy of the threesome would jump with the generator, one with the radio, one with the spare parts bag. And, of course, in addition, you had your own bivouac equipment, your rifle, your ammunition and all of that [inaudible]. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: It was heavy. It was heavy. But it was great training. I wouldn't take anything for having gone through that training. Interviewer: What would you say was the most memorable [inaudible] experience? Cadenhead: Well, I'm going to tell you the most memorable and I don't know why this is the one that comes to my mind in response to that. But after the war was over, as I say we were simply waiting to be discharged. I was an enlisted man at that time. I was a sergeant. I later, in the reserves [became] a judge advocate after I got my law degree [and] became a first lieutenant. But at this time, at Fort Bragg, I was a sergeant. And my wife, then my girlfriend…well, let me tell you that first and then you'll understand this [inaudible]. We refused to get married before the war was over. I knew where I was headed and I was not going to leave a…possibly leave a young widow. So we decided, of course, we would not get married until the war was over. The war ended in September. We married in October. [laughs] So I was still in the service when we… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I was laughingly kidded by a lot of my friends that I was a cheapskate because I didn't have to have the expense of tuxedos and all of this. All my male partners were in uniform. So we really had a military wedding. But anyway, at Fort Bragg my wife had sent me a very nice pair of woolen socks to wear with my jump boots. Very nice. And on a Saturday afternoon, I had washed those out, hung them out to dry and when I went to get them, somebody had taken my socks. And there was a pair not nearly as nice as mine right down the line. And I said, “Darn it! If somebody got mine, I'm gonna get others.” So I got them and I took them back into my locker. That night I showered and then again, I guess providentially, my wife had given me a little Testament, New Testament, when I went in the service with a message in it. And it accompanied me on every jump and [inaudible] water stains and everything on it [inaudible]. Well, that night when I got in my bunk, [inaudible] reading it, and lo and behold the passage I read was in effect, “If someone steals your coat, give him your cloak also.” I was dumbfounded. I closed it. I got up. Got those socks. Went back out and put ‘em back on the line where I had gotten them and then got to thinking. That is the way we intervene and stop things. If I stole some…somebody stole mine, I steal his, they steal. And somewhere, you need to stop that. And so I feel that that night, that providential reading… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: …possibly stopped a chain of theft. So that is a small item, but it's a memorable one. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: But I didn't get them back. I didn't get them back. The thing, though, let me comment on Atlanta during that time. As I say, I came to Atlanta as a messenger. And perhaps I'm emotional and have moods and so forth, but I couldn't help but visualize Atlanta then as the big city that it was compared to where I had come from. And I was very familiar with landmarks like Terminal Station, Union Station, the bus station. And there is an event at Terminal Station that still at times causes me to tremble. [counter-281] My brother, who was in the Marines, was home on leave. I accompanied him to Terminal Station to go back to camp and we were in the middle of the Pacific hostilities. Terminal Station was like a beehive with uniformed personnel going through the lobby to the trains. And I bade my brother goodbye there as he left to go on the train and I walked back out on Spring Street and the thought hit me like a thunderbolt: We may never see each other again. Fortunately, we did. But later in the early 1970s, I believe in 1971 or two, Terminal Station, I believe it was '72, Terminal Station was demolished in what your director here, Franklin Garrett, a dear friend of mine, used to call “municipal vandalism” when they tore down those buildings. Anyway, they built the federal courthouse there on that site and as a lawyer I spent some time in that courthouse and even today, if I come out of that courthouse, I like to go out on the backside rather than walking back out on Spring Street because there is a flashback to that moment in my early life and my brother's, when I had the sudden realization that we may never see each other again. So that is a…perhaps cements into my emotions the values. Then the other thing is the bus station. When I was a rookie, inducted out at Fort Mac [Fort MacPherson], and had a weekend pass, my then girlfriend, now my wife of fifty-nine years, came down to Atlanta to see me on a Sunday afternoon before we were to ship out. I walked with her back to the Greyhound bus station there on what was then Cain Street, now International Boulevard. And it's closed up. It, by the way, is still standing but boarded up. Walked back, walked with her out to the loading zone, she got on the bus and she leaned out the window and kissed me goodbye. So that is forever sealed. Then after we married in October of '45, her parents and she drove me back down from Acworth, where she lived, to catch the train to Fort Bragg. And that train left from Union Station. So I remember Union Station so very, very clearly as I was bidding my new bride goodbye. Fortunately [I went to] Fort Bragg rather than Japan. But those images forever cemented the landmarks of Atlanta in my memory. Interviewer: [inaudible] memories. Cadenhead: They are and they have motivated me. As you see there from the material, I kept a diary of each jump and you can see that the first five…well, the first eleven. I had never been in an airplane and on the twelfth, I believe it is, you will see that that was my first time landing in a plane. At that time… Interviewer: [inaudible] landed? Cadenhead: I had never landed. So eleven times I had been up and jumped. And on that one I was, as I recall, assistant jump master and we jumped what we call a stick, which is a group of paratroopers. We jumped them and went back to get another one. So I landed with the plane when we went back to get the second group. So that was my first landing. And then you'll notice on August 8, 1945, that one was the simulated combat jump. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Yep. And after that we, of course, got furlough. But you will notice that that was on August eighth, the day before the second bomb dropped. Interviewer: You had your dates straight. I didn't connect it right away. Cadenhead: Yeah. Well, you can see why the date, the ninth, meant so much to me. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: JAG. Judge Advocate General. After I got out… Interviewer: What did you do with that? Cadenhead: After I got out of law school, I went into the Reserves as a JAG officer and then sweated out being called back in the Korean conflict. And I knew they would not care for a JAG officer, but they would love to have a parachute officer. But I, fortunately, did not get called back. So many of my friends did. But I did not get called back into the Korean conflict. I've got to tell you a cute story, too. I've mentioned my brother. And I just thought of this. When we were discharged, it was based on points. You had so many points. [inaudible] and the ones with higher points got out first. Right. So my brother had been in longer than I. He'd been in Iwo Jima and he had accumulated more points than I did. He was home and I got leave, so we did see each other. And I remember sitting on the steps of our rural home and talking. And [inaudible] next week I understand, asked me, says, “Paul, tell me about your job.” He said, “I'm interested in it. What altitudes did you jump from?” Well, I flexed my muscles and said, “Oh, we jumped from one fifteen hundred feet, a thousand feet and one as low as three hundred feet.” You know, you want to get on the ground in a hurry, not be a target to be shot at. We jumped at three hundred feet. He said, “Three hundred feet?” And I was expecting him to say, “Oh, man, that takes guts.” He said, “In the Marine Corps, we jump off battleships higher than that without a parachute.” [laughter] So I always remember that comment. And another comical comment of how…if you can envision the joy of families coming back together after the war. During the war, as my mother used to say, “All I want to make sure is there are no gold stars in our window,” signifying someone has been killed in service. So we gathered home and my dad said…I had not gotten out at that time. “Alton, you're out of the service now. When Paul gets out, we're gonna have a barbecue and celebrate the successful return of [inaudible].” Well, after I got out several months passed and we kiddingly asked my dad, “Dad, when are we going to have that barbecue that you promised?” And he laughed and said, “I didn't tell you boys but that hog got well.” [laughs] So it's hard to create those images of joy that surrounded the return of what we then called “the boys”. We're now old men. We're now old men. Interviewer: [inaudible] lucky to be [inaudible]. Cadenhead: I'll tell you another experience and this one just comes to my mind. I happened to be at home on leave the night that the war ended. See I had made my [inaudible] jump and then…I mean, the combat jump and I was home on leave. That was before the official signing, but the war had ended. We had no radio. We had no communications. We had no electricity. And my dad came in on his flatbed truck and said, “I've heard the war is over. I heard it over at Monahan's store,” which is a little store out in [inaudible]. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Must have. Said the war is over. Said, “Let's go into town to his sister's and see if we can get some news.” We loaded on that flatbed truck and drove from Turkey Creek into LaGrange and as we were going into the main street in LaGrange, it was curb to curb with people. They were celebrating. Well, they saw me in uniform on that flatbed truck. They yanked me off. I was on their shoulders. My mother screaming. She didn't know what they were going to do to me. But I felt as if I had single-handedly won that war, you know, in the mass of celebrating people who, again, showed they, just spontaneous outpouring of the citizens. It's hard for people today to grasp that. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Everybody was [inaudible]. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, that probably would have been on the ninth or tenth. Well, no, the bomb dropped on the tenth. So it would have been oh, the tenth or eleventh of August. It was after Truman had said, in effect, it was over. Interviewer: What did you do [inaudible]? Cadenhead: Nothing. I was just in the Reserves and attended meetings. I would have been, in that, I would have been an Army lawyer is what it would have been. But I never served. I was only in the Reserves and after the Korean War ended I resigned my commission and got out of the Reserves. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Oh yes. I've had a very successful career in Atlanta. It's…I'm…might brag here just a moment and show you how valuable that G.I. Bill training was. Just last month, I received an award from the Atlanta Bar Association of which I previously served as president. And it was announced that I was the only lawyer in the history of Atlanta to receive all three of the highest awards of the Atlanta Bar Association. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: As I say, that sounds like bragging. What I'm saying is, it was the military service, the G.I. Bill, that prepared me to be a contributing member of the community and I've been eternally grateful for that. Interviewer: You still are [inaudible]. Cadenhead: Oh, yes. I do. I have worked with Legal Aid, headed the Atlanta and the Georgia Associations for Mental Health. I have been president of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, president of the Atlanta Estate Planning Council, president of the Atlanta Bar Association, president of the Old Warhorse Lawyers Club. In other words, again at the risk of sounding bragging, I'm not. I am saying that but for military service and the G.I. Bill of Rights none of this would have been possible. Interviewer: [inaudible] I guess dramatic at times. Cadenhead: It was. It was. And a memorable time. The bonding of the fellas, and they were all fellas there, of those classes of World War II veterans at Emory. It's a bonding that still—I call it our band of brothers, like the movie, you know, of the Easy Company that you've seen so much of. Interviewer: Do you still have a chance to keep up with [inaudible]? Cadenhead: Oh yes. Oh yes. Um-hmm. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Yeah. It's…and the interesting thing also that we should never forget, I think Eisenhower said this, the credit is given to the male part of the species for having gone into [?] uniform. But the industrial might of this country, principally through the efforts of women here at home, contributed mightily to winning that war. And we, of course, labeled them “Rosie the Riveter”, which is a phrase that I hope will live forever because they did that. They contributed so much. And then the ones left behind, to sweat it out. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Ma'am? Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: And said their prayers. So it…I said that the classes of World War II veterans out there had a bonding. The whole community, the whole nation, the whole city had a bonding that I don't think we will ever see again. What I would like [would be] for us without a war to have that bonding that the war created. We need that badly. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: That's it. Yes. And of course, we can't overlook those that didn't come back. So many of my friends didn't come back. Their parents did have gold stars in the window. Some very close, close friends. Give you an example. Down in this little rural community, oh, fifteen or so years ago now, I went to where we used to swim in the creek and there was [inaudible] and this young lady welcomed me [inaudible] and when I told her what I was there for, just to look around. And I mentioned that Robert Scott and I swam that creek. And she said, “Did you know…you knew Robert Scott?” And I said, “Of course, I did.” And she said, “Well, I am his granddaughter and there is…his name written in cement on the chimney around here and I've wondered. I, of course, never knew him.” And I said, “Is it still there? I was with him the day we wrote that in the cement.” Well, see, Robert didn't come back. He was lost in the Atlantic. Now again, that…the fact that Robert did not come back, the fact that Robert and I wrote his name in that cement will forever be a bonding that cannot be taken away. It's as bonding on our memories as that cement bonds those rocks together. And there his granddaughter had never known him and yet he was a dear, dear childhood friend of mine. Interviewer: She knew him [inaudible]? Cadenhead: That's right. That's right. And now, she will be able to tie Robert to something very significant there. And that's very meaningful. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: That's true. But my favorite holiday I think of all the holidays we have is Memorial Day. I would fight if somebody tried to interrupt that Memorial Day concert on the mall. I watch that thing religiously. It's very meaningful. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: It is. Very much. Interviewer: [inaudible] the younger generations [inaudible]. Cadenhead: But the land in and around downtown Atlanta is just hallowed ground for me because of Terminal Station, Union Station, the Greyhound bus station, all of those places. And if you go to a movie…I remember my first [inaudible] down to Atlanta. I remember the movie I went to. The Rialto Theater. “Cover Girls” with Rita Hayworth was playing. And now, of course, the Rialto Theater is the Rialto Center for Performing Arts. So it's, I mean, those memories of old Atlanta, which don't seem so old to me. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: That's true. And so your work here at the History Center, recording all of that is so vital, I think. Interviewer: I want to ask you [inaudible]. Cadenhead: Well, I can tell you one of the scary ones. A guy named Burkowski [sp?], I think it was on our third jump. We were qualifying then. We hadn't gotten our wings. We jumped. He was right behind me and when my chute opened, I saw him going by, could see that his chute was still intact. It had never opened and he was…and I remember yelling, “Pull your reserve! Pull your reserve!” He did. He got his reserve open in time and as I've described it, it appeared that he [inaudible] and he stepped out of it. In other words [inaudible]. And we, as always, had a critique. After any problem we had a critique and that's where you sit down and figure out what happened. And what had happened, he had not anchored his line when he…you stand up, you hook up and put your anchor line on and you shift that anchor line to the rear as you go out the door. Interviewer: The anchor line is on the plane. Cadenhead: It goes on a cable. Fits up here. And then when…the weight of your body then, when you fall a hundred feet or so, yanks the backpack off and your chute opens. Well, he had not locked his and it slid off. So his were still intact. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: [inaudible] this emergency button. Seeing him floating through the air with an unopened backpack chute was sealed in my memory, but it worked out quite well because he did open with his reserve. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I got out in July of '46 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: No. Since ten years old I had known what I wanted to do, but it was impossible to do it, I thought. Interviewer: [inaudible] How could you know that young? Cadenhead: Well, there was an event in 1937 that…well, there was a bad family that it caused me to think…well, not a family then, event. To my family, that caused me to realize that I felt like a lawyer could stop that injustice that was taking place. But I didn't know how lawyers acted. I'd never seen one. But I read that Abraham Lincoln was admitted to the bar and being admitted to the bar, you know, was just the epitome of all that could be good. And I still feel that. And so at ten years old I wanted to be a lawyer. And it was impossible. I was gonna be a sheet metal worker. I went to the sheet metal [inaudible]. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I was…I was… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I don't mind telling you. As I said, because it's not embarrassing. We were sharecroppers. And my dad… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: [inaudible] My dad had borrowed fifty dollars to be paid when we harvested the crop. To buy groceries during the time that we were making the crop. And I remember one night hearing him tell mother, “I wish I could come up with fifteen dollars because I agreed to borrow fifty and we were into it sixty-five. So I need…” And I couldn't understand why, at that age, if he owed sixty-five why did he just need fifteen. Well, anyway, one day when we were coming home from school—we had to walk a long ways—we noticed all these black men out in our field. And this debtor…this creditor had brought his quote “hands,” which was what we called them, and harvested our entire crop and took it. We didn't get a thing in satisfying that debt. And I remember as a…almost eleven. I was born in '26, in October of '26 and this was August or September of '37. I remember thinking, “A lawyer could stop this. A lawyer [inaudible].” And I have dedicated my career, even though I've been, I think, economically successful, to legal aid, helping others who might be undergoing similar circumstances. But it was a dream of that ten-year-old that was fulfilled through the G.I. Bill of Rights. So I am forever indebted to that. And my dad, to bolster my statement that the G.I. Bill was such an investment, after I finished—and by the way I worked and paid every bit of my college, because that's how Dr. Ingram got me in. Then my brother [inaudible] he got [inaudible]. He went on and after that went to Tech. He became an official with Bell South. And my brother just younger, James, did the same thing. He went on, got a Ph.D., taught at Auburn. My sister Jane, graduated, had a successful business and all of us have produced successful…two Ph.D.s, two attorneys, two doctors, two very successful businessmen. My point is, by virtue of the education we got through the G.I. Bill, not only affected that generation, it has spread to other generations. And our family could also be viewed as an example, not of what a family can do, but what education and job opportunities can do through families. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: That's right. That's correct. So it was a dream that materialized. And I can remember sitting out in the wilderness after a parachute jump reading law [inaudible], again, never thinking that I would be a lawyer. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, you could but it would be inadequate. It took the G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill was a blessing for this country and I'm just one example of it. Interviewer: [inaudible] in your family. Cadenhead: No question about it. And I believe the things you are doing, preserving this history will let descendants downstream, who are successful, realize that their success is largely attributed to events like the G.I. Bill that made it possible for their ancestors to achieve. So I think the G.I. Bill in history will be looked upon as one of the nation's greatest investments. Interviewer: [inaudible] couple of G.I.s that [inaudible] lot of action, they needed that G.I. Bill to [inaudible]. Cadenhead: That's true. In my group… Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: My group out at Emory, in my group were those…one guy, he's now dead. He was a West Point graduate. [inaudible] in his first day in combat. He was a West Point graduate as I said. His first day in combat he lost both legs, one eye and half of his hand. He married his nurse. He became able to walk with artificial limbs. Went on to become a superior court judge. Very successful. Others were shot down. One is a federal judge who was shot down. He was a prisoner of war and involved in the “Great Escape” that a movie was made about. He was not in the tunnel digging. He got out another way, but he was able to escape. So you've got harrowing experiences. And my own brother, who was in the invasion of Iwo Jima. See, I saw none of this. Mine was only simulation. We had a simulated invasion of Japan. And that was horrible enough. Which you realized, it was only simulation. The next one was gonna be the real thing. [Tape 1, Side B] Cadenhead: Fortunately, for me the real thing did not evolve. But my dear friends were involved in an awful lot. Some, like I say, like Robert Scott, did not come back. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Very much so. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, what you're doing in interviewing these people will cause them to realize it. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: There was no question about it. Harry Truman saved lives. And one of my hobbies has been and I practically completed it, is to visit and photograph the grave of every president. Up until last month, I only lacked one. That was Johnson, LBJ and I'm going to get him this fall. Now, of course, I've got to get Reagan. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: But I have written up the times and the graves and their libraries, where they are. And realized the contributions each of those made. But the major contribution of Harry Truman was to bring to a conclusion World War II. It was…no doubt in my mind about that. Interviewer: It was a tough a decision and he [inaudible] job. Cadenhead: And I've often thought, again, how providential it was that Roosevelt dropped Henry Wallace from the ticket. Interviewer: Wasn't that scary. Cadenhead: If he had been…if he had been president when Roosevelt died, I wonder what would have happened. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Harry Truman was president. Interviewer: I'm not sure what [inaudible] not Wallace [inaudible]. Cadenhead: I can't recall it either, but whatever it was I look on it as providential. Because Harry Truman was the man for that job. And the interesting thing when, again, when you look back over history to validate what happened, I believe when Harry Truman left office his approval rating was only about twenty-three or so percent and now he's looked upon as one of the great presidents. I think, alluding back to the G.I. Bill, history is going to validate it as one of the greatest investments this country ever made. I firmly believe that. It takes validation of history to determine what's right. And unfortunately in today's world, it seems that we shoot for what's profitable or what is acceptable today rather than what is profitable or acceptable through history. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: There's no question about it. No question about it. Interviewer: [inaudible] I'm sorry. Two hundred and fifty thousand lives were estimated saved. Cadenhead: I would say at least that. And I would have been one of ‘em. Because we saw estimates of casualties that could be expected in that invasion and it was horrendous. I can, again, memory's quite clear on this. Frequently when we would make a jump, going back into the area, you'd slap your buddy on the back and say, “Well, Joe, I see you didn't break a leg today.” You know, it was, you know, very jovial. But after that simulated invasion jump into Japan, everybody was quiet. We realized after the horror of what we'd just been through…it was only a simulation. The next one was gonna be the real thing. And just the atmosphere differed from all the others, because we had seen what to expect, and we didn't have to go through that expectation because of Harry Truman. So he is forever one of my heroes. Forever one of my heroes. Interviewer: He was a hero. Cadenhead: He was. He was. And the interesting thing about him, he said the happiest election he ever went through was when his battery in World War Two [sic] elected him captain. The people who knew him best elected him. And to me that was a sign of real manhood. Harry Truman saved thousands of lives, but I feel that he personally saved my life. And so, I'm forever grateful to him. Interviewer: Do you want to talk about your [inaudible]? Cadenhead: Well, they are right now…I'm glad you brought that up. As you know from my discussion I wanted very badly to be a lawyer and I prepared for it. And in my thinking, I have evolved into this. There are three stages. One is preparation. Two is practice. And three should be payback. So, for the last twelve years, I go to the office every day. I have not billed a client. Everything I do is pro bono and charity. I say that I am in the payback stage. So instead of just saying how much I thank the G.I. Bill and thank those who made it possible, Dr. Ingram and the teacher, Miss Janie O'Neal, at Chipley who made it possible for me to go on and get an education. Instead of just thanking them and instead of replaying that dream in 1937, I have spent the last twelve years of my life in what I call payback for that. And so, that's what I do. I attempt to raise money for education. I've assisted in endowing scholarships at law schools and at college. In fact, on the fiftieth anniversary…our fiftieth anniversary, wedding anniversary, instead of taking a trip we decided to endow a scholarship at West Georgia where we met in college, so that others could have that education. And we did. We endowed a scholarship with a thousand dollars for each of our fifty years of marriage [inaudible]. Then the dormitory, just recently, the dormitory in which my wife lived when she was there…and there's a little story behind that I'll tell you. One of my jobs was firing the boilers and when I would go in the basement of her dormitory at night, I would hit the pipe and it would reverberate up through the dormitory and she would know I was down there. And she would drop me a sandwich or something out her window and I would get it and at midnight I would eat it. Well, that building, in recent years, had to be demolished because it was unsafe. But [inaudible] is one of the original buildings up there in a little campus, small campus, now it's over ten thousand students. The regents would not rebuild that and I worked hard with the legislature and got appropriations to rebuild that and in the same image as…it appears on the front to be the same building. But of course, it's modern now and [inaudible]. Before the building was destroyed, the president of the university, knowing of our history there, took a brick from that window of my wife's room and autographed it and gave it to us as a memento. And next month, the lobby of that new building will be dedicated to my wife and her portrait will hang in it. So what I'm saying is in the last twelve years, I've been engaged in payback and I intend to keep that up. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, I have it. And I intend to spend the rest of my professional life doing just that. Again, as I say, I am in the payback mode. Interviewer: Well, I hope you have some [inaudible]. Cadenhead: I do. I do. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: And again, the G.I. Bill made it possible. I keep hammering on that. [laughs] Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: It really is. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: I feel that the answer to most of our problems is education and eradication of poverty and I think if we could do those…now that wouldn't cure everything, but it would move mightily toward curing our problems. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: All right. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: But it certainly worked for me and for my family. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, thank you. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Well, it's my pleasure and we all owe it to this great country. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: It's there and I just hope we never have to mobilize public opinion like we did. But if we do, I hope it can be mobilized like it was during World War II. Because for those of us who remember it, those were memorable days. Interviewer: For all of us. Cadenhead: Right. Interviewer: [inaudible] Cadenhead: Right. [end of tape]
Metadata URL:: http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/311
Additional Rights Information:: This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Extent:: 56:02
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Contributing Institution:: Atlanta History Center
Rights: