The last World War 1 veteran to serve on active duty in the U.S. Army was Master Sergeant John Wooley, and I served with him at Ft. Rucker, Alabama in 1956. Being around him was like reaching out to touch history . . . and he was treated like the icon he was. In those days when your car was registered on post, you were issued a bumper sticker, red for enlisted, blue for officers, and green for civilians. Blue number 1 was, obviously, the Commanding General of the post. Red number one was supposed to be for the Post Sergeant Major….but….at Ft. Rucker red number one was reserved for Sergeant Wooley. Sergeant Wooley was director of the post museum, but clearly, he was the most interesting part of the museum. We were in the Headquarters, Staff, and Faculty company, a service company that had no TO&E structure…that is to say, we had a company commander, XO, and First Sergeant….but no platoon leaders, and no platoon sergeants. Actually we didn’t even have platoons….but on those once-a-month occasions when we would have a Saturday morning formation, we fell into platoons by rank….all E-1s through E-4s in one platoon, E-5s in another E-6s, and finally, E-7s. (That was before the ranks of E-8 and E-9). The senior most person within each platoon would post to the front of the platoon for the formation. One Saturday morning, Wooley moved to the front. “Hold on there, Sergeant,” a recently arrived E-7 called out. “You didn’t even check date of rank. My date of rank happens to be June 12, 1943. What is yours?” Wooley didn’t even turn around. “October 14, 1918.” “Never mind,” the E-7 said, as the rest of the company laughed. Generally we would stand these formations in our class A uniforms, with “all ribbons.” The only ones who had ribbons, were those who had actually been in combat, in Korea…which was only three years earlier, or World War II…which was only 11 years earlier. And of course, Master Sergeant Wooley with ribbons from three wars. Wooley also had a small upside down chevron on his left sleeve cuff. We had a brand new second Lieutenant who, certain that it was an unauthorized adornment, moved over to address him. “Sergeant what is that on your left sleeve cuff?” Master Sergeant Wooley, who was standing at attention, continued to stare straight ahead. “Wound stripes, Sonny. WW1 wound stripes.” You could hear the company’s laughter all over the post.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:58:03 +0000