{"id":969,"date":"2019-06-07T02:07:18","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T02:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2019-08-06T20:24:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T20:24:11","slug":"forrest-morgan-jack-wilson-a-short-history-of-a-long-and-amazing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"FORREST MORGAN ‘JACK’ WILSON – a short history of a long and amazing life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jack Wilson in 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I met Jack\nWilson when Patti and I moved to Lockhart over 35 years ago.  I am not sure I have ever met another person\nwho has exhibited such a great enjoyment of life. He is absolutely convinced\n(and most convincing) that \u201cthere is a God,\u201d that but for God\u2019s intervention he\nwould not have survived to tell the stories he recounts, and most of all, and that\nhe has been richly blessed by God. He will not hesitate to tell anyone who will\nlisten that his life has been a whole lot of fun. Sure, there have been some\ntough times. But nothing has changed Jack Wilson\u2019s belief that it has been one\nheck of a ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack was the\nyoungest child of Clarrissa (Dennis) and James Floyd Wilson. His older sisters\nwere Claudia Roberta, Martha Mae, and Julia Clarrissa. Jack\u2019s mom was of a\npioneer family from Moran, in Shackleford\nCounty, and his father was from Orange, in far East Texas.\nJack\u2019s mother and father met and married in Carrizo Springs in 1911. By 1917,\nthe Wilson\nfamily had moved to Lockhart. James was an auto mechanic, and a gifted one, all\nhis life. He worked for Citizens Autos in 1917, and later for Lockhart Motor\nCompany. Jack was born in Lockhart in 1922. His nickname \u2013 Jack \u2013 was given him\nby a coach in high school who didn\u2019t like his given name. He has gone by\nForrest or Jack ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack\u2019s childhood\nwas by his account a very happy one. \u201cI really had a wonderful family,\u201d he\nsays. Sadly, in 1936 his mother died of what was described as pellagra.\nNormally describing a niacin deficiency, it probably was an indicator of a more\nserious disorder. Regardless, Clarrissa, who was deeply loved and admired, was\ngone. Later, James remarried to Esther Chapman. She was a stern but loving\nstep-mom. \u201cWe were poor as hell,\u201d Jack recalls. James Wilson worked six days a\nweek, often twelve hours a day, to put food on the family table. But Sunday was\nthe Lord\u2019s Day, and the Wilson\nfamily was in very regular attendance at Lockhart\u2019s First Presbyterian Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack attended\nLockhart schools. His chums included Bobby Balser, Herb Reid, and Mack\nConnolly. He played football in high school. \u201cWe weren\u2019t all that good,\u201d Jack\nsays, \u201cbut we sure had a lot of fun trying.\u201d He had a burning desire to attend\nTexas A&M, but in June of 1941 the United States was still in the\nthroes of the Depression. Fortunately, his sister Claudia had married a Former\nStudent who was a successful engineer, and the couple gave Jack $1000. \u201cI knew\nthat would get me through an entire year,\u201d Jack recalls. \u201cAfter that I figured\nI\u2019d find a way to finish up.\u201d A fish in the Corps of Cadets, he was assigned to\nG Company \u2013 Infantry, in the new Quadrangle near Duncan Dining Hall (its twelve\ndormitories are still Corps housing). Mack Connolly\u2019s mother drove Jack and\nMack to college. They were to graduate with the Class of\n1945. Neither made it. Mack would eventually drop out, become an artillery\nofficer, and be killed in combat in Germany three weeks before the end\nof the war. Jack ran out of money after the first year, hitched a ride to Waco, and went to work\nhelping build Waco Army Air Field (later James Connolly Air Force Base). He\nreceived his draft notice while working there, so decided he wanted to be an\nArmy Air Corps pilot. First he had to pass the written test \u2013 and he didn\u2019t! He\nheard the Naval Air Corps written test was easier, so he took that, passing\nwith a 90. The grueling physical exam was a breeze to a young man who\u2019d known\nnothing but hard work. When he found he was officially a Naval Aviation Cadet,\n\u2018I thought I had gone to heaven,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was in the naval air corps,\nand I had never been in an airplane!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Del Monte Hotel during WW2<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Things just kept getting\nbetter. Jack was inducted and sent to Schreiner Institute (now Schreiner University)\nin Kerrville\nwhere he took ground school classes, and soloed in a Piper Cub after 8 hours of\ndual instruction. From there, he entrained for California. He and other air cadets on the\ntrain thought the worst when the train passed along the misery of Ft. Ord.\nOnce again, Jack\u2019s guardian angel was with him. The cadets wound up housed in\none of the most luxurious hotels of its time. Hotel Del Monte, in Monterey, California\nhad been requisitioned by the Navy. Instead of tents, the aviation cadets were\nensconced in fancy hotel rooms. \u201cThe place even had a heated swimming pool.\u201d\nGranted, there was a lot of spit and polish, military routine, and schooling,\nbut mostly \u201cthey were trying to make gentlemen out of us,\u201d he remembers. \u201cAnd\nit was near the Pebble Beach Golf Course. It was high kicking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PT 17s in formation<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hutchinson,\nKansas was no Monterey, but here, Jack learned to fly the\nStearman PT-17 \u201cKaydet\u201d biplane. Then it was south to Pensacola, Florida\nfor advanced training in a Vultee \u201cVibrator.\u201d At Pensacola, he transitioned into the SNJ or\nAT-6 \u201cTexan.\u201d While at Naval Air Station Green Cove Springs, he was given a\nchoice of staying in naval aviation, or transferring to the US Marines. Jack\njoined the US Marines. \u201cI always wanted to be a Marine,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were\nthe toughest.\u201d  And besides, the\ntransition might get him into the war faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The beloved SNJ-6 “Texan”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was then introduced to America\u2019s\nearly Marine and aircraft carrier-based workhorse, the Grumman F4F Wildcat. It\nwas a tough bird, but could be tricky to fly. 27 cranks were required to\nretract the landing gear. In addition, the landing gear was narrow, which could\ngive a pilot nightmares if there were crosswinds \u2013 it was easy to ground loop.\nHowever, with 1200 horsepower, it was a joy for a young man wanting to fly a\nmean combat aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While manuever flying with Wildcats over Pensacola, his four plane formation was\n\u201cattacked\u201d by Army Air Force P-47s. \u201cThey came screaming through us, and the\nwar was on.\u201d The chase plane instructor\u2019s screamed radio messages to resume the\nformation were gleefully ignored, as mock dog fights erupted. Jack laughs as he\nrecalls that \u201cthis was the closest I got to the war!\u201d Another time, his\nflight took off for training from one of the auxiliary fields near Pensacola. When they\nlanded, he saw all sorts of reporters and photographers standing around,\nwaiting for several groups of pilots to enter the hangars. \u201cI thought they\nwanted to interview me,\u201d he says. Not hardly. They clustered around another\ntall Marine. \u201cWho is that?\u201d he asked his buddies. \u201cThat\u2019s Ted Williams.\u201d Jack\nasked, \u201cWho is Ted Williams?\u201d The response: \u201cYou dumb ——, he\u2019s the greatest\nbaseball player in history.\u201d Later, Jack and his buddies got to meet the Red\nSox hero. Turning down a chance to fly night fighters (\u201cI hated night flying\u201d)\nhe jumped at an assignment to a training squadron in Cherry Point, North\n Carolina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Jack\ntransitioned to one of the greatest fighters of World War II \u2013 the Vought F4U\nCorsair. This gull-winged fighter was (and is) a thing of beauty. Although the\nNavy flew it off carriers in World War II and in Korea, its true home was with the\nMarine Corps. Powered by a 2000 horsepower Pratt and Whitney R2800 Double Wasp\nradial engine, it had an outstanding career as a combat aircraft. If there is\nany doubt as to Jack\u2019s love for this aircraft, ask to see the ring he wears,\nand which he and daughter Stephanie designed \u2013 the outline of the F4U is a prominent\nfeature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jack shows me his F4U ‘Corsair’ ring – he wore it every day<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 He and other pilot trainees were hot to get\ninto the war. But no matter how hard he tried, something would always derail\nhis attempts. While training on the Corsair, he received his next set of orders\n\u2013 not overseas, but to Floyd Bennett Field in New York. For the next 15 months, Jack flew\nsingle engine aircraft \u2013 mostly fighters and torpedo bombers – from factories\nto various airfields all over the United States. He felt God\u2019s saving\ngrace on many occasions. One in particular: horrible weather at Jackson, Mississippi had\nall aircraft grounded until 4 p.m. when the tower claimed the weather was\nclearing, and gave Jack clearance for Ft. Worth.\nHe had allowed a sailor to hitch a ride in the belly of the torpedo bomber he\nwas ferrying. As he climbed into the clouds, lightning and turbulence\nincreased. With nightfall approaching and flying conditions incredibly\ndangerous, he and another aircraft were dead reckoning, without radio contact.\nIt looked like the end. \u201cI knew I had to get that plane on the ground, but I\nhad no idea where I was,\u201d he says. \u201cI looked down, and there was a tiny part in\nthe clouds, so I spun down and darned if I hadn\u2019t shown up in Ft. Worth! God\nhad literally saved my life.\u201d After landing safely, the sailor emerged badly\nshaken from the belly of the plane and said he would \u201cfind another ride.\u201d He\nalso stole Jack\u2019s expensive Parker pen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war ended, and Jack was transferred to Quantico,\nVirginia for advanced officer classes. One day, he glanced down at the\nnewspaper\u2019s daily horoscope. \u201cI NEVER read those damned things,\u201d he says. But\nthis day he did. The horoscope said, \u201cYou will take a long trip over water in\nthree days.\u201d Coincidence? Of course, but the following morning he got orders\nsending him to Asia. From San Francisco, he boarded a \u201cslow boat to\nChina.\u201d Traveling at 8 knots per hour, it took 30 days to arrive at the Chinese\nmainland, where he became part of Operation Beleaguer.  Thousands of young Americans had trained\nintensively for the invasion of Japan. When Japan surrendered, there were over\n500,000 Japanese and Korean troops in Northern China needing repatriating.\nAlso, the US had, somewhat reluctantly provided support to the Nationalists in\nthe fight against Japan, as well as in the decade long civil war against Mao\nZedong\u2019s communists. American Marines were landed to maintain some sort of\nstability, to fill the vacuum created by the surrender, and to allow the US\nrecognized Nationalist Chinese to re-occupy many cities. American marines\nlanding at Tientsin (Tianjin) were met with a tumultuous welcome. The First\nMarine Air Wing took over airfields in and around Peiping (Beijing). The early\neuphoria exhibited by most Chinese masked a very unsettled landscape of warring\nparties. It quickly became obvious that warlords, communists, Nationalists and\nothers were going to make the American presence on the mainland of China an\nincreasingly dangerous mission. In the words of Marine Brigadier General R.G.\nOwens, Jr.:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both political and moral grounds, it was impossible for the United States to take a decisive military role in another nation’s civil war, and the average Marine on postwar duty in China found himself an uneasy spectator or sometimes an unwilling participant in a war which he little understood and could not prevent.\u00a0 A steady procession of “incidents” involving Marine guards and raiding Communists continued until the last Marine cleared Tsingtao in the spring of 1949<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jack\u2019s involvement was mercifully short. In unarmed F4U Corsairs, he and others flew reconnaissance missions from dusty, hot airfields. \u201cAll I remember was that there were a hell of a lot of communists swarming all over the hills.\u201d Within two months, he was ordered home. Thankfully, the return trip to the USA was on a C-54 transport. Shortly before leaving, he got into a poker game with his last twenty dollars, walking away with a large pot. \u201cI bought Chinese silks for my step-mother and all my sisters,\u201d he told me. Arriving in San Francisco, he entrained for San Diego and discharge. Once there he pleaded with the Marines to allow him to stay in. He loved his military flying experience and wanted to make a career of it. \u201cHell no,\u201d he was told. \u201cWe\u2019ve got thousands [of young pilots] like you. You can\u2019t stay in.\u201d So he didn\u2019t. Jack returned to Lockhart and went to work for Stripling Blake Lumber Company. Jack married Fayrene Bolton in 1949. She was a West Texas girl who had attended West Texas State, and landed a job with a federal old age pension office in Lockhart. They would have two children, Stephen Floyd and Stephanie Ann (Riggin). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon\nafter they married, Jack was called back to active service because of the\noutbreak of war in Korea. He was given the opportunity to learn another type of\naviation skill \u2013 flying helicopters. After some initial uneasiness, he learned\nthe intricacies of rotor flying near Santa Ana, California. In 1952, Fayrene\ngave birth to their son Stephen \u2013 now an innovative and successful architect.\nJack spent a peripatetic two years on active duty.  Three things stand out of his time: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

               He got to meet Igor Sikorsky, the\nRussian-American designer of the first viable American helicopter. He recalls\nthis genius as a person who had a photographic memory, and who wasn\u2019t\u2019 afraid\nto ask aviators what could be done to make his designs better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Supply run – Hawaii<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

               His \u201coverseas\u201d duty \u2013 again, the\nGood Lord kept him from harm\u2019s way \u2013 as rather than the dangers of Korea, he\nspent several months in Hawaii, assisting in training and military exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

               Finally, he recalls participation\nin an atomic bomb test. Beginning in early 1951, the United States detonated\nhundreds of nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert, often within eyesight and\nseismic shock range of Las Vegas. It is hard to believe now, but in some early\ntests, American soldiers were used as guinea pigs to check \u2018survivability.\u2019 In\nseveral, helicopters were used to transport troops into nearby areas shortly\nafter detonations. He was sitting as co-pilot in a helicopter when a \u2018low\nyield\u2019 atomic bomb detonated some 15 miles away, before he could turn to avoid\nlooking at it (which he shouldn\u2019t have been doing anyway) \u2013 or as he says,\n\u201cthat damned thing went off at the count of three [instead of at the zero\ncount].\u201d Temporarily blinded, he speaks in awe of the brilliance of the\nexplosion that seemed \u201cfar brighter than the sun.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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               Jack was finally discharged in\n1954. The Marine Corps decided this time that it wanted him to make a career of\nit. He refused, saying, \u201cI wanted to stay in after the last war and you\nwouldn\u2019t let me. Now I\u2019ve got a family, so to heck with that.\u201d  Daughter Stephanie came along in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In\n1970, Jack and George Cardwell purchased Stripling Blake\u2019s Lockhart operation.\nGeorge retired in1980, and Jack bought out his partner. This thriving business,\nnow Wilson Riggin Lumber Company, is owned and operated by his daughter and\nson-in-law Mark Riggin. They have followed Jack\u2019s example, giving back to their\ncommunity in countless ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Among many other achievements, Jack\nhas been a Boy Scout scoutmaster, avid fisherman and golfer, and remains a\ndevout Presbyterian. He helped start the \u201cFun-tier Days\u201d which is now\nLockhart\u2019s annual Chisholm Trail Roundup. In 1977, he was honored as Lockhart\u2019s\nMost Worthy Citizen. His artistic, whimsical and humorous flair helped create\nthe often hilariously and ingeniously designed Chisholm Trail parade floats for\nwhich the lumber company is famous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His beloved\nFayrene passed away twenty eight years ago. A few years later, Jack married\nKathy Harrell. He has been doubly blessed by the two beautiful women he has\nbeen privileged to be with. He lives in a house that he helped design (and\nwhich son Steve helped adapt) in 1970s on Merritt Drive. Jack\u2019s days continue\nto be busy. He spends most of each day at the nursing home with his wife Cathy,\ntaking breaks to ensure Mark and Stephanie are properly running the lumber\ncompany. Until very recently, he ensured the esperanzas and other flowers in\nFirst Presbyterian\u2019s planters were the envy of anyone with a garden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he says, \u201cIt\u2019s been a heck of a ride.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POSTSCRIPT: I wrote this story in July of 2016. My friend Jack Wilson died on June 6, 2019 at the age of 97. I think he would have approved of his death coming on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. He was a hell of an hombre. TAB<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met Jack Wilson when Patti and I moved to Lockhart over 35 years ago.  I am not sure I have ever met another person who has exhibited such a great enjoyment of life. He is absolutely convinced (and most convincing) that \u201cthere is a God,\u201d that but for God\u2019s intervention he would not have … Continue reading FORREST MORGAN ‘JACK’ WILSON – a short history of a long and amazing life<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caldwell-county","category-caldwell-county-history","category-veterans-stories","category-ww2campaignsandbattles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":971,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/toddshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}