HOOD, Betty and Boyd, St. Helena and Livingston Parish, Louisiana File prepared by D.N. Pardue and submitted by Inez Bridges Tate. ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ From "St. Helena Vets Remember World War II: Personal Interviews With World War II Vets", published by St. Helena Historical Association, 1995. Compiled and edited by Inez Bridges Tate and reprinted with permission. Betty and Boyd Hood, St. Helena residents since 1971, both are veterans of World War II. In fact, it was the war that brought them together. When Boyd graduated from Walker High School in Denham Springs in 1938, the Great Depression was not yet over. The Marines seemed a good place for a young man with no job. In 1939 he joined for four years. He was sent to China where he served as a guard for the International Community in Shanghai. Because of a program in place in the Marines, Boyd received double credit for time served in the East. Boyd was back home by the summer of 1941. He was accepted by the state police and sent to their training program. In late fall he was working as a trooper in Bossier City. December 7, 1941, he caught the bus to go visit a friend stationed at Barks- dale Field. The bus driver had a radio on and suddenly yelled, "Did you hear that? The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor!" Boyd's first thought was, "I'm single and one-A." The next day he volunteered for the Army Air Corps and was sent to Keesler Field, Biloxi, Mississippi. In June 1942, Boyd, by then a serg- eant, became ill and was hospitalized. His nurse was Lt. Eliza- beth Morgan. And the romance began. Betty had grown up on a dairy farm on the edge of the small town of Cambria, Wisconsin. She received her training at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee and began her nursing career at the University of Wisconsin General Hospital in Madison. After the war began, she and her roommate talked over the need to serve their country. Her roommate joined the Navy, but Betty selected the Army on June 2, 1942. She had two choices for duty: Camp Grant, Illinois, or Keesler Field, Mississippi. On a last min- ute whim she chose Keesler. Betty arrived in Gulfport by train and had to take a taxi to Biloxi. On the way to Keesler the driver asked if she were looking for a husband. She indigently replied that she was there to serve her country. The driver said that if she changed her mind she would have 100,000 to choose from. Betty did not under- go extensive military training, but she remembered learning to use a gas mask. Betty had just assumed duties at Keesler when she met her patient Boyd. The couple were married in November 1942, and Betty transferred to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. That way both could stay in the service. In August 1943, Betty's career ended when she went home to Wisconsin to await the birth of the couple's first child. Meanwhile, by late 1942 the Army had transferred Boyd to Special Services. He went through airborne training at Ft. Bragg, South Carolina and demolition training in Miami. In 1943 he shipped out from New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth. He was assigned to a demolition unit composed of 12 men attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. Such groups were to blow up communica- tions components like towers or radio stations of the enemy. His first combat jump was into Sicily. Once the campaign was underway, his group was sent to England to train for D-Day. Shortly after dark on the eve of D-Day, Boyd's group jumped at St. Marie Egelise near Cherbourg, France, with orders to interrupt communications. About a week later he was wounded. Hit by shrapnel in the side, he jumped up to run. That move was a big mistake he discovered, for he was then hit in the legs by machine gun fire. Boyd was airlifted to the 81st General Hospital in England. Ninety days later he was shipped home aboard the HMT PASTEUR. That ship's story reflected the various turns of fortune by the sides in the war. The PASTEUR had been a French ship taken by the Germans. Later it was seized by the British off the African coast. Landing at Newport News, Virginia, Boyd went on leave to Wisconsin for a reunion with his family. He recalled that Mary Amy, his little daughter, was just beginning to talk. Leaving the little girl with the grandparents, Boyd and Betty went to Miami, where Boyd was to have Rest and Recuperation. It was a wonderful time because they stayed in a luxury hotel used by the military during the war. After R and R, Betty returned to Wisconsin by bus. From Miami the trip took eight days. She was in Kentucky aboard the bus when she heard the news of V-E Day. In the meantime Boyd was sent to Camp Davis, North Carolina. Because of his underwater training at demolition school, Boyd was assigned lifeguard duties there. When that post was closed, the Army transferred the men to Greensboro Replacement Center. On the trip to the new assignment, Boyd was on a bus passing throught the town of Rocky Mountain. Horns and bells were going off. Boyd learned of V-J Day and the end of World War II as he heard of its beginning. He and the other soldiers jumped off the bus and were royally entertained by the townspeople. Several days later they hitched rides into Greensboro. A few days after the war ended word went out that those in the camp in the athletic program would be frozen in their jobs. Someone contacted the well-known columnist Drew Pearson about the problem. Soon many official cars arrived on post with fend- er flags waving. Boyd received his discharge from a clerk who was aroused from sleep following a pass in town. The somewhat inebriated clerk provided Boyd a rather interesting if embellished paper. After the war Betty and Boyd made their home in Denham Springs for many years. Boyd worked at Ethel in Baton Rouge, but in 1959 he opened a business in their hometown. They kept busy running a service station, sporting goods, and tire store. Be- sides managing the house, Betty served as a Pink Lady at the local hospital and helped with the family business. About 1971 the Hoods sold their business and retired to St. Helena. It was not really retirement because Boyd felt called to serve the Lord. From Day's United Methodist Church he answered the call. He studied at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University as well as at Louisiana State University and Southeastern Louisiana University to meet the requirements of the Methodist Conference. In addition, Boyd served as Methodist minister at Carpenters Chapel, Walker, Tangipahoa, and Pine Hill. After his retirement he served two years at Day's as pastor and two years at Amite as associate minister. Brother Hood continues to minister to the needs of the community and to aid in the welfare of the church. As ever Betty has been a loyal helpmate. In all of their endeavors their joy has been their family. Their daughter Mary Amy holds the Doctor of Philosophy degree in microbiology from Louisiana State University and is a professor at West Florida University. Both their sons, Johnny and Boyd, are veterans of the Vietnam War, continuing the family tradition of serving the country. * * * * *