bio of J.C. DeVaughan (d150) - Caddo County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Sheri Hammons 27 Apr 2000 Return to Caddo County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/caddo/history.html ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ==================================================================== Taken from Oklahoma Living, April 2000 Issue By Kav Rabbitt-Brower J.C. DeVaughan will tell you he's a lucky man.He's been married for 50 years to his best friend, has raised four children, enjoys his 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and enjoyed more than 39 years as an employee of Caddo Electric Cooperative in Binger. From the patio of his home across the road from the co- op's headquarters, he can look out over his herd, and watch the seasons change peacefully in an unobstructed view of southwestern Oklahoma. But he says luck was with him before he had any of these things in his, life. DeVaughan considers himself lucky because he flew 51 bombing missions during the intense fighting in the last six months of World War II and he returned safely from each of them. He flew those missions in the Air Corp's workhorse, the B-26 airplanes, or "widow makers" as they were called. Because of their body style and cargo weight some planes weren't successful in their attempts to become airborne, thus threatening the lives of the crew before they ever met the enemy. A native of Faxon, southwest of Lawton, DeVaughan moved with his family to Binger when he was nine. Along with his six brothers and two sisters, he worked the family farm until shortly after graduation from Binger High School in May, 1943. Like so many young men of that time, he volunteered for the military after completing his education. He joined the Army Air Corp and was soon transferred from Ft. Sill to Texas where he took basic training and was classified as an aviator mechanic and was eligible for gunnery school. But due to the escalated fighting in Europe, he learned he was to be shipped overseas sooner than expected. He landed in Casa Blanca, North Africa February 9, 1944, where he was a member of the 320th Bombing Group, 443rd Bomb Squad, under the command of General H. H. Arnold. Once he was qualified to fly combat missions, he was assigned as a photo gunner, meaning he flew with the bomb squads and took black and white photos of the targets as they were being bombed. He sat in the back of the plane and operated the large K17 and K24 electric cameras which were mounted in the aircraft to shoot directly over the targets. He also carried the smaller K20 camera and would shoot photos out of the plane's windows of any attacking enemy fighters or Allied planes that may have been hit during the missions. The 320th was comprised of four squadrons, the 441 st, 442nd, 443rd, and 444th, each with 25 airplanes. And each time a squadron went up they were accompanied by fighter escorts of P-47s. "Occasionally we had P-5Is and P-38s, but the P-47s flew escort on most missions," he says. "Our targets were usually railway yards, bridges, or ammunition dumps, over Germany, France and Italy. And German equipment shipments to their front lines," he says. "Naturally, we supplied support for our front line troops, also. "Supporting the ground troops, specifically the 7th Army, took his bomb group from Africa to Corsica to Sardinia to France as the Allied forces intensified their effort to bring the war to a close. As his assignments took him to places now synonymous with the final days of the war, DeVaughan continued keeping a detailed record of his military career and the missions he flew. The paper now is the color of age, and the edges are no longer straight, but torn and missing small pieces. They are sandwiched between two pieces of wood held together at the top by thin wire which used to be bread bag ties. The decoration on the front indicates the book's original purpose was to keep cherished autographs. He began keeping the record when he entered the military. He recorded dates, locations, pilots' names, plane numbers, missions and targets and other data that help him remember details of things he thought he might forget. Although those pieces of information help him with the details of specific missions, they don't help him with the things he could never forget. He remembers very clearly praying at the beginning of each mission that the plane would become airborne and not crash at the end of the runway. "I said a little prayer before I got on that airplane. Every time." He remembers looking down at our troops on the ground and being thankful he was fighting the war from the air. "I remember looking down...I couldn't pick out the men, but I knew they were there. I could see their trucks, their tanks, and I would think I'm glad I'm up here instead of down there." And he remembers being armed on only one mission; preferring to face the Germans unarmed should he be shot down and taken prisoner. "We were issued .45s in shoulder holsters. I'd been told that if you were shot down, for sure if the Germans saw you had a weapon, then they'd shoot you." To someone for whom the war is a part of history, his tattered book is akin to a chronological log of his movements. To DeVaughan it's people, sounds, smells, and feelings associated with another time on the other side of the world. As he gingerly handles the pages, DeVaughan tells of each mission, making it difficult to believe he ever thought he might forget any of his experiences. His first mission was over the Po River Valley and Mountains in northern Italy, November 10, 1944; they met 30 enemy fighters. He flew one more mission over northern Italy, then three over France and 46 over Germany. He says it was lucky for the Allied troops that Germany hadn't perfected the technology earlier in the war. "They could only make one pass, then they had to go re-fuel," he says. "But they knocked down at least one plane during four of the 51 missions." DeVaughan says he's lucky also that he was as young as he was and joined the fighting so late in the war. "It wasn't nearly as bad as it was at the beginning of the war. Those guys that were fly ing in the early part and the middle part of the war had to contend with more German fighters," he explains. "The Germans were much stronger, and had more ammunition than they had during the last six months. So I was fortunate that I was as young as I was and got in on the latter part of the war." The timing of his participation was also beneficial to DeVaughan. "If the war would have continued, I could possibly have had to fly another 14 missions," he says. "It was compulsory to fly 65 missions before going home. If I'd have had to fly 14 more missions, I may not have made it." But the war did end; just six days after DeVaughan flew what would be his final mission. He then found himself in France where he began the journey home. He was looking forward to resuming the life he had thought he would live before anyone heard of Adolf Hitler, or the infamy that would forever be associated with Peal Harbor. In June, 1946 DeVaughan went to work at Caddo Electric. He worked as a groundman and then as a lineman. It was during the winter of 1948 that being a lineman for a rural electric cooperative turned out to be extremely lucky for DeVaughan. "We went to Southeast Electric co-op in Durant to help them rebuild their system after an ice storm hit. We had to rebuild about 900 miles of line and were there for about six weeks," he says. While he was there, he went on a double-date with June Lance. He went back to Binger in February, 1949, then returned to Durant in May to marry June. They celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary May 25, 1999. After a brief departure from Caddo, DeVaughan returned in 1952 where he was the warehouseman for about five years. He then became the Co-op's accountant for 10 years; office manager for 10 years, and administrative assistant for 10 years; for the final two years of that period he was also the assistant manager. It was working for the Co-op that got DeVaughan in a plane again. He says in the 55 years since he came back from World War II, he's only flown three times, all were to attend Co-op related meetings. "I have no desire to fly anymore," he says. He grins and adds, "I'm scared." "Jay was my right hand man," says Roy Stone, director of member services for Caddo Electric. "Anytime I had any questions, when I first started (at the Co-op), I'd always run across the hall to Jay." DeVaughan's son Keith is continuing in his father's footsteps, as he is also a Caddo Electric employee. DeVaughan was not only generous with his co-workers, but with his community as well. He has served as the past president of the Binger Rotary Club; commander of the local VFW post; and senior vice-president of the Oklahoma Association of Accountants, along with giving of his time and talents to the Binger Baptist Church. DeVaughan is a friendly man, gracious, with a warm handshake, and one of the few soldiers who could probably still fit into his uniform, if he hadn't thrown it away. "I regretted that the day I did it," he says. Today he speaks of his role in the war, and his subsequent contributions to life in southwestern Oklahoma, with humility and an emotion that can only come from having experienced war and survived it. "We were just a group of men doing a job," he says. "A job we were asked to do for our country." Now, he says teasingly, he's self-employed raising cattle and grass, driving his tractor and sitting on the porch watching what's going on across the road at Caddo Electric Cooperative. "Yes, I consider myself a lucky man," he smiles. (Permission was given by Bob and J.C. Devaughn) ------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Return to Caddo County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/caddo/caddo.html