WWII Part I

For those four or five of you who read my blog, I'd like to continue to share my family history with you. You'll remember that I'm making a scrap book for my grandfather that is going to include all his letters from home, all his paperwork from the war, and all the other photos and mementos he kept. I'm going to also write a story of his life during the war so generations to come can remember all the stories he's entertained me with through the years. This is Part 1.

Part 1.


December 7 1941 is a day that everyone remembers well. The day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Four days later Hitler declared war on the US which sent an unprepared United States into war.

Just a year Earlier Wayne Treadway had graduated from High School and had been working odd and end jobs just trying to make a little cash in the small town of Booneville Arkansas. In 1942 At age 18 he did like so many other Americans did during this time, went to work in California in hopes to help in the war effort. Wayne started work at Consolidated Aircraft building the B-24 Liberators, which were bomber planes which still hold the record as the most produced planes in the US.

Shortly after working at Consolidated Aircraft Wayne decided it was his duty to join the war efforts in a more productive way than just building bomber planes, he wanted to fly them! As he resigned they told him he didn't have to go to war, he was deferred from the draft because he was building the planes, but he really thought he could do more to help his country than just build the planes. He was brave and he knew God would use him more productively.

On November 17, 1942 he enlisted in Rosecrans in California at the young age of 19. Although his desire was to be a pilot when he signed up for the cadet program in the Air Force they didn't have any immediate openings so he was sent to Boot camp in Phoenix AZ and then to Airplane Mechanic school in Shepardfield TX where the "sun shined and it would snow at the same time." The weather was awful.

After four months he was called up to Aviation Cadet School In San Antonio Texas. There Wayne called up his Sweetheart of two years, Norma Lacy and ask her to marry him. He was given a week long furlough and on May 11th, 1943 they were married at the chapel in San Antonio on the base in a traditional military wedding, gun salute and all. Nine months later, Norma would have their first son, Ronald Wayne, (Ronnie)

A few years earlier when Norma first saw Wayne she couldn't believe how good looking he was, unknown to her, he couldn't believe how good looking she was. He finally got up the nerve and invited her out for a coke one night and she couldn't believe out of all the pretty girls in town, that he had picked her. It was love from there on out. They are now working on their 66th year of marriage as happy as ever. She can't walk and he can't see but the love they have for each other is still strong and is obvious when you're around them and hear them flirt and joke with each other.

Check back in for Part 2 in a few days.