Interview with U.L. Gooch

Interview with U.L. Gooch

Before his induction into the United States Army, Mr. Gooch had already left his home in rural Lauderdale County, Tennessee to attend high school in Ripley, Tennessee and began earning a living at the Millington Naval Air Base during the summers as well as at the Dyersburg Army Air Base in the evenings. Mr. Gooch gives an often blunt, but insightful account of his World War II military service. Knowing he would soon be drafted, Mr. Gooch describes how he began exploring military service as a way to pursue his interest in flying airplanes and his visit to the Tuskegee Army Airfield Field in Alabama. After his unsuccessful effort to volunteer for military service in Memphis, he received his draft notice. Although he was initially assigned to a newly formed Army Air Corps Service Quadrant at Majors Army Air Field, he is soon transferred to the U.S. Army's basic training at Camp Livingston, Louisiana, and combat training at Fort Meade, Maryland. Toward the end of 1944, he ships out to Italy and the Philippines. After returning to civilian life, Mr. Gooch used his GI Bill to acquire training as a pilot and later establishes an air service business in Wichita, Kansas. From 1993 to 2004, he served as an elected senator from Wichita in the Kansas State Legislature.

Gooch, U.L., interviewee

Dandridge, Deborah, interviewer

2011-06-21

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