JACK NEIL

By Dan Ciesielski

Jack Neil grew up in Colfax, Washington.  He graduated from high school there in 1939.  In July of 1940, Jack joined the United States Army;  he was twenty years old.  He said he joined because he wanted to beat the draft and also so he could pick what he would do in the Army.  He joined at Fort George Wright in Spokane, Washington where he went into communications.  He served a total of five years in the Army.  All those years were served here in the United States, in California.

He was first stationed in San Luis Obispo for training and served time in a Harbor Defense unit there.  "Nothing real exciting happened there,"  Jack said.  It was just like another job for him.  He was then sent to Florence, Arizona where he became a Sergeant in Communications.  In Florence he was stationed at a POW camp filled with Italians from the war in South Africa.  Jack spent about two years and four months there.

"They never tried to escape or cause problems at all," according to Jack.  The hardest thing he experienced while on duty there was to keep them from fighting.  There were the Northern Italians and the Southern Italians.  And they would fight all the time.  Then there were the Italians true to the King and there were the Italians true to their communist leader.  Again, fighting ensued.

After he served at the POW camp, Jack was sent to the Coast Artillery at Morro Bay, right on the Pacific Coast of California.  There he and other soldiers were set to guard Avlon Gas, a gas company that was making airplane fuel and was considered to be a prime target of opportunity for the Japanese. 

"One time," Jack said, "A Japanese submarine surfaced and fired eleven shots at the gas tanks, but hit nothing."  The US artillery returned eight shots, but did not hit the sub. 

Jack Neil said that was the most exciting thing that happened to him while he was in the Army.  And yet, he served all those five years between those three places and did his part.  He was discharged as a Sergeant in Communications. 

Jack Neil now resides in Colfax, Washington, where he grew up and worked as a mail carrier plus he worked inside the post office.  He has four daughters and numerous grandchildren.