My father, Maurice Bourgeois, Jr. (deceased), was not long out of high school when he started working at Duncan Air Force Base in San Antonio, as a civil servant. He was a mechanic and was trained to maintain our aircraft. It turns out he was quite proficient at his job and was offered the opportunity to help the British as part of the Lend-Lease Program. He, along with other Duncan Air Force Base mechanics, was shipped to England and assisted the Royal Air Force in maintaining the battered British fleet of aircraft during The Blitz.
Then Pearl Harbor changed our status in the war, and he was brought home to join our forces here. He reported dutifully to the draft board which had obviously been looking for him, and upon arriving at the recruiters’ desk, he was asked, “And where have YOU been?” obviously implying that he was ducking out on his responsibility. In reply, my father put his hands on his hips, cocked his head and replied, “Fighting the war! Where have YOU been?”
Well, you can imagine the consternation that ensued. The Air Force recruiter, noting that Dad was a smart aleck, said “We don’t want him.” The Army said they didn’t want him. The Marines also decided that they didn’t need him. Finally, the Navy grudgingly said, “OK. We’ll take him.” So they packed him up and sent him to basic training in Norman, where he met my mother, Jimmie Nadine Adkins, and returned after the war to marry her in McFarland Methodist Church.
Submitted by Vicki B. Sandburg, of Oklahoma City, daughter of Maurice Bourgeois, Jr., of San Antonio
