Veterans Day Special: Alumnus recalls Bulldog experiences from WWII
November 11, 2009
Like most of the other students at Mississippi State in 1940, freshman Herman McAdams’ days followed a familiar routine—class, mandatory ROTC and spending just a little too much time visiting the girls at neighboring Mississippi University for Women. Things were simple for him and his 2,000 fellow Bulldogs, but this was during World War II and their way of life soon changed drastically.
“In 1943, the Army sent out an order that the Bulldog Battalion had to report in two days. This place was deserted the next day,” McAdams recalled. “We stayed together through basic training but then we were scattered everywhere.”
McAdams was stationed in Italy as a bombardier for the U.S. Army Air Corps, which shocked the native of West Point. He said that at the time he hadn’t met many “Yankees” much less Europeans. However, culture shock was nothing compared to the situations he found himself in during the 37 combat missions he flew, including the time he had to manually release a malfunctioning bomb mid-flight.
“All of the other bombs had deployed properly except one which was just hanging, preventing the plane from landing,” his son Herman McAdams Jr. recalled his father saying. “He had to go out on a little catwalk 10,000 feet in the air and it was too tight to wear a parachute.”
“They would hang up all the time,” the senior McAdams added before changing the subject.
He prefers to tell stories of encountering his fellow Bulldogs while overseas. Thousands of miles from home in a war-torn country McAdams relished those chance meetings for the sense of familiarity they provided.
“One day when we were getting ready to fly I walked through the door and there stood this GI. I only saw him from the back, but I said, ‘There’s not but one man in the world who walks like that and that’s Hugh Lenoir,’” McAdams Sr. recalled. “He was a couple of years older than me and had been over there for about three years. We were so glad to see each other we didn’t know what to do.”
Similar occurrences were common among those from the MSU battalion. McAdams explained that sometimes the soldiers didn’t have to know each other formally. Simply recognizing each other’s names was enough to spark conversations about football and other reminders of home.
After two years at the front McAdams no longer had to rely on happenstance to ease his homesickness. In 1945 he returned home with most of the other American soldiers who were stationed in Europe. He arrived back in Mississippi and didn’t hesitate to immediately return to MSU to resume his education. He explained that just a few days after returning home he told his mother that he was “going back to State” and headed to Starkville to register for class.
“After the war, we were more mature and better students,” McAdams said. “My first two years I monkeyed around and didn’t make good grades. I was too busy courting and too immature to be a student. But when I came back after the war I was married and had a baby on the way. My grades doubled when I re-enrolled because I had something to fight for.”
He added, “Before the war we were just kids and Major Sessums was very strict. After the war, we entered as grown men. We were experienced and he had a completely different way of treating us.”
McAdams Sr. earned his mechanical engineering degree in 1947. Although his military service had ended he instilled his newfound drive and sense of responsibility in his children.
“We had some Army discipline around the house,” McAdams Jr. said. “Being an engineer and good at math dad also spent a lot of time working with us on word problems.”
McAdams Jr. earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Mississippi State in 1968 and later returned to earn a master’s in the same field. He currently lives in Madison, Ala., where he works on rocket research for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
Both he and his father recently visited Starkville’s campus for Homecoming and the Bagley College of Engineering’s annual E-Day festivities. They brought with them William, who they expect to be a fourth-generation engineer and hope he will follow in their footsteps at MSU.
Retired from the DuPont Co., the senior McAdams now lives in Starkville, a decision he made so he could “watch the Bulldogs play.”
He admits that most of the people he remembers from his time at State are now gone, however their influence is still felt across the university. Classes and “courting” still dominate students’ time, engineering remains one of the most prominent majors on campus, and although ROTC is no longer a required activity, the university has maintained its veteran-friendly atmosphere.
“I knew just about everyone these buildings are named for,” McAdams said. “When I was here you could throw a rock and make it to the other side of campus. Not now. It’s been really amazing the way things have changed.”