usadeepsouth.com
~a memoir~
by Billy Tom (Bubba) Lusk
Enlisting for WWII:
We finished CHS and had our Senior dance. Stayed up all night. Next morning we changed clothes and Mr. G.C.Horton hauled us to Mississippi State the next day for summer school without our having been to sleep. I think Jim, Buster and I were in the car. At State guys were constantly leaving for the service and we freshmen were taking ROTC. There was a lot of anxiety about the war.
I just couldn't stand it any longer. I decided to join the Navy – we could do that at age 17, which I was. I thumbed rides home. Daddy and the family were glad to see me till at the supper table Daddy asked why I was home in the middle of the week. That's when I told him I had come home to join the Navy (17 year olds had to have parental consent).
Without any discussion at all, Daddy said, "The hell you bellow. Bud will take you back to school in the morning!” That was the end of that conversation.
So it was back to State in the old '41 Ford with Bud Marshall driving. I hadn't lied, but I hadn't told the whole truth (that I had dropped two classes 'cause I knew I was going to enlist). I didn't ever explain that to Daddy. I completed the summer and fall at State, then went to Delta State for the spring. From there I went to Camp Shelby [military] about two months after turning eighteen.
Delta State days:
In the spring of '43, I attended Delta State, mostly 'cause my sweetheart, Mary Capers Williford (deceased), was going there. I stayed in one of the dorms rather than travel in from the farm.
At Delta State the boys were going into the service on a regular basis, and in their honor I would paint black silhouettes of their heads. We held a bright light and outlined the shadow. I don't remember how many we painted on the dorm wall, but I'm gonna guess maybe about a dozen. Somehow the authorities found out that the wall was being “defaced,” or some word to that effect, and I was forced to paint over the silhouettes.
I was so upset that, on a late weekend afternoon, I drove for quite a bit over the campus grass, being careful to avoid damaging any of President Kethley's trees, knowing that would've been a capital offense. I wish I could remember the names of the servicemen whose shadows were on my dorm room wall. I wonder how many of them didn't make it back and how many of them who did make it back have since gone on.
That wasn't my first attendance at Delta State. As a pre-schooler, I was sent to kindergarten at that place [Hill Demonstration School]. The building sat at the west end of Court Street. I can't recall how I got to school from about ten miles out in the country. About the only thing I do remember was that one day at school the girl sitting next to me bent over to do something. I pinched her on the "bootay" and the teacher no longer let me sit next to her. Wish I knew now who she was – must have been her fault by being so much a temptation.
At Delta State I was in a field botany class with Dinks, a young lady from West Point, Mississippi. About six years later our paths crossed again, but that's another story.
Billy Tom’s memoirs are full of Mississippi Delta history:
Part I: Early memories
Part II: Stories from my youth
Part III: Influences on my life
Part IV: College days and WWII enlistment
Part V: Thoughts on religion
Part VI: On fishing
BIO: A Mississippi Delta native, Billy Tom "Bubba" Lusk has resided in Texas since 1961. He's a graduate of Mississippi State University ('49), and has worked in agriculture and insurance. During WWII, he served with the 541st Parachute Infantry Regiment, but saw no combat. He and his wife, Barbara, have 4 children and 7 grandchildren.
Read many more great stories listed on our USADS memoir pages.
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