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A short biographical sketch by Wallace H. Little: I was born at the Orange Memorial
Hospital, in East Orange, New
Jersey, on 14 June 1924...which means I ain’t no “spring chicken.”
I lived in RFD Morris plains, New Jersey, until at 18,
I left my father’s house
at 18 to join the US Army. Elementary
school was in Mt. Tabor, NJ,
and high school at Boonton, NJ, class of ‘42. We numbered 187, about 60%
boys, all but three of whom saw military service in World War Two
(WWII). The exceptions were
refused enlistment for medical reasons. I
entered military service (US Army, as there was no USAF at that time) on
6 July 1942, at Camp Dix, near Trenton,
NJ, and there, went through infantry basic training.
In September, I was transferred to the US Army Air Corps (there was no US
Air Force until September 1947),
entering flight training, and, graduating on 28 May 1943 (Class 43-E), rated a
pilot and commissioned a second lieutenant (the youngest in the Army at that
time). Following this, many
of my classmates and I were Shanghaied into the Training Command as
flight instructors. We wiggled out
of that and into fighter training in May 1944, at Bartow, Florida, training in
the best fighter in the world-the North American P-51.
In October of that year, we were sent overseas, ending up in China.
I was assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd
Fighter Group, 14th Air Force, Major General Claire L. Chennault,
Commanding. I flew my first combat
with my unit on 14 December 1944. Chennault was the leader of the
American Volunteer Group (AVG, more commonly known as the “Flying Tigers). The 75th to which I was assigned was one of the
three military fighter squadrons to come of the AVG when it was disbanded on 4
July 1942. Depending on which records one checks,
I flew 27, 47, 49, or between 60 and 70 combat missions before the war ended.
Records keeping was not high on the priority list, especially when the
Japs kept kicking us out of bases, and we had to pack and leave in a hurry.
On 2 September, with five other pilots, I was chosen to escort the
US military officers to
Shanghai, for the official surrender of the Japs in China. We left China on 10 December 1945, and
after a 28 day (+ one rough typhoon) Pacific crossing, arrived at Tacoma
Washington on 6 January 1946. Three
days in Northwest Ft. Lewis for processing, then across the US
by train to Camp Dix again. There
I was offered the choice of, a: Remaining in, and getting an
assignment to a US base, or b: Immediate discharge, or c: accepting a reserve
commission. Since a. and b. meant I
had to remain in Dix for two weeks or longer (processing was on a first-come,
first serve basis), and c.allowed me to depart for home immediately, that was my
choice. I arrived at my parents
home around 3:00 A.M. on 14 January 1946. After working all summer for my future
brother-in-law, I started in Princeton University that September, in the class
of 1950. Meanwhile, a friend with
whom I had trained and fought went
into unscheduled commercial flying together.
It was great fun, but unfortunately, didn’t pay that much, and being
gone much of the year for school, we eventually had to stop.
Also, I met Carla M. Larimore while flying from Lake of the Ozarks, and
finding out she was a great cook, didn’t want her to get away, so we married
on 14 September 1948. Then back to school.
Only she managed to get
pregnant. We were having difficulty
living on the GI bill allowance,
and knew this would be impossible when the baby arrived. So we moved to
St. Louis, and I got a job, and she proceeded to bring forth our first-born,
daughter: Angeline Christine, on 2 November 1949.
During this period, I took
another year of college work at Washington University, in St. Louis. While still in NJ, I flew with the Air
Force Reserve Unit (yes, after 14 September 1947, there now was an Air Force
separate from the Army) in Newark. After
moving to St. Louis , there was no flying unit nearby, so I concentrated on
professional education, completing the Air Tactical and Command and Staff
courses. Good thing, too, as
in May 1952, I was recalled from active Reserve to active duty, sent to
Tyndall AFB, Panama City, FL, for training as an Aircraft Controller.
Graduation in September put me on a ship for Germany, and eventual
assignment to the 601st AC&W Squadron, at Rothwesten, in W.
Germany. Our task, primarily, was to keep our planes out of trouble
with the MIGs in the Russian Zone. For
those familiar with the military situation at that time, our radio call sign was
GUNPOST. Two years later, I was transferred to
Spangdahlam, and the 10th Recce Tech Squadron, as a
cartographer...after several unsuccessful efforts to get back into fighters. I finally managed to get
that job done when I rotated to the US in 1955.
By this time, Carla has presented our daughter with two brothers.
Following jet upgrading at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama, and F-86D
interceptor training at Perrin AFB, Texas, in May
1956, I was assigned to the 325t
Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, at Truax Field, Madison,
Wisconsin...and discovered what it felt like to endure winter
temperatures that hit minus 40. I
also began having prolonged periods of intense dizziness, that in time, led to
being grounded permanently in 1960, breaking my heart.
Flying was my first love. But
I also liked living, and the Flight Surgeon considered me a hazard to everyone
else in the air as well as to myself. In F-86D Flight School, I met George
McMillan...and in a mere eight
months, he convinced me the Bible
demanded I be baptized for remission of sins.
Carla was baptized a month later. Until
I met George, I had never heard of
such a things as a church of Christ. Carla
also had another son while we were at Madison...and the doctor said that was
all; her health would not handle any more.
So we began looking around to adopt.
Did you ever try that when you already have natural children? Rather frustrating. By this time, I had been involved in
aircraft maintenance as an additional duty, and with my grounding, that became
my primary. So, it was off to
Rantoul, Illinois, and Channute AFB for training there.
At Rantoul, I met that human buzsaw, Ron Mosby, who convinced me (and
four others that year), that we needed to get off the seat of our pants and
begin preaching full-time instead of on a fill in basis. Graduating in February
1960, in the depth of the worst winter in years, the AF put me on a plane for
Misawa Air Base, in northern Japan. While
there, we found we were able to adopt two Korean half-sisters. March 1963
found us back in the USA, at
Williams AFB, near Mesa, Arizona...and with ‘Nam heating up.
The USAF had a program that if you volunteered
to go to Vietnam, your family could continue living in on-base
housing, enjoy all the facilities there, and when you finished your year,
you were guaranteed the same or a better job. And in my case, it was not a matterr of whether I went to
Vietnam, but only when and how often.
Oh yes, by this time I had been preaching for about ten years.
It seems that each place I went, the brethren needed a preacher, and
asked me to do it. I leaned by the stumble method...and fortunately, brethren
were patient with me while I went through this “process.” The
congregation had grown from the 16 of us who started it to 65 - - half by
baptisms - - we were living in our
own home and the church building (a
converted private house) was right next door.
We wanted to stay, the brethren wanted us to stay, I had two years to do
to retire, I volunteered for Vietnam duty, and we prayed for this...and
while everyone else was desperately volunteering for every place else, and got
‘Nam, I who had volunteered to go
there ended up on orders to the Philippines.
When I stepped off the plane at Clark
Air Base, near Angeles City, I asked: “Lord, what do You have in mind
for me here?” I
found out. When my family was able to join me
there, we established a congregation separate from the institutional brethren
because these refused to allow any serious study on the institutional issues so
wracking God’s people then. Our action
managed to get us written up in the (other) GOSPEL ADVOCATE and the (un)FIRM
FOUNDATION, as “disfellowshipped for
‘anti-ism’ in one case, and dividing a congregation in the other.
For a few months, we managed to be on the receiving end of some (???)
criticism, even by those who in the US worshipped with conservative churches
(“Wally, we’re so small here; don’t make waves; don’t rock the boat.) Carla met and brought from Olongapo,
bro. and sis. Castorio F. Gamit,
and their children, a Filipino who has endured much at the hands of the American
liberals, including an effort to put him in jail because he refused to bow down the knee to Baal, er,
the Philippine Bible College (PBC) officials.
With them safely enscored in Angeles City, and worshiping in their home
now, he and I (sometimes with, sometimes
without our families), proceeded to
do street-corner preaching two to four nights a week.
From the contacts made here, after I was transferred in
1968, by November, 1971 Castorio baptized 264 people.
How many more he baptized will
only be known in Judgment, as he kept no further records when his pocket
notebook was filled. In July 1968, I was sent to Vietnam,
and had the simple pleasure of being shot at without being allowed to shoot
back. Deliver me from
politicians who put us in a war, then won’t let us win it!
While there, I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
Returning to the US in July 1969, and reporting to my new assignment at
Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas, one September morning, I received a call from
Personnel: I was to report there and sign my papers for retirement.
What? I hadn’t put in for retirement. But
it seems that Mr. Nixon had volunteered
me for it. So
on 31 March 1970, I bid my last farewell to military service, moved to
Marshall, in East Texas, and helped start a congregation there.
While in that city, my wife and I had opportunity to adopt three more
Korean sisters whose parents were dead. So
by December 1971, we were the parents of nine kids.
We had a house full. Fortunately
by this time, our oldest daughter had married, and our oldest son would do so
soon. We still had a rather full
house. I began returning to the Philippines
each time I could raise the funds, preaching there mostly to preachers, to help
them upgrade their capability.
Actually, there were some there who
could teach me...and did, in their own fashion.
In 1975, we left Marshall, and picked up the work in Peru, Indiana,
staying there until 1978, when we moved to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
Trouble in that congregation convinced me to move again that September
when the brethren refused to mark those who
had divided that local church. Then we moved to Corinth, MS,
preaching there for several
years with the Meeks Street church. In December 1985, I had a several
heart attack, followed by a 4-vessel
bypass, and a couple of years in which the doctor didn’t want me to preach
until I learned something about stress management and recovered from my heart
problems. My heart attack was from
stress, and he judged preaching was stressful.
I wonder how he knew? While
not allowed to preach, I managed to write a number of books, two of which were
published by CASTLE BOOKS, Inc., of Memphis, TN.
These had to do with my experiences in China in WWII. I continued
helping in the Philippine work as best I could.
Then in 1989, moved to Ft. Walton Beach, FL, where I lived until 2003.
I preached for the Northside church there until the summer of 1993,
retiring from local work. I
had long wanted to get into the Philippine work on a full-time basis, and
looking at the old guy staring back at me in the mirror when I shaved each
morning, figured if I didn’t do it soon, it would be too late.
By then I was 68.
My plan was to move to the Philippines but Carla’s health was too bad
to permit this. So I began rotating
between the US and the Philippines twice yearly, for three months’ there,
teaching young preacher-students. I had found that my previous Philippine activity of traveling all over that nation, holding lectureships for older preachers, was too tiring. As the cardiologist had told me, “Your git-up-and-do done got-up-and went.” So I began renting a house in the outskirts of Manila, and inviting young Christian men who wanted to spend their lives serving God in preaching to come live with me for three months at a time, and get a compact education in the basics they would need. Below is a list of the class subjects, and the class hours spent in each:
Several other American and Filipino
preachers help me in this work. Additionally,
I try to hold two or three lectureships for older preachers each time I am in
that nation. As of 1998, I began cutting back to
one trip yearly, which is about as much as I can now handle, physically. I plan, with God’s willingness, to continue
this for several more years, then after 2001, hang it up.
I may
go there once a year for a
while after, for a month or six weeks, to help out, but I will be a helper, not
a director. Even so, I expect to remain busy. Several years ago, twelve of us, preachers, elders, members, decided to do what we could on an organized basis to help Filipino brethren with medical needs beyond their financial ability. We established the PHILIPPINE RELIEF FUND as an IRS tax-exempt organization. I am one of the directors and the secretary/treasurer. We can accept contributions only from individuals, and can give an income tax deduction the same as received for a contribution to a congregation. If you would like to help in this please send any checks to our Treasurer: John D. Young, Jr., 1205 Larry Drive, Marshall, TX 75672 Make all checks to: PHILIPPINE RELIEF FUND. We will send you a certificate authorizing your contribution as a federal income tax deduction in the calendar year in which you make that contribution. If you want further information, on my background or on the PRF, please contact me: Wallace H. Little; 532 Underwood Road, Marshall, TX; 75672-4250 Phone: 903-935-0974, Fax: 903-935-8013 Email: whlittle@direcway.com |
