Clint Castellaw - Caldwell County Veterans

Clint Castellaw
by
Christopher Shore
Clint Castellaw was born
and reared in the small town
(around five thousand residents)
of McDonough, Georgia. In his
youth, Castellaw was active with
the Boy Scouts of America and
enjoyed going to the different
campgrounds around Georgia. It
was at a Boy Scout camping trip
that he first heard that the United
States had used the atomic bombs
on Japan in August of 1945. The
counselor told the scouts
that
many lives had been lost but that
the end of the war would
"The United States united
quicker than ever, all with
similar ideals and the powerful support needed at
home."
hopefully
come
sooner
than
expected and prevent the loss of
anymore American lives.
The result was the end of
the war on August 15, 1945, when
Japan surrendered.
Even in the
small town of McDonough, many
large parades and celebrations
broke out in honor of the many
soldiers sent to fight. The city's
theater owner at that time had one
of the few home movie recorders,
with
which
he filmed
the
celebrations. He would later put
the films
on as shows in the
theater where people could relive
the joyous day and see the soldiers
from their families in uniform.
Castellaw's
most vivid
memory about World War Two
(WWII) years was the amazing
ability of the entire country to
unite into one entity to provide full
support that the troops and the
country needed in the early 1940's
to win the war. He remembered
the rationing of gasoline, rubber,
stamps, sugar and other foods, and
the willingness of everyone to
sacrifice and work to support our
troops.
Castellaw
said, "The
United States united quicker than
ever, all with similar ideals and
the powerful support needed at
home." The support was the
manpower
necessary
in the
factories, the sacrifices made by
families across the country, and
there was little dissent among the
people against the war.
At the time of WWII,
Castellaw was working in a drug
store, which was also the city's
bus station, so he sawall of the
soldiers going to and from war. He
saw many of his brother's friends
leave, and some not come back.
He even saw his own brother, who
was a drill sergeant
in the
Marines, leave for China where he
would help train troops for the
Pacific Front. The drug store
Castellaw worked at saw the
effects of the rationing on many of
the products they sold before the
war broke out. Products like candy
and other goods were all sacrificed
for the greater good of the soldiers
overseas.
In the summer of 1947,
while away at Boy Scout camp,
24
Castellaw heard about some of his
friends in the National Guard. It
sounded great to him: He got to be
with friends, train at different
camps around Georgia, and even
be paid to be in the national
guard.
So he and some friends
made a quick turn around from
being in the Boy Scouts in 1947 to
joining
the
12151
Infantry
Regiment of the Georgia National
Guard
in 1948.
The
new
experience proved to be quite
different from the previous Boy
Scout camps and shocked the
senses; the simple scout activities
were different from the intense
training of the armed forces.
Castellaw
traveled
around to
different forts in the Georgia area
from their main headquarters at
Fort Jackson to Camp McClellan
to Fort Stewart, which he referred
to as "Swamp Stewart" after
training there. Castellaw said, "We
~
The new experience proved
to be quite different from
the previous Boy Scout
camps and shocked the
senses; the simple scout
activities were different
from the intense training of
the armed forces.
thought that to start up a fort they
had to first find the hottest,
wettest, most miserable place they
could find, and then they would
build the fort there."
At the forts, Castellaw's
training was carried out by senior
officers
and
other
military
personal, many of whom had
fought in WWII, and he learned to
training. We were told to prepare
for full time duty." Hoping to
avoid being in the infantry if he
suffered during WWII, they were
overlooked
and never sent to
Korea.
Among the other weapons,
he was also trained with
the mortar, used to launch
an explosive shell several
hundred feet.
gain and use their experience to
help him in his training. Being
new to the unit, the training was
especially tough, having to move
from fort to fort by train or by
open air trucks where the only
seating were their backpacks.
Starting out, the harsh treatment
from the senior officers coupled
with the extreme elements of the
Georgia climate, was tough. For
fun, the troops would start games,
such as football and softball to
help deviate
from the usual
strictness of the training and get to
know each other.
Once an official National
Guardsman,
Castellaw
would
spend two weeks a year in training
at many of the same bases which
he had received his original
training. In weapons training he
became proficient with the MI
Garand rifle, the rifle widely
known for its effectiveness
in
infantry during WWII. Castellaw
used the MI Carbine, a semiautomatic variant of the Garand
rifle used by support troops, and
he also used the .45 Colt pistol, a
standard issue for the armed
forces. Among the other weapons,
he also was trained with the
mortar,
used
to launch
an
explosive shell several hundred
feet.
Castellaw said in 1953
when the Korean War broke out,
"When war in Korea broke out,
the officers
accelerated
our
Clint Castellaw during a softball game at Fort Jackson, Georgia.
did have to go to Korea, Castellaw
tried to transfer to an Air Force
unit. To transfer to a different unit,
a soldier had to have the captain's
approval, but the captain would
not allow Castellaw
to change.
The next week the Air Force unit
he tried to get into was sent to
Korea, but because of the heavy
casualties his National Guard unit
25
Castellaw
was in the
12151 Infantry Regiment of the
Georgia
National
Guard
for
roughly eleven years where he
never saw active duty but still
performed an act of service for his
country, which is still recognized
today.
*