World War II veteran shares memories ahead of Veterans Day

If you think the Civil War is ancient history, you need to meet Ray Lincoln Puckett. His great-uncle fought in the Civil War and shared stories with him when he was in grade school. Puckett is 97, and one of the relatively few veterans of World War II still alive. It’s estimated that fewer than 170,000 remain of the 16 million that were deployed in that war. Puckett lives independently, in the home he shares with his partner in King City, Oregon. He joins us to share some of his memories just ahead of Veterans Day.

Note: We were first put in touch with Puckett by a listener, who asked his permission to pass his number on to us. And the rest, as they say, is history. We always love getting suggestions and introductions from listeners. You can get in touch with us by emailing us at thinkoutloud@opb.org or on Twitter or Facebook we’re @OPBTOL.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We’re going to bring you a special conversation now in honor of Veterans Day, which is tomorrow. A few weeks ago, a listener got in touch with us to tell us about someone he knows, a World War II veteran who has memories of talking to a relative who was a Civil War veteran, meaning personal experience with one of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century. And one on one conversations with someone who experienced one of the most significant events of the 19th century. What’s more, the listener said this man would be interested in talking to us.

Ray Lincoln Puckett is 97 years old right now. He’s gonna be turning 98 in February. He served in the Pacific Theatre for the Navy in World War II and went on to become a home builder and a Presbyterian minister. He was a volunteer first responder into his early 90s. He joins us now on the line. Ray Lincoln Puckett, it’s an honor to have you on the show.

Ray Lincoln Puckett: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here.

Miller: My understanding is that you grew up in 1925, meaning you were a young person throughout the Great Depression. How did the depression affect your family?

Puckett: Well, my father passed away when I was five years old. So my mother, I had one brother and we lived in Southern Iowa right on the Missouri line. And there was no money. Nobody had any money. We used the barter system. My mother took in washing and ironing to make a living and did housework for other people and got paid with, like a chicken or five dozen eggs or whatever. I hunted all my life to supplement meat for the table. Fortunately, there were a lot of quail in Southern Iowa and rabbits and squirrels and pheasant. There were no deer back in those days there, but there is now. But I had any kind of a job you can think of for 50 cents a day and you took your own lunch. I had a lot of friends of mine that went to bed hungry because they didn’t have any food. That was in Hoover’s days, President Hoover’s days, and he didn’t do much for the country really at that time. But we got by.

We had a big garden and we lived right close to the railroad track where a lot of, I call them hobos, but they were homeless people, would come to the door and knock at least four or five every day. My mother would say, well there’s the garden, take what you can actually use, but don’t waste anything, which they did. They were very respectable.

Miller: Even though you and your family didn’t have much and you were hunting to get food to put food on the table, and your mother was working various jobs and sometimes getting paid in food, you would still give food to other people?

Puckett: Right, well I’ll give you a good example. This was a little farming community in Southern Iowa and one of my friends had five acres right next to town and he always planted sweet corn in the five acres. He staggered it so there would always be corn through the summer. And anybody who wanted food could just go in there and get it. I mean, everybody shared. Nobody starved to death, but a lot of them went to bed hungry, I’ll put it that way.

Miller: Do you have a sense for how those early years affected the way you thought about life and what was important in life and what you needed to get by in the many decades that have followed?

Puckett: Well, absolutely. If anything that happened in your childhood affects you even today, but you know a nickel would buy a gallon of milk. Gas was 16 cents a gallon. We never did own a home there, but we rented a house for $3 a month. So that will give you a pretty good idea of what conditions were.

Miller: As I noted in my introduction, one of the many reasons that we wanted to talk to you is that we understood that you spent time when you were growing up talking to a Civil War veteran. That’s not something that very many people alive today can say. Can you tell us about your great-uncle Ezekiel Sankey?

Puckett: Yes, I can. The best I can remember, I was probably seven or eight years old. My uncle Carl, who was Ezekiel’s son, would take me to Leon, which was the county seat of Decatur County. And he would drop me off there, at my great uncle’s, the Civil War veteran, Ezekiel, and he would do his thing there and whatever he needed to do. And I would sit there, at various times, and listen to him tell me stories. Well, I was seven or eight years old and he had one leg off, of course, and crutches. And he would tell me these wild stories, and part of them I believed and part of me didn’t, because it was so far out that a seven year old couldn’t comprehend really what he was saying all the time. But for example, he had a revolver, a pistol if you want to call it that, called a hog leg, that he carried all through the Civil War, with a long barrel on it. And he offered to give that to me and I didn’t have sense enough to take it. No telling what it would be worth today.

Miller: How old were you when he offered you this Civil War pistol?

Puckett: I was about seven or eight years old.

Miller: That’s a bold decision to offer it to a seven year old.

Puckett: Well, he didn’t have much. He had quite a career, my great-uncle did. And, for example, I’ll give you some of the things about his career after he got out of the Civil War and during the Civil War, if you want. You want to hear this?

Miller: Sure. And I’m also curious what it meant to you to talk to somebody who had served in the Civil War. Now, more than 150 years later, it seems almost like a version of ancient American history. I guess I’m wondering if it felt that way to you when you were seven in the early 1930s?

Puckett: No, I think I was too young to comprehend really, the immensity of it, as well as the historical facts of it.

Miller: He was just your great-uncle.

Puckett: He was my great-uncle, yes. But he was quite a guy and had quite a reputation even before and after he got out of the service.

Miller: What did he end up doing after the service?

Puckett: After his recovery, he returned home to Decatur County and bought land in Franklin Township. He was elected sheriff in 1867 and two years later, he re-enlisted and he was a fearless and competent peace officer. He purchased land in Grand River Township and after leaving office in 1878, having been elected county treasurer. And in 1885 he was elected Clerk of Courts in the court system. He was elected as a representative from the county in the legislature, Iowa legislature in 1903, touring in the 13th and 31st general established. And in 1908, he was again chosen as representative.

He was a leader in Democratic circles and also active in the affairs of his hometown, the county, the state and the nation. Mr Sanki celebrated his 92nd birthday with his wife, son, Carl, and daughter. He received congratulations from many friends and family. Now that’s the pertinent information. But back in those days, nobody had any electricity and it was all lanterns and there’s 99 counties in the state of Iowa. And Decatur County was one of the poorest ones of the bunch, really.

Miller: So your great uncle fought for the Union in the Civil War. And then 70 or so years later, you signed up and joined the US Navy and fought in World War II. How did you choose the Navy?

Puckett: Well, I had one brother and he had joined the Navy, really, because there were no jobs. A lot of people went into the service because there wasn’t any work. So you did get paid a little bit and a good place to sleep and eat. But he was already in the Navy when the war started. And of course when I turned 18 in 1942, he said, “Ray, join the Navy, you’ve always got a good clean place to sleep.” So I toured all over the South Pacific. I was in the submarine service and from when we re-invaded or took back the Philippine Islands, I was the first one in there with MacArthur. And I received the Philippine Independence Medal, which is the liberation of the Philippines when MacArthur went back in. So I was, we were the one of the first ones in there. And then I became, well, I was on the . . . I’ve done a lot of things in the meantime, since then.

Miller: As I noted, you were a home builder. The church was very important to the many decades that have followed. You became a minister. You also became, this is going into your early nineties, a volunteer first responder. Were you actually going out to car crashes when you were 90 years old?

Puckett: No, no, no. After Katrina, that was 2008, right?

Miller: I think maybe 2004, I think.

Puckett: Okay, well, right after that, we lived here in King City. And I knew the police chief up here in King City at the time, a fellow by the name of Fessler. And I was up there visiting with him one day and he said, “Ray,” he said, “I got a mandate here from the federal government that every police department in the United States, has to form a volunteer department called CERTS.” That’s the Community Emergency Response Team. So that was right after Katrina. So I worked at that with the police chief for 12 years. And also, in the meantime, I was working with the homeless people at our church here, which is Rise Church, here in Tigard, Oregon. Even though I’m almost 90 years old, I’m still active in it.

Miller: And I should note I got the year wrong, Katrina was in 2005. What do you want people to keep in mind on Veterans Day?

Puckett: On Veterans Day? Well, in a way, we have lost a lot of our patriotism, unfortunately, and I have given a lot of speeches at senior centers and Elks lodges and Masonic lodges. And I gave a speech, a patriotic speech, at the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia, Washington. I’ve been doing this for several years and I have made and given away over 15,000, now that’s quite a sum, of CDs that I made that were all patriotic music and etcetera, with a little message on them. So I think I’ve done my part. I think I’m in good standing with the Lord.

Miller: Ray Lincoln Puckett, thanks very much for joining us today. It was a real pleasure talking with you.

Puckett: Thank you and I enjoyed talking to you. Thank you much.

Miller: Ray Lincoln Puckett is 97 years old. His birthday is February 12, Lincoln’s birthday. He’ll turn 98 this coming February. He served in World War II, in the U.S. Navy.

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