Burn Ban in Effect. All outdoor burning is prohibited in Franklin County.
On Saturday, September 5th, our Mount Vernon community gathered on the plaza once again to witness a "Raise the Flag" ceremony and listen to the story of another local veteran. PHM 1/C Arlon Joy "AJ" Clinton is remembered by many, but was not fully known until his story was told during this most recent Honor Flag Tribute. Here is that story, as shared by his sons Gary and Mark Clinton.
"Born September 15, 1922, in Purley, Franklin County, TX. His parents were Carl and Willie Williamson Clinton. He had two older sisters, Argeree and Vera Gaye.
At birth, he weighed about 2.5 pounds. His mother, Willie (we called her Mother Clinton), more than once recounted to the family that the doctor told them to keep him warm and he’d be lucky to live to be two. So, she recounted, we wrapped him in a blanket and kept him next to the wood-burning stove. For about a year, he didn’t make a peep. Then he opened his mouth, and he hasn’t shut up since. Mark and I think the tough start to his life probably helps to explain his “my way or the highway” attitude.
At an early age, his family moved to the city— Mt. Vernon. Thus, he attended the MVISD schools. He grew up during the depression years, which greatly affected his family and him, as it did many others.
He once told me that from the age of 12 or 13, anything he had, he earned the money for. He told me during his high school years that he milked, by hand, an old lady somebody’s six cows before and after school. And that he ran the concession stand at the picture show. I asked him, “When did you sleep?” His answer: “During class”. I don’t believe that he was one of the best students in school, but he was probably one of the most scrappy. He was part of the class of 1939.
After HS, he spent time in 1939-40 in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at a camp in Oklahoma. If I ever asked what he did while there, I have forgotten his answer.
Sometime in 1941, before Pearl Harbor, he tried to enlist in the Navy. But his color blindness caused him to fail the physical.
In the early part of 1942, a Navy recruiter named Crenshaw worked with him, and he was able to pass the physical. Thus, in May 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to San Diego for basic training. His reasoning for joining the Navy was that “they got to sleep in beds and eat hot food, while the army had to sleep on the ground and walk everywhere.” (More on this a bit later).
After basic training, he was sent to Hospital Corpsmen’s School also in San Diego. Following this, he was transferred to the Naval Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, where he attended Dental Technician school. My brother and I remember that he still had a set of dental tools that he used to check our teeth when we were young.
After this school, he was transferred in Fall 1942 to the Naval Training Station in Farragut, Idaho. He spent the rest of that year and until January 1944 in the Station’s infirmary assisting the doctors and dentists. One story that he told about this period was when he performed an appendectomy on a recruit. Apparently, the doctor on duty was too drunk to perform the surgery but was able to coach AJ through the procedure. Happily, the recruit survived. This is an example that helps me understand his willingness to try all sorts of things around our home or on his cattle ranch.
In January 1944, he requested a transfer to sea duty as he was tired of the long, cold winters. He was granted his transfer, but it was to the Marine Corps as a Corpsman. Then, as now, the Navy furnished many of the Marines' auxiliary personnel.
So, it was off to Marine basic training… again in San Diego. This is ironic in the sense that the Marines had to walk everywhere and sleep on the ground. He got a dose of what he hoped to avoid by joining the Navy.
After this boot camp, he then completed Field Medical School at Camp Elliott, San Diego.
He was then assigned to the Medical Center at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. He worked there until May 1945.
In May 1945, he was part of a replacement draft of Marines and Naval Corpsmen who were selected for duty in the Pacific theater. He was sent by ship (about a 5-day transit) to Hawaii. One day after arriving, he found his name posted on the bulletin board: transfer in 10 days to Okinawa, where the fighting had been ongoing since April 1 of that year. He and a dozen or so others flew on a PB2Y seaplane on an island-hopping flight that took 4 to 5-days.
According to his Muster records, he arrived on June 17, 1945, and was assigned to the 1st Marine Division. This date corresponds with his memory of arriving the day before General Simon Bolivia Buckner, Jr. was killed, which was June 18, 1945.
AJ always said that he served in the “latter stages” of the Okinawa invasion. The island was declared secured on June 22, and sporadic fighting continued for another 10 days or so. So, his assertion of the latter stages was accurate.
He never talked much about his limited time in battle on Okinawa. I can remember only two specific events he mentioned (both too horrific to tell). If you have seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge, which was about an Army Medic who won the Medal of Honor for his heroism on Okinawa, and if AJ saw anything approaching that horrific action, I understand his reluctance to talk about it.
After fighting ceased, the 1st Division went to the North of the island for a period of rest, refitting, and preparation for the invasion of the Japanese mainland, which was scheduled for November 1945. Of course, this did not happen after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thus, in September 1945, AJ, as part of the 1st Marine Division, went to China, where they were to accept the surrender of Japanese forces in that country, as they were reluctant to surrender to the Chinese. AJ saw duty in Tientsin, Peking, and Tsingtao over a period of 22 months. He had many stories about his time in China, but I won’t bore you with those.
In the July-August 1947 period, AJ was transferred to the Aiea Heights Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor, where he served his remaining duty time. He was discharged on February 26, 1948, at the Alameda Naval Station in the San Francisco Bay Area after serving 5 years, 9 months, and 5 days. About 2 weeks later, on March 12, he married our mother, Wanda Nell Draper, in Mount Vernon.
I read somewhere that the average person has 4 to 5 separate occupations during their working life. AJ certainly fit that description.
After a short time at ETSTC, he went to Highway Patrol School in Austin. He was stationed in New Boston, Carthage (where I was born), and Paris (where Mark was born). This was about 1949-1954.
Then, he owned a grocery store in Paris from 1955 through early 1959. During this period, the store was completely destroyed in a storm and rebuilt. In 1958, the store was armed robbed. AJ took these events as a sign that he wasn’t supposed to be in the grocery business and sold the store.
We then moved back to Mt. Vernon, where AJ went to work as a salesman for Newsom Meat Packers. He eventually became their sales manager and jack of all trades.
Around 1970, he went to work at ML Edwards and Company and ran the hardware store section of the store and assisted in its enlargement and transition to a True Value store. He retired in about 1981-82.
He was active in civic affairs in Mt. Vernon and Franklin County. He served on the City Council for six years or so in the 1970s. He served on the Franklin County Hospital Board for a number of years after this and acted as the Hospital Manager on several occasions when that position was vacant.
He enjoyed a long retirement playing golf, gardening, and traveling.
He died in August 2008, about a month shy of his 86th birthday, and was buried in the City Cemetery near his parents."
