Barrack
Friday, March 16, 2018
From the time I was born, there was the house, the little house, the shop, and the barrack that sat on the two lots known as 1006 Nassau Street in Plainview, Texas.
This week, at a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting, our program was given by John W. McCullough, of Texas Tech University about Clent Breedlove and his contract to train glider pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces. One of his locations was Finney Field, just north of Plainview, Texas.
I had always wanted to know where that big barrack came from. The timing was right. I visited with Mr. McCullough. It could be, but we have no proof.
I decided to visit with a relative that might remember or at least have a story to spin. I have nothing in my memory bank about where it came from. He remembered it came from Hereford. We think that "our" barrack was one from the 800-acre prisoner of war camp that once housed approximately 4,000 Italian POW’s during World War II. My cousin remembered that they had to build a special truckbed to move it from Hereford to Plainview. When I showed him these two pictures, he said, definitely the first one. That's how he remembered it when he was little.
A picture of the barracks at the Hereford POW camp.
A picture of the barracks at Finney Field glider training camp.
It is Interesting to find out a little about the barrack where we played growing up. Here is a picture of our grandfather, Hugh Robert Etter, by his airplanes. He liked anything fast! He built speed bots and included the Evinrude motor dealership within his electrician business, Hugh R. Etter Electric.