Page 74 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine
P. 74
Bill Whorton From the South Plains to
the Korean Hills
by Larry Williams
Billy attended badly, and one engine was on
Lubbock fire. It was very low and tried to
High make it over Smoke Bomb Hill,
School and our area. It hit our BOQ (Bachelor
graduated Officer Quarters), then hit our
in May 1951. mess hall. Seven people were
Instead of killed, five from the plane and
playing two in the mess hall. My training
sports, he there was over. I never did get
worked my airborne training.”
at various
jobs, such Whorton received orders to
as sacking report to Tacoma, Washington.
groceries, He boarded the U.S.S. Marine
setting pins Adder (T-AP-193), a troop ship
at a local for the U.S. Navy. Sailing out
bowling alley, in June 1954, Whorton recalled,
and finally “Two days out, we were hit by a
at Lubbock huge storm that lasted four days.
National Everyone onboard was sick. It
Bank. He was the worst storm recorded in
attended the ship’s log. The waters became
Texas Tech much smoother after that. Pusan,
College. He Korea was my first time in a
wanted to foreign country.
join the U.S.
y the time Billy Mack Air Force but
Whorton was six years was drafted into the Army and
Bold, he had lived in four inducted in Amarillo, Texas on
West Texas towns: Petersburg, October 28, 1953. Basic training
Floydada, Plainview and finally was at Ft. Bliss in El Paso. He
Lubbock. Billy was born July received orders to report to Ft.
2, 1933, to Walter and Alba Riley, near Manhattan, Kansas,
Whorton. After moving the for Weapons Repair and Supply
family to Lubbock, Walter School. Next up for Bill was a
became a motorcycle policeman. stint at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina,
He was severely injured in a where he was trained for the
motorcycle wreck when Billy Army Special Forces called the
was ten years old. Even after “Green Berets”. To qualify for the
extensive surgery, he was Green Berets, “You had to have
paralyzed for months and lost his airborne training. I was walking
ability to speak. Alba took a job across the parade grounds to sign
at Hemphill-Wells and worked up for airborne training (March
there many years to support the 30, 1954) when I saw a C-119
family. plane, a Flying Boxcar, smoking
74 Lubbock Senior Link
