Page 13 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2023 - Online Magazine

Elvis Thornton Korean War Service in

North Pole, Alaska

by Larry Williams

Service (SPS). But the Korean War had started,
and he wanted to do his part, so he enlisted in the
fledgling U.S. Air Force. “I enlisted in Amarillo
on October 23, 1951, and they sent us by bus
down to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio
for basic training. It just rained and rained there.
I had to send my clothes home to get washed.
After basic, I was sent to Sheppard AFB in Wichita
Falls for testing, then on to Frances E. Warren
AFB (formerly Camp Russell) near Cheyenne,
Wyoming. You could still see some of the barns
and stalls that the cavalry used. I was trained in
ordering parts for aircraft. I was sent from there
to Castle AFB near Merced, California. “That was
the first time I had ever seen a jet plane, an F-80
Shooting Star— the first jet to shoot down a North
Korean MiG.

lvis Thornton was born on a farm near
Owens, Texas (28 miles from Lubbock) on
EChristmas Day, 1928. Elvis was the second
of five children born to Hollis and Elizabeth.
Hollis was a concrete contractor who also
farmed. Growing up during the “Dust Bowl”
years was not easy for his family. “I remember
Mom would soak sheets and put them over the
doors and windows to try to keep the dust out.
Food was scarce. My friend would say, ‘We
had dried beans for breakfast, water for lunch,
and swollen beans in our stomach for supper!’”
Thornton laughed, but at the time, providing
food for the family was not a joking matter.
Afte graduation from Lubbock High in 1948,
Thornton went to work for Southwestern Public

Lubbock Senior Link 13