Page 30 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

Gene Mowery Proud to Be a
was born in Lubbock, TX, on
July 15, 1942, the second of
I three children born to Walter
and Amona Mowery. I was the
only son, and I had two sisters,
Norma and Neva. We grew up
in the Arnett Benson area of
Lubbock.
In 1939, my dad was a painter
and paper hanger. My mother
was a homemaker. Later, she
was the head pastry cook and
cafeteria manager at Carroll
Thompson Junior High.
In 1944, my dad volunteered to
serve in the U.S. Marine Corps.
In 1945, he fought on Iwo Jima,
helping to take Mt. Suribachi and
later went into the occupation
of Japan. As a young boy, I
admired my dad and my uncles
who had served in the military,
and I wanted to follow in their
footsteps. I never liked school;
I was always more interested
in hunting and fishing or some
sort of adventure. At the age of
30 Lubbock Senior Link
Marine
seventeen, I asked my father to and she wanted to complete her
sign for me to join the Marine college education, which she did,
Corps; he agreed since I wanted and she then taught school for
to quit school anyway. 22 years. We had three children,
Gindy, Amanda, and Bradley.
So, on Jan. 10, 1960, off I went to We have five grandchildren and
boot camp in San Diego. During seven great grandchildren.
the next four months, I learned
the rules and regulations and I went to work painting with
earned my Expert Rifleman my father. I also went for a brief
Badge. I was then sent to Camp period to LCU for a vocational
Pendleton, California to the course in blueprint reading
First Marine Division First Tank classes. I was in business with
Battalion. I went to track vehicle my dad for many years. One of
repair school to learn how to the jobs I am most proud of is the
work on tanks. After school, I restoration of the Barton House
was mostly assigned as an M51 at the Texas Tech Ranching
Tank Retriever. Heritage Center. My father lived
next door to Mr. Lee Graves, the
In the later part of 1961, I was person in charge of moving and
sent to Okinawa. Before I went
to Okinawa, I came home on a restoring most of the buildings
30-day leave and met “the love at the Ranching Heritage Center.
of my life,” Zanette Hilliard. She Mr. Graves asked my dad if he
and I wrote letters for a year. knew how to hang wallpaper on
canvas. (That was the way the
While I was in Okinawa, I wallpaper in the Barton House
realized I had made a mistake by had originally been hung around
not finishing school. I found that the year 1910.) They wanted
I could complete my high school new wallpaper hung in the entire
GED in the Marine Corps, which
I did.
In December of 1962, I returned
to the States and was stationed
at Camp Pendleton. Zanette and
I were married on December 22,
1962. She and I went to Carlsbad,
California, where we lived
while serving my last year in the
Marine Corps.
After serving four years, I had
risen to the rank of Corporal E4.
On June 10, 1964, I was honorably
discharged, after which I
returned to Lubbock. Zanette
had attended Texas Tech two
years prior to getting married, Gene and his dad at San Diego Zoo in 1960