Heywood Mason was born in August 1925 in Georgia [Annotator's Note: on Susina Plantation near Beachton, Georgia], where he grew up all his life, and raised his children until 1980. He had one brother and two sisters. His brother served in the Air Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Corps] but served on the ground because he was colorblind. His brother enlisted in 1941 after Pearl Harbor and was quickly shipped out to Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy], where the brothers were together for a few weeks. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Mason was in prep school at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. The attack did not mean much to him at the time, but it began to as everyone became involved. He graduated at age 17, became 18 that August [Annotator's Note: August 1943], and was drafted immediately. He went to Fort McPherson in Atlanta [Annotator's Note: Atlanta, Georgia], then to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: in Hattiesburg, Mississippi] for basic training which lasted five months. Military life suited Mason very much, and he was soon made PFC [Annotator's Note: Private 1st Class], which he remained through the war. He trained in an antitank unit. The training was severe. The training prepared him physically but not prepare for what he would face overseas. He was trained on a 57-millimeter antitank gun [Annotator's Note: 57-millimeter M1; American name for the British Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt], but as replacements were needed, he ended up serving as a rifleman. After completing basic training at Camp Shelby, Mason was shipped up to Fort Meade, Maryland [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland] for a few days, and then from there to Newport News [Annotator's Note: Newport News, Virginia] until being shipped out on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] with about 5,000 men.

Heywood Mason crossed the Atlantic to Europe in a big convoy. They were not hassled by submarines and torpedoes as the convoy included several destroyers. Mason had not yet been assigned to a unit and was going over in a replacement unit outside of Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy], on what was apparently Mussolini's [Annotator's Note: Italian fascist dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; also known as il Duce] old dairy farm. He remained there for two or three weeks waiting to be assigned to a unit. He learned to drink coffee just to stay warm because the nights were cold, even in July [Annotator's Note: July 1944]. The invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] had already happened. Mason was assigned to the 88th Infantry Division. On the ship, they had expected that they were going to France to follow D-Day, but Mason ended up being shipped to Naples and then to Leghorn [Annotator's Note: English language name for Livorno, Italy] on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. After landing there, he went west to Florence [Annotator's Note: Florence, Italy] and crossed the Arno River into the mountains. This was his introduction into warfare. Mason was on the frontline from September [Annotator's Note: September 1944] through Christmas [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944], when he was sent to hospital. There were three divisions more or less, but it was decided to move some of the men to southern France. They landed there without any opposition, which made them just barely even with the German forces, because Kesselring [Annotator's Note: German Luftwaffe General Field Marshall Albert Kesselring] was a master at retreating and defense. The Germans would go from one fortified area to another. Taking hills was like beach invasions, facing machine guns and mortar fire. German resistance was stiff. They knew what they were doing and had plenty of SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] men. At this point, in 1944, the Germans had been fighting the war for six or seven years, including in Russia, and were drained. They had also been enlisting older men. Mason's unit took six prisoners once. They had no time to dig foxholes. An artillery barrage hit a few American troops but not any of the Germans. Mason spoke with one of the prisoners who was raised in Toledo, Ohio. He had been told that Germany had bombed and destroyed cities in America to keep morale up. The prisoner could not believe Mason when he said this was not true.

Heywood Mason [Annotator's Note: a Private 1st Class in the US Army 88th Infantry Division] dug foxholes, and when rain came he bailed it out with his helmet. The rain was an issue, tanks could not effectively be used in the mountains. They had used tanks going to Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy], and they could cover a lot of territory, but the tanks could not be used off of a hard road or they would bottom out. Fog also caused problems because they had no air support. On clear days, fighter planes would sometimes come in. When they would see P-38 fighter planes [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] come in, the soldiers would hit the ground, because without good visibility they would mistakenly strafe US troops. In the field, they ate K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. After a few weeks, they might get a brief break for a day, and get some hot food. They would also have C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] when they came in from the field. The rations were brought up the mountains by mule, along with anything else they needed. For the return trip, they would tie bodies [Annotator's Note: of casualties] to the mules. The mules' eardrums were pierced so that they would not be alarmed by the sound of shooting and bombing. They could not use horses because they were too jumpy and nervous. Under the extreme weather conditions in the field, the soldiers could not keep healthy. Mason got trench foot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome] to the point where he could not take his boots off. One night his squad went on a night patrol and had to dig in for cover. Their company was supposed to arrive that night, but were repulsed, so Mason's unit remained behind the lines for two nights, not able to leave their foxholes. When the company finally arrived, Mason realized he could not walk. He also had a terrible case of dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines] and was basically disabled at that time. He made it to an aid station where he stayed for a couple of days, then on to a field hospital in Florence [Annotator's Note: Florence, Italy] via ambulance> He was flown back to a hospital in Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy] where he was treated for a month. He still has problems with his feet. His mother had gotten a letter informing her that Mason was in the hospital in Naples, but the words "trench foot" were censored because they did not want the Germans to know the bad situation US troops were in. He was eventually able to let her know in letters that he was doing fine.

Heywood Mason [Annotator's Note: a Private 1st Class in the US Army 88th Infantry Division] recovered from a case of trench foot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome]. He was sent to a replacement depot to recover and was then then assigned to a Machine Records Unit [Annotator's Note: Machine Records Units entered data onto IBM punch cards for record keeping] where he ran a sorting machine. He then contracted pneumonia [Annotator's Note: an infection of one or both lungs] in Caserta, Italy. It was a beautiful place with a palace [Annotator's Note: the Royal Palace of Caserta]. His unit stayed behind the palace in 14-foot tents where they lived and worked. His pneumonia was called atypical, which did not respond to penicillin [Annotator's Note: an antibiotic] and could not get his temperature down. The man next to him had the same and was given a spinal tap [Annotator's Note: a procedure in which a needle is inserted into the spinal canal]. Mason had never heard yelling like that. He heard the doctor say that if his next patient, referring to Mason, was not doing better the following day, he was going to do the same thing. His fever eventually went down. After a month in hospital, he was not reassigned actively to the 88th Infantry Division but to the MRU. The bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped while he was training to go to the Pacific [Annotator's Note: Pacific Theater of Operations]. They were thankful for the bombing. Mason was shipped home in October [Annotator's Note: October 1945] and had a 45-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. His father was very ill. He flew first to Algiers [Annotator's Note: Algiers, Algeria], landed back in Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.], and headed to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland]. He returned home on the 29th of October [Annotator's Note: 29 October 1945] and saw his parents. His father was on his death bed. They had a good visit, when he just kind of faded out. The next morning he was gone. Mason later learned that his mother had tried to get Mason a Red Cross furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], as she was head of Red Cross volunteers in Thomasville [Annotator's Note: Thomasville, Georgia], but his father told her that he did not want any preference showed to their son. After his furlough, he reported to Camp Lee, Virginia. He had 45 points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. While on furlough, he met the woman he would later marry. She wrote several letters while he was in Italy, but Mason lost them one night when a shell hit a foxhole he had been digging. His field jacket with the letters was buried, but he would have been killed if he had been there. When he went back home, he went to see her. They dated for three weeks and fell madly in love with each other. He had to leave 10 December [Annotator's Note: 10 December 1945] to go back to Camp Lee [Annotator's Note: now Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia], and they wrote each other every single day.

Heywood Mason [Annotator's Note: assigned to a Machine Records Unit] was guarding German prisoners of war at Camp Lee [Annotator's Note: now Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia]. The German prisoners were very well treated. American prisoners, on the other hand, had to be carefully watched. Mason's discharge came through at the end of February 1946. He came down with red measles [Annotator's Note: highly contagious respiratory disease] and was hospitalized. When discharged, the military believed he had been shipped to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland] and had no record of him being in the hospital. He was given a chance to join up again, but he had had enough and now had somebody to come home to [Annotator's Note: referring to his future wife]. They went to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] where she had family. They attended the first Mardi Gras [Annotator's Note: Carnival celebration] after the war. They got engaged in April [Annotator's Note: April 1946], married in June 1946, and lived happily together for 65 years. Mason went to FSCW [Annotator's Note: Florida State College for Women], which is now FSU [Annotator's Note: Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida]. He then went to work for his father-in-law at a Chrysler [Annotator's Note: American automobile manufacturer] dealership, as a service manager, in Tallahassee. Mason participated in an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials], which is one of the most wonderful things he has ever experienced. Mason does not think the younger generation could really understand what the war meant. This was one war that they had to win, otherwise we would all be speaking German.