Dell William Lauderdale was born in 1927 near Ackerly, Texas. Ackerly was a small rural town. He had six brothers and six sisters. Lauderdale was the fifth child. His mother took care of the home and the children while his father raised cattle and managed the family farm. Lauderdale either walked or took a bus to school. It was a five mile round trip. His first school brought together first through seventh grades. His second school included grades eight through 12. Neighbors in his community were close knit and often shared with each other. They would trade excess produce, dairy or meat raised on their farms. Lauderdale was a child when the Depression occurred. He remembers the poverty and lack of funds. That was particularly evident in the schools where funds had to be collected from students to even buy a pencil sharpener. The school had no money and could only furnish text books provided by the state. When Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: on Sunday, 7 December 1941], Lauderdale was attending church with his family. He was familiar with the location of Pearl Harbor because of his interest in geography and history. Lauderdale has maintained those interests over the years. Lauderdale was shocked by the surprise attack because the government led citizens to believe that no war was imminent. He did take note that the country was completely behind President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] and the war effort. Anyone not behind the President or the troops was considered an outcast. Something was wrong with them. Young men lined up at the recruiting stations for the military. Lauderdale's three brothers went into the service. Two were in the Army and one was a Marine. Lauderdale's father supported his sons' decisions because he knew the necessity. He would have preferred otherwise but he supported them. Lauderdale was close to his brothers so their departures were traumatic to him. There was no certainty of their return from service. Lauderdale knew even then that he wanted a career in the military [Annotator's Note: Lauderdale later enlisted and served in the Army and then the US Marine Corps for a total of 30 years]. Some individuals were opposed to being in the service. They wanted to get their tour over with as soon as possible. For Lauderdale, the draw of military service had to do with it being a good calling. It was steady work and offered free meals and a place to stay. The structure part and related stability were beneficial to him. Once he got used to it, it was not bad. He liked the guarantee aspect and the discipline involved. When America entered combat, Lauderdale bought War Stamps to support the war effort. He did not need to do any more than that. The government and community did not expect more from him. Lauderdale did not finish high school. He stopped two years before graduation to help his father on the farm. He realized he could not work full time on the farm and simultaneously attend school. He had to drop out as a result. His father was not capable of handling the farm since his health was not good. Lauderdale kept the farm going and took care of the family as a result. He learned to drive a team of six horses as a young man. He grew up fast. During the Depression, there was hardly any money in circulation among the ordinary people. Only the wealthy had funds. A family could get by with farming. They could trade goods and share with others close by.

Dell Lauderdale was 18 years old and working on the family farm for his father when he decided to join the Marines [Annotator's Note: Lauderdale's father was in poor health and could not manage the farm without his son's assistance so Lauderdale had to drop out of high school]. He already had a brother in the Marines, and Lauderdale was smitten by the Corps. He thought they were the best branch of the military. He liked their uniforms and slogans. When he joined up, he found they had a tremendous esprit de corps. He got caught up in the idea of the Marines and, after training, he felt there was no other service for him. He completed boot camp in San Diego. His father would have preferred that his son not join the Marines. He wanted his son to stay at home and help him, but he knew that was not possible. He had to accept his son's decision. Lauderdale took his military training in stride. He knew he could handle whatever they threw at him. The conditions did not bother or surprise him. That was the way they made Marines. He knew he would be a man when he graduated boot camp. He was trained to be a guard patrolman or military policeman. There was a code number for it which is the same code used for the Army military policeman or MP. As Lauderdale completed his boot camp, the war was nearing an end. He was given a 30 day leave with orders to report afterward to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Upon his return home, he noticed that his girlfriend did not like his shaved head. No one else liked it either. Lauderdale had not been bothered with his haircut until he received the negative reactions. Otherwise, there were no surprises for him at home. Upon reaching California, he was assigned to Marine Barracks, Treasure Island Activities. It was a large naval base. The Marines were part of the Navy. The two branches of the service went hand in hand. Lauderdale policed and directed traffic for the Navy on Treasure Island. He stayed there for nine months. From there, he was transferred to nearby Alameda Naval Air Station performing the same type of duty. Many aircraft carriers went through that facility. The sailors would flood through Lauderdale's post on their way to being processed or going on leave. There were several security posts on the base. He usually manned one of them and checked passes and made sure the sailors did not bring alcohol into the facility. There was a lot of whisky confiscated. Sailors would attempt to bring in the bottles by strapping them to their legs on the inside of the bell bottom trousers. One patrolman would use a Billy club to tap the legs to break the bottles. That often worked.

Dell Lauderdale went home after completing his service in the Marine Corps. After six months out of the military, he decided to join the Army. He had that in mind even while completing his commitment to the Marines. Although he loved the Marines, he did not want to make a career in the Corps. There were specific reasons for that decision. The main thing was that the Marines did not have a professional military police corps. There were only individuals like Lauderdale pulling MP duty. The Army did have a military police school. Lauderdale wanted to be an MP and make a career of it. He joined the Army in Texas and was sent to the MP school at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. The training school has been moved several times since Lauderdale attended it in Carlisle. The Army was a better deal for Lauderdale as far as promotions and other considerations. He was given the equivalent PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] rank he was discharged with as a Marine. He was not required to retake basic training because it was transferable from the Marines. That helped him in the Army because it seemed to give him a jump start. He learned some things in the Marines that the Army did not teach. After induction in Texas, he was going to be sent to the 1st Cavalry Division in Japan. When he reached California, his prior military experience taught him to try to work things more to his advantage. He knew of the quotas that existed for processing overseas as well as stateside transfers within the personnel reception station. He talked with the personnel sergeant who was charged with making the assignments. Lauderdale opened up with the non-com about not wanting to go to the 1st Cavalry in Japan. The sergeant agreed to help him get into the quota requirement for one of the schools. There, coincidentally, was a need for trainees for military police school. Lauderdale met the requirements [Annotator's Note: he had been a trained military policeman in the US Marine Corps] and was selected by the non-com for that assignment. He transferred to Carlisle Barracks and later graduated second in a large class of students. That track record served him well in the future. After Carlisle Barracks, Lauderdale was sent to United States Disciplinary Barracks in Greenhaven, New York. He handled the resident long term maximum security Army and Air Force prisoners. He served as a corrections officer. He stayed there until the facility was deactivated and its prisoners relocated. New York State owned Greenhaven and leased it to the Army until the end of war. The next assignment for Lauderdale was at United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Hancock, New Jersey. Unlike the prior prison, Fort Hancock was a medium security prison. He stayed there for two years and then went to Fort Jay, New York for six months. At that juncture, his enlistment was up. He decided to reenlist. He then was sent to Japan and Sugamo Prison.

Dell Lauderdale was on a ship for 14 days en route to Japan. He woke up and saw little people scurrying around and being energetic and industrious on the docks of Yokohama. He knew he had entered a whole different world. The people he saw were the Japanese working for the American occupation forces. Lauderdale was assigned to Sugamo Prison and worked there for several months. It was a fascinating assignment. It dispelled everything he thought he knew about the Japanese. He came to see the Japanese as very polite people. They were docile, easy to get along with and cooperative. They avoided bothering anybody but would give you something if asked. It was a joy working at Sugamo Prison. He learned a lot. He had an informer in the prison who was a trustee. Lauderdale knew everything going on in the prison through him. The informer was intelligent. He had served in Japanese intelligence. It was not unusual for a prison sergeant to have an informer. The prisoner referred to Lauderdale as "young man." The trustee's name was Kobayashi. [Annotator's Note: This individual had been charged with war crimes for actions regarding American Wake Island prisoners. He was never tried and ultimately released in 1952.]. Kobayashi was a joy to work with. He worked in the orderly room which was company headquarters. He read everything that was left out to view. Kobayashi told Lauderdale many things that he found out. Lauderdale never talked about things he learned. He even found about Lauderdale's pending promotions prior to the official announcement. Kobayashi read the paperwork in the major's inbox and relayed the information to Lauderdale to curry favor. He would also provide advance information about various shipments from Sugamo Prison to Korea. The Korean War was just starting at that time. Different people would be transferred from various posts to be sent to Korea. Lauderdale felt it was the misfits who were being transferred over there. Kobayashi told his benefactor about the shipments to Korea. He also reassured Lauderdale that his name was not on the list of transferees. Kobayashi was right every time. Lauderdale never met Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: an English speaking female who broadcasted Japanese propaganda to Allied troops during the war and was held at Sugamo Prison]. He heard some of her broadcasts but never saw her. At the prison, there was a whole cell block for retaining Chinese Communist prisoners who had been arrested by the United States in Japan. The CIA [Annotator's Note: Central Intelligence Agency] was responsible for them, but the Army maintained custody of them. The CIA would pull some of them out occasionally for interrogation. Lauderdale was cautioned to make sure he had a signature for each of the prisoners when they were removed from his custody. The Chinese were very different from the Japanese. They were arrogant, non-cooperative and combative. They even fought among themselves. While at Sugamo Prison, Lauderdale had two different jobs. He was chief jailor as well as provost sergeant. Additionally, he was platoon sergeant there. He would get his men lined up each morning and have an officer inspect them before their posting at specific stations. Lauderdale's assistant would assure the men were in their proper posts. Lauderdale would check on them during the day to make sure there were no problems or issues.

Dell Lauderdale was at Sugamo Prison where there were six cell blocks separated by an iron gate. Behind the gate was "blue prison" with pods rather than cells. Located there were the Japanese admirals and generals. Shigemitsu [Annotator's Note: Mamoru Shigemitsu] was housed there. He was foreign minister of Japan when they surrendered. He had lost a leg in Korea in a failed assassination attempt. Some of the prisoners there were very interested in talking with Lauderdale. They would converse for 30 minutes or an hour. They convinced Lauderdale that the reason for them to start the war was the United States' oil embargo. That restriction would have starved the Japanese Navy in a year or so. The Japanese leadership felt the oil in Southeast Asia had to be obtained prior to complete exhaustion of their fuel supply. Lauderdale found the Japanese officers to be more aristocratic and reserved than the men who served under them. The officers did not associate with their enlisted men. They disregarded them except when they had to get something done. Lauderdale found the officers easier to talk with because the enlisted men usually did not speak English. Lauderdale felt the United States government had sold a bill of goods to its people through its powerful propaganda against the Japanese. The more contact he had with the Japanese, the more respect he had for them as a good people. He understood the power of anti-Japanese propaganda when he came to realize that he would trust more of them than he would American citizens. Lauderdale stayed at Sugamo Prison from July 1950 to its closure in March 1952 when it was turned over to the Japanese.

Dell Lauderdale went into the areas outside the prison while he was in Tokyo [Annotator's Note: While at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Lauderdale served as chief jailor, provost sergeant, and platoon sergeant there and oversaw Japanese higher ranking officers and came in close contact with them during the early 1950s]. He liked serving in Japan. Lauderdale never met an American who disliked being in Japan. The nightclubs, beer halls and floor shows were very entertaining. The Army facilities were very good. The largest PX [Annotator's Note: Post Exchange] was there. The American and Japanese restaurants were good. There was plenty to do. Most soldiers were not interested in meeting the local population, but Lauderdale enjoyed talking with the locals as much as they would talk to him. It was a very interesting experience for him. The Japanese were courteous and polite, as well as, cooperative all the way around. The prison was shut down after Lauderdale had been there for about two years.

Dell Lauderdale went to Southern Japan after he left the prison [Annotator's Note: Sugamo Prison in Tokyo]. Lauderdale served about a year in Southern Japan as the provost sergeant for a large stockade holding American prisoners. He transitioned from overseeing Japanese captives to guarding American prisoners. His assignment over the Kokura stockade was disgusting. It was one of the worst jobs he ever had. The American prisoners were very difficult to deal with. Many were not very well educated. They had to be constantly watched. This was in 1953 to 1954 while the Korean War was underway. Lauderdale constantly anticipated being sent to Korea. He did not want any part of that situation because of the total confusion involved with America's entry into that combat. Lauderdale had a friend who was drafted and sent to Korea. He was back in Tokyo Army Hospital within two months. When Lauderdale visited him, he was told by the injured man about the mismanagement there. The hospitalized friend recounted how a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] was randomly assigned to him by a master sergeant in Korea. Despite having no previous experience with the weapon, Lauderdale's friend had the gun tossed at him and was informed he was the BAR man. The wounded man was forced to take the BAR and told by the non-com [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officer] to learn about how to operate it as quickly as possible. That way of operating in Korea was not unusual. The 24th Infantry Division was serving occupation duty in Japan before they were hastily thrown into the fight against the North Koreans. They were not combat ready. They had been under peacetime conditions and separated across Japan. They were not a cohesive fighting unit. The major general who was in charge of the 24th Division [Annotator's Note: Major General William F. Dean] was captured shortly after the division arrived in Korea. He managed to survive and return to the United States. After three years overseas, Lauderdale was ready to return to the United States. It was going to be not too good after that.

Upon his return to the United States, Dell Lauderdale was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. It was not a good place to be. To make matters worse, he was a sergeant in the stockade there. He had enough tenure as a stockade sergeant that he was a real professional. Nevertheless, he did not want any part of that location. Consequently, he submitted a 1049 request for transfer to his company commander. He put in for a transfer to Korea. Lauderdale was aware that if he had merely asked for a transfer, it would not have been granted. Men were needed in Korea and a request for transfer there would not be disapproved. The formal request angered the company commander, but Lauderdale did not change his course. Lauderdale's intention was to make a change while being processed through California [Annotator's Note: he had accomplished this previously when he was to be transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division]. This time, Lauderdale did not have the opportunity to get a revision to his assignment. He went to Korea as provost marshal of the 3rd Division stockade. His attempts to avoid going to Korea were not successful. He was forced to do desperate things in the Army. The first time he was to be sent to Korea was as a member of the 1st Cavalry Division. He wanted no part of being in the cavalry or infantry. Instead, he ended up in Japan. [Annotator's Note: Lauderdale was provost sergeant over two prisoner retention facilities while in Japan. The first incarcerated high ranking Japanese prisoners and the other was a stockade which held errant American servicemen.] He witnessed substantial differences between his tours in Korea and Japan. The Japanese were more cultured and intelligent than the Koreans. The latter seemed stubborn, uncooperative and hard-headed. The many transfers that Lauderdale experienced did not bother him. The bad assignments like Kokura, Japan or Fort Sill, Oklahoma just had to be endured. When the Army and the Army Air Corps separated, Lauderdale could see immediately that the Air Force was more laid back and relaxed. The Army had a stricter disciplinary code. Most individuals seemed to like the Air Force system better. It had more respect for the individual. Lauderdale stayed in Korea for one year. He then went back to Southern Japan to run a stockade for American prisoners. It was a different stockade from the one he had served in before. [Annotator's Note: The Kokura stockade had been his previous assignment in southern Japan. Lauderdale does not mention the location of the latter assignment.] He remained there for approximately one year.

Dell Lauderdale had been to Japan twice and Korea once before his next assignment which was finally back to the United States. He transferred to Fort MacArthur in Long Beach, California. He ran an MP guardhouse there. He had traveled a lot. He retired in 1976 as a Sergeant Major. He had over 30 years of service, 29 years in the Army and one year in the Marines. He did a tour of duty in Vietnam during the whole year of 1969. He arrived in January 1969 and left there in February 1970. From there, he was sent to the big prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Next he went to Allentown, Pennsylvania as an advisor to the Pennsylvania National Guard. He achieved that good assignment because of his fine reputation in the Army. A very nice colonel who was in charge of the Pennsylvania unit requested from the Pentagon the best Army Sergeant Major available as his assistant. Lauderdale was selected and routed to the new and improved assignment. He was there for a total of five and a half years with the year in Vietnam in the middle of that period. While he was in Vietnam, he was sergeant major of the military police in Qui Nhơn. He experienced Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese people. He had no bad impressions of the limited contact he had with the Vietnamese. They were generally humble, cooperative, and docile. They did not bother anybody. Training soldiers during the Vietnam War was much more difficult than previous conflicts and disciplining soldiers was much more problematic. There was extensive alcohol and drug abuse within the ranks. Many lower rank soldiers just did not seem to care. They would just as soon throw everything down and go to the village and get drunk. Lauderdale was nearing his 30 year mark and he was glad of it. He had done his time and did not want any part of the future dysfunctional Army. A lot of people at that stage just wanted to get out.

Dell Lauderdale retired from the military and went to work for a private security company called Wackenhut Security. He worked there for two years. He returned to school and received a two year associate business degree after leaving Wackenhut. Lauderdale transitioned easily to civilian life after his Army career. He had done his duty and carried country's flag. Being done with the military, he is just happy to accept his benefits. He received a good education in his travels and assignments while in the Army. He had no adjustment problems at all after his service. To be a successful military guy, a person has to be flexible and able to adjust to different situations. He mentally prepared for retirement even though he really did not want to retire. The way the Army was going was not satisfactory for him so he was ready to go after 30 years of service. His most memorable experience in the Army was Sugamo Prison where he loved the duty and associating with the Japanese people. The second one was when he was First Sergeant of the 67th Military Police Company at the United States European Command. There were 18 generals in that headquarters. Lauderdale met many of them and talked with a few of them. He liked that memorable experience. The duty in Paris, the headquarters and the generals were all much different from anything else he experienced. With that many generals, he thought it would not be a good place to work. That was not the case. He enjoyed it. World War 2 means little to people today. Most young people do not know or appreciate what went on or how many people were killed or wounded. Throughout his career, Lauderdale maintained a philosophy to avoid starting a crusade in the Army. If you choose to do so, you will lose. He has seen that the Army is bigger than any one individual who might want to change it. He also realized that his signature on the line meant that he was subject to any assignment in the world. If you resist, you will not succeed. You have no choice in the matter. That was his philosophy. He went to Vietnam despite not being enthusiastic about it. He thought we were wrong and it turned out that way. At the same time, he knew that being in the Army, he had to accept what he was ordered to do.