Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Cordell Addison
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Veterans Remember Oral History project
Interview # VR2-A-L-2009-040
Cordell Addison, who served in the Army and posted to the Pacific in a Barrage Balloon Battalion, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Veterans Remember Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: Nov 8, 2009 Location: Addison residence in Elkville, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Stephen Leonard, ALPL volunteer
Transcription by: Audio Transcription Center, Boston, MA
Edited by: Rozanne Robertson, ALPL Volunteer
Total Pages: 20 pgs Total Time: 1:02 / 1.03 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on December 14, 2011.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2010 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Cordell Addison, Veterans Remember, VR2-A-L-2009-040
Biographical Information Overview of Interview: Cordell Addison was born on February 25th, 1920 in Elkville, Illinois to Henry Clay and Cora Alice Williams Addison. He was the twelfth child of thirteen children, and grew up on a farm in rural Jackson County. His chores consisted of feeding chickens, gathering wood and helping in the garden. When he was older he milked cows and sold the cream to a local store in Cobden, Illinois. Cordell enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corp for six months. He was stationed at Charleston, Illinois building a dam for a fish hatchery and Palos Park, Illinois at Willow Springs State Park. In March of 1941, he began working for the Illinois Central Rail Road laying ties and servicing tracks.
Addison was drafted in October 1941 and sent to Camp Grant in Elgin, Illinois. He was then transferred to Camp Wallace in Texas for artillery and anti aircraft artillery training. After Pearl Harbor, he received additional training at Camp Davis, North Carolina and Mare Island, near Vallejo, California. He was assigned to the 305th Barrage Balloon Battalion. Cordell served at Fort Kamehameha near Hickham Field in Hawaii before transferring to Leyte Island in the Philippines. He continued to serve as a gunner in an anti aircraft unit in the Pacific Theater until the end of the war. His last assignment was guarding Kadena Air Strip on Okinawa prior to the surrender of the Japanese in August of 1945. Cordell passed away in October 2013 at the age of 93.
Subject Headings/Key Words: growing up on a farm in Southern Illinois during the Depression; Civilian Conservation Corp; Illinois Central Rail Road in the early 1940s; anti-aircraft artillery during WW II; 305th Barrage Balloon Battalion; service in the Pacific;
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955
Note to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.