My grandfather, Julien Jacquelin Mason, was a Major in the Confederate Army; in the Cavalry. He led a charge of the Cavalry and he had one of his legs shot off by a cannon ball that went through his leg and killed the horse he was riding. By God's help, he was saved and kept alive. He wore a false leg the rest of his life. He was a lawyer and his practice was in King George, Va. He is named under many Deeds of Trust in the King George County deed books as "Trustee". He also was the Commonwealth's Attorney of King George County for at least 20 years. He is buried in the Episcopal Church graveyard in King George in the "Mason Plot", with my father, mother and a child born dead. I never knew him because he died before I was born.

My father taught school and practiced law in Colonial Beach, Va. My mother was taught shorthand in school. She became dad's secretary after marriage. Dad was not a good business man. If a client said he had no money, dad would not send him a bill. Mother made the person pay for the deed, will or other legal advice. To get mother out of his office, dad got her the position of Postmaster in Colonial Beach when Roosevelt was elected president. She remained Postmaster until she retired at age 65 by the U. S. Government. She did not want to retire but she had no choice. She received a salary as Postmaster, which helped send my brother and me to college and law school. George combined his first year of law at William & Mary and graduated in 6 years. I went to law school at the University of Virginia after graduating from William and Mary and received my Law Degree in 1940.

My father was President of the Bank of Westmoreland in Colonial Beach, Va. and an attorney. He is probably the only attorney I know who had the love and respect of everyone who knew him. He took George into his law office upon his graduation from law school and passing the bar in 1939. About 2 years before dad died, he had a loss of brain power. He would walk to his office at 3AM. and the man mother got to sit with him at night would fall asleep. The final solution was to put him in a nursing home. No matter what, it is not a good solution for the wife and children. Dad died in a nursing home in Stafford County, Va. There has been no solution to the problem of the loss of blood going to the brain. Dad did not smoke very much and then only a cigar or pipe. He bought tobacco for his pipe and mixed two brands together. He never could find one brand of tobacco he liked. Also he put his pipe in his coat pocket while it was still hot and sometimes there would be a burned pocket where the pipe had been. My brother and I thought it was funny but my mother did not laugh!

My parents loved to play bridge and would have couples in at least once a month. They were both good bridge players but would never playas partners. I never knew if it was because they were better bridge players or if they did not want to argue about the bridge had the next day.

I had an ideal childhood! In my home, I could walk one block to the Potomac River. There I could swim, catch fish from the pier, catch crabs from a line with a net and take them home to be cooked. We caught a couple dozen crabs we called "keepers" in about an hour. Today with crab pots it takes 2 or 3days with 10 pots to catch a dozen crabs, if at all. In the winter time my dad and we boys would hunt. We usually had a couple of "Setter" dogs. We hunted with Dorsey Cook, who had dogs called "Pointers". The "Setters" would go into brush with thorns and the "Pointers" covered the fields. When the dogs pointed we would line up back of them and the boys would go in until the birds got up. Then we would shoot to kill the Quail. We were usually good at this. Dad and Dorsey would claim they killed birds we missed. As we got older we got better. The hunting farm was near Oak Grove and had fields with corn, so we also killed doves and geese. We used duck blinds and decoys on the creeks. Ducks were easy to kill but the geese were harder to decoy in. We usually would have one or two shots a year. Once the birds were shot from a blind they didn't come back.

Dad also had a little farm in Classic Shore. He had a man who used two mules and a plow to break the soil. We had strawberries, asparagus, onions, corn, grapes, radishes and other vegetables you now buy in grocery stores. Dad was born on a farm and knew about planting and growing. The man who drove the mules would drive his wagon to our house, give mother what she wanted and then sell the remainder to a chosen few. The vegetables would be fresh. Everything was paid in cash, including wages. George and I were not paid for our work on the farm but we got to eat the food. Both George and I had a lot of mends who wanted to be invited to our house to eat. During the depression this became a bit of concern. Even though the river was there the city people from Washington D.C. did not know how to catch fish or crabs and did not have a farm to grow vegetables. Once in a while they would go on our farm and steal food. If they had no money we gave them food and helped them to catch fish and crabs. A woman who lived next to dad's farm would help peck strawberries and vegetables and she got her food and enough money to pay for other food. She also broke up fights between George and myself as to who was doing the most work. We picked one row of strawberries when she picked three.

We heard about the depression of 1929 but it did not really affect us because we caught and killed fish, game and raised all of our vegetables.

As young men, 12 to 16 we worked in the summer and went to school in the winter. We saved our money for college by having a savings account in the bank.

My last 4 years in high school I worked in the drug store. Mr. Rollins sold the drugs and I was the soda jerk. When I graduated from high school I asked dad if I could get a job in the bank. He told me that I had to see H.W.P. Williams, the Vice-President and head cashier. I went in the bank and talked to Mr. Williams about a job. I was 16 years old. The other youngest person was 25 years. This was during the depression and any job was hard to get. Mr. Williams asked me if I had any references. I told him my father who was President of the bank and he knew me better than anyone else. This was on a Saturday. He told me to come in Monday at 8AM. The bank opened at .9AM. Naturally all of the other employees of the bank were aware of our little talk. Mr. Williams took me back to the Savings Dept. and told the Saving's Manager to teach me the ropes. I was paid $12,00 a week which today would be about $300.00 or more. I worked every summer in the bank as a Saving's Clerk and Cashier and. my four years in college and three in law school. I passed the Bar Exam. I left the bank when I went to Tappahannock to practice law I stayed with the Pendeltons in the house of the minister of the Episcopal Church and Dean of St. Margaret's School. I was 23 years old. The Pendeltons had 2 daughters, ages 13 and 18. The 13 year old gave the 18 year old a tough time, since she felt I was her property and she didn't want the 18 year old to get any attention from me. Sisters can be tough on each other. At that time I looked at them as babies. The oldest girl was a freshman at the College of William and Mary.

I set up a law practice in Tappahannock in the Southside Bank building by myself and did not go in a firm. I did title search of properties, drew deeds and ha a good time. I had a new car, lots of time on my hands, meals cooked by Mrs. Pendleton and played golf with Dr. Pendleton. I had my law practice in King and Queen, Essex, Westmoreland Richmond and Northumberland Counties. Every lawyer knew me and I them. The judges knew me and I would represent people with no money. In May 1941, my number came up in the Draft. I went to Richmond, Va. There I was examined by doctors and advised I would take the cards of about 100 men to Fort Mead, Maryland. I was inducted into the service. I was assigned to Company E, 116th Inf. Reg.., 29th Div. I was taught how to make a bed, pick up papers, march, clean a rifle, the 03 Springfield, take apart and put back together and then given shots for every given disease. We got up at 5 AM, fell out, picked up the area, then made our bed and shaved and fell in for breakfast. Then we made our packs and carried the 60 lbs. walking for first 2 miles; then 5 then 10, then 20 and finally 30 mile round trip. We finally were able to act as a Company in about 4 months. Our Company had men from Chase City, Va. as the National Guard Company E. I wrote a little article for the local paper in Chase City, which was published every week and let the parents of the boys from Chase City know how their boys were getting on in the new army. The boys wanted to be in the article so I had to be sure everyone was mentioned. We were the servicemen of 1941 and went to A.P. Hill in Caroline County as a part of the 20th Infantry Division. We set up tents and did our walks and trained until we were in "top shape". My mother gave a party for the Governor of Virginia and invited the C. G. of the Division, Cap1. Owens. My C.O. and I went to the party. I was a Corporal by then and Cap1. Owens and I were the only army invited to the party who was not a General. Of course I had nothing to do with this. However, Capt. Owens told his officers and men about the party and the fact the Governor of Virginia and the Generals of the 29th Division knew all about him. This was true. My mother wanted Cap1. Owens to know who he had in his Company. All this gave me a big head, especially when the men made me tell them all about the party and what Cap1. Owens did. A few days later we went back to F1. Meade and then on to North Carolina for about 5 weeks and then we were headed back to F1. Meade. We got to South Hill, Va. on December 7, 1941 and were on stop when the boys heard on the radio about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Our Company was sent to Virginia Beach to keep the Germans from landing on the beach. We had this all set up. Then I was called in and told I was moving to F1. Benning, Georgia to become an infantry officer. I was in the 10th group of about 100 men. All were college graduates or 1 s1. Sgts. They did not fool around with sending a man to the school unless he was qualified to be an officer. Later on this would change as so many of the graduates became the leaders of the Company they were sent to and got killed leading their troops in battle. The school was tough but when you graduated you knew every weapon, all the other things you had to know to lead troops. So many of the officers in the army who were called up from the Reserve had not had our training. They also didn't know the officers were suppose to lead the troops in battle and be in front and might get killed. Some of the regular army men were not trained for this part of the army. For this reason the new officers and men who came to the 24th Inf Div. from the field filled up the Company with men who had recently taken their training.

When I was sent to Hawaii from Fort Mason in San Francisco, I was on a ship carrying 5000 men who would go into the 24th and 25th Infantry divisions. I had checked that I could ride a horse, so I was put in the back of a truck with other 2nd Us. and was the last to be delivered. I had been assigned to the Mountain Detachment of the 24th Div. When the truck let me off with my gear, there were 2 soldiers with some horses. I told the 2 men I was to be taken to Company Headquarters. They said they knew I was coming.

They got a horse, put on a saddle and put my gear behind it. Naturally, I wanted to know where Co. Headquarters was located. They advised me to get on the horse, go up the trail and the horse knew how to get there. So the horse and I went up the mountain--3000 feet up in the air. Coming down were mules from the outfit returning packs. When we met on the trail the horse had to give way to the mules. I would get off the horse and stand by his head as the mules coming down would jump down on the trail. There were only 10 miles of this but I thought it took all day. Following the mules were 2 soldiers who didn't carry guns. That were part of the Mt. Detachment. They were regular army but there duties had been to take care of the horses for the Polo Team before the laps attacked Pearl Harbor.

When the horse and I got to the Co. Headquarters, the horse pulled up to a clump of trees. A soldier came out of the trees and told me he would take care of the horse and the Capt. was waiting for me. I went in the tent and reported to an officer who had on Capt bars. He took my papers and advised me where my tent was located; that my bed was made; my pack in my tent and a list of the subjects I would teach to all the members of the Company. We had about 100 men and 3 officers, with me being one. I was supposed to be the expert in weapons since I had just come out of the class of officers in Ft. Benning.

I taught the men about the 60 mi. Mortor, Sub-machine gun, pistol, M.I and 03 rifles and the eight machine guns of Browning, heavy machine guns and automatic rifles. At that time we had not received the Carbine. At the same time I gave instructions on the chain of command. Then I had the men go through each weapon. The Company Commander also did the same, since he had not been through a course in school.

After this was done. I went to the five hidden caves where the guns were set up to shoot any boat coming in with troops to attack the island. There were two heavy and one light machine guns in every cave. These were set up with at least 3 men in every cave, 24hours a day. The weapons were set up by experts and plenty amo and guns. I was impressed. I asked the soldiers present who had set up the machine guns. They advised me that the soldiers from the troop on the beach had set up the guns. They assumed the soldiers assigned to the guns knew how to use them and to re-load. Boy! were they wrong? However when I was there for one week every soldier on duty knew how to operate the guns and to reload them. Then the laps would have made a big mistake if they had come in on those guns. As long as those guns were ready no enemy troops could have come to that section of the islands. The only way to knock those guns out had to be by an air decision. Our boys in the mountains and on the beaches would have killed most of them before their feet hit the ground. I felt better after that. We had two Divisions, 24th and 25th and about 20,000 other troops defending this one island.

By the time I had been with the Mountain Detachment for 1 month, they were so cocky about their guns and positions they were looking for a Jap Division to come in and try to take them. I went in to Schofield Barracks for showers, change of clothes, meals and I would listen to the boys brag about what they would do to any Division dumb enough to try to take their positions. Thank the Lord I never had to find out!

Another officer came to the Mountain Detachment. Not only was he good with guns but also climbing up and down the mountains. No horse, just him. The men didn't like to climb and go down except on horse or on the trail. They learned, although they bitched about it. Probably this one skill saved the lives of the men who had to use it later on. I was glad to see the new officer. We now had 4 officers.

Some of the non-commissioned officers being 1st Sgt., Sgt, Corporal and P.F.C. knew a lot more about the guns and the army than they showed me when I first got there. They let me do my stuff and acted like they caught on fast. They knew a lot more about the weapons than I did. I soon knew who was pulling my leg and I put each in charge of the shift on the guns. Then I knew I didn't have to worry.

About the 1st of August I was given an order to report to the C.G. of the 24th Inf Div., which meant I had to see the G-l of the Division. I went in and was advised that the Judge Advocate of the Div. wanted to talk to me. He was Lt. Cot. A.C. Carpenter. I asked the G-l what this was about. He said Col. Carpenter wanted an Assistant Judge Advocate to try cases and do paper work. I was not in favor of this because I had just got to the point where I knew the Mt. Det.; the soldiers and the officers knew me and I didn't want to change. The G-l told me if I became an Asst. Judge Adv., I would live in a house with a bath and a bed. Also, I would eat in the Officer's Mess and not have to wash my plate after every meal. That did made a difference! So I talked to Col. Carpenter. He gave me time to go back to the Mt. Det., say good-bye to everyone, including my horse. Since I was leaving I was the best Officer they ever had and they told me so. I thought I would cry. I would have except I didn't want anyone to see me cry.

I went to the office of the Judge Advocate, 24th Inf Div. and was given the job of getting all the papers for the Division straight. I told the Cot. about leaving the Mt. Det. and he said he wanted me to come with him to see the G-l of the Division. He told Col. Compere I was the new Asst. 1. G. and would also act as Asst. G-l if he needed and he could not have a 2nd. Lt. in his office with those duties. Col. Compere said he would see I was promoted to 1st. Lt. the next day, which he did. I had to buy all new bars and get use to being one step from a Captain.

We went back to the office and I pitched in. We got most of the work caught up. Then I had to get ready to try cases before the General Court Martial. It was not easy. The men who were charged with a General Court Martial, if convicted, got reduction in grade, a fine and usually a jail sentence. They had to be represented by an attorney and tried before a group of officers who acted as a court. The Asst.1.A. had to find an officer to defend who was an attorney, write letters to each Reg. Col. and find a court reporter. Every trial had to be written up. I could see where Col. Carpenter was having trouble since he had to review everything and send it on to the General for approval.

When the wheels got going we tried so many cases. I have no idea how many.

One of my duties as Asst. G-l was to take out the various groups who put on a show for the troops. In this manner I met Carolyn Waite. She had thr lead in a Victor Herbert Review. She was very pretty and everyone enjoyed her beautiful voice. I took her home that evening and we started dating. We talked on the phone when we were not out together. After about 8 months we planned to get married. Then I got orders. The 24th Division had to leave Hawaii. We had so little time!. Both the mother and father of Carolyn opposed the marriage. But we insisted and they finally agreed. Mrs. Lou Waite and the ladies of Rev. Waite's church got together and gave us a wonderful reception after the wedding in the church recreation hall. I got the boys together and Father Mitchell, our Company Minister. Rev. Waite gave his daughter away and we had a nice wedding of which we have a movie tape. Carolyn's Matron of Honor, Mildred Gerhardt and her husband Wilton, made the tape for us. We had a 2 weeks honeymoon and I left for 2 1/2 years.

When we married, we had all the right people in the wedding party. Col; Carpenter, Col. Compere, Chaplain Mitchell and so on were on my side. Carolyn had her buddies on her side and we had 2 weeks honeymoon in Mrs. Cooper's beach house, ocean front, on the island of Oahu at the beach in Wakiki. Sounds ideal, but we had no idea I would be gone for 2 1/2 years. It was a tough way to start a marriage. But, now over 50 years later, I think it worked!

Col Carpenter went with the Headquarters of the 24th Inf. Div. to Sydney Australia. I was left with the job of getting the J.A. Office and men on the ship taking us to Sidney. One of the men was sea-sick on the boat tied up to the dock and I had to get rid of him and get another man to take his place. Since I was Asst. G-l that was not hard to do so I got a Harvard Grad. as Private and put him in the J.A. Section. He was Mr. Henry. He was also a lot of help to me in doing the job that had to be done.

When the 24th Div. finally got all of its troops in Australia we moved from Sydney to Brisbane to Rockhampton. We set up there and got our troops in line. Our next job was to get past the laps in New Guinea, which we did by landing behind their lines, taking over their airfield and putting men on the trails to kill those attempting to get back. We cut off about 30,000 laps in New Guinea.

We then had to move in the direction of the Philippines. Our first move was to Leyte. The lap Navy tried to stop us and our planes and ships tore them up. General Mc Arthur had said he would return and he did with plenty of power. We had a number of troops attached to the 24th Div. and we struck hard. I went in with Div. Headquarters on the 5th wave of boats. We were on LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicles Personnel) carrying about 3540 men. I was lucky because the boat next to mine was hit by lap gunners on the beach and it was blown out of the water. When we hit the beach the navy men would not put the bow down to let us off because the laps had guns on it and bullets were hitting it. I had my 50 Cal Machine Gun and pointed it at the sailor who would not let us off and told him to drop the bow. He said I would shoot him and he was right. We had to go over the side in about 3 feet of water and with the weight of our guns, ammo and pack, we all went over our heads in water. I had a carbine and held it up but it got wet anyway. Then I crawled to the shore because the Japs were trying to pick us off as we came ashore, about that time I heard a noise and looked up to see planes coming in. They were really shooting and dropped bombs. I thought they were Jap planes. They were our planes and they killed about 1,000 Japs coming in !Tom the fields to drive us into the sea. I didn't know the battle plan so I didn't know what was going on. After the planes left the Japs that had been shooting at us pulled out and we were able to get on the beach. Then one of the Japs in a bunker near us shot one of our men. We had to get a soldier with a flame-thrower up to the bunker, he set it off and he burned up the Japs in the bunker. As they ran out, a very brave officer !Tom another outfit we didn't know shot them in the back and killed all five. The Jap soldiers were on fire and did not have guns. This officer left the next day and he was lucky he did because he was not a soldier, even though he had on a uniform. The next day Col Compere and I went up to the little town of Jaro to find a place for Division Headquarters. We went over a bridge and saw one of our Lts. on the ground. We went up to see who it was and Compere knew the Lt. who had just come into the Division. As we bent over him we heard a machine gun go off and it was a Jap machinr gunner shooting at us. We jumped into a half-grave. As we were jumping in I saw the tree behind us fall !Tom the bullets that had missed us. Then we saw the squad of soldiers coming up the path and two Japs jumped out !Tom under the bridge to throw hand grenades at them. They forgot the squad had men on each side with BARS. They killed the Japs before they could get their hands back. Then the 1st. Sgt. came up to us and asked about the machine gun he heard. I told him about the gun and the tree falling. He called his two men up with their BARS I pointed out where the shots had come !Tom These two soldiers left and went around on each side of the Jap gunner. Soon we heard shots fired and one of the soldiers came out with the gun and asked if we wanted the gun that nearly killed us. We went on into Jaro and found a place for Division Headquarters.

The Japs brought in a division of soldiers to push us off the island. Our planes were able to sink their ships as they were landing. They got their troops ashore but their equipment, being tanks, cars, cannons and other offensive stuff was lost. They could not mount an offense against us with only troops. Of course we did not know this and the weather was terrible. It rained all the time. I was sent up to take over about 1000 Filipinos. Men who were to keep the roads clear. We did a good job and soon the Japs were pushed back into a pack. The Division then spread out and went into Mindinao and Davao. It was hard to keep track of all the men and where they were. I moved with Division Headquarters into Davao and set up shop. The Japs were losing the war but they didn't know it. They had no ships, planes, or heavy equipment to fight us. At this point our main concern was to get to Japan and end the war. We knew our Division would have a lot of men on the landing. We were loading men on boats to go to Japan when we dropped Atom Bombs on Japan. Before we could finish loading our men and equipment on the boats the Japs had surrendered and we went into Japan as one of the first troops to land. We could hardly believe it and we expected some of their troops to hold out. However on the Japanese Island we landed on the houses were burned down, the people had no food and the Jap Army surrendered to us. We had to feed them and put up housing. Our bombers had burned up the city. There was nothing worth fighting for.

Our Division landed and the soldiers dressed up and had a parade down Main Street. They looked good and tough as nails. We put up our tents in about 3 city blocks and started the Japs in rebuilding a place for them to live. Our boys were told "no touch" for the women. The Jap soldiers were surprised since they were used to raping and killing women in the countries they took over. We sent the soldiers back to farms to produce food and had the women working in fields. I went to the Court system and saw they were taking care of the regular cases as if we were not there. Sometimes I would sit with the Jap Judge when he tried cases and he would ask my opinion I would not give my opinion but let the Judge decide the case based on the facts. They were usually right.

In the meantime I had to get a replacement in so I could turn over the Judge Advocate job to an officer who was qualified. I had been promoted to Major but the job called for a Lt. Colonel and they were hard to find. Cot. Carpenter wanted me to be regular army lA. but I decided this was not for me. I had not been to a Judge Advocate school and knew the army life was not for me even though I had done well in the time I was in the army.

The trip home from Japan was made by boat and landed us in San Francisco. Then by railroad to Fort Benning, Georgia. I was met by Carolyn and we went to Colonial Beach, Va. together. Then I tried to set up a law practice and ended up with Thomas H. Blanton who was President of the Union Bank. in Bowling Green, Va. He was a State Senator, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia and had a law practice. I went into law practice with him in April 1946. With my wife we moved into the Raines home with Roper Raines as landlord.

In 1950 we built our present house and moved in with our daughter, Claire Louise, born May 26, 1947. Jane Lynn was born April 11, 1953 and Jacquelin born March 10,1956.

In 1960 we added a dining room, enlarged the kitchen and added a breakfast room and back porch. We also added a large garage and barbeque in the yard. In 1960 I purchased a Chris-Craft Long Island Commuter, 37 feet long, sleeping 6. It was built in 1930 so it was 30 years old when I bought it. I had to spent quite a bit to make it habitable. I kept that boat for 28 years and the family enjoyed it.

Julien died on December 6, 1996. He died of Emphysema and was on full time oxygen for over 2 years. He had a full, eventful life as a good husband, father and dedicated Virginian. He practiced law in Bowling Green from April 1,1946 to December 31,1993. He didn't want to retire but had to because of failing health. He brought 3 attorneys to our little town who are still practicing law here. He served as Commissioner of Accounts in Caroline County from January 14, 1974 to December 31, 1993.

He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1965 and represented the citizens of the 19th House District for three terms, serving on the Committees on Counties, Cities and Towns, Courts of Justice, and Nominations and Confirmations. He was a community leader and was one of the founders and was actively involved in the building of St. Asaph's Episcopal Church, where he served as Senior Warden, vestryman and legal advisor. He also performed the legal work that led to the establishment of the Bowling Green Rescue Squad and the Caroline Community Club. He was active in the Caroline County Development Organization to attract industry to Caroline County.

Julien loved life!! He was an avid fisherman, leaving on his boat at 5AM and fishing in the Chesapeake Bay until dark. He enjoyed crabbing and could sit and pick out morsels of delicious crabmeat for hours and would feed his little girls with their mouths open like baby birds until they could manage to pick out the white meat for themselves. In fact, he would often pick out large chunks for me.

He was well known for his honesty, fairness and integrity. He served his country and his state of Virginia and is deeply loved and missed by his family. He now has eight grandchildren and one great grandson.