My wife and I were looking back through an old A&M yearbook with my grandfather ('48), and as he was going through the county clubs he came to the Bell County Club page (his club), and excitedly exclaimed, "There's Pinky Wilson!" He was apprently a club facilitator in some capacity, and my grandfather thought very highly of him.

Immediately after Pinky arrived in France, he began his duty as a Muleskinner. Along the way, he had several close encounters with the enemy as bombs & mustard gas killed several of his comrades and their mule teams. The Battle of Belleau Wood http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/belleau.htm in June of 1918 would add to his responsibilities. This battle saw nearly every Marine officer killed and reports showed that up to 70% of Marine soldiers were killed or seriously wounded.
Pinky continued to bring supplies to the front lines, but on return trips, he carried a very dear cargo back to the home base.it was the bodies of fallen soldiers. Day trips were extremely dangerous & only used in emergencies, as the German "Air Force", with the Red Baron & his flying circus dominated the skies at this time. Many Allied forces were killed by this new war weapon called the airplane.

Once the Marines duties had been finished in Belleau Wood, the Marines in the 5th & 6th regiment were sent to a French town called Soissions https://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/world-war-i-75-years-ago-attack-soissons which was controlled by the Germans. This 5 day battle was fierce, as 12K Americans lost their lives, Allied forces lost 125K & Germany lost 168K men. My grandfather was making supply runs both day & night. Day trips were extremely dangerous & only used in emergencies, as the German "Air Force", made famous by "The Red Baron & his flying circus" killed & injured many Allied forces during the course of the war. Pinky had one encounter where his mule team was killed & his wagon destroyed by a German aeriel attack but he narrowly escaped, receiving only minor injuries.

During the Battle of Soissions, Germans attacked the allied trenches while Pinky was present. Besides gunfire, there was also a lot of hand-to-hand combat going on. The allied code word for an incoming attack was "HULLABALLOO". Soldiers communicated this code word down the trench line by shouting Hullaballoo! Hullaballoo! Hullaballoo!! This kind of communication makes me think of the 12th Man @ football games, where for years, the yell leaders give hand signals for upcoming yells and the 12th Man passes the signals to other 12th Man members..Anyway, as Hullaballoo was announced along the line the soldiers would ready their guns for firing, which sounded like "caneck, caneck, caneck" to Pinky. This sound brought back memories of the yells that he participated in at his days at A&M. The song was not even thought of yet, but the seed had likely been planted.

Next up: Pinky gets his wish

Was at Disney World and kept hearing the War Hymn on Main Street.

AusAg32,

There's also a song called "Coney Island Baby" that was a hit in the late 20's. Disney may have been playing that tune.

I originally thought that my grandfather had copied the tune from that song, but 1st recording of Coney Island Baby was after the War Hymn had been in existence for a few years, so it may have been the other way around.

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AusAg32,

There's also a song called "Coney Island Baby" that was a hit in the late 20's. Disney may have been playing that tune.

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Yeah, I heard renditions of both "Coney Island Baby" and "Hot Time" when I was at DisneyWorld last year.

Was funny because you could see a couple of random Ags in the crowd perk up for just a moment whenever Coney Island Baby got started lol. Myself included.