ARTHUR D. (JOHN) ADAIR COLLECTION

1943-1994

 

East Tennessee State University

Archives of Appalachia

Box 70295

Johnson City, TN  37614-0295

 

Email: myersn@etsu.edu

Telephone: (423) 439-4338

 

                                                                                                                                                    

INTRODUCTION

 

Title: Arthur D. (John) Adair Collection, 1943-1994

Collection Number:  Accession No. 558

Physical Description: 0.25 linear feet of documents (1 box)

                                     1 oversized folder

                                    .30 linear feet of photographs (285 black & white and color, 1 box)

Creators: Arthur D. (John) Adair and Sydney Sword

Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University

 

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

 

Provenance:  The papers of Arthur D. (John) Adair were placed in the Archives of Appalachia on February 9, 2000 by Professor Colin F. Baxter, professor of history at ETSU.

 

Access: The collection is open for research.

 

Processing Information:  Dusty Hibbs completed the processing and the collection was opened for research in May 2004.

 

HISTORICAL NOTE

 

Arthur D. (John) Adair was born May 17, 1925 in Geneva Alabama, the son and grandson of two country dentists.  When Adair was nine years old, he lost the sight in his left eye due to an accident.  Upon entering the US Army in August 1943, he was inducted on a limited service exempting him from combat and overseas duty.  Prior to entering the service, Adair worked for the Office of Price Administration in 1942 and studied typing and Gregg shorthand.

 

From August 1943 to June 1944 Adair was stationed at Fort McClellan, Alabama at the Induction Station where he was assigned clerical duties.  In early 1944 Adair left the Induction Station and became a member of the 103rd Replacement Battalion at Fort McClellan.  This battalion was composed of men with limited physical disabilities.  These replacement battalions operated about thirty miles behind combat lines and did clerical work for the combat units.  In June 1944 Adair boarded the Mauritania along with 10,000 other men and was shipped to England where he served as a clerk and stenographer for court martials until November 1944.

 

On November 4, 1944 Adair’s battalion landed on Omaha Beach, about five months after the invasion.  From there the battalion moved to Givet, France where they remained until March 1945.  From March 15, 1945 until April 15, 1945 Adair was stationed in Verviers, Belgium and in Bad Godesberg, Germany from April 16, 1945 until May 1945.

 

Stationed in Conflans, France from May 1945 to November 1945, Adair’s battalion processed combat veterans for early return to the United States.  They received about 1,000 men per week, typed orders for them, gave them fresh uniforms, and sent them by rail to Marseille and then on the Miami for discharge.  Adair was the only typist for the group and with limited eyesight and old glasses, he typed orders for over 20,000 men.

 

Adair was stationed in Namur, Belgium, from November 1945 until March 1946, when he was discharged at Fort McPherson, Georgia.  Adair has returned to Europe ten times since the war.  Following his service during World War II, Adair taught French and German and is now retired.  Adair resides in Bristol, VA.

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

The Arthur D. (John) Adair collection includes correspondence from Europe to the United States during WWII from August 1943 – February 1946.  The letters are primarily written by Adair to his mother in Alabama.  The collection also includes a scrapbook, trip memorabilia, photographs from Europe during WWII, WWII related documents, postcards, one issue of Yank, and newspaper and magazine clippings.  The collection has been arranged in two series: Series One containing correspondence and memorabilia and Series Two containing photographs.  An index to the collection follows the box and folder list.

 

 

SERIES DESCRIPTION

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                     

Series I, CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORABILIA, 1943-1988, Box 1.

 

Series I contains correspondence written by Adair to his mother in Alabama during WWII.  Along with thirty-three letters, included are six postcards and five V-Mail letters.  One letter is written to Adair’s mother from Adair’s uncle and two letters are written to Adair from fellow enlisted men.  A letter written to Adair’s sister and one written to Adair from his mother are also included.  Two letters include news and magazine clippings and one includes a photograph.  The letters are organized chronologically.

 

Series I also contains news clippings, military correspondence to Adair, several pamphlets and USO programs, and one postcard all relating to WWII and Adair’s service with the United States Army.  Series I also includes one copy of Yank, a magazine produced in Europe for enlisted men and women.  The copy of Yank has been removed and is stored in an oversized folder and filed in the map cabinets in accordance with the accession number.

 

Series I contains various magazine and newspaper clippings documenting the trip Adair made to Europe in October-November of 1988.  Included are typed memoirs of a trip member, a metal emblem of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, and other tour related items.  The printed material taken from the scrapbook made to document a trip Adair took to Europe has been removed and placed in a folder.  The scrapbook was made by Sydney Sword, a member of the tour group who died and willed the scrapbook to Adair.  The original order of the scrapbook has been preserved in a Xerox copy on acid free paper and placed within a folder.

 

The folders are arranged alphabetically by document type.

 

Series II, PHOTOGRAPHS, 1944, 1988, 1994, and undated, Box 2.

 

Series II includes 260 color photographs taken from the scrapbook as well as eighteen black and white photographs taken in Europe of Adair and friends during WWII and two black and white postcards dating 1944.  Two of the black and white photos remain undated.  Also included are five photos taken on a return trip to Omaha Beach by Adair in 1994.  The photographs taken from the scrapbook have been numbered in order to preserve the original order in the scrapbook. 

 

 

BOX AND FOLDER LIST

 

Box 1

 
1. Clippings (1980s) of World War II related materials, 1940s.

2. Correspondence, 1943-1946, Part 1 of 2.
3. Correspondence, 1943-1946, Part 2 of 2.

4. Thirty-third Infantry Division Group Tour of Europe, 1988, Part 1 of 2..

5. Thirty-third Infantry Division Tour of Europe (Scrapbook Clippings), 1988, Part 2 of 2.
6. Yank, February 2, 1945.

 

Box 2

 

1.  Photographs, 1944, 1988, 1994, and undated.

 

 

 

 

 

INDEX FOR THE ARTHUR D. (JOHN) ADAIR COLLECTION

 

Notation following index number indicates box and folder location of indexed materials. “Ph” represents photograph number.

 

Adair, Betty: 1-2.

Adair, Leila: 1-3.

Alsace, France: 2-Ph. 156-157.

Amalfitana, Italy: 2-Ph. 217-220.

Auzio Beach, Italy: 2-Ph. 55.

 

Bennwihr, France: 2-Ph. 158-162, 172-177.

Bourgogne, France: 2-Ph. 239.

Bush, George: 1-4.

 

Cadre Club: 1-1.

Caen, France: 2-Ph.

Cannes, France: 2-Ph. 84, 88.

Capri, Italy: 2-Ph. 25-27, 34-38, 40-43, 45-48, 221.

Cheshire, England: 2-Ph.

Chester, England: 2-Ph.

Colmar, France: 2-Ph. 151-152.

Cora, Italy: 2-Ph. 21-24.

Crocker, W.L.: 1-3.

 

Demande, Harold: 1-2.

Dijon, France: 2-Ph. 114-119, 148, 237-238.

Discharged Soldiers Pamphlet: 1-1.

Draguignon Cemetery, France: 2-Ph. 100-111.

 

Epinal Cemetery, France: 2-Ph. 124-134.

 

Fontane, Lynn: 1-1.

 

Genoa, Italy: 2-Ph. 81-83.

Givet, France: 2-Ph.

Guemar, France: 2-Ph. 145-147.

 

Kayersberg, France: 2-Ph. 178-180.

Kiovewihr, France: 2-Ph. 181-185.

 

Mittelwihr, France: 2-Ph. 200-207.

Monaco: 2-Ph. 85-87.

Montelimar, France: 2-Ph. 120-123.

Mt. Cassino, Italy: 2-Ph. 60-66.

Mt. Rotundo, Italy: 2-Ph. 59.

 

Naples, Italy: 2-Ph. 28-33, 56-59.

Nettuno, Italy: 1-4, 2-Ph. 44, 50-54.

Nice, France: 2-Ph. 90-91.

 

Omaha Beach: 2, Ph.

 

Pisa, Italy: 2-Ph. 74-80, 223-225.

Pompeii, Italy: 2-Ph. 67-73, 208-209, 222.

 

Remiremont, France: 2-Ph. 138-143.

Ribeauville, France: 2-Ph. 240-243.

Rignewihr, France: 2-Ph. 186, 248-249.

Rome, Italy: 2-Ph. 2, 5-20, 226-236.

 

Sicily-Rome American Memorial Pamphlet: 1-4.

Sigolsheim, France: 2-Ph. 163-171.

Sorrento, Italy: 2-Ph. 39, 214-216.

Southampton Harbor, England: 2-Ph.

St. Marie Aux, France: 2-Ph. 92-98.

St. Tropez, France: 2-Ph. 99.

Strasbourg, France: 2-Ph. 144, 149-150, 246-247.

Sword, Sydney: 1-5.

 

Tipton, Laddie: 2-Ph. 109.

 

Worms, Germany: 2-Ph. 187-199.

Wurzburg, Germany: 2-Ph. 153-155.