J. W. “Mac” McDonald

After spending 30 days in the English Channel onboard ship waiting for the Germans to surrender...

Editor’s note: World War II officially ended Sept. 2, 1945, when the Japanese signed surrender terms. We’re honoring the war’s area veterans over the next several months with these brief profiles.

J. W. “Mac” McDonald

Dates of service: July 1, 1942 to Nov. 30, 1945

Born: Nov. 30, 1918

Hometown: Clovis

Lives in: Clovis

Theater or location of service: Europe

Branch: Army

Rank: Tech sergeant

Unit and specialty: 728 Railway operating battalion

After discharge: Clovis

In his words: After spending 30 days in the English Channel onboard ship waiting for the Germans to surrender, McDonald and his unit were all too happy to hop into boxcars headed for Germany. Accommodations were spacious to say the least — three men to a car.

The train also bore wine-cars, more importantly, wooden wine cars. Armed with five gallon “Jerry cans” (fuel cans) that had been emptied and rinsed carefully, “some of the men” drilled holes through the side of the wine-cars and refilled the cans with the intoxicating cargo.

Germany was a remarkably clean and beautiful country, he said. He felt the Germans were friendly and accepted their defeat, recognizing “the bad that they had done.” Daily in the course of his duties, McDonald would pass by the building where the German officers were being held and tried, intrigued by the goings on in the long building.

“I didn’t regret what I was doing, I felt it was my duty even though I had a son at home who was 22 months old that I had never met.”

World War II profiles are compiled by CNJ staff writer Sharna Johnson. Contact her at 763-6991 or by e-mail:

sharna_johnson@link.freedom.com