Page 115 - The History of Veterans at Highland Springs

BERTRAM OLIVER WOOD
HIGHLAND SPRINGS RESIDENT, NAVY BY MARY LOUISE WOOD, WIDOW AND B. OLIVER WOOD, SON
Bertram Oliver Wood Jr. was born in Abbeville, Louisiana in 1920. He moved to Texas at the age of 4 and graduated from San Angelo, Texas, high school in
1937. He attended Schreiner College in Kerrville, Texas and he and his wife to be, Mary Louise both transferred to the University of Texas in Austin in their sophomore year.
Mary was living in a college dorm when on December 7, 1941 Oliver came to her lobby with the newspaper and told her how many young men immediately enlisted. He had had the foresight to have joined the Naval ROTC and was told if he would wait until graduation in May 1942, he would be inducted as an
officer. He graduated in June 1942, was inducted as an ensign, married Mary Louise and moved to Ithaca, NY, to attend diesel engineering school at Cornell University before being assigned to a ship or shipyard. Upon completion, he was given the rank of Lieutenant, junior grade, and assigned to Wilmington, Delaware shipyard known as DRAVO. Later he was assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Yard as a full Lieutenant. He received no medals or citations other than a commendation for a job well done. Mary Louise did christen the LSM-222 (Landing Ship Medium) when it was launched in 1944.
Oliver served for 4 years and he was mustered out as a Lieutenant in 1946. He and Mary Louise returned to West Texas where he began his career in the oil business as a petroleum engineer. Mary Louise gave birth to and raised 3 extremely active boys. They lived in Monahans, Texas, for 25 years where all three boys graduated high school, and later lived in Midland for 24 years, or until 1999, when they moved to Dallas, Texas where they lived for 23
years. Oliver passed away December 6, 2019. Mary Louise celebrated her 100th birthday on November 4, 2020.
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