The CCC's was a program that was part of FDR's vision to get this country out of the 30's depression and save the Country from communism. Believe me, the alphabet soup of organizations that FDR created did just that. Most present day Americans do not realize how close America came in the 1930's to embracing communist ideology. WPA, PWA, CCC and a host of other programs were designed to get the country moving again. It did for me.

My days in Roosevelt's Tree Army

On May 26, 1941 the day after my graduation from High School, I enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps. I was not yet sixteen so I added two years to my age and enrolled. Actually it was easier than that. My mother had had another son who was also named Jose Andres. He was stillborn. I used his birth certificate and enrolled in the CCC's.

I reported to Company 2836 at Magdalena, NM on May 26th., the day following my graduation from High School. Shortly after my arrival at Magdalena the town of San Marcial was enduring the usual spring runoff floods. The 1941 flood was unusually severe. Company 2836 of the CCC's was brought into action to help fight the flood! I was one of the fighters! I was really just 15 years old and weighed all of 120 lbs. soaking wet. The man in charge of my crew was a man named Sixto Leyba. He took one look at me in the middle of the roaring Rio Grande river and called me to the side. He asked me, "How old are you?" I burst into tears and said, "Fifteen." He said, "I am sending you back to main camp. You are going to get killed here. I won't say anything about your age. I was not old enough either when I first enrolled."

The first morning back at main camp I found that there were a few others who for a variety of reasons could not be out in the field. Some had been hurt fighting the floods. The first Sergeant mustered us and a one-armed Captain came out to look us over. More as an afterthought, he asked if there was anyone in the group who could type. I raised my hand and that changed my life. This was a fork in my life.

The Captain gave me a typing test and being satisfied with the results announced, "You will be my assistant." So one day I was fighting the floods in San Marcial, the next I was Assistant to the Educational Advisor. Unknown to me at the moment, I had also been promoted to Assistant Leader. The Captain came in and told me to sew on my stripes. I was now making $36.00 a month. As an enrollee I made $30.00 a month of which $22.00 went by check to my parents and I kept $8.00. I now got to keep $14.00 each month. Of course we also got all we could eat and a bunk in the Barracks. Had it made!

But this was the summer of 1941. The "winds of war" were in the air and the CCC's were beginning to be consolidated, some were closed. The camp at Magdalena was closed and we were transferred to the camp at Ft. Sumner by way of Carlsbad.

On our arrival there the First Sergeant had us all fall in formation. Then he announced that all the Assistant Leaders were to fall out to receive their assignments. I was paired with a crew of 15 enrollees (all of whom were at least 5 to 15 years older than I), a stake-body truck, a pickup truck and the necessary tools to equip us as a fencing crew, and assigned to the side camp at Santa Rosa. A Mr. Jack Reed was in charge.

I, and my crew, was assigned to put up fencing between forest lands and rancher's property in the Datil area. Some of the fences we put up are still in service. One hot August day I had moved ahead on the fence line to check on two enrollees who were dropping off fence posts from the stake-body truck. I left the rest of the crew behind at a distance of approximately a mile away. Suddenly, I heard a yell. The crew left behind were all gathered around one of the men on the ground. His name was Rueben Martinez. He was from Arroyo Seco. Florentino Padilla from Socorro had thrown a crowbar at Rueben and hit him on his right foot. The bar penetrated his boot and he was bleeding profusely. I got Rueben in the pickup and drove to Santa Rosa. Rueben allowed as to how he and Florentino had a fight over a local girl by the name of Lilly Garcia. Mr. Reed wanted to know what had happened, of course, and I told him against Reuben's objections.

Mr. Reed took Reuben to the hospital and reported the incident to the Sheriff. That evening when the crew returned to side camp the Sheriff arrested Florentino and put him in the Santa Rosa jail. His friends went to visit him in jail and he sent word back to me that he would kill me when he got out. Mr. Reed heard about this from someone and he sent me to Ft. Sumner where I finished out my term as a member of the CCC's in November, however not before taking a $3 ride in a J3 Piper Cub at the local airport. That experience also changed my life.

I learned a valuable lesson as a leader of a fencing crew, however, it was a lesson that was not to sink in until years later. Even World War II intervened before I realized how close I had come to getting killed because of the actions of those reporting to me at age fifteen!

On my discharge from the U. S. Navy after WW II on December, 16 1945; I made arrangements to attend the New Mexico School of Mines in Socorro under the G.I. Bill of Rights beginning in January, 1946. Having been turned down for the Navy's V5 program, supposedly because of my lack of mathematics in High School, I signed up for all the mathematics courses I could. Solid Mensuration, Algebra, Analytical Geometry, and Spherical Trigonometry among them, and all at once. Que tonto, eh?

The total enrollment at School of Mines was less than a hundred. I ran around with the Leverton brothers from Albuquerque, John and Richard. They were both big brutes. The youngest, Richard had been a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps and John had been a Sergeant in the Infantry. Our favorite hangout in Socorro was a bar by the name of Las Palmas on US 85. We were there all the time, even in between classes, drinking Bud. One day we were in there doing our thing; me, the Levertons, and Bob Burke from Hot Springs. Suddenly, I looked across the room to a booth in the corner. Bingo! You guessed it, there he was, Florentino Padilla! I quietly told the guys the story of my CCC experience and we decided that if he started any trouble they would "protect" me. As we started to leave Padilla walked over to me and asked, "Aren't you Andres Chacon?" I said, "Yes." "Florentino Padilla is my name. Let's let bygone's be bygone's." He was a mean looking sucker. He repeated what I had told the guys and even emphasized that had I not been moved from Santa Rosa he would indeed have killed me. "I had everything planned.", he said.

Now I reflected more carefully on the whole experience but it was not until later, much later, that I realized how much I had matured during those six months in the CCC's, and what a valuable leadership experience it had been for me. Perhaps, the most important lesson I learned was that when you are in charge of people there are going to be disagreements and the In Charge guy has to learn to take the responsibility. You could just loose your life over it!

President Clinton brought back the concept of the CCC's in his National Service Corps. He did not do it out of thin air. There were many of us CCC veterans who were out there urging him to do so. We used to meet for BBQ at Powdrell's the last Saturday of each month to draft letters to Clinton. He brought Eli Wiesel to the White House and placed him in charge of the national effort. Ironically, our own sweet Dolores, our number one, wound up as Director of Cooperative and Volunteer programs at the Department of Interior which included the National Service Corps. Small world!

Later she would be named Associate Director for the Department of Interior, a Senior Executive Service position!!!! And as I write this has been named President, Department of Interior University. The DOI has consolidated all training activities in the department and placed them under an organization called the DOI University. Our Dodie is at the head of it.

Play it again, Sam.

Read On! Enjoy!