A friend of mine is turning 99 this weekend. I’d like to ask you if you would join me in wishing him a happy 99th birthday by sending him a card or a note congratulating him on this milestone and thanking him for his service. Dr. Wayne C. “Doc” Temple lives in Springfield, Illinois, and is our country’s greatest living authority on Abraham Lincoln. During his 75 years of public service, Doc has written over 20 books and hundreds of articles about Lincoln, the Civil War, and the indigenous people of the Midwest. One of Doc’s books, Lincoln the Railsplitter, has been placed by historians among the 100 greatest books ever written about Abraham Lincoln. When you consider that well over 16,000 books have been written about Lincoln, that is quite an accomplishment.
Beginning in the summer of 2022, I have been visiting Doc at his Springfield home for an informal evening of Lincoln talk alongside former Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Curator James Cornelius, who has been visiting Doc every Thursday evening for many years. The talks became the impetus for a book I’m working on entitled Thursdays with Doc. Dr. Wayne C. Temple’s Recollections on Springfield & Lincoln. Doc was born on February 5, 1924, a birthdate shared with Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln whose final resting place is right here in Indiana. This birthday is particularly important as it will be the first for Doc since the passing of his beloved wife Sandy on March 4, 2022.
Doc Temple is the Dean of Illinois Lincoln scholars. I am one of many Lincoln scholars he has helped and encouraged along the way. One look at his credentials explains why. Aside from the books, the articles, the reviews, and the speeches he has written and delivered, Doc graduated AB cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1949; AM, University of Illinois, 1951; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Illinois, 1956; Lincoln Diploma Honor, Lincoln Memorial U., Harrogate, Tennessee, 1963. Curator ethnohistory, Illinois State Museum, 1954-1958; editor-in-chief, Lincoln Herald, 1958-1973; associate editor, since 1973; Lecturer United States Military Academy, 1975. Secretary-treasurer National Lincoln-Civil War Council, 1958-1964. Honorary member Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, 1959-1960. Advisory Council for the United States Civil War Centennial Commission, 1960-1966. Major Civil War Press Corps, since 1962. President Midwest Conference Masonic Education, 1985.
Doc served as chief deputy director of the Illinois State Archives for over 50 years (1964-2016), and as a member of the Illinois State Flag Commission, since 1969. Trustee, regent Lincoln Academy Illinois, 1970-1982, Bicentennial Order Lincoln, 2009. Fellow Royal Society Arts (life). Member Knights Templar (Red Cross Constantine), Lincoln Group District of Columbia (honorary), Illinois State History Society, Board of Advisors, Iron Brigade Association (honorary life), Military Order Loyal Legion United States (honorary companion), Military Order Foreign Wars United States, Army and Navy Union, Masons (33 degree, Meritorious Service award, grand representative from Grand Lodge of Colorado), Shriners, Kappa Delta Pi, Phi Alpha, Phi Alpha Theta (Scholarship Key award), Chi Gamma Iota, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Kappa Alpha, Alpha Psi Omega, Sigma Pi Beta (Headmaster), Sigma Tau Delta (Gold Honor Key award for editorial writing), Zeta Psi. Served with US Army, 1943-1946, retired as general (Reserve).
Now that you know Doc a little better, please join me in wishing him a happy birthday. Send your “snail-mail” greeting (Doc doesn’t do e-mail) to Wayne “Doc” Temple c/o Books on the Square 427 East Washington Street Springfield, IL 62701. Now, let me tell you a story, better yet, I’ll let Doc tell it to you in his own words. Read it slowly and carefully for this is the testimony of a World War II veteran, the ranks of which are dwindling daily. While many of us grew up listening to stories from men and women just like Doc, sadly, we rarely paid attention. But we should have.
“I was in school at Ohio State University but I knew I was going to be drafted so that was no shock. I was drafted into the Army Air Corps. We started out on French 75’s, then went to the brand-new, 105 howitzers. I made Corporal and I was real proud of that. Evidently if you had a certain IQ and had been in college before, they picked you out for ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program). As I recall, it took the Army’s IQ number, 110, to go to officers candidate school. It took 115 to go to this ASTP. Mine was 160. I wanted to fly so they sent me to Greensboro, North Carolina, BTC #10. I had almost finished basic (training) when the government, for some reason, decided they needed engineers. Secretly I think they were trying to get some of their more prominent, intellectual types, not to die in the first days of the war.”
Eventually, Doc was transferred over 450 miles away to a newly created military camp located in the far southwest corner of Missouri near a little town called Neosho. Camp Crowder was established in 1941. It was named in honor of Major General Enoch H. Crowder, provost marshal of the U.S. during World War I and author of the 1917 Selective Service Act. Around the same time, Carl Reiner was also stationed at Camp Crowder. When Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s, he made Camp Crowder the setting where Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) met. Cartoonist Mort Walker was also stationed there and drew inspiration for Camp Swampy of his Beetle Bailey comic strip while serving there. Humorist Jean Shepherd, best recalled as the author and narrator of the classic holiday movie “A Christmas Story,” often referred to his time at Camp Crowder in his routines.
Doc recalled, “They put me in Camp Crowder, now Fort Crowder, to study engineering under the Signal Corps. After basic training was over they put us in various schools and I was in what they called “cable college” learning cable-splicing and other things. We finished that training and were assigned to the Army communications unit, plant engineering agency. We finally shipped out on the Queen Mary and when we landed they gave me a carbine of course, but as soon as I could I picked up a Thompson sub machine gun, I used that. I had my Colt .45 too. I could throw a case of ammunition in the truck and shoot all day because they both used the same rounds. My shooting held me in good esteem. I qualified as a sharpshooter with the rifle and the carbine but my favorite weapon was the Thompson sub, I shot expert with that. I used to hold the Army record. I shot a perfect score in stationary targets and also when you go through the rooms of the house and only shoot the people who are in the wrong uniform. I was a good shot. We crossed the Rhine at the Saugamines and our mission citation read ‘subject to strafing by enemy aircraft.’”
That citation proved prophetic for shortly after arrival Doc and his unit were attacked by a German warplane. “We ran into a little problem across the river and my Thompson was very good at that. We fired at the guy and we don’t know if we hit him or not but he didn’t come back. So we crossed the river, the engineers had just bridged it, pontoon-bridged it. We were lucky and my citation was written at the time and that’s how I got the Bronze Star. Since my citation was only signed by a Major, they didn’t put the V on it for valor but it’s the real McCoy. I was so proud of that. In the years after that, the state legislature passed a bill making it a statute to make the Bronze Star license plates. And they borrowed my actual Bronze Star medal to make the plate. I’ve got the plate on my car. They knew I had it (the medal) so that’s why they asked to borrow it. And I said you can use it as long as you want as long as I have a number under 10. They gave me 8 because they said if you lay it horizontal, it’s the sign for infinity. We hope you live forever Doc. I told them that I know that’s not gonna happen,” Doc said with a chuckle. “When I left, my rank was T-3, which is a step above Staff Sargeant. I don’t think they even have it anymore. You have a staff sergeant’s stripes but in the space between the rocker is a T. And of course, I always told the girls that I had monogrammed stripes you know,” which elicited a laugh from all three of us. Doc shrugged his shoulders and said, “well, that’s a plausible story. You just loved to be a First-3-grader because there was no guard duty, no mess hall duty, and you had your own table to sit. At that time the pay for a First-3-grader was $96 a month, but I said to hell with the money I want the damned stripes. I wasn’t interested in the money but everybody else was.”
Doc wrapped up his wartime experience by saying, “We won the war because we could do more engineering and, how should I say, Jerry-rigging, than the Germans could. We could put in a whole airbase and get it up and running. We could put in steel towers, pole-line construction, diesel engines, everything. My main topic was cable-splicing but I was qualified in diesel engines and all those things that I said before.” Doc related a story from his “cable-splicing” days in what was once known as Lignerolles Airfield, which today is an abandoned World War II military airfield in the Normandy region of northern France. “My whole thing over there was installing these plants. We went up to Domfront France which was a beam range (a beam-based navigation system used as a blind landing aid during night bombing by bombers of the German Luftwaffe) for guiding planes in. The derned Germans, when they had pulled out they ruined all the diesel generators. We didn’t know that until we went up there to fix the base. We brought our own generators and everything, big generators, I mean the huge things. We got there and the mayor told us ‘the damned Germans disabled our town generator. We have no electricity.’ I told him in my truck I’ve got parts for Cummins, G.E., and International. So we fixed it for him and he was so grateful.” When Doc and his unit left that base to repair another he noticed, “my duffel bag was a little heavy when I got back to Paris. And I thought well, I’ve got dirty clothes in it so I didn’t think anything more about it. When I finally opened my bag, I found a bottle of Napoleon’s Brandy in there. Real stuff from Napoleon himself right out of Napoleon’s personal wine cellar. He (the mayor) had hidden it from the Germans and he gave it to me. That was one of my big coups. I don’t know why he singled me out except I had the parts. I shared that, of course, with the team. To think, we sat there and drank Napoleon’s Brandy. I never will forget that. That was one of the fun things we did.”
Perhaps Doc’s most impressive accomplishment was his marriage to Sunderine “Sandy” Wilson-Temple on April 9, 1979. Sandy was a 40-plus year guide and assistant site manager at the Old State Capitol (where Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech). I am trying to brighten Doc’s special day the way I’m certain Sandy herself would have by getting anyone I can to send a birthday greeting to Dr. Temple for his birthday on February 5, 2023. It would be much appreciated I can assure you. Doc has already made plans to donate his personal papers/collections to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and his books to the University of Illinois Springfield so any card or recognition you send to Doc will most certainly be preserved in the archives there for future generations to see.
It is not often that have a chance to experience living history. Doc’s generation is in the winter of its collective lifetime. The State of Illinois has bestowed its highest honor on Doc, the U.S. Government has honored Doc by sending him on an honor flight to Washington DC several years ago. Now you have a chance to add to those accolades by sending a birthday greeting to a true American hero. Do it for yourself, for your family, for your ancestors, but most of all, do it for Doc.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
