Individual Details
Connally "Con" Oran Briles
(December 10, 1919 - )
"Except as specifically noted below, the following information on Connal ly Oran Briles is based on his curriculum vitae from Tuskegee Institute , Alabama; on information that he provided in writing to his niece Susa n Marie Briles Kniebes on September 11, 2003, and on October 22, 2003; a nd on information provided by Con's older brother (and Susan's father) W orthie Elwood Briles:
Con was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, on December 10, 1919, during the year t hat Con's parents, Worthie Harwood ("Jack" to his friends, "Dad" or "Da ddy" to his children, and "Pappy" to his grandchildren) Briles and Leon a Hays Connally Briles, and their first child Elwood had moved to Idabe l so that Pappy could work with his father, Enoch Elwood ("Pawpaw" to h is grandchildren) Briles, in the auto repair and paint shop run by Pawp aw and his younger brother Wilbur (born in 1884, died in 1951). As men tioned in the Note for Enoch Elwood Briles elsewhere in these Family Tr ee Maker files, Pappy didn't get along well with Pawpaw's younger broth er Wilbur so the family returned to the Fort Worth, Texas, area not lon g after Con's birth.
For a number of stories on Elwood and Con's childhood experiences as re called by Elwood, see the Note for Worthie Elwood Briles elsewhere in t hese Family Tree Maker files. Also see Elwood's Note for descriptions o f the various places Pappy and Leona and their children lived in the Fo rt Worth area. Some of Con's childhood remembrances follow:
"Across the road from the front of the '5-Acre Place' a chicken snake s wallowed a toad frog. Either Elwood or I ran to the garage and obtaine d a garden hoe. We chopped the snake into about two or three pieces, t he frog jumped out about a foot and a half, and died. Of course, the s nake died too!"
"Elwood and I helped Daddy plant some peanuts about a foot or better in t he ground and covered them and then stepped on the spot to mash the soi l down. That Sunday, we went to Italy [where Pappy's relatives lived] f or most of the day. While we were gone, the crows came and took every o ne of the peanuts, shells and all." On December 2 5, 2003, Elwood said t hat he recalled that the peanuts were planted about an inch deep and ab out a foot apart.
"We had a cow (part Guernsey). She would kick about once a month at wh omever was milking her. Mama named her 'Madge.' When Madge did kick m e, I usually tumbled out the barn door (about 7 feet away), taking with m e the milk pail, usually 1/3 or 1/2 full, and the stool."
"When Jack David was somewhere between 1-1/2 and 2 years old, a calf about a week old moved its bowels. Jack found some toilet paper (or what h e took to be toilet paper) hanging on the lower part of the hog or shee p wire fence. When Jack used the paper to wipe the calf's rear end, th e calf kicked Jack in belly, knocking him down. Jack did not cry, but c ould not understand why the calf kicked him. I went into the cow lot a nd picked him up."
"This is a story about a large brown draft mule (really a hinny, since h e was the result of a cross between a horse stallion and a jenny or fem ale donkey). [A mule, on the other hand, is the result of a cross betw een a horse mare and a male donkey.] Elwood was harassing the brown mu le by walking under him to get to the other side. He asked me if I wan ted to walk under the mule too. I said 'No' that I was afraid to. So l ater the same day Elwood asked 'Why don't you get on the brown mule's b ack?' I refused to do that, too. After having used the mule team (the b rown one and a white one) to cultivate corn, we crossed back over the b ranch (a small creek), I decided that maybe I would see if the brown mu le would let me ride him. Elwood was half asleep looking at the ground . First I got on the white mule because we knew that she would let us r ide her. I then crawled over to the back of the brown mule. He cut lo ose bucking. After about two or three high bucks, I was thrown off. A s I was flying through the air, I relaxed and landed on my shoulders in s ort of a ball. I was not hurt at all." On December 25, 2003, Elwood r ecalled that one of the mules was brown and that the other one was blac k.
Con graduated from Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 193 9.
In April 1937, before he graduated from high school, Con joined the Tex as National Guard's 36th Infantry Division, Artillery Battery "B," whic h was mobilized on November 25, 1940. This was before the United State s entered into World War II, which was in December 1941. Con and Elwoo d both joined the Texas National Guard, but Elwood had to drop out when h e transferred to the University of Texas from North Texas Agricultural C ollege (NTAC). (NTAC was a branch of Texas A&M University, which was a c ollege rather than a university in the 1940s.) While in the National G uard, Con and Elwood were in the 6-in. Howitzer Field Artillery Battery . Con had completed 1 year at NTAC (where he was pursuing a "pre-veter inary" field of study) when his National Guard unit was mobilized.
Con spent his first 2 years on active duty as a Buck Sergeant (three st ripes) in charge of the fire control instruments for the Battery Comman der, a Captain. (A Field Artillery Battery is equivalent to an Infantr y Company; both of which are commanded by a Captain, who has two silver b ars.)
Con then applied to the Army Air Force by taking an exam to qualify for a dmittance into flight instruction. He passed the exam and was accepted i nto flight training. But first he had to go to "classification" in Nas hville, Tennessee, where potential pilots were tested to determine if t hey had the aptitude for pilots or should be bombardiers or navigators i nstead. Con was successfully classified as a potential pilot. His act ual flight training included four phases:
Phase One: This phase consisted of 2 or 3 months of preflight training o r ground school at Santa Ana Army Air Force Base in California. The ai rfield was built on what had originally been a bean field.
Phase Two: This phase of Primary Flight Training, which Con recalled l asted about 3 months, was taught by civilian flight instructors at Fort S tockton in west Texas. Primary Flight Training was taught in the Stear man P-17 biplane (double wings) with an open cockpit and two tandem slo ts for pilots, with the student pilot in the rear cockpit and the instr uctor pilot in the front. Like most biplanes, Stearmans were "taildrag gers," which means that their nose was higher than their tail and that t hey had two front wheels and just one, smaller rear wheel. If the pilo t of a taildragger doesn't land carefully, he can end up in a ground lo op with a wing touching the ground. Con reported that they were taught t o land the Stearman P-17s and the AT9s (Phase 4) planes using a "three- point landing," which means all three wheels were supposed to hit the r unway at the same time.
Phase Three: This phase of Basic Flight Training took place in Pecos, a lso in west Texas, and was taught by military instructors in BT-13s, wh ich were planes with a canopy and with places for two pilots (student i n front seat and instructor in rear seat). Con recalled that this plan e was easier to land than the Stearman because it had a wider distance b etween its front wheels. Nonetheless, several students in his Basic Fl ight Training unit were killed while flying the BT-13s.
Phase Four: This final Advanced Flight Training phase took place at Wi lliams Field in Chandler, Arizona. This last phase of flight training u sed the AT9, a small twin-engine aircraft which, like the earlier train ing planes, had seats for two pilots. However, this time the instructo r and the student sat side by side. Con said that they had to land thi s plane, like the Stearman P-17, with a "three-point landing," which wo uld indicate that it too was a taildragger. In this case, Con said tha t the plane had two large front wheels and a "very small tail wheel." I n a phone conversation with his niece Susan Kniebes on September 17, 20 03, Con recalled that the metal parts of the plane would get so hot sit ting on the tarmac at Williams Field that you had to be careful not to a ctually burn yourself on them!
Some of the trainees in Con's unit who successfully completed all four p hases of flight training, including Con, were then sent to Greenville, S outh Carolina, to learn to fly the twin-engine medium B-25 bombers, the a irplane that they were to fly into combat. Con pointed out that the B- 25 had a tricycle landing gear, which meant that it had a smaller nose w heel (that was, nonetheless, larger than the tail wheels of the trainin g aircraft) and two larger rear wheels, which were under the body of th e plane rather than attached to its tail. This landing gear arrangemen t made the B-25s easier to land than the taildraggers that Con had flow n during training. [Note by Susan Kniebes: The B-25 was the same airp lane used during the Dolittle raid on Tokyo, Yokohama, and Yokosuka, Ja pan, in April 1942. These planes had what was called a "Tokyo Tank" ab ove the bomb bay. This tank held extra fuel. For the Dolittle raid, t he planes had to take off from aircraft carriers.]
The following account of Con's experiences flying the B-25 in combat is q uoted directly from the handwritten information that he sent his niece S usan Marie Briles Kniebes in September and October 2003, almost 52 year s after he left the United States for his overseas assignment during Wo rld War II:
"I went overseas in January 1944. We picked up our plane (a "D" model B -25) with a full crew of seven men. We could not open our order envelo pe until we were 1 hour east of Florida on our first stage to Puerto Ri co for the night at an Air Force Base. (Some of us had orders to go to v arious locations in Europe; others of the group were sent to India. I w as initially sent to Italy.] We flew only in the daytime and spent the n ight at each stop. From Puerto Rico, we flew to British Guiana [now Gu yana] on the northern coast of South America. Our next stop was Bel�m i n the northern part of Brazil. From Bel�m, we flew to Natal, Brazil. O ur next stop was Ascension Island [a small 34-sq.-mi. island in the Sou th Atlantic]. We had about 1 hour of fuel left. We had a Tokyo tank s itting above the bomb bay. [Note by Susan Kniebes: This was the same e xtra fuel tank installed on the B-25s that took part in the Dolittle ra id.] Our next stop was Roberts Field in Liberia, where we spent the ni ght. We would add fuel at all stops.
"Our next stop was Dakar in Senegal. Our next stop was Casablanca in M orocco. We flew over Mauritania and the Sahara desert. I never saw so m uch sand. When we flew over Marrakech, we knew we were close to Casabl anca; there we stayed for 10 days. I suppose to pick up some French! F rom Casablanca we flew to Constantine, Algeria. There we stayed about a w eek to 10 days. We gave up the B-25 [that they had flow over from Flor ida] and rode in a C47 to Paestum, a small town in southern Italy [on t he coast south of Naples]. I started flying missions as a copilot [on B -25s] in 3 or 4 days.
"After a month to 6 weeks, the whole 57th Bomb Wing of which I was a pa rt moved to the east coast of Corsica. (A Bomb Wing is commanded by a B rigadier or 1 star General.) I flew the rest of my missions from Corsi ca. When we arrived and were assigned to the 321 Bomb Group, we were t o fly 50 missions. I flew 65, and some flew 70.
"I came back to the U.S. in November 1944. I got home to Fort Worth fo r Christmas and the Battle of the Bulge had just started in Germany and F rance." His youngest sister, Jeanie Briles Cookston, says that, becaus e Con was safely home, Christmas 1944 was "the best Christmas I ever ha d!"
In handwritten notes that Con sent Susan in October 2003 in response to a c omment his sister Jeanie Briles Cookston had made about one of Con's R& R stints on the Isle of Capri, Con explained the following concerning h is R&R experiences: He was sent to Capri only once and to Rome at leas t twice. Each time Con went on R&R, four or five men from his unit wen t, too. He said that there were always two of them assigned to a hotel r oom.
Although the September 2003 handwritten information that Con provided o n his World War II experiences did not say so, he received one Distingu ished Flying Cross and six Air Medals for his World War II service in t he Mediterranean Theater of Operations.
During a phone conversation with his niece Susan Kniebes on September 1 7, 2003, and in handwritten information that he provided on October 22, 2 003, Con added the following additional information about his experienc es overseas during World War II:
When his unit arrived in Paestrum, Italy, only a few days after the N azis had only been run out of nearby Naples.
He was promoted from copilot (right seat) to command pilot (left seat ) after he had flown about 15 missions as a B-25 copilot. He flew "cop ilot" about three times after he officially became a pilot "to check ou t pilots that would 'cop-out' when the anti-aircraft fire became rough, a nd some who claimed that their engines were not working right and they w anted to turn back."
Con recalled that he received his first Air Medal for keeping his pla ne on course to the target and successfully dropping its bombs even tho ugh the plane was pretty shot up. He said, "The engineer said the plan e could keep flying, so I did." He said that it "was a rough mission." H e doesn't remember the specific reason he got the Distinguished Flying C ross but supposed it was for "going to hell and coming back alive." He r ecalled that he was a copilot when he received his first Air Medal and a p ilot when he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Con recalled that once his plane came back with over 1000 holes in it , but that he knew about a plane flown by a fellow pilot came back with o ver 2000 holes in it! The pilot of the 2000-hole plane had been on a m ission over Anzio, Italy, just before Con joined the squadron. The hol es were from ack-ack fire, which was the "nickname" given to anti-aircr aft fire. Con said that the anti-aircraft guns shot 88-mm shells that b roke into pieces when they reached the approximate altitude of the airc raft they were targeting. It was these pieces that caused all of the d amage. Con added that the same guns could also be used against tanks.
Con said that the 321 Bomb Group of which he was a part flew most of i ts missions over Nazi-held areas in northern Italy, but that they also f lew on some targets in southern France, where they were targeting Nazi s hips in harbors, and in southern Austria.
Con remained in the service until 1946, serving as a contact and flight c heck pilot and as a member of the Standardization Board for flying proc edures. After the War, he remained in the Air Force Reserve, rising to r ank of Lieutenant Colonel. He and his wife Jewell frequently attend re unions of the airmen with whom he served during World War II.
Page 604 of "The Fighting Men of Texas" (published in 1948 by the Histo rical Publishing Company of Dallas, Texas) gives the following brief ac count of Con's World War II experiences below a photograph of him in hi s Army Air Force uniform:
"Lt. Connally O. Briles, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Briles, 3435 E. Ros edale, Fort Worth, Texas, was born December 10, 1919. Husband of Jewel B oyd Briles, of Hendersonville, N. C. Attended North Texas Agricultural C ollege, Arlington, Texas, and volunteered for service Nov. 26, 1940 [ac tually the day that Con's Texas National Guard unit was mobilized]; ass igned to 36th Div. Received basic training in Texas and Arizona. Lt. B riles served overseas from Feb. 4, 1944, to Dec. 3, 1944, in the ETO Ar ea [ETO=European Theater of Operations], battles of Rome, Po Valley and S outhern France, and also served with the 12th Air Force in Corsica. A warded DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross] Air Medal-6 Clusters, and Disti nguished Unit Badge. Stationed with Army Air Force, Chanute Field, Ill ."
The same page of "The Fighting Men of Texas" that contained Con's photo a nd brief account of his war experiences also contained the photos and w ar experiences of his brother-in-law, James D. Spencer, and his brother s, W. Elwood Briles and Van G. Briles.
When asked how he and Jewell (Margaret Jewell Boyd) met, Con provided t he following information: "It was a 'buddy' of a pilot in my stage (just graduated from flying sc hool as pilots). We were in the same barracks. Each pilot had a singl e room. He met a student of Ferman University in Greenville, S.C. Our a ir base was 2 or 3 or more miles out of town. The girl he met and Jewe ll were best friends during the last 2 or 3 years of grade school and d uring high school. Jewell came down from Hendersonville, N.C.-about 40 m iles from (northeast of) Greenville, S.C. Jewell came down three or fo ur times, and I went to her (Jewell's) home once and met her parents.
"Several of us left for overseas into combat missions [as described abo ve]. At about 1 hour from Natal, Brazil, out over the Atlantic I thoug ht of her and I suppose fell in love with her. I wrote that I wanted t o talk about marriage when I got back, if I did [get back]. She wrote t hat we would have to talk about it then.
"When I returned to the States in Miami, Florida, I went to Greenville, S .C., and we became engaged. She was reluctant to some extent. In 7 mo nths, I got leave from Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, and we were m arried in Hendersonville, N.C., on June 1, 1945." [Note by Susan Knieb es: I remember sitting next to Aunt Jewell and admiring her engagement a nd wedding ring when she and Con were living in College Station, Texas, a t the same time that we were from 1948 through 1951.]
Con received a B.S. in Animal Sciences from Texas A & M University in C ollege Station, Texas, in 1949. In 1951, he received an M.S. in Poultr y Science from the same university. In 1956, he received a Ph.D. in Ge netics, with a minor in Zoology, from the University of Wisconsin in Ma dison.
On November 25, 1954, Con and Jewell's first son, Scott Conrad, was bor n in Madison.
From 1955 through 1957, Con was an Assistant Professor in charge of the P oultry Research Unit of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station i n Homer, Louisiana. His research there involved environmental and mana gement problems using various stock and strain-crosses of domestic chic kens possessing different genetic backgrounds.
From 1957 through 1958, he was an Animal Geneticist (GS-12) for the U.S . Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. In Beltsville, he w as the assistant to the chief of the breeding section of the Poultry Re search Branch of the Animal Husbandry Research Division, working with e xperiments involving inbreeding, hybridization, and cross-breeding of d omestic chickens.
On November 29, 1957, Con and Jewell's second son, Timothy Harwood, was b orn in Hyattsville, Maryland.
From 1958 through 1963, Con was Director of the Blood Group Laboratory o f the Research Department of Arbor Acres Farm, Inc. (a commercial poult ry breeder) in Glastonbury, Connecticut. There he was responsible for a n immunogenetics program in domestic chickens that established the mode o f inheritance of red blood cell antigens and determined the association o f blood group genes and genotypes with economic and other quantitative c haracteristics.
From 1963 through 1969, Con was an Associate Professor of Animal Scienc e and Genetics at McGill University in Quebec, Canada. He had a split a ppointment there: He was on both the Faculty of Agriculture in the Dep artment of Animal Science at the MacDonald College of McGill University a nd on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the Genetics Department in Mc Gill University. While at McGill, Con taught one-fourth to one-third o f the time (including teaching a graduate course in Immunogenetics), di d genetic and immunogenetic research, obtained outside grants to suppor t all of his research as well as the research of graduate and postgradu ate students working under his supervision, directed undergraduate stud ents' research projects, and counseled students.
Between August 1969 and 1970, Con was a Professor of Biology and Animal S cience at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (now Tuskegee University). W ith a split appointment between the Department of Biology, to which abo ut three-quarters of his time was devoted, and the Department of Agricu ltural Sciences, to where the remaining quarter of his time was spent, C on taught basic genetics, advanced genetics and immunogenetics, and pla nt and animal breeding; advised undergraduate and graduate seminars in b iological sciences; and conducted immunogenetic research involving dome stic chickens and two species of quail.
Con and his family lived in the town of Tuskegee, Alabama, from August 1 969 through May 1, 1970, when they moved to nearby Auburn, Alabama, whe re Con and Jewell were still living as of May 2006.
From July 1971 through August 1972, Con took a leave of absence from Tu skegee Institute to work as an FAO Expert for the Food and Agriculture O rganization of the United Nations at Karachi University in Karachi, Pak istan. Specifically, he was an Animal Production Officer whose primary r esponsibility was to help the students at Karachi University and local c hicken producers with the breeding chickens and incubation of chicken e ggs. This involved teaching a special course in animal breeding to sen ior students, advising two graduate students working on research for an M .Sc. degree, developing alternative breeding programs, cooperating with o ther experts in the areas of managing heat stress and disease resistanc e, developing ways to hatch eggs and chicks using both simple and compl ex equipment, setting up a research laboratory for breeding and incubat ion and training his counterparts at the University to conduct research t here, and advising producers running both small flocks and commercial-t ype operations in the production of chickens for eggs, meat, and both e ggs and meat.
The United Nations had originally wanted Con to work for them in Pakist an for 2-1/2 years, but Tuskegee Institute would only give him 2 years o f leave. Con's wife, Jewell, and Con's and Jewell's two boys, Scott an d Tim, accompanied Con to Pakistan. The boys attended a special school f or Americans working in Karachi. Con's family has a lot of interesting s tories to tell about their experiences living in Pakistan. At one point during their stay, they took a vacation to Singapore, wher e they visited with a young professor whom Con knew from McGill Univers ity. They also visited with a former graduate student of Con's, who ca me down from Malaysia on the train and spent 2 days with Con, Jewell, a nd the boys, showing them around, taking them to eat at special places, a nd generally showing them the sites.
While Con was an FAO Expert on the breeding and incubation of chickens f or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the U.N . also sent him to Singapore; Bangkok, Thailand; and Tehran, Iran.
In the end, the family only stayed in Pakistan for a little over a year b ecause Con felt that it would have been wasting his time to have stayed l onger.
From 1969 until he retired in September 30, 1990 (when he was 71), Con r eturned to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he was a Professor o f Animal Science in the Institute's Department of Agricultural Sciences . He taught poultry science, plant and animal breeding, and immunogene tics; coached the poultry judging team; advised graduate and undergradu ate students; was in charge of the Institute's Poultry Research Farm; a nd was the Principal Investigator for a considerable number of poultry r esearch projects.
Con belonged to the following professional societies:
American Genetics Association Genetics Society of America International Society for Animal Blood Group Research Poultry Science Association Phi Sigma Sigma Xi World's Poultry Science Association
While Con was at the Tuskegee Institute between 1969 and 1970, he was t he Secretary-Treasurer for Sigma Xi and a member of the judging panel f or the Sigma Xi student seminar competition. His community activities included participating in poultry judging in T uskegee and Lowndes Counties, Alabama, helping with 4-H activities, and g iving lectures to farm groups.
Con authored or coauthored 40 professional publications between 1950 an d 1984. Some of these papers were presented outside of the United Stat es in Winnipeg, Canada; Montreal, Canada; Toronto, Canada; Tokyo, Japan ; Dublin, Ireland; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; and Hamburg, Germany."
(Received from George W. Durman, germannaresearch@comcast.net, 2007.)
Con was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, on December 10, 1919, during the year t hat Con's parents, Worthie Harwood ("Jack" to his friends, "Dad" or "Da ddy" to his children, and "Pappy" to his grandchildren) Briles and Leon a Hays Connally Briles, and their first child Elwood had moved to Idabe l so that Pappy could work with his father, Enoch Elwood ("Pawpaw" to h is grandchildren) Briles, in the auto repair and paint shop run by Pawp aw and his younger brother Wilbur (born in 1884, died in 1951). As men tioned in the Note for Enoch Elwood Briles elsewhere in these Family Tr ee Maker files, Pappy didn't get along well with Pawpaw's younger broth er Wilbur so the family returned to the Fort Worth, Texas, area not lon g after Con's birth.
For a number of stories on Elwood and Con's childhood experiences as re called by Elwood, see the Note for Worthie Elwood Briles elsewhere in t hese Family Tree Maker files. Also see Elwood's Note for descriptions o f the various places Pappy and Leona and their children lived in the Fo rt Worth area. Some of Con's childhood remembrances follow:
"Across the road from the front of the '5-Acre Place' a chicken snake s wallowed a toad frog. Either Elwood or I ran to the garage and obtaine d a garden hoe. We chopped the snake into about two or three pieces, t he frog jumped out about a foot and a half, and died. Of course, the s nake died too!"
"Elwood and I helped Daddy plant some peanuts about a foot or better in t he ground and covered them and then stepped on the spot to mash the soi l down. That Sunday, we went to Italy [where Pappy's relatives lived] f or most of the day. While we were gone, the crows came and took every o ne of the peanuts, shells and all." On December 2 5, 2003, Elwood said t hat he recalled that the peanuts were planted about an inch deep and ab out a foot apart.
"We had a cow (part Guernsey). She would kick about once a month at wh omever was milking her. Mama named her 'Madge.' When Madge did kick m e, I usually tumbled out the barn door (about 7 feet away), taking with m e the milk pail, usually 1/3 or 1/2 full, and the stool."
"When Jack David was somewhere between 1-1/2 and 2 years old, a calf about a week old moved its bowels. Jack found some toilet paper (or what h e took to be toilet paper) hanging on the lower part of the hog or shee p wire fence. When Jack used the paper to wipe the calf's rear end, th e calf kicked Jack in belly, knocking him down. Jack did not cry, but c ould not understand why the calf kicked him. I went into the cow lot a nd picked him up."
"This is a story about a large brown draft mule (really a hinny, since h e was the result of a cross between a horse stallion and a jenny or fem ale donkey). [A mule, on the other hand, is the result of a cross betw een a horse mare and a male donkey.] Elwood was harassing the brown mu le by walking under him to get to the other side. He asked me if I wan ted to walk under the mule too. I said 'No' that I was afraid to. So l ater the same day Elwood asked 'Why don't you get on the brown mule's b ack?' I refused to do that, too. After having used the mule team (the b rown one and a white one) to cultivate corn, we crossed back over the b ranch (a small creek), I decided that maybe I would see if the brown mu le would let me ride him. Elwood was half asleep looking at the ground . First I got on the white mule because we knew that she would let us r ide her. I then crawled over to the back of the brown mule. He cut lo ose bucking. After about two or three high bucks, I was thrown off. A s I was flying through the air, I relaxed and landed on my shoulders in s ort of a ball. I was not hurt at all." On December 25, 2003, Elwood r ecalled that one of the mules was brown and that the other one was blac k.
Con graduated from Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 193 9.
In April 1937, before he graduated from high school, Con joined the Tex as National Guard's 36th Infantry Division, Artillery Battery "B," whic h was mobilized on November 25, 1940. This was before the United State s entered into World War II, which was in December 1941. Con and Elwoo d both joined the Texas National Guard, but Elwood had to drop out when h e transferred to the University of Texas from North Texas Agricultural C ollege (NTAC). (NTAC was a branch of Texas A&M University, which was a c ollege rather than a university in the 1940s.) While in the National G uard, Con and Elwood were in the 6-in. Howitzer Field Artillery Battery . Con had completed 1 year at NTAC (where he was pursuing a "pre-veter inary" field of study) when his National Guard unit was mobilized.
Con spent his first 2 years on active duty as a Buck Sergeant (three st ripes) in charge of the fire control instruments for the Battery Comman der, a Captain. (A Field Artillery Battery is equivalent to an Infantr y Company; both of which are commanded by a Captain, who has two silver b ars.)
Con then applied to the Army Air Force by taking an exam to qualify for a dmittance into flight instruction. He passed the exam and was accepted i nto flight training. But first he had to go to "classification" in Nas hville, Tennessee, where potential pilots were tested to determine if t hey had the aptitude for pilots or should be bombardiers or navigators i nstead. Con was successfully classified as a potential pilot. His act ual flight training included four phases:
Phase One: This phase consisted of 2 or 3 months of preflight training o r ground school at Santa Ana Army Air Force Base in California. The ai rfield was built on what had originally been a bean field.
Phase Two: This phase of Primary Flight Training, which Con recalled l asted about 3 months, was taught by civilian flight instructors at Fort S tockton in west Texas. Primary Flight Training was taught in the Stear man P-17 biplane (double wings) with an open cockpit and two tandem slo ts for pilots, with the student pilot in the rear cockpit and the instr uctor pilot in the front. Like most biplanes, Stearmans were "taildrag gers," which means that their nose was higher than their tail and that t hey had two front wheels and just one, smaller rear wheel. If the pilo t of a taildragger doesn't land carefully, he can end up in a ground lo op with a wing touching the ground. Con reported that they were taught t o land the Stearman P-17s and the AT9s (Phase 4) planes using a "three- point landing," which means all three wheels were supposed to hit the r unway at the same time.
Phase Three: This phase of Basic Flight Training took place in Pecos, a lso in west Texas, and was taught by military instructors in BT-13s, wh ich were planes with a canopy and with places for two pilots (student i n front seat and instructor in rear seat). Con recalled that this plan e was easier to land than the Stearman because it had a wider distance b etween its front wheels. Nonetheless, several students in his Basic Fl ight Training unit were killed while flying the BT-13s.
Phase Four: This final Advanced Flight Training phase took place at Wi lliams Field in Chandler, Arizona. This last phase of flight training u sed the AT9, a small twin-engine aircraft which, like the earlier train ing planes, had seats for two pilots. However, this time the instructo r and the student sat side by side. Con said that they had to land thi s plane, like the Stearman P-17, with a "three-point landing," which wo uld indicate that it too was a taildragger. In this case, Con said tha t the plane had two large front wheels and a "very small tail wheel." I n a phone conversation with his niece Susan Kniebes on September 17, 20 03, Con recalled that the metal parts of the plane would get so hot sit ting on the tarmac at Williams Field that you had to be careful not to a ctually burn yourself on them!
Some of the trainees in Con's unit who successfully completed all four p hases of flight training, including Con, were then sent to Greenville, S outh Carolina, to learn to fly the twin-engine medium B-25 bombers, the a irplane that they were to fly into combat. Con pointed out that the B- 25 had a tricycle landing gear, which meant that it had a smaller nose w heel (that was, nonetheless, larger than the tail wheels of the trainin g aircraft) and two larger rear wheels, which were under the body of th e plane rather than attached to its tail. This landing gear arrangemen t made the B-25s easier to land than the taildraggers that Con had flow n during training. [Note by Susan Kniebes: The B-25 was the same airp lane used during the Dolittle raid on Tokyo, Yokohama, and Yokosuka, Ja pan, in April 1942. These planes had what was called a "Tokyo Tank" ab ove the bomb bay. This tank held extra fuel. For the Dolittle raid, t he planes had to take off from aircraft carriers.]
The following account of Con's experiences flying the B-25 in combat is q uoted directly from the handwritten information that he sent his niece S usan Marie Briles Kniebes in September and October 2003, almost 52 year s after he left the United States for his overseas assignment during Wo rld War II:
"I went overseas in January 1944. We picked up our plane (a "D" model B -25) with a full crew of seven men. We could not open our order envelo pe until we were 1 hour east of Florida on our first stage to Puerto Ri co for the night at an Air Force Base. (Some of us had orders to go to v arious locations in Europe; others of the group were sent to India. I w as initially sent to Italy.] We flew only in the daytime and spent the n ight at each stop. From Puerto Rico, we flew to British Guiana [now Gu yana] on the northern coast of South America. Our next stop was Bel�m i n the northern part of Brazil. From Bel�m, we flew to Natal, Brazil. O ur next stop was Ascension Island [a small 34-sq.-mi. island in the Sou th Atlantic]. We had about 1 hour of fuel left. We had a Tokyo tank s itting above the bomb bay. [Note by Susan Kniebes: This was the same e xtra fuel tank installed on the B-25s that took part in the Dolittle ra id.] Our next stop was Roberts Field in Liberia, where we spent the ni ght. We would add fuel at all stops.
"Our next stop was Dakar in Senegal. Our next stop was Casablanca in M orocco. We flew over Mauritania and the Sahara desert. I never saw so m uch sand. When we flew over Marrakech, we knew we were close to Casabl anca; there we stayed for 10 days. I suppose to pick up some French! F rom Casablanca we flew to Constantine, Algeria. There we stayed about a w eek to 10 days. We gave up the B-25 [that they had flow over from Flor ida] and rode in a C47 to Paestum, a small town in southern Italy [on t he coast south of Naples]. I started flying missions as a copilot [on B -25s] in 3 or 4 days.
"After a month to 6 weeks, the whole 57th Bomb Wing of which I was a pa rt moved to the east coast of Corsica. (A Bomb Wing is commanded by a B rigadier or 1 star General.) I flew the rest of my missions from Corsi ca. When we arrived and were assigned to the 321 Bomb Group, we were t o fly 50 missions. I flew 65, and some flew 70.
"I came back to the U.S. in November 1944. I got home to Fort Worth fo r Christmas and the Battle of the Bulge had just started in Germany and F rance." His youngest sister, Jeanie Briles Cookston, says that, becaus e Con was safely home, Christmas 1944 was "the best Christmas I ever ha d!"
In handwritten notes that Con sent Susan in October 2003 in response to a c omment his sister Jeanie Briles Cookston had made about one of Con's R& R stints on the Isle of Capri, Con explained the following concerning h is R&R experiences: He was sent to Capri only once and to Rome at leas t twice. Each time Con went on R&R, four or five men from his unit wen t, too. He said that there were always two of them assigned to a hotel r oom.
Although the September 2003 handwritten information that Con provided o n his World War II experiences did not say so, he received one Distingu ished Flying Cross and six Air Medals for his World War II service in t he Mediterranean Theater of Operations.
During a phone conversation with his niece Susan Kniebes on September 1 7, 2003, and in handwritten information that he provided on October 22, 2 003, Con added the following additional information about his experienc es overseas during World War II:
When his unit arrived in Paestrum, Italy, only a few days after the N azis had only been run out of nearby Naples.
He was promoted from copilot (right seat) to command pilot (left seat ) after he had flown about 15 missions as a B-25 copilot. He flew "cop ilot" about three times after he officially became a pilot "to check ou t pilots that would 'cop-out' when the anti-aircraft fire became rough, a nd some who claimed that their engines were not working right and they w anted to turn back."
Con recalled that he received his first Air Medal for keeping his pla ne on course to the target and successfully dropping its bombs even tho ugh the plane was pretty shot up. He said, "The engineer said the plan e could keep flying, so I did." He said that it "was a rough mission." H e doesn't remember the specific reason he got the Distinguished Flying C ross but supposed it was for "going to hell and coming back alive." He r ecalled that he was a copilot when he received his first Air Medal and a p ilot when he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Con recalled that once his plane came back with over 1000 holes in it , but that he knew about a plane flown by a fellow pilot came back with o ver 2000 holes in it! The pilot of the 2000-hole plane had been on a m ission over Anzio, Italy, just before Con joined the squadron. The hol es were from ack-ack fire, which was the "nickname" given to anti-aircr aft fire. Con said that the anti-aircraft guns shot 88-mm shells that b roke into pieces when they reached the approximate altitude of the airc raft they were targeting. It was these pieces that caused all of the d amage. Con added that the same guns could also be used against tanks.
Con said that the 321 Bomb Group of which he was a part flew most of i ts missions over Nazi-held areas in northern Italy, but that they also f lew on some targets in southern France, where they were targeting Nazi s hips in harbors, and in southern Austria.
Con remained in the service until 1946, serving as a contact and flight c heck pilot and as a member of the Standardization Board for flying proc edures. After the War, he remained in the Air Force Reserve, rising to r ank of Lieutenant Colonel. He and his wife Jewell frequently attend re unions of the airmen with whom he served during World War II.
Page 604 of "The Fighting Men of Texas" (published in 1948 by the Histo rical Publishing Company of Dallas, Texas) gives the following brief ac count of Con's World War II experiences below a photograph of him in hi s Army Air Force uniform:
"Lt. Connally O. Briles, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Briles, 3435 E. Ros edale, Fort Worth, Texas, was born December 10, 1919. Husband of Jewel B oyd Briles, of Hendersonville, N. C. Attended North Texas Agricultural C ollege, Arlington, Texas, and volunteered for service Nov. 26, 1940 [ac tually the day that Con's Texas National Guard unit was mobilized]; ass igned to 36th Div. Received basic training in Texas and Arizona. Lt. B riles served overseas from Feb. 4, 1944, to Dec. 3, 1944, in the ETO Ar ea [ETO=European Theater of Operations], battles of Rome, Po Valley and S outhern France, and also served with the 12th Air Force in Corsica. A warded DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross] Air Medal-6 Clusters, and Disti nguished Unit Badge. Stationed with Army Air Force, Chanute Field, Ill ."
The same page of "The Fighting Men of Texas" that contained Con's photo a nd brief account of his war experiences also contained the photos and w ar experiences of his brother-in-law, James D. Spencer, and his brother s, W. Elwood Briles and Van G. Briles.
When asked how he and Jewell (Margaret Jewell Boyd) met, Con provided t he following information: "It was a 'buddy' of a pilot in my stage (just graduated from flying sc hool as pilots). We were in the same barracks. Each pilot had a singl e room. He met a student of Ferman University in Greenville, S.C. Our a ir base was 2 or 3 or more miles out of town. The girl he met and Jewe ll were best friends during the last 2 or 3 years of grade school and d uring high school. Jewell came down from Hendersonville, N.C.-about 40 m iles from (northeast of) Greenville, S.C. Jewell came down three or fo ur times, and I went to her (Jewell's) home once and met her parents.
"Several of us left for overseas into combat missions [as described abo ve]. At about 1 hour from Natal, Brazil, out over the Atlantic I thoug ht of her and I suppose fell in love with her. I wrote that I wanted t o talk about marriage when I got back, if I did [get back]. She wrote t hat we would have to talk about it then.
"When I returned to the States in Miami, Florida, I went to Greenville, S .C., and we became engaged. She was reluctant to some extent. In 7 mo nths, I got leave from Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, and we were m arried in Hendersonville, N.C., on June 1, 1945." [Note by Susan Knieb es: I remember sitting next to Aunt Jewell and admiring her engagement a nd wedding ring when she and Con were living in College Station, Texas, a t the same time that we were from 1948 through 1951.]
Con received a B.S. in Animal Sciences from Texas A & M University in C ollege Station, Texas, in 1949. In 1951, he received an M.S. in Poultr y Science from the same university. In 1956, he received a Ph.D. in Ge netics, with a minor in Zoology, from the University of Wisconsin in Ma dison.
On November 25, 1954, Con and Jewell's first son, Scott Conrad, was bor n in Madison.
From 1955 through 1957, Con was an Assistant Professor in charge of the P oultry Research Unit of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station i n Homer, Louisiana. His research there involved environmental and mana gement problems using various stock and strain-crosses of domestic chic kens possessing different genetic backgrounds.
From 1957 through 1958, he was an Animal Geneticist (GS-12) for the U.S . Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. In Beltsville, he w as the assistant to the chief of the breeding section of the Poultry Re search Branch of the Animal Husbandry Research Division, working with e xperiments involving inbreeding, hybridization, and cross-breeding of d omestic chickens.
On November 29, 1957, Con and Jewell's second son, Timothy Harwood, was b orn in Hyattsville, Maryland.
From 1958 through 1963, Con was Director of the Blood Group Laboratory o f the Research Department of Arbor Acres Farm, Inc. (a commercial poult ry breeder) in Glastonbury, Connecticut. There he was responsible for a n immunogenetics program in domestic chickens that established the mode o f inheritance of red blood cell antigens and determined the association o f blood group genes and genotypes with economic and other quantitative c haracteristics.
From 1963 through 1969, Con was an Associate Professor of Animal Scienc e and Genetics at McGill University in Quebec, Canada. He had a split a ppointment there: He was on both the Faculty of Agriculture in the Dep artment of Animal Science at the MacDonald College of McGill University a nd on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the Genetics Department in Mc Gill University. While at McGill, Con taught one-fourth to one-third o f the time (including teaching a graduate course in Immunogenetics), di d genetic and immunogenetic research, obtained outside grants to suppor t all of his research as well as the research of graduate and postgradu ate students working under his supervision, directed undergraduate stud ents' research projects, and counseled students.
Between August 1969 and 1970, Con was a Professor of Biology and Animal S cience at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (now Tuskegee University). W ith a split appointment between the Department of Biology, to which abo ut three-quarters of his time was devoted, and the Department of Agricu ltural Sciences, to where the remaining quarter of his time was spent, C on taught basic genetics, advanced genetics and immunogenetics, and pla nt and animal breeding; advised undergraduate and graduate seminars in b iological sciences; and conducted immunogenetic research involving dome stic chickens and two species of quail.
Con and his family lived in the town of Tuskegee, Alabama, from August 1 969 through May 1, 1970, when they moved to nearby Auburn, Alabama, whe re Con and Jewell were still living as of May 2006.
From July 1971 through August 1972, Con took a leave of absence from Tu skegee Institute to work as an FAO Expert for the Food and Agriculture O rganization of the United Nations at Karachi University in Karachi, Pak istan. Specifically, he was an Animal Production Officer whose primary r esponsibility was to help the students at Karachi University and local c hicken producers with the breeding chickens and incubation of chicken e ggs. This involved teaching a special course in animal breeding to sen ior students, advising two graduate students working on research for an M .Sc. degree, developing alternative breeding programs, cooperating with o ther experts in the areas of managing heat stress and disease resistanc e, developing ways to hatch eggs and chicks using both simple and compl ex equipment, setting up a research laboratory for breeding and incubat ion and training his counterparts at the University to conduct research t here, and advising producers running both small flocks and commercial-t ype operations in the production of chickens for eggs, meat, and both e ggs and meat.
The United Nations had originally wanted Con to work for them in Pakist an for 2-1/2 years, but Tuskegee Institute would only give him 2 years o f leave. Con's wife, Jewell, and Con's and Jewell's two boys, Scott an d Tim, accompanied Con to Pakistan. The boys attended a special school f or Americans working in Karachi. Con's family has a lot of interesting s tories to tell about their experiences living in Pakistan. At one point during their stay, they took a vacation to Singapore, wher e they visited with a young professor whom Con knew from McGill Univers ity. They also visited with a former graduate student of Con's, who ca me down from Malaysia on the train and spent 2 days with Con, Jewell, a nd the boys, showing them around, taking them to eat at special places, a nd generally showing them the sites.
While Con was an FAO Expert on the breeding and incubation of chickens f or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the U.N . also sent him to Singapore; Bangkok, Thailand; and Tehran, Iran.
In the end, the family only stayed in Pakistan for a little over a year b ecause Con felt that it would have been wasting his time to have stayed l onger.
From 1969 until he retired in September 30, 1990 (when he was 71), Con r eturned to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he was a Professor o f Animal Science in the Institute's Department of Agricultural Sciences . He taught poultry science, plant and animal breeding, and immunogene tics; coached the poultry judging team; advised graduate and undergradu ate students; was in charge of the Institute's Poultry Research Farm; a nd was the Principal Investigator for a considerable number of poultry r esearch projects.
Con belonged to the following professional societies:
American Genetics Association Genetics Society of America International Society for Animal Blood Group Research Poultry Science Association Phi Sigma Sigma Xi World's Poultry Science Association
While Con was at the Tuskegee Institute between 1969 and 1970, he was t he Secretary-Treasurer for Sigma Xi and a member of the judging panel f or the Sigma Xi student seminar competition. His community activities included participating in poultry judging in T uskegee and Lowndes Counties, Alabama, helping with 4-H activities, and g iving lectures to farm groups.
Con authored or coauthored 40 professional publications between 1950 an d 1984. Some of these papers were presented outside of the United Stat es in Winnipeg, Canada; Montreal, Canada; Toronto, Canada; Tokyo, Japan ; Dublin, Ireland; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; and Hamburg, Germany."
(Received from George W. Durman, germannaresearch@comcast.net, 2007.)
Events
| Birth | December 10, 1919 | Idabel, McCurtain County, Oklahoma | |||
| Marriage | June 1, 1945 | Hendersonville, Henderson County, North Carolina - Jewell Boyd |
Families
| Spouse | Jewell Boyd ( - ) |
| Child | Scott Conrad Briles |
| Child | Timothy Harwood Briles (1957 - ) |
| Father | Worthie Harwood "Jack" Briles (1894 - 1979) |
| Mother | Leona Hays Connally (1896 - 1980) |
| Sibling | Worthie Elwood Briles (1918 - ) |
| Sibling | Bonnie Belle Briles (1922 - 2014) |
| Sibling | Van Gordon Briles (1926 - 1990) |
| Sibling | Jack David Briles (1930 - 2005) |
| Sibling | Jeanie Briles ( - ) |