As a U.S. Marine in Vietnam who was wounded and saw men killed in his infantry unit, Thomas Payne appreciates Veterans Day and Memorial Day observances. However, each day is a reminder of military service rendered by his family — six brothers served in the U.S. Marine Corps and another spent a career in the Navy.
Payne, the youngest of his siblings in a clan of nine children, sat down recently to talk about his military-oriented family that included two sisters; all have passed away except he and two of his brothers.
Marvin Payne was the oldest brother, and enlisted in late 1945. He was in the Korean War with the 1st Marines in a supply unit, and stayed in the Corps for 22 years.
“Me and him were at Camp Lejeune (N.C.) together right before he got out,” said Thomas. “He retired in 1967 or ‘68 and I had just come back from Vietnam. He done his (first) four years and kinda liked it — he hadn’t ever got married — so he re-upped and then Korea broke out!”
Marvin later served with the honor guard at the 8th & I Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., popular for its weekly Friday Evening Parade that is well attended by the public.
H.B. Payne was the only Navy veteran among his seven brothers; he enlisted in 1947 and was deployed aboard ship in the Korean War.
“We lived in the Cartersville-Fairmount area, then moved up here to Ellijay,” said Thomas. “I was the only one born here. H.B. decided to join the Navy — Momma always said he was a little smarter — and go in and stay a few years and do his time. I was born in 1948, so he told me about this later when I visited him in Cartersville. They was on a ship, and (Navy officers) came around and told some of the guys, ‘Well, we got some good news and bad news.’ They was all griping, probably cussing, and said ‘Give us the bad news first.’ They said, ‘Some of y’all’s that been in, we need you and are gonna extend you for one year, give you a stripe and you’ll get paid a little more money.’”
This made H.B. “mad in a way.”
“But he thought what’s another year?” Thomas recalled H.B. saying. “He was in electronics, so he just shipped over (re-enlisted again) and got promoted pretty fast. I remember he came home when I was 6 or 7 and he bought a brand new car, which nobody in my family ever had. He bought me a coat because we was poor, and he helped some of my other brothers out, too. He stayed in 27 years and took his wife and two daughters to Spain when he was stationed there.”
H.B. later worked at Lockheed, and is buried in the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.
‘Liked to have froze’
Third-born brother J.R. Payne was “a character.”
“In 1948 he got mad at Daddy and left home,” Thomas said he learned of family history. “He was 16 or 17 and went to live with my sister Evelyn in Carrollton for awhile. Momma and Daddy didn’t even know where he was at! We lived in Ellijay right up the road here back then.”
Thomas’ brother Paul told him J.R. was “what you might call a smart-aleck to put it nicely, and didn’t go along with Daddy’s plan.”
“Evelyn’s husband Mack (Weathington) was a World War II veteran and got him a job in a sawmill, but he didn’t like it and said he was going to join the Marines,” said Thomas, who added when Mack told him he was too young, J.R. replied, “I think I’ve got a plan.”
Having been born in Gordon County, J.R. traveled to Cartersville from Ellijay and “up and took” H.B.’s birth certificate to enlist in the Marines while he was still underage — and wound up in the Korean War.
“He was scared to death,” said Thomas, who noted J.R. was a combat engineer and since Marvin was in a supply unit, he was able to pull some strings and visit J.R. in the infantry unit he was attached with. “J.R. told me one time he liked to have froze to death in Korea. Later on he became a union electrician, partly because of his engineer training. A lot of my brothers had already left home when I was growing up, and J.R was already in the Marine Corps before I ever met him.”
The next brother in line, Jim Payne, enlisted in 1956 and trained in the Marine Aircraft Wing, completing two tours in Vietnam and earning the rank of first sergeant.
“He took courses while he was in and finished high school by getting his GED, and stayed in the Corps 27 years — he loved the Marines,” Thomas said, adding that Jim had a later career with Pratt and Whitney, one of the country’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers. His obituary states he was in the Marine Corps League Honor Guard, involved in Toys for Tots and was a Disabled American Veteran. Thomas said Jim told him once he suffered neuropathy from contact with the toxic defoliant Agent Orange while in Vietnam.
Paul Payne joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school in 1954 and did a two-year stint.
“There wasn’t anything going on, it was after Korea, and they had a deal where you could serve two years and if you didn’t like it you could get out — just like the Army,” noted Thomas. “So he and a buddy joined the Marines, and Paul ended up in mortars. He didn’t exactly like it, so he came back and got a job at Lockheed. After getting laid off, he moved north to work for another aircraft company. He got married and came back to Lockheed.”
Hugh Payne enlisted in 1958 and was at Marine Air Station Cherry Point near the coast of North Carolina; he, too, was deployed for two tours in Vietnam.
“Hugh got in a little trouble off and on, and didn’t go along with the Marines’ plan to promote him,” Thomas said. “He didn’t make it to E-7 (gunnery sergeant), even though they sent him to school. But he still stayed in 22 years.”
‘I was able to crawl’
Thomas Payne joined the Marines in 1966 and was sent to Vietnam after boot camp and advanced infantry training (AIT). He was a “short timer” (close to going home) with 11 months in-country under his belt when he was almost killed in a firefight with the enemy.
“We couldn’t get any close air support,” he recalled of the day his unit came under enemy attack while on patrol at Mai Xa Chanh East — also known by U.S. troops as Jones Creek. “I got shot in the hip, but it didn’t hurt that bad and I was able to crawl. But I was scared to death.”
Thomas remembered being med-evacked from the scene with other wounded men and two Marines who were killed in the fight, and eventually ending up at a military hospital in Japan.
“I was on the last chopper out,” he said. “We’d got shot at a lot up there where we was at.”
Thomas said he arrived for boot camp at Parris Island on Dec. 7, 1966 — Pearl Harbor Day — and got out of the Marines on Dec. 7, 1970. His wife, Cora Elliott Payne, has some military history in her family as well. Her brother, David Elliott, was also in Marine Air and was deployed on an aircraft carrier for six months offshore of Vietnam.
“He worked between the runways when they were on land in Da Nang,” said Thomas. “That meant the bombers, Phantoms and A-4s (attack planes) were taking off and landing north and south on each side of him.”
Cora also had an uncle, James Elliott, who enlisted in the Marine Corps back in 1930 and helped build Camp Lejeune, N.C. Not even a high school graduate, he rose from private to Warrant Officer 4 during his career, Thomas noted.
Among the Payne boys, Paul and Hugh are still living at 90 and 85, respectively. Thomas is 77. Their late sisters are Grace and Evelyn, the latter who passed away earlier this year at 101. Thomas said if you totaled all the brothers’ years of service up, they’d have almost 100 years in the Marine Corps alone.
“We were all lucky,” he said. “Except for my sisters, the Payne side of the family didn’t go to church when I was growing up, but we started going to East Town (Ellijay Baptist) when I was in the fourth grade. When I was around 12 years old I got saved — I’m sure my sisters were praying for me — and I’ve always been thankful because it seemed like the good Lord was with me and my brothers.”