(The following is biographical information for Lt. McCain, that was graciously provided to me by his family.)

"I am not sure how much help I can be. If there is a written record of my Dad's military service, I do not have it, and can rely only on memory.

Dad enlisted sometime in 1942, so that I was born in Barksdale Air Base hospital in Nov. '42. As he had three years of engineering training, he became a flying officer candidate and ultimately qualified as a second lieutenant bombardier. Some of this training took place at "Sad SAC" in San Antonio, TX.

Subsequently he became a bombardier instructor and served in that assignment in Florida, -- St. Augustine, I believe -- then back again at San Antonio, then in Arizona; he was there when the war ended. He took great pride in the fact that his students routinely qualified for the "pickle barrel" award for accuracy in bombardment. He enjoyed flying -- wrote a bit about the experience, but never sought publication -- but, unlike some of his friends, never flew again after the war. He was recalled during the Korean war but failed to qualify due to a back injury on the farm during the late 40's.

Roger Ashton McCain, Jr., was the eldest son of Roger Ashton McCain, Sr. and Mary Garst McCain, born in 1921. The family lived on a farm in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, and later on a farm inherited from his grandmother in Caddo Parish, La. After graduating from high school at 16 he worked for a year as an oil field roustabout and then enrolled in Louisiana Polytechnic Institute where he completed three years of a four year engineering curriculum. After marrying Jacqueline Marie Fessler he again worked in the oil industry before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1942. His service has been summarized above.

After his discharge he returned to Caddo Parish and became a partner in the family farm, and continued in the Air Force Reserves until about 1951. He became a builder, but contracted to build homes only within the family partnership. The family farm proved a lean support for three families, and he gave up his partnership in 1956 and became an employee of Universal Oil Products, a producer of platinum catalyst for oil refining that was then the property of the American Chemical Society. When the company was privatized and then unionized by the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers union, he became business agent for the union local.

In that period he took up pottery as a hobby, throwing pots on the wheel. He gave away many more than he sold! He was in business briefly in 1964-65 and then held other industrial positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, relocating from Caddo Parish, La, to Beaumont, Miss (not Texas!) about 1968-76. He then retired and gradually returned to Caddo Parish, where he came out of retirement to teach electro-mechanical technology at the Northwest Louisiana Vocational and Technical School in Shreveport. During that period he also built one more house, a Cajun cottage, an idea that he had entertained since a vacation in Cajun country since 1959.

When Jacqueline became disabled due to declining health, he again retired in 1988, to be a full-time caregiver. Jacqueline passed away in 1993, and he remained at their home, passing away in turn in 1999 during his morning fitness exercise routine."

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