A Life Well Lived
Bobby J. Atwell served his country in the United States Navy. Mr. Atwell is pictured here, at age 91, holding a photo of himself at age 18 when he began basic training. Photo by Mary Beth Sallee.
The Story of Veteran Bobby J. Atwell
Mary Beth Sallee
Managing Editor
Hart Co. News-Herald
In the community of Hardyville, Bobby Atwell’s memories stretch back nearly a century – to the end of the Great Depression, through his service in the Navy, and into a life defined by hard work and gratitude. At 91, he shares his story as someone who has seen the world change and yet never lost sight of what matters most.
Bobby J. Atwell was born in 1934 in Barren County, between Cave City and Griderville. His family moved to Hart County in during the last years of the Great Depression.
“There wasn’t no such thing as what we got laying here on this table,” Atwell said, pointing to the cell phone and iPad sitting on his dining room table. “We just lived from day to day, and we raised everything that we ate. People today could not exist in the days that we went through.”
Atwell grew up an only child, helping his mother, a schoolteacher who made $70 a month, while his father served in the Navy in the South Pacific under Admiral William Halsey, Jr. During World War II.
“It hurt way down in here,” Atwell said, pressing his chest, remembering his father’s absence. “Me and my mother…we didn’t have a whole lot, but we made it.”
Atwell’s father returned from the war, purchasing land in the 1950s of what would become their family farm.
When asked if his father ever shared stories of his time of service, Atwell replied, “The veterans that was in that war and didn’t share a whole lot with anybody.”
Atwell recalled that his childhood was filled with simple joys.
“I had an old plugged bicycle,” he laughed. “I rode it right to the town. But other than that, I hunted and fished like most boys probably do…And I worked on the farm.”
After high school, with the Korean War underway, Atwell knew his draft notice was coming.
“I knew I was going to be drafted,” Atwell said. “I wanted to pick what I wanted, so I joined the Navy…When I left, I got a bus, a Greyhound, from Munfordville to Louisville. They put me on a train at 7th Street Station and shipped me to Bainbridge, Maryland.”
Bobby Atwell was sent to basic training in Maryland. Photo submitted.
Atwell was around 18-years-old at that time.
“I’d never been no further north than Louisville,” he said. “That trip to Maryland was a big one for me.”
In Bainbridge, he found Navy life to be disciplined but not overly difficult.
“The Navy wasn’t rigid training like the Army and Marines,” Atwell said. “We walked everywhere we went and packed an old rifle that didn’t have no firing pin in it. If they said it might rain, you wore your poncho all day long whether it rained or not. The company commander wasn’t overbearing, just told us what we needed to do and how we needed to do it.”
From Maryland, Atwell headed west to Norman, Oklahoma.
“Don’t never go out there in the wintertime,” Atwell said with a grin. “It’s cold.”
Atwell was stationed in Oklahoma for three months while the Navy changed his status from regular service to Naval aviation.
“It was just more of a schooling type thing,” he explained. “They taught us what naval aviation expected of you versus what regular Navy wanted you to do.”
By the end of 1953, Atwell was sent to Memphis, Tennessee to train as an aviation metalsmith.
“That was just being able to work on the fuselage of an airplane,” he said. “…We didn’t touch the engine or electronics, just the airplane itself.”
Atwell greatly enjoyed working with planes – and he excelled at it.
“I ended up being top of my class,” he said proudly.
From Memphis, the Kentucky native was sent to Pensacola, Florida, which brought about a new chapter in his Navy career.
“When I checked in, they said, ‘We need a barber. Can you cut hair?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘Well, I sheared a mule.’ They said, ‘We don’t need you.;” So they put me in crash fire rescue. I stayed in crash fire rescue or structure fire until I made second class petty officer, and they finally figured out that they needed to put me to doing what they sent me to school to do. I went back to working on airplanes.”
Bobby Atwell with his wife Jeanetta prior to their marriage. Photo submitted.
This time in his life also brought about a new era in his relationship with Atwell’s sweetheart, Jeanetta, the girl he’d known since grade school. Atwell shared a story from when they first began dating.
“Daddy let me have the car (to drive to her house), and I went down there and asked her to go out with me on Saturday night,” Atwell recalled. “She said, ‘No, I’ve got to practice my piano. I said, ‘Oh, boy.’ So I went back on Wednesday night. Of course, that’s when kids went out…Wednesday night was date night, too. I don’t know what happened, but something did because she was ready when I got there. I think her mama and grandmama talked to her, too…She never did know how to play piano.”
Atwell and Jeanetta were married in Kentucky in 1954 during his time of service. Not long after the wedding, Atwell brought his new bride down to Florida.
Their marriage was quickly built upon a quiet understanding. Atwell shared about a moment when homesickness hit Jeanetta on their long drive away from Kentucky to Florida.
“Somewhere south of Bowling Green, I guess, I kept seeing her look out across the field, and I knew what was going on,” Atwell said. “I just pulled the car over, shut it off, put my arm around her, and I said, ‘Let it go.’ She cried for a little while, and she said, ‘Go.’ And it was all over. She never mentioned being homesick again.”
In time, the Navy transferred Atwell and Jeanetta to Hawaii, a place, filled with new experiences and lasting memories.
“We went to Hawaii in ’56,” he said. “Our daughter was born over there.”
While in Hawaii, a friend from Pensacola, who was on a ship on his way to Japan, made a special gesture that was meaningful then and in years to come.
“He asked my wife, ‘Would you like to have some china from Japan?’ and she told him, ‘Yeah.’ He bought her that 12 plate set of china and shipped it from Japan to Hawaii,” Atwell said as he pointed to a cabinet that displayed the china. “It cost $56 for shipping and insurance. That china’s over 70 years old now.”
In his Naval uniform, Bobby Atwell is pictured in a 20-foot trailer in Florida where he and his wife, Jeanetta, once lived. Photo submitted.
Atwell recalled more stories about his time with Jeanetta in Hawaii.
“We lived in an upstairs apartment, and there was a balcony…and down below that on the ground floor, there was the washing machines and the place where the ladies gathered to gossip,” Atwell laughed. “Jeanetta’s mother and daddy sent us some some dried apples for Christmas, and Janette was fixing those apples. She poked her head out over to look down at the ladies…part of them were some Northern people, and one lady from North Carolina. And they said, ‘What have you been doing?’ She said, ‘I’ve been frying pies.’ One of the Northern girls said, ‘You mean you’ve been baking pies?’ She said, ‘No, I’ve been frying pies.’ The North Carolina woman said, ‘I’ll be right up.’ And Jeanetta said she didn’t think there was going to be any of them left when I got home.”
After his time of service, Atwell left the Navy. He and Jeanetta returned home to Kentucky, settling back on the family farm that his dad had purchased in the 1950s.
“We were married for 68 years,” he said of his marriage with Jeanetta. “We never had a fight. We had disagreements, but we never had any real, you know, fights. If you can live with a person for 68 years and everything goes smooth, you had a pretty happy life.”
Though he didn’t see combat, Atwell’s patriotism, gratitude, and pride for the country he served never faltered.
“It’s an honor,” Atwell said of his time in the service. “Something that you don’t ever forget.”
When the conversation turned to the topic of the world today, Atwell stated that it hurts him “…to see the way people are doing in this day and time.”
“These people are running around up in New York and running around them places and having all these kind of fits.” Atwell said. “… They should have been out there (serving their country then).”
Bobby Atwell and his wife, Jeanetta, were married for 68 years. Photo submitted.
This tied into Atwell mentioning the mistreatment of those who served in the Vietnam War.
“The Vietnam boys – people took things out on them. It wasn’t their fault,” Atwell said. “They had no choice. They were told to go, and they (protestors then) treated them like dirt. I didn’t like that. Still don’t…I tell these Vietnam boys that I’m honored to be in their presence, and they tell me, ‘Well, there ain’t no difference if you was there if you was needed.’”
When asked what advice he’d offer the younger generation today, Atwell did not hesitate to answer.
“The number one thing – you need to go to church,” he said. “That’s the number one.”
At 91, Bobby J. Atwell’s voice still carries the gratitude of a man who knows what matters most: faith, family, and country.
“It’s been a good life. We worked hard,” Atwell said. “The old saying is, if you like what you’re doing, you never have to work a day in your life. I come in tired lots of nights, but I wouldn’t trade this life for anything else.”
Here, Atwell is pictured in a drill field. In the bottom right, he had signed the photo “Love Bobby” but doesn’t recall who he had sent the photo to. Photo submitted.
While stationed in Hawaii, Bobby Atwell’s friend from Pensacola, who was on a ship on his way to Japan, asked if Jeanetta would like china from Japan. Now, 70 years later, Atwell still has the set of china. Photo by Mary Beth Sallee.
