Milton Doggett turns 100 years old on March 30. “Some days I feel like I’m 100,” he says with a smile as he reflects on that milestone. “But I thank God for blessings almost beyond belief.”
A World War II veteran and longtime civil servant, Doggett has called Daleville home since being stationed at Fort Rucker in 1959.
He is one of several men “of a certain age” who meet each Friday morning for breakfast at McLin’s Restaurant in Daleville, before the restaurant officially opens for business.
“I went to Sunday School in this building. It was the Baptist church,” Doggett said about the restaurant on Old Newton Road that served as the Daleville Baptist Church until 1964. “My wife made the first curtains for the Sunday School rooms,” he said.
Doggett’s wife of 69 years Lounell “Nell” passed away Nov. 28, 2021 at the age of 90. “During our years of marriage, there has been so much good that it is difficult to point out any bad,” Doggett said about the woman he calls “the love of my life.”
As host of the “Friday-morning-breakfast-at-McLin’s” crew, Ricky McLin remembers Nell Doggett as “one of the finest ladies that there ever was—and her husband isn’t half bad either.”
Doggett laughs. Replacing his coffee cup on the table, he shakes his head at the thought of turning 100. “I’ve got two brothers younger than me. One lives in Daphne. One lives in Delaware. I’ve got one first cousin who is older than me. She will be 103 in June. She’s on my mother’s side. On my daddy’s side I’ve got the record.”
Doggett was born March 30, 1922 in Choctaw County. At the age of 20 he was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Bragg, N.C. for basic training. His Advanced Individual Training as a field artillery mechanic was at Fort Sill, Okla.
Graduating from AIT, Doggett was assigned to Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, Texas, with the 511th Ordnance Company. “In late 1943 we moved to the port at Portland, Ore. and were shipped out to the South Pacific Theater of Operations,” Doggett said. “We arrived at Milliney Bay in New Guinea just before Christmas 1943.
“We spent approximately 13 months there after clearing an area of jungle, building living and working facilities and we rebuilt components of vehicles and weapons in the service area,” he recalled.
Doggett was next assigned to Luzon Island, north of Manilla, just south of the Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. “During the time there a friend and I hitched a ride with the Air Force and visited my two brothers who were on Okinawa. Thomas was with the Marines and Paul was in the Coast Artillery,” Doggett said. “The trip was not a very smart thing to do since war was still going on both islands but all went well.”
After the Japanese surrender in September 1945, Doggett was sent to Yokahoma, Japan, as part of the occupation forces. The unit received a Presidential Unit Citation and five campaign awards for service during the war.
“In December 1945 I had accrued the required points to return to the U.S. and be discharged. I departed Japan by ship and arrived in California on Jan. 2, 1946,” he said. “I traveled by train to Camp Shelby, Miss.” He was discharged from the Army and joined the Army Reserves on the same day.
In 1947 Doggett returned to active duty to help return home the bodies of soldiers that had been buried overseas during the war. “During this tour of duty, I had the honor and privilege of escorting the bodies of approximately 25 of these soldiers to their families and assisting the families in any way possible through the funerals,” he said.
Doggett was at Fort Jackson, S.C., assigned to the Citadel as an ordnance instructor to ROTC cadets when he and Nell married in February 1952. The couple’s first son, Robert, was born there.
Still at Fort Jackson, S.C., Doggett next served as the first sergeant of a basic training company and as an inspection team chief at an ordnance detachment. During this tour son Kenneth was born.
Next assigned to Germany from April 1956 to December 1958, Doggett was team chief at the 350th Ordnance Ballistics and Technical Service Detachment. Daughter Paula Doggett Bynum was born in Nurnberg.
Doggett was assigned to the transportation school at Fort Eustis, Va., after a tour in Korea.
In July 1964 Doggett was assigned to the Army Aviation School Department of Maintenance Training where he served as the senior instructor of the advanced maintenance division and operations sergeant. He retired as a master sergeant on April 1, 1967.
Doggett spent the next 21 years in civil service at Fort Rucker, serving eight years with the Department of Maintenance Training as an academic instructor and 13 years as the operations specialist with the Directorate of Reserve Component Support. He retired from civil service in January 1988.
In 2009 Doggett had the opportunity to participate in the second Wiregrass Honor Flight to Washington D.C. to visit the World War II Memorial that had been dedicated May 29, 2004 to honor “The Greatest Generation.” The mission of the Wiregrass Honor Flights was to provide as many World War II veterans the opportunity to visit the memorial dedicated to honor their service and sacrifice. Almost 400 veterans participated in the local five flights that were funded through donations.
Reminded that his is called “The Greatest Generation,” a term coined by former television news anchor and author Tom Brokaw to describe Americans who grew up during the Great Depression, Doggett smiles. “I reckon so,” he said. “We’ve been through some tough times. My family always worked hard.
“My first few years we didn’t have electricity,” he recalled. “I came though the Depression when no one had an automobile in the little town I was in. It was tough but my family got along better than normal so we thought we were doing all right.”
Hunting, fishing and spending time with his family is what Doggett said he has enjoyed since retirement. “I’ve got some wonderful grandchildren and great grandchildren,” he says.
Doggett smiles at the mention of his grandson—Dale County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Mason Bynum—preparing to be the next Dale County Sheriff. “Yep. He’ll be a good one, too,” Doggett said. “He’s a fine boy. Being sheriff is all he ever wanted to do.”
There is no secret to his long life, Doggett replies, after pondering the question. “I’ve got as happy a family as I guess you could find anywhere,” Doggett said. “Our children and in-laws are great—beyond great—and our grandchildren and great grandchildren are just super. We’ve had very, very few real problems or sicknesses.
“I don’t claim wisdom, except that sufficient to keep me out of trouble and you can count what I’ve forgotten a lot more than what I remember,” he adds with a smile. “God’s been good to me.”
(1) comment
Milton, have you ever smoked? I'm pushing 96 and I attribute some of that to never have had a cigarette in my mouth. The part that you often hear from old timers about "hot women, good wiskey, and fast cars in my opinion is just a myth. I go for clean living, hard work, and loyalty to my country, as you have apparently done during your lifetime. Congratulations manaking it to the century mark. I hope that you enjoy many more.
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