Farmer, Legislator and Soldier,
Eric O. Cates, Jr. has Proudly Served

by Alvin Benn

It may not have been like shooting fish in a barrel, but it was the next best thing for Capt. Eric O. Cates, Jr., the day he decided to use his howitzer as a rifle.

He could see the enemy through powerful binoculars mounted on a tripod. Chinese troops were dug in on the opposite end of a deep ravine in the Punch Bowl region of eastern South Korea. Behind them was a steep bluff.

They were about 2,000 yards away, but the distance—20 football fields end-on-end—represented a stone’s throw for Cates’ 8-inch howitzer which was lugged up a steep mountain. It was a powerful weapon that could hurl 200-pound missiles up to six miles.

Although the Chinese were encamped in fortified positions, Cates knew his howitzer could do a lot of damage if the big rounds hit their target. Instead of firing the big weapon at a routine elevated angle, Cates lowered it until it focused directly on the
Chinese troops. He was firing at point-blank range.

His artillery unit was on ammunition restriction at the time, but Cates had been able to accumulate several rounds to see if his idea would work.

Did it ever! The first ones landed dead-center and Chinese troops were blasted out of their battered bunkers. As soon as Cates’ commanding general learned what was happening, he arrived to take a look for himself.

Eric and Louise Cates celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary earlier this year.

"I told the general ‘we need to get out from under this ammunition restriction,’" Cates recalled. "He asked ‘how much do you need?’ and I said ‘about 200 more rounds.’ He said ‘you’ve got it.’"

Noted war correspondent and cartoonist Bill Mauldin watched Cates’ troops fire at the Chinese from Hill 1181 and was so taken by their effectiveness that he sent back a descriptive account of what he had just witnessed.

"There’s a gun sitting on top of a mountain not very far from here that surprised (the Chinese)," Mauldin wrote. "You can’t believe it when you see it. It sits up there like the biggest sniper in the world, looking down everybody’s throat and I bet they are scratching their heads about it in the War College in Moscow."

Those who knew Eric Cates weren’t surprised by his leadership abilities and his ingenuity. It was the same for the folks back home in Butler County where he grew up on a farm and learned to expect the unexpected at times.

At the age of 87, Cates can look back on a productive life on the farm and in the Army. Few Alabamians have carved out as glittering a reputation in war and peace.

Above left, Captain Eric O. Cates in Korea. Above right, the fortified position where his howitzer fired on Chinese positions across a ravine. At right is pictured the kind of mobilized howitzer his unit used in Korea.

 Korea wasn’t his only war. A decade before he left to serve in what historians call a "police action;" he had enlisted in the Alabama National Guard. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, it wasn’t long before he was on his way from the family farm to his first combat zone in World War II.

Field artillery was his specialty and he used his experience during the Aleutian Island campaign. At one point, he went ashore at Attu as a forward observer for the 7th Army Division. His job was to relay information back to artillery units so they could bombard enemy positions. Forward observers’ mortality rates were and still are high.

Directing artillery fire wasn’t something he thought much about on the farm in the Searcy community just north of Greenville. He and his younger brother, Edwin, pitched in to help their dad plant corn, beans and whatever else was needed to bring in a few dollars and feed the family at the same time.

"I remember planting velvet beans," he said. "They were for the cows to eat and would sting you if you weren’t careful. We had to use Octagon soap when we got back home because those beans were so strong."

During the Depression, the Cates family managed to hang on to the farm when some of their neighbors weren’t as fortunate. Cotton dropped to 7 cents a pound at one point.

Cates learned leadership lessons from his father during that time. An officer is taught to look out for his troops. A responsible civilian looks out for those who aren’t as lucky.

"I remember the time my dad received surplus coats and gave them out to the kids," Cates said. "He was always a community leader. What he did was give a coat to every kid but us. Finally, when everybody else got one, he gave one to me and Edwin."

Cates didn’t go to college, but his leadership traits were evident from the start of his military career. He was assigned to officer candidate school and it wasn’t long before he was wearing the gold bars of a second lieutenant.

After the Aleutian Island campaign, Cates’ unit shipped out for the Pacific where the final battle against the Japanese was expected. The trip didn’t last long, however.

"Our ship had just gone under the Golden Gate Bridge when the first atomic bomb was dropped," he said. "That ended the war for all of us."

Earlier that year, Cates had gone to a USO dance in Raleigh, N.C. and couldn’t take his eyes off a striking brunette. Her name was Louise and she was a USO hostess.

She and the other girls were in a line to greet the troops who had arrived for the dance, but Cates didn’t particularly want to wait for a formal introduction.

"I thought she was the best-looking one in the line and walked over to her," he said, breaking into a big smile. "She said ‘you can’t do that…you’ve got to go back in line.’"

Long story short, Cates and the beautiful brunette danced the night away. Two months later, they were married.

Once World War II ended, Cates returned home to the family farm and spent the next five years turning it into a profitable operation. Just like his dad before him, Cates became a community leader—someone people in the area could turn to for help.

He also remained in the Alabama National Guard and when North Korean troops invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, he knew his number might be called once again to serve his country.

During "Operation Mountain Goat," as it was called, Cates’ artillery unit destroyed 96 Chinese bunkers from Hill 1181, inflicting about 35 casualties. Most of the enemy troops never knew what hit them.

When his Korean stint ended, Cates came back home again and remained in the National Guard. Promotions kept coming his way. By the time he retired from the Guard, he had become a full colonel.

"I guess I could have become a general, but it wasn’t something that concerned me too much," he said. "I just love the military and have tried to do what I can to help my country in any way I can."

He was, in his own words, "a country boy who had gone from private to colonel and wound up with some good military experiences."

In addition to everything else he’s accomplished in his long, productive life, Cates also found time to represent his county and region in the Alabama Legislature where he served from 1974 to 1982.

"I served during the terms of George Wallace and Fob James," he said. "One of my proudest accomplishments was supporting a bill to stop ad valorem tax increases."

Before he retired from the National Guard, Cates had one last significant experience. He commanded a battalion that protected activists during the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march in 1965.

"We handled security one night in Lowndes County and then on the last day in Montgomery at St. Jude," he said. "We guarded the campsites. Everything worked out just fine."