When Vernon Woods joined the Army Air Corps, he expected he'd travel some. He did. Before he was through, he'd circumnavigated the globe on foot and narrow-gauge railroad, by ship and by air.

But while for some people the goal is to leave a small town like Brooks, Ga., for others, getting back is an intentional decision, with family life in mind. So it was with Woods, city councilman in Brooks from 1955 to 1980.

Next time you're there, look around. The town has parks, street lights, a fire department, a library even a water system, although you won't see that from where you're standing.

Behind these amenities are people who cared enough to make the effort. And if you checked the records, you'd find Vernon Woods' name over and over again.

Now 78, Woods traveled extensively on Uncle Sams' nickel. Then he returned to the town where he was born and raised. He just never found any place he liked better to settle in and rear his family.

"The charter of Brooks was reorganized about 1955," Woods said recently in his home on of course! Woods Road. Returning veterans took the lead in bringing the little South Fayette community up to modern standards, while conserving the best of its past.

Woods remembers with pride what he and other hands-on town leaders did during his quarter century of service. "We opened the library and the ball parks we've got a good-sized park and we put up street lights, built the fire department and put in the water system here at Brooks," he continued. "We even established a perpetual care cemetery my wife was the first one buried there," he said. His first wife, from St. Louis,died in a car wreck on her way to visit her parents.

The difference between then and now: "We did most of the stuff ourselves.

The new folks hire it out," Woods added, remarking on the difference in government techniques from the days when most small towns were do-it-yourself projects.

"When we left office, there was $100,000 in treasury. In one year, they spent it on buying land and lawn mowers."

Woods left Fayette County in 1935 to go to the University of Georgia to become an agricultural engineer "I learned machine design and hydraulics."

But adventure and a world war called. Woods joined the United States Army Air Corps, and when a heart problem prevented his flying, he studied to be a map-maker at Fort Belvoir.

Woods wound up in the Far East, supporting the work of Gen. Claire Chennault's volunteers who were defending the Burma Road, the Chinese supply route from India.

"We made the aeronautical maps and bombardier charts for the Flying Tigers," Woods said. He spent time in North Africa and North Vietnam including Hanoi and then found himself in the thick of things.

"I was over there three years during the fighting," he said. "We lost half our men out of 600, we lost 300."

He recalls being in transit to the eastern theatre, with half the troops on a ship going to India, half on a ship to China. "That ship went down, the one going to China, so they sent us there instead," he said.

On his way to war, "We flew over the Himalayan [Mountains] up near Tibet I didn't sign up for that. But we went clear around the world."

Since he was about as far East as you can go, the military sent Woods home by way of the West Coast. But his adventures still weren't over.

"I got in a train wreck in Helena, Montana," on his way back across the continent, he said. No one was hurt the train just jumped the track but to the young airman, it must have seemed like he was never going to get home.

Woods got home and, after the war, took his skills to work for the Department of the Interior in northwestern United States, as a hydraulic engineer.

"We built dams to bring in water for farmers," he said. But he was a family man now, and after three or four years, "I got tired of all that moving. We had two young children, and when they got ready to go to school, I wanted them here in Fayette County."

Woods farmed about 1,000 acres all the years he was on town council. "But I'm retired now, and that was more than I could handle," he said. "I sold all but about 60 acres and I sold part of that to the city" for the ball fields.

Every Sunday, Woods and his second wife Ima are in their places at Brooks Christian Church, where they remain active members. They have four children between them. Woods' son Von is a meteorologist who lives in Peachtree City. Eric, his only grandchild, is a senior at McIntosh High.

His daughter Cathy is "in advertising." She's single and lives in New York.

Woods has seen a lot of changes in Fayette County, although not so very many in Brooks until recently. "They've built quite a few new homes," he observed.

He has no hankering to get back into the political arena, but he does keep up. "I read in the paper everything that goes on all over the world," he said.

And recently he had the pleasure of meeting General Chennault's son, who now lives in Peachtree City.

Asked if he had any advice for today's leaders, Woods said "no."

"It wouldn't make no difference," he said. "They've made progress, and spent a lot of money."

Behind

Vernon Woods:

Record of public service:

u Brooks town councilman 1955-1980

Family:

u Wife Ima, originally from Bremen

u Son Von, daughter Cathy

u Grandson Eric, senior in high school

Occupation back when:

u Farmer

And now:

u Retired farmer

Proudest accomplishment:

u Building Brooks' infrastructure

Regrets:

u Modern free-spending government

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