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0534-GEN-06/2011
Julian E. Rolland
Specialist 5th Class
U. S. Army
General
Dates of Service: 04/26/1961 - 07/31/1967
Fire Control Operator, HAWK Missile System, Battery C, 2nd AD (GM)
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Jullian was born in Shreveport at Highland Hospital as one of five children of William Jay Rolland and Martha Catherine Thompson Rolland. His father played tenor sax and led a Dixieland jazz band, and traveled extensively, performing with musicians such as Fats Domino and Boots Randolph. He was also sold insurance. Jullian lived with his grandparents in Keithville. His grandfather, William Rolland, an architect and native of Edinburgh, Scotland, designed homes on Fairield Avenue. His grandmother was Cora Frame Rolland. Jullian worked on the farm, cut hay for neighbors and picked pecans. "I'd work sun up to sun down. I'd make eight dollars," he recalls of picking pecans. Later, at age "seventeen or eighteen" he was employed as a bellboy at the Washington-Youree Hotel in Shreveport, where his father often played in the ballroom. For transportation, Jullian walked and rode a fast mustang named Star. For fun, he fished, and rode his bicycle. After his grandparents died, Jullian thought he would inherit the farm, but it went to another relative. "One day I came home and the house was locked up so I had to join the service to have a place to sleep," he recalls. He joined the army on April 26, 1961 and completed basic training at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. At Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas he trained as a fire control operator for Hawk missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Sent to South Korea in May of 1961 he joined the 71st Artillery Battalion, near Camp Casey. There he worked as a radar operator in the fire control center for three Hawks missiles. "If it became necessary I was the guy that pushed the button that fired the missile," he remarks. Meanwhile, he also worked with K9s, after attending a dog handler school at Camp Casey. Hepatitis hit his outfit and "about nineteen" contracted the illness. For two months he recuperated at 121st Evacuation Hospital near Seoul, where his weight dropped from 154 to 108. "I was on death's bed," he says. Nine of the 19 infected died. After recovering he returned to his battery as well as to K9 duty, on which he and his dog, King, helped guard the DMZ (demilitarized zone). He also made "milk runs" carrying food and other materials to missile sites in mountains, often on narrow, dangerous roads. Once on K9 duty at night, his dog, King, attacked a North Korean armed with four Molotov bombs and bent on destroying the missile site generator. After his duty in Korea he was stationed at Fort Bliss. In his leisure hours he taught dancing at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in downtown El Paso. Meanwhile he had been promoted to Specialist 5 and began work at Fort Bliss stockade. He completed his service and was discharged on April 17, 1964. Back home, he worked three years at Louisiana Ammunitions Plant in Minden, then for Western Electric. His second wife, Judy, died of an aneurysm, and left him with their daughter. On November 28, 1980 Jullian married Margaret Smith. They had two children, Georgianna and Phillip. Jullian sold insurance, but would later start his own, home-based business, Total Image, in which he sells health foods. 2