Alabama Ramblers (Company B, 1343rd Combat Engineering Battalion)

“It was a good feeling to know that you had touched some hearts, and made them think about home.” – Dale Casteel of the Alabama Ramblers (2024 interview)

The Alabama Ramblers Collection consists of recorded performances by members of Company B, 1343rd Combat Engineering Battalion, circa 1951-1953. Also included in this collection are a 2024 interview with band member Dale Casteel and a 1951 news clipping depicting members of the band.

Formed during the Korean War, the Alabama Ramblers performed for fellow servicemembers in Korea and recorded special broadcasts to be aired back home over radio station WJMW in Athens, Alabama. Most of the band’s members came from Athens or nearby Hartselle; the two exceptions were James Price of Ownensboro, Missouri and George Na‘ope of Hilo, Hawaii. Na‘ope was an established entertainer already by the time of the war and is remembered today as a widely influential performer, teacher, and scholar of Hawaiian culture and, in particular, the hula. Other members of the group included bandleader Jerry McGivney, J. W. Hudson, Richard McElyea, Robert M. Allen, Charles Adams, Fred B. Clem, Robert Grigsby, and Dale Casteel, all of Athens; and Stanley White, Dee Proctor, and Howard Proctor of Hartselle.

The Alabama Ramblers’ recordings, which they sent to WJMW’s Bob Dunnavant for broadcast, included songs about the war along with original and popular tunes, interspersed with spoken messages to friends, family, sweethearts, and neighbors. The group’s song selections reflected the band’s unique wartime experience and perspective. Their original “Seasick Blues” humorously depicts the musicians’ journey overseas; other compositions, including “Away from You” and “Waiting for a Letter,” reflect the yearning for distant loved ones or pay tribute to the “Gray-Haired Mother” at home. The tear-jerking ballad “Missing in Action” — a tune made popular by Ernest Tubb and others — tells the story of a serviceman who returns home to discover that his wife, believing him dead, has remarried. Other selections include such gospel standards as “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies” and the instrumental “Steel Guitar Rag.”

Originally recorded to reel-to-reel tape, some excerpts of these performances were later transferred to acetate discs, four of which are housed today at the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives in Athens. The Southern Music Research Center is proud to make these performances available in our online archive, with special thanks to the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives, Dale Casteel, Joyce Cook, and Stephanie Hunter-Cook.

To hear all the tracks without pause, we recommend streaming the full Alabama Ramblers playlist.