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I was born on Febuary the sixth, 1919,
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and there was a great big snow storm in
Western Kansas at the time.
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The Doctor didn’t get there till the next
day in his horse and buggy.
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So that’s my start in life.
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My first ten years was in Dresden Kansas,
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and my father was in France at the time,
and when he came back,
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he was not interested in either his wife
or his son. And so they were divorced.
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And my mother and I lived with her
parents for then for ten years,
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00:01:03,563 --> 00:01:09,903
and when she got a little older
so to speak,
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she taught school
in a one room farm school, eight grades.
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00:01:16,242 --> 00:01:26,052
And in 1926 she had saved enough money to
buy a Ford Model T coup.
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So she started coming home every day then
from school.
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Where she had been staying all
through the week at a farm nearby
the school.
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My interest in airplanes started back
when I was five or six years old.
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And one of the farmers near by had bought
a World War I Curtiss Jenny.
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And he used to fly around, and that got
my interest in Airplanes.
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And so before I was ten years old I was
taking Model Airplane News
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and building model airplanes.
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My first one was a Fokker D7 fighter:
a WWI German fighter.
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During that time I decided I wanted to
become a fighter pilot,
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You might say an aero engineer.
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So that’s my early start on my history.
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When I was 10 my mother remarried
and we moved to Norton Kansas.
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And in Norton I started the sixth grade
and went through High school
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building model airplanes,
by the way, all the time.
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And my ambition sort of ran along the
lines: I need to go to West Point,
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and then go what they call West Point of
the air in San Antonio
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to learn to be a fighter pilot.
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Well In my Junior year in high school,
a good friend of mine who graduated that year,
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got an appointment with West Point and
did that basically.
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Well nearing graduation in high school,
I wrote to my Congressman.
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He said “I don’t have an appointment to
West Point this year,
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I have one to Annapolis.”
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Well, I didn’t know much about Annapolis,
(living) in western Kansas.
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You know, Navy?
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So, I decided, well I would go to K State.
And I went for a year
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as a mechanical engineer.
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And worked, by the way,
for the department chairman
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making drawings for ten cents an hour.
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That was the going rate.
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00:03:58,037 --> 00:04:04,377
And it cost me about four hundred
dollars a year to go to college.
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00:04:04,377 --> 00:04:14,387
I stayed in an apartment building
with about eight different fellas
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00:04:14,387 --> 00:04:20,393
and we all ate at the little restaurants
around Aggieville.
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And we’d get a meal ticket for twenty dollars,
and that would last for a month or so.
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00:04:24,397 --> 00:04:30,403
And so that was the year I was there,
and again I knew I needed to
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00:04:30,403 --> 00:04:33,373
well, I was in the ROTC too of course
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but that wasn’t going to get me
where I wanted to go.
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00:04:37,410 --> 00:04:44,384
And so I wrote my congressman again
- Congressman Carlson.
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And he said “I don’t have an appointment
to West Point,
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00:04:44,684 --> 00:04:49,355
but I’ve got one to Annapolis.”
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00:04:49,355 --> 00:04:52,392
Okay, someone is telling me something.
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00:04:52,392 --> 00:04:57,363
He said “if you are interested,
go to the post office on a certain date
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00:04:57,363 --> 00:05:02,335
and take my competitive examination.”
So I said, “Okay I’ll do that.”
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00:05:02,335 --> 00:05:09,309
So I went back to Norton and took the
whole day’s examination.
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00:05:09,309 --> 00:05:14,280
What it was, was essentially the Naval
Academy entrance exam.
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00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:17,250
So I got the appointment,
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00:05:17,250 --> 00:05:23,222
and he told me to go to Fort Riley
to have a physical, to see if I pass.
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00:05:23,222 --> 00:05:27,460
Well it turns out everything was fine,
except I had two teeth that wouldn't get in.
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They were crooked.
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00:05:29,162 --> 00:05:34,434
So I went to Topeka to an orthodontist,
and he gave me a real quick job
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00:05:34,434 --> 00:05:37,170
on straightening the two teeth.
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00:05:37,170 --> 00:05:44,143
And so on— oh, and while I was at
K State, in one of my classes –
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I think it was my speech class -
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I got acquainted with another person
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that had an appointment to Annapolis
too (Don Reader).
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And he was from Jetmore, Kansas,
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which is about a hundred miles
south of Norton.
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00:06:00,059 --> 00:06:03,029
So we decided if we got orders
to go together,
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we’d go together,
and we did.
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00:06:05,031 --> 00:06:15,475
Well his parents brought him over
to Norton and took us to Nebraska
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00:06:15,475 --> 00:06:17,443
where we’d get the Lincoln-Zephyr
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00:06:17,443 --> 00:06:20,413
and we’d go to Chicago.
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00:06:20,413 --> 00:06:26,386
No trains go through to Chicago.
So you’d have to transfer.
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00:06:26,386 --> 00:06:30,356
And so we transferred at Penn Central
I think, I am not sure.
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00:06:30,356 --> 00:06:33,359
Anyhow, we went to Washington DC.
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00:06:33,359 --> 00:06:39,332
We got in in the evening, and went to
the Annapolis Hotel in Washington DC.
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00:06:39,332 --> 00:06:42,301
So the next day we went over to see our congressmen.
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We went over to see mine, and he wasn’t
in, but his secretary had a nice
conversation with us.
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00:06:50,276 --> 00:06:53,546
So we went over to see his congressman,
and he was in. And he says,
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00:06:53,546 --> 00:06:56,516
“Have you ever been to Washington
DC before?” “No.”
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00:06:56,516 --> 00:07:00,553
“Well my car is out in the back lot,
here’s the keys,
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00:07:00,553 --> 00:07:04,524
and just come back by five o’clock
tonight.”
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00:07:04,524 --> 00:07:08,494
And so we took the congressman’s car
and drove around Washington
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00:07:08,494 --> 00:07:12,465
and saw some of the sights and got back
at five o’clock at night.
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00:07:12,465 --> 00:07:18,438
And stayed all night again at the hotel
and the next day we went to Annapolis.
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00:07:18,438 --> 00:07:27,580
And there was a Midshipman
a couple of years ahead of us
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00:07:27,580 --> 00:07:30,550
who Carlson had appointed from Salina.
88
00:07:30,550 --> 00:07:37,523
and he (Carlson) got him to arrange
a place for us to stay in Annapolis,
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00:07:37,523 --> 00:07:41,494
which we did.
And so then we went to the academy;
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00:07:41,494 --> 00:07:49,469
took our physical exam — our grades
form K State did that part of it.
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00:07:49,469 --> 00:07:54,440
And so on the 30th of June 1937
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00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,609
we both entered the Naval Academy,
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00:07:56,609 --> 00:07:59,979
and we became roommates
for the whole time.
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00:08:02,615 --> 00:08:11,591
The summer was spent,
some math and classes like that;
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00:08:11,591 --> 00:08:22,068
rifle range in particular:
firing 30 caliber rifles and
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00:08:22,068 --> 00:08:29,041
45 caliber colt pistols,
30 caliber machine guns,
and so forth.
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00:08:29,041 --> 00:08:32,011
I never could qualify for a marksman.
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00:08:32,011 --> 00:08:35,982
Then some of the summer was spent
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00:08:35,982 --> 00:08:39,952
in sailboats, rowboats,
and that sort of thing.
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And then school started of course,
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00:08:44,924 --> 00:08:49,128
and for everyone but the freshmen
coming in
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they had what they called September leave
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00:08:52,098 --> 00:08:56,135
and when that was over we all started
school.
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00:08:56,135 --> 00:09:04,110
And I guess the whole four years was,
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as far as academics went, was,
you know, hard.
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00:09:07,079 --> 00:09:14,053
I made three gas model airplanes
during that time,
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00:09:14,053 --> 00:09:17,156
one of which almost got me kicked
out because I was
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00:09:17,156 --> 00:09:27,066
doping it over the Officer of the Day
of the academy.
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00:09:27,066 --> 00:09:34,040
His office was right under our room
and all that smell was coming down
on him
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00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:37,109
nd he didn’t think that was
appropriate.
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00:09:37,109 --> 00:09:40,112
And fortunately he didn’t find me,
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00:09:40,112 --> 00:09:46,118
but he had a midshipman chase down
until he did and tell me to quit
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which I did.
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00:09:48,087 --> 00:10:00,066
The first gas model airplane I actually
made was when I was on September leave,
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my first leave in ’38;
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the second was made during the
academic year at the Naval Academy.
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00:10:10,109 --> 00:10:16,148
A professor, who was actually a
Lieutenant in the Navy,
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00:10:16,148 --> 00:10:24,156
who taught radio and electrical systems
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00:10:24,156 --> 00:10:29,128
had a radio that would go in a gas
model airplane.
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00:10:29,128 --> 00:10:32,098
And he asked me if I’d like to have it.
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So I made another gas model airplane
to put this in.
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00:10:37,069 --> 00:10:47,046
And it flew in the summer of 1939,
radio control - rudder control.
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But he didn’t get to see it.
He was sent to China Station.
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00:10:51,017 --> 00:10:53,986
And his name was Lt. Ronald J. Worthington.
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00:10:53,986 --> 00:11:02,962
He was on his way home from China
Station, fleet,
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00:11:02,962 --> 00:11:07,667
and was in Cavite Naval Yard
(Base in Manila Bay) in the Philippines,
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00:11:07,667 --> 00:11:10,002
when the war started.
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00:11:10,002 --> 00:11:13,973
They gave him a destroyer, which
didn’t have any guns on it,
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to go to sea and do whatever.
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00:11:16,942 --> 00:11:21,147
The Japanese of course sunk it,
killed him and everybody.
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The summers there were real neat.
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00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:35,094
The summer of ’38 I was on the USS Texas
for about three months.
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00:11:35,094 --> 00:11:38,064
We went to Le Havre, France,
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00:11:38,064 --> 00:11:44,036
to Portsmouth, England, and
Copenhagen, Denmark.
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00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:47,006
When we got into Le Havre, France
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real stinky port by the way
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00:11:50,176 --> 00:11:57,183
we got a Cook’s Tour to Paris,
and it cost forty dollars.
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00:11:57,183 --> 00:12:02,154
And that covered transportation from
Le Havre and back on the train,
139
00:12:02,154 --> 00:12:07,693
a nice hotel —Letitia Hotel,
which is still in existence
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00:12:07,693 --> 00:12:11,664
meals, as well with a room
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00:12:11,664 --> 00:12:16,702
and then a tour of Paris was all
included in that forty dollars
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00:12:16,702 --> 00:12:19,672
for four days.
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00:12:19,672 --> 00:12:25,111
While we were there,
one thing my roommate and I did,
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00:12:25,111 --> 00:12:31,083
we went out to the Airport Le Bourget
and took a flight over Paris.
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We spent a little time around Le Havre,
but that’s a pretty poor place.
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00:12:37,656 --> 00:12:41,627
We were there (in Denmark) over the
fourth of July as a matter of fact.
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00:12:41,627 --> 00:12:46,132
Those crazy Danes
go swimming in the water up there,
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00:12:46,132 --> 00:12:52,104
in the Baltic, and it’s as cold as
icebergs almost.
149
00:12:52,104 --> 00:12:55,074
but they go swimming and enjoy the beach.
150
00:12:55,074 --> 00:13:06,051
We didn’t do much there,
we went to a castle which is where Hamlet was from.
151
00:13:06,051 --> 00:13:12,525
And I was impressed by the armor,
they had a whole bunch of old-time armor.
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00:13:12,525 --> 00:13:17,496
You know, a kid today, ten years old,
couldn’t hardly get in it.
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00:13:17,496 --> 00:13:20,633
I mean, those people were little;
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00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:27,606
sort of like the Japanese were years
ago too, you know?
155
00:13:27,606 --> 00:13:35,581
So anyway, then some native sort of
took a hold of us one day
156
00:13:35,581 --> 00:13:38,551
and showed us around Copenhagen a little bit.
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00:13:38,551 --> 00:13:45,524
And he informed us that -this was the first
I had ever heard of, over there, Hitler at all -
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00:13:45,524 --> 00:13:48,828
how Hitler was improving Germany.
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00:13:48,828 --> 00:13:55,835
And see, the Danes go up to Bavaria
and Switzerland for vacations,
160
00:13:55,835 --> 00:13:59,805
and they’d travel back and forth,
and of course here were some nice roads;
161
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you know, he was really improving
Germany.
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00:14:03,776 --> 00:14:07,179
And so this guy was highly impressed
with that.
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00:14:07,179 --> 00:14:13,152
And the one thing I do remember particularly there,
was the Tivoli Gardens, have you ever heard of that?
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00:14:13,152 --> 00:14:23,062
well it’s the original —
you might say the original Six Flags or Disney Land
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00:14:23,062 --> 00:14:28,033
It goes way back to the ‘20s or earlier,
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00:14:28,033 --> 00:14:39,011
and it’s a really nice garden, so to speak.
They have performances and a band and these sort of things.
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It’s just really neat. And it’s still in existence
but just operates during the summer.
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00:14:47,987 --> 00:14:54,960
And from there we went to Portsmouth
and again took a tour to London for four days
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00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:56,929
— forty dollars also.
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00:14:56,929 --> 00:15:04,904
Incidentally the Franc was 39 Francs
to the Dollar in those days.
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00:15:04,904 --> 00:15:08,874
Anyhow, we went to England for the
same price
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00:15:08,874 --> 00:15:16,181
and stayed at the Imperial Hotel
which is in Russell Square
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not far from the (British) Museum
and quite a few nice things to see.
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00:15:22,087 --> 00:15:31,130
And again we had meals, rooms,
and so forth, transportation, tour of London.
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00:15:31,130 --> 00:15:35,634
So that was an enjoyable experience too
of course.
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00:15:35,634 --> 00:15:39,605
From Portsmouth also, I went to Brighton,
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00:15:39,605 --> 00:15:48,580
which is sort of, in those days anyway,
one of their summer beach places.
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00:15:48,580 --> 00:15:52,551
Again it’s too cold to go in,
but they do it.
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00:15:52,551 --> 00:15:58,524
And from there, I don’t know;
we came back to the states.
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00:15:58,524 --> 00:16:03,495
Fired five inch guns, and things
like that.
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00:16:03,495 --> 00:16:08,467
The whole tour, being the first one
from the Midshipmen’s point of view,
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00:16:08,467 --> 00:16:17,443
was to do the work and stand the type of watches
that the enlisted men stood.
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00:16:17,443 --> 00:16:22,348
The whole thing: you know we scrubbed
the deck, and you know, all these things like that.
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00:16:22,348 --> 00:16:30,823
So that was the whole purpose of the trip:
to acquaint you with sailors.
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00:16:30,823 --> 00:16:36,795
So then going back, the next summer,
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00:16:36,795 --> 00:16:46,305
about a third of it was devoted to helping
incoming plebes, moving them around.
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00:16:46,305 --> 00:16:57,883
About another third was devoted to flying
in a twin engine sea plane, a PBY sea plane.
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00:16:57,883 --> 00:17:07,860
We co-piloted, navigated, and shot the guns
out of the side at a target, that sort of thing.
189
00:17:07,860 --> 00:17:10,162
So that was, you know, really good for me.
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00:17:10,162 --> 00:17:20,139
We also went down in a sub in
Chesapeake Bay and were inside of a sub.
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00:17:20,139 --> 00:17:25,811
And the last part was supposed to be
a destroyer cruise for me,
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00:17:25,811 --> 00:17:30,783
about two weeks up to New York
and Boston.
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00:17:30,783 --> 00:17:36,755
Well unfortunately just before that came
up, I was high jumping and broke my leg.
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00:17:36,755 --> 00:17:40,726
So I spent that time in the Hospital.
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00:17:40,726 --> 00:17:48,700
And while I was there -
during the first three years of the
acedemic year
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00:17:48,700 --> 00:17:51,804
Two of us had roomed together
all four years,
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00:17:51,804 --> 00:17:55,107
and an additional two, we had a
four man room.
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00:17:55,107 --> 00:18:00,079
One of these members was from
California (Mac Nicholson).
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00:18:00,079 --> 00:18:01,914
He was a real sailor type,
200
00:18:01,914 --> 00:18:06,885
and he fell out of a mast
way up on the sailplane
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00:18:06,885 --> 00:18:11,223
or racing yacht,
202
00:18:11,223 --> 00:18:14,226
that had been given to the Naval Academy,
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00:18:14,226 --> 00:18:18,230
like for the race from Bermuda
and back, that sort of thing.
204
00:18:18,230 --> 00:18:22,901
He was up in the mast and fell
down onto a hatch;
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00:18:22,901 --> 00:18:30,242
broke his pelvis into umpteen pieces,
and he came into the hospital while I was there.
206
00:18:30,242 --> 00:18:39,251
and I got a little better at this time,
and got let out just in time for Sept. leave.
207
00:18:39,251 --> 00:18:43,589
And I came back,
and of course he was still in,
208
00:18:43,589 --> 00:18:51,597
and he probably didn’t get back out till November
I suppose, before he got out of the hospital.
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00:18:51,597 --> 00:18:56,568
So that was my third summer,
you might say.
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00:18:56,568 --> 00:19:04,276
My fourth summer was on the USS Arkansas.
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00:19:04,276 --> 00:19:09,348
This cruise didn’t go to Europe
because the war going on of course.
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00:19:09,348 --> 00:19:18,323
We went to Venezuela, and Panama,
and Puerto Rico, and Cuba.
213
00:19:18,323 --> 00:19:25,964
And come up to Norfolk area
and shot guns and so forth.
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00:19:25,964 --> 00:19:35,307
And we also went to, I guess it was,
New York and Boston too.
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00:19:35,307 --> 00:19:44,316
And that was a cruise primarily to see
what the Junior Officers did.
216
00:19:44,316 --> 00:19:48,320
We stood Junior Officer watch
and so forth.
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00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:55,327
And then we came back to the Academy
218
00:19:55,327 --> 00:20:00,666
and they told us our last year was going to be shortened up
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00:20:00,666 --> 00:20:04,336
and that we’d graduate in February instead of June.
220
00:20:04,336 --> 00:20:11,343
And we didn’t have any vacations
and so forth; everything was jammed up a bit.
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00:20:11,343 --> 00:20:15,314
I also got a letter from
222
00:20:15,314 --> 00:20:18,350
We moved battalions,
I moved to a different battalion,
223
00:20:18,350 --> 00:20:21,353
we all did actually,
but there were just two man rooms.
224
00:20:21,353 --> 00:20:25,290
So Don Reeder and I were together and the other two were together
(Mac Nicholson and Jim McManus).
225
00:20:25,290 --> 00:20:30,262
And I got a letter right away
from the battalion commander
226
00:20:30,262 --> 00:20:35,801
that I should not be building
any model airplanes in my room
227
00:20:35,801 --> 00:20:40,772
and I would have to have permission
from the admiral.
228
00:20:40,772 --> 00:20:45,844
So I wrote a letter to the admiral, and of course
three or four months later, I got back approval.
229
00:20:45,844 --> 00:20:55,320
Well I was going to leave.
So that sort of ended the model airplane building at the academy.
230
00:20:55,320 --> 00:21:03,962
And we graduated on February seventh,
just a day after I was twenty-two years old.
231
00:21:03,962 --> 00:21:10,702
I might say, in those days,
from the beginning of the Navy,
232
00:21:10,702 --> 00:21:17,409
midshipmen were commissioned
in the United States Navy.
233
00:21:17,409 --> 00:21:22,814
I’ve got a piece of paper over here
that shows my first Commission.
234
00:21:22,814 --> 00:21:28,320
We all took the same course except
for foreign language.
235
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,958
We had a choice of French, Italian,
Spanish, or German.
236
00:21:32,958 --> 00:21:42,901
Except for that, we all took the same course
to be a Junior Officer on a combat ship.
237
00:21:42,901 --> 00:21:49,441
There were four hundred in my class that graduated.
About twenty-five went into the Marines
238
00:21:49,441 --> 00:21:55,280
and there were about twenty who
couldn’t pass the physical to become naval officers
239
00:21:55,280 --> 00:22:01,453
and they were commissioned as
Ensigns in the Reserve
240
00:22:01,453 --> 00:22:06,425
but the rest of us,
which was about 350
241
00:22:06,425 --> 00:22:10,762
were commissioned
as Ensigns in the United States Navy
242
00:22:10,762 --> 00:22:14,232
and we all went to combat ships.
243
00:22:14,232 --> 00:22:20,539
he first member of my class was killed
a couple months before the war was started,
244
00:22:20,539 --> 00:22:28,513
in the Atlantic on a destroyer
which a German sub torpedoed.
245
00:22:28,513 --> 00:22:31,483
He was the first casualty.
246
00:22:34,486 --> 00:22:41,193
Then Pearl Harbor. Of course I went on the USS Maryland.
247
00:22:41,193 --> 00:22:54,172
I joined it actually in Long Beach, California,
and went up to Bremerton, Washington for six months overhaul.
248
00:22:54,172 --> 00:22:57,909
From there we went into Pearl.
249
00:22:57,909 --> 00:23:03,315
And while we were in the six
months overhaul, I went down to Valejo, California
250
00:23:03,315 --> 00:23:09,921
for a six weeks education
in range finders and optics.
251
00:23:09,921 --> 00:23:16,361
And I was the Range Finder and Optical officer on the Maryland.
That was my job.
252
00:23:16,361 --> 00:23:21,199
And we didn’t have radar.
253
00:23:21,199 --> 00:23:25,771
We were supposed to get radar and new boilers
and several things like that,
254
00:23:25,771 --> 00:23:29,741
that were not available
when we were in overhaul.
255
00:23:29,741 --> 00:23:35,280
Strikes on the, you know,
strikes here and there in the country so
256
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,683
we didn’t get several things we should’ve had.
257
00:23:38,683 --> 00:23:41,286
And so then we went to Pearl.
258
00:23:41,286 --> 00:23:47,959
We operated out of Pearl, probably about half the time
and half the time in Pearl.
259
00:23:47,959 --> 00:23:51,863
And the system of operations
in those days was:
260
00:23:51,863 --> 00:23:56,668
the battleships had an area to operate in,
the destroyers had an area to operate in,
261
00:23:56,668 --> 00:24:02,874
the cruisers had an area to operate in,
and the submarines had an area to operate in.
262
00:24:02,874 --> 00:24:13,452
So supposedly there were no submarines in our area;
however, on occasion we saw some.
263
00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:22,694
And on several occasions we actually called in destroyers
and they dumped some charges on them,
264
00:24:22,694 --> 00:24:24,963
— of course, too late.
265
00:24:24,963 --> 00:24:28,600
Anyhow, maybe the Japanese
knew we knew they were there.
266
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:35,574
I would say our attitude at that time was,
267
00:24:35,574 --> 00:24:38,543
we knew we were going to be at war
with Japan.
268
00:24:38,543 --> 00:24:41,746
The problem was
we didn’t know where or when.
269
00:24:41,746 --> 00:24:48,220
When we went into Pearl,
we were there for a while,
270
00:24:48,220 --> 00:24:55,727
we’d see these B17s being flown into
Hickam Field which was right next door
271
00:24:55,727 --> 00:24:58,063
and then on to the Philippines.
272
00:24:58,063 --> 00:25:05,036
And so, Washington thought the war would
be started in the Philippines, you see.
273
00:25:05,036 --> 00:25:16,014
In fact, MacArthur had quite a bit of
information on codes and what-have-you,
274
00:25:16,014 --> 00:25:19,551
that the people in Hawaii didn’t have.
275
00:25:19,551 --> 00:25:30,195
And there was one code (machine) on breaking down the Japanese major code,
276
00:25:30,195 --> 00:25:35,333
which the British had one copy
of the machine, we had one in Washington,
277
00:25:35,333 --> 00:25:40,405
and the third one was
with MacArthur in the Philippines.
278
00:25:40,405 --> 00:25:47,279
And so the Pearl Harbor people
just got what someone happened to tell them.
279
00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:58,690
And nobody suggested really,
Washington never suggested we were a problem.
280
00:25:58,690 --> 00:26:07,399
So that was the background,
I think you could say, of my point of view of Pearl Harbor
281
00:26:07,399 --> 00:26:10,502
Well, on the specific day,
282
00:26:10,502 --> 00:26:14,906
I had bought a new
Bell and Howell movie camera
283
00:26:14,906 --> 00:26:18,410
and I had taken about one or two
rolls of film.
284
00:26:18,410 --> 00:26:26,384
There’s a nice golf course up the mountains
behind Honolulu, we used to go play golf.
285
00:26:26,384 --> 00:26:29,854
I had taken my first roll of film up there.
286
00:26:29,854 --> 00:26:37,729
When Pearl Harbor started,
I of course had that in my room there.
287
00:26:37,729 --> 00:26:41,166
And there were three of us rooming together,
288
00:26:41,166 --> 00:26:45,403
two of them were out of the class of ’40,
and I was out of the class of ’41.
289
00:26:45,403 --> 00:26:48,473
One of them out of the (class of) ’40 was,
my boss actually.
290
00:26:48,473 --> 00:26:53,278
He was John Mutty;
he was in charge of the F-division.
291
00:26:53,278 --> 00:26:59,017
The other one was Dusty Rhodes
and he was in engineering.
292
00:26:59,017 --> 00:27:04,089
Well, Naval Academy graduates weren’t
supposed to get married for two years after you graduated
293
00:27:04,089 --> 00:27:07,659
but Dusty Rhodes got married
about a year after he graduated.
294
00:27:07,659 --> 00:27:18,637
And his wife, she was able to afford to come over
and live in Hawaii.
295
00:27:18,637 --> 00:27:26,611
You see, we were home ported —
oh I can’t think of the name right quick,
296
00:27:26,611 --> 00:27:29,047
well that was the home port
(Long Beach, CA)
297
00:27:29,047 --> 00:27:34,352
Well everyone’s family lived there
you see.
298
00:27:34,352 --> 00:27:39,324
Well, to come over from there to Hawaii,
they had to pay their own way.
299
00:27:39,324 --> 00:27:45,697
Well that was,
well I was getting $125 a month,
300
00:27:45,697 --> 00:27:53,905
you know, you can’t afford to bring
your wife over or family over with $125 a month.
301
00:27:53,905 --> 00:27:56,875
You couldn’t afford to live there either.
302
00:27:56,875 --> 00:28:05,316
Well his wife came over —
she had the money in other words.
303
00:28:05,316 --> 00:28:09,554
Well, when Pearl Harbor started,
he was home with his wife.
304
00:28:09,554 --> 00:28:18,296
John and I were in our room, and we had just finished (dressing),
305
00:28:18,296 --> 00:28:21,633
just ready to walk out the door
to go to breakfast.
306
00:28:21,633 --> 00:28:25,303
We had started to hear noises,
and looked out the port.
307
00:28:25,303 --> 00:28:30,341
And here was an airplane going by,
at about a hundred feet off the ground
308
00:28:30,341 --> 00:28:33,144
with a great big red meatball on it,
you know.
309
00:28:33,144 --> 00:28:34,546
Well we knew what was going on,
310
00:28:34,546 --> 00:28:41,252
so we started to our battle station when
they started calling general quarters.
311
00:28:41,252 --> 00:28:46,057
And our battle station for the F-division was down in the,
312
00:28:46,057 --> 00:28:51,796
about four decks down,
in the middle of the ship.
313
00:28:51,796 --> 00:28:56,134
Once you got there, you couldn’t get out
(the water tight doors were sealed).
314
00:28:56,134 --> 00:28:59,871
It was a real nice place to be
as long as the ship was afloat.
315
00:28:59,871 --> 00:29:02,307
If it wasn’t, you couldn’t get out.
316
00:29:02,307 --> 00:29:05,210
But anyhow, that’s where we went.
317
00:29:05,210 --> 00:29:09,280
But Dusty couldn’t go.
Well he had his battle station there too,
318
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,383
and when he got back over, he couldn’t go down there.
319
00:29:12,383 --> 00:29:16,988
He went up to grab my camera,
thought he’d take some good pictures,
320
00:29:16,988 --> 00:29:21,593
but he decided,
‘can’t get them developed, they’re colored.’
321
00:29:21,593 --> 00:29:27,599
So he didn’t take any.
And so that was a crazy one.
322
00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:32,704
While everything was going on,
323
00:29:32,704 --> 00:29:36,441
obviously our sixteen-inch guns
weren’t much use,
324
00:29:36,441 --> 00:29:42,080
and neither were the five-inch.
The anti-aircraft basically got to firing,
325
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:47,385
When you were in port, you put all your ammunition down -
It’s a hot place, you know?
326
00:29:47,385 --> 00:29:53,057
and your ammunition spoils, so to speak,
in that heat —
327
00:29:53,057 --> 00:29:56,227
so everything was down in the magazines.
328
00:29:56,227 --> 00:29:59,664
So it took fifteen, twenty minutes to get everything going.
329
00:29:59,664 --> 00:30:07,138
It takes fifteen minutes to get a ship
from one condition to battle condition.
330
00:30:07,138 --> 00:30:13,478
And so, the it was all over
by the time we were ready to fire.
331
00:30:13,478 --> 00:30:18,216
So all we did down there was,
332
00:30:18,216 --> 00:30:22,353
we had essentially three different radio circuits,
333
00:30:22,353 --> 00:30:31,496
mine was to the range finders,
and then we had two computers
334
00:30:31,496 --> 00:30:34,132
range keepers we called them
335
00:30:34,132 --> 00:30:39,103
which Dusty operated one, and
336
00:30:39,103 --> 00:30:43,208
actually Ensign Lowere operated
the other one.
337
00:30:43,208 --> 00:30:47,378
And I worked with Dusty on one,
in other words, I was a range finder,
338
00:30:47,378 --> 00:30:53,251
and I put in an input for the range,
and he worked the machine.
339
00:30:53,251 --> 00:31:00,158
And, so that was a different circuit
(gunnery control circuit manned by Ensign Lowere)
340
00:31:00,158 --> 00:31:05,964
It was a circuit that went to the,
among other things,
341
00:31:05,964 --> 00:31:09,868
the mast where people up there
could see around good.
342
00:31:09,868 --> 00:31:15,440
Then the third circuit -
Mutty was on more of a command circuit.
343
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:21,646
Well we got all kind of information from
those people
during the affair you know:
344
00:31:21,646 --> 00:31:24,916
like the Oklahoma going over,
and all these things.
345
00:31:24,916 --> 00:31:26,451
*And you were right next to the Oklahoma.*
346
00:31:26,451 --> 00:31:31,022
Yeah, we were tied up with
eight-inch Manila lines,
347
00:31:31,022 --> 00:31:32,557
back and forth between them,
348
00:31:32,557 --> 00:31:38,696
they snapped like a thread,
like a 60 thread.
349
00:31:38,696 --> 00:31:42,400
And it (the Oklahoma) flipped right over.
350
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:46,638
So we got information on all
these things going on.
351
00:31:46,638 --> 00:31:54,679
And, anyhow, that’s sort of what we did
while the war was going on.
352
00:31:54,679 --> 00:32:00,451
And then finally after they decided
there wasn’t anymore Japanese ships coming in,
353
00:32:00,451 --> 00:32:03,888
then they opened up a bit.
354
00:32:03,888 --> 00:32:08,393
Various people began to get new job.
355
00:32:08,393 --> 00:32:14,766
The ones with boats
tried to rescue people.
356
00:32:14,766 --> 00:32:21,072
And my job, actually,
was anti-aircraft gunnery.
357
00:32:21,072 --> 00:32:28,479
And so that went on for quite a few days.
358
00:32:28,479 --> 00:32:33,685
We (on the USS Maryland) received one hit for sure,
and apparently another one.
359
00:32:33,685 --> 00:32:37,622
But one of the horizontal bomber’s bombs
360
00:32:37,622 --> 00:32:40,959
which was armor piercing shell
361
00:32:40,959 --> 00:32:47,732
went through right up at the bow, went through the bow
and on into the mud below.
362
00:32:47,732 --> 00:32:52,971
Didn’t explode,
but it opened up a big hole in the bow.
363
00:32:52,971 --> 00:32:56,674
There were two sailors up there
that were killed, drowned.
364
00:32:56,674 --> 00:33:01,846
Then we had an officer killed
on an anti-aircraft battery.
365
00:33:01,846 --> 00:33:10,154
We never really knew for sure whether it was some little bomb
that went off up in the air,
366
00:33:10,154 --> 00:33:14,292
and he got hit with it or whatever, or something else.
367
00:33:14,292 --> 00:33:21,566
Anyhow, he was killed on the top
side of the ship.
368
00:33:21,566 --> 00:33:28,172
And this was after
probably during the second bombing.
369
00:33:28,172 --> 00:33:32,810
We had a pilot over on Ford Island,
370
00:33:32,810 --> 00:33:38,816
our aircraft had gone over to Ford Island,
and the pilots were over there.
371
00:33:38,816 --> 00:33:43,287
I am not sure, but
he was one of the pilots that was killed.
372
00:33:43,287 --> 00:33:49,761
Apparently, he was shot down in his airplane,
but I don’t know what did ever happen.
373
00:33:49,761 --> 00:33:55,500
So that was our damage.
And behind us was the Tennessee,
374
00:33:55,500 --> 00:34:00,671
with the West Virginia
on the outside of it.
375
00:34:00,671 --> 00:34:05,810
And again the West Virginia
got the torpedoes like the Oklahoma got the torpedoes,
376
00:34:05,810 --> 00:34:08,780
but the two of us (Tennessee & Maryland)
didn’t get torpedoes.
377
00:34:08,780 --> 00:34:11,482
And they (the Tennessee)
didn’t get too much damage either.
378
00:34:11,482 --> 00:34:16,621
A horizontal bomb got them too,
but it didn’t go off.
379
00:34:16,621 --> 00:34:19,524
They got a little damage but not much.
380
00:34:19,524 --> 00:34:22,326
So the two of us
were in pretty good shape.
381
00:34:22,326 --> 00:34:26,898
On the outside of us was the Oklahoma
which turned over,
382
00:34:26,898 --> 00:34:31,602
and the West Virginia
(on the outside of the Tennessee) sunk down;
383
00:34:31,602 --> 00:34:37,275
they were able to quickly sink it down
so it (the West Virginia) didn’t turn over.
384
00:34:37,275 --> 00:34:41,179
And of course the Arizona was behind that,
385
00:34:41,179 --> 00:34:48,886
and it got a bomb down,
it went down into magazines
386
00:34:48,886 --> 00:34:51,389
exploded and of course, everything.
387
00:34:51,389 --> 00:34:56,127
And behind that was the Nevada
and they got hit a little bit.
388
00:34:56,127 --> 00:35:03,534
and tried to get out of the harbor
and then they got bombed really quite a bit.
389
00:35:03,534 --> 00:35:11,776
And they were told not to get out
of the harbor, block the harbor, in other words.
390
00:35:11,776 --> 00:35:21,619
Two other battleships:
the Pennsylvania and the California were ahead of us.
391
00:35:21,619 --> 00:35:26,390
One was over in the shipyard,
392
00:35:26,390 --> 00:35:29,894
and one was just ahead of us a ways,
393
00:35:29,894 --> 00:35:33,231
and they both got seriously damaged.
394
00:35:33,231 --> 00:35:38,269
And in each battleship,
eight of them,
395
00:35:38,269 --> 00:35:41,639
there were five of my classmates.
396
00:35:41,639 --> 00:35:48,279
So that’s forty of my classmates
right in the group.
397
00:35:48,279 --> 00:35:51,282
Now I don’t know how many more there were,
398
00:35:51,282 --> 00:35:57,321
because every battleship got five
of my classmates,
399
00:35:57,321 --> 00:36:00,291
the cruisers got something like
three or four,
400
00:36:00,291 --> 00:36:02,560
and there were several cruisers in there.
401
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:07,298
And then the destroyers
generally got one officer.
402
00:36:07,298 --> 00:36:16,140
So, there were probably anywhere from
ten to fifteen more of my class in the Pearl Harbor attack.
403
00:36:16,140 --> 00:36:19,844
And I don’t know how many were killed.
404
00:36:19,844 --> 00:36:28,419
The Oklahoma, I think lost all five,
and the Arizona lost most of theirs too
I think.
405
00:36:28,419 --> 00:36:34,926
You wouldn’t know this,
but there were people that tried to say
406
00:36:34,926 --> 00:36:40,932
that we were all ashore and that sort of thing
(i.e., derelict of duty).
407
00:36:40,932 --> 00:36:48,105
But probably on our ship
there were 1,200 people all told,
408
00:36:48,105 --> 00:36:53,477
and I doubt if there were 15 ashore.
409
00:36:53,477 --> 00:36:58,950
In other words, the families couldn’t afford
to get over, you see.
410
00:36:58,950 --> 00:37:03,087
The admiral was ashore,
he had his wife there.
411
00:37:03,087 --> 00:37:07,625
The captain didn’t have his family out,
for instance. He was on board.
412
00:37:07,625 --> 00:37:11,495
And of course,
Dusty Rhodes had his wife there.
413
00:37:11,495 --> 00:37:14,265
Probably the one ensign’s wife there,
actually.
414
00:37:14,265 --> 00:37:19,003
There were very few people (offshore),
we all stayed on the ship,
415
00:37:19,003 --> 00:37:23,441
we didn’t get off, you know.
416
00:37:23,441 --> 00:37:30,881
We maybe had a picnic that we’d all go on
with the division some place,
417
00:37:30,881 --> 00:37:36,220
or we’d take a bus tour around the island,
418
00:37:36,220 --> 00:37:45,863
and occasionally go to Waikiki beach
obviously, and some other beaches.
419
00:37:45,863 --> 00:37:51,902
But we didn’t have money to be spending
a whole lot of time that way anyhow.
420
00:38:06,083 --> 00:38:12,056
But at any rate,
the Japanese did a nice job.
421
00:38:12,056 --> 00:38:13,024
They planned that.
If you look back at history, they planned very well.
422
00:38:13,024 --> 00:38:17,995
They started to plan the attack
about a year ahead.
423
00:38:17,995 --> 00:38:27,371
They even had a trial run up on one of their islands
up there a month or so before,
424
00:38:27,371 --> 00:38:39,483
on a harbor that looked a lot like Pearl.
You know, they did their homework.
425
00:38:39,483 --> 00:38:49,093
And we didn’t have anywhere near
enough aircraft to search around the islands,
426
00:38:49,093 --> 00:38:51,962
for ships coming in.
427
00:38:51,962 --> 00:39:00,604
The navy had few PBYs,
which I flew on a few times,
428
00:39:00,604 --> 00:39:05,643
and we’d take a sector
and go out three-hundred miles or so.
429
00:39:05,643 --> 00:39:11,182
There’s three-hundred and sixty degrees,
you know.
430
00:39:11,182 --> 00:39:16,654
And when you cover fifteen degrees of it,
you’re not covering much of it.
431
00:39:16,654 --> 00:39:20,324
We didn’t have any airplanes
to be able to do that.
432
00:39:20,324 --> 00:39:28,833
And that was another criticism of course,
that we didn’t cover the seas, you know.
433
00:39:38,676 --> 00:39:44,715
This is a nice book, by the way,
on Pearl Harbor,
434
00:39:44,715 --> 00:39:49,620
and there’s another real good one
by Admiral Layton
435
00:39:49,620 --> 00:39:53,624
which covers more than Pearl Harbor,
covers Midway and other things. (book references in credits)
436
00:39:53,624 --> 00:40:01,999
He was the chief intelligence officer
for Admiral Nimitz,
437
00:40:01,999 --> 00:40:04,969
and Admiral Kimmel too.
438
00:40:04,969 --> 00:40:10,975
And he’s got one of the best books for history there,
439
00:40:10,975 --> 00:40:16,480
before and after,
including the intelligence area.
440
00:40:25,856 --> 00:40:37,301
After the shipyard put a patch on the hole on our bow
and pumped us out,
441
00:40:37,301 --> 00:40:43,774
what we had to do
was blast a quay out that we were tied up to
442
00:40:43,774 --> 00:40:48,045
for us to get out
with the Oklahoma sitting there beside us.
443
00:40:48,045 --> 00:40:53,017
So this happened,
I don’t know, about a week after Pearl Harbor.
444
00:40:53,017 --> 00:41:00,424
So we went back to Bremerton, Washington,
and had some repairs made.
445
00:41:00,424 --> 00:41:03,394
We still didn’t get the radar by the way.
446
00:41:03,394 --> 00:41:10,734
We were there before Christmas,
and were there for about a month and half I guess.
447
00:41:10,734 --> 00:41:16,474
And we used to have to get up and man everything at night,
two or three times.
448
00:41:16,474 --> 00:41:20,678
Every time some truck
would go down the highway,
449
00:41:20,678 --> 00:41:25,649
there would be reports of
incoming Japanese aircraft.
450
00:41:25,649 --> 00:41:35,326
So it was sort of cold,
a cold rain up there a lot of times.
451
00:41:35,326 --> 00:41:41,966
And you'd have to get up,
and those trucks going down the highways.
452
00:41:41,966 --> 00:41:47,838
Well anyhow,
from there I think we went to San Francisco for a short period.
453
00:41:47,838 --> 00:41:58,649
And we got into a task force of fifteen ships or so,
and this is before Midway.
454
00:41:58,649 --> 00:42:05,289
And we went out towards Midway
and to north of Midway
455
00:42:05,289 --> 00:42:11,028
and that’s the location we were in,
when the Midway battle took place.
456
00:42:11,028 --> 00:42:16,834
So here’s Midway, we were here,
and Alaska is here,
457
00:42:16,834 --> 00:42:19,537
so we were sort of in between.
458
00:42:19,537 --> 00:42:27,044
Washington said the
Japanese were going to attack Alaska,
459
00:42:27,044 --> 00:42:31,248
and they told Admiral Nimitz
to get things up there.
460
00:42:31,248 --> 00:42:36,120
Well his people say they’re going
to attack Midway, and I’m going to go to Midway.
461
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:44,528
So that shows you how good Washington’s
information is.
462
00:42:44,528 --> 00:42:52,202
So anyway, Admiral Layton,
who was his chief intelligence officer,
463
00:42:52,202 --> 00:43:00,878
and the guy that who broke the Japanese code, Rochefort, (Joseph J. Rochefort) I think.
464
00:43:00,878 --> 00:43:11,522
He was the intelligence man, Hawaiian department, Navy Department.
465
00:43:11,522 --> 00:43:18,329
He was the one that decided it was Midway.
466
00:43:18,329 --> 00:43:29,640
He (Rochefort) sent a message out to Midway to have them to openly say
that their water system was broke.
467
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:36,347
So here comes the Japanese code telling their people
that the water system on Midway was broke.
468
00:43:36,347 --> 00:43:43,821
And that is what gave him the assurance
that that’s where they were going.
469
00:43:43,821 --> 00:43:55,532
And Nimitz went with him.
Well at any rate, that’s sort of going along.
470
00:43:55,532 --> 00:44:00,871
Well from there we went back into
San Francisco
471
00:44:00,871 --> 00:44:07,211
yeah San Francisco,
and we actually got the radar hoisted aboard.
472
00:44:07,211 --> 00:44:11,215
Well here’s the top of the mast,
it has to go up there,
473
00:44:11,215 --> 00:44:14,918
all these places to go up.
474
00:44:14,918 --> 00:44:19,657
So it got hoisted aboard.
Well we went to Pearl right quick,
475
00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:22,593
and from Pearl we went to Fijis
476
00:44:22,593 --> 00:44:34,738
And about, well at that time it was a couple
three months, after Midway.
477
00:44:34,738 --> 00:44:41,145
So, one of my classmates got the job of getting
that thing (radar) installed,
478
00:44:41,145 --> 00:44:44,882
and when it got it installed
that took my job.
479
00:44:44,882 --> 00:44:52,489
So I was given the job to become
the Division Officer of the Third Division,
480
00:44:52,489 --> 00:44:56,760
which manned turret three:
two sixteen-inch guns
481
00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:01,365
which fired,
each shell was 2,000 pounds,
482
00:45:01,365 --> 00:45:07,304
and you had five one-hundred pound bags
of powder to fire them.
483
00:45:07,304 --> 00:45:12,910
Well so that was my next job
for the second year essentially I was on the Maryland.
484
00:45:12,910 --> 00:45:19,717
And along with that, the four turret officers stood all of
the Officer of the Deck watches underway
485
00:45:19,717 --> 00:45:24,922
and so what the Officer of the Deck does
which you probably aren’t aware of,
486
00:45:24,922 --> 00:45:36,366
he runs the ship essentially for his tour;
moves all the actual operations of the ship, and so forth.
487
00:45:36,366 --> 00:45:41,972
So that was -
the four of us did that.
488
00:45:41,972 --> 00:45:45,576
And then there were four airplanes
on the ship,
489
00:45:45,576 --> 00:45:50,314
and the turret officer number four
and myself were
490
00:45:50,314 --> 00:45:55,119
the catapult officers
and recovery officers for those aircraft.
491
00:45:55,119 --> 00:45:58,856
and I was twenty-three years old.
492
00:46:03,193 --> 00:46:05,262
Well anyhow, that was a year.
493
00:46:05,262 --> 00:46:10,100
And at most we were operating with
about twenty-five ships,
494
00:46:10,100 --> 00:46:14,071
of which three of them were jeep carriers,
495
00:46:14,071 --> 00:46:18,408
and the rest were battleships
and cruisers and destroyers.
496
00:46:18,408 --> 00:46:25,182
And we operated primarily around,
as a backup for Guadalcanal.
497
00:46:25,182 --> 00:46:29,586
We operated from Efate in the
New Hebrides,
498
00:46:29,586 --> 00:46:36,960
which is not too far from Guadalcanal
and not too far from New Caledonia for example.
499
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:42,766
And that’s, when I got my orders to go to flight training,
500
00:46:42,766 --> 00:46:53,010
in spring of ’44, ’43 yeah.
501
00:46:53,010 --> 00:46:58,448
So I left the Maryland and got on the
USS Washington
502
00:46:58,448 --> 00:47:01,118
which was one of the new battleships.
503
00:47:01,118 --> 00:47:04,021
And they’d had a torpedo.
They’d been torpedoed,
504
00:47:04,021 --> 00:47:07,391
and so they were going back to Pearl
to get repairs.
505
00:47:07,391 --> 00:47:15,866
And so I rode the Washington
back to Pearl, and then I sat there for a few
506
00:47:15,866 --> 00:47:22,406
three or four days, maybe week, before I could get another ship
to go back to San Francisco.
507
00:47:22,406 --> 00:47:28,312
And then I went by train to my home in Norton for a short time,
508
00:47:28,312 --> 00:47:36,687
and from there then I went down to Dallas,
Texas to start my flight training in June of ’43.
509
00:47:44,428 --> 00:47:50,100
And on essentially July 10th,
I met my future wife,
510
00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:57,107
Well one of my classmates
There were several classmates in flight training at the same time
511
00:47:57,107 --> 00:48:09,853
and we all lived in a motel
which was on the Fort Worth cut off
512
00:48:09,853 --> 00:48:14,925
which was about fifteen miles
from where we were flying.
513
00:48:14,925 --> 00:48:21,899
And so one of them had a cousin
who lived in Dallas
514
00:48:21,899 --> 00:48:28,171
and she wanted my future wife to meet him,
515
00:48:28,171 --> 00:48:39,383
and so we met them in downtown Dallas,
and he wasn’t very impressed.
516
00:48:39,383 --> 00:48:50,494
And so several of us were going
to go to the Starlight Theater in Dallas.
517
00:48:50,494 --> 00:49:01,872
So some of them had dates
and I didn’t have one so, we decided to try Bobby.
518
00:49:01,872 --> 00:49:08,111
So she went with me.
That was our first datewas at the Starlight Theater,
519
00:49:08,111 --> 00:49:14,418
And I guess at that point
520
00:49:14,418 --> 00:49:21,792
you ever hear ‘Some Enchanted Evening’?
You ever hear of that music, that song?
521
00:49:21,792 --> 00:49:26,463
It’s from South Pacific (Rodgers & Hammerstein).
522
00:49:26,463 --> 00:49:32,102
Well anyhow, it ends up,
“once you have found her/ never let her go”.
523
00:49:32,102 --> 00:49:40,410
So we were engaged in August
before I left for Pensacola,
524
00:49:40,410 --> 00:49:46,083
and she came down to visit me in Pensacola
to see if we really wanted to get married,
525
00:49:46,083 --> 00:49:49,519
and we made arrangements
to be married in November.
526
00:49:49,519 --> 00:49:57,694
And so she and her mother and father
and her best girlfriend came down
527
00:49:57,694 --> 00:50:07,371
and we were married November 5th 1943.
528
00:50:10,374 --> 00:50:16,546
And so we had a long engagement.
And it lasted almost 70 years.
529
00:50:16,546 --> 00:50:21,885
We lacked 36 days of being
married 70 years.
530
00:50:27,024 --> 00:50:31,128
Well anyhow then I got through
flight training,
531
00:50:31,128 --> 00:50:37,200
in fact I was finished before
the end of the year, except I hadn’t passed Morse Code.
532
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:39,369
If you know what Morse Code is.
533
00:50:39,369 --> 00:50:47,344
I hadn’t passed my Morse code.
You had to take so many words a minute by ear, and so many words by blinker
534
00:50:47,344 --> 00:50:51,381
so I passed that then
right after the first of the year,
535
00:50:51,381 --> 00:50:53,350
and got my wings.
536
00:50:53,350 --> 00:50:59,589
And went from there to fighter training
at Vero Beach
537
00:50:59,589 --> 00:51:04,728
flying Hellcats,
Grumman F6Fs,
the one in the middle up there,
538
00:51:04,728 --> 00:51:11,001
and so I spent about two years
in a row then, flying Hellcats.
539
00:51:11,001 --> 00:51:14,905
I went through flight training there,
540
00:51:14,905 --> 00:51:30,320
then I went to Chicago and Gross Isle
and I landed on a carrier in the Great Lakes there,
541
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:34,424
and got my carrier qualification,
went back to Vero Beach.
542
00:51:34,424 --> 00:51:39,963
And they kept me around as an instructor
for another several months.
543
00:51:39,963 --> 00:51:48,939
Instrument instructing the students coming in,
and then later taking a fighter group through.
544
00:51:48,939 --> 00:51:56,680
So come summer then,
I was assigned to Air Group Sixteen.
545
00:51:56,680 --> 00:52:01,818
Started out as a fighter squadron,
which had 72 fighters,
546
00:52:01,818 --> 00:52:08,091
and they decided to split it into two squadrons,
36 each,
547
00:52:08,091 --> 00:52:13,597
one being a fighter squadron,
and the other being called a fighter bomber squadron.
548
00:52:13,597 --> 00:52:22,672
And so we had some extra training then,
in close air support of incoming troops,
549
00:52:22,672 --> 00:52:30,814
and so that’s what we were getting set
for, is to go out then for the invasion of Japan,
550
00:52:30,814 --> 00:52:40,957
And we went
Bobby met me every place she could during those years
551
00:52:40,957 --> 00:52:51,835
Couple weeks or less in Providence,
Rhode Island when we got off loaded,
552
00:52:51,835 --> 00:53:04,014
and less than about eight hours in
Los Angeles, when we came into San Diego for twenty-four hours.
553
00:53:04,014 --> 00:53:12,122
And we were on the Bonhomme Richard,
and we went through the canal,
554
00:53:12,122 --> 00:53:14,858
and were to go to San Francisco actually,
555
00:53:14,858 --> 00:53:20,630
to get the guns put on the side
that couldn’t get put on when we went through the canal.
556
00:53:20,630 --> 00:53:24,601
And so Bobby was going to meet me
in San Francisco.
557
00:53:24,601 --> 00:53:30,273
Well, we got a change of order
after we got through the canal to go to Hawaii
558
00:53:30,273 --> 00:53:37,347
post haste,
and stop in San Diego for one day and get fuel.
559
00:53:37,347 --> 00:53:41,985
And so we got into San Diego to get fuel.
560
00:53:41,985 --> 00:53:47,991
Well I called my mother in-law,
and she said Bobby was in L.A.
561
00:53:47,991 --> 00:53:52,128
she didn’t know where
562
00:53:52,128 --> 00:53:58,935
but she was with one of my roommates: Mac Nicholson
563
00:53:58,935 --> 00:54:02,539
the one that fell off the mast
and so forth.
564
00:54:02,539 --> 00:54:08,478
He and his mother
he had been stationed in Washington; he had been transferred,
565
00:54:08,478 --> 00:54:13,750
and so Bobby had driven with them into L.A.
566
00:54:13,750 --> 00:54:17,087
And I knew where they lived
in Pasadena,
567
00:54:17,087 --> 00:54:21,758
and he had a house that they rented,
but I knew where that was. And I went to that house
568
00:54:21,758 --> 00:54:26,563
and they said they,
They had been there just a few hours ago.
569
00:54:26,563 --> 00:54:33,303
And I didn’t have any idea
where they were going, except that at eight o’clock that night
570
00:54:33,303 --> 00:54:37,674
they were going meet his sister
coming in on a train at the Union Station.
571
00:54:37,674 --> 00:54:40,410
So I went to Union Station and found them,
572
00:54:40,410 --> 00:54:43,713
and so that was eight o’clock at night
573
00:54:43,713 --> 00:54:48,318
and I had to be on a ship to leave
eight o’clock the next morning
574
00:54:48,318 --> 00:54:52,622
so we didn’t see much of each other
you see.
575
00:54:52,622 --> 00:54:59,796
And she went on up to San Francisco with
a friend of hers up there, and then later went home.
576
00:54:59,796 --> 00:55:06,236
Anyhow, the Bonhomme Richard
went to Hawaii
577
00:55:06,236 --> 00:55:11,107
and took off our air group
and put a night fighter group on,
578
00:55:11,107 --> 00:55:16,313
and the reason was the Enterprise
had the night fighter outfit,
579
00:55:16,313 --> 00:55:21,985
and they got pretty well damaged,
so they wanted a night fighter group out real fast.
580
00:55:21,985 --> 00:55:27,524
And so, we (air group 16)
spent a few weeks on Maui,
581
00:55:27,524 --> 00:55:35,498
and then they sent us off to Saipan,
and we were there for a couple weeks,
582
00:55:35,498 --> 00:55:41,504
and then we went to Leyte Gulf
and got on the USS Randolph,
583
00:55:41,504 --> 00:55:47,577
and relieved the Air Group 12, actually.
584
00:55:47,577 --> 00:55:52,949
And so, after we got on the Randolph
we started for Japan.
585
00:55:52,949 --> 00:55:57,387
And, so the last months of the war,
586
00:55:57,387 --> 00:56:00,824
we were going up and down
the coast of Japan.
587
00:56:00,824 --> 00:56:07,630
And we would make three days of runs
into a particular target area,
588
00:56:07,630 --> 00:56:12,369
then we would back off and refuel,
and so forth.
589
00:56:12,369 --> 00:56:18,274
And then take another area someplace else
and bomb them.
590
00:56:18,274 --> 00:56:27,183
I think in the months there,
I made eight, I think about eight bombing trips into Japan itself.
591
00:56:27,183 --> 00:56:34,357
And the other flights
I flew were combat air-patrols over the ships;
592
00:56:34,357 --> 00:56:41,331
the Japanese kamikazes were coming in,
and I never was in the right place to meet with one.
593
00:56:41,331 --> 00:56:44,601
I was either at 20,000 feet and they’d come in at five,
594
00:56:44,601 --> 00:56:49,105
or I was at 10,000 and they’d come
in at twenty, or something, you know.
595
00:56:49,105 --> 00:56:52,976
I never got close to one.
596
00:56:52,976 --> 00:56:59,549
But, I did make about eight bombing runs
into Japan itself.
597
00:56:59,549 --> 00:57:10,994
We went into the Tokyo area,
the Sendai area, the Hokkaido area:
598
00:57:10,994 --> 00:57:14,197
the northern isle between the ferries.
599
00:57:14,197 --> 00:57:20,270
And then the Osaka-Kobe area.
600
00:57:20,270 --> 00:57:24,641
And that was the area we went into,
601
00:57:24,641 --> 00:57:29,245
and in fact,
we went into the Kobe-Osaka inland sea,
602
00:57:29,245 --> 00:57:34,484
and that was the only time I had ever had
a plane with me that was damaged.
603
00:57:34,484 --> 00:57:41,724
My number four team man
got a shrapnel into his engine,
604
00:57:41,724 --> 00:57:45,662
and knocked out one of the two
magnetos actually,
605
00:57:45,662 --> 00:57:53,336
and we of course turned right out and went home,
and he made it home fine.
606
00:57:53,336 --> 00:58:03,780
And then, on the fifteenth,
the first flight off of the carrier that day was the dawn patrol.
607
00:58:03,780 --> 00:58:09,752
It was fighters summoned to the area
608
00:58:09,752 --> 00:58:14,724
as the first clearing of the area
609
00:58:14,724 --> 00:58:18,027
before the bomber squadrons would come in.
610
00:58:18,027 --> 00:58:31,241
And so on the fifteenth, I took sixteen planes to,
I can’t remember the exact area,
611
00:58:31,241 --> 00:58:39,315
near just on the side of Tokyo,
and we were over Tokyo Bay, and so forth,
612
00:58:39,315 --> 00:58:48,358
and we dropped our bombs and what not,
and we were just starting to come back to the ship.
613
00:58:48,358 --> 00:58:54,564
And they started calling the
bomber squadron with the fighter escort,
614
00:58:54,564 --> 00:58:59,335
told them to drop their bombs
into the water, and to return to the ship,
615
00:58:59,335 --> 00:59:06,209
so we were the last combat group
in other words from the Randolph.
616
00:59:06,209 --> 00:59:14,584
Why I am here actually is because
they dropped an atomic bomb.
617
00:59:14,584 --> 00:59:23,560
To start with, we had been asked to plan a flight from
our ship to Pusan Harbor
618
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:29,299
Well there was a Hurricane, what do you call them over there?
A typhoon.
619
00:59:29,299 --> 00:59:34,270
And a lot of (Japanese) shipping
was going into Pusan Harbor
620
00:59:34,270 --> 00:59:41,878
and so our fighters, fighter bombers,
were the only ones who could possibly make it back, (from Pusan)
621
00:59:41,878 --> 00:59:44,280
and we couldn’t really do it either
(not enough fuel to return).
622
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:51,421
And we were planning a flight to Pusan Harbor,
and fortunately it went over Hiroshima.
623
00:59:51,421 --> 00:59:55,758
And so the Army came out.
624
00:59:55,758 --> 01:00:00,296
They didn’t want anybody over Hiroshima.
So it was cancelled.
625
01:00:00,296 --> 01:00:10,940
And actually, what it amounted to was the flight went across Japan,
into Pusan (to bomb), made it back,
626
01:00:10,940 --> 01:00:15,511
Our best chance was we would
have had to land in the water,
627
01:00:15,511 --> 01:00:19,015
after we made it over Japan again.
628
01:00:19,015 --> 01:00:27,991
Hopefully get picked up by a destroyer,
submarine or PBY.
629
01:00:27,991 --> 01:00:36,232
If we had any extra use of gas,
we would have never made it home.
630
01:00:36,232 --> 01:00:41,938
So that’s the number one reason I am here.
The number two reason is that,
631
01:00:41,938 --> 01:00:44,407
if we had actually landed troops,
(in occupation of Japan)
632
01:00:44,407 --> 01:00:50,013
we would have been pretty dangerously
operating in support of the troops,
633
01:00:50,013 --> 01:01:01,457
as being the planes that supported
right down, close by the action against the Japanese, you see.
634
01:01:01,457 --> 01:01:08,731
So that’s the number one reason of my being here.
635
01:01:10,733 --> 01:01:23,813
The Lord has taken care of me.
Which is all I can really say.
636
01:01:28,451 --> 01:01:38,094
Well, after the war was over,
my air group was disbanded in November,
637
01:01:38,094 --> 01:01:41,531
and my next job was being the
navigator of a carrier.
638
01:01:41,531 --> 01:01:52,809
And so I went to the USS White Plains
in Seattle and started navigating out of the fog out of Seattle,
639
01:01:52,809 --> 01:02:00,249
and turned out we were going out to
Boston through the canal
640
01:02:00,249 --> 01:02:07,223
and were being put out of commission
in Seattle, I mean Boston.
641
01:02:07,223 --> 01:02:14,997
And incidentally,
I couldn’t get a place to live, anywhere near.
642
01:02:14,997 --> 01:02:22,505
We lived in Foxborough,
Massachusetts, in a motel.
643
01:02:22,505 --> 01:02:31,881
And Bobby and my oldest daughter,
I met them with her father in Detroit,
644
01:02:31,881 --> 01:02:40,690
and then I took over, and we drove to Boston,
and this is about April of ’46.
645
01:02:40,690 --> 01:02:47,096
And so we had a few months in Boston,
in this motel,
646
01:02:47,096 --> 01:02:53,369
and then I got orders
to three years of postgraduate school
647
01:02:53,369 --> 01:03:00,543
first two years in Annapolis,
and the third year at the California Institute of Technology.
648
01:03:00,543 --> 01:03:15,391
so we lived for two years in Annapolis
and our second child, Sherrie,
649
01:03:15,391 --> 01:03:22,231
was born that summer in Dallas,
and I was in Alameda.
650
01:03:22,231 --> 01:03:33,309
The summers of post graduate school,
I spent the first summer at the Patuxent River Naval Air test section,
651
01:03:33,309 --> 01:03:36,546
and flying test aircraft there.
652
01:03:36,546 --> 01:03:41,350
And the second summer I spent at the
Alameda Naval Air station
653
01:03:41,350 --> 01:03:45,955
the overhaul and repair station.
654
01:03:45,955 --> 01:03:54,764
They would take airplanes like that,
and tear them down and repair them and put them back together.
655
01:03:54,764 --> 01:04:02,738
So I was learning that trade, so to speak, and test flying the
airplanes that would come out.
656
01:04:02,738 --> 01:04:07,944
And Sherrie was born in August
before I was through.
657
01:04:07,944 --> 01:04:18,254
So anyhow, I got on an airplane,
and I wasn’t too late, like 24 hours after her birth.
658
01:04:18,254 --> 01:04:24,060
And from there then,
I went to Cal Tech and spent a year there,
659
01:04:24,060 --> 01:04:29,298
and I have an Engineers degree
from Cal Tech,
660
01:04:29,298 --> 01:04:32,034
Now, It’s what they call a junior PHD
661
01:04:32,034 --> 01:04:40,409
it has the same course work as a PHD,
but you don’t do a dissertation, instead of that you do a project.
662
01:04:40,409 --> 01:04:49,518
It’s almost similar to KU’s doctorate of engineering degree.
Not too much different.
663
01:04:49,518 --> 01:04:55,091
So anyway, that was my education.
I went from there to Corpus Christi,
664
01:04:55,091 --> 01:04:59,896
and I was a Maintenance Officer
for forty some airplanes,
665
01:04:59,896 --> 01:05:03,299
and I had about five-hundred
men working for me.
666
01:05:03,299 --> 01:05:09,505
And then I went to Jacksonville, Florida,
667
01:05:09,505 --> 01:05:15,311
and was a gunnery officer for COM FAIR JAX
(Commander Fleet Air Jacksonville)
668
01:05:15,311 --> 01:05:17,980
and that’s where I made Commander.
669
01:05:17,980 --> 01:05:23,219
Oh, by the way, I made Lieutenant Commander
just before the war was over.
670
01:05:23,219 --> 01:05:27,657
I was Executive Officer of Fighter-
Bomber Sixteen, by the way.
671
01:05:27,657 --> 01:05:32,995
That was because the previous Executive Officer
had been shot down.
672
01:05:32,995 --> 01:05:39,568
And I lost my roommate when we were
over Japan too.
673
01:05:39,568 --> 01:05:48,244
And anyhow, when I made my
Lieutenant Commander with flight pay,
674
01:05:48,244 --> 01:05:51,881
I finally exceeded four-hundred dollars
a month for salary,
675
01:05:51,881 --> 01:06:01,624
which is what Dusty Rhodes got
when he quit the navy in 1942 and went to work for DuPont.
676
01:06:01,624 --> 01:06:07,063
But so, that was always a milestone.
677
01:06:07,063 --> 01:06:11,867
Here Dusty had worked all through the war,
and here I was getting shot at;
678
01:06:11,867 --> 01:06:16,839
I finally made more money than hed made,
when he started.
679
01:06:16,839 --> 01:06:20,743
I don’t know how much he was
making by this time.
680
01:06:20,743 --> 01:06:26,916
Well let’s see,
that was a quickie on some of that.
681
01:06:26,916 --> 01:06:30,753
Let’s see, after I made Commander,
682
01:06:30,753 --> 01:06:37,159
they gave me orders to be Commanding Officer
of an anti-submarine squadron on a carrier.
683
01:06:37,159 --> 01:06:39,662
I didn’t want it.
684
01:06:39,662 --> 01:06:44,700
Well anyhow,
they sent me to Corpus Christi.
685
01:06:44,700 --> 01:06:49,672
Went through a real nice
instrument training school,
686
01:06:49,672 --> 01:06:54,710
and got a green card,
which means you can fly anytime you wanted to
687
01:06:54,710 --> 01:06:56,746
didn’t make any difference
what the weather was.
688
01:06:56,746 --> 01:07:07,723
While I was there,
I really injured my back flying, just tore it up.
689
01:07:07,723 --> 01:07:10,126
Couldn’t even sleep.
690
01:07:10,126 --> 01:07:17,900
So anyhow, I went from there to
Norfolk, Virginia,
691
01:07:17,900 --> 01:07:26,509
to go to an anti-submarine school,
and anti-submarine tactics and so forth,
692
01:07:26,509 --> 01:07:31,480
I was resting the whole time I could
for my back.
693
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:37,920
And I went back to the Com Air Atlantic office
and told them I didn’t want that,
694
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:40,589
I wanted a fighter squadron.
695
01:07:40,589 --> 01:07:44,560
Well, they said, just keep going,
we have something coming up.
696
01:07:44,560 --> 01:07:52,902
So fine, and they were jet fighters
Grumman F9Fs, actually is what they were.
697
01:07:52,902 --> 01:07:57,440
And unfortunately, or fortunately, really, for me,
698
01:07:57,440 --> 01:08:05,681
the Commanding Officer
of Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 795 was killed.
699
01:08:05,681 --> 01:08:15,324
And it was a squadron in Bermuda
which serviced Sea Planes.
700
01:08:15,324 --> 01:08:22,631
If you look back up here there’s a picture of one of them
those are Sea Planes, PBM.
701
01:08:22,631 --> 01:08:27,870
Well there I was and there I went.
I went to Bermuda
702
01:08:27,870 --> 01:08:33,109
If I had got that fighter squadron,
I was going to Korea.
703
01:08:33,109 --> 01:08:41,817
So that was a real good deal, probably not in the long-run,
but personally it was a good deal,
704
01:08:41,817 --> 01:08:49,758
and we enjoyed our year in Bermuda
just greatly; and that’s what it amounted to was a year.
705
01:08:49,758 --> 01:08:56,198
And so from there we went to Dallas Texas,
706
01:08:56,198 --> 01:08:59,969
and I was what’s called an Assistant
Bureau of Aeronautics Representative
707
01:08:59,969 --> 01:09:08,544
and this is the group of people that inspect and buy new airplanes,
like from Chance Vought.
708
01:09:08,544 --> 01:09:13,349
They were still making those,
but of course they were making jets too.
709
01:09:13,349 --> 01:09:17,153
And I was there for a year.
710
01:09:17,153 --> 01:09:25,995
Then they decided to make a new
Bureau of Aeronautics Representative at Fort Worth,
711
01:09:25,995 --> 01:09:30,733
which had Bell Helicopters primarily.
712
01:09:30,733 --> 01:09:37,740
And so I got moved from Assistant BAR
of Dallas to BAR of Fort Worth,
713
01:09:37,740 --> 01:09:40,142
and so I got into Helicopters.
714
01:09:40,142 --> 01:09:49,752
I had never got into them before
well I had flown one too but that wasn’t my cup of tea.
715
01:09:49,752 --> 01:09:52,621
Well anyway I was there for a year.
716
01:09:52,621 --> 01:09:57,893
And after I got through with the year
they sent me to Helicopter school.
717
01:09:57,893 --> 01:10:04,700
And so the next job was
Commanding Officer of Helicopter Utility Squadron One,
718
01:10:04,700 --> 01:10:10,539
which is the Pacific fleet
rescue squadron.
719
01:10:10,539 --> 01:10:17,346
If you look back at the Korean War,
you’ll find there’s a movie even, made of them:
720
01:10:17,346 --> 01:10:19,915
‘The Bridges of Toko-Ri’
721
01:10:19,915 --> 01:10:30,059
it’s a movie of the rescues that
Helicopter Utility Squadron One was doing in Korea.
722
01:10:30,059 --> 01:10:40,569
And actually, they were given
the Presidential Unit Citation, actually
723
01:10:40,569 --> 01:10:46,909
which is unusual for a non-combat outfit.
724
01:10:46,909 --> 01:10:50,012
So anyhow, that was my next duty.
725
01:10:50,012 --> 01:10:57,519
Well the next duty was
Chief Staff Officer for Commander Fleet Air Philippines in Manila.
726
01:10:57,519 --> 01:11:01,590
Actually Sangley Point (Naval Air Station)
That was the first year.
727
01:11:01,590 --> 01:11:08,564
Then he (the Captain) left,
he was also the Commanding officer of Sangley Point.
728
01:11:08,564 --> 01:11:16,005
He left and went to,he made Admiral actually, and left.
729
01:11:16,005 --> 01:11:21,877
Then the staff was moved over
to a new base at Cubi Point in Subic Bay,
730
01:11:21,877 --> 01:11:26,649
which was a nice airfield
for carrier aircraft.
731
01:11:26,649 --> 01:11:31,620
So that was my next assignment.
Two years in the Philippines,
732
01:11:31,620 --> 01:11:36,392
and quite a few things took place
during those two.
733
01:11:36,392 --> 01:11:48,070
On occasion I had to fly to Singapore,
Ceylon to check the bases.
734
01:11:48,070 --> 01:11:56,745
We were about to send some planes
from Japan around to the Suez Canal.
735
01:11:56,745 --> 01:12:03,385
That was when there was a fuss between
France, England, the United States, and Nassar (President of Egypt)
736
01:12:03,385 --> 01:12:06,622
on who owns the Suez Canal.
737
01:12:06,622 --> 01:12:10,726
And another time, for instance,
we had got
738
01:12:10,726 --> 01:12:14,496
the planes coming in from Japan
picking up mines,
739
01:12:14,496 --> 01:12:21,937
We were about to mine China,
and it turned out we didn’t.
740
01:12:21,937 --> 01:12:28,110
But several things took place in those
two years that were interesting.
741
01:12:28,110 --> 01:12:36,552
I used to read the messages from the
State Department, for example,
742
01:12:36,552 --> 01:12:40,823
classified messages on what’s going on,
you know.
743
01:12:40,823 --> 01:12:48,597
I didn’t have the clearance Hillary had,
744
01:12:48,597 --> 01:12:56,405
I would have been strung up if I had
mishandled any of that.
745
01:12:56,405 --> 01:13:10,552
At any rate, from there I went to the Memphis Naval Air Technical
Training Center as the Executive Officer.
746
01:13:10,552 --> 01:13:17,326
I was there for three years.
It’s a school of about 12,000 students.
747
01:13:17,326 --> 01:13:28,504
Primarily, the biggest bunch of them are
electronic people who qualified out of boot camp.
748
01:13:28,504 --> 01:13:32,841
And there were three levels actually;
the boot camp level,
749
01:13:32,841 --> 01:13:42,885
and then there was a level for sailors
who had about six - seven years first class,
750
01:13:42,885 --> 01:13:52,094
and then the high level was for maintenance officers.
It was sort of a Junior College level.
751
01:13:52,094 --> 01:14:04,373
And so, I retired 24 years to the day
from when I got in the Naval Academy.
752
01:14:04,373 --> 01:14:09,311
And we had bought a house in Dallas
when we lived there,
753
01:14:09,311 --> 01:14:13,615
and were planning on trying to go back
there; hopefully work for Chance Vought.
754
01:14:13,615 --> 01:14:18,720
Well I went over to Chance Vought.
I knew the President,
755
01:14:18,720 --> 01:14:24,693
and he said we just can’t help you,
and he suggested I go to a different company
756
01:14:24,693 --> 01:14:28,831
which I didn’t want to go, so I didn’t.
757
01:14:28,831 --> 01:14:39,708
So I sent in letters to a number of schools, in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma,
and Arizona actually relative to teaching.
758
01:14:39,708 --> 01:14:45,514
And I got three offers actually,
and I thought KU was the best.
759
01:14:48,984 --> 01:14:58,927
So it wasn’t necessarily the best program, but it was a good one,
760
01:14:58,927 --> 01:15:15,477
and Arizona was probably a bit better,
but not so handy: my folks here in this state, and Bobby’s in Texas, you know.
761
01:15:15,477 --> 01:15:19,648
So anyway, that’s why we came here.
762
01:15:19,648 --> 01:15:28,624
So I put in twenty-eight years at KU,
chairman of the department for twelve,
763
01:15:28,624 --> 01:15:40,302
and I did about a bit over a half-million
dollars of research at that time.
764
01:15:40,302 --> 01:15:56,285
One was on tornados with Dr. Eagleman,
and one was on Venus Probes about ’76 or so. I forget exactly when
765
01:15:56,285 --> 01:16:02,724
the main probe and three little ones.
766
01:16:02,724 --> 01:16:10,098
And the other major one was
the streamlining of eighteen-wheeler tractor trailers.
767
01:16:10,098 --> 01:16:16,138
So a lot of what you see that way are
things that I have actually worked on,
768
01:16:16,138 --> 01:16:27,849
some of them were my own ideas,
and others were taking NASA’s ideas and checking them out.
769
01:16:27,849 --> 01:16:32,721
And then I had a real good,
interesting program,
770
01:16:32,721 --> 01:16:38,226
KU, in those days wouldn’t think to
having a security clearance,
771
01:16:38,226 --> 01:16:49,471
and in my area you needed it;
aerodynamics, supersonic flight, things like that.
772
01:16:49,471 --> 01:16:57,713
Well anyway, Black and Veatch
contacted me, and I got a secret clearance through them,
773
01:16:57,713 --> 01:17:07,723
through the army, actually.
And I worked for them for twenty years on the side.
774
01:17:07,723 --> 01:17:12,494
The key element of all of it,
you can see back here on the wall,
775
01:17:12,494 --> 01:17:19,935
the picture that shows two shock tubes.
776
01:17:19,935 --> 01:17:31,413
It was put in operation in 1968,
and it was the largest facility of its type in the world, in Aberdeen Proving Ground.
777
01:17:31,413 --> 01:17:42,491
It was to test the effect of atomic blast
on gas turbine engines, and diesel engines.
778
01:17:42,491 --> 01:17:55,237
The Antiballistic Missile program needed
a steady source of electrical power,
779
01:17:55,237 --> 01:17:59,608
and so each unit, which they ended up
only ever building one.
780
01:17:59,608 --> 01:18:07,683
I don’t know if they ever completed
that because politics tore it out.
781
01:18:07,683 --> 01:18:15,490
But anyhow, that was a nice
accomplishment on my part,
782
01:18:15,490 --> 01:18:29,738
because I had to present it to
Washington DC at the Army,
783
01:18:29,738 --> 01:18:38,680
what’s the engineers’ Army Engineers (Core of Engineers),
I can’t think of the name of that.
784
01:18:38,680 --> 01:18:51,193
Anyhow they sent me up to Cambridge,
Massachusetts to the Bechtel Company to present to the
785
01:18:51,193 --> 01:18:57,299
power committee of the
National Academy of Sciences.
786
01:18:57,299 --> 01:19:08,110
And so they bought it and after that,
they started designing it and constructing it.
787
01:19:08,110 --> 01:19:22,357
Well that’s one of my sort of good accomplishments,
there’s been probably a lot of bad ones too.
788
01:19:22,357 --> 01:19:30,665
And then I retired, after 28 years,
and that’s been 28 years now.
789
01:19:34,069 --> 01:19:44,146
So then I had to work for my boss for most of these years,
you can see, she was pretty hard on me.