TRANSCRIPTION
What are your earliest childhood memories?
Setting a house on fire and 204 East Drexel Avenue at the age of 2-2 1/2. His father was working as an electrician and he dropped a lit match in a hole in a wall his father was working on.
How was your childhood?
Pleasant. It was the depression and my father had lost his regular job but I didn’t know that until a little later.
Your father was an electrician before the depression but lost his job. What did he do for work after losing his job?
He worked pick and shovel on the River Walk Project for about 2 years and then he got his job back as an electrician.
When did you first enter Elementary School and did you enjoy your time in elementary? Anything interesting happen during your time in elementary?
Yes. The women who was the principal of the school, Mrs. Lacey was also the first grade English teacher and was also my mothers first grade English teacher. I found an Indian fire ring and spear shards, arrow heads, ax heads, skinning tools, and I donated them to the school.
What were things going on around you that you were aware of in the world?
The war in Europe, relatives in Germany, mail back and forth. My dads younger brother. He enlisted in the Air Force the day after Pearl harbor.
When did you first hear of the war? Did you understand what was going on?
December 7, 1941. In the morning we where out collecting fall foliage for decorating the house for Christmas. We heard it on the car radio.
What was the publics view of Nazi Germany and Japan in San Antonio? How old were you when the war ended?
Some absolutely despised Japan; but mainly due to government propaganda. And hated Nazi Germany, not the German people but Nazi Germany. It was 1945 so I was…almost 15 years old at the time.
What was your reason for enlisting?
My betrothed broke up with me.*laughs*
So how was boot? And when did you graduate boot camp?
I gained weight. Boot camp was a piece of cake except for lack of sleep. It was 16 weeks so November 1947. I don’t remember the exact date.
What was your first duty station?
Ah. Ok. Coast Guard moorings pier nine, New York city, CG64306. Harbor Patrols in New York harbor.
How was your first time seeing a city that big?
Your not even seventeen and your seeing a city this big it was WOW. And the girls were friendly too *laughs*. And later that same year I was transferred to the Coast guard cutter CGC Hawthorne. Home port New London, Connecticut.
How was the Cold War for you? How did most average Americans take it?
Tension all the time, not knowing when of if their was going to be a nuclear attack on the United States. Especially with the military all the time. Encounters with USSR “fishing trawlers”. Encounters with unidentified submarines all the time, sometimes on SONAR sometimes on RADAR. Average Americans didn’t really understand it. Military people did. I was a military person, I understood it.
What did you do during the Cold War?
Well I was returned to active duty in the coast guard. Was assigned to CGC Chatauqua, search and rescue, weather, station, aerial beacon for commercial and military aircraft, plus weather reporting. We didn’t have satellites then. And medical evacuation flights coming out of Japan and Korea, during the Korean war. Along with surveying 10,000ft long airstrips in every country in Central America for “Coast Guard LORAN Stations.” Funded by the DOD. The Coast Guard only flew C130’s that could takeoff and land in 1000ft.
Did you ever see combat?
Not in Korea. Not in the aspect of land combat but we had shore batteries fire at us.
What was your experience in Vietnam and the 1960’s and ‘70s in general?
My primary assignment was engine officer of Coast guard squadron 3. Which supported Operation Market Time. My in country experience were with various units of CTF 115, CTF 117, and two occasions of USMC 3 MAF (Marine amphibious force). When I went back to America was called a baby killer, had a used pad thrown at me by a women in San Francisco in 1969. Ah. In my opinion the United States went to shit in the 1960’s and ‘70s and were still paying for it.
This was all taking place during the civil rights movement? You grew up in the segregated south so how did you see the movement and what did it all men to you at the time?
To me the civil rights movement was, as advocated by Martin Luther king was a great thing. The Civil rights movement as espoused by Hewey Newton, Black Panthers, etc. was a perversion of the civil rights movement. I was ambivalent of it at first but then I came to see it as a just movement as espoused by Martin Luther King.
What else did you do during the Cold War? Anything memorable or an event that sticks out.
Ah. I was Engineer Officer of the CGC Willow and we were detailed on a special mission where three guys in dark suits and dark sunglass; accompanying a crate that was to be ferried off shore and sunk just off of the Farallon Islands. The three men in dark suits turned out to be Secret Service agents. During discussion with the agents I identified that the crate held a counterfeit plates which surprised them. The crates had some old machinery for weight so the plates would sink. But when dumped over board it wouldn’t. I eventually sunk the plates in about 600ft of water with an M1.
Looking back. How would you summarize your life, experiences, etc?
Adventurous. Challenging. Heartbreak. Sometimes terrifying. But all in all interesting.
Is their anything else that you would like to tack on here?
I am basically happy with my life. I have a great wife, two fine sons, *pause* and I hope they have as good a life as I had.
