WW II

I was 9 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I remember everything for the next 4 or 5 years, the gas rationing, and all the things that took place during the War.   We could identify every airplane the United States Air Force had. We knew everything.  I can still remember the exact configuration of each and every automobile that was available at that time. Those memories of the second world war are vivid to me. I remember all of the ration stickers, the red tokens and the green tokens, and the stickers on every windshield of the automobiles which identified that gas ration you were entitled to.

I took all the aptitude tests for the Navy and I scored very well on that, and I decided to go to Pensacola to go to flight training.  They said I could have my choice, so I said I’d like to go into aviation.  I finished boot camp and then I had my choice of 8 aviation schools with all of the navy flier disciplines.  There was one in which you could fly during the last two weeks of  the 8 weeks of school.  That was aviation electronics and I said I want to fly!  I picked that and that’s how I ended up in electronics.  Right out of boot camp, I went to 28 weeks of electronics training in Memphis and that’s how I ended up in my career.

It was exciting.  I was able to choose the path I wanted to go.  I was able to choose electronics school and I wanted to fly, and after electronics school I went to Patuxent River, Maryland, and started flying there.  I transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, and was assigned to an anti-submarine squadron.  I was assigned to a single-engine anti-submarine plane for about one year, and that was very exciting.  We operated from an aircraft carrier.  The Navy satisfied all of my excitement goals. I was in the 6th Fleet in the Atlantic, primarily in the Mediteranean.  We traveled throughout the North Atlantic and the Atlantic.

Each of our cruises would last about 16 weeks, and we would put in at perhaps 5 or 6 ports.  In each port we could stay 3 or 4 days, and we could go ashore.  My problem was that I didn’t have any money and  I could afford to go ashore maybe once at each port.  The only other way I could go ashore was when I was serving as shore patrol.  For that reason, I signed up for shore patrol in most of the places we visited so I could see the sights.

I had a good time in most of the ports.  We went through the Straits of Gibraltar and pulled into the port in Gibraltar where you can walk over to Spain.  The first town , at the border, was called La Linea, “The Line”.  We walked down the main street and I can still remember the Spanish music and the sound of the  castanets. It was just unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life.