I went into the service when I was about halfway through the eleventh grade. I hadn’t even finished high school. I took the GED test while I was in the service and passed it. I took my basic training at San Diego, California. That was my first time out of the state of Ohio. I was in the navy.

I had my choice of going either to the Great Lakes or to San Diego. This was in the wintertime and around here it gets bitter cold. So I chose San Diego.

While I was in the service I was also stationed at Fallon, Nevada for one year. That’s where all the planes used to practice bombing and strafing.

While I was there I had a bit of an experience. I was supposed to remain in the tower, but one day I called the main tower and asked if I could go up there. They were doing strafing runs, and I’m thankful that I left.

While I was gone a bullet ricocheted through the window of the tower right where I would have been sitting. They could see where the bullet went through the window right behind the binoculars. I would have been sitting behind those binoculars. The bullet ricocheted around inside that metal building. I’m just glad, and I have the lord to thank for that!

After I got done there I was stationed in Guam. I was in Guam for a year and a half. While I was in Guam we would go to Chi-chi Jima.

One time we were hauling supplies to that island a Japanese guy came out of the cave. He was shooting at everything that moved because he thought that the war was still on. I began to freak out. I mean, here he was almost 40 years later still thinking that the war was going on.

It’s marvelous thinking of someone being there that long in such isolation. They were living off the rations that were left in the caves.

At that time they also found 52 skeletons of Japanese soldiers that had been killed there. They were in a cave. I was on the ship that took the remains back to Japan.

While I was on this same issue, we came from Japan to Washington State. They put the ship and dried up for six months and converted it into a spy ship. Then we took the ship back to Yukuska, Japan, which was our home port. From there we headed out toward Siberia where we would patrol for 28 days. At the end of those 28 days we would go back to Yukuska.

One time we had a Soviet cruiser come bearing down on us and they asked to board us. I freaked out because at the time I was standing lookout. My look at post was right here with the barrels of those 6in. guns. I could look right down the barrel and see the shell in there. I knew it was loaded.

When they asked to come aboard my captain said: “sink us first!”

Well, I really didn’t know what to think! (Laughter)

Four or five days after that episode we lost our steering, and we had to steer from the back fantail of the ship. I was manning the phones. The third class boson’s mate was there, and we had three guys manually working the rudder. The ship was 150ft. long and 50ft. wide.

Meanwhile, the weather had turned a kind of rough. We had 10ft. waves hitting us broadside. One wave hit us and the three guys working the rudder grabbed the pole. The boson’s mate almost got swept overboard. He got washed down the side railing for about half the length of the ship. By the time I caught up with him he was just barely hanging on. I pulled him back aboard; we went back to our posts and continued until we got the steering fixed.

About two hours later they gave us a small shot of brandy to warm-ups up. That was one experience I’ll never forget.

Then I was stationed aboard a guided-missile cruiser. I was on board there for one year. I think I was in the service for a total of just shy of four years. I think it was about 47 months.