Southwest Branches

Harvey Baker’s Memoirs, Updated

November 22, 2008 – 3:13 pm

Begun September 12, 2001, update published November 22,
2008

Harvey Baker’s Memoirs
Chapter 1

I was born in a small mining town of Hurley, New Mexico, January 22, 1930.
There was four of us children in the family, starting with my older brother
David Edward, my sister, Mary Helen, my brother, Harry Stephen Baker Jr. (Buss)
and myself, Harvey Linn. I was named after two of Dads’ friends, Harvey Forsyth
and Linn Stutler. My mothers’ name was Ida Inez Kimmick Baker. My Father’s
name Harry Stephen Baker, I found out later he was named after his Grandfather,
Stephen Harry Baker.

When I was born it was at the start of the great depression in our Country.
Jobs were very hard to come by because very few businesses were operating.
Kennecott Copper Corporation owned this small town we lived in. They were not
mining Copper at the time but they were keeping all the mining and milling
equipment in good operational condition so it would be ready to go when we
came out of the depression. The few people that were on the payroll in Hurley
were there to maintain the equipment and the town. My Dad was an electrician.
He and his Partner Hank Early, worked on everything electrical from street
lights, town telephones, and power lines that ran from Hurley to Santa Rita
where the mine was located- 15 miles away. Hurley had a power generating plant
that generated all the power for both Hurley and Santa Rita. The power plant
burned coal to generate power. It had a loud steam whistle that blew three
times a day. First at seven thirty in the morning, then at twelve o’clock noon, 
and at four thirty. When the noon whistle blew all of us in the family came
home to have lunch together. It made us into a close knit family.

Due to the fact that only the families of the Care takers lived in Hurley,
a lot of the houses in town were vacant. The vacant houses had boards over
the windows to protect them and weeds were taking over the yards, even growing
up in some of the streets.

We had a company store like most mining towns and a meat market. You could
buy about everything you needed at the store, including coal for our stoves.
But we had to go up to the mountains and cut wood and haul it home for fuel.
When I was a boy it was my assigned job to cut wood and bring in coal every
evening to last the night. My brother Buss-who was eight years older than me-
was exempt from house jobs because he had a job as a janitor at the school
and worked every day after school. In this way he brought home a little extra
money. My brother Dave worked with my Dad repairing electric motors for farmers
in the area, this too brought home extra money. My sister was good at working
with ladies hair, so she gave permanents to ladies in the area for her extra
money. My Mothers’ job was to take care of all of us, and she did a wonderful
job of it. Our meals were always ready at the exact time. She washed our cloths
and mended them. The house was always clean and in good order. All the quilts
on our beds were made by her. One of her favorite sayings was, “Idle hands
work for the devil.”

We had a lot of transients coming through Hurley at this time, people looking
for work or food. A person would come to our door and ask, ”to do work for
food.”  We didn’t have any work for them but we would give them something to
eat, if we had something to spare. It wasn’t too wise to have them around your
house very long, they were down on life and you didn’t know what they might
do. I think half of our nation was starving at that point in time. The Republicans
had really put our country in a deep hole.

Our refrigerator consisted of a wooden box built into a kitchen window. It
was covered with burlap bags. These bags were wetted down several times a day
with the garden hose. It did preserve our food pretty well. One morning my
mother opened the box to get food out for breakfast and nothing was in there.
A board had been removed and all the food was taken out. My Dad was the type
of person that had a hot fast temper. I expected him to be really mad, but
all he said was, “someone must have been really hungry.”

In 1937 my Grandmother , Julia Ann Kimmick passed away. It was determined
by her children to sell the Kimmick homestead. They accomplished this and each
took their share of the money from the sale. My Mother and Father bought a
section of ranch land, 16 miles southwest of Hurley. A section of land is 640
acres. We had 40 acres of rich bottom land and the rest was grazing pasture
land. This gave me a lot of extra jobs in the family but I didn’t mind at all
because I loved the ranch. I could do all the evening chores my elf but my
Mom and Dad worked with me on it. This helped out because I liked to go out
and hunt rabbits after the work was done in the evening. The chores consisted
of feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, feeding the Hogs, and getting
the three milk cows in and milk them. My Mom and Dad had a big garden they
worked on. The ranch gave us most of the food we needed. Mom made buttermilk,
butter, Jack cheese, and cottage cheese. We fed the leftover milk to the hogs.
They loved it and it sure made them have good tasting pork.

On the bottom land we raised mostly corn and feed for the live stock. We had
a team of big farm horses and I was taught how to use them with the farm equipment.
Later on my Dad bought a farm tractor and I was taught how to use it. I really
enjoyed driving that thing. My Dad gave me two acres of the bottom land to
do whatever I wanted to do with it. I found out that you could get a good price
for beans so I put the two acres into beans. They were really growing good
and it looked like I was going to make some good money off my beans. In two
days time a flock of grasshoppers came in and striped every plant on my two
acre. I was only about 10 years old at the time and learned how hard it could
be being a farmer.

It wasn’t all work and no play in the family, we played a lot. The only trouble
was I was the baby of the family and everyone in the family picked on me. But
most of the time I did get back at them. My brother Dave had a model ‘T’ Ford.
I liked to go for rides in it. One day he told me he would give me a ride in
it after he got it fixed. He worked on it then took it out for a test drive.
He met up with his girl friend while he was out and made a date to take her
for a ride that after noon. When he told me I couldn’t come along I got mad.
After he went into the house I got up on the front bumper of the Model ‘T’
and peed in the radiator. When Dave came out and started his car, he told a
friend, “it smells like someone peed in my radiator.” On occasion a joke got
out of hand. They had a local rodeo going on in the area and I got a job of
being a prodder. I was given a rod with a metal end on it. When I put it against
something and pushed a button it applied an electric shock. It was used to
make cattle leave the shoot faster for roping. My brother Buss was going to
ride a bucking bronco in the rodeo. Just before he was ready to come out of
the shoot I gave the horse a jolt of electricity. That horse went totally crazy,
he jumped and knocked the big heavy chute gate all the way down. In the process
the saddle got turned sideways and Buss got his foot hung up in the stirrup.
The horse went running out dragging Buss and the saddle with him and kicking
the hell out of both of them. With luck the stirrup came loose and Buss was
freed. He was out cold and I thought I had killed him. In a few minutes he
came out of it OK. I never, ever, told Buss about that prank. 

 

We had a Mexican family living on the ranch and we remained living in town
because my Dad could be called out to work at any time of night. The Mexican
family consisted of Grandfather and Grandmother along with son and daughter
in law. Also, there was many children and some grandchildren. They were a nice
family.

It was their duty to take care of the morning chores such as milking the cows.
They got to keep all the milk in the morning for themselves. Other work chores
was done by them too. Both men worked for the mill in Hurley, therefore this
was a good deal for them. They got free rent and a lot of produce from the
ranch. At the same time they were a big help to us.

We had a pasture in town that anyone could use to keep their horses in. My
brother Buss had three horses he kept there. Sometimes on the weekends I would
want to go for a horse ride so I would use one of Busses horses and ride down
to the ranch which was 16 miles away. When I would come over the top of the
hill above the ranch, the little Mexicans kids would see me and run to tell
their Grandmother. She knew I loved Tacos so she would start making a plate
of Tacos for me. They tasted so good, especially after a long ride like that.
At that time Tacos were not well known all over the country like they are now,
so that was a kind of a secret treat too.  

One evening my Dad had to work overtime so it was up to me to do the chores
at the ranch. I had learned to drive when I was eight years old and now I was
ten years old so I was an old hand at driving a car. In New Mexico at that
time, a drivers license was not required so any person could drive a car that
could handle it. My Mom would be staying home to make supper for us. Just when
I was getting ready to leave, my sister and brother in law came by and said,
“they would give me a hand with the chores at the ranch.”  We came home after
the chores were done but there wasn’t anybody there. Our supper was half cooked
but put aside, so we knew something was wrong. Jack said, “I bet the Old Man
has been hurt at work. He referred to my Dad as the Old Man, not meaning any
disrespect. Jack got on the phone and called the Electric Shop, they told him
my Dad had been in an accident and was in the Hospital. Hank and my Dad had
been working in the power plant that evening and a big electrical switch exploded.
These things are filled with oil which becomes very hot because the purpose
of the oil is to dissipate heat that is generated in the switch. Hank was down
low working on it and my Dad was behind him when it blew. The main blast of
the explosion went over Hank because he was down low but the main part of it
hit my Dad head on. For some reason he got a millisecond warning that the thing
was going to blow and he put his hands over his eyes, which saved his eyes.
He was turned around after the blast and the thing blew again, this time catching
him in the back. The second blast blew him all the way down a ten foot set
of metal stairs. A Mexican laborer was working there and he helped my Dad get
his burning cloths off and much of his skin came off with them but it saved
his life. I don’t know who the Mexican guy was, I wish I did know, our family
owes him a big thanks.

When we got to the hospital the grownups went in first to see him and they
made me stay in the waiting room. I guess my Dad asked for me because they
came out in awhile and told me to go in and see him. When I went in I saw this
guy I didn’t recognize that had a head as big as two heads and it looked like
cooked beef steak. I thought I was in the wrong room and turned to go out when
I heard someone say, “Harve.” Then I went over to him and he said it again
so I knew it was my Dad. The doctors told the family he didn’t have much of
a chance of pulling through. At one time my Dad had just about become an alcoholic
but he had quit drinking two years before this accident.

After the accident the doctors wanted to give him dope to kill the pain but
he refused. He said all he wanted was a shot of good Scotch Whiskey. The Doctor
was a good friend of his so the Doctor brought him a bottle of Scotch Whiskey.
The Doctor told the nurse to give him some any time he wanted it. From that
time on my Dad started drinking again and kept it up until he died. But he
did recover from that bad burn and lived 11 years longer. However, he only
lived to the age of 54, of which I am sure was caused by that burn accident.
He healed up from these bad burns with no noticeable scarring. My Dad had a
natural ability to doctor, at his direction his doctor friend did everything
he told him to do in his daily treatments when the doctor came to the house.
Dad wouldn’t allow any big scabs to form. He would have the doctor trim them
off with a knife and scissors. At one time he even had the doctor working on
him with sandpaper. This was before the time of Plastic Surgery, these methods
in later years are used in Plastic Surgery. At any rate, my Dad didn’t have
any notable scares when he fully recovered.

My folks sure had a lot of trust in me, they had to go to El Paso, Texas for
two weeks for special treatments of some kind from a doctor down there. At
the time I was eleven years old, they left me at home alone with the car, the
house to take care of, guns to go hunting with, and the responsibility of taking
care of the ranch. Also, I had to go to school every day. During that time
I didn’t miss one day of school. A lot of the time a couple of my friends would
go to the ranch with me and help with the chores. After we finished the chores
we would go hunting and shoot a couple of cotton tail rabbits. We would bring
them home and cook them up for supper. To us, fried rabbit was much better
than fried chicken. Jack rabbits were no good to eat, they didn’t have much
meat on them and a lot of them had ticks. The Jack rabbits were used for target
practice, the county would pay 2 cents for a pair of Jack rabbit ears. They
ate up too much of the range grass in the area when they were allowed to overpopulate.

All of the things I have told about, made it a fun year for me in 1941. This
was the last year before World War two started. Most Americans of that time
can remember what they were doing December 7th, 1941. My sister, Mary Helen,
and my sister in law, Daphney had gone to the ranch with me to help with the
chores. On the way home we were playing the car radio and a guy cut in on the
music and said, “The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and sunk many of our
ships. I asked Mary Helen, “where is Pearl Harbor?” She said, “I don’t know
but if they have sunk our ships it must belong to us and this will mean War.”
So we hurried home and it was in an uproar when we got there. Everyone in town
was Mad. I can’t believe how fast Army soldiers were there from Fort Bliss
in El Paso to guard the mill and the equipment at the mine. The New Mexico
National Guards was being activated into active duty. They were an Artillery
Division and they had already got orders to depart for Hawaii. My two brothers,
Buss and Dave, went down to register for the draft the next morning. They both
wanted to go into the service right away but because they were both married
they didn’t get their draft notices for several months. Buss didn’t want to
wait any longer so he went down and joined the Navy. Dave wanted to enlist
too but Dorothy talked him into staying at home as long as he could. That meant
that when he was called, it would be the Army Infantry he would be going into.
Even though I was only twelve years old after the War got going, I had a Wartime
job too. I was in a group that was to be messengers. We had an armband with
a bolt of lightning on it, which designated us as messengers. Our job was to
ride our bicycles carrying messages wherever required. They also gave us a
Red Cross First Aid course.

The Mill and Copper mine were essential to the War Effort, so they were very
heavily guarded. But a saboteur still managed to get a job in the Mill. The
FBI was tracking him and they had an agent working right beside him in the
Mill. The Saboteur had a big mean black dog. He would tie him under a tree
when he went into the mess hall to eat. The dog was so mean he would not let
anyone near him. So me and some of my friends attempted to make friends with
him. We would pitch an Ice cream cone to him and he loved them. It got to the
point, we could sit next him and he wouldn’t do a thing to us. He would lick
the Ice Cream while we held the cone. The old Saboteur came out one day and
caught us doing it and got mad as heck. His dog was supposed to be mean. A
couple days later the FBI checked his room in the bunk house and found enough
explosives to blow the mill sky high. He had got wise that they were on to
him and he had left out for El Paso and was attempting to go into Mexico when
they nabbed him. We never saw or heard of the guy again. I guess the Government
didn’t want his buddies to know we had him.

With the start of spring in 1943, my Dad decided he would like to move to
California and work in defense work out there. He had worked for Kennecott
Copper Company for about 28 years and wanted a change. Also he wanted to be
near my Grandpa Baker because Grandpa was getting pretty old. My Grandma Baker
had died in 1940 in California. We had gone out there for the funeral and we
had drove all night to get there. I had been sleeping in the car when we got
there and when I woke up I thought I had gone to Heaven, everything was so
beautiful, flowers everywhere with tall Palm trees all around us. At that point
in time in New Mexico, all plants were dead and brown. So, when my Dad decided
to go to California I didn’t mind at all. I had fallen in love with the place
when we had went out there. Grandpa Baker was one of my favorite people so
I was looking forward to living near him.

There is one other favorite person I need to tell about before I get out of
the New Mexico portion of my childhood. In the year of 1937 or 1938- don’t
remember for sure- two of my friends and I were riding down the street in Hurley
on our Donkeys. We saw a young handsome man walking toward us coming from the
train depot. He walked up to us and asked, ”do you know where the Bakers live”?
In a small town you keep your eye on a stranger until you know what he is up
to. I pointed toward my house and said, ”they live over there. One of my friends
pointed to me and said, ”he is Harvey Baker. The guys face lit up and he said,”
I’m your Uncle Carl. I still didn’t believe him and he knew it so he told me,
”I’m your Dad’s brother and your Dad’s name is Harry Baker. Since he knew my
Dad’s name he must be who he says he is.

Carl was born in New Mexico but was raised in California. After he graduated
from High School he moved back to New Mexico and lived there the rest of his
life. Most of the time he was in law enforcement. From the time he moved back
to New Mexico until the time I moved to California we became very close, he
was like another big brother to me. After he had been back to New Mexico for
a couple years he started going with a young lady that was a School Teacher.
At the time I was having a hard time with my reading, So Florence started working
with me on it and before long she had me reading and enjoying it. To this day
I have to have a good book to read at night before I go to sleep.

                                                                             Chapter
2
After Bus enlisted in the Navy, Daphney and the kids moved to California because
her folks had moved out there and she could stay with them while Bus was in
the Service. Also, he would most likely be leaving from some Sea Port in California
after his military training was completed. And that was the way it turned out,
he was assigned to a new type of small patrol craft. I found out in later years
that there was only two of this type of ships built for the Navy. One was assigned
to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific. They were sort of experimental,
they and the ability to fire a lot of rockets. His ship served well in the
War in the Pacific, it took part in many invasions including Iwo Jima. It was
sunk in the battle of Okinawa with Bus on it. Out of a crew of 75 only 32 was
left alive, of which he was one of the survivors.

When my brother Dave was drafted into the Army he was assigned to Camp Roberts,
California for military training. Camp Roberts is located in the Desert and
is a very hot place to be. Dave had very curly hair and dark complexion, so
when he completed his military training he looked like an Afro-American. He
and Bus both got to visit us before they shipped out to the War in the Pacific.
Dave served in the 32nd Infantry Division and took part in many battles of
Pacific Islands. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor. The 32nd Infantry
Division had more continues Combat time than any other Division in the US Army.

We found that living in War time California was a lot different than living
in War time New Mexico. Everything was blacked out at night time, we had to
drive with parking lights on and all the windows were blacked out. When we
first moved to California, we lived with my Grandpa Baker in Hawthorne. There
was a big shortage of housing during the war, in most all cities in the United
States. My Uncle Sam lived with Grandpa Baker and when we moved there. He moved
in with a friend of his and gave his room to my Mom and Dad. I slept with Grandpa
Baker in his bed. I was really impressed with Grandpas’ night time procedures,
he would pull his fiddle out from under his bed and tune it up. It had a bunch
of rattle snake rattles in it, he said," it gave it better sound." Next,
he would pull out a fifth of Irish Whiskey from under his bed and pour himself
a shot. He would down it in one drink without making a face at all. Then he
would start playing some fine Irish tunes on his fiddle.  The March of Billy
Owens was my favorites. A few years later when I was serving in the U.S. Army
Air Force, we were marching to the Billy Owens March, I had just received word
that Grandpa Baker had passed away. It took all my will power to keep a straight
face and stay in ranks.I started thinking, "could it be possible that
Grandpa Baker is watching me"?  I straightened up and marched the best
march a soldier ever marched.   

Before I started to school in California, Grandpa Baker gave me a haircut.
To me it was a funny looking haircut, Grandpa said, "he cut it curly for
me." My hair had been straight, lo and behold, when it grew back in, it
grew back in curly. Grandpa insisted he was the one to take me and start me
into school. So we went to Hawthrone Jr. High and he enrolled me. I felt we
were a funny looking Pair, me with a funny haircut and Grandpa with his big
Western hat and big handle bar Mustache. A Lady from the school office was
taking me around to show me where my classes would be and Grandpa waited in
the hallway. When we got back, about three lady teachers were around him looking
at him with admiring eyes and listening to his stories. After that, when I
met one of the teachers, they would ask,"how is your Grandpa?"

In New Mexico I had been pretty good at sports, so when I started playing
football in my new school I did pretty well. This got me acquainted faster
with the other kids. It got to the point that boys would ask me,"where
did you get that haircut," I would like one like it. My time at Hawthorne
Jr. High only lasted about three months, then we moved to Gardena California.
My Aunt Edna had a small two bedroom shack in her back yard that she and her
husband lived in when they first got married. It wasn’t much but it was a great
find in those War years. Again, my liking of sports got me started good with
the other kids at Gardena High. In Gym class we were in try-outs for the school
wrestling team. I had always loved to wrestle, so I was really having fun.
I had beat all the guys I had wrestled and another guy had beat all the kids
he had wrestled. It was between he and I for who would be picked for the school
wrestling team. I had watched him wrestle and he had one favorite trick he
used for all his wins. His name was Kerry. When we started wrestling I knew
what he was going to try to do, and I was ready for him. When a guy would reach
for him with both hands, he would grab the guy’s wrist with both of his hands
then start going backwards fast, then he would fall down on his back with his
feet going up into the guys stomach. He would then flip the guy over so he
would land on his back. Then he would roll over on top of him and pin him for
a count of three. When he attempted to use this on me, I got him. When he fell
back on his back, I sidestepped his feet and he missed. I then fell on top
of him holding one of his arms down with both of my knees and the other arm
down with both of my hands. He was pinned down for a count of three. So I became
a member of the school wrestling team.

I was just making a lot of friends in Gardena when we moved again. It was
my fault we moved this time. I got some cleaning solvent to clean my dress
pants with. I put my soaking pants on a clothes line in my Aunts back yard.
The wind came up and started whipping my pants around throwing cleaning solvent
on some of her best plants. It killed them dead. She was irate and started
yelling at me. My Dad, Being a hot tempered Baker like her, started yelling
at her. Needless to say, we were looking for a new place to live. We moved
in with Uncle Clyde and Aunt Willena who lived in Bell Gardens California.
It was pretty crowded because they had five children at home ranging from 5
to 16 years of age. They consisted of three boys and three girls. The boys
were the older of the group. My cousins were glad to have me there so that
made it a little better. We lived there about a month. One day, two of my cousins
and I were goofing around near the Rio Honda River. We found a small boat there
and it ended up with us playing with it in the water with our clothes on. We
went home soaking wet. I did not know at the time that I was coming down with
the Mumps. From that excursion it caused them to go down on me. I became very
Ill. At the same time my folks found a three room house to rent on Eastern
Ave. in Bell Gardens. So I moved into our new dwelling a very sick kid. It
was only with the help of Heavenly Father that I made it through that. Futher
more, it didn’t make me sterile.

 

After the mumps, my body started growing very rapidly. My hair had been light
and it turned dark and curly. The things that were happening to me was making
me more successful at sports than ever. We lived in the rent house for a couple
months after I got over the mumps then my Mom and Dad found a house they wanted
to buy in Bell Gardens on Shull Street. It was great. I had my own bed room
where I could work on my model airplanes and be private. We had a big nice
yard with a lot of plants. At last I could have a dog again. I made all the
teams in school and started getting a lot of close friends. California schools
have a lot of pretty girls, at this point in time I was starting to get interested
in them. I had my first date with a girl there, she was a friend of my cousins.
It was fun but she wasn’t my type, she wanted to go steal stuff out of parked
cars. I found an excuse that I had to get home right away. But I met several
other nice girls after that. Then one very special girl turned up. My friend
J.V. Nichols introduced me to a pretty little girl with Auburn hair and gray
eyes. I looked her in the eyes and something clicked, I knew and I think she
knew that something special was taking place. We went together for about two
years after that and I was very much in love.

My Dad had money set aside for me to go to college on. I intended to go to
college then go into the Air Force to become a pilot. That is all I had every
wanted to do since I had been a little kid. When I was a teenager I was big
for my age so I could lie about my age and get good paying jobs in the summer
time. I worked one summer for a glass manufacturing company and other summers
for a local steel plant. During this time I had another close friend that could
never get a job in the summer, I don’t know why, he tried hard enough to find
a job. His name was Tommy Turner. He and his twin sister were like a brother
and sister to me. They were always over at my house. Billie-his sister- had
a horse named champ that she loved. The horse got a sore on his back that turned
out to be a malignant tumor. The Vet told her the horse did not have a chance
of getting well. She was at our house crying and my Dad told her he may be
able to treat the horse. He told her to bring the horse over every day for
him to treat it. She did, and after about a month the tumor was gone and never
came back. After that Billie worshiped the ground he walked on.

Nan started talking more and more about getting married. I wanted to marry
her as much as she wanted to marry me, but I wanted to go about it in a different
way. I wanted to go through college with her at my side, then go into the Service
and get married after I got a Commission. One evening after I had cashed my
paycheck, she saw my paystub. She said you make almost as much money as my
Dad, we could get married on that much money. I was using my sister’s car that
evening and Nan had me convinced we should get married. So we headed out for
Yuma, Arizona to get married. When we were about half way there I started thinking,
this isn’t the right way to go about this. I really liked her Dad and I thought,
this will break his heart. Little did I know at the time that the reason she
wanted to get married so bad was that her Dad wanted her married so he could
be out on his own. When I turned around and came back home we had a bad argument. 
She thought I didn’t want to marry her. I told her if she wanted to get married
that much I would go into the Service and learn a trade then we could get married.
She told me if I ever went into the Service she would be married when I came
back. We broke up and it really did a number on me. I didn’t know how to make
up with her again and my dumb pride wouldn’t let me give in. I was so tore
up I dropped out of school. After that I did go into the Air Force. My Dad
wouldn’t sign for me to enlist but I did talk my Mom into signing for me. I
enlisted without my Dad knowing about it. He said the reason he wouldn’t sign
for me is because I had two brothers that had went through heavy combat in
World II and it would be bad luck for a third son to go into combat. After
I was in basic training and he found out about it he said, "if you want
it that bad I guess I can’t stop you." When I came home from Basic Training,
Nan was married to a guy named Harold Carter.                                         
                                                                                
Chapter 3
I started basic training June, 30th, 1947 at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio,
Texas. It was an extra hot and dry summer in Texas that year. Every day it
was about 110 to 115 degrees and 90 percent humidity. Out marching and other
physical training, it was like being in a steam bath. I would start out in
the morning with nice clean green fatigues and when I would come in during
the late afternoon they would be all white with salt from my body. The showers
had cement floors with showers that would allow 10 guys to shower at one time.
We would take our fatigues in there with us and and put them on the floor,
then using a GI brush and GI soap we would scrub the salt out of them. Then
we would hang them up and they would be dry by morning to wear again. This
was a daily procedure. In those days I was in good physical condition so I
made it through Basic Training with few problems. Some guys really had a hard
time of it. They gave us a bunch of tests to determine what Tech Schools we
could qualify for. My highest scores were in Electronics so I was selected
to attend Radar school after Basic Taining.

Myself and the other guys selected for Radar were sent to Keesler AFB, Mississippi.
The school wasn’t there yet, it was in the process of being moved there from
Boca Raton, Florida. That meant that we were there for about three months pulling
shit details, such as Guard Duty, KP, and setting up the class rooms for the
school. When the school was all set up, they didn’t start us into class right
away, they brought a new bunch in from Basic Training and started them in.
We were kept on pulling shit detail. As it turned out one of the guys in our
group had a Dad that was a full Bird Colonel in the Air Force and was with
the Air Force Inspector Generals Office. The Old Colonel was so mad when his
son told him what happened, he flew down to Keesler from Washington D.C. He
had that Squadron Commander in his office standing at attention while he chewed
his Ass out. Needless to say, the group that had started school was pulled
out and we started into Class. I went through 13 weeks of Electronics fundamentals
and the next step would be to go into training on the Radar Equipment. But,
they had all the equipment in use with other Classes that were ahead of us.
That meant we were back to pulling shit detail again. 

It would be about three months before we could get started back in Class.
Pulling shit detail for that long a time was a bad situation to be in. One
time per week you would be assigned to Guard Duty and one time per week you
would be assigned to KP. The rest of the time during the week we would be doing
other things like riding with the Base Garbage Truck emptying garbage cans.
When you was assigned Guard Duty you reported to the Guard House at 1600 hrs-4PM-in
Class A uniforms. You then stood an open ranks inspection. After the inspection
you went to chow in the Stockade mess hall. When chow was over you went to
the armory and was issued an M-1 30 Caliber Carbine with one magazine of Ammo.
We were again formed in open ranks and  was assigned a number, every two guys
got the same number. The other guy with your same number would be your relief
on Guard post. You would walk a Guard post for three hours then be relieved
for three hours. This went on all night long. Also we got to eat a meal in
the middle of the night. This gave us a welcome break from being out on a cold
night. At 0700 Hrs, we were again formed into ranks. At the same time the prisoners
from the Stockade were formed into ranks. The Sergeant of the Guard would pick
off four prisoners from their ranks and march them out a few paces then halt
them. He would then look at his roster and call one of our names from the roster.
When your name was called you would march out of ranks to the place where the
prisoners were waiting. The Sergeant of the Guard would give you a slip of
paper telling you where to take the prisoners for a work detail. You would
keep them there for the period of time instructed, guarding them and making
them work. After the detail was done you would march them back to the stockade.
Most of the prisoners were only in the stockade for a short time for a minor
offense, they would be out in a couple of months and go back to regular duty.
You didn’t have to worry too much about them trying to escape. But sometimes
you was assigned General Prisoners, they were guys that had committed crimes
like Rape, Robbery, or Murder. These guys you had to watch like a hawk because
they would try to escape. They were only being held long enough to be sent
on to Fort Levenworth. We wouldn’t have them out to work, they would only be
out to be marched to sick call or to the legal office to see a Lawyer. The
rule was, any prisoner you allowed to escape you had to serve out his sentence.
One time I had four General Prisoners out and I checked my Ammo in the Magazine
that had been issued me. There was only two rounds in it. I wasn’t about to
let the Prisoners know about that. 

 

KP duty was a very hated thing. The guys in school had to be in class by 0600
hours, that meant they had to be fed at 0500 hours. To accomplish this you
had to report to the Base Mess Hall by 0300 hours to help the Cooks get breakfast
ready for the whole Base. After the evening meal was done we had to scrub down
the Mess Hall and the Kitchen. We would finally get off duty about eight or
nine O’clock at night, depending on when we were done.  Each week we would
have either Guard Duty or KP. When we were not doing these two things we were
working on other jobs all over the Base. Most of us would go into town when
we had money to get away for awhile. One Saturday night a buddy and I went
out for a night on the town. We had about two hours to kill before the last
bus ran back to the base. There was a night club that had a live country western
band. It was a pretty nice place and they catered to GIs. When we walked in
we spotted an empty table next to the dance floor.

While we were walking over to that table I noticed an attractive lady staring
at me like I was something special. Also, I noticed she was sitting with my
duty Sergeant, the guy that assigns us to work details in my unit. For the
rest of the evening I didn’t see her take her eyes off me one time. Even when
she was dancing she was looking at me all the time. After my buddy and I ordered
a drink I told him I was going over to say hello to Sergeant Sibley. When I
walked up to their table, before I could say a word, Lilly stood up and held
out her hand. I took her hand and asked Sergeant Sibley if he would mind if
I danced with his lady. He said, "no, not at all." I really hadn’t
intended to ask her to dance because I’m not a good dancer. We danced about
three or four times that evening and one dance I asked if I could see her again.
She replied, "Maybe". The next time we danced she put a piece of
paper in my hand and told me to put it in my pocket. While we were dancing
I told her I had to go get my last bus back to the base. Sergeant Sibley didn’t
have to go back to the base for bed check because of his rank. After I got
on the bus I looked at the paper she gave me and it had her name and phone
number on it. The next day being Sunday and me having a day off, I called her
and asked if she would like to go to a movie with me. She said yes and that
was our first date.

After that I went into town every time I could get a Pass to see Lilly. Being
a PFC I didn’t have very much money but we would do things that wouldn’t take
much money. We would go for walks along the Gulf Beach and she would show me
the area and tell me all about it. She showed me all the fishing boats and
told me about the fishing industry. All of her family worked in the fishing
industry all their lives. Going into town to see Lilly was about the only bright
thing I had to look forward to. Pulling those work details about drove me crazy.

The Air Force didn’t think it was too fair to us either. They told us if any
of us didn’t want to wait any longer to get in school we could put in for a
reassignment. I jumped at that.  Radar school would have been a good field
to get into but I couldn’t take those dumb work details any longer. I thought
I would be assigned to some other Technical School but when my orders came
out it was for Germany in the Army of Occupation. When I told Lil I would be
leaving she got tears in her eyes. I felt bad about it too because I had become
to like her very much. At the time I was just 18 and she was 23. She had been
married before and had an 18 month old daughter. One thing led to another that
night and we decided to get married. I had about a month before I had to leave,
so three days later we got married. I didn’t know you had to get permission
from your Commanding Officer to get married so when I told my first Sergeant
about being married he explained it to me. He went in and talked to the Commander
then came out and said the Commander wanted to see me. So I went in and reported
to the Commander. He didn’t really chew me out after I told him I didn’t know
about having to get permission to get married, He said, "I’m sure you
didn’t know because what I have seen of you you’re a good soldier."  Also,
he said, "you will be shipping out in a month so for a wedding gift I
will give you as much time off as I can, and he did. Lil and I had a pretty
nice Honeymoon before I left out for overseas. I reported into Camp Kilmer,
New Jersey for processing to get on a troop ship for Germany.

When I got to Germany and got with the German people, I couldn’t believe they
had been our enemies just a few months ago. They were a hard working and honest
people. They didn’t hold any hatred toward us and they didn’t feel sorry for
themselves. Me being a young person that liked to play tricks on people, sometimes,
I would do things to them to make them mad. As an example, cigarettes were
of short supply on the German market, so they would do about anything for a
cigarette. When an American Soldier would be smoking a cigarette around some
old men they would wait for him to throw down the Butt, then they would run
after it to get it first. One day I was in downtown Wiesbaden walking along
the Strasse smoking a cigarette and about four old men were following me waiting
for me to throw the cigarette butt down. When I did, I gave it a long flip.
They ran after it and one get it first. Right away I lit up another cigarette,
and got their attention then dropped it about four feet in front of me. This
time they all wanted it bad since it was like a new cigarette. They started
fighting over it and I yelled, Halt! They all stopped because at that point
in time if a German didn’t do what an American told them to do they could go
to jail for six months. I walked over and gave each of them a new cigarette.
The Old Guys were really happy and shaking my hand like crazy,

At that time in Germany their money was worthless. Cigarettes and coffee was
like gold, you  could go into a place and order food and drink then lay down
two cigarettes and that would pay for it. They didn’t have much food at that
time but some places you could get a good Hot Dog. After I had been there months,
Our Military Government pulled a switch with the German Mark. Overnight, they
made the Germans turn in all their Money and we issued a new Mark with a set
value of about 33 cents. After that the Germans could actually buy things with
money for the first time since the war was over. Needless to say the black
market started up then too. A GI could sell a carton of cigarettes for 120
Marks. That was about 39 dollars a carton you could make selling your ration
of cigarettes. We were authorized two cartons a week and we paid 10 cents a
pack for them. A lot of guys made some big money at that but I never did. You
could get in some big trouble doing that if the CID caught you. Most all of
us sold cigarettes but not for profit. Just for bartering. Usually the CID
wouldn’t bother you for that.

About this same time the Berlin Airlift started and that was the start of
the Cold War. The Russians attempted to run us out of Berlin. They were going
to do this by closing the roads and railroads that ran through their Zone of
occupation. This way we could not get supplies into our Zones of occupation
in Berlin. They also would not let food into Civilians in Berlin from other
parts of Germany. We went to work and worked our butts off setting up the Logistics
to operate a major undertaking of supplying Berlin by Aircraft. We succeeded
in supplying all our Military and the German people in Berlin with coal, food,
and other needs, for one full year. The Russians didn’t think we could do it
but we did. They finally backed off because they knew if it went much further
there would be all out War.

Lil asked me to get out of the Air Force because our marriage couldn’t work
being apart so much. I loved the Air Force but I thought it would be only fair
to Lil to try to make go of our marriage, so I got out at the end of my enlistment.
We then went to Bell Gardens-my home town- and I went to work as a civilian.

When I got back, I went by Biloxi, Mississippi and Lil and I got on a straight
through train for Los Angeles. My sister, Mary Helen was at the depot to meet
us and took us home to my folks house. We lived with my folks all the time
we were in California. My folks liked her and accepted her so we got along
fine.

We got on a straight through train to Los Angeles and my sister, Mary Helen,
was there to meet us. She took us to my folks’ home in Bell Gardens. They liked
Lil right off and asked us to stay there with them. For all the time we lived
in California we lived with my folks. As I said, they all liked Lil so we got
along fine. I got my first job at Maywood Glass Co. They made all kinds of
glass bottles. My job was working in the box section. We put together cardboard
boxes and sent them down chutes to the packers working below. They got the
bottles coming off the assembly lines and packed them in the boxes for shipment.
I worked the Midnight shift.

One day I was feeling bad and called in to tell them I wouldn’t be that night.
The next day I got a call from the front office and they wanted me to come
in to see them. The manager told me I hadn’t called in and they lost alot of
production because there was no one there to replace me, so they were giving
me my two week notice. I got mad and told him I did call in and I was giving
him my notice of right now and walked out. As I walked out I heard him yelling, "you
can’t do that."

After that he gave me some trouble about collecting the money they owed me
but I won out after I told him I was taking it to the Fed. wage collectors
office.