Interview Transcript - John Hodurski

Narrative

So, for the record, please state your name, where you born, and which war you were in, or served in.

Which War I was in. My name is John Anthony Hodurski, I was born in Naik New York, in a very young age, and uh.. uh in 1944. November 6, the same birthday as John Phillips’; and I am a Vietnam Veteran.

Okay. And what was home life like before, before the war?

What was home life? Um well, I joined the Navy um on a deferred enlistment program which means actually I signed up in January of 1963 and graduated from high school in ’63, so ten days after graduation I went into the, into the navy, so prior to that, um, we had a typical American family at the time, mother, father, I had two younger brothers and a younger sister, and the younger brother and youngest sister were twins. We grew up in Bergenfield NJ, about seven miles from New York City. Played in the High school band, played tuba, actually saxophone, ummm, Was active in Boy Scouts from age eight on, and we had a pretty close family. My father was a machinist and worked in New York, my mother was a retailer worked in Paramus NJ.

Okay. And... Describe in detail uh the training received before you joined the Navy.

Before I joined the Navy. Well *cough* , two aspects of training I had was a hobby, which was shortwave radio, actually I was a shortwave radio listener, so I was always pulling TV sets apart back in those days, and they weren’t printed circuit boards so to say. So it was a lot of soldered components. So, I familiarized myself with electronics and electricity, and like I said, back in boy scouts, so when I reached age 14, I went into the Sea Scouts and uh, as a sea scout I gained a lot of knowledge that would prepare me for basic training in the Navy, or boot camp. As a matter of a fact, the uh, most classes I did very well on, I did very well on because most of the classes they would teach us in scouts. And uh, my electrical training came in handy later on when I went to school in the navy.

So uh, are you talking about short wave radios like H.A.M radios or?

Yeah, short, yeah H.A.M radio but I was not a H.A.M radio operator I was a shortwave listener, um, they called it S.W.L and basically in fact I have two short wave radios in the next room, receivers, and you just sit there and listen to foreign broadcast and what you could do was contact the stations and uh send them a report of the time that you heard them, the clarity of the signal and they would send you back with what you call a QSL card which was a post card which had their call letters on it and maybe a picture of the Country they’re from or whatever, and so you could get into a hobby with listening around the world.

Yeah, that’s cool. And um, can you describe, boot camp, what was that like?

Ahh boot camp, boot camp was um….. tough, I found tough because I only played football for only one year in high school and I had a back injury in fact I thought would be a problem in the Navy but actually the physical training in the navy, the PE, actually strengthened my back. Uh boot camp was a lot of um… well its call basic training because it gets into the basics and the idea is to teach you discipline and to obey orders when they’re given without question. Because as I learned in Sea Scouts, uh if you were told to duct the boom and you ask what? you may just lose your head, so it was important to instill that. Plus you needed to have some rudimentary knowledge of vessels and uh ranks and uniforms. They basically, if you came right out of the woods, or you had you know, no education or no…. habits that would help, you. They would teach you how to wash your clothes, dry your clothes, fold your clothes, roll your clothes, make your bed, stand inspections and they were tough inspections too, whenever you got a demerit you had to march with a rifle for an hour, to work off the demerits. The classes were intense, the military classes are usually intense, you either keep up or you get left back. And you get left back once or twice and you know its three strikes you’re out type thing, and then you’re uh, out of the program, in the case of boot camp, you’d become a civilian again or in the other schools, you’d go back to the fleet and go back to chippin’ paint. So as far as boot camp was, it was physical conditioning, mental conditioning, um and spiritual conditioning because you were required to attend some church service, and uh, they taught a lot, in a very quick matter, you didn’t have a whole lot of time to yourself.

Uh so when you were younger, did you have any interest in the Navy? As in like the ships and such?

Yeah, a matter of fact, my father was in the Navy, and he would tell me stories of WWII and his experiences in the service and with me being in Sea Scouts and uh, watching every submarine movie ever have been made, yeah by brothers both joined the Navy and it was a Navy family. So my desire at the time was to make it a career.

Okay, and when you first entered the navy, what did you expect?

Um, I really don’t know the answer to that question, I expected to go to sea, um, *cough* but, I thought what I wanted to do was go in the submarine service until I found out that at this time in history, if you will, um we were switching over from diesel boats to nuclear powered, and they were requiring two additional years of enlistment and to attend a nuclear power school which was an extremely tough school. And I had trouble with schools, and as strange as it seems, I didn’t with military schools, but I didn’t know it at the time. So the thought of going into advanced math classes and this likes that didn’t really appeal to me. So I wanted to be a regular old sailor, a Bosons mate. So when I got aboard ship, the bosons were basically chipping and painting and chipping and painting. You put it on you take it off, you put it on you take it off, and I said there’s gotta be more than this so, I looked into some different rates, occupations, and I eventually um, got into a series of trying one or two settled into interior communications electrician, which was basically anything that had to do with communications within the confines in the ship. Including the voice tube from the bridge to the engine room was our gear so we had uh amplifiers, movie projectors, alarm systems, annunciating systems, so my electrical, my little bit of electrical background helped with that and I really enjoyed the rate because it was a lot of electrical mechanical stuff, and the stuff I learned in the service I’m using today in my job.

Nice, and could you describe the men who enlisted with you? Anyone of interest that stood out?

Well I went into, what they call a buddy program, and there were 3 or 4 of us, at least 3 of us, that went in together and were guaranteed to go through boot camp together. And after boot camp there was no guarantee because we would be assigned to different vessels or we were going to different schools. Um, and as it happened, one of the guys ended up with medical problems so we had to sign a release otherwise we all would have had to stay back. So we kinda went on without him. But after that, one of the first things they taught me in boot camp, I remember we were still in civilian clothes sitting down and our company commander sat down and said “listen, you’ll have a lot of acquaintances but you’ll have very few friends.” I’ve never forgotten that I have always thought that to be true. Um,but in the military, there are exceptions to that, to this day out of the 20 or so guys that I worked with in my particular shop, in my rate, um there are about half a dozen of us that get together every year for what we call a “mini reunion”. And in fact I just got an email the other day; they want to have in the D.C. area. We get together for 2-3 days, and tell the same old stories that we have for years, and uh drink beer or soda and we all bring some kind of food and we just you know, re-live the days in service because at least in the navy, you were all in the same ship, you all had the same job, we stood our watches together, we went to war together, we went to shore together, we slept together, we ate together, it’s a very close environment and you become kind of close , you become friends, I mean they’re ship mates, I think there are many different kinds of friends, I’ve had some friends in the Police department, some friends you know, in civilian life your.. But the guys you went, served in the military with, are always kind of special. It’s like that T.V program Band of Brothers, you actually, you actually become a band of brothers.

And, as the wives has said when the first time we got together, we hadn’t seen each other in thirty years. And the wives said “this is amazing, you picked up like it was, like you saw each other yesterday” so, so I still see half a dozen of them. And actually one of them lives in Worcester we are pretty close.

Um, and when you went into the Navy, how were relationships affected at home, with friends, or even family?

Well, my friends, my family was very supportive. My father went in during the war and he was married so my wife was, I mean, my mother was a navy wife, in fact I was a year old before I saw my father, or he saw me. I wouldn’t remember it obviously, but um, as far as the rest of the family, I guess they were all kind of proud that the brother was in the service, um I got married when I was in the service and my wife was supportive at first, until the first time the ship was headed over to Vietnam, and then it kinda, she came kind of un glued a little bit. She knew I wanted to make it a career but ah, she broke down and cried, it was just like well, if you wanna do it you can do it, but if you do you’re a dirty rat. So...(cannot understand)

And, what was your specific role, in the Navy?

My specific role. (Clears throat) well as an interior communications electrician, um, the highest rank I obtained in the Navy. I also served in two other armed forces but the Navy has been my biggie. I was an enlisted pay grade four, of the third class petty officer of interior communications electrician and I was the senior petty officer in my shop, I had two other third class petty officers, and three non-rate men working for me. And basically we took care of alarm systems, we took care of indicating systems, and we stood watches on the jyro compass. And um, every hour we’d send a message back to the jyro compass. There were two jyro compasses on the ship, and we would call and take readings to compare the two and they have to be between a degree or two of each other. And if they weren't we had to notify the navigator, the navigation officer, and he determined which was the most accurate switch that one. So basically my job was to maintain equipment to provide maintenance on equipment to prepare the equipment and Stand watches. We stood when you call telephone watches because telephones were part of our job classification and we would have to be down in the I.C. rooms as we called it to answer alarms to the phone systems or whenever if we lost power on the ship we had to be able to switch to some auxiliary power. That's about how specific I can get.

All right and, will you describe is an average day in the Navy?

You mean how it went or what was it every day? In port or at sea? Big difference.

Both.

In port was like going to work. As I said, I got I got married in the Navy, so I was about a year and a half in the Navy and if I didn't have the duty, meaning I didn't have to stay in port watches, I could go home and my wife and I bought a, a mobile home and lived in. The ship was homeport in Norfolk, and we lived in Little Creek so I go home and in the morning I come to work. And you wear your good uniform off and then you switch into your work clothes and you just put in your eight hours of work and you went home. At sea your home a typical day was revelry at 0600, six o'clock in the morning make up your bunk and they passed sweepers so the designated person would sweep the compartment and the latter ways and take the trash out. You head out to chow and stand in the chow line sometimes could be as few as 100 people and as many as a thousand people. Have your breakfast and at about eight o'clock in the morning, 0800, we would muster up on the hangar deck according to divisions, and they would basically take role and make any announcements for the day and then it was turned to command ships work. And so you go to work as if you were in port, if you have to watch the stand, he would stand watch, and watch was four hours long. If he did not have a watch then you would go to your assigned shop and you did maintenance repair or whatever you have to do. Um you had an hour for lunch or if you wanted to take a nooner, meaning a nap, you could do that. You cannot get in your bunk once you're out in the morning you couldn't get in until after the end of the workday so you slept on the deck or the big bags of laundry we used to have you know that clean laundry that came back from the laundry. Back to work, and working hours ended at about four o'clock, and depending whether it was a holiday or a special day or not you could go to chow in your work uniform you know you got your undress uniform, your blue,s you're dressed down version of dress uniform; and you went to chow. After chow they were movies upon the flight deck or the hangar deck rather, as a matter of fact, in my rate we show them I used to show the movie “in the war room” to the officers and we had other guys that would show it for the crew and we would be up on the hangar deck with a big screen it was like going to the drive through but only you're in a chair not a car. And after that you would be in bed, lights out at 10 o'clock at night, and he stood the mid-watch you would be back up at about 11:45 to go down and stand watch at midnight. But as anybody standing mid-watch they usually had a snack prepare the galley for the guys who would stand watch and you got to stay in for an extra hour if you had mid-watch they let you stay in your bunk until seven o'clock but you did not get much sleep because everyone was up and moving at six and creating quite a rowell. In that time off or after chow if you didn't watch a movie the really great part was I had a brother on board, eventually, and he was a cook so, I was standing watch he would come down along with some steaks or something like that or if I wasn't on watch we go up to the flight deck around the flight deck that had safety nets for the planes. You could dive off into the net without going off the side, and we would use them just like hammocks and just sit there and much on hamburgers or something and when you are at sea at night it's like going to a planetarium if you have ever been to a planetarium is fully dark and all you see stars from horizon to horizon. And he walked to the end of the ship and looked down at four propellers you could see for streams of green water of phosphorus in the water; it was it was great. Sunrise and sunsets at sea. Beautiful. I used to take pictures of the sun rises and sunsets every time we went to a different sea, the Mediterranean or into the Caribbean I would take a picture of the water because it was different colors different shades of green shades of blue so that was a typical life at sea.

So ah, when you are deployed when you ship on over to Vietnam did that life change at all or was it pretty much the same?

Oh yah, Well yes we were an amphibious assault ship. It was an air craft carrier made in 1945; it was the first ship to launch jet aircraft. And it went through several phases of being an attack carrier and a support carrier then they converted it into an LPH platform for helicopters so all we had on board for helicopters. In fact, we only had one helicopter, and the rest would be by the Marine airway so when we went out for independent ship exercises or whatever, we would bring a squadron with us. And, the idea being while the marines were landing in boats, there would be additional marines in helicopters landing behind the lines. When we went to Vietnam, the first trip we made over we brought the army over, the first cavalry. The Hewies’ and Chinooks, and Sikorscy sky cranes and six mobile aircraft. We were about 100 tons overloaded on the flight deck and we had the pilots, copilots, aircrews for all of these on board and we had the army as passengers. If you took an Ariel shot and I have some pictures of an Ariel view of the carrier, and you can’t see the deck, it is totally aircraft. And they’re al wrapped up in cocoons to protect them because it took us a month to cross from Florida, to cross the Atlantic, through Gibraltar. The uh Mediterranean and through the Suez canal. And around, so we took the long way around. And life changed a lot because we had passengers. I have to tell you that the army was a lot different than having marines on board. The army always acts like passengers; marines always act like big brothers. Um, we had a lot of co-operation, they supplied people at the galley to help cook and stuff like that, and you know so friends were made, they brought their meal with them. The army meal went of the ships were branded USN. But it was different because, you know, we had you know 2, 3 times the people we normally have aboard. So it got a little crowded. The whole second deck basically birthing compartments for the troops.

Alright, and were you scared or did you have any fear at all going to Vietnam? If anything was to happen?

No, actually, were quite ignorant. The military, the military wasn’t told much about what was happening in Vietnam. Um, we knew there was a war going on, but we basically were untouched by it because our amphibious squadron trained a lot in the Caribbean, I’ve been all over the Caribbean. Um, when we actually got to Vietnam, we went to a couple different ports to unload helicopters. *clears throat* some of the helicopters actually left the ship when we were coming in. They um, about four days out they actually started unwrapping them, and assembling them, and arming them, getting them ready and the pilots back them, a lot of them were warrant officers, um, and they hadn’t flown too much. And they’ve never flown off an aircraft carrier, and the problem with flying off an aircraft carrier is that the air cushion drops about 85feet when you clear the flight deck, and they hadn’t flown in a month while we were traveling over there so they were pretty rusty, so a lot of them as they lift off they would clear the flight deck and head for the water. And they had 85 feet to compensate and we didn’t lose any though. We had a couple that kinda’ put their feet in the water but they got up and out. The rest unloaded when we actually go into port, and Vietnam was actually very nice form the water, but um, we didn’t actually see combat. But we did see though, a lot of troops coming out in landing craft to the ship, and coming aboard and looking like John Wayne and the bunch and using our ships stores, because we were a floating city. I mean, we have cobbler shops, we had laundry, we had clothing stores, we had a department store, we had you name it we had it. It was a floating city. And they came aboard to use the stuff and, we… looked at these guys all dirty and grungy and you know, have been in combat and we didn’t really think a whole lot of it because we didn’t understand the severity of what was going on. It ah, we were kind of left in the dark because communications now is not what it was like then. You know, we got mail very irregularly, maybe once a week, maybe. Um, radios didn’t reach out that far. There weren’t any satellite radios. So, there wasn’t anything to be scared of, because we didn’t know what to be scared of. And our job at the time, basically, was to bring troops and equipment so we were as the marines like to call us, you know they always thank us for the ride, and the Navy has its own army and they’re called them Marines. We get them there and they do the work. In this case, we had the army on board and they did the work. So..

And um, what did you miss, um, while at sea?

My Wife.

Your wife.

That was the big miss. SO to speak. Yeah, I enjoy being at sea and I still do, you know being out on the water, I loved the regimented lifestyle you know, you didn’t have to worry about what to wear, where to go, what to do, you know none of that stuff, all of it was.. Programmed for you I guess. But I missed my wife. And um, my family, but we kept in touch. And uh, that’s it, it’s my wife, it’s all I missed.

When you guys were deployed to Vietnam, or anchored off Vietnam, were you ever allowed to go to shore?

No, um, there was no reason to let us go ashore the only time we were allowed to go ashore any place was when we went on liberty, we visit foreign ports and they gave us time off. To go visit and um, usually on a port and (started?) basis meaning half the ship went to shore and the other half the next day, most of the time we only spent four days at a liberty port, but Vietnam it was low business, there was no place to go. For one thing, and it’s a combat zone for another thing, and we had work to do where we were because as I say we stopped off at one port, went to another port, went off to another port, and headed home; And made a second trip.

Okay, and could you describe the city, so you say. Who could, who was able to use these so called stores?

Okay, the city was 888 feet long, and, which was the size of the battle ship New Jersey, (mumbles..) of that class of battleship, same length, and it was 14 decks, um, the navy, the first water tight deck which goes from stem to stern and beam to beam is deck one. And as you go down it’s 2, 3,4,5,6.. And the bottom is 7. And when you go up its 01,02,03,04,05,06,07... Was the base of the mast. So we had 14 decks. And not all were living spaces, we had machinery spaces and we had store rooms, we had... But who could use the stores. Well we had a library aboard it was open to everybody, we had a music, a music... a place where you could check out musical instruments which was available... Everything was available to everybody, officers and the enlisted. There was an ice cream shop, there was a department store, you call it a ships tore, it was like a navy exchange, and if they didn’t have it there, they catalogs you could order it from, and they would order it for you. If you needed a new uniform there was a place to get new uniforms you would call, small stores, and you could have them altered, there was a tailor shop aboard, there was a barber shop aboard, there was a smoke shop, you could buy a whole bunch of tobacco products, um, I mentioned the ice cream place, they had soft serve ice cream, um, so, you weren’t lacking for any of the amenities. As I say we had movies every night and uh, very rarely do we actually see one twice, the only time you would see one twice is when one officer hadn’t seen it, the one day, and he wanted to see it the next day and we had already seen it. And that left us with that other movie but we already saw that the other night, but you know, we eventually got to see them all, and we would exchange movies every time we got to a port or came in contact, if we ever refueled from another ship, usually one of the things we did was swap movies, um, we’d pull alongside another ship, refuel or re-provision, and swap movies. So we had all the comforts of home so to speak, we always had, we had hot showers, fresh water, so we weren’t inconvenienced in any way, except for when the marines were on board. Frequently, they would not use the shower facilities the way they should be done so we ended up running out of water, and the boilers have first priority. We used to, the ship would make fresh water on the ship but the boilers had first priority, otherwise, you don’t go anywhere. So they would (own?) up the showers and such for maybe an hour in the morning and maybe an hour in the evening. And there’d only be one or two water fountains or scuttlebutts as we would call them, on the whole ship that we could use during the day. So.

Okay, and could you describe your happiest moment in war?

I mean in the Navy.

Those two don’t go... Yeah war and happy don’t go together. As a rule. Not in the same sentence anyway. The happiest days in the Navy? I guess it was kinda’ like, A man buying a boat, the two great days of when he buys it, and when he sells it. So I guess the two great days for me was when I went in and when I went out. But, I didn’t really want to go out. *laughs*

And, in your years of service, could you describe one event that *Coughs* that pops in your head when someone says, “The Navy”

Ha, One event.

Or general topic.

No I mean, I’ve been a sailor at heart for all my life, I mean a (pew stick?) that says U.S Navy, I’ve got a mouse pad that says U.S Navy, I’ve got an 1865 Navy cutlass, I’ve got hats from the Navy, I’ve got, I mean my kid jokingly says if you wanna’ get dad a gift for Christmas or his birthday, if it says Navy on it you’re okay. He says I’m the easiest guy to buy with. You can buy something with a train on it or Navy on it. It’s... if I could still be in the Navy I would still be in the Navy. But health wise, age wise, you know, it’s not possible in fact, um, I wouldn’t know what to do in the Navy because you know, my rate, in fact, they’re eliminating it, um, things have changed so much I can go down to battleship cove and take you through the Battleship Massachusetts and I can tell you all about that ship, all the gear that’s on it because my ship had the same gear. But you put me on a new one and I have no idea. Because everything is printed circuit boards, the parts changing and you know there’s so much different stuff, but I… just ah, I do flashbacks to a whole lot of things when someone mentions the Navy, I guess basically it was the shipmates. If I had to pick something down. Well, two things I guess really. One was to travel, I got to see the world, um, and that gave me a greater appreciation for what we have here. It really, really bothers me that there is no draft today. Because it gave people the opportunity to learn to appreciate what we have here. Because you can see the comparisons. Um, a lot of Countries are Westernized but you go to some places like Japan where they still where Kimonos’ and they’ll kneel at the table, the short table, and when you go to Barcelona Spain and in every corner instead of a traffic cop there’s a guy with a machine gun, you know or in England where at the time, they were still on the pound system with divided by 12 not by 10. And you know, and the French which there money is so colorful you could use it as wall paper. It’s, the Caribbean you know, the whole, the aspect of, party all the time or the nice weather, palm trees, and beaches and you go to Italy in Naples and find out that hmm… “The arm pit of the Mediterranean”. Oh well there must be another Naples that the tourists sees. Not the fleet landing at the sailors sees. But, um, it was a great experience and seeing how the world is, so when you get back here and see what we have here, it made a big difference, and… the ship mates get together, that’s one of the things we talk about. Is, it would be nice if more people went into the service to get to see that kind of stuff. Um, that was one thing and my shipmates, the friends you make for life that, um, that you go through all those things with, you really get to know them and appreciate them, and when you do get together again, you build on that even some more, you know, and we never really talk about what we’ve done since, we see each other and we just, you know, if you were making a movie, all you would see is the uniforms come back on and the guys sittin’ around with a cup in their hand you know, sittin’ on deck someplace and just talking just, reminiscing.

And, were you awarded any medals?

Well, that’s a touch question because there are two kinds, there are decorations, and there is, there is campaign medals if you will. Basically in the service, if it’s round it’s for being some place, and if it’s for valor it has a shape; like a star, or a cross, or something in that nature. Yeah I’ve got a number of, and by the way those are called decorations. Um, the other medals I have, yeah a number of them that I got in the Navy, or the National Guard and the coast guard reserve. Um, good conduct medals, accommodation medals, humanitarian medals, Vietnam service, Arms forces expeditionary national defense, so basically, national defense is for being in the service during a time of conflict. The arms forces expeditionary was for the Dominican republic crisis, Vietnam service with two stars was for going over to Vietnam. We made two trips but we were there three times. Well what you do is go over and leave the combat area and you come back in again and that’s another trip. Strange, the way the service does that. The good news is you didn’t pay taxes while in the combat zone and you didn’t have to pay for mail. The Frankie privilege. Um, the armed forces, were basically other good conduct medals um, the blizzard of ’78 we got a state award, my national guard unit, and they converted that to a federal award so that was humanitarian service. So, there’s about six or seven that I have. That I wear when I dress up.

And, how did, um, the Navy impact your life?

Oh, well, *cough* excuse me, as I said earlier, um, my job right now, I work for the church of Jesus Crist of latter-day Saints as a meeting house mechanic, which I suppose you could call a handyman, but I fix vacuum cleaners, I fix satellite systems, I fix sound systems you know, Alarm systems and things like that, and a lot of those skills, the mechanical skills I got in the Navy. So, the schooling I got in the Navy, the training I got in the Navy, um, helped me to, as far as earning a living. The discipline side , mixed about that. Discipline, I never liked being told what to do like a lot of other people, sometimes I push back but never enough to get me really in trouble. A couple times I didn’t get to leave the ship as early as I would have liked to because I mouthed off to a senior petty officer, but they got over it. Eventually, well I never did. But um, the Navy has impacted my life again, as I said, as I said earlier, my attitude about this country, and the importance of friends, as opposed to acquaintances. And the ability to use my skills to earn a living.

And, what advice would you give any young person joining the Navy today?

*pause* Well, *Pause* You want to pick a job, a rate, an occupation, that you can use when you get out. Because when I went in, I picked a job that I couldn’t use. And the second job I tried was a damage control man. Fixing water tight doors, and air testing compartments and doing fire extinguishers, a lot of times damage control men become firemen, aside from that, there’s not too many people on the outside who wants a water tight door fixed. So in case I did get out, it would be an impracticable rate for me. But, picking something you can use on the outside, I mean, the Navy has great schools, I mean they’re really great. Um, probably the best. If you’re interested in electronics or health, the only problem with the Navy core men is that you may end up with the Marines, you know, in a combat zone, but then again, you know, it serves a useful purpose. You wanna’ really try to know what you want to do for a living and pick a military occupation that, that will provide you the education and the opportunity to practice that at the governments expense and when you get out, you know, apply it. And uh, build on it from there. It gives you a good foundation. And there’s a number of people who have told me that they’re thinking of going into the military, and I’ll try to steal, steer them towards the Navy because of the positive experiences I’ve had.

And, if you could go back in time, would there be anything you would change?

Yeah, I would have stayed in. Not withstanding my wife’s opinion, I probably would have rather than just got out, we probably would have sat down and discussed it a little more. I wouldn’t have given in so easily. As a res.. the reason I’ve been in two other services after the navy was, my wife realized that she came between me and a career, so she didn’t push when I went into the reserves. And the reserves were the best for both worlds. I would have gone into the Navy reserve but quite honestly the Navy reserve, the reserves aren’t set up for the Navy. They just don’t, I couldn’t do my rate in the Navy reserves. I’d sit around all weekend doin’ nothin’. So, when I changed over to being a cook in the army, and then I stayed there for four years because I had the skill to do that, um, I went into the Coast Guard reserve, and the Coast Guard has changed a whole lot since I was in the Navy, I mean they used to do ocean stations but now they have satellites to do that. So I was stationed in Chatham, and I loved it. I was in a little sea service. I could go out, and ride on boats. Um, it wasn’t the Navy but it was as close as I could get and still be doin’ somethin’. But um, the one thing I would change is probably, I would have made it a career and at age 38 I would be out, go out and solute the mailbox once a month, pick up a check and still be able to go get a job.

Alright, that will be all.

Thank you kindly!

Thank you.