1953 - Starting at IBM

1953. In the Navy, in order to get a promotion, every eligible person has to take a Naval exam in their specialty. The exam is a multiple-choice exam in two parts. The first part covered general naval information that came from the "Blue Jackets Manual". This was something that I was very familiar with. I even taught some of the others on many of the important information. The second part dealt with the particular skill. The first exam was for ET3 (Electronic Technician Third Class). I passed the exam and became an ET3. I became the leader of the ET squad and enjoyed the added responsibilities. At that point, I felt that I would like to make the Navy my career. Later, I took the exam to be promoted to the rank of ET2 (Electronic Technician Second Class). I felt quite good about the exam and was very surprised when the results stated that I had completely failed both parts of the exam. I was sure that I should have at least passed the Naval part (Blue Jackets Manual). I'd been teaching this section to other crew members for the previous 6 months. This was a slap in my face and pride because it affected both my status as the group leader and my pay. My buddy (best man) also took the exam and he succeeded. He then became the lead electronics petty officer and I was dropped to second in charge. I was convinced that there had to be some type of error in the grading of the exam and I decided that I needed to get a review of the results. I went to my division officer with my concern and was told there could not be a mistake. I was not satisfied and took my concern to the Captain and requested that the exam be reviewed. I was told that he did not feel there could be a mistake and would not follow up. This was very important to me so I wrote a letter to the testing facility requesting a review. Because I went around the chain of command, they decided that I was not a good sailor. I challenged the system and therefore I was a bad example to others. It was then that I decided that the Navy would not be a good career choice for me.

When you are working and living with a tight group, there is a lot of good natured heckling as I left. Due to them being comfortable, staying in port, while I went to sea. However, what we did not know at that time was my new ship the LST 105 was scheduled to be given to the Taiwan Navy at the beginning of the coming year. They were due to leave Norfolk in mid January. Therefore all of their activities were to get the ship in good condition for the long voyage. This was a big year for us as we awaited the arrival of our first child. The baby was due in the early part of November. My ship was scheduled to take a month long trip to the Caribbean in late October and November. Mom Osterhus decided that she would come to Norfolk to be with Joan when the baby arrived. The plan was to have Dad Osterhus come out after the baby was born. Well, as things usually go, babies and schedules don't run together. When I returned, nothing had happened. Then Dad O and Ruth arrived. So we just waited. Finally, early in the morning of Saturday November 28, the pains started. Ruth and Joan timed the pains and decided when it was time to go. The naval hospital was in Portsmouth, which was about 30 miles from the trailer. Into the car we went and checked Joan into the maternity ward, and Ruth and I settled down for what we hoped would be a short wait. During the drive, something had happened to the car that I needed to fix soon. I also had to report on board the ship to get permission to be off for the weekend. We checked on Joan and they said that she was comfortable and at the time was asleep. We then decided to go back to the trailer and the ship. After checking in at the ship, I stopped at the trailer and fixed the car and then headed back to the hospital expecting that we would have good news. However, when we arrived there was no news so we sat back and waited. Finally I got a call and I was shown my new daughter. This was the first time that I had ever seen a new baby and they had not cleaned her up at the time. It was a bit of a shock. The next day Joan took me to the nursery to see our new daughter. I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful little girl. We brought her home to the trailer and in a day or two the folks had to leave. I remember standing in front of the trailer, holding Karen and wondering, as they drove away, what are we going to do now. A few weeks later Joan wanted to go Christmas shopping. We drove to the store and decided that Karen was too young to be with all the people, so I was going to wait in the car with her while Joan shopped. Well, right after Joan left there was a very strong BM smell. We had some diapers (cotton) and I went to work. It was successful, however there was again a very strong smell and I had to do my duties again. This went on until there were no diapers left and there was no Joan. Finally she returned and when she opened the car door the smell hit her. It was my first major initiation into fatherhood and after 4 more children it was also the worst. In those days there were no disposable diapers. They were made of cotton and had to be washed after each use. Washing was not the problem but pre cleaning was no fun. The first winter we had to wash the diapers and hang them on the line outside. There were often times when they would freeze before we could bring them in.

We also decided that we needed a washer but did not have much room, so we bought a table top washer. This consisted of a tub, an agitator and the top motor unit. We would put the diapers in the tub and then place the agitator in the tub. We would fill up the tub and then we would put on the top and connect it to the agitator. Then we would turn on the timer knob and away it would go. After the wash cycle, we would run the diapers through the hand cranked wringer and then put in the rinse water and do it again. It worked, but it worked.