The 1950s - Navy and Meeting Joan

1950s In the summer of 1950, a group of friends and I rented a cottage at the beach in Lavallete NJ for a week. One morning we picked up a paper and found that war had been declared in Korea. One of my cottage friends, Elmer Burger, a longtime friend who was a back door neighbor when we lived at the 650 Rockview address, had just joined the Marine reserves. We all knew that he would soon be called into active service. About 2 months later he was shipped out and was killed within 2 weeks. This had a major impact on us all and we considered enlisting before we were drafted. One of my friends, Warren MacQueen, and I decided that we would enlist together in the Navy rather than the Army, just after the beginning of the year. We were not interested in the Army, sitting in fox holes and eating K-rations. I was 19 years old. However, just before Christmas I found that Warren decided not to wait and had already gone to the recruiting center. I wanted to enlist with him so I went down there the next day. I was not excited to just join and be a "deck ape" so I asked if there were any special fields for me to go into. The Chief said that he only knew of two fields. He asked if I could play an instrument. When I said no, he asked me if I could do anything in "electronics". I asked what that was and he said he thought that it was something to do with fixing radios. I said no, but I was interested. He said that if I passed an electronic aptitude test, I could go into the electronics field. He had 2 books on basic electricity and basic electronics. He said that I should take them home and come back in 2 weeks to take the test. This meant that I would not go with Warren but it would give me some special training. I took the books and spent the next 2 weeks studying and successfully passed the test.

1951 The week after that I was on my way to Newport Rhode Island for 6 weeks of boot camp. I am very thankful to the recruiting Chief, because if I had gone with Warren my life would be totally different from this point on. My group of navy recruits met at Penn Station and after some general information we boarded the train and headed north. Upon arrival at 10 pm we were told that they would start processing that night but we would get a good steak dinner when we finished. So off we went. The first thing they did was line us up at the barber station and off went the hair. In 1950 duck tail hair was very popular and took a while to get it right. I had a very conservative hair cut so all they did was give me a trim, but the guys with the duck tails got very short cuts. This was a very emotional thing for some of them. They then gave us a box and told us to place all of our belongings (except toilet articles) in the box. We were then told to seal it and put our home address on the label. Our civilian possessions were gone and now we were really in the Navy. Then naked as jay birds we went through the medical exams, got shots, etc. Finally, we were issued uniforms. This was very precise. We walked up to a window and after a quick look the sailor behind the counter gave each of us a stack of clothes. Surprisingly enough most of it fit. Now we were sailor recruits. By this time we had spent all night processing and were looking forward to the promised steak dinner. However, it seems that was just one of the many disappointments that we would receive in the next weeks. Navy boot camp is nothing like the army or marines. Marching and physical challenges were not very high on the program. We did our share of basic drills and marching but we were never very good. Most of the marching was to and from the chow hall. It was hurry up and then stand out in the cold and wait until we could get in. In the 50s most men smoked and the punishment for the squad, when we did not do well in the drills or some of the many other activities, was no smoking. The chief would announce that the "smoking lamp was out". This was a term which was used throughout the navy. Well, this was a punishment that I enjoyed because I and a few others did not smoke and it was great to have clear air in the barracks. During the weeks there were classes and most of the guys were given different tests to determine the type of specialized training they would be given. There were 5 of us that were not sent out for any of these tests and we finally found that those who had passed the electronic test prior to enlistment were already rated as ETSR, which is Electronic Technician Seaman Recruit, and that we were going to go to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, which is just north of Chicago.

So after boot camp was over, I was on my way to the Midwest. Little did I know how that would change my life. My sister Terry (she decided that she didn't like Margaret so she chose the name Terry. It came from the comic strip "Terry and the Pirates") had gone to Marquette University in Milwaukee so that she could be in the same school as her boyfriend. However, not long after she arrived, they broke up and she started dating Bill Heiser. They got married after graduation and when I arrived at Great Lakes they were living in a home in White Fish Bay, which is a northern suburb of Milwaukee. There was a train line that ran between Chicago and Milwaukee and one of the stops was just outside the base gates. It was 40 miles to Chicago and 60 miles to Milwaukee. Terry offered me an open invitation to come up there at any time. They had a guest room that was not being used, so I took advantage of the invitation. I used the train often on weekends. It was an adventure by itself. The train was very old, the cars were mostly wood and they had small "pot belly" coal stoves in each car for heat. It was an electric train with a pole that contacted an overhead wire. It looked like a series of old street car trolleys connected together. The stops at Waukegan, Racine and Kenosha were small but normal. However, to get to the station in Milwaukee, the train had to run on tracks in the middle of the street. The train was too long for the street traffic, so we had to stop before we came into town. The train was separated into two trains. Another engineer came onto the second half. The conductor would raise another electrical pole for the second half, and then we would drive down the street, stopping for the traffic lights, until we arrived at the station. Milwaukee was a great "Liberty" town. (Liberty is the navy term used for official time off). The people were very supportive and there was always something going on for the servicemen on the weekends. A sailor really did not need money for an enjoyable weekend. The YMCA had cots for $0.50 per night. There were some of my friends that went there with no money and were treated great all weekend and sometimes came home with money in their pockets. It was also a time that hitch-hiking was safe and accepted. I did a lot of my traveling by using my thumb. One night I was hitch-hiking from Terry's into town for a date. A man in a Cadillac stopped and picked me up. When he heard that I had a date he told me that I could have the use of his car for the evening if I would pick him up at the men's club at midnight. It was a great and trusting offer but one that I felt I had to refuse. This is just one example of the way the people there wanted us to know that we had their support.