Page 129 - Anthology

I was actually discharged from the seperation center in Bainbridge, Maryland. I can tell you this; if you
were a WWII veteran, you were a celebrity. I remember this one time; I was getting off a train about
three in the morning in Ashland, Kentucky, and these two women picked me up one under each arm and
they were feeding me coffee and donuts. The Navy gave me $300 mustering out pay. I remember
something else. I told you I was discharged in Bainbridge, that is near Baltimore, and there is a big train
station there. Well, anyway on the day I was to board the train to come home the station was packed. All
kinds of people standing around waiting to board. Some civilian defense workers had been waiting for
two or three days. They were trying to get home for Christmas. The conductor came out and yelled:
“servicemen first”. The wounded were seated and others had to stand. But, servicemen were given
priority over everyone else.

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I got home from the Navy on Christmas eve, 1945. On April 13 , 1946, I got married. We moved to
Indiana and I went to work in a steel mill. I operated overhead cranes for about ten years. But, all of us
wanted to get back home to Kentucky. I figured the only way to get back to Kentucky was to go into
construction. I joined the Pipefitters Union. I had been a crane operator so that meant I had a sit down
job. So, when I returned to Kentucky, it took me over six months to get into shape to work as a pipefitter.
That was where I learned that man is not made to sit on his tail and work. I stayed in pretty good shape
all them years.

I became a man in the navy. I came home a different person. I was no longer the runt of the family.

My advice to today’s generation is to either go to college or spend at least two years in the military.

NOTE

1. The U.S. Navy Armed Guard was a service branch of the United States Navy that was responsible for
defending U.S. and Allied merchant ships from attack by enemy aircraft, submarines and surface ships
during World War II. The men of the Armed Guard served as gunners, signal men and radio operators on
cargo ships, tankers, troop ships and other merchant vessels.