Chapter 1

From Alta to Boot Camp

I was fresh out of Alta High School when I enlisted in the Navy. My mother took me to Spencer, Iowa to take a Navy Eddy test that would assure me of going to radio school after my induction. I passed this test and was called to Naval Recruiting Station at Des Moines, Iowa on 4/1/1944. As it turned out this was the day before I received my draft papers. I narrowly missed being selected as a Marine recruit only because of the Eddy Test papers I had in hand. The Marine sergeant asking for volunteers was rather disgruntled when I handed him my papers.

I was sent to the US Naval Training School at Great Lakes, Ill on 4/2/44 for the basic recruit training which ended 5/12/44. I then had the Seaman First Class rating. I was equal in pay grade to a Sergeant in the Army. This rating was awarded because of the Radio Technician School I was to attend. After basic training the next duty was school, which was located in the outskirts of Chicago, suburb called Berwin. This was the first stage of Radio Technician schools. The bulk of the other students I had to compete with were washed out Aviation Cadets. They had been in college and were very versed in higher mathematics than I.

Our math course started with simple grade school math and progressed though calculus. This also included a course in slide rule. Since I had taken 4 years of high school math this level of math was entirely more advanced than I had studied in all my math classes. This school was very short and comprehensive consequently I did not pass the math course. The length of this school was from 6/9/44 to 6/29/44.

After this disappointing development I was reassigned to Great Lakes Service School. This was a school for Electricians Mate and was my choice instead of radio operating. Electricians school was considerably more fundamental for me and still broadened my knowledge of the electrical field. I learned about motors, generators, ships wiring and battery charging. The school lasted until 10/29/1944 and then I waited to report to Shoemaker, CA for extended duty in the South Pacific.

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Chapter 2