MY LIFE (SO FAR)

The beginning I came upon the scene February 18, 1930, in the big city of Walla Walla, Washington. You know, the town so good they had to name it twice. I dont remember much about the occasion of my arrival, (I was quite young at the time) but being February, I bet it was cold.

Rowland Gerald Jimmy Yeend. age 2 . Grandpa McEvoy said Rowland was too big a name for a little boy; Ill call him Jimmy. Grandpa was boss, so that was my name up to the time I went in the Navy. I dont know where we lived in my beginning, but at some point in time we went to live in a cabin on some acreage that belonged to Grandpa Yeend. I dont remember much about him either, except I think he had a hairstyle similar to what mine is now. My hair brush has more hair on it than I have on my head. The cabin was located at a place seven miles out of town called Valley Grove. I have no idea why it even had a name the only thing there was a one-room schoolhouse and a couple farms nearby. The cabin was a two-room mansion with a kitchen stove in one room and a bed in the other. We did, however, have one modern convenience that most farmhouses didnt. We had indoor plumbing (water only.) Dad had cut a hole in the floor of the kitchen and had driven a well point into the ground below. He mounted a pitcher pump on a stand next to a basin that served as the kitchen sink. The water drained onto the ground outside. As I recall, Fred Yeend (cousin), who had a farm just up the lane past the cemetery, didnt have indoor water, but they did have an indoor bathtub. You had to carry water from the well (outside) into the kitchen, warm it on the stove then pour the water into the tub. When you finished bathing you pulled the plug and the water went onto the ground out back. Our place had another feature better than Freds. Our outhouse was a two-holer. Theirs was only one.

Theirs did, however, have a door. Ours was open front looking out into the grove and a big red-ant hill just a few feet away.

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This was depression times and there wasnt much work. When Dad did work he had to walk to town (Walla Walla, 7 miles away) because we didnt have a car. In getting ready for work of course Dad had to shave but there was little money for such things as razor blades and I remember Dad honing his blades inside a drinking glass to sharpen them enough to shave. I remember being at Freds place at milking time. Fred would sit on his three legged stool with his head pushed against the cows flank and a bucket between his legs (no electric milking machines then (no electricity). There was always a swarm of cats around at milking time. Every once in a while Fred would squirt milk in their face. I also got in the act, I would get my tin cup down off the wall and Fred would squirt it full of milk. I liked warm whole milk then, I dont think I could drink it now. When he finished milking cow(s), we carried the milk up to the house to run it through the separator. A separator is a machine to separate out the cream from the milk. It used A spinning drum started by a hand crank, then maintained by a heavy flywheel. I tried to run the separator, but I couldnt get it started.

The separator shared the back porch with Beulahs (Freds wife) washing machine. That was a pretty modern convenience then. A one-cylinder gas engine drove the machine and the exhaust was carried outside through a flexible metal hose. The Maytag man wouldnt have gotten much rest around that thing.

That schoolhouse I mentioned was a one-room building with a stable out back for the horses that some kids rode to school and separate outhouses for boys and girls. There was a fence around the school grounds with a gate and a stile out front so the kids (and others) could get in and out without opening the gate.

The school must have been the center of activity for the area. I remember they held dances there occasionally. The students desks were mounted on wooden runners, with several desks per set of runners. This made it possible to easily move them off to the side of the room to make room for dancing. They spread some kind of powder on the floor and during a break in the dancing us kids would run out onto the floor and see how far we could slide across the room. Connie went to this school for a few years (how many Sis?). I was to young.

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I didnt have a bicycle, but you don't have to peddle a pig. I probably didnt have many shoes either. But I guess I didnt need them, the bottom of my feet must have been like leather. I was told that I would walk barefoot through stubble fields (whats left after the wheat has been harvested) without any problem. In later years I worked on Fred's farm, one of my jobs was plowing fence rows with a single bottom plow pulled by an old nag of a horse.

I wasn't the strongest kid around and walking behind that plow, trying to keep it upright and as close to the fence as possible, was a real chore for me. Sometimes the plow would hit a buried rock and send the plow and me flying through the air. When that would happen, the horse would stop and turn her head toward me as if to say well kid, are you going to get up? I swear that field was a hundred miles around. Another of my jobs at Fred's was helping in the hay fields. We cut the hay with horse drawn cycle mower then with a hay rake bring it up in windrows to let the hay dry then fork the windrows into shocks. Well about the time it got dry enough it would rain. Then after the rain stopped and the hay had time to dry again we had to turn all the shocks over so they could dry the bottom. Finally after a few rounds of dry, turn,dry,turn... we could throw the hay up onto the horse drawn wagon that is Fred threw it up into the wagon I helped but with a very small fork load of hay while Fred would pick up an entire shock at once and pitch it up on the wagon. That was miserable work in the hot summer with hay going down your neck and sweating like crazy. Wheat harvest was quite an operation, the combine in those days was far different than the one man combine they have now. It was a large outfit pulled by a Caterpillar (crawler) tractor (it had been pulled by mules), that took several men to operate. Wheel tractors didn't work on the hills that comprised the typical farm out west. If you look closely at the picture on the right, you can see a mule team pulling that combine.

These pictures don't show the whole crew. There was of course the cat skinner (tractor driver), header tender, who kept the header (mower) angled to the hill while keeping the combine deck level. There were two baggers that stitched the gunny sacks closed and put them on the slide which laid the sacks of wheat on the ground for the truck crew to pick up to take to the storage shed. 3 Of 23

Dutch Garver was another farmer I worked for. He probably was the richest farmer in the area. When I worked for him it was pea harvest time. A buddy of mine and I got a job driving truck hauling peas from the harvester to the side of the field where prisoners from the state prison worked the 'viners', viners were large machines that removed the pea pods from the fines. Boy did those pea vines stink. The men were obviously trustees, although I don't know how far I would trust them. But for the most part they seemed like OK guys. The reason for the prisoners was the shortage of men because of the war (WWII). They brought some of their handy-work with them from the 'hill'. Really nice jewelry that they offered for sale. Ronnie Hallmarks cousin from the east came out for a visit and was amazed to see cows walking on the side of a hill yet standing up straight. Ronnie told her that they were western cows that had legs on one side shorter than the other and they always had to walk around the hill in the same direction. I don't know if she swallowed that or not.

I dont know what this was all about, but it is obvious I wasnt too happy about it. The lady in the picture is my cousin Donna (Freds daughter). The costumes look like another display of mothers sewing ability. I believe when I was about 5 years old, we moved into town to live with grandma McEvoy. Her house was on the west end of town (the other side of the tracks), and wasn't much different than the farm in some ways. She had chickens and a cow and fruit trees and obviously a calf. I guess her home was somewhat different than the farm, it had indoor plumbing and electricity. All the modern conveniences.

I guess you can take the boy off the farm, but . After we moved to town, I liked going to Fred's farm and went there often. Once when my cousin Joan from Seattle came to visit, we went out to the farm. Fred kept a shotgun in a shed down by the creek and I often used to hunt in the woods. I got the gun out and offered it to Joan to shoot but she was afraid it would knock her over. I said OK then lead against the tree then you won't fall. That was not a good idea. 4 Of 23

She shot the gun and I thought she had broken her shoulder. She ended up with a huge bruise. Grandma's chickens provided us with all the eggs we needed, and also some pretty good fried chicken. Grandma would kill the chickens by grabbing them by the neck and spinning them until their head came off. They would flop around the back yard for a while then she would dump them in a pot of boiling water to loosen up their feathers. Later I got the job of tending the chickens, including removing their heads. I used a hatchet and chopping block for the job. Grandma would send me to the feed mill to get chicken feed. We got a very large bag of wheat for twenty-five cents. That bag sure was heavy. The modern heating system was a barrel stove in the living room It was actually two barrels one inside the other. The inner one was the fire box and the outer one had a folding lid on top to put in wood. Sometimes the thing would get a back draft and blow the lid into the air along with lots of ashes. But it did heat the front part of the house pretty well. The kitchen had a wood (or coal) burning cook stove with water coils in the firebox for heating water in the tank along side the stove. As I remember she later got a new stove, I think it was a gas stove. Mrs. Jones and her drunken son Andy lived next door to Grandma. She was pretty nice old lady. I would visit her sometimes and we would play a game she called Cootie. It was played with a pair of dice and pencil and paper. The object was to draw a picture of a cootie. Each player would roll the dice and draw various parts of this insect depending on what number you got on the dice. A certain number for the body, another number for the head and other numbers for the feelers and legs and the had to be drawn in order, body, head, feelers(one at a time), and legs one at a time. Whoever got all the parts of their bug first won. Its amazing the dumb things we remember when we get old. I can't remember what I did yesterday. Andy was a big help to Grandma (when he was sober). He had some surgical instruments and he operated on Grandmas feet. She had corns that really bothered her when she walked so when they got bad Andy would trim them. Often, when Andy would come home drunk, Mrs. Jones would call mother and ask her to come over to help get him to bed. Andy would say Ah Deanie you cant take my cloths off, youre a girl. Mrs. Jones would say Its a dern shitten shame he has to do this, as she spit tobacco juice into her tin can. Deanie (sic) was what people called mother, her name was Geraldine. Mrs. Jones had a nice goldfish pond in her back yard. One time I swiped some of them and put them in a wash tub. I got in a bit of trouble over that stunt. Speaking of stunts, Mrs Jones had a grandson who was a stunt pilot for air shows and movies and sometimes he would fly into town to see her. Then when he was leaving he would fly over our house so his grandma could see him from her house. He would fly so low I was sure he was going to land in our front yard.

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Washington school

Grades 1 through 8 = 9 years for me. I liked the 4th grade teacher so I stayed with her for two years. One day after school my cousin Bobby and I were wrestling in the school yard, just playing, but Mrs Harris the school principle saw us and thought we were fighting. She leaned out the window of her office (behind the three windows above the entrance) and while beating the side of the building with her large paddle, yelled for us to come to her office NOW. We had no choice but to go up there she would have nailed us sometime. She was very good with that paddle and had a strong arm. That sure did hurt. Another time while in the seventh grade Donovan Harvey and I were taken to the hall by Mrs Thomas for that same treatment. Donovan was to go first. She told him to lean over and lean on the sink while she administered the punishment. She lit into him and ignited some wooden matches he had in his back pocket. While he was dancing up and down trying to get the matches out of his pocket she and I got to laughing so hard that she forgot to whip me. Donovan didn't thing it was so funny. On a lighter side of schoolhouse time, I played a trombone in the band along side another kid also playing trombone. He was a small kid and had a little problem with that instrument. On a slide trombone the notes are played with the slide at various positions, from one to seven. Well this kid couldn't reach the 7th position, so he would push the slide down and catch it with his foot and then flick it back and catch it an go on playing. He was a pretty good player too. I finely made it to high school (Wa-Hi, Walla Walla High School)for a short time anyway. I took only the classes I was interested in such as: band, math, photography, agriculture. Also one I didn't really want but had to take English. The teacher in that class kept threatening me that if I didn't straighten up she would make me come up and sit on her lap. Well I took that as long as I could and finely the next time she said that, I walked up to her desk and plopped down on her lap. The class got a big laugh out of that stunt but she didn't. After I quit school I got a job working at a gas station near home. It would be called a convenience store now, we had groceries and gas. It was owned by a man who needed something for his playboy son-in-law to do. The playboy hired me so he could run around the neighborhood trying to put the make on all the women. He wasn't in the station very much, so I pretty much ran the place. Twelve hours a day seven days a week. But the pay was lousy too, $10.00 per week. You couldn't run a place like that these days. I would gas up a car check the oil and wash the windshield, then go in and slice cold cuts for a customer.

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That job did give me the money to buy my first car a 1921 Franklin. A really great car. The engine was 6 cylinders, air cooled (but the cooling fan didn't work) with a electric starter/generator that also didn't work. That meant I had to hand crank the thing to start it up. Usually the thing would back-fire and slam my hand into the frame. It's a wonder my hand wasn't broken, it sure was bruised. Oh yes, and the fuel system didn't work either. It had a vacuum fuel system that was supposed to draw gas from the rear mounted tank up to a small surge tank mounted on the firewall. But of course the vacuum system didn't work so I had to carry a can of gas in the car and fill the surge tank and go a ways, fill the surge tank, go a ways, etc. etc. Really high class transportation. Flying One day Ronnie Hallmark and I were out riding our bikes and decided to go out to the airport. The airport was owned by a man named Buss Brown, who had been a schoolmate of our folks. Watching the planes landing and taking off looked like a lot of fun. We asked Buss what it cost to learn to fly. He told us the cheapest route was in a plane called Ercoupe. This plane had a steering wheel and no foot pedals, while the other planes had stick and pedal control. That made the Ercoupe easier to fly so it didn't take as many hours of instruction to get a license and the hourly rates were less than the others. Both of us signed up for lessons, not knowing how we would pay for it. We both had jobs but the pay wasn't enough to cover the costs. Buss had an idea how we might make up the cost, he offered to hire us on a part time basis to earn flying time. That seemed great to us without knowing what we would be doing. It turned out the majority of the work was washing the planes, mostly the belly where oil from the engine made a real mess. So that is what I did. Laying on my back under the planes wiping the oil off with solvent, then washing the plane with soap and water. I would have done almost anything to be able to fly. I really enjoyed flying. This is the type plane I flew.

My flying ended when Fred (Duke) Wilson and I joined the Navy. We thought we were going to see the world, but it didn't work out quite that way. We boarded a train for Seattle, where the Navy induction center was located. After being stripped, poked, stabbed with needles and other indignities, we were sworn in and sent on our way by train to San Diego, California, to serve our term in boot camp. What fun that was. In boot camp we learned how to tie knots, fight fires, march, fire am M1 rifle and salute and say 'yes sir' to anything that moved. The saying was If it moves, 'salute it'. If it doesnt move 'paint it'. Duke and I were separated when he got sick and was in sick bay for a few weeks. That set him back several companies and we lost track of each other. When we finished boot camp, I was sent across town to the destroyer base/receiving station for a two year tour. So much for seeing the world. At the time I didn't know where Duke was sent, I later found out he was sent to Pensacola Florida for aircraft mechanic school.

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I served several jobs while at the Receiving Station, first I was a mess cook, which is not a cook but a bus-boy, then I worked in the officer separation center then the photo lab, after that I was assigned to be the XO's driver. About this time I met who would soon be my first wife, Mildred. That union brought on a fine fellow by the name of William Dale Yeend.

I was in Hawaii when he was born. It took a while to get a leave and bum a ride on flight on a military plane to the states. (Hawaii was not yet a state, so the term 'going to the states'. After they became a state they got a little hot if we said something like that and let us know in no uncertain terms 'WE ARE THE STATES.) The house in the background we rented for $25 per month. The landlord owned all the housed on that block and would only rent to service people and for no more than $25. Our landlord also had scrapyard where he lived. He invited Mildred and me to come to his house. When we got to his scrapyard we couldn't see any house, but we were taken to an area of the yard where there was a huge pile of junk. There was a door in the pile which looked like more of the scrap in the pile. However when he opened the door it showed a large room in the pile. We went in to find a luxurious living area like we had never seen before. There were actually several rooms just like a home, living room, kitchen, bath and bedroom. The bedroom held another surprise, in a bed built into the wall was a woman. Really it was a store dummy, but it looked alive. He said this is his wife. The entire home was constructed and furnished of scrap he had collected over time. Finally after my two year hitch at the destroyer base I was assigned to the USS Sproston DDE 577. She was WWII ship which was put into mothball storage after WWII and was now being recommissioned and refitted for electronic submarine warfare for service in the Korean War. These are two pictures of Sproston.

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When I reported aboard for duty she was in dry-dock being readied for sea duty. When they were finished drydock type work on the ship, they started to flood the dry-dock. As the water rose and the ship started coming off the blocks, she began to list to port. The more she cleared the blocks the more she listed. I thought; fine the first ship I get on and we're going to capsize the damn thing. But shortly over the PA came the word 'ALL HANDS MAN THE STARBOARD RAIL 'ALL, HANDS MAN THE STARBOARD RAIL'. Well that helped and the fitters were frantically pumping water and oil from the port tanks to the starboard tanks. They finely got the ship righted and finished flooding the dock so we could pull out and go alongside the pier to do what else needed to rig us for sea duty. Finally we put to sea for sea trials to see if the old boat would hang together. Well we put her through some pretty rough tests: High speed forward, high speed astern, high speed turns, (again damn near capsized the thing), then stop and drop a depth charge over the fantail to explode under the ship. You can believe that will 'shiver your timbers'. But the old girl took it all in stride and was accepted for sea duty. It was common for military men to have civilian cloths stashed in a locker club. I used a club in down town Diego, and one day as I came out of the club I saw a sailor walking going up the way, and even from the back I knew it was my buddy Duke. I yelled 'hey Duke' and he stopped and turned around and his jaw dropped and he started to cry. It was the first time I had seen him since leaving boot camp and the last time I ever saw him. Now we see the world Hawaii Pearl Harbor Hawaii was now our home port. What a boring place, just one beautiful day after another. Our first assignment came through. We were told to join a task force at sea to stand by for the return of a manned space capsule from space flight. To prepare for this, we were told to report to San Francisco shipyards to be fitted with a special hoist which was for the retrieval of the capsule if it landed near us. Unfortunately the capsule landed near the aircraft carrier in the task force, and we were sent back to remove the hoist and be fitted for the next job. We were fitted with the latest sonar and radar systems to make us ready to escort the ship carrying several A-Bombs to Eniwetok Atoll for a series of tests. This photo is of the worlds first hydrogen device that we fired, that shot was at Eniwetok on one of the islands of the atoll, that island no longer exists, there is a very large depression in the floor of the ocean. I call this a 'device' because this particular device could never be a 'bomb', the whole thing would fill most of the floor of a 9 Of 23

basketball court. It of course has been refined considerably now, such that several thermonuclear bombs can be carried in bombers.

They shot four atomic devices while we sailed around the atoll scanning for unfriendly subs or planes snooping on our activities. That was interesting seeing the power of those weapons. When they were fired we could actually see the shock wave coming across the water and when it hit it nearly knocked you over. We got through that firecracker display without setting the atmosphere on fire. Now back to Hawaii and more training. Then orders sending us off to Japan. Well we finely get to see another country. In Japan we were under the command of King General Douglas MacArthur (he was an egotistical jerk) as part of the Japan occupational forces.

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We got a ribbon for being part of the occupational forces after WW2, All I did was sight-see and drink beer. Japan is a very interesting place to see, being a very different culture. At that time they had not become westernized, still very Japanese, with kimonos and wooden 'shoes' and bowing when we meet, being the norm. I wish I had had a camera for my many port visits in the far east, there were some really fantastic sights. One place I went to see in Japan was a Buddha shrine. That was amazing, the statue must have been 50 feet tall, and nearly as wide with Buddha's very large belly. Another experience I had was when I was invited to a Japanese family's home for diner. The main course was a large plate of raw fish. I had a real hard time getting that down. Hong Kong was another good liberty port. Again with the Oriental culture. I took a cable car ride up the side of a mountain to see a shrine on top. The Oriental shrines are very beautiful.

Looking down on the city and the bay. When I was there there was only one 'tall' building, a hotel of a towering 10 stories. Philippines Also the Philippines was not one of my favorite places. Altho when I was there on the Sproston it wasn't bad. We were sent there off the firing line in Korea for R&R. They sent some of us to a camp up in the mountains where the Air Force kept a very nice resort. When we hit the sack at night, we put our cloths at the foot of the bed and when we got up the next morning our clothes were cleaned and pressed and our shoes were shined like a new dollar. The uncomfortable part of the trip there was the ride in a deuce and a half truck, armed with M1 rifles. They said there were still some gooks in the hills that didn't like Americans. Fortunately we didn't encounter any. Korea The Koreans can keep Korea. I didn't like it at all. Of course we were fighting a war there at the time which didn't help. Because of the war Truman extended the enlistments of everyone. But I fooled him, I reenlisted for six more years so I could get the re-up bonus. We entered the war as part of Seventh Fleet, Task Force 77. Sonar scanning of the area of the fleet and shore bombardment was our main tasks as well as sailing plane guard for the carriers. That job is to trail along closely behind the carriers while planes are launching or landing for the purpose of retrieving the pilot in the event he went into the water. Of course the pilot was not always there for us to retrieve. On one occasion all we were able to get was the pilots helmet and the wing tip tank. Speaking of carriers, the destroyers often needed to refuel and rather than leave the fleet and return to port for fuel, we took on oil from the fuel ships or a carrier. One time while refueling from a carrier in rather rough seas,

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we kind of bumped into the side of the carrier. The Captain of the carrier sent a message to our skipper If you touch me again, ill scream. Then back to the job of more shore bombardment. But first we were dispatched to meet the battleship Missouri and escort her to the fleet.

What a beautiful ship USS Missouri BB63 On the way to the task force we detected a Russian submarine. We knew we didn't have any subs in the area, and we were close to Vladivostok where the Russian sub pens are, so it was most likely theirs. Missouri released us from escort duty and ordered us to pursue the sub. Our skipper was an ex sub captain so he knew just about every maneuver the sub captain might try. We hovered over the tail of that sub for almost 24 hours as he headed back to Vladivostok. They must have been getting very uncomfortable since it was a diesel run sub and they have to surface every 24 hours to recharge batteries and get fresh air. But as we approached Vladivostok we had to break off the fun, we didn't want to take on the entire Russian sub fleet. We got back to the fleet just about as the Missouri was being dispatched to shore bombardment. She requested Sproston go in with her to go inboard to draw fire while she sat out 15 miles and fired her 16in shells over our head. We could actually see those shells going over. We had earlier been firing at a railroad tunnel on the coast with out much success with our 5in guns so the Mo fired a round that landed right in the mouth of the tunnel. Dirt and rocks and debris flew out the other end of that tunnel like buckshot from a shotgun. For the rest of our tour the Mo took Sproston everywhere she went. Once while doing shore bombardment with Missouri we received a message from task force that we were firing into our own lines. I don't know how bad it was with those 16 shells from Mo falling on them, we never heard if there were casualties. One job we were assigned alone was to sail to the west coast of Korea to try to save a pilot who was shot down there. But when we got there a group of marines had pulled him out of the river, so we returned to the east side of the peninsula. Another exciting event we were involved in was riding out a typhoon. It was so strong, the waves were going over the mast. We heard some sailors on the carrier were making bets whether we would come back up after going down in deep trough. We suffered damage to our superstructure with a split in the bulkhead from the 01 deck down to the main deck. This sent us back to Japan for repairs then back to the fleet only to get there in time to get hit with another typhoon and splitting in the same place. So back in for repairs. After finishing our six month duty in Korea and Japan, we returned to Pearl for six months, then back again to the far east and duty with the Task Force for another six months.

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Transfer to USS Dixie AD 14 On returning to Pearl, I had an opportunity to transfer to USS Dixie AD14 which was a destroyer tender. I was a torpedo-man 3rd and that ship had a large torpedo repair shop, so that gave me a chance to learn the inner workings of the torpedo and so advance my rating which I did eventually reaching the rate of torpedo-man 1st class. The torpedoes that the Navy was using were old model steam driven type, but the Dixie torpedo shop was in the process of being updated to include capability to maintain new electronic, sonar guided torpedoes so I with three other men was sent to special weapons school in Key West Florida to get qualified in high tech electronic torpedoes, with that training I probably could have made Chief, but I thought I would rather leave the Navy and set the world on fire on the outside. (ha ha, it ain't burning yet). So I sat out seven months right through the hot summer months in Key West Florida. When it rains in Key West it really rains. The island is very flat and low, the highest in the island is 7 feet where I think someone piled up clam shells. During one rain, sailors were going down Truman street in rubber rafts going from bar to bar. In one bar the guys were sitting at the bar with there shoes and socks sitting on the bar and their feet dangling in water. Nothing will keep a sailor from a cold beer. I did some skin diving while there. At first I didn't know how strong the sun was down there and I ended up in sick bay with large water blisters on my back and legs. Once while swimming along a reef I came to a place where the reef dropped down for several feet then continued on. As I approached the opening a shark swam out through and on out to sea. I guess he didn't see me. Ill bet if he had seen me I could walk on water faster than he could swim. When I got out of school and headed back to San Diego, the ship had already gone back to Subic Bay, so I had a long miserable ride back to the Philippines on a Navy Constellation plane. I met a little redhead in San Diego (Mildred and I had separated long before this time) and didn't make it back to the ship for five days.. For that the skipper busted me to 2nd class. But what could have been a good thing, wasn't. When the punishment report came back from Squadron Commander it was disapproved because of my critical rating (special weapons) The bad part is when the disapproval came back from Squad Comm I was again with the redhead and got back to the ship a few hours late. Again I was called before the skipper for a little talk. He said By God Ill make it stick this time. So I was busted to 2nd class again. He then asked me if I planned to reenlist. I said no sir. He said thank God. This is Dixie with destroyers along side to be serviced by the tender.

This is USS Dixie AD14

We typically would spend six months swinging around the hook in San Diago and the next six doing the same thing in Subic Bay Philippines. Then back to San Diego Then back to Philippines 13 Of 23

Then back to San Diego Enough of this I'm getting out. So I ended my 9 year Naval career. Back to Civilian life Las Vegas When I was discharged I went to Las Vegas to visit my sister Connie and also Mother and Marilee who were now living there. That was a long visit, it lasted about 12 years. Joe (Connie's husband) knew I was into electronics and he knew a foreman at EG&G (Edgerton, Germeshousen & Grier) and arranged an interview with him which went well, and I was offered a job. EG&G was a prime contractor to the Atomic Energy Commission and as such did all controls, photography, timing and firing of the atomic devices. Doing work for the AEC required top secret clearance. In order to get that clearance the FBI checks out your entire life and maybe farther back. They talk to everyone who ever knew you or about you. Some of those people wondered what I had gotten into now. The FBI wouldn't tell them anything. Ma'am, please just answer the questions. I worked in the detector group. We were responsible for calibrating the detectors and mounting them on and around the atomic device for the purpose of measuring the yield of the bomb. These pictures are of two of the gadgets (the term we used rather than bomb) . These two photos were shots fired at Nevada Test Site. We also had operations at Eniwetok and Bikini atolls far out in the Pacific ocean.

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In addition to the weapons program, I worked on project Rover. Rover was a program to develop a nuclear rocket engine. I dont know if that thing would have ever worked, but we were de-funded before we could find out. We finely did get the reactor to run and provide a small amount of thrust, but not nearly enough to push a rocket anywhere.

Two views of the reactor.

Loyd Davis and Me(closer guy) adjusting the recorders in preparation for a reactor run.

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And some miscellaneous pics

My race car with one of the girls at the wheel. Mom really wanted to drive the car, but of course she didn't have a NASCAR license

Get out of my way, Tommy. Tommy's comment you broke my racing car

Grandma Mary Elizabeth (Cummings) & Grandpa George J McEvoy 1883-11-25 (Marriage date)

Hi Mom, your looking good. My mother, a really great lady. I don't know the date of this picture or her age at the time

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Me with my pride and joy, my 1954 Cadillac Coupe DeVille I told Joe (Connie's husband) that I had promised myself that some day I would have a Cadillac so he got one of his friends to find one for me. This is what he found in Lubbock, Texas and had it brought up to Vegas for me. Good old Joe. Dutch (Mom's husband) said 'with a little sheet-metal work this thing would make a pretty good looking pick-up truck'.

Mom and Dad and their car.

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For anyone who wants to check their genealogy, this is a list of our ancestors.

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The love of my life and the old man. One time Carole and I went to the hospital with her folks to see her grandpa (Carole's Mom's Dad). Her grandpa called her mother over and quietly asked her who's that old man with Carole?, he was about 90 at the time.

My kids and Me

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A card from sisters Marilee and Connie with Marilee's artwork. I think the kids got talent.

No doubt the backbone of IPC. 20 Of 23

Japanese architecture, really beautiful

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Operation Castle BIG BOOM With all these gadgets I've worked on and all the Xrays & MRIs & CATscans I've had, I should glow in the dark.

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