335 a Week Every Thursday Night. Well of Course, the Pay, I Drew One Day's Pay for Every Time I Went to a Meeting

335 a week every Thursday night. Well of course, the pay, I drew one day's pay for every time I went to a meeting. This helped, you know. At that time of course I wasn't making very much money. Anyway I went there and became - at one time - I stayed with them from 1954 to 1975, till I retired, in 1975 I retired. Or 1976, I've forgotten. But anyhow, at different times I was their instructor evaluator which is - well I was the one that evaluated all the instruc tors to be sure they were competent. I went to school at Great Lakes and I went to all their schools, leadership training and different schools like that every year. And I really enjoyed it all the time I was in. I put twenty-three years in all together in the naval reserve, and never regretted one minute of it. I went aboard the MISSOURI. I went aboard different ships you know, and then I went to different training establishments like Davisville, Rhode Island; Port Hueneme, Cali fornia; and Gulfport, Mississippi. And just really enjoyed it and did a lot of good I thought. I went to five different nuclear disaster schools. Some of them were natural, some were nuclear, and took first aid and took Red Cross training and just everything. And really I took the whole gamut of everything they had. I made senior chief, and that's what I retired as. And I really - all the time I was there I enjoyed - eventually in the SeaBees we voted to have one weekend a month instead of every Thursday. This was the greatest that hap pened to me because then it was kind of like - the first weekend of every month was kind of like taking a little vacation. I'd go down there and stay for two days and get paid for four. That's the way it worked. But I think we kept abreast of everything that happened. Now, an interesting thing, let's see, 1950 - 1953, at that time the Korean war was on and they were taking fellows in the navy by rates rather than by units. Now they do it by whole units you know but then they took them by rates. And they called me. I've forgotten when ever it was that President Eisenhower called it off and put - had a truce, but a week before that they called me from - well we all had these mobilization orders you know, that you get when you're in the service. I think it was New Orleans where I was supposed to report on my mobilization day. They called me from the naval station down there and put me on a twenty-four hour alert. So I had the seabag all packed, my footlocker ready, and I was ready to go. And just exactly seven days later is when President Eisenhower called a halt to it. This happened in 1953. So that's how close I came to going to the Korean war. (laughs) And then I missed the Vietnam thing in 1967. We were in a battalion and they took ... we were in a regiment with three battalions, and they took two battalions and left ours here. And then that's how close I came again. They were taking them by units then. But it was really - I'll tell you what, I - of course I, kind of like you - you're an old service man, and I don't mean that old, but I mean old in experience - but I kind of lived the navy, you know. It was really something in my life. I felt I was closer to the navy than I ever was anything else. You know. And never regretted a day of it. Q: Did you have any problem getting off for your reserve duty? Did you ever conflict ... A: Yes, when I was in the senate, they'd make a big deal then. They'd let me off when we were in session; Almost every year when my time was to go to training, why, we'd be in session you know. Just happened that way. Now they would make a big to-do, they'd get up and make a resolution you know that they were going to excuse Senator Grindle to let him go and fight for his country and all that stuff. (laughter) They had a big - made a big joke out of it, but usually it happened about the time when there wasn't as much activity, so I could be spared for the two weeks. Usually always fell in April, somewhere along in there when there wasn't too much going then. 336 And I recall the one time I went to leadership training school at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, I think this was 1959 if I remember right. This was immediately after we had passed the Korean bonus bill of which I was the chief sponsor. About a week or so after the session was over in June, I went up there to that training, and while I was there all the publicity came out for it so the commandant of the station, the vice-admiral, called me, after he found out that I was there, and so they had a big to-do. We had a big publicity deal, see, for the navy. And they had - one of the fellows that was from my unit who was up there with me, and they let me give him the first dollar - he was also a Korean veteran. It was just a play you know, publicity thing. But the admiral's there and the assistant commandant and the - oh there was a bunch of officers, and I was handing this fellow the first dollar from the Korean bonus. And it was - the funny thing was this fellow didn't qualify for Illinois because he was from Missouri. So we used him anyway, see. (laughter) It was a kind of a ... but it was really a publicity thing and I enjoyed it. Q: What about your relationship - you know. AU. S. senator, I know when he comes on a base kind of really shakes things up. They work for a week getting ready for it. A: No ... Q: Did you have any . A: No, they didn't do that. The first time I went, I think after I got elected in 1957 - 1957 I went to Great Lakes. I think I was up there and out before they even knew I was there. (chuckles) There's nobody - you know. But when I went to Port Hueneme in 1961 they made a big deal out of it out there. The fellow out there found out, somewhere he .1-· had - I had been out there on a commission. I think it was ... no it was 1960 when I went to the convention, I was at Hueneme. And when I had to get off one day, and they weren't quite ready to let me leave, why, I had to invoke my privilege and tell them, you know, who I was. I think the commandant out there was a commodore. Now that's one - one-half step above a four-stripe captain. And he called me into his headquarters, and you know he put on the dog a little, and was happy that I was there. And had a big write-up in the camp paper there. You know, the Hueneme - whatever it was. And they took pic tures of the commodore and myself and you know and they took a couple pictures of me out working in the field. (chuckles) It was publicity. It was really - it was good. I ap preciated it if I didn't enjoy it. And to say I didn't enjoy it I'd be telling an untruth I think. I think anybody who's been in public life like that, I think you enjoy some of the attention you get if there is any. Q: Let's see now, in 1961 and again in 1963 you went to Rhode Island as I understand it for your duties. A: Yes. Q: Was that a change in type of duty? A: No. See, at that time it's according to what battalion you were attached to. And in 1961 we were - everybody east of the Mississippi was going to Davisville, Rhode Island. Well now, our Cape Girardeau naval reserve unit is right on the banks of the Missis sippi, but the bulk of the fellows who belong in that was from Illinois. And for some reason or another the headquarters of the battalion we belonged to - see this is part of a unit and they belong to a battalion - our battalion at that time was based in Wisconsin. Which is east of the Mississippi, so - and I think we were the only ones, unit, west of the Missis sippi that was involved in this. But they sent us to Rhode Island. And in 1962 for some reason or another - I don't remember where we went in 1962, but in 1963 then again they called us back. And at that time they were shaking up the SeaBee 337 onranizations, and we went from one to the other. They passed us - Wisconsin went into the west, and they put us in a battalion that was based in Indiana, which still kept us at Rhode Island. Then after that, why, after 1963 they just sent you wherever they wanted to send you.

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