THE NATIONAL MUSEUM of the PACIFIC WAR the Nimitz

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC WAR

The Nimitz Education and Research Center Fredericksburg, Texas

An interview with Richard Youngs Fredericksburg, Texas November 19, 2011

CHARLIE SIMMONS: This is Charlie Simmons. Today is the 19th of November, 2011. I’m interviewing Mr. Richard Youngs. This interview is taking place in Fredericksburg, Texas at the

Nimitz Museum. This interview is in support of the Center for Pacific War Studies, archives for the National Museum of the Pacific War, Texas Historical Commission, for the preservation of historical information related to this site. Now Mr. Young, first of all, thank you very much for taking some time out today to talk to us.

RICHARD YOUNGS: You’re welcome.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And I would like for you if you would start your story at the beginning, which would be where you were born, what year you were born, what your date of birth is, and a little bit about yourself.

RICHARD YOUNGS: I was born in Northeast, Pennsylvania. That’s the name of the town. On a little farm outside the city limits. An apple farm on July, 9, 1926. That would be in Erie County.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay and were your parents, did you live in the city, in the country? Were you farmers?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Farmer. They were apple farmers. And my dad had trucks on the road too, so us little boys was running the farm while he’s driven trucks, so we had a pretty good load on our shoulders.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay, now you said “boys”. Did you have brothers and sisters?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I had three brothers and three sisters.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay. And they were older or younger?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I had one sister older than I and the rest of ‘em were younger than I.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay. And you went to school there? You grew up in the same place until you got through high school or?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well no. My schooling was kinda interrupted. I started preschool in a little brick building that had eight grades in one room. First through eight. Of course I went there until 1937. My mother had arthritis real bad and my father thought maybe she would do better in Florida. Southern country, warmer climate. And he hauled a lot of produce out of Florida north, so he thought that would be a good place for us to move to. So we moved down there in mid-school term which really hurt me and my education in ’37. I enrolled in the Titusville

Florida Elementary School. We were there three years. We moved back to Pennsylvania in

1940 and I’m real proud of myself in some ways. In many ways I guess. I had a teacher down

there in the sixth grade, Miss Pepper. Now whether she was related to Claude Pepper, the

Senator from Florida, I don’t know. But she kinda took a liking to me and I was nominated to

receive, I thought the prettiest medal I’ve ever seen. I was nominated for it and I received it.

And I think Miss Pepper had a lot to do with it. The only thing was, we had moved back to

Pennsylvania right after school’s out in 1940. And my medal hadn’t got to her yet. She met me

at the bus and told me that I was chosen to receive it. Well when she told me that, I was

excited. I didn’t hear another word she said. But she continued on to tell me that, “it’s not here yet. When they call you up on stage, don’t open the package ‘cause it will be a little matchbox.” I didn’t hear this. I was so excited. Of course, everybody seen my matchbox. But it showed up the day that we were leaving for Pennsylvania. If it hadn’t showed that day I probably would have never of seen it.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And what was this medal for now?

RICHARD YOUNGS: It’s a citizenship medal. It has three books on it. I’ve always tried to live my life accordingly. Honor, truth, and integrity. And I’ve tried to live my life for 85 years as such.

Pretty proud of myself for living a life like that. But anyway, I did get my medal and we headed north to Pennsylvania and our apple farm. Of course I went back into school. I was behind in my schooling with the moving.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now what grade were you in when you went back then?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I went back and was starting seventh grade when we left Florida. So I went to seventh grade, eighth grade. And done good. And I started high school in Northeast,

Pennsylvania. Enjoyed high school. I was doing okay in school but the war was going on. I

wasn’t old enough to be involved in it at this time. But at the same time, my father was having

a hard time getting help. He had three trucks on the road. He couldn’t get drivers ‘cause all the

men were going in the service. So mid-year through my freshman year I quit school and went

on the road driving with him. Well I done that, haulin’ produce out of Florida north – New York,

Philadelphia, Boston. And I helped him haul tomatoes into Welch’s Grape Juice in Northeast,

Pennsylvania. And I thought, “You know, I need to get in and help in the war effort.” I’ve always been very patriotic. Very patriotic. So I went to Erie and I walked back and forth in front of the recruiting station a dozen times to try to get enough nerve to go in.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now how old were you at this time?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I was 17.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: 17.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Mm-hmm. I was 17 that July and this was in the first part of October. So they must have thought a lot of me there at the recruiting station because he put me in charge of three men. Myself and two other recruits. He said, “I want you to make sure you get these boys to Pittsburgh.” For our physicals and that. And from Pittsburgh we went to Sampson,

New York. And spent seven weeks there.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Sampson is where your boot camp was?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah. So of course our last week was our work week. So I guess the week before that, boot camp, they don’t tolerate any noise after Light’s Out. Well, the CO come around and poked his head in the door and there’s two feller’s in there. I think we had 120 men in the barracks. And there was two men talking. So low and behold, all 120 of us loaded our seabag ‘round the grinder three times with that pack on our back. And before I left boot camp, my work detail was in the scullery. Washing dishes for all them recruits. So that pretty well took care of boot camp.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So after your boot camp was over, in other words, you had a week of work detail before-

RICHARD YOUNGS: Before we left.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Before you left.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Before we left Sampson. So we had a week vacation. Leave, to go home.

Come back and I think it was New Year’s Day or after. I had word that I had been assigned to the Armed Guard School in Camp Sheldon in Norfolk, Virginia. You’re going to be on merchant ships as a gun crew. Well, went down there, and I wasn’t necessarily want this. I wanted a slick, speedy destroyer. Was my thought. The ship I wanted. But I got the slowest one. Well,

when I got to the LST, but I’m not to the LST yet. I spent seven weeks at Camp Sheldon. And

we had gunnery practice, aircraft and ship recognition, really shoved down our throat.

Everyday. And got out of Camp Sheldon and was sent to New York City. Had a wonderful hotel

they was going to bill us in. And I had to wait assignment there, at the hotel. Well every day

you had to check the bulletin board. See if you had been assigned. Well a week went by and I

checked it. And I was assigned the USS MISSOURI. The battleship. I don’t want a battleship! I

want a destroyer! Anyway, the MISSOURI wasn’t finished being constructed yet. It hadn’t been

commissioned yet. So I sat there in that hotel room for another week, checking the bulletin board every day. Low and behold, a week later I was on my way to New Orleans to pick up my first LST! Surprises, surprises. Well I got into New Orleans and was there two or three days and

I was assigned to the LST-290. Well in the meantime, I had wrote my folks or called ‘em and told ‘em I was in New Orleans waiting assignment. So they immediately boarded bus. During

WWII you couldn’t find a seat on the bus. So my mother and dad stood up all that way on the bus from around Lake Erie all the way to New Orleans. In the meantime, I was on the ship! And we was headed out of the Mississippi river in the Gulf. We happened to hit a log. Bent our shaft. So we had to go to dry dock. And we was there a short time.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So this is back in New Orleans?

RICHARD YOUNGS: New Orleans. We was there a short time and the Officer, they called me up to the core deck and said, “Youngs, your folks are here to see you.” Now we would have been on the way out. They wouldn’t have seen me at all! They give me 15 minutes to be with my

6 folks. So I went ashore and visited them a short time. Back on the ship. Headed out the Gulf of

Mexico and found out a land lover can sure get seasick. Here I was chipping paint on a brand new ship. Right above the auxiliary exhaust. The diesel. And I got sick. So sick. But I finally got over that. I kept on chippin’ paint. And we got up around Florida and we was heading for New

York. We got to Cape Hatteras and it was foggy. Real foggy. Our radar was out. And as the

Officer on the Con was telling me later, when this tanker come at us in the fog, he thought it looked big enough to be a battleship. Well they rammed us. And they got everybody up to abandon ship. But you can’t keep a good Navy man down! And we got our damage control people out. Got water tight doors, all dogged down. And it happened to be on an LST, the outside quarters is a troop quarters. So eight foot wide, something like this. And then on the other side, the bulkhead is the tank deck. A tank deck is a large room to put all the tanks and all that stuff in. And if he had cut through it, which he didn’t, he left his mark on the bulkhead where he hit us. On the bulkhead going to a tank deck. And [that’s] as far as he got, he cut six bunks in half. Well I got to lookin’ down there the next morning. And one of them bunks was mine! But we had moved out of those quarters to the port side the day before. That saved my life. ‘Cause it would have cut six of us in half. It cut those bunks in half. So we did secure the ship. And we pulled into Norfolk, Virginia. And we was there two weeks. Now this is where, really gets to where I didn’t know where I was for a while. I was hurt in that accident with that tanker which I never told the Navy about. I kept quiet about it because I was afraid they’d send me home.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: What sort of injury did you have?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I got a disk ruptured. I was ruptured in that collision. So I didn’t tell anybody. And we was in dry dock two weeks. And had the repairs made. And went on to New

York to take on vehicles. And I was hurtin’. And we headed out of New York. I was really hurtin’ so the pharmacy man said, “Well I’m going to have to get you to the hospital ashore.”

So we pulled into Halifax, Nova Scotia. And they put me in the naval hospital there. The

Canadian Navy I guess. And they operated on me. Now our ship was headed for England. The

290. It was to be in an exercise which a lot of people don’t know the name of it, even today, it is kept such a secret. Exercise Tiger. Have you heard of that exercise?

CHARLIE SIMMONS: No.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well I hadn’t either. I didn’t either until fifty years, that’s 5-0 years later. It was brought to the news stand with one of the officers that was on one of these ships in

Exercise Tiger. And the purpose of this exercise, I think it was nine LSTs, was in this exercise, they have one frigate for protection and they was running mock invasions of Slapton Sands,

England. And, like I says, something I didn’t know for 50 years. There was nine German torpedo boats caught ‘em.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay, well that’s, I didn’t know what Exercise Tiger was, but yeah, that’s brutal.

RICHARD YOUNGS: But that’s where we was headed. Our ship wasn’t there because of being delayed in dry dock. Of course all of our records were on our flagship in the flotilla. And low and behold, that ship was sunk! Everybody’s records went down. So they didn’t know where anybody was unless they found them. Let’s see, how do I put this together now? But anyway, my ship, the 290, did get there. It was an Invasion of Normandy. It was made a hospital ship at

Normandy. I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. But anyway, the remaining LSTs, there’s one torpedo bad, the 289, by a torpedo. Two of ‘em sunk. And all of our records of that patella went down. They were ordered up the coast of England to safety. The captain of the LST-515

disobeyed orders. He turned his ship around, went back, and it’s Joe McCann was coxswain on the landing craft, like I was. They lowered his boat in the water and he said the water was so full of bodies that he was afraid to start his motor. He was afraid the screw on his boat would cut ‘em up. 737 men lost their lives with negligence to our protection. You had that one frigate there, right on your channel. Run these exercises, get ready for Normandy. So, from the hospital, I was in the hospital 28 days, and, of course, 290 went on into Normandy. I was in the hospital 28 days, 29 days, whatever. I was sent to, Norfolk, Virginia, to Camp Bradford. This is

Amphib days. I turned to be a gator right there. But anyway, I had 28 days to report. So I got to New York, I had a dime in my pocket. No way of calling my mother without reversing the charges, that’s when you could put a dime in the telephone and reverse the charges. So I talked to my mother and I told her what had happened. And I was in the hospital the whole time and I never let my mother know where I was. You shouldn’t do that to your mother. But I never thought. But anyway, I got home and my mother got a telegram – I was killed in the action! What’s going on here? I didn’t know what was going on. Here I am! You know? So I

stayed home for about two weeks and reported to Camp Bradford. And I was there on light

duty for two months. And I wasn’t getting paid! And I thought, what’s going on here? I kept

going to the office tryin’ to figure out why. And they finally told me I was killed in action. I said,

“I’m right here!” So they finally got that all straightened out. I got paid and it was raining cats

and dogs the day we got paid and I come out of the drill hall and fell in a ditch of water. All that

for $37. I sent home $30 a month. I didn’t have too much, but I had to dry all that money out.

So I waited there a month. Well actually two months, and I got into another crew which is the

LST-947. You couldn’t have been with any better men in the world than we had on the 947.

We had a captain that was a Chief Petty Officer during regular Navy. Strict man. He was really strict. He had inspections on an LST and you didn’t hear of too many inspections on an LST back then. But he had ‘em. And if he found a pipe that wasn’t shiny, we took that paint off and we shined it. This is how strict he was. But to me that’s the reason he brought us home. Because he was this kind of a captain. So we done our shakedown, brand new ship. I was a plank- walker on it. And we started down the coast from New York, Boston and New York. And we got down to Virginia Beach. And my Officer, Mr. Hodgson, he was kinda a funny guy. He was a

good officer, but he took my job of Crane Operator away from me because I couldn’t teach him to box like this other kid did. So he got the job of runnin’ the crane. ‘Cause he wanted to go to school for running the crane and the forklift. So I did. And the next day he says, “Youngs, I need to have you take three Officers to school.” Pitch dark. You could see nothin’. And he told me, “You’ll see, some real dim lights along the beach. And that’s where you’re to beach this VP.

LCVP.” So I was going in real slow, I couldn’t see hardly anything. And when I did see the beach, I thought, we’ll I’m pretty close, I better really rev this up to get up on the beach far

enough to let the Officers out. So I did. I revved it up good and I got up so solid, I had a heck of

a time getting off! The Officers went and got off and went on to school and I sat there and I

wheeled the wheel tryin’ to wiggle down that sand and I finally backed off. And I got back to

the ship and got the officers back. And we done a lot of target practice, shootin’ at these sacks

or whatever the planes would fly and tow this target way behind them. And we done a lot of

target practice there and I was so bad, Mr. Hodgson says, “Youngs, if you don’t get ahead of

that a little bit, I’m gonna come down there and kick your ass!” And he probably would have!

But, you know, when you’re shootin’ at a target an airplane’s, your own airplane’s pullin’,

you’re afraid you might hit him! And there wouldn’t be any way because he was a long way

ahead of it.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: What sort of weapon were you firing at the airplane?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well, okay, this is a 20-milimeter. Armed Guard, now we went all the way up to 5-inch 51s. For the merchant ship which I never got aboard. But we had 20-milimeters and 40-milimeters on the LST. They did put a 3-inch 50 on ‘em, but every time you fired ‘em it would crack the welds. So they had to take ‘em off and go back to the 40. And that’s what I was on, the 20-milimeter, my remaining days on the LST. So we went down through the canal.

We went up to San Pedro. We had to pull into a dock that a destroyer had rammed and tore the dock up pretty bad. And we had a terrible [time], trying to get off the ship on the dock, we had to take her hausers way off on the land ways. Mr. Plant, our assistant, First Lieutenant, fell through it and down the drink he went. He might have had a beer or two too many but

anyway, we had to pull him out. Day before Christmas we pulled out of San Pedro, headed for

Pearl Harbor. Well American Red Cross, they found enough packages for two or three men on

each one of the ships. And I would have rather of not have had anybody get anything as to

have a couple packages to each ship. And I guess they’re probably ten or twelve ships gone my way. And in route we had an Officer come down with an infection, an ear infection. Well they had a doctor on one of the other LSTs. Mr. Hodgson said, “Well I’m either going to have to lower you or Simmons in the water. We can’t stop! When you hit that water with your land- craft, you better get on that engine quick!” Well he picked Simmons, thank god for that. They lowered him in the water and he started his engine too quick, burnt the engine up. And here

Simmons was, disappeared over the horizon. We can’t stop. Submarines. Well, they put another VP on one of the back LSTs to go get him. It took ‘em all day long for them to take that

VP and tow to get back with the convoy. But we did get everybody back, okay? And we got in

Pearl Harbor the day after New Year’s. So we was at Pearl Harbor for 28 days. Officers had to go to school, Officer School. And it was my duty to run my VP up and back. We was tied up to the OKLAHOMA. There was nothin’ there, the OKLAHOMA, was nothing but a hull. All the armament was gone with the Japanese bombin’ it.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: What year was this?

RICHARD YOUNGS: That was in 1944.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay, so this would be January of ’44?

RICHARD YOUNGS: January of ’44. So I had to haul the officer back and forth to school. During

fighting, get two speeding tickets. Going down the west loch. That VP. Can you imagine that?

I was makin’ too much wake. I was probably going about twice as fast as what we supposed to

do. And it was dark. I saw that light flash across my bow. But I didn’t think anything of it. Well

they come up, the harbor patrol decided to blow his siren. Stop me and give me a ticket. I had

to take it back to the Captain. Speeding in an LCVP wouldn’t do over 11 knots high speed.

(Laughing).

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Never heard that one before. (Laughing).

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well it happened. (Laughing). And then we was tryin’ to find, the second ticket I got, one for speeding, one for dumpin’ trash in the wrong place. So anyway, we stayed there for 28 days. Now I should have brought the ship log with me to get my route right, but anyway, we started, I guess we went from there to Guadalcanal. We went to Tulagi first. We was going to Guadalcanal, pick up some marines to take off the island ‘cause it was secured. So they took us to Tulagi for supplies I suppose, because we did pick up supplies there. So we heard that there was a Jap submarine blown up on the beach, down close to the British seaplane base. So this one gentlemen that I was friendly with. I won’t mention names, but of course he’s dead now. But he was gonna go down and ask the Officer there if we could swim ashore and see the submarine. Well he come back and said, “Okay!” Now what I still can’t put together, we had an LCT loaded on the ship for Okinawa. And then a rowboat was ashore too.

So somehow they got permission or something, but anyway, we didn’t. This other guy got it for

us. We swam through shark infested water to get over to see that Jap submarine. And we

went to the Navy or the British seaplane base. Looked it over. We come to the beach and then

the ship was headed for Guadalcanal! Said, “Uh-oh! We’re in trouble here now!” And we thought we was doin’ okay. But anyway we spotted the rowboat for the LCT. And we all boarded it and was paddling like mad tryin’ to catch the ship which there wouldn’t have been any way. And here come the salvage tug. They tied on to us and was towing us toward ship.

Well we got to the ship and the bow doors were open. So we got it made here. Maybe they won’t know where we were. So we crawled up the bow doors. No more got up on board and

“Youngs and Simmons! Report to the First Lieutenant’s Quarters!” Well, how did they know it was us? (Laughing). Anyway we got up there and they said, “The Captain’s really upset with you boys.” Simmons and I was only two coxswains on the VP! On the landing craft. The

Captain had to go get his orders and nobody there to take ‘em. That’s why they knew that

Simmons and I wasn’t there. So he really give us a talkin’ to. And he says, “You know it’s just like goin’ to school. You can get a bad report card.” But he says, “We’re gonna overlook that.

And we’re gonna give you 95 hours extra duty to be worked out at two hours a night, down the villages.” (Laughing). So we worked two hours and that’s the last time we went down there.

(Laughing). You couldn’t ask for a better crew than we had. We really had a super crew. But anyway, we got the bow doors closed and went on to Guadalcanal. Picked up our marines.

And the best I can remember, I don’t have a ship’s log, I think we went to Leyte. Unload our

marines there and we were ordered down to Nouméa, New Caledonia to pick up some army.

So we headed down there past Australia. That’s as close as I got to Australia. Went down there

and they said they had some ridin’ academies out there on the hills in New Caledonia. And

everybody else went to the Pink House, which was a house of ill repute. And I wasn’t crazy

about the house of ill repute; I was ready to go ride horses! So we hitchhiked all the way up in

the country, find a horse. So we hitchhiked all the way back! Got on the Liberty Boat and went

back to the ship. And we left New Caledonia.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: You had army personnel aboard?

RICHARD YOUNGS: We had army personnel then.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And so you take the personnel and vehicles, equipment and so forth?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah, their vehicles, their trucks and jeeps and whatever, yeah. We didn’t have the LCT on yet. It takes up the whole main deck. You know what an LCT is?

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well it’s a landing-

RICHARD YOUNGS: Landing Craft Tanks.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Yeah, it’s medium sized.

RICHARD YOUNGS: It holds five tanks. And you load that on the main deck of the LST.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And how do you get that on and off then?

RICHARD YOUNGS: It wasn’t easy. Well, it was. It was easy I guess. Because we had the big cranes in the shipyard to load it. And here you got timbers, twelve by twelve timbers, greased.

And it sits down on that grease and then you take your chains and dog that down to the main deck to where you can’t lose it on water. And then, of course now, we done a little ball playin’ at [indiscernible] equator before I get up to unloadin’ this LCT. But anyway we played ball there in equator and had a good time.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now how do you get the LCT off of the LST? Is this loaded with tanks at the time?

RICHARD YOUNGS: No.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay, so it’s an empty LST.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Empty LST.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: But still, you gotta get it off the LST.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Right. But anyway, now we picked up Marines for Okinawa. We’re not unloadin’ it yet. So I know there’s thing I’m missing here, but anyway, we went to Marianas

and if you know where the Marianas is, it’s right out in the ocean where it’s rougher than a cob

out there. Big waves. And Hodgson says, “We’re going to use your and Simmons’ boat to

supply these LSMs”. An LSM is smaller, kinda like an LST but it’s smaller. It can get into

shallower water. But anyway I was to supply this LSM. So I pulled up alongside of it, dark, pitch

dark. And the waves, I thought I was going to sink my LCVP, ‘cause we was loaded heavy with

supplies for them. So I got up alongside the LSM and this Officer on deck said, “I want you to

beach on my ramp.” I thought, he’s crazy. In this rough water I’m going to beach my wooden

bottom? LCVP on his steel ramp? It wouldn’t last. So I did. He said, “Well I’m the Officer here!

I told you to beach that thing on my ramp.” So I did. And it was really a beaten up VP, so I

backed off and I told him I didn’t know who he was and really didn’t care at that point. If you

want these supplies, you’re going to take ‘em over the side. It’s just what I told him. And this

man was a gentleman. He was a Commodore. He was in charge of this flotilla of LSMs. Which I

didn’t know. And didn’t care at that time. But anyway he was a gentleman and he knew I was

right. A lot of ‘em you didn’t run into that would admit it. But he knew I was right. He said, “I

want you to bring your crew aboard. You’re going down to my office and we’re going to have

ham and eggs.” Well having ham and eggs sounded pretty good at that time. But anyway, he

did send the accommodation to my Captain that he thought I was an alright Joe and I thought

he was too, when we got all squared around. (Laughing). But anyway we got ‘em all loaded

and we left out of there at daybreak, headed for Okinawa. I know I’m missing a lot of things

here, but that’s okay. But anyway, we got just off Okinawa and here we had Marines all over

the main deck any place they had a place they could get on the deck, we were loaded with

Marines.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And you still had the LCT on board?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Still had the LCT, they were sleeping in it. Sleepin’ under it. Had all their supplies under it. And we had LVTs in the tank deck. The LVTs are those floatin’ cargo personnel carriers. So anyway we was going to feed those Marines ham and eggs for breakfast.

And this was like two in the morning. Well we got everybody lined up in the chow hall. And

General Quarters blew. Well the spotted a Japanese torpedo plane coming in on us. So nobody got the ham and eggs. And you really feel sorry for the Marines. They’re going ashore! So we’ll eventually get a meal on the ship if they don’t sink us. Anyway, I missed the launching of this

LCT. I wanted to see it so bad. But where I was, on the port side, they just lowered my LCVP in the water to rendezvous with this wave of LVTs that had the cannon mounted on ‘em. It was the radio boat to take the first wave in, the Red Beach 3. Well they was unloading the LCT on the other side of the ship. And what they do? They take the life line down, off the starboard side of the ship, and they put a list on the ship, a pretty good list, and they cut her loose. She slides off in the water. I wished I had that picture. A picture with me of it. They did take a picture of it. And I wished I had it to show you. ‘Cause it made one big splash. So Okinawa, well they just lowered me in the water with my VP. And all hell broke loose. The sky was full of the tracers. And I looked at Kessel, my bow-hookman on my little boat. I say, “Kessel, that’s our plane! What in the world are they shooting at him for? That’s one of our seaplanes!” Well

about that time, he just burst into flames. He come down, they just missed us. Shooting our

own plane down. But this happened so much. So much. Well we had our ship hull shot up

there in Okinawa by ships beside of us. Shoot at them kamikaze planes. They cleared our swab

rack, cut every one of our swabs off, shooting at that plane and then hitting us! So anyway, we

went headed for the beach. And I had an Officer and an Army radioman on my VP along with

the three of us, we had a crew of three on the LCVP. And we was on the way to the beach and I was kinda keeping my eye on the LVT beside of me here ‘cause they sit pretty low in the water, but they’re heavy. I was afraid if he rammed me, he might sink me. So I kept my eye on him and the beach too, and went this little bit and this Army Officer grabbed my belt and pulled me down. He said, “You’ll get yourself shot!” Well here come the shells right down the side of my boat. That’s the only fire we took from the beach. That burst right there. I feel sure that our fly boys took care of that situation. But anyway, we hung off the beach all day. Nothing to eat.

And I still think those Marines had nothing. So we just standing there, take the wounded off the beach. And here come a patrol boat and he had some oranges. So we did have some

oranges. But we did board some K-rations from the Marines so we did have packets. So we did

have that to eat. And we slid off the beach about 2:30 the next morning. And we come back to

the ship. And we didn’t know that our smoke machine had caught fire on the main deck. So

when we come alongside, the ship, why, they told us to report to the Captains’ State Room. So

we hit the main deck and we busted our butt on that oil from that kerosene, it was making

smoke! We had no idea.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Did you carry wounded back with you when you came off the beach then?

RICHARD YOUNGS: I didn’t right then, no I didn’t. But I did stay there through the next morning for that purpose. But when I got back to the ship, the Captain said I had to go get some wounded. He said, “The hospital ship is right over there.” Dark, darker than pitch. 1400 ships out there. Which one’s the hospital ship? And doing so, we go ship to ship to find it ‘cause it wasn’t where the Captain told me he thought it was. And every ship you come so many yards from, you had to give a code or our own people would open fire on us. ‘Cause of all the suicide boats the Japanese were throwin’ at us. So anyway, we finally got to the hospital ship and got

‘em unloaded, and you know, I don’t think I had a wounded one on board. I think they just lost it. ‘Cause they was just laying in the well deck of my VP, the well deck could hold a Jeep or 36 men, so it did have quite a little of room in there. And I would look down at them poor guys and they were just staring off in space. I don’t think I had a wounded on that load.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And this was like the second day of after the landing?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah, this is the second day.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay so they’d only been ashore for like two days?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah. And they didn’t hit too much resistance at Okinawa.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Didn’t think they did.

RICHARD YOUNGS: They didn’t have much at all until they got into those caves. ‘Cause the

Navy, the hell we caught, was from the suicide planes. They was on us every day.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Did you encounter any suicide boats?

RICHARD YOUNGS: No. We had reports the Navy patrol boats had run into many of them and destroyed them. We never saw any there at the landing.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Okay so, they didn’t actually get close to the larger ships.

RICHARD YOUNGS: No. But anyway, this real close friend of mine, there in Hurley, there in New

Mexico, he was a gunner on the Battleship, the NEVADA. And all hell broke loose. You couldn’t see where you could put anymore tracers in the sky. Here come this kamikaze headed for the battleship. It hit it and he was the only survivor of his gun crew. Martinez was his name. And then, that was probably day two or three, when it got hit. But them kamikaze shot ships all around us. We was trying to get ammunition off. We had white phosphorous motor shells on the main deck right behind my gun position when I was gunner off the VP.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well you might wanna get rid of those as soon as, you know –

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah! And we had high octane gas on the tank deck!

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well that’s a good combination! (Laughing)

RICHARD YOUNGS: (Laughing). So we went down the tank deck, had a little gasoline on the

LCTs. And that was their main purpose. An LCT didn’t draw much water. They could get right up on the beach pretty close. But anyway, General Quarters sounded and we all went topside to our gun positions. I had the headphones on on my gun. It was only a two men crew on the

20 millimeter. So here come a bogey and they hit a position. Might have been one o’clock.

Went too high. And he was comin’ right at us. But before he made his swing, we had a life raft right beside of my gun. We had a stop on my gun where I can’t train any further around then so far, where I would have shoot holes in the life raft. So I get in several bursts. I was a long way off from him. So I quit firing. And here he comes right dead on us. I pulled the trigger and the gun jammed. So I got out of the harness, run around, and they tell you to use asbestos gloves on that barrel.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Was this a 20 millimeter?

RICHARD YOUNGS: 20 millimeter. So, of course, when you’ve got a guy coming out of the sky trying to kill you, you don’t think of these things! So I dropped that barrel bare handed. But lucky enough, I hadn’t shot a whole magazine, but I had shot enough that the barrel was pretty hot. I let go of it in a hurry. But, anyway, the plane come on in and hit us. And what we didn’t know until we got with the Captain at a reunion, he said that they had installed a 50-caliber

machine gun on the conning tower. When we was over in the Pacific. He said we hit him with

that 50-caliber. He said, apparently, that 50-caliber got him to where he veered just enough

where his wing still hit us, but if his fuselage would have hit us, that’d have been all. That’d have been it. He’d of set the mortar shells off and we never would have survived.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: That would have been it.

RICHARD YOUNGS: ‘Cause there was one LST got a suicide plane. He was gone in 45 seconds.

Under the water. Sunk. When the thing blew. But anyway, and you know, at the time, you’re not scared. You can’t be scared because so many things are happening. But then, like I say, I had phones on, “here come another one”. And man, when he said, “Here come another one,” same route the other one had, my knees just given out. (Laughing). So but anyway, he didn’t get to us, but he sunk a minesweeper. Just off on our starboard side. So we tried to find casualties. The only casualty we had was the gunners’ mate. And he thought he got shrapnel, but we all swore and be damned he hit the lock and tackle on the hoist for the ammunition, for the 40-millimeter gun and he cut his head open, I think is what really happened to him. But then we had two steward mates. Both black men. One that was, he was really a honey. He was a good man. He played the guitar and sang to us, just a heck of a nice guy. But the other one, just the opposite. He’d get drunk and he tried to kill the Captain one time. But anyway, we couldn’t find, hmm, can’t think of the name now. But anyway, he was the Pointer on the

20-millimeter on the port side! Right across from mine! Mine was on starboard, he was on port. Webster was his name. So where’s Webster? And he had the cord on your earphones

plug in to the gun tub, and then you screw it on where it don’t come loose. He screwed it to

the gun tub. Webster jumped over the side! And there he was hangin’ with that phone! It

didn’t kill him, didn’t hang him, but there Webster was hanging by his cord around his neck

from his phones! So we didn’t have any casualties. Over on the ship we had to take care of,

but that’s the only casualties we had on the ship.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Throughout the whole war or just the Okinawa campaign?

RICHARD YOUNGS: That’s the only casualties we had. Period. On the 947. But they give us credit for shootin’ that plane down, so we got a Japanese flag painted on our conning tower.

And, let’s see, from that point, I think we left the next day. We was there seven days. And we

finally got unloaded. All our ammunition and all our tank gas. And everything we took there.

So we were headed for Leyte. We got down to Leyte and what we were doing in Leyte, we was

getting ready for the big one. The Invasion of Japan. We probably was in more danger right

there off the coast of Leyte. We do our landing on the beaches and disembark our Army or

Marines, whatever we were carrying to shore for mock invasion. And we’d go back out and

drop anchor for the night. You had to stay in game. We watched, but you didn’t want to get

out on topside unless you had some kind of protection ‘cause you could hear them Japanese

shootin’ at us from on Leyte yet! And that was after Okinawa! There’s a lot of Japanese still

there! And you could hear the bullets getting the ship. So we run mock invasions there until

the news come that the war was over. So immediately we was loading troops. We had Army

going to Japan to occupy. So we was some of the first ones up there to occupy Japan. We got

in Tokyo Bay. Dropped anchor. Waitin’ for further instructions and we was sent to Sendai. I

don’t think that’s how you pronounce it. It was S-E-N-D-E-I or something like that. Right close

to Sugama. There’s another town inland that we called Sugama and I’m sure Sendai and

Sugama’s not right. But anyway, you felt sorry for them Japanese! You really, you did! ‘Cause

these people that love wars that cause all these problems. It’s not the civilians. But anyway,

we pulled in, we had a typhoon hit. Hit us there. We had to go in to tie up to a dock. And we

was unloading our Army personnel and their supplies. Well, we was in the little warehouse there, we was unloading the supplies and here them Japanese starved to death, comin’ in the back way and stealing our supplies for the Army. And we had to keep an eye on them but, you know, we would sit there in Yokohama or Tokyo and drink tea with ‘em! They couldn’t speak

English but we could tell they was wanting us to have tea with ‘em! And we’d drink tea with

‘em. And then our next trip to Leyte, believe it or not, we went down for snow removal equipment! That’s when we had that big snow here in the states, you remember back in ’45 and ’46. Winter ’45 and ’46, we had blizzard conditions here in the States. But anyway, we went to Otaru, Hokkaido Island with snow removal equipment. Got up there and the first thing

I drew was shore patrol duty. So they loaded me in a jeep with an MP and we was ridin’ on packed snow that seemed like it was eight foot deep. So I rode around with the MP until he went off duty. And then I didn’t have much to do except hang around. Make sure our boys was okay in the bars they was in. And we went back and unloaded our arsenal and removal equipment. And, let’s see, where did we go from there? Oh, we went back to Leyte again.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now how long were you in Hokkaido?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Maybe three or four days. We weren’t there long. We did go skiing. We got the whole Red Cross there. And they let us have skis. Went by a ski shop and these

Japanese men made us a pair of skis that I never used. We was using the Red Cross skis and went in the mountains. And enjoyed skiing up there for the day. Went back and picked up our skis and went back to the ship. And went back to the Philippines to unload our personnel to go just outside of Hiroshima. And in the meantime I’d collected, besides my skis, a Jap 31 rifle and a Jap 25 rifle and a samurai sword. And what I got home with was the samurai sword. Ship was

supposed to be relieved, three months, supposed to be relieved, another three months,

another three months was going to be relieved. And so I thought I was goin’ home (laughing).

So I was passed, I had enough points to go home on six months ago. But anyway I just left my

skis, my rifles there. I did get my samurai sword home.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: How long were you there then after you were supposed to have been relieved?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well, now, we left, now when was the war over? It was in August, wasn’t it? August. Somewhere in August. We went from the Philippines to Japan then. And when I left Japan, I got home the 13th day of May of ’46. So I was there all that time runnin’ back and forth to the Philippines, haulin’ supplies back and forth.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So you’re mostly based in Japan and you were just moving back and forth

between the Philippines and Japan, then?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah. Yeah, we’d be distributing to the Army. Well, one load, we didn’t

have any Army aboard at all! We had their jeeps, trucks, and we had to drive the vehicles off.

So a bunch of us got together, and this would give us a chance to go ashore! And maybe horse

around a little in them jeeps. So we went and we take the rotor out of the distributor of the

jeep that had the most gas in it. And we stick it in our locker, so when it comes time to drive

them jeeps off we knew what we had. Had plenty of gas (laughing). And we got out there,

horsed around, almost turned over. Of course they won’t let us go in to Hiroshima. That’s 17

miles I think, to Hiroshima. But anyway, we was just haulin’ freight around and personnel

around different parts of Japan. And at one time they was lookin’ for volunteers. Me and this

buddy, Blackie, and myself, we started to volunteer for it. You would ride as gunners on an LST.

And you would follow a minesweeper. And the minesweeper would cut mines loose around

Japan. And we’d shoot ‘em. We didn’t. We never did go through with it but we started to do

that. They give us six months duty and off six months. We thought, you know, that might be

kinda nice. But we was kinda getting homesick too, so I caught the first AP out and I headed for

Frisco.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now when you were traveling in Japan, then, you interacted with

Japanese people. Were they accepting of the Americans there? What kind of treatment?

RICHARD YOUNGS: We never had trouble with the Japanese at all. But they had to close the

cabarets down. Now I pulled shore patrol duty with the first time we got off there in

Yokohama. And the only thing they give us was our baton and our arm band for shore patrol.

That’s all we had. The blacks and the whites were fightin’, getting a war going between ‘em.

Our own people! And they had to close down the cabarets because of that.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So the fighting between the Americans-

RICHARD YOUNGS: Americans. The whites and the blacks.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Because of racism?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yep. We sure did. I got a scar on my chin there where I got caught with a beer bottle in a New York cabaret. Tryin’ to break up a fight. Shore patrol. So they closed the cabarets for six weeks. They opened them back up again and each cabaret had a shore patrol naval officer, an MP Army officer, a shore patrol petty officer which I was, and a sergeant Army.

So there would be four people with 45s. We carried a side arm after the problem we had. And they told us the cabaret closed at 11:00 and that door better be locked. That bar better be empty. That 45s for use if you have to. But you will empty those cabarets at 11:00. And I had one man challenge me. When I come out with that 45, he left.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well how many blacks were over there? Because there were not that many blacks –

RICHARD YOUNGS: There were not that many. No, we only had two on our ship. I think maybe

the other LSTs might have had two officer stewards. That’s what they were doin’. And of

course they were on gun crews too. Now what the Army had, I don’t know. They may have

had some too but there wasn’t that many. But they sure give us problems. But that

straightened it out though. ‘Cause they knew there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. That 45

come out and you use it if you have to.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now did you get your orders to return to the US there while you were

stationed there?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well we was in Tokyo Bay and told the Corpsman I’d like to have my teeth

worked on before I left. So they took me to the USS COMFORT. The hospital ship. It was

anchored there too. And that dentist, “Oh I think I can save this one.” So then, “Oh it’s too far

gone, I’m going to have to pull it.” Well he done that three times and I said, “Whoa. I’ve got a

lady dentist at home. I think I’ll go to her.” (Laughing) And I did. But then we was on an APA

troop carrier, coming back to the States since I left the 947 there. And find out later that it was

sent to the Philippines on a lend-lease program. That’s where our ship was decommissioned, in

the Philippines.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Now how many crew came back with you?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well with me, I was the only one off our ship that come back.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Were you one of the first or had other fellows?

RICHARD YOUNGS: No, there had been others that had left. Most of ‘em had points to retire or go back into regular Navy. Some of them, too, why they left pretty immediately almost.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So you were one of the last of ‘em.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yeah, before I went to the Philippines pretty much. I had another Officer there that I kinda embarrassed him and I didn’t mean too. But anyway, he was just out of

Officers’ Training School. No experience of tyin’ a ship up to a dock. And here we’d been doing that the whole time we was out there. And I was Second Class Postman at the time in charge of folks with tie-up. So we was comin’ in, takin’ on water, and they had some of the crew men on the dock to take her even line. So they told me to get the number two line out. The first line to go out. And that’s the line that I was in charge of. So we threw it out and we still are goin’ forward pretty fast because our Gunnery Officer took command of the ship and he wasn’t too well schooled on dockin’ either. And so I told the guys that I had the line, “pay it out, pay it out.

We’re going too fast. Slack off, slake off.” And this Officer said, “Make it fast.” I looked at him

and I said, “Make it fast? You trying to get somebody killed?” And he said, “Youngs, I’m the

Officer in charge up here. And I said make it fast.” Well these guys on the dock just bent over

to pick up our heaving line when that seven inch hauser snapped. And they would have cut them guys in two if they hadn’t bent over to pick up that heaving line. But the Officer, he never questioned me after that. In Tokyo Bay, I will say Tokyo Bay had a lot of mud in it. We had two fire hoses going on the anchor chain. And I was in charge of the anchor detail. We had a man on the number one gun tub with a radio headset on, talking to the conning tower. And so I was waiting for anchor to come to short stay, if you know what that is. The anchor still on the bottom. But it’s a short stay, meaning it’s ready to come up when you keep going. The tungsten. The hoist anyway. And I looked over the side of the ship and I thought, “Holy smoke, that’s a shackle coming through the water! Anchors Away!” We didn’t need phones at that point. The Captain said, “What the hell do you mean ‘Anchors Away’? We haven’t got our engines goin’ yet.” So I got a chewin’ out there (laughing). But we had two firehoses on that anchor chain trying to get the fathom marks to where I knew where I was. And I kept watching that anchor, you could kinda watch the way it would tug. You could pretty well tell whether it was ready to come off the bottom. But I missed it. And I looked down there and saw that shackle come through and I said, “Anchors Away!” and the Captain repeated it, “What the hell do you mean ‘Anchors Away’?”

But, okay, we’ve gotta go back to Pearl Harbor. We’ve gotta do this. You know where the west lock is where some of the ships were tied up? Where the OKLAHOMA was?

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Uh huh.

RICHARD YOUNGS: But anyway, an LST’s a flat bottom ship. And you don’t make a sharp turn because you have no keel down there. Well we was headed up the west lock and met a destroyer comin’ out. So the Captain give me his clearance and all, but what we was doing was

like skipping a rock on water. It was kind of skipping across on top of the water. And we run

aground. And here we are. And the shore hadn’t got ahold of us yet. They hadn’t spotted us

yet. But the Captain got both of our VPs in the water to push on the ship as well as the screws

on the ship trying in reverse, the stern. But we wasn’t budging. Well, the shore Post Marshalls

or whatever they were, saw us. And he got on with the Captain, communicated with him. And at that point the Capitan didn’t care if he was Court Marshalled or not. He said, “You come and get this damn ship!” He was ready to leave it! And he said, “No, no, no, no, let’s get that thing going!” Well, they had a salvage tug come and help us. And we finally got it loose. But then we go back to the reunion. Our 50th anniversary in Boston. We had found our Captain. Told him we’d like to see him there. And the tears come to his eyes. He said, “I never had a better crew in my life, I couldn’t have had, then what I had with you guys.” Tears going down his cheeks. But he said, “You know, I held inspection every week. And I knew damn good and well that you had some Apple Jack on that ship someplace ‘cause I could smell it. And all I wanted to do was join you.” (Laughing). So that was the crew of the 947.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: How many men are on the crew?

RICHARD YOUNGS: They had around 120. We had 126. But the crew of an LST was right around 120.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Do you still have reunions now?

RICHARD YOUNGS: We had to give up our last one which was in Albuquerque and Santa Fe,

New Mexico. That was three years ago. There was only five of us there. We could only find

about ten that was still alive. And we hated the day that we said goodbye.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: So there’s only about ten left at that time.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yes. I’m still in communication with about four or five of ‘em. One in

Florida. The one in Evansville where our Memorial Ship is, he volunteers on it all the time. It still goes out. It still goes underway down the Mississippi and it was going to go to Boston but they had to cancel that trip.

But let me tell you about the Admiral. The Coast Guard Admiral. You might of heard about it. When these old gentlemen went over to Greece in 120 degree weather to put this ship back in running condition, and the Greece Navy donated back to us, as our Memorial Ship. They worked there six months trying to get that ship seaworthy. We got permission from the

President of the United States to put that ship on the water to bring it back. Well, it took longer to get that ship ready to come back and our permit had run out. So we had to get another permit. And the Coast Guard come in to play there with the LST association and said, “You have a ship with no country on the water! We’re not going to allow it! And when your men reach the States, you will be locked up in chains.” There was such a big stink about this. These old

Navy war heros from WWII going to pick that ship up that the Admiral got on national TV and

apologized. He said, “Them boys are heros!” But you could see their point too. There was ship

out there with no country! (Laughing). And they lost their engine twice on the way back. You

might of seen ‘em on television when they got to Mobile. Did you see ‘em?

CHARLIE SIMMONS: No, I didn’t.

RICHARD YOUNGS: They had fire boats out there. They had streams of water. They had bands out there. You couldn’t believe the crowd they had to meet that ship.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Have you ever been on it? You ever seen it?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Yes sir. Sure have. Went down to see the kids in Georgetown and I said,

“We’re half way to Mobile.” I asked the wife, “Would you like to go with me?” She said, “You bet.” We got down there and it looked sick. It looked sick. Rusty. Terrible condition. Well, we had our reunion in Evansville. We had one in Las Vegas after Evansville and one in New Mexico.

But anyway, the one in Evansville, they took us out to board it. Evansville put up a million dollars to build a dock for a memorial ship. And built stores there. They spent a million dollars to get that ship back where they built, 200-some of ‘em, during the war.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: And they’re still running that ship?

RICHARD YOUNGS: Still takin’ it out.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: I’ll be darned.

RICHARD YOUNGS: My buddy in Evansville is still volunteering to go out. And they go over the ship and explain everything that happens on an LST. And we went aboard it there and they had it beautiful. It was beautiful. Had it all painted. They had a silver and a gold crew that’s

volunteering their time and that’s what they’re doing. They’ve got a machinist and they’ve got

electricians. And they’re redoing all the motors on it. They painted it. And they put all of our

clover leafs on the main deck and our tank deck we tied our LVTs down and the LCT down with

it. Had removed them and they put them all back in and they raised the money and put a brand

new stainless steel galley in it. And General Motors, I’ve gotta get these people that donated to the cause too. British Petroleum donated 500,000 gallons of diesel to bring it back. General

Motors rebuilt the two main engines and auxiliary engines free of charge. And you can’t believe the donations that they’ve had. I was talking to this guy that volunteers there in

Evansville. He said they had 11,000 people come aboard that the first day to see the ship. The ship that Winston Churchill told President Roosevelt, “You got the ugliest damn ship in the

Navy. But it’s a ship that won the war.” That’s what Churchill told Roosevelt. And you get you

thinking about it. We don’t take away from the battleships. We don’t take away from the

destroyers. But you’ve got other ones. As a team, we all worked together to win that war. We

couldn’t have won without the other.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: No. It was a valuable ship. The LSTs were really helpful.

RICHARD YOUNGS: It really was. And we didn’t realize that. We used to cuss it every now and then when we’d hit a typhoon and when we were going to Otauro, Hokkaido Island, we hit a typhoon. And one LST had to turn back. It was breaking up. We had our welders up all night long, welding our seams back together. I’ve been on the helm of many a watch on our ship.

And you’re going to steer this course, so you’re going to steer 040. And that thing may bounce around so that you’re at 080, you can’t hold it. You have to fight that wheel to try to keep the course on convoy so you don’t ram another ship. But I’ll tell you what, we was a bunch of proud sailors.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well, sounds like you had something to be proud of on the-

RICHARD YOUNGS: We had men to be proud of, of that you can be sure. I didn’t mean to lose it a time or two but the hell with it.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: You know, you look back on those days and you think of what you all went through together and you start thinking about all the fellows that you did it with that aren’t there anymore.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well and then Webster, hanging over the side with that cord around his neck. We joked about it then, at these reunions. It wasn’t a jokin’ matter then! My wife

Dorothy, she said, “Well you’re kidding about that!” Well, phew that he lived, everything’s

okay now.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well sounds like you had some good times during the war and after the war, too, really.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well, and I’m going to guarantee you something. I’m 85 years old, working on 86. If Uncle Sam needed me again to keep our country free for our kids, I’d be back.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well, I admire you for that feeling. You’ve been there, you knew what it

was like.

RICHARD YOUNGS: I think that much of our kids. Being, like I told you, scoutmaster, little

league manager, I worked these kids all my life I guess. Well as Paul Artie said, “there’s more to the story, but I’ll have to think about it.” (Laughing).

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well maybe we can get back together your next trip to Fredericksburg and you can fill me in on some of the blank spots you might have missed this time around.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Did you know I enjoyed you taking, I thank you very much for your time.

Maybe this will get to some of our kids and they’ll do what they need to in the future.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: It will. It will get to somebody down the road there, for sure.

RICHARD YOUNGS: That’s the reason I come and that’s the reason these kids of mine put the brick in the walk on the water. And we took a picture of it today.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Very good, thank you. They have a lot to be proud of in you too.

RICHARD YOUNGS: You got me, you’re on the camera.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well I’m going to close this down then, unless you have any parting words.

I think you’ve done a pretty good job of wrapping it up here.

RICHARD YOUNGS: Well my purpose for this was for the kids of the future in doing this.

CHARLIE SIMMONS: Well we’ll do our best to get it to ‘em. Okay, well thank you very much.

RICHARD YOUNGS: You bet.