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Graduated Unites States Naval Academy June 1940 USS Gato

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Graduated Unites States Naval Academy June 1940 USS Gato THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC WAR Nimitz Education and Research Center Fredericksburg, Texas An Interview with Robert K. Kaufman, Captain, USN Retired McLean, Virginia September 26, 2011 Graduated Unites States Naval Academy June 1940 Torpedo and Gunnery Officer USS Gato My name is Richard Misenhimer and today is September 26, 2011. I am interviewing Mr. Robert K. Kaufman. Captain, US Navy, Retired by telephone. His phone number is 703-970-3776. His address is: 6251 Old Dominion Drive, Apt 159 McLean, Virginia, 22101. This interview is in support of the National Museum of Pacific War, Nimitz Education and Research Center, for the preservation of historical information related to World War II Mr. Misenhimer Bob, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview today and I want to thank you for your service to our country during World War II and since. Captain Kaufman Thank you. Mr. Misenhimer Now the first thing I need to do is read to you this agreement with the Museum. “Agreement read.” Is that okay with you? Captain Kaufman That is fine with me. Mr. Misenhimer The next 1 would like to do is to get an alternative contact. We have ibund out that sometimes several years down the road we try to get back in contact with a veteran and he has moved or something. 1)o you have a son or daughter or someone we could contact if we needed to find you? Captain Kaufman 1 have a daughter here in the DC area. Mr. Misenhimer What is her name? Captain Kaufman Her name is Roberta Odenwald. Mr. Misenhimer Do you have an address and phone number for her? 1 Captain Kaufman Her cell phone number is 301-938-8357. Mr. Misenhimer What is your birth date? Captain Kaufman October 21, 1919. Mr. Misenhirner Where were you born? Captain Kaufman I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Mr. Misenhirner Did you have brothers and sisters? Captain Kaufman I had two older sisters, Helen and Dorothy. Mr. Misenhimer Were they involved in war work at all? Captain Kauthan No. My oldest sister’s husband was in the Navy during World War II. My middle sister Dorothy never married. Mr. Misenhirner is your brother-in-law still living? Captain Kaufman No and neither are my sisters. Mr. Misenhimer Now you grew up during the Depression. }low did the 1)epression affect you and your flimily? Captain Kaufman 1 suppose, I’ve said this before. that everybody that was in the town I was in, was poor and we didn’t know it. In my high school class, whatever it was 80 or 90, 1 think them were probably only two students that came from really dcstitutc families. The rest ofus got three meals a day. Mr. Misenhimer What was your Ihther’s occupation? Captain Kaufman He was an insurance and real estate salesman. Mr. Misenhimer Was he able to keep employed during the Depression? Captain Kaufman Yes, he kept on going. He died the summer before I entered the Naval Academy; the summer of 1935. Mr. Misenhimer When did you finish high school? Captain Kaufman I graduated from high school about May 25, 1936 and entered the Naval Academy on June 23. 1936. Mr. Misenhimer How did you choose to go to the Naval Academy? Captain Kaufman (Laugh) I’ve often been asked that. I don’t know. I got interested about my sophomore year and kept thinking about it I started working on it when I was a junior in high school. You asked about the Depression; I think maybe in the back of my mind was if I was going to go to college, I was going to have to do it that way. Mr. Misenhimer Did you have any trouble getting your appointment to the TJSNA? 3 Captain Kaufman No, I don’t think so. I need to tell you a little bit about my method. The day of the entrance examination, the SAT — we didn’t have SATs in my day, the Congressman or the Senator had the United States Civil Service Commission put on an examination for his candidates. My congressman did that. When I got to the examination spot early in the morning there vvere about 20 young men there with me. I don’t remember the order of the subjects but when we came back after lunch, only four of us showed up. That was an indication that the others didn’t like that exam very much. Mr. Misenhimer It sounds like that. Captain Kaufuiian I suppose I must have done well on that exam because the Congressman nominated me and I headed to the Naval Academy on June 23, 936. Mr. Misenhimer Tell me about the Academy: how was that? Captain Kaufman In much later years, within the last 15 years, I served as hat the Naval Academy calls a Blue and Gold Officer, a Naval Academy Information Officer, interviewing and counseling candidates to the Naval Academy. I know considerable about today’s system. Another story: The day before I entered the Naval Academy I was in Annapolis and stayed in a hotel and visited the city. The day before that my mother put me on a train in rur:I Pennsylvania and I woke up the next morning at Unioi Station in Washington. I remember walking across the street and up the bill and standing on the Capitol steps. At that time I was 1 6 years old. I then got to Annapolis and ran into another entrant and we ended up rooming together for four years. To show you maybe the difference between the population at the Naval Academy; I was from a little town in rural Pennsylvania and my roommate was from the Bronx in New York City. We roomed together mostly peaceably for four years. Mr. Misenhimer Tell me about getting into the Academy. 1 low did everything happen there? 4 Captain Kaufman It’s a change from what it is today. Today the whole entering class enters on one day. In my time the class kept drifting in all summer long. I was fairly early in the entering class in June. There were 20 to 25 a day, every weekday, all summer long. It was certainly different. I didn’t get homesick. I had been away from home before so that part was airight but the Naval Academy plebe year is tough. It is different. I don’t know if anyone would say, “Yes, I would like to do it again.” I got through plebe year alright. The other difference between today and those many years ago; my roommate had a year a Columbia University and a lot ofmy classmates had one or two years ofcollege before they arrived at the Naval Academy and I came straight out of high school. No college or prep school. Nowadays there are still some that have had some college but most of the entrants come straight out of high school. Mr. Misenhimer You said that you would not want to do your plebe year over. What were some of the problems with the plebe year? Captain Kaufman You didn’t have much time ofyour own; particularly plebe summer. You kept going from reveille at 6:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night when you turned in. Scholastically things moved pretty Ihst. The method of instruction was diiThrent than other colleges. You studied the books pretty thoroughly. tien then you went to class and the instructor may ask if there were any questions and he issued to each student a piece of paper with a problem on it. Then you went up to the blackboard and solved the problem and that became your daily grade. The daily grades were a big part ofthe final grade. Mr. Misenhimer Was this a math problem or what kind ofa problem was it? Captain Kaufman Math, physics, chemistry and in later years navigation, and then of course English and history. The history classes were somewhat different There was more writing. not on the blackboard, but essay- 5 type writing. In my we took what we called a lock step course. Every midshipman took the same courses with the exception of a foreign language. You had somewhat of a choice of a foreign language. I had had two years of French so I thought I would be better off to have French and I thought it would be easier and I didn’t have to study. My sophomore year I hit the midterm exam and a passing grade was 2.5 and I think I hit the midterm exam with a 1 .2, which made me quite unsatisfactory and provided an appearance before the academic board and a re-exam which was not graded. It was a pass/fail thing. I suspect that since I was doing alright in math and physics and chemistry they decided to keep me. Mr. Misenhimer During your freshman year was there quite a bit of hazing by the upper classmen’? Captain Kaufman Yes. There was hazing, including physical hazing, which no longer exists. I don’t know how to express it. It was something we all went through. I don’t think the hazing had anything to do with it but the attrition rate at the Naval Academy in my day was much higher than it is today. The attrition at the service academies today is on the order of about 20% or maybe a little more. In my day the attrition rate was pretty close to 50%. Tn other words, half of the men that joined that summer of 1936 did not graduate.
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