Interview with Edmund G. Klepps, a WW II Veteran. CCSU VHP

spirits began to drop the chief bit when he swore us in he said now your ass belongs to Uncle Sam and when we got the Norfolk Virginia the Marines they they were ordering us around like you were slaves you know that night when I got into my hammock we didn't give us bunks we had hammocks hi I said tada in my prayers I said dear Lord what have I gotten myself into if I could have quit right then I would have you know but things got better as it every days went on we learned to hold our clothes and how to wash our clothes and we got some we started our training with World War one rifles and we trained for 14 weeks we didn't have enough men to start a platoon we needed 72 I think well we had about 60 something and I think it took eight eight men to a squad well maybe nine eight or nine squads we needed to start so we we started at two weeks late we trained every day probably eight 8:30 until 3:30 in the afternoon then we had to go back and wash our clothes and hang along the line what strings a certain way everything had to be done a certain way now we'll quit for the record could you just tell me what your rank was uh-huh I was a plumber seaman at that time what was your highest rank Chief Warrant Officer machinist branch and real quick can you tell me were you served where yeah your locations of service well Norfolk Virginia and then I was sent to San Pedro California where I got the two USS Mississippi I was assigned a little over three years ha what year did you join the Mississippi yeah it was in there in the spring of 1940 no huh no I made a mistake 1936 1936 yeah yeah I got along real well my division officer M division was a warrant Chief Warrant Officer named John Silva he came from Rhode Island he took a liking to me and he kept pushing me he would give me good jobs instead of cleaning in the builders he would give me a Amish a machine shop job because he knew I had machine shop training and I would put some grooves in valve so the gaskets would hold better and before long I was a machinist mate second class he gave me 30 days leave so I could go home and brag a little bit did you do for the 30 days well I guess what along with the family real well I had a sister outline she really catered to me hours her baby baby brother hungry I'm the youngest of a family of nine I have a picture of the whole family there too oh well I only had 20 some days after getting home and back I travelled by train so that took quite a bit of time I had a they gave me a Pullman car a sleeper in fact that's when they had sleepers on a train you could sleep I really enjoyed that I went back to San Pedro went back to the ship Mississippi we took us a cruise with the fleet we got within 50 miles of the equator first we first we we stopped in Hawaii and then we took island cruises different different scenes on the island extinct volcano he even showed us where you can boil an egg right alongside the road where the steam was coming up come from an extinct volcano yeah so I think we're on maneuvers twice on a second maneuver we we got within 50 miles of the equator but when you go over the coiler equator you'll become a shell back but you go to a stiff rigmarole and M days they were dream mean oh they made sleighs then you would make a canvas sack about three foot long and packet would rags and then soak it in some order and you went through about 20 men everybody had beaten your back your butt and I'm telling you my my butt was black and blue for three months in fact it hit baby beat me so hard and opened the cyst that I had and broke broke the Cisco pin so I had to go to Brooklyn Navy hospital when I got back and they operated on the cyst and I was in a hospital about a month well healing up and every time they change the bandage it took about eight yard of guards and they they had that soaked in iodine they put it into the meat that they had cut out on your tailbone well anyway so after it after you were off the Mississippi where did you go what's your yawn after that hi Rhonda USS Helena Cruiser light number 50 and she was being finished in Brooklyn Navy are and for the record what other ship where you want after that honor cruiser Detroit it's one of the oldest cruisers in the Navy a Porsche Decker it was used in World War one in fact and we're just saying when you first wing I met the ship in Seattle but then we went up into the Aleutians the Japs had uh had captured me look I love a 2 up there so we after our troops got in and chased them up into the mountain how we patrolled the shore so no no other Japanese ship could get in there when I was there for about three months I had to during them three months the Japanese made one last-ditch stand they came down from the mountain early one just before it got light and they had bayonets on the guns and they we had a little hospital where where our our wounded were being taken care of they went into that American Hospital and diet they banned bayon and every one of them poor guys right in their bunks Carsten our soldiers killed every one of them too but that was bloody just for the record could he tell me were you drafted or did you enlist I enlisted yeah and where were you living at the time 92 North Main Street terrible and where did you sign up and no and no Britain no Britain Connecticut and what why did you why did you join because there were no jobs and the job I did get that and gave out in New London we were I'm getting ahead of myself now but before I joined there I worked in Middletown you know asbestos watchin Factory and I worked on grinding brake shoes grinding the edges and so forth and on clutch facings they were made of asbestos and rubber but most of the time I had a mask on and a blower would take most of the dust away so that had protected me pretty well of course later on I hai had everything on the ship was asked us discover over also and then I'm getting ahead of me of myself but the job I had in Wallace Barnes company they had asbestos lines all over and that boiler itself was covered without house bestest hasta Stanford so uh about ten years ago I had my doctor give me an MRI test to check my lungs and they work okay that's good how I'm lucky I didn't get that asbestos now when he decided to join why did you pick the the Navy over all the other branches I guess what I figured I could learn something there then do you recall your first days in service my first days yeah after you signed up well I had to wait a couple weeks to get in I had a passive quite stiff test they were only taken high school graduates and college graduates in fact in my platoon we had a couple garage college men yeah things were so tough you couldn't get a job and any waiting house pestered job gave out so I had to do something that's what forced me into the Navy what kind of tested they performed the first couple of weeks before I got in yeah Wow right checked your whole body and give you a physical make sure you didn't have flat feet and they gave you a written test what's quite simple for me [Music] now what did it feel like after from being in civilian life to joining the Navy and I are in basic training what was it like that was a toughest part the first the first couple weeks in basic training I wished I'd never done it but John as gradually you start marching and you feel pretty good about yourself and our platoon can really march nice they can make a straight line we would March every Friday and right in front of the Admiral and the captains and ice right you you turn your eyes to the right and all you could see you're sure then that man's nose the next next to you there's both us that keeps a straight line and if you feel pretty proud of yourself after a while yeah so then I signed up for machinist school and I I was able to stay there another five months before they sent me out to the West Coast the Navy was really good to our thing they hired 12 Pullman cars for 300 sailors and they took the southern route Michelle Lara good seanryan in Colorado we went to the Royal Gorge and I can lay in my bunk and look up and you couldn't see the top of the gorge you know the I asked well it was a nice trip we got to San Diego on they brought us out to the ship everybody got it the one they were assigned to so then I was on the Mississippi for three years now from funk boot camp and your training your flat let's train do you remember any of your instructors mister cease cease LCEs ye I remember chief well he'd like his bar once in a while he'd go up ashore and and get too many but he was good-natured when he did get half plastered so he never got mean there was another platoon there they had a mean chief and if they were talking or something after sleeping hours nine o'clock he'd make them all get up lash their sea bags and their bumpkin I hold it on their back on their on their shoulders for an hour and they were not one of the guys he passed out he said lonely there I don't remember her name but it wasn't my chief huh I was so thankful that I had a good one yeah those chief said the power of the how captain you might say yeah and how did you get through your training into boot camp experiences oh I did to God Ilah I enjoyed it after a while they took us everybody had to learn to swim of course course I was a good swimmer anyway on the outside I could swim them wildlife was nothing so I had no trouble passing the swim test which proved to be a my fortune when when the Helena got so I'd saved my life [Music] how where I my cool you serve during World War two can you tell me where exactly your weapon how are our two yeah so you'll actually you joined up before World War two oh yeah from training out to California on to the Mississippi Mississippi for three years yeah what was that like on the Mississippi that was good Dodie yeah we made two trips out to Hawaii on maneuvers I saw extinct volcano and also I told you they with our steam coming out of the ground yeah and you could cook a leg up and in a couple minutes so so hot yeah after the Mississippi I figured I'd go out and try my luck again but well just as hard in 1939 and that's where I got a job in New London and the job was took we were building a big press for Life magazine a pointing person I was I had a 20 inch leg would had a bit about 8 feet long and I was making grinding or the machining some of the rolls and that's when that tool dog in and threw a chip into my eye yeah and anyway he was getting slack so I I quit now I signed over that's when he reinvested him and he joined up with down well I first went to six weeks of diesel school and New London and then they sent me to Brooklyn Navy Yard on the hill and I wear my commission on September 18th I think it was nineteen 1939 [Music] in fact I can call myself a plank owner anybody that put the ship in commission and also our commission is called a plank owner as a nickname they give you yeah so once you boarded your new ship that the helmet of what did you go while we we hadn't touched runs right out from New York and we open it wide open it was wintertime yeah and you had some rough sea out there one nice one Hanson had the bridge you know we were making cruisers testing the ship and one night about midnight miss Hanson decided this this night about midnight the ensign decided to give the ship a hard right rudder and we were traveling almost top speed 25 30 knots and that ship I rolled over almost on the side I was in my bunk and I was holding on for dear life and then the captain rolled out of his bunk up up on the bridge he rolled out of his bunk so he got up they went up on a bridge and a you say he cursed that Ansem from A to C he went he was a captain B mod he was a merchant marine captain anyway he was tough yeah that poor ensign I wish I bet he wished he could crawl in a hole after that captain start coloring and everything the ship was top-heavy because after we got back back into port into Brooklyn they brought 600 tons of lead and put it in the bottom of the Helena yeah because they were so top-heavy and then it broke pretty good oh yeah yeah so once you left Brooklyn I now know where did where did you go well after that we went down to South Terrace aus Amerika and visited three or four countries on a shakedown cruise and a goodwill tour yeah we stopped it Argentina first and then we went up after Argentina we went we went to Brazil and now then we went to Uruguay because that's where the the battleship the German pocket battleship Graf Spee had van can't been chased in by three British Cruiser no she she crawled came back in there because she was pretty well shut up and the British cruisers were also but they were able to still able a fight so then they borrowed her in there now car SIA I went ashore and all them spent a restaurant down there they spoke Spanish mostly and there was also a lot of German waitresses like I speak German real good how do you know German from I was confirmed in German in my church yeah I was baptized German I'll anyway I could order in German and and Spanish all I could say it dusts eraser that means two beers so I learned how to order two beers yeah and the meals I used to order in German now my friend ha John comb he wanted to show off a little bit so he ordered his Leland and Spanish and the waitress laughs like hell he just ordered horse me yeah Oh anyway after the Graf Spee finally decided to leave because Uruguay didn't want him there no more they they went out about five or six miles and blew up the ship they blew it up I all hands abandoned it the captain blew his brains out before he knew him there go back to tell Hitler he lost the ship they would have shot him right away anyway so we have a picture of his funeral there when we came back to New York and decided to go to the west coast yes I forgot about the date we got the West Coast but anyway did he sell through the Panama winter Panama Canal yeah through the locks I been through the canal three times yeah it's like when I I forgot saying the Mississippi in 1939 we came to little canal and one of the engines got stuck into mud yeah the gate Gaylord cutter one of them Gail where they had to dig it was shoe ice me steam shovel yeah well anyway the mud got pretty deep and that the Mississippi is very very draws a lot of water about 30 some feet so one of the engines was got sucked mud or sucking in mud so we had to shut it down right away and close the main injection valve and then we backed down and not turned off high-pressure steam and that that blew the mother out the mud so we could bring the engine back on so we got to the canal that way we were going the Mississippi was going to the World's Fair in New York at that time 1939 or the World's Fair okay yeah well so they'd say doctor doctor up by the World's Fair there yeah are they docked off outside in the harbor in fact my my girlfriend came with my brother and his wife to meet me at the World's Fair while I was in Brooklyn yeah [Music] so everything was going rosy until we got out I got to Pearl Harbor and after about 8:00 about a year of gunnery practice we course Pearl Harbor came along December 7 yeah yeah I had the auxilary watcher called the 4:00 to 8:00 that night on December 6 and I came up a watch it to harder to eat I told her miss attendant to get it go ahead and clean up no I didn't want to eat no breakfast so I had a couple sandwiches in the in general and I was going to go ashore and get a milkshake at the Y and I could hire good Hamburg yeah so I got into the shower and started chopping down real good and just about then the officer Dudek came on a loudspeaker and and shouted All Hands man your battle stations Japanese planes are attacking port island and then about few seconds later that torpedo hit right underneath her on the helmet yeah well then the fire came up to all the passageways and I was lucky to be in the shower soaking wet and that's what saved my life all right I felt was a hot blast go by me and out the porthole but there was another guy I have his name written down here he got burnt so bad he was right in line with the washroom door and the fire came in he was scrubbing closed in the bucket yeah when you only had underwear like that you'd wash him up in the bucket he wouldn't bother sending him to laundry well anyway he was washing in a bucket and of course all you have on there's a pair of shorts but the rest of his body was beer that fire hit him in the back so bad he weren't so bad within three hours he was dead and now has only six feet away from me so I'm considered I was lucky to be in the shower soaking wet I'd say my line yeah so what happened after so after you got out of the shower how did you get out of there out of the ship all we didn't have to get out we closed all the watertight doors as quick as possible and kept the ship afloat yeah I don't even went down a little odd to bow because they had all the other watertight doors and if the water did come in and he only seeped in a little at a time after two days they put us into drydock which was right right close to us the tugs they pushed us in a dry dock and they took out dump smashed machinery did him the turbines dumped the fire room got blasted all hands in the fire room got killed and anybody that was in the engine room drinking coffee got killed huh how many casualties well 33 in broken Pearl Harbor 33 died some got up shot up on deck by planes that were strafing anyway we we got we got the two diesel engines that saved the hell runner pretty well one up our world one in I have big big decent jobs they put out an up generating juice to supply the whole ship those were okay so we started them and then with three or four minutes our guns were shooting shooting at the Japs would aircraft and of course our boilers were making black smoke we're trying to light off with cold oil and what a don't burn good to us it's a hundred forty or more so anyway they got steamed up on one boiler and that kept the Japs away pretty well because we were making so much smoke we fill the harbor with that smoker that protected a lot of ships from being bombed I think what was going through your mind this was happening wow you didn't have much time to think you're pitied the poor guys that were walking around with skin hanging off their hands and legs burnt skin and they were whimpering crying how long for a hospital corpsman you know take care of them give him a shot of morphine some of the guys were laying on deck already dead and you couldn't do much harm except pin him the four years ship was moved to drydock that for a couple days what did you do in those couple days when you were sitting there I'm just cleaning up on it eating sandwiches for three days our gallery was dirty and so they had to clean the gallery good before they could cook so we eat sandwiches for three days and piling they got a cinder and a dry dock and we got steam from the shore there I was right alongside the dock number ten ten dock [Music] so they worked on it for about 20 days I never see our workmen go so fast I work so fast usually they're dogging a you know but after that torpedo inin they were active lawyer we have drills a little bit afterward they were running like crazy to get topside how did he where they were working how many they were in 20 days they and they put on a false bottom on the ship and they took off two of the main screws so that we could travel faster we came back to the States on two screws and the other two we had up on deck on the heroin I got when he got off the ship whenever a dry dog what did you think of Pearl Harbor how did it look after and what was going through your mind when you went when I saw the devastation Japanese Wow hey you can't take much but the officers that should have had been sending people planes out on patrol even our radar system wasn't too good but I wanted their seamen picked up he says our whole bunch of dots in the distance of Barack how are we he reported it to lieutenant he says ah forget it and then he reported it to the head mend or head drill and then the hidden admiral and they disregard so they had plenty of warning they should have had some planes out patrolling they had these PB wives that go could go a couple thousand mile and land on the water too so we were caught with our pants down so they patched up the Helena and we were headed back to the States we can't happen what was the ride bike back on the Helena after Pearl Harbor yeah well we were glad to go back to the States we knew we were gonna get some time off leave and we were in in the Navy Yard Mayer Island Navy Yard for a good six months I mean while they put on more forty millimeter guns and we put on the best radar that was out which saved other ships and which let us sink many other ships jobs we had the best radar in the whole system for the wrong we used to go out and when we took on the enemy we could pick them up at six seven thousand yards the other ships didn't have nothing on their radar that's pretty good for ya oh yeah that's right we need weed we requested permission once at six thousand yards to open up the allen bolt at us he was on a different ship what are you gonna shoot out he says yeah so we closed in two for Thaksin's we asked again know that oh he don't see nothing on our radar we finally closed in the a little over two thousand yards and we told him we had definite targets he says okay if you want shoot our first 19 guns sunk a cruiser yeah set it out firing sea shankara and hardly no time okay yeah that was our first battle that's all listed there on that list bill are you falling asleep I'm not J getting sick of this story huh so what do you get when I get back into the United States you have a little time off you said we're able to go back to Connecticut no we went to all these battles then battle for Guadalcanal was the worst and we got raided they had talked us with a bunch of planes the afternoon before the big battle a soda the Admiral decided to make up a big circle like the Pioneers used to make oh nice mail wagons so we did the same thing where our ship and they came in with I think 20 some Betty's two motor job but they came in slow how they got they got shot down like nothing huh and our planes were shooting them down too I think only one or two got away what about 28 that's good yeah well anyway that night was the big battle yeah we knew they were coming down with plenty of two battleships cruisers destroyers they had about 20 all this information was given to us by the Watchers are they had their name they were from New Zealand and Australia I got pictures of me they wouldn't hide way up high and they could see any jack movement came out of truck truck was the main place where Jack's fleet was I was about 500 miles north of us well anyway they would report so we knew exactly what to expect and that night they came in with battleships they were gonna bombard the job Marines on quarter canal they had a course that held Henderson fear already in operation we took that away from yeah it was half finished when we took it away from the jobs so long anyway they were gonna bombard so didn't they didn't have regular fighting ammunition they had bombardment shells in the battleships that shelves are loaded with all kinds of scrap metal you know that's for killing personnel only well the battle cruiser San Francisco eight 8-inch cruisers sheet actor one of them battleships and she was shot up so bad but she didn't get it Anita and he damaged underneath I still pray to float every operation around that ship was dead except one yeah only one being a navigator I was still alive but had the most gotten Admiral Callahan that killed two Admirals [Music] we had our nobody could dare and use a searchlight but our our radar system help identify the ships also and we got some damage up on top small fire superstructure but no we didn't get hit with a torpedo underneath so we come out of that battle and still fighting condition out of 13 ships against 20 we had four left some beached themselves course the Juno took a torpedo yeah that night we we took one shell hit right on the turret number five - it was a good sized shell it didn't it didn't not go so the turret has about five inches of steel on the front but it did I did mess up the machine part of the gun so the next time they fired it stuck the GU it wouldn't come back out see ya so we had to go down to Sydney Australia and get that turret pushed out we were pulling in the Sydney and there was a bunch of people on a doctor and our sailors real cars were up on deck people on shore asked what happened to your ship termites they said I got the Sailor termites said huh that to be joke hey you know sailors gotta have their joke so they treated us well and in Sydney we able to get off oh yeah I don't know every other night yeah what was it like would you do anything fun when you were in Sydney well I get drunk a couple of times we all got drunk in fact whiskey was cheap but milk were scarce I know no no ginger ale I'm sorry they had no ginger ale but whiskey were only three dollars a quart I cover government store too so we'd all go down and grab a bottle Walker Street strictly haha parks we didn't get her a room in a hotel [Music] afterwards any women around they gladly why I walked in but yeah oh yeah oh yeah women were very friendly yeah but all their men were in West Africa in Africa fighting there was not many Australian soldiers and only those that were fighting in New Guinea trying to keep him from had the Japs I'm taking none Port Moresby in that island so there was a good stay 20 20 days in Australia we hated to leave I know way back we got the bad news your ship is expendable we thought we've gone back to States when they said you're a shippers expendable they were we didn't have many ships left on there sorry that that lowered our spirits about ninety percent so where did you go and we went back into our old near Guadalcanal and then we bombarded other islands whenever we were landing Marines on different islands and we would run a bombard the coast so the Marines could move in we did that quite a few times and then we went into cooler golf three nights in a row was moonlight and third not third night they were laying four ten destroyers we have three cruisers and a couple destroyers or anyway our our fault must we had used up all our no no flame ammunition okay and all we had left was flame and that put out a lot of flame when your fire you know which is is that not good for nighttime and showed you up at night you know you lit up like a Christmas tree when you fired them guns because the whole that fire came out and it stayed there while we are we moved we fired I think seven minutes we knocked off two of destroyers and when we're working on a third one the third one got through and launched three torpedoes and that's what sunk us yeah so you suck a cooler go pull it off yeah I was 18 months after water Corral do you remember what date that was when you suck yeah July 6 1943 was there any casualties in the ship when it sunk oh yeah of course those that we're in a turret a torrent way down that's all they handle all your mammy nation for the guns up above so they did lose about 80 men I think we lost a hundred and sixty-eight men come come drown and some some were down in and couldn't get out I was just lucky or we were lucky to get I was in the after atrium I was chief of the watch the chief engineer wouldn't let us out of there until he checked every JV phone and when he couldn't get the captain then he says okay open the hatch so Hawks in my hurry I forgot my lifejacket my was that the bottom of the hatch we no sooner cleared that the engine room and closed the hatch and the third our torpedo hit under us and that's when the the air pressure was pushing us back and then that mortar hit the door so I ran into what everybody ran into the next compartment and got on that ladder it seemed like everybody got there ahead of me that when that water hit the door just walked me from one side of the ship to the other I was already deep well I did get on a ladder as I told you before that was one man ahead of me standing on the ladder he was kind of slow hitting that door about cope and I was trying to help him he finally got it open and pushed it up so he could get so he got about halfway to and I decided to help him I give him the shoulder and when I did I just knocked him clean through that hole and the next day of course he I'm sure he told me some son of a hit me in the ass and knocked me clean through that scuttle hole aiex officially admit it with me we had a good laugh it was a junior division of us yeah we both were happy to be alive or the end of the Helena what happened so the Helena was sinking what did you do when he got up o'clock I was up on top and I just laid on duck and watch the Battle of one that was still firing I didn't seem though after getting out of the engine although I figured I got it made but then they we could see that ship was starting to break in the middle and a couple of seamen said we better get them wrapped off the top of the turret so they cut them off and threw two wraps over the side and I didn't have a life jacket though friend of mine he said I would hold hands go over to get our cups so we did we held hands went over together and then got on the raft but then the powder cases the part of cases when after you fire them they didn't fall out on deck the ship was tipping the starboard named powder cases were landing on our head on the raft I swam away from the raft a little bit and then I was watching the ship go down so slowly my home for four years I know I just couldn't take my eyes off of it until it finally went below tonight I thought I better get on Raptor so I'm looking around for a wrap to go floated away I mean while our show and Sue's watching that ship go down so then I started a dog paddle and I also started to pray I prayed hard fact I begged the Lord to save my life I must have dog paddle close to an hour before in the dark I heard voices and I swam and got on to another set of wraps yeah well they were from your ship the raft oh yeah did you know them oh wow yeah I know and there was to shift to destroyer stayed behind the radford under nicolas i got picked up by the nicholas yeah so what was it like when he got on board he said the nicholas yeah and while they were still shootin they were still shooting at a cruiser or something and launching torpedoes I was outside there the handling on where they handle our ammunition and one of the guys here's a cigarette and a cup of coffee I said boy they allow you to do that during a ballet so they're very easygoing on a destroyer Here I am soaking wet and covered with oil he gets me a cigarette a cup of coffee I went up on deck and then they were still shooting and the shells were dropping out there too so I only went down below and of course then they took us into palagi one of them the little islands north of Guadalcanal and we go onto the Helena I mean under cruiser st. Louis and Honolulu there were sister ships and they brought us back to knowmia New Caledonia Minah espírito Santo did it give you a fresh set of clothes when he got on the necklace oh not on there but on the Honolulu the cruiser yeah oh yeah the guys they open up their lockers and give a shoe so I kicked my shoes off when I was in a warg I think they're like it's window her so I didn't have any shoes yeah they were good then we get in got into land and that's pretty descent on they give a small store they call it a small store so we can go and get what we needed I think they allowed us a hundred some dollar that were new clothes huh that thing on can you tell me where any fellow sailors or anybody that you knew captured for prisoner of war when it was the Helena sunken no no no Alaska someone folded onto an island two different islands and there was a hundred and sixty some and the natives protected them and hid him in the jungle and if anybody any got close they bring back their head yeah then maybe if they had borrowed long boil and - one weapon off goes the head yeah they protected our men maile hid in the jungle until the Americans got some or all destroyers and went in there one night and picked him up that's all in all in the story now kid he told me about a couple of your most memorable experiences hmm experience yeah well I think it was I think it was all from New York when I was really worried about going over this is enough yeah we were trying out the but I told you that when the guy rolled captain out of his bunk for making that four quick turn and going at full speed him I thought the ship was going over it was hanging him and I was shaking hold on uh no I bunk that's one of my top there was a goner yeah well the next next morning I guess was Pearl Harbor so taking a shower and I got out of the shower after the smoke cleared I found a pair of shoes in the dark a pair of shorts that's all I had on during the whole battle because you weren't coming from the shower oh yeah I couldn't find no collar enough and then I went up one deck where I was some air to breathe but I was so smoky down below I had to go up one more deck and I stayed up there about a minute until the smoke cleared and I looked out on the harbor and what a mess I'm telling you today Arizona was burning more than one ship was burning sailors are jumping off swimming underwater he'll get away from the burning oil and getting on another rescue whatever it was the okhla Oklahoma had quite a few men crept and couldn't get out and they were hammering on the side of the ship so they Dean welders went to work and cut big holes and try to stay cuts quite a few or more Oh yeah yeah Pearl Harbor car Sierra was the night we got sunk that's what I wake up mostly every morning and still got that in my mind yeah trying to swim yeah that's a good thing you were a good swimmer that's where you oh yeah I did a lot of swimming on the outside we need to swim over to an island on time we swam I was a modern mile in Brisco terrible we had just eaten some green apples we stole him in the orchard hook folks bye my friend and I hate some green apples he said let's swim over to the island which was about a mile away and I was sure I gonna get a cramp on my bully you know but I didn't yeah any medals or citations only the one of the medals there those things everybody who was on the ship Dharam American Pacific and I don't know the names of that blue blob white and blue ribbon up there that's the Navy Unit Commendation women they didn't give no other just pretend little ribbon and I was pinned on me by the captain of the Detroit like a picture of like in the book there moving on to a couple more sections here and then we'll wrap it up how did you stay in touch with your family you couldn't you couldn't tell them very much you know we think going well everything good send your love and all that but it was all hybrid later you had to go to Officer huh what's the word well anyway the other they checked everything you couldn't send out any information yeah so that's why I say I got love letters I got a whole pack of them in there that my wife kept what the hell meant the same thing or said the same thing yeah did they did your family know you were in Pearl Harbor oh yeah yeah but I sent a telegram but then I sent out a letter and the letter got home before the telling round yeah I think I was quite a few days before they got the telegram hard I am airmail letter he told him oh yeah I was gonna get leave after that I told him I was gonna get leave after after we got back to states which I did and we got married I give my wife one week to get ready and her mother to was rationing it was hard to get meeting hard to get beer and whiskey and all right but they did they knew the butcher in town and he he made quite a good wedding of her mother yeah I got married in church kind of hired a halt on the outside of town on a Bristol and my father dance the Polka he was in a sari yeah now in the Navy what was the food like the food yeah kind of no complaints yeah you got a little mousse to it they had 20 names for it I wouldn't want to depend I wouldn't want to tell you over ha have a recorded by yeah yeah did you have plenty of supplies a period of three weeks no no ship were getting through everything was going to Europe England and Russia so no supply ships were getting out to the Pacific and we ate beans for three weeks all different kinds of beans and whatever was in the cans or whatever was in the freezer we ate our beans with mostly yeah did you ever feel pressure or stress at all pressure washer stress I don't know what you mean pressure or stress stress no was there something you did for good luck or good luck yeah I prayed I learned to pray real in earnest especially when I was swimming in the dark tomorrow is 88 degrees that's one good thing but also good shark that's good for sharks not even I never thought about the sharks I've just thought about getting back on another ship no I forgot all about sharks of course we had a hundred sixty thousand gallons of oil that spilled also at the same time two Shipman down so I think the lot of the ship pull was in oil surrounding it because I had oil in my ears and eyes and hair I could see but boy we all got back ship the only thing or take it off was lava soap yeah never used lava soap it's a gray and has pumice Lena yeah yeah yeah that's the only thing would wash clean yeah but a month after I was in San Diego on a repaired OD there I had a infection into my right ear so I went down to the sickbay and you started washing it out with warm water put a pan on the rest of the kitchen and finally I heard a clink clunk I said what was that oh that's just hard oil I had hard oral in that ear for over a month and finally it got infected so after that I was okay yeah I had a little oil from school ago ha ha ha and how do people entertain themselves aboard ship we didn't have a band we were lucky yeah I know we had to two black men aboard ship good one of them he loved to dance and show off hey when that band start playing boy when he smiled his mouth I showed them big teeth you know and everybody else start laughing yeah it was a card the San Francisco wushu shot up the morning after the battle we sent our band over to the San Francisco to cheer him up because they had lost so many of their officer just about everyone except one and they were so happy they gave us a nice light a letter right up yeah there's a lot to read and then book yeah what did you do when you're on leave Corral ha ha go to my wife I got married cuz I couldn't stay home too long I had to get back so I took her back with me to San San Diego and then I I was able to get a room with another lady right south of San Diego and I wish I just gave you the name of the micelle about a couple miles south of San Diego Mexico City yeah I'm starting to forget names well anyway she yeah her husband I was on the carrier out to seeing and she wanted somebody in the house so she rented the room to me and my wife for 10 bucks 10 bucks a week real cheap just to have somebody she had a small kid yeah he was good to us Norma Norma Hanson hey man yeah I am a handsome now do you recall any particularly humorous or any unusual events at all come on our shakedown cruise to bonus Ares the they used to have what they call it Osato of's a dar sada folk song well one of our big Meatpacking companies in Chicago would put it on and the natives would draw drive sticks in the ground make a big circle about the size of this room and they take a sheep and cut them in half or herb goat and then light fires in the middle and and cooked out stuff no I ate some of it but when we got back to the ship one other guy said damn round things they took tasted really good yeah you didn't know what they were well the guy says they're my mountain oysters ha Mountain oyster I'm gonna explain told me they were sheeps nuts well he didn't roll them up yeah I see now it's one of the happiest moments huh I'm going to ask whether ever any pranks that you would pull or other no I'm the only thing was a Shellback initiation you may be heard about him yeah well you heard about oh yeah years ago they were really sadistic you walked through that that line with 20 guys hit me on the back on Iran EF and Paul you're black and black and blue for three months [Music] and then they'll they make a crawl through the tunnel like they mean camera shoots just big enough the crowd rule and then save garbage for 3-4 days and put it in that crawl and in that tunnel and you you have a crawl through that garbage and guts and all that stuff I mean why you better not put your ass up or your head up there on top waiting to hit you oh that mean they made the captain need to buy a back box of cigars and then he got away cheap or any other officers they sent him through they even put them to officer yeah oh yeah him nipple King Neptune ain't here to take over the ship [Music] most of them are Gordon but the fellow self yeah most um we're okay yeah did you ever keep a personal diary at all no not when our ship I didn't start writing this book of mine until I was in my 8086 or so I started to write my memories a little bit more we'll be all set do you recall the day your service ended yeah I had him I had to go to New York the neighborhood center Darrow and when they gave me my papers and oh you did want to see my discharge yeah and what did you what did you do in the days in the weeks afterward no I'm one of the voter work so I got a job in a machine shop yeah in terrible I'm Neal a see I knew him before I joined the war before I joined the Navy and I was supposed to get dime guy making trade I I was a good machinist anyway to start with night I had them the machine shop on the hill and I wasn't in charge and I made a lot of stuff for the ship or the breakdown air compressor that broke down that put out three thousand pound pressure I I had to make a new cylinder for it really so it was a long only inch and a quarter would put our three thousand pound pressure and that's what they use them uses air to blow out the sparks in the guns after they fired they didn't a hitter would air makes sure there's no sparks left in the barrel or anyway I I've did some nice job the fixed pumps warm I would start out with a big chunk of steel and have to hack it down into small make making pumper part for a pump yeah well anyway I that's where I lost my finger yeah instead of diet trainee put me on a press I had to stand up to kick the press it was such a hard kick one of the little gear got stuck in there and I reached in to try to clear then I stepped on the pillow at the same time and that's when I got got caught I had to shut the Machine off and then turn the wheel backwards in order to get my finger off you know I didn't start hurting until I was on the way to the hospital yeah it was a pretty well mangled oh yeah had a clean at all now did you make any close friendships when you're in the service yeah I got few pictures here uh-huh and did you ever continue any of those no Oni horny do look the kid that did wish the held hands and jumped overboard a lot I decided after him about twenty years at home I'd like to thank him real good yeah so I am in the our Navy magazine I advertised in his name a friend of his in North Carolina gave me his name and address and he was working in a print shop I think I was in Chicago I know why are you calling him up talked to him yeah I sent him a letter of thanks yeah of course we part of the hands anyway as soon as we hit the water yeah dark hot yelling in Ghana now did you ever join any veterans organizations yeah we we formed a Pearl Harbor attack rock turns up in Chicopee Massachusetts oh yeah yeah it was about 130 of us I think I'm a picture of the 130 to start with from all over New England I know they started whittling going down we'd have a good nice feed once a year we usually went to the Yankee pedlar up in Chicopee Mass I know of course they got down to six or seven remember they had a thousand over thousand dollars in the treasuring they had to decide what to do with it because they were had a break up so they decided to give the Pearl Harbor memorial and Hawaii $1,000 you know I got a picture of the check I know and the memorial in Pearl Harbor they decided to honor somebody so they said go I told him to take a boat and give him this picture on the wall that's made with gold and of the Arizona when she was in real tip-top condition so they they said whoever you think rate sickness so they all voted for me I had the most time and the bigger story to tell yeah I was so glad they get that yeah I'm boring the hell out of you bill you've heard some of this what so you went on what did you do for a career after the war you were doing machining and well first ten months I worked in the machine shop till I cut my finger off and then I went electric I'll friend of mine his her brother worked I took there and had the runs by my husband walks on his brother was a electrician in New Britain he hired me for house electrician apprentice I'm right away of course I I knew quite a bit about electorates in the anyway so I worked there for two years wiring houses I've wired quite a few by myself and put up the meter boarding the service and all huh yeah I did that and then I have another friend of mine he was in the Navy years ago he he took a liking to mean he talked he talked to the bosses they built a brand brand brand new plant and porous though the barnes company waters mine you maybe heard them and then they had a brand new boiler room so they needed somebody to take over so they they finally hired me I had a show on my paper in this charger yeah and of course a good word from him that's what helped me get the job and I spent twenty nine and a half years there but at the same time they had to make the ships 312 and one-sixth so I had almost a half a week gone so I took a job at the Bristol Hospital also my brother all got me in there running the boilers yeah so I would work two jobs for 18 years okay and of course I was building her I'm not high we have built for a brother-in-law there are two houses of our own my father's always a old-time carpenter and he was dragging it out of the shear shop here's the sharp intrusive so he was glad thing get a job get out at his old train so we built houses together okay he sold a couple made problem I didn't make much on a one of course I he helped me build my house and also one below I had five Lots I'm on smaller Lots and but they were big enough to build on yeah yeah I know honey not clear a baby a thousand dollars going down there it's good experience and then my house of course cost about eighteen thousand we we did all our own labor except the plumbing and I sold that for about sixty thousand no I made money there and I moved to Terry one dollar house here it was kind of rundown so I got it it's quite cheap and I put twenty thousand into it picked it all up put a new bathroom in the back so I cleared about forty fifty thousand on that I also bought a piece of land in Bristol on birch birch Street I know there are four acres four and a half acres I got it for $1,800 because I was right across from the pig farm nobody wanted it lived there you know stunk so bad when I took a chance and then I divided it up into four Lots I got a thousand for each and then there's enough three years three years three and a half acres left I sold that to a plumber for 6,500 okay and he built a house on and then he had it about two years and ESPN came along you know who yeah oh they are they wanted that piece of land so they give him a million bucks for the same piece I got sixty five hundred yeah they taught his house down was only two years old I tore it down level at all know that they even closed off the road they took off they really took over the ESPN yeah yeah so did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general no I want to know get ahead are you I wasn't getting anywhere I hadn't worked my way through high school setting up pins I said opinions in a local bowling alley I know we're from October until April and then they'd shut down only in a winter time and I said a penis for a horse that's a game for cents a game that's a lot of action it gave me a good strong back my back today is good I got a better back then motion guys a lot of exercise that's good my father wasn't making much Annie o'clock one week he came home with a 29 cent paycheck everything was peachy either had work or you went home no day work well I bring home four to five dollars on a Saturday night I put the money on the bureau in the morning my lord mother would come in look at it and she looked at me how much can I have I said give me 50 Cent's for movies take the rest okay you know you can buy groceries for poor people for $5.00 for a week and that's what we're now during a winter time mostly yeah once in a while he got he got some peace work but it was rough wait Donna my sister in Torrington had a job and she would send ten dollars once in a while help oh yeah I was depression the big depression did you ever attend any reunions reunion well once a year at my wing with you we have that feed yeah but you could be Chicopee yeah now how did the service and experiences affect your life oh I think it made now and give me a life I had nothing high school education and no job and pick up odds and ends here and there but I think the Navy gave him gave me more experience in the machinist and I also had a good record I I almost took a job as a postal clerk okay pardon I wasn't getting even the post office I put in an application now passed a good test but then I waited and waited other guys were getting in they were buddies of the postmaster so I finally rub bought a rock rolled into Boston and asked why I I'm not getting in I got good marks in my test so they got hold of postmaster and told him to hire me so he called me in and he offered me a job I said it's a permanent no part-time a temporary I said it a temporary I don't want him but like a like a fool I should have taken it because everything is temporary when you work for the government yeah they can they can lay off after three months they don't want you you work for the state yeah oh I'm a student at the college so now is there anything else that you'd like to add that we haven't covered in the interview how I think now pretty well covers yeah I want to thank you for your time today and I want to thank you for your service you know welcome

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 1,606

Rating: 4.8571429 out of 5

Keywords: Klepps, Edmund World War II (Military Conflict) Veteran (Profession) War (Quotation Subject)

Id: Ndk1NUbZbq4

Length: 82min 41sec (4961 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2012