I was from Brooklyn,N.Y and in the early 1940’s I got a very low draft
number and at that time I did not want to be called up into the Army.
I was attending the RCA Institutes in New York learning radio C.W and
radio theory. At that time I was doing real good at copying code and was
so so in theory. After attending RCA for about 14 months I was in class
when some Lt.Commander came into our room telling us about the Navy
Reserves in Communication. I believe it was a V8 program. He told us
that if we signed up with the reserves we would not be available for the
draft and we would be with the Navy Communication Reserves. All we had
to do was attend a meeting once a month to learn Navy procedure in
communication. Sounded good to me , so I enlisted. By the way, the
Lt.Commander was David Sarnoff who later became President of RCA. This
was in October of 1940, I attended one meeting in Nov, of 1940 and said
to myself that I did not enjoy the one meeting. In Dec, of 1940, went
with my Grandmother and Mother to Lakewood and Lakehurst, New Jersey to
spend the month. Right after Christmas of 1940 got a phone call from one
of my uncles telling me that I had a letter from the Navy Communication
Reserves requesting me to come to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a formal
Physicall and exam for a call up to active duty in January of 1941.Wow
what a shock. Anyway reported as requested, and was sworn in right there
on the spot, boarded an open truck in January, and headed up to
Noroton,Conn. for a five month course in Naval Communications.. While
there they needed 60 men to go to the west coast and 60 men to the east
coast for Qual Air. I loved avaition and so I asked to go to the West
Coast for avaition. I thought the West Coast was California, as I never
heard of anything west of California. I thought East Coast meant New York
and I had seen enough of New York.

When I got my orders for California, I did not know what that FFA or
FFT on the bottom of my orders meant. Make a long story short, I spent
four days in California before being herded onto the USS Wharton for further
transfer or for further assignment. Before I knew it I was on my way to Pearl Harbor. After 7 days of that
terrific journey on the pleasure ship USS. Wharton, I arrived in Pearl.
Was assigned to VP23 on Ford Island. Being that I got out of Noroton
Radio school with a 3.9 average and as a third class radioman doing
nearly 30wpm instead of going into the squadron, was assigned to the
Communication office under FW2. Tried for months to get into VP21 as
most of my buddies were in crews flying in Catalina PBY’s3. However no go.

Then in November of 1941 was transfered to VP21, but still on Temp
duty with FW2. Was there until the day of the attack, on that day, or
should I say the Evening of Dec,6th. was in town with two of my
shipmates from VP21 and VP22. When the japs hit we were just getting out
of breakfast at the Black Cat Cafe, after sleeping in the locker club
next to the YMCA. The name of the locker club was called “Battleship Max
Cohens Locker Club”. We commandeered a cab and flew back to the base.
During the attack we had just passed Hickam Field when we heard what was
like a typewritter hitting the keys rapidly, looked out of the rear
window in the cab as I was on the starboard side of the cab, and saw a
jap plane comming down the highway with tracer bulletts coming straight
at us, the plane slid to the right of our cab, saw that red meatball, it
had a broad red stripe running down the side of the fuselage with its
fixed landing gear and knew it was a Val. Right after that he banked to
the left and went right down Hickam strafing and doing his thing. Our
cab driver went into a ditch where the three of us ran out and ran to
the Navy Yard, could not get back to Ford Island so we ran to the
drydock where the Pennsylvania and the Cassin and Downes were in. We
worked with them until the Nevada started pulling down the Channel and
got hit and made it to the Beach.

Finally got over to Ford sometime late in the afternoon and went right on watch. In a few days after that
finally got my orders to report back to VP21 for Crew assignment, so it
took an attack on Pearl Harbor to get back to what I always wanted. Left
for Perth inMarch and was with VP21 until we became VP101, and finally
in October of 1944 after the invasion of the Philippines we became
VPB29. We were operating off the tenders in Moroti and finally got
relieved by a PBM Squadron and went home after nearly 4 years being
overseas.

Anyway when I got out of the Navy in August of 1947,(I gave
up 7 years as I thought after all I had been through, and just getting
married on Dec,7th,1946) I got orders to go back to Guam with 6 months
to do after me spending four years on nearly every rock in the pacific.
I pleaded with the Exec to let me stay with my new bride in Corpus where
I was stationed at Rodd Field and then to MainSide in Corpus. I was
willing to sign up for six more years or as many as they would let me
reup, but they said no way. I told them that by time I got out to Guam,
I would be ready to come back to the States. But the higher ups said I
was the senior chief there and so I would have to go. It was then I
decided to get out when my six months were up. When I got back to the
states in July of 1947 and they realized that I was qualified in Radar,
and a real good radioman doing over 30 to fourty words P.M.and my wife
was a school teacher, they promised me that if I would reup they would
send me to any place open in the Pacific that we had taken over and had
a school where Lorene could teach. I told them to jam it. Anyway when I
got back to the states I took my wife to a jewelry store to buy her a
watch, when I entered the store in late August of 1947, I passed a
remark that I would like to work in a store like that.(I never had any
experience in retail as I had offers while in Guam with Philco,putting
down GCA gear there, also to go to Mexico City as a MUX operator) but I
had all the overseas duty I could take.)Anyway when I said I would like
to work in a Jewelry store like the one I bought my wifes watch, the
manager told me to come to work on a Tuesday as Monday was labor day
took them up on it and this is the occupation I am now in.

I stayed in Corpus Christi until October of 1950,when the manager of
Shaws Jewelers went to supervise a small chain store in Memphis,
Tennessee and asked me to go along with him and for me to take a store
of the chain over in Blytheville,Ark.This is what I did.

August of 1950 we had our first son born in Texas.Left for
Arkansas at the end of December of 1950, Wife followed soon after that
when she sold our home in Corpus. Worked for Dreifus Jewelers until
April of 1958 when I left them to open my own store. Between 1950 to
1956 we had our other son.Just a note, we have two boys now. My oldest
son is an attorney working for the FDIC our government, he is 52, and I
have retired from our store a few years ago and my youngest now has our
store, it is a family store in Blytheville, Ark. and we are now the
oldest jewelers here. I have one granddaughter 20 Years young. She will
be a junior at Charleston Southern in South Carolina.