Join the Navy and see the world, even Narragansett Bay

When my dad married my stepmother in 1958 I gained four step-sibllings: Bobby Gerald (21), Clarence Edward (20), Patsy Louise (17), and Billy Russell (15). I was 17 too, three months older than my new stepsister (but do not wonder, we were not each other's type) and I went overnight from being an only child to being the middle one of five offspring in our newly blended family. Since there was already a Bob in the family, my new stepmother began calling me Bob Jr.; the name stuck and I am still called that to this day.

In 1960 I played the piano for the wedding of Bobby Gerald and his bride Linda, and they recently celebrated their 65th anniversary. The other siblings have all passed on now, as has my stepmother who died in 2004. Mrs. RWP (the lovely Ellie) and I have not been back to Texas since her death but we stay in touch with Bobby and Linda about once a month by telephone.

Recently Linda called to say that while going through some papers in an attempt to do some decluttering she found an old letter I might like to see because it mentioned my Dad around the end of World War II. I asked her to send it to me and it has arrived.

At the upper left of the faded envelope, the return address read:

NAVY DEPARTMENT
_______________
USS PCE 869
c o Fleet Post Office
New York, N. Y.
__________________
OFFICIAL BUSINESS

and the envelope was addressed to:

Mr. Roy Wisner
Corning Glass Works
Central Falls, Rhode Island

There was no zip code because zip codes had not been invented yet.

I didn't recognize the name, neatly typed using an old-fashioned typewriter. I wondered what sort of letter this might turn out to be.

Inside, typed on U.S.S. PCE 869 letterhead, was the following:


24 August 1945

Dear Roy:

This will introduce to you, Clifford Brague, who has just been honorably discharged from the Navy under the point system. For personal reasons, he wants to make his home in Pawtucket or Providence now that he is out of the service, and I have referred him to you with the thought that you could use him in your shop organization.

Aboard ship his work has been in the operation, maintenance and repair of diesel engines and ship's auxilliaries. He has been one of our leading men for some time and his work has been exemplary in every respect. He is completely reliable and his personal integrity is unquestionable. If you have any opening in the organization in which he might fit, I would appreciate your giving him every consideration. You would not regret it, I am sure.

Before coming into the Navy in December, 1942, Mr. Brague worked for the Century Ordnance Plant, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His work there was strictly along the machine shop line, in the set up of production jobs for machine operators. In the event that you do not have an opening in the type of work for which he is qualified, you are probably in a position to give him some very good leads on some other good stable organizations in the area. I know you will give him any help possible.

Sincerely yours,

Don Shoemaker

(end of letter)


I know that before the war Dad worked at Dearborn Brass Works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Perhaps this had become the Century Ordnance Plant mentioned in the letter. Such things were common during the war. For example, the IBM building in Poughkeepsie, New York, where I worked in the 1960s had produced rifles during the war instead of accounting machines. And I know that after our family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in August 1947 my dad found work at Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (known as Convair, which later became General Dynamics) and held that job until his death in 1967. I never thought about it before, but I have no idea where Dad worked in Rhode Island after leaving the Navy. My mother went to work daily at the Coats & Clark Thread Factory and my Dad went somewhere to work as well, but I have no idea whether Mr. Wisner hired him at Corning Glass Works or he found work elsewhere. A strange gap in my knowledge. I never realized it before.

I do find it very satisfying to learn that my dad received such a glowing recommendation from Don Shoemaker but I am in the dark as to just who Shoemaker was, whether the ship's captain or someone in another position. Whatever else my dad may have been (I have talked about our relationship elsewhere on the blog), he was definitely a hard worker, a man of integrity, and honest as the day is long.

At the end of the war, the USS PCE-869 was sold to the Republic of China (that is, Taiwan) and continued to be of use until it was decommissioned and ultimately scrapped in 1971.

Dad's floating home spent time in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, escorting other ships part of the way to the European and Pacific theaters of operation. It traveled through the Panama Canal, and sailed as far north as Greenland. I think he had shore leaves in Portland, Oregon; San Diego, California; south Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; and New York City. His ship was sometimes employed as a "sub chaser" ("sub" being short for submarine). Years afterward, Dad relived in his nightmares the dropping of depth charges and seeing dead bodies floating up to the surface. During Dad's final days in the Navy, his ship was at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

Below is a photo of the vessel where my Dad and about 80 other men lived and worked from 1943 through 1945:

Uncle Sam wanted him, and he went, enlisting at the age of 36. He was older than the captain of his ship. Most of the guys were half his age and called him "Pop". He talked about the Navy every single day of his life after he left it.