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    Navy Days
    Navy Days
    Navy Days
    Ebook119 pages2 hours

    Navy Days

    By Dr Harry H. Hovis

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    About this ebook

    Harry Hovis, a skilled musician, joined the U.S. Navy after being assured by the recruitment officer he would be posted to the School of Music in Washington D.C. Unfortunately for him, he was assigned to naval plumbing school, and it was too late to back out.

    From bleak volcanic islands off the coast of Alaska preparing to deal with the Cold War threat from Russia, to postings uncomfortably close to serious fighting in Korea, Harry’s experiences were rarely without drama. His story is sometimes poignant, often hilariously funny and, as with so many military tales of that era, never lacking in colorful characters completely incapable of performing the roles the military had assigned them.

    This book and the books following in the same series provide a unique insight into the not so glamorous yet outstandingly eventful life of an enlisted seaman in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s and 1950s.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStrict Publishing International
    Release dateNov 21, 2013
    ISBN9780857793164
    Navy Days
    Author

    Dr Harry H. Hovis

    Harry H. Hovis has written a series of books of his reminiscences of life in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s and 1950s.

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      Book preview

      Navy Days - Dr Harry H. Hovis

      NAVY DAYS

      by Dr Harry H. Hovis, PhD.

      Smashwords Edition

      book one

      Copyright 2013 Dr Harry H Hovis

      Published by Strict Publishing International

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Introduction

      These reminiscences of Harry Hovis’ life in the U.S. Navy are true. The places, events, fortunes and misfortunes are real, but some of the names of the characters have been changed to save embarrassment for their friends and family. Naturally, Harry Hovis tells his own story, from only his own viewpoint, and there might be another side to some of the tales. Or there might not. If some of those characters in Harry’s writing appear to be less than perfect, Harry makes no apologies to them or to anyone who knows them for his portrayal of them.

      Prologue

      Music was always my greatest interest in life. Even as a boy I could play the piano very well, and began my professional career with local dance bands at the age of 14, believe it or not! An opening occurred in one band when the former pianist was drafted into the army, just before World War II was to begin. The other musicians were in their thirties and forties, but they accepted me into their group because I looked older than my actual age and because my ability at the keyboard was especially to their liking.

      As I progressed in the quality of my playing, I appeared in supper clubs, and offered music to eat dinner by. Everyone seemed to enjoy listening to the wide variety of music I could get from the piano. Mostly, I played melodies written by the great composers of the day. These included Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Whiting, Richard Rodgers, and Irving Berlin, as well as many others.

      In addition, I also could introduce music written by several of the best classical composers. I was proficient with pieces by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Beethoven, and Bach. I built up a large repertoire of splendid works, many of which I could play from memory. In spite of my young age, I was often invited to perform at special parties, wedding receptions, in dance studios, and for church choirs. It really was a fun time for me!

      Paradoxically, I was never offered any encouragement by my parents to become a pianist. In fact, they seemed to resent my natural talent, and even locked the piano, on occasion, to keep me from playing. But there were other pianos in the neighborhood for me to practice on, and so their negativity had little effect on me.

      Coincidentally, on her deathbed, a few years later, my mother’s last wheezing words were, I should have gotten you piano lessons.

      I did not know exactly how to respond to that, but it had been a long time before she ever woke to reality. I was a musician going places! That was the way I always felt. I was completely self-motivated.

      I think what helped me to achieve such early renown was the fact that I had grown to be six feet tall, and in a shirt, tie, and suit, I no longer looked like a child. Indeed, at the age of 14 – believe it or not – I was going out with a young ladies who were 19 and 20 years of age! Yes, it was a fun time like no other.

      * * * * *

      Since I had no real benefactor to support my musical ambitions, my primary objective in joining the naval service at age 16 was to be assigned to the School of Music in Washington, D.C. It was where I hoped to further my musical knowledge and add to my experience. But, unfortunately, my expectations did not work out as planned, even though the navy recruiter had promised that my musical experience would be given primary consideration when it came time for my first assignment.

      Once I arrived at the navy registration desk, however, I was confronted by a gnarled veteran, whose name tag revealed he was Alva Lutes. Alva was a boatswain’s mate of twenty years naval service, and I could tell that his primary interests in life were far, far different than mine.

      Alva might have been great at working on the deck of a huge battleship, or firing 40 mm weapons during a battle at sea, but I suspected he knew nothing of music. I was certain a person of such a background could not tell the difference between a Chopin Etude and The Beer Barrel Polka! Yet, here he was determining the direction of careers others were to take. Thus, by Alva Lutes’ choice alone, in spite of my wealth of documented musical talent, I was told I would be going to attend a navy plumbing school!

      That baffling pronouncement was quite a shock, because I cared nothing for following a wild departure of my fundamental interest in life. I was the kind of young man who never enjoyed getting his hands dirty, and the plumbing field sounded to me as if there would be plenty of dirty work involved. Of course, I was exactly right.

      * * * * *

      At that point, since my basic needs were not going to be met as I had been promised, if I had had the choice I would have immediately left the service to pursue other goals in becoming a more qualified, professional musician. But unfortunately that is not the way the navy worked in those days. Once a person signed his name on the dotted line and took the oath of allegiance, he was stuck with whatever assignment he might be handed!

      Of course, I greatly resented being lied to by the navy recruiter, but that was unchangeable history now and no one I spoke to seemed to really care about my personal frustrations. Thus, I realized, as with all the other crises occurring in my life, I would have to deal with this dreadful, unjust state of affairs all by myself.

      At times like this when everything seems overpowering and grossly unfair, I try to remember two bits of sage advice coming from my father before he passed away:

      Don’t bother getting upset over small stuff.

      Everything is small stuff.

      The most important thing, my father added, is how you deal with major disappointments in life!

      Chapter One: Recruit Training

      There were ten of us that the navy department sent from Portland, Oregon to the naval training facility at San Diego, California. We traveled by train through Los Angeles. The trip took two days.

      As it turned out, we were joined in San Diego with over one hundred other young men who were mainly from the state of Texas. There were also a few recruits in our group from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, making a total of slightly over 150 of us. Together, we composed a new navy recruit company. The company number was 288, which meant there had been 287 companies before ours was assembled.

      One of the first compulsory practices was to cut our hair off as close to the scalp as possible. I thought it made all of us look like homeless refugees, but we managed to endure that sobering fact. Although, there were a few recruits in our company whose hair NEVER grew back. Sixteen weeks later they were still as bald as could be.

      We found most of the Texans in our recruit company were exceedingly argumentative. Whether they were from such diverse cities as Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, El Paso, Amarillo, Galveston, or anywhere in between, all they wanted to do was brag to the rest of us about how wonderful their state of Texas was.

      Yes, bragging seemed to be a major preoccupation with most of the men from Texas. If they could find no listeners among residents from other states, the Texans were sure to begin making contentious claims among themselves about which city in Texas was the very best.

      Those of us from elsewhere in the country soon learned to tune the Texans out. There was simply no way to make a point with any of them. After a while, we simply gave up trying. We did our best to quietly ignore that breed!

      The most disconcerting fact was that the Texans among us took up all the leadership roles within our company. Thus, our recruit commander, Ingram, was from Dallas. His assistant was from Galveston. Each of our squad leaders was also from Texas.

      We were simply deluged with Texans, and collectively their repetitive mouths gave us little peace. All a person could do was pretend not to notice.

      Our assigned company commander, a chief petty officer named Toad, was also from Texas, as was

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