The Historic Northwest Passage and the Cgc Storis: The Story of a Young Man Growing up in the Coast Guard in the 1950S

By Dick Juge

You will learn or recall much about America in the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of a young serviceman. You will feel like a member of the crew aboard an icebreaker as it crosses the Arctic from Alaska to Nova Scotia to become the first US ship to circumnavigate the North American continent and find a deep water route through the Northwest Passage.
In 1955 Dick Juge dropped out of his final senior semester of high school to join the U.S. Coast Guard in time to qualify for the Korean Conflict GI Bill, which was phased out at the end of January 1955.
This book takes you on his journey though the Coast Guard enlistment and training processes and then on to voyages aboard three Coast Guard Cutters: SEBAGO out of Mobile, Alabama, STORIS in Alaska, and DUANE from Boston, Massachusetts.
There are stories of boot camp mishaps, formidable icebergs, special swimming escapades, liberty adventures in many ports, and much more as the author grows to maturity with the sometimes-unwelcome assistance of the U. S. military. If you served in the military you will love this as you recall your own youth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 2, 2007
• ISBN: 9781452015675

Dick Juge

Dick Juge served the Coast Guard for four years, 1955 - 1959. After his tour of duty he went to Louisiana State University on the GI Bill to major in Architecture, but later transferred to the University of New Orleans changing his major to business/construction. Eventually went into the real estate business and then his forty years career in insurance as an agent - the last 35 with State Farm. During these years he helped establish a community swim/country club as membership chair and president during financing/design/construction/opening, then became President of his subdivision's Civic Association and many years served with the Kiwanis Club of Algiers and many other civic organizations. Has been Chairman of the Bering Sea Patrol - Alaska Veterans Assn. Also has designed and constructed his home, office, fishing facilities, rental units and current condo he lives in with his wife during this period. He earned the professional designations of CLU, CPCU and ChFC while in the insurance business and served in several agent and industry orientated organizations. He's been married since October 1960 to Nancy Kuss Juge, has two children. One daughter Jenny Juge Kottler (an event manager) and husband Bob Kottler plus one son Richard E. Juge (a commercial real estate broker) and wife Beth Warren Juge; has four grandchildren, Sarah Dunn, Charlie, Max and Isabelle Juge. Hobbies include travel, fellowship, fishing and lots of computing.

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Copyright © 2007 Dick Juge. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/19/2020

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1061-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1060-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1567-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007903399

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Special thanks to: Mike Harrington QM3, and 1957 Former Crew Member of STORIS for the Northwest Passage patch displayed on the front page.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is

dedicated to all Coastguardsmen;

past,

present,

and

future

(and their mothers)

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What is a Coastguardsman?

Navy guys have called us all sorts of things such as:

Shallow water sailors,

Hooligans,

and so on…

Coast Guard, Coast Guard, come get me!

That’s a common cry heard by

search and rescue mission Coasties,

And "we’re always ready!

Semper Paratus

Marvin Perrett, 1925-2007

is testimony to all Coastguardsmen, as in World War II

as he was one of the LCVP coxswains

who shuttled the soldiers

to the beaches in Normandy….

and the Marines to Iwo Jima!

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Eighteen year-old high school senior, New Orleans, 1955

Chapter 2

Enlisting in the Coast Guard and the Draft

Chapter 3

Boot Camp – Cape May, New Jersey

Chapter 4

Recruit Training and X Company

Chapter 5

Graduating Boot Camp, Amen!

Chapter 6

Reporting for assignment in Boston

Chapter 7

Base Portland, Maine

Chapter 8

Coast Guard School on Avery Point, Groton, Connecticut

Chapter 9

The Galley

Chapter 10

Electrician’s Mate School in Groton, Connecticut

Chapter 11

New Orleans duty

Chapter 12

Mobile and the SEBAGO; Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico

Chapter 13

Juneau and the Icebreaker STORIS

Chapter 14

Fellowship in Juneau

Chapter 15

Juneau the Countryside, Glacier, Gold Mine and Lituya Bay

Chapter 16

Seattle, Washington

Chapter 17

The start of our historic Northwest Passage trip

Chapter 18

Aleutians and Bering Sea

Chapter 19

First Ice, Polar Bear and DEW Line Stations in the Arctic

Chapter 20

Barter Islands, Herschel Island, Cape Parry and helicopter crash

Chapter 21

Crew, beards, STORIS in the ice, midnight sun and rendezvous

Chapter 22

More Ice, Big Ice and the SPAR damages her propeller

Chapter 23

Cambridge Bay and Explorations

Chapter 24

Simpson Straits

Chapter 25

Bellot Strait and research

Chapter 26

Lancaster, Davis, Icebergs, SAR, Argentia, Newfoundland, More

Chapter 27

Boston Welcome

Chapter 28

Cape Cod Canal, New York City, and Baltimore

Chapter 29

Dry Dock, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Miami, Jamaica, and Panama

Chapter 30

The West Coast

Chapter 31

North to Alaska, again!

Chapter 32

Boston, again!

Epilogue

Dick Juge, family and friends

Appendix

The Coast Guard and my ships

Graphic Photo Index

Readers’ Opinions

Introduction

Most seniors would love to write a book for the benefit of their children, grandchildren, and those to follow. That definitely was a motivator for me; however, I never thought that I would or could do so.

In October 2006 I started working on building a commemorative DVD for the 50th Anniversary of this historic Northwest Passage voyage aboard the CGC STORIS. Being our reunion is to take place in September of 2007, I began far in advance.

Last fall I purchased a device that attached to my digital camera, which allowed me to take digital images of my old 35 mm slides. I had about 100 in my archives that I had had professionally digitized ten years ago. Now with this new attachment I could digitize the other 200 slides myself. Actually, I ended by digitizing all of my old slides.

Shipmate Bernie Merrifield had about a hundred of his slides digitized years back, too, and he and I had been sharing our pictures on a CD format with our former shipmates. Since then, Bernie also had digitized his others, which he has now shared with me for this DVD. Other shipmates, John Mazintas and James (Jonesy) Jones, recently sent me their slides to digitize. Pete Sowell is rounding up his slides also as is another former shipmate.

I’ve used several of their pictures in this book where my archives were weak, and with their blessings.

In September of 2006 Dr. William Thiesen, CG Historian, interviewed several STORIS Northwest Passage crewmen in attendance at our Bering Sea Patrol – Alaska Veterans Association (BSPAV.org) reunion. Former shipmates CMDR Cornelius Farley, Quartermaster Clair Upton, Seaman Chuck Schmitzer, and I were in attendance. What I found quite interesting was that some could recall with clarity events I’d forgotten, yet I could recall events they couldn’t. We are most fortunate to have the Coast Guard interested in this history.

All of this helped spur me on to write this book. Once I started to write about our Northwest Passage, I felt I had to include my entire four years with the Coast Guard so the book would be complete and tell it all.

Jonesy had shared his personal shipboard log he kept while working as a radioman aboard the STORIS during that trip, and I had posted it on BSP-AV.org Association website years back. I dug out my old scrapbook and found lots of fifty-year-old newspaper clippings, black and white photos, and letters I had written home.

With all these resources, it just seemed that perhaps I could put together a book for our reunion as well as for my family and friends. At my advanced age, I thought, what the hell – why not tell these stories?

My brother has been a self-publisher of books for the past several years, and I contacted him for information on how to do it. He explained that you could self-publish via firms such as AuthorHouse. Go to online and look up Peter Juge, Author, and you will find books he’s written. Presently I am reading his latest, The European Brigade. His books are a fun read. Peter has been mentoring me for years on many subjects, as you will learn in this book.

After reading this, our children will come to realize that they didn’t invent life, a delusion all generations fall into. Hopefully they’ll be able to relate to us as if they were there with us in those good old days. Imagine being able to live your life over with your children as your contemporaries. My son said he didn’t realize all this took place.

There are many funny and heartwarming stories I know you’ll enjoy inside these pages. I have allowed duplicate stories of the same events such as the helicopter crash or the swim-call so all my shipmates can be heard. Many tales might sound too familiar, yet others will vary in perception, and some will even debate specific dates and events. Whatever, I just want you to have fun. I believe you’ll feel as though you were on this trip with us.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to editor/contributors such as: Nancy, my supportive wife; John Varela, my cousin and lifelong friend; LCDR. (Ret) Dan Baumbaugh, my Internet pal and Coast Guard friend; Phyllis Robert, friend, teacher and former neighbor, for reading and editing over and over. Being a good editor can be quite painful. I’ve become cross-eyed in looking at these pages and almost always find errors. No doubt you will, too, so please send an email with any corrections you find to [e-mail] so I’ll have them should I do a second edition.

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Important other editor/contributors to be thanked are Ken Fisher*, Diane Juge Fomby, Jan Green, Larry Gunnoe*, Ward Hawkins, Peter Juge, Richard Juge, Jenny Juge Kottler, Jim Loback*, Margot Mallory Henson, John Mazintas*, Al Medvez*, Bernie Merrifield*, Marvin Perret, Eric Phillpott, Clair Upton*, John (Cliff) Revels, Rear Admiral Rich Rybacki*, Ken Sanders*, Chuck Schmitzer*, Pete (Hank) Sowell*, Walt Shutty*, and Bill and Susan Wells. Those with an * following their names were shipmates on our voyage in 1957.

My sincere apologies to any whose name I might not have mentioned as all have helped greatly.

The Coast Guard, through old pamphlets in my archives or more recent photos and website information also needs special recognition, as without their resources this book would be greatly lacking in depth. Bob Browning, the head CG Historian, has helped in answering my many questions. Dr. William Thiesen, CG Historian, also has been a huge supporter along the way.

I also owe a great debt of gratitude to the various organizations such as newspapers and their reporters, as their stories and proof sources have been a tremendous help and lend credibility to this story.

Also to be thanked are former chairmen of the BSP-AV Association as their hard work in managing these reunions has brought together many former sailors who are contributing. These former Chairmen I’ve worked with are Dan Baumbaugh, Jim Loback, Bill McIntire (deceased), Tom Bliss, William Scoop Felkner, Martin (Marty) Kimmel (deceased), and Ed McLees. Ed is presently hosting the 2007 reunion to take place in Seattle three days after Jim’s 50th Northwest Passage reunion Reno.

I urge all to try your hand in authoring your own stories. Your friends and family will love them. If I can do it, so can you. This has been a great experience as I have found so many willing to help.

I implore you to begin a daily log of your life events so later you, too, will have the needed archives to work with should you want to write your book.

Please don’t forget to go to — http://www.aviosk.com/DVD as you will be able to get a copy of our Commemorative Historic Northwest Passage DVD created in 2007. It will have full screen pictures, movies, and many more archive items to enjoy.

Also go to http://www.bspav.org as you can learn even more about our trip and other Alaska Coast Guard happenings.

Among Internet resources helpful for the creation of this book:

http://www.uscg.mil/history/

http://bspav.org/

http://www.fredsplace.org/

http://storisbramblespar.org/cutters57.jpg

http://www.storismuseum.org/

http://www.mobileregister.com/

http://www.timespicayune.com/

http://www.255wpg.org/New255/index.php

http://dictionary.reference.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.mapquest.com/

http://www.authorhouse.com/

http://anchoragepress.com/

http://www.eveningsun.com/

http://www.saveourlake.org/

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Special thanks to:

Lynn Cunningham, Assistant to the Editor, The Times Picayune

Douglas Cooper, Publisher – Evening Sun

Michael Marshal, Editor – Mobile Press Register

Victoria Loughry, Newsweek

Monica Bradbury, Reporter, Anchorage Press

CHAPTER 1

Eighteen year-old high school senior,

New Orleans, 1955

What a life! I had just finished my final football game in December of 1954, and here it was, the beginning of 1955. Fats Domino, Papa Celestin and many other famous musicians played music at our many dances. About a half-dozen of us ball players had formed a fraternal clique known as the Funguses. Our social and party life could not have been better.

I was attending Fortier High, a large public coeducational facility near Tulane University and entering my final senior high school semester, heading for graduation. Fortier was one of the best schools in New Orleans at the time. Many of our teachers then were never married, and they dedicated their lives to educating the young.

In July 1952, my father was accidentally electrocuted while wiring a house on a weekend. His generation had gone through the Great Depression and, unlike today, had been unable to get out of it even by the ‘50s. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he worked as an electrician in Kansas, Michigan, and Houston, Texas, where I was born in 1936. By 1937 Dad had returned to New Orleans and worked for the family. In 1940 he started working as an electrician for Andrew Higgins Boat Works. With the advent of World War II, Higgins became a major shipbuilder for the war cause.

Most of my buddies came from homes where only the father worked. For the most part, none of us were well to do. In those days life was much simpler and much less expensive to live. My father was part of the old school where wives didn’t work. Shortly after his death in 1952, my mother was forced to find work. Their resources were thin, as Higgins never paid too well. Before they married in 1930, Mom had done stenographic work. By 1953, after a brief refresher course, she was back working. In 1955 my mother was employed as an office manager for three prominent New Orleans ophthalmologists in the Pere Marquette building in downtown New Orleans.

It appeared to me later that Mom was happier working than staying home as a housewife. I often wonder if my parents would have been better off if both had worked while Dad was alive. My dad would not have needed to work weekends as they would have had the extra income. Working six or seven days a week was tough.

In those days one might have categorized us as poor, but we did own a car and a house. Mom’s salary working as a widow was hardly enough to sustain the two of us, and my older brother Peter was now at Louisiana State University on the GI Bill. Mom’s income was less than three thousand annually.

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I started to do special projects to earn extra cash, such as cutting grass. The summer between 1953 and 1954, after my dad died, I worked at Higgins Shipyards in their electrical-engineering office for Mr. Irish Levy. Mr. Levy was my dad’s former boss. In the winter, I worked in service stations as a service assistant. I checked oil level and battery acid levels, cleaned windshields, checked tires for air levels and pumped gas.

In January of 1955, I began to realize there was a soon-to-be major problem headed my way. The military draft! Here I was a senior high school student, and the draft was part of life in the 50s – especially for non-college-bound high school graduates. The Korean Conflict was ending, but the draft wasn’t. There was little chance I’d escape the draft after graduation.

College wasn’t in the cards for me. I was neither a scholar nor an athlete with scholarship opportunities, and there weren’t the extra resources to send me to college. Anyway, studies were never my thing. My mom had long ago quit trying to force me to do homework. After school my books and I went in different directions.

My grades were passing; however, I was bored with the system. No doubt I was not mature enough to understand the system of teacher and student. I didn’t comprehend the need for a higher education. Play was the most important thing to me.

The GI Bill was to be phased out on January 31st of 1955 since the Korean Conflict was over. Congress had decided to eliminate it as it was tied to military personnel in wartime.

If I waited until the summer and got drafted, I’d lose those important benefits. This was motivation to forego graduation, the senior prom, and many other grand events one enjoys in his senior year. I decided I had to join the military before the end of January.

Deciding to join the Coast Guard was easy as my brother Peter had just finished his three years with them. Signing up, I didn’t realize that I’d be giving away my freedom for four years, which was then required! My brother lucked out as he served only three years but then he went in during the Korean Conflict and could have found himself in war.

Now, at age seventy-one, I look back and recognize how important my Coast Guard service was. My tour of duty gave me the crucial time I needed to grow up, and it also removed a huge responsibility from my mother — not just a financial responsibility but the worry about my getting in late from dates or perhaps even into trouble.

My mom hated my enlisting in the Coast Guard. If I ever wanted an advanced education, though, I would definitely need the GI Bill’s financial help. Mom’s resistance lowered and that helped her to accept this action. My departure greatly eased her financial burden.

The Coast Guard looked like the escape I needed from the future embarrassment of my pals going off to college and my ending up in some menial job, waiting to be drafted. It also offered financial help later if I decided to go on to college. There was no doubt that this was one of the better decisions I made in my life.

Joining the Coast Guard was an easy choice, for I’d have a bed and three meals a day instead of possibly a fox hole with K rations. This was the same logic my father used on my brother back in 1950.

I wasn’t interested in world travel; I felt the Coast Guard would offer me the opportunity to serve my four years and live in New Orleans as my brother had during most of his years serving in the Coast Guard.

Boy, was I in for a surprise!

Looking back, we veterans wonder if the youth of today aren’t missing out by not having a service obligation. One of the book contributors said he felt those glorious days at sea are wasted on the youth and should be reserved for seniors. Actually, I look back often and wish I could enjoy those days again.

I feel the true fellowship one gains in this environment is unlike any other. Also the discipline taught to inductees has a life-long impact.

I strongly believe also that self-confidence cannot be learned as quickly any other way than going directly from high school into the service. The satisfaction of knowing you’ve given back to your country is a great feeling. I have no regrets about those four years.

The GI Bill served me well later in life, as I was able to finish two years of college and purchase a house in 1963 without a down payment for a low interest rate. Additional space to seek my life’s work was afforded, as I didn’t have to find a job as soon as I returned from my tour of duty.

Recently I read a book that explains how important the GI Bill was to World War II veterans. It stated the Great Depression was caused by many factors, one being the Veterans of World War I coming home to no jobs and only sixty-seven dollars of severance pay. In 1944 Congress enacted the World War II GI Bill, which provided excellent benefits for these Veterans soon to be coming home. They could afford to go even to exclusive Ivy League colleges under that Bill, and many did. This book contends that it was the only social program that truly paid back dividends to the country. The GI Bill benefit is now part of the volunteer military and a huge incentive to join.

I especially hope that, as you read this book, you will enjoy this Looking back part. One of my goals in writing this is to share with you some of the things I have learned in my lifetime and this section helps me make some of these points.

The main reason I aborted my spring senior high school year was to be able to take advantage of the GI Bill. To help me make this point, I want to share the following special two stories:

First I asked Dan Baumbaugh, if, after retirement from the Coast Guard he used the GI Bill, and these are his comments: Dick: I certainly agree with you about the GI Bill. I did not use it after my retirement from the service, but I sure used it while on active duty. In 1957 I bought my first house with a GI Loan in Anaheim, California. (It was five minutes from Disneyland and boy did we have visitors.) It was a three bedroom, bath and a half home, which cost $12,700. I made a down payment of $500 and paid $101 per month house payments. Now that house is worth well over half a million dollars because of its location in Orange County, Calif. While on active duty I also went to night school on the G.I. Bill when stationed in San Francisco in the early 1950’s. Being a yeoman and needing to learn shorthand to make 1st Class, I took a course in the stenotype machine (you’ve seen the court reporters on TV). The government bought my machine for me and paid for all the schooling I needed and wanted. That was the World War II GI Bill. Then I used the Korean Conflict G.I. Bill to buy another house later on. Needless to say it was a great benefit to me. Young people need to buy their homes as early as possible nowadays to start building their equity and, as you know, it grows dramatically over the years. I’ve always felt that joining the CG (in 1947) was one of the best things I ever did. I feel, to this day, that the Coast Guard did a lot more for me than I ever did for it.

As you can see, I’m not the only person working on this book who is looking back. Dan is a guy service people would call a mustang. He began his Coast Guard career as an enlisted man, similar to mine. In fact, he, too, had his father die when he was a teenager and thus his enlistment was a help to his mother, quite similar to my situation. Now he is considered a mustang as he later went to Officer’s Candidate School and rose to the rank of a Lt. Commander by the time he retired after first beginning as an enlisted man. Quite an achievement, I’d like to add.

I also asked former shipmate Larry Gunnoe (a radioman and associate of Jonesy whom you will grow to know in this book) about his GI Bill use, and he replied:  I did have and used the GI Bill. I went to Washington State in Electrical Engineering and worked thirty years in the Electric Power business in Idaho. I also bought two houses on the GI Bill. It was a great deal.

CHAPTER 2

Enlisting in the Coast Guard and the Draft

Enlisting in the Coast Guard was easy. Easy?

By looking in the telephone book, I found the recruiting office location. It was at the U. S. Custom House, 421 Canal Street, downtown New Orleans. This turned out to be the headquarters of most of the military recruiting offices.

This structure was historical, having been built well over a hundred years earlier, before the Civil War. Benjamin Beast Butler had used it as his Union Army Headquarters during the War Between the States. Its construction began in 1848 and the young Army engineer in charge of construction was P. G. T. Beauregard and he’s the same ‘who fired the first shot’ to start the War Between the States. Beauregard was a prominent New Orleanian.

The Coast Guard recruiter was a nice guy and quickly put me through a battery of tests. There was a medical examiner down the hall and I passed the physical in short order. The recruiter then said I qualified and needed to join up before the GI Bill was removed from the enlistment package in just a few days.

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