1947–1948 Returning to Usn: Helping with the Marshall Plan

By Robert S. Weil

After I retired from working, I decided that now that my wife of thirty-nine years had passed away, I needed to relate about the events I experienced for the benefit of my children.

I had been involved in working at several jobs over my lifetime, and I wanted my children to recognize what their parents had gone through. I wished my own parents had been able to relate what they had seen and experienced in their lives. But that was not to be. They were too busy trying to raise a growing family during the trying years of the Great Depression. I never agreed that there was anything great about the Depression of the 1930s. Possibly this will encourage others to take time to write of their own life for their children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543458725

Robert S. Weil

Many years ago, my family and I would make trips to the mountain campsites for our vacation. We found and, generally used, the campsite in the high country of Yosemite. It was named Camp White Wolf. There were several other campsites, but this was one where there were individual sites large enough to set up our large tent. There was what must have been a water runoff nearby, although usually dry when we were there. At the site, there was a picnic table and a rock-lined pit for a campfire. After we had set up our tent at our campsite, we would take walks to see and enjoy the beauty of the comfortable woods. The clean, cool air felt so very good on our faces. The four children had their pleasure in climbing among the huge boulders. They would make games among themselves. Sometimes they would investigate the many different insects or small animals that they would see. I carried a notepad with me. I would tell them to draw a picture of what they saw. Later, we would then check the books we had at home to find out about what they had seen. Every year there would be something different. One time, there was an eagle soaring among the trees, not having to flap its wings, using the mountain’s updraft to stay aloft. In the city where we lived, there were few of these wondrous sights.

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Copyright © 2017 by Robert S. Weil.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2017915878

ISBN:                        Hardcover                    978-1-5434-5870-1

                                   Softcover                      978-1-5434-5871-8

                                   eBook                           978-1-5434-5872-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 10/14/2017

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CONTENTS

Ports Attended

Short Autobiography Of The Author

Introduction

Dedication

Chapter 1     In The Beginning 1947–1948

Chapter 2     Lifetime Decision

Chapter 3     Reenlisting Into The Us Navy

Chapter 4     The Beginning Of A Career

Chapter 5     The Uss Vogelgesang (Dd862)

Chapter 6     Arrival At The Rock Of Gibraltar

Chapter 7     Onward Into The Mediterranean

Chapter 8     Description Of A Technician

Chapter 9     Trieste

Chapter 10   Trip To Genoa, Italy

Chapter 11   Sailing To Greece

Chapter 12   Birth Of Our First Princess

Chapter 13   Among The Greek Islands

Chapter 14   Naples, Italy

Chapter 15   The Return Trip

Chapter 16   Norfolk To Texarkana

Chapter 17   Our Marriage Continues

PORTS ATTENDED

This is a list of some of the ports we attended during the trip of 1947–1948.

There probably were a few more.

Gibraltar

Tanger (Tangier), Morocco

Oran, Algeria

Tunis, Tunisia

Tripoli, Libya

Alexandria, Egypt

Piraeus, Athens, Greece

Thessaloniki, Greece

Istanbul, Turkey

Isle of Crete

Isle of Rhodes

Cyprus

Haifa, Israel

Naples, Italy

Taranto, Italy

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Genova, Italy

Trieste, Italy

Venezia (Venice), Italy

SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

After I retired, I decided that now that my wife of thirty-nine years had passed away, I needed to relate about the events I experienced for the benefit of my children.

I had been involved in working at several jobs over my lifetime, and I wanted my children to recognize what their parents had gone through. I wished my own parents had been able to relate what they had seen and experienced in their lives. But that was not to be. They were too busy trying to raise a growing family during the trying years of the Great Depression. I never agreed that there was anything great about the Depression of the 1930s. Possibly, this will encourage others to take time to write of their own lives for their children.

I began working at the age of eight, selling newspapers on a corner in downtown Santa Barbara. The few pennies I brought home were help for my mother and dad. Dad found work at low pay as a baker at a bread factory. At times, Mother worked as a practical nurse for some people in the Beverly Hills area.

As time went by, I found jobs later in life at an ice factory, loading 200-pound blocks of ice into freight-train cars designed for that purpose.

I worked for a pie shop, learning the trade of making hundreds of different pies for wholesale.

During the World War II, I joined the US Navy near the end of that period. After a discharge, I decided, for my family, that I should return to the navy and make it a career. I spent twenty-two years in that profession and at times, when able, worked at civilian jobs as well. I worked for a laboratory after that period and taught a class at a nearby college. By that time, I was an electronic technician.

I chose to first write of the experience that my two younger brothers and I had when I was fourteen years of age. We were in Cincinnati, Ohio, and needed to get to Los Angeles, California, where our mother was.

I began that tale explaining how we ended up in Cincinnati, and what we were supposed to do waiting for our mother’s arrival and finding a place to live, and then sending us funds to ride a bus to join her.

We were staying with an adult whom I had little respect for. But he was an adult. We all decided we could beat Mother to California by hitchhiking. Wrong.

As it turned out, we found that by combining the hitchhiking and riding in freight trains, we were able to make the trip. It was a miserable trip, as we found out. But we were determined to complete the tiring distance. We really had no other choice after we started.

I have tried to relate the events that we came through as they occurred. This was first written for my brothers, but then I thought my own children, later, would appreciate reading of the experience their dad went through during those days.

Several different people read my manuscript and thought it should be published. So I present to you, for your appraisal, thirty days relating of events that should never be taken these days.

Thank you for your interest.

Robert S. Weil

INTRODUCTION

This book has been written primarily for my children.

Possibly, it will help them understand why things occurred as they did.

I am certain that if Doris had her choice, it would never be produced.

The reason would be because of the sorrow that it contains—sorrow that she could have changed if she had a different attitude about the conditions that developed. At the end, she did come around and agree that our original goals were the right