Navy Pier, Chicago

After 3 months of Primary in Gulfport, MS, we went to Chicago, Navy Pier, for 7 months of Secondary. The food there was just wonderful. The contrast between it and Gulfport was just unbelievable. The people in Gulfport were almost outnumbered by us sailors. But in Chicago it was just the opposite and everyone was most cordial towards us. Even if one of us was standing by the roadside waiting to cross, sometimes a car would stop to offer a ride!

At Navy Pier we got into all types of Naval Electronics, including radio transmitters and receivers, underwater sound, but especially radar of all types including search (long distance), and fire control (gunnery aiming). But all this was towards the end of our training; in the beginning we were very heavy on strictly electronics theory.

We had a lot of classroom sessions, some labs, and tons of homework. The classrooms at Navy Pier were normal size, but the sleeping area was monster in size, comparable to an aircraft hangar building. There were 4,000 of us learning electronics there. There were some characters amongst us. There was Wincup, who was a died-in-the-wool communist. There was another fellow from Scotland (I believe he was a Scottish Nationalist), who would say "Hitler may yet prove to be a friend". Then there was Loudermilk, a straight "A" student, who always fell asleep in class, to the consternation of the instructor, who would have him get up and stand in the corner. Loudermilk always had a smile on his face. Sometimes while standing in the corner, his eyes would close, and the book he held would fall. But he still had a smile on his face.
Another character (I don't know his name), was an old Navy veteran with oceans of hash marks on his sleeve (each one represents 4 years). But he would usually be found curled up on his bunk. People said he was regularly drunk.

We would be marched to downtown Chicago sometimes for swimming and diving lessons at the pool in The Palmer House, a high end hotel that is still there to this day.

While at Navy Pier, I had more spare time than I ever had in my life before, even though it was a very intensive course. With a buddy, we took the "Hiawatha" train up to Milwaukee to his home, and went on a double date. Often I would go roller skating. And I also enrolled for a few dancing lessons at Arthur Murray.

And on most week-ends, I went to Harlem Airport and took flying lessons in a Piper Cub, with an instructor who was an American veteran of the Royal Air Force (he had volunteered early). I didn't accumulate quite enough hours to solo, but would have if I had remained in the area long enough. My log book got left behind in the move years later from Indianapolis to Chicago. After a number of accumulated hours aloft, I practiced speed turns, and once, climbed to higher altitude and did a tail spin, to experience how to get out of it (they don't do that anymore). To get out of it, you flip the aerolons in the same direction as the spin, but hold opposite rudder. We did, and I got out of it OK. But I scared the instructor, who kept saying "the wings! the wings!" I had kept the straght down (dive) position a little too long for comfort before pulling out. This brings me to one of my favorite stories. Once I was coming in for a landing, and at the very last minute, another student flyer taxied right in front of the spot where we were going to touch down! My instuctor grabbed the controls, dove the plane into the tarmac, and we bounced OVER the other plane then came to a landing.

Once or possibly twice, I went to Palwaukee airport (unlike Harlem airport, it is still there), and took a lesson or two in a Talorcraft, which has a yoke rather than a joy stick like the Piper Cub. I felt I had perfect control with the joy stick, but never got used to the yoke.

Time to quit.