ROOMMATES

The above photo was taken by me probably around the spring of 1961 at the Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington VA. There four guys on the left were my roommates for most of the time I was stationed at NPIC (Naval Photographic Interpretation Center in Suitland, MD. We all shared an apartment in the area called Congress Park of Washington, D. C.. Although there was 5 of us there was never any more than 3 there at a time to share the two bedroom apartment because we had different duty days. In civilian life I you would call it overtime, but we called it "slave labor" (see our Christmas card).

Pictured left to right are Richard Crishock, Joe Tidler, Ron Pluto, Gary Tarr and D. M. Dyt.

Dyt was not a roommate buy hang with us a lot. He was from NJ and died in a car crash around spring of '62. The other bookend is Richard Crishock a wonderful guy and one of those guys you never forget. About 4 years ago I renewed my friendship with him and his wife in Arlington, VA and found that they ad been living there only miles from where I lived for 30 years in the suburbs of MD. After finding, Dick as his family refers to him, I started looking for the other guys that were left. I located Tidler, Tarr and was sure we could find Pluto because he had always lived in Pittsburgh, PA and I had talked to him once in the 70's when I was in town for a seminar.

I have more stories about "Our Gang" at another time. We had a lot of good times together and I had plans to get a reunion planned when Crishcok got ill and passed away. This was a real shocker to me and I'll write soon about Dick.

Anacostia Naval Receiving Station Washington, D.C.

After reading Rich May’s story about the barracks in Anacostia Receiving Station in Washington, D.C. I remembered an embarrassing event that happened to me while on watch there in the summer of 1959.
Everyone that was assigned to the barracks for compartment cleaning , while waiting for their clearance, had to also stand watch in the barracks and hallway.

One early evening I was standing watch and the OD cam up and told me to call in a Fire Alarm Drill. I got so excited that when I called the fire number I forgot to mention it was a “DRILL” . Boy oh boy was the OD and me shocked when we heard the sirens coming down the street. The OD asked me “Did you say FIRE DRILL and I said I think so?. Well it was a very embarrassing experience and I bet that OD never asked anyone to call for a fire drill again.

The next day I found a Fire Chiefs hat on my bunk. The guys when out and bought one for me to wear. I wore it once just do they could laugh at me and then threw it away.
Sarj

Norman OK Airman Training

We have been mentioning our training time in Norman OK before we went to Pensacola for A school. I have some memories of that place that still stick in my mind.
The first memory is getting to start and old Navy fighter plane. The photo to the left reminds me of the type of airplane that we actually got to start the engine on. It was surreal for me, thinking that I was at the controls of a plane all by myself. Every group had a plane to train with and there was a whole line of them just like in the photo. One person would start on the starboard side with a fire bottle and then work his way to the other side and then into the cockpit to start the engine. As you walked from one side to the other you was to make a wide walk far away from the propeller of the plane.
Down the line somewhere a sailor did not get far away enough from the prop and the instructor made him run up and down the air strip stopping at each plane and shout "I'm dead I walked in front of the prop"!
Later while in the hospital at Clark AF Base in the PI a young man of 19 was brought in on a wire stretcher that had actually walked into a prop aboard an Aircraft Carrier near the PI Islands. Half of his head was cut off, but they kept him alive for about a week.