George Carson

CARSON, GEORGE

George Carson: George Carson, in Rush Springs, Oklahoma. July the 14th 1931. Moved to Galveston, Texas in 1950. I graduated from high school in 1949, and I moved to Galveston,Texas because I had an aunt and uncle down there. I wanted to find work 

00:00:30

G: to work, and make money to go to school in the fall. Well it didn’t happen that way. I didn’t get to go college right then, but I did meet my future wife there. I had registered my selective service with the draft board in Chickasha, Oklahoma which is the county seat

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G: Where I was born.

Interviewer: So you were drafted?

G: No, I, to avoid the draft, I joined the Navy

I: You joined and enlisted in the Navy?

G: I enlisted in the Navy for four years

I: Do you remember when you enlist in the Navy?

G: I enlisted on February the 14th 1951

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I: So what people talking about Korean War at the time? Do you remember?

G: No, I don’t remember much about it. Expect I knew it was going on, and I knew that that was something I could do, I could do that as in the Navy, I could join the Navy and not have to go to the Army or the Marines. And I wanted to come back in one piece. 

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G: So that’s why I joined the Navy.

I: So, you wanted to do something about the Korean War, but you want to join the Navy, so that you can come back safe.

G: Yes sir

I: Good

G: Come back safe

I: You’re a very wise man

G: Because I have a real good friend who’s in my chapter. His name is Marvin Dunn. He only has one leg.

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G: Because he was a B.A.R man. Browning Automatic rifle. And he got his legs shot off in Korea. Marvin is one of my best friends.

I: Where did you go to get the training?

G: San Diego, California. That’s where the boot camp was.

00:03:00

G: I got, I’ve got the 16 weeks of boot camp. And while I was there, we had eight weeks of rifle training out there at Camp Elliott. Camp Elliott was near San Diego as part of the Marine base. And that’s where we had our rifle training. 

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G: I got the idea that Korea was our friend and that this is where we had a chance to stop communism. Because the South Koreans had come over into South Korean. I mean the North Koreans had come over in South Korea and had taken over.

00:04:00

G: They had taken over because they wanted to enforce communism on South Korea. 

I: Yup.

G: Well  I thought well now that’s not right and I can do something about that. In the Navy I was in a radio operator, which is communications. And I go to

00:04:30

G: Interact with the officers that way.  We’d get messages, we’d receive messages, and we would route them around for the officers, to read them and sign off on them.

I: So, that’s very important job?

G: Yes, it is. I had to learn the Morse Code.

I: Morse code?

G: I had to learn to send it and receive it.

I: Can you show me how you did it?

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G: Yeah.

I: Just do it now.

G: Yeah, Yeah. Now they also had a speed key. If you were real good you could use that speed key. But I remember so much. We had call signs, like a book that had the call signs.

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G: The call sign from my ship was ‘Non Uncle Baker Jig’

I: What uncle?

G: Non Uncle Baker Jig. NUBJ

I: [Laughs]

G: Well, that was the call sign. Now the voice call sign was raceway, I had my ship was already in Korea. So,

00:06:00

G: When I got out of radio school, I had to take another train. I went to Yokohama first, and then I took a train from Yokohama down to Sasebo.

I: Uh-huh

G: Sasebo was down in the very Southern tip of Korea. When we got my ship, what they do, they pull up alongside my ship and they shoot a line over to 

00:06:30

G: my ship and some of those guys over there get that little line and they pull it, and it’s gets a little a

bit bigger line and pretty soon you got a great big line. Big enough to hold a man in a basket.

I: So you’re in the basket?

G: Sir?

I: So you were in the basket?

G: I was in the basket.

I: And then transferred to your own destroyer.

00:07:00

I: Right?

G: And the water was sometimes the water would go wave up, and get, and almost get me wet. Oh! One of the most important things I did

I: Uh-huh

G: Was when I got transferred to a ship in Pearl Harbor. The USS Renshaw. DD-499.

I: Uh-huh.

G: Home port was Pearl Harbor.

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G: And when I was on that ship, we went to Enewetak [Atoll] and Bikini [Atoll], where they had the Hydrogen Bomb test. 

I: Oh.

G: Now that was really something. That was very top secret. We weren’t even supposed to talk about that. And we couldn’t get mail in or mail out as long as 

00:08:00

G: We were on the station down there. But I remember so well that when they had that blast, we had to be on the opposite side of the ship. Like the bass was going to be on the starboard side, we had to get on the port side. And when they got ready to have the blast, I put my hand over my eyes. 

00:08:30

G: Like this [Gestures hand movement] With my eyes closed, and I could see the bone in my arm, when that thing went off. Here’s another thing, they had women and men and children on the island that was going to be in the way of drift of  radioactive fallout.

00:09:00

G: And we had to pick them up, and take them to Guam.

I: I mean, they didn’t know that there was people there?

G: Well yeah, they couldn’t help it. Because they couldn’t move the Island.

I: But you had to pick them up before the bomb blast? 

G: Oh yeah! Yeah, we picked them up before the blast.

I: What was the mission of your ship?

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G: It was to escort for bigger ships

I: Okay.

G: And when we were escorting carriers, when the planes and pilots couldn’t make it back.

I: Okay.

G: If they ran out of fuel and they had to ditch, we would pick up the pilot. I remember one time, the first time we picked up one. We didn’t have anything in our locker 

00:10:00

G: Down in the hole. Our refrigerated locker, but we had to take everything out of there, and put that body in there.

I: So you always work with the airplane, and get the target and shell them right?

G: That’s right.

I: Yeah.

G: And we had a gunnery officer, and the gunnery officer would be the one that would regulate 

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G: How much we did in the way of shelling. And I must admit, we used fixed ammunition.

I: How much were you paid, salary?

G: Oh! [Laughs] it was just pennies

I: How much?

G: I think it was about 15 dollars a month.

I: 15? One, Five?

G: Yeah

I: What was the happiest moment during your service?

00:11:00

G: I guess when I got to go home instead, and see Joanne and the kids and Jordan.

I: When was that? When did you leave to the state?

G: We got, I got to bring Joanne and Jordan to Hawaii in 1955, 1953. When I was transferred to the Renshaw.

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G: We got the money up to buy a ticket, for my wife to fly.

I: And with her?

G: From San Diego, and her, to fly to Honolulu. I want to say one thing, I got my college education through the GI bill.

I: Ah-hm

G: I went to school at night. 

00:12:00

G: I worked in the daytime. And my wife took care of the children. We had four children, she took care of all the children. And I got to go to the University of Houston.

I: What did you study?

G: I studied business administration.

I: Good for you.

G: My management was my major.

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G: And I’m not sure how much it helped me but I just had a sense of accomplishment by getting that done. 

I: Ah-hmm

G: And if it hadn’t been for the GI bill, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.