Henry was born April 26th 1910 in Keene Luship, Ionia County, Michigan. Henry was the third son of John and Elizabeth Hoover, Henry started school in his 4th year in the old school house between Basslers old farm and Jake Hoovers house. In the meantime, a new school was being erected on the corner of White Bridge Rd. and was called the Pearsall School. At age 13, in 1923, Henry finished his schooling.

I did farming and took a correspondence course in electricity; I then went to Pontiac Michigan and worked for the old Oakland motors until I was laid off for change over. I did some more farming for $40.00 a month and to pass the time away at night I took up a correspondence course in radio, but there was no work in that field either. In 1935 my appendix acted up and the doctor said I will have to operate, and six weeks later I could go back to work, so I did get well in time to gather in the potatoes and store them. I then took up welding and that got me a job at Fischer Auto Body in Detroit. While at Fischer they put out ammunition instead of cars.

I thought it would defer me from the draft but I got my notice anyway, and because I was a welder I went down and enlisted in the Seabees in August 1942 and they sent me home and said wait till you are called. I got out of five months of military duty

I left home at Lowell, Michigan and went to Detroit. On the way the bus quit and they sent another bus to carry on. When we got to the recruiting station, they weren’t ready to take us, so we had to stay in this terrible hotel. They told us where to eat and it was a greasy spoon café in the downtown area.

While awaiting shipment to where ever they assigned us jobs, so we were on this small recruiting ship and we swabbed the decks. Several of us got passes to go across the street to Sams Dept. stores. Down in the basement they had a boiler with plenty hot water and we got clean, and back to the recruiting ship. A call came out for plumbers and I volunteered. My job was swabbing the toilets, but we all survived that.

Back to the hotel, the next morning we had a mile walk to the train station. I left on Good Friday the 23rd 1943. We were told the camp is in the State of Virginia called Camp Peary in Williamsburg, Va.. When we got to Richmond Va. They told us that when we get to camp you get a box and ship all your belongings back home. I did keep my jack knife and hid it under the steps.

When I went to the recruiter they gave me a rate of 2nd class Shipfitter and that gave me $96.00 a month, which was better than the mates that got $ 50.00 a month. We went through lines to get our gear. I remember the first thing they gave me was a mattress cover and that was what handled all the gear they gave you, like a stencil diddy bag, underwear, shoes, uniforms, etc. They also gave you two duffle bags one for your clothes the other for your mattress. They pointed out where the mess hall was, and the toilet area, where there were no partitions around the toilets, and in the same room was a large gang shower and an area where you washed your clothes by hand.

On that Saturday the had us line up for the necessary shots we mustered for everything.
Sunday was for worship of your choice, writing letters and washing clothes. Lots of close order drills, picking up cigarettes, and policing the area, and studying your 1940 blue manual book.

They were short on leggings, and I drew guard duty. One had to be completely in uniform for that detail. I was fortunate that my rain gear was long enough to cover the leggins area. This officer came up to me and surprised me. I put my gun to the side and gave him a left hand salute. I guess he knew I was a boot and overlooked it. Another time a V.I.P. was going to inspect the base, so we made the base clean and respectable. Heck, all we saw was a cloud of dust as the limo passed by. I guess it was a way of disciplining us.

We had a Navy Ensign in charge of our group, a first class jerk if there ever was one. He became, affectionately, the horses ass of our group. He told us in marching that we should do one thing and he would do something else (just confused us) and then he would say, “I’m just seeing if your paying attention.” He transferred into the regular navy and that was good for the Seabees.

The boss of the base was Captain Ware and he had a pig farm. When we done KP, the garbage left over from chow went to the pig farm. I drew KP duty and we peeled potatoes by hand and I worked the dish machine and it wasn’t that bad of duty as you got the best of chow.

When we graduated from boot they gave us a 63-hour pass to either Richmond, Va. or Washington, DC. I chose to go to Wasington and I saw the government buildings. On returning we were to parade before the Brass and this mate in front of me had two left feet, but when we paraded he marched as good as the rest of us. Oh yes, another thing, I remember we had a mate in our hut called Isadore Horrowitz. One night after lights were out a voice in the back of the hut would say,  “We have a front door and we have a back door and we have in the center a ‘Isadore.’”

We were taken to the main area of Camp Peary to await the train to go to Camp Endicott, Rhode Island. While waiting for the train a mate climbed the water tower and ended his life. Another mate jumped in front of a truck before we left there.

Quite a train ride up the east coast to Davisville, RI, just outside of Providence R.I. Things were different there, we weren’t confined like in boot camp we went to school and more drills. When we were in the double barracks and before the splitting of the outfit, every morning after the bugle call to wake everyone up, there was one square built Texan about 3 bunks down from my bunk, he would roll over and leave a fart that would do justice to a horse. This got to be known as the second bugle call. He must of went into the 1st section as I didn’t see him anymore.

One of the new guys was telling us that they had a rough drill instructor at Camp Peary the time he was there that earned the respect of everyone. He was telling us about a mate that sat down at a rest stop and fell asleep. When the drill instructor said, “Fall in.” he didn’t hear him, so the instructor walked over and kicked him in the butt. The mate calmly woke up and put out the cigarette and picked up his wooden rifle and hit the instructor along side of the head and knocked him cold and then walked over and took his place in the squad. Later when someone came by in a jeep they stopped and wondered why they were standing there and of course no one snitched naturally and the drill instructor was taken to the first aid station and they were given a new instructor. The new guy eased up after he heard what had happened.

One mate in our hut was an absolute nut. He was the one that was given a bar rifle. I don’t think he was issued any ammo for it. Everyone was glad of that. The poor simp ironed clothes and anything to make a few dollars to send to his wife. She in turn sent nasty letters back. Some of the mates put him up to send his wife a letter telling her off and for a little while the letters he got were more civil, but that didn’t last long. He ended up in the brig and sent home.

Some mates would do anything to pass the time away. One or two had these sticks and a small piece of rope and they made a loop at the end of the stick and pretended they were walking the dog every day (plain nuts). The platoon I was in was considered an outlaw platoon. None of the chiefs wanted anything to do with us. Anyway, we wound up with a long legged chief the name Sherman. He could easily walk the butt off of anyone in our squad, so I guess we got what we deserved.

One mate in our platoon was to get a medical discharge. On a certain day, checking up his records, it was discovered that he had to serve some brig time before they let him go. This mate was not young either.

When you went to Providence for liberty most mates liked the Chinese restaurant and when the liberty bus stopped at the corner downtown you could smell the fried chicken aroma coming from the restaurant. I liked my beer and I thought I was civil when I drank, but I can’t say that for a lot of my mates, as we poured them in the racks of the liberty bus and helped them back to their barracks.

We were still in Advance Base Depot {ABD} when we were sent to Sun Valley for maneuvers. They gave us an [M1} rifle and that was a better rifle to hit the bulls eye on the firing range, then back to close order drill and inner squad obstacle course and choose up for war games.

I was put on a detail to lay drainage tile, and some Seabees couldn’t use a shovel or wheel a wheelbarrow. These mates were from New York and New Jersey and they considered anyone west of the Hudson River were hicks anyway. One smartass got in trouble and went AWOL to New York and went home. The shore patrol had no trouble finding him there. He was really restricted after that, in fact he had guards on him till we were well out to sea. I don’t recall seeing him after that.

I was 33 years of age and there were mates a hell’ava lot older than I. While hiking, some of the other mates had to help these older mates out and sent jeeps back to pick them up. This one day the band was out on the field and they played the song, “Over There,” so we got the impression we were going to ship out. In August we were given a 10 day embarkation leave, I did get home and went to Wisconsin to see Mildred, then back to camp Endicott.

We were in ABD when the powers to be split the 2000 mates up and made two 97th sections. Half of the officers went into one section and the other half into the second section. Lt. Cmdr. Sommers took the 1st sect and Lt. Maitland took the 2nd section, which I was in. Companies A, C, D, and Headquarters were in the 2nd sect and Companies. B, E, and Hdqs. were in the 1st section. I, Henry Hoover, was Company A, Pl. 6.

We boarded a train and the 2nd section of the 97th was transported to New York at Hoboken across the Hudson River. We were put on a ferry and taken across the river to the dock area. We boarded the Empress Of Australia and were told to stay below deck for security reasons. In fact, it wasn’t till we were out to sea and missed seeing the Statue Of Liberty. When we got out to sea they said we could get fresh air now and then they told us where to go for chow and it wasn’t worth eating. It was mutton, lamb, and a vegetable, and tea. The mates really griped. We were stationed in the hole of the ship and the hammocks were 4 tiers high, with the younger mates doing the top hammock. The next morning for breakfast had black bread with worms in it and it tasted bad. When evening came, the same thing mutton and lamb, so the mates all complained to the officers and they came down to eat through our mess lines and saw how it was. Then the captain of the ship came down and it was soon changed. It seems that the crew of the ship was hoarding the American rations and serving us theirs. After that the chow got better.

We were on the water for 14 days, and we would roam the decks during the daylight hours. I saw crap games, card games, and games of chance. Some of the Seabees that boozed it up before shipping out never got out of their hammocks. I didn’t get seasick, but they did.

We saw the coast appear and saw so many tugs and fishing boats and foghorns. Yes, it was a sight that I never witnessed. We docked at Liverpool, England and we were detained on the ship for two days and then on the second night at 11 o’clock we departed this ship and marched to a dimly lit covered area. We mustered in this area and boarded a train around midnight. On boarding they issued us K-rations and we rode all night. The next day we got to Carlyle across the border from the England –Scotland line. At this point we were given coffee, tea, and a doughnut. From there to Glasgow Scotland and were taken down the north side of the Clyde River to a place called Craigendoras. Then we were put in small boats and taken across the bay to Base 2, Roseneath, Scotland where the 29th Construction Battalion was maintaining this base. The 97th relieved the 29th as they went on to Exeter, England to maintain a supply base. This was to be our home till March of 1944.

We did base maintenance as our workday and liberty was in Glasgow or Edinburgh. On Thanksgiving Day, 1943 they sent Company C down to Saltash, near Plymouth, to build a 40 hut base and Company A and D stayed in Roseneath.

I have no idea how the crew was picked for the repair shop, but I was one of those on this detail. If anything was broke they brought it to us and we would repair it or renew it. My Position was at the big garage door and the blacksmith was right next to me. The first thing the Chief wanted done was an exhaust run out through the roof to remove the fumes. One of the sleeve pressers from the laundry needed to be brazed and it finally fell on me as no one could braze.

When I got liberty, the train would stop at Helensbourgh and then on to Glasgow, a very large town but very drab during the wartime. I understand the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were built on the Clyde River then taken to deeper water and boilers and engines installed. This was done before the war. Getting back to Glasgow, Scotland, Teachers Hi Land Crème had a distillery there. This was near the Red Cross Hotel on Suchiall St. That was the first stop for the Seabees. They never could drink it dry, however, pubs closed down at 10 pm, and the proprietor would call out,  “TIME, PLEASE GET ALONG NOW.”  If you knew of a blind pig, that was the end of your carousing.

Sunday night meant getting the last train out. Over there they have compartments with doors opening to the platform. When the train stopped every door opened and everyone discharged at the same time. They were to collect the tickets at the station and anything resembling a ticket was given as they all poured out at the same time. The Seabees used bus tickets, theatre tickets, and so on (a typical Seabee maneuver). The ferryboat held 40 mates and everyone wanted to get on the first boat back across the bay to Roseneath. You could take the bus into Glasgow or Edinburgh, but that was scary as the lorries had blackout lights shaped like a cross about 1 inch wide. Sitting in these double decker busses and seeing the telegraph poles whip by was very scary and very uncomfortable.
Roseneath was very near Lochness and I went up there twice, but I never saw any monster.

The winter wasn’t so bad. There was some snow at higher levels and at the lower level there was just frost.

One job they gave me was that every new jeep had to have a short chain and an eye bolt near the steering wheel, this was the way the one authorized to have that jeep could padlock it. The chiefs who ran our shop had good ideas and used their brains and we obeyed their orders. On Sunday we just had a skeleton crew in the shop and this other mate and I were on duty. He was supposed to be the mechanic and I was his helper. A Ford came in with starter trouble. He wanted to put on a new starter switch right off the bat without checking. I reached down to see if the cable was loose to the starter. Sure enough, the cable was about to fall off. That turned out to be an easy fix. Later on, I hadn’t gone on liberty and was just lazing around in the hut when a welder whom had duty came in and said he had a job he couldn’t do and asked me if I would come down and help him out. Like a boob, I went down to see if I could help. It turned out to be a liberty ship freighter at the dock. It seemed that someone lifted the eye beam across the hold and one end stuck in the socket and someone asleep at the hoist hadn’t stopped till the damage was done. No one knew what to do and neither did I, so I proceeded to cut the socket away from the hatch side. In the meantime, we got the beam in place and another beam across way so when they were level we clamped them together. With the beam and the socket in the right location it was a matter of cutting two tapered pieces of flat stock and welding them back in place. When high tide came in the freighter went out to sea.

The mates were rolling up the welding hoses and there was only one single wire holding the oxygen tank, and I ran like the devil to get away from that tank, we were lucky the single stranded wire held,  [Oh well]

The days in Scotland are very short at that time of the year, so I was always glad to get my details done before it got dark. That way I got to go to Sergeants Pub and try to drink it dry.

Another time I went to the pub and two waafs [womens auxiliary air force] came out with their bicycles. One girl said to the other sister, “You can ride yours but am pushing mine.” And one of the mates said, “I’ll help you girls.” I guess he made out as the three walked away together.

One of the mates could find a dance on a deserted island if there was one to be found. This mate heard there was a dance in the neighborhood and he asked me to go with him. When we got there it was pretty well attended by the women’s land army. They all looked well fed and all of them could handle a horse drawn plow. Needless to say, I didn’t think much of his dances after that.

Then we were moved by truck to the southeastern part of Scotland to a Limey air base called Newton Stewart. It was here that we trained on the portable harbor. The code name was MULBERRY. We stayed at the air base till April 1st 1944.

Then we were sent to Southampton, England and became acquainted with pierheads, a deck that hooked up to bridge span (Code Whales). I didn’t get assigned to a pierhead and I was glad as they were towed all over. Chief Moates and Chief Black were instrumental in making changes for the better. A pierhead was towed out to 30 ft. of water and then the corner 60 ft spuds would go down to the sea floor and the 60 ft x 200ft deck would go up and down with the tide. Then we would train on how to hook the bridge span to the pierhead. Chief Tom Moates was a sailor’s friend. On the other hand Chief Clanton Black wasn’t liked and the mates who worked for him done penance that the pearly gates should be no hurdle at all. I understand that the Bronze star was awarded to Chief Tom Moates, Chief Clanton Black, and Ensign Cox.

Later we were sent to the Isle Of Wight and now our outfit was called the 108th for this Mulberry Operation. We also got a new skipper. While working on the Isle Of Wight I worked and trained on hooking up bridgespans. At night we were allowed to go into the town of Peel and to Bobs Pub. This was located near Cowes I.O.W. When the air raids came, the Germans always dropped flares, the English tried to shoot them down. Not very often were they were the 50 caliber bullets were high velocity, the 20 mm shells were low velocity bullets and took a long time to get there.

Whenever they did pull off an air raid, the English would use smoke screens over the equipment that were stored for the invasion. One night when we were over at Bobs Pub the Comdr. of the air raid battery up on the hill asked us to come down to a dance where he was stationed. So we went down there and the dance was just about over. So he insisted that we be given a ride back to our quarters and he picked one of the girls to drive us back to our area. Well, that turned out to be the wildest ride we ever had. The road had anti tank barricades and with blackout lights you couldn’t see much. How she missed them barriers, I will never know. We should of tipped her an English pound for that ride.

There was a big catholic church, some sort of Abbey, several miles up the road from the town of Ryde, Isle of Wight. We could attend mass if we weren’t on detail.

Every day you could see the allies flying over the channel to soften up the enemy for the invasion. We were out on the water and these huge coils on back of the English trawler was uncoiling these tubes for petrol to be used for the invasion, so we knew that the invasion wasn’t far off.

One of those officers on the trawler came over to our operation and wanted to know what we were doing. We said we don’t know, we are just following orders. At the time we were eating our K-rations and we gave this officer a ration and he was surprised to see what was all in that carton like a cracker box.. He immediately knew he was in the wrong army. He had to be shown how to operate the can hinged opener. This Limey was a miner before he entered the war. He said he got two trupneybits for an hour’s work, which was about 10cents an hour of our money. The Limey said they would never get him back in the mines again. He said he was around a lot of men, but the Seabees were the best bloody scroungers he had ever seen. Anything bolted or welded was surely to disappear. One day the Limey’s were using a crane to pick up a box the size of a casket and the boom caused the crane to tip over. Another crane came and got the box out of the water and straighten up the other rig. Along came 4 Limey’s and picked the box up and walked away with it and had no trouble. Most English equipment didn’t have any overload capacity on their equipment. I used to think if a seagull came along and crapped on anything above the rated load would cause it to fail.

We went down to Selsey. Bill and trained on bridge spans [code name whale] and we stayed in small cottages. There were 4 mates to a cottage (a former nudity resort camp). This was our home till the invasion started. I remember training on these 80 ft long sections. We learned how to couple them together and then tie them to a pierhead. This was also a staging area for the concrete Phoenixes [breakwater] or coffins as we named them.

On June 4 th we were ready to go but was delayed one day as the weather didn’t cooperate. The next day, June 5th we made it out to a fairly large English ship, a sort of mother ship for the marker buoys that were to be taken across to mark the area at Omaha Beach. This crossing was like the movie, displayed some bible reading, some cracking jokes, some very somber, and it was just another boring job to some. As the landings proceeded we were well out from the beach at that time but we could see what was going on.

On June 6th we watched the army GI”S try to gain ground. The naval ships bombarded the coast all day and land mines went off one after the other throwing out smoke and bodies flying into the air. We knew we were glad we weren’t in the army. Later on June 6th in the day an LCI took me to a liberty freighter and this ship was to be sunk as part of the harbor breakwater (code name Gooseberry). No one was paying attention to all the noise from the bombardment until one bomb hit close to our ship. This really startled the skipper of the freighter and he ordered the anchor up and headed for deep water and when we looked back we saw an LST get a direct hit right where we were. We never knew where the bombs were coming from and then we saw the enemy coming in and start shelling us.

Out of the 15 mates that were to sink this freighter 14 of them got hit and the coast guard came and took the wounded off the freighter. I was taken off this ship and put on the English ship Minster that was to be our home the next several days. The Limey’s treated us real good with their English hospitality. We did get a rum ration each morning before breakfast. One shot of that was enough for me and I passed it on to whoever wanted the rum. The Limey’s sing a song every morning, and goes through all the compartments and wakes everyone up and gets them going. This was to start them on a happy day.

Prior to the shelling we were getting bitching from the mates, as they wanted to go ashore, the shelling sure shut them up. Three days passed and the chief wanted volunteers to go ashore and he got 3 of us to go. That was what I came to do, but being real brave, I stayed in the bulldozers tracks all the way to the beach, as I was afraid of land mines.

On returning to the Minster we were taken off and put on another English ship that was to be sunk for breakwater. This ship was much larger and the decks were above water. It was very close to the other ship that we were shelled on. While on this ship another enemy raid started and an LST got a direct hit and we heard all life was gone and this was real close to us.

We were on the fantail of this old Italian liner and had a roof over our heads. In the meantime, the bridge spans and the coffins were starting to take shape. I was then part of the crew that coupled the bridge spans together. At night they took us back to our living quarters on this old freighter. The next morning the storm was brewing and we were ordered to walk the 2500 feet of bridging to shore and we ended up in a rock quarry. It was raining and bedding down on rocks, which didn’t appeal to me. So my buddies and I went up to the top and found some fox holes and we bedded down there. The next morning we looked down into the quarry and not a soul was there. We heard there was another battalion of Seabees, the 111th, down the beach, so we hooked a ride and got better food and we saw other Seabees from our outfit there and they had the same thoughts, so we held a small reunion.

The Officer from the 111th said the 108th camp was a quarter mile inward, a place called St. Mere Eglise. My next orders were to salvage what the storm damage done. Commander Edward Herman Honan was in charge of the clean up and clearing the debris from the beach. As soon as the floats were filled they towed them back to England. After the war I found out they took some items to Utah beach, as the storm didn’t do any damage there.

Our next orders were to gather up the strayed bridgespans and haul them to Utah beach where the Americans were operating. We lived in pup tents the next three weeks and under the command of Cmdr. Honen, I do know he was a man’s man and fair, he wouldn’t allow any shirkers. Commander Honen was from the same school as General Patton, and wouldn’t put up with nonsense. Commander Honen got us out of the sand and mud and got us 16ft. by 16 ft. tents and a field kitchen, so we didn’t live like nomads any more. Conditions weren’t bad after the fighting was well inland, and we stayed there till August 3rd 1944

We broke camp and was loaded on an English ship and started back to England. Later that day we were taken over by an LST, so you can figure out how fast we were going. We saw land at evening and was told it was Plymouth, England.

We were taken to a camp in the woods and it was so damn quiet we couldn’t sleep. The next morning we boarded a train and went to London and then down the Thames River to Tilbury docks where the rest of the 108th were gathering and installing tents.  We were about 25 miles down the river from London and this was called buzz bomb alley as the buzz bombs came down the river right into London. When the motor quit someone would get it .

They gave me a ten-day leave and I toured London and looked up my relative Mike with the air force and then back to work.

Commander Edward Herman Honen was from Colorado and had a large construction company near Denver and he was to build two phoenixes  [coffins] using the 108th Seabees as the erectors.

By the way Tilbury was also the area where these large hoses that carried petrol and oil across the channel to France.

The buzz bombs came every day and some would quit short and we all went scrambling for cover. One night there was such an explosion that it woke us all up, we looked into the sky and the whole area lit up in a rose color. We figure the bomb hit a barrage balloon or its cable

Commander Honen bet the army’s big wheel that we could build two coffins faster than the army engineers.  When the two were completed, we beat the army by two weeks, so Cmdr. Honen threw a beer party for us. All the time we were building these coffins, an England building inspector would inspect our work. This inspector ate in our mess line and he could eat enough for two people. At this time we had rutabagas and for three days I hated that damn stuff, so I asked for double helpings just to get rid of that horrible food. I don’t think I got any credit for that.

After we completed that project we boarded a train and taken to Tiegnmounth, England for a 10 day rest period and await a ship to take us back home. Tiegnmounth was a resort area with lots of hotels and that’s where the put us up. However, the hotels were stripped and the rooms had hammocks like on the ships, 4 tiers high. Landcaster and I were put on shore patrol and our duty was 48 hours on and 48 hours off. When patrolling the streets, if the noise was loud, we would turn and go the opposite way rather than put our mates in trouble. One night we stopped to get some refreshments and the lady behind the counter read us of, she said, “You are Hoover and Landcaster.” I asked her if she had our addresses too, apparently not, and that was good. Our 108th orchestra played for the dances that were held, and this one short-legged babe could really kick up her heels. On our 48 hours off Landcaster and I went to London and the buzz bombs cleared the streets. Thank goodness we weren’t close to them. While there we ate at a café and they served sausage, the best kept secret of the war and the fish and chips were always wrapped in newspaper so you got an extra treat by eating the print.

In the main cities in England the water mains were in the gutters of the street and when the bombs would fall they would use this water to fight fires. The water pipe was called static water supply and the letter was painted on these mains.

Eleanor Roosevelt came to London while Landcaster and I were there and the vegetable was brussels sprouts. When she got back to the USA she claimed she never wanted any Brussels sprouts as long as she lived.

While in London we did get to St. Pauls Cathedral, and was pointed out the plaque in the floor was the center of London. At one time, fortunately, the cathedral was spared from bombs. I also saw where Churchills Office was at #10 Downing Street. We saw Big Ben Clock from a distance. Trafalgar Square was in the heart of downtown London and Piccadilly Circus was adjacent to Trafalgar Square. We were told that the Big Ben Clock was taped so if it did get hit they still would play the bells and chimes

Over in Germany they had an English chap working the propaganda broadcasting radio. He spread all kinds of crap and was called LORD HAW. He ended up on the end of a rope. When the war was over there was another babe called AXIS SALLY. She turned out to be an American. What her fate was I never heard.

They had the park adjacent to the Red Cross and the English People used this as their soapbox talking about the war or the food. They called this free speech in action.

Scuttlebutt said we were going back to the States, as the Seabee job for us was complete. Sure enough we got orders to board the ship New Amsterdam and after 5 days aboard this ship we were back at Boston Harbor on October 25th 1944. I became seasick on this voyage. We boarded a train back to camp Endicott in Rhode Island. After a couple days on the base they issued me a 30-day pass. I did get to see my Fiancé, Mildred, while I was at home. On the way back, I rode the bus from Chicago to Grand Rapids and on the bus there was an elderly lady that gave me a long story about a submarine that knocked some splinters off of a derrick out there. After seeing all the damage in London, and France I sure wasn’t worked up over that.

Back at Camp Endicott I goofed around awhile and after a few days I heard they disbanded the 108th NCB. I awaited an assignment and was put in a labor group. Finally, to get out of the cold I went into the laundry and folded clothes and ironed. It sure beat being out in the cold Later on there was a detachment being formed. Even though I said I wouldn’t volunteer, I signed up to go with a bunch from the 108th. It turned out that it would be a heavy equipment detachment. After another stint at Sun Valley and schools, and the obstacle course we were told to pack up and be ready the next morning to board a troop train to California. The troop train was box cars rehabbed for transporting troops across America with hammocks 4 tiers high and a train car in the middle of the train for our mess kitchen.. Before breakfast the train would stop and everyone would have to do exercise. Each car had a portable toilet. After 5 days traveling we arrived at Port Hueneme, Ca. near Santa Barbara. We stayed there 1st of February to May 1945. While there we went to school and trained on jungle warfare. The outfit was sent out in two groups and the 1st group was to set up camp wherever. I went in the 2nd group and our ship was the George F. Elliott [p-102] we stopped at Pearl Harbor and picked up ships for a convoy. Then we stopped at Enewetok to stretch our legs and was given a beer or soda. Then we stopped at Palou and again stretch our legs and refreshments.

On the way we asked the regular navy if we could do some chores and they obliged with scraping paint and so on. For this they let us go through their chow line and we could see their movies, which helped pass the time. After 40 days we reached Okinawa. After getting there we were loaded on this big old barge and taken ashore at purple beach in Buckner Bay. We were given 3 days of K-rations and told to find a place to sleep. Some had pup tents and other were to shift for themselves. After the first night trucks came from the 139th Seabee battalion and drove us to our camp where the first group had set up.  Our first chore was to locate where you were to bunk so we had a roof over our heads.

We could hear fighting in the distance, as they still never secured this Island. We also had the problem with snipers especially at night. Another mate and I went out and looked over some battlefields. One day we went up on a hill to look around and their was a hole 3 ft. by 4 ft. that had about 75 key rings and pins stuck in the top of the opening. We surmised that a lot of grenades were thrown from this opening. There was a small settlement over the hill that only the post was standing and all else was gone. There was a booby trap set up in a path right near where we were to warn the guys, but it was our equipment to keep snipers out, so we left it alone.

I joined the plumbing shop with Ray Dierkes, Eugene Silliman, Cleat Niemann, and Warrant Officer Casper was our Boss and Lt JG Charles Via was his boss. The only action we saw was the Jap Bombers came over every day and he wouldn’t stay long as the anti-aircraft guns were on their tail. These bombers would come about 7:30 am.

The 139th trucking battalion was up the road about two miles and closer to Naha. There were a lot of 108th mates in the battalion. I went up to visit them when the 1st typhoon came. I was really scared when he winds were so bad that it blew our storage of materials around and you could get hurt just from the flying debris.

One of the mates wanted to look over the battlefields. We saw a lot of holes where the gooks hung out and the Japs used these holes to fight the war. My buddy went down one of the holes and he got out pronto when he heard some one in there. My buddy was ape about souvenirs, but checking out holes were over with. We saw the cliffs where the Japs committed suicide. The natives were asked if they were Japanese Gooks or American gooks, and their answer was TOJO eats s—t. The natives went down to the fresh water hole and washed their clothes and bathed in the nude. This didn’t turn me on. We saw the women go out each day and every afternoon they would carry something back metal, wood, or anything that would fix their houses. At the head of the procession was a horse driven cart with several old men on it. The Japanese master race used up all the young men.

I was working with Ray Dierkes on the piping in the new galley, which I buddied up with on the Elliott, and put all the water drains and gas piping to the stoves and ovens.

 A second typhoon hit and blew hard. We took three trucks on each side to hold the galley from blowing away. The wind blew so hard that it bent steel girders that were being erected for shops. Yes, we know now why the gooks lived in holes under the ground.

I purchased a wristwatch at ships store on the Elliott and the first thing to go was the band. I took it to the shop and had a new stainless steel wristband made for it and darn if the stem didn’t break. Well, I couldn’t find anybody to fix it, so this one day I bored a hole in it and filled it with solder and bingo it was working again (Seabees can do).

We didn’t know the war was over in September, as it was we found out about a week later. I know no one celebrated; we just kept on doing our job. We were told to watch out for snipers as they didn’t know either that the war was over. We had a mate operating the crane [Woody Leverington]. I went down to the beach with him and help pick up materials and the demolition crews were detonating land mines. One of those blast went off when he was picking up something real close [he swallowed his cigar not lit].
 I made chief and was moved to the chief’s tent. One chief who was a chief a long time called Cornelious McQuillicutty got a free ride up to Japan and he met a Jap girl named Mioka , and when he returned that’s all he talked about. She must have been his favorite.
Another chief I bunked with came in every night all juiced up. He asked us to put out the lights after he got in his bunk. After a couple of nights like that we put the lights out with a shoe and broke the bulb. That ended the light argument.

Our Seabee detachment was getting smaller and smaller, as the war was over and those that had enough points were shipped to the USA. Finally, I had enough points and was taken down to Buckner Bay and awaited a ship. I was assigned to a hospital ship called GOOD HOPE. This ship was by far the best ship I was ever on. While on the way back we passed Iwo Jima and Mount Suribacki. About 3 days out to sea the ships boiler went haywire and we were slowed down till it got fixed and away we went again.

I got to San Francisco (Treasure Island) for the holidays in 1945. We saw Alcatraz. We toured Frisco. We ate at Joe Di Maggio’s place and took in the Fox Theater. This was the biggest theater that I was ever in. I sat in the balcony and saw a couple of acres of seats. After the show I had a couple of martinis, I was glad to get back to Treasure Island. It was foggy and the seagulls don’t have any respect for the people below. While at Frisco, I saw a gymnasium full of Jap rifles.

My name appeared on the bulletin board to pick up my train ticket to Chicago. We saw a lot on that train ride. Down at the bay there must have been hundreds of ship at the docks. We saw Alcatraz from the train again. We got as far as Sacramento that night, the next day over to Salt Lake City, then Denver, and going through the Rocky Mountain Tunnels I spent New Years on the train then out in the flat lands.

From Denver to the Great Lakes it made good time, It was to Grand Rapids without a scar. We were hoping they would turn us loose on that Saturday and that happened and I was home on Sunday. I was happy to be a civilian again and I met some pretty nice mates while doing my duty. They were called Seabees.

I did marry Mildred after the war and she became my buddy/
 

Note by Raymond Dierkes
Henry Hoover died March 26th 1995at the age of 85 years and Mildred passed on in 1997 two years later.  YES, HENRY MADE A DIFFERENCE!

HENRY AND MILDRED HOOVER attended 22 reunions and was one fine Seabee.
Tom Hoover their son was instrumental in giving me this Autobiography of my good Seabee mate Henry Hoover.

Thanks Tom.

I am Raymond Dierkes, President and Historian, 97th-108th  NCB and 1081 CBD

E mail address:    seabeedierkes@juno,com