Richard McCrosky reminisces about serving as a weather observer in World War II
Oral history audio excerpt
Richard McCrosky reminisces about serving as a weather observer in World War II
| 31652.mp3 |
McCrosky:
Harlan Smith was there for sure. We were all inducted in the Army on the same day, and we all were corporals, probably made corporal on the same day.
DeVorkin:
People with technical training typically got to that. My dad got to corporal also.
McCrosky:
Yes. My brother, on the other hand, with technical training, became master sergeant. [Laugh]
DeVorkin:
Well, that was by his choice, right?
McCrosky:
None of us had "choices." I eventually became a sergeant. [Laugh] Anyway we’re on this troop ship and everyone is gone. They’ve emptied the ship, and there are eight of us still standing there. And, they have no idea why we’re there. They asked us, “Well, who’s in charge of this group?” “We don’t know. We’re weathermen. We don’t have people in charge. We don’t do that.” “Well, who’s been in the longest?” and then we go through this whole business, and they finally chose Bagelman because he was the lowest in the alphabet. [Laugh] They made him in charge. H was ordered to get us off that ship as soon as possible. So, we took our barracks bags to the edge of the ship and dropped them down to the dock as being the quickest way off. [Laugh] We were not good soldiers.