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So we're here today with Mr Leo J quizzes, uh, who's currently living in Ocala. My name is Paul Ortiz, University of Florida. First of all, Mr Quizzes A Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule toe to talk with me today. Yeah, I'm retired, but I'm busy.

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Right? I know. E could tell by the walls. Well, Mr Crazy. So I wonder if we could start by. If you could tell me about your early life before the Panama Canal, where you are from a little bit about your parents. Your background? Well, that's simple because, uh, my family I was orphaned at 15.

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My mother was killed in an auto accident. A drunk driver. She was not driving, of course. And, uh, I just had an urging. Thio see the world because I'd see Aero planes four try motors that would fly from New York to Detroit, where they were made, and then they'd go to Chicago.

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And when they come over our house and I thought but I got to get into a narrow play in one of these days. But I said it's gonna cost me some money, and I gotta get in education. And so I was thinking about that. And, uh, so I was 15 years old.

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Well, I got the time. I got to get educated, and I see how much money I had saved up. Andi. I went and checked in my little piggy bank, and I had 15 cents s o. That was that was how much money I had one cent for every year.

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Yeah, one for every year. So that's where I started. But I kept going and going up then orphan. There was five other kids in my family. We're all, uh, left. Dad went to Detroit to catch more money. Mother was going a couple of sisters were in college, and so lives up to Leo to do it.

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And so I remembered what, uh, that you just if you have a goal or you have something that you really want to do, go for it because nobody else is gonna help you. It's up to you. So eventually I thought, Well, Michael's airplanes, this world must be great.

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So I studied geography and so forth and kept going on and going on, and then my sister, two of my sisters, they've gotten jobs with Panama Canal. So when I got almost finished with college, I went to Notre Dame and then weighing University of Detroit, University of Wisconsin And then the war coming on, Well, I tried to get in the Army, my ears wouldn't work and so forth because I had been swimming so much in the lakes and they have a lot of water log.

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So my herring was down, so I got a deferment they wouldn't take me. So okay, I'll go down to Panama, visit my sisters and play golf for ah year and so forth and have some fun. So I got down toe Panama on the United Fruit boat, and, uh, the next day I went for some, uh, interviews to see if I could find a job of some sort, their toe, help support myself, and 12 hours later, I had a permanent job with the Panama Canal.

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Permanent job is if you're on parole or on practice, Onda, uh, for 30 days and then after 30 days, they will say, Yes, they'll take you or No, I'm sorry. Well, that 30 days came up and so forth, and they didn't say anything to me. And so I just kept on working in 32 years later, I retired.

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Wow. As simple as that Mr Crazy. How had your you know, your sister has proceeded? You Panama? Do you know how they got their jobs? Did they just go down or they know that was funny. Wow. What? The oldest sister. She was a teacher, and she was teaching in there and wind that.

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That's right, Detroit so forth. And this boyfriend that she was both have a date with, stood her up. He called her up. Oh, you had another day and see? So she got shoved aside. Well, she said the hell with this. She didn't want this kind of stuff.

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I'm going to do something. So she goes down to the post office and there's a forum 57 I guess. 57 up, their employments available and so forth. Federal government. There was one there, so she thought that sounds good. So she sent in the application that she was a teacher.

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She was at her degree and so forth from one university. And so My God, they Yeah, we'll take you and so forth. They give her a ticket to the, uh, the ship of New York. And so she went down to Panama. She gets down to Panama and holy smokes.

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This place is great. This is a lot better than the war, Jack Michigan, where it snows. Yeah, three months. Uh, winner and nine months. No, summer something. And it was awful in the way. I'm not awful, but it was bad. So she gets their board, she gets there, gets the other sister.

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Hey, this is great. There's a lot of men down here. This is great summer time. All the time things were cheap and so forth. You get paid every month. No deferments on the payment. You get it. So boys, come on down. So she gets that sister down.

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Well, they got two of them down there. Well, here's Leo now. I got summer vacation here. Uh, deferment. They can't get in the army. That's when I go down eso bank. I went up so there was three of us out of the cuisine. Is the family down?

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There s So it was great. So hell, we had a good time and so forth. Paychecks coming in all the time. And now you had trying to get into the military, Mr Chris Easier. And were your other friends trying to get in it this way? I mean, nobody could.

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They didn't have any other friends. Let's say, but I was trying to get it. Yes, I was. I was trying to get in because if you had two years college, you could get into the cadet Flying Corps. Oh, okay. And that's what I did. Wealthy. By that time I had three years in, but I had poor hearing on.

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They said, Well, no, you could. You put this on there and you couldn't hear what the other guy was saying. You might do the wrong thing, make the wrong turn and your p 40 and so forth. And so they kept pushing me off, pushing me off.

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Well, of course, by that time, I was working for Panama Canal anyway, and I had money coming in my pocket for the first time in my life. And so I just kept on and on until, uh, eventually they got to the bottom of the barrel evidently and says Hello.

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Hey, Buster, you gotta come And workforce there come enjoying the army. The war started by then. Si eso I had thio get in. But the Pan Canal says, Well, you sure you're on a war project here? They differed me for a long time. Finally they let me go and I went and spent about four years in the Army and so forth.

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Well, the ironic thing on this thing is just a ship went through the canal and without a Cristobal there on it went out there and the little for United Fruit Bold led the U. S. May of on it going up to New Orleans. Will they go out there and in there?

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The German sub sitting out there Now that German sub is in Honduras. You know, they they had a base. They had a base in the United States. Knew all about it because Germany had that base and everybody kept quiet because But that base it Zena deciphered the code, the German code that they were using C.

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So everybody was quiet about that. The Germans didn't know that our little, uh, office down there in the bushes and Honduras was taking all of their codes and decipher him and giving it to all the ships out on the Atlantic oceans. And so that was It s So that was where they were doing.

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Well, the submarine. He was a new captain on that sub. Paul. Here's a boat. So he takes his to torpedo the torpedoes. That boat. Okay, bang down the little boat goes down the bottom of the Caribbean potion does. Yeah, male, all the mail and everything that he's got down there.

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That's it. Say, Well, do this priest now in that thing with a lot of finance offices, the army payrolls from the army s so all of that stuff was down the bottom of the ocean. Now, how you gonna justify $25 million expenditure in all the papers were down there, All right.

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There's no Xerox machines, No nothing. So, uh, what you gonna do? Well, the only thing you do is replace them. Well, Finance Office knew which offices had their payrolls done at cordell office and so forth. So they started. But what they did, they need it. Type.

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So where you gonna find enough type is to, uh, replace all of those? Well, we just gotta do it. Says it's nothing is $25 million we got account for? We know where it is's down there, so we've gotta replace those things. So they did. So they found all the people were found.

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They check the 201 files so forth and found out who could type, and so forth just happened. They come along with mine. I was in the training for to be a paratrooper, and then, uh, black Bushmaster Group say, Okay, I was gonna be in the bush match to the Philippines in the Philippines.

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That's correct. They were training me for that s O, but they come along and so not getting my training and Bush matches trying all that stuff there because I was a good shot and so forth physically, all right. And I could speak Spanish. And in the Philippines, they speak Spanish because that was the, uh, the protectorate from the Spanish from the Inquisition is way, way back.

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He well, they looked at mine, special abilities and so forth. Leo Crow, Aziza typing 50 words a minute. And I could type 50 words and benefits the because I learned to type before I went toe Wisconsin to school so I could do that in the head private.

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They write a portable typewriter. So bang, They grabbed me. Put me in a truck. So they run me around. Teoh. I don't know where I'm going. You don't ask the army anything, so you don't. You That's right, you say? Yes, sir. That's all you do. They put me in there between Amador.

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Oh, course out the finance office in old French building. It was brought in when the French had it and so forth, and they brought it and put it together. We had that. And so I ended up. Instead of running a tank and so forth being trained for a tank, I got I was running a royal typewriter on.

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That's what I got. So I spent the rest of my time in the Army driving and Royal Typewriter. All right, that's a good job. Necessary job. That's right. Oh, yeah. A couple of times I tried to get out of the job and do something. Gets, um, get out and go off on that thing.

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The Colonel? No. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. People like you, We need you. You helped us on those files and so forth. Eventually we got all right about four other guys got all that stuff typing about 3 to 3 years typing. We got it all done. Got him out of the hole for $25 million.

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You gonna let me go? One of my favorite quotes is from General Pershing. He was the Oh, yeah. At the end of World War One, he was asked, How did the US how did the allies win? He said two words. Service and supply. He said, every war, from this point on, nine out of every 10 troops will be service or supply.

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And that's the key to winning the war. So that was what you were doing? One of the questions I was gonna ask you Mr Quizzes about. So you were in the canal zone in the Panama Canal during Pearl Harbor. Now, that's very that's very interesting to me, because most of the testimony we have from Americans about Pearl Harbor Andi impact.

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It had, uh, most of testimonies from people who are in the States. You were in Panama. So what? Do you remember? What? How people reacted? Absolutely. Because number two, my two sisters, we all three Esther Ethel. Well, he got four issues up there. I'm sure your picture up there, uh, she was interesting.

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Had an interesting thing. Yet we all three were idiot. I'm seventh of December. We all three were in Panama when that thing blue boy and, uh so we were there from the start of that world war till the end. We were there when Truman finally signed off on the wording on the Missouri that the war was over, we were there.

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We did it, but we know it. What happened from the beginning to the end? Yes. Way were caught with our pants down also. But the thing that saved our height where we are, you know, we're Panama Canal is that that's gonna help in this discussion because you know where I'm talking about, Okay, We were there in Panama and we were a hell of a long ways from Pearl Harbor and from Hong Kong.

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Let's put our how you got to get a new airplane that can fly from, Let's say, Pearl Harbor or Hong Kong do the Panama Canal, dropped his bombs and then fly back that way. That's 15,000 miles. The gas tank wouldn't take it with it. No so they couldn't do it, But we didn't.

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Well, our military down there understood that up to a point. And so, uh, but we thought, Well, maybe they'll have some nothing, uh, rockets that they could use. Uh, MacArthur. Well, they could get some rockets we can get. We can get the pill. Uh huh. It's home.

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That, uh, hi, Lulu. If we could take that and get that, we could show some rockets of some sort, They don't have the rockets that we have now. It sophisticated stuff that. But we could have some rockets. We could give him a bad time shooting over there and disable Link the Panama Canal.

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And so we knew it. And so we had black out there for a long time. They just shut off all electricity. Well, that shut off all the refrigeration and every damn thing and all the operating room suffered Gorgas Hospital and all of that stuff that shuts everything down.

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And you can't do that. No ships go through the canal. You just You can't do that. So war had an immediate that had an impact on the thing there. So we would work on a 12 hour basis up to a point, but we could worked out.

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We had dimmed lights. They had red lights with red lights. That they do are nothing could pick up. I mean, nothing could find us and so forth we would hide for a while. This was a period of probably a couple of years. We had those little by little, we realized that the, uh, Japs could do anything to us.

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And so we opened up and had, uh, exposure to the world so forth. But we did have ah, scare on that thing for a a couple of years and so forth. And, of course, our food we didn't have to worry about food with food come from Argentina, come from Australia didn't know that swift and company and also them all those bull ships would come on up to the top it to Panama to can now get some fuel and fresh water and so forth before they went on up to New Orleans.

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See? Okay, we would take a bow. Okay, Okay. We want so much butter. We want so much a hamburger. We want so much states and so forth. So we've got our food before people in the United States did, but we didn't see it that way. But that's the way the thing runs.

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Way had come from Argentina, switching company Argentina up here in these guys. So, yeah, we'll take you through the Panama Canal. But we'd like to have this this way. Give A Were we alert them that we're gonna re spy our stuff with your stuff here so forth?

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That's nice and so forth. Oh, sure, sure. We give you water your gasoline. We got our gasoline from a room. But you know where the room is down there. Oh, yeah, that's comes up. We had a little tugboat that always just a little tanker. Just 24 hours a day, seven days.

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We all the time that don't tugboat was bringing thousands gallons of fuel upto Panama Canal. So we didn't have any gas rationing. Uh, tell anybody that. But where could we go anyplace we couldn't go any? You can't go for a ride. Tellers canal is only 10 miles wides and 2050 miles wrong.

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And there is in the road. At that time, there was no road across the way. That's right. Yeah, that's right. C s Oh, we didn't need much gasoline. So finally they made us, Uh oh. Just for appearance. They gave us four gallons a week and so forth.

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Just put it on the paper that we were getting it. And we were cooperating with the other poor people in the United States. But now we could go all month on poor gallon. Yeah, Try. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting, E take it for granted. Because when I was there, you have the highway.

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The transition. Got that after the war. Well, how did you get around before that highway was, Didn't you? Didn't you just didn't stay, you know? Okay, You could way we could take in the walk across, but you're not gonna walk 50 miles go deer hunting you on your side there.

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And you've got a place, dear running on your side. You don't have to go around that guy. Yeah, so way got along with the odd there. And so it was just a matter of and we had sincere people is you know, those people down there The Panama are sincere people.

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Whether they're Panama canals, divisions or whether the military you're all together, you're all together. in that little group down there, and that's it. So you're helping one another and taking care of one another on that's it. So but But that first shortly, though. After Pearl Harbor, Mr.

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Crazy there there was a fear that something could happen. I mean, if you're getting things from Australia, Australia have been pretty hard. Yeah. And so maybe rumors or there was rumors, but well, we realized that hell, we were so damn far. Nobody could. Another airplane couldn't for many places.

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Airplanes couldn't come over and bomb us and then go on home. He couldn't get to us. He couldn't. They were so remote. Way work. Did people after the war broke out there, Were there people in the canal and Panama Canal who say U s citizens who who may be left to go back to the USA wanted to We had Okay, bank.

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Okay. Was Sunday night. You know that it was Sunday. Okay, so, boy, we all were just said there was Well, we got to notice about Oh, it was about two o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday. The notice come over to our got into our area and so forth.

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They started picking up. All of the, uh MPs were picking up all the Japanese people and so forth and so forth get them so they wouldn't sabotage the thing. Well, think of one. The Japanese China MPs, they couldn't tell Japanese from China Hman and we had a lot of China men left over from digging the Panama Canal.

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So they had all the china moon, uh, picked up and put him in the concentration or not in the quarantine camp there and so forth. And they had maybe ah, half a dozen Japanese and they had probably 200 Chinaman. Well, China one came to help build the Panama Canal.

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They stayed there, see? So they looked around. Well, we don't have any. Chinaman are. We're not worth China, but we're Japanese. Well, we're the Japanese. Well, yeah, there's one. There's one way Didn't have any Japanese s ovary. Few on there, But we did. Uh let's say we're aware of sabotage, and we took care of things the best we could, but they were so informal that we just had to be careful what we did on the thing.

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And, uh, there was not thio not any sabotage We had a few Germans and, of course, up the doors. You had that German thing, and we knew that we kept quiet about that and they didn't do too much damage. No damage, no sabotage or anything because they they couldn't.

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We're so remote, Let's say, yeah, they couldn't do anything to us. Uh uh, there because they'd have to get it here. Then they'd have to get back out. He couldn't do it just like that. The point I was I would seems the Bushmaster Group and so forth that I was being trained for.

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Okay, What happened to that? It went down to They didn't run it because what happened is they figured Well, OK, we got all of these guys were dropping them down there. These, uh, many 1000 paratroopers and so forth when they use up their ammunition. What are they gonna do?

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They can. There were no more ammunition or supplies. That's right. No supplies, no resupply. Sure, you can eat bananas there and so forth for, ah, long, long time, but way. Don't worry about the bananas, but we're gonna Guys, we're gonna have a bunch of guys. They're all going to get killed.

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So where you can't do it. So it was the job job. Uh, jaggery of the thing isolated us from a lot of the activities that would be otherwise in a normal war, you'd have seat, but we, uh, took care of it. And we had just a small cadre of Americans, you know, they can't.

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Panama Canal took care of us very, very well, because they always wanted to have a cadre off pale, fails Americans that they could trust and so forth, see, and so forth. And we were that. So we got a lot of a lot of several benefits that the people in Washington D.

00:26:01.180 - 00:26:19.900

C did not get. One of them was the 25% differential. We had that for a long, long time. See, because they people get down Panama Hotel. This is you, right? This is We don't want this. And so they have to send them back, See? Well, they have to repatriate them.

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Well, so they what they did, they said, Well, no. We'll give you 25% differential. Oh, well, yeah, e. Yeah. It's a good job. Better in Washington s. So we had some some of those things, but we, uh they kept a cadre of good. Just like your military.

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They kept some good guys. They kept you down there. How did the war changed the county at the end of the war in 1945. Did the war changed things there for for you? Well, it eased up on a lot of the old, uh, say ideas. As far as that's concerned.

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It limited. Li see. But there's a There's agreement between the United States and Panama, and those agreements always stay down there. That's like the you there when they had commissary books. And, uh, the Panama Canal was using Panama Canal money. But you were There was they had changed that they had changed that because we used used used cash way.

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Did we use Panama Canal money? Okay, way had Panama Canal money we could buy in the company store. No, if you didn't work with Panama Canal, you couldn't buy the company store because you didn't have their money, eh? So we would use a commissary. Books and script really sprouted too.

00:27:52.630 - 00:28:19.250

And we would use that. So, uh, we end by everything that in the company's storage, It was just like a great big Well, Cos stores got everything intimacy in our gasoline and our cigarettes and you couldn't buy booze. You couldn't buy booze and they couldn't sell booze in there or sandals.

00:28:19.260 - 00:28:38.350

Not in the booths selling business there and ships through the canal. See? But all we had to go across the four of July Avenue right there in Panama City. You go over there and buy a bottle of booze for about $5. That's only had todo you send your kid in there.

00:28:38.360 - 00:29:07.720

They could buy it for you for anything. So you had certain things on a few of the people that had gone, Let's say, like myself, I went into the war. I was in the war from Panama on the war. I was in the Army last day from, uh 1940 3, 46 practically three years.

00:29:07.730 - 00:29:33.180

Mawr, Uh, actually in their training, running my typewriter, of course. But, uh, we didn't have a great big change on that. There was the third locks had started. Now that was, uh, it Well, Peter Guilmet Coakley. I don't know if remember the town Coakley on the land specific side.

00:29:33.180 - 00:29:56.840

So forth. They were starting to get ships bigger because some of the aircraft carrier than that they had a hell of a time getting them into the Panama Canal. They were built to be go through the Panama Canal within this and that and then. But when they put those tourists the machine gun mature.

00:29:56.840 - 00:30:25.760

It's on the side of the of the aircraft carrier. It knocked every damn, uh, light post right thing, their lights right, that lights were right there on their thing. And here comes this big aircraft carrier and got all those gun torts outside hanging out there. E brother Dr Bald out.

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So they never did really way replaced him. They did. Two years later, it's put back in the another spots because they get that. But there was adjustments that we had. But we were so remote that Mr Christie's I was gonna ask you about a family life.

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Now I assume your sister's stayed with with you. Well, they Yeah. Oh, yeah, they were. They were in both of us around the Pacific side. Luckily, I was teacher there And Balboa, uh, Dia blowing Balboa and so forth. That's over. The Gorgas Hospital That's the main hospital on the Pacific side.

00:31:10.640 - 00:31:32.090

When I worked for Panama Canal, they moved me emotionally. And during the wars, I was in the construction business. I was well, business in there. And I was in a cotton account finance man s. So I was taking care of taking care of whatever going on around there, and I could speak Spanish.

00:31:32.090 - 00:31:52.310

So I was a good help and, uh, would run well, run errands. But I do. Field work is what it waas Because we had people from all over the world had come toe work helped build the Panama Canal. They stayed there just the same when the war was over.

00:31:52.320 - 00:32:08.640

I stayed there too, didn't I? E I wasn't gonna go home. I don't know. They didn't need the Chinaman and the Hindus and so forth. You see the stuff around there is our school. So there's our see a little Panama for their on. Give me something here.

00:32:08.650 - 00:32:29.500

What do you want to take a quick break? This is the seal of the Panama Canal. Okay, that's the seal. Okay. Now you sent back to, uh, let's say they went to China. Went to China Let's see what China Maybe maybe it was India. I don't know.

00:32:29.510 - 00:32:55.370

Way sent that picture to them way. Need some seals of the Panama Canal in there. So that's what they said is How did they make that? How did they make that seal? How would you make that? The brass steel from this? Yeah, they had this. We have mailed that to India.

00:32:55.380 - 00:33:22.420

Hindus thio, India. Yeah. Uh, how could you make that? We sent that over to the Hindu in, uh, you saw the Hindus in the Panama and so forth way had contact with. So they they crafted the Is that is that Bronze Brass brass brass press breast.

00:33:22.420 - 00:33:47.670

Right. Okay, that's incredible craftsmanship. How would you do that? Well, first of all, my question would be Where would you get that much brass? That could be a first thing. Okay, you get the piece of breath. That that's right. That's right. That's the first thing. Maybe from I know, the Navy was disposing of a lot of equipment at the end of the war.

00:33:47.940 - 00:34:10.720

No, this is all done. And over India, OK? Or homegoing. Uh, whatever, Boy, It looks to me like it. Xhaferri and made I e don't see a a machine. Yeah, you got me totally stunned. Uh, everybody else is cool that they don't know how. That's it.

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That's what we sent him right there. That that thing right there, You can see that's the seal of the kind of my canal. That's all we had. So we had. So we took it down to a Hindu down on Central Avenue. Do you know where that is?

00:34:25.740 - 00:34:44.370

And so forth. Yeah. And, uh, he sent it over to some people over in the in the enemy. They got 12. 0, wow. But we got 12 of those. That's really interesting. So was that. Did that used to be up on the building? No, that was always your game.

00:34:44.370 - 00:35:15.890

Just like that. Okay. Wow. So after the war, Mr Crazy. So what? What kind of were you still doing the same kind of work? Yeah, I went back. Yeah, they Panama Canal wanted me back. They When they discharged me, I had a paper that says, uh, Panama Canal was responsible for Leo Crow, Aziza, and, uh, the commanding general, Corey Heights says he goes right back to Panama Canal and the boys.

00:35:15.890 - 00:35:36.380

So they had it all threatened down. I'm glad they did. Because then I knew I had a job C s O E graduate college graduates. So they, uh they kept me because they could depend upon me. I was honest and so forth. You're doing accounting work.

00:35:36.390 - 00:35:59.610

Accounting worked in there. And I had one, uh, interesting job I got on County County work. You get bored with it. All you're doing is especially government. See, all you're doing is shoving figures from here. There. You're not counting any money. Well, this is the tolls or paid cash or check by the agents and that kind of stuff.

00:35:59.620 - 00:36:18.690

Hell, we didn't have anything that we have all our money with on paper. So? So we did that. But you're processing tall ships would come through. That's the other guy. There was I I was in the construction business, and actually, then I was running the motor pool and so forth.

00:36:18.690 - 00:36:40.790

We had 600 cars. You are thing because we had the fire trucks. We had the garbage trucks. We got the police vehicles. We got the school bus. Is we got the pilots Busses. We had 660 cars in our motor pool. And so I had to send in certain reports to the General Accounting Office and this and that and so forth.

00:36:40.790 - 00:37:02.710

And, uh, so it was I get a lot of paperwork, but I got in tow. They this is getting into another area, Panama Canal. After the war, got saddling this and that so forth. They wanted to get these third locks going again and all. They had a rented Coakley.

00:37:02.720 - 00:37:20.580

They had started it there, and they put a big had a big cut down there, but they Well, they were gonna go that route. We're going to see if they could go and do it someplace else. So they were gonna go down toe dairy in I don't know if you heard about there in in the Panama.

00:37:20.590 - 00:37:45.090

That's down before you get to Colombia, the Columbia See derrion thing on and actually tour bowl, tour bowl. Stare down there. And eso way we're going to see about that. Or we were going to go into Nicaragua. But the money Nicaragua Well, Nicaragua. Look at their Jesus Christ.

00:37:45.090 - 00:38:06.310

You got great beach Martin up here. And that thing is gonna Volcano is gonna do it. You know how to build a whole down here. And you got a volcano sitting up there so they knock off Nicaragua, see? And we get up to the beyond where you were it, Uh, Salvador, you weren't.

00:38:06.310 - 00:38:37.930

And you never Salvador upto El Salvador. Yeah. Way went up, aspires there and look to see whether we could find a cut. Thio go through. See, We want a new place, a new place, get in their seat. And so we had difficulty finding that, But I was luckily, and finance man, I the corps of engineers, was going to do the work.

00:38:37.940 - 00:38:56.730

Panama Canal was gonna help him with Corbin ears is gonna make the survey for engineers. You know, Corps of Engineers. Yeah. Okay. He can do it. So, what they did corps of engineers. Well, he needs a lot of people so forth. Uh, help us. Uh, Panama Canal.

00:38:56.730 - 00:39:21.610

Why don't you loan us some of your people? Okay? Yeah, Well known us. So who gets a job? Yeah, Yeah, he's the finance man. He knows all about the financing. So what? He could take care of that job, so I end up with the running in the field office down in the Panama Canal.

00:39:21.620 - 00:39:50.930

And I'm the finance man. I'm the big chief on the finance eso Helen. So I get some other people that help me. I got other help. Fellow people, girls that help me. I'm not bank settling the bank account or that, like that. Uh, I'm here. And my job it was on that was running the big money from millions of dollars from the United States to the corps of Engineers.

00:39:50.940 - 00:40:12.510

Corps veneers would give millions of dollars to Panama Canal. Okay, so Okay, Leo would take care of it going into Panama Canal. But Leo was also working for corps of Engineers and so forth. So I had to, uh, hats that I would wear all the time, So Okay, Panama Canal working for them.

00:40:12.520 - 00:40:39.650

Corbyn engineers. See? So I had a crazy fun job. Now that job was how much territory I was running on that job. My job was financed, man. Finance man on that with Bogota, Colombia. Now you got an idea? Bogota. Colombia's Yeah. All right. Now that's the sweet lowest spot that I would go to.

00:40:39.660 - 00:40:58.330

I had some work I did it working in down there with some people down in there and I wasn't doing anything like that. Is all paperwork. So there. And I my headquarter was the corps of engineers. Just happen to be a town up here in Florida.

00:40:58.340 - 00:41:21.910

Gainesville are, uh okay, you went all the way up. Wow, that's what My territory Waas. Wow! Wow. That's what I thought. That's amazing. That's amazing seeing so I could be anyone in those places and beyond the job. Yeah. Were you working with Contractors Way had contractors?

00:41:21.920 - 00:41:46.190

We had a few contractors, but not too many of the core was doing was the most or we're doing it. It was core drilling seat. It was scientific, But it was core drilling in the corps of engineer. Didn't we? Had some of it. I'll be there and that People that some doing some bulldoze their work and so forth we were gonna go out by doesn't bulldozers?

00:41:46.190 - 00:42:07.700

Hell, no. We let that thing on out to serve a contract s so forth. So that was that. So I'm not going to give you an idea of the rest of this thing. Okay, so I'm in charge of the, uh, money. The money that was taken from I wouldn't I didn't get the money from Jacksonville.

00:42:07.700 - 00:42:29.410

No, they were. They kept their If they give us down Panama Canal X million of dollars safe to do our work down in the down through This was a Panama on wherever we were working to see, eh? So we would have run then That was my job of keeping track of that.

00:42:29.420 - 00:42:48.390

So I had what we called a petty cash fund because the people on the routes performance and so forth were running the lines the bad way to survey it also way had to serve anything on a trot. Oh, river area and so forth there. And we didn't get down to the Amazon.

00:42:48.390 - 00:43:08.540

We didn't get that far, but we stayed this far, so we had a I had to see those guys were using their money as required and we needed and so forth so that e had a petty cash fund so forth a s e do it on the route.

00:43:08.540 - 00:43:28.440

They could hire somebody that all this or do that They had a lot of labour's and they were chopping machetes, cleaning the things out so forth They had to pay all of them so forth. You couldn't say. Well, you'll get a check from Jacksonville. No. E s o.

00:43:28.450 - 00:43:54.700

That a petty cash fund. That petty cash. That petty cash fund was $35,000. Wow. Now that's a petty cash. Well, a lot of money back. That's right. Now, that's right. Well, one of the auditors Panama Canal. Why auditing me? You see, I I'm doing this. Kept an eye on here.

00:43:54.700 - 00:44:21.100

They kept an eye on eso. He was making a report for the stuff like this for the, uh, g a o the General Accounting Office. And he says Leo, he says this'd item here, you to put down their petty cash is $35,000. He said, couldn't we change that thing?

00:44:21.110 - 00:44:48.140

Thio read? Uh, something different than Petty Cash Way s way Changed the wording a little bit. Eso won petty cash. Contingency Find way. Had a nicer name for Okay. Yeah, to me it is 30. It is pretty cash. That's what they come in order to me.

00:44:48.140 - 00:45:09.360

Sometimes I go down sandblast, audit them there, go down thio guitar or someplace like that We're a form and would have some money. And U S Weather bureau. They were We had a lot of people in the U. S. Weather bureau checking the clouds and all of that stuff.

00:45:09.370 - 00:45:25.830

See, what was all the stuff that you check to see whether you wanna build a canal? Yeah. What a huge operation. I cannot even imagine that. That's right. Do you remember what your work when you went up to Gainesville? Who are you working with in Gainesville?

00:45:25.840 - 00:45:47.560

Over the top guy in the finance of Corps of Engineers. Okay. The corps of Engineers and for engineers. Yeah, I was reported to them because they really even though I was working Panama Canal, Panama Canal A designed me to Gainesville or to the orb engineers C e my Panama Canal house and all that stuff said to say.

00:45:47.570 - 00:46:15.850

But instead of going to work for Panama Canal, really, I went to work with my boss was a colonel, and a sudden he was my boss on. And then there's another guy in Janesville was, uh he was my boss too, and so forth. So a very complicated situation with very well organized lasted about well over four years.

00:46:15.860 - 00:46:43.300

I would say five years because it was wasn't a completed. Maybe in the early No, they never They looked it over. And then they decided that I don't know, the politics got into it or what happened, but it said that they with, uh, hold off on the things because we were going to do it nuclear way were our surveys with what we're gonna do.

00:46:43.310 - 00:47:00.130

Nuclear. Well, you don't wanna take him blow a hole in there, and it turns out at the water hole and so forth, and you don't have anything that dig out and so forth. You don't want something like that. You couldn't dig a you wouldn't want to make a canal.

00:47:00.130 - 00:47:34.190

And I am is on river. You're gonna do that? Yeah, the water table. That's right. Yeah. You couldn't do it. Say so, uh, they finally got that. And then they were afraid some of some of the countries were afraid of the carry over the the math, a medical Oh, are things that would happen with having nuclear?

00:47:34.200 - 00:47:57.950

Uh, let's say operations in their territory. Some of these little countries, they didn't know whether that would be helpful. helpful or not and so forth. And so they didn't, uh, they find his Andi, I guess. What else happened that this was after the war. So they thought, Well, I don't know.

00:47:57.960 - 00:48:21.810

Didn't some of the countries which ones were, uh, they didn't want trust The country is what they didn't wanna do. And so forth, because, especially the Latin American country, they have a revolution, and that's it. You're gone, See? So they're not dependable. See? And so, Colombia, we had in Colombia so forth.

00:48:21.810 - 00:48:52.290

And, uh, Panama and Nicaragua. No, because we wouldn't take that because volcanoes were up there, see, and Panama got some under. Wasn't anything that was any good or anything better than what we had already. C e hell will have nuclear damage for our country for 100 years or 1000 years if we have all this nuclear activity taking place.

00:48:52.290 - 00:49:11.000

So they kind of got scared out of it. And then I guess probably that money deal. But we didn't get that far. It was somebody else's politics there about we did. That was not what we were doing. The work down in the field, that's where we are.

00:49:11.010 - 00:49:27.640

Did now, Once that project ended, Mr. Chris is a Did you continue in accounting? They just told me Go back to Panama now. Okay. Yeah. They had my job left left over for me. They couldn't fill it, so I had my job, so I just went back.

00:49:27.640 - 00:49:45.810

I only had three more years to reach before I retired. So, hell, then I'd be 55 years old. And so hell, no. Pamela, I'm glad to get me back. And then I got 55 by better pick up the chips and run. What year was that around that time?

00:49:45.820 - 00:50:12.450

Panama Canal. When you hit 55 retirement could get full retirement. You get pulled over civil service, retirement and so forth there. And, uh, I got all my got. A good good retirement is a federal civil service. 50 had 32 years. What I had, you know, that's that's pretty good Retirement.

00:50:12.450 - 00:50:40.210

32 years e had that. And of course, then I had the health benefits that are all too many so forth there. And e gonna say no. I'm a lot of works more. I don't know. I had 32 years working, and that was enough How it life in all those years, Mr.

00:50:40.210 - 00:50:59.910

Crazies in the in the canal. Did you notice any changes between the time you started there? And and the time you retired, had life chain begin to change? Well, yes, it was. They got a little Mawr. There was the treaties. Eso when they made the treaty the first time.

00:50:59.910 - 00:51:26.430

19 4. Okay. Or nine. 19 for, let's say, a treaty. They said there. Okay, Panama. We'll give you up for 100 years, Uncle Sam, You can have the re treaty to put this canal through. Okay, That was the goal Falls at all. Big wheels. They got together and they said, Okay, we can We can do that.

00:51:26.430 - 00:51:46.270

We can build that canal. How you gonna do it? How the hell you're gonna do it? Oh, we're gonna get the plans. Who in the hell's got the plans? Toe Dig a canal 35 50 miles long. Who's ever done it? Nobody has ever done it. How are they going to do it?

00:51:46.660 - 00:52:12.470

Well, I don't know. How you going to do it? Dig a canal 50 55 50 miles along pretty hard, didn't it? Friends? You don't have any plans. Uh, we'll get some engineers that will do it for us. Well, you get some civil engineers you're gonna give where you're gonna find some experienced civil engineers that has ever dug a canal that's 50 miles long.

00:52:14.050 - 00:52:41.570

That's right. You don't see so thes. Engineers from the Corp engineers go with old and all those guys. See, they just looked over the look, the area over and so forth. They don't have any airplanes going over there and serving it. No, no, you had nothing to see what the hell you gotta dio.

00:52:41.850 - 00:52:56.970

So you go over and you look it all over and say, Well, we got this thing we could. This is all you gotta do for this. This part is alright, Ugo. How about those mountains of those mountains? The big hills? What do you do about those?

00:52:57.350 - 00:53:19.480

Well, I gotta do what? You gotta move a hill, don't you? Well, okay. We can move a hell now. You gotta Well, you're gonna do take a bucket and put some sand in it and put it in there and take it over here. You're gonna take a pale and you're gonna fill it up full of sand and you're gonna take it away over here.

00:53:19.850 - 00:53:40.480

We'll build a little railroad and that land. Okay, Now build a little railroad road, have it. We'll take it over here a half a mile and what they were Just keep doing that. And maybe in four or five years, we'll have it done. Well, 10 years later, they added, uh, that's what Oh, I see.

00:53:40.650 - 00:54:00.150

They just kept going on the guy up into the mountains for the hills. They got some dynamite. Okay, we got some dynamite with blast. Add blasted. So that's a big thing. They had these bike iris theory. And I remember those big guests on Lorraine with another one.

00:54:00.160 - 00:54:27.300

Great big steam shovels. Great, big things, See? And they could probably pick up four or five ton of times. So they did they build a little railroad building railroads because we had okay, the vanderbilt and, uh, with current a g there, too. You'll run into them way back.

00:54:27.310 - 00:54:51.120

They built the railroad that went across from Colon to Balboa. They build a railroad 50 years before the Panama Canal. They? Those guys in New York, They bought that because of gold bringing the gold on the from down in Peru Down where we're gonna be going down in.

00:54:51.130 - 00:55:15.890

Uh uh, Wow. Hell. Oh, Gold mines down and so forth. They're bringing it on up. Crossing the pattern. Mark Crossing the isthmus was in the canal. Isthmus, Right? That little this must be Have that and blowing it and sending in New York c So we're okay.

00:55:15.890 - 00:55:40.850

They They can do it. Okay? Weekend to see. So they just got going and just kept following that idea, and they just kept going. Kept going. And eventually you're gonna Eventually, you're gonna have all of this here, over on the sand pile where there aren't. You just got to keep going.

00:55:41.240 - 00:55:55.150

Mr. Cruz is a do you want to take? Maybe a short break, and then we'll do another 10 or 15 minutes. Is that No, I don't care. How are you feeling? I don't wanna Well, like the rest, you know, feeling. I'm 91 years old. You look great.

00:55:55.160 - 00:56:16.920

You just want to make sure I'm not tired from talking. But this is start talking. Panama Canal e. Get going on that. Don't stop. You get excited. Yeah, that's right. So I got her so excited. So now we've made, what, 23 trips that she knows more.

00:56:16.920 - 00:56:39.720

A Panama Canal. Now she's, uh, wrote a dissertation on it for the get one of those letters from getting one of those e caught all of those fish up on their go over and look at it, boy, you will see him. So, Mr Chris Jesus says, And you went deep Sea fig.

00:56:39.730 - 00:56:57.170

Marlon, What was the biggest one you ever caught? How do you catch a Well, 5 52 is the biggest one. I got a picture of the 5. 52. I think there. Yeah, 552 is the biggest. Well, relax. Call 15915 90. Out there is the biggest one.

00:56:57.180 - 00:57:18.760

Uh, at that pictures up there that looks like a great white shark. No, huge. That's, uh, black marlin. They're all black, Marla, That's about how long is that? What you say about? Well, that's about 14 15 ft. Got about 14 14 ft long. 14. How on earth did you catch your fish?

00:57:18.760 - 00:57:37.310

That big? Oh, yeah. Well, you got a wary mouth. You can't hold him. It had £80 test line is all I had on that thing. I'm thing you did that have on that. A couple of the other ones. I had £132 test line. Then we have monofilament lines on so forth.

00:57:37.320 - 00:57:58.080

And so we could they cut the water, better, wouldn't drag, and you wouldn't have any troubles. Yeah, I always wondered about that because I grew up near Seattle. We would catch salmon, maybe £20 and our lines would break all the time. Yeah, I can't even imagine catch a fish that big with £80.

00:57:58.090 - 00:58:23.330

You just You just let me Oh, you see the really where you got that? Rio sitting around there? Somebody. Okay. Where is this year? Yeah, E you find tips really? Over here. Where is the rial, honey? Over here. Over here. Showing the eso This is your sister, Ruth.

00:58:23.820 - 00:59:01.650

That's my ex wife. That's a That's a £485. That's their she's Hey, let me for another guy. So I guess they usually dio a 5 40 because both of these now this is this is this right here? Uh, 3 80 68. Yeah, I was gonna put that one, but it wouldn't figure I'd have to kind of hold in the house E.

00:59:02.020 - 00:59:36.960

So, uh, because this is one of the big you seethe. Yeah, that's got a test line there. Yeah, very sophisticated. But when I had the best got it from Miami all the time, my e never used this big. There's a 5 52. That was a prize winning that.

00:59:37.190 - 01:00:24.720

I want all the prizes of that one. Black Marlins £6540.35 minutes. Yeah, it's where you get the booth. But it is. Sometimes if you're hooking up in the eye, the ear, like that way, you've got somebody shot way. I'm not gonna be. Wear him out. You gotta You gotta wear him out before the line wears out before you wear out before the four wears out or something.

01:00:24.730 - 01:00:48.560

Get on that thing there what it is. But you just gotta sometimes you get Well, I don't think I ever gave up on a tomorrow night about shark because I had a shark. That probably wait. Oh, maybe 800,000. 0, I have that on my line for probably four hours.

01:00:48.570 - 01:01:14.030

About shooting. No point trying. Todo Thank you will get this done and so hell but so around your catching fish all trying to do is lift up a great big hunk of meat from the bottom of the ocean E Yeah, yeah, but yeah. Yeah, that's the kind of hope you use.

01:01:14.610 - 01:01:39.040

That's every board. Did you pick the books? Yeah, that's a, uh, that pretty strong person that bring him something. What do you put on that lie beneath? The best thing to Dio This is about the oh, getting kind of pig. But, uh, he swims around and he attracts the big fish.

01:01:39.040 - 01:01:58.070

They until they come up to get him. And then then you have your troubles Trouble. You don't know what you have. Just sharks crawling that sometimes you get down in Colombia, there's a lot of sharp down in the It's in the What's in the currency. Yeah, and so forth.

01:01:58.070 - 01:02:20.930

So way had in Panama we had a middle of a about the middle of February. The curse was a marlin s. So that's when we didn't have big fishing and so forth. Honey, he knew about the shoes. Hey, knew about the shoes they look like shoes.

01:02:22.100 - 01:02:52.070

This here. So you're looking at this E don't see what your history is. All right. Uh, did you ever hear London Bridge is falling down? Yeah. Okay, alright. You'll never know. Not making a short thing, those two. Okay, let's say school of Larry's on his back.

01:02:52.080 - 01:03:18.610

Uh, to offer the true that how we call the damn thing. Uh, things? Well, I called the school of pictures and emblems that called Never do those two emblems. Remember when the you know what happened in London in London Bridge about 10. 15 years ago. A wealthy?

01:03:19.900 - 01:03:53.940

I don't know, landowner. Some bought it because they were gonna tear it down in London. It's right around London for the London Bridges. He was gonna tear it out. And this one love developer around, uh, lived in word, uh, in, uh, Texas. And he remembered that because he was a kid and they used to sing London Bridge falling down, falling down, down bridge, falling down.

01:03:53.940 - 01:04:16.140

My fair lady. Eso you remembered that. And so he found out that they were going to destroy the bridge. He still No, I'll buy it. So he from the developer of that area. He bought the bridge, had a packed up talk, dismantled it and I saw the boxes and so forth.

01:04:16.150 - 01:04:37.720

They had it all. And they're all coded and so forth that they they shipped it over and they put it over. Toobin's in Arizona, and they reconstructed it over the California River there and so forth. So London Bridge is now in the United States station. Well, what happened?

01:04:38.460 - 01:05:09.060

I'll be a long story short. Here they were. I was saw song before they let the unloading it in the box. Is there because I was living in California at that time? Uh, this is right on the border through California and Texas and so forth. So what happened is the boxes were there and they got the They built a bridge.

01:05:09.070 - 01:05:42.500

Now I was traveling in between California and Texas. Uh, let's say for Well, let's say this damn e get my state's mixed up. Okay. All right. Uh, was it, uh, from Texas? The, uh, the next tree next one is, uh, Louisiana. Louisiana. Louisiana s. So, anyway, uh huh.

01:05:42.890 - 01:06:05.730

They were putting it all together and so forth on They had these things left over and they just threw him on the trash. And so when I was going through one day, do a swap me e saw in California, I saw all these things, that swami some big influence and so forth.

01:06:05.740 - 01:06:28.510

They were dirty and they were rusted everything. And e thought well, I didn't trash man like that within. So I bought him from the guy and so forth and he happened to live near me in California. And so I was talking. He said, Remember one day and you bought those emblems and so forth.

01:06:28.520 - 01:06:57.550

Yeah, I got him and so forth he says, Well, here's the story on those things. So he said those were the emblems on the bridge this way. And then there was one end of the bridge they were when they got to the end of the getting the bridge all put together on, they looked so credit and so lousy they put him in a trash.

01:06:57.560 - 01:07:15.370

Hey, got him in the trash. Hey! Got him out of the trash and he hadn't see well, I bought him from this guy. Had it in the trash. His wife says You had these in the garage now for two years, and you haven't done anything with them you're rid of.

01:07:15.380 - 01:07:47.270

So he sends them through this crash or the swap meet as we call them, and I buy e didn't know my bottom what they were do. They're gonna have a nice emblem on my house and so forth. And then I find this other guy that told me what they were See, the boy got home game A I, uh, one of these felt that rebuilds cars and so forth there.

01:07:47.280 - 01:08:13.130

Okay, he worked in a garage that does that. And so if they all clean them up for you fixes instead of sand Blaster, any sandblast small can ball up, I think another guy making painted. So those air for the R S e So those were from London Bridge.

01:08:13.140 - 01:08:38.970

That's improbable. This was that Nobody ever had No Ram. Wow. And this this thing here? Yeah, it's blocked in. Their three kids and plus phrase would play with that. I'm the door until where they you know what they would do exactly. Kill a kid. Did you see this Black?

01:08:38.970 - 01:09:04.040

That We got that in the ship? Uh, this one who's a recognition No. In the Roosevelt Metal that Isaac stop. Outstanding work. Yeah. What were you doing there? You know Roosevelt Circle. I think this was taken. Look how young he Just in over six weeks. That's about a glass of his graduation class.

01:09:04.040 - 01:09:20.770

We went back to me. Oh. Then they got schools were down. He got the plates made up and give each one he paid for the whole thing. You know, Obama grew. He is the youngest one. Yeah, the owner of the restaurant here. We ain't downtown in Michigan, and I said he looks like an owner.

01:09:20.780 - 01:09:44.230

They're all have gray hair. They all wore glasses, and he looks like he's younger. Rest? Yeah. Look at that. Amazing s. So that was your high school, Mr Crazies. Oh, yeah, that's right. It's tour down 60. They're going to send him 1/60 year. Uh, so you get back, boy, 60 years ago, you graduated high school.

01:09:44.240 - 01:10:19.410

Smooth. Yeah. Throw them out there. Okay. Actually, the Panamanians have done a very good job off realigning the, uh activities of the Panama Canal Zone. We were limited by the Treaty of expanding. We had to do it the old way and that's the only way. See, so we were not competing against them.

01:10:19.420 - 01:10:38.320

They But now Panama has much more freedom and much more know how and so forth, like people like you guys. You know how you know you could go in there now and to do some things. Whereas I couldn't I couldn't do the publishing like you were going to do.

01:10:38.320 - 01:11:05.380

I couldn't do that. See, I could do it in my mind. But I could not go out and make public public of statements and printing in that kind of stuff. You could do that now. There's much more freedom on that, and that allows Panama to develop Ah, lot more than what it was because it was done the old way.

01:11:05.660 - 01:11:22.370

That's all all we could do. Way had our own company store. We had to buy. The company, didn't have to buy the company store. We could go into the Panama, but the company store was about half of what this out there would charge. You see, Do you miss Panama?

01:11:22.760 - 01:11:49.380

Yes, I do, I do. But I'm happy I'm here because the let's say, for one thing, the doctors on the medical attention that you get here, especially in Let's say this now. Probably up in your area to is great. I mean, they have what they dio is what has caused.

01:11:49.390 - 01:12:10.580

Uh, there's other elderly people from the New York, those places coming down because of the weather, and they get down here and it's easier living down here than it is up in New York and so forth, and maybe a little cheaper, too. But they can do that.

01:12:10.590 - 01:12:42.220

So that brings down people Thio knowing what's going on down here. Yeah. Do you keep in contact with other Americans who served in the canal? Well, yes, we do. Through our reunions in our associations. Yeah, we're one great big family. That's it. And we take some of these trips that we take on the Panama Line or they're not Panama line, but Panama excursions so forth.

01:12:42.230 - 01:12:59.730

Yes, we do, because that's our family. That's that was us. Eso all of these like Joe wouldn't those guns? Yeah, Joe, is this big when I So I'm the first time. You know, he was probably about this big first time I saw him, but I knew in my new his father I worked with his father.

01:12:59.740 - 01:13:22.550

So there are there was an auditor. There's a fraternity of people who work in the canals. Absolutely. It's a great big paternity is what it is, uh, there. And they all we all had the same goals and so forth are requirements was to say and so we treated everybody decently.

01:13:22.550 - 01:13:45.270

If you ever you've never been out of trip one of our Panama trips. Did you ever go on a They ought to give you a they they get guys. All right, well, uh, that you fellas get a trip. How? The thing and or get have some of our meetings are meetings air not that important and so forth.

01:13:45.450 - 01:14:05.680

But to get the feeling would be good for you fellas to have them give you a trip out of it. So forth, Thio. See what Panama atmosphere is like with working out now, you've been here for two or three hours. Now you know how I feel about it and so forth.

01:14:05.690 - 01:14:27.380

And what, you're going to get out of me from here? I mean, you've got different. Uh, I'm sure that you've got a different Ah, let's say, uh, let's say apprehension of what Leo is compared to what you had four hours ago. You know, the guy can't shut up.

01:14:27.380 - 01:14:49.860

He just keeps talking. Eso he's been there. He's just a one went up, See? Well, sure I am. I know. Quite allowed during the reunion. It's a big family. Everybody know one another in a reunion. So that's why I wrote my book. I just I'm part of them.

01:14:49.860 - 01:15:09.070

But I didn't work with them. You know, they let me into their lives, too. Yeah, it's, ah, fantastic group and so forth, You know, e gnome or of them. And because 12, 32 years down with him. And most of these people were down there, 30? Hell, no.

01:15:09.070 - 01:15:27.130

My ex life. She's 37 years. She had to work five more years than I did because she was five years younger. Okay, So when we said goodbye, Okay, I got out of there when I could when they were passing out the retirement checks. Boy, I was in the front line.

01:15:27.130 - 01:15:50.060

Boy, I'm gonna get mine before somebody else does so. But she had to wait. When she was 55 she had 37 years. Wow. Now you configure. 37 years. Federal civil service. It's pretty good. You better believe environment. You don't believe it. You better believe it, boy.

01:15:50.070 - 01:16:11.410

Yeah, She's got you. You don't have to worry anything you know you got there. You get your medical about all your medical for nothing. You got that on your Medicare and your other stuff and so forth. Everything. So, actually, you're a different breed. A different group.

01:16:11.420 - 01:16:30.950

Are that concerned? You have any Children? No, no, no. There was eight kids in our family, and my sister said That's enough. We don't want way, Esther. And that so forth there. I'm gonna tell you about that one. The flag up there Esther Thistle is interesting.

01:16:31.030 - 01:16:48.660

A little bit of thing. I think it's gonna happen in your life. OK? She was there more broke out. So forth of that. We were all down there. So she was a schoolteacher. Well, what happened is the off course. We're all working for the federal government right there.

01:16:48.660 - 01:17:18.970

So automatically were way. Don't have to sign up for anything on there, because, God, we're already on it. They were already working for the federal government. So anyway, Esther, they used schools. Well, schools didn't need her too much after a while because the kids had all been repatriated and sent back to the United States.

01:17:18.980 - 01:17:48.210

So the school's kind of closed down. Eso so she her job guy. Well, we can get along without Esther, but we're not gonna let her goal see, so because they're not gonna let anybody go ahead every So So they told to put her into the sensors group that read all the letters that all the boys and all the mail going in and out.

01:17:48.220 - 01:18:04.720

So for because she's college graduates. So they put her in that group, signed her to that same pay something that he's working for. The US Navy. Now, look, he was in the Navy sensor and so forth. So he's working on the Navy, censoring all the mail.

01:18:04.730 - 01:18:29.710

Well, then they find out later on it. Well, Nancy boys aren't sending any email home. They don't write home to anything way. Don't need a She doesn't have too much to work to do. So they see that was right. Sailors were riding home, tow their mothers every week or something I don't know about once a year.

01:18:29.710 - 01:19:00.940

So where they send mother a letter or a card or something. But anyway, so, uh, so they said run. Okay. The Air Force over here. All Brookfield nor Albert Field. You know, Lysander all Brookfield, Panamera, Dipper Ph. D Pan, America Depot. Oh, yeah, I got places going all over there, so Okay, she goes to the transfer around.

01:19:00.950 - 01:19:28.530

So now she's working for the Air Force. So when you get more gets all over and so forth and everything, she's got a discharge from the U. S. Navy, and she's got a discharge from the U. S. Army Air Force. Now, how many women in World War two had discharges from two departments of the Army?

01:19:28.540 - 01:19:54.620

Were departments war Department or departments? Yeah. No, not none of nobody would. She had that she had she had discharged from that and that she had discharge from both. Um wow. Eso good. Maybe somehow got lost her papers in the transfer from the navy to the Air Force.

01:19:54.620 - 01:20:11.710

Someplace belong in there. So the navy was carrying her They w o l for Oh, I guess 10 or 15 years. Wow. And so forth. They couldn't find her. They didn't find it. They didn't know what happened to her. And she checked everything in the Navy.

01:20:11.710 - 01:20:47.850

Has this lady Esther Conry. Why probably crazies that probably shoes quiz easier, then lost. They every down and think checked every source. They couldn't find her. Well, so what did the you May publication of the Navy, Let's say or, uh, military, this one? Uh, yeah. Writer so forth wrote the case of a missing woman.

01:20:47.850 - 01:21:15.900

The navy lost a, uh, salmon. They can't find her now. The Navy is carrying this Seema here now for 10 or 15 years, they can't find her. Nobody lost her. This gal lost got lost a w o l or what They couldn't. And the Navy was amazed that they could lose a person and never find him.

01:21:15.920 - 01:21:45.910

Well, this happened this rider, a little newspaper or something. Uh, new Esther a little bit. And he read that article. There's a navy girl, missy. Well, he's the Esther was in the navy, so he takes and makes that paper over and sitting there in the coffee shop and so forth, and he says this.

01:21:45.950 - 01:22:16.360

He says you kind of fit that description here on that. She read she said, You better believe it. I put that description because that is me. Sure, it went up to this point and then dropped off. See, it is absolutely because they transferred me from 15th Naval District to the P a.

01:22:16.360 - 01:22:35.790

D and so forth. Then don't you pay d p a d They lost it, Okay? They lost your seat. They couldn't put it together anymore. And so forth. And so they never did know who lost her PhD loser or didn't 1/15 naval district uses. They didn't know they could never figure this out.

01:22:35.790 - 01:22:57.450

See? And so, uh, came out out that they had found this and so forth. So they sent it into the Navy department. I got the Navy Department gave her a discharge of the from the U. S. Navy. So, of course. So she's got discharges from the U.

01:22:57.450 - 01:23:33.100

S. Navy and from the Panama layer. Well, the p 80 from, uh, Air Force United States Air Force eso You don't find a person a woman that served in two departments of the army. That's incredible. Eso Yeah. So show she was great. She, uh then so she got a free ride down to Peru down it, uh, metro picture.

01:23:33.110 - 01:23:50.180

Uh, because you worked for the Army Air Force and they had a plane missions. They call them the missions and so forth. So they took some of the girls from P a D in my area. That phone put him on the plane, and there's gonna be down there for a week or so forth.

01:23:50.180 - 01:24:07.040

And so the girls they just got out of there, they were military girls. Didn't have uniforms. That are they? They're down. They're kind of plain comeback girls come back. They were on duty and so forth. So it happens that she got a kick out of that.

01:24:07.040 - 01:24:41.610

So, uh, so the result of that trip I went down, I went down. After that, I caught a ride down on missions, playing and, uh went down and I was down in, uh, Lima, Peru. When, uh, crewman signed the papers turned terminating the war. 15th August 1945.

01:24:41.990 - 01:25:03.170

You know, the U. S s Missouri. The town that I grew up in was Bremerton, Washington shipyard town on For about three decades or so, the U. S s Missouri was mothballed in her hometown and as kids. It was the Onley field trip. We had the Onley one every year, two or three times a year to the U.

01:25:03.170 - 01:25:25.460

S s Missouri. Uh huh. And then when the Missouri left, it was It was recommissioned. They sent it to the to the gulf, shelled Lebanon came back and the town try to get it back because it was the best thing going for that town. The only reason you ever would have come to Bremerton is to see the Missouri Way.

01:25:25.460 - 01:25:49.560

Never got it back, though. Eso instead, we ended up getting the ship that USS Turner Joy, which was one of the ships that remember the North Vietnamese that supposedly fired on Gulf of Tonkin incident. Yeah, and then it turned out to be a big eso. Anyway, we always joke in my town how we lost the magnificent battleship.

01:25:49.570 - 01:26:10.790

And instead we got this little knickknack ship instead. Yeah, Yeah, my brother, he was got in the Navy, had toe lie about three or four things toe, get in it. But he was too young and everything, so he got in the need and he ended up it, uh, Fargo in Iowa, Idaho?

01:26:10.800 - 01:26:33.530

Uh, Oh, he said that was a awful place. That was awful. He just hated that thing and so forth. So then they got done with him, and, uh there they Well, what he did, he was there. So you got went out. Thio wear Brendan Bremerton. Okay.

01:26:33.540 - 01:26:53.520

And, uh, he had had a week, uh, offer his off a few days. And so he took some fishing tackle with him. He went down and down to the river, wherever it was. And my god, he caught some salmon. He was bringing those salmon home and just call it dropped the cars.

01:26:53.530 - 01:27:08.800

Hey, where'd you get those? All I got. What? Do you know them? Oh, I'm gonna take back and probably give him to the cook. Something I don't know. Oh, well, I'll give you so much money for him and so forth. So not by the civilian there.

01:27:08.800 - 01:27:28.290

Boy, he got some money and gave it to my dad. Well, that's that's all gravy. CSO. So then, from then on, the fisherman boy, uh, Christmas Chris, he liked it. Go fishing there. See? Well, I didn't last too long because he got transferred. E found out that he had a bum knee.

01:27:28.300 - 01:27:47.670

They took him out of sub school and he couldn't do it. They didn't want him in the submarines anymore because he hurt his knee one time in his Basia football field. So he got a, uh, transferred him down to San Diego. Oh, he got down to San Diego.

01:27:47.680 - 01:28:07.120

Oh, boy, this is Hey said I'm going to sign up for 30 years. He thistles. This is not a good idea. Yeah, those places A and, uh oh, He says this is great Palm trees here. Everything. Everything is all nice. And, boy, he says, Sure, I'm gonna help.

01:28:07.130 - 01:28:28.180

I'm gonna stay here. I'm not gonna worry about going to work out here. This is Navy is Well, that's gonna make a career of it. Yeah. Hey, Waas laugh. He got his letter in the mail eventually. No, man. Hey was complaining about Farragut item for there so bad.

01:28:28.180 - 01:28:50.600

It was that their snow and slush. I was tough. Tough. It was bad. Yeah. Now all of a sudden, he's in the San Diego going on, man, he's gonna take a, uh, he's gonna take Oh, he's gonna have this forever. This Yeah. You gonna sign up 30 years right now?

01:28:50.610 - 01:29:07.840

Yeah. My dad was in the naval reserves, and every summer his ship went down to San Diego on. We always called it his vacation. You know, two weeks. I mean more. Could you ask for Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was fantastic. Give up. That.

01:29:07.850 - 01:29:29.450

That was so very good. So forth. Well, Mr Crazies, I know we've taken up a lot of a lot of your time, but were there any final things you wanted to say? What about you? What do you say? Like, two years. 32 years of vacation. You went on a 32 year vacation.

01:29:29.460 - 01:30:00.430

It's all bounds to, you know, in Panama. Mm. Oh, well, one. Yeah, well, E said, well, one of the things that I put in some of my communications and so forth there, And you don't realize this that to me. Panama Canal. That was a 32 year vacation with pay.

01:30:00.440 - 01:30:19.060

That's what e like to get that kind of vacation. Well, you know, you wouldn't that be right? Uh, yeah, but see, I was in the army. They sent us on the jungle. Well, all right. Well, I was in jungle. Hell, I used to deer hunting jungles and so forth.

01:30:19.070 - 01:30:36.330

Good deer hunting e No, the jungle shooters appreciate. That's why they were going to send me with the Bush Masters Group to the Philippines. Because I was a good shot. And I knew the jungles and I spoke spanning. That's why they were going to do on a thing.

01:30:36.340 - 01:30:59.550

But I say that secured my characteristic that you put that on there. That okay to be my tour of duty in Panama was a 32 year vacation with It was something you say in Spanish and and say what I just said in English. Say something. Blouse.

01:30:59.560 - 01:31:25.270

Well, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Spagnolo e Remember Fast field. Okay, just prepare. Probably say Jimmy Kuku different. Say say I saw why. Yeah, getting stuff done. I mean, you're way, way down and nine degrees. We quit your away from all of this stuff here. So I was a student.

01:31:25.270 - 01:31:50.090

That was scholar. So what I did, I had studied Spanish before I went down there as it Wisconsin University, Wisconsin studied weighing University of Detroit there, But I had studied some Spanish, but I get down to Panama. Well, I'm dealing with a game. A bunch of people that fellows were from Salvador there.

01:31:50.100 - 01:32:16.850

Uh, Ecuador from Nicaragua, all of Latin. See? So Okay, naturally, you start learning is coming back to U. C s O E. Got my Spanish back in a hurry, See? Then I thought, Well, I'm gonna go on vacation now. One thing. Panama Canal. Did it waas get?

01:32:16.860 - 01:32:34.680

Yeah, well, sick leave. And then you have vacation. Lee, don't you have two things? You get to vacations so forth. Not about about your schooling is here, but anyway, so you have sick leave to take that off the sick. Leave the other one. You get two weeks vacation.

01:32:34.680 - 01:32:59.870

Well, Panama Canal. Yeah. Didn't like to give all of that leave. And so people weren't weren't showing up for work. Girls were knocking off every town that So what? They said, Well, what we're gonna do, we're gonna take in the picks us to leave. So you have vacation, Lee.

01:32:59.870 - 01:33:22.840

There's no sick leave. So whatever you have is all yours and whatever. Whenever you leave any vacation time, we're just gonna pay you cash for it so forth. And so you don't have to worry about it. See? Well, all these smokes and they take that. So we ended up with and there was some other things.

01:33:22.850 - 01:33:44.370

If you go below the Tropic of Cancer or above the tropical cancer, you get a extra five days vacation on def. You take the ship. Panama line ship. Okay, You know what? That doesn't cost you anything ships going there anyway, so you can ride for nothing.

01:33:44.380 - 01:34:08.960

Uh, we'll give you five more travel days and so forth. So you had that thing, I enough. But you did. You worked for 10 months, and you got two months vacation with pay pay. Not bad. That's right. Now, that's what depending on what they did, it was all legal.

01:34:08.960 - 01:34:28.950

Everything was legal, as far as that's concerned. Nothing illegal on but what I did, it brought people toe work, boy, they nobody would take and take a day off and throw it away. As far as that's concerned, just they had a stomachache or something like that.

01:34:28.960 - 01:34:49.650

Uh, saved all their vacation. So four. So the first trip, that big trip that I took Oh, I took some trips to New York and cost you anything ships going there anyway, So you right up down so forth on the thing there and you stop in Haiti so forth there on this so you don't have any trouble on that.

01:34:49.660 - 01:35:06.670

But what you take in the on this safe your savior vacation. Okay? I'll told to two months this year I'm gonna save that two months next year. And now I got four months. Okay? I'm gonna keep that in the bank in case I do get sick.

01:35:06.670 - 01:35:29.270

I got four months vacation they would pay all the way through. Don't worry about them. So then, Okay, I got that in the bank. Okay, now here. This next year I've got two years. I got to take this in here. I am e thought. Well, I've got this two years and this I couldn't do it.

01:35:29.270 - 01:35:46.100

And I can build this up again and so forth. So what the hell? It a trip around the world? E Just keep around the world and my paychecks. Well, where we're going to send your paycheck, e don't know. I'm gonna be going around the world on the other.

01:35:46.100 - 01:36:10.000

I know eso so I just hold the paycheck. Paychecks That's right. So when I got back, I want to clear around the world started down in Mexico City. That's where I picked up my airplane ticket. E I went around the world, my wife so forth on the think up to New York And then we got on our company ship and rolled back here 101 days and so forth.

01:36:10.010 - 01:36:33.560

When I got back, I had a stack of paychecks that big and she had a stack of paychecks. That big. It's a hard life. Paid it all, paid it off a Panama Canal. You just a beat me home. Hey, so you probably don't want to give up the job like that?