[Interview Begins]
NOVEY: All right. Today is January 25th, 2019. This is an interview with John Bittrich, who served with the various distro divisions in the Navy during the Korean War. This interview is being conducted at the Mount Horeb Public Library. Interviewers Adam Novy and this interview is being recorded for the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum Oral History Program. So can you tell me where and when you were born?
BITTRICH: I was born in [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]. Highway is just as you're coming in from the south. There's a little White House there.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then there used to be a big nursery, you know, for all doing there. And my dad worked there and they had that house for her and that's where I was born.
NOVEY: Okay. So tell me a little bit about growing up in the 1930s.
BITTRICH: Oh, it's great. It's a lot of fun. Well, we were we lived on Water Street right across from what is now the Circus World Museum. Well, at that time, it was the winter quarters for the circus. And first they went to Florida. So we left all our stuff and all these buildings and barns and stuff. So those kids figured out a way to get in there and play in all those buildings. So we had a lot of fun.
NOVEY: So how how was your family affected by the Great Depression?
BITTRICH: It was pretty tough. My dad had had several jobs, you know, to keep things, and then he decided to try to buy a house. And that was tough. But he was buying it from a man that ran a furniture business and an undertaker. And so whenever my dad couldn't make a payment, he would go work it off, you know, at the furniture store or repairing things or selling things or helping with the funerals and that kind of stuff. Okay.
NOVEY: So I. What do you remember about. How did how did World War two impact your family?
BITTRICH: Oh, well, I had a couple of cousins that were in in the war. And, you know, they came home and they came home that was already with us and stuff like that. And it was a whole we were glued to the radio, of course, listening to the president talk about Pearl Harbor and about everything that went on. You know, everything went on in the battles in the Pacific and in Europe. So that was a daily thing we kept up with.
NOVEY: Okay. So what do you remember about when you first heard about Pearl Harbor?
BITTRICH: Well, I was sitting there in the living room with my dad, and my dad had been in the Navy in First World War. And that was he said that was the war to end all wars. And then this happened and bombed. He was pretty angry. So there's a few words that you don't want to repeat. And we listened. And he was very angry about the whole thing. So there was really something out of here that really, you know. The president.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: David I'm for me speech. Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. So I. So your father was in the Navy? Yeah. Were you drafted or did you join the.
BITTRICH: You know, the. Well, I should tell you that. All my buddies that we played football and basketball and all the sports with the. There were seven of us that kept after we graduated, kept meetings and sort of hung out together and and we were a whole group and. We were. Afraid we'd get drafted into the army. We didn't want any of that.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then we got together at the bowling alley where we did, and we all decided to enlist at the same time. So in December. We all went in and the seven of us.
NOVEY: This is December 1951. Yup. Okay.
BITTRICH: So that would be December of 1950.
NOVEY: 1950. Okay. So what I remember about the Korean War starting.
BITTRICH: Oh, well, you know, you could hear the broadcasts, the news, that kind of stuff, and it sounded pretty bad. And most of us thought drugs is, you know, having been killed during World War Two. We thought we would develop a little patriotism and all this going on.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And during the war.
NOVEY: Okay. So tell you about your I mean, how did your family react to your decision?
BITTRICH: Well, I'm an only child, you know. And when I joined the Navy, my mom was really upset, so upset that my dad would take her to Arizona to visit some relatives that she was really worried about me, of course, you know. So I was proud that I joined the Navy.
NOVEY: So. So you said you would have been drafted?
BITTRICH: Well, yeah, I think I probably would have been. Yeah.
NOVEY: So you just headed up and we read?
BITTRICH: Yeah, that's what we all did.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So where were you inducted?
BITTRICH: Great Lakes. Mm hmm. And, um, it would have been January 1951.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And we're all seven of us got put in the same boot camp company. ATV and company. Mm hmm. So that was pretty cool. We got to do their training together. Yeah. But something happened, and. We were all being tested, and I came out with the top test scores in this company, and they took me out of the boot camp company and put me in the Navy and Naval Air cadets over at Glenville and I right there. Right. That's right. Near Great Lakes. So I was put in the Naval Air cadets.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So but I was in the Naval Air Cadets for about six weeks. And then one day they got us all into a hangar and an officer gets up there and and a platform, and he speaks, as he said today, there are 200 of you. Tomorrow there'll be 100. Okay. So we're going to cut this down. We'll have to use three methods of cutting it down. Well, we'll give you a test if you so desire. And you can test in or or out, whatever your score might be. Or we can contact your congressman or senator and recommend that he send you to Annapolis. Mm hmm. Or the third option was that you could defer. And then that meant at any time in your naval career, if you so desired, you could act with the permission of the commanding officer. You could reinstate yourself in the Navy working at sea. And so that was the choice I made. Okay. So that I could perhaps still go in there again if I wanted to, but I never did.
NOVEY: Okay. So did you have any any interest at all in learning Fire?
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. When I was a kid, my next door neighbor buddy, I would go to Wisconsin Dells and caddy at the golf course. And then we take our money and go across the street. And we were taking flying lessons. So. Oh, good. Few flying lessons. Mm hmm. So I really wanted to fly. So it wasn't bad. And I don't think I was chickening out. But I think that option of deferring. Sounded good to me because testing there was over half the people that are in that program were college grads. And I was just out of high school. Yeah. So I kind of thought, well, jeez, I don't want to flunk out. So that was part of my reasoning, I guess.
NOVEY: Okay. So backing up just a little bit. Tell me about your first days as a new Navy recruit.
BITTRICH: First days. Yeah, well, it's pretty interesting. It's kind of tough. The first night guard duty, I stood.
NOVEY: And.
BITTRICH: An officer came in and I said, How are you? And he said, Sir, I need your name, rank and service number, and you don't call me. So this is formal. I get a salute now. So you're back. This is the Navy. This isn't high school, you said. So that was kind of interesting. I didn't have a lot of time in the boot camp because I was taken out in an armed guard thing.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And so when I deferred their care, they sent me back to Great Lakes. Of course, at this time, my company was gone. It had graduated. Mm hmm. So what they did was they put a petty officer in charge of me and a jeep, and we went all over, and he had me do everything that I missed in not being there to take my training. So he took me to every place wearing gas mask, rifle range, hand-to-hand combat, all that good stuff so that I could, you know, catch up and be okay. And then they could say I'd been trained.
NOVEY: So was that something you're. To keep up with your own company or yours?
BITTRICH: No, no, it just. They were gone.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And so when I did all this stuff. Then I reported it, and they didn't have any orders for me.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Then what to do with me? So what they did was they put me on a train and sent me to California. San Francisco, Treasure Island. I went there. Okay. Well, I reported it every day and no auditory. It went on for more than a week. Mm hmm. No orders. So finally I came in and they said, We're going to give you a 14 day leave. Okay. So here I am in California, and so I have to train and come all the way back to Baraboo. And I spent my furlough there and then went back to Treasure Island. Mm hmm. And I still didn't have any orders. So I sat around for a couple of days, and then I came in and the guy said, We have your orders. Okay. All right. So they put me on a plane and my field flew me to Hawaii and then to Midway and then to Guam and then to Tokyo. Mm hmm. So there they put ship this on a train to Yokosuka, which is near Yokohama. It's a naval base. And there are about 25 of us. Like me? Yeah. And they put us in a tennis court so we couldn't get out. You know, we were locked in, you know?
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And at night, we had the hot cigaret with somebody that was on guard. You know, they send you there and you waited four hours and they pop you into another bed. That went on for about 3 or 4 days. Mm hmm. And then they had orders for me. They sent me to Tokyo, and then they put me on a train and went all the way down the western coast of Japan, past the Magic Castle and all where we stop at. Hiroshima. Mm hmm. And we were there for about two hours. We got to see some of it, but we couldn't go in there. Mm hmm. So then I got two sets of over Japan in my ship. Wasn't there? Okay. It was on the bomb line in North Korea. Mm hmm. And East Coast. So they put me on a destroyer, which was the walker. 517. Mm hmm. And then they took me out. And at sea, they. You know what? A breaches voyage.
NOVEY: No, I don't.
BITTRICH: Okay. They string a line between the two ships. Mm hmm. And then they're kind of poised, and there's a seat as you put your legs through.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Know, it's kind of just that bag that you're sitting there. And they put it on this line, and then they tie the other line and they pull you all the way across.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Of course, what happened was there was a little rough sea and the ships were doing this. And of course, I guess whatever. Halfway over and they dumped me. I got aboard ship, so I. So I get aboard a ship and all my buddies are there. Okay. Same orders that they had. All six of them were there. And they had been talking to me a big time because I'd been in there again.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: So when I got there, the officer said, Well, you know, we heard good things about you so you can strike any, any anything you want, any rating or rank not ranked, but reading that you want to strike or you could do anything you want to. Mm hmm. And I said, well, I want to be in radar.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: And then. No officer said, Well, that's our read. Her division is full. They don't have any any seats for Stryker. Mm hmm. And then another officer saw company. He said, Young man, he said, if you want to work with Radar, you come with me. I'm the gunnery officer. And we fire guns using range finders and and radar. And he said, if you really want to work on the radar, you can do it with us. So that's what I did.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: I went in the fire control division. Mm hmm. And then I had to strike with the guy. Now, if you. If you looked at a destroyer, I wish I had a picture here now, But above the bridge, there's a big turret. And there's a round dish radar dish on and on it. And sticking out of each side, there is the ends of a 30 foot stereoscopic rangefinder. Okay. So you can look through and see things from there. So I was striking with the guy that ran it and he this was a pretty good position because that's who fires the guns. They get the targets and they, you know, using radar or the range finder. Mm hmm. And they get the range and. And they. Slew it around or whatever azimuth you have to be at to get it. And. And then you can see your target on radar or you can see it range by here.
NOVEY: Okay. And you were working with the radar or the range finder or both?
BITTRICH: Both. And you. It's like I sit right here and I'm looking through the range finder, and the radar is right here.
NOVEY: After your side.
BITTRICH: Yeah, right there.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I was striking with this guy. And that went on for about two weeks. I was learning how to run everything.
NOVEY: So I'm on the job training.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Well, he had been a bad boy in Japan and came down with a terrible disease. And they took him off the ship, put him in a hospital on an aircraft carrier. And I'm stuck without anybody. And I'm after. And I was. I was the guy. I had to do it. And I'd only been doing it for two weeks.
NOVEY: Wow.
BITTRICH: So they they were out for gunnery practice and. I was running the thing fire and I was doing pretty well because the plane came flying asleep and I was able to get on that and they wouldn't let us use the radar, see. So I was fired and I actually hit the cable in front of the switch. You broke it.
NOVEY: Off. Okay.
BITTRICH: So they figured I could do the job somehow.
NOVEY: So what guns were these sights on?
BITTRICH: Five inch 38. There there were 56 pound projectile, and then they have a big powder case. Okay. And there's a pretty big guns they can shoot. Well, maximum range, ten miles, but effective range is from 5 to 7.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But they're pretty deadly machines. The big thing there are there are three turrets and two guns in each tour. So I had six, five inch, 38.
NOVEY: And you sighted them all on the set.
BITTRICH: They're all hooked together at the same time. Okay. You can or you can separate them and they can do them independently, but they're hooked together and you're on the radar and rangefinder and we slew around or whatever. And if I flew this way and you had, you know, handle like that. Okay. So this way the guns are all attached in the same way. So you go this way and all three of three turrets. True.
NOVEY: So how do you communicate between you, the basically one person aiming the gun and the loaders?
BITTRICH: I'm the guy. The guy in the loaders. Well, we're in phones. We talk back and forth.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And yeah, so. And those guys just loaded. As soon as they loaded, they hit what they call a spade a big brass handle. And it removes the the shell and the projectile together and the gun and it goes off.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And so that's how and I'm the guy they tell me to commence firing and I tell guns we're going to commence firing, you know, about one mile to about three commence. We're going to commence firing. So ready to load and load.
NOVEY: And then it goes, okay. So it's backing up a little bit. You grew up in Baraboo. I don't know if you had much experience there with being on big boats, but what was it like once you got on your first Navy ship?
BITTRICH: Well, it was really fun. I would say the destroyer. I was on Henry W Tucker seven five DDR, which was a radar destroyer who'd had a second mask or more. So we had one and a second mast that had a search radar. So it was basically designed to be a picket ship to work with task forces.
NOVEY: And.
BITTRICH: Stuff like that. So that was kind of fun. I enjoyed it. The ship was. 296ft long and 43 wide at the beam.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But like, you know, it's a very slim ship and it could go like pretty near a 40 knots, which is not the fastest thing either side of the terminal. Yeah. Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. So what was it like getting used to being on the water?
BITTRICH: Well, I liked it.
NOVEY: You liked it?
BITTRICH: A lot of guys. A lot of guys. Would get sick and eat breakfast in the truck, and a lot of them weren't even need the regulars. So I got the 2 or 3 breakfasts because I never did that.
NOVEY: Okay. I was lucky. Okay. So when you learn learn basically on the job how to do the sighting and the radar. Was that your first advanced training out of your basic training? Yeah. Okay.
BITTRICH: Okay.
NOVEY: So did you know before you left the United States that you would be headed to Korea or.
BITTRICH: Yeah, we knew that was where we'd gone.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Our ship was on the southern tip of Japan, accessible, which is a big sea port. And. And U.S. Navy was there. Aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers. So what was what.
NOVEY: Was it like? How did you feel about once you were in Japan knowing that you were going to be going up into the Korean waters?
BITTRICH: Well, I was looking forward to and we were excited about getting into the war. You know, we were kind of silly. You know, we could have got our butts shot off. But yeah, we almost did at one point doing.
NOVEY: So what about our I. You said you had 6 or 7 other friends on this ship.
BITTRICH: Yeah. One of them was my cousin.
NOVEY: Mm hmm. So what? What were their jobs on the ship.
BITTRICH: Or various different jobs? Couple of couple of them worked in kitchen and food. One was a tool tool or what we call decking their work that were on deck, you know, keeping painting the ship and all that kind of stuff. Okay. And the one guy that's here, one of them worked in a ship store and that kind of thing.
NOVEY: Okay. So it take any use any getting used to to, you know, like your daily routine, living on a ship and what?
BITTRICH: Well, I enjoyed it. It was great.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: You slept in a bunk that was up there, stretched out, you know, against the bulkhead. And they're like, one, two, three, like that. I slept in the top one or the middle one or the bottom one at different times.
NOVEY: Okay. So how close was your the place you bunked to, the place where you worked as you're fair to the fire? Well.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah, we were we were in a compartment that was forward and the bottom of the ship. Mm hmm. And you could really go up a ladder and just open up a hatch and be right on the bottom of the ship. Right behind no one. And the sheer amount to it and the the usual ways we had to climb stairs and Grubman and the main deck. And then from the main deck, we had to go up on the bridge and then drop a ladder and to get into the turret. That was the main battery fire control turret. Mm hmm. Yeah. You had the top and upper right. You know, more of the hatch up and then jump in and get down and run the hatch.
NOVEY: Very well. Oh, yeah. So I imagine there would be somebody manning your station. Probably around the clock.
BITTRICH: Yeah. There were actually. There were four of us in there. Mm hmm. There was a pointer and a trainer and an officer. And me. Okay. During the raid range. Minor.
NOVEY: Okay. So who took over? Did somebody else take over for you when you were off duty?
BITTRICH: No. Okay. And duty, then. You know, when when you're firing. There was no condition, able or condition, Baker. But condition able is. When? When you're actually in more combat. General quarters.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Yeah. The coalition bakers when you're firing. But it's not and it's a different thing. It's like trauma blurring and stuff like that.
NOVEY: Okay. So when when you are needed than when the ship was. You would have been called. You would you were called when you were needed. After the firing?
BITTRICH: Actually, no. You knew when you had to go. Okay. You were at like. On. June 28th, 1951. Mm hmm. We were in one San Harbor, you know. Remember that? Mm hmm. And once on Harbor, which is like the Chicago of Korea, big railroad there. And it's it's a big probably about eight miles across. Mm hmm. So and we were on a. CIA road down here. We were on a group. Going into the harbor. Mhm. Uh. This was a. You have it here someplace. Okay. There's a June 9th, 1990 51. We went 15 ships, including two carriers and a battleship New Jersey. The one of the cruisers was the Helena, and two aircraft carriers were the Princeton in the Bonhomme Richard and then the Tucker. My ship was reading what they called like a Comanche circle.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And there were I think there were three other destroyers in the cruiser and in Battleship, New Jersey was behind us. So we went in and we were trying to if there were mines, we were going to shoot them there underwater or even see them, then we would have probably been, you know, blown to bits. So but anyway, we went in and. One of the one of the ships, the walk was with us and it struck the free floating mine and blew a rear end up with 26 dead and 40 injured. So it was out of commission. So we were the lead destroyer at that point.
NOVEY: Okay. And it was falling behind you when it got hit?
BITTRICH: No, it was ahead of us. But then, of course, we were past it because it was out of it. They took it out.
NOVEY: So. So did you see? I see it when it happens.
BITTRICH: Actually, we did. We saw the rear of the ship, the stern on the port side. Boom, Big hole. And that's one of my pictures I could have, Right.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But I didn't.
NOVEY: So how did that make you feel? Oh, I'm taking the lead.
BITTRICH: A little scary. And we were we were trying to get at position, and we're firing by chance, you know, into certain areas of the railroad yards. And each ship had its own thing. It was going to. And then our planes coming to do bombing, they were from aircraft. Mm hmm. And so we we were now leading the community circle. Mm hmm. And we got to our position where we could shoot at our our designated area. And so our skipper dropped an anchor so we would stay right position. Well, the problem with that was we were only about. A mile or two off one of the peninsulas sticking out. It was had a funny name. Call him a geek. It was okay. Okay. So anyway, so we we we dropped anchor and we were on condition Baker. So we weren't, you know, it wasn't like General Cause and I when I came aboard ship, I was assigned to anchor detail. Okay. So there were about about 6 or 8 guys. There were these hooks and, you know, a link of chains like that. And so in order that the thing doesn't keep covering, the guys have to pull as it's flowing with these hooks. So that was my job and that was the general detail, you know, not not battle stations or anything like that. And so I was up there well, I was up in the air as a gun control and they said, call the anchor detail. And I said, Well, I called all night. I said, I'm on an anchor detail. Do you want me to go down there or should I stay up here? Because we're going to be firing very soon? He said, Don't worry, we'll get you one when we start firing and you get on an anchor. So climb out the top, right down the ladder, down the ladder of the bridge, down the main deck and go up to the ship and help them with the chain. So this is about. So about 8:00 in the morning, Something like that. Mm hmm. And it was a beautiful day. Blue sky, white clouds, you know, pronounced. Anything better. And we got the anchor out.
NOVEY: And if you don't hear about that.
BITTRICH: They call that the war dance or the Comanche Circle. Okay. And. So the Mason and Tucker and the New Jersey battleship came in, and. We were sitting there. And about 800, we dropped an anchor. And we have been ordered to commence our firing at like. Or like an 830, something like that. Mm hmm. So hurry around about handling. Bunch of guys. And we hear, boom! Mm hmm. Guy said, Jeez, he's going to catch all the firing too soon. Mm. For the top of our ship. Thing explodes. That was shooting at us.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And so we got a little bit worried about that. And. Second album came Boom and it hit actually hit the pirate ship. And two of our guys were well wounded badly. And it actually all the other 40 guys had piece of shrapnel. Guys that were in a gun was above deck. So. At that point, no one had to tell me what to do. I ran on the starboard side. Went up the ladders again, up the bridge of the side of the top. Jumped down in. The grand director turret. And so I'm in there. I'm hearing the speaker commence firing. I can enforce a record and commence firing. He just got here tonight and no one is designated a target for me, he said. Just shut up and start firing.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Well, what are you. What do I do? Well, here's this peninsula stick out called Calum again because I told him so. I figured, well, that's the closest thing to us. So I swung the thing around and got on the couch here, arranged it and said, Commence firing, Boom, pull guns. Well, and they fired. I was looking at this. This is a book about a ship. And I was like, I don't have like this. I got a pair here, so I got. I got some notes here.
NOVEY: Okay. Uh.
BITTRICH: The we fired all together for four solid hours in there and we fired 105. Five. Five minutes. 38 rounds. Wow. That's a that's a lot of money. Each one of those was worth a Cadillac. So we fired a lot.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: We didn't fire all 105 there. But by the time we got out there, we had fired 105. Okay. So one guy was wounded pretty badly and, you know, nearly lost his arm, the other guy. It's interesting, you know, you know about the Navy.
NOVEY: I'm not as familiar with the Navy.
BITTRICH: Well, you've seen the White Caps and the Navy. Well, you can pull them up and roll them up and slip them in your belt right here. So, yeah. Well, this guy was on a gunman back act who was wearing a helmet and he had his white hat tucked in his belt like that.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And a piece of shrapnel went right through the white hat.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And it damaged him his stomach a little bit, but not much, because the weight had pretty much saved him from being killed.
NOVEY: You know?
BITTRICH: So, anyway. A lot of guys.
NOVEY: Got.
BITTRICH: Little pieces of shrapnel. Looked like then anybody who was a what? So we got hit several times. I told you that we were a DDR, you know, picket ship with the special radar of the second mass Muslim destroyers, all in one mass. We had two. The second one was for the search radar. Mm hmm.
NOVEY: Well.
BITTRICH: They knocked the antenna right off that.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And they put one shell right through the second stack. Oh, I had a nice big hole.
NOVEY: In it.
BITTRICH: And got hit on the water line a few places and. With shrapnel, whatnot. Not a direct hit. The only direct hit was while the one was on On the Radar. And the other was on the second stack. So. So that was the way it was. So. Yeah. That's. Yeah. We went past another peninsula called Hotel Panda. And then they started firing at us. But we were too far out. We were out of their range and their shells were just hitting the water maybe 50 yards off our port side. And yeah, so. After that, we were pulled out. And because we had been damaged, they sent us back to Japan to to assemble and then down to Yokosuka, where I remember I had been locked in a tennis court.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So we had a naval base there and and they had dry docks there. So they took our ship down there and started repairing it. Okay. When we were there, we were there like three weeks or so. I went on the base and tried to learn Japanese.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I had a teacher who the course is called Japanese and 30 Hours. And so I studied Japanese for a while and it helped because I could, you know, converse all that was in Japanese after that. So it's kind of fun.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So. After that, we went back to the States. We went to San Diego and I had an uncle in Los Angeles and they gave us literally 14 days leave, actually. And so all the guys, my buddies from Bell and I, my uncle put us all in one car and drove us back in Wisconsin.
NOVEY: Okay. Well, let's pick up there in just a minute. Let's go back. Back over. Sure. The story I just told. So how how long was it that you were on the line on the blockade of one side before this event that you talked about?
BITTRICH: Well, we we've been on that one about 4 or 5. Well, actually, it's like. Several weeks ago. But we we were not in we were only in the harbor in that position for maybe 4 or 5 hours.
NOVEY: Okay. So I. Well, you were. How What? What was your ship's duty in the blockade system?
BITTRICH: Well, we were a picket ship. We were. We were supposed to use our search radar, and we were a whole task force 77. We were picket ship. There were several pictures of the ranger out front and the weight behind it. And then you can we could our radar could pick up a plane coming in like ten miles away.
NOVEY: Okay. Did you ever have any North Korean planes coming in?
BITTRICH: Yeah, there were there were some planes that we thought might have been Russian.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And they were flying over. And there was only one time we tried to take shots at one of them, but no luck. We didn't hit it. There was none of our range.
NOVEY: What types of planes were these, these high altitude or.
BITTRICH: Well, I know there are like fighter planes. Oh, okay. You know, we're bombers. There is planes who could carry bombs as well. So but they never got close enough to us because we were firing at them.
NOVEY: Mm hmm. Yeah. So what about would you have any. I like civilian fishing vessels or anything coming out.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. They're. Not there. But when we were in what was called Formosa Patrol, we don't know, you know, where Formosa is. So. And we had a patrol. We'd go between China and Formosa.
NOVEY: Okay. But that was later.
BITTRICH: That was later. Yeah, we did a couple of times. And usually it was fun to go on for most of patrol because when you're done your duty of like two weeks or so, we were in patrol. Then we got a three day leave in Hong Kong.
NOVEY: Okay, we're going.
BITTRICH: To Hong Kong. So I did it twice a year in Hong Kong.
NOVEY: Okay. So I. Yeah. Oh, by one time, did you ever have any any ships, any ships coming to your radar area that you were concerned about?
BITTRICH: No, not really. Okay.
NOVEY: And would would the this is probably be something more for battleships. But I know in Korea, the Korean Peninsula so small, sometimes they are using naval gunfire to support ground troops.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah, we did that.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah, I live about.
BITTRICH: That. Well, when I first got there, as I told you, we were going on the bottom line, which is we were going from from. Actually up, up and down the east coast of Korea.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Oh, we went to Hong Lim. We bombed there. We were bombed. We fire at railroad tracks and tunnels like that and troops. And sometimes, you know, very often I think we did 2 or 3 times. Mm hmm. But Well, if we had a map of Korea here, I could show you were sunshine. And changing. And changing is only about a hundred miles from Russia. Mm hmm. What is a lot of us like there?
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah. So we could see one point. We were so close to Vladivostok at night that we could see the lights. Oh, yeah? Yeah.
NOVEY: So, did the Russians have any patrols out around.
BITTRICH: Not that we know of. Where the Russians were supporting the army. And so. But no, there weren't. We thought some of the planes that came earlier. Yeah. Okay.
NOVEY: So how would you receive a orders for a fire detail? For a fire mission? How? Who would tell you what to fire at?
BITTRICH: It came from the bridge. From where was on the current. Whoever was controlling that ship would give us orders to commence fire. But the to release us to begin firing. That came from the captain. And then kind could tell us where we might look for, you know, of our target or whatever.
NOVEY: So they would give you a general area and you would look for specific.
BITTRICH: Yeah, right.
NOVEY: Okay. So how would you how would you find a specific target.
BITTRICH: With the range finder and the radar? Okay. And when we were on going up and down the coast. Blasting the railroad tracks and bridges links. And we came to a I can't remember the name of it was fairly north. And we were supposed to go in and take the bridges out of the city. And there are several. And then you could see some buildings like a warehouse and something where there are a lot of foreign currency were hitting. So I asked permission to fire a white phosphorus to site site, as in so we knew what we were shooting it, you know. Right. So I picked out the building and hit it with a white phosphorus and the whole thing went up in flames like me. And they they gave us hell because there were civilians in right there. And he didn't want us to shoot where civilians were. Mhm. So I caught hell out of that.
NOVEY: Okay. So, so then did you have to have a visual reference on your target before you could shoot or were using maps.
BITTRICH: Well, well we're using maps to discover where the targets were and they were delineated, you know, and, but then we did get on what we thought was the target with radar. Mm hmm. And then looking through the range finder, we try to see usually we could see a bridge or railroad tracks or railroad tunnel. One time we looked at this tunnel and there was railroad car coming out of the tunnel slowly like that. Mm hmm. And as we pushed by about 30 Korean guys. And so we asked permission to shoot at it, so we fired at it, and they scattered like men in the tunnel. So what we did was close the tunnel. But we had a strange thing happened with that. That real occurred in person outside. So we were going to try to destroy the railroad car and fired a couple of rounds at during rounds, went off and Hill went behind it. And I knew I wasn't that far off room. So I dropped it down a little bit. And what was happening was our shells were going up and landing on the ground slope were going up and they wouldn't they didn't go off because they were the shells were point detonated. I mean, if they hit something go off. Some of the shells had like a radar in them. Some of them had a little so little time fuze So it would go off no matter where you did fire two planes like that so you could travel through a it. But anyway, what was happening there was the darn things were skipping and bouncing over the top of the room. Okay. So when we figured that out, then we. Raised it up and then we got to real tired.
NOVEY: Okay. So what was the concern about the rail car? What do you think it was?
BITTRICH: What? Well, it was just a railroad car. I don't know whether troops in it or whether was it? It was just the idea that we were going to destroy it. Okay. So we did. Okay.
NOVEY: So you said that most of your targets were railroads and railroads and things like.
BITTRICH: Bridges.
NOVEY: And bridges, but you also said that sometimes you fire at troop concentrations.
BITTRICH: Yeah, we did that. A couple of.
NOVEY: Dams. Were those two concentrations up in North Korea or the North Korea. Okay. So this was like marshaling yards or.
BITTRICH: Well, I guess you don't realize that North Korea is so mountainous that the only place the railroad could. It's right along the beach, rear on the engine. So I'm going to read the intelligence for us. We had to blow up the tunnels.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And twice I remember it. They had troops. I think they were bedded down somewhere. And the thing is, we would stay out maybe ten miles, and then we went to shoot. We could in maybe 4 or 5 miles off the beach and then they could see us. Okay. And then and then they'd scatter and, you know, and our range, maximum effective range was like seven miles. We could fire ten miles, but it wasn't very effective. But we fired at a truce after another.
NOVEY: So. Then as you came in, I came in closer than the ten miles was at a General Carter situation, or was that. Yeah.
BITTRICH: Okay. General Carter? Yeah.
NOVEY: Did you ever get fired at during that?
BITTRICH: No.
NOVEY: So they pretty much didn't have any. I mean, you said this was their main railroad rail lines. They just they there was no way they could try to protect it better.
BITTRICH: No, not really. Most of their stuff was down near the 38th parallel, which they.
NOVEY: It. They were they were focusing on the land army.
BITTRICH: Yeah. No, that's. We call that the only the main line of defense. Mm hmm. And that's where we did a lot of our firing.
NOVEY: Okay. Okay. Do you remember any of your officers names?
BITTRICH: Um. My gun was. It was. Lieutenant Bagger. Mm hmm. And our. Our skipper was career Commander David Lloyd. George King. Mm hmm. And we had another one. The commander of ship. Captain of the ship. His name was Rogers. That's about as much as I could remember their names.
NOVEY: Do you remember anything about. About any of them that you like to say?
BITTRICH: Yeah. Um, I can tell you a little story on me.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Um, when I first went aboard the ship the first week or so. Mm hmm. The captain was David Lloyd. George King. And I had to stand duty on the bridge, lookout duty and the bridge. So I went up from my lookout duty, and I had, uh. I had a pair of civilian Levi's, you know, that they have kind of red sewn in. You see? You know what I'm talking about. Mm hmm. You know, and I wore those instead of the official Navy pants.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And I'm there. I look out, and the captain comes up to me, and he said. What are these you're wearing? Mm hmm. So there will be no preseason other than those are civilian. Take em off. Mm hmm. Right here? Yeah. So he made me take the pants off right in the bridge. Uh huh. He took them and threw them over board.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And I understand the rest of my watch in my skivvies. And then. Captain looked at me and he said, You better go put on some. Put on your uniform. You're out of uniform. So I had to put on the regular Navy.
NOVEY: Okay. So you. Yeah. You mentioned how well they're doing. Look out detail. And you've mentioned. I like.
BITTRICH: The well.
NOVEY: Detail.
BITTRICH: Well, yeah. Look out. Whenever. Whenever you're. Whenever you're going ahead. You know, when you're staring. Hmm. You always have to have to look out on the bridge. Mm hmm. And it's never going to let you know and see what might be there. I can hold mine or something.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And they're always, always look up to me.
NOVEY: So how often do you have to look out the well?
BITTRICH: Depending on your rank and. Right? Mm hmm. But just a regular seaman. Would have. Look, I duty twice a day, okay? And each one was four hours.
NOVEY: Okay, so. So what would you do if you saw a man.
BITTRICH: You reported to the captain?
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then what they did was they had like, the ship had not only three inch guns, but they had 40mm of 20mm.
NOVEY: Aircraft guns. What? Those anti-aircraft guns are low.
BITTRICH: Well, yeah, they could be used that way. Yeah, they were. They would use the 20 or 40s to try to blow up the mine. And, you know, he was able to do that. Mm hmm.
NOVEY: What was it like when one of those went off?
BITTRICH: Cause boys and girls, you know.
NOVEY: Like, in.
BITTRICH: A way, you wouldn't use a five inch gun on there. Yeah.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So what was it? How did your pick it show? So you would be, like you said, out in front or behind? Yeah. How would that work with you? Probably be going into a lot of minefields. A lot?
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: How would you. Would you coordinate your moves with minesweeper ships?
BITTRICH: Yeah. Actually, when one said Harbor, when we said there were mines, the minesweepers went in earlier and swept the whole harbor. But of course, they didn't get a good area. Mm hmm. Yeah. But did I mention the walk that blew up the hit?
NOVEY: Oh, the one that I remember. The ship blew.
BITTRICH: Yeah. I copied something out of a book, and I can't find out about that. Let me see.
NOVEY: That on one of your other pages.
BITTRICH: Maybe I missed it. Uh. Oh, yeah? Who told you that? The. The Princeton and the Bonhomme Richard Aircraft Carriers. The hell in a cruiser there in the battleship New Jersey. And a whole mess of destroyers in the Tucker in walk changed positions. Hmm. And the walk struck a free floating mine. And that's where there are 26 dead and 40 injured. Yeah. And that could have been us.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah. I said let's go.
NOVEY: So did you. Did you think about it any other time?
BITTRICH: Everybody was saying that could have been it.
NOVEY: You know? Yeah. So. Now, when you were under fire, did you did did they bring up the anchor and do the evasive maneuvers or.
BITTRICH: Yeah, they pulled the anchor. Mm hmm. And.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. Was it was it harder to do your job, Amy? The guns while you're in motion or.
BITTRICH: No. You know, the whole system was hooked to a gyro.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So, you know, when the ship moves, the guns do this.
NOVEY: Yeah. You know. Okay. And then. You're talking about when you guys ordered a fire, you didn't know what to fire at?
BITTRICH: Yeah. Right.
NOVEY: So what made you decide to start firing? I think it's. I was. I gotta go. I have a gag column again, and I get out.
BITTRICH: Well, because it was the closest thing to us.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And I figured, you know, that's probably where the fire was coming from. So it was left up to me to pick the target, which is not always the case, you know?
NOVEY: So did you see anything on the radar on the island or.
BITTRICH: No? I couldn't.
NOVEY: Just start, you.
BITTRICH: Know, because the radar picks up all the trees and rocks and stuff. So you don't know. There was there wasn't any moving like a tank or anything like that. Mm hmm. So I looked at what I thought was probably a more suspicious area for a gunman. Mm hmm. There were. There were three inch guns. They were fire.
NOVEY: Engines. Okay.
BITTRICH: And so I just let go on fire the whole mess around.
NOVEY: Did the firing stop after that?
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. So what was the. I mean, you you never really received the facial training on this since you.
BITTRICH: Know.
NOVEY: The job.
BITTRICH: No, that's another story. Okay, I'll tell you about that. I asked to be sent to fire control a school which is a 5056 weeks school, and San Diego electronics, all hydraulics and all that stuff. That's, you know.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: You know, drives the tourists have guns and everything. And electronics and radar. Mm hmm. And I asked her to go there, and the commanding officer, you know, gave permission to have me go. And there was another guy. Another another fire control guy. Mm hmm. Who were down below the gyro were.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Here and there. And, of course, our gun system is run by a huge computer. Mm hmm. It's probably the size of this table and this high.
NOVEY: So about four feet high.
BITTRICH: But, yeah, probably about four by six.
NOVEY: So I'm like, okay.
BITTRICH: And that that's the computer that makes it. Was that like the modern day computer? So it had all kinds of, well, you know what you call I can't think of the word but. The revolving speed like thing. And there's just a lot of mechanical stuff in anyway. Oh, forget what you're saying.
NOVEY: And you're talking about you wanted to receive advanced training.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. I'd put in for a school. So you. And a gun wasn't approved. The commanding officer had approved it. And the other guy who's the kid by the name of Vizard, who was also in the fire control system. Mm hmm. And he had put in and both of us had received. Orders that we could go to the high school. Mm hmm. Well, Gun Boss got us together, and he said, I can't let both of you go. Okay. He said, We are in a war zone here. And he said, I. I can't let you go because you're both too vital to a two hour gun system. He said, I'll let one of you go. He said, But now I'm not going to decide which one you two are. You guys, you go on in my state room and talk it over and decide which of you who would go. Mm hmm. Well, we went down there and we sort of looked at me. He said, How do we decide this? I said. This is pretty simple, man. He was married, had a child on the way, and I'm single. And, you know, I said, it's obviously going to be you. He said, Are you kidding? You know, you'd say that. And I said, You bet.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So we went back up where the gun was, was. And he said, Well, how you decided? And I said, Well, we got to go. He said, How do you decide that? These are said he he thought that I should go because I was married and had a child on the way. And he said, that's that's good. He said, I'll tell you what. That's your cue. I'll tell you. I'll make sure I'll give you a promise right now, today that you will go to a school. Well, we know, but later on I'll make sure that you get to school.
NOVEY: And did you? Eventually.
BITTRICH: Yeah. But here's kind of funny thing about that story, too. We went to Muir Island back in San Francisco, where he Mirror Island and having his ship on dry dock and getting repaired and everything. Mm hmm. And we were up there working on us, working on this. I saw it in. Son of a gun. One of the guys says, Hey, that's the gun, boss. He's coming back of where he got a shot. And he was in civilian court. He says, here he comes. What's a gun was doing? I don't know. And I only had, you know, a few days left where I after that, I couldn't have enough time to go to school because you had to have a certain amount of time after you got out of school.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And so anyway, so I said, gee, that on their announcement. So even though at that time I was the third class Petty Officer, Petty Officer bitch report to the court A. So I got down there and he looked at me. He said, I promised you that you'd get the school. And if you don't get down there in the next week or so, it's going to be too late. He said, I just realized that when I was on leave. I came back to make sure And you got to go to a school. Oh, that was a good guy.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So sure enough, that's it. I he said, pack your bags. And they put me on a plane and flew to San Diego. And I went to a school.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: That was like.
NOVEY: And where was this from? That you're flying Mare Island?
BITTRICH: Well, from San Francisco.
NOVEY: Oh, okay.
BITTRICH: Yeah. And so, yeah. So I got to go to school.
NOVEY: Okay. So I. See. So I was going to ask you what I like when you're firing a clam, a gag island. There probably were a lot of situations where you did not have where you were told where to fire, but you did not have a specific target. How would you I mean, I know you you generally go to your radar and find something.
BITTRICH: That might.
NOVEY: Look right. But what about, like you said, this island, What about a wooded area? What would you do to start firing on that area if you didn't.
BITTRICH: Fire at it?
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Explore a lot of trees.
NOVEY: Okay. And what what what options did you have for different types of ammunition to shoot out of these five inch guns?
BITTRICH: Well, they all five inch projectiles, but there are different kinds of white phosphorous. You know, one big white cloud, it makes everything work. There is a point detonating, which means it has to hit a target before it blows up. Mm hmm. Then there was a time furious in it that the firing would go off. And then there was a kind of a like a retard. And. And so you fired at a plane and gets close enough to the plane. The radar sets it up. Okay. So those are a lot of different types of shells.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And they're heavy. 56 pounds.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: I felt bad for the loaders when you were firing that.
BITTRICH: I'm not so much. You know, That was their job.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So, anyway, you had gotten your ship was hit and hit, and once. And you were sent back.
BITTRICH: Back to Japan and then Japan.
NOVEY: And then you. I think you left off. You're on Liberty in San Diego.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Here we are, set back to San Diego.
NOVEY: So pick up there and tell me what.
BITTRICH: Oh, boy. Well. We were there getting close to Christmas at this time. And my uncle, as I said, was in Los Angeles. So we went on liberty to see my uncle. And at that time, it cost a fortune to fly. Yeah. And you couldn't you couldn't even get a flight. It was hard to get on. So I said, I want to go home for Christmas. But I had to ride a train, which would take, you know, three days and 36 days out of the 14 days. And then my uncle said no. So. He went and talked to his boss of the company that he worked for. Mm hmm. And his boss, had they had they they were given special permission for a flight, so they needed to have flights. So they were given a number of flights that they. They could use. Mm hmm. And so my uncle's boss gave me one of the flights.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: That was funny, too, because my uncle's a real character. They put me on flight as civilian flight? Mm hmm. And I flew home to Chicago, and my dad came, and, I mean, so it was Christmas Eve. My girlfriend came over, and we were going to get ready to open presents and things in our houses and all Victorian houses in the living room. There were actually two living rooms and a dining room and a kitchen in the the dining room and the one living room and the other one too. They were closed off by sliding doors.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: You know, you've probably seen those in all Victorian homes. So I got one guy, my girlfriend, and we came home and we were all sitting around talking and kind of laughing and thinking.
NOVEY: About what we're going to.
BITTRICH: Open presents. And I noticed that that door to the dining room was closed. Mm hmm. I said, Oh, my mom. I said, Well, you got the truth. She said, Well, go open it. So I did open it. And there sits my uncle.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: As soon as I had gotten on the plane, he jumped in his car and rolled over. And so that is their Christmas Eve. Mm hmm. He came for that.
NOVEY: So he actually made it in? Yeah. He was able to drive there at the same time and took you to.
BITTRICH: Well, I actually know a couple of days after, you know, I flew there, I was home for a couple of days before. But anyway. And one other time. When we were in San Diego, we got a leave. And he pale. As I told you before, you pile on all my buddies in his car and drove us over. Okay. So that was it? Yeah.
NOVEY: So what was that trip like?
BITTRICH: Oh, it was great.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: What did you take?
BITTRICH: Um, well, I know we went through Reno. Mm. I can't really tell you that. Right. But it was like Reno, Nevada.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And. Yeah. So that was good. Mm hmm. So I really lucked out to have my own car. Yeah. And the one time we were there. I got a name drop. Okay. One time we were there. My uncle took me to him. This was the first year of Disneyland. It wasn't even completed.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So my uncle had worked at another park. Wasn't like Disneyland. But it was actually from Knott's Berry Farm. Okay. You ever heard that?
NOVEY: No, I haven't.
BITTRICH: Okay. But anyway, um. He took me over. Um. Like, this is the first year that this guy was gone. And they were just building. Yes. Just completing the sailing ship. Mm hmm. And so I went over there, and there were a whole lot of people around, you know, sailing ships all over to see what was going on. It's Walt Disney. It was right there on a sailing ship, so I got to see him.
NOVEY: Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah.
BITTRICH: You know, the picture of me that I usually send out in my Navy uniform was taken there.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And there was an Indian chief was. Were about it. Mm hmm. And I should have brought that this story to you.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And anyway, it's a.
NOVEY: Hot.
BITTRICH: Trailer. Maybe I can send it to you.
NOVEY: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So you're happy?
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: So. Speaking of Disney and entertainment and stuff like that, I mean, what would you do when you were off duty onboard your ship for entertainment?
BITTRICH: Well, we play a lot of poker. Okay. You know, stuff like that. And some guys, you know, guitar could sing and stuff. We do that a little bit.
NOVEY: Okay. And, um.
BITTRICH: Yeah, mostly then.
NOVEY: Did you ever have any reviews for officers during that time anyway? Any foreign officers or anything coming on board during that time?
BITTRICH: Oh yeah. One time with the admiral on the seventh Fleet came onboard. Mm hmm. The that was. Everybody had to be known for, you know, for all means, 100%. Okay. So we all had to be far apart. And the admiral came, and you fly the flag. And you, sir. Just one day.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But that's the only time I saw any big bigwig. Yeah. Okay.
NOVEY: Did you ever have any eye US socials or anything coming around?
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. Well, actually, not. Not in our ship or anything. But when. When I told you that I was at your cruise. Good. Or the first movie over there? Yeah. When we were sleeping in the hot sacks and locked in the tennis court on the second night, we were there. We went to a USO show. And I'm trying to think who was there. It was Bob Hope. Jerry Colonna. I can't think of the female one who was there when we saw her. Okay. That's the only time I ever saw the USO stuff. Well, okay.
NOVEY: Now, there's this all been locked in the tennis court was that. And this is only six years after World War Two. Was there a lot of, uh, Japanese hard feelings toward the U.S.?
BITTRICH: Actually, I would say no. The Japanese were really wonderful. They. They had. There was no hard feelings like that, for they were all really good to us, you know?
NOVEY: Okay. So.
BITTRICH: And we treated them really well, too. Okay.
NOVEY: So, uh, you're on leave for Christmas. What were your next orders? Where. Where do you go next?
BITTRICH: Well, I went back.
NOVEY: Went back to San Diego. Yeah. Yeah. Ready to go? Yeah. And that was that. When you were talking about you went. Went into a school for.
BITTRICH: Well, you know, it was a different time.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Because we were in San Francisco when they sent me to a school. Okay. So when I got out of high school 56 weeks later. Mm hmm. Well, they sent me to a destroyer. A different story. It wasn't the one I. Came from. And that was Jenkins, the four for seven. I also asked the trainer.
NOVEY: Okay, so let's just pick up from after your leave home for Christmas. What would you do after that?
BITTRICH: All right, good. Hey, we don't remember.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Well, we went back to the ship, okay? And it seems like.
NOVEY: This is the USS Tucker.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. And what where do you go from there?
BITTRICH: We went back to Japan again.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And I remember on our way, we just stopped in Hawaii, and our home part was actually Pearl Harbor.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: And then we we stopped at Midway Island, and we had a huge party and all kinds of beer and stuff. And we had a lot of fun here to stay there for all day.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then Midway Island is really small.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And so, yeah, and it's filled with a lot of what they called Goonies birds. They're a kind of seagull that doesn't fly very well and doesn't know how to land. And that's why they're called goody birds, because when they come in, they hit, run, tumble like.
NOVEY: That. Okay.
BITTRICH: They can't land. There's something, something retarded about that kind of bird.
NOVEY: Okay. So then you went back up to Japan. Did you go up off the coast of Korea again?
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. So do you remember anything about. Were you doing the same thing? Patrolling up and down?
BITTRICH: Yeah, pretty much.
NOVEY: Yeah. Do you remember anything about. About that time?
BITTRICH: No, not really. Um. The. That was the only thing that was interesting about that was that we got to pick up a lot of soldiers because they were being driven off. But. Oh, by the Chinese.
NOVEY: Was this up at.
BITTRICH: Hong.
NOVEY: Kong now was that why was that from when they were being driven out? Yeah. Chosen.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Yeah.
NOVEY: The Chosen, right.
BITTRICH: Right, Right.
NOVEY: Okay, so you're tell me a little bit about that, picking up these troops.
BITTRICH: Well, there are a lot of them. And what we do is we go we pick up maybe 40 or 50 of them. Mm hmm. And then we would steam out to the aircraft carriers, and then we put them on the aircraft carriers and go back and get another 40, 50. So we must have had about 3 or 4 of those guys.
NOVEY: Did you ever get to talk to any of them?
BITTRICH: Oh, not much, no.
NOVEY: Okay. And were these Marines or Army?
BITTRICH: Army?
NOVEY: Okay. And that was during our visit. Let's see. So in 1950 was when we got up to the Yellow River. Yeah. Back then, we got almost up there again. Yeah. This is when they were being pushed back.
BITTRICH: Yeah, this is 1951.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: No, actually, it was 52.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah. So how did it I mean, you're basically doing a major evacuation operation. How did that make you feel about how the war was going?
BITTRICH: They didn't like it either. You know, the army was really upset because it's like they were having air run. But but the thing is, they're sort of upset, too, by the fact that now the Chinese are in a war.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So that, you know, that that sort of made it not so bad for them then looked like they were being defeated by the North Koreans. Yeah. So, yeah, that was kind of interesting. And then one time we picked up a whole load of North Koreans. I mean, South Koreans in North Korea. Okay? We evacuated them. We took.
NOVEY: Them back. The civilians or something?
BITTRICH: No, they were soldiers there, too. In reality? Mm hmm.
NOVEY: Mm hmm. Okay. So at this point, how did you personally feel about about how this war would turn out?
BITTRICH: Well, I didn't think we'd lose it because I think we had much more, you know, like the Navy and the aircraft carriers, you know, bombing planes. And.
NOVEY: Yeah, I.
BITTRICH: Just felt that that that was just the moment in the war that we would turn it back around. And we did.
NOVEY: Mm hmm. Yeah. Okay. So about the same time, MacArthur was being relieved.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: How you feeling? Yeah.
BITTRICH: Well, I was, uh. You know, there were, you know, mixed feelings. Some guys liked it a lot. Some. I thought he was a hard ass. And, um. Yeah, it was in Ridgeway.
NOVEY: Yeah. Yeah.
BITTRICH: So you know a lot about the Korean War.
NOVEY: I've done some studying. Huh? Done some study.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good.
NOVEY: So which mindset were you for it? Yeah. I mean, did you pay attention to the debate over. I mean, Carter wanted to sort of take the war to the next level with.
BITTRICH: Oh, I thought. I thought he would be a real mistake to do that.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So, so depressed.
NOVEY: I guess. Yeah. Okay. Um, so. What was the next major. Argument? There was one other thing. Oh, yeah? What? What was the weather like? I mean, you're. You're just south of Siberia. Yeah. Oh, God. What was it like in the weather on a ship off Korea?
BITTRICH: A lot of times it was real bad. Really? Stuff like that. I never saw anything else. No.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But no, but it wasn't bad winds. That was kind of tough, but you know, a lot of rain. Mhm.
NOVEY: So what's it like being a destroyer in rough seas?
BITTRICH: It's tough. Well, I'll tell you another story on me, if you don't mind.
NOVEY: Sure.
BITTRICH: Um, I told you we slept in a compartment and our compartment was forward in the bottle. Yeah. And I was. And this was earlier when I was a lawyer. I finally got out. I finally got my discharge from the Navy and I was a fire control tech one, which is like an orchestra as a surgeon.
NOVEY: So, yeah.
BITTRICH: I don't know exactly which, but anyway. E-5 Whatever.
NOVEY: That is. Okay.
BITTRICH: So anyway. I was crew cleaning compartments. This was when I was a C when I had to clean it compartment. So I clean it up and swab it down and take all the garbage out and huge, huge, huge garbage can. You can hardly lift it. So we were in rough seas at that time. Yeah. Now, on a ship like a destroyer, when you're in rough seas, the bow crane goes under. And what sort? And they have on both sides of the star or starboard port side about what they call the brick. Mm hmm. And it's. Well, here, here's the deck like this, you know?
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then they have a brick that comes with it.
NOVEY: Just sort of like a bit like a wall. Like a.
BITTRICH: Wall. Yeah. And it's got a hearts. You come through. Yeah. Yeah. And you have to. Yeah. So now that can be open when it's good weather. But once rough weather, the hatch, as they call it. Mm hmm. And as you go through it, you got to, you know, just quickly go through and make sure. A wave then. Yeah. Well, now here I am, cleaning a compartment, and then I got this huge garbage can full of garbage and all kinds of junk.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And I didn't want to carry it all the way back through the dump into the fantail. I thought, Well, I'll just go up on the bow and.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: I wasn't thinking. Mm hmm. So I open the hatch and I go up the ladder. I get up on the bow.
NOVEY: Mm.
BITTRICH: And. I closed the hatch and I was carrying this thing to the portside. Right behind between mount on and on to it.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And I get over near the brick. Mm hmm. And, of course, I was going to have to open the hatch to go through the break. Mm hmm. And as I was getting nearer, the ball went under.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And a huge wave came. Knocked me down that garbage can and went overboard. And, you know, I'm sure you see in this lines that the waste line, meal line and anchor line. I know you've seen it.
NOVEY: I think so. Yeah.
BITTRICH: Well, the wind knocked me. Had it in for those to be gone. Oh, wow. So I just hung on to that until, you know, settled down. Mm hmm. And the garbage cans gone.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So I just. I got to wash a reward.
NOVEY: Wow.
BITTRICH: So I had. I've been going on and on and on. I would have been out of. And. Bye bye.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So I went back to. I didn't tell anybody what I did. So we did it, you know, a little later on and maybe a day later, where's the garbage can? So I finally went back and had to requisition another garbage can. I explained what.
NOVEY: Happened. Yeah.
BITTRICH: And so they they didn't. For me, the only thing they said was from now on, you stay off the bow when there's rough weather.
NOVEY: Yeah. So that's. I learned the hard way. So you you're talking. You're talking about how the ball go pretty much goes down.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've got pictures of the ball completely under water when you climb.
NOVEY: So, I mean, what? All right. You have your gun mounts up there? Yeah. What would your loaders have been in that area during that?
BITTRICH: No, no, no, no. Rough weather like that. Okay. You never know.
NOVEY: Where those waterproof somehow. Where are you?
BITTRICH: Well, yeah, but in rough weather, when it's over, they have to go in and swab it out so it doesn't. Okay. Water does get in there, but, you know, it's a lot of this ammunition in there.
NOVEY: Yeah. And how does the ammunition get to these? Is it brought up from down below?
BITTRICH: Yeah. It's. Very initiative lockers down low. Yeah. And then there's a kind of a hoist where you drop the shell in this thing and, you know, several shells and they go up in a gun. Yeah. And then they unload that. Okay. It goes up and around like that. Mm hmm.
NOVEY: Okay. And then they had somebody down in the ammunition lockers.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Boy, I Sure, Yeah.
NOVEY: Feed in the stuff out.
BITTRICH: And it's really a great day when we when we get ammunition, everybody, the whole crew has to haul and go out in the dock, and they put one over their shoulder and fill up with gold, and they have to go down to the ammunition here. It's 56 pounds.
NOVEY: Yeah. And these have. Yeah. Were they were they dangerous at this point or weren't they dangerous still out there? Oh.
BITTRICH: No, they they'd have to they'd have to be a fuze would have to be activated. But you know, in drought they could they could go.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But. No, I never heard of one happening that way.
NOVEY: So. So the whole crew would work on that?
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah.
NOVEY: So where would you generally reload, get your new shipments every year, or would you go to Japan for that or.
BITTRICH: No, there's another ship. There's, um. There's a ship kind of ship that's called the Destroyer tender.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And you can sometimes refuel off that and get your ammo off and stuff like. But sometimes you go, you know, you're going to.
NOVEY: So what was it? What was the refueling process process like? The what? Refueling.
BITTRICH: Oh, you'd come alongside sometimes alongside a carrier or from a from the desert tender. And they have big arms that grow like this. Mm hmm. And then you got this kind of hose like thing that comes out as held by the iron. And then you hook, hook the hose up on onto the side of the. Of the superstructure of the of the destroyer. So it goes down into the fuel area.
NOVEY: Fuel tanks. Okay.
BITTRICH: And they pump that for like an hour or so. Mm hmm.
NOVEY: Okay. So you talked about you had four general details besides your being the fire control officer or control tech.
BITTRICH: I agree with you.
NOVEY: On the details with the cleaning. Yeah.
BITTRICH: And you know, when you first go aboard ship, you're just a senior in Apprentice and then you get all the dirty work, like painting and scrubbing the decks and all that stuff. Keep the ship in good shape. And then as you gradually get higher and your rate goes up, then you don't have to do that.
NOVEY: So what was your favorite general detail? My favorite probably the better question of year was.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Um. Loading food.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And you know, we're so good supply, especially especially in Hawaii, because everything, you know, changes things like fruits, guava and watermelon and pineapple and all that good stuff. That was kind of fun.
NOVEY: Okay. So what all other territories did you do?
BITTRICH: Well, painting a ship. Scrubbing down places that had to be so the decks were wooden.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah. And so we sometimes had to send those.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: When the big brick like that you see on those who are watching, Right, they're kind of tarnished brown. And then when you when you clean them off, they're almost white.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So it's really pretty cool when you do it.
NOVEY: So what's painting the shape? Like? What is that? Oh.
BITTRICH: That's tough. You have to paint everything on the superstructure. And sometimes you have to swim up there to do it. Yeah, it's. That's tough. Everybody has to do it.
NOVEY: Okay. So. Yeah. See. So. So you got. Yeah. So now you're. Yeah. I'm off the coast of Korea for the second time after. Yeah. Back to the U.S.. When did you. When. When did you see your ship leave Korean waters? Next. When? When did you.
BITTRICH: Well, I don't. It's hard for me to. I can't remember. Go ahead. Where were you? You're out there, like, six weeks at a time.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Oh, I think that's right. I don't know. Maybe 24? I don't know.
NOVEY: So once you're done there in Korea, why did you. Where where'd you go next?
BITTRICH: Me? You know, that's when I went to school. And then after high school, I got put on another destroyer. And by that time the war was over.
NOVEY: Okay. So tell me a little bit about high school.
BITTRICH: Oh, that's great. Electronics, you know, hydraulics, all that stuff where we had to build our own radio and see how many stations we could.
NOVEY: Get out and.
BITTRICH: Stuff like that. And I met a real good guy from California, real nice guy. He and I had the two top scores in our in our class, so we got to be really good friends. And he lived in San Mateo, California. And so. We we had a long weekend. So he had his sister's car and we drove along the coastline and went to a couple of days and came back.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: I think that was a 4 or 5 day period of time. I don't remember exactly, but. Oh, the other thing about school was when I was in high school, I was a really good swimmer and diver.
NOVEY: Yeah. Right.
BITTRICH: I was on. The swim team then and there we went over. So when I got to California at a high school, they had a Navy, had a swim team and divers and swimmers. Mm hmm. And so I joined in and I got to. I was one of the better divers. And actually, they had about 6 or 7 divers. And I was like, number three or number two. And that's an accomplishment because all these guys were from California and they they were doing all the, you know, doing their stuff all the time. So I started I we had a lot of fun swimming. And we went to La Hoya, which is right near San Diego. You heard of it?
NOVEY: No, I haven't.
BITTRICH: Oh, it's a beautiful place. And we did a lot of scuba diving and we were going down and capturing lobsters, and. And we would get. Full off the shells. Off the bottom. Well, it's a circle. I can't think of. It starts with a name. Well, anyway, you can eat those things now.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And what was it? Abalone. That's it.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So you go in there and the shelf was, you know, broken up like this. You know you're under water, don't you? There was about. If you went all the way to the bottom, probably about ten, 12ft.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And these things were like that. And you go down and they had all the all the lobsters that were hanging underneath there. Go ahead and put.
NOVEY: Them in the back.
BITTRICH: And then you go down and you had a ride, you know, you down metal rod. And these employees were fixed on a rock somewhere and you stick the thing under and probably three. And what was a neat about.
NOVEY: That was.
BITTRICH: You could take the lobsters or the abalone to a restaurant there in La Hoya and I don't know. For every four lobsters, they would cook one up for you.
NOVEY: Oh, okay.
BITTRICH: And that same same deal. I don't remember the number, but like, I think three abalone and they make one.
NOVEY: Oh, okay.
BITTRICH: So that we did it all the time. Yeah, we did a lot of swimming, body surfing. One time I screwed up and I went out when it was too rough and rolled me on the beach and I got all torn up.
NOVEY: And ended up in a hospital. Oh.
BITTRICH: Okay. It wasn't more. It was more from all the cuts and stuff. But that. Yeah. Okay. You lived through and you learned. Yeah.
NOVEY: So in a school, I mean, you had to learn all this stuff on the job. Yeah. Learn how to read. Yeah. In practice? Yeah. Was learning the textbook way of doing it any different than what?
BITTRICH: It was a little different, but was going to need to have had an experience on the ship. Yeah. Because I could ace every exam.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And the. Yeah. So it was great. And we had a class of about 15 to 18 guys, and they were all they were all impressed by me because I had a lot of knowledge that I could help them with.
NOVEY: Okay. So.
BITTRICH: So it was kind of neat to do it that way.
NOVEY: Yeah. So there are some things that they taught you one way that from experience you knew would work, would have you would have to do differently. Well.
BITTRICH: Sort of, yeah. Especially when you were repairing a problem. Yeah. And then in the system. But then I the thing is, when I was in ship and I tell you, the guy I was tracking for you going to be there was taking off. I had to learn all this myself. And so they have what they call ops operational pamphlets. Yeah, they're about like a big series, a roll catalog. Yeah. And so I had to read all this stuff in there and learn it myself. Okay. Well, I did. Yeah. Because I know how to read.
NOVEY: Yes. Yeah.
BITTRICH: And we had. We had. I was pretty lucky I got that. They. I learned it pretty well. And, uh, this is why I even went to a school. Our radar went out, and when we were on the bomb line and we were about a week away from being taken off the bottom line and going on for most of the show, like I told you. And then Liberty, I woke up.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But your ship had to be for you to do this. It means everything has to be 100%. Okay. And my router. Craftholic.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Was a problem. Or if I couldn't get that thing going, we wouldn't go.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I was up there working under the radar. I mean, the gun was coming in like that. Mm hmm. And that took me about. I think it took two days and go first.
NOVEY: Yeah. Just by working out of those.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Learning what was going on? Yeah. Got it fixed. Got the transmitter tuned. Right. And things were going alright? Yeah, I was really high power. A lot of both. And I was dealing with there.
NOVEY: Oh, yeah. And so I guess messing up was a little more risky.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Well, the thing is, you had to use. Screwdrivers that were made out of fiberglass.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: You couldn't use a normal screwdriver. And one time when we were in Hawaii. Mm hmm. Western Electric engineer came and worked on my radar. Mm hmm. And he made the mistake. You know, we would sit on rubber blankets, too, so that he wouldn't. You know, he made the mistake of using a metal screwdriver, and he got zapped really good. It knocked him on his. But I thought he was dead for a second. Yeah. Just shock them for a while. He learned. Yeah. So, yeah, I really enjoyed the Navy. I had a good time with it.
NOVEY: So you're talking. So for farmers, for most of her, Charles, you're talking about going off the bottom line and going down to. Yeah. So this was while you were while you were doing patrols out Korea, you would be off Korea and then. Yeah. Then you would rotate down, right?
BITTRICH: Right. Yeah.
NOVEY: So tell me about the Formosa patrols. What are you doing down there?
BITTRICH: Well, I told you, little wooden sampan. Boats came along and we had a blast. Some of those. The whole idea was to keep Formosa for free. China, you know? Mm hmm. And at one time, the U.S. gave the. Three Chinese navy. I go to two destroyer escorts. And so they took me off the ship and I was stationed at Kira Shun Formosa. Mm hmm. And I was teaching Chinese sailors how to use this radar. Okay. So I had a couple of weeks doing it. Mm hmm. And it was kind of fun, too, because I had a Chinese. Officer Ensign years. His name. And he. I would say something and he would say, in Chinese.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: You know, it's really kind of fun. I enjoyed it. It's great. And we sort of prayed once and Shane Kai-Shek came through. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, I saw him sitting in the car. Mm hmm. But then. I. I was there. And this was in February. Mm hmm. And I got a package. Christmas package from home. I didn't get it till February. Mm hmm. So they brought it to me in Formosa and Kaohsiung. So I opened it up. And it was packed with popcorn and stuff, you know, just, you know, using popcorn for insulation. And it had. Just tons of double bubble gum.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Okay. So I opened over and I gave these guys my class. Guys. Yeah.
NOVEY: Some popcorn and stuff like that.
BITTRICH: And I'm doing the double ballroom. So they had never seen bubble gum. Oh, right. So I took an all nighter and I blew a big bubble. And their eyes just got big like that. So then I gave it to them and they had to learn how to blow bubbles. And, boy, they were just having a time there. I was their best friend after that.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And the innocent ye the the interpreter lived there. And had a family there. And he invited me home to dinner at his house.
NOVEY: Okay. It's kind.
BITTRICH: Of neat. Mm hmm. So, yeah, I had a great time. For most, it was good.
NOVEY: Yeah. So you talked about having to. I think you said something about having to blast some of the same pan sampan boats.
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. The same boat had a way of hauling a mine out and dropping in in front of you.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Okay. So we had orders to not let them come even out. So we had a ball. So, okay, I imagine our ship maybe got 3 or 4 like that.
NOVEY: So the. So is any of any of these boats that would go out in front of you, you'd have to try to figure out what to do with or.
BITTRICH: No, they. They were far enough away or not that we could hit them with the fire engine.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah. Mm hmm. And these were mainland Chinese trying to sabotage the Koreans?
BITTRICH: Yeah. I mean, communist Chinese. Yeah. Yep.
NOVEY: Right. Okay. Mm hmm. Okay. So then you said that you would go on leaves in Hong Kong?
BITTRICH: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that was great. I think I was there three times. Okay. Anyway, you'd come in to Hong Kong? Mm hmm. And you'd get way in there, and you get to tie a dock. Mm hmm. And there would be literally thousands of these Chinese people coming. Try to scramble on your boat, Try to sell you stuff. Just. Just unbelievable. We had to keep them off using fire hoses.
NOVEY: Wow.
BITTRICH: Just knock on boundaries. They wouldn't. You couldn't get on. Uh huh. So we have to get a certain number each day that kind of come. We were there like 23 days. A certain number were selected to come on board. Okay. And the rest of them, we had to keep away with fire hoses.
NOVEY: Wow.
BITTRICH: That was really crazy. But you could buy all kinds of stuff. Cheap ivory suits, you know, just all kinds of crazy stuff. Real cheap. You could buy a man's suit for, like, $4. Mm hmm. And craziness. And it was good. And I bought a bunch of ivory.
NOVEY: Yeah. Thing. Okay. And.
BITTRICH: Yeah, that was fun.
NOVEY: Yeah. So what was it like? I mean, any of these foreign imports they'd visit? I mean, you. You grew up in Baraboo. Yeah. Wisconsin. What was it like in these foreign parts for the first time? It was.
BITTRICH: Really crazy. I told you when I got there, they took me out right away and put me on a Tucker.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: So I. What I didn't really get except for the tennis court episode. I didn't really get to go Japan. Mm hmm. So when we got there, we came in and we were coming into port, and there were literally, again, literally thousands of women.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I said, What's going on here? I said, Where are you, man? I said, What do they all do? And he said, Man, they're working the ladies. They're prostitutes. They're waiting for your money. So it's crazy.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Huh. So, yeah. And I said. I said I had a good friend that we got to be sure the trans guy was still out at the exchange right now. Go back and forth. It is. Is that in San Francisco?
NOVEY: Are you okay?
BITTRICH: And his name was Jacoby. And he and I were on different ships. After we got out of school.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: But we met in Santiago. Okay. And so we spent the regime together. And. And then the next couple of days, we were on meet. Mm hmm. And so what we did is we have done a train the next day after. It was actually the day after New Year's. Mm hmm. And we had on a train, and we went south about almost an hour. Mm hmm. And we went to. In a second.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And he and I went up to the spot where the bomb had hit. Mm hmm. You know, a museum there. All kinds of artifacts from sets from the atomic bomb. I've got some pictures of that, too.
NOVEY: So how much had it been rebuilt by the time?
BITTRICH: Quite a bit. Quite a bit. Yeah. The area where it hit was like a big circle because it didn't actually hit the ground. Yeah. Yeah. And then it was like a big, round green circle of grass. But a lot of buildings had been built around it. But yeah. So it was really something. Yeah. Yeah, The museum was crazy. And, you know, like shadows of. Mm hmm. Like a man's shadow on the wall.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And the thing that had burn.
NOVEY: You know.
BITTRICH: Stuff in bottles and other things through it. Just all kinds of weird things in this museum.
NOVEY: So how did that make you feel, seeing all this nuclear stuff? And then, I mean, you're involved in the first, first small, hot war of the Cold War.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Well, you know, I felt sorry for those people that we had to have done. Mm hmm. But also, it was a necessity, I think, to prevent further war. Yeah. And end the war. But the Japanese people. All we perceived Democrats were occupying. We're really nice. They're really friendly. They're great. I had a when we were trying to up and you could Skype for like three weeks. I had I think I told you I had a I took a language class, had a teacher was really nice lady, young lady. And she took me to. The town. Northam. But there a giant Buddha there.
NOVEY: Okay?
BITTRICH: And she took me to see that. And her grandmother lived in this, so she took me to meet her grandmother.
NOVEY: Okay?
BITTRICH: She was a nice lady. Said she could speak English very well.
NOVEY: Oh, okay.
BITTRICH: So I learned some Japanese. Okay. Not too much here.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Coco Ni, what are you on this guy?
NOVEY: And what's that mean?
BITTRICH: Do you like my book?
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Creative money is negotiable. Well, you all go. She go. Means I hope you enjoy your breakfast.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Her career is a few things that I remember.
NOVEY: Some of.
BITTRICH: It. Yeah. Funny. You know, we have a Honda motorcycle, but Honda and Japanese means book.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And anyway. Yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed that. I wish I had more time to learn Japanese.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So how did you feel about how the. How the Korean War ended? I mean, you were still in the Navy. Yeah. Were you still on the. Yeah. Where are you still doing patrols off the coast?
BITTRICH: No, no, It ended while I was in high school.
NOVEY: Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how did you feel about how it ended?
BITTRICH: Well, I was glad that ended. I really didn't. You know, the whole idea of the split Korea was not good.
NOVEY: No.
BITTRICH: I was glad the war was over.
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So and then out of school, did you return to the Tucker or.
BITTRICH: No, I went to another ship. The Jenkins, the four, four seven.
NOVEY: So tell me a little bit about what you did on this track.
BITTRICH: Um, well, we went to Japan and we came back to Hawaii. Mm hmm. But it wasn't like when we saw bombardment. It was just a ordinary routine, you know? Okay. It's a good ship. Mm hmm. I enjoyed it. And it had a history in the Second World War and also had been at the casino.
NOVEY: The neighbor of the king. Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: And it had a good history. Okay.
NOVEY: So we're. We're a lot of the officers on your ships. World War Two veterans are.
BITTRICH: No, there was no. They're all young like me.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah.
BITTRICH: Except for, you know, a couple of them. Like. Like the captain. And maybe the gun boss is older and stuff like that.
NOVEY: Okay. So. So. And then how long were you on this ship?
BITTRICH: Um. Close to a year.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And we were on Hawaii and was time coming up for. I just heard from Jan.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And so I was on my ship, and they took me to Barbers Point to put me on a plane to fly back to the States. Mm hmm. I gather we were going to load on the ship. The airplane? Mm hmm. And they. Had to stand down. And they took the plane over and they built some scaffolding. And he started working on two of the engines as a four engine.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So, yeah, they worked most of the afternoon and finally they were done and we were loaded on and we flew for the States.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: For for discharge. Well, everybody on the ship and the plane was going for dessert. Mm hmm. So the guy comes in, said we were having engine trouble and say, okay. He broke out the yellow life raft. Call him all the. Um, life jackets, stuff like that. Tell us what we had to do. You go down and tether it, Tether several people to their, you know, their wrists to the life raft that get into it real fast because in he said it this in this time of year, you could freeze to death in that scenario. So he got us all set to do that and got a little bit worried. And everybody said, damn, we're going for a discharge in this, you know? So we're flying in and it's raining and foggy and cloudy and you couldn't see anything. And we come to the States and well, at one point they talked about the point of no return having to turn around and go back to Hawaii. So we were beyond that. We couldn't do that.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So we came in to land at Moffett Field. Mm hmm. And they came in. Okay. They couldn't see the ground or anything. And and this. And this plane. It was benches. It wasn't seats. Benches. And you were sitting. And so you could look out.
NOVEY: The window here. Yeah.
BITTRICH: And I could see the clouds and rain hitting and were coming in to land and. All at once because we were only 50ft off the ground at this point. And the plane hits the ground. Was back in the air. One landing gear dangled loose. Okay. And coming back down and hit the ground, we hit kind of roughly, and it skidded for like it seemed like a mile and a half longer was a long way to me. All kinds of weird screeching, chromed, probably noises really, really terrible. And finding it came to a halt. Just stopped. Mm hmm. And we could still hear kind of funny noises on the plane. And we're all sitting there and everyone's quiet, and the guy says, I don't know. Can I say this on the tape?
NOVEY: But if you're out there, he said some pitch like that. Yeah.
BITTRICH: Everybody laughed. At that point, the hatch open to a cockpit. The pilot steps out is a green shirt, crew cut, blond hair, guy looked like he was 12 or something. He was a pilot and he had tailor made suntan uniform, completely reworked.
NOVEY: You know.
BITTRICH: So he stopped and he looked at us and he said, pretty hairy landing on there.
NOVEY: He laughed at.
BITTRICH: Everybody and started laughing at you. Are those that close to being discharged? Do they do this to us? Yeah. That's what everybody was saying. So anyway, a couple of days later, discharged and my folks came in.
NOVEY: Okay, We were right back home. What was it like transitioning back to civilian life?
BITTRICH: Well, it was kind of interesting because I had GI Bill, you know? Mm hmm. So I decided to go to the areas in Wisconsin.
NOVEY: Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: So I went there, and the semester started just a couple of days after I got home second semester. So I went to Madison and then school.
NOVEY: Okay. Where did you go to school for?
BITTRICH: That's another story. Okay. Since I've been working in radar and all that stuff. Electronics. I went to electrical engineering. Mm hmm. So after a semester and a half of that and math differential equations, you know what they are. I still don't.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: Differential are terrible. Yeah. So I thought. So I flunked differential equations. I got a D in engineering physics. I think it was. So my grade wasn't so good. I had to go see. The Dean of the School of Engineering. So I got to stand in line and get a number. It took half a day before I could see you. Yeah. So I finally got in and we sat down and he said, I'm looking at your records here. He said. You know, pretty decent grades on health courses. You know what I mean when I say health course. That's how you get letters in science. Mm hmm. He says you're in pretty good grades in areas of engineering where, you know, you're kind of flunking out. Mm hmm. And he said, I'll tell you, I'll give you the year. If you want to stay in engineering, you're going to have to sit out a semester. Okay. Well, if you want to go back and major in letters in Science on the Hill, you can go right now without having to sit on.
NOVEY: Oh, yeah.
BITTRICH: Writing on the wall?
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So I went to. So. There are a sense and I finally ended up and in high school, I've been really involved in drama and all that stuff and I wasn't afraid to speak. I was good at that. And so I decided to go in that area. So I ended up with an English major and. Came to Marshall to teach.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I taught for 50 years.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And did plays and musicals. And at the Jersey Center there, I directed plays also and acted in them because I had acted in plays in high school and in college. And so it was kind of fun. So I enjoyed the Marshall teaching and, and I enjoyed teaching English and speech and drama television production.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So I had just a pretty good deal. Yeah, I thought so. If it hadn't been for the the Navy, I wouldn't have even gone to school.
NOVEY: Probably. Yeah.
BITTRICH: See, I learned that those officers weren't any smarter than I was, so I figured I had better get myself an education. So I did and enjoy it and not regret it.
NOVEY: But yeah.
BITTRICH: Good. I got married and I had three kids. David's the oldest. He lives in Madison, near West Ham. Okay. He's an engineer, environmental engineer, and he's got two grandchildren. And my daughter. She married a nice young man. Who. They. He wanted to be a loser. You know, there is no. They build and repair string instruments like violins and children and stuff like that. So he went to school and there the Minnesota Red Wing to learn three. And then he had a job in Vermont violin. So my daughter can play violin, too. And so they went out there and. She decided to get her master's degree. She went to Dartmouth to get.
NOVEY: Okay because.
BITTRICH: They lived in Montpelier, which is 50 miles an hour. Right.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And. Today she was and she entered Dartmouth. She learned she was pregnant.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So she had a little girl and Gabriella. So now here she's going to school and she's got a little daughter was breastfeeding.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: She had an experience where the daughter, the little daughter would sit on Chester's lap. And one day she was presenting, saying and stage presenting, and little Gaby started to cry. And that made her, you know what happens then with the mother? The breastfeeding and let loose.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: So I get a phone call. She tells us this story. She wants to get her master's degree in, uh, in screenwriting.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: Okay. And she had taught at Madison West for a while to report. She met with her husband in Red Wing and then to Vermont. So she said, Dad, what, are you going to retire? I said, I don't know why. She said, I want you guys to come home, take care of your school. So we did.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: We both retired at Christmas time and it was really wild too, because I had been there 50 years and done all the shows, you know. So the last week I was there, all groups of teachers would come in during every class and they would sing The 12 Days of Christmas. Only one part of it, you know, and they call it 12 days of bitching.
NOVEY: Okay. Okay.
BITTRICH: So then, uh, the last day of the week is Friday and someone's knocking on the door. Mhm. Oh, here comes another one. You know, and it was the band director. Okay. And he says to me, Come on out. Okay. Come outside. And he had all these. His drum section, you know. Well, I forgot. What is it, ten drummers drumming or something like that. So they're drawing and he says, Come with me. I said, What? No, come with me. Why? Come on, just follow. So the drummers are drumming. And I was marching. I went from my classroom down the hallway, down the corner, went down into the Commons area. The whole school was there. They were all there. Channel nine was there, and they gave me all kinds of presidents, the television and all just everything. All kinds of things, you know. And I had filmed football for the under 50 years. So the football coach gave me a check for $150. And and just like that, I had they all came in and Madrigal Singers had written a song about me. They sang it and band played. And Channel Nine was there and interviewed me and it was just nuts, you know?
NOVEY: Really appreciate it.
BITTRICH: Yeah. Craziness. Yeah. So anyway, so we went out to Montpelier, Vermont, and helped my daughter get her master's degree and take care of Gabby. And I was on five. We all are downtown, and everybody knew who I was because I had Gabby.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: So anyway, then the principal of the high school called me up and said, I've got a problem.
NOVEY: What is it? He said.
BITTRICH: He said, I can't find anybody to replace him. I said, You're kidding. He said, How about if I pay you some very good money? You come back and do a couple more.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah.
BITTRICH: So I flew back from Montpelier, Vermont, did Oklahoma.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then I went back and then I came back and I did actually get all these. Mm hmm. So I did several shows, and then. By that time. My daughter and their husband came back to. Can you hear it, actually?
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And so. We're done there with that. And then. So then he asked me to come and do another show.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: I was here.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And it's back in and gospel. Mm hmm. And so I did. I did the musical Camelot 901 show.
NOVEY: Wow.
BITTRICH: Now, for 30 years, I had also directed and acted at the University Center and in Nashville. So I directed a lot of shows there and acted in fun. So, yeah, that was a good time. Yeah.
NOVEY: So during this time, did you join any veterans organizations?
BITTRICH: I did. I joined the American Legion. For a while. My dad and then American Legion. I wasn't a very good member, though, so I was. I mean, maybe about five years.
NOVEY: Okay. And I was going to ask you. When you first joined the Navy, you were sent you were given the option to return the to the air cadets. At what point did you decide that was not something you wanted to do anymore?
BITTRICH: Well, I just went along and I don't think there was any particular point. Just decided that if I wanted to be in America, then I'd have to be however long it took to learn to fly. And then you had to go. You had to be four years in the Naval Air cadets after you learned to fly. Yeah. So you had to commit to that. So that meant another probably about 6 or 8 years. Yeah. And I looked at that and I thought, nah.
NOVEY: Yeah. All right. So how did your service in Korea and the first war. The first war of the Cold War, how did that sort of inform your thoughts on Vietnam when it came.
BITTRICH: Was a mixed. You know, I was a sort of rah rah patriotic from having been in the Navy in the Korean War. But I also thought that the war in Vietnam was just a waste. Yeah. So I was a really a real problem for me.
NOVEY: Yeah. And I think the problem for everybody.
BITTRICH: To figure out. Yeah. Yeah.
NOVEY: Think about it.
BITTRICH: Yeah. And we had a lot of I was teaching and argumentation and debate as a class, and we had a lot of discussions about.
NOVEY: The okay during.
BITTRICH: That time. And I also really believe that that was not supposed to have been done. Okay. And I don't see how it made any difference in terms of the comments.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: I know you could say that about Korea, too, though.
NOVEY: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But South Korea's now. Yeah. Stayed free.
BITTRICH: That's. That's good.
NOVEY: Yeah. So it sort of In summary, I try to summarize how you feel about your experiences overall in the military.
BITTRICH: Oh, I love the Navy. I had a good time. Really thought long and hard about staying in. And one I was going for discharge. They offered me to go to. The Rice Institute in Houston, Texas, to sort of try to become an officer in the Navy. I thought that over to pretty heavy.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: But I said, no, I want to go. I got to I always wanted to. Really. Interesting response.
NOVEY: Yeah. Mm hmm.
BITTRICH: So I didn't think it was worth it to try to get into that, because that would mean you're there. Yeah. For her?
NOVEY: Yeah. Okay. So what surprised you about the Navy and or what did what didn't you expect about your experience?
BITTRICH: Well. I pretty much knew what the Navy was like. I did.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And I liked how I liked as a kid, my next door neighbor boys and I used to make model aircraft carriers and destroyers and cruisers. Yeah. But their dad ran the ring theater in Beirut, and they had all these big cardboard posters that they put out all the time. And so we used the whole mess of those thrown away and made aircraft carriers. Yeah. Destroyers, cruisers. And we made a pretty authentic view from the pictures and so on.
NOVEY: And we had a.
BITTRICH: Lot of fun. In those days, you didn't. They didn't have masking tape, you know.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: You know, mean you know that. Yeah. What did they have instead? They had sticky paper.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And you had to get it wet. Yeah. To use it. So we built these things out out of those showgirls and sticky paper.
NOVEY: Okay.
BITTRICH: And then sometimes we would make a build an airplane, and then we'd fly over and drop firecrackers on our loved ones. We'd go. So we. We.
NOVEY: We played war a little bit. Yeah. Mean as.
BITTRICH: A kid.
NOVEY: All right. So what what had your father done in World War One? What was.
BITTRICH: And he was on a strange ship. It was the USS Frederick. It had been a cruiser that had been captured from the German navy and was put into the U.S. Navy with it. Still had a German name there, Frederick. Mm hmm. And so he he said he did, I don't know the number, maybe 20 different cruises back and forth from the states to France.
NOVEY: Okay. His convoy crossed. Yeah. Okay.
BITTRICH: All during the World War One. Mm hmm. Okay. He lived to be 106 months.
NOVEY: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So. Yeah. How did your experience in the Navy change you or affect the path of your life? Well.
BITTRICH: I think it's quite clear. Oh, it did that, Yeah. It allowed me to go to the university and home. I probably wouldn't have been teaching had it not been for that. Yeah. And I had got a lot of experience in drama at the university. And yeah, it really changed my life. Big time.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah.
BITTRICH: And I think I became a much more serious person, too. I was sort of a happy go lucky man.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: The first part.
NOVEY: Okay. So, yeah, I. See the line. Just want to ask the question, why is it why was it important for you to do an oral history about your service? I know you said your daughter had well, who told you about it?
BITTRICH: But I keep telling the stories over and over and over. That's probably what gave my daughter the idea I should come and talk to you. I like talking about my experiences only because they were good.
NOVEY: Yeah.
BITTRICH: And how I wouldn't have been able to see Japan or Hong Kong or Philippines or all those places. I got to go. Hawaii.
NOVEY: Midway High School. Yeah.
BITTRICH: Yeah.
NOVEY: Okay. Now, you mentioned going to the to the Philippines. Did you ever cross the equator?
BITTRICH: Oh, yeah. Couple of times we had.
NOVEY: As a ceremony.
BITTRICH: Yeah, in the Navy for sure. We didn't live on that war. It's just like you can imagine the guys who put on wigs and hula skirts and dancing and grass skirts and. Yeah. And made a king and queen out of the whole thing. And it was just a lot of fun.
NOVEY: Okay. Yeah. So. I did. Is there anything that you know of that we haven't addressed yet that you'd like to talk about?
BITTRICH: Mhm. Yeah. Thank you very much. Oh, I see. Um, yeah. The idea of being able to travel to all those countries was great. And as I said, amazing. The Japanese were wonderful. They really were. Okay. And not at all like the stereotype of the Second World War, you know, So. Yeah. And I, of course, I met a lot of good guys, went on to my best friends, like I said. But Kobe, that you and I were in a class together in San Diego and here we were going to see him and his wife, family, and they've come here to see us. And. And we we exchange, you know, letters alone. And sometimes we own one right now.
NOVEY: So I started to conclude. What's your. Yeah, I You've been around the block a few times. What's your advice for future generations?
BITTRICH: Don't be afraid to try something new and dive in and take it.
NOVEY: All right. Well, thank you for your thank you interview.
BITTRICH: Yeah, I enjoyed it.
NOVEY: Good.
[Interview Ends]