[Interview Begins]

BLUMENBERG: All right, we're rolling. So, good morning. My name is Tom Bloomberg, and it is my privilege to be here today with Daniel Stansell. It is Friday and it's August 13, 2021. And Dan and I are in West Bend, Wisconsin. Just as a note, I will tell you that I am not affiliated with any organization. I am doing this interview for the Veterans History Project. And Dan was very gracious to sit down and talk with me. So we will get started now. Dance. Okay. Good morning, Dan. Good morning. Here we go. So we met a little bit a couple of days ago and I told you we'd go through some questions. So I'll start. I know you had a chance to look at some of these, but we'll start with the very, very basics. Where. Where were you born, Dan?

STANCL: I was born in [XXXXXXXXXXXXXX], Wisconsin.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. And what date was that? What's your what? What's your birth date?

STANCL: My birthday is [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX].

BLUMENBERG: So you are 94, 94 years old.

STANCL: Correct.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your your parents.

STANCL: Well, I had my mother was or. Stanford. And my dad. Both girls. Charlie. I was an only child.

BLUMENBERG: You were the only child?

STANCL: Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Do you know what your mother's name was before she was married yet?

STANCL: Her name was Charlotte, but. F. V. O. L o. W. I. C read.

BLUMENBERG: Wow. A lot of consonants there. And what's the origin of that name?

STANCL: I don't know if you're the Polish.

BLUMENBERG: Polish. Okay. But you told me your name was Czech.

STANCL: Yeah. My dad came over from Czechoslovakia when he was ten years old. Okay. And with his mother and four other brother. Okay. His father already had come ahead and. Had of. A fabulous place for them to live, and then you get them to come over.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: So where do they where do they enter the US? In New York.

STANCL: In New York? Yeah. They came into the. Jason. There were immigrants came in to New York. Well, I forget the name of that.

BLUMENBERG: Right. Ellis Island.

STANCL: Elliott trial. Well, right.

BLUMENBERG: But I wonder what year that would have been. Before you were born. So.

STANCL: Yeah. I have no idea.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, well, that's some history right there.

STANCL: Yeah. Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. And what. What what was the occupation? What was your father's occupation?

STANCL: My dad worked for the Weinberg Shoe Company in Milwaukee.

Speaker 3 Okay?

STANCL: He was a shoe cutter, and he was a very good crew cutter because during the Depression, the company laid off all their shoe cutter except my dad.

BLUMENBERG: He was the only one left.

STANCL: The only shoe cutter? Yeah, because he knew how to cut various kinds of leather like hell, alligator and kangaroo and all that unusual kinda leather that some people wanted shoes to be made out of.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: So he was. He retained his position then as the head, the leather cutter.

STANCL: Through the old depression.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, well, I know that one area of Milwaukee was called Cannery Row or something where they dealt with a lot of the leather goods right along the river. So I don't know where Weinberg was at the time. The window to that, though.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: Well, what about your mother? Well, she was she was.

STANCL: A homemaker.

BLUMENBERG: And and she had her hands full taking care of you.

STANCL: Yeah, she took care of me.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, that's good. And you said you were an only child.

STANCL: Yeah.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: Then would you tell? Tell me. Tell us about now your early schooling when you were in Milwaukee. Where did you go to school?

STANCL: Okay. I went to a school. I'm outside and I went from first to fifth grade. I was Then somebody came and told my parents I was going to run the school. Anyway.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah.

STANCL: So you think that for sixth grade you got to go to grad school?

BLUMENBERG: Grant.

STANCL: Grant.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And so I was just in grade school for the sixth grade.

BLUMENBERG: All right.

STANCL: And then I would then I was put into Walker Junior High School for 7/8 and ninth grade in Walker Junior High. We could go for a walk.

BLUMENBERG: All right. And then.

STANCL: And then I went to Pulaski High School for my senior year of 10th, 11th and 12th grade.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: So you graduated then from post.

STANCL: Graduated from Pulaski? I was I was only six. I was 16 years old. Through my whole senior year. I was the youngest kid in my graduating class of 200 from Kid.

BLUMENBERG: You were the youngest?

STANCL: I was the youngest because in my early years, like in second and third grade, the teachers advanced me ahead half the year.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: So I was exactly a year ahead of everybody else in schooling.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. So you were out early?

STANCL: I was the youngest kid in my graduating class through out.

BLUMENBERG: Well, congratulations. But what happened to you after high school?

STANCL: Well, at high school, I. My parents knew, of course, the war was on and everything, and I was only 17 years old. So we said, we're going to we're going to put you or we're going to ask you to go to Marquette University.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: Because and so I had to register for Marquette University. And and then when I of course, when I turned 18, the server took me and I had to leave Marquette University. But they thought my parents. So because I was in college, the government wouldn't take me into the reserve. They were trying to protect my life.

BLUMENBERG: Sure.

STANCL: So they they that's why they they insisted that I go into Marquette University. Okay. And I took a journalism class for that semester. Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Wow. So you graduated. You graduated high school then around 1944, or is that right?

STANCL: 1944. I graduated.

BLUMENBERG: Okay, So the war was on or.

STANCL: Yeah, it was still on in Europe and in Japan, of course.

BLUMENBERG: All right. So you were a freshman at Marquette? Yes. And then you got drafted?

STANCL: That's correct. Wow.

BLUMENBERG: So when you were drafted, what was your entry point into service and you were you were drafted into the Navy, is that right?

STANCL: Yeah, I think then I had come to a certain building in Milwaukee when I was 18, and so I did. And the guy the. Instructor Terry said, Oh, well, he said, we we can let you make up your mind. We can take you into the Army or into the Navy.

BLUMENBERG: All right.

STANCL: And I said, Well, the Army is awarded almost over in Europe from what I read. So I said, Put me in the Navy.

BLUMENBERG: So you chose the Navy?

STANCL: I filled the Navy and all that. And I said, well, we're going to take you down into Chicago, where we have a base there to get you indoctrinated to the Navy.

BLUMENBERG: Okay.

STANCL: So me and some other people from other guys were put on a train and taken down to Chicago. This was all in the same day that I showed up in Milwaukee. And all of a sudden I'm in the Navy and heading vertical.

BLUMENBERG: They didn't waste any time.

STANCL: No, they did not.

BLUMENBERG: So when you went to Chicago was at Great Lakes, Naval.

STANCL: Great Lakes. Correct.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And that was kind of nice because my I was there for about a month, I guess, and my parents could drive down and they with me and they did on weekends. They would be allowed to on Sunday. I think it would come and visit me while I was doing basic training.

BLUMENBERG: Well, you were in basics. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that happens anymore.

STANCL: I have no idea what happened now. Yeah, but our life. Because then my parents could see me and ask me, how is the day our day draining you and are you eating and. Oh, yeah. And all that kind of stuff. And so it was nice to see my parents again. And they did this every week. Yeah, while I was there.

BLUMENBERG: Good for you.

STANCL: It was very nice. Very nice for the government to do that.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. So when you were at Great Lakes, what kind of training did you have? That was your boot camp, basically.

STANCL: Yeah. Well, I don't really. I don't. So many years ago, I don't remember what we did.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah.

STANCL: They just. They get. You know, you had to get your clothes, you get your uniform and all of that. They go when you come in there, you got your civilian, you know, cold.

BLUMENBERG: Sure. Just like today.

STANCL: And they got to give you all new clothes and you got to give it all. You go to my parents and take home with them.

BLUMENBERG: Where they went. Well, so you don't remember much about the your training And in specifics, do you remember any of the instructors or any any of the folks that you met there.

STANCL: In where.

BLUMENBERG: At basic training. Do you remember any of the basic training?

STANCL: No. No.

Speaker 3 Okay. Oh.

BLUMENBERG: Well, that's fine. So basic training was, what, six weeks or eight weeks?

STANCL: I couldn't tell you.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: Then what happened after that basic training?

STANCL: Well, then you said one day they said we're no, we're going to take you down and put you into where you're going to spend the rest of your career in a Navy role. Again, we get put on a train of thinking down into Oklahoma.

BLUMENBERG: So you went from Great Lakes.

STANCL: Or Chicago to Norman.

BLUMENBERG: Oklahoma. Okay. And we talked a little bit about that. That was the norm in the Navy Pilot Training Center in Oklahoma.

STANCL: Yeah. And the reason they chose this little town of Norman, because it had an airport that had the same length and a Navy aircraft carrier deck.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: So what they did is they did I don't know how to get surfaced to the airport at that time, but they said we're going to make it look like. A deck of an aircraft carrier because we're going to bring airplane to land on this. I'm the airport and we want it to look like a deck of an aircraft carrier. So they coated it with a kind of a green paint or whatever kind of material, you know, to make it look from the air, look like the deck of an aircraft carrier. And then they took then airplanes from another town in Illinois, in Oklahoma, near where they were training air pilot.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And I don't know, 20 or 30 miles away. And they'd come flying over and then they'd see our field, and then they'd have to land on it. And of course, they had come time. They didn't make it all the way abroad. I mean, they they ran off the end of the airfield and the grass, and it would have been in the water if they were on the deck of the aircraft carrier. They'd be down in the ocean.

BLUMENBERG: I guess that's why they were practicing.

STANCL: That's why they were practicing.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Now, tell me a little bit about what your function was there.

STANCL: Well, I. I was in the fire department. They put me in the fire department. I'm that way. And when the air when they had these airplanes coming in, we had what they called a crash truck. And what it was a truck that had a couple thousand gallons of water on it. We the truck carried all this water. And then I would part of the truck. I was one of the I think me and another fellow and a driver. And we'd come there and be waiting on the side of the field everywhere. Planes came in and landed on this field. And if some of them if they were to crash, our job would have been to come in and put out the fire or whatever. What? And then if. If there was a fire. And my job would have been to save the pilot. The pilot was in Central Park. And so therefore I therefore I had to they even in our practice area, they actually put an airplane on fire.

BLUMENBERG: You told me about that earlier. So what how did you respond when.

STANCL: And then they would we would come with our fire truck and my I would my driver had to come in and then we would turn around sharply around so that me and my friend could jump up with hoses on her shoulder with the water hose to put it out the fire of the airplane.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And so we had to run to this fire blazing aircraft with our fire hose. And then my job was to work and get to the airplane and just cut the wing because there was no pilot. And I didn't have to save anybody. Yeah, but that was what I was trained to do.

BLUMENBERG: Sounds pretty dangerous to me.

STANCL: It was dangerous.

BLUMENBERG: What kind of outfit that you were?

STANCL: Well, we had girls or regular navy. Oh, I had, like, boots, hip boots, some kind of boot. And we had. We rented an airplane, you know, and that was okay. You know, we get all wet to keep cool and get through the fire. So we always got wet, that's for sure.

BLUMENBERG: Practice doing that. Yeah. Now, do I remember? Did you say that somebody was spraying water on you also?

STANCL: Yes.

BLUMENBERG: Well, tell tell us about that.

STANCL: Well, the. The one of I guess even the fire truck driver, he would have to get out and help spray. But we had our own hoses and me and my friend were running to we would get wet through that. But our main task was to get to the airplane and put out the fire there.

BLUMENBERG: And get the pilot out.

STANCL: A the pilot where there was no pilot. Well.

BLUMENBERG: If it was a real event. Yes. Yeah.

STANCL: But if we were just practicing in and I was if if I would have got an aircraft carrier, that would have been my job because these planes. I'm out in the ocean. They come in. They've already been in a dogfight with the Japanese. So their plane has been shot up, that the pilot has been maybe wounded. And so he can't control it correctly. And he comes in just to hopefully land on the aircraft carrier. So that was really that was a very. I don't know how to explain it, but it was a very dangerous mission.

BLUMENBERG: It was a dangerous mission and an important one.

STANCL: Yeah. These pilots were worth a lot of money to the government. They put in a lot of money and into the guy, like the pilot, the train. And that was the biggest part to save the pilot.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Okay. Well, do you have any other memories of your time there in Norman?

STANCL: Oh, well, we were about 25 miles from Oklahoma City, which is the capital of Oklahoma. And. I would I. We'd go there for my when I had time off to go, I'd go to a movie or. And then I better come somewhere. I met a girl. And she wanted to go dancing. So I pray, well, I don't know where the dancer plays. But she did. She knew where to go. And so off we go. And she I knew how to jitterbug from a girl in Milwaukee.

BLUMENBERG: Okay.

STANCL: One of my buddy sister taught me how to jitterbug. And so I told her, Well, the only way I know other dancers jitterbug and features Yoda, I'd like to do that. So there we were in a dance called Jitterbug, and it was a lot of fun.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, well, good. So you had some what they call that hour, an hour rest and relaxation time?

STANCL: Yeah, there was that. What I did in that in those days when I had I'd go to Oklahoma City and either go to a movie or go and go dancing with her.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: Now, you know, you were taken out of Milwaukee and Marquette University. Marquette University. And it happened like in the blink of an eye. You were you were settled in and then you were gone. So did you did you have trouble or how did you handle moving from your life into the military life in a short.

STANCL: There's no question about what you do. You have to go into the server. And that was it. That was it. You don't question that. You don't want to do that or don't want to do that. They tell you what to do.

BLUMENBERG: And you did.

STANCL: It and you have to do it.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. So what was life like in the barracks?

STANCL: Well, that was kind of unusual. I would first of all, the first night that I was in the Navy, I was in basic training in Chicago. I got assigned to guard duty the first night of my father's life and guard duty for 4 hours. And I said, what do I what am I supposed to do with guard and what am I guarding? Well, you're kind of you're in the I'm guarding the barracks, but I'm living in. I said, Well, what do what are you doing? Well, you just make sure that nobody leaves. Nobody leaves you with all these covers laid out in bed sleeping. Yeah. I said, were they going to leave? Well, we don't know, but we don't want them to leave. You got to make sure they don't leave. Well.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, that's.

STANCL: True. And I couldn't understand that. But as the night wore on, I'm walking through the barrack to make sure everybody was alright. And no, I do weren't supposed to talk or do anything. And I would walk down the middle aisle and cry.

BLUMENBERG: Really?

STANCL: I couldn't believe the crying. These guys were so locked up either. Afraid of where they were already. Left there, sweetheart, or whatever. Your mother and father. And now they were so afraid or whatever, and they were crying. That really blew my mind.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, I bet. How did that make you feel? I mean.

STANCL: I couldn't. I just couldn't believe all these guys were cry baby. Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Wow. And here you are trying to keep them in place.

STANCL: Yeah, I could. I wouldn't. I never cried. I would. I had to go in, and there was good. There was no question or. But of course I didn't have a girlfriend, so I couldn't relate. I would live with my parents. But they understood I had to go. But I. And I didn't. But I didn't have a girlfriend that I was leaving behind or. And through. I had nothing to cry about. Right. And maybe that's why these guys were crying. I don't know.

BLUMENBERG: Well, that could be. Well, So that was your time at Great Lakes. Then we're going to go back to Norman, Oklahoma.

STANCL: Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Here you are, a firefighter and the pilots are practicing landing on the airstrip there. Yes. What else about your time at at the training center in Norman? Do you recall?

STANCL: Well. We had. I was in the fire department. We only had one fire that we actually went to on the bay. And it was. In in the garage where they had fire. They had different pickup trucks in this garage and somehow. We think, I guess that somebody with a cigaret didn't put it out correctly and when they slammed the door or whatever, the cigaret fell on the floor and all of a sudden it caught fire and the fire was in the in the pickup truck, right in the inside of the truck and burning. And I guess Kurt would come from all quiet coming out that that would help set off the alarm. And that's why we came to the fire truck with our fire truck and. My friend and I, we were told, go up on the roof right here, the door into this entrance, into the world of truckers. But you guys go on the roof, trap a hole in the roof and put your your wardrobe holder in there and spray. You'll be right above the truck. That burning spray. That truck is just we're a little around and spray truck that's burning in that garage.

BLUMENBERG: Yes. And how did that turn out?

STANCL: And well, and then they had some other guys broke the door down there at the truck. The guy, first of all, came with a bunch of keys. He was going to open up the garage door where the truck were, and he fumbled around from fumbling around and couldn't get the right key or something. And one of my guys pushed him and tried to drop the whole door down. And then they went in with their hope and prayed some more.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: And then the fire was out.

STANCL: Yeah, we put the fire out and caught the truck there. Good job.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, sure. For sure. Well, how long were you then at Norman and how long did you spend there?

STANCL: Well, I was there through the rest of my days there till the war ended.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. So you got out in 1946?

STANCL: 46? Yeah. In fact, I think it was Labor Day, the Labor Day or whatever that day. But it was a holiday that was had and it was they said, we're the war is over and we're you're going to get discharged.

BLUMENBERG: So that's like the end of August or September.

STANCL: Somewhere in that.

BLUMENBERG: Right. Okay. And you were then discharged on Labor Day.

STANCL: And Labor Day. They got the lieutenant said that me, the war is over. You guys, they're just charging you right here. And I got papers that you can carry with you and say you are discharged. And we're. We're going to send the official papers to your home.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: Official discharge, people. Right. But you've got a lot of canteen to carry with you to say that you because we're still in our Navy uniform, but we're out of the Navy.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah.

STANCL: Okay, so we've got to prove that we are discharged, but we're you could we could live. We could wear a uniform, I think, for 90 days after we're discharged where we could wear uniform. But we were not in the Navy anymore.

BLUMENBERG: You were out.

STANCL: We were up. So. But in this, we. We knew the war started. We knew that we didn't have long to be in the field, even a month before that we knew. And so me and a couple of guys said, Why are we going to do when we get the draft?

BLUMENBERG: Oh, you're making plans.

STANCL: Making plans for something to do after we got discharged. So I said, you know, we haven't gone anywhere from Milwaukee or Chicago down to, you know, Norman, Oklahoma. We haven't seen any hardly anything. We haven't really been in the war. We really haven't seen anything at all. So I said, I'd like to see some of the concrete. I'd like to see the Grand Canyon and the petrified former. Oh, different interesting places to see.

BLUMENBERG: Sure.

STANCL: So I said, I'm. I'm planning to buy a car. And. Instead of going home to a little crab wood. And one of my friends. Yeah, I'd like to do that to another guy I need to. And so we had four guys, me and three guys. We're going to travel the country.

BLUMENBERG: Okay.

STANCL: So nobody had any money but me. I, I had. I had $500. I knew I had $500 in the bank in Milwaukee. So I said, Well, I'll buy the car. I would friend I, I called my parents and said, I want my money out of the bank, my $500, I'm going to buy a car. And oh, my dad did it. My dad didn't want me to do that at all.

BLUMENBERG: All right.

STANCL: Yeah, well, we want you to come home. No, we got. We got to see a little concrete. So anyway, I thought finally he sent me the money. I think the last day I was in the service, the very last day, I. I was waiting, of course, for ahead of that phone book to get the money. And the last day it showed up. Then I go to the board of it in the of. Oh, here's a letter for you. Oh, and here with my money, my five grand.

BLUMENBERG: All right. So you had 500 bucks.

STANCL: Yeah. And of course, we had we got we had a couple of hundred dollars that we got. Would we got this card? I forgot how much, but. Craig, $200, roughly. What we got. So we ate all. We had to buy gasoline and we said, we are going to get very far with that money, that little money we're going to have. Sleep in the car.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, what a plan.

STANCL: Well, yeah, what a big plan. But we didn't have any idea. Well, where. Where are we going to sleep at night? We had to eat somewhere rough grab. Sure. Nobody. We had to. Had a little money, but nothing. Not much. Anyway, I. I finally found out where I could buy a car for $500, and it would come. Fellows that work repairing car and they had some of their own cars or anyway, they had a car that they were willing to. They're willing to sell for $500. It was a ten year old car.

BLUMENBERG: What kind of car was it at?

STANCL: I truthfully forget if it was a Chevrolet or a Ford.

BLUMENBERG: Or okay.

STANCL: What it was. I don't know. But it way they fed it. They they had brought it up in. It was in good shape for a ten year old car. And of course, nobody dated car dealer. There were no car dealers or no, you couldn't buy a new car even if you had the money. So there's all this. However, the army took all that kind of.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah. All the effort went into making military.

STANCL: Went into making the.

BLUMENBERG: Military equipment.

STANCL: Military equipment. Correct.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. So you got your ten year old car.

STANCL: And finally, we were over about a day or two before we were going. And one guy said, oh, I'm going to go anymore. I can't go anymore with you, guy. And we're down to three guys, and another day goes by. Another guy said, Oh, I'm not going to go anymore. I decided I'm going. And so finally, between me and another guy, we're going to do the. So now the war is over. We got to discharge and we're saying we can't go back into the bay. We're discharged. Where are we going to sleep tonight? So I said to my girlfriend, I'm I'm just I'm discharged from the Navy and. We are. We're not really. I I've got the. The car. I'll pick it up tomorrow. The guys know I've decided we're. I'm going to buy the car. The guys know I'm going to come and get it and all that. But it's all tomorrow. So I said to my girlfriend, Where are we going to sleep tonight? She said. I don't know. Yes, I. I and had a house in Oklahoma City that her husband. You're working in another city at Fodor's or an extra bedroom there. She says, I'll call my aunt and three of you guys can sleep in her home. So sure enough, she got permission to bring us to maybe go to sleep in her. And how? So we go there. But then I get the car at day and we drive over to her house and. We get to meet the woman, she shows us here where you're the bedroom. You're going to sleep in the night and get all straightened out. And then we buy A girlfriend says, okay, I'm going to sleep on the couch in the living room, and you guys are going to sleep in that bedroom. And my aunt and or her bedroom. So that all set up. And now we're cool. We go to bed, we go to sleep to go to sleep. So it's a very hot night. I've been a hundred out.

BLUMENBERG: 100 degrees in Oklahoma.

STANCL: Hundred degrees in ogle. No air conditioning? No. How? You know, the windows are open, but doesn't matter to them. Hello? We are being stripped down to nothing. We got my buddy and I are all over our store on the bottom part of we don't ever need to throw time and uniforms are all put away, so we're practically making our little bathroom of our underwear. Yeah. And. Maybe an hour later, I'm just about ready to sleep, fall asleep, and I hear from mumbling and what not. And. You're my buddy. You said your girlfriend is here to sleep with you. I'm going to sleep with him pretty well, but he had a French, a cow, so she'd come in bed totally naked.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, we don't want this on the movies.

STANCL: You're Brad Pitt. Can't feel what I'm going to tell you.

BLUMENBERG: You can do whatever you want. Don't forget, I'm giving you a copy of this. And your son do so.

STANCL: But bad for the truth. Not happy.

BLUMENBERG: Yes. Okay. We like the truth.

STANCL: And if you come in bed with me, totally naked. So what can I do? I got to accept her.

BLUMENBERG: Yes, of course.

STANCL: And that's the way it happened.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, well, good for you.

STANCL: And the next morning?

BLUMENBERG: Yes.

STANCL: The end. Wake up. And he's going to make breakfast for two guys that are sleeping in an extra bedroom and her got her man, cousin or whatever she is in honor of the cup trophy, make her breakfast, and then she goes into the living room and here is my buddy sleeping on the couch. So she wakes him up. She said, What are you doing here? When he is supposed to be here. Well, Britney said she wanted to go with my friend. So she went in fuzed with him in your bedroom. Schroder and now come down by Earth. We're both sleeping totally naked. Both her and me. Wrapped around each other. And every week for some time they eat breakfast, get up, get cleaned up and get coming to breakfast. So that's what we did. Oh.

BLUMENBERG: It's your first day out of.

STANCL: The first day out of the Navy. Yeah, well, what a lucky guy. Very nice to experience the world.

BLUMENBERG: Well, when did you actually go traveling?

STANCL: Yeah, then we actually did. The next day, we were off on Route 66. Oh, yeah. And we go down Route 66, and that was when they were. That was the popular song of the day. Oh, sure. Well, you get your kick Route 66. You start in Oklahoma or you start in I forget where and Oklahoma. 50 years made it pretty And you go through there and then anyway all the way out, down, out to L.A., out to the track.

BLUMENBERG: And then you make it all the way.

STANCL: And we did.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, good for you.

STANCL: We got we went all the way to we get to California. My buddy and I. And. We said we need to get a job. We've got to get the money. We're all out of money at this point. We spent all our money with getting food, but we had went to the Grand Canyon. That was a big part of it. And then finally we had five blow up the tire fire blow out in that trip from Oklahoma City to L.A., Five blow and tire were there were there were no tires go by.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah. So you had to repair them.

STANCL: We we had the poor people. They the, the they had used tire of some time. Anyway, that was the biggest problem we had is buying tires to keep on going after each blow up. Yeah. And some. They have people that had group that had repaired tires and they flew. Oh, we repaired them. Excellent. We buy one. We go 20 miles on a blow out.

BLUMENBERG: There is a lot of open space out there too in your.

STANCL: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was that was our biggest problem is keeping the tire tire undercover.

BLUMENBERG: Well, okay, then. Did you actually get jobs in L.A?

STANCL: Yeah, After we got a job and we went actually into san Diego. It was little south of L.A.. San diego, and we went to a place that said they would find a job. Where they did, they knew were a job, Wolf. But they get a commission if they put you on Oprah.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And we said, okay, we'll but we want to get something we can work on together. We want to stay together. Okay. So they said there was a lady that wants to walk all the walls in her house for a new tenant group. Come in. The painters. Okay. But she wants to freshen up the whole house for a new tenant. We said okay. We have no equipment. We drift off. We have no pail, no water, no brushes, no, no anything. She says, I have it all. I can give you the water, the pail, the brushes, everything to work, to clean up. By how? So we said, okay, who will take the job? And. Cause here we are. Two Navy guys were killed in our Navy uniform. We drive up to this house, get out, Go. And then we, the people in the neighborhood, the rule, the word got out. Navy guys are going to this woman's house. Where they Gouverneur. Yeah, but the word war. No border war, Fenians war lingo. How long? All of a sudden people are coming to work. When you guys are done with Wall Street. Her wall. Would you come to my house and do that for me? Well, we said we would. We're going to be having a pony. We want to keep on traveling. We're we're not in the business. We just want one person we're doing it for. No, no. Finally, they all go. Very pretty, young lady. And she said my mother was furious. Her kid couldn't walk. Mr. Waldron, her kids. Right across the street. So my buddy and I play, we talk about it. We say, This pretty girl, we got to go there. We can talk to her while we're walking the wall. So we make a couple bucks, but we want to talk to this pretty girl, so we'll take that drop.

BLUMENBERG: So you took it.

STANCL: So that was the only job we did over in a woman over a while. Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: Well, and what happened after you left San Diego?

STANCL: So, red Grand Diego, where we had enough money to get up to, like, Frangela.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: Now we're up in Los Angeles again. What we do there? Well, we know they're. They have. Oh. Club. Where? Women's club. That have. Speaker coming in to talk to these women. And usually the speaker is a Hollywood actor. To talk to these women. So said. My buddy and I flew. We hear that a guy in a coming one of two actors is coming to speak and this group. In this one play, we have Red Skelton. Red Skelton.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: A comedian.

BLUMENBERG: We know him.

STANCL: We heard about him. We know he's an actor. Comedian. Well, we ought to see what he's got to say. So we go into the woman's club and we say we want to see if there's a guy come in here to talk to. You've got two women of Red Skelton. We'd like to see them too. Yeah, they continue to, like, get over here. No problem.

BLUMENBERG: And you're still in uniform?

STANCL: We're still in uniform. So. Red Skelton, come where you fit. He does his thing. He come down the aisle. He sees that good Navy guy, and he's got a little routine for that.

BLUMENBERG: Okay.

STANCL: And he says. He says, You know, ladies, when. A guy takes a girl out and he leaves her at night. He says goodbye, honey. I'll see you tomorrow. But when the Navy guy said good night to the girl, he don't be afraid. Three. Honey, he taken his arm and he went down carefully to make the hay, and he takes one of my buddies cap drop. He put crude on his head. Red Skelton. And he asks every day. We gave Kathleen the girl goodnight. That makes a big deal. Sure. And the girl? The women all laugh at the whole thing. Yeah. So that was kind of you? Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: A nice experience.

STANCL: Like experience.

BLUMENBERG: Well, how did you end up getting back home after all?

STANCL: Well, we again, we needed money. Okay. Somebody said they're. They're having a bowling tournament in the next city. They probably need some guys to set PIN. And well, we had Fed feeling like any show that we did that one night getting pinned for this tournament, we had to even jump in, jump to Ali. You felt pain with what Ali and the guys in the other Ali are bowing and knocking them down. Read out to them, go jump in from one pit, the other, the third pin. There was no automatic stuff. You did it by and putting the pins back in the proper thing. And that was how we made a couple bucks again. Yeah. And then there's this water, and then we. We found a lumber yard in North Hollywood. The lumber yard needed some work, or so we went there and they said, Yeah, we can hire you to both. We have we only got two boys about not just one guy in the lumber and both above work and okay, they figured out they could have both of us working in the lumber yard. Now. We were at night. We had we had gotten to know a woman in the UFO. She rang the UFO and she would take soldiers and trailer into her home. And give a meal. And and the reason she did that, she had a friend of a boy, one of her friends or only son, I don't know who was a Crip. He was born. Something was wrong with him. Mhm. And so he couldn't get to meet any people. And he she said, I need you boys to come in and talk to my club. You can talk about anything. Just kind of entertain him.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: And refit. Well, we'll. We can tell him about where we came from in the Navy in the future. That'll be good. Anything. Just talk about anything good could be in with him. April. We should go. She said, You'll be doing me a great favor and I can have you sleeping in a different room here. So I can. You can stay here.

BLUMENBERG: All right? And you needed a place to stay.

STANCL: So we needed a place to stay. We had that job at the lumber yard where we would went to every day. And we did this for a couple months. And that would go we were helping her out. We were making money in the lumber lumber yard. But now we're going to go next.

BLUMENBERG: Time to move on.

STANCL: Kind of move out. So. Oh, woman, Are you a fraud? Because if you come to us one day, she says, What are you boys? I think you told me are from Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Wolfgang. I think we heard of me. A big where I'm from. She says I've got two women that came to me and said. They need to get back to the walking with God. They've got a car. Oh, very big, nice new car. That they were brought down to L.A., but hugged other. But I have a friend in Milwaukee and his girlfriend brought them to Los Angeles, and now they're nowhere to be seen. Uh huh. They are. They flew the coop or whatever they. They do. These two ladies don't know where they are or how they're going to get back to Milwaukee. They they get their older lady and a middle aged or. But yeah, they know how to drive a little, but not all the way back to Milwaukee. So they decide. If the UFO can somehow find them, somebody to drive them back to New York. So my buddy and I, we very well. Do we want to go on any farther? We we just about had. I've heard. Yeah, we got an opportunity. Here's Woman They'll pay for the gas to drive their car, though, if we have to eat out, which we would have to. They'll pay for all the food we have to eat. We have to stay overnight from place. They pay for everything for us to drive them back. The more I said this, we can't let it go. Q But that.

BLUMENBERG: Too good to be true.

STANCL: Too good to be true, but it would be true.

BLUMENBERG: And back to Milwaukee, you.

STANCL: Went, That's what we did. Drove all the way back to school for a couple days.

BLUMENBERG: Oh, yeah.

STANCL: But the women paid for everything. The food, the lodging. And again I've heard car the. Everything.

BLUMENBERG: So you had a lot of experiences on the way back?

STANCL: Yeah, well.

BLUMENBERG: We're on the way out, I should say.

STANCL: And everything. If you if you want to stop somewhere to see something, let us know. Explain to them. We told them we were to see something, and that was it.

BLUMENBERG: Well, then what happened when you got back to Milwaukee?

STANCL: Well, when.

BLUMENBERG: You were a college student. When you were drafted.

STANCL: What?

BLUMENBERG: You were a college student when you were drafted?

STANCL: Yeah, I was. For one semester?

BLUMENBERG: Yes. Okay.

STANCL: So. In the end, when I was in the Navy and I had time during the day, some day we had no I would I wouldn't have time to go and to cold come were on the base. Something to do and a payoff. Well, there was, I fear, a movie theater that had a movie every two days. They had a new movie. So I found I like to go to movies. I'll see what they got. So I went to this one building and I talked to the guy, said, Yeah, we have a new movie here every two days, but we don't. Not many sailors can come in here, but you're good theater, and you hear about our revolution there. And so I go, I knew what I was. So I went to this movie theater quite a bit. I'm all alone. Yeah, all alone. And brand new movies. And one day a movie came, and it was about advertised. It's the guy who ran an advertising agency. And he was like a very big movie star. And Gregory Peck, if I could recall, he was the actor that was in the movie. He was the head of the advertising agency. He had a secretary. He really night. She looked very nice. And they did various things. And it all looked very interesting to me. So I'm sitting in the theater and thinking, what am I going to do when I get under the TV door? I want to go back to market. Not really. I think I'd like to get a job. I'd like to be in advertising like Gregory Peck, where I could drive a knife, have a knife, recruit, carry the whole thing. So I thought, I'll give it a shot. See if I can find something like that. Well, I come back the Milwaukee and I find there is an advertising club in the city and walk. I don't know what that is. Advertising Club. So I looked it up, went there. A woman at the desk. I said she should have You got an appointment? I said no. I'm telling you, I want to talk to somebody about the advertising club. Well, let me see if I can find out. So he goes into another office, then comes and says, He'll see you right now. I have no appointment. I'd go in there and tell him I'd like to learn the advertising, because when I left the Navy, they told me, if you get a job, you're on the job training. In some kind of job. The government will pay your first year, load your wages. Oh. So I told the guy in the advertising club. He said, Well, I don't know. I can't tell you. But he said, Let me look what we got in, what people are looking for. So we go through it. He said, Well, here they are. The advertising manager at the Wisconsin Electric Power Company is looking for somebody in advertising for a job. They have an opening. And you have. Hi. I don't know if they'll give you on the job training, but he says I know the man that runs the advertising club in which got. At the electric company. I know him. He had. He probably would train you in other job training, Especially if the government is going to pay for your half of your wages for the first year.

BLUMENBERG: Right.

STANCL: That's a pretty big chunk of money. So he says, Let me give him a call. So he looks in your book and he called Fred Erickson. Then I'll call Fred Erickson. He called him up because I got a young man here. Yeah. What kind of job training in advertising. And you got a job that you're looking for somebody in your field over there. Could you take this name? And you can. The government's going to pay half the way that for a year. So you send a young man or predator. So here I go from there. The driver tells the club, and I just talked to this guy over to Fred Erickson at the liquor company. Talk to him. He says, okay, I'll take you to take me up to the employment office in third District. And then I want for my job. And that's how I got into everything.

BLUMENBERG: You're lucky. You're lucky. Day.

STANCL: Lucky day.

BLUMENBERG: But did it help that you were a Navy veteran?

STANCL: I was a Navy veteran, but I had a civilian golden boot time.

BLUMENBERG: Right?

STANCL: Yeah. And I have to try, Harry. Sure. You look like a professional.

BLUMENBERG: Right. But you had the experience.

STANCL: And that helped.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Well, good for you. Well, let me get back to this. That's a good story. We like that story.

STANCL: It's the truth.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah. Back to your service. When you when you were discharged or prior to that, when you went in, what was your rank? What was your rank? In the Navy?

STANCL: I rank where they were. There were three men.

BLUMENBERG: Seamen.

STANCL: The three men. Right. And I. I found out that if I took test in the Navy, Eisenhower, then giffard tip even. You had to know how to tie different rope knots, that type of thing. A half a dozen different tip. And you complete them. You move up to get what could be what? I don't know how they figured that out. But I told them I wanted to be both and make. And that's what they they bring. They gave me the tests that I could become the poster mate.

BLUMENBERG: So you were promoted then?

STANCL: And so I had all the tests and I became a Boston maid. I had no idea what the goal, really. But I one thing I did know, in fact, did not have to stand guard duty, which I hated, but I hated guard duty.

BLUMENBERG: So you didn't have to do that anymore.

STANCL: You didn't have to do that. And so the first time I came in to do this. New territories. You know how to drive a car? I said, Yeah, I. I learned how to drive my dad's car. If somebody told me the key, he said, Here's the keys to the jeep outside. You. You got to check on the car. Better check the car. They got to be, I'm certain, play here where you got to be, got to feed and you got to check to see that they're there. Okay. So now, from now on, I'm in. Now I'm in the Navy and I'm checking under guard.

BLUMENBERG: And at one point, you were the guard.

STANCL: And. Yeah, I was at one time of guard. But now I'm checking out under guard that there were supposed to be. Yeah. Yeah. For. For how? But I got a jeep. I could drive anywhere and really, you know, grow. I got to do it and put what I did.

BLUMENBERG: And so that was your final rank then?

STANCL: Yeah. My final.

BLUMENBERG: Rainbow sends me a.

STANCL: Boyfriend made tree.

BLUMENBERG: Three. Okay. Then in general, I mean, you had a lot of experience. How did how do you think the service, your time in service changed you? Well for impact you.

STANCL: It I would always very I. I was afraid to do different things. I was a shy person. And it made me more confident that I could do anything I wanted to do. Okay. But I had to figure out how to do it.

BLUMENBERG: Well, that's how you got into the ad business.

STANCL: That I got into advertising.

BLUMENBERG: Sure. I mean, your story proves that. So what was the best part of the service for you? It was when you were. When you're thinking about your time and service, what was the best part of it?

STANCL: The best part. Well. I really enjoyed everything. I, I kind of liked being in the church, but. I'm glad I didn't have to kill anybody while I was a wolf. And I learned a lot about myself and what I could do and. Even being in the fire department was interesting. We in the fire department, we had about half of the guys in there were from the Phelps. And I couldn't believe that they would be fighting there at the Civil War. They knew all the battle of the Civil War and they would be talking about if we went up the hill on the left side instead of the right side, we would have won that battle. Things like that. And I said, What are you guys talking about? The Civil War. I never I don't even know what that word issue is. The war. You know what that was? You won the Civil War. We love the Civil War. I said, Well, you guys are talking about battle that we won the North won over the South. That's what they were talking about. And they were trying to figure out how they could have won it over and beat the North. Yeah. And I said, I can't believe you guys are talking about this crazy civil war. We don't even care to think about that. We're never. Me and my friends never talk about anything like that.

BLUMENBERG: But they were talking about it.

STANCL: They were. That was all they would talk about. They didn't care what the score of the baseball game people doing. They had no interest in anything but the Civil War. Oh, it was. I could hardly get that through my mind. Yeah. Oh.

BLUMENBERG: Well, you. You mentioned that you were happy. You didn't have to kill anybody, and I'm glad you didn't also. But.

STANCL: Yeah.

BLUMENBERG: What? What are your thoughts about war in general?

STANCL: Well, I think I think people I think our our country and different countries are crazy. They if they can drive by talking to one another. Fighting doesn't do anything. I said, what I'm glad happened is that we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima to end the war with Japan, that we didn't have to occupy Japan because that would have been a terrible quadruple American alive and Japanese alive. So we've dropped the bomb and 1/33 kill the Emperor of Japan. We got the powerful bomb that can destroy the earth. Really? One bomb. Yeah. And that would end the Second World War. And I said, So I'm glad we had the cosmic bomb to end the Second World War. And I hope we never have another one. And I don't think we'll ever go that way, because now all of the major countries, Russia, Japan, China, all have atomic bomb. So everybody knows you. You hit them with atomic bomb. They could if you were bombed. So I hope there never another war.

Speaker 3 Okay.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah, we've had enough. Yeah. Yeah. So based on all of your experience and your feelings about war, do you have any message you want to leave to others? You know, this this interview is going to the Library of Congress and Wisconsin Veterans Museum and to your sons. Is there anything you want to leave? Final thoughts or messages for them?

STANCL: I. You know, we.

BLUMENBERG: Gave you some hints about what we might talk about, and maybe you have it written down there.

STANCL: All I can say is the government took good care of me.

BLUMENBERG: They took good care of you. And here we are today so you can tell your story.

STANCL: And I hope there is never another one.

BLUMENBERG: All right. Well, that's a good message. Yeah. So I'm going to ask you another little thing about. After you got out, did you ever join any military organizations?

STANCL: No, I never did. I, I never was. First of all, I felt that I really didn't do anything to tell. And I did. I wasn't getting any kind of a little fight with, like I never got in. Yeah. Yeah. I was hoping to get on an aircraft carrier if what I was trained to do.

BLUMENBERG: It.

STANCL: I was looking forward to do it. They told me I was going to be an aircraft carrier. A shoemaker. Pell for you. I was going to get on the aircraft carrier.

BLUMENBERG: And that never happened and never happened. Right.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: But. I just thought I didn't have much of a story. So why why should I join these terrorist organizations? I didn't fight anybody. I didn't do anything important. So why should I join? Yeah. From service to organizing.

BLUMENBERG: Yeah.

STANCL: I never did it.

BLUMENBERG: Well, you did. You did plenty. You helped prepare those pilots for their training, and.

STANCL: But I didn't look at it.

BLUMENBERG: You didn't? Okay, well, all right.

STANCL: I just thought I'm there. I They can use me how they want to. I did what they asked me to do, but I never really did anything important. Well. I never fought anybody who never read.

BLUMENBERG: So that's your feeling about it? That's that's fine. So are there any final messages or any thoughts that you want to.

STANCL: No, I'm just glad that I did put in the time I did. And. I think it improved my outlook on life.

Speaker 3 Okay.

STANCL: I got for three a little of the country, even though it was all on my own. But I it would because I had been in the Navy in Oklahoma that I got to do all right.

BLUMENBERG: It gave me the opportunity to start out.

STANCL: And I was luckily, I was on Route 66. Yeah, right, Right. And every Route 66 was the popular film in the country.

BLUMENBERG: Right. It was a big deal. Well, if there is nothing else, then we can end this conversation.

STANCL: At the border.

BLUMENBERG: Okay, Well, then I will say that I am Tom Bowman. Berg and I am here today, Friday, August 13th, 2021, with Daniel Dan Stansell. And then I want to thank you for meeting with me and telling your story. And I want to thank you for your service.

STANCL: Well, thank you for having me here. And let me tell you all about.

BLUMENBERG: Okay. Thank you.

[Interview Ends]