August 28, 2025 • 34 mins
From the biting winter cold of Great Lakes Naval Training Station to the sun-drenched shores of the Mediterranean, Gary Scott's naval journey shaped not just his military experience but the foundation of his civilian career. When faced with Vietnam deployment in 1971, Gary made the practical choice to join the Navy instead – where "three hot meals, a nice bed, and a hot shower" awaited him aboard ship.
As a diesel repairman on the USS Capricornus, Gary's responsibilities extended beyond engine maintenance to the crucial task of converting seawater into fresh water for both crew use and ship operations. "I served watches in the engine room making fresh water for the showers and for the boilers," he recalls, detailing the meticulous testing process where only the purest batches were deemed worthy of the ship's boilers. His time aboard the Capricornus took him across the Atlantic twice for Mediterranean deployments and on numerous Caribbean cruises, experiences he would later recreate with his wife of 54 years during anniversary trips.
Despite his father's initial disappointment at Gary's enlistment, a brand-new excavator awaited his return to civilian life. Taking over the family business, Gary applied the precision and discipline honed in the Navy to become what one acquaintance called "a legend" in excavation. His specialty? Digging perfectly level basements that required no additional work – "I used a transit to keep it level. All the cement guys loved me."
Today, from his custom-built home in Holly, Michigan (where he dug the basement himself), Gary reflects on a life well-lived – from naval engine rooms to construction sites, from test-driving cars for Jack Roush Engineering to traveling extensively with his wife during retirement. His story exemplifies how military service can provide both adventure and valuable skills that translate perfectly to civilian success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today is Thursday, August 28th 2025.
We're talking with Gary Scott,who served in the United States
Navy.
Good morning, Gary.
Good morning All right.
We're gonna just start rightout with, hopefully, an easy
question when and where?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
were you born?
I was born in Pontiac, Michigan, 1942.
Okay, did you grow up inPontiac then?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
No, all right, how long?
So you were just born there,but you lived someplace else.
Yeah, all right.
Where did you grow up?
Mostly Clarkston, okay, and anybrothers and sisters?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, one sister, two brothers.
Okay, where'd you fall?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
in that pecking order , I was the top, I was first,
okay, so were you the typicaloldest sibling.
Then, yeah, you took charge ofstuff.
Yeah, okay.
And what can you tell me aboutyour parents?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
your mom and your dad .
Um, my mom was stayed home.
She never.
Well, she did work one time inrochester at some cleaners there
and my dad was in theexcavating business, okay, so he
wasn't too happy.
When I joined the navy, oh,well, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm sure Can you tell me just kind of briefly what
was it like growing up then inClarkston and what was it like
as a kid.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, it was pretty good there.
There was like two classes,though Us people out in the
country were different than theones downtown.
They thought they were special,so different yeah so now did
you live?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
um, were your neighbors closer, or kind of,
were you far apart from yourneighbors then where you lived?
Oh, they're pretty close, werethey?
Okay, all right.
What about school?
Um, how was school for you?
Clarkston High School, that wasgood.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, any sports or anything, particularly you
remember about going to school.
No, I wasn't in any sportsthere, I just kept my nose in
the books and get it done.
Get out of there.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, all right, so you get through school.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then is that when you joined the navy is right
after school?
Yeah, because I was pretty highon the list to go to vietnam,
uh huh, and so I went down,joined the navy on january 19th
1971, and then on the ship, youget three, three hot meals a day
, you get a nice bed and you geta hot shower every night.
Yeah, that's true.
So, and I made a lot of thefresh water for the showers and
(02:31):
the boilers work the uhevaporator down in the engine
room okay for the ship.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So you were uh saying a few minutes ago that your,
your dad wasn't real happy aboutyou joining the navy no,
because he wanted me to staythere and, uh, work with him,
you know, and in business.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And then when I got out, when I got out, he said I
got a brand new excavatorwaiting for you.
I'll take you over there andget going he was ready for you.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, was that sort of?
His dream is to have you workwith him now.
Yeah, okay, all right.
So he got over being mad at youthen.
Yeah, oh, very good.
Well, talk to me a little bitabout basic training.
What was it like?
What do you remember about whenyou first got there and how you
felt about your decision tojoin the Navy?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, it was pretty good, except we first got there,
got there at night, went to bedand this guy come in the
morning with a garbage can, witha baseball bat inside, waking
everybody up, you know.
And then we got that bicyclingshot in the rear end and then we
(03:40):
was all laying down and thedrill sergeant, he said I'll
work that out of, you Got to getup.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah, and you know what?
I remember that, and it reallywas for our own good to get that
lump out of our butt there.
Yeah, that was painful.
Yeah, for sure.
Now, where did you go to basicGreat Lakes, okay, all right,
and how was that Cold?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I was in there in January in the snow.
They had sidewalk watch.
Go out and sweep the sidewalkoff, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So you were there for was it 12 weeks for Navy basic?
At the time I was?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
there for three months.
Then I went home for a week andcome back and spent three
months in engine school.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, so that was your a school, then that you
went to all right, and uh, thenfrom there.
Uh, what happens next?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
then, uh, let's see what month was it so it'll be
june maybe june or july, yeah,got on a train and went to new
york to get the ship.
It was in dry dock uh-huh theywere scraping the bottom and uh
went there, then got on the shipand uh got settled in.
(04:56):
Then we took off.
How long were you in dry dock?
Uh, it didn't take them long tofinish that.
When I got there.
I wasn't there a couple daysand they got done.
Oh okay, they orderedeverything Ready to tail end
then.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, all right.
And now you were on an AKA,right.
Can you maybe talk about whatan AKA is and what kind of work
you did there?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Well, I was a diesel repairman and the AKA.
We carried 100 Marines with uswherever we went, put them
ashore every now and then sothey could play games, then go
back and get them later, and wedid that all the time I was in
there.
Okay, and where?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
where were you, uh, stationed out of then?
Norfolk, okay, and that waswhat.
Four years in norfolk, then,all right, and did you so?
Where all did you travel tofrom Norfolk?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, we went to the Mediterranean twice six months
at a time.
62 and 64.
Went to the Caribbean aboutfive or six times.
When we first got on the ship,we headed to Guantanamo Bay for
a shakedown cruise and went tofirefighting school there, and
then we headed out.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Okay, and where'd you go from Guantanamo?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, we went to quite a few Caribbean islands,
uh-huh, and then, yeah, that wasabout it, other than the two
Mediterranean cruises.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Well, talk to me about your med cruises.
I've been on one myself and Ireally enjoyed it.
Uh, how was it for you?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
it was great.
Yeah, look at some pictures inhere.
Yeah, I couldn't afford to gothat much traveling on my own
money, right, right, uncle sampaid for everything.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So well, and I think in the day it was join the Navy,
see the world right.
Yeah, yeah.
So you got to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, I did put in for transfers after I went in
there I don't know, three yearsor something like that.
And uh, I put in transfer threetimes and they turned me down
both times, Said my rate was toocritical, couldn't leave.
So I wanted to go to the WestCoast for a while, Right, See
some more of the world.
But it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I feel like whenever they tell you no in the Navy,
they always say your rate's toocritical.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I'm trying to figure out.
Well, what rate isn't criticalthen?
Well, my rather in my eyes,wasn't really critical because
we had spare engines alreadysitting on the deck, all built
up and everything.
So for the landing craft, andthen cover up with canvas, you
know, and they're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I don't know.
It's what they said.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I think it's just their way of saying no yeah and
giving you an excuse for it.
What do you remember most aboutyour med cruises?
Then is there some place inparticular that you liked more
than other places?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I like greece better than I did italy, and and uh,
barcelona, people more friendlyand and uh, it was good food.
Do you remember where in greecewere you at?
I was in uh athens and I was inuh road, uh, island road.
Yeah it was island and a coupleother islands okay, never the
(08:12):
fancy one, santa rita never gotthere oh the uh.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
My wife's greek, so she'd be happy to hear that you
enjoyed the other Greek islandsthat much.
Have you been back?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
since, yes, I took my wife back on our anniversary,
took her to the Med and went toall those places, and then after
that we went again on atransatlantic cruise.
The cruise liner we usuallytake when we're going on
(08:45):
vacation was making arepositioning cruise to the Med,
so we went again.
So what we didn't see the firsttime.
We got to see the second time.
I've heard about thoserepositioning cruises.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
They're a lot cheaper .
Yeah, a pretty good deal.
From what I've heard, you'reout at sea a lot longer than you
normally would be Well, Ididn't mind going to sea no, no,
and let me ask you that too.
So, um, there's something aboutbeing at sea, at least I think,
like it's just different.
Um, do you still get thatfeeling like when you like, when
(09:18):
you look at the pictures ofyour, your ship and and things
like that, I mean, you reallykind of have fond memories of
being out at sea, oh yeah nicefresh air and, uh, we only had
one rough time in north atlantic, but most of the time was
pretty easy and uh, yeah, Iliked it never hit any of those
(09:39):
storms coming up throughhatteras to get back to norfolk,
ever we.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We had a hurricane one time in Atlantic and then a
hurricane right in Norfolk,right in the bay.
There we had to pull away fromthe pier and go out in the
middle of the river there anddrop both anchors and run the
engines to keep steady.
Two hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know I think that's something people don't
realize either like when ahurricane hits, they, the ships,
go out, you don't.
You don't stay in in dock andhope for the best.
No, yeah.
So is there anything else aboutyour time in the navy that
you'd like to share?
Any other experiences ormemories about that?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
well, I enjoyed all the people we had and I enjoyed,
uh, working on the engines andstuff and I was in the landing
craft.
Every time we had a landing Iwas in the landing craft.
So, uh, so that was good andthen, uh, I just enjoyed it.
Yeah, now, did you drive thelanding craft?
No, I wasn't.
(10:42):
I was the engine man, I wasn'tthe cox.
Oh, okay, all right, so now,did you um?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
did you ever cross the equator?
Did you get?
No, never got to be a shellback oh, okay, you know I I
missed that part.
I didn't get to do that either,so, but uh, talk to a lot of
people who have some greatpictures from their shellback
initiation, I think that's whatthey call it, yeah, anyway.
Well, very good.
So you were in the Navy forfour years.
(11:13):
Your enlistment was up.
What made you decide to get outof the?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Navy.
Well, four years was longenough.
And then my dad wanted me backreal bad to go to work.
Yeah, he wasn't too happy untilI got back it was time.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
What was it like when you left?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
the base for the last time and you knew you weren't
going to be in uniform anymore.
I didn't miss it.
I didn't go to.
You know, they gave me a cardto go to.
What do they call it?
Forget what they call it.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh, the exchange, the what was the.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
No, you go to meetings and stuff.
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh, oh, like a, like a transition program, yeah, Okay
, I never went, didn't see anyneed.
Yeah, you knew what you weregoing to do, right when you got
so, did you when you left, whenyou left, when you left Norfolk,
then you just flew straighthome.
Yeah, okay.
And you weren't married at thispoint, were you?
(12:24):
Okay, all right.
So you got home and talked tome about you know what was it
like to come home after beinggone for so long?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It was good.
My young brother there, he wasglad I got back.
You know he's glad to see meand and, uh, yeah, I was glad to
get home.
Yeah, absolutely, I did enjoythe navy.
I enjoyed being at sea,especially when you come out of
a city or something, go out, thewater's nasty.
(12:54):
Look until you get to a certainway.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Then it's like a line across the water and that's
nice water, clean water yeah soyou have those days when it's
like a mirror, yeah, where it'sjust still and yeah.
Yeah, it's been a long time forme too, but I still remember
those days.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I can't talk my wife into going on a cruise no
no they're great I wish I couldgood food and all the other
shows, yeah, music everythingyou could want right there.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's a whole lot different from being on a on
a navy ship oh, yeah, yeah theentertainment was completely
different.
Yeah, yeah.
So you, uh, you started workingfor your dad um in the
excavating business then.
And is that that what you, uh?
Did you continue doing?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
that, yeah, he retired in 71, I think, moving
up indian river, and I took itover and run it until I quit
2012,.
I think there wasn't anycommercial jobs coming up on the
screen and there wasn't anyhousing going on then.
(14:04):
So I said, well, it's time toclose the doors.
And my son wanted to keep going.
I said, no, we can't, there'sno work.
You know, it's time to closethe doors, right, right so tell
me about, uh, when?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
when did you meet your wife, and, and how?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
ah see, I met her in boy 68 or 69.
I got married in 71.
And she went to Waterford HighSchool.
I went to Clarkston.
(14:47):
So one thing that surprised meI went to her 50th reunion and
she said I wanna introduce youto one of the guys.
I said okay.
So we went over there and shesays this is my husband, gary
scott.
He said gary scott, he's alegend.
What he did was poured footingsand poured walls.
(15:10):
I dug basements, level them.
They didn't have to fill in,they didn't have to dig a hole,
it was level.
I used a transit or somethinglike that, so I kept it level.
So they loved that all andcement guys loved me.
Oh yeah, make their job easy.
Yeah Well, that surprised her.
Didn't even know you were alegend.
(15:31):
No, she said did you have funat the reunion?
Why not?
I'm a legend, that's right,yeah that was fun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So how many children do you have?
Uh, two boys, okay, and werethey born fairly?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
close together?
Or are they close in age, threeyears apart?
One's 50 and one's 37.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
All right, what was it like?
What was it like?
It like running a business andhaving boys run around, Because
boys can be a handful can't they?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh yeah, sometimes I didn't have any trouble at all.
Sometimes they went with me.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Now did your sons go into business with you as well.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Okay, no Well, my young son did well.
Okay, no well, my young son diduh-huh.
That's when, when we closed thedoors, we just that's when I
closed the doors on it.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
There wasn't any work .
Yeah, the well.
You had the bust in 2008 and ittook a long time to come back
from all that, didn't it?
Yeah, so, uh, what did you doafter, uh, after you closed the
doors?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I drove cars for Jack Ralph's for nine years.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I went to a place.
They had new cars from Chryslerand some foreign cars and you
go in in the morning, they giveyou your paperwork, what car you
was getting, and they had a GPSon the the dash.
You just followed her out, niceand easy, all by yourself,
nobody with you.
So once in a while you hadsomebody check, checking the
(17:03):
stuff on the radio, make sureyou worked, and done that for
nine years.
So where'd you?
Did you take the cars todealerships?
then, no, we just drove themaround, test drove them oh, okay
, come back, write a report onwhat was wrong with them stuff
like that okay, now that's.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is that roush engineering?
Is that who that company is?
Yeah jack roush yeah, okay,they actually do a lot of work
with veterans.
Yeah, yeah, I see them at a lotof different meetings and
things like that, so that's kindof interesting you get to.
These are all the newer carsthen that you're driving Brand
new right from the factory.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Wow, you test drive them.
You know, write up a thing onthe end of what was wrong with
them, what was good with them.
So the softest seats, though,were in the Dodge pickups, not
in the cars.
Really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I like the Dodge pickups myself.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I had one too Just until recently.
My wife said too much money ininsurance two cars, so got rid
of the pickup yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah Well, I think I got rid of my pickup about eight
years ago.
A little secret my wifeaccidentally hit the mirror on
the garage too many times, so Ithought it was time to get rid
of the truck, so we moved to acar as well yeah, we do a lot of
traveling.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So we got a new hyundai that's six passenger and
I told him I said I don't wantsix passengers with little kid
seats in the back because wecall six adults when we go
somewhere, go down south or goto branson or goes to, you know,
all over the place.
So, yeah, we got that.
That we're gonna working outpretty good for you yeah, it's a
nice car.
Yeah, yeah, you get a ticklewhen you go down 75 from here,
(18:49):
they'll say check yourdirections, you're going the
wrong way.
Really, yeah, because they, youknow, they shifted the lanes.
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
That's right yeah, yeah, they're fixing all the
roads at once as a matter offact northbound lane used to be
north, now it's south.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, and they tell us every now and I told us two
or three times coming homeyesterday well, you know it's
funny, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
But when I traveled to detroit, my uh, my gps does
the same thing.
It's like I didn't think aboutthat, but when I traveled to
detroit, my uh, my gps does thesame thing.
It's like trying, keeps tryingto shift me, shift me over, like
I'm doing the wrong.
This car talks to you.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, very nice.
When you get out it says checkthe back seats, make sure
there's no kids or anything backthere.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This nice car yeah, well, you back to your
excavating business, though.
So you did a lot of theexcavation for, like, the
Detroit area then, or theClarkson area no mostly in
Oakland County.
Okay, all right, yeah, sothere's probably a lot of houses
out there that you can drive by, and you know that you did that
(19:54):
basement I've done that one,I've done that one.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Is that a source of pride for you, being a legend
and all?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, that shocked my wife.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So you've been married for how long?
In 54 years?
54 years, wow, congratulations.
Yeah, thank you.
What's the secret?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, we're total opposites.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So but we do get along well.
They say opposites attract forsure.
Well, you, um, you have somepaperwork and stuff here.
What do you want to talk aboutany of this, uh, that you have?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
well, I got that cruise booking.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Look through, yeah, I've been kind of flipping
through it.
As we're talking Some stuffhere on the Capricornus they can
read All right Now was this afairly new ship.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Then when you got to it, no, it was in World War II
in the Gulf of Laity, and I justgot a book yeah, tell me about
that On that.
I just read that book.
It was one of the biggestdecisions in the war, once they
took Laity and got the Japaneseout of there.
They pretty much done.
Yeah quite a history.
(21:03):
So that was a.
She was in the pacific then,and when I got her in the
atlantic, and, um, she did they.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So back in 77, when she was decommissioned, did they
?
Uh, do you know what happenedto it from there?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
it went overseas, somewhere to be scrapped.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Oh, yeah, I, um, I saw so my ship had been
commissioned in 59 and it sawaction in Vietnam.
And then by the time I got toit in the 80s, it was pretty
used up and they sold it and Ijust saw pictures on the
internet where they werescrapping it.
It was kind of hard to see.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, I didn't see it , but that's where it went.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, and you spend a lot of time on those ships, you
really get to know them, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I served watches in the engine room
making fresh water for theshowers and for the boilers.
Then I had a watch and aftersteering, sat there and watched
the rudder move.
I don't know what that was for.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And then I had a lag boat watch occasionally.
So three different watchschedules, watch schedules well,
how many evaps did they have onthere then to make just one?
Just well, really wow.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So if that went down somebody on it constantly, me or
somebody else yeah yeah,because I think we had.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We had two, but I remember one was always down, so
you'd get halfway to whereveryou're going and no one could
take showers, unless you want totake a saltwater shower, which,
by the way, I don't recommend.
I'd rather stink than take asaltwater shower.
Yeah, so talk a little bitabout that, because I don't know
that people understand thatships make their own fresh water
(22:45):
.
They don't have these bigfreshwater tanks.
They refill all the time toactually make it.
So how does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, you boil the salt water and it makes steam.
Then they condense the steam inthe water.
So that's how you get freshwater from seawater.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, and you guys make a lot of it Because your
boilers need the fresh water,right?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, well, we had a vial with purple stuff in it.
You had to test each batch.
If it wasn't clean enough forthe boilers, it had to go to
drinking water.
It had to be absolutely pure togo to boilers.
They didn't want to get lime inthem tubes right, right,
because the heat and the limecaused.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, that's interesting.
If it wasn't good enough forthe boilers, you guys got to
drink it.
Then Wow, it was still good, ohyeah yeah, yeah, I don't know.
It never really tasted all thatgreat, but it got the job done
for sure.
Yeah, so it sounds like asimple process, but it's a huge
(23:47):
piece of machinery that does allthat.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The only thing is down in the interim was hot.
Yeah, I found a big cast ironthing about this high a round
thing.
I'd pull that right under thevent that comes from the upper
deck so the oil would blow righton my face.
Well, that was good, that helps.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Found a way to beat some of the heat yeah, now did
you guys have to worry aboutsteam leaks too?
Yeah, they're dangerous, yeah,they'll cut you right because
it's all high pressure steam,right, yeah, and you don't.
You don't see it or necessarilyhear it, right?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
yeah, well, they took pretty good care of those, wrap
them and paint them.
They're pretty good.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, good, good.
Well, is there anything elsethat you wanted to talk about
that we haven't covered here,about your time in service or
anything else?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, I enjoyed being in the service.
I mean, you know, it's justsome things I didn't care for,
but mostly I had a good timeyeah.
Did my job.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You could say that about any job, though right,
there's always going to besomething you don't really care
for.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I like to be on the landing craft taking them
Marines to the shore and dumpingthem out.
You know we could haul theirtrucks and their trailers and
everything in one of the big53-footers.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah, Well, I don't think people realize how big
those things are too.
I mean, that's a lot ofequipment and people to haul
back and forth.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, just like they see in the US.
You run to the beach and bamgoes the ramp and out they go,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So I can imagine how those guys felt in World War II,
hitting the beach at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to have been there.
No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Well, good, I mean we've covered pretty much
everything.
Your time in the Navy and isthere anything about after the
Navy that we haven't talkedabout?
That you'd like to?
No, not really.
Like I said, I didn't go to thewhat the haven't talked about.
Do you like to?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, not really.
Like I said, I didn't go to thewhat the heck they call that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can't remember now.
Well, you'll remember it aboutan hour from now.
Yeah, that's what happens to me, yeah, yeah.
So the other question is thatwe talked a little bit about
this before we got on camera.
So you're originally from theclarkson area, but now you're
here in holly um and for theaudience listening, it's a
beautiful home.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Um, talk a little about how you ended up here and
and where you live now well, wesearched everywhere to find a
vacant property to put a houseon and we finally found this one
.
And linda kept saying I want tobe close to town so I can walk
to town.
So this one worked out.
It was vacant and we bought itand while it was being built we
lived in a condo north of townand then, when it was done, we
(26:39):
moved here and we've been herealmost five years now.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Did you come watch and supervise the excavation?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I dug the basement.
Oh, you did.
I was gonna ask.
I borrowed a friend's machine,dug the basement myself, wow
yeah.
And then my son run the dozerwhen we were working.
I run the excavator, mm-hmm.
And so that's what happenedhere.
It's got here.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And then your son built this house too.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, he's a builder now.
Yeah, he went back, got hisbuilder's license.
He had a college degree insomething I don't remember what
it was when we closed up.
He went back and got abuilder's license and went to
work building, doing remodelsand building.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, so, so it's sort of running your family.
Do you think, though, went towork building, doing remodels
and building?
Yeah, so, so sort of runningyour family.
Do you think, though I Meanyour dad was an excavator and
you, you were an excavator.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And now your son is in the building trades.
Yeah, mother son, my oldest sonnow works for Mitsubishi.
He helps design the coolingsystems for the air conditioning
and stuff for the engine.
And my youngest son, well, Isaid he's a builder.
Yeah, you have grandkids.
(28:01):
I got a bunch of those.
They keep you busy.
Yeah, I forget how many.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Probably easy to do.
I only have one, so I can'tforget or I'm in trouble.
But yeah, no, I have more thanthat.
Yeah, how do you like being agrandpa?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That's good, they like me.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, you find yourself exhausted when they
leave, though Not really.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, I remember yourself exhausted when they
leave, though Not really yeah.
I remember my granddaughter, myyoungest son's daughter.
He only had one daughter.
We used to play, have a teaparty.
I'd sit down with her when shewas little and we'd have fake
tea.
And where we lived in Clarkstonour old house was on one road
(28:49):
and then I got on the main road,on Mabee Road, to build a house
.
Well, my granddaughter wouldcome through and she called that
the secret way because shecould walk from her house to our
house without going out intraffic.
Oh, so that was good.
Yeah, so that was nice Teaparties and secret passages
Mm-hmm Well, it was nice Teaparties.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
And secret passages Mm-hmm Well, that's kind of cool
.
Yeah, seems like life's beenpretty good to you.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Oh yeah, so far, yeah , other than recently.
I had a couple falls, so Uh-huh.
I was at the National Cemeteryone day standing up next to this
guy's's car and all of a suddenI'm on my butt on the ground
don't know what happened.
And then my wife was doingsomething here with a hose,
watering something.
She said I was sitting on thedeck there.
(29:36):
She said come and help me.
So I got up and, boom, felldown, hit my head and I had 12
stitches, went to the hospitalfor two days.
Oh my gosh.
So I'm trying to get throughall that.
So I don't know what caused it.
Yeah, I don't know, theyhaven't found that out yet.
They took away a bunch of mymedicine, that's that causes
that dizziness or whatever itwas.
So they took away a bunch ofthose.
(29:56):
So I'm getting better.
Well, good, so I use thiswalker pretty much, but uh, now
I'm getting where I can gowithout that if I have to yeah,
you don't seem like thecomplaining type of guy, so very
good.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Well, all right.
We we've talked about a lot ofthings.
We covered, uh, your life, um,I always ask this one question
before we close out aconversation, and that is when
someone's listening to yourstory years from now, you know,
when neither one of us are stillhere.
What message would you like toleave for people?
About my time in the service,your time in the service, or
(30:37):
just about your life in general,or a piece of advice that you
would give to people, justanything like that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Well, I had a good time in the Navy.
I enjoyed that.
Now that I'm home, I don't workanymore anymore.
We go a lot of places, wetravel a lot.
We go to florida in the winter,every winter, and go all over
florida different condos anddifferent places, and it's been
great well, good, all right.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Well, thanks for taking time out of your day,
gary, to sit here and talk withme.
I really appreciate it thankyou that's good.
Today is Thursday, August 28th 2025.
We're talking with Gary Scott,who served in the United States
Navy.
Good morning, Gary.
Good morning All right.
We're gonna just start rightout with, hopefully, an easy
question when and where?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
were you born?
I was born in Pontiac, Michigan, 1942.
Okay, did you grow up inPontiac then?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
No, all right, how long?
So you were just born there,but you lived someplace else.
Yeah, all right.
Where did you grow up?
Mostly Clarkston, okay, and anybrothers and sisters?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, one sister, two brothers.
Okay, where'd you fall?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
in that pecking order , I was the top, I was first,
okay, so were you the typicaloldest sibling.
Then, yeah, you took charge ofstuff.
Yeah, okay.
And what can you tell me aboutyour parents?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
your mom and your dad .
Um, my mom was stayed home.
She never.
Well, she did work one time inrochester at some cleaners there
and my dad was in theexcavating business, okay, so he
wasn't too happy.
When I joined the navy, oh,well, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm sure Can you tell me just kind of briefly what
was it like growing up then inClarkston and what was it like
as a kid.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, it was pretty good there.
There was like two classes,though Us people out in the
country were different than theones downtown.
They thought they were special,so different yeah so now did
you live?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
um, were your neighbors closer, or kind of,
were you far apart from yourneighbors then where you lived?
Oh, they're pretty close, werethey?
Okay, all right.
What about school?
Um, how was school for you?
Clarkston High School, that wasgood.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, any sports or anything, particularly you
remember about going to school.
No, I wasn't in any sportsthere, I just kept my nose in
the books and get it done.
Get out of there.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, all right, so you get through school.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
And then is that when you joined the navy is right
after school?
Yeah, because I was pretty highon the list to go to vietnam,
uh huh, and so I went down,joined the navy on january 19th
1971, and then on the ship, youget three, three hot meals a day
, you get a nice bed and you geta hot shower every night.
Yeah, that's true.
So, and I made a lot of thefresh water for the showers and
(02:31):
the boilers work the uhevaporator down in the engine
room okay for the ship.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So you were uh saying a few minutes ago that your,
your dad wasn't real happy aboutyou joining the navy no,
because he wanted me to staythere and, uh, work with him,
you know, and in business.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And then when I got out, when I got out, he said I
got a brand new excavatorwaiting for you.
I'll take you over there andget going he was ready for you.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, was that sort of?
His dream is to have you workwith him now.
Yeah, okay, all right.
So he got over being mad at youthen.
Yeah, oh, very good.
Well, talk to me a little bitabout basic training.
What was it like?
What do you remember about whenyou first got there and how you
felt about your decision tojoin the Navy?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, it was pretty good, except we first got there,
got there at night, went to bedand this guy come in the
morning with a garbage can, witha baseball bat inside, waking
everybody up, you know.
And then we got that bicyclingshot in the rear end and then we
(03:40):
was all laying down and thedrill sergeant, he said I'll
work that out of, you Got to getup.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, yeah, and you know what?
I remember that, and it reallywas for our own good to get that
lump out of our butt there.
Yeah, that was painful.
Yeah, for sure.
Now, where did you go to basicGreat Lakes, okay, all right,
and how was that Cold?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I was in there in January in the snow.
They had sidewalk watch.
Go out and sweep the sidewalkoff, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
So you were there for was it 12 weeks for Navy basic?
At the time I was?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
there for three months.
Then I went home for a week andcome back and spent three
months in engine school.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Okay, so that was your a school, then that you
went to all right, and uh, thenfrom there.
Uh, what happens next?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
then, uh, let's see what month was it so it'll be
june maybe june or july, yeah,got on a train and went to new
york to get the ship.
It was in dry dock uh-huh theywere scraping the bottom and uh
went there, then got on the shipand uh got settled in.
(04:56):
Then we took off.
How long were you in dry dock?
Uh, it didn't take them long tofinish that.
When I got there.
I wasn't there a couple daysand they got done.
Oh okay, they orderedeverything Ready to tail end
then.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, all right.
And now you were on an AKA,right.
Can you maybe talk about whatan AKA is and what kind of work
you did there?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Well, I was a diesel repairman and the AKA.
We carried 100 Marines with uswherever we went, put them
ashore every now and then sothey could play games, then go
back and get them later, and wedid that all the time I was in
there.
Okay, and where?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
where were you, uh, stationed out of then?
Norfolk, okay, and that waswhat.
Four years in norfolk, then,all right, and did you so?
Where all did you travel tofrom Norfolk?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, we went to the Mediterranean twice six months
at a time.
62 and 64.
Went to the Caribbean aboutfive or six times.
When we first got on the ship,we headed to Guantanamo Bay for
a shakedown cruise and went tofirefighting school there, and
then we headed out.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Okay, and where'd you go from Guantanamo?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, we went to quite a few Caribbean islands,
uh-huh, and then, yeah, that wasabout it, other than the two
Mediterranean cruises.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Well, talk to me about your med cruises.
I've been on one myself and Ireally enjoyed it.
Uh, how was it for you?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
it was great.
Yeah, look at some pictures inhere.
Yeah, I couldn't afford to gothat much traveling on my own
money, right, right, uncle sampaid for everything.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So well, and I think in the day it was join the Navy,
see the world right.
Yeah, yeah.
So you got to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, I did put in for transfers after I went in
there I don't know, three yearsor something like that.
And uh, I put in transfer threetimes and they turned me down
both times, Said my rate was toocritical, couldn't leave.
So I wanted to go to the WestCoast for a while, Right, See
some more of the world.
But it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I feel like whenever they tell you no in the Navy,
they always say your rate's toocritical.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I'm trying to figure out.
Well, what rate isn't criticalthen?
Well, my rather in my eyes,wasn't really critical because
we had spare engines alreadysitting on the deck, all built
up and everything.
So for the landing craft, andthen cover up with canvas, you
know, and they're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I don't know.
It's what they said.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I think it's just their way of saying no yeah and
giving you an excuse for it.
What do you remember most aboutyour med cruises?
Then is there some place inparticular that you liked more
than other places?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I like greece better than I did italy, and and uh,
barcelona, people more friendlyand and uh, it was good food.
Do you remember where in greecewere you at?
I was in uh athens and I was inuh road, uh, island road.
Yeah it was island and a coupleother islands okay, never the
(08:12):
fancy one, santa rita never gotthere oh the uh.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
My wife's greek, so she'd be happy to hear that you
enjoyed the other Greek islandsthat much.
Have you been back?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
since, yes, I took my wife back on our anniversary,
took her to the Med and went toall those places, and then after
that we went again on atransatlantic cruise.
The cruise liner we usuallytake when we're going on
(08:45):
vacation was making arepositioning cruise to the Med,
so we went again.
So what we didn't see the firsttime.
We got to see the second time.
I've heard about thoserepositioning cruises.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
They're a lot cheaper .
Yeah, a pretty good deal.
From what I've heard, you'reout at sea a lot longer than you
normally would be Well, Ididn't mind going to sea no, no,
and let me ask you that too.
So, um, there's something aboutbeing at sea, at least I think,
like it's just different.
Um, do you still get thatfeeling like when you like, when
(09:18):
you look at the pictures ofyour, your ship and and things
like that, I mean, you reallykind of have fond memories of
being out at sea, oh yeah nicefresh air and, uh, we only had
one rough time in north atlantic, but most of the time was
pretty easy and uh, yeah, Iliked it never hit any of those
(09:39):
storms coming up throughhatteras to get back to norfolk,
ever we.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We had a hurricane one time in Atlantic and then a
hurricane right in Norfolk,right in the bay.
There we had to pull away fromthe pier and go out in the
middle of the river there anddrop both anchors and run the
engines to keep steady.
Two hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know I think that's something people don't
realize either like when ahurricane hits, they, the ships,
go out, you don't.
You don't stay in in dock andhope for the best.
No, yeah.
So is there anything else aboutyour time in the navy that
you'd like to share?
Any other experiences ormemories about that?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
well, I enjoyed all the people we had and I enjoyed,
uh, working on the engines andstuff and I was in the landing
craft.
Every time we had a landing Iwas in the landing craft.
So, uh, so that was good andthen, uh, I just enjoyed it.
Yeah, now, did you drive thelanding craft?
No, I wasn't.
(10:42):
I was the engine man, I wasn'tthe cox.
Oh, okay, all right, so now,did you um?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
did you ever cross the equator?
Did you get?
No, never got to be a shellback oh, okay, you know I I
missed that part.
I didn't get to do that either,so, but uh, talk to a lot of
people who have some greatpictures from their shellback
initiation, I think that's whatthey call it, yeah, anyway.
Well, very good.
So you were in the Navy forfour years.
(11:13):
Your enlistment was up.
What made you decide to get outof the?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Navy.
Well, four years was longenough.
And then my dad wanted me backreal bad to go to work.
Yeah, he wasn't too happy untilI got back it was time.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
What was it like when you left?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
the base for the last time and you knew you weren't
going to be in uniform anymore.
I didn't miss it.
I didn't go to.
You know, they gave me a cardto go to.
What do they call it?
Forget what they call it.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh, the exchange, the what was the.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
No, you go to meetings and stuff.
It's not.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh, oh, like a, like a transition program, yeah, Okay
, I never went, didn't see anyneed.
Yeah, you knew what you weregoing to do, right when you got
so, did you when you left, whenyou left, when you left Norfolk,
then you just flew straighthome.
Yeah, okay.
And you weren't married at thispoint, were you?
(12:24):
Okay, all right.
So you got home and talked tome about you know what was it
like to come home after beinggone for so long?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It was good.
My young brother there, he wasglad I got back.
You know he's glad to see meand and, uh, yeah, I was glad to
get home.
Yeah, absolutely, I did enjoythe navy.
I enjoyed being at sea,especially when you come out of
a city or something, go out, thewater's nasty.
(12:54):
Look until you get to a certainway.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Then it's like a line across the water and that's
nice water, clean water yeah soyou have those days when it's
like a mirror, yeah, where it'sjust still and yeah.
Yeah, it's been a long time forme too, but I still remember
those days.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I can't talk my wife into going on a cruise no
no they're great I wish I couldgood food and all the other
shows, yeah, music everythingyou could want right there.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, it's a whole lot different from being on a on
a navy ship oh, yeah, yeah theentertainment was completely
different.
Yeah, yeah.
So you, uh, you started workingfor your dad um in the
excavating business then.
And is that that what you, uh?
Did you continue doing?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
that, yeah, he retired in 71, I think, moving
up indian river, and I took itover and run it until I quit
2012,.
I think there wasn't anycommercial jobs coming up on the
screen and there wasn't anyhousing going on then.
(14:04):
So I said, well, it's time toclose the doors.
And my son wanted to keep going.
I said, no, we can't, there'sno work.
You know, it's time to closethe doors, right, right so tell
me about, uh, when?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
when did you meet your wife, and, and how?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
ah see, I met her in boy 68 or 69.
I got married in 71.
And she went to Waterford HighSchool.
I went to Clarkston.
(14:47):
So one thing that surprised meI went to her 50th reunion and
she said I wanna introduce youto one of the guys.
I said okay.
So we went over there and shesays this is my husband, gary
scott.
He said gary scott, he's alegend.
What he did was poured footingsand poured walls.
(15:10):
I dug basements, level them.
They didn't have to fill in,they didn't have to dig a hole,
it was level.
I used a transit or somethinglike that, so I kept it level.
So they loved that all andcement guys loved me.
Oh yeah, make their job easy.
Yeah Well, that surprised her.
Didn't even know you were alegend.
(15:31):
No, she said did you have funat the reunion?
Why not?
I'm a legend, that's right,yeah that was fun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So how many children do you have?
Uh, two boys, okay, and werethey born fairly?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
close together?
Or are they close in age, threeyears apart?
One's 50 and one's 37.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
All right, what was it like?
What was it like?
It like running a business andhaving boys run around, Because
boys can be a handful can't they?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh yeah, sometimes I didn't have any trouble at all.
Sometimes they went with me.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Now did your sons go into business with you as well.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Okay, no Well, my young son did well.
Okay, no well, my young son diduh-huh.
That's when, when we closed thedoors, we just that's when I
closed the doors on it.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
There wasn't any work .
Yeah, the well.
You had the bust in 2008 and ittook a long time to come back
from all that, didn't it?
Yeah, so, uh, what did you doafter, uh, after you closed the
doors?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I drove cars for Jack Ralph's for nine years.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I went to a place.
They had new cars from Chryslerand some foreign cars and you
go in in the morning, they giveyou your paperwork, what car you
was getting, and they had a GPSon the the dash.
You just followed her out, niceand easy, all by yourself,
nobody with you.
So once in a while you hadsomebody check, checking the
(17:03):
stuff on the radio, make sureyou worked, and done that for
nine years.
So where'd you?
Did you take the cars todealerships?
then, no, we just drove themaround, test drove them oh, okay
, come back, write a report onwhat was wrong with them stuff
like that okay, now that's.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Is that roush engineering?
Is that who that company is?
Yeah jack roush yeah, okay,they actually do a lot of work
with veterans.
Yeah, yeah, I see them at a lotof different meetings and
things like that, so that's kindof interesting you get to.
These are all the newer carsthen that you're driving Brand
new right from the factory.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Wow, you test drive them.
You know, write up a thing onthe end of what was wrong with
them, what was good with them.
So the softest seats, though,were in the Dodge pickups, not
in the cars.
Really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I like the Dodge pickups myself.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I had one too Just until recently.
My wife said too much money ininsurance two cars, so got rid
of the pickup yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah Well, I think I got rid of my pickup about eight
years ago.
A little secret my wifeaccidentally hit the mirror on
the garage too many times, so Ithought it was time to get rid
of the truck, so we moved to acar as well yeah, we do a lot of
traveling.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So we got a new hyundai that's six passenger and
I told him I said I don't wantsix passengers with little kid
seats in the back because wecall six adults when we go
somewhere, go down south or goto branson or goes to, you know,
all over the place.
So, yeah, we got that.
That we're gonna working outpretty good for you yeah, it's a
nice car.
Yeah, yeah, you get a ticklewhen you go down 75 from here,
(18:49):
they'll say check yourdirections, you're going the
wrong way.
Really, yeah, because they, youknow, they shifted the lanes.
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
That's right yeah, yeah, they're fixing all the
roads at once as a matter offact northbound lane used to be
north, now it's south.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, and they tell us every now and I told us two
or three times coming homeyesterday well, you know it's
funny, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
But when I traveled to detroit, my uh, my gps does
the same thing.
It's like I didn't think aboutthat, but when I traveled to
detroit, my uh, my gps does thesame thing.
It's like trying, keeps tryingto shift me, shift me over, like
I'm doing the wrong.
This car talks to you.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, very nice.
When you get out it says checkthe back seats, make sure
there's no kids or anything backthere.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This nice car yeah, well, you back to your
excavating business, though.
So you did a lot of theexcavation for, like, the
Detroit area then, or theClarkson area no mostly in
Oakland County.
Okay, all right, yeah, sothere's probably a lot of houses
out there that you can drive by, and you know that you did that
(19:54):
basement I've done that one,I've done that one.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Is that a source of pride for you, being a legend
and all?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, that shocked my wife.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So you've been married for how long?
In 54 years?
54 years, wow, congratulations.
Yeah, thank you.
What's the secret?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, we're total opposites.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So but we do get along well.
They say opposites attract forsure.
Well, you, um, you have somepaperwork and stuff here.
What do you want to talk aboutany of this, uh, that you have?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
well, I got that cruise booking.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Look through, yeah, I've been kind of flipping
through it.
As we're talking Some stuffhere on the Capricornus they can
read All right Now was this afairly new ship.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Then when you got to it, no, it was in World War II
in the Gulf of Laity, and I justgot a book yeah, tell me about
that On that.
I just read that book.
It was one of the biggestdecisions in the war, once they
took Laity and got the Japaneseout of there.
They pretty much done.
Yeah quite a history.
(21:03):
So that was a.
She was in the pacific then,and when I got her in the
atlantic, and, um, she did they.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
So back in 77, when she was decommissioned, did they
?
Uh, do you know what happenedto it from there?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
it went overseas, somewhere to be scrapped.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Oh, yeah, I, um, I saw so my ship had been
commissioned in 59 and it sawaction in Vietnam.
And then by the time I got toit in the 80s, it was pretty
used up and they sold it and Ijust saw pictures on the
internet where they werescrapping it.
It was kind of hard to see.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, I didn't see it , but that's where it went.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, and you spend a lot of time on those ships, you
really get to know them, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I served watches in the engine room
making fresh water for theshowers and for the boilers.
Then I had a watch and aftersteering, sat there and watched
the rudder move.
I don't know what that was for.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And then I had a lag boat watch occasionally.
So three different watchschedules, watch schedules well,
how many evaps did they have onthere then to make just one?
Just well, really wow.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So if that went down somebody on it constantly, me or
somebody else yeah yeah,because I think we had.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We had two, but I remember one was always down, so
you'd get halfway to whereveryou're going and no one could
take showers, unless you want totake a saltwater shower, which,
by the way, I don't recommend.
I'd rather stink than take asaltwater shower.
Yeah, so talk a little bitabout that, because I don't know
that people understand thatships make their own fresh water
(22:45):
.
They don't have these bigfreshwater tanks.
They refill all the time toactually make it.
So how does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, you boil the salt water and it makes steam.
Then they condense the steam inthe water.
So that's how you get freshwater from seawater.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, and you guys make a lot of it Because your
boilers need the fresh water,right?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, well, we had a vial with purple stuff in it.
You had to test each batch.
If it wasn't clean enough forthe boilers, it had to go to
drinking water.
It had to be absolutely pure togo to boilers.
They didn't want to get lime inthem tubes right, right,
because the heat and the limecaused.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, that's interesting.
If it wasn't good enough forthe boilers, you guys got to
drink it.
Then Wow, it was still good, ohyeah yeah, yeah, I don't know.
It never really tasted all thatgreat, but it got the job done
for sure.
Yeah, so it sounds like asimple process, but it's a huge
(23:47):
piece of machinery that does allthat.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The only thing is down in the interim was hot.
Yeah, I found a big cast ironthing about this high a round
thing.
I'd pull that right under thevent that comes from the upper
deck so the oil would blow righton my face.
Well, that was good, that helps.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Found a way to beat some of the heat yeah, now did
you guys have to worry aboutsteam leaks too?
Yeah, they're dangerous, yeah,they'll cut you right because
it's all high pressure steam,right, yeah, and you don't.
You don't see it or necessarilyhear it, right?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
yeah, well, they took pretty good care of those, wrap
them and paint them.
They're pretty good.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, good, good.
Well, is there anything elsethat you wanted to talk about
that we haven't covered here,about your time in service or
anything else?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, I enjoyed being in the service.
I mean, you know, it's justsome things I didn't care for,
but mostly I had a good timeyeah.
Did my job.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You could say that about any job, though right,
there's always going to besomething you don't really care
for.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I like to be on the landing craft taking them
Marines to the shore and dumpingthem out.
You know we could haul theirtrucks and their trailers and
everything in one of the big53-footers.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah, Well, I don't think people realize how big
those things are too.
I mean, that's a lot ofequipment and people to haul
back and forth.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, just like they see in the US.
You run to the beach and bamgoes the ramp and out they go,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So I can imagine how those guys felt in World War II,
hitting the beach at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to have been there.
No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Well, good, I mean we've covered pretty much
everything.
Your time in the Navy and isthere anything about after the
Navy that we haven't talkedabout?
That you'd like to?
No, not really.
Like I said, I didn't go to thewhat the haven't talked about.
Do you like to?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, not really.
Like I said, I didn't go to thewhat the heck they call that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can't remember now.
Well, you'll remember it aboutan hour from now.
Yeah, that's what happens to me, yeah, yeah.
So the other question is thatwe talked a little bit about
this before we got on camera.
So you're originally from theclarkson area, but now you're
here in holly um and for theaudience listening, it's a
beautiful home.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Um, talk a little about how you ended up here and
and where you live now well, wesearched everywhere to find a
vacant property to put a houseon and we finally found this one
.
And linda kept saying I want tobe close to town so I can walk
to town.
So this one worked out.
It was vacant and we bought itand while it was being built we
lived in a condo north of townand then, when it was done, we
(26:39):
moved here and we've been herealmost five years now.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Did you come watch and supervise the excavation?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I dug the basement.
Oh, you did.
I was gonna ask.
I borrowed a friend's machine,dug the basement myself, wow
yeah.
And then my son run the dozerwhen we were working.
I run the excavator, mm-hmm.
And so that's what happenedhere.
It's got here.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And then your son built this house too.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, he's a builder now.
Yeah, he went back, got hisbuilder's license.
He had a college degree insomething I don't remember what
it was when we closed up.
He went back and got abuilder's license and went to
work building, doing remodelsand building.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, so, so it's sort of running your family.
Do you think, though, went towork building, doing remodels
and building?
Yeah, so, so sort of runningyour family.
Do you think, though I Meanyour dad was an excavator and
you, you were an excavator.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And now your son is in the building trades.
Yeah, mother son, my oldest sonnow works for Mitsubishi.
He helps design the coolingsystems for the air conditioning
and stuff for the engine.
And my youngest son, well, Isaid he's a builder.
Yeah, you have grandkids.
(28:01):
I got a bunch of those.
They keep you busy.
Yeah, I forget how many.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Probably easy to do.
I only have one, so I can'tforget or I'm in trouble.
But yeah, no, I have more thanthat.
Yeah, how do you like being agrandpa?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That's good, they like me.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, you find yourself exhausted when they
leave, though Not really.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, I remember yourself exhausted when they
leave, though Not really yeah.
I remember my granddaughter, myyoungest son's daughter.
He only had one daughter.
We used to play, have a teaparty.
I'd sit down with her when shewas little and we'd have fake
tea.
And where we lived in Clarkstonour old house was on one road
(28:49):
and then I got on the main road,on Mabee Road, to build a house
.
Well, my granddaughter wouldcome through and she called that
the secret way because shecould walk from her house to our
house without going out intraffic.
Oh, so that was good.
Yeah, so that was nice Teaparties and secret passages
Mm-hmm Well, it was nice Teaparties.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
And secret passages Mm-hmm Well, that's kind of cool
.
Yeah, seems like life's beenpretty good to you.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Oh yeah, so far, yeah , other than recently.
I had a couple falls, so Uh-huh.
I was at the National Cemeteryone day standing up next to this
guy's's car and all of a suddenI'm on my butt on the ground
don't know what happened.
And then my wife was doingsomething here with a hose,
watering something.
She said I was sitting on thedeck there.
(29:36):
She said come and help me.
So I got up and, boom, felldown, hit my head and I had 12
stitches, went to the hospitalfor two days.
Oh my gosh.
So I'm trying to get throughall that.
So I don't know what caused it.
Yeah, I don't know, theyhaven't found that out yet.
They took away a bunch of mymedicine, that's that causes
that dizziness or whatever itwas.
So they took away a bunch ofthose.
(29:56):
So I'm getting better.
Well, good, so I use thiswalker pretty much, but uh, now
I'm getting where I can gowithout that if I have to yeah,
you don't seem like thecomplaining type of guy, so very
good.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Well, all right.
We we've talked about a lot ofthings.
We covered, uh, your life, um,I always ask this one question
before we close out aconversation, and that is when
someone's listening to yourstory years from now, you know,
when neither one of us are stillhere.
What message would you like toleave for people?
About my time in the service,your time in the service, or
(30:37):
just about your life in general,or a piece of advice that you
would give to people, justanything like that.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Well, I had a good time in the Navy.
I enjoyed that.
Now that I'm home, I don't workanymore anymore.
We go a lot of places, wetravel a lot.
We go to florida in the winter,every winter, and go all over
florida different condos anddifferent places, and it's been
great well, good, all right.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Well, thanks for taking time out of your day,
gary, to sit here and talk withme.
I really appreciate it thankyou that's good.
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