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Navy Reserve cruise to Bermuda June 1950, ASTC Fall '50, USN 1/51 to 12/54-assigned to USS Yancey AKA-48 made a trip from San Francisco to Sasebo, Japan and back to Hawaii where I was assigned mess cook and building maintenance duties for 6 months, then boarded the USS Manatee on which I servd from '52-'54. There I reached the rank of Boatswain's Mate 2. Ports: Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, CA; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Sasebo, Yokohama, Japan; Hong Kong,China; Kaoshung, Formosa; Phillapines; Midway, Guam, Bikini Atoll (Was 50 miles away when H-Bomb was exploded). Attended NC State from January '55 to December 57.
Worked as AC & Htg Engineer for Zett Plmbng & Htg in High Point a couple of years before going into business with a partner in Greensboro for a couple of years before having to close up when partner left town after a dispute with his wife. Then found a job with a building supply company as a salesman and warehouse manager. Then seeking a higher paying job I accepted a job with Vick Mfg. first as Assistant Traffic Manager and then as Shipping and Receiving Manager. Ray Anderson, a high School classmate offered me a job as Warehouse Manager in an import warehouse in Brooklyn, NY which was a temporary job as the company, Blue Bell, decided to close down shortly after I took over. I had a room in a hotel until schools back in NC were closed for the Summer. Then found a temporary apartment to sublease near Columbia University where a young couple that were students had made a temporary transition to Washington, D.C. In July I came down with a bad Gall Bladder and had it removed at Cone Hospital in Greensboro. Two weeks later I returned to work to close down that operation.
Returning to Greensboro, Ray kept me on in the Traffic Department with the title of Materials Handling Specialist. The dock workers in Puerto Rico were threatening to strike. Blue Bell had an operation there in Mayaquez cutting and sewing blue jeans for the Lady Wrangler Division. I suggested we fly the supplies down there and fly the garments back. Too expensive for us use the public air cargo system it was decided to start our own air cargo operation. I designed a reuseable container system that actually reduced the tare weight of containers needed so we could fly more garments per flight. This also reduced the number of laborers needed to load and unload the trucks and airplanes by using fork lifts and pallet jacks. Blue Bell discovered they could cut down expenses involved by reducing inventories needed intransit to maintain a normal flow of sales.
As our transportation needs grew I was assigned Manager of the Greensboro Truck Terminal for which a new building was built next to the Lady Wrangler Warehouse. From there, I continued my Job as Load Master at the Winston Salem airport from where we had to operate the cargo airplane (due to short runways at the Greensboro airport at the time).
In 1977 Blue Bell expanded operations westward. Our Tupelo facilities were expanded to include a tractor and trailer repair shop. A N.C. State graduate, John Elliot was hired and assigned to get that shop organized and operating. With the shop manager in our Greenville, S.C. shop and location of most of our trucking equipment there also they decided to move John there and send me to Tupelo to oversee the shop first and the terminal too later on. However, sales of jeans leveled off and the Tupelo cutting and sewing operation eventually was closed. Powers that be decided to sell Blue Bell after the employees had bought back all outstanding company stock. After Vanity Fair bought the company and began making cutbacks in our benefits and in future retiree benefits, I decided it was time for me to retire...at the age of 57!
We bought an RV and began traveling all around the country and brief incursions into Canada to see Niagra Falls and into Mexico at El Paso and traveling through about all the States except Ohio and Indiana. We have a lot of beautiful scenery here and relatively safe journeys are possible compared to many foreign countries. If you haven't seen this county's beauty and sceneric places I suggest you go. Have you seen an ice cave, an Indian pow-wow, a geyser, the "Painted Desert", hang gliders in the mountains, etc. etc.! Note: We found more Buffalo here in Tupelo, MS than we saw anywhere else....including "Yellowstone Park". Get your "FREE" Golden Passport" at age 62 to any Federal Park good for family etc. Check out at the Dept. of the Interior. Google it!
Blue Bell Inc. '67-'88 shop mgr, transportation private fleet & loadmaster on air cargo to Puerto Rico, traffic dept. dispatcher etc.
