Ron J
Active member
Tuesday, i had brought Buds Diary pages to the Dealership to make copies. I need to organize the dates,and places, with a highlighter. I also wanted to ,mark the locations Bud mentions to locate what country he was exactly writing about. There were other items to highlight, such as what is an L.C.I or an K.T. ? What does Rdm 3rd class mean or L.S.T ? I was gonna ask Barry, a friend at the bodyshop, he was in the Navy, but in the Seventies, not WWII. About 10:00 or so, i was behind the Service Counter and there was an elderly gentleman discussing his vehicle with one of my Service Advisors. He had a retired Navy cap on, with LST-526 on the front. You have all seen this type of cap before? A lot of Veterans wear them. When he was finished with the conversation, i asked him if i could ask a few Navy related questions. His reply was "Sure, what do you want to know?" I introduced myself, and explained what i had on loan, and needed to know the meaning of a few letters in Navy lingo.His name is Jack. So i asked what the LST stood for. His reply "Landing Ship Tank, or nicknamed Landing Ship Target, was more like it. They were 300 plus feet long, like a warehouse, and the Bow opened by splitting left and right doors, for unloading anything, tanks, trucks, you name it." I showed Jack a copy, with the different letters,and then asked what a "Moss" boat was. He looked at the papers, and pointed out, "hey he (Bud) was a radioman 3rd class!" as he fingered one line, reading "Rdm 3rd class". I thought this is great! Jack scanned a few more lines, and asked " What was this guy, on P T Boats?" I replied as you know, "Yes! In the Med." I offered him the copy of the diary to read, and as he read it Jack told me " Hey, i was at all those same places, just the timing was a month or so after (Buds) dates! Jack went on to inform me North Africa was a pretty important base, and it was common for his ship to go back and forth to Italy, and France. He told me his good friend was the Radioman on his vessel,and Jack did a lot of night lookout. He and the Radioman would cover for each other to take naps. One voyage, they were carrying British troops to Africa. Jack got off duty early,and went snooping in the hold to see what was in some of the crates, the Brits had on board. He mentioned how are k rations were in flat cans, but in the crates were British rations, in tall,thin round cannisters. He opened a couple, and they were loaded with chocolate bars! Jack Was like a little kid, he was talking like it was yesterday,instead of 1944! Jack stated, "You know what that chocolate brings you in France?! Wham, Bam, Thank You Mam! All you want!" 
We got a kick out of that! Man he was reminiscing back to his twenties. He then quickly told me, he didn't care about the "honeys" , he wanted film! He had a camera, and wanted to take pictures! So he traded some of the borrowed British chocolate for film. He said he had a thick photo album full of pictures of the Med. while he was there! Me being a little brave, asked if it were possible, bring them down sometime, i would love to view the album. He mentioned he just might do that. Today, Thursday, i had been in a few lengthy meeting, and heard my name being paged a few times, but could not go to the counter. Later,after the meeting, i returned to the counter, and Gig, one of my writers, said an older Gentleman had dropped off a folder for me to view. A what? Jack had brought his photo album! I know have it for a short period of time. I am enjoying the pictures very much. I hope to have time to scan them or most of them. Quite a few are in Italy, and similar to Buds pictures! (except different type of vessels.) Can you believe this? I can't. I don't know how to express my appreciation to Jack, to trust me also, with his album. I can tell you he was thrilled just to converse the short time we did, the other day. It brought out memories, and was truly appreciated that someone was listening that cared, i guess, or i least i hope he felt that good! Jack is quite the guy for bringing and sharing the album. I will never be able to thank him enough. Thank You Jack! 
We got a kick out of that! Man he was reminiscing back to his twenties. He then quickly told me, he didn't care about the "honeys" , he wanted film! He had a camera, and wanted to take pictures! So he traded some of the borrowed British chocolate for film. He said he had a thick photo album full of pictures of the Med. while he was there! Me being a little brave, asked if it were possible, bring them down sometime, i would love to view the album. He mentioned he just might do that. Today, Thursday, i had been in a few lengthy meeting, and heard my name being paged a few times, but could not go to the counter. Later,after the meeting, i returned to the counter, and Gig, one of my writers, said an older Gentleman had dropped off a folder for me to view. A what? Jack had brought his photo album! I know have it for a short period of time. I am enjoying the pictures very much. I hope to have time to scan them or most of them. Quite a few are in Italy, and similar to Buds pictures! (except different type of vessels.) Can you believe this? I can't. I don't know how to express my appreciation to Jack, to trust me also, with his album. I can tell you he was thrilled just to converse the short time we did, the other day. It brought out memories, and was truly appreciated that someone was listening that cared, i guess, or i least i hope he felt that good! Jack is quite the guy for bringing and sharing the album. I will never be able to thank him enough. Thank You Jack!