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HW: And anyway, we got together best we could because a lot of the guys were -- weekend pass -- were still not back, and we got ourselves ready and in the afternoon, oh about, I would say about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, we were all set to go. And we drove from Fort Lewis through Puyallup, and up through the valley. I think we stayed off Highway 99. And then we came into Seattle. And I remember going by Boeing Plant 2 and it was all camouflaged. Driving up the waterfront, and then we cut over, and funny incident happened right there. 'Cause I was driving my truck with a gun on it -- I was a truck driver and prime mover -- and a, a civilian car got in front of me. And when the light turned red it stopped and the convoy kept going. So, I just saw a service station next to me, so I just drove my truck and gunned right through the service station and about fifty other trucks followed me right through the service station. So people, attendant, in the service station lookin' at me with eyes wide open, what's going on? Anyway, we got to, that evening we got to Burlington, Washington. And we were told, "Here is the fire hall, and this is where you leave your stuff, this is where you gonna sleep." We dumped our bedding off and our personal belongings. Left it there, and then we continued on to Deception Pass Bridge -- connects to the mainland to Whidbey Island.

SS: What was your unit supposed to be doing out there?

HW: Well, we went there to set up our guns on the bridge. The bridge goes, has an island in the middle, and we set our guns on the island because from the island we could see the Strait of the, Juan de Fuca. And we set up our guns there and then we took turns attending to the gun the next several weeks.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.