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TI: Now, I'm wondering, the, the group that went through this experience, your company and that, when you were together, what was the mood? Were you guys exuberant because you were free, or was there, were you guys at times melancholy because you had seen so much --

BB: A whole bunch of us ended up coming back to the States on the same ship. We were on a PA, personnel attack carrier, and we were mixed in with regular army, regular navy and all that. And three or four of us were from the tank company, from Salinas, we were on the same ship. Another fellow and I ended up, I never played poker or anything in my life, so they were shooting dice, and this other guy named Frank Cabral, he says, "You don't know how to play the game? Just do what I do. Cover anything I do the same. We'll come out winning money." So we threw the dice and I ended up covering everything he did, I won 800 bucks. We got into San Francisco Bay, we get under the bridge and we watch ahead, and San Francisco had signs all over Fort Mason, "Welcome Home," and had something underneath it, they were taking down the sign.

TI: They were taking down --

BB: Fact, it was being taken down when our ship was landing.

TI: Now, why was that? Because they, because most people had already returned?

BB: Had already returned, yeah. It was two months later. So, I ended up at Letterman General Hospital, and they put us in a compound that had been the prison section for Italian prisoners. And we were behind barbed wire, they were, had these twelve-foot fences around. Well, of all things, my old girlfriend comes to the fence and says, "What would you guys like to have?" I says, "Get us a pair of wire cutters." She worked for the navy and a few hours later comes back, wire cutters. So we cut a hole the size of a man in the fence. Chain link fence, cut a hole, we took off. Whole bunch of us took off to San Francisco, and we had a ball. [Laughs]

TI: So I'm curious; looking back, the Salinas group, do you as a group still get together, or did you guys get together after that and just...

BB: We still do to this day.

TI: And what do you guys talk about when you guys get together?

BB: Oh, sometimes little things that happened in prison camp, where we were, we talk about why we ended up this way. And then, most of us have problems, so we end up talking about each other's problems.

TI: I mean, as a group, do you guys feel fortunate that you survived all this, or do you guys talk about that?

BB: Well, the ones that survived, most of us, had good jobs before the war. I ended up getting back into the army. I ended up, I reenlisted as a master sergeant, finally ended up as a warrant officer. We get together, there are a half-a-dozen of us that are very close. We went to school together, and the first sergeant and I were real good buddies. We, we have known each other and our wives for years, and I'm the one that has always kept track of everything, that's why I'm editor of the Sea Lion, I have all the records and one thing or another, all the rosters. I keep track of what everybody is doing, and the ones that want to contact me. And there are about half a dozen that are very close.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.