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TI: So then you were inducted, so you joined the...
BB: I was inducted 1941.
TI: Oh, 1941. So right before the war started.
BB: Yeah, we were inducted, we were the 40th Tank Company in Salinas, California, we were a National Guard outfit. And we were inducted into service February 10, 1941.
TI: And so where did you do your basic training?
BB: Fort Lewis. I was already a sergeant, and I was the one that taught munitions and gunnery and whatnot in the tank company. Taught machine guns and pistols and all that.
TI: So how was it that you were already a sergeant? How did you make that, that jump?
BB: Well, I joined in 1936 and I guess got promoted eventually and first fall I was... you're going to know a lot about my life's history if I keep on talking. [Laughs]
TI: No, this is, this is good. So when you say you, so you, in 1936 you joined the California National Guard.
BB: Uh-huh.
TI: And that was the 40th Tank Company. And so when you say you were inducted in 1941...
BB: We were federalized.
TI: Okay, so you went from a...
BB: National Guard outfit.
TI: National Guard...
BB: To a federal.
TI: To a U.S...
BB: Same thing happened to the 116th here in Idaho. They got federalized and go to Iraq. Same kind of situation.
TI: I see. And so was this happening all across the country? They were federalizing these national guards?
BB: Uh-huh. They federalized almost all the guard outfits in every state, but they all had different missions. Ours was tanks and so there was an outfit from, a tank company from St. Joseph, Missouri, and one from Brainerd, Minnesota, and ours from Salinas, California, we were the three tank units, federalized. And at that time, we only had two tanks. One, one truck, a command car, and two tanks. That was what the National Guard had. So when we got federalized, why, we ended up at Fort Lewis, and basically, they finally delivered a one-half track per unit, per company and some jeeps and motorcycles.
<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.