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AI: And then how did you, when was it that you ended up coming back to the States?

JM: That was '46. I went over there, and I came back in '51. We were married then. We came back in '51, back to the States. I got stationed over in, well, they asked me if I wanted to go a certain place, I told 'em Washington, yes. I don't know why, but I think they figured that I meant Washington D.C., so what did they do, they shipped me to Virginia. Langley Field, Virginia. So, that was no good, so I finagled a deal where I could get transferred, and they transferred me back to McCord. And so, I stayed there for a while. In the meantime, my wife was with my folks in Bellevue, 'cause she didn't want to go to Virginia at the time. So I got a transfer and, so I used to commute between Bellevue and McCord for, oh, five months or more. And then that unit moved to Moses Lake, so I had to go with them. So she went with me to Moses Lake, I lived there for a while. Four years I guess, as a matter of fact. And then, well, I thought it'd be a good idea now, the three kids were born in the meantime. And so I thought it'd be a good idea if I requested another transfer back to Japan. So I got it, and so my whole family went to Japan again. Then she would be close to her family, and get to see everyone. So we stayed there four years. Then we came back and, and then they stationed me over at Paine Field, near Everett.

So I stayed there a couple of years but I, at that time I had eighteen years in, you know. And they had a deal where, if you didn't go overseas when the orders came out, why, you had to get out. Well, I didn't want to lose eighteen years, because I only had two years more to go to retire from the service, and get my benefits. So okay, I says, "I'll go overseas." And so what'd they do, they sent me to Okinawa. I went first, and then my wife and the kids went later on. We had a lot of help from other people. So they flew in from, to Okinawa. And I stayed there four years. Yeah, four years. I don't know, for some reason, just luck would have it, I didn't have to go to Vietnam, I was scheduled to go to Vietnam. But anyway, I requested retirement. So I retired 1966. And while I was at Paine Field, why, I bought a house, because I wanted to be near the base, in case of alerts and things like that. Anyway, I had this house, and I had, then I figured well, I'd have something to come back to when I came back. So I lived there for, oh, I don't know how many years, five, six, seven years. Then we, the present place, I live still close by, just another place. But that's how I ended up in my service.

AI: So you had a long service career and then, came back and ended up here in Puget Sound, after all that.

JM: Yeah.

<End Segment 40> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.