<Begin Segment 31>

TI: And then so when you finished with the army, where did you go?

WM: McClellan Field.

TI: McClellan Field?

WM: Yeah, airplane.

TI: And what did you do there?

WM: Mechanic.

TI: Okay. How did you learn that? Where did you learn how to be a mechanic?

WM: You know, one month you learn, you did everything.

TI: So one month you learned how to be a mechanic?

WM: Yeah.

TI: For airplanes?

WM: Yeah. Every time you... first, I went for mechanic, and they had no job for me, so a half year I got to go to the warehouse. And after that, they don't pay much, so I changed the job, it was open. So I moved (and went)...

TI: And how long were you...

WM: Thirty-one.

TI: Thirty-one years? Wow. And what kind of airplanes did you work on?

WM: All kinds, jet. (Narr. note: Nos. F106 A&B, F105, F10, F111 and F4.)

TI: Up to jets also?

WM: Yeah.

TI: And how big of jets did you work on?

WM: Big ones, two engine. When we're all different engines come in the plane.

TI: So that's interesting, because you've then seen a lot of changes...

WM: Yeah, job, too.

TI: ...in thirty-one years.

WM: While you're there, you get better job, go up.

TI: Good.

JS: Would you ride in the planes, test pilot?

WM: No, they don't give you, no free ride.

JS: No? No free ride.

WM: Only thing I got free ride (was, I went to) London and Okinawa, work.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.