<Begin Segment 13>

RP: You were talking about what MPs did for recreation. There was a tragic event that you heard about between several MPs?

RD: Well, they were, yeah, there was two guys in the motorpool, they were good friends, they were horsing around, I guess, and they had their revolvers and practicing the quick draw and everything else. Evidently they had ammunition in the gun, and the one time it went off, it killed the one guy. I understand they give you a court martial and fine you one dollar and then they give you back a carton of cigarettes. That's the way I understood what it was, in order to protect you from civilian authorities. So they just give you a court martial and fine you a dollar, and then they give you back a carton of cigarettes. That's the way I understood it now, whether it's true or not, I don't know, but that's what I heard.

RP: So that man who accidently shot the other man might have just continued on duty there?

RD: Yeah. The one guy was from the motorpool, and I don't know how they happened to have the revolver there or not, I don't know. But evidently must have been somebody coming off duty or was going on duty or something. That I don't remember.

RP: Tell us about some of your, the noncoms that you worked with. There was a Sergeant Cross?

RD: I don't remember him. And like I said, I remember Corporal DeRamey, he was a little, I guess he was part Indian and Hispanic, he was real nice. And then there was Sergeant Rodriguez, which I didn't get along with too well. Why we conflicted, I'm not too sure. He had me doing company punishment quite a bit.

RP: For what?

RD: Disobeying orders or smartmouth him or something, walk out in the field pack all day in the sun.

RP: That was your... how about Captain Nail? How did you get along with, or did you get along with Captain Nail?

RD: Well, you know, it's pretty hard to say. It seemed like we always came and called him Spike, Captain Spike, and he was a West Point man, he was pretty strict and everything else. But as far as how he was, I can't remember too much about him. I remember Lieutenant Hash, he was, he came there after we got there, and he was fresh out of school, I guess. He was a pretty nice guy. The other, the First Lieutenant, he wasn't too bad of a guy either. As far as the officers went, they weren't too bad.

RP: How was Lieutenant Singer?

RD: I guess, yeah, he's the one that gave me the court martial, presided over the court martial.

RP: Oh, Lieutenant Singer? What, can you lead us through that, that procedure, how...

RD: Well, I don't remember too much about it, but I went along, like I said, I got seven days hard labor and seven days restriction for being AWOL, 'cause we were supposed to be back by midnight, and this was six o'clock in the morning. And then twenty days hard labor and twenty days restriction with twenty-five dollar fine for refusing an order from a company commander. And the funniest thing about that, I don't know, after about a week or so, maybe it was a couple weeks or so, I snuck into town, I was walking down the street, me and Johnny, I guess it was were. And there in the window looking out was Lieutenant, the First Lieutenant and his wife. He looks at me, and I remember his wife grabbing and saying something to him, and so he just looked the other way I kept on going. He never did say anything about it, I don't know why, but sort of got my butt nailed there, too.

RD: You were working on this ditch?

RD: Pardon?

RP: You said you were working on this ditch?

RD: Yeah, there was a ditch alongside there, a little, never did hardly ever see any water in it, 'cause I was out there in the wintertime in the snow, moving from one bank to the other side, I had about over a block straightened out, all leveled along here, flat on the bottom. I remember one time, the company commander said something about I wasn't working fast enough because I had an overcoat on. He said, "Well, it's cold out here, so make him take the coat off, he'll work faster and warm up." So one of the captain guards take my coat off, and soon as he left, put it back on.

RP: Also, the military police camp was right up against the agricultural fields, right behind you?

RD: Yeah, it was all around us off to the... well, like the camp's situated here, whether that would be west, I would think. And then on the south side over there and the back side around there.

RP: So you mentioned that on occasion you'd go over there and sneak a little something?

RD: Yeah, once in a while, I guess.

RP: What did you grab out of there?

RD: Is this gonna get me in trouble? [Laughs]

RP: Well, you're already in a lot of trouble. A little more won't matter. We're gonna report you to Lieutenant Singer.

RD: Oh, okay. Well, we got a watermelon now and then, and they said it was government property and everything else, and they said it was a federal offense.

RP: To steal a watermelon?

RD: I don't know what they did with 'em. They never used, never sold them, I don't know whatever they did with them. A lot of 'em went rotten out there, so we used to sneak out once in a while and grab one, they had some cantaloupe out there.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.