Remembering Them Forever (RTF)!

Military Information:

• TVHOF Patriot Award
• 1-Alpha List
• TVHOF Class of 2025
• Navy Corpman
• Hospital Corpsman
• Medical Technician

Dates of Service 1:

Service Start Date: NA Service End Date: NA

Dates of Service 2:

Service Start Date: NA Service End Date: NA

Bio:

I was born in Boston in 1937. My father Malcom, a Navy Lt., served for 25 years and my uncle, Lt Cmdr George Boyer, served in the Navy for 26 years. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, my father and uncle were serving on the USS Hornet which was moored in the harbor. My father had left the ship early (0700) but as the attack began my uncle was still posted at his station when the ship was torpedoed and sunk. One fourth of the men on the ship were killed and my uncle said he could hear the cries of the sailors as they died.

I was very close to my uncle who was always very kind to me. He had daughters and no sons so he was like my godfather. My time with my uncle was the happiest memories of my life. Golf was his passion and we frequently played golf together. When we were on the green he would frequently tell me, " don't talk about our private lives we're here to play golf."

One difficult memory occurred while I was growing up in Boston. I was seven years old during WW2 and remembered watching official looking cars pulling up in front of houses to inform the family their sons had been killed. It was sad because I was friends with many of these soldiers and stated that “your heart bleeds when you go through war”.

I enlisted and served in the Navy from 1958 to 1962 out of respect for my uncle and my mother who had worked at Mass General Hospital in Boston for 40 years. Boot camp was in San Diego. In the barracks I was a known prankster and my father and Uncle helped by explaining exactly what I could get away with. On several occasions I would turn back the clock in my barracks and bang a trashcan at 2am waking up all of the sleeping recruits. I was also accused of short sheeting the bunks. As a result of my numerous pranks, which included the Petty Officers, I was suspended for 3 days. Regardless, I loved the Marines!

My Medical Training was completed at Portsmouth Medical Ctr in Virginia which included rotations through OBGYN, Morgue, Cardio, and Pysch. I joined the Medical Corp because my mother had been a nurse.

Several soldiers were disrespectful to me and as a Navy Corpsman I had to maintain the upper hand in the Medical Field to gain respect. Especially, after “drop your pants I’m looking for name and address.” On one occasion I was being disrespected and decided to place a sliver of a burr into the needle of the syringe and injected it into the gluteal area of the offensive recruit. It was extremely painful when the needle was pulled out. I quickly gained respect from the soldiers as they returned to the fleet and in the process earned the nickname, “Lil Doc.”

During my OBGYN rotation I delivered 150 babies. I remember delivering them was very difficult because there were many situations where I was working alone. Despite that fact Bill shared bringing a new life into the world was extremely special. I also remember one delivery where the mother said the “baby was ugly and wanted him to put it back.”

My next rotation was in the mortuary which I liked because the “patients couldn’t talk back.” One scary memory occurred while I was transporting a body to the morgue. As I was entering the elevator, the body suddenly sat straight up and made a strange sound. Evidently no one had described rigor mortis to me. Even though I liked working in the morgue there were two jobs that were difficult. One was delivering deceased babies to the morgue. I was always saddened when I had to do that. I also hated trying to identify severely wounded Marines who had died during surgery. Their shattered and severed bodies eventually came to the morgue where I was responsible for identifying them regardless of their condition.

My Pysch rotation, was my least favorite. I was responsible for examining the patients and changing their beds. During meals, I had to be cautious so my patients were only given plastic forks. My pysch rotation also included training in the jail. Most of the offenses were minor and included petty theft and alcohol intoxication because of tempers. I thought it was pathetic that the sailors who were arrested were jailed because of such insignificant crimes.

One of my best remembrances was when I saved a sailor who had fallen overboard. I had a passion for saving others because I thought it “was the Samaritan thing to do” Which brings up one of the most important attributes to Bill's personality and character. I observed a sad reality. No one wanted to have anything to do with the disabled soldiers especially those who had lost legs or arms. Nobody wanted to talk to them so they felt isolated and alone. I referred to them as the "forgotten soldiers." Which was made worse by the fact their disabilities kept them from working at a job. So I would talk to them. Ask them questions about their service. I understood them so I would spend my days, even on weekends, talking to them. Reassuring them they were okay because they had served in the war so they were great men because of their service. I didn't want money or gratification because I was spending time with them. It just made me feel better. It was the right thing to do.

Bill's other important observation was that every wounded or disabled soldier should be treated the same. They all have feelings and need comfort. Bill shared that there should be no color in the military. "We are all the same, bad is bad and good is good. The veterans are all the same because they served and protected our freedom." He added that the current generation doesn't possess the same patriotic feeling or beliefs about our veterans. The don't show them the same respect.

I remember my fear of being deployed at any minute. The anxiety “put the fear of God in us because we didn’t know where we would be going. In 1962, I received orders that I was being deployed to an unknown destination. Guatemala was in the midst of a revolution that started in 1960 which included government troops and various rebel groups. The Cuban Missile Crisis also occurred that year. I was boarded on a crowded troop ship but 10 minutes before we were to sail the deployment was canceled. In 1962, I was discharged from the military with a rank of HM3.

After the war I went to college for 2 years. I was managing a 7-11across from the park and met a woman named Emma. Emma’s husband was sick and in and out of the hospital. Every morning she would get cleaned up and come to the 7-11, Monday to Friday, to get a cup of Diet Coke in a coffee cup. I thought this was very strange and asked her, ‘ Mam, go buy a Big Gulp.” But Emma would refuse because she worked at the office and the coffee cup wouldn’t spill the coke on the papers, and it made for a good paper weight.

I was a single man rearing 4 children on my own. Emma was listening to the radio, and heard the radio host say, "Call this number and be the winner of tickets to the fair. I saw Emma again and she asked me if would like to go to the state fair. I agreed so we had a date. We had 3 or 4 dates and I wanted to marry her but I said, “I couldn’t marry her unless my pit bull dog liked her. “ My pretty was very smart so to see if my dog liked her. She sat next to her. We soon laughed because my pretty liked her more than me now. Emma was happy!

We were going to be married in the Chapel but 2 weeks before the wedding the minister was fired. This was after all of the invitations had already been mailed. Fortunately, a church official intervened and we were married with vows. Emma was concerned because I was single and was the father of 4 children so she made me repeat “ I will obey” several times”

I worked for SS Cresty (KMART) for 10 years. For 8 years, I was Head of Merchandising for 8 years.

My remembrance of my military career was, “ I strove for excellence and wanted to serve my country well.”