Oral History Interview with Warren Kimzey, December 6, 2001 Page: 2

                                
Mr. Sadd:
Mr. Kimzey:
Mr. Sadd:
Mr. Kimzey:
Mr. Sadd:
Mr. Kimzey:
Mr. Sadd:
Mr. Kimzey:

where I would like to be so I went down and enlisted.
At that age it may not have been such a "grand" decision.
No. This was in the bad years of the country, financially, etc. so any steady
thing seemed like a good thing.
What were you doing before you enlisted?
I worked in restaurants. In those days, the '30's, during the depression, you
worked wherever you could find work. So I worked in the restaurants as a
bus boy. I also worked in the fields in California when I was a boy. I was
paid $1.50 for digging sweet potatoes when it was 110 degrees in the shade.
Most of the time I had been associated with the culinary field.
After you joined the coast guard, tell me about your training - where did you
have your training?
I went to Boot Camp at Alameda, California for three months. Then I was
transferred to a 75 foot patrol boat.
What type of training was involved during those three months?
Everything. Seamanship, square knots, signaling. The Coast Guard is varied
in their duties since we were such a small organization. You learned a lot
more. I was gunnery pointer on a 3" 50, and I was gun captain on a 20 and

40 millimeter. You would do things like that besides your regular activities.
In 1940 I went to Hawaii. I was aboard the Roger B. Taney, which was a 327
foot secretary class cutter. Those boats were all named after different
Secretaries of the Treasury. I was on her for almost a year, and I got rated to

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