Oral History Interview with Winfred C. Chamberlain, July 16, 2012 Page: 3

                                
MC: Okay. And, when did you go -- now, first off you're a US
Navy veteran, right?
WC: Yeah.
MC: And when did you go into the service? And why did you go
into the -- why did you pick the Navy?
WC: Well, first of all I've always been Navy-inclined, you
know? I went aboard the USS Houston as a little kid. My
uncle took me down when it made its inaugural tour and come
to the turning base to turn around. I was raised, oh,
maybe about four miles from the turning base. And as kids
we used to ride our bicycles down there.
MC: Look at the ships coming in?
WC: Huh?
MC: Look at the ships coming in, right?
WC: Yeah. And, oh, one of the big attractions, in retrospect
we could see now about the Japanese loading scrap iron.
They shouted all back at us. But they loaded a heck of a
lot of it in Houston. And on Sunday they would put on
their costumes and their bamboo sticks.

MC: On the ships?
WC: Yeah. And they'd put on a show, you know? And we'd go
watch that. We wasn't great for going on the ship. But,
you know, it's just kids bicycling around and stuff.
MC: When did you go into the Navy?

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