A couple of the stories that I can remember…
His son, “Little” Henry and I grew up together, and they lived about 2-3 miles from the rest of us growing up. They had a ‘big’ house on the hill that had been in their family since the late 1800s…
One story is one of the few times Mr. Henry ever opened up about the War. I think this was probably in the late 1975 when I was home on leave after Vietnam. I’d gone over to catch up with Little Henry, and he wasn’t home yet, so Mr. Henry invited me into his office. We talked about the Navy, and he was asking me about flying and how I liked it. For some reason I managed to shift the conversation to his service, and he told me he’d gone in early in 1942, and was made a radioman, since he already knew Morse code and had built radios on his own. I never did find out why he didn’t go in as an officer, since he had a degree…
He was in the South Pacific in 43-45, both on a DE and Fletcher Class DD. He was in the battles for Iwo Jima, Okinawa and at least another one or two. BUT he said he was a mount captain on a MkII quad (40mm Bofors gun) on the DD. I asked him how he did that if he was a radioman, and he told me it was because they’d been on some island for R&R and they’d had some shotguns available and shot some skeet. Now Mr. Henry had grown up hunting birds in SW Arkansas and E Texas, and I “know” he was one hellva bird hunter.
Apparently his prowess got back to the CO of the DD, and the CO was ‘less that happy’ with one particular mount’s abilities, and Mr. Henry got thrown in to it Gunner or not. He said they were attacked multiple times by Kamikazes, and he said they ‘did alright’… And none ever hit his ship.
He said he also had to pull duty RM duties in addition to being a gun mount captain, and didn’t get a lot of sleep during the battles. He said he was glad he survived, but didn’t want to be ‘reminded’ of all those he watched die, so he never attended any reunions. I think he said he was mustered out in 46 as a first class, came home and put the trunk up and “got on with life”…
Another story, this one involves local bank and Mr. Henry’s “displeasure”…
I think this was late 70’s or maybe early 80’s, again home on leave. Went by to say hello, and Mr. Henry invited me into his home office again. But there was no place to set, so he told me to move the papers off a chair… Well, the papers were a stack of bearer bonds!!!
He said he’d had it with a particular local bank, and was moving all his assets to another local bank; but they didn’t have a big enough safe deposit box available, so he’d brought all that stuff home!!!
I asked him if he was ‘worried’ about somebody breaking in, and his answer was to open a desk drawer and pull out a .45 cocked and locked and say, “Nope”!
I found out later from Little Henry the rest of the story… Apparently he and Mr Henry had been out bird hunting for a couple of days, and stopped by the bank to get some money. Now you have to understand Mr. Henry was NOT known for his sartorial elegance anyway…
So here’s an older man, not well dressed, probably unshaven, walking into the bank; they get a new teller, who didn’t know Mr. Henry, and made the mistake of talking ‘down’ to him since he didn’t have check and didn’t know his account number… AND had the gall to ask Mr. Henry if he even had an account there! Mr. Henry apparently replied that he’d had an account there since 1920 something and they damn well ‘should’ know who he was…
When Mr. Henry told the teller to go get “Ralph”, the president of the bank, the teller refused…
So Mr. Henry walked over to the President’s office and told him to give him a bank check right then and there, and go get the keys for the safe deposit boxes, that he was DONE with that bank!
And he took something like $4,000,000 out of the bank that day and moved it to the bank across town!!!
And I remember his ‘rules’…
Always pay cash, buy land and never sell land, always be honest in business and life, always read the fine print, and look people in the eye when you talk to them…
Not bad rules to live by!
His son, “Little” Henry and I grew up together, and they lived about 2-3 miles from the rest of us growing up. They had a ‘big’ house on the hill that had been in their family since the late 1800s…
One story is one of the few times Mr. Henry ever opened up about the War. I think this was probably in the late 1975 when I was home on leave after Vietnam. I’d gone over to catch up with Little Henry, and he wasn’t home yet, so Mr. Henry invited me into his office. We talked about the Navy, and he was asking me about flying and how I liked it. For some reason I managed to shift the conversation to his service, and he told me he’d gone in early in 1942, and was made a radioman, since he already knew Morse code and had built radios on his own. I never did find out why he didn’t go in as an officer, since he had a degree…
He was in the South Pacific in 43-45, both on a DE and Fletcher Class DD. He was in the battles for Iwo Jima, Okinawa and at least another one or two. BUT he said he was a mount captain on a MkII quad (40mm Bofors gun) on the DD. I asked him how he did that if he was a radioman, and he told me it was because they’d been on some island for R&R and they’d had some shotguns available and shot some skeet. Now Mr. Henry had grown up hunting birds in SW Arkansas and E Texas, and I “know” he was one hellva bird hunter.
Apparently his prowess got back to the CO of the DD, and the CO was ‘less that happy’ with one particular mount’s abilities, and Mr. Henry got thrown in to it Gunner or not. He said they were attacked multiple times by Kamikazes, and he said they ‘did alright’… And none ever hit his ship.
He said he also had to pull duty RM duties in addition to being a gun mount captain, and didn’t get a lot of sleep during the battles. He said he was glad he survived, but didn’t want to be ‘reminded’ of all those he watched die, so he never attended any reunions. I think he said he was mustered out in 46 as a first class, came home and put the trunk up and “got on with life”…
Another story, this one involves local bank and Mr. Henry’s “displeasure”…
I think this was late 70’s or maybe early 80’s, again home on leave. Went by to say hello, and Mr. Henry invited me into his home office again. But there was no place to set, so he told me to move the papers off a chair… Well, the papers were a stack of bearer bonds!!!
He said he’d had it with a particular local bank, and was moving all his assets to another local bank; but they didn’t have a big enough safe deposit box available, so he’d brought all that stuff home!!!
I asked him if he was ‘worried’ about somebody breaking in, and his answer was to open a desk drawer and pull out a .45 cocked and locked and say, “Nope”!
I found out later from Little Henry the rest of the story… Apparently he and Mr Henry had been out bird hunting for a couple of days, and stopped by the bank to get some money. Now you have to understand Mr. Henry was NOT known for his sartorial elegance anyway…
So here’s an older man, not well dressed, probably unshaven, walking into the bank; they get a new teller, who didn’t know Mr. Henry, and made the mistake of talking ‘down’ to him since he didn’t have check and didn’t know his account number… AND had the gall to ask Mr. Henry if he even had an account there! Mr. Henry apparently replied that he’d had an account there since 1920 something and they damn well ‘should’ know who he was…
When Mr. Henry told the teller to go get “Ralph”, the president of the bank, the teller refused…
So Mr. Henry walked over to the President’s office and told him to give him a bank check right then and there, and go get the keys for the safe deposit boxes, that he was DONE with that bank!
And he took something like $4,000,000 out of the bank that day and moved it to the bank across town!!!
And I remember his ‘rules’…
Always pay cash, buy land and never sell land, always be honest in business and life, always read the fine print, and look people in the eye when you talk to them…
Not bad rules to live by!
What happened to the teller? Did he have his ass handed to him by the bank president as he was being drop-kicked out the door?
” Always pay cash, buy land and never sell land, always be honest in business and life, always read the fine print, and look people in the eye when you talk to them…”
DAMN GOOD rules to live by…
Can you just imagine some Skipper telling an RM these days (ooops, guess they’re not RM’s anymore) he was fgonna be a Mount Captain in addition to his “usual duties”? The sailor would probably go whining to the “Senior Enlisted Advisor” and the CO would be relieved for cause.
Thanks for “the rest of the story.”
I like Mister Henry, wish I knew more like him. Always pay cash, buy land and never sell land… yeah, I know why he didn’t get a commission, it wasn’t his area of experience and he could really do communications. And a chance to shoot some enemy is always a good thing, always.
Orange- Fired…
Boat- Yep!!!
SoCal- You’re welcome
Earl- 🙂
And it seems a LOT of comments have disappeared… Thank you blogger… Sigh
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